where fate brought us together

They were eating breakfast, Peter was finishing off his bagel with a fried egg on top, Remus was eating his fourth piece of toast, James had just set down his glass of orange juice and Sirius ate the last spoonful of his cereal when out of the corner of his eye he saw Remus across from him wave a hand as a form of greeting to someone walking past.

Apparently his friend was becoming famous

Sirius swallowed and looked to see none other than Lily Evans walking past them, which prompted a hazy shadow to flicker across James’ eyes

"Oi Evans" 

"What?" she whipped her head round 

"When's your birthday?" Sirius watched James ruffle his hair and tilt his head to the side, grinning dopily at her

 "...Why?" the girl narrowed her brilliantly green eyes, trying to find the trick in this simple question

 "Just want to know" 

Lily Evans seemed like a June girl. Twenty third of June was his bet.

 "January thirtieth…” close enough “but I swear Potter if you try anything funny" 

 "And why would I do that?" 

"Because I know you"

Honestly what a thing to say - the girl didn’t know him at all! 

James sat back down, without further elaboration simply beaming and Sirius was happy to realise that this brief conversation was coming to an end  "See you later Evans!" Lily just sighed and walked away without returning his goodbye.

A bit rude in Sirius’ opinion.

"Mind telling us what that was about?" he questioned his best friend

"I like her… a lot actually" James was looking wistfully toward the great hall doors and then he focused his attention to Sirius and smiled, full of confidence.

"You've barely even talked to her"

 "That doesn't matter" James buttered a piece of toast as Sirius looked at him curiously “Lily Evans stands out from the crowd” he waved a hand gesturing to the non-existent gathering before him “it’s what makes her so likeable”

“And by chance do you think she stands out because she’s one of the only red-head’s to be seen for miles? ”

“Oh well that’s certainly a contributing factor, but that’s not the only thing… I mean I think I’ve always had a thing for her” James shrugged as if this was common knowledge, as if he had known the girl since childhood, as if this wasn’t some pretty big revelation to be sharing with his friends. 

Sirius didn’t approve of James’ newfound crush. Lily Evans? Really? Teachers pet, goody-two shoes, the one who reminded the professor that there was homework set, the student that voluntarily went up to their teacher at the end of the lesson asking for a test next lesson, the girl known for having a stick up her arse. Really? Her?

It was bad enough that Remus had started hanging out with the girl. At least she and Remus were kind of similar in the way that they were both bookish people, with Remus obviously pulling the whole thing off better than she could because Remus was simply much much cooler, but now James was starting to take a liking to her too?! 

Sirius did not understand, and he did not like it. 

Anyway, he was sure James’ thing for Evans wouldn’t last long and so being freshly learnt in the ways of being a supportive friend even if he, Sirius, was upset about it, he didn’t complain and decided not to stop James if he ever tried to pursue her. 

They made their way down to the greenhouses after breakfast and walked into the third greenhouse seeing about twenty pairs of different-coloured ear muffs lying on a bench. Professor Sprout walked in "Morning class! How are we? How are we?”

A few students replied to their energetic teacher, as she started bustling around getting the greenhouses ready for whatever they were going to do today. Sirius looked at James grinning, it was obvious from Sprouts behaviour that they were going to do something exciting.

“Got a pretty hands on lesson today!” she beamed at them all and slapped a hand to the pot next to her “Today we'll be repotting Mandrakes! Now, can anyone tell me the properties of the Mandrake?" 

A few students put their hands up including Peter and Lily. The professor nodded towards Lily indicating she had chosen her to answer "Mandrake, or Mandragora, is a powerful restorative," said Lily, sounding as though she had swallowed the textbook. "It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their original state." "Well done MIss Evans, ten points to Gryffindor" 

James whispered quietly enough so that Sprout wouldn’t hear but loudly enough so that Lily did “Go on Evans”

The girl ignored him.

