-Chapter 5-

-The Ghostly Queen-

"Christmas isn't too far away is it?" Remus mumbled, distractedly. He was too entranced with the way the snow was falling.

"Yeah not too far . . Moony?" James tried to get Remus' attention. James had gotten tangled in his robe and was about to topple over when Peter Pettigrew saw what was happening, and rushed over to help James into his robe.

"I've done this for six years," James grumbled. "You would think I know how to do this."

Suddenly the dormitory door burst open, and Sirius Black burst with it, panting heavily.

"The-the ghosts!"

"What about the ghosts?" Peter asked.

"They have all gone haywire!"

"What?" queried Remus, he was back to the world of Hogwarts now.

"Just come see!" said a very excited Sirius.

The boys quickly finished dressing and made their beds, "School policy" Peter reminded them, and ran down to Great Hall. Ghosts were decorating the Great Hall in their spooky decorations with a passion.

"What is going on?" came a booming voice as professor Dumbledore entered the Great Hall. A gallant ghost named Sir Carlos III came gliding over to answer Dumbledore's request.

"Oh gracious and mighty sir!" exclaimed the ghost, bowing and making an effort to hold on his head. "It will be the Hogwarts ghosts great honor to welcome the queen."

"The queen?" wondered Dumbledore; he didn't look too sure about a ghost queen.

"Yes, oh headmaster sir! A queen of England, who needed revenge so badly upon the people who wronged her, she became a ghost in order to fulfill that need!"

"Whom might this queen be?"

"Why none other than the second wife of King Henry VIII."

"The second wife?"

"Yes, sir. He had six wives in all." A small gasp passed the lips of the first years.

"And her name is?" Dumbledore said, a slight bit harsher than he meant.

"Queen Anne Boleyn." Now a gasp passed every living being's lips. Everyone started to whisper excitedly.

"Wasn't she a witch?"

"How could she be?"

"Did we even study her in History of Magic?"

Then some of the living beings also realized how the school would look dingy to a former queen, but it was time for classes to begin. No one ate breakfast that morning; no one cared, except Remus Lupin.

"I'm so hungry I could eat a whole stag!" he grumbled.

"Moony . . . do NOT get any ideas!" James warily exclaimed. That drew a laugh from all four friends. As Remus saw Severus Snape pass them in the hall he said with a grin, "or I could eat a Snape -er- I mean snake." The boys laughed louder than ever at that drawing many puzzled looks from their fellow students.

~-~-~-~-~-~

Lily awoke five minutes late. Never before had she been late!

"It's only five minutes," she griped at herself. Everyone else had deserted the dormitory and from what Lily could tell, they left in a hurry.

"I'm always a sound-sleeper when I don't want to be!" she griped again.

After Lily got dressed and made her bed, "School Policy," she reminded herself, she noticed the snow falling from the September sky.

"Snow? In September!?" Wow we are in for a cold winter!" As she left the dorm, Sirius Black raced past her and up the stairs.

"Hi Lily, bye Lily!"

"Yeah you too," she called back.

Lily wasn't feeling like breakfast today, so she had decided to go read a random book in the library. When she got there it was very, very deserted. No one was in there, not even the mistress of the library, Madame le Pomp.

Something was going on.

Lily picked her random book, Hogwarts, A History. Not what she would have picked for herself, but it worked. She laid the book on a table and read until the warning bell. She left a note for Madame le Pomp saying she had borrowed the book. She slipped the book into her backpack and left.

Lily hop-skipped her way down to Transfiguration. A sight greeted her equally strange as no one in the library. Professor McGonagall was not standing behind her desk, and there were NO students at all in the room.

"How curious," her voice reverberated in the empty classroom. Then a sound came that scared her, thousands of feet running down the hallways, it also echoed in the room, sounding like a hundred-thousand feet! Lily saw the rush outside the door from her seat. Quickly the other sixth year Gryffindors trickled into the room.

She caught scatterings of their excited chatter.

"-Dumbledore's mad-"

"-Boleyn, I've heard-"

"-Ghosts are insane-"

"-the queen get here?"

