Caught

I squirmed against the pillar's grasp, trying to prise their fingers from around my waist.

It was no use. I hated to admit it, but whoever it was was far stronger than myself.

He just carried on up the stairs as if holding nothing more than a bad tempered pet cat.

Once we were back inside the bedroom he set my feet firmly on the floor. Almost immediately after being dropped I swivelled around, heading blindly for the exit. I couldn't be caught. This wasn't supposed to have happened.

But a large figure by the door slammed it shut before I could get within a metre, "Nah ah ah."

Crap.

I was going to start hyperventilating. I could already feel my breath getting harder to take.

I could barely see anything with the stupid balaclava on, but I didn't want to take it off. I didn't want to reveal my identity.

What would my captors think when they saw it was the quiet girl who had broken into their bedroom? The thought made my face burn. I was trapped, they were going to find out.

I turned back into the room and just about made out two smaller figures standing together about a foot away from me. I could tell from the hair poking out of the bottom of their masks that it was Marlene and Sally.

They had been caught too. My breathing immediately calmed. I couldn't even bear to imagine how traumatic it would have been if I was on my own.

Stepping quickly over to them, Sally held a hand out for me. It was we three against our three captors now.

I still had no idea who had caught us. Only that two of their names were Mike and Pete from when I'd heard the pillar shout to them. But who was the pillar?

I watched as the tall nameless figure advanced towards us.

"Care to explain what you were doing in our dormitory?"

His voice sounded oddly amused considering he'd just caught four masked females in the same space as he kept his boxers.

The playful tones sounded familiar and I felt my heart sink.

It couldn't be.

Marlene spoke up first, the most confident of all of us.

"You'll find out soon enough." Her voice had the same amused tone to it, and I could tell she was smirking without even looking.

Was this funny? Was I just taking it all too seriously?

A high-pitched male voice cut though the air. I could tell straight away it was Pettigrew. No other boy squeaked quite like him.

"You don't think they've gone through our belongings do you?" He sounded worried.

I distinctly heard the pillar scoff, "Why, what exactly are you worried they've found?" The laughter was evident in his response. I definitely recognised that laugh.

The third boy, 'Mike' spoke for the first time and stopped Pettigrew from giving an answer.

"Let's take their masks off." His voice lacked the warmth of the first one. It was harder. It actually made me feel a little uneasy.

I listened with baited breath as my friends' covers were blown and their names shouted out.

"McKinnon! Sparrow!"

The pillar stepped forwards and grasped the top of my mask. In a second I felt it pulled from my head. He let out a surprised, "Morland?"

I closed my eyes briefly and groaned. James Potter. The pillar. I had been caught by bloody Potter.

Just my luck to end up in the Marauders little den. Well, at least that explained the smell.

His grin faltered as he looked at me, but an even stronger one soon replaced it. He started laughing and whacked my shoulder boisterously with his hand, causing me stumble. "Morland!"

Yep, it's me. I could feel my face burning under everyone's gaze.

From the corner of my eye I saw Sally and Marlene give one another a look. They were probably wondering why Potter was acting like this towards me. Funnily enough, so was I. It was like we were old friends.

We heard a faint clicking in the background and the girls and I all looked at one another thinking the same thing. We had about 20 seconds to get out before we smelt like the inside of a sewer.

Marlene instantly made to run out, but the third boy I hadn't even seen until today, Mike, caught her mid-step. "You're not going anywhere 'til you-"

Poof!

A cloud of noxious gas erupted before he had a chance to tell Marlene just what she had to do.

Great.

.o

I showered the next morning for the third time since I had been covered from head to toe in essence of Dungbomb last night and still the stench of bins clung to me.

I don't think Potter could quite get over the fact that I had been in on the prank.

It had been a strange atmosphere as we had all made our way down to the showers immediately afterwards.

He hadn't seemed to focus on just how badly we had made his room smell. He just kept laughing and saying he would get us back for it.

