Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail, and Prongs

medMoony, Padfoot, Wormtail, and Prongs

Chapter Two:

Gendrea Potion

Peter watched as James and Sirius began to race up to Gryffindor Tower. His eyes bore into Sirius' retreating figure like a butcher's knife. How he hated to hear the sound of his own voice being nice to that boy. It was like an icy December wind blowing against one's uncovered face.

Remus, too, watched the best friends retreat. Sometimes, he felt a bit left out. This was mostly because of his...condition. But overall, he knew that James and Sirius would die to save his life, and he would do the same for them. But Peter....

Peter had always been a bit different. He was about a head shorter then the other three, light haired, and a bit chubby. That wasn't what made him different, however. Peter always had a bit of a grim attitude towards Sirius, the kind that could lead to an unsuspected end to one of the two. Every prank, every joke, everything that Sirius did in general seemed to need either criticism, or overly friendly responses. It was difficult for Remus to understand exactly what caused these types of reactions. He supposed that he would never fully understand.

"Hey," called James from the hall ahead of them, "are you two coming, or are you going to stand there and wait for the Bloody Baron?"

Remus grinned slowly. "And if we wait for the Baron?"

"God rest your soul."

"We're coming!" shouted Peter, shooting Remus a cruel look and running after the other two.

Remus shrugged innocently. "Peter hasn't seen the Baron in awhile. I thought it was time for them to be reunited."

Peter's face turned white. James laughed, watching the effect. Last year, Peter had a bit of a run in with the Bloody Baron on Halloween night. The poor boy was stuttering for a week. It really couldn't have been that horrible, but then again, Peter never quite had the courage or wit of Sirius.

Almost immediately, Peter shook his head vigorously and the colour returned. James fought to hide his smirk as Peter brushed between him and Sirius and stomped up the stairs. When he looked to Sirius, he shared James' grin.

"Think we should tie him up in the Astronomy Tower?" Sirius leaned over a whispered to his friend.

"Nah, too common," James whispered back. "How about the dungeon? We'll put him in a full body bind and leave him in front of Crow's office."

"Too obvious. Crow's probably not back yet."

"Probably not."

"We could turn him into a goldfish."

"Mystic would probably eat him."

"Are you kidding? Lily feeds that cat more then I could eat."

"If she did, that cat wouldn't fit in her dorm."

"I resent that remark!"

"How about this - we lock him in Myrtle's bathroom with Juliette Marsay."

"Who's Juliette Marsay?"

"That chubby Hufflepuff girl in our History of Magic class."

"Wormy's female twin?"

"Yeah, her."

Sirius considered this for a moment. "No, not horrible enough. He'd probably enjoy it. How about we-"

"Leave him alone?" Remus suggested.

Sirius pouted, but neither boy responded. They trudged up the stairs.

"I still say we should have turned him into a goldfish," Sirius whispered.

"Lock him in the dungeons," James corrected.

"Goldfish."

"Dungeon."

"Goldfish."

"Dungeon."

"Enough!" shouted Remus, exasperated. "What do I have to do to keep you quiet?!?!"

"Let us lock Peter in the dungeon?" James suggested.

"And turn him into a goldfish," Sirius added.

Remus shook his head sadly. No matter how old they were, these boys would never learn that pranks weren't everything. Remus pulled himself up on to the platform, ignoring the pain spurting from his left hand.

Peter stood with his arms crossed at the top of the stairs. "I'm not completely deaf, you know," he said.

"Your point being?" Sirius asked.

Acting very much like Lillian Evans in a foul mood, Peter crossed his arms and stormed off angrily. Sirius grinned as he watched him go. Remus shook his head and approached Sirius.

"You ought to stop treating him like that," he said. "Someday, Peter will get you back hard."

Sirius laughed. "That'll be the day I go to Azkaban, Moony."

"Don't be so sure," Remus warned. "He's more clever then he lets us know."

Sirius pondered that for a moment and shrugged. Peter did have the element of surprise, he'd give him that much credit. Very few would suspect the timid blonde that hid in the shadows of the mighty marauders.

"Bubotuber Pus," James said glumly.

"Cheer up, dear!" the Fat Lady proclaimed before swinging open to reveal the secret entrance to Gryffindor Tower.

