The next day, Lily was sitting in the library doing her homework while Sam and Rory were tweaking a confetti bomb they'd created, the instructions of which had been found in a stray library book.
"Hey there, little sister," Albus slid into the seat next to her.
"Hey, Al," Lily looked up, glad for an excuse to put her quill down.
"Busy?" Scorpius slid into the seat on her other side.
"It can wait," Lily grinned. "What's up?"
"Well, word on the street is that you've been adventuring," Albus arched his eyebrows, eyes glinting mischievously.
"And we thought," said Scorpius.
"That you'd benefit from," continued Albus.
"This!" Scorpius pulled out a swath of silvery, fluid fabric that seemed not quite there but very much present.
"That isn't…?" Lily said, eyeing the fabric.
"Ah, but it is," Albus said, sounding much too old for any just-turned-fourteen-two-weeks-ago-old.
"Indeed," chimed Scorpius.
"Al, where did you get this?" asked Lily, running the material through her fingers.
"Nicked it from Dad's office while we were home for Christmas," Albus shrugged.
"You didn't!" Lily almost laughed out loud.
Albus rolled his eyes. "Fine, but it would've been a lot cooler if I did. James found it and Dad said he could use it and I talked James into letting me borrow it, but it seems your needs are more of a priority."
"You're right, if you'd nicked it, it'd have made a better story," Lily smirked.
"Shush, you," Albus ruffled her hair.
"Use it wisely, Lily," Scorpius said somberly, trying to hold in defiant giggles.
"And now," Albus stood up.
"We must be off," Scorpius got to his feet.
"Goodbye and farewell."
"Farewell and goodbye."
And the two boys, most unlikely of friends, were off.
Lily stared at the Invisibility Cloak in her hands for a moment longer. Then, she stood up, stuffed her Potions essay into her bag, and streaked out of the library like her hair was on fire. And if one hadn't been looking closely, it would indeed appear to be aflame, for all the color red in the world must have gone into creating the Weasley shade of gingery hair.
"You two will never believe what I have," Lily plopped down beside Rory and Sam, who were still working intently on their confetti bomb. By this time, it was so covered in Spell-O Tape that Lily doubted it'd even explode; all the tape would hold it completely intact, it seemed.
"Enlighten us," Sam grinned, looking up at Lily from the tape and paper mass.
Lily pulled the Invisibility Cloak out of her bag with a flourish.
"My father's Cloak of Invisibility! The one and only," She grinned.
"Blimey!" said Rory. "That's brilliant! Where'd you get it?"
"Albus," said Lily, grinning.
"Well, thank Merlin for him," Sam said, half sarcastic, half serious. "It's great we have this, but what exactly are we going to do with it?"
Lily rolled her eyes, wondering how someone who'd practically
uncovered the entire mystery could be so thick. "Does anything about a hidden trunk and a forbidden corridor strike a thought?"
"You want us to go in there?" Rory said, his face losing its color and growing
wan.
"Why not?" Lily said, growing excited. "I mean, there's no one to stop us!"
"Yeah, but-but what if we get caught? What if we die? No, this is too risky." Rory stuttered, blatantly terrified.
"Oh, don't be such a baby, Rory," said Sam. "Toughen up! We're Gryffindors, after all! We weren't put in the house of the brave for nothing!"
"Yeah, Rory," Lily smirked, punching his arm. "Are you scared?"
"Who me?" Rory puffed his chest out. "Nah. Never. C'mon, I say we go right now!" He stood up.
"What? No!" Lily shook her head. "We can't, it'd be too risky."
"She's right, mate," Sam agreed. "We have to plan."
"And we'd have to go at night." said Lily.
"How come?" asked Sam.
"Because that way, we won't run into anybody. The corridors will be clear, and nobody will notice we've slipped away from our beds."
"Good point," Sam flexed his wrists, pondering.
"How do we know this will work, anyway?" Rory prompted. "The last time, and may I remind you, the only time Lily went in there, she got tossed out."
"We don't know if it'll work, but at least we get a chance to see for ourselves without getting caught," Lily said. "We'll never know if we don't try."
