This is kind of a short one, but that's because the next one is, er, reeeaallly long lol So here goes nothing!
Chapter Seven
It didn't matter what way you looked at it, this much snow in November was wrong. Moving from class to class, the students of every House bundled up against drafty corridors and looked dismally out at the snow that was blowing wickedly around the castle.
Lily and Bella were standing huddled together outside of McGonagall's classroom, both staring forlornly out at the white mess.
"I've never seen such a horrible autumn," Bella said and pouted. "It's already winter and there's not even a holiday in sight. It's not fair."
"I agree," Lily said. "This is getting a bit ridiculous."
"Brrr, I sure could use something to warm me up!" Sirius squirmed between the two girls and wrapped arms around their waists. "Ahhh, that's better. After we finish with duplicating spells today, I can just duplitcate both of you and take you with me. That should do the trick in these bloody freezing corridors."
Bella grinned at Sirius and Lily smiled. It was becoming all too obvious how in love her best friend was. She was exceedingly happy that Sirius seemed to be reciprocating those feelings as well.
Her smile instantly vanished, however, when she spotted a messy black head walking down the hall with Remus and she quickly disentangled herself from Sirius and Bella.
"I'm going to go find a seat Bella, see you in a bit," she mumbled and quickly ducked inside of the classroom. Sirius and Bella exchanged a dark look. Lily had been absolutely avoiding James at all costs since the night of the Hogsmeade trip. It had only been two weeks, but they were positive she hadn't looked him in the eye once unless they were on patrol together. And then, James had told them, she refused to speak a word.
None of them knew what had happened that night, since neither Lily nor James had been particularly forthcoming, but it must have been serious because even James had to be forced to talk about it.
"Alright then?" James and Remus had stopped in front of Sirius and Bella who were still having a nonverbal conversation.
Sirius nodded and Bella smiled in greeting before going into the classroom to sit with Lily.
"What was that all about?" The side of Remus' mouth quirked up. "Things getting serious with Bella?"
"Dunno," Sirius shrugged and didn't meet their eyes. "I haven't asked her out yet if that's what you mean."
It was James and Remus's turn to share a look. Apparently James wasn't the only one who had it bad.
Bella dropped her bag next to Lily's table and sat down, "What's wrong, Lily? What happened the other night?"
Lily shook her head, "Nothing out of the ordinary. Just James being his normal idiot self and not knowing when to quit."
Bella knew her much better than that and saw the hurt underneath her nonchalance. Lily and James had always fought, but Lily hadn't ever acted this way before. She'd always faced James head on, not hidden from him.
Her mind following the same lines, Lily clenched her fists. Why was she suddenly being a coward? It was only letting him feel superior over her, knowing he had finally gotten too deep under her skin. The hard part that she had to admit to herself was that she actually wanted to talk to him, be a normal part of his life. But he just couldn't let that happen. Always springing hurtful things on her and forever taunting her. It was too much, and the night after the Hogsmeade trip had simply gone too far.
Just then the four marauders walked in looking like young gods and she cursed under her breath. It was no wonder the whole bloody school drooled over them. With the exception of Peter, all of them stood over six foot tall and had a subtly disheveled look that was altogether sexy and intriguing. James was playing with a Snitch in his right hand that he kept releasing and snatching out of the air, Sirius was sweet talking McGonagall as she walked in beside them, and Remus was looking very melancholy and adorably sad. All in all, they were irresistible seventeen year old boys that absolutely knew it.
James suddenly caught Lily's eye and smirked. It seemed every time he turned around he was catching her perusal of him or his mates. What could that possibly mean?
Resolving not to give him another inch of her sanity, she held his gaze and sneered in response.
Well that's a nice change. He fought not to grin. If she was attempting to be confidant again, it meant she had gotten over their last argument….at least for the moment. It made him look forward to patrol that night that much more.
Lily ignored the arrogant smile that touched his lips and turned her attention to McGonagall who promptly told the marauders to find their seats lest they spend the night cleaning every inch of them without magic.
Taking the hint, the boys sat down.
She was late again. Damn it. As if he wasn't already going to be unbearable after their visual exchange in Transfiguration, she was positive he would immediately take advantage of the opportunity to poke at her.
