The Marauders: Year One | #Wattys2016

Preparations

Preparations

None of the teachers could understand what made Peter Pettigrew suddenly start asking so many questions and trying so hard in classes. Especially Professor Moody in Defense. Moody eyed Peter with his one functional eye and licked his lower lip with interest and wonderment as Peter's grades started going up. Of course James, Sirius, and Remus knew why. It was because Peter Pettigrew had suddenly become very, very motivated to know everything he could possibly about defending himself against the Dark Lord.

Actually, all of the boys were throwing themselves quite extensively into their studies in preparation for executing their plan - which they referred to as "Operation Moldy Voldy". They had all agreed during the more extensive planning process that they needed to boost their arsenal of potential spells to fight back with, just incase He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named managed to resist their stunners. They'd referred to their textbooks and immediately gotten to work, practicing any spells, charms, and hexes that they thought might help them out in the midst of a heated battle.

The spells weren't the only thing they were working on for preparations, either. They'd found the map that James and Sirius had hoped for, the one showing the grounds of Hogwarts and where they cut off in relation to the Forbidden Forest. It was Peter who first pointed out the main problem that the map presented. "How do we know how far that is, once we're in the forest I mean, that we need to go before we reach the end of the grounds?" He asked, looking around at the other three. "How do we measure how far we've gone?"

"Well - blimey - never thought of that, did we?" James said.

"We'll count our steps," Sirius suggested.

So the boys spent several long free periods out on the muddy grounds, walking from the castle to the edge of the forest, counting their steps as they went so that they were just a cluster of mumbled numbers as they moved in a herd from the entrance doors to the first tree, where they wrote down the count they'd gotten and proceeded to walk back, waving to Hagrid, who was out in his vegetable patch, planting.

Because of the many preparations that had come up - and Remus's insistence that they not rush through them - they had decided to put Operation Moldy Voldy into action in April, rather than before the next full moon, as Sirius had originally decided. Sirius was antsy, though, nervous about delaying it so long and buried the mirror even deeper into his trunk, refusing to open it unless he absolutely had to, afraid that the Dark Lord might be looking back at him. If nothing else was true about the plan, it was absolutely necessary that it be a secret.

"I am very glad to see you all working so studiously," Professor McGonagall told them one afternoon, surprised to find them huddled around a table in the school library. "If you ever need any help at all with your homework, please feel free to stop by my office," she added, smiling through her stiff Scottish accent as she moved on through the rows of books.

"If only she knew what we're really up to!" Murmured Sirius, "Doubt she'd want to help with that, ey?"

"Highly," James agreed.

The weekend of the full moon, Remus very firmly reminded them all that they were not - under any circumstances - to go after the Dark Lord until he was back. "Remember," he said. "Promise me," he added.

"Of course we wouldn't go without you," Sirius seemed quite appalled. "When have I ever done a thing like this without you, mate?"

Remus raised his eyebrow. "How about when you brought that bloody mirror back in the first place, then?"

Sirius shrugged, "That was entirely different, of course."

"Why?"

"I haven't got a clue, but I'm sure that it was," Sirius answered.