closer.to the t r u t h || op-en

[Sirius Black]

The night was still young, seeing as how the day was still suspended in mid evening. Sirius was wandering around the Second floor corridors no doubtably looking for something called trouble. Boredom had struck him hard about a half an hour ago when he had been musing over a few unfinished homework papers only to see that Remus had been doing the same thing. Why put two people through the same thing, when it only really took one person to do the work of two? Sure some would say it was cruel, but Sirius knew that this definitely wasn't animal abuse seeing as how Remus was a sucker for anything written on paper that looked remotely like homework. Besides if he didn't do it now, Remus would suggest that they compare papers later and Sirius would somehow manage to get all the wrong answers only to be corrected by Remus so what was the point in doing something like that? That was only an occasional occurance because Remus was never so easily duped into that now, even though the whole thing had all been in good natured fun. With those thoughts in mind Sirius had slipped from the depths of the cheerful Gryffindor common room out onto the cold stone flagged floor of the castle looking for some trouble to cause. Before he had left he had taken a sort trip up the dormitory stairs to retrieve the thick felt pen from his trunk in his room. This pen was something that he had picked up on a recent weekend off away from Hogwarts, the ink had special components making it almost impossible to scrap off of any surface. Yes, it was proper to say that he had big plans for this awesomely powerful pen, especially when it came to really voicing his thoughts.

Everytime he passed a corridor Sirius had to fight the biting urge that was compelling him to scribble nasty messages all over the walls. Despite these strong feelings he had resisted up until now, seeing the halls so deliciously deserted and the stone walls laying so temptingly out in front of him was more of a reminder of his present triumph. Even now the halls seemed empty enough and all the wall seemed like the best choice when it came to a writing surface. But there still seemed like something was off and that something would be the reason why he would get caught today and suffer at the hands of Flich. Although he felt up to destorying something, sadly Sirius didn't feel up to taking another round of detention this week after only just narrowly getting off from the last stint which had involved scrapping the fungus growing on the castle walls down in the dungeons. That had been plain disgusting, almost as gross as scrapping the moldy gum from the desks of every classroom on the third floor, which had been how he had spent his first ever detention. Those were the memories he made at Hogwarts and what made them so memorable was because he made them with his friends. Hell, if James hadn't been there with him through that first detention there was a good chance that he would have turned around and quit right there and than. Sirius wasn't the kind of guy to take everything that he was handed and endure it all, his temper and patience had been running low as of late due to the increased tension he felt around his family.

Pathetic and as sad as it was, they were his downfall, they were the reason why he was standing here in this hallway thinking about the effect of the black permanant marker if it hit the stone walls. Sirius knew very well that he couldn't blame them for ever little mishap in his life, but this was one of the reasons why he did the things he did, because he was out to make them look bad and have fun doing it. If he behaved nothing would become of it, there was more of a reward of getting underneath their skin than there was just standing around waiting out his education like a good boy. More than anything, Sirius wanted to see them upset, and he wanted to keep them furious at him because until than he would be safe. He would be safe from the things that made them tick and all the bad influences that they were trying to cast his way. Refusing to be brainwashed meant taking a stand and that was exactly what he was doing here - just maybe not in the hallway where everyone was bound to see him. The superb place for the words that he wanted to write would be just around the corner. He knew these hallways well having grown up in this place, running around the last six years and trashing the place with his friends by his side. Turning the corner the bathroom signs practically glowed as the windows across the hall spread an orange light on them. The almost dog-like grin Sirius held at that moment was rather humorous, but it seemed satisified nevertheless. The room he had set his sites on was the girl's bathroom, it was the perfect place to tell everyone exactly what the general population thought of Severus Snape, and exactly why the caretaker walked with that awful limp most of the time.

Creeping along the hallway, Sirius pressed himself up against the stone wall looking up and down the corridor to make sure no one else was coming. He had to be certain that there wasn't any girls in the bathroom first before he walked in there too or else his own reputation might be at stake. Now all he could do was sit and wait a while to see if anyone was coming or going, this was the part where things grew dull, the part that was a necessary evil of pranking - caution. After this part things only got better from here onwards, and that was what he was looking forward too.

