Chapter 8 - 1.8 or "Into the Slytherin Common Room"
Christmas had come and gone, and Lily had mixed feelings about returning to Hogwarts. It had been a strange two weeks in Cokeworth, and not an entirely pleasant visit. As much as the thought pained her, she was excited to get away from Petunia again. Her older sister had barely said one word to Lily since she had arrived home, staunchly ignoring her, even when Lily was simply trying to make polite conversation. Lily had done her very best to make amends, but Petunia seemed beyond reason. She could only hope that once she was back home for the summer, she would be able to convince her sister to come around. Perhaps they just needed time.
Still, though, being home had its perks. In the excitement of her first term at Hogwarts, she had forgotten just how much she loved spending time with her parents, who had doted on her over the break. Her mother had taken her Christmas shopping and had cooked all of her favorite meals, and her father had peppered her with questions about life in the castle, where she did her best to properly explain potion-making and to do justice to Quidditch.
Being home had also allowed her to spend more time with Severus, though not as much as either of them would have liked. Petunia insisted that she had developed an allergy to "that boy" and had started sneezing violently every time Severus came by the Evans' residence, so their time there had been limited. The biting cold and heavy snow had kept the young friends from taking refuge in the park, which had been their favorite haunt before Hogwarts, though they had braved the elements on a few occasions to rendezvous there. And, of course, Severus's house was out of the question.
The separation from Hogwarts had also shined a light on the strain in their friendship. Neither Lily nor Severus had brought up the Slytherins' attack on her in the corridor, or Severus's role in it. Neither of them had approached the subject of their discussion that had followed, or her disappointment in him. They avoided any of topic of conversation that might stray too closely to house loyalties or potential friendships. Their fellow first years had not been mentioned at all. At times, Lily felt as if her friendship with Severus were a small boat that she was navigating through a shallow gulley. Petunia had been the first jagged rock that ripped through the hull. Now it felt as if there was never a moment when she wasn't scrambling to bail water out of the bottom.
The day before the start of term found Lily hurrying down the snowy street toward a few small shops near the river, exactly halfway between her house and Severus's. She was late.
"I'm sorry, Sev!" she breathed, skidding to a stop next to where he stood huddled against the side of a tea shop. He looked frozen and rather miserable, bundled in a too-large overcoat and a ratty old scarf.
"You're late," he said, as if she were unaware.
"I know, I know, I'm sorry!" she repeated. "It took longer this afternoon than I thought it would…my errand did…and then my mum was trying to keep me from going out on account of the snow, and…anyway, Petunia's out through supper, so we can go to my house."
"You came all the way here to tell me we can go to your house?" he asked, turning to watch as a harried-looking woman exited the shop, ducking her head against the swirling snow. A tinkling of a bell over the door could be heard briefly before the door snapped closed again. "Why can't we just go to the park?"
Lily looped her arm with his and started pulling him back toward where she had come from. She had expected this argument. "My mum says I can't go to the park because it'll be dark soon. She said you can come to my house until supper."
He allowed himself to be pulled along reluctantly. The streets were fairly empty on account of the heavy snow, and the two hurried along, trying to step in other people's footprints to better keep their shoes dry.
"You should have owled, so you didn't have to come all the way down here just to turn right back round."
"I don't have an owl, Sev, you know that."
"Well you need one."
"Yes, and I also need some dragon-hide boots and a mink stole, but I'm saving my quid for a diamond-encrusted hat." He did not laugh at her sarcasm. She sighed. "I can't afford an owl, Sev."
He nodded, but apparently didn't feel like there was an appropriate response to this. They both knew that he could not afford an owl, either. "I'm not supposed to go to your house," he said, breaking the silence as they turned onto her street. "If my parents find out –"
"Then I reckon they'll be happy you didn't die of frost bite sitting on a park swing," she said cheerfully. It wasn't as if his parents had forbade him to go to her house. In fact, she wasn't entirely certain that his parents knew they were friends at all.
They approached the house and Severus eyed it warily. "Is your dad home?"
Mr. Evans had never been overly friendly to the odd little boy who followed Lily around, though he had never been outright rude to Severus either. Severus always acted a bit twitchy around him, though.
"No, he's at the factory. He'll be home near supper."
