A/N: It's been an extremely long wait for this update. I sincerely apologise for that, but I needed to take care of stuff personally before I could this out to you. I really hope you enjoy this update!
Chapter 44: Inside Aramastus's Lair
Reference Chapter: The Hall of Statues (Chap. #35)
~oO The Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley
"EVANS! WHERE ARE CRABBE'S FILES?!" Frank's screams boomed from the other end of the deafening, bustling lounge. It was so loud, people had to scream at one another to be heard.
"WHITTAKER WAS HANDLING HIS CASE LAST!" Lily yelled back, while frantically sorting through rolls of alibis from students in her station even as Lance Whittaker hurtled past her with an official-looking folder tucked under his arm towards Frank. It was decided right at the outset that Frank was going to be the messenger today, liaising between Hogwarts's Board of Warlocks and the Department of Law Enforcement, purely because he was Head Boy and a Pureblood, and that no one on the street would suspect him of anything foul whilst enroute to the Ministry.
The large, circular lounge on the ground floor of the Leaky Cauldron was unrecognisable this morning, having temporarily turned into an office area for the students and staff of Hogwarts, littered with several dozen tables and chairs that were lit by lanterns that hung in mid-air above their heads. Tiny little house-elves, in their attempt to be as 'helpful' as possible, only made matters worse, because they brought in refreshments and snacks shouting, "Pumpkin pasties, masters and misses!" and loitered about the place in such a disorderly fashion that they almost always knocked into someone's knees and dropped everything to the floor, adding to the sheer madness that subsisted in the hall. Despite the chaos, however, every student and staff present motored through their agendas, working tirelessly and racing against time as it seemed.
"Jones, McDonald! You're needed here!"
"Mary! Don't leave me behind!"
"Would you like some crumpets, Master?"
"Sally, have you owled the investigation notes to Warlock Reynards yet?!"
"No, no, no, Master Béchanac, these for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement! THESE are the ones to be sent to the Board!"
"Ow! My eye! Damn these candles!"
"More pumpkin juice, Miss?!"
"Hey! Watch where you're going, will you?!"
"Cockroaches! COCKROACHES!"
It was tiresome just to be in the room for Lily.
"Professor, we only have a hundred and thirty-seven of these!" Lily puffed out to a frazzled-looking McGonagall who was working on the judgment list alongside Clarissa Goody. "I can't — MERLIN, Nookey, I don't need anymore TREACLE TARTS, but thank you! — Professor, I can't find the last three docu —!"
"— YES, Evans, the court is well aware of it! Just place them in alphabetical order in the casket and hand it over to Longbottom already!" McGonagall screamed. "Potter, any word on the Farley twins?!"
"None, as yet, Professor, but I'm on it!" James barked back over Alder Magpie and Daniel Willets's heads. The pair had been assessing the magical blueprint of Hogwarts and figuring out the extent of damages that the castle had undergone during the attacks next to Filch who prowled the hallways screaming, "Bugger!" and "Damn them blood-sucking, trash-eating cockroaches!" every now and then for no apparent reason.
"How many still absconding, Minerva?!" Sprout's voice screeched through the noisy hall.
"Potter?!" McGonagall countered, turning towards the lanky, bespectacled boy, startling him out of his skin.
Grabbing the parchment from Daniel's hand, James scanned it frantically once again. Looking up defeatedly, he said, "Other than Mulciber, Black and Blishwick, everyone else continues to remain unaccounted for, Professor!"
A thin brow shot up in McGonagall's forehead. She shared a look with an equally fierce-looking Sprout. "Narcissa Black, you mean?" she squawked, as the gurgling noise in the room swallowed them whole.
James flinched and paled, so Alder responded instead. "Y-Yes, Professor. Not Regulus Black," he bit out, bringing a stern scowl on her face.
"Magpie, get me the full list of missing students, at once!" she cried, the sounds of scratching quills, rolling of parchments and a cacophony of students' shouts drowning under her voice. But her demeanour changed at once as she smiled warmly into her little helper's face in the chair next to hers. "And no more pumpkin juice for me, Tippy darling, thank you," she cooed to the baby house-elf slurping pumpkin juice straight out of the jar next to her.
"Yes, Professor," said Alder Magpie, a handsome, dark-skinned seventh year Hufflepuff student and the school's official ombudsman.
"Merlin, this is such a nightmare," Clarissa Goody groaned under her breath to Eudora Bearfist and Sally Smith who were seated next to Lily and worked alongside Sprout and Flitwick, helping out with estimating the cost of damages at Hogwarts since the attack.
It has been eight days since the students of Hogwarts returned home unbeknownst to the Ministry under Dumbledore's orders, much to Bagnold's chagrin. The move, though, was highly lauded by the Board of Warlocks, since it prevented the clustering of young witches and wizards in a single location and making it an easy target for the Death Eaters to launch more attacks. Soon after, however, Hogwarts sent out memos to some of the older students' houses, asking for volunteers to help out with the clerical duties that come attached with being bombarded by Dark wizards.
"EVANS, ARE YOU DONE?" Frank screamed once again from the entrance, making Lily jump up in her seat.
"Wrap it up as they are, Evans!" Sprout shot out crisply.
"Yes, Professor!" Lily panted and gathered up the carton full of parchments neatly ordered and sealed for the hearing before hurtling towards a flustered-looking Frank. "There you go," she huffed, marching alongside him out of the stuffy room and into the chilly, wet evening, hurriedly casting a Concealment Charm on the documents. "Make sure you are not spotted by anyone from the Muggle Ministry, alright?" she added, even as he nodded and sprinted off down the busy street and disappeared into the crowd.
As she stood there, watching the place where Frank had Disapparated, the door to The Leaky Cauldron flew open once again behind her.
"Evans!" she heard a familiar voice call out to her, making her blush crimson at once. Whipping around timidly, she found a messy-haired boy jogging towards her, making a nervous shudder run up her spine. "Any word from Snape?" James whispered urgently, side-stepping a fat witch standing near a pole by the Knightbus stop, as if already suspecting the worst.
"No. Nothing," she sighed, bravely stepping closer to him as Alder joined them as well, bringing with him an official parchment that listed out the missing students. "Both my owls returned with my letters still on them," she said, trying very hard to remain casual and nonchalant around the lanky, bespectacled boy.
Alder looked at her ruefully. Making sure they were not heard by the fat lady next to them, he stated, "Be that as it may, but I'm still going to have to report him to McGonagall, Evans —"
Lily paled at once. "— Dammit, Alder!"
"Hey, I don't want to do this too —!"
"— Yes, I know that!" Lily rasped, exhaustedly. "It's just... Well, alright, in that case, let me write to him just one more time. Right away, obviously!" she added, when the boys glared at her incredulously. "I'm going to hear from him, I promise —"
"— Evans..."
"— Trust me, Potter, he's going to write back —!"
"— We haven't the slightest clue where he even is, Lily!" James sighed, staring contritely back at her. "I think we've all made excuses for him long enough, it's time we accept the reality —"
"— Which is WHAT?!" Lily swirled around challengingly. "That he's a Death Eater, that he attacked us and the school like some sort of a terrorist, that he's a potential murderer —?!"
"— You think I WANT to believe everything you just mentioned —?!" James flared up too.
"— Well, what else could you have possibly meant when you said, 'accept the reality', eh?" Lily shouted back.
"Evans, we were ALL witness to the mayhem that the bunch of blockheads unleashed upon us a week ago! Do you want me to pretend that that never happened?!" James yelled as the pair glared at each other, not realising that they had unwittingly got Alder caught in the crossfire too.
Nudging him awkwardly, Alder tried to pry James away from Lily's red face. "Cool it, Potter," he suggested wisely.
"Yeah, listen to him, Potter." Lily stared back smugly.
James boiled over entirely now. "Merlin, you're SUCH a pain in the —!"
"— Mate, DON'T!" Alder yelled, finally stepping between them and thankfully not letting him finish that sentence (the fat witch next to them seemed to roll her eyes as well). Turning to look into the deathly calm face of Lily, the afro-haired boy reiterated his question once again. "What exactly are you implying, Evans?" Alder's deep voice cut through her like a knife.
Still glaring wistfully in James's direction, she took a calming breath in. "All I meant to say..." she began, watching the James's features tighten slightly, "is we might have misconstrued what went down that night," she stated, her mind racing at two-hundred miles per hour now.
James frowned. "What the bloody hell do you mean...?" he muttered, looking positively intrigued now.
