Disclaimer: Mine…MINE! Harry Potter is MINE! Aaaaaand now its time for my medication before I talk my way into a lawsuit with Mrs Rowling.
A/N: Firstly, just to let you all know, chapters may or may not slow down by a couple of days after this one. I go back to college tomorrow and thus won't have so much time to write, homework dependant obviously. At the very worst I'm hoping to have chapters come out once every two or three days, whereas at the best I'll keep trying to churn them out every day. We shall see.
Now, a couple of comments to reviewers.
Eruaphadriel – I'm delighted that this fic has become a favourite of yours; I must be doing something right. In regards to the map, it took me quite a bit of thought to figure out how I could work with it, I'm glad, and also quite surprised, it turned out as well as it did. As for the twins, their lines really come naturally to me. I don't know why, it just seems so easy to write for them. That's why they've got such a large role in things so far.
Jagged Epiphany – Whoa, put the whip away, I'm writing this chapter right now lol. Considering that it was Old Faces that inspired me to start writing again (you'll note my last fic was written over a year ago and never finished) I'm immensely happy to see you review my work, thank you for your kind comments.
Chapter Five – A Night to Remember
As Fred, George and Alicia were entering the secret passage to heaven knows where Angelina, Katie and Lee were still sat in the Gryffindor common room. The game of Wizards Chess had been abandoned long ago, and the three of them were conversing in low voices.
"She's been gone for ages now, and so have the twins." Said Katie in a voice that didn't succeed in hiding her worry.
"Curfew was ten minutes ago. They're going to get in trouble if they don't get back soon."
Angelina rolled her eyes.
"When are Fred and George NOT in trouble?" she asked exasperatedly.
"But Alicia hardly ever is." Muttered Lee.
"You think she's with them?" Katie asked.
"How can she be? They left ages before her and she told us she didn't know where they'd gone." Answered Angelina.
"All the same, it does seem the most likely. Who else would she be with? We're all up here."
"She's not with them." Mumbled Lee, Angelina's face shot up to glare at him.
"How the hell do you know? Are you not telling us something Lee Jordan?"
Lee's head remained still, staring straight down at the floor. He could feel both Katie and Angelina's glares boring into him. He'd have to tell them, Fred and George would likely kill him after Angelina had finished ranting at them for being immature, irresponsible boys, but what else could he do?
"They're on detention with McGonagall." He muttered, Angelina's eyes narrowed.
"This is to do with this morning isn't it?" she asked.
Lee glanced pleadingly at Katie, imploring her to get Angelina to drop it, but she ignored him, continuing to glare. Finally he nodded.
"Transfiguration homework my wand." Angelina grunted, thinking back to what the twins had told her McGonagall had wanted earlier in the day.
"Wait until I get my hands on Fred, he promised me no pranks over the holidays."
"Technically it wasn't over the holidays." Added Lee hurriedly.
"They pulled the prank last night. So really he didn't…"
He trailed off after one look at Angelina's face and a warning glance from Katie.
"Leave it Angelina." She told her friend.
"Right now we need to think about Alicia. She's not with the twins, so she must be out alone. What could she be up to?"
They fell into silence, thinking, all three of them watching the unmoving portrait hole with different expressions. Angelina glared at it, as if daring the twins to step through it, Katie watched it nervously, hoping Alicia would get back before the twins did for their sake, and Lee watched it with a defeated expression, boy was he in for it when Fred and George found out he'd blabbed.
Together they watched and waited.
Meanwhile the twins and Alicia were still moving along the stone passage, now climbing a set of stone stairs that they had reached several minutes ago.
"I can't believe I agreed to come with you two." Grumbled Alicia.
"At this rate we'll still be walking come Christmas."
"Would you stop complaining?" asked Fred, irritably.
"We've only been down here fifteen minutes or so. You need to learn to be more…hey!"
He stopped abruptly. George and Alicia, being unprepared for this, almost walked right into him, only narrowly avoiding doing so.