"All right," he said. They both discarded their snowy shoes outside the back door and stepped into the small, bright kitchen. The warmth of the room spilled across Lily's face pleasantly as she brushed snow from her hair and unwrapped her scarf. Severus sat down awkwardly at the small kitchen table.
"Do you want some tea?" she asked, tossing her scarf and coat onto a hook by the back door.
He nodded. He looked very out of place in his large overcoat, which he made no move to take off. "Why did you want me to come here? We could have just walked round like we did on Thursday."
Lily pulled herself up onto the counter, rising up on her knees in order to reach the top shelf of the cupboard, where the cups were stored. It wasn't until she had retrieved a pair of teacups and hopped back down to put the kettle on that she answered him.
"Because I have a surprise for you, and I didn't want to give it to you sitting on a snowy park swing in the middle of a blizzard." He just blinked at her. "You can take off your coat, you know."
With a resigned sigh, he removed his scarf and began unbuttoning the coat. "I'm still trying to thaw," he said, a hint of a smile on his face. "I was standing out there waiting for you for twenty minutes."
"I said I was sorry I was late," she said, taking his scarf and coat and hanging them next to hers. "But I had a good reason. You'll never guess what I did today."
"I won't?"
"No, I reckon you won't."
"Well, you'd better just tell me then."
She sat down across from him and leaned forward, her eyes wide with excitement. "I Floo-ed!"
"You – what?"
"I Floo-ed!" she repeated. "I took the Floo Network all the way to Adin's house and then we went with her dad to Diagon Alley and then I Floo-ed back here. That's why I was late."
He did not seem impressed. On the contrary, he shifted away from her and crossed his arms sullenly. "You were late because you were busy with your other friends? Why didn't you just say so?"
"It wasn't like that, Sev. I asked Adin if I could go to Diagon Alley with her because I had to pick up your surprise. But anyway, you're missing the point. I used Floo powder for the first time! Have you ever Floo-ed before? I mean, it was brilliant." She paused. "Okay, it was terribly uncomfortable, but it was still brilliant."
"Of course I've Floo-ed before, Lily." He rolled his eyes. "I'm a wizard, after all. We used to Floo to my grandfather's house in Blackpool."
She swallowed down the barb he had shot at her and stood to remove the kettle when it started whistling. "I didn't know you used to visit your grandfather."
"We haven't in a few years," Severus mumbled, picking at the biscuit he had taken but not tasted. "He and my dad don't get along on account of my dad being a Muggle. My dad said we couldn't see him anymore."
Lily paused briefly as she poured the water into the teacups and looked at him, but he wasn't looking at her. He so rarely told her anything about his family, and she had learned over time not to ask too many questions, or he would just retreat into sullenness. She set the cup in front of him and rocked backwards on her heels.
"I think it's time for your gift," she said, grinning at him.
"Why'd you get me a gift?"
"For your birthday, silly!"
"My birthday's not for another week, Lily."
"I know that, but I had to get it in Diagon Alley, so I already have it. Unless you'd prefer that I keep it all for myself…"
The beginnings of a smile pulled at his lips. "Go on, then."
She smiled brightly and ducked down to open the cupboard under the sink, where she had hastily stashed the gift earlier. "Now as I was already running late, I didn't have a chance to wrap it," she told him as she straightened and hid the gift behind her back. He just shrugged at her, and she could tell he was eager despite his outward nonchalance. "Ta-Da!"
From behind her back, she revealed a simple book with a cover the color of sawdust and a title in faded black script: Incantational Theory. Severus took it from her gingerly and looked down at it. He didn't say anything.
"It – it's the one you mentioned, when we were trying to figure out the Charms homework last month, remember? You were annoyed because the library didn't have a copy, even though it's an O.W.L. standard text." He still said nothing, and she faltered. "I know it's not new. I had to get it second-hand…but I don't think it's in such bad shape…just that corner is bent a bit…"
Finally, he looked up at her and grinned widely. "It's perfect."
She let out a relieved breath and sank back down into the chair across from him, swirling her teacup. "The shopkeeper in Diagon Alley thought I was barmy, buying such an advanced book for a first year. But I told him he doesn't know my best friend, who could run circles round most of the N.E.W.T. students."
