A/N: Only one more chapter of revising, and that's it. Love you all for rereading this!

So, yeah, besides the minor changes, I'm also swapping the dialogue around a bit, since I reread this a few nights ago and realized Liz resembled something like a Mary Sue in the making, so of course I had to change it. Meh.

Also, for my followers- I'm sorry, but chapter seven of part two still won't be posted until the eighteenth. This revising stuff is just busy work, and is totally different from writing from scratch. On the bright side, I think I persuaded my English teacher to give us a writing assignment based off an already published work. I'm going to turn this whole story in and see what happens!

Disclaimer: Yeah, right. I wish. I do have two guinea pigs though. They're furry, adorable, make cute noises and love to bite people who don't review, so like I said, REVIEW!


Elizabeth woke the next morning, still a little freaked out about her dream. Though she couldn't really remember it, she knew it had been bad. She looked at her watch. 7:30. She still had some time before breakfast. She got dressed, deciding not to say anything about her dream to the guys, and left the paused as she passed the boys' staircase. Muffled shouting and hysterical laughter could be heard from upstairs. Shaking her head, she climbed up to the first years' dorm.

"I'll get you for this, Potter!" Sirius bellowed.

"You'll have to catch me first!" James shouted back. The door burst open and James raced out, fully dressed. Sirius, wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants, was hot on his heels, his hair an interesting shade of magenta. Elizabeth snorted and knocked on the doorframe, her eyes on the ceiling. She had no desire to see Remus or Peter in their underwear.

"You can come in, it's safe," Remus said, a hint of amusement in his voice. Elizabeth lowered her eyes, examined their room, and scowled.

"How come you guys get red bed hangings?" she demanded.

Peter stared at her, still howling with laughter. "Sirius' hair is pink and that's all you can say?" he gasped.

"You would too if your hangings were pink," she grumped.

Remus chuckled. "James stayed up late last night reading his Charms textbook. I didn't think much of it until now. I don't suppose you know the counterspell for a color- changing charm?" Elizabeth shook her head. He sighed and pulled his own textbook out of his trunk and began scanning the index.

Peter was still caught up in his laughter. Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "I'm gonna go make sure James and Sirius haven't killed each other yet. Catch you guys later...?" Neither boy replied. Sighing, she closed the door and headed down to the common room. Boys! Who could understand them? Not her, that's for sure.

In the common room, Sirius had pinned James to the floor. "Change my hair back," he growled menacingly.

"Never!" James struggled to get up.

"Hey, boys," Elizabeth called. "I know you find me so irresistable that you're willing to fight to the death over me, but my heart belongs to someone else." Sirius and James, their scuffle momentarily forgotten, stared at her, openmouthed. She hid a grin. Just what she'd been hoping for.

"Who now?" Remus said, emerging from the dorm, a book under his arm. Peter was right behind him, his mouth open in a small O of surprise. Elizabeth turned red.

"I only said that to get them to stop fighting!" She knew her tone was defensive, but didn't care. She tried to hide her embarrassment. "Sirius, stop choking James. Remus can change your hair back."

Pulling his wand out, Remus pointed it at Sirius. "Finite Incantatem." Black seeped from the roots to the ends of Sirius' hair. He pulled a lock in front of his eyes to check.

"Thanks," he said to Remus. Turning back to James, he said, "Are you crazy? Why did you turn my hair PINK?"

"Magenta," Elizabeth corrected. Sirius glared at her. She smiled innocently.

"That'll teach you to push me into the lake. Now let me up," James demanded.

"You did kind of deserve it," Remus agreed, shrinking away as Sirius turned his death glare on him.

"Let me up," James repeated. "Do you want to make us late for breakfast? You still need to change into your uniform." Sirius glanced down and seemed to realize for the first time that he was only wearing his ragged sweatpants. His face flushed and he hurried back to the dorms.

Elizabeth held out her hand to James. He took it and she pulled him up. "Why did you turn his hair pink?" she asked.

