Illicit | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 21

On the late afternoon of October 23rd, 1975, five young Gryffindors could be seen strutting through the halls of Hogwarts, acting like everything was normal and they ruled the world. Nothing different from the usual picture. But what the rest of the castle didn't know was that they were going to the secret passageway on the fourth floor behind the mirror and that everything was going to change for them. 

Once there, Remus checked to see if anyone could see while letting the others in one by one. If Remus got caught as the last one it wouldn't matter as much, because he was just going to be there for moral support. 

The passageway was more like a room and could fit about twenty people, so a small organization. It was very dark, but Eleanor knew every part of that place by heart. She immediately went over to her right. In the corner was a small box covered by a black cloth; you wouldn't see it in if you didn't know it was there. Peter joined her shortly as she uncovered the small box. Peter took off the lid and put it aside. James, Sirius, and Remus looked with them over their shoulders. Eleanor picked up the phials they had hidden inside the box and stood up straight. Her eyes had gotten used to the dark by now and she noticed that all four of the crystal phials contained a blood-red potion.

"It worked," she whispered enthusiastically. James and Sirius high-fived each other and Peter received a pat on the back from Remus.

They had labeled every phial with a symbol before Sirius had stored them away in the secret passageway. Symbols instead of names, so if someone were to find them by accident, at least they wouldn't know it belonged to the four Gryffindor students. Eleanor handed everyone their own phial: a circle for James, a cross for Peter, and a star for Sirius. She kept the last one, which had a triangle written on the label. 

Sirius looked at his potion with a disgusted face. "Doesn't look that appetizing does it?" he said. Peter sniggered.

"Well, er, let's all just stand in a circle," James said. Eleanor could hear in his voice that he was getting nervous as well. And they should all have been very nervous because things could go drastically wrong when trying to become an Animagus. But they had come this far already, Eleanor wasn't going to turn back now. 

As James suggested he, Sirius, Eleanor, and Peter gathered around in a circle. Remus cast some protective and silencing charms so no one would be able to hear them and then stood aside. Because she knew what was going to happen, Eleanor took out her wand. Her heartbeat was getting faster now as the moment drew nearer and nearer. The others caught on and grabbed their wands as well.

"Right, remove the stopper from your phial," James proceeded to instruct as Professor Slughorn would. They all did as they were told. Eleanor threw a quick glance over at Sirius. Normally, in situations like these, he would come up with a joke or two, just to ease the tension a bit. But even Sirius wasn't messing around at this point.

James let out a shaky breath. "Okay, on the count of three..." he said before raising the tip of his wand to his chest, where his heart was. Eleanor watched Sirius and Peter do the same. She closed her eyes and placed the tip of her wand over her heart. She breathed in and out slowly to calm herself down as James started to count down.

"One..." In.

"Two..." Out.

"Three..." In.

"Amato Animo Animato Animagus," the four of them spoke softly in unison.

Without even thinking for a second she put to phial to her mouth and drank the mouthful of blood-red potion it contained. Eleanor opened her eyes as she breathed heavily. James, Sirius, and Peter were doing the same. Had they failed? Why wasn't anything happening? She tried very hard not to panic, for that could be disastrous.