I'd like to thank Violet44, romdevil, P. Amethyst, Lily the Marauder, Hermione09Weasley, so not telling for reviewing, and Remusindisguise for putting me on their alerts list! If I forgot anyone or misspelled anyone's name, please let me know.

Without further ado, I give you the next chapter to the story!

(see previous chapter for disclaimer.)

Chapter Nine: 3rd Period: Astronomy; Day II

"So where should we first start looking for Padfoot?" James asked.

"I don't know. Maybe we should try the Shrieking Shack first," Hermione suggested.

"That's a great idea! Why didn't I think of that?" James asked.

"Maybe it's because you don't think," Remus rolled his eyes.

"I resent that," James glared at Remus.

"You should,"

"... NERRDDDDD,"

"So WHEN do we look for Harry?" Ron asked.

"After classes, of course," Hermione said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah, after classes," Remus agreed. Lily nodded her head in agreement with the two.

"But I wanted to look for him during classes," James frowned.

"So did I," Ron said, agreeing with James.

"I can't. I get bad enough grades as it is, so I vote after class," Peter said.

"Moony can tutor you, Wormie. Moony might as well put his smartness to work," James said.

"Sure, I guess, but if he starts crying, I'm leaving," Remus agreed.

"Fair enough," James shrugged.

"Yay. I vote during classes, too!"

"Just great. We have a tie. Whatever shall we do?" James moaned.

"Just what we need. Now we'll never agree on when," Hermione sighed.

"Come on, Lily. Change your vote?" James begged.

"No. I'm not deliberately ditching class," Lily stated, firmly.

"Please, for me, Lily? You're smart enough to afford to ditch class. Just one time? Pretty please with a banana cream sundae on top? I'll take you to a broom closet afterwards, if you like!"

"Well... okay. But don't come crying to me when we get caught. And... banana cream sundae?" Lily gave in, much to Remus and Hermione's displeasure.

"Deal. Thank you, Lily! Oh, and my cousin taught me that. He's in mental health care now," James explained.

"Whatever. Let's just get this over with. I can see why he's in mental health care, if he spent any time at all with you,"

"It all happened on his 15th birthday... he was trying to hex me cause I stole his undies and wrote 'I'M ZACHARY POTTER, I'M SEVENTEEN AND I PLAY WITH BARBIE DOLLS AND I LIKE IT! And then, I hung them in a place where everyone could see them,"

"Where did you hang them; on a flagpole?"

"Nope! On his butt!" James giggled uproariously.

"Oh my God. Then what happened?"

"His father -my dad's in-law- found out,"

"And...?"

"He's a big man, Lily,"

"Elaborate please...?"

"He found out who put the sign on his butt,"

"He was so angry, he tried to punch me, I ducked, and accidentally punched Zachie in the head, who was behind me. Zachie was startled, and was knocked into the wall behind him, and landed in the glass case to his right. For some reason, he went mental right after that,"

"Ouch. I'm sorry, James, but it was... kinda funny!" and Lily promptly burst into a fit of giggles.

"I know! You should've seen the face of Zachie's dad when he saw the sign on his butt! It was hilarious!"

"It must've been! But, what happened to Zachary's dad?"

"He got sent to Azkaban for five years for child abuse!"

"Really?"

"Yeah. This coming July 16th is his final day in Azkaban!"

"Are you worried he'll come after you?"

"Not really. P- Siri and I will hex him into oblivion if he tries anything!"

"Cool. Good luck with that!"

"Isn't it? And we don't need luck, we've got SKILL,"

"What happened to Zachary's mom?"

"After Zachie went mental, she went psycho and jumped off a cliff. A very big cliff. She was never seen again,"

"Oh. I'm sorry, James,"

"It's okay. Mum did have a nasty fit when she found out about her sister. Especially when she found out it was me who put the sign on Zackie's butt that set everything off,"

"What happened then?"

"I was grounded for all vacations until my 7th year! But me n' Sirius still snuck out anyways," he laughed.

"When did that happen?"

"In my 3rd year,"

"Oh..." Lily said, trailing off. Third year was when he had first started asking her out.

"Yeah, I know,"

"So do we skip 4th Period, or do it during lunch?" Ron asked, interrupting.

"We should get it while the trail's still hot; meaning that we should ditch 4th Period," James said, immediately.

