CHAPTER EIGHT: Found and Farewell
“Come on! We’ve got to add it to the list!” James yelled as he rounded a corner, sprinted pell-mell to the Gryffindor Common Room, and slid a bit on the slick stone of the passage. Sirius gave a shout and tore after him, with Remus and Peter hot on his heels.
“Wait, why are we running?” shouted Remus, though he didn’t slow down.
“I don’t know!” yelled James gleefully, increasing the pace. Remus could have sworn he saw James give a little skip, but he just shook his head and continued following the boys, their footsteps echoing in the near-deserted corridor.
Moments later they tumbled through the portrait hole, heaving and gasping for breath as if they’d each just been hit by the Ton-of-Bricks Hex. Everyone in the Common Room abandoned his or her work to glare at the boys, and Remus gave a sheepish wave before they moved over to their usual corner.
“Do you have The List?” Sirius whispered, still slightly out of breath, to James, who was now rifling through the schoolbooks he had left on a chair.
“Of course I have it! Somewhere...”
“You know, James, if you keep losing it, we’re going to have to let Remus hold on to it!” Sirius said in a tone of mock irritation, his hands on his hips, his foot tapping impatiently.
“Stuff it, Sirius, I have it!” James emerged from his pile of books with a wrinkled, folded piece of parchment. The List.
Remus smiled as Sirius unfolded the paper. The List was a short”but growing!”record of all the secret passageways or tunnels or rooms the boys had found. So far it consisted mainly of shortcuts: the best way to get to the Astronomy Tower, the fastest way to get to the Gryffindor Common Room from the Dungeons, things like that. But today, almost at the end of their first year at school, James and Sirius reckoned they had found their first genuine secret passage. Remus was a bit more skeptical, but he was still anxious to add it to The List.
It had been Peter who had found the passage, albeit somewhat inadvertently. All four were taking a procrastination stroll”end-of-term exams were upon them, but no one wanted to study. They were walking down an empty corridor on the seventh floor, practicing hexes on each other (“See? We’re studying for Defense Against the Dark Arts!” Sirius said), when James hit Peter with a particularly strong Jelly-Legs Jinx, causing him to stumble backwards. As he fell, he crashed into a suit of armor, catching its arm and yanking it down. The tapestry next to the suit of armor had then suddenly rolled up as if it were a curtain, revealing a small wooden door.
Sirius was the first to go through, and he did so with boundless enthusiasm, forgetting to light his wand tip, and thus tripping up a set of stairs as soon as he crossed the threshold. James, as soon as he had finished laughing, pulled his best friend up from the ground while Remus raised his own lit wand up high over his head, casting a dim glow up the short stone steps. Peter eventually untangled himself from the suit of armor and let out a little gasp when he saw the stairway. “Where do you think it goes?” he asked, turning his round face up toward Sirius.
“We’re about to find out!” Sirius said, grabbing Peter’s arm and running with him up the steps. James flashed Remus an excited look and lit his own wand, and the two boys followed their friends. At the top of the stairs was another little door, and Sirius put his hand on the large brass doorknob. “Ready?” he asked, his face flushed with excitement. The rest of the boys nodded eagerly, each ready to see what adventure awaited them behind the door. Sirius pushed and the door slowly opened, creaking with years of disuse.
A shaft of light illuminated the dark stairway, and the boys squinted as they stepped into the room. It seemed they had found an abandoned greenhouse of some sort, as there was no ceiling, only greenish-yellow panels of glass that let in the pale light of the June evening. The ground was covered in a thick layer of something that seemed to be half dust, half potting soil, and the air had a heavy, musty scent. Pots and troughs were scattered around the room, most of them overflowing with brown and brittle weeds, and the shelves were stacked with rusted spades, discarded gloves, and empty watering cans. Ten metal stools were lined up around a large wooden table in the middle of the room, and a very bedraggled copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi lay in the center.
“Cool!” exclaimed Sirius as he looked around the room. “A secret greenhouse!”
