The First Chess Match: Birth of the Death Eaters

Chapter Five: Only Right

"It's full moon tonight."

Lupin huffed out a sigh. "Don't remind me, Padfoot."

"Why so glum, Moony?" asked James. "You get to miss detention. Besides, you don't have to worry anymore. We'll be out there with you tonight."

"Yeah, Remus," agreed Peter.

Lupin shook his head in disagreement and said, "No, you can't. Guys, that would just be crazy."

Sirius asked, "Why?"

"Look, we're on thin ice as it is. Tonight is our last detention with McGonagall. I can't let you guys risk getting expelled. I'll deal with it by myself tonight."

"No, Moony!" said Sirius.

Lupin said, "I did so for ten years before you illegally became animagi. I think I'll be fine for just one night."

"You will be," said James kindly, "but, with us, you'll be more than fine. You'll be having a good time."

"Yeah, what about our plans for tonight?" said Sirius.

Peter said, "We've been planning for weeks to tour the Forbidden Forest."

"There are some centaurs that are going to need a good whooping by a werewolf and his friends tonight."

Lupin's eyes brightened as he joked. "Sirius, I think the centaurs will know we're coming. They're wicked good at divination."

"Nah," said James, "They just like to star gaze and make up stuff."

"There's going to be a lot of them...maybe fifty...one hundred..." Lupin warned.

Sirius leaned in and asked Lupin, "You think we can't take on one hundred centaurs? I can take at least fifty myself...Prongs can take the same. You...God, Lupin, do you know how scary and powerful you become at full moon?"

"Yeah," Lupin grimly admitted.

James smiled knowingly at Sirius, who replied, "You could take two hundred centaurs!"

"And I could maybe take...ten...or, er...five," said Peter, who quickly received doubtful glances from all three of his friends. "I could at least bite, like, five of them!"

"Yeah, okay, Peter," said James.

Sirius answered, "I could definitely see that now."

The four boys now laughed together in perfect friendship. Lupin finally caved to the insisting of his three friends. "Fine...we'll attack some centaurs tonight and end up badly beaten."

"What's that attitude?" asked James.

Lupin didn't directly respond to James' question, but instead said, "Well, since I won't see you tonight after dinner, then I guess I'll wait for you in the Shrieking Shack. Don't sneak out until midnight."

"Eleven!" cried Sirius.

"Ten-thirty!" said James.

Lupin laughed. "Eleven-thirty and not a minute sooner. I won't allow it."

With their plans for tonight made, and the Quidditch Final set for the next day (which meant after tonight they were now free from their study-halls and set for a great match against Slytherin), the boys were able to set off for class with smiles firmly planted on their faces.

**********

Lily snuck as quietly as she could into Professor McGonagall's classroom, only to be shocked by the sight inside. Though she was well aware that tonight was the last of James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew's detentions, she was stunned to see all three boys diligently at work while McGonagall oversaw them from her desk. Potter, who was seated closest to the front of the classroom, was reading a Charms text and scrawling notes in a notebook lying in his lap. Peter was sitting by the window on the far side of the room; he had a variety of books stacked in front of him and was writing something excitedly on a parchment. Finally, Sirius sat cooly in the back of the classroom, and he was fully absorbed in the scroll before him. Lily could vaguely make out yards of words on the page, and could only assume the boy was practicing an essay for O.W.L.'s.

McGongall finally noticed the study hall's interloper. "Yes, Miss Evans?"

Lily replied, "I'm sorry to disturb you, but we've looked all over the castle and we still can't find her."

"To whom are you referring?"

"Marley Hooper," she answered.

Professor McGonagall replied with a question. "Marley Hooper?"

"Yes," said Lily. "She's a first-year in Gryffindor. Short, blonde hair and she has freck--"

McGonagall interrupted her and said, "I know very well who Miss Hooper is, but I can't imagine how she could get lost."

Lily sadly replied, "We don't think she's lost. We think she's gone missing. No one's seen her since long before dinner. We checked the dormitories, the lavatories, the library, the classrooms, and the infirmary. We even have the other prefects searching their dormitories...well, all but the Slytherin House prefects. Oh, and the Prewett brothers just received permission from Professor Dumbledore to search the grounds with Hagrid."

"Professor Dumbledore is aware of what's going on?" asked a now pale McGonagall. "Why hadn't I been notified earlier?"

"We didn't want to alarm anyone. We'd hoped she'd just fallen asleep somewhere by accident or something. We only just saw Professor Dumbledore about it...and he told me to come and tell you. I would've come sooner, but I didn't want to disturb you."

Despite Lily's good intentions, Professor McGonagall appeared to be now quite disturbed. She pursed her lips and said, "Very well. Well, you've done the right thing, Miss Evans. You said you had the cooperation of all the houses in your search except Slytherin?"

"Bet it was them. Bet the Slytherins took her!" James suddenly exclaimed.

"Mr. Potter, control yourself," Professor McGonagall chastised. "This is not only a detention, but a study hall."

"Oh, look around, Professor. None of us is studying! We're all wasting time."

"Excuse me?" she briskly asked.

James offered, "Well, ask Sirius..."

"Mr. Black has been writing a practice essay. Am I not correct?"

Sirius looked up from his scroll from across the room. "Huh? Sorry, Professor, I was concentrating on something else."

McGonagall said in triumph, "You see, Mr. Potter, for once your friend was devoting himself fully and completely to the realm of study."

James, though, was still smiling. "You didn't ask him yet."

"Fine. Mr. Black, what you have been writing on that scroll is a practice essay, is it not?"

Sirius narrowed his eyes for a moment and then asked, "Professor, would you like the correct answer or would you like the truth?"

"The truth!"

"Actually, nope. I haven't been writing an essay."

"What have you been writing for the past two hours then? Something useful and pertinent to your future, I hope?" she asked.

"Yeah, actually," Sirius said with a happy nod. "I've been writing the sentence 'Severus Snape is a slimy, ugly git' over and over again."

"Excuse me?" McGonagall cried, not in politeness, but in disgust.

Sirius replied, "Well...I thought it was important to know and wanted to make sure I remembered it. Do you want to see?" he asked, offering his scroll.

"No!" exclaimed the professor. "Well, at least Mr. Pettigrew is hard at work studying."

A meek Peter looked up and said, "Thank you, Professor."

"Don't thank me, Pettigrew. Lord knows you need it."

