Zan189- Thanks for the reviews! Yeah, James is sweet…Lily doesn't know what she's missing out on…yet. Heck, we would so date him. Too bad he's fictional. Oh yea, WE LOVE THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE!
Chapter 5: Escapade to the Kitchens
"Prongs, hurry up. What's taking you so long?" Sirius yelled, banging on the bathroom door.
Remus rolled his eyes at his friend's over-eagerness. Peter was sitting silently on his bed looking intensely through his chocolate frog cards.
The group listened as they heard running water and then the door opened. James stepped out of the bathroom. "Okay, now that my bladder is gladder, let's get going."
Sirius jumped up in the air. "Yippee! Finally!"
James smiled mischievously at his friends as he went over to his trunk and pulled out a silvery silky cloak. "But where's the—"
Remus stood up and handed James a blank piece of parchment. "I'm way ahead of you as always," he stated jokingly, grinning.
James took the parchment and unfolded it. He tapped his wand on the surface of it as he said aloud, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Lines started sweeping across the piece of paper and forming words and outlines of rooms.
Sirius looked over James' shoulder. "It's all clear. It looks like Filch is off somewhere on the third floor and all the other teachers appear to be in their offices," he explained. "Come on, come on, I'm starving!"
James motioned for Peter to join the rest of them and in one swift motion he pulled the Invisibility Cloak around all four of them.
It had been a lot easier to move around the castle under the cloak when they had been in their first year. But now, they were all seventeen-year-old boys who had grown a considerable amount in the past years. James and Sirius, being the tallest of the group, had to shrink down slightly so that everyone's feet would be fully covered especially since Peter was at least a head shorter than the three other boys.
"Blasted!" Sirius exclaimed looking down at the map in James' hand. "Looks like old Minnie is heading down in this direction." And sure enough there was a dot labelled 'Minerva McGonagall' heading down the same hallway they were.
"Just be very quiet because she can't see us. Remember? We're invisible," Remus replied, smirking slightly. Sirius glared at his friend while Peter laughed.
"Shh, be quiet, here she comes," James whispered. Seconds later, their strict Transfiguration teacher appeared around the corner. The Marauders kept on silently going, sucking in their breath as the Deputy Headmistress passed.
Luckily, they didn't meet any other teachers as they finally stopped outside a painting of a fruit bowl. With one last look at the Marauders map, James muttered "Mischief Managed" and the map erased itself blank.
All four boys stepped out from underneath the cloak, James folding it up and carrying it under his arm. Sirius excitingly reached out a finger and tickled the picture of a pear. It squealed as Sirius touched it; Peter snickered. The painting then swung open emitting the group into the Hogwart's kitchen.
A house elf anxiously greeted them. "What can Silby do for young masters?" one of them asked. The house elves were commonly used to seeing James and his friends down in the kitchens. After all, they'd been coming since their first year when they had found the entrance accidentally when they were trying to find a bathroom.
"Silby, can you get me some chicken, ice cream, and some fruit pasties," Sirius asked. "Oh yeah, and some potatoes."
James and Remus looked at Sirius with humorous looks upon their faces. "What?" Sirius asked defensively. "I'm a growing boy!"
"Yeah, but if you keep eating like that, you're broom wont even be able to support your weight," Remus answered.
"Bring me something of everything," Peter said to the small elf, drool starting to come from his mouth.
The elf nodded, its long bat-like ears flopping wildly about. "And how about you Master James and Master Remus?"
"Just a small ice cream sundae for me, Silby, thank you," Remus answered, smiling down at the patient creature.
"Yeah, and I'll have the same as Remus, extra hot fudge," James said. And with that the elf hurried off giving orders to the others.
The four friends pulled up chairs around a small round table and sat down. "Aw, the first after-hours escapade down to the kitchens this year. Feels good to be breaking the rules again," Sirius exclaimed, leaning causally back in his chair and propping his feet on the table.
"Too right you are, Padfoot," James answered, smiling at his best friend.
Remus and Peter snorted. "Breaking the rules again? What did you call your and James' little performance in Potions on Thursday?" Remus asked.
"Old Snivellus had it coming. I mean, it wasn't our fault that the fireworks just so happened to fall into his cauldron and made it explode all over the dungeon," Sirius exclaimed innocently.
"Yeah, Snivelly should keep a more careful eye on what goes into his potion," James agreed, his eyes burning with mischief.
Peter began laughing while Remus shook his head. "I'll never understand you two," he said, a grin creeping onto his face.
"But we understand you. It might have taken us a while, but we finally figured it out," James answered, clapping Remus on the back.
"We even went the extra mile and became Animagus," Sirius added pulling all four of them into a big brotherly hug.
