Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick
"Oi, somebody let that bloody bird in the windows already," James groaned, for once actually concentrating on his homework.
Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick
"It's Sirius' bloody bird," moaned Peter.
I started shaking Sirius awake, who was taking a nap on his bed. We were trying to stay up late just in case Remus came back from wherever he went during his transformations. "Bloody hell, Sirius, answer your owl," I commanded.
Sirius' face was firmly planted in his pillow. "I haven't got an owl...who would send me an owl?"
"Dunno," James replied, "But that isn't Bubo, he raps with his beak not his talons,"
I nodded, "And it isn't Archie either,"
Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-
"ALRIGHT! Alright. I'm up, I'm up." Sirius rolled off the bed, landing on his feet, and stood up, stumbling to the window, reaching for the latch to allow the owl to hop through. The owl pushed the letter into Sirius' hand and, without waiting for payment or treats, turned and flapped off over the forest, back toward London. Sirius looked down at the letter in shock.
James looked up. "Who's it from, then?" He asked.
Sirius looked up, the awe on his face quite apparent. "My mum."
"Your mum?" I asked, understanding the significance of Sirius' mum writing him at school. "But...but why?"
"Dunno, I haven't opened it yet, have it?" Sirius said, turning it over. I could see the back of the envelope was sealed with an unbroken seal, with what I assumed was the Black family crest.
Even Peter was interested now, looking over. "Go on then," he urged. "Open it."
Sirius took a deep breath and slid his finger beneath the seal, pulling open the envelope and withdrawing a folded bit of parchment from within, which he shook out.
"What'd she say?" James asked, leaning forward in an attempt to try and make out the writing.
"Sirius? You alright, mate?" I asked gently, as Sirius' face paled considerably. Sirius merely handed the note over to James and stumbled back to sit on the edge of his bed. James turned the note over and Peter and I crowded around him.
The note said in fancy, tight script: Remember everything you do is a reflection on the House of Black.
Peter scrunched up his face in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked stupidly.
Sirius looked up slowly. "It means she knows about the mirror. And she's not happy about it." he added.
James and I exchanged nervous looks. "How's she know?" I asked.
Sirius bit his lip, gears turning. He likely didn't want to admit it.
"Because You-Know-Who knows," James said, reading the words in Sirius' eyes.
Sirius nodded.
Peter's eyes widened. "But...but he must be angry if he knows."
"Yeah," Sirius said, glancing toward the mirror across the room. "I imagine he is."
My eyes trailed Sirius' to the mirror. It sat on Remus' desk, dark and still. Peter trembled, kneeling now on the side of James' bed. "But if the Dark Lord is angry with us...that's...that's very, very bad. Isn't it?"
I facepalmed and looked at Peter. "No, it's just brilliant." I said sarcastically, "Having the most powerful dark wizard in all the world after you is a jolly good time."
James rolled his eyes, "Bloody hell, Peter, what kind of a question is that?"
Peter's ears turned pink.
I looked to Sirius. "So what do we do now?"
Sirius shook his head, "Dunno."
"We should tell Dumbledore!" Peter squeaked, "He can protect us from the Dark Lord!" He leapt up from James' bed and ran over to Remus' desk, grabbing hold of the mirror's frame, about to pick it up, but before he could, Sirius was there, and he pulled Peter off of it.
"NO!" He said, eyes wild. "No. If we tell Dumbledore now, my mother's going to know that it was me that told him and I'm going to get in even bigger trouble. I could end up killed." Sirius' voice trembled.
"We have to tell Dumbledore!" argued Peter, "We're just kids, what're we supposed to do to protect ourselves? We can't even get our Charms homework done with high marks...we'd be useless against the Dark Lord's power!"
Sirius said, "But I am the only one that has to go home this summer to it. You'll go off to your home with your parents who love you and will protect you, and so will James, Sabrina and Remus. But I have to go home to my family who just loves You-Know-Who. My mother's likely to blast me to smithereens if I go to Dumbledore! He can't protect me after term...only here."
James stood up to back Sirius up, and I joined him. "We need to listen to Sirius, mate, he has the most experience with this lot," I said sombrely.
Peter shook. "But...but…"
"Look, my mother may think it's only me who's messed with the mirror anyway. You lot might not even be included in this at all," Sirius said, "I'll take full responsibility."
"As you should!" Peter shouted, suddenly angry, "It was your idea to go down to the dungeons and steal the mirror in the first place! I didn't want to go! I should've listened to Remus. Remus said it was a terrible idea and we did it anyway! Remus is the smart one, not you. Blimey, what a terrible idea it was, going and thieving things we don't understand!"
"Actually, it was James' idea," I pointed out, furious at how awful Peter was acting, "And maybe you shouldn't have come along, you blithering baby."
Peter snapped, "I'm not a baby! I just like my neck not wrung, thank you!"
"Well go on then and keep your pretty neck," Sirius said roughly, shoving Peter away from the desk, away from the mirror, away from the three of us. "You can clear off and find new friends."
"Maybe I will!" Peter crowed. He turned and grabbed his wand from his desk, and stormed out of the room.
I sighed, and shook my head. "He'll be crawling back, I bet." The other two boys mumbled in agreement.
We were in the middle of burying the mirror in the very bottom of Sirius' trunk, where it would be safe, when Peter burst back in the room. We looked up at him, surprised at his boisterous return. Peter was gasping, likely from running up the stairs, which must've added to the look of panic he'd plastered upon his face.
