"He hated James the most."
Chapter Five: Snape vs. Potter
"I've got it!"
James shot up out of his bed at the sound of the sudden voice that echoed wildly through his blank dream world he had just been visiting. He looked around him as his mind tried to place his surroundings but he quickly found that nothing was very clear. He felt around his bed for his glasses that he had fallen asleep in, and must have lost somewhere within the night. He located them laying lopsidedly on his pillow and placed them firmly on his ears. Instantly, the world became clear once more.
"What have you got?" James heard Remus ask as the a rustling of curtains being opened filtered through the room from every corner after the sudden outburst.
"The perfect prank." James rolled his eyes and opened his own curtains. He looked around the room only to see a barely awake Remus and a very scared Peter. He then turned to Sirius for some kind of an explanation. What he saw was a very excited Sirius, who still had very messy hair that looked like he had run his hand through it all night.
"Did you even get to sleep?"
Sirius stopped to think before he replied, "No."
James sighed and got out of his bed. He unconsciously checked the clock (seven o’ clock), and grabbed his robes and began to put them on. He didn't even want to know what Sirius had managed to come up with. Meanwhile, Remus made himself busy by putting his own clothes on and then going on to gather up his Potions and Herbology books. All the while, Peter asked Sirius countless questions about the upcoming prank, which Sirius didn’t answer because he was too busy concentrating on finding his potions book for the second day in a row.
After a while of this ongoing scene, James decided to head down to breakfast alone, not entirely wanting to bother the others as they tried their best to wake up. When he reached the great hall, he took his seat next to the Weasley family and began to eat his breakfast in peace. This didn't last long, though, because his friends joined him approximately the same time the mail had arrived. James watched half-interestedly as the owls dropped their assorted packages to their owners. Then four parcels were dropped before each of them. Remus had received his return letter, which he wouldn't let any of the others read. Peter, a box full of sweets his mother had made for him. And as for Sirius and James they had both received identical red enveloped letters. Sirius stared at the object as if it might explode within his hands. James just glanced at his like a large stench had just entered his vicinity.
"Well," he started matter-of-factly, as Sirius looked up from the letter with worried eyes, "We should open them together so they drown each other out." Sirius nodded too afraid to speak -- his mother was not one to be messed with, and he often had the bad habit of getting on her bad side. "On three. One ... two ... three!"
The two ripped open the letters. In an instant the sound of two very angry women started screaming out their own individual versions of "I NEVER EXPECTED YOU WOULD DO SUCH A THING!" James's mother had the cleaner version. While Sirius’ mum’s version wound up being more of a “LEAVE IT TO YOU TO PULL SOMETHING LIKE THIS. YOU --“ then she filled in more inappropriate words to describe her son. James and Sirius looked at each other both horrified as all eyes in the Great Hall fell on them. The students who were within ten metersheld their hands firmly over their ears as a way to escape from the screaming mothers, while others simply murmured about what was happening to one another and laughed moderately amongst themselves about the Howlers.
Sirius stared at his, wide-eyed, as if it were going to bite him. While James was just openly shocked that his mother could even speak some of the words she had placed in the letter. For she had begun to swear with Sirius’s mum, something that rarely happened with her when it came to scolding. When the screaming had ceased the letters hastily blew up. James looked up from the pile of ashes that had fallen gently on top of his breakfast at the rest of his friends, all of which were pale with fright. "Well, that was pleasant," he stated in monotone as he poked at his food that was now completely uneatable.
"I never want to get one of those," Remus said as he pushed his own plate of food away from him, now that he had lost his hunger.
James shrugged his shoulders at Remus’s comment. This was not the first Howler he'd received in his ten short years of life, but this one was definitely the worst. Or, then again, maybe it wasn’t. It definitely did come close to the one his father had sent him when he was away with Sirius' family and the two had decided to blow up a potion Sirius's mum was brewing for Sirius’s little brother, Regulus, when he had a cold. Actually, the blowing up part had been an accident. They had really just wanted to make it so the side effects of the altered potion would prevent the boy from talking for the next month or two.
James sighed and looked down at his watch, once he had located the hands that actually told the time, rather than what the others dials pointed out to him. Then he glanced back up at his friends with an uninterested expression. "We should probably be getting off to class." The others nodded and collected their books before they left the Great Hall, following James’s lead. When they left all eyes within the hall followed them as the walked by.