"Potter, we only saw a bunch of people that 'looked' like the students of Hogwarts," she began slowly, and a look of absolute intrigue crept up James's face. That thought had not occurred to him even for a second, sending chills up his face.
"Yeah, Hogwarts students. Slytherins who have pledged their lives to that knobhead Dark Wizard! They were merely Slytherin cunts, Lily..." James stressed, more to himself than anyone else.
"James, think about it!" Lily hissed impatiently, lowering her voice to a whisper now. "You know how twisted You-Know-Who is! This is exactly the kind of thing that he'd do, make people believe something when in reality, it was a WHOLE other thing! Remember what happened to Hepzibah Smith?!" she whisper-yelled, finally getting through to both James and Alder.
"James, trust me..." Lily added, shaking him a little by the hand. "Those Snakes are vile, abominable creatures even, but they don't have the bleeding plucks to pull off something this big in a hundred years," she asserted. "What happened at Hogwarts that day was a well-orchestrated, impeccably-timed crime of the highest order, something only grown wizards are capable of committing!" she said, folding her hands in a very 'I-rest-my-case' sort of way.
"So..." Alder began, his curly afro bouncing on his head with intrigue.
But Lily merely nodded. "Hogwarts students are being framed for a crime they did not even commit, Magpie. All they ever needed was a cauldron of Polyjuice Potion... I'm ready to bet on my wand that everyone who attacked us that day were actually Death Eaters, disguised as Slytherins," she said, throwing a blanket of dread over James and Alder's faces. "It's the oldest trick in the book, don't you see? Where's the proof that the Slytherins weren't all, in fact, abducted by the Death Eaters prior to the attacks, who later seeped into the castle through the Vanishing Cabinet as them, eh?" her lips quivered feverishly, leaving a cape of silence in her wake. James and Alder didn't say anything and simply acknowledged that it was, in fact, a major possibility. Heaving agitatedly, Lily continued. "Look, I'm not demented —"
"— I didn't say you were," James shot back, hurt that she thought so low of him.
"— I JUST wanted to let you know," Lily paused, her eyes boring a hole in his skull now, "that I'm not blindly trying to absolve Severus of anything. All I'm saying is there is a tiny possibility that he could, indeed, be innocent too —"
James scoffed, quite blatantly looking jealous now. "— Yeah, right! Even Malfoy's closer to being innocent than that wanker —!"
"— Merlin, mate, would you give it a rest?!" Alder cried out, having finally lost patience. "Anyway, look, Evans," he began, turning towards Lily, "you make some fair points. However, we unfortunately do not have solid proof to point us in that direction yet. And you know how McGonagall is. If she does not see it on paper, she is not believing it."
James and Lily opened their mouths to retort, when Alder cut in. "No! NO! Keep your robes on just for a second!" he said loudly, shutting them up. "Unless the bunch of missing students (under the influence of Veritaserum, obviously) actually come speak to us in person about where they really were, and if they really were captured by Dark wizards prior to the attacks according to you," he added patronisingly to Lily, "we would have no way of concluding the lot of them were at all innocent," he declared flatly.
Lily looked about ready to burn him to smithereens, but she also begrudgingly admitted that he was right in a way.
"There's honestly nothing else we can do, Evans, I'm sorry," Alder stated, and was ready to turn around and submit the report to McGonagall when someone suddenly scoffed from the back.
"Says the weak."
The cold voice from behind shook them awake, and all three of them swung around.
The fat witch who had looked innocent up until a second ago, slowly turned around to face them, her eyes screaming murder all of a sudden.
A frightful shiver gripped Lily as the three of them gaped at the beastly appeal of the person in front of them.
"Excuse me?" Lily started, except she knew something was terribly off with that woman.
Rising up to her full height, the fat witch faced them with a malice that was entirely unmatched to the rest of her body. "I'm Carol Barracus, daughter of Warlock Lyman Barracus and I'm sixty-seven years old," the witch began, before narrowing her eyes sinisterly at them. "...Or am I?"
Alder guffawed and nudged James on the side. "Yeah, she's mental," nodding fervently at James and sniggering uncontrollably. "Let's get back inside —"
"What's the matter, Magpie?"
Alder and James stopped dead in their tracks, their faces hardened with dread. Lily's heart pounded in her ears as the three of them whirled around to face the menacing countenance of the old witch glaring them down. "Do you have evidence to prove who I really am?"
"How d'you know my name?" Alder demanded quietly.
"Who - Who are you...?" Lily muttered, unconsciously stepping away from the stout woman. She didn't even realise that James was slowly leading her behind him, his hand tightly gripping the wand he had whipped out the second the woman had spoken.
"Y-You can't... You can't do anything to us here, mind you..." Alder stammered weakly, stepping behind Lily and peering over James's shoulder. "T-Too many eye-witnesses —!"
"— Oh, for slabbering Salazar's sake..." the old lady rolled her eyes exasperatedly. Peering cautiously around as if to make sure no one was watching, the witch glared back at them, a look of absolute turpitude hanging in her large round eyes.
"Wait, I've seen that look before..." James began, peering curiously into her face. "The eyes... It reminds me of —"
— And then it happened.
Before he could take a step closer, before Lily could even comprehend what was happening, the old witch's whole being had come alive, getting consumed with scales and scales of circular tiles that were smoothly moving and folding and shifting unto themselves, moving in a flash from her head to toe until it morphed her into a whole other person... Everything, starting from the texture of her hair to the colour of her nails, had changed, leaving behind a leaner, taller and meaner-looking young witch — all in under two seconds.
Lily had not even released the breath she was holding in before she realised the place where the fat witch had stood was now occupied by the more ferocious-looking little sixteen-year-old girl in front of them — someone they knew extremely well...
"M-Meadowes...?!" Alder croaked wide-eyed, still refusing to step out from behind Lily. "Y-You're... You're a... meta... You're a metamorph...?" he bleated weakly at their sixth year Slytherin classmate.
It took the three of them several moments to even wrap their heads around what they had witnessed as Dorcas Meadowes lazily regarded them with a look of pure disdain.
A streak of shock raced up Lily's spine as their eyes met, an unfamiliar feeling of disquiet filling her up — because all this time, she had been walking beside a sneaky shape-shifter and she hadn't even known about it...?
To top it all, Dorcas Meadowes had an odd kind of reputation at school for being the most misanthropic person to ever walk the earth. No one in their right minds would ever willingly speak to her unless spoken to, let alone meddle with her, including the Marauders. Add that on top of her being a shape-shifter made Lily's hair stand on end in fright... In all her time in the magical world, this is the most she had feared for her life...
Blinking away jet-black bangs that blanketed over her eyes, Dorcas stepped out from behind the pole, sizing them up like they were maggots in a ditch. "Are we done being flabbergasted or should I wait some more...?" she drawled, eyeing them with an exasperated scowl.
James's hand twitched irritably on his side. "'The fuck are you doing here, Meadowes...?" he growled quietly, inching closer and cautiously modulating his tone so that he doesn't draw attention to himself from passers-by. "Surrendering to the Light, are we? Fancy getting locked up in Azkaban?" he guffawed meanly, rounding up on Dorcas's pierced, intrepid face and her Britpop countenance.
"Stand down, James!" Lily stated authoritatively. Turning to Dorcas, Lily did her best to look confident and mean too. "What are really you doing here, Meadowes?" she demanded, squinting dangerously. "Or are you even who you say you are?" she added, hot with suspicion.
Dorcas, though, merely flipped her hair and rolled her eyes. "Oh, you poor babies," she scoffed patronisingly. "I don't have time for this bullshit. Good luck, finding the answers all by yourself — or not," she added on second thought. "Whatever," she shrugged and was about to turn around and when Lily yelled, "Wait!" making the tall, goth girl lazily stop dead in her tracks once again.
"Lily, let's just take her inside before someone spots her —"
"— Hang on, James!" she cut him, glaring daggers at the confused goth girl in front of them. "Who did Mulciber attack a week ago in the Slytherin dorms?" she asked menacingly, looking for the slightest sings of recognition on the pale, cold face of Dorcas.
Without even flinching, the Slytherin replied, "You mean, that time when Bones and Béchanac burst into the dungeons and stupidly assumed that they could save Jones from that vile Muciber, only to get attacked themselves by my lovely House-mates? Yeah, I remember that quite well, Evans," she squinted viciously, making Lily's blood run cold. How is she not a vampire? she thought, nodding disgustedly at Dorcas's pierced face.
