Chapter 15: The Rescue (Part 3)
"Hey Tom!" Remus said as he walked up to Tom the innkeeper. Tom smiled at him. Remus had his attention. Remus looked at the door, where Sirius and James looked in carefully. Tom's back was facing them.
"Hello Remus, what can I do for you?" asked Tom leaning against his broom. "What are you doing out here? Midnight is in fifteen minutes."
"Oh, well, I have a problem," Remus said. James and Sirius were now crawling on the ground towards the fireplace. Remus resisted trying not to roll his eyes.
"Go ahead, tell me. I'm sure I can help," said Tom with a huge grin on his face.
The Leaky Cauldron was pretty much empty. About five drunken witches and wizards were present, a less amount then before the fireworks were set off. Now Remus had to think of a good problem.
"You see, there's this girl, and she hates my guts. I keep trying to ask her out and such, but we always end up fighting. I don't know how I can get her to stop calling me by my last name. I really really like her too," Remus said. James looked up from the ground and looked at him with wide eyes. Remus had taken James' situation and was using it for a 'problem' of his own. James started glaring at Remus. He was mouthing a lot of swear words at him. Remus smiled at Tom uneasily. He took a second glance at James and Sirius to find, Sirius whispering to James to go ahead.
"Well, I'd say you've got it bad," Tom said thoughtfully. Remus looked at James and Sirius. James was in the fireplace with the floo powder. He shouted the words to get him to Britney's. Tom turned his head, as Sirius ducked behind a stone pillar. "What was that?" he asked as he started to walk towards the fireplace.
"Please Tom! I want to solve this solution before the end of the year, which is in twelve minutes. Please! Help me!" Remus said quickly. Tom turned back to Remus.
"Ok, I'll help you," Tom said. Sirius held up the bag of floo powder to show Remus that he'd placed it beside the fireplace. Sirius went into the fireplace and did the same as James. Tom quickly turned around and started walking towards the fireplace.
"Well, thanks Tom!" Remus said as he walked towards the fireplace, used the floo powder and copied what James and Sirius had done only a few minutes earlier.
James landed hard on the ground, and groaned. He lifted his head and started pushing himself up.
"Potter! What the hell?" snapped a male voice. Did he floo to the right house? He looked up to see Dom Hayden, Britney's annoying boyfriend glaring at him with Britney sitting on Dom's lap looking confused. Britney looked slightly different, she looked ill. James pushed himself up to a standing position, when green flames erupted from the fireplace again. The next thing James knew, he was knocked down on the ground again, but this time with a heavy body on him.
"Sirius get off me!" James snapped. Sirius groaned. "Quickly, before Remus comes!" Sirius rolled off James and rolled further away from the fireplace. He lay on his back with his hand to his forehead. James quickly got up and walked over to the sofa where Dom and Britney were and he sat down beside them.
"That was crazy," Sirius moaned. "My head is killing me!" he cried he put both his hands over his face and started rolling back and forth moaning and groaning about his head.
"What in Merlin is going on here!" snapped Dom. Now that James saw it, Dom and Britney were half dressed. James raised his eyebrows towards Britney, who smiled. She slid off Dom's lap.
"Hi Jamesie!" she laughed while she clapped her hand on James' shoulder. She rested her chin on James' shoulder and laughed looking at him. Sirius looked up from the ground at James and Britney.
"What's up with her?" Sirius asked confused.
"What are you two idiots doing here?" Dom snapped again, getting impatient and ignoring Sirius' question. Just then green flames erupted for the third time and Remus landed unsteadily on his feet.
"Ah!" Britney screamed but then laughed uncontrollably. Remus looked at Britney strangely. James grabbed Britney's arms and helped her up to her feet. She was unsteady on her feet and fell back onto the sofa, laughing.
James looked at Dom. "What the hell?" he said angry, glaring at Dom. "You got her drunk?" James snapped.
Dom rolled his eyes. "That doesn't matter – what are you three doing here?" he said.
"It does matter!" Remus said, entering the conversation.
Sirius slowly got to his feet, and started glaring at Dom, who rolled his eyes.
"Look, guys," Britney said standing up, but leaning against James. "I'm not drunk," she said grinning at them. "Did you come her for little Lils?" She laughed, and wrapped her arms around James' neck and smiling at him.
"You look drunk to me, Brit," Sirius said frowning at Britney's state.
"Bugger off Black," Dom said coolly. Sirius shook his head.
"Go home Dom," Remus said.
"What? No! You can't tell me to go home, this isn't even your house," Dom said angrily.
Sirius pulled out his wand and pointed it at Dom. "Go home," Sirius said steadily, with anger on his face. Dom glared at Sirius, and backed away a bit.
"Figures," Dom muttered and he apparated out of the house.
Britney looked confused. "What happened to Dommy?" she said with her brow furrowed and she looked at James.
"Let's get you to bed," James said as he started walking with Britney hanging off him, with her arms still around his neck.
"Lily is in the guest room, if you want her James," Britney giggled, and she gave James a sort of wink. It didn't really look like one, it looked like a six year old was trying to wink and failing completely.
"We'll get you to bed first," Remus said as he helped James pull Britney to the staircase with Sirius behind them.
"What are you doing?" Britney asked, as James and Remus lifted her up the stairs.
"Taking you to bed," Sirius said.
"Sirius is here?" Britney asked. "Where?" she laughed and lifted her head back and she saw Sirius. "What are you doing upside down?"
Sirius put his hand at the back of Britney's head and pushed it back up. James and Remus carried her to her room. Sirius opened the door for James and Remus and walked in and placed Britney on her bed, who had already fallen asleep.
The three Marauders sighed. They exited Britney's room and closed the door.
