IV. Sound the Alarm

Traipsing through Hogwarts under an Invisibility Cloak with someone who was not James had been odd for Sirius. Stranger still was waiting for the Slytherin Common room to completely empty, encased in a distantly familiar floral scent instead of James's natural musk. Waiting there with Eilidh instead of James, trembling with excitement for their prank, was (he hated to admit) rather refreshing. At this point, James would have gotten bored and would suggest sneaking back into Snape's room to use the rest of his Bubotuber powder. Instead, Eilidh seemed to savour the anticipation of the moment; she still grinned excitedly, her eyes flashing dangerously whenever a Slytherin came near enough to touch. It was almost unnatural to see the similarities between her and James though. Like the way she clenched her hands as a large group of Slytherins left the Common Room. James would have done the same thing to stop his hands excitedly drumming his thighs in a moment they needed to be silent. Or when the Common Room finally emptied: A normal person would have waited for at least a fraction of a second to see if anyone else would come down from the dormitories. Instead, like James, she pulled the cloak from over their heads before the door had completely closed and was on her feet before Sirius had time to put the cloak away.

She peered up each staircase leading to the dormitories then turned back with a satisfied smirk. "You ready?"

"Always," he muttered, pulling his wand out of his jeans. "You be careful up there."

She had already started moving up the stairs when Sirius suddenly felt worried about leaving her on her own. What if she was too eager and wound up acting foolishly? If she got caught in the Slytherin dormitory she was not likely to be met with mercy and there'd be nothing he could do to help.

"Always." She repeated, grinning over her shoulder barely pausing her steps. She was good with a wand. She had proven that much in Hogsmeade so he was able to push the thought out of his mind and focus.

Reaching the top of the stairs he stopped for a moment, wondering which dormitory he should use. He pictured multiplying alarm clocks ringing in the early hours of the morning, spilling out of the dormitory and into the hall, eventually spreading into the Common Room. He decided on the one in the middle figuring it would be the most likely to wake everyone up, which would lead to more people touching the cursed clocks.

He waited outside the door listening for any sounds of life from within. Opening the door, he saw only the glowing eyes of a cat purring at him from under the bed. Looking around he spotted one alarm clock on the bedside table furthest from the door. Striding forward, careful not to let the floorboards creak, he heard the definite sound of someone's head hitting the wall adjacent to him followed by a muffled string of swears. Sirius ran forward, grabbed the clock, changed the alarm time to an unholy hour, set it back on the table making sure it wasn't bound to touch anything and tapped his wand against it muttering, "Gemino." He peaked his head through the door before running down the hall and into the Common Room, making for the foot of the girls' dormitory steps, intent on hurrying Eilidh.

"What are you doing here?" A thick voice cut through his peaked excitement with a jagged edge, successfully annihilating it. Regulus was sitting in an arm chair on the opposite side of the room with worry and fear etched into his face. He set down a book on the coffee table and replaced it with his wand. Sirius couldn't answer, his own shock had clouded his mind, making him unable to speak. By the time he regained control of himself, someone was pounding his way down the steps. Sirius tightened his hold on his wand and prepared himself for who ever was about to come through the door.

"What the hell are you doing here?" demanded a strident voice. Rabastan Lestrange came face to face with him upon entering his Common Room. Rabastan was a full eight years younger than his brother and Sirius's cousin-in-law Rodolphus. He was only a year older than Sirius, but he had such a superiority complex that he treated Sirius like a child. Sirius never cared much about the Lestranges. For the most part, they ignored his existence just as much as he ignored theirs.

Sirius turned back to Regulus whose eyes shifted frantically between the pair.

"Came to visit my brother. It's a holiday isn't it?" Sirius answered, this time not skipping a beat. He caught Regulus's eye, begging him to go along with it.

"Bit strange. He's never done that before has he?" Rabastan asked Regulus, suspiciously.

Regulus opened his mouth and for a split second Sirius believed that he would help. Sirius felt a premature rush of gratitude toward his brother. But then, Regulus stood there, mouth agape, his words seemed to be caught in his throat as his eyes tore from Sirius's face to Rabastan's. Feeling stung and foolish, Sirius raised his wand to Rabastan's chest and silently shot a Stunning Spell at him. Rabastan deflected it having already had his wand in hand as Sirius had expected.

"Eilidh!" he screamed urgently - they needed to get out of there fast. He vaguely heard her answer as he deflected spell after spell Rabastan shot at him. He avoided looking at Regulus at all costs. He didn't care to see Regulus standing there like a codfish watching as someone tried to beat the crap out of him. He especially did not want to see Regulus raising his wand against him - any curse he could be hit with would be better than that sight. "Eilidh hurry up!" he screamed again as jumped off the back of the couch to dodge Rabastan's advances. Rabastan shot another spell and Sirius ducked down and rolled hoping it would bounce off the wall and hit him instead. When he jumped back up he saw Regulus opening the door to the girls' dormitory. Two things came to mind: He was either opening the door so the noise of their duel would alert Eilidh and she'd come to his aid or he was luring her into an attack. He didn't want either of those. He didn't really need her help, besides she could get hurt.

Sirius lurched forward and Rabastan raised his wand in defence, assuming he was advancing to attack. Instead, Sirius reached down and hurled the coffee table toward Rabastan. The table would have hit Rabastan if he hadn't shot it out of his way, but it was the distraction Sirius needed. He was able to curse Rabastan's wand by muttering "Anaticula" knowing that the next spell he'd use, no matter what the spell, would only cause ducklings to fly out of his wand. With that in mind, Sirius was able to push Regulus out of the way just in time for Eilidh to finally get down the stairs.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door. Sure enough, they had to make their way through half a dozen ducklings. Rabastan was looking stupidly at the tip of his wand. Sirius pushed Eilidh through the door. As he turned around to shut it behind them, he saw Rabastan successfully curse a pillow causing feathers to litter the couch.

