The Marauders: Year Seven Part Two

The Challenge

"Those lying bastards," Remus muttered. "I even asked them and they said no."

"You... asked them?" Lily asked, confused.

Suddenly down the hallway, nearly bowling them over, came Severus Snape - the very last student to return to the DADA classroom corridor - and he was clutching both arms full of the scrolls.

"Blimey," muttered James as he stepped out of Snape's way before being run into.

Sirius craned his neck, "How many's that soggy git got there?"

Remus said, "Dunno, looked like a lot of them."

"Surely not more than twenty-one, though, yeah?" James asked, nervous.

"I doubt anyone got more than twenty-one," Remus said. "Marlene and Emmaline had eighteen and that was the highest number before yours."

James and Lily shared a high-five.

"Where's Urquart?" James asked, "Best way to find out is to get him to count everyone's scrolls." He grinned, "Reckon there's a prize for winning?"

"Yeah, a pin," Sirius replied, "So we can deflate your head to get it through the door of the domitory later."

"Sore loser," James accused.

Suddenly, there was a loud popping sound and they all turned to look in the direction it had come from. A big scroll had appeared on the door of the DADA classroom and the entire class hurried to cluster around it. It was Snape who read it outloud for everyone to hear:

"THE CHALLENGE: Enter the classroom and, using the skills you've learned, defeat a series of five challenges. The challenges are a simulation designed for Auror training by the Ministry of Magic. Each team or individual will be challenged differently. You'll take the challenge in order of who got the most scrolls to the least scrolls. Once you've completed the challenges, you are dismissed. You'll be graded based on the effectiveness of your completion of the challenge, as well as the number of scrolls you collected, and a written test that you will complete at next class. The three elements combined will determine a winner of the scavenger hunt. Good luck, and remember to keep your cool. I know you'll all do very well. - Professor Urquart."

"Sounds like you're up then, Potter," Sirius yelled, looking over at James, "He's got twenty-one!" he added, seeing Marlene Mackinnon about to protest.

Severus Snape said, "Then it's me, seeing as I have all twenty-six."

"What?" Sirius's jaw dropped, "Bullocks, you can't."

"I can and I do." Severus replied.

Remus was impressed. "Wow, good job, mate," he said.

Severus glared at him.

James said, "Yeah, good job Sni-Snape."

Snape didn't even bother to acknowledge James. Instead, he magicked away the scrolls, disappearing them so that none of the others cold read them while he was in the challenge, and shoved his way in without so much as a pause of hesitation.

Lily was staring sourly at the closed DADA door, displeased with Snape for having ignored James and Remus's congratulatory remarks.

James shrugged and turned about, "Wonder how long it'll take. The challenge, I mean."

"I wonder what sort of challenges they are," Marlene mused. Then, "How did you lot find twenty-two? I swear we went through every door in the castle trying the summoning charm all over the place..."

"I reckon Evans is a genius at guessing where Urquart would hide the things. One was in the green houses, too, and Hagrid had a stack..."

They stood about discussing the scrolls and where they'd found them, waiting for Snape to emerge. When he did, only five minutes after he'd gone in, he looked angry and he purposefully shoved past the Marauders, his elbow sinking into James's side as he went violently by, looking like a giant black bat in his school robes.