"Let the games begin!"
"I can't believe I let him talk me into this…" Lily muttered. She and James were standing in the crowd of all the Hogwarts students. Not a single one of them was as excited as Sirius, obviously. Actually, a couple looked like they were about to make an assassination attempt. Luckily for Sirius, that was when the game started. Sadly, he and May were going to be it, so people couldn't not play.
There was a mad dash as people ran for the best spots. Lily wasn't sure why they bothered, Sirius was a Marauder, and the Marauders knew this school inside and out.
As for herself, she was on a team with a Marauder. The leader of the Marauders, no less. So, this could be interesting.
"So Lilykins, where do you want to hide?"
Scratch that. This was going to be pure hell.
Really.
"Why don't you tell me Potter? I'm not the one who roams the school in the middle of the night." She snapped.
They were the only ones left in the Great Hall, with the exception of May and Sirius, both of whom were sitting at the Gryffindor table with their heads on red and gold pillows. From here she could faintly hear numbers being muttered into the velvet.
She even managed a slight grin when Sirius draped his arm over May's shoulders and she whacked him over the head. James chuckled at the sight and then turned back to face her.
"True. Hmm… I know a couple places we could hide. But…"
"But what Potter?! If I have to play this stupid game I would prefer it if we weren't the first ones found!" Lily growled.
He nodded along to her words thoughtfully.
"Alright, I've got an idea. We need to make a detour on the way though. To the Gryffindor Tower!"
"To the Gryffindor Tower." Lily echoed glumly and settled for walking behind her life long enemy. She tried as hard as she could to ignore him, but, it is very hard to ignore a teenage boy who was skipping down a hallway singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. She shuddered and put her hands over her ears.
"Edgar the Unsanitary!" James shouted out cheerfully to the Fat Lady, who gave him a weird look before swinging open to admit them. With a suppressed sigh Lily followed him.
And promptly had a heart attack.
Sitting in her favorite chair by the fire, was Lucius Malfoy, and beside him, on a red couch, was Severus Snape. They didn't seem too preoccupied with hiding. She figured that they hoped they would be found soon so they could get this over with.
What surprised her even more was the fact that James saw them, gave them a cheery wave and bounded up the staircase to the Boys Dormitories. He motioned for her to follow him. As she didn't want to be stuck alone with two Slytherins, she complied, albeit reluctantly.
She stepped into the sixth year's dorm room and fought back the urge to gag. It stunk to the high heavens. Lily wasn't really surprised, considering who lived in the room. There were clothes, and books, and prank supplies flung everywhere. Just to stand in the room she had to shift three layers of filth.
"Don't the house elves ever clean in here?!" She demanded, holding her nose with one hand.
"Nope." James said airily. "They got frightened off the second week into first year when they tried to sort out my trunk. Three or four of them had their eyebrows scorched off. They haven't been back since. We think they clean it every summer." He was digging through his trunk wildly, spreading even more stuff everywhere.
Lily cringed and gave up trying to ward of the stink, nothing worked. She lowered her hand to her side with a sigh of defeat and looked around. There was garbage, more garbage, a dungbomb or two, and, you guessed it, some more garbage.
"Aha!" He exclaimed. He pulled a wrinkled piece off parchment from the pocket of an extremely wrinkled cloak that looked like it hadn't seen the light of day for quite sometime now. He looked at the cloak curiously. "I wonder how it got there…"
"What exactly is it Potter?" She asked wearily. "Why the hell did we come here for a worthless piece of old parchment?"
He held a hand over his heart. "Lilykins! How could you say that?! This is much more than a worthless piece of old parchment! Observe." He held out the ragged parchment and pointed his wand at it. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good!"
Lily watched in amazement as lines spread rapidly across the page.
"What the hell is that thing?" She breathed, still watching.
"This, my dear Lilykins, is the Marauders Map. And we are going to use it to win this game!"
