Passagways
September 6th, 1971
“You seem to end up in these situations often,” James said to Sirius after he left Dumbledore’s office.
“What can I say, I must be pretty popular.” Sirius shrugged.
“What’d he want you for?”
“Curious about my family,” Sirius waved off, “I stand out, y’know.”
“Sure you do,” James said, rolling his eyes. “Hey, at least we know Remus isn’t dead!”
“Yeah,” Peter interjected, “It’s nice to have an answer finally.”
James quite agreed. They headed down to dinner, after the time spent trying to find Dumbledore’s office, and the time spent in Dumbledore’s office, dinner had already started.
“Where have you three been?” Marlene exclaimed as the three of them sat down for dinner.
“Investigating the Ministry of Magic’s latest case,” Sirius said as he sat down.
“What’s that?”
“Classified information. Our lips are sealed.”
Marlene rolled her eyes, as Dorcas responded, “Were you visiting Remus?”
James thought this was a good explanation, and spoke before Sirius or Peter could, “Yeah, but he’s asleep now. Turns out it was worse than a stomach bug.”
“We were down at the Hospital Wing with Mary,” Dorcas said, gesturing to Lily and Marlene, “Muliciber, he’s like God to the first-year Slytherins, hexed her and she fell down the stairs.”
“Arseholes.” James muttered, “All of them, the entirety of Slytherin.”
“You’re telling me!” Marlene exclaimed.
“Especially Snivellus,” James said, scrunching up his nose, “Muliciber ought to hex him with shampoo.”
Lily Evans was the only one who didn’t laugh, instead scowling at him, “What’s your deal? Just leave him alone!”
“He’s the one who started it, not me,” James said, holding up his hands.
“Oh, you two started it, not Sev!” Lily said, gesturing to him and Sirius, “On the train, you immediately made fun of him!”
“We didn’t say a word to him!” Sirius exclaimed.
“He made fun of Gryffindor first!” James added.
“Sirius didn’t have to continue it!”
“What do you want me to do! Thank him?” Sirius responded. He started talking in a very pompous voice, “Thank you, Sir Snivellus. I humbly appreciate your snorts and remarks against Gryffindor in favor of the purest of pure!”
Lily continued, ignoring Marlene's, Dorcas’, Peter’s, and James’ splutters of laughter. “I never said that!” She said angrily and stormed from the Great Hall. They all went silent.
“What’s her deal?” Peter asked.
“No clue, Pete,” Marlene signed, “I don’t get why she’s friends with Snape, she says they live near each other but-”
“That’s not an excuse,” Sirius said sharply, “I was forced to be around Lucius Malfoy, and is my hair bleached? No.”
James and Peter sat on the floor of their dormitory, playing a game of Exploding Snap as Sirius read some of Peter’s Martin Miggs comics.
“You alive?” James asked, as one of the cards exploded. Sirius was so engrossed in the comic he hadn’t made a noise or moved in half an hour.
Sirius jumped, and looked up from the comic, “Sadly, if I have to watch you lose Exploding Snap.”
“I’m not even that far behind!” James exclaimed.
“It’s 6-2, I’m four ahead of you-”
“Shut up!” James said hurriedly as Sirius doubled over with laughter.
“Make that five ahead!” Peter exclaimed as James' last card exploded.
James groaned as Sirius and Peter roared with laughter, “Alright,” James said, “I need to prove my skill in Exploding Snap.”
“What skill?”
James glared at Sirius. “I need a new opponent. If Remus were here, or if Pomfrey allowed visitors again-” James stopped as a thought struck him. The Cloak! It seemed so obvious! How had he not figured it out before?
Sirius waved a hand in front of James’ face, “Still with us?”
“We’re going to the Hospital Wing!” James exclaimed, darting towards his trunk.
“Hold on-”
“When’d you come up with that?
“Just now, Sirius,” James said, rifling through his trunk. He found the cloak and pulled it out, showing it to Sirius and Peter.
Sirius and Peter stared at him.
“Are you attempting to seduce Madam Pomfrey in that rag?” Sirius asked, “If so I think I should be the one-”
“No!” James exclaimed, and he put on the cloak. Their eyes widened.
“Woah!”
“Where’d you get that?” Sirius asked.
“Old family heirloom. Dad gave it to me, Mum said I couldn’t bring it but I hid it at the bottom of my trunk.” James said, and he opened the cloak slightly, “Grab the cards, and get under here so we can prove my worth.”
