"Come on!" James whispered at his little brother. "We'll be gone all night at this rate!"
"You know your way! I don't!" James could hear the scowl in Albus' voice as he followed the sounds of his older brother.
"Well, I know my way around and you've still got me turned about!" Another irritated voice called out in the darkness.
"That's the point, isn't it?" James sounded smug. "This is in your area of the castle and you don't even know it's here!"
"We might if we knew where we were going," Albus growled.
"We're in the place that the boats land when they bring in the first years. Can we get a light now?" The third voice said grouchily.
A light flared up and James' face was lit up and scowling. "Scorpius Malfoy you are absolutely no fun at all!"
Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Where else is there water in the castle? Besides the swamp in the entrance hall. And rocks to climb over?"
Albus clamored down from the rocks and onto the even ground.
"You'll be right back up again," James said warningly. "It's how I found it!"
"What were you doing up there?" Albus asked.
"Harold Burser claimed he got it together with Siobhan Connors and threw her unmentionables up here," James said lasciviously.
"Why would he do that?" Scorpius asked, still clinging to the rocks.
"Because he's an idiot, but I ended up finding something better! It's back here!"
Albus grumbled as he climbed the rocks again. There was a depression at the top of the rocks and his brother was climbing towards it. "If this is a pair of knickers I'll never forgive you."
"I know you never thought you'd hear it from me, but it's better!"
"Better than Siobhan Connors knickers? Narnia better be up there for the trouble we're going through." Scorpius snorted.
"You two can go slithering back to your common room for all I care, but you'll miss knowing one of the castle's secrets." James said casually.
The pair of Slytherins scowled as James reached the depression, but their faces turned to shock when James pulled himself through and disappeared.
"Are you completely mad?!" Albus exclaimed. "What if you'd gotten stuck?"
"Well, I didn't." James voice sounded very hollow.
Scorpius squirmed through the opening and when Albus reached the opening he saw it was a mostly blocked-off doorway. Age and nature had caused the rock to crumble and the opening had started to reemerge.
Albus tied to wriggle through the opening, but was jarred as James pulled him through and set his feet on the floor. Scorpius and Albus lit the tips of their wands and looked around them.
"Where are we?" Scorpius breathed.
"Do you have the bags and things?" James asked the younger boys. They pulled out rubbish bags and paper masks and waved them. "Right, then. Put them on and hold out the sacks." The boys did so and James did the same. "Now close your eyes."
He waved his wand and all of the dust in the room began to swirl like a tornado, buffeting against the boys before the funnels swirled into the sacks and sucked all of the dust into them.
"It's clear," James said. Albus and Scorpius opened their eyes, expecting them to sting, but they didn't. James had summoned a gold orb of light and the boys looked around.
"What is this place?" Scorpius breathed.
"I think it's part of the original castle," James said sagely. "I'm not sure anyone remembers it's here."
Albus' eyes swept the room. "How can you tell?"
"It's reinforced by magic, but it's mostly made of wood," James said proudly.
"Wood?" Scorpius asked.
"Well they had to use something before they figured out how to cut stone, didn't they?" James pointed out.
Scorpius grabbed the leg of an overturned table and squeezed it. It crackled under his grip.
"Well, don't damage it!" Albus squeaked. "That may be a historically important table."
Scorpius just rolled his eyes.
"It goes down further," James said excitedly, as he gestured towards a doorway.
"How far?" Scorpius asked.
"I have no idea," James admitted. "I was afraid of getting lost."
"So this isn't on the map?" Albus asked in wonderment.
"Where no Potter has gone before!" James said excitedly.
"And Malfoy." Scorpius added.
"You're family's so old and pure-blooded there's probably some ancient old ghost you're related to down here to act snotty to visitors." Albus snickered.
"So, what do we do now?" Scorpius asked.
"We explore and try to figure out how to add areas to the Marauder's Map." James said with a serious look on his face.
"What have you been up to?" Lucy Weasley narrowed her eyes at her cousin James. "You three seem to be slipping off more and more often lately. And why did you want that wood renewal spell? What did you break?"
"Nothing. This time." James said with both his hands up. "I swear it. Now pass the eggs."
"You know I'll get it out of Albus eventually," Lucy said with a grin.
"Maybe you used to, but it's hard to bully someone in another House. You can't even mess with him while he's sleeping." James snorted. "We've been exploring the lower levels of the castle. Lots of half-rotted furniture."
"Seriously?" Lucy asked.
"Seriously. Ask Albus or Scorpius. Told you it wasn't exciting." James smirked at her.
"I suppose it's suitably dirty and disgusting." Lucy sniffed.
"Albus swore he saw a bookworm the size of a snake, but I still think it was just a shadow." James chuckled.
"Well, if you find something worth fussing over, come get me. Third year spells can only go so far," Lucy reminded him.
"Having a seventh year would give us an edge," James speculated.
"But not until you clean up and have something to show me," Lucy reminded him. "I'm not getting all mucked up for nothing."
"I'll let you know if we need you." James quirked a corner of his mouth at her.
"Our cleaning is going well, but I have a feeling you've gone down farther that where we're working," Albus frowned at his brother.
"Oh, I have." James grinned. "There's more the further you go. Old labs and classrooms and chambers and stuff, but I still haven't reached the bottom."
"Anything interesting?" Scorpius asked.
"Plenty," James said mysteriously.
"Should we owl Uncle Bill?" Albus asked and James gave him a sharp glance.
"Have you seen any hexes?" James asked him.
"Well, no," Albus admitted.
"What good would he be, then?" James asked reasonably.
