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Chapter Fifteen: Of Sweat and Tears

Everything dropped into a routine for around three weeks. James made waking up early a habit because he found out that Jessie would often be in the Common Room by five o'clock, either reading or doing last minute homework. Then there were the usual classes, but Sirius and James both had a new addition to their schedule. Quidditch Practice. They often found themselves collapsing with exhaustion after their hour long training sessions in which Artemis was trying to 'work them to death'. But they never complained. Sort of.

"I feel dead," moaned Sirius. He and James were walking back to the Common Room after a rigorous practice (their first game was next week).

"Pity you aren't," drawled a sneering voice. The boys jumped around to find a smirking Malfoy lounging against the corridor wall.

"Ah, piss off Malfoy," said Sirius. "I'm too tired to beat the snot out of your greasy head." Malfoy smiled maliciously.

"What, all this work getting to be too much for you, Black? Running out of talent, are we?" James grabbed Sirius's arm and dug his heels into the ground, trying to keep Sirius from attacking. Not that it wasn't a good idea, but Malfoy was just egging him on. He managed to get Sirius to turn around and start walking away.

"Save your strength, Siri. That bastard's not worth it." James said this a bit louder than necessary, just for Malfoy's benefit. Suddenly, a jet of red light passed barely a centimeter over James's head.

"And he's got horrible aim," chuckled Sirius. The boys' laughed all the way up to the Common Room.

"Jelly squid," said James. The fat lady opened quietly, looking rather subdued. They walked through the portrait hole and into the Common Room, where a rather strange sight met their eyes (and ears). Everything was dead quiet. No one was laughing, talking, anything. James and Sirius looked around cautiously, wondering what was wrong. Then Lily sped up to them, a lone tear sliding down her cheek.

"Lily what's wrong?" whispered James, his concern echoing in his voice. Lily shook her head and grabbed their arms, pulling them up to their dorm. Inside, Remus and Peter were sitting on the floor, lost expressions on their pale faces.

"What's going on?" asked Sirius.

"Two more students have gone m-missing," sniffled Lily. "A Ravenclaw a-and Carolina." The boys dropped their brooms to the floor with a clatter, staring at Lily in disbelief.

"N-no," stuttered Sirius. "She couldn' have. She's not gone. She's not…is she?" Peter nodded morosely, and Lily let a fresh wave of tears swamp her face.

"But who? Why?" James was so stunned he could barely speak in complete sentences. Carolina? Gone? It just wasn't possible!

"I don't know!" cried Lily. "I just don't know." And with that she left the room at a run, tears and long hair streaming behind her. The boys were speechless. Sirius sank slowly to the ground.

"Gone," he said, spitting it out like it was bitter.

The marauders (minus one) spent the next few days milling about, lost and silent. Until the night when Sirius cracked.

"This is rubbish!" he yelled knocking his homework off his bed. Lily (who was sitting in their room reading, rather than face Taryn and Peyton's pity) looked up sharply from her book, and the boys stared at him. "Come on you lot!" Sirius was now pacing the room, running a hand through his hair. "Carolina wouldn't want us to be getting all depressed. We should be taking revenge on the bastards!"

"Sirius, we don't know who 'the bastards' are," Lily said, in a would-be soothing voice.

"So let's take revenge on the whole bloody castle!" he suggested emphatically. The other's faces began to brighten at the idea.

"Lily, what wa-is Carolina's favorite color?" She scrunched up her face, trying hard to remember.

"Red…yeah, it's red," she deadpanned.

"Let's paint the castle red!" shrieked Peter.

"Put hiccupping sweets and pepper imps in the Slytherins breakfast!" said Sirius, bouncing up and down on his bed.

"Is there a way to flip their Common Room upside-down?" wondered Remus.

"Turn their hair red?" suggested James.

"How about blasting a giant fog-horn in their rooms at three a.m.?" said Lily.

"Uh, Lils, we don't know where their Common Room is…or their password, for that matter," Sirius pointed out.

"Well, then why don't we question the house-elves about it." The question was more like an order. The loss of her best friend was beginning to take a toll on Lily. Her eyes were continuously red and puffy, plus she was snippy and snide to everyone. She had even mouthed off Professor Binns earlier that day, causing him to drop his notes in surprise.

"Fine, alright." Sirius backed away from Lily, arms raised in a defensive position. "Jesus," he whispered. Most unfortunately, Lily heard him.

"Shut it, Black," she growled. But Sirius had had enough.

"No, you shut it Evans. I'm sorry about Carolina- really, I am- but you have to be all bitchy about it because there's nothing we can do." With that said he stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. Outside, he sank down to the ground, leaning with his back against the wall. Sighing, he smashed his head into his hands.

