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Chapter 10
Mission: Impossible
Sirius grabbed the bedcovers from the foot of the bed and tossed it over the glowing orb that Peter held, putting out the glowing light and plunging the room into darkness. He carefully lifted the covered orb from Peter's arms, and held it tightly, backing away from Peter. And then there was silence, until Sirius heard James whisper "lumos," and a soft light filled the room.
With the light, Sirius could now see that Peter was glaring at him with a look of utmost loathing. "Give it back," he hissed.
Sirius laughed mockingly. "Give it back? You stole this. It doesn't belong to you. Why should you have it?"
Peter rose slowly from his bed. "Give it back," he repeated, his voice getting steadily more forceful.
The laugh on Sirius' face was quickly replaced with disbelief as Peter began walking slowly toward him. "Why?" he asked again.
"Because," Peter said as he walked slowly to Sirius, stopping only when their faces were inches apart. "Because it's MINE!" he shouted as he launched himself at Sirius, and the two boys fell to the floor, Peter desperately trying grab the orb, and Sirius holding onto it as if his life depended on it.
They only stopped when Remus forced them apart and grabbed the orb out of Sirius' arms. Both boys leaped off the floor, and both shouted at Remus to give it back, but Remus was looking at the bundle, and had a strange look on his face. Sirius leapt at Remus, but he was too quick and had jumped onto James' bed behind me, clutching the orb protectively.
Sirius knew Remus didn't deserve it, and neither did Peter, and the only thought in his head was that he had to get it away from them and keep it forever, but by the looks on their faces, he could tell they were thinking the same thing. The only one who didn't seem to be thinking this was James.
*
James was looking very strangely at his friends. He just didn't understand their behavior. They were acting like they hated each other, and he knew that wasn't true. And it was getting worse. Peter looked as if he were about ready to kill one of them. This utterly confused James, but then he felt it.
Jealousy. The cloth had slipped, giving James a quick glimpse of the orb Remus was holding, and he felt that he would do anything to take it from them-even if he had to hurt them. But then the cloth slid back into place and it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. And he knew what he had to do.
He leapt onto the bed, where Remus was attempting to kick Sirius onto the floor, and grabbed the orb. Then, despite the feelings he had against it, he put it into his bag, running from the three other boys who were flinging themselves at him, and shut it in a closet, locking the door. But they were still coming at him, so he took the key, and ran down to the common room.
As soon as they were all out of the room, James shut the door, and they all stopped. Everyone was silent, and then Remus said, "Somebody feel like telling me what's going on?"
*
It took about half an hour to tell Remus just what was going on, and then to talk about it, but they finally came to the realization that the orb was trouble, and they had to get rid of it. Fast.
So around about midnight, the Marauders grabbed the orb, which they had wrapped in all of their bedsheets and put in a bag (in order to resist temptation), and snuck out of the common room. They had only been walking for a little while before they turned around the corner, and crashed into a group of girls running down the halls, panting.
"What are you doing here?" Lily asked slowly.
"Well what are you doing here?" James asked suspiciously.
"That's not fair, we asked you first," Marlene said.
"Well we asked you second," said Sirius, "so you have to tell us."
"No way!" said Lily.
"We've just overheard a meeting and Eris said her apple thing is missing and it might be stolen and no one knows where it is and it's bad because she says it's dangerous," Dorcas said quickly, getting hit on the back of the head by Marlene.
"Fine," Lily sighed. "But now that you know, you have to tell us why you're here."
Sirius made a face like he was thinking, and then said, "Umm… NO!"
As the girls were glaring maliciously at him, Peter, who was holding the orb-bag, fumbled around behind him, and then dropped it on the floor, where it landed with a clunk.
Both groups made to grab it, but Lily got to it first, and opened it up, gasping. James snatched it from her, but he could see from her face that it was too late. She had already seen the apple, and was looking at James like he was a mental patient.
"I didn't take it," he blurted out quickly. "It was Peter. We're just returning it."
"Well good luck returning it now," Marlene hissed. "They're all in that room right now. And they know it's missing. So there's really nothing you can do right now."