Sirius raised an eyebrow as he followed James inside the portrait hole. About a handful of people were still up in the common room; Arthur Weasley and Emilia Mead - fifth years - were playing Exploding Snap, a couple first years were giggling in the corner, and Marc Hammett paused to peer at them over his Divination book. They shuffled past them and headed up the stairs to the boys' dorms.

"Something on your mind, mate?" he asked James.

"Pardon?" James responded, as if breaking from a trance.

"You seem kind of down," Sirius pointed out.

James shrugged. "Oh. Nothing's wrong. Just...remembering."

Sirius and Remus shared a knowing glance. "Lily," they said in unison.

James turned around and shot them a look that could kill. "How come every time I say I'm remembering, you assume that it's about Lily."

"Because every time you say you're remembering, it ends up being about Lily," Remus pointed out. "It's simple logic. The first time you prove you're not thinking about Lily when you say that, we'll stop guessing it's Lily you're thinking about."

James nodded as he slowly began to comprehend what his friend had told him. He began climbing the stairs again.

"That reaction Wormy had, it was very Lily-like," Sirius commented.

James nodded slowly. "It's not fair you can read my mind like that, Sirius."

Sirius shrugged. "Being best friends for seven years might do the trick."

"Perhaps," James grinned. He led his friends into their shared dorm. Peter was sitting on his bed, pouting.

They went and sat on their respective bunks. Remus twiddled his thumbs and looked down at his bed sheets, contemplating if he ought to say what he was thinking. Finally, he grinned evilly.

"She is really pretty, Prongs," he said softly. "You ought to speak to her, before Padfoot here does."

Sirius launched a pillow in Remus' general direction, hitting a bedpost. "I'm not that cruel, Moony. It's Malfoy that Prongs needs to worry about."

James nodded slowly. "He's right."

Peter stared at the three of them, confused. "I thought Malfoys only married purebloods?"

"They do," Remus pointed out. "But who says Malfoy is going to marry her?"

Peter considered this and nodded, satisfied with the answer. Sirius began to nod in agreement, but stopped in mid-nod. "James, James!"

James didn't hear Sirius call his name. His mind was set on one track, and one track alone. He glared at the wall behind his friends, hatred surging through him. Lucius Malfoy was tall, blonde, and by most girls' standards, perfect. Malfoy would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. The loathing James had toward him stretched beyond words.

"Oy, James!!!" Sirius hollered.

James shook his head, angered expression fading. "Yes?"

Sirius grinned. "That glare could've raised the dead, mate."

"I don't want the dead raised, I want Malfoy dead. There's a difference, although both involve death of some sort."

"Why kill him so quickly? Without any torment whatsoever? How unexciting."

"Torment," Peter grinned as a plot formed in his mind. "Do you remember in Potions class when Malfoy put a pinch too much doxy powder in his potion so the potion was altered into a...slightly more amusing mixture?"

"Which time?" Sirius asked, a trickster-like gleam in his eye.

"A couple years ago," Peter ventured, trying to remember more, without giving the effects of the potion away. "He was working with you, James."

James' face went pink, and Sirius knew. "I remember. It was shortly after Lily broke away from our group. It was a rather embarrassing happening, wasn't it, Prongs? In front of Lily and all."

James bit his bottom lip and scowled at Peter. Peter ignored the scowl.

"How would you like a bit of revenge for that occasion?" Peter asked.

"Thought I already got it," James pointed out, his face still a rosy pink.

"There's no such thing as too much revenge," Sirius commented. "Especially if you know how to let him see how you felt."

James grinned slowly. "How?"

Sirius signalled for the other three to come in to a huddle. They did, and he began to whisper his scheme to them. James grinned like mad.

* * * * *

I need a Potions book that will teach horrible Potions students using understandable language, Sirius thought as he trotted along in his Animagus form, I wonder if such has been written.

James shook his head in wonder at what the dog was whimpering about. Sirius was difficult enough to understand when he was human, let alone canine. He ignored the black dog and continued to walk along under his invisibility cloak. Sirius continued to speak.

They have Muggle books like that. One that assist a person in certain subjects. If there has been a Potions book like that written, I want it for Christmas.

At this point, the dog lifted it's head to look toward the invisible figure that was his best friend. Not seeing anything, the dog sat down and wailed. James ripped the invisibility cloak off his head.

"If you're going to go on like that, you're going back to Gryffindor Tower!" he warned.

Sirius stared innocently toward his friend. He began to trot towards the head as he changed back to his human self.

"Apologies. It's difficult to follow someone when's they're invisible."

