Chapter 6:
The next morning, Remus didn't even bother trying to wake Sirius and James up. Instead, he offered his owl, Quipper, five owl treats if he would nip at them until they woke up. He knew that they would be angry with him, but at least they wouldn't be late for class again. He was just about to get started on a new project when he saw two boys coming towards him.
"Bloody hell, Remus!" Sirius said exasperatedly.
"Look at what your God damn owl did to me!" James yelled, showing him cuts all over his ears, neck, face and hands.
Remus chose to ignore these comments. He looked up at them as if they hadn't said anything, "I see you two won't be late today!" he said
"Because of your bloody owl!" Sirius claimed.
"Then I suppose you have my bloody owl to thank, if he is the reason that you don't get a detention and points taken away from you for being late to class." Remus said, choosing his words carefully. He then went on to start filling out a form for something or another.
"What the bloody hell are you doing?" Sirius asked.
"Filling out a form for the Daily Profit." Remus said.
"Why?" James asked.
"Have you not heard?" Remus asked, surprised. "Wait, I forgot, you guys haven't been down to breakfast yet."
"You've already eaten breakfast?" Sirius asked.
"Yeah. You know, the day seems so much longer when you wake up an hour earlier." Remus asked.
"Who told you that?" James snorted, disbelievingly.
"Lily. She wakes up at 6:30 almost every morning." Remus said, simply.
"Since when do you talk to Evans?" Sirius asked.
"Where did you get the impression that I didn't?" Remus asked.
"I dunno. You just always seemed to side with us when we cursed her or got in fights with her." Sirius said stately.
"I try not to take sides during those fights. However at the beginning of the year, when you guys hexed her hair, I felt badly towards her." Remus said.
Sirius was about to defend James, when James himself spoke up. "So, what happened at breakfast?"
"Nothing happened at breakfast, actually it happened a few weeks ago, but it was just published in the profit this morning." Remus told. "It's a reporting on many random deaths, mostly of muggles and muggle-born witches and wizards."
"How do they know that these deaths aren't just random? Why are these deaths any different than the many deaths of people each day? How do we know that they are lin…" James began.
"Shut up already and let me finish." Remus said. "They know that the deaths are all linked because every time that somebody dies, a green skull his found behind them. I think that that's what the teachers were talking about yesterday. They, or at least McGonagall and Dumbledore, must have somehow been informed before the rest of England…"
"That means," said James, catching on, "that the teachers probably have more information now than we do. And, that that secret place we found, is probably where they talk about it. We have to go back there again."
"No we don't. The paper will tell us everything that we need to know. That is why I am purchasing one now, that way we will know everything that we need to." Remus said.
"But James just said that the teachers probably know things that the paper won't tell us! We need to know everything. I think that we should go back." Sirius said.
"We don't have to know everything. The Ministry will decide what the public needs to know, and they will tell us just that." Remus said.
"I don't care what you think, Remus, Sirius and I are going back there tonight. You're either coming or your not, but you can't stop us." James said before turning around and trudging up the stairs.
"Is he going to forget about breakfast?" Sirius asked, confused.
Lily had been out in the Library working on her 62 cm Defense Against the Dark Arts essay that was due on Friday. She was almost finished when she looked at the time. It was already 7:54 and she had to be back to the common room by 8. She would have worked in the common room with all the other first years, but she had tried that last night and it didn't work out to well. She didn't get a thing done with Sirius and James throwing spit-wads at her and Marlene, Rachel and Kaitlyn giggling at the scene.
She would have to run up to the common room to make it by curfew. She ran out of the library, up two staircases onto the fourth floor I was passing a doorway to a classroom that she had never been in before, and ran right into something invisible, but solid. Lily looked around, trying to figure out what she'd hit.
"Who's there?" she asked nervously. She heard a faint "oh shit!" and footsteps leaving the scene. "Peeves?" she said timidly. She didn't know why she'd said it, if it was Peeves, she'd be pranked and go back to the Common Room wet or worse. If it wasn't Peeves, nothing would happen and she would leave.
