章 151: Inconvenient
The first step of the plan was completed. Dozens of students witnessed the ice vault with their own eyes. McGonagall had no time to stop them.
Luckily there was no accident, and none of them touched the cursed ice. They used the path laid out by the professors. Now, the story of the cursed vaults had a lot of credibility.
Several professors had to throw out the students who reached the ice vault. From that day on it was a forbidden place, and whoever entered would be severely punished.
Especially, because of the cursed ice that remained in the vault. They did not want to have frozen students in the infirmary.
As James expected a search campaign began. The professors wanted to catch the creators of the paper but could not. Since they couldn't they banned "The Meddler" from Hogwarts. They confiscated the copies the students bought.
This didn't worry James. He knew it would happen. How would a school newspaper know more than the school staff about the curse that plagued Hogwarts? They became suspects.
The professors confiscated many newspapers from the students which caused the newspaper sales to increase. However, the professors were not entirely helpless. They managed to catch several sellers and interrogated them, but they did not know anything about the real perpetrators of the newspaper. So, they were only punished.
This made circulating the newspapers more difficult, as many sellers did not want to be punished for a profit that was not worth it.
What James decided was to give the newspapers away for free. With his invisibility cloak and Regulus' cloak (which he borrowed before going to the infirmary), they left the newspapers spread all over Hogwarts. They were only to be found by students.
This way, the news he wants to reach Eustace's ears will get through. Most likely, the bald man will be very surprised by the newspaper and think it is about the thieves.
Sirius didn't mind giving the paper away for free. He knew it was a much more serious matter than his new Nimbus. Besides, with the first news of the cursed vaults, he already got the money he needed.
The next day, the second paper came out. No one thought that the Meddler would bring out a new issue so quickly. The wave and the impact that this news produced were bigger than the other days.
This was because the paper talked about the existence of a different vault than the one in the ice. It was the Vault of Fear. It explained that this vault was still closed, and its treasures were still safe.
The news did not encourage the search for the vault's treasures. It warned that there was a culprit who opened the ice vault. This culprit kept the treasures and released the curse.
[A greedy being wants to find the vault of fear and keep the treasures in it. In the process, he will release another powerful curse and put Hogwarts in grave danger. Students of all houses must be made aware of the dangerous situation! We must stop this scoundrel! Luckily our team is working to find the location of the new vault. We will continue to report on the latter shortly]
This was an excerpt written by Xeno from the news from the Meddler. James made Xeno believe that a bad guy was trying to open the vault. In this way he got Xeno to aim to warn everyone and try to stop him.
Otherwise, why would Xeno show the location of the vaults in the paper? The Ravenclaw boy doesn't want another curse to hit Hogwarts.
This latest news put the professors on high alert. They did not know about the existence of another dangerous vault and that someone was trying to open it to take the treasures. Now they were confused, they didn't know if those in the paper were good or bad.
"We made a big mess," said Sirius, sitting on his bed. The marauders were in the dormitories chatting.
"Yeah. I hope they don't close Hogwarts," said Toby in a worried tone.
"I don't think, they'll go to such extremes if nothing's happened yet," said Lupin, not too sure. With the threat of a curse like the previous one. They didn't know what the school would do.
Now the curfew was two hours earlier, and all the professors were constantly on guard.
"Tomorrow is the day. We will falsely publish the news with the location of the vault. Eustace must see it if or if he is to head there," James said in a serious tone.
By falsely he meant that the only one who would see the paper should be Eustace. They wouldn't have it circulated throughout the school like the previous ones. They didn't want students heading there. They just wanted to catch Eustace red-handed and get evidence to get him expelled.
"Will the bald guy fall for it?" asked Sirius doubtfully. He might suspect it was a trap to catch him.
"He may think the newspaper people are the same ones who stole the treasures from the ice vault from him or some third parties who found out about the vault by other means. I'm sure he'll go as soon as he knows the location," James replied.
Eustace had come to Hogwarts as a professor on a mission to find the vaults. He didn't like teaching. He hated it. Even if he thinks it is a trap, he will head for the vault of fear.
"Snape has already given us Eustace's patrol route. You two must go through there and accomplish your mission," James said, looking at Toby and Peter. Their mission was very important.
They were to act like they found the paper with the location of the vault this close to Eustace so that he would take the paper from them and upon seeing the location head there.
Eustace will just think that Peter and Toby found the paper by chance, so he will not think too much and run straight to the vault. That's the plan. James, Sirius, Snape, and the others will wait for him at the entrance to the vault with the invisibility cloaks.
Toby and Peter nodded. They were nervous, but their task was the safest of all. They just had to get Eustace to fall and head for the vault. The others would face him.
"Let's get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day," James said, and they all nodded.
'From making jokes to this,' thought Sirius with a strange expression as he climbed into his bed.
...
The day arrived. After the school day was over, they waited a little while for the curfew to approach which was now much earlier because of the cursed vaults situation.
James and Sirius started to head toward the second floor of Hogwarts Castle. They were to head to where Professor Eustace was making his route which was near his office.
