Chapter 2- Sniffing Prohibited
The next morning James told his friends of his encounter with the unknown girl in the closet. To Sirius's disgust, James admitted that they only talked and there was no snogging.
"Who do you think is she?" Remus brooded and he glanced over the house tables.
"I've got no idea whatsoever," shrugged James. "I don't think I've ever spoken to her."
"She could be a Ravenclaw or Gryffindor," reasoned Sirius. "Because you were on the fifth floor and those common rooms are close to the closet. Plus, no Slytherin in their right mind would go up so high. There are too many muggle borns and they're all afraid that they might catch something more terrible than a flu."
"What about Hufflepuff?" Peter questioned, "You can't forget about them."
"Never," said Padfoot dismissively waving his hand about, "They follow all the ruled and do exactly what they're told to do. Pushovers, the whole lot of them. If Professor Sprout tells them not to leave the common room after dinner they won't!" But Wormtail glanced at him skeptically.
Together they observed the long house tables for possible candidates. But not one single girl looked like she might slip out of bed in the middle of the night.
"Maybe she isn't in the Great Hall yet," Moony thought aloud, "Maybe she comes down to breakfast late." The four turned to the entrance, which was open. But just a few Ravenclaws with noses buried in books came into the Hall.
"No, doesn't look like," Remus confessed sheepishly and they turned back but Peter still looked at the door.
"Maybe yes," he said after a while and grinned maliciously.
James, Remus and Sirius followed his look until they saw Aurelia Marks and Lily Evans enter the Great Hall.
"Are you nuts?" asked Prongs. "I would be able recognize Evans's voice in a crowd of people and most definitely a dark quiet closet and she mine!"
"And what about Aurelia's," Moony wanted to know.
"Her Welsh accent is to strong!" Padfoot dismissed his thought. "Everyone hears that!"
James and Remus looked with slightly gaping jaws and astonishment at Sirius. "She's got a welsh accent?"
"Of course she does," Sirius said looking at his friends in disbelief, "Don't tell me that you've never heard it?"
"Never," the other three said in unison.
"Well, then she could be in the circle of our suspects," Sirius said stroking the imaginary beard on his chin.
"Meh," Prongs frowned.
"Did you notice anything else about her that would help you recognize her," asked Peter, "You said you bumped into her, did you get a feel for her height, body shape . . ."
"Yes! I smelled her perfume." James answered after a few seconds of thinking and Peter's suggestive questioning.
"Well, that's it!" Sirius clapped his hands together. "Walk over and smell her!"
The others looked at him like he was mad.
"Ehm, Padfoot," Remus said like he was explaining how to add two and two to a small child, "What do you think would Lily do, if James came over and sniffed her?"
Sirius looked blankly at him before saying, "What's wrong with that? I do it all the time." The others groaned in unison.
"Well James is not a dog," said Moony. "That's your animagus form. You could go over and sniff her but -"
"Hey! That's an idea!" Sirius exclaimed interrupting his mild mannered friend.
"Sirius, please get your mind out of the gutter! Is it possible that you've got a perverted disposition towards this whole thing?" James tried to figure out.
"Now that you mention it . . ." Sirius wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
"Uahg. Padfoot! How disgusting!" his friends complained.
"I was joking!" he protested.
"Are you sure?" Remus asked skeptically.
"Yes!" Sirius said rolling his eyes before he suggested, "Why don't you use the cloak. Nobody will see you but don't sniff to loud." The eyes of his friends narrowed.
"I've never used your cloak for such purposes ever, James," he defended himself, "It's just a suggestion. No need to get your knickers in a twist."
"I guess the gates of hell have opened," Remus shook his head, "Padfoot had a good idea."
"I think the cloak is a wonderful idea," Peter agreed with Sirius. "You will be invisible!"
"Wonder why, Sherlock? Could it be because it's an Invisibility Cloak?" Padfoot laughed loudly.
"Hush!" Moony stopped him. "Okay, Prongs. Take the cloak." He suggested as well. And so it was settled.
"Why I didn't come up with this earlier," Sirius pondered when they went to Defense against the Dark Arts.
"He's a pervert, I tell you," whispered James to Remus, "He's trying to hide it with his stupidity."
