15) The Plan(s)

Lily's P.O.V

"Marlene, that's a terrible idea!" James grumbled, sitting cross legged on his bed. His normally energetically restless hair sat in a depressed flop and it made me sad just to look at him. Losing Sirius was really taking a toll on him. 

"I agree. We don't even know where he'd be or if he'd be in the castle at all! What if we got caught!" Remus shouted. 

"That's insane. The chances of actually finding him are negative!" Peter whined. "The chances of being kidnapped, murdered, and caught are much, much, much higher!"

Marlene glanced at me. "Lily? Your thoughts?" She prompted. 

I was sitting half asleep on the foot of Remus' bed. Don't ask me how I got here, but I remember Marlene waking me up in my bed and the next second her waking me up on the floor of the boy's dorm.  Madame Promfrey had given me some new sleeping potion she'd made herself and it seemed to work a little too well. "Hold  on... Sirius is missing?" I asked, yawning. 

James huffed. "Yes, Evans! Get with the program!" He grumbled. "Sirius is missing and Marlene wants us to freaking sneak out and search every freaking inch of the castle to see if he's there!" 

Remus shook his head. "You know that means touching every brick, walking every hallway several times, enchanting every tile, to see if there are secrets. I would take an infinite amount of years! Not even Dumbledore knows every inch of this place. What if it never ends? What if there are corridors that go on forever? There's no telling what we could find, Marlene." 

"What about the map?" Peter suggested. 

"Sirius had it last," James snapped. 

"Wait, what map?" Marlene asked, squinting at the boys. 

James shook his head. "Marauders stuff, Marls, you wouldn't get it. It's none of your business, really." 

Marlene stood up to give him a challenging glare. "First of all, marauders? Is that what you clowns call yourselves? Second of all, Sirius is my friend. If this map thing can help us find him, it's 100% my business. And Lily's," she said, placing her hands on her hips. "We're a team now, like it or not. You guys can't keep secrets from us anymore, right Lily?' 

"Sure," I mumbled, only half following the conversation. 

"It's nothing, Marlene, really!" Peter piped up quickly, his cheeks turning a bit rosy. "Just a little map we guys whipped up of the school. A few secrets we know of, that kind of stuff." 

Remus shot him a look as if he'd said too much. "Two or three hidden classrooms, that kind of thing." 

"Why would Pettigrew suggest that it would help us, then?" Marlene asked. The way the faint light of James' wand touched her face made her look a bit like an angel, though her attitude made her the devil. With no makeup, even her eyelashes looked blonde. I'd never really noticed that outside of my sleep-drunken state. I'd also never noticed that lonely little freckle James had hiding under his chin. Poor freckle. It was beautiful, even more beautiful than Marlene, in a way. I wanted to kiss it. Damn, I was tiered if I was thinking things like that. 

Both James and Remus shot a warning glare at Peter, but he  was already blabbering away. "Becausewemagicallyenchantedittoshowtheexactlocationofanyoneaslongastheyreintheschool!" He said it so fast, I couldn't catch any of it,  but it seemed to make a whole lot of sense to Marlene.  

"How the hell? I don't... Lily, is that possible?" Marlene shouted. I looked at her blankly. "You're dumb as shit when you actually get sleep. Never mind. If this map is a thing- which I'm not sure it is,  where would it be?" 

"With Sirius," James groaned. "He said he wanted to add a new corridor to it or something. We never should've let him have it." 

"Why don't you have a... a back up map or something?" Marlene whined. She was getting more and more frustrated. 

"Because we're not that smart, Marlene!" Remus said. "Can we just get back to finding Sirius, please? For me?" 

The was suddenly a hint of tragedy in Marlene's eyes. Not 'another natural disaster' type tragedy, but the 'Romeo and Juliet' kind.  I migh've been only partially conscious, but I knew there was something I didn't remember going on. A heavy weight of doomed romance filled the dark room. Yeah, I was definitely forgetting something here... right! "Oh! You're in love!" I said, finally remembering. 

They all glared at me, Remus with a surprised look. "Lily. Not now," Marlene hushed through gritted teeth. 

"Shit. Right. You don't know that. My lips are sealed," I said, making a lip-zipping motion with my hands. 

"Merlin, what's wrong with her?" James asked, making a face. Still attractive. Dammit. 

