A/N: Thank you for your reviews!
Disclaimer: I don't own the HP characters.
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FOLLOW ME
Yoanna couldn't sleep.
After tossing and turning in her bed for hours she finally gave up and sat up frustrated. Her foster parents had been good people. They were Muggles and had accepted her even when they found out she was a witch when she reached the age of eleven. They didn't deserve to...
She shook her head clearing out her thoughts. Surrounding herself in grief wouldn't help at all. She needed to be strong and positive to get through this. This was not how it will end, she swore that she would work hard and become a powerful witch and she will fight, even if it killed her.
Grief gave way to a smouldering anger as she began to pace the room. One of the other sleeping girls grunted in her sleep breaking Yoanna away from her thoughts. Not wanting to wake any of them she decided that she should go pace elsewhere.
The Common room was quiet and cool, the fire dying in the alcove making shadows dance around the room. Yoanna's nose prickled and she let out and almighty sneeze. Another one followed before she could stop it. Sniffing and cursing at the same time she began looking around for the source of irritation. Her nose had always been sensitive and the slightest thing such as dust, animal hair or pollen would send her into a sneezing frenzy.
She scrunched her nose up as she spotted a long trail of something white. Holding a tissue to her nose she bent down to inspect it. Pinching a bit between her index and thumb she determined that it was flour. What was flour doing on the flour and in a trail? She began to follow it immediately. One end lead to the Common Room exit and the other...she followed this side first. It led up the stairs to the girls' dormitory and into one of the rooms. She knew who to whom it belonged to because she had been in it many times before and she knew to whose bed it lead to. The empty bed belonged to Lily Evans. She could hear two steady breathing from the four other beds but nothing from the fifth curtained bed. Where had Lily gone at this time of night? And why would she leave a trail of flour? Overcome with curiosity Yoanna backtracked and followed the trail back and out through the Common Room exit.
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Sirius chuckled silently to a private joke that he and James shared. They were on their way back from the Slytherin Common Room. It was the first testing of their new Key and it was successful. The place had been underground; the room was more like a dungeon than a common room. It had a low ceiling and was littered with spooky green lights with matching green chairs.
"What a dump." Sirus had exclaimed as he surveyed the Slytherin 'snake nest', as he preferred to call it.
"A nest that breeds out all sorts of crap." James agreed out of habit rather than opinion. Certain individuals from Slytherin still annoyed him but he found that increasingly he wasn't as indiscriminate against them anymore. Sirius on the other hand was still firmly convinced that every single one of them was trouble waiting to happen. James suspected that it had a lot to do with his brother and the fact that every family member he despised had been sorted into the Slytherin House in their time.
"Damn right…" Sirius nodded and the pair silently surveyed the room. There were many wards and charms to prevent students from other houses to enter of course and Sirius would eat his wand if the Slytherin hadn't added one or two colourful hexes to the lot. It didn't matter anyway because they didn't need to go in to test their key or to complete the second objective of their late night excursion.
James tossed the dozen or so hand grenade like objects in, making sure they were distributed out evenly. They were one of their newest acquirements and one of their most amusing yet.
"Right, as soon as someone says the magic word then poof! They all go off and Eau de Marauders will cover everyone in the room and I'm positive that we've added enough spice for it to spread to the dormitories as well." Sirius grinned wickedly.
"That will teach Snivelly." James said, still feeling grated about the incident earlier.
"Teach them all." Sirius said firmly. "Can't wait till we tell Remus about this. Killed two birds with one stone."
"He's wiped out. Wait till morning, hopefully someone would have said the word by then. He'll enjoy the news more then because he'll be able to see and smell it." James had decided that he wouldn't wake Remus up before they set of to do their deed because he was always exhausted after each full moon. As for Peter, if he went to bed nothing short of the earth collapsing would be budge the boy. James was going to carry it out solo but Sirius, tired as he was couldn't bear to not be involved. They would both suffer the next day but all the tiredness would be more than worth it.
James yawned broadly to confirm how much sleep he was lacking. They reached the Gryffindor portrait and the Fat Lady eyed them disapprovingly.
"Where have you boys been?" She crossed her arms.
"We were hungry, so we went to the kitchens for a snack." Sirius replied, putting a heartfelt charming expression on that he used when he was trying to be sincere.
The soft spot that the Fat Lady had reserved for the Marauders kicked in and her irritation melted immediately. "All right boys, remember that you are not supposed to be out of bed at this hour. Password?" Technically that wasn't true because James was Head Boy but both boys were smart enough to stay on her good side.
Before James could even say "Tickled Berries" the door swung open and Yoanna stepped out. Her surprised mirrored theirs and jumped at being caught out of bed.
"Well, hello there!" Sirius said with a great smile as if he had a perfectly legitimate reason for being there himself. "And where are you off to on this fine evening." It was closer to morning but that didn't matter. Sirius would smooth talk his way out of this and that one easily.
Yoanna suddenly felt like she was in her first year again as she nervously tucked some of her hair behind her ear. "I was urm...going to see where the flour led to." She pointed at the scattered mound that James had carelessly stepped all over because he hadn't seen it.
Sirius brows went up and he flicked some hair away from his eyes. "Where did that come from?"
Yoanna shrugged. "Well I couldn't sleep so I came down and I saw this. The other end leads to Lily's bed-"
James' head snapped up at the mention of Lily. "Lily, where is she? Was she not in bed?" Yoanna shook her head. James frowned. Why would Lily possibly be out of bed? Last night came flooding back to him. Lily had been wandering towards the Whomping Willow like she was in a trance, or sleepwalking! He moved to follow the trail immediately and Sirius automatically followed.
"Prongs, what are you doing?"
"Looking for Lily. Lumos!" he replied as he held up the end of his wand so he could see the trail more clearly.
"What is there to say that Lily is at the end of this?"
"Nothing but it's our best bet. She could be wandering..." He was about to say "like last night" but he noticed that Yoanna was right behind them, skipping lightly down the stone steps intent on following the flour too. He gave Sirius a pointed look.
Sirius understood immediately. "Hang on, it'll be easier if I go back and get the map. Come on Yoanna, do you mind accompanying me?" If Lily had gone back to the tree Yoanna might discover the secret entry to the tunnel and they couldn't let that happen.
"Map? What map? We can't go back because we'll lose the trail. Look." By now they were outside of the castle and she was pointing at the rapidly disappearing trail on the grass. They were losing the flour to the light cool breeze. James and Sirius exchanged a look. She was right.
"No map, sorry didn't know what I was going on about there." Sirius answered lightly and followed on silently. James and Sirius' caution grew with every step that the trail took them towards the Whomping Willow. Relief washed over them as the trail veered left suddenly just short of the tree. The relief was welcome but brief and James felt a shiver run through him because the trail led straight into the Forbidden Forrest...
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A/N: Yes, I know this chapter wasn't very satisfying but the next stuff that happens does so in a chunk and would make the chapter very very long. Treat this as like a build up because they are going IN that forest!
