Doesn't Ring a Bell

Remus was confused - had Emma really cheated on him? It certainly appeared so. Rather than storm off up to his dorm as James would have done, he just sat there in bewilderment. He then realized somebody was talking to him.

"...Swear I didn't, I'd never do something like that to you, or anybody," Emma finished.

Remus didn't know what to think. He didn't really believe Emma would have given somebody a 'wild ride' but all the evidence pointed to that fact.

"Who was he?" Remus asked quietly.

"Nobody! Remus, I didn't do anything, don't you believe me?" Emma answered, almost in tears.

"I- I'm sorry, I don't know what to think," Remus replied, looking down.

"Here, I'll help. Emma was with us most of yesterday afternoon, then she came and talked to me for about half an hour, after I stormed out of The Three Broomsticks, then - Em, where'd you go after that?" Katrina attempted to help sort out this mess.

"She was with me," Sirius spoke up unexpectedly.

Remus looked up sharply. "You?"

"No, not like that!" Sirius hastily amended. "She came in from outside-"

"Where she had been talking to me," Katrina interjected.

"Yes, then she walked up to Gryffindor dormitory with me," Sirius finished.

"Where she came in and helped me with my Potions homework," Peter added helpfully.

"Okay...Now I know more facts it seems even less likely that you were off shagging some other guy. Sorry I doubted you..." Remus now fully believed Emma.

Emma smiled weakly.

"What I want to know is how the notes and things got into her bag in the first place," Katrina said thoughtfully.

"Well...I went to the bathroom just before the Quidditch match started, and when I came back my bag was missing, but I found it under my seat later on and just figured it was there the whole time," supplied Emma.

"I'm guessing somebody nicked it then put it back there later, but who'd want to cause such problems with you and Remus? And, may I add, it was very badly done. Too much to be believable," Katrina responded.

Now that Remus thought about it, it did seem rather over-done.

They thought about who would want to cause Remus such confusion, making him think his girlfriend was a cheater, cause strife amongst the ranks of the Marauders and friends...

"Snape," they came to the conclusion in unison.

"Oh, I'll bet it was! He's probably still mad for that dare we made you do, probably thinks it was all your idea!" Sirius said angrily.

"The problem is: what are we going to do about it?" James questioned.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes, thinking of a suitable revenge tactic.

Sirius spoke up hopefully. "We could - Oh no, that would never work..."

Now the others were curious. "What?" Emma pressed.

"Well...I was going to say that we could replace his shampoo with baby oil, it would make his hair really greasy and disgusting, at least for a little while," he suggested.

"Good start...but we need to do more..." James mused.

"We charm it to be permanent?" Peter put forward awkwardly, surprising everybody by having an idea.

"Pete, that's excellent!" James grinned like a lunatic. "The only question is: how shall we do it?"

"I'll do some research tomorrow," promised Remus, who had been fairly quiet all through the discussion.

"Excellent. Good work, Peter!" Sirius praised the smaller boy. Peter beamed; he loved it when his friends congratulated him. It made him feel as though he was really a part of the group, a real Marauder.

They went quietly up to bed, each of them thinking about what would happen the next day.

* * * * *

"I've got it!" Remus exclaimed, slamming a book down in front of James, who was jolted out of his reverie of watching Lily pick out all the raisins of her raisin bread sandwich.

"Well, what is it?" Sirius asked quickly.

"It's really simple actually, it's a spell called 'Now and Forevermore,' it makes something last forever, so even if he shaved his head it would still grow back as greasy as before!" Remus informed.

"That's great!"

"Yeah, good work, Moony!"

"What's the incantation?" Katrina asked curiously.

"All you have to do is wave your wand over the item you want to charm - in this case Snape's baby oil-filled shampoo bottle - three times, in swift, fast movements, and say 'per sempre lo stesso,'" Remus said excitedly.

"That doesn't sound like Latin..." Sirius mused.

"It's not, it's Italian; Italian witches made up the spell so that their houses would never move with earthquakes and things. I think it translates to 'forever the same'."

"Oh, that makes sense. When are we going to do it? And also, how will we get the bottle into the Slytherin bathrooms, and make sure Snape uses it?" James asked.

"That's easy, I can ask Regulus to give it to Snape as a gift, make him tell him it's from a secret admirer or something," Sirius countered.

"How are you going to manage that?" Peter questioned.

"I have my ways..." Sirius said mysteriously. Nobody asked what he meant.

"Okay, so I'll put the baby oil in a shampoo bottle and charm it, then you can get your brother to give it to Snape," Remus concluded.

"Excellent, now break!" Sirius said in a commanding tone.

"Sirius... Stop watching those movies," James advised.

"Right." Sirius blushed.

* * * * *

Later that night, as the four boys were just leaving dinner, they heard a yell from the dungeons. They grinned at each other and watched as a furious Snape ran up from the direction of the dungeons wearing nothing but a pair of trousers. His hair was dripping wet, but had taken on a decidedly slicker tone.

"You did this!" he screamed at them. He pulled out his wand and suddenly James found himself hanging in the air by what seemed to be an invisible rope tied to his ankle.

"Hey!" he yelled, his face turning red as the blood rushed to his head. "Put me down, you slimy git!"

"What did you do? Why won't it come out? Tell me!" Snape seemed to be losing all sanity.

"Mr. Snape, what do you think you are doing?!?" McGonagall had just walked out of the hall to find Snape standing there in only his trousers, dripping all over the floor, and pointing his wand at James, who was dangling upside down in the air.

"LOOK WHAT THEY DID TO ME!" Snape screamed at her, pointing at his hair.

"Professor! He can't prove we did it! How would we do it anyway?" Sirius protested as James struggled in the air.

"Snape! Let down Mr. Potter at once!" McGonagall commanded.

Snape grudgingly let James fall roughly to the floor.

"Now, if you have no proof these boys did anything to you, go back to your common room! And put a shirt on for Godric's sake!" McGonagall watched as Snape sent one last death glare at James and Sirius, who returned it with malice, then walked quickly back to his common room in the dungeons. She turned to Sirius and James.

"Now, as we have no proof of your hand in this matter, you're free to go. However, I do not believe you are innocent in this incident. Nice spell work, and it's about time somebody taught that little snot a lesson, always bragging about his Potions scores, he does get on my nerves..." McGonagall smiled at them. They stood there in shock as she walked back into the great hall to finish dinner.

"Well that was..." Sirius searched for an appropriate word.

"Unexpected," James finished in a monotone, staring at the spot where McGonagall had been standing.

"Never thought old Minnie would be one for breaking the rules. Guess the old bird's just full of surprises. Well, she is a Gryffindor after all," Sirius commented, mirroring James's expression of disbelief.

"Well who'd have thought Remus would be the head of one of our pranks? After all, he did the spell to make the oil permanent," James shook himself out of his shocked trance.

"Yeah...come on; let's go see what's happening back at Gryffindor tower..." Sirius said slowly.

James shrugged, and followed him back to Gryffindor tower where a very large surprise awaited him.