Ellie the Marauder | Sirius Black

|5| A Rather Shifty Lot

It was a truly glorious Friday afternoon when Tommy Selwyn walked into the Great Hall sporting a interesting new hairstyle. We could have just dyed his hair an unflattering color, but why stop there?!

Tommy's usual brunette locks had been buzzed short and dyed Neon Green... and by neon I mean it. He was positively glowing. Oh, but the fun didn't stop there! On the back of his head, written in bold black letters against the glowing green, were the words 'WORLDS BIGGEST PRAT'. The best part was the fact that we used a version of the the permanent sticking charm on the dye in his Sleekeasy Hair Potion.

The boys and I howled in laughter (along with the rest of the school). I swear I even saw Benny crack a smile. Sirius wiped the tears of joy from my eyes as I regained my composure.

***

Later that night, as I was leaving detention with McGonagall for replacing all of the teacups in the staff room with 'nose biting tea cups', I heard the not-so-sneaky whisperings of what seemed to be a rather shifty lot.

I pressed myself against the wall, peaking quickly around the corner to see who it was.

There, standing in an abandoned corridor, well after curfew, was my brother and Tommy Selwyn, along with Slytherins, Avery, Mulciber, Snivellus, and Regulus Black.

What the...

They began to move down the hall towards nothing good, but thankfully away from me. I sprinted up to Gryffindor tower to the boys dorm, not even knocking. I was welcomed by the sight of three boys eating my favorite candy, pepper imps... without me. We would need to discuss this later, but for now, I had more pressing matters to attend to.

"ELLIE! I COULD HAVE BEEN NAKED!" shrieked Sirius as soon as I opened the door. As if he would have actually cared.

I was panting, out of breath, and seriously regretting my aversion to cardio. "My brother— your brother" I said pointing to Sirius. "Shifty— get— map—" I panted.

I don't know if they really understood what I was trying to say, but James pulled the map out of his trunk anyway. I snatched it out his hands, quickly said the 'magic words' and frantically searched for my brother.

I found them all huddled in the dungeons... with Mary McDonald? Now Tommy and my brother I could kind of understand hanging around those other shifty tossers, but Mary?

"Why is Mary with them?" asked Remus.

Mary McDonald was a Gryffindor gal in my year along with Lily, Alice, and Marlene. The dark headed girl with forest green eyes always joined in our Hide-and-seek games and was almost nauseatingly sweet... so why was she down in the dungeons hanging out with my brother, the guy that nearly murdered me, and a bunch of junior death eaters? I panicked when I remembered how Mary would often run down for a late night cup of tea.

She had always had terrible trouble sleeping at night. In second year, it got so bad that she went to the hospital wing with a concussion after running into a pillar with her eyes closed. Tea seemed to be the only thing that could counteract the insomnia besides taking some pretty intense sleeping draughts. That year, Professor McGonnagall gave her permission to go down the kitchens at night for some tea as needed.

"Tea..." I said absentmindedly. "We need to go check on her. Now." I said.

Again, I'm not sure if the others had any idea what was going on, but it's a true testament to our friendship that they came along anyway. James, Sirius, and I were under the cloak, while Moony was walking about under the guise of his prefect status. We followed the map and made our way quietly toward the sketchy group, only to be greeted with a truly horrifying sight.