Chapter 25: Escapade
"Better hurry if you want to reach Three Broomsticks soon." James commented as the septet was walking rather slowly through the tunnel towards Honeydukes.
"It's barely noon. We can be there for the whole afternoon." Lily replied, fiddling with her lit wand.
"Who was the one who wanted to go there in the first place??" James said sarcastically in front of the group, while most of them were leisurely walking in the tunnel with their wands magically lit up.
"We did." Arabella and Stefanie shouted from the back. The two girls were having some small talk behind the whole group. For some reason, they did not want Lily to join in this particular conversation.
"Don't say I never remind you. The shopkeeper have the tendency to go to the store to get more stock at noon." James said airily.
"Oh ya. I almost forgot." Sirus exclaimed as he turned around to the back of the group and hurried all of them from a stroll to a brisk walk to a slow jog. The seven of them had gone to Hogsmeade via the tunnel a week after James and Lily's discovery. They could barely wait. On that Saturday morning, the seven kids had hurried to Hogsmeade at nine in the morning before most of the shops were opened. They were supposed to be back before lunchtime but the shopkeeper at Honeydukes had been going in and out of the store to restock his goods. The seven of them tried to sneak pass him again and again but failed. In the end they had to walk all the way back from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts, which took them more than an hour. They only managed to return by dinnertime. The only blessing was that no one noticed that they had went missing for six hours and were not caught for that rendezvous.
"No sound of footsteps." James whispered to the group behind as he pressed his ear hard to detect for any sign of movement above them in the cellar.
"Let me charm it to be transparent temporary." Lily suggested as she moved forwards to climb up the small flight of steps.
"I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think the shopkeeper even know this tunnel existed." Remus added suggestively.
"I mean we can look up from here but they can't look down from there. It's works like a two way mirror." Lily explained.
"What's a two way mirror anyway??" Sirus asked Lily. The mirrors in the wizarding world were one sided and most had a brain of their own.
"That's a great idea. Why don't you make it permanent then?? Save me from doing all the hearing and checking out." James recommended.
"We don't know the charm for it. At least, we haven't found it yet." Arabella told the guys.
"We went to check out in the library last week. They only had a charm which can last for a day, at most." Lily further explained to the guys as she pointed the wand at the exit and muttered the charm softly.
"Tell me that charm. We can do something useful out of it." James asked Lily. I can use this charm on the Slytherins' bathroom and the girls' toilet. This is going to be fun. Haha.
"I think better not. Don't think we don't know what the guys want them for." Lily replied slyly. If they don't use it in the Slytherins' bathroom, it's gonna be the girls' bathroom.
"What could we use them for besides here??" Sirus replied innocently. This charm is going to come in handy.
"Cut the crap, Sirus. If they get fooled, I don't." Stefanie commented on Sirus' faked innocent face that she knew it too well.
"The coast is clear. Let's moved as quickly as possible." James instructed as he checked the transparent door for any sign of movement or shadows.
"Invisible time. Be careful." Lily said as she muttered the charm and all of them got invisible. James opened the trapdoor and he was the first to climb out. Lily followed closely behind while the rest climbed up after them.
"Ouch, my leg."
"Oops. Sorry."
"Ssshhh."
"Keep a lookout."
"Who's behind me??"
"Me."
"Not so fast."
"Ouch."
"Who tripped??"
"Sorry. I'm fine."
"Meet outside at the right side of the entrance so Lily can charm us back." James said quietly after the trapdoor was shut permanently.
"Did you just say I'm charming??" Lily joked and kept a lookout of the Honeydukes owner.
"Yeah, right." James said as he made the yucking sound and left the cellar. Wah, so crowded. How am I going to get out of here without getting bumped?? Dungbomb!! Heehee. Luckily I brought one along just in case. James set the dungbomb off and the crowd cleared tremendously. The shopkeeper had a panicky look on his face and was trying to find the culprit while he tried to clear up the mess. James walked out of the shop without much hassle. He walked straight to the exit and turn right.
"Ouch."
"Lily??"
"Yes."
"Hey guys."
"Here."
"Ditto."
"Let's move to that corner." Lily said as the crowd was coming closer to the invisible seven.
