A/N: Please don't come after me with pitchforks yet. I appologize for taking so long to post. Things have been hectic, as poor an excuse that is. Happy belated Halloween! I dressed up as a witch and gave out candy on the front porch. That was fun. Then there were these boys who tried to put shaving cream all over our house, I chased them down the street.
Disclaimer: Short and concise. Still not mine. fin.
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named
Filch's sallow face widened into a nasty grin, flashing horrid yellow teeth. Lily looked around the room and saw six other shadows in the corner of the room. Filch had caught all of them. They were all out of bounds.
They were all going to be expelled.
"You are all coming with me. Give me your wands." Lily held out her wand obediently. Filch snatched up five other reluctant wands. James clutched onto his for dear life. Filch snarled and grabbed James by the wrist, wrenching the wand out of his fingers. Lily saw nail marks on James' wrist. "Nice try Potter." He said acidly. Just then, Lily felt something brush past her ankles, causing her to jump. An ugly brown cat, with flashing red eyes deep set into a squashed face trotted happily up to Filch. Filch reached down and patted Mrs. Norris. "And you shall be leading the way, my sweet."
Filch grabbed onto the back of James' robes and jabbed the bundle of wands into his back. "Move. And don't try anything funny."
Mrs. Norris scampered along ahead of them. Filch brought up the rear holding the wands into James' back. Lily could have sworn that Carolyn Aubrey once said he was a squib, but without a wand, Lily wasn't ready to test that theory. They walked back over the narrow passageway, and crawled through the tunnel again. "I found it rather amusing that you got that door open. Couldn't get it open myself, always assumed it led outside." Filch mumbled along. This was somewhat of a relief to Lily. Dumbledore seemed trusting enough, but she couldn't imagine him giving access to Filch. The object in that room must obviously be special and highly secret to be locked up like that. Not everyone should be allowed to see that.
They passed the old dungeons once more. Lily saw more torture devices than she ever wanted to. She didn't even want to think how they worked.
Filch sneered nastily again. "Consider yourselves lucky. I remember when we used to use them. We'd hang you by your ears. I can still hear the screams after all these years. Music to my ears." He gave a blood-curdling laugh causing Lily's stomach to drop. She felt someone shudder near her shoulder.
She didn't know how long they had been walking; it seemed so much shorter before. Then they suddenly stopped in front of a closed door. Filch pulled a large ring of keys that must have weighed nearly as much as a person out of his pocket. He searched meticulously for the one to open the door. With a clink, he pushed open the door leading back to Dougal's office.
Right, she was going to be expelled.
They walked back into the torch-lit potions room to find Dougal scribbling at his desk. "I found these back in the dungeons. A young boy from the corridor tipped me off. Taking 'em up to Dumbledore." Filch cackled.
"Those – they are people Filch. If it isn't my favorite students." He looked up at them almost boredly. I'll take them. I need to speak with Dumbledore myself about certain meddling teachers."
"See to it they get what they deserve."
"Oh of course." Dougal smiled maliciously, snatching the wands from Filch. "Over here, NOW!" he yelled. Lily jumped and fell in line behind him. He led them down several more corridors. Students on their way up to bed stared at them. Some were astonished, some were amazed, and all the while, prefects gave them looks of reprimanding. He marched them up to the gargoyle in front of Dumbledore's office. "Ice Mice." The gargoyle moved revealing a set of spiraling steps leading up to a large wooden door. Dougal knocked quickly and opened the door leaving them in a very familiar looking room. He shut the door behind them quickly and waited outside the door.
"He still decorates the same." Sirius looked around curiously.
"Your priorities are terrible, Sirius." Lily snapped.
"Sorry, trying to lighten the mood a bit."
"We are now going to get expelled." Nichole said gravely. "Good bye school – goodbye classrooms – goodbye Lake – goodbye squid in lake –
"There's a squid in the lake?" Sirius said as his face lighted up with glee. "Does it have a name?" Lily glared at him and he quickly resumed being solemn. "Sorry Lily, trying to keep my mind off of what my parents will do to me after expulsion. I'll probably be disowned and dropped in a Muggle school. Or maybe they'll send me to Durmstrang"
Holly interrupted weakly. "I believe I told you, at least if I had told McGonagall-"
"Shut up Holly." James barked cruelly. Holly jumped.
"Stop it Potter!" Lily screamed.
"You're not being much help either, Evans."
"This is not getting anywhere!" Remus jumped in between them.
"You don't always have to be the mediator you know!" James turned to him with a crazed look in his eyes.
"What has gotten into you James?" Remus strained. Peter grabbed the struggling James' arms behind his back.
"We shouldn't have gone. This idea was stupid."
"It was not stupid James. This was the least of the stupid ideas we had." Sirius cut in.