Raising a squick eyebrow, Lily sized her up more time. "Alright. You will speak with us first before we present you to McGonagall," she stated flatly, bringing a slight smile of awe on James's face. Whipping around towards him, she clicked her fingers impatiently. "We will need to sneak her into my room upstairs, Potter. Can we handle that?!" she bit out acidly, her unwillingness to forgive him for his tone up until a minute ago resonating quite evidently.
James's demeanour, though, had done a full one-eighty all of a sudden, as a slow tease spread across his infuriating face, his eyes twinkling with unexplainable glee — and quite unbiddenly, it a sent a raw heat up Lily's face, that only made her madder than ever. "Can... 'we'?!" he exclaimed, beaming a little too delightedly for her liking. "Well, we, my darling..." he began, making her huff in inconceivable frustration now, "can handle just about anything under the sun," he guffawed, making Alder break down snickering on the side.
Lily eyed James dangerously. "I don't care that I'm Underage, Potter... I will hex you so bad, you'd find yourself bent over backwards and sniffing your own toenails for a week!" she ground out.
In all frankness, Lily expected James to be supremely offended by that, and decide to never talk to her ever again. Imagine her surprise then when she found him laughing into her face instead, staring adoringly down at her (if it was even possible). "Have you forgotten?" he began, inching annoyingly closer to her face, "Bending over backwards for you is my specialty, Evans..."
A storm of exhaustion crashed into her, as she looked at Alder for help.
Unfortunately for her, Alder was too busy chortling into his hands to be in any position of help to her while there was no need to even get into describing Dorcas's deathly countenance.
Looking around, she decided to take matters into her own hands instead. "Follow me, Meadowes."
"No! Okay, FINE, fine, I'm sorry!" James chuckled, rounding up on Lily and trying to turn her around to face him. "Fine, yes, I'll help you sneak her into your room —"
"— Will one of you GET A MOVE ON before I blast both your brains off?" Dorcas yelled, making James gape disbelievingly at her. "D'you want me to stupefy her?" he yelped, scowling petulantly at Lily, making her go blank with incredulity for a second.
"Are you MAD...?!" Lily hissed dangerously at James while supplying a faltering smile of reassurance at Dorcas at the same time.
James, though, merely smirked into her boiling hot face. "Well, if it means you understand that I'd do anything for your pretty face, then, yes, maybe I am... Just a little," he added, as her expression steadily went from deadly to life threatening.
Mutely flipping around and ushering Alder and Dorcas forwards so that she wouldn't receive comments about the tomato colour that had risen up her face, she tried to pretend not to notice his hand had slowly wound around her waist now. "I don't know what you're talking about...!" she whispered weakly, making him shake with silent laughter.
"What's the matter, Evans?" Alder asked slyly, watching the pair of them curiously, as he led Dorcas up the winding staircase behind the dilapidated inn. "Couldn't think of anything wild at all to challenge our lad with here?" he guffawed, making James burst out entirely now, howling in his wake.
Lily's face was now rivalling in malignance with that of Dorcas's. "You know, Potter, I hope you ride a Horntail, AND DIE!" she ground out, kicking open the door to her dingy room and ripping open the curtains as the others trudged in. The boys were doubled up with laughter while Dorcas looked closer to Stupefying! herself.
James, who was purple in the face now, recovered a little only to throw his hand around her shoulder and let out a greasy, "Only if you ride pillion!"
- O -
~oO Williams' Cottage, Islington
It was a quiet afternoon in the Williams household, as everyone lounged about in the living room, looking at old pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Williams and reminiscing the times gone by.
"Uncle Richard sure was handsome, don't you think?" Edward suddenly said, lying down on the floor and looking at a picture of the late Mr. Williams on his wedding day.
"If you think he was handsome here, you should have seen him when he was much younger, all strong and athletic," Aunt Eleanor said with a twinkle in her eyes, taking the picture from her son and squinting at it herself. "He was a year above me at University, y'know. And every time your mum came to visit me, she used to insist on watching the lads train ahead of a cricket match. Quite a crush she had on him!"
Isabella swung around, a teasing grin bursting at her lips. "She's never told me this story! She always insisted that it was dad who pursued her relentlessly and —"
But Aunt Eleanor had cracked up already. "— Well, that was well after she'd let him lay eyes on her for the first time..." she said, wiping away laugh tears now. "From that point on, he was glued to her like a moth to a flame!"
Alex beamed at Isabella. "Sounds like a James-Lily story to me!" he laughed, only to make Sirius scoff on the side.
Sirius rolled his eyes denyingly. "Yeah! He's as close to holding her hand as Uranus is from the Sun!" he guffawed, making the rest of them burst out laughing too.
"Well, aren't you the stud of your little gang? Why don't you help our boy out a bit, eh?" Alex quipped, sipping on his hot chocolate.
"You see, Al," Sirius began, suddenly turning all mock-solemn, "there's a lot you don't understand about James," he said, stifling a grin that was bursting at his lips. "You see, on the one hand you have the Irresistibles, who are also few and far between —
"— You mean you," Edward added bitingly.
Sirius scoffed. "Of course!" he shrugged, matter-of-factly. "Anyway, this lot does not have to do much. I mean, they ought to merely announce their presence in a room, and them chicks come rushing forwards like bees to a comb!" he chuckled, shrugging casually, not realising that Isabella was now staring at him with her jaw hanging open. "What?!" he yelped, grinning stupidly in her direction. "Isn't that what got me you?"
Isabella scoffed and laughed at the same time. "You're right, darling, that is quite exactly how it happened..." she rolled her eyes, making everyone in the room explode out of their wits. Aunt Eleanor, too, had a tiny smirk playing on her lips.
Sirius, who was also grinning with the others, seemed unperturbed. "No, you're right... I took a nail to the chest to win you, didn't I? Not that I minded..." he gushed, pressing a kiss on her fingers. "We digress, though! To answer your question, James, unfortunately, falls under the banner of the Desperates. And you ought to know from personal experience, how that works out —" but the rest of his words were drowned under the large pillow that Alex had thrown at him.
"Facts, though," Edward said sheepishly, sniggering to himself just as Sirius reappeared from under the pillow.
"Aunt Linny," Angela began, looking a lot better today than she had in weeks, "how much do you know about Magic?" she suddenly asked out of nowhere, startling the forty-seven-year-old quite a bit.
"Why, quite a bit, Angie dear," Aunt Eleanor said, although looking slightly disquieted. "Being a direct descendent of the Gryffindor clan, it is quite unmissable, even for the likes of me and your mother, who wanted nothing to do with that evil world..."
"Why d'you think it's evil, though?" Sirius asked curiously, sitting up now.
Eleanor smiled. "If it wasn't, Sirius, my sister would still be alive today..."
"But killings happen everywhere, mum, even in our world," Edward said wisely. "Politics takes over everything, there's corruption everywhere, the want for power is undeniable —!"
"— There's a difference, though, dear," Aunt Eleanor cut him, her eyes placid. "Humans, for one, are limited in their power. Wizards aren't... There's only so much that humans can do if they want something badly enough... Wizards, though..." she shook her head as if words couldn't describe what she had in mind. "The scale of destruction that one wizard can unleash upon the world is near unthinkable... It's quite dangerous, being magical, y'know?"
A low thumping shrouded her in a mist of disquiet all of a sudden...
And just like that, the place she was in and everyone around her disappeared, leaving her alone in a hall of silence as her mind raced away in the background. Because something in her aunt's words had struck a deep chord within her, an unfathomable feeling of excitement bubbling at her core.
Looking down, she stared at the innocent, twelve-inch-long wooden device, twiddling between her fingers, waiting to do anything per her bidding. An ominously reticent piece of wood that held within it immeasurable power... Power to change the world if only its Master wished it.
The power to rule the world...
Her heart began to beat faster.
The power to KILL them all...!
With a thrill of shock that shook her giddy, she tried to shake herself awake, as a chill sweat burst out of the pores from her hands and face —
"— Bunch of dunders!" Sirius guffawed, and Isabella came crash-landing back to reality. "Consequences of madcaps having too much time on their hands, you know what I mean?" he scoffed, leaning against her, completely oblivious of his girlfriend's shaken demeanour.
Isabella's heart continued to bang against her chest as she forced herself to return to reality.
"Consequences of having a wand in their hands, you mean!" Al guffawed, making the boys roll with laughter.
"I think it's better to be born special than be ordinary, you know?" Angela spoke out of nowhere.
