(A/N Don't e-mail me saying that the restricted section of the library is called the "Restricted Section" I know that, the title is a play on words. Thanks! Please Review, it saves Hippogryffs!)

Chapter 18- The Unrestricted Section

The rest of the holidays passed with a blur and Ally couldn't possibly wait to get into the Library's restricted section. She enjoyed herself by snowball fights and chess games but she also needed to learn more about Riddle.

After Christmas, however, didn't come with good news. Dumbledore had to inform the remaining students of the 'war' outside Hogwarts walls. The dark lord Voldemort had grown stronger in the passing month after his first couple of attacks, and he was rallying followers. After a few days, since half the staff was away on break, Dumbledore forbid the students from going outside after night had fallen, even though the older students were allowed to stay out until nine.

Ally received several letters from home, most of them were pleasant. One day, she received a letter from her mother, about a few muggleborns in their neighborhood that were attacked, so her family had moved while she was at Hogwarts. They would pick her up at Hogwarts at platform nine and three quarters, when school ended, and take her to her new home.

The Daily Prophet was a monstrosity those days. Every word printed in it became the only outside connection they had. Sadly, Ally realized that they were only down playing the attacks, and didn't get much out of it after. The Prophet was, unfortunately, one of the ministries only ways to reach the public. And the ministry was, possibly, just a big bunch of bumbling idiots.

Ally relied on Dumbledore for outside information about the 'war' and so did Lily and Sam. None of them trusted the prophet, who seemed to find that reporting news on the latest Witch Weekly's contest winner was more important then reporting on You-Know-Who.

On the bright side, the pink Puffskein had absolutely no idea what was going on. It had contented itself to jumping on the bed and rolling around the floor, oblivious to all things around it.

The day before Christmas break ended was the day they were planning their excursion. Unfortunately for them, Slughorn got better surprisingly fast, and was telling stories at dinner about how someone else climbed a mountain to sooth a group of stray trolls sick with fever.

When dinner had finished after a rousing story of how someone other than Slughorn had invented a lucky potion, luckily, they all filed out of the hall while Lily and Ally hung behind the few Gryffindors heading to the common room.

Once they reached the dormitories, McGonagall was no where to be seen.

"Good," whispered Lily, who was reading a book, "I didn't want her to see us leave, we would have been caught before we even got out of the common room!"

Ally set down Quidditch through the Ages, the book she was scribbling in by the fire, and looked at her watch. It read "If you're going to do anything, do it now." Ally stood and grabbed Lily's book from under her nose.

"We should go now!" Ally whispered, so not to wake a sleeping first year on the large armchair, "It's nearly nine o clock!"

Lily jumped up from her seat and together they crawled through the portrait hole. Before Ally got fully through the exit, McGonagall's sharp voice rang out clearly.

"Just where do you two think you're going?"

Ally and Lily spun around to face their towering Head of House who had her lips in a tight, disapproving line. Her hair was in her austere bun, yet somehow it seemed to cackle with unseen electricity.

Suddenly, from behind her, Lily ran forward.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Professor!" Lily said in a panicky tone of voice, "It's just—I lost this book—it's Ally's and I borrowed it!—I lost it at the dinner table—I was so involved in listening to—to—Slughorn's story!"

Ally stood their expressionless, she couldn't decide on being shocked or being afraid of McGonagall.

"It was this amazing book! It was all about Water Plants and the Lock Ness monster—and—and I lost it!" Lily cried out and turned to McGonagall with watering eyes.

"Please don't punish us Professor McGonagall, I was just so scared of losing my friend's book—I wanted to get it back before night fell—but I only realized that it was missing a few minutes ago! I never meant to break any of the rules! This was my only chance to get it—the students are coming tomorrow and it will get ruined b-by them! They like to t-tear old m-missing books up! And write all over them! Just look at the book next to the fireplace!"

Lily pointed to Ally's copy of "Quidditch through the Ages. Hey, Ally thought, that's not nice! It was true; however, that her copy was written over and torn a bit (when she thought a particular idea was ludicrous she tore out the page).

The old women immediately softened a bit when she saw how upset Lily was. Good acting, we might be able to get through this after all. Her severe demeanor was gone and she sympathized with Lily.

"Well... alright dear." she said uncertainly and patted her on the head, "I think it will be alright to let you two out to get that book. But you must promise to go straight there and back, no funny business." she said sternly as an after thought.

Lily and Ally nodded quickly and promised to be back as soon as possible. They both knew that the Professor wouldn't wait for them to come back, so they forgot about time and left the portrait hole excitedly.

