They made sure to leave far enough from curfew that they wouldn't get caught, but close enough that there weren't heaps of people walking around.

"D'you think they were lying to us about where it is?" Whispered Peter, despite the fact that the corridor was empty and they weren't exactly sneaking around.

"Nah. I don't think they've got enough brain cells between them to come up with something like that on the spot," said Sirius, offhandedly.

Don't you think you're being a bit harsh? signed James, who had been walking backwards in front of them, because it made conversation easier.

"Nah."

"Won't there be house elves in there?" Remus realized.

Probably, but this can't be the first time something like this has been done. Knowing elves, they'll probably leave us alone.

"Right," he said uneasily.

Soon enough, they reached the statue.

"Well, so far, so good." Said Sirius, pulling his wand from inside his sleeve and tapping the statue's elbow.

"If house elves apparate, then why is there a passage anyway?" Asked Peter as the statue moved aside, revealing a small corridor.

The only one who could properly stand in the corridor was Peter. Remus, who was the tallest of the group, had to do an odd kind of shuffle with his knees bent and his head crooked a little to the left so that he wouldn't hit the ceiling. James wasn't that much better off.

"Why did they make it so short?" Complained Sirius.

"You're one to talk," said Remus, rolling his eyes, "you're the second shortest. Besides, this was made for house elves. If you've forgotten, they're just a little shorter than we are."

When they finally reached the other side, Peter was the only one who wasn't rubbing and stretching his neck uncomfortably.

An elf with a nose almost as long as Snape's ran over.

"Hullo! What can Tiggy be doing for Masters ..."

"Oh, uh Peter," said Pete, realising the elf's unasked question.

"Remus." Said Sirius, indicating himself.

"Actually, I'm Remus, that's Sirius."

"Why would you go around telling everyone my deepest secret like that?" Exclaimed Sirius dramatically.

James rolled his eyes. He figured it was his turn now, although he'd been secretly hoping one of the others would introduce him, so that he could avoid the awkwardness of the inevitable situation that the elves didn't know sign language. He felt he'd been through plenty enough of that in the past week or so already.

I'm James he signed resignedly.

"Is that being sign language, sir? Tiggy had heard tell - but she never thought - us elves is not knowing sign language, sir."

"Right," said Sirius, glancing at James apologetically, "he's James. Now, we've got things to do."

"Sorry mate," he said, when they had passed, "I completely forgot,"

It's fine, really, signed James, shaking his head, Is it just me or do you have a tendency to take offence in everything anyone says to me?

"No, I don't. Don't be stupid."

"Don't we have something we ought to be doing?"

"Right. Uh … Split up. We'll find them faster that way."

The four boys split up, all taking towards different corners of the room, which was rather large and smelled of dry sweat and dampness.

They sifted through the clothes, checking the names on the tags. Finally, James found a basket with clothes labelled 'Avery', 'M. Mulciber' and 'SS' along with a couple of others he didn't recognise.

James looked around the room, realising the flaw in Sirius' plan to have them split up. The closest boy to him was Peter, but he was still a fair way away.

He clicked his fingers, trying to catch Peter's attention and failing miserably. He rolled his eyes before clapping loudly, his hands stinging.

Remus whipped his head around from the other side of the room, but Peter didn't notice. James waved Remus over.

"You've found them?"

James nodded, Yell at those two for me, would you?

Remus laughed and called the other two over.

"I guess I didn't think that one out very well did I? Sorry mate. Again."

James shrugged, It worked out just fine. Let's get on with this, shall we?

Sirius nodded and swung the bag off his back, pulling a couple of things out and handing them to Peter, who was trying not to drop them.

He grabbed a nearby bucket and filled it about three quarters of the way with water. He plucked the dye from Peter's overstuffed arms and poured it into the water.

"James, you said that you wanted to do this Evans too? I think I've found a way to do that." He tied his hair back with a rubber band he'd stolen from Remus and picked a small bottle Peter had dropped off of the ground, "these dissolve in water. They should hold the solution without dissolving. If we wrap the robes tightly around the bottle and don't put too much in it should stop it from contaminating all the others' robes,"

And I thought Remus was the smart one. James signed, impressed.

