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. 

But James didn't listen. 

Lily, Alice and Marlene exchanged weary glances. They were the Marauders, of all people, and this was highly confidential, private family business that Leah only shared with her closest friends, and probably Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall. 

They couldn't just share it like this without Leah's consent. It was bad enough they were looking through her mail; so Lily shook her head. "Sorry, Potter, this is the White family's business. We can't show it to you." 

James frowned. "We're her friends too." 

Remus shook his head. "James!" He hissed. "Let it go!"

"No, Potter, and that's final." Marlene said sternly. "But if you want to help us visit Dumbledore, that would be nice." 

"Why should we, when you don't even trust us?" James, then crossed his arms and turned away. 

"No, we'll help!" Peter said in a small voice, and Remus nodded. "We don't care if you don't show us. We'll help Leah anyway." 

"Oh, why thank you, Peter." Lily said sweetly. "Why can't you be nice, Potter, like your friends? You're being a real jerk right now. If Leah was actually your friend, you would want to help her."

James sighed. "I guess you're right. So what do you want us to do?" 

                                   ╔═══°∴,*⋅✲══〖✰〗══✲⋅*,∴°═══╗

That was how James, Remus and Peter got stuck on lookout duty, while Lily, Alice, and Marlene snuck around the school, aiming to find Leah or Sirius, and make their way to Dumbledore's office. 

James was positioned in the Entrance Hall, hidden behind a large pillar. He knew Remus was stationed outside Gryffindor Tower, and Peter had taken the third floor corridor. 

James was bored. No one was out that late, give for maybe Filch and Mrs. Norris. 

Eventually, James fell asleep against the pillar, and probably had a good one hour nap before someone started shaking him awake. 

"James! James! Prongs! Wake up!" 

James blinked and slowly opened his eyes. 

He saw Sirius standing in front of him, snapping his fingers. "James!" Sirius said. "Glad you're awake. Something big is going on tonight!" 

"Huh?" James said, still groggy. "Isn't it like, 2am? The night is almost over." 

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Psh. Seriously! I saw Bellatrix and Narcissa, on school grounds! Then when me and Leah were up on the Astronomy tower, she saw someone form up above then ran! I mean it James!! And Dumbledore isn't even in his office! I think Professor McGonagall might have said something about him being at a big European magic school meeting!" 

"Huh?" James repeated. "Wait...Sirius? That's you! We've been looking all over for you- The Golden Gang went to go find Dumbledore, they left me stationed here!" 

Sirius took a deep breath. "Okay, so the Golden Gang is running around, trying to find Leah, you're here, Bellatrix and Narcissa are probably at that vanishing cabinet thingy, Dumbledore is away, and the Death Eater who attacked Leah is roaming the grounds!"

"What?!" James was now awake. "But- how? How are they here? Hogwarts is impenetrable!" 

"No, it's not. Just like every other place on Earth, there's a way in. A vanishing cabinet!" Sirius explained. "Can't get into the details now, I have to find the Vanishing Cabinet! My so called cousins are probably there, maybe even with the guy who attacked Leah. Here's the cloak." Sirius shoved the cloak into James's hands. "Gather Remus and Peter, and you've got to tell the Golden Gang that Dumbledore isn't here! Then search the whole school for Leah, she's in serious danger, with that guy around!" 

Then, Sirius ran away. 

James was now confused, anxious, scared, and annoyed. Sirius and just come up to him, at 2am, woken him up from a relaxing sleep, then thrown all these details about some danger at him. What a great way to wake up. 

James rubbed his eyes, then tried to get his thoughts straight. The first thing he needed to do was rally up Remus and Peter. So he threw on the cloak, then started walking towards Gryffindor Tower.

Remus was wide awake somehow, sitting on a bench outside Gryffindor Tower. He was pretty well hidden behind yet another pillar, but James knew exactly where to look. He pulled off the cloak before he could scare Remus, then went up to him. 

"Remus! Sirius found me!" He said, then proceeded to explain all the details Sirius had told him. Or, what he remembered Sirius telling him. 

"Really? Ok, Peter should be in the third floor corridor, so he'll be easy to track down." Remus said. "But the Golden Gang is a different story. Who knows where they might be. They probably already know that Dumbledore is at a fancy meeting, so they could be wandering around Hogwarts. Who knows, maybe they'll complete step two." 

"Ok..." James said. "Then let's get Peter." 

As James assumed, Peter was asleep. He was curled up on a bench, with no camouflage or hiding place. James mentally smacked his forehead for Peter's foolishness. 

"Wormtail!" James said loudly. Remus was acting as the eyes, looking out for any signs of trouble while James did the explaining to Peter. 

Peter looked extremely frightened. "But...but what if we get hurt?" He said worriedly. "These guys are d-dangerous!" 

"Yes, Peter, we know. We just have to track down the Golden Gang, Sirius said he would try to take care of the bad guys." James informed him. "Or...at least I think that's what he said." 

"Maybe the Golden Gang went back to Gryffindor Tower!" Peter suggested. "Maybe they wanted to talk about where Leah could be, somewhere alone and quiet!" 

"But Remus would have seen them," James pointed out. He was still carrying the cloak, ready to use it to hide the three of them at any sign of danger. 

"Um, actually no." Remus said, embarrassed. "I was reading  a book the whole time....I barely paid attention to anything." 

"Remus, come on!" James said. 

"Hey, at least I was awake. My ears could still hear. Unlike you and Peter, who were asleep." Remus retorted. 

"Fine, point made. Anyways, Gryffindor Tower is a genius idea. Based on the Golden Gang, who makes decisions based on critical thinking more than impulse, which is stupid, but it makes it easier to know where to find them." James said. 

"That actually makes sense." Remus said, impressed. 

"Ok, so let's head back to Gryffindor Tower and if they're not there, then we can look around." James told them. "But we should put the cloak on just in case. Sirius said that something big was going on tonight....we just don't know what." 

Three out of the four Marauders crept sneakily under the cloak from the third floor corridor to the entrance to Gryffindor Tower. When they arrived at the Fat Lady's portrait, James muttered the password. 

"Humbug Bah." 

"Why is it Bah Humbug, just backwards?" Peter asked quietly. "That was the password at the beginning of the year." 

"The Fat Lady is just really obsessed with that muggle book," Remus replied. 

The Fat Lady didn't stir; she kept snoring away. 

"HUMBUG BAH!" James said, louder, and the Fat Lady woke with a start. She looked around, then sleepily opened the portrait hole. James assumed she was still half-asleep. 

"Fabulous." James said with a grin as they stepped through the portrait hole, their steps in synch. 

That grin quickly faded, however, when James saw who was standing in the middle of the Gryffindor Common Room. 

A figure wearing a black, hooded cloak with a mask, a wand in one hand, a gleaming knife in the other. 

Hello! Hope you like this chapter, it was definitely scarier, and I am starting to get into Leah's traumatic story more. Sorry about all the cliffhangers, but they just make the endings of these sound so professional. Thanks for reading! 

- Isa :)