I can't find him.

I've looked everywhere!

Everywhere.

Me and Eliza looked EVERYWHERE (!) for James and Sirius. Everywhere. You see, James didn't show up for patrols last night. And apparently Sirius didn't show up for his and Eliza's nightly… adventure… in the Astronomy Tower. Yes, that is a rather disturbing image, but I decided to ignore it and freak out with Eliza for a couple hours instead.

Which, by the way, didn't help much.

Not that I really expected it to or anything, but there was a small sliver of hope inside of me that thought that there was a remote possibility that they might just appear out of thin air, and them, Eliza, and time, would say "got you, Lily!" and I'd find out that it was actually like 7:30 or something. And. It sounds really stupid now… but it made sense last night.

Needless to say, that wasn't what happened.

So, Eliza and I spent today combing the castle for signs of James or Sirius (or any of the Marauders, really, we can't find Remus or Peter either). We looked in the Astronomy Tower, the kitchens, the library (we were getting desperate), the boy's dormitories---

Wait. We didn't search the boy's dormitories. But that's a great idea! Thank you, uninformed mind!

Pulling back the hangings around my bed, I yell, "Eliza!"

"What?" she says moodily, pulling back her hangings.

"Boy's dormitories!"

Eliza stares at me for a second, and then says, "What?"

She's really slow, that one. I mean, come on! What pops into your mind when you hear the phrase "boy's dormitories" and you've been searching for two boys, and you haven't looked in the boy's dormitories yet! "Let's look there!" would be my general reaction.

"Boy's. Dormitories. Sirius. James. Come on!" I say, flinging myself off of the bed and grabbing Eliza.

"Urgh," she grumbles as I pull her down the stairs.

I'm not feeling very "urgh" ish at the moment. In fact, having these sudden brilliant ideas puts me in a really good mood! I wish I had them more often… actually, I pretty much never do.

Wait. I'm insulting myself. See what lack of James does to me?

We stop once we reach the foot of the staircase to the boy's dormitories. I've never been up there before, but I've heard that girls are allowed.

"Now what?" I ask Eliza. She's had more boyfriends; I bet she's done this before… wait! Disturbing image!

La, la, la, la, la, la!

"I don't know. I've never been up to the boy's dormitories before."

Useless friend.

Looking around at the empty common room, I decide that even if the staircase does go all wacko on us, it won't really matter, seeing as no one is here. I point this out to Eliza.

"It'll still hurt," she says bluntly.

"True," I agree. "Fine, I'll go first."

Grimacing, I reluctantly stretch my leg out and tap my foot onto the bottom stair. Nothing happens… Eliza's staring at me like I'm insane, though. I suppose that doesn't really count. Increasing my grimace, I perch one foot on the edge of the stair, and… nothing happens!

Grabbing Eliza, I sprint up the stairs, reading the signs above the doors as I go.

Gawd, I never knew James's room was so far up the tower… I bet that's how he gets his muscle… I wish I had muscle…

Panting, Eliza and I finally reach the seventh year dormitory door (which happens to be the last door, at the top of the tower, by the way).

Okay. Uhm. Now what?

"You can go first," I say, giving Eliza a little shove towards the closed door. Hey, it's only fair. I went first last time!

"No," she says.

I stare. "Yes."

"No."

"I went last time."

"It was your idea."

True. Uhm… pointing my wand at the door, I make the door fly open and then shove Eliza inside. HA! Boy, am I slick or what?

But that probably would have worked out better if Eliza hadn't screamed as I shoved her inside. Yes, that did make matters a little more difficult. But oh well.

Stepping inside after Eliza, I look around at the messiest room I've ever seen. I mean, our dorm gets pretty messy after a month or so, but its worst state is nothing compared to this. And it's only been, like, a week since school started! Sad, sad, sad. I must speak to James about his organizational skills.

Looking around, I see that three of the five beds are full of big (and apparently sleeping) lumps, which I suppose must be James, Sirius, and Remus. Or James, Peter, and Sirius. Or James, Peter, and Remus. Or Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Or---

Apparently one of the lumps has awoken. Wow, that lump looks particularly unpleasant when it's just woken up.

"What are you guys doing in here?" Oh. It's James. Now that I think on it, that just-woken-up look is really hot on James.

But wait! I found James! But why didn't he come to patrols last night! A mixture of happiness, anger, and confusion is rushing through me as Eliza jams her elbow into my stomach. Ouch. Oh right. I should probably say something… the other two lumps have arisen, too. It looks like… Sirius and Peter! My first guess was right! I sure am good. Eliza stabs me with her elbow again. Ouch. Oh right.

