So here we are...
With freedom within our sweaty, greedy, grasps.
So remember this, boys and girls,
When your freedom comes along...
Don't
Pish
in the water supply,
Just because... school is out for the summer…
“We got lucky with the weather,” Remus commented, gazing up at the clear blue sky. “Would have been a nightmare getting them all outside if it was raining.”
He was not going to miss Scottish ‘summers’.
He and Christopher were alone in the owlery, waiting. It would begin any moment.
“Don’t make fun of me, ok?” Christopher whispered, looking down at the grounds from the high open windows, “But this is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.”
Remus smiled at him fondly, and gave his hand a quick squeeze.
“I bet you this is just the beginning. You’re going to do so many exciting things, I know it.”
“I dunno, it’s going to be quiet with you lot gone,” Chris replied, peering down at the lawn below them, “I bet they make Regulus head boy… ooh! That’s the signal!”
A fountain of golden sparks shot up from behind the greenhouses, and Remus could hear Christopher’s heart begin to beat faster with the excitement.
“Let’s do it, then!” Remus elbowed him.
They both turned to look at the owls, hundreds of them perched in rows lining the tower walls, all the way up into the rafters. Beside them was a pile of letters - all blank except for the address. And they all had the same address.
Chris looked like he was ready to burst with the thrill of it all, and Remus stepped back, giving him the floor,
“You know the spell, you do it.”
“Really?!”
“Yeah,” Remus grinned, “Plenty of mischief to go around after this…”
“Ok!” He rolled up his sleeves, licking his lips. He uttered the incantation and swept his wand broadly around the tower. A low hoot, a ruffling of feathers, and then… utter chaos as all five hundred owls suddenly leapt from their perches and swooped down towards the two boys, who both ducked for cover.
Remus had never seen anything so magnificent; every single owl in Hogwarts spread its wings and soared out of the window, each one snatching a blank addressed letter as it passed. It must have taken two full minutes for them all to manage it, and when it was over, Remus and Christopher jumped at the window to watch them disappear down towards the courtyard, through the arches and on to their destination.
“Wow!” Chris kept saying, like a yappy little dog, “Wow wow wow!”
Remus just grinned, and thought about James and Sirius elsewhere in the castle, watching for that signal. And Mary, Marlene and Yaz, poised and ready for their own part, and everyone else in the castle waiting, waiting for the thing they had been planning since Christmas.
“Let’s go!” Remus said, grabbing Chris’s arm, “We can watch them all running out.”
If five hundred owls suddenly flocking to the dungeons didn’t get everyone out, then Remus was confident that James and Sirius’s patented exploding toilet seats would do the job.