"There was that one where you were going to see if you could make yourself smell like a plant." Peter chimed.
"The idea was that I wouldn't seem so edible now would I?" James exclaimed. Nichole, Remus, Holly, and Lily stared at them, secretly questioning their sanity.
"Edible?" Remus speculated.
"Can't explain here, sorry."
"Ahem – excuse me."
James whirled around awkwardly and stared straight into Dumbledore's twinkling eyes. He stood powerfully before them, blue robes cascading down to the floor. His face was set and stern, his eyes glared through half-moon spectacles. "Have a seat, all of you." He conjured seven armchairs before the students. Lily instantly sat down upon command.
"So, do you want me to start asking questions, or would you just like to explain and get everything over with." Dumbledore said firmly.
James made an uneasy glance over to Peter and Sirius. "We'll explain, if you will explain some things for us."
"Just don't expel the others." Sirius cut in. "Remus, Nichole, Lily, and Holly had nothing to do with it."
"All seven of you were caught out of bounds."
"We made them do it." Sirius answered.
"Alright then, explain. After that, I will answer whatever your questions are the best that I can."
Peter and Sirius looked rather worried about what their friend might possibly say. Remus and the girls looked on with interest. Dumbledore waited patiently for James to begin his tale.
James cleared his throat. "Peter, Sirius, and I found a spell in a textbook and we really – er -really wanted to test it out." He finished quickly. James looked up hopefully at Dumbledore to see if he bought the story.
"Continue."
James obviously hoped that his concise explanation would be enough. "Well – then we – er- we – went to Dougal's office -"
"Professor Dougal." Dumbledore cut in. "Show respect for your teachers please."
"Right – er- sorry. We went to the office because we – er -"
"We wanted to do some surprise extra credit work for our beloved professor." Sirius added quickly. Everyone, including Dumbledore stared at Sirius incredulously. "We really didn't want him to put us in remedial Potions because -"
"It would mar our records for getting into an advanced course later on." Peter chimed in.
"And we thought we could bring up our grades by, surprising him!" James exclaimed. The other two shouted their approval as well.
Dumbledore examined the boys for a minute. He silently stared at them, taking in what they were all shouting at him. "Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, and Mr. Pettigrew, while I understand your wishes to do well in your Potions class, I dissuade you from attempting to complete another potion on your own again. Without help, you could cause irreversible damage to yourselves and to others."
James sighed with relief. Lily knew they were still hiding something and that they were going to get away with it as well. She couldn't decide whether to say something to Dumbledore right then and there.
"I would also hope that you would not lie to your elders. I can't accuse you without any evidence. It gets to be weighed on your own conscious. So if you decide you ever want to tell me what you were really doing in that office, I'm all ears. Consider this a warning; I don't want to see you attempting anything like this again."
"Yes sir." Seven students said in unison.
They sat in silence for a few more minutes. "So I believe you have some questions for me. Is this true?"
"Yes sir," Lily interrupted. "In the magical water dish thing -"
"The Pensieve?"
Lily was going to burst with all of the questions swarming in her mind. "I guess. Anyways, there was a man named Riddle, or Voldemort. Who is he? What did we see? Was that even real? Was that -"
"Slow down Miss Evans. One question at a time. First of all, the Pensieve is where I keep my memories. Sometimes one just has too many things cluttering their thoughts. I can store some old memories in there for later. So yes, what you saw was real."
"Who is Voldemort?" Remus speculated. Dumbledore's face became rather grim.
"I guess you will have to know eventually. I thought it would be better if I could keep this from the students as long as possible, but it was only a matter of time. Surprised that you even say his name, most people who have heard of him refuse to."
"What do you call someone when you don't use their name?"
"Most wizards are beginning to call him "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He is becoming a frightening force on the dark side. Voldemort has gathered a group of followers behind him; Death Eaters he calls them. They are trying to rid the world of the people who "are not fit to do magic", mostly muggle-borns. He is offering his followers power beyond their imagination. Others are joining him out of fear."
"What is he doing?" James asked with mild interest.
"Terrible things Mr. Potter. He has openly used unforgivable curses and killed hundreds so far. His only goal is power; he wants everyone to fear him. People on our side are constantly disappearing."
"So there are people fighting him?" Holly questioned.
"Yes Miss Delacroix. The Aurors in the Ministry are protecting all of us. Hopefully we will have nothing to worry about at this school. If you don't mind, I believe we have talked enough on this subject. I would like it if you would not spread what you have heard onto all of the students yet. They will know in time."
"May I ask one more question?"
"Yes Miss Sanders."
"You were offered the position of Minister of Magic? Why didn't you take it?" Nichole interrogated.
