Disclaimer: Only in my dreams do I own Harry Potter...that seems kind of creepy, doesn't it? Aw well, I'm not J.K. Rowling either way.
A/N: Thanks to the following reviewers!: NazgulGirl, laxrules18, Lady Potter of Tortall, Gloryofthesilent, Isolde Eris, Hikari Annie, Lena Andromeda Black, CzechChicka, PrincessKiri14, PSTurner, daydreamin' angel, Red-Devil15, darkmarkgirl, harryismyhomeboy, Kurinoone, smidget, and Spartan Eragon. Seventeen reviews with one chapter! You guys are all amazing! Thank you so so so much!
Wow. It's a miracle! I'm updating and it has only been like two weeks since my last update! I feel so accomplished! Even though this is a slightly shorter chapter than usual I'm still proud that I had time to write! Tehe! Well, thanks again for reading and reviewing! I hope you enjoy this chapter and have a wonderful week!
Chapter 15:
January slowly faded into February and it was becoming normal attire for students to wear their heavy winter cloaks throughout the castle. The fierce wind was merciless as it pounded against the castle and carried the cold rain horizontally, making the poor souls who took Care of Magical Creatures miserable. Oddly enough, February seemed to be much more freezing than December or January had ever been.
"Try it again."
James spun around, his hand running through his hair agitatedly. "Lily, there's no use." He kicked a blank piece of wall out of frustration. "It just won't bloody open."
Determined to find a way back to their time, James and Lily had spent much of their free time up on the seventh floor. Though neither of them, including Ron, Hermione, and Harry, hadn't heard of anything else from Malfoy or Snape the group had realized it would be stupid to ignore what Harry and James had overheard. Deciding that whatever Malfoy was planning most definitely had something to do with Voldemort—which consequentially most likely had something to do with Harry, James, and Lily—Lily had agreed that getting out of this decade would be the best for everyone.
However, their attempts to break back into the Room of Requirement had proven to be completely pointless. No matter how many times Lily and James paced back and forth in front of the stretch of blank wall, the room failed to open to them. It was as if someone had turned off the magic and the piece of wall was simply just a wall.
Lily placed the palms of her hands on the stone, as if she could feel the cracks where the door should have been appearing. "I just don't get it," she said, patting the wall and peering at it closely. There was just no acceptable reason why the room shouldn't be working; James had paced by it three times thinking hard of an empty classroom—preferably the one that had landed them here in the first place—but it just wasn't working.
Sighing heavily, James stopped his frantic pacing and glared at the place where the door should have been. "It's never done this before."
"You don't think—" Lily cut off, biting her lower lip nervously, "you don't think that by us coming here we somehow…oh, I dunno, changed the existence of the room or something?"
"How could we have done that?" he snapped.
Slightly taken aback by his tone, Lily's eyes narrowed. "Well, sorry for trying to come up with some sort of explanation."
There was silence as the two contemplated what else they could possibly do before an awkward high-pitched squeal came from further down the corridor.
Lily and James jumped. A short girl—first year by the looks of her—was watching them, her eyes wide and fearful as she clutched a set of brass scales to her chest. The three of them simply stared at each other for a moment, all of them surprised at seeing the other all the way up on the seventh floor.
"Uh…hello," Lily greeted politely. The first year continued to stare at the two of them with her wide blue eyes.
And then, with a sudden crash, the small girl dropped her scales and ran down the hallway and out of sight. Lily and James glanced at each other, both of them thinking along the same lines: what was that about? "First years…they get stranger every year," James said, bending down and repairing the smashed scales.
Silence enveloped them again after the sudden departure of the girl. "James, what are we going to do?" Lily asked suddenly, throwing her hands up in the air.
"Well," he said, shifting the set of abandoned brass scales in his arms, "I suppose we should figure out what house the girl is in and then give them to her Head of House—"
"—I'm talking about this, you dimwit," she replied, motioning towards the wall.
The corners of his lips turned upwards. "Oh, right," James said. "I think we should go see Dumbledore."
"Classes start in five minutes," Lily said, glancing at her watch on her wrist.
"All the more reason to go see him, then," he replied, and before she could object he'd grabbed her around the arm and began dragging her down towards the Headmaster's office.
OO
"Lemon drops," James said confidently. The gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office, though, remained motionless staring at James as if silently mocking him. "Oh, come on," he said in disbelief. "He must have changed the password!"
Lily glanced around the empty hallway nervously, looking for any sign of a teacher even though they should all have been teaching a class right now. "Hurry up," she said impatiently, "I'd rather not be caught ditching classes."
Rolling his eyes, James turned back towards the gargoyle. "Come on, it's important!" The little statue remained in the same position, although James could have sworn he saw it move its head from side to side. "Cockroach clusters? Acid Pops?" It still didn't move. Breaking a toe in the process, James kicked the base of the statue angrily. "Ow!" he exclaimed.
"Well, well, well," stated an oily voice from behind the two of them. His heart jumping rather unpleasantly, James slowly turned to face the owner of the voice. For some reason, Lily had risen both her arms up in the air as if she were being arrested. "What do we have here?" continued Snape, his dark eyes observing both of them.
