'sick' day {gryffies}

[prongs]

Ever since lunch yesterday, students and faculty had been succumbing to a rather nasty stomach illness at an alarming rate. By the time it was decided that the source of this ailment was in fact food, dinner had come and gone, bringing with it a new wave of sick students to the hospital wing. Cots baring queasy teens filled much of the empty space within the wing, spots reserved only for those whom the nurse was most concerned about. Everyone else who sought a remedy to their ailments was turned away with orders to rest and drink plenty of fluids.

Eventually the teachers discovered that the ‘illness’ was actually the result of a misbrewed potion; but until all the ingredients were discovered, it would be nearly impossible for a remedy to be produced. Since then, the faculty had been on the hunt to track down the culprit, or culprits, unknown… or so James assumed from Professor McGonagall’s less than tact, midnight interrogation of her four favorite gryffindors.

The answer she received was an obvious and resounding no. Not that she could really be faulted for her slight hope that the solution would be so easy to come by. Besides, in their little conversation he had learned that the Headmaster was planning to announce a school wide edict proclaiming that anyone displaying the apparent symptoms of this little potion need only to report their absence to their Head of House and someone would be around to check on them eventually.

And damn if James didn't wake up feeling queasy.. or feverish.. or whatever it was people were complaining about. Cough. Yep, defiantly sick. So he lay there plotting his strategy for the inevitable debate with Moony about why they deserved a Sick Day. After so brilliantly discarding the Siri-esque 'we've been in school for month and haven't even skipped class' argument in favor of 'attendance will be poor, we could accomplish so much more homework here' and adding a 'full moon is coming up soon, we don't want you falling behind', James felt he was adequately prepared on that front. And Moons always was the hardest to convince.

With a self-satisfied grin, he tossed his pillow at the still snoozing form of Padfoot and made his way down to the common room. He plopped into a big maroon armchair, reclining with a contented sigh as he began planning a full day of not doing anything.

[camron]

So far, Remus had escaped catching the bug. It might not even be contageious, but he didn't feel like taking any chances. Being queesy and a werewolf didn't hold much appeal for him at all. Not that he wanted to be queasy and Humanoid either, it didn't hold any joy for him. Really, he didn't want to be queesy at all, not that anyone would. He just wanted to be fine and healthy for once, which he only ever got half way through the month on the other side of the Moon cycle. That was a good time of month for Moony. Around now was an alright time, nothing to complain about and nothing to rejoice about.

Rolling over under his quilt he closed his eyes again, trying to reach a state of sleep. What luck he would get in that was another thing entirely. He'd managed to get through most nights by just day-dreaming, which took up a lot of time. He was also probably the only Marauder that didn't do it in lessons, but that didn't matter. He did it at night to make up for the time 'wasted' in lessons. Of course, he never thought of it as wasting time, since education was something important to him. He wasn't going to let anyone down with his studies just because he had a so-called excuse. And like hell he was going to feel sorry for himself. Leave that to the Slytherins.

He heard the soft thud of what could only be a pillow. Pillow fight? He turned onto his back, head angled into the centre of the room. One dark figure moved in the gloom, sneaking out? Well, it wasn't really sneaking out if it was only in the commen room and Remus knew which bed it had come from. He followed Prongs with his pale eyes, watching him leave. When the door clicked on the latch he pushed off his own bedcovers, swinging his legs around onto the cold stone floor. The carpet always failed to reach to underneath his bed. He grabbed a jumper from under his bed and pulled it on as he walked across to the door. He pulled it open and followed James down the stairs, his bare feet hardly making any noise on the steps. He flopped onto the sofa in front of the fireplace opposite Prongs with a grin. "Couldn't sleep, Prongsy?" He asked, putting his feet up along the length of the two seater sofa.

[prongs]

James wiggled around in his armchair to get cozy. Long legs dangling over one padded armrest, while he wedged his shoulder into a corner where the overstuffed chair back met the other arm rest and the cushion. There was no way it should’ve been nearly as comfortable as it was, let alone manageable for anyone his height, but he had always found it mysteriously relaxing. He grinned as a familiar figure landed on the sofa across the warm glow of the fireplace from him. The light cast upon the ever-tired face of the blond wasn’t necessary, he would’ve recognized the voice of one of his best friends in a sea of shouting people… Remus’ was the one that sounded nearly identical to his conscious. Odd that.

