"Evans!"

Even though he was farther away than Frank and Alice, Potter still somehow managed to dart between the two and be on the other side of the door with her, practically kneeling over her in concern before she'd even landed.

She pushed her sopping wet hair out of her face and glanced around with a sense of vertigo for the sudden change, and not just in scenery. Light was pouring in from the hallway now, natural sunlight just managing to illuminate her sneakers, which only emphasized the gloom she'd been dumped in.

It seemed every mirror was cracked, every sink tap was broken, and every surface seemed flooded, the long stem candles dripping water instead of wax.

She hardly acknowledged the hand being offered her, accepting it and getting to her feet before she realized who had.

Snatching her hand away with a scowl, she rotated slowly on the spot to find the others all crowded around the girl's bathroom door in an odd display, while Potter went bright red in surprise and scrambled back over the threshold as if seeking sanctuary.

"Sorry," he quickly managed to stutter with the most uneasy look she'd ever seen in place, his eyes flickering with true embarrassment and remorse to the sign above the door.

She chose not to acknowledge him for now, accustomed to her bearings at last but still feeling on edge, so very grateful as Alice chose to come in with her. "Well, at least Myrtle isn't present, and the cat vanished."

Lily couldn't see through the boys to confirm as much, but she was grateful for that at least. It was a new time and setting then.

"Why would Harry come back in here for any reason?" They heard Lupin asking. "Even the first time was faintly ridiculous, asking if Myrtle of all ghosts had seen anything."

"I still can't believe he did it," the elder Black snickered. "Even we never went into a girls loo for any reason, except for Prongs." He finished with such a wicked tone no one needed to turn and see the look he was now giving his best mate.

Potter sniffed, but seemed to choose not to acknowledge that as he instead asked, "Hey ladies, is the book in there? I'd like to know how they plan on getting that note from Lockhart."

"What makes you assume he's the dense one Ron was referring to?" Pettigrew asked curiously. "There are plenty of other dense teachers about this place. Merlin, I'll bet we could con McGonagall into doing this for us again-"

He finished with an oof, as if one of his mates had elbowed him to silence him, but while the other three just rolled their eyes and seemed not to care what the Marauders would have wanted a book from the restriction section for, Regulus gave the lot a curious look. What would those layabouts need a book for, besides just trying to cause more trouble?

Alice had to actively search for a moment before finding it on one of the lone sinks that seemed to have no damage. She scooped it up but was stopped from opening it by Potter shouting, "are you two going to get out of there? I feel so odd trying to talk to you while you're in a bathroom!"

"Then don't talk to us," Evans suggested.

"Here," Alice gave the book a toss back to the doorway. "If you can't stand me doing it from in here, you do it out there."

She only vaguely registered that Lupin had caught the book and started reading as she investigated this lone bit of debris free area, wondering why Myrtle wouldn't have had a go at it like everything else in here.

Frank cautiously stepped in as well, followed by the younger Black moments later. Clearly those two had decided they'd rather be in this area with the girls than the Marauders now bickering outside on whether they should do the same. It was nothing particularly special about any other facility in the castle, but it uncomfortably reminded them all of the one the troll had destroyed. They hoped this was not a recurring instance of finding themselves in wrecked bathrooms.

"Did, a Bludger do that to the bathroom?" James asked in confusion of such an odd chapter title. All Bludgers were rogue really, considering their job in the game.

"If so, my money's on the Weasley twins releasing one into the school," Peter chuckled.

"Lockhart really is the biggest idiot I've ever heard of," Sirius said casually beside him, the topic lighting this as inconsequential as if they'd been discussing hags.

"Idiot wouldn't know a thing about werewolves if one bit him in the arse," James agreed with bright eyed amusement that was only ever there for their jokes. No one inside Myrtle's bathroom was paying them any mind, but Remus still felt a bit uneasy playing along. His friends had taught him to joke about everything since first year and he loved doing it himself now, anything to brighten his life. Now though, he wasn't just one kid blending into a school, those four in the bathroom had already been spending an uncomfortable amount of time around him and a few had even given him suspicious looks here and there now that he was such a focus, so he read past his friends loudly.

"Ha, they did use Lockhart to get that note!" James pumped his fist in triumph. "Pay up Wormtail."

