Chapter 2: A Cloak and Burning Muggle-Borns

A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for reading this! Honestly, M and i have been planning to write this for FOREVER, and it feels good to finally be posting it! We decided to make three books instead of three parts so it is less confusing for everyone. I hope you all are having a wonderful day! You guys don't know how hard it is for me to even write Peter's name without cringing. A big thanks to my dad, Uncle Salty, for reviewing our writing and helping us with terminology!

-R (nobaba)

Disclaimer: "Oh great gods! Please tell me who we really are!"

"You are not J.K. Rowling oh good strangers."

"Dang it!" well you heard them folks we are not J.K Rowling"

James

Sirius nudged my foot underneath the table whilst eating breakfast in the Great Hall, "We should try out that cloak tonight."

"And what do you suggest we do?" I whispered, looking around at our classmates to make sure no one heard us.

"We could find the Slytherin common room. It might come handy when we feel like teaching greasy Snivellus a lesson or two," he suggested.

I giddily bounced in my seat, thinking about what mischief we could get up to by finding out where the Slytherin common rooms were located, "Let's do it." Remus gave me a weird look as if he was wondering why I was bouncing in my seat. Shaking his head, he stood up, and hastily made an exit, muttering something about homework. I stared after him wondering how he had a lot of homework if school had just begun. Strange. Dismissing that thought, I once again began to focus on the food in front of me.

"Did he look alright to you guys?" Peter asked us, "He's been looking kind of down lately."

"He's probably fine, " Sirius responded, looking in the direction Remus went, "He does have a habit of overworking himself." His potions essay on the Draught of Living Death was two feet long, and he had stated that 'it wasn't completed yet.'

"C'mon, let's get to class," standing up, I led Peter and Sirius to Transfiguration, our first class of the day.

I took a seat behind fellow Gryffindor Lily Evans, expecting Peter or Sirius to plop down beside me. They had literally been right behind me…. but now they weren't. Where could they have possibly gone? I stared at the door as the Gryffindor first years filed into the classroom, Peter among them. He sat behind me, but still, no sign of Sirius. I had given up staring at the door, but as it was about to close, Sirius waltzed in, taking the empty seat next to me. The whole class, by now, was present, except for Professor McGonagall and Remus. Surely Remus should have finished that essay by now? All of a sudden, a cat jumped onto Mcgonagall's desk, distracting me from my thoughts.

I stared at the cat, confused. It looked like a healthy cat, a pet, definitely not a stray… yet it had an air about it as if it owned the place.. or, rather was not owned by anyone. When I mentioned this to Sirius, he laughed at me and told me that all cats were like this.

Still, the peculiar square markings around the cat's eyes reminded me of something….

But why was there a cat on our professor's desk? Weren't the cats supposed to stay in their owner's dorm? Who did this cat belong to? Suddenly, out of nowhere, our professor was standing in front of us, wearing glasses that looked exactly like the cat's markings. Sirius nearly fell out of his chair and Lily seemed to be staring at the professor with a look of admiration and say I wasn't suprised would be an understatement. I began pinching myself and blinking rapidly to see if what I just witnessed was real. This school will never fail to amaze me.

For the rest of class, we turned matches into needles, which was not such an easy task. My fellow Gryffindors and I left the class learning not only how to transfigure small objects, but we also learned what Animagi were.

We made our way to Defense Against the Dark Arts, our next class, where we would be learning about the Curse of Bogies. Unfortunately, when we got there, there was still no sight of Remus. With a worried glance, I sat down, ready to be taught by Professor Merrythought.

Lily

I was diligently working on my homework, though it wasn't to be due for another couple of days, when all of a sudden, I heard the sound of boys laughing. I looked over when who but the Potter Pals could clearly be seen playing exploding snaps. Who do those boys think they are? Disturbing MY studies. Well it certainly won't be my fault when I ace my exams and they fail. Stupid Potter.

Where the bloody tulips is Marlene when I need her?At least she can keep Potter and his pals in check.

I figured I might as well owl my parents… since that Potter decided to ruin my evening playing silly games.

I headed on over to the Hogwarts owlery and try to find my owl, Orion. At last, I spotted him munching on a mouse.

The letter had been complicated to write. I wanted to tell my parents how my life was going so they wouldn't repine, but I didn't want to offend Petunia in any way. It ended up being a nebulous verbiage of the friends I had made and the marks I was getting so far. I didn't mention what I was learning in my classes, nor did I mention a thing about the enchanted ceiling or the moving staircases.

Finally happy with my endeavours, I tied it onto Orion and sent him on his way, presenting him with a few owl treats to carry him through his journey.

As I was watching him leave, I heard noises of someone else entering. Oh great, it was Sev's friends, named, as I believe, Avery and Yaxley. Just what I needed. First Potter, now some nasty Slytherins.

"Whatcha doin here Muddy?" One of them snarled.

"Oh GET STUFFED! All of you!" I told them vehemently, pushing by and heading towards lunch completely unphased.

Sirius

It was finally nighttime and classes had ended now. After annoying Lily by playing Exploding Snap while she was working, it was time to try on the cloak and unearth the hidden secrets of this mysterious and dark castle.