"Promfrey's got her taking some new potion for the Insomnia and I think it's making her a  bit... loopy," Marlene frowned. "She'll be fine in a few hours when it's worn off." 

"A  few hours?" James asked. "We need her now!" 

"Hey, don't complain. It think this is the first time she's slept in weeks," Marlene commented. 

"Back to Sirius please, people!" Remus shouted, throwing his arms in the air dramatically. 

Marlene huffed. "Okay, are you sure he had the map with him when he disappeared?" 

James rolled his eyes. "Yes, he had it out at dinner before he ran off. Forget the map, Marlene. We need a new plan." He put his face in his hands. "I can't believe I let this happen. I must be the worst best friend ever. Ugh, no wonder he ran off!" James wailed. I wanted to hug him but I had forgotten how to move. And also that would've been very out of character of me. 

"You're a fine friend," Remus mumbled. "It's me who should've been better to him." 

"We all were bloody awful. Now help me come up with a plan that doesn't wind up with us dead or expelled or kidnapped," Marlene snapped, rubbing her temples.  "What if we- no, that's stupid. We could- that would never work! Ugh!" She cried. "Ideas, anyone?"

Remus sighed. "Well... yes. But you wont bloody like it much more than yours." 

"It's worth a shot," James muttered. 

Remus' face was dangerously pale. "Well... er... one of us could... get kidnapped.  And James... James' got an invisibility cloak we could use. Another person could follow in the cloak and grab on or something just as the kidnapper is about to apperate away with the one being kidnapped." 

"Remus, thats the worst f*cking idea I've ever heard," James grumbled. "But I think it will work." 

"WAIT! James has an invisibility cloak?" Marlene screeched. "Any more secrets you've got to tell me? A baby dragon under the bed? A flask of unicorn blood you've been saving for a special occasion? A mermaid girlfriend who lives in the toilet?" 

James thought for a moment. "No, I think that's about it." 

"Remus, your bloody idea might be  our only option," Peter said, trying to keep things on track. 

"I hate it," James said. "I don't want to risk anyone else. How would the two contact the others? How would anything work?" 

Marlene grinned at me and nodded. 

"Cell phones!" I said. The medicine was starting to wear off and my thoughts were starting to get a bit clearer. "

 "Cell phones," Marlene nodded. 

"Do  cell phones even  work in Hogwarts?" James asked. 

Marlene shrugged. "We'll have to hope so, don't we? I know Alice has hers in her trunk for emergencies. I could swipe it easily, she wouldn't even know it's gone. Suzy Clearwater has one too, she uses it to call her boyfriend every Thursday night and keeps everyone in the dorm up with her god awful flirting. She keeps it under her mattress. I bet I could swipe it, too. So then we'd have a phone for whoever stays back, and whoever goes. Which brings us to our next question." 

"I volunteer to be kidnapped," Remus said. "Whoever it is that's kidnapping people only seems to be kidnapping people who aren't very popular... and Sirius. A little insecure prefect would be perfect prey. Also, I'm good at logically thinking, in case anything goes wrong." 

"I'll go with you," Marlene said. "I'm good at defensive spells and we're probably going to need a lot of protection. I'm also much sneakier than any of you. Lily, James, and Peter stay here. You're going to need someone who can work a cell phone, Lily, someone who's good at spells, Lily and James, and someone who can apperate, Peter. " 

"It's not my fault I never passed the apperation exam," I grumbled. "Sirius' cousin was hexing me, I swear." 

"Doesn't matter," Marlene said. "But in order for you to be able to apperate to us, you need to be outside the Hogwarts boundaries, so run for the train station." 

"Are we actually going through with  this plan?" James asked, running his hand through his hair, which was starting to perk up again. 

"What other option do we have? It's more probable than Marlene's idea," Peter said, avoiding eye contact. 

"When are we doing this?" James asked. 

Remus sighed. "Tomorrow night. I hate to do it the night before an exam, but we've got to do it as soon as possible." 

"Sounds good," Marlene said. There was a silence as the 'oh shit, we're actually doing this' settled in. "Well, I've got to get Lily to bed before she started embarrassing herself. Get some rest, lads." 

"That's bloody likely," Remus huffed as Marlene dragged me out. 

A/N: 

Sorry for the delay! I'm going to start to work on the next chapter right now so it will come out later this week. 

As always, thanks for reading!! Love you!

Keep commenting! One of my New Years resolutions is to answer more. 

Love you! 

-Lilytat