What's wrong with me? he wondered. I've never argued with Lily. That's Jamsie's job…He sank down lower, and let his mind wander. Carolina with cat ears, Carolina's funny little laugh, Carolina at Quidditch, Carolina covered in macaroni…he was beginning to sense a pattern in these thoughts when he realized something was watching him. He looked up into Lily's impenetrable stare.

"Yes?" he said coldly.

"Is this seat taken?" she asked quietly, indicating the floor beside him.

"Go ahead," he mumbled. Lily sat down.

"Look I'm sorry, it's just-"

"Yeah, I know. Lils, you aren't the only one who lost a friend."

"I'm sorry," she sniffled. "She was my best best best friend and-"

"Well, you've still got us!" Sirius said, sounding much happier than he felt. Lily gave him a watery smile. He grinned toothily and put an arm around her. They sat like that for a while until Sirius said-

"I'm hungry." Lily snorted.

"Siri, you're ALWAYS hungry!"

"Yeah?" he said. "And what're you going to do about it?"

"This!" She gave him a noogie until all his hair was askew. He glanced up at her with (what he thought were) puppy dog eyes.

"I'm still hungry."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They all spent the next four days preparing for the prank. Lily became Shermy-the-house-elf's best friend and wheedled the password out of him. James and Sirius concocted liberal amounts of a red potion that should work as a more efficient substitute for paint. Peter and Remus buried themselves in books, hunting for suitable spells. Finally, all was ready.

That night, the Common Room emptied slowly, and by the time the last straggling student yawned their way up to bed, it was twelve thirty. Grumbling slightly about the delay, they made their hasty way out of the portrait hole. It was so hasty, that none of them managed to notice a dark shadow that snuck inside the room during their exit.

Making their quiet way down the halls, they encountered a few obstacles. Their heavy equipment was absolutely no help at all, and Sirius had managed to catch a cold somewhere. Everyone was sure his huge sneezes would send Filch on the run, and then there was a distraction in the form of Peter. He gracefully tripped over the foot of a suit of armor and fell to the floor in a heap, much to the amusement of paintings nearby. The armor even gave a rusty laugh, and the marauders (minus one) decided it was time to move on.

Lily, Siri, and Petey went to the dungeons.

"Are we there yet?" panted Peter, leaning against the head of a stone gargoyle.

"Must be nearly there," began Lily, but she was cut off when Peter fairly leapt off the wall. The gargoyle had moved! 

"Password?" it groaned, with a voice like dragging a rake over gravel. It's eyes were glowing green. Sirius pushed Lily forward.

"Life blood?" said Lily, crossing her fingers. The gargoyle bowed it's head in submission and the wall beside it split open. They looked about in awe as they entered the forbidden Common Room.

The embers in the fireplace were still glowing, casting menacing shadows about the room. There were low wooden tables with clawed feet strewn about the room, surrounded by high-backed chairs with stiff, green, dragon hide cushions. The stone ceiling was so high that the three gaping intruders could just barely see it's outline in the ascending gloom.

"Well," said Lily, "let's get started."

"SSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" the boys instructed. The stone archways made her voice echo eerily, so she whispered.

"All right! Let's get started then." Sirius and Lily walked off to different walls and threw a bucket of potion on it. They watched in amazement as the red dye spread like an ink stain, methodically covering all of the walls, and (Lily suspected) the ceiling as well.

Meanwhile, Peter was doing his best to cast one of the useful spells he and Remus had dredged up in the Library. Muttering crossly and jabbing his wand in the archway that led to the dorm rooms, he tried to cast a spell that would cause anyone who walked through that doorway to be plagued with startlingly red hair. When they were done, the three stepped back to admire their handiwork.

"I hope we're all done," Lily said, pulling a giant, magically enhanced fog horn out of her robes.

"Where'd you get tha-" But Sirius was cut off when Lily pressed the button and an excruciatingly loud noise blared out (like several cars colliding with a monster truck with a sickening metal squish).

"RUN!" screamed Lily. And ran they did. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

James and Remus entered the kitchen slowly, wading through a tide of curious elves.

"Mr. James? What is you doing here?" James looked down to find Shermy bobbing by his knee.

"Oh, hello Shermy," he said politely. "We're here on an-erm…"

"Business venture," supplied Remus.

"Oh. Will yous being requiring and food, good sirs?" squeaked another house-elf.

"We al-" began Remus.