"Ok."
"I'm going to reappear now." Lily said, her wand pointing at herself and she muttered the spell. Lily reappeared in seconds. "Ok, I can't see you but you all can see me. So just stand at where my wand is pointing."
Footsteps and muffling sounds were heard. Several "ouch" and "sorry" could be heard from nowhere as well. Lily muttered the charm and all of them reappeared.
"Seriously we can do the charm ourselves, you know. Then we can save all these hassle." James said confidently.
"We're not supposed to learn this charm yet in case you guys haven't realized that." Lily said, smiling. This invisibility and re-invisibility charm was one of the hardest charms Lily had ever done. It was supposed to be in the sixth or seventh year syllabus. But they had to learn it because they needed to use it. The septet had done research on invisibility for over a month and this was the closest they could get for instant invisibility and revisibility without the use of any complicated potions. All of them had practiced this charm on their quills but unfortunately Lily was the only one who mastered the charm skillfully.
James had gotten his quill into part invisible and part visible state after many trials. Currently James had been using that 'self-designed' quill because it was his 'art piece'.
Sirus gotten his quill invisible and apparently it had disappeared for good and never found again. He had lost ten quills altogether and no one dared to let him perform the invisibility charm.
Remus only managed to make his quill half invisible at anytime. It just could not get to total invisibility no matter how hard he tried.
Peter was the worst. His quill never had gotten invisible. Even Lily could not tell what went wrong in the charm. Peter, obviously, had acted stupid. He could do the charm very well in fact.
Arabella was better; she managed to make her quill look translucent. Her charmed quill looked ghost-like, as it was see-through but yet not invisible.
Stefanie managed to do the charm successfully, but could only charm one quill at a time, which was too time-consuming because the charm was relatively long.
"Hi Madam Rosmerta." The septet chorused at the moment they enter the Three Broomsticks. Madam Rosmerta was serving a table near the entrance.
"Ahh, my dears." Madam Rosmerta walked over after attending to the couple at a nearby table. "It's wonderful to see you again so soon."
"We miss you wonderful butterbeers. I can't wait till the age when I can drink the alcoholic butterbeers." James said, flashing his charming smile to Madam Rosmerta. They were heading towards their usual corner, which was arranged to fit eight people. They had came as often as once every fortnight until they had gotten to know Madam Rosmerta, the daughter of the owner of Three Broomsticks.
"Well, three more years I promise, Seerus." Madam Rosmerta promised as she made short conversations with the group. Luckily it was not too crowded that day. Perhaps it was lunchtime whereby most people would not be hanging out at The Three Broomsticks.
"I'm James." The group started laughing. Madam Rosmerta had problems remembering their names. She had often mixed up James and Sirus because they had looked rather identical in most ways.
"And I'm Sirus, and not Seerus." Sirus smiled. Sirus had too many nicknames given by everyone that he had lost track over the years.
"Ahh.. I'm getting old." Madam Rosmerta was in her twenties but she looked older than her actual age. She often said that it was the job that made her haggard, but she had truly loved working there.
"Madam Rosmerta, you're not old. And I'm sure in three years down. You'll know all our names by then." Lily said kindly as she moved inwards to the last sit in the corner.
"Thanks Eilee." Madam Rosmerta said, eyes sparkling. Lily had often thought Madam Rosmerta would make a great mother in the future.
"I'm Lily." She corrected Madam Rosmerta. And both of them laughed. She turned back to the counter and to get the butterbeers. The seven of them usually ordered butterbeers when they visit Hogsmeade illegally. During authorized visits, they usually ordered ice creams and other deserts.
"Oh no." Stefanie hissed to the rest of the
group and pointed at the entrance of Three Broomsticks.
"Uh oh."
"Oh Merlin."
"Shucks."
"We need to hide." James said quickly, knowing jolly well that there was no place that could hide all of them.
"But how? It's quite obvious that there're people sitting around here. Let's hope that they're not sitting too close." Lily whispered. The group huddled closer to one another with their backs facing out.
"We must tell Madam Rosmerta not to let them know we're here." Remus said, he gotten out from his seat and headed towards the counter. Stefanie followed him to find Madam Rosmerta.
