35: Second Coming of The Marauders

[3rd Pov]

A loud bang echoed through the stadium, as a jet of blue light left Lysandra's wand.

Malfoy looked at the burned patch of grass in the middle of his legs. His face turned aghast and his knees trembled, a drop of sweat sliding along his face.

Lacking any courage to move, with his wand still pressed against his neck, Draco stood immobile, watching as the raven-haired girl approached him, her wand's tip glowing.

Lysandra forced her wand against the boy's cheek, making him whimper in fear.

The Slytherin students near Draco were all frozen in place, not moving a muscle, afraid that the Gryffindor girl might do something.

"Next time I hear you calling anyone that name," she threatened, her wand trailing downwards, "My wand might just... slip,"

She stopped her wand, hovering over Draco's crotch, as its tip glowed with a dangerous light.

The boy's face turned even paler and he started sobbing, his body trembling more fiercely than before.

Staring at Draco, a smile bloomed on Lysandra's face when she saw his glassy eyes.

"I think we have an understanding," she added. Lysandra's smile, in Draco's eyes, conveyed anything but friendliness.

Still whimpering, he hurriedly nodded his head, causing Lysandra to smile further, and holster her wand.

Without a single word, she turned around to leave, followed by her friends. Harry and Hermione carried Ron, who had been vomiting slugs for a while.

Draco's trembling eventually stopped. He reached out to his chest, trying to even his breaths, before snapping his neck in the direction of some of the Slytherin students.

"W-What a-are you looking at!?" he hissed in his shaky voice.

Lysandra's group passed by Alaric, the boy receiving a few friendly nods.

He only raised his hand high with an open palm, watching as his sister giggled and jumped to high-five him.

__________

As Harry and Hermione helped Ron out of the stadium and across the grounds towards the edge of the forest, Lysandra and Hope tailed them from behind.

"Malfoy's face was priceless," Hope chuckled, avoiding stepping on some slugs Ron had littered on the way.

Humming in response, Lysandra took a few moments to take in the scenery of the forest canopy.

"Thankfully, I reacted faster. It could've ended a lot worse," she mumbled to herself. If she hadn't done something, Alaric would've, and it wouldn't be pretty.

"How so?" she asked, hearing her friend's ramblings.

Looking at Hope from the corner of her eyes, Lysandra sighed. "Let's just say Madam Pomfrey would be busy,"

They were within twenty feet of Hagrid's house when the front door opened, but it wasn't Hagrid who emerged. Gilderoy Lockhart, wearing robes of the palest beige, came striding out.

"Quick, behind here!" Hope whispered, pulling Lysandra with her. Harry dragged Ron with him, and Hermione followed, somewhat reluctantly.

They waited until Lockhart was out of sight, then pulled Ron out of the bush and up to Hagrid's front door, and knocked urgently.

Hagrid appeared at once, looking very grumpy, but his expression brightened when he saw who it was.

"Bin wonderin' when you'd come ter see me — come in, come in — thought you mighta bin Professor Lockhart back again,"

Hagrid didn't seem perturbed by Ron's slug problem, which Harry hastily explained as he lowered Ron into a chair.

"Mudblood!? He didn'!" Hagrid growled, sitting up from his chair. After hearing about the earlier events from the kids, the half-giant looked outraged, wanting to have a little 'talk' with Draco.

"He did," Hermione said, cowering a little in her chair.

"It's a disgusting thing to call someone," said Ron, wiping his sweaty brow with a shaking hand. "Dirty blood. Common blood. It's ridiculous. Most wizards these days are half-blood anyway,"

"And if it wasn't for Lys, he probably wouldn't stop," Hope added. "Ron tried to help as well, but... that happened,"

Hagrid's chair creaked as he sat on it again. He emptied the slugs from the bucket near Ron's feet, before placing it near the boy again.

"Well, I don' blame yeh fer tryin' ter curse him, Ron," said Hagrid loudly over the thuds of more slugs hitting the bucket, before turning to look at Lysandra. "I reckon, Lys, that Lucius Malfoy is gonna come stormin' into the school, mark my words. After what yeh did, he won't be ter happy, I can tell ya that. Or maybe Draco will be just too embarrassed to even open his mouth,"

"He can come," Lysandra shrugged. The image of her mother came to her mind, making her grin. "Two can play that game,"

__________

The moon shined upon the castle, the more polished bricks reflecting the light.

Utter silence encompassed the corridors, with the occasional brief sound from outside.

Near the professors' quarters, if someone were to look closer at the floor, they would see the light flickering from time to time as if something was walking.

"Anyone upfront?" whispered Alaric to the other two students under the same disillusionment charm.

Alaric had his wand slightly raised, constantly casting several camouflage charms that encompassed all senses.

"No — every professor not in their quarters is far away — but I reckon we don't have much time,"

Fred, who had the Marauder's Map opened, slowly walked in front of his brother and Alaric, walking past some doors with different names on them.

Soon, they arrived at an overly bright door, magenta in color, with over-the-top golden details. On a fashionable gold plate, the name 'Gilderoy Lockhart' was written in red letters.

George approached the door and placed a weird binocular contraption against it.

