The following week, Jenna was extremely glad when James returned McGonagall's book to her without a single scratch it. Although he still refused to tell her why he needed this book.

     After returning the book to Professor McGonagall's office, Jenna walked back to the Gryffindor common room. But when she opened the door to her dormitory, she stopped in her tracks and when she found Alice crying on her bed, with Lily and Marlene trying to comfort her.

     "What is it? What happened?" Jenna asked worriedly, quickly walking toward her mourning friend.

     "I-it's woody — he — died this morning." Alice began to sob harder. She had grown way too attached to her pet bowtruckle.

     "Oh..." Jenna muttered sympathetically, moving forward to sit at the edge of her bed. "I'm so sorry, Al."

     "Alice thinks he had been sick even when Alice had found him," Lily explained to Jenna in a quiet whisper.

     "Well, at least he had lived with you happily during the last months of his life," Marlene tried to tell Alice comfortingly. "He wasn't happy with the other bowtruckles, remember? They were all bullying him."

     "Yeah. I'm sure he was glad to have you, Al," said Lily, gently caressing Alice's back.

     "B-but he was so young." Alice tried ro wipe away her tears, but more followed. "I didn't take care of him good enough."

     "Actually, he had a lot of leaves on his head. The more leaves they had, the older they are," Lily said. "Maybe he wasn't sick. He died from natural causes. He was just old. You did everything to keep him happy, Al. There was nothing else you could do."

     "Where is he now?" Jenna asked.

     Alice sniffed, slowly opening her hand. There Woody was, in the palm of her hands, looking as if he were in a peaceful sleep. The girls sat there in a gloomy silence for a minute, until Jenna finally said,

     "Let's go and bury him. Somewhere quiet and beautiful."

     "Wh-where?" Alice sniffed once more, her nose red and puffy.

     "By a willow tree near the Black Lake. I'm sure he would've liked that very much."

     Alice finally nodded in acceptance, looking down at Woody. "Will you guys come with me?"

     Lily and Marlene quickly nodded, and Jenna gave her friend a comforting smile. "Of course."

***

After dinner that night, the girls made their way back to the Gryffindor tower. Alice hadn't yet fully recovered from losing her bowtruckle, but she was feeling much better since that morning. And that was all thanks to her friends who were there for her, trying to cheer her up all day long.

     Saying the password, the Fat Lady opened the portrait for them to climb inside. But there was an odd atmosphere inside the common room which the girls noticed as soon as they stepped inside.

     "Huh, that's weird," said Jenna, looking down at her wrist watch. "It's seven o'clock, but the couch in front of the fireplace is empty. Those are the best seats in the common room."

     "I know." Lily nodded. "This is usually the busiest hour inside the common room."

     "Something's off," Jenna said suspiciously. She looked around, but every other seat was taken. The only ones empty were the ones on the couch in front of the fireplace.

     Marlene shrugged, grinning. "Oh, who cares. I say let's just take advantage of these seats while we have the chance."

     The moment Marlene dropped herself on the couch, an uncomfortable look was formed on her face. "Oh, no..."

     "What's wrong?" Alice questioned worriedly.

     "Oh, no!" Marlene shrieked, jumping off the couch. She began to scratch her hands, her legs, her head. She began moving frantically around the common room, her whole body itching terribly.

      "Someone must've jinxed it!" Lily huffed out angrily, moving forward to help Marlene. But she didn't know any spells that could ease the itching.

     "She's not the first victim either," said Mary Macdonald, who had just walked down the dormitory staircases. "Two other boys were sent to the hospital wing only an hour ago."

      Alice frowned. "But who would even jinx the —"

     Her words weren't even fully out of her mouth that the portrait swung open, four boys walking inside, looking innocent and clueless.

     "Ah, will you look at that?" Sirius said, looking at the couch'a direction. "Four empty seats."

     "Huh. How very convenient." James mused.

     Peter was sniggering right behind them, while Remus was trying his best to hide his smile.

     "Well, since no one seems to be willing to be sitting there, why shouldn't we?" said Remus, shrugging innocently.

     Lily frowned her eyebrows at them, already realizing what was going on.

     "I wouldn't sit there if I were you," said Mary. "Someone has jinxed that couch with the itching charm."

     James grinned. "We'll take our chances."