The boys, then, made their way down to the dungeons where they were to attend their first lesson of the day; potions, with the Slytherins. James entered the classroom first. It was dark and cold, and there were only a few students, mostly from the Slytherin’s house, which were seated in the desks located on the left side of the classroom. James looked around at the bookshelves that lined the room, all of which, were full of assorted Potions books, or bottles filled with ingredients. He directed his friends to the back row of seats on the right side, farthest from the Slytherins, and sat down. The others followed suit but Sirius kept his eyes firmly on Snape, who had made himself comfortable next to yet another dark haired boy, but this one seemed to have heard of shampoo because his hair was not at all greasy. James listened to snippets of the conversation the two dark-haired boys were having. Snape seemed to be going on about how his mother always told him he that he was wonderful at potions. Sirius chuckled at James’s side; obviously he had heard Snape's comments as well. James then turned to his friend, who mouthed "Mama's boy." They both burst out into a small fit of giggles before they regained their composure once more.
They turned back to Remus and Peter and smiled wickedly, still half-listening to Snape’s discussion on Potions with his new “friend.” "Honestly, who cares how good he is in this class?" Sirius said bluntly as he moved his glance from Remus’s face and began to stare at the boy with mild interest. All the while, he calculated all the possible things the boy had coming to him now.
James nodded in agreement, knowing, all the thoughts that were running through his best friends head. A second later the Professor stormed into the room. She practically glided to the front of the classroom, for her robes barely moved and her head didn't bob as she made her way to her destination. She was quite young and had long flowing black hair but it was her eyes that made the class weary. They were icy blue and appeared to have no source of feeling to give one any sense of warmth or goodness as they looked upon them. They seemed to judge the person for what they showed on their outer layer of being, rather than taking the time to care to get to know them. James heard a chair creak as Peter leaned over his desk to say, "Talk about creepy." James just nodded, while the Professor made a sweep of the class with her cold blue eyes.
Sirius then kindly added his ten cents after she had finished gazing at him, "Yeah, try spending the night in a room with her guarding the only exit."
James heard Peter mumble, "I said I was sorry," as the boy leaned back into his chair.
Sirius quickly took some parchment out from James's bag, where he had put his own belongings for the time being, because his bag was currently in the garbage. He then listened as the teacher gave her short introduction to the class.
"Good morning class, my name is Professor Lamia-"
"Her first name is professor, never would have thought of it," Sirius stated as James chuckled to himself.
"And for further knowledge I am not a vampire, despite the current rumor circulating this school."
Remus leaned forward, "Now why would we ever think that?" He mumbled to the others, who laughed more openly at this new comment.
"Is something funny?" she asked, once she looked at the four boys, who all shook their heads in protest. "Good, because I would hate to have to separate all of you." She stated. Her cold voice was soaked with sarcasm so pure it made their blood run cold with every syllable.
James looked over at some of the Slytherins to the left of them who had begun to chuckle. He immediately saw Snape smirking from his seat, kindly displaying his despicable yellow teeth. James grimaced and mumbled something about Sirius's prank to himself as he looked back over at the professor, who was also smirking openly at the four boys.
Professor Lamia then went into her lesson, without any further delay, about what sort of ingredients go together and what ones never should be mixed. James was, once again, reminded of his one and only potions experience in Sirius’s dark kitchen. As she went on with her lecture she would periodically quiz the class, and for every single question she asked Snape would raise his had. Sirius took special note of this unnatural behavior for any student, for most simply tried to pretend they were a combination of being invisible, incredibly stupid, and or dead. He leaned into James, "What a geek." Was all he said before he went back to his notes, which were rather miniscule in the first place.
"That covers the basics. Please take out your potions book and turn to page ten. Collect the supplies you will need from the counter to my left, follow the instructions on the board," she then flicked her wand a bit and the instructions for the potion appeared on a blackboard to her left, "and for homework I want the assignment on page twelve; chapter one, section one, complete and ready by the beginning of your next class." She then turned away from her students and wandered into her office.
