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Chapter 13: Well, we're getting somewhere…

Previously:

'Well, I'm going to try and get James back by singing. He knows my favourite love song, and I'm going to sing it to him. Though I'm begging you to help. As well as with the song, Suzie, I'll need help with costumes, Remus, Peter, Sirius, can you wake up silently? And Caroline,' Caroline looked up from her nails, which she was half-way through charming light blue, 'Try to be...quiet, Ok?'

A chorus of 'Yes, Ma'am!'s echoed through the dorm, and they set off to Win James Back, with Caroline trying to be inconspicuous.

Remus, Sirius and Peter went off downstairs, to visit the boys' dorm and try to work out exactly how to wake them all up silently. Caroline stayed behind with the girls, just for the fun of it, and Suzie had already sat down despairingly in front of Lily, and was charming her hair back to normal. Suzie was meticulous about her own hair, and had been quietly cringing all through Lily's idea.

'OK, Lily, I'm done. Just promise me you'll never ever do that to your hair again!' said Suzie.

'Thanks, Suzie,' said Lily. 'Got any ideas for costumes, Sarah?'

'Well, I think Misty needs sort of a... how do I describe it? Floaty. That's it, floaty style! So what you're wearing right now is completely inappropriate.'

After murmurs of agreement,they set out to try and find decent outfits to sing Misty in, which, they had to admit, needed floatiness. As they stood there, in various states of undress, Caroline snorted.

'What?' snapped Lily, having gotten stuck in her top, which was tight.

'I just remembered that time the boys burst in on us, when we were all getting changed!'

'Oh yeah! And Remus didn't know where to look, he was blushing bright red!' put in Sarah.

'James swore he was looking for his boxer shorts, which he said Peter had said he'd hidden in there, but I swear that was just an excuse!' said Lily, smiling broadly.

'But Sirius was hilarious!' said Sarah, laughing, 'He was looking at all of us in turn, until you went and slapped him, Caroline, and asked him exactly what he thought he was doing, and he looked so sheepish, and went, 'But there's so much choice!''

The whole room erupted with laughter. Once the laughter had died down, Lily held up a soft white top and slipped it on, and then spun around for her friends to see.

'Ooh, that's perfect!' commented Suzie.

'Oh yeah!' agreed Sarah enthusiastically. 'Pair it with that hippy skirt, you know, the light green one!'

Once Lily put this on, her costume was complete, by unanimous decision. Suzie tied her hair back, so half of it was up, and half down, and put natural makeup on her.

'You look wonderful, Lily,' she said sincerely, once she had stepped away from Lily so that she could see all of her. 'Now we need to find something that will go for us!'

They started to plan Suzie, Sarah and Caroline's costumes, completely unaware of the slight disaster coming up.

Remus fell off the bed.

'Oof! That hurt!'

'No, no, no! That won't do at all! You can't talk, it has to be quiet!' said Sirius, who had put himself in charge of the waking-everybody-up-silently operation.

'Well, you try to be silent when you've just been pushed off the bed! It hurts, you know!'

'Well, yes. Sorry. But how are we going to do this?'

'Oh, for heaven's sake! There must be something! We've tried ice, that wasn't silent enough…' Remus winced as he remembered the ice cubes that had been conjured up down his back. He'd woken up all right, but with the most unearthly scream. He continued, 'We tried silencing us all, and then, because we couldn't speak to take the spell off, we had to go next door and write a note to those horrible fifth years, who found it terribly funny.'

'Snotty little gits.'

'Quite. Then we tried putting silencing charms on your curtains,' Remus glared at Sirius. Despite all of Remus' warnings that putting silencing charms on the curtains would only mean that the curtains made no noise, Sirius had not listened, and they'd tried it, to no avail. 'And that didn't work. We then tried Sirius pushing the others off the bed, but that didn't work. Not that Sirius would be able to stay up all night anyway to do this. Got any ideas, Peter?'

'Well, yes, actually. You just wouldn't let me say! I have an alarm clock that only sounds for the one person who sets it and so if we give it to Remus, he can put silencing spells on us all, because of snoring, and James will accept that.'

'I don't snore!'

'Yes, you do!'

'Um… Remus, where's James?'

'Dunno. He came back from the hospital wing, right?'

'Yeah, he came out yesterday. He was in all of our lessons!'

'Oh yeah. Where's the map?'

Remus rooted around in his trunk, where the map had been last.

'No, it's not here, though my trunk is messed up. Where's the cloak?' He had a growing suspicion that James had used the patented and highly tried-and-tested Marauders' depression cure, which involved the Hogs' Head, large amounts of alcohol, and a several embarrassing moments. It had been invented by Sirius in sixth year when he had broken up with his steady girlfriend, and Remus usually had to deal with the consequences.

