Disclaimer: I don't own anything that JK owns.
A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers…tenniStar514, Elizabeth Lyon, and POTC Freak…for your awesome reviews. This is my second chapter, so please comment, whether it's a flame, constructive criticism, or just a nice encouraging review. Thanks!
Escape From Hogwarts-Chapter 2: Accusations
Professor Dumbledore led Lily and James to his office without a word to either of them. There they found all the professors sitting around a large oval table with three vacant seats.
"Miss Evans. Mr. Potter. Please sit down," Professor McGonagall indicated the two chairs closest to them.
"Professor! If this is about our head duties, I assure you everything is fine," Lily blurted out.
"Oh no, Miss Evans. It is not about your head duties. It is, however, about the murder of Professor Jooble," Albus Dumbledore explained. Then he introduced them to two men in their early twenties. "Lily, James, this is Mad-Eye Moody and Tim Tonks, two of the best aurors in the Ministry. Do you know why they are here?"
"Oh Albus! This is absurd! Two of my best students!" Minerva McGonagall cried.
"Minerva my dear, calm down," Professor Dumbledore soothed her. "Miss Evans, Mr. Potter, do you know why they are here?
"Have they caught the death eater, Headmaster?" James replied in confusion. This was all very puzzling to James and Lily. There were two aurors at Hogwarts, McGonagall was having an emotional breakdown, and the Headmaster was anything but happy right now.
"You are correct, Mr. Potter. They have caught the Death Eaters," Dumbledore said, emphasizing the plural of Death Eater.
"So what does that have to do with us, professor?" Lily asked, still confused.
"You see, Miss Evans, we have a wand that we found at the scene of the crime," Mad-Eye Moody said, brandishing a wand that was familiar to Lily; Cecilia's wand. "This wand's last spell was one that produced ropes to bind, or in this case, to strangle. Now do-"
"But that's Cecilia's wand!" Lily interrupted. She would never do such a thing!"
"Not Cecilia, Miss Evans. It was someone else who used her wand, someone who wanted to frame her. We matched the fingerprints on the wand. It was similar to the one of Hogwarts's students. Do you know whose they matched?"
James shook his head. "No, Mr. Moody. Whose did they match?"
It was Professor Dumbledore who answered the question. "It was Miss Evans' fingerprints."
Lily stared at Dumbledore in shock. How could he, of all people, accuse her of murder! She looked at James, but he was busy glaring at the headmaster, just as outraged at the idea as Lily was.
"Lily Evans did no such thing! It could've been used for something else! Just because there were fingerprints doesn't mean she used the spell to kill! And I was there with her the whole time!" James exclaimed, standing up so fast that he knocked over his chair. He stood there, breathing heavily, his face red and his fists clenched.
"Potter! Sit down! I can defend myself," Lily whispered, kicking James in the shins. "Professors, Pot-I mean, James has a point. We were working on our Charms project and Professor Jooble was fine. I didn't even see Cecilia's wand.
"That's the thing, Miss Evans. Mr. Potter could've been your accomplice, helping you lie, giving you an alibi," Professor Dumbledore explained. "Now, it is hard for me to believe that Miss Evans and Mr. Potter, my two best students in all of Hogwarts, have committed a serious crime, but we have enough evidence."
"Like what?" James snarled.
"Mr. Moody, I wonder myself as well. What do you have as evidence?" Dumbledore gestured to Mad-Eye Moody.
"Erm…well…actually," Moody hesitated.
"See! He doesn't have proof! It was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time," James shouted, pointing accusingly at Mad-Eye Moody.
"For your information, Mr. Potter," he started, "I do not have enough evidence that you or Miss Evans had committed the crime, but we do have proof that you two might be death eaters."
"Death Eaters!" Lily cried. She had had enough of this, "I don't know what kind of sick joke this is, but I'm leaving!" She stood up and headed to the door, with James at her heels, with the same expression of fury on his face.
The door suddenly locked with a click and all the adults stood up with their wands ready. "Don't move," Mr. Tonks growled.
"Mr. Potter, if you would come here please," Dumbledore said calmly.
James walked slowly and cautiously up to the headmaster.
"Do not worry.I highly doubt that you or Miss Evans are Death Eaters, and as long as they can't prove it, you are fine, so please calm down and give me your left arm," he ordered.
James lifted his hand limply, and Dumbledore grabbed a hold of it. He pushed James' sleeve up to reveal an imprint of a snake and skull on James' forearm. The Dark Mark.
"What!" That can't be possible!" James stared in awe at the mark on his arm. "Professor, you know I'm not a Death Eater!" The professors and aurors, however, didn't believe him.
