Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the entire HP universe and all of the Harry Potter characters. I only own a few original characters in this story.
"And NO magic!" Filch said he closed the door to the trophy room with a definitive slam. A tiny click indicated that the door was locked and the two people inside of the room weren't getting out any time soon.
Skylar Stamm looked around at all the trophies with a feeling of dread. She was supposed to clean all of these with no magic? There went the rest of her years at Hogwarts, there was no way she was ever going to leave this room.
"Old bat," The other occupant of the room muttered. "I'd love to see what he does in his free time."
"Filch?" Skylar asked. "Why would you want to see that?"
"Can't you just imagine? Putting together torture instruments or making shrines to cats..."
Skylar did not expect that she would be in detention with someone else but if she had been expecting it, she would of guessed that Sirius Black would be that person. It wasn't surprising to see him in detention, he was always in trouble, the real surprise was the fact that he was alone. As far as Skylar knew, Sirius and his friends were always causing mischief together.
Sirius was grinning as he picked up a trophy and pointed his wand at it. The trophy suddenly shined more brightly in his hand.
"He said no magic!"
"And," Sirius said calmly as he replaced the trophy to it's spot on the shelf and picked up another, "He left us in here all alone after saying that. Which means, that he fully expects us to use magic."
"I didn't realize you and him were so close. Wanting to spend more time with him and knowing the unspoken things he means..."
"If friendships were made by hours spent together, Filch and I would be best friends." Sirius said with a grin.
"Then maybe you should be a good friend and do what he says."
"And maybe you should help me," Sirius said as he finished the one shelf and moved on to another.
Skylar knew that Sirius had a point and at the rate he was going he would finish the room before Skylar even started. She decided to follow Filch's orders and opened up the dirty old tin that contained the polish. As soon as the lid came off, an overpowering stench came out and Skylar sneaked a glance inside. It was half-full of a thick brownish goop that made her gag.
"This is disgusting," She muttered.
"You know what's not disgusting? A wand," Sirius said as he pointed his towards another trophy, which was shining within seconds.
"But we're not supposed to," Skylar said, her voice whining a bit on the "supposed."
"How did you get detention anyway if you're so concerned about what you're supposed to do?"
Skylar was not comfortable answering that. She had only spoken to Sirius a few times before, here and there when they shared classes, but they were mostly strangers. She was taken aback by how friendly he was being. He probably didn't even know her name or he knew it in passing. But she had to say something, there was no point in being rude if they were going to be locked in a room together for hours.
"I was helping a friend," She answered vaguely. "What about you?"
Sirius turned towards Skylar with a grave expression on his face:
"Betrayed by a friend."
Ignoring the container of metal polish in her hand, Skylar turned to face Sirius, unsure if he was joking. Was he teasing her about her excuse? Did that truly happen? Sirius wrinkled his nose as she stared at him.
"That stuff really is disgusting," He said. Skylar looked down to see that the hand holding the polish had extended outward towards him.
"Oh, yeah. I'm not going to use it," Skylar said decidedly and screwed the lid back on.
"Atta girl." Sirius said with a grin turning back towards the trophies.
Skylar followed suit and there was an awkward silence for a few minutes.
"So," She said finally. "Is that really why you're in detention?"
"What?" Sirius said, clearly lost in his thoughts."Oh, yeah kind of. Let's just say I wasn't the only one breaking rules, but I was the only one who took the blame for everyone else."
"Noble," Skylar commented.
Sirius placed his hand over his heart and inclined his head in a half-bow. "Gryffindor."
Skylar laughed and grabbed another a trophy. There was only a handful left to do.
"And you?" He asked.
"My friend needed...something," Skylar didn't want to say cheering up because that would be giving away too much information. "And I sort of, went to the extreme to do it for her."
"Loyal," Sirius commented.
Skylar imitated his motions and said: "Hufflepuff."
Sirius laughed and picked up another trophy. Skylar did the same with the last one. As she placed it back on the shelf carefully, she said:
"Now what?"
"Now, we try to escape."
Sirius bounded over towards the door and sent a spell towards the lock. He tried the door handle but it wouldn't budge.
"Damnit," He muttered while casting around the room for any other means of escape. Skylar slid down the wall to sit on the floor, convinced they were going to be there for a while. Admitting defeat, Sirius did the same.
"So," Sirius said conversationally. "Hufflepuff? I think we're in the same Herbology class. You're a fifth year, right?"
"Right."
"You're..." Sirius's face showed the strain of concentration. "Either Skylar or Anna."
So he did know her name. "Skylar, Anna's my friend."
"The same friend you went extreme for?"
"Er, yeah." Skylar wished for any other conversation topic. She got in trouble over something so stupid. It was nothing to be proud of and frankly, it embarrassed the hell out of her.
"And what's extreme?" He asked.
"My friend was in a bad mood and I thought maybe some food would cheer her up. So, I tried to get some from the kitchens."
Sirius gave her a blank stare. "I'm not seeing the extreme. Getting food from the kitchens is fairly easy."
"Then I suppose I went about it the wrong way."
"How did you...?"
"Through the great hall," Skylar said, so embarrassed that she was sure that she was blushing.
