A/N: House points if anybody can tell me where I got the 
name Adara! ~Draca
The Marauders Part 2: Sweet Success

'All right.' Sirius whispered to James, who was walking 
alongside him, although nobody could tell. 'This had better 
work, or we are going to be in a LOT of trouble.'

'It'll work.' said Adara confidently. 'What's the problem? Don't 
trust me?'

'I trust you!' he said hurriedly. 'I just... I'm just nervous, is 
all.'

'O.K.' Remus spoke up. 'Everyone do exactly what you're 
supposed to do.'

'Don't forget to give us the signal so we know you've got it, 
James.' Adara whispered to her left. 

'Right.' he whispered back, giving her an invisible thumbs-up.

'Go!' she hissed as four of them entered the library. Peter hung 
back outside the door, should any of them need a diversion. 

Sirius and Adara headed right over to the central table and sat 
down, waited for Remus to begin distracting Madam Frick, and 
then started a very loud fight, accompanied by poking.

'It's all your fault, Black!'

'MY fault? Who lost the parchment?'

'Who forgot to remind me not to?'

'That made even less sense then usual!'

'I can't flunk Transfiguration!'

'ME NEITHER!'

The other students in the library immediately turned their 
attention to, and subsequently became engrossed in, the 
unfolding soap opera at the center table.

'Hey! That hurt!'

'Well, you spilled your ink in my lap. You deserved it.'

'That was an accident!' 

*~*~*~*
Meanwhile, Remus was standing in front of the librarian's desk. 
'Er...Madam?' he asked timidly. 

'Yes?' she asked irritably.

'I was...I was wondering if you could show me where I could 
find the recipe for Confusing Concoctions in this book?' he 
said, hefting a gigantic, dusty Potions text up in front of him 
with a loud thump.

*~*~*~*
Peter stationed himself outside the library door and tried to 
look nonchalant. It didn't matter what those other three fools 
said; he, Peter Pettigrew, was at least smart enough to know 
not to trust that girl, that conniving little Slytherin. They'd 
regret it, the three of them. He knew they would. They acted 
so big, so brave, so... superior. And she was just the same, 
now that they'd let her join. And everyone looked down on 
Peter, little, weak, pathetic Pettigrew... well, he'd show them. 
He was the only one with any sense.

Oh well - if he didn't play along, her plan wouldn't work. That 
would show them. Peter yawned boredly and leaned against 
the wall.

*~*~*~*

James was slipping silently toward the restricted section, 
chucking to himself while listening to Sirius and Adara's 
argument. They're pretty fair actors, he mused to himself, 
pulling a piece of parchment out of his pocket.

'SHUT UP!'

'NO! Nya nya nya nya nya!' 

'I'm going to put a Chicken-Pox Charm on you!'

'You wouldn't dare, you little troll!'

James glanced down at the instructions for opening the 
bookshelf written in Adara's green spirals, even though he 
knew them by heart. Finally, he arrived at the specific 
bookshelf under a large, gilt-framed portrait of Nicolas Flamel 
and knelt down in front of it. 
'Let's see.' he muttered to himself. 'Looking for Magic through 
the Ages...' He spotted the large, dusty, boring-looking volume 
almost at once and tapped it with his wand. 'Dissendium!' he 
hissed, and suddenly a portion of the bookshelf ground back 
behind the one next to it, revealing a long, narrow passage. 

James squeezed his skinny frame through the opening and 
crawled on his stomach through the stone tunnel, compressing 
his shoulders so he didn't get wedged, until he finally emerged 
into a room so small that he couldn't stand up all the way. A 
single wall sconce cast greenish shadows onto the small 
bookshelf along one wall, which he hurried over to. 

Right away, he found the golden-embossed spellbook about 
Animagi, pulled it out, wiped the cobwebs away with one long 
sleeve, and stowed it inside his robes. 

Well, that was easy, he thought, preparing to squeeze back 
into the passage. 

Which he found closed.

Uh-oh. 

*~*~*~*
Adara stopped arguing with Sirius for a moment and looked at 
her watch. 'Shouldn't he be back by now?' she mouthed at 
him.

Sirius frowned. 'Yeah,' he whispered back.

Adara raised her voice again. 'You couldn't charm me with an 
amateur wand, Squib!'

'Want to see me try??!' 

*~*~*~*
Remus was running out of stupid questions and fast getting 
into deep water. 

'Uh...um...' he managed, faking a coughing fit. 

'Do you need to go to the nurse, Mr. Lupin?' asked Madam 
Frick boredly, raising her eyes from her book and pushing her 
glasses up her nose.

'Er...no, no; I'm fine.' he said swiftly, his gaze darting wildly 
over to Adara and Sirius. 'What...uh, where's the books about,' 
Think, Remus, think! 'Magical Creatures!' That's it. Good save, 
old boy! 

'Mr. Lupin.' said the librarian severely, 'Have you been in this 
school for two years or two days? You know very well where 
the Care of Magical Creatures texts are. Are you trying to... 
hide something from me?' she asked, her eyes narrowing as 
she tried to peer around him.

He took a sharp step sideways to block her gaze. 'No, Madam, 
nothing.' Peter, what the hell are you waiting for? Now's a 
good time for a diversion! RIGHT NOW!

*~*~*~*
James was trying hard not to panic, but he was fast getting 
claustrophobic in the tiny, dark, stonewalled room. Adara 
hadn't said anything about the passage closing... or had she? 
He racked his brains, clutching the thick text to his chest, and 
thought back to their conversations the previous week. He was 
just wondering whether this should be the moment he should 
choose to go insane when something came back to him:

'So what happens when he gets in there?'

