"Slimy, oily, greasy-haired kid, he was."
Chapter Four: The Aftermath
The four troublemakers went to the remainder of their classes for that day and every once in a while an occasional remark from a fellow student referring to the ‘accidental’ prank they had pulled would reach their ears. Every time they received a new congratulation for the event they found that all they could manage in reply was a small smile directed at the people who were “brave enough” to approach them and congratulate them. Yet, the real shock came when they entered the Great Hall for dinner and all the students, aside from the Slytherins, stood up and clapped for them. The first time that had ever have happened in the school, for certain.
James stared at all the students, who were busy clapping and smiling at them, with his mouth gaping open. When he had quickly recovered he leaned into his mates’ shoulder and muttered. "Word certainly travels fast around here, doesn't it?" Sirius just nodded in agreement, too shocked to even produce even a somewhat comprehensive sound within his throat.
Once they had found the feeling in their legs they gradually walked past their fellow students. All the while, they continued to clap and holler at them as they passed by. Occasionally, one of their fellow peers would muster up enough bravery so that they were able to pat them on the back as a way of telling them that they had done a job well done.
They took their seats with a last round of applause resounding through the hall and just stared at each other for a few seconds. While, the few people that were “lucky” enough to sit next to them began to ask them questions, all coming at them at the same time. And all of them seemed to be asking how the four had managed to come up with such a brilliant prank. And from there actually managed to muster up enough courage to go through with it.
As the questions came at them, James took the time to look around at the Gryffindor table, hardly believing all of the excitement they had caused. I could get used to this, he thought as he turned his attention back to his inner circle of friends. He noticed instantly that Sirius had, once again, found his voice and was now telling some girl that he had only stomped on his bag to make it look as if it had been an accident and that Peter had, in all actuality, purposely set his brand new bag on fire. James looked at Peter, who was swelling up with pride, and almost laughed out loud at the look of pure joy on the small boy’s face. James was almost positive that Peter had never been recognized in such away before, and that the event was more thrilling than any one would ever truly know.
James smiled dumbly to himself when he finally felt Remus tap him on his shoulder. He looked over at the sandy haired boy and then to where he was pointing. The Slytherin table was completely silent. Not one of them said a single word to each other and all of the occupants of the table seemed to be holding their shoulders high with sour faces planted firmly on top. However, the greasy haired boy held the worst glare of them all. As James watched he noted that the boy kept an unfaltering look of hatred on the four boys, while he poked at the food that was sitting out before him. James smiled awkwardly in Snape’s direction before he leaned over and tapped Sirius on the shoulder. Sirius was in the midst of telling the Weasley children, all ranging in age, an even more exotic tale than the one he had told the girl about what had happened within the stone walls of McGonagall's classroom.
"What?" Sirius asked, clearly annoyed that his friend had interrupted his daring tale. James, following Remus’ lead, said nothing and just pointed in the direction of the young Slytherin boy. Sirius' face contorted into a smirk. "Well, this certainly wiped the smile off of his greasy face. That is, if you can even call what he does a smile." Sirius chuckled at his own cleverness while James just rolled his eyes at his friend.
"You know, he might not be that bad." Remus said in an innocent sort of way. James and Sirius turned to him and just stared blankly.
”Not that bad?" Sirius muttered in disbelief. He didn’t want to find out if the boy “wasn’t that bad.” In fact he didn’t even need to find out. He knew the boy’s attitude and demeanor from a mile off. He was just like any other member of the Slytherin house that Sirius had ever met, so he didn’t need to find out that the boy “wasn’t that bad.” Despite, or possibly because of these firm beliefs, Sirius still felt obligated to justify his previous retort. "You saw what he did to James this morning," he finished lamely coupled with a mild gesture of his hand in the direction of the boy in question, who was still busying himself with throwing daggers at them with his dark, seemingly unfeeling, eyes.
"Yes, he stated the truth," Remus said calmly.
"In a very rude way," Peter chimed in.
Remus just shrugged his shoulders, this was a losing battle, the boy was indeed a jerk but maybe it was just a cover. Maybe he just had something to hide, an exterior to fend off any unwanted beast, like most animals had in the wild. He looked at his friends, completely lost in his own thoughts, and viewed them without really seeing them as they went back to their separate story telling. Meanwhile, a piece of meat came hurtling towards them from the Slytherin table. Remus looked up at the table, suddenly snapped out of his dreamlike state, after the meat had landed blatantly upon Sirius’ food. Sirius uttered a cuss word under his breath, and chucked the food back at the greasy haired boy. Just then they watched as the woman in charge of Slytherin’s house walked over to Snape and scolded him, no doubt, for throwing the food. Remus sighed deeply, as he watched Snape get disciplined, knowing and hating the fact that his friends were right about the boy: he was never going to be kind or even nice to them, let alone anyone else.
