Daddy’s Boy

Fake Stone

The forbidden corridor continued holding their curiosity. They were visiting Fluffy regularly, usually bringing some food as well and sometimes just petting, scratching and hugging the three headed dog, yet nothing seemed out of order. The monitoring spells cast on the trap door under the dog, intended to alert the marauders and Harry to any intrusion, remained inactive.

Harry and Hermione had some other occupations, as expected. They continued getting the top grades on all subjects, even potions, despite Snape's negative attitude. Harry was actually getting tired of the potion professor, but James insisted he should do nothing yet. Harry obeyed, although he wasn't happy about it.

Both were also practising their animagus forms as much as they could. It was easier for Hermione, who could just change into her Kneazle form in any secluded place and stroll around, indistinguishable from the other pets brought by the students. Some girls even seemed to like Kitty and looked for her after meals, offering her some remains to entice her closer.

It was more difficult for Snow to practise. He usually did it under night cover, using the owlery as an excuse. The invisibility cloak which he had received as a Christmas present, was quite helpful. It was waiting for him on his bed when returning after the new year. An unsigned note stated that it used to be his father's. James's reaction to this was, "Had he given it back on time, Lily might have still been alive."

Harry was also doing well in his Quidditch playing, helping his team win every game, as well as in his studies. He and Hermione were getting the highest scores in every exam, tying for the first place in their classes. James was very proud of his son, despite some teasing from his Marauder friends.

The term was approaching its end. They were relaxing in the late spring sun after their last exam when Harry felt the monitoring alarm on the third floor corridor. His mirror buzzed a few seconds later. He moved aside, so nobody but Hermione could notice what he was doing, and tapped the mirror, accepting the call. It was James.

"Harry, Padfoot and I are coming to Hogwarts to check the third floor. Moony can't come. It's been a full moon last night, so he isn't well yet." It was the "all business" tone that Harry knew too well.

"Do you want me to wait for you anywhere?" Harry asked.

James thought for a moment. "I don't want you to be involved in any way, yet we may need Snow's abilities and maybe Kitty's as well. Wait for us near that door on the third floor but don't do anything. Stay under the cloak, if possible."

Harry rushed to his dorm room to take the invisibility cloak. Hermione followed him a part of the way, until she found a point where she could transform. Kitty then ran to the gates, to wait for the visitors.

It was a matter of seconds, so it seemed, before James and Sirius materialized in front of the gates. Sirius transformed into a big black dog and James used some glamour charms to look a lot younger, just as he had been when Harry was born.

They both followed Kitty into the castle, that looked almost abandoned. Most students were enjoying the sunny day, relaxing from their last exams, while most teachers were cocooned in their offices, trying to grade those exams.

They met nobody until they reached the third floor corridor. Padfoot and Kitty were aware of Harry's presence nearby, due to their enhanced sense of smell. They made sure nobody else was nearby before transforming back into their human form and opening the door only to find Fluffy asleep as a charmed harp was playing some soothing music.

"What's the plan?" Hermione asked.

"A plan?" Sirius looked bewildered.

"You surely didn't come here without a plan," she said.

"Well..." James sounded apologetic, "We thought to follow whoever went in and confront him..." It sounded lame when put into words, and he knew it. The Marauders' mind was Moony, but he wasn't available for this task, so...

"That doesn't sound like a good plan to me," Hermione said, sounding more mature than the two adults. She thought for a moment. "Can you perform the disillusionment charm, making you invisible?"

Both nodded.

"Can you cast it on us as well?"

Another nod was the reply.

"Will it hold even if we transform?"

Sirius shrugged. James thought for a moment. "We've never tried it, but theoretically, it should hold, although I'd hate to find out at the wrong time."

"Cast it on me!" Hermione stood straight, like a soldier at an inspection.

James cast the spell. Hermione shimmered and turned practically invisible. Harry could only see her outline faintly because he knew where to look. She transformed a moment later. Harry noticed her outline change. The adults didn't seem to see it at all.

"Have you transformed?" James asked.

"Mew!" he heard a reply coming from much lower than expected.

"Please remove it now," Hermione asked a moment later.

Visible again, she made a plan. "I think Harry should go first as a Phoenix and check what's under the trap door. Once he tells us, we can plan further."

James cast the spell. Harry transformed and James opened the trap door. It was dark below it. Snow let himself fall and started flying as soon as his wings were free to unfold while James and Hermione cast "Lumos" to let him see what was below. There was a large plant under the trap door. It could serve as a nice cushion, except that Snow recognized it as Devil's Snare, a plant that could easily kill the unaware.