A mixture of annoyance, anger, and extreme hatred washed over James. How dare Snivellus look at the two of them in the face when behind their backs he was attempting to help Malfoy with something that would surely harm them in the process! "Why aren't you two in class?" he demanded.
"We could ask you the same question," James retorted, his hazel eyes glinting dangerously.
Their professor, and long time enemy, towered over them, his stringy black hair falling over his forehead without any grace that Sirius' could have easily accomplished. "I believe detentions are in order." Snape smirked, apparently over-joyed with the fact that in this day and age he was their professor and therefore had the privilege to punish them.
"Please, Sir," Lily began, "we need to see Professor Dumbledore."
Snape sneered at her. "It appears the Headmaster is unavailable at the present time."
"You're lying."
"Am I?" Snape asked, clearly gaining enjoyment from denying James Potter of getting what he wanted.
"Just because James made fun of you at school—"
"—I will not be talked to in that manner, Evans," Snape retorted. Any other teacher would have addressed her as 'Miss Evans', but an old school grudge had run deeper than what they could have imagined. "Now, get off to class before I double your week's worth of detentions to two weeks."
James glared as Lily controlled her temper as best as she could; luckily Snape couldn't see her hands shaking in rage.
OOO
Harry looked up from his potion as the door to the dungeons swung open, emitting a ticked off James with Lily following close behind. A feeling of relief spread through him. It was hard when he had found out his parents had returned as their sixteen year old selves; it was even harder to know that at any moment they could leave him again. Quite selfishly, Harry deep down hoped that the Room of Requirement would continue to deny them access. Over the past couple of months he'd grown to think of his mum and dad as two of his really good friends. Although he didn't really view them as his mother and father—for they were so young in appearance—Harry still didn't want them to go.
"Sorry, Professor," he heard Lily say as she approached Slughorn's desk.
Professor Slughorn beamed widely. "Not a worry, my dear girl. Just make sure to come to my party this month and I'll hold no charges." He winked jovially at the redhead, who tried to grin politely. "We're brewing the Cheering solution today. I daresay, you'll have to work fast in order to make up missed time, but with your potion skills I know you'll surprise me again." He ushered Lily off to her desk with his hands, completely ignoring James.
"Didn't work then?" Harry asked, as his parents sat down at a table with him, Ron, and Hermione.
Lily situated her cauldron and lit a small fire underneath it with her wand. "No." She began taking out ingredients.
"And to make matters worse, we ran into Snape," James brought up, conjuring some water from his wand and filling his cauldron with it.
The trio drew in their breaths at the news; they all leaned closer. "What did he say?"
Waving his hand as if it wasn't that important, James answered. "Nothing. Just being a git as usual."
A thoughtful look spread across Harry's face. "Shouldn't he have been teaching?" he whispered in order to keep anyone else from hearing their conversation. The group sprang apart as the potions teacher strolled towards them, glancing into their cauldrons as he popped a candy into his greedy mouth.
"Not unlike him though, is it? I mean, sneaking around the castle with Malfoy late at night and all," Ron said, peering casually at Harry's open copy of the Half Blood Prince's potions text book.
"Ron, you just like suspecting Snape. I bet you he just didn't have a class this period," Hermione explained pointedly.
Before anyone of them could respond, the door to the classroom swung open once again. Speaking of the devil, Draco Malfoy walked in, his school bag falling down his arm as if he didn't have enough energy to swing it up onto his shoulder. Harry glared at him as he exchanged words with Slughorn and, with a scowl, took his seat in the back of the class.
What had he been up to? Malfoy didn't have an excuse to be late; he wasn't attempting to break into the Room of Requirement to—Harry's thoughts broke off as some of Malfoy's words replayed themselves in his head. And besides, it's not like they'll be able to leave anyway. I'm almost always occupying…
Now it all made sense. Of course, how could they not have seen it before? The Room of Requirement! That's what Malfoy was occupying; that's where he was working on his plan. Malfoy knew that as long as he occupied the Room of Requirement during every second of free time, Lily and James wouldn't have a chance to escape and his plan would be a success once he put it into action.
"Malfoy's the reason!" Harry exclaimed excitedly, attempting to keep his voice at the bare minimum.
The group turned to look at Harry curiously. "What?" Hermione asked.
"He's in the Room of Requirement every time you try to get in!"
A look of realization hit every one of their faces. "Of course. I bet you only one person can occupy it at a time, because obviously it can't become two different places at once!" Hermione said.
They all jumped when the school bell rang shrilly, announcing the end of class. "Time's up, everyone," Professor Slughorn called from the front of the room. "Kindly bring a sample of your potion to the front of the room and you can be off to lunch."
Malfoy pushed haughtily past Harry as he strolled up to the front of the room. He slammed what appeared to be a mixture of some jumbled up ingredients—seeing as he only had about five minutes to make it—before walking out of the classroom.
"You'll never get in there while Malfoy's guarding it every second," Harry said, filling his own small glass phial with his potion. Part of him was happy at that fact; the other part of him however—the part that secretly knew Lily and James really didn't belong here with him—wanted to help them.
Making up his mind, Harry sighed. "What we need is plan."
Never fear, Harry to the rescue! He's such a little hero, how cute. Wow, okay, I really need to go to bed. Haha. Goodnight everyone!
Thanks for reading!!
--HeyLookTheSnitch