Chapter 14
Where for art though Frank?

The next day was a long one. James had gone to sleep in Lily's bed, they'd been up late planning the party and had fallen asleep in each others arms.

It was late before they woke up, almost midday. The rest of the school would be coming in a few hours. James rushed downstairs to the boys dorms to get Sirius, while Lily got changed and ran to the spot they had agreed to meet Frank and Kim.

Kim was waiting at the top of the stairs, eyes dark and face pale. Lily approached her, feeling exactly how they both looked. But they smiled excitedly at each other and did a quick look around before talking in low voices.

"Where's Frank?" Lily asked as she sat down on the top step.

Kim sat next to her. "He's at the library, he said to meet him there. He had to look something up or find something…I wasn't really listening."

"This thing better work. I've never done anything this huge before. I want to remember something from this school. Being the perfect student is kind of dull."

"Yeah, but then there's me. I've found the perfect balance. I'm perfect in class, but as soon as seventh is done- I'm back to my old self. Well not my old old self…you know what I mean."

"Yeah…why did you change anyway? You were such a bitch to me."

"Well remember that guy I used to date, Goyle? He was a joke, he liked me like that so I acted like that. When I realised that everyone hated me and I was almost failing every subject…I…I guess I realised that I was the joke. So I'm me now. I'm better."

"And Goyle's repeating sixth year, isn't he?"

Kim nodded and the girls laughed. They soon forgot their conversation when James and Sirius came running down the hall.

"Lil, I have an idea." James said excitedly as they reached the stairs.

Kim looked around and saw a first year walking down the hall towards them. "Let's walk and talk."

They made their way down the stairs towards the library, James whispering loudly and the others listening intently.

"It's foolproof, we've done harder things with less magic,"

"But less people." Lily added. "You said a couple of hundred people, that's one big distraction on your hands."

"We can do it." Sirius assured her. "We only need some help from our outside contacts. Renord Fillyrink owes us a favour or two and it's about time we cash 'em in."

"Will they fall for it though?" Kim said, opening the door to the library and taking a look around.

"There's only one way to find out. If it doesn't work out…I'm sure we can think of something else." James and the others joined Frank at his table and gave him a meaningful look. The library wasn't the safest place to talk, being the last day of the holidays, it was full of students catching up on the study they had stayed back to do.

Frank pushed a huge, ancient looking book towards them and they all leant in to read it.

PROFESSOR FERDINAND McLaughlin (1755-1879)

Professor Ferdinand McLaughlin was the inventor of such creations as wobbly-table fixers, hinges for huge doors, floating candles, room of requirement, dragon-hide boots…

The four skimmed down the page until they got to the subheading;

THE ROOM OF REQUIREMENT

Also referred to as the "Come And Go" room. Allows the possessor of requirement to formulate a secret room equipped with all necessities. The creation is kept in McLaughlin's exclusive tomes, which are hidden from access of most wizards. Very few wizards know the procedure for this enchantment, which is problematical for those who do not possess the knowledge or power.

Lily looked up at Frank. The other three were still reading. "So where are his books?"

"Don't know. He used to live near here, but I doubt that his stuff will be left where he lived. I'm guessing he left his journals to a relative, friend…or something."

Lily stood up. "I'll be back." She disappeared into the bookshelves and returned several minutes later carrying three of four huge books. By then, Sirius had told Frank about "The Distraction Phase" and was whispering furiously about his ideas.

"I think it will have to be really believable- but not anything out of the ordinary, like a conference or a gathering…or, I don't know. I'll think about it. Found anything Lily?"

Lily had dropped the books on the table with a soft thud. She shrugged her shoulders and passed a book to Frank. "I think there are references to details of some wizards deaths in there, but I don't know if this Laughlin guy will be in there.

The four of them stayed for many hours, reading about the funeral of Barry the boisterous and the will of Gemuds Crukelhimeratouase, but in the end only found two useful facts about Ferdinand McLaughlin: that he taught at Hogwarts and that he died at Hogwarts. Two facts that seemed useful- but how? They didn't know.

They all huddled together in the darkening room, discussing their next plan of action.

"Guy's, is this party worth all the trouble? I mean, there are plenty of other ways to break the rules." Lily's comment was met with shocked stares from the other four.

"Lily, it'll be great. The students need a party. We'll give it to them. We'll have a super time." James gave her a kiss on the cheek and took her hand. "Now lets go have dinner, the others will be back by now."

"Oh, yeah the feast." Sirius' eyes were filled with delight. "I'm starving."

