A/N: Muhahaha, another chapter. Oh, and I have Dana and Hannah finishing each other's sentences and thoughts without exactly labelling who said it. Just understand that if they are there and thoughts are being completed it's probably those two. I haven't been getting many reviews. It's making me sad.
DISCLAIMER: I own not the characters. If you decide to sue my pants off you will get my paint-covered pair or my blood-covered pair!
Chapter 3: Gryffindor and Slytherin
Lily awoke about 2:00 A.M. She sighed and tried to go back to sleep. She realised it was pointless about a half-hour later, so she put on her dressing gown and silently slipped through the portrait hole. She wondered the halls a bit, making sure to avoid 'that creep cat'. She found an open classroom door and went in. She sat on the ledge in front of a bay window. She looked out the window and noticed that someone was planting a willow, in the middle of the night! The willow seemed quite odd though, it was thrashing about! Those two things seemed quite off to her.
She didn't have too much time to ponder on that before she realised that she was not alone. She turned around that there stood…Severus Snape? "How-how long have you been there?" Lily asked nervously.
"Longer than you have," he answered.
"Oh," Lily figured that was why the door was left open. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same," he retorted.
"Er, couldn't sleep," Lily answered after an awkward silence.
"Madame Tyre has something for that," he answered.
"Mm, thinking then," Lily said, somewhat defensively.
To Lily's surprise he nodded and said, "Same here."
"About?" she asked kindly, now curious as well.
"Stuff," Severus answered, slightly angry.
"Oh," Lily said. There was an awkward silence.
"So, erm, what are you thinking about?" Severus finally asked.
Lily thought about telling him "stuff," as he had said to her. Or she could open up to the Slytherin. That was absurd! Despite his House, something told her that he was all right to talk to, "Er, family stuff. How glad I am to be here."
"Really?" Severus answered. He wondered just how like him this Gryffindor was.
"Your turn," Lily told him.
"Huh?" Severus was lost in his thoughts.
"I told you, now you tell me, and no more of this 'stuff' business."
Severus sighed, "Same as you, as a matter of fact."
"Come on. Elaborate."
"Well, my dad died five years ago, my mum re-married two months later. My step-dad is a nightmare." "Did I just say that to a bloody Gryffindor?!" Severus thought to himself.
"So's my dad, especially when he's drunk," Lily said, not caring to add, "and even worse when it comes to magic."
"Yeah, isn't that awful," Severus found himself smiling at the beautiful Gryffindor. Wait, did he just think a Gryffindor beautiful? "Maybe that stupid hat was right." Unfortunately he said his last thought.
"Stupid hat was right?" Lily asked in confusion.
"The hat said I would to well in Gryffindor."
"Then why are you in Slytherin? I'm sure G—Dumbledore would let you be re-sorted."
"No," Severus answered too quickly. "My step-dad would kill me and send me to Beauxbatons or something." He knew that Durmstrang was out of the question. His mum vowed never to let him go there. His own dad went there, and so his step-dad would never let him go.
"Beauxbatons?" Lily asked.
"School for sissies," Severus explained.
"Oh," Lily said.
"Are you a mud—muggleborn?"
"Mud-muggleborn? My father is a muggle, my mum is a squib. Does that count?"
Severus laughed. "No, half-blood. I guess. Sort of. They're actually called 'muggleborn'. I almost said 'mudblood'; something my step-dad would call you. It's just a really fowl name for muggleborns.
"Oh," Lily said—again.
"You say that a lot, don't you?"
"Erm, yeah, I guess I do."
"We should probably get back to our dormitory. Don't get caught."
"I won't if you don't," Lily joked. They laughed and exited the classroom, heading in opposite directions. Lily snuck back up to her dormitory, and climbed silently into her bed.
Lily awoke the next morning with a bounce—literally. "Good morning!" Dana called way too cheerily, at the same time Hannah said that to Emily. The twins were jumping on their beds!
"Goodnight," Emily answered.
"Good sleep," Lily added as she rolled over and tried to ignore the bouncing.
