A/N: Sorry for the delay. We have the huge festival of lights- Diwali- going on in India and it's a really busy time for us. I haven't got a chance to reply to all your reviews! Sorry again!
I really seem to be sorry for a lot of things, don't I?
Hope you like this chapter!
Chapter 24: Failure and Trains
With the help of the Marauder's Map, Remus, Sirius and Peter managed to get to the Full Moon corridor. But just as they were about to enter the tunnel, Remus noticed something unusual.
"Where's Nik? He should have been near the tree by this time, right?"
"Yeah." Sirius confirmed. "Check out the school map."
Soon enough, they spotted the dot labeled Nicholas Jeremy Ellis followed closely by another dot labeled—
"Filch!" cried Peter disdainfully.
Sirius growled.
Sirius, Remus and Peter approached Filch and Nik slowly and crept behind them.
From the racket Peter was making, Remus was sure that Nik at least, knew that they were there. It amazed him as to how Filch couldn't hear the noise, but it seemed Filch was too busy making snide comments.
A few corridors down, one of Filch's cats, Mr. Norris, apparently, slinked out of the girl's bathrooms, purring softly, its lamp-like eyes shining eerily.
"What do we have here, my precious?" Filch knelt down to stroke 'his precious'.
"Ah! Perhaps more students?" He turned to Nik. "You. Wait here. Don't move."
He went inside the bathroom.
Nik turned around to face his friends.
"What happened?" snapped Sirius.
"I was on my way to the tree, but then I remembered the money."
"Money? We don't need money." Said Peter.
Nik explained, "James told me to get it, just in case."
"So?" Sirius asked impatiently. "What are you waiting for? Just do the eye-thingy and get Filch outta here!"
"Sorry." Nik replied, depressed, "No can do. Dumbledore's warned us strictly about using the er… eye-thingy. At least on the teachers--"
Sirius interrupted, "Filch isn't a teacher. He's just a bloody--"
However, they never found out just what Filch was, because at that very moment, he stepped out of the bathroom and Sirius, Remus and Peter were forced to move away.
Despaired, they walked to the tree slowly. So far, the night had been varied states of terrible.
Nik being caught by Filch, and before… Lily following James…
In the tunnel, Remus asked the question which each of them was pondering.
"Should we tell James?"
"That Lily was following him?" Peter said.
Remus nodded and turned to Sirius for his opinion.
"Well… I say… we don't."
"And why not?"
"Because there is absolutely no reason to further spoil our evening. If James finds out, he'll rush back to Gryffindor tower to console his lily of the valley and we'll have to wait another three weeks to test out the map."
"I don't think that's a good idea." Remus said gently.
Sirius put in, "I know you don't think that's a good idea, but please. Don't tell him. If the truth comes out, tell him I forced you to lie, okay?"
Remus sighed.
Peter slackened his pace. Why didn't they ever ask his opinion? Didn't they think he was capable of telling James?
Soon enough, they approached the Whomping Willow and greeted James.
Remus explained why Nik wasn't there.
"So, are we ready?" Sirius asked, too perkily for caffeine.
James said, "Yeah, sure, I got just about everything. Only one thing left."
"You mean the thing you can get only at Hogsmeade?" Sirius asked.
"Yep." James grinned.
The entire entourage made good time and reached the Hogsmeade outskirts with a few minutes to spare.
"Listen up, make sure no one you know sees you, alright? We would have had Nik to cover it up, but now-- Okay, that's the most important thing. And," James continued, "Positions: Remus, reconnaissance, go in, look around, blend in, warn us about anything unusual. Sirius, you come with me. We're actually getting the bottles. Peter—you're our lookout while we're in the village. Afterwards, you transport the bottles to the dorm. All right? Everyone clear?"
Remus walked down the lane, wearing a heavy cloak unlike the usual Hogwarts' cloaks. Among all of the Marauders, he no doubt looked the oldest. He paused at the Hog's Head, a dark, dilapidated pub that the Marauders usually avoided… unless of course, they were illegally drinking Firewhiskey. Remus looked towards the sign above his head, before entering and sighed.
A few minutes later, he traipsed back outside and accidentally dropped a gaudily colored scarf.
Sirius and James recognized the all-clear signal and walked to the backdoor of the pub. Outside. Near the dirt crusted dumpsters was the reason for their all-nighter escapade. A large stand stood filled with empty liquor bottles. Sirius walked up to it, picked out the bottles of Firewhiskey and handed them carefully to James.
