Sanctuary

Chapter 51

Tuesday, 10th October 1972

Sirius rapped his knuckles against the door of the Defence classroom, trying hard to suppress his excitement and keep focusing on his memories of the summer. He did not want his hair turning pink where anyone might see. It was hard, though. Duelling was a hell of a lot of fun, but that wasn't the main reason he wanted the extra lessons. Protecting Remus was a priority, and he knew James and Peter felt the same. It might as well be an unwritten rule of the Marauders' Code.

'Come in,' Professor Tenebris called from inside.

Sirius pushed the door open, walked in and, as soon as it clicked closed behind Peter, let go of his hold on his emotions and his hair turned the same shade of hot pink as James' had been all afternoon.

Professor Tenebris was perched on the edge of her desk, and she smiled at them warmly as they entered the room.

'Please, stand together in the centre of the room,' she said, pausing for them to do so. When they were ready, she bared her teeth in an evil smirk. 'I hope you're all ready for this.' She raised her wand and murmured an incantation, making eight white balls of light shoot through the air to different parts of the room. When they hit the floor, instead of disappearing, they expanded upwards, elongating six foot into the air. Sirius stared as the closest light grew an appendage on either side followed by a bulbous top. And then he realised what was happening and yelled, 'Wands!' drawing his own from his holster.

James and Remus obeyed immediately, and Peter drew his a half-second later. The four of them moved, so they were standing back to back, reminding Sirius of the previous year when they were waiting for the Creature Hunt to begin. The lights were clearly human-shaped now, and he could see facial features and wands in their hands. Sirius took a defensive stance, not bothering to check what his friends were doing, trusting them to have his back.

The lights raised their wands, not quite in sync, but close to it, and suddenly there were multi-coloured flashes speeding towards them. 'Protego!' Sirius said, hearing his friends behind him doing the same.

His shield formed in the air at the end of his wand, and the spells (can a spell cast a spell? Well, whatever they were) bounced off it and vanished. Of course, Professor Tenebris wouldn't make it that easy. The human-shaped lights continued firing at them, and after a few seconds, Sirius realised they weren't going to stop.

'We need to do something,' James said from his left. His voice was oddly calm considering their situation. 'At least one of us needs to be on the offensive.'

'Know any multi-person Shields, Moons?' Sirius asked.

'Nope, should probably add that to my list,' Remus replied.

'I'm losing it,' Peter said. 'Professor? Are those things going to hurt?'

Sirius heard the teacher chuckle. 'Yes, very much.'

'Crap,' Peter said.

'Peter? Take a step back between us and then let go of your shield. We'll close in around you. Ready?'

'Ready,' they all said.

Sirius felt the movement of air to his right as Peter stepped back, and he immediately sidestepped to close the gap, Remus doing the same in the other direction. Forcing a little more magic into his wand to increase the size of his shield, Sirius glanced around. Eight opponents surrounded them, and the only viable exit was the classroom door. Fight or run was the choice, but he wasn't sure if the spell would be effected by a smokescreen and they had nowhere to run to, anyway.

'Stupefy,' Peter shouted. The red light of his spell shot out from between Sirius and Remus and hit the closest attacker in the chest. The bright white light turned pale blue before vanishing. Peter took out two more of the lights before Sirius' shield flickered.