~*~GREEN EYES~*~
Chapter 53- Through the Looking Glass
Lily woke up in the early morning in a cold sweat. She felt like she was freezing, but she was burning up underneath the covers. She looked over at the clock, which said 5:13 am, and then over at Crystal. Should she wake her? She didn't want to, but she also felt that she needed help.
"Crys," she croaked, hoping that Crystal was a light sleeper. Apparently she was, since she woke up at once, her cute short bob all over her face.
"Lily, what's wrong?" she asked, trying to get her hair out of her face.
"I feel sick, can't sleep," Lily stammered.
"Oh my God, you're all clammy! You really need to get some sleep or you're never going to get better," Crystal said, rushing to Lily's side. Lily tried to say something, but it just sounded like "mmrrrrr."
"Aright, this charm will make you feel the right temperature, and you're lucky that I have some extra sleeping potion. It'll knock you out for tweleve hours, is that okay?" asked Crystal as she performed a charm.
"Give it to me," Lily said with a weak smile.
Crystal administered the medicine and then fell back to sleep.
***
"OH MY GOD CRYSTAL WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!" James screamed at the top of his lungs. Crystal turned over and looked at her clock. It was now 8:22.
"What do you want?" she asked angrily. She could help a sick person, but she preferred not to be woken up until early afternoon.
"It's Lily, she won't wake up! She must have slipped into a coma or something!" James was starting to hyperventalate.
"Chill James, I gave her a sleeping draught. She's perfectly fine, just indefinatly unconcious," replied Crystal. James stopped shaking uncontrably, but he still looked a little bit like he might puke.
"But we need her to help us with something, if we don't have her we have nothing. How long is sleeping thing gonna last anyway?" he asked.
"Probably until 5 something this evening. It lasts tweleve hours," said Crystal.
"Tweleve hours!" exclaimed James. Just then Pandora walked into the room.
"Tweleve hours?" she asked.
"Lily's gonna be out of it for tweleve hours, Crystal gave her a sleeping draught," explained James sadly.
"Well since we have one less person to work with, we should probably go now," said Pandora.
"What do you guys need to do? I can probably help you," said Crystal. Now that she was awake she was feeling left out.
"I gave Lily this necklace, right?" started James.
"Yeah, and it has divine powers," added Pandora.
"Anyway, we think that Jamie is using it to communicate with us, so we're going to look for her," said James.
"Unfortunatly though, we don't know exactly where to look," said Pandora.
"Well I can help with that!" exclaimed Crystal. She jumped out of bed and put on her Hogwarts robe over her pajamas. The three of them started walking towards the library. They were almost there when James saw Snape with some of his goons walking toward them.
"Quick, let's stay in here until they pass. I don't want to have to deal with their crap right now," said James, pulling the girls into the closest room.
"Oh my goodness James, you must see this mirror! It's so great! I'm very tall and I have diamonds everywhere!" said Pandora. James then looked at his reflection in front of the mirror.
"I have Lily and Remus and Jamie and all my friends next to me!" exclaimed James. "I wonder if this mirror shows the future."
"You guys, don't you realize that we've stumbled upon something big?" asked Crystal. "Stop looking at yourself for one second and read the inscription."
"Erised? Is that latin?" asked James.
"And I thought you were supposed to be smart. Read it backwords...it spells desire!"
***
Sirius was absentmindedly walking toward the quidditch pitch when he ran into someone in the hall.
"Hey I'm so sorry," he said, looking up. He then realized that the person he had run into was Lauren. "Oh hey baby!"
"Hey!" she exclaimed, giving him a peck on the cheek. He pulled her closer and kissed her right on the lips.
"Sirius, you know how I feel about P.D.A," she said between kisses.
"Right, you think it's dirty and disgusting. That's why we're going into this here broom closet," he explained, picking her up and carrying her into the broom closet.
"I love you," he said, kissing her.
