Chapter 24: Hogsmeade Weekend
"Want to go with me to Hogsmeade??" James asked Lily, following her like a stalker. Lily entered the Gryffindor common room and James followed her closely. Remus had asked Stefanie to go with him to Hogsmeade. Sirus did not want to lose out and asked Arabella as well. Unfortunately for James, both girls had agreed, although rather unwillingly in the first place. Now James had no choice but to ask Lily because he really did not want to go alone or ask any other girl he did not know very well. Remus had came up with the idea of getting a date for this Hogsmeade trip a week ago for some reason or another that James did not know about. What on earth was Remus thinking when he said that?? Asking a girl out!! Totally ridiculous!! I've to ask a girl out. That's going to be a boring Hogsmeade trip.
"No, thanks!!" Lily replied flatly and headed towards to the third-year girls' dormitory. Argh!! I don't want to get involved in their newest prank, not when I'm the target!! Whatever their prank is.
"We can go get butterbeers-" James said as the door of the female dormitory closed in front of him. Sir and Rem managed to ask Bell and Stef to Hogsmeade tomorrow. I don't believe I can't get Lily to go with me.
"Lils, it's just a way of apology for following you all day." James shouted from the outside.
"No, I don't need want an apology. You can walk where you want." Lily shouted from the inside. Luckily the dorm is empty. Otherwise Bell and Stef gonna make a joke out of this.
"Listen, you want to go Hogsmeade tomorrow??" James asked rather impatiently. Girls are just so unfathomable.
"I don't want to go with you." Lily replied. How could I go on a date with a guy I had a crush on without letting the whole world know?? This is going to be so weird.
"You can't go with Bell or Stef either." James said knowingly, suddenly got an idea.
"Why not??"
"Sir and Rem had already asked them."
"WHAT!!"
"We seldom have Hogsmeade weekends. Tomorrow is the second time. Do you want to go with me or stay in Hogwarts?" James said soothingly. He knew that Lily was very fascinated with the Hogsmeade wizarding village since the last time they went and she was really looking forward to the next trip.
Lily kept quiet. I thought we agreed to go together?? They didn't even tell me they were going with the guys. What sort of friends are they?? She was debating in her mind whether should she go or not. Finally she decided.
"Ok then." Lily gave in and opened the dormitory door to talk to James. Hogsmeade weekends were rather rare and she missed the sweets and candy from Honeydukes, and the famous butterbeers from the Three Broomsticks. What do I have to lose?? Don't let me catch him pulling a prank on me. I'll never let him off.
"See you tomorrow morning then." James smiled. Settled.
"Okie dokie." This better not be a joke.
"Hurry up, Lils!!" The hyper Arabella and Stefanie were all ready to head to the common room to meet the guys while Lily was taking her own sweet time changing. Bell and Stef are unusually excited to go on a date with the guys. This is really strange.
"Ok. Don't keep hurrying me. You two can go
first." Lily changed into a yellow tank top and dark blue jeans rather
unwillingly. I'm having butterflies in my stomach. Great. I'm going on a
date with a guy I've a crush on. Isn't it supposed to be fun??
"We're taking your word for it. See you then. Enjoy yourself." Arabella said before she and Stefanie left the dormitory together cheerfully. The door closed and she was the only girl left since Samantha and Joey had left for Hogsmeade much earlier. Enjoy myself?? With James?? Maybe. I rather go with you two if you haven't gotten a date. We had agreed to go together last time.
"Are you ready??"
"James??"
"Yeah!! Better hurry up before the carriages left without us."
"Alright. Coming out." Lily grabbed her purse and got out of the girls' dormitory as fast as possible.
"What's taking you??" James asked.
"If you don't like to wait, you don't have to go with me."
"But I want to go with you."
"Cut that off."
"Cut what off??"
"Oh, never mind. Let's go." Lily and James brisk walked towards the awaiting carriages to take them to Hogsmeade. Why am I feeling so tensed up?? James was trying to make conversation throughout the entire carriage ride while Lily was looking out of the window, giving short replies. Why am I thinking?? Excited to go with James?? Let the whole world know I've got a crush on him?? Nah!!
"Where do you want to go first??" James asked again.
"Anything." Lily was too busy looking around to be bothered with James. Unlike James, this was only her second time here.
"Let's go to Zonkos first??"
"Okie." Lily followed James closely. James was walking relatively fast and Lily was having a rather hard time following since the whole village was filled with Hogwarts students. She did not want to get lost in a totally foreign place and James seemed to know the village inside out. Lily thought of getting some for herself but decided not to in the end. If she wanted to prank the guys, she should not buy the supplies in front of the target. After James got his prankster's supply, they started strolling around the village.
