Chapter Two

The Disappearing Demon

James's Point of view

"Ha, ha! Got you!" James laughed aloud on the look of complete horror on Sirius's face. Lily shook her head and walked away.

"Not funny, James." Sirius growled.

"Hey, you got me first." He countered still smiling.

"How did you get Lily Evens to help you with that one?" Remus asked curiously.

"Please," James smirked, "she was only too happy for a chance to get back at Sirius." He shuddered slightly as he said, "I don't want to see what she dose to me." Sirius laughed.

"She'll probably dump glue and glitter on your head again, oh on accident of course." Sirius joked.

"That's not important right now." Peter almost whined. "What do we do about the demon?"

"There is no demon, Peter." James sighed. It was getting rather annoying, now.

"Prove that there isn't." Peter retorted hotly.

"Prove that there is." Sirius snapped.

"Fine." He retorted. "I will. I'll wait for the demon to show up, and I'll take its picture, then will you believe us?"

"Peter, that could be dangerous." Remus warned, but James cut across him.

"Okay, Wormtail." He said. "Take a picture of this demon, and we'll believe you." Peter's face was set.

"You got it." said he.

"Peter," Remus hissed, "that thing has got to be dangerous and I don't think it will fancy its picture being taken."

"Well, what can we do about it on our own? I'm no help and you'll be gone three nights a month." Peter muttered.

"Fine, but I'm going to stay up with you." Remus whispered.

Peter's Point of view

He looked out the window as they passed it, rather, he tried to. The whole window was covered in snow and ice. It was impossible to see anything out of it. It was the same story for every window they passed on their way to the great hall. It was covered with ice and snow. This would not help his efforts of trying to get a picture of the demon, he did not want to be in the same room as it. Something fell behind them, making both Remus and himself jump. James and Sirius laughed at them again. Peter was attempting to look out another window when a hand suddenly appeared in the snow, it was so pale it was hard to see it. He gasped and jumped back. Sirius, James, and Remus looked over at the frost and ice. Remus bit his lip, but James and Sirius laughed.

"Someone just put their hand on the window." James said shrugging.

"We're on the third floor landing." Remus replied.

"Oh, so now your demon flies?" Sirius asked.

"Why not?" Remus challenged. "We don't know what kind of demon we're dealing with.

"Some demons can fly." Peter reasoned. They shook their heads but said nothing more.

When they walked into the great hall Peter's attention was immediately drawn to the incredible cold. He shivered, and he wasn't the only one who felt it. Students had their cloaks and scarves wrapped tightly around them. The professors had confused expressions on their faces and they were talking to each-other in whispers, evidently wondering why it was so cold. It felt like the torches weren't giving off any heat. Peter's eyes were drawn to something moving in the corner of his vision. He turned his attention to it and with a jolt he recognized the girl he saw out the window. She was standing in the corner. She put a finger to her lips as though to tell Peter not to call out and disappeared. He leaned in and hissed into Remus's ear;

"I saw her again, she was just here, she's following us."

"She's already mad at us, just for seeing her, taking her picture will only infuriate her more." Remus muttered

"If she's already angry," James joined in at a whisper, "Why not make her more mad?"

"What are we whispering about?" Sirius asked in a low but joyful voice.

"The demon." Peter and Remus answered at the same time. Sirius rolled his eyes and he and James took off. Peter and Remus shared a look, then sat down as quickly as possible. James and Sirius slid onto the bench in front of them, side by side, with mischievous grins.

"If anyone asks, we were here the whole time." James said quietly. Peter nodded distractedly, he was still thinking about the demon.

There was a loud bang and a shriek followed by a purple cloud of smoke. James and Sirius looked at each other and they simultaneously burst out in laughter, though they stifled it with their hands. Two frightened-looking second years came running into the great hall with singed robes. Their Ravenclaw ties were the only thing of them that had not been died purple, though there were magenta splotches on them. The whole hall burst out with laughter, James and Sirius removing their hands from their mouths, and after a moment the two Ravenclaws joined in. Remus gave a sniff of disapproval, but said nothing. Peter was still too worried to say anything or join in the laughter.

Later that night Peter was sitting in front of the window, staring out at the grounds. Remus used a heating charm to clear the snow off the window. Both of them had cameras in their hands. The clock next to them switched to 3:00 and there was suddenly a dull, red, pulsing light that appeared on the grounds. After a second the figure of the demon materialized. She looked up at them and Peter fumbled with the camera. He snapped a picture, as did Remus. Then, they ducked underneath the window ledge. Peter held his breath for a minute.

"Check and see if she's still there." Remus's voice was barely louder than James's quiet snoring.

"Me?" Peter squeaked, he was near paralyzed with fear. "No way, you check." He was never brave like his three friends.

