Hey guys! Thanks for all my reviews! I hope this chapter was updated
quicker then most of the others. Well enjoy!
~*~Mystical Dreams
Chapter 13: The Keepers of Secrets.
Remus sat chewing his nails nervously on his bed in the boy's dorms.
"You don't think he knows?" he asked doubtfully.
"Course he doesn't know! No one knows accept for us and the girls" Sirius flippantly.
"Sirius I'm being serious!"
Sirius grinned and opened his mouth to say something but James cut him off.
"Please, spare us the reply; we've heard it at least a million times"
Remus sat in silent thought for a while before asking hesitantly, "Do you think Lily would've-"
"No" James cut him off abruptly.
"Yeah but you'd say that just to-" Sirius started.
"No I wouldn't"
James said this so seriously and firmly that they knew he was speaking the truth. Remus wouldn't have normally suspected Lily but Hagrid finding the marks and Dumbledore staring at him so intently with those misty blue eyes and then covering for him had made him extremely uneasy.
"Look Rem, he can't know, we've been covering it up so thoroughly not even an Auror could pick it up" Sirius said as he sat down on James' bed across from him.
"With exception of the marks" James added, "And somehow I don't think we'll be using them again"
Remus hesitated, and then replied desperately, "But what if he does know!"
There was no need to discuss why he felt so guilty. They all new that if Dumbledore found that they were animagi, and that they roamed around with Remus at full moon, that their friend would never forgive himself. Remus had expressed his feelings to them when they came up with the idea of becoming animagi in the first place; he felt he was betraying Dumbledore's trust.
"Well if he knows about us there's not much we can do now, is there?" James said heavily.
Sirius sighed and drummed his fingers on the bed post. Remus jumped as he heard the tapping and his eyes immediately snapped towards the door, as if expecting Dumbledore to stride through it and tell him to pack his things and leave straight away.
Sirius saw his friends' edgy behavior and decided that this definitely wasn't the time to tell him that he had seen Snape staring at him with a look that suggested he had just won a Triwizard tournament when Hagrid had announced his findings.
"Look, like Prongs said, we can't do anything about it now, if he knows, he knows" Sirius said reasonably, "Let's go and get the girls and do something; get your mind off it for a while"
Remus looked at him grimly but as his friend cracked a trade marked marauder grin and exclaimed that there was no one else anyone would rather be with then him, Remus had to smile and obliged.
Ten minutes later found James and Remus sitting in the common room, watching Sirius' failed attempts at trying to get the girls' attention by yelling up the dormitory stairs.
"IO ANNIE!!" he shouted, even with a sonorous charm on, but not one voice yelled back.
"Merlin, they must be deaf" James stated.
"Deaf or deafened" Remus said dryly, sticking his fingers in his ears as Sirius opened his mouth to yell again.
Sirius finally gave up, slumping into an armchair next to James.
"Looks like the chicks are going to have to miss this one as they seem to be deaf and slash or dumb" Sirius said, "Boys night out, what do you say?"
"Aye!" both chorused, but as they did so, a curious face swept around the edge of the girls stairs.
"You calling me?" Annie asked. Her black hair was wet and her face rather red.
"Yeah, took you bloody long enough!" Sirius exclaimed, rising from his seat.
Andromeda rolled her eyes.
"We were having showers; we never would have heard you over the water"
"Then you must be showering in a monsoon because I had a sonorous charm on and was shouting" Sirius said stiffly.
"Maybe you just don't shower properly Sirius; girls care a lot more about their appearance then boys"
At this, Andromeda actually stared pointedly at James' hair.
James unconsciously ruffled it.
"What! I can't help it, it's naturally like that!"
Sirius spluttered.
"I take a lot of care in my appearance thank you very much!"
"Yeah, we know, that's clearly expressed by how long you take in the bathroom of a morning" Remus said amusedly, and then added, "Looking at yourself in the mirror"
Andromeda snorted.
"What? Now I'm not manly enough hey?!" Sirius exclaimed, "Anything else you want to criticize me about or can I actually say what I yelled for you for the last half hour for?"
Andromeda smiled and replied in a sickly sweet voice.
"Yes, you may"
Sirius rolled his eyes.
"I have a proposition"
"Does it involve you giving me money?"
"No"
"Oh, ok then, bye!"
"Annie!"
Andromeda smirked playfully, and then sighed, as if he was ruining all her fun.
"Alright then, what is it?"
"Because of recent events we need to liven some things up around here" he said evenly, "You wanna play a game?"
Andromeda eyed him suspiciously.
"And what sort of game would that be?"
"Don't look at me like that! I'm only suggesting!" Sirius said defensively as Andromeda's piercing gaze bored into him.
"Oh yes, but I know very well what some of your 'games' turn out like"
Sirius grinned, "Like the time when we played hide and seek and I locked Bella into the cupboard"
Andromeda smirked, "Serves her right for being so gullible"
"So, you going to play or not?"
"I guess so" she shrugged, "but with one condition"
"What's that?"
"Absolutely no spin the bottle"
"But that's one of my favourites!"
"I know, but imagine if it fell on you and me"
Sirius made a face that was a cross between utter horror and gruesome.
"Point taken" he said quickly.
"Well I'll go and get the others" she said turning her head around the wall, "But you'll have to wait a few"
"Awe, why?" Sirius said, pouting impatiently and sticking out his bottom lip.
"Because we have our pajama's on and need to change"
All the boys rolled their eyes.
"I think you've seen us in our pj's at least a million times now Annie"
"Yes well, I don't really care but I know Lily and Miria will, plus, it won't take that long"
"With woman, it always does" James stated.
"Well I'm sorry but you don't know what it's like to have to shave your legs, wax or pluck your eyebrows, file your nails, comb your hair, try and keep reasonably skinny, put on makeup and put up with a certain something every month just so we can look pretty for you, and then what do we get back? Complaining!" by this time she was staring James right in the face, only an inch away from his nose. She jammed her finger hard into his chest.
"You wouldn't last one hour as a girl"
However, it was hard for James to take Andromeda seriously as what she was wearing was quite humorous.
Her hair was in a black frizz, falling over her pink duck flannelette pajama's and on her feat stuck two, purple bunny slippers.
