When Lily clambered up the trap door into the shrieking shack after Scorpius she had in her hand the velvet drawstring bag. As she hauled it in after her, it emitted a loud clanking sound as though full of objects much larger than the small pouch itself.
'What on earth is that?' Poppy asked pointedly.
Lily walked over to the torn up bed and plonked herself down on it. Then she plunged a hand inside the bag and began to pull out objects from within.
'A revealer-' Lily tossed a bright red eraser like object out onto the floor.
'A Gemino cup-' she threw a rusted old goblet out and it clattered down next to the revealer.
'Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder-' she continued, setting down a jar of a gun-powder like substance on the floorboards in front of her.
Poppy raised an eyebrow and looked over at Scorpius whose expression was strained. Lysander on the other hand lay down on his belly with his face right before the jar and stared at it with great interest.
Lily put her hand straight back into the depths of the bag. Her arm disappeared right up to her elbow though from the outside the bag looked far too small to be able to contain her whole forearm.
'Some glamour goggles-'
'Wait-what are those?' Poppy demanded before she had time to toss them onto the pile of objects on the floor.
Lily put on the pair of thin, gold framed glasses and peered at Poppy.
'They're glasses which allow you to see what objects have been enchanted… in other words, they show you magic' she told her.
'For example, I can see that you've been using that straitening serum again. It makes your hair appear all glittery through these lenses'
'Hmph!' Poppy responded, putting a self-conscious hand to her golden locks. Lily ignored her and carried on taking out objects.
'A sorting switch' Lily held out what looked to be a gold-plated lighter. Scorpius moved calmly forward and took it from her, flipping it over in his palm with curiosity.
'It's for tidying up' Lily explained to him.
Scorpius flicked open the lid and ran his thumb along the flint wheel until it made a clicking sound. Instantly, books that had been strewn all over the floor from their evening homework sessions flew into a neat pile on the bedside table.
'Well that seems terribly useful for a bit of spring cleaning, but why exactly do you have all this stuff?' Poppy asked skeptically.
'These are investigative tools' Lily said lightly.
'The kind an Auror might use?' Scorpius asked her tensely.
'Something like that…' Lily mumbled. She made to gather up the objects into the bag again. But Poppy was not about to let her move on without a thorough explanation.
'Wait, wait, wait-' She held up a hand to stop her. 'You're telling me that you stole these from your father? From your father the Head of the Auror Office? From your father Harry Potter?!'
'More like borrowed them-' Lily responded quickly. Poppy let out a faint noise that sounded like a Bowtruckle being stepped on.
'He lent them to you?' Lysander blinked at her with innocent surprise.
Lily cleared her throat awkwardly.
'He left them in his office at Grimmauld Place where I stayed the entire holidays with my brothers… so he can't seriously have been expecting them to stay put…' she said defensively.
'Bloody hell Lily-!' Poppy cried, 'well I hope you put in a good word for us when we're all on trial before the Wizengamot for having used pilfered Ministry goods!'
'Doesn't he lock his office?' Scorpius inquired, still turning the sorting switch over in his hand.
'He had a password on it… but it only took about three guesses to figure out' Lily replied with a shrug.
'Was it Wrackspurt?' Lysander asked knowingly.
'No, it was His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad' Lily told him. 'It's from a poem my mum wrote ages ago which he likes to bring up all the time to embarrass her'
'More like a passphrase then. Good to know wizards are keeping up with the latest trends in cybersecurity' Poppy said sarcastically.
'What's cyber-?' Lysander began inquisitively but Lily cut across him.
'We need physical evidence of Raleigh's wrongdoings if we're ever going to get anyone to believe us about him being an Anguis' she said firmly.
'I think it will take more than some bad poetry to get into Raleigh's office' Poppy shot back snidely.
'Yes, we'll need that gold ring on his index finger' Lysander agreed.
Three sets of eyes instantly turned to him.
'What ring?' Scorpius asked sharply.
'The gold ring with the red jewel- the one that opens the door to his office' Lysander replied serenely.
'Wait- what? How do you know about this?' Lily asked impressed.
'In third year we did a class on locking charms and Professor Flitwick mentioned that Raleigh uses a charmed ring to secure his office. It prohibits anyone but the wearer from being able to open the door'
Lysander peered around at his three friends with wide, protruding eyes that seemed mildly surprised to find that they had not heard this piece of information.
'I guess I need to pay more attention in class…' Lily reflected soberly.
'Who knew old Flitwick actually had anything interesting to say?' Poppy muttered.