[Lily Evans]

It was never easy to be Lily Evans. Honestly she had experienced the day from hell. From the pudding that had gotten into her hair to the first year stomping on her foot all she wanted to do was fall into her bed and sleep, but no. What was she doing instead? The same thing she did every Friday night, Pinky. Try to make sure no one was out of their common room and wandering around like lost sheep. Running a hand through her damp hair, Lily stared at the reflection staring back at her in the mirror, what exactly had she became over the past few months? She wasn't even sure what she was doing anymore. It was easy to fall back into what she was used to, going to class, getting good marks but the things happening outside of the classroom where what bothered her the most, was it just her noticing all the bad things happening? The missing student, the odd glares that the teachers were passing out, even she had received one of those odd and ill fated looks from the Headmaster and that had been frightening, enough to make her want to crawl into her own skin and stay there for a while. Her skirt moved back and fourth with every step she took and oddly it was interesting to watch from time to time the way it moved about. maybe she was just an odd girl paying far to much attention to what she was wearing. The golden and red tie was loosened around her neck, honestly she looked like she had just been drowned and then but into clean clothing and hadn't even tried to make herself look good. Not even respectable good, just there.

The brazen locks were beginning to dry as she walked down the second floor corridor, it felt never ending, in fact she was sure it had some small secret that could keep a person wandering about for days. Then again that could have just been her imagination making her believe stupid little things that never happen and never will happen. Technically she was supposed to start from the top and work her way down, meeting in the middle with the other Gryffindor prefect working but she would rather not do something like that, instead they switched. he started at the top and went down so that-- so that she wouldn't have to deal with the Slytherin's at night. Okay it was kind of sad but she just loathed that house. Sure she didn't really loath anyone but all they did was make her life hell and all the ones hanging around after curfew were the worst of the bunch, mainly because their motley crew leader, Rodolphus was around. How him and that awful girl got Head Boy and Girl was beyond her, sure they were decent leaders but they surely didn't have decent relations with other people in the school. Maybe she was just thinking to much about yet another thing she had no control over. The sound of her shoes was slim to none and that was rather disappointing, then again she was happy she had ditched her heels back in the common room during lunch, she would hate to add that to yet another thing she would hate about today, well now tonight. Either way it was a lame time in Lily's life.

Just another two hours then she could be sleeping and doing exactly what she was meant to do, be safely tucked into her bed by midnight. Awe sweet midnight, then again, maybe she would be since she was sure she had seen some movement just a moment ago. "Damn." That was quickly becoming her favorite word to mutter when no one else could hear her innocent mouth saying such dirty things. Maybe that was really what thrilled her. Now that feeling of knowing was weakened, maybe she hadn't seen anything at all, walking past a darkened area of the corridor she peered closely. Intrigued by the possibility of someone being smart enough to hide. Who even did that anymore? It seems like everyone looked the cockiness that could go with being caught. Oh well. She wasn't exactly the girl that would easily wander into the shadows especially after-- well after something bad happened. Instead of letting anything be terrible, it was always bad, bad was universal.

Moving back she entered the bathroom and went straight towards the mirror, at least her face wasn't disgusting and repulsive. then again it wasn't like anyone she liked would be out this late at night. then again maybe they would be... gah- she needed tog et over this whole the bad boys are hot phases. They were actually just people that were only going to lead to trouble not to mention whoever was out in the corridor. Of course she was curious and she had guesses on who would be dumb enough to go wandering around when she was patrolling and unfortunately, they were all from her house. Patience was a virtue most Gryffindors didn't have so if it was one of them, she would catch them, she didn't care if it was her house, she could always assign detention. Oh joy how she loved giving out detention. Maybe she was really letting Ripley rub off on her a bit too much.

