I stood behind the locked door in a dark and empty room, breath heavy, and straining to hear just outside in the abandoned hallway.
"Come out, come out, where ever you are..." a voice taunted.
With every footstep echoing closer, my heart began to beat more violently within my chest.
They were coming for me.
The footsteps stopped just outside the door and I knew I had to hide, so I pushed myself into the darkest corner I could find as quietly as possible, praying they wouldn't hear my frantic heartbeat.
The voice mumbled some words I couldn't make out, and then the old wooden door to the classroom creaked open, allowing a dark figure to pad their way through the empty room searching for any sign of life. Searching for me.
I held my breath when the footsteps came closer.
It was my last hope.
"Ah ha! Found you!" said the voice in a triumphant tone, grinning and throwing a fist in the air.
"Ugh! Padfoot! How on earth did you find me here?" I whined, crawling out of hiding and squinting at the wandlight in my eyes. "You know it's against the rules to use the map!" I said, waggling a particularly feisty finger at him. Bloody cheater.
"You know I don't care about the bloody rules—but Prongs has it anyways, remember?" he said cooly.
I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest in disgruntlement and mutter an 'oh yeah'.
Then I pouted.
He still cheated somehow. I was sure of it.
"Oh c'mon! Let's go find the others!" He ran a hand through his dark hair then reached out to help me up. I was hesitant, mostly because I was bitter that he found me, but eventually accepted his help. Once I was successfully up off the ground, we walk together through the empty halls to find our other sneaky friends.
"You have the cloak don't you..." I said. It was more of a statement than a question. I knew he had to have followed me. My hiding spot was way too brilliant for him to find me that easily. I could see the corners of his mouth twitch, but he didn't reply. "Oh come on Pads, just admit it! You already found me!" I complained. Stubborn mutt still wasn't budging. "I want to use it to prank the others," I tried in a lower voice.
His looked down to me, eyes twinkling with mischief and his mouth tilting into a smirk. "I like the way you think, Snugs," he said as he pulled the silvery cloak out of his pocket and draped it over the both of us.
Ha! I knew it!
We walked along the corridors to one of our most frequently used hiding spots: a hidden room behind a painting of a group of wizards at a birthday party. Once we were close enough to the painting, we could hear muffled voices bickering.
Always a good sign.
We slowly and silently slipped into the room, unnoticed by the two quarreling persons within.
"Potter. You are absolutely insufferable! I was doing perfectly fine hiding on my own—Why can't you just leave me alone for one night!"
"Oh stop it Evans! You know you love the attention! Besides I was just trying to help!"
Even in the dimly lit room, I could see the red headed girl's face begin to blush. "By stalking me!?" she fumed, hands flailing in the air.
"Stalking you? Stalking you?!" he cried out incredulously. "I was not stalking you—!"
"Oh then what would you call it?!"
"I'd call it chivalry—!"
Their entertaining bickering was cut short by a soft "aahchoo" from the idiot beside me. I looked up and sent the idiot a glare as he smiled back sheepishly wiping his nose with his sleeve. Typical.
"What was that?" asked the red head as she instinctively clutched the arm of the messy haired boy next to her.
James looked down at his arm and smirked. "Oi! Sirius! You can come out now!"
Lily instantly let go of his arm and blushed once again.
Sirius slipped the cloak off of us and wadded it back into his pocket.
"Ellie!" squealed the red head as she bounded towards me to engulf me in a large embrace.
I sputtered to get her red hair out of my mouth before replying. "You act like you never see me Lils!" I chuckled. "We sleep five feet away from each other!"
She let go and then swatted me playfully. "You planned this didn't you!" she said, gesturing between herself and the messy haired boy.
Yes. Yes I absolutely did.
We, (Aka my fellow Marauders, Lily, Mary, Alice, Frank, and I) were planning our semi-annual-almost-middle-of-term game of Hide and Seek, when I came up with the most brilliant of plans. A plan made in the name of love!
You see, because we are sneaking about in the castle in the dead of night, we have to take certain precautions. The Marauders are allowed to use the Marauders map or invisibility cloak in emergency situations only, and are to keep these items a secret from non-marauder players... minus Lily, who is too nosy for her own good and somehow already found out about everything. You also are confined to the designated wings and floors determined at the beginning of the game. We love a good mystery, but we still want to find everyone.
