A/N: This chapter is, by default, dedicated to Oliverwoodschic and child- of-scorpio. Eihwaz and I were on a high all afternoon because of your charming reviews.... :D It has come to my attention that I did not put a disclaimer on the last two chapters... and despite Eihwaz's insistence, I am not yet convinced that we own Harry Potter! So... I don't own anything you recognise, be it J.K. Rowling's or anyone else's, unintentionally! R&R please Lourdaise

Chapter 3

After that, Sirius and I limited ourselves to stink pellets and dung bombs for a while. We were happy enough with the effects and we only got caught a couple of times. Neither of us minded detention - it was a sign of bravado - and I had given up trying to impress Lily. I knew she was aware that I liked her - Snape, of course, had wasted no time in telling her - but clearly she had no kindness towards me. It was truly pointless, although still something to brood over on sleepless nights.

Eventually, unpleasant odours in every other class began to lose their appeal. "We need to do something bigger, something better," Sirius moaned in the common room. Remus buried his nose further in his book.

"But what? I'm not risking something like last time."

"Okay, smitten one, we won't risk your darling's safety next time. But if we know where she is then it shouldn't risk anything. Look, here's the plan. In potions, I'll take one - just one, okay? - Filibuster and aim it, when Sherwin's not looking, at Snape. With any luck it should land in his cauldron, spatter him with potion and ta-da, we're done!"

Remus shifted uneasily. "What, Rem?"

"Well... be careful," he implored. "You could be expelled if you seriously harm Snape. And getting hit with some potions..."

"Okay, okay," Sirius said. "We'll wait until it's just something like... an engorgement charm. That wouldn't be harmful for long. Just long enough to give him a nose like a melon and making those spots of his look like walnuts. And Sherwin'll never prove it was us."

Remus sighed. "Fine. Whatever."

We decided to wait until after Christmas to pull the prank. Sherwin had been keeping a very stern eye on us after the last bout of stink pellets, so we had no chance anyway. "After Christmas he might have relaxed a bit," Sirius said, his fingers crossed. Besides, Remus had succeeded in making us feel cautious, so we were delaying a bit, at least.

Remus, Sirius and I all remained at school over the Christmas break. Sirius did not wish to return home, Remus had only recently been home and I decided to stay with them. We all woke early on Christmas day.

"Presents!" Remus exclaimed.

The other two boys in our dorm had returned home, as had most of the Gryffindors. We were three of only about ten students in the common room when we lugged our gifts downstairs to unwrap.

"You first," Sirius and Remus said to me.

I shrugged and pulled a present out from the bottom of the pile. It was from my Dad.

"Why just Dad?" I wondered aloud.

"You've got another here from both of them," Sirius pointed out.

"How strange." I tore at the paper and gasped as I saw silvery fabric that flowed over my hands like liquid. "Sirius, look!"

"What is it?" Remus asked.

"It's an invisibility cloak," I explained. "This... is going to be so useful!"

Sirius grinned as well. "I'd hide that, if I were you," he cautioned however. "They're really rare, and valuable. Oh, if only Snape could see..."

"I'm never letting him get his greasy hands on this," I said viciously. "Never, ever. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you Dad!"

"I wish my parents were that great," Sirius said sadly.

"Oh, you haven't seen what they've got you yet," I replied.

He lifted an uninspiringly wrapped package. "They've hardly written to me since they heard I was sorted into Gryffindor. I don't have high hopes." He pulled the paper away and held up a book and some cash. "See?"

I was about to say something sympathetic when he noticed something in his pile. "James, I think your parents have given you another present - look, same paper." He handed it to me but as I checked the label I shook my head.

"It's for you," I said. "From them. My parents like to get to know my friends - you've got one too, Remus."

He laughed. "Wow! I knew there was a reason why I was friends with you, Potter." They tore off the wrapping paper to reveal a box of Bernie Bott's Every Flavour Beans each.

"Nearly as generous as my own parents," Sirius said ironically.

