Chapter Ten

~It's Missing~

Lily Evans

"There's heaps of stuff on giants but I haven't read a single word that mentions your mother's name, Hagrid," Lily said, flipping through an ancient book.

"Tell you what, Lily, let's take a break. I think me eyes are about to drop off."

"We've only been in the library for two hours! There's still time to look at some more books," Lily replied. Hagrid rubbed his eyes. "Oh come on, Hagrid ... do you really want to find out about your mother or not?"

"I do, I do," said Hagrid. "Look, let's bring these piles o' books to me cabin and have another cup o' tea in there. You can look through them all yeh want but me eyes really need ter close, Lily."

"Deal." Lily stood up and began to gather their belongings. Once Hagrid and herself were outside walking across the lawns, she mentally thanked the soothing breeze that played across her face. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"It's a nice day isn't it?" she said. "Nothing's gone wrong today which is something different. Usually those four mongrels wreck the day with one of their pranks."

"Who?"

"James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, Hagrid! You should see them everyday - tricks and always up to mischief. They don't seem to mind getting into trouble at every hour."

Hagrid chuckled. "I like those four ... gotta good sense o' humour about them." Lily scowled. "Even if it's trouble they get up ter, they know how ter have fun eh?" Lily shook her head. "Aw c'mon Lily! I know yeh'd be havin' a borin' life right now if it weren't for those four."

"I'd be having a very peaceful life, thank you very much."

Hagrid laughed as he pushed his door open for the little lady.

The two stopped dead. Something seemed unpleasantly odd about Hagrid's cabin - it seemed more spacious ... as if something had gone missing ... something large ...

"Hagrid ..."

"Where in the hell is the Mirror?!"

"I was about to ask that."

Hagrid rushed inside his house and started frantically looking everywhere even in the cupboards.

"I don't think a Mirror that big could fit in there," Lily said, walking in shakily and sitting down. She placed her head in her hands, her elbow resting on her knees.

"I'm dead ... I swear, Dumbledore'll sack me ..."

"Oh don't be silly! He won't sack you. He might get mad yes, but he won't sack you."

"Thanks, Lily."

Hagrid bustled around, making sure he looked under everything and didn't miss a spot. Lily lifted her head and groaned.

"Hagrid, can you please sit down? I know this is a very scary time for you right now but panicking will not help solve this problem."

Hagrid sat heavily on a chair across from her.

"It was here when we left, remember? Yeh saw it, didn' yeh? It was here!"

"I know, I know." Lily scrunched up her face in concentration. "It was here two hours ago so that clearly means it was taken some time then, while we were in the library ..."

"Why couldn' I have taken it straigh' away ter the Professor?" Hagrid muttered to himself, rocking backwards and forwards in order to try and calm himself.

" ... maybe someone would've seen them - whoever it was - that stole the Mirror ..."

"STOLEN!" Hagrid cried. "Stolen! I never knew this could happen!"

"I knew this day was too perfect," Lily mumbled.

"What are we gonna do? What am I gonna do?"

"Tell Dumbledore."

"What? Are yeh mad? He'd kill me!"

"You know for a fact that he wouldn't Hagrid. It's the best and only thing we can do right now." Lily stood up and made for the open door. "Come on, then. Don't waste any time," she said this in a surprisingly stern voice, yet calm.

"How do yeh do that?"

"Do what?"

"Stay calm and in control."

"I don't even know I'm doing it."

Hagrid's strides were so big Lily had to jog to keep up. "Do you know by any chance where the Headmaster's office is?"

"Yeah, bin there a couple o' times meself when I was in other sorts o' trouble." Hagrid sighed deeply. "I still can' believe me bad luck though, Lily. I just had ter lose somethin' big and valuable that woulda cost a whole pile o' galleons."

They were inside the castle now. Lily looked left and right, wondering which way to go but Hagrid had already started going left. Lily ran and caught up with him. He was still vaguely muttering to himself.

"Wonder if I'd have ter pay Professor fer the Mirror? I don' have that much money in me bank but I'd give me whole lot, if I had ter. You've no idea how bad I feel Lily. The Professor trusted me with this - this huge and - and expensive thing and I had ter go and lose it ... I can bang my head on a wall, hones'ly ..."

"But you won't do that Hagrid. And yes, I do have some idea of how bad you feel because it's partly my fault now, that that Mirror is gone. If I hadn't dragged you to the library, it'd probably still be there."

