Inter Arma

by Pitry

On James Sirius Potter's fifth year, the goblin war came to Hogwarts.

4. Adventures in Hogwarts

Chapter 4 - Adventures in Hogwarts

News always travelled fast around Hogwarts - but never this fast. By lunch, it seemed that the entire school had heard that Harry Potter had come to teach Defence. During dinner, everyone was eyeing the teachers' table, where Harry Potter was deep in conversation with Professor Granger-Weasley. And when they were back at the common room, no one was discussing anything else but what did that mean.

"Look, the head of the Auror Office doesn't just drop everything and come to teach at Hogwarts," Lysander Scamander insisted. "No matter how hard it is to find a teacher."

"I know what you're saying," said Alice Longbottom, a sixth-year and Professor Longbottom's daughter. "And you're being stupid. The goblins are not going to attack Hogwarts again. I don't believe the teachers think that."

James and Lysander exchanged looks. They had kept to themselves what they had overheard the night of the attack - the goblins had attacked because of a sword, and if that sword was here at Hogwarts, they both were convinced that they were very likely to attack again. As far as James was concerned, his father coming to teach was the final confirmation.

"Besides, I thought the Auror Office wasn't involved in the war with the goblins?" asked a mousy haired second year old who was allowed, for a change, to listen in on the older kids - tonight, no one cared who participated in the conversation.

"That's not a part of the war, though," Roxanne Weasley gave her opinion, and everyone fell silent and listened to what she had to say. "Defending us. There were already Aurors at Hogsmeade Station, weren't there? And Aurors on the way to school, too - "

"Yeah, and Ron and Teddy are here a lot, they were here even before the attack," James Potter confirmed. "The Aurors already take part in defending the school against the goblins."

"That's a fine line, though, isn't it," Rose said thoughtfully. "Not taking a part in the war and keeping a permanent Auror presence here."

"Well they can't just sit back and let the goblins attack us, now, can they?" Al retorted.

"I'm just saying. It's a fine line between being there and expecting an attack and going to find them and stop it before it happens."

Privately, James agreed with Rose, but he wasn't going to say anything about it out loud. He kept his guesses and theories to his more private discussions with Lysander - and with Colleen and Lorcan.

Discussing these things with the other kids felt just as frustration as talking to Dad. As Harry Potter's eldest son - and a Prefect - no one believed him when he told them, time and again, that he didn't know more than they did, and that his father had not given him any more information. "Yeah," he said sarcastically for the third time that evening after a question from a sixth-year, "Dad tells me all about what's going on in the Auror Office. Come on, how would I know?" But the rest of the kids weren't convinced, especially once the information that he had been in the Great Hall right after the attack somehow made its way to the rest of the students.

Lily in particular seemed angry with him over that piece of information. "You left the common room that night?" she stood above him, all 140 centimetres of her, glaring much like Mum did when she was very angry, and James couldn't help but cower a bit from his younger sister. "You hypocrite! After what you told me and the others?"

"That's different!" he tried to defend himself, although he knew it was useless.

"Oh, yeah? How is it different, exactly?" she didn't back down.

"Well, I'm older! And I'm a Prefect!"

"And now you're an older Prefect in detention," she said coldly and went to sit with her friends. She ignored him for the rest of the evening.

Unfortunately, she was right about that bit - and what was even worse, he was told by Professor Longbottom the next day that he would serve his detention that evening - and with his father, not with Professor Longbottom. James suspected that this was by Dad's request, and his resentment over the events of that day just grew.

When he and Lysander stepped into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom that evening, they were surprised to see they weren't the only ones there. Already sat were Al - and Scorpius Malfoy, doing lines and throwing dirty looks at each other every once in a while, both sporting black eyes. Scorpius Malfoy had a miserable-looking potted plant on his desk to boot.

Dad only nodded when they walked in, and assigned them lines. As far as punishments went, that was rather painless and uninspired, even if the lines were School rules are not there to be ignored.

"What did you do this time?" James whispered to Al when Dad was deep into whatever it was he was reading.

Al didn't respond, but kept on writing his lines sullenly.

"Listen, you have to stop fighting Malfoy, I told you - "

"Yeah, you're one to talk!" Al retorted, slightly too loud - Dad's eyes left the parchment he was looking at and stared at the two of them.

"You're supposed to serve your detention in silence, Al," he said. "I'd rather not add you more lines."

Al scowled and gave James his most foul look. From his other side, Scorpius Malfoy sniggered for a moment. Dad raised his eyes a second time, this time to look at Malfoy, but said nothing, and Malfoy promptly returned to his own parchment. After another moment had passed, Dad's returned to his own parchment.

It was a long and depressing detention, and the silence was starting to get on James's nerves. At long last, Dad seemed to think they had enough. "I hope the lesson's been learned, James, Lysander," he said quietly before he picked up their parchment and let them go.

"Yes, sir," James looked at him in resentment, and picked up his things.

His foul mood had improved slightly when he left the classroom, as Colleen was waiting for him outside the door. Lysander opened his mouth, as if to say something, but then just smirked and told James he'd see him in the common room.

"What did he make you do?" Colleen asked in a sympathetic voice.

"Just lines," James kicked around. "It's so unfair!"

"Well," she raised an eyebrow, "you were walking around after hours during a goblin attack..."

