"Are you sure about this?" Remus whispered to the dark haired boy beside him, his eyes darting up and down the corridor nervously; "It's not going to end well, I'm certain..."
"Oh quit your worrying, Moony, this is going to be brilliant!" James hissed back, "We'll go down in Hogwarts history!" Crouching down in the doorway, he began to reel of a quiet string of Latin, indecipherable to the edgy boy stood by him, keeping watch for professors or prefects patrolling the hallways. Squinting into the darkness which cloaked either end of the corridor, Remus ran his hands through his hair nervously. I can't see a damn thing! He thought to himself, I'm going to have to use the map.
Reaching into his robes he withdrew both his wand and an old piece of grubby parchment. Grasping an item in each hand, he tapped the wand against the parchment and whispered; "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good". After a few seconds images began to bloom across the page. Walls were marked out and the few dots wondering the hallways; along with the many in their dorms; appeared. Unfolding and twisting the sheet round, Remus searched for the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Finding it, he breathed a sigh of relief at seeing that only the two dots marked James Potter and Remus Lupin were anywhere near the room.
James was still murmuring the incantation so Remus leant against the wall beside him with a sigh.
"Are you nearly finished?" He whispered to the boy's messy black mop of hair. The head bobbed up and down in confirmation without ceasing its murmuring or looking up.
A few minutes later the boy finished the spell and stood, stretching his legs with a grimace. Gently, careful not to disturb the spell, he reached for the handle and pulled the door shut with a quiet 'click'.
Immediately the two boys began the long walk back to the Gryffindor common room. They were perfectly silent on the way, determined not to get caught out past curfew. It wasn't until they were safely back in their dorms that they risked talking.
"Prongs," Remus started, looking at his friend with serious eyes, "Don't say I didn't warn you when that backfires tomorrow, ok?"
"Lighten up wolf-boy!" James retorted, refusing to be serious, "What could possibly go wrong?"
***
The early morning light reaching through the window and the melody of bird song woke him the next day. Yawning, Remus stretched his aching limbs. Why am I so tired? He wondered to himself, making a valiant attempt to pry open his reluctant eyes, Oh no, James's plan... With this thought, his few blissful moments of having forgotten his concern were over. He worried his bottom lip with his teeth. They had been up until gone 3am setting the spell and lack of sleep clearly wasn't helping the boy's nerves in the slightest.
Jumping at James's abrupt snore, he dragged his reluctant body out of bed. He made his way to the bathroom, praying a shower would help to wake him up, and prodded James as he passed.
"Oi, get up Prongs, you'll be late again." The dark haired boy responded with a gruff "Gerrof" as he squirmed away from the attacking finger and wrapped himself more securely in the blankets.
Shrugging, Remus took his shower, got dressed and made his way to the Gryffindor common room, shaking his head in amusement as he passed the still sleeping boy whose foot was now hanging off the edge of the bed. Before exiting through the portrait hole he smiled a strained hello to the few students in the common room, all of whom were valiantly scribbling away at rolls of parchment, attempting to finish homework due for the day's lessons.
It took him about five minutes to walk to the great hall. Entering, he wondered over to the Gryffindor table and sat down between Sirius and Peter.
"So how was detention?" He nodded to Peter before asking the boy on his left, who seemed to be trying to cram as much food into his mouth as was physically possible, and then some.
"Awful," Sirius mumbled around a mouthful of eggs, "Slughorn had me gutting floberworms for three bloody hours, didn't he! Claims he 'didn't notice the time'. Like hell he didn't!" Angrily, Sirius stabbed a fried mushroom with his fork and shoved it into his mouth moodily.
"Oh, by the way, Padfoot" Remus began, "Be careful in Defence-"
"Oh damn!!" Sirius jumped up with a start, cutting Remus off mid-sentence, "Professor Carrow's essay!" And with that he was off, flying out of the great hall and up the staircase, presumably to write a very rushed essay. Damn, Remus thought to himself, He'd better get to that lesson on time; I don't really want to prove Padfoot right this time.
It was at that moment that a very moody James Potter stormed down the stairs, dumped himself into Sirius's recently vacated seat and glared murder at everyone who dared make eye contact with him. Fortunately, by now the Gryffindors, and in fact most of the school, knew not to talk to the normally charming boy before breakfast. He could most definitely not be classed as a morning person.
Remus and James ate their breakfast in silence. James, simply because he was still half asleep while Remus was lost in his own thoughts and worries about the currently grumpy boy's plan.
It took about three minutes of chomping on a slice of toast before James was back to his usual cheerful self and telling those nearby of The Grand Plan in hushed whispers. Remus chewed his nails nervously until a reproachful glance from Lilly made him stop. Damn, that girl was scary. All too soon the bell for first lesson rang and the students began making their way to their classes.
***
Remus dropped his bag to the floor and sank into the seat next to a now very excited James and tried his best to ignore the boy's incessant chatter as he scanned the room in search of Sirius.
"James, Padfoot isn't here" he interrupted, "What if he comes in before Carrow?"
"Don't you worry your pretty little head, Moony" he replied, earning himself some odd looks from the surrounding students. "He's probably skiving the lesson 'cos he knows the old crow will kill him if that essay isn't done."
Remus wasn't so sure but was soon distracted by a conversation with a pretty muggleborn witch by the name of Susan Scott. They were half way through an enjoyable discussion about the upcoming quidditch cup when there was a loud creak as the door began to open. Sirius Black was stood in the doorway; hand on the doorknob, looking over his shoulder talking to somebody behind him.
Oh shit, thought Remus, James and the rest of the Gryffindors in unison. The whole class held their breath, the Slytherins catching onto the mood and realising something was wrong almost instantly.
"Aw come on Jess!" Sirius was calling up the corridor, "you know you love me really!" And with that said he took a step through the door.
It happened so quickly that a lot of the Slytherins were left confused. They had not, after all, been forewarned of Mr Potter's plan. What actually did happen was that a strangely snakelike coil of rope made up of the ever moving and changing words of a complex spell, quickly coiled itself around Sirius's ankle, and yanked him up into the air so that he was suspended, upside down, by his foot in the doorway.
The room was silent for a full three seconds.
After which the whole class erupted into laughter. Even Remus was laughing, finally able to relax that the outcome of James's scheme was no more disastrous than this. Sirius scowled and folded his arms across his chest in an attempt to look dignified. Unfortunately the effect was rather ruined by him being upside down. The fact that his robes had quite happily complied with the laws of gravity and settled around his waist, proving to the class that he wore only boxers beneath, possibly didn't help him to convince his peers to take him seriously.
"Let. Me. Down." Sirius hissed through gritted teeth, which only made the class laugh more hysterically.
"That's right Sirius! Hiss like the snake that's keeping you there!" Somebody shouted good naturedly from the back of the class. After that even Sirius himself couldn't help but find his predicament funny, even if the blood was flowing to his head alarmingly quickly. He started doing a strange sort of mid-air dance which had the room in fresh fits of hysterics.
It was while he was 'performing' that a voice was heard outside the door, as Professor Carrow approached.
"Well what have we here?" He wondered, "Playing the fool again are we Black? I think a week's worth of detentions would be appropriate for this stunt don't you?" he peered down his beaklike nose as he spoke, "Professor Slughorn would be only too pleased to have you back, I am sure. He just received a new shipment of flobberworms this morning."
Sirius groaned.
Remus turned to James, a grin still on his lips. "What could possibly go wrong, hey, James?"