Before They Were Angels

Chapter 7-The Bat People

"Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get." -Forrest Gump

Eddie Sicotte sat in the Potter's living room, Baby James in his lap. Harry sat across from them, while Mrs. Potter made tea in the kitchen. Eddie had been an obscure original member of the Order of the Phoenix, only his job (a high-profile Ministry official,) kept him from being in the actual "ring." Having been a year ahead of the boys who created the Marauder's Map, he was reminiscing with Harry, who was enjoying this very much, as Eddie was an extremely likable fellow.

Being tall and gangly with an open face, Eddie was someone you could go up to and slap on the back without actually knowing him. He had been Quidditch captain of the Gryffindors, and this was what he and Harry were discussing. Harry's wife listened in from the kitchen; apparently Quidditch had changed quite a bit in the last thirty or so years.

"See, back then," he was saying, "there were student Quidditch captains, but there were also team coaches. You know, like adults who ran the team." Harry did know from all his Quidditch books, but he liked to hear Eddie talk.

"And owners, too. They actually funded the whole thing, so that the school didn't actually own the teams, they just hosted 'em. Back then, school Quidditch was just like the professionals. They did it so people could gamble on them, and get the profits. Schools aren't allowed to gamble. People everywhere'd come and see the Quidditch match at Hogwarts, to see if they could get a payoff on the team they bet on."

"But that wasn't the only thing that was different back then, was it?" asked Harry.

"No. The rules of the game were different also. Rougher. You could do a lot more to the other team than what you can do now. Better that way, if you ask me. The roles of the players were different too. Like Beaters now don't have much to do except keep the Bludgers away from their team, but back then, they had a lot more reign. They started each game. When the whistle blew, everyone but the Beaters would fly off in the air. The rest would stay on the ground.

"First they'd let the Bludgers go. Then they'd hit the Quaffles in by bouncing them three times against the ground, then whacking them into the air. And everyone of them had a signature way of doing that. You couldn't just "hit" the ball, you know. You had to do a kind of twirling thing that was all their own. And their bats were longer and thicker, too. Back then the Bludgers were bigger and slower, but heavier. It was real hard to get a spin on one of those things."

"Oh yeah, I'll bet." Harry smiled. Although Eddie had been banned in his first year of professional Quidditch (the year after he got out of Hogwarts) for reasons he did not like to speak about, he could still go on and on about the game.

"I heard you were telling a story to little James here," said Eddie, changing the conversation at the first yawn from Baby James. "I remember the day your father and his friends disappeared," mused Eddie, leaning back in his chair as his dark eyes grew soft and sad. "I miss those guys. They were always doing something to get the school in an uproar."

~*~*~

In the days after The Disappearance, the school was panicking. Five students were missing: One taken, one accused of attempted murder, three others gone for unknown reasons. Also, a replacement had been put in for the Defense teacher, as he was nowhere to be found. Rumor was that Dumbledore had called him up for a talk after he had been healed by Madam Pomfrey, and that he had been sent away. This caused complaints, since Riddle was one of the most popular teachers in the school, and Head of Slytherin; but Dumbledore wasn't there to answer them, as he had gone quickly to the Ministry to speak about Riddle. Then, soon after, two small Gryffindors had burst into the school from outside, screaming that their friend had been taken. As Professor McGonagall was dubious on how to handle this new situation, they had apparently grabbed a boy named Peter Pettigrew out of their Common Room and had struck out on their own. To the more astute observers, it seemed that Hogwarts' was quickly falling apart. Why and how all this was happening was still a mystery. McGonagall called Hagrid to search inside the forest, but was not certain what Dumbledore would want them to do, so she sent the school's emergency owl (an extremely fast yet delicate bird that was only used on such an occasion,) to Dumbledore with a letter.

~*~*~

James, Sirius, and Peter walked briskly through the forest. Where they were going, they did not know; how they were going to find food, they did not know.

"James, where are we going?"

"I don't know."

"James, how are we going to find food?"

"I don't know."

Peter had remained strangely quiet throughout the hour they had been walking. His mind racing, he remembered how Dumbledore's kindly old face had turned to outrage when he told him what Riddle had done. He had been afraid the Headmaster might be angry with him for not telling earlier, but his mind was set quickly at ease when he found that most of his anger was directed towards Riddle.