"I don't need you to remind me, I just had Dad and his 'school rules are not to be ignored' for three whole hours. Just because he was perfect and never broke any rules when he went to Hogwarts doesn't mean it's the end of the world if you do. It's not like we were in danger or something."

"He's just worried about you," she said wisely. "Fathers are like that - my dad really panicked last year when he heard I was in Hogsmeade during the attack, even after I told him it was no big deal. And your father sees really dangerous things every day, he's bound to be a bit paranoid."

"Yeah, I guess," James said, still unconvinced.

"Come on, stop sulking. You've got the coolest dad in the world and you know it."

James didn't answer.

The problem was that Colleen wasn't the only person who took that attitude. Defence Against the Dark Arts classes became one of those classes where no one was talking - everyone was paying as much attention as possible, and even Lysander ignored most of James's attempts to get his attention during classes. It made sense, of course - classes with Dad were the coolest Defence lessons they ever had.

Dad had opened their first lesson, which was the very next day, by addressing some of the rumours that were running around the school ever since the goblins attacked. The goblins weren't going to go after kids, he said, "But that's no reason for you not to know how to defend yourselves."

"Sir, are you going to teach us how to defend ourselves against goblins, or just against the dark arts?" Katie Robinson asked. "Because no one practises the Dark Arts anymore and - "

"I'm afraid there are plenty of wizards who practise the Dark Arts still, Katie," he answered. "And it's good to know how to defend yourselves against curses even if the person who's casting them isn't a dark wizard. But yes - a lot of these things could help you against any sort of magical attack, not just against Dark magic."

He then continued to show them a useful shield spell which, he said, could help against minor curses and more serious types of magical attack. They then split into pairs to practise, with one student trying to Disarm the other, who was to cast the shield, only for Dad to notice half of them didn't know how to Disarm properly and then they spent the second half of the class practising that.

If James thought the general appreciation of his classmates was bad enough, it was nothing compared to the general interest over lunch, right after the seventh-years first Defence N.E.W.T.s class.

"Uncle Harry is the coolest teacher in the world," Roxanne announced as soon as she sat down the Gryffindor table. He scowled in response.

"What's with him?" Priyanka Finnigan asked.

"He's pissed off because everyone thinks Professor Potter is cool and he's too busy being mad about being given lines," Lysander, the traitor, summed up the situation way too accurately to James's liking.

"What would you think if he was your dad?" he said, still grumpy.

"Yeah, I guess," Roxanne conceded, "but we've never had a lesson like that. Ever. I mean, I thought Professor Cattermole knew things, but Harry, the things he's seen! Maybe I should be an Auror after Hogwarts, too," she wondered to herself.

She wasn't the only one - half the school seemed to consider the idea of a career as Aurors following a class with Dad. James was soon getting tired from the surprise when he was asked and announced that no, he most certainly did not want to be an Auror.

-X-

Lily was furious with James. She was looking at her brother and the rest from the other side of the table, her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed.

"Who d'you want to kill, Lily?" Hugo joked next to her.

"James!" she said, and he gave a terrified look - he had already been on the bad side of one of her rants. She didn't notice, though. She was too busy being angry with James.

"Come on, stop getting so upset over him," said Aaron, who had not yet earned himself an angry outburst from Lily and therefore didn't quite understand what he was getting himself into. "You know what you need? You need a distraction. Something cool to do to get your mind off James," he said.

Hugo opened his mouth - perhaps to point out that this might not have been the best of suggestions - but Lily had already seized up on Aaron's words.

"That's right. You know what we need - our own adventure!" she said brightly.

"What did you have in mind?" Houda asked. She was smiling a gleeful smile at the words - even if her smile was also slightly worried.

Aaron, on the other hand, was not trying to hide that as far as he was concerned, her words were a reason to worry. "I'm not sure that's what I meant," he tried to say, but Lily ignored him.

"No, that's exactly what we need. An adventure. To have some fun. Come on - we're at Hogwarts, right? The best place in the world for an adventure! And I got just the thing. I want to go see the centaurs in the forest!"

Her three friends looked at each other in silence for a moment.

"Er, Lily?" Hugo was the first to speak - upon the urging of the other two, who knew Lily for a much shorter period of time and weren't quite certain how to handle her. "There are no centaurs in Hogwarts."

"Of course there are! Professor Firenze is a centaur, isn't he?"

"Yeah, but... he's the only one."

Lily sniffed. "Mum told me there's a herd of centaurs in the forest."

Hugo shifted uncomfortably. That was an even worse sign. "I think what she meant was that there used to be a herd of centaurs in the forest. They're fighting alongside the goblins, I don't think McGonagall would have allowed them to stay here if they went against the wizards!"

"But Professor Firenze is still teaching! And there's even Professor Griphook, so who knows what Professor McGonagall is thinking."

The other three looked at each other in growing misery. "Okay, but let's say there are centaurs here... Lily... we're not allowed in the forest. McGonagall said so. Out of bounds, she said."

"It's a school. They won't be keeping something too dangerous inside a school, would they?" Lily insisted.

"I don't know," Hugo said quietly. "I'd say centaurs are pretty dangerous."

But Lily was not to be deterred. Secretly, Hugo thought she wasn't as much after an adventure as she was after showing James she was capable of having an adventure. As if there was a chance that the next time James went on an interesting rule-breaking adventure, he'd take her with him. Hugo thought the whole idea was absurd - James had his own friends, and was unlikely to want to take Lily anywhere as it were.

