Chapter 10: Disappearances and Warnings


The night before she was to go home for Christmas break, Lily found herself alone in the common room, looking through library books once again for a language charm for ancient languages. She had lain awake in bed that night, unable to sleep. Every time she'd closed her eyes and felt herself drifting off, the feeling that she'd forgotten something would creep in on her, and she'd jolt awake again. Eventually, she'd given up and crept down to the common room with her books, figuring that she could at least do something productive since she wasn't sleeping anyway.

About an hour after she'd first settled into her favorite chair next to the fire, the portrait swung open, and Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore came hurrying in. Professor McGonagall looked as though she had been pulled out of bed in quite a hurry. Her hair was loose, rather than done up in the bun to which Lily was accustomed, she wore a terry cloth robe over her gingham dressing gown, and her glasses sat slightly askew on her face. Professor Dumbledore was fully dressed, but his hair was disheveled and he wore a look of great concern upon his face.

"Does he have to go tonight, Professor?" McGonagall was asking as they entered.

Dumbledore nodded. "His mother wants him home immediately."

McGonagall looked as though she wanted to protest, but she didn't. "Yes, I suppose she can't be blamed for that," she said. "Any idea why he was taken, Albus?"

"I've got a few, Minerva," Dumbledore answered with a sigh. "And none of them lend any real hope to the situation."

Lily sat numbly in her chair, trying to decide whether or not to let them know she was there. On the one hand, she wasn't entirely sure that she was even allowed out of bed at this hour, and she was keen to avoid trouble. She was also very curious to know what they were talking about. On the other hand, she felt guilty about eavesdropping on what was obviously meant to be a private conversation. Just as she had decided to make her presence known with a cough, McGonagall noticed her. She gasped, clearly startled to find a student in the common room at that hour, and her hand flew to her throat. "Miss Evans!" McGonagall exclaimed severely, "Just what are you doing out of bed at this hour?" They both walked quickly over to where Lily was sitting.

"I—I couldn't sleep, professor," Lily answered honestly. She looked at Dumbledore, whose eyes were glancing over the titles of the books that she had strewn around her. He gave her a quizzical look, but before he could say anything, she asked, "Please, professor. What's happened?"

McGonagall began to say something that Lily strongly suspected would have told her to stay out of it, but Dumbledore held up his hand. He smiled at Lily. "You are a friend of Frank Longbottom's, are you not, Lily?" he asked kindly.

Lily nodded, a feeling of foreboding washing over her. "I am, sir," she answered.

Dumbledore sat on the arm of the chair beside her, put his hand on her shoulder and looked at her intently, his blue eyes filled with sadness. "Frank is going to need his friends to help him through next term," he said quietly. "I know I can count on you to be there for him." He stood up. "Come, Minerva," he said, moving toward the boys' dormitory.

McGonagall stood looking at Lily. "Get to bed, Miss Evans," she said sternly, but her eyes had softened, "or I'll take five points from Gryffindor."

"Yes ma'am," Lily mumbled as McGonagall began to follow Dumbledore up the stairs. She gathered her books up slowly, pondering silently as she did so, what in the world that had been about.

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Lily was exhausted the next morning. She had lain awake most of the night, wondering which member of Frank's family had been taken. And more importantly, why? She kept thinking of Dumbledore's response when McGonagall had asked him if he had any idea why someone had been taken. "I've got a few, Minerva, and none of them lend any real hope to the situation." What situation? Did Dumbledore mean that none of his ideas bode well for the safe return of whomever had disappeared? Or was he talking about a bigger situation, one that involved the Dark Lord, and the book that had been taken? When she finally had fallen asleep, her dreams had been filled with the shadowy image that had appeared over the Slytherin section in her dream about the quidditch match. She had woken more than once, the cold voice from the dream still echoing in her mind, and the feeling that she was forgetting something stronger than ever.

