That Year We All Changed...

Chapter Seven: We All Live in a Yellow Submarine

"In the town where I was born, lived a man who sailed to sea, and he told us of his life in the land of submarines. So we sailed on to the sun 'till we found the sea of green, and we lived beneath the waves in our yellow submarine. We all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine. We all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine..."

Ellie was idly flipping through the pages of a report she was handing into Professor McGonagall early, when two strong pairs of hands suddenly grabbed her and pulled her into the closet she just happened to be walking by.

"Holy crap!" the brunette exclaimed, blinking dust out of her eyes as she looked around at James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter, who were squeezed so close to her she could barely breathe. James clapped his hand over her mouth to quiet her, which only made her scream loudly and begin to kick.

"If you let go of her she won't make as much noise!" Sirius hissed, glaring at James. "And she'll stop kicking me... Ow! My shin!"

"Just be glad it wasn't your groin!" Ellie spat, once James had released her. "Why was I just kidnapped into a closet?"

"Because we wanted to make sure Catherine hadn't followed you," Sirius retorted, opening the door a crack to peek out.

"Catherine Sampson?" Ellie asked, making a face. "Why would she be following me? Why would I let her follow me?"

"I never said you'd let her," he replied, looking back to her... and trodding on Peter's foot in the process.

"Ow!"

"Shut up, you pansy! I want to hear this!" Ellie glared at the short boy in the little light they had. "Why would she be following me?"

"Because she's got a crush on me, and James, Peter, Remus, and Lily have all noticed her following them. I figured you'd be the next target."

"Oh, you're her newest victim? Anyway, I don't notice people following me. And when I do, I get accused of being a paranoid schizophrenic hyped up on Fizzing Whizbees." She shot a glare over in James' direction, covered her mouth, and gave a very loud cough, that sounded suspiciously like 'Honeydukes'.

"She's coming!" Sirius whispered, closing the door and glancing around at the other four frantically.

"I have an idea!" Ellie declared, jumping happily. "Mess up your hair!" The boys watched as she took her hair out of her ponytail and shook it around, managing to hit every single one of them on the face, finally following suit and running their hands through their hair violently. While they were doing this, she went around and messed up their clothes, making so that they looked like they'd either been through a fight, or... well, you can probably guess the other thing.

"This is just precautionary," she stated, looking over her handy work.

"You have to go out there!" Sirius stated.

"Why?!"

"So that we don't arouse suspicion!"

"I think me coming out of a closet might arouse some suspicion..." Ellie pointed out, even as she was shoved out into the corridor. She leaned against the door, and watched with a large smile pasted on her face, as Catherine approached her rapidly.

"She's coming..." the brunette muttered out the side of her mouth.

"Talk to her..." Sirius managed through the crack between the door and the doorframe.

"Hey! You!" Catherine shouted, running up to her. "Elliot, right?"

"Actually, it's just Ellie," Ellie replied, trying to covertly close the door that the four boys were trying to look out.

"Is something wrong with that door?"

"Yeah, I was just... looking over it. Filch is having me examine all the doors on this floor for detention. This one won't close. Guess I'll have to tell him about it!"

"You're friends with Sirius Black, aren't you?" the unnaturally-blonde girl asked, glaring down at her.

"Well... I guess you could call us that. It hasn't been the same since the, er... well, he doesn't like me talking about it." Ellie smiled innocently and made to leave.

"Tell me," Catherine commanded.

"Well... he got a little tipsy last New Year's Eve, cornered me, and kissed me." She giggled quietly. "But we're pretty much back to normal now." She kicked the door as it creaked slowly open again. "This door really needs to be looked at!"

"What's in there, anyway?" Catherine asked, trying to look over her shoulder through the crack. "And why were you coming out of the closet?" She pushed aside Ellie and threw open the door.

Catherine was greeted by four very sheepish, disheveled-looking sixth-year boys, all smiling widely.

"Oh my gosh..." She gasped, backing away slowly and staring at Ellie. "I'm telling Filch about this! You're not allowed to do that kind of stuff during detention!" She turned on her heel and ran down the corridor.

