Darkness had fallen over the castle and the clock was past midnight when the Gryffindor common room finally became empty except from the marauders, Lily and Ashley. They had been waiting for hours, but Sirius had said over and over again that it had to be empty when they left.
'Let's go through the plan once more,' James said and bent closer to his friends. 'Sirius, Ashley and I bring the stink bombs up to Andrew's and the other Ravenclaw sixth year boys' dorm and simply put them in his trunk. Moony, you stand in the corridor outside and make sure no one comes. Wormy, you make sure the opening to the common room don't close, Lily you stand in the stair to the boy's dorm and warn us if Remus says someone's coming. Ok, shall we go?'
They stood up and James pushed the portrait hole open. 'Excuse me!' the fat lady said angrily. 'It's the middle of the night. What in the world are you going to do?'
No one answered, but Lily muttered a quick "sorry" before they walked on towards the Ravenclaw tower.
Lily was nervous, very nervous. She had never pranked someone like this before, and she wasn't sure that she really wanted to do it either. Their footsteps echoed through the corridors, and Lily was surprised that no one heard them. Then she suddenly stopped. A thought had flashed into her mind.
'James,' she said and took his arm. He turned around and looked questioning at her. 'What if there's someone in the Racenclaw common room? Awake? How can we know it's empty?'
'Don't worry Lily,' James said and patted her shoulder. 'It's all sorted out. See, we've got a map with us.'
'But maps doesn't show people,' Lily argued. 'We can't possibly know if there's someone inside the common room. Shouldn't we just go back?'
James sighed and started walking again. 'No,' he said simply. 'Besides, some maps shows people too. The Marauder's map for example.'
Lily looked confused at him, but he ignored her. Even though the Ravenclaw tower was located in the other edge of the castle, it didn't take more than five, ten minutest to get there, because of the marauders' many shortcuts and all of a sudden, they stood in front of the door with a big bronze eagle and a door knocker, also in bronze.
They all stared at the door for a moment or two, then Sirius was the first one to speak. 'Didn't you say there should be a riddle, Ashley?'
'Well, yeah,' Ashley answered and looked around.
'Then... er... where is it?' James asked, also he looked around, as though the riddle would walk around in the corridor behind them.
Remus rolled his eyes and walked up to the door. 'Isn't it obvious?' he asked with a sigh. 'We have to nock.' He knocked at the same time as James muttered "know-it-all" and then, suddenly the knocker spoke, in a very slow way.
'Useful tool for who in darkness dwell. Within you, corrupting like a deadly spell. Who am I?'
Ashley looked confused, Peter looked as though he had given up before he even gave the riddle one thought, Remus looked interested, Lily looked as though she was thinking really hard, James looked disappointed and Sirius looked tired.
'I thought it would be easy riddles,' James groaned angrily. 'We'll never find this one out!'
'Quiet, I'm thinking,' Remus muttered. 'It must be something... evil, something one shouldn't do... or use...'
Sirius looked up quickly and grinned. 'I know it!' he said enthusiastically. 'It must be Snivellus! You know, for mean people he's a very good tool, since he's so ugly people die just by looking at him... and this to get the grease from his hair inside of you... urgh! It must be like poison.'
'Sirius! You're a genius!' Lily said happily.
Sirius looked chocked, then he grinned. 'You know, Lily, I was joking, but now when you say it, maybe it's ri-'
'It's poison,' Lily said to the knocker.
'Correct,' the knocker said, and the door swung open, leading them into a circular room with stars in the ceiling.
Peter quickly put out a hand to stop the door from closing, but it didn't work. No matter how hard he pushed, it was impossible to keep it open in more than a minute or so. 'There's a problem with the plan,' he said to the others. 'Now, if someone comes and Remus'll have to warn us, he'll have to answer a riddle first. That could take ages.'
'No, it'll work out anyway,' Ashley said. 'Pete, you just open the door once in a while to see if Remus is there to warn us. Besides, it won't take more than a few minutes. Come on Sirius, James. Let's go.'
Remus pulled out the Marauders' map and opened the door, but he couldn't have been more unlucky. Because outside the common room, was Peeves, with a mean grin on his face.
They all froze for a moment, before James hissed. 'A word, Peeves, and I swear that you won't see the morning.'
Peeves smiled even wider. 'Naughty boy,' he said and chuckled. 'Not good students, wondering around the castle by midnight. Filch would want to know, yes. Ge would definitely want to know. I should tell him. Shouldn't I?'
'No,' Sirius whispered. 'Don't you even dare...'
'STUDENTS OUT OF BED!' Peeves then yelled at the top of his lungs. 'MEAN LITTLE GRYFFINDOR STUDENTS IN THE RAVENCLAW COMMON ROOM!'
The next moment the Ravenclaw common room was filled with Ravenclaw students, who looked at them suspiciously, and then, Argus Filch came running with Mrs. Norris after him
'Oh!' Filch said and smiled. 'Trouble, trouble. What's it you've got there?' He snatched the map from Remus and stuffed it in his jacked. 'You stupid kids, believing that you can wonder around the castle at nigh, just like that. Follow me, now, let's go to see McGonagall, shall we.'
They walked through the castle and now, Lily felt way much more nervous than she had done on the way towards the Ravenclaw common room. She could feel herself shaking. What would McGonagall thing? Lily had never done anything like this before, she had never been in trouble like this. Oh, how she regretted that she hadn't just gone to sleep early and ignored her friends' silly prank.
They reached professor McGonagall's office, and Filch nocked on the door. After a few minutes McGonagall, who had her hair in a braid, and was wearing a tartan dressing-gown opened the door. 'Come in,' was all she said, before she turned around and sat down behind her desk.
They all walked after her. Everyone except for Lily looked more or less calm, but Lily felt panicked. She had no idea what was going to happen.
'You can go Filch,' McGonagall said. Filch gave them all one last, mean smile before he left and closed the door behind him. 'I'm not surprised to see you all out if bed,' she nodded towards everyone except Lily, 'but you miss Evans. Never would I have believed, not you... Well, it doesn't matter. I'll take off twenty points from you each, and you will all receive detention. You may go.'
They left. The punishment was way much milder than Lily had imagined. 'James,' she said, he looked at her and smiled. 'Isn't it a bit weird?'
'What?'
'That she didn't want to know what we were doing out of bed in the middle of the night. Isn't that weird?'
James shrugged. 'Nah,' he said and grinned. 'Me, Pete, Remus and Sirius are night strolling all the time. I recon she's gotten tired of asking.'
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