Safety From a Distance

"Well, you see, Professor, we were just having a midnight stroll! Would you care to join us?" Padfoot said, pulling those eyes that he's very good with. Along with the smile, no one can resist the smile, no matter what sex you are.

    "Mr. Black, it's not even close to midnight, and of course I would not join you! That would be saying that I accept you breaking the rules! You should be in the Gryffindor Tower, where the rest of the students are, and you should know that there should be no wandering in the corridors after dinner! That's 25 points from Gryffindor!"

    "But Professor-"

    "Buts are your behinds, now those behinds will be losing more points, Mr. Black, if they don't rush up to Gryffindor Tower now!"

    "Oh, Professor, don't mind Sirius, he's a bit nutters, as I'm sure you know! I mean, why else would we be bustling about in the hall after dinner was over? We were going to just be getting back to Gryffindor Tower, but we had decided to take the scenic route!" Then I bent over to the professor and whispered, "I was really trying to get Sirius to come back, you know how he gets sometimes, overactive he is, I was only watching him like a good friend!"

    "Mr. Potter, sometimes you are too much! But the rules still stand, you are still losing the 25 points, and perhaps more if I still see you when I count to ten."

    "1..."

    "Come on, Sirius! Let's go!" I said, and then we both took off down the hall admist McGonagall's counting.

    "Prongsy, this is ridiculous, and by the way, what did you tell the Professor?" Sirius asked me. I turned to him and grinned, to only speed up with him right behind me.

    "Did you tell her I was crazy again?" Padfoot asked, his voice squeaky in astonishment.

    "Well-"

    "What do you mean 'well'?"

    "Sort of!"

    "Prongs! Now she's really going to be watching me in Transfiguration. That's not fair! You're going to get it now!"

    "Not if you can't catch me!" I yelled to his ramblings, and then I started running as fast as I could. Sirius was just behind me, and I could see Hufflepuff's ahead, returning from a late dinner.

    "Watch it!" I yelled at them, but they turned to me and stayed in my way anyhow. Apparantly they liked Sirius better.

    "What's the magic word, James?" a Hufflepuff seventh year asked me as I tried to dodge Sirius.

    "Please?"

    "No, sorry, wrong answer!" she grinned as she stood where she was. I jumped again, as Padfoot started laughing, and grabbed his wand. I started laughing, too.

    "Hufflepuffs are the best?" I said anxiously, hoping to avoid a devious spell that Padfoot concocted.

    "How right you are, James, now you may pass, but you didn't manage to avoid Sirius' spell."

    My eyes widened, and I turned back towards Sirius, who was grinning benignly. He motioned with his head towards my bottom, and I noticed that I wasn't wearing my pants, but chaps. I rolled my eyes, was this all that Sirius could do? I expected better.

    "Padfoot, my boy, you're letting yourself go. What happened? Chaps? Really."

    "I know, Prongs, I'm losing my touch. Thank you, m'ladies, you have been most helpful."

    "Anytime, anytime. Oh, and James, thanks! Hufflepuffs are the best," that same seventh year said. I mimicked her and continued on, now feeling a slight draft through my boxers. I was just happy I wasn't wearing the ones that light up.

    "Prongsy, Prongsy, Prongsy..."

    "What, what, what?"

    "Chaps look good on you, you think Lily will like them?" Sirius asked.

    I turned red, and I glared at Padfoot. The very thought of Lily seeing me in chaps was embarassing. Especially because I had boxers on underneath! At least they weren't tighty-whities...

    "Jamesie, don't worry, I'm sure Lily won't be paying any attention, but that may be due to the fact that there will probably be so many people crowding around you, to get a look at your whanger."

    My face coloured, and I told him to go screw himself. Really, it's a love/love realtionship. I continued on until I got to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

    "Oh, Prongsy, I know you don't mean that, but let's go in, see how everyone's doing!"

    "Not until you put my pants back on. You know I left my robe in the dorm!"

    Sirius chuckled, and said the password instead. (Pickles!) Then he walked in and left me! He just left me out here! Oh, how nice of him... he's left the portrait hole open for me.

    "C'mon, Prongsy, I've not got all day!"

    I sighed, then tried to change the chaps back myself. Bloody hell! They won't change! They won't change!

    "Padfoot!"

    "Is that James?" a voice asked. Remus poked his head out of the portrait hole, and then he started laughing.

    "That's really brilliant, James, although, I don't think you should be wearing boxers underneath. You do see how they fluff out, don't you?"

    "Oh, shut it, Moony!"

    "You might as well come in, I imagine the Professor will be by any minute. I assume you got caught, as I saw that a whole mess of points was missing."

    "It wasn't a 'whole mess' as you say it, only twenty-five, and that's twelve and a half each for Padfoot and I."

