The Women Loved by Two Men: The Covered Past
Disclaimer: All characters, but Lizzie and a few other minor characters are owned by J.K. Rowling. We are of course not receiving any profit of this work of fiction.
An: Hey everyone! Hope everyone had a blessed Christmas season. Ours was sad in some parts and others we had fun, but overall glad that it was over with! Anyway, we hope you enjoy this next chapter as the boys get a little not nice and well…..it creates some tension between Lizzie and Sirius…..we'll let you read about it yourself. Have a blessed week.
Chapter Ten: "The Staircase"
"Hey Wormtail, pass me that parchment." James nearly yelled across the dorm room one evening.
Peter folded it a bit before throwing it over then turned back to his homework. "Whatcha need it for anyway? Full moons not for several more weeks."
James was already studying the sketches they made of Hogwarts and the areas surrounding it and Hogsmeade. "I was thinking that we could make these better, you know add more to them."
Sirius glanced up from his DADA essay. "That's not a bad idea. We should sketch the entire castle and grounds, not just where we go."
James and Peter looked on with obvious excitement, immediately liking the idea. But Remus, who didn't even look up from his own studies, only replied. "What's the point of that if we don't use it during the full moon? I mean what we have now and maybe adding a bit more here and there fit any of our planning needs."
The three other boys glared back at Remus, quite disappointed that he deflated their enthusiasm and plans. "So what are you suggesting, that we don't need it? It'll be good for other activities such as our pranking."
"A map like that might get you around the castle in the dark, but it won't keep you from getting caught."
"He does have a point you know." Peter put in as he looked down at the sketches James had been working on, then glancing back up to Remus. "What then Moony, put the professors and the students on there as well?"
The room grew suddenly silent. Had Peter stumbled onto something, something that would work...something they could actually do?
"Could that actually be possible to do?" James finally ventured into the rather thick but thoughtful silence that followed Peter's question.
"But people are constantly moving." Sirius grumbled not liking saying it, but it was a major issue.
"But Peter's onto something here." Remus finally put down his books, deep in thought. "If we could charm it where they could move as they really are, it'll be worth making it."
The others remained silent for long moments as Remus' breakthrough sunk in. And then the room exploded with ideas.
"We could use little feet to put where everyone's moving."
"And the secret passageways have got to be a part of this."
"And our names, right on the front."
"We'll need to come up with a spell to protect it if it gets into the wrong hands."
Once all the boys settled down a little, James held up an imaginary glass. "Here's to the Marauders Map. May we never get caught again."
"Here here." Laughing they all clinked their glasses before settling down to the more serious business of creating a game plan in order to complete the new Marauders Map.
"How is it coming?" James leaned over the table in the Great Hall only a few days later.
Sirius absently brushed a few lose hairs out of his face, not even looking up from his work. "Nearly done with the Great Hall and the surrounding hallways."
"Good." James nodded approvingly as he sat down across from his best mate. "Do you have a moment?"
"If this is another sob story that Evans turned you down again...no." Sirius was trying not to laugh too much, but failed miserably.
"Actually no..." James lowered his voice, nearly whispering with conspiracy. "It's about a prank."
The quill in Sirius hand suddenly stopped. "Is it good?"
"Padfoot, have you ever wanted to play on a staircase?" James grin was sly and slick, like a cat about ready to pounce.
Sirius finally looked up, meeting James' gaze. "I could play on a staircase. What did you have in mind?"
James leaned forward again, glancing around to make sure no one was within hearing distance. "Now I don't have all the details worked through, but we should be able to pull this off..."
Grinning from ear to ear James disclosed his rather brilliant idea, or what he thought of as brilliant.
"Can you believe he said that?" Amy asked as the four girls were slowly making their way from the Great Hall back to the Gryffindor tower.
Lily rolled her eyes as they made a right turn, taking them onto the staircases. "Well everyone is entitled to their own opinion, despite the fact that we know it's wrong."
Alice was about to comment when an odd groan met their ears, followed by several loud screams. They all turned, leaning over the railing and saw a staircase wildly flying across the passageway several feet below them.
Lily glanced up toward the head of the staircase and seeing it shaking a bit, like it was trying to move, she quietly ventured. "Maybe we should go back the other way."
Amy and Alice looked toward Lily, as if trying to decide what she really said. Meanwhile Lizzie leaned further over the railing, dark eyes narrowing as if wondering if four certain boys had something to do with this.
