They decided to leave Eilidh in the dark, mostly for Sirius's sake but partially for their own. So, Remus, James, and Sirius made their way up to the seventh floor under the Invisibility Cloak (which only reached their mid calves with all three of them under.) Remus kept the map under his lit wand in case Marlene suddenly reappeared or Filch and Mrs Norris got too close.

Stakeouts were boring. The three of them sat against a wall around where Remus saw Marlene disappear and shared a liquorice wand between them. The night wore on… and on. The prefects made their rounds to find any stray students. Then the Professors. Until finally it was only Mrs Norris and the ghosts they had to worry about.

"Maybe we missed her showing up again?" Remus sighed, whispering so he wouldn't break the stoney silence of the night.

"You're too easily discouraged," Sirius tisked.

And the night wore on…

They heard footsteps, very human footsteps where there shouldn't have been footsteps at all.

"Who is it?" James hissed at Remus, poking him hard as if it would make him pull out the map faster.

"Eilidh," he answered, his brow furrowed. "Why would she -?" he began but Sirius shushed him, flattening himself against the wall, trying to make himself more invisible.

James made sure that the three of them were sufficiently covered by the cloak. They all held their breaths.

She was being led by a sort of wispy substance, close to a Patronus but not. Remus recognised it immediately as the results of a humanus revelio charm.

"Damn," he said, out loud.

James pinched his arm, exactly where he had been poking it earlier.

Eilidh, recognising his voice, sighed in exasperation. Her wand hand dropped to her side and with it the wispy substance.

"What are you lot doing here?" she asked.

Sirius pulled the cloak off and crumpled it up small enough to store in his pocket.

"We were looking for Marlene," Remus answered.

"In the middle of the night?" she challenged. "I'd assume she'd be in bed with the rest of the castle." She smirked and raised her eyebrow in a knowing sort of way.

"It wasn't the middle of the night when we got here," James argued, using the wall to help himself, legs were rather stiff from sitting so long.

"Well, come on." Eilidh gestured for them to follow her back towards Gryffindor Tower.

"How'd you know we were here?" James asked.

"You're not the only one who can be clever." She suppressed a smile, her eyes gleaming with mischief.

"Humanus Revelio," Remus explained. "My dad uses it all the time."

"But how did she know to look here?" Sirius pressed, crossing his arms. He was the only one still sitting. There was something awkward in the way he didn't look at Eilidh.

"Why don't you ask me while we walk this way?" Eilidh asked, irritably.

"We're still looking for Marlene," James protested.

"Marlene will come out as soon as we walk away," she insisted, patiently.

The three of them shrugged at each other, agreeing to trust her, and as they started to follow, Eilidh began to explain:

"I got a Patronus from someone saying Marlene needed help getting people out of this corridor and when Marlene asks," Eilidh shrugged.

"Who'd it come from?" James questioned.

Eilidh led them around the nearest corner until they were completely out of sight.

"No idea," she finally answered.

"How'd you know it's Marlene who really needs help? What if -" James began.

"Not everything is a conspiracy," she said, gently.

"I saw her disappear with Johnnie Waters," Remus insisted.

Eilidh raised her eyebrows but her rebuttal was interrupted by an awful sound of grinding stone. It was followed by scurried footsteps and whispered voices. Eilish prevented them from peering around the corner with an arm over their chests so they had to rely on their ears to pick up any distinct patterns.

"Eilidh," they heard Marlene whisper.

Eilidh moved to dart out but James caught her by the arm. He took out his wand and gestured for Remus and Sirius to do the same then released Eilidh. She rolled her eyes as she took the lead.

They were met with a simply ecstatic Marlene standing with a seventh year Ravenclaw girl. She had dark hair, blushing cheeks, and kind eyes.

"They saw you with Johnnie Waters and got worried," Eilidh explained, the accusation in her tone so subtle Marlene didn't catch it.

Marlene rolled her eyes but it was less of an annoyed gesture and more of an 'of course they did' gesture.

