Marauders, the next generation

Operation Scorpion

Joseph and Gregory crept through the door. Laura and Anya had finally gone to sleep and we'd knocked on the wall. Joseph was still wearing his school robes and his bag in case he needed to carry anything but Gregory had opted for a completely black outfit and a woolly balaclava. I rolled my eyes, Lucy giggled and Joseph shot him dirty looks every so often.

We tiptoed over to the mirror I had gone through.

"Now," said Joseph, "What exactly did you do to get-"

While he was talking I leaned over to Lucy's bedside table and picked up a heavy, hardback book. Putting as much force in to the swing as possible I smashed the mirror with it. I can't remember why I did it. I guess I thought it was a good idea at the time. It felt like the right thing to do. It felt like I needed to do it.

Lucy and Joseph jumped. Gregory looked around edgily to make sure Anya and Laura were still asleep. They were. They could sleep through an air raid.

We picked our way through the broken fragments of class and through to the old corridor on the other side.

"You could have just told me the spell," Joseph muttered.

"Right," I said, business like. "Where to next?"

"Well where did you go?" asked Gregory.

"I don't-" I froze and spun around on the spot without realising it. One minute I was facing one way, the next I was facing the other. My arm moved up of it's own accord. "That way."

I started walking towards a door further on. Why, I don't know. It was like the mirror thing. I needed to do it. It was all bigger than me. My pace quickened, then quickened again. Soon Lucy, Joseph and Gregory had to run to keep up with me. I turned the corner and stopped in my tracks.

There was the figure, dressed in black. It turned to look at me. I froze. I couldn't move. My mouth was open in shock and my entire body felt numb. I could barely feel anything. I could just see the creature. Hear the swishing sounds of the cloak touching the floor as it moved towards me. A screech like a thousand screams wrapped up in to one ball. Hearing it as it passes your ear. A cross between a man and your worst nightmare.

You have no idea how terrified I was. I have no idea how terrified I was and I was there. It didn't feel like new fear either. It's hard to describe. It felt like centuries of fear all wrapped up and forced upon me. Old instincts coming in to action like 'Fire is bad'. To say I was scared out of my wits would be the understatement of the millennium.

There was that scream again. The child scream. But this time I recognised it, it was my own. A memory of me screaming like I'd never screamed before. When I was just two years old.

As the figure got closer is raised it's arm towards me. I felt a huge tug, it seemed as though it was drawing me to it. Was that what the mirror and the corridor thing was about? It started to hiss like a cross between a long, drawn out breath between the teeth and a snake. A snake greeting another snake. It wasn't Parseltongue. I'd heard Parseltongue before. This was just a hiss.

I felt a faint pressure on my arms. A slight tug backwards. Nothing near as big as the one drawing me forwards. My foot was already starting to slide forward. As the pressure increased I heard slight voices, just on the edge of hearing. Cries, yelling, my name being called as if I were in a burning building. It was so quiet. Why were they yelling? And why couldn't I hear them? It had to be Lucy, Joseph and Gregory but I couldn't see them. I could barely feel them, let alone hear them. I couldn't sense them. All I saw, all I heard, all I sensed, all there was, was the figure in black. Getting closer.

My breath ripped out under my chest. My fingers began to stretch of their own accord. I was losing control of my arm. It started to move upwards. I tried to stop it and was rewarded with a sharp shooting pain up my arm. I cried out. It echoed.

On the edge of hearing was a faint sobbing. I could almost make out the words.

"Do something! Do something!"

I couldn't move my right arm to stop my left. I couldn't touch it; the thought petrified me. Another spark of pain shot in to my head. I cried out again.

Then, on the edge of seeing, something moved. As if in slow motion a large object flew towards the creature. When it hit a huge amount of pain rushed through every part of my body. I screamed out. It sounded remarkably like the childish scream that had plagued me so much. The creature span round, it's cloak flying through the air. A thousand squeaks were heard as a thousand bats filled the air. My left arm thrust it's self up to protect my face as I slowly fell backwards. Something caught my eye before I hit the floor and it all went black. The object that had flown at the horrifying figure. It was a thesaurus.