Lily just stood there for a while, looking around. Until she felt collide with her head. She put her hand up to her right side of her face. Whatever that stupid poltergeist had thrown hat her, it was sticky. Before she could do anything else, she felt another one hitting her. She started running towards the common room, but stopped when she heard laughing. Only it wasn't the usual crackle of Peeves, it was a familiar laugh that sounded like two boys around her age.
She turned around and she could feel her pale skin turning red. "POTTER!"
"Wow Evans!" Came the voice of James from behind her "Your face can get as red as your hair."
"Don't you dare light it on fire!" Lily screamed turning around and trying to slap Potter, swinging her hand in the direction of his voice.
"No, not a bad idea though Evans." His voice now coming from her right. "I like the way your mind works."
"That's surprising!" Lily scoffed. "I didn't think that you liked anything about me." Running to her right.
"It surprises me too; I thought the same way you did up until a few seconds ago." James said from behind me. "Well, I suppose that I've always liked the fact that you were good for a laugh."
Lily suddenly had an idea. Instead of running behind her, Lily ran into the left and right into Potter and his friends. She found some material and pulled on it, but boys resisted. They didn't want Lily to see them, but they didn't want her to rip the material either. They finally gave in.
When Lily finally got the cloak, she was surprised to see the boys materialize. "What the hell is this?" She asked them.
"Invisibility cloak" James said shrugging.
"Where did you get it? According to our History of Magic book they were invented in 1254 by Merlin. He only made fifty, and ever since then they haven't been able to make another one."
"You read too much." Sirius interjected
"Dunno, my dad gave it to me," James said. "Says I'll give it to my son someday."
Lily snorted she couldn't imagine anyone marrying James, let alone bearing him a son. Who would even go out with that pompous git? Well, Marlene or Kaitlyn maybe, but nobody else.
"What are you doing out this late I night?" Lily pressed.
"We should be asking you the same question." Sirius said.
"I was in the Library finishing my Defense Against the Dark Arts essay. I lost track of time. I don't suppose you were doing the same?" She asked them.
"As a matter a fact we were. Only we weren't in the Library." James said.
"Obviously." Lily said. "Working on your essays were you? Where's your stuff? And did you plan on losing track of time or do you just bring your invisibility cloak with you everywhere." Raising her eyebrows.
"Fine you caught us." Sirius said. "Now run on off to bed before you get yourself caught."
"You're coming too, right?"
"Why? Want an escort?"
"No, I just think that it would be wise to go back to bed, lest it might accidentally slip out in Transfiguration tomorrow that you were out after hours."
"Well, number one, I believe it is after eight o'clock." James said checking his watch, "Which means that you are out after hours too. And, number two, what proof you got?"
"Evans is so freaking annoying." James said.
"Yeah." Sirius said. "But don't worry about her, I don't think she'll rat out on us. You told her off pretty nicely, mate."
"Yeah, I guess I did." James said. "It was sort of fun you know."
"And she said she'd never let anyone else boss her around.!" Sirius laughed.
"Not that she had any choice." James added. "Besides, she didn't say she wouldn't let anyone else boss her around, she said she wouldn't let you boss her around."
"Oh, well…" Sirius didn't know what to say.
"C'mon, lets go break that lock!" James said excitedly.
He and Sirius walked through the hallway and to the place where they had first bumped into Lily. From there, they walked ten paces to their right and to the door. Sirius tried first. "Aloha Mora!" He exclaimed, pointing his wand at the door. He then tried to open it and nothing happened.
"Stand back." James said exasperatedly. "Remus taught me how to do this during lunch."
"Where was I?" Sirius asked.
"Eating." James said, as if he were stating the obvious. "Anyways we practiced on some doors that Remus locked for me, and they all worked." Sirius then moved to give James a clear shot of the door. Using the swish and flick method, James chanted "Aloha Mora!" The door did not fly open as it had for Remus the previous day. He tried to open it manually and it wouldn't budge. "That's weird." James said. "It worked for me when I tried at lunch time."
