The court yard was filled with students of all ages and houses as time ticked by and four o'clock came around the corner. I was sitting on a bench wondering how well this plan would carry out. I looked down at the book I was "reading" and glanced discreetly to where Rose stood, awaiting her signal.
So this is what's currently happening; Rose was on lookout waiting for Fred to give her the signal to give me. Penelope was laying on the grass close to me with her arms folded behind her head. I wasn't too sure what the actual prank being played was, but the less I knew the better. Once Rose gave me the final signal, Penelope and I would have the okay to sneak into Mr Filch's office while everyone was distracted by whatever the twins and Fred had planned.
I glanced at Penelope for a brief second to see her holding up two fingers. Two more minutes. My eyes wandered back to the letters on the pages and I flipped to the next page, seeming like I was actually reading.
I switched positions and sat crossed legged on the grass, back against the bench. I made sure to look at Rose while doing so. One finger was up against her lips in a "shh" position and was facing a shouting Cecilia. One minute.
I slammed my book shut and stuffed it into my bag. Penelope propped herself up on her elbows at the same time. We got up just as Rose gave the signal and shouts could be heard in seconds. We saw Professor McGanogall, Professor Tallin and Professor Forester run past Rose to the source of the commotion. Within seconds, I heard Professor McGonagall shout; "Mr Filch!"
Mr Filch scurried down the hallway and joined the three professors. Rose nodded with a smile and Cecilia mouthed good luck with a giant smile and two thumbs up. Penelope turned and led the way to Mr Filch's office. We crept in the small room and took in the surroundings. Paper was scattered everywhere; on the desk, the floor, hanging on the cabinets and even a half eaten ham sandwhich sat on his table.
"This place is pretty messy and dirty for a janitor's office..." Penelope commented, her nose wrinkled, taking in the various papers and objects scattered across his table. I chuckled and strode over to the cabinet file.
"Yet he has a filing cabinet," I pointed out.
"Probably has notes about all the bad students and documents on how many kids he's had to give detention to," Penelope snickered as she came up behind me.
"So we tear this place apart?" I asked. Penelope thought for a brief moment before cracking her knuckles with a grin on her face.
"We've got a lot to cover and very little time. Let's do this,"
I searched through the file cabinets containing many documents on the many bad deeds of students throughout the years. I scanned through the names not really looking for something in particular, though grinning when I noticed some familiar names from the Harry Potter novels. That's when something at the back of the drawer caught my attention. It looked like some kind of journal. I opened the book to find that not many pages had been filled.
"Mr Filch knew my Dad pretty well," I announced.
"Really? Wouldn't Mr Filch be at least ten years older than your Dad?"
"Yeah probably, it doesn't say how they met," I flipped through some more pages and stopped at the last.
"Wait," I gasped. I read and re-read the entry with wide eyes.
"What?" Penelope huffed, her mulberry lips pursed in concentration as she tugged at a drawer desk that seemed to be stuck.
"He knows where my parents are!"
"What?" She shouted and fell as the drawer finally unglued itself from the desk.
"Yeah says here; Bae's, May twenty-ten, Scotland," I looked up at Penelope with my eyes glittering.
"That was more than two years ago..."
"Yeah but if has the most recent information! Maybe he knows where they are right now!" I said giddily, bouncing on the spot.
"Calm yourself girl,"
Penelope tugged at a few more drawers and cabinets before she stopped dead in her tracks and asked for my help.
"Go on that side and tug at the edge. This thing looks like it's hiding something underneath," Penelope ordered, pointing to the left of the drawer.
I took one side and she took the other, we tugged and pulled at it for a couple minutes before it finally came loose.
"Now why did you glue this secret compartment huh?" Penelope asked to no one in particular as she rummaged through the drawer.
"There are a bunch of letters and documents here," She pulled out a plain wooden box, "Was this what you saw him holding yesterday?"
"It could be,"
Suddenly footsteps could be heard and we both turned to each other. We grabbed the box and placed everything back the way we found it. The foot steps stopped right in front of the the door and we both held our breaths and closed our eyes, expecting the worst. But it never came.
"Ms White, I hope you have a good reason to be blocking the entrance to my office," A muffled voice sneered.
"Sorry Mr Filch, I just need your help for a quick second," A sweet feminine voice replied.
"What?" He asked. It seems like Mr Filch has had enough excitement for a year. I smiled quite amused. I wonder what the twins and Fred did.
"The Girl's loo has a leaking sink and it's flooding the place,"
"Jessie's back up plan?" I asked Penelope.
"What else could it be?" Penelope shrugged with a smirk.
We both laughed silently waiting for the footsteps to fade away. Then an angry Cecilia stormed in. Penelope and I both jumped and looked at a terrifying Cecilia, her brown eyes flashing dangerously. If looks could kill...
"YOU GUYS ARE TAKING TOO LONG!" She bellowed and grabbed us by our wrists, dragging us all the way to a very deserted hallway.
The entire time, Cecilia was muttering under breath like a mad man. Most of it was about how we took way too long and would have been caught if it weren't for her and Jessie's backup plan and if she didn't save us, we'd in really big trouble.
"This hallway? Really? You guys know I hate this hallway," I pouted, when we arrived at our rendezvous destination.
"Sorry hun, quietest place," Fred apologized, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me closer to him.
"So whatt did you find?" Rose asked bouncing with excitement.
"Two things, info and this box," Penelope said proudly, setting the box on the ground in our malformed circle.
