Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I disclaim all names of characters, places, and things, from the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling.

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Did You Find What You Were Looking For?

Chapter 6: The Glow of Her Eyes

By: Taiyourshoes

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1977

"You really don't mind, James? Being head boy and all, I'd think you'd be a little scared to break the rules."

"Just because you're a baby doesn't mean Prongs is, Moony."

"Shut up, you two. I don't mind, of course I'm not a baby, and I have the map, don't I?"

James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Sirius Black sat up in their dorm rooms, ogling over a worn bit of parchment. It was this piece of parchment that James had left at Hogwarts before the summer break, hidden behind the mirror on the fourth floor, and had retrieved at dinner. It was this parchment that aided the Marauders in their tomfoolery conducted throughout the school, particularly around the Slytherin House in the dungeons.

In fact, this piece of parchment wasn't a worn piece of parchment at all—or at least, that wasn't all it was. This piece of parchment was none other than the Marauder's Map, written by the four Marauders, Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs to help them conduct mischief throughout the school.

"Well, where's Peter then?" Sirius Black, a dark haired, handsome boy of the Maruader foursome, inquired, eyes darting about the room in search of their pudgy friend.

"Still shaken up by something Rosier said earlier. I swear, you'd think he wasn't Gryffindor sometimes, wouldn't you?" Remus said sympathetically, drawing out his wand in order to activate the Marauder's Map. He made his face up in distaste before muttering, "Snape's a git," a password devised by James Potter himself.

The parchment seemed to draw itself, lines branching out from the point where Lupin's wand had made contact with it. The entire Hogwarts vicinity was quickly etched out by the map as the three Marauder's present watched it in silence, assuring themselves that the map worked fine after their two months away from it.

They never liked to part with their dandy piece of parchment, but they had no use for it over the summer and they knew they'd end up lighting it on fire with "muggle magic," or magic magic, now that they were adult wizards—therefore legally permitted to use magic outside of school—, if they brought it home with them.

"Flawless," James muttered appreciatively, giving the map a pat. "And see how eagerly it responded to 'Snape's a git?' I told you to go with something it'll understand."

Sirius nodded before pointing out a dot on the map. "And look, Peter's in the hospital wing, the bugger. What d'you reckon happened there?" He was getting a sort of hungry dog look on his face. If Peter's hospitalization had anything to do with a Slytherin, rest assured, Sirius would be on the case faster than a dog on a rabbit, which was more or less what Sirius considered any situation regarding a Slytherin.

"Maybe Rosier finished off the hex properly?" Remus shrugged, hoping Sirius—and James now, seeing his manic glances between his best friend and the Slytherin dorms on the map—would forget the whole situation. Of course he wanted to avenge his friend, but he hated when it involved far more violence than necessary.

"I've got Slytherin passwords," James sang cheerfully, drawing out a little piece of parchment. "Came up with it myself, actually. Does it tickle your fancy, Padfoot?"

Sirius glanced down at the paper in James's hand and smiled. "They'll be thrilled. 'A snake's a snake, so go jump in a lake.' Immature and annoying, Snape'll love it."

Remus tried hard not to roll his eyes.

"Feel like releasing a few of the Slytherin mascots into their commons, Moony?" James asked heartily, already crossing the room to draw out his invisibility cloak.

"Oh, I quite believe I'm too tired now, friends," Remus half-lied. "Full Moon's tomorrow, I'll just wait here for Peter if it's all the same to you."

Sirius shrugged and pocketed the Marauder's Map as James dug through his trunk in search of his family heirloom. "Suit yourself, Moony. If you don't want to disturb the sleeping hours of several of our serpent friends, be endlessly hexed by the angry snakes when the wake up, and face a week or two of detention, it's your loss."

With a little mock-disappointed wave, Remus leapt onto his bed and closed the curtains around him.

Closing the door behind them, James and Sirius glanced around to make sure no one was watching before pulling the cloak over their six foot something frames.

"D'you get the impression Moony's getting a bit too old for all this?" Sirius asked thoughtfully as they made their way down the stairs. "I mean, maybe we all are, are we?"

James appeared to deliberate the point before giving his reply. "Remember in fifth year, when Moony was first made prefect?"

"Yeah."

"Remember how we laid off for a while and thought we'd give it a rest for his sake?"

"Yeah."

"You remember how long it lasted on any of our parts?"

"Half an hour. Snape was in the corridor and we jinxed him."

"Right you are. Was Moony angry?"

"I don't think so."

"Then his 'I'm too tired' just means, 'I'll meet you there with the snakes and all.' You just wait."

