The Marauders Part 6: Catacomb Conundrums
 
Notes: Some of you asked about the name I chose for Lily. I 
named her after a ghost I learned about in Scotland; a red-
haired woman dressed in green who walks around 
Dunsinane Castle. Her name was Dame Lilias Drummond 
and she died under extremely mysterious circumstances. 
Plus, I think Lilias is a lovely name. Get off my back! ;) If I 
wanted to strictly follow the facts, half the fics I've done 
would have never been written.
 

Oh! I have a request. I have a little fanart for this story and 
maybe someday I'll get around to scanning it, when I get a 
new scanner, but I'm dying for some illustrations. DYING! 
If anybody would like to do a few doodles for me, I would 
be eternally grateful...if you want, email me ( and I'll send 
you the snippets I'd like visuals for. ;) One of them is in this 
chapter, as a matter of fact. Please, please, please!
 
~Draca~
 
***
 
"Okay. A two and a half foot essay ...each... on Finding and 
Banishing charms. All types?"  Adara sighed, dumping a 
stack of books on the table she was sitting at with Lily. 
Adara spent a lot of time in the library and this was where 
she usually sat, a small circular table in the corner. 

 

"Yes. Long and short range Finding. Banishing evil curses 
and illnesses. And that's probably just the beginning." the 
red-haired girl answered heavily. "What did we do to 
deserve this?"

 

"I think it's called being at the wrong place at the wrong 
time. Professor Flitwick was in a bad mood and we just 
happened to be standing in the hallway." 

 

James overheard her, ambled over, and sat down, his untidy 
hair hanging in his eyes. He grinned. "That's funny. The 
way I remember it, you two were 'just standing in the 
hallway' surrounded by fifty thousand butterflies that 
somehow managed to just appear, I suppose." 

 

Adara peeked out from the pile of texts in front of her. 
"People who explode things on purpose in Potions should 
not throw stones. I was trying to repair my bag, it was an 
accident."

 

"Yeah, yeah, I'll take your word for it." 

 

Lily looked at him sideways and handed him one of the 
books. "Look, pretty boy, if you want to sit here, you'll 
have to help us." 

 

"Yes, mother." he said derisively, opening it and flicking 
hair off his glasses with a jerk of his head.

 

"Now, children." Adara said, blowing dust off the cover of 
her own volume, "no fighting. We've got work to do." 

For several minutes there was no sound except the 
scratching of quills. Suddenly Adara threw hers down. 

 

"Bugger it! I can't concentrate today."


 James looked up. "Maybe it was getting clocked in the f
ace with that Bludger?" 

 

"Oh, yeah. Remind me to give Sirius boils later." Adara 
replied offhandedly. "Anyway, sorry, Lily. I'll be back in a 
little while. For now, I think I'll just head back to the 
common room and practice my guitar. Or maybe take a 
nap."

 

Lily closed her book too. "Nap. That idea certainly has its 
charms. When is this stupid thing due, anyway?"

 

"Not for a whole week. James, you've been let off the 
hook." Adara called, carrying the pile of books back to the 
Charms shelf in the tall library stacks. 

 

"Joy." he replied dryly, slipping his glasses off his face and 
polishing them on his robes. 

 

The three of them gathered up their quills and parchments, 
shoved them into their book bags, and headed for the door.

 

"See you two later," Lily voiced, "I don't know why I'm so 
tired, but I think it's the weather. My head is pounding." 
 

"Bye." Adara offered. "Hope you feel better." 

 
James's contribution was a huge yawn. "If you see Sirius 
Black in the common room, tell him I'll be back in a little 
while, okay?"

 

"Mmkay." She headed in the general direction of 
Gryffindor Tower, leaving the other two alone outside the 
library. As soon as she was out of earshot, James snorted. 

 

"Couldn't concentrate, I'm sure. Where are you going?" he 
pressed, poking Adara in the arm. 

 

"No, really. I'm just going back to the dungeons and lie 
down for a little while." she replied evasively, brushing at 
an imaginary speck of dust on her robes. "Or did you want 
me to say that I'm going down to a secret vault deep 
underneath Hogwarts to study the Dark Arts?" She raised 
an eyebrow questioningly. 

 

"No, it's just... I can tell when you're lying...." 

 

"No lie! No lie! Headache! Common room!" Adara 
protested, holding up her palms. 