"Can we go Honeydukes??" Lily asked; she had a sudden craving of chocolate frogs.
"Sure." James replied. What's wrong with her??
"You lead the way." Lily said. Hogsmeade, in her opinion, was far too big. She had barely digested the direction from the carriage drop-off point to Zonkos. I'll take ages to get familiarize with this place.
Lily grabbed some Chocolate Frogs, Chocoballs from the shelves while James got himself some Exploding Bonbons and Fudge Flies. They headed towards the cashier to pay for their stuff.
"For both." James said as he handed several galleons to the cashier.
"I don't need you to pay for me."
"I'm just being a gentleman."
"I don't need you to be a gentleman."
"Excuse me, next please." The cashier told Lily and James impatiently. It was rather packed in Honeydukes. They gotten out of the queue and somehow gotten shoved to the back of the shop.
"I return you the galleons."
"No need for that."
"No, I insist."
"I don't want."
"Aahhhh!!" Lily cried out as she felt backwards and landed on her butt. Her bag of Chocolate Frogs and Chocoballs flew all over the place.
"Be more careful next time." James said and tried to help her up. Then they started picking up the scattered chocolates.
"I tripped."
"Tripped??" James asked and started touching the ground, looking for something that could be sprouting up.
"Hey, what's that??" Lily asked, studying the small dent on the floorboard.
"It could be a trap door!!" James whispered excitedly.
"It can't be opened." Lily said as she tried to pull the floorboard upwards.
"I think it might be those crates, I shift them away first." James started pushing some crates with the label 'Ice Mice'.
"Look, there's a small gap." Lily exclaimed. She had used a lot of effort to pull up the floorboard but let go again because it was too heavy.
"I think it's that crate over there, I go push that away." Lily and James were clearing the space by pushing the crates away from the trapdoor.
"What are you two doing??" The voice of the Honeydukes shopkeeper asked.
"We were separating our sweets and we're finding the card of Nicholas Flamel which we dropped from our Chocolate frog." James replied smoothly.
"Ok, don't take too long and don't try anything stupid."
"Thank you, sir." Lily smiled sweetly at the shopkeeper and he turned back out to the crowded shop. The two quickly grabbed all the dropped sweets and kept them in the pockets.
"Can you charm the trapdoor so nothing can be placed upon it?? Like making it slippery or something??" James suggested, scanning the area.
Lily muttered a complicated sounding charm quickly. Lily knew more charms than all the other six added together. She enjoyed doing extra reading on charms that might come in handy but were not taught during lessons.
"Erm.. what did you do?? I don't see any difference." James pushed up his spectacles for a better look.
"You push a crate over and see??" James pushed a small crate over the trapdoor. The crate then slowly crawled back to its original position after five minutes, barely noticeable.
"That's brilliant!!" James said. "Let's go down." Lily and James lit their wands magically and walked down the steps. They closed the trapdoor silently and started walking forward.
"Harlow." James said and an echo of 'harlows' bounced back. The two of them walked very slowly on the slightly uneven grounds.
"Looks like there's only one direction we can head." Lily said as she pointed at the pitch-black end of the tunnel.
"Let's go then." They walked rather slowly, looking at all directions for any traces of movement.
"Looks like a long tunnel."
"I wonder what's at the end of it."
"Aah.. There're some spiders." Lily jumped backwards in a fright as a spider the size of her thumb dangled in front of her so suddenly.
"They're only spiders."
"That was a huge spider."
"Whatever, I think I saw the end of the tunnel." James said, pointing at a rather rounded wall.
"Let's take a closer look. Maybe it's an exit."
"Maybe it's an exit to the Forbidden Forest." James said, grinning at the thought of exploring the forbidden grounds.
"I rather not. The books say the Forbidden Forest have a lot of monsters and rare creatures."
"I want to see the centaurs. I've heard about them."
"I don't fancy seeing any monsters."
"Chicken."
"I'm not."
"Coward."
"Shut up."
"Dare you open the exit??"
"Why not??" Lily said bravely. She tried pushing the wall all over and even muttered the door-unlocking spell. The door did not budge. Please don't let it be the Forbidden Forest.
"Can you do it??" James asked impatiently.
"Wait." Lily said, looking closely for any trace of opening.
"Let me do it. Girls are so weak."
"I'm not!!"
"Not a girl??"
"Not weak!!"
"Hey look at this." James said, holding his lighted wand to a very small engraving on the one side of the wall.
