A Woman's Wrath

***

"Please explain, gentlemen." James Potter sat up in his chair and looked across the huge mahogany desk. Albus Dumbledore's mouth looked stern under the flowing white beard, but looking at his blue eyes, James knew better.

The headmaster was amused.

"Well sir, it was a harmless prank! The side effects, weren't intended, well they were, but not as such..." James broke into his explanation of the events of the past two days, glancing at the shimmering cloth robe that lay off to the side of the table.

It was just a prank, though coming from the Marauders, it was anything but harmless. Infamous kings of mischief, star Quidditch players and brilliant minds, the Marauders kept the Hogwarts discipline system in check, getting into trouble of some kind or another at least once a week. As an end of the year celebration, James, Remus, Sirius and Peter had the perfect plan to get the Slytherins, almost a year in the planning.

***

"I'm telling you, tonight is the night!" James whispered excitedly to Sirius, Peter, and Remus, who nodded in approval.

"When should we go?" Sirius' voice was muted under the dull roar of the partying Gryffindor house. Looking around at the victory party spread out for the Quidditch team, James answered quietly.

"As soon as this is all over. I dunno what time the house elves leave, but we need their help..." James trailed off as a black haired girl joined the conversation.

"Sirius, doing anything now?" Celeste Warick, Sirius's girlfriend, looked around at the conspiring marauders, who instantly mimed innocence.

"No, nothing!" Peter raised his hands, as though proving they were clean.

"Erm, right. Just, er..." Sirius faltered, looking at James for help.

"Talking?" James offered helpfully. Celeste wasn't fooled.

"I smell your plots a mile away. I suppose I'll find out soon enough, even if you lot won't tell me. Oh, and Sirius, we need to discuss something."

Grabbing Sirius, she walked over to an armchair. James watched, half amused, half sickened as she pushed Sirius into a chair and kissed him. Even Peter was disgusted, murmuring under his breath.

"Whipped, totally whipped. Sad, isn't it?" The rest of the marauders nodded in agreement, as Sirius was smothered with Celeste's affections.

"Quite. We'll get him back in a while though, he'll say something dumb and they'll have had another row." Remus said, in a resigned voice. The marauders were accustomed to the strange relationship Sirius had with Celeste. James rolled his eyes, sighing.

"Women." Another solemn nod of agreement, and conversation resumed to normal talk of quaffles, bludgers, and the elusive snitch.

Sure enough, Sirius was back a few minutes later, rubbing what looked like a slap mark on his cheek.

"You didn't have to do that..." Sirius' voice sounded hurt, and it was all James could do to keep from laughing. He knew quite well that Sirius was faking his pain, and had most likely deserved whatever Celeste had done to him. Still though, Sirius had chosen the most notoriously dramatic and moody

girl in the school to date. The couple was an explosion waiting to happen.

Celeste shot a stony glare at Sirius, and stormed up the stairs to the girl's dormitory.

"What now?" Sirius waved his hand and rolled his eyes.

"Mad, that one. Absolutely barmy."

"That, Padfoot dear friend, we have known for quite a while." Peter patted his friend's shoulder in sympathy. Remus cleared his throat and brought conversation back around to the Grand Plot which the marauders were finalizing.

"More important things than Sirius' women are afoot. We have work to do."

Nodding their assent, the marauders turned back to the plot, whispering excitedly.

Lily knew something was up. As she watched the four plot silently to themselves, away from the party, she knew that the infamous plan she kept hearing about was about to be put into action.

Even the marauders wouldn't spend a victory party plotting in seclusion. James and Sirius were both on the team, and if Lily knew her prankster friends, they had a good reason for not partying like mad. She had a pretty good idea of what it was. Smart though the marauders were, they had a habit of leaving valuable clues around

Gryffindor Tower. As a result of the marauder's carelessness, Lily and her best friend Celeste always knew what the marauders were up to. The girl's knowledge of the marauder's plots drove all the boys crazy, but it especially irked Sirius. Sirius. As her thoughts turned to Celeste's boyfriend, she sighed. Celeste had just stormed upstairs, and Lily supposed Sirius had something to do with it. "I'd better go talk to her." Lily said good night to the fifth years she was talking to, and trudged up after Celeste.