At once, a vein burst in her temple. "It's not TRUE, Angela, how many times do we have to have this conversation?!" Isabella lashed out unexpectedly, startling the eleven-year-old, and everyone around her, out of their skins.
The boys froze in puzzlement, and Aunt Linny looked close enough to throw a fit any second now. The two girls glared at each other, as if consumed with years' worth of loathing held secretly in their hearts. And quite quickly, Angela's surprise got replaced with anger too. "What is the MATTER with you?" she screamed, ruffling up everyone around now.
"Alright, settle down now..." Aunt Eleanor's voice rang through but the sisters were already yelling their throats off at each other.
"I'm so SICK of you trying to be someone you're not!"
"WELL, I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK! IT'S NOT FAIR THAT ONLY YOU GOT TO BE A WITCH!"
Isabella's eyes widened. "I DIDN'T CHOOSE THIS, ANGELA!"
"AND THAT IS WHY YOU DON'T GET TO TELL ME WHAT TO THINK OR FEEL!" Angela screeched, leaving an echo of shock behind her.
Isabella blinked rapidly, trying to gauge this tone that Angela was using with her for the first time in her whole life.
"What did you just say...?" Isabella asked quietly, not even realising that Sirius had stood up now too and was holding her firmly in her place.
Angela's tear-ridden eyes narrowed at her now. "I asked you to mind your own... damned... business!"
"Angela!" cried Aunt Eleanor, looking aghast. "Alright, that's enough! You're going upstairs right away —"
"— No, she seems to have more to say, let her just say it all!" Isabella yelled.
"Oh, I DO have more to say!"
"STOP IT! Both of you calm down now!" Sirius called out sternly.
"NO! I WON'T CALM DOWN!" Angela shrieked, her face red as a beetroot. "IF IT WASN'T FOR HER, THEY'D STILL BE ALIVE TODAY!" Her voice slammed into the living room, driving everyone numb with shock.
Isabella's breath hitched in her throat.
But Angela was not done yet.
"YOU'RE THE CURSE THAT KILLED THEM!" Angela now pointed a steady, but firm hand at a dumbfounded Isabella. "YOU'RE THE REASON MY PARENTS ARE DEAD TODAY, IZZY!" she sobbed helplessly, her face quivering with emotion. "YOU'RE A CURSE TO OUR FAMILY! YOU'RE A MURDERER!"
"ANGELA PEARL WILLIAMS, THAT IS QUITE ENOUGH!" Aunt Eleanor barked and swiftly tried to drag Angela as far away from Isabella as possible, except her voice reached Isabella as a muffled tremor.
Everything seemed and felt extremely opaque around her, including her breath. A feeling of resignation crashed in, and a darkness shrouded her vision.
"If only I had magical powers..." Isabella heard Angela crying. "I could have saved them..."
The feeling of guilt stung her giddy, as it crashed into her over and over again in waves.
Her whole reality seemed to warp in front of her eyes as she embodied the pure lava of hatred pouring out of her sister in this instance.
She did not have the heart to let Angela know that nothing could have saved their parents that night, because there was no antidote to the killing curse... That once wielded, nothing can reverse the damage of the spell... But that was not the point at all, was it?
The two sisters continued stare at each other, sobbing simultaneously. "I hate you," Angela finally declared, her voice shaking uncontrollably. "Don't you dare come near me again. EVER!" she screamed and ran up the stairs to her room, leaving a visceral void behind her.
Nobody moved or said anything for some time, as the dust settled.
An agitated whimper escaped Aunt Eleanor as she absorbed the situation. "I'm going to go up and check on her," she announced shakily, quite clearly unsure who needed to be comforted more — Isabella or Angela... "Izzy, dear... Y-You don't need me to tell you that she doesn't mean a word of any that... Just... I'll be right back," she hastily added, before dashing up the stairs after her younger niece.
Several moments passed when no one dared to move or say anything. Edward and Alex seemed completely lost for words while Sirius battled with feelings of second-hand distress for Isabella next to him.
"Izzy, look..." Alex began, but right in that moment, a large tawny owl decided to swoop down on them all, startling the bunch of teens in its wake. It bore the Hogwarts seal on it.
Edward reached the owl before Sirius could and wrenched the rolled parchment off its leg. "It's a message from Lily," he said, looking aghast.
"Gimme it!" Sirius said, hurriedly unfurling the parchment and catching the tiny pebble Portkey wrapped within its confines. 'Missing Snakes found (possibly)! Help Needed! Foul play detected! Solid, reliable insider source used! Come over now! NOW! - Lily.'
Edward looked up into the blank faces of Sirius and Isabella. Already shaking his head, he began. "Izzy, no. You can't —"
"— Don't be ridiculous, Ed..." Isabella cut him totteringly, before Sirius could agree with the older boy. Clenching her teeth to numb out the pain, she jumped up to her feet, her mind made up. "If it means we're one step closer to finding the person who killed my parents —"
"— Izzy?!" Edward eyed her warningly. "You always do something... for the right reasons..." he stressed, speaking very slowly, as if trying to drill it own her skull. "And I'm afraid revenge isn't one of them —"
But the brunette was already pocketing her wand. "We'll be gone for a couple of days, Ed... Or longer, by the looks of it."
"Longer...? Wh... Sirius, will you talk some sense into her —?"
"— I wish, mate, but it looks like they do need us," Sirius gritted out agitatedly. "I'm sorry, but Iz is right... Things are getting murkier by the second, and if we don't do something now, everything will be lost..."
"Let Aunt Linny and Angie know...?" she asked, shrugging on her coat and giving a quick hug to both her cousins.
"Ed and I leave tonight, Iz," Alex reminded her. "Reckon it'll soon be just you two up here with Angie," he said, nodding at her and Sirius. "And I am counting on you to hold the fort," he informed Isabella, a genuine trace of worry crossing his face.
"Don't I always?" Isabella said, flashing a watery smile and blowing them a kiss as the two of stepped out into the chilly evening.
"Ready?" Sirius muttered from her side, his hand protectively slipping over hers.
Nodding mutely, she took his hand, knowing fully well that tonight, something very bad was going to happen...
.O.
Holding her icy hand in his, Sirius turned around to wave the brothers goodbye when he saw it again...
This time, blinking straight back at him, ridden with melancholy and yearning... Almost calling out to him... It was the same pair of eyes he had seen back at St. Mungo's, only this time, it was looking at him from a tear in Isabella's bookshelf, at the far end of the living room... From inside a tear yet again, almost as if life as he knew it was a mere sheet of fabric that can be torn apart to reveal a whole other world existing side-by-side to his own reality...
The rhythmic thumping of his heart slowly grew louder and louder until it blared into his head like a drum now...
Was someone really watching him? Or was he hallucinating?
Should he tell someone about it? But if he does, what if he puts them in danger as well?
Looking sideways, he saw Isabella battling a world of emotions within her and realised she didn't need more to take on just yet. That he would figure this one out by himself...
.O.
- O -
~oO Moonspeake, Landers Down
The two of them spun back to life as the Portkey spat them out onto the patchy terrain.
They were standing on a cliff overlooking the sea, the cold breeze stinging against their skin in the darkness. The moon shone down, casting eerie shadows around them.
"I wonder who this 'reliable' source of Lily's is," Sirius muttered, as he grimly stared into the vast expanse below them. "I just hope we haven't walked into a trap..."
"Even better if we are, to be honest," Isabella ground out, ripping off her gloves and stuffing them into the back pocket of her jeans. "The sooner I get to You-Know-Who, the sooner this damned war would end, won't it?" she said fiercely, making Sirius deadpan at her admonishingly.
"Slow down, baby, damn...!" he sighed, as she registered movement and voices behind her. "No cockery when I'm around, you hear me?" he said firmly, and kissed her face before the pair of them climbed down the hill to meet a bunch of familiar faces approaching them.
"Merlin, it feels like ages since we last saw you...!" she heard James call out, as he trudged up the hill towards them, using his wand like a torchlight. "So, this is what War feels like, huh?" he panted, his voice getting louder.
"Just tell me we're not dying tonight, Prongs!" Sirius called back sullenly, as the two boys hugged each other.
"Not on my watch!" came the loud and cheerful voice of Frank Longbottom from half a mile away, making James and Sirius flash wide grins down at their bespectacled friend.
"Well, at least we're closer to Peter's parents' place..." Remus supplied semi-sheepishly from a few yards behind James, heaving and panting and looking particularly pale with exhaustion. "A familiar face to run to if we're embarrassed at the battlefield, I reckon."
