Eye of the Serpent | HP MARAUDER ERA [2]

Chapter Thirty-Four

It took nearly the rest of the night for me to finish charming the two pieces of parchment: one for me and one for Regulus. The idea had occurred to me after I had read about a certain charm that could link multiple objects together so that they could be used for a common purpose. This charm was the Protean Charm—it was a highly advanced, N.E.W.T.-level spell, however I managed to cast it on both pieces of parchment, linking them together. I then tested out: I picked up one of the squares of parchment, took out a quill and some ink and drew a small black circle. While I drew it, the exact same circle appeared on the second square of parchment, as though I was writing on both of them.

I smiled satisfactorily to myself, though I was far from finished. The next problem I ran into was figuring out how to wipe the parchment clean. Leaving the pieces of parchment on my nightstand, I immediately jumped up and raced to the library as quickly as I could. By the time I got there, I was incredibly out of breath and my legs were numb from all of the stairs. Nonetheless, I picked out as many books as I could find pertaining to advanced charms and took them out. By the time I had retrieved all that I had come there for, I was holding a stack of seven very heavy, hard-covered textbooks, each of at least three hundred pages.

The walk back to Gryffindor Tower was much worse than the walk to the library. It felt a million miles longer with all of the heavy textbooks—and other students constantly cast me confused stares. I was hesitant to walk back through the common room, afraid that I would run into James, Sirius, Remus or Peter and have to vaguely explain what I was up to; but, as it turned out, they were still up in the boys' dormitory.

Exhausted and just about ready to collapse on my bed, I used the last bit of physical strength I had to climb up the stairs of the girls' dormitory yet again. Before sitting down to continue working, I rummaged through my trunk and pulled out a bottle of Butterbeer. My tongue was dry and I only realized just how parched I had been when I chugged about half of the bottle within ten seconds of popping it open.

Sighing in partial relief, I sat back down on my bed. It had been such a long day. I wanted nothing more than to change into my pyjamas and get ready for bed, but I decided that I would only allow myself to do so after I had finished charming. It would be a great incentive to get myself to work more efficiently.

I threw the two pieces of parchment back down onto my bed and pulled out my wand. Then it occurred to me that they would both be ruined if I happened to spill my Butterbeer on them, so I ruffled through the charm textbooks until I found a waterproofing spell and used it on both my piece and Regulus's.

Afterwards, I scoured the textbooks for perhaps an hour or two (I lost track of time completely and was afraid to check the clock). At some point, Alice and Marlene entered our dormitory. They figured that I was doing homework, so they left me alone. Lily wasn't with them, so she must've still been in the Hospital Wing for her nose. I vaguely heard Alice and Marlene gossiping and the sink running for them each to brush their teeth. Finally, they were all set to go to bed and asked me if they could turn the lights off-by then, I simply had to continue my work by wandlight.

I could not find a spell that would wipe the parchment clean only after the message had been viewed by the eyes it was designated for. That led me to think about what would happen if someone who wasn't supposed to see it—either my friends or Regulus's—happened to come across the parchment. It seemed that every time I fixed something, there came a new doubt in my mind.

My search for spells switched and after what felt like an eternity, I found two spells that I thought would work. They were quite complex, so I practiced them both on scrap pieces of parchment rather than going straight for the real thing. When I was satisfied with the results I was getting, I combined both spells and used them on the two parchment squares. I made sure to remember which was mine and which was going to be Regulus's.