The invisibility cloak gave us a new lease of life until lessons - specifically, potions - were back on. That night, we went on our first trip into the main school in the dark - it was exhilarating, hiding behind doors, watching the teachers scurrying around late and knowing they couldn't see us. Our first close shave was nearly rounding a corner straight into Apollyon Pringle, the caretaker. He was talking to a cat by his ankles. "Secret passages... never find them... too soft... they'd soon learn... corporal punishment..."

"What's he on about?" I whispered.

Remus took out his wand. "Elucido," he muttered, pointing his wand at Pringle. Suddenly his speech was comprehensible.

"There must be a secret passage around here. Behind this statue, maybe? Oh, this is hopeless. I can't force anything to show itself without magic. Need Dumbledore, but he's too soft by half. 'Let them do as they want' indeed! Now if I was in charge, there'd be a rack for disobedient pupils. I should really get on with that 'teach myself magic' course. Then I might be ready to take a bit more charge..."

"Finis," Remus said and we hurried away from the caretaker.

"Grief," I said. "So Pringle is a Squib!"

Sirius had a gleam in his eye. "Secret passages," he murmured reverently. "There are secret passages out of school!"

I understood immediately. "Well, they needn't remain secret to us, need they?"

Remus began to smirk. "I know where the entrance to one is that goes to Hogsmeade."

Sirius and I gaped at the idea of going to the wizard village nearby. "You knew there were secret passages out of school and you didn't tell us?"

He shrugged. "It must have... slipped my mind, I guess."

We began to tackle him to the ground together, heedless of the cloak slipping away, until rapidly approaching footsteps awoke us to our visibility.

"Quick!"

We dived under the cloak and pounded back to the Gryffindor common room. "Tarantulas!" I panted at the Fat Lady, and we tumbled through the portrait hole in a hyper state.

"Close," Sirius gasped.

"Yes," Remus agreed. "But not quite close enough for them to catch us."

"Same time on Friday," I said slowly. "We can go and find the two passages that at least one of us knows about."

Remus laughed. "Okay, okay - but if it wasn't for me we'd never have guessed what Pringle was talking about."

"True," Sirius grunted.

"A nifty little spell to make sense of raving. I use it a lot in History of Magic," Remus grinned.

There was a freak snowstorm in the middle of January that left us all trapped in the castle for a week. It was bizarre - normally, it didn't snow that hard until deeper in winter. Flying lessons were cancelled for the duration; more happily, so was Herbology as no-one could get to the greenhouses. Once, having forgotten a text book, I came across Professor McGonagall talking to Professor Dumbledore. Quickly, I concealed myself behind a statue and settled down to listen.

"Albus, how long do you think he'll keep us in here?"

"Not long," Professor Dumbledore said. "He's not doing any harm to us, is he? It's a waste of his time. All he wants is to tell me that he's coming back."

"But why would he choose a snow storm?"

"That is something I don't know. I suppose he knows that I will know it's his doing, and yet it won't give me grounds to form my own army, so to speak. Minerva, this is Tom Riddle; I'm the only teacher who ever suspected him to be less than perfect. Consequently, he has a fear of me which I doubt he'll ever admit. He doesn't dare do anything harmful to Hogwarts."

I was bewildered. Somebody had charmed this snow storm?

"But I thought you said he wanted to strike fear through the wizarding world?"

"Yes. But not yet. Not on his own. I predict that in, say, two to three years he will act. Until then, he only wants to send us 'chilling' messages that he's coming. No one will listen to them except for me and a few others. That gives him immediate power, and it allows him to laugh at us. Followers will come to him more easily."

"Oh, but Albus, everyone will listen to you."

"They will listen. They won't believe. 'Voldemort' knows what he can do, and so do I. So few other people will recognise Tom Riddle, even fewer will believe that this 'new' wizard is talented until... he is too talented to do anything about. Mark my words, Minerva, only the gullible will help me until it is too late for anything but a war of bloodshed."

And then they both moved away. I shuddered. Dumbledore never spoke like that. But he could stop this person. Professor McGonagall was right, people would listen to Dumbledore. When the snowstorm ended the next day, I decided I would file it in the back of my mind and to all intents and purposes, forget about it.