"It was a stupid bet," he groused as he slapped the coins into his hand. "Harry used the easy target. "

"It is the first time he's tried this, give him some credit he even pulled it off," Remus said fairly.

"That idiot Lockhart's a Seeker?" Regulus muttered in surprise, suddenly hoping that he was somewhere back in their school so he could face him off in a game. The new teacher may be inept and fooled the world about his skills in Defense, but surely he had to be good at something, and the newly minted Slytherin Seeker had yet had an opponent to really be much of a match against him.

"Why are they headed back to this bathroom?" Potter demanded in surprise, and it really was such a good question the lot inside got distracted and turned to listen to him. "They'd just got caught by a Prefect there the other day."

"Where would you suggest they hide out to find out more about a potion they shouldn't be doing?" Lily challenged with a surprisingly smug expression. She was confident those four had no idea how to do anything as subtle as hide anything. Her mind wondered if her own secret brew she had going was even still in the castle, if what she'd done would disrupt her attempts at improving upon-

They did not answer, a genuine surprise as she would have expected Potter to eagerly tell her anything just to keep up the pretense of talking. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously just as the littlest one, Pettigrew, piped up, "our dorm. We're the only ones who go in and out of it, so it's perfect."

"Gee Wormtail, just tell them where we keep our secret stash of dungbombs as well why don't you," the elder Black scoffed, but though he put a swift smack into his friend's head, they all saw it had no force to the blow.

The others turned away dismissively, but Lily kept frowning at them with suspicion. She still wasn't sure why Potter hadn't been the one to answer, as if they were stalling-

Lupin kept going then, and what came out of his mouth next was so ludicrous everything else flew from her mind. "That, that little second year really thinks she's going to brew that potion?" Lily demanded. She'd been sure once the smart girl saw the complexity of the potion she'd admit defeat, instead she began chatting about how to get ingredients and continue with such a thing!

"Great, Hermione's going to poison Harry. Think that will get us out of this mess?" Regulus muttered in disgust. She scowled at him, not taking kindly to even joking death threats, and went over to see what Alice and Frank were doing instead as conversation turned to Quidditch amongst the Marauders.

"We're trying to figure out why this sink doesn't have any damage like the rest," Alice told her before Lily could even ask.

Lily took a quick look over the area, then crouched down like they were to try and see underneath. Nothing of note stood out, but the three crowding around such a mundane problem had Regulus glancing over curiously as well. His sharp eyes spotted something odd at once from this distance, but merely rolled his eyes and instead turned his attention longingly to the floor, where his common rooms were below for some peace and quiet away from this lot. Of course those three wouldn't acknowledge something like a snake, of course the Marauders were getting hyped up and catcalling a Quidditch game none of them had stakes in. The only reason he was only vaguely listening was to hear what kind of opponent Malfoy was to the Potter brat, no one had even presented a challenge in the last one.

James was wriggling with pure excitement to be hearing of the game, he wished he could be outdoors at least instead of next to some dreary old bathroom! He was half tempted to wrestle the book away from Remus and belt this out himself! The first Bludger strike nearly knocked his breath out at the close call and he wanted to mutter a foul which hobknocker had done such a thing so early in the game!

Then it came again, and he started to wonder if the Bludger was just going after Harry instead of being clubbed there by someone, which would have made sense the first time, but not twice in a row.

The third attempt made him cold all over as if he'd fallen into a ghost.

"Ah, yeah. I, I'd say that's a Rogue Bludger alright," Peter said faintly at the idea of such a thing. Even with two Beaters on either side of him like Harry had, the force of a cannonball being waited at anyone's head was sure to kill!

"Who the hell is ruining this game!" Sirius shouted in outrage, his fists tensed so much he looked likely to clock Remus for saying all this.

"I don't care, I just want to hear Harry live through this," James said in a voice his friends rarely heard, but had been getting to a lot lately. Prongs was pissed, and was likely to do more than set off a dungbomb when he found out who had not only tampered with his favorite game, but set up a way to have a child of his killed.

Remus swallowed uncomfortably but kept going in a rush, for once quite glad they weren't getting much of a visual image of all this. If they'd even been in the stands during this part it would have put a much more vivid point across, yet the ghosts bathroom behind them wasn't feeling like a good omen.