They reached a stone gargoyle and finally, Hagrid stopped. He stared at it for a few moments, clearly trying his best to remember what the password was. Eventually he said, "Erised." The carved stone jumped to life and sprang aside, revealing a magnificent doorway that led to an ascending staircase.

Lily had barely put her foot down on a stair when someone called from behind them.

"Miss Evans! Hagrid! What in the name of Merlin do you two think you are doing?"

"Professor McGonagall," Lily began, running towards her, afraid to get into trouble. "Er, we were just looking for Professor Dumbledore."

"The Headmaster?" McGonagall gave her a questioning look.

"Er - yeah. We just wanted to tell him something." Lily shuffled nervously on her feet.

"Well, Miss Evans, I'm sorry to say that unless what you were planning to tell Professor Dumbledore was strictly urgent, you will not be able to talk to him. He has just left Hogwarts for a very important conference meeting with the Ministry of Magic and won't be back for a month."

"A month?" Hagrid gagged. "But - but ..."

"I was left to substitute as the Headmaster for this school for the time being, Hagrid. If you have any problems with that, I would be more than happy to hear it." McGonagall's lips were frighteningly thin.

"No, Professor. It's okay. We had nothing urgent to tell the Headmaster anyway," Lily started thanking the Professor but Hagrid choked.

"Not - not important? Not urgent? Lily!"

"Come Hagrid, we need some more books," she gave the giant a piercing look that clearly said Let's get out of here and I'll explain later. "Thank you, Professor." And they were gone.

* * *

James Potter

"Remind me what we're doing in here again?" said Sirius, frowning as the four entered the silent library.

"Sirius, use your little brain," James laughed. "Put two and two together. It's that simple. We have homework, the library has books. We need books to help us with our homework."

"We're studying aren't we?" Sirius's face dropped dramatically.

"Now, it wasn't that hard was it?"

Remus, Sirius and Peter all followed James to a table. It was originally Remus's idea to go and study and everyone seemed taken aback at how much James liked the idea. As soon as the words "Hey, great idea, Remsey buddy!" left his mouth, the other three froze and looked at him strangely. Sirius even got up and began taking his temperature.

"No I'm serious," James had said, waving Sirius away from his forehead. "We should get our studying over and done with so we could have more time to plan pranks and stuff."

Now the four had marched down to the library with James as some sort of leader. They all sat down around a wooden table, bringing out their parchments, quills and inks.

"Right," James started to take charge. "Let's - "

"James are you sure you don't need to see Madam Pomfrey? I'm really worried about you," Sirius said. "You've never acted this freaky before."

"Shut up Sirius. You'll agree with me once we've finished our stuff. Then you'll be saying 'I can't believe I ever doubted you Oh Great One!' and so on." Sirius looked dumbfounded. James laughed and continued. "Anyway, as I was saying, let's all do the same subject so we can help each other. Right, Potions first. Someone help me go find a book on the Remembering Potion. That slimy git told us to find the properties of the ingredients, tell something about their history then copy down how to make the Potion. Then we have to make up twenty questions that we could ask a partner next class. Well, I assume those questions will have to have something to do with the Remembering Potion ..."

Sirius followed James, both of them weaving in and out of the various shelves of the library, every once in a while pulling a book down that looked slightly useful, then flicking through its pages. Well, at least this was what James was doing. Sirius, however, was in a completely different world.

"James! Oi James! Come and have a look at this beauty!" Sirius cried. Not a millisecond after, Madam Pince had whooshed to his side and had given him a lecture that if he "doesn't keep his voice down at this very minute, you'll be sent straight out."

Once the librarian had stalked away back to her desk, James went over to have a look at what Sirius was on about.

"Sirius buddy old pal! I knew you had it in you!" said James.

"What are you talking about?"

"You found some information on the Remembering Potion right?"

"Er - no. Actually, I haven't found a single sentence on it," replied Sirius. James looked ready to explode. Sirius held a hand to shush him up. "Wait! Before you begin screaming at me 'Oh Great One', take a look at this." Sirius pushed into his arms an open book.

The Smelly Self Spell

This hilariously conducted spell can enable the victim to be attached to a ridiculous stench. The spell gives out the nasty smell of rotten eggs, unwashed socks, dead rats and garbage bins. This spell will remain with the victim for approximately forty-eight hours, depending on how well the spell has been cast. Now, to cast the spell requires a force of mind. You will have to concentrate and devote your whole mind to the four combined smells then, keeping up these mental thoughts, repeat these words: Foeteor, foeteo, foeteo adgravesco. Your spell will immediately take place. Enjoy!

