Chapter 19: Pranking Professor Amos

That evening, Alice and Amelia abandoned Lily for a quiet corner of the common room, and a very fervent discussion with the Marauders. She couldn't hear any of what they were saying from her table by the portrait hole, but she could tell that they were discussing their revenge on Amos. She cast a glance in their direction, and shook her head, trying to force herself to concentrate on potion ceremonies. They were supposed to find another example of a ceremony that combined two or more disciplines of magic, and write an essay explaining how the different aspects of magic worked together to create the desired result.

"Deserted again?" Frank's voice said. He was standing beside the table, smiling at her. "Then you won't mind if I keep you company, will you?"

Lily smiled, glad to see that Frank was gradually coming out of his self-imposed exile. "Not at all," she said, motioning for him to sit down. "I'm just working on my essay for Potions."

Frank smiled. "I finished mine earlier," he said, pulling out a library book and setting it in front of Lily. "You won't find any cross-discipline magic in our text books, they're far to advanced to receive more than just a cursory treatment. This book has quite a few of them, though. I checked it out because I thought Alice might like to look it," his gaze turned toward the corner where she was sitting. "She's a bit busy tonight, though."

Lily nodded. "Hopefully they'll get the 'revenge' that they're plotting over with quickly so they can concentrate on school. If they aren't expelled for this, that is." Lily tried to laugh, but the truth of the matter was, she was only half-joking. If Amos caught them, whatever it was that they were planning, she was certain he'd do everything in his power to see them expelled. She'd tried to tell the two of them that, but Amelia had insisted that Alice and Black were the victims of a tremendous injustice at the hands of Amos, and she refused to sit idly by and do nothing about it. Alice just laughed and told Lily that if she didn't quit lecturing, she was going to start calling her mum. Lily sighed. She knew that she did sound a bit like a mother every time it was mentioned, but she couldn't help herself. She was a worrier by nature. She always had been. At home, she'd worried about Petunia, about her parents, about her friends—anyone she cared about. It wasn't as though Lily never wanted to "have a little fun" as Potter called it. It was just that she was wise enough to follow her thoughts through to conclusion, and realize that the risks weren't worth the benefits. Apparently, she thought, with another look at her two best-friends, she was one of the few 11-year-olds who had developed that ability.

She looked back and realized that Frank was smiling at her. "Some part of you wants to join them, doesn't it?" he asked perceptively.

Lily started to deny it, but then stopped herself. Frank was right. A small part of her wanted to do something about what Amos had done to Alice. Alice wanted to be an auror, and she needed top marks to get into the training program. By refusing to accept two weeks of homework from Alice, he had set her back before she'd barely even begun. Lily returned Frank's smile and nodded. "A very small part of me," she said.

He laughed. "There's nothing wrong with that you know, Lily. Having a little fun, I mean. Not that what they're doing is 'a little fun'," Frank said, pointing toward the Marauders and Alice and Amelia, and shaking his head. "What they're doing is suicide."

Lily giggled. "I heartily agree. Of course, the last time I decided to 'have a little fun' as you say, I ended up down a dark passageway, nearly discovered by three Slytherins intent on helping a dark lord fulfill some evil plot or another." She noticed Frank had gone white, and realized how insensitive she'd just been. "I'm sorry, Frank! I didn't mean to—," but he waved away her apology.

"It's all right, Lily," he said, smiling. "I was just thinking that your last bit of fun might be the thing that saves my dad, in the long run. If you hadn't been down there, who knows how long it would have been before Dumbledore realized his book was missing…before they realized my dad was kidnapped, and didn't just 'disappear'." He gazed piercingly at Lily. "In fact, if it were up to me, I'd make sure that you have fun like that more often. It might just save someone's life."

Lily stared at Frank, not sure what to say. The conversation had taken a turn that she hadn't expected, and she felt a little wrong-footed at the development. Frank blushed and looked away from her. "I guess we'd better get to our homework, then," he said shyly. Lily nodded. Frank had just given her quite a bit to think about, at any rate.

For some reason, Dumbledore's words to them flashed through her mind again. "Students are frequently a great asset to those aurors whose job it is to seek out and contain underground threats from dark wizards, so I do not discourage students from keeping their ears open." It was true, what Frank had said. She, Potter and Black had discovered the dark wizard's plot while it was still in its infancy quite by accident. She wondered what they might discover if they made a concentrated effort. She dismissed the thought as soon as it occurred to her, forcing her mind back to Potions as she opened the book that Frank had set in front of her and began flipping through it.

