A New Beginning (James Potter/Marauders Era)

Minnie, Help?

Chapter 14

Raven

Splitting up with Liam was not something I would normally do, but today, I felt it was necessary. I have a furious, ink-covered, skin dyed, corn-rowed and perm infested James and Sirius after me. I was taking several turns to throw them off my path, unfortunately, they know Hogwarts much better than I do. 

Taking a quick look back, against my better judgement, notified me that these boys are quick, too quick. James was within finger-lengths and Sirius was about a second away of trying to vault off the wall and jump in front of me. Squeaking in fear, I gave myself a hopeful boost of speed praying that it would be enough to get away from the beyond furious Marauders following me. I heard a faint scream from somewhere in the castle and knew my brother was done for...I love you Claws, I'll remember you, I swear. Oh who am I kidding, I'm about a minute away from being thrown into the lake again. All of a sudden a grasp on my robes has me thrown back into a wet and slippery Sirius Black...shit, how did he manage to grab me?

"LET ME GO BLACK!" I struggled, trying as hard as I could to get out of his grip. 

"Not so funny now, is it Ray?" James taunted as they started walking towards the Entrance Hall. Soon I was able to see my brother in a similar position to me as Remus was holding him in place, ensuring that he doesn't runoff. 

"NO RAVEN, YOU BASTARDS!" I swear, we're too dramatic, even for our own good sometimes. 

"What on Earth is going on here?" A stern voice comes from behind us. Sirius tenses as he turns around, me still in his grip. "Mr Lupin, I hope you and your friends have a reasonable explanation as to why you are dripping ink all over the Entrance Hall floor."

"MINNIE!" James exclaimed in surprise. "What a lovely day to be in your presence." She merely glared at him, although I'm pretty sure her pressed lips twitched slightly at the sight of the Marauders. She sighed in exasperation, motioning for us to follow her. Sirius and Remus let go of Liam and I but all of the boys kept a close eye on us. 

As we walked, I noticed that Marauders were slipping as they stepped, giggling slightly, I continued walking, not seeing the glare that James and Sirius shot me. I also noticed that the few people lingering in the hallways just before curfew were whispering to their neighbours as they saw the four antagonists of Hogwarts covered in ink and dye, this only made me smirk. 

Eventually, we stepped into a quaint office and McGonagall sat down on the chair behind the desk. "Now, who is going to explain the trail of ink puddles leading to my office?" Liam and I looked at each other with suppressed smiles. "Mr Shadow, care to explain?" Liam gulped and nodded timidly.

"Professor, it was just a harmless prank, we didn't intend to hurt any of the other boys. WE just wanted to..."

"Yes"

"We just wanted to get back at them," I continued. She raised an eyebrow, urging me to continue. "You see, Professor, our cousin always sends us correspondence letters informing us that the Marauders are always causing trouble to her and her friends with their pranks. We believed that they should get a taste of their own medicine." 

"Hmm...have a biscuit Shadows" The Marauders jolted. I was just confused and by the looks of it, so was Liam, but we decided that it would be better to just follow instructions at that point and grabbed one. 

"But Minnie, they destroyed the dorm room," Sirius argued, earning him a stern glare from the Professor. 

"Mr and Miss Shadow know what they did was wrong, and they will be punished accordingly, however, it is nothing that you four haven't done to other students throughout your years here at Hogwarts," she started, "The six of you will be serving detention with me on Sunday morning, and Monday and Tuesday after classes." James and Sirius almost had the idiotic idea to argue, however, another stern glare from McGonagall shut them up. "Now off to bed, and you will see to it that the dorm is cleaned by morning." We nodded and shuffled out the office, bidding 'goodnight' to her as we did. 

As soon as we were out of hearing range, the boys turned to us, "'HAVE A BISCUIT', she says, 'THE SIX OF YOU WILL SERVE DETENTION', she says!" Sirius exclaims. 

"I wanted a biscuit," James muttered in sadness as he turned and started walking to the dorm, "I deserved one, I didn't do anything wrong for once." I caught up with him and held up my uneaten biscuit. He just looked at it in misery, "No need to gloat, Ray, I know you got a biscuit" I rolled my eyes and asked him if he wanted it. His eyes lit up and showed me his ink-covered hands, opening his mouth. I placed the biscuit half in his mouth and he bit into it. 

"Seriously? My sister, dude?" Turning around, I saw Liam glaring at James coming over to stand in between us. James just shrugged nonchalantly and struggled to eat the biscuit I gave him. We walked through the portrait hole and in the common room was a red-faced Lily Evans. Liam and I started backing out of the hole but Remus and Sirius, who were standing behind us blocked it so we could feel the total wrath of our cousin. 

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? YOU IDIOTS, WHAT MADE YOU THINK THAT ACTING OUT YOUR STUPID IDEAS WILL CAUSE ANY GOOD TO THE WELLBEING OF THOSE AROUND YOU?" Evidently our hair started to turn white in fear, "AND YOU," she said turning on the Marauders, making them pale significantly, "YOU SHOULD NOT BE ENCOURAGING THEM IN THEIR IDIOCY! Oh, who am I kidding? If you weren't the victims, you would be gladdly lending a hand to their schemes." She muttered, throwing her hands up in exasperation, and then deciding to turn on Liam and I again, "YOU WILL CLEAN UP EVERY LITTLE BIT OF MESS YOU CAUSED AND APOLOGISE TO MR FILCH FOR CAUSING HIM MORE TROUBLE THAN HE NEEDS! AND IF I FIND THAT ON SPECK OF INK IS LEFT IN THAT DORMROOM, I WILL MAKE YOU LICK IT CLEAN, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" We nodded in terror. She's been angry at us before but never like this. "GOOD, NOW GO" she pointed up the stairs to the boys' dorm and we all trudged up in shame after Lily's lecture. "One more thing, sweet cousins of mine," Uh Oh, "I'll be writing to Aunt Leanne and my mother in the morning. They will both see that you are punished. You both promised to keep a low profile after you got expelled." Like that was gonna happen.  

And so The Marauders, my brother and I made our way up the stairs to clean the mess that was leftover from our prank. 

"Raven, what are these little wrapper things?" 

"Water balloons Peter, water balloons." 

"Think we could use them in 'Devil's Justice'?"

"You're brilliant, Wormtail!" 

Word Count: 1206