"I told you, he pushed me into a freezing cold lake. And didn't you say it was magenta?" Elizabeth stuck her tongue out at him. "Oh, yeah, that's mature," James said sarcastically.

"I'm eleven. I don't have to be mature. Besides, I think Remus is mature enough for all five of us."

"Excuse me?" Remus said, amused. "I can be immature if I want to."

James snorted. "You don't think about being mature, you either are or aren't. And I definately am not."

"And proud of it," Elizabeth added. She and James slapped a high five.

Footsteps pounded on the stairs and Sirius reemerged, fully dressed, his hair carefully combed. He caught sight of Elizabeth and stared at her, horror-struck. "What?" she said defensively.

"Your... your hair... what happened to it?" He pointed. Elizabeth felt the blood drain from her face.

"What happened? Did James turn my hair pink?" She glared at James, who shook his head, hands held out in surrender.

"No, it's just so... messy..." Sirius said. Elizabeth felt her head. Her short hair was sticking up in every direction, not unlike James'. That was what had Sirius so worried? Geez.

"Who cares if it's messy?" she asked.

"Well, you're a girl. Aren't girls supposed to be obsessed with hair and stuff like that?" Sirius asked.

"Um. No. I just usually leave it the way it is when I wake up. It's just too much of a bother. Anyway, it seems like the only person here who cares about hair so much is you," Elizabeth said scathingly. James and Peter exploded with laughter.

"Oh, ha ha. Go ahead and make fun of me just because I like to look good, why don't you." But Sirius was laughing too. "Why are we standing around wasting time? Let's go to breakfast. I'm starving. Last one down is a stinky gnome!" He bolted for the portrait hole, Elizabeth, James and Peter right behind him. Remus rolled his eyes and hurried after them.

Down in the Great Hall, Lily, Victoria and Sarah were chatting animatedly. When Lily saw them, she hurried over. "Hey, Elizabeth," she said. Her green eyes were full of worry. "How are you feeling?"

Elizabeth glowered. She hadn't wanted anyone else to know what happened!"Fine, thanks. D'you mind moving? We're hungry."

"Liz? Did something happen last night?" James peered intently at her.

"NO!" She stormed past Lily and sat down as far as possible from Sarah and Victoria. The boys followed. Elizabeth put some food on her plate, but the helpings were minuscule compared to the night before. She simply stared at the food, picking at it. Tears ran down her cheeks. Elizabeth had lost her appetite at Lily reminding her of her nightmare, which had come back full force. She didn't want her friends to die! Lily too, even though she didn't particularly like Lily. Even though it had been a dream, it had felt so real...

"Elizabeth?" Remus' voice interrupted her thoughts. She looked up at them, noting their startled faces at the sight of her tears. "Elizabeth, please tell us what happened."

She pushed her plate away and dropped her head on the table with a thunk. "Go away," she moaned, her voice muffled.

"Liz, just tell us!" Sirius said impatiently.

"I don't want to talk about it. And don't call me Liz."

"I thought we were your friends," James added. "Or were you just hanging out with us because you were convinced Sirius and I were both madly in love with you?"

There was a pause, then Elizabeth's shoulders began to shake. The boys were rather startled, thinking at first that she'd started crying harder. Then she raised her head and they realized she was laughing. "Nah, I just thought you needed someone to keep you out of trouble, and Remus won't always be around to do that." Remus stiffened. "What?" she asked.

"Nothing," he muttered. "Let's eat. I'm famished." The rest of the school began to show up then, so they quickly claimed their seats and helped themselves to kippers and toast. Elizabeth noticed her friends shooting her worried looks and she grinned. Since her mouth was stuffed full of food, it gave her the look of a bushy haired chipmunk. "Do' 'orry, oo ays, 'us imar'."

Peter snorted into his pumpkin juice. "English, please."

Elizabeth swallowed and said, "Don't worry, you guys, it was just a nightmare."

