Year One: Chapter Nine
Under The Cloak
The holidays were soon over and the students returned to Hogwarts again. James and Sirius, bundled up to keep off the cold weather, waited at Hogsmeade Station, eager for Peter and Remus to descend from the train.
They were two of the last students to get off of the train. Remus wore a knitted scarf around his neck and an old, shabby robe. Peter wore blue earmuffs over his curly blond hair and mittens over his frozen hands. He squinted against the cold wind blowing in his face as he looked for James and Sirius. He quickly spotted them and pulled Remus along to greet them.
"Hey!" he grinned widely as he and Remus approached them. They looked at him excitedly, too, and smiled as well. "How were your holidays?"
"Fine," answered Sirius. "Thanks or the present by the way. That was really a great gift."
"You're welcome," Peter grinned, his nose pink from the cold. "I'm glad you liked it." The four were almost completely alone at the station. Almost everyone else had already left back for the castle.
"So how were you lots' holidays?" James asked Peter and Remus.
"Great! I got a book all about fanged geranium and Mum baked a pumpkin pie!" Peter exclaimed excitedly. The other three laughed. Peter loved to eat.
"What about you?" Sirius asked Remus.
"Remus has great news. He told me on the train!" interrupted Peter. Remus turned red.
"Really?" James looked curious. "What is it?"
"I…that is my mum has been feeling much better lately," he answered.
"Blimey! That's wonderful!" James grinned.
"Yes," Remus nodded, "we're all very happy for her."
"I saw her on the platform before we got back on the train," explained Peter. "She didn't look sick at all!"
Sirius smiled. "That's great, Lupin."
James ran a hand through his already messy hair and changed the subject. "So did you two hear that there was going to be another Quidditch match today? It'll be Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff!"
"Really? How much longer before it starts?" Peter asked.
"About two hours," answered Sirius.
"Then we should probably head back up to the castle and get ready," Remus commented.
Sirius moaned. "Oh come on, Remus! We still have two hours left to get ready. Lets have a snowball fight," he suggested. Remus rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"No, Sirius, I really think we should be getting ready," he repeated. Sirius groaned loudly and stomped away to the castle ahead of the three.
Remus put his finger over his mouth, telling James and Peter to be quiet. He slowly bent down to the ground and scooped up a handful of snow in his bandaged hands.
"What are you - " James whispered, but Remus brought his finger to his mouth again, signaling for silence. He formed the snowball in his hands and took aim.
James smirked and Peter stared in surprise. Though Sirius had stomped quite far away from them, Remus had still successfully hit target with the back of Sirius's head. He froze in his tracks and spun around to see the unlucky victim who had thrown the snowball at him.
Peter struggled to suppress his laughter. Remus, hands behind his tattered robes, whistled innocently. James tried to hide his smirk behind a gloved hand and failed pitifully. Sirius glared darkly and rushed at a surprised James, knocking him backwards off of his feet and into the snow. The two rolled around in the snow, laughed and punching each other playfully while Remus and Peter cheered and clapped them on.
Sirius grabbed a handful of snow and stuffed the snowball into James's mouth. James quickly pushed Sirius away from him and he spat and sputtered the snow out of his mouth.
"The winner!" Sirius knelt up on his knees and exclaimed. Peter clapped and Remus laughed.
"You great oaf!" James glared at Sirius, but was still smirking playfully, "it wasn't even me!" He pointed at Remus who smirked as well.
Sirius blinked in surprise and smirked. "Really, Remmy?" Remus shrugged.
James threw a snowball at Remus while Sirius distracted him, hitting him squarely in the face. Sputtering as James had earlier, he wiped the snow out of his eyes as Sirius, James, and Peter laughed at him.
"But seriously, we should be heading back to the castle now," Sirius mocked Remus. James and Peter laughed and Remus rolled his eyes again, but smiled with them as well. They chased each other the entire way to the castle, racing each other, pushing each other face first into the cold snow, and throwing more snowballs the whole way.