He said as much to Lily when they were walking towards their afternoon Potions class. "Lily," he said quietly, "I'll go with you to the forest if you want to, but are you sure you're not doing it just to show James?"

"So what if I am?" she asked and her nostrils flared. Another bad sign, Hugo knew, but in five minutes their potions class would start, and he was sitting next to Aaron, so he'd be far enough from Lily's wrath. It also helped that she was slightly intimidated by Professor Malfoy.

"Look, I know you and James are really close and everything, and that whenever he came home from Hogwarts he spent a lot of time with you, but... I mean, we're all at Hogwarts now. He's not going to want to spend his time with his little sister when his friends are here."

Lily stopped walking, and was now eyeing him angrily with her arms crossed.

"Just thought I should say that," he mumbled.

"Well, this has nothing to do with that," she said.

"Let's get going, anyway," Aaron said behind them. Hugo wondered whether he managed to catch some of the exchange, but whether he did or didn't, he had enough sense in him not to say a word. "The class is about to start, and I really don't fancy being late to Potions."

"You know, I don't think I feel like going to Potions today," Lily declared all of a sudden.

"W- What?" three voices asked at the same time. Skiving off? She couldn't possibly be that angry, Hugo thought desperately. She couldn't.

She was. "Yeah. I think I'll go looking for those centaurs."

"Er... can't we do that... after class?" Aaron asked weakly.

"It's double potions. Any of you feeling up to facing Professor Malfoy for two whole hours?"

She had a point, of course - double Potions was a nightmare for any Gryffindor, and to Lily in particular. Professor Malfoy wasn't very fond of her - and Hugo was willing to bet it was because of her father. It was no secret Harry and Professor Malfoy had a great dislike for one another. For all it was worth, Hugo's Mum and Dad disliked Professor Malfoy greatly, and Dad had, on more than one occasion, said quite nasty things about him, before Mum realised he and Rose were in the room and shushed him. And Professor Malfoy didn't seem to like Hugo that much, either. But with Lily... it was a disaster.

Still, though... skiving? They were bound to get caught. Professor Malfoy was bound to notice they didn't show up to class. Hugo looked at Houda, begging for help. He could see she was reluctant to go with it herself. Aaron looked downright terrified.

They were too late. Lily had already made up her mind, and was now marching away from the stairs that led to the dungeons, to their Potions classroom.

"Lily - wait!" Hugo said, and rushed after her - and that decided it, really. Aaron and Houda came after him, and so the four Gryffindors were going to miss today's Potions class.

Lily only stopped her resolute march once she was through the doors and outside of the castle. It was a beautiful day outside, a brilliant, warm day of autumn right before winter took over, and Hugo couldn't help but think that walking into the forest was a much better way of spending it than inside the cold and damp Potions dungeons. Or, rather, walking across the great lawns was a better way of spending the day. The forest looked just as dreary and uninviting as the Potions classroom, albeit lacking in Professor Malfoy.

"Are we sure we want to do this?" Houda asked nervously behind them.

Now, after the bell rang and well outside the castle, Lily looked far less reassured of her idea than she did inside the castle. From here, the forest was very much real. All of a sudden, Hugo remembered that Rose had said once that there were scary creatures inside the forest - not centaurs, but werewolves, and Thestrals, and perhaps... worse stuff. The forest looked wild, uninviting and cold. There could be anything in there.

"Hagrid's always going in there," Lily said, and her voice quivered.

"Yeah, but Hagrid's half-giant," Hugo muttered. "He's not afraid of... werewolves," he ended with the first creature that came to his mind.

"But we shouldn't be, either," Houda said all of a sudden. "I mean, obviously, we should, but not now. I mean, it's not a full moon now, is it? Or..." she stopped, as if she a terrible thought entered her mind. "Or did the Muggles get it all wrong and werewolves turn into wolves whenever they please?"

"No, no," Lily reassured her, and as she did that, she sounded a lot happier herself. "Werewolves are only dangerous when the full moon's out. We should be fine." With that, and without looking back, she resumed her march towards the forest.

Perhaps she was afraid that if she didn't, she'd never start. Hugo definitely felt that way, and was glad he had Lily to follow. They soon walked side by side towards the threatening woods.

"I don't think we should walk through Hagrid's cabin, though," Hugo said, half-whispering, even though he wasn't sure why he was whispering. "Someone could see us."

"Yeah, we should go around," Houda agreed, also in a whisper.

They changed direction. Instead of walking towards Hagrid's, they were now walking in the other direction, towards the War memorial monument and the white tomb. They would approach the forest from the lake.

Houda stopped for a moment next to the tomb. She had never seen it up close before.

"It's an old Hogwarts headmaster," Lily told her.

"Ew - are all of them buried here?" Houda asked, looking suspiciously at the tomb.

"No, just him. I think. He died during the War, - he was Dad's teacher. Al's named after him, see? Albus Dumbledore. Well," Lily stopped as she looked at the name that was etched on the tombstone, "Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore."

"He's got too many names," was Houda's verdict, and the four moved forward.

"Wasn't it Professor Snape who died during the War, though?" Hugo mused, looking at the name on the tomb. Surely they got something wrong?

"Oh, I don't know," Lily shrugged. "Does it matter? Al's named after him, too, anyway. Maybe they both died during the War. Come on."

They found an old trail that led into the forest. It didn't look used - whatever creature that had broken it was long gone, Hugo thought. Maybe it was centaurs. Maybe not.