James couldn't hold it in any longer. He burst out laughing right in Andromeda's face, who looked down at her bunny slippers immediately and blushed.
"You know Annie, your beginning to sound like a feminist" Remus stated as he too spread an amused smile.
Andromeda scowled.
"I don't know why I even bother" she said haughtily, ignoring her burning cheeks, "You three will never understand the woman race" and with that, she marched back up the stairs in a way that reminded them all horribly of Lily and called over her shoulder.
"We'll be out when we are. You can wait until then"
~*~
Exactly one hour and thirteen minutes later the group Gryffindor sixth years were sitting in a circle in front of the crackling warm fire in the common room.
"Finally" Sirius sighed.
Andromeda gave him a stern look and he just stared back.
"Feminist" he whispered so just she could hear.
Andromeda raised her eyebrows and shrugged him off.
"So, what do you want to do?" Miria asked.
"Well I was thinking-"
"No!" James and Remus cut him off.
"Come on guys, I just want to-"
"No!"
"But there's this really fun game and-"
"No!"
Sirius huffed and slumped down into his armchair.
"You never let me pick the game"
"And for a very good reason" Remus replied.
"All of your 'games' end in disaster" James tagged on.
"That's not true!" Sirius defended.
"What about the time when we played hide and go seek and Peter was in and-"
"He ran straight into a whole bunch of conspiring Slytherins because you told him I was hiding near their common room" James finished Sirius' sentence.
"Oh yeah" Sirius said, smiling at the memory.
"And let's not forget that he got cursed to America and back for supposedly 'spying'"
"Heh" Sirius said weakly, "Oops!"
Remus rolled his eyes.
"Hence the reason why your not picking the game" he finished and then turned to the three girls sitting in front of him.
"So, you got any ideas?"
Miria hesitated for a moment, and then replied.
"What about that Secret Keepers game?"
"Oh yeah, I've played that before" Andromeda said.
Sirius smirked, "So have I"
At this he looked over at Remus who looked reluctantly back at him.
James laughed, "Come on Padfoot, stop having sour grapes, just because you can't tell anyone it"
"Yes, but think of the bribery I could hold against him!" Sirius said exasperatedly.
"Well too bad, you can't" Remus said smugly.
"So how does this game work?" Lily asked; a little embarrassed that she was, once again, one of the only muggle borns there. It didn't usually show that she was a muggle born since she learned so much, but there was only so much you could learn from books.
"Well what happens is" Miria started, "You go around the circle and everyone tells a secret about themselves that no one in the circle knows"
"And then, say, Miria goes first, and she tells a secret that, say, you know, and because she told a secret that you already know, she doesn't get to listen to your secret that you tell everyone about yourself" Andromeda explained.
"But there's a catch" Remus stated.
"Yes. When everyone is done telling their secret, they have to perform a secret keeping charm on themselves so they can't tell anyone else any of the other people who were in the circle's secrets" Miria kept going.
"It's a lot like the fidelius charm, the one they do on Secret Keepers, except a lot simpler" James said.
Lily nodded, if anyone knew charms better then her, she'd be damned.
"Hence the reason why it's called the Secret Keepers game!" Sirius finished with a flourish.
"So, who's in?" James asked.
"Me!" Sirius said immediately.
"I am" Remus agreed with a devilish smile that would shock any of his professors.
"Yep" Miria and Andromeda chimed.
Lily looked at them hesitantly for a moment and then sighed.
"What the hell am I getting myself into" she muttered.
James just grinned.
"Great! Who's going first?"
"All in favor of making Lily go first say Aye" Sirius said.
"Aye!" they all chorused.
"Hey! Why me?"
"Because you're the most attractive" James replied promptly.
"Well thanks" Andromeda, Miria, and Sirius said in unison.
Remus snorted.
"Somehow Padfoot, I don't think Prongs is going to find you attractive"
"Everyone's attracted to me; it's my handsome, boyishly good looks, tall, dark-"
"Oh please!" Andromeda exclaimed, disgusted.
"Get on with the game"
"Alright then!" Sirius said enthusiastically, "tell us your secret Lily- flower"
Lily raised her eyebrows at Sirius' apparent 'nick name' but none the less held her tongue and chose to ignore it.
"OK. . .something that no one here knows. . ." she murmured to herself.
Lily brightened after a moment as she thought of her secret.
"Ok, I've got it" she stated happily, "But you're sure these charms at the end work?"
"Yep! You can perform them if you want" Sirius said.
"And how can I be sure that you don't know a charm that counter-curses it?" she asked, eying the three marauders slyly.
"Well here, I'll try and tell you the secret that Remus told me of his last time I played"
Sirius opened his mouth to utter the words but only managed to get out "When Remus was five he-" before he cut short and his mouth snapped shut for several moments. Only when Remus lifted the spell put on his closed lips could he speak again.
"So there you have it!" he said, as if declaring the end to some spectacular quidditch game.
"Ok then" Lily said, obviously satisfied.
She then proceeded to hitch up her shirt a little and James' eyes grew big.
"That's what I'm talking about!"
"Sod off you pervert!" she snapped.
Lily pulled her shirt up just higher then her belly button and whispered a charm whilst waving her wand over a small spot on her skin.
The others looked on curiously as on her stomach appeared a small, coloured picture.
"I have a tattoo" she said simply as everyone took in the small, curly words encircled by scattered starts on her stomach.
"I only got it just last summer holidays, you can get them the muggle way, but if you drop into Diagon Alley I found one and they put a concealing charm on it for me; my mum would go off her nutter if she found out"
"Sorry I couldn't tell you" she gave an apologetic look to Miria, "but you know how nosy Petunia is"
Miria just waved it away; she was much more intrigued by the unfamiliar words printed on her friends' stomach.
"Magie, Èternelle" she said out loud.
"It's French" Lily confirmed.
Sirius smirked from across the circle.
"It's a bit corny" he commented.
Lily's eyes widened in horror.
"You can read it?!"
"Course I can, 'Tojours Pur' Evans, I've known French since I was five"
Andromeda snorted.
"It's been a while since I've heard that phrase"
"Always Pure" James muttered.