James rolled his eyes. "You're not here to be a cute puppy, you're here to be a watchdog. Can you handle that?"

"Sure, if I can see the person I'm watching out for."

"For the love of Morgan le Faye, Sirius, we're just going to the library. I hope you still know how to get there."

"Not sure. Haven't been there in about six years."

"Don't I know that."

Sirius shrugged and grinned. "So I'm not a book worm or a study bird. Your point?"

James shook his head sadly and sought refuge under his cloak once more. Sirius returned to his dog form and followed the shuffling sound of footsteps that came from in front of him. It wasn't long until they reached the library.

James pulled the creaky library door open and let it shut heavily behind him. He stood still as a statue as he searched for the entrance to the restricted section of the library. Moments later he heard a scratching on the door and he sighed impatiently. Looking through the small glass window, his suspicions were confirmed. He had left Sirius locked outside the library.

"Come in, you idiot," James snapped as he pushed the door open just enough for the dog to get in.

Sirius the dog growled warningly at the invisible person. Then he slunk off to his left toward a portrait of a young witch and wizard riding a horse in the countryside. He turned to where James was still standing and he nodded his head in a very humanlike notion toward the portrait.

James walked over to the dog and portrait. "Yes, Padfoot. It's a lovely picture, and I'm sure we all would love to visit that sort of landscape. What significance does it have?"

Sirius grinned the best a dog could.

"If you're going to tell me that the young witch is Lily and I'm the wizard, I'll kick you," James warned.

Sirius shook his head. He jumped up to the portrait, causing the horse to rear, but he couldn't push it. He scowled as he changed back to human form.

"Sorry, ma'am," he acknowledged the young witch who had fallen off the horse when he had startled it. The lady shook her fist angrily at him. He shrugged.

"What were you trying to tell me?" James interrupted.

"I'm getting to it," he said, "Kappa."

The lady waved her hand and the portrait creaked open to reveal a small tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, there was a dusty room. Sirius crawled in, followed by James.

"You see, Madame Pince often forgets her passwords to the restricted section, so she writes them down and leaves the paper under her desk. She changes it every month or so to keep people like me out. She doesn't seem to realize I know where the paper is," Sirius announced.

"Thought you said you hadn't been in here for about six years?"

"I said I hadn't been in the library for about six years. I said nothing about the restricted section."

"Oh," James frowned.

"What are we looking for again?" Sirius asked as they slid out of the tunnel and into the small room.

"Moste Potente Potions," James said, raising an eyebrow toward his friend.

"No clue," he responded, and set off to a corner of the room.

James shrugged and set off in the opposite direction. The room was labelled as neatly as the rest of the library. James set off in search for 'P' for 'Potions'. He found it quickly enough. Moste Potente Potions wasn't in the 'P' section, so he searched for 'M'. The 'M' section was a bit larger then the 'P' section, so James drew himself a chair and began to read the titles.

Sirius stood on the other side of the room. Where he was, the corner was filled with cobwebs. While he waited for James, he entertained himself by cursing the various spiders to become smaller, larger, coloured, or, naturally, there was the Cruciatus Curse. One way or the other, it allowed him to be entertained, and the spiders to be tormented. Sirius hated spiders. Not their webs, just them.

"Oy, Padfoot!" James hissed around the corner of one of the book shelves. "C'mere!"

Sirius peeked around the corner, having successfully tormented all spiders to his delight. "What's up, Prongs?"

James held up a dusty leather-bound book. "This it?"

Sirius took the book from James and turned it over. He blew some dust off it's back cover, then turned it over again before blowing dust off the front. "I believe so."

"Lets get out of here, then." James shoved the book into his pack and grabbed his invisibility cloak off the chair he had been sitting on. He turned to Sirius, who had returned to his spider tormenting. "You coming, or are you too busy creating a spider-circus?"

Sirius turned to glare at James. "It depends - are you going to share your invisibility cloak, or must I travel as a poor, underfeed, unloved dog?"

James snorted.

Sirius crossed his arms and glared more dangerously.

"Are you kidding?" James asked sarcastically. "Last time I shared, we ended up taking a side trip into Honeyduke's cellar. No way."

Sirius raised his hands in surrender. "You win. I'll be a dog."

"Now, if you only could learn how to behave yourself, you wouldn't get your feet all muddy."

