Chapter 14: Bath

Even as they emerged from the bathroom, Jamie couldn't stop sniggering. Annie was in misery over her blunder, now that the ranting was over, and told her to shut-up for the millionth time. Jamie looked chastised for a moment.

"I'm sorry Anna-dee, but you know me! I can't resist, especially when I think about you yelling at James for asking you why you defended Snape." She said before grinning widely again, "He asked me out and I said yes!" Jamie imitated.

Annie groaned, "Urgh, why didn't you tell me I was dating an evil psycho attacker?" Lizzy clapped a hand over her mouth to stillborn a giggle, "I mean really, now they all think I'm mental as well as interested in Voldemort." They continued towards the table, not noticing the general quiet that had descended upon the tavern.

"I thought you knew. I mean come on, any coincidence why I had his wand and everything in the infirmary?"

"I didn't see or hear anything, I was cleaning up the ointment Madame Pompfrey dropped, and all I came up to see was to see all of them" Annie gestured at the table they were approaching. "Laughing at this perfectly black robed guy who was seriously hurt. You guys know me, I get all-"

"psycho?" Jamie said.

"righteous?" Lizz suggested.

"O, good one Lizzy."

"-when people are being bullies." Annie finished. "Anyway, how did your guy's days go?"

"Vivian is a slutty… b-" Lizz hesitated, "Well she's the biggest you-know-what in the entire world!"

"You know, some day your inability to cuss is going to kill you." Jamie said sadly.

"I hate cussing okay! How was your date?" Lizz sneered.

"Not a date!" Jamie laughed. "Okay but you guys know how I was like talking about how shy Remus was?"

"Yah"

"He's not! I mean I think he just has to balance out Sirius and James so he acts like a grandpa. But hell, after we had talked for ten minutes he totally opened up." Jamie stopped for a big breath. When she was excited about something and wanted to talk about it, she did it loudly with lots of hand motions and with words tumbling from her lips as quickly as they could. It was something she had inherited from her mother. "He's hilarious and smart and not to mention not shy! He's read a lot of the same books and we bought tons, plus he's got to be one of the first guys I've met who have morals yet I could say 'nice ass Remus' and he turned around and say 'not as fine as yours.' And laugh it off!"

"Jamie!" Lizz said. But the discussion ended there as they approached the table.

"All good to go?" James asked, standing up. Annie nodded and looked at him, severely hoping he didn't think- but he looked back with a simple searching hazel-eyed stare. Annie unconsciously pulled her robe tighter around her as if he could see right through her. Just then, Jamie and Remus's books cascaded onto the floor, giving Annie an excuse to look away to bend down and help them pick them up.

They made their way to the invisibly drawn carriages, putting about four to a carriage. Annie poked her head out the window to watch the village fade away before getting more comfortable in her seat. The hairs on the back of her head raised and she was sure someone was watching her, but looked up only to see James watching Lizz knit a crimson scarf. Annie shifted again, careful to not knock over Jamie's books and looked back out the window.

The castle rose above them, imperious and strong, yet it was already a happy home for Annie. They all had grown to love the ancient castle, slow steps and all, except for Jamie, who had declared it was the best place in the entire freaking world as they were ushered up the slopes the very first day. The setting sun peeked quickly through bridges and arches, glinting off windows before relinquishing the sky to the stars.

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Jamie carefully stacked her new books next to her bed using bookends from enlarged candles. After she had finished she ran a finger under each gleaming title, back and forth until she pulled one out. Landing in her bed, she scooted down and punched her pillows into a comfortable position before settling her head down. Her blonde hair fanned out like a small halo, but Jamie realized this and pulled it all down to one side before opening her book. She didn't open to the first page, but randomly in the middle to any old page. Jamie stuck her nose deep into the spine and smelt the book. A deep, familiar, musty scent wafted up her nose, the same except for that touch of something else, a different mustiness that characterized each book.

"This will be good." Jamie proclaimed to no one in particular. She smiled and turned to page one. Once upon a time…

-''3 hrs later''-

Jamie put her book down for a moment as a terrible scent seared through her senses. "Ugh, what is that?" Jamie pulled her sleeve over her mouth so she could breathe. In the doorway, Lizz stood unhappily with practically visible fumes coming off her. Her eyes shone with tears, both from the smell and the utter meanness of the Marauder who had just received five minutes of outraged berating.

"Oh, Lizza-bee! Which one did it?" Jamie said, though she sounded muffled through her sleeve.

