Reviewer One-Shot Series!
The prompt: Sirius/James silly brotp time. They come up with the brilliant idea of streaking around Hogwarts or something, because it's their final year, with Remus shaking his head and Peter being confused yet eager.
For: Forever Siriusly Sirius
Notes: I'm really, terribly sorry that this took me so long, and that it's nowhere near as good as I hoping. I hope you still enjoy it though, and thank you again for being an awesome reviewer!
Winning Streak
May, 1978.
While the outside world was beginning to go mad, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had finally entered a period of relative calm. After a hectic exam period, students were now starting to relax and wind down. The grounds were dotted with groups of teenagers lazing about in the sun, spread out on the green grass and trying to forget that while the exams themselves were done, the marks were still yet to come.
Among their peers, the group fondly known as the Marauders had taken up prime position under a broad leafed tree not far from the edge of the lake. Remus Lupin was sitting with his back against the trunk of the tree, a book propped up on his knees. Peter Pettigrew was sitting beside him, chowing down on the first of two sandwiches he'd brought outside. A bit further out, in the sun rather than the shade, Sirius Black and James Potter were tossing a quaffle back and forth.
"This is weird," Sirius said, throwing the ball at James's face.
"What's weird?" James asked, catching the ball with one hand and tossing it back.
Sirius shrugged one shoulder, leaning out to the right to make a catch. "It's really… peaceful."
"There's nothing wrong with peaceful," Remus called, not lifting his eyes from the book.
"Peaceful is boring," Sirius countered.
"Peaceful is nice," Remus retorted.
"Back me up, Prongs," Sirius said as he caught a throw that was about to go way over his head.
"It's pretty quiet," James conceded.
"And it's our last few weeks," Sirius said emphatically. "We should liven things up around here. You know, go out with a bang."
"No," said Remus, at the exact time as James asked, "What do you have in mind?"
"Oh, Merlin." Remus shook his head and turned back to his book, knowing that trying to stop his friends was now a lost cause.
Sirius's eyes were sparkling. "What if we -"
"What's happening?" Peter called, shoving the last half of his sandwich into his mouth all at once.
Sirius tossed the quaffle at him, forcing him to duck awkwardly sideways to avoid being hit in the head. "Stop stuffing ya face and get over here, Wormtail, we're plotting."
The ball narrowly missed Peter and continued rolling, coming to rest right at the feet of Lily Evans, who had been making her way to where her friends sat by the lake. She picked it up and carried it back up the slight slope to where Remus still sat, stubbornly ignoring his other three friends, who were now eagerly conversing.
"What are they doing?" she asked without preamble, folding her legs delicately and sitting beside him under the tree. She rested the quaffle in her lap, idly turning it over between her hands.
"Plotting, apparently," Remus replied.
She raised an eyebrow. "Plotting what?"
He shrugged. "Sirius reckons things are too quiet around here, so it could be anything."
"Oh, no." Lily put the quaffle aside and made her way to the three boys. "Oi, what are you lot up to?"
James immediately straightened up, hand going to his hair. "Lily! How do you reckon you went on that Charms exam?"
She smiled, not insincerely, and placed one hand on her hip. "Nice try. What are you planning?"
"Lily, Lily, Lily," Sirius said, stepping forward and looping his arm over her shoulders. He began steering her over towards the lake as he spoke, "Why are you so suspicious, huh? We're not up to anything. We're just three mates, discussing the joyous feeling of freedom that accompanies the end of NEWTs."
She ducked and turned, successfully slipping out of his grasp, and shook her head. "Nuh-uh, you're not getting away that easily. Tell me what you've got planned."
"It's nothing, Lils, really," James interjected. "Just a harmless, end of year activity. Nothing major."
Lily looked at him shrewedly. "What kind of activity?"
"A stupid one, no doubt," Remus called.
"Well," Sirius snapped, overly offended, "If you're going to take that tone, Moony, you won't be allowed to take part in our awesome activity."
