What Lies Within

What Lies Within

Chapter one - The First Clue

The alarm in the semi-dark bedroom went off at a quarter to six on the morning of September the first. At the exact same moment, the kettle in the small kitchen of the London flat started to boil of its own volition. In any other household this would have been strange, for the kettle possessed no special qualities or technology; it was just your run-of-the-mill kettle... which wasn't plugged in. At the precise time of 5:46 AM, the curtains that covered all the windows in the flat flew open, letting the scant light outside penetrate into the gloom within. Back in the bedroom, the owner of the flat groaned at the sound of the kettle whistling shrilly and buried his head under the covers, trying vainly to block out the noise. Two hundred and forty seconds later, the alarm clock threw itself off the nightstand and attacked the occupant of the bed beside it. The time was 5:50 AM.

"Alright! Alright, I'm up already!" shouted the seventeen-year-old, throwing back the covers and getting up to applause from his mirror. "Shut up," he added on his way out to the kitchen.

Seriously regretting bewitching his flat to wake him up on time, Sirius Black poured himself a strong mug of coffee. By the time he had found the frying pan hiding behind the vinegar and placed it on the stove, an owl was scratching furiously at the window over the sink, the Daily Prophet clamped firmly in its beak. Sirius lifted the sash and let the owl hop inside. It dropped the paper in the sink and stared dolefully at him, shaking its leg slightly, to which was tied a change pouch.

"Er - just a sec," Sirius muttered, more to himself than to the owl, and run to the bedroom to retrieve five nuts from the messy contents of his bureau. As an after thought, he also grabbed his wand was back out into the kitchen before 5:58 AM. The owl clicked its beak impatiently as Sirius fumbled with the change and dropped it into the pouch. The owl promptly flew back out the open window. Sirius slammed the window shut and started searching for some potatoes. Getting frustrated, he grabbed up his wand and swished it in the air.

From the pantry (where he had been looking to begin with) flew - literally - two potatoes. Sirius ducked as they came flying at his head towards the frying pan. A foot away from the stove, they shot out of their skins, prompted by another wave of Sirius's wand. Then they paused, just above the frying pan, waiting for one last jab from the wand, which they got. They diced themselves and fell flawlessly into the frying pan, heated to perfection.

"Not too shabby," Sirius muttered, pulling two slices of bread from a bag on a shelf in the pantry. He took down a plate, placed the slices on it, and waved his wand again. The slices of bread glowed red for a second then became instantly slices of toast.

"Instant toast... Just add magic!" Sirius took another sip of his coffee, not yet feeling entirely awake or sane, but he didn't think the later had much to do with sleep.

At exactly 6:09 AM, Sirius sat down with his breakfast and pulled the Daily Prophet toward him. There was nothing new in the news; just the usual waffle from the Ministry of Magic. Frank Longbottom and Alice Newman's wedding announcement was located in the editorials (there weren't enough wedding announcements to warrant their own section), the previous Keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts, a man name Ogg, had died at the ripe old of eighty seven, and the Scarborough Scarlets had been destroyed in their match against the Warsaw Warriors.

At 7:30 AM, the hot water in the shower turned on by itself. Sighing, Sirius pulled himself away from the paper, promising himself that he would finish it later. The scalding water felt good against his sleepy skin, waking him more completely than anything else that had happened that morning. Ten minutes later, Sirius grabbed a towel, dried himself passably, and draped the cloth about his waist. Back in the bedroom, he checked every corner of his room to see that he had not missed anything the night before. Having ascertained that all his drawers were empty and that were was nothing hiding under his bed, Sirius closed and locked his trunk. It shut with a satisfying thump.

The clothes he had laid out for himself were a pair of Muggle jeans and a black tee shirt with a cross in it. His girlfriend had given him this as a Christmas present the year before and he had grown quite attached to it over the summer. He hadn't seen Tessa O'Riley since the end of the school year two month before. He missed her greatly, but he was sustained by the thought that he would get to see her later on in the day anyway. She had sent him a letter at the beginning of August saying that she was staying at her grandmother's house in Germany and would see him on the first. Well, now it was the first and Sirius couldn't wait to see her again.

Fully dressed and partially dried, Sirius went to the bathroom and opened the small window. He hung up the towels and wiped off the mirror. In the kitchen he found a pen (one of the Muggle ones because he had packed all his quills) and paper and wrote a note to the landlady, asking her to check on his flat regularly and make sure everything was fine.