The first thing I heard was the voices. Young voices, fresh. Faint but familiar, talking.

"It was so scary. We didn't know what to do!"

"What happened?"

"It's hard to describe. Think of your worst nightmare times by ten."

"Oooh."

"Now treble that."

"No wonder Lee fainted."

"That's just the half of it. She was acting really weird before hand. Doing stuff for no reason. Acting like-"

"-Clockwork."

"Exactly."

The black started to fade away and a smudgy white filled my eyes. I could feel a soft bed beneath me. That's always a good sign, I feel. Soft sheets don't usually indicate bad things.

The light faded slightly resulting in fuzzy shapes. Three figures were sitting near me, they were the one's talking. I started to hear other sounds, other conversations. Some voices I recognised, some I didn't.

"I hope Dumbledore isn't angry."

"If that monster in there could do this to Lee, Dumbledore will probably be glad that, thanks to you, he knows about it. Besides, it was Lee that led you there, and he can't punish someone who's unconscious."

"It wasn't all Lee's fault."

"No, it was mine."

"It wasn't yours either."

"I said we should get it. I encouraged her to keep searching for it even after Christmas. It's my fault."

The fuzziness faded leaving colours and shapes. They gently moulded themselves in to the three people sitting nearby. Lucy, Laura and Joseph. My surroundings started to clear themselves up. I was in our room and lying on my bed. Lucy was sitting on my bed near me, Laura on the other side and Joseph was on a nearby chair. Anya and Samuel were sitting on Anya's bed chatting and Gregory and Robert were having a good look around. Gregory seemed to be paying close attention to the size of our beds.

Over by the broken mirror there was a group of teachers. They were talking, carrying things and generally investigating the forgotten corridor. Thankfully, none of them looked especially angry.

"Lee!"

Lucy had seen me turn my head and had finally noticed I was awake. I propped myself up on my pillow and looked around.

"Hey guys."

"You had us worried there for a minute," Joseph told me.

I peered at him. His face was covered in a look of concern whereas everyone else looked relieved to see me up. It told me something I did not want to know. It wasn't over.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You fainted," said Lucy.

"I guessed that," I said. "What else. Starting from the room with the creepy guy."

"Guy? I thought it was more like a monster."

Gregory had come over along with the other Gryffindor first years.

"Definite guy," I said, "with definite creepy factor. So?"

"Well as soon as you turned that corner you just froze to the spot. We were pretty terrified but you just seemed paralysed. Gregory got out his wand and tried every curse he knew on the creepy guy - quite a lot more than any civilised person should know, might I add - but this thing was unmovable. Lucy and I were trying to pull you away. Especially when you started moving towards it. Then Gregory had the idea of blocking its power over you. We tried covering your eyes but it didn't work. So Gregory threw something at it."

"Your thesaurus."

Joseph blushed. "Yes."

"What he was doing taking his thesaurus somewhere like that I have no idea," said Gregory, "But it was good that he did."

"So what happened next?"

"That was when you fainted," Joseph continued, "It was utter confusion in there with the bats and everything. Lucy yelled 'We have to get her out of here!' so we dragged you back in here. We were all prepared to throw more things at it as it came through when the teachers turned up."

I frowned. "Where did the teachers come from?"

"I fetched them," Laura supplied, "After Jane heard you talking about doing something tonight, then she came to see me to warn me. I thought she was just being silly; it's not a secret that you two don't get on. But when I woke up during the night to see you and Lucy not in your beds-"

"-And the mirror broken," Anya supplied.

Laura smiled. "And the mirror broken - I went to see the teachers to tell them something was up. We came back just in time to see you dumped on the floor and Lucy, Joseph and Gregory grabbing as many books as they could. They explained what happened and the teachers started to act all worried. McGonagall went to get Dumbledore and all the other teachers got out their wands and started to investigate that old corridor."

"At which point I think we woke up and noticed you gone," added Robert, "We figured you'd be here, up to something. We were just going to eavesdrop, see who was getting the whoopee cushion treatment this time, 'till we noticed all the teachers."

"So what are the teachers up to?"

