Eye of the Serpent | HP MARAUDER ERA [2]

Chapter Twenty-One

"Are you certain they haven't arrived yet?" I asked Remus, who sat next to me at breakfast. "That they haven't already eaten and left?"

"Positive. James and Sirius insisted on being here from the very beginning of breakfast so that we'd be sure to see them when they came."

I shrugged. "I didn't think so. I honestly doubted they'd have come earlier anyway."

"Were they still sleeping when you left the dormitory?" he asked me.

"When I left they were... but I went down to the common room and... sort of got... distracted." I lifted up the current book I was reading. "To be fair, I was only planning on reading one chapter, but I got lost in it."

"I get it, it happens to me sometimes," said Remus.

"Anyway, for all I know, the girls could've crept down here without me knowing. Honestly, though, I knew they most likely hadn't. Having been roommates with them for the past five years, I know that Marlene loves sleeping in. You should see what happens when they try to wake her up... Not a nice sight. But I also know that they always come down to breakfast together, so they could be a while."

"Well I certainly hope they don't take too much longer... These three are getting impatient," Remus whispered to me, his eyes cutting to the other three boys, who were engaged in a conversation of their own. "James hasn't torn his eyes from the Entrance Hall since breakfast started. It's almost like he's anticipating the ways in which the girls are going to murder him... and especially Lily..."

He and I sniggered; Sirius and Peter looked over to see what we were laughing at, but James didn't notice at all.

My eyes darted to James, who, as Remus had said, was staring at a fixed point near the front of the Great Hall, unblinking. He looked anxious and excited at the same time.

I turned back to Remus. "Maybe he lives for the thrill," I suggested, shrugging.

"The thrill of being killed?"

"Yeah, definitely, that sounds cool. After all, we are talking about the guy who once said that the threat of death makes everything more exciting... Remember when he said that after we forbade him to sneak into Hogsmeade during our first night at Hogwarts?"

"Oh, how could I forget?" He broke off suddenly and nodded his head towards the entrance.

We all perked up the minute Lily, Alice and Marlene appeared in the doorway, walking through the Great Hall straight to their usual seats at the Gryffindor table. They weren't too far down the table from us, so when we spoke we had to do so in whispers.

The five of us watched them carefully, but they didn't seem to be acting out of the ordinary. Marlene was the first to sit and immediately began stuffing her face with food; Lily made a face at Marlene's bad manners and said something to her, causing the two to giggle; Alice greeted Frank and settled down next to Lily.

"Why aren't they scratching?" Peter asked impatiently, his fingers drumming against the table. He shovelled some breakfast into his mouth with his other hand, chewing and mumbling something else with his mouth full.

"Give it a minute," said James, putting his head in his hands. "I am confident that we did not screw this up."

We waited and waited and waited, and just as I began to think that perhaps the Marauders had miscalculated something with their prank, Marlene scratched her arm.