Suddenly, Peter's head popped out of thin air.
"Hey guys! Ready?"
James nearly dropped all the bottles. "Damn! Don't do that!"
Peter grinned. "Or what?"
"Or I won't let you use the Invisibility Cloak."
Peter's smile faded. "Oh, fine. Give me the bottles."
They gave Peter the last of the bottles. Before he left for Hogwarts, James adjusted the cloak over him one last time. James shot him an encouraging smile and said, "Do it!"
Peter left and Sirius added, "Yeah. Do it right."
James just smirked and the pair headed towards the Shrieking Shack at a leisurely pace.
Outside the shack, Remus stood leaning on the rickety fence, glaring pensively at the weeds.
James tapped him lightly.
Remus started, "What the—oh, it's you… "
"Who'd you think it was?"
Remus waved his hand dismissively, but Sirius could see he was thinking about Lily.
"Shall we?"
A little down the passage, Sirius began to hear something crunching under his feet.
He pointed his wand at his feet.
"Glass." He muttered.
"Hm?" Remus asked.
"It's glass. And from the look of it—the glass of a Firewhiskey bottle." He frowned.
James began, "Relax. Peter probably broke only one bottle."
Sirius gave him a look.
(A/N: the 'the glass of a Firewhiskey bottle´line reminded me of one of the surnames we have in India – Sodaglassbottleopenerwala or something along those lines!)
But, even as they sulked onwards, the noise did not stop.
They entered their dormitories cautiously.
Peter was slumped on his bed, the invisibility cloak flung across the floor.
James picked it up silently and carefully put it back into his trunk.
Sirius looked at Peter's horizontal figure and almost spat, "How many bottles are left?"
Peter mumbled something indistinctly into his pillow.
"What was that?" Sirius shot.
"None. None of the bottles are left"
Sirius punched the air viciously. "You broke all of them?!"
James and Remus gritted their teeth in anticipation of his oncoming ravings.
Peter buried himself further in his bedclothes.
In the girl's dorm, Lily was still awake, twisting and turning fretfully.
The thoughts still troubled her. She didn't know why James was doing whatever he was doing. Why was he playing with her? If he wanted to go out with whatever-her-name-was, couldn't he at least be open with her? A crossroad appeared in her mind.
Either she could come out in the open… that she had seen him sneak out or… or wait until James decided to tell her. She chose the latter road.
The next morning was fortunately a Sunday.
Kat and Lara were unable to understand why everyone but them was asleep. Of course, they expected it from the sixteen-year-old boys, but Lily was usually a morning bird.
When everyone was finally awake, it was well past lunchtime. Most of the school was outside, enjoying the unusually mild winter; the common room was more or less deserted. As usual, the group—excluding Ravenclaw Nik—camped out in the common room, talking relaxing, or in the case of Peter and Sirius debating the merits of biting an ice-cream versus licking it.
James was hidden behind the latest edition of Quidditch Today, a magazine he never failed to have delivered, even when he was in school.
Lily was feeling extremely awkward with him but either James was too tired to notice or Lily was very skilful hiding her feelings.
That day, as well as the next passed without any extraordinary occurrence.
On the morning of the 22nd, Lily was awake, ready and dressed even before the sun rose. Yesterday had been the last day of the term, and she was getting ready to go home for the holidays.
She stood for a moment, dead center of her dorm, watching Lara and Kat sleeping with a kind of remorseful pleasure. Assuming an almost regretful air, she marched towards Lara's bed and neatly pulled off her blankets. Amid Lara's moans and groans, she moved towards Kat's bed and repeated her actions.
"Oh come on!" Lily called. "Get up."
Kat muttered something furiously and blindly entered the adjoining bathroom and slammed the door, effectively wakening Lara, too.
Lily smiled and stalked to the boys' bedroom.
In fort-five minutes flat, everyone was assembled in the Great Hall, eating breakfast.
Eating, perhaps, maybe an understatement. Kat had bacon on her fork and was trying to intercept it with her mouth. Unfortunately, her early-morning-aim was poor and Remus, leaning on her, sleepily ate most of it as Kat chewed the air.
Everyone else was occupied similarly.