The students and professors sat in the stands to watch the Quidditch match against Gryffindor and Hufflepuff in the numbing wind. Tilden Toots, a second-year Gryffindor, was in the teachers' stand to provide the commentary for the game again.
The snow drifting in the wind blew into everyone's faces. Everyone there had brought at least a heavier rove or jacket, and many had brought blankets or quilts.
The four sat together in the stands. Sirius was the only one to have brought a blanket and he and James had it wrapped around their shoulders to keep warm.
"Hello and welcome to another exciting Quidditch match! This time it's between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor!" Toots announced and the students cheered enthusiastically. "On Hufflepuff, we have Calwalder as Team Captain and Keeper! Chadwick, Sheldon, and Ackerman are Hufflepuff's Chasers, Lansbury and Hansfield are Hufflepuff's Beaters, and Cragit is Hufflepuff's Seeker!"
The Slytherins and Hufflepuffs cheered, waving black and yellow flags.
"On Gryffindor's team, Terry is the Team Captain and Keeper! Wassner, Dearborn, ad Newman are Gryffindor's Chasers, Thierheimer and Murphy are Gryffindor's Beaters, and Flynn is Gryffindor's Seeker! The Gryffindors and Ravenclaws wore the lion and waved the red and gold banners.
"Professor Sykes is on the field now, telling them that they're not allowed to kill each other…." James could imagine Professor McGonagall rolling her eyes, though she said nothing. "She throws the Quaffle up and the players race for their stations. Adelaide Chadwick of Hufflepuff had the Quaffle and is racing toward Jerome Terry at the Gryffindor goal posts. She dodges a bludger sent at her from Adam Murphy and throws the Quaffle in – and Terry just catches it! He throws it back into the game and Cassidy Dearborn catches it. She's flying down the court and throws the Quaffle to Linda Newman, who swerves to miss a bludger from Callum Lansbury. She's down the court and throws the Quaffle at Harold Calwalder at Hufflepuff's goal posts – and he misses, IT'S IN! TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR!" The Gryffindors and Ravenclaws cheered. "Hufflepuff is back in possession of the Quaffle. Oliver Sheldon takes it down the field, throws it to Brooke Ackerman who narrowly misses a bludger sent from Monty Thierheimer…she passes the Quaffle to Chadwick who throws it to Terry – AND IT'S IN! THE SCORE IS TEN-TO-TEN! A TIE!" The Hufflepuffs and Slytherins cheered while the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws moaned. "Gryffindor is back in possession and we have yet to see any sight of the Snitch yet. Michael Wassner has the Quaffle and takes it back to Hufflepuff's goal posts."
Cragit and Flynn both searched the sky for the Golden Snitch, but caught no sight of it. The students and professors in the stands were frozen in the howling winds and almost blinding snow, but continued to pay attention and watch the Quidditch match anyway.
And then Flynn saw it. The Snitch. She raced toward it, closely tailed by Cragit. "Katie Flynn has seen the Snitch and she's going for it! Emma Cragit is close behind, but Flynn is closer to it. She's gonna get it – go Katie!"
"Mr. Toots!" McGonagall's voice was heard chastising him, but their attention was quickly drawn to Flynn again. Bradley Hansfield, one of the Hufflepuff Beaters, sent a bludger crashing toward her. It smashed through her broomstick, snapping it into two pieces. The crowd gasped as she fell to the ground quickly, but sighed breaths of relief when Dumbledore stood up in the stands and conjured a spell, slowing her fall. Madame Pomfrey and Professor Sykes were down on the field almost immediately and hurried to her side to help her to the Hospital Wing. The Snitch had disappeared again.
When the commotion died down, Gryffindor was given a free shot into Hufflepuff's goal posts. Linda Newman was given the red Quaffle and she flew up, her numb fingers tightly gripping her broomstick handle so that she wouldn't fall as well. She took aim and threw the Quaffle.