[Sirius Black]

The shadows had been perfectly placed or else Sirius would've been dead meat long before he had the chance to explain himself to the approaching footsteps that were descending along the corridor next to the bathrooms on the second floor. Before he knew what hit him he was pressed up against the wall bathed in the shadows, looking out at the approaching figure. It was a Prefect no doubt, that was the only person crazy enough to be walking out in these corridors in the plain view at night - the people that actually had the right to do so. The figure went by so fast, Sirius almost didn't catch the glance that she had cast quickly in his direction. It definitely hadn't been a come hither look, it was more of a searching one, almost as if she had half expected someone to pop out of the dark shadows. A flash of red hair walked by him and than disappeared quickly into the bathroom. Lily. Sirius had nearly forgotten that she was a Prefect now and that she had been walking the halls during the nights. It had been a while since he had tried to pull something like this - when everyone was asleep and no one was looking. He was alone now in the corridor, since she had entered the bathroom, he was bitterly tempted to follow her if only to write the offensive words on the wall while she was in the stall before leaving without a word and without being found out. It seemed like the perfect plan, with a good percent chance of it working, that was if Sirius wrote fast enough. Maybe if things went bad he could always try and talk her out of any crazy ideas about detention. But than a good detention every once and a while was always fun, it just depended on who he would have to spend it with.

To heck with it. His better half was telling him to turn around right now and run before an enraged Lily Evans ran from the bathroom to find Sirius lurking in the shadows. But his instincts were urging him onwards, perhaps she would still be doing his business when he got there to scribble a few bad things on the walls and than leave real quick. Felt marker clamped firmly between two fingers after having retrieved it from his pocket, Sirius decided that he was ready to make the decision, or at least as ready as he would get in this situation. Going on instinct, Sirius flung the bathroom door open and almost turned on his heel and walked right back out to find Lily standing in front of the mirror. Sirius found himself almost utterly speechless for the first time in a long time as he stood dumbly in front of the girl's bathroom door, the only exit and entrance into the white porclein room with the yellowing sinks and rusty door hinges. The door squeaked flying open and closed behind him in his wake, leaving evidence of having been swung open to hard. Come on Sirius, go ahead give her some lame excuse. His conscience urged him onwards as he stood with the evidence in his hand that he was up to no good. "The interior decorating committee has arrived." Sirius announced loudly grinning stupidly as he shoved the felt pen marker into his back pocket. He was dressed in a dishevled manner, his tie knotted far to low from his unbuttoned collar, his pants were missing the black belt that was supposed to braided through the pant loops, and his robes were loosely drapped over his shoulders creating more of a billowy effect when he walked. "You must be the welcoming party, how lovely, have they prepared the tea yet? I can't work until they have prepared the tea and crumpets." Sirius proclaimed walking over towards the nearest wall. He had refined his usually rough British accent, polishing the edges off his street slang, as if he were desperately trying to act like a professional. "I'm feeling a muse coming on!" Sirius's unearthly loud tone only seemed to raise as he felt sure that he could get out of this one alive.

Pulling the black marker causually from his back pocket he begun to scribble causually on the wall in big black letters, 'For a good time, don't call Snivellius Snape, because...' "Avert your eyes darling, the bittersweet truth is about to come out and I'm taking the frills off of it." Grinning in a dog-like manner Sirius pressed the felt pen harder to the wall and begun to write a few colorful obscenties about a spot that had to be magnified tenfold before anyone could really see it. "How I love interior decorating in the morning!" Sirius announced in a cheerful manner as he jabbed a period on the wall, taking the sentence to an end. All the while, Sirius couldn't help but wonder if he would get out of this alive and intact, perhaps not tonight, all that mattered was that he protected the vitals which currently consisted of everything below the beltless pants loops.

