Elizabeth wasn't one to be afraid of sneaking out of the common room after curfew: hell, she did it her first day at Hogwarts. She wasn't afraid of getting caught, or even getting detention. So she couldn't understand why she was so terrified as she climbed up the stairs of the Astronomy Tower.
Though Elizabeth tried not to think about how scared she was: she tried to focus on her foot steps echoing against the walls. She tried to make sure that she looked okay. She didn't spend a lot of time making herself look presentable considering that Lily was hovering and wondering what she was off to do. She didn't mess with her makeup, considering that it had stayed in place since she put it on that morning. She changed her outfit; a strapless floral dress, a grey cardigan that came with a maroon leather belt, and a cute pair of black heels. She didn't want to see too dressy, not too casual. At first she was worried about being cold, but soon remembered that they knew magic: warming charm. Duh.
Once Elizabeth reached the top of the spiraling staircase, she knocked quietly on the door. She heard a 'come in' and she twisted the door handle, walking in.
The balcony was dark, the only light coming from the stars above and some candles lit across the room, on a table and on the walls. The table in the middle of the room was covered with a white table cloth and had plates of food upon it: turkey, butter beer, other foods that Elizabeth liked. There was a couch that sat farther on the balcony, facing the Black Lake, and it had a cotton blanket folded on top. The scene was truly beautiful.
However, Elizabeth wasn't very interested in the room. She was interested in the man looking at her, standing only a few feet away. He wore a dark pair of jeans and simple sneakers, ones that looked new (although Elizabeth knew they possibly couldn't be). He had a wife beater on with an unbuttoned blue shirt, and Elizabeth couldn't help but think how sexy he looked.
"Why, hello Ms. Evans," Sirius smiled as his hand picked up a single orange rose. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow as he glided over, handing the rose to her.
"Isn't the traditional flower a red rose, not an orange one?" Elizabeth glanced at the flower and back up at Sirius's swirling grey eyes.
"Ah, indeed it is. However, orange symbolizes desire. Passion. Romance. I feel it symbolizes my feelings for you better," He handed Elizabeth the rose, who smiled gently and took it, smelling it.
"I like it. It's beautiful. I didn't know you knew so much about roses, Mr. Black," As Sirius grinned back at her - that gorgeous lopsided grin that was highlighted by candle light - Elizabeth realized why girls fell for him so easily.
"I'm not just a pretty face, you know,"
"Ah, except your intelligence only comes from wanting to get in a girl's pants," Elizabeth winked at her friend and he barked his usual dog-like laugh, then extended a hand to the table.
"Want to eat? I'm starved," As his more stern and composed exterior faded, Elizabeth became happier: she just wanted her usual friend.
"Definitely. Since you boys wouldn't let me eat," Elizabeth walked over to the table and sat down, Sirius sitting across from her.
"Surprisingly, I didn't plan that," Sirius spoke as he served his guest portions of vegetables.
"Really? Wow, that's pretty ironic," Elizabeth smiled gratefully before taking a large bite of her green beans, sighing at the taste in her mouth. She always loved vegetables when no one else did, and was glad Sirius remembered.
"It is. Oddly so," Sirius began eating two, and the friends began chatting about random subjects through their furious eating.
It wasn't long until they had finished and the two lay upon the couch, groaning at their full stomaches.
"I hate that the house elves make such great food. I swear, I should be getting so fat from the amount of food I eat," Elizabeth laughed and leaned her head against the arm of the couch. The two had avoiding physical contact all night, and still were, which was causing Sirius to get antsy.
"I know what you mean," Sirius spoke and a silence overtook the two. Finally, Sirius grasped Elizabeth's hand and smiled at her, pulling her toward him so she could lay her head upon his chest and gaze across the Hogwarts grounds.
"Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky to be a witch and come here. It's just so beautiful, you know?" Elizabeth spoke quietly, staring at the Forbidden Forest which ruffled as creatures scurried through.
"Sometimes I feel that way, too," Sirius said, glancing at the girl in his arms. He loved the peaceful and happy look she had on her face, the way her smile seemed to linger and never fade.
The two sat in silence, staring across the ground for quite some time, neither really counting the minutes. But soon they realized, as the clock signaled it was 10 o'clock, that they should be heading back.
"Let me just clean this up," Sirius said as they stood up, whipping out his wand and swinging it slightly. As he did so, the artifacts in the room faded out and it looked back like the dreaded classroom Elizabeth never liked.
