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The Misadventures of Padfoot and Prongs

Being Enigmatic Is More Fun

"Mr. Lupin, Mr. Potter," the boys looked up from their conversation, "You both are free to go. I'll see you next month, Mr. Lupin. Mr. Potter, do remember that next time you have a broken wrist, you're not to try to fix it yourself! Come straight to me, I can mend bones in a heartbeat."

"You can count on it, Madam Pomfrey!" James and Remus rose from their beds and quickly charged into the hallway, making their way to the Great Hall while still in their pajamas.

They spotted Sirius immediately; he was sitting with Peter in their usual seats.

"Hello, mates!" James said, sliding in the seat next to Sirius and piling food onto the plate in front of him. Sirius looked them over and started to laugh.

"Nice jim-jams," he said.

"Glad you approve, Sirius." Remus said, sitting next to Peter at the other side of the table.

"I may have some good news, mates," said Sirius, leaning forward towards his friends and lowering his voice slightly. "I may have found the girl to help us with our little pageant."

"Let me guess," said James. "The pretty Ravenclaw you partnered up with earlier today?"

"What pretty Ravenclaw?" Peter wondered aloud.

"Her name's Lyra. I worked with her in Astronomy today after someone ditched me for a certain redheaded Gryffindor," Sirius emphasized this statement by looking pointedly at James.

"That's pretty low, Prongs," Remus said, shaking his head. Peter stayed silent, preferring not to pick a side in fear of offending anyone.

James raised his eyebrow and turned to Sirius, "It turned out well in the end, right mate?" Sirius just shook his head and smiled.

"So where do we go from here?" asked Peter. "About the pageant, that is."

Sirius answered him, "We need to go to Hogsmeade. After dinner. There is a tailor in there that we can get our dresses made at, and then Zonko's may have a wig for James."

"If not, we can probably order one. I'm sure there will be ads in the Daily Prophet or Witch Weekly," Remus said.

"What about the make-up though?" Peter asked.

"That's where Lyra will come in, granted she agrees to it," said Sirius.

"She hasn't agreed yet?" James looked confused. "I thought you said you'd found the girl who would be helping us."

"Well, I think she'll do it. I haven't asked her yet," said Sirius. "I was going to ask her when I saw her in the library, but-"

"You saw her in the library? When was this?" Remus asked.

"Not long ago. About an hour. But my point is, I didn't ask her because I didn't know how to without her thinking we're a bunch of transvestites."

"You might as well be," said Remus with a smirk. James and Sirius just rolled their eyes and continued with their dinner.

A slam was heard throughout the Great Hall and the four boys', along with everyone else's, heads shot up.

Lyra looked around as a pink tint hit her cheeks. Bowing her head, she walked hurriedly from the gigantic oak doors to the Ravenclaw table. She sat down, conveniently right behind James, which gave Sirius his perfect opportunity.

"Lyra," Sirius called out and the girl turned around. "James and I need to ask you something, but not in front of everyone. Mind sitting over here for a second?" With a quizzical look on her face, Lyra acquiesced and took a seat next to Sirius.

"Is this about what you wanted to tell me earlier?" She asked.

"Yes," Sirius paused and took a deep breath. "Now, this is going to sound absolutely mental, but first I have a question to ask." When he didn't continue, James gave him a light shove on the shoulder. "Are you good at applying make-up?"

Mild shock crossed her face before she answered. "Yeah, I suppose I am. Why?"

"Well, James and I've got a bet going. He joked about wanting to join the Holyhead Harpies, so I said he looked enough like a girl to fit in, he said my hair was too long for a guy, and now we've got a wager on which of us looks more like a girl. So, we decided to put it to the test. And we'll need your help," It all came out in a bit of a ramble, but Lyra seemed to have caught on.

"And you want me to do your make-up."

"And our hair."

"His hair, my wig," said James.

Lyra reached out and gently tugged on James' hair, judging the length.

"James," she spoke after inspecting his hair, "I know a simple charm that'll give you more length. Then we can cut it back when this is over."

"That'll save us time and galleons," Remus said.

"So you'll help us?" Sirius asked the girl.

"You said it yourself; I'm a helpful person," she said. "When and where exactly will you be wanting me to do this?"

"Not quite sure on the 'when', but I think I know where," James said, and turned to speak to his three friends, "The Room of Requirement. It'll give us what we need."

"Room of Requirement? What is that?" Lyra gave them a curious look.

"You mean to tell me that a clever Ravenclaw such as yourself doesn't know about the Room of Requirement?" Sirius asked, slightly surprised. He couldn't recall the last time he knew something about Hogwarts a Ravenclaw didn't. "The Room of Requirement is located on the seventh floor across the tapestry depicting the attempt of Barnabas the Barmy to teach trolls ballet. The thing about it is, when you get there all you see is a wall. In order for the room to present itself to you, you must walk back and forth in front of it three times, thinking of whatever you need or want very specifically."

"So this room will turn into anything you need it too?" Lyra asked, excited. "With everything you need?"

