Pranking Slytherin
It was Friday, the day they’d decided to go forth with their prank, but James wasn’t feeling as energetic as he normally would by such an enticing fact. Part of it had to do with the fact that he was now worried about Regulus, looking for him unconsciously every chance he got, trying (and utterly failing) to catch his attention and speak to him again. But it was also the fact that Remus was decidedly ignoring Sirius, and that was tugging on the shorter boy more than he’d ever admit.
Sirius had told him that, the morning after the party, Remus had apparently forgiven him for his acts, even giving him a reassuring hug. For the most part, they seemed to be okay, but it was the way Remus avoided being left alone with Sirius, spending a lot more time with Peter. It had gotten to the point where the blond boy had been looking nervously at Sirius every time Remus favored spending time with him.
It was exactly what had happened earlier in the week when they were deciding who would go with who during the prank. They were too big now to all fit under the cloak and needed to split up anyway if they wanted to cover all the dorms. James had suggested Sirius go with Remus, in the spirit of mending whatever was troubling Remus, but he had refused, choosing Peter as a partner instead. “I’m better at the Disillusionment Charm, Prongs, and that way you both can take the cloak while I take Pete as a rat. It’s easier this way, trust me” he’d said, pointedly ignoring Sirius’ offended stare.
The worst part was, he was right, which meant that there was no arguing with him.
Sirius had tried, though, bringing up the topic of the girl’s dorms and who would cover them. They had discovered during an experiment that very week that they could go up to the rooms as animagi without triggering the alarm, so Remus was out of the roster. He had to enchant the boys’ dorms. “I want to be the one to enchant Reggie’s bed, and we can’t leave James to do all the girl’s dorms by himself. It makes more sense if we go together to the boy’s dorms, Moony,” he’d offered, a sufficient smile on his lips. He was sure he had cracked the code with that one, sure that Remus had to agree with him.
Remus, however, shot the idea down immediately. “I know you want to see your brother, Pads,” and there had been a kindness in his voice that hadn’t been there for the entire week, “but it’ll be less likely that they catch you and Peter as animagi than Prongs, because the damn stag is way too big to go unnoticed, even with the smoke as our advantage, and we all know he doesn’t fit under the cloak.” That was true, again. They had tried many times.
“So, I’ll be with Remus while we go in, and then with Sirius while we transfigure the beds?” Peter had asked, wringing his hands in his lap, looking from one to the other and not bothering to hide his anxiety. Remus had nodded, and that was that.
Reluctantly, James had accepted this. However, he planned to ambush Remus into telling him what on Godric’s name had him so wound up.
They all stood in front of the door to the room now, James and Sirius hidden beneath the cloak, Remus disillusioned with Wormtail in his hands, all of them with bubble charms around their heads to breathe properly. If James focused, he could sort of see Remus’ shape, but only vaguely; he had truly mastered the charm. It had been Remus who had tipped them to the password to the Common Room, not saying who his source had been, and they’d planted the Stink Pellets in all the rooms the morning before, programming them to go off during the early night but after the feast, ensuring most of the students would get the brunt of the smell and think that would be all.
It was genius, really. It had occurred to him, the time of them going off, so he was especially proud of that one.
“Any moment now…” James whispered in Sirius’ ear, and the other boy nodded. They were crouched on one another, standing close as to not have their feet poking out from under the Cloak, waiting for the Stink Pellets to go off so they could take advantage of the chaos and enter, in order to start even more chaos.
Right on time, James heard a small explosion behind the door, and a few seconds later there was a collective groaning, a few shouts, and the door to the Common Room banged open and the students started pouring out, hands on their faces, a few of the older students with Bubble charms around their heads. A waft of green smoke trailed out with them.
“I’ll look for Slughorn,” said a familiar voice from inside and, a second later, Severus Snape pulled out of the door, greasy hair covered in green powder, nose wrinkled in disgust. James had to keep himself from hexing him, remembering how frayed Lily had looked on Sunday, wanting to get him back in her name.