Lily waited at the top of the stairwell that led to the third floor corridor of the North tower. A gaggle of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw third years passed by her on their way from lunch in the great hall towards their Defense Against the Dark Arts Class. Lily knew that Professor Raleigh would be making his way up those steps any second now and the thought made her stomach churn nervously.
She had wanted to be the one to attempt to get the ring off of him, but Scorpius had insisted that it would be less conspicuous if he were to do it. So Lily was left on look-out duty as the rest of her friends waited around the corner each in position along the corridor.
When she saw the top of his black hair appear from the flight of stairs below, Lily didn't hesitate. She moved swiftly taking the pocket watch out of her satchel and opening it as though to check the time. Instead she whispered hurriedly to the ticking hands: 'now'.
The sound of hooves pounding against the stone floor immediately filled the air. They were getting louder as Lily retreated a few steps up the next flight of stairs. Then, just as Professor Raleigh arrived on the landing with his back to her, a palomino horse dashed past them, thundering down the corridor and setting of a chorus of screams from the third years up ahead.
Lily watched as Professor Raleigh took out his wand and rushed down the corridor after the beast. Not a moment later, an eerily soundless explosion was set off sending a blast of shadow out in all directions and the corridor was filled with a thick black cloud. Lily, who was still perched on the steps in the stairway was spared the sudden swarm of darkness that stretched from one end of the corridor to the other. She could see some stray sparkling particles of Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder floating around through the air in front of her.
Lily's heart thudded against her chest as she waited, listening to the sounds of several students yelling out in surprise and Professor Raleigh calling for calm. Then suddenly the sound of a bear roaring filled the darkness echoing off the walls. Chaos ensued; students could be heard running around looking for a way out, tripping here and there and colliding with one another.
Lily quickly took the Gemino cup out of her satchel and bent down in front of the swirling black cloud in preparation. It was a matter of a few seconds between her knees hitting the stone floor and the snout of an arctic fox appearing out of the darkness before her.
Scorpius's hazel eyes stared up at her as Lily quickly held her hand out. The snow white fox opened it's jaw, letting a golden ruby studded ring fall into her palm. It was now coated in a thin layer of saliva which glistened in the light.
Lily's entire body slackened in relief to see that their plan had worked; Scorpius had managed to use the accio charm to slip the ring off of Raleigh's finger unnoticed during the chaos and confusion. But she didn't have time to celebrate; she quickly dropped the ring inside the golden cup before turning it upside down again. Two identical rings fell to the floor.
Lily grabbed the one that was still glistening with fox saliva. Scorpius opened up his snout and snatched up the second one, before disappearing back into the black cloud, his canine senses allowing him to easily move through the darkness back towards Raleigh.
Lily would have liked to stay to confirm that he was able to safely drop the replica near Raleigh but she knew she had to go. It was up to her to carry out the rest of their plan whilst her friends continued to distract the professor.
She ran down the steps two at a time until she had reached the floor below, where she pelted down the corridor until she was at the next set of stairs. Lily then ran straight back up again, emerging at the other end of the corridor just beyond where the cloud of darkness still hung. Fides sat waiting in front of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom door, his tail twitching nervously.
'The coast is clear' he meowed at her.
Lily nodded a thanks before speeding inside the room. She threaded her way through he desks towards the far side of the room where the door to Raleigh's office was located. She stopped to put the golden ring onto a shaking finger, before taking a deep breath and turning the door knob.
To her enormous relief it opened for her. She stepped gingerly into he room half expecting an intruder charm to go off. But there was nothing but an eery silence and the sound of her loafers scuffling agains the floor as she strode around looking for something that might possibly be incriminating.
But after a few laps, all Lily could find were innocuous text books and potions vials. She riffled through the stack of parchment on his desk, hoping to find some something- some correspondence with the other Anguis perhaps- but all she found were student's essays.
Lily's hands were shaking again and her mind began to flood with panic; it wouldn't be long before Raleigh had managed to charm away the commotion they had caused in the hallway. Poppy, Lysander and Scorpius had put themselves at risk of being discovered as animagus and expelled and it would all come for nothing if she didn't find something.
Then she remembered. Lily fumbled with her satchel again to produce the gold rimmed glasses which she promptly put on.
She spun around on the spot, looking carefully at each corner of the room around her. When she came to the bookcase, she froze. It was sparkling.
Lily reached out to touch the books only to have her hand plunge through them. She let out a little gasp before gathering her wits about her and stepping straight through the bookcase.
The first thing that Lily noticed as she stumbled forward was the sound of water running. She found herself in a small, cold stone room. At it's centre was a fountain that was sparkling so brightly that Lily had to remove the glasses because her vision was overwhelmed by the light.