"I love you too," she didn't know how long they kissed after that. Everything, especially time, just melted away. It wasn't until she heard Sirius's stomach growl that she realized it was probably time for lunch.
"You know what, it's probably time for lunch," she said.
"Yeah, let's sneak into hogsmeade for some butterbeer," suggested Sirius as he tried to open the door. He pushed it once, twice.
"Or better yet we can just stay here," said Sirius.
"And why would we want to do that?" asked Lauren.
"Because we're just kind of stuck."
***
James didn't even start to think things through before pulling out his wand and yelling "realizante!" There was a brilliant flash of red light which left the room full of green smoke. As the smoke cleared they realized that the mirror had been transformed. It now seemed to coated with a thin film that reminded James of his invisibility cloak. Through the mirror they could see a small, dark room. The only object in the room was a metal bed with no matress, completely covered in rags. James looked more closely and realized that Jamie was shivering under a tattered blanket.
"Let's go in and get her!" James exclaimed, attempting to put his hand through the mirror. Crystal quickly pulled him back and across the room, then turned off the lights with a flick of her wand.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" asked Crystal angrily.
"I'm playing water polo with German midgets," James responded sarcastically. "I'm rescuing Jamie, what does it look like I'm doing?"
"It looks like you're putting yourself, and us, in a compromising situation without making a plan or thinking about any of the consequences," Crystal said. She then realized she was talking very loudly and lowered her voice. "Listen, I know that it's tempting to just run in there without thinking, but by opening this type of portal you've put everyone at risk. We don't know what, and more importantly who, lies behind that mirror. We don't know if someone terrible will get through and attack the school. We need to make a plan."
"Yeah, you're right. We should make a plan!" said James brightly, as if he had come up with the idea.
"Well, how about you and Crystal get Jamie," suggested Pandora. "I will stay here and guard the portal. If anything happens I will get Dumbledore immedeately."
"Right!" exclaimed James. "Come on Crys, let's go. Pandora, you keep watch!" James grabbed Crystal by the wrist and began to drag her toward the mirror when a loud noise caused him to stop suddenly.
"Out, get out, now!" came an old man's grizzle voice. The mirror somehow made the sound excho, as if the room were a cavern.
"To...him?" Jamie asked weakly. She ten coughed violently, which made the three students' hearts break. The man, however, just let out a laught full of cruelty, seemingly mastered over many dark, painfull years.
"We've gotted ourselves a hostage that'll bring more money. Yer stupid friends must be smarter than we figgered, not a one of yer Hogwarts people have fallen into our trap," he finished with a disappointed tone.
"So where are you putting me?" asked Jamie.
"In the dungeons, so as you can starve and rot in a living hell," James could practically taste the man's toothless smile. The door echoed with a bang, and the three students fell silent.
"This is a bigger problem than I first thought," said James, no longer bubbly and excited. "You guys stay here."
"Where are you going?" asked Pandora.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures hon," said James. "I'm going to get some Fillabusters' fireworks and my invisibility cloak."
***
"Okay, I'm thinking I have enough stolen apple pies in my pocket to last us at least a week," said Sirius defeatedly as he sank to the floor of the broom closet.
"No offense babe, but I don't exactly want to stay in here for a week," Lauren sat down next to Sirius with a sigh. He pulled her closer to him.
"Come on, we could have fun in here for a week," Sirius said mischeviously.
"Not that I don't absolutely love the wonderful company," said Lauren, resting her head on Sirius' shoulder. "it's just, I don't really like pie."
"You don't like pie?" asked Sirius, pretending to be shocked and pushing Lauren away. "I don't think I can date you anymore."
"I'm sorry I don't like pie," said Lauren, slowly coming closer to Sirius.
"I can't believe you don't like pie," Sirius replied, leaning in so that their noses touched.
"I might be able to learn to like pie," Lauren's lips brushed against Sirius' as she spoke.
"I have to admit I'm a sucker for all this romantic conversation," said Sirius, kissing her softly on the lips.