"What is it?" asked Alicia, straining to see past the two boys.
"A trapdoor." Called back Fred.
"In the ceiling."
"Can you hear anyone moving around above it?" asked George quietly.
Fred was silent for a moment, and then he answered.
"No. I can't hear a sound from here. But that doesn't mean there's no one up there, they may just be in another room."
"What do you think?" asked Alicia.
"Should we risk it and go through?"
"Are you kidding?" answered George.
"Of course we're going through." Added Fred.
"We didn't come all this way for nothing. At the very least we should see where we've ended up."
"And if we're caught by someone?" Alicia asked, biting her lip.
Fred shrugged.
"Guess we'll just have to be ready to run back down here if it comes to that." He answered, George nodding behind him.
Alicia opened her mouth to object again, but George interrupted her.
"Look, you don't have to come if you don't want to." He told her kindly.
"If you're that worried about getting caught you can wait down here for us. We won't be long."
"Oh, no." she said quickly, blushing slightly.
"No. I'll come. I was just…"
She trailed off. George grinned, but she couldn't see that as his back was to her.
"If you're sure." He said.
"Go on then Fred, we don't have all night. Open it."
Fred nodded and slipped the map he was holding into his robes carefully, then he reached up to push the trapdoor open. It took him a moment to get it to budge, he assumed it hadn't been opened for quite some time, but then it gave suddenly. As quietly as he could he pushed it to one side and whispered to the others.
"So far, so good."
Katie grumbled as she climbed out of the portrait hole, glaring at Angelina who was in front of her.
"I can't believe we're doing this." She hissed.
"What if we're caught by Filch?"
"Oh be quiet." Retorted Angelina as Lee emerged from the portrait hole behind Katie.
"You know as well as I do you'd never be able to sleep if we went up to bed now. You'd be waiting up to see when Alicia got back anyway. The quicker we find her and get back to the common room the quicker you'll get to bed."
"Yes, but at least sitting upstairs we wouldn't be running the risk of being caught by Filch." She answered in a low voice.
Lee closed the Fat Lady's portrait quietly behind them.
"Katie, the more you argue the more likely it is that Filch is going to hear us." He whispered.
"Oh shut up you." Katie retorted.
"Now, now, temper." Said Lee, smirking as he watched Katie's eyes flare.
"Enough you two. Now is not the time for flirting." Angelina interrupted, suppressing a grin.
"What? We are not flirting!" Katie answered, her voice rising to a dangerous level considering they were meant to be keeping quiet.
"I said enough. At this rate you'll wake the whole castle."
With Katie grumbling to herself and Lee grinning broadly they set off down the corridor away from the Fat Lady, turning right when they reached the end of the corridor.
"Where are we actually going?" Katie whispered to Angelina.
Angelina sensed Katie would most likely not be too happy if she told her that she had absolutely no idea where Alicia might be, and had only suggested they should go and look for her to ease her own worry. Alicia was never half an hour late for anything, let alone curfew. She was, of course, still annoyed at the twins. But as Katie put it, they could wait, for now they needed to concentrate on Alicia.
"Erm…the library." She answered, picking on the first place that came to mind.
"She was holding parchment when she ran through the common room. She might have been heading to the library to do some work."
Katie merely nodded, it was certainly possible. Highly unlikely, since Madam Pince moved round with her eagle eyes just before curfew ejecting everyone from the library, but it was a possibility.
They walked in silence, eyes flitting to every shadow to ensure that it didn't hide the small figure of Mrs Norris. When they reached the library they breathed a sigh of relief. Angelina, who was leading the group, pushed the doors open slowly and hurried inside, the others at her heels.
She closed the doors quietly behind them and turned to face the dark, silent library.
"Come on," she told the others.
"Lets walk down to the back of the library and check there. That's where we all usually sit."
The others nodded and silently followed her as she led them past aisle after aisle of books. They were six rows from the last aisle and the back of the library when they froze. Noises were coming from the back of the library, muffled noises. They were not words, but not the scratching of a quill upon parchment either.