Professor Sprout continued "Now although useful, Mandrakes can also be fatal. Their cries are incredibly dangerous to anyone who hears it. Mr Potter kindly stop twirling your wand, you won’t be needing it. Now," she clapped her hands together "We'll be using baby mandrakes so their cries won't kill yet, everyone take a pair of earmuffs and gather round" she pointed to a row of deep trays containing a hundred or so tufty little plants purplish green in colour and every one shuffled closer to get a better look. 

"Right I'll give you a thumbs up when it's safe to take your earmuffs off, put them on now please and watch closely" Sirius put on his pink fluffy earmuffs, him and James had chosen the same ones. They had no trouble getting them either because they seemed to be very unpopular. 

Sprout rolled up the sleeves of her robes, firmly grasped one of the purply plants and pulled it hard. 

It was by far the second ugliest thing he had ever seen, the first being Kreacher of course. 

But honestly the mandrake didn't look too far off. A small, muddy, wrinkled and extremely ugly baby had popped out of the earth. The resemblance to that wretched house elf was uncanny. Too bad Snivellus wasn't here, it would've been a perfect opportunity to throw some insults at him. 

The professor then took out a large pot and stuffed the mandrake into it, burying the plant completely. She then gave the thumbs up for them to take off their earmuffs.

 "Right then, let's get to work, four to a tray please" The marauders were already next to each other so all they had to do was find themselves a pot which was easy enough.

 "I've had an idea" James reached for his earmuffs

 "Go on"

 "Professor McGonagall's office has plants that look like these mandrake leaves" 

“What an odd thing to pick up on” Peter commented, stroking his fluffy earmuffs

"Are you sure they're not just mandrakes?" Sirius asked, snatching away Peters earmuffs which warranted an extremely offended look from his friend

 "I'm sure " James nodded firmly, snatching Peter’s earmuffs away from Sirius which in turn now made him offended. 

He had stolen those first!! How dare he!

 "How come you've been in Professor McGonagall's office?" Remus questioned rolling his sleeves up to mid forearm. James had now two sets of earmuffs on, one on top of the other.

Peter muttered under his breath “You’re going to stretch them” and promptly snatched it off of James’ head, visibly tightening his grip around the headband trying to ensure that they wouldn’t get taken away again. 

“You need to up your defence mechanisms Pete” Sirius eyed the earmuffs, figuring out the best tactic to take them back and claim them as his own.

“Pft, you underestimate me Sirius” and Peter’s grip tightened even further so that his hands were actually starting to turn red. 

Sirius snatched at them, but to no avail. Peter dodged him and pretty much sprang to the other side of their workspace where Sirius couldn’t reach him. Apparently these earmuff’s were especially dear to him. 

He made a mental note to remember this situation for potential teasing.

Sirius then narrowed his eyes, looking at the target. 

“Oh she just called me into her office to congratulate me on getting into the team, you were there Sirius remember?”

Ok target abandoned. He was at James’ beck and call.

“Yeah but I was actually listening to the wonder that is Minerva McGonagall unlike you who was apparently paying attention to the plants of all things!”

“My mind wanders sometimes!”

Then, James made an attempt to grab Peter's earmuffs, but Peter held on like his life depended on it. 

“What in the name of Merlin Pete you’ve got fingers of steel” James exclaimed just as a sudden, pretty deafening cry rang out making Sirius’ ears hurt like never before.

He immediately shoved his earmuffs on to block out the sound, forgetting that they were in a bit of a dangerous lesson. 

However Pete, the only other person without his earmuffs on despite his apparent love for them, wasn't so lucky. 

There was a very faint thud as his friend dropped to the floor. James gasped, Sirius wanted to laugh, Remus looked like he wanted to as well, although he looked more shocked than Sirius probably was.

Professor Sprout saw what had happened and just shook her head, obviously not wanting to deal with it herself, gesturing with her hands to tell the three boys to take Peter up to the hospital wing.

Sirius wanted to protest, because why was he the one who had to carry a faint boy to the hospital wing? But then he realised he’d rather be doing that then have to handle those wrinkly babies that reminded him so much of everyone he’s ever hated.