A faint blush dotted Severus's pale cheeks, and he returned his gaze to the book, flipping through the first few pages eagerly. She allowed him to absorb himself into the book for a minute or two, as she sipped on her tea and watched him happily. Things had been so difficult between them lately, and it was wonderful to bring him a bit of joy, when she knew no one else would. She was just about to suggest that they retreat into the sitting room to play chess when he spoke, almost as to himself.
"There it is, right there, about the Latin root incantations. I knew it. I told him, but Avery was prattling on about the Greek –"
He cut off and looked up at her, as if only realizing what he had said. Lily tried to keep her face stoic, but it was like being doused with cold water. It was the first time either of them had mentioned any of the other Slytherins since they had ambushed her in the corridor…
"I'm sorry," he said quickly, snapping the book shut and staring down at the nondescript cover as if she had scolded him.
"It's all right," she said, and despite the way her stomach had squirmed at his words, she realized she meant it. "Really. I mean, we'll be going to school with them for the next seven years, it's not as if I can just pretend they don't exist."
"Well…" He seemed to be fighting something. "I – I am sorry. About…about everything."
She nodded her acceptance, but he fidgeted nervously in his seat, still not meeting her eye. When he spoke again, his voice was almost a whisper.
"You were wrong, though…when you said they're my mates. They're not. I've only ever spoken to them a few times ever, even though I share a dormitory with them. They aren't my friends."
It was odd now to feel sorry that he wasn't friends with such horrible boys, boys who attacked her and taunted her and called her names. He looked so dejected sitting there, when he had been so happy only minutes before.
"Well, they're missing out, then." She said, grinning at him and biting into one of the biscuits from the tin. He looked back up at her and smiled before also nibbling on the corner of his biscuit as if to distract himself.
Their moment was interrupted when the back door opened in a burst of swirling snow and Petunia Evans walked into the house, brushing snowflakes from her coat and looking foul-tempered.
"Tuney!" said Lily in surprise as Severus sprang to his feet and positioned himself next to Lily. Petunia froze at the sight of him, her mouth opening in slight shock for a moment before snapping into pursed disapproval. She closed the door behind her.
"What's he doing here?" It was the first thing Petunia had said to Lily other than 'Pass the salt' since Lily had returned from school.
"We're only having a cup of tea," Lily said. "Mummy said it was all right. I thought you were out for the evening?"
Petunia removed her coat and went to hang it on the hook, but froze when she saw Severus's too-large overcoat hanging there instead. Lily hopped up and removed her friend's coat and scarf, holding them awkwardly in her hands as Petunia went to hang her own in their place.
"The snow's supposed to get worse, so Janie's mum brought me home," Petunia said at length, not looking at either of the other occupants in the room, but examining her fingernails instead. "And he needs to leave. I'm allergic, remember?"
"Tuney!"
Petunia placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at Lily. She seemed to have grown quite a lot while Lily had been away, and now more closely resembled a young woman than the child Lily had grown up with. As if she had planned it, her face quivered for a second and she sneezed – a high-pitched, trilling 'a-choo!' that grated on Lily's ears. Then she raised a challenging eyebrow at Lily, her hands still on her hips.
"You're being ridiculous," said Lily. "You're not allergic…"
Petunia sneezed again. Lily wondered vaguely if her sister had learned how to do so on command.
"It's all right," muttered Severus, moving to take his coat and scarf from Lily. "I'll go."
"You don't have to –"
Another sneeze, louder this time. Lily glared at her sister, but Petunia flounced out of the kitchen without another word, more sneezes echoing from the hallway into which she had disappeared.
"Really," said Severus, fastening the buttons on his ridiculous coat. "I – I'll just see you tomorrow."
"Sorry," Lily mumbled, suddenly feeling terribly guilty not only about the way Petunia had treated him, but also about having to send him back to his parents' house. She could see the dread in the way his fingers fumbled with the buttons. "Are you sure you –"
"Yes," he cut in. He picked the book she had given him off the kitchen table and stowed it securely in his pocket. "Thanks for the book."
"Happy birthday," she offered lamely. He shrugged at her and went to open the door. It wasn't until he had slipped his shoes back on and had started down the walkway toward the street that Lily's voice stopped him. "Oi! Sev!" He turned and looked back at her curiously. "Sit me with on the train tomorrow?"
And even through the thick snow, she could not miss the wide smile on his face. "Definitely!"