"Luckily we're not wearing our uniform." Arabella added quietly. The seven of them decided to dress something closer to muggle wear since uniform was not required in the weekends. They wore plain clothing whenever they come Hogsmeade illegally so no one could recognize and report them. They did not even wear the black Hogwarts cloak but their own cloaks.
"They're sitting at the table not too far from us." Sirus said as he tried to take a peek behind the decorated Christmas tree. The customers had settled themselves at a corner of the café behind the fully decorated tree.
"Thank god that the tree is blocking us totally." Lily said as she calmed down. They could get expelled for coming to Hogsmeade unauthorized.
"Let's try to hear what they're talking about."
"Minerva, do you believe in the story of the Supreme Seven??" Albus Dumbledore asked his companion. They were sitting at the corner of Three Broomsticks, rather far from majority of the crowd.
"I think that's just a story for children." Minerva McGonagall replied flatly.
"What if there're indeed seven people born with such powers??"
"What do you mean??"
"Do you remember the powers of each of them??"
"Kind of." Minerva started to think about the story she had heard many years ago when she was younger. It was just a childhood story.
"I didn't believe it initially as well."
"You mean someone had displayed their powers??"
"Yes."
"Who??"
"James Potter and group."
"You're kidding me." Minerva said in disbelief. How could such intolerable pranksters be part of the world's saviors!! This is absurd.
"I'm serious."
"So our main discussion here today is about them??"
"Yes."
"No wonder you did not want to discuss in school grounds."
"People might hear. This is a rather top secret as I promised them I wouldn't tell a soul. The situation had gotten serious."
"You don't mean Voldemort, do you??"
"Yes, that's him alright. The rising Dark Wizard."
"They're sent down to deal with him??"
"Yes. I think so."
"But they're only thirteen. Voldemort is like thirty!!"
"There's another problem as well."
"What is it??"
"The seventh supreme hasn't appeared."
"Which one is he??"
"The animal communicator."
"Tom Riddle was a parselmouth."
"How did you know??"
"His pet in school used to be a serpent. I had seen him talking to his snake in parseltongue."
"Why didn't you tell me earlier??"
"That's partially got to do with Porky. They were friends. Long story." Minerva's tone of voice changed a little at the mention of Professor Porky.
"I remembered that. I taught Defense of Dark Arts back then."
"Anyway, if Tom was a parselmouth. He could be the seventh person."
"That's not impossible either. The heir of Salazar Slytherin should be able a parselmouth."
"Could it be that the six of them are sent down to deal with the seventh one??"
"I've thought about that. But it did not strike me that Voldemort could be the seventh savior that I had been waiting for all these while."
"We need to start training the six of them."
"Yes. In fact we've to start it soon. And that'll take place in my office."
"What about Peter Pettigrew??"
"He mustn't know even that all his friends were part of the seven saviors. We had to perform a strong memory charm on him if he sees or hear anything."
"This is not a good sign." There was silence for a few minutes.
"There're seven items that is required to get rid of the evil." Albus spoke up suddenly.
"It's not easy to obtain them. Common items, but we don't know which is the right one."
"I understand what you mean. I think there's nothing we could do besides preparing them to take Voldemort."
"I agree. We better head back to Hogwarts." With that, Albus and Minerva slipped their butterbeers and left the Three Broomsticks.
The seven of them had heard the whole conversation, looked at one another, with an astounded expression on them. They were too shaken to hear the news. Peter looked rather downcast, as he was not part of the group. Finally James spoke.
"Peter, we'll always be your friends no matter what. But we had to perform the memory charm on you later. I'm sorry." James turned to Peter who looked rather saddened. I really didn't expect Peter to know it in this manner.
"Thanks." Peter muttered barely audible. This is great. I've to pretend I forget everything after they cast the memory charm on me. It's hard to be pretending all the while. All these people are so wonderful and considered me as their friend, why did Master want to get rid of them so desperately??
"We had heard what we're not supposed to know yet." Lily said softly, still having a bewildered expression on her.
"When Dumbledore and McGonagall talk to us about it later, we've to pretend that we don't know anything." James said rather seriously.
