Second Year, Second Chances

CHAPTER FIVE : On Strange Injuries and New Teammates



"What do you mean, he's not here?" James asked, frowning at the breathless Sirius.

"Exactly that!" Sirius insisted, waving his arms wildly to emphasize his point. "He's not here! As in, not in the dorm room, or the Common room, or the Great Hall, or anywhere! And you two didn't see him up in the library, did you?"

"No," confirmed Peter, looking at the two taller boys with a wide- eyed look of interest mixed with apprehension in his eyes. He clutched a Transfiguration textbook to his chest nervously. "Do you think something happened to him?"

"He did look rather ill today," James affirmed, frowning slightly at Sirius, though he didn't look at Peter.

"From the concussion!" Sirius insisted. "He's missing!"

"Let's go check the infirmary," James suggested, looking over his shoulder towards where Sirius knew the Hospital Wing was located. "Maybe he just got a headache or something, from the concussion-" James emphasized the word as Sirius shot him a glare, "and decided to lay down."

They moved as one, though Sirius muttered under his breath, "But he hates the infirmary; he would never go there if he had a choice..." Neither James nor Peter replied.

It had been roughly ten minutes since Sirius had first walked into the dorm room, only to find it empty of both Remus and the brown-haired boy's knapsack. Figuring that he had just missed Remus in the Common room, Sirius went looking for his smaller friend. However, ten minutes and a growing pit of worry later, Sirius still hadn't been able to find Remus, and he instantly went looking for James and Peter. After telling them the predicament - he had caught the two boys on their way to the Common room -, they had been likewise nervous, if not equally. The results of the Quidditch tryouts were summarily pushed back to the recesses of their minds.

Yet, even as he followed James and Peter the Hospital Wing to see if their wayward friend had wound up there, Sirius couldn't quench the feeling that they would not find him there. Not that Remus hadn't spent his fair time in the room - last year, he had a bout of flu during winter, and a case of allergies come spring, as well as the concussion incident just the other day - but Sirius knew without a doubt that his thin friend would never go to the infirmary of his own volition. This knowledge spurred from a conversation that Sirius had engaged with the thin boy the fall of the previous year - albeit reluctantly, as Sirius had to practically corner Remus to get the shy boy from saying anything aside from vague pleasantries and schoolwork-related questions -, where Remus had told Sirius that he really detested the medicinal ward. Of course, those words weren't the exact ones used - if Sirius remembered correctly, it was actually something along the hesitant, barely audible lines of, "I... I don't really like the Hospital Wing; it's a bit too clean for me..." - though Sirius had cleverly read between the lines and interpreted it as such. So now, as Sirius jogged along behind James and ahead of Peter, he knew that Remus wasn't going to be sleeping off his imaginary sickness in one of the really uncomfortable beds. (Really, why would anyone do that? The beds in the dorm rooms were much nicer, and if being bothered was the problem, Remus could have just asked. Besides, Sirius knew that Remus could cast a Silencing Charm - though they weren't technically supposed to be learned until a different year - due to a very interesting incident involving an irritating girl named Mya Hensel and a frog. And Sirius' inclusion, duct tape.)

Even as Sirius was getting the hints of a grin on his face - Mya never even made eye contact with any of them again - from the pleasant memories, James abruptly stopped in front of the Hospital Wing, and Sirius remembered the reason that they had been running. Peter gasped for breath beside him - his pudgy friend had never been good at athletics, whether discussing coordination or endurance, and James and Sirius casually ignored his labored breaths - as James opened the door to the ward.

Madam Pomfrey looked up as all three boys clamored inside the room, looking out of breath and flushed. She blinked once in confusion, and then asked, "Yes?"

"Is-" James began, breathing a bit heavier than usual.

"-Remus here?" Sirius finished for his best friend, looking at the medi-witch in earnest.

"Why on Earth would Mr. Lupin be here?" Pomfrey asked, her already small eyes narrowing into little slits. She stood up, the suspicious expression melting from her face and an exasperated one replacing it in the blink of an eye, and she moved as if to shoo them off. "You three need to leave, I have other patients that need their peace and quiet."

"B-But Remus-" Peter began, watery eyes staring at Pomfrey with a baffled appearance.

"-is not here," repeated the witch, her nostrils flaring slightly as she glared down at the boys. "All of you, out right now. I've already told you that Mr. Lupin is not in the wing, and I assure you, he won't just appear here anytime soon. Get out with you, now." Pomfrey touched Sirius' shoulder with a firm hand and shoved him gently in the direction of the door; she did the same for James, and Peter, behind the two of them, was pushed out in result. Soon, all three boys found themselves in the darkness of the hall outside the infirmary, confused and annoyed expressions gracing their faces.

"Well, that was weird," muttered James, glancing darkly at the closed door in front of his face and rubbing his shoulder irritably.

"Where is he, then?" Sirius gasped, anxiety rushing through his form. Remus wasn't generally the type to randomly disappear - as Sirius knew he and James were - and when he was going to be gone, he usually gave the other boys a reason instead of making them worry about him. He was responsible like that. Suddenly, appearing from the chaotic spiral of his thoughts, Sirius had a flash of fearful realization, and he wondered, faintly, "Do you think he was cornered by Slytherins? He could be hurt, or hexed, or... or something!"

"Slytherins?" repeated Peter nervously, and the way that the pale- haired boy clutched his textbook even tighter told Sirius that Peter was thinking about the time last year when the aforementioned event actually had happened to him. It had been before the three boys really became friends - and long before Remus had joined them - when Peter was cornered by a few of the older Slytherins, who accused him of being a "baby" and a "simpering little poof" before proceeding to practice curses on him. James and Sirius, who had been coming back from detention for accidentally blowing up half a staircase on the third floor, heard the commotion and rushed to their fellow Gryffindor's defense. (Though really, it had mainly been James, as Sirius was still a bit rough in the concepts of wizard dueling.) Afterwards, Peter had thanked them profusely and latched permanently onto James, though despite the added protection of new friends, Sirius could tell that the mere memory of the incident still frightened the plump boy.

James frowned at Sirius' conclusion, pensively glancing at the ceiling as he contemplated the idea out loud. "Slytherins? But Remus hasn't done anything to them-"

"So?" countered Sirius, waving his arms in exasperation. "He's a Gryffindor! They don't usually try to come up with real reasons!"

"But it's too early in the year for them to be too aggravated with us," James continued, shooting Sirius a warning glare as he continued to hypothesize. "And if they were annoyed, they'd go for easy targets or really irritating people, li- well, you know." Sirius realized that James had wanted to add a "like us" to the end of his sentence, but after glancing worriedly at Peter, had decided against it. James continued, "Remus isn't either one."

"Any Gryffindor alone is an easy target, James," defended Sirius, crossing his arms in vague agitation. Peter watched the conflict with curious eyes, which darted back and forth between the two boys; yet, the small boy himself didn't add in any comments.

"Remus isn't stupid enough to go near a group of Slytherins alone, Sirius," James stated simply. This infallible logic was too much for Sirius to ignore, and he relaxed slightly in acceptance of James' point. Peter, watching on, bit his lip slightly, as if holding back from saying something, though Sirius didn't care enough to find out what.

"Right, then," murmured Sirius, after nodding slightly at James to confirm his acceptance of the logic. "So where would he be, then? We've checked all the normal places, right?"

"Yeah, we did," answered Peter with a firm nod.

James, looking quizzical, suggested, "Maybe we could ask McGonagall. What if he got detention for some reason or something?"

"Like what?" queried Sirius skeptically.

"I don't know; he beat up the entire Slytherin Quidditch squad or something," James offered, shrugging absently. "Or maybe they figured out that Snape was telling the truth about the Niffler thing, and pinned Remus as the suspect. It's not like it's unlikely for us to get detention."

"Not Remus," muttered Sirius defensively, before his eyes lit up and he snapped, "Snape! That has to be it! Snape did this!"

"Snape?" Peter asked, frowning curiously.

"Of course it's Snape!" Sirius confirmed, pounding a fist into his hand. "It's always Snape! He always has a hand in our problems, one way or another, and you know that he blamed Remus for the Niffler thing! I bet he did it!"

James snorted and rolled his eyes. "Did what, Sirius, kidnap Remus and tie him up in a closet somewhere? Right, like Snape would ever even come within five feet of Remus without reason... He's always trying to avoid him, remember?"

"But still," defended Sirius weakly, though he knew instinctively that James was correct. Snape had never acknowledged Remus much - the thin boy was quiet and unassuming, and Snape was much too busy trying to oust James and Sirius to be bothered with the quiet one -, and after he figured out that Remus was involved with the pranks as much as the two wild and loud Gryffindors, it only accentuated the greasy-haired boy's wariness.

"Look, let's just go find McGonagall," James suggested, giving Sirius a do-what-I-say look. Sirius sighed, wondering if he had enough reason to bring up going after Snape as an option, and Peter spoke.

"I agree with James," the pale-haired boy stated clearly, looking at Sirius with what he probably thought was a mature, responsible expression. "McGonagall would know what to do, right?"

Sirius wanted to roll his eyes at Peter; for as nice as the plump boy could be sometimes, it was obvious that he wasn't a leader by any stretch of the imagination. It wasn't uncommon that Peter would agree blandly with James, as if James was always the correct and responsible one of the group. It frayed Sirius' nerves sometimes, enough to the point that he sometimes grew weary of hanging around with James, simply because Peter was typically with him. Luckily, Remus was usually around to talk with, so Sirius didn't grow too annoyed at Peter, though long periods of time with the boy sometimes made Sirius grow irritated.

"Fine," acquiesced Sirius after a short pause. "Let's go find her, then."