She watched him until he disappeared in the fading light. After she had closed the door and retreated back into the warmth of the kitchen, she moved to clean up the tea cups that sat forgotten on the table. Another piercing sneeze sounded from the next room.
"For goodness sake, Petunia!" she shouted, her annoyed voice echoing off of the kitchen appliances. "He's gone now!"
On September 1st and his first ever train ride to Hogwarts, Remus Lupin had sat huddled in a compartment with three very awkward Ravenclaw second years, who asked him what his name was and then proceeded to ignore him for the duration of the journey. The trip had seemed to last an eternity, a seemingly unending sort of purgatory that Remus sat in, plagued by his own terror of what was to come (mixed only with a trickle of nervous excitement). It was no surprise, then, that Remus's second ever train ride to Hogwarts – returning to the castle after the Christmas holiday – seemed to fly by in no time at all. He was, after all, once again in the company of James, Sirius, and Peter…his friends.
Remus's holiday had been a struggle. His parents, though obviously happy to see their son, had become anxious as soon as Christmas was over and the full moon loomed ahead of them. During the fall term, not only had Remus become used to transforming every month on the edge of Hogsmeade, but Lyall and Hope Lupin had similarly gotten used to quiet full moon nights in their little cottage. The abrupt change of being locked once again in his parents' basement had caused the wolf that had emerged on New Year's Eve to be more aggravated and violent than ever before. The transformation had been the worst of his life, and while Remus was just now able to function normally again without the sharp pains in his muscles, the true torture had been watching the effect that his pain had on his mother and father.
The journey on the Hogwarts Express, it followed, was a relief. The ride was filled with James and Sirius's usual raucous laughter and Remus laughed along with them, feeling more at home in the company of his friends than he had felt since leaving Hogwarts several weeks prior. In an effort to keep Sirius's visit to the Potters' house a secret from his family, Remus and James were sent down the train at one point to scout where Narcissa was sitting, though they returned a half-hour later to report that there was no sign of the blonde Slytherin in any of the train cars. This livened Sirius up immensely, and when the trolley came around midday, Sirius treated them all to more Pumpkin Pasties and Licorice Wands than any of them could eat.
Throughout the ride, James kept up a continual stream of hints about something exciting that he wanted to show Peter and Remus, but he wouldn't give them any clues as to what it was.
"Anyone could overhear us in this compartment," James said when Peter asked what it was for the fifth time. "It's too risky for something as important as this."
Remus could tell that James was basking in their suspense. It was also painfully obvious that Sirius was in on the secret, as he didn't seem remotely interested to discover what it was. Despite his curiosity, Remus felt like they were back at Hogwarts in no time flat and smiled when he recalled how terrible his first trip had seemed. Then again, his first trip on the train hadn't been spent in the company of James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew.
After a hurried dinner, the four boys rushed up to their dormitory, and, just as they had done while planning the prank on Snape, they all crowded onto James's bed. James closed the curtains around them.
"Just in case Goomer comes up early," he explained. "I don't want anyone else to know about this."
Despite his eagerness to see whatever it was James was about to show them, Remus felt a glow of warmth at the idea of being included in something that was obviously so important to James.
James was taking an aggravatingly long time digging around in his bag for whatever it was, and Remus could tell he was doing it for effect. After a moment, Sirius said loudly, "Oh come on, James, and get on with it already. Pete's about to pass out from excitement."
Peter, who had been bouncing a bit in his anticipation, became still at once. James stood up next to the bed with his hands behind his back, grinning broadly. After a few seconds, he brought his hands out and revealed a silvery cloak.
"What is it?" Peter asked, instinctively reaching out to touch the material, but then hovering his fingers just above it, as if unsure if he was allowed.
"It's an Invisibility Cloak!" said Sirius, unable to contain his excitement any longer.
Remus felt his eyes go wide. "An Invisibility Cloak?" he repeated, awed. "No way."
"For real?" Peter whispered, his hand still lingering above the fabric awkwardly.
"You can touch it," James told him, laughing a bit.
Remus reached out tentatively after Peter and ran his fingers over the silver fabric. It felt as if it were made of water, but he didn't have much time to ponder the strange texture before Sirius said, "Put it on, James! Show them!"
James threw the fabric over his shoulders and his body disappeared entirely. Remus had never in his life seen anything quite like it, and he went to a school for magic. It was unbelievable.
