The Marauders

@--} ***CHAPTER EIGHT*** {--@

None of them recalled falling asleep, but they would all remember the awakening they received a few short hours after sunrise. They'd also experience one of the most astounding range of racial slurs, swears, curses, insults, and offensive language ever to be uttered by a sixteen-year-old Gryffindor girl.

Lily was curled in a ball on James's lap, her head nestled on his, his face resting against her breasts, a foolish grin plastered across his sleeping face. Remus and Enna had moved around so often during the night that both of them were on the floor, their arms wrapped tightly around each other for warmth, as the fire had long since died out and all that remained were the cold black coals. During the night Sirius had moved Kira to the couch across the room. There they slept peacefully, their dreams filled with thoughts of each other.

What so astonished them was an unexpected and most unwelcome guest.

There are certain things you don't wish to see first thing in the morning when you wake up. For example, you never want to wake up eye to eye with a half starved Siberian tiger; or your mother just after she discovered your secret stash of extra-potent, self-igniting dung bombs hidden in her bedroom closet, minutes after the entire pack decided to ignite. But worst yet is waking with the wand tip of your most hated adversary pointed two centimeters from the spot directly between your eyes. Sirius suffered such and unfortunate fate.

"Get up."

The cold hiss of Severus Snape penetrated the comfortable fog of sleep like a hot knife through butter. Sirius's heart froze in an icy grip. He fumbled for his wand, but Snape smiled maliciously and pulled it out of his pocket.

"Get up," he said again and the smile evaporated.

Sirius had no choice but to comply. He started to disentangle himself from Kira's warm embrace. She shifted in her sleep and murmured something.

Desperate for delay, he said quietly, "Hush, my love. Go back to sleep."

"Sirius," she said sleepily, her eyes still closed, "Where are you going?"

Sirius kissed her forehead and whispered, "To win you back, dearest."

"But Siri, you mutton head, you've already won me," she replied and finally opened her eyes.

Severus hadn't moved. Kira felt the blood drain from her face when she saw him.

"Enough- Black, this is between you and me. We end it here."

Kira's temper flared and her groggy mind cleared. She and Sirius stood.

"You and Sirius?" she said curtly, fighting to control her anger.

Sirius put a firm hand on her shoulder, but said nothing.

"I get it now," Kira said narrowing her eyes and stepping toward Snape, "You were using me. Is your hatred for him so deep that you would use me to hurt him? You shallow piece of shit. I thought you were genuinely interested in me! All your stupid pranks weren't good enough, now you had to resort to playing with a girl's emotions to satiate your sick pleasures?"

Kira was inches from Snape's large, crooked nose. Snape's glare faltered and his wand hand dipped down. Things were turning on him rapidly, and he knew he couldn't use Plan B with all these people around. James had awoken and nudged Lily awake.

"There are enough people to hate in the world already without your working so hard to give us another."

Snape opened his mouth to say something, but Kira cut him off.

"SHUT UP! I'M NO WHERE NEAR FINISHED WITH YOU!"

Enna shook Remus awake.

"You're a bigoted prick, the tainted spawn of a boil infested swamp hog. You're a lonely cunt who couldn't get a five-sickle whore for every galleon in your mommy's pocket."

By now other Gryffindors had begun filtering from their dormitories and gathered along the walls, peeking around stairwell corners. A few first years stood gaping next to the portrait hole. Severus was slowly being forced backwards by Kira's never ending string of insults. He was silently cursing every new face that appeared in the Common Room.

"...I've come across decomposing rat carcasses that are less offensive..."

She snatched Sirius's wand back and tossed it to him without looking backward. Sirius lunged forward to catch it, stunned at the sailor's tongue the redhead seemed to have acquired overnight.

"You're a waste of time, space, air, flesh, and the rectum you were born from. You have the personality of a damp sponge and the appeal of a moldy, sweaty sock. Maybe you wouldn't be such a jerk if you weren't intellectually outclassed by dead sheep. That's it, I'm through with you. You can find some poor desperate hag to go with you to the ball because I wouldn't be caught dead with a pilt like you."

Lily gasped at Kira's final insult. The first years' eyes bulged and more than a few gasps were heard.

To be called a pilt was a slur most often heard in dwarven bar fights and never heard in any sort of civilized conversation, or argument for that matter. It meant that you were the product of incest, whose parents were siblings that had sex only to preserve the pureblood name. It was meant to instill the utmost shame and completely destroyed many pureblood's reputations. While most people knew nothing of the circumstances of the argument, they knew now that whatever it was must've been astonishingly hellish to deserve such abuse.

Snape was now pressed against the wall next to the portrait hole, opposite the first years. Kira stood eyes blazing, heart pounding, fists clenched so tight that her knuckles were white. Her auburn hair burned like fire in the morning light.

"Get out."

Her voice was cold and quiet, a shocking contrast to the heated shouting from moments before. Snape's eyes hardened again, his ashen gray face turned stony.

"You made a terrible mistake today, and you'll pay for it," he spat, "and despite your best efforts, you will be going to the ball with me. Your friend saw to that."

