The Resurrection Stone
Lily was walking along the candlelit corridor in Hogwarts Castle. She was underneath the silky invisibility cloak her father had given her and her two brothers: Albus and James. She could feel James' warm breath down her back.
"James, why do we have to come with you?" Lily could hear Albus' soft voice whisper, "where are we even going anyway?"
"I told you, it's a surprise. Uncle George told me about it but made me promise not to go to it without you two or Rose and Hugo," James whispered back before burying his nose in the Marauders Map, which had also been given to them by their father.
They rounded the corner and came along a narrow corridor Lily had never been through before. James stopped them in front of a large painting of a fruit bowl. James reached out his hand and started tickling the pear. Lily blinked a few times before finally accepting that James Potter was tickling a pear on a painting!
"James what th-" Lily was cut off when the pear giggled and turned into a handle which James reached forward to turn. The picture swung open revealing a large, gleaming kitchen full of small house elves scurrying around carrying plates of Pumpkin Pasties, treacle tarts and all sorts of delights.
As soon as the three children stepped the hole all of the tiny heads with tennis ball sized eyes and large, bat-like ears turned towards them. They all bowed before scurrying up to them with plates and plates clutched in their skinny hands. Straight away James began to stuff his pockets with cream-filled éclairs and gooey tarts.
"Okay, I'm going to get Rose and Hugo now," James said. They had left their cousin underneath the one-eyed witch because there wasn't enough room underneath the invisibility cloak for all five of them. Lily watched James pull the invisibility cloak over his head after quickly stuffing one last éclair in his mouth.
"Greedy git," Lily muttered after she heard his footsteps disappear up the hall and the picture frame swung back against the wall once more. She turned to Albus. He hadn't touched any of the food that the elves were still holding in front of him, there large eyes staring into his.
"What's wrong Al?" Lily asked.
"Isn't this kind of like stealing?" Albus asked biting his lip. Lily sighed; she knew that Albus didn't like taking things unless he was absolutely sure he could. Unlike James, who would just take things (especially food!) at any chance he gets.
"Al, its fine, looks at them," Lily said, gesturing towards the tiny elves standing patiently in front of them, "It's their job to serve humans, and they enjoy it. They want to give us all this food."
Lily handed him a Pumpkin Pastie, which he took, grinning up at his little sister, who always managed to make him feel better, even though she was younger than him. Albus sunk his teeth into the Pastie, still grinning.
"Wow!" they heard the very recognisable voice of Hugo Weasley shout behind them.
Climbing through the hole was Hugo and his older sister Rose closely followed by James, who was tapping the Map with His wand muttering something. Hugo, being very similar to his father, Ron, headed straight for the cakes without a second glance at Lily or Albus. He sunk his teeth in an éclair as cream came oozing out of it, Rose frowned but when an elf came hurrying up to her with a platter of cakes in front of his, she couldn't refuse.
After about an hour of drinking butterbeer and eating cakes Lily suggested they should leave. Rose agreed but the boys were a bit harder to persuade (especially Hugo and James). But eventually they managed to persuade them. Hugo and James quickly stuffed his pockets with as much food and bottles of drink as possible and even carried some in their arms.
"I think we can all go together," said James, "It's too dark for anyone to notice a few feet."
So a few minutes later they were hurrying back along the deserted corridor, James wand light leading the way. They were about to turn a corner which would lead to the corridor of the Fat Lady when there was a loud smash on the floor, a liquid that smelled alot like butterbeer sprayed their ankles.
"Shit," James shouted so loud that the sound echoed across all the corridors.
"James," Lily hissed, but it was too late, footsteps were hurrying towards them. They started to run, but as soon as they did the invisibility cloak left their bodies, making them quite visible.
"Mrs. Norris," muttered Rose.
Lily glanced down, and sure enough Mrs. Norris was standing there, her yellow eyes fixed on the children and the invisibility cloak held between her sharp fangs.
"Well well," came Flitch's husky voice, "If it isn't the master of mischief herself, Lily Potter."
