A/N: Toxic. It's no fun brainstorming without you. I miss the long walks around the town at night, laughing obnoxiously about Chuckles and plotting the next chapter. It just isn't the same. And as I won't allow "Bryar" to read the story, he can't help me think of any ideas. This chapter won't be up to par, but maybe you can forgive me since I'm halfway across the country? ^_^
No? Yeah, didn't think so. Hate you too.
(May I just say I absolutely LOVE The Daily Show With Jon Stewart's John Oliver. He's what James would be if he hadn't been killed, or been a wizard, or married, or if he'd been more into jokes than pranks, or... Okay, so he kind of looks like James Potter.)
Some characters are a pain to write, and some are fun as hell! ^_^
Uhh... *sigh*. I've no excuse. No, wait, not true. PLENTY of excuses... None of which are going to appease you, "Kiss", so... ^_^. NYEHH!
Dislcaimer: *Checks birth certificate* Nope I'm not J.K. Rowling. -_-' Darn. Wait. THAT'S NOT MY LAST NAME!(It's-!)
Chapter Eight
Sirius Black was, in his own opinion, the best looking bloke at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. If he'd wanted, he could have a different bird warming his bed every night. And at one time, he did.
However, since the sixth year of his magical education began, he hadn't wanted just any girl. No, he had his sights set on a specific one. A certain Sirenity Cortez.
Sirenity (Siren to her friends) was a tall, curvy blonde with light, cold blue eyes and a sweet smile. She was outgoing, social, and blunt to the point of being impolite.
She was also dating his best friend.
Sirius rolled over on his four poster bed, groaning and rubbing his calloused hands over his face as his thoughts swirled round and round inside his head, causing a massive headache. He was still moping as the door to the Marauders' dormitory opened. He looked up just as James entered and closed the door behind him.
His mate's eyes looked dead, almost. He had dark circles underneath that were magnified by his glasses, and his hazel eyes were deadened with misery.
"Anything wrong, mate?" asked Sirius as he sat up fully, taking in the sight of his best friend and his broom that dangled at his side.
James sighed, "I asked Millsap if she wanted to take a few laps 'round the Pitch, but she ran off. Something about wood or something."
"Wood?" asked Sirius with a confused look. "Do you mean Bryar Wood? The Ravenclaw in our year?"
"What?" said James as he looked up. "Who the bloody hell is that?"
"Some strange bloke that's always studying. Exams come year-round for him. He's got no mates, no birds. Just a lonely chap, I s'pose. Jayden's befriended him, apparently."
"So why's Jayden hanging 'round him now?" wondered James aloud as he stripped from his Quidditch robes down to a pair of boxer shorts.
Sirius watched James's expression closely as he chose his next words. "They're dating, according to Vangley."
"WHAT!" exclaimed James as he spun around in nothing but his underwear, tossing the forgotten robes aside.
"Yeah. Jay and I caught Vangley and Cortez interrogating Wood just two nights ago, when we went for a walk..." Sirius trailed of, thinking to himself, that's also when I told her about Sirenity. "Er, Prongs. Y'okay, mate?"
"Fine," spat James as he threw his pajamas over his body, crawling into his bed and drawing the hangings around him.
-X-X-X-X-X-
Jayden Millsap sat down at the Gryffindor Table for dinner, across from her sister Sirenity and beside Remus. No sooner had she begun to load her plate with her usual chosen meal, that Bryar sat down beside her.
"You should know that you're being watched. And not by me," he said conversationally as he too began to choose food for himself.
"No greeting? No 'hello, my pretend girlfriend, how are you this fine evening'?" whispered Jayden in response. "Godric, you're an awful false boyfriend."
"Would it be stereotypically British for me to say 'Ello, Love?"
"Probably. A simple hi would suffice. I don't want a sickening nickname."
"But we aren't even actually dating!" he pointed out with a grin.
"All the more reason, then," Jayden insisted.
"Alright," he agreed.
Sirenity chose that moment to look up, "Hey. When'd Bryar get here?"
"Hello Sirenity. I really enjoyed our little chat with Kismet the other day. Could we maybe do it again sometime?" Bryar smiled.
"Why'd she get a greeting?" Jayden exclaimed.