Sirius, in his dog form, snarled at James. James grinned, knowing that in some ways Sirius was at his mercy. He pulled himself into the tunnel leading away from the restricted section and headed back, closely followed by Sirius. James slowly pushed the portrait open and jumped out.

"That wasn't so horrid, now, was it?" James asked as Sirius bounded out of the portrait hole.

Sirius looked at James evilly. What he doesn't seem to realize, Sirius thought to himself, is that at any moment I could decide to start barking and he could get into so much trouble. So he better be nice.

James sneered back at the dog, feeling rather silly. "I've seen that gleam in your eyes before. Don't even think about barking."

Sirius pranced off in front of James, holding his head high. That's not fair. He's not allowed to read my thoughts. It's cheating.

"I can cheat if I wish," James said. Sirius spun around, returning to his natural form.

"No you can't. How did you know what I was thinking?"

"I guessed," James answered honestly.

"Stop guessing correctly," Sirius commended, then returned to his dog form.

James chuckled as he opened the heavy wooden door. He covered himself completely with his invisibility cloak. Sirius trotted on ahead of him, peeking around corners before rounding them; he was taking all precautions that he was not going to become the pet of some nighttime wanderer. James smiled. This was going to be a long night.

* * * * *

"Very complex," Remus commented, laying the book down on the bed in front of them.

"But you can brew it, can't you?" asked Peter eagerly.

"Of course," Remus said, fighting a yawn. "All I want to know is how in the world Lucius managed to 'accidentally' brew this concoction."

Sirius shrugged. "Does that really matter now? How long will it take? Will Malfoy be in pain?"

Remus sighed. "The answer to your first question is: not particularly. The answer to your second question is: after we acquire all the ingredients, it'll need to settle for about a week. That's after we get the ingredients. The answer to your third question is: why don't you asked James?"

Sirius turned to James. James glared at Remus.

"The answer to your third question is: yes, he will be in absolute agony."

"Well, that settles it then!" Sirius clapped his hands together. "What do we need?"

Remus hung over the book for a moment, grinning. "The fifth and final ingredient makes the rest sound simple."

Sirius crossed his arms impatiently.

"Sorry, lets see, first, we need an ounce of beetle's eyes - which we have for potions class already."

"So far so good," interrupted Sirius. "Continue."

"Second, pour snake venom over the beetle's eyes and allow to sit until the beetle's eyes begin to dissolve."

"Not so difficult. I can easily swipe some of that stuff from Crow's office," Sirius interrupted once more. Remus glared at him.

"After the beetle's eyes dissolve, add a pinch of crushed doxy wings."

"Hold on a minute," James said as he sat up straighter. "How in the world are we going to get doxy wing powder?"

"Same place Malfoy probably got it - Crow's secret stash. It's not too difficult to get to. I can grab it when I borrow the jar of venom."

Remus rolled his eyes and continued. "When the potion has turned a murky green, add a handful of dried rose petals."

"Rose petals? What are we making here? A perfume?"

"Sirius, please! Finally, the ingredients we'll never get: a hair from the victim and the female one wishes to resemble."

James slid off his bunk. "How in the bloody world did he get one of my hairs?!?!"

"Or one of Lily's," Sirius added under his breath.

"I don't even want to think about that." James rubbed his temples, as if feeling a headache coming on.

"Well," said Sirius matter-of-factly, "Malfoy's hair won't be so difficult. I can grab one from him in potions. His hair is long enough, and he's always around my cauldron to criticize my work. I can get the girl's hair, too, if you'd tell me which one you want."

James looked at Remus. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Most definetly."

"If he's ugly, he'll be shunned," James started.

"Which he could live with," added Remus.

"But if he's absolutely gorgeous, the guys will be asking him out left and right."

"Which he'll hate."

"I know who you're thinking of." Sirius grinned. "The second most beautiful girl in the school, right after Lily Evans."

"Marcia Bitterspoon," the three said in unison. Peter grinned in agreement. Sirius nodded.

"No problem."

* * * * *

This time, Sirius was alone. He hid beneath James' invisibility cloak, tiptoeing down the stairs into Crow's dungeon. An obnoxious snore reached his ears and he knew that Crow was asleep. That was good.

He glanced down at the Marauders Map - a carefully designed map created by Remus, mastermind being Sirius - and saw a small figure labelled 'Sirius Black'. A speech bubble appeared next to the figure, saying "Wolfsbane". Sirius followed the map's instructions and the door creaked open. He peeked at the map again, but the dot labelled 'William Crow' was still noted to be asleep. He sighed, relieved.