     Now all the eyes in the common room were on the four boys, who had sat down on the couch in front of the fireplace. Ten seconds passed, then a whole minute. But they didn't seem the least bothered by any itching.

     "You! You four did that!" Lily shook her head at them. "This isn't allowed! You can't just own a couch! It belongs to all Gryffindors."

     "Don't know what you're talking 'bout, Evans," James said coolly, leaning his back comfortably into the couch. "Ah, so soft and warm."

     Lily opened her mouth to argue, but Marlene broke her off. "Can we leave this conversation for later! I'm dying here!" She groaned, scratching her skin which had now turned red.

     "Fine. But you four better be able to explain yourselves to Professor McGonagall." Lily turned her head away and dragged Marlene out of the common room as the boys sniggered with laughter.

      Jenna covered her mouth as she followed her friends out of the common room. She couldn't deny that she has found the situation hilarious. But for her own sake, she tried her best to hide her grin from Lily.

***

By the end of the night, Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter had all landed themselves in detention, and the itching charm was removed from the couch by Professor McGonagall.

     Although from that night on, whenever those four Gryffindor boys were in the common room, no one else dared to sit on that couch. Not even the seventh year students. They had clearly showed to everyone who owned that place.

     It was a few weeks after Christmas break that after long skimming, the boys began their plan. First step was stealing Mandrake leaves from Professor Sprouts' greenhouse. And what better way to do so, than using James's Invisibility Cloak.

     It was after midnight. The boys snuck out of the castle and walked the path down to the Greenhouses.

"Damn you for getting so tall, Black," James said as they closed the Greenhouse's door behind themselves and finally removing the cloak.

Sirius grinned. "No need to get jealous, Potter."

"Jealous of what?" James scoffed playfully. "If anything, you —"

"Shh!" Remus broke off what was the promise of a long argument about who was more handsome. This wasn't the time, nor the place for that. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Peter said worriedly, glancing outside the greenhouse's glass walls. He shifted closer to James who was holding onto the invisibility cloak, so if someone was to come in, he could quickly hide underneath it and not be seen.

"The noise is coming from the inside," said James, looking around. "It's the Mamdrakes. They're snoring."

"Here," Sirius said in a hushed voice, grabbing a few sound mufflers from the corner of the room and handing them out. "The Mandrakes we used to work with were babies. Their voices were nothing compared to these grown up ones. It's likely we'll pass out if they decide to start screaming out of fear."

"Remus, did you bring everything?" James asked quietly, shifting closer toward the plants.

Remus nodded, opening his bag and handing out the special scissors they needed to chop off the Mandrake leaves. Their leaves weren't sensitive parts of the plan, so with a little bit of luck and a great deal of care, they could get away without waking any of the Mandrakes up.

"We need four leaves," said James. "But let's take a few extra just in case."

"We can't take too much, though. We don't want anyone noticing that the leaves have been cut," Sirius pointed out.

"Yeah, good point. I think twelve will do." James nodded. "Okay, let's get to it, then. You two stand watch." He gestured at Remus and Peter.

Once they had all put on the sound mufflers, James and Sirius took the scissors in hand and got to work.

     Although they were ten Mandrake leaves in, that Sirius's Mandrake suddenly woke up. The boys froze, watching the plant in horror. But then, as soon as the Mandrake saw them, it began to scream without warning.

     "AARGH! LET'S GET OUT! GET OUT NOW!" James shouted in horror and so the boys made a run for the greenhouse's door.

     The other Mandrakes woke up and one by one they joined in the screaming match. A thud noise came behind them right before they could leave. And when they turned around, they saw that Peter had collapsed to the floor, passed out from the deafening shrieks.

     "QUICK! GRAB HIS LEGS!" James shouted as he picked up Peter from his arms. Sirius and Remus rushed forward and each grabbed one of Peter's legs, carrying him out of the greenhouse.

     Hearing footsteps, the boys made a quick turn and chose another way to walk to the castle. Once they entered an empty hallway, the put Peter down, took one look at one another, and burst out in laughter.

     "That — was — awesome!" Sirius said between roars of laughter.

     "C'mon, let's get Peter to hospital wings," said James, wiping his tears away.

     "What would we say to Madam Pomfrey?" Remus asked, still grinning. His stomach had begun to hurt from laughing so hard.

     "That he's had too many sweet?" Sirius suggested.

     James shrugged, still grinning. "Reasonable enough."