Remus and I spent hours in the library that day and when we had finished our papers for Potions we went back up to the Gryffindor tower. Not surprisingly Peter never showed up. He either got lost or had managed to find his way back to the Gryffindor tower. I was willing to bet on the former of those two possibilities.
"Where do you think we'll find him this time?" Remus sighed. This whole Peter getting lost all the time was getting really annoying.
"I dunno, maybe in the corridor near that troll statue." Peter had often gotten lost near the troll statue, he was terrified of it and it would apparently make him lose his mind. Remus and I had found him near that about five times.
"Do you think he could have found his way back to the tower?" asked Remus warily.
"I kind of doubt it, Peter doesn't have a very good track record with this kind of thing," I said as we turned a corner. "Do you hear that?" There was an odd wailing noise coming from down the hall.
"Yeah, do you think that it's Peter?"
"I'm almost certain that it is."
"Well, lets go find him," I said. We picked up the pace a little to get there faster.
Remus and I eventually found Peter a little further down that hall, this time he was stuck by the statue of an angry looking old woman with a long cape.
"Pete, what happened to you?" questioned Remus, inspecting the boy. Peter was literally stuck by the statue, part of one of his robes seemed to be actually stuck inside of the statue.
"I don't know!" he wailed. "One minute I was just leaning by the statue, the next there was an odd noise and then I was just stuck here!"
"Well, this is just fascinating," Remus said, looking along the area where Peter's robe was caught.
I walked around to the other side of the statue, looking for something, anything, that might help us. I looked around by the back part of the cape of the old lady's statue and noticed there appeared to be a line around it, like a little crack. "Remus, look at this."
Remus walked around to the side of the statue to stand beside me. "That's odd," he whispered, tapping it a few times. It definitely had a hollow sound to it. "Pete, what exactly did you do while leaning against the statue?"
"I don't know! I think… I think I started muttering to myself about pranks that Sirius and James pull," he sniffeled, still crying.
"What exactly did you say Pete? Try to remember the exact words," I said hurriedly.
"I-I think I-I s-said 'I hate it when they make me into a fool'!" Peter cried out. Just then, the cape of the old lady statue opened up.
"Move it Pete," I said shoving him away from the statue.
The three of us looked around at the statue, inspecting the cape and what was behind it. There appeared to be a dark tunnel that led out of the school.
"I wonder where it leads?" Peter said in awe, gazing into the tunnel.
"I don't know, but get your head out of there Peter," Remus said sternly, pulling Peter out of the statue. Suddenly it started sliding shut.
"That's just weird!" I whispered to Remus.
"We should probably get going," said Remus as he turned away from the odd statue. "I don't think we want to be caught by this and we especially don't want Sirius and James to know about it!"
"Don't want us to know about what?" asked James with a smirk on his face as he and Sirius came around a corner. They had obviously been up to no good.
"Uhh… Nothing!" I said desperately hoping that they would leave it alone.
"Come on, you can tell us. It's not like we haven't been looking for you three for hours," Sirius said, he had that smile on his face that had a bit of a begging look to it.
"Pete, you wouldn't keep a secret from us would you?" James asked, also begging. Both he and Sirius stared at Peter like a puppy would to guilt him into telling.
Peter looked to be on the verge of tears again, he had pretty much just stopped crying.
"Don't do it Pete," warned Remus. "Guys, why do you have to do this?" he said trying to turn the conversation away from Peter.
"Please," whispered James with a sad look.
"Fine! We found an odd tunnel behind the old lady statues cape!" Peter cried, giving into James and Sirius' begging.
"Really!" Sirius's face lit up with excitement.
"How do you get in there?" asked James, excitedly.
"You get in there by saying 'I hate it when the make me look like a fool'," Peter sobbed.
"Oh cool!" James and Sirius said simultaneously and they went to go and inspect the statue.
"You two have to promise me that you won't go in there," Remus begged.
"Don't worry Remey, we won't do anything stupid," replied James. "Lets go back up to the Common Room," said James, he gave Sirius a look that said that they would come back later. I didn't want them to do anything stupid or go into the statue either but the thought of where that secret passageway could lead excited me.
"Lets all just agree to keep this a secret," said Sirius, with one last glance at the statue.
"Agreed," the rest of us said.
I walked back to the Common Room next to Sirius, who was walking behind Remus and Peter. "If you two go back to that statue, count me in," I whispered to him. "I want to know where it goes too."
Sirius gave me a surprised look, this kind of sneaky thing wasn't really my kind of thing. "Don't worry," he said, "We wouldn't dream of leaving you out." Sirius grinned and elbowed James in the side. He whispered something to him and then James was grinning at me too.
"We've got a lot to plan," I had James murmur. This meant that we'd be meeting up in the Common Room after Remus and Peter went to bed. I had to admit to myself that I was excited about sneaking out of the Gryffindor Tower and the prospect of mischief and trouble. 'I hope I'm not becoming like James and Sirius,' I thought to myself. I was a bit worried about what this would mean.