'Erm… I had it. It's not here, though.'

'Oh god!'

Sirius, Remus and Peter rushed down the stairs, to find a girl.

'Oi, you!' Sirius yelled at a passing, and highly startled, fifth year.

'Ever the smooth one…' muttered Remus to Peter.

'Y-yes?' the girl stuttered.

'We need you to go upstairs with us, right now.'

'What?'

'Oh come on, girl! Let us go upstairs to the girls' dorms!'

'Oh… all right.'

The girl led them upstairs; cheerful now she worked out was going on.

'Thanks. We'll remember this.'

'Is that a good or a bad thing?' she asked cheekily.

'Ooh, it just depends now,' said Sirius with a winning smile.

'If you've quite finished flirting…'

'Oi, girls! You in there?' yelled Sirius, blushing. They heard scrambling from inside.

'If any of you little gits dares to come in here in the next…40 seconds, you won't be able to talk to us, on account of having to find your mouth!' yelled Lily's voice from the inside.

'Ooh, sounds tempting,' grinned Sirius.

The scrambling had stopped.

'Whatever, you can come in now.'

Sirius, Remus and Peter rushed in.

'James is gone! Wow, Evans, you look nice, and Hawling, you're wearing your pyjama top.'

'Shut up!' the said pyjama-wearer growled, 'James has gone? And why do you care that I'm wearing my pyjama top?'

'You know hangover cures too, right?'

'Yes, duh!'

'You DO?' all of the girls turned to look at Caroline, astounded.

'Well, obviously. You can never tell when I've been drunk, can you?'

'You've been drunk?'

'Poor, naïve, little girlies. Course I've been drunk. I was in school choir!'

'Those two sentences are not in any way connected!' moaned Lily, confused.

'You don't know how boring it was. I had to get myself kicked out somehow!'

'Oh… god.'

'Well, anyway, Hawling. You're coming with us. So change your clothes!'

'Fine, fine. Then leave. I'll be out in two!'

James had left the school, and had gone straight to The Hog's Head. The others followed in his footsteps, in a state of slight panic. When they reached the pub, they found the bartender polishing the stains on his eternal glass, and James sitting quietly in a corner, singing 'Baa baa black sheep' to himself.

'Oh, wow,' said Caroline, 'This looks like a hard case, even for me. But we will be able to do it together! Remus, get me a glass. And Peter, I need the juice of as many citrus fruits as you can find.'

Peter just looked at her, mystified. Where on earth was he supposed to find citrus fruits at eleven o'clock in the evening in the Hog's Head, where the patrons and landlord probably wouldn't know vitamin C if it came dancing in wearing a tutu and singing 'Night Fever' by the Bee Gees.

'I don't know, where-'

'Yeah, get me an acid pop, and… some ice mice,' Caroline cut him off. Peter shrugged and went off to see what he could do.

'You put ice mice in a hangover cure?' asked Remus.

'No, they're delicious. But, actually, that's a good idea. Get me a couple more ice mice, and some chocolate. Oh, and some really strong coffee.'

Remus visibly paled.

An acid pop, ice mice, chocolate, lime juice, coffee, a few other mystery ingredients that Caroline assured the others they didn't want to know about and a whisk later had made a rather disgusting green frothy concoction.

'Look. We can't give that to James without trying it. Sirius and Hawling, you made it, you try it.'

The two aforementioned 17-year-olds gulped, and took a sip. Caroline was the more restrained; she didn't squeal, only squeaked, and stuck her tongue out only once. After she had finished shivering, she said in a shaky voice:

'I reckon my breath smells better now, though.'

'It does. You got all the scuzz off your tongue.'

'Great. Sirius, come here!' Sirius had stopped running around now, too.

'Wha-?'

Sirius had no need to finish the question, as it was answered with a serious kiss, something that he had wanted to do with Caroline for a long time. It was Caroline who broke the kiss.

'Man, I've always wanted to do that with fresh breath and the goop off my tongue!'

She winked at Sirius, who looked completely shell-shocked.

They then fed James the vile mixture, watched the reaction, which involved James screaming blue murder and then moaning about marshmallows before dunking his head in a bowl of water which Remus swiftly conjured up when he saw the steam pouring out of his friend's ears. Now all they had to do was get back to the castle.

Yes! I finally finished it! OK, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, at least as much as I enjoyed writing it, and look out for chapter 14, which will be coming soon enough. In the meantime, remember your three R's, I wRite, you Read, and then you Review! Hint. Hint. Review about coffee.

Smile!

Larka : )