"You better hope she doesn't think we're crashing one of her little tea parties, though, Moony," Peter huffed, as he joined his three friends atop the cliff, overlooking the vast sea beneath them. Isabella craned her neck and saw Frank still waiting by the foot of the woods for someone.
Everyone broke into a loud chuckle. Going by the wide grins on all their faces, anyone watching from afar would have assumed that a bunch of teenagers were merely gathering around to set up a campfire for some weekend fun, when in reality, this was in fact a suicide mission...
"I bet she'd be a lot madder if we did that than if we all sported bloody lips and broken hips, eh!" James added gleefully, making even Isabella grin to herself.
"Who else is coming, James?" Isabella asked. "What are we waiting for?"
"For the girls to get here," James replied shortly. "We needed to come in batches so as to not draw attention to ourselves."
"So I'm assuming this is a covert mission only us sixth-year Lions know about?" Sirius asked.
Remus nodded. "Us and Frank, yes. The lonely Claw," he chortled. "McGonagall thinks we are out at a pub unwinding from days' worth of stress, being locked up in The Leaky Cauldron, so we're good," he informed, bringing an appreciative nod from his grey-eyed friend.
"I think it's getting clearer and clearer that you're not becoming Head Boy next year, because I doubt this mission is going to remain covert for too long now, Moons!" Sirius guffawed, making James and Peter burst out laughing.
"If I'm being one hundred percent honest, Pads, I'd rather retire from Prefect duties than take on more, y'know?" Remus smiled, he scarred face looking tired under the moonlight. "I'd much rather get detention masterminding a prank than having to run after you lot and maintain world order —"
"— And we'd rather you not!" said someone from Isabella's right, making her jump out of her wits and swing around. "Imagine what life would look like if we let the Marauders run loose, that too in their seventh year?!"
Squinting into the darkness, she recognised the long, golden locks of Claiborne Jones, swishing in the wind, as she trudged up the path towards the company.
"CLAY?!" Isabella exclaimed surprisedly at her tall best friend. "You're here too?" she asked, shocked that her pretty blonde had volunteered to come out tonight as well.
And even under the dim moonlight, she could see Claiborne rolling her eyes long and wide. "When you realise one of your best friends is turning into a total nutjob, I think it's only fair to assume I'd be around to keep her on check," she scoffed, nodding silently at Lily, who was huffing and puffing up the hill next to Frank too now. From the corner of her eyes, though, Isabella caught Remus beaming admiringly at Claiborne, one the blonde pretended not to notice, except her cheeks had flushed an insane magenta.
Isabella eyed Claiborne suspiciously. "Alice sent you here, didn't she?" she smirked.
Claiborne let out a muffled chuckle. "Yes, yes she did," she concurred a bit too enthusiastically under Remus's unwavering gaze. "Frank, as you know, wasn't comfortable with her risking her neck on this mission so close to their engagement, so she sent me out to look after you two," Claiborne rolled her eyes and Isabella could swear, she saw Remus share an aching-yet-resigned glance with James who shook his head pathetically at his best friend.
"Ugh! Frank and his over-protectiveness of his darling girlfriend!" Sirius rolled his eyes teasingly at the tall, bespectacled boy. "I think it'd be cool if we had Alice around for our adventures, y'know? She'd knock them blockheads out cold in a sweep!" he sniggered even as Frank teasingly reached out for his collar.
"Alright, then..." Isabella smiled contrivedly. "Getting down to business. Who's this source that Lily is so sure about, eh?" she asked Remus.
"Okay, BEFORE you meet her," James suddenly barged in, stepping between them and Remus and startling her giddy, "I just want to let you both know that Lily and I have grilled her for hours and hours and are a hundred percent convinced that she's not tricking us, so... just... don't jump at me when you see her, alright?"
Sirius blinked suspiciously an incredulous frown creeping up on his face. "Merlin, I don't like the sound of this already..."
"Just — Pads," James began, hyperventilating all of a sudden, making even Isabella dubious now. "We were shocked and judgmental at first too, but... she checks out..." he stressed, almost as if trying to convince himself than anyone else.
But Sirius was not listening anymore and hawkeyed a dark silhouette that was shadowing Frank a little away from them all.
"What the bloody hell..." Isabella whispered to herself as she watched a lean and mean-looking witch draw silently closer to them. "It's not... Don't tell me it's —" but her breath got knocked out of her lungs when James's light finally fell on her face, revealing the pierced, tattooed profile of — Dorcas Meadowes.
"Meadowes...?!" Sirius whispered-yelled, looking aghast. "Dorcas MEADOWES?!" He demanded more loudly now to Remus and James, the situation quickly getting out of hand. "Are you lot OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MINDS —?!"
"Hold you Horklumps, Sirius!" Lily rushed forwards, except Isabella's brain was imploding too.
"Lily, what the bloody hell is she doing here?!" Isabella screamed too into the petrified face of Lily. "She shouldn't even be here, she's liaising with the devil, ARE YOU CRAZY?"
"NO, I'M NOT!" Lily shouted loudly, her voice echoing in her wake, as she looked her straight in the eye. "Listen to me very carefully now..." she began, trying to ignore the absolute shock that Sirius and Isabella held in their faces. "Everyone knows that there are spies lurking amongst us..." she said, speaking very slowly. "Everyone knows that there are people pretending to be fighting with us when in reality, their allegiance actually lies with the Dark... But nobody knows the Light has its own spies too," she breathed, shivering slightly in the cold. "She's one such spies for us, Izzy," Lily nodded, pointing at the murderous glare that Dorcas Meadowes was casting her from the corner now.
"You're crazy, Lily," Isabella said, slowly stepping away incredulously. "You've completely lost your mind! Sirius, tell her —!" she whipped around, only to stop dead in her tracks at the expression he was holding in his face.
Because oddly enough, Sirius had gone very white and quiet and was gaping blankly at Dorcas, his mind very, very far away. "Sirius —?" Isabella started, but Lily cut her in.
"Izzy, we thought the same too at first... But trust me, you would be blown away if you got to know everything we learnt about Meadowes in the last five hours," she insisted, shaking Isabella's shoulder lightly to drive her point home.
"And if Evans is mistaken, which I think she is," Frank started, glancing darkly at the back of Dorcas's head, his wand twirling dangerously in his hand, "I'm taking it upon myself to finish her off entirely, not to worry," he added grimly, quite obviously mirroring Isabella's emotions about trusting Dorcas Meadowes too.
"Yeah, right," Dorcas scoffed maliciously in Frank's direction. "Like you could ever know for certain whom you're really pointing your wand at —!"
Sirius whipped around and swung his wand at Dorcas's throat in under a millisecond, fuming down his nostrils at her unperturbed face. "Dare you not, Meadowes..." he growled slowly, his wand piercing painfully against her skin. "Do not even think of double-crossing any of us here, because you will die at my hands. These people here, they're my family," he whispered, his lips quivering with emotion. "I'd mind my fucking words if I were you..." he twisted his wand threateningly on her throat.
"Mate!" James slammed a firm hand on Sirius's shoulder, and swiftly stepped between him and Dorcas. "Pads...?" he gritted out warningly, but the intensity in Sirius's eyes never left him, as he clawed onto Dorcas's cold eyes over James's shoulder. "Let it go, Sirius..." James muttered dangerously, his nails digging into his best friend's shoulder now.
It might have been her imagination. Or perhaps a trick of the light... Because to Isabella, from where she stood, she saw something else that James and the rest of her friends did not see... Something utterly troubling... Because to everyone else, Sirius seemed ready to bludgeon Dorcas's face out of recognition, given a chance. But what Isabella saw was an unspoken, inexplicable connection between the pair of Purebloods, almost as if Sirius and Dorcas know something that the rest of them do not...
And although Sirius's breaths were steadying at last, his eyes never left Dorcas's.
"Sirius, drop your wand..." Isabella ordered quietly, swallowing her inkling. Rapidly blinking awake, Sirius finally lowered his wand, his breaths steadying. "If James and Lily trust her, we will have to as well," she declared flatly, as his eyes guiltily met hers. A painful knot tugged at her insides as he mutely slipped his hand into hers while the group around them stirred awake.
"Alright, then..." James blew out, signalling it was time to get into action. "Speak, Meadowes. Where are we headed?" he asked grimly.
Dorcas looked up, her large green eyes sparkling in the moonlight. And without flinching, without even the slightest hesitation, she looked into the blackness of the ocean and said, "Elmwood Island."