"Good thing I don't have detention..." Ellie muttered under her breath, even as Remus grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her, along with the other three in the group, to a nearby tapestry.

"We know a shortcut to Filch's office," Remus stated, as if in response to Ellie's unanswered question. She threw a confused gaze in the direction Catherine had run, before turning back just in time to see the tapestry disappear, to reveal a shaft behind it.

"How exactly do you...?"

She never got to finish her question, though, because she was shoved down the hole. It turned out to be a slide, polished smooth by generations of Hogwarts students doing exactly what they were trying to do.

She arrived at the bottom of the slide all too soon, falling on an unsuspecting James, and found herself suddenly sandwiched between Peter and him. There were two more jolts as Sirius and Remus landed on the pile, and Ellie groaned.

"It's kind of hard to breath," she managed as the boys climbed off her. Remus helped her to her feet, and she got a few stares as she stood.

"What?" Ellie asked.

"Your skirt..." Sirius managed, before the four boys exploded into bouts of laughter. Ellie looked down at her skirt. The hem had somehow gotten tucked into the waistline on the side, and her bright pink underwear showed through.

"Shut up!" she growled, blushing and straightening her skirt.

"Pink's a good color on you," James chuckled. "Whether it be in underwear or facial form."

The unpleasant look on Ellie's face sobered Remus, and he took her arm comfortingly, turning to glare at Sirius, James, and Peter before hurrying off to Filch's office.

As they approached the doorway, high-pitched whining could be heard. Very familiar high-pitched whining...

"...And she told me that she was in detention, checking the doors on that floor, and there were three boys in the closet she had just come out of!"

Ellie snickered and looked around the corner, just in time to catch a glimpse of the confused look on Filch's face, before she was pulled back by her robe by James.

"D'you want to get caught?" he hissed angrily.

"I never thought you, of all people, would care about that, Jimmy," she replied, trying very hard not to laugh. "It's hilarious! Filch has no idea what she's talking about!"

"Lemme see!" He shoved past her and stuck half his head past the doorframe. "Oh, my God! She's such a loser!"

"Miss Roget doesn't have a detention," they heard Filch reply. "I've suspected her hundreds of times, but I've never been able to get her for anything since her first year."

"Then why did she tell me she did?" Catherine whined loudly.

"I don't frankly care. No get out of my office before I give you detention for bothering me!" Filch hollered. The group had just enough time to shuffle a little down the hall and cluster inconspicuously before Catherine appeared at Filch's doorway.

"You..." the blonde growled, upon seeing Ellie's turned back. Ellie pulled herself together and turned to look at her, the picture of innocence.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you tell me you had a detention?"

"Well... I thought I did. I guess I must've mistaken Filch saying 'I'll get you for vandalism, Roget' for 'I've got you for vandalism, Roget'." She chuckled quietly, as if anyone could have made the mistake.

"You think I don't know what you're doing, do you?" Catherine asked, her eyes narrowing. This time Ellie was genuinely confused, and it showed. "You only hang out with these guys because you want a little action."

"Uh, if I wanted 'action', I think I would have gotten it a while ago," Ellie retorted, raising her eyebrows and crossing her arms over her chest. "Besides, it's not like I want to sleep with Sirius."

Catherine opened and closed her mouth several times in shock. She hadn't been expecting this sort of response to her confrontation. Normally people just cried, or whatever, when she did stuff like that. But they never stood up for themselves.

All she could do was scoff and turn on her heel, stalking off in the direction of the Ravenclaw common room to sulk quietly for a few hours.

"And I thought she used to be nice." Sirius shook his head. "There's a reason she's creepy, though."

"You know what she reminds me of?" Ellie asked thoughtfully, following the rest of them back to the Gryffindor common room.

"Dare we ask?" James asked, glancing over at Remus.

"I'm not sure we should risk it," he replied, looking to Sirius.

"Let the girl have her say." Sirius nodded generously at Ellie. "Go ahead.

"Thanks a lot, guys..." The brunette rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "She reminds me of a popular girl at a private school."

"Isn't that pretty much what she is?"

"Shut up, Potter, you have no idea what you're talking about."