WHEN WE WERE YOUNG : marauders era

21. a midnight excursion

•[ Mareena ]•

We walk through the corridors under the invisibility cloak as quiet as we can. The people in the portraits snore and shuffle in their frames as James, Sirius, Remus, Peter and I walk towards the Hufflepuff common room. Well...the four of them walk while I simply stay in Remus' arms, my furry black body making me feel warm.

"Hmm... you can come along.. But the problem is, five people would be bit of a tight fit under this," James had said, holding up his invisibility cloak.

"That isn't a big problem then," I replied with a mischievous grin. And with that I transformed into my signature black cat form. It's my favourite.

I couldn't trust the other three to carry me. I just have a feeling that would be the death of me.

We pass the kitchens (it would be nice to have some chocolate pudding from there once in a while) and reach a stack of barrels. Apparently, to enter the Hufflepuff common room, which is located in the basement, we don't need a password.

The four boys seem to know what they're doing though so I need not worry. I look around with my blue beady cat eyes, just in case I catch sight of Mr Filch or his cat Mrs Norris. James taps on one of the barrels in some kind of rhythm and the doorway to the common room appears in front of us.

I hadn't been able to control my laughter when they had told me about their plan.

"Wait. So you're telling me, you want to transform their robes into bee costumes??!"

"Yup. I thought it will match their house symbol," Sirius had replied, looking proud of himself. It was his idea after all.

I stared at him with shock. I couldn't tell whether he was joking or being serious.

"I told him, Ree," Remus had said, rolling his eyes. "That the Hufflepuff house symbol is a badger, not a bee. It just doesn't get inside your head, does it Sirius?"

"I still think bees would be perfect though. After all, their colours are yellow and black."

So here we are, sneaking in the middle of the night to transform school robes into bee costumes. Brilliant.

"Okay," James begins saying excitedly as we enter the empty common room. "You guys know what to do right? Ree, you can go to the girls' dormitories. You know what charm to use, don't you?"

"Yup," I reply as I transform back to myself.

I walk quietly around the girls' dormitories and put a charm on their robes which are in the wardrobe. I see Evangeline and Grace sleeping quite peacefully as I make my way out of their dormitory. I honestly don't have any ill feeling towards them, but I do admit that it would be quite interesting to see them in a yellow and black stripped costume in the morning.

I meet up with the four of them back in the common room. We had decided to put the charms in such a way that the effect on the robes would last a week. Which means a whole week of amusing sights. That would be fun.

We make our way back to the Gryffindor common room safely a few minutes later. The Fat Lady hadn't been too happy about being awoken from her sleep though.

"I can't wait to see them tomorrow! It's going to be hilarious, I'm sure!" Sirius exclaims, hugely satisfied with the plan's success.

"Yup. We'll just have to wait a few more hours. Until then, let's reward ourselves with a good night's sleep, shall we?" James says with a grin.

The other boys agree and wish me goodnight, still smiling from the satisfaction of yet another productive night.

"Aren't you going to sleep, Ree?" Remus asks, a slight frown on his forehead.

"I'll go after a while," I reply with a smile. No I don't think so...

"Oh okay. Don't stay up for too long," he tells me with a smile.

I nod my head in response.

"Good night, Ree," the guys call out, as they make their way up the stairs.

"Goodnight."