"Classes," Hannah reminded them.
"Sleep," Lily told them.
"First day," Dana reminded them.
"Sleep!" Emily said.
"Looks like we have to go to desperate measures," the twins said, smiling at each other. "One, two, three," they counted together before tearing off the blankets and doing a seat drop.
"Hey!" Emily said groggily.
"That wasn't nice," Lily added
.
"Compared to what we could do," Hannah started. "And what we might do," Dana added, "that was nice."
"Like ice-cold water," Hannah grinned evilly.
"Or tickling endlessly," Dana's grin matched Hannah's.
"Get up—"
"And we won't have to do those."
"Simple as—"
"That."
"What if we just let you sleep and you missed breakfast?" Dana asked.
"Hmm?" Hannah prompted as Emily and Lily reluctantly began to get dressed.
"Then you'd be in trouble, correct?" Dana added.
"I guess," Lily answered, brushing her hair.
"So we can't be that mean, now can we?" Hannah said.
"How did you two get up so early, anyroad?" Emily asked.
"It's called six older siblings," Dana explained.
"Excluding each other of course. They always wake us up early, they're used get used to Hogwarts' times."
Emily and Lily finished getting ready fast and then 'power-walked' to the Great Hall where a little under half of the Hall was already eating. Timetables were passed out. First was Transfiguration followed by Water Magic and Double Defence Against the Dark Arts. Sirius gobbled up breakfast and James ate just about as much, though slightly tamer. The girls, Remus and Peter were the first to finish.
"Hi, Melody!" Dana called to her sister. She was a third-year. Melody waved back. "Divination, got to get up to the top of the tower, see you two later.
"Hey, Hannah, Dana, what do you guys have first today. I have Care of Magical Creatures, I can't wait!" The boys, Emily and Lily realised the girl as the Prefect who had led them to Gryffindor Tower.
"Hey, Samantha!" Hannah greeted.
"We have Transfiguration," Dana added.
"Those are two of our sisters," Hannah explained.
"Yeah, Melody or Mel and Samantha or Sam, if you didn't notice," Dana elaborated.
"Your attention please," Dumbledore called. The Hall looked up towards him.
"This year, we have decided to announce the Head Boy and Girl at breakfast, because the choice was very difficult. Our Head Girl is Gryffindor Annabelle Weasley, and Head Boy is Ravenclaw Scott Cleese. You two may come up here to collect your badges, and we are sorry that it took so long to get these to you both."
Annabelle walked up and got her badge along with a piece of parchment. She nodded at Scott, and went over to Dana and Hannah.
"Where's Sam and Mel?" she asked.
"They went to class already," Hannah explained.
"Mel had Divination and Sam had Care of Magical Creatures," Dana explained.
"Okay, then," Annabelle said, sitting down.
"Congratulations."
"We knew it'd be you."
"Yeah, you got so upset."
"Over nothing."
"Yeah, I guess I did, Dane, Han." Annabelle said.
"These are our friends," Hannah began.
"Lily, Emily, Remus, James, and Peter," Dana said, pointing them out.
"I'm Ann, nice to meet you Lil, Em, Reme, Jay, and Pete."
"Dear Anne here," Hannah began.
"Has a thing for shortening names," Dana finished.
They nodded and got up to go to Transfiguration.
"So, erm, who here happens to know where the Transfiguration classroom is?" Emily asked after about a minute of wondering aimlessly.
"Erm," was all that James answered. He looked to the other embarrassed faces.
"We could always ask Sir Nicholas?" Lily sugested, "he's probably been here long enough."
"Or another ghost, like him," Peter pointed to what was actually a Poltergeist.
"Sure, I'll ask," Sirius offered, realising that is was a Poltergeist, but didn't bother to inform Peter.
"Erm, guys," Hannah began. "I don't think—" Dana was interrupted by Sirius.
"Hey! You! Where's the Transfiguration classroom?" Sirius asked.
"Aw," said the poltergeist, "little firsties lost their way," he said in mock-sympathy. The poltergeist took a bundle of water balloons, seemingly out of no where.