He grabbed Lily's arm and led her towards his office. Lily was fuming; why did he always think it was her, he never blamed any of her brothers unless there was evidence, he blamed her for everything that went on at Hogwarts from the second she stepped into the school. She didn't even know why. He just had a massive grudge against her. She was hurried along the corridor, dragged by the scruff of her shirt. Lily hated Filtch more than she ever had in her life. More than when he accused her of going to the restricted section of the library. Like her father had done. More than when he he made her sort through files of misbehaved students (Uncle George, Fred, Sirius Black, he father and James Potter being in most of them); after he thought she had been brewing a potion that she wasn't supposed to brew. Like her father had done. More than when he thought she was making an army in the room of requirement. Like her father had done. More than when he thought she was sneaking into Hogsmeade through some sort of passage. Like her father had done.
After what seemed like forever, they arrived at Filches small office that smelled of Firewhisky and rotting fish. The minute they got there Fitch shoved her in the office and slammed the door after he and Mrs. Norris stepped in.
"You selfish little devil, how many times do I have to catch you before you're expelled? You're just like you're father, no respect for the school rules and full of cheek," Lily's blood was boiling, but she was determined not to lose her temper, cheek she hadn't even said anything, why was he saying she was full of cheek?
"You only think of yourself, just like he did too, famous Harry Potter, I can strut around the caste but I won't get expelled because everyone loves me and I'm famous. He should've been expelled at least when he crashed into the Whomping willow with his stupid friend Weasley but no, Dumbledore thought he was much too important. So he kept on strutting, and I kept on catching him. He's a disgrace to Hogwarts in my opinion-" Filch shouted and shouted, but at this last sentence Lily's blood had boiled to the limit.
"In case you have forgotten, he is the hero of the Battle of Hogwarts he killed the most evil man on earth! You're just jealous you filthy squib!"
Now it was Filch's turn to be mad, he pounced on Lily and she wasn't ready. She was knocked to the floor, before she could scream though Fitch tied a filthy rag around her mouth that tasted of how she imagined cats urine to taste like. He snatched her wand from out of her pocket.
"I've wanted to use this for years," Fitch said leading her to a small door at the back of the office, he shoved her in and she was enclosed in the dark, she heard a lock click and knew she was done for. She buried her face in her knees and began to weep.
Meanwhile James, Albus, Rose and Hugo were all in the common room waiting for Lily's return. They would've gone after her, but last time they did filch tripped James up on the way and James broke his leg. Hugo's' eyelids were drooping and James could tell he was trying to stop himself from going to sleep. Albus was biting his nails glancing every five or so seconds at the portrait hole. James was staring into the fire wondering why Filch hated Lily so much. Rose had her head buried in Hogwarts, a History but couldn't concentrate on it she had read the same sentence about being unable to apparate or disapparate within Hogwarts grounds.
The hours went on and the four children sat in silence. After four hours, light was starting to come to the sky. Hugo and Albus had fallen asleep but Rose and James, although extremely tired refused to let sleep take over. James was starting to get really worried. Lily had never been at Filches office for this long before. What could he be doing here? James tried to convince himself that Filch had just made her do a job that would take really long, and Lily would be sitting at the Gryffindor table, waiting for them when they went down to breakfast. Students started coming down the stairs and going down to the great hall for breakfast. The noise of them woke Albus and Hugo up, when Fred, Roxanne, Dominique, Louis, Molly and Lucy all came down; they all stopped at the sofa in front of the fire and looked at James, Albus, Rose and Hugo's sad faces.
"What's wrong?" asked Fred looking at the four children, when he realised that the pretty red-head that usually sat next to Rose wasn't there, he knew immediately what was wrong. Everyone in the whole school knew that Filch HATED Lily. However Roxanne and the others still looked puzzled, so James decided to tell them.
"Don't worry," said Roxanne, "he's probably just given her a really grim job that was meant to last all night, she'll be sitting there at breakfast don't worry."
Reluctantly they all followed Roxanne down into the great hall; all with their fingers crossed that Lily would be down there waiting for them. When they got to the hall their eyes searched the Gryffindor table for any signs of Lily, but she wasn't there. Everyone went to sit down, but James walked straight past where they all sat down and walked straight up to McGonagall.
"Where's Lily?" asked James the minute he got up to the teacher table.
He knew that by telling McGonagall that Lily was missing would mean he would have to tell her about what had happened earlier that morning but he wanted Lily back and was ok with having a detention as long as he knew that Lily was ok.
"Excuse me Mr. Potter, I don't quite understand you," McGonagall said looking stern.