Avery, who stood by his side, nodded, holding his hand to his nose. “I’m going to kill Potter,” he muttered back at Snape, the two of them nodding at each other before stalking down the hall, towards Slughorn’s office.
James had to make an effort to not laugh. They had, of course, thought of that too, and had chosen a night in which they knew Slughorn would be out of his room, cultivating one of the weirder herbs he needed for one potion or other. The knowledge, oddly enough, had been granted to them by Lily, who was currently out with him in the greenhouses. Making the Slytherins go around the castle, looking for their head of house, gave them the extra time they needed to slip in and out unnoticed.
Once most of the students had gotten out into the long corridor (yes, James checked with the map, and tried to ignore the feeling that tugged on his chest when he realized Regulus was still inside, in his own room), he tugged on Sirius and they moved through the students, careful not to touch them, and into the Common Room. He gave the door a light tap, the signal he’d agreed with Remus. He didn’t know how he’d hear it, but he trusted Remus and his heightened senses.
He only admired the stone walls, carved armchairs, and green candelabra scattered around the room for a second before he felt Remus’ presence by his side.
“Let’s go, Prongs,” he said, his voice eager, apparently also sensing him. James took off the cloak and handed it to Sirius.
He looked at him with surprise. “If anything, I’m sure Moony can Disillusion me better than you two could escape. In here it’s easy, but a dog won’t go unnoticed among the students outside. Besides, we have the map,” he said, and Sirius nodded, giving a longing look in the general direction of Remus before turning into a dog, the cloak sticking between his teeth, and stalking up the stairs.
A few seconds later, the muffled sounds of footsteps followed, and James squinted at the floor until he located Wormtail moving to the stairs as well, his small feet struggling to keep up with Padfoot’s longer strides.
“Could you take the charm off, pumpkin? I hate feeling like I’m looking at empty space.”
He heard a sigh and then Remus materialized in front of him. They looked at each other for a moment, and then he turned around and went down the corridor. James had to rush to keep up with him, careful to keep an eye on the map in case someone came back into the dorms. But, for now, it was only Regulus there. What had made him stay behind? James wondered, but no explanation seemed to satisfy him. He figured he’d simply have to ask him.
“You take rights, I take lefts?” Remus asked, once they had made it out of the corridor and into an open, circular room, with doors that had little plaques over them, showing the years. A quick look told him that if he took the deal, he’d enter Regulus’ dorm alone, and he almost said yes; however, his overbearing worry for Remus and Sirius stopped him.
“Can’t we go together, room by room? I think it’d be faster,” he said, shooting Remus a reassuring smile.
“I don’t want to talk, James.” It was the answer he’d been fearing, but James didn’t let it affect him. Instead, he followed Remus into the first years’ dorm.
Remus sighed and turned his back to him. Together, they transfigured all four beds and, still in silence, moved on to the next dorm.
They remained silent until the third year’s dorm, when James finally cracked. “You do know he’s sorry, right?” He asked, trying to sound neutral, as he flicked his wand and transfigured one of the beds into a coffee table. Remus was casting the spell as well, but his bed turned into a giant chess board, with no pieces in sight.
“I know,” was Remus’ stiff reply as he turned to the next bed.
James transfigured his quickly, into a silver platter, and turned to look at Remus. “Then why are you so bothered by it? You never did quite tell me.”
Remus sighed. “Look, James, let’s just get this over with, can we?”
But James wasn’t having it. He’d given Remus as much space as he could, but he could no longer bear to see the look on Sirius’ face every time Remus ignored him. Or the look on Remus’ face when he did it, honestly. They both seemed too hurt, and he knew they were too proud to admit it to each other, so he’d happily mediate things between them.
“I just worry about you, Moony,” he said, following him into the fourth-year’s dorm and scanning the room, looking for Regulus. The door to the bathroom was locked, which probably meant that he was in there because James could see him nowhere.