The only ones wide-awake were Lily and Sirius. Actually, Sirius claimed he hadn't slept at all. He claimed he sat up all night listening to the voices in his head singing one by one, the tracks of his favorite muggle movie—Grease. Lily could tell he had too many espressos in the kitchen.
However, everyone had sufficiently recovered a few hours before the Hogwarts Express arrived.
Only Lily, Lara and Peter were going home.
The rest of the group had persistently pestered them to spend the holidays at school. But, Lara hadn't had a family Christmas for ages. Peter's parents had booked a vacation in France . And Lily vaguely mentioned something about her sister and some important news.
The Marauders were rather surprised when they heard about her sister. Even James hadn't been aware she had one. Sirius quickly learnt from Lara that Lily and her sister were not on good terms and the subject was not to be brought up, under any circumstances.
There were twenty minutes for the train to leave.
Sirius and James were sitting on a bench in the train station. They were supposed to Lily, Lara and Peter's baggage while the latter got their tickets checked. But they were idly play fighting with fake wands--- Sirius' newest finds from their favorite-shop-in-the-whole-wide-universe, Zonko's.
"Hah! I got you!" Sirius cried as he stabbed James with his wand.
"Touché, mi amigo!" James jabbed him sharply.
Neither of them noticed Lily silently picking up her bags from behind them and entering the train. She dabbed her eyes with her sleeve.
There were ten minutes for the train to leave.
Lara and Peter came up to the boys.
Lara kissed Sirius' cheek lightly as she bent down to pick up a bag by his wait.
He stood up rapidly. "Let me handle that, milady."
James raised an eyebrow as Sirius hoisted up all her four bags in a single go and started groaning under the weight.
"Can't stand." He breathed hastily.
James, Peter and Lara lunged forward to relieve him.
"By the way," James asked Lara, "where is my milady?"
"I don't know… She left before us, so she should be here. Maybe she's in the loo… or perhaps she's gone in her compartment all ready."
She paused thoughtfully and continued, "But are you sure you still own the right to call her milady?"
James screwed up his brow, "What do you mean?"
Sirius drew in a deep breath as Peter shot him a quick glance.
Lara shook her head, "You are slow." She hastened to enter the train followed closely by Peter.
James stood there like a mad fool and stared at Sirius, "What does she mean?"
Lara stuck her head out of the door and blew a kiss to Sirius.
There were two minutes for the train to leave.
A loud whistle blew.
"What does she mean? Sirius?" James asked, looking downright scary to Sirius. "And I know you know, so don't try to get out of it."
Sirius rapidly explained how Lily had followed him and been caught by Dumbledore just after he entered the tunnel.
James swore furiously and jumped on to the now moving train's platform.
Sirius hesitated as he remembered their jackets draped on the bench. Then he followed James to the train, thinking only one thought, 'If looks could kill…'
A/N: A bit of a cliffie there. I've got a nice plot in mind, plus I have notes written down, for a change. So, I don't have to brainstorm over what I was going to do, yada, yada, yada, and keep my wonderful, beloved reviewers waiting!
Also, I haven't found time to update The Outcasts at all; so, I'll probably put it into hiatus, until Marchish.
Actually, the thing is, I'm supposed to be studying like ten to twelve hours daily, and I have no time to think about anything else. My final exams will end in March, I'll have four-six months of vacation, I will finish my 10th grade, I will be on my way to college (yippee!!). In short, I will be home free!
Sayonara, my beloved readers and hopefully, reviewers!
You know what that means.
Puh-lease review!!
I need inspiration!! Plot suggestions, criticisms, encouragement!! Anything and everything!
I need feedback!
All you have to do is click one button, type some rot and click another button! Come on, people!
Down, down, down, as the crow flies. (Hey, that rhymes!)
I'm a poet, didn't know it!
P.S. I'm sorry if any of you find this chapter 'strange'.
Firstly, I am strange.
Secondly, I wrote the entire chapter from 12 am to 2 am in the bloody morning.
I am dead tired but decided I have to get this chapter up.
Thirdly, as usual, I am using my dad's laptop. But I am also using his work connection and that too for around four hours; I am liable to get into serious trouble for it.
I apologize for the ravings. I just read a review, my first one for this chapter and I can't figure it out.
I also apologize for the spacing. Don't worry, i am planning to redo my entire story with all spacing and grammar corrections after I get my internet back.