He nodded in Enna's direction and she turned ghostly pale. His gaze flickered for a moment to Remus before he spun about and whipped out of the Gryffindor tower.

There was a moment of bewildered silence that rang in everyone's ears after the outburst. Suddenly one of the first years clapped and was shortly joined by another. The Common Room exploded with applause and cheers.

Kira's face was flushed and her eyes looked weary. She kept thinking over Snape's last words to her and she suddenly didn't want to be anywhere near the cheering Gryffindors.

Sirius put his arms around her and said, "Let's go down to breakfast."

She nodded mutely and they walked out.

@--} ******* {--@

Kira was worried and she let Sirius know. He started to dismiss it, but his own fears wouldn't allow it.

"For six years we've been at this. Petty pranks, embarrassing stuff mostly, but nothing to the point of near fatal injury," he told her. His tone was of warning, not reassurance.

"Kira, there's something..." Sirius started, taking Kira's arm.

She stopped and looked at him.

"When you said yes to go to the dance with him, I felt utterly alone and lost. My heart nearly rent in two. I started having nightmares, and with them came this overpowering hatred. I started plotting unnervingly dangerous things, things that would have gotten him killed if I had gone through with any of them. It scared me that I could come up with something so evil, and knowing Snape, I wouldn't put it past him to actually go through with them..."

He shuddered, his voice trailing off.

"Sirius, I'm not quite sure how to tell you this, but, well, I... I think Enna may have done something, or said something to Snape that would make it so... or at least, I think... Snape seems confident that despite all that's happened, I'm still going to the Ball with him. And Enna seemed to have gone pale when we left the Common Room," Kira said, scuffing her shoe on the stone floor.

Sirius had lost some coloring himself and he slowly started to walk again.

"We'll just have to ask Enna later then," he said, flashing a wide, mirthless smile.

"Promise me, Sirius, that if whatever Snape meant turns out to be true, you won't do anything rash. Promise!"

"I promise, Kira."

But he didn't mean it. And try as he might, he doubted he ever would.

@--} ******* {--@

Enna said nothing all during breakfast. She refused to look anywhere but at her plate, apparently having found something terribly fascinating about her sausage links that deserved her undivided attention.

News of Kira's explosive rant had quickly trickled to the other Houses, and random Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws joined the Gryffindors as they periodically walked past to give her a pat on the back, or a congratulatory smile, or to ask her to repeat some of the spectacular insults. It was as if she had single handedly won the House Cup. Were it not for Snape's parting words to her, she might have felt the same. But they echoed in her mind. Now Kira sat sulking in her chair, poking at her cinnamon roll with her fork. After a particularly rough slap on the back, she stabbed the fork into the center of the roll.

"Enough already! For Merlin's sake, it happened, it's over, forget about it!" she huffed and turned to Enna, "Enna, I need to talk to you. Common Room. Now."

"Kira," Sirius said taking her hand as she stood up.

"Good luck. And, Kira? For what it's worth... I really don't think your cinnamon roll deserved that," he added, his face solemn and his eyes dancing.

Kira smiled weakly and walked out of the Great Hall. Enna poked at her sausage with her wand. It sprouted legs and began to dance around the table, much to the other Gryffindors' amusement. She stared, nonplussed at the dancing meat for a moment before hurrying after Kira, head bowed and hands shoved deep in the pockets of her robe.

@--} ******* {--@

Kira paced sullenly before the fireplace, which, despite her best efforts, would do nothing but crackle merrily.

Don't cackle at me, she thought furiously. But the fire merely sparked once and went on its merry way.

She glanced up and stopped pacing momentarily when the Fat Lady's portrait swung open and Enna scrambled through.

"What took you so long," Kira demanded.

"The thought of telling you what Snape meant," Enna said quietly.

Kira sighed, disappointed.

"I was hoping you'd be completely innocent, and that I was only letting doubt get the better of me," Kira said, staring at the carpet. She waited.

A long period of silence ensued, interrupted only by the snap and spark of the burning wood.

"Well?" Kira snapped.

Enna jumped.

"S'ry, I... erm... Yesterday, he- Snape, that is- we...er... ran into each other in the hall, and you see, the full moon is the same day as the dance, so I needed him to do me a favor, and I never thought you'd actually refuse to go with him like that, you usually stick to your decisions... never dreamed..." her voice trailed off and she twiddled her fingers nervously.

"Enna. Enna! You're rambling- I have no idea what you're talking about! What does the full moon have anything to do with this?" Kira struggled to keep her voice down.

"Remus! That's what it has to do with it!" Enna cried, tears suddenly spilling freely from her round brown eyes, "The full moon is the same night as the dance, and I just know I'm not going to learn the Animagus transformation in time! I had to do something...

She was yelling now and she could taste the salty wetness of her tears on her lips, but she didn't bother to wipe them away.

"And then Severus showed up. You remember when he made the wolf's bane potion, figured it out even when his instructions were wrong?"

Kira's felt the color drain from her face.

"Enna, you didn't--"

"What else could I do, Kira? I want to be with him, and if I'm living in fear of my life every full moon... I couldn't deal with it, I'd go crazy! So I made a deal with him. I told him if he could make the potion for me, just once, then I-I promised him that..."