Plus he really didn’t want to get dirt under his fingernails, and he really didn’t want it to get into his hair. That had happened one time, and he hadn’t even realised until the end of the day when he was getting ready for bed. 

Another reason he didn’t protest was that he got to skip lesson with James, Remus, and he guessed Peter, but Sirius didn’t think he’d add much to the conversation considering his current state. 

So he went along and took him to the hospital wing.

And as it turned out unconscious humans were heavy.

They had managed to drag Peter halfway, but they were going so slowly that probably by the time they made it up there Peter would be fully awake, fit and healthy to continue on with his day. 

Plus, Sirius had noticed Remus start limping which he didn’t like the look of, and Sirius himself was starting to feel the heavy effects of fatigue on his muscles. His arm just couldn’t be bothered anymore really. Oh and his ankle was feeling a little off too.

Was there not an easier way to do this? 

And Godric had they been stupid

"Are we wizards or not?" 

"Huh?" James looked up and pushed the hair out of his eyes 

"Look." he dropped the leg he was holding, letting it fall limply to the floor and then he took his wand out "Wingardium Leviosa. There" 

"Why didn't you think of that quicker?" Remus grumbled

"You mean we not me. You could’ve thought of it too" 

Remus huffed and they continued the rest of their journey, this time with much more ease.

All they had to do was monitor a floating body. 

Easy as. 

Although… they all vowed not to tell Peter about the slight bump in their journey where his shoulder had been caught on the corner of a wall while turning down a corridor. 

"So James, tell us. What was your idea?" Remus said sitting down when they had arrived at the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey had set Peter down on a bed and was pouring a herbal smelling potion into his open mouth. 

"Thought you'd never ask." James' eyes twinkled as he messed his hair up. " So I told you about those plants in McGonagall's office right? So what I was thinking we could do is swap out actual Mandrakes for those plants"

 "That's murder James, that's a bit much for a prank don't you think?" Sirius grinned at the other boy 

"How is it murder?"

 "Well think about it. We plant the baby mandrakes, baby mandrakes grow, now adult mandrakes are too big to fit in Minnie's Pots, their mouths will be out of the soil, so they will cry for all to hear, and what did Professor Sprout say about a mandrakes cry? What was it? Ah yes. They're fatal James, fatal. All in all a terrible prank, no one finds murder funny."

 "Well we'll just put a permanent silencing spell or something on them" 

"Well then you should've mentioned that"

“I don’t think we have to worry about that anyway" Remus interrupted " McGonagall would probably realise before it grew to full size”

“Better to be safe than sorry I say”

“Also if you think about it logically, I don’t think the mandrakes would actually grow out of the pots”

“I was just thinking about all the necessary precautions!” Sirius lied because he knew Remus was right - he hadn’t really thought about it

 "James, that your owl?" Remus peered over Sirius' shoulder 

"You know what I think it is" Sirius turned around to see an owl flying in through the open hospital wing window holding a medium sized package. 

It landed on James' chair and the other boy took the package from the animal and ripped it open. 

"Godric it's finally here!" James jumped up, throwing aside the brown paper the package was wrapped in, which lead to Madam Pomfrey shushing him whilst picking up the rubbish on the floor.

He held up the contents of the package. 

It was a small, (almost medium) chalkboard.

But it wasn't just any chalkboard. 

It was a spectacular chalkboard to be filled with their most elaborate ideas, their most glorious moments. 

When Sirius had blasted a hole in their room a couple of weeks ago, Remus had come up with the idea to cover it up with something useful. A chalkboard to be exact. To write down anything they wanted to write down. To record their very best ideas, their very best news. 

25th of September

James had just been on his morning run, and as he entered the dorm he admired the newly placed chalkboard on the wall, and yes while it was a brilliant addition, a part of him did miss that huge gaping hole that he had grown accustomed to seeing whenever he walked through the door. The chalkboard was probably for the better though, if McGonagall came up here then they would have a hard time hiding it from her and James knew she’d go berserk. 

A part of him did think that it couldn’t have been that bad though, because as far as he knew the house-elves that came in here every day to clean hadn’t said a word to anyone. 