Aaron had the same thought. "What happens if we do run into centaurs?" he asked nervously. "You said they were with the goblins."

"Oh, they won't do anything to us," Lily dismissed his words. "They don't touch children. I don't think goblins do, either, really."

"They attacked the school," Aaron pointed out.

"But who says they wanted to kill students? Maybe they wanted to attack the teachers? Or maybe they wanted to steal something - hey, what if they wanted to steal that mirror?" she asked all of a sudden.

"What, the mirror we found?" Aaron asked loudly. Hugo looked at him sharply. This was not the first time Aaron had brought up that mirror, and whenever he had talked about it, he sounded... weird. Hugo didn't get a chance to see into the mirror itself, but the more Aaron seemed preoccupied with it - and the more he refused to say what he saw in there - the more curious Hugo had become.

Lily, however, didn't seem to have noticed Aaron's reaction to the mirror. "Yeah. It looked almost hidden there, you know? All those chambers, in a completely abandoned part of the castle. Maybe it was put there so that the goblins wouldn't find it?"

"It had a lot of rubbish all around it," Hugo pointed out. "I thought it was there with all the rubbish. 'Cause no one wants it."

"No," Aaron interfered. "I don't think the owner wanted to get rid of it. They definitely tried to hide it."

"Yeah, they must be hiding it from the goblins!"

Lily and Aaron were excited by their theory, and Hugo didn't have the heart to point out the many faults it had. He looked around instead, looking for something else to say - and only then did he realise how far they had ventured into the forest. Everything was dark around them, even though it was only noon.

"Er," he said. Now he was very unhappy that he didn't continue talking to the two. They might have been oblivious to the change in scenery, but at least they were company.

The other three stopped as well and looked around. They looked just as worried as he felt. "Lumos," Houda whispered quietly, and the tip of her wand lit up and cast a small light around them. It just made the rest of the forest look eerie.

"Where are we?" Aaron asked. No one's answered - none of them knew the forest.

"Maybe we should turn back," Houda said after a moment's silence.

"I want to see the centaurs," Lily said, but didn't sound particularly convinced.

"I don't think there are any centaurs here, Lily," Houda answered in a whisper. The forest seemed to close in on them, even though they weren't moving further in.

"Do you think they will come if we call?" Lily whispered back.

"I don't know..."

"Maybe we should try," Hugo said absently - and immediately regretted it, as Lily took the suggestion to heart.

"Oi! Centaurs!" she called. Her voice was amplified by the forest, echoing around them, and, compared to their whispers, sounded even louder than it really was.

No one replied. The trees bustled lightly in the wind, but that was the only noise around them - except for their own nervous breaths.

Aaron seemed to take courage from the silence. "Oi!" he cried, somewhat louder than Lily. "Centaurs!"

"Yes?" they heard a voice behind them.

Hugo thought his heart would burst out of his chest - it was thumping so fast that he almost felt dizzy. Next to him, Lily jumped what must have been a whole foot in the air. Aaron whimpered lightly. Houda, on the other hand, was so fascinating by the centaur that had creeped behind them - a real, living centaur! - that she forgot to be scared.

"Hello," she said brightly, although her voice shook a little. Fear was not completely forgotten by her, then. Her curiosity was just stronger.

"Who are you?" the centaur asked in a strange voice.

Now that Hugo's heart was slowly returning to its regular speed, he could give the centaur a better look. His hair was white - if it could be called hair. More like 'coat', Hugo thought. He had shocking blue eyes, and an interested - if not very kind - expression.

"We're students," Houda said. "From the school."

"Surely you have been told that students are not allowed in the forest?" the centaur enquired.

"We... wanted to see... well, centaurs," Lily had found her voice at last.

"I see," the centaur nodded. "I am afraid to say that I am the only centaur left in the school's grounds," he said gravely. "And now that you have seen me, I must escort you back to the castle."

"Escort us? Back?" Hugo asked in a horrified voice. "Maybe we could go there ourselves?"

"I am afraid I cannot allow that," the centaur said, almost sadly. "As a teacher in the school, I feel I must inform your Head of House of your transgression."

The four of them looked at each other in horror. This was not going to end well.

All of a sudden, the thought came to Hugo that he would have liked it if the forest had all kinds of interesting creatures. The kind of creatures that were not welcomed inside the school.

-X-

It was the afternoon Care for Magical Creatures class with the Ravenclaws, and James was still complaining to Colleen about his father. "Look," he said to Colleen, while she just rolled her eyes at him, "I get it that everyone thinks it's so cool, especially when they hear Dad's stories and all that, but someone should tell them that it involves people from the Ministry showing up in the middle of the night and missing all the holidays and stuff like that, too."

He wasn't worried that Professor Scamander would notice them talking. Care for Magical Creatures was perfect to have all the important conversations - Professor Scamander was usually too busy explaining things, or they were outside, like now, each doing their own thing.

"I think that's just your dad though, not all Aurors," Colleen said. "I don't remember anyone showing up in my house at the middle of the night."

"Maybe," he said. He thought about continuing the discussion, but at that very moment, something else had caught his eye - out of the forest came Firenze, the Divination teacher, and behind him - Lily, Hugo, Houda Durlsey, and their first year friend, Aaron. "What the..." he said and pointed the first years to Colleen. She looked at them in similar apprehension.

