Chapter 5: Through the One Eyed Witch's Hump
A/N: Ok I did promise another chapter out today if I got a good number of reviews and 7 seems like a good number to me. So here's the next chapter!
Sirius gave Lily a look that waivered just a tinge before going over to hoist James up and pulling his arm around him. He motioned for Lily to do the same and she did. And between the two of them they were able to guide James to Honeydukes.
"Uh…Sirius, why are we going to Honeydukes if we came through The Three Broomsticks?" Lily said a bit out of breath from James weight. He didn't look it, but the boy definitely was heavy.
"Because…" Sirius replied through gritted teeth, "It's easier to get out of The Three Broomsticks' room and board area than it is to get into it without a key."
"Good point…but how are we going to get back to Hogwarts this time?"
"Secret passage through Honeydukes cellar."
"Another secret passage?" Lily asked astonished. "How many are there?"
"I'd say around seven or so…we can only really use three though." Sirius replied.
Finally, they reached the front of Honeydukes Sweet Shop. Sirius peered inside and the features on his face dropped. Lily had no idea why, the place was nearly empty…
less people to see us sneak to wherever the secret passage is. she thought
"Damn!" Sirius swore. "The place is bloody empty!"
"So…" Lily trailed off.
"My God, Evans! Don't you ever use your brain?" Sirius asked incredulously . "Less people means more of a chance that they'll see us sneaking into the cellar!"
Lily heaved an internal sigh of relief that she hadn't said what she had been thinking.
And replied with a lame "Oh."
Suddenly, it seemed as if a light bulb had turned on in Sirius' head and he spoke once more. This time, his voice full of hope.
"Unless…James!"
"You rang?" James asked, still slurring his words.
"Did you bring your invisibility cloak?"
"Wait his what?" Lily asked not believing what she had heard.
The two boys ignored her and James spoke, answering Sirius' question.
"Of course Padfoot…I'm not stupid!"
And with that, James reached into his cloak pocket and pulled out a wad of silvery material.
Lily watched as it shimmered, both from the moonlight and from the light pouring out of Honeydukes. Just as quickly, James threw the cloak around Sirius and himself and they vanished from view. Lily stood there shocked as both boys seemingly disappeared. Suddenly an invisible hand shot out and grabbed Lily's upper arm.
Lily let out a strange sound which sounded like "Mrphhp!" as she suppressed a scream as the force pulled her forward. She felt a swoosh of air as something was draped over her and suddenly, she saw Sirius and James once more.
"Jesus, Evans. Make a little more noise would you?" Sirius scoffed.
"Oh, sod off Black!" She retorted smacking him on the arm.
He glared at her and then motioned for them to be quiet. Carefully, with Sirius in the lead, they made their way into Honeydukes unnoticed.
Sirius waited for the woman running the shop to be helping someone at the till before leading them into the back room. He walked a few steps forward before stopping.
"Keep a look out Lily and tell me if someone's coming." Sirius said throwing the invisibility cloak off of them and crouching on the gound.
Lily did as she was told as Sirius pried a large stone from the floor partially off to reveal a hole large enough for a person to step through.
He motioned for Lily and James to go through and then, finally went in last, placing the stone back in its place and plunging them into pure darkness.
"Help! Sirius! Lily! I think I've gone blind!" James screamed at the top of his lungs.
What-an-idiot! Lily thought before taking her wand out.
"Lumos!" she whispered.
Instantly, her wand tip ignited, showering the three with light.
"It's a miracle, I can see again!" James cried.
"Oh don't be thick!" Lily said angrily.
"Hey! Take it easy on the bloke, he is pissed after all." Sirius said, reminding Lily of James' state.
"Come on…this way to Hogwarts." Sirius called pointing ahead of them.
And once again, they resumed their positions on either side of James, supporting them between the two.
********
It wasn't that bad going through the passage way at first, seeing as it was mostly down hill. Then suddenly, the passage changed, and Lily found herself, climbing up hill.
Lily trudged up what seemed like miles upon miles of stairs. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have half of James' weight on me! She thought savagely.
James! James! James! That's what it always seemed to come down to these days.
It was, she decided, after all James' fault that she was stuck here, carrying his sorry arse up these damn stairs instead of somewhere like her nice, warm cozy bed.