I was surprised at just how laid back he was over the whole thing actually, and Pettigrew was okay if Potter was okay.

Unfortunately the same thing couldn't be said for Mike.

I'd had to stifle a laugh as the cloud of stink had cleared and he'd realised that most of the Dungbombs had been on his bed.

He was furious.

Marlene kept telling him he should 'learn to take a joke', but he insisted he was going to McGonagall about it.

Potter had somehow managed to convince him otherwise, reminding him we'd all lose out in the long run if she started taking house points off.

Personally I wasn't too bothered about the threat of a punishment anyway. For once in my life I'd actually felt included last night. A part of something fun. I would've gladly gone through fifty detentions for that.

Well, not gladly exactly, and not fifty so much, but you get the idea.

After getting dressed and drying my hair, I took the time straighten out the loose curls my hair usually formed, wanting to make a special effort for the day ahead. I was happier than I'd been in a long time, and found myself wanting to make a special effort.

After meeting up with Marlene, Sally, Dorcas and Lily, we headed down to breakfast.

On the way there we still couldn't stop ourselves from laughing at what we'd done. Even Lily had allowed herself a brief giggle after Marlene filled her in. All credit to her, though, she'd at least tried to uphold her Prefect duties somewhat by saying 'we really shouldn't have done it', but I could tell her heart wasn't in it.

Taking a seat at the breakfast table, I looked at the mass of food on display and found myself unusually famished.

I'd just skewed my first hash brown when a loud sniff coming from directly behind us caused me to drop the fork.

Potter laughed at the reaction his idiocy had produced and strolled around to face us.

He wrinkled his nose deliberately before turning to Remus and Pettigrew, "Ergh, can you boys smell something?"

Remus rolled his eyes, but Pettigrew just sniggered.

Potter stifled a grin as he looked at us, "I do believe one of these girls has turned sour."

Marlene reached out a hand to slap him, but he laughed and dodged the assault easily.

Glancing at Lily as he took a seat directly next to her, he leaned his head toward her and sniffed the air between them. "I'm pleased to find my little flower smells as sweet as ever."

Lily took a mouthful of cereal and shot him an unimpressed look. "Get your foul nostrils away from me, Potter. I only washed this morning."

Potter laughed and I could tell by his face that he thought any attention from Lily was good attention.

For some reason I wasn't half as anxious as I normally would've been in the presence of three Marauders.

Maybe it was because Black was conspicuously missing. Or maybe it was because I no longer felt like I had to deal with them on my own. Knowing I had the four girls sitting with me gave me a hidden strength.

Maybe I really was more like Pettigrew than I'd care to admit.

Then again, Pettigrew wasn't particularly strong even when he had his best friends at his side. He much preferred to just hang back and let them fight his battles for him.

Sally raised her eyebrow at Potter. "I hate to break it to you James, but I think the Dungbombs got you even worse than us."

Marlene shook her head seriously, "No, I think eau de elephant's arse is just his natural smell."

Potter put a hand on his stomach and gave one fake laugh.

Marlene only smiled sweetly, seemingly spurred on by the reaction, "Or maybe he's releasing a scent to attract Lily. It has to be mating season round about now, right?

"Shut it MacKingpin. I don't need a scent to attract Evans, she comes of her own accord." He nudged Lily, "Right Lils?"

Lily gave him a tired look in response.

"I'm not even going to give you the satisfaction of replying to that," she said.

He laughed and shrugged. "I guess even you can't deny the truth."

Marlene gave a look, but said nothing. She seemed to know better than to mess with him too much where Lily was concerned.

"So where's the fourth Musketeer?" Sally asked, looking around for Black.

"Sleeping," came the one-worded answer.

I felt my entire body relax in response. I could finally enjoy breakfast without constant fear of interruption by his stupid, smug face.

All I had to worry about now was their retaliatory prank. Potter had almost promised it last night and knowing the Marauders as I did, I knew it was bound to be something either extremely foul, or extremely embarrassing.