We donned the cloak and moved out into the main hallway, watching for any signs or footsteps to follow.

"Finally!" I whispered to James, "Slytherins."

It was a boy and a girl, probably sixth years. We headed down the hallway following behind them at a safe distance. We went up flight after flight of stairs, the girl giggling and holding onto the boy's arm.

James pulled me aside, "I thought the Slytherin common room was in the dungeons," he hissed.

"Well, lets just see where they're going for now... maybe we heard some wrong information."

James and I peeked around the corner.

"Ewwww-" I said to him,

"Snogging," he finished with a face.

"Let's get out of here."

We ran down the stairs, breathless, as we reached the bottom. "Let's never do that again!"

We walked down the halls underneath the cloak when we saw Filch's harbinger.

"James, is that Mrs. Norris?" I quivered as James nodded.

We silently backed up whilst the cat followed us, taunting us with its meows.

We leaned up against a tapestry, cornered. Suddenly it opened up and we fell backwards into a hole. James and I screamed as we slid down into a corridor and looked up and down the hall, completely lost. We saw another tapestry, this one of a fruit bowl, so we went over and examined it. Sirius stroked the fabric and noticed the pear was super-soft.

"Feel this," I told me, moving his hand up and down on the pair.

We heard a soft giggling noise and a loud creak as a door opened up.

"Woah..." James muttered in awe in.

We were instantly surrounded by dozens of blithe house elves who stared at us with big, curious eyes.

"Where are we?"

"You are in the Hogwarts Kitchens, sirs"

"Brilliant!" I whispered excitedly.

Having missed most of dinner, we ate to our stomachs' contents and trudged back to the painting of the Fat Lady, carrying all sorts of goodies in our pocket to give to Remus and Peter. We fell into the portrait hole, exhausted after the time of our lives.

"That was bloody brilliant!" I concluded, grinning from ear to ear.

"Definitely!" James agreed, "We should discover what other secrets this old castle holds!"

We walked through the deserted common room and into our dorms, just about ready to collapse onto our beds and relax into a deep sleep.

I noticed something amiss and grabbed James' arm.

The moonlight shone onto Remus' empty bed.

"Where is Remus?" we both asked at the same time.

Suddenly not so tired, we started to make up stories. The most likely explanation? He fell asleep in the library. He DID say that he would be doing homework. Finally convinced we had figured out where our friend was, we fell into a deep slumber, tuning out the sounds of the wolves howling out in the forest.

Lily

The next morning, I woke up with a pounding headache. The professors were piling on more work as the year progressed, and because of that, I had barely gotten any sleep. I walked down the stairs from my dorm into the ever-so-silent common room. After looking at my watch, I realized I was late for breakfast and classes were going to start in ten minutes! But why hadn't Marlene woken me up? She had usually woken me up when...if... I was running late. That was odd. Maybe she decided to let me get some sleep since I was up late. That was probably it.

I decided that I should probably go to Madam Pomfrey and tell her about it. Maybe she could help me alleviate the pain with her famous pepper-up potion.

I walked in, almost tripping over my robes in the process, and looked around for Madam Pomfrey. Whilst scanning the room, I happened to notice a certain student in one of the beds. He looked familiar and very ill. Then it hit me; he was one of Potter's friends, Robby or something. As I was wondering what was wrong with that Reggie guy, Madam Pomfrey came up to me and asked me what was wrong.

"I have a bloody headache and I just want it to go away!"

"There, there. I'll just be a second and get you the potion." Madam Pomfrey walked away while I patiently waited for her to return with the potion. "Here's the potion m'dear."

I thanked her gulped down the potion in one gulp, mainly to get over the peppery taste that made me feel like sneezing. I felt the smoke start to rise up out of my ears. One of the embarrassing, but necessary effects of the pepperup.

I left hospital, ears smoking, and made my way to my first class. I passed Sev and a couple of his friends and waved.

"Oy, the mudblood's alight!" Severus' friends laughed at me. Severus just stared.

My face felt like hot coal, and I raced out of there as fast as I could.

On the way to dinner, I cornered Severus in the hallway, quite angry.

"What was that about?" I asked him, "I do not appreciate being mistreated by your friends."

"But Lily, they didn't mean it," he replied, avoiding eye contact.

"Ha! As if. I know they meant it and I don't care what you say about it. Why do you hang out around them Sev? They're no good."

"They are usually nice. Honest."

"But not to me! They are not nice to everyone. Just the Slytherins like you."

"I'm sorry Lily. You're my best friend and I don't want to lose you."

"It doesn't seem like it."

"I promise. It is."

"You'll stay my friend forever?" I asked pleadingly.

"Yes."

"Always?"

"Always," he echoed with a reassuring smile.

A/N: As you can see so far, we are mostly keeping to the original story that J.K. wrote. There will end up being a few minor changes to her story, but for the most part we will just fill in places where she left blanks. Again, thanks so much for reading, we hope you are enjoying our fanfiction so far! Oh, and being as this is our first fanfiction (for both of us both separately and together), it would mean SO much if you review it for us telling us what we did right and how to improve so we can make the story even better!

-R (nobaba)