"D-I-S-S-E-N-D-I-U-M. It could be a charm to open the door." James moved away and Lily muttered the spell pointing at the word. Suddenly the wall sprang open to form a small opening. Both of them peeked to take a look what was outside. Suddenly they heard a meowing sound and saw Filch carry his cat in a distant. They shut the door immediately.
"Tell me that was Filch and Mrs. Norris." Lily said breathlessly.
"It was."
"Does that mean that we're in Hogwarts??"
"I think so."
"Oh my gosh. There's a tunnel leading from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade." Lily was amazed at the discovery.
"Now we can go Hogsmeade anytime we want." James said grinning at Lily.
"I don't think anyone else know about this tunnel." Lily said and looked back at the long stretch of dark pathway ahead. The tunnel was rather dusty and filled with cobwebs and spiders.
"Let's clear the tunnel while waiting for Filch to leave." Both of them started muttering spells to get rid of the spider webs and dust in the long tunnel. With ten minutes, the tunnel looked spider-free, but was still slightly dusty.
"I think it should be safe now." Lily muttered 'dissendium' and the wall sprang open once again. Both of them peeked out and looked left and right at the long corridor.
"Let's go." They crawled out of the door and shut it behind them. Then they made a dash up to the Gryffindor tower at record time.
"How did you know the way so well?" Lily asked, panting. They climbed into the common room where some first-years, second-years and sixth-years were hanging out. Both of them settled themselves at one isolated corner in the common room.
"We explore school grounds all the time, you see." James boasted.
"But still.. Anyway where was that place??"
"Third floor corridor at that hunched back statue."
"You even had time to digest all that??"
"Well, I'm James the great one. What do you expect??"
"I don't believe you."
"Ok, ok. We had explored that place before over the last two years. I know I had been there. Not many people walk pass that area anyway."
"Hmm.. The idea of going Hogsmeade anytime I want sounds good. I gotta tell Bell and Stef once they get back." Lily smiled and lay back on the armchair. What a day. Well, I did have fun with James actually.
Hmm.. James looked over at Lily who had closed her eyes and resting on the armchair. She looked so peaceful and angelic. Idiot. What am I thinking of?? She's my friend!!
"How was your date with James??" Arabella skipped into their dormitory, seeing Lily being the only person inside.
"That was not a date."
"They what do you call when a boy ask a girl to go out and they go out together."
"A meeting."
"Cut that off. Look at me, Lils." Lily put down her Charms Encyclopedia and looked at Arabella.
"Yes, my dear?"
"Something happened between you two."
"Yes, something happened."
"Tell me quick."
"We found a tunnel in Hogwarts leading to Honeydukes in Hogsmeade." Lily said in a nonchalant manner.
"What?!?" Arabella was rather stunned to hear it. So Lily started telling Arabella the story when Stefanie walked into the room.
"How were your dates??" Stefanie asked, walking towards the two girls who were on Lily's bed.
"I had a discovery." Lily said simply, her emerald green eyes sparkling.
"Tell me all about it!!" Stefanie said excitedly as the three girls huddled at Lily's bed listening to the whole story on the discovery of the tunnel.
"This is brilliant!!" Sirus exclaimed after hearing James telling about the discovery of the tunnel.
"We can go as and when we like." James said, grinning.
"Who else know about that??" Remus asked.
"Lily and I, and now you guys. I believe she told Bell and Stef as well."
"Ok, only six of us know about this then. How about Peter??" Remus asked James.
"We can tell him, he can be trusted. Anyway where is he?? Didn't see him at Hogsmeade." Sirus asked. He seems trustworthy but why did I have this bad feeling about him?? James and Remus seems to trust him totally.
"I don't know. We all are at Hogsmeade today, but we didn't get to see each other." James said reasonably, and he started polishing his spectacles.
"You were at some dark tunnel with Lily alone. How can we see you??" Sirus asked cheekily.
"That was a coincidence. I shouldn't have told you then." James chased after Sirus attempting to hit him with a pillow around the dormitory.
"Calm down, calm down." Sirus yelled.
"How can I??"
"We need to do some reading on Animagus before going to bed. It had been a year and we're not making any progress." Sirus was good at changing topic at critical timing as he ducked from James' pillow..
"Alright, let's hit the books." James sighed and sat down and grabbed The Dos and Don'ts For Animagi Transformation.
"And we'll hit the tunnel soon." Remus suggested and the three guys exchanged the let's-do-something-daring grins before burying themselves in thick library books. I'm really glad I know James and Sirus.