"This is Emmeline Vance," Marlene said, waving her hand to showcase the girl next to her.

"Hi," Eilidh smiled and shook Emmeline's hand.

"Sorry for waking you," Emmeline grinned approvingly.

"Oh, don't be," Eilidh said, waving off her apology. "Thank you for waking me."

"Eilidh likes to be helpful," Marlene told Emmeline.

"Well, one thing's for certain then, she's an excellent friend," she replied then turned away from them to speak only to Marlene. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Wouldn't miss it," Marlene's laughed sounded almost nervous.

Emmeline nodded before heading back to her dormitory.

Marlene turned on her heels to face the boys head on.

"I appreciate you lot coming after me but you can be the nosiest people sometimes," Marlene said.

"We were supposed to study tonight," Remus said sheepishly, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"I am so sorry! I completely forgot," Marlene said earnestly, reaching to touch his forearm.

"No, it's alright. I just got worried. You never know with Slytherins…" Remus trailed off. Marlene didn't know what to say to this.

"So, you're friends with Johnnie Waters now?" James accused.

"Off the Quidditch field, yes," Marlene said, firmly.

James didn't like it but he chose to stay quiet for the time being.

"Sirius," Eilidh said.

"What?" Sirius snapped.

Eilidh looked a little hurt by this but said nonetheless, "Did you have fun tonight?"

"As fun as staring at a blank wall can be," Sirius answered.

"Good," she smiled, "sleep well then."

She turned to pull Marlene away before she could do more than glare. They whispered for a bit then Marlene burst out with:

"I have so much to tell you!"

"Well, I guess every mission can't be a success," Sirius sighed.

"We found Marlene," Remus argued.

"Eilidh found Marlene," Sirius corrected. "Eilidh got us away from their hiding place. Eilidh was successful. We failed. At everything. We don't even know how Marlene managed to disappear." He huffed and strode forward, leading them back to Gryffindor Tower.

"Is that why you're upset with her?" James asked. "I thought it was because you decided to ignore her."

Remus laughed. Sirius glared. And James yawned.

"Overall, tonight was a pretty good night," he observed.

"Agreed," Remus nodded.

Sirius hummed a noncommittal hum and sauntered on.

"You know what you could do, Sirius? To get back at Eilidh. Considering all this ignoring business is exhausting on all of us," James asked, casually.

"What, James?" Sirius groaned.

"You could have the time of your life -"

"And prove her right!" Sirius exclaimed, coming to a sudden stop in front of James.

James arched an eyebrow. "You realise you sound completely mental, right?"

"You are mental," Sirius returned.

"Some of us are better at hiding it than others," James shrugged.

Sirius turned and marched away, keeping a large distance between them.

"I refuse to believe that he's completely hopeless," James told Remus.

"I don't think so. He's just…."

"Sensitive."

"He's got a big heart."

"He can't take rejection," James said, seriously.

"And he thinks Eilidh is breaking up with him," Remus nodded in sudden understanding.

"I blame Pevensie," James said.

"What happened between you two?" Remus asked. Again.

James sighed and threw his arm over Remus's shoulders.

"One day I'll tell you," he said. "But today is not that day."

"But you said tonight's a good night," Remus persisted.

"Last one to the dormitory has to kiss a troll," James said, quickly and began to run.

"It's not good to run from your problems!" Remus called after him.

***Son of Whitebeard, yeah, I wrote about that but decided that chapter wasn't worth posting so we'll just chalk that up to a Christmas miracle for now :D

***Love Fiction 2019, thank you :)

You guys would be so disappointed in me if you knew how long this chapter has been ready to post. Like, I mean, it's been sitting in my doc manager for... *mumbles incoherently* I am terribly, terribly sorry for making you wait so long but I work retail, I've adopted a five-week-old pup, and I started school again. I was a little busy. Hope all your holidays were awesome though.

I have another big Jily chapter written, I just need to find the time/motivation to type it... Wish me luck.

Thank you all for reading and again for your patience.

All rights reserved.

Until next time,

XO