"Searching."

"For what?"

Lucy shrugged. "Creepy guy I guess. Or maybe the ring. Hey! If they find the ring, do we get it? I mean we found it."

"I wouldn't trust it with you four if I had half a brain cell," said Samuel, grinning.

"Well we did have this plan involving a Russian hamster, Snape and a forty watt light bulb," I told them dreamily with a wicked smile."

"I do hope you don't intend to follow through with it now."

We all jumped. Snape himself was there, his face poker straight.

"Professor Snape," I said, "Good to see you. Did you find what you were looking for? What were you looking for by the way?"

"Boys, back to your room immediately," said Snape ignoring me. "You're not allowed in the girls rooms. Weasley, Malfoy, Bower and Davies, the Headmaster wants to see you first thing in the morning assuming Miss Davies is fit enough. Davies, you must report to the Hospital wing immediately."

"But I feel fi-"

"NOW Miss Davies. Or it's twenty points from Gryffindor."

"We'll help her," offered Laura.

Snape glared at her. "You do that."

All the Gryffindor first years left the room, Laura and Lucy holding me up. Just as we got outside I held up my hand as a signal to stop them put my finger to my lips to get them to be quiet. There were voices coming from our room.

"We found something, Professor Dumbledore."

There was a sudden scramble for eyeholes. We were standing on top of each other to peer through the thin gap between the door and the wall. Inside the room I saw Professor Dumbledore standing near Professor Delacour. She was holding something. Make that some things; she had the thesaurus in one hand and something else in the other. Snape was moving in and out of my view. He was examining our room.

"Just the ring?" Dumbledore queried.

"And this book," Delacour pointed out. "What a-" she paused to read the cover. "-Oxford Dictionary and thesaurus was doing back there is beyond me."

"Apparently the children threw it at whoever that was in order to save their friend," Snape told them, "I listened to their conversation."

"Earwig," Gregory hissed next to me.

"There's no one back there?"

"I'm afraid not, headmaster."

Dumbledore did not look happy about that.

"Oh dear," he said, "But the children are safe?"

"All five of them," said Professor Delacour.

"But I sent Miss Davies to the Hospital wing to be checked out," Snape put in. "Just in case."

Five, I thought, But there's only four of us. Who else could be involved, we were the only one's down there.

The answer came to me immediately. Laura.

"What we have here," Dumbledore announced, "Is a copy cat. And a problem."

"Have you told Potter?" Snape asked.

"Both Potters," Dumbledore replied, "And the Weasleys. And Black and Lupin, the usual gang. They were not happy."

Neither was Snape by the looks of it. "The Weasleys," he said disapprovingly. And Black!"

"Of all people, Hermione deserves to know. And it's time you settled your differences with Black. How many decades has it been?"

It was Professor McGonagall's voice. I couldn't see her so I assumed she was standing near the entrance to the corridor.

"Have you not told Tiffany Davies?" she asked.

"No," said Dumbledore, "We can't risk her parents hearing about this."

Snape looked shocked. "You don't think the Lazaros are in on this! They weren't the first time."

"I don't know," said Dumbledore gravely, "But I don't want to rule anything out."

I suddenly had a sick feeling in my stomach and felt as weak as a kitten. The idea of my grandparents having anything to do with that... thing in the corridor made me feel ill. Lucy noticed my expression and suggested that we continued to the Hospital wing. At the bottom of the stairs the girls and boys split. Before he went back to his room, Gregory looked me straight in the eye. His stern examination reminded me greatly of the inquisition my grandfather always gave me. Once he seemed satisfied he smiled.

"Goodnight Lio," he said.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"Your eyes," he said, "They're pale."

My mouth dropped open then I smiled happily. I turned back to the girls and we headed back to the portrait hole. Anya was looking completely confused.

"Of course they're pale," she said, "Almost see through. That's obvious. Why did he have to say that?"

I glanced at Lucy, she was grinning widely. Then over at Laura, she had a more knowing smile on her lips. Then finally back towards Anya, the only person around here who did not have a clue on what was really going on.

"Never mind," I said, "Inside joke."