Sirenity's eyes narrowed as she focused on Bryar, "You're really strange. What's wrong with you?"
"Many things, none of which I will get into at the moment."
"What? Are you a Dark Creature or something?" asked Sirenity blatantly. Jayden noticed the way Remus's shoulders tensed at the question.
"Not in the way you mean." He only half smiled.
"Okay..." Sirenity trailed off, turning back to her food.
"So, why aren't you at the Ravenclaw table?" asked Jayden.
"So eager to get rid of me, Love?" he pretended to simper.
"Oh, don't start. And don't call me Love," she glared. "Why are you sitting here, Bryar?"
"Well, we are dating," he smiled, his eyes becoming unfocused again. "We should keep up appearances."
"Wait," said Jayden slowly, "appearances for whom?"
Kismet chose that moment to sit beside Sirenity, a scowl carved into her pale face.
"What's wrong, Kiss?" asked Siren.
"Nothing," growled Kismet as she stabbed a fork into her steak and kidney pie. "What the hell is with this stupid English food anyway? I want a damn McDonald's." She continued to grumble quietly to herself.
Jayden kicked her shin under the table, eliciting a hiss from the angry brunette.
"Quiet, Kismet," Jayden hissed as she shot a glance in Bryar's direction. He appeared to be staring off into space, at a spot somewhere near the Ravenclaw table.
"Whatever," said Kismet as she contined to stab the apparent offensive pie.
-X-X-X-X-X-
"Mates, I have an announcement," called Sirius to the boys' dormitory at large as he stood on his four-poster in nothing but his underwear and socks. He waited patiently for the others to look in his direction. It took James the longest to glance up from whatever parchement he was currently scribbling on. From where Sirius stood, he could see the outline of a badly sketched snitch in the upper corner. Clearing his throat, he continued, "My fellow Marauders. It grieves me to bring forth to your attention a certain forgotten prank executed nearly four weeks ago by our surprisingly competitive rivals, Karma, Chaos, and Tragic."
"I thought it was Tragedy?" said Peter, genuinely confused. Remus hurriedly shushed the mousy boy, and they both turned their stares back to Sirius, who's shoulders had slumped. He jumped down off the bed, the old springs creaking as his weight left them. He then, quite dramatically, threw himself onto the floor, face first, burrowing his head in his pillowed arms.
"Mummph mumphum rumph..."
"What's that, Padfoot?" asked Remus.
James sighed at his friend's theatrics and rolled his eyes. He glanced down at the parchement he was doodling on, scribbling out yet another word. He'd nearly completed it earlier today, but decided to read it through. Thinking he'd never even spent this much time on a full assignment, James grinned to himself, then turned his attention back to his friends.
"I said, they've beaten us."
"That's no way to talk, Sirius," squeaked Peter. "Surely we could come up with something."
"Oh yeah?" called James from his seat by his trunk at the foot of his four-poster. "And have you got any bright ideas, Wormtail?"
"That's enough James," said Remus in a reasonable tone. "He's only trying to help."
James scoffed, and turned his head away, crossing his arms over his stomach in a huff.
Remus continued, "It'd help if we knew anything about them. Their fears, weaknesses..."
Sirius sat up suddenly, staring at Remus with an awed expression. "That's it, Mooney! We've got to find out what makes these witches tick! What gets under their skin! What causes Kismet to be such a-"
"Padfoot!" called a shocked Remus.
"Well, it's true," sighed Sirius heavily as he leaned back against his trunk. "Mates, we've got some detective work to do."
James stood from his spot on the floor, pulling his grey Gryffindor tee off with a single hand. "How do you propose we do that, exactly?"
"The same way we do anything in life, mate," Sirius replied with a mischevious glint in his eye. "Marauder-style."
-X-X-X-X-X-
"Why's my boyfriend staring at you?" asked Sirenity the following day in potions.
Jayden looked up to follow her sister's gaze. Sure enough, James Potter was staring intently at the table Siren and Jay were currently sharing. "Um, no clue. Probably sore from the last prank we pulled on them."
"Wouldn't he be staring at me, too?" questioned Siren.