"You know, right now a broom closet doesn't seem like such a bad place to be."
***
James re-entered the room ten minutes later, breathing heavily as if he had been running (which, of course, he had). The silvery sheen of the invisibilty cloak gleamed even in the almost pitch darkness.
"Alright Crys, the invisibility cloak should fit around both of us, we just need to take it slow. Tred lightly, and steer clear of people. Being invisible won't make you silent, and it won't keep people from bumping into you," he explained quietly.
"Look who's good at making a plan now!" said Crystal, sarcastically impressed.
"Yeah well I had to think about it all the way from my dorm," admitted James. He threw the cloak over them and they vanished from sight.
"Stay quiet, Pandora. We don't want to give ourselves away," Crystal whispered as they walked past her. Pandora nodded in agreement.
James had expected the mirror portal to be icy cold, and he was suprised to discover that it was actually rather warm. They had difficulty getting through since the mirror on Jamie's side was much smaller than the mirror of Erised. Finally, they were through.
Pandora watched as they left and then sat down on the floor across from the mirror. Maybe it was the fact that it was so dark, or so warm, or that she hadn't really slept well for the past few days, but something about the room fell asleep. It wasn't until she felt the knife on her neck and heard a cold, raspy voice whisper in her ear.
"It's not smart for little girls to be left alone, poppet."
***
"A broom closet is such a terrible place to be!" exclaimed Lauren. "I can't believe we can't get out of here."
"Do you want to try pounding on the door again?" asked Sirius.
"No, we've been doing that for the past half hour," Lauren said. "Are you sure you don't have your wand?"
"I told you I didn't bring it with me when I broke into the kitchens this morning," explianed Sirius.
"And I left mine up in the common room by mistake. Is there anyway we can get out of here?" Lauren asked. Sirius looked around at the room, surveying the brooms and cleaning supplies, the locked door, and, at the very top of the room, a ventillation shaft.
"Lauren, let's climb up the vent!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah right, we're not going to be able to fit through there!" said Lauren, looking at the vent.
"You do realize that it's about five feet wide, right?" asked Sirius.
"Okay, well maybe we could fit in there but how could we get up there?" she asked. Sirius looked around the room again and saw about ten buckets.
"We'll make a bucket tower!" he decided, stacking the buckets on top of each other. He put five buckets on top of each other, three buckets next to the five, and one next to the three, creating a sort of bucket stairwell. "I'm a master for acrhitecture, if I don't say so myself," he said, promting Lauren to climb the buckets.
"It doesn't quite look stable..." Lauren said, looking at the buckets.
"Do you want to stay in here forever dollface?" asked Sirius. "Yeah, didn't think so. Come one, let's go."
***
"I don't know how I could live like this," James whispered as they entered the room. It was freezing cold, with a hint of moisture in the air, and it reeked of mildew.
"Tell me about it," replied Crystal. "Let's get out of here as quick as we can."
The two of them walked out the door and into a narrow hallway with no windows. They seemed to be in a house, but they couldn't guess what floor there were on, and had no idea where the dungeons were. They were almost to a staircase when they heard a loud noise from a room not far off.
"Quick, let's hide in here," said James, pulling Crystal into an open room. They listened at the door.
"My Lord, you called for me?" asked a weak voice.
"We're set to recieve a shipment today, and you're here taking a nap like a lazy ass!" screamed the man who responded to Lord. James knew that he'd heard the voice before, but he couldn't quite place it.
"I'm sorry my Lord, I've been up for three days looking in on your prisioner," explained the other man quietly.
"What is this, do you dare to defy me? YOU DARE TO DEFY LORD VOLDEMORT BY GIVE UNACCEPTABLE EXCUSES???" he screamed. They heard the noise again, and James felt sick to his stomach when he realized that it was the sound of Lord Voldemort punching the man, hard, in the ribcage.
"I'm sorry master, it will not happen again," the man said through coughs.