Miria looked on questioningly.
"Black family motto" Andromeda explained, "And I think it's rather nice" she said, gesturing to Lily's tattoo.
"You can read it too?"
"All the Blacks speak French, it's part of the family tradition" Sirius said.
"And here I was thinking that the only talent Sirius Black held was snogging"
"Nah, he's better at seducing, aren't you Padfoot? I'm the number one snogger" James said playfully.
"Look on the bright side, Potter, not everyone hates you as much as I do" Lily said lightly.
"Ha! You've been had Prongs!" Sirius exclaimed, clapping a disgruntled looking James on the back.
"Sirius shut up and tell us what it says!" Remus said impatiently.
Sirius puffed out his chest importantly, and much to Lily's annoyance, proceeded to tell them all what the French script said.
"Eternal Magic"
James burst out laughing and Lily fixed him with a scowl.
"Well just be thankful I don't print it on your skin!"
"Don't worry Lily, they don't know what deeper meaning is" Andromeda said snootily.
Remus smirked, but knowing that he'd end up, once again, having to declare peace, decided to move along.
"Ok, your turn Miria"
Miria chewed her fingernails nervously.
"Can somebody else go?" she asked hopefully.
"Nope! It goes in the circle!" Sirius said mercilessly.
"Oh fine" Miria huffed.
"You know when we went on that excursion over night to Burkleys Wizarding museum in third year?"
Everyone nodded except for Andromeda and Lily, who scowled. She had been wanting to go to that museum for ages, but just her luck, the day before the trip she came down with the flu and had to spend all day in bed in the hospital wing.
"All of the sixth year girls were playing exploding snap as a knock out competition, and at the end it was only Emily Honork and I left, and we made a deal that whoever lost had to go skinny dipping in the lake out the front of the dorms"
At this point Miria turned a bright crimson red.
"I lost" she managed to get out.
James, Sirius and Remus burst out laughing and Andromeda toppled over in a fit of giggles. Lily tried unsuccessfully to smother her bubbling laughter but ended out on the ground next to Andromeda.
Miria couldn't help but laugh too; she was used to laughing at her own absurdity.
"You know, Peter did swear he saw a dolphin in there"
"When'd he say that?" Sirius asked while trying to calm his laughter.
"When you and Prongs were trying to find a way to break the wards on the girl's dorms to get in"
"Oh yeah!. . .That never did work you know" James pondered.
"Thank Merlin" Miria muttered.
"How long were you in there?" Andromeda asked amusedly.
"About two seconds, it was bloody freezing I can tell you!"
Andromeda grinned cheekily, and was about to say something witty when Miria cut her off.
"No, uh-uh, no repercussions, it's your turn"
Andromeda snapped her mouth shut, but couldn't help smiling all the same.
"Alright, my secret is. . .well you know, it's not really a secret, but none of you guys should know it anyway"
She lifted her pajama top up to reveal a sapphire stud in her navel.
"I have a belly button ring"
James yelled in triumph.
"Hah! I knew!"
"Wha- how?"
James smiled evilly.
"Prongs that smile is none too re-assuring" Sirius said cautiously.
"Let's just say after we won our game against Ravenclaw Ian thought it would be uh. . .amusing, to change the boys and girls change room signs around so Annie marched into our side of the change rooms with her underwear on"
Andromeda hid her face in her hands to keep them from seeing how it resembled a very ripe tomato.
"This isn't happening" she muttered.
"I was forgetting about that thank you very much!" she then said lifting her hands from her burning face.
"How could you forget a group of male Quidditch players whistling you out of their change room?!" James asked disbelievingly.
"Well I can damn well try!" Andromeda snapped.
Sirius whistled, "I feel sorry for Ian"
Andromeda's eyes suddenly glittered evilly.
"He's gonna get it when he gets back, thank you James, now I know who to blame it on"
"Well I might as well go" James said keenly, "Since Andromeda 'aint aloud to hear mine" he flashed her a false grin.
Andromeda rolled her eyes, "Whatever"
"Great!" Sirius exclaimed, and with one swift movement of his wand and an exclaimed "Elcelio!" Andromeda straightened considerably.
"Sirius!" she exclaimed. But, clapped her hands to her ears and huffed moodily, realizing what spell he had put on her.
"Did it work?" Sirius asked, "CAN YOU HEAR ME?" he asked, screaming in her ear.
Andromeda pushed him away with one quick shove and rolled her eyes.
"I think that's a no" Lily affirmed seriously and then turned to James, eager to witness his secret. . .pity she couldn't use it for bribery.
But by now, all glee had faded from his eyes and he was looking. . .nervous?! She thought incredulously. No, James Potter couldn't be. . .nervous! Heck! That name and word would never be used in the same paragraph! But before she could be sure he had put on his poker face and all trace of emotion was gone as he gulped and told his secret.
"Well umm. . .you know how I always do extra Quidditch practice?" he asked.
They all nodded. He had been since first year.
"Well err. . .that's a lie"
Blank looks surrounded him, all except for Andromeda who was staring intently, attempting lip read but failing horribly.
"That extra hour every afternoon I'm in the library"
Sirius and Lily's jaws dropped, Miria eyes nearly bulged out of her head, but Remus' blank looked turned into a wicked smile.
James looked over at him dreading his reaction.
"No repercussions?" he asked hopefully.
"No way!" Remus exclaimed, "Do you know how many times you've ripped me off about 'devouring books as if they were food'?"
"Yes, I think I might have a smidgen of an idea" he said, shrinking under Remus' stare.
Lily spluttered.
"You mean you- he just- books? Potter!. . .that's just wrong!"
"Oh, well how do you think I know all that crap to pass History of Magic?!"
"I thought you copied off Remus!" she defied.
"No, no that would be Peter" Remus pointed out.
Lily rounded on Sirius.
"You don't too, do you? I think I'll have a heart attack if you say you do as well!" she stated.
"Hell no!" he exclaimed, "I haven't been in the library since I blew up the Q section!"
"Then how do you know all that stuff?" Miria asked.
"I'm naturally talented" Sirius said pompously, "Unlike Prongsy here" he added for good measure.
