Semele Perdita

Ohh la la…a new chapter this early? Go ahead, have a heart attack but I should tell you…

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This is actually my late April Fool's Joke to you all….

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Just kidding ;-)

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Semele Perdita

Chapter 17: A Meeting With The Marauders

Author: LadyAkako

Rating: PG-13

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From Chapter 16…..

James nodded and began to follow after Sirius, guiding me with hand, but I stopped him about halfway down the hallway having finally found the words to say what I was wondering.

“Where are we going?” I whispered to him.

He grinned at me in that quirky half-smile again and leaned down to mutter in my ear, “I guess you'll see when we get there.”

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[James]

She groaned behind me and I hid a smile to myself, but she must have seen it because she retorted in high fashion, “Where have I heard that line before? We better not be breaking more than five school rules right now.”

This comment released the laughter that had been waiting at the back of throat since I had seen her mutinous face moments after I had begun to follow after Sirius.

“Actually,” I started to say in between my own breaths of laughter, “We aren't breaking any that I know of.”

Her eyebrows shot up her forehead at this statement and I could see her curiosity was piqued as to where we were headed now more than it had been before.

“The famous Gryffindor quartet not breaking any rules their first day back, after such a long break? Shocking.” She smirked jokingly at me and I grinned back at her, with the full intent on making a clever comeback but Sirius re-entered the hallway again, looking impatient.

“Are you two coming or not?” Sirius growled, with the edge of a whine in his voice. He was shifting from foot to foot, keen to get going and meet up with Peter and Remus.

I felt more than saw Lily glance at me out the corner of her eyes just before I grabbed her hand and rushed after Sirius, who had already padded down the hallway intent on our destination.

It only took a minute or two for me to navigate to the familiar doorway that us Marauders had used as a sort of secret hangout ever since last year when we had needed a secluded spot to practice our Animagi skills. This was one of the most deserted corridors that we could find in all of Hogwarts and we had carefully mapped out most of the ones that we had found for future use and of course, for our masterpiece: The Map.

The room itself had probably once been a classroom, but it was hard to tell under the centuries of dust that had collected on everything that was included inside the lonely little room. Of course, we did our best to clear most of the dust away when we occupied the room but we were always careful to replace it so it seemed as if the room was just as deserted as always.

By the time I reached it, with Lily tagging along behind me, it had already been cleared and it looked comfortable enough with bean bags that looked suspiciously like the ones the Divination room sported sat in a neat circle around a seemingly unassuming piece of already partially worn, blank parchment.

Lily raised her eyebrows once more at me and I gestured towards one of the two empty bean bags, the other three already occupied by the rest of the Marauders. She sat down in one flowing motion and I couldn't help but admire the grace she showed. I quickly shook myself out of the stare I had fixed on her when I felt Sirius focus on me with an inquisitive glance of his own.

“Now, what all this nonsense about?” Lily asked after a moment of silence in the room. I cleared my throat, trying to find the words to explain exactly what we needed from her, but Remus beat me to the chase.

“We need you to help us with…well, a project of ours,” he said, tentatively, glancing up at me.

“Yes...James already informed me of that. Now what exactly does this `project' of yours entail and how much trouble will this get us into?” Lily asked briskly, studying the parchment on the floor in front of her intently. Her hand twitched by her side and I could sense she was eager to reach out and grab it to look at it more closely.

“Well, technically, it won't get you into any trouble because it's not going to have your name on it anywhere and you can't really trace the kind of charm we want you to figure out for us, partly because we're not sure it exists yet….” Remus trailed off, uncertain of where to continue it seemed.

“You, see,” Sirius picked up excitedly, “Remus here has been trying to figure out the kind of charm that will work for us all year, but he still hasn't cracked it. We figured if our Moony here couldn't do it, then the only person who could was you. After all, you're the only person who beat ol' Remus here in the Charms and it helps that you're down-right gorgeous, too.” He gave her a liberal wink with this last cheeky comment and then sent me a calculating glance, as if to gauge the expression my own face would form at this comment. I tried to keep a perfectly straight expression, but I knew Sirius had caught the flash in my own eyes when he had said it.

I would be hearing about this later and it definitely wasn't a topic I felt like discussing, as I wasn't even sure of my own footing on it yet.

Lily had given an exhale of doubtful laughter at Sirius' words, but she still had the charmed look that most girls wore around him. I couldn't help but wish that she would look at me with that smile, couldn't help but wish that Sirius didn't know how to push my buttons so well.

“All these obvious attempts at flattery aside, you guys still haven't told me what it is that you are actually doing,” Lily said quietly, sending me a sudden, pointed glance.