"As long as we don't damage artifacts," Scorpius said as he waved his wand over a decaying chair, "what's the problem? We're going to tell someone at some point, won't we?"
"Exactly," James said soothingly. "Imagine McGonagall's face when we tell her about this place and she comes down to find it's already been restored!"
Scorpius giggled. "She might wet herself."
"She might have a heart attack when she thinks of everything that could have been destroyed and then haunt us forever." Albus pointed out.
"Have we messed anything up yet?" James groaned as he applied a thin layer of oil to a chair.
"We were lucky everything's made of organic material. We can regrow the fabric." Scorpius said.
"As opposed to what?" Albus laughed. "Ancient wizards swishing around in polyester robes and platform shoes?"
"We're lucky it's been charmed against pests," Scorpius said as he nodded at James. "It's a miracle you didn't rip everything to shreds when you cleaned up."
"It's a specialized spell. I got a fifth year to teach me," James admitted.
"If we do anything wrong, I'm blaming you." Scorpius scowled.
"Well, have a look, then," Albus said. "I'm sick of cleaning. Let's go for a walk."
James shrugged. "Suit yourself, but it's more of the same thing for a couple levels."
"Where does it get interesting?" Albus demanded, wondering when his brother was going to tell him this.
"Come on," James grinned. "I'll show you."
James summoned a floating orb of golden light as they all got to their feet and dusted themselves off.
They walked through the level they had been working on and James led them to a set of stairs descended. They had previously explored the next level, and the next after that, so they made their way through the familiar territory until they got to a stairway with a ribbon across it.
"I marked how far I'd gotten familiar with," James admitted.
"Is that the sash Lucy's been looking everywhere for?" Albus peered at the ribbon.
"It looked stupid on those robes, anyway," James sniffed. "She'll thank me for it later."
"Somehow I doubt that," Scorpius whispered to Albus as James undid the ribbon.
They went down the staircase and instead of rooms full of broken furniture, the staircase ended in a large, open room with ancient-looking wood carvings on the walls.
"We're not touching these," James warned them. "They're too delicate."
"No, they're not!" Scorpius snorted, and he placed the tip of his wand lightly on the edge of one of them.
Both James and Albus squeaked in terror, but Scorpius shook his head at them as the wood seemed to expand under the layers of dust. After that, he wiped the remaining dust off the carving and stood back.
"What was that?" Albus breathed.
"Something one of the house-elves taught me." Scorpius shrugged. "It's not furniture. It doesn't need the stability to hold the weight of a person, it just needs to be rejuvenated, so I oiled it."
"You hang out with your house-elves often?" James teased Scorpius.
"When they're cleaning out a section of the basement I'm not allowed to be in, I do," Scorpius snickered.
"What was in it?" Albus asked excitedly, expecting Scorpius to tell him about hidden laboratories and rooms of torture.
"Bunch of old portraits. There's so many at this point they get rotated each season so no one's left out," Scorpius shrugged. "Found one hidden in the back with a batty old witch in it singing about butterflies and bottoms. Couldn't fix the portrait, but we spruced her frame up. Seemed to make her happy. Tried to get dad to put her in the guest bathroom, but he wouldn't hear it."
James choked back a laugh. "Wonder why."
Albus' gaze was fixed upon the carving. "What is it?"
Scorpius and James studied the carving for a few moments before James looked at his little brother. "I have no idea."
The cleaning had been going well, and they even had a shaky schedule to go by, but Albus couldn't help but feel suspicious. He knew James had been further down that he was letting on, even though he denied it.
Albus had one day to prove it.
"You have to go!" Albus nearly whined. "For the sake of us all!"
"Lucy can bring back candy from Hogsmede as well as I can!" James laughed.
"She'll get the list all wrong," Albus said with a pout. "If she bothers to read it."
James rolled his eyes, but Albus knew he was right and that he had won.
"Do you really want to end up with five pounds of peanut brittle again?" Albus asked, crossing his arms.
"All right, all right!" James conceded. "I'll go!"
Albus and Scorpius wrote up their lists for James, and Scorpius poured a small sack of coins into James' hand.
"How much candy do you think I'm bringing back?" James asked, bewildered.
"We've got a plan," Albus said quickly. "We keep a stock in an enchanted box, and when someone wants a bit of candy, and Hogsmede is far in the distance, we can turn a profit enough to pay for our personal candy next time!"
"And we get our money back." Scorpius nodded firmly.
James rolled his eyes. "Trying to be the modern day version of Uncle George and his twin?"
"Nothing wrong with making a bit of money," Scorpius huffed.
"Hmmm," James said, considering this. "What if you eat up your stock?"
"We won't!" Albus rolled his eyes. "If we need sweets we'll just pop off a note to Gran and she'll send us a pie or something."
"Begging off Gran Weasley so you won't have to deplete your stores?" James shook his head. "Shameful."
"Gran called it 'innovative,'" Albus said coolly, but James only rolled his eyes at him.
"She would."
Albus and Scorpius waved the rest of the Weasley clan on as groups of students began leaving for Hogsmede.
"Don't forget to stick to the list!" Albus yelled as James started down the little path that led to the small town outside Hogwarts gates.
When James turned around and started to ignore them Albus and Scorpius became tense for a moment before slipping away from the window.
"That was easier than I thought," Scorpius admitted as they hurried from the classroom and made their way down into the dungeons of Hogwarts. They slipped through the hole into the old castle and practically jogged to the staircase where James had tied Lucy's sash.
They hurried down and stopped in the room of wooden wall carvings. All of the carvings had been cleaned and oiled, but the pictures on them still confused the boys. The carvings were so old they had lost most of their details and the carvings didn't seem to follow a pattern. The boys decided someone else would know what to do with them when the time came to reveal their findings.