.o.

After a thankfully uneventful breakfast I left the hall.

There had been no pranks or threats, but I knew they were probably lulling us into a false sense of security.

I had Charms next with Marlene and Lily. At least I wouldn't be on my own if they chose to initiate it within the next hour.

Lily automatically headed straight for the front of the room, in order to set an example to the rest of the class, but Marlene point blank refused to sit any closer than third row claiming she was no teacher's pet. I was inclined to agree with her; first row was too close, but my reluctance was for entirely different reasons.

Firstly I'd always hated the sensation of everyone's eyes on my back.

Secondly the people at the front were always expected to raise their hands and give answers to the questions.

I hadn't raised my hand in class since primary school.

In the end, neither Marlene nor Lily would budge so the latter ended up sitting at the front on her own, while Marlene and I took a seat at the very back.

It was probably just as well; Marlene kept making me laugh with her impressions of a ranting Mike. Lily would've seen it as her duty to scold us.

Flitwick came into the classroom at one minute past nine o clock and Potter, Black and Remus all followed him in. Late, but getting away with it as usual.

I vaguely wondered why Pettigrew wasn't amongst them, but perhaps he had failed the class or something. He'd never been the best academic. In fact I wasn't really sure what he was good at.

The three boys took their seats and I was little surprised to find Remus catch my eye as he sat down, giving me a small smile.

Unfortunately, Marlene had seen him do it and gave me an amused questioning look when I returned it.

I could tell she wanted an explanation to the familiarity; surely me throwing dung on him wasn't enough to have warranted a friendly smile?

But I was saved the bother of trying to explain the situation of my and Remus's truce when something either incredibly funny, or extremely worrying happened.

Potter had taken the spare seat next to Lily's.

"Oh Merlin," I breathed.

We watched as Potter leaned closer and whispered something that made her fidget uncomfortably.

Marlene and I looked at one another, neither of us really knowing whether or not it was okay to laugh at what had happened.

"Something tells me this lesson is going to be interesting," she whispered.

She turned back to me.

"So, what's the deal between you and Remus?" she asked, smiling impishly.

I knew it had been wishful thinking to hope she'd forget about it just because Potter had sat next to Lily.

"What?" I asked innocently.

Marlene smirked and elbowed me, "Don't play coy, I saw your little exchange."

"We're just friends," I replied, though even as I said it I wondered if it was appropriate to even call us friends. Were we more acquaintances than friends?

Either way, Marlene still didn't look as though she bought a word I was saying. "Hm, ok Cheryl, I believe you. Thousands wouldn't."

What more did I have to say to get her to believe that there was nothing going on? I didn't want her to spread things around about our relationship that just weren't true. Remus would probably think I had started them.

Maybe if she knew the whole truth she would believe me.

But no, I couldn't tell her that.

I fought back the urge to just tell her everything. Tell her who I really was.

Uh. I nearly shuddered at the thought of saying my old nickname out loud to Marlene. I could barely say it inside my own head without feeling a rush of shame about who I used to be. Beaver Morland.

I must've taken on a sombre expression because the knowing smirk had disappeared from her face. She looked uncharacteristically serious.

"What is it?" she asked. "What's happened between you two?"

I let my breath out quietly and looked at her, preparing myself. It was now or never.

Worst possible scenario: Marlene, Sally and Dorcas would purposefully distance themselves from 'the geek'.

Best possible scenario: Well, there wasn't one. They wouldn't want to hang around with the Marauders old victim.

Despite this, I knew my new friends would find out some day even if I didn't tell them. At least if I told Marlene myself I would have some control.

"Do you remember the girl the Marauders used to pick on about a year ago?"

Marlene's face remained blank. I knew I'd have to say that word that still had the ability to make me feel insignificant.

"The one they called the Beaver…" I continued.

Recognition finally lit up in her eyes. "Yeah, I do! But what has this got to do with Remus smiling at you? And didn't she leave anyway?"