"So we're actually doing this," said Rory. This was a statement, not a question.
"Of course we are, mate," said Sam. "If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a mystery begging to be solved and no one solving it."
That night, Lily crept down the stairs as quietly as she could. It was late, later than anyone should be up, but she didn't care. She was finally living up to her Potter name, the Marauder way. Like her father and paternal grandfather and uncle and even her mother, Lily was sneaking out, going on secret adventures, the sharp sting of trouble pining away behind her. And Lily loved it. She loved the way her heart beat harder in her chest and the way her insides quivered with excitement.
Lily caught sight of Rory and Sam standing by the fire, their backs turned to her. She crept up silently behind them, pulling on the Invisibility Cloak.
When she was right behind the boys, she whispered, "Boo."
"Merlin's Pants!" Sam gasped. "You scared the mickey out of me!"
Lily laughed as she pulled the cloak off. "Sorry, couldn't resist."
"Clearly," said Rory. "I almost had a heart attack."
"Oh, you did not," said Lily. "Quit whining. You ready?"
Sam and Rory nodded. Lily threw the Invisibility Cloak over the three of them; it was plenty big enough to fit three eleven-year-old children underneath. They crept quietly through the porthole to the corridor, tiptoeing and holding their breath. No one was coming, and they continued on.
Rory, Sam, and Lily passed through corridors and hallways before they were interrupted by something just outside the prefects bathroom. And that something was Mrs. Norris, Mr. Filch's mangy old cat that Lily swore had a sixth sense of knowing who was causing trouble and where they were in the castle.
Unfortunately, for however careful the trio was being, Sam saw Mrs. Norris a little too late, just after the bottom of his shoe became acquainted with her tail.
The cat yelped, hissed, scratched the air, and then streaked off to find Mr. Filch.
"Bugger!" Sam whispered, frantic. "Bugger, bugger, bugger!"
"Oh God, we're gonna die, oh God," Rory said, hyperventilating.
"Dear Merlin, help me," Lily muttered. "Come on." Lily grabbed the boys' wrists and dragged them down the corridor as quickly as she could. They caught on and three broke into a run, clutching the sides of the billowing Invisibility Cloak so it wouldn't fly off.
Where Lily was leading them, she didn't know, and she figured she didn't really have time to find out. She ran blindly through hallways and passageways, half-sure she was running in the right direction. She stopped only when she was confident that Mr. Filch hadn't followed them and the ache in her chest became unbearable.
Lily leaned against the wall, gulping air. Rory was bent over with his hands on his knees, gasping for breath. Sam was breathing hard, but he was upright and looking around.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"No idea," Lily shook her head. "You two were having conniptions so I didn't have time to decide where to go."
Lily craned her neck to see the ceiling. The ceiling of the castle depended on where you where and often varied from corridor to corridor and classroom to classroom. The ceiling of this corridor was regular, boring old stone. Nothing useful to help her distinguish it from the next.
Size-wise, it was long, with classrooms on one side and portraits on the other. Lily remembered her cousin Rose saying how she had whole conversations with portraits. She squared her shoulders and walked over to the nearest painting, which was a depiction of a young man and his dog.
"Hello, sir," Lily began awkwardly.
"Hi there," said the man. "The name's Charles. This is my dog. I call him Tucker. Want to see Tucker do a trick?"
"Erm, I actually have to ask you a question," Lily's brow furrowed and she wrung her hands together.
"Oh, okay," Charles looked crestfallen. "Ask away, then."
"Where are we?" asked Lily.
Charles put his hands on his hips importantly. "We are in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"
"Where in Hogwarts, I mean." Lily corrected herself. She couldn't shake the feeling that she and the boys had limited time and that it was quickly running out.
"Oh, that's easy! You're in the west wing, just a few floors above the infirmary!"
"Do you know how to get to a corridor that has lots of doors on both sides and most of them are locked, and one has a trunk in it that glows?" Lily was aware that she was being incredibly vague and that she sounded utterly ridiculous, but it was the best explanation she had.
"Does it have an old staircase at the end of it?" asked Charles.
"Yeah," said Lily, excitement blooming in her chest.