It took a moment of discussion to get them situated - Sirius thought that McGonagall would be near the Common room, while James said it would be her office, and Peter agreed with James after two minutes of listening to the other two bicker, so Sirius was out-voted (again) - but eventually, they wound up walking down to the Transfiguration professor's office. Sirius was a bit disgruntled with the obviously biased voting, realizing yet another reason why he liked it when Remus was with them; even though the thin boy didn't always agree with Sirius, his presence still allowed for a fair vote, which Sirius never got whenever it was just he, James, and Peter. Half the time, Remus did take his side and forced a tie - or James took his side, and Remus was left as the lone defense -, and anytime that all three of his friends were against him, at least Sirius knew that he hadn't just lost because Peter doted on James.

"I'm going to laugh so hard if McGonagall isn't there," Sirius muttered to his best friend under his breath, a bit annoyed at his constant lack of say in things. Peter was behind the two of them, trailing along with a nervous expression on his face, his small eyes darting back and forth as if checking for danger.

"Look, I'm sorry," James murmured back, knowing Sirius' agitation at the unfair voting system, "but your way would take longer, and I still have that Potions essay to finish."

"I'd have let you copy mine."

"You don't have yours done, either."

"Well," assured Sirius, "I would have let you copy Remus' then. His is done, I'm sure."

James rolled his eyes. "I'm sure that would have gone over really well. 'Say, Remus, mind if James and I blatantly copy your essay? What do you mean, cheating? It's just between friends...'" Sirius snickered, as did Peter, though Sirius felt it doubtful that the pale-haired boy had actually heard enough of the joke to get it.

"But still," continued Sirius belatedly, "McGonagall could be in the Common room. I thought she might because of the results of tryouts tonight."

"Even if McGonagall went, she wouldn't-"

"I wouldn't what, Mr. Potter?" a new voice interjected sternly, causing James and Sirius to freeze in surprise, not even moving when Peter rammed into them due to the abrupt stop.

Professor McGonagall stood in front of them, with Professor Anthony standing a few steps behind her and staring at them with a bemused expression on her face. (Or, at least, what would be a bemused expression if she hadn't looked so... cold and judgmental. Sirius shivered; why was he the only one who thought she was a vampire? All the clues were there.) Even as he froze, Sirius realized that he, James and Peter had gotten close to the staff room without realizing it on their way to see McGonagall. A lucky chance, apparently, as McGonagall and Anthony were currently standing in front of them, giving them glares mixed with curiosity and suspicion.

"Ah!" James gaped, startled, and then put on his best angelic expression. "Professors! Ah- er, Professor McGonagall, we were just looking for you."

"Whatever for?" McGonagall asked simply. Anthony, her shoulders slumping slightly as she realized that this might take awhile, leaned against the side of the stone wall in vague boredom.

"Well, eh-" began James, and then faltered. "I-"

"We were looking for Remus!" Peter burst out awkwardly, embarrassed. The plump boy babbled on, "You see, he's not around anywhere, and - and - well, he doesn't usually just go away, so we were looking for him, and then he wasn't in the dorm room or the library or - and Pomfrey said-"

"You're looking for Mr. Lupin?" McGonagall repeated, interrupting Peter with a barely hidden exasperated sigh. Sirius wasn't positive, but it looked to him like she had grown a bit pallid as she confirmed what Peter had babbled; behind McGonagall, Professor Anthony's eyebrows raised curiously, and she straightened slightly.

"Er, yeah," agreed James, running a tense hand through his hair.

"He didn't show up for dinner," Sirius apprised the teachers - wondering vaguely just why Anthony was still hanging around, even though this was a matter for the Head of House, and not some random new Auror- trained teacher - and shrugged slightly. "We were worried, because we looked around and couldn't find him. I mean, he could have gotten hurt or something."

"Or something," murmured Professor Anthony with a small quirk of a smile. Sirius felt his tensions raise slightly; was she making fun of him? For worrying about his friend? Apparently, James knew that Sirius would bristle at the comment, because he touched a hand to Sirius' arm almost instantly after the short-haired Professor finished speaking.

"I assure you, Mr. Black," McGonagall stated after Sirius explained, "that Mr. Lupin is in no danger of someone harming him at the moment. Just after the lessons finished today, he went home to visit his mother."

Dead silence met this proclamation at first, as Sirius, James and Peter stared at the stern-faced woman with equal expressions of disbelief. Anthony grinned faintly, clearly entertained by the exchange. Too busy with his own shock to regard the new teacher with anger, Sirius could only think of Remus not telling them that he was going home to visit his mum. James apparently had the same thought.

"But he always tells us when he goes to visit her!" James gasped, not believing the excuse McGonagall had given. "He makes a point of it! He - he would never just leave and not tell us!"

"It appears that he has," corrected McGonagall with a blank sort of irritation, as if she herself was debating on lecturing Remus for not aptly informing his friends to his departure. For a moment, Sirius even thought he caught a hint of worry in the strict teacher's eyes, but just as his glimpsed it - or thought to have glimpsed it - it had vanished, and was replaced by McGonagall's standard appearance of indifference. The woman continued, "Is that all, boys?"

"No, that's not all!" Sirius blurted, eyes narrowed. "Why would Remus just leave? I don't think that-"

"Mister Black," McGonagall snapped, suddenly all business and less indifference. "Do you want to have detention for yelling at a teacher and accusing her of lying? All three of you, back to your dorms. It's almost time for light's out."

"But-" James began.

"Not one more word from any of you, or you'll be serving detention," assured McGonagall. Behind her, Anthony watched with one eyebrow raised, her eyes intrigued in a way that only a newer teacher's would be. "Now, the three of you - get back to your Common room."

None of the boys could argue with a direct order from their Head of House - though most assuredly it was the golden, cat-like glint in McGonagall's hardened, narrow eyes that made them agree in the end -, and all three of them wound up trudging, listless and disgruntled, back to their Common room.

"I don't believe her," James murmured suddenly, breaking the silence each of them had become accustomed to during the past five minutes. It was a strange sight, honestly, to see three of the four Gryffindor second-year boys walking the halls in complete silence - especially in this situation, as normally, Sirius would have ranted so loudly about the injustice of it all that half the school would hear -, but they were nearing the Common room already, and James' soft distrust had been the only thing spoken.

"Nope," agreed Sirius, seething internally about many different things: McGonagall's cold indifference (though really, he was more or less used to it), Remus' disappearance and apparent lack of communication towards his friends (something which Sirius, a very social person, found rather hard to understand), Peter's siding with James (when he should really just get an opinion of his own), and even Professor Anthony's blank eavesdropping (didn't she have some papers to grade or blood to suck or something?) And though Sirius was rather angry at the moment, the fact that it was caused by many different people made Sirius hesitate, as he found himself unable to rant about just one to the full extent of his capabilities. And Sirius, a pseudo-perfectionist - who, James had once snickered, "still hasn't come out of the closet on that one", thereby forcing Sirius to harm him - disliked doing anything if it wasn't to the best of his abilities. Therefore, he was stuck, silent and angry at everything, just waiting for something to set him off. Unfortunately, as long as Peter stayed quiet and James didn't start being irritating, Sirius figured that he'd be stuck with his anger for awhile longer.

"-would never just leave, y'know?" James was saying, and Sirius realized belatedly that he had effectively tuned his best friend out. The bespeckled boy didn't seem to notice, thankfully, and went on eagerly with his rant. "I bet he is sick, and didn't want us to know."

"W-why would Remus be sick?" piped Peter, looking curiously between the two taller boys. Having not been around for the conversation between James and Sirius before, the pale-haired boy was a bit lost on the reference.

"We think he might be, or something, because of his mother," Sirius began explaining, but James cut him off.

"Yeah, yeah, that," said Sirius' best friend vaguely, waving a hand at Sirius in hopes to stop his explanation. Sirius felt a bit put-off, though his rational side knew that James was just getting into the heat of the moment with his theory. "Right. That's not the point. The point is, Remus wouldn't want us to know he was sick. And obviously, if he came up to us and told us, we'd know, 'cause we'd see him, right? And he'd ask the teachers to keep it low, too, so that's why McGonagall was so short with us."

"Why wouldn't Remus want us to know?" asked Peter oddly, both confused and overwhelmed by James' excited exclamation. By this point, the three boys were standing just three feet away from the portrait of the Fat Lady, though - engrossed in a conversation with a couple of wood nymphs from a picture on the main floor - she didn't seem to notice them.

"Because he's Remus," answered James with exasperation evident in his voice, obviously not wishing to go into the explanation of that again with Peter. Turning to Sirius, James' hazel eyes flashed with inspiration as he asked, "Don't you think that sounds right? It explains everything."

"Might," responded Sirius blandly, not wanting to fully support James' reasoning, as his best friend had clearly latched onto the theory that Remus was sick. Not fully agreeing with that idea - Remus wasn't sick that often -, Sirius didn't want to fuel James more than necessary. However, he couldn't find any flaws with James' presumption, so it would be stupid to outright disagree, especially when he was already upset anyway. (Because his disagreement would launch him into a debate with James, which he wouldn't win, and then James would get mad, and all they'd have was a fight. Sirius didn't really want that, especially since he had just signed up to be on the Quidditch team with the boy.)

"Should we go in?" murmured Peter quietly over his textbook, apparently having accepted that James wasn't going to clue him in on the dubbed "Remus Theory." He blinked widely at his companions, and then added, "I'm kind of tired, and I still have Transfiguration, Potions, and Herbology."

"All that?" Sirius queried, surprised. "What were you doing in the library, Peter, eating? How come you still have so much?"

"I was finishing my Astronomy and Charms homework," defended Peter with a quiver. "It was hard, and then James came up and-"

"Yeah, okay," James interrupted, "Don't worry, Peter, I'll help you with Transfiguration. And Sirius will help with Potions, right, Sirius?"