Determined not to look upset, she slowed her step as she approached the portrait of the Fat Lady and did her best to look indifferent when she rounded the corner and her eyes landed immediately on the relaxed form of James.
His hazel eyes were amused when she met them as if he knew the inner battle she was waging against her selfcontrol.
"Potter," she said determinedly.
"Evans."
"Shall we?" she asked and gestured towards the corridor.
He nodded and pushed himself off the wall to walk beside her as she began walking away from the Fat Lady.
"So we were the only ones in Transfiguration today who managed to do that Duplication Spell correctly," he began, watching her confidently out of the corner of his eye. He knew she'd answer. She was trying not to look weak.
"What's your point?"
"Just thought it was amusing. I don't know if you met Peter's double, but he was about as brain dead as a flubberworm," he chuckled genuinely amused. They had learned the rather simple spell of duplicating in their third year. This new spell was much more complicated and infinitely more complex. The goal of the caster was to create an exact twin of whatever the target was. That meant it was shallowly a mirror image of the original. That meant endowing the double with the same speech patterns, specific thought processes, and facial expressions. It was complicated magic, and something that they were supposed to master wandless by the end of the year.
"You'd think you three would give him a hand once and a while," Lily replied disdainfully. "That was obviously child's play for you three."
"And it wasn't for you?"
"Well yes it was simple," she snapped. "But my best friend wasn't struggling was she?"
James smirked having properly provoked her for the first time that night.
She scowled at her feet and resolutely closed her mouth.
"Come on Lily," he said and his smirk became a very warm smile. "I've already apologized a million times."
"I have nothing to say to you James," she answered coldly ignoring his oozing charm.
The sound of his name on her lips was heaven. He had to keep her talking.
"Well you have to talk to me eventually," he insisted. "We're going to be at this all year. Dumbledore said we need to get over our differences."
"Merlin, do you ever give up?" she snarled. "I'm quite content not speaking to you, James. If you…"
They both froze having heard the same thing. People were whispering around the corner.
"Quick you dolt," a whisper reached there ears in the silence. "Those bloody dogs are on patrol right now. They'll be here any second."
"She's bloody heavy," someone else grunted.
"Don't make me tell the Dark Lord that you failed simply because you were too stupid to use your wand like a real wizard," the first voice was clearly female now. "The rest of them are already there. Now use your wand, you imbecile."
"Levicorpus," and it appeared that the second voice was male.
Lily was looking at James with round eyes and couldn't' convince her feet to move. James put a finger to his lips and silently pulled her up against the wall. He pulled something liquid silver out of his pocket and slipped it over their heads. It was an invisibility cloak. She didn't think he'd ever stop surprising her.
"Bravo," the female voice was high and cold. "Not let's go. We're late. Dissendium."
They heard the grating of stone and suddenly the hall in front of Lily and James was silent. James grabbed Lily by the arm and moved cautiously forward so that they could look around the corner. The corridor was deserted.
"What's going on?" Lily whispered. "You don't think they're honestly stupid enough to try something in the school, do you?"
"I have no idea," James said not bothering to whisper. He knew the stature just to his left and it guarded a secret passage into Hogsmeade. He had a good idea of where they had gone. "But they've already got someone with them that obviously isn't conscious or they wouldn't have needed that spell. I don't even want to think about who it might be."
"Well where did they go? They can't apparate in here, and they just disappeared."
"They went through here," James had removed the invisibility cloak and tapped absently on the humpbacked statue of a witch.
Lily raised a skeptical eyebrow, "James that's a statue."
"It's also a secret passage," he muttered and seemed to be searching all his pockets for something.
"It's a what?" Lily demanded. "How do you know that?"
Ignoring her, he stuck his hand in the pocket of his robes and finally seemed to find what he was looking for. He pulled out a worn piece of parchment and something that look suspiciously like the compact mirrors she and Bella carried. He unfolded the parchment and tapped it absently with his wand.
She watched in disbelief as spidery lines of ink spread out on it and revealed what looked like an entire map of Hogwarts.
"Where did you get this?" Lily said in amazement. She was watching in awe as two little bubbles that read 'Lily Evans' and 'James Potter' moved together just as she and James bent over the map. "This is incredible."
