Date Posted: 30th July 2010

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

"For the thousandth time Sirius, hurry up!" I hurried. Remus and I have been waiting for Sirius to get down the dorm stairs to the Gryffindor Common for the past 30mins.

"Just wait a minute. My hair's not perfect," Sirius said.

"You've said that for the past 15 minutes. Even James didn't take that long and you'd have better luck taming two dragons in heat than James' hair!"

"Note Remus, that I didn't actually bother taming my hair, so relatively speaking it didn't take me any time at all," I pointed out.

"I'm trying to raise a point. Now shut up and continue helping me rush Sirius."

I didn't bother opening my mouth to point out that I couldn't possibly shut up and rush Sirius at the same time, but further vexing a werewolf so close to the full moon wasn't exactly on my to-do list, so I just shut up.

"Hurry up Sirius! Or Merlin help me you won't have any hair left to fiddle with!"

"All or just my head?"

"Merlin's sagging balls! Now dammit, or you will be losing more than just hair!"

"Alright! Alright! I'm coming down," said Padfoot, coming quickly down the stairs, "Geez, what's got your knickers in a twist?"

"Sod it Padfoot! We're all going to be late now because of you. It's bad ettiquette - even worse if you had a part organising it!"

"Then lucky I didn't have a part organising it."

"But I did! All prefects did!" Remus snapped.

"No need to be so 'snappy' about it," he smirked.

"Ha ha, very funny Padfoot. You are the master of all puns. Now shut up before it's your neck that snaps!" snapped Remus.

"The only snapping thing I enjoy snapping is Exploding snap. Now stop snapping at me!" snapped Sirius.

"I can snap at you all I want!" snapped Remus

"Can we stop saying the word snap? It's giving me a snapping headache. Oh great! Now you got me saying the word snap. Thrice in fact!"

The two continued their row.

"It's not my fault you're so snappy for a couple of days every month!"

"Shut up Pads. See if I don't use you as a chew toy the next time of the month!"

Ha! Not only are they rumoured to be gay together, but one's the pad, and the other's the time of the month.

...

OMG! I did not just f*ing think that!

I started whacking my head trying to rid my brain of those thoughts.

"James, stop killing off your few remaining brain cells. You need all, and more, of the brain cells you have left. We also don't need a trip to the hospital to delay us further," said Remus, "Now let's go!"

"Allons-y!" I said.

"James, shut up," said Sirius.

"What? So your allowed to say schnippschnapp but I'm not allowed to say Allons-y?"

"What the hell are you blabbing on about?" asked Sirius.

"It's German for the card game snap."

"I don't speak German!"

"Doesn't mean you didn't say it."

"If I don't know the word, how can I say it?" exploded Sirius.

"What kind of reasoning is that?" I said.

"The logical one. Now, silencio! incarcerous!" cast Remus, "Finally, we can go to the bloody Halloween ball!" he exasperated as he dragged me and Sirius to the Great Hall through the Box Route. We didn't want to be later than we already were.

We were transported in front of the closed doors to the Great Hall listening to Sirius complain about his hair again.

"Remus! Look what you've done! Now my hair is all ruined again because you dragged me along!"

"Do you want me to perform a plucking charm? Cause I really will if you don't shut up. One. At. A. Time."

Ouch.

Sirius must have thought the same thing too, because he instantly shut up.

We opened the door and went in. They were charmed to let off a blood-curdling scream every time someone opened the door. The scream made our blood, well...curdle.

When we entered there was Phantom of the Opera playing. I had suggested to Remus a whole host of my soundtracks from my favourite horror films like House of Wax and the entire Saw series. Listening to wizarding tunes got boring very quickly; they weren't as good in the music department. Remus took them and presented them to the other prefects as suggestions for songs to play during the Halloween Ball, as his own idea of course. No need to unecessarily divulge my duplicitous secret.

R'ena and I had worked on a spell that converted all CDs, DVDs and MP3 files in to a magically readable file. I reckon Row regrets this however, because now, she has to put up with those two idiots re-quoting every single movie they've ever watched - Star Wars was a favourite.

It was a ball from ten till about 2 in the morning. Well...ball wasn't exactly accurate as we didn't wear dressing robes and stuff, but whatever. Halloween Balls at Hogwarts did not included dressing up as witches and vampires like it did for the muggles. What's the use of dressing up as a witch if you were one? See the point?

