Chapter 17: The Chase
Lily wasn’t sure how long she stood, frozen to the spot from shock, her eyes locked on Raven’s signature. She probably would have stayed there a lot longer, if a sharp pain in her hand, courtesy of Blizzard, hadn’t alerted her to her senses. Unconsciously, she grabbed onto the snidget, and stuffed it into her robes pocket where its indignant squawks were muffled. It wouldn’t take long for it to figure out that its sharp claws could shred through Lily’s robes, thus freeing it, but she needed the quiet.
She quickly scanned the letter again, feverishly. Raven told her not to go after her, but obviously Lily was going to. But she’d need help, she couldn’t curse Raven back into her senses all by her self! She’d need the marauders. More specifically, James.
Grabbing the Daily Prophet cut out, Lily ran out of her room and down the stairs, Blizzard squawking indignantly the whole way. She jumped the last five steps, making quite the entrance as she immediately caught the three boys’ attention.
“Jump much?” Sirius said in a teasing way. Then it must have hit him that something was wrong because he immediately asked, “What’s wrong?” at the same time as James and Remus.
For a moment, Lily was frozen again. She tried to remember what she was doing exactly, why was she in such a hurry? And then the pieces began to fit into place and her mind went into overdrive.
“I need all of you. Now,” she said in her commanding Head Girl voice. “It’s important,” she added, seeing them hesitate. Remus was the first to follow, then James and then, a little bewilderedly, Sirius. They trailed her out the portrait of the Fat Lady who called after them indignantly for ruining her nap.
“Remus, take this,” she handed him the Daily Prophet article. Remus was practically jogging to keep up with her. “Read it, go to Professor Dumbledore and inform him that Raven is out for revenge against the death eaters who killed her parents.”
Remus’s mouth fell open, as did James and Sirius’s, but Lily kept going. “Wh-What? When?”
“Go! Now!” Lily barked, startled at her own severity. At the next corridor, Remus left them, his head bent over the article as he ran towards the Headmaster’s office.
“Lily! What is going on?” James puffed.
“Where are we going?” Sirius demanded at the same time.
“To Hogsmede,” Lily told them, “And the rest I’ll answer once we get there.”
“If Hogsmede is where we’re going...” James started.
“Then we’re going the wrong way,” finished Sirius. “Fourth floor?”
“Behind the Mirror,” said James nodding. He grabbed Lily’s hand, and lead her behind a coat of arms the Sirius had tapped with his wand, revealing a passage way she had never been in before. Torches barely kept the place lit, and they flashed by as the three ran up the steep slope. There were many tapestries that Lily guessed were exits, but James and Sirius ran right by them.
Just as her legs began to scream in protest at the sharp incline, the passage leveled out and Sirius ran through a tapestry to his right, and they emerged out onto the fourth floor. Which, logically, made absolutely no sense. They had been on the seventh floor to start and the passage had only gone up! She was about to mention this, but James had started to pull her along again, after Sirius, and she put the question to the back of her mind; to ask when they had found, and brought Raven back to Hogwarts. Lily refused to think that anything else could happen, but I nagging thought in the back of her mind kept asking, ‘But what if she finds the Death Eaters before we get to her?’ She sped up her pace so that she and James were level with Sirius.
They turned a corner, and came to a screeching halt, Lily only half a second behind. They had stopped in front of a beautiful mirror. Gold gilt framed its sides in a swirling pattern, that Lily had always admired. Mostly this mirror was used by girls who had to fix their make-up and hair before each class.
“Usually, we can only use this passage at night, thanks to the majority of the female population at Hogwarts,” James said.
“Which is a pain, because I always favour a snack right after charms,” Sirius said from his place in front of the mirror. He was drawing a weird design on the face of the mirror, it showed in a deep red; it looked like a very poor drawing of the face of a lion.
As he did this, Lily stuck her hand inside her pocket to check on Blizzard. Her finger met soft feathers and parchment which was Raven's letter, she quickly extracted her hand for fear of being bitten.
“Deflecterum!” Sirius said, with a tap of his wand right on the lion’s nose. For a moment, Lily thought the lion was going cross-eyed to look at the tip of Sirius’s wand, but she immediately forgot about it when it vanished, as did hers, Sirius’s and James’s reflections to reveal a rusty, old, ladder at the end of a short passage.
The three stepped into the mirror, and walked the short way to the ladder. Lily looked down the opening; she could only see a short way before it went completely black. Behind them the mirror reappeared but, oddly enough, they could see right through it.
Lily stepped towards the ladder, prepared to go first, but James stopped her. “Hold on. There’s a bunch of missing steps, and I’m not about to let you fall. Sirius will go first, then me, then you.”
“Good call mate,” Sirius jumped onto the ladder and started to climb down at a swift pace, just as his head was about to disappear, he looked up at Lily, “And, as you climb, you can tell us just what the hell is going on with Raven.”
~*~
Remus ran through corridor after corridor. He had already read through the Daily Prophet article three times. Each time he read it, his pace quickened as his fear for Raven grew. It got to the point where he was running full out, his feet slapping loudly on the marble floors. Portraits jeered at him as he flew past, but Remus barely payed them any attention. His mind was set on one goal. And that was to get to Dumbledore as soon as possible.