James laughed. "And strangely enough, he's not studying either!"

"I am, too!"

James countered Peter's claim. "You're not. You just have a stack of books on your table. I bet what you're really doing is writing a character profile for your Battleships and Bombers meetings."

"Oh yes! With your Battleship Commander Gordon Lovegood at post," said Sirius teasingly in a mocking voice.

Peter's cheeks turned a bright shade of red. Battleships and Bombers was a role-playing game for the more imaginative set in the wizarding world. In it, players took on the characters of muggle soldiers and acted out campaigns and battles given to them by the role of dice or selection of a card. It was one of the few things Peter did without James, Sirius and Remus, and he was constantly getting teased for his ardent love of the game.

"And what have you been doing, Mr. Potter? Wasting time?"

"Well, yeah...I've just been..." As his eyes suddenly noticed the piercing emerald glare of Lily Evans, James suddenly stopped speaking and grew uncharacteristically nervous.

"You've just been...?" McGonagall offered, trying to help him complete his last sentence.

James shrugged. "Oh, it's not important."

"Let me be the judge, Mr. Potter."

"That's...that's okay," he said with a small voice. His hands were crawling all over his scalp, messing up his hair in a self-conscious tic.

Professor McGonagall adamantly reached for his notebook. "LET-ME-SEE!" Professor and pupil played tug-of-war with the notebook for a few seconds. Peter watched silently, but both Lily and Sirius were forced to chuckle by the small battle. McGonagall emerged victorious and gave James a smug smirk before she opened the notebook to see what was written inside. She swiftly flipped through, and within seconds, the stoic professor burst out into hysterics. She looked at James, then turned quickly around to Lily, and then returned to the mysterious contents of the book...and then, she laughed some more.

James looked awkwardly around in embarrassment, and then asked, "May I have it back now."

"Good gracious, no," she replied.

"Well, why not?" asked Potter, now annoyed.

McGonagall composed herself and then explained her decision. "Oh, Mr. Potter, don't you realize? Now I have something to blackmail you with?"

"Blimey, Professor!" said Black from the back of the room. "I always knew you were wise, but now you've proved yourself to be coniving and dangerous. I'm impressed...and maybe, a little turned on."

"Keep your knickers on, Mr. Black, I have a few tidbits on you, too."

Lily finally brought the professor's attention back to the missing Marley Hooper. "Professor McGonagall, what should I do, now?"

McGonagall turned to the girl and sighed. "Keep looking. If you can't get the cooperation of the Slytherin prefects by the time I get out of this detention, then I'll have a few choice words with Professor Steelbate."

"Alright," Lily said with a polite nod. She then left the classroom and the so-called detention far behind, her thoughts were only on the lost little girl and the duty she had to her as prefect.

*******

Marley Hooper was a muggleborn witch from Dorset. She was a petite little pistol, with a blonde bob and paprika colored freckles. In only her first year at Hogwarts, she'd proven herself an apt student at Charms, a talented flyer on the broomstick, and extremely good at biting and kicking the two fifth year Slytherin boys that were in charge of keeping her tied up until the rally began at midnight.

"Can't we try a Crutacius Curse on her now? I want to practice. I've never done it on a human before," Evan Rosier asked his partner in crime, Claudius Wilkes.

Wilkes shook his head. "Nah, we don't want to tire her out. Rudolphus said she had to be up to squealing and shrieking by the time Bella got to her."

"She's squealing pretty well right now...it's beginning to piss me off."

Wilkes replied, "We can only jinx her to keep her quiet and from getting away. Patience, Evan...it's going to start soon."

As midnight approached, the rest of the Slytherins who had been invited to the night's solemnities began to roll in. Rudolphus Lestrange and Vexin Covington led the first major wave at a quarter of twelve. It was the two older boys' jobs to ensure that the location of their rally be kept secret and secure. Rudolphus had stumbled upon a spell that created the impression of a solid wall to the naked eye. He used it earlier to seal off a small antechamber in the dungeons to help hide the captive Marley from discovery. Now either he or Vexin had to cast it again each time an invited guest passed through. Everyone who had been invited had been given cryptic directions to the chamber and the password, "pureblood." They had also been told to travel in groups, if possible. Bellatrix Lestrange, her protege and Quidditch teammate, Cressida King, Nicholas Nott, Peter Warrington, Simon Tattler, Caine Flint, Leona Macklethirst, and Rudolphus' brother Rastaban and a few of his ! fourth year friends all came with Rudolphus and Vexin. A few minutes later, the Quidditch Keeper, Walden MacNair, a boy now completing his second try at seventh year, came with the likes of Saul Avery, Lydia Goyle, Jane MacNair, Kyle Warbeck, Marius Rench, and Morris Rosemount, among other less noteworthy Slytherins. At precisely midnight, Severus Snape stalked in by himself. It looked as though to onlookers that he had done so to spite the demands of a clique to which he did not belong, but of course no one said anything of it. Instead they whispered. Around five minutes after midnight, the last group entered. It was a collection of popular older girls, all of whom had seemingly taken extra care in preparing their appearance that night. Among these social butterflies were the radiant Genevieve Brook and uncertain looking Lyra Covington.

Genevieve was dressed in a low-cut satin emerald frock that made her look like she was a muggle movie star of the 1940's. Her hair was arranged in lovely golden tendrils, which were held back seductively on one side with a comb that was decorated with a huge, beaded black flower. While Lyra didn't appear nearly as ravishing as her gorgeous friend, it was obvious that Genevieve (and probably the equally well put-together Bellatrix) had done their best to polish their best friend up for the night. Lyra was wearing a modestly cut dress made from scarlet velveteen, and though it was pretty, the gown also looked a bit too large for the slight Lyra. Earlier that night, Genevieve had arraigned Lyra with a barrage of beauty spells, which only resulted in making Lyra's hair a little wavier, her eyes a little more defined by dark shadows now behind them, and her lips the color of a fire engine.

When the girls entered the room, most of them fanned out to meet up with their respectful boyfriends or crushes, which left Lyra alone with Genevieve, who was already checking herself in her compact mirror. Lyra looked around, trying to find Bella. Quickly she saw Bella, along with Rudolphus, and a bunch of other imposing looking Slytherin males laughing conceitedly at a tied up little girl in a ditch in the center of the room. Bottles and wine glasses were making their rounds around the room, and already, many of the party goers looked a little bit tipsy. Lyra awkwardly turned to Genevieve, her last moral rock in the turbulence of the evening, but Genevieve was still transfixed by her own reflection, a modern day Narcissus. So, Lyra was actually thankful when she noticed Snape walking over to her and Genevieve.

