The Bonds of Spirit are stronger than the Bonds of Blood

Chapter Nine

Sirius watched as James stumbled down the stairs with the invisibility cloak. "I got it! Now let's go!" James said as Sirius shook his head and laughed. "Alright, alright, I get it! So where should we go first? Potions supply or greenhouses?" The duo thought as they raced down the stairs towards the ground floor. Deftly jumping to the landing before the stairs could move again, Sirius looked around. After making sure no one was nearby, he pulled James off to the side, ducking behind a statue in the corridor. With determination, James looked up at his friend and said "Alright, let's start with the potions supply. Slughorn should have a few leaves stashed away for some potion or other, right?" Trading smirks, the pair slipped on the invisibility cloak and headed off towards the potions classroom. It would be empty at this time; after all it was still breakfast. As the pair walked, they passed by many students running towards the Great Hall, clearly trying to avoid missing out on a chance to feast before classes began. Sirius and James had to carefully dodge several packs of students on their way out of the crowded corridor. Finally in the clear, the pair sighed with relief. Sirius signalled to James to continue the journey, and the pair made their way to the potions classroom.

Finally reaching the dark room, the pair nimbly dodged the tables and headed straight for the supply room. Once there, they found themselves surrounded by a cornucopia of supplies. Dragon's blood, runespoor fang, knotgrass, bicorn horn... Every potions ingredient imaginable seemed to be there! Sirius eyed each shelf carefully, picking up vials and jars to examine the labels more closely. There seemed to be no real organisational system here. At least, it wasn't a system that Sirius understood. So he had to look over every single vial on each shelf. Finally he found something promising. Mandrake roots, both whole and chopped, were stored in the corner of the room. However, none of the vials anywhere around it seemed to have the leaves. He found an empty vial, which could have held the leaves, but it was unlabelled. Sirius groaned and said "Great! This was a complete bust!" James smiled, ruffled his friend's hair, and said "Then it's off to the greenhouses! We'll get those leaves! Don't worry!" Sirius smiled and said "Of course, there's no way we can give up now! To the greenhouses!" With that Sirius led the duo outside under the cover of their trusty invisibility cloak. Sirius vowed that he would find the mandrake leaves, train to become an animagus, and show Remus that he didn't have to be alone ever again.

Heading towards the great doors leading to the grounds, Remus and Sirius ducked behind some statues to avoid catching Filch's attention. They watched as he crooned to his beloved cat, holding their breath to avoid drawing any attention to themselves. As the dreaded caretaker's footsteps faded away, the duo cautiously treaded out into the corridor once more. After double checking the corridor for any witnesses, Sirius quietly opened the door just far enough to allow him and James to slip through. James pulled the door shut behind them, leaving a small enough gap to allow the pair to open it again when they returned. The first greenhouse was unlocked, as Professor Sprout had stepped out to gather some supplies from other greenhouses to prepare for the first class. Thanking their lucky stars, the boys slipped into the greenhouse and began to look around. On the far side of the greenhouse there were rows of recently replanted mandrakes. "Perfect!" Sirius said as he pulled James over towards the mandrakes. Picking up a pair of pruning shears, he said "You keep watch; I'll grab some of these leaves... How many do you think we'll need?" James turned around to watch the door and said "Grab a few... like 6 if you can! We don't know how many it'll take, but it couldn't hurt to have extra, right?" Sirius began clipping off leaves, carefully to avoid pestering the living alarm clocks, and said "Right!" With his work finished, he nudged James and the duo raced back to the castle. After carefully hiding the leaves within Sirius' Transfiguration book, the pair carefully snuck into their first class of the day.