Little Miss Marauder

Chapter 20 - They Should Give Out a Map

A/N: I know it's a lot later than I said it would be but here you go!

Chapter 20 - They Should Give Out a Map

It was after curfew when Sirius had just managed to persuade the siblings to make their way towards their new common room, after James and himself had managed to calm down Cassadee, the latter still not knowing why she was so upset when all that the other girl did was place a hand on her shoulder. Yet gauging by James' reaction to this, how he instantly found out what was wrong with his sister and then way he ran after her, Sirius knew that this situation was far deeper than Cassadee having an aversion to the touch of other people, but he would never push them to tell him, especially how they had accepted him and never pushed him to tell a backstory of his life.

They reached the portrait of the Fat Lady that was the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, however there was not a single figure in the painting. "What do we do now?" Sirius turned to James, hoping he would have a better answer than the one Sirius was expecting. "Well mate, we either wait out here for her to come back, not even knowing the password to get in, or we try and signal people in there to come let us in." James smirked towards the end of the sentence, a plan already forming in his head. That was until he felt something brush against his ankle. Looking down he saw a dust coloured cat with glowing yellow eyes that stared up at him. The cat mewed loudly alerting all of the paintings surrounding them to this and the three new students saw a dim yellow glow heading towards their position from around the corner.

"Guys, we have to hide! Now!" James exclaimed as he grabbed the wrists of the two others and began silently hurrying away from the cat and the light. In their attempt to avoid detection, especially knowing how much trouble the three of them were in already, Sirius pulled his two new friends behind a statue in the hallway, hoping to just hide behind it until the patrollers had disappeared however, what the three young Gryffindors found instead of a stone wall in-front of them, was a 3 foot by 3 foot tunnel in the wall, leading away from their current position.

Cassadee did not want to get her brother and new friend into trouble about being out of bed after curfew, knowing the battering all three would get next time any teacher saw them. With this thought in mind she pushed Sirius through the gap in the wall hoping that it would provide better cover than just standing behind the statues alone. Despite the protests from both of the boys she had managed to get all three of them into the hole when a dimm yellow glow appeared from around the corner. They could hear the sound of footsteps slowly approaching their position and the mutterings that got clearer, the brighter the light became. "Students out of bed, Students in the corridor. First night of term and students out of bed,"

Remus sat on the sofa in the common room waiting for the trio to arrive back. He knew that it was past curfew and was desperately hoping that they weren't caught by a professor. He had a book resting on his lap but the concern he had for his friends was consuming all of his attention that the book was forgotten. The sound of the portrait hole opening caused his head to whip around and he saw them stumble through into the main area as the portrait slammed shut behind them. A sigh of relief escaped Remus before he stood up, "Where were you guys?! Are you okay? Did you get caught?" Many questions stumbled out of his mouth continuously,barely giving him chance to breathe.

After following the passageway through until the end, in order to get as far away from the caretaker and cat, the three first years found themselves in the corridor of the great hall. They staggered around in attempt to find their common room, not knowing the castles layout. "They should really give out maps to first years" Sirius commented as they trudged their way through. "Most people get a tour" James laughed as they rounded a corner, "You know, if they don't disappear during the feast" James chuckled, earning him a slap on the chest from his twin. "Yeah and they're probably not as hungry as this either!" Sirius exclaimed, receiving an identical hit from Cassadee whilst James cackled. "Let's just get back to the common room" Cassadee said, exasperated. So the three new friends trudged through the corridors, hiding everytime they thought someone was coming passed, managing to make it back to their common room without being caught.

The students walked up to the portrait of the fat lady and the Potter twins went up expecting the door to just swing open, but when it didn't they glanced at each other confused. Sirius however, waltzed up to the portrait and spoke to the lady in a hushed tone, seconds later the frame swung towards them and a hole appeared in the wall. Shocked, the twins stumbled in after Sirius about to question him before they were bombarded by Remus. "Were okay Remus, no we didn't get caught" James attempted to answer each of the boys questions in turn, missing out some answers in between. Sirius interrupted, we'll explain everything tomorrow but i feel like we should just get to bed for now. It's been a long day." They were all shocked that this boy was the voice of reason, yet they agreed and trudged up to their rooms. Cassadee and James held back from the others and waved them off when they turned around.

"You know Cass, i'm always gonna be right here for you." James turned to his sister with a solemn face. "This wasn't supposed to happen to you, i'm gonna do all I can because I didn't do enough to help you that day." a tear rolled down James' cheek as he recalled that horrific day. "Thank you James, I know you will be and i'll always be thankful, but just realise that nothing that happened was your fault. You weren't the one that attacked, you didn't make me go there on that day, nothing that happened was your fault." Cassadee hugged him as she began to cry as well. They continued to talk to each other in the common room for a few hours. Remus was walking down the stairs an hour after he had gone up to bed, going to check on James, when he heard a name very familiar to him that made him stop in his tracks.