"Very nice. You should teach me that spell," Elizabeth said and Sirius nodded at her, taking her hand as the two walked out of the tower.
When they got closer to the Gryffindor tower, Elizabeth paused and unhooked her hand from Sirius.
"Do you wanna go in at different times? Then the boys won't know," She said as she stared at Sirius, who contemplated for a moment. He figured they should, but felt a spring of daringness and chose to take the chance.
"Be my girlfriend," Sirius said, hooking his hand through her hair. Elizabeth moved at the touch, closing her eyes and thinking about his question. She wanted to be his girlfriend, but didn't know how everyone would react. But did she care?
After several minutes of patient silence, Elizabeth responded, "Yes,"
Sirius smiled widely and moved toward Elizabeth, kissing her sweetly before pulling back and walking with her to the tower.
When they arrived, it was unnaturally empty. No one was there. The two were somewhat happy at the fact they didn't have to explain anything to anyone tonight, but yet again wanted to just get the subject out of the way.
"Well, I should probably get to sleep," Elizabeth spoke, to which Sirius nodded and pulled her right hand to his lips, gently kissing it.
"Good night, Paws,"
"Good night," Elizabeth beamed and released her hand from his, gliding up the stairs with a type of happiness she had never really experienced. She was ready to commit, and she was more excited than ever.
The boys's dormitory was always incredibly hectic in the morning: which happened to be pretty surprising, considering that they always seemed so laid back all day long. However, the problem lay in the fact that none of the boys - not even Remus - had the ability to wake up on time.
"Dammit, Peter, if you don't get out of the shower right now I'm gonna take your tail and smash it into oblivion!" Sirius pounded on the bathroom door, waiting for Peter to come out. He heard a small squeak and the water being turned off. Sirius counted to five and burst in, finding Peter already have dressed with soaking wet hair. He hopped in the shower while the rest of the boys were busy trying to find socks and shoes.
"Where are my socks? James, did you take my socks again?" Remus worriedly flipped over pillows and sheets, trying to find his only pair of socks.
"I don't think so, are these it?" James walked out from behind his bed and showed Remus his sock covered feet. Yupp, those were it. Remus swore and made James take off the socks, put on some shoes, and ran downstairs.
As he was running, he came to a halt as he smashed into Elizabeth.
"Whoa, Moony, what's the rush about?" Elizabeth stood there, fixing her hair as she eyed Remus. Remus noticed how put together she was, a pretty skirt and shirt, and wondered why she never worried about the time.
"Well, everyone is freaking out up there because we can't find anything. Had to get out of there, and considering that none of us have clocks or watches, I wasn't really sure what time it was," Remus trailed off and awkwardly scratched his shoulder while Elizabeth laughed at them.
"You're all good, I promise. Here, why don't we get breakfast. I could really go for eggs benedict," Elizabeth smiled and linked arms with her friend, the two walking out of the portrait hole and into the busy hallways.
"So how was your night? I didn't see you. Or Sirius for that matter," Remus spoke.
"Oh, yeah, Sirius and I were together," Elizabeth said truthfully, beginning to push past people blocking the hallways.
"What were you to doing?"
"We were up in the astronomy tower,"
"Neither of you take astronomy," Remus eyed Elizabeth carefully and she sighed dramatically, pulling Remus in the opposite direction and into an abandoned classroom.
"Alright, don't tell the boys yet, okay? I think Sirius and I will tell them later on today," Elizabeth said and Remus, confused as ever, nodded in response, "Sirius and I were on a date,"
"Wait, what?" Remus's eyes bulged and he ruffled his hair, now more confused than before.
"Yeah, I guess we decided this year we both like each other. Not really sure how that happened, but whatever. Anyways, we went on a date. And now, we're sort-of, kind-of, well, dating," Elizabeth laughed nervously at the fact she couldn't find the right words, which rarely happened, and Remus eyed her suspiciously.
"This is a surprise, Paws," Remus spoke and leaned against a close wall, closing his eyes.
"I know, I know. Not really sure how all of this happened, who knows if it'll even work out," Elizabeth twittered with her hands and waited for Remus to respond again.
"If you two break up... WHEN you two break up, it'll ruin everything," Remus spoke matter-of-factly.