Dinner went on with more recaps of the prank until James and Sirius noticed that it was time for their detentions. They got up slowly and walked out of the Great Hall (where only the Gryffindor's remained) and made their way up to the Transfiguration classroom. It was another endlessly horrible moment for the duo as they thought silently about what their punishments might be. They walked together in an echoing silence through the many hallways, as time appeared to slow down greatly, as it often seems to do when someone is awaiting the worst.
When they reached Professor McGonagall's room they noticed that the head of Slytherin house was standing next to the greasy haired boy. They stopped and stood in the doorway, staring at the three people in the room, finding that they greatly disliked whatever this new development could possibly mean.
"What is he doing here?" Sirius questioned openly, as he glared at the boy’s back.
"Maybe he got detention for throwing his food at us," James stated before he entered the room. Sirius stood there for only a second longer before he followed suit.
McGonagall looked at them only when they had come up to her elevated desk. She gave them the same disappointed expression that they had been lucky enough to receive earlier that day. "You will be cleaning out the bathrooms-" James and Sirius smiled at each other. This was going to be a cinch. "The Muggle way." They felt their mouths drop in shock. The muggle way was not only useless but also time consuming, especially to anyone who was not used to it.
She looked at both of them evenly. "Mr. Snape will be joining one of you." Again James felt his mouth drop even further in utter disbelief. If having to clean the bathrooms the Muggle way was bad, this was like being sent to Azkaban without having done the crime. "Yes, Mr. Potter, one of you. I will be splitting you up. Mr. Black, you will go with Mr. Snape to the dungeons, and you Mr. Potter will come with me." With that the Professor stood up and walked swiftly out of the room with James in tow.
He only had enough time for one last apologetic look at Sirius before they headed down the hallway towards the boy's lavatory on the second floor. He reached the room hardly believing the utter bulk of it. This was going to take him all night. Professor McGonagall picked up a bucket of useless things, like buttons and cotton swabs, and transfigured them into common Muggle household objects. She handed them to him and made herself comfortable in a chair, she had transfigured from a pillow cushion, in the far left corner of the room. He knew, that from there, she would be able to watch his every move until he was done with his detention work.
James put the bucket, that wasn’t really a bucket but had indeed started out as an empty goblet until McGonagall had gotten a hold of it, down and looked at the countless bottles inside. What do they need all this stuff for? He asked himself as he put some of the yellow liquid; that smelt of pine trees, into the bucket. He read the back of the bottle as carefully as he could trying to make sense of the words that were all plainly in English, yet still appeared to be talking in another language. Eventually, he attempted to follow the instructions, as best as he could, to make the cleaning solution. Once he completed that, he began to clean the floor. Then he moved onto the sinks and toilets.
It wasn't as easy Muggles made it look. Not only that, but it was also painful. His shoulders began to ache as his previously unused muscles in his arms began to tense up in the act of scrubbing. They felt as if they were going to stay that way for at least a month. Upon that, McGonagall's watchful eyes combined with her need to critique his work, just made matters worse for him. In the end, she made him re-clean the sinks about five times, until they were completely spotless. The toilets, he had washed about twenty more times than the sinks until they were in the proper condition. After he had finished those unsightly jobs, she made him clean the cobwebs out of corners of the room. From there she noted that the windows also needed to be both dusted and rinsed down from top to bottom until she was completely satisfied with her method of torture for an eleven-year-old boy, before she finally declared him finished.
He rejoiced silently, much too tired, and therefore unable, to do the “happy dance” he wanted to do, as he walked back up to Gryffindor Tower. During the long trip up the moving staircases he felt that his arms were hanging heavily at his side while his shoulders throbbed rhythmically, sending pain through his entire body. He only hoped, as he reached the final staircase of utter pain, that Sirius had had an easier time with his detention than he had. When he had finally reached the portrait of the fat lady and uttered the password tiredly before it sprung open, with some final reassuring words for him that he did not entirely register, he merely climbed inside without a word. He started to walk towards the staircase with heavy eyes up to the boys’ dormitories, when he heard his name, just barely, from what seemed to be coming from the outer regions of his brain. He turned around to see Remus sitting contently on the couch with a book that had a foreign title to it. James guessed that it was Muggle.
"Is Sirius back yet?" James asked as he folded the corner of his page and shut the book.
"No, you're the first one to come in here in almost an hour."
James grimaced at those words. If Sirius wasn't back yet he was definitely having a worse time than he had had with McGonagall. He frowned at Remus. "What are you doing up, anyway?"