"What were they doing inside the forest?" she asked, incredulous.

"Why aren't they in class?" he asked. What was Lily thinking she was doing?

They kept on watching the small procession until the centaur and the four children went into the castle and out of sight. James could just see Professor Longbottom - he had been on the other end of his quiet disappointment too many times. Or, considering they went into the forest, that may actually be one of the rare occasions for his explosive rage, which was downright terrifying. Really, what were they thinking? James hadn't dared going into the forest until well into his third year! And when both Mum and Dad were teaching this year... Mental, these kids were. Mental.

"I'll have to talk to Lily," he said.

"Yeah, you should," Colleen gave him a meaningful look.

"If she'll talk to me! I think she's still angry about the other night," he pointed out. "Hey - d'you think that's why she did it? Wanted an adventure of her own?"

"Maybe," Colleen shrugged, and then smiled. "Speaking of adventures - I got something very exciting to tell you." She threw a look at Professor Scamander, who was too busy pointing out the similarities between the bowtruckles they were supposed to study and a mythological creature called a Nargle, and lowered her voice. "Lorcan reckons he found a secret passageway out of the castle."

"Really?" James said in a slightly loud voice, then returned to whispering. "Really?"

"Yeah. He says there's a statue on the third floor, the one of the one-eyed witch, you know that one?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, he says he tried the Concealment charm Professor Scamander taught him during the holiday around it and as it turns out - there's something there!"

Lorcan and Lysander, who already knew all about Nargles, joined in with the whispered conversation. "I just did it for practice," he said, "I didn't expect anything to show up, but there it was. And then I remembered about this story Mum told us once, about how there's a passageway from somewhere on that floor to Hogsmeade - "

"Yeah," Lysander joined in, "because during the War they couldn't use it because it was guarded, that's what she said."

"So I think that's the entrance. Now we just need to figure out a way to get it to open."

"Wicked," James whispered with a smile on his face. Finding a secret passageway out of Hogwarts was just the kind of thing he needed to cheer himself up after what had already proven to be a miserable week. "Let's meet up after dinner there and try to figure out how to get it to open."

If it were up to James, he would have wolfed down dinner in five minutes and then rushed to the third floor. Lysander, however, flatly refused to give up the prospect of treacle tart and claimed, quite reasonably, that the statue and the corridor would still be there in half an hour. James wasn't completely sure his sanity would stick around for that long, but he resorted to staring at Lysander, picking at his food, and reminding his little brother about the open position on the Quidditch team. Al's mane of messy jet black hair was visible a few seats down the table, so after he had his share of staring at Lysander miserably, James got up and tapped on his shoulder

Al jumped in surprise, but scowled when he saw it was James "What d'you want?" he asked in an annoyed voice.

"Oi, no need to be rude," James chastised his brother. "Just wanted to tell you Roxanne is conducting tryouts on Friday."

"So?"

"So, Terry Bones graduated last year, didn't he?"

Al gave him a blank stare.

"The Seeker position is open, you numpty! Honestly, maybe we don't want you as a Seeker if you're this slow. Anyway, tryouts are Friday at five."

"Thanks," Al said and started chewing his dinner again. James stared at him for a moment, puzzled. Sometimes it felt as if Al didn't even want to be in the team, what with the weird way he broke his leg last year right before tryouts, and now, acting as if he didn't understand what James was talking about.

He shrugged it off. The last thing he had time for was his brother's odd moods. He returned to his seat and stared at Lysander eating some more.

After the longest thirty minutes of his life, Lysander finally declared himself done, and James jumped to his feet. On their way out, they caught the eyes of Lorcan and Colleen over at the Ravenclaw table and nodded slightly. Time to have some fun.

Fun - or frustration, as they soon discovered. Lorcan had tried again the spell and it turned out that there was, indeed, something there, right under the statue, but whatever they did, they couldn't find out how open the statue without completely destroying it. "And let's admit it," Lorcan sighed, "if we blast open the statue, it would be a pretty poor secret passage."

"I wish your Mum would have told you how to open the damn thing," James kicked around in frustration.

"Hold on," Colleen now said slowly, "there was this spell in Flitwick's class... what was it? Oh, yeah - Specialis Revelio!" She aimed her wand at the statue. Nothing happened.

"Oh, come on," James said in frustration, and, more out of frustration than any reasonable hope, started casting random spells at the statue. "Alohomora! Deprimo! Diffindo! Dissendium!"

To everyone's surprise - and James's most of all - the last spell did the trick. The hump on the back of the one-eyed witch opened, allowed them a small but manageable passageway into a tunnel.

"Wicked," James said with a huge smile and started climbing in.

It was a narrow, small space, and at times he had to get on his hands and knees and crawl some of the way when the ceiling got dangerously low. But after what seemed like half an hour, the tunnel started going perceptively up - and then ended.

"I think that's it," he whispered to the rest of the group.

"Where do you think we are?" someone whispered back at him.

"Only one way to find out, is there?" he said and opened what looked like a trapdoor above him.

It was a cellar - and not just a cellar. There were boxes over boxes of candy, a hoard of chocolate frogs, and what looked like half a shop's worth of Bertie Botts' All-Flavoured Beans.

"D'you know where we are?" he whispered in awe. "I think we're at the Honeydukes cellar!"

"Excellent!" Lysander said behind him, while Lorcan, who had just climbed up, whistled in appreciation. Only Colleen looked a bit worried.

