Chapter 15

Clues and secrets

Remus opened the doors to the Entrance Hall and the others followed him in. they all stopped and looked at each other.

Sirius started to laugh. "Are we gonna start looking or are we gonna stay here all day?"

Kim jumped into action. "Okay we split up. James and Lily check his usual places. Classrooms, library, wherever you think he might be. Sirius and I will check the grounds and forest. You three check the common room and his dorm. Ask around, see if anyone has seen him but don't make it seem suspicious."

Everyone ran off in their own directions.

Lily followed James up the stairs. The library was pretty much empty, Definitely no Frank. They went outside and looked at each other. "Where now?"

"Kitchens? Prefect's bathroom? Prefect's common room?" Lily looked at the intense nervousness on James' face and let out a little laugh.

"He'll be fine. We'll find him."

James shook his head. "It's not just that. It's…" He started walking down the hall, partly to avoid Lily's eyes but mainly to get to the Prefect's bathroom. "It's kind of not his fault. He was least into this idea. He was just the informer for us. Gave us a bit of help, y' know. We got him into this mess."

Lily looked at James. His head was down and his hands were pushed deep into his pockets. This was not the James she thought she knew. She had learnt so much in the past few weeks, and kept learning. She reached out and pulled James' hand out of his pocket and held it in her own. Neither of them said a word, but just this single gesture gave him the confidence to walk with his head up.

They checked everywhere they could think of but there was no Frank, and no clue to where he could be. On their way back down to the Entrance Hall, James and Lily ran into Snape. Snape had somehow gained some confidence over the holidays and was no longer scared of James and Sirius, instead he seemed to taunt them, goading them to start something. This day he seemed to have a lot of pent up frustration and needed someone to take it out on. He knew James wouldn't do anything in front of Lily, so he took his chances and called out to James.

"Hey, Potter. Fucked her yet." James grinded his teeth but ignored Snape and kept walking, gripping Lily's hand harder than before. "I said have you fucked the mudblood yet?"

"Go away you little bitch."

"Nup."

"How the fuck did you manage to get even more annoying than usual."

"I only have you to that, you inspired me to…"

"Piss me off?"

"Pretty much."

"Come of James lets go." Lily said quietly.

James gave a nod. "See ya later Shriveldick."

He gave Snape a shove and kept walking past him.

"Hey Evans, I know what he wants from you. A good fuck up the ass." Snape let out a laugh. "The faggot likes it like that, but I guess a mudblood slut like you likes it from the back. Who wants to look at his face at a time like that."

They kept walking, Snape close behind them. Lily could see the concentration on James' face as he tried to ignore him, but he looked like he couldn't hold out for much longer.

"Or maybe everything is as I expected and he doesn't even have a dick. That broomstick of his has to come in handy sometime, the same thing can be said about you though…"

BANG

In less than a second, Lily had yanked her wand out of her pocket and turned on Snape, all her anger put into a hex that sent him flying across the hall and into a wall. He fell in a heap on the ground below. Sirius, who was standing nearby with Kim, walked over and gave him a kick before joining Lily and James.

"No luck." Kim sighed. "I'm guessing it's the same for you guys judging that beautiful anger attack you had just then."

"Nah, not really. Hopefully the others find him, or at least someone that's seen him."

They had.

Remus and Ebony had left Peter to check the owlery and had asked around in the common room for any help. No one had seen him, but at least this had confirmed their suspicion of Frank going AWOL. They then made their way up to the dorm. Frank had a separate dorm at the very top of the stairs. When they reached the door they read a shiny gold sign with the words

HEAD BOY
KEEP OUT

Inscribed in it. Remus tried the handle. It was locked.

"Alohamora." Ebony said tapping the lock with her wand. It didn't work. "Damn, this place is secure."

Remus looked over his shoulder to make sure there was no one else about and then pulled out his wand. Muttering words under his breath so that Ebony couldn't hear, his wand let out a purple light, making the door burst open.

Ebony grinned. "Alright, Remus. I knew you were smart prefect boy, but I bet Dumbledore has trouble breaking a barrier curse."

"Well you learn shit like that when your friends with James and Sirius."

Ebony pushed him inside and closed the door behind them. "So, can anyone get in now, or is it just the one open kind of spell?"

"Well, I guess Frank could get in, but once the door is locked from the inside, no one else could get in. Over here." Remus walked over to a large mahogany desk, which was piled with books and papers. "It's stuff on the room of requirement I think. Professor Ferdinand McLaughlin." He read. "Yeah, that's the guy right?" he turned to Ebony, who was staring at him with a strange glint in her eye.

"So, no one can get in here, except Frank."

"Yeah."

"And Frank is missing, right?"

Remus opened his eyes wide as he realised what she was hinting. He gave her a small smile and she gave him one back.

"Do you think this room is soundproof?" Ebony whispered.

"God I hope so." Remus stood up from his chair and pushed Ebony back towards the bed. He kissed her kicked off his shoes. "Or we're gonna be in trouble."

     #~*~#

Twenty minutes later, Peter stood in the common room, wondering how long Remus and Ebony would be. He waited a while longer, but having such a short attention span, he soon got sick of waiting. He decided to find James, James would surely do something more interesting. James was always a lot of fun. So he made his way downstairs to meet the others.

It was dinnertime before Remus and Ebony in the Great Hall joined them. They had strange looks on their faces and looked very cagey. The others knew that they had found something useful. Sirius had also guessed that they had had sex. He had a knack for knowing those things.

Later that night they all met in an empty classroom as arranged at dinner. James brought the Marauder's map and kept watch while Remus read through the notes Frank had written. When he saw someone coming he would duck behind a cupboard and the others would follow suit and move to their hiding places. They were not normally this cautious but not knowing what had happened to Frank made them nervous.

Remus stopped in mid-sentence as he read the line in his head. "I found it."

"What?" the others whispered. "It's perfect. He taught here and died here. He left all his stuff here too…"

"Make sense please. You're not making sense." Kim leaned over Remus' shoulder to read the page. "A vault? A secret vault and you guys didn't know about it?"

"A vault, I bet he's there." James jumped up. "Let's go."

Remus shook his head. "I think he's trapped. There're two entrances to the vault. A wrong way and a right way. If you take the wrong way, you can't get out. I'm guessing Frank went the wrong way."

"Which is wrong and which is right?"

"I don't know, but I can find out. There's a spell I read about. A danger alert kind of thing. I can test the two entrances and see which one is safe, but it'll take me at least three hours."

"Whatever it takes."

Lily stood up next to James. "Guy's is this party really worth losing lives?"

Sirius sighed. "I can't believe I'm saying this but I agree. It's just a party. Longbottom's our friend. I don't think we should do this anymore."

"We'll talk about it later. First I need some supplies." Remus interrupted. "Can you guys get some stuff from the potions supply cupboard?"

"What do you need?" James asked. Remus tore a bit of parchment off Franks work and made a short list.

"This. Hurry."

With those two words, Sirius and James ran from the room. Remus asked Peter to get a cauldron. He paused for a moment, as if he didn't understand, but in a moment he changed his expression and ran out of the room.

Ebony raised an eyebrow. "He is one scary little guy."