Yes, Albus Dumbledore had seen many terrible things in his life; but one of the things that he never understood or got used to was child abuse. How could anyone do such a thing? Especially to an innocent...

James was too wrapped in his own thoughts to notice the silence of Peter. His stomach churned to think of poor Lily, who was going through God knows what, and it being all his fault...

"What're you doing, Evans? Thinking about looking for your boyfriend?"

"Go away, James."

"What's wrong? Scared?"

"No, I'm not scared!"

"Prove it. Go in."

"Fine, I will."

James was mercifully snapped out of these thoughts by Sirius, who had been watching him. "It wasn't your fault, you know," he said in a surprisingly soft tone. "She probably would have gone in anyway."

James didn't answer him, but he was thankful for the small comfort. There had been something else that had been bothering him, though. For the past few minutes, he had had the distinct feeling that they were being watched. What if more wild men lurked in the shadows, just beyond their limited line of vision? It was dusk now, and the night's eerie music was beginning to play.

"Who, who, who?" sang the tenor voice of an owl.

"Here, here, here!" sounded the soprano tones of another bird.

A twig snapped a couple of meters away.

"What was that?" cried Peter, breaking out of his silence and unconsciously clutching James's arm.

"Just a deer or something," yawned Sirius, trying not to look frightened.

"What if it's werewolves?" asked Peter, while Algernon squeaked nervously in his pocket.

"Werewolves only come out on the full moon," answered James.

"Oh," said Peter, who didn't look so certain.

The group walked on for some time, gradually becoming aware that something was indeed following them. Without speaking, they sped up, while whatever it was sped up also. This continued for some time until a heart-wrenching cry broke the silence-

"SHIT!!!!!"

The boys screamed and ran a few paces until they realized that what had yelled was obviously human. They ran back to where the cry had come from and found...

"LOONEY LUPIN?" shouted Sirius incredulously as they came upon the hunched over figure, who was cradling his left hand.

"Lumos," said James as he whipped out his wand and shown it on Remus. Dark-red blood was running from his hand onto the ground. James shown the light above him and onto a long vine hanging down with long thorns, and it quickly became apparent what had happened: as they had sped up, he had sped up; and, not being on the path, had been struck by the hanging vine which and lacerated his hand.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOLLOWING US?!" shouted Sirius.

"Cut it out, Sirius, he's hurt," whimpered Peter, who was peering at the crouched figure with something close to reverence.

"I am fine," snapped Remus, "and as to your question, I was wondering what you were doing here in the woods, as it is fecking obvious that you weren't looking for me." As he spoke, all the refined language he had learned from Clarice was washed away and his Irish accent returned, which Clarice had tried to quash from the day he had come to live with her, saying that "it was altogether too common sounding to be spoken if you wanted to be taken seriously."

James felt like he was about to crack a rib from trying not to laugh, as he looked down at the unhappy little figure that had seemed so intimidating before. Remus stood up quickly, and this time James really did snort; for Remus was nearly as small as he was and half his weight, both of these factors he had never noticed before.

Remus ignored this, tried to regain his practiced British accent, failed entirely, and gave up. He glared at them. "Answer my question, I've answered yours!"

James stopped laughing. "We're looking for Lily. She was kidnapped or something by this weird guy with long hair." Remus made a motion like he was about to clutch James's arm, but thought better of it.

"Is she alright?" he asked softly.

"OF COURSE she's not alright, she's been bloody KIDNAPPED!" shouted Sirius.

"We should have just let the school handle this," moaned Peter, holding tight onto Algernon, who had climbed out of his pocket and was hissing at Remus.

"It's better this way. Grown-ups always mess everything up anyway," countered James.

Remus sank to the ground. "What do we need to do?"

"The question is not what WE-" here Sirius motioned towards Remus- "need to do, it's what WE-" he motioned towards James and Peter- "need to do. Or something."

"Uh... yeah," said James. "What he said. Anyways, we're the ones that are going after her, and we don't need any help from you." Remus jumped up with a start, flinging drops of blood on them in the process.

"Hey, just where do you get off trying to act all heroic about this? You never even liked Lily, I'm the one that..." his face went pale. They stared at him, surprised that they had actually gotten him to show some emotion. For once, James felt a little sorry for him.