A feeling constricted his chest, making it hard for him to breathe. He was surprised to find that it was anger. Anger at himself for not realizing something was wrong and anger at Lily for not telling when she had so many opportunities. He could understand why Raven wouldn’t want to reveal that information, but Lily could have said something! Then, maybe, they could have prevented this! What was it exactly? Did she not trust him? After two years of prefect duties together, a sensible Remus would dismiss the possibility, but Remus was too angry to be sensible. In fact, during his angry thoughts he had almost ran past the gargoyle entrance to Dumbledore’s office.
“Candied Radishes,” he puffed at the stone face, thanking his grades that made him a prefect. Prefects were always notified of the passwords. He ran onto the spiraling steps as the Gargoyle jumped aside. The steps always made him feel slightly dizzy and sick, but he ignored it and sprang up the three at a time. He reached the top at what must have been record time, for when a student was sent to see Dumbledore, they were not usually eager to face the large oak door that Remus faced now.
He raised his fist to pound on the door. Before he had even touched it, it swung open to reveal a startled looking Professor McGonagall. “Mr. Lupin, you must wait patiently outside, the Headmaster is busy with important matters at the moment.”
Remus nodded at her and she shut the door. He turned away to wait patiently when it hit him. His situation was dire! He couldn’t just stand and wait like a passive goody-two-shoe prefect!! He strode to the door and forcefully pushed it open. “Professor, I“ ”
He stopped dead. In front of the Headmaster’s desk was a woman looking quite distraught and a boy with black curly hair who he recognized as Raven’s little brother David.
“Mr. Lupin! What on earth are you“”
“Headmaster, Raven is gone,” Remus cut across Professor McGonagall.
The Headmaster looked Remus over seriously, with his piercing blue eyes. “Yes Mr. Lupin, we are aware that Miss Sheppard never arrived to meet her aunt. Unless you know where she is...”
“She went after the Death Eaters. For revenge,” he added, not quite able to say ‘After the Death Eaters who killed her parents.’
The woman who must have been Raven’s aunt looked sharply at Dumbledore, and Professor McGonagall let out an audible gasp. Dumbledore had not left his desk, his gave was still penetrating into Remus. “Tell us, Mr. Lupin, in the most abbreviated version possible, how you know this.”
“Lily told me,” he said, very aware that his answer sounded inadequate and childish.
“And where is Miss Evans?” Dumbledore asked. Remus could read nothing in his eyes that showed disbelief.
“She’s gone after her with James and Sirius.”
“Minerva, you will attempt to find Miss Evans, Mr. Potter and Mr. Black in the vicinity of the castle. If you find them, bring them to Gryffindor tower and keep them there.” Professor McGonagall nodded and disappeared out the oak door. Remus could hear her foot steps pounding down the spiral staircase before the door shut and blocked off the sound.
“Mr. Lupin you will take Mr. Sheppard to the hospital wing and inform Madam Pomfrey of the circumstances,” Remus nodded as David got up from the chair and walked over to him, looking slightly confused and very shocked. He would take David to the hospital wing as Dumbledore had ordered and inform Madam Pomfrey, and then he would go after Lily, James and Sirius to help. He descended the spiral staircase, surprised that Dumbledore hadn’t forbade him to find his friends. He dismissed it. Dumbledore was old, and had probably forgotten in the severity of the situation.
~*~
Lily had just finished reiterating what had happened during the past few days, and today, with Raven. Now, as she continued to climb down the rusty ladder, she was pelted with questions from James and Sirius.
“When were you planning on telling us?” Sirius demanded.
“About two seconds before I found the letter.”
“Helpful,” James commented.
“Look,” Lily said, beginning to lose her temper. Her nerves were on end as it was in the dark, on this ladder that she felt could hardly bear her weight and would snap at any moment sending her to her death, “I’ve told you now, alright? I could have done this by myself, but I didn’t because I thought that you would want to help! Not dwell on the mistakes I’ve made! Now if you two want to sulk about your bruised egos, then you might as well go back to Gryffindor house!” Her voice echoed off of the inclosed space, a hundred angry Lilys pounded on her ears, and as fast as her anger had come it disappeared, dissolving into a sense of hopelessness. “I should have told you sooner. I know I should have, and I’m sorry.”
She heard a small noise below her as Sirius shifted uncomfortably and muttered awkwardly, “This ladder is a lot longer than I remembered...”
“This is taking too long. Slide down like we normally would Padfoot. Lily, Take your feet off the steps and brace them against the outside rails, use your hands to guide you down,” James told her. There was a sliding noise and a whoop of joy as Sirius plunged down into the passage at a much faster pace.
Lily’s heart felt as though it was beating against her throat, making it difficult to breathe. “A-Alright, go ahead James, I’ll meet you down in a moment.”
“You sure?”
“Just go!” Lily snapped, losing her temper at herself for being so nervous. She heard James slide away and then knew she had to go. Don’t think about it, she told herself, just go.
With a tiny hop Lily took her feet from the ladder steps and pressed them against the sides, and more abruptly than she had expected, she began to plunge down the passage at a speed that both thrilled and terrified her.
(A/N This chapter and the next are more like parts of one chapter, but they needed different titles I though ^_^ Thanks to everyone who has ever reviewed, even the smallest comment makes my day, which is sappy, but totally true hehe.)