 

James laughed. "Okay, Adara. I just wish you'd let me in 
on it, whatever it may be." One pair of probing blue eyes 
stared into another pair of falsely innocent ones. 

 

"There's just no pleasing you, is there, Potter?" Adara 
sighed, pushing her hair behind her right ear and putting 
her hands on her hips. 

 

James stifled a laugh at seeing such a petite girl assume 
such an imposing stance. "Guess not." he said with a grin. 
"Well, if that's all you're gonna say, I'll be getting back to 
the Tower. Maybe I can catch Lily." He hefted his bag onto 
his shoulder. "See you at dinner." 

 

"See you," she repeated, taking off in the opposite 
direction. 

 

As James turned the corner into the south wing and 
disappeared, Adara exhaled a sigh of relief. She didn't like 
lying, but she had to get away from James before she saw 
something she really didn't want to see. 

 

She walked slowly, she footsteps echoing in the otherwise 
empty hallway, focusing on small noises to occupy her 
mind. The sound of sleet on the roof, and her own 
breathing. 

 

Adara didn't really have a headache, well, not the kind 
she'd said. She rarely got sick and on the off chance her 
head did hurt, she performed a simple Health Charm and it 
was gone in an instant. The reason she had been forced to 
leave the library was because she was a Seer, and this was a 
fact she didn't want anyone to suspect about her.

 

Hogwarts students, she knew, weren't supposed to know how to see into the future until they had taken courses with 
Sybil Trelawney, the equivalent of one of those hick-carny 
sideshow tarot-card readers. But Adara saw things, and 
they weren't always good things, either. She hated being a 
Seer. Sometimes, if she only touched someone briefly, she 
got terrible visions in her head. By now, she had taught 
herself to block most of them, but sometimes, even if she 
was just sitting very close to someone, she was unable to 
force the images away. 

 

Once in awhile, if Adara was bored, she would read 
random people's futures, people she didn't know very well, 
or people she didn't like. But she would never, ever read 
Sirius, or James, or Remus, or Peter, or herself. She didn't 
want to know. 

 

She concentrated on her senses of hearing and sight until 
the pressure behind her eyes had lessened. Then she 
continued on to the entrance to the Slytherin common 
room, which was concealed next to a large tapestry of 
intertwined snakes. 

 

"Nosferatu." she said dully, and entered. 

 

It was as dark as usual inside. The high wing chairs by the 
fire were all occupied, and the green flames inside the 
candle sconces cast olive light on the stone walls. The floor 
was stone too, but it had a number of rugs on it, all gigantic 
and beautifully embroidered. Adara's favourite showed a 
large black and silver dragon spewing fire, soaring above 
an ominous-looking mountain.   

 

Two staircases curved and twisted up each side of the 
spacious chamber, both with a door at the top. The girls' 
dormitories were on the right, the boys' on the left, but 
Adara bypassed both of them and walked over to the 
fireplace. 

 

"Hi, Adara." said Malcolm Flagg, lazily laying down his 
book, A History of the Dark Side : From The Beginning of 
Time to the Present.

 

"Hey, Malcolm." she replied, reaching up toward one of the 
candle fixtures right next to the mantle. "Damn. I need to 
get taller." 

 

"Going into the Catacombs for something?" the boy asked, 
leaving his shadowed chair and pushing the sconce briefly 
down. 

 
"Thanks." Adara said gratefully, as the carpet in front of 
the hearth disappeared and the stone floor slid forward, 
revealing rough-hewn stairs. "Yeah, just browsing."

 
Malcolm smiled. "Nobody you want to get revenge on?"

 

"Actually, not right now. I just need to be somewhere very 
quiet for a little while."

 

"Sure. I'll make sure to tell everyone to leave you alone." 
he replied, picking up his thick book again and curling up 
in the chair. 

 
Adara descended the narrow staircase and quickly walked 
back up. "Forgot. It's dark down there." She pulled one of 
the candles out of a black basket on the mantle and lit it 
with her wand. Then, she headed down again. 

 

The Slytherin Catacombs were a very well kept secret. 
Anyone who talked about them was in direct violation of 
the Slytherin bond, which was a code of silence about any 
evil actions taking place in the dungeons. If you spilled, 
you were "out," which meant nobody told you anything 
anymore, and you were in disgrace.