"You in here, Celeste?" Lily called out through the red curtains. The room was empty except for Celeste; Simrit and Erin, the other two Gryffindor girls, were probably still partying downstairs. The redheaded girl walked over to Celeste's bed and sat on the edge.

"Why aren't you downstairs?" Celeste frowned, rolling her eyes in irritation.

"Sirius." Lily proceeded with caution, knowing that Celeste's relationship with the crazy boy was a very delicate matter.

"Ah...what did he do this time?"

"Told me he'd rather be planning his stupid marauders pranks than kissing me. And he put one of those dreadful fireworks on my chair." Celeste looked highly affronted, as she showed Lily the corresponding burn marks on her robes, her brow furrowed over her black eyes.

"Oh." There was some rather awkward silence as Celeste pouted and Lily searched for something to say.

"I have an idea!" When Celeste looked up, Lily's eyes were gleaming with a decidedly manic light. She walked over to her trunk, and pulled out a shimmering robe of iridescent blue. Celeste gaped at the sight of an invisibility cloak in her friends' hands.

"Where did you get..."

" Oh, I borrowed it from a certain Cara D'Angelis against a day like this. She never used it, so I've kept it safe for her. With the help of this little item, we can put even the marauders to shame, after all, we have the brains, they just were the ones with resources, until this year." Lily grinned at Celeste, who smiled wickedly.

"You know, this might work!" Lily and Celeste laughed evilly and began to plot a counter attack on the marauders.

It took quite a while, but the Gryffindor common room eventually emptied, except for the four marauders, sitting in armchairs, their entire minds devoted to the task they were about to perform.

"From now on, code names."

"Right on, Prongs."

"What's the time, Padfoot?" Sirius looked at his watch.

"Eleven thirty. Time to head out. Do you have the bottle, Wormtail?" Peter held up a small vial filled with a suspicious looking green liquid.

"Excellent." James nodded, and pulled the sacred invisibility cloak out from under his chair. "Get under it." Silently, the marauders squeezed under the invisibility cloak, and walked out of the portrait hole.

From the cover of Lily's invisibility cloak, Lily and Celeste watched the marauders creep out.

"This is going to be great." Celeste snickered. "James would kill for this, can you imagine the marauders with two?" Lily shuddered at the thought of the marauders with two invisibility cloaks. "He's going to kill when he finds out whose this cloak really is! You know how much he hates poor Cara, now?"

"Well, Cara means well, but..." Celeste stopped, not really wanting to insult Cara, although the truth of the matter was that she was overbearing and none too smart, and James had been perfectly logical in breaking up with her.

"Hurry up, it's going to be hard enough following them." Said Lily. The girls walked as quickly as they could out the portrait hole.

"Who's there?" The Fat Lady called out into the dark as Lily and Celeste crept out. Celeste turned around and whispered to the painting.

"Shhh! We're off after James, don't tell anyone!" The Fat Lady learned towards the girls and whispered.

"What are you going to do?"

"Make fools out of the marauders." The Fat Lady raised an eyebrow and looked skeptical, and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, well, good luck then. You'll need it, but I support your cause. They went that way." Pointing towards the right, the Fat Lady turned back to the book she had been reading.

"Thanks!" Lily murmured an appreciative word to the painting, who nodded mutely in return, not looking up from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

"Prongs?" James turned back to the space where he supposed Peter's head was.

"What?"

"Do you get the feeling we're being followed?" James thought about this.

"Not particularly, hurry up!"

Ten feet back, Lily and Celeste were biting their fists to keep from laughing. Celeste failed, and the marauders stopped suddenly under the cloak.

"I heard something!" There was a definite note of panic in Peter's voice.

"Take the cloak off a bit, I want to look around."

