Author's Note: I really do hope that none of you were home alone when you saw that this story had been updated, because I have a feeling you all dropped in a dead faint. So, yeah, I'm sorry I've been so long, but I was having a really bad case of Writer's Block on this story. I'm still not quite sure exactly where it's going, but hopefully I won't be this long between updates again. I am a slow writer, though, and I'm not going to rush it because the result would not be pretty.

This has really become the Official Short Chapter Fic. Sorry.

The following people are my best friends: Quinn, Heracles, Avaloniathewise, Nasha Potter (Don't be mad about Lily's comments, she'll come around), Kimmy Larisa, Hyper Princess, Gilaine, Felicity Aulia Evans, LupinsLover, quitesirius, AllieDumbldore, Springrain (That one room is the exception, at least in my rather warped Hogwarts), nats56 (wow, thanks for all those reviews!!), Alannah (hey, give him back, he has Dungbombs to plant...but you didn't hear it from me), Ice Princess988, and Danie. Thanks guys!!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters, Shakespeare, FST *shudder*, or Invisibility Cloaks.



The seventh year Prefect, Frank Longbottom, looked up suspiciously as the fourth years staggered through the portrait hole. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter usually saw Saturdays as an oppurtunity to wreak havoc on the school - but this Saturday had been eerily quiet. No one had even seen the troublemakers since breakfast. The Professors were close to panicking.

They had to be up to no good.

"Where've you lot been all day?" Frank demanded. Frank was on very close terms with the fourth years - he gave them detentions about once a week.

Sirius waved cheekily at him. "Hallo, Frank! Missed us, did you?"

Frank glared accusingly at the younger boy.

"Why are you looking at us like that?" Peter asked him, all wide-eyed innocence - sincerely, for once. "We haven't done anything."

"We've been doing Lily's homework," Remus explained. The entire group giggled at the puzzled expression that came over Frank's face at this statement - Lily was the last person who would want (or need) people to do her homework for her - and then sat down on their favorite couch.

It was a little tight.

"Sirius, get OFF me," Lily told him dangerously. Grinning widely, he jumped up from her lap and moved onto Eve's.

"Ugh!" Eve cried, throwing him off with a great shove. "You can stand. It's not like you need a rest from working all day."

Sirius did his best to look hurt. "Hey, I was watching T.V. very diligently."

Eve snorted. "Right, leaving me to shoulder the burden of English Literature myself."

The other pairs were also discussing the day's education. Kasey and Remus were commiserating over the Periodic Table and Clarissa and Peter were having a spirited (and surprisingly intellectual) conversation on the transition from absolute to constitutional monarchy. James' eyes were glazed over and he was muttering nonsense about numbers and variables, earning some very funny looks from the second years playing chess nearby. Lily had brought her book up with her, but after a few moments she shut it with a resounding snap.

"This is ridiculous!" she cried angrily. "Shakespeare is an idiot. Or at least his characters are."

Everyone looked up.

"Huh?"

"How come?"

"What?"

"...equals the square root of b squared plus or minus negative four...no that's not it..."

Lily ignored James. "Take Romeo and Juliet. They're younger than we are! They've known each other for about five minutes, but they decide to get married even though it's really dangerous, than they die for each other after two conversations!"

"But Lily," Clarissa argued. "It's the greatest love story of all time!"

"Well it shouldn't be!" Lily protested hotly. "It's sheer insanity. You try reading it."

"...so if a squared plus b squared equals c squared then sine a squared should equal cosine b squared plus...no, that can't be it..."

"Shut UP, James!" Lily shouted. She turned to Clarissa. "Look, all I'm saying is, no one dies for love in real life. It just doesn't happen."

Her friend just shrugged. "You never know."



"Done!" Remus announced triumphantly, signing the parchment he had just completed for Potions with a flourish. "How much more have you got, James?"

James was staring at Functions, Statistics, and Polynomials in a mixture of horror and disbelief. He started at Remus' words. "I'm sorry, what?"

Remus looked over at the assortment of books and parchments in front of his friend on the library table they were sharing. "I was asking how far you were on your Potions essay, but you've already finished it."

"Oh, that," James answered dismissively. "Yeah, I just made some stuff up, I think. I've been working on Lily's maths for the past hour."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "You know, James, that essay is a big part of our grade this term. And Lily's work, that only counts for, well...Lily."

James shifted uncomfortably. "I know. But I guess at this point I have to prove to myself that I can do this. I mean, it's just Muggle stuff, right?"

Remus gave him a long look, then sighed and began collecting his things. "I have to go up and meet Peter, I promised I'd help him with DADA, and then I'm going to bed. The Library closes in an hour, remember. Don't stay down too long, all right?"

James nodded absently; he had returned to his book. Already immersed in the world of probability and polynomials, he didn't even notice his friend roll his eyes and walk away.

Two hours later, he was so busy trying to factor a particularly complex polynomial that he almost didn't hear the swishing noise. In fact, he probably would never have heard it if the bookshelf next to him hadn't suddenly shuddered with a muffled oath.

But it did, and James realized there was someone else in the Library, they were wearing an Invisibility Cloak, and (with a surprised glance at the clock) there after curfew.

He was absolutely certain about the Invisibility Cloak. He'd had enough experiences with those to recognize the signs instantly. But it couldn't be his friends this time, because the Cloak was in his bag. Curious, James slipped his own on and moved stealthily in the direction of the muttering.

They were in the Restricted Section. Crouched behind a shelf, James watched as book after book seemed to vanish into thin air. Just as his knees were starting to ache, he heard the swishing sound pass him and fade away.

Daring to breathe again, James stood and hurried to where the books had disappeared. Sure enough there was three or four book-wide gap in the shelf. He looked up to see what division of the Restricted Section they were from.

Scratched in Madam Pince's precise handwriting on a piece of parchment taped to the shelf was, "DARK CREATURES: BEHAVIOR & BREEDING"