Sirius and Peter did not make fun of him, still looking a bit amazed by the cloak. Peter grabbed the cards, and he and Sirius joined James under the cloak.
“Alright,” said James, “No one trip going down the stairs.”
They headed down to the Common Room, taking careful steps to not fall down the stairs. The Common Room was still a bit crowded, curfew was just a few minutes ago. They carefully stepped around everyone, having a close call after August threw a book at Marlene and Mary, who were sitting near the portrait hole.
They waited until a group of fifth-years walked through, and ran as fast as they could out into the hall. The three set off into the hall, taking careful steps so they didn’t step on the cloak. When they reached the third floor, they faced a new problem.
“We took a wrong turn somewhere,” Sirius muttered.
“We couldn’t have!
“Yes, we did! I’ve never seen that statue before, have you?” Sirius pointed to a statue on their left, of a one-eyed witch. James had never seen it before.
“No, I’ve never been in this corridor before, either,” James admitted.
“Lovely,” Sirius muttered.
Peter whined, “I wish we had a-”
A force knocked into them, knocking them off-balance. They all tried to stay covered by the cloak but failed. Sirius had managed to stay completely covered, however, James only had his legs covered and Peter had fallen out completely.
“James? Peter?”
James looked up to see Remus Lupin standing above him. “Where’d you come from? Why are you out here?”
“We were coming to see you! She wouldn’t let us in earlier!” James exclaimed in a whisper.
“We thought you were in St. Mungo's!” Peter exclaimed.
“I just had a stomach bug!”
“Considering we were quite literally shoved out of the Hospital Wing multiple times,” Sirius said, “We were a little worried it was worse than that.” Remus looked around, until Sirius pulled off the cloak, “Right in front of you.”
Remus’ eyes widened, “Is that an invisibility cloak?”
“No,” Sirius responded, “You’re going blind, you’re gonna have to borrow James’ glasses.”
“You know what I mean!” Remus hissed, “How’d you get it?”
“Not mine, it’s James’.”
“It’s an old family heirloom,” James explained. “We were coming to visit you, we went to Headmaster Dumbledore earlier to make sure-”
“You went to Headmaster Dumbledore!”
“-Yes, yes, quiet down, Remus.” James took a breath, then began again. “We went to Headmaster Dumbledore to make sure you weren't St. Mungos, and we decided to come down to see you!”
“Decided, more like James wanted to prove he could win a game of Exploding Snap-”
“Shut up, Sirius-”
“Why’d you wait till now to come see me?”
“We wanted to avoid Madam Pomfrey,” Peter responded.
“Hence the cloak.”
“Was working like a charm till you took us out.”
“Well Sirius you were invis- ” Remus stopped speaking, and looked down the corridor, “Under the cloak, now!”
“Why?” Peter asked, confused.
“Just don’t ask questions!” The four scrambled under the cloak and backed behind the one-eyed witch statue. Just in time too, as the caretaker, Filch, and his cat, Mrs. Norris had appeared in the corridor. They examined the corridor for several minutes. Not one of them moved underneath the cloak, holding their breath.
“Thought I heard something,” Filch muttered, shaking his head. He and Mrs. Norris walked away.
They all let out their breath.
“That was close,” Peter said.
“You’re telling me,” Remus replied, “We really should head back-”
“Not yet!” Sirius cut him off, “Listen!” Sirius knocked on the top of the statue, and then on the hump of the statue. James heard it; the hump sounded hollow.
“Woah!” Peter breathed.
“It’s probably a secret passage!” Sirius exclaimed, “Anyone know any spells to unlock it?”
“It’s after-hours, we should probably-”
“Have a little fun, Remus!” James responded.
“You read a lot, do you know any?” Sirius asked. They all looked at him expectantly.
Remus sighed in defeat, “I think I read about one once, I think it’s called Dissendium?”
Sirius pointed his wand against the hump and muttered “ Dissendium ”, it opened, revealing a slide.
“Awesome!” Peter breathed.
They took turns entering the slide. Peter went first, and he needed Sirius to push him fully inside. Sirius went next, then Remus and James went last. The slide led to an extremely dark, long-looking tunnel.
“Better get moving, shall we?” James said and led the way down the tunnel.
Nearly an hour later, James ran into a wall. Sirius looked like he was feeling the wall, and when he reached the ceiling a staircase fell out. They followed Sirius up.
The staircase led to what looked like a cellar, and it was crammed to the brim with boxes and shelves.
“I think we’re in Honeydukes!” Peter whispered
“No need to thank me,” Sirius said, grabbing a chocolate frog, “Dig in!”
