Little Red |Sirius Black|

This Means WAR- Arianna

"Artie? Artie where are you?" I called out as I searched the common room with Lily and Alice. It was late next morning and everyone had already left for breakfast.

Or so I thought.

"What's all this about?" I heard James' voice call out, as he left the boys' wing of the tower.

"I lost my cat." I replied, still frantically searching for her.

"Isn't it a little early to be drinking?" Remus asked, as he joined us. I turned to give him a bewildered look. I could hear Lily crack up behind me.

"What's going on?" Sirius asked as he and Peter descended the stairs. I couldn't believe how refreshed Sirius looked despite the fact that he didn't get more than three hours of sleep last night- same as me.

I, on the other hand looked like a frumpy raccoon.

"What's going on is that Remus, Lily and Arianna are confusing the crap out of me. Again." James replied, throwing his hands up in frustration, as Remus and Lily shared smug looks. I shook my head.

"Actually, I'm as confused as you this time." I told James, giving the two Gryffindor prefects a baffled look.

"Losing your cat is a muggle expression which means that you're drunk off your arse." Lily explained.

"Never heard of it." I said with a frown.

It's way too early in the day to be learning new things..

"Maybe it's a British muggle thing." Remus said with a shrug.

"Well, I lost my actual pet cat, Artemisia." I told them.

"What does she look like? Maybe we can help." Sirius offered.

"She's a black Bombay cat. Bright yellow eyes." I said, as I resumed looking for her.

"You know, in many muggle cultures black cats are considered a bad omen." Remus said casually.

"Yeah, my dad's culture is one of them. Why do you think I chose her in the first place?" I said absent-mindedly. "She's not here, could she have left the tower?"

"Could have." James said. "Cats are allowed to move freely in the castle."

"That's just great!" I said, throwing my hands up in frustration.

"She'll come back when she's hungry." Alice said, trying to be comforting.

"Unless she finds a house elf that feeds her." James pointed out.

"Yeah, maybe she'll decide that she likes the elf better and never come back." Said Sirius. "Are house elves even allowed to have pets?"

"Not. Helping." Lily said with a glare.

"Sorry." James mumbled. Sirius simply gave us a mischievous grin.

"We should head to breakfast." Said Sirius suddenly.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to miss the mail today." Peter added with a barely suppressed grin. Remus nudged him.

"Why? What's coming in the mail today?" I asked.

"Nothing! His mother is probably mailing him clean socks today. Shall we go?" Sirius said, perhaps a little too quickly.

I shrugged it off.

***

When we reached the Great Hall, Dorcas immediately waved us over. I noticed that all the teachers had already left.

"Where have you been? Breakfast is nearly over!" Dorcas said as we sat down. The Marauders all sat across from us.

That's strange, they usually sit opposite each other..