James Potter and the Veil

Chapter Nine

"Merlin, it's great to be back." James said as he and his three friends stepped off of the Hogwarts Express. He had very much enjoyed spending the holidays with his family, but an eleven year old could only take so much hugging from his little sister and his grandmother.

After Christmas James's Aunt Hermione and her two children, Rose and Hugo, came to visit every other day. Rose was Albus's age and would be attending Hogwarts next year while Hugo was Lily's age. Bill, Fleur, Victoire, Dominique, and Louis didn't visit as often but only once or twice. Which James was okay with. Louis was a year younger than Lily and still thought there were goblins living under his bed, despite what his mother and father told him about the goblins at Gringotts. Dominique was usually under the impression the world revolved around her—James felt bad that she would be in Lily's year. Victoire wasn't that bad but she didn't like doing fun things like playing Quidditch.

George and Angelina came over towards the end of the holiday break and announced they were pregnant but didn't want to ruin the surprise of its gender. Percy and Penelope visited just one time with their children Molly and Lucy who were both still toddlers.

While most of the time the boys were playing Quidditch, the girls were inside or walking around the yard enjoying the snow. But another thing had happened during the Christmas holiday. Victoire had admitted to fancying Teddy.

To say James was freaked out would be an understatement.

"But he's not really your brother so it's not like he'd be snogging your cousin." Juliet pointed out in the Common Room the night of their return.

James raised an eyebrow, "They're not even dating yet and you've already got them at snogging. Please—I do not want to have nightmares, Jules."

"Hate to break it to ya', mate but…." Caleb nodded with his head to the portrait entrance of the Gryffindor Common Room. Teddy, with light brown hair that would remind many people of Remus Lupin, holding hands with none other than Victoire Weasley.

"Merlin." James said, shaking his head and looking at the floor. "A guy can only take so much of this!"

"We need a distraction." Caleb suggested, "Have you guys thought about…you know?"

It took the others a few seconds to realize what the blond boy was talking about but eventually they did figure it out.

"I don't think this is the best place to discuss it." Ash shot a look at a nearby Prefect.

"Let's take a walk, then." James smiled, motioning for the others to follow him. They had next to no difficulty sneaking Juliet and Ash into the First Year boy's dorm where the four friends sat around James and Caleb's two beds. "Well?"

"Start at the beginning." Ash said easily, "How are we getting to the Ministry?" Everyone looked expectantly at Juliet.

"Easy. Floo Network." She replied with a satisfied expression. "McGonagall's Office has a Floo connection since she's the Headmistress of Hogwarts. All we've got to do is get into the office and use the Floo."

"But we've got to get her password." Caleb said, "Which won't be easy."

"Leave that to me." James told them, "Remember when Ash and I got detention for looking for the kitchens? My uncle gave me a cloak along with the Map. But get this: it isn't an ordinary cloak. It's an Invisibility Cloak."

Complete silence.

"Don't be a prat, James." Ash shoved him in the shoulder playfully, "Getting our hopes up—"

"I'm not lying!" he defended himself, pulling himself up from the bed and going to his trunk. "Look." He dug out the cloak and pulled it over his body. His uncle had laughed for a good half hour when James asked 'Why did you send me an old cloak?' over the holidays. When the red haired man had finally calmed down, he explained everything.

"Bloody. Hell." Ash muttered when she saw her best friend disappear and re-appear.

James quickly returned the cloak to his trunk and went back to his bed, "I told you, I've got it covered."

"Ow! That was my foot!" Caleb muttered loudly as his toe throbbed.

"Sorry, didn't see you there—"

"Of course you didn't I'm invisible."

James rolled his eyes and tugged the cloak over him so it covered both himself and Caleb. It had been a week since they'd gone over the plan to get to the Veil of Death. Juliet and Ash were finishing a Charms paper (James had done his during a detention and Caleb did his during lunch) which left James and Caleb to figure out McGonagall's password. On Saturday morning they were planning on putting their plan into action.

So here they were outside a large stone gargoyle under the Invisibility Cloak waiting for someone to go in. It was past curfew and James wondered how long it would take someone to—

Footsteps echoed down the hallway and soon the figures of Reid and Ryan McCormick inch closer. James's first instinct was to pull out his wand and jinx the two; they'd never know since he was under the cloak. But, to his displeasure, Caleb jerked James's wand from his hand and pocketed it with a glare.

