Don’t own Harry Potter. Full. Stop. (Or anything to do with Harry Potter, considering that he hasn’t even made an appearance in my story yet!)
Jada shook Lily awake.
“What’s the matter?” asked Lily, groggily. Jada looked incredibly worried.
“Um, Lily,” she started. “You know how the castle is filled with passages?”
Lily frowned at the look on Jada’s face. “Yes, what about them?”
“James-and-his-friends-went-out-to-explore-a-secret-passageway-that-James’s-Dad-told-him-about-they-told-me-before-I- went-to-bed-and-I-tried-to-stop-them-but-they-wouldn’t-listen-to-me-because-they’re-dumb-and-the-passageway’s-dangerous-but-they-didn’t-know-and-I-forgot-and-they-aren’t-back-yet-and-it’s-been-ages-since-they-went!!!!”
Jada said all of this incredibly fast, and Lily stared at her for a second, trying to take in all of this new information.
“So, in other words, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter are somewhere wandering around in a secret passage that could be dangerous, and you wait until now to tell me WHY?” Lily shrieked.
“I didn’t know what passageway he was talking about at first, but then I realised that he was talking about the one that his Dad was telling my Dad about last year. Apparently, his Dad went in there once and it almost caved in on him, he only just made it out alive.” Jada reported.
Lily gaped at her. “Then why on Earth did James and his friends go in there?” she demanded.
Jada looked even more worried. “Because James only heard his Dad say about the great place that the passage led to,” she explained.
Lily finally understood. “Well, we’ll just have to go and find them then, won’t we?” she said.
James fell back again. “It’s no use, you lot,” he said dejectedly. “We can’t climb up.”
“If only you hadn’t dropped your wand, we would be fine,” grumbled Peter.
“If you three had bothered to bring your wands in the first place, it wouldn’t have mattered if I’d dropped my wand or not!” James snapped back.
“Look,” said Remus quietly. James turned around and saw that rocks were slowly dislodging themselves from the ceiling. James felt the colour drain from his face.
“Oh Merlin, it’s going to cave in!” he cried.
“It’s still open,” said Jada, as she and Lily approached the statue of the old wizard.
The two girls took a cautious step inside, when Lily held out her hand for Jada to stop.
“Look, what’s that down there?” she asked, pointing at the ground.
“Lumos,” said Jada, and a thin beam of light shot out from her wand.
Lily picked it up. “It’s a wand,” she said, examining it, turning it over in the light from Jada’s wand.
Jada directed her light to the ground, to see if anything else was there. The light washed over what looked like an entrance to a slide, covered with moss.
“Who’s there?” a faint voice cried out from somewhere below the girls. Jada looked up, hopefully.
“James, is that you?” she called out down the slide and into the darkness that seemed to swallow up her words.
A voice rang out. “Yes, but-“
“Get us out of here!” cried another voice that Lily made out as Sirius’s. “The whole place is about to cave in!”
Jada looked at Lily, terrified. “Just hold on you guys!” she called, trying not to panic.
Lily could have sworn she heard someone mutter, “Like we have a choice.” She ignored the voice.
“What are we going to do Lily?” asked Jada frantically.
“I don’t know, we can hardly levitate them out if we can’t see them. Do you have a wand?” she called down the slide.
“No, because someone dropped it!” called out Peter.
“Well at least I brought one!” responded James testily.
“Would you two just shut up, the girls are trying to concentrate so we don’t die!”
“Hurry up up there will you? The rocks don’t seem to feel like waiting for you for some strange reason, heaven knows why!”
Lily was finding it increasingly hard to concentrate with James and Peter bickering, and Remus and Sirius urging her to hurry up, but she finally thought of something.
“A rope, magic up a rope!” Lily exclaimed to Jada.
Jada did so, her hands shaking, and tossed the thick rope she managed to conjure down the slide, she and Lily holding onto the other end.
James looked around in a panic at the falling rocks and the dust filled air. A loud rumbling had filled the tunnel, and Peter had begun to whimper pathetically.
A rope appeared at the bottom of the slide, and Peter ran to it and instantly began his climb up the slippery slide.
Remus followed him, and grabbed onto the rope just as the falling rocks doubled in size.
James inhaled a lungful of dust and began to cough. A jagged rock fell down past James’s cheek, slashing open the skin.
‘You next,” said Sirius, pushing him forward.
“No, you,” said James firmly.
Sirius knew that there was no point in arguing, and he grabbed the rope.
It was then that the roof seemed to give way, and an avalanche of rocks pelted down towards James.
He lunged in the direction of the slide, but a large group of rocks fell in front of him, forcing him backwards. He began to choke on the dust, and rocks smashed against his head unforgivingly.
“JAMES!!” yelled Sirius. He let go of the rope, and let himself drop onto the ground, and ran blindly through the thick cloud of dust towards his best friend.
He found James arm, and roughly yanked him over to the slide and pushed him up.
This all happened in about 30 seconds, but to James and Sirius, it all happened in slow motion, because 30 seconds of not knowing whether you’re about to die or not can drag on for hours.
The girls waited at the top, anxiously. Peter appeared in the opening, and he dashed away from the statue looking frightened.
Lily heard Sirius call out James’s name, sounding alarmed. Jada grabbed onto Lily’s arm, unable to speak.
Remus came out, looking pale with worry. He was shaking so hard that Lily had to help him out.
“It’s James… something’s wrong,” he whispered. Jada whimpered, and Remus touched her arm sympathetically.
The small group waited for what seemed like an eternity, then, finally, James climbed over the edge of the slide.
His hair was matted, he was filthy, his face was a deathly white, only coloured by blood which streamed out of a deep cut on his cheek and he was exhausted and his breathing was heavy and forced.
For some reason, Lily had never felt more attracted to him then now, though, when only a few minutes ago, she feared that she would never see him again.
Lily rushed forward to help James out of the crack in the statue, and he tried to stand properly, but his legs gave way.
Sirius, who had been coming out of the statue, caught him just before he hit the ground.
“Are you alright?” asked Remus, worriedly, running towards him, giving Lily the impression of a worried mother.
“Yeah, I’m fine, I just have a bit of a headache,” said James, smiling faintly, and trying his hardest to look as if he really did ‘just have a headache’.
What is it with boys and pretending they’re fine all the time? wondered Lily. They’d have a much easier life if they just admitted they needed help.
“Come on, we’ll take you to the Hospital Wing,” said Lily, making a move to walk in that direction.
“No, Lily, Madame Pomfrey will kill us for being out this late,” protested James.
Sirius and Peter nodded earnestly, while Remus seemed to be debating the topic in his head.
Lily sighed. “Well, and least get some bandages on your face,” she insisted.
James nodded, rolling his eyes, and as they reached the point where the boys and girls parted to go towards their dorms, he shot a smile towards Lily.
“Goodnight,” He said coyly.
Lily grinned at him, and allowed Jada to drag her off in the opposite direction, still staring after James.
Hello, peoples!! Hope that you liked it!! I liked the turn out last time I did this, so 6 reviews and an update. I made it only 6 because of the fact that the chapter wasn't left on a cliffhanger, so 6 reviews for the next chapter seems like a fairer deal. Happy Reading!!