Remus laughed. “That’s ridiculous. A secret greenhouse?”
“Well yeah! What else could it be?”
“I don’t know, an abandoned classroom, maybe?” He grinned as Sirius’s face fell.
“Yeah, that does make more sense,” Sirius conceded with a shrug.
“But hey, it’s our first secret passage!” James said, moving over to examine some of the pots full of the brittle remnants of weeds.
“Right you are!” said Sirius, peering into a bag of dragon dung fertilizer. “Ooh, still ripe,” he said, wrinkling his face in disgust.
“I don’t know about that,” Remus said, looking at Sirius.
“Mate, trust me: this dung is still good.” He folded the top of the bag down and moved away.
“No, I’ll take your word on that, Sirius, but I don’t know if this counts as a secret passage, you know? I mean, people probably had Herbology lessons here all the time a few years ago, so...” He trailed off, giving a little shrug.
“Oh, come on, Remus! It counts!” Sirius whined, looking to James and Peter for support. The two boys nodded their heads. “Besides, it’s clearly been deserted for a long time, right? And no students in the school right now know about it, yeah?”
Remus cocked his head to one side and thought about it. “OK, that’s good enough for me. Our first secret passage it is!”
Sirius grinned. “Wicked!”
A silence filled the room as the boys continued to take in their surroundings. Remus felt a strange sort of peaceful calm in the greenhouse, as if the years of disuse had erased all the usual hustle and bustle of the castle. He trailed his fingers absentmindedly along the center table, leafing casually through the book and staring up through the glass-paned ceiling.
James broke the silence. “Speaking of Herbology, have you guys started studying for the exam tomorrow?” he asked as he looked through one of the glass panels out onto the Hogwarts grounds, the setting sun glinting off his glasses.
“Oh, come on, why’d you have to remind me?” Sirius asked, looking up from the swordfight he and Peter had been having with a pair of garden spades.
“Sorry,” James replied with a grin. “I was just checking. The exam is tomorrow, so...” He peered back out the window toward the lake.
“Yeah, we should probably go back and study,” Peter squeaked, putting down his spade. Remus nodded his agreement, as the greenhouse was gradually getting dark, and the late hour made him feel guilty that he hadn’t really studied enough. What would Lily say? He thought with a smile. For a moment he contemplated telling her about the greenhouse, but something told him that this place was just for the boys; their own secret hideout, as it were.
Sirius made an exaggerated frown at Peter’s suggestion, but eventually dropped his spade as well and headed toward the stairwell. The boys filed through the door and began to descend the stairs, with Remus bringing up the rear. He cast one more look over his shoulder at the little oasis they had found before he pulled the old door shut. By the time he turned around, Sirius and James had already emerged from the door at the bottom of the stairs and were pushing aside the tapestry that had fallen back down to conceal the door. They checked the hallway for passers-by or worse: the caretaker Pringle, for instance, and then took off running.
“Come on! We’ve got to add it to the list!” James shouted, and they headed for the Common Room....
***
“Where were you guys this evening?” Lily asked Remus later that night as the two of them pored over their notes in a corner of the Common Room. “Gwendolyn and I were looking for you to practice our hexes.”
“Oh, sorry we couldn’t be target practice, Lily!” he responded with a grin. “We were just wandering around, you know...”
“Ahh,” she said, nodding her head and flashing him a knowing smile. “You guys must be getting to know the castle pretty well.”
“As well as we can,” he replied. “But even though we’ve found all these shortcuts I seem to have permanently misplaced my ability to do Charms!”
Lily giggled. “I don’t blame you. Professor Flitwick said the exam was going to be really hard.”
“Oh, like you would be worried about Charms, Lily,” he said, glancing at her copious notes on the Color Change Charm.
“Well, why are you looking at your Astronomy notes? For one, you’re the best in our year, and for two, we’ve already had that exam!” she said, gesturing toward the lunar chart perched on top of Remus’s notes.
