Chapter 7 ~ Planning

The prefects' bathroom was enormous. Muriel looked around, impressed. It was nearly curfew, but she couldn't sleep, and the Hufflepuff prefect had mentioned the veritable swimming pool in here after the last meeting. Mur had decided to give it a try. She needed some time to think.

She peeled off her robes. It was a co-ed bathroom, so she'd brought along a tee-shirt and shorts borrowed from Vanessa. She herself didn't own any muggle clothes, except her blue jeans. On the wall behind the tub was a picture of a mermaid, who sniggered at her clothes while she tried out the many taps surrounding the tub.

Muriel was in no mood to be laughed at. She turned to the picture. One tap still spouted bubbles that bounced off the surface of the water. "What are you supposed to be, exactly?" she asked the image scathingly.

"I'm a mermaid, stupid," the blond haired, fish tailed beauty answered.

"You are not! I've seen merpeople in the lake behind my house and you don't look anything like them. You're a siren, aren't you?!" The picture blinked at her angrily.

"So what if I am?"

"So sing something." Muriel threw herself backward in the water as the tub filled up and swam a few strokes. That Hufflepuff girl was right, this was a really nice bathroom. The siren started singing and Mur dove under the water. It sounded a lot better from under there, though it wasn't nearly as bad as the true merpeople's voices above water.

She tried out all the taps, then left on any that had purple bubbles. And several did. After nearly a month of silence, Severus had apologized for leaving her alone in the Slytherin dungeons, and it looked like he was still going to take her out for Valentine's day next weekend. But he never, ever mentioned Remus.

Mur had noticed that Remus and Sirius never walked together to class, or sat together at meals, and she was pretty sure that this was because Black had never apologized. Several times she had wondered how she could help Remus understand that it just wasn't in his nature to do so. James and Peter had been spending extra time with Remus, but he still seemed lonely. Oddly enough they were all so caught up with their own problem that they hadn't bothered to hex her for weeks, which was very relaxing. Potter hadn't laid off Sev any, though. If anything, their pranks on him had only gotten worse. Severus and James had both gone to Madam Pomfrey just last Tuesday with gashes in their arms from a spell Severus should never have used. Now Potter knew the spell too, and he'd thrown it back at Sev before he quite realized what it did. They'd both had detention for a week.

She was startled out of her thoughts by the opening of the bathroom door. Lily appeared, looking harried. She stopped short when she saw Muriel already using the tub.

"Sorry!" she said, turning to go.

"It's alright, there's room for two," Mur said quickly. It would be nice to have someone to talk to. Lily grinned and shrugged out of her robe. She had a brightly colored set of underwear on and Muriel looked away quickly.

"It's a muggle bathing suit," Lily explained, easing into the water. "People see me in it all summer long." Muriel smiled a little.

"And you don't mind that your boobs hang out like that?" Though they were only 15, Lily was already filling out nicely, and her bathing suit was designed to make the most of it.

"Actually, the trick in buying a bathing suit is to make sure that they DO hang out like this." Both girls laughed.

They swam for a while, splashing and laughing. "How are the boys? They've stopped hexing me, and that usually means something's wrong," Mur asked after a while. She had her elbows on the ledge and was kicking her feet to make a fountain.

Lily swam over. "They're all really upset with Sirius. Something happened at Christmas between him and Remus, and James and Peter sided with Remus."

Muriel snorted. "I'll bet they did. Do you know what happened?" She could sense that Lily didn't want to tell her everything. Then, as Lily tried to decide just what to tell her, Muriel realized that she knew Remus' secret. "Sirius told Sev how to get into the passageway under the willow, and he saw Remus on the full moon," she supplied, before Lily had a chance to come up with a feasible lie.

"You know?"

Muriel nodded, then told a little white lie. "Noticed when he was ill and checked the lunar charts. That's how you figured it out, too, isn't it?" Lily nodded as well. "I don't think we should tell them that we know, but maybe together we can help them out."

Lily was a little surprised that Mur wanted to help the marauders with anything.

"Remus and I have been friends since first year," Mur explained. "He's looked absolutely dejected for the last month and a half." But the image of misery that flashed through her head wasn't of Remus; it was of Sirius, sitting with Wood at meals because his best mates were ignoring him.

"What should we do?" Lily asked quietly. She was looking at the picture of the siren, who was still humming for them, and had her back to the door. But at that moment, Muriel saw the door open and close.

"Wait," she hissed, making Lily jump. She followed her friend's gaze to the door, but nothing was there. Muriel jumped out of the water and grabbed her wand, shouting a warning.

"If this door opens again, I'm going to blow it and anyone near it to bits," she said dangerously. Then she turned to Lily, unwilling to give away her knowledge.

"Lil? Did anyone follow you down here?"

"Potter, but he follows me everywhere."

"James Potter. He doesn't own an invisibility cloak, does he?" Muriel turned back to Lily, who was shaking her head slowly. But Muriel already knew that he did.

"I don't think – "

Beside her a huge geyser of water shot up to the ceiling. It held Muriel's attention for a moment too long, and by the time she turned back to the door, it was falling softly closed. She swore.

"I'll bet you anything that was Potter," Mur said, placing a locking charm on the door and jumping back in the water. "Well, he can't get back in now, so let me tell you the plan."