None of it made sense to Lily. Then the four friends entered the classroom. They had long been dubbed "The Marauders" by a few of the professors, but they seemed to like that title, so they kept it. Lily knew they would be up to date on whatever everyone was talking about.

"Remus!" she shouted over the din.

"What?" he shouted back.

"What's all this about the ghosts?"

"You don't know?" yelled Sirius, the boys usually answered for each other. "A ghost queen is coming to Hogwarts."

"A what?" said Lily, incredulous.

"A-GHOST-QUEEN!" this time it was James who answered, or shouted.

The bell rang, and the confusion continued. There was no Professor McGonagall to shut them up. Somehow, even she didn't know, Lily found Maggie. They wormed their way through the crowd to a corner.

"Okay. Tell me. What's this about a ghost queen?"

"The ghost are decorating Great Hall," she said. "Did you notice the snow? What's up with that?"

"I don't know."

After half an hour of waiting for McGonagall, the students went back to their common room. It was a much-needed change after waiting in the chilly classroom. Lily and Maggie joined the Marauders in their corner of the room. They were whispering and scribbling something on a new piece of parchment.

"And just what are you boys doing?" asked Maggie, striding up, with Lily, to the boys.

James grabbed the parchment and hid it behind his back. "Nothing."

"Someone got their hand caught in the cookie jar!" laughed Lily.

"Go away girls. This is official Marauders business," Sirius said, very serious.

The girls glanced at each other and burst with laughter. It wasn't long before Remus smiled; the girl's laughter was contagious. Then he gave up controlling it and laughed too. James and Peter joined in, Sirius glared at them all.

"I was serious."

"We know!" laughed Peter.

"Come on guys," giggled Lily. "What are you making?"

Then the boys became serious. They exchanged glances, obviously they were deciding if they could trust Lily and Maggie. Their eyes finally settled on James, he would be the deciding vote.

"You promise to never, ever, tell another soul anything you hear from us?"

"Yes." Lily said.

"Yes." Maggie echoed.

He beckoned them closer and they formed a circle around the table. James revealed the parchment. It was a blank, new piece of paper.

"What's so secret about that?" asked Maggie.

"Watch." James took his wand and touched it to the paper.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Quite suddenly a map appeared on the paper. Maggie gasped as she realized what they were looking at . . .a map of Hogwarts.

"Where did you get that!?" she said, really loud.

"Shhh! Were making it," said Peter. "Were not done yet."

"Who came up with the opening line?" Lily was curious. The boys pointed at Sirius. He blushed and made a comment about it not being a good map if it doesn't have a good opening line. They laughed at that, making Sirius turn a deeper shade of crimson.

In order to divert some of the attention away from himself he said, "Remus has come up with the spell in order to only let us write on it."

"Great. It's a map," commented Lily. "There are plenty of those! What makes this one so special?"

"Were adding another feature!" said Peter excitedly.

"What?"

"People."

"People? How can you add in people?"

The boys smiled, glad to get a chance to show off, "By creating a tracking spell."

"By creating a spell?"

" Oh Yeah."

Then the you-can-leave-class-now bell rung and the common room emptied.

The sixth year Gryffindors were happy about their next class, History of Magic. Well, they were happy TODAY because now they had something to actually BE interested in. All were planning on asking about the former queen of England.

The ghostly form of Professor Binns was hovering at his podium. His ghostly eyes looked up to reveal his rowdiest class, sitting in their seats, hands folded and all eyes on him.

If he were human he would have had a heart attack.

"Good morning class," his ghostly voice wavered with fear.

"Good morning Professor Binns," they chorused in sync.

He was as unnerved as he could become. Had someone died? What was going on? He decided on turning his back on the students and starting to write notes on the chalkboard. The scratch of the chalk echoed in the silent room. He sighed, set the chalk down and turned to face the class again.

They were all still staring at him. He started to shiver, and decided to say something.

"Well," he wavered. "What is going on?"

Every hand shot up and all voices started echoing the same question about the Queen Anne.