It probably happened all the time.

He took his glasses off so that they wouldn’t fall, because he was just about to get started on his after-morning run press ups and he didn’t want the glasses that were slightly too big for him to fall and break, because despite the current state of his bed and all the clothes chucked onto and around it, he had been trying to take greater care of his possessions. He was on a mission to prove to his parents that he was capable of taking care of valuable items, because James had asked for a guitar. Yes you read correctly. A guitar. Because how cool?! And just why not?!

You could argue that his parents weren’t here, and whilst that was correct, James wanted to do the right thing, he made a promise to himself and to his parents and he was going to uphold his end of the deal through and through. 

Also Sirius had become best friends with his mum and dad and was sure to report back any broken items to them.

You could also argue that anything could be repaired with magic, guitar and other valuable possessions alike, but it was more the principal of it, the fact that he had to put in some effort would make it all the more worth it when he finally got his hands on the musical instrument he so wanted.

So that was his long-term goal. 

His goal for this week?

Well that was to get to five pressups. Then he could boast to everyone and get one step closer to proving Sirius wrong. Over the summer his best friend had betted that he wouldn’t be able to get to ten before Christmas, and if James could get to five by the end of the week well that just meant greater progress for him.

One.

Two. - arms hurting

Thhrree - starting to struggle.

Fffffffffffffoooouuuurrrrrr.

Merlin. He sat back on to his heels as he completed his fourth press up.

Four was good. Four was his record. And for today he was happy with that. 

Tomorrow he’d be attempting the famed five. 

James then put his glasses back and noticed the sweaty handprints left on the floor and decided he needed to take a shower quite desperately.

So he grabbed a fresh towel and headed toward the bathroom door twisting the knob and simply pushing it open to enter. 

But there was already someone in there.

And that someone was injured.

Remus Lupin had a singular, but long and jagged wound sliced right across his back.

Ouch.

James didn’t know what to say. James didn’t know what to do.

"Do you mind?" Remus snapped, turning to see who had entered the bathroom

It was a pretty horrifying sight, and it made him feel queasy, because for one it looked like a very sensitive cut that was prone to begin bleeding any second and for two, he felt as if he had just deeply violated his friend's privacy.

At least he had a towel swathed around his hips - otherwise that would’ve made him embarrassed as well shocked.

He looked at Remus’ glaring face "Erm, yeah sorry" James turned away sheepishly for a second before getting his head together and feeling the need to handle the situation in a better way, by being his friend, and so he turned back around to face Remus again 

"Are you ok?"

 "Just dandy thanks for asking" he replied quickly, staring at him - the intruder.

Every couple of seconds James would make an odd movement to leave, but then decided better of it. He wasn’t sure if he should leave and just respect his friend, or push for an answer. He wanted to push, to find out what happened and how he could help, but then he thought maybe Remus wouldn’t appreciate that since he was a pretty private guy.

 But he was also unsure about that decision because James had gone through a similar thing with Sirius, when he had come home from the holidays in noticeable pain.

Despite his friend's best efforts to keep his injuries hidden, James accidentally saw the thin, uniform cuts running up the sides of his shins.

James had pushed for an answer, but Sirius refused to say anything. James had dropped the subject to respect him, and now those cuts were probably healed and Sirius was still denying the fact that anything had happened. So he was left with no answers and no ways to help. 

And James didn’t like feeling helpless.

Well it was obvious what had happened, but to be sure, and to actually try and help properly he needed the truth to come from Sirius himself.

Anyway, he still didn’t know what to do. 

So he just lingered there, out of place, for a good few seconds.

Ok, he couldn’t just stand there, and he couldn’t just leave. He had to ask further because this was Remus’ health and safety - it was the nastiest, deepest gash he’d ever seen and James was seriously worried, especially since his friend had been absent for a little over a day now visiting his mother and had come back with this glaring injury. 

"I know it's not really my business but what hap-" 

"Privacy James" he gestured to the top half of his body 

“Right." he ran a jerky hand through his hair, gaze sliding to a place somewhere over Remus' shoulder. “Have you seen Madam Pomfrey about it?”

