Better - The Marauders

SEVENTEEN

"Oh, I'm sorry Padfoot let me turn my steps down." James retorted sarcastically whilst his voice echoed around the corridors. Elladora brought her foot back, stepping on both of their feet to shut them up, Filch would come jogging around the corner if they kept it up. "Ouch."

"Hey, I'm the birthday boy." Sirius pouted.

She ignored him held tightly onto the bucket of toilet paper as Remus and Peter kept the cloak up from the front and back. They were close now, but of course Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, had to come around the corner.

Knowing this corridor like the back of her hand, Elladora quickly snatched the cloak from above their heads, revealing themselves, the boys squeaked in protest but she quickly pushed them into a closet.

"Deja-vu?" Sirius wiggled his eyebrows as they all squeezed in and he and Elladora were squeezed up against each other again. She gave him a look before looking away, towards the door.

"Was there a reason you needed to snatch the cloak?" James whispered.

"Yes, if we still had it held up, we wouldn't have been able to fit inside here." She said, he thought over it for a second and opened his mouth to say something, maybe even argue. But footsteps quieted him.

Sirius and Elladora both felt a wave of familiarity as Filch stalked past the cupboard, muttering things under his breath as the group held theirs. "There's nothing here my precious." He said and the corridor was quiet once more, leaving Peter to poke his head out, seeing it empty an deserted. He waved a hand to his friend and one by one, they piled out of the cupboard and Elladora draped the cloak back over their heads.

They travelled the rest of the ways to the dungeons and stopped outside of the stone wall. "Serpens." The girl whispered and the stone wall rumbled slightly, until it parted, being sucked into another wall. It opened and the five of them stepped into the green common room.

The boys hadn't ever been in here before, causing them to stare around, open-mouthed as they examined the torch-lit walls, the green couches and the odd looking antiques that were scattered over the mahogany cabinets. Elladora grimaced at the place as if it left a sour taste in her mouth, which it did. She hated the common room, yes it was comfortable and had all the finest furniture, but it just reminded her even more of her family, the constant ridiculing, the constant teasing and the constant torture.

"Right," Elladora whispered, placing down the bucket in the middle of the floor. "Let's fuck things up." She grabbed a roll and slipped off up the stairs, towards the girls dormitories.

"Badass." All four boys sighed in a quiet voice as they watched her walk up the stairs. James picked up a roll and handed it to Sirius. "Happy birthday, mate." He grinned and Sirius grinned back and got started.

So Elladora took all of the girls dormitories, being extra stealthy whilst she went around the beds, carefully looping toilet paper around the four posters and the rest of the room. Peter, the one less likely to bump into anything, took the boys dormitories, even though he was extremely nervous to do so.

James and Sirius took the common room, putting the paper everywhere, over the sofas, around the artefacts, twisting it around the chandelier. And they all did it without magic, just normal pranksters, it was fun, exciting even.

Elladora was halfway down the stairs back to the common room, when the stairs turned into a slide and she toppled down it with a yelp of surprise, falling to the bottom of the slide but bumping into someone's legs, sending them to the floor too. She looked up to see James Potter lay on top of her whilst she harshly shoved him off, hitting his shoulder. "After six years, you don't know that boys aren't allowed up to the girls dorms?" She whispered, pushing herself off of the ground.

"I thought it was only for Gryffindors." He raised his hands in defence, taking Remus' hand that he had offered to help him up.

"We were coming to get you to see if you were finished." Sirius said and eyed the empty cardboard cylinders sticking out of the pockets of her robes. "Which you have, let's go."

Elladora looked around the common room in satisfaction, there was toilet paper everywhere and some food splattered all over the walls. She nodded at the mess they had made and exited the Slytherin common room, stepping out into the corridor quietly and covering themselves with the invisibility cloaks.

"Best birthday ever." Sirius grinned whilst he whispered and they set off down the hallways.

"It's not over yet, mate." James patted him on the shoulder. "We've still got loads of Honeydukes candy in the dorm." He said and threw an arm over Elladora's shoulder, she didn't object, which all four boys saw as massive progress.

She left it there but made no move to edge closer. They reached Gryffindor Tower and Remus said the password, letting the fat lady in the picture swing open, revealing a hole in the wall which they walked through.

Once the portrait had closed behind them, they all let out sighs of relief, taking the cloak off. The boys' hair was ruffled due to the friction of the material rubbing against their hair, Elladora's hair, however, looked perfect as always.

They went up the stairs and into the dormitory. "You've cleaned." Elladora commented as she grabbed a large blanket that was on Sirius' bed. Peter threw her a pillow and she fixed a make-shift bed next to Remus'. "It's much more appealing."

"Was that..." Sirius started, sitting up his bed. "Sarcasm?"

"I think it might've been, Padfoot." James swung around his four-poster bed, looking at the girl on the floor. "She's growing up so fast." He wiped a fake year as she grabbed a pillow off of Remus' bed and chucked it at him. The boy caught it and blew her a raspberry.

Peter then threw one at James just as he threw the one he was holding to Elladora, but instead it hit Remus, who threw it back to James, who fell back onto Sirius' bed. Soon the five were all in a small pillow fight. The boys were laughing but Elladora was still straight-faced and good-postured, but she was having fun, she was feeling just a little bit happier.

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