Sweet Misery
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Easter Holidays had arrived and everyone was too busy studying for their exams and doing to homework they were assigned to be concentrating on anything else… except the Marauders that is. As Lauren, Gwynn, and Lily were doing their astronomy papers, a wad of parchment dropped into Gwynn's lap. She picked it up and opened it. There, in Sirius's messy scrawl, was one word.
"Duck," read Gwynn. The girls looked at each other and hid under the table they were working at. Five seconds later, a loud explosion rang out from the ceiling of the common room. There were some shrieks and yells of disgust. The girls crawled out from under the table and saw nearly everything and everyone covered in green slime.
"Ugh," said Lily, picking up her Potions book. "Wish I had taken my books with me." She pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and began wiping off the book. She tossed her handkerchief on the floor after it was covered with the slime.
"You three are going to pay for this!" Rae, the Gryffindor prefect, yelled. Lauren, Lily, and Gwynn looked at the Marauders and saw them covered in slime, grinning at them. They were the only people who hadn't been slimed.
"I don't like this," said Gwynn.
"What?" asked Lauren. "We're beating them with detentions!"
"No, they have something big planned," Gwynn replied. "They're purposely pushing us ahead. Making us think we're going to beat them."
"Then they pull it and get so many that we can't catch up," said Lily.
"Well, we won't let that happen, will we?" Lauren said.
"No way," agreed Gwynn and Lily.
"Didn't you three hear me? Follow me to Professor Kirkland's!" Rae shouted.
"We know the way, thanks," said Lily.
Lily, Lauren, and Gwynn left the common room with Rae close behind, making sure they went to Kirkland's.
"I say we run for the fun of it," suggested Gwynn in a whisper.
"Lose her down a secret passage and just magically appear in Kirk's?" said Lauren.
"Brilliant," Lily said. "There's a passage one floor down that goes right out front of his office."
"I'll lead the way," Lauren said.
"No!" Lily and Gwynn said a little louder than they had meant to. They looked over their shoulders at Rae who was walking faster to catch up to them,
"No Laur," Gwynn said, dropping her voice back to a whisper. "You get lost even heading down to the Great Hall and that's just down some stairs.
"Fine," replied Lauren.
"On the mark," said Lily. "And…"
"Go!" Gwynn shouted.
The three girls broke into a sprint with Rae shouting after them, trying to keep up. The girls made a quick turn down a staircase behind a portrait of Virginia Le Mort, leaving Rae stumped when she reached the corridor they disappeared in.
"Fine! Kirkland will hear of this!" Rae shouted. She turned and stomped off to Kirkland's office, muttering to herself about ungrateful students not respecting her authority. When she reached Professor Kirkland's office, she didn't bother knocking and opened the door and took a deep breath to tell Kirkland what had happened when she saw Gwynn, Lauren, and Lily sitting in front of his desk.
"Miss Ruben, how may I help you?" Professor Kirkland asked.
"Wait…" Rae said, sounding very confused. "How'd they get here?"
"You told us to come here, didn't you?" Lily asked.
"Yes, you told us to come here and tell the head of house what we did in the common room," said Lauren.
"You even followed us here," added Gwynn.
"No I didn't you lying little prats!" objected Rae.
"Miss Ruben, I will not tollerate such behavior from a school prefect," said Professor Kirkland.
"Sorry, Professor," replied Rae. "I'll leave you to punishing them." Rae backed out of the office and closed the door.
"Now girls, I'm getting a little tired of this weekly ritual," Professor Kirkland said.
"I find these meetings spiritually enlightening, Professor," Lauren said. "My soul is soaring as we speak.
"These are the only times we get to see our wonderful head of house," added Gwynn. "Since you teach Ancient Runes, which isn't open to second years."
"This isn't a laughing matter," he explained. "I'm glad you all have an interest in learning new spells, but try channeling your energy into spells that will do you some good in the future."
"Yes Professor," mumbled Lily, Gwynn, and Lauren.
"Now, I don't expect to see you three in here again."
"We can't guarentee you anything, Professor," said Lily. "We'll try though."
