The Marauders: Year Seven Part One

The Contract

They all put up their shields and watched as James lifted the hefty mallet up over his head, and brought it down over the locket, slamming it quite fiercely. There was a loud cracking sound and Lily's heart leaped with hope that they'd succeeded, but when James pulled the mallet back it was to reveal the locket had pressed into the stone floor, cracking the stones, but remaining entire itself.

Mystified, Remus lowered his shield charm and stepped closer to inspect it. "Bloody incredible," he murmured.

"I don't reckon that bleeding thing is even natural," Sirius said hotly, and he shoved his wand into the knot of his hair at the back of his head, dropping back into the seat.

James used his wand to levitate the locket out of the cracked stone, and turned it about in the air in the middle of the ring of them, twisting his wrist to turn it over every which way, checking it over for damages, but there didn't appear to be any. "Hell," he said, shaking his head, "I'm starting to think it isn't natural, either."

"I mean, it hisses," Regulus said.

"And it's important to You-Know-Who," Lily added. "It must be really, really dark."

Marlene tilted her head to look at it. "Those markings on it are bloody terrifying. It looks like a snake." She made a face. 

Lily shivered. "Figured Voldemort would have a bloody snake encased in amber." She made a pukey-gagging face.

Regulus muttered, "He's got a pet one, you know. A snake."

"Yeah, bloody nasty thing," muttered James, and he looked down, feeling that anxious racing of his heart again, and shoving the feeling down as far as he could, though a chill went through every nerve of him at the memory of that snake...

Regulus said, "Maybe we could just... hide it."

"That didn't work last time much, did it?" Sirius snapped. 

Regulus's jaw tightened.

James glared at Sirius. Then, "We tried hiding it in an abyss in this passageway that we found out of the Trophy Room," he explained to Regulus, "That's how it ended up in the lake, I guess."

Regulus said, "Couldn't we just... leave it in here? Nobody knows how to get in here. And we could research and try and figure out what it is and try to destroy it."

Sirius muttered, "Yeah and won't it be a shame when it goes missing in the middle of the night and somehow finds it's way back to Voldemort?"

Regulus's face flushed with anger.

James said, "Sirius... please."

Sirius shrugged, "I'm just saying... I'm just saying." He leaned back in his chair so that his arms were out straight before him and his mouth was pursed, "But I'll hold my tongue, I s'pose."

Ali said, "Why don't we take it in turns to guard it? Then everyone knows it's being taken care of, and we're on a schedule and we all know who's got it last and if it goes missing... well, we'll know exactly who it is that's done it."

"We could make a contract," Emmaline said. "One that says we all promise to take care of the locket and if it's lost the person will... suffer."

"Suffer?" Peter trembled, and he reached out a hand to take Wendy's in his. Wendy looked down at their hands, and squeezed his finger tips with her own.

"We all know who it would be with if it goes missing," Sirius muttered.

"We could watch it together," Regulus said, "If you're so bloody suspicious of me, you can baby sit me and the locket both." His eyes held a challenge. Would Sirius despise his brother enough to refuse to sit with him to protect the locket, or would he cede and allow Regulus to be left alone with it?

Sirius's eyes narrowed and he harumphed and rested his chin on the chair again despondently. 

"I like the idea of taking it in turns," James said, shaking his head. "Nobody needs to baby sit anybody else. We'll do that until one of us can either come up with some better solution or a way to destroy it." He looked about at everyone. "Deal?"

They all nodded.

"I'll create a magically binding contract," Emmaline offered.

"I can help," Remus injected.

James nodded, "Go to it. We're signing it before any of us leaves this room." Remus and Emmaline hurried to get some parchment from a row of shelves in the corner.

"I'll take it first," Lily said. "It's my fault we've got it to begin with."

James wanted to remind her that it was actually Snivellus's fault, but he didn't want to think of Severus at the time being. Who knew what Severus had thought James was up to, swimming in the Black Lake? Who knew if Severus Snape actually had an idea already about the locket's whereabouts, how long had he been listening to James's mind? Had James thought about the locket specifically enough for Severus to know? Had he seen the box he'd wrapped it in to give to Lily Evans? 

Lily and James's eyes met.

"Alright," James said lowly.

Lily reached out and took the locket from where it hovered in the air among them, the stone cold and hard and heavy in her fist as she drew it in and dropped it into her jumper pocket safely. She swallowed back her nervousness.

It took them a few moments, and a bit of debate about the grammar involved in their wording, but soon enough Remus and Emmaline had produced the contract and they rolled it out over a low table and gathered around to sign it.

"Anyone who breaks the contract will be cursed," Emmaline said, "In a way that only Remus and I know about. But trust us - it's very awful and very, very noticeable, and you won't get away with any mishandling of the locket. We worded it very carefully so there's way there are any loopholes or anything. Practice deceit with the locket - any kind of deceit - and you'll be very sorry."

"Very," Remus agreed.

The others exchanged nervous glances, and then, one by one, they signed the parchment that Emmaline and Remus had produced. Sirius made sure to be the one that handed Regulus the quill when it was his turn to sign the page, and Regulus took it roughly from his brother's hand, and stared right into his eyes as he signed his name, R. A B.

"Signing with initials? Is that allowed?" Sirius asked, looking at Remus, "Or has he found a loophole already?"

"It doesn't matter what you put down," Remus said, "You could scribble absolute nonsense and it would still be binding." He shrugged, "Don't worry about it, Sirius. I made sure everything was covered, alright?"

"Your boyfriend says it's alright," Regulus said pointedly to Sirius, "You satisfied?"

Sirius nodded, "Yeah. I am. And I can't wait to see what you end up cursed with you little blighter."