"Thanks," he smirked briefly. "It was one of my brighter ideas, and one of Remus' more brilliant pieces of magic. We made it last year."
Lily gasped, "James look!"
There was a passage that moved away from the castle behind the miniscule statue on the map that she could only assume mirrored that same statue and passage in real life. And walking down the passage was Bellatrix Black, Rodolphus Lestrange, and Alice McCoy.
"No, no," Lily cried. "James they've got Alice. We've got to do something."
"I'm working on it," he snapped and she noticed the very dangerous glint in his eye as he pulled out the mirror again.
He tapped it with his wand and immediately a voice came out of it, "Prongs? What's going on?"
It was Sirius's voice that reached Lily's stunned ears. Two way mirrors. Her respect for the boys she had always thought were a waste of brilliance was growing rapidly.
"Sirius I need your help," he answered and quickly ran over the details of what had just happened. "Long story short Padfoot, Bellatrix has Alice and we're going after them. Send Moony to Dumbledore and make sure he knows what's going on. Then you need to follow us. Bring anyone you trust as long as you're quick and take the passage that leads to Honeydukes."
"Bloody hell," Lily heard Sirius swear under his breath. "Alright James. Remus just heard everything and he's already left. Be careful. We'll be there as soon as we can."
James snapped the mirror shut and looked up expectantly at Lily, "Are you ready."
"As I'll ever be," she breathed and watched in amazement as he raised his wand and repeated the spell they'd heard Bellatrix utter moments before.
"Let's go," he looked grim but he offered her a comforting smile. Whatever it was about those damned lips, they always worked on her. She took his hand in complete trust and climbed into the dark passageway with him.
The air blowing into their faces was cold and stale. Her fingers were already starting to go numb as she waited for him to get his bearing when she was startled by his warm, rough hand grabbing hers in the dark.
"I don't want to lose you in the dark," he whispered. "We're going to wear the invisibility cloak in case we run into any unwanted company."
She didn't bother nodding as he couldn't see her anyway, and moved closer to him so that he could throw the liquid fabric over both of them. Feeling slightly safer in their closeness, they both quickened their steps and almost started jogging down the corridor towards the Death Eaters and the friend that they couldn't reach soon enough.
"James," Lily whispered. "I can't feel my feet anymore. How much farther is it?"
"We should almost be there," he answered quietly and she felt a shiver run through his body as he paused to listen. "They must have already made it up and out. They moved fast for having to deal with an unconscious body in the dark."
Lily bit down on her lip hard to chase away the dread that filled her stomach at the thought of what they were going to do to Alice.
"Well let's hurry," she urged. "I want to get out of this stupid tunnel and find her."
She felt James nod next to her and they quickened their steps once more to be rewarded minutes later by a dim glowing light and a rather tall set of stairs.
"I'll go first with the cloak in case there's anyone around. Stay put until I check it out."
Lily nodded silently, and obediently followed his ascent up the stairs. Once they reached the top she waited anxiously in the dark until James pulled the door back open and pulled her up and out of the passage. The dark cellar they were standing in smelled sweetly of candies and sweets. They had made it all the way to Honeydukes.
"C'mon," he motioned for her to get under the cloak once more and they climbed the cellar stairs to emerge behind the counter in the candy store. It was dark and deserted, but the front door was hanging ajar, the safety charm having obviously been broken.
"How will we know where they've gone?" Lily asked quietly as they finally stood shivering outside of the shop and stared at the deserted streets of Hogsmeade. They hadn't been prepared for the strong winter cold and it had dropped well below freezing with the setting of the sun.
"I don't know, but I have a good…"
He trailed off as Lily grabbed his arm and hissed in his ear, "Look."
He followed her finger down the street to where a couple in black hoods had emerged under the street lamp outside the Hog's Head. They watched silently as the first person entered and then in horror as the second lowered his hood and looked around just to check no one was watching. He then turned and swiftly followed his companion into the tavern with a familiar swagger.
It was Severus Snape.
CLIFFY! lol Haven't used that word in a while :) Well look for the next chapter sometime in the next three to four days. I'm insanely busy this week!
Thanks!! Review review review!
