long way to heaven || marauder ff

27- dungeons (&dragons?)

He wouldn't, she thought. He promised not to.

Finally, Elaine sighed, upon having contemplated the importance of her finding that damned room and James finding out things he shouldn't. "Deal", she answered, looking up at James expectantly. "Lead the way"

The marauder put up his smile again, clearly relieved at her answer. "Well, that means you get the honor of getting to know one of the most fantastic achievements the marauders have ever made"

Elaine quirked her eyebrow. "Besides letting Slytherins sing muggle songs for a week?"

As James pulled out a tattered parchment, he smiled almost creepily. "Much better", he promised.

His opposite only glanced at the very much empty parchment skeptically, unable to imagine whatever great achievement was hidden beneath it.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.", James whispered dramatically, tapping his wand on the paper.

Elaine gasped as the previously empty paper suddenly transformed, lines over lines appearing on the parchment, forming something that would only be described as a perfect map of the Hogwarts castle. One after another, rooms and corridors appeared, as well as little bubbles that moved around, displaying names beneath them.

"Is this accurate?", Elaine asked flabbergasted, watching as a banner moved towards the Slytherin common room, which was filled with names she knew to be in the house.

"Are you doubting our magic, Ellie?", James exclaimed in fake offense, once again bringing his hand to the wrong side of his chest.

"Left side, Jamesie, left side", Elaine told him absently, still trying to take in the extraordinary piece of magic she had just been presented with.

"To answer your accusation, yes, this is very much accurate. Took us bloody three years to get all the spells right", James explained, purposefully avoiding the topic of his lacking knowledge in anatomy.

"Well, I'm impressed", Elaine admitted, smiling at the boy nearly bursting of pride. She took a further look at the map, trying to make out where the potions room was located, before a thought shot through her head. "That's how you knew I was lost down here, isn't it?", she inquired, watching as James squirmed lightly under her stare. "Stalker", she snorted, not actually mad at the boy since he had saved her of positively dying.

"Well, your stalker just found you your destination. Let's go", the dark-haired boy exclaimed cheerfully, pulling Elaine by her arm as he dodged a few corners and pulled her through the dungeons, turning left and right at a speed that made the French sure that she would never be able to reach the room on her own.

Finally, they stood in front of a wooden door that opened to reveal a dark classroom filled with brewing cauldrons, their interiors featuring the most colorful of potions.

Most of them were simple ones, taught as part of the curriculum or useful for healing, though Elaine's eyebrows shot up as she took in the sight of three cauldrons at the far end of the classroom that were filled with different fluids, one of them showing all of the signs of an Essence of Insanity, a potion that was forbidden to be brewed outside of any classrooms as far as the Gryffindor knew.

Choosing to ignore who and why, Elaine let her eyes glide over the room until she found a few empty cauldrons standing close to one wall, causing her to walk over to those. James was following her like a lost puppy, clearly overwhelmed by the vast quantity of smells and fumes.

As Elaine reached her chosen spot, she began taking out ingredients from her magically altered bag. Most of them, she had taken with her from home, having stored them in her case for the previous months. As she began working on the most urgent potions she needed to brew, being her hangover cure and the painkiller potion, she looked up to smile at James, who had hopped up on a table opposite to her and was eyeing the girl with interest. "I'm just going to pretend I have any idea what you're doing", he laughed, clearly enjoying the role of the spectator.