They explored further down, finding things James had neglected to mention. A small room full of bottles, a dark residue caked at the bottom of them. A room full of different types of knives and saws, a giant table at its center and an enormous diagram of the human muscle system painted on one wall. The figure looked unnervingly cheerful.
As they went down, the walls began to look charred, darkening the further they went. The boys finally stopped when they encountered a stone door. It was unmarked, although the ceiling and walls around it looked as if it had survived some sort of fire or blast.
"Why would they seal this part up?" Scorpius asked.
"Something must have happened!" Albus said excitedly. "Something big! That's why this area's been buried for so long!"
"You're probably right," Scorpius said. "We should leave it."
"Are you insane?" Albus looked at him incredulously. "This could be the find of a lifetime and we've found it!"
"I bet James found it first," Scorpius snorted as he pointed at the floor. There were broad sweeps in the dust, as if the door had been opened recently.
"Then why didn't he tell us?" Albus asked. "Why keep it a secret?"
"No clue," Scorpius admitted. "But why wouldn't he tell us? What's he hiding?"
"I bet it's cool!"
"I bet it's dangerous."
"Same thing," Albus waved Scorpius off.
"Not really." Scorpius raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, where's your sense of adventure?" Albus asked as he felt around the seams of the door for a groove. When he found none he knocked on the door. Nothing happened.
"He probably opened it with magic," Scorpius said, his arms crossed. "We don't know spells strong enough to move it yet."
"Maybe you don't," Albus scoffed as he pulled his wand out.
Scorpius took several steps back. "How do you know the whole thing isn't going to cave in?"
"James got it open and it doesn't look any worse for wear," Albus said as he pointed his wand at the door. He began muttering and looked as if he were concentrating very hard.
"What spell are you using?" Scorpius asked as the heavy door began to move,
"Saw gran use it to move a piano," Albus said, as he took a short break. The door had moved several inches, but still wasn't open. "It's working."
Scorpius nodded as Albus continued working at the door. It inched open slowly, a flickering light behind it hinting at the edges of the door. Finally, it was open far enough for the two first years to wriggle through.
They were at the top of a staircase. It curled around the edges of a large room, finally settling on the floor in front of a giant stone pedestal. Far above them, a glass orb was set into the top of the stone. Something had settled at the bottom of it and was pulsing with a low, green light.
"What is it?" Scorpius asked Albus.
"No idea," Albus admitted. He brushed his fingers over the stone pedestal, uncovering more worn carvings.
"Do you think we can climb it?" Scorpius asked.
"Probably," Albus said firmly. "But I don't think we should."
"Why not?" Scorpius asked him.
"Because I have a pair of omnioculars and we can see just fine from the stairs," Albus said as he shrugged. "Save us the trouble."
Scorpius agreed and the pair began climbing the stairs again, settling on a spot that overlooked the whole room. Albus pulled the omnioculars out of his robes and pressed them to his eyes.
"Looks like a flat balloon."
"Let me see!" Scorpius scrabbled for the omnioculars and peered through him. His shoulders sagged. "It does. Why is it glowing?"
"Maybe it's some sort of lamp?" Albus offered. "It's big enough to have lit up the whole room."
"Then why make a pedestal for it instead of hanging it from the ceiling?" Scorpius asked. "It must have taken forever to carve!"
"They still had magic," Albus said with a patronizing sigh.
"Not this kind," Scorpius said as he scanned over the dusty pedestal. "Stone carving like that didn't happen until much later than the founding of Hogwarts."
"How do you know it was an original room?" Albus insisted. "It could have been made hundreds of years later. Mom says stuff changes around the castle all of the time."
Scorpius nodded as he handed the omnioculars back to Albus. "So why is James keeping this such a secret?"
"Well, it's a really dramatic place, isn't it?" Albus looked around. "He was probably saving it for when we started to get used to it down here. Something new to shock us."
"Eh, you're right," Scorpius said as he got to his feet and brushed off his robes. "Well we've upset that plan of his, haven't we?"
Albus snickered. "Serves him right, keeping secrets. Come on, let's get out of here."
The boys wound their way back up the staircase and back to the familiar rooms they had been restoring. They made sure the sash looked like it had when they had found it, and made their way to the small hole they used to wriggle in and out of the hidden place.
"I got everything on the list." James sighed as they settled down at one of the tables in the Great Hall. Dinner had started and the boys had piled their plates high before bidding good-bye to their House mates and scurrying off to a less populated area. "They were having a sale so I had a little extra. I got you some 'Sniffling Whispers.'"
"What are they?" Albus asked as James handed them a heavy sack of sweets.
"Little chocolate drops that make you go all whispery and quiet. Great when dealing with a loudmouth."
"There are only so many times Lucy will fall for that, you know," Scorpius pointed out as the Potters snickered conspiratorially.
"How did you know that's what we were thinking?" Albus demanded.
"I'm not even related to her and even I want a pocketful for emergencies," Scorpius said as he reached for the bag. He pulled out a box of sugar mice and began prying it open.
"I thought these were to sell?" James asked him.
"Not all of it!" Scorpius snorted as he grabbed the mouse before it could get out of the box. He smiled down at it and gave it a fond pat. When it stopped wriggling, he bit into it.
"Why don't you just buy a rat when your father isn't looking?" Albus asked him.
"He's allergic. He doesn't have to see it to start getting hives." Scorpius snorted.
"Hey," James said conspiratorially, causing the other boys to lean in closer. "I have to show you something. Down below."
"You better not let anyone catch you saying that." Scorpius snickered. "They might take it the wrong way."