"What's up?" he asked her.

"How are we going to get out of here?" she said. "And worse - even if we do manage to get out of here, how are we going to get back?"

"Let's worry about this later, shall we?" James was still feeling a bit frustrated and reckless. Colleen looked at him sceptically for a bit longer, then said, "Alright."

It wasn't that much of a surprise - as reluctant as Colleen was to get caught outside of school without permission, James knew that like the rest of them, she was unhappy with the new security measures. Usually, Hogwarts students were allowed into the village several times during the year. However, after last year's attack on Hogsmeade, which happened at the same time as one of the students' weekends there, Professor McGonagall had announced that all such Hogsmeade weekends were cancelled until further notice. And if James had hoped that the tight security measures would loosen up after the summer holidays, the attack on the school had made it clear that no such thing would happen. They were stuck inside the walls of Hogwarts, unless they could find their own way out.

James thought Professor McGonagall was being paranoid. The goblins had already attacked Hogsmeade once - they would have to be extremely stupid to do it again, now that the wizarding world was ready for them. A small doubt still niggled - after all, no one had imagined they would go for the school, and perhaps Dad wasn't as paranoid as James thought he was. He knew his father would be less than impressed if he knew they had sneaked out of the school, and that, if they were caught now, a couple of hours of writing lines would pale in comparison to the punishment he would receive.

He just didn't care at the moment.

They climbed up the stairs quietly. James wished once again that he knew how to do a Disillusionment charm - he would have to ask Dominique to teach him, he decided. But the coast was clear - the shop was completely empty, and even the owners weren't around. Probably they realised no one was going to get in for the rest of the day.

"Maybe they closed down early," James whispered in hope.

Lorcan nodded, even though he looked almost sick, jumping around at every small noise as if expecting the shopkeep to show up and turn them all in. Lysander was also jumping nervously, but less obviously so - and Colleen just didn't look very happy.

They stepped carefully outside of the shop undetected, and James allowed himself to breathe. They did it. They were in Hogsmeade.

"Let's go for a Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks," Lysander suggested, sporting a huge smile, full of relief.

"Nah - Madam Rosmerta could tell on us to someone at the school. She knows we're not supposed to be here."

"Okay - how about the other pub?"

"The Hog's Head?" James's brow wrinkled.

"Yeah," Colleen said enthusiastically. "That's the one. My mum told me all about it, she said the barman there doesn't really care who he serves, as long as they pay."

"Yeah," Lysander was warming up to the idea as well, "he wouldn't want to get us into trouble, not when we could be the only way of getting Hogwarts students to buy anything from him!"

"Alright, then! Let's go," James said. "Just, um - does anyone know where the pub is?"

Lorcan thought he might know, so they started off the path, walking between the different shops and trying to hide from the cold wind with little success. They had to go back several times, when their attempt to escape the wind made them choose the wrong way. Eventually - and not before it started to rain, a small, annoying drizzle - they found it and walked inside, proud of themselves.

The barman was short and balding, his dirty ginger hair thin on his head. His clothes were colourful and the material looked like silk, but they had definitely seen better days - and it looked to James that it must have been a while since they'd seen the inside of a washing machine. The barman eyed them with suspicious eyes as they walked into the bar uncertain, and didn't make any attempt to welcome them in.

James looked around nervously. All of a sudden, their clever plan didn't feel so clever anymore. The pub was half empty, dark and uninviting - and quite as dirty as the man. A few unshaven, rough-looking wizards eyed them from one corner, while at the other sat a goblin, talking with a wizard. He eyed them for a moment, then shrugged and kept on talking.

"Go sit somewhere," James said, "I'll get the Butterbeer."

For a moment, he panicked - did he even have money in his pockets? But he managed to find a Galleon, there from the money his parents gave him for the trolly on the Hogwarts Express. Encouraged by this bout of good luck, he stepped up to the barman.

The barman looked him up and down, obviously registering the Hogwarts robes, but he didn't comment.

"Four Butterbeers, please," James said, trying to sound reassured and pretend that he had every reason in the world to be there.

"Eleven Sickles," the barman said. He made no attempt to bring the Butterbeers yet, and James wondered whether he thought they had no money. He pulled out the Galleon, and handed it to the barman, who looked at it in suspicion, bit it, then stashed the coin and passed on the bottles and James's change.

James took the money and the drinks and went to find his friends. The table they had chosen was the only one fit for four people - and not covered in a suspicious layer of dust and sauce, and was right next to the goblin and his human friend.

Jamed distributed the Butterbeers quietly, trying to listen in on the goblin, but he spoke in Gobbledegook, so it was hopeless. James was slowly getting the feeling that they should be taught Gobbledegook at school. He was already thinking of the reasonings he would give his father or Professor Longbottom - after all, relations with goblins are an extremely important thing in the modern world and how were they supposed to understand goblins if they couldn't talk to them?

"Did he say something?" Lorcan asked anxiously.

"Huh? Oh - no, not at all. I don't think he cares," James said. The wizard was now talking, and James tried hard to listen and look nonchalant at the same time, perhaps the wizard only spoke English? But alas, the guttural sounds that came from the wizard's throat were definitely Gobbledegook. Damn.