"Yes, my friend here is famished," said James, getting an idea. This set the house-elves into a frenzy, swamping Remus in trays of tea and platters of pastries. He shot James a pleading look, but he was too busy stuffing pepper imps inside pancakes and letting hiccupping sweets dissolve into goblets of pumpkin juice to notice.

Ten minutes, six meat pies, and twelve cups of tea later, James helped a thoroughly stuffed Remus enter the Common Room.

They had been sitting on the couch for at least twenty minutes when Lily suddenly flew through the portrait hole and collapsed on the ground, panting. Sirius sprinted in right behind her, tripped on Lily's legs, and crashed down on top of her. Peter wheezed in fifteen seconds later and promptly hurtled into the two of them. In the commotion, no one noticed that the portrait hole stayed open longer than was necessary, much to the Fat Lady's consternation.

"What are you doing?" asked Remus.

"Being smothered," Lily choked out, her voice muffled, "by two hulking idiots." Hearing this, Peter pushed himself up, accidentally giving Sirius a solid elbow to the ribs. After Peter had so kindly 'gotten his bloody arse' off of Sirius, Sirius rolled off a rather squashed Lily. Remus helped Lily up, and she swiftly collapsed onto an easy chair rubbing her cheek (which had the pattern of the carpet imprinted in it).

"So…what were you running from?" questioned James, annoyed.

"Loud noise," panted Peter.

"Evil Slytherins, Evil Filch," wheezed Sirius, clutching at a stitch in his side.

"Evans, what're they on about?" James turned to Lily, exasperated.

"We set off my foghorn in she bloody Slytherin's Common Room and ran like hell. Right into Filch. Then we ran up here trying to escape Filch. Got it?" Yawning, Lily glanced at her watch. "2:30? God I'm tired. Say, don't you two have a Quidditch match tomor- er, today?"

"BLOODY HELL!"

A/N Hey Dudes and Dudettes! What's shakin? If you can't tell I am incredibly super-dee-duperly hyper at this very moment in time. I have already written chapter sixteen and ½ of chappie numero seventeen, but I'm running out of inspiration. My muse sucks…I'm thinking of firing her, but I'm too lazy. Does anyone know where I could find a decent replacement muse and fast? *sigh* Oh well. Can't wait for the Academy Awards! The Two Towers had better win something. A lot of somethings. But I'm pissed that PJ didn't get nominated for Best Director…okay, sorry bout that, just had to get it out and all my friends already think I'm crazy so why give them further evidence? Mooooooooving on…REVIEW SECTION—LoonyLoopyLisa- Glad you like it. Cool namey thingy. Beter than mine… Fowl-Star- I love the name Artemis! In fifth grade when we had to study Greek Gods and Goddesses and we had a Greek parade where we all dressed up like gods and did reports on them I Really REALLY wanted to be Artemis but no, I had to be all noble and be a boy god because there weren't enough guys so I got to be Dionysus (God of Wine and Paties…not too bad…). But I had an oober cool costume with this purple toga thing and a grapey cape thing and a crown of ivy…right, anyways…I, too, hate the rat, and im not sure what he was doing then…probably as you suggested, but I'm not sure…I think it'll come out later on in second year. It's okay about the flipping out thing I do it a lot. Like, there's this really great story (The Story of James Potter) but they make Arthur and Molly Weasly in it and as it SPECIFICALLY STATES in The Goblet of Fire on page 617 "Mrs. Weasley was intrigued by the Whomping Willow, which had been planted after she had left school, …" and in the third book Remie said that the Whomping Willow was planted the year he came to school which means that IT'S NOT POSSIBLE! Oh well…it's honestly okay about the seeker thing. Just don't do it again. And it's not that Dumbledore's out of it, it's just that no one told him about it and you can't expect the guy to be omniscient, give  him a break. Fluffy the Teddy Bear Slayer- right back at ya. Elfmoon87- Glad you're still reading! Braney- grounded? I know the feeling. Most recently my parents said that if my Latin (the root of all evil) grades don't improve that I wont be able to use the computer for the rest of the school year. That's not good. I've gotta weird one- "WE ALL LIVE IN A YELLOW SUBMARINE…" or how about "picture yourself on a boat on a river with tangerine trees, and marmalade skies…somebody calls you you answer quite slowly, a girl with kaleidoscope eyes…" can you tell that I love the Beatles? I almost cried when George Harrison died. I'm an American too ya know. Atl, Ga. I DON'T WANT TO GO TO FRIKKIN WAR! Well, I wanna kick some Saddam ass, but I don't want to kill innocent people…*sigh* I just like the idea of an evil potions teacher…it just sort of fits. You can't make things TOO easy for them… Yes, life without thumbs would most definitely suck. A lot.