James sighed and began to explain what happened "and then he lead her away and we haven't seen her since," James finished glancing at McGonagall.
"Well Mr. Potter, I agree with Mr. Filch," James opened his mouth to start shouting at her "but, I think it was very unfair to give only your sister a detention when it was all five of you out of bed and he shouldn't have given her a detention at that time of night. I will go and speak to him now."
James thought McGonagall seemed very calm, but before he could question this in his head any longer McGonagall came back.
"Mr. Filch says that your sister left his office to go back to the dormitory a few minutes after he brought her into his office," McGonagall said staring at James.
"Well she hasn't returned," said James getting more and more worried. Where could his little sister have gone?
"I'm sorry Mr. Potter, go and have some breakfast and I'll try to find her,"
James returned to Gryffindor table, he couldn't be sadder if he tried. When the others looked at him, they knew it wasn't good news.
"What is it James?" asked Albus.
"Filch says he doesn't know where she is, apparently he let her go back to Gryffindor common room after a few minutes in his office," James whispered. He felt a tear sliding down his cheek. He put his face in his hands. Someone tapped him on the back.
"You four will have a detention with Hagrid tonight at seven o'clock; Filch will meet you at the Entrance Hall to escort you there. If your sister is found before then she will be serving the detention with you, if not you will do it without her," McGonagall briskly walked away without waiting for a reply.
"Hagrid isn't that bad at all!" said Roxanne smiling.
"Oh where is Lily," Albus said looking more worried than James had ever seen him.
"Do you think you should write to your parents?" asked Rose, "I mean they're really clever and stuff so they might know something."
James sighed, "If they don't find her by the end of the day we'll tell them, if she is found we'll just mention it in the next letter we send to them. We don't want to worry them."
The bell rang and they all made their way to lessons. James and Fred had Transfiguration, so made their way over there; neither of them said a word on the way. They queued outside the classroom waiting for McGonagall to let them in. Eventually she opened the door and let the class in. James and Fred chose a table at the back of the classroom. James normally was really good at Transfiguration but images of Lily being pulled away by the collar of her shirt by Filch kept clouding his mind, so he couldn't concentrate on Facial Transfiguration. When he was practicing he accidentally changed Fred's hair long and red instead of his requested green and spiky.
In fact James couldn't concentrate on Defence Against The Dark Arts, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures or Muggle Studies. At lunch time he didn't eat anything and a few people, noticing Lily's absence asked him where she was. James always replied 'Don't know' which was the truth.
When he came to the last lesson of the day: Herbology, Professor Longbottom noticed James downfall of enthusiasm and asked him what was wrong.
"Lily's gone," James replied simply.
"Oh, I heard about that, don't worry McGonagall's onto it!" he said patting James on the back, then going over to help Fred get Mimbulus mimbletonia goo off his face.
They waited for as long as possible, hoping Lily would come walking into the common room. But at quarter to seven Albus, James, Rose and Hugo left the common room silently to go and meet Filch. When they got to the Entrance Hall, Filch had the usual smile he wore when students were about to get punished. He led them into the darkness towards Hagrid's cabin, which had smoke coming out of the large chimney.
Filch rapped on the door, and the giant opened it.
"I'll take it from 'ere Filch," he said stepping out of the door, Fang at his heels.
Filch turned and made his way up to the castle. They all watched his silhouette get smaller and smaller until finally he was swallowed by the darkness.
"Righ' I'm really sorry 'bout Lily, an' yeh don' really deserve this detention so yeh can jus' stroll aroun' the forest and if anyone asks, we were lookin' for Thestral traces," he said making his way into the forest.
James was glad that Hagrid was being so kind to them, but couldn't find the energy to smile. They stumbled around the forest for a while. Once they were quite deep in and could only see each other if they were less than one metre away, they decided to just rest at a few trees for one hour and then return to the castle. James made himself comfortable by leaning against a tree trunk. He muttered 'Lumos' and a light appeared at the end of his wand. He wanted to break the silence, but there was nothing to talk about. His mind kept flooding with memories of every time he'd seen Lily upset or hurt, and tried to imagine where she was now. James started kicking around the leaves with his trainers. As he kicked some more leaves out of the way he noticed something glint in the moonlight. He looked up at the others. None seemed to have noticed it. Rose was gazing at the moon, Hagrid was gazing at his feet and Albus and Hugo were looking anxiously around the forest. James reached his arm out and tried to feel around the ground to see where the source of the glint was. eventually he felt something cold like metal brush against his finger. He closed his fingers around the metal and just by feeling it, he could tell it was a ring. He lifted it up close to his eyes and examined it. There was a symbol on the front of the ring, it was a bit like and eye but he was sure he recognised it.