Lysander and Lorcan started talking about something, and Colleen joined in with them, but James's mind was still on the wizard and the goblin. Why would a wizard meet with a goblin? Some wizards met with goblins, of course - Dad did, quite a lot of times, but it was a part of his job. Perhaps this was a Ministry wizard, trying to talk some sense into the goblins? It would make sense, James reasoned, that they wouldn't want to meet anywhere that was only for goblins or only for humans. A pub was as good a place as any, he thought.

"So I was thinking, James, are you listening?" Colleen asked sharply. James shook his head and focused on her.

"Yeah, sure. Listening. What were you saying?"

She gave him an odd look. "I was saying, if we're actually going to do this, we need a better way of getting in and out of Honeyduke's."

"We need to learn how to do a Disillusionment charm," he shared with them the thought he had in the Honeyduke's cellar. "If we can do that, we wouldn't have to worry about being seen."

"A Disillusionment charm doesn't make you completely invisible, though," Colleen pointed out. "Not if someone's expecting to see you."

"Well, that's the point, isn't it? No one knows about the passageway, why would they expect to see us?"

"Some people obviously know about it," Lorcan objected. "Mum told us about it, didn't she? So she obviously knows."

"Yeah, but the people inside the castle aren't the problem, Honeyduke's is. All we need to do is to fool him, then we're fine."

The four considered this for a while. "Do you know anyone who can do Disillusionment charms?" Colleen asked, sceptical.

"My cousin Dominique," James said. "I'm sure she'd be willing to help us out if we asked really nicely..." Actually, he wasn't quite so sure. In fact, he was positive she would become suspicious and would demand to know why a bunch of fifth-years were asking her how to do N.E.W.T level charms instead of concentrating on their own O.W.L studies. But he was sure he could come up with a passable excuse.

At that point, a loud thump made them all jump. But it was nothing - the wizard next to him, the one with the goblin, had dropped his bag on the floor. His papers started flying everywhere around them - on the chairs, on the tables, on the floor, even on James. James jumped from his seat and started picking up papers. He hoped to be able to see something, hoped that they had something to do with the man's meeting with the goblin, but they were all written in some unknown script. James wondered whether this was what written Gobbledegook looked like. In that case, it was definitely related to the meeting, but he would remain none the wiser.

"Here," he handed the man the papers. The man stretched his left arm to take the papers, and the sleeve of his shirt fell back, revealing a weird tattoo - almost completely faded, it had the vague shape of a skull and a snake.

James looked at it for a moment. For some reason, the tattoo looked familiar, but he couldn't place it. The man, however, wasn't happy at all that James had seen the tattoo. He snatched the papers and pulled the sleeve back, then shoved the papers back into his bag, muttered something to the goblin in Gobbledegook, and disappeared.

The goblin got up and left as well, and only now did James allow himself to express the thought he had been bursting to speak. "I wonder what they were talking about!" he said.

"Who? The goblin and that wizard?"

"Yeah! He looked really unhappy when I started picking up those papers."

"What did they say?"

"I dunno," James admitted, "it was all in some other language."

"Hey, maybe it was Gobbledegook!" Lorcan said.

"Yeah, that's what I thought - and then he really didn't like when I saw his tattoo. I don't know, it looks familiar, but I don't know where from!" He described the tattoo to his friends, but it didn't ring any bells with them, either.

They started talking about goblins again, and about the attack on the school.

"I've been thinking," Lorcan said slowly. "About what you guys heard that goblin say that night."

"Which bit?"

"You know which bit - the sword! I've been thinking - what if he meant the Sword of Gryffindor?"

"Oh, get off it," James snorted. Lorcan's theory was surprisingly unexciting; they had discussed the nature of 'the sword' ever since James had heard the goblin mention it as the reason for the attack. "The Sword of Gryffindor is lost. It got lost in the War, didn't it? No one knows where it is!"

"Well, maybe they do. Maybe they're hiding it at Hogwarts."

"I doubt it," Colleen said with as much disbelief as James felt. "They wouldn't keep the sword in the school even if they did have it."

"Why not? Hogwarts is the safest place in the world! Everyone always says so!"

"Yeah - but think. They say the sword's got magical powers, don't they? If they had it, they would have probably used it, not hidden it away somewhere!"

The discussion and bickering went back and forth for a while. The next time any of them glanced at their watches, it was 8 o'clock. "We better head back," James said, slightly worried.

They were faced with a much more daunting task this time round. Honeyduke's was bound to be closed by now - which meant that they would have to break in. He didn't look forward to that at all. Did the owner have some sort of alarm? What would happen if they just walked into the shop?

They stood in silence in front of the closed door of the shop for a while. It was dark and abandoned inside, and on the floor above there was light at the window of the small flat, where the owners undoubtedly slept. The drizzle had - mercifully - stopped, but the wind had become stronger while they were inside the pub, and stabbed them with its icy fingers.

"It's breaking and entering if we go in there now," Lorcan said in a small voice.

"We could go through the regular way," Lysander said, his voice full of doubt.

James looked up at the sky. The clouds did not look encouraging. And even if it didn't start to rain... "We're bound to run into some teacher if we go through the grounds."

"It's against the law!" Lorcan repeated, eyeing the closed, dark shop. "This isn't some stupid school rule. It's - the - law!"

"Only if they catch us," Lysander pointed out. "It's not like we're going to steal anything, is it? We're just going to go through the cellar and back into the tunnel. We're not going to take anything. So it's not technically..."

"A burglary?" Colleen asked in a voice as icy as the wind. James started shivering.