"He probably is, and just changes his stare as each of us look up," said Jayden to reassure herself more than her sister. She chanced another look, and James didn't look away. His hazel eyes softened a little, and his golden cheeks tinged pink, but his gaze never wavered. She could feel her stomach turn a bit due, no doubt, to the massive amount of sugar she consumed that morning, and not because of some silly butterfly excuse. That just wasn't possible for Jayden Millsap.
The look-and-glance-away routine continued between the two for the remainder of the lesson, and when class was dismissed, Jayden searched the room for the messy-haired Quidditch star, but he was nowhere to be found. Instead, Kismet stormed to the spot beside the redhead, her nostrils flaring in anger.
"Stupid blonde..."
Jayden smiled in relief. It always was easier to be near Kiss than anyone else, "What about Siren?"
"Not her. Him," she growled the last word in a feral voice, following Draco Malfoy's movement through the class with her hate-filled eyes. Well, almost hate-filled, Jayden decided.
"What did he do this time?" Sirenity tossed her long hair behind her as she shouldered her school bag and joined the others.
"Never mind," mumbled Kismet as the trio passed through the doorway of the classroom, stepping out into the corridor, their conversation leaving them far behind their classmates. Sirenity shrugged Kismet's noncommittal answer with a twitch of her exposed shoulder, and took the lead of the group.
Jayden fell behind with Kismet, worried about her friend's disgruntled expression. "What's up, Kiss? Why so glum, chum? What's eating your green stockings, Slytherin?"
The inquiries earned her no more than an annoyed glare from the brunette.
"Damn prude," mumbled Jayden, teasingly. "I think it's that time of the month again."
"OH MY GODRIC GRYFFINDOR!" exclaimed Sirenity from only twenty feet in front of the girls. She'd just rounded a corner, and stopped in her tracks, staring at whatever was in her path.
Kismet and Jayden immediately stepped into protective mode, hoisting their shoulder bags and sprinting the remainder of space between them and Siren. Upon reaching the blonde, the others simply stared at what appeared to be a corridor that had been painted completely black and charmed to move in a way only a massive amount of insects could. In fact-
"Spiders!" exclaimed both an ecstatic Sirenity and a surprisingly equally excited Kismet, as both girls to the left and right of Jayden rushed forward to join the mix in the hall.
Jayden's left eyebrow raised. "Um, I think I'll just..." she trailed off as she began to step in the in-between spaces of floor that the arachnids had left. She traipsed past Sirenity first, who was eagerly picking up any movement she saw, and placing it on her shoulders.
"Don't step on them!" the blonde girl exclaimed, little eight-legged creatures scuttled their way to the top of her head.
"I'm not," Jayden called back dully. This infestation was seriously beginning to bug her, no pun intended, she amended silently with a smirk.
"I AM!" squealed a delighted Kismet as she stomped and squashed tiny life forms left and right, sending an occasional curse into the mix. "Cruc-"
"IL-" Sirenity screamed as she hit the kill-happy brune on the shoulder, "-LEGAL!" she finished, and stormed away to the opposite side of the corridor.
Jayden had finally made it across the damning river of bugs, and was able to glance back at her friends who were probably going to cause her to be late to Charms, if they kept this up. She was just about to warn them of her departure when she saw a strange sight.
There, in the middle of the corridor, stood Sirenity. However, instead of long, golden locks, her hair had been transformed into a black, moving curtain of curls that shifted with every movement she made. She straightened after gathering several more arachnids, and as she stood, the spiders she had just captured moved quickly to the top of her head, creating a crown of solid black.
Just as Jayden had spotted the amazing spectacle, Kismet stepped beside the aforementioned redhead with a contented sigh. "Alright," she said. "Let's get to Char-"
Kismet stopped as she stared at Sirenity as well, her lips widening with her eyes, the former becoming an over-joyed grin, a smile that stretched across her features, brightening her eyes and almost warming Jayden's heart...If such a thing were possible, that is. Because Jayden Millsap was as cold hearted as-.
"Stop!" Jayden cried as the arm that held Kismet's wand began to raise and point at her sister. She threw out a warning hand onto the latter's forearm, lowering the paler limb back to the brunette's side.
Kismet turned to Jayden, eyes full of playful anger and betrayal. "Bitch," she spat, stowing her wand in her robes and spinning around to storm away from the scene.