"Run!" Peter screamed before being the first to dash off, though not too much later he was bringing up the rear.
"We tried to warn you!" Dana panted.
"Yeah, shouldn't mess with Peeves, Peeves the Poltergeist."
SPLASH! Poor Peter was drenched, and the splash got the girls we as well. Peeves chucked another water balloon at them, tripping Sirius and sending the girls plus Peter on top of him."
"Hullo, beautifuls," Sirius said flirtingly to the girls.
"Let's snog," Hannah suggested.
"And do unspeakable things," Dana returned his flirty smile.
"Okay, there's a nice broom cupboard over there, or there's no one in the Common Room right now—a couch is more comfortable anyroad," Sirius fought a laugh. He received a double smack, one from each side. Maybe that wasn't the wisest thing to say…
"Sirius, I think the proper response was 'maybe when I get to know you a little better'," Remus advised as he helped Emily off of Sirius. Peeves threw the rest of the water balloons and ran off laughing. Luckily, Annabelle found them and told them that the Transfiguration room was not too far in the opposite direction.
"Shouldn't we change?" Emily suggested.
James glanced at his watch, "Not enough time," he told them as they came up to the open door of the Transfiguration Room.
"Just in time—oh—" McGonagall looked them over. "Whyt are you eight wet?"
"Erm, Peeves," Hannah answered.
"We went down the wrong corridor and he began throwing water balloons at us," Dana explained in greater detail.
"Well, then, go and change and I won't punish your for your tardiness," McGonagall told them sternly.
"Think we can get out of the whole class?" Sirius asked seriously.
"Probably not," Lily told them, "wouldn't be right, anyroad."
"It'd be fun though," James pointed out.
"Getting expelled on our first day wouldn't!" Emily argued.
"Your right, better wait until third-year," Sirius nodded. Dana and Hannah hit him again. "Ouch! What was that for!"
"We're not here to get expelled!" Hannah said.
"Just here for Dumbledore to threaten to do so because of our pranks," Dana added.
"Yes, mum," Sirius said to Hannah, while winking at Dana.
They changed and went back to Transfiguration (with much protest from Sirius). In the end, only James had managed to turn a match-stick into a needle. Of course, he had asked his dad about the first day of school and his dad had taught him everything that he would be doing in his first classes. (A/N: Cheater!)
"Water magic next," Lily announced, "with Slytherin."
"Ace!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Woah, Sirius, we should take you to St. Mungo's now! You just rejoiced at having a class with a Slytherins," James said. Lily scowled slightly, not that they noticed.
"We get to watch Malfoy drown!" Sirius added, angry at the interruption.
"That would be nice," James pondered. Lily hit his arm. "Ow! Hey!"
"We must wait," Remus explained, earning himself a hit from Emily.
"We have to get to the lake, c'mon," Lily urged, taking the lead to hide the fact that she was smiling at the thought.
They walked down to the lake and right in front of it a man in dark aqua blue robes that they assumed was their professor stood with his arms across his chest. He was surprisingly tall, though not as tall as Hagrid. He had medium-dark brown hair and a matching beard, both of which curled.
"I am Professor Poseidon," he announced, there were a few sniggers at the name. "And today, we will be working on simple life-saving charms. May I have a volunteer?" To no one's surprise, no one raised their hand. "Well, then, you," Professor Poseidon pointed at Lily.
"She will help me demonstrate today's lesson," he told the class, "Name?" he asked quieter.
"Evans, Lily Evans," Lily answered, slightly frightened.
"Miss Evans, the spell is Ascendia Surfacus!"
"Erm, should I not be wearing my swimming costume?" Lily asked him.
"No, I'll perform a simple drying charm when you are finished."
"O—kay," Lily stood there.
"Oh, yes, Let's practice the incantation and wand movement. When doing water magic from underneath the water, one must bring their wand downwards and flick, if possible, if no, do the closest you can. I will inspect each of your wand movements before you go. Miss Evans?" She shakily imitated him the best she could—bringing her wand down slowly in front of her and flicked her wrist. "Not bad," the Professor told her.