"Uhm," I say. "We were… looking for you." The purpose of this expedition sinks in again… where was James last night!

James goes from looking suspicious to somewhat sheepish. Looking around at Sirius and Peter, I see them wearing rather guilty looks themselves.

"Well," says James. "I was… we were… well…"

SPIT IT OUT, BOY!

Cowering under my furious glare, James pulls a blanket over his head. Cowardly… coward. Take THAT!

Sirius looks a little… ruffled? I'm not sure… dazed, more like. With his hair all over the place. A little scary, even. And Peter looks nervous. But then again, he always looks nervous. Tiny eyes darting from James to Sirius, Peter blurts out, "We were studying!"

I raise my eyebrows. "Studying?" I say in a rather McGonagall-ish way. It's freaky how authoritative I can sound sometimes.

James pulls the blanket off his head, and he and Sirius slowly turn their heads to look at Peter, sending him a "what-the-hell-are-you-thinking" look. I agree… I mean… studying? He really is an idiot. I don't understand why Sirius and James and Remus hang out with him… they're so much smarter than him. And in James's case, better looking. Like, a lot better looking.

Eliza isn't really helping this stern conversation along. I think she's just glad to have found Sirius… what a crap friend.

"You were studying?" I repeat (still McGonagall-ish-ly).

"Well… yeah," says James lamely, still looking at Peter as though he'd never seen a more disgusting piece of idiotness. (Okay, it was more of a confused look; I just added that disgusting idiotness bit. Is idiotness even a word?)

"We lost track of time?" Sirius said in a most un-Sirius-like up-talkish way (stupid half question phrases!).

I stare at them doubtfully.

"It's true," piped in Peter unhelpfully.

WHY aren't they telling me! First the map, now this. Grr.

Oh wait. I remember that whole map ordeal… and how James told Sirius about almost telling me… and them talking about how I was nosy… this is my perfect opportunity to prove that I'm not nosy! I mean really, if they're going through all this trouble to hide it from me, it must be something important, and something they probably expect me to badger them about because they think I'm so nosy. Grr. But, as I was saying, I think I'll just pretend like I don't care! And then maybe James will eventually tell me… and I'll get rid of my nosy reputation (that isn't true, by the way… I'm not nosy!). I'm such a good plan-comer-uper-with-er. Sweet word.

"All right," I say.

Eliza, James, Sirius, and Peter all turn to stare at me, looking surprised, suspicious, and confused. I'm not nosy!

"Excuse me," says Sirius, pretending to be picking something out of his ear, "what was that, Lily?"

"I said that's fine that you were doing homework. As long as Dumbledore doesn't catch us slacking off on our patrols… then it doesn't matter to me," I say, trying to hide the "TELL ME NOW" that my brain is currently screaming.

They stare at me, dumbfounded. I'M NOT NOSY!

"C'mon, Eliza," I say, "we've got some homework of our own to do."

Nodding slowly, Eliza follows me out of the room, and we leave James, Sirius, and Peter staring suspiciously after us.

A/N: Dun dun dun dun! I hope you guys have liked this whole nosy thing… I might be overdoing it, but it's basically just what goes on in my mind when people are hiding things. Yep, I'm nosy… but oh well. Sorry it's been so long since I've updated… school… fun stuff. But yeah, I was looking at my reviews, and I realized that I haven't replied to any of them in forever! Which is weird, because usually I'm just like "REVIEWS OH MY GAWWWD!" So. Here we go…

Eliniel--- I WANT TEATIME! Aurora-sakura--- Haha, sorry I'm so bad at writing long chapters… this one was 1 page longer than usual! YAY! Sirius Black and Remy--- Haha thanks. THE-OH-SO-PERFECT-WITCH--- You sound so much like me! I'll be reading fanfics, and then I'll just burst out laughing, which must seem pretty weird to everyone around me… but yeah, I never thought my story'd make someone laugh like that! So thank you! I changed it to Romance/Humor finally… before it was just Romance because I was afraid that people would read it and be like "what the heck, this isn't funny…" and. Yeah, haha. Elven-jewel-18--- Haha, thank you… I've got a couple more ideas for the next few chapters… I don't know how I'd end it, so it'll probably be a while. Just Another Harry Potter Fan--- Thanks! Hope you like this chapter. Emmanuelle Lisselle Grey--- Glad you liked it! Thanks for the reviews! Briee--- Haha, thank you! I've just started your new story--- it's really good! XxStephxx--- Thanks! I like your story a lot, too. The all mighty and powerfulM--- Thanks so much! Iona--- THANKYOU!

Thanks to all of the reviewers! REVIEW!