"You're just doing that because History of Magic is next!" Lily glared.

"Face it. That ghost is a total bore. Don't tell me you haven't fallen asleep at least once in that class!" James exclaimed.

"Weeeeeeelllllll, I DID do it once in my first year, come to think of it. So, 4th Period it is," Lily agreed, albeit reluctantly.

"I'm not ditching class!" Hermione stated, indignantly and firmly.

"Fine, then. While you suffer through History of Magic, a subject that you could actually die from boredom, everyone else will be doing something useful, for once. I still can't see how you LIVE through that class," Ron said.

"Oh, all right, I'll go. But I still don't like the sound of it. And how will we be able to pull it off?"

"Binns is too daft to realize people are sleeping; how could he realize that people aren't there?" James said, reasonably.

"I CAN see that happening," Hermione said, still wanting to go to class.

"Now that we've all established that we're ditching next class, what do we do now?" Remus asked.

"Oh, damn it, Moony! I forgot about the map!" James exclaimed, cursing.

"Of course! Why didn't we think of that before?" Wormtail threw in.

"It's your inability to think that's causing you to suffer," James said.

Wormtail let out a squeak and otherwise remained silent.

"Who had the map last, Moony?" James asked.

"I think it was... Padfoot," Remus realized, and banged his head on the desk.

"WHAT? Why did Padfoot need the map?" James burst out, frustrated.

"How am I supposed to know what goes on in Padfoot's demented mind?" Remus shrugged.

"You have a point, but still..."

"If I had to guess, I'd say that he needed it to play a prank on Snivellus, or some other Slytherins. More than likely, it was Bellatrix Lestrange," the werewolf evaluated.

"Ah, even better points. It's fun torturing Snivellus, but Lestrange... do you remember the time we cursed her nose so that she had an elephant trunk, and replaced her ears with devil horns?"

"How could I forget? Her expression when she realized that was priceless!"

"Totally. Did we get that one on camera?"

"I think Padfoot got one!"

"Sweet! What about the time we recorded Lucius and Narcissa on a date, and how we blackmailed them later?"

"Ahh. That was one of the best things we did. Oh, the memories," James sighed, nostalgically.

"I didn't like those methods, but the results WERE effective," Remus nodded, smiling wistfully at the "good old" days.

"Would someone please tell me what you're talking about?" Lily demanded (nicely, of course).

"Oh, just reminiscing good times, Lilykins,"

"Like what?" she asked, curiously.

"Oh, you know. Pranks, Quidditch, etcetera," James explained.

"Oh... What kind of pranks?" Lily raised her eyebrows.

"Oh, Lily. You think you know all of the stuff we did but-," James smirked.

"Like blackmailing Lucius and Narcissa?" she said, raising her eyebrows again.

"HOW DID YOU KNOW?

"I didn't. I made that up, and you cracked," Lily said, and promptly burst into laughter.

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" James exclaimed, banging his head on the desk.

"Shame on you, Prongs, for falling for a novelty trick such as that," Remus tsked.

"Whatever. I'm gonna see if I can find the Map after class," James said, resigned. If Sirius had the Map, they were doomed. Sirius was beast at hide and seek.

"Okay, I'll help you," Remus volunteered.

"Me too," Wormtail agreed.

"Uh, it might not be best if you helped, Wormtail. You should probably uh... stay with Hermione, Ron, and Lily," Remus said, uncertainly.

"But why?" Wormtail asked, half whimpering.

"Just because, because, BECAUSE! Wouldn't it look suspicious if three Marauders were saying, 'Accio Map', everywhere?" Remus explained, patiently.

"I guess..." Wormtail sighed, desolately. If they would have just included him more, treated him more equally...

"What map, you guys?" Lily asked.

"Uh, just a map of the school, Lilykins, so that we don't get lost," James said. Well, it wasn't a total lie.

"Oh, um, okay. But don't you know the school like the back of your hand by now?" Lily said, knowing he was leaving some details out.

"As a matter a fact, I do know the school area pretty well. But we need the map because- uh... M- Remmy, you take it from here!" James stuttered, his smooth talk failing him under Lily's stern glare.

"Thanks Prongs," Remus said, sarcastically.

"You're welcome!"

"Well, Remus?" Lily looked at him expectantly.

