"What should we do now?" Sirius asked again.

"I don't know, what do you want to do?"

Sirius paused, eyebrows scrunched in thought, "Uuuhhhhhhhh…"

James grinned widely before remembering he was supposed to be crabby. He scowled and hugged his pillow even tighter, pouting.

"Ooh! Oh! I know, I know!" Sirius bounced up and down on his bed.

"What?"

"Oh, oh, oh, we can just play twenty questions thingy! We go around asking questions as personal or as embarrassing as we like and everyone has to answer! It'll be like getting ammunition for blackmail!" Sirius let out a shrill, demonic cackled.

James scowled, "No." Though he was tempted. A little.

"Oh, don't be such a bloody spoilsport," Sirius rolled of his bed and bounded over to Remus's. "Hey, Remus! Hey, hey, Remus?"

"What?" Remus grunted, not even looking up from his defense against the dark arts book.

"We're gonna play a questions game! C'mon, it'll be fun!"

"Fun? What is this strange, new thing you speak of?" Remus replied in a dry voice, his eyes never leaving the page.

"Come ooo-annn!" Sirius whined. He hopped up onto Remus' bed and began to jump up and down. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon…"

James tuned them out. What had gone wrong? What were they missing? Why didn't it work?

"Boing, boing… bounce, bounce, bounce…"

Sirius had to wonder who would snap first.

"Oh, all right!" Remus slammed his book shut, obviously unable to take any more.

"Yay!" Sirius cheered. He crossed the room, "C'mon Madelyn, be more fun than these two! Crawl out of that den and play, pleeaasse?" Sirius gave her shiny, wide puppy eyes.

Den? Well, yes, I suppose that would make sense.

Madelyn had spent the night across the room in a kinda- corner, and the area was draped and covered with blankets and pillows.

The lion's den, the belly of the beast, the mouth of the cave… nah, den's the best.

Madelyn readily agreed, so Sirius raced over to drag James off of his bed.

"Niurg," he groaned, holding fast to his pillow, his words slurring together. "Leammeal'ne*."

"Oh, come on James," Madelyn was grinning, "you can't mope about not finding the secret passage forever."

"Yes I can," he grumbled.

They had spent the entire morning searching. They had found the tapestry on the fourth floor very easily, but not the passage. They had tried spells, Latin, gibberish, and retracing their steps. After receiving many nasty bruises on account of throwing themselves against the wall, they had, momentarily, mind you, admitted defeat.

"We can try again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next for the next seven years," Madelyn continued. "We'll find it eventually."

Mumbling to himself, James sat down as Sirius began to explain the game, which was simple enough. One person would ask the question, and the other person had to answer. No matter how embarrassing the answer was.

"So," Sirius began seriously, "what is…your favorite type of dessert?"

James snorted. "Are you serious?"

"Of course I'm serious!" Sirius said brightly. "I'm Sirius!"

Madelyn grinned, "Sirius is serious."

"Oh, Merlin," Remus groaned, covering his face with his hands.

"Sirius, come on, mate. That's just painful," James said, wincing.

"I am seriously Sirius! Anyway, mine's fudge!"

Madelyn narrowed her eyes at him, "what kind?"

"Milk. Rich and creamy, though I will take dark. Sometimes with almonds."

She nodded, "Good man."

Remus sighed and began to unwrap a chocolate frog, "Anything that's chocolate."

"Amen," Madelyn said solemnly.

"Mine's cake," James said, rolling his eyes. "Any type."

"Madelyn?" Sirius asked.

"Well, after mooching everything off of you guys, I'll probably go with chocolate. Just straight milk or dark. After that it would probably be candy canes."

"I don't know what those are," Sirius said. "Ok, Remus, your question."

They continued on like this for almost an hour. They never asked a serious question, so they were laughing the entire time. The way the game ended was quite interesting, or at least, to a pair of unnoticed eyes...

"Ok," said James. He was actually enjoying the game. "What is something you really like?"

"Very creative James," Remus gave a small smile.

James shrugged, "Mine's Quidditch."

"Mine is chocolate."

"Remus, for you, everything's chocolate."

"So? Chocolate is good for your soul."

"Yeah, what's wrong with chocolate?"