"Care to elaborate?" Jessie asked with a raised eyebrow.
Penelope and I took turns explaining everything we found in the office, pausing only to breathe and for Rose to comment every so often.
"How did the prank go?" I asked innocently.
"Don't even!" Rose groaned, "I can't believe those three! Why am I even related to them?"
I looked at Fred expectantly but fell short for answers.
"Eheh, I'd tell you but then Rose would literally kill me so..." Fred chuckled nervously, the twins nodding in agreement.
"That bad?" Jessie asked.
"You didn't see?" I asked.
"Nah, had to make sure Mr Filch left his office and wasn't going back and other minor details," Jessie said waving it off.
"Okay enough with the suspense! Just open the box!" Karen growled, growing impatient.
I crawled over to the box and open the latch. I lifted the cover and inside were pictures and letters from my parents. I gasped. Rose scooted over to get a closer look and gasped as well.
"You were so cute!" Rose cooed, her hazel eyes warm as she picked up an old picture of me and my parents.
I couldn't be more than a year. I picked up a letter and read through it. I read through several of the others and made it to the bottom of the box where there was a folded note. I picked it up and showed Rose. She took it out of my hands and read it out loud.
"Under the statue of Gregory the Smarmy. Wand required. Code is as drawn. Secret documents are hidden there and I request that you place this box in there too. Don't let her know about this. I want her to have the best life she can," Rose turned the piece of paper to show us a drawing of a crescent moon and a small star.
"I don't get why Mr Filch wanted to take the box out though," Jessie frowned, upon saying those words.
"Maybe he wanted to check something? I dunno..." Penelope shrugged.
"But what, are we supposed to draw that on the statue?" Fred asked skeptically.
"No, there are symbols upon symbols mixed together on the podium thing of the statue," Rose explained.
"Of course you would notice that," Kaitlin snickered with a roll of her eyes.
"I'm observant okay? Besides, we sit there all the time, how do you not see it?" Rose countered in an aggravated tone.
"So we find the symbol and trace it with our wand," I concluded, completely ignoring the argument between the two cousins. Rose focused her attention back to me and nodded.
"That's my theory,"
"When are you thinking of checking out that secret storage?" Rose asked as she took a seat beside me in transfigurations.
"We could go right after class if you want?" I suggested.
"Sounds good," Rose nodded and turned to the front of the class. I looked down at my notebook which I had been keeping track of the days until summer. Twenty-seven days. Exams were in a week and then they were out. Finally.
"We've also got to find every single piece of evidence in the next week before school closes," I nodded, exactly what I was thinking.
When class was finally over, we ran up to the fifth floor and stopped at the statue. We both knelt down and looked at the patterns.
"Found it!" I said pointing at the crescent moon and star. I pulled out my wand, traced the pattern and waited for something to happen. The panel popped open like a door and inside... we found lots of dust. Rose took out her wand and muttered some spell, vaccuming the dust, revealing a pile of papers.
"We should just take all of them and read them over somewhere else," Rose suggested, grabbing the pages. After picking up the last of the papers, we closed the panel and decided to find the others.
"Scorpius!" Rose and I squealed in unison giving him a big hug, so that a bystander would only be able to see his shiny blonde hair.
"How are you feeling?" Rose asked happily.
"Much better," He sighed with relief, "So what have I missed?"
Jessie filled him in on the events of the last couple of days earning a pout from Scorpius.
"Damn, didn't get to help,"
We laughed lightly and turned back to the papers from the hidden storage. Each of us grabbed a paper and read through them piecing them together.
"So what I understand is, these are all letters that your father kept while he was still in Hogwarts. He was already an assassin by the age of fifteen and these were like his job description things," Stellar said, picking up another paper.
"Yeah, some of these look like letters your Dad wrote recently to Mr Filch too. I mean not recently recently but like twenty-ten recently," Penelope added.
I looked at some of the letters Penelope was talking about and noticed how many of them were updates on their whereabouts and how they were doing. I ordered them from oldest to newest and found that the letters suddenly stopped at twenty-ten.
"They stopped writing after that..." I whispered.
"Maybe Mr Filch hid them somewhere else," Lilith suggested, putting down the letter she was reading. I shook my head.
"They had constant updates, one every month for three years, and suddenly they just stop writing to him?"
"Maybe they got into a fight and stopped talking or they thought it wasn't necessary anymore," Abby replied lazily. I frowned still in denial.
"Do you believe something happened to them?" Fred asked softly.
"You never know..." I sighed.
"Don't think like that, your parents are out there somewhere, I'm sure of it," Fred said reassuringly.
"Uh, guys," Stellar started nervously.
"Yeah?" We chorused.
"You might want to look at this, there's one last letter from them that we missed,"
Stellar handed me the crumpled piece of paper and I tried to smooth it out more on the ground. I held it up so Fred could read it too and I felt my blood drain out of my face.
"Tressa..." Stellar said cautiously.
I blanked out, staring at the wall as the letter slipped out of my hands. Time seemed to have stopped as my brain tried to register what I just read. The others rushed to read what the letter said and all around me, my friends were worried, but all I could think was; what were my parents involved in? How deep does this really run?
Author's note:
Yes Mr Filch has magic in this :) hehehe
Please review!~
E/N
Heyyy!
yo. what up. i didn't choose the thug life, the thug life chose me. LOL jokes, I don't even know what I'm talking about. if you see any errors, spot them out!