James sighed and began the day’s work by looking at the list of ingredients from the page given. He casually took out the things he began to add the first few ingredients to the potion while Sirius went up to the counter and collected the rest of the supplies they would need.
They went on with the class for a while, each of them carefully following what the chalkboard instructed them to do. Halfway through the period, Snape walked by their desk and tripped over Peter's bag and consequentially, almost knocked over the cauldron Remus and Peter were sharing forwards onto both James and Sirius, who were sitting directly in front of them. Luckily though, Remus caught the cauldron just in time. This, though, did not stop Sirius from uttering a few words that only his mother could have taught him. After he had finished with his outburst he went back to his work without another word being spoken.
Toward the end of the class, as James added the last ingredient (Boomslang), a large explosion resounded from behind them and echoed loudly throughout the dark classroom. The entirety of the class turned around to see Peter covered, from head to toe, with the potion that he and Remus had been making for the whole of the double period. Slowly at first and then gradually it picked up speed, the exposed parts of the two boy’s skin began to shrivel up.
Remus was too shocked to be angry, or even distressed about the situation. He just looked up from his friend as Professor Lamia came out of her office, having heard the explosion, with a look of murder placed firmly on her pale features. Meanwhile, Peter looked as if he was going to cry as the professor instructed Remus and Peter to go down to the infirmary, her face reddened with pure rage.
She muttered some terrible things about not being able to leave Gryffindors, let alone first years, alone in a classroom for any length of time, as she shooed the two out of the room. Once they had left, she announced that she would be taking twenty points, and undoubtedly should have taken more, from Gryffindor for their lack of being able to pay attention in class. James with his newly developed instinct, looked over at Snape only to find that he was sneering venomously at the remaining members of their four-boy cult.
The bell resounded throughout the school shortly after the potions class had finally begun to settle down from the commotion that had been caused by the explosion. Immediately, the students began to leave the room, all of which were still talking excitedly about what had just happened. James just glared at the laughing Slytherins as he put his and Sirius's things back into his bag. Once he was sure he had everything both he and Sirius joined the line of students that was filing out of the classroom. When the two had managed to exit the room they walked past the countless number of students that filled the dungeon hallway, practically wall to wall, until they heard an unwanted, familiar voice, call out from behind them. They turned around and faced Snape who had a small boy they had not yet seen with him. Apparently, by the similar smirks on both of the boys’ faces, Snape had managed to make a new friend. "Doesn't your friend know that you should never add Boomslag to Billywig stings?"
"And where would he get the Billywig stings? It wasn't even in the potion ingredients."
James felt his mouth drop at Snape's snide words. The pieces of the day’s events in potions began to fall into place. Snape had tripped over Peter's bag -- he must have placed it in there when he had pretended to try and prevent the cauldron from falling over. "You did it!" James growled out as he gaped openly at the pale boy’s cruelness.
"Very good,” Snape replied with complete sarcasm. “And you stupid gits didn't even realize I had done it until it was too late." He paused smiling wickedly at the both of them. "I mean the potion wasn't even the right col- "
In the next instant James had lunged himself at Snape. He wildly began to punch anything that he could get a hold of. As his fists connected with assorted limbs, Sirius tried his best to pry his friend off of the smaller boy, but James was stronger than him. Sirius looked around not entirely knowing what else to do. If Professor Lamia came out they'd all get another detention, which was also something, he knew, they did not want. Yet, at the same time, Snape did deserve every hit James gave him.
"James." There was no answer. So Sirius tried once more. "James, stop. Do you want another detention?" James's hand stopped in mid-blow, just leaving enough space in between the boy’s face and his hand so that Sirius could see Snape with one swollen eye and a very bloody, and possibly broken, nose. James looked at the boy as consciousness started to dawn on him. This was the first time he'd ever lost it like that.
He slowly picked himself up off the ground. He looked around at the small crowd of people, all were of different ages and houses that had joined to watch him pummel the boy, and noticed that his legs were completely numb. Then without a word to anyone, he walked off, out of the dungeons, leaving Sirius with nothing to do but follow him. They walked the full distance to Gryffindor tower in complete silence. They only began to talk to one another when they had settled down, within the confines of their common room, and had finally gotten a grip on their tempers. Once they had gained full composure, did they notice a bandaged Peter, who was sitting on the couch, crying, next to Remus, who also had a few bandages on his hands, as he tried his best to comfort their weeping friend.