 

The three hundred and eleven stairs down to the catacombs 
were pitch black, but if you were smart enough to take a 
light with you, the walls were worth looking at. Hundreds 
of framed paintings and pictures hung there, most of them 
nightmare fodder, all of them moving, watching, making 
sure that nobody except Slytherins had found their way into 
this place. Portraits of former students all studied Adara 
with passive interest as she walked down. They all had 
nameplates and accomplishments listed. 

 

On a picture of a blonde female crushing a spider over a 
smoking goblet: Gratylia Grindelwald. Poisoned the 
Ravenclaw who stole her lover and nineteen others who stood in her way. 

 

An old woman who changed rapidly into a girl of about 
eight, a black rose, and then a chair, among other things: 
Cynthia Darkstrider. Mistress of disguise. True face never 
seen. 

 

A balding man smiling in an entirely too creepy way and 
holding a gorgeous opal and silver necklace: Rankin 
Gibson. Creator of cursed jewelry. 
 

An almost-innocent looking portrait of a boy of about 
eighteen with very black hair, standing in front of the very 
fireplace she had just stood by: Thomas Marvolo Riddle. 
Opened the Chamber of Secrets. Last known heir of Salazar 
Slytherin. 

 

A girl who had to be somewhere around sixth year, 
standing with a large group of boys, wearing elaborately 
embroidered gray silk robes: Circe Malfoy. Enchantress. 
Murdered. 

 

There were scenes too. A man, studying a book at a desk 
while a shadow, holding a large knife, advanced upon him. 
Adara looked away quickly and down at her the cracked 
stairs in front of her instead.

 

When she finally reached the bottom, she was slightly out 
of breath, and shivering. The Slytherin dungeon was 
underground, so it was always cold and damp, but the 
catacombs were far beneath even that. It was freezing down 
there. 

 

At the end of the staircase, there was a wall. A short verse 
was written directly on it in some faintly disturbing rusty-
brown "ink."  

 

A warning to all who enter this lair

Abandon hope, accept despair
Only those of darkest heart
Who love and practice the Black Art
Will understand the terrors here
The others should just disappear
Speak the password, wave your wand
Secret of secrets, the Slytherin Bond.
 

Adara drew her wand out of her belt and touched three 
points on the wall. "Arcanum arcanorum!" Which of course 
means "secret of secrets" in Latin. 

 

The wall, which was actually a door, disappeared. Adara 
hurried through and felt it reappear behind her. 

 

These were the familiar Catacombs, the greatest Slytherin 
mystery of them all. Everyone needs a place to keep things 
they don't want others to see, and this was theirs, and had 
been for centuries. 

 

This was where they kept their stuff. 

 

There were bookshelves on the right. These contained 
every felonious and prohibited spell known to wizardkind, 
from the Unforgivable curses to small, yet untraceable and 
very painful hexes. Adara had memorized so many of these 
already that Marius and Malcolm, along with a lot of the 
other Slytherins, called her Miss Demeanor. 

All along the back wall were cages and tanks with all 
manner of odd spiders and insects, rats and mice, and other 
things the less squeamish brewers tested their poisons on. 
She remembered the time Andre Epyna had turned a rat 
inside out with a drop of his new potion. It hadn't been at 
all pretty. The only potions Adara ever used from down 
here were to painlessly poison spiders she needed for 
spells. She tapped boredly on the glass of one of the tanks 
and watched a cluster of water minstrel spiders scatter and 
try to hide. A kappa stared at her from a cage suspended in 
the corner, gritting its pointy little teeth together morbidly. 

 
"Hi, Joe." she told the kappa. "I'm afraid you may not be 

long for this world, old buddy."
 
To the left, there were shelves and worktables. Most of the 
tiny corked bottles on the shelves contained solutions that 
weren't deadly, just unauthorized. Adara walked over and 
pulled one off. The label read

 

Y Pontification Potion - Causes the drinker to tell the 
blatant truth for twenty-four hours. 
 

She had seen that used on a Hufflepuff once. It was cruel 
but hilarious. The poor boy had been forced to say things 
like, "Oh, Professor McGonagall, that really is a most 
hideous cloak you've got on...." She replaced the bottle on 
the shelf and meandered over to the books. 

 

Holding up her taper, she read the titles of the books she 
hadn't looked at yet. She was just about to pull one out 
when a tall figure stepped out of the dark. Adara dropped 
her candle, and it went out. 

 

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGH!" she screamed, 
convinced that she had possibly less then thirty seconds to 
live.

 

"Shut up, you stupid girl!" said a scathingly familiar voice 
out of the pitch-blackness in front of her.