Snape didn't greet his potions pupil with a hello, but with dry sarcasm. "Well, you look excited to be here, Covington."

"Good evening, Severus," she said. She had recently discovered that it was better to ignore Snape's attempts at wit than to argue against them.

Rosier and Wilkes soon strode over to their friend and the two dressed up girls. Rosier pointed at a cookie tin under Lyra's velveteen covered arm. "Oy! What's there? Are those biscuits?"

"Oh yes," said Lyra with a giggle, as she opened the tin for Snape, Rosier and Wilkes, "come to the Dark Side. We have biscuits."

The boys each took a green frosted cookie from the tin and quickly gulped them down. Snape quickly appraised the girls' culinary talents. "These aren't bad, Covington."

"You really shouldn't thank me. It was only my idea," said Lyra. "Genevieve is the one who managed the spells."

"Impressive, Brook," said Wilkes with a grin.

Genevieve flipped her hair back and coyly smiled. "I know many spells."

"Still, I'm glad someone had the sense to bring food," said Snape. "Good thinking, Lyra."

While the boys grabbed more cookies, Genevieve nudged Lyra's arm and winked. She was obviously insinuating something between Lyra and Snape, which Lyra would have none of. She rolled her eyes at Genevieve in an attempt to quell her behavior. After the boys had left, Lyra turned to her friend to chastise her. "Honestly, Gen, are boys all you think of?"

Genevieve giggled. "Well, no. I also happen to think about myself an awful lot." Lyra rolled her eyes again. "Oh, Lyra," Genevieve said, grabbing her friends spare arm, "please do lighten up, for all our sakes."

At just that moment, Rudolphus called for everyone's silence and attention, indicating to all that the party was about to begin. "Welcome, everyone! I hope you are all as ready and eager to celebrate Slytherin's defeat of Gryffindor tomorrow!" he shouted proudly to the crowd, who cheered in response. Lyra suddenly noticed that he was holding a bottle of Bordeaux in one hand and a red sack in his other hand that was oddly moving of its own accord. She also noticed that many of the other Slytherins carried oddly moving sacks, only everyone else held a plain beige burlap one.

Rudolphus continued his speech. "My friends, tonight is more than a rally. If it were just that, there would be cheerleaders and firecrackers and bowls of punch." After he said this, many of the teenagers holding glasses hollered in delight. He continued, "As my friend Vexin has probably told you already, tonight is about taking our place as true Slytherins and true heirs to the prosperity of the pureblood culture. Bella...take the stage," Rudolphus said proudly. Bellatrix gave him a kiss as he handed her the red sack. He whispered something in her ear, which made her giggle and blush, and then he patted her on her bottom, took a swig from his bottle and sent her to the center of the cell.

Bellatrix spoke. "Fellow Slytherins and esteemed pure bloods, it gives me great honor to welcome you to tonight's solemnities. What you see before you may be a student at the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, but she is no witch. She is an imposter and a disease upon our society. Tonight, I entreat all of you to join me as we take up the responsibility of all pure bloods as we purge our society of this mess. It is more than a duty, it is our right. Open your purses, and spill your wealth into the pit."

Lyra watched as maybe a dozen or more Slytherins approached the perimeter of the ditch that held the tied up Marley Hooper. Each of them raised a sack, opened it, and emptied its contents into the pit. A few of the girls shrieked as two or three garden snakes fell from each sack and on to the floor around Marley. Bellatrix was the only one who hadn't emptied her bag yet.

Bella smiled at the little girl squirming in a snake pit and bent over to speak to her. "Aw...is the whittle Gryffindor girl scared? How could that be? Aren't the witches and wizards in Gryffindor supposed to be brave? Oh, that's right," she chuckled. "You aren't a witch! You're a filthy, little mudblood!"

"Why don't we take pity on the poor girl, Bella?" asked Vexin.

"Why don't we?" she said with an odd grin. Bellatrix took out her wand and used it to remove the ropes that were binding Marley and the gag in her mouth.

Marley said, "Oh, thank you. Thank you!" She quickly stood up and tried to tip toe out of the snake pit.

"No, no, no..." Bella said shaking her head in disapproval. "Did I give you permission to leave the pit?"

Rudolphus chimed in. "I don't recall you doing so, Bell."

"If you leave this circle," Bellatrix said in false sweetness to Marley, pointing to the perimeter of the pit, "you would be betraying your House, by proving your cowardice and unworthiness. We can't let that be! So, if you do leave the circle, I...and all my friends here, will be forced to perform the Crutacious Curse on you...so that you can find your courage to re-enter the circle."

Marley nodded and looked down at the snakes crawling around her. "Alright, I can stay here."

"Can you?" Bellatrix asked. Rudolphus and a few of his sixth year friends all laughed, as though they were knew about a joke no one else in the room did. Bellatrix carefully opened the red sack. With a sadistic giggle, she emptied it, letting a large, strange looking snake fall to the floor of the pit. "Meet my friend, King Cobra."

The Slytherins laughed and grinned, as tears began to fall from Marley's eyes. The party resumed, its entertainment being the fight of a defenseless little girl against a cobra in a snake pit. Lyra was uneasy about the party's theme, which must have been obvious, since Snape suddenly appeared next to her.

"You're not a fan of snake pits, and you're a Slytherin?" he asked teasingly.

She smiled, aware that it wasn't often he kindly jested. "Seeing the girl up close and crying, I don't know, it makes me feel like this is all wrong. And yet, everything socially and philosophically speaking makes me think that it is..."

"Right?" Snape said, finishing for her.

Lyra nodded. "Do you think so?"

"Covington, I know so," the boy bluntly responded. "She's not from wizarding blood. She's not a wizard. Her inclusion into our community taints us culturally and economically puts us at a disadvantage. Do you really think that someone who grew up outside our world deserves the right to come in suddenly, unannounced, and receive free schooling from us only to steal our jobs from us and leave us in the cold?"

She replied, "So, you think this is alright? Torturing her?"

"She'd do the same to us if she had the chance. She's a Gryffindor and a mudblood, Lyra. She needs to destroy us and our kind to survive."

