A/N: Please don't kill me, please don't kill me…
Song "Too Shy" is by Kajagoogoo, not mine in any way, shape or form. Also, the song entitled, "Sweet Baby James" is owned by James Taylor, not me. The song, "Back in Saddle" and "Same Old Song and Dance" are both by Aerosmith and I don't own them at all. Poor me…
Oh my gosh, I am so sorry for anyone who was confused! I had to re-upload the chapter because I put the unfinished next chapter up! So sorry!
It had only been a couple days more, and already they boys couldn't stand it. James buried his head in his pillow and groaned. "I think I'll go crazy if I spend another second in here!"
Sirius kept cool, considering his plan. "How bad do you want out of here?"
James looked up, curious. "How bad do you think? My mind is turning into baby mush!"
"I know; I can smell it." Sirius joked.
"Haha." James pretended to laugh. "Why do you ask? Are you taking a poll?" He smirked at his own joke, but Sirius pretended not to notice.
Sirius chose each of his words with care. "If we play our cards right, we may be able to take a break – so to speak."
James raised a questioning eyebrow, "I'm listening, Senor Black."
"I've been thinking. We've been in this stuffy old room a long time, haven't we?" James nodded. "Well, why don't we just take a stroll outside?"
"Yes, that would be very nice for a change; but what do we do when we come back?" James questioned.
"We say we went to visit your mother." Sirius grin faded at James' contemptuous expression. "Well, do you have any better ideas?"
James was silent for a moment. "Er – no." He said finally, breaking the silence. "Actually, I guess we could use your idea, but we'll have to be tricky about it."
Sirius thought about it. "Do you have a letter from your mum?" James nodded. "I could probably use it to write a fake notice. But then how do we get out of the castle?"
James was quick to pick up on Sirius' idea. "We could say that it was an emergency – and we didn't have time to tell anyone!"
"And your mother wants your most bestest, most specialest friend to come with you because there's a family crisis! For some reason beyond me." He chortled. "What d'you say?"
"Well, I'll have to get a letter from Mum out of my trunk, and that's in the dormitory."
"It would take too long to ask Remus or Peter… Hm – maybe one of us could sneak out to find it?"
"The reason we want the letter is so that we can get out, James."
"Alright, I'll tell Madame Pomfrey that I want to re-read my letters from Mum."
Sirius faltered. "No way! Far to logical!" He laughed. "Alright, good plan. Tomorrow morning, then?"
"Tomorrow morning." James assured his friend.
The next morning, as promised, James asked Madame Pomfrey for his letters from his mum. All though she grumbled, she did send a House Elf to retrieve them for him.
After Madame Pomfrey had given James his letters and left to attend other business, Sirius began to study James' mother's handwriting. Every once in a while, Sirius would mutter something, but he mostly remained silent.
While Sirius was busy studying and practicing, James was thinking of what exactly the letter should say. They pretended to read whenever someone came into the room.
Several days later, the boys were ready to begin. It was dark, and Madame Pomfrey was in her office, no doubt deciding what horrible medicine to give them in the morning.
It didn't take too long for them to come up with the letter from James' mother. The boys were very proud of it.
With that out of the way, the boys were able to fall asleep. They slept peacefully the whole night… Or so it seemed.
When they awoke the next day, it was dark. It was far too dark to be the Hospital Wing, as James soon figured out…
He groped around for his glasses, but soon found that his glasses were not there. Nor, he realized was the side-table that was usually there. Obviously still tired, he just then noticed that the surface he was currently using as a bed was much to hard and flat to be what it should have been. It was solid as rock.
He sat up, blind as a bat. He reached for his wand, only to find that it wasn't there. Panic-struck, he attempted to stand up. Because everything was as dark as Sirius' name, however, James quickly became dizzy and fell back onto his butt.
He groaned and rubbed his back end. He heard a familiar groan reply from somewhere in the darkness. "Sirius?" James' hushed voice sounded uncertain, scared even.
He began slowly, slowly inching toward where he thought his friend might be. Crawling on all fours, James made his way until he felt something soft and warm under his hand. Startled, he cried out.
He heard another grunt come from someplace in the darkness. "Sirius?" James was much more certain now, and his voice portrayed it perfectly.
James felt his hands around on his friend's body and soon moved up the arm. Now that he knew where his head was, James slapped it. Sirius let out a yip, much like a surprised dog and (James guessed) he opened his eyes.
Sirius sat up and whimpered into the darkness, "Where are we, James?"
"I don't -," his reply was cut short by the ground trembling beneath their feet. Sirius, trying to sound careless, was going to comment on the 'weather', but whimpered instead, for the ground began to shake even harder, which sent both boys hard to the ground.
It was only a few moments before the ground stopped it's violent trembling. Despite this, however, both boys were still shaking. James said, "How did we get out of the Hospital Wing?"
"Maybe Madame Pomfrey decided for a new theme for the Hospital Wing, eh?" Sirius and James laughed, but it was strained.
"We need to find a way out of here, or we could be in serious trouble!"
"We're already in Sirius trouble! Siriously, ya know?" Both boys attempted another laugh, but it came as a small chuckle from each. "Right, well let's at least see if we can stand, 'kay James? James?"