"Wait!" He raised his hands to silence the clamor. "If you are so curious about a former muggle queen of England . . .. I want you all to do research. By next Tuesday I want a 24 inch, or more, parchment on whatever you can find!"

Whatever groans he had expected did not come. There were only smiles on the faces of his students . . .Have I done something that they actually like? he thought.

He was quite shaken, which rarely happens. He decided to give the students leave to go to the library for research. They rushed from the room, and as he fell into his chair, Professor Binns wondered how many of his sixth year Gryffindors actually went to the library.

~-~-~-~-~-~

"Have any of you found out anything yet?"

"Nothing here Sirius." Maggie replied, distractedly.

Maggie kept flipping through the "You Thought They Were Muggles, But Did They Fool You!; Famous Persons Edition" and was finding nothing. Lily sighed as she flipped through "The Monarchy of Wizardry" she also was finding not a thing.

Maggie looked around to see how the others were progressing. Maggie already knew Sirius was just standing there staring into the abyss, James was intently searching through a thick book, and Remus was sleeping propped up on his elbow. She hid her laughter as his elbow slipped off the desk and he jerked awake. He was so cute when he was bewildered.

Maggie caught that thought, and held it. She realized she had just called Remus Lupin cute. Well, he IS... she finally admitted to herself. She sighed and shook her head clear of the thought.

Maggie continued searching through the book. She looked at everything from "Monarchy" to "Mistresses" to "Queens". Nothing was said about Anne Boleyn. Maggie got an idea to look in another book called "Were They Really?" It told her that it is very hard to find any thing out about dead magical persons.

"No duh." She said under her breath.

"What?"

Maggie's attention was not caught by the quiet question. Remus leaned over and gently shook her shoulder to get it. Maggie looked up and blushed.

That thought was returning . . .

"Yes?"

"What did you say?" he queried.

"Oh! The book was repeating that it's hard to find information about dead magical persons."

"Well," came Lily's two cents. "That's quite obvious. I'm going back to the common room." She carried off her three books, returned one to the shelf and checked out the other two. Madame Le Pomp was reading a very risqué looking book, obviously a muggle romance novel. Madame Le Pomp noticed Lily standing there and turned a shade of crimson, her large hoop earrings tinkled as she wrote Lily's name down and the two books she was checking out.

"They need to be back in three weeks." She said in her gaudy voice.

"Yes ma'am."

When Lily turned to go to the common room, she glanced at the table The Marauders and Maggie were sitting at. Maggie looked very flushed. Maybe she is sick, Lily thought.

She didn't think about it any more and headed back to the common room. As she passed through the chilly castle, Severus Snape approached her.

"I - uh" he fumbled.

"Yes?" Lily asked in her sweetest voice. She didn't want to talk to him, especially after last year when she stood up for him and then he went and insulted her.

She let her green eyes sparkle and stood up a little bit straighter. She knew what Severus was trying to do, and she would make him work for it.

"I just wanted to say-"

"Uh-huh." He looks like he will be sick, she observed. Good.

"To say-" he choked.

This time Lily kept her mouth quiet, now he had to work to get a response.

Severus took a deep breath and made up his mind. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Lily said, the picture of innocence.

"For not stopping Lucius and calling you a Mudblood." 'Even though you ARE one . . .' he thought to himself.

"Are you REALLY sorry?"

"Yes." His mind was set. Lily thanked him for his concern. She gave him a smile and walked on to the Gryffindor Tower. Severus stood there bewildered. What had gotten into him? It was because Lucius wasn't here to tell him how to act towards Gryffindors.

Besides, Severus thought, Lily is so gorgeous.

He realized he had actually thought it. That one thought he knew he shouldn't think. She is a Gryffindor Mudblood! Oh if only Lucius knew what he was thinking, he would have so many hexes to ward off . . . He punished himself mentally and continued to slink through the hall.

He was unaware of the pair of hazel eyes that had watched the confession.

(End Chapter 5)

(For Tara and Sabra, they actually sought out my fic.)