She was hiccupping now. Shiny wet streaks glistened on her cheeks.

"That I'd go to the Ball with him," Kira finished, sinking onto the couch. She suddenly felt as if her knees were about to buckle.

"Enna, you have no idea how much danger you've put us into. Snape now has every bit of evidence he needs to prove Remus is a werewolf."

Her voice was quiet and grim.

"No, he can't. I-I told him th-that it was f-for someone b-back home... He c-can't know..."

Enna struggled to calm her hiccups.

"But he does! When he said that you had made sure that I would go to the ball with him, he looked right at Remus. He knows, Enna! And you as good as told him!"

Kira was angry now, not at Enna per-say, but at her blind trust.

"I didn't! I swear, I didn't mean..."

Her hiccups had slowed to an occasional 'hic'.

The portrait swung open and Sirius climbed in grinning from ear to ear. James scrambled after him, a smirk knocking his glasses slightly askew. Remus followed after, chuckling quietly.

Sirius stopped smiling when he saw Kira's ashen look and Enna's tear-streaked face. He smacked James' chest as he started to make a comment and Remus hurried over to comfort Enna.

"Oh Remus, I'm so sorry, I'm so s-s-sorry!!!" Enna stuttered and a fresh wave of tears overcame her. She sobbed into Remus's shoulder and they couldn't get another word out of her.

Sirius cocked an eyebrow at Kira. Her stomach writhed like she had swallowed a nest of flobberworms whole. Quietly she explained what had transpired. James leaned in close, his mouth dropping open. Sirius's complexion matched Kira's grey for grey. Remus stopped consoling Enna. He shot up, and stared down at her sobbing form.

"It's not true. Enna, you wouldn't, you couldn't--tell me it's not true," Remus pleaded his own eyes clouding over.

"Reems, I--I didn't mean--"

Remus backed slowly away shaking his head. Enna reached out a shaking hand towards him. He grimaced at her like she was something vile and wretched.

"No."

It was all he said before turning his back on her and climbing to his dormitory.

Enna remained frozen, her hand still outstretched.

"Enn--" Kira started.

She stood and fled up the opposite staircase.

@--} ******* {--@

His insides felt like ice. He lay on his bed, trying to reason with himself

She didn't know, she thought she was doing you a favor.

Bloody lot of good it did you. Now Snape knows, and you'll be orphaned again. You'll be sold out, forced to leave Hogwarts. It was the only place you can remember calling home, and now you'll be forced out onto the streets- underage, friendless, family-less; a lone wolf, again, because some slut couldn't keep her mouth shut.

She's not a slut. You love her, and she loves you. Don't be so shallow. She was trying to help.

Remind me never to ask her for help. Ever.

You wanted it, didn't you? Be honest, you wanted to be able to be alone with her and not have the irresistible urge to gorge yourself on her living flesh. Wouldn't it be incredible to have control over the creature for once, instead of the creature controlling you?

It'll never happen. Potion or no potion, you've never been that strong willed.

But you can try. Do it for her. Do it for Enna.

@--} ******* {--@

Sirius was utterly shocked. In light of the new threat, he didn't really care that Kira was still going to the ball with Slimeguts. Okay, he cared, but it seemed so superficial now.

"Are you positive he knows it's Remus?" James asked for the umpteenth time.

"I told you, I don't know for sure! She fed him the 'it's for someone back home' story, but he looked right at Remus this morning! Why else would he? I don't know, James, but can we really risk it?"

She paused a moment, thinking.

"We could try to erase the memory, don't you think?" Kira offered.

"It's no good. I tried it on him once. He blocks it naturally, almost as if he's built an invisible shield around his mind. I nearly wiped my own memory in the process. It took a full week for Sirius and Remus to convince me that I could play Quidditch," James mused.

"We'll just have to play along and hope that by going to the ball with him, you can secure his silence," Sirius deadpanned.

"You mean you're not going to fight against it?" Kira asked, incredulous.

"Not if it means my friend's safety, maybe even his life. It's up to you, really. If you don't want to go with him, we can't force you," Sirius shrugged, but Kira could see how torn up he was inside.

It took her a moment to respond.

"I'll do it," she whispered.

@--} ******* {--@

Severus carefully ground the cat claws to a fine powder. He had a hunch who the potion was really meant for, and he searched endlessly for a potion that would harm him, yet still look like the wolf's bane potion he so desired. After the Winter Ball, with one Marauder "indisposed", he would then set into motion the rest of his diabolical plan. Sweet vengeance would be his, and if he played his cards right, he'd be celebrating with an almost mindlessly adoring girlfriend.

Severus turned back to his Advanced Potion Making book and trailed a bony finger down a long list of ingredients, among which was three drops of the victim's blood.

That shouldn't prove too difficult.

At the top of the page, just above the ingredients, was a crude drawing of a man hunched over, blood dribbling from his open mouth. A mangled body lay at his feet. Under the picture was a bone-chilling caption:

The Blood Lust potion causes the drinker to experience an insatiable thirst for the blood of their loved ones.

LII