The Forest - R.L.

Chapter 35 - The Stairs

As soon as she woke up the next morning, Grace leapt out of bed and got ready to head down to their new found Animagus practise room. Now that they knew the secret to becoming Animagi, she didn't want to waste any time.

Whilst getting ready, she may have slammed her drawers shut slightly too harshly, causing one of her least favourite people in the school to wake up from the noise.

"What the hell are you doing, Austria?" Ella asked, sitting up in her bed, her face resuming her constant expression that was somewhere in between a pout and a scowl. "It's only seven and it's a Sunday!"

"Oh, I uh..." Grace whispered, still standing frozen in front of the chest of drawers. "I... have Quidditch practise."

"But then wouldn't Catherine," Ella said, pointing at her bed.

"Oh, no... it's not team practise. Uh, James said he'd help me train for the next game this morning," Grace lied, slowly making her way towards the door.

"At seven!?"

"Yep. Anyway, I've got to-" Grace's reply was cut off as she fell backwards hitting her head against the door. She had been walking backwards hadn't noticed the large pile of clothes that where situated right in the doorway.

"Ah! So, yeah, I need to go," Grace told Ella as she pulled herself up off the floor and exited the room as quickly as she could.

As she left, she heard Ella mutter "Weirdo," as she pulled the sheets back over herself, but by now she honestly couldn't care less. In fact, she kind of liked it.

Grace headed straight for the boys dorm once she had left the room, still rubbing the back of her head. She was met half way by James, Sirius, Peter and Remus, already dressed and ready to go.

"What have you done this time, Fel?" Remus asked, noticing the hand that was still held to her head.

"Oh, you know, the usual – I tripped over something and hit my head, for the second time in two days!" Grace added, remembering her bludger incident from the day before. "Anyway, we should get going. Who knows how long it's going to take us to find that room again."

"Not that long, actually. I wrote it down on the map," James assured her, pulling out the Marauder's Map. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

As the map came to life, ink swirling in every direction, James unfolded the map and ran a finger across it. "It should be up in this corner somewhere. The seventh floor... left corridor.... It should be there. I wear I wrote it there yesterday, right in that blank bit there."

"Well, it's not there now, is it?" Sirius asked. "Are sure you actually wrote it down?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Here, look." James picked up a quill that someone had left on the table and used it to draw a square in the blank space.

"Great, now let's go!" Grace cheered, heading for the door.

"We've got to have breakfast first," Peter said. "I'm starving."

"Oh, okay fine. Breakfast first, the to the magical practise room," Grace concluded.

"Wait, it's fading!" James cried, still holding the map. The others all came over to have a look. The square that James had drawn was indeed fading away. "Wha-"

"It must be unplottable," Remus declared.

"Unplottable?" Sirius asked, prompting him for an explanation.

"You physically can't plot the location down on a map, due to some kind of spell," Remus told him. "That room really is meant to be kept secret."

"Can we please go have breakfast now?" Peter begged, and they all sighed in agreement, making their way down to the Great Hall. Since it was only just past seven o'clock on a Sunday morning, the hall was mostly empty, and the five of them wasted no time in filling up their plates with as much as they wanted.

By half past seven, they were already on their way to their magical practise room, Peter still munching away on a piece of toast that he'd run out of time to finish.

"I really don't see why you're all in such a hurry," Remus commented as they climbed a flight of stairs. "Your transformations aren't going to somehow work better just because you get there earlier."

"Yes, but we know how to do it now, so the sooner we get there, the quicker we'll transform, the quicker we'll be able to help," Grace assured him, rushing up the stairs.

Remus sighed. "But if we got there at nine it-"

"Just go along with it, Moony. She's in some kind of frenzy, I think it's best if you just leave it," Sirius whispered, loud enough that they could all hear.

"I am not in a frenzy! I'm just... excited, that's all," Grace argued. "I'm going to turn into a lion!"

"Don't get your hopes up too high. Just because Sirius did it last night, doesn't mean that you're all going to transform today," Remus told her.

"Party Poopin' Lupin," Grace grumbled, causing Remus to stop walking.

"I thought I told you to stop calling me that three years ago!" Remus complained, screwing his nose up. "It makes sound like such an... old fart."

Grace stopped walking as well and turned back to face Remus, causing Sirius, James and Peter to do the same.

"Remus, dear, I hate to inform you," Grace began, trying to sound as sincere as she could. "But you really are an old fart."

Remus didn't reply, his face completely blank, just staring directly into Grace's eyes. She knew she was in trouble now.

"I think you'd better run, Fel!" James cried, and Grace did just that. She took off down the corridor and ran up the next flight of stairs, Remus hot on her heels.

By the time they reached the seventh floor, Grace was so out of breath that she had to sit down at the top of the stairs. She was soon joined by an equally puffed Remus, who plonked himself down beside her and lamely tapped her arm.

"I am not..." he huffed. "An old fart."

---

So I do actually still exist, believe it or not. However, I completely forgot that I was going away for the long weekend with my family friends and thought I'd have the whole weekend to write and catch up when I in fact did not, so I haven't had any time to update SORRY.

Also, thank you to those people who have been pointing out stupid mistakes I've made - I accidentally wrote Lily Potter instead of Lily Evans once, and also completely forgot about the existence of Slughorn for a whole paragraph. THANK

- Grace