The Queen, The Knight and The Marauders

7. The Two Sides of War

This chapter contains a bit of strong language, but I felt it was necessary for the story to be more realistic. Votes and comments are appreciated!

Chapter 7

In fifty years teaching methods at Hogwarts hadn't changed a bit. Well, maybe a little. The Charms teacher, Professor Spangle, was an elderly witch who preferred to sit in her large pink armchair and watch the seventh years perform the charms with varying success. She would then use the Sonorus charm to either reprimand or praise the students, efficiently destroying their eardrums.

Lily was already missing Professor Flitwick, because at least the little wizard did not feel the need for his voice to partly deafen her during the class, even if his voice was a tad high.

She had yet to inform Frank of the Map, as the other seventh years were constantly around.
She was trying to come up with a plan on how to get the Marauders lose the Map, a task that took her abnormally long. On average, she had a fully planned strategy ready in less than half an hour, with one to three back up plans just in case. Now, she was going on three quarters of an hour and still, there were far too many 'if's to her liking in her plan. 

She had other things to worry about too, the main one being the Vanishing Cabinet they had arrived in to the past. She hadn't had the opportunity to go to the seventh floor corridor and open the Room of Requirement, and she really did need to go there. She had to study the Cabinet, had to know how it had managed to bring them to the past and, if it was possible, to alter it so that they could use it to get back to the future.

She was constantly thinking about the future. The changes they inevitably made here in the 70's would alter the future somehow. Solely them being here had to change something. But the question was how much and what. The people here would remember their existence, as it would be impossible to remove the memories of the whole school and staff and any other people they might encounter for the undetermined length of time they would be stuck in the past.

When they, hopefully, eventually made it back to their own time, they would have to make up excuses for their disappearance in the past, so nobody would ask too many questions and look too deep into it.

Finally, the Professor used Sonorus to inform them that they were free to go, with five foot assignment on Warding as homework for the next class.

Lily went to stand by Frank, nudging him to get his attention.

"We need to talk. Now."

The boy nodded, and together they made their way out of the Charms class. Alice and Marlene were still packing their bags, the Marauders were occupied by complaining about the amount of homework and Evans had already left. They quickly made their way to the nearest secret passageway, which was luckily located near the classroom and hid in it. They had made it their job to know every single passageway inside the castle on their first year to be able to get away from trouble and this one she had learned about from her Dad on her first week of Hogwarts.

Hidden behind the tapestry that covered the passageway, Frank cast a quick Muffliato and turned to Lily.

"Well?"

"They have the Map," she said, not needing to explain further.

"Shit. I assume you have a plan?"

"I'm working on it. We also need to get back to the Room of Requirement, we need to be able to inspect it."

Frank nodded in understanding. They rarely needed to dwell in their conversations, they knew each other well enough to understand what the other meant. Well, most of the time.