"We'll freeze half to death if we stay here much longer," he announced. "I don't see what choice we have."

"This is stupid," Colleen hissed.

"I know," he said. "I just don't see any other option. If you can think of something better than going through the grounds, I'm all ears."

"No," she admitted. "No, I can't see any other way, either. Let me have a go, though." She cast a spell around the door of the shop, and all of a sudden smiled. "I don't think there's any sort of alarm charm on the shop! I don't think they expect any burglaries!"

"So you think we can just walk in?" James asked, just as excited. Were they really going to be this lucky?

Colleen gave him a warning look, as if saying to let her handle this. Then she went to the door, tapped it gently, and whispered something. Nothing happened. Apparently, nothing was supposed to happen, because now her smile definitely became relieved. She flicked her wand again, said "Alohomora", and the door opened.

No alarm was heard.

"Excellent!" James said, and followed her into the dark shop, Lorcan and Lysander right behind him. They made sure to close the door gently, and then turned around the counter and walked down the stairs and into the cellars.

Everything was going right according to plan - until Colleen's foot landed on the floor of the cellar. All of a sudden, a loud alarm was heard all over the shop. They all froze.

"No no no no no!" James moaned. He could hear someone rushing from above. "Come on!" he urged the rest in a whisper. "Into the tunnel!"

Throwing caution into the wind, they sprinted towards the trapdoor, and jumped inside, one after the other. James was last; he pulled out his wand, whispered "Colloportus, and told his friends, "Run!"

They couldn't run, of course. They could only step carefully, and then start crawling as the ceiling of the tunnel became lower and lower. It didn't sound as if someone was after them, though. As they were crawling down the tunnel, James thought the shop owner must have thought that any burglar would be likely to go into the cellar to disappear with the supplies, and maybe that was why the charm only worked there. It didn't seem like he knew about the tunnel.

Some twenty minutes later, they were standing up again, breathing hard at the other end of the tunnel, ready to exit through the one-eyed witch statue.

"Wait!" Colleen whispered, stopping Lysander. "We need to make sure there's no one here."

It was good that she had stopped them - they could hear now someone shouting in the corridor above them.

"Potter! What do you think you're doing! And it's almost nine o'clock, too! Ten points from Gryffindor!"

"Professor Malfoy," someone else said - Dad. Once again, James blessed Colleen's common sense. If Dad had caught them getting out of the witch's statue...

"Professor Potter," said the shouting teacher - Professor Malfoy. He wasn't shouting anymore - now his voice was calm and guarded.

"I do believe there are two sides to this fight?" Dad asked pleasantly, and James smirked. He knew what Professor Malfoy was trying to do, and gloated that he had failed so spectacularly - and was foiled by Dad, to boot.

"Oh, very well," Professor Malfoy said in an irritated voice. "Fi - Ten points from Slytherin. Off you go, you two, and don't let me catch you at it again. That goes for you, too, Scorpius."

There was a lot of shuffling around. The four of them looked at each other, sharing smiles - the Ravenclaws didn't like Professor Malfoy any more than the Gryffindors did. After two or three minutes of total silence outside, they figured the coast should be clear. James tentatively opened the hatch above them and looked around. Once satisfied that there was no sign of Professor Malfoy, Dad, or any other teacher, he climbed out.

Lysander had only finished closing the hatch behind him, when someone showed up - Dad again. "What are you lot doing here?" he demanded.

"Just on the way to the common room," James said. "Well, common rooms, 'cause Colleen and Lorcan are in Ravenclaw."

"It's almost nine o'clock," Dad said sharply.

"I know. That's why we're going to the common room now, Dad."

Dad still looked at him suspiciously - and then his gaze travelled to the statue of the one-eyed witch. James's heart sank. Professor Scamander knew about the passageway - could Dad also know?

Colleen realised that, too. "A couple of kids were fighting here, Professor Potter," she said all of a sudden. "Earlier. It was... Al. And Scorpius Malfoy. We didn't want to say anything to any teacher because we didn't want to get Al in detention again, so we stopped them. We decided to drop by a bit later to make sure they weren't at it again."

Dad studied her for a moment. James wasn't sure he bought it - but it was still a wonderful, flawless excuse, and one even Dad couldn't poke holes in. Eventually, Dad nodded. "Thanks, Colleen. Next time, though, do tell me or Madam Potter, alright? It could save Al getting intro trouble in the future. Scorpius, too."

"Okay, Professor," she said, and the four of them walked away. Dad remained standing there, next to the statue of the one-eyed witch.

"You - are - brilliant!" James said as soon as he dared open his mouth.

"That was absolutely inspired," Lysander joined in.

"Brilliant," Lorcan agreed weakly.

They split up then, Lorcan and Colleen going up to the Ravenclaw Tower, and Lysander and James to the Gryffindor common room.

It took James a long time to fall asleep that night. On the one hand, he was glad Colleen had managed to come up with such a good excuse - if the truth had come out, it would have been unpleasant, especially after his and Lysander's excursion the week before. But at the same time... he didn't like the thought about that wizard with the goblin. And he was sure the tattoo was something familiar. He would have liked to tell his father about it all, about the goblin, meeting wizards in private, and about wizards with creepy faded tattoos on their arms. But there was no way to tell his father this without admitting they had broken about a dozen school rules. There was no way to ask his advice without getting punished.

James scowled in his bed. Why couldn't his father be normal, just like everyone else? Things would have been so simple then.