Jayden followed at a slower pace, a mischevious grin adorned upon her countenance and Sirenity, the former 'leader' of the group, trailed along happily, spiders falling off behind her like blackened snow.
"More creepy crawlies?" asked Siren, as they reached the Charms corridor. The entire hall was filled with what seemed to be...
"Snakes!" cried Kismet and Jayden in equal amounts of euphoria.
"Wait, why are you interested in my House's chosen creature?" Kismet questioned as Jayden rushed forward with the same amount of excitement that had previously belonged to Kismet.
Jayden stood ram-rod straight, and turned to face her friend, "That's an easy one, Prude," she said, raising her wand behind her back, pointing it any which way in the corridor, "target practice!"
"NO!" Kismet cried as she began to gather any moving reptile she could. A few slithered up her arms, curling around at the elbows and resting their heads upon her shoulders. Kismet flexed her biceps, causing them to loosen a tad, and resumed her capture of any and all slimy Slytherin snakes before Jayden could.
Meanwhile, Sirenity was playing Jayden's former part in stepping in the spaces left between the snakes. She was having a bit more trouble with it, as more than one snake attempted to bite her ankle. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," she chanted as she struggled to reach the opposite end of the corridor. Once she had, she took a glance behind her. There, at the other end of the corridor, quickly gaining ground on Jay, Kismet was stooped over, putting more snakes on her shoulders and allowing them to move up her legs and arms. As Siren stared, Kismet stood to her full height to shift a few of the wayward reptiles that had been about to fall off. Her entire body had been transformed. The snakes had found purchase on her arms, shoulders, and head, giving her the illusion that she had snakes for hair, and a long cape which trailed down her back.
Jayden, panting from the exertion, but not without a smile upon her face, reached the end of the corridor in which Sirenity stood, just in front of the closed Charms classroom door. Jayden waved a hand in front of Siren's face, attempting to gain her attention. Siren slowly pointed ahead, at Kismet, so Jayden looked on, too. As she saw, a grin creeped slowly across her face, her eyes brightening with happiness, and her wand hand raised of it's own accord.
"Impedimen-"
Sirenity quickly put a hand on her sister's wrist, pushing her wand hand down, "It's not illegal, but it's not polite to curse your friends."
Jayden shot a glare at Siren, and yanked her hand from the blonde's grasp, turning to finally enter the accursed Charms classroom.
-X-X-X-X-X-
Stupid Flitwick and Slughorn! I told them I didn't want a stupid partner. And those idiots had the audacity to pair me with him! How dare they!
Kismet Vangley was not in a very happy mood. She seldom was these days, it seemed, but today had her riled more than the others. She was stressed. Not about schoolwork, or about the assignments. Not about choir. Not about appearances. Not about Jayden or Sirenity or her Housemates or the food or the Marauders or any of those things. No, she was stressed about a male of all things. And, if she couldn't admit it to her friends, she was going to have to admit it to herself.
Draco Malfoy seemed to be an annoying pain in her chest everytime she thought of him. Or saw him. Or smelled him. Or sat near him. Or when he entered a room. Or...
NO! she thought. I will not become some prissy little girl with a stupid crush! It just won't happen. I won't let it! She stormed off down the corridor, hoping to blow off some steam by running around the grounds before dinner.
She walked quickly to the dungeons, passing tapestries and hidden doors to passages that she cared little about, in order to change her clothes and dispose of her shoulder bag that contained all her books. As she neared the Great Hall, she saw Sirenity and Jayden speaking with Black and Potter. Sirenity was tossing and twirling her hair as normal, and as Kismet watched, Jayden didn't move a muscle. She didn't even blink. Just as the overprotective brunette was about to interfere with the Marauders' obvious hassling of her best friend, she felt something hit her shoulder.
"Ow. You bloody-." She knew that voice. She had dreams about that voice whispering nicer things into her ears. As she looked up to see who had bumped into her, she saw him again.
"Watch where you're going, next time," she grumbled, attempting to get away. Just as she was about to storm into the Great Hall, she felt a cold hand close around her wrist.
"Kismet, I-" Draco began, but cut himself off again, mid-sentence.