"Very well. Lead me to the girl and then we will go outside," Voldemort said. James looked over at Crystal and mouthed the words 'Follow me." She nodded and they walked out the door.
They couldn't see Lord Voldemort, who was wrapped up in a dark cloak with a hood that covered his head. They could, however, see the other man, who appeared to be short and fat. He was limping down the hallway, leading Voldemort away.
We have such good luck, thought Crystal. These men are going to lead us right to Jamie.
***
"Come on girl, I don't want to hurt you, I just want to kill you!" the man said jokingly, pulling Pandora upright. He had one of his arms wrapped around her stomach and the other was holding a knife to her throat. "Your kind think you're so much better, with all your stupid wand waving bullshit, but look who's got the upperhand now."
"You won't get away with this," Pandora said.
"Maybe I won't, but what do you care. By the time they catch me you'll already be dead," and with that the man cut her across the throat, barely scratching the surface. It wasn't enough to seriously injure her, just enough to make her bleed.
Just then something happened that nobody expected: Sirius and Lauren fell out of the ceiling. The man and Pandora were both so taken aback that they gazed in awe, but Sirius recognized his friend an knew exactly what to do. He ran around the back of the man and kicked him hard in the groin. He dropped the knife, which Lauren picked up threw out the doorway. Pandora, was able to wiggle free from the man's clutches and pulled out her wand as she did so, pointing it straight at him.
"You wouldn't have the guts to kill me," said the man, although his confidence didn't quite match up to the words. He was shaking and walking backwards.
"STUPIFY!" Pandora exclaimed, and then walked over to the place where he lay. "Maybe not kill you, but I do have the guts to knock you out and put you back where you belong," she said, spitting right on his face. "Pig," she muttered as she turned on the lights with a flick of her wand.
"What do we do with this bloke now?" asked Lauren, looking over at the man.
"It came from the mirror," said Pandora, quickly explianed what had happened.
"Well we need to put him back and close up the portal," said Sirius gravely as she finished.
"But James and Crystal, they're not back yet!" exclaimed Pandora.
"Yeah, I know. But I also know that you three did something really stupid. You put James and Crystal in danger, and opened Hogwarts to intruders. We can't let anything else happen," he said. "Come on, he's gonna wake up any second." Sirius stole Pandora's wand, levitated the man and whisked him through the mirror. He landed with a thud on the other side.
"What's the charm to close the portal?" asked Sirius.
"I don't want to tell you," Pandora said.
"Tell me the damn charm!" he yelled.
"Realizante," she said, defeated.
"REALIZANTE!" Sirius shouted. The portal closed, and James and Crystal were trapped inside.
***
James and Crystal twisted through winding hallways, down stairs and through tapestries. After what seemed like ages they saw a door that seemed to be leading to the outside.
They just inadvertantly showed us the way out, James thought. This seems way too easy, like a set up.
The short man lead them almost all the way to the door, and then turned down a hallway to the right. After walking down a flight of stairs they saw Jamie, sitting in the middle of a room.
"There's your prisioner," said the short man weakly.
"Where are the guards?" asked Voldemort.
"Getting ready to recieve the order."
"What about the girl?"
"She'll be fine alone for a few minutes. She's sleeping for one, and by now she's too weak to try and find the way out of here. Come on, let's go."
James and Crystal waited for the men to leave, then picked up Jamie and used the cloak to cover all three of them. Jamie didn't even wake up, just moaned and fell limp. The three were able to get up the stairs without a hitch, and walked out the door without anyone seeing them. It wasn't until they got outside that James realized it was a setup.
Professor McGonagall, Hagrid and a few other people from the school were holding dark cloaked wizards captive. And there, at the forefront of the operation was Professor Dumbledore.
"I'm surprised to see you here James," said Dumbledore, the light gone from his eyes. Dumbledore, of course, could see through invisibility cloaks.
A/N- Sorry it took so long, but the chapter's long too. Expect regular updates from now on. I hope all of you had a happy holiday and a happy new year!
Disclaimer- I don't own stuff.