    "Yes, whatever, I never lose that much, so that gives me the ability to make fun of you two. So are you coming in or not?"

    I sighed to show my resignation. I nodded compliently, and made my way in. Padfoot was lounging on my favourite squishy armchair, just to peeve me, and he grinned as he pointed to the person sitting on the couch. Lily was sitting on the couch talking to Peter, who was oblivious to the fact that I was stranded outside.

    Well, before I could give myself away, Padfoot did for me.

    "Jamesie! Whatever took you so long?"

    Oh, jolly! Now everyone can see me and all my glory! Well, not neccisarily. I mean, I do have chaps and boxers on.

    "Oh, wow, those are just spiffing!" Holly, a fifth year prefect said when she came down the stairs. She grinned wolfishly, and winked at me. I coloured to that of a tomatoe, and I laughed nervously. I glanced out of the courner of my eyes, and saw that Lily was staring at me, not really any emotion on her face at all.

    "I'm just going to go upstairs now..." I said, and then I tried to walk calmly up the stairs, but I'm sure you could tell that didn't work. I did get Padfoot back, he now had to wear chaps, too. Not original, but when you're hard-pressed for time, it wasn't easy to be very imaginative.

    When I got to the dorm, I went to the bathroom and tried to take off the chaps. They weren't having any of it, and so I couldn't take them off. I'm positive I was making a big fuss, so instead of me hopping all over the place, trying to get them off, I summoned sissors, and tried to cut them off. Sadly, that didn't work either.

    Remus came in the room, and sat down on his bed. He watched me intently, his eyes flickering from the pants to the sissors, to me pacing.

    "If you take yours off of Padfoot, I'm sure he'll take those off of you," Remus said, leaning back on his pillows.

    I rolled my eyes, I was going to let him suffer, just like I was.

    "If you must know, Padfoot is living it up out there, he doesn't mind the chaps, so did the whole get-up and put on a plaid shirt and some boots," Remus said, practically reading my thoughts.

    "Moony..."

    "Quit whinging. I can change them back for you."

"Really? Then please do it, I feel humiliated, don't you know."

    "You? Humiliated, please! How could that happen? It's not often you get embarassed, how could this little incident really humiliate you? I can't be because of Lily. As far as I could tell, she didn't care."

    "Well, that boosts my ego, now could you please?"

    "Fine! If I must, then I must." I watched as Moony raised his wand, and with a swipe and a few silent words, my pants from before were on. I grinned happily and fell on my bed.

    "Thanks, Moony. I owe you one."

    "You can get me a bar of Honeyduke's Chocolate, I hear they've a new kind with these walnuts that are soaked in honey. I'd love a bar."

    I nodded, my euphoria couldn't be dampened, no matter what happened.

    "Oh, Moony, Padfoot and I found another passage. Well, actually we found two, but I accidently found out how to get into one of them. With much help from Padfoot. We were on our way back to get you and Peter to go look at it, and then we ran into McGonagall, and I told McGonagall Padfoot was crazy, then Padfoot gave me these chaps, and you know what happened after that."

    Moony nodded, and then he smiled, his teeth were unnaturally white. "I want to see it tonight, we can tell them later. I'm sure you don't want to go down there now. We can let everything die down a bit before you see them again."

    I laughed, my gratitude towards Moony evident in my posture.

    "If that's the case, I'm getting some sleep. Wake me when you guys are ready."

    Moony nodded, and walked out the door, grinning mysteriously. Sometimes, I just didn't know what happened in that head of his. It was like he was a walking enigma. Like other people I know, but she'll remain nameless.

    I got undressed and into my pyjamas. I was lying down, reading a muggle fantasy that tried to adaquetly explain magic in a sense of wonder and excitement of some sort, when Padfoot walked in, with a hat a-top his head.

    "Prongsy, I see that Moony helped you out. Don't know how that bugger figured out my spell, I had made it to where it couldn't be reversed, but he's figured it out again. Blast him, but I've got a note from a special someone for you! I'm quite jealous, I hope you know, but I suppose that since you're my best mate, I won't let a girl come between us."

    I sat up and looked at Sirius expectantly. If this was a note from Lily, I'd gladly set my book down to read it instead.

    "Here, tell me what it says. I've a good heart, and I didn't read it."

    "Hmm... I wonder what she threatened to do to you."

    "Show a fake picture of me in the shower! I mean, how would she get that, and it wasn't me anyhow!"

    "Cold shower?"

    "Yeah," Padfoot answered dejectedly. He sat down opposite me, and fiddled with his plaid shirt. He looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to read it.

    I opened the note up and read it quickly. It only said a couple of words, but they put me back on my happy cloud.

    "Looks good on you."