"What is it?" Kismet huffed impatiently as her heart kicked into overdrive. Her blood was pumping through her veins quickly, and her head was pounding as well. She felt rushing water in her ears as he pulled her closer to him, staring into her eyes with his black pupils surrounded by cold, grey irises. They both leaned in, each entranced by the other's proximity, electricity shooting through their skin-to-skin contact-
"Kismet!"
Startled, Kismet jumped over a foot in the air, and turned, red-faced, to see a panting Remus Lupin behind her with his hands on his knees, apparently winded from attempting to catch her. She turned around to speak to Draco as soon as she'd located the source of her name, but he was nowhere to be found. Irritated, Kismet pulled her bag from her shoulder and threw it on the ground beside her.
"What is it, Lupin?" She wanted to scream the question at him, the tweaky little Gryffindor.
"Slughorn...wants...to...see...you," he said between breaths.
"What in Salazar's name for?" she shouted, attempting to force him to stand straight. However, he wouldn't budge. He waved her off with a single hand, his other dangling down by his leg, skimming the floor. Suddenly, he shot up, turning her one hundred eighty degrees to stare at the wall behind her.
"Look! There he is!" he shouted, pointing at absolutely nothing. He then dropped down to a crouch again, attempting to retie his shoes. "Oh never mind. That wasn't him."
"Lupin," Kismet began in an annoyed voice. "You have three seconds to tell me what the hell is going on or I'll-"
"Slughorn needs to speak with you," he said, standing quickly, and stowing something into his pocket, which had gone unnoticed by the angry brunette. "Here," he said, grasping her forearm almost gently, "I'll take you there."
"I don't need a damn escort," she said, ripping her arm from his grasp. "I know where his office is."
"But he isn't in his office," Remus said quickly, his wide eyes filled with panic.
"Then where is he?" she asked slowly, turning her head in the opposite direction, facing the staircase to the dungeons.
"Empty classroom. Said it was important. Come on, I'll show you." And Remus led the way, Kismet's hatred radiating off her body as she was forced to follow a Gryffindor.
-X-X-X-X-X-
Sirenity trailed along behind the others as she began to ponder her relationship with James. They never spoke anymore, and if she were to be honest with herself, she didn't mind all that much. She and James never had anything in common, that was true, and she'd only agreed to that date in Hogsmeade because he'd asked. Flirting was a game for her, and she'd already won it. She'd gotten the boy, but now...Now it seemed she wanted someone else. Someone funnier, more handsome. Someone with shoulder-length black hair and warm, steel-colored eyes.
"Siren?" called Jay from the opposite end of the corridor. The two girls were supposed to be led to the dungeons, where apparently Slughorn had requested to speak to them in an empty classroom. As Siren neared the rest of the group, she noticed Jayden's careful statuesque pose, as if she were very wary of what was requested of them.
"Um, you and Sirius go ahead, alright? I want to speak to James," she said quietly, looking over to her boyfriend with a serious glance.
"Alright," shrugged Jayden as she stuffed her hands inside her robes, knocking into Sirius with her arm. "Let's go, Black, I haven't got all evening."
"Oh yes you do," Sirius said with a smile, "You and I both know you've nothing special planned, bird."
"That isn't true!" protested Jayden as the two bickered about nothing important, their footsteps and voices fading with the distance they put between them and the couple behind them. Sirenity watched on, a wistful sigh escaping her lips. After they'd rounded the corner, she turned to face her boyfriend.
"James," she began, her eyes cast down at her shoes, hoping she could find the right words. She hadn't rehearsed anything, this was just an act of impulse. "I-"
"It's alright," he said, putting his finger underneath her chin, guiding her face to face his own. "I know we haven't been very close the past few months, and part of that is my fault. I just don't think we're very compatible, y'know? You could do with a far better bloke, and I was lucky to have you as long as I did." He looked into her eyes as he raised her hand to his lips, kissing it in a very gentleman-like fashion.
Sirenity was surprised. That had been much easier than she'd planned. She smiled in return, not unkindly, and asked, "Friends?"
"Friends," he responded, offering his arm to her so that they could walk down the corridor together.
Sirenity, however, decided that wasn't appropriate, given the current state of affairs. She reached over to lean one elbow on his shoulder, using him as an arm rest. The two walked in companionable silence down the halls, finally reaching Sirius and Jayden as they stood outside the door to an empty classroom, laughing. Siren felt James tense the closer they got to the two, and she slid her arm off.