"No protective charms inside the room whatsoever," he snickered, before using an Alohamora in the door.

When it opened, Alaric made sure there truly was no enchantment on the room, in case the artifact he made failed to detect some.

"Harry just entered Lockhart's office — probably the detention because of our dad's car," Fred noted.

"Then we have more time than we thought," Alaric remarked.

While Fred stood close by the door, with the map opened, as the lookout, Alaric and George got to work.

They rummaged through the entirety of the room. Forcefully opening the man's wardrobe, Alaric swished his wand, and every single piece of clothing Lockhart had turned into a jumble of different colors that didn't go together.

He also took a small vial from his robe, which contained a green liquid. Opening it, he threw the concoction all over the clothes.

"What do you think is Lockhart's most hated smell?" he asked George, who was placing some weird locking objects underneath the man's bed.

"What does being irrelevant smell like?"

With his hand on his chin, Alaric pointed his wand to the soaked clothes. After pondering for a while, he waved his wand, making the clothes smell like the man himself.

He shut the wardrobe close, gagging after some of the smell graced his nose.

Some of the portraits of Lockhart started to wail. Alaric stopped near them, before grinning.

"I know exactly what to do with you lot," he chortled.

A few minutes later, every single portrait was empty, devoid of any Lockhart figure. Instead, about twenty Lockharts were tucked in an extremely small portrait in Alaric hands, without being able to get out.

"Fred — catch,"

Throwing the portrait for Fred to take, the boy then moved on to his next target. Lockhart's desk.

Thanks to the brief fanatism Lysandra had of Lockhart, Alaric was able to find out about one of the few things the man treasured as much as his fame.

One of them being the ash wood desk near the bed.

Normally, this type of furniture would be in the professor's office, but Lockhart, afraid that the table could be spoiled, decided it would be best to keep it in his quarters.

"Blimey Alaric, you're going to make the man cry," George laughed.

"It's not like I'm going to tear it down," said Alaric. "I'm just doing some... aesthetic changes,"

The light-colored, smooth-grained ash wood that the desk was made of, slowly turned into a color that could only be described as baby puke green.

However, it didn't stop only on the table. The color started to spread along the room, turning the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the furniture, and even the windows into a green mess.

Fred, who hadn't taken his eyes off the map, gazed around the room with his eyes wide open.

"Merlin's balls — the chap's going to have a heart attack,"

Grinning triumphantly, Alaric took out a jar from his pouch, placing it on top of the table.

"Aren't those... Language Lozengues?" George asked, eyeing the jar filled with whitish candies. "Those are pretty expensive on the Emporium,"

"I bought some," Alaric lied as easily as he breathed. "Tweaked with them a little to give Lockhart a surprise — hope he likes the taste of goblin snot,"

Snickering, the three boys sneakily left Lockart's quarters, not before Alaric placed some attraction jinxes on the candies.

"Right on time — Harry just left Lockhart's office," noted Fred, looking at the map.

"Come… come hisss… hisss rip you... Let hisss you... kill you…"

Alaric flinched a little, before looking around the empty corridor.

"Something wrong?" George asked, seeing Alaric all jumpy.

"No... I thought I heard something,"

'That was too clear to be a side effect of the visions," Alaric thought.

He was straining his ears to hear the voice again, but there was no sound now except for his and the twins' boots clicking against the cold stone floor. Feeling dazed, Alaric thought that he had to look into it in the morning.

Fred glanced at the map again, seeing Lockhart enter his room. Smirking, he was about to tell the other two about it, but Lockhart was faster than him at announcing it.

"MY — MY DESK! NOOOOOOOoooo"

Lockhart's wail got quieter and quieter the farther they ran, but that didn't stop the three from breaking into laughter.

"Oh boy," George tried to clean some of the falling laughter tears from his eyes. "I can't wait until tomorrow,"

"I just hope the professors understand Gobbledegook," Alaric chuckled, doing the same as Fred.

Eventually, they had to go their separate ways. While Fred and George went towards the fat lady portrait, Alaric went down to the dungeons.

It was so late that the Slytherin common room was practically empty, with the occasional student lazing around on the couches.

Alaric went up straight to his dormitory, finding Blaise and Theo playing wizard's chess.

"How did it go?" asked Theodore. Alaric threw himself to the bed, laying with his head against the poster.

"You'll see tomorrow," he grinned, earning an eye roll from his two friends.

"Honestly — it has been only a month since the term started and Lockhart already looks hagard," Blaise chuckled. "The poor man's going to retire before Christmas at this rate,"

Alaric laughed at that. While it would be something he would like to see, he couldn't constantly harass Lockhart, or else his suffering would be too short.

There was also the fact that he had a lot to do. The extra work the boy had to complete in order to maintain his workshop wasn't anything out of this world but did take some of his time.

And now... the voice started to get louder and clearer.

'I have to talk to Albus' he thought, his gaze lost in the bed canopy. 'He might know something. And I should also show him the pendant. I'm getting nowhere with my investigation'

Eventually, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, towards another day.

**********

A/N: Enough Lockhart trolling for a while. The next chapter will be plot heavy.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!