Things got even more out of hand when James was forced to respectfully see his sons point of view. He was going to win that game if it was the last thing he did, literally, and was he any better? He'd done some very crazy stunts on his broom just to score another point, to get his team just that farther ahead. He vowed right then he would have to stop and actually consider what he was doing though, he didn't have a death wish! He longed for some kind of distraction as the crazy ramped up and Harry began a series of maneuvers to keep his head intact, he wished he could peak back into the bathroom and see what Evans was doing instead of all the shocked faces around him for what they were hearing. He couldn't take his eyes off the book though.

Regulus was amazed he'd gotten his wish, what a match! Just, not in the way he'd been expecting. His expression soured though when the Bludger was doing more to make this a challenge than his actual opponent, Malfoy was being quite the disgrace when the end was in sight, and the idiot hadn't even seen the Snitch above his head. He winced in sympathy but hardly gave a passing notice to a broken arm as, like Harry, his mind was set on capturing the Snitch at all costs.

It was only after Harry's success and his temporary unconsciousness that he heard the Marauders releasing breaths of relief and Regulus realized what he'd been thinking about a fellow Pure-blood. It truly went against everything he'd ever been taught, that someone inferior like that half-blood had bested someone from the Malfoy line so easily.

He tried to convince himself it must have been a fluke, but that wasn't working at all, and then Lockhart proved a useful distraction.

"What on Earth does that bumbling buffoon thinks he's going to do about a broken arm?" Lily said this in such a dangerous tone, Frank and Alice had to look around to make sure she wasn't speaking to Potter.

Frank did agree. This guy was even more of an idiot than Professor Kimble, and that witch had been the biggest idiot he'd ever met until this point. "He can't even counter Doxies, I'd rather have Filch treat my broken arm."

Alice had expected the Marauders to get a laugh at the idea of not having any bones in the arm, but instead all they could hear now were furious mutters out there. She sunk lower next to the sink in trepidation of what little she could hear. She'd heard that tone before, right before they'd used a spell that had gotten Snape's head stuck in a cauldron last month. He'd been in the hospital Wing ever since, and it didn't help there had been a concoction in the bottom meaning he likely would have drowned if Evans hadn't been there to make sure he could still breath with that thing on.

From her vantage she was now eye level with the taps on the sink, and her eyes widened in surprise of finally seeing something unique, a tiny little snake etched into it. She wondered at that, if there were perhaps little carvings of all the houses' animals all over the school and she'd just never tried looking for them before. She knew her house was littered with dancing badgers for decoration, perhaps Slytherin had once been more subtle about doing such a thing about the castle?

Remus was already fuming a student had to go to the hospital wing for something a teacher had done to him, and the arrival of Dobby made nothing better!

"I've never wanted to kill an elf more than I do right now, and that's really saying something," Sirius stated coldly, and his friends knew exactly what he meant.

They'd never heard of such a conniving little elf, and on some level it was almost impressive the imp had managed to block Harry getting onto the train. It was even genuinely pitiful he'd been hurt by his masters, but none of them could deny they'd give that elf a good kick themselves for what he'd just tried to do to Harry. You don't try to take a Marauder kids head off and not get retaliation!

Sadly he gave it to himself moments later, and nothing more as another victim was announced, and it wasn't a cat this time.

Remus slumped against the wall in shock for what was happening in this school, and he'd always thought he was the worst monster to be here.

He swallowed hard and looked to his friends, all wearing grim expressions back for what was happening. This hadn't really been fun to begin with, now a student could be in real harm. He took a shaky breath, but kept going now in such a rush he forgot to mention this was about to end, he just wanted to be out of this particular place right now.

Lily gasped, then immediately covered her mouth in fear as if the attacker would jump out at her next. It helped nothing Frank and Alice exchanged horrified glances and edged just a bit closer to her, she was well aware she would be the victim if someone was really out after Muggleborns in this castle. She tried to scold herself being ridiculous, that wasn't something you could tell on sight...but what if whatever was doing this could?

She lowered her hands and plunged them into her robes, now quite steady on her feet and glaring about every corner, just daring for the same to happen to her now. It helped slightly when McGonagall explained Collin had been found on some random stairs instead of near this bathroom again, but this only raised more questions. The most confusing of all was Dumbledore's.