I kept my eyes peeled all around me as the group moved along together, flanked by the two heads of houses, as well as a few of the house prefects.
The Gryffindor, and Hufflepuff houses, the first years only at that, had been designated the first honor of traveling to Hogsmeade, with the coming Christmas break, it seemed the headmaster thought it prudent that everyone had the chance to at the very least visit the town once before most of us left for the holiday. Though I just figured it was some subtle attempt at convincing some of the muggle-borns to take a magical gift of sorts to their families- If only to further introduce them to the magical world as a whole.
Despite being part of the group, all the other students, barring James, Remus, and surprisingly enough Lily, tried to clearly keep their distance from me.
While James chattered, excitedly at that, with the only other two first years willing to put up with my presence- Mostly telling them about the various shops he'd already been to, I couldn't help but focus my eyes around us. Alert as I could be.
I was fairly certain Hogsmeade, in the original timeline, was limited to third years and above- Which meant I'd either changed something, or something went down during the first war that convinced the headmaster to limit it to the older years.
"You're favorite shop is the one made for annoying people?" Lily sniffed. "Why am I not surprised."
"Oi Serius, you haven't said anything since we first left," James remarked, ignoring the girl to her annoyance as she promptly huffed and walked on further ahead.
Turning to look at the boy, I shrugged. "Maybe I am just as taken with the town like everyone else."
James Potter blinked at the words, his brow creasing for a moment. "You've never been here before?"
"I never said that." I idly answered as I turned towards McGonogall's position, a few spaces behind us, watching the woman's expression for a moment before sighing at the lack of information it gave me. She didn't look particularly fussed or out of place- suggesting this was a normal occurrence, which frankly didn't help my own worries at all.
"Are you still thinking about what happened with Dumbledore?" James questioned in response, before his attention was promptly taken up as we passed by a shop he'd been interested in visiting, the boy immediately dropping the conversation as he walked back towards the Transfiguration master to ask for permission to visit it.
It wasn't long before the boy came back, excited, towards the two of us before he practically demanded we went with him, one of the sixth-year prefects, annoyed and on his heel.
...
Unsurprisingly, it was a prank shop- One whose name I didn't particularly pay any attention to as I watched James, and a rather intrigued Remus immediately start scouring through the merchandise.
"Not your cup of tea?" The prefect at the entrance beside me questioned, bored, causing me to face him for a moment.
"Not exactly. I think pranking should come from ordinary, daily, things as opposed to toys made for them in mind. Keeps the surprise well hidden."
The prefect blinked at me, bemused before he shook his head.
"Say, how often do Hogsmeade trips happen? For my year in particular?"
The prefect shrugged in response, earning a twitch out of me as I watched him idly open up a book he'd kept shrunk and hidden in his pockets.
"Does it happen every year?" I followed on regardless, earning a bored nod out of the guy.
Humming along to the information I idly started browsing through myself, though in the end never finding anything of particular note-
James meanwhile had elected to spend a few galleons on an invisible whoopie cushion that let out actual farts. Which was just ridiculous.
...
Most of the trip had wound up following a pattern of sorts- James would go about asking to visit anything remotely resembling a prank shop, with an increasingly worried Remus, and a bored me, on his heels.
At some point, the prefect we'd been stuck with had elected to trade positions with a witch in his year.
The girl was a lot more involved as she subtly, and tactfully tried to make James avoid the more embarrassing prank toys, to little avail.
At some point, even Remus had taken a shine to visit a shop of his own interest- A magical pet one at that. And besides a magical chicken of sorts that temporarily drew my attention, I'd wound up leaving it as uncaring as I'd entered.
"Nothing catch your eye again?" Whom I'd learned was called Alice- something,questioned, the witch blinking promptly before shaking her head.
"Not particularly,"
James snorted beside me, both of his hands filled with bags as he waited for Remus to finish repacking his own spoils- A lot of books. "Maybe if we went to one of those cursed bookstores, he might pick something up."
Eh, he wasn't exactly wrong.
"..." Alice shook her head again, an amused expression on her face. "Well, sorry to say, but I think you'll be going back empty-handed."
I idly hummed to the words as an apologetic Remus finally reached our side, Alice herself rolling her eyes at the words before she started leading us back to the group-
A sense of foreboding immediately started building up the moment I watched the witch aimlessly use her wand to try and search out for the others, a point-me spell repeatedly used, to no avail, as a frown marred her face briefly. James either not noticing or caring as his own gaze set on to look around for more shops, while Remus started fidgeting on his own two feet.
"Damn it..." Alice muttered briefly under her breath before a sheepish look took over her face as she turned a look towards me, having caught her words. "Sorry, this shouldn't take too long-" She remarked idly shaking her wand as if it were a remote-
I wasn't particularly sure what the first sign was that something was coming as I immediately rushed towards the girl, earning a slightly wide-eyed response as my hands pushed against her stomach, starling and surprising her enough to push her back as she for a moment looked to fall on her ass before she caught herself, the witch's expression creasing into an annoyed one as she made to speak out before a beam of eerily green light rocketed past the position her head had been in.