Albus hit him on the shoulder and James rolled his eyes.
"What is it?" Albus asked, satisfied that Scorpius was scowling at him.
"I think it might have been the library," James said, taking the Slytherins by surprise. "It's really small."
"It would have been." Scorpius raised his eyebrows. "Not many books back then. Are the books still there?"
"Yea, but they don't look all crumbly like everything else. I think they have protections on them." James said in a low voice.
"Well, what do they say?" Albus asked excitedly.
"I haven't touched them yet," James admitted. "I wanted to get a second opinion first."
"We can't do it tonight," Scorpius pointed out. "People will be crawling all over the castle with banned items, trying to find a quiet place to play with them."
Albus burst out laughing and the other two looked at him.
"Sorry," he gasped, trying to keep his voice quiet. "Just thinking about Siobhan Conner's knickers."
Scorpius laughed and James rolled his eyes.
"Well, stop," James said with a smirk. "We have bigger things to think about."
The younger boys just laughed harder.
The next morning they set out early. No one would be awake that early on a Sunday, they were certain of that.
James set off from Gryffindor Tower and wound his way towards the dungeons, only being stopped once by Professor Flitwick to ask what he was doing.
"Having an adventure!" James had announced cheekily and the professor let out a mock groan before shooing the boy off in the direction of the Slytherin common room with a warning not to break anything too valuable.
James finally came to the hidden entrance and tapped a series of times. Finally, an orange-haired boy answered it.
He was small, even for Hogwarts and when he grinned he was missing a few of his teeth.
"I'm looking for my brother," James said politely.
"I know," the boy said, as if he had a secret. "Come in."
James hesitated for a moment before going in. There were several students milling around, to James' surprise.
"A bit ragged around the edges." A Sixth year girl in a corner with two younger students fawning around her pursed her lips. "But I suppose we can't be choosy."
James gave her a strange look before Albus burst out a door yelling 'WELCOME!'
James closed his eyes for a moment fighting back a headache. It was far too early in the morning for that. "What are you doing?"
"You're our first official visitor for three hundred years!" the orange haired boy cheered.
Suddenly the sixth year girl's comment made sense to James and he scowled at her, which made both of her friends giggle.
"Same to you, Siobhan," James sniffed. Better late than never, his mother always said.
She just snorted at him, but her eyes had twinkles in them.
"So, what's the procedure for a guest?" James asked warily.
"We chop off your toes and use them to trade with the mermen for fantastical magical items!" Scorpius said as he joined the others in the room. He was pulling at his collar and his hair was wet.
"Or tea," a dark-haired boy smirked. "I prefer biscuits to blood."
"Oh, that sounds lovely," James said honestly. "Especially if this one keeps yelling." He nodded at Albus.
James had thought there was a box sitting on a low table near an overstuffed sofa, but Albus grabbed at it, revealing it was just cloth sewn into a cube covering a silver tea service.
"It keeps the cups warm." Scorpius rolled his eyes.
The trio and the other Slytherins began helping themselves and soon everyone had a cup and a seat and James' headache was beginning to subside.
"So what are you doing today?" Siobhan Connors asked them.
"Exploring the dungeons," Scorpius said shrugging.
"You're not going near that old well, are you?" The dark-haired boy looked impressed.
"Doesn't matter if they are," Siobhan scoffed. "Flitwick put a charm on it ages ago. If you jump in a gust of wind will pick you up and blow you right out again."
"Really?" The orange-haired boy asked excitedly.
"Samuel Burrows, you are NOT to use the old well as a form of entertainment!" Siobhan gave him her best icy stare, but the small boy just rolled his eyes.
"Even if I charge a knut per jump?"
She seemed to think about this for a moment before regaining her senses. "No!"
He pouted for a moment before grabbing a biscuit.
"You'll tell us if you find anything interesting, won't you?" One of the girls that had been flitting around Siobhan looked hopeful.
"We will," James said. "I promise."
"Where are we going?" Albus asked as they veered off into a little hallway Albus and Scorpius didn't know was there.
"It's almost impossible to find. I think they were trying to hide where they put it," James said wisely.
"Then how did you find it?" Scorpius asked.
"Door was broken when I found it the first time. It was easy to find." James shrugged. "But I fixed the door and now it's back to being hard to locate."
They abruptly stopped in the hallway and James turned to his left. There was a wooden relief of several dozen medieval-looking animals that looked as if they were locked into battle.
James pressed hand against the owl and there was a loud 'CLICK.'
"It must have been quieter way back when," James said deductively.
The three boys walked into the room and James lit the area with another glowing orb.
Scorpius turned in a circle as he took in the whole room, his mouth open. "You know this could be worth millions of galleons?"
"At least." James smirked.
Albus went to a shelf and examined what was on it. "You're right. These books are in really good condition. Should we do the dust spell?"
"What do you think?" James asked Scorpius, who looked decidedly nervous.
"Well… they do look impeccable. And the dust spell didn't rip up all the fabric on the chairs, which would be in worse condition."
"Why don't we just try one book?" Albus said as he began pulling one off the shelf.
James and Scorpius both looked shocked as Albus removed the book, but nothing seemed to be harmed and it made a solid 'WHUMP' when he plopped it onto a small table.
"I don't know how to do a localized spell!" James spluttered. "Just a whole area!"
"Well, this could be troublesome," Scorpius quirked a corner of his mouth.
"Hey, I have an idea," James said sarcastically before bending over the book and blowing on it like it was a birthday cake and he was a reasonably old person.
The other two boys began coughing and hacking as Albus made some feathers sprout out of the tip of his wand to use as a feather duster.