Chapter 53- Through the Looking Glass
Lily woke up in the early morning in a cold sweat. She felt like she was freezing, but she was burning up underneath the covers. She looked over at the clock, which said 5:13 am, and then over at Crystal. Should she wake her? She didn't want to, but she also felt that she needed help.
"Crys," she croaked, hoping that Crystal was a light sleeper. Apparently she was, since she woke up at once, her cute short bob all over her face.
"Lily, what's wrong?" she asked, trying to get her hair out of her face.
"I feel sick, can't sleep," Lily stammered.
"Oh my God, you're all clammy! You really need to get some sleep or you're never going to get better," Crystal said, rushing to Lily's side. Lily tried to say something, but it just sounded like "mmrrrrr."
"Aright, this charm will make you feel the right temperature, and you're lucky that I have some extra sleeping potion. It'll knock you out for tweleve hours, is that okay?" asked Crystal as she performed a charm.
"Give it to me," Lily said with a weak smile.
Crystal administered the medicine and then fell back to sleep.
***
"OH MY GOD CRYSTAL WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!" James screamed at the top of his lungs. Crystal turned over and looked at her clock. It was now 8:22.
"What do you want?" she asked angrily. She could help a sick person, but she preferred not to be woken up until early afternoon.
"It's Lily, she won't wake up! She must have slipped into a coma or something!" James was starting to hyperventalate.
"Chill James, I gave her a sleeping draught. She's perfectly fine, just indefinatly unconcious," replied Crystal. James stopped shaking uncontrably, but he still looked a little bit like he might puke.
"But we need her to help us with something, if we don't have her we have nothing. How long is sleeping thing gonna last anyway?" he asked.
"Probably until 5 something this evening. It lasts tweleve hours," said Crystal.
"Tweleve hours!" exclaimed James. Just then Pandora walked into the room.
"Tweleve hours?" she asked.
"Lily's gonna be out of it for tweleve hours, Crystal gave her a sleeping draught," explained James sadly.
"Well since we have one less person to work with, we should probably go now," said Pandora.
"What do you guys need to do? I can probably help you," said Crystal. Now that she was awake she was feeling left out.
"I gave Lily this necklace, right?" started James.
"Yeah, and it has divine powers," added Pandora.
"Anyway, we think that Jamie is using it to communicate with us, so we're going to look for her," said James.
"Unfortunatly though, we don't know exactly where to look," said Pandora.
"Well I can help with that!" exclaimed Crystal. She jumped out of bed and put on her Hogwarts robe over her pajamas. The three of them started walking towards the library. They were almost there when James saw Snape with some of his goons walking toward them.
"Quick, let's stay in here until they pass. I don't want to have to deal with their crap right now," said James, pulling the girls into the closest room.
"Oh my goodness James, you must see this mirror! It's so great! I'm very tall and I have diamonds everywhere!" said Pandora. James then looked at his reflection in front of the mirror.
"I have Lily and Remus and Jamie and all my friends next to me!" exclaimed James. "I wonder if this mirror shows the future."
"You guys, don't you realize that we've stumbled upon something big?" asked Crystal. "Stop looking at yourself for one second and read the inscription."
"Erised? Is that latin?" asked James.
"And I thought you were supposed to be smart. Read it backwords...it spells desire!"
***
Sirius was absentmindedly walking toward the quidditch pitch when he ran into someone in the hall.
"Hey I'm so sorry," he said, looking up. He then realized that the person he had run into was Lauren. "Oh hey baby!"
"Hey!" she exclaimed, giving him a peck on the cheek. He pulled her closer and kissed her right on the lips.
"Sirius, you know how I feel about P.D.A," she said between kisses.
"Right, you think it's dirty and disgusting. That's why we're going into this here broom closet," he explained, picking her up and carrying her into the broom closet.
"I love you," he said, kissing her.
"I love you too," she didn't know how long they kissed after that. Everything, especially time, just melted away. It wasn't until she heard Sirius's stomach growl that she realized it was probably time for lunch.