"So it's survival of the fittest, now?" Lyra asked.

Snape nodded. "Yeah, something like that, and we are the fittest, Lyra. We are the true wizards."

Now it was Lyra who nodded, although as she once again turned to watch the sobbing Marley try her best to avoid the attention of the King Cobra in the snake pit, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to agree.

********

"Remus is not going to be a happy werewolf. It's 12:15 already," said Sirius with agitation. "We're already forty-five minutes late."

James, distracted by the Marauder's Map in his hands, replied, "Well, we couldn't leave the dorms any earlier with all the prefects buzzing around looking for Marley."

"James, you have an invisibility cloak!" replied Sirius. "We're under it right now! What are the chances we would have been seen?"

Peter was also bunched under the cloak with the boys and dumbly answered. "Well, if you consider the number of students in a given hallway, and how many of them might--"

"Peter," Sirius interrupted, "don't try to answer the question. It was a joke."

James still countered Sirius' original point. "Well, given how much you two have been yapping, it was more of an issue of being heard."

"Well, I'm not the only one who's been..."

James swiftly said with alarm, "Padfoot! Shush! Filch is coming!"

All three boys came to an immediate halt beside a marble bust of Merlin. They kept silent, waiting for the tense moment to pass so that their adventure could continue. A meow came from the end of the hallway, followed by the heavy footsteps of a man. Through the gauzy material of the invisibility cloak, the boys could see Filch stalking Mrs. Norris down the hall. The cat moved with light grace in a deliberate direction straight ahead. She was about to pass the boys, when suddenly she stopped, and turned her pink velveteen nose towards the bust of Merlin.

"What is it m'dear?" Filch asked, when he finally caught up to the cat. He swung his lantern in the direction of the bust, narrowly missing hitting James in the head. "There's nothing there, my sweet. Come along. One of the brats is missing. Come along."

Mrs. Norris meowed once more at the bust and then followed her master out. The three boys exhaled together in relief.

Sirius whispered to James, "Are they gone?"

James re-examined the map, following the faint trail of a dot labeled, "cat",

as it moved across the page and disappeared at a crease. He had to flip the map over, to see where the cat went on the next page. When he finally had it folded open, so as to show a larger picture of the school, James was surprised to notice something very odd in the dungeons. "Snakes?"

"Huh?" Sirius asked in confusion.

James replied uncertainly, "There are, like, twenty-five dots in the dungeons labeled 'snake.'"

Sirius shrugged and smiled. "Well, that is where the Slytherin dormitory is. It's the freaking snake pit, James. Besides, there are probably tons of snakes and vermin and what have you in the dungeons. Why Moony and I were appalled by what we found lurking in the dormitory alone once we had that thing rigged up for animal tracking."

"Wait!" James cried. "One of them's labeled something else: 'King Cobra.'"

Peter said in response, "They're not even native to England. They couldn't just be there by accident."

"Come on. Let's go check it out," said James resolutely.

Within a matter of minutes, the boys had quickly made their way through the school and down some three flights of stairs to where the Hogwarts' dungeons were. After they past the potions lab, the way suddenly became drastically less well lit and more labyrinthine. Cobwebs covered the brick walls like a ghostly wallpaper, and in certain spots the ceiling was crumbling. The boys had passed what looked like a series of prison cells, when James finally came to a dead end. As they stood before a imposing wall of grey brick, Sirius declared, "Well, I guess the Marauder's Map isn't at perfect as we all thought it was. I mean, first the mystery room across from the ballet-dancing trolls, and now this...a big grey wall and no snakes."

"There's a counter-spell," said James quietly.

"What?"

James replied, "Well..the map is showing me two words; one is 'counter-spell', the other is 'pureblood.'"

Suddenly the grey wall diffused itself into air, and in the immediate distance the boys could make out the scene of twenty Slytherins, drinking, spitting, yelling, laughing and cursing at a terrified twelve year old. Vexin Covington was the only one who saw that the wall had disappeared. He left the otherwise distracted group and walked straight for the Gryffindor boys, unwelcome visitors to the party. Sirius took out his wand, ready for action, and Peter moaned in fright. Vexin stopped only four steps in front of James, Sirius and Peter. He raised his wand. Peter winced, readying himself for pain. Vexin swiftly swished his wand and said, "Muralmus Mysteriosus." The grey wall reappeared, condensing itself into reality from thin air.

Sirius laughed. "Invisibility Cloak! Works everytime!"

"That was close," said an unamused Peter.

"But we got away," said Sirius with a smile. "I have to say, as much as I hate that lot, the Slytherins are starting to get clever. But enough about them...we've got to catch up to Remus. Come on, lads, let's go!"

James shook his head. "No. We can't let this happen. They had Marley, didn't you see?"

"I saw a room full of the most evil students at Hogwarts, ready to pounce on any Gryffindor who stumbled on their path," said Sirius. "And I also saw that we managed to scrape by without getting in a fight with them for once."

"So, we're going to let them get away with this? With hurting one of our own?" James asked angrily. "We have to help her, Padfoot. You know that."

"But won't we get into trouble? Didn't McGonagall say we'd get expelled?" asked Peter.

James cavalierly answered, "Since when did that ever stop us before, eh, Padfoot?"

"But...Remus is waiting for us, James," Sirius said. "We can't let him down. Especially after we promised."

"He'll understand. It's Remus we're talking about. He'll know that if we didn't come, it was for a good reason."

Peter shook his head. "I don't know. I don't know if Remus is capable of rationality like that when he's a werewolf."

"See...Peter makes a good point!" Sirius said, before blinking in wonder at what he had just said.

James clapped his hand on Sirius' shoulder and looked him dead in the eye. "Sirius, we need to do this. It's the right thing to do."

"You're right. God damn it, you're right."

Peter asked, "So how do we help? Are we going to attack an entire room of rowdy Slytherins?"

"Well," said James, "we were going to attack a whole pride of centaurs."

Sirius smiled. "That's right. But, maybe...and don't tell Remus I ever suggested this or he'll always shove it in my face...but, perhaps we should ask a professor to help intervene."

"Really?" asked James.

"Well, if we're going to try to reform ourselves for one night...we might as well...really reform ourselves."

James said, "Well, I didn't notice Steelbate in his office when we passed the Potions Lab, so he might be in McGonagall's office. She's probably reading him the riot act now, like she told Lily she would."