~*~*~*

The two boys were halfway to the school grounds to fetch some snakes when they heard a dainty little sneeze around the corner. James all but jumped out of his skin at this as he pulled Sirius away from the collision course, just in time to avoid a traipsing Abigail O'Brien. The small girl's arms were crossed in a very harassed manner as she muttered words under her breath to the affect of, "I'll show him little Ravenclaw..."

"Oh right," James moaned to Sirius' right. "Seventh year prefects patrol tonight, Padfoot. Miss Perfect Lily announced that this evening."

James cursed a little under his breath, realizing Snape would be quite out of bed, and quite aware of two boys lugging a barrel of snakes into the Slytherin commons.

"All the more devilish, don't you think?" Sirius said nonchalantly, watching Abigail's form slip around the next corner of the corridor.

"Of course, my friend. But that means we can't bamboozle Snivellus while he's there to feel the full affect."

This wasn't really what was bothering James. Knowing Lily as well as he hoped he did, he realized she'd be patrolling right now as well, hawk-like eyes and bat-like ears searching the castle with a vengeance to prove herself head girl worthy. Or worse, she'd be knocking on Remus' door, trying to get him to patrol with her. What would she do when she found three empty beds—though Peter had an excuse—in the dorm room of the infamous Marauders, the biggest troublemakers of all time thus far?

James was fairly certain his absence would gain him no points in the eyes of the fiery redhead.

"No worries. Maybe we can pounce on him while he's patrolling and confuse the grey pants right off him."

"Would you want to...?"

"I won't look." Sirius procured the map from his robes and looked it over. "Coast is clear. We can make it to the Entrance Hall without any problems from Filch or his new kitty. What's the name? Miss Norman?"

James shrugged, smiling mischievously. A rush of adrenaline was taking him, causing him to forget caution and the opinions of that little emerald- eyed beauty for a moment. The thrill of danger and possible detention; what could be better?

The two took off for the Entrance Hall, where they warily opened the doors and stepped into the night of Hogwart's grounds. The moon cast eerie shadows from each blade of carefully trimmed grass, and the light reflected off the lake ominously. Everything glowed blue.

"It's nearly the Full Moon. I don't blame Moony for wanting to cower in the dorms," Sirius said, eyes wandering through the cloak towards the vast heavens before continuing on towards the forest. He looked extremely uptight to James, which provoked him to wonder...

"Are you still upset over that thing last year? You know, the thing with Snape and the Whomping Willow..." James had been really worried about both Remus and Sirius for a good portion of sixth year, first because he thought Moony would hate himself for almost harming another student, and then because he was certain he'd harm Sirius for putting him through it all. And he knew Sirius hadn't gotten over his stupidity yet, even if Remus had forgiven him. (That is, after half a year of persuasion on James and Peter's parts.)

Sirius looked very dark for moment, walking a little faster so that James had to hasten his pace to keep up with his friend.

"Well, a summer away doesn't make you forget a two week suspension for the possible killing of a fellow student, even if the student is forked tongued and deserved it. No one, and I mean no one, can get away with what he said, especially not in front of me."

James found it increasingly difficult to keep the cloak shrouding both of them as Sirius speeded up further, a scowl on his face.

"Don't get me wrong, summer at your house was grand and not all filled with twisted thoughts of the miseries I wish to inflict on Snivellus. Most of it was quite fun, actually. Remember when I drew up plans on how to smash Snape's nose without the teacher's catching wind?"

"Just keep walking, Sirius."

~*~*~*

Lily steadied her pace as she withdrew her wand from her robes. Why be unprepared?

Her vigil for deviant students had, thus far, been a complete bore. Normally (or when he wasn't sick, which wasn't often) she'd patrol with Remus Lupin, but he had, once again, developed a high fever and had to sleep it off. Typical.

And she would have tried to persuade the head boy to come along, if she had suddenly gone mad and forgot that he was a prat that enjoyed levitating spiders over her head.

But then there was Abigail O'Brien, whom she was fairly good friend's with, who probably would have agreed to keep her company. Unfortunately, Lily remembered how annoyed she'd been about being called "little" by Rosier that afternoon, and knew for a fact she was still brooding over it.

And the giggle fit she had with James Potter on the train ride over had no sway in her decision to steer clear of the girl. Nuh-uh.

Well, Lily reasoned, she's not the first girl to turn to mush at the hands of James Potter.

James Potter did seem to dwell on the minds of the girls of Hogwarts quite often. That is, before they fell madly in love with him, and droned on forever about how they were the future Mrs. James Potter.

It was sickening.

So Lily elected to patrol alone, which had been fun all of two second before she realized she was lonely.