"Righ' you three can go back now if yeh want, if it's okay I need to go an' see if Firenze's alrigh'. Can you make your way back on your own?" Hagrid's voice broke through James' thoughts for a moment.
They all nodded and Hagrid got up and left. Rose got up once Hagrid had disappeared through the trees.
"No, wait," James grabbed Rose's wrist to stop her from leaving.
She sighed and sat back down, "What?" she asked impatiently.
James held the ring out in front of her eyes; she went cross-eyed for a moment before her eyes focused on the ring in front of her. She held out her hand and held the ring herself. She examined it for a minute, while the other three sat in silence watching her. Hugo's stomach rumbled and Albus fidgeted after a few minutes, but James didn't take his eyes off the ring. After a few more minutes Rose gasped.
"What?" Albus, James and Hugo asked in unison.
"This ring. The symbol on it. Deathly Hallows." Everyone looked at her with puzzled expressions on their faces; she held the ring in front of them so they could all see the symbol, and then explained "Remember when our parents told us about what happened whilst they were at school?" They all nodded, "They said they bunked off on their last year to go find Horcruxes and there was a symbol, which was a triangle with a line down the middle and a circle inside. This was on a ring and when your dad went to sacrifice himself he found it in the snitch..."
"... he saw his parents" James finished, finally remembering the story they had all heard.
James reached out his hand and took the ring from Rose.
He looked up at the others "Shall we?"
They all nodded. James looked at the ring, closed his eyes and turned the ring three times in his fingers. For a moment nothing happened, but then he heard movement of even more bodies around him. He heard Rose gasp. He opened his eyes. The five figures that stood before him were neither ghost nor flesh. They moved closer to see the children. There was a women who looked exactly like Lily, but with their father, Harry's eyes; There was a man who looked like James, but with darker brown eyes; Next to him was another man who looked quite shabby, but healthy at the same time with light brown hair; The man next to him was grinning at the children, he had quite long, dark brown hair and finally next to him stood a man who looked exactly like uncle George, except he had a left ear!
James gazed at the people, "Who are you?" He asked. Even though he knew that the last person was Uncle Fred, and the first two people were probably his grandparents, he wasn't entirely sure who the other two people were.
"I am Lily Elizabeth Potter," said the woman.
"I am James Harold Potter," said the man that looked like James.
Even though James knew he was named after his grandfather, he still grinned when he looked at the man with the same name as him.
"I am Remus John Lupin," said the shabby man.
James gasped, this was Teddy's father. He suddenly felt very guilty that Teddy wasn't here to speak to his father and made a mental note to let Teddy use the ring the first time he saw him.
"I am Sirius Orion Black," said the one who was still grinning.
"and I am Fred Gideon Weasley," said the red-head, "May I ask who you four are?"
"I am James Sirius Potter," said James.
The older Lily, James and Sirius gasped.
"It's obvious your father is Harry Potter, but who's your mother?" asked Fred.
"Ginny Potter," replied James.
Before the adults (especially Fred) could comment on this Albus said, "I am Albus Severus Potter."
Lily smiled, "Good names Harry,"
"WHY Snivellus, he has cursed you with the worst name on the planet," James shouted.
They all laughed; Harry had told them that James didn't like Severus Snape at all while they were at school.
George turned to Rose and Hugo, "You're definitely Weasleys," he said, "who are your parents?"
"Hermione Jean Weasley and Ronald Billius Weasley," Rose replied.
"Hermione and Ron, wow George owes me ten galleons, he never thought they would get together!" Fred commented. "Does George or Percy or anyone else have kids?" He asked settling himself down next to James.
They all sat there for a while discussing family things, Fred was talking about what Percy said before he died.
"Yeah Lily always said-" James stopped, he had completely forgotten about Lily.
The older Lily's head snapped up, "Lily who?" she asked.