[Lily Evans]

He was hopping mad. That was just the case and point and there was absolutely no way to look around it. Somewhere in the five hours since she had last seen him, something bad must have happened, such as a short in his brain. At first she was completely baffled. Unsure of how to react to not only have a boy in the girls bathroom, which could lead to serious problems if she were to report such a thing and then the red marker he was using. Oh Lord. Her heart was pounding madly against her rib cage and while at times that seemed as though it might be comforting, reassuring to know that you were still, in deed alive. This time it was a bit different. He was writing about poor Severus on the walls. And that statement was completely untrue. Not that she was going to say one work of that, in fact Lily knew far too well that what Severus was writing was false, because not only had Lily-- well she didn't want to even think about that, but she had seen him in action and there was nothing, mental cough, small about it.

"You have completely lost every single marble that could have once been inside of that head of yours? Do you have any idea how long it is going to take for me to clean up another one of your world class messes, Black?" Lily tapped her foot against the floor impatiently as if she was really going to wait for some answer to come from that mouth of his. Her livid green eyes ran over the writing once more. "It is really pathetic how you insist on poking fun at someone who has never done one thing against you. Truly, you and your band of troublemakers should just leave him alone." Slender hands went onto her hips as she walked forward towards the sickeningly proud Gryffindor. Sirius was probably just going to note how she was yet again sticking up for someone that was completely rude to her. It wasn't like Snape was oh so subtle with his use of words towards her and while at time she wanted to do him physical harm... it always seemed to be the four bad ass lions doing most, if not all, of her bidding. Which was still bad even if it made everything better for a few seconds, such watching Severus hang upside down after calling her some awful name was endearing but now, well now things were a bit different between herself and the Slytherin.

The fiery redhead poked him in the stomach before harshly grabbing his collar and pulling him down eye level to her petite frame. "You are going to clean up this mess and you are going to apologize for making me take house points again from Gryffindor because your just-- your just so..." Aggravated she pushed back and left it a rather open statement since her words had fallen short and knowing him, she could only imagine what he would fill in the blank with. Gah- other then just thinking that she even made the sound and tossed her head back, so much for a quiet patrol where she actually accomplished something.

[Sirius Black]

Sirius easily sensed Lily's hesitance, it was easy to read her expression which almost seemed like one of disbelief. Relatively speaking it was alright for him to now assume that she thought he was mad, even though he didn't think that his actions merited such a title he was just trying to have a little fun. There was never anything to do now a days, especially this late at night when Sirius found that he couldn't sleep due to an excess of energy. That was perhaps the only thing that he had never lacked along with charm, it was as if he had been given an endless supply to go spreading around. Judging by the look on her face, Lily was already thinking of consequences of this situation, Sirius was a guy in a girl's bathroom after all not to mention that it was indeed after hours. In this sense she always happened to remind him of Remus who took precautions such as thinking ahead of their actions before they actually went and performed. Maybe that was why the two were so close - they thought alike.

"Aw, come on Lily, it was just a joke." Sirius whined in a mockingly nagging tone. Everything was a joke flat out for him tonight because he was in the mood to cause trouble to get under people's skin with all the destruction he would soon reck upon the corridors of Hogwarts. The girl's bathroom was only the beginning for tonight as soon as he got free of Lily's grasp he was going to go try another floor. "Leave it for Flich, he'll never know the difference." Sirius promised her as he couldn't help but smirk at how intensely her mood had changed. She was infuriated and the only reason how he could tell was from the foot tapping, she was definitely something and in this sense Sirius could only wish James the best in persuing her. Sirius stood proudly before her soaking up her accusations as if they were actually compliments aimmed to boast his ego. Without the intentions of wanting to feed his ego, many people did just that, because Sirius Black could find any sure way to turn something like an insult or a nasty word in his direction into something positive. Either way you looked at it, he was receiving the thing that he desired more than anything and that was purely the attention he received from his escapades. People knew his name, they paid attention to him when he spoke, he wasn't just some random face in the crowd stating his opinion he actually existed in this world now. As Lily took a few sharp strides in his direction Sirius didn't so much as flinch let alone move, he was ready to face her in all her infuriated rage if only just to have a good story to tell James about later. The smirk was still set in stone on Sirius's mouth as he watched her approach him, she was definitely angry and that was the only thing that was really clear. "I wouldn't start vouching for someone who calls you such vile names. Think of this as revenge on your behave, I'm avenging your name." Sirius insisted, his manipulative manner was kicking in although he knew that in this situation it would do him no good.

