All through dinner, Remus's suspicions had been mounting. Something was up. Lily and James were always polite to each other in public, never truly succumbing to any public displays of affection (though James had expressed his regret about that numerous times). Lily would sit halfway between them and her own friends, talking and laughing with both groups, always listening and even being cordial to Sirius. James had yet to drop the bait of telling a joke, and then ruffling his hair and looking in Lily's direction. He had been doing it since roughly their third year.
But tonight, tonight something was amiss. It certainly didn't look like they'd had a row; far from it, in fact. Instead, Lily was very quiet, much quieter than normal, the barest trace of a grin on her face as she stared determinedly away from James and the rest of them. He was staring at her even more than normal, so distracted that he didn't even laugh when Peter reached for the baguette and knocked over a pitcher of ice water in the process.
Remus sighed loudly, and looked to Sirius, who made a show of pretending he hadn't been staring at a quite pretty Hufflepuff sixth year. "What's up?"
Jerking his head over towards James in the most nonchalant manner he could manage, Remus picked up his fork once more. Sirius, evidently not knowing the nuances of subtlety, raised an eyebrow and then resumed his staring. Remus knew better than try to get Peter's attention. Wormtail would probably poke Lily in the arm and ask if she was feeling alright.
But just as he was about to resign himself to the rest of this very unusual, very quiet dinner, something happened.
James stood up abruptly, grabbing his things and swinging his robes over his arm. "See you... have to go... um... library, yeah, have to go to the library." He exchanged a pointed glance with Lily, and then headed for the Entrance Hall.
The remaining Marauders' gazes were still on James when Lily, too, got to her feet. She had barely touched her dinner. Pulling her things off of the seat next to her, she smiled apologetically. "I've got to leave, too... need to go see Professor McGonnagall, actually." She set off down the aisle, also aiming towards the Entrance Table. However, she completely bypassed the staff table, and in the process, McGonnagall. As soon as her black robes disappeared through the door frame, Remus turned to his friends.
"They're up to something."
"Come off it."
"Did you not just see that?"
"Moony. Think. What on earth would they be doing? It's Evans, for Merlin's sake, it's not like she and Prongs are out there pulling off some stunt," Sirius said reasonably. "Unless..."
"Unless what?" Peter butted in.
"They've been a bit... different since that party," Sirius said, unable to hide his smirk, referring to the post-game celebration they had after Gryffindor defeated Slytherin in Quidditch. "Disappeared awfully fast, didn't they, and I never did find that last crate of butterbeer..."
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Remus probably should have just kept his mouth shut. Not two minutes after Lily and James had made their exit, the other three Marauders had decided to give chase. They had each taken different paths, with Peter passing by the (closed) Library, Sirius checking the Prefect's bathroom on his way through the shortcuts, and Remus opening up the Marauder's Map as he took the long route, expertly avoiding trap steps and the like as he searched for his friends' names.
They had convened at the portrait hole, and after making their way through and checking the common room, they headed up the stairs, only pausing outside the door to the top floor.
"Why are we doing this again?"
"Damn, Moony, are you or are you not curious about what they're up to?"
"Of course I am. I just don't really see why we're sneaking into their-"
"Shhhh."
Sirius peeked into the room. Empty. He slipped through the door and waited for Remus and Peter to file in as well, shutting it softly behind them. At Peter's snickering, he looked to the floor.
"Well, at least we know what they're doing," Peter whispered.
James's bookbag had been unceremoniously dropped right next to the door, and his robe had been deposited a few feet away, also strewn on the floor. Lily's things had been thrown on an armchair. Remus noticed that the couch looked like it had been recently vacated.
"Well," he said shortly, shoving his hands in his robes. "Guess that's that, then, let's go..."
Sirius held a finger up to his lips, grinning. He tiptoed to James's bedroom door.
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On the other side of the door, Lily and James froze. There wasn't really a good word for what position they were in: certainly not innocent, judging by where James's right hand was resting, but not too incriminating either. At any rate, they were still clothed. More or less.
Lily buried her head in James's shoulder, shaking a bit from silent laughter. So much for trying to be alone, she mused. She slowly edged out from between James and the wall, pulling her dark red hair into a ponytail. Blushing furiously, she tried to give James a sympathetic smile, seeing the look on his face. Half embarassment, half frustration.
She then ducked into the bathroom, willing her blush to go away as she waited. And then: a knock on James's door. She quickly walked to her own door, and opened it wide, peering out. Time to be convincing.
"Alright?"
Sirius, Remus, and Peter looked in her direction so fast it made her own neck hurt. They looked a bit shocked. "Yeah," said Remus, gaining his voice back first. "We were, uh..."
"Just wondering..." continued Peter.
"We were wondering why you two ran off so fast," said Sirius confidently.
"Ran off? Hardly..."
"Well, that's what it looked like," Remus replied sheepishly.
Lily took a deep breath. "Oh. Well, James is in the bathroom, I believe, and I'm just working on that History of Magic essay."
The look on their faces was priceless.
"What essay?"
"You don't remember? It's due tomorrow! Y'know... the pixie-smuggling one," she lied with little difficulty. Anything to get them out of there.
For a minute, she thought Remus might have seen through it. But he was also the first to sigh, and say, "come on, we need to do that." They slowly left the room, with Sirius casting glance over his shoulder, along with a rather impertinent grin.
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A/N: It's probably a personal record for me - I finished writing this in like an hour or less - but unfortunately that doesn't mean it's perfect. I made some really stupid errors and no one called me on them! Thanks guys :-p Anyways I'm definitely finding that this type of chapter is so much more fun to write. Heh heh. So, leave a review if you've read this far, I really really appreciate anything I get.