"What? You're nuts Padfoot!" Remus sounded scandalized at the very idea of removing the cloak.

"Come on, no one's out there!" urged Sirius.

"Well, if they were, they've heard us!" James said, hissing in a low voice.

"There is it again!" said Peter, hearing Celeste burst out in another fit of laughter.

"You know, that sounds like my girlfriend..." Celeste squeaked in fear at the sound of Sirius' guess.

"What, the psycho? No, she can't be out here." Lily had to clamp a restraining hand on Celeste's mouth as James spoke.

"Silencando!" Lily spoke the silencing charm quietly, and turned to shout at Celeste.

"Are you happy know? Sirius thinks we're here!"

"We are, aren't we?"

"Well yes, of course, but he isn't supposed to know!"

"Ah. Didn't they just hear you shout?"

"No, I put us under a silencing charm, it's like a sound barrier. Only you can hear me."

"Ah."

"Shoot, where'd they go?" Celeste pulled out her wand and whispered something to it. Lily watched in fascination as the wand spun over to a corridor on the left.

"That way."

"How'd you do that?" Lily gaped at the superior smile on her friend's face.

"Magic." Lily knew it was no use, Celeste could be quite stubborn. She sighed and walked off under the cloak.

"Sirius! Move your hands, man!" Lily jumped at the sound of James' voice echoing loudly through the dungeons where they were walking now.

"What? What'd I do?" Sirius sounded very confused.

"What is he doing now? Ouch, Lily!" Lily elbowed Celeste in the side.

"Shh, I want to hear this!" Celeste shut up, and Lily heard James' offended voice ringing through the stone corridor again.

"I'm your best friend and all, but I'm not like that!" Smiling, Lily pictured the scene under the invisibility cloak.

"What are you talking about? I'm the one with a girlfriend!" said an indignant Sirius.

"Humph!" Said Celeste.

"Yeah, and I'm going to tell her what you just did!" James sounded very revolted.

"He doesn't need to, I'm right here!"

"Shut it, Celeste! He doesn't know that!"

"All right! Seesh!"

"What did I just do?" It was Sirius again.

"You hand your hand on my arse!" Lily felt her eyes widen, and she burst out laughing.

"Was that what that was? Oh, terribly sorry, Prongs old man. I can't see what I'm doing in this damned cloak."

"Padfoot, honestly! I always thought you were the ladies man around here!" Remus sounded quite amused.

"I am!" As Sirius defended his manliness, Celeste snorted indignantly at her boyfriend's comment.

"You should be. Just keep off me!"

Lily turned to Celeste.

"How about that, right?" She was grinning at the conversation she had just heard. There was a great silence from Celeste.

"That was the most disturbing thing I have ever heard in my life. And I kiss that boy!" Lily felt Celeste shudder at the thought, and she laughed.

"Yuck. Hold it, they turned..."

The marauders walked for what seemed like ages, unknowingly followed by Lily and Celeste. Finally, they turned stopping in front of a still life of a bowl of fruit. James reached up and tickled the pear.

"There we are! Into the kitchen!"

"Good old Prongs. At least you know your way around the school." James bowed as he walked through the opening made by the painting. He turned around, thinking he heard another pair of feet hit the floor after him and his friends. No one was there. He turned back to the marauders, shaking the feeling of being watched off his back. Reaching up, he pulled off the invisibility cloak, and took a large step away from Sirius. He knew as well as Sirius did that the hand thing had been an accident, but he planned to milk it for all it was worth.

"Good, we can take this thing off now! And I can walk without my best friend feeling me up!"

"Yeah, Padfoot, you walk in front of us, and keep your hands where we can see them!" Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Ha-ha Wormtail. You're a riot."

Lily found Peter's joke funny as she stood under her invisibility cloak.

"Good thing you did that silencing charm, you can't seem to stop laughing tonight, Lily."

"I know, it's useful, isn't it?"

"Not that different from normal life though. Sirius doesn't listen to me when I'm visible, why should he when I'm invisible?"