"Some nightmare," James muttered darkly. Elizabeth grunted and made a noncommittal gesture. She didn't like all the fuss they were making over this. Curse Lily for pretending to care!

"Oh, look, the post is here," Peter said suddenly. The air was full of owls, circling the tables, searching for their owners. Athena swooped down to perch on Elizabeth's shoulder.

A large screech owl dropped a scarlet envelope in front of Sirius. They all stared at it, recognizing a Howler, but couldn't imagine why Sirius would be getting one.

"Uh, Sirius...?" Elizabeth said nervously. The envelope had begun to smoke.

Sirius grimaced. "They must send owls to parents letting them know what House their children are in. Let's just hope that dear old mum doesn't shriek for too long. I swear that she's part banshee."

"Why would-" Peter began, but was cut off as Walburga Black's voice began to echo throughout the Great Hall.

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK! NEVER, NOT IN A HUNDRED YEARS, WOULD I HAVE BELIEVED YOU WOULD BE IN GRYFFINDOR! THE HOUSE OF MUDBLOODS, BLOOD TRAITORS AND THE SHAMES OF THE WIZARDING WORLD! DON'T BOTHER COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS! WHEN YOU GET HOME, YOU WILL BE PUNISHED! YOUR BROTHER WOULD NEVER HAVE BETRAYED US LIKE THIS! YOU HAVE BROUGHT SHAME UPON OUR FAMILY! I HOPE YOU'RE PROUD!"

The Howler disintegrated into a handful of ashes. The entire Hall was staring at Sirius, who looked quite pale. After a moment, he composed himself and grinned at his friends. "Don't look so freaked out, guys. Since you didn't ask me, then yes, I am proud. C'mon, if you think this is bad..." he let out a barklike laugh. "Well, let's just say you don't want to see her when she's really mad. A Howler is tame for her. Pumpkin juice, Remus?" he added, pushing the jug over to his friend.

Remus seemed to come out of a trance. "No, thank you. I'm full." Elizabeth looked at his untouched plate. "Lovely breakfast, wasn't it? Oh, hello, Professor McGonagall!"

The woman in question was walking down the Gryffindor table, handing out parchments. When she reached them, she looked at Sirius. "That was your mother, Mr. Black?"

Sirius' ears reddened. "Yes," he muttered.

McGonagall shook her head. "There is no shame in being different from your family, Mr. Black. To be honest, anyone who has an attitude like that should be ashamed." Sirius grinned at her. "Here are your schedules. Mr. Lupin, I need you to come with me."

Remus nodded and stood up. "I'll see you guys later, then."

"What d'you reckon she wants with him?" Elizabeth mused as Remus left the Great Hall with Professor McGonagall.

"Dunno. Schedule mess up?" James suggested. He frowned. "No, that couldn't be right- first years all have the same schedule as their Housemates. And I have his schedule right here. It looks fine to me. But it's not really our business, is it? Ooh, look! Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws first thing today! Let's go!"

"Shouldn't we wait for Remus?" Peter asked. "I don't want him to have to find his way on his own- it's not like he has a map or anything..."

"Ah, he'll be fine," Sirius said airily. "He's with McGonagall. Coming, Liz?"

"Yes, and don't call me that. It's demeaning." Elizabeth threw Athena into the air and the owl flew away to join her brethren in the owlry.

"Call you what?" Sirius asked, an innocent expression on his face.

"You know perfectly well, what," she growled.

"Liz? Why shouldn't we call you that? Elizabeth's a mouthful." James nodded in agreement to Sirius' words. "Anyway, you are officially stuck with it now. You'll always be Liz to us. So there!" He smirked triumphantly.

Elizabeth pulled out her wand. "Don't make me hex you, Siri." Her tone was deadly quiet. Peter gulped.

Sirius' smirk grew more pronounced. "I'd like to see you try."

"Locomorter Mortis!" Elizabeth snapped, pointing her wand at his legs. James and Peter looked at him. He didn't seem any different.