"You know what, it's probably time for lunch," she said.
"Yeah, let's sneak into hogsmeade for some butterbeer," suggested Sirius as he tried to open the door. He pushed it once, twice.
"Or better yet we can just stay here," said Sirius.
"And why would we want to do that?" asked Lauren.
"Because we're just kind of stuck."
***
James didn't even start to think things through before pulling out his wand and yelling "realizante!" There was a brilliant flash of red light which left the room full of green smoke. As the smoke cleared they realized that the mirror had been transformed. It now seemed to coated with a thin film that reminded James of his invisibility cloak. Through the mirror they could see a small, dark room. The only object in the room was a metal bed with no matress, completely covered in rags. James looked more closely and realized that Jamie was shivering under a tattered blanket.
"Let's go in and get her!" James exclaimed, attempting to put his hand through the mirror. Crystal quickly pulled him back and across the room, then turned off the lights with a flick of her wand.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" asked Crystal angrily.
"I'm playing water polo with German midgets," James responded sarcastically. "I'm rescuing Jamie, what does it look like I'm doing?"
"It looks like you're putting yourself, and us, in a compromising situation without making a plan or thinking about any of the consequences," Crystal said. She then realized she was talking very loudly and lowered her voice. "Listen, I know that it's tempting to just run in there without thinking, but by opening this type of portal you've put everyone at risk. We don't know what, and more importantly who, lies behind that mirror. We don't know if someone terrible will get through and attack the school. We need to make a plan."
"Yeah, you're right. We should make a plan!" said James brightly, as if he had come up with the idea.
"Well, how about you and Crystal get Jamie," suggested Pandora. "I will stay here and guard the portal. If anything happens I will get Dumbledore immedeately."
"Right!" exclaimed James. "Come on Crys, let's go. Pandora, you keep watch!" James grabbed Crystal by the wrist and began to drag her toward the mirror when a loud noise caused him to stop suddenly.
"Out, get out, now!" came an old man's grizzle voice. The mirror somehow made the sound excho, as if the room were a cavern.
"To...him?" Jamie asked weakly. She ten coughed violently, which made the three students' hearts break. The man, however, just let out a laught full of cruelty, seemingly mastered over many dark, painfull years.
"We've gotted ourselves a hostage that'll bring more money. Yer stupid friends must be smarter than we figgered, not a one of yer Hogwarts people have fallen into our trap," he finished with a disappointed tone.
"So where are you putting me?" asked Jamie.
"In the dungeons, so as you can starve and rot in a living hell," James could practically taste the man's toothless smile. The door echoed with a bang, and the three students fell silent.
"This is a bigger problem than I first thought," said James, no longer bubbly and excited. "You guys stay here."
"Where are you going?" asked Pandora.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures hon," said James. "I'm going to get some Fillabusters' fireworks and my invisibility cloak."
***
"Okay, I'm thinking I have enough stolen apple pies in my pocket to last us at least a week," said Sirius defeatedly as he sank to the floor of the broom closet.
"No offense babe, but I don't exactly want to stay in here for a week," Lauren sat down next to Sirius with a sigh. He pulled her closer to him.
"Come on, we could have fun in here for a week," Sirius said mischeviously.
"Not that I don't absolutely love the wonderful company," said Lauren, resting her head on Sirius' shoulder. "it's just, I don't really like pie."
"You don't like pie?" asked Sirius, pretending to be shocked and pushing Lauren away. "I don't think I can date you anymore."
"I'm sorry I don't like pie," said Lauren, slowly coming closer to Sirius.
"I can't believe you don't like pie," Sirius replied, leaning in so that their noses touched.
"I might be able to learn to like pie," Lauren's lips brushed against Sirius' as she spoke.
"I have to admit I'm a sucker for all this romantic conversation," said Sirius, kissing her softly on the lips.
"You know, right now a broom closet doesn't seem like such a bad place to be."