"I think we better head back to Hogwarts, I'm afraid they might start finding us once they're back." Lily said as she quickly sipped her remaining butterbeer. The rest drank all their butterbeers in silence. Lily got up to tell Madam Rosetta that they were leaving and begged her not to tell anyone that they were here today.
The septet walked towards Honeydukes in a sense of calmness. Their footsteps were rather heavy. Afterall, the news was too terrible for the seven thirteen-year-olds.
Honeydukes was rather crowded by the time they arrived. They seeped through all the adults and reached the end of the shop. The shopkeeper, now busy collecting money, did not noticed them walking past him.
"Si and Rem first, followed by Lils, Bell, Stef. Pete and myself go in last." James instructed softly. They lined up and Lily muttered the invisibility spell. No words were needed as each of them had a lot in their mind.
All of them went down the stairs in silence. James being the last checked the cellar and closed the trapdoor. Lily muttered the visibility spell and all of them reappeared suddenly.
"We better run back as soon as possible." Lily said and all of them started running in the long empty tunnel.
Within five minutes, they reached the end.
"Dissendium." Sirus said and the door sprang open. Remus and Sirus peeked out to make sure the coast was clear.
"Oh no." Remus closed the door quickly.
"What happened??" Stefanie whispered, sensing the panic.
"Malfoy and his cronies are at the end of the corridor. They appeared to be having a small discussion." Sirus whispered in a sense of urgency.
"It'll be obvious if we pop up so suddenly." Arabella pointed out, feeling rather nervous.
"I've got a suggestion." Lily said suddenly.
"I've got a suggestion." James said at the same time.
"You first." Both of them said together. The group started giggling and a blush crept up on them. Luckily the tunnel was dark and the magical blue lights were not strong enough to make it too noticeable.
"Pete, I've to cast the memory charm on you. I'm sorry." Lily said and she muttered 'obliviate'.
"I think Lils can charm us invisible and we run out to snow. It'll be really cold and wet for us even in our cloaks. If McGonagall wants to find us, I'm sure she'll be checking the Gryffindor tower first." James whispered to the group. They listened to James' plan in silence. Afterall, there was no other way.
"That's what I was thinking as well. Excuses are not a problem here." Lily said. "Ready to go invisible. Same sequence. Just rush towards the Entrance Hall and stand beside the statue on the right." She muttered the invisibility spell on them. They climbed out of the door and broke into a soft run.
James turned back to check Malfoy and his gang. They were running very softly but at the silent corridor, a pin drop could even be heard. Malfoy had turned at looked at the sound but did not see anyone. They stopped their discussion and left the corridor abruptly at the opposite direction. I wonder what could they be discussing here. It's not the safest place in Hogwarts for a secret discussion.
Lily walked out and started rushing towards the Entrance Hall. She turned to check what Malfoy and his idiots were doing but saw them walking away quickly in the opposite direction. She shrugged it off and dashed towards the Entrance Hall as quickly as possible. She was not a consistent runner and did not have much stamina for running. Finally she reached the Entrance Hall and started walking.
"Hey"
"Who's here??"
"Coast clear."
"Filch and Mrs. Norris not around right??"
"I was here for five minutes. No sign of anyone."
"Can Lils hurry?? It's cold here."
"I must make myself visible first." Lily pointed the wand at herself and muttered the visibility charm. She reappeared. "Stand where my wand is pointing." She muttered the visibility charm.
"All present." James said. "Let's get out and get some rain on ourselves. The excuses if McGonagall ask is that we had a dare to see who can endure the longest in the rain in just our cloak and casual wear."
"Ditto. Let's hurry." Sirus commanded and all the seven of them rushed out into the heavy downpour. Thunder was roaring and lightning was flashing across the dark sky. It barely looked like it was afternoon. The weather had portrayed their mood totally.
James threw a small twig at Lily. Lily returned it with a larger twig. Within minutes, a leafy fight started out between the fully drenched boys and girls. There was a rather strong wind, which could be mistaken as a blizzard. Sirus was the worst because James and Remus had pinned him down and stuffed fallen leaves into his shirt. They were enjoying themselves and forgot all about the time and coldness.
"What do you think you're doing??" A voice barked from the Entrance Hall.