    "Well, what did it say?" Padfoot asked me anxiously, somehow acquiring a piece of straw and was chewing on it. He looked like a horse.

    "It said 'Looks good on you'."

    "That's all?"

    "Yes," I said grinning. I folded it back up and put it in my drawer on the bedside.

    "That isn't worth blackmail..." I head Padfoot mutter. He glanced at me, then said, "I want to throw a party!"

    "Where did that come from?" I asked him, picking my book back up and tried to continue reading.

    "I just think we should have a party, I feel like we should do something or something!"

    "Something or something... well, I've an idea, let me read, and I'll change your chaps!"

    "Okay, but I happen to like the chaps. Although, I would've picked tight leather ones, and I could've just taken off my shirt and let everyone admire and envy my wonderfully toned body."

    "Or you could not, but here," I said, then waved my wand and he was back in his normal pants. He changed back the rest of his clothes, and stood up.

    "I guess I'm off to the Common Room, I wouldn't want to disturb our little Jamesie, now would I?"

    "I guess not, now you can leave, you've done all that you've came to do."

    "Yes, well ta-ta, Jamesie!"

~*~

    That night, when Wormtail woke me up, we all crept down the stairs and out into the corridors.

    "Alright, Prongs, Padfoot, where was the room?" Peter asked, probably thinking up a visiual map of Hogwarts.

    "It was on the second floor cooridor, a few paces before the stature of Helga Hufflepuff," Padfoot answered, most likely thinking about how he fell through the wall. I nodded, and told the same.

    "Now, how was it you got in," Remus asked, sniffing the air. His senses were also heightened during human form.

    "A nook in the wall. My finger got stuck, and when I pulled it out, Padfoot fell through."

    "Padfoot, do you remember what was in the room or what it was like?" Moony asked, his eyes now on Sirius.

    "No, it was dark. I couldn't tell you if it was even bigger than a closet."

    "Well, that's just wonderful," Peter answered. I turned towards him, thinking that he was talking about Sirius not being able to see, when I saw that his foot was stuck.

    I walked towards him, and he grinned weakly. "Trick stairs, I always forget about it. Mind giving me a hand?"

    I helped pull him out, and we walked up the stairs to the second floor. When we got there, I started running my hand along the right side of the wall, feeling for that particular nook. I couldn't remember where it was, and the fact that we lived in a castle didn't help, because there were bound to be more than one.

    "Okay, the statue is right there, and the last thing I saw before I feel into the room was a chandelier," Padfoot said.

    Peter and Remus started to look up, and there were four chandeliers only in this section of the cooridor.

    "Alright, we each take a chandelier, and find a hole!" I said, I personally couldn't wait to find the room.

    I was looking ferverently for the nook, when I head Peter give a gasp of surprise. I turned towards him, and Padfoot and Moony were already beside him. I hurridly walked towards them, and saw that Peter's hand was partly through the wall.

    "C'mon then, let's go!" Padfoot said. He grabbed his wand, uttered 'lumos', and walked through. Peter followed him, then Remus, and then me.

    What I saw was astonishing. It was a grand room, bigger than the Gryffindor common room, and it was decorated in blue and bronze. I turned around and stared. Tons of books were everywhere in elaborate bookshelves, and there was a great, wooden desk at the corner of the room, and a four poster bed, with sheer blue hangings.

    "I think this was made for a Ravenclaw," Moony said needlessly.

    "I wouldn't have guessed that at all," Sirius said sarcastically. He went to touch the bed, which was blue with bronze trimmings. I-instead-went to the bookshelves and looked at the many books with glittering titles.

    "Look at this fireplace," Peter said. I walked over to stand beside him, and it was pewter, with intricately carved eagles. I held my wand closer for inspection, and saw a latin phrase incarved on the mantle.

    "Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi, sed saepe cadendo."

    "Hey, Moony, come see what this says," I called. I beckoned Remus to come see, and he glanced at the inscription, his eyesight far better than mine, could read without the wand right up close to the mantle.

    "The drop hollows out the stone by frequent dropping, not by force; constant persistence gains the end," Moony said outloud for us. Then he repeated it so we could hear him.

    "I wonder why they'd put that on a fireplace," Peter asked insquisitively, not really speaking to us at all.

    Remus shrugged, and he bent down to look at the fireplace once more. He motioned for us to look at the bottom, and there were other carvings there, but not of eagles.

    "Look, it's the Hogwarts symbol. And here, it's the house symbols by themselves. I wonder why a Ravenclaw room would have all the symbols together?" Wormtail explained, his right hand touching them.

    "Perhaps because this room belonged to a founder," Moony said, standing up.

    I glanced at him, and he was staring at Padfoot who was looking at the desk.

    "Guys, come see what I've found," Sirius said quickly. I didn't need to see to know that Sirius was afraid.