He had not exercised his ability for fire-travel until then. He only tried it once before, but trying to fly up through that small trap door didn't seem attractive. Without even needing to think about it, he flashed to the room above and changed into Harry, still invisible.

"There's a Devil's Snare below. You can land on it safely, but you need to cast a strong light to prevent it from catching you. Maybe I should just take you with me... Hold my legs!"

James and Sirius bent down to hold a leg each, holding Hermione with their other hand. Harry transformed and flashed directly to the room below, landing far enough from the plant to be out of its reach.

Hermione didn't hesitate. She cast a fire spell on the plant. "If anybody wants to come now, nothing will cushion the fall," she said.

"This way," Harry said, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward.

All they could hear, apart from their footsteps, was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. The passageway sloped downward, and Harry was reminded of Gringotts. With an unpleasant jolt of the heart, he remembered the dragons said to be guarding vaults in the wizards' bank. He hoped not to meet any this time.

They reached the end of the passageway and saw a brilliantly lit chamber there, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

Not taking chances, James shot a wide-area stunner, making all the birds fall down. As he took a second look at them, they were all keys.

Sirius was already at the door on the other side of the room. The door was locked and no opening charm would affect it.

Hermione looked at the hundreds of keys, now scattered on the floor. "It may take hours to find the right key. Can't we just blast the door away?"

Sirius smiled. "I like the way you're thinking! Brilliantly a Marauder!"

He took a few steps back from the door, pointed his wand and uttered "Bombarda!"

An explosion was heard and the door now sported a large hole in its centre. With its main beams destroyed, many of the remaining planks fell down, opening the doorway completely.

The next chamber was so dark that they couldn't see anything at all, but as they stepped into it, light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight.

They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chess pieces, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like black stone. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. Behind the white pieces they could see another door.

"I believe we're supposed to play a game to pass through," James said, "but I'd rather take a shortcut."

He waved his wand at the chess set, chanting a spell. The whole set shrunk to the size of a regular one, posing no threat to the humans. They walked swiftly to the next door and Sirius pushed it open.

A disgusting smell filled their nostrils, making all of them pull their robes up over their noses.

Eyes watering, Harry saw, flat on the floor in front of them, a troll even larger than the one he had tackled, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

"I'm glad somebody spared us fighting that troll," James said as they all reached the next door. It opened easily and they saw a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.

They stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind them in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. They were trapped.

Hermione seized a roll of parchment lying next to the bottles. "There's a logic puzzle in here. I know the answer, but I'd rather we use a different way out."

"I can take you there, just as I did with the trap-door," Harry said.

"It may be dangerous there," James commented. It was clear that he didn't like endangering the kids.

"I'll check it first, then. I only need you to make me invisible again," Harry said.

"No. You shouldn't go there alone," James insisted. "I'll go with you. Hermione can stay with Sirius here."

Both Sirius and Hermione groaned, but it was no time for arguments. Sirius knew that James was a better dueller and if Harry needed to be defended, James could do a better job.

Harry transformed. James grabbed Snow's tail and then disillusioned them both. A flash of fire was all that could be seen next.

They reappeared in the next room. It was clearly the last, as there was no other exit except for the door to the room they had just left behind. Their arrival didn't go undetected, though. A flash of fire in a room lighted by only a few candles is bound to be noticed.

Professor Quirrell turned around, looking for the source of the disturbance. James moved silently, glad that his muggle trainers didn't make any noise, unlike the shoes most wizards liked, using solid leather soles which were never silent. Harry transformed back and moved to the other side.

Quirrell had noticed something and fired a dark spell. It struck where Harry had initially landed, far enough from either Harry or James.

None of them moved. Quirrell looked around once again and then turned back to continue what he'd been doing before. He was standing in front of a large cage. A smaller cage was suspended in mid air inside it, holding what looked like a fist-sized blood-red stone. Harry, having grown among muggles, recognized the material immediately. It was a plastic "stone". He had owned several like it when he'd been smaller, as parts of different games and toys for children. A wizard wouldn't recognize it for what it was, as plastic had never made its way into the wizarding world, except for some eyeglass frames.

Quirrell was trying different spells to either open the door-less cage, summon the smaller cage or its contents to him or reach there in any other way. Nothing seemed to work.

Harry had expected to see Snape there, Finding Quirrell was a surprise, yet he didn't like that man either. His stuttering made him useless as a teacher and Harry had a feeling his turban was hiding something.

The flames in the door-frame flickered momentarily. Harry noticed a dog-shaped shadow passing through the flame. Quirrell turned around once again, still unable to find anything. He shot the "incarceus" spell, sweeping his wand. Ropes shot out of his wand. Harry was closest and couldn't dodge on time. The ropes engulfed him and he fell on the floor – an invisible lump covered with ropes. Both adults managed to dodge.

