Ekaterina's Disclaimer: We own only what we made. Not what we borrowed for the purposes of this story. Thank you for your consideration. :P

Ekaterina's Note: HIIIIIIII! So sorry that it took us so awfully long to update! I guess that we have just been having a bunch of stuff going on lately and yah. We finally graduated MS! Whoohooo! Now it's summer and we can either update faster or slower :P. OH. Of late I found the soundtrack for Burlesque and Nine and they are so crazy awesome! Cinemaaaaa Italiano! hehe... my favorite song changes weekly :P. Smile and be happy everyone, it's SUMMER! Oh, and right, this chapter is a bit like chapter one in the sense that we are getting the feel for a new arc in the story, so please do not be discouraged if it seems a bit off! Much thanks.

"Bleh, I'm exhausted!" complained Lily.

"Ya think?" groaned Lara, she emitted a small yawn. The girls were covered in soap suds, water, and blobs-that-must-not-be-named. Their arms ached, and the muscles protested with every step they took. However, there was one exception.

"Think OOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFF ME!" Alice didn't seem at all disturbed, she seemed extraordinarily involved with her singing.

"You know, I'm really starting to regret giving her the Phantom of the Opera music... I just thought that it might suit her, you know..." Lara said, rubbing the side of her head.

"Well, apparently, you thought wrong!" Lily said and then looked back at Lara. "Mmm... speaking of music, I wonder how Nadia and that kid are getting on..."

"Whatever... I just want to grab Nadia and get to our dorms already... Alice... Remus can drop her off. As for that guy... we have a lot of annoying to do. Just not now," growled Lara.

"I want cake," said Lily suddenly.
Lara looked at her in mild surprise, "Well, now that you mention it... I do too..."Alice popped up between the two exhausted girls, startling them into jumping backwards.

"Whoa!" Lara exclaimed. "What's wro-"

"Cake, I baked one. It's big and fluffy, lots of chocolate... actually, because not all torddlemits like chocolate, half is chocolate cake and the other half is cinnamon apple..." she beamed in delight.

"Ooooooh!" Lara's eyes widened and sparkled at the mention of chocolate cake.

"I'm in! Come on, we're gonna grab Nadia and have a cake party! Screw the ball, we can have our own fun..." declared Lily. As they began to move towards the Great Hall, Alice was thrown off balance by an irritated looking blur of black that seem to be screaming, 'DEEEEAAAAATTTTTHHHHH GET BACK HERE!"

"I... I think I found Nadia..." said Lara with surprise.

"And Death... I was wondering where he got to after the eating contest started..." mused Alice almost to herself.

"Well... I guess we can leave Nadia and get to the cak-" Lily was cut off by Lara grabbing her and Alice and running down the corridor towards where they had passed Nadia.

"Get off that cake and help me get Nadia! I think something's wrong otherwise Death wouldn't be running from Nadia of all people. You, m'dears, are going to help me catch them or there are going to be some SERIOUS PUNISHMENTS!" snarled Lara.
Lily said irritatedly, "Yeah, whatever, but can you stop-"

"NO! I CANNOT STOP! WE NEED TO HELP OUR FRIEND (actually just get her so I can have chocolate cake) AND YOU ARE REFUSING TO?" Lara interrupted.

"Lar-"

"Alice, I thought that at least you would have the sense to see what's up with her?"

"LARA!" Lily and Alice yelled at the same time.
Lara came to a screeching stop. "What?" she growled.

"LET GO OF US!" Lily hissed. .

"...huh?" Lara looked down at her hands. In one was a fistful of Lily's hair. Her eyes followed down to Lily's rather irritated face.

"Please let go!" Lily growled menacingly.

Lara laughed weakly and released her grasp from Lily's hair.
"AHEM!"

"Oops! Sorry, Alice..." Lara flashed a smile and let go of Alice's blonde hair.

"Thank Death...," she said, rubbing her head and glaring at Lara.

"Okay, now. Off to find Nadia!" Lara bellowed.

"GOOOOO~!" The three started running down the hall in desperate search of their friend. And so Lily and her friends went off in search of Nadia. Did they find her? Of course they did! What kind of story would this be if they didn't? But the Nadia they found was a devastated one, she was sitting by the bottom of the stairs with a blank expression.

"Imperius curse. She went as far as to use unforgivable curses," she spat. She seemed to have a menacing aura about her but her eyes were blank.

"Hey, hey... What happened?" asked Lily softly.

"That **** **** ****-" started Nadia.

"Okay, okay, I- we get it... from your...colorful vocabulary I can only assume that it has something to do with Shantall?" interrupted Lara hastily. At this Nadia hissed, she stood up and walked off towards the stairs, hesitating only a bit to let the others catch up.

"She cursed Death, no? I bet she cursed Death to hate you. To hate all of us," Nadia looked startled at Alice's accurate words. She looked away uncertainly.
They were interrupted by the sound of running feet, "Nadia, Nadia, did you find Death? I searched everywhere but... I'm sorry! I'm sure we can find her-" It was the interesting Ravenclaw who had seemed to really acknowledege Death as a person.

"We found Death. Death will come and find you..." announced Alice in a dreamy voice. THe boy seemed a bit taken aback.

"Er, sorry? Didn't catch that last bit... But it's good you found Death!"
Lara grimaced, "Shut yer yappin. First off, now is not a good time to be happy. Second, let's discuss this over a nice whatever flavor and chocolate cake. I don't have the patience to explain to every person who passes by that we are not suicidal but looking for a freaking cat!"
Lily silently nodded and led the way to the kitchens where they could talk in peace.

"Right, so first off, what's your name. I don't want to keep talking to you 'boy' or 'kid' or something stupid like-" started Lara.

"Adrian..." the poor boy seemed utterly befuddled.

Nadia slammed the table an stood up, "Stop it. All of you. I just want my cat and to murder that freaking... I don't even have words to describe her."

And so 'Plan: Death and Murder" started.

Sorry for the short chapter. Will try to update more and faster X/