"Remus?" Sirius barked, "Are you in there?" Peter Pettigrew curled on the forest floor, more cautious than each of his friends, for life as a rat was rather risky, especially in the forest. But then again, life was risky everywhere. There were those slimy Slytherins and the news of the rise of the Dark Lord . . . Peter shivered slightly, glancing around him, cautiously.
The dry fall leaves crinkled as James walked further into the woods, "Come on out Remus, it�s safe. We have something extremely important and fun to do tonight! It�s just us, no one else is out here!"
An echoing of snapping branches and crackling dry grasses indicated the return of their friend. James stretched his neck a little to see through the trees and the tall grasses, and nodded his head slightly to acknowledge the tall, rather pale, but smiling wizard who emerged from the forest, with Sirius barking happily in front of him. Peter thought it was rather stupid to remain as a rat when he could be human and quickly changed back into his human form, which appeared to be a little ratty to most.
Surprised, Reums� hand automatically dove into his robes and withdrew his wand, but he sighed when he saw Peter emerge from the form of the small rat. He ran his hand through his matted chocolate colored hair and glared at his friend, his breathing still faster than normal, his heart racing in panic. Peter glanced down at his feet, "Sorry, Remus, should have told you before I did that . . ."
"It�s nothing," Remus lowered his wand and shook his head with a smile, "Just spending a night in the forest is enough to make you wary of everything. So, James, you had to run last night? What happened?"
In a flash of yellow light, James quickly transformed back to human and frowned, "Malfoy was out here for some reason, and pulled his wand on me and challenged me to a duel. You know I couldn�t very well decline. I would have probably be the victor, but Dippit showed up and we both were warned that if there was anything went on between Gryffindor and Slytherin again, someone would be expelled."
"Not too much trouble, I hope." Remus smiled sympathetically, "How many house points this time? Last transformation it was sixty, I do believe. But that was not only for sneaking out of the school, but for luring that Slytherin, Severus Snape, into the home of that savage hippogriff. How were we supposed to know that the hippogriff was home?"
"Twenty," James sighed, "I had to make up that Dumbledore showed me how to transfigure myself into a deer or whatever, and come and help you with your little lunar phases. Of course, I had to tip him off this morning, explained the whole thing. He said that he would back me up, so now I actually have an excuse to be out of the school."
Sirius looked ready to tell James that there was absolutely no reason why he should have been out of the school in the first place, when Peter twitched his nose in a very rat-like way. As if sniffing the air for approaching danger, he glanced around cautiously, "I think that we�d better go now. It�s safer to talk up at the castle."
The four friends made their way back up to Hogwarts castle, taking their time, for they were allowed to be out of the school in daylight. James inhaled a deep breath of pre-twilight air and smiled, "It�s party time!"
Remus glanced at Sirius who looked rather shocked, and seemed to dread the party, "Um, Sirius, the Halloween party isn�t that bad, now is it?"
Sirius sighed, "No, we should go to the Great Hall . . ." Angrily, James interrupted, "Hey, Sirius, I don�t think so. Remember? Slytherin took an entire twenty points off us, so we have to have our revenge! I mean, an entire twenty points! What do you two think? Remus? Peter?"
They both stared at James, who interpreted their questioning looks as positive answers, "Yes! Those Slytherins will regret what they did to us! I was thinking of a nasty engorgement charm, or maybe a wart-growing potion in the punch, but that�s rather old, any new suggestions?"
Sirius stared at James, "I really don�t think this is a good idea . . . I�ve had a rather shaking dream. It was about Lily . . ."
His friend sighed, "Exactly! You need to come, have some fun, and ruin Halloween for the Slytherins. You need to keep your mind off Lily, and besides, a better opportunity shall not arise again! The Slytherins will probably think that some of their own would have done the damage we�re going to do . . . because non-Slytherins would not be able to get into Slytherin Tower . . ."
"Good point," Remus frowned, "How will we get into Slytherin Tower?"
As if it was completely obvious, James frowned and gave his friends a strange look, "Have you forgotten about the Marauder�s Map? Written painstakingly by Prongs, Padfoot, Wormtail and Moony for the use of mischievous Hogwarts students?!"
Under their pen names, James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus had composed perhaps what many thought to be a wonderful tool for trouble makers, but it seemed as though the map got the users in to fair amounts of trouble, as well. Sirius shivered, this magical map, showed the outlay of Hogwarts Castle, complete with the location of all who moved within. More than once, the creation of this map and the discovery of secret passages within the castle had somehow launched them into extremely difficult situations with various professors, and of course, the headmaster. They couldn�t afford to loose more points for Gryffindor . . . at the rate they were going, they would never end up with the most house points at the end of the year . . .
"Unfortunately," Sirius sighed, "I do believe I have not, although I would prefer to. Even after the many nights we spent making that map, we have seemingly lost Gryffindor over two hundred points since the start of the school year! Maybe we shouldn�t use it . . ."
However, his friend appeared to be unamused, "So, Sirius, any ideas on how to get in without the map? I mean, there�s obviously one other alternative . . . we can�t." James frowned, "So, Sirius, any other plans on your part?"
"How about," Sirius whispered, rather timidly, "We don�t go?" His friends gave him a rather poisoned look, so he shrugged and smiled sheepishly, "What about Dippit? So, we�re going?"
"Obviously," James sighed, with a weak smile, "Any thoughts on what we�re going to do?"