"We're doing it tonight!" Alice said happily, bouncing up to the table where Frank and Lily were sitting. Lily looked up in surprise.

"Tonight? Why tonight?"

"Because," Amelia said quietly, shushing Alice with a finger to her lips. "We've got everything ready, and if we wait too much longer, you might lose your nerve."

"I might lose my nerve?" Lily asked, staring at Amelia as if she'd gone mad. "What on earth are you talking about? I'm not helping you!"

"You have to," Alice said imploringly.

Lily's temper flared. She'd known this was going to happen sooner or later. "I most certainly do not!" she declared indignantly. "I told you from the start that if you did this, you were on your own."

Alice nodded patiently. "We knew you'd say that," she said, "which is why we sent Frank over here to talk to you."

Lily whirled around to glare at Frank. "What? Frank? Is this true?"

Frank's face turned bright red, and he looked down at his hands. "We need your help, Lily. Amos's office is protected from breaking and entering by a variety of charms, and you're the only one of us that has any chance of breaking them… You've practically read every charm book in the library looking for an ancient-elvish translating charm…" Frank trailed off, but now looked at her defiantly. "I wouldn't have done it, but they pointed out to me that we'll be in Amos's office. He's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Lily. Whatever that book is that was stolen is probably dark arts material… Amos might have something that will give us an idea what they're up to. My dad needs your help." He continued to hold her gaze, his blue eyes imploring her. Lily glanced at Alice and Amelia as well, both held the same pleading look in their eyes.

She stood up, not sure what to think. She could walk away now… Stay out of trouble… She could. But a part of her said that would be abandoning her friends. On the other hand, she'd told them from the start that if they did this, they'd be on their own. They'd known when they'd started to work out the details of this ill-conceived plan. And yet, maybe Amos did have something in his office that could help them, help Dumbledore and Mr. Parker… Dumbledore's words again ran through her mind. This wasn't so different than keeping their ears open, was it? But surely Dumbledore would have thought to speak with Amos about this… Of course, Amos was head of Slytherin. For all they knew, he could be working for the dark wizard. Lily's recent lesson in politics had taught her the single unifying belief among dark wizards, and from Amos's treatment of Alice and herself, it was fairly obvious he shared those beliefs. Was it such a stretch to think he might have told Dumbledore he couldn't help him, and yet be serving the dark wizard, and have the tools available to him all along? She shook her head, trying to make sense of her thoughts. Alice, Amelia and Frank didn't say a word. She glanced up at them, her best friends… What would she want them to do for her? Lily sat back down finally, her mind made up. The trio in front of her all waited expectantly for her decision.

Lily looked from Alice, to Amelia, to Frank, her gaze lingering on Frank. His dad needed her help. They all needed her help, actually, or they would be expelled, and she couldn't stand to let that happen. If she didn't have her friends to come back to next year at school, she might as well not even come back. They were the ones who had made Hogwarts feel like her second home. "All right," she said finally, and the threesome let out a little cheer. Alice squealed and hugged her, while Amelia and Frank thanked her for helping, and apologized for tricking her into it. The four Marauders quickly scrambled over.

"Did she say yes?" Pettigrew asked eagerly. Alice nodded excitedly. Potter and Black launched into a celebratory jig, but stopped quickly after they noticed that they were attracting the attention of the other occupants of the common room. Lupin merely smiled, and thanked her for joining them.

"I can't believe it," Potter said, his eyes sparkling. "For over two months now, she's been saying no way, no way…" He turned to look at Lily. "What changed your mind, Evans?"

"It certainly wasn't the thought of helping you, Potter," she said, her voice icy almost out of habit. Although it was true. She wasn't doing this for his benefit. Lily wouldn't have minded at all if he got expelled. She was doing it because there was a chance that they could find something that would help Frank's dad, and she couldn't pass up that opportunity. "I'm doing it for Frank's dad," she said finally, "and because I can't let my friends down." She emphasized the word friends in order to further accentuate for Potter that her decision had nothing to do with him.

Potter was unfazed. "Whatever your reasons, Evans, as long as you're helping us!"

"We need to fill her in, then," Black said, pulling up a chair and settling beside Lily. Pettigrew, Potter, and Lupin all followed suit. "We're going to break into Amos's office and erm…re-supply it, if you will."

"Re-supply it?" Lily asked. "What do you mean, re-supply it?"