With her eyes still squinting and blinking as she tried to adjust back to the dimness of the room, Lily edged forward towards the running water. She could see a section of shadows at the bed of the fountain; something lay beneath the running water.
Lily looked at the liquid pouring out of the fountain nervously. It looked to be simply water but the glasses had told her that it most certainly was not. She took a few deep breaths before plunging her hand inside the pool, half expecting to feel a sudden shock of pain or for boils to appear on her skin.
Instead, the water was cool and soothing to touch. In fact, Lily found herself so relaxed and contented with the feeling of it swirling around her skin that she felt the urge to jump in and submerge herself completely.
'Are you done yet?' Fides' yowl could be heard through the bookcase from the other side of the office door where he was still keeping watch.
Lily was startled into action again. She shook her head of it's sudden fogginess and forced herself to focus back on the task in front of her. The shadowy outlines of what looked to be dolls were just within her reach. She picked up the closest one to her outstretched fingertips and pulled it from the water, taking a few steps back to distance herself from the fountain's enchanting pull.
Looking down at her palm, Lily felt her heart stop and her throat tighten. She was holding a wooden poppet carved into a startling resemblance of her father. Harry's messy hair, his almond shaped eyes and even the glasses that framed them were all depicted in detail.
Lily didn't need to know what Raleigh was using the poppet for to know that there was something very wrong with him having a magical effigy of the Head of the Auror Office hidden away in a secret room. She hurried to take the velvet bag out of her satchel and insert the small wooden version of her father inside.
'I think time's almost up!' Fides meowed loudly again.
Lily turned back to look at the wall she had walked through, hesitating. The poppet of Harry was definitely something; but if it didn't turn out to be enough she would forever regret not making the most of this chance to investigate further. And there were still other dolls inside the fountain.
With her heart beating painfully against her chest, Lily returned to the fountain and hurriedly grabbed at the remaining poppets, thrusting them inside the velvet bag one after another. In the scurry of movement she saw flashes of their faces; Headmistress McGonagall, Professors Montespan and Farooqi, Aunt Hermione and a number of other wizards and witches who she did not recognize.
As Lily turned on her heel to depart, she heard the bone-chilling sound of Fides hissing.
'He's here!'
Lily ran through the wall, out through the bookcase and back into the office. The entire place had been turned upside down during the course of her search. She fumbled for the sorting switch, pulling the golden lighter like object from where she had tucked it into the waistband of her skirt. An urgent flick of the flit wheel had the room in order again, but just as the last piece of parchment flew into place the knob of the office door rattled.
Lily paled, breaking instantly into a nervous sweat. There was no way out. Her only option was to hide. She ran over to the desk and pulled open the bottom drawer, throwing the velvet bag inside for safe keeping, before transforming into a red fox and scurrying under an armchair to the side of the desk.
Lily pressed her belly to the ground and forced herself to stay still as the rattling at the door increased. Then suddenly the door flew backwards off its hinges with a great blast of golden light, causing the fur on Lily's back to stand upright.
Professor Raleigh strode into the room, his face pale with anger. He surveyed the room with narrowed eyes before walking over to the desk and throwing down the fake ring that Lily had duplicated with the Gemino cup.
Lily froze with panic, not even her whiskers twitching. She knew she needed to try to get towards the doorway as soon as she could but fear prevented her from budging.
Raleigh's slow pacing around the room was even more terrifying than the blast that had destroyed the door. He stepped gradually closer to where she lay underneath the chair, before coming to a halt.
The room fell to silence and Lily suddenly became acutely aware of the soft sound of her own panting.
'Bombarda!'
Lily felt a rush of air above her as the chair covering her was thrown backwards, leaving her laying in plain sight of the Professor.
She scrambled onto her paws and dashed for the doorway, but Raleigh already had his want pointed at her.
'Incarcerous!'
Thin cords shot from his wand, tripping up Lily's four legs and binding them tightly to her. Lily howled in distress, struggling to free herself.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see the Professor calmly walking over to a cabinet to the side of the room. He returned holding a cage made of bars of light, the same kind that she had seen Linnea Munter use to trap the young Acromantula.
At the sight of it, Lily struggled harder against the ropes around her paws; but it was no use. In one foul swoop and a flash of blood red robes the Professor bent down and forced her inside the small prison.
A/N: I'm really sorry for the delay guys... if you want an explanation the answer is it was the end of uni semester, work got busy and I got two new puppies to take care off.
I really hope there are people out there still reading this (despite the huge break). Please let me know if you are still keen for more, I've still got a lot more story to go!