"That's the most amazing thing I've ever seen," he said truthfully.
The boys took turns passing the cloak around to try it on. Remus could tell that there was something else that James and Sirius hadn't yet revealed, made apparent by the fact that they both looked like they always did when they were planning on breaking the rules. After a few minutes, once the excitement had tapered off a bit, Remus surveyed them shrewdly.
"Well?" he asked expectantly.
"Well what?" said Sirius. If Remus hadn't seen Sirius pull that innocent face a million times before, he may have fallen for it.
"We're not daft. You two are planning something and we want to know what it is!"
"We're going out in it," James said, not even attempting to deny the accusation. "All four of us. I think this cloak is plenty big enough for all of us if we squeeze together just right."
"Come on," said Sirius, hopping off of James's bed. "Let's make sure we can all fit."
He and James moved side by side. Peter jumped off the bed to move beside them, but Remus remained where he was, confused.
"We're going out now? We don't need the cloak to go out now. We have almost an hour until curfew."
"Remus!" gasped Sirius in feigned astonishment. "Are you suggesting that we go out after hours even when it's against the rules?" He and James started sniggering.
"Well that's what we usually do, right?" said Remus, completely nonplussed.
"Ah, but tonight is different you see," James explained. "Tonight we have to go out before curfew because we have to follow some Slytherins while we're underneath the cloak…"
"…because that's the only way to get into the Slytherin common room!" finished Sirius with a flourish.
Remus sat for a moment, absorbing what his friends had just told him. Perhaps borne of his giddiness at being back at Hogwarts, perhaps the result of being included in James and Sirius's next caper, but Remus felt a slow smile spread across his face as he moved over to where the others were standing.
"Okay," he said, "let's make sure we all fit under this thing."
It took a while ("Too long," grumbled an impatient Sirius), but eventually the four boys were able to arrange themselves in such a way to be completely concealed by the cloak, though they had to keep an eye on the tips of their shoes and their wandering elbows. They removed the cloak in order to descend the boys' staircase and climb through the portrait hole, and once in the corridor, they ducked into a shadowy corner to don it once more before hurrying off in search of a Slytherin to follow into the common room.
"How about that girl?" whispered Peter as they crept down the Transfiguration corridor. He was pointing at a striking blonde girl at the end of the hallway, who was walking slowly and looking around, as if to check and make sure that she was alone. "Maybe she's in Slytherin!"
"Don't be thick, Peter," said James, "that's Bayle Kamana. Every bloke in school knows who she is. She's a Ravenclaw sixth year."
Remus didn't say anything. He had certainly noticed the girl in the corridors before, but he had never known her name.
"I wonder what she's doing?" said Sirius, watching her with narrowed eyes. "It's almost curfew and she sure is acting funny down there."
They stood frozen and watched as Bayle opened the door to a classroom at the end of the corridor, glanced around at the seemingly empty hall again, and then slid inside the room, shutting the door quietly behind her. For a moment, no one said anything, as they just stared at the door she had disappeared behind.
"We really should get going," Remus said in a funny voice. "If we want to find a Slytherin to follow, I mean."
The others didn't seem to hear him and Remus made no attempt to keep moving.
"Come on," said Sirius, "let's go see what she's up to."
The boys crept slowly toward the end of the corridor. Ensuring that all of their elbows and toes were still hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, they paused in front of the door to the classroom and glanced at one another. With a nudge from James, Sirius reached out and pulled the door silently open enough for them to all stick their heads inside.
It took a moment for Remus to see inside, but he felt his face growing hot when he realized what they had intruded upon: Bayle Kamana, tightly entwined and fervently kissing none other than Stuart Bones. Remus knew that they shouldn't be witnessing the private moment, but his legs didn't seem to want to move. James, apparently realizing who exactly they had walked in on, let out a noise that sounded like a cross between a gasp and a cough. Sirius slapped a hand over his mouth, but it was too late – the damage had been done. Bayle and Stuart sprang apart and looked straight at where the boys were standing, invisible in the doorway.
"That's odd," Bayle said, "I could have sworn I closed the door."
As she walked toward them, they began backing away from the door as silently as possible. They had only just felt their backs bump into the wall on the other side of the corridor when the door to the classroom snapped shut in front of them. The boys looked at one another under the cloak for a split second before breaking into fits of hysterical laughter. Remus really didn't know what was so funny, but his own discomfort and the sheer ridiculousness of the situation kept him laughing so hard he thought he might have cracked a rib.
