Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 166: Checking The Results
"But what happened to you?" Lily asked. "We went looking for you yesterday. Sirius came back an hour later, all roughed up and wouldn't tell us any details." She huffed.
"And where is Sirius now?" James asked.
"Mmm… I'm not sure. Haven't seen him all day. I can say the same for Remus and Peter. I think they are up to something…" Lily frowned. "I hope they don't get in trouble now that the year is ending."
"Okay, I'll go find them later. I first need to change robes." James was about to leave, but she stopped him.
"Hold on, James. You haven't told me what had happened to you… are your robes burnt?" She was staring at his clothes with a confused expression.
"Just had a bit of an accident during a personal project of mine. Now if you excuse me, I could really use a shower and some clean clothes," James said before making his way to the boys' bedroom.
"Wait, but… what about…" Lily sighed. There was something else she had wanted to ask.
Alicia poked her head from behind Lily. "And?..."
Lily let out a gasp. "Don't startle me like that! I was thinking about something…"
"Did you ask him?" Alice said in a whisper.
"I didn't have time…" Lily looked down. She had wanted to ask him about Bellatrix. Yesterday, Sirius seemed convinced that she somehow knew where he was, and her instincts were telling her that something was suspicious there.
It made no sense to any of them that James and Bellatrix Black were so close. As far as they were aware, they only spoke during potion classes because the professor had placed them together.
But then again, James had also invited Bellatrix to their private defense lessons in the Room of Requirement.
Lily and the others had been surprised that James would trust someone from the Slytherin house with the location of such a valuable room.
"Oh dear. Don't worry. I'm sure there is nothing there…" Alice tried to hide her concern, but just like Lily, she also thought it was suspicious.
James arrived at his room and found it empty. He had no idea where his friends were, but that would have to wait.
He reached into his suitcase and pulled out his replacement robe. It was exactly the same as the one he had been wearing.
"Someone wise once said that if you can make one, then you should always make two instead," James said as he began the process of moving all his stored possessions onto the new robes.
This did not take as long as one would imagine, despite the large number of items he had in there, because everything was properly stored and organized, making the task much easier.
James then went to the bathroom and removed all the bandages that had been placed on his body before applying a healing ointment of his own creation, which was very effective at helping the damaged skin heal.
"I have gotten a bit careless this time…" he thought as he looked at his injuries.
His eagerness to work with that piece of divine leather had pushed him to hurry things up instead of taking more time to figure out a safer process like he would have done in the past.
Although eagerness was not the only reason. He had a Dark Lord to deal with, and he was still figuring out how to locate all the Horcruxes.
"I should work on that next. Using the one I already have in my possession, I could create some spell that would track the others." From what he knew about Voldemort's Horcruxes, all of them were connected somehow.
There was a time when he was a Horcrux himself, and he would often get visions from the perspective of Nagini, Voldemort's snake, who was also a Horcrux.
"If there was a link, there must also be a way to follow that bond to the other side." James walked into the shower and began to clean himself up, removing all the dust and soot that had built up on him.
Feeling much better after a nice shower, James got dressed in his new robes and walked out of the common room.
He ignored the stares from the other students and walked at a brisk pace to the second floor of the castle.
Once he made sure no one was nearby, James approached a large statue and tapped his wand on it. This one then moved aside, revealing a small entrance that would lead him directly to the chamber.
This entrance was made by him with a lot of effort. The chamber had other points of access, but unfortunately, he could not use them due to no longer having the Parseltongue ability.
Salazar had put a lot of effort into ensuring that only his chosen heirs were able to gain access to his chamber.
However, that was not enough to stop him from making new entrances.
"I can still feel the heat." James noticed the temperature rising as he got closer to the main chamber.
And once he entered the room proper, he realized the terrible state that the chamber had been left in.
"Wow… I guess I really messed up the place with my latest stunt." He should have predicted that turning the chamber into a furnace was going to cause massive damage to it, despite all its protections.
But this would all be worth it, as long as his project had succeeded.
James' eyes went to the center of the chamber, where a glowing object was still floating.
"It's still extremely hot." James noted that the piece of leather had turned into a perfect sphere and was levitating by its own magic.
"Mmm…" James began to examine the artifact without getting too close to it, as the heat was still enough to burn him if he wasn't careful.
"Looks like I will have to wait a bit longer to see the results of my experiment." James had the feeling that the leather was still in the middle of a process.
And only when this process was concluded, James would be able to see if he had succeeded.
This leather was a material like nothing he had used before. It seemed to have a will of its own to some degree. And right now, it was processing the materials that James had provided it with.
James stared at it for a bit longer before deciding to leave. Right now, there was nothing else he could do and could only trust that his method had been correct.
"Mmm?…" As he turned around, he noticed that something was missing from the ceiling.
"Where did my basilisk skeleton go?"
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