"Oh, wow, that was terrifying," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "Let's go, I don't want to be late for class our first day." He tried to take a step forward.

He fell on his face instead.

"MISS AUBEREY!" McGonagall had returned with Remus.

"Busted," James muttered.


Professor McGonagall took Remus to the room where the first years had waited to be sorted. When she had shut the door firmly behind her and checked the ceiling, for some reason, she said, "Now, Mr. Lupin, Professor Dumbledore has told you that as long as we take certain precautions on the nights of the full moon, there is no reason why you should not come to school. We have acquired an old house near Hogsmeade and have enchanted it so that you cannot get out. The Whomping Willow Professor Dumbledore mentioned last night was planted over the entrance to a tunnel that leads to the house- that should prevent people from getting in... or out. Now, next Thursday, you will go to the Hospital Wing an hour before moonrise, unless you are feeling too ill to wait. Madam Pomferey, the nurse, will tell you what to do then." Professor McGonagall then tod Remus, in great detail, how to get to the Hospital Wing. "Is that clear?" she asked once she'd finished.

"Yes, Professor." Although Remus could tell that this woman didn't play favorites, he liked her already. There was a brusque sort of manner on the outside, but if you took the time to peer beneath the surface, you saw a woman who cared for everyone. That, coupled with the fact that she treated him like a normal kid, only served to make him like her more.

They went back to the Great Hall just in time to see Elizabeth hex Sirius, who fell flat on his face.

"MISS AUBEREY!" Professor McGonagall cried. James turned to Elizabeth and muttered something. She scowled and put her wand away. "What were you thinking? Magic is not to be performed in the corridors or the Great Hall for this very reason! Ten points from Gryffindor, and I hope you're proud of yourself! I've never had a student lose points this early in the year!"

Elizabeth stuck her tongue out at the Professor's retreating back. Remus fought back a grin as he helped Sirius up.

"What was that all about?" he asked, undoing the spell on Sirius. "Everyone's hexing you today, it seems."

"My dear Lizzie here just took offense at her new nickname," Sirius said, dusting himself off. Remus bit his lip at that. Dear Lizzie? Since when was she Sirius' dear?

"...Er, alright," he said awkwardly. What did it matter if Sirius was giving Elizabeth nicknames? He took his schedule from James. "Oh, yes, Transfiguration first thing. Shall we go?"

As they hurried up the stairs, James said, "So what did McGonagall want, anyway?"

Remus stumbled. He hadn't been expecting a question like that, though in retrospect, it should have been obvious. Peter had to grab him by the neck of the robes to keep him from falling down the stairs. Once he'd regained his feet, Remus said, "Er, it was... about my schedule. It got messed up. So they had to fix it. Because it was... messed up..."

"Wow. Messed up? So badly that McGonagall needed to talk to you in private about it? Seriously, Remus, if you're going to lie to us, at least put a little effort into it. This is just embarrassing. I saw your schedule, and it's exactly the same as ours," James said obstinately. Sirius, Peter and Elizabeth nodded agreement, looking at him curiously.

Elizabeth elbowed James and gave him an I told you so look. Remus didn't like this. It was only the first day of term and they already knew something was wrong. How could he have been so stupid, thinking that he could pass for normal?

"I have to go," Remus blurted out, rushing past his friends. He could feel their eyes on him as he whipped around a corner and out of sight. He didn't stop until he reached McGonagall's classroom, found with the help of an older student, where he claimed a seat in the back corner and piled his books in front of him so he wouldn't have to look at his so- called 'friends'.


"Somebody really needs to make a map of this place," Peter said as they wandered about on the fourth floor.

"Let me know when that happens," James said gloomily. They were lost. They knew that Transfiguration was on the fourth floor, but they had no idea where it was. He still felt bad about making Remus upset, but he was curious.

"Less whining and more walking. We'll never get there at this rate," Sirius said.

"Assuming we can find 'there'," Liz said. She was still protesting the name, but she was stuck with it now. "I'll bet Remus is already there, was there a long time ago." she shot James a meaningful look. He shrugged. It wasn't as though he could do anything about that now.

