Happy Easter!
The halls of Hogwarts always seemed warmer when a teacher was leading you through them for a punishment. Professor McGonagall didn't speak to us at all during the long walk to her office, and instead just glanced back at us once or twice, her lips thin. When we did get to her office, she opened the door for us, then slammed it and briskly marched in herself, sitting at her desk across from us.
The four of us stood in a line, a smile toying on the faces of both James and Sirius, Peter chewing his nails, and my face probably just looking annoyed. My stupid friends and their stupid habits of getting into trouble.
"Why," Professor McGonagall's eyes went over all four of us individually, threatening us without words, "I repeat, why is it always you four? I catch you trying to illegally become Animagus, let it slide since it's to help your friend, until I found I could do it myself, so I want you to tell me honestly, are you disobeying me, trying to do exactly what I told you not to do? I could have expelled you; I could have sent you to Azkaban, but I didn't, I let you continue with your education, I even let you try to go through with your plans, but really, all I'm doing, as your teacher is I'm just trying to keep you safe, and yet…" she stopped for a second, then looked straight at me, "what were you doing in the library, Mr. Lupin?"
"Homework," I said, making eye contact with the Professor. I was good at lying these days.
"Is that so…" she said, "you couldn't wait for the morning?"
"No, it's due tomorrow," I said, keeping my face neutral. It was funny how easy it could be to lie if you knew how to.
"Right… what class?"
"History of magic," I said.
"Oh, OK…" she said, adjusting her glasses, "and you and your friends were studying the History of magic together?"
"Yes."
"Right. That fits in quite well with Mr. Potter's story of needing to pick up a reserved book," she said, frowning.
Of course she'd do that.
"So, would you four like to try once again to explain to me what you were doing in the library after curfew?" she asked. We all remained silent. "Fine. That's another forty points from Gryffindor each. And twenty each for not telling me what happened. Detention every night until you can admit to me what you were doing. So, I'll see you all back here tomorrow night. Good evening."
She escorted us back to the common room silently, then left without another word. We walked up the flight of stairs to our dormitory, then sat on our beds.
"We're going to be in detention forever!" Peter moaned. "We shouldn't have taken off the invisibility cloak, James!"
"We won't be in detention forever, we just need to come up with a believable story," said James. "Any ideas? And it needs to be believable for us."
"We were making Polyjuice potion," Sirius suggested.
"That's too far," I said, "we'll just get in even more trouble for that… like if we told the truth."
"We're still going to learn to apparate, though?" James asked.
"Of course," said Sirius. "We'll do whatever it takes to help win this war."
"Good," said James, grinning, "now let's learn how to save the world."
"Um, we can't go back to the library, genius," I said.
"Yes, but my parents have a pal…" James said, "if we got him in on the secret, well…"
"Who are you thinking?" asked Sirius.
"Wilkie Twycross."
Sirius raised an eyebrow. "He gets paid to teach sixth years. No way he's going to teach us."
"Not for free," said James, grinning ear to ear.
"I think you've overdone it with the poshness," Sirius said, slurping his pumpkin juice at breakfast. He was looking over James's shoulder, at the letter he was forming to Wilkie Twycross.
"How much is this going to cost?" I wouldn't admit it, but if this was more than a few galleons, I wouldn't be able to do it.
"Well, it costs twelve galleons for sixths years to do the program, I expect he'll want a few galleons extra since we're doing it illegally, then a few more on top of that for keeping it a secret… so around twenty galleons each."
"Oh OK…" I said. As if I could spend that much money.
"I'll pay for yours, Remus," James offered.
"No, it's fine," I said. I really didn't want to owe James twenty galleons.
"No, look, if you share those chocolates that are under your bed with me, that's more than enough payment," he said.
"Chocolates under my… how did you…?"
"I saw them," said James proudly, "when I was cleaning our dormitory for the first time it's ever been cleaned since we got here, and there they were! I may or may not have taken one. Or twenty…"
"James!" I cried. "Alright, fine, that's fair. Those chocolates are worth a lot."
"And James, why were you cleaning our dormitory?" Sirius asked.
"I couldn't find my drink bottle…" said James, "Still can't find it…"
"Oh," said Sirius, looking just past James's face as they spoke, "wonder where it is…"
"Sirius… did you steal my drink bottle?" James said, slowly.
"Pfft, no, what makes you think that?" Sirius said, raising an eyebrow.
"You're a terrible liar, Sirius!" James cried. "Alright, where is it?"
"In a secret spot in the castle I found," said Sirius.
"Secret spot?" Peter repeated. Sirius just nodded.
"And? Where is it? How long have you known about it?" said James.
"Since first year," said Sirius, "I went there when I wanted to be alone. But now it's a good place to hide your things."
"Things?" James repeated. "With an s? You mean you've hidden multiple things from me?"
"Nothing valuable."
"Why!?"
"To see how oblivious you are," said Sirius. "You're almost as bad as Remus!"
"What do you mean, almost as bad as me?"
"See?" Sirius just laughed. What was he on about? "Anyway, I'll show you guys the secret spot at lunch. James, keep writing the letter!"
"Oh, right…" James looked down at his letter, "I think I'm done…" He cleared his throat, then read:
"Dear Mr Wilkie Twycross,
My friends and I would be interested in taking apparition lessons with you, starting soon but whenever you can do it. We would pay you at least twenty galleons each (there are four of us), and I know it's technically illegal, but we want to help in the war, and we think this will help immensely. I hope you'll take this request into consideration.
Kind regards,
James Fleamont Potter."
"Immensely?" Sirius repeated. "That's too posh. What does that even mean?"
"I don't know, but adults say it," James shrugged, enveloping the letter and handing it to his owl. "There. Done. Let's not overthink it. Oh, look, there's the bell, come on."