"Where'd you learn that trick?" Scorpius wheezed.
"Gran made us learn a whole bunch of household spells before leaving for Hogwarts." Albus nodded firmly.
"I didn't think she meant for you to kill us with it," James hacked, but Albus pooh-poohed him.
"That wasn't magic, it was just stupid," Scorpius pointed out as he drew a monogrammed handkerchief out of his pocket and blew his nose into it before choking some more.
"Well?" James asked impatiently. "What is it?"
"I… have no idea," Albus confessed. "The letters are weird."
"Should have thought of that," James confessed. "English wasn't always so cut and dry."
"Could we use a translation spell?" Scorpius asked, as he wiped his eyes.
"I don't know how to do one properly," James admitted.
"I do," Scorpius confessed. "But the results have been rather permanent. I don't know if we'd get in trouble later for damaging an antiquity."
"Oh, do it anyway," James encouraged. "I'm sure there's a way to reverse it, you just don't know it."
Albus shrugged. "Makes sense, I suppose."
Scorpius looked at them warily before he opened the book and muttered an incantation. The letters began vibrating before they all puddled together in the center of the page, a big spot of dark ink.
"Is it supposed—" James began, but the ink started moving and cut him off.
It swirled around, almost seeming to rise from the page as a mist before being brought back to it, the letters seemingly burning themselves back onto the page.
"That was cool," Albus said as James took steps towards the book. He picked it up and started reading from the center of it.
"Fourteen geese, sixty chickens, six swans, and forty-seven deer." James raised an eyebrow. "Five hundred pounds of turnips, Three hundred pounds of apples, two hundred pounds of salt."
"What is that? A recipe book?" Scorpius laughed as James turned the page.
"Third Wednesday of August, the year of the owl." James went on. "Paid in full to the good Lord Remington, although he offered it as a bounty. We shall not reinforce beliefs that the non-magical should pay us tribute in exchange for not harming them."
"How progressive of them," Scorpius said with a pompous look at Albus, who mimicked it.
James turned another page. "It's a ledger of supplies and payments. Interesting, but not very exciting." He frowned down at the page.
"What is it?" Albus asked.
"Four hundred pounds of gunpowder, two hundred pounds of sulfur, two thousand stripped skeletons of small rodentia, twenty quarts of dragon's blood, three hundred human ears."
"Ew," Scorpius said as he furrowed his brow.
"How are you just going to get two hundred human ears?" Albus asked curiously.
"People died all the time," James shrugged. "Find a place where they're burying a mass grave and take what you want."
Scorpius seemed to think this was reasonable enough and James continued.
"Twenty pounds of acorns, fifty rabbits, four hundred bolts of cloth. Paid in full to Lu Buwei, plus travel expenses."
"Huh," Scorpius said. I wonder what that was all about.
"I'm guessing they had to import a lot of potion ingredients. This might be a year's supply?" James closed the book.
"Ready for the next one?" Albus asked eagerly.
This time, Scorpius demanded the whole thing be dusted with the feathers instead of blowing on the book and Albus sheepishly complied.
James opened the book and looked at it quizzically. "It doesn't have any writing in it!" He flipped through it, but when he came to a page, he stopped and stared down at the page.
"What is it?" Scorpius asked.
James looked up for a moment before a shot of green light came from the pages of the book and hit James right in the chest.
He gasped for a moment and his eyes rolled back in his head.
"James!" Albus cried out, not knowing what to do.
James stood there for a moment before the light went out and he collapsed to the floor.
There was light and sound. It was muffled, but it was there. It started making more sense and he recognized his brother's voice.
"We have to get him out of here!"
James groaned and stirred.
"Not so fast," Scorpius said. "Just stay there for a while. You hit your head pretty good."
"Just help me outside," James said laboriously. "Lay me at the foot of the rocks. Tell them I fell."
Albus and Scorpius nodded. After a few moments they tried to move James. He gagged as if he was going to vomit, but he didn't.
It felt like it took them ages, but they finally got him to the small hole that led to the boat landing area.
It took some doing, but they finally decided on petrifying him and lightening his weight, since they didn't know how to perform a levitation spell properly.
Finally, they set him on the shore and lifted the spells. James turned onto his side and threw up.
"Run!" Albus screamed to Scorpius, who took off so fast he was nearly a blur.
"Hang on James!" Albus said urgently, rubbing one of his brother's hands. "You'll be fine!"
"I know!" James laughed before wincing and putting a hand to his head. "It's a concussion, Albus. It's not like my brains are spilling out. I won't even have to go to the hospital. Promise."
James was as good as his word. When help arrived a few moments later, Madam Pomfrey waved her wand over James' head a few times. Blood rolled out of his ears and Albus cried out in fear.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and swallowed when his eyes met the Headmistresses. She kissed him on the top of his head. "He'll be just fine. That was just the runoff from the damage. All better."
Albus looked around and was happy to see that the only witness to this display was Madam Pomfrey.
He felt a lump in his throat grow and he felt tears begin to spill out over his cheeks. The headmistress put her arms around him and he cried great, wracking sobs.
"Oh, for the love of Merlin! You'll give me a headache with all that racket!" James snorted. Albus turned around and flung himself on his brother.
A murmur from above turned into a cacophony of worried voices as students began flooding down to the landing area, Scorpius in the lead.
"I thought you were going to go down to the dungeons?" Siobhan Connors asked, her eyes narrowed.
"We were looking for your knickers," Scorpius blurted out suddenly. "We didn't find them."
"Why would they be up there?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.
"Bursar said he tossed them up there after you got it together," Albus piped up.