"Sure, I know where that is! Go down this corridor, take a right, then a left, then go up the stairs, take another left, go up some more stairs, take a right, two more lefts, and there you are!" said Charles proudly.
"Wait so…a right, a left, stairs, a left, stairs, a right, and two more lefts?" Lily mentally checked off the directions.
"Right-o. Except don't go in there!" Charles called after Lily as she started to walk away.
"Okay," Lily called back, telling herself it wasn't a lie because she didn't say directly that she wouldn't go into the corridor.
Lily grabbed the cloak and nodded to Rory and Sam, who'd heard the conversation. Once more, the trio converged underneath the silvery fabric worn with adventure and traipsed down the hallway, carefully following Charles' the painting's directions. The stairs were wooden and rickety and covered in dust. They looked as though they hadn't been used in years. They creaked and Rory cringed with every step, sneezing as dust flew through the air.
As Lily stepped into the entrance of the corridor, she froze. Her ears strained to pick up a bit of noise, but they found none. Hesitantly, she pulled off the cloak.
"Stay close together," she whispered to the boys. "Just in case we have to put this thing on in a hurry. Also, stay quiet."
"You're the one talking," Sam smirked. Lily smacked him upside the head, but didn't say anything.
Rory, Sam, and Lily crept down the hallway silently. Lily watched for the faint glow of the chest through the cracks between doors and floor. She found no such thing. The three patrolled the corridor once, twice, three times.
"It's here, I know it is," Lily tried to sound confident, but she was growing more and more doubtful. The door had been towards the staircase at the end of the corridor, fourth or fifth down. Lily pulled out her wand and tapped the lock of the door five down from the stairs.
"Alohomora," she said, and the door swung open to reveal a broom cupboard. Lily shut it again. She repeated this with the next couple of doors, all holding broom cupboards and dusty old classrooms.
Lily put her face in her hands. "I don't get it. It was here, I swear."
"Lily, we believe you," said Sam. "But are you sure it was this hallway?"
"Yes, I'm sure. Positive."
"Well, this is unfortunate," Rory frowned.
"I'm too tired to even deal with this." Lily rubbed her eyes. "We've been running about like mad men for hours and we have school tomorrow. Let's just get some sleep. My brain is foggy."
"Cheers to that," Sam muttered, yawning.
The three climbed back under the Invisibility Cloak, and crept back to the common room undisturbed.
The next morning, the first years were excused from Potions because Professor Slughorn was sick and there was no one to substitute on such short notice. So Rory, Sam, and Lily, along with the rest of the first years, clambered back up to the common room.
The first thing Lily did was seek out James. She was aware that he had a free period this morning and was going to interrogate him about every corridor in Hogwarts if she had to.
Finally, Lily found James in the corner of the common room, talking animatedly to Dominique, their cousin. The two had been best friends for ages, inseparable, and born exactly six months apart.
Lily put her hands on her hips, and said in a voice that sounded so much like her mother it was scary, "James Sirius Potter!"
James froze in a deer in headlights look of shock. "Lily! Merlin's pants, kid, I almost peed!"
Dominique rolled her eyes as Lily plopped down next to them.
"James?" Lily asked.
"Huh?" James gave her his full attention. After all, it wasn't every day your little sister whose personality and independence burned brighter and hotter than fire came to you for help.
"Do you really know every secret corridor in the castle?"
"Backwards, forwards, in my sleep, you name it, and I could give you a full tour."
"What about a forbidden corridor?"
"Is this about that thing Al was talking about when he wanted to give you the Invisibility Cloak?"
Lily nodded.
James pretended to wipe away a tear of joy. "Lily, young Lily, you're learning so fast! Breaking rules halfway through your first year, you're a much better apprentice than Al!"
"So? About the corridor?"
"Right. So there's just the one this year, the one with all the doors, all locked. This is the one you're talking about?"
"Yeah." Lily said, amazed James actually knew all the passages. Her brother was amazing, he was. "How did you…?"
"I have my ways." James raised his eyebrows, eyes glinting.
"How do you get there?"