I nodded. That was true. I did leave.

Trouble was no one apart from Lily, the staff and the Marauders realised I was back.

"Yeah," I confirmed. "But she came back. I came back."

Had Marlene finally taken the hint?

Her eyes widened. Yep.

"No…"

"Remus smiled at me because we've finally made up," I told her. "He was just being pleasant, it didn't mean anything else."

Marlene raised her eyebrow.

I knew it. She didn't want anything more to do with me.

I wondered if she would move away from me now, or be more subtle about it and wait until we got out of the class and then just ignore me.

But she didn't move, she just kept looking at me.

"You look completely different," she said quietly.

Without warning the corners of her mouth started to twitch. She bit her bottom lip in a bid to get them to stop, but it was no use.

I watched her in utter bewilderment as she started to let out silent laughter. It got progressively louder every time she paused, obviously to think about whatever she was laughing at.

I furrowed my eyebrows, what was so funny?

Her laughter finally died down for the third time and she looked at me with a forced straight face. I met her eyes and her face cracked as her laughter started up again.

I slapped her arm half playfully, "Hey! What are you laughing at?"

"Oh Merlin, Cheryl," she breathed, the smile still in her eyes. "You were such a geek!"

She wiped a tear from her eye and her shoulders shook as the silent laughter started again. Apparently the image of me in fourth year was an extremely amusing one indeed.

I let my breath out in surprise. I couldn't believe she'd actually just said that.

"Well thanks, Marlene," I said sarcastically. "Really. That was possibly the most sensitive thing you could've said in this situation."

She put a hand on my shoulder, "I'm sorry," she said, the traces of a smile still on her features. "But if it makes you feel any better, they're probably regretting ever teasing you now."

What was that supposed to mean?

She looked at my blank face reproachfully, as if I should've known what she was going on about straight away.

"Let's just say you've 'blossomed' a bit since then," she said, the knowing smirk back on her face.

Blossomed?

"Ew!" I exclaimed loudly, completely forgetting I was in a lesson.

Flitwick's eyes shot up at the sound and the whole class turned around to see the source of the outburst.

I stared straight ahead, focusing on the board. Maybe if I gave no reaction at all no one would realise it had been me. I was sure my face was giving the game away by slowly turning red though.

Allowing myself a quick glance around, I was relieved to find most faces on Marlene, and when I looked at her I understood why. She had the widest grin on her face.

It took me by surprise, however, to find Black's eyes squarely on me.

Was it just me, or did he look amused?

I looked away, trying to ignore him completely. I had a suspicion he was trying to make me feel even more embarrassed by staring.

Flitwick cleared his throat a little before trying to continue with the lesson.

I leaned into a still grinning Marlene. "For my sake, never say the word 'blossomed' in public. Ever again."

She laughed. "Duly noted."

.o.

Lily stormed out of the lesson as soon as the bell rang leaving Marlene and I to walk out alone.

I'd no idea what Potter had been saying to her to get her so riled up, but I had an inkling it probably included the words 'Lily Flower' and 'You know you want me' repeated several times with that inane smirk only he and Black could seem to pull off and still look begrudgingly handsome.

I reached down to get my timetable from my bag to check my next lesson. It was nearing the end of the first week and I still didn't know what lessons I was supposed to be in. My memory was awful.

But my searching hand met with thin air. I patted my side, feeling frantically for my absent bag. My heart skipped a beat. I'd lost my bag?

No, just left it somewhere. Stop panicking.

Thinking back quickly I tried to pinpoint where I'd left it.

My last lesson. Charms.

I sighed quietly, now I would have to walk all the way back up to the classroom to fetch it. I couldn't even use a summoning spell because I'd left my wand inside one of the pockets. Idiot.

I really couldn't be bothered, but I had no choice. Everything I needed was in there.

Explaining the situation quickly to Marlene and telling her I'd meet her and the girls in the hall at dinner if I didn't see them before, I hurried back to the room I'd just left.