"Almost there… come on… I know it's here…"
It was lunchtime, and instead of going to the Great Hall, Sirius was leading us through a third-floor corridor, looking around. And then he seemed to see it, because he smiled, and walked towards a statue of a hump-backed, one-eyed witch. He drew his wand and tapped it, muttering, "Dissendium."
The hump opened, and a passageway was created. Sirius grinned and led us through. It was a tunnel, scattered with some of James's possessions I vaguely remembered.
"There's the hot chocolate I lost back in first year!" James cried, picking up a mug, "The hot chocolate's still there!"
He took a sip, which he then spat out and cried, "Sirius! Oh, and my shirt, and my drink bottle… Sirius, why would you do this?"
"To see how long it would take you to notice," Sirius laughed. "Because you don't have a brother, so I supposed I'd have to let you have a bit of experience in having one."
"Oh my god," James rolled his eyes. "Anyway, this place… what is it, some sort of secret passageway?"
We walked through the tunnel, looking around until we came to a door, which was locked. I drew my wand. "Alohomora!" The door didn't budge.
"I've tried that, Remus, it has some sort of enchantment… you can't unlock it," said Sirius, placing his hand on the door. "Andromeda's talked about a knife, though… a penknife that can unlock any door and undo any knot… she said she found it while she was at Hogwarts, but eventually Filch confiscated it."
"So, if we could find it, we could get through this door, and… and anything!" James cried, beaming, "Even the Slytherin common room…"
Sirius was grinning ear to ear.
"Still nothing?"
"Nothing! My birthday's a week away from tomorrow! And I've seen him here at the school, he's running the course for sixth years as we speak!"
We were in the dormitory, having just come from the Owlery to see if there'd been a letter from Wilkie Twycross on an evening just before our detention with McGonagall.
"Maybe we'll just have to learn how to apparate ourselves…" said Sirius.
"Peter and I basically tore the library apart before we got caught, there's nothing on apparition," James told him, "Even in the restricted section. We don't know how to apparate."
"Maybe one of you could ask your parents…"
"No way," said James, "my parents would be so mad if they found out I was doing something illegal."
"Same, and mine are… somewhere," I said, but I quickly pushed this thought out of my head.
"And half of mine are dead," Peter said glumly.
"Wow… OK," said James, "well, it can't be that hard, can it? Just spin on the spot and think where you want to go…"
He shut his eyes tightly and spun around continuously until he tripped over his own feet.
"You won't be able to apparate in here, James," I told him, "There's a spell where no one can apparate in or out of the school."
"How do the older kids do it then?"
"I suppose they turn the spell off for a bit," I shrugged, "maybe we'll have to try and catch him soon…"
We didn't see Wilkie Twycross until the day of James's fourteenth birthday. Sirius, Peter, and I all entered the Great Hall with James and announced to anyone who would (and wouldn't) listen that it was his birthday and force them to sing happy birthday to him.
Just before we sat down, a small man with wispy hair approached us and asked to speak to us. James smiled at him excitedly as we followed him out of the hall and to an empty classroom.
"I saw your letter, Mr. Potter," he said, "and I would highly recommend not learning to apparate at your age. And yes, I get you want to help with the war but… have you heard of the trace?"
"Yes, it tracks underage witches and wizards to see if they do… oh…" James turned pink with embarrassment. I felt my own face heat too. How had we all been so stupid? None of us even thought of that.
"Right, er, sorry for wasting your time, sir…" Sirius said, looking down. Twycross then turned around briskly and left us all standing there feeling like idiots.
"We never talk about this," James said under his breath, and we all returned to the Great Hall, and never brought up the incident again. I obviously thought about it, remembering how stupid I was, but never brought it up.
At detention that night, I had a great idea, the greatest idea of all ideas. We came into McGonagall's office, and I approached her privately.
"Professor, it's James's birthday today," I whispered.
"If you think that's going to get you out of detention, Mr. Lupin, it's not," she said.
"I know, but I just wanted to tell you the reason we were at the library that night," I whispered, "I haven't said it yet, since James has always been around, but now it's his birthday, it's OK if he knows."
"OK, well, tell me, then."
"We were trying to find a book for a birthday present idea," I said, "we didn't mean for James to come, that's why we went at night, but he tagged along still. So, yeah, we shouldn't have lied, and shouldn't have been out after curfew, but that's our reason."
Thankfully, she seemed to buy it. "Alright. Just tonight of detention, then after that, you're free every night."
"Thank you, Professor!"
Once we were back in the dormitory, Sirius announced he had a birthday present for James, and it was really special and mostly for all of us. We all sat around the table where our dead, two-year-old hair sat in a ziplock bag, and Sirius turned off the lights, then lit his wand with a smaller light (for dramatic effect, apparently), and grabbed something out of his trunk and held it out for us to see. It was four beaded bracelets, coloured red and gold.
"Bracelets?" said James.
"Friendship bracelets," Sirius grinned.
"What are we, eight-year-old girls?" James's face split into a grin of amusement. "Sorry… it's cool, it's just I didn't think you'd…"
"I made them myself," Sirius interrupted, "And I enchanted them so if one of us betrays the others, they'll all break."
"Really?" I said, taking one of the bracelets and looking at it.
"Yeah, so if we all wear them all the time, then we'll know if one of us is a disloyal friend!" Sirius cried.
"I don't think any of us would betray each other," said James, furrowing his eyebrows. "I don't want to mistrust any of you."
"Well look, they're all still intact," said Sirius. "So, you can trust us all."
"How did you get it to break if we betray each other?" I asked, pulling the bracelet on my wrist. The other three did as well.
"Spells… I don't want to give away my secrets…" said Sirius. "Well, toast to James being fourteen and always knowing we'll be loyal!"
We held up our fists, then drank our imaginary drinks.