Remus gave a short nod.

Good, that was good.

James sighed in relief  “I’ll leave now, Sorry" he walked out, gently closing the door behind him

* * *

Remus looked at the chalkboard they had put up. James had written a big reminder in all capital letter, a spiky bubble surrounding it to really instil the message

PRANK TONIGHT 

James and Sirius were obsessed with it.

Every day Remus would come up to the dorm and see the entire board covered in doodles, and animated illustrations so that there really wasn’t any space for the important reminders that the chalkboard was initially put up for. Not that they had many important reminders in the first place but Remus would've liked the whole thing to be a little less chaotic.

Their reminder for the prank they were planning had been squished into the bottom left hand corner next to a much too flattering drawing of a Mandrake Peter had doodled.

Today however, all those doodles (excluding Peter’s mandrake due to its revelance) were completely wiped out and replaced with the big reminder as if James and Sirius hadn’t been talking about the plan constantly - it wasn’t even anything grand or particularly impactful but still they seemed absolutely besotted with the idea of it, wanting to carry out weird things like this just for the sake of breaking the rules. 

He wasn’t complaining though, it was quite fun if he was being totally honest. 

Remus felt a hand on his shoulder "You ready?" he swivelled his head round to see James' face glowing with anticipation.

 "Course I am, Pete?"

 "Yep let's go" James handed Remus the invisibility cloak, which he threw over himself spreading his arms out to the side to make sure Peter could get in as well. 

"Wands?" James questioned

"Yep" him and Peter chanted back 

"Brilliant " 

For some reason they had decided that Remus and Peter would go down to the greenhouses with the cloak to steal two mandrakes while James and Sirius would go down to McGonagall's office and attempt to break into it with no invisibility protecting them whatsoever. 

They had discussed trying a disillusionment charm, though Remus doubted it would work, and after Sirius had accidentally made the index finger on Peter’s right hand disappear for a whole day, they abandoned the idea completely. 

Once the swap was to be complete the four of them would squish back under the cloak and make their way back up to the tower, while carrying two of McGonagall’s potted plants.

Simple. 

Remus wasn't too confident in Sirius and James' ability to not get caught, but instead of trying to persuade them to join him and Peter he decided to see how it would all play out. Maybe he'd be lucky enough to see them get caught once her office was open, he hoped so - he wasn't going to say no to free entertainment.

His and Peter's journey to the greenhouses went pretty undisturbed, once or twice they heard the faint meow of Mrs Norris and when walking past the trophy room some extremely disturbing noises were echoing out from there - probably peeves throwing stuff around. 

"Where do you think they keep the earmuffs?" they stepped into Greenhouse three as Peter hastily pulled the cloak off of them 

 "Don't think we need them" Remus replied, taking the cloak from Peter because he knew the other boy could be scatter-brained especially when tired, and then started scouting out for their prime victims. 

For a split second Peter looked very confused, like Remus was an alien or something. He had been looking at it him like that a lot recently and it struck Remus oddly, however the weird look never lasted long enough, his features returning to normal before Remus could figure out what it meant "Of course we do! I really don't fancy passing out again" 

“You won’t, the mandrakes aren’t even coming out their pots”

“I want that put on record for when you have to drag me up to Pomfrey in the dead of night”

Remus smirked a little -  He did it once he wasn’t doing it again. “What makes you think that I won’t leave you on the floor for Mrs Norris to sniff out?”

He could tell that Peter had paled slightly at this comment because dealing with Mrs Norris also meant dealing with Filch. 

“And that is why I’m wearing earmuffs” he muttered in reply.

Peter tiptoed around, looking under benches and inside cupboards and boxes to locate the earmuffs he so desperately wanted. 

While he was doing that Remus cast the permanent silencing spell on two of the nearest mandrakes.

"Do you have the right plants? It's pretty dark" Peter appeared holding four pairs of pink fluffy earmuffs 

"I do don't worry" Remus shrugged, and took two pairs of earmuffs from the other boy just to make him happy and grabbed hold of one of the pots while Peter took the other one. 