"Oh Merlin," James wheezed between laughs. "I can't wait to take the mickey out of Stu tomorrow."
"Bayle Kamana though," laughed Sirius. "I mean, good for old Stu, yeah?"
Once the laughter had subsided a bit, they started off again on their hunt for a Slytherin to follow, though they intermittently had to pause when Peter would break into fits of high-pitched giggles.
"Would you shut it, Peter?" Sirius snapped, the third time this happened. "Haven't you ever seen people snogging before?"
"No!" said Peter defensively. "My parents don't exactly snog each other when I'm standing right there!"
James gagged dramatically. "Eurgh. Thanks a lot for that mental picture."
"Just think of Bayle Kamana," Sirius told him. "She'll chase all the bad mental images right out of there."
"Yeah," said James in a dreamy voice, "she sure is –"
But what James thought of Bayle Kamana was silenced when they walked around a corner of the Potions corridor and saw Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black walking toward them, each in a traveling cloak.
"Shh!" Remus slapped a hand over James's mouth.
"Slytherins," Peter whispered unnecessarily. He sounded gleeful.
They all stood rigid and silent as Malfoy and Narcissa swept past them and turned the corner. The boys waited for a few seconds before creeping behind the pair.
"Merlin, if they're off to snog too, I'll lose my supper," muttered Sirius, but he needn't have worried. The Slytherins turned down a damp corridor that none of them had ever navigated before and came across a stretch of dark, bare, stone wall.
"Basilisk," Malfoy said to the wall.
As the wall opened to reveal the Slytherin common room, the four boys clambered in behind Malfoy and Narcissa, doing their best to remain silent and unsuspected. Remus looked around the long room and felt the hairs on his arms stand up. Unlike Gryffindor Tower, the Slytherin common room was cold, damp, and especially uninviting.
"I think we're under the lake," Remus whispered to his friends.
"Where is everybody?" Sirius asked quietly. "Why is it so empty this time of night?"
Remus looked around again. Sirius was right – there were only a few younger students scattered about the room, and a small group of sixth and seventh years on the opposite side, talking lowly and glancing around suspiciously. Something was indeed strange about the situation. The Gryffindor common room was always loud and bustling in the evenings.
"Shh," said James, nodding to Malfoy, who was approaching the few younger students left in the room. "Look."
The four boys were too far away to hear what Malfoy said to the younger Slytherins, who immediately grabbed their books and scampered down a narrow corridor, which Remus supposed led to the dormitories. Clearly, whatever Malfoy had said to make them leave had been very convincing.
Once the footsteps down the corridor died, Malfoy approached the group of older students, who fell quiet as he neared them.
"Let's move closer to hear them better," whispered Sirius.
Remus heard a whimper from the other side of James and knew that Peter was as nervous about the idea of eavesdropping on a group of older Slytherins as he himself was.
"I thought we were coming here to prank Snape?"
"Oh Remus," said James, "we can do that any old time. Let's see what Malfoy is so determined to tell his mates in private."
As one, the boys sneaked closer to the group of Slytherins, who were all looking very seriously at Malfoy. The only student Remus recognized other than Malfoy was also the youngest by far – a third year called Rabastan Lestrange.
"You've returned, then?" said a dark-haired boy Remus did not recognize, who shifted his glance expectantly between Narcissa and Malfoy. "Did you have any issues getting into the castle?"
"Of course not, Selwyn," said Malfoy. "We apparated not thirty minutes ago into Hogsmeade and then had the caretaker allow us entrance into the castle. Our last names still hold a certain influence over someone like Pringle, I'm sure you can only imagine."
The boy called Selwyn scowled at the slight. "Well," he said, "why couldn't you come on the train like the rest of us?"
"I had a meeting that took precedence. That's why I've asked you all here tonight."
Malfoy was acting like the host of a very eerie, very depressing party. He took a high-backed chair at the front of the group and surveyed them all.
"Narcissa here," he nodded toward the blonde, "arranged a meeting for me with her sister, Bellatrix Black as well as Rodolphus Lestrange." From his left, Remus heard Sirius make a strange noise, but none of the Slytherins seemed to have heard anything. A few eyes flickered toward Rabastan Lestrange, who shifted in his seat. There was a lengthy pause, as if for dramatic effect, before Malfoy added, "We were correct in our assumptions. They confirmed that he is continuously recruiting. Bellatrix indicated that we can be of assistance to him, here at Hogwarts."