Quirrell stepped to the ropes covered figure. His hands moved around, trying to feel the person tied there. His fingers touched Harry's face and he retraced his hand as if burned. Harry looked around wildly to see where Quirrell had gone, and saw him hunched in pain, looking at his fingers – they were blistering before his eyes.

"It's the boy!" he heard a hissing sound coming from within the turban. "Let me see him!"

Quirrell reached up and began to unwrap his turban until it fell away. Quirrell's head looked strangely small without it. Then he turned slowly on the spot.

Harry would have screamed, but he couldn't make a sound. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.

The eyes looked at the seemingly empty bundle of ropes. "I know it's him. Make him visible!"

As soon as Quirrell started turning to point his wand at Harry, he was hit with two overpowered stunners and fell on his face, barely missing Harry. Another spell removed the ropes from Harry. A moment later they were all visible again. James took Quirrell's wand and searched him for any additional weapons. Sirius tied Quirrell with heavy ropes, like Harry had been tied before, and sent another powerful stunner at him, to be on the safe side.

Harry, as Snow, flashed to the other room and brought Hermione, who was surprised to find Quirrell there, expecting to find Snape.

"Can we take that plastic stone now?" Harry asked.

Hermione blasted a few bars of the outer cage and stepped in. She uttered another spell, making the inner cage fall down. The plastic "stone" slipped out between its bars. Hermione cast some spells on it, making sure it was safe to touch, and then took it in her hand. She turned it around. There was an inscription on the bottom: "Made in China".

After a good laugh, Snow took them all back to the corridor of the third floor. James used a spell to make himself look translucent like a ghost while Harry returned to normal. They marched to the headmaster's office, floating Quirrell in front of them. They collected Professor McGonagall on the way. She was frightened at seeing James that way, but he only winked at her and put a finger on his lips. She didn't need any more to understand this was just another Marauder Prank, in a way.

They had to wait for almost an hour, before Dumbledore returned to school, looking worried and tired. Seeing the welcome committee in his office made him even more worried.

"What's the meaning of this?" he asked, looking at them all without the normal twinkle in his eyes.

Sirius replied. "Harry had told me about the third floor corridor, so I set a few alarm wards on the trap door under Fluffy. He's quite cute, by the way. He's very kind and quite lovable." Dumbledore frowned at that.

"The wards triggered today. I came immediately. James followed me, as you can see. We found your defence professor harbouring the terrorist known as Voldemort in his head, trying to steal that fake resurrection stone."

"Fake?"

"Of course!" Sirius let Harry throw him the stone. He turned it in his fingers to show Dumbledore. "Made in China? Really..."

Dumbledore was livid. His trusted professor was owned by Voldemort! His defences proven worthless! His precious treasure a fake! That didn't sit well with the Great Leader of the Light, yet he could do nothing to save his reputation, so it seemed. Sirius and Minerva were sitting on opposing sides of the room and James's ghost seemed to stand protectively in front of the children, who looked quite amused now.

Sirius felt he should put the last straw now. "You probably know that I work as a part-time Auror. I've already let my superior know of this," he pointed at Quirrell, "and I'm expected to take him into custody."

Dumbledore looked at the prisoner who was lain on the floor and noticed his charred fingers. "What happened to him?" he asked.

"He touched Harry," Sirius shrugged. "He should have known better."

Dumbledore turned the prisoner around, noticing the other face on the back of his head.

"What about that?" he asked.

"I'm sure the unspeakables will have a field day with that," Sirius said.

Dumbledore badly needed a change of subject. "Why are the children here?" he asked.

Sirius smiled. "I needed somebody to help me with Fluffy and that logic puzzle was actually beyond me..."

They were getting ready to take Quirrell to the ministry, using the Floo. Minerva had already prepared the announcement for Albus to read to the school and Sirius was already holding the Floo powder, when the Headmaster spoke to James for the first time. "James, I'm really sorry for the fate that had befallen you and Lily."

James, who was currently walking towards the door, escorting the children out, turned to face Dumbledore. "It didn't need to be that fate. We could have used another hideout, much more protected, if you didn't insist. Why did you?"

Dumbledore paled. "I had my reasons. I don't think it's wise to speak of them in current company," he pointed to the children with his bearded chin.

James didn't accept this. "I've already told them everything. Harry is entitled to know why he suffered this fate just as much as I am."

"He's still too young!" Albus insisted.

James turned around and left with the children, not giving Dumbledore another glance, just as Sirius disappeared in the green flames with his cargo.

'Nothing seems to go according to my plan,' Albus thought, while his deputy was thinking, 'What is the old man up to now?'