"That's on the other side of the castle," said Peter.

"Besides," Sirius said, "how would we explain to either of them how we found Marley and knew that there was a hidden dungeon cell full of teenagers practicing sadism?"

Peter said, "We'd either have to admit we were out of bed, or give up the map."

"Well we won't do that," said James resolutely. "We'll go to Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore?!?" asked the terrified Peter.

James replied, "He's the closest to us. The entrance to his office is only a few floors above us. Besides, he'll probably go easy on us, and he'll know the right way to deal with this."

"Damn straight he will," said Sirius. "That's a great idea."

James said, "Then let's do this.

Chapter Six: "Battles Glorious and Bitter"

Professor Dumbledore did not return to his office until close to 1:30 in the morning. In the space of time that James, Sirius and Peter were alone there, waiting for the headmaster to return with word of Marley and her captors, they said surprisingly little. Instead, they exchanged awkward glances and made habits of tapping their feet or pacing back and forth to signal silently to one another their uncertainty about their course of action. In their past five years at the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, the boys had come to know their headmaster as a warm, quirky, and brilliant man; he was like a grandfather, with his combination of friendliness and authority. However, tonight they had seen an entirely different side to Professor Dumbledore. After they had confided in him their discovery of Marley in the dungeons and what they had seen being done to her, Dumbledore exploded in rage. Although they were almost certain that they were not the cause of his an! ger, they could not help but to feel guilty about stirring it within the old wizard. When the professor did finally return, James, Sirius and Peter jumped up and bombarded him with questions.

"What happened?"

"Is Marley going to be okay?"

"Did you really give it to the Slytherins?"

Dumbledore cracked a smile, and began to resemble his usual self, as he sat down behind his desk and motioned for the boys to sit down again. "Calm down, it's alright. Miss Hooper has had...shall we say...more than a bit of a fright tonight. Though she handled the situation with more grace and courage than I could ever have asked from her, she is still very shaken up. Madame Pomfrey is attending to the cuts and bruises she has incurred, as well as the snake bits on her feet and ankles. Luckily, she was somehow able to remain calm enough so as not to attract the furor of the cobra. Still, she needs some rest, and I'm afraid of how her parents will react to the news. I pray they do not remove her from the school, but perhaps it would be for the best..."

"Professor Dumbledore, you can't honestly say that!" cried James.

Sirius supported him. "That's what they want! They want us to give up, to send the muggleborns home. They want us to be afraid of them, and we can't be."

"Yeah!" Peter added.

"I can't tell you how happy I am to hear you boys say that," said Dumbledore with a glimmer of satisfaction in his eyes. "Indeed, two of the greatest enemies we ever face are cowardice and division. We must never let anyone make us so afraid of one another that we shun each other's company. We are always stronger united than divided. James felt as though Professor Dumbledore was attempting to say something more with those lines than just the obvious, and as he cast a sideways glance to Sirius, he knew his best friend was thinking the same thing. "Professor," James said, unable to satiate his curiosity, "is there something bigger going on, here? Outside Hogwarts, I mean. We saw the messenger. Professor Covington has left on some assignment. I've been corresponding with my parents and they tell me that there are some very dark undercurrents in the political climate right now. I can't explain how politics and what happened to Marley are related, but I feel as though! you're insinuating that they are."

Dumbledore looked at him with pride but said nothing. Sirius said, "James, that's because they are related. Marley is a muggleborn. Most all the Slytherins are purebloods. It's like, what they were doing tonight was some sort of ancient..." Sirius paused to think of a word and then his eyes grew wide in understanding. He said to Dumbledore in shock, "...ritual?"

Dumbledore sadly nodded. Both James and Peter felt confused and out of the loop. Peter asked, "What? What are you talking about?"

"Why don't you explain, Sirius. I think you may be able to describe what happened and the reasoning behind it even better than I could," said the headmaster.

Sirius gulped and said, "Well, in the pureblood world, one of the most important things is tradition, and keeping the traditions of past generations alive. It's going to sound sick, but as far back as the Dark Ages, pureblood wizards created rituals around torturing innocent muggles. I'm not saying I agree with it--you all know I don't--but there are all kinds of these rituals. There are fertility, seasonal, marriage, and harvest ones. There are some in which you kill a muggle when you're sick so that Death will be satisfied and won't take you. They're very intricate and varied, but in each of them you have to be a certain age to do so."

"How old?" James asked.

"Sixteen," replied Sirius. "And, according to what I've heard from my parents and relatives and such, you can't just turn sixteen and be allowed to go on a muggle torturing spree. There's a special ritual for those who are, or who are coming of, age. It's called the Pythonias Puerus, and basically, you dig a grave. You put a muggle child in the grave alive and you perform rites, say incantations and do a little dance or something around her until the Bride of Time comes forward."

James interrupted his friend again. "So wait, there's a wedding going on?"

"No, no, no...it's symbolic. She's basically just one of the pack of kids who are finally of age and going through the rite."

"So what makes her so special?" James asked.

Sirius paused, and then said, "Well, nothing really, if you think about it. There's really no reasoning behind who gets picked and who doesn't. Theoretically, she's supposed to be the young woman of the town who is most likely to protect the pureblood lines of that town. She's the Bride of Time because she's committed to the past, present and future of her bloodline."

Peter asked, "Who was the Slytherin Bride of Time?"

"I believe from Marley's testimony that it was Bellatrix Black," said Dumbledore.

Sirius shook his head. "Doesn't surprise me. Anyway, part of the ritual is to fill the grave with snakes representing the life force or bloodline of each wizard or witch there. Then, the Bride of Time tosses a venomous serpent of her choice in. The kids there then have to watch as the snakes, which represent their pure blood, attack the child of impure blood. It's really wrong and disgusting, and very stupid if you ask me."

"So you're saying that the Slytherins were using Marley to resurrect some sick old ritual from the Dark Ages?" James asked.

"That's exactly what I'm saying," said Sirius.

"There's more," said Dumbledore. "You did an excellent job describing the Pythonias Puerus ritual, Sirius, but what really makes me both upset and disturbed about the possibility of it happening here is that it entitles the youths who have gone through it two distinct privileges."

Sirius somberly nodded. "They are considered adults in the pureblood world and are then free to invoke any other rituals they wish, as long as they have the permission of the elders or their Bride of Time."

Professor Dumbledore added, "Which means that there will probably be more attempts to have rituals of this kind at Hogwarts in the very near future."

