CHAPTER 16

PADFOOT AND PRONGS

Rose left her room on Friday night two weeks later at midnight and crept down to the common room, extremely careful about not waking up Ana. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw Scorpius by the fire and sat down next to him. "Is Al coming?"

"Yeah, I think so. I don't know, I haven't been up there tonight. I told him midnight, anyhow."

"And he's bringing the Cloak?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Rose looked down at the stone in her hand and asked, "Are you sure we shouldn't ask someone about it?"

He shook his head. "We should just get rid of it. Someone else can worry about it. Maybe we can try to have a quiet rest of the year."

"It's February. We aren't lucky enough to avoid trouble for four months."

"That's probably true. We can at least try."

Just then, they heard footsteps on the staircase, accompanied by voices growing louder. Rose looked at Scorpius in disbelief. "He told James."

"You told James?" Scorpius asked as Al and James came down the last few stairs.

"Sorry, but… I thought he should know, before we buried it, and now he's saying—"

"You can't bury it!" James exclaimed. "If—if James Potter came out of it…"

"Ana said it's Grindelwald's symbol," Rose said. "It's the same symbol that was on Nott's cave. It's got to be something really dark."

"Let's just get outside before we wake the whole House," Scorpius said, and Al threw the cloak over them. They walked quickly and Rose could tell that James was having a very hard time not speaking. They stopped short at the entrance hall when they saw the Auror guard.

"Come on," James whispered, and they followed him quickly to a door to the grounds at the end of the corridor. "They always forget to lock this one," he said, and eased it open slowly until they could slip out. They ran down the hill to the Forest and threw off the cloak as soon as they are past the line of trees. "You can't bury the stone. Not yet anyway. I want to use it."

Rose groaned. "James, it's probably really Dark magic—"

"Does it matter what it was created for? I mean, if we're using it for good…"

"How do you know we are? Raising the dead can't be good!" Rose said.

"If you two really felt that way you would've gotten rid of it when you found out what it did," James said. Rose didn't really have an answer to that, so she remained silent, and he smiled a little. "Exactly. Let's go to the cave, we'll be better hidden there."

"How is this happening?" Scorpius whispered as they walked. "We need to bury it!"

"Sorry, guys," Al said timidly, and Rose rolled her eyes.

"He would've probably found out anyway," she said, though she knew that he wouldn't if they had just buried it that night.

When they reached the cave, James stood against the wall and looked expectantly at Rose. She sighed and handed him the stone. "I'm not sure this is the best idea, James," Al said.

"Oh, come on, are you scared?"

"No," Al muttered, and James grinned.

"Good. Okay, then. Three turns, right?" Rose nodded. "Great." James turned the stone and sure enough, the same man appeared once again. Rose hadn't really noticed before how young he looked, as if he was barely older than Teddy.

"Hello again," he said, chuckling a little. "Are you going to drop it this time or can I stay for a bit?"

"Sorry," Al managed, and he grinned.

"You're Albus, aren't you?" Al nodded.

"Yeah, Albus Severus."

"Don't remind me."

"You're really James Potter?" Rose asked, trying not to appear starstruck.

He turned to her. "In the flesh. Well, not exactly. Pleasure to meet you. Rose, right?" She nodded and he looked over at James. "And you're James, right?"

James looked like he might faint, and Rose wasn't sure she'd ever seen him nervous. "Er-um, yeah. Hi."

"Hey—do you want to meet Padfoot? Go on and call him back," he offered. James's eyes widened.

"Sirius Black? Yeah, I… doesn't it just bring back family?"

"No, you can bring back anyone you want," he said. "At least I think so. Anyway, he's practically family."

"Okay," James said, and he turned the stone three more times. Another man appeared, significantly older than the other, with long shaggy black hair, also grinning.

"Finally! I knew they'd find it, Prongs. Harry's boys," he exclaimed, grinning.

"Well, actually, Rose was the one who found the stone," Al said.

"Oh, Hermione's daughter. That doesn't really surprise me, actually," he remarked, and smiled at Rose. She couldn't help but smile back, and Sirius's eyes flickered over to Scorpius.