"Where've you two been?" laughed Jayden as Sirius continued to make faces at her. "Shall we go see what Sluggy wants, sis?"
"Yeah, okay," agreed Sirenity as the two entered the room, expecting the boys to follow, which they didn't, and not expecting...
"Kismet?"
Suddenly, the lights went out, and the three girls heard the door slam behind them.
"What the..." said Kismet.
"Damn Marauders," grumbled Jayden as she reached inside her robes for her wand. "Hey! Where's my flipping wand!"
"What?" asked Sirenity, now shifting around for hers as well. "Wait! Where did I..?"
"MINE IS MISSING TOO! I SWEAR TO SALAZAR, IF MY WAND ISN'T RETURNED WITHIN THE NEXT SIX SECONDS, I'M GOING TO HEX THOSE BLEEDING MARAUDERS!" screamed Kismet in outrage as she dumped the contents of her bag onto the floor.
Jayden, quickly adapting to the situation and attempting to figure out a way out of the classroom, sat down on a desk and wondered aloud, "How will she even hex them without her wand?"
As Sirenity mumbled to herself about the possible locations of her wand, "...the lake? No. I didn't go there today...", Kismet began to throw each of her personal belongings away if it wasn't her wand... "Nope, that's a box of chocolate frogs. What about-No. That's just my potions kit. Hey, this is a long-NO! Just a ladle..."
Jayden sat back as she listened to the chaos ensue between the two girls. She knew where her wand had been, and the Marauders had taken it, as were the others'. Except Sirenity, she'd left hers on her four poster that afternoon, shortly before the sisters had decided to take a walk around the castle, ending up in the Great Hall, meeting those meddlesome marauding males, and beginning this entire dark, locked-in-a-classroom-with-two-psycho-witches fiasco. She didn't mind darkness, anyhow, it just made her sleepy. She yawned, leaning even farther back on the desk, forgetting there was nothing behind her when-
"OW!" she yelled as she fell back, hitting her shoulder on the stone floor of the dungeon. She'd felt her body tipping back a little too far, known she'd lost her balance, and had rolled to her side so as to avoid impact with her skull.
"OW!" an echo of Jayden's cry was heard through the empty room, this time in Sirenity's higher-pitched voice. "What just hit me? Is this-a book?"
"Whoops," said Kismet's voice, sounding a tad too amused. "My bad."
"Oh it's on," declared Siren as she threw the object in her hand toward the location of the sound. When a loud thump and a following growl was heard, Jayden figured war had been declared between the two girls. If only she could see-
WHAM! "OUCH!" she said loudly as a foreign object rammed into the side of her head. "What in Godric's name are you two doing?"
"Sorry, Jay, I was aiming for Kismet," came Siren's voice through the darkness. Jayden launched the projectile toward the source of that sound, and heard a following "OW!".
"War has been declared, dear Chaos. Yourself against both Karma and I," resounded Kismet's tone. "How will you proceed?"
"EAT DUNGBOMB, BITCHES!" laughed Sirenity. Jayden crawled from her space, attempting to reach Kismet, and ended up bumping heads with the girl in question.
"Owww," both girls groaned, as each felt her own cranium.
"I'm going to get serious brain damage from this, you know," smiled Jayden through the darkness. The two girls were now close enough to make out part of the others' features, by light from the cracks in the doorway in which they'd come.
"Whatever. We're having fun," Kismet responded, throwing a nearby stone toward Sirenity, and hitting her mark.
"Where are you guys? I can't see!"
Jayden laughed softly, "Hey Siren, MARCO!"
"POLO!" cried Kismet as she stood and walked away from the spot.
"MARCO, KISMET!"
"POLO, FIRECROTCH!"
"You guys, this isn't any fair! There's two of you!" Just then, another object flew through the air, hitting Sirenity's chest. "OW! UGH! STOP IT!"
"MARCO-THROW-THINGS-AT-SIREN-HIDE-AND-SEEK-POLO!" Jayden yelled as she threw another textbook.
-X-X-X-X-X-
"Well, mates," began Sirius as he stood before the others, his wand in hand, pacing back and forth. "What've we learned today?"
"That Kismet hits hard?" asked Remus with a scowl as he rubbed his upper arm.