"And another ten points to Gryffindor!" Tilden Toots announced. "Well with Gryffindor's Seeker out of the game, they're going to have to work really hard if they want to win," he stated. The Hufflepuffs and Slytherins cheered.
The remaining thirteen players flew around in the sky for another hour as the audience became colder and more impatient for the game to end. The snow was coming down harder than it had before and the wind hit them hard, but there was still no sign of the Golden Snitch anywhere.
Peter yawned and looked to his right to see Remus reach into his robe's pocket. He pulled out something in a shimmering silver wrapper. It was –
"You had chocolate with you this entire time and you didn't tell me? Come on, hand some over!" Peter exclaimed indignantly. Remus reluctantly broke off half of the chocolate bar and handed it to Peter. He accepted it gratefully and thanked him.
Sirius stared at he two in disbelief. "What was that? Was that chocolate? Give me some!" he yelled over the screaming wind.
"Me, too!" James added in agreement. Remus looked up at the two just as he was about to eat the chocolate. He groaned and broke the rest of his chocolate in half for James and Sirius.
"Thanks, Remmy!" Sirius smiled and shoved the chocolate into his mouth. James nodded as well and began to munch on his chocolate. Its warmth spread down through his body to his fingers and toes, but its warming effect was unfortunately short-lived as he soon found himself shivering against he cold wind once again. Remus nodded nonchalantly and mumbled something incoherent that was lost to the roar of the wind as he rolled the silver wrapper back up and put it into his pocket again.
"The score is now 180 to 150, Hufflepuff in the lead," Toots, as well as many other students in the stands, was growing more and more impatient and uninterested in the game. The Golden Snitch had disappeared long ago and the game had been going on for four hours. The sun was sinking into the horizon and then finding the Snitch would be nearly impossible. Even James was becoming tired of the long game. Peter and Remus had been asleep for an hour. Peter rested his head on Remus's scrawny shoulder and Remus had his head on top of Peter's sleeping head. Sirius and James gave them the blanket so that they wouldn't be too cold. They sat and shivered together in the cold instead. James turned his attention to Sirius and saw that he had both of his hands cupped over his mouth as he puffed some warmth into them. James looked back to the game. He wondered why Dumbledore didn't call off the game until a better time. He supposed that he would if it became too dark outside, but then he could never be completely certain about Dumbledore.
The game wasn't very fair, either. Hufflepuff still had their Seeker to catch the Golden Snitch (wherever it was), but Gryffindor's Seeker was currently resting in the school's Hospital Wing. The team's morale was down because of Flynn's absence as well, so they weren't playing as well as they usually did. James became more frustrated and wished he could play with them. If he could just get up there and fly around on one of those broomsticks – he could teach some of them a thing or two about Quidditch. He would play Quidditch with his father at home and he knew he was good.
"And ten more points to Hufflepuff as Chadwick scores again. Newman in possess – oh! Professor! The Snitch! It's the Snitch! It's right up there!" Tilden Toots stood up and pointed to the Slytherin stands. The audience in the stands sat up from their deadened positions – those that weren't sleeping – and watched eagerly. Toots telling her where the Snitch was was all of the help Cragit needed. She flew through the blinding snow and outstretched her arm.
"And with the final catching of the Golden Snitch, the score is 340 to 150! Hufflepuff wins!" Even though he was a Gryffindor, he still cheered, as did many other Gryffindors. They were relieved that the game had finally ended and that they could go back inside the warm castle.
"Remus, wake up! Peter!" James shook the two slightly to wake them up. Remus moaned, but raised his head off of Peter's head. Peter raised his head as well, yawning and stretching.
"So what happened?" Remus asked with a groggy voice.
"The game's over," stated Sirius. James nodded, his glasses slightly fogged up. He took them off and wiped them off on his jacket.
"Who won?" asked Peter.