Game ends at 3am. If you haven't been found by then, you win and you are supposed to head back to the common room. Winner gets bragging rights and maybe some free butterbeer or something.
Now, let's back up to the whole brilliant plan I had.
It is a well known fact that Lily Mae Evans and James Fleamont Potter are destined to be together. The only one who doesn't know is Lily. So, I suggested that James take the map and check to see where Lils was during the game. It's not stalking... technically.
"Err... I may have had a part in this... yes... but it was James's idea!" I lied defensively. She thwacked me once again. Man, that girl could be a great beater if she ever got over that aversion to flying of hers.
Once we had James and the map, it didn't take long for us to spilt up and find the rest of the group. We all made our way back to the common room sometime around 2am.
Exhausted from our late night adventures, I threw myself onto the couch by the fire dramatically, soon followed by Sirius.
"You know what I could really go for right now?" he asked as I hummed in acknowledgment. "Some hot chocolate."
"Mmmm that actually sounds really good," I said with my eyes closed as I make myself more comfortable in the squashy sofa.
"Let's go to the kitchens!" he said in much too loud a voice, jostling the couch as he starts to get up.
"Can't. Move. Too. Tired," I said with my eyes closed.
"Ohhh come on, Ellie!" He tried to pull the arm I was using to snuggle with a pillow. Rude much?
"Stahp..." I grumbled in annoyance, pulling the pillow tighter to my chest.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. You pick."
"Do either require me to walk?" I mumble.
"No," I could practically hear him smirking.
"Fine, the easy way," I said, knowing he would force me into going regardless.
"Alrighty, hop on!" he said, leaning down for me to climb on to his back. I reluctantly move to wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist, still clutching my squishy pillow. "You're gonna have to leave that here, Snugs."
After a long moment, I reluctantly threw the pillow onto the couch and rested my head on his shoulder. "Well what are you waiting for? Giddy up!"
I could hear his light, bark-like laugh rumbling from his chest. Readjusting his hold on his passenger, he lightly and walked over to a sleepy James and Remus in the loveseat on the other side of the common room. "We're going to the kitchens for hot chocolate, want anything?"
"Nah, we're going to bed now anyways," James yawned. "But here, take the map, I saw Filch stalking around near the dungeons."
"Thanks prongsy, g'night Moony!" he said waving to a semi-conscious Remus who responded with a grunt and a half-executed rude hand gesture.
Sirius, my most annoying best friend, draped the invisibility cloak over us once more before heading out of the portrait hole and padding down the stairs to the kitchens.
"You still awake Ellie?" he whispered.
"Mhmmmmph," I hummed into his shoulder. I could feel him chuckling quietly. He's always found my sleepiness entertaining.
We came to a stop when we reached the painting of various fruits that hid the entrance to the kitchen and the glorious hot chocolates that awaited us, and Sirius slipped off the cloak and tried to get me to climb down.
I refused and clung on to him tighter.
"Someone's clingy," he teased.
"Shut It Black."
He tickled the pear making it giggle adorably then stepped into the kitchen and were met by a couple of house elves.
"Oh! Master Black! Lady Greengrass!" squeaked the House elf excitedly.
"Hey Tipsy! Do you think you could get us a couple of Hot Chocolates?" asked Sirius.
"Oh yes! Tipsy will gets them right away master Black!" she said before scurrying off.
I finally let go of my iron grip of Sirius to sit at a wooden table a little ways away.
Tipsy brought over our hot chocolate and I took a sip relishing it's delightfulness. "Mmm mmm, this was a good idea," I said with a smile on my lips causing Sirius to chuckle, clearly amused by my sleepiness.
Once we finished our drinks, I hopped back on to Sirius's back and we made our way back through the castle to Gryffindor tower.
The common room was completely empty when we returned and I was dreading having to go back up the stairs to the girls dorms. Sirius let me off on the girls' stairs, but instead of climbing up as intended, I just curled up on the steps.
"Ellie, you can't sleep here," Sirius laughed.
"Why not?"
He ignored my question and asked, "Are you really going to stay there all night?"
"Duh."
"Well then you leave me with no other choice," he sighed as he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.
"Hey!" I complained as my already crazy blonde hair fell into my face.
He carried me up the to the boys dorm and finally set me down on his bed. I crawled under the cozy covers happily as he grabbed a spare pillow and blanket and curled up onto the floor next to me. "Goodnight Elizabeth." he said
"Goodnight Sirius."