He took a second to survey the room through the green mist and found it was much more organized than his own dorm. Another curious thing was that each bed seemed to have its own armchair, green cushions, and polished wood for handles, all elegant but still comfortable looking. Trying to not be offended by the lack of chairs in his own dorm, he looked for Regulus’ bed and found it immediately, recognizing the trunk at the foot of his bed. It was identical to the one Sirius had had for the past four years, all black wood with silver and green decorations, until Effie had taken him in and bought him a new one. His old one had been left at Grimmauld Place, and no one had dared suggest they try to get it back.
The bed was neatly made, the walls devoid of any actual decoration, his nightside table having nothing on top of it but a small, leatherbound journal. James wanted to read it, but he also didn’t want to intrude on the other boy’s privacy, so he didn’t look at it. Lazily, he transfigured Regulus’ bed into a painting of a deer in the middle of the woods.
“Yeah, well, you shouldn’t,” Remus muttered, turning to the task at hand, and catapulting James back to their current conversation.
“If you just told me what’s bothering you, sweetheart, I’m sure we could talk it out,” he tried again, but Remus just shook his head at him.
Seeing he wouldn’t get anywhere with Remus, he decided to switch his focus. He tried to go back to transfiguring the beds but couldn’t. He wanted to see Regulus, and a terrible feeling had set itself at the pit of his stomach that something was wrong. He had learned to trust his intuition thanks to Frank’s lessons in Quidditch, while he had still been captain of the Gryffindor team, before graduating last year. He’d also come to learn, all by himself, that his intuition was right about most things.
So, instead of helping Remus in transfiguring the beds or questioning him any more about Sirius, he went up to the door of the bathroom and knocked on it.
“I told you to leave me alone, Crouch.” Regulus’ voice from the inside was shaky, but it was still held in a distinctly disliking tone. From what he had observed about Regulus during the week, in the few moments he’d seen him, he would’ve assumed him to be friends with Crouch and Rosier, since he seemed to be with them almost all the time. Hearing him speak in that tone seemed strange to James. Did he speak to even his friends like that?
Remus turned to look at the door, hearing Regulus, and gave James a look that clearly meant to leave the boy where he was. James smiled at him and shrugged.
Yeah, no, he wasn’t doing that. “This isn’t Barty, sunshine,” he said to the door.
There was a loud clang from inside the bathroom and some muffled swearing. He heard Remus’ groan and turned just in time to see him point the wand at himself, and a second later his frame vanished, as the Disillusionment Charm took effect. Not before he shot James a disapproving look, to which James shrugged helplessly. He’d try to explain himself later if Remus questioned him.
For now, he was yanked back to the present as the door to the bathroom swung open and there was Regulus, his grey eyes looking at him with fury barely contained, his wet curls framing his face in a lovely way, his hands crossed in his chest. He was fully clothed, clad in his Quidditch uniform (which James had to admit looked good on him, accentuating his lean frame), and he was blocking the view into the bathroom with his body.
“Did they fucking call you? Oh, I’m going to kill Evan,” he said, more to himself than to James, and then his face scrunched as the smell of the Stink Pellets hit him with their full force. He looked at James’ face again, now noticing the bubble charm around it, and groaned. “Oh, they didn’t. you’re doing one of your pranks, aren’t you? Well, leave me alone.”
He started closing the door, but James was faster, sticking his foot into the opening and letting a sliver of an opening between them.
“Are you okay in there, Reg?” he asked, not bothering to hide the worry from his voice. He didn’t know why, but he was worried, the pit in his stomach dragging him down like a bag of stones would, but he wanted to figure it out.
“All dandy,” he replied, but his voice was too sharp and too tense for James to buy it.
“You don’t sound fine to me,” he countered, trying to peer inside from the small opening they had left. All he could see, though, was one of Regulus’ eyes, trained on him. “Come on, humor me. What is it?”
“You really don’t want to know,” Regulus finally relented, sighing and opening the door a bit more, until his full face was in view.
“James, if you don’t help me with the rest of these beds, I can and I will cut you into pieces and serve you to Evans on a silver platter,” came Remus’ voice from the next room.