He slid into the room, careful not to knock down any vials or jars. The room was arranged in alphabetical order. Sirius scanned the shelves until he found a jar labelled 'Snake's Venom'. He carefully slid it into his bag and proceeded to the door at the other side of the room.

To his luck, the door was slightly ajar. This meant that the professor had been careless, and any student wishing to raid his supplies - which Sirius did - could have access to any expensive or even illegal ingredients. Sirius grinned.

The room was mostly empty, save for an empty bookshelf and a dusty desk. Sirius knew this illusion, though. Without moving forward or backward, he pulled out his wand and held it to the doorknob.

"Appearatus!" he muttered, careful not to awaken the professor.

The room appeared to be spinning, as if caught in a hurricane. Sirius waited patiently until the spinning slowed to a stop. When it did, he found the room to be filled with exotic ingredients of many interesting colours and revolting smells. He entered slowly.

Fortunately, the powdered doxy wings were close to the door. He put slightly more than a pinch into a small container. Sirius tiptoed out of the room and tapped his wand on the doorknob as he left, whispering, "Disappearatus!"

The room returned to it's subtle, unused form, and Sirius turned around in the empty room. The map still noted that Professor Crow was asleep. His mission had been completed successfully.

As he tiptoed out of the office, he peeked into the quarters of the potions professor. Here he was. He was asleep, and as vulnerable as ever. This opportunity was just too good for Sirius to pass up.

He held out his was towards the professor. "Petrificus Totalus!"

The professor lay there, frozen in a full body bind. If nothing else, at least his snoring had stopped. Sirius slunk up the stairs and into the empty hallway.

He peered at his map again. Currently nearby was only the Fat Friar. Sirius checked again. No, there was someone else. Pointed to be coming up the dungeon stairs behind him was Mrs. Norris. He ran away as quietly as he could.

When he finally reached the Gryffindor Common room, James sat waiting for him.

"Did you get the venom and powder?" He asked.

Sirius nodded and handed the jar and container to his friend. "Where are Wormy and Moony?"

"Peter's getting the rose petals. Remus is preparing the potion."

"Good."

"I hope you behaved yourself."

"Well," Sirius grinned, "Crow may have a little difficulty getting up tomorrow morning, but other than that? Yes, I behaved myself."

"What did you do to him?" James inquired.

"Full body bind."

James laughed, but his expression quickly turned serious once more. "You ready for Marcia and Malfoy tomorrow?"

"I'm always ready."

"Good. Go get some rest."

Sirius stood up. "Right. G'night James."

"G'night, Sirius."

* * * * *

Sirius smoothed back his messy black hair as he glided down the grand staircase the next morning. Although his head had never quite reached his pillow the night before, he seemed as awake as ever. The maraudous sparkle in his deep brown eyes suggested that he had come up with a plan so complex, even Remus wouldn't understand it. He grinned charmingly as he approached his victim.

"Good morning, gorgeous," he said, sitting down at the Ravenclaw table next to an attractive blonde.

The blonde turned around. "Don't you 'gorgeous' me, Black."

Sirius looked hurt. "Would you prefer 'beautiful'?"

"I'd prefer none of the above," she spat. "I won't go to Hogsmeade with you."

"Oh, come on, Marcia!" Sirius pleaded. "I haven't even asked yet!"

"But you were going to," Marcia pointed out. "Sirius, you know I already have a boyfriend."

Sirius glanced around the great hall until he spotted the dashing Michael Winchester. He frowned as he turned back to Marcia. "Just...as friends?"

"No," she responded.

"What if James chaperoned?"

"Still no."

"Peter?"

"Uh-uh."

"Remus?"

"Nope."

"Lily?"

"Again, no. Won't you just drop it, Sirius?" Now it was Marcia that was pleading.

"It would be like throwing a precious gold ring into the lake," Sirius sighed. "But alas! If it insults you, you shall see no more of me."

Marcia raised an eyebrow. "What's the catch?"

"Catch? Why would there be a catch?"

"With you, there's always a catch," Marcia stated.

"True," Sirius agreed. "Fine, here's the catch. I beg of thee, give me but one hair from thy golden head that I may hold near to my heart."

"What are you going to do with it?" She asked slowly, clearly suspicious of Sirius' intentions.

"I just told you!" Sirius whined. "Hold it close to my heart!"

