Little Red |Sirius Black|

Stolen Toothpastes And Elvish Handshakes- Sirius

"Padfoot, have you stolen my toothpaste again?" Remus called out from the bathroom, as the boys were getting ready to go to bed.

Sirius shook his head- and then realized that Remus couldn't see him. "No Moony, I haven't." he yelled out.

"Here, use mine." said James, as he walked to the open bathroom door and handed Remus a tube of toothpaste.

"This is my toothpaste!" exclaimed Remus, as James settled down on his bed. James winked at Sirius. "What's yours is mine, for the rest of our lives." James called out dramatically.

"We're not married Prongs." came a laughing reply from Remus.

"And whose fault is that?" teased James.

"Yours. " Sirius chimed in. "You just want to marry Evans, even though she doesn't love you like our pal Moony does."

They could hear Remus sigh loudly and Sirius laughed. Pulling Remus' leg was always fun.

"Huh. Now that's strange." James murmured, his eyes on the Map.

It was a nightly ritual of sorts to look at the Map before going to bed. They didn't quite know why they did it, or what they were even searching for but that's what they'd always done, ever since they made the Map late last year.

"What is?" asked Sirius, absent-mindedly twiddling his fingers.

"Arianna just left the tower." James answered. Sirius' ears perked up at that, and he quickly made his way towards James' bed and sat down next to him.

James laughed. "Thought that might get your attention." he whispered. Sirius shushed him, and took the Map.

"What's she up to now? At 11pm no less." asked Peter from where he lay on his bed, idly throwing a ball at the ceiling, and trying to catch it with one hand, just like they had seen James do countless times.

He kept failing miserably and the ball hit him in the face more often than not.

"It looks like she's going to the Astronomy tower." Sirius replied as his eyes followed the tiny dot marked 'Arianna Shah'.

"Does she even know that's where she's going? She hasn't exactly spent a lot of time here." James asked as he peeked at the Map from over Sirius' shoulder.

"Wouldn't worry about it if I were you." said Remus as he reached his bed, towel still in hand.

"And why shouldn't we be worried? She could be planning another prank for all we know." James countered.

Remus raised an eyebrow. "After she just pulled one a few hours ago?"

James snorted. "This is the same girl that shot balding hexes at Mulciber and Avery in the middle of the Great Hall two days after she set a tornado on them!"

Remus shook his head in amusement. "Nevermind that. She could just be out for the heck of it. She's told me that she's quite fond of roaming about by herself."

The rest of the Marauders looked up at that.

"She has?" Peter asked.

Remus nodded. "I believe her exact words were, 'This isn't the first time I've had to sneak around a big ass castle by myself, Remus.'" he shrugged and added, "She said that when I asked her how she had mastered the disillusionment charm already."

"She's mastered the disillusionment charm?" asked Sirius with a raised eyebrow.

Remus nodded.

"But that's remarkable!" Peter exclaimed as he sat up.

Remus scoffed. "Says the man who successfully became an animagus with his friends in fourth year!" Peter thought about it for a minute, then shrugged.

"When did she tell you all this?" asked James curiously.

"That morning when she and I went to get coffee from the kitchens." Remus replied as he sat down on his bed. "Oh, that reminds me, I'm supposed to ask you lot if you want to go down to the kitchens to shake hands with the elves."

"What?" asked the rest of the Marauders simultaneously. Remus chuckled and began to explain.

By the end of Remus' explanation, Sirius was left questioning everything he knew about Arianna.

"Every time you think you've got her pegged, she goes and does something completely outlandish, doesn't she?" Sirius mumbled to himself, a slight smile threatening to form on his face.

The rest of the Marauders looked at him weirdly.

"What did you say, Padfoot?" asked James, but his demeanor suggested that he had heard him just fine.

The git.

When Sirius noticed Peter and Remus looking at him questioningly, he cleared his throat.

"I said that...." Sirius began, stalling to give himself some time to think. "Just because she's fond of roaming about doesn't mean that she's not planning something." he said, blurting the first thing that came to mind.

Peter nodded thoughtfully. Remus simply shook his head.

"I still think she wouldn't do that." he said.

Sirius was suddenly very annoyed.

"And you think you know her after just one conversation?" he asked, his voice coming out sharper than intended.

Remus looked at him surprised.

"Still, better safe than sorry, am I right?" James spoke up before Remus could respond, fixing Sirius with a look. "Obviously since it was Padfoot's idea, he's going to be the one to go check up on her." he continued, giving Sirius a subtle wink.

"Fine, do as you like. I'm going to bed." said Remus as he shot Sirius a glare.

"Fine." Sirius snapped, feeling guilty almost immediately.

Why was he acting like this?

"Here, take the Map and cloak with you." said James, handing him the cloak. "Now get the hell off my bed." he said playfully, making a shooing motion.

Sirius nodded and got up. He placed the map in one of his robe pockets. Putting the cloak on, he made his way outside.

Just as he had stepped out of their room, Sirius heard James call out to him. He turned around. "Don't make it so obvious next time." James whispered. Sirius made a face at him, but grunted in response.

James yawned. He waved in Sirius' general direction, as he walked sleepily back to their room.

Sirius made his way out of the common room and checked the map again. Arianna was currently at the top of the astronomy tower.

So she did know where she was going. He thought.

Sighing to himself, Sirius set out for the astronomy tower.

****************

Hello folks!

Yes, I know this is a bit of a filler chapter but it couldn't be avoided, I'm afraid. I've heard that the ideal chapter length is about 1K words, and I'm going to do my best to abide by that to bring some semblance of consistency in the chapters from now on out.

I'm pretty excited for the next few chapters! I have the next chapter already in the works, so hopefully you won't have to wait too long for it.
Let me know what you think about this one.

Love,

RJ.

PS, Yes, that's the invisibility cloak that James just handed to Sirius.