 

"Lucius! I should curse you for that! Bloody hell, my 
heart's pounding!" Adara gasped, her hand fluttering to her 
chest.

 

"Lumos!" The boy's wand lit up, illuminating his white 
face and clear grey eyes in the otherwise dark chamber. 

 

Adara resumed her normal cool. "Yes. I get it, it's you. 
What d'you want, you evil git?" 

 

"I'm sorry about the Quidditch match this morning." he 
said softly. "I see you had Madam Pomfrey fix that bruise."

 

"Not your fault. I'm sorry about your eye." she replied 
tensely, leaning against the bookcase and crossing her 
arms. 

 

"It's all right. It was just a little cut; I fixed it myself." 
Lucius brushed away the apology. "So what are you doing 
down here amongst all our little Slytherin closet 
skeletons?"

 

"Oh, nothing really. Hoping to learn a few new hexes, I 
suppose." Adara stooped to pick up her candle, which was 

lying in a puddle of black wax and cobwebs. A spider 
scuttled over her hand. She brushed it away with a flick and 
then straightened back up. She had absolutely no time to 
prepare for what happened, and she would have been less 
surprised if he had tried to off her right there. 

 

But he didn't. Instead, he gracefully swooped forward, 
wrapped his arms around her waist, and pressed his lips 

firmly against hers. Compared to how chilly it was down 
there, he seemed to be radiating heat.

 

Adara kissed back at first, because the way she looked at it, 
that was "standard girl instinctive reflex." Lucius, as 
innately evil as he was, was such a good kisser that she had 
the feeling that he was either a natural, which was unlikely, 
or he'd had a lot of practice. 

 

"Mm....Mmmph! Whoa!" she yelled, planting both hands 
on his chest and pushing him away. "No! That did not just 
happen!"

 

"Okay, it didn't just happen, but you liked it." he said 
dryly.
 

"Uh, Lucius..." Adara stepped backwards. "This is not a 
good idea. If I had a mother, she would've warned me 
about guys like you."

 

His lips curled upwards into a smile. "Yes, but you haven't 

got one, so what's the point?"

 

"I'm not sure what the point is, but you seem to be missing 
it comple - NO!" she yelled as he made another well-aimed 
go at her lips. "Snogging in the catacombs with Lucius 
Malfoy is not my idea of a relaxing evening!"

 

"Well, then, maybe you just need a little more practice."
 

God, he was infuriating. "Lucius, if you try that again, I'll... 
I'll turn you into a purple bunny rabbit!" she vociferated 
tersely.

 

"You mean you're completely immune to my many 
charms?" Malfoy replied, pouting his china-pink lips. 

 

"NO!" I mean, YES!"

 

"Aha!" he exclaimed softly, inclining his head to kiss her 
again. By now, she was backed into a corner and had 
nowhere to go except ... down?

 

Adara detached herself from Lucius, dove through his legs, 
and bolted for the door. "Arcanum arcanorum, dammit!" 
she gasped, and took the black stairs two and three at a 
time, not bothering to light her candle or her wand. 

 

When she emerged out of the trapdoor by the fireplace, she 
marched roughly past Severus and Neptune and headed 
straight for the girls' stairs. When she threw open the door 
to the third years' dormitory, she was pleased to find all her 
roommates present. Narcissa Cromorne, Scarlett Romano, 
Cirrus Caranni, and Jada Flagg, Malcolm's twin sister, 
were all lounging comfortably on Scarlett's bed. 

 

"Hey, Adara," called Cirrus, when she noticed that Adara 
had walked in, "we're playing Truth or Dare. You want 
in?"

 

"Truth!" Adara panted. "Lucius just kissed me!"

 

All four of the other girls howled with enthusiasm. 
"Where? When? How was he?"" Jada pounced on Adara as 
soon as she had seated herself.

 

She relayed the story. Narcissa gaped with a look of utter 
disbelief on her face. "You left? He tried to kiss you and 
you left?  Oh, my dear Adara, spending all your time with 
those Gryffindors is muddling your poor mind. Or has 
someone cruelly Confunded you?"

 
"You know I don't like Lucius like that, Cissa. You're 
welcome to him." Adara snapped, "He's an evil git!"

 
"Yes, but he's an incredibly dreamy evil git!" Scarlett 
countered mistily, holding a pillow to her chest and 
squinting off into space. 

