And it's not that I don't like when people aren't registered. I don't like when people criticize without owning up to who it really is. It all stemmed out of livejournal, where this one crazy kid kept commenting on my livejournal about how I was a bitch and blah blah blah, but never wrote his name. It just pissed me off. I took out my anger on you guys. Again, sorry!
OK, on with the story!
Chapter 20- In like a bloody lion.
Winter slowly passed, and sure enough, as soon as the boys looked out the window of their History class (well, everyone but Remus, who was struggling to pay attention to Professor Binns, an old man who looked exactly the same every day), the snow was melting and a bit of green could be seen through the white coating on the ground.
"Would you look at that..." Peter said, quietly.
"Have you finally gone over the deep end? Amused by melting snow?" Sirius asked, holding back a bark of laughter.
"No. I'm just admiring Lily Evans." Peter said, causing James' head to snap out of whatever daydream he was having.
"Lily Evans? You're mad. She's right-" James pointed to the seat, supposedly occupying Lily Evans. However, Lily Evans was mysteriously absent from her seat of this particular class.
"Boy, is she gonna be in serious trouble." James said, grinning wickedly.
"What about Sirius?" Remus said, peeking over at the other three. "Why can't I say the word 'serious' and not have it be Black?" James asked.
"It's not so much that you used the word 'serious'. It's that you said it in the same sentence as 'trouble'." Remus grinned. Sirius looked over, frowned, and proceeded to punch his young friend in the arm playfully.
"I could beat you up, you know" Remus said, turning back to Binns' lecture.
"Ha. No human is stronger than Sirius Black!" Sirius replied, grinning boastingly at his own little outburst. Remus grimaced, still looking at Binns. Sirius saw this and told himself to remember this otherwise innocent look. There was something odd about his friend.
"I wonder what Evans is doing out there..." James said, bringing Sirius and Remus back to the topic at hand-Lily Evans.
"I guess we're just going to have to ask her." Sirius said.
"But she won't even talk to us." Peter piped up.
"Don't talk, Peter. It makes you stupid." Sirius joked, smiling. "-Er." James added.
"Huh?" Sirius questioned, looking over at James.
"I'm just saying, stupid-er." He replied. Sirius cracked a grin and shook his head.
"Yes, stupider. We'll just have to use the cloak." Sirius confirmed, James sharing the grin.
"I do believe we will."
"Did you retrieve it all right?" A young girl asked the librarian, Madam Pince.
"Yes, dear. Although I'm still confused as to why you would want it. Werewolves are usually not the subject of study until 3rd, even 4th year." The librarian replied, unwilling to give up a precious book to a student. She had long remembered that children like to destroy things, and more often than not, do not respect something as revered and deserving of such respect as a piece of literary work. A scrap of history, a vault of information. Madam Pince knew about the rumours. She was in love with Argus Filch, she had been married to Dumbledore and has fifteen children, all named Agatha and Archie and Amelia and...who KNOWS what else. But no, Madam Pince was simply an old woman who loved her books. Her books were all the love she would ever need. And to give up a book such as this to a child, a first year student, almost pained her.
"I would just like to do some research on the subject. I always like a good topic of research." This child was different, though. It wasn't very often that such a young girl was interested in knowledge. After all, it took wisdom to appreciate knowledge. And in a very odd paradox (an-I hope I'm using the word right..hehehe) it takes knowledge to gain wisdom. She would trust this child with her book. And if Miss Lily Evans returned The Werewolf-A Full Index in the same manner that it was taken, this student will have gained Madam Pince's trust.
Which is very hard to do.
"Hey-did you hear that?" James asked, hiding near the place of conversation.
"Yeah...so what?" Peter said, obviously very bored. He had taken to picking up a piece of lint, throwing it, attempting to catch it, failing to catch it, and picking it up again. Very annoying to the other marauders.
"Stop that, dorkbait." Sirius said. "If you had a scrap of sense in that little head of yours, you would start to wonder why Lily Evans is skiving off classes for some stupid old book on werewolves"
"Who wants to research werewolves anyways? I mean, ferocious beasts of the wild. Ooh...so bloody interesting." James asked, not noticing the odd look on dear Remus' face as he said this.
"Werewolves scare me..." Peter said, dropping the lint for the (supposedly) last time. "So do bunny rabbits, leg-locker curses, and Chocolate Frogs. What's new?" Sirius asked, obviously very fed up with Pettigrew and his rediculous antics.
"Shut up for a second would you. I wanna see what she's looking up." James said, trying to get closer.
"No." Remus spoke up. "I don't think it's a smart idea"
At this. everyone stopped and turned to look at him. "Why the bloody hell not?" Sirius asked.
Remus looked around, grabbed his friends, and brought them in between two shelves of books. He took off the invisibility cloak at James' protest and attempted to make his point count.
"Becuase...with-what-with you and Peter at each other's throats the whole time, do you really think she won't hear us?" "So? It's not as if we're trying to discuss next week's prank or something." James said, wrinking his nose at Remus' logic. It seemed much more empty than usual.
"Let's take a vote on it." Peter said.
"Take a...wow...that's actually not a bad idea.." Sirius said, surprised at the small boy's idea. Peter looked absolutely ecstactic that he had pleased Sirius.
"First smart thing you've said all day." James joked. "OK, so, who says we take a peak at Evans?" His and Sirius' hand went up.
"And who says we keep our distance?" Remus asked, getting Peter's hand to go up and join his. "Well...that worked." James said, getting exasperated.
"Yeah...great idea, bugger." Sirius said, hitting Peter on the shoulder. The injured boy looked crestfallen as his friends suddenly abandoned ship on the "Peter's right" ferry.
"Well, anyways, Lily's gone. So it won't matter who wins." Remus pointed out, looking over at the spot where Lily Evans used to be.
"Dammit!" James complained. "Now, we'll never know what she was looking for in that book." "Get over it..." Remus said, watching as Madam Pince looked at them suspiciously. "Hey, guys...act like we're looking for something"
"Excuse me, may I ask what you're doing here?" She asked, knowing that these boys had a reputation of being in places they don't belong, anddoing awful things to books.
"Looking for something." Peter said, bending down. Unfortunately, they had ducked down in the one section they didn't want to be found in.
"Are you looking for some answers to your feminine problems?" Madam Pince asked them, picking up a lovely book entitled: Now and Then. The path to womanhood- by Fellen Elra.
"Um...yes...Peter here thought that babies still came from the stork, so we had to show him the real miracle of life..." Sirius quickly lied. However, Madam Pince didn't believe a word of it, and sent them out.
As they walked out of the library, however, Madam Pince did have to say, that while she would never trust those boys with any of her books...it was nice to see some live entertainment once in a while.
Don't kill me?
Please?