XXXXXX
In the evening they waited in the common room for Aurelia to show up and put the plan into action.
"Where is she?" nagged James. He wanted to lift the secret that surrounded the unknown girl from the closet.
"Patience is a virtue," Peter murmured sagely and starred back on his essay, which he spent all afternoon and most of the evening on. Once in a while he glanced out of the corner of his eyes on the essays of his friends and scribbled feverishly further.
Time crept along slowly while they waited and finally Aurelia and Lily climbed through the portrait hole. They dropped their bags and sat down at a table to do their homework.
"Here's your chance Prongs. Go now before it's too late," whispered Sirius. "Now, do it!"
"Let them settle down," recommended Remus. "If they are into their homework it will be easier and they're less likely to notice anything."
"One of us sure knows his stuff," teased Padfoot, "Are you sure you haven't done this before Remus?"
"No, I don't go around sniffing random girls for any reason!" hissed Remus. "I just came up with a rational plan using logical thought. A quality, might I say, that you seem to be missing."
"So says the guy who transforms once a month into an uncontrollable beast that acts like it's never heard the phrase `logical thinking' ever," he hissed back.
"This from the guy who transforms into a dog to be with said beast and winds up chasing his tail during that one time a month until he feels sick," Moony said coolly glaring at the shaggy haired teen..
Sirius was about to reply when James cut him off, "You two fight like a, old, married couple. Shut up now and I'll get the cloak. Try not to kill each other while I'm gone." And he stood up and hurried up the stairs to the boy's dormitories.
Prongs went straight to his trunk, got the silvery cloak, and put over him. When he walked down the stairs he had to flatten himself against the wall to get out of the way of a third year that was walking up to the dormitories. In the common room he glanced over to Moony and Padfoot who had started to bicker again. He could hear snippets of their conversation, such lovely things like, "wolf in sheep's clothing," and, "walking flea circus."
Rolling his eyes at his two friends, James made his way carefully through the common room until he stood right behind Lily and Aurelia.
James carefully bent forward to sniff Lily. It wouldn't do harm, James thought, when Lily, without warning, pushed her armchair back. James suppressed a groan as it collided with his stomach. She looked confused that it stopped without a visible obstacle and she pushed back again more forcefully setting the chair on his big toe. Shrugging, she then took her essay again and started to read it over.
For several painful seconds, James stood with the heavy armchair on his big toe. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from letting out a heartrending cry of pain. He then carefully pulled his toe free and winced.
Shit, he thought, well, then not, Prongs gave up and turned to Aurelia. He considered carefully if she too would push her armchair back out of nowhere and decided to step to her side. Just to be on the safe side. Again James bent forward. But just that moment Aurelia yawned loudly and stretched her body. Her elbow hit James painfully on the nose and it cracked loudly.
"Ouch," he wheezed stumbling back and grabbing his nose. Aurelia and Lily looked up.
"What was that?" Lily asked looking around, her essay forgotten for a moment.
Aurelia looked to her side. "I think it came from right next to me," She claimed reaching out a hand blindly.
"Are you certain?" Lily asked looking at the empty space beside her friend.
"Yes," she answered hesitating and pulling her hand back, "I think I hit it with my elbow!" Lily and Aurelia looked around curiously, but nothing could be seen.
"Maybe we just imagined it?" Lily brooded and they listened intently. But they also couldn't hear anything.
"Well, I guess we just imagined it," Aurelia shrugged and glanced back down on her essay.
James felt something warm drip from his nose. Damn, my nose, he thought before he stormed, beaten and bloodied, up the stairs. When he opened the door he slipped inside and took the cloak off. His friends entered their room shortly after he did
"Wow. What happened to you," Remus asked and handed him a tissue.
"Aurelia yawned and hit me with her elbow in the nose. I think she's broken," James whined dabbing his injury with the offered tissue.
"Who? Aurelia?" Peter asked confused once again.
"His nose! Wormtail!" hissed Sirius. "Could you smell Lily?"
"Nope!" James said and felt his nose carefully.
"What did she do?" chortled Sirius, "Poke your eye with her quill?"
"No. She put a heavy armchair on my toe," James gestured to his foot, "I think it's broken too."
Remus shook his head. "Can't you do anything right?"
-->