"Miss Evans," Professor Dumbledore said, nodding at Lily. She stepped forward, confident that she would stay out of trouble. She held out her arms for Dumbledore to inspect. He pushed up her sleeves and an engraving of the Dark Mark, identical to James', was on her forearm. Lily gaped at the horrifying false truth that was right in front of her eyes.
"N-no," she stammered. "Professor, this isn't what it looks like. I didn't even know I was a Death Eater!"
"Miss Evans and Mr. Potter, you are both Death Eaters, clearly by the Dark Mark that was uncovered today. We now have no choice but to take you into the Ministry for more questioning," the auror called Moody stated.
Dumbledore interrupted him. "Mr. Moody, I must ask a question. What if they have never participated in any Dark activities? Surely they cannot be charged for merely being suspected Death Eaters."
Moody squinted his eyes at the Headmaster. "Well Albus, if you insist, we'll give them a dose of Vetersarium and then discuss the results. Mr. Potter, if you please."
James stepped forward, giving Lily a fearful look. He took a seat in his old chair. He braced himself as some clear liquid was spooned into his mouth. His eyes soon drooped and his face took on a lazy expression.
"Mr. Potter, are you a Death Eater and have you been involved in any dark activity?" the auror called Tonks questioned.
"Yes, I helped the Dark Lord kill the Smiths, along with Lily Evans. Then we went on to kill Professor Jooble," James answered in a monotone.
Professor McGonagall gasped. The Smiths, were a very wealthy and prominent family in the wizarding world. They were remarkable and very well-known because they were the only prestigious half-blood family that everyone respected. Minerva McGonagall fainted upon hearing this news, and the adults turned at the thump of her limp body, allowing Lily to cast some fog into the room with her wand. James leapt out of his chair and sprinted out of the door that Lily had unlocked with her at his heels. The aurors quickly realized that their prisoners had escaped, and immediately ran after them.
Lily and James flew down the stairs and out of the gargoyle. James dug into his robe pocket and pulled out a silvery cload that he threw over his and Lily's bodies. They scurried up the Hogwarts stairs onto the seventh floor.
"Where are we going?" Lily whispered, trying hard not to step on James' feet.
"You'll see…just follow me," James replied softly. He led Lily down a corridor in front of a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. He walked past it, then turned around, and Lily past it again. They did this seven more times before James stopped abruptly and whispered to Lily.
"Concentrate on needing a place to hide. Think hard about it," he commanded. She nodded, and they walked past it for the tenth time. This time, a humongous polished door had appeared in the wall. James reached out and pulled on the brass handle. The door swung open heavily, revealing a large room lit with torches.
The cloak fell off Lily and she looked around. The room was one she had never seen before. It was a large circular room with a divider in the middle and squishy gold sleeping bags on either side. At one end of the room, there was a doorway leading to one other room. Lily went to look around the other room while James was untangling himself from the invisibility cloak. Lily observed the second room, which some tables covered in food and on a small vanity table, there lay three small square mirrors. Lily realized what kind of room they had entered and went back to find James.
"Potter! How did you find this room?" Lily exclaimed. "I've heard about this room…it's the Room of Requirement!"
"Yeah we found this room in our fifth year," James said proudly, referring to the Marauders. "I think we're the only ones who know about this room. Now, let's see where they are."
James reached into his robe pockets and seemed to be looking for something. His face took on a confused expression then realization shone.
"Padfoot has the map," he muttered to no one in particular.
"Potter stop talking to yourself. We need to figure out how you lied under the Vetersarium and what to do next," Lily snapped at him. She had stopped panicking and turned back to her normal self and blaming James for everything.
"Ok, ok. So since this is the Room of Requirement, we must need all of these," James started slowly, observing all the objects they could use. "So I guess we're going to stay here for the night, considering we have the sleeping bags and the food. The only thing that's confusing me now are the mirrors.
Lily picked up the small shiny objects and handed James one of them. "I know what these are. I thought they stopped making them ten years ago! These are really rare, worth over one thousand galleons!"
"Just tell me what it does already!" James exclaimed, exasperated.
Lily glared at him. She continued stiffly, "You do this. James."
"What?" James looked down. He looked into the mirror and jumped back. Lily's face peered up at him. "That's bloody amazing!"
"Ok since there are three mirrors, we should each get one and we have one left over. I think we should give it to someone so we can find out what people are saying and what's happening," Lily stated a matter-of-factly. "I think we should give it to Kandi."
"No! Let's give it to Sirius!" James protested. "Why do we have to give it to one of your friends?"
"Because Potter, my friends are more reliable than yours," Lily snapped.
"But you friends don't know where this room is," James said triumphantly. He knew he had won the argument. Lily narrowed her eyes at him, and reluctantly handed over the mirror.
"Fine. Black better be one hell of a loyal friend, or else," she left the sentence hanging at that.