"As far as we know," James said, shoving a whole roll in his mouth. Lyra gave James a questioning look. "Whah?"

A piece of bread shot out of his mouth and attached itself to Lyra's cheek. She grimaced and wiped it off.

"No wonder Lily Evans won't even give you the time of day," the girl spoke up in slight disgust.

"As they say in America: BURN!" Sirius yelled out, pointing an accusing finger at James.

James just threw another roll at Sirius, and said, "Sound good, mates? This way we wouldn't need to spend any more money on it. All we need to focus on now is advertising."

"Advertising?" questioned Peter.

"We can't have a bloody pageant without and audience, Peter," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "Who else is going to vote James as the prettiest girl?"

To this, James threw another roll at Sirius, who just caught it and began eating it.

"We could do the pageant this weekend, instead of next," said Remus.

"If we're having it this weekend, we should really start working on it soon," said Lyra.

"How about tonight?" said James, looking around at his friends for nods of confirmation. The only one he didn't get was from Lyra.

"How are we supposed to sneak out tonight and not get caught?" she asked.

"'How are we supposed to sneak out and not get caught', she says," James looked thoroughly amused. "Do you know who you're talking to? We've been sneaking around the castle at night since our first year."

"Only been caught once, but that was because Peter tripped and fell down the stairs," said Sirius, looking at Peter, who had suddenly gone very pink.

"You still haven't answered my question," she turned to Sirius. "Are you going to tell me, or what?"

Sirius reached into one of the pockets in his robes and produced a small rectangular mirror. It's glassy surface glimmered in the candlelight.

"Here," he said, holding the mirror out to her. "Take this," She took it from his outstretched hand questioningly.

"How is this supposed to- AH!" When she looked into the mirror, instead of seeing her reflection, she saw James Potter pulling a funny face. The boys laughed at her reaction. "What the bloody hell is this?!"

"Shh! It's a secret," Sirius whispered, holding a finger to his lips. "It's a two-way mirror. If you take this with you, we can navigate you safely to the Room of Requirement."

"How will you know?"

"That, Lyra, is too big a secret for right now," he said. "Just keep it safe for us, yeah? We went through a lot of trouble to get it."

"I'll keep it safe, but-" Sirius raised his hand to interrupt her.

"No more questions. Being enigmatic is more fun," he said.

Lily Evans as a prefect incited a much more vigilante James Potter and Sirius Black. Since the onset for her responsibility, both boys have had a few more detentions and more than enough close calls.

They still shudder at the thought of Lily and Professor McGonagall catching them in only their underwear out in the courtyard.

This was, of course, due to another wager: Who could stand the winter weather the longest with the smallest amount of clothes.

Lily, who watches the quartet like a hawk, knew they were up to something that night. What that something was, was a different matter altogether, but must've been big if they were talking to Lyra Sumner as if they have known her for a long time. Lily knew that the more people, the bigger the prank will be.

With this in mind, the young redhead slept out in the common room that night.

"We can just wait around until she's so deep in sleep that she won't wake if you yell out 'Merlin's saggy left-"

"Not going to work, Sirius," James said, peeking out the door. "She's a light sleeper. Remember last year when you and I attempted to sneak out? Lily was out cold, and she still awoke and caught us."

"How did she even hear that creak?" Sirius pondered. "It wasn't even that loud. No one else ever hears it."

Remus looked up from the book he was reading, "We'll just go tomorrow night."

Sirius groaned, "I have detention with McGonagall tomorrow night."

"We'll go after," James reasoned with a shrug. "I'll tell Lyra."

James picked up the two way mirror and spoke Lyra's name, and soon her eager face appeared.

"So what's the plan?" she said excitedly, but taking cautious glances behind her every now and then.

"No plan tonight," James answered, smiling lightly. "Evans is on watch. So we're planning on going tomorrow night after Sirius gets out of detention."

Lyra groaned, "I was really looking forward to seeing that room."

"Sorry, mate," James smiled apologetically.

Suddenly a crash was heard from the common room. Without thinking, James tossed the mirror to Sirius and bolted out of the room. Taking the steps two at a time, he finally reached the opened area, and looked frantically around.

"Lily?" he said in suprise to see her standing with her wand pointed down at a couple of second year boys.

Lily scolded the boys before letting them scamper off to bed, then turned towards James, "What do you want, Potter?"

"I heard a crash and wanted to make sure you were okay," he said, looking down upon a shattered vase. "Care to explain?"

Lily gazed down on the vase, and said, "Those second years knocked it down on their way out. But no worries, it's an easy fix." James watched as she waved her wand and the vase came back together. She picked it up and placed it back on the end table next to one of the chairs. "There, that's better."

"Alright, well if you're fine, then I should go back to bed," James said, pointing to the staircase that led to the boys dormitories.

"You should," Lily said pointedly, lying back down on the couch and throwing the blanket she had over her legs. "G'night, Potter."

James smiled and walked around to the back of the couch. Swiftly, and before she could protest, he leaned down and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. "G'night, Evans." And with a smile, he left the blushing Lily in the common room, and began his ascension to his dorms, retiring for the night.