"Listen, Remus," he began, "It's my fault Lily got kidnapped, and I want to fix this. It's just you can't help us, okay? We don't get along, we'd end up fighting or something. Look, if you want to help Lily too, just go back to the school and get your hand fixed and come back later. We have no idea where we're going anyway, so we probably won't meet up." He smiled, feeling he had just done the benevolent thing by suggesting this.

"And let you get a head start on me? No way," Remus said. "I've been hurt a lot worse than this before. Look," he said pointing to where the path divulged in the woods, "why don't you go that way," he pointed to the right branch, "and I go this way?" he asked, pointing to the left branch.

"And why would you want us to go that way-" Sirius pointed towards the right, "and you go that way?" he asked, pointing to the left. "Could it be because that way-" he pointed towards the left- "is less dangerous than that way?" he pointed towards the right.

Remus's eyes lit up. "Well, I just didn't think you'd want to come up on the Bat People who live that way," said Remus, pointing towards the left. "Everyone knows that the Bat People live on the left branch of the fork in the Forbidden Forest."

"The Bat People aren't real!" shouted Sirius.

"Who are the Bat People?" asked Peter.

"It doesn't matter," answered James.

"And anyway," said Sirius, "how do we know the Bat People don't actually live that way-" he pointed towards the right- "and you just don't want to go the dangerous way so you just tell us the Bat People live that way?" he pointed towards the left.

"Or maybe," said Remus, "the Bat People really do live that way," he pointed towards the left, "and I knew you wouldn't believe me if I said they lived that way," he pointed towards the left again, "so I could really end up going the safe way which is that way." he finished, pointing towards the right.

Sirius screwed up his face as he tried to puzzle out what had just been said. "But if we go that way-"

"Oh, shut up, both of you," said James exasperatedly. "Look, we'll go left and you go right, and whichever one of us meets up with the Bat People will just have to deal with it. Agreed?" he held out his hand to Remus.

"Agreed," said Remus, grabbing his hand a little more forcefully than was needed.

They went their separate ways.

~*~*~

"Who are the Bat People?" asked Peter again as they walked along the left path. It was fully dark now, and he was feeling a little creepy.

"They're not real, so it doesn't matter. Only superstitious people believe in the Bat People, and everyone knows superstition is only for mental cases," answered James.

"But you believe Marilyn Monroe was murdered," Peter pointed out.

"Well... it's not the same. Anyways, the Bat People aren't real. Loony Lupin was just trying to scare us."

"YEAH!" agreed Sirius.

"But you still haven't told me who they are," groaned Peter.

"They're just... they're just these people who had a curse put on them a hundred or so years ago," said James.

"Why?" asked Peter.

"Well... a long time ago, there was this really old witch who lived in this little cabin because she was so poor," began James.

"Oh, here we go," muttered Sirius.

"And the only valuable thing she owned was this bat-medallion-thingie. And there were these twin kids- a brother and a sister- who lived by her, and they were poor too. So, one day, they got the bright idea to steal the bat-medallion, but the old lady caught them, and put them under a curse for all eternity, because it was a family heirloom or something. And now they're supposed to be hideously ugly with giant sharp teeth and claws, and they have wings, and they eat people and suck their blood and... and... well, they're just not nice people."

"And they can never die?" asked Peter, wide eyed.

"Nope."

Peter shivered and made an "ohhhhhh" sound.

Sirius grinned and leaned forward to whisper in Peter's ear.

"Ooooooh, the Bat People, Peter! They're coming to get you, Peter!"

"Stop it, Sirius!" cried Peter, covering his ears.

"Cut it out, Sirius," warned James. "That's not funny."

"I was just kidding!" cried Sirius. "Look, the Bat People aren't even real. Watch!" He threw back his head and shouted in the loudest voice he could (which is very loud,) "HEY BAT PEOPLE! WE'RE OVER HERE, ON YOUR PATH! COME FIND US IF YOU'RE REAL, WHICH YOU AREN'T!"

"Sirius," hissed James. Peter shivered.

"It's okay!" laughed Sirius. "They aren't re-" His voice trailed off, because at that moment, two dark shapes came gliding down from the trees and landed in front of them. They weren't much taller than the kids, but their black, veined wings spread out made them look much bigger. They had the bodies of regular humans, with very impish faces, but instead of hair they had black fur with two large round bat ears sticking up comically. They looked almost alike, except one was a guy and the other a girl. They gave identical smiles to them, showing small fangs in their mouths.

"Hi!" they said in unison.

"AUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" they screamed.