When they arrived at breakfast, rumors about the Longbottom family were flying everywhere. Desdamona had heard from her cousin in Ravenclaw that Longbottom's dad had been bitten by a werewolf. Lupin, who looked as exhausted as Lily felt, assured her with a tinge of annoyance that there would have been no werewolves out that night, because the next full moon wasn't until Tuesday. Amelia's brother had told her that Longbottom's great-great-grandpa had died, but Joshua McKinnon pointed out that he'd passed away several years previous. Andromeda, who was sitting a few seats down, had tried to stay above the gossip, but when Kaylie relayed the rumor about a troll finding its way into the Longbottom house and destroying everything within it, she commented that she thought the Longbottoms did live near the mountains. Lily, Alice and Amelia, for their part, had also tried to stay out of it, but Lily had been asked to tell and re-tell what she had heard last night so many times that she was now quite sick of hearing herself talk.

Lily ate her breakfast silently, still mulling over in her mind the conversation that she had overheard. Whenever she was asked, she skipped the part about someone being taken, feeling that it was not her place to announce to the school that there had been a kidnapping. As the meal wore on, she found herself getting more and more irritated by everyone else's fascination with Frank's private tragedy. She found to her surprise that she, Alice and Amelia were not the only ones disgusted by it, however. Whenever anyone would come over and ask the Marauders what they'd heard last night, either Potter or Black would snap that it was none of their business, and if they had any decency, they wouldn't be discussing another person's tragedy like it were entertainment. Lily had just decided that the next time anyone asked what she had heard, she was going to follow Potter's and Black's example when Potter caught her eye.

"I need to talk to you before you leave for Christmas break," he said to her.

"Why?" she asked suspiciously. Potter and Black had been much nicer to her since the quidditch game, but she had not forgotten all of the jokes that they had played on her in the past. She was fairly certain that if she found herself alone with Potter, she'd end up getting her trunk transfigured into a turtle, or something equally obnoxious.

"Relax, Evans. We need to discuss the night we got detention."

Black was now looking at her, too. Both wore very serious expressions, and she felt for some reason that they really weren't joking this time. Still, you could never be sure with the two of them. "All right," she said, nodding, "but Alice and Amelia will need to come along. They've been helping me with it."

Potter smiled. "Good, meet us in the chamber off of the entrance hall in 10 minutes." Black, Potter and Lupin stood up and left the table. Pettigrew scrambled after them, squeaking at them to wait up.

Lily, Alice and Amelia finished eating, and then headed to the room that Potter had indicated. When they arrived, Potter and Black were wrestling on the floor as Pettigrew cheered them on and Lupin laughed. "Give it to me," Black was panting, reaching for something in Potter's arm.

"Swear you won't tell her and I will!" Potter retorted, flipping Black off of him, and scrambling away. He wasn't fast enough. Black grabbed his leg and pulled him back down to the ground. Potter next tried crawling out of the way. As Black lunged at him, Potter rolled, and Black landed beside him. They both stood up quickly, and began circling each other, looking for an opportunity to pounce.

"Give it here!" Black hollered as Lupin looked up and smiled, motioning to the three girls to come in.

"Uh, James, Sirius?" he said, "You might want to knock it off, now."

"No way, Remmy!" Potter said, his eyes dancing mischievously. "I'm not giving it back until he promises not to tell—," Potter stopped. He had just turned to face the doorway and saw the three girls standing there. His black hair was all over the place, he was breathing heavily, and he was blushing furiously. At that moment, Black noticed that Potter was no longer paying attention to him, and took the opportunity to lunge at him. As Potter went falling to the ground, legs sprawling everywhere, Black grabbed something out of his hand.

"Got it!" he called triumphantly. Black's hair was also messy, and his face was flushed from the tangle, but he was grinning wickedly. It was obvious to Lily that both boys had been enjoying the wrestling match immensely. Black waved at the three girls, and tucked what looked like an ordinary quill into his pocket. Lily briefly wondered why he'd been so worried about getting it back; quills like those were a dime a dozen.

Potter stood up, attempted to smooth his hair and straighten his robes, and then turned to look at the three girls, his eyes still sparkling with amusement. "We've got to talk," he said, now dusting off his robes.

"What's going on?" Lily asked. The expressions on the faces of Potter, Black and Lupin turned suddenly serious. They exchanged significant glances. Pettigrew looked as though he still didn't quite understand what the big deal was. Lily felt herself grow tense.

"What is it?" Alice asked impatiently. "Does this have anything to do with Frank?"

Potter shook his head. "No, it's like I said at breakfast. I need to talk to you about the night we served detention." He was now looking intently at Lily.

"Okay," Lily said, wondering if they were going to get to the point. "What about it? What's the problem?"