"WHAT?!" Siobhan shrieked, her eyes wide and her face red. "I never!"
"And we just proved it," James added. "See, we were just saving your reputation."
Siobhan turned around and glared at the crowd, most of whom had never heard this rumor. She scanned it before pushing her way back through and heading back up the stairs. A good amount of students followed her. Since they had missed all the excitement down below, they were more than happy to cheer on a well-deserved beating.
"Did Mr. Bursar actually make such claims?" McGonagall asked Scorpius sternly.
"He really did," James assured her. "There were quite a few wild claims made that night. I… may be implicated in the theft of a stuffed saber-toothed tiger." He tried to give her a charming smile, but it came out crooked.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened them and stormed up the stairs, a stern look affixed on her face.
"Come get a potion after dinner," Madam Pomfrey said gently as she helped James to a sitting position and handed him a handkerchief to wipe the blood away from his ears. "It will help you sleep tonight."
"Will do," James assured her as he got to his feet. "Sorry I almost knocked my brains out."
"It wouldn't be the same if one of you didn't try to kill yourselves at least once a month." Madam Pomfrey sighed. "I better follow. Merlin only knows what's about to happen to Mr. Bursar."
"We've got him," Albus assured her, putting a hand on James.
With that, the remaining crowd shuffled upstairs to find out the fate of the unfortunate Mr. Bursar.
"What was that?!" Scorpius hissed.
"I think it was a grand example of a stunning spell," James said, shaking his head experimentally. "They sure knew how to make them, didn't they?"
"I think we'd better be more careful from now on," Scorpius said seriously.
"No objections from me." James smiled ruefully.
"There he is!" Albus squeaked.
Scorpius looked up to see James approaching. "How you feeling?"
"I slept like a crazy person last night."
"Madam Pomfrey told you to stop by," Albus chided his brother.
"I know. I regret not doing it," James sighed.
"We going back down today?" Scorpius asked. "This time we won't go poking through books in a secret library."
"We can do some more cleaning," Albus added. "You can even teach us a proper levitation spell so we don't have to touch anything."
"Well, there's a good idea," James said with a quirk to his mouth. "I wasn't sure I was going to survive you moving me."
Albus made a face at him.
"Well then, let's get going," Scorpius said, a smile growing on his face.
They had cleared several areas and had discovered some things that had surprised them. The biggest being a large pile of dust that transformed into an enormous round table.
"Do you think this is… you know, the table?" Scorpius asked in barely a whisper.
"Whoa," Albus breathed.
"Honestly, there have always been round tables," James assured them. "Since the first caveman took a slice of tree, put a couple pegs on the bottom and whacked it into the ground."
"Is that what you think the first table looked like?" Scorpius looked amused.
"Where would they have gotten the saw?" Albus asked.
"They had wooden wheels, didn't they? How hard would it have been to put on its side?" James asked.
The younger boys shrugged and went to work restoring the room. Soon several chairs were around the table, fresh rushes were on the floor, and they had uncovered several more wall carvings.
James studied them even longer than the last time, trying to make something of them. He touched them with his fingertips and tried to run them over the grooves, trying to see if his fingers could patterns his eyes could not see.
"Figure out anything?" Albus asked him.
James jumped at his brother's voice and turned around. "Wish I could."
"Well, someone will figure them out." Albus shrugged.
"Yeah," James said, glancing back at the carving. "I'm sure they will."
Harry Potter turned over in his bed. It was so warm he felt as if he could stay in it all day. He reached for his wife and frowned when she was not there.
"Rise and shine!" She called out, altogether too cheerfully. "Tea's ready and the yard is waiting!"
Harry groaned. If there was anything he hated, it was wrestling back the garden Molly had insisted upon planting. As beautiful as it was, they didn't keep it up as well as they should and once in a while Harry found himself dragged out to wrestle back the weeds and brambles.
"Coming!" Harry called out. He sat up, relieved his wife hadn't been around to hear him groan.
When he made his way to the kitchen he couldn't help but notice the back door was open and his wife was nowhere in sight. A cup of tea and gardening gloves were waiting for him.
He sipped at the cup, savoring the taste and slowly waking up.
"There you are!"
He was pitched forward as Ginny popped her head in the back door and hit him with a charm that changed him out of his pajamas.
"Overalls?" Harry asked with a sigh. "Really?"
"Come on Farmer Potter, let's go!" And as quick as that, she was gone again.
Harry just shook his head and pulled the gloves on. When he got out into the yard he winced at the sun before picking up a pair of sunglasses that were sitting next to a set of pruning shears.
Ginny had already tackled the small beds of flowers: places where the ground was soft and the weeds were easy to get at.
Now it was up to Harry to trim back the wild berry bushes that tried to strangle the yard. He walked to an especially thorny area and began working. Maybe if he got a thorn in his thumb Ginny would stop on this mad crusade to fix the garden and just hire a gardener like everyone else.
i'Watch it pal!'/i Harry jumped at the voice and looked around.
"What is it?" Ginny asked, standing up and wiping her forehead.
"Did you say that?" Harry asked, knowing full well she didn't.
"Say what?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowing.
'Just give me a minute and I'll be out of your way!'
Harry jumped at the peculiar little voice that sounded nothing like your run of the mill garden gnome.
He looked down to see a small snake near his feet. He felt himself get light headed.
"Did you say that?" he asked, picking it up gingerly.
The snake wound itself around Harry's hand and flicked it's tiny tongue at him. i'If you could just put me on the other side of the wall I'd be grateful! I could do it myself, but there's a rather angry mouse that lives beneath and I'd rather avoid her.'/i
"How do you know I'm a Parselmouth?" Harry asked. "Or do snakes talk to everyone and we just don't know?"