Yes, she thought all stupid bloody Potter's fault.
James finally broke the silence with a fit of uncontrollable giggles.
"You wanna tell us what is suddenly so amusing Prongs?" Sirius grunted from James' other side.
"Hey, Sirius…" James began amidst giggles, "Lily shags foxes! Did you know that Lily shags foxes?!"
"Wait, what?!" Sirius asked confused. "Who told you that Prongs?"
"It's true, Sirius!" James yelled still laughing, "Ask Lily… Don't you Lily?"
"Yes, James, I shag foxes," Lily replied sarcastically. " In fact ? I Love shagging foxes! Later tonight, after I drop you off, I'm gonna go up to my room with about twenty foxes and we're all gonna have a big fox orgy! Wanna come join us?"
Having been so caught up with giving James a hard time and making him believe his atrocious accusation of her, she didn't realize that they had finally reached the entrance to Hogwarts at last. Together they managed to boost James up and then climb through themselves.
When Lily appeared by James' side once more, he looked at her bemused.
"um…no thanks!…wow! You really are strange!" he finally said.
"Do you shag foxes James?" Lily asked, deciding it was more fun to play with his mind than to be angry with him.
"NO!" James said defensively, "I shag girls, duh Lily! I love girls-girls are just awesome." James replied tipping to the side. Luckily, Sirius caught him before he rammed into the wall.
Aww! He's kinda cute when he's drunk! Lily thought. WAIT! What am I thinking! We're talking about Potter! He's in NO way cute! Said a stronger voice
Lily opened her mouth with the intention of saying something else to confuse James when Sirius' words cut in.
"Don't encourage him Lily!" he hissed.
James however seemed to be just as oblivious to this side conversation between Sirius and Lily as all the other ones they had had since the Hog's Head.
"Ha! Ha! Lily's loony Sirius!" James said as they walked slowly down the halls of Hogwarts.
"Loony loopy Lily! Loony loopy Lily!…hey, Sirius! I just made up a new song!" James began to sing.
Lily thought it best to ignore him and kept walking on his other side to make sure he didn't knock over a suit of armor.
"James…" Sirius replied patiently as if speaking to a five year old. "You didn't make up that song…that's what Peeves sings to Moony remember?"
"Oh yeah," James replied slightly put out. "Hey Sirius?"
"Mmm?" Sirius responded.
"Where is Remus anyway?"
"Remus? He's-" Sirius began before he cut himself off and a look of guilt spread across his face. "Oh my god! Remus! Bloody hell, I completely forgot!"
"What?! What's wrong with Remus?" Lily asked concerned.
"N-nothing!" Sirius studdered. "I just promised I'd help him with something and I completely forgot….shit! Lily I have to go!"
"But…you said Remus was with his mum, you can't possibly help him now."
"Yeah, but I-I-" Sirius stammered trying to think up a lie without being obvious. "I've got to send him a letter!…Just help James up to our dorm, can you do that Lily?"
"Look, I don't know Sirius-" Lily began.
"Please, Lily? Look it'll be fine, none of us'll be back until tomorrow… you'll be fine."
Lily glanced at James who was prodding a hole in the wall with mild interest.
Yeah, he's definitely not making it up stairs alone.
"Ok, alright…but what if we get caught?" She asked.
"You won't get caught Lily…" Sirius trailed off as he pulled something out of his pocket.
"Here, take this," he said handing her what seemed to be an old piece of folded parchment.
"What is it?" she asked looking at it intently.
"Just point your wand at it and say 'I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good.' when you're done using it point your wand to it and say 'mischief managed.'" Sirius ordered.
If these instructions sounded weird to Lily at all, she didn't let on. She just looked up from the map in time to see Sirius give her a sincere look.
"Oh, and thanks Lily." he replied before going down the corridor and slipping from view.
Well, here goes nothing. Lily thought.
She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the yellowing parchment and said
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
A/N: well how did you all like it? Hope you didn't find it too odd but James is still drunk so I figured he needed to do a couple of silly things. Anyway again thank you to all my lovely reviewers: You guys really do keep me going! You all know what to do if you want another chapter out soon!
Keep those REVIEWS coming and I promise I'll keep updating!
~Luminous Star