"It also means they're eligible to join the Knights of Walpurgis." Sirius continued, "Any of the boys who were at the rite tonight can represent their family in the Order of Walpurgis."

James replied, "But the Knights of Walpurgis...no one's heard of them since Grendalwald fell, and you were the one who defeated him, Professor."

"Just because I managed to defeat one of the greatest Dark Wizards of our time, does not mean I was able to destroy the beliefs he and his followers held. They are coming back into popularity, boys, even as we sit here and speak," said Dumbledore grimly.

They all sat silently for a moment, trying to absorb all of the disturbing news they had just heard. Sirius was the one who finally asked, "Professor Dumbledore, what are you going to do about the Slytherins? Are you going to expel them?"

"To leave them unattended to in the world, young, ripe and eager to join the fight of a charismatic pureblood leader? No, Mr. Black, I cannot do that. It's strategically and morally wrong. They will stay at Hogwarts, but do not think they have gone unpunished, or that I will not do everything in my power to ensure this will not happen again."

James said, "We would never think that, Professor. We know you will always do what is best for the school and for all of us."

"And can I count on you boys to do the same?" the headmaster asked with a playful smirk. "For all the trouble you boys cause, I could come up with reason enough to expel you! In fact, there is the matter of your being out of bed tonight without permission...and how on earth did you know where the Slytherins were hiding Marley...and how were you able to give me the password to the Watchful Wall charm?"

All three boys stared at their feet in embarrassment, awaiting their punishment. Dumbledore continued, "Despite these burning questions and your indiscretions tonight, I will give you boys the benefit of the doubt. Besides, the courage you showed me in choosing to help Marley out as opposed to yourselves proves to me that your actions tonight were motivated by honor and honesty, not trickery or guile."

"Thank you, Professor," said Peter in a sigh of relief.

"On one condition, however!" he said.

Sirius asked, "What's that?"

Professor Dumbledore straightened himself in his chair and said, "That you return to your beds immediately! I understand that the actions of your classmates were both despicable and demanding of revenge. But I'm hoping that you realize that because you feel so abused by the Slytherins that means that you do not sympathize with either their methods or philosophy. I hope I can count on you three as you grow into men to protect Hogwarts and its students with the same passion that you ascribe to me. Besides," he added, now with a devious smile, "tomorrow is still the Quidditch match, and as a former Gryffindor, I fully expect you to whoop Slytherin exactly as much as they deserve."

Sirius and Peter laughed and James smiled. The three boys excused themselves from Professor Dumbledore's office and made their way to the dormitory. James quickly stooped behind a statue by the entrance to Dumbledore's office and picked up his Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map. He was clever enough by now to know to stash such important items before entering the office of a teacher. The boys were quiet as they walked through the dim castle. As they passed a large window, the three friends fell into the path of milky light from the full moon. Sirius paused and turned to the window. Sadly, he said, "I can't believe we couldn't keep our promise to Moony."

James replied, "He'll be okay, Padfoot. He's the best man among us. You know we can count on him to forgive us..."

"But he shouldn't have to forgive us, Prongs," said Sirius. "We shouldn't have done anything to let him down in the first place."

Peter said wisely, "We didn't let him down. We did what he would have done in the same situation."

James added, "And if, for some reason, we did let him down, it will be the last time we would have ever done so."

"Yeah, I hope so," said Sirius with a grim nod. "Let's go."

The three of them continued on their path to the Gryffindor dormitories. All the time they walked, James kept thinking about what Sirius had implied. Had he let his friend down? He didn't honestly think so, but there had been an urgency in Dumbledore's voice earlier when he asked the boys to protect the school and students. James was starting to get the sick feeling of nervousness he always got in his stomach right before a high stakes match, but he knew it had nothing to do with the Quidditch Final tomorrow. It was bigger than that. He was worried and scared that a bigger kind of match was about to start. In his mind, he could see the opposing teams taking form, and he saw that he and each of his friends would need to play a part in the upcoming battle.

*******

When it came time for the Quidditch team captains to call sides the next day, both Vexin Covington and Frank Longbottom surprised the fans watching by bringing their entire teams with them. Each team lined up behind their captain, every player was silently and sternly measuring up the player facing him on the other side. Everyone had expected it would be a tense match, but from the attitude of the players, it would appear that today's Quidditch Final had more at stake than just the Quidditch Cup. The rumors of Marley Hooper's fate had flown through the school faster than James Potter could sail on his broomstick. The students were divided, and eager to see a fight break out between the two rival houses.

Madame Hooch, the Quidditch referee, was standing between the two teams, trying to keep the antagonism at bay for just a few minutes more. "Now I've received special instructions from Professor Dumbledore to re-enforce to all of you playing today that we expect a clean match," she said.

Frank nodded. "No problem."

Vexin cockily replied, "There's isn't any dirt on my side."

James shook his head in disgust and muttered softly to Sirius, "Unbelievable..."

"Tell me about it," answered his friend.

Their attention was brought once again to Madame Hooch and the captains. Madame Hooch pulled a sickle from inside her sporting robe and balanced it on the back of her leather-gloved hand. "Alright, Longbottom, you call it."

Frank nodded and then everyone watched as Madame Hooch threw the sickle into the air. As it began to spin down, Frank gulped and called, "Heads!" The members of both teams held their breathes as Madame Hooch caught it.

"Heads it is!" she cried as she revealed the coin once again. "Which side will you have, Longbottom?"

He replied, "We'll take the east side, facing the school."

"Fine by me," Vexin Covington confidently answered.

Everyone took his position. On Slytherin's side, the huge hulk called Walden MacNair took his place as Sweeper, while Rosier and Wilkes hovered in front of him, their bats ready to beat some Bludgers into the great blue sky. Cressida King, who appeared slight, pretty and cute to the naked eye, soared up above the pitch to where she had to be as Seeker. The team's chasers, Rudolphus, Vexin and Bellatrix, gave each other nods of encouragement before they mounted their broomsticks to face off with the Gryffindors. James Potter was the lead chaser for Gryffindor, and had a Prewett boy on either side of him for support. James knew he could also count on Sirius and Orion, who were behind him right now, preparing themselves to fulfill their roles as Beaters. Finally, Alice Shepherd and Frank Longbottom gave each other a quick kiss for luck before they went to their respective places as Seeker and Keeper.