For a moment he was worried that he had inadvertently woken Moony up when he had left their dorm. But while he considered himself a light sleeper, Remus always seemed to be in a state of semi-waking despite what was probably an even greater need for sleep than the rest of them. Besides, James had been quiet… up until he had thrown his pillow with the faint and somewhat ridiculous notion that it would miraculously rouse Siri from his heavy slumber. In reality, it would’ve been smarter if he had just resisted the temptation. Now he wasn’t likely to get his poor pillow back until Padfoot woke in his own dear sweet time, and then he would be lucky if it wasn’t sodden with drool…

"Couldn't sleep, Prongsy?"

The question broke into his contemplation of his unfortunate pillow’s demise. “Just not really tired” he replied with an attempt at a nonchalant shrug as per step one of his ‘convince-Moony-to-take-advantage-of-the-system-and skip-class’ plan. After all, such topics were delicate matters when it came to his scholastic-minded friend and needed to be handled careful- “You’re ahead on homework, right?” –ly. Or his mouth could just completely ignore his brain and blurt out something stupid. Brilliant. “I mean if you happened to hypothetically catch whatever is going around, you’d be alright missing class, right?” He added a supportive grin, hopeful he could pass merely as caring best friend… and hide any reason for Remus to suspect ulterior motives from a friend with less tact than a hammer. He had made a promise to himself that the four of them were going to enjoy this free day and he had planned accordingly. If he couldn’t get his friend to agree, Option B was to get the one person in the Tower less diplomatic than himself to help out, regardless of the fact Pads would probably resort to knocking the werewolf out with an actual hammer to force his compliance.

[camron]

Remus shifted his position. He wasn't that all as seventeen year olds went, he was edging up to around six foot, maybe a little less, but he was quite gangly. He didn't look so much to look at him, but he was really quite skinny, but he didn't mind too much, there was a lot you could hide with a cloak and a jumper. He ajusted where his feet were, now having his knees over the end of the sofa whilst his head leant against the arm rest at the other end. One arm was casually around the back of his head to lean on. Much more comfortable. Not quite as comfortable as...say, his bed, but that didn't matter. He looked at the smouldering fire, the glow was slightly eerie, a flickering light casting shadows across James and his own face. Prominant cheekbones and all that.

“Just not really tired”

Remus raised his eyebrows for a moment but didn't offer any comment. Marauders had a rather erratic sleep cycle as teenagers went. Night was an easy time to get away with just about anything as long as you had a bit of a brain and an invisibility cloak helped a lot. He leant his head back against his arm. He looked up at the ceiling, eyes half closed. He was tired, but then he was perminantly tired. All was good really. He was used to it, and he wasn't going to have people feeling sorry for himself. That wasn't acceptable in the young Gryffindor's books, of which he had a great many.

“You’re ahead on homework, right? I mean if you happened to hypothetically catch whatever is going around, you’d be alright missing class, right?”

This time Remus looked over at his best friend with a skeptical look. He raised his eyebrows. "Hypothetically?" He queried casually. What were they up to this time? He was the least adventurous of the Marauders by quite a long way, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to play catch up. He was fine being a bit less outgoing. Not that he liked to let his other friends down, ever. What with all they'd done for him and everything. No. "What are you hypothetically asking me here?" He said with a smile, but it turned into a yawn half-way through. He covered his mouth with one hand, but kept smiling at Prongs.

[.::johanna devarhoe]

[[OOC:: Do you two mind if I reply here? If not it's okay, but I have a good reason why Jo would know the gryffie password. Just thought I'd ask first since it looks like it might be a marauders only thread. ^.^]]

[prongs]

((its a thread for anyone with a good reason to be hanging out in the gryffindor common room, moony just happens to be the only person who has been cool enough to respond so far))



"What are you hypothetically asking me here?"

James couldn't help the grin that spread over his face. Moons may have sidestepped the question, but that wasn't an outright no either. Always a good sign. "Well.. a little birdie might have told me that a certain Headmaster was going to be lax on class attendance today in light of recent events." he replied in a voice slightly too excited to pass for sly. "I was just considering how much of a travesty it would be if we didn't take advantage of this opportunity for a midweek vacation."