"That is a different matter. You-" but just then, James was cut off by Fred, who was shouting at him from across the room. He had something stuck in his hair, the result of one of James's many "experiments", which were, in all honesty, pranks. James ran over to help Fred out of his predicament.
Lily sighed. There was no way she was going to figure this out.
"Hey, Lily?" said Dominique.
"What?" Lily asked, looking up.
"I think it's time you took a trip to the Headmaster's office," replied Dominique, getting up.
"What? Why?" said Lily.
But all Dominique said was, "She likes Drooble's Best Blowing Gum." Then, she winked and walked away, her long blonde hair swishing behind her as she followed James.
And all of the sudden, it clicked. If there was one person who knew how to help her, he would be in McGonagall's office. And she had to go there. Tonight.
"Well," Lily thought. "Looks like another late night."
When Lily got the Invisibility Cloak this time, however, she was going alone. She felt like this was something she had to do by herself, no Sam or Rory. It was well past midnight when Lily crept out of the dorm, clad in pajamas and the cloak. She made the short trip down the corridor and to the next where at the end, the Headmaster's office lay, guarded by two stone gargoyles.
"Drooble's," Lily whispered. "Drooble's Best Blowing Gum."
The gargoyles jumped out of the way and the door slid open. Lily stepped inside. The lights were off and the tendrils of a fire crackled in the fireplace, nothing more than glowing embers looking like tiny hearts pulsating in the dim. Lily turned to the wall of portraits, immediately finding the one she was looking for, for the painting was surrounded in an ornate gold picture frame. Its occupant was fast asleep. Lily pulled off the cloak.
"Mr. Dumbledore, sir?" Lily whispered hesitantly. "Mr. Dumbledore, sir, wake up."
Dumbledore stirred in his frame before blearily opening his eyes.
"Who is it? Who's awake at this hour? Minerva?" Dumbledore asked, looking around for a sign of life, before his eyes landed on Lily. "Ah, I was wondering when you'd be visiting me."
"You know me, sir?" Lily asked, wide eyed.
"No, no, of course not," Dumbledore assured her. "But it is not hard to see that you are your mother's daughter. You're her-"
"Spitting image," Lily finished before she could help herself.
"Precisely," Dumbedore smiled, unfazed. "Without the freckles. But no matter, you still look just like her. Now, what have you come for, Lily?"
"Well, sir, I was hoping you could help me with something," Lily said.
"Perhaps," he said. "Continue."
"You see, sir," said Lily, crossing her fingers that Dumbledore would could help, "there is a corridor that has many, many doors."
"Hogwarts has lots of doors and plenty of corridors. I'm afraid I must ask you to elaborate," Dumbledore said patiently.
"In this particular corridor, most of the doors are locked, but all they contain are classrooms and broom closets. Except for one, you see. Behind one door, there is a trunk. I believe it is the Cistas Animarum."
"You would be correct," Dumbledore said kindly, his expression unreadable.
"Sir, I believe someone is trying to steal it," Lily said, a small knot of frustration at his ease and calmness tightening in her chest. He was supposed to be a genius, after all! This was the man her brother was named for! He should be smart enough to be at least a little worried. Right?
"That is very possible," Dumbledore replied indifferently, his eyes twinkling. "However, I sense that is not the only thing troubling you."
"No, sir. I have two more questions," said Lily. This man was good.
"By all means, ask away!" Dumbledore encouraged.
"I was wondering if this may have anything to do with a Skeleton Key?" Lily asked. She knew she had already asked Professor Lanset, but she wanted Dumbledore's opinion, as well.
"Well, that would be interesting, wouldn't it now?" Dumbledore replied happily. "Your next query?"
"When I went to show my two friends, Rory and Sam, the room, it was gone. It wasn't there."
"If you are wondering if it was the Room of Requirement, it is not." said Dumbledore. Lily had wondered briefly if it had been the Room of Requirement, but she knew she wasn't in the right part of the castle for it. "You see, the Chest of Souls can only be found when it wants to be found. If it doesn't want to be seen, it will disappear. It will not go anywhere else, it just turns into the atmosphere. When it reappears, it will be just as it was last left."