"That would be two questions. It isn't a position I am going to take on right now in this point of my life, maybe another time. Besides, the Ministry offices smell like old socks and I don't think I could stand all of that decree writing." Lily suppressed a small smile at the ridiculous comment.
"Thank you sir."
"Oh, and Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, and Miss Sanders," The three students whipped around. "I hope to see a win for Gryffindor."
"Professor?"
"I can't help it, I am partial to Gryffindor seeing as I used to be Head of House." He responded with a smile. They said goodbye and the seven students filed out towards the door. Dougal, who had obviously been attempting to listen though the sound-proof door, tumbled into the office as James turned the handle.
"SO THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE A DETENTION???" Dougal shouted as the students left the office.
"I believe we have come to a mutual understanding on the issue. They won't try that again, I guarantee you. So, you wanted to see me?"
* * * * *
"That was far too close for my liking." Sirius exclaimed back in the common room. Seven Gryffindor students sat around the fire, sprawled across various armchairs.
"Edible Potter?" Lily speculated with much curiosity.
"It's nothing Evans."
"You owe an explanation."
"Tough luck."
"Yes boys, I believe an explanation is in order." Remus cut in, leaning over towards them from behind the sofa. Lily waited in anticipation for the true reason that she decided to risk expulsion.
"So," Sirius quickly changed the topic. "What are we going to do about this Voldie character?"
"We'll get rid of him!" James shouted.
"Right. Seriously." Nichole added.
"Let's stop talking about this okay?" Remus jumped in.
"Okay, calm down! Don't have a cow." Peter responded lamely.
"Keeping secrets Remus?" Lily asked curiously. "You know something about Vol –mo-die, Movledort, Dovelmort, Lo-"
"Stop it before you hurt yourself Evans." James said acidly.
"Alright, I am tired of waiting!" Remus shouted, desperate to take the attention off what he already knew. He dragged James up to the common room.
"Ouch Rems, watch my arm!"
"What are you trying to do? If this is some kind of prank, I expect you would have told me by now."
"What makes you think we would plan a prank now?" James responded casually.
"Because you're James Potter, and your friends with Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. If you don't tell me what this is about now, I will just find out for myself."
"Remus-"
"And if you are doing something illegal, well James, I never thought I would say this, but I will have to turn you in."
"Ahem – Remus -" James interrupted slightly louder.
"And you will risk expulsion over something that is probably stupid to begin with."
"Shut up Remus!" James shouted a little too noisily just as someone was opening the door. Sirius Black stepped into the room. "We're trying to help you!"
"Peter is staying downstairs with the girls. It is hard to keep a plan secret with you two yelling so loud."
"You're trying to help me? How?" Remus whispered; his eyes were wide with shock.
"If you could be quiet for two seconds, Sirius here will explain his brilliant thesis."
"Brilliant thesis? Are we talking about the same Sirius Black?"
"You're hurting my feelings. I am rather smart you know."
"Oh of course." James interjected. "You said yourself that your mind seems 'less human' during the full moon. You want to eat humans."
"So I thought that if we weren't humans, than you wouldn't want to eat us."
"What are you getting at?"
"Animagi! McGonagall gave me the idea last year at Christmastime."
"When she said that you were stupid and would never learn anything in her class?" Remus cut in.
"I have finally been inspired to pay attention."
"You know what you are doing?" Remus asked uneasily.
"Mostly, we're working out the kinks, but this will take a long time." James answered.
"I know I said this before, last year at Halloween. I don't know what I would do without you guys. Thank you!" Remus flashed the biggest smile any of them had seen in a long time. James and Sirius couldn't help but feel the smile was contagious. It was their secret and the teachers won't be able to stop them.
* * * * * * * * *
A/N: Not the most eventful chapter, but all necessary stuff. I am starting to write the next chapter tonight. No excuses! Let me know what you think!
Oh and because it has been repeatedly been mentioned to me, I found a little website for the people who want to continuously tell me that Lily and James are the same age as Voldmort and Hagrid. Voldemort and Hagrid are in the sixties. Can't you just imagine Voldemort with arthritis problems?
There are rather complete timelines at Harry Potter Lexicon (link in bio) and on geocities (in Polkat's review). (Thank you Polkat!) I tried to put the addresses up here but it wouldn't work. I am not meaning to be annoying, but people, please check the facts before you decide to inform everyone else about their mistakes. Then again, those websites may help you out as much as they helped me.
~North*Star - who thinks she may finally have her new penname! I'll put it up with the new chapter, maybe I'll send an email. Speaking of e-mail, some people have asked me to send them updates when I actually do put up new chapters. If anyone who isn't getting e-mails from me would like to, let me know. (I don't want to bombard anyone with emails who doesn't want them.)
Ciao!