There was a murmur of surprise that rippled around the group of students. Underneath the cloak, Remus glanced at James, Sirius, and Peter, but all three of them were watching Malfoy intently. Who was the 'he' to whom Malfoy was referring?
"How can we be of any assistance to him?" asked Selwyn with a mixture of awe and skepticism.
Malfoy sneered at the boy. "Perhaps someone as dim as you can't be, Selwyn, but anyone else interested may accept this task of great importance that Bellatrix and Rodolphus have awarded us." He had his nose so high in the air at this point that Remus thought he looked like a bigger prat than usual, but many of his fellow Slytherins were gazing at him with adoration.
"What are we supposed to do, then?" piped up Rabastan.
"Your brother believes it would be prudent to have an informal recruitment here in the castle. We will keep it discreet, of course, and we don't even need to reveal anything to the students we are appraising. We will keep close watch on certain students to determine which ones have, ahem, potential. The younger Slytherins, needless to say, are the first priority, though we will need to quietly assess certain purebloods from other houses as well. He has allies from houses other than just Slytherin. These evaluations have been taking place for years, so our main focus should be on the younger students, as they are the ones who have yet to be assessed."
The group fell silent after Malfoy's speech. Many of the Slytherins were looking pensive, a few worried. After a minute, a tall boy in the back with rough, blunt features, spoke up.
"Rowle," he said, and everyone turned to look at him curiously. "Rowle, in Hufflepuff. He has indicated that he is supportive of the cause."
"Good," Malfoy said. "Reach out to him, Yaxley. But do it delicately."
"What about Alice Greene?" suggested the boy next to Yaxley. "From Ravenclaw?"
Narcissa laughed, and the high-pitched tinkling of it sounded very out of place in the current atmosphere. She tossed her hair behind her shoulder as everyone turned toward her, many of the boys eyeing her with interest. "Greene is dating the Head Boy," she told them. "Word is they're going out for the Auror program. You can't honestly think Alice Greene and Frank Longbottom would come round to our side, certainly?"
"You can't honestly think that he wouldn't want spies within the Auror program, certainly?" retorted the first boy.
Narcissa narrowed her eyes at him and opened her mouth to respond, but closed it again when Malfoy raised his hand for silence.
"It's not a bad idea," Malfoy conceded, and Narcissa now turned her scornful gaze upon him instead. "Both Greene and Longbottom are old, distinguished magic with impressive lineage. But remember, we're to start with the younger potentials…"
"The Ravenclaw Greengrass," offered a boy in the back.
"Robards – what is she, fifth…sixth year Hufflepuff?"
"She goes round with that Travers…"
"Parkinson…"
"Bones…"
"You're mental if you think Stuart Bones will join up…"
"We're not going after any blood-traitor Gryffindors!"
"Of course we are, you heard what Malfoy said!"
"Enough," hissed Malfoy, and it spoke to his obvious authority in the group that everyone fell silent at once. "I've said twice now that our focus must be on the younger students, and the lot of you have only mentioned upper-years. We will keep an appraising eye on all of those referenced, and many more, but our assignment is to assess the younger students. Is that understood?"
There were nods and murmurs of assent.
"How will we get this information back to him?" asked the boy called Yaxley.
Malfoy gave him a calculating look for a moment before answering. "You are a seventh year, Yaxley. You will be finished with Hogwarts in June and then subsequently joining him. I shall be joining you when I am through with school next year. We will then be able to advise the inner circle as to which prospects should be considered and approached in the next few years. It will be invaluable information."
There was a pause during which the Slytherin students stared at each other in silence. Yaxley was the first one to speak.
"Well do we need to sign something or what? Are you going to tell Black and Lestrange that we're in?"
Malfoy's grey eyes swept over the rest of the students, who were all nodding to him, even Selwyn.
"I will owl Bellatrix this evening and tell her that we have a group of loyal Slytherins who are willing to keep an eye on the younger ones for the foreseeable future. That should suffice for now." Malfoy then turned his attention to Narcissa and began speaking to her in low murmurs. The others dispersed. Evidently, the meeting was over.
