Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs certainly feel quite accomplished after completing what they dub as the Marauder's Map. A map designed to show every classroom, hall, corridor, and even secret passageway of the Hogwarts Castle but also ca...
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The plan was set in motion in hopes of getting James and Lily to spend time together in a positive light or rather, paint James to be a wonderful person in Lily's eyes. Elspeth wasn't looking for a miracle change overnight, but she was hoping that it would at least give the two a shove in the right direction. So, the plan was for Lily and Elspeth to end up in the Forbidden Forest and somehow get "lost" and after a certain amount of time, Sirius would claim that the girls had been missing for quite some time before sending James in after them for the rescue.
It seemed foolproof, probably because it was a bit foolish and put together by two fools, but maybe it was just silly enough to work. At least, that's what they could hope for. Elspeth had a tougher job of luring Lily into the forest because "Little Miss Perfect" did not agree with breaking the rules, especially since she was a prefect. She had to set a good example for other students and entering a forest that was labelled as "forbidden" wasn't exactly sending role model of the year vibes.
"Please, Lily?" Elspeth whined after the girl, pulling on Lily's robes that afternoon, " please, please, please?"
"El, I've already told you no," Lily said, facing forward and pulling forward as hard as she could so that Elspeth couldn't stop her. "It's a bad idea, I mean, it's forbidden for a reason. It means it's not a good idea to go in there."
"No, it just means that all the best things are in there and they don't want everyone to experience for themselves," Elspeth said, " I mean if everyone went in there, it would just become a tourist area. So, you label it as something bad to hide all the good."
"Similar to what the Vikings did?" Lily questioned, finally turning to face her as she came to a halt. Only to see that Elspeth looked extremely confused.
"Who?"
With a shake of her head, Lily started to laugh. "Never mind, listen, I don't want to go into the forest, alright? I'm sorry, El, I don't think it's a good idea. If you want, maybe we could walk the outskirts later. There are some spots by the lake that give a good look into the forest, maybe we could catch a glimpse of the unicorn herd from there."
Knowing that she wasn't going to get anywhere with Lily as she was just as stubborn in her ways as Elspeth was in attempts to convince her, it appeared as though the plan was not going to go through. It meant that she had to come up with something else and it seemed that Lily had anticipated that as well.
"Just tell me that you're not going to venture into the forest on your own," Lily said to her, "it's dangerous."
"How do you know?" Elspeth asked in a playful tone. "You've never been in there."
"El-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know," she sighed, " alright, you win, I won't go in there on my own."
Lily stared at her for a couple of moments and it definitely looked as though as she wasn't very convinced. Perhaps because she knew Elspeth all too well, but with a nervous glance, she suddenly became distracted by two first years attempting to climb up the walls in hopes of touching the ceiling as part of some bet. Immediately, Lily ran over to tell them to stop, giving Elspeth the opportunity to escape and hopefully make her way towards the Forest to lure Lily in.