Remus didn't seem too fussed. "Good."
Lily was still waiting for an explanation. "Really, if it is something stupid -"
"You're just as bad as him!" Sirius snapped, throwing an arm out and gesturing wildly in Remus's general direction. And then he was immediately back to his suave, charming self. "Have a little faith, Evans. It's all under control." He straightened the collar of his untucked shirt and loosened his already quite loose tie.
Unimpressed, Lily turned to her boyfriend. "James, please don't do anything to get yourself trouble. Not so close to the end of the year."
"Lils, don't stress!" He enveloped her in a tight hug, kissing the top of her ginger head as he pulled away. "I won't do anything stupid."
"Good, because as Head Boy -"
"Urgh, yeah we get it, James joined the prefect patrol, now can we please get back to our manly bonding time?" Sirius whined.
Lily laughed and shoved him good naturedly in the side. "Alright, whatever. Have fun with your 'awesome activity'."
She gave James a quick kiss and then was off, waving goodbye to Remus as she joined her friends by the edge of the lake.
"What was that all about?" Marlene McKinnon asked as Lily settled in beside her. She was watching the boys as they formed a semi-circle around Remus, who was vehemently shaking his head.
They could hear Sirius and James trying to win him over, but couldn't make out any particular words.
Lily rolled her eyes, refusing to turn around and indulge them. "Just the Marauders, being their usual pain in the arse selves."
"Arse is right, oh my god!" Marlene shrieked.
"What?" Lily spun around, startled by the sudden vice-like grip her friend had on her arm. And when she saw what was happening under that tree, she understood why Marlene was gaping. "What?!"
Sirius and James were stripping off their school uniforms, throwing their ties to the breeze and letting their trousers fall to their ankles. Standing there in just their shirts and pants, the two boys high fived.
"James Potter!" Lily yelled, voice unnaturally high. "What are you doing?!"
Her boyfriend gave no answer, however. He and Sirius took off at a run, dashing across the school grounds, hooting and hollering and drawing as much attention as possible.
Students got whiplash as they turned to stare at the two seventh years who were proudly showing off their athletic forms, running rings around the tree Remus sat under. A small crowd was gathering, forming a large, broken circle around the Marauders. Peter hadn't yet joined Sirius and James, but he was watching eagerly and laughing his head off. Remus, on the other hand, was just shaking his head.
Lily felt a wave of embarrassment roll over her as James and Sirius darted through the crowd, now waving their shirts above their heads.
"Come on, Moony!" Sirius called over his shoulder.
Remus put his head in his hands, shrinking away from his second-hand embarrassment.
"Wormtail'll join us, won't you, mate?" James said. "He's not a stick in the mud."
Remus didn't look anywhere near as offended as James had hoped. "I'm not a stick in the mud! Peter, don't take off your shirt."
Peter stopped with his shirt half way up his stomach and slowly lowered it back down. "Aw, come on, Moony, it's just a bit of fun!"
"You're missing out!" Sirius shouted as he and James made their way to the steps at the front of the entrance hall. They climbed to the top and then turned back to face their adoring crowd.
Lily pushed through the other students and made her way right to the front. "James," she hissed, absolutely mortified, "Please get down from there and put your trousers back on."
"I'm just letting everyone see how lucky you are, Lils," he replied easily, flexing his bicep.
A few sixth years swooned at the sight.
"Nice one," Sirius laughed, tossing his hair back. "But they're all here to see me, Prongs."
"Why would they bother? Every girl in the school's already seen you naked anyway," Lily commented. As soon as the words left her mouth she regretted saying anything. "No, I didn't -"
"Did you hear that, Prongs?" Sirius said with a wink.
"Sure did, Padfoot. I think it's time we gave the girls what they really wanted."
"Oh, no, please don't," Lily and Remus said at the same time.
But it was too late. With an entire crowd of students watching, in one swift motion, James and Sirius dropped their pants.