"Well, obviously... we need the Map in case we get separated or lost. Even Pr- James needs the Map sometimes,"

"Oh, okay," Lily said. She wasn't fooled- she knew they were keeping information from her about that map. But she wasn't going to be a bitch about it.

"Oh, God! I completely forgot the time!" James cried out, suddenly panicked.

"What is it?" Remus asked, afraid of the answer.

"It's Flirt With Lily And Try To Get A Date With Her Time!" James said, brightly.

"WHAT?" Remus shouted. Then he remembered. "Oh- I remember now. I forgot; I thought you would stop after she agreed,"

"You actually have a schedule that says when and when not to try and get me to go out with you?" Lily said, completely shocked.

"Uh, yeah," James said, uncertainly.

"Why am I not surprised, now that I think about it? That is... really sweet!" Lily said, almost blushing.

"I know it is, isn't it? Moony, I told you that my obsession with Lily would pay off someday!"

"Whatever, Prongs,"

"You're just sour cause you're not right! You told me that Lily would kill me if she found out about that!"

"That was before I agreed to go out with you. If I found out about the schedule before that, I probably would have hurt you; badly, at that," Lily explained.

"Ha! I told you!" Remus laughed successfully, while James pouted.

"Wormtail?" Ron said, unemotionally.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"I hate you,"

"What? Why?" he squeaked, alarmed and indignant.

"Wormtail, everyone hates you. I thought you knew that already," James sighed.

"Oh yeah, I remember now," Wormtail spoke.

"That surprises me. Greatly," Hermione said.

"Yeah; I thought you didn't have a brain to remember things for," Ron added.

"Real funny, Ronald,"

"Actually, I've analyzed the grades you get for different subjects, and how popular you are, and, well, you have no brain,"

"WHAT? I DOOOO have a brain!"

"Whatever 'Mione says is true! She's never wrong! Believe me. Sometimes, it can get both scary and annoying," Ron said, as an afterthought.

"You know, I'm right here, Ronald. I can read every word you're saying," Hermione said with a glare.

"Oh. I'm just gonna- RUN!"

"Yeah! You'd better run!" She began chasing after him; the teacher left the room to talk to Professor McGonagall about something confidential.

"Help!" Ron screeched as a furious Hermione raced after him determinedly.

"You're on your own, mate," James said, leaning back in his seat.

"Agreed. I don't want an angry, near crazy girl after me," Remus added, leaning back in his chair as well.

"Gasp! How dare you, Moony! Hermione's your girlfriend!"

"Oh, uh, right. My bad," Remus shrugged.

"Really, Remus. You should be more considerate to those you're willing to date. And I still don't understand why you don't like dating; no one ever understood why you never dated before,"

"That's- a reason you'll hopefully never find out, Lils. If you knew, you'd understand," Remus said.

"You won't tell... me? You know you can trust me," Lily said, slightly hurt.

"I know, but... I'm- I'm not just ready to tell anyone else yet,"

"Yeah! It was really easy for us- you just have to observe carefully, and I mean- Carefully, and you can figure it out, quick!" James said, brightly.

"Yeah, it took you almost one school year to figure it out," Remus rolled his eyes.

"Hey, it was Christmas! That just half of the school year! And anyways- the Spring Break is more like almost the entire school year,"

"It was in the middle, between Christmas and Spring Break!" Remus argued.

"Sure it was, Moons. Sure it was," James patted him on the back.

"I just had to pick sarcastic friends, didn't I?" Remus sighed.

"Yup!" James said, cheerfully.

"Even I'm sarcastic!" Lily laughed.

"Hermione isn't!" Ron said, pausing in his running to say that, before continuing again.

"I'm glad. Most sarcastic people are just- ugghhh. Mostly, they're just obnoxious people, attempting to be funny and "cool", and failing miserably," Hermione said, stopping. Apparently she viewed that as a compliment and decided to stop her intentions of killing Ron.

"You're talking like McGonagall! Like a grownup!" James yelped, hazel eyes growing wide.

"What's wrong with that?" there was a dangerous, threatening tone to Hermione's voice that anyone who even remotely had a brain would back off.

"OH MY GOD, MY BEST FRIEND IS AN ADULT! ! And, you do realize that you just called Harry—that, too," Ron freaked.

"No I- actually, I just did! I can't believe it!" Hermione exclaimed, horrified.