"Now we will say the spell in unison. One, two, three. Ascendia Surfacus!" Good enough, now Miss Evans."
"Gravis Auctito!" Lily felt her weight begin to increase. "Mobilcorpus!" and he moved her to toward the lake. "When you are fully submerged, use the spell," he told her as he took off the spell holding her above the lake.
Lily panicked. How could she say the spell under water?! She tried swimming upwards, but that didn't seem to be working. Well, she could always try the spell. She brought her wand down (slowly seeing as she was sinking further under water) and sort of flicked her wrist, saying, "Ascendia Surfacus!" though all that came out were air bubbles. She continued to sink lower, still panicking, she waved her limbs about furiously, struggling to get to the surface.
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Meanwhile on the surface...
James watched her fall. He began to glance between the water and his watch. Twenty seconds. "C'mon, Lily!" he whispered to himself between swear words.
"We have to do something!" James told the class and the Professor.
"She'll come up in time," he told James almost as if hi didn't care, glancing at the surface for a second before returning his stern gaze to the class.
James couldn't take it any longer. At Poseidon's next glance to the surface, James took off at a run and dived (though it was looked almost like a stomach flop, since he didn't know the depth of the water and didn't want to crack his head open) down searching for Lily. He swam and caught a glimpse of something thrashing underwater in the distance. "Must be Lily," he thought to himself. He wam towards her and grabbed her waist. Luckily she stopped moving. James brought down his wand, thinking more than speaking, "Ascendia Surfacus!" They rose up and Lily was gasping for air.
"Exuro!" Poseidon pointed his wand at the two.
"Five points from Gryffindor for your impatience, Mister—"
"Potter," James answered.
"Potter, and say thirty points to Gryffindor for saving a fellow classmate. You," Poseidon pointed at Malfoy, "wand movement and go." Malfoy did as he was told.
Slyeth Malfoy didn't seem to come up. After five minutes though, a barely conscious body was carried to the surface by the merpeople. Poseidon thanked them in mer-tongue and everyone else in the class failed.
When the class was over Poseidon spike to them all, "I want an essay next Monday on why your charm didn't work, except Mister Potter, and essay on why yours did work. Three decimetres for those who failed, one and a half for Mister Potter. You may go."
They headed back to the castle bound for the Great Hall. "Great show, Jamsie boy," Sirius said as they sat down and began to eat.
"Merpeople," James muttered, "how was I supposed to know that the bloody merpeople were going to save her?"
"Erm, thanks James," Lily finally said, now that she was no longer shaking.
"But do you really think that Poseidon would let her drown," Remus asked the frustrated James.
"I dunno, maybe he was pissed (drunk for you Yankee folks and the like)," James suggested.
"Or delusional," Sirius added.
"Yeah, I guess I was just worried for her," James confessed.
"That's because Jamsie boy is in loooove," Sirius joked.
"Am not!" Lily tried unsuccessfully to look hurt, "would have done the same for anyone, except a slimy Slytherin of course." James sounded angry. Well, he was dissing Slytherin, couldn't be too mad.
"They're not all 'slimy'," Lily said quietly.
"Really?" James asked, "Name one."
"Severus Snape," Lily said quiet, but confident.
"Him?!" all but Emily exclaimed.
"Lil, he has got to have the slimiest hair in all of Hogwarts!" Sirius exclaimed.
"And how would you know?!" James interrogated. "Was that a hint of jealousy?" Lily thought.
"I talked to him," Lily told him with a hint of mystery.
"We've only been her a day! And we've been with you the entire time! Well, except in the morning, but Dana, Hannah, and Emily were with you then, and none of them saw you!" James was practically shouting, but he looked quickly to Kana, Hannah, and Emily who nodded and cowered slightly.
"You guys were asleep," Lily said simply and slightly angry.
"Asleep?!" James yelled, "You woke up in the middle of the night to talk to a clotted Slytherin!"
"I didn't intend to talk to him, he was just there," Lily defended, quite upset.
