Mischief Managed!

4.

"What can you tell me," Lily said, upon entering the Head's tower to discover James reading a textbook, " about the missing toilet in the fifth floor girl's bathrooms?"

"Oh, that," James replied carelessly, not even bothering to look up from The Standard Book of Spells Grade Seven. "Do you miss it much?"

Lily scowled. "I knew you had something to do with it! There was a queue, thank you very much, which meant I was late to meet-"

James looked up at her swiftly, his gaze piercing, and Lily faltered momentarily.

"-to meet Art," she finished, a rather defiant tone in her voice.

"Sorry to inconvenience you," he replied coolly.

"Do we get it back?" she persevered. "I mean, there's just an empty cubicle. What on earth did you do to it, by the way?"

"Transfigured it into a box."

"A box?!"

Lily turned around and stomped up the stairs to her room, preferring to leave rather than yell at him. She slammed her door for good measure, and then leant against it.

Typical, she thought wryly. The Marauders transfigure a toilet into a box. So very thoughtful and useful of them!

But what exactly had they needed the box for?

Oh dear. Lily had the horrible feeling she knew exactly what they had used the box for.

James had watched the Head Girl storm up the stair with a mixture of amusement and dismay. He found it hilarious that she had discovered their prank and had known immediately whom to accredit it to. On the other hand, she had been on her way to see Scummy, which of course meant she must still like him, and this broke James' heart. In his opinion, there was no one worse for Lily than Scummy (although of course James was extremely biased).

"POTTER!"

Her yell made him jump, even though the sound had been somewhat muffled by her bedroom door. Said door now burst wide open and a blur of black and red hurtled along the gallery and down the stairs, stopping before him. Her emerald eyes blazed.

"Where is Filch's cat?"

James assumed what he hoped would be an innocent and confused expression, even though inwardly he was flattered she had given him credit so quickly.

"Excuse me, Evans darling, I don't quite understand you."

Lily's scowl intensified. "Three things, Potter," she said. "One, you need to work on your poker face. Two, don't youever call me Evans darling again. Three, I know that you know that I know you kidnapped Mrs. Norris, so you may as well spit it out. Filch is very upset, you know."

James snorted. "Good," he replied, adding quickly," not that I know where that adorable kitty is."

Lily gave him a derisive look. "Do I have to go through this again, Potter?"

He smiled as she turned to leave. "Evans?"

"What?"

"What on Earth is poker?"

Sirius took it upon himself to take a sick day on Wednesday morning. Remus informed Lily and Emmeline of this during breakfast, a pained look on his face.

"He was awake all night moaning. I think he's coming down with something."

Of course, Lily didn't buy into the lie. Sirius had already stopped by their dorm this morning to talk with James. Pursing her lips, she chose not to comment, and instead bit into her croissant.

"Odd, Sirius being sick, isn't it?" Emmeline murmured demurely on their way to class. "I can't begin to imagine how strange he must look when he's all pale and sickly. So unattractive!"

Lily could have sworn she heard the empty, airy space beside her choke.

All in all, Lily decided that Wednesday had been a very odd day indeed. Filch had wandered around talking to himself for the greater part of class time, and the caretaker had also begun to jump at strange noises. The noises happened to be one Sirius Black hidden beneath an invisibility cloak, meowing at Filch, but Filch did not seem to understand this and persevered in his desperate search for his cat.

At one point during the day, the caretaker had even gone so far as to stumble into Transfiguration, muttering to himself wildly. Sirius, who did not dare to miss this one lesson, could not resist letting out a quiet meow from the back of the room. The class had laughed as Filch jumped, eyes wild, and immediately began hurrying toward the door.

Professor McGonagall had raised her eyebrows, her seering look directed toward the four howling boys.
"I do hope," she had said mildly. "That poor Mr Filch has his cat restored to him with the utmost haste, for the good of the whole school."

"Potter!"

James flinched as Lily came charging into their common room. Sirius raised his eyebrows at the head girl, daring her to continue while he, Remus and Peter were also present.

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