Chapter Seventeen

A Dire Mission

I do not seek. I find.

~Pablo Picasso

About twenty minutes after the four Gryffindor first years had walked into the small clearing on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest, they returned. It had taken about five minutes for James to reveal what he saw, and then the remaining fifteen had been spent plotting and planning how they could observe the Slytherins, particularly the Slytherin Quidditch team, without being spotted. Once they felt confident in what they'd come up with, they headed back towards the castle.

Only a few stragglers still remained out in the grounds. Despite it being Saturday and a day when students didn't really have anywhere else to be, nearly the entire student body had hastily made their way back into the castle. It was far too cold, most reasoned, to be out in the grounds for much longer. James and the others quickly hurried across the snow-covered area, wanting to join the rest of the student body in the warmth of the castle.

As they got close to the door, the boys slowed their pace. Standing in the doorway of the Entrance Hall was a stern, disappointed looking Professor McGonagall. She caught James' eye and simply shook her head, obviously upset about whatever it was that had called her to the doorway at that moment. The four boys stopped talking, clearly sensing that something terrible was about to occur.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, Mr. Pettigrew. I have something rather important that I need to discuss with you, Mr. Potter and Mr. Black." Peter and Remus moved like they were going to go with their friends, despite them not being included. Professor McGonagall levelled them with a look that stopped them in their tracks.

"In private," she added sternly, making it clear that she would not have Peter and Remus trying to tag along. "Something has recently come to my attention that has left me greatly upset. If you two would please come with me to my office so we can discuss this further." She continued to look sternly down at the other two boys, rooting them in place. Once she was certain that they wouldn't try to follow, Professor McGonagall turned on her heel and headed into the castle. James and Sirius reluctantly followed.

"I assure you, Professor," James piped up, sure that he knew what this new information was about, "we have absolutely nothing to do with the brooms. We would never taint a Quidditch game. We did hex the pumpkin pasties at Halloween, as I'm sure you've already deduced, but we did nothing at all to either Slytherin's or Hufflepuff's brooms!"

"Unfortunately, your word isn't worth quite as much anymore, Mr. Potter, even with your new-found willingness to be honest about previous acts. New evidence has been recently brought forward and it is fairly credible." Professor McGonagall made it clear that that was the end of the discussion on the matter. At least until they arrived at the seclusion and privacy of her office. James hung his head and hunched his shoulders, feeling defeated.

He'd been in trouble before and served detention several times already. He wasn't feeling defeated because of the possibility of facing another detention or some worse punishment. He was defeated because he'd had absolutely nothing to do with the crime he was currently accused of committing. He was fine getting in trouble for things he'd done, but getting in trouble for things he hadn't done threatened to shake his view of the world. He'd always believed that the universe was a just place where people got what they deserved; now he was starting to doubt that.

When they arrived at Professor McGonagall's office, the two boys took a seat in the armchairs before the large desk. McGonagall sat in the large chair on the other side. She intertwined her fingers and rested her chin on them. This forced her to look down her nose at the boys through the rim of her glasses. It was quite the intimidating look.

"Mr. Potter. Mr. Black. A few moments ago, Mr. Warrington came into my office quite distressed, with an extraordinary tale he felt compelled to tell. A few nights ago, he witnessed the two of you sneaking around the hallways and corridors. He was about to write you up for being out of bed after hours when you disappeared into the school broom closet. This immediately raised his suspicions and turned your behaviour from routine rule flouting to something more sinister. However, he couldn't investigate your actions further because a loud, much more pressing, commotion erupted from down the hall and he was forced to go deal with that.

"He quickly forgot about seeing you, what with his busy schedule. That is why he did not act on his suspicions sooner. However, today, when he saw the Hufflepuff brooms jinxed in the same fashion as his own team's broom had been, the memory came rushing back. He quickly called over Professor Strinkley and informed him and then found me and repeated it all.

"This is now twice that you two have been placed with the school's supply of brooms and the area where players store their personal brooms within days of a jinxing incident at a Quidditch game. So far, no one else has been shown to have such access, making you two our top suspects. Because of this, I will be confiscating your wands so their spell history can be examined. If it is found that your wands recently performed any of the jinxes or hexes that have been placed on the brooms, further action will be taken." Professor McGonagall then held out her hand expectantly.

"That's not true!" Sirius burst out, springing to his feet in indignant outrage, "we weren't anywhere the past few evenings except the Gryffindor common room and our dormitory! Frank Longbottom and Miles Coote came to ask us to lay low in the weeks leading up to the match for this very reason! They were worried about us sticking our necks out to pull pranks and… and other things, and said that, if something were to happen, it would only make us look more guilty. So, we did as they asked! There is no way Warrington saw us anywhere near the brooms!" Sirius finished his speech. He was huffing, his breaths coming in short bursts only, whether it was from the action of springing to his feet and speaking without taking breaths, or a sort of indignant-based breathing problem, James wasn't sure.