Ginny went white and approached Harry and his new friend.
"You smell like a snake."
"Have I always smelled like a snake?" Harry asked, his eyes darting to Ginny.
'No.' it wriggled around his wrist and looked at her. 'Is that the wife? Hubba hubba!'
Harry burst out laughing and he was sincerely glad Ginny could hear none of it.
"I'm sorry I wrecked your house," Harry said apologetically.
'There's another nest not too far from here, but it's on the other side of the wall,' it hinted.
"Right then," Harry said with a small smile. He walked out of the garden and placed the snake under some looking shrubbery.
"Good luck!" the snake squeaked.
Harry returned to the garden. Ginny's face was ashen.
"If he's back we'll get him again," Harry said grimly. Then he went and put his arms around her. They stayed like that for a very long time.
"My dad wants to know if anything strange has been going on." Albus turned the parchment over but there was nothing on the other side.
"Besides us cleaning out the basement?" Scorpius asked. "Not that I know of."
"Maybe James has been implicated in the Great Knicker Caper," Albus snickered.
"Tell him there's a distinct lack of fresh pies."
"Will do."
"I think we've done enough," James said with a twinkle in his eye as he up righted a newly repaired chair. "I have something to show you."
"What?" Albus stopped trying to repair an old tapestry.
"It's something awesome," James said solemnly. "Follow me."
Albus and Scorpius exchanged looks as James led them from the room they were working and encouraged them to follow him deeper below, until they came to the enormous room with the giant glass orb on a stone pedestal. The balloon-looking thing inside was inflated a little more than when Albus and Scorpius had last seen it.
"What is it?" Scorpius asked, as if he had never seen it before.
"I think this was some sort of gathering place," James said nodding.
"We already found the dining hall," Scorpius said.
"And if it were for displaying things wouldn't there be seats all around it?" Albus added. "Like a coliseum.
"Maybe it's a ball room?" James offered.
"Maybe it was for a ceremony," Scorpius said. "I don't think we should mess with it."
"Good point." Albus nodded. Something about the room made his skin crawl.
"We should try to climb it!" James said excitedly.
"Count me out!" Albus said flatly.
"Oh, come on," James said. "We can see it better up close."
"Would you like to borrow some omnioculars?" Scorpius asked sweetly.
"Where did you get those?" James asked, astonished."
"Special pockets. My gran sewed them on the insides of all my sweaters." Scorpius shrugged.
"What else have you got in there?" Albus asked curiously as James took the omnioculars.
"Couple books," Scorpius admitted. "Half a sandwich."
"You still can't see what it is!" James growled as he strained to see with the omnioculars.
"Let me see," Albus said as he took them from James.
It looked more like a deflated ball now, but Albus wasn't going to note any changes to his brother. He reported as if it were the first time seeing it.
"Deflated honeydew melon?" Albus offered.
"Ooh, maybe it makes breakfast!" Scorpius added hopefully.
Albus snickered at him, but James just snorted.
"I'm going to figure out a way to get to it," James muttered.
"You go ahead," Albus sniffed. "But you're doing it without me."
James looked at Scorpius. "What about you?"
"I'm sure the omnioculars will be fine enough for me," Scorpius admitted. "If someone fell in here we'd ireally/i have to get help."
"I'll think of something," James said vaguely.
"What do you think it means?" Ron asked in a serious voice.
"I have no idea," Harry admitted. "But it's got to mean something."
He looked around the table at the other members of the Order of the Phoenix. He hadn't called a meeting, but he couldn't help but remembering they were all members of Dumbledore's Army. Ginny had called Hermione for an answer, but she hadn't had one so she called Ron and they had all rallied to the Potter's household.
"He can't possibly be back, could he?" Hermione asked nervously.
"I'm getting sick of this," Ron said grouchily.
"I'm sorry," Harry said in an annoyed tone. "At least it isn't happening ini your /ihead."
Hermione took in a breath and let it out. Then he shook his head. "We're getting too old for this."
"I agree," said Ginny. "But what else is there to do?"
"Squash it out before it begins," said Harry gravely.
Minerva McGonagall sat behind her desk, her hands clasped tightly on the polished surface. "Are you sure?"
"Sure as tomorrow's dawn," the small man said. "As soon as they saw what it was they sent me to see you straight away." He looked up nervously.
"But…Dementors? After all this time?" McGonagall acted as if the words themselves were bitter.
"Maybe it's a rogue flock?" he offered. "It just came out of nowhere.!"
"I hope so," McGonagall agreed. "Thank you, Gibson. We'll double up security for now and request extra guards from the Ministry until they know what all this is about."
McGonagall nodded and the man knew a dismissal when he heard one.
A tremendous bolt of lightning struck and Albus could swear the whole castle shook. He looked at the windows and they were all obscured by sheets of rain and grey weather. He always loved storms. Part of him was sad that he wasn't high in Gryffindor Tower, where James swore it swayed if the storms were strong enough.
The windows in his room lit up when lightning hit the lake, but most of the rest was muffled.
He wound his way towards the dungeons, trying not to think about the essay he had due the next day on iTadpoles: For Potions or Pets/i for his Care of Magical Creatures class. He had just spent the last two hours shoveling out the hippogriff pens and was in no mood to do one more thing for Professor Singsong.
"Where's Scorpius?"
James blinked at the red-haired boy in front of him. "I had detention. I have no idea."
"He said he was going to help me with Transfigurations."
"No idea," Albus said, holding both of his hands up.
"For the love of Merlin what is that stench?" Siobhan Connors stormed up to Albus. "You're smelling up the whole common room!"
