Chapter 13
October 31, 1976
It was a Sunday, so we had the entire day to practice the ritual. And even though we had worked at it tirelessly, I had a horrible gut feeling about it.
We needed more time.
We weren't prepared enough. And, unfortunately, we knew it. Peter was having trouble remembering the verses, my incantation shield was still experimental, and, quite frankly, none of us wanted to return to the Slytherins' hideout. But we knew we had to.
I gripped the brass mirror tightly in my hand and hid it up my cloak. I sighed as I watched them practice one more time.
"No! It's unbind these spirits this fulfill, not unbind these spirits will this fulfill!" Sirius growled at Peter, who meekly shrunk away.
"Padfoot, just write it our and he can tae it to read from," I suggested. "We need to leave soon."
"That's not the point! Can't you remember anything?"
"Not with you screaming at him," I mumbled.
"Hey! We need to work together as a team or this is really just a waste or time," James interrupted our argument. I nodded in agreement, he was right. And so did Peter. Sirius, however, wasn't as quick to admit defeat.
"Doesn't he realize how important this is?!? This isn't remembering the five ways to spot a werewolf. This is Remmy's life or death!" argued Sirius.
"Thanks, Sirius," I mumbled, rolling my eyes.
"I'm sure he knows how important it is, Sirius! Now just drop it, write down the damn verses, and lets go!" James glared. He stopped then and opened his trunk, pulling out a heavier cloak for the cold outside.
Peter and I got up and did the same. Sirius remained sitting cross-armed on the floor. I rolled my eyes and scribbled down the verses:
Release these spirits from their still,
In the glass no longer remain.
Unbind these spirits this fulfill,
Death no longer feign.
I handed the scrap of parchment to Peter and he stuffed it into his pocket.
"Come on, Sirius," James called. He slowly stood up and walked to our sides, less than pleased. We chose to ignore his attitude, though, and pressed onward.
It was eleven o'clock when we left, far past curfew. Peter transformed into a rat and he four of us hid underneath James's Invisibility Cloak. We slipped through the castle, only stopping once when Filch limped past us.
And thank god Mrs. Norris wasn't with him.
We pushed open the grand Entrance Hall doors and walked out onto the grounds. The cold air met us, and was quick to greet us and make itself our guest. But we also encountered a blanket of fog laid out on the cold earth, as if to keep it warm. And was so think the material of this giant sheet that we quickly discarded of the Invisibility Cloak, seeing as no one would possible spy us in the mist.
We lit the tips of our wands and ran into the Forbidden Forest, to the clearing. We looked around us, trying to spot the tree through the fog. Sirius found it shortly after and the four of us climbed down the ladder inside.
The dirt wall was no longer glowing, but the poem on the side of the wooden wall seemed to be. Peter gulped and looked up at me, waiting for me to tell him what to do.
I nodded and knelt down on the floor. I opened the book and searched for the right page.
"What are you doing?" a voice asked from behind me. I stopped what I was doing and slowly looked over my shoulder with dread.
It was the three ghosts.
I stared at them, mentally gripping my wand underneath my cloak, waiting to make my move.
"We can't let you do that," he smirked. I did nothing, only watched them.
Suddenly, he sent a huge blue ball of fire soaring at my head, but I quickly whipped out my ready wand and repelled it away.
"Get behind me!" I ordered. James, Sirius, and Peter obeyed without question.
"Enough! Lets end this!" the lead ghost screamed, finished playing around. Three fireballs came at us with the heat of a thousand hells, larger than any of the others before. They were going to kill us all at once.
I gulped and shut my eyes. I gripped two hands on my poised want and shouted the incantation, praying it would work.
I opened my eyes. We were in a transparent blue bubble that shielded us from all curses sent at us.
The Slytherins were furious and threw the hardest and largest fireballs yet, trying to break through our shield. I bit my bottom lip nervously.
"Grab the mirror out of my pocket! Quickly!" Sirius pulled the mirror out of my cloak pocked and the three knelt down on the ground. James flipped through the last few pages of the book.
They all gripped the mirror as I gripped my wand tighter. I didn't know how much longer the spell would last. "Hurry!"
They nodded and chanted:
Release these spirits from their still,
In the glass no longer remain.
Unbind these spirits this fulfill,
Death no longer feign.
Nothing.
"Concentrate more!" I exclaimed. The shield was beginning to die away,
Release these spirits from their still,
In the glass no longer remain.
Unbind these spirits this fulfill,
Death no longer feign.
"Peter, stop looking at the paper! Concentrate only on the words!" James said. They all shut their eyes and gripped the mirror tighter.
Release these spirits from their still,
In the glass no longer remain.
Unbind these spirits this fulfill,
Death no longer feign.
The room was filled with a bright, almost blinding light. I found myself squinting against it, it was so bright! The Slytherins stopped attacking us as they, too, were blinded.
The shield died away and we were once more vulnerable to their abuses. But when it did, the light better hit the mirror and reflected off in all directions! It hit the Slytherins' and it seemed to be too much for them!
After screaming torture, their forms burned away before our very eyes, until absolutely nothing was left!
And as soon as it had begun, it was over and we were surrounded once more with silence and darkness.
James, Sirius, and Peter stood up and we looked at each other, wondering if it was all truly over.
"Look!" Peter pointed behind me. I spun around once more, wand at the ready. But the Slytherins weren't there. Peter had been pointing at the poem on the wall, which was slowly disappearing away to nothing.
The Slytherins were truly gone and with them the threats against my life. I sighed in relief.
"Lets go," I said. They all nodded in agreement and followed me up the ladder. We climbed out of the hole in the tree and stood above the clearing, looking down at the spot Cecil Marie Reid had been murdered at five hundred years before.
We walked back up to the castle. We had had enough of the Forbidden Forest to last us a while.
We stopped again at the edge of the forest and watched as the giant cloak on the side of the castle turned to twelve. Midnight.
Sirius laughed.
"Are you barking mad?! What's wrong with you?!" James asked.
"I can't believe we were that close! Oh my god…."
"Remus?" a small voice from behind us called my name. We all turned around and saw Cecil. "Thank you."
I gave a small smile. "You're welcome."
She approached us and, if I wasn't imagining things by this point, was not a transparent ghost at all. She appeared to be a normal, eleven year old girl.
She grinned and slipped her hand into my own. I almost felt it. But as soon as she held my hand, she let go of it again and skipped away onto the grounds, giggling to herself. And she slowly faded away completely, left only in our memories.
It was Sirius who broke the spell. "Weird…."
We all laughed at him and raced back to the castle.
A/N- So that's basically the end of the story. There's one chappie left and then it's all over. I'll update next Friday and then I'll go back over it with a fine comb and pick out anything that doesn't make sense with DH. Thanks for reading!