J.K. Rowling owns everything. This is simply a tribute to her wonderful characters.
James and Sirius were stuck in the common room, doing their transfiguration homework. It was rather late at night and the fifth year students were the only ones in front of the fire. As usual, the two mischievous boys had abandoned their work until the day before it was due. Remus had already locked his away so there was absolutely no chance of them copying from it and Peter's handwriting was illegible so they had no choice but to do the immensely long essay on 'The Pros and Cons of Legalising Animagi'.
"This is incredibly stupid James! We ARE Animagi…albeit illegal ones. BUT the point is..WE ARE ANIMAGI! Why do we have to sit and write boring essays about ourselves?" Sirius whined to his best friends.
"Because, Siri, if we do our work, we won't get detention and then we can spend all that time planning another prank on a certain greasy-haired git."
"Ugh. I can't decide if I hate doing my homework more than I love taunting him. I'm a hot blooded hormonal male and I SHOULD NOT be expected to sit here doing my homework when I could be snogging some hot girl in a cupboard."
"Do you really think I want to be here either? I still have to plan the Quidditch team's training camp! Besides, all your 'hot, available girls for snogging' are currently in their rooms. As genius as the two of us are, there is no way we could trick the stupid stairs."
At that, the two cranky boys fell silent and resumed their work. Alas, with Mr Black and Mr Potter, peace never quite lasted.
"Jamie! We're Animagi."
"Really Sirius? I never quite knew."
"No, no. I figure that the stairs won't be able to tell that we're human males if we try to ascend in our animal forms. We're not going to have to do our homework anymore," he said with a twinkle in his eye. James saw that and immediately understood what Sirius was thinking (and it wasn't about getting girls either)
"This my dear friend, is exactly why I love you"
With a glance around the room to ensure nobody saw them, one of the human males shifted with ease into a large black dog. The dog turned to face the staircase and with his powerful hind legs, launched himself towards the staircase. With a great leap, he bounded onto the staircase. Unfortunately, the steps melted into a slide and created a ruckus. The dog slid down and quickly transformed back into a human as the other human hid all evidence of their presence. The slide morphed back into stairs now that the male was off.
James and Sirius had just managed to hide all their work and dove for safety under the mountain of pillows that they had created when some seventh-year prefects rushed down to investigate. They glanced around the room and saw nothing. Remus Lupin had also heard the noise and rushed down. He was sure he knew what happened.
He walked to the prefects and said "I'm really sorry about that but I was looking through my suitcase for chocolates and found a card. It turned out to be a prank from Sirius who wanted to give me a fright with the sound. You know him and his pranks…"
Sighing, the prefects turned to Remus and said "Really Lupin, please keep that boy in check. You ARE a prefect yourself, I'm sure that prank of his just woke up most of the students. We're counting on you to ensure Gryffindor a good night's rest" They turned and left to return to their slumber.
Once alone, Remus glared at the mound of cushions. Sirius poked his head out and grinned at Remus.
"Hello Remus. We're terribly sorry to disturb you. "
"We were only finishing our essays that's all."
"We just wanted a little break with some female company."
He looked at his two not-so-innocent friends.
"Just hurry up and come back to the room would you? I don't want to attract even more trouble."
Sirius and James grabbed all their belongings and followed Remus back to their dorm room.
"Say Remus…," James started.
"What now, James?"
"Well, we haven't quite completed our work yet. I was wondering, would you be a kind sir and let us…refer to your essay? You know, for the peace of the rest of Gryffindor?" James motioned to Sirius who was standing behind Remus. With a sense of foreboding, Remus turned around only to find Sirius with an air horn.
Sighing, Remus went to his suitcase, unlocked it and handed a roll of parchment to the boys.
"The least you could do is not copy word for word. I also want to be treated to chocolates the next time we go to Hogsmeade."
Grinning, the two mischief makers nodded and snatched the essay out of their friend's hands.
"I say Sirius, this is the best idea you have EVER come up with!"
And so, another night in the life of the marauders drew to a close with the frantic copying of Remus' essay. James and Sirius looked at each other with triumphant eyes…there was going to be plenty of time the next few days to plan Snivellus' downfall.