Before Sirius could brace himself for the blow, she was poking him in the stomach and than gripping the collar of his white button down firmly between two hands. Without any time to react Sirius found himself yanked down to eye level with Lily, the grin now faltering as it was trying to find it's way back onto his face. You've done it this time, Sirius. The voice in the back of his head was always late whenever it came to matters like that. A set of intense green eyes seemed to stare straight back into Sirius's grey ones, she was definitely one not to toyed with right now. Despite her rage, Lily had left herself wide open when she failed to finish her own sentence. Since Sirius was always one to test his luck he grinned easily and took a shot at filling it in, "Sexy?" The dog like grin had returned to his features, his grey eyes shone with a sort of expression that seemed to hint that he knew he was just getting himself into deeper shit. When Lily had pushed him away, Sirius had stumbled backwards but seemed relieved to be out of the firey red head's death grasp. He couldn't deny that she was going to be a hard one for even the infamous James Potter to obtain. As he faltered back a few steps Sirius winced as if expecting to be slapped across the face for his last comment, naturally he would take it like a man smiling broadly through the whole ordeal.

[Lily Evans]

"Well I will know the difference, Sirius. Why must you leave me in such a position?Just last month I had to lie about the very interesting thing you called artwork on the walls. I believe it was another colorful thing about Severus Snape and--" She gave a cough of polite girlishness. "well I don't really want to say it." Standing up tall (or as tall as a rather short person could stand), marched herself over to the walls and stared blankly at it. Another interesting thing that was so clearly done by the youngest Black. At his comment of avenging her name and how she shouldn't be defending him, that thick armor came right back up. It was hard not to defend him since most of the time he was the bud of the jokes, always being made fun of when he really is an intelligent human being, much more then some of the boys Lily found herself hanging around since they insisted on protecting her name and such.

Lily turned her head back over to Sirius, a small smile on her face, "I don't need you to avenge my name, Sirius. I can perfectly well avenge my own name. Don't you ever think that you lot take it a bit to far with him, I mean being mean to mean person isn't going to get you anywhere, you can curse him, but he is still going to get up again and if he continues to call me such names then that is something I deal with." Yeah, she dealt with it alright, the first time he had said it, she wasn't really sure what it had meant, she was always quiet, never really wondering until she asked James (an odd occurance in itself she is proclaimed dislike for him) when he told her, it was easy to be upset, easy to want Severus to go through such pain as what that name did to her. Then again lily wasn't dumb enough to buy into Sirius avenging her name. Please. That was only something Potter would do. While her and Sirius were close and all, they weren't that close. "Don't think I buy into your rubbish anyway, it really was a nice try though, maybe if you added some truth into it, it would sound better... why exactly is it that you don't like him again? And please don't say it's because of his foul choice in words... yours aren't that much better most days."

"Plus your not all that sexy." So Lily was still opinonated enough to admit that he was an attractive boy, not exactly someone to be overlooked but then again she wasn't crazy enough to fall for him like some girls were. Sure he was okay, but no James. Were did that thought come from? Oh yes from that part in her mind that she used when comparing anyone to what she really wanted... of curse. Duh. "So... sexy I think I am going to take great pleasure in watching you clean up your mess. I really can't stand another speech about how I don't patrol this floor or any other floor well enough." With a flick of her wand a bucket full of soapy water appeared. "I think I will also enjoy watching you do it without the use of magic... it's almost like cheating if you just clean it like that." Yawning she hoped herself onto a sink, her legs crossing delicately while her upper body slouched a bit trying to get comfortable for the show she was going to utterly enjoy watching. That was if he would even lower his enough ego filled head to do such a thing.