Calm Before the Storm [✨Marauders✨]

Rain and Coffee

Wind slapped against the walls of Hogwarts as thunder clapped above. Thick blankets of grey covered the rising sun, only broken by bolts of electricity. The majority of Hogwarts, despite the storm outside, were asleep, apart from one glowing window near the top of Gryffindor Tower. No one was asleep in this room.

Remus drew in the last couple of lines on the map and set his quill into the ink pot that was balancing precariously on his knee. James nodded his approval from across the room as Sirius came over to examine it. "That's got to be all of the hidden passages now. Gideon and Fabian said that they found five when they were here, and we've now found five, so surely..." thought Sirius aloud, arms crossed.

"Well whenever we see them next we'll have to ask them and see if our passages match up with theirs." James suggested standing up and stretching.

"Next Hogsmeade trip then I guess."

Remus looked up at the clock in their dorm, weakly rubbing his eyes. "It's nearly seven, we're gonna have to start getting ready for breakfast." he sighed. None of them had even bothered to try and sleep, since they knew that there was no point. Their dorm was one of the ones that faced the storm, not one that was sheltered, therefore they heard all the commotion outside better than most in the tower. They had decided to just work on the Marauder's Map, as well as homework that was due in a couple of hours.

They each grabbed their clothes, Remus's were neatly folded in the draws next to his bed, whereas James and Sirius grabbed theirs off of the heap of clothes in between their beds, picking out what was actually theirs. They had quite a lot of spare space in their dormitory, firstly because the room was originally meant for five beds, but they never had a fifth member join, and secondly, Peter Pettigrew had recently left their room after requesting a transition to Professor McGonagall. None of the three knew what the reason for it was, but they had all noticed that he had purposefully grown more distant with them.

They had gone furniture shopping during the holidays, and between them they had bought a desk, three chests of drawers and a cupboard. They had shrunk them so that they could take them to Hogwarts and place them in their room, making it more accessible for prank making and plotting.

ooO0Oo

Lily sat with her friends Marlene, Mary and Dorcas in the middle of the table, drinking pumpkin juice and munching on toast. She looked up when she heard a group of people walk through the door. However, the sight that they saw was an unfamiliar one. The three Marauders, itching as bedraggled as the next. James had his hair even messier than usual, sticking up in every direction, as well as his glasses resting skewardly on the bridge of his nose; Sirius had his shirt half done up, his usual leather boots unlaced, and his tie hanging loosely around his neck. Remus looked the most awake out of the three, but not by far. He had bags under his eyes and he hadn't bothered to tuck his shirt in.

They walked in silence to their tables, eyes upon them from all over the hall. It was only as they sat down that they realised they weren't the only ones that were quiet. Sirius picked up an already warm, half-filled mug of coffee from in front of him and looked around the room, eyes locking on many others. 

"Merlin's sake, get a grip, eat your breakfast and shove off why don't you. Mind your own business." He practically growled, however the menacing effect was ruined before it had started when he spilled half his coffee down his lap. He placed the mug in front of him and dropped his head onto the table, whining about Merlin knows what.

"Wonder why they're all so tired, probably up all night scheming," Marlene whispered in Lily's ear. She however didn't seem to think so. She had seen the state of them after they had stayed up to work on pranks, and they sure were not this worse for wear.

"Erm, you three alright? You look a bit...um..." She trailed off, put out by the steely blank stare behind James's crooked glasses.

"Guess you don't sleep on the side of the tower that the storm usually hits." He deadpanned, sipping his own coffee, wincing as it burnt his tongue.

"Oh. No. Didn't you use an Imperturbable Charm?" She asked him hesitantly. This was obviously not the right thing to say.

"No, Evans, because I'm not a bloody sixth year. Not all of us can master a spell instantly, and yes, Evans, we did try that, we're not stupid, despite what you seem to think. But because of the fact that we aren't bloody sixth years, they weren't strong enough to drown out the noise, so we stayed up. All. Night. Long." He stood up, and walked out of the hall, leaving Lily standing there speechless, as well as Sirius, Remus and the girls.

"Please excuse him, Lily. We didn't sleep the night before either." Explained Remus, piling up some toast in a napkin for James to eat when he found him.

"Yeah Evans, we were up studying. Can you believe it?" Sirius raised his head from the table, shoved the last of his toast in his mouth and walked off, following Remus. She walked back over to the girls, whose expressions mirrored her own. What the hell just happened?