"Alicia?" Lee mouthed at the others.
Katie shrugged; it was impossible to tell from here. She started forwards again, the others following slowly. If it wasn't Alicia they'd just turn around and get out quickly before they were seen. As they approached the rear aisle the noises stopped and once more the group of them froze. Had the person heard them? They remained still, their eyes fixed on the back of the library, hoping beyond all hope the person wouldn't come to investigate anything they'd heard.
Then it happened, a head popped around the side of the bookcase. A ghostly face they knew too well. It broke into a delighted grin as it saw them.
"Ickle firsties out of bed?" it crowed happily.
"Peeves, please keep quiet." Whispered Angelina desperately.
"We're looking for a friend. She's obviously not here so we'll leave you alone."
"Oh no." Peeves cackled, floating fully out between the aisles.
"Can't let students run around the castle at night can I? How responsible would that make me look?"
"Like you're responsible anyway!" Lee half laughed.
It was the wrong thing to say. Peeves narrowed his eyes at them, took a deep breath and bellowed.
"STUDENTS OUT OF BED! MAN ALL BATTLESTATIONS! STUDENTS OUT OF BED IN THE LIBRARY!"
The three of them jumped out of their skin, fleeing towards the doors as fast as their legs could carry them, Peeves still hovering at the back of the library yelling:
"RULEBREAKERS ABOUT THE CASTLE AT NIGHT! SOUND THE ALARMS! CALL THE HEADMASTER!"
They had almost reached the first aisle of books once more when they heard the great library doors slam open. They threw themselves behind the front aisle, praying that it wasn't…
"PEEVES!" roared a wheezing voice.
…Filch. They heard Peeves cackle and zoom to the front of the library.
"Who's out of bed Peeves?" they heard Filch ask.
"Where did they go?"
"Take a look yourself. I don't answer to you." They heard Peeves cackle as he zoomed out of the library, laughing madly.
They also heard the string of curses that Filch yelled after him. If they hadn't been in such a serious situation they would have found it funny, but as it was each of them was incredibly pale.
After a moment they heard Filch begin to move, his footfalls echoing around the library as he moved. When he spoke his voice was low.
"Come on out. You can't hide."
None of them moved.
"Don't make things worse for yourself." He growled.
"You aren't doing yourself any favours by hiding."
They edged along the shelf as they saw Filch's shadow grow larger where moments ago they had been running. If they could just slip around the side of the bookcase before he came into sight and saw them…
"Where are we?" whispered Alicia as both Fred and George helped her climb out of the hole in the floor which the trapdoor had covered.
Once Alicia was out of the hole and on her feet George looked around, frowning as he did so.
"I don't know." He admitted.
"Looks like some sort of storeroom. We should try and find a way out." Said Fred.
"There's a staircase of some sort over there." Said Alicia, pointing to the side of a pile of large crates.
Both Fred and George glanced at it and nodded, heading towards it quietly. The three of them climbed the wooden staircase, wincing as the steps creaked under their feet. As quietly as they could the eased the door at the top open and stepped through it. Once they were all inside the room beyond and the door had been closed behind them they turned to take a proper look at their surroundings…and their eyes nearly fell out of their heads.
They were behind a large counter, strewn with pieces of parchment, receipts, and other things. But this was of little concern to them. They were stood in a shop, and beyond the counter the walls were covered in as many shelves as it was humanly possible to put up. Well, perhaps a few more than that, Alicia suspected some of them were likely held up by magic.
But what was covering those shelves drew their eyes. Sweets of all kinds lay in jars, boxes, baskets, some even simply lay on the wood of the shelf. They covered every square inch of room free upon the shelves, and strategically placed stands lay scattered upon the shop floor. Alicia glanced over at Fred and George and had to suppress a laugh as she saw them gaping, wide-eyed all around. She thought it must be like a dream come true for them.
"I've heard about this place." Said Fred in awe.