Their was a collective gasp, followed by a massive cheer and wholly entertained laughter. This event was one for the Hogwarts history books.
Before anyone could get too good a look, Sirius and James yanked their pants back up and took a bow.
"Enjoy holidays, kids!" James yelled as they backed into the Entrance Hall.
Unfortunately for them, the show wasn't quite over yet. The Hall doors had been left open, allowing a cool breeze to drift through the castle – and giving Professor McGonagall a perfect view of the boy's bare behinds as they had waved to the other students.
"Mister Potter! Mister Black!" she gasped as they backed straight into her.
"Ah, Professor McGonagall, how lovely to see you," Sirius said, flashing her a charming smile and not even bothering to hide his naked torso.
James was no better, adding, "You're looking quite ravishing today Professor, have you done something different with your hair?"
They attempted to slip past her, but she held out a hand. "Where, pray tell, are your uniforms?"
"Well, you see, it's a bit of a long story -"
"Yes, quite long. Very surprising, too, you'll never believe it -"
McGonagall arched an eyebrow. "I'm sure I won't."
From the crowd below, Remus, Peter and Lily were watching the exchange with mild smugness. "Let's see them talk their way out of this one," Lily said quietly.
"Well," James began, "we were playing catch with a quaffle, see, when -"
"When I threw a marvellous toss, and James completely missed it and the quaffle ended up in the lake," Sirius supplied.
"Yeah, it just went right into the lake!" James eagerly agreed. "Because of Sirius's crap throw, of course, Professor, my catching skills are as good as ever, I assure you -"
"Get on with it, Mr Potter."
"Yes, right, so the quaffle was in the lake and we didn't want the giant squid to mistake it for a meal, did we?"
"Of course not! Quaffles are quite chewy, you know, very dangerous to the digestive system of the giant squid. Could have caused major trouble. And James and I, we just couldn't bear the thought of the poor squid being in pain."
"So we had to wade into the lake, right, to try and get the quaffle back. But it had drifted a fair bit, and Sirius fell over at one point, so we ended up completely drenched -"
"And it's such a nice day outside, lots of sunlight, very good for you, you know -"
"Yeah, lovely and warm out there it is. So we thought we'd just put our uniforms out to dry for a bit while we…"
"While we ran around to dry ourselves off."
McGonagall was trying very hard not to smile, but the boys could see the right corner of her lips threatening to twitch.
"Please go fetch your uniforms, boys," she instructed, pointing them back outside. "Try not to make too much of a fuss this time."
"Yes, right away, Professor!"
They shared a triumphant grin as they sauntered back to the steps, but stopped dead in their tracks when McGonagall spoke again. "You'll want something a bit warmer than your current attire for when you're scrubbing the potions room clean."
"What?!"
"I'll see you there at 4pm sharp."
Lily, Remus and Peter joined them as they parted the now-snickering crowd and gathered their scattered items of clothes, slowly and sulkily redressing.
"At least you livened things up for a while," Peter said.
"But detention in the dungeons, really?" Sirius whined.
James added, "It's such a nice day, and she's sending us to the dungeons!"
"What did you expect? You can't just run around the school stark naked with no consequences, you know," Remus admonished.
"Oh, there'll be consequences," Sirius assured him with a wink. "You can expect quite a few of your dorm mates to be missing from their beds over the next few weeks, Evans."
Lily shook her head in disgust, tossing both boys back their red and gold striped ties.
"Yeah, and now everyone knows just how lucky you really are, Lils," James told her.
"Lucky enough to be dating a twat," she retorted. She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the cheek anyway, before wandering off to re-join her scandalised friends.
"It's quarter to, you better get going," Remus informed them, gathering up his books. He and Peter turned to follow after Lily, but before they went Remus had some parting words. "Enjoy the peacefulness of the dungeons."
"Eh, I'm sure we'll find a way to liven things up down there," James said confidently, shrugging one shoulder.
Sirius got a mischievous look in his eyes. "The Slytherin Common Room's just down the hall, you know…"