***
James re-entered the room ten minutes later, breathing heavily as if he had been running (which, of course, he had). The silvery sheen of the invisibilty cloak gleamed even in the almost pitch darkness.
"Alright Crys, the invisibility cloak should fit around both of us, we just need to take it slow. Tred lightly, and steer clear of people. Being invisible won't make you silent, and it won't keep people from bumping into you," he explained quietly.
"Look who's good at making a plan now!" said Crystal, sarcastically impressed.
"Yeah well I had to think about it all the way from my dorm," admitted James. He threw the cloak over them and they vanished from sight.
"Stay quiet, Pandora. We don't want to give ourselves away," Crystal whispered as they walked past her. Pandora nodded in agreement.
James had expected the mirror portal to be icy cold, and he was suprised to discover that it was actually rather warm. They had difficulty getting through since the mirror on Jamie's side was much smaller than the mirror of Erised. Finally, they were through.
Pandora watched as they left and then sat down on the floor across from the mirror. Maybe it was the fact that it was so dark, or so warm, or that she hadn't really slept well for the past few days, but something about the room fell asleep. It wasn't until she felt the knife on her neck and heard a cold, raspy voice whisper in her ear.
"It's not smart for little girls to be left alone, poppet."
***
"A broom closet is such a terrible place to be!" exclaimed Lauren. "I can't believe we can't get out of here."
"Do you want to try pounding on the door again?" asked Sirius.
"No, we've been doing that for the past half hour," Lauren said. "Are you sure you don't have your wand?"
"I told you I didn't bring it with me when I broke into the kitchens this morning," explianed Sirius.
"And I left mine up in the common room by mistake. Is there anyway we can get out of here?" Lauren asked. Sirius looked around at the room, surveying the brooms and cleaning supplies, the locked door, and, at the very top of the room, a ventillation shaft.
"Lauren, let's climb up the vent!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah right, we're not going to be able to fit through there!" said Lauren, looking at the vent.
"You do realize that it's about five feet wide, right?" asked Sirius.
"Okay, well maybe we could fit in there but how could we get up there?" she asked. Sirius looked around the room again and saw about ten buckets.
"We'll make a bucket tower!" he decided, stacking the buckets on top of each other. He put five buckets on top of each other, three buckets next to the five, and one next to the three, creating a sort of bucket stairwell. "I'm a master for acrhitecture, if I don't say so myself," he said, promting Lauren to climb the buckets.
"It doesn't quite look stable..." Lauren said, looking at the buckets.
"Do you want to stay in here forever dollface?" asked Sirius. "Yeah, didn't think so. Come one, let's go."
***
"I don't know how I could live like this," James whispered as they entered the room. It was freezing cold, with a hint of moisture in the air, and it reeked of mildew.
"Tell me about it," replied Crystal. "Let's get out of here as quick as we can."
The two of them walked out the door and into a narrow hallway with no windows. They seemed to be in a house, but they couldn't guess what floor there were on, and had no idea where the dungeons were. They were almost to a staircase when they heard a loud noise from a room not far off.
"Quick, let's hide in here," said James, pulling Crystal into an open room. They listened at the door.
"My Lord, you called for me?" asked a weak voice.
"We're set to recieve a shipment today, and you're here taking a nap like a lazy ass!" screamed the man who responded to Lord. James knew that he'd heard the voice before, but he couldn't quite place it.
"I'm sorry my Lord, I've been up for three days looking in on your prisioner," explained the other man quietly.
"What is this, do you dare to defy me? YOU DARE TO DEFY LORD VOLDEMORT BY GIVE UNACCEPTABLE EXCUSES???" he screamed. They heard the noise again, and James felt sick to his stomach when he realized that it was the sound of Lord Voldemort punching the man, hard, in the ribcage.
"I'm sorry master, it will not happen again," the man said through coughs.
"Very well. Lead me to the girl and then we will go outside," Voldemort said. James looked over at Crystal and mouthed the words 'Follow me." She nodded and they walked out the door.