Black sighed heavily. By the way they were acting, Lily suspected that they didn't really want to tell her whatever it was they had to say. "Snape."

Lily felt herself growing irritated. "If this is just a way for you to get me involved in the stupid war going on between Snape and you two, I'm not interested!"

Potter glanced at Black. "It's not, Lily, this is a serious problem, I swear."

"And I don't believe you," she said, turning toward the door.

"Will you just hear us out?" Lupin asked. Lily stopped. She liked Lupin, and as far as she knew, he didn't have a grudge against Snape like Black and Potter did. She turned around.

"Fine, let's hear it, then."

"Snape knows we were serving detention in the hallway on the third floor the night Malfoy and company went down that passage," Potter said quickly.

Lily felt herself growing impatient again. "Why in the world would Malfoy care where we were serving detention?  He doesn't know we were down in that passageway!"

Black shook his head in amazement. "I thought you were one of the cleverest witches in our year, Evans," he said.

"Malfoy knows you weren't there when he arrived," Lupin explained. "And eventually, the dark wizard that Malfoy was taking the book to will notice the missing page."

"And when they figure out it's missing, they'll look for it," Black continued.

"And when they don't find it, they'll figure out that one of us must have it," Potter finished.

"And why would that be bad, again?" Pettigrew asked. All 6 of them jumped in surprise, having forgotten that Pettigrew was still there.

"We'll explain it again to you later," Black barked.

"But that's only if Snape tells him," Lupin said.

"Which he will," Potter and Black said in unison.

Lily stared at them in disbelief. "Why would Snape tell Malfoy?"

Potter, Black and Lupin stared at her like she was being deliberately obtuse. "Why?" they said again in unison. "Because, Lily, he would like nothing better than to cause trouble," Black added.

Lily shook her head. "No," she said quietly. What they were saying didn't tally with Snape as she knew him. He was friends with people that she'd just as soon hex as say hello to, but she'd never seen him go out of his way to torment people like Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Avery did. She felt annoyed. "You're just assuming the worst of Snape!" she said finally. "He's always been perfectly polite to me." Black snorted, but didn't say anything.

"Okay, fine," Potter said, clearly frustrated. "You want to believe that he isn't a great bigot, fine. But you can't deny that he hates me. And since I was there too, why wouldn't he tell Malfoy? It'd be the perfect revenge for what we did to him at Halloween."

"No," she said again. "That's different. From the way Malfoy was talking down there, this Dark Lord will do anything to get this book. If he tells Malfoy we've got the missing page, Malfoy will come after us, and he won't just be pulling a prank. He'd hurt us. Snape wouldn't really want to hurt us!"

"You're so naïve, Lily! Would you listen to me for just a second? Snape—hates—muggle-borns," Potter growled.

Lily stared at him for a moment. "Oh, this is ridiculous!" she said finally. "You're all just biased against him because you don't like him. He wouldn't do anything that would really hurt us."

Black sighed in frustration. "All right, then. Let's assume for a moment that Snape wouldn't want to hurt us, and focus on the problem that Snape's knowledge has illuminated. Malfoy's Lord is going to want to get back the page that we've got."

"And from the looks of things, Malfoy's Lord isn't one to mess around. I'd bet my wand that he's responsible for both disappearances, and the murder," Potter added.

"And now it looks like he's taken Frank's dad," Lupin said. The three girls stared at Lupin.

"It's Frank's dad that's been taken?" Alice asked numbly.

They nodded sadly. "You didn't know?" Black asked quietly. The girls shook their heads. "Oh, we thought Lily'd overhead..." Black trailed off.

"That's why Dumbledore and McGonagall came and got him last night. His mum wanted him home," Lupin explained.

Lily felt her legs go weak. Now that Frank's dad was missing, the possibility of a Dark Lord no longer seemed so abstract. And if what Potter and Black had said was accurate, he'd be looking for them next.

They were all silent for a moment. "The good news," Lupin said finally, "is that we don't know yet what that book has in it, or if Malfoy's Lord will need the page that we've got. If the book has more than one spell in it, there's a good chance that he won't even know that page has gone missing."

"Which means," Black said, now surveying all of them, "we need to work together to figure out what in the name of Merlin that page says."

"As quickly as possible," Potter agreed.