"Good point. But James listens, you know. Remus too. The marauders aren't all bad!"

"That's just because James-y likes you!"

"He does not!" Fighting to sound nonchalant, Lily retorted.

"Well, you like him at any rate!" Lily didn't answer.

"I knew it!" Celeste sounded very amused.

"Oh shut up. Look, elf!" Sure enough, a little toga-clad creature made its way towards James.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, and Mr. Pettigrew, Sirs! I is happy to be seeing you again!"

"Hi Jenny!" Said Remus.

"We need you to help us."

"Anything for Mr. Black I will be doing, sir!" Lily watched, interested as Peter took the vial out of his robes again.

"We need you to show us where the Slytherins' food is!"

"What are you be doing to them?" Jenny the house elf's eyes filled with suspicion, something Lily hadn't seen very often in a house elf. She supposed that life with the marauders sneaking into your kitchen could make anyone suspicious.

"Nothing too bad." Lily cringed at the wicked undertone in Sirius' voice.

The house elf clearly wasn't falling for it. Jenny's huge blue eyes widened remarkably at that, and she shook her head sadly.

"I is not allowed to be letting people go putting things in food, sir. It is most bad for us, we is going to be getting in trouble!"

"Oh, come on! Please?" James was turning his full charm on. Even from where she stood, Lily could see him doing the puppy eyes, and she felt very grateful that she wasn't the house elf. That look always made her melt down.

"No, sir. I is very sorry, but I is not allowed.” James' charm seemed to have met its antidote.

"Oh. Well, could we get a drink and some cake, then?" Celeste groaned in Lily's ear.

"Typical Sirius, he wants food." Lily chuckled, and then pointed at the cloak lying on the floor.

"Celeste!"

"What?"

"The cloak! We can grab it!" Celeste laughed wickedly.

"Perfect, brilliant. Whatever happened to Lily the good girl?" There was a tone of admiration in Celeste's voice. Lily grinned, just for good measure, even though Celeste couldn't see her face.

"She met you! Come on! They're still arguing, we can get back with it!"

Silently, Celeste and Lily moved over to where the invisibility cloak lay ignored on the floor. Laughing out loud under the protection of the sound shield, Lily grabbed the cloak and jumped out of the portrait hole.

"G'night, boys!" Giggling, the girls set back off for Gryffindor tower, the marauder's prized invisibility cloak tucked safe under their arms.

"How can you do this to me?" Sirius did his best to sound defenseless and pitiful. The house elf sighed, and looked back up at the four marauders, all doing their best to look downcast and innocent.

"I is very sorry, sirs, but I can be getting sirs some food?" Jenny perked at the thought of doing something for the dejected marauders, and James sighed in defeat.

"Yeah, okay."

"I is thanking you sirs!" Jenny rushed off happily to get some food. James' eyes searched the room they were standing in for any means of pulling a prank. He stopped feeling someone tug on his arm.

"Prongs, over there!" Peter was pointing to a cauldron simmering away on a burner. James smiled wickedly.

"Wormtail, you are a genius! Vial?" Peter handed over the crystal vial, and James walked towards that cauldron.

"Wait a minute, do we know which one that is?" Hearing a tone of caution in Remus' voice, James stopped and looked at it.

"Not really, it's sort of green, so it must be Slytherin's, right? Calm down Moony, we can't get caught!" James poured the contents of the bottle into the cauldron, and heard a distinct simmering sound. He nodded to himself, and walked back to where he had been standing, just in time for Jenny to come back with a platter of pastries.

"I is bringing your food, sirs!" Jenny placed the immense platter on a little table, and Sirius rushed over at once.

"Great! Thanks, Jenny!"

"Good night, sirs!" Jenny rushed out of the room, presumably back into the main kitchen.

"Well, now what?" Remus sounded as though he was still miffed about James' not listening to him.

"Stay down here and eat!" said Sirius, through a mouthful of éclair.

"No, we'd better head back up. It's got to be almost three o clock."

