The night started with a pillow fight. Bex, with her superior war tactics and strength, won easily, until Jess yelled,
“DOG PILE!” and Rebekah ended up at the bottom of the pile. That night, which could’ve been any other, resulted in a slumber party, with plenty of giggles and straightening irons. At first they talked about Voldemort and his cruelty, but soon the conversation turned towards the Marauders.
“Where was Lupin this evening?” Jess asked.
“His mother was sick again,” Emily said, trying to straighten her own hair.
“His mum gets sick every month,” Bex put in.
“Maybe she calls him home to cope with her period pain?” Lily suggested. The girls collapsed into a heap of giggling, which was interrupted by a few bumps downstairs. Lily, Jess, Bex, and Emily, jumped off their beds, startled. Who would be up this late? They peered down the staircase to see dark patches where people were standing.
“Peter! Shut up!” hissed James’s voice.
“The Marauders!” muttered Jess, unheard by Peter, James, and Sirius down in the common room. The three black blots left through the portrait hole.
“Quick!” Jess said, pulling on her jeans.
“Get dressed!” ordered Lily, but Bex was already stowing her wand in her miniskirt pocket and following Jess downstairs. Emily whined, but tugged on a woollen jacket and trailed after her friends as they began downstairs.
Peter’s clumsy footsteps echoed down the hallways, making it easy for the girls to trace the boy’s path.
“Is the moon up yet?” whispered Sirius’s voice, but in the empty, silent corridors, Lily could still hear it fifty paces behind him.
“I think so… we don’t want to keep Moony waiting, get a move on!” James shoved the dawdling Peter and Pettigrew sped up considerably. The three Marauders began to run.
“What’d we do?” breathed Jess to the rest of the girls. “We can’t run – they’d hear our footsteps, but we’ll lose them if we don’t go faster!”
“Walk as quickly as you can! We’ll see if we can find them again when they reach where they’re going. Stay in this general direction…” but Pettigrew’s footsteps gradually faded. Lily, Bex, and Jess ended up outside, mucking around outside by the lake, feigning shoving each other in. Emily sat on the shore, nervously watching her closest mates rolling around the jetty. At one point, Jess pushed Lily a little two hard, and she grabbed Jess to stop herself from tumbling into the lake. But Jess lost her balance as well, and caught hold of Bex. Lily somehow managed to drag all three of them into the freezing cold water. They began to laugh underwater, stopping as they broke the surface. They were all strong swimmers and paddled back to the lakeside without incident. Emily stood there, panicking.
“Hurry!” she hissed. “There was a huge black shadow over by the forest just then! Can’t we go back now?” Emily pleaded.
“Okay,” agreed Bex, performing a simple spell to dry her and her soaking friends. Emily led the way towards Hogwarts, but broke into a run when she heard a low growl. It sliced through the night, making even Rebekah jump. Emily was almost glad of it, because suddenly her friends were just as enthusiastic as Emily was to work their way back to the safety of the common room.
The next day, everyone in Gryffindor fifth year was incredibly exhausted, especially Lupin, though neither Lily, Jess, Bex, nor Emily could imagine why. They’d overheard him telling his mates (very loudly, as if asking to be overheard) that his mother was fine and that it was a false alarm. Therefore, none of the girls could imagine why he was the one yawning the most, or why he had great big bags under his bloodshot eyes. Lily suggested they go to the library for a discussion. They usually sat in the corner behind the Invisibility section, and today this was exactly what they did.
“Why did Sirius mention the moon?” asked Lily. The same question had been playing on Bex’s mind as well.
“Yesterday was a full moon,” she commented.
“How is that releva- NO?” Lily said, staring furiously at Bex.
“It’s possible,” Bex said, nodding slowly, as if considering.
“Never! Anyway, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to go and visit him… would they?”
“They probably would.” Bex frowned.
“If you ever feel like telling us what you’re talking about…” Jess said, implying that she would like to be filled in. The girls explained to Emily and Jess what they thought could be happening to Lupin once a month.
“NEVER!” they shrieked, and Mr Pince kicked them out of the library.
Back in the girl’s dormitory, Bex said,
“We’ll wait till the next full moon. This time, no losing them. We’ve got to be planned…” She conjured a piece of parchment out of thin air, along with a bottle of ink and a quill. The girls began to take turns in sketching their plot.
Printer Friendly Version