Lupin grinned, and the mischief in his eyes reminded Lily forcefully of Potter and Black. She could suddenly understand why he was such great friends with them. If this look told her anything, it was that Lupin might appear to be a laid-back, by-the-book kind of boy, but that underneath, he was far more complex than that. "We're going to replace a few of his teaching materials with new and improved versions."

"For example," Black said, "Amos always uses chalk when he lectures, and actually writes his notes up, instead of using his wand. This gave us an idea. We're going to replace his chalk with some joke chalk that Jamesy and I created. No matter what he writes on the blackboard in class, the chalk will spell out things like 'I'm a great git', and 'A first-year knows more about magic than I do', things like that. We'll replace the chalk in the classroom and in his office, that way no matter what chalk he uses, it will all do the same thing."

"Also, Petey's been concocting a potion to add to his tea," Potter continued. "The potion is great because once it's finished, it turns into a powder, and all you have to do is add it to liquid to activate it. We're going to add some to all of Amos's tea bags, that way when he makes his tea, he gets a dose of it. It's a modification of a potion that we came across."

Pettigrew smiled happily. "We all know that Amos is a biased old git," Pettigrew began, glancing around. He looked suddenly nervous that he was the center of everyone's attention, but continued anyway, his voice wavering slightly. "So this potion will force him to do the opposite that he usually would in a situation where his prejudices come into play. For example, if he means to insult a Gryffindor, he'll end up telling them they look nice today, or commenting on how smart they are. Likewise, if he tries to say something nice to the Slytherins, he'll insult them. And whenever he tries to take points from Gryffindor, he'll give points to Gryffindor instead. Things like that."

Lily stared at them, shocked. "And you—you're brewing this potion, Peter?" She hadn't really figured Pettigrew to know too much about potions…or to have strong opinions, or… She shook her head. It looked like she had considerably underestimated him.

Lupin appeared to realize what Lily was thinking. "Potions is Petey's strongest class," he said by way of explanation. "He had some trouble in there in the beginning of the year, but he gets better marks than any of us now." Lily nodded. "And he's been brewing it in our dorm room for the last couple of weeks. It's taken awhile to prepare it."

Lily was completely astounded. The magic that they were talking about doing was way beyond first year… She wondered if they put as much effort into their classes as they'd obviously put into this. If they had… Why they were probably all fighting for top wizard in their year. And Potter and Black hadn't been kidding when they'd claimed to earn top marks in almost everything… Lily looked at them, the awe evident in her face. She saw Potter laugh slightly at her expression. "Anyway, we've got a few other tricks planned along this line," Black said, bouncing around in his chair, apparently too excited to sit still. "But you've got the main gist of it. We basically want to make him look like a fool in front of his students. We need you to get us in there, though. We've tried doing some research on protection charms and their counters, but Parker and Bones assured us that you already knew more about those than we'd be able to find."

"And you'd be able to do them properly so as to avoid turning anything into a snake," Lupin added, glancing wryly at Potter.

Potter smiled unabashedly. "I meant to do that," he said quickly.

Lily laughed. "Sure you did," she said. "And my Grandma Evans is a witch." She rolled her eyes. "All right, let's finalize the details. What is everybody doing on this mission?"

"Siri and I are in charge of the re-supplying process. We'll make sure that all of our inventions replace Amos's standard-Hogwarts issued stuff. Petey will be adding the potion to Amos's tea. You're obviously getting us through the door, and once we get there, Remmy'll help you look through Amos's books to see if anything he has will help us figure out what that parchment says. Remmy's best subject is Defense Against the Dark Arts, so he'll have better luck than anyone to help you there."

"And what are Frank, Alice and Amelia going to be doing while we're breaking and entering?" Lily asked, realizing that they hadn't been mentioned.

"They're on look-out duty. They'll wear the invisibility cloak, and alert us if there's any sign of movement."

Alice and Amelia had been watching silently as the boys had been explaining the action plan to Lily. Suddenly Alice squealed, and hugged Lily. "Oh, I'm so happy that you're going to help us with this!" she said excitedly.

Amelia shushed her. "Honestly, you're going to get us caught before we even leave tonight!" she admonished.

Alice blushed. "I'm sorry; I just didn't want Lily to miss out on our biggest adventure of the year." Lily smiled. Now that she'd accepted that she was going to be dragged along on this, she was beginning to feel rather excited about it.

"I never thought you'd agree to help us, Evans," Potter said, shaking his head.

Lily grinned. "You obviously don't know me as well as you think you do, Potter," she said, returning Alice's hug and squeezing Amelia's hand. "All right, let's get started on this. What do you know about the protections that Amos has on his door?"