Moments later, the game began, with Slytherin taking the upper hand first. Vexin snatched the Quaffle from James' grasp and handed off to Rudolphus. The three Slytherin Chasers flew toward Frank, passing the Quaffle with exquisite skill and keeping a tight, triangle formation. Sirius tried to hit his cousin, Bellatrix, with a Bludger, but was hit by one himself, sent over by Wilkes, before he could do so. Bella laughed in glee and flew toward the goal hoops, Quaffle in hand. She passed it suddenly to Rudolphus, who was now waiting by the left hoop. Lestrange shot the Quaffle toward the hoop, but it was deflected by the butt of Frank's broomstick. Vexin quickly recovered the Quaffle and tossed it to Bellatrix, who was able to score a goal through the right hoop before Frank could reassess the situation.

Fabian seized the Quaffle now, and zoomed below to the center of the field, where he passed it off to James. As soon as he caught it, James rocketed off, ready to even the score for his team.

"James! Look out!" Sirius cried from above.

James turned his head around and caught sight of a Bludger spinning furiously toward him. There was barely any time to move. He jerked his broomstick down only to find himself in the path of Rosier, his eyes lit up with fury and his bat circling around his head. James then swerved out of the way, to see the Bludger circling back to him. He winced, awaiting the crack of the Bludger upon his body. Suddenly, Orion flew in from out of nowhere and knocked it out of James' way with his own bat.

Orion yelled, "Go, James! Go!"

James launched himself back into scoring the goal. As he swept through the sky, he checked both of his sides, to see if he had any support. Unfortunately, he saw opposition, in the form of Rudolphus to his right, and Bellatrix to his left. He sped up, and noticed that they were doing the same, to keep up with him. Suddenly he braked, letting Lestrange and Black soar on ahead of him. James threw himself upwards toward the clouds. He saw Cressida King and Alice Shepherd gliding around, high above the action of the pitch below. They didn't concern themselves with trying to help or hinder him; as Seekers, they knew better than to ignore their task at hand. So, James flew until he knew he was level with the goal hoops below. He saw the three Slytherin Chasers fly up now, trying to head him off. He grinned in delight.

Now, James pulled a risky and extremely difficult flying maneuver, making a backwards somersault. He stayed inverted and flew away from the goal. The Slytherins didn't have time to react to his odd move. The Prewett twins appeared from either side of James and they were both nodding and ready for whatever he would pull next. James straightened himself out and passed the Quaffle to Gideon, who flew straight for MacNair, trying to distract him while Fabian jolted ahead. Gideon passed the Quaffle to his twin brother, who easily caught it, and then tossed it through the center hoop.

The score bobbled back and forth between Gryffindor and Slytherin like this for the rest of the match. It was an exciting game for the spectators in the stands. Both teams were at their peaks: most of the players had practiced together for three years or more now. They were both clever, quick and wily. Everyone knew it would be the capture of the Golden Snitch that would decide the game, but there was no sign of excitement from either of the Seekers. They circled about above the players below, keeping a watch for the shy, little Snitch. Suddenly, two hours and twenty-four minutes into the match, the attention of the crowd was pulled from the battle over the Quaffle to a glimmer of gold flitting by the stands.

Cressida and Alice both swooped down to the ground, each girl desperately trying to shake the trail of the other and to catch the Snitch first. They weaved in and out of each other's path, both coming dangerously close to colliding with the other. Still, the snitch zoomed out of reach of either seeker and made a new path to the other side of the stadium. Tiny Cressida was able to flip her light racing broom into a somersault and change direction, keeping the Snitch firmly in sight as she hastened toward it. Alice came to a quick halt, and turned around, following suit. By now, Cressida was far ahead of her. The Slytherin Seeker was dangerously close to catching the Golden Snitch and winning the Cup for her house. Alice cried to Orion and Sirius, "Take her out! You've got to!"

Orion turned and looked at the girl, who looked like merely a speck, blithely speeding through the air. For a moment, he paused, worried that he shouldn't hit a little girl with a heavy Bludger, even if she was Slytherin Seeker. However, Sirius immediately took off, chasing the girl as if she were prey. Wilkes caught sight of Sirius and quickly smacked a Bludger his way.

"Stupid git," Sirius said with a smile. As the Bludger flew toward him, he swung his bat, allowing it to hit the Bludger out of his way while aiming its new path in Cressida's direction. The Bludger swam through the air until it made swift contact with the back of Cressida King's head. She fell to the ground with a dull thud, and Alice flew on, now following the snitch alone.

Bella shrieked in pain and came out of formation with Rudolphus and Vexin to attend to the injured girl. In her absence, the Gryffindor Chasers were able to steal the Quaffle and send it quickly to the other side of the pitch. Gideon and Fabian Prewett tossed it between themselves, while James sped to the goal posts. Rosier and Wilkes were waiting for him, bouncing a Bludger between them the same way the Prewett boys were passing the Quaffle. James gulped in nervousness. Suddenly, Sirius and Orion swooped down from above. Orion knocked a Bludger into Rosier and Sirius hit Wilkes' Bludger out of James' way with an obliging nod. Gideon finally passed the Quaffle to James, who flew with it toward the left goal post. MacNair rushed himself to the left and used his entire thick frame to block the entrance in. James kept going, until it looked as though he and the Keeper would crash. In a split second he spun upside down in a twist and deftly flew up and to the right. ! He threw the Quaffle into the unattended right hoop, making yet another goal for Gryffindor. As the Slytherins dove to recover the Quaffle, a high-pitched whistle was blown.

Madame Hooch yelled, "Shepherd catches the Snitch; game, Gryffindor!"

The crowds in the stands exploded with sound. Most of them cheered in triumph, but still, some were booing in disgust. Bellatrix cried to Madame Hooch, "They cheated!"

"How so, Miss Black?"

She was on the ground, cradling an unconscious Cressida in her arms. "They hit Cressida in the head! She nearly died!"

Madame Hooch brusquely replied, "Quidditch is a dangerous game. Perhaps the Slytherin team should think twice before making an anemic little girl their Seeker."

"She's not a little girl!" Bellatrix yelled in a surge of anger.

"No," Sirius quipped, from his broomstick hovering above her, "Marley Hooper's a little girl. Cressida King is a Quidditch Player. We all play here at our own risk."

Bella spat on the ground below him. "You blood-traitor! You're worse than a mudblood!"