They couldn't see Lord Voldemort, who was wrapped up in a dark cloak with a hood that covered his head. They could, however, see the other man, who appeared to be short and fat. He was limping down the hallway, leading Voldemort away.
We have such good luck, thought Crystal. These men are going to lead us right to Jamie.
***
"Come on girl, I don't want to hurt you, I just want to kill you!" the man said jokingly, pulling Pandora upright. He had one of his arms wrapped around her stomach and the other was holding a knife to her throat. "Your kind think you're so much better, with all your stupid wand waving bullshit, but look who's got the upperhand now."
"You won't get away with this," Pandora said.
"Maybe I won't, but what do you care. By the time they catch me you'll already be dead," and with that the man cut her across the throat, barely scratching the surface. It wasn't enough to seriously injure her, just enough to make her bleed.
Just then something happened that nobody expected: Sirius and Lauren fell out of the ceiling. The man and Pandora were both so taken aback that they gazed in awe, but Sirius recognized his friend an knew exactly what to do. He ran around the back of the man and kicked him hard in the groin. He dropped the knife, which Lauren picked up threw out the doorway. Pandora, was able to wiggle free from the man's clutches and pulled out her wand as she did so, pointing it straight at him.
"You wouldn't have the guts to kill me," said the man, although his confidence didn't quite match up to the words. He was shaking and walking backwards.
"STUPIFY!" Pandora exclaimed, and then walked over to the place where he lay. "Maybe not kill you, but I do have the guts to knock you out and put you back where you belong," she said, spitting right on his face. "Pig," she muttered as she turned on the lights with a flick of her wand.
"What do we do with this bloke now?" asked Lauren, looking over at the man.
"It came from the mirror," said Pandora, quickly explianed what had happened.
"Well we need to put him back and close up the portal," said Sirius gravely as she finished.
"But James and Crystal, they're not back yet!" exclaimed Pandora.
"Yeah, I know. But I also know that you three did something really stupid. You put James and Crystal in danger, and opened Hogwarts to intruders. We can't let anything else happen," he said. "Come on, he's gonna wake up any second." Sirius stole Pandora's wand, levitated the man and whisked him through the mirror. He landed with a thud on the other side.
"What's the charm to close the portal?" asked Sirius.
"I don't want to tell you," Pandora said.
"Tell me the damn charm!" he yelled.
"Realizante," she said, defeated.
"REALIZANTE!" Sirius shouted. The portal closed, and James and Crystal were trapped inside.
***
James and Crystal twisted through winding hallways, down stairs and through tapestries. After what seemed like ages they saw a door that seemed to be leading to the outside.
They just inadvertantly showed us the way out, James thought. This seems way too easy, like a set up.
The short man lead them almost all the way to the door, and then turned down a hallway to the right. After walking down a flight of stairs they saw Jamie, sitting in the middle of a room.
"There's your prisioner," said the short man weakly.
"Where are the guards?" asked Voldemort.
"Getting ready to recieve the order."
"What about the girl?"
"She'll be fine alone for a few minutes. She's sleeping for one, and by now she's too weak to try and find the way out of here. Come on, let's go."
James and Crystal waited for the men to leave, then picked up Jamie and used the cloak to cover all three of them. Jamie didn't even wake up, just moaned and fell limp. The three were able to get up the stairs without a hitch, and walked out the door without anyone seeing them. It wasn't until they got outside that James realized it was a setup.
Professor McGonagall, Hagrid and a few other people from the school were holding dark cloaked wizards captive. And there, at the forefront of the operation was Professor Dumbledore.
"I'm surprised to see you here James," said Dumbledore, the light gone from his eyes. Dumbledore, of course, could see through invisibility cloaks.
A/N- Sorry it took so long, but the chapter's long too. Expect regular updates from now on. I hope all of you had a happy holiday and a happy new year!
Disclaimer- I don't own stuff.