Party Animals

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Party Animals

CHAPTER SIX:

'Okay . . . Who Spiked The Punch?'

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Severus."

"Right. So go shove off and stuff your greasy head in a toilet, Snape."

Severus Snape smiled wickedly at Sirius and Remus. Snape was aware enough to realize that there was a deep dark skeleton in the Marauders' collective closet. They were hiding something. Something dangerous . . . Something that destroy any chance of the Lions house winning the House Cup . . . Something that would certainly decimate the life of a useless Gryffindor. If only he could figure out what the senseless gits were hiding . . .

"Are you bloody deaf?" Sirius interrupted Snape's deep thoughts. "Leave before I turn your over-sized nose into a woodchuck."

Snape ignored Sirius's threat and glanced at Remus. There must have been something in the lighting that brought up a ghostly pale colour to Lupin's face. It made him look, Snape mused, like of the un-dead; a vampire or ghoul of some sort. Of course, maybe it wasn't just the lighting.

Maybe it was the full moon.

"Feeling a bit off tonight, Lupin?" Snape prodded. "You look dreadful. You look . . . like you're hiding something."

Remus blinked, his heart beginning to pump adrenaline-spotted blood faster around his body. Standing in front of him was the worst-case scenario of his life. . . a Slytherin finding out that he was a werewolf. Remus would have to find a new school if Snape ever found out and told anyone; not that any other wizarding school but Hogwarts would dare to take him . . .

"Come now, Lupin," Snape continued to pry. "I know you have some big secret. It would be much easier if you just told me."

Sirius, finally reaching his boiling point, pushed his way in between his friend and the Slytherin. He slowly slid his wand out of his front pocket, wanting very much to drive it through Snape's head. "Why don't you just go to hell instead, Snape?" Sirius growled through gritted teeth.

"I'll meet you there, Black." Snape also pulled out his wand.

"Ah, bugger! I leave you for a couple minutes and now you're threatening Slytherins for fun . . . without me. Have I taught you nothing?"

With a sudden swoop, Phiona Love seemed to pounce down on the little skirmish. Her eyes were gleaming again, a certain wildness about her appearance. She grabbed one look at Snape and took a wild shot in the dark of what was going on.

"Now, Severus," Phiona said, sounding as sincere as possible. Unfortunately, she was no great actress, so her sarcasm shown through like a monstrous beaker breaking dense fog. "Why don't you crawl back under that rock you came from? Eh?"

"You three can't intimidate me that easily," Snape retorted, though he seemed a little more reluctant, not like the odds ever since Phiona showed up. "You can't do anything to me in this crowd."

"Really?" asked Sirius, slowly cracking the knuckles of is right hand. "That's too bad. I reckon we'll just have an audience to watch as we rearrange your face."

Snape knew what was going on. They were trying to protect Lupin. In fact, Lupin was being unusually quiet . . .

The Slytherin glanced over the shoulders of Phiona and Sirius and took a look at Remus Lupin. The Gryffindor had seemed to have tensed, his body going stiff and rigid. And his eyes . . . his eyes had become an unnatural yellow colour, glowing wickedly in the candlelight.

Snape started to back away in fear. He knew what yellow eyes meant on a full moon . . . It was all too obvious now. Finally, when he heard the thick, menacing growl coming from deep within Remus' throat, Snape snapped and suddenly bolted out of the Great Hall, knocking down several giddy Hufflepuffs who stood in his way.

Sirius and Phiona turned around slowly to see what had caused Snape be so frightened as to break the sound barrier when crossing the hall. Remus stood there, looking back at them with a blank look on his face.

"Er," Remus articulated slowly. "That was a bit odd, wasn't it?"

"Moony." Sirius' heart stopped briefly with fright. He couldn't help but gawk openly at his fellow Marauder and his illuminating irises. "Your . . . your eyes."

Remus was suddenly jolted with a burst of electricity as he finally realized what had happened. He began to rub his eyes furiously. "It's nothing . . . nothing," he mumbled. "I just got angry . . . I wolfed out."

"I'll say you did," Phiona muttered. "To hell with you changing at midnight, mate. Sirius and I are going to get you out of here right now."

"No," Remus said sharply, taking his hands away from his eyes, which had turned back to their normal bright grey. "No. I'm fine now. In fact, I'm going to find Chandra. So, if you'll excuse me-"

Before Sirius or Phiona had anything else to say on the matter, Remus escaped into the crowd and quickly disappeared from sight.