"I will?" asked Sirius, giving James a glance; James gave him a authoritative glare. "Er - yeah, sure, I help. Not that I'm good at it anyway."

"It shouldn't take too long," James assured both of them, and then turned to the Fat Lady, who was still happily chatting away. "Er - toad tracks."

"What?" the Fat Lady asked blankly, as if just realizing they were there. "Oh, right - okay, then."

The portrait swung open and all three boys stepped in, just as the call for light's out was sounded.

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"So I figure, upon becoming an evil overlord-"

"You're going to be an evil overlord?"

"But of course. What else would I be? Anyway, when I become one, I'm going to buy a gigantic mansion, with house-elves and fancy gardening and the works. And on the front gate, I'm going to post a paper sign that says, 'Sirius' Evil Mansion', 'cept it's all going to be spelled wrong, like 'mansion' being spelled 'm-a-n-s-h-o-i-n' or something. And 'evil' will be spelt with an 'a'."

"You have some weird fantasies, Sirius, anyone ever told you that?"

"Shut up James, I haven't ever gotten to the best part. See, in front of my Evil Mansion, I'm going to park an Evil Trailer Home, and I'm actually just going to live there."

"A trailer home? What's that?"

"It's like a little portable house, Peter. Really cheap and affordable. My Uncle Jerome owns one."

"So, wait, let me get this straight: you're going to own a huge mansion, but aren't actually going to live there? The mansion will just be for show?"

"Right again, mate. And you and Peter and Remus will all be my evil minions, and you'll, oh, I don't know, supply me with potions and monsters and the like. And nuclear bombs, should we ever wage war with a country larger than Taiwan."

"Hey, why am I the lackey?"

"Er - what are nuclear bombs?"

It was proving to be a very interesting breakfast, despite the fact that Remus was still gone "visiting his mother" - James didn't buy that, and Sirius only reluctantly did himself -, as Sirius was currently engaging his friends with his truly odd plots for world domination.

"And I'm not going to be a stupid evil overlord, either," Sirius continued wildly, ignoring both of his friends' questions as he did so. "I'm going to be smart about it all. For instance, if I capture a hero and he says, 'Before you kill me, could you at least tell me your plans?', I'm going to say 'No', and Avada Kedevra him right there."

James rolled his eyes. "I'm not sure if I should be impressed or frightened by how much thought you've put into this, Sirius."

"You wouldn't really do that, would you, Sirius?" Peter asked, looking at Sirius with an expression that suggested the pudgy boy truly believed what Sirius was saying.

"Eh, on second thought, I'll curse him and then say 'No,'" revised Sirius, with a hint manic glee in his eyes. Peter edged away from the brown- haired boy and poked nervously at his plate of scrambled eggs.

The three boys, each eating their breakfasts at varied speeds, snickered slightly at Sirius' revised plans - though Sirius noted with another snicker that Peter still appeared at least somewhat unnerved. It had been two days since Remus' alleged disappearance (and James still maintained that he wasn't visiting his mother), and after their initial worry and discomfort over the entire ordeal, each of the boys had fallen into their "Remus-is-gone" state of being, and were easily functioning despite the thin boy's absence. After all, the fourth member of their group was gone so often that it would not have boded well if they would get frazzled each time he left, though the other night was a special case (as they didn't know just where Remus had gone off to. And even now, when they did, James was still mistrustful of it.)

Just as James and Peter were engaging in an animated conversation on who would be the better lackey - "You, probably, Peter," James had said after some thought, "as I would most likely plot to overthrow Sirius and take over his organization." -, Sirius saw a familiar thin figure heading towards them. It took him a moment to place the frayed robes and slightly messy brown hair, but as soon as he did, Sirius' eyes lit up.

"Oi! Remus!" Sirius called out, interrupting James and Peter mid- discussion, and Remus froze just as he was about ten feet from their table. Sirius grinned brightly - conveniently ignoring Remus' wan, bloodless face and clear exhaustion until another, less public time and place - and greeted, "Nice to see you on such a fair morning, dear Remus of the Lupin variety."

Clearly not expecting such a loud and cheerful greeting, the recently unfrozen and now faintly blushing - though not nearly enough to bring color to his pallid face - Remus made his way over to the table. "Hello, Sirius. James. Peter." He greeted each of them in turn, smiling softly.

Sirius grinned, feeling better now that the group was complete - though wishing Remus could have heard his evil overlord speech -, and only faintly acknowledged James' less than warm greeting towards Remus, and Peter's own, hesitant "Hello." At that moment, however, Sirius remembered just why they had been upset with Remus - having forgotten as soon as he saw Remus, so excited he was knowing that his friend was back - and frowned instantly, on impulse.

"What is it?" Remus asked, noticing the odd silence and looking up from his attempts to scrap jelly on his toast with a spoon, as he couldn't find a knife.

"Why didn't you tell us you were going to go, er, visit your mother?" James asked suddenly, impressing Sirius in his ability to sound less suspicious and more of a friendly curious. Remus opened his mouth to respond, his face losing all pretense of color as he grew self-conscious by the inquiry, but Peter spoke before he could.

"We went and talked to McGonagall, even," Peter accused lightly, not as efficient as James in keeping the suspicion from his voice. "She threatened to give us all detention and everything." Sirius just kept himself from wincing as Peter tried to guilt Remus into telling them; while that tactic would work, because Remus often felt guilty about being gone so often, Sirius himself rarely tried using it, because it tended to make Remus quiet and uncooperative when it came to having fun. ("Fun," of course, being used in the context of playing pranks and essentially breaking rules. Remus, being a bit of a rule-abiding citizen by nature, was much harder to convince when he was subsequently feeling guilty as well.)

"I - I'm sorry, it slipped my mind," apologized Remus readily, his ears tinting red with embarrassment. "I was so preoccupied that day, and that concussion kind of threw me off, and-"

Sirius came to Remus' rescue. "Hey, don't worry. It's cool. We were just worried." James shot him a look, one that read something like, "Why don't you let him talk?", and Sirius just shrugged, opting to explain it to an annoyed James later. It just wasn't nice to put Remus on the spot like that, especially because it made sense that Remus would be distracted by the incident at Quidditch tryouts. (Sirius knew that James just wanted his theory to be proven right; he always did, whenever he latched onto something like that, and sometimes Sirius knew that it was just easier to get James interested in something else before he did something he might regret.)

With that thought in mind, Sirius changed the subject, "Oh, Remus, did you know that James and I made the team? It's so cool!"

"Er - congratulations," complimented Remus, a pleased smile appearing hesitantly on his face as a bit of the tension diminished. "That's great to hear."

"Yeah, and our first practice is tonight. Right, James?" asked Sirius. "Won't that be cool?"

"Huh? Er - yeah," James replied, apparently not expecting the sudden change in topic. He paused a moment, as if debating whether or not to pursue his earlier train of thought, but after (clearly) realizing that Sirius wouldn't let up, fell wholeheartedly into the discussion. "Rodney is so cool, I can't wait to see how he plans the practice. And Amanda is supposed to be one of the most talented Chasers since Shaman Erickson himself, so I bet I can pick up some moves from her..."

As James continued, with Sirius adding his own comments in periodically (though James really knew all the members of the team much better than he did), Sirius was pleased to note that he had successfully distracted James for the time being. Long enough for Remus to regain his composure, at least, which is all Sirius wanted.

Not that, of course, Sirius himself was going to let Remus' odd disappearance be either. But until Remus gave him a reason not to, Sirius was willing to let it slid into the background. Hopefully, the thin boy would never give Sirius a reason to question it, though - with James' still evident suspicions and Remus' track record - the brown-haired boy highly doubted it would stay past news for long.

_____________________________

Despite all that had happened in the past few days - referring to both Quidditch results and Remus' disappearance - the upcoming practice had not escaped the minds of the two very lucky second-years that had been chosen to be on the team. Hence why both boys, after completing their too- simple homework and snatching some illegally obtained food from the kitchens, had arrived in the locker rooms an hour early.

"We're having a picnic," Sirius had explained to a Ravenclaw straggler, whose team had just finished their own practice. The girl had given both younger boys a strange look which clearly implied that she thought they were nutters. James winked in response.

"So," James began, through a mouthful of heavily-buttered French bread - which Sirius had wrinkled his nose at disdainfully -, "I don't think that Remus is telling the truth."

"Can we stop talking about that?"

"No," emphasized James irritably, "I want to talk about it."

Sirius rolled his eyes, picking at his chocolate cake. "We already have. You say you don't believe Remus, I say we should leave it alone, and then you try to convince me that your theory is dead-on and Remus is going to drop dead at our feet any second now. And then, inevitably, Peter or Remus walks in and we stop talking about it, 'cause Peter doesn't know about the theory and Remus would be offended. Or embarrassed. Or something."

"You don't have to get mad about it," began James, with a sniff of indignation.

"I'm not mad!"

"You sound mad."

"Do not," Sirius defended, giving up on his cake and shoving it back into the bag they had used to carry all of the food. "I just don't want to argue with you anymore. I'm not mad at you, and I don't want to be."

"Fine," muttered James stiffly, shoving the last of his bread into his mouth and chewing hard, as if he was trying to completely focus on having to chew. Sirius sighed, wondering if he had done something to put- off James - despite them being best friends for so long, they often had brief spats that left the two of them in discontent for a few days, though rarely outright quarrels - and hoped that he hadn't. For many reasons, obviously, though all Sirius could think about was that if he and James were fighting, he would have to be partners with Peter in Potions. And Peter, while not a complete bum in Potions or anything, had a habit of irritating Sirius horribly when Sirius was in a bad mood. (Which, currently, he was.)