Frank's eyes lit up. "One of us has been observing his office every night for the last week. We have a list of the charms that he uses to seal it, and the order that he does them in. If you don't already know the countercharms, we have about 4 hours to figure them out before we go into action tonight."

Lily nodded. "We'd better get to work on them then," she said, getting up and running up to her room for some of the charm books that she'd borrowed from the library. When she returned, they first-year Gryffindors all helped her look through different books, finding and working out as they went the charms and countercharms that she'd need to know to get them through the door.

As they worked, the common room emptied around them until only the eight first years remained. Just as they were getting ready to file down to Amos's office, Andromeda came through the portrait hole, fresh from her shift on hallway patrol. Lily cringed, knowing that Andromeda would realize that they were up to something. What were they going to do now? There'd be no way that she would let them out if she knew what they were up to.

"The only prefects on duty right now are Joshua and I, and the Slytherins," Andromeda said, making a face. "The Slytherins are out on the grounds right now, and Mrs. Norris is, shall we say, indisposed in a broom closet for the moment. Filch went into Hogsmeade tonight, so you shouldn't have to worry about him. I'm going to go back to patrolling the hallways. If anyone comes in your direction, I'll deflect them. Joshua is going to stay outside of Gryffindor tower, and let you out and back in. If you stick to the route that we went over yesterday, you should make it down to Amos's classroom with very little trouble. But like I said before, if you get caught—"

Black smiled and gave his cousin a hug. "We know, we know. You know nothing. I wouldn't have you lose your prefect badge for me, Andy. It'd make mum entirely too happy."

Andromeda grimaced. "You've got a point, there. All right, I'll let Joshua know you're ready, and he'll be through momentarily." She headed back out the portrait hole, leaving Lily to stare at the others in amazement.

"When did she…? But how did you…?" she sputtered.

"I told you Andy used to be fun," Black said, shrugging. "I just had to remind her of it a little. And once Andy was in, Joshua gave us his full support. He's such a trouble-maker, I have no idea how he ever got a prefect badge, truthfully. Neither of them took as much convincing as you did, Evans."

"Yes, Evans will make a great prefect one day," Potter said with a knowing-nod.

Lily was just about to retort when the portrait hole swung open and Joshua climbed through. "Let's get going. The fat lady isn't going to like me interrupting her every five minutes to let you all in and out, so the quicker we make this, the better!"

"All right, who's first?" Black said, looking around.

"I'll take Alice and Frank for the first run," Potter said, "they can station themselves in their lookout posts, and then I'll come back for two more." The three of them slipped under the invisibility cloak and out the door after Joshua. A few minutes later, Potter returned, and took Amelia and Black, then Lupin and Pettigrew. Finally, only Lily remained in the common room. She paced about nervously, going over wand movements and incantations in her head. She sincerely hoped that they knew every charm that Amos put on his office. If there was one they weren't aware of—or if she did an incantation wrong—he might have rigged it to set off an alarm or warn him in some other way.

Long before she was ready, the portrait hole swung open, and Potter climbed through. "All right, everyone's in place, waiting for you to unseal the door. Let's not leave them waiting. Are you ready?" He held out his hand to help her out. Lily ignored it and crawled into the opening and under the invisibility cloak without assistance.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she said, breathing deeply and ignoring the butterflies swarming through her tummy. They walked in silence, taking a route to Amos's classroom that Lily did not know. When they arrived, Potter shut the door quietly behind them, and the others all crawled out from their hiding spots beneath desks and in closets. Potter handed Alice the invisibility cloak, and she, Amelia and Frank all slipped under it quickly. The door to the classroom swung open noiselessly, and then shut with a click. They all watched the door shut, and then all save Black turned back to Lily. Black was already busily replacing the chalk setting on the easel of the blackboard.

"Time to work your magic, Evans," Potter whispered. Lily nodded, and pulled out her wand and the list of the charms Amos had on his door, along with the countercharms they'd written beside it. She slowly approached the door, breathing deeply as she went. She began quickly going through the incantations, making sure to do them in order, as she had to remove the charms in the opposite order in which Amos performed them. Frank had previously assured her that he didn't do them in a different order every night, but she still couldn't help but be a little frightened that maybe Amos had sensed something was going to happen, and had switched up his routine that night. At last, all of the protection charms on their list had been removed, and all that remained between them and Amos's office, as far as they knew, was a locked door. "Alohomora," Lily said quietly, waving her wand at the lock. The lock clicked and she slowly reached toward the doorknob and turned it, giving it a little push as she did so. The Marauders now crowded around her, all four of them holding their breaths and watching intently.


