The Clown and The Grim

Chapter 14

Claire skipped dinner, waiting just down the hall from the potions storage closet. Peeves came floating through the wall. "Peeves is here!" He shouted.

"Shh!" Claire glared at him. "If we get caught Fred and George are gonna be pissed. Not to mention I will kill you." She paused. "Again.  Okay?" She looked both ways down the hall. "Is Snape at dinner?"

Peeves flew around her before doing a flip in the air.

"I'm going to assume that's a yes. Stay here, and keep a look out for Snape. I'll go into the closet and get the ingredients. If Snape comes back before I get done, stall him. Got that?"

"Peeves understands." Peeves slipped back into the wall hiding.

Claire crept down the hall, darting behind a corner as a few lingering Slytherins came up the hall passing by her. She waited for the coast to clear, as she edged around the corner and pulled her wand from her robes.

"Alohomora." She whispered as the door unlocked and she slowly pushed it open hoping to avoid a creak, closing it behind her.

"Lumos." A small orb of light appeared at the end of her wand. She pulled the list from her pocket and glanced over it, looking back up. The shelves went from the floor to the ceilings, each shelf lined with ingredients. Snape's organization of the closet definitely helped, everything was in alphabetical order. However, the vast amount of strange and unusual, not to mention difficult to get ingredients that lined the shelves still proved challenging to find things.

She moved the light from her wand over the bottles. "Come on!" She whispered, looking closer. Time was of the essence, Snape could be coming back from dinner at any moment. She finally found newt spleen, picking up the jar and carefully adding some to another container before putting it in her bag.

Claire decided to skip the bananas, the Twins could get that from the house elves in the kitchen.

She needed green leaf, and orange snake; both of which could potentially be in four different places. Her green eyes moved quickly, scanning over the jars. "Yes!" She excitedly whispered after finding the green leaf. She pulled an empty container from her bag, setting it on the shelf as she dropped a few of the leaves in, returning it to her bag.

"One more." She moved to the 'O' section looking for the orange snake.

Voices echoed from outside, and her heartbeat began to accelerate. She was running out of time, but she knew there was no chance she would ever be able to get in here again. Once Snape noticed ingredients were missing he would keep a closer eye on it.

"Stinky stinky Snapey!" Peeves' child-like voice echoed through the corridor.

The 'O' section was a miss. She moved to 'S'.

"Peeves, please go away."

She heard Snape's monotone voice, then she heard something crack, a lot of  cracking actually.

Her eyes finally landed where they needed to be, she found the label and grabbed the bottle following the same steps as before transferring it to another container. She ran to the door, leaning her back to the wall beside it. Snape was still outside, she knew she couldn't just run out the door.

Peeves' snickers echoed throughout the stone hallway.

"The Headmaster will hear about this Peeves."

"Snapey stinks! Snapey stinks!" Peeves sang.

Claire continued to wait, her rapid heartbeat echoing in her ears. Peeves soon flew through the wall making her jump.

"Peeves threw rotten eggs at Snapey! He's gone." He flew back through the wall.

Claire followed after him, only she used the door. She headed to the Great Hall as if nothing happened, she was simply late for dinner because she was studying. Or, that's what she would tell people.