They sat in silence for a few moments, listening to the footfalls passing by the locker room and the dull, muted chatter still heard from the Great Hall. They had been in the dressing room for at least thirty minutes by then, by Sirius' reckoning, and it wouldn't be long until the other members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team came and disrupted their little picnic. Sirius, not generally being one for stubborn pride, thought that it would be best to smooth things over quickly.

"James-" the blue-eyed boy began, turning to his friend.

"Sirius, I-" began the other, simultaneously.

They met eyes and starting laughing, loudly and untamably, as only old friends could.

When the two boys had finished - by that time, Sirius had laid down and James was gripping the wall to help sate his snickers - James continued from his original intent.

"Look, I...," James paused, then went forth, "I should really stop obsessing over it, shouldn't I?"

"Yes," Sirius supported strongly with a nod and a cheeky grin.

"Oh, shut up, you do the same thing too and you know it," James snarled with good-nature at his best friend, "Obsessing over stuff and the like. Remember when your mother wouldn't let you go to the Winger Dams concert with me? You griped about it for a month."

"For good reason," was Sirius' only defense. He had set to work picking up the remains of their little excursion while James ranted, kneeling on the cold stone as he tossed their paper dinner plates into the makeshift garbage bag.

"And that prank during Potions last year? Planned that out for a month before you let me set it off, and we still got caught-"

"Still perfect, though."

"-and you kept whining about how we didn't deserve to be in detention for it, anyway." James continued, crossing his arms haughtily and staring at the still-cleaning Sirius. The bespeckled boy himself leaned casually against the wall as he watched. "Oh! And Snape! Don't tell me you don't obsess about him, always pranking him and trying to get him in trouble. And Professor Anthony too; I know you still think she's a vampire."

By this time, Sirius had finished cleaning up - feeling vaguely irritated that James hadn't helped, but remembering that James never cleaned up at home, so obviously didn't feel the need to - and stood, staring at James with a faintly bemused expression on his face. He waited for a few moments after James had stopped his latest tirade, curiously waiting for any added comments that the black-haired boy might have.

When no further complaints were made, Sirius' mouth quirked upwards and he asked, "Finished?"

"Yeah, I'm good," James replied with a brief nod and smile.

"Been wanting to get that out for awhile?" was Sirius' next question.

"Nah, just wanted to make sure you knew that we aren't so different," apprised James simply, and he pushed himself off the wall, grabbing the full bag in Sirius' hands and tossing it lightly into a garbage can by the door. "We have been best friends too long."

For a few moments, Sirius didn't reply, though when he did, it was quiet. "James?"

"Yeah, what?" James had pulled out a practice robe from his bag and was currently unfolding it unceremoniously.

"Well, if I had taken to visiting my Mum during the year, and you all knew that it sometimes happened, would you be really upset if I forgot to tell you once that I was going?"

James paused, and then looked up at Sirius slowly. The light from the lanterns hanging around the dressing room caught the reflection of his glasses, making the lenses look to be completely yellow-white in color, instead of clear. Frowning slightly, James asked, "This is about Remus still?"

"I guess so," Sirius answered, shrugging slightly. "Not that I want to argue anymore. But I was just thinking, if it had been me off to visit my mother, and I was kind of thrown off by a concussion, and none of you all were around, that I might forget to tell you I was going. Especially if it had happened a lot before, 'cause then I'd know that you'd figure it out, y'know?"

James shifted slightly from his position on the wooden bench, just enough to rid his glasses of the glowing reflection of light, and Sirius could see his eyes narrowed slightly in perplexity. He replied, "It still seems weird, though. I mean, Remus isn't you. Hell, I'd be surprised if you told us about visiting your Mum the first time."

Sirius smirked, knowing James was speaking the truth, but quickly cut his messy-haired friend off. "I know that, but y'know, it could just mean that Remus is getting more comfortable with us. Maybe he doesn't feel so pressured to make excuses for everything all the time."

Something lit up in James' eyes as Sirius said this, as if James had just realized something, but before Sirius was able to question this, the door to the locker room opened and Rodney, Amanda and Archilles walked in, Rodney smirking at the smaller boy beside him as Amanda giggled.

"-absolutely hate it when people mess up my name," Archilles was complaining bitterly, rolling his eyes. "That new Dark Arts professor doesn't know a thing, if she thinks my name is pronounced 'Ah-KEEL-es'. I mean, I'm French, for cripes sake."

"And I'm sure Professor Anthony stalked you, found out about your origins, and purposefully strove to mispronounce your name as a means to get back at whatever devious, ill-begotten transgression you've committed," was Rodney calm, efficient response as he regarded Archilles with a look of mock sympathy; beside them, Amanda snickered even more, tears practically leaking out of her eyes as she stated, haltingly, "There's - an 'O', right there! I give that an 'O', Rod."

Archilles gave Rodney a deadpan, aggravated stare as he muttered, "Talk like a normal bloody person, you obnoxious prat."

"Oh, come on, 'Ah-SHEEL'," Amanda came to her Captain's defense with a smile, emphasizing the correct way of saying the lithe boy's name, "You're making too big a deal about this. 'Sides, you're what, fourth generation French? You haven't ever lived there, even."

"I don't care," muttered the pixie-faced boy with a frown. "She shouldn't have tried if she didn't know how to say it."

"I remember our first year, and no one knew-" Rodney suddenly broke off as he noticed James and Sirius staring at the three of them with wide eyes, and his ears turned slightly pink. "Ah, I didn't see you guys there. You're early."

At this point, Archilles had gone over to his locker amidst his own grumbling, and Amanda was still giggling at him, poking him in the shoulder and deliberately mispronouncing his name to get a rise from the thin boy. As Sirius watched out of the corner of his eye, he saw Archilles take a swing at the taller girl, and heard the exaggerated cry of pain as his fist landed. Rodney ignored this, obviously used to it.

"Er, yeah," James murmured in response to Rodney's assumption, nudging Sirius slightly to keep the brown-haired boy from staring so openly at the brawl currently occurring to the right of him. (Amanda was winning, having pinned Archilles down, but the blonde boy was clearly holding his own as he lashed out.)

"What he said," Sirius commented vaguely, trying to turn away. "I mean, er - we came early. Practice is, er, important."

"Exactly," James supported. They both looked at Rodney, embarrassment coloring their cheeks a faded pink, even as cries of "Take THAT!" and "You bit me! Git! Who BITES people?!" echoed throughout the small room.

Rodney coughed slightly, glancing over at the two brawling seventh- years on the floor - Archilles had gained the advantage, somehow, and was shoving a dirty robe into Amanda's face -, and turned back to the younger boys in front of him. "Er - ignore them. It's a bit of a common occurrence for those two to fight. You'll get used to it after awhile."

Before James or Sirius could reply, the locker room door swung open again and Addison Otopolik stepped in, took one look at the couple on the floor, sniffed irritably, and turned away towards an open locker. Rodney grinned sheepishly at her turned back, and then raised his eyebrows at the younger boys.

Sirius smiled, liking the feeling of maturity he got from talking to someone as cool as Rodney Wells - especially since he obviously thought it was okay to exchange glances with a mere second-year -, and he looked over at the fight for a moment before stating, "I'll place two knuts on Amanda."

"What?" James asked, incredulously. Gesturing towards the two of them - the brawl was still going strong -, the ebony-haired boy said, "Archilles is obviously winning. Two knuts on HIM."

"Amanda has weight going for her. I bet she could bench press him."

"He's quicker."

"He's skinny, that's what you mean."

"But," James paused, looking for another reason and failing, he just supplied, "Look, two knuts on Archilles."

"You're on."

Rodney blinked, and then laughed at the two best friends as they argued. "You two gamble? On fights? That's hilarious!"

"Have to make a living somehow," was all Sirius said in explanation as he and James rooted on the fight, each cheering for their respective person.

"C'mon, Amanda, get him down!"

"Archilles, are you going to give up that easily? Let's go!"

"You - little - bitch -!"

"Stop - pulling my - OW!"

It was amongst this hassle that the last member of the Quidditch team, a sandy-haired fifth-year boy named Inius Sheldon, walked into the locker room, his nose deep into a Potions textbook. The loud fighting jerked him out of the text, and an exasperated, disbelieving expression crossed his face.

"You two!" Inius shouted at once, dropping his knapsack and textbook on the ground as he ran to pull Archilles off of Amanda. "Stop - it! C'mon, stop fighting right - Rodney! Help me!" Inius' striking green eyes were pleading as the younger boy glanced desperately at the taller seventh-year.

"Chaos, turmoil and mayhem," Rodney murmured simply, smirking at his younger teammate. "My work here is done."

"Rodney!" Inius practically whimpered as he struggled to yank the two brawling students apart. "You could at least pretend to care!"

"I could, you're right," Rodney agreed, "But Sirius and James have a bet going, and I wouldn't like to spoil it for them. Plus, it's funny."

"Ugh!" Inius shouted, giving up momentarily and sighing, looking exasperated. "Is this really the image you want to present to the new kids? I mean, really, how are we going to beat Slytherin if Archilles and Amanda kill each other before our first practice?!"

"Ah!" Rodney exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "Practice! Archilles, 'Manda, stop it. We have to practice." Clearly, Rodney had just remembered the reason they were all there.

If Sirius hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed that such an active brawl could stop so suddenly, but it was only a few seconds later that both Amanda and Archilles were untangled and standing, if continuing to actively glare at one another.

"And you could have done that right away, too..." muttered Inius with an exhausted sigh.

"We should go out now," Rodney said to the entire team, ignoring Inius and glancing over at the still quiet Addison, "I want this practice to be an active one, more basics than real strategy. Just to gage the team's abilities."

James leaned over to Sirius after Rodney had finished talking, and murmured, "Well, it's already been kind of informative."

