The Marauders Year Five Part 2 #Wattys2017

They Met At The Fountain

They Met At The Fountain

Lily ran, Severus Snape just steps behind her, "Wally! Dexter! Liam!" she cried, waving her arms about into every gap in the crowd, trying desperately to find them. "Where are they, Sev? Find them! Find them!" she wailed, terrified by the words Severus Snape had said to her - by the plans the first years had been thinking that he'd seen. She had to find them. She had to stop them. The bleeding little idiots! They were first years! And she felt the wind leaving her, remembering how terrible a fate she and the Marauders would have had if someone had note come and rescued them when they'd tried something stupid like this... "LIAM! DEXTER! WALLY!" she screamed their names and people looked about at her like she was mad as she jostled about through the crowd of Hogwarts students...

Severus grappled through the students, too, listening, listening... trying to see any of the three of their minds but nothing was coming, no clarity, there were too many thoughts being thrown about, too many minds pulsating and moving about in the crowd leading up to the village. And Lily was holding his hand and calling him Sev again and it was very hard to concentrate when she was doing that, very hard indeed, and he squeezed her fingers, trying to comfort her, to tell her that they'd be alright...

After all, how would three first years ever get all the way to Malfoy Manor from Hogsmeade? Walk? It wasn't like they could disapparate! Severus was in no hurry, enjoying the nervous affection he was receiving from his Lily....

Then another voice was coming nearer to them, shouting for Wally, Liam, and Dexter, too, and Lily looked up as Remus Lupin and Oliver Kent broke through the sea of students as well, Remus's face bright with worry. "Lily!" he cried, rushing over, "Lily --" he panted, "The first years... they're... the idiots. Stolen the... the invisibility cloak..."

"James gave it to them," argued Lily.

Snape's face turned red as his eyes met Remus's, and Remus's eyebrows folded in disapproval. "Who told you that, Evans?" Remus asked.

"Wally said they stole it," Ollie spoke up.

Lily looked at Severus.

Remus spoke up quickly, "Well. Regardless of how they got it... They have the cloak and they snuck out of the castle, they're going for a Floo to go to save Harold Minchum."

Severus Snape looked up from his shoes, where he'd been staring, and hissed, "Save Harold Minchum? By using the Floo Network and a fancy little cape? Are they idiots??"

"Apparently," Remus said, nodding.

Lily rubbed her forehead, "We have to stop them..."

"We have to find them first," Remus said, waving his arms about to indicate the crowded surroundings. "Or... or else try and head them off."

"Head them off?"

"There are only so many operational Floos on the network in Hogsmeade," Remus explained. "Part of the security measures following the attacks last Spring was to close the private home networks in the village, and there are designated public Floos. Some are watched more closely than others. Like I doubt they're going to get through the Owl Post's Floo, or the Floo at the Three Broomsticks, which are two of the public networks. That leaves the inn and the Hog's Head."

"Alright, then, we split up and two of us goes to one and two of us goes to the other and -- oh no. OH NO. Remus, what time is it?"

"Twelve-forty," Remus replied without thinking about it. And then his eyes widened, "Your date. James."