Remus shrugged, "Thought you and Sirius needed a welcoming committee?" He smiled weakly at James. James cocked his eyebrow up at the thin boy who simply sighed deeply and continued. "Truthfully, I felt bad that you got caught and so did Peter-" The sandy haired boy pointed to a lump beside him. James smiled to himself as he looked at Peter who was sleeping on the couch, with a crimson blanket wound tightly around his pudgy body. "He didn't make it." Remus added unnecessarily with a slight chuckle.
James shrugged his shoulders, not bothered by that fact, and took a seat next to the soundly sleeping Peter. The fire was flickering in the fireplace, slowly loosing its warmth as the flames died down into red ambers burning uselessly in the night. He turned his attention back to Remus, who was just staring out the window at the endlessly dark sky. A vast void in space that seemed to generate hope for most people who looked upon it but there was a difference in the look upon Remus’ face. He seemed to be mildly loathing the vast space, rather than basking in its unique glory. James thought this to be a bit strange but just chalked it up to being just another part of the mystery that was Remus J. Lupin.
Suddenly, the portrait hole opened and Sirius came in, in a huff. His face was red with fury and his fists were clenched in complete rage as he glared at anything that moved within the room. "I hate that kid!" He yelled as he looked at James, Remus, and Peter, who had jolted awake at the sudden roar of Sirius' voice.
"Hmm?" Remus asked finally looking away from the night sky that seemed to chill him so.
"That Severus Snape kid, I had to re-do the bloody sinks ten times because he kept putting this green junk from his potions kit in it. And that stupid Professor Lamia just watched him do it! He wasn't supposed to even have it with him. But he did, and he'd dump it on whatever I was cleaning so I’d have to do it over again." They looked at him, hardly believing the level of his voice combined with the facts about how horrible that kid really was. "I was so glad when he left. He's going to pay for that." He pointed down to his left hand. It was bandaged tightly and bits of burns shown slightly on his exposed fingers.
"What happened?" Peter asked tiredly, as he eyed the pillow next to him with desire.
"Apparently, the green junk dissolves your skin if you touch it, and well, I touched it. I had to go down to the infirmary and lie my way through it too. That Madame Pomfrey questions everything. Oh, I swear he will pay for this." Sirius looked at his friends as if he was daring them to say otherwise. All of them were silent as they gazed at Sirius impassively.
Remus took note of the sudden tension that was beginning to fill the room, and instantly began to think of a way to ebb it away. "Er- I think it's time for bed," he spoke softly into the silent void of the room.
Sirius stared at him for a bit and then nodded. He then, without a word, made his way to the staircase and walked up to their dormitories leaving the rest of the boys alone. After Sirius had disappeared from view, James turned back around to look at Remus and faked a small smile. Remus just nodded. He understood James’ lack of words and followed Sirius' lead up to the dormitories.
"What did I miss?" Peter asked. He was now completely awake, and also utterly confused by their current situation.
"Nothing," James retorted. He didn’t want to fill in the blanks that Peter had missed while he was in his subconscious state.
"Oh."
James managed a small smile for the boy before he too headed up to bed with Peter close behind him. The boy again began to apologize for all the suffering the two of them had to go through because of his mistake. James, not wanting to hear anymore of the boy's comments, just tuned him out. Yet, this move only made him more aware of the pain in his shoulders from all the scrubbing he had had to endure.
He found his bed and was relieved by the comfy-ness of it as it engulfed him the instant he had laid down. He stared up at the canopy above him, as he listened to Sirius’ rolling over on his sides, obviously, fighting with the bed. This was actually a normal occurrence for him, though, James had to admit to himself, that Sirius was most likely having extra problems tonight, do to his detention and his current attitude. James smiled to himself as Peter's snoring joined the chorus of soft noises of the night.
"Sirius?" James found himself whisper into the darkness.
"What?"
"Was it really that bad?"
"Worse."
James stared at the curtains that were closed around Sirius' bed. They opened up only to reveal Sirius’ head with a frown placed firmly on it. His hair was as messy as if it was in competition with James' own hair, and his arms appeared to be crossed over his chest. "The kid is rude. I know who our first real victim is going to be." James nodded knowing all too well, that Snape had it coming. "But I just don't know how. It's got to be good though." Sirius stopped to think and looked strictly at James before he closed the curtains around his bed once more. Obviously, not wanting to explain his prank-plan problems any further.
Despite the circumstances James chuckled to himself. He knew that Sirius was most likely going to stay up all night, racking his brain for the most evil, intricate prank he could possibly come up with. James though, stayed up, busying his brain as he stared at the red patterns printed on the canopy above him, because he was too tired to even think of sleep. He listened to Peter snoring softly from the corner and Sirius’ rustling in his bed for something out of James' bag. James sighed and finally shut his eyes as he tried his best to block out the many sounds of the night, and drift off into a silent slumber.