"James, calm down," Remus held James back, "Maybe she didn't know he was a Slytherin at first."
"Or maybe they aren't all that bad," Lily retorted. She stormed off toward the dormitory with Emily, Dana, and Hannah following her. Not as much for the fact as they agreed with her, but more so that they were worried about their friend.
Lily eventually shooed her friends away. She was so furious at James. He was so prejudice! She got up and wondered the halls a bit before somehow ending up in the same empty classroom as last night.
"I heard your row with your friends," Severus came out from behind her. "Took you long enough to get here," he smiled kindly.
"My other friends wouldn't leave me alone. Mostly about you," Lily told him, excluding the fact that Dana and Hannah were trying to convince her that he would kill her the next time he saw her. "Anyroad, what brings you here—again?"
"You. I told you, I heard the row."
"Oh," lily answered, tring to fill the awkward silence. She glanced at her watch. "Erm, I have to go to Defence Against the Dark Arts."
"Same here," Severus said. Lily walked two paces before galncing back at Severus.
"Coming?" she asked.
"Can't with you. My friends would be worse knowing about you than your friends me."
Lily answered the unspoken question, "Don't worry, my friends won't tell, they're probably ashamed that I'm even talking to a Slytherin. Not that I have a problem with it, but… See you in class." She walked out curious why Slytherins and Gryffindors hated each other so much.
She went in and found only two empty seats—one next to James and another next to Peter, with Sirius and Remus in between her and James. She was lucky to glance at her watch because at that exact moment the Professor came in.
"I am Professor Lesath," she said icily. She was in solid black robes. She was also pale and her blonde hair was almost white. "Welcome to Defence Against the Dark Arts. Today, we will start working with something quite simple—pixies. I want an essay on how to defend yourself from pixies by Wednesday. You may pair up for notes.
The door opened revealing Severus. "You're late. Forty points from Slytherin and a detention. Notes, now, pair up." Severus walked over to Avery and Rosier. They shrugged at him apologetically and he headed to sit with Anora Jasper, a Slytherin girl he had not talked to yet, whom was still without a partner.
"Peter," Lily said quickly. She decided to ask him, assuming that he would be the only one of the guys that could give her a proper answer and that Dana's and Hannah's would be similar. Emily would probably have no idea.
Lily opened her book. "Peter," she whispered.
"Hm?" Peter was already leafing through the book.
"Why do Gryffindors hate Slytherins and vice-versa?" Lily asked in a quiet voice.
Peter stopped and looked like he was concentrating hard, like trying to remember something. "Erm, because Slytherins are slimy, disgusting—no!" Peter paused thinking, "Disgusting, slimy, that's it! Little gits—no prats and, er, a—arseholes!" Peter finished. Unfortunately his voice had grown louder.
"Pettigrew, detention, you will not use that kind of language in my class.
Evans, join," Lesath paused and looked around, "Lupin's group. Mister Pettigrew will be working alone for the remainder of the class period."
"James and Sirius told you that, correct?" Lily said, wondering herself why she didn't include Remus's name, as she picked up her stuff to work with Remus and Emily. Peter nodded as went to work on his own.
"Hi," Lily whispered.
"So what do you got?" Remus asked, referring to the notes.
"It's 'have', not 'got'," Lily corrected in jest.
"Oh, sorry," Remus said, slightly embarrassed.
"You shouldn't be. I'm used to correcting people, school is about the only time I really got attention with Petunia and all her social stuff."
"Oh, okay, what do you have?" Remus reiterated.
"Nothing, Peter and I were just talking about the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor."
"Still mad at James?" Remus asked. Emily was the only one of the three actually writing notes, vaguely listening to the other two.
Lily nodded. "Do you know anything about it that does not involve insulting them to no end?" Lily asked hopefully. Well, Remus wasn't as gullible as poor Peter—maybe he had an answer, a real answer.
