The Marauders: Year Seven Part Two

The Challenge

Sirius checked his pocket watch. "We've got five more minutes," he reported. "Where haven't we been?"

Remus ticked off on his fingers, "We've been through all the suits of armor, the library, the astronomy tower, the owlery, the Great Hall, Minnie's office --"

"I still say she was hiding something," Sirius grumbled.

Remus shrugged.

"Just the way her eyes looked," Sirius accused, "She knows bloody well where those scrolls are..."

"Urquart probably told her not to tell," Remus said logically. "We both know she would've told you if she could."

Sirius ceded the argument, "True. I am her favourite, after all."

"Mmm," Remus hummed in agreement. Even though he had a keen idea that Sirius might just be second on the totem for Minnie's affections...

"D'ya reckon there might be something in the dungeons?"

Remus said, "Even if there is, I don't reckon we'd have the time to find it... Time's nearly up, and the dungeons aren't exactly small..."

"I s'pose," Sirius sighed. Then, "How many scrolls have we got? Think we've beaten Lames?"

Remus opened his sack and rummaged through, counting the scrolls inside. "We have nine out of twenty-six."

Sirius looked astounded, "What? Bloody hell."

"Yeah," Remus sighed. "I wonder if anyone's gotten all twenty-six scrolls."

"I don't give a bleedin' hell about anyone getting more than us, I'm worried about James getting more," Sirius answered.

They started walking back up the stairs toward the Defense corridor. The closer they got, the more groups came together in the corridors, chattering eagerly about how many of the scrolls they'd collected. Marlene Mackinnon and Emmaline were loudly boasting over their eighteen scrolls, they were in the clear lead.

Sirius leaned against the wall, one boot up on the stone, waiting... And then he stood up, dropping his foot to the floor, alert, like a dog.

James and Lily came down the hallway, holding hands. One of the very last groups to return, everyone else was clustered about the DADA door, and Sirius and Remus hurried over to them. "Well?" Sirius asked, as he approached, "What'd you get, Potter? Evans?"

James sighed heavily, "We didn't do so well."

Sirius's face lit up, "Yeah? Well me and Moony - we did supurb."

James looked at Lily, "Show'em Evans."

Lily opened her bag and tipped it for them to see.

Remus let out a strangled laugh and Sirius whispered, "Fuck."

Lily's bag contained twenty-one of the scrolls.

James was smirking brightly, "So what's what mean, Padfoot? Did you get twenty-two then?"

"Shut the fuck up, Potter."

"Oh are we sore?" James asked, as Remus held up their nine scrolls.

"Good job, guys," Remus congratulated James and Lily, smiling at Lily. Then, to Sirius, "Maybe if we didn't spend half an hour opening every suit of armor on the third floor there might've been more time to actually collect the scrolls... Of course they wouldn't hide any scrolls in the armor."

James said, "Well, evidently you didn't check every suit if you didn't find one there..."

"I TOLD YOU!" Sirius turned to Remus, triumphant.