"I'm going." Lily announced, swiftly turning to head back down as they were closer to the hallway from whence they came than to the top. But she only made it down a step or two before the staircase groaned again, finally breaking loose from the landing and started swinging rather wildly across the passage way. Before they even realized what was happening, Amy, Alice and Lily tumbled back down the stairs, landing in a heap at the bottom.
However, Lizzie, who was still leaning over the edge, was suddenly flung over the top. Having rather quick reflexes, she reached up, grabbing a rail and managed to twist herself so she was facing the rail. And wondering what exactly was going on, she made the horrible mistake of looking down and only saw a huge blur of stone and students. Shuddering, the memories of her nearly tragic flight with Matthew started coming flooding back. Lizzie gripped the railing even tighter, squeezing her eyes shut, too scared to scream or call for help as she hung on for dear life.
Long moments later, the stairs slid back into place and Lizzie felt her body sway nearly violently with the sudden stop. Breathing deeply, she slowly started to bring herself and her fears back under her control as she knew that she needed to keep her head and more importantly was going to need to climb back over the railing.
"Lizzie are you alright?" A familiar voice called out to her over the hum of the students crying, yelling and groaning.
Lizzie opened her mouth to yell something back, but found that she couldn't quite get anything out.
"It'll be alright Lizzie." Her clearer brain managed to process that the calm voice belonged to her friend Remus. "We'll have you up in just a few minutes."
Lizzie nodded and within moments several faces along with Remus' were looking down at her, giving her directions to inch her way up a bit. "We'll lift you up the rest of the way. It's going to be alright."
Painfully, Lizzie inched a little ways up as Remus and a couple of other guys took her arms, managing to pull her up and over the railing.
"Lizzie are you okay?" Remus gazed at her with concern once her feet where back on solid ground. "Anything bleeding or broken?"
Lizzie shook her head, but immediately realized that she was shaking all over.
"Come here." Remus gave her a comforting hug. "It's all over."
Still a bit scared, Lizzie clung to him for several long minutes.
"Why don't we get you some warm tea? I'm sure it will make you feel better."
Lizzie agreed, allowing Remus to lead her down the stairs. Halfway down, a startling thought occurred to her. "Where are the others?"
"They were taken to the hospital wing." As Lizzie's eyes grew wide, Remus hurried onto explain things. "Just some scrapes and bruises and maybe a twisted ankle. Nothing too serious."
Quite relieved, Lizzie followed Remus the rest of the way.
Still shaking, Lizzie allowed Remus to settle her down on a bed in the hospital wing, quickly exchanging relieved glances with the other girls. Madam Pomfrey made her way over to them, fixing Alice's broken wrist, healing the scrapes on Lily's face, wrapping Amy's slightly twisted ankle, giving Lizzie a calming potion with a spot of tea.
Lizzie was about finished drinking her potion when Professor McGonagall walked into the room, fury written on her features. "Does anyone have any idea of whom the culprits are?"
The room grew silent as the students glanced at each other then back to the deputy head mistress. And in seeing the good handful of injured students, Remus made his decision, nearly spitting out the names. "Potter and Black."
Everyone turned to him in surprise and shock. Well, not completely as all of them highly suspected the Marauders, but they didn't expect that one of their own was turning them in.
"Any solid proof Mr. Lupin?"
Remus regretful shook his head. "No ma'am, but they have been very quiet and secretive lately. I've been wondering what they've been up to."
McGonagall only nodded. "Thank you Mr. Lupin. We'll take it from here." After talking quietly with Madam Pomfrey for a few minutes she left the room.
After the door shut behind her, the room starting murmuring to themselves about what happened as the healed ones were slowly being released.
"They must have cemented the stairs or something." Alice seethed as she rubbed her still sore wrist, as she walked slowly, helping Amy along. "I'm going to kill those boys."
"Get in line." Lily grumbled from behind them as she, Lizzie and Remus slowly walked. "I'm prefect so I get the first shot."
"I think Professor McGonagall will take care of things from here." Remus put in wisely, but he too was more than ready to curse his own best mates.
The girls admitted agreement but still grumbling about wanting to invent curses just for those darn boys. Soon after that they were climbing rather painfully back into the portrait hole. Of course everyone in the Gryffindor tower was discussing the prank, so thanking Remus once again, the girls made their escape up to the safety of their quiet peaceful dorm room.
"Hey Lizzie." She didn't even bother to turn around as Lizzie knew who was calling for her. "Can you slow down?"
Plowing through the falling leaves, Lizzie ignored the calls of the two boys that had given her cause of a sleepless night of nightmares. Though she was forced to stop as James caught up with her, grabbing her arm. "What's the rush Wellington?"