"She's my sister," James began.
The older James cut in, "Where is she?"
"We don't know..." Rose began telling them all the story of what had happened the previous night, "...and we haven't seen her since."
The older Sirius and James exchanged glances. Sirius said, "I think we know where she is, a similar thing happened to us quite a few times."
"Where is she?" Rose, Hugo, Albus and James said in unison.
"Well Filch used to lock us in a cupboard that is in his office," Sirius began, "and we know from experience that he keeps the key for it on a hook opposite the door."
"Didn't you tell McGonagall or someone about it when you got out?" asked Albus shyly.
"Yeah, but he always denied it. We were known for being quite big mischief makers so she didn't believe us!" the older James said.
"We need to go and rescue her now; she's probably starving in there!" James exclaimed, jumping up.
"James, we need a plan. If Filch catches us..." Rose began.
"I'll stun him, then we'll bring him to McGonagall and she can use Veritisirum on him."
"Bye," said Albus to the grownups.
They all waved and disappeared. Hugo bent down to pick up the ring and put it in his pocket. They all ran towards the large castle.
About 20 minutes later they skidded to a halt outside Filches office. James leant forward to put his ear against the door. He could hear Filch shuffling around inside. James drew out his wand and put his hand on the handle. He glanced at the others; Rose looked worried but nodded feebly at him. He turned the handle and the door flew open.
The minute he saw the silhouette of Filch he shouted "Stupefy," and Filch dropped to the floor. Without a second glance at the unconscious Filch on the floor, he hurried to the small door at the end of the room.
"Lily," he whispered to the wood, "are you in there?"
"Mmmmmmmmm" he heard her reply.
He ran to the other side of the room and found the hook with a small key on it. He ran back to the door and opened it. One second later the door was flung open and a very thin Lily knocked James to the floor. James looked at his sister; she had a gag around her mouth, which he took off, his hands shaking. Her face was tear-stained but new tears began to trickle down her pale cheeks.
"James," she cried, "how did you find me? I thought I'd be stuck here forever."
"Shhh," James said wiping he tear trickling down her cheek off, "it's a long story. I'll tell you after you've had some food."
He took her hand and led her towards the door. The others followed them. Rose had levitated Filch, so he was also floating along with them. They headed straight for McGonagall's office.
"Cats," James said. He knew the password from having to go there a few weeks previously.
The stone gargoyle started moving upwards, the children stepped in and were transported upwards they knocked on the large oak door.
"Enter," They heard McGonagall's sharp voice say.
They five children stepped inside followed by the levitated Filch. She looked sternly at James, Albus, Rose and Hugo but when her eyes travelled to Lily and the unconscious Filch she gasped.
"Well you found her, where was she?" she asked, her expression softening.
"In a cupboard at the back of Filches office," Rose said.
"Is this true?" she directed at Lily who nodded feebly.
"Very well, I think I will question Mr. Filch myself; he will tell me all I need to know." McGonagall said. Her eyes darted towards Filch, now lying on the floor, the she looked at Lily, "meanwhile Miss Potter could do with some food and rest. Take her down to the kitchens; you know where that is I take it. Then she needs some rest."
The five children nodded and led Lily towards the kitchens. When they got in they were greeted by the usual pack of elves. Lily ate a few sandwiches and drank some butterbeer before asking if she could go to bed.
The next morning they all went downstairs with Lily. Halfway through her scrambled egg on toast, Lily remembered that she still didn't know how James had known where to find her.
"James how did you know where I was?" she asked.
James grinned, "come with me. He got up and so did Lily, Albus, Rose, Hugo, Fred, Roxanne, Molly, Lucy, Dominique and Louis. James knew where he would show them what the others what he, Rose, Albus and Hugo had found out yesterday. He arrived where he knew the entrance to the room of requirement would appear in a few minutes. He closed his eyes and thought I need somewhere for eleven people to be peacefully three times while walking back and forth across it. A doorway opened and he stepped inside followed by the others. The floor was made out of one giant pillow with other pillows and beanbags scattered around the floor. They all made themselves comfortably James nodded at Hugo, who handed the ring to Lily. Lily understood straight away. She took the ring and turned it thrice in her hand.
Authors Note: This is my first Fan fiction, please read and review and tell me what you think!