James and Peter joined Sirius, but Remus stayed back.
“Maybe we shouldn’t…” Remus said, looking around. “Isn’t that stealing?”
“Not if you pay for it!” James shouted, between bites of a Cauldron cake, “One of us will come back tomorrow and leave some money.”
“C’mon Remus,” Sirius said, looking incredibly serious, “You know you want to.”
Remus hesitated for a moment but seemed less worried than before. He strolled over to the Chocolate Wands and began to rifle through them.
“I did in fact want to,” Remus said, a chocolate wand between his teeth.
The four boys returned to the dorm a little over an hour later, pockets full of chocolate and sweets.
“That was a master find, Sirius!” James exclaimed, throwing his share of sweets on his bed. Sirius did a melodramatic bow as James, Peter, and Remus gave him a round of applause.
“I reckon there’s more secret passageways in the castle,” Sirius said when they had finished, “Why build just one?”
“That makes sense!” Peter exclaimed,
“There has to be more that leads to Hogsmeade, and there has to be shortcuts,” Sirius added, “No one would build a school this large and not have a few shortcuts!”
“And we’re gonna find all of them!” James exclaimed.
“Hold on,” Remus said, “What if Filch knows about some?”
James nodded his head, “Like I said, we’re gonna find all of them, and avoid the ones that Filch uses!”
“Yeah!” Peter added.
“Speaking of Filch,” Sirius said, eyeing Remus curiously, “How’d you know he was coming.”
Remus hesitated for a moment, “I think Mrs. Norris banged into something, I heard a noise.”
“Speaking of noise,” James said, “Sirius, where are the cards?”
Sirius groaned and looked at Remus. “He needs you to prove that he’s worthy.”
Remus looked very confused, “What-”
“I need to prove I can win Exploding Snap!”
Sirius handed the deck of cards to Remus and smirked, “Have fun!”
September 7th, 1971
It was still dark outside when James woke up the next morning. Judging by Sirius’ state, he had not woken up to leave money for Honeydukes, leaving James to do it. James didn’t mind paying for all of their chocolate, he had plenty to spare anyways, and he got the impression Remus and Peter did not have that kind of money.
Once James returned, Gryffindor Tower had begun to wake up and a few early risers were sitting in the Common Room. Luckily, they did not notice the portrait hole open seemingly of its own accord as James walked through.
James could hear the shower running in their dorm, and James guessed it was Peter. He was right, as Remus and Sirius were still asleep. Sirius was sprawled out in every direction. It was no surprise Remus and Sirius were still asleep; they had been the last ones up every day since term started. They had all been up late last night too, as it turns out Remus was very good at Exploding Snap. The cards were still sitting on the floor, they hadn’t bothered to clean them up before going to sleep.
James looked at their timetable for the day
TUESDAY:
BLOCK 1: History of Magic
BLOCK 2: Transfiguration
LUNCH
BLOCK 3: Supervised Study Hall
BLOCK 4: Defense Against the Dark Arts
Aside from History of Magic, today was not bad in James’ eyes. He and Sirius had been good at Transfiguration the first class, and James had been looking forward to Defense Against the Dark Arts the most. The supervised study hall was disappointing, however, as James and Sirius had hoped to look for more passageways.
The bathroom door opened and Peter stepped out in his school robes. James had not changed to pay Honeydukes and was still in his pajamas. Peter looked surprised to see him.
“Where’d you go?” He asked, “You were gone when I woke up.”
“I was paying for the stuff we took last night.”
“Oh! Do you want money for it?” Peter asked, opening his trunk.
“No!” James said, moving forward to stop him, “It’s fine, it’s on me.”
Peter closed his trunk, “Thanks.”
“I’ll buy anything as long as it’s not for homework,” James winked at Peter. He jerked his head in the direction of Remus and Sirius, “What do you say we wake them up?”
Peter looked curious, “How?”
James smiled and jerked his head in the direction of the bathroom, “Cold water? But not just a little splash, it’s gotta be huge!”
“So, like a bucket of water then?”
“Yeah!”
“Where are we gonna get a bucket?”
James hesitated, “That’s a very good question I don’t have the answer to.”
Five minutes later, James had lifted Sirius and Remus into the shower without waking them up. Peter wasn’t strong enough to lift them, which left James to do it alone. However, Remus was light as a feather, and James doubted anyone would have struggled to lift him.
“There aren’t any books on Remus, right?” James asked, hand on the faucet, “I strongly feel he’d kill us if we ruined one of his books, and I prefer to be alive today.”
