Chapter 1

I stood behind the locked door in a dark and empty room, breathing heavily, and straining to hear just outside in the abandoned hallway.

"Come out, come out, where ever you are.." a voice taunted.

I could hear footsteps coming closer. My heart began to beat violently in my chest. I pushed myself into the darkest corner I could find as quietly as I possible when I heard the footsteps stop just outside the door.

I heard a voice mumble some words I couldn't make out, and then wooden door creaked open. I could see a dark figure pad their way through the empty room searching for any sign of life.

I held my breath when the footsteps came closer...

"Ah ha! Found you!" Said the voice in a triumphant tone.

"Ugh! How on earth did you find me here!!" I whined, "you know it's against the rules to use the map!"

"You know I don't care about the bloody rules, but anyway Prongs has it, remember?" he says cooly. I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest in disgruntlement and mutter an 'oh yeah'. "Oh c'mon! Let's go find the others!" Said the raven haired boy with bright grey eyes as he reached out his hand to help me up. 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. "I want to use it to prank the others." I say in a lower voice with a smirk and a mischievous twinkle in my eyes.

His looked to me, his mouth turning into a wide 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.

We walked along the corridors to one of the 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. We slowly, and silently slipped into the room, unnoticed by the two quarreling persons inside.

"Potter. You are absolutely insufferable. 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!?"

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. 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, (me, my fellow Marauders, Lily, Mary, Alice, and Frank) were planning our semi-annual-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, but are to keep these items a secret from non-marauder players... minus Lily, who is too nosy for her own good and somehow finds 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 Evans and James 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' 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 to find us to spilt up and find the rest of the group. We all made our way back to the common room sometime around 2am.

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 asks as I hum in acknowledgment. "Some hot chocolate."

"Mmmm that actually sounds really good." I say with my eyes closed as I make myself more comfortable in the squishy couch.

"Let's go to the kitchens!" He says, jostling the couch as he starts to get up.

"Can't. Move. Too. Tired." I say with my eyes closed.

"Ohhh come on Ellie!!!" He says as he tried to pull the arm I was using to snuggle next to a pillow with.

"Stahp..." I grumble 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 can practically hear him smirking.

"Fine, the easy way." I say, knowing he's going to force me into going regardless.

"Alrighty, hop on!" He says 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."

I reluctantly throw the pillow onto the couch and rest my head on his shoulder. "Well what are you waiting for? Giddy up!"

He laughed 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. 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.

He draped the invisibility cloak over us once more before heading out of the portrait hole and padding now the stairs to the kitchens.

"You still awake Ellie?" He whispered.

"Mhmmmmph" I hummed. I could feel him chuckling silently. We came to a stop when we reached the painting that hid the entrance to the kitchen. 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 and 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 say with a smile on my lips and Sirius chuckles, once again, 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 by the stairs to the girls dorm, 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 said as he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.

"Hey!" I complained.

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."