"I don't know that much, just that Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor—two of the founders, had a big rivalry going on. Slythering began to feel as if they weren't admitting only 'worthy' students. Godric Gryffindor began to challenge him by lowering the admission standards. Godric Gryffindor taught the students of his House that they were better than Slytherin, to challenge them, and Slytherin told his students the same.
"That sort of makes sense, but why is it still around. That was almost a thousand years ago, was it not?"
"Yeah, it was. I guess that since many families are sorted into the same House, the ideas were just passed down. And spread among friends and of course rivalries are built up, which pushes it to the opposite House. And the two Houses are often competing for top spot. James just files under all categories. His entire family has been in Gryffindor and James is very competitive. Plus Sirius, they've been real good friends since they were babies. His parents were Gryffindors as well, and in the same year. Their mums were best friends as were their dads. They do everything together."
"How long have you and Peter known them?" Lily asked, thinking less about the competitiveness.
"Well," Remus began, "We moved into their neighbourhood about four years ago. Because they had a good local apothecary." Remus stopped as if he had said too much.
"What about Peter?" Lily asked, noticing her friend's discomfort.
"Oh, we met him in the Leaky Cauldron. Well outside it actually. He was trying to convince his parents that he could see it, and they could not. His parents are muggles, by the way."
"Ah," Lily said.
"Yeah, so we told him all about Hogwarts, the Houses, Quidditch and such," Remus concluded, forgetting he had come dangerously close to letting out his secret.
"Quidditch?" Lily asked.
"A game played on broomsticks. I'll explain later," he said quietly as he noticed Lesath gliding, well, it looked like gliding, towards them. Lily and Remus busily picked up their quills to look as if they were on task. Lily and Remus managed to write for a few minutes, but it was nothing compared to what Emily had come up with.
The eight of them combined their notes to write their Defence Against the Dark Arts essay before dinner. They used mostly Emily's notes. James and Sirius had only managed about five sentences actually on pixies. They couldn't decipher most of the rest of it and gave up quickly.
"Hey, James," Remus beckoned once they were all back to the Common Room and comfortable. James put away his quill and sat over by Remus in a corner.
"What?" James asked his friend.
"It's about Lily. You need to apologise to her," Remus told him in all seriousness.
"Why," James asked hotly, "she befriended a Slytherin for heaven's sake! Severus Snape, no less."
"James, calm down, darn it!" It's her personal life. You really offended and embarrassed her back in the Great Hall."
"She's conversing with the enemy!"
"What enemy, James? We don't even know him. Is there a war between Slytherin and Gryffindor I haven't heard of, because right now, the only war I can think of that is going on is the one with You-Know-Who!" Remus said hotly. He seemed to calm slightly and added, "We don't know him. He could be different than the others. He has got to be if one of our friends, a trustable Gryffindor, is conversing with him. Apologise to Lily."
James looked away from where he knew Lily was, which happened to be out a window. Remus followed his gaze and paled. "Oh sh—," he stopped mid-word, "Got to go," he said in a panicked tone of voice before running out the dormitory quick as lightning.
Remus was now second on James's mind. First he would talk to Lily, before he lost his confidence.
"Lily," he approached her cautionsly. She was reading some muggle novel.
"Hm," she answered, not looking up.
"I'm sorry," he told her.
"For?" she asked. She wasn't looking at him quite yet, but her eyes definitely weren't focused on the page of the book. It was a start.
"Hurting you. I don't really know about Snape," James grimaced at the name, luckily her bright green eyes weren't focused on him yet, "I judged him before knowing him. I guess I'm sorry for insulting your judgement, also."
Lily stared at him. What was she supposed to say? "I accept your apology."
"Are you still mad at me?" James asked.
"Erm, a little, not that much though," Lily told him truthfully. "Why do you hate Slytherins though?"
"Because I am a Gryffindor," he answered. "Oh, no, I'm in for it now," James thought.
"So am I," Lily said, eyes trailing ever closer back to the page of her novel. "Now he'll have to give me an honest answer," she thought to herself. James panicked and began to think fast.