Therefore I discreetly convinced the rest of the school to make the theme for this year's Halloween ball muggle clothing. The school, especially the Slytherin 'power-players' like Lucius and Knott and stuff, weren't very convinced at first, but after some female volunteers (their girlfriends) modelled some 'specially selected' muggle clothing, let's just say they prefer mini-skirts to long and bulky school robes.

"If this is how all muggles dress, maybe I should only date a muggle one day," said Sirius, his eyes scanning the female population of the hall - and I stress female.

"ARHHH!"

Sirius and I jumped.

"Man that door sure can scare the shit out of you," I said

"Yeah, you're halfway through a conversation and all of a sudden you hear AHHHH!"

I nodded in agreement.

"Did you set the prank?" I asked.

"Of course I did. Who do you take me for? I am the uber, super, smexy, fantalistic, spectacalicious and sexy Sirius Orion Black the Marauder extraordinare who-"

"Who is a conceited dellusional bastard who makes up words to praise himself in his spare time." I ended for him.

"I know you feel threatened by my brilliance, but that's no reason to be rude you jealous prick."

"And you're not?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, maybe a little," he conceded.

Talk about understatement of the century.

"Anyway, I've gotta go and try display my beauty to the ladies," eying Monique Greengrass again. She was wearing sometime the Pope would have a heart attack upon seeing.

"You know, she might not date you no matter what you do," I warned him, "Especially now that she thinks you're gay - along with the rest of the school."

"I'll get her eventually."

"Well, good luck mat-"

"ARHHH!"

"Dang that door. Who was the idiot that came up with the idea anyway?" I asked Sirius.

"You did."

"Oh. Well...whatever."

"Relax Remus, the party's going fine," assured Mia.

"It's a party with the Marauders. Something is bound to go wrong. It's the law."

"Few would believe you guys are bestfriends after hearing that."

"I know warned them not to, but I'd trust Malfoy alone with a defensless muggleborn more than James, Sirius and Peter to not set off a prank at this perfect opportunity.

"You're a great friend," she said fakely, patting him on the back.

"I'd like to think of myself that way."

"Well, you are. How many people would just leave them to be late for class every morning?"

"I try."

"Good. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to go other there and check out Maeson."

"Will you ever do anything other than guy hunting?"

She just winked and Remus before heading over to Maeson. Typical Euphie behaviour. Makes one wonder how closely related the Flints are to the Blacks. She and Sirius could practically be siblings the way they are going through the Hogwarts population.

"Hey Lils!" I said as I walked towards Lily who leaning against a wall.

"Hey James," she greeted warmly.

"Strange to see you without Mia or Alice," I noted.

"Ali's is with Frank and Mia has gone boy hunting. Again."

"Oh, well, you did a great job with the party."

"I didn't do much of this. It was mostly the other prefects," she said meekly.

Ah, the ever humble Lily.

"Especially Remus. He was the one that got the soundtrack and everything. Who thought he was so adept in muggle music and culture. He just went up a few points in my book." she smiled.

"Yes..." Sometimes it sucks to be in the shadows.

"Did you know Phantom of the Opera is my favourite musical theatre production of all time? I had this really nice friend who took me all the way to London Theatre to watch it for my birthday. He's called Jasper if you recall. He paid for the tickets, arranged it and everything! It was so nice of him. You could learn a thing or two about being nice from him."

It really sucks to be in the shadows.

"Whilst he loves Phantom of the Opera, his favourite is Moulin Rouge. He's always sad about how there is no stage production for it, but says a stage act wouldn't have quite the same effect as the film because one of the main reasons why the film is so good is because off the cutting between the scenes and how the song is reflected in two different scenes and everything. Shame you haven't seen it, seeing as you're a pureblood and all. You guys don't even have movies and theatres. Otherwise I would be here talking to you all night all alone because no-one else has probably seen it. Just you and me. Shame Jasper isn't here; wish I could talk to him right now."

Really.

"Yes...well...maybe the problem of communication between the muggle and the magical world will be rememdied in the future," I said. My eye was discreetly twitching. What in the seven depths of hell was Lady Fate playing at?

Time to start a conversation about the one thing Lily couldn't possibly refuse.

Books.

"You know, Remus once lent me a couple of muggle books to read," regardless of how much it peeved me to do so, I had to avoid my name being connected to muggles as much as possible. What better way to do so that use Remus as a shield.

"Really? It's about time Remus got you two lazy arses into something more educational. You guys need to be more open to literature. I can only hope he is able to stop your pranks; seems unlikely though." I really need to improve her image of me.

"So which books did he lend you?"

