"Maroon or cream?" Abbey asked, holding up two cardigans.
"Um, maybe... blue?" Rayna Zepeda answered, not looking up from the notepad she was doodling in.
"Not helpful, Rayna," Abbey chided, before turning to the little Fire Fox curled up at the end of the bed. "What do you think, Charlie? Maroon or cream?" Charlie's nose twitched as he gave each cardigan a sniff.
"Maroon, it goes better with the shirt, I think," suggested Rose Cambell, who had just entered the dormitory behind her.
"Thanks, Rosie," Abbey folded up the cream cardigan and put it away. "Gah, I'm so nervous. What if I say something wrong or something? Or I-"
"You won't," Grace assured her.
"And you're some kind of Seer now, are you?"
"I saw a club in the bottom of my tea the other day. Pretty sure that means that means that 'there is great happiness ahead'," Grace replied in a soft, wistful voice – her best impersonation of the current Divination teacher, Professor Moss.
"No, that's the sun. A club represents an attack," Rayna corrected, earning some surprised looks from her peers. "What? I sometimes listen in Divination."
"I thought you took it as a bludge?" asked Adelina. Her sister shrugged.
"There's going to be an attack... on Sam's heart?"
"Sounds good enough for me."
"I have one question; how exactly do you plan on sneaking into the Astronomy Tower without being spotted?" Grace asked. She would have offered her the Invisibility Cloak but the Marauders needed it for the full moon that night that was fast approaching.
"Ely's on hallway patrol tonight so he's going to try to keep the Astronomy Tower area clear of teachers and other Prefects for us long as he can, which means I should probably get going," Abbey explained. "I'll tell you all about it at breakfast." A chorus of farewells and 'good luck's filled the room as she made her way out of the door.
Grace glanced at the old grandfather clock in the corner of the dormitory. "I need to head off too. I promised the boys I'd meet them at seven."
"A night of pranking ahead?" Rose asked.
"Something like that."
---
Grace made it to the boys' dormitory just two and a half minutes before seven (she had stopped along the way to have a debate over whether Gurdyroot or Stinksap produced the worst odour with a painting of a middle-aged witch clutching a pot containing a sap-producing Mimbulus Mimbletonia). They wasted no time in huddling under the cloak as best they could with four teenagers of reasonable height and shuffling out of their dormitory, through the common room and out into the hallway.
When they finally reached the Shrieking Shack, however, they noticed that it was completely empty.
"Moony? Remus?" Grace called, poking her head into one of the small rooms that came off the main one. The shack looked completely untouched, save for the neatly folded stack of clothes for Remus to put on the following morning that had been placed on the coffee table, the only sign that he had been there recently.
"When did he leave for the hospital wing?" asked Peter.
"During Transfiguration," Grace replied, plonking herself down in a tattered brown armchair. "And I know he went in there because I walked him there myself."
"Then where is he? It's nearly time – he should definitely be here by now," said James, running a hand through his dark hair. "We're running out of time."
Grace sighed. "Maybe he went back to the dormitory-"
"We would've passed him on the way down," Sirius reasoned.
"Or maybe he's still in the Hospital Wing?"
"What if something's happened?"
It was then decided that James would run to the Hospital Wing and Peter to their dormitory whilst Grace and Sirius would stay behind in case Remus returned. As soon as the other two were out of the door, Grace got up from her chair and began to pace.
The shack was almost completely silent, save for the soft patter of Grace's sneakers on the wooden floorboards and the occasional creak from the walls. Neither Sirius nor Grace spoke, both far too caught up in their own heads.
Grace knew that there were only minutes before the full moon would rise and if Remus didn't return to the shack soon then all hell could break loose. If he shifted before they found him then he could end up tearing himself apart again or worse, attacking any bystanders. She knew he would never forgive himself if he turned or killed someone. As those few minutes ticked by, the knot in Grace's stomach grew larger and larger.
As she began her thirty-sixth lap of the cramped living room, the silence was broken by a shrill scream that pierced from outside the shack. Both Sirius and Grace's hands went to their wands as they made their way towards the door.
---
I probably won't update in the next week and a bit bc christmas and then I'm going away with family for a bit so Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it! Here in the land of Oz it's not going to be a bajillion degress on Christmas day for once which is nice.
I figured you guys deserve an update on how Sirius is going:
Also (I know I've asked this before but no one replied and I'm extremely curious so ima try again) what do you guys think I look like?
- Grace