The Marauders: Year Two | #Wattys2016

Filch's Chase

Peter had finally gotten the nerve up to move and was peering over the edge of the bin. "There aren't any dragons?"

"Only clothing, Peter," James replied.

Clumsily, Peter hauled himself over the edge of the bin, grunting as it cut into his substantial gut, and dropped himself down to the floor, where he landed with a thump on the stone floor. He got up, rubbing his bottom and looked around, watching the same process as James had done. "Wow, that's pretty neat," he breathed.

"Hogwarts, where even laundry is magic," James laughed.

Peter smiled in spite of himself.

James led the way around the room, searching for a door, and they finally found it. He opened up his book bag and pulled out the invisibility cloak, shaking it loose from the folds he'd put it in. "You're going to have to do any wand work we need doing," he told Peter, "I left mine up in the tunnel. Blimey, I hope Sirius or Remus notice." He frowned in concern as he threw the cloak over the two of them.

Peter held up his wand, "Here, you use mine. I'm rubbish when I'm nervous."

Peter's wand felt funny and light in James's hands, and considerably shorter than his own wand. He didn't like it, but it was better than not having a wand at all, and Peter was right about being rubbish when he was nervous. So James took the little wand and they pushed open the door tentatively.

The corridor was dark outside the laundry room, and James had no idea where they were. None of the paintings looked familiar and the suits of armor looked the same no matter where you were in the castle. They stepped out and pulled the laundry room door closed behind them. James looked left and right and neither seemed particularly more appealing than the other, so he made the random choice to go right and beckoned Peter to follow.

Meanwhile, back in the passageway, Remus and Sirius had consulted the map and discovered they were closer to the exit on the fourth floor than they were the Trophy Room, and therefore decided to move ahead instead of turning around. They'd be able to get help quicker, they reckoned, because the fourth floor corridor that the map appeared to indicate they would come out on was closer to the staircases that led to the fifth floor, where Dumbledore's office was. The pit that Peter and James had gone down was small and only took up half the passageway, so they'd carefully moved around it without any trouble, and continued on through the dark.

Sirius was sick to his stomach, worrying about James. He was worried about Peter, too, but not as much as James. Peter at least had his wand. Sirius had found James's wand and now carried it, clutching it like a totem, as though the tighter he held onto it, the more likely it would be that James would make it back to them just fine. He could not imagine what it would be like to lose his best friend and he had a sudden new respect for how well Lily was seeming to hold up under the loss of Alice Bell. It was a horror that Sirius Black wished to never, ever have to endure. In fact, he made a mental note, he would make James Potter swear to him that he, Sirius, would be allowed to die first, if ever the time for such things came.

They didn't take their time through the rest of the passageway as they'd done on the first half, though they saw there was a little cove where someone had thrown a bit of rug and some toss pillows. They were too nervous to find out if their friends were okay to explore. Sirius didn't doubt for a moment they'd come back, though, and finish the expedition. Maybe even the very next night, if James and Peter were alright, that is.

They had one more pit to dodge, but it was an easy one, too, small enough they could jump right over, and they finally reached the end and found themselves at a door.