I knew Lily loved Shakespeare, so Shakespeare it is!

"Shakespeare."

"Oh really? Which one?" she said all excitedly. Score!

"A Midsummer Night's Dream."

"I was half expecting you to say Romeo and Juliet. It's one of his most famous works after all."

"No. I wouldn't read something as mushy and cheesy as that! Remus does though, so I know a bit about it if you really, really, really want to talk about it"

The truth was, I was a major sucker for Romeo and Juliet. I've been to the theatre so many times just to watch that play over and over again. There is a worn copy in one of the hidden compartments of my trunk and I also have my favourite version of the film converted into a magical file I keep in the Marauder's Den so I can watch it whenever I suffer from withdrawal symptoms. However, back in my house at Surrey, hidden behind a whole bunch of decoy boxes of more masculine stuff was my Romeo and Juliet collection. There were boxes and boxes of the scripts, version with notes, films and VCRs of the play and everything. I even have a copy of the play written in the original Old English!

No one knows of course. Not even my parents or Lily could know about my love for Romeo and Juliet. It would be too girly. I would die before someone knew.

"You know," started Lily, "I know this guy, won't tell you who, but he's secretly a huge fan of Romeo and Juliet but hides. He thinks none of us know but his parents and I knew ages ago, but we didn't confront him about it because we didn't want to embarrass him," she giggled.

She's not talking about me right? Surely there are other guys in the world who love Romeo and Juliet and don't want their parents and bestfriend to know.

"He hides his collection in boxes under his bed behind a whole bunch of other boxes with his more masculine stuff in it because he thinks they will stop people from finding out he's a Romeo and Juliet fan," she guffawed.

You have got to be frickn' kidding me.

"I'm sure that just some stuff he found somewhere and thought it would be a waste to do it, or his school material. You must have mistaken."

"No, I'm sure. I went to the same school as him, we were only had one copy of Romeo and Juliet."

"Well you must ha-"

"Hi! Hi!" came Euphie.

"Mia! What are you doing here? I thought you were off guy hunting," said Lily.

"Well I had my fun with most of them. Not to mention their girlfriends didn't exactly appreciate me-"

"ARHHH!"

-getting touchy with their boyfriends."

"Hard to imagine how-"

"ARHHH!"

"-you're so popular amongst the entire school even though you're-

"ARHHH!"

"-flirting with everyone's boyfriend all the time," I said.

"I swear," started Lily, "if that door so much screams one more time I'm going to-"

"ARHHH!"

"Grrr! That's it! Who the hell keeps opening and closing the door?" screamed Lily.

"No-one is Lils. I-"

"ARHHH!"

"-think the charm's just malfunctioned. You're a pre-"

"ARHHH!"

"-fect. Cancel the spell!" said Euphie.

With a quick swish of her wand and a few well pronounced words, the screaming door was screaming no more.

"Merlin I swear, who's stupid idea was it anyways?" huffed Lily.

"Probably some stupid guy," said Euphie.

"I'll be sure to castrate them if I ever found out!" said Lily fiercely.

"I have no idea who. Really," I quickly said, "but I'm sure they meant no harm. No harm intended at all."

"Yes, well, regardless, they should be punished for such a stupid idea. That aside, what were you saying before the damned door interrupted you James?" asked Lily.

"Well, I was just asking how Mia stays so popular with everyone even though she flirts with other people's boyfriends all the time."

"What can I say? I'm a talented pureblood."

"You might just be more Slytherin than you think," I said.

"I'm sure," she smiled a mischievous. The smile of shrewed success, of knowing something that others don't.

It was a smile fit for a Marauder.

I raised a curious eyebrow.

Her smile sharpened. It was at this moment, that I realised something was wrong.

But I was too late, and she lept at us and bound on of me and Lily's hand together with a golden fastening. It swirled with golden magic just before the lock clamped down with an audiable click!

Interesting fact on Exploding Snap

In the German translation, Exploding snap was translated as 'Snape explodiert' which really translates to 'Snape Explodes' or 'Exploding Snape'. After much complaint, it is now translated as 'Zauberschnippschnapp'

New chappie! Yay!

This week was such a disaster! I had a whole host of Japanese quizzes, a Science Common Test and a Maths test. All in one week! And I had to leave everything to last minute too cause I forgot about it!

All that last minute studying made my head hurt and gave me a writer's block. I seem to be having more of those lately.

I so failed the maths test. I should consider going to tutoring. Oh well, whatever.

Hope you guys enjoyed this new chapter!