Torn In Two: A Tale of the Marauders-(6) Of Dementors and Dogbites

A/N: So I noticed that more people read the fifth chapter than the fourth...why? Just so you know, I'm raising my eyebrow at you... :P Thanks to everyone who has messaged me so far, one of these days, I'll put all of your names in a dedication. :D



Song of the Installment: Tuthumping - ChumbaWamba


Torn In Two: A Tale of the Marauders
Chapter 6: Of Dementors and Dogbites

Lily followed Gizelle around all day after that night, which Gizelle found, to be quite honest, a fair bit unnerving. Several times she had wanted to drop what she was holding, turn around, give Lily a shaking and ask just what exactly she was doing and if it was a trick by a certain Gretchen Roberts. But, in the end, Gizelle had decided that that was a bit too insensitive, considering what Gretchen had said to Lily the previous day, because really, the whole hallway had heard. So she decided on waiting it out until Lily felt comfortable enough to explain for herself just what she was doing.

And having another femaled present in such a testosterone dominate air was always refreshing. What with Hannah and Gizelle being the only reliable source of estrogen, considering Eva's frequent departure when she wasn't getting her fill of all things Remus-y. And Hannah being quite the tomboy most often than naught, Gizelle was kind of glad that Lily, for whatever reason, had decided to integrate herself withing their little family. However, Gizelle was finding it a tad confusing in just how she was supposed to go about welcoming Lily. Friends neither came easy to Gizelle, nor frequently. Hannah and herself had more or less been pinned together from the first train ride. They understood each other and were able to supportone another, so it was only natural that they became friends. The Marauders had come along after a rather childish prank on the Slutherins, in which Gizelle and Hannah willingly had taken the full amount of blame for. The Marauders considered that sort of self sacrifice to be insurmountalbe to repay, so they had decided on becoming friends and offering their undying gratitude and protection when needed.

But it was different with Lily. To Gizelle, Lily had always been her idea of perfect. Perfect hair, prefect skin, perfect eyes, well...perfect life, really. She had never done anything that would require undying servitude and she didn't really feel that she could relate to Lily on the same level as she did Hannah. So in a way, Gizelle was confused to what she had exactly done to have been granted the honor of having such a wonderful person as Lily introduced to her life. And now that Gizelle had been able to spend meaningful time with Lily, and not the casual "hi" in the corridors, she was beginning to realize that Lily was an actual human being with as many flaws and insecurities that Gizelle had.

"So, Gizelle," Lily popped her head into Gizelle's four poster and climbed on top of the sheets, crossing her legs along one another, "what are we doing today? Feel like hitting the books?"

Gizelle turned around mid motion of putting on her Quidditch kit. "Dear Lily, you're oh so very funny. No, actually, I have Quidditch practice. James scheduled last second, seems he really wants to crush Hufflepuff next week. Though, I doubt we really have to worry. Parker and Tailor are both out with the flu and Biswall has a broken thumb. But that's James for you, I suppose..." she looked off towards the distance and stretched her arms, "But you should come. It will be fun, get an inside scoop of how we run. I'm sure James wouldn't mind..." She grinned cheekily at Lily.

Lily made a face that rendered any remark absolutely unnecessary, but out it came regardless, "I would rather eat a bucket of flobberworms, than spend the afternoon with James, even from an entire Quidditch pitch away. And that's not a joke."

"Aw, come now, James really isn't all that bad; it definitely beats sitting alone in the common room or going to the library and studying."

Lily looked at her as though she was kidding. A moment of silence later and Lily let out a small 'Hmm'

Gizelle rolled her eyes and grabbed Lily by the arm, dragging her down the stairs, out of the portrait hole, and on
towards the Quidditch pitch.


~.:#:.~


Two hours and a thick coating of mud later, Gizelle found herself wearily trudging up the last flight of stairs to the dormitories and the hot shower that awaited her, Lily happily bouncing by her side. Hannah had waited back for the rest of the team, "And the way you dived at the end under Hannah and scored? Gizelle, that was brilliant!" Lily threw her arms up, sighing in exasperation. She had never really seen Quidditch like this before, just the occasional game when she wasn't doing anything else. But having an actual friend on the team and seeing her dominate was brilliant.

Gizelle grinned, despite herself, "I told you you'd like it Lily. So I guess that means you'll be at all the rest of the games? I'm sure James will like that."

"Oh, come off it! I don't care one bit if James will be happy or not that I'm there, I was simply a little too enthusiastic at your practice...just enthusiastic." Lily reassured, more to herself that Gizelle.

"Mmm, I'm sure that's what James is thinking. I mean, I would too, if someone had been screaming my name over and over for a half hour and practically falling out of the stands when I scored." Gizelle had to duck under the banister and jump to the platform of the moving staircase to avoid Lily's hand colliding with her arm.