"No," responded Sirius with a shake of his head. "James?"
"That Millsap has serious anger issues with snakes?"
"No, no, no," mumbled Sirius, "we can't use that. Wormtail?"
Peter sat and thought, long and hard, before answering in a tiny, uncertain voice, "That th-they didn't respond t-to our tests?"
Sirius paused in his pacing. "Actually, that's correct."
"Really?" the three boys that sat on the floor of the empty common room chorused.
"Yes. But, that doesn't help in our endeavour to prank the bloody birds," grumbled Sirius in frustration. He walked to the end of the fireplace, and kicked a balled-up piece of parchement into the fire.
"Wait," said Remus slowly. "We are friends with these girls. What do we know of them?"
James was the first to speak, "Jayden's a real Gryffindor, which means she's loyal to her friends, even her Slytherin friends."
Peter smirked, "And Ravenclaw friends, as well. If you know what I mean."
"Shut up, Peter," Remus whispered.
"Alright," said Sirius with a nod, "what else?"
"Well, I know that Sirenity has some insecurity issues," said James. "Especially when it comes to her sister."
"That's true," nodded Remus.
"Great," said Sirius. "What about Kismet? Should be the hardest, I reckon, as she's slimy Slytherin scum..."
"Y'know, if she were to hear that, I'd bet you'd be on the ground within seconds, Paddy," laughed James.
"Whatever," Sirius grumbled, "just figure something out about her."
The four boys grew silent as they thought long and hard about the brunette Slytherin girl, when finally...
"Short-tempered," said Remus as he glared at his arm.
"That's it!" cried Sirius. "Now, in order to use Jayden's loyalty, Siren's insecurities, and Kismet's temper... We're going to have to be willing to get down and dirty. Marauders, mates, my fellow comrades... Are you willing to play dirty?"
-X-X-X-X-X-
"Weird stuff, yesterday," Kismet said conversationally as she and Jayden sat in the library, finishing the Charms homework Flitwick had assigned. Technically, they were each supposed to do it with their assigned partners for the lesson, but as Kismet and Draco hadn't really begun to speak again, and Remus had been busy that afternoon, the girls decided they could finish their half of the work themselves. With each other's help, of course.
"What, the 'spiders, snakes, and darkness, oh my'?" snorted Jayden. "Weird stuff like that happens all the time at Hogwarts."
"You know who was around each of those times, though?" questioned Kismet.
"The Marauders," sighed Jayden. "Yeah, I know."
"You think it was them?"
"I'm pretty certain it was. Except, where were they when we were nearly mauled by snakes?" Jayden asked.
"Mauled by...Never mind," Kismet shook her head. "They were on the other side of the door, in Charms class already. They had ample time to set it all up, after we took so much time with the spiders in the Potion's corridor."
"That's true," agreed Jayden as she finished the last sentence of her paper. She quickly dried the ink, and rolled up the parchement.
"Well?" asked Kismet, placing her quill beside her nearly finished assignment, and setting her hands on the table.
"Well what?"
"What are we going to do?" asked Kiss.
Jayden sighed, rubbing her temples, "It is their turn, in the prank war. None of those were actually Marauder-style though, as they say. That was just...baby stuff."
"Think it's leading to something bigger?" Kismet's eyes flashed.
"It won't be dangerous, Kiss," Jayden said with certainty. "Gryffindors are trustworthy, and those three are the truest Gryffindors this school's seen."
"Three? But there are four," said Kismet, confused.
"Let's not get into that, just now. Just a story Siren and I were told in the future," said Jayden, waving her hand away. "Point is, we've nothing to fear from them. They're nearly harmless."
"What if they're attempting to discover weakness? What if that's what all that was for? What if there's more, Jay?" asked Kismet, firing off questions at her best friend out of concern.
Jayden looked at her friend, knowing she was worried about something much more than a silly prank war, but this was what she chose to pour her energy into. The two friends shared a hard look, both understanding exactly what was going through the other's mind.
"Then we give them nothing."
-X-X-X-X-X-
A/N: HA! I FINISHED IT! Sort of... Next chapter will be shorter, Toxic, but it'll be done with by Mom's birthday. Tell her to have a happy one, for me? Can't wait for the next five days to pass! ^_^