"No potions?" She asked.

"Why would I do such a thing?" Sirius inquired. "Such a venture might harm you."

Marcia considered this for a moment. "Very well," she said, gently pulling a piece of hair out from amongst her curls and handing it to Sirius.

"Thanks, Marcia!" he grinned and kissed her gently on the forehead before his triumphant return to the Gryffindor Table. He left Marcia amongst her friends, her face flushed to the colour of a rose near midsummer.

As he sat down next to James, he held up the hair. "Yours, monsieur."

James took the hair from Sirius and gently placed it in a vial. "Next step: Lucius."

* * * * *

Sirius had always been both good and horrible at potions. When he studied, did his homework, and attempted to do the potion correctly, he was brilliant at the class. When he put in newt eyes instead of cat whiskers to create a stench of socks after a wet Quidditch game - as he had today - he was not so brilliant. But in a way, he was even brilliant when he did things wrong on purpose, because when he did, the longer Lucius Malfoy would be hanging over him, and the longer he would have to acquire one of Lucius' hairs.

After about ten minutes of having to endure the stench, he couldn't stand it anymore. Lucius left his potion to boil and marched over to where Sirius was mixing in random ingredients. His potion bubbled a green to match Severus' still dyed hair, and smelled as if fungus was now growing on the old, unwashed Quidditch socks. Lucius covered his nose.

"Black, what do you think you're doing?" Lucius demanded.

Sirius looked up innocently. "Brewing a potion, just like Professor Crow told us to."

"I don't believe you've followed instructions, as usual. I may be mistaken, but I believe it says up on the board that we were to add three ounces of newt eyes, not three strands of cat whiskers."

"Does it?" Sirius pretended to strain his eyes. "Funny, I can't make it out."

"Then perhaps you should get glasses," Lucius sniffed, examining the potion once again.

"Anything else that I've done wrong?" Sirius asked innocently.

As Lucius opened his mouth to respond, Professor Crow stepped in. "Quite frankly, there is nothing about this potion that is right. This potion does not even exist. If you were to touch it or drink it, it would simply give you boils." The professor sighed. "Similar to every other potion you've brewed for my class."

Sirius pretended to whimper, but as the student and professor walked away, Sirius grinned. He held up a handful of white blonde hair for James to see. James grinned and offered a thumbs up.

* * * * *

James paced the dorm. Every once and awhile, he'd sigh, turn to Remus (who was preparing the potion) and then turn away again. He repeated this process for nearly a half an hour.

"James, if you're going to keep this up, you might as well go down to the common room and watch Sirius and Peter play chess," Remus commented.

"I don't want to go watch Peter and Sirius play chess," James pointed out. "I already know how it ends. Peter wins. Sirius gets my set mad at me. Sirius stomps off in a huff, comes up here to see how it's going, asks annoying questions, then goes downstairs to play chess again."

Remus shrugged and continued to stir the bubbling potion. "You know," he commented, "it'll probably take about a week for this to settle and fade to green. You'll have to add the petals and hairs without me."

James shrugged. "Not so hard. It must stink being a werewolf."

Remus turned his hollow grey eyes toward James. "You have no idea."

"I don't," James agreed. "And I wouldn't want to."

Remus nodded and returned his gaze to his potion. The sound of heavy footsteps travelled into the dorm, and Sirius peeked into the room. "How's everything going?"

"Brilliantly," responded Remus, not looking up from the potion.

"Is it almost done?" asked Sirius.

"Not hardly."

"Oh." Sirius sounded disappointed. "Carry on then. I'll just go play another game of chess with Peter."

As Sirius left, James crossed his arms and turned to Remus. "I told you so."

Remus shrugged. "Someday he'll win, then Peter can come up here and ask the ridiculous questions."

James laughed, then returned to his pacing. Remus added the pinch of the doxy wing powder.

"All we can do now is wait," he said.

"Wait," James said, "and hope Sirius doesn't sleepwalk for a couple nights."

"Indeed," Remus agreed.

* * * * *

James was alone in his dorm when the clock struck twelve the next Tuesday night. He had convinced Sirius and Peter to go and bring Remus from his misery for the evening. So far, they had not come back, and he didn't expect them back for a couple hours at least. He had just added the rose petals, and the potion was now simmering to a more transparent green colour.

He yawned widely. The lack of sleep from nights before was catching up to him. If only he had some Muggle coffee to keep him awake. He yawned again. Perhaps the house elves could get him some coffee? No, they may ask questions. James stood up and stretched.