The door swung open, and Lily let out a sigh of relief. Potter and Black whooped quietly and high-fived, while Lupin and Pettigrew led the way inside. Black began carefully going through Amos's supplies, pulling out chalk and replacing it with the joke chalk, while Pettigrew pulled down Amos's tea-jar, and started splitting open tea bags with his wand. She and Lupin began searching the shelves for books that looked like they might hold a clue about the parchment, or Frank's dad. Lupin found one and pulled it down from the shelf, setting it on Amos's desk to peruse. Potter, meanwhile, had opened the sack that he was carrying, and had begun attaching what looked like little balloons to Amos's cabinets, desk, and shelves. Lily paused momentarily to watch. "What are you setting out, Potter?" she whispered.

Potter grinned wickedly. "Time-release shrinking dung-bombs," he said, attaching another one. "I've got them staggered to go off every few hours, starting tomorrow morning. And the best part is, with a tap of a wand, they shrink so that they aren't visible to the naked eye." Potter then pulled out his wand. As he tapped each balloon in turn, it immediately began shrinking until Lily could not see it anymore. "So no matter how hard he looks, he won't find them!"

Black snickered, and walked over to Amos's desk. "One of my more brilliant ideas," he said without the least trace of modesty. He began shuffling through Amos's quills, replacing them with some from his bag.

"And what are those?" she asked, still looking for a book that appeared to offer some insight into the disappearance of Frank's dad. This proved rather difficult, as they had no idea what the subject of the stolen book might be.

"Exploding quills," he said, his eyes twinkling. "Simple, yet effective. We're hoping that they explode while he's taking role tomorrow."

Lily shook her head and began flipping through a book that she thought looked promising. "How do you have time to do all of this, and get your homework done, too?" she asked finally, her curiosity overcoming her reluctance to show any sort of approval of the Marauder's antics.

"We work together," Potter said with a shrug. He pulled out some papers of Amos's and began shuffling through them. "Every one of us is really good at a different subject, and we tutor—" Potter paused and bent down over one of the papers. When he looked up, the mischievous glint was gone from his eyes. "Come here you guys, you have to see this," he said quietly.

Lily walked over to where he was standing, and looked over his shoulder to read. Scribbled in handwriting that she didn't recognize were four words that sent a shiver down her spine. "Find the missing page," she read aloud. Black paused during his quill replacement, and Pettigrew looked up from where he was now packing the last teabags into Amos's jar.

"The page must be important," Black said quietly.

"But this means Amos is helping—," Lily began. She was cut off by a voice coming from Black's robes.

"Sirius, you'd better get out of there. Andy just warned us that the Slytherin prefects are coming back from outside." Lily's heart began hammering wildly in her chest. Black pulled the mirror out of his robes.

"We're just finishing up anyway," Black said, slipping the note into his pocket. "Come on you guys, let's move." Lily and Lupin quickly put away the books that they were looking at, and they ran out of the office. Lily re-sealed the door, and they walked quickly and quietly out of the classroom.

"Evans," Potter said, "you go with Bones, Parker and Frank under the invisibility cloak. Remmy, Petey, Siri and I know an alternative route back to the common room. We'll see you when you get back."

At this, Frank lifted the cloak, and Lily scurried under. They wished the Marauders luck, and slowly walked back to the common room. When they arrived, Joshua let them in.  As the portrait swung shut behind them, they saw that the Marauders were not yet back, so they each chose a seat facing the portrait hole and waited, not speaking. Lily thought it would be better to tell Frank, Alice and Amelia what they'd found once the boys had returned. After a short time, the portrait hole opened, and the Marauders came barreling through as though someone were pushing them. "Out at this time of night! What were you thinking?" a familiar voice behind them was shrieking. "No, don't worry, Malfoy. I'll take care of this! And if you don't mention this to anybody, what I saw tonight will remain our little secret."

Andromeda emerged behind the boys, looking furious. When the portrait swung closed behind them, however, her expression changed from fury to amusement. "Did you get it all done, then?" she asked no one in particular.

Pettigrew let out a small yelp, and toppled into a chair. "That Malfoy bloke scares me," he said faintly.

"Everybody scares you, Pete," Black said sardonically. "But the prank went off just as planned," he added, bowing in Andromeda's direction.