"Hufflepuff," James answered as he replaced his glasses. The four stood up and left the Quidditch Pitch with the rest of the school. They all walked back to the castle under Sirius's blanket, eight feet leaving a long trail of footprints behind them in the snow.
"Blimey!" James exclaimed indignantly when they were in Gryffindor's Common Room. He threw the blanket off of his shoulders and ran to the fireplace to warm his frozen hands. "I've never been so cold my entire life!"
The other three sat nearby on the floor under Sirius's blanket because the couches and chairs were already taken by older students attempting to warm up as well.
"Hey James! Do you know what would be a good treat right now?" Sirius asked, smirking.
"I dunno. What?" James shrugged.
"Some of my Christmas butterbeer, that's what!" replied Sirius. James grinned wide and his eyes glowed excitedly.
"That sounds great! Go and grab some for us!" James said. Sirius grinned wickedly and stood up. He quickly crossed the length of the Common Room and darted up the stairs to their dormitory. Some of the other students in the Common Room also left for the night.
Sirius came back down soon afterward with four bottle of butterbeer. The couches were now empty of students, so he sat down on one. James stood up to accept the butterbeer that Sirius offered to him and he handed the other two bottles to Remus and Peter on the floor. James sat on the couch beside Sirius, opened his bottle, and took one long, savoring gulp, feeling the cool liquid warm him to his bones.
Peter set his bottle of butterbeer down on the floor and looked up at the two thoughtfully. "You know, you two never properly told us how your holidays went."
"We didn't, did we?" Sirius looked to James and then back to Peter. "Well, lets see…we played a lot of Wizard's Chess and we cursed snowballs to chase people around," Remus rolled his eyes and shook his head disapprovingly but said nothing while Peter laughed at the thought of it. "James's dad also gave him the most amazing gift ever, too."
"What did your father give you, James?" asked Remus.
"He promised me that he would give it to me for years, but I was still really surprised to see it," James stalled.
"What was it?" Peter asked impatiently.
James's eyes lit up and he smirked. "An Invisibility Cloak."
"Really? Could you bring it down for us to see?" asked Remus.
James nodded and stood up. He ran to their dormitory and, being careful not to wake Frank up, opened the trunk at the foot of his bed. He pulled out the cloak and closed the trunk quietly. He left their dormitory and ran back down the stairs. The Common Room was now completely empty, save for the four, and the grandfather clock in the corner chimed twelve.
He sat back down on the couch, the Invisibility Cloak folded neatly on his lap.
"Does it really work?" Peter asked.
"Yeah. Go on, try it on," James handed him the cloak. He took it in cautious hands and felt the watery material. He stood up and hesitantly wrapped it around his waist. His and Remus's jaws dropped when they saw his lower half vanish from sight right before their eyes. "Blimey…" was all Peter could manage to say. He took off the cloak and handed it back to James.
Remus suddenly looked away from the cloak with a surprise expression on his face. He stared at the back of the Fat Lady's portrait intently.
Peter instantly noticed the change. "Remus? What's - " he began.
"Shh," he hushed him and continued to stare at the back of the portrait alertly. "Someone's coming." He stood up abruptly, but did not move any further.
"What?" Sirius asked. "I don't hear - "
"We shouldn't still be awake. We shouldn't be down here now. Come on," he started to round the couch so that he could go back up to their dormitory. Sirius, Peter, and James, still holding onto his Invisibility Cloak, closely followed behind him, concerned.
"Remus, there's noth…" James heard the Fat Lady's portrait slide open. The four quickly huddled together behind the couch out of sight and were completely quiet.
The footsteps sounded light and small, as if they belonged to a small child instead of any of the professors. James supposed that it could perhaps be Flitwick, but he quickly realized that he wouldn't be in the Gryffindor Common Room. He was the head of Ravenclaw house. James puzzled over whom it may be before he chanced a peek around the corner of the couch.
A little creature had come into their Common Room. It had large, round eyes, bat-like ears that flopped as it walked, a long, pointy nose, and long fingers and curly feet. It wore a tea towel bearing the Hogwarts crest. A house elf.