"That's alright, let's just go wake up Remus."
"You heard him at lunch, he won't go with us."
"Do you really think we're going to give him a choice?" Sirius asked, a mischievous twinkle appearing in his eye.
"Alright then." James said, smiling slyly at Sirius. Sirius winked at him.
The two boys ran all the way up to the eighth floor, across the castle to the most southeastern part. The muttered the password "Frog Spawn" to the Fat Lady and entered Gryffindor tower. When they got inside Sirius and James sprinted, invisibility cloak hid under James' cloak, up to the next floor where the first year boys were.
"Remus wake up!" James whispered urgently.
"Hmmm…" Remus stirred. "What is it James?"
"C'mon you've gotta come now! We have to show you something!" Sirius said, as if it were a life or death situation.
"Fine, I'll come. But this better be good." He said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
Sirius and James practically dragged Remus out the door, down the stairs, through the common room, and out the portrait hole. As James threw the invisibility cloak over them they heard a voice. "Just where do you think you boys are going?" The voice was that of a woman and the three boys, alarmed, spun around to try to find who had spoken to them. If it was a teacher, they were dead where they stood, especially if it was McGonagall. If it was a prefect, however, they could probably get out of it. No one was there, though.
"Out a little late, aren't we?" James spun around to see the fat lady staring at the place where they had disappeared.
"S-s-sorry" James stuttered. He had never heard the fat lady utter a word besides "password" before and it felt weird to be talking to her now.
"Excuse me…erm…" Sirius began.
"Elizabeth" the fat lady interjected.
"Elizabeth" Sirius filled in. "But have you ever heard a life or death situation?
"Yes, I believe I have."
"Than you'll understand that we have to leave the common room after hours tonight." Sirius said.
"It's quite alright, you don't need to lie to me. Just last night I caught Molly Prewett out at one o'clock in the morning."
"The head girl was out at one o'clock in the morning?" Remus asked, finally starting to wake up.
"Yes, I do believe she was. And she had no excuse, just as you don't."
"Well we better be going. Thank you!" James called as he turned the three of them around and headed toward the fourth floor, where the door was.
"So what is it that was so important?" Remus asked.
"We can't unlock the door." Sirius said gesturing towards it.
"WHAT?" Remus asked, outraged. "I thought you had something important to show me. I'm not opening that lock for you."
"Yes you are." James said, pointing his wand under Remus' chin.
"Fine, I will this time, but NEVER again!" Remus obliged.
"Thanks mate!" James said, putting his wand down.
Remus shrugged turned to the door and said "Aloha Mora!" Nothing happened. "Funny worked, yesterday" he said. "We should probably get back to the common room. Dumbledore probably charmed it so that charm wouldn't work after we got in there yesterday.
"We can't give up yet" James said determinedly, "We have to think of another idea." The three boys sat there for a minute, wracking their brains for ideas. Well, James and Sirius were wracking their brains for ideas; Remus was just sitting their, waiting for them to give up.
"I've got it!" Sirius said finally.
"You do?" James asked, excited.
"Oh God!" Remus said, rolling his eyes.
"No, seriously guys, I used to do this to spy on my parents all the time. A ceiling has two layers right?"
"I dunno." James said.
"Well it does. It has the floor of the room above it and the ceiling of itself. There's some space in between. So I say we cut a trapdoor above it and climb into the space in between."
"That sounds great!" James said.
"There's about 100 problems." Remus interjected.
"Name one." Sirius challenged him.
"I can name two without thinking about it." Remus said "For one thing, we don't know where exactly the secret room is, there could be a thousand more barriers in back of the sphinx picture before you get to this secret room or whatever. It would be almost impossible to find the place directly above it."
"We'll just have to guess." James suggested.
"Secondly, don't you think people are going to notice if we cut a hole in the floor?" Remus asked.
"That's why were going to put the trapdoor in a place where it won't be noticed." Sirius said.
"It's still not going to work" Remus said.
"Well, it's the best plan we have, so we're going to have to try." James said.