"What's the matter with you?" James asked sourly.
"Lily Evans," Peter gasped, "I told her not to...but she didn't listen...I-I tried to stop her, but…"
Sirius looked up, "But what? Stop her from what?"
"She's going to tell Dumbledore," Peter gasped.
We looked at each other in surprise, before I bolted out of the room. I knew that I was the closest one to Lily, so I could be the only one to potentially convince her otherwise.
I eventually caught up with the flaming redhead on the rotating staircase. I caught her elbow, causing her to turn to me. "Lily," I panted, having run all the way down from the common room. "We need to talk."
"I haven't got anything to say to thieves," Lily replied hotly, tugging her elbow out of my grasp, "You deserve whatever punishment Dumbledore gives you for what you've done."
I scampered around her and blocked her way forward, splaying out my arms and legs to take up as much space before me as possible, "Lily, please. Please," I said urgently, diving to catch her as she attempted to dive beneath my outstretched arm. I'm small, but she's even more petite than I, which helped. "It isn't Dumbledore who's going to punish us if you tell."
Lily glowered at me, "Of course he's going to punish you-"
"No. You-Know-Who would, Lily, not just Dumbledore!" My voice came out in a desperate hiss. I looked around us and saw a cluster of Ravenclaws coming our way. I quickly grabbed hold of her hand and Lily, seeming to be stunned by what I'd said, allowed me to pull her into an empty classroom. I looked at her imploringly, "You don't understand what's been going on around here, but there's a lot more to all this than just the mirror, alright?"
"I understand plenty," she said snobbishly, "I'm not a dolt, you know."
I shook my head, "You're anything but a dolt, and I didn't mean it like that. I meant that there's a lot of stuff I haven't told you and it's important to understand why we took that mirror and why we can't tell Dumbledore now, even though that was the original plan." I cleared my throat, "But Lily, you've got to swear you won't tell anybody."
Lily considered for a moment. She stared at me, as if trying to find out information just by my face. "What if you tell me and it's a rubbish reason?"
I hesitated, "It's not a rubbish reason, truly."
"Then you won't mind saying that if it is, I can tell Dumbledore," Lily said.
"Fine," I said "But it isn't."
"Well go on, then," she persisted, "Tell me."
I took a deep breath. "Lucius Malfoy is working for the Dark Lord."
Lily snorted, and headed for the door, "Not rubbish, my arse…"
I grabbed her again, "Let me finish!" Lily stopped and folded her arms across her chest. "Lucius Malfoy is working for the Dark Lord. Remus saw him, and Bilius found out he was impiriusing Professor Tutman. We went down to the Slytherin dungeons a while back to investigate it and we saw Malfoy talking to You-Know-Who in a bewitched mirror in the Slytherin prefects' toilet. We got caught by Filch and Dumbledore, and told Dumbledore about Malfoy, and he promised to look into it. The very next day, Tutman's mysteriously disappeared from Hogwarts and Malfoy's bragging to us that he got Tutman out to protect himself! Then Moody showed up and he's been looking into it all, too, but then Malfoy went and moved the mirror out of the prefect's toilet, so Moody thought we were all mental since he couldn't find it! Then we figured out that Malfoy must've moved the mirror and in order to prove to Moody and Dumbledore we aren't all making this stuff up, we had to get the mirror. So we stole it back from Malfoy."
Lily shook her head, "Wait, wait, wait. How was he talking to the Dark Lord through a mirror?"
"I dunno," I replied, "He's a seventh year and the Dark Lord is apparently the most powerful dark wizard on the planet, you expect me to know exactly what spell they used to bewitch the mirror?"
"Okay, okay, sorry," Lily ceded. "But that doesn't explain why you aren't telling Dumbledore now!"
I took a deep breath, "Because Sirius' mother found out it was him that stole the mirror from Malfoy."
"So? Once she finds out why you lot stole the mirror, she won't be angry at Sirius for stealing, and she'll probably be proud of him for...why are you shaking your head no?" Lily interrupted herself as I vigorously shook my head.
"Because," I said with a sad little shrug. "His mother is one of the Dark Lord's followers, too. She hates Sirius now that he's gone and been sorted Gryffindor instead of Slytherin and that he's friends with Muggleborns like you and I."
She took a deep breath. "Alright. I won't tell anybody. But you've got to figure out a way to clear Bilius Weasley from being blamed because Lucius Malfoy's decided it was him that's stolen the mirror and if you don't get him cleared it'll be Bilius who will face the wrath of the Dark Lord."
"What? Bilius?" I said in surprise.
"Yeah...Lucius attacked Bilius for mocking him in the Entrance Hall last night, just before he found out about the missing mirror. Bilius spent the night up in the Hospital Wing with Madam Pomfrey...Lucius blasted him right into the hourglasses with the house points. All that glass cut him up good!" My face was wide-eyed as Lily spoke, my expression moving through various stages of horror. "Then Malfoy found out about the mirror having gone missing and he assumed Bilius had known more about it than he let on and that's why he was mocking him, so he's really angry."
"Bloody hell," I whispered, "We'll have to figure something out."
Lily nodded. "Okay. As long as you fix that, I'll keep the secret for you."
"Thank you, Lily," I said. "I really, really appreciate it. Especially for Sirius' sake. And if we can figure out a way to safely tell...I will."
Lily nodded.