James moved behind the couch again. "There are house elves at Hogwarts?" Sirius shrugged.
"Where do you think it came from?" asked Peter.
Sirius shrugged again. "Dunno."
James grinned wickedly, an idea striking him. "Do you want to find out?"
"How?" asked Peter.
James smirked and motioned to his Invisibility Cloak. Peter's eyes lit up with excitement and Sirius grinned back mischievously. Remus hesitated, but slowly nodded.
The four were silent as they allowed the house elf to continue his work in their Common Room. It cleaned up the messes the students had made in their haste for bed and returned old studying books to their rightful shelves again. When it had its back turned to them as it folded Sirius's blanket, the four stood up quickly and quietly and snuck underneath James's Invisibility Cloak.
James lifted the Invisibility Cloak slightly above their heads so that they wouldn't be any more constricted than necessary – it was stuffy underneath the cloak with one person alone, but four people made it quite uncomfortable. The house elf completed a few more tasks around the Common Room while the four waited under the cloak. When he was finished, he left back through the Fat Lady's portrait.
"Alright, lets go," James prompted, but before they could go very far at all, they all tripped over each other's feet.
"No, no, no! Stop!" Sirius halted them. "Alright, we all need to walk together. Start with your left foot and then your right. And always start with you left foot, okay?" They all nodded "Alright then, lets try it. Left," they began to slowly inch their way forward, "right," a little farther, "left," a bit further still, "right. Left, left, left, right, left - " James smacked Sirius over the top of his head. "Oh alright…." They made their way to the Fat Lady's portrait and pushed it open. They carefully climbed out.
James and Sirius grinned in spite of themselves while Remus and Peter sighed breaths of relief.
"You two will become use to breaking the rules, we promise," James laughed while Sirius pushed the unoccupied portrait back over the tunnel.
"Is the Fat Lady allowed to leave her portrait?" Sirius asked.
"Well it makes sense. All of the other portraits do," James commented and Sirius shrugged. The four went under the Invisibility Cloak again and walked down the long corridor, hoping that they hadn't lost track of the house elf. They turned around the corner and saw him, though, so they continued to follow him. He stopped occasionally to clean classrooms, but soon led them down to the Entrance Hall and down the marble staircase.
"Where is he taking us?" Sirius mumbled to himself.
He turned left at the bottom of the stairs and went through a door. They followed him down a flight of stairs and through a brightly lit corridor. Cheerful paintings of fruit covered the walls.
A giant painting of a fruit bowl was at the very end of the passage. The four stopped and watched the elf stretch up and tickle the huge green pear with its long forefinger. To their immense surprise, the pear began to squirm, then chuckle, and turn into a large green handle. The elf grabbed it and pulled the picture away from the wall only far enough for it to slip into the portrait hole. The portrait closed again and the handle became a large green pear once more.
"So is that how we get in?" asked Peter.
"I would imagine," remarked Remus.
"Care to try, gentlemen?" asked Sirius. Remus and Peter looked back at Sirius before facing the portrait again.
Peter lifted up the front of the Invisibility Cloak and climbed out. He looked up at the tall painting unsurely for a moment before reaching up just as the house elf had done. He tickled the pear and it twitched, chuckled, and turned into a giant handle.
"Good job, Peter!" James smiled to the smaller boy.
"Ready?" Sirius asked. The nodded. Sirius seized the handle and pulled the portrait. The four crawled inside and the portrait closed behind them again. They all looked back at it.
"Now what?" whimpered Peter.
"Look!" Sirius gasped. James, Remus, and Peter turned around to see what Sirius had been so dumbstruck by. Past the passage they were in was an enormous, high-ceilinged room as large as the Great Hall. Brass pots and pans were piled around the stone walls and a large brick fireplace blazed at the other end of the long hall. Four long wooden tables were positioned exactly below their twins in the Great Hall. There was nothing on them at the moment, but James suspected that piles of dishes and food would be set on the tables and then sent up through the ceiling to appear on their counterparts above.
