The Marauders Year Five Part 2 #Wattys2017

Dragon Fire

Dragon Fire

"Carefully."

"You're stepping on me."

"Ouch."

"Dex, stop those are my toes."

"Sorry."

"Shhh guys, or they'll hear us!"

Dexter, Wally, and Liam were under the invisibility cloak, trying to smush their way between the students streaming out the door of Hogwarts to Hogsmeade, carefully gripping the cloak so that it covered the three of them as they snuck along. They'd already made it past Filch and were on the grounds on the way toward the gates in the early morning sunlight.

"Whoa, guys, I can't believe we're invisible, this is so cool."

"Really cool."

"Guys shhh."

A Hufflepuff girl had turned and looked about, but shrugged and moved on when she didn't see anybody behind her.

Suddenly they were nearly bowled over by Mulciber, who was pushing his way through the crowd. He glanced over his shoulder at the castle, made sure none of the staff were in sight, and grabbed onto the robes of a third year Ravenclaw. He raised his wand to the smaller kid's neck. "You have spending money?"

"Y - y - yes, I ---"

"Give me your coin purse."

The poor kid surrendered it quickly.

"That's not fair!" Dexter cried and Wally covered his mouth with his palm as Mulciber turned about, trying to spot where the teeny little voice had come from. He scowled, then turned to Avery, who was standing beside him as he dropped the robes of the Ravenclaw boy, who ran as quick as he could to disappear among the crowd ahead of him, the further from Mulciber he could get, the better.

Avery was doing the same thing to a Hufflepuff girl and a few steps away was Severus Snape, who was being more clever than brute - being smaller than Mulciber and Avery, he was using magic, tearing holes in the pockets of students passing by and collecting the coins that fell periodically from the ground.

Liam motioned for them to give the three Slytherins a wide berth and they stepped off the path into the new grass, circumventing the danger zone of Mulciber, where he had caught up a another student to torment...

Its not right, thought Wally angrily.

Suddenly, Severus Snape looked up and his eyes moved about the gateway area, his eyes travelling through the crowd, his senses keened. He let the students flow past him a moment, oblivious to their passing, trying to find what it was he'd heard... seen....

First years.

The sun was dazzlingly bright. James felt blinded by it. He stumbled along the path across the grounds towards Hogsmeade, Sirius's palms on his shoulder, directing him along. He felt sick with nerves and had twice tried to turn back to the castle to throw up. "Bloody hell. What if this doesn't work out? What if I annoy her? What if she hates me? What if we can't be friends anymore after this and she never speaks to me again?" James asked frantically as Sirius pushed him along, Peter peering eagerly into his coin purse as he ran alongside them, Remus slow but steady, taking up the rear...

"Then it'll be just like every other day with Evans," said Sirius. "She used to not speak to you as a norm. Remember those days?"

"No."