“We're making a map,” I said plainly, not being able to think of anything that sounded more intelligent, “and we want you to help us charm it with a sort of locating charm.”

“A map? Of what? And why would you need a locating charm?” A torrent of questions rushed out of her mouth all at once. She looked at me and I knew at that point for certain that she wasn't going to back out on us, she was too interested.

“A map of Hogwarts,” Peter spoke up for the first time since we had entered the room. “A map that can tell you where everyone in the castle is at any given moment.”

Lily was silent for a moment, digesting this huge tidbit of news. I could see her mind clicking furiously over every nook and cranny of her knowledge about Charms and finally a deep furrow came to rest on her forehead.

“I don't know…” she started and then trailed off, looking deep in thought.

“Don't say you can't do it, yet,” Sirius interjected before she finished the sentence. “Just think it over for a while and get back to us.”

She nodded slowly, still lost in thought until finally she seemed to break out of her trance.

“Show me what you have already,” she spoke suddenly, focusing her eyes once more on the blank parchment. I smiled at her and then picked up the Map.

I pointed my wand tip at the edge of the paper and silently, the black ink began to fill into the detailed grooves that Peter had drawn out to represent all the corridors, secret passageways, and interesting rooms that we had ever come across at Hogwarts. She watched, enraptured, as the ink etched the Map onto the parchment and gave us all a smile of approval.

“That's wonderful,” she whispered softly. “How many years have you been planning this?”

“Well, we never really thought we would get around to making a real Map, but Peter, here, has been documenting everything that we ever found in our adventures here since third year. Then James and Sirius came up with this plan over the summer and we've been trying to perfect it every since,” Remus explained quickly, enthused.

“It's wonderfully detailed,” she commented, admirably. Peter beamed, but said nothing, having always been shy around girls. He had always made me wonder, how he could talk so much when no girl was around but the second one came into the room he would clam up and rarely say anything.

“So you'll try to find a way to do it?” Sirius asked eagerly.

“Of course, but I don't think I can do it alone,” she answered, biting her lip in thought again.

“Don't worry about that. We'll all be glad to do skull sessions with you anytime. You just have to ask,” I said quickly, before Sirius could get another word in.

She gave me an amused glance and cheekily responded with mock shock. “James Potter? Doing skull sessions willingly? I never thought I'd even hear of it.”

“There's a first for everything,” I shot right back at her, with fake dignity. She rolled her eyes briefly at me and Remus cleared his throat to catch my attention away from her.

“We better get going if we want to make it to dinner on time, James,” he said in a warning tone. I had a feeling he was trying to warn me about more than one thing. I nodded, but didn't voice at an answer right away.

Sirius stood, grabbing the Map away from me and clearing the ink. He quickly rolled it up and stuffed it in his pocket; I could tell he was eager to get going to dinner. He never passed up an opportunity for food.

“Come, then, you heard Moony. Time to go. We'll discuss this again later.” Sirius had already practically bolted from the door, with Peter not too long behind him. Remus walked at a more leisurely pace, nodding to Lily and me before disappearing after the other two.

“So…”Lily began after he had gone. “Mind showing me the way to the Great Hall, because I must admit, I have no idea where I am right now.”

I laughed freely at this and she gave me a small shove on the arm, but I nodded and began to lead the way. It took far less time than I would have liked to take her there and most of the short walk was passed in silence, not uncomfortable silence, but silence nonetheless.

When we reached the doors, noise from dinner was already reverberating through the Entrance Hall and I knew that we were probably late, but it didn't seem to matter much at the moment. It's not like I wasn't late all the time.

“Well, I'll see you around, James,” I heard her say from a distance and shook myself back to reality for the second time that night.

“Huh?” I kicked myself internally. “Oh, yeah, right. Uh...let me know when you want to hit the books and I'll come help you out. Make sure you don't fall asleep and all that.”

I threw in a grin for good measure at the end of my sentence and she smiled back for instance before her face crumpled.

“Oh, no…” she moaned.

“What?” I asked, worried at the sudden change in temperament.

“I never finished my Runes essay,” she said, finally, looking devastated.

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Okay…another chapter down. I think I responded to everyone's reviews from last chapter (if you didn't get an email, check the review page for this story) and umm…it would be great for some feedback!

Hmmm let's see…I have 180 reviews now and I think I need at least 190 before I'll feel like updating…so that means YOU, yes, YOU READING THIS RIGHT NOW needs to review and make this author happy. ;-) …or it will be another 6 months before you hear from me…and no one wants that, do they?