They looked to each other excitedly before walking through the passage and into the kitchens. At least one hundred tiny house-elves stood around the kitchen staring at them, beaming, bowing, or curtsying respectfully. They all wore the same uniform that the first house-elf had worn: a tea towel imprinted with Hogwart's crest tied like a toga.
An excited little house-elf approached them and curtsied. "What may Sprite be doing for you, sirs?" she asked in a tiny squeaky voice.
Sirius locked eyes with James before scrutinizing the eager elf. "Well we're a bit hungry…do you have any biscuits?"
Less than a second passed by before eight of the house-elves came running to them, all bearing trays full of cream cakes, pies, and any other treat they could possibly think of.
Sirius grinned, taking a cream cake from on of the trays. The house-elf holding it beamed cheerfully while two more house-elves came with two tall glasses of milk. Sirius took one glass and Peter took the other, graciously thanking the elf. "Talk about fast food," Peter commented jokingly. Remus chuckled, but James and Sirius stared at him as if they'd been hit with a Confundus Charm. They had grown up in pureblood families and therefore did not understand Muggle-related jokes.
James's attention returned to the elves as he accepted a cookie from one of the trays. "Blimey…someone pinch me, I think I'm dreaming – OW!" James clasped his hands over his behind in shock, dropping the cookie. Remus and Peter chuckled. An elf walked around him and bowed.
"Yous be wanting anything else, sir, just ask," the elf smiled. Another elf had already rushed over with a dustpan and broom and had swept up the cookie.
James tried his hardest to remain cool as he rounded on Sirius who was still stuffing his pockets with an assortment of treats. "Are you done stealing everyone's breakfast, Sirius?"
"Rad repents ron wewer m rill rugby om noc," Sirius answered with a mouthful of food. Remus rolled his eyes, reminded of how he had first met Sirius.
James blinked. "What?" Even James, as talented as he had become at translating what Sirius was saying with a mouthful of food, stared baffled.
"That depends on whether I'm still hungry or not," repeated Sirius.
"Come on, I think we should be heading back to our dormitory," suggested Peter.
"Alright," James nodded in agreement. "Coming, Sirius?" Sirius sighed deeply and agreed. They thanked the generous elves and left back through the portrait hole.
"Remind me to come again," said Sirius cheerfully.
James nodded. "You've got some chocolate up there," he pointed to Sirius's cheek, beneath his eye. He wiped his face on the sleeve of his shirt. "Oh! Thanks!"
"Shh! Back to the tower," hissed Remus. The three nodded and they climbed beneath the Invisibility Cloak. They walked down the passage past the paintings of food until they were back in the Entrance Hall.
"Meeeeoooowwww!" The four looked down to see Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's doted cat, staring up at them with her large red eyes.
"Can she see us?" whispered Sirius.
"She can probably smell all of the cream cake in your pocket," James hissed. Sirius glared at him.
"Guys," Remus started, "run." They hurried as quickly as they could up the marble staircase, hoping they reached the tower before Filch found them. Thankfully, the caretaker was nowhere to be found as they made it to the seventh floor.
"Do you think we got away?" asked Peter.
"Not sure yet," answered James.
"Oh come on!" Sirius moaned. They had made it to the end of the corridor and the Fat Lady was still absent from her painting.
"Where is she?" panicked Remus.
"Where is who?" to their immense relief, the Fat Lady arrived in just the nick of time. The four climbed out from under the Invisibility Cloak.
"Dragon Breath," James said.
"What are you four doing out after hours?" she asked.
"Just let us in!" pleaded Sirius.
"Oh alright. You could say please, though," she said crossly and swung open. The four clambered inside again, safe from Filch finding them.
A/N- Harry Potter and friends and everything else you recognize do not belonging to me as they are the property and creations of J.K. Rowling.