"I mightn't be able to tell anyone but you'll sure as hell never live this down" Remus whispered into James' ear and the marauder groaned.
"Please, get on with the next person before I get buried in hypocrisy" he said, taking the charm off Andromeda.
"Finally" she breathed.
Remus was still smiling evilly even though it was his turn, and he couldn't let his secret dampen his spirit as he spoke evenly.
"I failed the yearly potions test last year"
Sirius jumped up and ran over to the window to look out.
"It must be storming, howling, or raining hippogriffs or something!" he exclaimed, "Remus Lupin failed?!" he asked disbelievingly.
"Well I don't blame you" Andromeda said, "That test was near impossible"
"Wait!" James said, amusement once more arising onto his features, "That means that Peter got better marks then you!"
"Oh the world's coming to an end!" Sirius exclaimed melodramatically.
Lily rolled her eyes.
"Since you so intent ripping off others Sirius, why don't you tell us your secret" Lily asked innocently.
Sirius finally sat down, draping his arm around Lily's shoulders.
"Well you see Lily-flower"
Lily scowled.
"I don't have any secrets, I'm a, let's say. . .open book" at this point he looked cheekily at James, who just sighed and shook his head.
Lily picked up his arm with her fingers as if it was some dangerous creature and threw it off her shoulders.
"Well too bad, you'll just have to think of something" she said.
"Alright then. . .there could be something" he said doubtfully.
"How about the time when I turned the fat lady's dress black?"
"Nah, heard that one" James said, he knew this would take a while, Sirius hardly ever kept secrets, he was too loud to keep them, and the marauders were as close as brothers, only trivial things they would keep from each other.
"What about the time when Snape-"
"No"
"Or when I stood up to Professor-"
"Nup"
"How about the time when we got drunk and-"
"Which one?" Remus asked.
"When Prongs kissed the bar tender"
"Nope"
"Hey! I don't remember that!" James exclaimed.
"That's because you were drunk"
"Oh"
"How come you never get hung over?" James asked them both.
"Cos I can keep down my liquor" Sirius replied proudly, as if this was something to have won a Nobel Prize for.
"And because I, unlike you, don't drink more then I can handle; it majorly kills your brain cells" Remus stated.
"Except for that time after last years exams, when you couldn't stop throwing up cos we mixed fire whisky in with you butterbeer" Sirius said, amused.
Remus laughed at the memory, "Yeah, forgot about that!"
"You're all sick" Lily affirmed.
"Yes, that we are, my love!" Sirius said heartedly.
"Sirius, are you sure someone didn't spike your drink at dinner?" Andromeda asked dubiously.
James smirked, but didn't say a word.
"Wait! I've got it!" Sirius finally exclaimed.
He stood up, cleared his throat and waited for silence to follow, just for effect.
"It was I who locked Narcissa behind the library bookcase!" he declared triumphantly.
This statement received a series of blank looks.
"It's ticking, but it aint clicking" Remus commented, looking up at Sirius questioningly.
Suddenly, Andromeda's face lightened, remembering the occurrence, but just as soon it turned it became sinister and her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Why you little-"
Andromeda lunged at Sirius' feet and Sirius quickly jumped back, a cheeky grin plastered on his face.
"I GOT BLAMED FOR IT!! I HAD TO POLISH THOSE STINKING HOUSE ELFS HEADS FOR MONTHS!! ALL THANKS TO YOU!! YOU PRAT!"
Andromeda chased Sirius around the common room as he bounded over the lounges and tables, throwing random curses over his shoulder.
Not until Remus and James came in and tackled Andromeda to the ground to stop her from nearly killing their fellow marauder did she cease.
Sirius was laughing, joining in with his friends' fun.
Lily and Miria ran over, crying war as they leaped on top of the human pile, determined to stand by their friend.
All chaos broke loose. And from the bottom of the human pile their was a muffled scream:
"NO REPERCUSSIONS!"
~*~
Minerva McGonagall sat in her office, marking her sixth year student's end of term papers. She knew it was a rather dull thing to be doing at eleven thirty on Christmas night, well, at least in others point of view, but she, on the other hand, enjoyed it very much. She was actually feeling rather content, so much so that when she came across young Peter Pettigrews paper and amusedly recognized one of her top students' handwriting on it (Remus Lupin to be exact) she merely gave him a fifty percent mark instead of a fail.
She had deliberately left Sirius Black, James Potter and Remus Lupin's papers till last, as she always liked to go to bed on a good note, and she knew their papers, as always, would rank the top marks, and despite herself, she was feeling quite generous that night, so, Minerva McGonagall, for the first time in Merlin only knows how long, gave them all full marks.
However, the cheer didn't last too long, as she realized that she had left her wand in the Gryffindor common room just that afternoon and still hadn't retrieved it.
'What a stupid thing to do Minerva' she thought sharply, 'your age is starting to creep up on you'
She stood and swiftly exited her office, pulling her dressing gown over her pajamas as she went.
What she didn't anticipate was the shock she would receive as she stepped into the common room to find six young bodies strewn out around the fire and laying across the armchairs, sleeping, and in one's case, snoring rather loudly.
Minerva smiled in enjoyment as she realized who the group were and crept over to retrieve her wand from a table in the far corner.
'How unlikely she thought evenly but then again, exactly what I predicted'
'I'll have to see Dumbledore, I'm sure he'll find this all very amusing. . .'
~*~
Done! Ok so I know in the preview last time I said 'And what is Peter's deep, darkest secret, and why the hell did he entrust it with Sirius?!' but I decided to pull that out for certain reasons. Lots of thanks to my reviewers:
James-Padfoot, Queen Catrihara, Kiwi, Agloechen, Emily, Biddet da Pigeon Stalker, AnimeAngel90, Star of the North, Iris and BiG DrEaMeR.
And I'd just like to say that I'm in the process of cleaning up my first couple of chapters as I've taken Trinity Day's constructive criticism into consideration and I know that when I first started to write this fanfic that I spelt a lot of stuff wrong such as Lily's name and that. So those chapters will be going under a redo stage, but don't worry, the story won't change, just the spelling and grammer mistakes. Thanks! Hope to update soon!