The time was 8:23 AM and it was starting to get to be time for Sirius to leave. He went around his flat, making sure all the windows were shut and locked and that here was absolutely nothing that he had forgotten to pack. He found nothing.

At ten to nine, after having procrastinated in getting ready, Sirius, all groomed and mostly dried, pulled his trunk and guitar to the front door. He grabbed the keys and the letter from Hogwarts that were lying on the counter waiting for him and shoved them in his pockets. Casting one last glance around his flat, Sirius stepped out into the hallway, dragging his trunk and guitar behind him. On the bottom floor of his building, he slipped the note to the landlady under her door and walked out into the morning sunshine.

It was going to be a beautiful day. So far everything had gone right. Even hailing a cab wasn't as hard as usual. Sirius helped the cabbie load his heavy trunk into the boot, then climbed into the back seat with his guitar case.

The ride to King's Cross station took half an hour, what with traffic and having to stop for lights. Sirius found himself wondering why Muggles made such strange things that made everything more complicated than it had to be. It would only take a short time to get to the train station if there weren't so many lights and pedestrian crossings. Who needed pedestrians anyway?

Finally they stopped outside King's Cross and the cab driver popped the boot of the car to take out the trunk. Sirius awkwardly climbed out of the back seat shoving his guitar ahead of him.

"Here, let me help you with that," he said to the driver, hurrying to help the man pull his huge trunk out of the boot. It was quite a job, even for two people.

"Off to school?" the driver asked, wiping the sweat off his face when they had finally managed to pull the trunk out of the boot.

"Yeah, boarding school, you know." Sirius shrugged and pulled out his wallet. "How much do I owe you?" he asked, checking that he had in fact remembered to bring Muggle money.

"Twenty pounds should do it," the cabbie answered distractedly, staring as Sirius pulled a twenty-pound note from his wallet. "Er - what's Hogwarts?"

Caught off guard, Sirius couldn't react properly.

"Wha'?"

The driver smiled and pointed to his wallet.

"It's on your wallet. I've never heard of it before."

Sirius looked down at his wallet and smiled. It was another gift from Tessa from the Christmas before. She said her grandmother embroidered in her spare time so she had gotten her to make him a wallet with the Hogwarts emblem on it. She had done quite a good job if Sirius said so himself.

"Oh, it's a new band. Punk stuff, if you're wondering," he said as casually as he could, giving the twenty-pound note to the driver.

The cabbie nodded and Sirius could have sworn that as he opened the driver side door that the man muttered to himself, "Kids these days."

Congratulating himself for covering for himself so easily, Sirius grabbed one end of his trunk and the handle on his guitar case and entered the station. It was packed as usual with Muggles waiting around to catch trains all over the country. There were queues some thirty feet long of people waiting to buy last minute tickets to trains that would surely leave before they got to the counter. Of course, Muggles didn't notice the other people that made the train station so crowded on September the first, but if Sirius concentrated he could spot distinctly magical people, most accompanying children pushing trolleys with large trunks like his. Some of them were also carrying owls in cages, cats in baskets, and rats and toads stuffed into pockets. Most of them did a good job of disguising themselves as Muggles, wearing normal clothes like jeans and tee shirts, but some of them weren't as good as blending in.

Right away Sirius could spot at least one group of wizards heading towards the ticket barrier between platforms nine and ten. They were sporting brightly coloured tee shirts that were much too big for them and they had matching scarves tied around their heads. Their pants were made up of a number of different patterned patches. They wore sandals and looked to be wearing coloured glasses. Upon closer inspection, Sirius realized that these weren't wizards at all.

They were hippies.

Rolling his eyes at their bad taste in clothing and colour choice, Sirius retrieved a trolley for himself and placed his trunk and guitar onto it. Now about to move much faster, he headed for the ticket barrier. He paused for a moment some ten feet away, thinking of how best to approach the situation. Deciding on the old fashioned way (running at break-neck speed toward the barrier), Sirius pushed his cart and ran for it. The barrier was closing in and he wouldn't be able to stop. He felt the usual pang of panic about running towards a very solid looking wall, but swallowed it instantly. He had done this seven years in a row now and it was getting to be a normal event.