A hush like no other fell among them all as her words echoed through their minds.
"That place doesn't exist," Frank spat out aggressively, while James and Sirius exchanged glares of exhaustion.
"Or so we've all been made to believe," Dorcas replied expressionlessly.
Remus looked distressed to say the least now. "Elmwood Island..." he began, his tone repressed with a forced calm, "was something of a deranged wizard's imagination, Meadowes. It's a myth retold in our fables, it's not a real place —!"
"I AM NOT SPENDING ANOTHER ETERNITY PROVING ITS EXISTENCE TO YOU LOT, LUPIN!" Dorcas cried out, finally losing patience now.
"Unbelievable!" Sirius hissed at James, as if he was disappointed in him for the first time.
"Are we actually going to... Elmwood?!" Claiborne shuddered at Isabella, her face stricken with terror and bewilderment at the same time.
"Merlin, I hope not," Peter said shakily.
"This is a train wreck," Lily sighed breathlessly, rubbing her face in exasperation.
"Hours and hours of grilling and you didn't vet the location of where we were going?!" bawled Frank.
"WILL YOU ALL SHUT UP?!" Remus roared, holding up his hands and breathing deeply to calm his nerves. Looking completely unhinged now, he stepped closer to Dorcas. "Explain," he said simply, prowling around her like a wolf.
Dorcas's glassy eyes met his. "Elmwood isn't a myth. It's a real place in the middle of nowhere... An island that appears to the sailor only if he truly believes it exists... It's the land where secrets go to die —"
"— Okay, now you're just quoting lines from the book, Meadowes!"
Dorcas bit the side of her cheek, most likely to stop herself from burning Remus alive. "ARAMASTUS was a real wizard, Lupin —!"
"— Who magically made a whole island appear in the middle of a vast ocean because he wanted to hide away his gold?!" Remus asked, his tone heavy with sardonicism.
"No..." Dorcas began, clenching her teeth in contained frustration. "He happened to crash into the island in the dead of the night while fleeing the Dementors and because the lighthouse tower on the island was so bereft of light, hope and warmth, the Dementors could not locate him, making it seem like he had disappeared into thin air. But Aramastus's malice was so strong that he imprinted on the island and made it his home. He then cursed it to remain invisible to a wizard's eye only to appear if there is enough malice, secrets and a blind belief in the island itself."
"But that lighthouse..." Peter started, his breaths hitching in his throat. "isn't it... haunted. People die if they go anywhere near the place —"
"— That's because Aramastus was an unregistered vampire. And he preyed on ships that passed the island for several hundred decades until wizards stopped going through that pass entirely. For centuries now, that island was abandoned until Aramastus's heir sought it and brought it back to life once again. Today, though, it's the Death Eaters' headquarters."
"Aramastus's heir?" Lily asked dryly.
Dorcas cast her wooden look of absolute malevolence. "Varney," she ground out fiercely. "Herbert Varney."
A chill swept up Isabella's spine as the story of the infamous evil island replayed in her mind. All that was actually true?!
Sirius scoffed. "Load of bullshit —"
"— Hang on, Sirius!" Isabella cut in, holding up a finger, her mind racing at light speed now. "'The land where secrets go to die...'" she repeated quietly to herself, while flashes of images from the fabled story marred her vision. "Why, I would think it's the perfect place to hide a secret, in retrospect," she said, turning to the others. "A place to bury my crimes," she said, shuddering with revelation.
"Ah, bloody hell, here we go," Frank muttered, shaking his head and looking exasperated to say the least.
However, Remus, who had been the only one to listen to her without rolling his eyes like the rest, suddenly looked thoughtful. "Frank. What do elms symbolise?" he asked, folding his hands challengingly.
Frank looked bewildered. "I dunno, mate. 'Nature', I reckon?" he mused sarcastically.
Remus continued to hold his gaze sternly. "Don't elm trees symbolise the underworld, melancholy and death?" he said, making everyone stop dead in their tracks for the first time since Dorcas started talking.
James whipped around, looking incredulous. "How does that automatically deem this ridiculous story to be true?!"
"Think about it, Prongs," Remus said, turning around to face him. "You-Know-Who is the sort of psycho that yearns for mystery, darkness and historical eminence. And this sort of legend is what makes the cut!" he said, pointing at the vast blackness behind him, a look of desperation paling his features. "This crap is real. The island does exist and that's where they're all holed up! Merlin, we need to make a move on already!"
Dorcas merely exhaled with relief while the others scrambled around her with urgency.
"But, how do we get there?!" James yelped helplessly. "I swear to Merlin, mate, I'm never going to believe this island ever exists! How the hell am I going to get up on it?!"
"Well, count me in, I couldn't be arsed about it either," Sirius scoffed from the side.
When none of the others looked confident enough too, everyone merely turned around to look Dorcas who looked like she was on the verge of killing herself yet again out of frustration.
"We go via the secret passage, obviously?" she said matter-of-factly.
"A secret passage under the ocean?" Sirius asked incredulously. "Where even is the entrance to this passage, eh?" he scoffed savagely.
But Dorcas didn't even need to say where that was, because everyone simply turned around and looked into the murky, dark depths of the burial ground that stood by the foot of the hill about a mile away. And despite the darkness, they could discern the outline of a massive, yet ancient, elm tree that stood at the ground's centre.
Dorcas stared glassily at the eerie burial ground. "Follow me." And without another word, she pushed past the bewildered bunch of them and climbed down the hill at the speed of light.
James, Remus and Sirius looked at each other quizzically.
"That's another thing off my bucket-list, I reckon," Remus guffawed exhaustedly. "A trip down to the Underworld..." he mused darkly. Rolling his eyes, the scarred boy was the first one to tear after the Slytherin, almost as if the wolf within him was firing him up with courage from within. Biting his lip, Sirius looked down on a beat Isabella and nodded grimly. Shaking off the dread within, he hit wand and trudged down the hill after Remus too, making the others reluctantly jump into action as well.
The boys fell in step behind Dorcas while the girls bunched together and ran huffed their way right into the thicket of the woods at the foot of the hill.
"So, she's a metamorph?" Isabella asked Claiborne, panting in the chilly air and side-stepping a low-hanging branch.
"Apparently, so," Claiborne replied, tip-toeing over the rocks so she wouldn't ruin her pristinely white trainers.
"You two wouldn't kill me if we died tonight, would you?" Lily yelped helplessly, bringing a smirk to Isabella's face despite the dark cloud that hung above her head.
"You know I would," Claiborne scoffed, making both Isabella and Lily burst out into giggles.
The night was still, the air was frigid, the woods was thick with overgrowth and danger enveloped them like a wet blanket, and yet, a warmth crept inside Isabella at the thought that she was finally reunited with her two best friends. She made a mental note to bawl her eyes to them about Angela later if the lot of them managed to survive tonight.
"Are we there yet?" Peter huffed from behind her, as an owl eerily hooted from above.
Wordlessly, Isabella trudged on, fighting off a slowly growing dread within her as the forest swallowed them whole.
Because, the further in they went, the murkier and darker it got. The thick vines and creepers under their feet made the journey to the center of the forest extremely arduous, but on and on they went trudging after Dorcas who always seemed to disappear and reappear from behind a large bush or a tree.
Finally, the path cleared and opened onto a grassy expanse that was littered with tall and short tombstones set against the silhouette of an old and abandoned church that had caved in from years of neglect.
The rustling of leaves under their feet, the hoots of distant owls and the chirps of crickets were the only sounds that reached their ears, when suddenly, everyone stopped dead in their tracks.
"What's happened?" Lily squeaked from Isabella's right, having clawed onto her hand in sheer fright.
"We're here," Isabella heard James mutter from the head of the group.
Craning her neck, Isabella finally realised that they were in fact standing under a massive and ancient Wych Elm tree that had twisted into the most horrifying thing she had ever laid eyes on. Shining her light on the tree, she realised its trunk was deeply grooved and scarred, almost as if the place was oft frequented by dozens of blood-thirsty werewolves —
— DO YOU WANT TO GIVE YOURSELF A BLOODY HEART ATTACK? Isabella screamed at herself, trying to calm her nerves. But she knew there was something about this place that was amiss. She looked around, squinting into the darkness. A thin ray of moonlight cut through the branches and reached her gaze, trailing a line of silvery snow flakes swirling about in the breeze. Why did it look all too familiar, like she had been here before...?