"If it's the best bet we have, we're screwed." Remus said
"Well we're going to try it, you're either with us or you're walking up to the Common Room without James' invisibility cloak, Remus." Sirius said.
"Are you kidding? Of course I'll come. I wouldn't let you two idiots try something like this by yourselves. I just thought I'd try to talk you out of it first." Remus said.
"C'mon then!" James said, motioning for Remus to get under the cloak. Remus got under and together the three boys upstairs.
When upstairs, James estimated a spot where he thought would be directly above the secret room. Sirius cut a square piece out—small, but big enough for the boy's skinny forms to fit through. James when through when he landed on the ceiling of the next floor, he could feel it cracking, but thought nothing of it. As he crawled a few paces, the cracking became louder and all of a sounded he fell through it and onto the hard, stone floor of the hallway.
"Oh damn!" Sirius said, and Remus gave him a look that quite plainly said 'I told you this was a bad idea.'
"Thanks for asking if I was okay!" James whispered up at them.
"Are you okay?" Remus asked in a hushed tone.
"I'm fine, now get your asses down here so we can try and get in!" James said.
"You're seriously telling me that you plan to go on?" Remus asked.
"Of course!" Sirius exclaimed. "You don't expect us to give up right when we've gotten somewhere."
"Gotten somewhere?" asked Remus. "Are you kidding? The only thing we've gotten is a hole in the ceiling."
"Way to be optimistic Remus. C'mon guys, just come through. I can fix this with a simple repairing charm." James said. Remus and Sirius jumped through and landed on the cement. James then took out his wand and looked up at the hole in the ceiling. He pointed his wand at it and said "Repairo!" The pieces that had fallen flew up from the ground and were roughly placed back in their spots. Although there was no more debris, it was still obvious that something had happened there.
"Wherever did you learn that charm?" Remus asked, exasperatedly. "Cause I'd like to murder the person who taught you to do it so sloppily."
"Dunno." James shrugged. "This was my first time trying it. Saw Evans practicing it in the Common Room the other day."
"Well that's a good way to learn a charm. Watching somebody else, without even learning the theory." Remus said.
"Blah. Who needs theory? Practice makes perfect—that's what I always say!" James said.
"Practice?" Remus asked. "Since when have you practice?"
"Erm…dunno." James froze as the sphinx's portrait creaked open. "Quick! Get under the cloak! The both of you!" James whispered urgently. The three boys scrambled under the cloak just in time. For right as they disappeared, Professor Dumbledore and an ugly man with a lot of different scars came out from behind the portrait.
"I don't know Alastor." Dumbledore said. "With all the deaths of muggles and muggle-borns, it seems that Voldemort does have a threat. Also, however was he able to get into St. Mungo's, kill every muggle-born witch or wizard there, and escape without anyone noticing? Doesn't this have to mean something?"
"All that this means is that the Ministry let its guard down. They didn't expect to for a Dark Wizard to come and start attacking muggles and muggle-borns. Albus, they just hit us in a weak spot. Once we get our act together we will be able to conquer this new dark wizard." The man called "Alastor" said.
"Exactly, Alastor. Don't you think he planned it that way? He knew that our protection for the muggle-borns and especially the muggles was weak, so he hit us where it hurt. However, what he obviously wants is for us to lay more protection around the muggles and less around the stone. For I can assure you Alastor, if he gets a hold of the stone, all will be lost." Dumbledore and Moody then walked out of the door, and all further conversation was lost.
Remus, James and Sirius all looked at each other in awe of what they had just heard.
A/N: Yeah, I know that chapter was a little longer. Oh well, I don't think that you're complaining! What did you think of that chapter? You found out a little more about the secret passageway and the room! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to review. Even if you don't, review anyway: P
Okay, so I got a couple of reviews, I was sort of hoping for more, but…you can't always get what you want in the world!
Ycantibreathe and eartha thank you so much for your reviews! It was nice to hear that you are enjoying my fic.
This time my goal is to get five reviews! If I can get five, I will update as soon as possible! I kno it's asking for a lot, but…PLEASE?