On the way, they were intercepted by Xeno, who had a different expression than usual. He looked nervous.
"Guys... Will you deliver the papers yet?" asked Xeno in a low tone, looking all around.
Xeno was nervous because he already knew the entrance to the vault of fear. They had to get the news out as soon as possible so that the culprit could not enter the vault and release the curse.
Xeno thought that with the location exposed, the professors would be able to protect the vault from being opened. That way no one will release the curse as happened with the ice vault.
"Yeah..." replied James and Sirius, looking at each other. Technically they didn't lie. They would deliver a single paper to Toby and Peter.
"That's good. Don't you want to give me some copies to leave around the castle? We have to be quick," asked Xeno. The culprit might already know the location.
"Don't worry. The two of us are enough. You could get caught if you don't know the disillusioning spell. You could get caught," replied Sirius, patting Xeno's shoulder.
"Fine. I'll leave you in their hands," Xeno said as he waved goodbye to them.
"I feel a little bad about lying to him," said Sirius, looking at Xeno's back.
"It's better that he doesn't know. We can't keep getting more people involved. Come on," said James resuming his march.
"This is Myrtle the Weeper's bathroom," said Sirius, looking at the entrance to the abandoned girl's bathroom.
"In the next aisle let's leave the paper," said James.
In the next aisle, there were rows of armor on each side. James approached cautiously and looked both ways.
"There are no monkeys on the coast," said Sirius as he noticed that the corridors connecting to this one were empty.
James from his robes pulled out the exclusive newspaper that contained the location of the vault of fear. He propped it behind the feet of one of the knights.
"Ready. We just must wait for Toby and Peter to grab it. They should be on their way by now," said James, pulling out his invisibility cloak.
"Are those footsteps?" asked Sirius, who was about to wrap himself in the invisibility cloak. Toby and Peter shouldn't be so fast.
'This is not good,' thought James with a grimace if another student finds the paper his plan will go down the drain.
"You put on the invisibility cloak. Wait for Toby and Peter and get on with the plan. I'll handle it," said James, passing the cloak to Sirius and heading towards the sound where the footsteps were coming from.
He must distract this person or at worst knock them out and erase their memories.
He started walking, and the sounds of footsteps were clearer than before. When he was about to reach the corner, a person appeared in his vision. It was a girl with almost white, blonde hair and blue eyes.
'Why did it have to be her...' thought James, recognizing Narcissa Black. To his bad luck, Narcissa had turned and would pass through the corridor where they hid the newspaper.
Even though she hid it was in plain sight. A person watching would notice the newspaper and more so when everyone was aware that the Meddler was leaving newspapers strewn about like this.
Narcissa paused, and her gaze met James'. The place fell silent as they both stared at each other with their clear eyes.
After a few seconds of silence, Narcissa resumed her walk without saying a word, but James intercepted her.
"Move it," Narcissa said in her characteristic cold, clear tone.
"Don't you say hello to a clubmate? From two clubs, to be precise," James said.
"No," Narcissa replied dryly. She wanted to dodge James to keep walking, but again James stepped in front of her.
"How mean. Your sister, Andromeda is much nicer. You should learn a little from her," James said not caring about Narcissa's annoyed expression.
"I don't care how that traitor acts," Narcissa said, but her tone was doubtful, and James noticed it.
"Calling your sister a traitor. Andromeda would be very sad. She told me many good things about you when I visited Alphard's house," James said and noticed Narcissa's expression change to one of guilt and sadness.
'On target,' thought James. He had to find a way to stop Narcissa from passing.
"Where are you headed?" asked James.
"To my common room. Why do you care?" asked Narcissa, annoyed at answering James' question.
"Do you want to go to the Dragon Club? To practice a bit" asked James.
"No. It's just short of curfew," Narcissa replied.
"We have some time. A duel doesn't last long," James insisted. He didn't want to have to erase Narcissa's memories it would be too much trouble and he might get caught.
"Tomorrow," Narcissa replied. She agreed because dueling James was very useful to her. Also, that James was one of the few people she interacted with at the Dragon Club. His cold and unfriendly expression meant that he didn't have many friendships.
"Come on. It'll just be a while. We can have a serious duel. There won't be anyone to witness it, and we won't have to hold back," James said.
He had realized that Narcissa was very curious about his true abilities, but that she didn't want to have a real duel against him, as the girl would see it as an abuse of power because she is three years older.
"Fine. Come on, quickly," Narcissa replied after a few seconds of thought.
'Luckily there are no more students around,' thought James, leading the way and going the other way. Narcissa didn't think much of the change of route and followed him. The journey passed in silence.
They left the castle and arrived at the Dragon Club, "Wait for me in the dueling room. I must go to the bathroom," James said with a poker face as he headed for the bathroom.
Within seconds he exited the bathroom and slipped out of the dragon club, 'Sorry, Narcissa. Another day we'll have a real duel,' thought James as he started to run towards the castle.
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