With some difficulty they put the cloak back on and made their way to Professor McGonagall's office where hopefully James and Sirius would be waiting for them with an open door.

 Well it turns out that hope had been crushed. 

Instead, when Peter and Remus snuck up to them they were accompanied by an unimpressed Professor McGonagall 

"So do you mind telling me why you're wandering around the castle after hours?"

"Just fancied going for a stroll" Sirius smirked as if they hadn’t just been caught in the midst of a prank on the very teacher who’d caught them. 

"You seriously expect me to believe that? Either way both of you will have detention with me tomorrow after dinner, students aren't permitted to be out of bed after curfew, you know that" 

"Since I am Sirius..." 

"Mr. Black - " 

"Sorry Minnie I couldn’t help myself”

This was a name that James and mostly Sirius had taken a liking to recently 

“Mr Black that is not my name”

“Sorry Professor” Sirius apologised, a small smirk still on his face that he wasn’t even trying to hide

"I will escort you back up to Gryffindor tower, first let me write up your detention before I forget" 

She took a key out of her pocket and used it to open her office, Remus and Peter followed the Professor and the two boys in. She had taken out the detention form and started writing down James and Sirius' names for the record. Once she was finished the three of them left the room, Remus just counted on Professor McGonagall to not re-lock her office - otherwise they'd be stuck in there all night. They shrugged the cloak off and headed for the potted plants in the corner of her room 

"These don't really look like mandrake leaves" Peter inspected the leaves under Remus' wand light  "Mandrake leaves don't have little spikes around the edges" 

Damn it. 

“But we've come this far haven't we?" Peter looked to him for confirmation, looking unsure as to whether or not they should carry on. 

Remus nodded and then set to work replacing only two out of what looked to be about a dozen plants in the corner of the room. 

Peter took the first of McGonagall’s plants, cradling it like it was a very precious item, because they were only swapping the pots, they had to keep the plants themselves intact and growing well so that they could safely be returned once they were caught.

And in this case Remus had no doubt that they’d be caught because Peter was right, the plants bore very little similarities at all. 

Remus then hoisted up the second plant pot with one arm, trying not to scatter soil everywhere, checked the surroundings to look for any disturbances and then beckoned to Peter with his free arm and swung the invisibility cloak over the both of them which then allowed Remus to cradle his plant pot just as Peter was doing. 

Luckily McGonagall had not re-locked her door, and so they made their way back up to Gryffindor tower, shuffling along at quite a slow pace to ensure that no soil was spilt and no plants damaged. It was all quite annoying really as McGonagall’s plants had little spikes on them and so he had to make a conscious effort to keep his face away from the leaves. 

 They found Sirius and James eagerly waiting for them, ready to listen to what had happened.

 "Did you do it?" James shot up from where he was sitting on the floor 

"Wait a second" They had barely made it through the door.

 They slid the invisibility cloak off and set down the plant pots 

"So, did you?" 

"Yes James we did" Remus laughed at the two boys in front of him, eyes shining with excitement. They weren't even the ones who had carried the prank out and they were the most passionate out of all four of them

 "Tell us then!" 

"There's nothing to tell" Remus waved a dismissive hand 

"Don't lie Remus" Peter sat down along with James and Sirius

 "I'm not lying! We got the mandrakes went to McGonagall's office and replaced her plants. That's it. Not much to tell" He shrugged

"And everything went well?" Sirius asked, almost skeptically, probably not quite believing Remus and Peter could pull all of that off practically on their own. 

Well almost on their own, Sirius and James had helped by opening the office even if it hadn’t been through the way they’d planned. In reply to Sirius’ question Remus gestured to McGonagall's plants they had set down in the middle of the room, evidence that it had all gone smoothly for the two of them. 

