THE POTTERS: SNEAKING OUT
Lily couldn't take it anymore. She was hungry, tired AND pissed. This was not a good combination for the child of Ginny Weasley Potter. She had been staying up late with her two brothers as they did their homework. Each of them had their own pile of workload beside them diminishing ever so slowly. They were in the common room beside the crackling fire late at night.
Lily was sitting down at the fluffy, velvet couch reading Quidditch through the Ages. Her flaming red hair was tied up in a ponytail to keep it out of her deep brown eyes. She was quite nervous about her tryouts the next day and thought that learning a bit of the history could help her. She was also running out of ways to die for her Divination chart that was apparently due the next day.
Albus was standing up, currently doing his Charms homework, which was practicing his Summoning and Banishing Charms. His emerald green eyes were drooping and his jet black hair was messier than ever. Al would always try to banish his pillow at a neat pile he had prepared a while ago but unfortunately, Albus's aim wasn't the best since his pillow always hit the back of James head, or cartwheeled out of the window. He would then summon it back and repeat the process. He'd get frustrated every time he made a mistake and he'd cower as James would complain about his soon-to-come head concussion.
James, on the other hand, was lying down, stomach to the floor, engrossed in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them so he could prepare for his test tomorrow. He didn't have time earlier since his Quidditch practices took fairly long and his pranking time with Fred and Scorpius caused them a little trouble with Professor Slughorn. (They stole a bit of Veritaserum to prove whether Rose liked Scorp or not…) His hazel eyes were quite out of focus and were repeatedly scanning over the same sentence over and over and just like Albus, his auburn hair was in a bad case of bed head.
So now, the Potter siblings were up at 12:59 am, starving and cramming.
"I have an idea!" Lily exclaimed just as Albus's pillow hit James head, again.
"Bloody Ow! I swear Al; I think you're doing this on purpose!" James yelled as he rubbed the back of his head.
Albus just smirked and asked, "What, Lily?"
"Oh, um," Lily wasn't quite intent on sharing her brilliant idea with her brothers, "James can I borrow the Invisibility Cloak and the Map?" Lily asked tensely.
James lifted his head and squinted his eyes, "Why?"
"Nothing much, just you know, I think I need to go to the library… " Lily lied.
James didn't buy it, and Al didn't either.
"Seriously, what is it?" Albus asked, taking an interest as well.
"Yeah, Siriusly!" James said wriggling his eyebrows.
"James Sirius Potter, shame on you for using such an overused pun!" Al said, clearly annoyed. He had heard enough of that pun from his dad. He threw a pillow at James's direction.
James just threw his head back and made a bark-like laugh, but Albus's pillow didn't miss his chest. Thus, starts a pillow fight between the brothers.
Lily shook her head and made a face palm.
"Boys…" she sighed.
"Listen," Lily said to the ranting boys as she slowly stood up "When you girls are done cat-fighting…" The boys stopped pillow-fighting and turned their heads towards Lily looking completely outraged, Lily smirked "You'll find me at the kitchens eating those absolutely delicious treacle tarts and fudge brownies." Then, Lily winked and slipped out of the common room.
The boys looked dumb-struck, and then realization dawned on their faces.
"WAIT! LILY!"
They dashed out of the common room and down the stairs. Lily was desperate to get away from her brothers, especially since she just called them "Girls" and claimed that they were "Cat-fighting." Yep, Lily was scared like her Uncle Ron was scared of spiders.
The boys however, were furious at being labeled as "cat-fighting girls." Albus and James had the same thing in mind: TICKLE LILY TO DEATH.
Lily was busy running away from her brothers and Albus and James were too determined on chasing and tickling Lily to realize that they had forgotten something very…important.
James suddenly halted, and Al followed.
"Merlin's Bloody Pants!" James said.
"Why? What's going on?!" Al complained.
"We forgot the bloody cloak and map!"
"C'mon, nobody's around and it's too late to go back now." Albus said carelessly.
But they were wrong. After they reached the kitchens, tickled Lily, and ordered around some house-elves. They came out of the kitchens, with bags of mouth-watering food when they heard Filch mutter; "C'mon my Sweet! I know those kids are lurking around somewhere, and they aren't getting away from me this time!"