He cut himself off there with an innocent grin before he could tell Remus the tagline to Dumbledore’s little edict. The fact that somebody would eventually be coming around to check on ill students wasn’t all that important anyways. Besides, the four of them could always manage to find a way around a little detail like that, so there was no sense in getting his friend all worked up over nothing. The far more important question was how to spend a free day like this.

In truth, that was just about as far as he had gotten during his planning phase. Far more effort was put towards ensuring that they actually would use this sick day than trying to figure out how it should be spent. Hogsmeade was, as always, an option but he had his doubts that even they could pull that one off without detection… and enjoying the great outdoors was off the list too, no matter how much the warm glow of the sun would mock him. .. common room football had been forbidden since third year when a rough game had resulted in the replacement of a table and three chairs… “..So that doesn’t work” he added the thought aloud, half talking to himself without consciously realizing the rest of the conversation had stayed in his head. “What do you think Moony?”

[.::johanna devarhoe]

[[kk, I got a good enough reason to be there. ^.^]]

With the stuffy, medical smell of the hospital wing left behind, Johanna was left now only to fend off her brother insisting that he didn't need help making it back to the Gryffindor common room. Alan had been one of the students unfortunate enough to have some down with this mysterious illness that was sweeping the school. Johanna, being more stubborn than was usually in her nature had refused to either leave the hospital wing, or even shut her mouth until Alan had been aloud to leave and spend the night in his own bed. He had insisted that he was well enough, and both of them were sure that there was someone else in the school who probably needed the space more. The nurse had been kind enough to allow them to leave, after hours of constant nagging, under the condition that Johanna keep an eye on her brother at least until morning.

"You had better not be faking." Johanna grumbled from under the heavy arm of her dark toned brother, fully aware of his acting ability, and even more aware of his ability to be sick at will. It was obvious that he wasn't faking, he wasn't that crude, but it still made Johanna sour that she had to stay in the Gryffindor tower tonight, instead of being able to sleep in her own bed. The two of them shuffled their way toward the Gryffindor common room, aware that the only people awake at this time of night were professors, walking the hallways, assuring that all of the students were in bed. It didn't bother either of them though. They had a perfectly good reason for being out. Not that this was a good thing.

When they finally made it to the gryffindor common room, Johanna said the password. The two of them always shared their passwords. They were closer than most siblings, mainly due to the fact that they weren't actually related, an obvious fact. Both of them were surprised to see two students awake, conversing. It was only after they realized who the two were that the surprise wore off. One was Potter if Johanna remembered right. The other was also in Alan's year, but Johanna had never been able to remember his name. "James. Remus." She heard Alan greeting them. "I think you've met Johanna."

Johanna carried his weight only as far as the nearest full length coach, before ducking out from under his arm, and nudging him, at which point he flopped loudly into the cushions. The light from the low fireplace not only danced across Johanna's snowy skin, but seemed to reflect off of it, creating a ghostly effect. Johanna nodded at the two in greeting, before flopping down in a chair facing away from the fire. She adjusted her black button down shirt, flung her feet over the arm of the chair and slouched against the other arm. Not even a minute passed before she could hear Alan's heavy breathing, a sure sign that the tall, muscled teen was fast asleep on the couch.

[isadora lestoat]

Lestoats never slept. It was fact, it was truth, it was a way of life... Or death, if you felt like debating it. Isadora spent the entirety of her nights in the common room of Gryffindor Tower when she wasn't sneaking around the castle, enjoying the solitude of it while everyone else slept. There were no rules to the Gryffindor, who enjoyed running through the castle at her own whims.

Such a night had left her longing to stay in the Room of Requirement, where she busied herself with musical instruments and the hardwood dance floor, but alas, she knew she should head back to the common room. And so she did, making her way swiftly but silently throughout the empty corridors and into the familiar house.

Upon entering the common room, the scent of other awake students hit her. She smiled slightly, making her way over to an empty armchair by the fire, stretching in it and sitting in a comfortable position.

"So, who else here is 'sick'?" She asked, running a hand through her dark brown hair. She looked at the other inhabitants, raising an eyebrow at the Hufflepuff girl, but not saying anything.