James remained seated, staring at Professor McGonagall. He wanted to see what she thought of Sirius' proclamation. It wasn't the most elegant and could possibly get them into trouble. Especially since James had noticed Sirius' pause around what else Frank and Coote had warned them off of but hoped McGonagall hadn't. The last thing they needed was more doubt and scrutiny put on them.

"If that is the case, Mr. Black," Professor McGonagall continued on calmly, ignoring the tone and excitement of Sirius' outburst, "then the investigation of your wands will reveal that. Now, I've informed your professors of the situation and they will be providing you with more theoretical magical practice until you have your wands returned." Once again, McGonagall held out her hand for the boys' wands. James, seeing that fighting at this moment would be pointless, retrieved his wand and handed it over. Sirius reluctantly followed suit.

With the task completed, James and Sirius stood and left. As soon as the door clicked shut behind them, Sirius rounded on James. The longhaired boy had a gleam in his eyes that lifted James' spirits. Whatever Sirius was thinking, James was sure he'd like it.

"That does it!" Sirius nearly shouted, rapidly pacing through the hallway. "We need to get undeniable proof of Slytherin's involvement. I'm positive, Strinkley will do something during the wand investigation that makes us look guilty. If we don't strike back this will all fall on us!" James smiled widely at his friend.

"I couldn't have said it better myself. I say we start tonight, get this done as soon as possible before the Slytherins can turn everything on us!" Sirius then plodded off down the hall to find wherever Remus and Peter had gotten to, desiring to fill them in on what had happened and what they were going to do about it.

"Ouch, Peter! That's my foot!" James harshly whispered. He attempted to glare at his friend, but the cramped space made the task difficult. He quickly gave up and went back to trying to observe the hallway. Peter, Remus, Sirius, and James were all wedged behind a suit of armour that was located just outside of the Slytherin dormitory. The area behind the armour was cramped and provided only minimal coverage, resulting in the four boys stepping on toes and getting accidental elbows in the gut.

It had been nearly a week since the Hufflepuff-Gryffindor game. James and Sirius' wands were still being investigated, which Remus insisted was a good thing. The professors were obviously doing a thorough investigation and, since neither James nor Sirius had been called to anyone's office, they hadn't found anything. James still made it clear that he missed his wand.

Being wandless, James and Sirius had focused all their free time on collecting whatever evidence they could on Slytherin. Peter had eagerly joined in, wanting to help his friends and prove his usefulness. However, doing reconnaissance and collecting evidence without access to magic was quite difficult. The boys had been forced to crowd themselves into alcoves, behind large tapestries, and behind statues and suits of armour.

It was far from the prefect system.

Because they hadn't been able to even attempt to hide or disguise themselves magically, James, Sirius, and Peter had been found out quite a few times. When it was a teacher, a friend or an acquaintance, or a neutral third party, the worst the discovery resulted in was mild embarrassment. However, when it was a member of Slytherin house, the boys were met with hexes and curses. Peter figured that the Slytherins' responsible for the broom tampering were attacking to hinder James' and Sirius' progress to clear their names. The other Slytherins were attacking in what they thought was retaliation for James and Sirius jinxing brooms.

"Be quiet! Someone's coming!" Remus whispered, nursing a rapidly darkening black eye from a misaimed curse from one of the Slytherins. Both James and Sirius had apologized profusely for dragging him into the whole thing and had since gone after the Slytherins with even more determination. Peter tried to inconspicuously crane his neck around Sirius' body to see out into the hallway.

Sure enough, walking down the hallway, their heads held high with self-importance were the two Slytherin beaters. They were moving quickly, coming from the Slytherin common room. They were obviously headed somewhere, and most likely late based on the speed with which they were making their way through the halls. This peaked James's attention, and the others obviously felt the same.

All four boys began squirming around behind the suit of armour, trying to get a better look at the pair in the hallway. However, their slight tussling over spots led to Peter stepping, and putting all of his weight down, on James' foot. The messy haired boy inhaled sharply. Despite his attempted to do so quietly, the two Slytherins heard the sound. They stopped in front of the suit of armour and looked at it quizzically.

"Did the armour just whistle?" the beater with short brown chopped hair, a big nose, and very crooked teeth asked, turning to his friend.

"Can't be! It ain't alive," the other beater, who had ear length blonde hair, beady black eyes, and a narrow face, responded.

"I heard it!" the first beater exclaimed. Wanting to prove to the other boy that he wasn't an idiot or crazy, the first beater stepped closer to the suit and began squinting at it. His eyes suddenly widened as he saw Peter's terrified face behind the suit.

"There's someone back there!" he shouted before pulling out his wand and blasting the suit of armour to pieces. Peter, along with James and Sirius came spilling out from their hiding spot. Remus, somehow, managed to stay on his feet.