My eyes immediately swiveled around to the direction it had come from even as the now panicked witch immediately put herself before the three of us, her wand raised at the ready.
"What's-" Was as far as Remus got out, before I promptly rocketed towards the boy, crashing into and dropping him to the floor as another green beam rocketed to his previous position. The prefect, wide-eyed, turned a look towards us as she echoed off a few spells, a swear word coming out of her as her gaze rapidly switched between the two directions.
"They're invisible-" She remarked panicked as her wands started waving around in another incantation.
Getting up, I immediately moved towards a just as panicking James- The boy had dropped both of his bags as he reached for his wand, only for me to grasp it out of his hands, though he showed no annoyance, barring a creased expression as he turned his attention and pulled Remus to his feet-
"We need to run back-" Remus called out, just in time for a third green beam to rocket out from behind us, this one aimed for Alice again. The sixth year, thankfully, floating a nearby object in front of her to block it, the object immediately setting on fire in a small explosion on contact.
"Shit, shit, shit," Alice remarked, her gaze rapidly turning between the three directions as she made to keep us all behind her-
For a brief moment, no other spell seemed to come, yet the moment Alice started trying to cast another spell, one shot out from the first direction, this time from a closer position, forcing her to stop her casting and settle for a non-verbal protego to block. The shield charm immediately shattering.
"They're circling us," I remarked calmly.
It was just the three of us, no one else around, even the shopkeeper we'd just left had immediately barred his door the moment the first, what I was now surewas the killing curse had been fired.
It was a moment after, that a single red-flare of sorts fired up into the sky from the distance, bringing a hint of a relieved look on the prefects face as she slowly tried nudging us in the direction- Yet the moment the others took a noticeable step towards it, three spells, from all three directions rapidly came as I watched Alice set off a verbal protego in an attempt to block all three red-streaks, the shield charm breaking on the second before the sixteen-year-old ducked the third haphazardly- just in time for a fourth spell to come out from the final direction, a Killing curse judging by the green hue-
Without missing a beat, I wandlessly levitated one of James' bag's into the way, briefly covering my eyes, as a variety of magical effects activated the moment the bag suddenly exploded- One of which was the intended blinding prank of sorts as a bright flash echoed out in every direction.
The boy hadn't quite shut up about it, thankfully.
Seeing it as my chance, I promptly ran towards the nearest, fourth member, crashing into the invisible fucker with a thud as I leveled a stunner at point-blank, and watched as the invisibility spell disappeared, an audible grunt coming out. Revealing someone in a dark cloak and mask.
"Black!?" Alice's voice filtered through, the witch haphazardly trying to blink her eyes open. "Get back-" She made to start before she had to twist around to block the sudden stunner.
Calmly, I leveled the tip of the wand on the wizard before me.
"Make 'em show themselves," I stated, earning a look of derision from the mask's eyeholes.
I narrowed my eyes.
"Do it. Before I take your mask off." I repeated, placing my free hand on top of the mask, watching as the look of derision changed in favor of panic. A few spectators finally peeking their heads through the windowed buildings around us.
When the wizard struggled to make a sound, a few letters coming out, I stiffened the moment I saw another green beam of light shoot out from one of the directions- Pushing the stunned fucker out of the way, and angling my head, I let the green beam sail harmlessly into a nearby wall.
Prisoners, after all, we're a lot more useful than corpses.
Alice, thankfully, took that as her cue as she fired off a stunner in the direction- Hitting someone as another figure revealed themselves without a choice.
Turning to the last two adjacent directions, I immediately echoed out-
"Incarcerous!" A large number of ropes rapidly set off in the two directions, briefly bending around two directions, before one of them slipped through and disappeared with an audible crack, hints of blood splattering onto the ground beneath it, while the other, still invisible, form struggled as all of the ropes promptly converged onto him.
"Really takes skill to lose to a group of children." I deadpanned, throwing another stunner on his form for good measure, the invisible figure finally coming into view as the ropes tightened further.
Off to the far end of the street we were on, I felt relieved at the sight of Professor McGonagall, and some of the prefects running towards us- Before finally noticing the visible crack on James' wand.
On noticing said teacher, Alice visibly relaxed as she let out a sigh of relief before she sent me a very angry, and worried, look. "Black, get away from him this instant!"
I, naturally, put up the peace sign towards her and grinned, ignoring said order, before turning back to the clearly dismayed wizard before me, and leaned in the slightest.
"You're lucky there are witnesses," I whispered, looking him in the eyeholes before I promptly ripped the mask off his face.