Both James and Peter double-checked to make sure neither Sirius nor Remus had anything in their pockets. Once sure their pockets were empty, James turned on the faucet, ice cold and full-blast.
Remus and Sirius woke up immediately, flailing around and looking dazed.
“Motherfuc -”
“Where-”
James and Peter roared with laughter, as they watched Sirius and Remus try and figure out where they were. There were many half-hearted attempts to turn off the water, but they evidently could not figure out how.
Sirius managed to reach the faucet and turned it off.
“Brilliant idea.”
“We know. It’s why we did it.”
Sirius helped Remus to his feet.
“Was that really necessary?” Remus groaned, rubbing his eyes.
“Yes,” Peter responded.
Sirius glared at James and Peter. “You’re lucky it’s early.”
The flutter of owls came in as James was buttering his toast. Gus dropped a letter in front of James for the first time this year, and two owls dropped a letter in front of Remus and Peter.
“You’re the only one who hasn’t gotten mail at all yet, Sirius,” Peter asked curiously, as the three opened their mail.
“Trust me,” Sirius replied, his hair still wet, “I prefer it that way.” Sirius went back to shoving bacon in his mouth as James began to read the letter.
James,
We both knew you’d be in Gryffindor! We’re sorry for not sending a reply back earlier, but Lioness was sick and we couldn’t risk such a distance! I sent some Chocolate Chip Cookies with her, I tried a new recipe, let me know if I should keep the old one or switch to this one, feel free to share them with your housemates too!
Also, your father told me he gave you the cloak. Under no circumstances are you to use it for more than fancy tricks in your dormitory with your housemates only.
Love you lots, Mum.
James opened the box Gus brought and pushed it into the middle of their group.
“What are those for?” Remus asked, tucking his letter in his robes.
“My Mum sent them,” James responded, shoving a cookie in his mouth, “Don’t make me eat all of them by myself.”
Sirius took out the two biggest cookies and handed one to Remus. “This,” he said, through a mouthful of cookie, “is revenge for this morning.”
Unlike Sirius, Remus waited until he finished chewing to respond, “Revenge is sweet.”
James took the box of cookies with him to History of Magic and passed a few to the girls to ensure they didn’t die of boredom. He wasn’t worried about running out, his mum had sent a ludicrous amount, well over three dozen.
“I thought you didn’t like us?” James asked Lily, as she took the cookie he offered them.
“I still don’t,” She replied, taking a bite, “But I’ll take you over Binns.”
James didn’t think he would survive to see Transfiguration, Binns had reached a level of boring James didn’t think was possible, but he made it to Transfiguration still alive, though wounded by an essay on Uric the Oddball.
Professor McGonagall did not assign any new work, instead letting them continue to practice turning matches into needles. Remus copied Sirius’ notes onto his own and was now trying to transfigure his own match.
“It’s not shiny, but hey,” Sirius paused to shove a cookie in his mouth, “It’s pointy, and that’s something!”
“Better than mine,” Peter said.
“It looks skinnier than it was before,” James said, examining Peter’s match, “That’s-”
“Mr. Black! I believe I said there was no eating in this classroom!”
Sirius did not respond and merely kept chewing his cookie while making direct eye contact with Professor McGonagall.
“Ah, Professor M! I thought you liked us!” James exclaimed.
“It is Professor McGonagall, Mr. Potter-”
“You want one?” Sirius asked, holding up the box of cookies. “They're really good, you’ll regret it if you don’t.”
Professor McGonagall hesitated for a moment before taking a cookie. “Under no circumstances are you to eat in my classroom again, Mr. Black.”
Sirius gave her a mock salute in response, “I assure you no more cookies will be eaten.”
After a little convincing Remus, the four boys skipped lunch to look for more passageways, though they did grab sandwiches for the way. They had to be quick, lunch was only a little over an hour long and their study hall next period was supervised.
“Where do we even start?” Peter asked, taking a bite of his sandwich.
“The last one was behind a statue,” Sirius replied, “Good place to start.”
It turns out there were a lot of statues in Hogwarts. They checked every statue they could find. At first, they only checked the hump, but then realized that the passageways could be different. They had to double back and recheck each part of every statue.
Half of lunch had passed when a thought came to James' mind. “Hey,” he said, causing the other three to stop, “you know how we get to the Common Room through a portrait?”
“Yeah, what about it?” Peter asked.
Remus' eyes widened, “That’s a good idea!”