"Let go Potter." Lizzie nearly sneered, tearing her arm from his grip.
"Lighten up baby." Sirius approached them, smiling down at her, thinking a little of his charm would set things right. "It was just a harmless prank. All we did was put cement onto the stairs."
"A harmless prank?" Lizzie was really fussed now. "Did you know that a few students spent the night in the hospital wing with nearly broken bones? And a least two dozen more with scrapes, bruises and other injuries?" Lizzie shook her head in disgust. "Some prank. You boys need to grow up."
"It was just for fun." James put in, trying to get her to let it go. "Besides it was our best prank yet."
"Yea and no one was that hurt."
"I give up." Lizzie threw her hands up in the air, in hopeless frustration. "You know something's going to happen someday where you'll either kill yourself or worse yet, someone else. Then you'll realize how stupid, immature and arrogant you are. I hope I'm there see it, the day you two are forced to grow up. You'll be getting what you deserve."
"Oh come on, you can stop being so dramatic."
"Our parents are fighting in a war, I don't think I'm being overly dramatic, just realistic." Lizzie turned to go as the boys stared back at her, nearly dumbfounded. "And Black if you ever call me baby again, I'll hex you so hard you won't want to even look at another girl for at least a year."
"Does that mean you won't go to the Christmas party with me next month?"
"Of all things. They are just never going to get it." Lizzie murmured underneath her breath as she slowly turned around to face the boys again. "Sure Black, I'll go out with you again." Lizzie couldn't help but pause as Sirius let a slow satisfied smirk slid across his face, not catching her sarcasm. "When Voldermort and his muggle born bride send out their wedding invitations." With a flounce, Lizzie turned and walked away, hoping something she said was finally going to sink into their rather thick skulls.
But meanwhile, the boys just stood there watching Lizzie walk away, wondering why she was so upset about a little harmless prank.
After turning in two of his best mates, Remus Lupin decided to lay low for a while. He knew that James and Sirius wouldn't take it kindly knowing that he had turned them in. But sitting in the hospital wing with all those students hurt and Lizzie still shaking, he knew he had to do something. They had gone too far this time.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Peter was asking as the other three boys entered the dorm room several days after said prank. "I could have helped you know, cementing those stairs couldn't have been an easy job."
"Well you were out with Daisy from Hufflepuff." James put in smoothly. "We didn't want to interrupt anything."
Peter, blushing, didn't argue with that as he headed toward his bunk.
"Anyway, you didn't get several weeks worth of detention." James said as he threw his bag down onto his bunk.
"But it was worth it." Sirius sighed dramatically.
"I still wonder how they knew it was us anyway." James mused out loud.
"Who else would have been able to pull that off?" Peter asked. "We've done enough for anyone in the entire school to take a wild guess and get it right."
"That is true, but they convicted us without any evidence. Unless someone had turned us in." All three pairs of eyes turned toward Remus.
"Did you?" They asked quietly. "Did you really, finally turn us in?"
Remus sighed, putting down his book and looked up to face his friends. "Yes, I highly suspected you especially as you two have been acting quite suspicious lately. So when McGonagall asked, I told her the truth."
The three boys stared at Remus almost not believing that he was telling them the truth, that he actually did turn them in.
"I can't believe you ratted on us." James' anger immediately peaked. "And after everything we've done for you..."
"Wait Prongs." Sirius put in, his eyes a stormy gray. "Before we take care of him, I want to know one thing. Why did you do it mate? Why did you turn us in?"
"You two went too far. Someone could have been killed." Remus left out the who for the moment, thinking that it might not be necessary.
"But no one did." They waved off his concern. "Just a few scrapes. No real harm done."
"No harm?" Remus, nearly outraged, stood up deciding to let them have it. "You call Lizzie flying over the railing and nearly falling to her death, no harm?"
"She hung on didn't she?" Once again they didn't seem too concerned. After all no one was seriously hurt. "We saw her at breakfast this morning. She was fine. Granted she's not too happy with us, but she'll get over it."
"I helped pull her up from the railing, believe me she's not fine." Remus quickly turned, grabbing his books, knowing that he didn't want to stay in his room much longer. And that wasn't just because they could easily beat him in a fight. "Look, you two are obviously not going to grow up until someone is nearly killed. I hope you don't get suspended for it." With that Remus stormed out of the room.
James and Sirius glanced at each other, both wondering how Remus could yell at them when he was the one that had wronged them.