"It was nothing, I tell you! Nothing!"

"I'm only joking, Lily! Don't worry, we'll get it through James's head...somehow..." Quite honestly, Gizelle was rather frightened at the idea.

She raced towards the common room and up to the dormitories, throwing her kit off and jumping into the shower.


~.:#:.~


It was the morning of January 22 as the group wearily trudged off to their Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

They walked in and to their surprise; the usually warm and welcoming room was now cold and foreboding. Gizelle pulled her robes tighter around her goose bump laden body and shivered, her breath catching chill in the air and flowing out as vapor. Professor Dalkwin welcomed the class and asked them to gather around a closed door. "Today class, as you all know, you will each be trying out your patronous on actual dementors. I trust that you have each been able to successfully produce one?" There were a few murmurs of 'yes' and some 'Oh, Merlin, I completely forgot!'s' The professor completely disregarded the later and continued on, "Excellent! So for this assignment, you will each have a go, one on one with the dementor. Please do not take this fact lightly as dementors have been known to drive people to insanity, hence their name dementor." He gazed down at a piece of parchment in his hand.

"But then why are we using
them?"

"Excuse me Miss Delton?" Professor Dalkwin turned around, locking his misty eyes with a tall, lanky Ravenclaw girl. He cocked his eyebrow up waiting for an answer.

"If they're so dangerous, then why are we using them?"

"Miss Delton, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has many allies. You are aware of this aren't you?"

"Yes,"

"Well, how do we know who to trust when a future death eater could very well be standing here, in this classroom at this very moment?!" The girl stared in shock at Professor Dalkwin. She, nor any of the other students, had ever seen the Professor snap at a single student like that.

"So-sorry Prof-fessor..." She looked away, too embarrassed to say anything more.

"Now, as I was saying," He turned back to his list, "Ah, Mr. Agnile, please step forward." A short, fragile looking Ravenclaw named Benjamin cautiously approached the door. "Remember, Mr. Agnile, Dementors are very dangerous creatures and should not be taken lightly. When I blow my whistle, I want you to arm yourself with your wand, think of something happy, and say the incantation." He blew his whistle and Benjamin slowly raised his wand, his arm slightly shaking.

Swiftly, a dark and hooded figure in a black, tattered robed glided out of the door. With it, the candles extinguished leaving the classroom in complete darkness. It had two scabby and gray hands that reached for Benjamin and its rattling breath could be heard through the silence that was gripping the classroom so tightly. Benjamin stumbled back and tripped over his feet, landing hard on the ground, the white reflecting from his eyes serving as the as the only source of recognition that an actual person was lying there. He opened his mouth to say the incantation, but he could only mutter a few inaudible words. The air around the room had become icy and the dementor slowly made its way to Benjamin, all the time its rattling breath chilling the students to the bone. But before it could reach the helpless student, Professor Dalkwin stepped before it and out of his wand shot a Great White shark. It swam through the air viciously ripping at dementor with its jaws and forcing it back into the shelter of the darkness from whence it came.

Professor Dalkwin helped Benjamin to his feet and straightened his fuzzy gray hair. "A very noble attempt indeed, Mr. Agnile. Five points for Ravenclaw, for your bravery. Shall we continue? Next is...Ah, Mr. Black. Let us see if you are able to fight it off. But before we do, can anyone tell me what it was that just happened?" Lily raised her hand into the air. "Yes, Miss Evans?"

"What we just witnessed was a dementor sucking the light and happiness out of Benjamin," She pointed to the shivering boy next to the professor.

Hannah leaned over to Peter and whispered, in a deep voice, into his ear, "She's soo serious...inishe?" Peter nodded the right corner of his mouth pulling up towards his ear in the ghost of a smirk. Peter had learned the hard way that it is never a good idea to make fun of Lily, least wise if you planned on sitting in the next month.

"A dementor is neither human nor animal, and it feeds off our happiness. That's why when we came into the classroom we felt cold and dreadful of what was to come."

"Smart arse." Hannah again whispered to Peter and he let out a light snigger. Lily flashed him a glare. Peter gulped, he was in for it now.

"Correct Miss Evans, five points for Gryffindor. Now, Mr. Black please step forward." Gizelle had the sudden urge to run up to Sirius and wrap her arms around him, to protect him. She didn't fancy the idea of Sirius standing alone against something that could potentially turn his brain to complete mush. But he stepped forward and walked over to the door and faced it, his face full of determination. Professor Dalkwin blew his whistle, signaling for Sirius to raise his wand, and slowly, he opened the door. The lights were, once again, extinguished and the dementor glided out of the door, looking just as treacherous as before. Sirius took a deep breath, "Expecto Patronum!" he said very loudly and very clearly. A giant dog erupted from his wand and padded over to the dementor. It pounced on top of the hooded figure, its jaws digging into where its head would have been. The dementor struggled to free itself from the grip of the giant dog and it once again fled behind the door.