"That was brilliant!" Ally whispered to Lily, "Pure genius, I always knew McGonagall had a soft spot for you!"

They ran silently through the eerily quiet castle, watching for signs of Filch or his cat. They kept to the sides of the halls, next to the suits of armor, which turned their creaky helmets to get a better look at them when they ran. Ally had figured a long time ago that they were enchanted after she saw a few of them laugh at her when she tripped over the trick step on the fifth floor.

They were running around the tower, which was dark enough that they couldn't see where they were going. Ally and Lily heard footsteps. Ducking out of anyone's notice, they hid behind the large tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy trying to teach trolls ballet, and waited silently for whoever it was to pass.

The footsteps grew louder and louder by the moment, Ally held her breath as whoever it was stopped in front of their hiding place. The footsteps turned and walked back the way they came and then stopped, once again in front of where they were hiding.

"You didn't walk by it three times!" whispered the first voice quickly.

"I did so! I walked by it once that way and then turned." whispered the second voice.

"No," said a third voice, "That's only twice Wormtail, count them up."

Ally and Lily looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Wormtail was the name of the fourth Marauder, and only the other Marauders called him that ridiculous nick name, which would mean that they were here. But that was impossible, they were supposed to be at the Potter's house in London, it didn't make any sense.

Ally peeked around the side of the statue to see if it was really them. All she saw was plain air. She breathed a sigh of relief. They must have left and I didn't notice.

"Lily, it's okay," Ally whispered stepping out from behind the statue, "Whoever was here is gone now."

She heard a sharp intake of breath from both sides of her. Huh? Was all she thought before she was knocked over by Peter, who stood with his wand pointed at her while she was on the ground.

Ally looked around; where in the world did he come from? She thought, he just appeared from nowhere! Ally didn't see the other three Marauders appear and Lily was caught by Remus.

"What are you two doing up?" James interrogated them after a bit of a struggle in which Lily and Ally were disarmed. They stood back to back, each with two wands pointed at them.

"Why are you at Hogwarts?" Lily countered easily, "Weren't you supposed to be at your parents' house?"
"Answer our question first." James said, raising his wand at her.

"Lower your stupid wand already!" Ally said impatiently, "We aren't going to attack you."

"You tried to run away." Sirius said to her, "We're not going to forget that."

"Well, you did knock me off the ground, and you appeared from nowhere. Death Eater's have been running loose around the country. What did you expect, a welcome home party?" Ally said. "We didn't even know who it was."

"How do we know you won't go straight to McGonagall?" James asked suspiciously with his wand still raised.

"I told you to lower your wand!" Ally said sharply, and then took a deep breath. "We're in the same house; we should help each other out, it only makes sense."

Ally was unsure as whether to tell him that if they went to McGonagall, they would be caught also.

"Besides," Lily said slowly, "We can't go to McGonagall; she doesn't know we're here."

James looked curiously at Lily and seemed to be fighting an internal conflict. Finally, he decided to lower his wand and the rest of his friends followed his lead. Peter was the slowest to lower his wand. Ally glared at him.

"So, what are you doing in Hogwarts?" Lily said with a sigh of relief.

"Our question first," James said, "you still haven't explained what you are doing out in the middle of the night with no one around. Like Ally said," he pointed out, "Death Eater's have been attacking."

Lily and Ally sighed in unison. This wouldn't be easy.

"Can we talk amongst ourselves for a second?" Lily asked.

"No."

"Can we pass notes?" Ally asked.

"Pardon?"

"Notes," Ally said, "Can we pass notes? You know, a piece of paper that normally contains gossip and are given to a friend as a means of communication during boring classes such as History of Magic, those kinds of notes."

"Er—sure, I guess..." James said uncertainly. Remus looked amused, and Sirius looked confused.

"Good, can I borrow a quill?" Lily asked, holding out her hand.

"A quill? What do you need a quill for?" James asked stupidly.

"Do we have to go through what a note is again?" Lily asked.

James sighed and shuffled through the book bag he had hanging off his side. He pulled out two quills and an ink bottle.

"Here," he said, "You two are weird."

"Well, you're the one we wouldn't let us talk by ourselves." Ally said, taking out the enchanted parchment Sam had given her for Christmas.

She handed a piece to Lily, who dipped her quill in the ink bottle from James outstretched hand, and then wrote down a short note for Ally.

"I don't think you took enough ink Lily." James said, "I can't see any ink."

"It's invisible." Lily said, passing the note to Ally.

"No it's not," said James, checking the ink bottle, "It's normal ink, you just didn't take enough."