Wand in hand, Lily crossed her arms and leaned against a wall near the dungeons. There was a window opposite her, through which she could see the dark of the night and the nearly full moon overhead. It made her sad, having such a perfect night and no one to share it with.

She longed to take a train back to her home, where she and her sister could sit on the porch, talking for hours about absolutely nothing in particular.

It was nice to have an older sister sometimes.

Suddenly, Lily heard the creaking of the Entrance Hall doors. She quickly unfolded her arms and quietly stalked towards the generator of the sound.

No one was there. The door slowly closed with a definitive snap, and that was it. The light of the moon that had quickly cascaded in a line from the crack between the doors was instantly diminished and that was all.

She furrowed her brow, emerald eyes darting this way and that over the Entrance Hall. Something had to have opened the door; of this Lily was certain.

And yet, she was quite alone. She softened her eyes and closed them, leaning against wall with a sigh. Perhaps she had imagined the sound... and the light from the door. Maybe she had grown paranoid with the stress of being head girl.

Or maybe not.

Her eyes shot open as she heard another noise, a hissing noise. Was it a student? Her posture went rigid as she leapt out from behind the wall... and directly into something... solid.

She stumbled backwards with a feeble expelling of air. Her hands shot up to her forehead, which had been hit quite hard with something wooden, as she heard a pair of hurried footsteps to her right.

What in the world?

Lily straightened up and pointed her wand, squinting, trying to see where the noise was coming from. But there was nothing there. There were just sounds: footsteps, a hurried whisper, and then nothing.

Lily was perplexed, unnerved... She took a daring step towards the place she had last heard the noise coming from, and then she did the only thing she could think to.

She aimed a hex at nothing and fired. "Stupefy!"

She hit nothing.

Lily's eyes widened. She didn't like that something was invisible to her, but solid enough to collide with, and noisy enough for her to hear.

"Wh-who are you?"

A thought crossed her mind, as if she could feel an uneasy presence. She felt that same presence last year in the Gryffindor Commons, right before James Potter jumped out from behind a couch and scared her half to death. But he couldn't become invisible, could he?

There was nothing but silence. Lily waited for minutes, her heart thumping loudly in her chest. Thump, thump, thump. Could the unseen, solid something hear that? Thump, thump, thump.

So much for a brave Gryffindor and head girl, eh?

After what seemed like years, she backed away from the scene, towards the dungeons. That was, after all, the direction the noises were leading her. Perhaps she could ask the patrolling prefect, Snape or not, if he'd heard anything out of the ordinary.

She took off at a run, glancing behind her fervently in hopes of finding the originator of the sounds.

~*~*~*

James and Sirius watched their prefect run down the stone steps to the dungeons in silence, breathing as quietly as possible while struggling to keep hold of the box—which they'd borrowed from Hagrid's cabin—filled with snakes. James had had to put a silencing charm on the serpents after they collided with something in the Entrance Hall, which was when they realized THEY WERE NOT ALONE.

"Well, good one, Padfoot. I think she's left," James whispered, head craning to see if the redhead was out of earshot and sight. When he was satisfied, he rounded on his friend with an offended expression. "Did you see how close she was to hitting us with that stunning charm? Gee, it's always bloody fun to be nearly rendered immobile by a girl half a foot shorter than us! Oh, and thanks for checking the map before we came in here. That was real smart."

"My bloody hands were full, mate," Sirius snapped indignantly. "You try holding the heavy side and checking the map at the same time!"

"The heavy side?" James repeated disbelievingly. "Didn't realize you caught those many snakes with your wonderful summoning charm. 'Ascio—no—ashio—wait—ACCIO, right? Right?' A bowtruckle nearly attached to your head, you realize? You could have been skewered in the eye."

"Yeah, fine, Prongs. It's not that I didn't remember; I just had a temporary mind collapse," Sirius defended. "Let's just put this stuff back in the forest then. There's no way we can get this stuff into the Slytherin Commons with Head Girl Lily on our tails. Just help me get to the door—yeah, thanks. We can try levitating them into the girl's dorms if you want, though. I saw the window from the grounds around the side, if you'd care to take a detour..."

Perhaps James would have answered, but his mind was a bit too filled with thoughts of a certain redhead, who was, just moments before, feet away from him. It was funny, but with his heart beating so fast and her eyes flashing so dangerously, he almost thought she knew he was there.

Maybe it was something in the glow of her eyes...

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Taiyourshoes: Check that out, it only took me two days to write. I'll post tomorrow though, since it's just too late now. 7 pages! I'm so proud of me! Gotta love Spring Break! 4/13/04

A million hugs to the people who reviewed and read! I feel so special, 12 reviews, I just love you guys!