Strict as though James felt right now, he couldn't help but snigger at Sirius's brilliance at spotting books like these. He looked at Sirius who smiled.

"Am I a legend or what?" he said smugly. "Tell me I'm a legend."

"This is brilliant!" James said, looking through the rest of the book. Sirius scowled.

"That wasn't 'legend'," he whinged. Then he shrugged. "But I guess it's good enough."

As Sirius and James made their way back to Remus and Peter with a tottering pile of books, they heard a voice which made the pair's ears perk up. Deciding to investigate more closely, they hurried to their table, dropped off the thick volumes and dragged Peter and Remus along with them.

"What's so urgent?" Peter asked, irritated. He ripped James's hand off his arm. James turned around.

James was, by a fair amount, taller than Peter. The small boy was engulfed suddenly in the shadow of James. James glared at him. "What did you do that for? That hurt! You nearly ripped out my skin!" Peter shook but held his ground.

"Do you think I care?" he walked off to Remus.

"What's gotten into him?" James asked Remus.

"I dunno, he's been acting pretty strangely since we saw the Mirror at Hagrid's."

Their conversation ended there however because the intriguing voices were back again. The four boys hid behind a large shelf, their noses hidden behind books dedicated to vampires.

" ... care to dare me?" the voice challenged. "I bet I can get any girl I wanted. BAM! Just like that, like the click of my fingers."

"That's Lucius Malfoy!" Sirius hissed to Remus.

Another voice spoke up. "You serious? You're actually asking us to dare you to ask out any girl? Any at all?"

"No you stupid great prat! I wasn't serious! I'm not in the mood to be bossed around by you two. Besides, I don't get mindless people to pick a girl for me, I'd much rather like to do it myself."

"You're just scared the girl won't say yes to you!" a third voice spoke up.

"Scared? I think not, Crabbe. I'd like to see you try and ask out someone. Don't bother, I know they'd drop dead before they can even say 'no'."

"And what, may I ask, are you four doing?" Madam Pince was right behind them, sneering in a way that resembled Filch.

"Erm - vampires!" Remus said, coming to the rescue. "Interesting, aren't they, Madam Pince? You ought to read these books one day." He grabbed a book and ran for it. The other three imitated. Once out of earshot, James turned to the other three.

"So old Lucius thinks he owns the whole female population. Tut tut, he won't be happy when he finds out we heard him ..."

"Okay James," Remus sighed. "I give up. What plan are you forming in your mind now?"

James grinned. Sirius grinned. Peter and Remus gave each other a look of question.

"Tell us then!"

"Oh, this will be so much fun ..."

* * *

Lily Evans

"Why don't we owl the Headmaster, Lily? That wouldn't be a bad idea - "

"No Hagrid," said Lily firmly. "I told you, Professor Dumbledore would prefer it if we told him in person. I suggest we don't worry about the Mirror for now - well, at least try not to anyway. When Dumbledore comes back, we'll be by his side the minute he steps foot into this castle. Now, if he happens to owl us about the Mirror, then we can owl him back and tell him everything that happened."

"Ah, if yeh say so ..." said Hagrid, giving Lily a sideways glance as they walked back up to his cabin.

"Trust me on this one, Hagrid."

"I will, I trust yeh."

"Okay, now let's get back to this researching," said Lily. "By the way, would you happen to have any books about giants, Hagrid?"

"Monster Book O' Monsters ... if that'd help."

"Pass it over then." She waited until Hagrid had tamed the wild book which had previously been trying to bite off his nose. He tickled it very gently and the book stopped its wriggling and propped open in his hands. He passed it to Lily. She flicked through the pages until she found the page where it contained information about giants:

*Giants - Giants are considered scary creatures and they have no feeling or emotion, or very little of it anyway. Their most popular instinct is to kill and that's why they are scary. They are abnormally large (thus the name Giant). The few that are left are isolated, mostly living in mountains in various parts of the world. Half giants are smaller giants that are the child of a giant and a normal person. Half giants can feel much more emotion and they can also be very understanding and loving.

"Well there you go then," said Lily, seizing her quill and hurriedly taking down notes. "That explains why you're not as vicious."

"Nothing abou' me mum, I s'pose?" asked Hagrid hopefully.

Lily shook her head, "Sorry Hagrid."

"Ah well, better luck next time."

~~~~~~

*Paragraph from: http://www.geocities.com/hogwarts_online_school/monster.html