Sirius laughed slightly, and queried, "I wonder who won?"

"Archilles," a soprano voice toned from behind them, and Sirius and James both turned to see an irritated Amanda following them, Archilles at her side. She griped, "He cheats."

"Not my fault if you don't take advantage of your own abilities," Archilles replied snippily.

"At least I don't bite and pull hair, you little pansy! And they say girls don't fight fair..."

The team - though they really didn't look much like one at the moment, especially considering the rising welt on Amanda's temple and the dark looks Addison kept shooting them all - made it out to the playing area, where the sky invited them all up with a clear blue sky and warm weather. James and Sirius exchanged glances, grinning; it was official now, if it wasn't in the locker room: they were on the team.

Everyone took a few quick laps around the stadium to warm up, and Rodney then began practice with surprising efficiency. The practice was tough for the first one; they ran through basics with alacrity, even though Rodney stopped every once and awhile to reconstruct his practice plan, for it was clear that none of the three new players were novices to the game. Addison said very little, but it was clear as the practice progressed that she enjoyed the strict focus of the practice (as opposed to the wild antics in the locker room.) Even Amanda and Archilles seemed to have forgotten their feud, having stopped glaring at each other from across the field.

When the practice was finished, they were all completely exhausted, though Sirius couldn't help but want to spend more time on the pitch. The practice was harder than the mock games that he and James often engaged in, but Sirius liked his teammates; Rodney, obviously, was as cool as he and James had expected, and Amanda and Archilles were clearly worth knowing as well. Inius got along well with everyone, despite his exasperation in the locker room, and even Addison was beginning to warm up slightly towards the end of the practice, talking quietly to Amanda and even giggling once, softly. But the most obvious reason that Sirius liked his new teammates was the relaxed, almost lazy atmosphere that existed amongst them as soon as they exited the field. Immediately, Rodney started teasing Inius about his study habits - "You're going to wind up with no friends at all, Inius," - and Amanda started talking loudly to Addison about how irritating and hotheaded Archilles was, while the thin-faced boy glowered balefully at her.

"This is cool," murmured Sirius softly to James as he pulled off his robes. As of yet, the two boys hadn't really made their mark on the team - the fight in the locker room at the beginning had all but dissuaded them, and the practice had been so intense that they didn't bother trying - though Sirius figured it wouldn't take long for that to happen.

"Most definitely," agreed his bespeckled best friend with a grin.

A few moments passed before one of the two spoke up again.

"Oi, Sirius."

"What?"

"You owe me two knuts. Archilles won."

_________________________________

It was later that night when Sirius found himself alone in the dorm room with Remus.

Not that being alone with Remus was, in itself, an uncommon occurrence. They were roommates, after all, and friends on top of that, so Sirius couldn't count the number of times he and Remus had been together without the added presences of either James, Peter, or some other person to distract them. However, it was the first time Sirius had been alone with Remus since the brown-haired boy's visit to his mother, and despite all he had said to James about believing Remus' excuse, Sirius couldn't shake the vague feeling of uneasiness whenever he considered broaching that topic with Remus himself.

For the record, Sirius hadn't even tried to meet up with his thin friend; James, after Quidditch practice, had suddenly remembered a certain Transfiguration paper that needed to be researched - McGonagall always made them check in with their research progress on big papers, to make sure that they were getting enough sources, and James had foolishly forgotten that he had yet to compile a decently constructed list of notes and sources for the check tomorrow. Sirius went up to the library with him for awhile before getting bored (having already completed the research earlier that week), and left his ebony-haired best friend amidst a pile of books and a half- finished list of sources. He met up with Peter on his way to the Common room, but the pudgy boy only spoke long enough to inform Sirius that he had been given a detention - for "unsatisfactory completion of a simple Potions lab" according to Durkham, whom Peter quoted with a foul expression on his face - and wouldn't Sirius let him copy the Herbology homework due tomorrow? Acquiescing offhandedly, Sirius walked back to the dorm alone.

Which is when, of course, he walked into the room and saw Remus hunched over their desk, fast asleep, his light brown hair drifting softly over a half-filled roll of parchment. The top of the parchment read - in Remus' neat and somewhat tilted script - "Moonstone & Its Use In Common Healing Potions." Sirius blinked once in surprise as he noted that this was the essay that had been due half a week ago, the day Remus had gone home to visit his mother. Was Remus really that far behind? And, Sirius realized, watching the even rise and fall of Remus' back as the boy breathed, Remus was already exhausted. The pallor Sirius had noticed in his friend's cheeks that morning was still evident, and deep shadows under his eyes emphasized that Remus really wasn't in the best shape to be doing homework.

Sirius frowned slightly in concern, deciding to let Remus get the rest he obviously needed - though why he should be so tired after a visit to his mother's, Sirius couldn't ascertain, and he wasn't about to fall in with James' suspicious reasoning just yet -, and reached for a blanket on the armrest of a nearby sofa, meaning to put it over Remus' shoulders. Unfortunately, just as he had taken a step in the direction of the blanket, Remus stirred from his position at the desk, lifting his head and turning towards Sirius, his eyes bleary.

"Sirius?" queried the thin boy blankly, obviously still half-asleep. Remus' nose twitched slightly, and Sirius grinned sheepishly at being found out.

"Sorry for waking you up," apologized Sirius after a moment, while Remus rubbed his eyes to try and make them less blurry. Sirius grabbed the blanket from the sofa belatedly, offering it out to Remus and wondering, "You cold?"

"Uh - er, no," Remus murmured, putting his hands down on the desk and stealing a glance at his unfinished paper before looking back up at Sirius. Smiling softly, he commented lightly, "I could use some chocolate right about now, though. This paper is aggravating."

Sirius grinned, pulling his wand from a pocket in his robes and repeating, "Chocolate? You wish for chocolate, my liege?" Before Remus could respond, Sirius called out, "Accio Chocolate!" and watched as drawers opened and packages uncovered themselves to reveal the chocolate hidden within them. Within seconds, chocolate covered over the desktop and Remus' lap, and all the smaller boy could do was stare. Sirius laughed at his friend's surprise.

"For God's sake, Remus, you've lived with us for over a year and you don't know that we keep chocolate stashed like we do Dungbombs?" Sirius winked. "It's everywhere. Especially around Peter's stuff, that kid is the most chocoholic person I've ever met."

"Not true," Remus replied with a small smirk on his face as he tentatively reached out for a half-eaten - but well rewrapped - chocolate bar laying by his quill. "I think I might have him beat. I could eat this entire stash."

"Alas!" Sirius gasped with mock astonishment, slipping into dramatic Old English. "Surely you jest!"

"Aye, no jest have I," answered the golden-eyed boy with slightly less drama, mocking Sirius kindly as he attempted to respond in turn with Sirius' strange linguistics. Remus laughed a bit as he spoke, and quickly ate the rest of the half-finished chocolate bar. He reached for a Chocolate Frog.

Grinning, Sirius flopped down on the sofa and snatched up a frog for himself. "You better not eat it all, or Peter will go stark raving mad on you, that's a fact," advised Sirius cheerfully, biting a leg from the squirming candy. "I bet he's going to be stressed when he come back, too; he has detention with Durkham."

Remus visibly winced, looking vaguely sympathetic, though with his mouth full of chocolate, he couldn't express his concerns verbally.

"And James, the slacker, is in the library and researching like crazy for that paper on color schemes and patterns for Transfiguration," Sirius continued easily. "I bet he's going to drive himself nutters, you know?"

"Transfiguration?" replied Remus, suddenly looking somewhat nervous. He grabbed a small notebook off the desk and paged through it quickly before stopping on a part near the front. Remus sighed, "Oh, the paper. I haven't started either."

"Well, you've been gone," Sirius sympathized immediately, and took a handful of chocolate-covered raisins - his own addition, as wizard candy shops didn't seem to carry them - from a plastic bag. "McGonagall will probably give you a few days to get it in, right?"

"I know," murmured Remus, "but I'm so far behind as it is... It's just hard to think that I have more to do."

"Want to copy mine?" Sirius offered, unable to think of anything else to say. Remus shook his head, as Sirius knew he would - the thin boy was often too proud to ask for help in schoolwork, though he was often behind, and when he did, Remus always made sure that he was still working at it. When a few moments passed and all that happened was Remus finishing off three more Chocolate Frogs, Sirius quietly commented, "Maybe you shouldn't visit your mother so often."

Remus looked up from an empty wrapper and narrowed his eyes, suddenly wary. "What do you mean?"

Correctly interpreting Remus' reaction as defensive, Sirius raised his hands up and continued, "I didn't mean it badly! It's just... well, you're gone a lot. I just thought that you wouldn't be so behind if... well, you know, you weren't. Your Mum would understand, right?" From what Sirius knew of Remus' mum, he didn't think she would deliberately take her son out of school if it meant falling behind.

"Oh," was Remus' blank response, and he relaxed slightly. Then, with a bit of a wan smile, Remus said, "It's not that simple, really."

"I didn't mean to say it was," informed Sirius. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine," Remus comforted with a smile, turning over to his desk and picking up his quill again. He stared down at his parchment, but continued to talk, "I didn't mean to complain, really. I'm just tired." Then, after a moment, Remus added, "I'm sorry for making you guys worry. I just forgot about it."

"Don't worry," dismissed Sirius immediately, leaning over the edge of the sofa to look closer at Remus' essay. "I don't care. James kind of did, but I bet he'll be over it by tomorrow, 'cause I'm going to bother him so much he'll forget." Remus stifled a laugh at this, and Sirius, smirking, continued, "And forget Peter. He just missed having you there to help him in Astronomy. We went over constellations again, and Peter's memory is worse than James'."

"Or yours," added Remus calmly. His quill scratched on the parchment efficiently, and Sirius wondered just how much homework Remus had to catch up on.

