"He never lost an opportunity to curse James"
Chapter Nine: Unnecessary Obsessions
Sirius woke up groggily the following morning, after serving another long night in detention for, as McGonagall had called it: "his unnecessary obsession with revenge." Yet, instead of letting this bother him he simply noticed the perk; over the last few weeks their legend seemed to be growing as they continued to set up stupid pranks like putting frog spawn in the bathrooms after potions class, or setting off Fillibuster's Fabulous Waterproof No-Heat Fireworks after the dreadful Quidditch match that Gryffindor had been slaughtered in.
After that match Sirius had chosen to walk around the school claiming that it was their own fault they had lost the match because they hadn't put James on the team. He would laugh openly at the team, especially if any member of the team was within earshot, and eventually the captain lost his cool and once when Sirius was in mid-insult the boy had hexed him with a nasty boil charm. James and Remus had escorted Sirius to the infirmary with a chorus of nasty comments coming from their friend. When he returned later that night, with his right arm completely bandaged covering where the boils had been hexed onto him, without saying a word to each other, James, Remus, and Peter decided not too mention the incident again.
This, though, did not stop Sirius from getting his revenge. He, unfortunately for the captain, did not stop making snide comments about Gryffindor's team but instead made them more prominent by posting a flyer on every notice board in the school that the captain enjoyed wearing dresses and also took pleasure in playing with dolls and that was exactly why the team was a bunch of pansies that couldn't play. These flyers even came equipped with a picture of the Gryffindor team captain playing tea party with a little girl. No one, not even his friends, could figure out how Sirius had gotten a hold of the picture but it did provide something new to talk about for a few days. This flyer incident, of course, happened to be the reason for his night of torture.
Sirius sighed as he sat up in his four-poster and opened the curtains around it only to be blinded by what little light was filtering through the window next to his bed. He looked around the room and found James who had been unsuccessfully trying to move around the room as quietly as he could, picking up assorted books the other three boys had been using for their potions essay the night before.
"Morning." Sirius mumbled as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.
James looked up and nodded towards him by way of recognizing that he had heard him and then went on picking up the last three books that remained on the floor and stored them safely in his bag. He then, after finishing his crack at cleaning, walked over to Sirius and sat down next to him. "So how was detention?"
"It was detention." He stated and after seeing James' eyebrow arch he went on. "It wasn't that bad... It could have been much worse in any case. McGonagall did her overseeing and I did my job cleaning out the trophy room, quite typical, nothing exciting."
James laughed, "Yeah, well, at least you weren't here."
"What do you mean?"
James did nothing but point over towards Remus' bed with a saddened expression on his face. He had thought that would be enough of an explanation but at the confused look planted firmly on Sirius' face he went on. "Remus, well, he was weird last night. He was really detached from both Peter and me, and when we confronted him about it he just shrugged it off saying he was fine. But you know what mate; he's not. I don't care how much he wants us to believe it, he's not."
Sirius laughed in spite of his better judgment but stopped abruptly after realizing the seriousness of the situation. "Sorry, but Remus is always sort of a loner, even when we're in the midst of something. I just think it's his personality."
"I don't think so. Sirius, he had another one of those seizure things last night when we got back into the room. But this time he wouldn't let us take him to the infirmary. He said we should just get used to them because he'll get into those fits every so often and there's nothing we can do about it."
Sirius chanced a glance over towards Remus' bed worried about what was happening to his friend. Then he turned to James knowing that this was where his friend would suggest something completely far fetched. "So what do you think is wrong with him?"
James sighed, he hadn't wanted Sirius to ask him that, because he was pretty sure what he was thinking Remus' problem was, was impossible but he'd still need time to look into the possibility of his idea being correct. "I don't know."
Sirius stared at his friend not believing him for a second but chose to ignore it. "Well, it's the weekend so maybe we can find something fun to do."
"Maybe." James replied his mind still on the previous subject.
Sirius sighed and got up from his bed, moving towards the door in deep thought. What was it with Lupin that made them worry so much about him? Peter had gotten Dragon Pox the week before and, sure, they did visit him when he was in the infirmary but they hadn't worried about him, really. Yet, every time Remus came down with a head cold they all seemed to freak out about it. It was quiet amazing for Sirius to think that there was someone else he cared for enough to waste time worrying over. He'd always thought that James was the only person he could ever care that much for, and now he had someone new to lose sleep over.
He smiled to himself, full of pride, as he walked past the empty Transfiguration classroom, when he realized just how un-Black-like that was. His family rarely worried or let alone cared about anyone other than themselves and he felt very proud to have grasped the fact that he was nothing like the lot of them, or so he hoped. Sirius continued to walk along the corridors with his half smirk firmly planted on his face as he continued to think over all of the differences between himself and his other family members before he finally heard the soft sound of footsteps following him somewhere from behind. He turned around cautiously, only half expecting to see one of his newly made enemies, primarily the captain of the Gryffindor team, with their wands raised ready to torture him. He let out a loud bark like laugh of relief as his dark eyes fell upon James.