"What? I only wanted to know why he was lying to us," he said, kicking a new, clean trainer against the wall. It left a skid mark.

"Well, you believe me now, don't you?" She folded her arms with an air of maddening superiority.

"Yeah, yeah, I believe you, we all do," Sirius said.

"Why do you think he'd lie to us?" Peter asked. "Unless it was something he'd just rather not talk about? Maybe he has a really embarrassing disease. Like, chronic farts or something."

"I don't think that's it, Pete," Sirius said. "But you might be right about the disease thing. The bloke looks like he hasn't had a proper meal once in his entire life. And I didn't hear him farting in the dorms last night, did you?" It took a few seconds for the sentence to sink in, but once it had, all four children were doubled over, wheezing with laughter. They were still laughing when, to their immense relief, they spotted Lily, Sarah and Victoria walking into a classroom at the end of the corridor.

"Guys,"James said as they reached the door, "Let's not say anything to Remus about this, alright? If we do, he'll just clam up and refuse to say anything. We have to be careful about this. Are we clear?"

"Yup."

"Yeah."

"Yes, mother." James rolled his eyes at Sirius. They went inside. They immediately spotted Remus hiding in the corner, a wall of books stacked in front of him as an obvious barrier. They looked at one another.

"Liz, you go sit next to him," Sirius said, pushing her forward.

"Why me?" Liz was so startled, she didn't even protest the name.

"Because he knows you best. Now go," James ordered, pushing her farther into the room. He didn't mention that the real reason he chose her was because he had a sneaking suspicion that Remus liked Liz.

She walked over to him.


"Hey, Remus," Elizabeth said in a voice that sounded way too cheery to her. She plunked her bag on the table. Remus didn't look up. She moved his stack of books to the floor. That got his attention.

"Hey!" he protested, lunging for the books. Elizabeth grabbed his wrists before he could reach them. "Let go!" He squirmed, trying to break free.

"Look at me!" Elizabeth commanded. Beautiful blue eyes looked into hazel as Remus stopped fighting. Elizabeth was momentarily distracted by his eyes- Merlin, they were blue- but forced herself to speak. "Listen, Remus, I don't know what McGonagall wanted, but if you don't want us to know, we won't bother you anymore."

Remus eyed her suspiciously. "Swear it?"

"Even better- I'll solemnly swear it." She held her pinkie finger out. Remus looked at it, bemused. Obviously, this was just a muggle thing. "It's a pinkie promise. You're supposed to lock pinkies and say an oath." Remus held out his own little finger and they interlocked them. "I, Elizabeth Grace Auberey, do solemnly swear on my behalf and the behalf of my friends, that-"

"Since when do you speak like that?" Remus asked.

Elizabeth blushed. "I- I read. A lot. So I know a plethora-" she stressed the last word, she was very proud of knowing it- "of big words." He raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to let me finish?" Remus nodded. "I, Elizabeth Grace Auberey, solemnly swear on my behalf and the behalf of my friends, that we will not bother you about your issues."

"Oh, so now I have issues?" Remus grinned at her. She grinned back. "And I, Remus John Lupin, do solemnly swear not to run away from my friends and leave them wandering about the castle." They laughed, and for a moment, to Elizabeth, all felt right in the world. But it was a fleeting moment as her happiness turned to guilt. All she'd promised was to not go asking Remus what he was doing- not that she and the other guys would stop trying to figure him out. A sense of dread crept over her as she wondered if she had just promised their budding friendship away.

The bell rang as they broke apart and Professor McGonagall turned away from the blackboard, where she'd been writing. After taking role call, giving them a lecture on safety and changing her desk into a pig and back, they had to take a load of complicated notes from the board. Then, Professor McGonagall passed out a box of matches and they were to try turning them into needles.