"Why, isn't this fun?" Frank mused sarcastically, as he scanned the weed-ridden tombstones with his wand.
"What now, Meadowes?" Isabella heard James mutter into night as both Claiborne and Lily clung tighter to her body than ever.
It was too dark to notice anything, but Isabella knew Dorcas was casting James the ugliest, most scornful look she could ever muster. Pulling back the sleeve of her left hand, she jammed her wand into what looked like a twisted, worm-like tattoo. Taking a step forward, she pressed the palm of her left hand on the trunk of the tree and muttered, "Purenium Corporelea!"
At once, a streak of bright, yellow light illuminated the tree from within, rushing up the thousand odd veins along its long trunk all the way up to the branches at the very top, sending chills down everyone's spine. Everyone jumped back from the impact as the tree came alive in the most dreadful way ever, as its roots burst out from under the ground and squiggled about sinisterly until it spread open to reveal a large opening on the ground — a rabbit hole, except it was big enough to fit a grown man into it.
"Oh, how I wish this was Alice In Wonderland instead," Lily sobbed.
Isabella, though, wordlessly stared into the wide gaping hole that literally seemed to lead into the depths of a world beneath the soil. I've been here before, she thought to herself. It was a ridiculous thought, because she had for sure never been to this part of the country in her whole life, nor has she known of this dreary old tree up until a few moments ago. Except, she had no idea how she knew exactly where she was...
"Follow me," Dorcas's voice came through and before she knew it, the tall, goth girl had disappeared through the under gaping hole.
"Okay, before we jump in," Frank's authoritative voice shook Isabella awake. The younger students gathered around the tall boy. Looking at Dorcas's light disappear into a curve, he looked at them and said, "Wands out and ready at all times, you hear me?" he said feverishly, and everyone nodded. From where Isabella stood, she could tell Sirius looked terrified too. "We have no idea what we're dealing with here... This may be an ambush too for all y'know... That place — wherever that is," he said dismissively waving at the eerie dark hole by the foot of the tree, "may well be teeming with Death Eaters too. Careful, alright?" he said, frightfully wiping his face. "Let's go."
And with that, Frank turned around and bravely jumped into the cold tunnel.
Without another word, James went in, followed by Sirius and Peter.
"I'm coming after you lot, of course!" Remus scoffed incredulously, when Isabella looked at him. "I got your backs," he grinned good-naturedly, sending shivers up Claiborne's spine.
Mutely, Claiborne went in first, Lily after her and finally, Isabella. At once, she felt her back thud against a winding, muddy tunnel that sent her sliding down into the darkness until her feet thumped hard against the wet floor, sending her keeling forwards. Not a second later, she heard Remus's screams from above before he too rolled into sight next to her.
"God, I hate James!" Remus cursed randomly under his breath and he straightened up. "D'you know which way to go?" he mused sarcastically since the dredgy tunnel only seemed to wind away in one direction.
Smirking to herself, Isabella hurriedly whispered, "C'mon," and raced into the darkness, holding out her wand like a torch. Not a second later, she could see Lily's shirt come into view as the lot of them tore down the winding path, far away from their reality and into the dark hole of mysteries. Her feet had gone cold and numb, as she burrowed down the depths of the earth, ducking and avoiding the thick ends of roots and twigs sticking out of the muddy walls that collapsed and closed shut behind them as they trudged on.
She had been here before, but never come this far...
A streak of excitement coursed through as she realised she was finally closer to the truth than she had ever been before... She was finally here and she was going to find out! She was going to finally see what secrets the chamber under the elm tree held within its confines... To unearth the unknown, to go where no man had been...
Finally, the winding tunnel came to end and her feet landed on solid ground.
And before she knew it, she had bumped face-first into a tall, messy-haired boy.
"Merlin's pants!" Isabella swore under her breath. "What's happening?" she whispered urgently, before realising that they were standing in front of a large, ornate iron door with extremely intricate carvings on it, that looked at least a thousand years old from where Isabella stood. Not a minute from now, they may well come face to face with masked Death Eaters who have no problem casting the killing curse at them if they so desired... And the fact that all this was happening without McGonagall's knowledge was enough to reduce her into a messy wreck.
"Alright, this is it," said Dorcas, glaring daggers at the door. "In... we... go..." she muttered. Without another word, she slashed her hand with her wand and slammed it against the dusty, cold door in front of them.
At once the overgrowth of door came alive, just as the elm tree had several miles away, bathing them under bright green light, making it seem more terrifying than ever. Gripping on to their wands and bunching as close as possible to each other, the lot of sixteen-year-olds held their breaths as Dorcas muttered a string of enchantments to enter the chimerical, haunted lighthouse...
And where most doors that Isabella had come across tend to open, the heavy double doors in this secret passageway did the unthinkable as it started to wither away and disappear as a leaf set on fire would! Claiborne and Lily held on to her more tightly than ever as the green fire burned away at the towering metal to reveal a large, gaping archway into what looked like a dingy old underground chamber.
Isabella imagined what it would look to someone who walks into the chamber and found eight terror-stricken school children frozen with fear at the doorway; it was chilling to say the least.
And although the bunch of them were several feet under the ground, Isabella could still discern a raging ocean crashing into the rocks above.
"Are we alone?" Peter whispered from Isabella's right.
"Dunno..." James's reply came floating by.
Tipping forwards just a little, Isabella saw James peeking into the large cavern.
"It looks empty..." James whispered uncertainly. "Come on," he said and gingerly everyone stepped inside the chamber.
Isabella's hand was shaking frightfully as she directed her wand into the dimly-lit, smelly chamber and found it to be quite large; there were several round openings that opened into a half dozen other similar tunnels as the one they had used a moment ago, leading to Merlin-knew-where.
But to her right, she saw beads of light streaming in, revealing a spiral staircase that led to someplace upstairs.
"Shh! Listen!" Frank said urgently, making everyone stop dead in their tracks.
Craning her ears, Isabella could hear voices and even the thudding of feet from the floor above.
"...it's been days since we got stuck here in this hellhole...!" a muffled female voice reached her ears. "I mean, I am a very important figure in wizarding society... When you said I was hand-picked for a high-profile job for the Dark Lord, I did not have this in mind, y'know?"
Isabella and Lily exchanged quizzical looks.
"HUSH!" spoke another old, male voice. "No one's higher in wizarding society than the Dark Lord... And mind you, keep up this attitude and you'll be his next victim!"
"Not before I feed you to his snake first —!"
"— Will you both keep it down!" growled a third male voice, fiercer and deeper than the other (a voice that sounded extremely familiar to Isabella for some reason). It was quite evident from their tones that the inhabitants of the place were frustrated beyond measure. "If he thinks all of us are required to keep guard of the lot of them here, —"
Lily's eyeballs nearly fell off their sockets as she turned around to look at her friends, flailing her hands excitedly.
"— it must be because he thinks they may be far more capable of crushing us than we think!" the third wizard asserted. "But didn't we hear from Orpheus yesterday telling us it was going to be another week at the most before we're given orders on what to do with the lot of students?" he jeered.
The sea crashed above their heads as a sense of doom enveloped over them.
Sirius and James looked around alarmed to their very bones too as a chill swept up the bunch of them in cavern. Remus's hand slowly found its way to his mouth, while Peter looked like he was about to collapse with fear any second.
"Oh my god!" Claiborne whisper-yelled, tearing up almost, as the bunch of them burst into panicked whispers.
"Are they saying what I THINK they're saying?"
"Well, what else could it possibly mean?!"
"Did he actually say 'students'?"
"...They could be anybody, mate..."
"They're HOGWARTS STUDENTS, Pads, don't be delusional!"
Before long, however, everyone had turned towards Lily, open-mouthed and wonder-struck at her instincts at the very least. And although Lily was shaking with fright, her face also bore a tinge of triumph — she had been right. This mission was not all for naught after all...
"Where do you think they've kept them?!" Frank whispered, panic-stricken.
"We're going to have to find out the hard way, mate," James replied apologetically.
"No, you don't," Dorcas responded at once, a look of determination hanging in her eyes. "I know where they are —"
"— quit sulking, Wolpers!" the deep-voice wizard growled yet again. "Now, how much mead do we have left, eh?"
"I dunno," the witch named Wolpers grated. "Let me take a look —" and with that, the sounds of feet thudding against the wooden floor above jolted everyone out of their skins once again. And as luck would have it, her footsteps seemed to grow closer and closer until they were descending down a fleet of stairs that led down to the cavern where the bunch of them stood —
"— I'm telling you, we hardly have any cartons left in here — AAAHHHHH!" Wolpers's screams echoed throughout the cavern. "TRESPASSERS! TRESPASSERS —!"
