~ROAC~ (incomplete)

~FORTY~

Whoever found Snape first would bring him to Professor McGonagall's classroom and everyone else would meet up there. Persephone's role here was now quintessential- if she could keep McGonagall distracted for long enough, the Marauders (and female co.) would be able to congregate and carry out their final measure. Bell was, if Sirius was correct in the time, guarding the door to the Potions storage room while Marlene hunted down the vial of Veritaserum Professor Slughorn had finished just last week. Sirius knew Bell would have preferred to brew it herself (and he admired her for that), but they did not have a spare month's time to do so, nor the proper ingredients at hand. Peter nudged Sirius' arm and pointed underneath the cloak- there.

Snape.

He was walking down the hall at the pace of a bloated Blast-Ended Skrewt, shoulders hunched, hair draped over his eyes and as greasy-looking as ever, and his hands were tucked firmly in the pockets of his robes. Sirius met Peter's gaze, nodded once, and together, they thrust off the cloak and cried, "Petrifius totalus!" as one. Snape hardly had time to look surprised, though the fear that crossed his expression as the body-bind curse took hold brought a good bit of satisfaction to Sirius. That sniveling prat should be afraid of them, even having no clue what was about to happen to him. Peter tossed the invisibility cloak over Snape's prone body and then followed Sirius upstairs, having to take two strides to keep up with Sirius' half-jogging gait.

"Tell James we've got him."

Peter nodded and broke into a sprint. Though he was not nearly the most athletically inclined of the Marauders, nor of any their friends, he could run long distances even when terribly winded if he had a mind to. Sirius, having also performed the levitation charm on Snape, hurried along with his victim drifting through the hall behind him, the Slytherin boy silent as a mouse and invisible as a Demiguise. Glancing out the window at the sun, a wistful memory crossed Sirius' mind, of an October day not unlike this one. It was a few years ago; Bell's sister had recently sent her a Muggle toy called a Frisbee. She had called upon the Marauders, plus Marlene (Lily, at that time, wouldn't even dare to be seen in the company of James), to go outside and toss it around, and though it was cloudy and grey, the smiles on their young faces were enough to keep the day joyful.

Four years had passed since then, and a good deal had changed. Sirius ran his hand through his hair, an instinctive gesture to cool the rising anger in him, and turned the corner down the hall to McGonagall's office.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Persephone was not usually a girl who involved herself in risky plans with friends. Somewhat because she didn't have many before this year, but mostly because she didn't think she had the nerve to carry them out. This time was different: she was doing it for Lily Evans, the girl who had made such a great effort to envelop Persephone into her friend group, who was always taking the motherly role upon herself, whose kindness had touched so many lives even in the mere 17 years she'd been on this earth. Now, someone who Lily had once trusted and called a friend had threatened to take away her precious presence from the world, and Persephone, calling upon a strength she hadn't even known she possessed, would not let that happen.

So now she stood in the doorway of Professor McGonagall's classroom, asking meaningless questions about the previous day's lesson. The Transfiguration teacher was being quite patient with her, to Persephone's relief, most likely because of what had happened to her friend the prior day. Still, though, time was ticking on, and she knew McGonagall would only wait so long before asking that Persephone keep asking her questions on the way to lunch. She had to trust that her friends would get here before that happened, and though she wasn't often fond of relying on other people, today she felt more confident in the strength of her friendships than ever before.