"No," Lily said again, "The paper can only be read by Ally and I. It's enchanted so you four won't be able to know what we're talking about, just in case you were thinking of finding the note later and reading it."

James looked slightly guilty, slightly. But he quickly covered it up. Ally read what Lily wrote down.

Should we tell them about where we're really going? I don't think it's a good idea, but we can't tell them the story I told McGonagall. They'd never believe it in a million years.

Ally wrote her answer back and passed it to Lily. Remus started to chuckle at how ridiculous this must look, and Ally found herself giggling a bit too. This is a bit silly isn't it? But it's not my fault they wouldn't let us talk privately.

Lily read Ally's note and nodded, Ally remembered what she wrote and nodded back.

I think we should tell them, we're in a tight spot and they are too, if we each agree not to tell McGonagall, then none of us can get in trouble. They may be able to help us too, aren't they supposed to be the best in troublemaking?

"Why are you nodding? What are you talking about?" James took the piece of paper from Lily, who cried out in disagreement, and flipped in over, "There isn't anything on this paper.

"We told you that can't read it." Lily said defiantly, snatching the paper back and giving it to Ally, who put it away. "It's not our fault you don't listen."

They handed back the quills and James put them and the ink bottle away.

"So have you decided telling us why you're out so late at night?"

"What time is it?" Ally asked.

"Answer the question first." Sirius said.

"Well, we were going to the library." Lily shrugged her shoulders, "For a particular book."

James and Sirius dropped their jaws.

"A book! That's what you're doing out of bed, trying to get a book?"

"A couple of books actually, Lily wants a whole bunch." Ally pulled the list out of her pockets.

James took it from her and scanned the list over, then handed it to Remus.

"I'm not the expert on books," he said with a grin, "What do you make of these books Moony?"

Remus read over the list twice and smiled.

"I believe that these select books can only be found in the restricted section of the Hogwarts Library, Prongs."

James looked at Lily and Ally surprised.

"You two," he pointed at them, "Want to go into the restricted section of the library?"

"No, James," Lily said, "We want to look at them from afar."

"You called me James!"

"Get over it." Lily said.

"The point is," Ally intervened, "We need to get into the restricted section of the library."

"And we need to get there unnoticed." Lily added.

"Now," said Ally, "We told you what we're up to. Why don't you tell us why you're at Hogwarts when you should be at home?"

James looked at the other Marauders, who seemed to share a nod to one another.

"In London, there was an attack near my house." James said solemnly, "A couple of our neighbor's houses had the dark mark over them. We tried to help, but... it was too late."

"My dad was one of the few Aurors who made it to the scene to seen what the Death Eater's had done," he stopped to shudder, "It was horrible, totally wrecked, a bunch of muggles were standing around gawking. The Death Eaters must have gotten out by a portkey, since there were anti-disapparation wards around. My mum wanted us to go back to Hogwarts and my dad agreed. There's no safer place than Hogwarts."

"We just got back today; Dumbledore talked to us in the office during and after dinner. We were told to go back to the common room but we wanted to walk around for a bit."

Lily and Ally were silent for a while. This didn't seem like one of the Marauders' jokes. Looking around their faces were silent and reserved. It wasn't a topic that could be joked about lightly anyway.

"I believe you," Lily said, "And I'm sorry for giving you a hard time."

"Me too." Ally added.

James brightened up, mainly because of Lily, and began to walk down the hall. Lily and Ally shrugged and followed the Marauders to the library.

Outside the hallway that leads to the library, the Marauders and "Lally" stood silently whispering to one another. They were all hidden behind a statue of two fighting centaurs. How they managed to all fit behind there was a mystery to them.

"I need to get to the door and perform the Charm that will freeze the library. It will only be frozen as long as I can hold it against the magic in Hogwarts, so you'll have to go quickly."

"Won't it be cold in the library if it's frozen?" Peter asked.

"Er—" Remus interjected, "I believe Lily means frozen in time. Not in ice Peter."

"Oh," the small boy scratched his head.

"You can freeze rooms in time?" James looked impressed, "Since when?"

"Last week I figured out the proper incantation," Lily said. "It's not that difficult, but it takes a lot of magical energy. Now, what are you guys going to do?"

"We can make sure Filch doesn't get near," Sirius said. "If he comes we can distract him with a few Marauders tricks."

"Good," Ally said.

Remus and Sirius split up to go guard the other doors, James was going to watch over the door Lily was putting the incantation on and Ally followed James and Lily to the entrance. When they reached the door, James flung a cloak over Ally.

Lily gasped.

"I knew it! I knew it!" she said, jumping in excitement "You do have an invisibility cloak, James! That was how you won that snowball fight! That's how you sneak around!"