~*~Mystical Dreams
Don't forget to thank me! The wonderful beta reader – Lorelai (canyousee)
~*~Mystical Dreams
Chapter 13: The Keepers of Secrets.
Remus sat chewing his nails nervously on his bed in the boy's dorms.
"You don't think he knows?" he asked doubtfully.
"Course he doesn't know! No one knows accept for us and the girls" Sirius flippantly.
"Sirius I'm being serious!"
Sirius grinned and opened his mouth to say something but James cut him off.
"Please, spare us the reply; we've heard it at least a million times"
Remus sat in silent thought for a while before asking hesitantly, "Do you think Lily would've-"
"No" James cut him off abruptly.
"Yeah but you'd say that just to-" Sirius started.
"No I wouldn't"
James said this so seriously and firmly that they knew he was speaking the truth. Remus wouldn't have normally suspected Lily but Hagrid finding the marks and Dumbledore staring at him so intently with those misty blue eyes and then covering for him had made him extremely uneasy.
"Look Rem, he can't know, we've been covering it up so thoroughly not even an Auror could pick it up" Sirius said as he sat down on James' bed across from him.
"With exception of the marks" James added, "And somehow I don't think we'll be using them again"
Remus hesitated, and then replied desperately, "But what if he does know!"
There was no need to discuss why he felt so guilty. They all new that if Dumbledore found that they were animagi, and that they roamed around with Remus at full moon, that their friend would never forgive himself. Remus had expressed his feelings to them when they came up with the idea of becoming animagi in the first place; he felt he was betraying Dumbledore's trust.
"Well if he knows about us there's not much we can do now, is there?" James said heavily.
Sirius sighed and drummed his fingers on the bed post. Remus jumped as he heard the tapping and his eyes immediately snapped towards the door, as if expecting Dumbledore to stride through it and tell him to pack his things and leave straight away.
Sirius saw his friends' edgy behavior and decided that this definitely wasn't the time to tell him that he had seen Snape staring at him with a look that suggested he had just won a Triwizard tournament when Hagrid had announced his findings.
"Look, like Prongs said, we can't do anything about it now, if he knows, he knows" Sirius said reasonably, "Let's go and get the girls and do something; get your mind off it for a while"
Remus looked at him grimly but as his friend cracked a trade marked marauder grin and exclaimed that there was no one else anyone would rather be with then him, Remus had to smile and obliged.
Ten minutes later found James and Remus sitting in the common room, watching Sirius' failed attempts at trying to get the girls' attention by yelling up the dormitory stairs.
"IO ANNIE!!" he shouted, even with a sonorous charm on, but not one voice yelled back.
"Merlin, they must be deaf" James stated.
"Deaf or deafened" Remus said dryly, sticking his fingers in his ears as Sirius opened his mouth to yell again.
Sirius finally gave up, slumping into an armchair next to James.
"Looks like the chicks are going to have to miss this one as they seem to be deaf and slash or dumb" Sirius said, "Boys night out, what do you say?"
"Aye!" both chorused, but as they did so, a curious face swept around the edge of the girls stairs.
"You calling me?" Annie asked. Her black hair was wet and her face rather red.
"Yeah, took you bloody long enough!" Sirius exclaimed, rising from his seat.
Andromeda rolled her eyes.
"We were having showers; we never would have heard you over the water"
"Then you must be showering in a monsoon because I had a sonorous charm on and was shouting" Sirius said stiffly.
"Maybe you just don't shower properly Sirius; girls care a lot more about their appearance then boys"
At this, Andromeda actually stared pointedly at James' hair.
James unconsciously ruffled it.
"What! I can't help it, it's naturally like that!"
Sirius spluttered.
"I take a lot of care in my appearance thank you very much!"
"Yeah, we know, that's clearly expressed by how long you take in the bathroom of a morning" Remus said amusedly, and then added, "Looking at yourself in the mirror"
Andromeda snorted.
"What? Now I'm not manly enough hey?!" Sirius exclaimed, "Anything else you want to criticize me about or can I actually say what I yelled for you for the last half hour for?"
Andromeda smiled and replied in a sickly sweet voice.
"Yes, you may"
Sirius rolled his eyes.
"I have a proposition"
"Does it involve you giving me money?"
"No"
"Oh, ok then, bye!"
"Annie!"
Andromeda smirked playfully, and then sighed, as if he was ruining all her fun.
"Alright then, what is it?"
"Because of recent events we need to liven some things up around here" he said evenly, "You wanna play a game?"
Andromeda eyed him suspiciously.
"And what sort of game would that be?"
"Don't look at me like that! I'm only suggesting!" Sirius said defensively as Andromeda's piercing gaze bored into him.
"Oh yes, but I know very well what some of your 'games' turn out like"
Sirius grinned, "Like the time when we played hide and seek and I locked Bella into the cupboard"
Andromeda smirked, "Serves her right for being so gullible"
"So, you going to play or not?"
"I guess so" she shrugged, "but with one condition"
"What's that?"
"Absolutely no spin the bottle"
"But that's one of my favourites!"
"I know, but imagine if it fell on you and me"
Sirius made a face that was a cross between utter horror and gruesome.
"Point taken" he said quickly.
"Well I'll go and get the others" she said turning her head around the wall, "But you'll have to wait a few"
"Awe, why?" Sirius said, pouting impatiently and sticking out his bottom lip.
"Because we have our pajama's on and need to change"
All the boys rolled their eyes.
"I think you've seen us in our pj's at least a million times now Annie"
"Yes well, I don't really care but I know Lily and Miria will, plus, it won't take that long"
"With woman, it always does" James stated.
"Well I'm sorry but you don't know what it's like to have to shave your legs, wax or pluck your eyebrows, file your nails, comb your hair, try and keep reasonably skinny, put on makeup and put up with a certain something every month just so we can look pretty for you, and then what do we get back? Complaining!" by this time she was staring James right in the face, only an inch away from his nose. She jammed her finger hard into his chest.
"You wouldn't last one hour as a girl"
However, it was hard for James to take Andromeda seriously as what she was wearing was quite humorous.
Her hair was in a black frizz, falling over her pink duck flannelette pajama's and on her feat stuck two, purple bunny slippers.