"It's the first years what cursed our brooms!" the second beater angrily shouted, grabbing for his wand. James, Sirius, and Peter quickly scrambled to their feet and turned down the hallway. The four boys ran as fast as they could down the hallway away from the Slytherins. They knew, as soon as the Slytherins' had discovered them, that curses and jinxes would soon befall them.

As James and the others ran, curses went off over their heads, creating small holes in the castle walls and sending off small explosions in the air. James was beginning to question how either one of them had gotten onto the Quidditch team because their aim was terrible! Put together, the four first years were a fairly large target, and yet, not one single spell had made contact with any of the boys. They all went wide and hit the walls or were shot too high over their heads.

The four rounded a corner and, as Peter placed his hand on the wall to steady himself, fell through an intricate tapestry. The other three quickly noticed Peter's disappearance and halted their escape. They quickly doubled back and, only seconds later with a still stunned Peter lying on his back in a small, dark alcove, pulled aside the tapestry. Light instantly shot into the alcove, showing that it went behind Peter quite a ways.

A pleased smile crossed James' face as he, Remus, and Sirius stepped into the secret passageway. He let the tapestry fall behind him, closing the passageway to the outside hallway. Just as the tapestry stopped moving, the hurried footfalls of the Slytherins' passed by. They didn't stop or slow but barrelled on through the now empty hallway.

"Brilliant, Peter! Absolutely brilliant! Discovering a new secret passageway just in the nick of time! Genius move! Probably saved our behinds!" James enthused once the footfalls had faded away. Peter absolutely beamed at the praise levelled on him.

"I'll add this one to the others when we get back to the common room," Remus added. "Now I think with our cover blown, as they say, we should head back to the common room and get some schoolwork done."

Always the practical one, Remus once again suggested a cessation of the more dangerous activity and a turn toward a safer option. Peter, a little rattled by the close call, readily agreed with Remus' suggestion.

"Sounds like a good idea. I've still got about an inch on that paper McGonagall set a week ago. I really should get it done," James spoke in mild agreement, not too enthusiastic about giving up their adventure in Slytherin espionage but recognizing the validity of Remus' statement. Sirius concurred with a nod.

The four carefully picked their way through the hallway, curious about where it led, before eventually returning to their Gryffindor common room and their work that awaited them.

Remus and Peter sat at a fairly large table in the Gryffindor common room. It had been nearly a month since the disastrous Gryffindor-Hufflepuff game. James and Sirius still hadn't been returned their wands, and the pair had gone that day to complain to Professor McGonagall. Surely, after a month's worth of investigation their wands should have either cleared them or produced evidence of their guilt. Either way, the boys should have heard something about it and, at the very least they figured, had their wands returned.

They'd gone to plead their case, plead that going wandless was hampering their magical education. This left Peter and Remus alone in the Gryffindor common room. They'd been tasked, both through self-instruction and by James and Sirius, to continue to work on their plan to track and capture the Slytherins. The large table the two sat as was covered in various papers dedicated to this purpose.

In the few weeks since the Slytherin beaters had chased them, the boys had been slowly adapting their plan. Through the time they'd been searching for the kitchens at Halloween to now, where they were chased through hallways and luckily escaped into hidden passageways, the quartet had located quite a few secret ways throughout the castle. Remus had carefully recorded the location of each, and they now planned to use them to more secretly move through the castle and follow the Slytherins in the hopes of finding any and all evidence that would prove James' and Sirius' innocence.

"We could then duck in here and watch until they turn off or reach the end of the hallways. It gives us really good sight lines," Remus spoke thoughtfully, pointing at the very hidden passageway Peter had discovered by accident.

"You know," a voice called out from across the common room. Peter and Remus swivelled to look and saw James and Sirius making their way across the busy area. Neither looked happy or triumphant; Peter guessed they hadn't convinced McGonagall to give them back their wands.

"Know what?" Remus responded in kind once the pair had drawn near. James comfortably collapsed into an armchair and put his feet up on the one corner of the table not taken up by paperwork. Sirius took the remaining seat, hanging his head over the back in frustration.

"I've been thinking about this for quite a while. We've been trying to inconspicuously follow the Slytherin's to see where they go to meet up and talk about their broom tampering. However, we have yet to be successful because we always get caught. If we could come up with some sort of tracking spell, we could follow them from a distance and then come upon them at their final destination. You know any spell like that, Remus?" James turned to his friend awaiting Remus' response.

"Can't think of anything," the sandy haired boy said after a moment of thoughtful pause. "But there might be something about it in the library. I could go look and see what I find." Remus then stood from the table. James would want answers to his musings as soon as possible. Wanting to continue his helpfulness, Peter stood as well and scurried off after Remus. James and Sirius remained lounging around the table.