Chapter XXI - Spies Among Us
Rosemary was released the next day, thankful she was not as bad off as Lauren was, who did not awaken until three days after being admitted to the Infirmary. Lauren's friends visited her often, but she was eager to be released as well so as not to miss the full moon that night. Just as she had hoped, Pomfrey let her go, and the Marauders were reunited once more.
The moonlight, though hidden by clouds, still lit the dim forest where the odd group ran. They turned as one, like a flock of birds, sure to steer clear of the Centaurs' part of the Forbidden Forest. The stag that ran just behind the werewolf snorted and tossed his antlered head as he looked over at the great black dog that ran not far off. The dog's ears flopped about, but he ignored it.
"Just a few yards ahead-" The dog barked to his comrades. "The path we take back to the shack."
A maned wolf, running just beside him, nodded as they took a turn. "Yes, we're not far now, so-"
Just behind her there was a breaking of brush and a slight yelp. "Oww, oww, oww! Crap!"
The she-wolf slowed and turned to see the grey wolf behind her come completely to a stop, turning in vain to look at her back leg. "You go on ahead, Padfoot," She called to the black dog, who seemed torn between following the werewolf and his stag friend. "We'll catch up at the Shack." The dog nodded and quickened his pace to make up for the ground lost between him and the other two, leaving the she-wolves by themselves.
"What happened?" The maned wolf, Tyra, asked the grey.
Breen lifted her back foot and turned to look at it, just before falling over. "I.. I don't know, Tyra. Oww!" She righted herself and panted a little. "I'll never fully get used to being on four legs, or at least get used to having to stand on three. Anyway, I was just running and... I don't know. I just got a sharp pain in my ankle. I don't think I stepped wrong. Maybe it's sprained."
Tyra snorted. "Well, you shouldn't walk on it too much. It's too far to the shack, so let's go back towards the castle. You can transform there in the open so you can see better in the moonlight."
The grey wolf put her ears back a little. "But... won't someone see me?"
"Not if you do it quickly. Nobody's supposed to be outside this late anyway, including us, and I'll keep an eye out for Filch from the shadows. If I see anything, I'll bark. You're only taking a quick peek anyway. You can use your wand for more light, and if Moony decides he wants to come back this way Prongs and Padfoot will keep him away anyway, so you don't have to worry about being bitten, either."
"Okay, you convinced me." Breen sighed, and then added with a laugh, "But the only problem is walking on three legs."
The pair headed towards the safety of the Grounds. Breen looked around carefully before transforming into Rosemary. The Ravenclaw looked into the Forest at Tyra before sitting beneath a tree to examine her ankle. "Oww! It hurts."
The wolf gave her a look that clearly said "Well, duh."
Rosemary scoffed a little at herself and pulled down her sock to look at it. She pulled her wand from her cloak and muttered, "Lumos," just as the clouds moved from the moon. She moved her foot about and looked back up at the sky a moment. "I think I might have just stepped wrong... It doesn't hurt so much anymore if I ignore it. I think I can walk on it tonight, but I'll still be careful about it." She nodded to the wolf in the shadows and put out her light, returned her wand to her cloak, and transformed back into the grey wolf again.
"Well, you ready to go back to the Shack for the night?" Tyra's muzzle wrinkled into a sort of laugh as she said in a singsong voice, "Moony's probably worried about you."
Breen laughed, and answered sarcastically. "Sure, he's worried in that state, even though he has no earthly clue who we even are."
The wolves headed for the Shrieking Shack a little slowly, Breen taking care to treat her leg gingerly as they went.
Somewhere, high in a tower, a girl watched out the window of Gryffindor Tower to the Forbidden Forest, malice shining in her eyes as she watched the grey she-wolf enter the forest again. She laughed, almost in disbelief at her own brilliant luck, and left for her dormitory upstairs. She'd definitely not get much sleep tonight, not after what she had just found out.
"So... feeling better, Rosemary?" Sirius looked to his friend as the group of five entered the Great Hall a bit late the next morning.
She nodded and gave a laugh. "Yes, I think I'm doing a bit better. I can walk, so that must be a good sign, ehh?"
Remus looked at her, a bit surprised that this bit of information had not reached him yet. "You're- what?"
Rosemary waved her hand absently. "Oh, I just stepped wrong or something last night. I'm fine now, so it doesn't matter. Here- let's get breakfast. I'm hungry." She sat at her usual seat at the Gryffindor table as her friends joined her. "Wait, I need to finish my Potions essay!" Rosemary scrambled to find her paper amongst her schoolbooks, along with a quill and an inkpot.
"Good thing I got mine done already," James said. "Thanks to Remus- I mean, thanks to my brilliant studying habits."
Remus gave him a disapproving look as Sirius stopped eating his breakfast to fumble with a few papers of his own. Rosemary leaned close over her parchment as she began writing quickly. Then-
"Sirius Orion Black! What on earth are you doing?"
It was Lauren. She was staring at Sirius, who was quite obviously writing down every word Rosemary had written on a nearly-blank piece of parchment.
Rosemary looked up at Sirius, who gave her an, "Oops, you caught me" look. She just laughed. "You know, you don't make any sense to me."
He sat up straight and set his quill down. "Why not?"
"Because first of all, we're not even supposed to turn in the same essay. Yours is something about how to make an advanced potion and mine-" She held up the parchment so he could read. "The Uses of Fairy Wings."
Sirius groaned and hid his face, just in time to see a few girls staring his way. Nothing out of the ordinary, really, but he recognized them from the day he, Lauren, and Rosemary fooled his fanclub...