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Remus ran as fast as he could to the Hospital Wing. "You're late!" Madame Tyre, the matron, exclaimed. She led him to the new willow. Remus looked at her in confusion. She summoned a long stick. Remus stepped closer to the willow. Whack! One of the limbs hit him painfully on the left shoulder. She prodded a knot with the stick and the thrashing tree stilled. "Come," she instructed. They walked very quickly along a tunnel. She opened a trap door to a house with simple, somewhat old furniture.
"Go in, I'll lock it behind you," Madame Tyre instructed.
"I'm not being kept in a cage?!" he asked her incredulously.
"Of course not! Anyone who dare do that to you is—" she stopped, realising she was about to say something that she wouldn't dare say in front of a Seventh-Year, let alone a First. "I'll see you in the morning," she smiled before locking the trap door and proceeding back to Hogwarts.
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"I've just heard that they went power all the time, and the history of Slytherin is full of Dark Wizards," James finally told her.
"That's just the stereotype, you know. One or two could be different," Lily pointed out.
"Sure, I just didn't want you to get involved with any of them," James said, "Whoops, not the right thing to say," James quickly added, "because I don't want you hurt. Or taken advantage of."
That was good enough for Lily. She smiled and said, "I'm not mad at you now. I'm going to bed, I'm tired."
"Bet you are," James thought to himself, though saying, "Goodnight." That gave him an idea. Once Lily was safely tucked away in her dormitory James called out to his friend.
"Sirius!" Sirius looked up from a book. Wait. Sirius has a book?! He can read something that doesn't have pictures? James paused and looked at the book. Location Charms?! "Did I miss an essay somewhere?" he thought to himself. James pushed those frightening thoughts out of his mind. "We're going Slytherin hunting."
Sirius's whole face brightened up. "Slytherin hunting, eh? Sounds good to me. Who? When? How?"
"Forgot 'What?' and 'Why?'," James said.
"Doesn't matter what it is or why, as long as it is fun and they are completely humiliated.
"To answer all questions, the who would be Severus Snape, when—later tonight, where—dormitory, how—good question, what—you'll see, and why—because we feel like it."
"Sure," Sirius coughed out. "Oh, I know!" he exclaimed.
"You know something?" James asked, sounding confused.
"Yeah," Sirius answered excitedly, "it's in this book. There's this charm for finding rooms. Look through this," Sirius tossed James another book, "it should tell you how to discover passwords." James flipped through the Revealing Charms book. They found the right pages and were now practising them.
"Ready?" Sirius asked at ten after midnight. James nodded and took a beautiful, silvery, water-like cloak from his pockets.
"Is that…?"
"Gift from my father. Family heirloom, really," James said proudly.
"Your father gave you an Invisibility Cloak?" Sirius exclaimed in a whisper.
"Yeah. One of my ancestors gave one each to his five friends and fifteen to close friends or something."
"How did your father get twenty of them?" Sirius asked.
"He found and helped the faerie who makes these things," James said with a shrug, "he told me the whole story, it's written somewhere. I don't really remember."
"C'mon,' Sirius said, slipping under the cloak with James.
"Locatious Processia Lumo Invisi!" Sirius whispered. A little light appeared, "Slytherin First-Year boys dormitories." The little light lead them to a wall.
James poked his head out, "Tellis!" he whispered.
"Serpent's poison," said a stone.
"Serpent's poison," James repeated as the wall silently broke away. The light led them across a dark, medieval-looking Common Room and down the right-side hallway. They snuck into the dormitory and James opened a Severus's trunk. He changed all of Severus's black boxers bright fluorescent pink, including the ones he was wearing (they were quite relieved that he was actually wearing them when they moved the covers). James also went through his robes and drew "Spell Lines" across the waist, after which he whispered, "You'll see what they do in the Great Hall at breakfast," to Sirius, "I'll activate it at the proper moment."
Sirius smiled to himself. He knew that this would be good. They returned everything to it's proper place and snuck back to Gryffindor Tower for a peaceful sleep.
A/N: There. Finally done. Please review peoples. I'll work on getting the next chapter up. I just have so much to do.