 

Adara looked at her with distaste. "Oh, get off it, Romano."

 

"She's right! He's gorgeous!" Cirrus exclaimed. "He's got 
that great silver hair. It reminds me of moonlight."

 

".... And he's so tall!"

 

".... And that cute little pointy nose!"

 

".... And those gray eyes, ooh!"

 

"Uh-huh. You've all gone mad. I understand now." Adara 
said, stifling a laugh. 

 

"Oh, I'm so jealous," Narcissa mused, staring at Adara 
enviously. "I'd kiss him any day!"

 

"You girls know who else is a dreamy git," Jada 
interrupted, "James Potter."

 

Another series of wistful squeals. Adara blinked. "Really? 
James? Eh... You think so?"

 

Scarlett passed a hand in front of the other girl's eyes. 
"Don't tell me you haven't noticed. You're around him all 
the time."

 

"I never really looked," Adara said disinterestedly. "I 
suppose he is kind of attractive, if you like the short skinny 
type."

 

"Adara, you are the short skinny type." Narcissa pointed 
out. 

 

"All right, Miss High and Mighty, who do you like?" Jada 
smirked. 

 

Adara considered. "What, you mean, like like? Right now, 
um, well..."

 

"C'mon. You know who we like!" Cirrus prodded 
impatiently. 

 

The short Slytherin sighed. "Okay, I'll give you a hint. 
He's tall,-" 

 

Narcissa grinned. "Lucius!" 

 

"No, just because you like him, Cissa, doesn't mean 
everyone else has to. Anyway, he's got real dark hair."

 

"My brother." Jada guessed.    

 

"Malcolm? Nah, not my type. Too serious."   Adara 
emphasized. 

 

"Can we have another hint?" asked Scarlett, pulling her 
purple hair back with a rubber band. 

 

"Since when did you guys get so thick without me 
noticing?"

 

"I know who it is." said Narcissa suddenly. "It's the Gryffindor, that Sirius Black, the one in our Potions class, 
isn't it?"

 

Adara leaned back against the bedpost. "Guilty."

 

Protests burst out from all four of her roommates. 

 

"Sirius! His mum's a Muggle!"

 

"He's on their Quidditch team! He hit you with a Bludger 
this morning!"

 

"Plus, he hates you!"

 

"And he's dating a Ravenclaw!"

 

The black-haired girl focused on the last two objections. 
"First of all, he doesn't hate me. At least, I think he doesn't 
hate me. What makes you think he would hate me?" she 
inquired calmly. 

 

Jada, who loved gossip, jumped on her question. "Well, 
supposedly, he told James Potter who told Francesca Hoyt - 
you know her, the little Hufflepuff Seeker - who told Alden 
Gant-"

 

"Okay, stop right there. I don't believe that story because, 
apart from James and Sirius, none of those people associate 
with each other." Adara said irritably. "Forget who said it 
and tell me what it was."

 

"Sirius said," drawled Narcissa suddenly, "that you should look into becoming a Defense teacher because you know so 
much about the Dark Arts." She focused her light blue eyes 
on the other girl's dark ones. 

 

Adara waved her hand exuberantly. "So? We all know tons 
of Dark Arts junk! We're Slytherins!"

 

Scarlett, the romantic, paused. "She's got you there, Cissa." 
She rolled over onto her back and hung her head over the 
side of the bed. "Sirius Black. He's pretty cute for a 
Mudblood, he's got that sexy long hair."

 

Adara was about to snap at her for insulting Sirius's 
mother, but before she could, Cirrus jumped in. "Yeah, and 
great muscles too. But isn't he dating that Ravenclaw 
whatserface, short kid with the blonde mop on her head?" 
she asked, cracking her gum 

 

"Oh, you mean Anne Gatsby. I don't know. Don't care, 
either. She's Muggle scum." said Jada contemptuously. 

 

Adara shrugged. "I hang around Sirius a lot, and I've never 
heard him talk about her at all." she said, thinking back 
over the past few days. "Still...."

 

"You've got a very Slytherin look about you right now, my 
dear." Narcissa smiled, and her powder-blue eyes glinted. 
"What madness are you planning, and can we help?"

 

"Maybe..." Adara murmured slowly, "maybe I could make 
him jealous."

 

Scarlett, Jada, Cirrus, and Narcissa leaned in closer. 
"How?"

 

"Oh," she said, putting her hands behind her head and 
leaning back, "lots of ways...."

to be continued...