"Oh bloody Christ, Sirius. Even I'll admit that this is going too far," Phiona mumbled, staring out at the dance floor. "We need to get that berk out of here, whether he likes it or not."

"Right," Sirius agreed. "How are we going to weed him out of this lot, though?" He nodded towards the crowd before them. "And, if he doesn't want to go-"

"Don't worry about that now," said Phiona, turning to face Sirius. "Look, just . . . just drop one of these into the punch bowl." She took her friend's hand and placed a little velvet bag in it. "Only one. No more. We don't want to kill anyone." She closed Sirius's fingers over the bag for him.

Not knowing if Phiona was joking or not, Sirius stared at his friend with interest. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"I'm not sprinting back and shacking up with my 'boyfriends', if that's what you're thinking, Black."

Ouch. That one stung.

"Phiona, don't -"

"I'm going to gather up the rest of the troops then go on a werewolf search party," Phiona interrupted quickly. "James and Peter both need to know what's going on. Now go . . . and keep a look out for Moony." Her dark eyes caught Sirius's. "If he starts to grow a tail, we're all chin-deep in shit."

Without so much as a comforting smile or friendly squeeze of the hand, Phiona quickly and made her way through the crowded dance floor. When the girl disappeared from sight, Sirius looked down at the velvet bag which had been placed in his hand. He opened it with a mix of uneasy fear and acute interest, finding a multitude of tiny pink pills. Wondering what on earth they did, not to mention why Phiona had them in her possession, Sirius held the little bag tight in his hand as he made his way over the refreshment table.

Punch bowl in front of him, Sirius took a single pill out of Phiona's bag and dropped the mystery tablet into the punch. With a satisfying fizz, the pill disintegrated as soon as it hit liquid. The punch suddenly went from it's normal light orange to a bright pink. A slow smog began to bubble up.

"Ah, yes. I knew it would only be a matter of time until I met Mister Sirius Black by the punch bowl."

Sirius jumped with surprise. In the process, his hand slipped and the little velvet bag filled with the pink pills of doom dropped into the punch bowl with a sickening plop. Before his wide eyes, he watched helplessly as the pills and bag dissolved, turning the punch a threatening blood- red. Sirius said a sharp curse word to himself and his utter stupidity, then quickly turned around to face the person who had addressed him.

Head Master Albus Dumbledore stood in front of the Marauder, his pale blue eyes twinkling.

"Erm . . . Hello, Professor," Sirius said awkwardly, wishing he was a lot less lanky so that he could the punch in back of him. "Having . . . fun?"

"Most likely not as much as you are." Dumbledore's mouth twitched underneath his long, white beard. "Though, I did have a rather spirited conversation with Professor Pruge on the plural of the word platypus. What do you think? Is it platypi or platypuses?"

"Platypi . . . I think," Sirius answered slowly, wondering why on earth the Head Master of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry would ever ask him something so obscure.

"Yes, yes. You see, that is what I said," Dumbledore continued. "But Professor Pruge refuses to believe me. I'll have to ask someone else to get a forth opinion, won't I?" He glanced at the punch bowl ( To which several people had been serving out of ) and then back at Sirius. "Perhaps you friend, Remus Lupin? He always seems to be astute about these sort of things."

Sirius's insides twisted suddenly. Dumbledore knew Remus was at the ball . . .

"He's not here," Sirius lied quickly, hoping to God that Dumbledore would believe him. "Said he wasn't feeling well and went down to the hospital wing."

"Is that so?" Dumbledore looked not the least beguiled; he didn't buy a word Sirius had said. "Well then, give him my regards when you see him next. And, by the way, Sirius," the Head Master leaned in so that only the Marauder could hear. "If you wish to spike the beverages, do it much more furtively. It's much more amusing that way."

Sirius nodded. (Spike the punch? Had he spiked the punch? . . . Or just poison it? What were in those pills Phiona had given him?)

Without another word, Dumbledore gave Sirius a mysterious wink and made his way back towards the Professors' table in the front of the room.

The whole plan was falling apart. Snape knew, Dumbledore knew, Remus had disappeared, and the punch (which suddenly seemed a lot more empty) was seemingly undrinkable. Phiona was right, all of them were chin-deep in crap. . .

Feeling that sense of acute nervousness bubble up inside him again, Sirius bolted around the room. He was desperate to find a fellow Marauder . . . any Marauder . . . even Peter would do . . .

At a small round table, farthest away from the blaring band, Sirius found James, Lily, Peter, and Jazlen. All of them looked like they were on top of the world. Untouchable Gods and Goddesses with smiles on their faces and full cups of the blood-red punch in their hands.