Hopefully because I'd got out fairly quickly the first time this delay wouldn't make me too late for my next lesson.

I broke into a jog through the empty corridor and finally reached the class.

Yes! I spotted it lying by my desk as soon as I stepped through the doorway.

Without a second glance, my eyes focused on my prize, I walked quickly over and grabbed it, speed walking back out of the room.

I was just about to reach for my timetable again when I felt something touch the sides of my waist lightly.

All thoughts of my next class forgotten in that instant, I froze. My lungs forgot how to work and I stayed stock still. I hadn't seen anyone in the class.

Perhaps it was just Marlene playing some kind of joke. Maybe she had double backed on me and was trying to make me jump.

But even as I reached down to pull them off I knew that wasn't true.

Marlene wouldn't press against my back like that. Marlene's hands weren't large and dry. But I couldn't bring myself to turn around. I was worried who I would find when I did.

There was something almost sexual about the way they were holding me. I could feel their soft breathing on my neck and it sent chills down my spine.

I couldn't let it carry on. Taking a breath, I forced myself to turn around.

My eyes landed on the culprit's face and my stomach turned over.

His handsome face smirked at me as he let go.

Black.

I just stared at him in complete disbelief. I was annoyed to find my heart beating ridiculously fast at the brief contact.

I didn't like him, but he was a boy and he was touching me. That alone had the power to make me feel nervous.

"Looking for something?" he asked, seeming to enjoy my reaction. I glared back at him but it only made him laugh.

"Oh, don't take everything so seriously," he said tiredly when I continued to scowl at him. "It doesn't have to be this way you know." He allowed a playful smile to flitter across his face. "I heard you went sneaking around in my Dormitory."

He sent me a knowing smile, his eyes teasing.

Potter told him then.

I didn't like Black's expression. It made me feel uncomfortable; like he actually thought that I wanted to go snooping around in his dirty boxers.

"Got rid of the smell yet?" I forced myself to smirk.

He seemed a bit taken aback by my answer and I took the opportunity to turn and start walking away. But Black fell into step beside me. WIthout having chance to check my timetable, I didn't even know where I was walking to.

"We did that within the first two hours," he replied arrogantly.

I raised an eyebrow, forcing myself to be calm even though Black was currently tailing me to no man's land.

"I'm surprised it took you that long." I only said it to rile him.

It seemed to work.

He touched the back of my school shirt with his hand, his touch yet again making me jump. I nudged him off impatiently. "I have to get to my lesson will you just bugger off," I said without thinking.

He raised his eyebrows. "Fine," he said, holding up his hands. "Be that way, Beaver." He spoke nastily now, obviously annoyed at how I was treating him. "Hope you know what you've let yourself in for."

I narrowed my eyes, "Don't threaten me."

"Oh, I'm not," he assured. "Think of it more as a promise." His eyes flashed dangerously, and I felt my heartbeat go up a notch, a grip of apprehension tightening around my stomach about what war against boys like the Marauders could mean.

"Whatever you say." I tried to look as if I wasn't bothered in the slightest.

I stepped back without another word and was gone. Thankfully he made no attempt to follow me this time, holding back with his hands in his pockets and a determined expression on his face.

"Oh, and Morland!" He was shouting after me.

I turned my head.

"Nice hair," he said.

I looked down in reflex at my straightened locks. He was mocking me.

Once I'd rounded the corner and was out of sight I slumped against a wall in a bid to calm myself down.

I cursed myself for letting our stupid grudge get this far. I was clearly in this way over my head with him.

Finally I managed to snap myself out of my reverie when I spotted a teacher and it reminded me. Bollocks. I had a lesson to get to.

Sodding Black. Now I would be late for sure. Pulling out my timetable hastily, I tried to decipher the crumpled sheet.

History of Magic.

Well at least Binns wouldn't notice me walking in- I checked my watch- 20 minutes late. Merlin.