He wasn't the only one being watched. Several times, Lauren caught the same girls staring at her, watching her every move, like vultures on a dying animal. James, Remus, and Rosemary all had the same thing happening... different girls they were almost sure they recognized were watching them. As December arrived, the stalking did not stop.
"They're really starting to watch us a whole lot, Lauren." Rosemary noted over dinner one night. "I really don't think they like you. You might have to start worrying when you go to sleep. We may never see you again."
Lauren laughed. "I guess I'll just have to sleep in the Boy's Dormitory tonight, then."
Remus, James, and Sirius all stared at her. "What?"
"I said I'll just have to sleep in your dormitory. I can't very well sleep in the Girl's Dormitory, can I? Not with my mortal enemy sleeping there. I'll have you three to protect me."
Rosemary snickered. "Ohh, and who would protect me? You'd leave me all alone to fend for myself while the rest of you at least have backup?"
Lauren sighed. "Fine. You can come with me."
"Umm... don't we have a say in this?" Remus asked.
James laughed. "You really don't know Lauren that well, do you?"
Remus sighed, taking a sip of pumpkin juice from his goblet. "Where will you sleep?"
"I'm sure there's enough room in Sirius' four-poster for me and him." Lauren grinned, looking Sirius' way.
Rosemary scoffed. "I'm sleeping on the floor, if anything. But now I'm not so sure I'd want to stay the night there. On second thought, I'll just chance it in my own four-poster."
Lauren laughed between bites. "Ohh, are you sure you don't want to spend the night there? I'm sure one of the other two has room, at least."
The Ravenclaw glared at her. "No."
Remus stared at Lauren. "If I hear anything at all-"
"Ohh, come on. I'll be quiet enough," Lauren said. "Besides, you won't hear anything for that long-"
"Alright, alright! I think we get it. Like I said- I'm sleeping in my own Dormitory tonight. I'd rather die than hear anything from you, Lauren." Rosemary watched her plate clear itself and left for Ravenclaw Tower as the others did the same.
She was awoken in the middle of the night by a noise downstairs, a loud rapping at the door to the Ravenclaw common room. Rosemary, still half asleep and in her pajamas, snuck out to the door without waking anyone else. She wasn't surprised to see who it was that had awoken her.
"Can we stay here for the night?" James asked, looking pitiful and quite tired as he held his pillow and blanket.
Remus stood next to him, also carrying his own pillow and blanket. "Yes, please. Just inside the common room, if anything."
Rosemary yawned. "Why?"
James sighed. "They're at it. And they won't quit. Or be quiet, for that matter."
The Ravenclaw groaned. "I knew it. That's exactly why I didn't stay there." She opened the door. "Here. There are enough sofas, I think. I'll try to wake you up before anyone else gets up so you can be out of here by morning without any trouble. But Lauren's going to pay; I'm not going to get much sleep thanks to her, even though I'm not even there. Why do we have to care so much about her?"
The other two laughed and each picked a sofa gratefully.
Rosemary stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked at them. "Don't tell me you need company."
"No, no, thank you." Remus yawned. "We've heard enough for one night."
She scoffed. "Are you saying I'd just chatter? Or are you saying I'd do what Lauren did? Because I'd do neither. Some of us wouldn't sink so low as she did, and I'm appalled that you'd think I would, Mister Lupin!" Rosemary sounded quite offended. "Is this the thanks I get for letting you in here? Be glad I don't send you back right now to suffer alone because James hasn't made a comment like that." The looked at James. "Thank you."
James grinned. "Goodnight, Rosemary."
"Goodnight," came the grouchy answer, and the girl ascended the stairs to sleep once more.
"Good one, mate," James laughed quietly at Remus.
"Ohh, stuff it."
And so Lauren and Sirius awoke to an empty Boy's Dormitory to find James, Remus, and Rosemary sitting downstairs, waiting for breakfast to begin.
"Ohh, come on... you can't still be upset about that." Remus said, arms crossed where he sat beside James on one of the crimson sofas. "Can you?"
Rosemary didn't even acknowledge that he was talking to her and simply looked at James and shook her head.
"Upset about what?" Lauren asked as she descended the stairs, Sirius a little too close behind.
The three of them looked her way. "You weren't exactly as quiet as you said you'd be last night, so we decided to go to Ravenclaw Tower," James said, looking a bit amused about the whole situation. "So Rosemary let us in and decided to so graciously ask if we needed company. Mister Moony here said that we didn't want to hear any more, and now Rosemary's upset at him."
Lauren laughed and looked at Remus. "Nice one."
"Well, I guess they can't all be as lucky as me," Sirius grinned, throwing himself into an armchair.
"Stupid Smith and her creepy fanclub," Rosemary muttered. "If she wasn't after Lauren, Lauren wouldn't have had to sleep with Sirius and then Remus wouldn't have made that stupid comment-"
There was a "Hey!" from Remus.
"-And we wouldn't be sitting here, awake before dawn so Remus and James wouldn't get caught in the Ravenclaw common room, and I wouldn't be so grouchy."
"You are quite grouchy..." Sirius agreed, receiving a glare.
James' eyes seemed to laugh in amusement at the whole ordeal. "I don't think you're grouchy, Rosemary."
Rosemary eyed him, but couldn't help cracking a small smile. "You're such a suck-up." She threw a nearby pillow at him with a laugh.
"A Potter, suck up? Well, I never!" James said, barely dodging the pillow thrown his way. "I just like seeing Remus and Sirius get in trouble."
The other two shot him looks that clearly said "Gee, thanks."
Lauren clapped her hands together. "Alright, then. Breakfast. Who's hungry?"
Rosemary raised her hand quickly. "I am. Let's go."