"You should be ashamed of yourself, Hermione! Shame on you!" Ron tsked.

"Actually, she said 'most sarcastic people', not 'all sarcastic people', meaning that she wasn't talking about Harry the Sarcastic Kid," Remus said, coming to Hermione's rescue.

"But she implied that she thought Harry was all of that!" James insisted.

"But she never officially said-," James began.

"Oh, just stop arguing about it! It's driving me mad!" Lily exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air.

"Ah, my Lilykins, you are already mad." James said, in an omniscient tone.

"What are you talking about? I'm perfectly un-mad." Lily snapped.

"Aahhhhhhhh, but you agreed to go out with me, something you hated about a week ago, making you mad now!"

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh, maybe I am already mad! Not mad angry, but mad as in crazy and insane."

"Yep, you are!" James said, laughing.

"Only you would try and convince your girlfriend that she's mad," Remus rolled his eyes – how is he not used to this yet?

"Except Padfoot. He'd be able to kiss two, three, or four different girls in less than an hour, and not one of those girls would even show disproval!" Peter chimed in randomly.

"Except Padfoot, you're right, for once, Wormtail." Remus nodded.

"Yay! I'm right! And, Padfoot probably would date three or four different girls at the same time, have sex with them all in one night, and get away with it, too." Peter said, confidence growing just a little and maybe getting carried away.

"OH MY GOD, WORMTAIL!" James burst out, shaking his head.

"You shouldn't say stuff like that Wormtail. It's just not right." Remus warned.

"But what about Ashley, Rebecca, Sarah, Kailey, Serena—"

"But that's enough, Wormtail! Maybe you might've forgotten, but there are three non-Marauders here that shouldn't know that!" the werewolf glared.

"Kristen, Lucy, Vanessa, Amanda—"

"THIS IS NOT SOMETHING WE DISCUSS IN PUBLIC, WORMTAIL! MIGHT I ADD THAT THREE GIRLS ARE HERE WITH US- LILY, HERMIONE, AND RON?" James yelled.

"Caitlin, Natalie, Lindsey—"

"Actually, I'm a guy." Ron sniffed, insulted.

"Becky, Helena, Natasha—"

"You are? I didn't know that. Apologies, my friend," James said, sincerely.

"Samantha, Amber, Stephanie—"

"I hate you." Ron said, and shook his head in a joking manner.

"Sarah, Jackie, Selena—"

"COOL!" James grinned.

"Zoey, Yolanda, Lola—"

"That's a bad thing, James." Lily sighed. These people were so abnormal…

"Jessika, Brittany, Nicole—"

"I know!" James grinned – if it were possible – even wider.

"Katie, Rachel, Gabriella—"

"You're insane!" Lily said.

"Hayley, Gia, Hayley, Courtney, Erin—"

"Why so are you!" James responded.

"Erika, Kellie, Crystal, Cheyenne—"

"THAT'S ENOUGH, WORMTAIL! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NOT TO SAY THAT IN PUBLIC? NEED I REMIND YOU, ONCE AGAIN, THAT WE ONLY SPEAK OF THIS WHEN THERE IS NO CHANCE WHATSOEVER OF PEOPLE HEARING ABOUT IT?" Remus promptly exploded on "poor" Peter.

"Ummm… a lot. Sorry, Moony. It won't happen again." Peter squeaked, sheepishly.

"It better not," he snapped.

"WORMTAIL'S A PERVERT!" James snickered.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked, noticing all the yelling.

"WORMTAIL'S A PERVERT!" James giggled again.

"We already know that. Now seriously, what's going on?" Hermione repeated.

"Oh, we're just talking about how many—" Peter was going to say.

"Brussels sprouts we can eat at once!" James interrupted Peter, thankfully.

"Brussels sprouts...?" Lily said, disbelievingly shaking her head.

"Yep! I love my Brussels sprouts!" he nodded, emphatically.

"Uh, yup! Yuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmm, Brussels sprouts."

Hermione gave them all weird look) "O-kay... you guys DO know that Brussels sprouts are disgusting, right?"

"We love our disgusting foods, Hermione dearest! Once- in our 5th year, Siri had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a banana, doritoes, lettuce, french fries, and chocolate ice cream! Although, the chocolate ice cream turned out to be dog poo." James explained, enthusiastically.