"Sirius, get off me, I can't breathe," James gasped. Sirius pulled back releasing James, Remus, and Peter, laughing.
"Sorry, I just got caught up in the moment," Sirius answered. The other three rolled their eyes at him. There was a pause in conversation as Silby came running forward followed by five other elves balancing all the food they had ordered on treys.
"Here you are, Sirs," Silby said.
"Thank you," all boys muttered as they began digging into their food. James and Remus stared at Peter and Sirius as they disappeared behind mounds of food.
"It's disgusting, watching them two eat," Remus said, pulling a face as Sirius attempted to talk with his mouth full.
"Sorry, I can't understand you, Padfoot, your mouth seems to be convulsing with food," James said mockingly.
Sirius swallowed hard before attempting to talk again. "We might as well take advantage of the resources around us. And plus…I skipped dinner, remember?"
James and Remus rolled their eyes good naturedly as Peter sat there shoving all kinds of food into this open mouth.
There was silence as the Marauders ate their way through their respected foods. "Did anybody, besides me, notice the way Evans had her hair up today?" James asked suddenly.
Sirius snorted, sending a mixture of vanilla ice cream and mashed potatoes everywhere. "Aren't you two on really bad terms…well…worse than usual. I mean, she ruined our prank, she basically humiliated you in front of the school…twice, and—"
James shrugged. "She can't humiliate me, everybody loves me. And I can't stay mad at Evans forever…she's too pretty. She's completely stolen my heart…and I guess I just like fighting with her. She's so…cute."
Sirius, Remus, and Peter shared humorous looks as they looked at James' dreamy expression. Their friend was becoming all mushy lovey over Lily Evans…again, for like the millionth time. "Um, Prongs, do you ever not talk about Lily?" Sirius asked.
James shook his head slightly to bring himself out of Lily land. "Yeah…but then I end up thinking about her, so I might as well share it all to you guys."
"And besides," Peter started, for the first time taking his eyes off of his plate, "you always talk about Emily."
Sirius looked like he was about to defend himself but instead decided against it. "Okay, it's unnatural how much we talk about those girls. How about, for the rest of the night, we take a break. Just a good boy's night out in the kitchens, talking about…manly stuff," he proposed. Remus, Peter (who didn't really have a girl to talk about), and James nodded.
They all went back to their treats as each one thought about a 'manly' subject to talk about.
Remus scooped his last spoonful of ice cream before decided to attempt at conversation. "Bec—…er…I mean, a friend, told me a really funny—"
Sirius cut him off. "You were about to say 'Becca', weren't you?" Sirius demanded of his friend.
"No," Remus replied.
"I think you were."
"I wasn't!"
"Sure you weren't…all in favor that Remus was about to say the above mentioned girl's name, say 'Aye'"
Peter and James both shouted "Aye!" Remus glared at all of them.
"You know, compared to Prongsie's glare, yours isn't all that frightening, Moony. Hate to break it to you," Sirius smirked. Remus, once again, glared as the others chuckled.
"We need to come up with another big prank to pull, but not harmful in any way…Evans would have my head—"
"Oh Prongs, guess who you just mentioned," Remus said in a singsong voice smirking happily at his friend.
"I guess Emily was right, she's all you ever talk about. It's like it's a disease or—"
"Ha!" Remus cried triumphantly. "And you just mentioned Emily!"
Peter looked in between the others, a happy smile on his face. "Seems like I'm the only one here who can contain themselves," he said. The other three glared at him and then pounced, wrestling him to the floor.
"Now this is more like it!" Sirius exclaimed as they pinned Peter to the floor. "Some good natured manly fighting!"
Two hours later, the Marauders were thanking the house elves as they stepped out of the kitchen. James threw his cloak, once again, around all four of them while Remus checked the map. They passed the Bloody Baron at one point just after Peter tripped over a suit of armour. Luckily, James had caught the back of his robes before he hit the ground and Sirius had up righted the armour.
Feeling full and quite drowsy, the Marauders stepped through the portrait hole thinking about their warm comfortable beds up in the dorm. Sirius was about to rip off the cloak when James suddenly held up his hand. Remus, Sirius, and Peter looked questioningly at him, so to answer his friends, James motioned over to the couch by the fireplace.
Lily Evans sat there, staring suspiciously at the portrait hole, ironically right where the four seventh years were standing.
"Just keep on moving, Prongs. She can't see us. Just keep on moving," Sirius whispered into his friend's ear as Lily continued staring at the spot they were standing underneath the cloak. Remus nodded and prodded James in the back and they quietly and slowly headed to their dorm.
Lily had a shrewd suspicion who had just entered: James and his friends. When she had first been made a Prefect in fifth year, she had caught James and Sirius on her patrol under, what she suspected to be, an Invisibility cloak. And in case she wasn't very much mistaken, Potter and co were under that very same cloak.