James joined him, scolding himself silently for losing his cool around Snape while he looked caringly at Remus, who had an expression of pain on his pale face. He silently wondered if he too was getting sick, because the boys face had gone quite ashen since the day before. Somehow, James did not think that Remus’s appearance had anything to do with Peter’s crying or his own injuries.
Peter broke the habitual silence they had fallen into with what was on everyone's mind. "He put something in the potion."
"We know," Sirius answered, knowing exactly who "he" was.
James thought for a second and then smiled viciously, "Sirius, the prank."
"What prank?" Sirius and Remus asked in unison both with the same look of confusion placed openly on their faces.
James sighed. Honestly, sometimes Sirius was just daft. "The one you stayed up all night figuring out." Sirius's eyes lit with dawning comprehension.
"Oh yeah."
"Is it as good as you say it is?" James asked absolutely positive that it was. Sirius nodded. "Well, what is it?"
Sirius stared at them for a while before he began. He then took out a piece of parchment from James' bag. It had writing all over it, which even included some small diagrams that were drawn out in Sirius's unruly hand. He smiled at the boys as he began to explain each of the diagrams separately and how they correlated to the prank as a whole. "Well, the whole point is to make him cry in humiliation, right? This is going to be hard in itself, but I figured that we can do it, right?" They boys nodded in agreement. "OK, well, first we need to figure out the password to the Slytherin common room. Then we need to get a hold of what dorm is his-"
"Why do we need that?" Peter inquired.
"Because were going to watch his every move, until he does something stupid. Then we'll pounce, so to say." He smiled obviously proud of his wonderful work.
James frowned at his best friend. "Sirius, that is the worst thing I've ever heard. How is that even a prank?"
Sirius' grin faded at James’ mockery of his perfect plan. "That's what I thought too, but you know as well as I do; your best ideas are usually your first." Peter gave him a confused glance, and Sirius continued to clarify for the less experienced members of their group. "Okay let's put it this way. When you come up with a plan you play with it a bit until it is too complicated to even accomplish. So you put yourself right back where you started, and, most of the time, you find that the one idea you started with is the one that makes the most sense anyway, so you use it. Therefore, your original plans are generally your best."
Remus nodded slowly, what Sirius said made sense. "Yes, but I'm still with James, how is being a peeping Tom brilliant?"
Sirius could no longer hide his disappointment. These guys had no imagination whatsoever. "Okay, let me make this as simple as I can so you gits can understand. What do you do when you are all alone?" He looked at each of them evenly as each of them pondered his question. Once he could tell that they had latched onto at least one thing that they had done when they were alone, he continued. "And how many of you would want someone to see that?" He watched their faces as understanding began to be illustrated plainly on their faces showing their changing moods.
"Brilliant," James stated. "Absolutely, brilliant!"
"I know."
Remus and Peter sat in silence. Peter was in shock at Sirius’s brilliance and Remus was silent only because he was in deep thought. There was no doubt this was an excellent plan, but how could they show the whole school something like that. "I hate to burst your bubble, but how are we going to show anyone this?"
James looked at Remus. Why did he always put a damper on things? Why did he have to be the practical one? And still he found the words being formed on his own lips and questioned his best friend's brilliant plan. "Yeah, Sirius, how?"
"There's a simple version of a memory charm and it shows things like a Muggle tilephesion does.” Remus chuckled slightly at the mispronunciation of the word and received a glare from his friends, so he waved his hand in dismissal for his behavior. Sirius went on with his plan. “My Uncle Alphard told me about it, and I'm sure we could find it in the library somewhere." He paused. "I also figured we would cast the spell during dinner, on the enchanted ceiling so we can make sure that the whole school sees it. Or rather most of it, not everyone goes to dinner every night."
The four boys smiled at each other. "So when do we get started?" Remus asked.
"Immediately, I don't know how long it will take us to find the spell or the password but we have to do this. We can’t have that jerk picking on us all the time. We need to put him in his place."
They looked at each other, communicating with each other in silence. Once they knew their individual jobs, each of them got up and went to their separate posts to aid in getting the information they would need for this particular event: their first major prank.