Mischief Managed | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 21

Jenna was pacing around in the empty common room, checking her watch every two minutes as she waited for Sirius and James to come downstairs as planned. Both of them were fifteen minutes late, and Jenna was growing more and more impatient by each passing moment.

At last, she turned around when she heard the boys' dormitory door open up at the top of the spiral staircase, and a second later she started hearing footsteps rushing down toward the common room.

Jenna opened her mouth to ask what had taken them so long, but she closed it shut again and her eyes widened when she saw two other boys following James and Sirius down the stairs.

It was Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

"Er.... hey." Remus waved at Jenna awkwardly, seeing as he had taken aback that she was here as well.

"You didn't say your sister was coming too!" Peter said with a frown, his ears going red in embarrassment.

"Yes, because that's the biggest surprise here," Jenna said sarcastically, turning her glare on James with a raised brow, folding her arm as she waited for an explanation.

"What?" James shrugged carelessly.

"Are we expecting all first year boys the next time we decide to sneak out?" Jenna said moodily.

"Oh, don't be such a killjoy, J.P!" James said quietly, rolling his eyes. "It's just gonna be the five of us. It will be fun! I promise!"

Jenna wanted to protest, but instead said bitterly, "Fine. Whatever." And with that, she turned toward the portrait of the Fat Lady and swung it open, climbing out of the portrait hole.

"What's up with her?" Sirius asked James with a frown, his eyes on where Jenna had disappeared off to just a second ago.

"Dunno." James shrugged again, but he then shook his head off the thought. "C'mon. Let's go." He gestured the boys over and they followed him through the portrait hole.

The five Gryffindors walked as quietly as humanly possible across the halls of the castle, sneaking glances at the next corridors before walking through them, just to make sure it was empty.

Jenna knew that his brothers' friends tagging along wasn't supposed to bother her this much, but it was. It had already put her in a bad mood.

It wasn't as if she was expecting James to remain lonely for all his years at Hogwarts and didn't want him to make any friends, but Jenna used to think that exploring the castle and going on different adventures was going to be their thing, just like it always had been. Just the two of them.

At last after long minutes, the five kids finally managed to find their way out of the castle without getting caught, knowing that the hard part was hopefully over.

All the while, Peter kept looking around him worriedly, saying that maybe they would better return back to the dormitory before getting caught, but James and Sirius acted as though they couldn't even hear him.

"You can go back if you like, Peter," Remus told the boy softly. "We just didn't want to exclude you. But if you think you don't want to come with us for the rest of the way —"

"No!" Peter shook his head briskly. "I can't go back alone! What if Filch catches me?"

So without saying another word, Peter followed the rest of them toward the edge of the Forbidden Forest, mumbling fearfully under his breath. Although when the mass of dark trees and the mysterious fog within came to sight, his worries grew.

"Excellent!" James whispered to himself excitedly.

"Get down!" Sirius suddenly said, dropping himself on the ground and hiding behind a large rock nearby. The others followed without asking why. "Hagrid's hut still has its lights on. He must be awake."

"Then we'll have to go that way," James said quietly, pointing at the direction of the nearest edge of the forest.

"Good idea," said Sirius, and then the two boys got back to their feet as the rest followed them through the woods.

The fog wasn't too extreme to block their sight, and they could still see their surroundings. Although the darkness which had drowned the forest within itself made it hard for them to know where they were exactly going.

All five of them had drawn out their wands, even though none of them knew a single useful spell yet. They jumped at every slight noise inside the woods, whether it was the cold wind howling and moving the tree branches, or their own feet stepping on a dry leaf.

"What if there are werewolves here?" Peter asked in horror, trying to catch up with the rest of them so he wouldn't be left behind.

"Werewolves?" James repeated, scoffing. "It's not even a full moon!"

"Yeah, but still..." Peter mumbled, shivering at the thought.

"It's really cold here, isn't it?" Remus said out-of-the-blue, as though desperately trying to change the subject for some reason.

"Yeah, I wish I had brought a coat," Jenna agreed, nodding lightly as they kept on walking deeper into the woods.

"There's nothing exciting here!" James finally huffed, looking around him for any sign of trouble.

"Wait!" Sirius suddenly said, raising a hand to silence them all. "Do you hear that?"

They all froze on their spot, listening carefully. None of them dared to move as they held their breath.

"H-hear what?" Peter stammered, his heartbeat speeding up.

"That noise..." Sirius went on, lowering his voice dangerously with every word that he uttered. "It's getting closer... and closer... something's getting near..."

And then, when the only noise that could be heard was the sound of their breathing, Sirius suddenly yelled, "BOO!"

They all shrieked, jumping out of their skins. Jenna and Remus glared at him and Peter placed a hand over his fast-beating heart, meanwhile both James and Sirius burst out in laughter.

"Good one," said James with a grin after his laughter faded away, patting Sirius on the shoulder.

"Oh, yes. Very funny," Jenna said flatly, still glaring at Sirius's direction.

"Did you get scared, Jenny?" Sirius asked with a smirk.

"Don't call me Jenny!" she retorted.

"Oh c'mon, Jenny," Sirius went on, his grin widening. "Where is your sense of fun?"

"It's back in the castle," Jenna grumbled, rolling her eyes.