As he did so, he spotted a chocolate frog card shimmering in the light of the full moon. It was on the floor, meaning it was probably Sirius'. But it wasn't the card or it's owner he was interested in at the moment. If only he had some sweet of some sort....

James shuffled over to his chest and threw it open. He pushed unfolded clothing and old letter to the side until he came to a half melted bar of Honeydukes' Best Chocolate at the bottom. Satisfied, he pulled it out and ate it slowly.

He stared at the potion for a minute. Then, he sighed. Bloody hell. That potion's done. What am I doing sitting around here and staring at it?

He slid off his chest and carefully filled a tube with the potion. He corked the tube and set it on Remus' unoccupied bed as he grabbed his invisibility cloak. Once covered in his cloak, he grabbed the tube and snuck out of Gryffindor Tower and towards the Slytherin Common Room.

As he approached the Slytherin Common Room, he heard voices from behind him. Although still cloaked, he hunched down next to the wall and let the people pass him. It was Toren Crabbe and Fredrick Goyle. James smirked and began to follow them.

They reached a stone wall at the end of the hall. Crabbe put his wand up to a brick that had a chip in it's upper right corner and muttered, "Mandrake."

The bricks rearranged themselves - much like the entrance to Diagon Alley - and created an archway for the boys to enter through. James sped in before the bricks rearranged themselves into a wall once more. He looked around.

Lucius Malfoy wasn't hard to spot. He sat in the most plush chair in the middle of the Slytherin Common Room. In his hand, he held a goblet. James grinned and tiptoed between the Slytherins in an attempt to reach him.

Lucius took a long sip out of his goblet and began to yell at Crabbe and Goyle about one thing or another. James carefully uncorked the tube and poured a droplet into the goblet, hoping that the floating tube wouldn't be noticed. It wasn't.

James made a beeline to the brick archway that had opened again to allow more Slytherins through. He slid out before it was able to close again. He couldn't believe his luck. Grinning, James headed downstairs and quietly out of the Great Hall. He knew that, if no one else, Sirius would want to hear how it went.

* * * * *

James, as a stag - his Animagi form - ducked underneath the frozen branches of the Whomping Willow and into the tunnel it's roots created. A black dog and brown rat - Sirius and Peter - stood there, waiting for him.

He's in a bit of a frenzy, Sirius warned. I wouldn't suggest having tea with him right about now.

Perhaps butterbeer, then? James suggested.

Sirius shrugged as best a dog could. You can try if you like, but he nearly had Wormy cut in two.

I believe rat would taste spectacular right now, James announced, and Peter hid behind Sirius' front paw. James grinned the best a stag could. I was only kidding.

The rat nodded, and Sirius proceeded to let James by. You can't say I didn't warn you, mate.

Thanks for the concern, James said.

With Sirius and Peter close behind him, James walked slowly towards the end of the tunnel. He peeked slowly into the room at the end. Remus had certainly done a job to the place, but seeing all three of his best friends seemed to calm him a bit.

Tonight is not good, Prongs, he said.

Are you sure? James asked. I don't want you to feel like we're abandoning you.

I know you're not, but you ought to leave before I get worked up again. I don't want any of my friends hurt.

I know, James sighed. I came to tell you that I got the potion into Malfoy's goblet at the Slytherin party tonight.

Good, Remus responded. Then, he cried out in agony, and searched for something to bite, scratch, or injure.

James started to back up as quickly as he could. Run, Padfoot, you brute!

Running, Your Majesty! Came Sirius' response. He didn't need to be told twice.

James spun around and ran away from the room, all the time thinking, I told Remus I didn't want to know what it's like being a Werewolf. I still don't want to know. Run faster!

They didn't stop running until they were far away from the tunnel. Peter had to stop to tighten the knot, and then they knew they were safe. However, they kept running.

At the steps of the castle, they changed back into their human forms. James was the first to speak.

"That was too close."

Sirius looked at him, face as pale as the full moon. "You don't need to tell me that!"

Peter nodded in agreement. "Me neither."

"Well," Sirius sighed. "At least we've got some good news! Malfoy's had the potion. All we need to do is wait."

"We always need to wait," Peter whined.

"That's because the best things take time," James responded. He closed his eyes, but upon nearly falling asleep, opened them again. "Let's go," he said, and headed inside the castle.