He looked down at his lap and began to twitch his leg, as he often did when he was anxious. He gave a little laugh, hoping that Lily wouldn’t notice the nervous strain in his voice. In truth, he had been double-checking the date of the next full moon, but he had forgotten to put away his chart. He quickly moved to stash it away in his bag and mumbled something to Lily. “Just checking, I guess.”
But the awkwardness continued as Sirius and James walked over to where he and Lily were sitting. “We’ve already finished that one, mate,” Sirius said, pointing to the lunar chart that Remus was still trying to cram into his bag.
“Yep, thanks,” he said with a smile. “Guess I forgot. Must be losing my mind.”
“Right then,” Sirius said, furrowing his brow. He shot a quizzical look at James, and then plopped into a chair. “Anyway, what are you two working on right now?”
“Charms,” Lily replied. “Want to study with us?”
“Ooh, you guys are working on Charms right now?” Gwendolyn asked, her head suddenly peeking up over the back of a chair. “Can we do Herbology next?”
“Would you guys mind if we studied Herbology right now, actually?” Marlene asked from the chair next to Gwendolyn. “I wanted to review the properties of Coltsfoot.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a greenhouse here in the castle to study Herbology?” James asked, casting subversive looks at Sirius and Remus who both smiled into their notes.
The rest of the Gryffindors just nodded absentmindedly as they all rustled about for their Herbology notes. Soon Marlene began rattling off the properties of Coltsfoot, and the night plowed on.
***
Lily stood on her tiptoes to take down her poster of the Beatles from the wall next to her bed. The Spellotape she had used had stuck to the back of the poster, and she sat down on her bed and started to peel it off. Exams were over and her trunk was almost full. The year was over. A part of her was glad to be going home; she missed her family and her house, and it would be nice not having to study for a few months. Well, except for the summer assignments that some teachers had given.
But overall she was very sad to be leaving Hogwarts. The year had absolutely flown by”it seemed like just days ago that she had boarded the Hogwarts Express. And she knew the return journey wouldn’t be as fun.
True, she was glad to be done with exams. She still had a few bumps and bruises from Professor Viridian’s exam; Gwendolyn hadn’t quite gotten the hang of the Jelly-Legs Jinx, sending Lily into the wall one too many times. And Transfiguration had not gone as well as she had hoped. But those things didn’t matter. She had passed her first year; she could come back for her second.
Sometimes Lily still felt those familiar moments of anxiety, feelings she hadn’t really felt since the first few days of school: that she wasn’t good enough, that people didn’t want her in Hogwarts, that she would start failing. She was nervous that first year had been intentionally easier, and that her next six years would be too much. She was worried that her friends would forget her over the summer. Thankfully, however, these feelings were usually fleeting. All she had to do was look at the smiles on her friends’ faces and she knew everything would be all right.
Finally she managed to get all of the gunk off the back of her poster, and she rolled it up carefully to place it in her trunk. She sat back on her bed and watched her roommates pack up their things. Marlene was wrapping a picture of her and her brother Michael in some tissue. Diana was gathering her various pink quills and notebooks. Artemia was taking down her poster of her favorite American Quodpot team, the Chicago Chargers. And Gwendolyn was shoving all her clothes haphazardly into her trunk, not bothering to fold them, as was her habit. As she stepped on her robes to cram them deeper into the trunk, she looked up at Lily. “All done packing?”
Lily nodded. Her voice quavered a bit”she was fighting the urge to cry. “Yep. I’m all ready to go home!” She plastered a smile on her face and kicked the top of her trunk down.
“Well, we better get down to the Leaving Feast. Chadwick says it’s amazing, especially since we won the House Cup this year!”
“He was fabulous in the last Quidditch match,” Diana chimed in, a dreamy look on her face.
Lily giggled”she definitely agreed. Gwendolyn just rolled her eyes. “OK you two, let’s go.”