She casually stood up and pretended to be walking to her dormitory while keeping a straining ear on trying to locate where the Marauders were now.
James held his breath as Lily came into close proximity of them. Suddenly, there was a yelp as Peter tripped over Lily's outstretch foot. The group went tumbling down to the ground.
Lily jumped back with an evil looking smirk upon her face. Sirius' head appeared right down by Lily's tapping foot. "Why hello, Lily dearest. We were just on our—" Sirius began, grinning winningly up at her.
"Shut it, Black," Lily broke in, her emerald eyes blazing with anger. She looked down at the jumbled mess on the floor, all the boys trying to untangle themselves, bits of their body reappearing at a time.
"Ouch," he scoffed. "What a temper."
They all finally stood up, James folding up the cloak hastily and stuffing it under his arm. He looked up at Lily and plastered a huge smile across his face. "My Lily Flower, you should be in bed," he said pleasantly.
Lily walked up to him. "Potter, do you have any idea what time it is?" she demanded angrily, placing her hands on her hips.
"Hold on, just let me consult my watch…"
"It's one o'clock in the morning! Where've you been?" she asked.
"To the kitchens," he answered, looking around at his friends. Why was she so mad? She usually didn't wait up for them when they went out on their nightly escapades around the castle.
James was quite frightened from the look on Lily's face. He tried to lighten the mood. "No need to look so angry. If only you had asked, we would have taken you with us."
Lily drew in a deep breath. "Sorry, I was somewhere else tonight. Do the words 'Head duties' mean anything to you?" she hissed.
Sirius and Remus exchanged nervous looks as Peter dashed up the stairs, knowing only too well that Lily was going to go into one of her yelling lectures.
"Um…Lily, I'm sure that—" Sirius tried to explain.
"Black, I thought I told you to shut it!" She turned slowly to face him her voice dangerously low. Sirius nudged Remus and they walked, quite faster than normal, up the stairs to the boys' dorm.
James looked worriedly at Lily. He had completely forgotten about their patrol duties tonight. He masked how nervous he really was, however, by shrugging his shoulders and smiling coolly. "Head duties…Head duties…Nope, those words don't ring a bell," he said simply. "Look, Evans, I'm really tired, you know? Long night.
I'll just see you—"
"You're not going anywhere, Potter. I knew Dumbledore had made a huge mistake by appointing you as Head Boy, and boy, oh boy, was I right. We're supposed to work together, as a team. Now I'm not quite sure you know what that means, but it means you're supposed to patrol the corridors with me without talking to me. You are such an irresponsible little prick," she retorted.
James yawned deeply. "Evans, are you done yet?" he asked.
Lily drew herself up to her full height and smacked him. "I hate you, Potter!"
James rubbed his face, man, Evans could hit hard. "Blimey, Evans. Have you ever thought about being a Beater? It would be a good way to let out all of your anger," he hissed.
Lily glared daggers at him. "Go to bed, Potter!"
James stared at her, placing his hands on his hips in an attempt to mimic Lily. "Why don't you go to bed?"
Lily screamed in agitation. "Don't tell me what to do, Potter, especially after you skipped your Head Duties."
"Well then, don't tell me what to do. For your information, you can't boss me around. I'm a Head too, you know," James replied coldly.
"Not the way you've been behaving, you're not. And if you ever, and I mean ever, skip your patrol again I'll personally make sure you won't be able to have kids in the near future. Is that understood?" she spat, whipping out her wand.
"I'd like to see you try," he retorted, pulling out his own wand. They stared at each other for some time, James having no intention to actually hex Lily. "I don't think Dumbledore would like to find out that Miss Perfect Lily Evans, Head Girl of Hogwarts, is threatening students, let alone the Head Boy," James spoke easily. Lily slapped him once more before turning on her heel and stalking off to her dormitory. James followed suit, and stormed up the stairs to his room.
He walked into the seventh year boys' dormitories feeling rather disgruntled. "You know," he said irately to Sirius, "She's started slapping me this year. Have you noticed? This is the third time in a week. I'm not so sure it's an improvement."
"Oy, Prongs. You can't have it both ways," Sirius chided, pulling his shirt over his head and jumping onto his bed. "Which would you rather—she slap you or she pretend you're not there? At least this way she's acknowledging that you exist."
"You know what, Sirius? Loads of girls know I exist. I could be dating any one of them happily." James asked pointlessly.
Sirius sighed. "I know, James, but you don't want 'loads of girls.' You want Lily Evans."
"Why do I even bother?" James muttered.
Sirius grinned—hiding his smile from his best mate—and crawled under the covers. "Don't ask me, James," he said seriously. "Don't ask me."