Imagining what that curse might do to him, fear fluttered through him for the first time in a long time. He raced to catch up with Eilidh. It wasn't long before he heard Rabastan's steps echoing off of the stone walls of the dungeon behind him. Eilidh was waiting for him at the exit.

"GO!" he ordered, hearing Rabastan's hurried steps growing closer. Instead of running she waved her wand to block a spell. She took him by the sleeve and pulled him into the Entrance Hall. Peter was already getting the third degree from Professor McGonagall while several students fruitlessly tried to scrub ink stains out of their clothes.

A large group of people was exactly what they needed. They slinked passed McGonagall unnoticed.

They met James at the top of the stairs. He didn't seem to notice their panic nor Sirius's urgent tugging against the hold on his arm.

"I need my cloak!" he hissed, urgently tugging back.

Sirius didn't have time to think about what James might be up to. He threw the cloak at him and pushed Eilidh away from Gryffindor Tower toward the tapestry that would take them to the third floor. He prayed that Rabastan didn't know about the passage but knew it was unlikely. They jogged down the third-floor corridor, dodging students returning to their houses, casting fervent glances over their shoulder.

"I think we lost him." Eilidh gasped, bending and resting her hands on her knees to help catch her breath.

Sirius mirrored her position, too exhausted to respond. He didn't think they had lost him but merely put a distance between them. It wouldn't be long before he'd find them again if they wasted too much time. He tapped her shoulder indicating that she should follow as he walked quickly, his lungs burning too much for him to actually run, for the nearest staircase.

Going to the staircase was a mistake. Rabastan spotted them through a crowd of students pushing their way up the stairs and pointed them out. Evan Rosier spun around searching for them directed by Rabastan's finger. Eilidh and Sirius lurched forward, fighting to lose themselves in the sea of students.

No matter how many erratic turns they took, Rabastan never lost sight of them for too long. Every time he spotted them again, he gained more friends. By the time they reached the sixth floor they were being pursued by an army of Slytherins coming from all over. It seemed they had split up, searching for them in twos and threes.

"I have an idea!" she called breathlessly over her shoulder.

"Good! Cause I'm bloody out of them!" Sirius called back, dodging yet another spell. Mulciber had joined the ranks and he, Rosier, and Avery were quickly gaining. If they didn't make it to Gryffindor Tower soon they were toast. She reached for him and pulled him into a less populated and darker corridor.

"Kiss me," she said. Her tone had a note of panic but when she looked him in the eye her gaze was sparked with excitement.

"What?" he asked. He wasn't sure if he heard her properly over the sound of his blood rushing and heart pounding in his ears.

"People are weird about PDA," she said matter of factly as if this would make him see her point.

"I know!" He almost laughed. Displays of affection of any kind usually gave him discomfort to some degree but public ones were worse and never failed to make him physically nauseous.

"Get out of the bloody way!" he heard Mucibler shout distantly.

Eilidh rolled her eyes, grabbed a fist full of his robes, and pulled him to her. Their lips came together almost violently painfully at first but then they softened. Her lips were like rose petals against his as his nose filled with the scent of jasmine.

He had told his friends that he had kissed lots of girls lots of times but this - this was his first kiss.

He knew he wasn't doing it right (wasn't he supposed to do something with his tongue?) He also knew - almost instantly - that he liked kissing. He liked kissing so much that when Eilidh pulled away he felt the absence of her lips and longed for another kiss.

"I think they're gone," Eilidh panted, looking down the corridor they had come from.

"Good," he said, staring at her. He had almost forgotten about the Slytherins. Eilidh looked back at him. She glanced at his lips and he felt them start to tingle. Would she do it again?

"Sorry about that," she blushed. Her cheeks were actually red as she looked down at her shoes, scuffing one of them against the floor. His mind flashed with a million things he could say and probably should say but for some reason, he just didn't say them. "I - er - didn't know what else to do."

"No - yeah - don't worry about it." He finally said something and that is what he chose. His brain seemed to have been disconnected from his mouth. He had snogged this girl (or she snogged him, but it didn't matter because snogging was definitely done) but he couldn't think of anything to say. He felt like he should say something. Anything! But no words came to mind, it didn't help that he couldn't get the scent of her off of him. He was confused more than anything. How was he supposed to feel about this? He didn't know if he just liked the kissing or if he actually liked her.

"We should… get back to the Tower," she suggested slowly, carefully measuring his expression. "Before they come back."

"Yeah," he said, his voice sounding unnatural even to himself. He didn't think he could manage more than one-word sentences at this point, he was too lost in the thoughts swirling around his head.

***And so the tectonic plates shift and the entire world crumbles!

Seriously that's what it feels like while I'm over here holding my breath waiting to see what effect this chapter had. Am I going to faint and wake up to find that all of my beloved readers have left due to severe disappointment?

I am being a little dramatic I know but ugh ya know?!

Anyway, thanks for reading and following and favouriting. You all are great it's been real...

What do you mean you haven't left yet?!

Ok, I'll stop!

I got a new beta. Her names wowbadideas and while she's an amazing beta she's an even better writer. SO you should totally go check out When You Give a Gryffindor a Slytherin. It's not about the Marauders but it's about life at Hogwarts after Voldemort died and it's got Harry as a professor which in my opinion is how it should always have been.

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Until next time,

XO*