"Scorpius Malfoy, is it? I've seen you with Al," he said. Scorpius nodded. "You ran away, that right?"

"Yeah. Well, I was disowned, but I did leave."

Sirius nodded. "I have to say, I like him, Prongs," he remarked to the elder James. The younger James Potter seemed a little put out that his heroes liked Scorpius and broke in.

"I found your map in my dad's study. I have it now."

Sirius grinned. "We know. You stole it. Very craftily, I might add, good job."

"You stole it? You said it was a gift!" Al said. James shrugged.

"Sorry, Al, but you got the Cloak and I didn't want you to feel bad that Dad didn't give me anything."

"We have to say, though, I think you show a lot more potential than you're really displaying at the moment," the older James said.

"Oh, great, he needs encouragement," Rose said, rolling his eyes. Sirius laughed.

"I would, but Fred's being a prat," James muttered.

"So find another Marauder or talk some sense into him," the other James suggested.

"Yeah, you and Harry could cause so much more trouble, it's really a bit sad. And Roxanne's pretty impressive, too. Just think about it," Sirius added.

"Can you… see us? Like… all the time?" James asked.

Sirius chuckled. "If we want to. But we don't watch all the time."

"That girl of yours is pretty, if that's what you mean," the older James added, grinning.

"So was Zoe. And Jenny…" Rose muttered, and Al snickered.

"There's nothing wrong with having a few girlfriends," the other James remarked.

"While you wait," Sirius muttered. "For Lily."

"Shut up, Padfoot."

"Or Alice," Al said pointedly, and the younger James coughed self-consciously. Suddenly, they heard footsteps pushing through the Forest. Al's eyes widened and he glanced at Rose.

"Er, we should go, someone's coming," she said, looking at the younger James expectantly.

"Call us back anytime," the older James said, and James Sirius gave the stone back to her just as Hagrid appeared in the mouth of the cave.

"What are you lot doing out here? Do you know how much trouble you'd be in if anyone saw you?" he asked them. "Nearly gave me a heart attack, I thought it was them Death Eaters."

"Sorry, Hagrid," Rose said.

"Yeah, but we've got my dad's Cloak. No one will see us," Al said. Hagrid's eyes narrowed.

"That cloak's nothing but trouble, I tell you," he muttered. "Now get on back to the castle before someone sees you."

"Good night, Hagrid," James said, grinning, and Al threw the Cloak over the four of them.

"That was brilliant!" James exclaimed when they were back in the common room. "You can't get rid of it now, Rosie!"

"Why not?" she asked indignantly. "You got to talk to who you wanted to."

"Not everyone I wanted to! What about our grandmother?" James argued. "Maybe Lily wants to talk to… Lily. And what about everyone else? Teddy might want to see his parents. Uncle George could talk to Uncle Fred. Hell, my dad might want to see his parents, and Sirius… This is the best thing that's ever happened to us and you want to get rid of it?"

Rose considered it for a moment. Maybe it wasn't fair for her to keep it from the rest of their family. "We still don't know what we're doing. We could be doing more harm than good."

"Come on, Rosie, it's just a stone," he groaned.

"I don't think anyone should use it again until we figure out what it is," she said firmly. James rolled his eyes.

"All right, fine. Figure it out soon, though. I want to tell Teddy when we go home at the end of term."

"We'll try. We've got more of a lead now with the Grindelwald thing," Rose said, and James nodded.

"Start looking tomorrow, then. I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow," he said, and walked quickly up the staircase.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "That really could have gone better."

"But we did get to talk to James Potter and Sirius Black," Rose said. "Even though they basically told him to be more… him."

"Yeah, but they didn't hate me," Scorpius added. "Maybe that'll make him see reason."

"Don't count on it," Rose said.

"Well, we should go to bed too. Quidditch in the morning. We'll see you tomorrow, Rose," Al said. "Let's go, Scorpius."

"Night, Weasley," he said as he followed Al up the stairs.

"Good night, Malfoy," she said, smiling, and shoved the stone back in her pocket before hurrying up to her room.