James couldn't hold it in any longer. He burst out laughing right in Andromeda's face, who looked down at her bunny slippers immediately and blushed.
"You know Annie, your beginning to sound like a feminist" Remus stated as he too spread an amused smile.
Andromeda scowled.
"I don't know why I even bother" she said haughtily, ignoring her burning cheeks, "You three will never understand the woman race" and with that, she marched back up the stairs in a way that reminded them all horribly of Lily and called over her shoulder.
"We'll be out when we are. You can wait until then"
~*~
Exactly one hour and thirteen minutes later the group Gryffindor sixth years were sitting in a circle in front of the crackling warm fire in the common room.
"Finally" Sirius sighed.
Andromeda gave him a stern look and he just stared back.
"Feminist" he whispered so just she could hear.
Andromeda raised her eyebrows and shrugged him off.
"So, what do you want to do?" Miria asked.
"Well I was thinking-"
"No!" James and Remus cut him off.
"Come on guys, I just want to-"
"No!"
"But there's this really fun game and-"
"No!"
Sirius huffed and slumped down into his armchair.
"You never let me pick the game"
"And for a very good reason" Remus replied.
"All of your 'games' end in disaster" James tagged on.
"That's not true!" Sirius defended.
"What about the time when we played hide and go seek and Peter was in and-"
"He ran straight into a whole bunch of conspiring Slytherins because you told him I was hiding near their common room" James finished Sirius' sentence.
"Oh yeah" Sirius said, smiling at the memory.
"And let's not forget that he got cursed to America and back for supposedly 'spying'"
"Heh" Sirius said weakly, "Oops!"
Remus rolled his eyes.
"Hence the reason why your not picking the game" he finished and then turned to the three girls sitting in front of him.
"So, you got any ideas?"
Miria hesitated for a moment, and then replied.
"What about that Secret Keepers game?"
"Oh yeah, I've played that before" Andromeda said.
Sirius smirked, "So have I"
At this he looked over at Remus who looked reluctantly back at him.
James laughed, "Come on Padfoot, stop having sour grapes, just because you can't tell anyone it"
"Yes, but think of the bribery I could hold against him!" Sirius said exasperatedly.
"Well too bad, you can't" Remus said smugly.
"So how does this game work?" Lily asked; a little embarrassed that she was, once again, one of the only muggle borns there. It didn't usually show that she was a muggle born since she learned so much, but there was only so much you could learn from books.
"Well what happens is" Miria started, "You go around the circle and everyone tells a secret about themselves that no one in the circle knows"
"And then, say, Miria goes first, and she tells a secret that, say, you know, and because she told a secret that you already know, she doesn't get to listen to your secret that you tell everyone about yourself" Andromeda explained.
"But there's a catch" Remus stated.
"Yes. When everyone is done telling their secret, they have to perform a secret keeping charm on themselves so they can't tell anyone else any of the other people who were in the circle's secrets" Miria kept going.
"It's a lot like the fidelius charm, the one they do on Secret Keepers, except a lot simpler" James said.
Lily nodded, if anyone knew charms better then her, she'd be damned.
"Hence the reason why it's called the Secret Keepers game!" Sirius finished with a flourish.
"So, who's in?" James asked.
"Me!" Sirius said immediately.
"I am" Remus agreed with a devilish smile that would shock any of his professors.
"Yep" Miria and Andromeda chimed.
Lily looked at them hesitantly for a moment and then sighed.
"What the hell am I getting myself into" she muttered.
James just grinned.
"Great! Who's going first?"
"All in favor of making Lily go first say Aye" Sirius said.
"Aye!" they all chorused.
"Hey! Why me?"
"Because you're the most attractive" James replied promptly.
"Well thanks" Andromeda, Miria, and Sirius said in unison.
Remus snorted.
"Somehow Padfoot, I don't think Prongs is going to find you attractive"
"Everyone's attracted to me; it's my handsome, boyishly good looks, tall, dark-"
"Oh please!" Andromeda exclaimed, disgusted.
"Get on with the game"
"Alright then!" Sirius said enthusiastically, "tell us your secret Lily- flower"
Lily raised her eyebrows at Sirius' apparent 'nick name' but none the less held her tongue and chose to ignore it.
"OK. . .something that no one here knows. . ." she murmured to herself.
Lily brightened after a moment as she thought of her secret.
"Ok, I've got it" she stated happily, "But you're sure these charms at the end work?"
"Yep! You can perform them if you want" Sirius said.
"And how can I be sure that you don't know a charm that counter-curses it?" she asked, eying the three marauders slyly.
"Well here, I'll try and tell you the secret that Remus told me of his last time I played"
Sirius opened his mouth to utter the words but only managed to get out "When Remus was five he-" before he cut short and his mouth snapped shut for several moments. Only when Remus lifted the spell put on his closed lips could he speak again.
"So there you have it!" he said, as if declaring the end to some spectacular quidditch game.
"Ok then" Lily said, obviously satisfied.
She then proceeded to hitch up her shirt a little and James' eyes grew big.
"That's what I'm talking about!"
"Sod off you pervert!" she snapped.
Lily pulled her shirt up just higher then her belly button and whispered a charm whilst waving her wand over a small spot on her skin.
The others looked on curiously as on her stomach appeared a small, coloured picture.
"I have a tattoo" she said simply as everyone took in the small, curly words encircled by scattered starts on her stomach.
"I only got it just last summer holidays, you can get them the muggle way, but if you drop into Diagon Alley I found one and they put a concealing charm on it for me; my mum would go off her nutter if she found out"
"Sorry I couldn't tell you" she gave an apologetic look to Miria, "but you know how nosy Petunia is"
Miria just waved it away; she was much more intrigued by the unfamiliar words printed on her friends' stomach.
"Magie, Èternelle" she said out loud.
"It's French" Lily confirmed.
Sirius smirked from across the circle.
"It's a bit corny" he commented.
Lily's eyes widened in horror.
"You can read it?!"
"Course I can, 'Tojours Pur' Evans, I've known French since I was five"
Andromeda snorted.
"It's been a while since I've heard that phrase"
"Always Pure" James muttered.
Miria looked on questioningly.