Sirius' eyes widened also, “There are even more portraits than statues! Much easier to hide a passage!” It seemed Peter finally realized what James, Sirius, and Remus were talking about.
“Well, there’s one right here!” James said, pointing at the portrait they were standing in front of. The label read Posey Macmillan. “Anyone have any password ideas?”
“Essence of dittany!” Sirius shouted. The portrait swung open.
“How’d you think of that?” Remus asked, baffled.
“First word that came to mind,” Sirius shrugged and climbed through the portrait.
The passageway was almost entirely downhill. It was not nearly as long as the Honeydukes passage. They reached the other side in just 10 minutes.
“Wait!” Remus stopped James before he opened it, “What if someone's out there?”
“Wait?” Peter suggested.
“We can’t wait forever!” Sirius replied, and he pushed past James and Remus, opening the door. “No one’s here, let’s go!”
James immediately knew where they were after stepping into the hallway. They were in the dungeons. “Well,” he said, “this we’ll be useful for getting away from Slytherins after Potions faster!”
As if on cue, a pair of Slytherins walked around the corner, Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape.
“What do we have here?” Lucius asked.
“People with healthy hair,” Sirius responded.
Snape rolled his eyes, “Potter and Black just think they're so funny,”
“Hello?” James said, waving his hand, “Is your sense of smell so good you can’t see? We’re both right in front of you.”
“I wish I couldn’t see right now-”
“Oh, is that why your hairs so greasy then?” Sirius asked, “You use it all on your eyes, not your head?
“I thought better of you, Black,” Lucius said, looking directly at Sirius, “Yet you still can’t find suitable company.”
“They're more suitable than you,” Sirius responded, “They’ve never snogged my cousins, so-”
“We have James Potter, part of one of the most blood-traitor families to exist-”
“-Proud of it,” James gave a mock salute.
“Next, Peter Pettigrew, pure-blooded but common, could’ve done more if it weren’t for that Inn-”
“Thanks for giving us a recap of our families, we’d almost forgotten, thank you so much!” Remus said, rolling his eyes. James was surprised, Remus always seemed timid, and not the type to go after Lucius Malfoy. Remus looked surprised at himself.
“Oh, and who do we have here?” Lucius said, walking towards Remus. Sirius and James moved closer to him, “I don’t even know your last name!”
“Good for him,” Sirius said, “must be peaceful not knowing you.”
“Remus, is it? Remus Lupin? You look like you’d blow over in the wind, no surprise there, what a shame that is, your father was decent until he married a muggle, and oh!” Lucius got closer to Remus, and grabbed his chin, pointing out the scars on his cheek, “What do we have here?”
James went to pull Remus away, but Sirius beat him to it. Remus looked shaken, and Sirius had his arms around him protectively.
“Don’t touch him!” James shouted, pointing his wand at Lucius.
Lucius looked amused, and was looking at Sirius and Remus, “The Heir to the House of Black, what a pity.”
“Only the Slytherins, like Malfoy, don’t take him seriously.”
“That’s still a lot of people, James-”
“I would hardly call some of them people, some are just too slimy.”
The only house not in the study period was Slytherin which was a stroke of luck in James’ opinion. James, Sirius, and Peter had spent 10 minutes trying to cheer up Remus; Lucius grabbing his face had unnerved him quite a bit.
“It doesn’t matter how slimy they are!” Remus responded.
“If that doesn’t matter, then what does?” Peter asked.
Remus sighed. “I just don’t want Lucius Malfoy knowing anything about me.”
“I don’t either,” Sirius responded, “He wouldn’t know much about you anyways, besides your name and that you’re Welsh.”
“How would he know I’m Welsh?”
“Have you heard yourself talk?” James asked.
“Your accents brighter than his hair,” Sirius said.
“Okay, that’s fair. But he knows who my dad is!”
“That’s not knowing about you, that’s knowing about your dad!”
“A lot of people know about your dad, Remus.” James responded, “He’s an expert on the most annoying and terrifying things to exist.”
“You mean Boggarts?”
“I reckon I described them pretty well!”
“Besides,” Peter added, “Everyone gets asked about their family once in a while! I’ve gotten asked about my parents, my cousins, my uncle, my aunt-”
Sirius pointed at Peter, “He’s got a point.”
“You’re worth twelve of Malfoy, Remus,” James said firmly, “There are more important things to worry about, like surviving our next History of Magic lesson, or how many cookies we have left!”
Remus seemed to cheer up a little bit, which was better than nothing, so James considered it a win.