"Well, that's what I said, but he and I have an agreement that if we break up, as long as it's not cheating or something along the lines of that, we'll just suck it up and be friends. I mean, we've had several snogging events and none of you guys even suspected, right? We're good at fixing things," Remus shook his head in response, astounded that he hadn't known anything about this: that none of them did.
"If he hurts you, I'll kill him," Elizabeth laughed at Remus and hugged him gently.
"Don't worry, me too,"
The Marauders sat in the Ancient Runes classroom, all barely paying attention to Professor Babbling's lecture. Each Marauder was at least two seats away from one another - Professor Babbling had learned early into their first year that if sat together they cause quite the racket. The room was decorated with peculiar posters of symbols that no one seemed to understand.
As Elizabeth allowed her eyes to close for more than a couple seconds, she felt something hit the back of her head. She snapped up, and in the process, managed to fall out of her chair from such shock.
"Evans, is there a problem?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at the girl. The perpetrator who threw the object that hit her - James Potter - was laughing hysterically, attempting to be as quiet as possible. Elizabeth turned her head towards him and shot him a nasty glare before responding to the professor's question.
"No, professor, everything is quite alright. Thought I saw a rat, that's all," She smiled and heard an upset Peter sigh, as well as an amused Remus snicker. She stopped herself from saying something snarky before sitting back in her chair.
"Right, well, anyways, the word 'ehwaz' is a Proto-Germanic word..." The professor began speaking, and Elizabeth allowed herself to tune her out. She searched for the object that hit her, and soon found it on the floor: a scrunched up piece of paper. She picked it up, and slowly unravelled it.
You can do nonverbal spells, right? James sloppy handwriting was written at the top of the paper. She glanced at James, before responding.
You already know the answer to that. Why? She glanced at the professor, who's back was currently facing away from the students, so she crumbled the paper and threw it back at James, who caught it with surprising ease.
James scribbled something down, chucked the paper at Elizabeth, and she quickly read it.
Right, stupid question. Okay, say this incantation... err, think it... whatever: corrigo. Then I want you to say 'conexus quattuor'. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, but complied. She placed the paper in her lap, pulled out her wand and thought the incantation 'corrigo'. The paper than proceeded to straighten itself out. She smiled, thought the second incantation, and nothing happened.
Nothing happened. What do you want from my life? Elizabeth put her wand away and scribbled away a message. Just as she was about to pass the parchment to James, letters began appearing upon the paper.
See, but something did happen. Elizabeth was now wide-eyed, glancing at James who simply smirked at her. Remus came up with it. We all got a piece of paper and said the spell that Remus made. It connects all of our papers, so we can talk to each other during class. Wicked, right? Oh, and there's also a spell that if a teacher tries to take it, notes about whatever they were talking about will appear. Remus got tired of getting in trouble for passing notes.
Elizabeth smiled widely before responding, This is bloody brilliant! Why aren't Moony, Padfoot, or Wormtail talking, though?
Not sure. But we can talk while they get their act together.
Okay, I can work with that... so do you have any idea what Babs is talking about?
Words.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. Smart ass.
James glanced at Elizabeth, smiling wickedly before writing, Pretty much. Hey, so, I think we found our prank for Snivellus.
Oh, yeah? Alright, what's the plan? By the way, Lily isn't talking to him. She's furious. At least that's what I've overheard her friends talking about: she and I haven't really discussed it. I think she's pretty hurt.
Thank God! He was polluting her... oh, yeah, okay. So. We're breaking into the Ravenclaw common room. We're gonna steal a pair of Grace Chang's granny panties (they are awful according to some inside sources) and Moony is gonna create a spell that causes them to stick to the outside of Snivellus's pants for 24 hours.
Elizabeth eyed the paper, feeling like this was a bad idea. This is really cruel. And Moony is okay with this?
He called you a 'mudblood', Lizzy, Moony is furious at this point. Don't worry about it, we've done worse.
I know but... this doesn't seem right.
Chill out. Padfoot and I are gonna head there tonight, around 8 o'clock.
You'll never get in. You guys can't solve a riddle for your life. Bring Moony.
I'll ask him, but I think he has a shit ton of homework tonight. Will you come with us?
Screw that. I just got finished with my detentions from Minnie.
You had it coming, Liz.
Shut up.
The bell rang, and Elizabeth quickly, yet carefully, placed the magic piece of paper in her binder before meeting the rest of the Marauder's outside of the Ancient Runes classroom.