"How long do you think before she notices?" Peter asked, plopping backward onto his bed

"A couple of weeks at least" Sirius lay back crossing his legs, a look of assurance passing over his face "They take time to grow and I doubt she'll be inspecting her plants that closely"

“I call that a job well done” James grinned in his direction, congratulating them “She won’t notice a thing”

 * * * 

The very next morning Professor McGonagall came up to them at breakfast looking extremely unimpressed and Remus kind of wanted to laugh "Mr Black and Mr Potter, It looks like I have found out the cause behind your night time wanderings"

There was a brief moment of hesitation and a quick glance toward James before Sirius replied to their teacher, looking down on them with thin lips pursed with a trace of annoyance

"And what may that be professor?" Sirius innocently looked up at her

Remus couldn't help but notice the toast crumbs on the corner of his mouth which for some reason irritated him. He would wipe it away himself if he had to - if he could. 

"You very well know what that was, although I'm not entirely sure how I didn't notice it when I was writing up your detentions" 

"You've got it all wrong professor, it wasn't us" James just looked at her plainly, trying to make his face look full of honesty

"Well if it wasn't you then who?" 

"Snape" Sirius had obviously blurted out the first name that came to mind, not thinking about how stupid it was to put the blame on him.

"Mr. Snape?"

"Yes, Snape" 

"If it was in fact Mr. Snape who switched my plants for mandrakes then how would you know?" 

"He told us" James replied instantly and Remus wanted to faceplant into the table. What an idiot.

The woman looked as if she were about to smile "I very much doubt that" 

"It's true professor" Sirius then broke into a smile

"I don't believe you Mr Black"

"You've got no evidence" Sirius shrugged in a way that said 'I can get away with anything'

“And then why pray tell did I find my missing plants in Gryffindor common room just a mere five minutes ago?”

Remus really wanted to laugh.

Sirius and James had done that to try and bring about some natural improvements to Gryffindor tower, which actually Remus and Peter had wholeheartedly since plants always made a room seem a whole lot brighter. 

Sirius’ mouth fell open a little because he was not expecting that and neither was James as his eyes widened almost comically

Something that looked very much like a faint glint of triumph was noticeable in their professor's eyes as she continued "Both of you will have an additional three nights of detention because there are consequences to your actions"

There always was when it came to breaking the rules.

Although really Remus had never recalled ‘don’t play pranks on teachers’ as being one of them. 

 "Fine Minnie, blame us" James replied, eyes still not back to normal size but nonetheless being unbothered about it all, accepting the detention with pure grace.

"That is not my name Mr. Potter" 

"Sure it is" 

The professor glared at James in disapproval “Just to remind you Mr Potter that I am in fact your head of house and I have the power to pull you from the quidditch team if you just so happen to target me again and so I wholly advise against it”

James instantly nodded very hard, because he often talked about his position on the quidditch team as something he treasured very dearly and so any threat to his position had to be eliminated immediately. Knowing him, he'd just stop functioning and hide in a hole under his invisibility cloak for as long as possible if he were to be kicked off the team - although Remus wasn't quite sure that James even had the ability to break down, he seemed the most put together out the lot of them. 

If something were to break James however, Remus was certain it would be that.

As McGonagall gave a firm nod and returned back to the teachers table James vowed never to pull a direct prank on Minerva McGonagall again.

"You know guys" Sirius faced Remus, addressing him and Peter "You could've stuck up for us" 

"So we get detention instead? No thanks" Peter grabbed a slice of toast 

"Still, we're innocent in this" 

"You wouldn't have been if McGonagall hadn't caught you, remember it was your job to break into her office" Remus poured quite a bit of milk into his tea. It was perfect like that though

"We failed at that"

"Yes I know"

"We will get you back for this, right James?"

"Absolutely" he then high-fived Sirius without even looking and Remus, not showing it, was admittely quite impressed.

"Getting us back for what?" he stirred his tea 

"For letting us take the blame!"

"Alright, me and Pete will wait for your revenge" 

 As soon as they got up to their room later on that day, Sirius wrote on the chalk boards in all capital letters

REVENGE ON THE TRAITORS REMUS AND PETER

Peter inspected the new words written down with a frown on his face "Hey! We're not traitors!