Groaning, Sirius shoved a few pastries into a bag, as James got up and walked to where he had left the cloak. His stomach rose into his throat, and tied itself in a rather large knot.

"Um, guys?"

"Mwfhat?" Sirius was obviously still eating.

"Our cloak, is, well, gone."

A silence descended on the marauders as the other three came to look at the cloak that was not there.

"But how could it have...?" Remus trailed off, confused.

"I'm sure I left it right there!" It was impossible! Thought James, frantically.

"Look around, everyone!" said Sirius, walking over to the edge of the room.

James racked his brain for a way that the cloak could have disappeared. He stopped, remembering something that had happened earlier.

"Celeste." Said James, softly.

"What are you on about, Prongs? What's Crazy Woman got to do with this?" said Peter.

"Padfoot said he heard her, earlier. I bet she has something to do with this. Her and Lily."

"What? I said I thought I heard her, not I heard her. Big difference, Prongs. Plus, we would have seen her!" Sirius sounded very annoyed.

"I think we need to make a search of the girl's dorm room, when and if we get back alive." Said James, knowing what his friends would reply to that.

"Prongs, you're crazy. She couldn't have! I think you just want to get into Lily's room!" James frowned at Sirius' joke, and the smile on his friend's face faded a bit. Despite Sirius' arguments, James was still very

suspicious. He looked around for an alternate means of escape. Seeing none, he spoke again.

"I suppose we just need to walk back now. Silently!"

The four boys walked as quickly and quietly as they could, hiding behind tapestries along the way. After several very close encounters with Mrs. Norris, the boys finally got back to Gryffindor tower, where a very amused looking Fat Lady was waiting for them.

"So, you made it back?"

"Yes, we did. Shiver me Timbers." James said the password, and the portrait swung forward. He frowned, noticing that the Fat Lady was laughing.

"What's so funny?" asked Remus.

"Nothing, nothing. Go back to sleep." The Fat Lady managed to choke the words out in between laughter.

"She knows something." Muttered Remus.

"The women are plotting." James had to agree with his werewolf friend. He nodded, and spoke up again, sitting down into a fluffy red armchair.

"Is anyone tired?" The other three marauders shook their heads and sat down as well. "This has got to be the strangest night ever." Said Sirius, and expression of awe on his face.

"My dad is going to have my head, losing that cloak..." James didn't even want to think about what his father would say when he came home at the end of the year without the priceless heirloom.

"Look at it this way, Prongs. We pulled the prank off, and those Slytherins are going to have us to answer to at breakfast." Said Remus. Even James, in his dejected state had to laugh when he thought about the effects of the vial he had poured into the Slytherin's food.

"Hey, read this." James was shaken out of his thoughts by Sirius' voice, filled with anger. He tossed a piece of parchment on the floor, and James picked it up, reading out loud.

"Dear Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. It has come to our attention that the marauders no longer possess on Invisibility cloak, property of Mr. Prongs. Should the marauders wish to own this cloak again, it is advisable that they report to the South tower promptly. The cloak is located somewhere inside the top room. Regards,The Starflowers." A shocked silence settled over the marauders. James looked up, to see Sirius frowning with a venom he usually reserved for Serverus Snape.

"Starflowers, it's Lily and Celeste for sure. Lily's the flower, and Celeste, as in celestial, stars." Sirius spat the words out after some silence and thought.

"Well, I reckon we should head out then, get that thing back before they hand it in to the professors." James sighed, and stood up.

"I'll go alone, its easier for four people to get caught then for one."

"No, I'm coming too. Celeste..." Sirius could find no words to express his anger as he stood up.

"Well then, good night. I still have homework to finish." Remus walked up into the dorm, followed by Peter. Sirius and James stood alone in the tower.

"We should give them credit. I don't know how they did it, but I'm impressed." Against his moral standings, Sirius had to agree.

"Come on, then. Let's get this over with." James and Sirius trudged out again, past the Fat Lady, who was still laughing at them. Sirius could take no more humiliation, and lashed out at the painting.

"Oh shut up."