Alice Shepherd, who was watching Bellatrix Black's temper tantrum from across the field, now ran toward her in fury and tackled her from behind. "How dare you!" Alice cried. "You evil, spiteful wench!"

The two girls were fighting on all fours, spitting and scratching each other in absolute fury. Madame Hooch had to physically separate the two girls, locked in bitter battle on the lawn of the Quidditch pitch. "Now compose yourselves!" Madame Hooch cried. "You two are witches of the most esteemed school in the world. You are supposed to compose yourselves as ladies and good sportsmen, not hell cats!"

"Apparently, that's impossible for Shepherd here," said Bella with an air of civility mixed with venom. "She's too used to hanging around with the swine."

Alice retorted, "Aren't you even sorry?"

"For what? Defending myself and my team?"

"No...for what you did to Marley Hooper last night!" Alice cried.

Bellatrix crossed her arms in pride. "I did nothing wrong."

Alice was about to attack her again, when Frank appeared from behind her. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back. "C'mon, Alice, it's okay."

"No, Frank! She needs to be punished!" she said. Tears were falling down her face. "Did you hear what she said? She's not sorry...she's not sorry. People like that deserve to be punished."

Frank clasped his hands on her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. "And she has been punished. I'm Head Boy, don't you think I would know about these things? She'll be cleaning the pens of flobberworms and what not for Hagrid until the end of school, among other things..."

"That's not enough," Alice said quietly.

"Don't let her meanness ruin your sweetness, honey," he said with a sweet smile. "Besides, we beat them. We beat them...because of you. Let's go inside. She's not worth enough for you to worry about her, all right? She's nothing."

Rudolphus Lestrange exclaimed, "How dare you insult Bellatrix like that! She's not nothing. She's worth more than the whole house of Gryffindor combined."

Frank closed his eyes and calmly said, "Lestrange, let's drop this. I don't want to have to fight you."

"Because you know you'd lose?" Bellatrix asked.

Frank chuckled. "Because I know there are more important reasons to fight than what we're arguing about right now."

"You have no clue what you're talking about, Longbottom."

"You know, you're probably right. But I'm the one on Dumbledore's good side right now, so I wouldn't start anything stupid if I were you," Frank replied, finishing the conversation, but not the fight between them.

*******

Lyra felt sick that day. It was in her stomach: an acidic feeling of unhealthiness mixed with fear and guilt. Her father had already sent a howler to both her and Vexin. Orion wouldn't accept her apology that morning. She was still haunted by the anger in his eyes and the knowledge that he had been tainted by the actions of her and their brother. Although the whole school was out watching the match, Lyra didn't much feel like watching her brothers fight atop broomsticks for honor over the other. She didn't want to support Bella, or Rudolphus, or any of the team. What they had pulled her into last night had cost her more than just house points and a few detentions. She had been cut in two; there were two halves of Lyra now, fighting for power over the other. One was the innocent Lyra, still sweet and weak to do anything she wanted; the other was someone she didn't think she knew, a person who had secretly fed off the rush of the rally and who wanted to feel that ! sort of power again.

Distraught and disturbed by her own psyche, Lyra found refuge in the library. She sat at a desk, studying transfiguration, and hoped that she might find Marina here. Marina detested most sports, and used the Quidditch matches as time to have the library all to herself. Just as she had suspected, Marina was in the library. Lyra smiled in relief when her friend finally approached her.

"Oh, Marina, I'm so happy to see you!"

Marina didn't appear too happy. Coldly, she said, "Lyra, we need to talk."

"Did Edgar Bones bother you again?" Lyra asked with a giggle.

"'Did Edgar Bones bother you again?'" Marina repeated in a harsh, mocking tone. "You really wouldn't know, would you?"

"Huh?"

Marina replied, "Lyra! What is going on? I never talk to you anymore. You've always made time for me in the past!"

"Marina," she answered, "O.W.L.'s are coming up. I've been studying."

"Studying what? Sadism?" Marina asked smartly.

Lyra cried, "No!"

"Oh, wait--no! You were practicing sadism last night!"

Lyra calmly replied, "Marina, I was just at a party."

"Where they were torturing an innocent twelve year old girl?" Marina said passionately. Lyra looked dumbstruck. For some reason, the way in which Marina had said that shook Lyra to the core. It made her realize how serious the situation had been last night.

Marina continued, only now her tone wasn't cruel or predatory, it was hurt. "What? Did you think I wouldn't find out? That the gossip wouldn't make it through the school?"

"No. I just..."

"You just momentarily lost sight of your morals?" Marina answered for her.

Lyra tried to find an escape, an excuse for her behavior. "I got caught up in the moment, okay? I was surrounded by all these popular people. What was I supposed to do?"

Marina shook her head. "Don't give me that. You've been hanging around with the same crowd since first year, and never ever have you done anything like this."

She didn't know how to respond. Suddenly, something surged inside her that made her want to attack Marina for turning on her and suggesting that she had been wrong. "Who are you?" Lyra snapped. "My mother?"

"Well maybe! Ever since she's gone on assignment, you've been acting batty."

"Don't call me batty!" shouted Lyra.

Marina cried, "Then what is it? I don't know you anymore, Lyra!"

"Obviously not, because if you did, you'd understand why I had to go last night!" Lyra yelled.

"To torture someone?"

"To prove I was worthy!"

"Of what?"

Lyra didn't have a chance to respond. Madame Pince, the librarian, had appeared over the girls' shoulders. Irately, she cried, "Young ladies! This is a library! If you want to argue or scream, go out on the Quidditch Pitch. I'm sure you'll fit in well out there!"

Marina blushed. "Sorry, Madame Pince. I'll be going back to the dormitories now." Madame Pince nodded in pleasure as Marina gathered her things from a table across the room and prepared to go.

As she passed Lyra on her way out, Marina blankly said, "I'll see you around, Lyra."

"Yeah, maybe after O.W.L.'s, or something," said Lyra.

"Or something," repeated Marina.

Lyra didn't want Marina to leave like this. "Hey 'Rina!" she calmly called, with a look of apology Madame Pince's way.

Marina turned. "Yes?"

"What if we got together after the Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.? To exchange notes?"

It was Marina's turn to look embarrassed. "I can't," she answered. "I'm having a picnic with Edgar Bones."

Lyra's jaw dropped, but before she could question Marina further, her friend excused herself and left the library finally.