𝐀 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 ~ 𝐒𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤

𝐈𝐈 𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐈𝐈

James Potter

When Lily Evans suddenly burst into the Marauders dormitory at 12:46 am, James's immediate reaction was to think that she was thinking about him in a dream and needed to see him in real life as well. 

He was far off. 

What Lily actually said was, "Guys! Have you seen Leah? She promised she'd be back by 12, but we haven't heard from her at all!" 

James, Remus and Peter were shocked. Was this something to worry about? James hardly worried, but this seemed like a good moment to bring out the worry in him. 

"Sirius isn't back yet either!" Remus yelped. "Do you think something happened to them?" 

There was a silence that spread across the room, as the four of them feared for their friends. Peter hopped off his bed, and looked around wildly. 

"Sirius took the cloak!" He exclaimed. "Wait...did he take the map?" 

"What map?" Lily questioned. "Surely you're not dumb enough that you need a map...?" 

"No." James said quickly. "But, um-" he glanced at Peter. "Sirius didn't take the map." James told him. "I specifically asked him to leave it here." 

"What map?!" Lily asked, growing frustrated. She was still standing in the doorframe, the door wide open. 

"Lily, close the door," Remus said, and she closed it. "Now tell me about that map!" She said. 

"Okay!" James said. "It's a map that can show everyone at Hogwarts, where they are at all times! We can see everyone, it marks their names down! But it's secret, only the ones with the secret code can open it. The code is-" 

James didn't get to tell Lily the code, however, because Peter promptly slapped a hand over James' big mouth to stop him from revealing their secrets.

James expected Lily to be very impressed. 

But as usual, he was wrong. 

"Cool," Lily said dismissively. "Now get that map and let's get the heck out of here!"

"Lily!" Came two other scared voices from behind the door. Lily turned around and opened it. Alice Fortescue and Marlene McKinnon were standing there, looking frightened. The two girls were clutching their fluffy night robes, and Alice had a letter in her hand. 

"Um...girls?" James spoke up. "Maybe we all shouldn't be here, Professor McGonagall might think we're having a late night party..." 

"Shut up, Potter!" Marlene snapped. She turned to Lily. "Lils, right after you left, a letter came from Christina's owl!"

"Christina?!" Lily echoed. "She would never make contact with Leah at Hogwarts!! It's too risky! Unless..." 

"Who's Christina?" Remus asked. "Her mom?" 

"No." Alice said. "Her eldest sister." Alice unraveled the letter that was bound with a red string. "Look, Lily! Christina obviously meant for it to be for Leah, but since Leah's gone....anyways, read it! Me and Marlene already read it. It has some disturbing news." 

James, Remus and Peter watched as Lily took the letter from Alice and read it. Quickly, her eyes grew panicked, and she handed Alice back the letter. 

"We need to get Dumbledore!" Lily exclaimed.

"Ahem!" James said loudly. "If you didn't notice, you're in our dormitory! Can we read the letter too?" 

Remus elbowed James, and shook his head, as if to say that this was private.