'Well...are you listening, James?' 

'Mm-hmm.'

'Well, it's the same charm used on Platform 93/4...'

There we go. James thought harder. 

'Looks like it's there, but it's not...'

Aha! he thought to himself. Jackpot. He laid down on his 
stomach and crawled toward the place where the passage 
opening had been a few minutes ago, closed his eyes, clutched 
the book, and went toward what looked like solid wall.

When he opened his large blue eyes a few seconds later and 
wiped the dust off his glasses, he was in the passage again, 
and he could hear Adara and Sirius still arguing somewhere 
distantly down the tunnel. His worries dispersed, and he began 
inching faster toward the main library. 

Suddenly, there was a squeaking noise, followed by little 
scuffling sounds. James jerked his head toward the noises, but 
the passage was so narrow that he couldn't see back down it 
past his shoulders, and he began going faster still. 

All in an instant and with a flash of light, tiny creatures began 
rushing down the tunnel at him, and he threw up his arms to 
cover his face. He felt tiny sharp nails scratching his wrists 
through his robes, and knew exactly what the beings were. 
He'd just read about them in Defense Against the Dark Arts 
the other day.

'Damn!' he muttered out loud. 'Red Caps!' Instinctively, his 
hands went down his robes for his wand, but the tunnel was so 
narrow he couldn't get to it. Jerking his head up in surprise, he 
managed to bang it severely on the passage roof, and saw 
stars.

*~*~*~*
'I am really getting worried now.' Adara said to Sirius in an 
undertone. 'Do you think he's all right?' 

'OF COURSE!' Sirius yelled, still trying to keep the students' 
attention should James suddenly come bursting out of a wall or 
something. 

Adara glanced toward Remus, who was looking decidedly 
uncomfortable. 'Where's Peter? He was supposed to explode 
something if anything went wrong!'

'I know,' Sirius replied, lowering his voice for a minute. 'You 
think one of us should go out there?'

'You go.' said Adara decisively. 'I'll uh- follow James, I guess.'

Sirius gathered his books, stood, and strode toward the door 
with the look of one turning his back on an enemy. Adara 
briefly admired his acting ability, but as soon as the library 
door closed behind him, there was a deafening explosion, 
which shook the room and sent a horde of excited students 
along with the librarian rushing out of the library in a 
stampede. 

'Thanks, Sirius.' Adara muttered inaudibly, abandoning her 
books and rushing into the restricted section. Quicker then 
lightning, she had the passage open and was halfway inside it, 
yelling 'JAMES! Are you all right?! Where are you?' 

'I'm fine!' his voice echoed from some distance down the 
twisting narrow tunnel. 'Don't...don't come down here... Red 
Caps...'

'WHAT?!' she yelled. 'RED CAPS?'

'Yeah!' he shouted back. 'I've almost got them off- Go back! 
I'll be out in a minute-'

'HURRY!' she shouted. 

'Wait there!' he yelled back, his voice sounding closer. 

*~*~*~*
'What do you think you are doing, Mr. Black?' asked the 
librarian furiously, as Remus slipped silently away and Peter 
cowered behind a group of Ravenclaw fifth-formers, trying not 
to look at Sirius. People would expect a wand backfiring from 
Peter Pettigrew, but never from Sirius Black, and he wasn't 
going to be happy. 

'My...wand..' Sirius started meekly, then began to get into it. 
'My wand backfired, Madam. I'm sorry, I'll clean up the mess.' 
he finished confidently, shoving his hands in his pockets. 

'Yes, you certainly will!' Madam Frick said sternly, to the 
amusement of the audience of students surrounding the mess. 
'And then I think you shall have a detention or two!' 

Sirius groaned.

*~*~*~*
'Hurry, James, will you please?' Adara hissed down the tunnel. 

James was making his way down the passage as fast as he 
possibly could without getting stuck, but the darkness made it 
impossible for him to see where he was going. Since he was 
still wearing the Invisibility Cloak, he crashed squarely into 
Adara.

'Sorry.' he muttered, pulling it off his head. 

'Yeah.' she said. 'We have to go - now!'

The two of them backed quickly out of the passage and James threw the cloak over their shoulders and whispered, 'Go. Now. 
Hurry!' 

It was rather hard to run in a way so the cloak didn't fall off 
the two of them, but they managed all right after the first few 
steps, and soon they were out of the Restricted Section and 
had slipped out of the library.

James tapped out their signal with his wand on the doorframe 
and Sirius's eyes flickered over to where the sound was 
coming from, as James and Adara slipped toward Moaning 
Myrtle's bathroom and James shoved the supple cloak down 
his robes. 

'Yes, Madam.' Sirius said politely, desperate to get away.

'All right, then.' she said in a cold voice, spun and walked 
away. The crowd of students began to disperse. 

Sirius stomped disgruntledly down to the dungeons and threw 
open the door to the girls' toilet. 'Honestly, that old dragon-' 
He stopped abruptly when he saw James, Remus and Adara 
collectively holding a giant gilded textbook and wearing smiles 
from ear to ear. 

'YES!' he whooped. 

*~*~*~*
A/N: Yawn. Well, that was nice. Reviews are GREATLY 
appreciated-leave them here or talk to me at 
DracaMalfoy@aol.com.

These get better as the gang gets older. I have this thing 
about writing kids - I don't like doing it! So naturally, the later 
years are better. Please, PLEASE leave me reviews. Must I 
beg?