The Marauders all sighed, feeling completely helpless. It wasn't a good feeling.
James knew then what he had to do. It wasn't a particularly good idea, but he knew there was nothing else to do. "I think we need your help," he mumbled softly.
Lily smiled. "What was that?"
She knew what he had said. He could tell by the look on her face. She just wanted to make him suffer. "Look," he said, "I'm sorry for goofing off when we were supposed to be finding information, and I'm sorry for being such a jerk, and for making you mad all those times, but right now I don't know what to do and we really need your help. So can we just call a truce and make a plan?"
Lily's smile faded to a more serious look. "Apology accepted," she said, and then, smiling again, but sweetly this time, she added, "and of course we'll help."
*
Quietly, Dorcas and Emmeline crept down the hallway. They could see the door up ahead. It was closed, and probably locked, and Dorcas felt like her insides were melting. She had never done anything like this before, and it was killing her.
They had spent at least an hour coming up with an idea to return the orb to its proper place, and even after all that time, none of them had come up with a suitable plan. Except Sirius Black, that is.
So, at the dead of night, Dorcas and Emmeline were about to set into motion the most stupid and immature plan they had ever heard, and that is why they were so afraid to be caught. Because it was quite the opposite of foolproof. In fact, there was about a 99.9% chance that they would get caught, and Dorcas got the feeling that getting caught doing something like this was going to catch them more than just a detention.
They were approaching the door now, and Dorcas felt she would have given anything to be anywhere else at that moment-even if that place was in an open field in a thunderstorm holding a tall metal rod.
She didn't understand why Peter shouldn't just do all of this. After all, it was he who stole the orb in the first place. Why shouldn't he deal with it alone? But she answered her own question. Because he has friends that really care about him and want to help. Because it wasn't really his fault. And because it would be very difficult to have to carry out the entire plan by himself.
She looked sideways at Emmeline. Her face was set, and as they walked in silence, she had the look of someone who accepts what will happen because she expects to get caught.
But Dorcas did not have that kind of quiet serenity. It was unfair, all based on chance. They had drawn straws, and she and Emmeline were the ones chosen. It really might have been Lily's fault. She was the one who had decided that they would help. Life was really a lot easier when Lily hated James Potter.
The door was coming closer now, and though Dorcas knew what had to be done, she didn't understand why, and neither did she want to. She just walked to the door as if it would be the last thing she would ever do.
*
Peter hid quietly in the shadows, just as Sirius had told him to. Truth be told, it really was a stupid plan, and it seemed that at least one of them would be caught, but it was the only plan they had, and so Peter hid quietly in the shadows, just as Sirius had told him to.
He watched with increasing guilt as Dorcas and Emmeline approached the door. Emmeline looked calm, but Peter could tell that the same panic that was painted across Dorcas' face was running through Emmeline as well. They looked at each other for a moment, seemingly deciding who would have to do it, and then Emmeline lifted her hand to the door, and knocked, loudly.
Peter saw Dumbledore open the door, and look expectantly at the two girls. And then he heard Dorcas say shakily, "Umm… we're sorry to interrupt, Sir, but we… umm… have some… er… information… about the missing… uh… thing."
Peter couldn't see Dumbledore's face, but he could guess what it looked like. The Headmaster disappeared inside the room for a moment, and then reappeared, saying quietly, "We will all speak in my office. This way, please."
But here's where Peter made his mistake. Had he been watching the figures leave, he would have seen that only four people were making their way to Dumbledore's office-two men, and two girls. But Peter was too busy worrying about the task ahead of him to wonder where the other one was.
And so, taking a deep breath, Peter scurried into the room, over to the painting of the mountain, and whispered the password. He was doing everything as quickly as he could, a feeling of dread filling his stomach. It began to dissipate, though, as he placed the bundle back into the hole, and hissed the password to close it. But as soon as the word left his mouth, another voice, one he recognized all to well filled the room.
It was all Peter could do not to cover his ears when he heard the voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. It spoke loudly, with an almost mocking laugh. "Did you really think you could get away that easily?"
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