McGonagall seemed impressed when James got it on his first try, and Sirius on his fifth. By the end of the class, the only other one able to make any difference to match was Remus. His wasn't a needle, but at least it was silver now. Elizabeth hadn't managed to change hers at all, though felt slightly cheered at the thought that it could have gone worse. She hadn't set her match on fire, though Peter had somehow managed to do just that. Sirius found this rather amusing.

"It's pronounced with an 'un', not an 'oon', Pete, honestly..."

Their next class was double Potions with the Slytherins. Their teacher, Horace Slughorn, was a fat man with thinning ginger hair who waddled instead of walked. He seemed all right until role call, when he came to Remus' name. He stuttered for a bit, then said, "Erm, yes, Mr. Lupin, ah, if you would be so kind as to move to the back..."

"Why?" Elizabeth said loudly. Remus looked like he wanted to sink through the floor.

Slughorn seemed caught off- guard by Elizabeth's outburst. "Because, Miss Auberey, I want him to."

"You didn't tell any of us to move," Sirius spoke up.

"Well, no, but-"

"Why should he be any different from the rest of us?" James demanded. "If you were going to assign seats, I'd think you'd do it for more than just one person." Peter nodded fervently, though looked as though he'd much rather not be doing anything at all. Elizabeth quivered in indignation. Who did Slughorn think he was to push Remus around like this?


As his friends were arguing with their teacher, Remus was quietly gathering his belongings, praying that they would just let it go. He didn't want to bring any more attention to himself. He sighed. It wasn't like this was unexpected, but it still hurt. When he'd been accepted to Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore had warned him that Professors Slughorn and Dranseau might not take too kindly to having a werewolf in their classes.

"Well, if you're going to move him, you're going to move us too," James declared. Remus flushed at the thought of his friends' willingness to lose points for him. It was all an illusion, though- if they found out why Slughorn was moving him, well... nobody would want to even be in the same room as him. It was a depressing thought.

Slughorn's voice broke into his thoughts. "Very well, then, but if you five cause any trouble, I won't hesitate to split you up!" He waggled a finger at James, rather like an old uncle, but he carefully avoided eye contact with Remus.

The five children gathered their stuff and moved back to the farthest table with him. James, Sirius and Peter were grouped together, and Remus found himself sitting next to Elizabeth for two classes in a row. He grinned at her. She grinned back, but cast a furtive glance over at the other three. They were trying to be quiet, but Remus and Elizabeth could hear every word.

"What was that-" Peter began, but someone, probably James, kicked the smaller boy under the table. He yelped.

"We promised, remember?" James muttered. He looked back and saw Remus watching them, and quickly looked away.

They started the class with a simple potion to cure boils. Slughorn waddled around the class giving advice, punctuated with long anecdotes of his former, now famous, students. Remus was reminded of an antique collector, the way their teacher spoke. He collected students like a black shirt collects dandruff.

Once their potions were finished, they had to fill a flagon and bring it to the teacher's desk to be marked. James', Sirius' and Peter's was decent, probably because Peter mostly just sat around and watched. Remus' and Elizabeth's was only just passable, probably because Elizabeth took over when Remus had nearly added the porcupine quills too early. Severus smirked at Remus as they went up to Slughorn's desk, the greasy boy clutching his own beautifully made potion. Lily, his partner, however, smiled at Remus sympathetically. Remus smiled back.

Lunch followed potions. Their next two classes were Charms with tiny old Professor Flitwick, and Herbology with a young, friendly witch named Professor Sprout. Then, to their relief, they were done for the day. As they were doing their homework in the empty common room, waiting for dinner, James sat up.

"I've been thinking-" he started.

"Did it hurt?" Elizabeth asked, raising an eyebrow. Peter snorted. Sirius gave her a high five, and Remus smiled to himself. His stomach lurched when he looked at her, but didn't think much of it. The full moon was next week. He usually felt odd the week before, nothing unusual.

"No," James said, choosing to ignore her comment. "Anyway, I've been thinking that we need to do something to Snivellus."

"Why?" Remus asked apprehensively, putting his quill down.

