Chapter 15
"Remus, can we talk to you?" James said.
"Certainly. What do you need?" he invited his friends to sit down and offered them tea.
"No, thank you," Lily said. "I was wondering, well, we were wondering if you knew what a horcrux was."
Remus' smile vanished quickly. "I don't think you need to be looking into that, any of you. That is very dangerous and a lot of people would get suspicious if you started talking about those."
"But what are they?" James asked.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Does it matter?" Sirius asked.
"Yes, it does. I want to know if you want to use one or if you just want to know what Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny are doing."
The three exchanged guilty glances.
"I'll assume it is the latter. If you want to know so badly, why don't you ask them yourselves?"
"What if they don't want us to know?" Sirius asked.
"And I just made up with Harry! I don't want to ruin it now!" James said.
"James, you shouldn't have gotten involved then."
"But I overheard Harry talking to someone over by the Dark Forest! It sounded like someone people here don't trust. How could we not be interested! And Ron said it was impossible, whatever it was the stranger had told him! They're going to do something over Christmas Break!"
"Christmas? No, they're not doing anything that soon. They still have a long way to go."
"You know what they are doing?" Sirius asked. "Why don't you tell us?"
"Padfoot, I can't tell you. It's up to Harry if he wants you to know or not."
"But you are one of our best mates! You have to tell us!"
"No, I don't Sirius. Now, I have a few more papers to grade. Now, either talk to Harry or stay out of it."
The three stared at Remus, shocked. He had never acted like this before. They slowly filed out of the office and walked toward the Gryffindor Tower.
"Now what?" Sirius asked.
"I really want to know what they're up to, but I don't want to make Harry mad," James said.
"Me neither," Lily agreed. "So what do we do?"
"Well, I think we should ask them like Moony said."
"What?" James asked. "I am not risking getting Harry mad at me again."
"I think you should."
"I don't. How about this, you two go and ask, I'll stay behind like I wanted to do in the first place."
"James, come on! Don't be such a baby about it!" Sirius said.
"No, I'm not going to go interrogate Harry! I don't want to make him mad!"
"But don't you want to know about the horcruxes?"
"What do you need to know about horcruxes for?" a voice asked behind them. James felt a chill go down his spine. He slowly turned around and faced a slightly crossed looking Harry.
"Harry, hi," James said.
"Have you been listening to me and my friends?"
"Me, unintentionally, yes. Look, Harry, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to get involved."
"I knew you were stubborn, but I never though you'd do something like this. You have no idea what you've just gotten yourselves into."
"Why don't you tell us, then?" Lily said.
"No, I am not going to put the fate of the world in jeopardy, alright? Neither of you can die because I have to do this now and I can't let Sirius die because he is important in what happens as well. Please, just drop it."
"No," Sirius and Lily said at the same time. Harry and James stared at them.
"I want to know what a horcrux is and why you and your friends keep doing all this research," Lily demanded.
"Wow. I thought I got all my stubbornness from my dad. I had no idea my mother was even more stubborn than my father."
"What's going on?" Ginny asked, walking up to the group followed by Ron and Hermione.
"They want to know what a horcrux is," Harry said simply.
"You didn't tell them, did you?" Hermione asked fearfully.
"No, I didn't. Look, guys can we talk?" Harry said to Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.
They nodded and excused themselves from the time travelers.
"What do you think they're doing?" Sirius whispered to James.
"Debating whether or not they should tell us," James said, glaring at Sirius.
"What? Why are you mad at me?"
"If you and Lily hadn't gotten me involved, then this wouldn't have happened."
"If we hadn't gotten you involved, we never would have found out what they're up to already."
"We don't know what it is yet, Sirius!"
"We're about to! Harry only didn't tell us because his friends didn't want him to! He wants to tell us, though!"
"Whatever," James said, turning away from them. He walked toward the group huddled by the fire to tell them he didn't want to know what a horcrux was, when he overheard something that changed his mind.
"…Voldemort."
He turned around immediately before they noticed him standing behind them. "You guys, it has to do with Voldemort!"
"Oh, so now you're so interested in finding out what a horcrux is!" Sirius exclaimed. "You change sides more than a coin!"
"Sirius, please," Lily said. "Leave him alone. He wants to know now. There's nothing wrong with that."
Sirius opened his mouth to argue, but closed it again when he saw Harry and his friends walking toward them.
"We've decided we will tell you, but we can't promise we'll tell everything, alright?"
The three nodded and Harry said, "We'll meet you in the Room of Requirement at midnight, alright? We can't tell you here."
"Fine. See you then."
The four turned around and James heard Hermione say, "I still think it's a bad idea." He then saw Remus enter the common room. He walked up to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. James walked a little closer to hear what they were saying.
"We need to talk about when we're doing this. We agreed we would go together at the end of the year, but James told me he heard you were going over Christmas? Is that true?"
"What?" Harry said. "He definitely heard wrong, Professor. We just wanted to get the research done by Christmas because we wanted to use the second half of the year to study for our N.E.W.T.S. That's all."
"Very well then, I'll see you in class tomorrow. Goodnight." As soon as Remus left, Harry turned to Ginny, Ron, and Hermione. "Where did he hear we were leaving over Christmas? How much do they know?"
James turned back to his friends and told them he was going to bed. McGonagall had told them they would be sleeping in the tower for the rest of their stay. She had placed extra beds in the girls and boys seventh year dorms. He walked up the steps to his bed. He changed into his pajamas and got into bed, preparing for his midnight escapade.