Harry Potter and the Children of the Clan

Chapter 24

The two boys moved down the stairs and crept silently along the left hand wall. They passed several heavy doors of wood and iron. Each had multiple locks and from the size of the key holes, unless only one master key was used, the key ring must put a major strain on Stan Shunpike's belt. James noted the doors in passing as something to be investigated at another time, but for now he was just interested in the last door. It looked no different than the others, any detail difficult to make out in the gloom of the corridor.

"I don't think we'll be able to get through that, mate," Cecil said as he ran his hand over the iron plate of the locks. "I've been known to jimmy a lock or two in my time, but nothing like this."

"That's okay, Cecil. I'm not interested in getting inside, at least not yet," James said, as he turned and looked at the wall opposite the door. "This is what I want to see."

In the corners at the end of the corridor were shallow alcoves. The boys moved down to take a closer look. The gloom was so deep they had to light their wands. They could see that shallow grooves had been gouged into the stone floor at some time in the past, perhaps from statues or some sort of heavy furnishings that had been tucked into the spaces. Cecil could see James nod his head as they examined the spaces.

"So, what's the caper, mate?"

"This is the room that Ted and his crew are using for their secret meetings or whatever. But someone has been hanging around outside, spying I'd guess."

"Someone? Doesn't the map tell you who it is? Why not just tell Lupin or your dad?" Cecil asked as his eyes wandered around the dark, dank corridor.

"First, I don't know for sure that the map is always right, so I don't want to take the chance on fingering the wrong guy. Second, if we can catch him in the act, I can convince Ted to let me in on what's going on. And third, this'll be a lot more fun. I've been getting pretty bored, myself," James finished with a grin.

Cecil had to grin himself and he clapped James on the shoulder.

"Well, I'm in. When's the next meeting?"

"It should be Monday night. Now we need to get up to the library. We have a little research to do."

While Cecil wasn't the most conscientious of students, he was more than willing to put in the hours for what he considered preparation for a caper. It had been true in the old neighborhood, and now he was getting his first chance at the school. He and James were there fairly late, taking only a break for dinner. As a result, James had to put time in on Sunday evening completing a potions assignment due the next day. He was sitting in one of the big chairs near the fire in the common room, putting the finishing touches to his parchment as he memorized the last of the ingredients. He became aware at some point that someone had sat down in the chair next to him. Looking over he saw a large pair of expressive dark eyes above a bright, wide smile.

"Hiya, James."

"Hello, Kai," he replied with a small smile of his own.

"We haven't seen much of you this weekend. You missed a really great Quidditch match. Ravenclaw really outflew those sneaks from Slytherin," she told him.

"Yeah, I heard about it last night. I had some things to work on," he replied.

"Yes, I can just imagine that you did," she countered with a knowing look.

James simply looked back, his eyebrows raised slightly.

"Oh, don't look at me like that. You needn't worry. I'm not your cousin. If you don't want to talk about it I'm not going to try and pry it out of you," she said, and then added, "You know, when Vee first told us about your dad and all the things he had to deal with when he was a student, we couldn't figure out how he managed to get his regular school work done."