James sighed and looked at Regulus again. “As you can see, sunshine, I must go, but…” he looked into Regulus’ grey eyes and gave him a small, sincere smile. He wanted to reach out and give him a tap on the shoulder but thought better of it at the last second. “I’m here for you Reg, okay? Whatever you need.”
“Such a big proposition for only being my brother’s best friend,” Regulus replied, stoic, although James could see the small smile on his lips and the flush on his cheeks.
His grin widened. “I’m not doing this for Sirius, sunshine.”
Regulus arched his eyebrow at him. “Then why are you doing this?”
James took a second to ponder the question. He wasn’t even sure what he meant by this; was it the worrying? Or the offering? It was probably both. He’d been worried about Regulus, he knew that much, but why? It wasn’t only about Sirius, even if it had been that in the beginning, so what was pushing him to worry so much about the younger boy?
He was sure if he had more time to think about it, he’d figure it out, but at that moment Remus’ voice returned from somewhere outside. “I’m serious James, get over here!”
“Going!” he shouted back, taking a second to look back at Regulus. “We’ll continue this conversation later. For now, I trust you won’t snitch on us?” It came out as more of a question than a statement, and Regulus nodded curtly at him.
James smiled at him one last time before turning and heading for Snape’s room, mind still set on keeping his promise to Regulus. He didn’t know how, or why, but he was determined to keep it.
He was starting to realize he always meant it when it came to Regulus.
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Remus groaned as he Disillusioned Wormtail and himself, after making it safely back to their dorm room.
The prank had gone without any other hitches, after he finally managed to get James out of Regulus’ room (truly, this crush of him was becoming a bit ridiculous) and they finished transfiguring the rest of the boys’ beds. They didn’t speak after Regulus, just a small look between them that assured Remus that the younger Black would keep them as the perpetrators of the prank a secret. They hadn’t stayed for long after they transfigured all the beds, reuniting with Sirius and Peter and making it out of the Slytherin Common Room as they saw Snape and Avery locate Slughorn through the map.
They had raced then, running for their dorms to be there in time, in case someone decided to look for them. Knowing they probably would.
“So, quick review, what have we been doing the entire night?” He shot at James, going for his school bag and sitting on his bed to rummage through it. He got out the parchments with the essay on the properties of Moonstone he’d been working on during the afternoon. He took a quill and ink and started writing hastily on it. He’d left his last idea incomplete on purpose, so he could pretend to be working on it when they got back.
“We all came back here straight after eating, we know Marlene and Mary can attest to it, we came up with them,” James started, also taking out some homework and sprawling it on his bed. “We have that nasty test coming up for Slughorn, and Pete’s been stressed out about it, so we’ve all been reviewing it together.”
“I know that’s what we’re saying, but seriously, guys,” Peter started, his homework already all around him, “can you explain to me the uses for Everlasting Elixirs? The theory on it is driving me mad.”
Sirius flaunted himself dramatically on his bed and sighed. He was the only one with no parchments out; normally, Remus would scold him and get him to, at least, pretend to be doing some work. Now, he did his best to not look at him.
It wasn’t that he was angry at Sirius, not exactly. After his conversation with him, the morning after the party, he’d been ready to forgive and forget. The problem was that his feelings were growing harder to ignore with each passing day, and he didn’t know how to manage them. It broke his time every time he saw Sirius flirt with a girl, every time he kissed Mary, and so he’d been doing his best to subtly avoid him.
“I have no patience at the moment, Wormy. Can you do it, Prongs?” Sirius asked, interrupting Remus’ train of thought and making him look up from his essay briefly. Sirius was talking to James, but he was looking directly at Remus.
James hummed noncommittally, clearly lost in thought, looking through his notes. Remus sighed and stood from his bed to Peter’s, sitting down beside him and eyeing his messy notes. “I can, Pete, no worries. Let’s start first with what you already know…”
He started explaining things to Peter, feeling Sirius’ eyes bore into his neck. He did his best to pay him no mind, patiently answering Peter’s questions and praising him whenever he got something right.
Less than three minutes later, he heard an angry, feminine voice come up the stairs.