"STUPEFY!" Frank cried, stunning the stout old witch at once. "Merlin's pants! GO! GO! GO!" he roared and jumped over the stunned witch and up the winding staircase.
"WHAT'S GOIN' ON?! WHO'S THERE?!" came the voice of the first wizard, but Frank had got to him already.
"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" Frank's voice boomed down the staircase as the bunch of them poured out of the narrow doorway like a pack of spiders.
"CORBETT! WHO ARE YOU? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE —?!" but the third wizard stopped dead in his tracks as everyone ran into the dark, marble-floored landing, staring shockedly back at him. The candle-light chandelier in the middle of the room did little to illuminate his face, but the fear on the wizard's face was evident. "L-Longbottom...?" the wizard spoke, looking stunned to his very core.
"Professor... Professor Drudalf...?" Frank countered. "WHY YOU LYING SON OF A — EXPELLIARMUS!"
But Drudalf had already slammed him with a Confringo!
Jumping over the side and narrowly missing the spell, Frank screamed yet again, "MATES, LOOK OUT!"
It was only then that Isabella noticed the large circular room was being infiltgrated by more than a dozen masked Death Eaters from the floors above.
"Protego! PROTEGOOO!" Isabella screamed, buying them a few seconds' worth of time. "LILY! TAKE CLAY AND HIDE! NOW!" she shrieked before ducking and slamming the Death Eaters with more blocking curses.
"MEADOWES, WHERE ARE THE SNAKES?!" James's voice boomed from Isabella's right.
"ON THE TOP FLOOR RIGHT BELOW THE LANTERN ROOM!" Dorcas screamed, except she wasn't Dorcase anymore - she had changed into the stout lady by the bus stand once again.
"MOONY, STAY DOWN AND KEEP GUARD! PADS, YOU AND ME UPSTAIRS!" James bellowed, but Isabella wanted to go with them as well, so she scrambled back to her feet and ran towards the spiralling staircase on the opposite side of the room just as the Death Eaters on the other end burst through her blocking curse and pelted curses at them.
"THE BUNCH OF MEDDLERS ARE BACK, EH?!"
"THEM BLOOD-TRAITORS!"
"THERE THEY GO! AFTER THEM!"
But Sirius, James, Isabella and Dorcas were too quick for them as they slide through the narrow doorway and up the winding stairway that lined the old, circular building.
"GO, IZZY! FASTER! FASTER!" Sirius screamed even as he turned around blasted the mask off a Death Eater who was tailing him at the foot of stairs.
Several explosions, screams and bursts of light reached them from the ground floor, making Dorcas in the form of the fat lady squeal frightfully and bolt up the stairs faster than Isabella could fathom.
"DON'T LET THEM GET TO US!" screamed Dorcas, having gathered her flowy pink dress under her arms and thundering up the stairs towards her friends in the most unglamourous fashion.
"Meadowes, look out, there could be others coming in from the top!" Isabella screamed even as James managed to explode a bunch of steps at the the doorway, leaving a large gaping hole between them and the Death Eaters.
Isabella was so glad that the staircase was winding up, because it was easy to get out of sight of their attackers quickly.
"YOU HAVE NOWHERE TO HIDE, YOU SLIMY LITTLE SNALLYGASTERS!" yelled a Death Eater from below as he tried to scrambled up the gaping hole and get to them, but the four of them sprinted up the stairs, more out of fright than anything else.
Isabella figured that the Dementors were not brought to this place since everyone assumed it was near impenetrable; and it would have been if not for Dorcas!
"Merlin, I can't!" Isabella panted, sporting a painful stitch to her side. There were so many steps and the stairway seemed to never ending. That, coupled with the cold wind that blew through the open windows on their left was enough to tire them all to their bones.
"We can't stop now, Izzy, keep moving! We're nearly there!" yelled Sirius, giving her an encouraging pat on the back.
Heaving in lung full of air, Isabella hammered on even as the crazy-Dorcas-Fat-Lady disappeared out of sight up the long lighthouse.
Looking out the window, Isabella understood why this place was considered to be haunted — the howling noise that the swirling winds made, coupled with the extremely rough seas that kept crashing onto the rocks on this tiny island was enough to drive anyone out of their minds.
"OH MY GOD, THEY ARE CLOSING IN, PADS! RUN! RUN!" shrieked James, even as a cloud of bats blanketed around them from nowhere, slapping against their faces and screeching in their ears, making their stomachs turn.
Isabella did not even realise that she was screaming on top of her lungs along with the bats, as she cowered and crouched on the step with her hands over her head.
"GOOD GORIC! CONFRINGO!" screamed Sirius, sending a blast of yellow light and burning nearly hundreds of bats that still poured out from above.
"SIRIUS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Isabella shrieked in horror. "YOU DID NOT JUST DO THAT!"
"I had to, baby, there's no time! We need to get to them before they get to us! Now, move!" Sirius shoved her up shakily.
"WE'RE NEARLY THERE!" screamed the fat witch from above, even as they began to hear screeches of blasts and spells colliding against the walls below them.
And before she knew it, Dorcas had reached the top step and kicked open the only door that stood at the foot of stairs to reveal a bunch of immobilised bodies lying abandoned on the damp floor.
"THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HERE!" Isabella screamed, bolting inside behind Dorcas and collapsing to her knees next to the cold, unmoving bodies.
There were about twelve or so bodies covered from head to foot in black blankets. The floor was damp and the wind bellowed around them like a banshee, making them shiver in sheer cold. Isabella could not believe anyone could keep students captive in such horrendous conditions. Ripping off the black mask from nearest person next to her, Isabella stared into the pale, famished face of her fellow classmate.
"CRABBE! I found Crabbe!" she screamed.
"And here's Malfoy!"
"LUCIUS?!" Isabella enquired, half-relieved, half-annoyed.
"And Severus! Merlin, do I hate this!" James cursed under his breath, even as Isabella scampered towards the blond and tried to shake him awake. There was a shattered hourglass not two inches away from his hand.
"IT'S ALL OF MY FRIENDS!" Dorcas shrieked, slamming her ear to their chests to see if they were still alive. "Thank Merlin! It looks like they have all just been stunned!"
"Well, UNSTUN them already! The Death Eaters are nearly here!"
"HOW DO I DO THAT?" barked Dorcas.
"STEP ASIDE!" screamed Sirius and jumped to his feet, amidst deafening roars of angered Death Eaters reaching them from below. Isabella wondered why they hadn't yet Apparated into the room and offed them all in one go… Sweeping his wand in a circular motion, Sirius bellowed, "FINITE INCANTATEM!"
In a flash, the bunch of unmoving Slytherins burst back to life, rolling over and screaming in panic.
"IT'S US! IT'S ONLY US! I'm DORCAS!"
"MERLIN, YOU CAME! YOU FOUND US!"
"BELLA?!"
But before Isabella could respond, an explosion from the stairway threw them backwards. Isabella was hurled against the wall behind her, making her cough up blood and land painfully to her knees. The noise and the sudden eruption shook her giddy. Smoke and dust and fire enveloped them whole and complete chaos set in where no one could see or hear anything.
In fact, she couldn't even hear anything anymore in her current disoriented state.
She was about to pass about when she felt someone tug hard at her arm and grab the broken piece of hourglass on the floor, and before she knew it, she had squeezed into an invisible, stifling tube. On and on she went, swirling through the rubber tube, her airways closing in from the pressure. And just as she thought she was going to die, she got spat out of nowhere and spun back into the world.
Dazed, she tried to stand up on her feet and make sense of where she was, but merely ended up falling sideways into an abyss.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! HEY! Okay, I've got you! Easy now… Easy… I've got you," he whispered, gathering her up in his arms and holding her tight as she fought to regain her consciousness.
"Where… Where are we…?" Isabella slurred, resting her throbbing head against his shoulder. She felt so safe…
"We're home."
Isabella looked up, getting stronger slowly.
Strange.
Twelve, Grimmauld Place had the messiest front yard ever, and yet, here she was, standing in an impeccably maintained garden that seemed to stretch on for miles. A large, ornately-carved gate stood shut behind her and a tiny fountain was at play to her right.
"Babe, where are we?" she asked and looked up groggily.
A streak of shock numbed her mute as she stared into the haggard face of the boy holding her.
Lucius Malfoy.