"HOLY-!"but Lily was cut shortly by a hand clamping her mouth.
The hand led her to a dark corner hidden from Filch's sight. When James was positive that the coast was clear, he removed his hand from Lily's mouth.
"We forgot the Invisibility Cloak!" Lily moaned in a hushed tone.
"Yeah, I know. But ALBUS thought it would be alright to NOT get it back a while ago." James whispered glaring daggers at Al.
"How was I supposed to know Filch would show up?!" Al complained.
James, Albus and Lily were still arguing about Albus's sense of prediction when Mrs. Norris suddenly screeched. They turned their heads and looked fearfully at it.
The bloody cat saw them.
They glanced at each other and dashed up the stairs, but, Lily's clumsiness made her trip on a stair. She dropped her bag of food and spilled everything.
"What was that!? They must be close!" Filch said excitedly. He was running (or at least running as fast as an old man with a walking cane can) towards the noise.
Lily panicked; she ran down the stairs and started stuffing all the food back in the bag.
"Lily, quickly! He's coming!" Albus whispered.
"Go on! I can take this!" Lily whispered back as she hastily jammed the pumpkin pasties in her bag.
Mrs. Norris was still screeching. Lily was thinking of silencing her until-
"STOP! Who goes there?!"
Lily gasped.
Al's face paled.
James thought, "Well that's a stupid question."
Filch heard them.
"RUN!" James mouthed at the two.
They dashed and hid behind the statue of the One-Eyed Witch.
"Ouch! James! That was my foot!" Lily shouted in pain.
"Sorry! I can't see much in the dark, now can I?" He retorted.
"Use your wand, you idiot! Are you a wizard or not?"
"Will both of you nitwits shut up?! You're going to get us caught! We wouldn't want our loot to go to waste in Filch's office!" Albus said.
"She started it!" James complained.
"Excuse me? I'm not the one who was stomping blindly around!" Lily said.
Albus started hearing voices and footsteps in the dark corridor so he whipped his wand and said, "Silencio!" at both of them. The indignant shouts were gone and there was silence, except for the constant screeching of Mrs. Norris.
"Merlin, I hate that cat." Lily thought.
"Do you smell them, my sweet?" Filch asked in a raspy voice. Age certainly took an effect on him. He had wrinkles all over his face and an evil scowl to match. His voice sounded wheezy as though he struggled to say each word.
"Students areout of bed! PUNISHMENT must be done." He said.
"Okay, Okay. Lily, do not panic! There's a way. There's a way…" Lily thought.
Okay, RECAP:
"James, Al and I are hidden at the shadow of a statue. We stayed up too late to finish some homework and had unfortunately, skipped dinner so I sneaked off (no, wait, ran) to the kitchens with James and Al behind me. We forgot the cloak and the map and we're too hungry to think. So, what now?" Lily thought and panicked.
Their hearts were pounding, they could see Filch turn around and head towards the statue they were hidden in and he slowly made his way towards them. Filch wasn't exactly the most popular caretaker in Hogwarts. He enjoyed punishing students as much as Teddy Lupin loves chocolate, and that was saying something. James, Albus and Lily didn't fancy getting caught and have to suffer detention and their grandmother's howlers.
Filch was drawing nearer. They were panicking now; Albus and Lily seemed to be frozen but James made some quick thinking. He unsilenced himself and took a deep breath. He was going to enjoy this. Hopefully, Filch would recover soon though.
He brought out his wand and pointed at the floor, "Aguamenti!"
A jet of water sprayed out of James's wand like a fountain, causing Filch to slip on the wet floor and land on his bum and on Mrs. Norris' tail. He yelled a load of curse words as he rubbed his bum. Mrs. Norris was hissing at Filch, no doubt about her throbbing tail. His words included several "Bloody Hells!" and "Merlin's Beard!" They took the opportunity and ran for it. They dashed up the staircase and into the Gryffindor common room. The last they heard of Filch was: "DAMN YOU BLOODY KIDS! I WILL GET YOU ONE DAY!"