"Well, not quite as planned," Lupin said placidly. "I don't think we intended to get caught by Malfoy. It's a good thing that you were there, Andromeda, or he'd have hexed us into next month!"


Potter laughed. "Okay, so getting caught by Malfoy wasn't part of the plan. But Andy was brilliant, wasn't she? Convincing Malfoy that she'd handle it and if he said a word about it to anybody, she'd tell Narcissa a little secret…" Potter grinned. "You could be a Marauder, Andy," he said.

Andromeda tried not to look pleased at this. "Well," she said briskly, "don't expect my help again if you guys ever decide to try another stunt as suicidal as this one." She grinned at them. "All the same, I'm glad you pulled it off. Amos has been making life miserable for students for too long, and it's about time he had some of his own medicine." She yawned, and stood up from where she had been perching on the side of a chair. "I expect that you all will want to debrief Frank, Alice and Amelia, so I'm going up to bed now. Good night!" She turned and headed toward the girls' dormitory.

"Good night!" they all called out after her. The three boys who were still standing collapsed into chairs, and they quickly began filling Alice, Amelia and Frank in on what they'd found. After they had finished, they all sat quietly, lost in their thoughts.

"So you think…," Alice said finally, breaking the silence. "You think that Amos is working for the dark wizard?"

Lily and Potter shrugged at the same time. "That's what it looks like," Potter said heavily. "And they must need the missing page, which means that we're all in danger. Snape knows—,"

Lily slumped back in her chair. Everything right now felt so surreal. There was a dark wizard who apparently wasn't afraid to torture and kill people. Frank's dad had been kidnapped to help him. They had an important piece to the puzzle, but couldn't read it. And now, one of their teachers might be helping this wizard. It was too much to take in, and at the moment, she was in no mood to listen to Potter talking about how evil Snape was. "Oh for pity's sake!" Lily snapped, her exhaustion getting the better of her. "You don't even know for sure if he knows anything about the book and the missing page. And even if he does, he wouldn't know about the invisibility cloak, so why would he suspect that we were down that passageway? Just because you don't like him doesn't mean he's working for some dark wizard!"

Potter glared at her. "Just because you DO like him," he said angrily, "doesn't mean he isn't, either."

Lily didn't bother to correct him. She didn't know Snape well enough to have an opinion of him, honestly, but she didn't much feel like convincing Potter of that just now. Lupin reached out a hand and set it on Potter's shoulder at the same time as she felt Amelia's hand on hers. Lily took a deep breath, trying to calm down, and she could see Potter struggling to do the same. "Well we're certainly not going to decide the issue by arguing about it tonight," Lupin said calmly, with a glance between Lily and Potter. "As Lily said, we don't know for sure whether he even knows about the missing page. However, he could know about the cloak from the night that they attacked Alice. So therefore, we need to find out what, if anything, Snape knows about this dark wizard and his plan."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Lily asked, still bristling from Potter's comment about Snape. She saw Alice and Amelia exchange glances of amusement.

"We could corner Snape and hex it out of him," Black said, his eyes lighting up at the thought.

The girls all cast a dirty glance in his direction, though Potter looked at Black thoughtfully. "That's an idea, Siri," he said, a small grin playing at the corners of his mouth.

"Oh, that's brilliant!" Lily said sarcastically. "Hex it out of him. That way if he didn't know anything about it before, he most certainly would after that. Idiots!"

Lupin smiled at Lily. "You're right about that, Lily," he concurred. Potter and Black looked at him in outrage, but this just seemed to make him chuckle.  "Well, she's right, Siri.  That's exactly the kind of thinking that's behind your losing streak in chess, too."  Pettigrew and Potter both laughed at this, but Black continued to glower.

"There's not much that we CAN do at this point, is there?" Amelia said finally. "Because everything we could try to do would alert Malfoy and his cronies that we know about the book. They're stupid, but not that stupid."

"So then," Pettigrew said hesitantly, "what do we do?"

Frank spoke up quietly. "Keep our ears open, like Dumbledore suggested," he said. "And be careful."

"Precisely," Lupin said, nodding. "Now if you all don't mind, I'm exhausted."

"When aren't you?" Black asked, standing and stretching. The Marauders and Frank all laughed, and began to walk toward their dorm.

"Good night, ladies," Potter said, turning around and waving. "Evans," he added. She glared at him, and he grinned, turning and running to catch up with the others.

"Let's get some sleep," Alice said, yawning. She stood up and began walking toward the girls' staircase. Amelia and Lily followed her to their room, Lily still fuming over Potter's arrogance.