"What were you thinking about?" James called from the few feet that they were apart.
Sirius' grin grew even wider as he stopped so that James could catch up with his large stride. "Who says I was thinking about anything at all, mate?"
James promptly put his arm around Sirius' shoulder and started to usher him through the halls as he talked. "I know you too well, and the only time it takes you that long to realize I was within ten feet of you, is when you are in an in depth thought process."
Sirius heaved a heavy sigh. "Well that, James, was only a little brash." He said as James punched him playfully on the shoulder, before he was able to continue. "Yeah, well, it's nothing." Sirius fell silent once more before he felt his face break into another small half smile. "I'm nothing like the rest of my family, am I?"
James chuckled a bit, more to himself than anything else. "No, you're not. You are exactly the opposite of all of them in every single way. And believe me, if you weren't, you wouldn't be my best mate."
Sirius laughed. "Well, I think that's comforting."
James said nothing in return and just kept walking in the direction of the Great Hall, in hopes of fitting in a late breakfast before they went on with their day. He expected nothing more than Sirius' silence as they entered the Great Hall, sat down, and started to eat, he was too used to Sirius' unresolved issues with his family to even let himself be troubled by it. He continued to sit in this silence as he stared absently at his food without a single thought running through his head.
He poked at his food idly, before he saw something out of the corner of his eye that caught his attention. He looked up and slowly and turned toward what he had seen. His hazel eyes rested on the Slytherin table and Snape sitting amongst his cronies, who were all looking towards James and Sirius, laughing, as if they had a hysterical inside joke among them. James glared towards Snape and then turned back to his meal with a sudden feeling of dread that continued to hand in the pit of his stomach.
When James had looked up from his untouched food, now not in the least bit hungry, he found that Sirius had already finished with his breakfast and was smiling like a mad murderer at James.
James felt his eyebrows furrow under Sirius' gaze. His mind was still uneasy with thoughts of what Snape could have been laughing at. His stomach was still doing hurried back flips the more he thought on it. "What?"
Sirius quickly looked up at the morning sky shown brightly on the enchanted ceiling and then turned to James, "I think I found something to do."
James' smile grew as his uneasy thoughts about Snape quickly faded into nothingness, "What do you mean?"
Sirius' menacing smile grew even wider. "You'll see."
Sirius stood up from his seat and started walking towards the doors. James sat and stared longingly at his untouched food for a while only slightly dreading Sirius' plans. James knew, strictly from experience, that when Sirius was secretive about anything they always wound up getting in loads of trouble because the sad truth was: for Sirius Black, fun could be anything from chess to attempted murder. Yet, at the same time James wanted nothing more than to find out exactly what Sirius had in mind and try to tackle it. It'd been too long since they'd done anything crazy (since they'd had to lay low for a while after their last prank, which was still the talk of the school after three weeks.) Sure, they had done other little things in between, but it was nothing that would put them in danger, and that sounded like a fairly good idea at the moment.
After much deliberation, though, James sighed, opting finally for fun no matter what the cost would be later. He took one bite of his breakfast, stood up and joined Sirius who was waiting patiently in the entrance hall. James walked directly up to Sirius, smiling, ready for anything the boy had come up with and hoping that Remus and Peter would be up for it too. "What are we doing?"
"Well, I figured we need some fun, right?" James nodded agreeing completely with the statement. "So what would you say to a bit of exploring?"
James smiled widely, but it faded slightly when his mind had fallen on the sudden realization that Sirius would be insane enough to go into the forbidden forest and try to see what it was hiding. James half liked that idea and half hated it. He didn't feel up to another Howler from his mother if they got caught going in or coming out of the forest. Yet, he mostly knew that that was exactly what he would enjoy doing the most. "What kind of exploring?" James asked finally.
Sirius cocked his eyebrow upward as if hurt by the slightly worried tone in his friends voice that only he could pick up. To any other person James would have sounded like he was commenting on the weather, but Sirius knew better. "Just around the school. What did you think I meant?" He retorted indignantly, knowing exactly what James had been thinking about and now thinking that it might be worth a shot.
"Nothing." James replied with a small smile. "Let's just go and get Remus and Peter and see what this castle is hiding."
"That's the spirit!" Sirius stated as he put his arm around James' shoulder and started to walk up the first flight of stairs before Sirius added as an afterthought. "I hope Peter doesn't freak out about this."
James just laughed, Peter definitely was afraid of everything, and they continued on their way. They stopped a few times along the way to harass certain portraits that managed to catch their eyes, and after taking a short detour they stopped once to investigate the armor on the second floor corridor just down a ways from the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
James just looked at them with interest, this was the first time he'd ever really taken note of them and he noticed the detail put into the armor and the weapons that they were holding. Sirius, though, soon got bored with just looking at them and reached out and touched one of the suits of armor's swords. In a matter of seconds the armor came to life and quickly moved it's weapon and in one swift motion it hit Sirius directly in the chest with the butt of the weapon throwing the boy backwards. Sirius laid on the floor for a second in shock but then hastily got up before James had reached his side with the intention of helping him up. But he was simply too torn between uncontrollable laughter and the concern for his friends safety to get to it. Sirius just shot James a dirty look and gave the armor the finger as he walked as fast as he could away from that hallway.