“-not understand why you are committed to saying it was them-” was heard outside, muffled, before the door banged open and Minerva McGonagall passed through, a distressed Slughorn trailing behind her, “-when you can clearly see them here. Good night, boys.”
“Minnie!” exclaimed James from his bed, offering the professor the brightest smile he had and waving his papers around happily. A little too happily, for it being Potions homework, but that was typical James, so Remus didn’t kill him on the spot. “To what do we owe this pleasure?”
“Yeah, Minnie, I thought it was way past your bedtime by now,” continued Sirius, making Remus roll his eyes and Peter chuckle lightly from beside him.
“Good night to you, Mr. Potter, Sirius,” she said, her tone stern but her mouth curved upwards. Remus knew she had a soft spot for both of them, what with them being in the Quidditch team and all that. “And you as well, Mr. Lupin, Mr. Pettigrew. Can you tell me what, exactly, are you doing?”
“Well, you see, professor,” Remus started, putting on what his friends had started to nickname as his ‘Prefect voice’. It was just him trying to sound serious. “We have this Potions test coming up on Monday, alongside an essay, so Pete and I are reviewing Everlasting Elixirs while James and Sirius are brainstorming for the essay on Moonstone properties.”
“Minerva, that’s too much of a quiet Friday night for these boys and you know it.” Slughorn did nothing to hide the disdain in his voice. Remus had once been on his good graces, as had James, himself for being quiet and working hard and James for, well, his dad, but after too many rejected invitations to join his Slug Club, he’d taken an aversion to all of them. He had also never liked Sirius, having apparently taken his sorting into Gryffindor personally, and Peter had had too much trouble with potions to be in his good graces at any point.
“I mean, the girls did corroborate they saw them going up here after supper, and they have had excellent behavior this entire year. Not a single detention for any of them.” Minerva adjusted her glasses on her face and looked at each of them critically.
James crossed his arms in his bed and smiled at her again. “Minnie, are you saying we’re reformed students?” He put a hand on his chest and pretended to swoon, Sirius getting into it and fanning him with his hands, both of them laughing at their stunt.
“But professor, whatever happened that you were looking for us?” Peter asked, and Remus had to admit, his curiosity sounded so real that it made even him doubt everything for a second. Oh, in some other life, Peter would’ve made an excellent spy.
Minerva gave them a smile, with the faintest twinkle in her eye, and Slughorn sighed. “Nothing for you to worry about, boys,” he said eventually, making a beeline for the door they’d left open and gesturing at Minerva to get out. “Have a good night and study. The test on Monday will not be easy.”
They waited until the door closed behind the professors and their steps receded down the stairs before bursting out laughing. Sirius’ barking laugh was loudest among them, and Remus gave himself permission to look in his direction, the way he was grabbing his stomach, his face contorted with laughter, his long hair framing his face.
He looked away before Sirius could look back at him.
“Pete, pumpkin, you are the absolute best actor out of the four of us,” James said, in between wheezes of laughter, and Peter beamed at him. There weren’t many things he was better at out of the four of them, so whenever it happened James always made a point to reassure him. “Oh, and you, Moony, how can you be so serious while talking to Minnie? I would’ve burst out laughing immediately.”
“He’s not Sirius, I…” Sirius’ joke was interrupted by a well-thrown pillow that went directly to his face, courtesy of Peter. This only made Sirius gape at him with fake fury in his eyes, while James and Remus laughed even harder.
“If you make that joke one more time, Pads,” Remus cautioned, and Sirius threw him a warm smile, clearly pleased to have his attention again, his cheeks fully blushed. Merlin, h was going to be the death of him.
Remus did his best to not think about what his blushing, or his pleased smile, meant. “You lot are unfunny,” Sirius fake-pouted, then turned to look at Remus again. When he saw him looking back, his grin widened. “But I agree, Moons. You were bloody brilliant.”
Remus felt his cheeks blush and he turned away from Sirius, smiling slightly and choosing to focus his attention back to Potions, and Peter, instead.
However, nothing could take the warm feeling from the pit of his stomach, courtesy of the smile from one Sirius Black.