So the five of them made their way down to the Great Hall. The Gryffindor table fell completely silent at the sight of Lily and James walking hand in hand, Lily leaning against his shoulder and smile on her face. Half of the school were now looking at James and Lily in shock. James whispered in Lily's ear. "Let's give them something to talk about." He leant over her and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. They pulled away and walked towards the Gryffindor table and the group of cheering Gryffindor sixth years. Travis nudged Johnnie and said in a conceited voice, "I told you so."

"You two finally got it together." Wendy exclaimed. She seemed to have forgotten the grudge she had held against Lily for so long. James and Lily sat down between Terran Duran and Ruben Dyingcat and told their story of secret crushes and Sirius' slip-ups. Soon the relationship was accepted and the topic was rejected. They were now discussing in low voices the plans of the curfew-breaking party. Frank looked towards Kim and saw that she was doing the same. He drank the last of his pumpkin juice and excused himself. Lily remembered him saying that he didn't want to get in trouble and thought that he was probably leaving so that he could not be linked as one of the organisers of the shindig. She soon returned to the conversation. The others seemed very keen for it to go ahead. Lily knew that the news would soon be spread around the school and she had a realisation that more than a couple of hundred people would want to come. The whole school would soon be seeking invitation.

James and Sirius snuck out of the common room late that night, hidden by James' invisibility cloak. They made their way to the library, stopping a few times to avoid Filch and later Peeves. Once they had reached their destination, they made their way to the restricted section. With a quick glance towards the secure door, James pulled of the cloak and pointed his wand at the bookshelf.

"Lumos."

His wand lit up the spines of the old dusty books. James eyes lingered on books with titles such as Secrets of the Dead, Spells of the lost, mysteries of the Ancient and Discover deceased enigma.

He looked in a couple of books, not finding anything useful and not expecting to. It was Sirius' idea to look for more information. When the windows let in the first of the suns rays, James whistled to Sirius. "Let's go." On their way out, a book entitled Lesen Sie Nicht caught James' eyes. He looked away and threw the cloak over Sirius and himself. The book was soon forgotten as they made their way back to their dorm to fit in a couple of hours sleep before class.

##

It was after school the next day when they got the news. James, Lily, Remus, Sirius, Peter and Ebony were down at the border of the Forbidden Forest.

Ebony Wiccapot was easily the most popular girl in school for many reasons. The main one being that she was the only dealer of wiccapot in Hogwarts. Wiccapot's had been selling wiccapot at Hogwarts since Ebony's Great, great Grandfather John Murphy had been a student there. He had made the discovery of a magical drug, often referred to as Magic Marijuana, but officially named Wiccapot. John changed his name to Wiccapot and manufactured. He sold it in Hogwarts but dropped out of school and made millions of Galleons selling it in Hogsmeade and other magical cities. He tried to sell to muggles but the side effects were worse on them than actual pot- defying the purpose of John's work.

Ebony, being the only dealer and extremely rich held a lot of power over the student body. Despite her popularity, she spent most of her time by herself or with her childhood friend Sirius.

Today seemed no different to any other. Remus found the effects of wiccapot to help him cope with his werewolf transformations and as it was less than a week until the full moon he was well stocked up. Ebony counted the money quickly and put it in her robe pocket.

"Thanks Mooney, here's one for the road." She handed a joint to Remus, Sirius and Peter and kept one for herself. She looked at Lily, "You want one?"

Lily wrinkled her nose. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'll be right."

"You're such a James. I thought he was a tough guy but he won't even try wiccapot. You guys don't know what you're missing."

"Fuck off! If I did that shit I could never get into the Quidditch league. It's not worth my future."

It was the first time Lily had heard James talk with any ambition for the future. She smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Good for you."

James opened his mouth to answer but was distracted by Kim, who was running down the slope towards them. She reached them and stopped to lean against the tree. She panted heavily.

"Where's Frank?"

The group looked at her with blank faces. Sirius shook his head. "Dunno."

"Shit." She yelled kicking a tree. Sirius passed her his joint and she took a long drag and gave it back. She seemed to calm down almost instantly. "He was supposed to meet me this morning and he didn't show and I've been looking for him all day. Has anyone seen him?"

Everyone shook his or her heads or muttered no's. "Who was the last to see him?" Lily said, trying to remember if she'd seen him at all during the day.

"Has anyone seen him since the Great Hall the other night?" Sirius flicked his joint into the wet grass.

"I saw him leaving the common room before we went to bed. That was about eleven. Did anyone see him after then?" James waved a cloud of smoke away and gave Peter a kick. "Get out of my face Wormtail. You fuckin' stink."

"He's gone then." Kim gulped and shook her head.

"Then lets find him then. He can't have gotten too far." Remus blew one last breath of smoke and started his way back to the castle. The others followed.

Frank looked up and a desperate feeling replaced the hope. No one was ever going to find him. He would die from hunger before they even thought to look here. Why had he come by himself? He would never get out of here alive.