"Which guest room would Evans be in?" Sirius asked looking down the hall at all the doors. Remus opened the door at the right, and Lily was sitting in there with Alice, they were laughing over something.
"Lily?" Remus said slowly. Lily looked around and quickly stood up.
"What the hell is going on here?" Lily said confused. She looked at Remus for an explanation.
"I'll make this quick," Remus said. "We went to a party this evening at a muggle bar and Sirius here," Remus pointed at Sirius who waved at Lily. "Met a girl and ended up getting her naked, and her angry jealous boyfriend caught them, and her huge boyfriend got his huge friends to beat us up. We all got chased outside and we had a huge fist fight with the angry jealous boyfriend," Lily looked incuriously at Sirius who smiled guiltily. "Then the police came and we all ran away as quickly as we could. Peter wasn't as fast and got taken away."
Lily's eyes were wide. "What?" she shouted. "Are you all idiots!" she snapped. Sirius shrugged.
"Can you help us?" Sirius asked.
Lily sighed. "Fine, but quickly, before Britney's parents come home. Wait, we might need money," Lily said. "Where did Peter get arrested?" Lily asked.
"Near the Leaky Cauldron," James said, he gave Lily a wink, who ignored him.
"Oh, I think I know that police station, let's go," she said quickly.
"This isn't going to work, we might need muggle money," Lily said exasperated. Sirius looked at her clueless. She rolled her eyes and pushed open the door into the police station, Remus, Sirius and James following her. Lily walked up to the front desk with a woman police officer, sitting looking over some papers. Lily leaned against the desk. Sirius copied her.
"May I help you?" asked the female police officer.
"Uh, yes, a friend of ours got arrested earlier this night, and we came here to get him," Lily said slowly.
"What's your friend's name?" asked the policewoman.
"Peter Pettigrew," James piped up, Lily shot him a glare.
The police woman nodded and got up and went in a door behind the desk.
"Where did she go?" Sirius asked.
"Shut up," Lily said quickly. Sirius scoffed, but stayed quiet.
The police woman returned a few minutes later. "I'm sorry, there is no Peter Pettigrew here," she said. "Maybe he's at another police station." Lily sighed heavily and turned to leave when James cut in.
"Is there a Sirius Black here by any chance?" he asked cautiously.
The police woman looked at him oddly. "I'll check," she said, and she got up and went through the door once again.
"What was that about?" Sirius asked. Lily had her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at James.
Remus laughed. "I never thought of that," he said to James, who nodded.
The police woman returned shortly after. "Yes, there is a Sirius Black here, he'll be out shortly," she said with a small smile, and she went back to her work. "Have a seat over there," she pointed over to where there were a few seats. The four of them took seats and waited.
Peter walked out of the door looking confused, when he saw James, Remus and Sirius he smiled, he walked quickly to them. "Get me out of here," he muttered.
"Sure thing little buddy," Sirius said putting his arm around Peter's shoulder, and leading him out of the police station.
"Well, that was an eventful night," Remus said as he looked up to the sky. "I bet it's the new year already," Remus said.
"Happy New Year," James whispered to them, they all nodded.
"Well," Lily said. "I better get back to Britney's," Lily said.
"We'll go with you," Sirius said nodding.
"No, its ok, you guys get back home," Lily said, as she started walking down the street. The four marauders sort of watched her walk to the Leaky Cauldron a block away
"Wait! Evans!" James said, as he jogged up to her. "You know what they say?" Lily looked at him irritated. "The way you spend you New Years is how you spend the rest of the year." Lily looked at him confused. "You spent your New Years with me, so that means you'll spend the rest of the year with me!" James said grinning.
"I also spent New Years with Remus, Sirius and Peter, Potter," Lily said coldly. "So, who knows, I could be spending the rest of the year with Sirius instead of you." Lily smiled at him in a sarcastic way. "Happy New Years Potter." She glared at him one last time and hurried down the dark street to the Leaky Cauldron.
"Hey Evans!" James called out to her again. "Will you go out with me?" he shouted, but Lily seemed to have ignored him.
"Ow," James muttered, and he pulled himself up from the ground. He was finally home; he let Sirius go ahead of him this time, so they could avoid any colliding. James stood up shakily.
"Good Evening James," said a cool voice. James looked up and gulped.
"Hey mum, dad," James said smiling. "Happy New Year!"
James looked to see Sirius standing at the other side of the room beside Mr. and Mrs. Potter looking guilty.
"How was your evening?" Mr. Potter asked.
"Oh," James said. "Pretty boring," James shrugged.
"Really?" asked Mrs. Potter. "You do realize it is two in the morning?" James shook his head. She looked at Sirius who shook his head as well.
"Funny thing," Mr. Potter started. "We both came home just before midnight so we could celebrate with you two. But when we came home, no one was here."
"We were hiding," Sirius said quickly.
"Were you?" Mrs. Potter said. "I haven't played hide and seek with James since he was about six. But then all of a sudden, ten years later you wanted to play, James?"
James looked at Sirius, who gave him a worried look. Sirius bit his lower lip then gave James a look. It took James a few moments to realize what Sirius had planned.
"Well?" Mr. Potter said. "What do you have to say, boys?"
"Uh," James said shifting his feet uncomfortably. James ran over to his mum and dad and tapped them on the shoulder. "You're it!" He exclaimed.
"AH!" Sirius gave a fake scream and him and James ran out of the room screaming.
"JAMES POTTER AND SIRIUS BLACK GET BACK HERE!" shouted Mr. Potter.
A/N: I'll try to update again soon, I don't know what I'll be doing for the next chapter so we'll see how soon. Thank you for the reviews. Please review, they make me happy whether there good or bad reviews. Thank you!
R/R!