"Black family motto" Andromeda explained, "And I think it's rather nice" she said, gesturing to Lily's tattoo.
"You can read it too?"
"All the Blacks speak French, it's part of the family tradition" Sirius said.
"And here I was thinking that the only talent Sirius Black held was snogging"
"Nah, he's better at seducing, aren't you Padfoot? I'm the number one snogger" James said playfully.
"Look on the bright side, Potter, not everyone hates you as much as I do" Lily said lightly.
"Ha! You've been had Prongs!" Sirius exclaimed, clapping a disgruntled looking James on the back.
"Sirius shut up and tell us what it says!" Remus said impatiently.
Sirius puffed out his chest importantly, and much to Lily's annoyance, proceeded to tell them all what the French script said.
"Eternal Magic"
James burst out laughing and Lily fixed him with a scowl.
"Well just be thankful I don't print it on your skin!"
"Don't worry Lily, they don't know what deeper meaning is" Andromeda said snootily.
Remus smirked, but knowing that he'd end up, once again, having to declare peace, decided to move along.
"Ok, your turn Miria"
Miria chewed her fingernails nervously.
"Can somebody else go?" she asked hopefully.
"Nope! It goes in the circle!" Sirius said mercilessly.
"Oh fine" Miria huffed.
"You know when we went on that excursion over night to Burkleys Wizarding museum in third year?"
Everyone nodded except for Andromeda and Lily, who scowled. She had been wanting to go to that museum for ages, but just her luck, the day before the trip she came down with the flu and had to spend all day in bed in the hospital wing.
"All of the sixth year girls were playing exploding snap as a knock out competition, and at the end it was only Emily Honork and I left, and we made a deal that whoever lost had to go skinny dipping in the lake out the front of the dorms"
At this point Miria turned a bright crimson red.
"I lost" she managed to get out.
James, Sirius and Remus burst out laughing and Andromeda toppled over in a fit of giggles. Lily tried unsuccessfully to smother her bubbling laughter but ended out on the ground next to Andromeda.
Miria couldn't help but laugh too; she was used to laughing at her own absurdity.
"You know, Peter did swear he saw a dolphin in there"
"When'd he say that?" Sirius asked while trying to calm his laughter.
"When you and Prongs were trying to find a way to break the wards on the girl's dorms to get in"
"Oh yeah!. . .That never did work you know" James pondered.
"Thank Merlin" Miria muttered.
"How long were you in there?" Andromeda asked amusedly.
"About two seconds, it was bloody freezing I can tell you!"
Andromeda grinned cheekily, and was about to say something witty when Miria cut her off.
"No, uh-uh, no repercussions, it's your turn"
Andromeda snapped her mouth shut, but couldn't help smiling all the same.
"Alright, my secret is. . .well you know, it's not really a secret, but none of you guys should know it anyway"
She lifted her pajama top up to reveal a sapphire stud in her navel.
"I have a belly button ring"
James yelled in triumph.
"Hah! I knew!"
"Wha- how?"
James smiled evilly.
"Prongs that smile is none too re-assuring" Sirius said cautiously.
"Let's just say after we won our game against Ravenclaw Ian thought it would be uh. . .amusing, to change the boys and girls change room signs around so Annie marched into our side of the change rooms with her underwear on"
Andromeda hid her face in her hands to keep them from seeing how it resembled a very ripe tomato.
"This isn't happening" she muttered.
"I was forgetting about that thank you very much!" she then said lifting her hands from her burning face.
"How could you forget a group of male Quidditch players whistling you out of their change room?!" James asked disbelievingly.
"Well I can damn well try!" Andromeda snapped.
Sirius whistled, "I feel sorry for Ian"
Andromeda's eyes suddenly glittered evilly.
"He's gonna get it when he gets back, thank you James, now I know who to blame it on"
"Well I might as well go" James said keenly, "Since Andromeda 'aint aloud to hear mine" he flashed her a false grin.
Andromeda rolled her eyes, "Whatever"
"Great!" Sirius exclaimed, and with one swift movement of his wand and an exclaimed "Elcelio!" Andromeda straightened considerably.
"Sirius!" she exclaimed. But, clapped her hands to her ears and huffed moodily, realizing what spell he had put on her.
"Did it work?" Sirius asked, "CAN YOU HEAR ME?" he asked, screaming in her ear.
Andromeda pushed him away with one quick shove and rolled her eyes.
"I think that's a no" Lily affirmed seriously and then turned to James, eager to witness his secret. . .pity she couldn't use it for bribery.
But by now, all glee had faded from his eyes and he was looking. . .nervous?! She thought incredulously. No, James Potter couldn't be. . .nervous! Heck! That name and word would never be used in the same paragraph! But before she could be sure he had put on his poker face and all trace of emotion was gone as he gulped and told his secret.
"Well umm. . .you know how I always do extra Quidditch practice?" he asked.
They all nodded. He had been since first year.
"Well err. . .that's a lie"
Blank looks surrounded him, all except for Andromeda who was staring intently, attempting lip read but failing horribly.
"That extra hour every afternoon I'm in the library"
Sirius and Lily's jaws dropped, Miria eyes nearly bulged out of her head, but Remus' blank looked turned into a wicked smile.
James looked over at him dreading his reaction.
"No repercussions?" he asked hopefully.
"No way!" Remus exclaimed, "Do you know how many times you've ripped me off about 'devouring books as if they were food'?"
"Yes, I think I might have a smidgen of an idea" he said, shrinking under Remus' stare.
Lily spluttered.
"You mean you- he just- books? Potter!. . .that's just wrong!"
"Oh, well how do you think I know all that crap to pass History of Magic?!"
"I thought you copied off Remus!" she defied.
"No, no that would be Peter" Remus pointed out.
Lily rounded on Sirius.
"You don't too, do you? I think I'll have a heart attack if you say you do as well!" she stated.
"Hell no!" he exclaimed, "I haven't been in the library since I blew up the Q section!"
"Then how do you know all that stuff?" Miria asked.
"I'm naturally talented" Sirius said pompously, "Unlike Prongsy here" he added for good measure.
"I mightn't be able to tell anyone but you'll sure as hell never live this down" Remus whispered into James' ear and the marauder groaned.