"Hey, now, my memory is fine," defended Sirius.

"Yeah, it's just your attention span that needs work."

"Eh, I'll go with that," Sirius admitted. Bent over his paper, Remus didn't look up, though Sirius could see the smile on his wan face. Sirius munched on a bit of chocolate - noting how diminished the large pile of chocolate now looked - and watched Remus write. After a few seconds, Sirius' keen eyes noticed an error in the third paragraph, and he leaned forward, saying as he did, "Rem, you have-"

Remus turned at the sound of Sirius' voice, but apparently didn't realize how close the dark-haired boy had gotten, as he jumped and bumped into Sirius in surprise. Already off-balance, Sirius tilted forward and fell, landing on a startled-looking Remus and knocking them both to the floor. Sirius landed heavily on Remus' left arm, and felt a wave of alarm pass through him as the brown-haired boy made a loud cry of pain.

"Are you all right?" Sirius asked immediately, backing off and settling on his knees. His eyes wide, Sirius continued, "Remus? I'm sorry; I didn't hurt you, did I? Are you hurt?" Sirius hated it when one of his friends got hurt, especially if he was the direct - or possibly indirect - cause of it. James, for instance, often would get injured while the two of them were playing Quidditch or adventuring or whathaveyou, and it took a lot of convincing on the black-haired boy's part to assure Sirius that it wasn't his fault. Sirius couldn't help but feel guilty, however; the combination of his strong enthusiasm and daredevil plans was oftentimes somewhat dangerous, and at times, Sirius wished that he could be a bit more in control of himself.

But that thought wasn't currently up for much dwelling on, as Remus was just now sitting up and gripping his left arm with a wince on his face.

"Remus?" Sirius asked again, concerned.

"I'm fine," replied his friend. "I just landed on it, is all..." When Sirius didn't wipe the guilty look from his face, Remus locked eyes with him and apprised him, "It was hurt before this, Sirius, don't worry."

"Oh," murmured Sirius at this abrupt news. Then, brow furrowing in confusion, Sirius asked, "It was? When did you hurt it?"

"Er - at my Mum's house," Remus answered vaguely, standing up and righting the chair he had been sitting on. The smaller boy reached down to pick up his quill as he added, a bit stiffly, "I cut myself making dinner." Clearly, Remus thought that answer was good enough, though Sirius still watched with hesitant concern; now that he knew what to look for, he could see that Remus was favoring his left arm.

"Is it bad?" Sirius asked, moving forward to try and see if he could catch a glimpse of the supposed wound. "Can I see it? You did get it bandaged, right? Maybe you could go to Pomfrey and she could-"

"Sirius," Remus intercepted, a certain hardness entering into his golden eyes. "I'm fine."

While Sirius had no reason to doubt that fact - Remus wasn't bleeding as far as he could tell, and even through the thin robes his friend wore, Sirius could see a vague outline of a bandage -, the blue-eyed boy couldn't help but feel concerned. Something about Remus' excuse - "I cut myself making dinner" - just didn't fit right with Sirius, reminding him a bit too much of a Muggle book he had read a few years ago about child abuse. Not that Sirius could see Remus being abused by his parents, really; his pale friend's mother was so kind, and so was his father, but wasn't that how they were supposed to be?

Sirius' confusion and suspicion must have been evident to Remus, because the brown-haired boy set down his quill and looked at Sirius with an intense, no-nonsense expression. "Sirius," Remus said, "I said I'm all right. Stop exaggerating the truth."

"I'm not," was Sirius' weak defense.

"You are so, and can you honestly tell me that you've never cut yourself?" questioned Remus, who then raised an eyebrow as Sirius obtained a moderately sheepish demeanor. "See? You're making - what was it? - a mountain out of a molehill. The worst danger I'm in right now is falling asleep where I'm sitting."

"That's true," Sirius agreed, looking with renewed interest at his friend. Remus' short nap earlier obviously hadn't done much to relieve the thin boy of the deep shadows under his eyes or the pallid tone of his skin. If Sirius had his way, Remus would have already been asleep, preferably under a couple thick blankets and with many pillows. However, Sirius knew that Remus wasn't going to listen if Sirius tried to force him to go to sleep, especially considering the mound of homework currently taking up desk space right in front of him. That didn't mean, though, that Sirius couldn't help ease the pain of it all, so to speak.

"Say," suggested Sirius amiably, tapping Remus on the right shoulder, "Are you hungry?" Not waiting for a response - Sirius could just see the "No," perched on the tip of Remus' tongue -, he continued, "Because I am. I'm going to go down to the kitchens and get something more, y'know, substantial to eat. Chocolate's great and all, but all it does is make you sick if you eat too much." Sirius grinned at the pile of wrappers on the floor by the desk, and added, "What do you want?"

"You don't have to-" began Remus, before Sirius interrupted.

"I offered, Rem; isn't it considered rude to deny what is offered to you?" Sirius only grinned cheekily as Remus faltered under the underhanded logic, and then repeated, "So, what do you want?"

Remus paused for only a few more moments before answering, "Fish and chips, if you would."

"Done and done," confirmed Sirius, messing up Remus' hair with his hand as he turned to leave. Remus frowned and attempted to shove him, but Sirius deftly leapt out of the way, cheering, "I'll see you in a moment, Rem! I'm off to find the sun!"

As Sirius dashed out of the door, he could hear Remus shouting after him, "If you're going to quote Lord of the Rings, at least do it correctly, you git!" Sirius merely laughed.

It didn't take him too long to get Remus his food, as well as getting some blueberry pancakes for himself. The house-elves, ever helpful as they were, turned out to be fairly good conversationalists, as long as Sirius let them continue to serve him in every way possible. By the end of his visit to the kitchens, Sirius not only had food for both him and Remus, but also enough chocolate and pumpkin juice to more than make up for what he and Remus had eaten earlier, plus some. As soon as he got back up to the dorm room, hampered by the mounds of food he carried, Remus stood up to help him, and the two of them wound up eating amidst textbooks and pieces of parchment. For the rest of the night, Sirius helped Remus catch up on what he'd missed, and when James and Peter each showed up, they joined in with the small party - though Remus insisted on calling it "studying", James and Sirius distracted them with a variety of jokes and plots for pranks, so truly, very little studying actually occurred. (Thankfully, from what Sirius could tell, James had either forgotten about or gotten over his qualms with Remus, and engaged in the little "party" wholeheartedly, as did Peter.)

It was late at night when Sirius got up from his bed, blinking blearily in the direction of the desk. Remus had finally gone to bed around eleven, after James and Sirius had pestered him horribly about how tired he looked. Shortly thereafter, they all had succumbed to the calls of sleep and gone to bed. Sirius was fairly convinced that he was currently the only one up.

He completed his task in roughly ten minutes, making sure to keep quiet so that he wouldn't wake anyone, especially Remus. After he was finished, Sirius walked over to Remus' bag and placed his finished work inside a neatly ordered folder, with a slip of parchment to explain it. On the parchment, he wrote: Remus, if you don't get time to research Trans., here are my sources and some notes. It should help. -Sirius.

Sirius settled into bed again, pleased with his deed; he hoped that Remus would regain his strength quickly, so that the entire group could put this incident behind them and get on with more important things. Like, for instance, Quidditch. Possibly the House competition. On a rough day, maybe even schoolwork.

Oh, and mischief. Always mischief.

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Two evenings later, James and Sirius found themselves heading back up to the Gryffindor Tower from the dungeon-level bathrooms - thankfully not near enough to the Slytherin Common room to be seen -, their bags slung over their shoulders and a distinctly tired look about them. This was not necessarily by choice, as they had just come from a rather long and tiring session of cleaning the aforementioned bathrooms for a detention issued from McGonagall. Said detention was given due to an incident that Sirius would rather not speak of out loud - in contrast to most detentions he received, in which he would have been talking about it for at least two days following - but James would grudgingly admit that it involved a wand, a variation of the levitation spell, and a lot of Slytherin... "involvement," if you would. Any other interpretations of the prank would be left to one's own imagination.

In any case, James and Sirius were tired. Thankfully, they had cheated during detention - Sirius, being a verifiable servant whilst in his mother's care, knew all about the different ways of quickly accomplishing a cleaning task without truly putting forth any real effort. Due to this knowledge, they had slacked off for about an hour and finished their schoolwork before actually cleaning, and finished what was meant to a two- hour torture session of a detention in roughly a half an hour. True, they could have just done this in the first place - James, for instance, was big on getting it over with - but Sirius was all for one-upping the system. "Besides," Sirius had commented as he was cajoling his ebony-haired best friend to his line of thinking, "If we get it done too quickly, McGonagall won't believe we did it right. She'll make us do it again." James hadn't been able to argue with that line of thinking.

As it was, they were heading back to their Common room when a hassled- looking Professor Anthony stepped out of a classroom, her arms laden down with books and her mess askew. A brief glance at the classroom told Sirius that it was, in fact, Durkham's office, as the Potions classroom was just down the hallway. As she spotted the two second-years, a look of relief glanced over her face before a look of suspicion covered it.

"What are you two doing down here?" Anthony questioned sharply, her eyes narrowed slightly in perplexity. The top book from the stacks in her arms trembled precariously and fell, with a bang, to the floor. Sirius knelt to pick it up.

"We're just heading to the Common room," answered James honestly, and Sirius recognized the 'Of-course-I'm-obeying-myself' look on his face, the one that McGonagall had learned by October last year not to be swayed by. Sirius hid a grin; obviously, James was testing the durability of their newest - and near-strictest - teacher.

"Oh," murmured Anthony, blinking - clearly taken in by 'the look', Sirius assumed - and managed a brief, tight grin as Sirius handed her back the book. "Oh," she continued, apparently quite busily trying to remember was she had been about to do.