"I never said that there was a problem with it! It's not like I'm against it or anything-"

"There is nothing wrong with chocolate," Sirius said. "None of us are against it. Chocolate is good."

"So, what's your answer, Sirius?"

"Hand-cuffs."

"Hand-cuffs?" James raised a brow.

"Hand-cuffs."

Madelyn muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "kinky". Sirius chose to ignore it.

There was a pause. James sounded incredulous, "Why in the bloody name of Merlin would you say-"

"Anyway," Remus interrupted, "what about you, Madelyn?"

"Huh? Oh, um… well I like to be squished," it sounded like a question.

"Squished?" Sirius repeated.

"Well, yeah. My brothers sometimes called me Squishy, because I liked to be hugged hard and they could just lay on me and be fine. Although it's been several years since I've been squished…" Madelyn trailed off.

Sirius looked at James.

James looked at Sirius.

*x*x*x*x*

"Merlin's pants! What are you doing?"

Sirius didn't even have to open his eyes to know who it was. No one else could be so annoying, or get into other people's business while they were trying to sleep. Wait a minute…

Trying to sleep. The memory of last night came rushing back. He and James had gotten a brilliant idea after Madelyn talked about squishing. They had run around the dorm and gotten the pillows from Madelyn's den and all of the beds, including the empty one. And then we came down to the couches… oh, Merlin!

Sirius opened his eyes and tried to sit up. Tried to, and he would have succeeded, if it weren't for the duct tape they had found in Madelyn's trunk. He settled down and shut his eyes.

"Nurghe," Sirius moaned. "Go away."

"No!" the red-head was indignant. "What are you doing?"

"Mnurrge," Sirius complained, nudging James, who was below him, with his hand.

"Go away, Millie," James whined.

"It's Lily," she snapped. "Lily Evens."

"Whatever. Just let us sleep in peace."

Madelyn shifted underneath them. "Wake-up call?"

"Nooo, I wanna sleeeep!" Sirius whined.

Madelyn groaned, "And to what do I owe the pleasure, Miss Evens?"

"Just what are you four doing?"

Madelyn made a scathing noise in the back of her throat, "Really? That's it? Hey Remus, time to get up."

He didn't even make a noise.

"Madelyn, can't we just sleep?" Sirius asked.

"We have a crowd Sirius."

"So?"

Madelyn gave a heave and rolled them all onto the floor. That did wake Remus up.

"Huh? Wha-"

James began to struggle, "Oi, how do we get out of this?"

They had been sleeping stacked up one on top of the other, with pillows in-between. Madelyn was at the bottom with Remus above her, while Sirius was at the top. To ensure that they didn't all fall of, they had strapped themselves together with duct tape.

Remus, who was still partially asleep, must have realized that he was trapped and began to freak. He strained and fought against the ropes like a mad man, and actually began to heave the four of them off the ground in his efforts.

"Whoa, hey Remus!"

"Remus, call down mate!"

"Remus, its ok!"

Madelyn's voice became smooth as she cut in, "Remus, I can get us out of this, but I need you to calm down, ok? Can you do that? It's alright I can take care of the duct tape-"

Eventually Remus stopped struggling and lay there, his breath ragged.

"Hey, ah, Madelyn?" Sirius asked. "How exactly-"

"If you'll just hold on a minute, I can reach my- aha! Go it!"

"Got what?"

Madelyn sounded distracted, "I'm American; we have pocket knives. Ah, here we go!"

With a great ripping noise, she tore the tape off of all of them, freeing the pillows. Madelyn then set to work on the strip at their feet.

"Hey, Remus, you should have told us that you were claustrophobic. If you had, we wouldn't have done this."

Once their feet were free he replied, "I didn't think I would react that bad."

"Don't you all have somewhere to be?" Madelyn cast a hard eye over some Gryffindor's who were watching. Lily Evens left as well after a stare down from the female marauder.

"I'm sorry, "Remus looked at the ground while apologizing

"What for? We all of little eccentrics and quirks. Look at me for instance. I. am. Paranoid. Yes, Americans have pocket knives, but they generally don't sleep with them in their shoes."

"But, you aren't wearing shoes."

"Slipper socks count."

"Oh."

And with that, they all left for the great hall. Madelyn didn't have shoes, and they were all in their robes from the day before.

But, hey? It's alright.