"Please, get on with the next person before I get buried in hypocrisy" he said, taking the charm off Andromeda.
"Finally" she breathed.
Remus was still smiling evilly even though it was his turn, and he couldn't let his secret dampen his spirit as he spoke evenly.
"I failed the yearly potions test last year"
Sirius jumped up and ran over to the window to look out.
"It must be storming, howling, or raining hippogriffs or something!" he exclaimed, "Remus Lupin failed?!" he asked disbelievingly.
"Well I don't blame you" Andromeda said, "That test was near impossible"
"Wait!" James said, amusement once more arising onto his features, "That means that Peter got better marks then you!"
"Oh the world's coming to an end!" Sirius exclaimed melodramatically.
Lily rolled her eyes.
"Since you so intent ripping off others Sirius, why don't you tell us your secret" Lily asked innocently.
Sirius finally sat down, draping his arm around Lily's shoulders.
"Well you see Lily-flower"
Lily scowled.
"I don't have any secrets, I'm a, let's say. . .open book" at this point he looked cheekily at James, who just sighed and shook his head.
Lily picked up his arm with her fingers as if it was some dangerous creature and threw it off her shoulders.
"Well too bad, you'll just have to think of something" she said.
"Alright then. . .there could be something" he said doubtfully.
"How about the time when I turned the fat lady's dress black?"
"Nah, heard that one" James said, he knew this would take a while, Sirius hardly ever kept secrets, he was too loud to keep them, and the marauders were as close as brothers, only trivial things they would keep from each other.
"What about the time when Snape-"
"No"
"Or when I stood up to Professor-"
"Nup"
"How about the time when we got drunk and-"
"Which one?" Remus asked.
"When Prongs kissed the bar tender"
"Nope"
"Hey! I don't remember that!" James exclaimed.
"That's because you were drunk"
"Oh"
"How come you never get hung over?" James asked them both.
"Cos I can keep down my liquor" Sirius replied proudly, as if this was something to have won a Nobel Prize for.
"And because I, unlike you, don't drink more then I can handle; it majorly kills your brain cells" Remus stated.
"Except for that time after last years exams, when you couldn't stop throwing up cos we mixed fire whisky in with you butterbeer" Sirius said, amused.
Remus laughed at the memory, "Yeah, forgot about that!"
"You're all sick" Lily affirmed.
"Yes, that we are, my love!" Sirius said heartedly.
"Sirius, are you sure someone didn't spike your drink at dinner?" Andromeda asked dubiously.
James smirked, but didn't say a word.
"Wait! I've got it!" Sirius finally exclaimed.
He stood up, cleared his throat and waited for silence to follow, just for effect.
"It was I who locked Narcissa behind the library bookcase!" he declared triumphantly.
This statement received a series of blank looks.
"It's ticking, but it aint clicking" Remus commented, looking up at Sirius questioningly.
Suddenly, Andromeda's face lightened, remembering the occurrence, but just as soon it turned it became sinister and her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Why you little-"
Andromeda lunged at Sirius' feet and Sirius quickly jumped back, a cheeky grin plastered on his face.
"I GOT BLAMED FOR IT!! I HAD TO POLISH THOSE STINKING HOUSE ELFS HEADS FOR MONTHS!! ALL THANKS TO YOU!! YOU PRAT!"
Andromeda chased Sirius around the common room as he bounded over the lounges and tables, throwing random curses over his shoulder.
Not until Remus and James came in and tackled Andromeda to the ground to stop her from nearly killing their fellow marauder did she cease.
Sirius was laughing, joining in with his friends' fun.
Lily and Miria ran over, crying war as they leaped on top of the human pile, determined to stand by their friend.
All chaos broke loose. And from the bottom of the human pile their was a muffled scream:
"NO REPERCUSSIONS!"
~*~
Minerva McGonagall sat in her office, marking her sixth year student's end of term papers. She knew it was a rather dull thing to be doing at eleven thirty on Christmas night, well, at least in others point of view, but she, on the other hand, enjoyed it very much. She was actually feeling rather content, so much so that when she came across young Peter Pettigrews paper and amusedly recognized one of her top students' handwriting on it (Remus Lupin to be exact) she merely gave him a fifty percent mark instead of a fail.
She had deliberately left Sirius Black, James Potter and Remus Lupin's papers till last, as she always liked to go to bed on a good note, and she knew their papers, as always, would rank the top marks, and despite herself, she was feeling quite generous that night, so, Minerva McGonagall, for the first time in Merlin only knows how long, gave them all full marks.
However, the cheer didn't last too long, as she realized that she had left her wand in the Gryffindor common room just that afternoon and still hadn't retrieved it.
'What a stupid thing to do Minerva' she thought sharply, 'your age is starting to creep up on you'
She stood and swiftly exited her office, pulling her dressing gown over her pajamas as she went.
What she didn't anticipate was the shock she would receive as she stepped into the common room to find six young bodies strewn out around the fire and laying across the armchairs, sleeping, and in one's case, snoring rather loudly.
Minerva smiled in enjoyment as she realized who the group were and crept over to retrieve her wand from a table in the far corner.
'How unlikely she thought evenly but then again, exactly what I predicted'
'I'll have to see Dumbledore, I'm sure he'll find this all very amusing. . .'
~*~
Done! Ok so I know in the preview last time I said 'And what is Peter's deep, darkest secret, and why the hell did he entrust it with Sirius?!' but I decided to pull that out for certain reasons. Lots of thanks to my reviewers:
James-Padfoot, Queen Catrihara, Kiwi, Agloechen, Emily, Biddet da Pigeon Stalker, AnimeAngel90, Star of the North, Iris and BiG DrEaMeR.
And I'd just like to say that I'm in the process of cleaning up my first couple of chapters as I've taken Trinity Day's constructive criticism into consideration and I know that when I first started to write this fanfic that I spelt a lot of stuff wrong such as Lily's name and that. So those chapters will be going under a redo stage, but don't worry, the story won't change, just the spelling and grammer mistakes. Thanks! Hope to update soon!
~*~Mystical Dreams
Don't forget to thank me! The wonderful beta reader – Lorelai (canyousee)