"Say," Sirius began sweetly, making sure to put just enough sugar into his voice, but to still not sound syrupy. "Do you need any help with anything? We don't have anything to do, and we'd be willing to, say, lend your our assistance, if you would." Out of his peripheral vision, Sirius could see James wincing slightly at his offer and giving him a cleverly disguised questioning look. Sirius didn't look over at him, and merely continued to smile honestly at Professor Anthony.

For a moment, Sirius was afraid that Anthony would catch on; she gave him a look which was clearly both incredulous and wary, as if not trusting his intentions (for good reason.) However, as Sirius continued to look as honest as a first-year Hufflepuff, Anthony's expression relaxed slightly, and she shifted her weight to support the books while leaving one hand free.

"Thank you for offering, Mr. Black," Anthony said, a slight twitch in her voice suggesting that she couldn't believe what she was doing, yet it continued. "Actually, if you and Mr. Potter would be so kind, I need to get a few things from the storage room on the third floor, but I'm a bit busy at the moment. Would you be willing to get them for me?"

James, by this point, had stopped staring at Sirius curiously and was instead staring at Anthony, with an innocent smile but wide, disbelieving eyes.

"Sure," Sirius answered with a kind grin - mentally reeling over how amazing his acting skills had suddenly gotten, and why didn't he just quit school to join the theater? - and, so as to not appear too eager about receiving the set of keys now dangling from Anthony's narrow hand, queried, "What do you want us to get?"

"Oh, just a couple cauldrons, and a lantern wick..." Professor Anthony named off a few other items, and to each, Sirius nodded as if he was meticulously striking each object to memory. He was, actually, but the nods were mainly for show. After all, Anthony clearly thought that she had misjudged these kind, honest Gryffindors, and Sirius wouldn't want to do anything to go against her sudden change in opinion.

"Here you are," Anthony murmured as she handed the key ring, specified key first, over to James - who was closer, and looked at the keys like he would look at a sack of galleons - and shifted the books back to their original opinion. Addressing Sirius, Anthony instructed, "I'll need these things in about a half an hour, if you could. Would you bring them to my office?"

"Certainly," Sirius replied, his smile growing wider. Turning to James - and deliberately not making eye contact, as Sirius was sure that would cause a maniacal giggle or two -, Sirius said, "C'mon, then, mate; let's go get what she needs."

"You know where it is, right?" Anthony asked, looking slightly worried, yet much less hassled than she had.

"Think so," James called back, having apparently found his voice. He, too, did not make eye contact with Sirius. Professor Anthony nodded once, and then turned the other direction, a bit unsteady from all the books in her arms.

As soon as the two boys were sure that their newest instructor was out of earshot - James specifically ran to the corner of the hallway and glanced down it to be sure -, James and Sirius exchanged looks and practically trembled in surprise and excitement.

"Can you believe it?" Sirius gasped in wonderment, eyes shining as they looked down at the ring of keys in his hand. "She - she just..."

"Excellent work back there, mate," congratulated James, clapping Sirius on the back and touching the set of keys with envy. "I believe you had her conned quite well."

"And here I thought she had a handle on us, too," Sirius muttered, still incredulous about the whole affair, despite his key hand in its making. Looking down at his shorter best friend, Sirius said, "Let's go right away; the faster we get there, the more time we have for looking about."

"Right," confirmed James, a mischievous glimmer glittering brightly in his hazel eyes. Sirius could feel his shoulders shaking with a thrilling sensation; James had often told Sirius that when he got excited about something, he would practically bounce around with sheer adrenaline. Considering how he was acting at this very moment, Sirius couldn't very well disagree with that assessment.

They dashed up the nearest set of stairs, trying very hard not to look like two gold-diggers with a Niffler, lest some oddly suspicious teacher stop them and ask what they were up to. McGonagall especially, Sirius knew, wouldn't hesitate to take back the set of keys that Anthony had given them, as McGonagall really did know the true devastating power of Sirius and James in combined force. It could only get worse if they had access to a supply closet on top of that.

With such haste did they rush that they didn't see Remus until just before Sirius ran into him. Skidding rapidly to a halt, Sirius attempted to avoid his friend, but it was only by the power of Remus himself that Sirius was able to stop; Remus grabbed his blue-eyed friend by the shoulders and steadied him calmly.

"So," Remus queried curiously, "What kind of nonsensical foolery have you two been up to this time?"

"Speak normally, Rem," instructed Sirius quietly into his messy- haired friend's ear, taking deep breaths as he did so. He was close enough to Remus to feel the boy's fine, tan-brown hair on his cheek; Sirius stepped back. Remus only gave him the smallest of smirks about his comment.

"We," James began importantly, ignoring Sirius as well, "have been appointed a task by a certain Professor Anthony."

Remus blinked, a bit intrigued. "And?" he prodded.

"And she wishes us to obtain some supplies from a certain closet for her," James continued. "To do this, of course, we need access to said closet." Grinning largely, James glanced at Sirius, who dangled the keys tantalizingly in front of Remus.

In the blink of an eye, Remus' expression changed from vaguely interested to completely dumbfounded. Incredulously, the golden-eyed boy asked, "She gave you the keys?!"

"Yep," confirmed Sirius.

"Is she mad?!"

"Suppose so," agreed James.

Remus, lost for words - a feat that afflicted him about as often as it did Sirius, if that would impress upon the significance of the event -, could only stare disbelieving as James and Sirius launched themselves into a heap of manic giggling. For some reason, neither boy seemed to have the will to stop, either, so by the time that Remus had regained his voice - and switched his expression from dubious to disconcerted -, both students were still gasping for air.

"I'm, er - going away now," murmured Remus quietly as he attempted to move covertly away from his two companions. Other Hogwarts students stared in bewilderment as they walked by, most opting to pass them by with an unnerved glance, while a few stopped and snickered.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Sirius replied, snapping out of his giggle fit as soon as he heard Remus' lame venture to leave. Grabbing tightly onto his friend's thin wrist - his right wrist, not his left; Sirius make sure to clarify -, Sirius instructed, "You need to come with us and figure out how we can use everything." Abruptly noting the people watching them and laughing, Sirius lowered his voice slightly, and tapped James on the shoulder to stop him. The blue-eyed boy added, "We need to take inventory and such."

"Right-o," confirmed James, a humorous smile playing on his lips. "Let's go. We only have thirty minutes. Not even that."

"Oh, fine," acquiesced Remus with a long-suffering sigh - Sirius rolled his eyes and didn't take his golden-eyed friend seriously - as he turned towards the staircase on his left. "I'll go get Peter."

"Peter?" a confused Sirius repeated, blinking. He hadn't even thought about getting Peter, and even now, when Remus brought it up, didn't wholly comprehend retrieving the fair-haired boy.

Misinterpreting Sirius' confusion for impatience, Remus assured, "Don't worry, he's just up in the Common room. I'll be back in a moment; just wait here..." Remus trailed off somewhat as he dashed up the staircase, towards where the Fat Lady's portrait hung.

James and Sirius managed not to fidget too much as they waited for their two comrades to return, though Sirius personally thought that the set of keys was getting uncomfortably heavy in his hand. Perhaps it was like the One Ring, Sirius curiously theorized as he remembered his quote to Remus a few days before. The longer one had it - the One Key, that is - the heavier and more burdensome it would get, until it controlled oneself and caused one to do its evil bidding. Sirius found himself fighting back a large grin as he thought of the intriguing possibilities for such a thing.

"Sod Middle-Earth," he murmured to himself with a bit of a smirk, "I'm taking over Europe."

"What in Merlin's name are you talking about?" James asked beside him, looking away from the staircase to cast Sirius a baffled stare.

"Er-"

Sirius was saved from answering by the arrival of Remus and Peter, both of whom were out of breath and looking deliciously excited. Their eagerness was contagious and addicting; Sirius instantly banished his previous fantasies and grabbed Remus' shoulder, as if to further move his friend toward the waiting closet. All four boys starting moving towards the third floor supply closet as one, with James in the lead.

"So what's going on?" Peter asked in a hushed, anticipating voice as they walked their "Prank Walk": just fast enough to alleviate some of the excited tension, yet slow enough to not arouse suspicion. Peter continued, "Remus didn't tell me what we were doing, just told me to come with him and- "

"We," James interrupted, "have the key to the third-floor supply closet."

A noticeable pause emphasized James' proclamation, and then Peter gasped, "What?!"

"That was my reaction," Remus muttered from behind Sirius as they walked up a long and winding set of stairs. He stepped forward and nearly tumbled as the stair dropped into itself. "Bollocks," Remus cursed softly, looking a bit put-off.

"They just gave you a key?" Peter gaped, looking too surprised to acknowledge Remus.

"Actually, Professor Anthony gave it to us-" began James.

"Professor Anthony just gave you a key?" repeated Peter, his watery eyes wide.

"I know," Sirius said, eyes sparkling with excitement, "isn't that just great? We're supposed to get some stuff for her - she's right busy tonight, I bet Durkham was being a complete git to her. But she asked us to help her out, and just handed over the key."

"Which was her first, and most dire, mistake," quipped Remus with an eye roll. Sirius half-turned and raised his eyebrows, to which Remus replied with a half-mast smirk.

"It really makes you think, though," pondered James cooly, not noticing the exchange between Sirius and Remus. "I though Anthony had a handle on us, and then she goes giving us keys to supply closets?"

"Is she mad?" Peter supported with a nod, grinning up at a taller James.

"I said that, too," murmured Remus absently.

"You two are so alike," jeered Sirius sarcastically, poking Remus in the shoulder. A cheeky grin on his face, he added, "Isn't that just superb?" Remus gave him a look and James stifled a snicker. Peter blinked owlishly.