"Good, now you each will have three week's detention," Professor Kirkland said. "Along with cleaning up the common room."
"Yes sir," replied the girls, getting out of their seats. They left Professor Kirkland's office and walked down the corridors.
"What do you think the guys have planned?" Lauren inquired.
"I don't know," replied Lily. "We need to get someone to spy for us."
"The guys know all our friends," said Gwynn. "We need someone they know is not associated with us." The girls thought about this for a while.
"That girl!" Lauren exclaimed.
"Which girl?" Lily and Gwynn asked.
"That girl, um… What's-her-name, the girl who just transferred this year, the new one," rambled Lauren.
"Abigail?" Gwynn suggested.
"Yeah, her," said Lauren.
"Good thinking, we'll talk her into spying on the Marauders to figure out their plan so we can stop it," Lily said.
"Well, we know they're not pulling it off yet, Remus's gone," said Gwynn.
"Yeah… Where is he?" Lauren asked.
"His father's awfully sick again," replied Lily. "I hope he's okay…"
"Yeah, he seems to be getting sick a lot," Lauren said. "He was sick last month, and the month before that, and the month before that…"
"Then last year it was his little brother," said Gwynn. "I hope he doesn't catch what they have."
"That'd be horrible," Lauren said.
The girls reached the portrait of the fat lady shortly there after. They said the password ("Kappa Fin") and walked inside. They made a bee line for the stairs to their dormitories but stopped when they heard the Marauders shouting for them.
"How many?" Sirius shouted.
"Three weeks," replied Lily, as if it was nothing at all.
"And we have to clean up," added Gwynn.
"But, oh no," Lauren said, with mock disappointment, "it's already cleaned up. I guess the house elves beat us to it."
"I kn-knew w-we sh-should've st-stopped-d them," stammered Peter.
"Oh no you didn't," said James. "You were too busy whipping slime at the head boy with us."
"Well, we'd love to stay and chat, but we have homework to do," explained Gwynn.
"Yeah, so have fun," said Lauren. Gwynn, Lauren, and Lily grabbed their books off the table they left them at and walked up to their dorm to see if Abigail was there.
"They're up to something," said Sirius.
"Th-they must-t kn-know that w-we're up t-to someth-thing," Peter said.
"No, no way," objected James. "We've taken every precaution so that they wouldn't find out."
"They must be planning a huge prank and we've just been helping them out with detentions!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Well, we'll just have to make ours bigger."
"Naturally."
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"Abigail?" Lily called out to their dorm. "Abigail are you in here?"
"She could've been in the common room and we didn't see her," suggested Lauren.
A girl opened the curtains to a bed on the far right side of the room and hopped off her bed.
"I'm Abigail," the girl said just above a whisper.
"Hi Abi," said Gwynn. "I'm Gwynn, this is Lily, and this is Lauren."
"I know who you are," Abigail replied softly. "You three along with those boys cause a lot of trouble for Gryffindor. It's a wonder we're still in the lead for house points. And it's Abigail."
"Hmm, quite a mouth on her," said Gwynn. "I like it, now if she were just a little more assertive."
"Look, Abi," started Lauren.
"Abigail," she corrected.
"Abigail, the guys are planning a huge prank that will none the less be pulled when we can't get more detentions, which means Gryffindor will be unable to earn back the immense amount of points they'll lose."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"We need your help to stop them," explained Lily.
"Why me?" Abigail asked.
"You can easily slip in unnoticed and find out what, where, and when," replied Gwynn.
"Why should I help you three?"
"Don't think of it as helping us, think of it as helping Gryffindor win the house cup," said Lily.
"I guess I could help…" Abigail said.
"Great!" exclaimed Lauren.
"Now, Abigail, you have to be like their shadow, though don't let them catch on to you," said Gwynn. Abigail nodded and fixed her glasses. "So never let them see your face, they're not to good with remembering faces, but if they see your face repeatedly, they'll start to suspect something."
"Except Remus," added Lily. "He's very good with remembering faces."
"Right," said Abigail.