"Didn't you see the way he smirked at you? He's so full of himself. The slimy little git needs to be taught a lesson. And I have just the thing." He darted upstairs, knocking his ink bottle over onto his essay about carnivorous trees.

"Scourgify," Remus said, pointing his wand at the ink. It vanished. Elizabeth sighed.

"I wish I could do that," she muttered. She'd had a rather hard time with the spell in Charms and seemed upset that the others had mastered it before her.

"Why do I suddenly have a very bad feeling?" Peter wondered aloud, looking after James.

James reappeared then, holding a silvery cloak in one hand and a small tin of something in the other. "Powdered Billywig stingers! They're not lethal, but you'll get a very nasty rash that's nearly impossible to get rid of. Just think of what could happen if, through some unthinkable means, this stuff were to make its way into Snivellus' bedsheets..."

Sirius, Peter and Elizabeth burst out laughing. Remus was uncertain. "Are you sure? I mean, we'll be running into mean people our whole lives and won't be able to do anything-"

"Ah, but we can do something to Snivellus!" Sirius chuckled. "Stop worrying, Remus, it's not like we're going to make him eat it."

"Well..."

"So we're going to be extra- careful. This is a prank, not an assassination. We should make that one of our rules- no permanent or severe physical injuries." James said.

"No doing the same prank twice," Elizabeth said. "Or else it'll get boring."

"Never on the Gryffindors," Sirius added. "Unless it's a schoolwide prank." They grinned.

"And why would we be doing a schoolwide prank?" Remus asked.

"Do you really think we'll stop at one? Come on, Remus, I thought you knew me better than that!" James pouted and pretended to look hurt.

Remus sighed at the theatrics. "I only met you yesterday."

"Still..."

"We should have a name," James said. "Wouldn't that be cool?"

"Um..."

"Er..."

"Hmm..."

"I don't know yet," Elizabeth said. "We should definitely think about it, though."

"So how are we getting into the Slytherin common room?" Sirius asked.

"With this!" James pulled the cloak off his arm with a flourish.

"Um. It's a cloak, doofus," Elizabeth said. Although the cloak was an interesting silver color, and was much larger than average, it would still be ridiculously easy to spot a giant silver blob making its way down the corridor.

"It's not just a cloak. This baby has been passed down through my family for generations. Observe!" James threw the cloak over his head- and disappeared. Remus froze. The other three yelled in shock.

"That's an invisibility cloak!" Sirius said, dumbstruck. "I want one."

"That is SO cool!" Elizabeth yelled. James' head reappeared. He was grinning.

Pulling the cloak the rest of the way off, he said, "Since Liz, Remus and I are pretty small, we should be able to fit under here without any trouble. C'mon, let's go up to the dormitory- I don't fancy having anyone walking in in us here." They gathered their homework, Remus a little reluctant, and trooped upstairs.

In the boys' dorm, they huddled together and James threw the cloak over them. They shuffled around to look in the full- length mirror near the door.

"See any feet?" Elizabeth asked.

"No."

"Nope."

"Nuh- uh."

"All clear."

They pulled it off again and flopped on their beds. Elizabeth almost sat next to Sirius, then changed her mind and sat with Remus instead. He felt rediculously pleased with this.

"I know it might not seem like a very big prank right now, but if it goes wrong, we'll be facing a very angry Slytherin House. I don't know about you, but I want to live to get my apparation license. We'll have to plan this carefully." James pulled out a piece of parchment and a battered quill. "Here's what we'll have to do..."


A/N: Wow, this was a long chapter. I had a lot of fun writing it! I made Slughorn act like he did because I got the feeling from HBP that he would. Remember when he told Harry it was shocking that a muggleborn (Lily) was so good at potions? I figured he'd be a werewolf hater as well, but trust me, he's nothing compared to Dranseau!

Looking forward to it? Review! If not, review and tell me why! *Jedi hand wave* That is the review button you are looking for...

Until next time,

-Dndchk