"This must be…"
"Honeydukes." Finished George
"But that means…we're in Hogsmeade."
"Hogsmeade?" gaped Alicia.
"You mean we're actually in the village? No-one below third year has EVER been here in term time!"
"Guess we're the first then." Said George.
"Shall we grab some sweets then? Or are we going to stand here gaping all day?"
Both he and Fred scrambled to get out from behind the counter, heading over to the nearest display and grabbing some of the sweets on display.
"We can't just steal sweets!" scolded Alicia.
"That's…it's wrong!"
"Relax Alicia!" Called Fred from the stand labelled 'Levitating Sherbert Balls'.
"It's not like we're stealing it or anything! We'll leave some money on the counter."
Alicia thought about this for a second. That still didn't make it right did it? Technically they were still stealing, right? But…this was an opportunity she wouldn't get again, not for another two and a half years. Could she really pass it up?
"Hey Alicia, come and grab some of these Pepper Imps!" called George.
"If we're going to take enough so that the others can have some too you'll need to help."
Oh, what the heck. She thought, stepping out from behind the counter and moving towards George. They were going to pay for it weren't they?
Together the three of them moved around the shop for about ten minutes, grabbing selections of the best looking sweets, filling their pockets.
Just as they were debating whether or not to take some of the 'All NEW Cockroach Cluster!' to try and trick the others they froze. Someone was coming down the stairs behind the door to their left. With a sick jolt Alicia realised that the owners must live above the shop.
"Quick!" hissed Fred, shoving her towards the counter.
"Out now!"
"Who's there?" a muffled voice came from behind the door.
The three of them dashed over to the counter at full tilt, dropping the samples of Cockroach Cluster in their hands onto the floor. They heard a thud from the other side of the door. Fred threw open the door behind the counter and ran through, Alicia made to follow. George caught her eye as she ran; he had stopped in front of the counter, fumbling with a small bag in his hands.
"George!" she hissed frantically.
"There's no time to be messing around now, we have to get out!"
George ignored her, tipping the bag upside down. She watched as several gold galleons fell into his hand and he shoved them onto the counter roughly, then he turned back to the door and moved through it, shooing Alicia down the stairs as he quickly closed the door behind them.
From the other side of the door they heard another door open; the owner was in the main shop now. This was going to be close.
Fred was already in the hole, his head poked out frantically mouthing at them to hurry up. Alicia dashed over to him as red ducked down and out of the way. She scrambled down the hole closely followed by George. As he reached up and grabbed the trapdoor, ready to slide it back over the hole they heard the door in the storeroom above them open.
"I know you're down here." Came the same voice as before.
Alicia heard a quiet clunk as George eased the trapdoor back into place, then all that she knew was hands pressing into her back, pushing her onwards down the dark stairs and onwards down the passage...
As Filch came into view at the edge of the bookcase Angelina, Katie and Lee slipped round the shelf. They saw the edge of his mouldy coat for a split second before it vanished as he walked between the aisles. Without stopping to think they darted for the doors Filch had left open, sprinting out of them without a glance backwards into the Library.
Then ran flat out for ten minutes straight, paying no attention to where they were going. They didn't even know if Filch was chasing them, it just seemed like the most sensible thing to do to put as much distance between them and the library at that moment.
It was only when Katie couldn't run anymore that they stopped, the stitch in her side becoming unbearably painful. Both Angelina and lee took her by the arms and helped her into the nearest room, a classroom they had never been in before, where they collapsed into chairs, gasping for breath.
It took them several minutes to regain their breath, simply sitting still in the classroom, listening intently for any sound of footsteps in the corridor.
"I think we got away." Gasped Lee finally.
Both Angelina and Katie nodded.
"That was too close." Said Katie.
"If Filch would have caught us we would have been dead."
"Stupid Peeves." Muttered Angelina.
"If it hadn't have been for him we wouldn't be in this situation. And the worst part is we STILL don't know where Alicia is."
They were silent for a moment, retreating to their own thoughts.