Sirius steadied himself back onto his feet as a bead of sweat slid gently down the side of his cheek and the classroom erupted in applause.

"Excellent job, Mr. Black, twenty-five points for Gryffindor. Do try not to loose those well earned point, hmm?" Sirius simply shrugged and retreated back to his friends.

"My goodness Sirius! Does everything have to be so goddamn easy for you?" Gizelle mock glared at him.

"Yes! That's right, Zelle, be jealous, be very jealous." he smirked at her-oh how that smirk made her knees go weak-and turned his back to watch the next person. The list went on and on. Lily and Remus were both able to successfully conjure a patronous receiving twenty-five points each toward Gryffindor, while Eva was only able to produce a wisp of silvery fog, earning ten points, until finally, it was Gizelle's turn.

She walked up to the door,
trying to calm her nerves. "Alright, let's see what's behind door number one." Her sarcasm kicking in. The door was opened and Gizelle immediately felt the coldness sweep over her body, the same as it had the previous times, but ten times worse now that the dementor was actually focusing its energy on her. She could feel the world spinning and the face of her older brother burst clearly into her mind. She tried to remove the image and concentrate on the spell, but her whole head was spinning. She felt her knees hit the ground, the world around her flaring up into a cold and dismal room of darkness, she shouted, "Expecto Patronum!" a silver wisp lazily rose out of her wand "Expecto Patronum!" She couldn't hold out anymore. She saw the room spin, her breath caught in the back of her throat and with one last desperate attempt she raised her trembling arm and bellowed, "Expecto Patronum!" The fox charged out of her wand and straight to the dementor, catching it in its long mouth. The dementor seemed to do a double take and fled back through the door, and Professor Dalkwin quickly slammed it shut. There was applause and Gizelle graciously took a bow, stumbling quite far in the process. For once in her life, she had been able to do something as well as Sirius, James, Remus, and Lily. (A/N: Freaking smart group, eh?)

"Excellent job, Miss McLinton, and what a show it was! Twenty-five points!" Gizelle smiled happily and sauntered over to her best friends as the all gave her hugs and relays of her dramatic performance.


~.:#:.~


By the end of the class, everyone was exhausted, despite the rather large amount of chocolate that the Professor had given them, and were all grateful for the free period that they had.

The group had been sitting in the common room for the past twenty minutes laughing and playing the occasional game of wizard's chess. "I'm hungry," Remus finally said, clutched his stomach as an audible grumble escaped from it. "Anyone wanna go down to the kitchens?"

"Sure, I'll go."

"Me too,"

"Wait, for me!" The four marauder boys made to walk out of the common room, but were stopped by four very hungry, and at this moment, very scary looking girls.

"Okay, so that's four flasks of pumpkin juice, two sandwiches, two biscuits, and four of Anjeline's Amazing Ice Creams? Would that be for here or to go?" Remus added sarcastically.

"Go!" All four girls shouted as Hannah pushed Remus out of the portrait hole. They had been not two minutes gone when Gizelle jumped from her seat. "I'll bet they forgot I'm allergic to Anjeline's Amazing Cherry Ice Cream, I'd better go catch them." She grabbed her cloak and headed out the door.

She hummed one of her favourite tunes as she made her way to the kitchens, but as she went she was stopped by a very strange sight; to her right stood a giant black dog. The dog turned its head toward her and, upon seeing the alarmed look on Gizelle's face, began to run away.

Being the animal enthusiast the she was, and knowing what would happen if Filch happened to come across it, Gizelle decided to run after it. She chased it through three corridors and up two flights of stairs, until; at last, the dog neglected to jump the vanishing step and was caught.

Gizelle walked up to it and slowly patted it on the head. "It's okay," she cooed, "I'll get you out," the dog barked stayed remarkably still for her, "Oh, your a cute little..." she checked under his leg, "boy, aren't you?" She ruffled up its hair and freed it. As she turned to walk away she stopped when someone called her name. "Hey Sirius, I was just looking for you."

"Really? Nice dog," He lifted his head toward the canine that was currently sniffing around in his pockets.

"Init?"

"Yeah, where'd it come from?"

"Dunno, I just saw him and followed him up here..."

"Weird. People should really be a little more careful with their pets...right, shall we head off to the kitchens, then, m'lady?" he bent his arm at an angle and cocked a smile.

Gizelle flushed scarlet and bowed her head down to avoid Sirius seeing, but she link her arm with his, none-the-less, "Why yes, Mr. Black, that would be just marvelous." She said as her scarlet flush dimmed to a healthy pink.

A/N: HAHA! Betcha all thought she was gonna find out Sirius was an animagus, huh? Admit it!! :P So as usual rate, message, favourite...be happy! Until next time! :D