"Hey, Pads," James said with an abnormally large smirk. "Where have you been all night? Don't tell me you've been stealing dates again-"

"Can I talk to you two?" Sirius said through gritted teeth, looking at his fellow Marauders.

"Er . . . yeah, sure. Just hold o-"

"Now please," Sirius pressed. He took James and Peter by the arms, pulling them away from their bemused dates and into the crowd.

"What's going on, Sirius?" James asked when they stopped at the far wall, a concerned look glazing over his smile.

Sirius took a deep breath and started: "Snape got a big clue about the 'little secret' - - Moony wolfed out on us but he refused to leave - - Dumbledore knows that Remus is here - - Phiona's on a wild werewolf hunt by herself - - and please don't drink that."

Peter was in the process of taking a drink out of his cup of punch, but preformed a huge spit-take when he caught Sirius's warning.

"Why . . . why not?" Peter sputtered.

"I think I spiked it."

"Oh, Christ." James rolled his eyes "Sirius, I thought I told you not to-"

"Phin told me to put one of these little pink pill things in it," Sirius explained quickly. "But my hand slipped and all of them spilt in. Don't know what kind of effect that's going to have on it."

"Oh, that's just corking." James rubbed the side of his face, a little trademark quark he preformed when extremely frustrated. "Remus is gone and Sirius spiked the punch. Simply spiffing."

"We don't know if it's actually spiked," Peter pointed out. "Maybe the pills were just-"

Quite suddenly a seventh year boy, of whom Sirius instantly recognize as the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain who had been hovering over Phiona all night, stood up on top of a table, looking very tipsy. He waved his arms around, catching all the attention he could muster, and then burst out singing 'God Save The Queen' at the top of his lungs. It was not long before several more people joined him, belting out the lyrics to which they only seemed to remember half of. Soon, almost all of Hogwarts was singing, though many were creating their own renditions of the song which consisted mostly of drunken babble.

"Well, I guess that answers almost all of our questions," Sirius said as a little Hufflepuff third year came waddling past them, pretending she was a rabid penguin. "God, those pills were effective. Remind me to ask Phin where she got them."

"All it did was buy us some time," said James, over the sound of someone eloquently burping the ABCs in the background. "Now that basically everyone is blitzed out of their bloody minds, we can look for Remus without anyone tagging along."

"Let's just hope that he didn't drink any of that punch," said Peter. "I really don't want to find out what a tanked werewolf is like."

In order to cover more area in a less amount of time, the three Marauders decided to split up in order to Remus before he transformed. This, however, turned out to be a harder task then first thought; it seemed as though everyone had somehow been effected by the tainted punch. Sirius ran into a group of people who thought they were pirates, someone who was trying to nail some green jell-o to a wall, and the Astronomy teacher, Professor Rosenkranz, who was talking fluently to a table cloth. It was not long before Sirius met up with James again, who looked even more flustered then his fellow Marauder.

"The Rabid Penguin Girl bit me," James muttered, holding up his arm so that his friend could clearly see the wound. "Knowing my wonderful luck, I'll probably end up with rabies."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Sirius mumbled off-handily, not even bothering to glance at the red mark on James's arm. "Have you seen any sign of Phiona or Remus?"

"No. Not at-"

There suddenly came a large explosion at the far corner of the Great Hall. No one but James and Sirius seemed to notice bright red sparks which had been admitted from someone's wand. No one but the Marauders seemed to hear or acknowledge the loud, blood-curdling scream as it echoed around the hall, barely over the booming music of the band.

"Oh God," Sirius muttered, instantly recognizing the bone-chilling cry for help. "Phiona."

Something twisted in Sirius's stomach as he and James ran towards the far corner of the room, bowling over everyone in their path. It was all his fault . . . he had urged Remus to go to the ball on a full moon . . . he was the one who ignored his responsibilities as a friend . . .and it was he (a great wave of nausea pelted over Sirius) who would be responsible if any harm came to Phiona Love.

When the two Marauders got to the corner, their worst fears had become reality. Remus was there - no . . . not Remus. It was a murderous, yellow-eyed horror which had replaced Remus. A blood-thirsty werewolf, which had once been a calm, fun-loving Gryffindor sixth year, had its quarry cornered. The prey stood rigidly against the wall; her dark eyes brimming with fear, her once beautiful aquamarine robes torn and stained with blood, her wand fallen to one side out of her reach This victim, this prey, was the once brave and exuberant Phiona Love, now seconds away from a violent and unspeakable death.

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