Chapter 20
Hey guys! Sorry for the long delay, I got super busy with tests and stuff.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognize.
"Oh, Merlin's pants!" James gasped, running a hand through his hair, "What am I going to do?"
Sirius dropped the few loose pages he's still holding on the floor, and started walking slowly towards the door, trying to escape unnoticed.
"Wait a minute," James said, grabbing the back of Sirius's shirt and pulling him back to the center of the room, "You are responsible for this too!"
"Can't we spellotape it together?" Sirius asked, walking to his trunk and digging through it until he found a roll of spellotape,
"Oh, let's see if it will work!" James said excitedly, Sirius took hold of the two parts of the notebook and any scattered pages, and taped it together with a flourish,
"I had a lot of practice with taping things together, you can always count on me to fix something with spellotape!" Sirius said proudly, bowing to an imaginary crowd and holding up the spelloptape-bind notebook,
"Let's see if it worked!" James said, and took the notebook out of Sirius's hands carefully, but when it fell out of Sirius's hands, it fell apart just like it was before, but now with pieces of spellotape all over it!
"Hey! You broke it again!" Sirius accused James, coming back to reality when seeing the heap of paper on the rich red carpet,
"No, James didn't break it," Remus said, kneeling in the carpet and picking the papers up, the spellotape coming off with the slightest shake, "I think Lily charmed it so that no one can make changes to it except her, writing, spellotap-ing,"
"Then if she did put a charm to prevent someone to make changes to it, why didn't she put a charm to prevent people from reading it?"
"I don't know, but maybe the charm is disabled when they do the annual security check on the castle,"
"The annual security check?"
"Haven't you read Hogwarts: A History?" Remus said, turning to them, "Every summer holiday, the staffs cast a spell on the entire castle to disable magical charms and enchantments casted by students throughout the year,"
"But how did our pranks still work over the summer holiday?"
"Because I put a counter spell on it," Remus said, "I knew what they are going to do over the summer holiday."
"Clever Remus!" James said, clapping him on the back,
"Yeah yeah," Sirius said impatiently, "What are we going to do about Lily's book?"
"Oh."
"Well, as much as I hate to say it," Remus began, "You shouldn't have touched it in the beginning,"
"At least you didn't say I told you so," Sirius comforted him,
"It's basically the same meaning," James snapped at Sirius, "So, what are we going to do?"
"I think that it's best if you just apologize," Remus said, picking the scattered papers up,
"No way! She will be so mad that she will never speak to me again!"
Suddenly, a tentative knock was heard from the door,
"Who's there?" Sirius called out,
"It's Lily, I need your help."
James, Sirius, and Remus looked at each other with big, scared eyes, and after a scramble to collect the loose papers and shoving them under the bed, the door was opened and Lily was let in, Lily sat on a bed - Remus's - and smoothed out her robes on her lap as if it's a gown,
"So, Lily," Sirius said, awkwardly and not at all like himself, "What are you doing here?"
"I want to hire you guys,"
"We are not for hire," Sirius said, sitting down beside Lily, "but you can always get James to do so with no fee, and if that hot brunette friend is with you, I'll do it for free to"
"Not for that! I need someone who knew the castle like the back of their hands," Lily said, looking down at her hands, which rested on her lap,
"Why?"
"I need to find something," Lily said, "It's the thing I'm trying to find that first day of school, but it's been a week now and I can't seem to find it."
"Why can't you ask a teacher?" Sirius asked,
"Enough questions, are you guys willing to help me or not?"
"Fine, we'll help you," Sirius said, "please consult our secretary for our available times,"
"Secretary?"
"Our book hanging by the cord at the door,"
Lily raised an questioning eyebrow, and walked towards the door, and sure enough, there is a heavy book hung by a cord there, words written in three different hands, a neat one and two scrawls,
"How come I've never noticed this book before?"
"You'll only see it if we tell you about it,"
The book is a calendar, Lily flipped to the page of this week, and read the writings,
Monday
*Plan for pranks this year
*Test Marauder Map
Tuesday
*Breakfast, have to go to kitchen early
*Sneak ingredients from supply closet in potions class
...
"This was Remus's idea," Sirius said, standing behind Lily, "It made pranking much easier, now that we know what to do at what day."
"Seems like we will have time for you on thursday, come back on thursday!" James said, peering over Lily's shoulder,
"OK," Lily walked down the stairs,
"What are we going to do?" James wailed as soon as Lily was out of earshot.
What is James going to do?
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