They met the boys on the way down to the Great Hall, which was indeed spectacular. It was resplendent in scarlet and gold, and giant Gryffindor Lions glared down at the students from their high-hanging banners. Even the thousand floating candles seemed to glow red and yellow.
Lily knew she hadn’t done that much to help Gryffindor win the Cup. Sure, she won a point here and there, but it was mainly the Quidditch Cup Championship that had sealed the deal. But despite this fact, she had never been more proud of anything in her entire life. All around, her fellow Gryffindors were toasting each other with sparkling cider and admiring the decorations.
As the din gradually quieted, Professor Dumbledore stood up to speak. “Another year is over, my friends, and hopefully your lives are richer, your minds are fuller, and your friendships are deeper.” There was a general chorus of applause, and Dumbledore smiled as he continued. “I, of course, have a few end-of-term announcements before we begin our most excellent feast. Hogwarts Caretaker Apollyon Pringle has remained true to his word and is resigning effective immediately after finding”and I quote: ‘Six hundred seventy-seven and one half Dungbombs throughout the course of the year.’ We thank him for his loyal service.” He politely applauded, though he was sporting a mischievous grin.
Sirius leaned over to James and whispered: “I guess he never found the other half of that one we tossed in his office!” James laughed.
Gwendolyn gave Sirius a little smack on his arm. “Thanks a lot, Sirius! That corridor has smelled something awful since May!”
Sirius just grinned even wider and turned back to Dumbledore, who was speaking about the House Cup: “... And so, with three hundred and ninety-five points, it is my pleasure to declare Gryffindor House this year’s champions! Congratulations!”
There was another round of toasts at the Gryffindor table”Lily found herself splashed with a little too much pumpkin juice”and Dumbledore raised his arms once more to quiet the crowd.
“And so, dear students, it is time to do what we do best here at Hogwarts: to feast! To the graduates I say ‘Good luck! Serve fair Hogwarts well.’ To everyone else, I say ‘Enjoy your meal, enjoy your summer holidays, and may you all return healthy and happy in September!’ Tuck in, and good night!”
***
The next day the Hogwarts Express was roaring south, carrying the students back home. Lily was sharing her compartment with Gwendolyn, Marlene, Artemia, and Diana, with frequent visits from the Gryffindor boys (minus Janus, of course, who was sitting with his Slytherin friends).
A few of the girls had fallen asleep, and Lily used the momentary silence to look out the window. The countryside was little more than a blur as the steam engine rumbled along, and Lily sighed contentedly. She reached over to her small pile of Chocolate Frogs”her new favorite sweet”and unwrapped one. “Orestes the Overt” was on the card, and she smiled as she remembered that day last September when she had unwrapped her first Chocolate Frog and got the same card.
Just then Sirius popped his head in the door. He glanced down at her card. “Orestes the Overt, eh? Gee, Lily, you’re a bit taken with him, aren’t you?”
She grinned and looked back down the miniature figure, still gyrating wildly. “A bit, I suppose,” she said.
Sirius smiled back at her and cast a brief glance down the corridor of the train. “OK, well, we’re a bit bored and lonely in our compartment over there, so if you all want to come chat, you know... Feel free, or whatever. And you can bring some of those Chocolate Frogs if you want.”
Lily nodded as he turned and walked back to his compartment. She reached across the seat and gave Gwendolyn’s slumbering form a nudge. A few minutes later, with a groggy Gwendolyn in tow, Lily reached the boy’s compartment, tossing them each a Frog.
As they settled into a conversation, Lily leaned back against her seat and sighed again. It would be a lonely summer without these friends, that much was true. But think of what she would get to come back to!
September couldn’t come soon enough....
Of Cauldrons and Comrades by LuthAn
Chapter Notes: Hello, hello, dear readers! We return for another installment in the saga. In this chapter, first year at Hogwarts in drawing to a close, bringing with it final exams, a few reflections, and even a secret passage! Stay tuned for another very special chapter coming up next, and happy reading!