"Black" Lizz sniffed, "I really don't know what his problem is! I mean he was enough of jerk, letting his girlfriend treat me like dirt all day today at Hogsmeade, but come on, stink bombs!" Jamie smiled at a personal image of Sirius pulling a muzzle over Vivian's mouth ("If you behave we'll take it off, okay honey?"). "This'll take ten showers to clean off!" Jamie's mind reeled at trying to read with this smell hanging around the room.

"You know what Lizz? You can use the prefect bathroom, it's the right one after the statue of Boris the Bewildered on the second floor. Password's "cinnamint"."

"I can go in there? I thought it was only for prefects."

"It is." Jamie shrugged a shrug that suggested she really shouldn't be prefect at all, and probably wouldn't be one if she wasn't so good at making stuff up (lying is such a nasty word). "All the Marauders use it though, plus no one's bound to be in there right now, and if it's empty you can lock the door."

"Awesome! Does it have towels?" Lizz was excited though she stunk to high heaven, oh but relief was in sight! She ran into the bathroom to scoop up her usual shower accessories.

"Yep. Don't bring anything, it had some fabulous shampoo, but don't use the stuff from the ruby-encrusted copper faucet, it's got a decidedly cologne smell to it." Lizz dropped her toiletries bag and headed towards the door.

"Make sure you lock the bathroom door behind you!" Jamie shouted, but Lizz was already half way down the stairs. Jamie opened a window and took deep gulps of Lizz-free air. She would have built a new bathroom if it meant keeping Lizz from showering in the adjoining bathroom.

Lizz scampered down the stairs excitedly, glad that they were clear of a crowd for once. The few students patiently waiting for the staircases to finish their turning cleared a path for her, or for the stench that presented itself before she did.

"cinnamint!" Lizz whispered breathlessly at the door to the right of the weird statue. It creaked open and she ran inside.

She walked into an open chamber, there were two doors. One said "Men's Lockers" and the other "Women Lockers". She walked carefully into the women's, but there wasn't anyone there. The first thing she saw was series of lockers with all of the prefect's names on them, the four female one's anyway. Jamie's was second from the right and had a rough carving of a lion on it. Lizz tried to open it and the silver lock snapped at her with small, key shaped teeth, drawing blood.

"Ow, you stupid thing!" The lock subsided smugly. Lizz sucked on her thumb to help the pain until she walked over and rinsed it under the one of the porcelain sinks. Then she looked around for an open locker. There weren't any so she left her clothes folded on the bench in locker rooms and cocooned herself in towels before stepping out into the actual bath-room.

Marble covered the ground in dizzying mosaics and arching stone columns swept up to a tall ceiling. There was a single stain-glass window occupied by a mermaid who fled as Lizz's smell reached her peach glass nose. Lizz looked at the (well more of a pool really) tub. It got very deep at one end and up to as shallow as a foot as it came closer to the steps. Lizz carefully folded her towels next to the steps and crossed the room to the faucets that flanked the tub. She turned on two small faucets that were labeled hot and cold. Though they looked small, the tub filled up in a few minutes with steaming water.

She got in slowly and carefully as the warm water encased her body. She swam around in the water a bit, wallowing in the exhilarating and relaxing feeling of the hot water against her skin. She came up laughing and waded back over to the many and, in some cases, jewel-encrusted faucets. Lizz enjoyed playing with blue square bubbles that smelled like rosemary, diamond-shaped yellow bubbles with a foreign spice smell, and finally, long twisty red and white bubbles that smelled like peppermint.

She washed her hair with a purple lilac-smelling shampoo and even used some conditioner before wading to the other side of the tub where eight identical silver faucets were lined up. Lizz noticed each of them had a prefect's name on a small silver plaque beneath them. Out of curiosity she turned on Jamie's just for a second. Green bubbles that smelled like tangerines and lemons and limes spewed out happily and made musical notes as they popped. The big ones made deep base notes while the tiny ones made little tinkling notes as they popped rapidly. Lizz also turned on Remus's (out of curiosity), expecting something as fantastic as Jamie's, but a steady froth of light blue foam poured out. They didn't even do anything interesting, Lizz frowned then smelled it by cupping a small amount in her hand. It had a general good old-fashioned clean soap smell, coupled with a male musk and a smell that was like fresh grass. There was something else there, however she sneezed before she could figure out what it was. The foam flew everywhere and then dissolved in the water, leaving only a white trail that was lost among the rainbow of soaps.

Lizz looked farther down the tub at three shabby copper faucets that literally looked like they had been glued on haphazardly. Curiosity getting the better of her, she turned the one that had an "SB" scratched on the side.