"So what do we do now?" James asked.
Lily replied with a simple, "We wait."
James passed the time by sitting on his sleeping bag and fidgeting. Lily was tired out from all the excitement and took a short nap. Five hours later, James shook Lily awake to eat their lunch.
"I just thought of something," Lily spoke up before beginning her meal. "How exactly are we giving it to Black? He might know where the room is, but does he know we're in here? It could be days before he comes."
James grinned mischievously. "That, Evans, is for me to know and for you to never find out. Just watch, he'll probably come around during dinnertime."
"I can't believe I'm actually trusting you," Lily grumbled.
"Have I ever let you down?" James teased.
Lily frowned. "Yes. For the many projects we've been unwillingly paired up for."
"Hmm…you're right," James tone turned serious. "Then I would get detentions because you were a teacher's pet, even though sometimes it wasn't even my fault."
"I guess we've just been enemies for so long. It's just a habit," Lily's voice softened.
James was feeling uncomfortable now. Awkward moments just didn't work for him. "I wonder…what…started it all?" he struggled to get the words out.
The red haired teen closed her eyes and thought for a moment, trying to remember. "I fancied you in third year. At that time, I apparently wasn't good enough to you. I sent you a card on Valentine's Day, and you and your stupid little friends laughed at me. Snape got a hold of the card and tore it into pieces right in front of my eyes. I cried that night, and no matter how hard my friends tried to cheer me up, I was heartbroken."
Lily paused for a moment, letting the childhood memory sink in. James nodded numbly; also remember that fateful day four years ago.
Lily continued with her story. "After awhile, I started hating you for embarrassing me, so I wanted to get back at you. That summer, I ordered tons of magazines that gave people beauty tips, went on a diet, and exercised until every muscle in my body ached. I came back to Hogwarts with a totally new look, hoping to make you feel bad for making fun of me. I guess my hard work really paid off."
A smile crept onto James' face. "So why wouldn't you agree to go out with me?"
Lily's face took on a look of annoyance. "Because all you cared about were looks. You never thought I was smart, or caring, or a loyal friend, or nice. You just wanted to go out with me because I had changed the way I was on the outside."
James gaped at her and protested, "What! Me? Just care about looks? Lily-"
She cut him off. "Don't calle me Lily!"
"Evans-I did notice your change. I mean, you made friends with Cecilia. You became patient…with Cecilia," James claimed. He couldn't think of anything better to say without making Lily's comment sound true.
"Is that the best you can do?" Lily cried. She had still liked him a tiny bit over the past few years, but now she was just mad. He was still the arrogant toe-rag he had been ever since she met him. "I can't believe you! You pompous old bat!"
"Lily, I'm sorry," James tried to apologize.
"Shut up Potter. Just leave me alone!" Lily cried.
James didn't protest and slumped into a chair that had just appeared. "If that's what you really want," he said sadly.
That caught Lily off guard. "What?"
James repeated what he said, "If that's what you really want."
"Oh. Ok," Lily replied. There was an awkward silence. Suddenly, a door appeared and it swung open to reveal Remus Lupin and Sirius Black.
"Prongsie, old chap, what brought you and the lovely lady to the Room of Requirement?" Sirius inquired in his humorous tone.
"Bad news. Dumbledore thinks we killed Jooble and that we're Death Eaters. He also thinks we murdered the Smiths," said James, referring to Lily and himself.
Remus and Sirius gaped at him with wide eyes. "But they can't prove it, can they?" Remus asked, afraid of the answer.
"'Fraid they already did," was James' reply.
The two friends looked at Lily, who had been watching them silently, for an explanation.
Lily rolled up the sleeve of her left arm to reveal the Dark Mark that had been uncovered earlier. She waited for Remus and Sirius to take in what they had seen. "The thing is, it's on James too, but we don't know how it got there. Obviously, we're not Death Eaters."
Remus stepped forward to examine the mark. He took out a bottle from his robes and dabbed some milky liquid onto the mark. Lily gasped, not because it hurt, but because the mark was disappearing. James leapt up and watched the terrible mark dissolve then completely disappear.
"So it was like in or something?" James exclaimed.
Remus scratched his chin, thinking. "Not ink. Ink wouldn't dissolve like that with Mrs. Skower's All Purpose Magical Mess Remover. It would have just disappeared. It's sort of like a Muggle invention. A tattoo. It seemed like a magic version of it, though," he explained.
"Ok, so how do you explain the Vetersarium? They gave it to James, and he lied under it," Lily said.
Remus looked around the room, and he spotted a newspaper. Grabbing it and looking at the title, he said, "Wizard Times. This newspaper was banned five years ago. IT was an expensive one to get, at 10 galleons per issue. Only the richest, and the darkest wizarding families got it, because it contained very secret and dangerous information."