"What about a Morbilarbus potion?" Peter glanced down at his watch, but not before he caught Sirius�s wary look, "So it�s one last hour of happiness for those Slytherins, ey?"
"If Dippit catches any wind of what we are going to do," Sirius sneered, "It�s going to be our last hour at Hogwarts . . ."
Across the grass-swept grounds of Hogwarts, a rather harsh late-October wind shook remaining leaves from the trees of the Forbidden Forest and sent them twirling around the silver stag. Adhara paused for a moment, staring at the deer. It seemed rather odd that a deer would let itself be seen in the day, especially a creature of the forest. Not to mention that it was silver and that it appeared to be talking with the black dog by its side.
But she shrugged and continued on her way across the grounds, perhaps silver deer weren�t that unusual, after all. She had seen stranger things in this magical realm, creatures far different from the Muggle domain, her home world.
Throughout her years at Hogwarts, Adhara finally understood the fine line separating the two worlds, one full of magic, and the other, a complete absence and doubt of anything not proven by science. The magical folk referred to those who believed in science (and were completely oblivious of the magic around them) as Muggles, and although Godric Gryffindor always supported Muggles going through Hogwarts to receive a good magical education, an issue which Salazar Slytherin violently opposed to.
However, Adhara always thought it was rather strange that Professor Slytherin did not oppose to her magic studies at Hogwarts, despite the fact that she was Muggle-born. However, most of her friends were in this world, and Hogwarts meant much more to her than anything in the Muggle world, was this right, or was she abandoning her past?
Miti paused on the path ahead of her and meowed loudly, snapping Adhara off her train of thought and dropping her back into reality. She glanced back over the forest to find the deer, but aside from the dog, it was accompanied by a Hogwarts wizard, whom she thought was a Gryffindor. What was he doing with the deer? But he was a Gryffindor, and they were always doing things Slytherins wouldn�t dream of doing. They claimed they were all for bravery, but were they? And what was so brave about talking to a silver deer? She frowned, but turned and followed Miti out of the field and into another part of Hogwarts castle.
Although the hospital wing of Hogwarts school was brightly lit, Adhara had to pause in the doorway for a moment to let her eyes adjust to the dimness, as compared to the blazing setting October sun. Pattering softly over the shining white tile floor, Miti approached a pretty young witch sending freshly folded towels into the closet with a wave of her wand. Following her cat, Adhara entered the hospital ward cautiously, afraid of disturbing the still tranquillity of the room. She paused before the flying towels and whispered, "Madam Promfrey?"
"Adhara?" The Hogwarts school matron, who recently graduated from the school herself, turned to face her younger friend, "How are the decorations in the Slytherin Common Room coming along?"
Shrugging, Adhara retold of her meeting with Professor Slytherin the night before, and what he had asked of her. She turned to Madam Promfrey, her eyes full of doubt, "Am I doing the right thing?"
"I would think so," Madam Promfrey finished sending the towels away from the laundry basket, "As you said, I suppose that Professor Slytherin would think best, and besides, if you don�t like this Thuband, you can always just leave. So I think it�s worth a try . . ."
"I suppose . . ." Adhara didn�t sound too sure of herself, but once again, Miti meowed at the door, it was time to go. "Shall I come back tomorrow?"
Madam Promfrey smiled kindly, "Come back any time, my dear, I always have time for your adventures, don�t I?" Adhara returned the smile and left the hospital wing, feeling much better after receiving the trusted approval of Madam Promfrey.
As though sensing they may be late, Miti hurried through the grasses, encouraging Adhara to hurry. How her cat could be so sure of the time, Adhara had no idea, but she did know that almost all magical pets had some type of talent or another. Maybe Miti had the gift of time, Adhara laughed quietly as she walked into the Entrance Hall and walked in the direction of Slytherin Tower.
With a quick touch of her wand to the wall and a small password, she was once again in her house�s common room, with its Halloween decorations, complete with live, flying bats borrowed from the Great Hall, and brilliant orange pumpkins, bewitched with glowing charms.
Running up to her dormitory, Adhara quickly greeted the other Slytherins and grabbed her Transfiguration textbook from the end of her bed and thumbed through it quickly. What was she to become for the night? Professor Dippit did not allow transfiguration in the Great Hall, however, Professor Slytherin had given a free rein to all who cared to test their transfiguration skills on Halloween night. Transfiguring into an animal just did not appeal to Adhara that night, nor did spending an evening with Thuband.
A loud cheer from the Slytherin Commons Room and the small flick of Miti�s tail told Adhara that it was time. Taking a deep breath and clutching her wand, she slowly descended the stairs, heart pounding, breath in her throat.
Across the great room, she spotted her friends Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy, who waved to her through the mass of flying and squeaking bats. Breathing a sigh of relief, Adhara thought that if things didn�t work out with Thuband, she would at least be able to enjoy the party in the company of her friends.
Adhara ran down a few more steps and was about to enter the common room with a last step, but then she couldn�t. For a brief moment, she gasped for air and realized she had run smack into someone. Blushing furiously, and staring down at her feet, Adhara mumbled an apology.
"Oh, I understand. It�s okay." Adhara was relieved that the other forgave her, and glanced up cautiously to see who she had run into.
Instead of human eyes, her eyes locked onto a much larger brown pair, which seemed to have the ability to penetrate to the depths of her soul. She quickly jumped back a step, to force more distance between her and those shocking eyes. A loud gasp escaped from Adhara as she saw what housed those eyes. The stag.