"EW, JAMES! You just made me lose any appetite I had!" Hermione crossed her arms and glared.

"Cool!" James giggled.

"So, Hermione?" Ron asked, timidly-ish.

"Yeah, Ron?" Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"Uh, never mind,"

"Okay..."

"RONNIEKIN'S IS A PERVERT!" James exclaimed, overhearing the exchange.

"Ew, James!" Hermione looked like she would've smacked James if she could get away with it.

"What gave you that impression?" Lily asked, raising her eyebrows.

"ISN'T IT OBVIOUS, LILY? RON WAS GONNA ASK 'MIONE OUT, BUT THEN STOPPED!" James shouted.

"Ew, Ron! You know I'm going out with Remus!" Hermione exclaimed.

"I WAS NOT! I'M GOING OUT WITH LAVENDER! I THOUGHT YOU KNEW THAT! I WAS GOING TO ASK YOU IF YOU WOULD HELP ME WITH MY HOMEWORK! THANKS A LOT, JAMES!" Ron yelled, ears turning red.

"You're welcome!" James said, not-too-brightly.

"Ugghhh. You're all insane!" Lily shook her head.

"Need I remind you, again?" James asked.

"No! I need some de-insaning potion. This week has been crazy." Lily said.

"I'm crazy! You're crazy! Dumbiedorie's crazy! Voldie's crazy! WE'RE ALL CRAZY!" James shouted, madly.

"Now I see where Harry gets his hyper problem from. I didn't think Lily was the type to do that," Hermione commented to herself.

"I'm glad at least someone thinks I haven't gone mad," Lily said, thankfully.

"As much as I don't want to, James has a point. Something about this week seems very off... Wrong? Strange? Disgruntling? Maybe we HAVE all gone nuts." Hermione pondered, thoughtfully.

"Cool! I'm right!" James grinned.

Remus sighed. Was he already growing too old for this?

"I miss Padfoot," Peter sighed.

"So do I. I miss his highly entertaining, not-obnoxious sarcasm," James agreed.

"I don't," Remus said, smiling.

"I want this period to end," James said, firmly.

"Why does it seem that when you want something to end, it always seems to last forever, and when you don't want something to end, it flies past?" Lily asked, thoughtfully.

"Yeah, that's a good description," James nodded, fervently.

"TEN MINUTES LEFT!" Ron grinned.

"Yes!" Hermione smiled.

"That settles it. I'm just walking out," James said.

"No, you're not! At least fake sick or something." Remus sighed.

"Fine…" James pouted.

(TWO MINUTES LATER)

"He just walked out, didn't he?" Remus sighed, again.

"Yep. Sneak out is more like it. He must really care about Black," Lily stated, thoughtfully.

"Yeah. They're like brothers," Remus said.

"No, really. I hadn't noticed," Lily rolled her eyes, just a touch of sarcasm in her voice.

"Why do I have to hang out with sarcastic people?" Remus groaned.

"I dunno. The sarcastic people are the only ones who can stand you?" Lily guessed.

"I guess so. Wait... people can't stand me?"

"I'm joking, don't worry about it!"

"Oh, okay, Lils."

"Don't call me that."

"Okay, Lilykins."

"Or that."

"Fine, LILY."

"That's better," she said, with a smile.

"ONE MORE SECOND!" Ron grinned.

"And now we're off on our greatest adventure together as of yet!" Remus said.

"Yay!" Lily smiled.

"Let's go!" Ron said, in relief.

"Finally!" Hermione sighed.

"Huzzah!" Peter exclaimed.

Everyone stared at him, completely silent.

"It's a saying, you know, like Hurrah? The British army says it—"

"Just stop talking, Wormtail," Remus sighed, heavily.

"Yeah. You're ruining the celebrative moment," Ron chimed in.

"Celebrative?" Hermione echoed, raising her eyebrows.

"Fine. Wormtail's ruining the happy moment,"

There we go!"

"We're going on a quest to find the lost Harry and Black! Woohoo! Okay… not Black," Lily said, laughing.

Remus glared at her.

"Fine. And Black," she pouted.

"That's great! Now, when the bell rings, we're supposed to LEAVE the classroom," Remus said, using the tone.

"Uh, right. Everybody, LET'S GO!" Lily cheered.

One by one, they filed out of the Astronomy tower, excited to begin their quest.