A split second before he collided with the barrier, Sirius closed his eyes out of habit and braced himself though he knew nothing would happen. As he didn't run into anything solid, Sirius stopped running and opened his eyes.

He was standing on a platform filled to bursting point with wizards and witches all milling around waiting for the Hogwarts Express to start its journey north. For the gleaming red steam engine was sitting spewing white steam over the platform and its people. Cats meowed, owls hooted excitedly to each other, toads croaked and rats scurried underfoot, chased by their owners. Sirius smiled at all the familiar sights. It was good to be going back.

Standing on his toes and craning his neck to see over the crowd (not that he really needed to, he was so much taller than everyone else), Sirius started looking eagerly for his friends James, Remus, and Peter, but even more eagerly for Tessa. Usually her purple and black hair stood out in crowds of any size, but he couldn't see her anywhere. Maybe she was on the train?

"Sirius! Over here!"

Sirius turned around at being addressed and grinned. Remus Lupin was standing with his grandmother next to his trunk. Remus's hair had gotten longer and shaggier making him look even more wolfish than usual. His yellowish eyes were gleaming at the sight of his friend and he was also grinning lopsidedly, his thumbs stuck in the pockets of his jeans. His grandmother was a short woman with white hair. She had a kindly face and was quite plumb, due probably to her amazing cooking. Sirius had eaten a meal once at Remus's grandmother's house... he hadn't been hungry for the next twenty-four hours.

"Hey, Mrs. Lupin!" Sirius greeted jovially. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine dear," she replied in her Irish accent, smiling graciously at him. "How was your summer?"

"It was great thanks." Sirius gave Remus a wink and stuck out his tongue. Mrs. Lupin seemed confused, but Remus snorted and looked away to keep from bursting out laughing.

"Well, as long as you enjoyed yourself, that's the main thing," she shrugged, checking the time on her pocket watch. "Now you boys had better get a compartment before they're all filled up!"

"Okay, Grammy, thanks. I'll write when I get to Hogwarts. See you."

Remus bent down and kissed his grandmother on the cheek.

"Yeah, see you Mrs. Lupin!" Sirius called over his shoulder as he and Remus made their way towards the train. They found the very last compartment empty and lifted their trunks and Sirius's guitar into it. Then they turned back to the platform; they still had twenty minutes.

"So what did you do all summer?" Sirius asked as they wove through the crowd in search of James, Peter, and Tessa.

"Oh, nothing much. Just read books mostly. There's nothing else to do at my house. I mean, it is in the middle of nowhere so yeah." Remus shrugged. "What about you? Do anything exciting?"

"Me? Yeah right," Sirius scoffed, mockingly shoving his hands deep into his pockets. "My parents locked me in my bedroom all summer."

Remus burst out laughing. "Yes, I'm sure they did. So you got the flat you were looking at then?"

"Yup."

"Thought so," Remus said slyly, casting sweeping looks around the platform. "Where could they all be?" he added in frustration. "It's not that big of a platform. They just have-"

"There!" Sirius interrupted, pointing over in a corner.

There stood James Potter talking with his parents.

"Oy! James!" Sirius and Remus both yelled, jumping up and down, waving their arms to get his attention. Hearing his name, James turned around and upon seeing his friends he waved back. He said a hurried goodbye to his parents, promising to write every week (he never did) and that he'd miss them, et cetera.

"Hey! What'cha been up to?" James asked as he caught up with Sirius and Remus, pulling his trolley behind him.

"Nothing."

"The usual."

"Cool," James said distractedly, peering over the heads of the people. "Have you seen-"

"Evans? No," Sirius replied, rolling his eyes at Remus. "Have you seen Tessa?"

"Er... no, I haven't. Have you guys got a-"

"Compartment? Yeah. Peter's not here yet, eh?" Remus asked looking around them for any since of the smallest member of their group. He was nowhere to be seen.

"He's probably going to be late again. He usually is." Sirius looked around again then glanced at his watch.

It was 10:55 AM.

"We'd better get on the train, so no one steals our compartment," he suggested, motioning for James to follow him through the growing crowd of wizards and witches.

Where could Tessa be? She was usually here before he was, just so she could catch up with people for an extra twenty minutes. It wasn't like her to be late... but then she might have slept in. She was always doing that at school, especially on Mondays.