But James didn't answer. He was thinking. (Gasp!) He had an idea of where they might be, but it was only a guess and he wasn't sure he wanted to lay it on Sirius yet. It might scare him even more, maybe even enough to make him not want to move at all. That decided he answered, "We could try to stand, but it would be more dangerous and I got really dizzy when I tried, so I think we should just crawl."
Sirius, though slightly against the idea of getting his robes dirty, agreed that this was the best decision and followed suite.
They crawled in what they thought was in one direction for quite some time before they bumped into a solid wall. It went up, higher than either boy could reach, so they went back to crawling and decided to follow the wall.
Soon, Sirius couldn't stand the silence, so he began to sing under his breath, "You're too shy, shy. Hush, hush, eye to eye… Too shy, shy, hush hush…" They continued this way for what seemed like hours, but was probably only around twenty minutes.
Suddenly, Sirius whispered urgently to James that his wand was missing. "Did you just notice that?" James asked, silently fearing for his friends' mind.
Silence. Then, "…Maybe." James couldn't help but laugh at his friend's stupidity. Well, thought James, not stupidity. Naivety would be a more proper word for my friend's behavior.
Before long, Sirius commented that he could see a light ahead. "It's just a speck, but it's definitely there!"
James, because he was missing his glasses, had to take his word for it.
Soon enough, Sirius broke into a muttered song again, "Goodnight, you moonlight ladies. And rockabye sweet baby James. Deep greens and blues are the colors I choose. Won't you let me go down in my dreams? And rockabye sweet baby James…"
James grimaced at the song, but continued on his not-so-merry way. A few minutes later, Sirius cried out, "We're getting really close, James!"
James could even see the light now. Not very well, but he could see a blur of color in the mist of darkness that surrounded him. Wishing silently for his glasses, James continued to follow Sirius toward the light.
When they finally made their way to the opening of the cave in which they were concealed, Sirius was grinning ear to ear. He looked back at James, who was being temporarily blinded by the sudden light, and remarked, "You don't have your glasses, James!"
"Really? No wonder I can't see anything!" James replied sarcastically.
Sirius grinned sheepishly at his friend before he changed the subject. "We're in a forest."
James sighed, for that was his guess. The more in-detail part of his guess was that they were probably in the Forbidden Forest, which, despite his love for adventure, he hoped they weren't.
"Say, James… You don't think we're in the Forbidden Forest, do you?"
James grunted, "Yes, Sirius, I do think we're in the Forbidden Forest."
"Cool, I've always wanted to go into the Forbidden Forest!"
"Me too, but I was hoping that I would be in a more protective position when I came. I'm blind as a bat and wandless. Can't get much worse, now can it?"
"Aww, c'mon, Jamesie! I'll lead you, and maybe we'll find our way home before dark, eh?"
"That would be nice, but it really isn't very likely."
"Geez, James! Why're you so down? Let's sing!"
Sirius began singing, "I'm riding, I'm really kinda fearsome! I'm riding, I'm shining up my saddle! I'm riding, this snake is gonna rattle! I'm BACK in saddle again, I'm BACK!"
James got into the spirit and sang a rousing course of "Same old Song and Dance" before falling silent. Sirius took the hint and stopped sing as well, but once and a while he continued humming quietly to himself.
James saw green, brown and lots of other colors, but they were all blurred together and it was very difficult for him to keep from tripping. So, naturally, he kept falling all over the place.
The boys continued like this for a very long time. It seriously was hours that they continued, taking only the occasional break.
The sun was setting quickly, but the two marched slowly on. Suddenly, there was a loud rustle to their right. There were several rustles, coming from all around them. Scared, the boys attempted to run. They attempted it, but they failed horribly.
The scene went somewhat like this… James tried to run ahead of Sirius and fell over a root. Sirius almost fell over James. He tripped, and almost fell, but instead accidentally ran headfirst into a tree. They were both stunned, and in quite a bad position.
The rustling stopped for a moment. Someone – or something – then walked out of the bushes.
"Hello, children! I'm Metis, and I'm afraid you're not allowed in our forest!"
A/N: I'll bet that some people 'round here are probably pretty mad, so let me explain. I don't like to write as much as most of the people who write stories, I'm sure. Honestly, I didn't expect anyone to read my story. Don't get me wrong, I'm gonna keep writing, I guess I just didn't see how much of a responsibility it was going to be for me to keep my story going! I understand now, though, so don't anyone worry… I'll probably update a bit more often, I hope! Thank-you, KateF182 for reminding me of my reading public!
KateF182: Thanks again! I guess you sorta caught me… ;) I'm truly sorry and I only hope you forgive me. Tomorrows Saturday, and I'll make sure to get a lot of writing in. I'll review your stories' updates in the morning, though, 'cause I think I'm going to fall asleep typing. (Positively beautiful stories, by the way!) Oh, and thanks for not over-flaming me:)
GoKissBacon: Wow, I never knew I was a good describer:D Thank-you for your lovely review and proper curiosity! LOL!
InsanePirate: Please spare me! I most certainly haven't been updating regularly, but let's blame it on the hurricanes! Um – yeah… Even though Hurricane Ivan had no effect whatsoever on my family, let's blame it on him! It's Hurricane Ivan's fault!
Soria: Thank-you, thank-you! I love reviews! (Huggles reviews!)
Jamie88: Yay, I've been applauded! (bows) I hope this chapter also gains me a positive review, despite the lateness of it:)