Before anything more could be said, they arrived at the supply closet. It was tucked into a corner of sorts at the end of a relatively pointless hallway - in terms of lessons -, so very few students ever passed by. Henceforth, all four Gryffindor second-years were alone as they gaped at the suddenly impressive doorway before them. A doorway that they, for once, had a key to open. Life was looking up.

"Do the honors, Sirius, mate?" James suggested, a grin lighting slowly on his face.

Sirius attained an eager expression, replying, "Gladly." He approached with the key.

When the door was open, they stepped in as one; instantly, each of their mouths dropped open: the sheer size of the room was impressive - especially considering that from the outside, the proportions of the room should only have been the size of a small closet -, and apart from that, every inch of space was used to its full potential. Cabinets lined the walls on all four sides, and in rows along the floor were additional layered desks, filled with many different little trinkets and necessities in ordered sections. The floor area was four rows long, with two columns in each row; the cabinets had about six sections apiece, except on the wall adjacent to the door, in which there were four. The entire room was lit brightly with five wall-set lamps, which obviously held some sort of motion activated light spell.

"Blimey," whispered Sirius absently, wrapped up in the magnificent sight before him.

"This is amazing," agreed Remus with a nod, looking much less impressed than Sirius, though simply because he was better at hiding his emotions. (Sirius had seen the dumbfounded expression on Remus' face personally, before he had entered the room himself, or else he wouldn't have realized that his brown-haired friend was equally astonished.) Remus murmured, touching the side of a box labeled "Standard-Issue Quills" with interest, "Professor Anthony must be mad. Any student would want access to this room if they ever saw it, much less two trouble-makers like you guys."

"Four trouble-makers, thank you very much," Sirius corrected with a haughty sniff, glancing over in Remus' direction as he and James explored the cabinets on the left side. "I bet mental problems are some sort of side effect of being a vampire. Like silver and werewolves or something."

There was a bit of a pause, before Remus responded, "Er - that's not exactly -"

"Hey, look at this," James interrupted suddenly, looking with excitement into one of the cupboards. "They keep extra textbooks here. Even the really advanced ones, like N.E.W.T.-level Transfiguration and stuff. They don't even have those in the library."

"Really?" Peter queried with eagerness, moving over to join James by the open cabinet. "So why do we have to buy them?"

"I bet it's for them, Peter," Sirius answered for James, in a tone that suggested the obviousness of the answer.

"Or maybe for students who can't afford them," added Remus quietly from another row.

"I suppose," James accepted quickly, though Sirius frowned slightly at Remus' explanation. James moved down to another section and pulled open the door. "Hey! They have quill ink, too! All different colors and everything!"

"Wow!" exclaimed Peter, moving to join James again. Sirius, having shuffled over to join Remus, exchanged exasperated glances with the thin boy; Remus stifled a snicker.

For a few minutes, they wandered aimlessly around the large room, pointing out the various different object of interest - "Why do they have little packets of powdered bison horn anyway?" - and exploring the depths of the cabinets. After awhile, a sort of disjointed order made itself apparent to the boys, and they were able to roughly guess where the things they might, hypothetically, need in the future would be.

"Let's take some quill ink," James suggested, reaching into the needed cupboard to grab some jars. "Black, obviously, and maybe some green, or red-"

"How about some extra rolls of parchment?" offered Sirius from across the room. "It's not like they don't have enough." He gestured, for Peter's benefit, towards a cabinet chock full of the items.

"That's stealing, you guys," came the disapproving voice of Remus from where he knelt by a set of pewter cauldrons.

"Remus!" whined James and Sirius as one, exasperation clear. Sirius continued with, "Don't go getting all responsible on us now-"

"Completely not my point," intercepted Remus, standing up from his kneeling position and heading towards James. "My point is, if the teachers suddenly notice a whole bunch of stuff missing from the supply room, who do you think Anthony will blame? Rightfully, of course."

"She'll blame us," Peter replied, with worry evident in his tone.

"Duh," deadpanned Sirius as he stepped out from the second row to stand by the group.

"Oh," James murmured pensively, not listening to the added banter. "I hadn't thought of that." Then, frowning thoughtfully, he queried, "What should we do then?"

"I was thinking that we copy the key," Remus replied simply, shrugging slightly. A bit of a blush appeared on his still pale cheeks as he added, "It makes sense, even though we haven't really learned a copying charm yet..."

"Ha!" proclaimed Sirius abruptly, leaping forward and embracing Remus with a wide grin on his face. "I knew it! I knew you were a prankster at heart! None of us even had to prod you for that one!"

Remus only opted for a deeper blush and a bit of a disgruntled expression as he wriggled out of Sirius' grasp.

"But we don't know any copying charms," James mused, clearly desensitized to his best friend's antics. "So we couldn't-"

"Who said we didn't?" interrupted Sirius with mock incredulity, turning to stare at his bespeckled friend. "I know a great copying charm."

"How?" asked Peter with surprise.

"Well," began Sirius, with a smirk that spoke of a story, "Last Christmas, my little brother got a pair of bunny slippers from my Grandmum. I told him that if he didn't watch it, they'd multiply - rabbits, you know," Sirius raised his eyebrows at the concept, and both Remus and James groaned at the horrible pun. "Anyway, tyke didn't believe me. The next morning, he was buried in the nasty little things." Sirius grin suddenly grew wider as he finished, "Little brat didn't stop screaming for five minutes. I got grounded for a week."

"Er - great story, Sirius," muttered Remus, rolling his eyes.

"Wasn't it, though?" responded Sirius with a smirk.

"Let's just get this done," James suggested. Peter nodded in agreement beside him.

A minute later, they had everything ready; Sirius told them that for best results, one should actually have another key around, so they could just copy the pattern of the other key onto it and transfigure the new key around that pattern. "All of my bunny slipper copies were actually just illusions," Sirius admitted as they all sat down to prepare the spell, "I just covered him in blankets so he'd think it was heavier." It took Sirius a bit of time to remember the actual spell, but he did after a few seconds, and they tried it out to be sure. Unfortunately, this still left them without a new key to copy the pattern onto.

"Maybe if we could find some kind of key-shaped piece of metal," murmured Remus as he bent over the parchment where Sirius had written out the spell and drawn vague diagrams for the operation of it (for no other reason than the fact that he was both anxious and bored.) Sirius and James knelt beside him, while Peter had wandered off a bit ago and was poking curiously at a pile of boxes in the corner by the door.

"Oh," exclaimed Sirius dramatically, clapping a hand on his cheek. "And here I left my key-shaped pieces of metal in my other robes!"

"Sarcasm duly noted, Sirius," sighed Remus, giving Sirius an annoyed stare.

"Wouldn't any kind of object work?" offered James, after he was finished snickering at Sirius' joke. "I mean, couldn't we just transfigure a piece of paper into metal, and then copy the pattern to that?"

"We don't know how to do that yet," reminded Remus.

"But there are textbooks here," Sirius pointed out. "We could probably look it up-"

"No," denied James with a furrowed brow, "that would take too much time. Anthony's expecting us to get this stuff in about ten minutes."

Sirius crossed his arms in frustration. "Well, what if we copy the pattern onto a piece of paper now, and then look up a spell later when we have more time?"

"We could do that," admitted Remus, "but it might not work as well as- "

"Could we use these?" came Peter's voice from the corner. All three boys turned to look at their chubby friend, and Peter held out a few objects in his hands. "They look like-"

"Key-shaped pieces of metal!" Sirius proclaimed with excitement, leaping forward to look at the items.

"Convenient," Remus murmured sardonically.

"I bet the teachers keep them here when they need to make copies themselves," James explained with a wide grin. "This is great! Hurry up, let's copy this and get the stuff for Anthony. I bet she's getting suspicious by now."

"I wonder whatever for?" quipped Remus cynically.

"You're really bitter, has anyone ever told you that?" James asked, casting Remus a sidelong glance. Remus shrugged, and raised his eyebrows as if to apologize.

"Anyway, how many should we make?" asked Sirius as he returned, pieces of metal in hand and Peter following.

"Just one for now," answered Remus, suddenly all business. "We can make more copies later if we need to, but I don't think we have time for more than one now. C'mon, Sirius, you need to cast this..."

From there, it didn't take them longer than a minute to complete the task, and soon, James had pocketed their copy of the key. A few minutes more, and Sirius and James had retrieved all of Professor Anthony's items and cleaned up the area suitably enough. They all left the storage room - first checking to make sure their copy did indeed work, which it did - and walked towards Anthony's office.

"James and I will go," Sirius explained to Peter and Remus as the group passed by the stairwell. "Anthony might wonder if we all showed up."

"Just maybe," agreed Remus with a half-smirk.

It didn't take long after that to deliver Anthony's materials - which she thanked them for offhandedly, looking somewhat relieved that she hadn't heard of any explosions, fires, or randomly appearing kumquats in the period of time that the two boys had been in possession of her set of keys. James and Sirius headed back to their dorm with eagerness, and the rest of the night was spent on making three other copies of the storage room key. When every copy was complete, James picked up the four keys and regarded the others with a serious demeanor about him.

"We must swear," James began authoritatively, "to use these sacred keys for mischief and mayhem, to cause chaos and disorder, and, most importantly, to get cheap ink and parchment."

"And," Remus added, "we must swear not to get caught, because then they'll change the locks and we'll be buggered." Peter stifled a snicker at Remus' language, but nodded solemnly at a look from James.

"And," finished James, winking covertly at Sirius, "we must make sure to thank Professor Anthony for foolishly trusting in us, and continue to uphold our ability to act." At this, all four boys burst into giggles, knowing full well that it was true.

"Amen!" proclaimed Sirius, and that was the end of it.