"Guys," She began once everyone was together, "this prank against Sev is really stupid. Can't we just leave it be? It's not even worth it. We haven't talked to him in over a week since it happened, I vote we leave it be."
"No, Paws, we can't. He called you... well, you know what he called you," James said, noticing how many people were around, "so I refuse to leave it be. We're going through with the plan whether you like it or not."
"Moony, will you go with them? They won't be able to figure the riddle out themselves," Elizabeth glanced at Remus, waiting for a response. He shifted his weight awkwardly.
"Well, okay. I'll go," He said quietly, and Elizabeth nodded.
"Good. Now, if you excuse me boys, I have homework to do,"
It was dark outside, around 9 o'clock at night. Three boys stood outside the Ravenclaw common room, talking to a bronze eagle in front of a navy colored door.
"Can you repeat the question?" Remus spoke to the eagle. The eagle proceeded to roll its eyes, but complied.
"What does man love more than life, fear more than death or mortal strife? What the poor have, the rich require, and what contented men desire? What misers spend and spendthrifts save, and all men carry to the grave?" The eagle spoke delicately, glancing at the boys, waiting for an answer.
"What responses have we already tried?" Sirius said, scratching his head.
"Friendship, nothing, sex, money, Firewhiskey, plenty of other answers that weren't correct," James counted off on his fingers, sighing.
"We gotta call Paws. She'll be able to figure it out," Sirius nodded, digging into his pocket to pull out his two-way mirror.
"Are you kidding me? Not only will she laugh at us, but she said she won't help us," James said, attempting to pull the mirror away. Sirius quickly dodged his hand, and waited for Elizabeth to show up in the mirror.
"Padfoot, what do you want? I thought you were supposed to be pranking or something of that sort," She spoke with an irritated tone, glancing at the boy in the mirror.
"We need help,"
"You can't figure out the riddle?"
There was eerie silence over the boys, not wanting to admit their failure. It was ultimately Remus who responded, "No, we can't."
"What's the riddle?" She asked, running her fingers through her hair. Hell, if Remus couldn't figure it out, neither could she.
"Uhm..." James glanced at the eagle, who sighed dramatically before repeating the riddle.
"What does man love more than life, fear more than death or mortal strife? What the poor have, the rich require, and what contented men desire? What misers spend and spendthrifts save, and all men carry to the grave?"
Another silence took over the hallway, and it was several minutes before Elizabeth responded.
"Love," She spoke. The boys looked at each other, flabbergasted.
"Love?" Remus asked. The figure in the mirror nodded.
"Love. Trust me, it's nothing. Try it," She spoke before turning off her mirror. Sirius swore, shaking the mirror to try to bring her back, but it didn't work.
"What have we got to lose?" James asked before facing the common room door, "love."
The door swung open, and the eagle muttered annoyingly, "She should have been in Ravenclaw. And you boys are absolutely idiotic,"
The boys smiled before walking into the common room, glancing around to make sure no one was there.
"The coast is clear," James said, before casting a spell to prevent the girl's staircase from turning into a slide.
They slowly and steadily walked up the stairs of the Ravenclaw girl's tower. They eyed the blue posters and rugs, waiting to arrive at the sixth year girl's dorm rooms. They soon did, and the boys checked the Marauder's map before walking in.
Sirius slowly turned the knob of the door, and strutted in. The room was decorated with blue and bronze, the dressers of dark oak. The curtains over the beds were absolutely dreadful, and the boys glanced at each other, seeing how messy the room was.
"Which one is Grace's?" James asked, glancing at Remus, who seemed to know everything.
"You ask me like I know. Just check the drawer's until you find a pair that you like. The sooner we get out of here, the better," Remus said nervously, standing in the middle of the room.
Each boy went to a different dresser, pulling open drawer after drawer. It seemed that all of the Ravenclaw girls had pairs of lacy thongs and delicate, seamless panties. The boys sighed - for this plan to be as humiliating as they wanted it to be, they had to find grannie panties. And not just saggy underwear, but awful, saggy underwear.
"Got it!" James turned around holding an exceptionally ugly pair of underwear. They were briefs in a barf-green color, with little hearts and odd things written on them. They appeared to not have been washed - disgusting stains that James avoiding touching - and were definitely the most terrible thing they had ever seen. As the boys looked at the pair, they smirked: they found it.