"You know they should put a warning on those things." Sirius said as soon as James had caught up with him in a fit of laughter.
"Sorry, mate," James replied, while he tried to stop laughing, "but what do you think they're guarding?"
"I dunno, but I think I'll wait to find out some other day." Sirius winced in pain as he pressed down on the spot where the sword had hit him. "Wonder if Lupey would grade the bruises. Did you see the nasty ones he had last time he got back from “being sick?”"
James nodded solemnly; he hated talking about Remus behind his back. When Remus had fallen ill last month, before their big prank, and had come back with nothing but large bruises on his chest, that he couldn't just explain away. Of course Lupin didn't know they had seen them at all, so more secrecy fell between them. "Let's just go."
Sirius gave no protest and began to walk in the direction of Gryffindor Tower. They reached the last flight of stairs and then James noticed the sound of footsteps close behind them. Sirius stopped just behind James showing him that he had heard them too and they swiftly turned around to come face to face with Snape, Avery, and Knott with their wands raised. Before Sirius or James had a chance to grab for their own wands both of the boys had nailed them with a different hex.
The two of them fell to the floor, defenseless, for Snape had hit them with a stunning charm and as for the other two charms they had been hit with they had yet to find the outcome. James stared at the ceiling with growing frustration as the hex started to ware off a bit, while Snape hovered over him menacingly.
Snape smiled down on James and said another curse, James suddenly felt a sharp pain over his right eye and then felt warm blood trickling down the left side of his face. He could hear Sirius next to him cursing loudly at Knott and Avery as they, rather than using spells, simply used their brute force to torture Sirius. Snape bent down closer to James as he muttered different things all the while his wand emitted little sparks.
"What the?"
James heard the voice come from down the hall followed closely by hurried footsteps.
Snape quickly stood up and laughed. "You have a rescue squad, how sweet." He raised his wand in the air but before he had uttered a word it had flown out of his hand and finally fell back to the ground at the end of the hall. Snape looked in horror as he was hit suddenly with a nasty heat charm that set blisters all across his face. The boy recoiled in pain and Knott and Avery came forward with their wands raised ready for a fight but they quickly suffered the same fate as Snape. Then, out of nowhere, someone hit them with stunning spells and the three of them fell to the ground, limp and unable to move.
James sat up as the hex was lifted from both Sirius and himself with a quick counter jinx. James felt his face break into a smile as his eyes fell on his friend. "God, I'm glad you pay attention in Defense class Remus."
Remus laughed and held out both of his hands to the boys. They took them gratefully and he lifted them up off the ground. "Who stunned them?" James asked as he moved his hand up to the gash Snape had made on his forehead and wiped the blood away.
Peter smiled faintly as he came out from his hiding position that was Remus' shadow and he whispered unsurely. "I did."
James stared in skepticism as he looked at the three limp bodies that were his greatest enemies; Peter had done that. The boy that could barely do a simple heating spell had stunned three significantly bigger classmates. James smiled at him and patted him on the shoulder. "Good work." He said proudly as he wiped even more blood away from his face. Peter beamed up at him. James then turned to Sirius who was staring at James' condition in disbelief.
James burst out laughing at the sight of Sirius. His head had been turned into a Slytherin pride shrine. He had a green afro with silver highlights though he had managed to get a black eye instead of a steadily bleeding wound it was still a sight to behold.
"How can you be laughing?" Sirius asked in wonder as he touched his bruised eye and winced at the pain it brought.
"Your hair." James managed to say before he broke into another fit of laughter.
"What about my hair?" Sirius said as he reached his hand upward and touched his hair and with a look of horror felt it up. "Oh my," He turned to where Remus was busying himself with un-stunning Snape and his cronies and instructing them to go back to their dormitories or else they would have to suffer the wrath of all four of them. "You're dead!" Sirius yelled at Snape's retreating back. "You do not mess with me! You will be sorry!"
James just kept laughing. "Laugh it up." Remus said seriously, as he walked back over to them once he was sure Snape wasn't going to come back. He turned to Sirius and tried to get him to settle down but when he had decided his attempts were futile he turned back to James with a smile. "You look just as bad as Sirius."
James looked up at him and felt his own head but rather than getting upset by it he began to laugh again. He had never had nice hair like Sirius, so this wasn't a complete nightmare. Quite the contrary, he thought, it was a very clever trick. One he was going to make sure they used against Snape in every way.
He wasn't going to let it upset him because he knew fully that the thing that would upset Snape would be him not getting upset by his revenge tactics. Sirius turned to James' laughing state and as if somehow understanding James' insane laughter, Sirius had stopped yelling down the hallway at no one. He turned to look at James and smiled menacingly. Snape was going to hate dinner tonight.