"How dare you accuse me of being the smart one!" Exclaimed Sirius, "Remus can keep his bloody title."

Language! scolded James jokingly.

"English, unlike you and Remus."

"Me?" said Remus.

"Yeah. You speak nerd."

"Right. Of course I do."

"You didn't notice?" said Sirius, ladling a bit of the solution into three of the little bottles, "I figured we may as well just pour the rest onto the Slytherins' things. These three are for Evans, Gideon and Fabian, or 'Gabian and Fideon' as they call themselves."

"I saw some Gryffindor stuff over there," said Peter, indicating the area he'd been searching earlier.

"Right. I'll get as many of the Slytherins as I can, James can get Evans and you two go for Fabian and Gideon. Got it?"

They all set off, Sirius splashing as many of the Slytherin robes as he could and the rest on the hunt for the others.

James found Lily's fairly easily and wrapped all her robes around the little bottle as tightly as he could, holding the bundle together with her red and gold striped tie. He then tossed the bundle back where he'd gotten it and made his way back to the door.

Sirius was the last to arrive, glancing at his battered watch as he did so. He was panting slightly.

"We made good time. We've still got fifteen minutes to make it back up to the dormitory before curfew."

Why don't we try exploring again? We're close enough that I reckon we could easily make it to that part of the castle no one uses before anyone noticed.

"Don't you remember what happened the last time we went 'exploring'?" said Remus sceptically.

"Sure, but this time we won't get caught." said Sirius, who was immediately on board with the idea, "If you don't want to come, you don't have to."

"No. Alright, I'm coming."

"Wait – what's going on?" asked Peter, who they had all forgotten didn't know very much sign language.

"We're going to explore the castle," said Sirius slowly, as if he were talking to a very small child.

"Oh,"

They made their way back up the cramped passageway and out into the third floor corridor, quickly slipping down a side passageway that had not-so-effectively disguised itself as a wall.

Sirius ducked as a Doxy dive bombed him, it crashed into an odd tarnished mirror leaning against the wall that it had apparently mistaken as more of the corridor. The Doxy fell to the floor and a couple more Doxies with tiny pieces of cotton stuck to their arms like paramedic bands flew in and dragged the unconscious Doxy out of the corridor by its oversized ears. The whole scene was really quite hysterical.

Once Peter had finally stopped laughing they continued down the passage, Sirius in the lead.

They wandered further down the corridor, taking a couple of rights and a few lefts and getting themselves completely and utterly lost. It didn't help that it was getting darker by the minute.

"We should go back," said Peter, his voice quivering slightly.

"Hey, anyone know that spell to light up your wand? I think I've found something." exclaimed Sirius.

Of course, James did know the spell, but it was too dark for him to sign and he was almost positive he wouldn't be able to do it if he tried, so he didn't do anything.

"What's that?" said Remus, indicating a shadow with two lamplike eyes peering at them out of it, seemingly illuminated by nothing at all.

"Isn't that the batty old caretaker's cat?" said Peter, squinting at the large, unblinking eyes.

Sirius swore. "RUN!"

The four boys took off down the corridor, none of them daring to look back. Seeing as none of them knew where there were or where they were going, they'd only managed to get themselves more lost.

"Where in Godric Gryffindor's good name are we?"

"'Where in Godric Gryffindor's good name'? Really, Sirius?" Remus shook his head.

"I thought it was good," said Sirius, faux perplexed, "besides, I can't've been the first person to use it."

"Right. Let's just focus on getting ourselves back. Preferably without being caught."

"Honestly Remy," said Sirius, rolling his eyes, "you really do take the fun out of everything."

Eventually, they found their way back to the main corridor and somehow managed to sneak all the way back up to their dormitory without being caught. They collapsed onto their beds and fell asleep without even getting changed first (except for Remus, who was uncomfortable enough without trying to sleep in his uniform).

A/N- Hello. I finally , I am a selfish lazy asshole who does not deserve your support because its been like a month and a half since I last updated even though I've had this chapter most of the way written since the day after I last updated. I'm really sorry about that. Until next time!