"Fine." Remus whispered reluctantly. He stood very slowly and turned his head to look out the window. He straightened all the way up. "It's all clear." He said. Peter stood slowly. He looked at the photograph from the instant camera that was in his hand. What he saw was a very blurry black and white scene of what would have been a pristine winter wonderland that was the Hogwarts grounds. There was no demon in the picture.

"I missed." Peter said. He was expecting the picture to be blurry, he was a horrible photographer. He didn't know why the demon wasn't in it, but then he realized she was probably just blurred in with the back ground.

"So did I." Remus said ruefully. Peter groaned.

Remus looked down at his picture, and Peter looked at it over his shoulder.

"Wait, you got a perfect shot of where she was standing." He said hesitantly. "Look, you can see her foot prints in the snow just there, but nowhere else, like she was wearing an invisibility cloak when you took the picture."

"Yeah, but she couldn't have been, we were both looking straight at her." Remus sounded confused.

"Yeah... How are we going to prove she exits then?"

"I have an idea. The demon might have a particular time it likes to appear, so for the next few nights, we'll watch the window for her and take a picture of her foot prints. Then we'll record the time she appeared. Today it was 3:00 exactly," he marked the time on the picture, "we should record thrice for every day of the week just to be sure, then once we establish her preferred time, we can get James and Sirius to stay up until then, and they'll see her." Remus's tone made it appear as though it was the most obvious solution in the world.

"That will take ages, though." Peter complained.

"What's more important, doing it correctly or doing it fast?" Remus challenged.

"Fine." Peter grumbled.

The next night, Peter was taking turns glancing at the clock and out the window. Once again when the clock's hands switched over to 3 the red light materialized, followed instantly by the girl. Remus took another picture and they ducked underneath the window ledge again. Peter scribbled the time on the picture and glanced at it, this time the tips of her tattered black shoes were visible in the snow.

"Remus," he hissed.

"What?" he whispered, leaning over, closer to him.

"Look at the picture, you can see her feet now." He muttered back.

"Weird, maybe, she has some sort of immunity to pictures and its waring off." Remus said.

"You can't be immune to pictures." Peter argued.

"Well, Demons aren't exactly logical, now are they?" Remus countered.

"Fair enough." Peter said. He slipped the picture in a small box, along with the one from the previous night. The box had the label 'The Disappearing Demon' written across it in the neatest handwriting he had ever used, which still wasn't that neat. The next night when the clock reached three they snapped a picture of the demon again. Peter took the picture and labeled it with the day of the week and time. This time you could see all the way to the top of her short boots. He looked closer at it for a moment and noticed the heels on them were black, coiled serpents. He put the box under his bed and curled up under the covers of his bed. Remus had already fallen asleep.

Peter labeled the picture in his hand;

'Third Monday, 3:00'. You could see the entirety of the little demon girl now, all the way up to her sickening smile and fathomless eyes. He shook his head. James and Sirius had kept up a relentless barrage of teasing about the demon, he and Remus had not shown them the pictures. He tucked the picture away in the box. The next night at exactly 3:00, Remus took another picture of the demon. Peter put the day and time on it again, and notice the demon looked like it was closer to the window now, but he was sure he was only imagining it. Two nights later, however, he knew he wasn't. He compared the pictures from Monday and Thursday, the demon was much closer to the window.

It was now three days until Christmas Vacation, Peter would normally stay at Hogwarts, but now he was too afraid to. Another thought crossed his mind, what if the demon was to follow him home? The castle was most definitely safer than his house. He put down his name to stay and so did, to his relief, Remus. James and Sirius were both going home. The next night it was obvious the demon got closer. Remus had noticed it too. They tossed the picture in the box with the others. Peter, having nothing better to do, decided to go through the box. He looked at all the pictures and their captions. Every picture from Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday was at 3:00 exactly, on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, however, they were always at 4:52 exactly. He put them back in the box, organizing them by date. That night, Sunday, they were waiting by the window once more. Once the minute of 4:52 came, there was a deafening bang. Remus, who had the camera pointed at the window, accidently took a picture. When the flash of light illuminated the room, Peter could see the demon's grotesque face, pressed up against the window.

The two of them both yelled and feel backward. The demon put a finger to her lips and laughed. Her laugh carried easily through the glass, as though she had been standing right next to them. Peter was frozen to the spot. There was a flash of dull, red light and she was gone. Remus was shaking, and even more pale than usual. He picked up the picture, which had fallen to the ground. Instead of the demon being there, there were letters written on the window, in some dark, dripping substance. The letters spelled out;

"Peter". Peter gave a whimper and looked at the window, there was nothing written on it, but there was a handprint. Remus neared the window, still shaking. He raised his wand up and called,

"Lumos!" The wand tip ignited, sending light over the darkened room. The handprint was dark read, and dripping. What was more was, the handprint was on the inside of the window.