"Now Abi ("Abigail"), go and report back to us when you have their plan," instructed Lauren. Abigail nodded and grabbed her Charms book from her bed and walked down to the common room, her head hung so her hair draped down, blocking her face from view. Lily, Lauren, and Gwynn sat down on their beds and spread their books out in front of them.
"In no time, we'll have their plans, be able to prevent them, and we will hold the detention record," said Lauren.
"It's so perfect, they'll never know," agreed Gwynn.
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(A/n: Bold means Abi's notes.)
Abigail found the Marauders huddled together in a small circle they formed. She crept over and took a seat on the couch behind them and made it look as if she was studying and taking notes over the section she was reading.
"If we do it the first day of exams in Professor Turco's, no doubt she'll give us detentions everyday till the final day," said James.
"B-but she'll g-go over b-board on th-the p-points," stammered Peter. "E-everyone kn-knows she w-wants S-slyth-therin t-to w-win."
"True, there's a down side to her class," mumbled James.
**First day of exams
Professor Turco's? Major detentions, major point loss.
"How about Herbology?" suggested Sirius. "Also first day and there's many plants to cause trouble with and Professor Janken isn't a head of house."
"He's also not to keen on giving detentions, just lectures," added James.
Professor Janken's? Many items of destruction, though not keen on detentions.
"H-how ab-bout A-a-astronomy?" Peter said.
Must get that Peter kid to stop stuttering.
"Though a good idea, we might not be on top of our game that late," said Sirius. "You know how boring that class is."
Contrary to belief, Sirius actually does think.
No Astronomy.
"So Potions it is?" asked James.
"Yeah," said Sirius. "Well tell Remus when he gets back."
"A-are y-you s-sure ab-bout th-that?" Peter questioned.
A good quill down the throat should stop that stutter…
"Yes, Peter," sighed James, slightly annoyed.
"Ok-kay," stuttered Peter.
"Now that we're done discussing the prank for the time being, we should study," said James.
"Oh you're no fun," Sirius said.
Abigail sighed when she heard they weren't going to be discussing the prank, but stuck around any way just incase they started again. Unknown to the Marauders; Lily, Lauren, and Gwynn were sneaking up to their dorm at that moment. Luckily for them, there was no one in the second year boys' dorm.
"Where should we stick the listening charm?" Lauren asked.
"How about under their beds?" said Gwynn.
Lily and Lauren nodded. The girls quickly slid under each of the Marauders beds and placed the charm.
"Okay, that's taken care of," said Lily. "Let's get out of here before someone comes." The three of them quickly ran down the stairs and back up to their dorm. Once arriving, they started on their homework once again.
Around ten, Abigail returned and handed Gwynn the paper with her notes.
"Half of these are ways to stop Peter from stuttering!" exclaimed Gwynn.
"I was bored," shrugged Abigail.
"I didn't think of that one…" Lauren said reading Abigail's list over Gwynn's shoulder.
"Well, what matters is that we know where and when," said Lily.
"I'm guessing they're going to wait to discuss what they're going to do when Remus gets back," said Abigail.
Lauren picked up a set of headphones that were sitting on her bed side table and slipped them on.
"I think Abi's right," said Lauren.
"Abigail," corrected Abigail.
"All they're talking about it girls right now," Lauren continued. "They all seem to like that seventh year Ravenclaw seeker."
"Mmmm, pleasant," said Gwynn.
"Oooh, here's something interesting, what they'd do for a million galleons." Lauren was silent for a few moments, before throwing the headphones off and shrieking, "EW!"
"What?" the other girls in the dorm asked.
"James asked Sirius if he would french Malfoy for a million galleons, and Sirius said he would if the galleons came in one lump sum and not monthly installments."
"Gwynn, your brother is sick," said Lily.
"I know," replied Gwynn. "Be glad you all don't have to live with him."
"I'm going to have nightmares," Lauren said.
Lauren picked up the headphones and set them back on her bedside table, shivering at the thought of Sirius kissing Malfoy.
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A/n: Progress is slow. Slow is evil. Evil is… um… I know this one… oh yeah! Evil is… crap, I forgot it again.
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