He flipped through the paper as everyone crowded around him. "Hmm…yes, and article on Vetersarium. It says that they found a new form of it. A new Vetersarium has been found, due to the many attempts to fool it. There is, however, one way to fool the old Vetersarium. This way is only known to Death Eaters, however, and we suspect that it requires much Dark Magic that only You-Know-Who and his servants possess. The new Vetersarium, now called Veritaserum, makes sure that there is no way to lie under it, even with the most powerful magic. Hmm…I guess that's how you lied under the Vetersarium. I mean, you aren't really a Death Eater, are you? Or Lily?"
Lily snorted at the thought. "Yeah, maybe when Peter Pettigrew can actually make a potion that renews a human being."
James looked around. "Where is Wormtail anyway?" he asked.
Sirius glanced at Remus. "He said he went to visit his injured mum. Said she'd hurt herself with a spell that backfired. Funny, it seemed like he was the one who was hurt, clutching his arm like that. Seemed like he was on fire."
A frown gradually grew on James' face. "He said that last time too. His mum must be a really busy person."
Sirius shrugged. "I don't know. Guess she is. Anyway, what are you going to about the Death Eater problem?"
James looked uneasily at Lily. "Er…well, since the Dark Mark came off my skin, then it probably will come off Lily's skin. If Dumbledore sees that the Dark Mark is gone, we can prove that we're innocent," James said.
Lily, however, disagreed. "But they questioned you under Vetersarium. They could think that we covered the Mark. They know Wizard Times was banned. Dumbledore knows it's a bad newspaper. He'd never believe it."
"How did they make you lie under the Vetersarium anyway?" Remus scratched his chin absently.
Lily thought about it for a second, wondering herself why James had lied with that story. "I guess…they must've added the Imperius Curse…" she paused, thinking, "to this Dark Magic they used to fool the Vetersarium. It must combine to make a really power spell. Magic that only You-Know-Who must possess.
"Yes. You're right. That's the only answer," Remus agreed. "So what are you going to do now?"
James glanced at the sleeping bags. He shrugged and said, "I guess we're meant to kip out here. Obviously, we can't go back to our dormitories."
Lily nodded. "Just until we figure something out."
Nearby, they heard the dinner bell ring. "Oops. Guess we better go," Sirius said. "We'll be back as soon as we can."
"Wait," James stopped them. "Take this." He handed Sirius one of the square mirrors.
"Just say my name into the mirror and we can talk to each other. Make sure that no one sees you, though, we can't risk anything," James warned his friends.
"We'll keep you updated James," Remus assured him.
"See you later, mate," Sirius bid farewell and stepped out of the room with Remus right behind him.
The door swung shut with a thud, leaving Lily and James by themselves again.
"Well, I guess we know the truth. Now we need to prove to Dumbledore we're not guilty," Lily sighed. She had expected her last year at Hogwarts to be the best year, full of studying and memories with her friends. Now she was stuck in a huge dilemma that could get her shipped off to Azkaban, the wizard prison full of dementors and other miscreants.
"Why can't we show him the article?" James insisted.
"I told you. Wizard Times is a dark newspaper. Dark wizards write and read it," Lily explained again, patiently.
"But wouldn't Dumbledore want to know what's happening with the Death Eaters and You-Know-Who?" James asked, still confused.
Lily looked around for the article, but it was nowhere to be found. "Well, for one thing, our evidence has disappeared. Plus, do you think Dumbledore would walk around the school holding it? There are spies here at Hogwarts. Our potions professor's probably a Death Eater. Besides, Veritaserum doesn't exactly exist yet. It's still being developed. There's no way to prove that you can fool Vetersarium. The only other way is to find proof who did this to us, and that's almost impossible without getting caught."
James could not deny that she was right. He walked to the other room without another word and began to eat the food that had just appeared. Lily joined him several moments later, and they dined in silence.
"Well, I guess we'd better get some rest. We can figure out what to do tomorrow morning," James said warily. Lily agreed silently and they each chose a sleeping bag. Lily stripped down to her undergarments (A/N: Don't forget, there's a divider thing) and crept into her sleeping bag. She fell asleep very quickly, and James, who just slumped on top of his own sleeping bag fully clothes, could hear her snoring softly. He couldn't sleep, mostly because that one afternoon had turned his life upside down. Usually, he would've wanted to be caught in the middle of a murder mystery, but he never even dreamed of being the prime suspect. Soon, his thoughts gave out, his eyes closed, and James Potter fell into a slumber, not wanting to know what was going to happen to him.
A/N: Well, this is the end of my second chapter. I hope you like it, and that you review. I'll try to update as soon as I can.