"In your words, Lily," James said grinning, "Get over it."

Lily smiled took out her wand to sweep it over the door frame; she was concentrating intensely on the incantation she was whispering sharply. A blue light encompassed the door and moved through the library. Ally watched as the shelves were swept over and the desk and chairs turned blue. The light faded and everything was back to normal, the only difference was that the books that normally floated around the library were frozen where they last were.

James nudged Ally, or the air next to Ally.

"Go!" he whispered, and left them there to guard from a hidden spot.

Lily stood frozen; a look of utmost concentration on her face, her wand was pointed at the door.

Ally took a deep breath and plunged into the library. She recognized the restricted section immediately. It was the only part of the library that had a door, and it was bolted tightly. She took out her wand and placed it on the lock.

"Alohamora." she whispered. The lock clicked open

She swung the gate open, and miraculously it didn't creak. Her eyes looked over the books packed neatly on the shelves. Realizing that she couldn't see, she lit her wand and held it closer to the books.

A pile of dust had settled since eth last time someone had entered here. The gold and silver covers of the books still shone brightly though. Ally pulled out the list she had been given.

The Animagus World: An Analysis of the Beast Within.

Ally rolled her eyes; sometimes Lilly could be so random. She fingered through the books on the shelf and found the ancient book Lily wanted. Grabbing it off the shelf she slid it under the cloak and read the list again.

Early Wizarding Accomplishments in Alchemy

I think Lily needs help... Ally thought, grabbing that book off the shelf, while she did, a particular book caught her eye.

"Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century." she read aloud. Ally quickly snatched it up. Riddle might just be in here. You don't know what he did. She looked over the list again; the books under her arm were starting to weigh a lot.

Astounding Magical Incantations for the Powerful Wizard

Ally snatched the final book from the shelf and hurriedly extinguished her wand. She was about to leave when a particular book with green and silver writing drew her attention. Why not? She thought, and grabbed the book. She rushed out of the restricted section, careful to fit the lock back in. Then she froze in fear.

A large BANG was heard out in the halls and Peeves' (the Hogwarts poltergeist) voice was screaming:

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED! STUDENTS OUT OF BED!"

A huge blue light washed across the library again and Ally knew she was out of time. She ran to the door in frenzy and nearly collided with Lily. Ally pulled off the cloak.

Without a word to each other, they ran through the hallways back to the Gryffindor Tower. Ally and Lily gasped the password to the Fat Lady, who started to complain about wild teenagers, and they climbed into the portrait hole as quickly as possible.

Together they collapsed on the couch and caught their breath.

"Let's never do that again." Lily panted.

"Agreed." Ally shook her hand and they waited patiently for the Marauders, who soon clambered into the portrait hole, also gasping for breath.

"I vote we change the location of the Gryffindor common room to the first floor." Remus said as he collapsed onto the couch, along with the rest of the Marauders.

They all watched the dwindling fire, still catching their breath.

"Well... That was the best 'welcome home' party ever." James said cheerfully after a while.

To everyone's surprise, Lily laughed along with the rest of them and Ally pulled out the books she was holding.

"Thanks, Marauders." she said. "We now have in our possession some of the most random books ever archived."

"Good!" Lily exclaimed and grabbed the books she wanted.

Ally fingered the first book she had found. Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century. She read the title over and over again in her mind. She opened the first page that was about a wizard who discovered the newest version the magical shield charm.

She wanted to look at the other book in private some other time.

"What's this?" said James, taking one of Lily's books, "Alchemy? Why do you need to know about Alchemy?"

"It's an interest of mine..." Lily trailed off as she was reading the book on incantations.

James shrugged and stretched.

"Well," he yawned, "That was fun, but we should hit the hay, I'm exhausted..."

A general murmur of agreement rang out from the six Gryffindors sitting in front of the fire. Lily shut her book and they all made their way to the stair of their respective dormitories.

"Hey, James," Lily said quietly when the rest of the Marauders were on the stairs and he was behind. "Thanks for the furball."

He grinned obnoxiously and skipped up the steps with a new jump in his step. Ally and Lily ran up to their dormitory without a word to each other. They were both exhausted and didn't even bother getting changed. Ally lay down on her bed and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

The Next Day...

"Hey, Al," Lily said at breakfast. "What was that other book that you got? The Green and Silver book? You were reading it in the common room."

Sam looked at Ally, intrigued over what book Ally had been reading all morning.

"Oh," Ally shrugged, sipping her juice, "Some kid wrote all over it. It's called The Family Gaunt."