"So, what now then?" asked Lee.
"Where else could Alicia be?"
Angelina groaned.
"I honest have no idea. Where would she go at this time of night? I was so sure she'd be in the library." She lied.
"Maybe…" Katie began, but they were interrupted by a sudden noise in the corridor outside. Once more all three of them froze. Filch must have found them, there was no other way out of the classroom… They were for it now.
Fred, George and Alicia didn't stop running. They ran full tilt down the tunnel without looking back. They couldn't risk stopping, if the owner found that trapdoor they'd be after them, and they had to get to the statue and out of the passage before they had a chance to catch up. They'd be safe then, the owner didn't know the password to the statue, they'd never get through it.
They finally stopped when they reached the statue; they had to, the statue wouldn't just magically spring aside for them. Swiftly, Fred yanked his wand out of his robes and tapped the back of the statue.
"Dissendium." He hissed, and watched as the statue slowly moved aside.
As quickly as he could he climbed out of the passage, helping to pull Alicia up after him and finally pulling George up.
"Thank god." He moaned in a low voice.
"I don't think I could run another step."
Behind them the statue began to slide back into place, making that now familiar grinding noise of stone on stone.
"At least we got away." Added George.
"We're safe here."
Angelina, Katie and Lee remained frozen in their seats as they heard the noise stop and louder noises take its place. It sounded like Filch was right outside the door, if he would only walk on so they could escape…
They listened intently as scuffling noises came from outside the room, it sounded like there was more than one person. Angelina's blood ran cold. Filch must have woken up a teacher, if they were caught now things would be even worse. What if it was Snape…or Professor McGonagall?
She didn't even dare to breathe as the scuffling stopped, and once more the original noise sounded in the corridor. Now muffled voices travelled to them through the door, what were they saying? If she could only hear then maybe she would hear where they were planning to search next. Then it'd be easy to sneak around them and get back to Gryffindor Tower.
She rose from her chair, indicating that the others should remain seated, and crept over to the door, which they had left slightly ajar. She listened intently, trying desperately to make out the muffled conversation. And then she heard it.
"At least we got away. We're safe here."
She knew that voice…it wasn't Filch that was for sure. It was…
She threw the door open wide and saw Alicia, Fred and George stood in the dark, empty corridor. Where on earth had they been, she wondered. Their robes were covered in dust, and they were gasping for breath, much as they had been a few moments earlier.
Alicia spun round as she heard the door being thrown open behind them, seeing Angelina stood in the doorway. What on earth had she been doing, Alicia wondered. Her hair was a mess and there was sweat covering her forehead, like she had been running.
"What are YOU doing here?" Both Angelina and Alicia asked in unison, completely forgetting about the need for silence.
However neither had the time to answer. A sudden loud meowing started at the bottom of the corridor, the twin's heads darting to look at the source in alarm. As Katie and Lee emerged from the classroom to stand beside Angelina, having heard Alicia's voice mingled with Angelina's, George spoke frantically.
"Mrs Norris! We'll have time for explanations later! For now…"
"Run!" finished Fred.
As a group they turned and began sprinting down the corridor in the opposite direction to Mrs Norris. As they reached the end of the corridor they turned left, almost running into a man stood in the exact centre of the corridor. Lee groaned audibly.
"Well, well, well." Filch sneered.
"We are in trouble aren't we?"
A/N: Phew, that was probably the most difficult chapter to write so far. I had to keep going back and altering bits so that I didn't have things happening too soon. That's the worst thing about a chapter with too much going on, you get to one point and think 'Hang on, I had this happen earlier, this won't work' and have to go back and re-write half a page.
However I will say now that it's done I'm quite pleased with it. Possibly not all of it, but on the whole I think I pulled it off quite well. What do you guys think? Let me know via reviews.
I promise I'll give each and every one of you a cookie if you review. Well…maybe not everyone…ok, maybe not anyone. Maybe I'll just eat the cookies myself. Anyway, my point being that you should review. Yes, review you must.