Adventurous-Another Marauders Fanfic

6-Spooky Scary Hijinks.

"Shhhh!"

"Get off my foot!"

"You're too bloody tall now, Prongy, we've got to duck down or people will see our feet under the Cloak..."

"Shut up!"

James rammed a hand over Sirius's mouth as footsteps padded up behind them. It was only when Mrs. Norris padded around the corner that the two boys realised how close they had been to getting caught.

"Is there someone here, my sweet?" The croaky voice of Argus Filch echoed eerily down the corridor, and the two boys froze. Ahead of them, a little white cat with blue ear-tips yowled angrily as Mrs. Norris chased her up a curtain-rail with a sudden turn of speed.

"One of the students' cats, is that what it was, Mrs. Norris?" Filch mumured. "Well, they will sneak out of the kids' dorms from time to time..."

James and Sirius, under the Cloak, tried their hardest not to giggle as the little white cat hissed and spat from its place up the curtain. Filch, chuckling, scooped up Mrs. Norris and carried her away, out of earshot.

The white cat landed gracefully on the floor once more, and turned into Sephy Cardale.

"If I didn't know better, I'd Stupefy that bloody puss" she murmured, coming up next to a portrait a little way down the corridor. "Hateful thing. Would pick a fight with anyone. And no bloody manners. Jelly-legs."

The final words had been to the portrait, who tutted at her before swinging open. She entered, lighting up her wand as she went, and under the Cloak, James and Sirius followed, before pulling the door closed behind them and revealing themselves. Sephy leapt out of her skin.

"Oh bloody hell, you two didn't half give me a fright!" she complained. "How's the plotting going?"

"We've got the outline of the fifth floor just fine" Sirius replied, grinning. "We'll put this passage in, while we're at it. Albert the Awful, yeah?"

"Running across the whole width of the fifth floor, coming out two corridors away from the Fat Lady" James added. "Bang on, Padfoot."

"Lovely" Sephy smiled, in the light of her wand, as Sirius scribbled away on the rough parchment they had brought with them.

"I love the paper Sammie bought" James commented, as the three set off again down the passage. "It's very cool. It looks as if it'll age well."

"What an excellent aesthetic" Sirius commented dryly. "I think it'll look great once Halley gets her hands on it."

"Remus wants to charm the ink though, first" Sephy pointed out. "So Halley is gonna sketch it all out in pencil, then go over it in ink."

"I bloody hope this works" Sirius agreed, as they reached the end of the passage, and the boys ducked back under the Cloak.

"It'll be fine" James muttered, as Sephy popped into a cat, and the three of them sneaked out of the passageway and back towards the Gryffindor common room. The Fat Lady tutted at the boys as they revealed themselves, James scooping up Sephy, and entered though the portrait hole, Sirius folding the Invisibility Cloak and stowing it up his jumper.

There were a few sixth and seventh-years still in the common room, doing homework. Sephy-cat yowled in James's arms and leapt free, trotting over to Lily and Halley, who were doing Defense Against the Dark Arts homework together by the fire. Halley  grinned and fussed her friend's ears, and Lily smiled.

"I didn't think you had a cat, Hal" she commented. Mentally, Halley panicked.

"Oh, I, er, don't" she said quickly. "This is, er... Millie. She's..." Halley trailed off, scanning the common room for inspiration.