Sirius walked through the door labeled "Men's Lockers" and shucked off his clothes hurriedly. He wrapped a towel around his waist and smiled at himself in the mirror before walking into the bathroom. Damn James and his avenging pranks. So what if he had stink-bombed Lizz, her yelling had cut him enough, he didn't need knight in shining armor Potter to decide to stink-bomb him back.

A coughing and sputtering sound came from the tub. Sirius realized not only was there someone in it clawing at the edge to get out, but it was overflowing with his personal bubble bath. Sirius ran over to the side of the tub and turned off his faucet. The bubbles receded and the bath's occupant sunk slowly back into the water.

"Are you alright?" Sirius asked, walking back over to the steps.

Lizz screamed, spinning around, and Sirius yelled in surprise and backed away. Lizz realized exactly who was in the room with her.

"Black?"

"Lawrence, are, are you okay?" She blushed furiously as he looked in disbelief at her, and sank lower in the water, hoping the dark blue bubbles and her hands were covering her. She looked back up at him. He was practically naked himself, with a towel loosely wrapped around his tapered waist, hung low and in danger of falling off from all the excitement. Lizz tried not to notice that he was well built and that most of him would have been described be someone who knew what chiseled meant. Sirius meanwhile was trying to not look down at the faint blur in the water, but being who he was, it was hard.

"Um yes, I'm fine. That was your, er… bubble bath?" Lizz looked down at his toes.

"Um yes…it-" For a second longer they stared in disbelief, then reality came back from its coffee break.

"GET OUT!" Lizz shrieked. Sirius was already halfway to the lockers. Just before he vanished behind the door, his towel slipped down the rest of the way, and Lizz got a glimpse of his butt that she really never had any wish to see.

"Oh my God" they said to themselves, only a wall away.

After another half hour, just to be sure, and after the bathwater had gone ice cold, Lizz crept out of the tub and hurriedly wrapped four towels around herself before booking it back into the locker room. She dried off and pulled her clothes on, ignoring the rows of lotions offered, and headed for the door. Next to the door was a plaque that she hadn't noticed before. It read:

Females:

Mon (5:00 am)-Wednesday (1:00pm)

Males:

Wednesday (1:30 pm)- Friday (12:00 am)

Open:

Friday (1:00pm)- Monday (4:00 am)

Please note, to ensure privacy please remember to lock the door (use attached key), especially during open times over the weekend. We heavily reprimand irresponsible behavior in the prefect baths.

"Oh great tell me now!" Lizz shouted at the plaque. It didn't respond (which really is a surprise when you're living at Hogwarts). She sighed and headed back to rooms, trying to think of something else besides Sirius's nearly nude body.

When she got back to the dormitories, Jamie and Annie were having fun partially changing into their animal shapes. Annie's knees were bent backward and two talons protruded from her pajama bottoms, not to mention her hair had turned into red-brown feathers. Jamie laughed and tapped her nose, pulling it into a long snout and causing two furry triangles to protrude form her hair. Annie laughed but Jamie stopped and spun towards Lizz in the doorway, her black nose quivering.

"What?" Lizz asked. Jamie didn't respond but circled her snuffling at her arms and face. Jamie's snout relapsed into her human mouth that was smiling secretly. "What!" Lizz demanded.

"You smell like Sirius Black." Jamie smiled evilly and Annie gasped. "You reek of him" Jamie said.

"Do not!"

"Come on Lizz, have you ever doubted this nose?" Jamie tapped the side of her human nose. "I know what he smells like. I know what they all smell like. Not to mention what you smell like. God Lizz, I can smell it now." Lizz open and closed her mouth in disbelief. The bubble bath!

"Lizz were you…?" Annie began worriedly, walking over on falcon feet. Jamie snickered.

"No! You guys have to believe me! I turned on his faucet in the prefect's bath, it almost killed me it filled up the bath so fast, and, and…" Lizz debated to tell them or not, it was too embarrassing, "I got out of there so quickly I didn't realize I still smelt like his cologne! Please believe me, I wouldn't-"

"Hand me your bracelet." Jamie said, still with a smile. Lizz tugged it off and handed it over. Jamie tapped her nose with her wand and sniffed it, turning it over and over to be sure. She handed it back to Lizz. "She's telling the truth, her clothes don't smell like him, it's just her skin."

"What? Did you think I was lying? I mean me and Black?" Lizz shuddered and they laughed, "Come on, I wouldn't even hold his hand to keep him from falling over a cliff!"

Sirius Black sighed with relief as he got in the red tiled shower in the boys dormitories. After a minute he turned the hot water off and just letting the cold run.