James wondered what the McCormick twins were doing out past curfew but knew getting the password was much more important. With a look at his watch he saw it was only nine-forty. When the twins were out of sight James whispered, "This is taking forever, Caleb."

"Too bad." Caleb replied calmly. "We have to get to the Veil. To get to the Veil we have to get to the Floo. To get to the Floo we have to get into McGonagall's office. To get there we need the password. To get the password we have to wait here until someone comes."

James rolled his eyes and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

When he thought he was going to fall asleep standing up, he heard more footsteps. This time it really was McGonagall coming to her office. The elderly headmistress went up to the gargoyle and said clearly but quietly, "Fanged Frisbees."

"I mean, really, who would expect McGonagall to have that as a password?" James asked rhetorically. The quartet was lazily hanging around the Common Room. James and Caleb had all but run back to the Gryffindor Common Room as soon as they had the password.

"No one would expect it. That's the point." Juliet said, yawning. "It took you until midnight to get the password, I hope she doesn't change it between now and tomorrow night."

"I'll hex the McCormicks if she does." Ash stated simply. "Actually…I might anyway."

Caleb huffed, "Guys, no one needs detention right now. Tomorrow is Saturday and since it's not a school night the professors could just make our detention late at night. So I suggest you two—" he looked pointedly at James and Ash who assumed the look of innocence, which no one bought, "—stay out of trouble."

"Caleb's right." Juliet stated as she crossed her arms over her chest. "The next twenty-four hours means no pranks, no hexing, no jinxing, no—"

"—fun." James cut her off. "Come on…as long as we don't get caught I don't see what the big deal is ."

"James Sirius Potter, if you do anything to get into trouble our plan'll be set back another week. So no."

James rolled his eyes but said, "Okay, okay."

Soon afterwards the four friends retired to their dorms and went to sleep.

The next morning they went to breakfast together then crossed the snow covered grounds and went to the lake. It was Juliet's idea because she wanted everyone away from the temptations of getting into trouble. They skipped rocks for a while before Ash complained it was too cold. It was still January and James was surprised the lake wasn't frozen over.

As they walked back up to the castle, James had a brilliant idea. He maneuvered himself so he was behind his three friends and bent down to pick up some snow. After manipulating the snow into a snowball he chucked it at Caleb, hitting him in the back.

"Hey!" Caleb said, turning around only to find James laughing hysterically. "You'll regret that, Potter!"

And so a snowball fight broke out, Juliet and James versus Caleb and Ash. Five minutes later the four were joined by Teddy Lupin, Victoire Weasley, Holly White, and several other Gryffindors. Teddy joined James's team and used magic to build a snow wall to use for cover.

Eventually the fight ended when Caleb's team shot up a white spark for surrender. The Gryffindors went in to the Great Hall for lunch while the older students casted drying and heating charms on everyone who participated in the snowball fight.

"Don't forget," Holly White said to James, Ash, and Teddy, "Our first practice is Monday at five."

"We won't, Holly." Teddy rolled his eyes as he stood up to leave.

That night at midnight, four Gryffindors were under the Invisibility Cloak. Each of them had their own wand and Caleb carried an old quill in his pocket. This quill was their ticket home. Even though making portkeys without Ministry authorization was illegal, as long as they weren't caught they couldn't get into trouble. Caleb had practiced the portkey-making spell several times and had next to no trouble with it despite the spell being a higher level of magic.

They crept quietly and quickly through the castle to McGonagall's office. Upon arrival they made sure they were alone before James muttered, "Fanged Frisbees."

The gargoyle opened up and the four made their way up a large staircase and into the headmistress's office. The room was huge. It had a desk in the center with a large window behind it. A portrait of Albus Dumbledore hung on the wall and James swore Dumbledore looked right at them and winked before leaving his painting. They stayed under the cloak until they were to the fireplace just in case McGonagall showed up.

James stepped out of the cloak and reached up for a handful of Floo powder. He stepped into the fireplace and threw the powder down and said firmly, "Ministry of Magic."

a/n: Wow, I never realized how many Weasley children there were. Imagine my surprise when I went to Harry Potter Wiki and discovered I hadn't mentioned half the kids….