Today just happened to be a Monday.

They reached the compartment and Remus helped James shove his trunk into it. Actually, Remus did all the work while James just kind of stood there. Sirius grinned; sometimes he envied his friend's preternatural strength... sometimes. He cast one last searching look around the platform before turning away from the noise of people to the almost equal chaos of the last car.

"We're in the last compartment," he heard Remus say to James as he set off carrying James's trunk as if it were the lightest thing in the world.

Sirius shook his head and sighed. He'd have to wait to find Tessa... not that he wanted to wait. He wanted to find her so they could catch up on things. He had so many things to say to her. That he had actually gotten the flat he had been looking at, that he had learned her favourite song on his guitar, that he had started to write some songs of his own. Tessa had told him to tell her everything when they saw each other again. He wanted to ask her how her summer went, if she had gotten the black leather coat she had wanted for her birthday... to give her the birthday present had gotten her.

Sirius thought of the little box hidden away in his trunk, stuffed in a pair of old socks. He had bought the gift when shopping for his school supplies at a store in Diagon Alley dedicated just to jewellery. He knew she'd like what he had gotten; it had taken him an hour to decide between all the choices. Still he was unsure about his choice... Maybe he should have gotten-

"Black! Come here and help me will you?"

Sirius started at the sound of his own name and looked around to see who was addressing him. In the compartment next to where he was standing, Lily Evans stood trying to push her trunk under the seats.

"How many books did you pack, Evans?" Sirius asked slyly, pausing in the doorway and crossing his arms.

"Oh shut up and come help me!" she said evenly, standing straight and placing her hands on her hips.

Sirius grinned and gave the trunk a shove with his foot. It slid perfectly into place.

"Is there anything else I can do this damsel in distress?" he asked, giving a mock bow.

Evans rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.

"That'll be all, thanks. By the way, have you seen Tessa? I can't find her anywhere."

Sirius frowned and shook his head.

"I was about to ask you the same question," he told the redhead, glancing out the window. He caught a glimpse of Peter hurriedly dragging his trunk towards the train. "She'll turn up eventually. If you do see her though, tell her I'm in the last compartment, okay?"

"What makes you think she'll want to come see you?" Evans asked playfully, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Thanks for the moral boost Evans, but I got to go help Peter before he hurts himself. Just tell her will you?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Thanks."

Sirius hurried from the room and found that he was just in time to save Peter from killing himself.

"Come here, Wormtail," he said exasperatedly. "Why are you so late?"

Sirius grabbed one of the handles on Peter's trunk and yanked in onto the train.

"I slept in, then we got stuck in traffic... it was horrible!" Peter squeaked, and Sirius could see the sweat on his forehead. "Nearly ran over a Muggle, though... that was exciting."

Sirius let out a bark-like laugh.

"I'm sure it was. Now come on, we've got the last compartment."

In their compartment, Remus was nowhere to be seen, but James was sitting by the window.

"I slept in," Peter explained in answer to James's questioning look. "I hate Mondays."

"Remus's gone up with the prefects, right?" Sirius asked, taking the seat across from James.

"Yeah, he told me to tell you that he's keep an eye out for Tessa for you."

"Tell him I said thanks."

James just gave him a look as the train's whistle blew and they started moving.

Sirius looked out onto the moving platform. There were only parents and little siblings left waving now... no students... no Tessa. He frowned and rested his head against the wall behind him. He couldn't wait to get to Hogwarts. He was sure to see Tessa there, how could he not? All the Gryffindors had to sit at the same table; he had to see her...

Sirius must have drifted off, because the next thing he knew, Remus was back and telling them the new password.

"It's Hufflestumps," he was saying, taking a seat next to Sirius.

"You didn't happen to see-" Sirius started but Remus cut him off.

"No, I didn't see Tessa. If she's on the train, she must be hiding behind someone, because I didn't see hide or hair of her... she might be in the bathroom." Remus just shrugged and proceeded in telling them about how a first year had managed to get his head stuck out the window waving to his parents. James and Peter both roared as Remus told them about how the first year started screaming for his mother, but Sirius just forced a weak smile and stared out the window.

So Remus hadn't seen Tessa anywhere. Where could she have gotten to? She had to be on the train, didn't she?

Sirius frowned.

And the plot thickens...