"I'd already be in the bathing pools if people didn't keep stopping me," Albus said grouchily.
Just then, Scorpius stumbled in behind him and instantly started gagging.
Albus growled and stormed to the staircase that would take him to the bathing pools. The stairs were so narrow and curved you ended up almost dizzy at the end. They opened up into an enormous, dark underground cavern peppered with generously-sized pools of water that glowed from some hidden light source. Albus chose one in the back, as not to offend any other late bathers with his stench. He really wasn't in the mood to deal with anything else.
He stripped off his clothing and stretched, and then he jumped into the water with an enormous splash and settled on one of the stone ledges that had been carved out hundreds of years ago.
'Think of the thousands of naked bottoms that have been here, Albus!'
Albus chuckled and shook his head. It was no wonder they had become best friends so easily.
As if on cue, a bright green privacy curtain suddenly popped around the pool Albus was in.
"It's just me!" Scorpius' voice called out, as if on cue. Albus heard his footsteps getting closer. "What happened to you?"
"I never want to think about what comes out of the hind end of a hippogriff ever again," Albus groaned.
"Well, you'd better think about that essay due tomorrow or she'll have you doing it again," Scorpius pointed out as he took his clothes off and settled in the pool with Albus. He knocked on the ledge three times and a pipe rose up out of the water in the center of the pool. Different colored faucets sprang forth from it like a bouquet of flowers.
Albus hit a blue faucet with his foot and sweet-smelling bubbles started pouring out.
"We're going to smell like girls!" Scorpius protested.
"I don't care what I smell like, as long as it isn't hippogriff," Albus said grumpily. "And it'll wear off fast enough. Where were you, anyway?"
"With James in 'the dungeons,'" Scorpius said, making quote marks with his fingers.
Albus gave him a look halfway between amusement and horror. He peeked underneath the privacy curtain, but they were alone. "All right, Captain Obvious. Find anything interesting?"
"Your stupid brother still wants to climb that thing." Scorpius shook his head before dunking it underwater and resurfacing. "I just agreed to help clean it."
"That's probably an excellent idea," Albus said. He paused for a moment. "Was it my imagination or is that thing getting bigger?"
"It's not just you, and if James found it before we did, he knows as well."
"Wonder why he didn't mention it?" Albus pondered.
"Maybe he knows something we don't. Maybe it's one of those magical items that runs on human energy. No one's been down there for a while so it wasn't charged up." Scorpius shrugged.
"You could be right," Albus admitted. "But I get the feeling it isn't just a light fixture."
"Why not?" Scorpius asked. "It was the dark ages and they could have had an indoor sun. That would have been impressive."
There was a noise like stone sliding on stone and the boys stopped talking. To their knowledge nothing in the room moved, the only visible fixture was the stairs leading up.
"Hello?" Albus called out warily.
"Albus?!" an astonished voice called out. The Slytherins whipped back the privacy curtain, making sure they were still at least waist deep in water.
"James?!" Albus said as his brother stepped out of a shadow. The sound of stone against stone happened again and James whirled around. He seemed to be patting the wall behind him.
"Where did you come from?" Scorpius asked, his face a mask of complete bewilderment.
"I found a passageway!" James said. "But I guess it only goes one way!"
"You're lucky you didn't get lost or trapped, exploring without a partner!" Albus chided him. "Remember what dad said?"
"Where am I?" James asked, looking around, his eyes darting from the glowing pools to the dark walls.
"In the bathroom," Albus explained.
"I thought you were going back to the tower!" Scorpius exclaimed.
"Why are you taking a bath together?" asked James curiously, ignoring Scorpius' question.
"We always all bathe together. You're lucky it wasn't earlier or half the House would have been in here," Albus snickered.
"What? The girls, too?" James looked shocked.
"Don't be silly," Albus waved him off. "Their pools are over there." He gestured towards what looked like a little cove.
James shook his head for a moment, as if he were trying to get the distraction out.
"We'll have to smuggle you out," Scorpius said. "Can't let everyone start searching the Slytherin area for hidden passages. They'd tear it pieces."
"You'll have to show us how you got in later," Albus said as he began climbing out of the water. "Come on; let's get you out of here."
Harry sat at his desk at the Ministry of Magic, pouring over folders and marking spots on a large map he had pinned to the wall behind him. He was frowning.
There was a quick knock and the door opened. Ron stuck his head in and went to say something, but stopped when he saw Harry. "What are you doing?"
"There have been some strange things going on lately, I'm trying to see if there's a pattern."
"Like what?" Ron stepped in and closed the doors.
"There haven't been any incidents yet, but there have been a few Dementor sightings trickling in. When we go to talk to the neighbors, if there are any other magical folk in the area, most of them admit they thought they were seeing things. How many of these aren't we hearing about? How many other places have people just thought they were 'seeing things?' Why is this going on?"
"I can't tell you, mate," Ron admitted, his eyes widening. "How far do these go back?"
"A couple of months," Harry said.
"Then why haven't we heard about them?" Ron asked incredulously as he picked up a folder.
"They were mostly written off, if there weren't any other witnesses," Harry shook his head. "Lately, they've been in more populated places."
"Well, that isn't good," Ron breathed. "We haven't had a Dementor problem in almost twenty years. Is anyone still here from the last time?"
"I think we have a couple people in desks that used to be field agents," Harry said thoughtfully. "It might be time for another briefing."
"Do you think it's that bad?" Ron asked. "It's going to scare a lot of people."
"Better we get at least a handle on it before the Prophet starts reporting it," Harry said.
Ron looked at the folders on the desk and nodded bleakly.