"I see, sir," replied Lily, still making sense of what she'd heard. "Will I be able to find it again, sir?"
"Perhaps," said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling again. "You may look like your mother, but your curiosity rivals that of your father's."
Lily smiled, unsure of how to respond. Finally, she said, "Thank you, sir." Lily hesitated for a moment before asking, "Does the chest really have souls in it?"
"Just because you do not see something, Lily, does by no means mean it is not real. Seeing is not essential to believing." Dumbledore replied.
"I see, sir," Lily said, not seeing what Dumbledore meant at all.
"You will one day, Lily," said Dumbledore.
"I hope to, sir," Lily picked up the cloak. "I appreciate your help, but it's late and I must be going. Goodnight, Mr. Dumbledore."
"Goodnight, Lily."
As Lily turned to leave, Dumbledore said one more thing: "You do not have to go looking for trouble, Lily. It will soon enough find you. As will your destiny. For I know you yearn to forge your own path, but do not fret over this. I have had my hunch for a while now, but talking to you, I see that you will achieve this goal. And please, call me Albus. I am no longer Headmaster here."
"Thank you…Albus," Lily said awkwardly, turning and smiling at the portrait, but Dumbledore was already fast asleep.
Lily slipped the cloak back on, once more passing through the doorway like so many others, including her mother, father, grandfather-well, most of her relatives, really. Her brothers included.
Lily replayed her conversation with the former Headmaster in her head. He had been much more straightforward with her than she'd heard he'd be.
"Perhaps," Lily thought, "he realized the urgency to live during life now that he's dead. Or maybe he just wanted to tell me something. I bet he gets tired of watching people try to figure out his puzzles. Too bad James isn't the same way." Lily smirked, thinking of her obnoxious, hilarious, charismatic eldest brother.
Lily realized that Dumbledore really actually hadn't answered any of her questions, and when he had, they were always indefinite answers. Maybe, Lily realized, that he wasn't so straightforward with her, after all.
She now knew one thing for sure, however. And that was that the Cistas Aminarum really did exist. And that it was inside Hogwarts.
How to find it, however, was an entirely different matter. One that Lily would deal with in the morning, Lily decided, for it was late and her thoughts were becoming more constantly peppered with yawns.
Mere meters away from the painting of the Fat Lady, however, Lily was stopped in her tracks.
"Hagrid, what did you do with it? Where is it?" Professor Lanset whispered loudly, angrily.
"I hones'ly have no idea what yer talkin' about," said Hagrid, trying to remain quiet, but his voice was almost as big as he was.
"Don't play dumb with me, Hagrid! You stole it, I know you did!" Professor Lanset's temper was rising steadily. Lily's breath caught in her throat.
"Stole what? What would you have that I'd want ter steal?" Hagrid replied.
"You know what!" Professor Lanset spat.
"No, I don't. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have ter go an' feed my, er, cat," Hagrid said, pushing past her.
"I'm keeping my eye on you! If you try anything funny, I'll know," Professor Lanset warned, sounding very much like Lily at age five when James would be the opposite of innocent and she didn't know where he had set up his next prank.
"Yeah, yeah," Hagrid muttered, moving further down the corridor like a thick shadow, slipping among the inky outlines.
Professor Lanset stalked off down the corridor in the opposite direction, muttering to herself under her breath. Once out of sight, Lily hurried into the common room after whispering the password, "acromantula". She let out her breath, marveling over what she had just heard.
She knew Hagrid had been falsely accused before, but how many times could a person be falsely accused of something? What if he really did have something to do with this? Could it be possible that he didn't know what he was doing was wrong? Was he the one who had sent the Erkling?
No, it couldn't be! Could it?
Lily shook her head. It was much too late for this; she couldn't be thinking straight. Lily needed sleep, that's what she needed. A nice, long sleep.
So Lily trudged up the stairs and fell into bed after dropping the Invisibility Cloak into her trunk and kicking off her shoes. Her pajamas were slightly dirty from her excursion, but Lily didn't care. She was too tired.
And so she fell asleep, her dreams littered with talking portraits and Drooble's gum and cats with Hagrid's heads, making them look like freakish sphinxes.