Underneath the cloak, Remus looked again at Sirius, James, and Peter. James shook his head slightly and Remus understood the motion to mean that they weren't going to continue with their plan to mess with Snape tonight. Sirius nodded in agreement, and the four of them made their way silently back through the common room door, which, luckily had just been opened by a hand-holding couple. They followed the couple through a few dark corridors, but eventually turned toward the entrance hall when the Slytherins turned toward the Potions corridor, and they lost sight of them.
The trek through the castle and back to Gryffindor Tower was the quietest the boys had been by far. Sirius and James didn't even snigger at the fact that the Slytherin couple was obviously sneaking off to be alone together, nor did they tease Peter when he tripped over the cloak and knocked into a suit of armor. Remus assumed that they, like him, were replaying the conversation in their heads, though he hoped that they could make more sense of it than he could.
The common room was still bustling by the time they got back, so the four boys kept the cloak covering them until they got up to their dormitory. The curtains around Goomer's bed were drawn, and light snores could be heard from the vicinity, so all four boys once again piled onto James's bed, which was the farthest from Goomer's, to discuss what they had heard.
"What in Merlin's name was that all about?"
"Whatever it was," Sirius said, "knowing Malfoy and my dear cousins, it was something horrible."
"What do you mean?" Peter squeaked, eyes wide.
"I mean, it seems like someone outside of Hogwarts is now getting information on the students in this castle from the Slytherins. And knowing the sorts of people Bellatrix runs round with, whoever this bloke is, he's definitely an evil git."
James looked troubled.
"I just remembered something," he said, standing up again and beginning to pace next to the bed. "The morning I left for Hogwarts, I overheard my parents arguing. They were talking about how I'd have to be on the lookout for kids from certain families. About how they'd try to learn too much about me and my family and stuff."
Remus stared. "Did they say which kids?"
James glanced quickly at Sirius and fidgeted with the frame of his glasses before answering. "They mentioned Avery and Rosier, but that's all I remember." Sirius made a noise low in his throat, but did not expound upon it.
"Slytherins," Peter added unnecessarily.
"So do you think your parents know about this? About Malfoy's recruitment?" Sirius said. "Do you think they're going to try and recruit you?"
James bit his lip and stopped his pacing. "I don't know. You heard what Malfoy said. About how they're looking for purebloods. I guess it's a possibility. They mentioned Stu, didn't they, and the Boneses are close friends of my family…"
"What do you think they'd want you for, though?" Remus asked.
"I bet it's just some stupid little club that Bellatrix and them are starting. 'Purebloods for the Cup' or some rot like that," said Sirius, rolling his eyes.
"There's something else, though," James said. "My parents then started talking about my grandpa. About how there was some business with some dark wizards approaching him before he died."
"What?" Peter yelped. "Your grandpa was killed by dark wizards?"
"No," said James quickly. "No, but they said these wizards wanted his help with dark magic and he refused them. And then they said…" He scrunched his face up as though trying to recall a distant memory. "Well, they said something about people wanting to know our political leanings, I think."
"Political leanings?" echoed Sirius, frowning. "Like who your parents support at the Ministry?"
"I don't know," James said, sitting down on the bed once more. "Maybe. It doesn't make much sense, does it?"
Silence fell over them, as each of the boys became lost in his own thoughts.
"So what do we do now?" asked Peter at length.
"I'll talk to Stuart tomorrow…warn him about what they said…see if he has any ideas. That is, if he's not off snogging Bayle Kamana." James rolled his eyes at the thought.
Sirius drummed his fingers against his knee, clearly agitated. "The Slytherins don't know that we heard their little meeting," he said. "We'll keep an eye on them. See who they're hanging round, eating with, that sort of thing. And if they do feel the urge to approach you, James, then that just gives us an excuse to hex them halfway to hell."
Remus had never seen Sirius be so, well, serious. It was slightly unnerving.
Peter started giggling suddenly, but he stopped when they all turned to stare at him.
"Sorry," he said quickly, using his hand to try cover the remnants of his laughter. "Sorry, I just had a mental picture of some greasy Slytherin like Snivelly trying to be all matey with James."
There was a beat of silence before Sirius said, "Peter made a funny!" James smacked Peter upside the head with his pillow, and they all started laughing right along with him.