Sirius let out a loud and hearty laugh.
"Yeah, I know. It was stupid," Skylar said glumly.
"I'm not..." Sirius said in between peals of laughter. "I mean...I don't..." He finally seemed to compose himself. "It's just you're a hufflepuff. You ought to know where the kitchen is."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Skylar had been through years of being put-down for being a hufflepuff.
"The kitchen is right by your commonroom. You know that painting of the bowl of fruit? Well, you tickle the pear and..."
"How do you know where our commonroom is? How do you know where the kitchen is?"
Sirius shrugged: "I know all sorts of secrets inside these walls."
"Well share the knowledge. Make a map or something. Save me from a detention and a whole lot of embarrassment and maybe a few bruises..."
"Bruises? What were you doing, crawling under the house tables looking for a trap door?"
Skylar laughed along with him so he wouldn't realize that that was more or less exactly what she had been doing. The laughter came to an abrupt end when they heard a meow from outside the door. Both of them stood up immediately.
"I'm coming in," Said a wheezy voice. Filch.
"WAIT!" Skylar cried. "Give us a moment!"
"What are you...?" Sirius started to ask before he was interrupted by the voice outside the door.
"Give us a moment! The lady said give us a moment! Can you believe it?" The voice sounded different but Skylar didn't notice.
She thrust one of the rags into Sirius's hand and began to open the jar of the disgusting polish.
"We have to at least make it look like we did it by hand!" Skylar went to dip her cloth into the container but the smell was too much and she pushed it toward Sirius.
"Oh, come on. It's not that bad." Sirius said as he dipped his rag into the tin and then brought it up close to his face in order to prove her wrong. But it was too much for him too. And he threw the container away from him, towards Skylar and towards the wall. Skylar managed to duck at the last second but it whizzed by her face and she gagged loudly.
"I'm coming in there!"
"Wait!" Sirius called as he and Skylar rushed forward to clean up the mess they made. Skylar was half-laughing and half-gagging and Sirius was mostly laughing. Skylar and Sirius were both reaching upwards, wiping the polish off the wall when the door opened.
"Well, what do we have here?" Asked the wheezy voice.
Skylar looked out from behind Sirius's upraised arm and saw not Filch, but instead James Potter and Remus Lupin. Sirius let out a sound somewhere between a sigh of a relief and a laugh.
"You've gotten way too good at your Filch impression," Sirius said.
"I know," said James with a grin. "but Moony here is still having trouble with his Mrs. Norris, he's a bit too canine, don't you think?"
"Yeah, just a bit." All of the boys laughed at some joke that Skylar didn't understand. Sirius lowered his arm and Skylar was now fully visible.
"Skylar," Remus said surprised.
"Hi Remus,"
"You two know each-" But before Sirius could ask his question, Remus said:
"Guess this explains why you weren't at the prefect meeting tonight."
Sirius turned around and stared at Skylar in disbelief.
"Prefect? You're a prefect? No wonder you wanted to do it by hand."
Skylar had left her Prefect's badge in her dormitory. Something about serving a detention while wearing a badge seemed a bit counterproductive.
"Er, do what exactly by hand, mate? Anything to do with the fact that you two made us wait before opening the door?" James said with a grin. Sirius began to laugh and even Remus was smiling.
"We were cleaning up the evidence, right Skylar?"
"Right. Speaking of..." Skylar picked up the two polish-soaked rags and threw them in front of the door, so Filch could see them clearly as soon as he came to let them out. Not that Skylar had any idea of sticking around till then. "We should probably leave before he gets back." Skylar gave the wall a glance, where the polish was soaking in and leaving a stain.
The four of them left the trophy room together and walked down the empty corridor. Skylar looked at James and Remus and said:
"Thanks for saving us."
"Yeah," Sirius agreed. "Why did you anyway?"
"Well, it was my fault you got in trouble in the first place," Remus said.
"No, not really," Sirius argued.
Remus looked like he was about to say something back but James interrupted:
"It's no ones fault," he said firmly. "But it wasn't fair that only you got detention. So we thought it was our duty to bring justice to the world." James said pompously with a smug expression and a sudden strut.
"So you caused some mischief?" Sirius asked.
"Exactly," James said, his voice returning to normal with a smile breaking out across his face and his gait returning to his usual not-so-dramatic strut. "So Peter went off to distract Filch while I went off to save the damsel in distress in her tower. You, that is, not Skylar. And happened to meet Moony here on the way, coming out of his I'm a good boy meeting."
Skylar, Sirius, and Remus were all laughing. They had reached the point where Skylar had to turn off to return to the Hufflepuff dormitories while the rest of them went off to Gryffindor.
They exchanged their goodnights and James started to walk away followed by Remus who then stopped:
"Oh yeah! Do you want me to tell you what you missed at the meeting tonight?"
"That's okay. I'm sure Michael will let me know. Thanks, Remus."
"No problem," He said with a little wave as he headed off towards James.
Sirius was still standing next to Skylar and he turned towards her with a smile and said:
"Remember the pear."
"Yeah," Skylar smiled. "Thanks." And she turned down the corridor to head back to her dorms. She thought she heard James ask: "The Pair? Pair of what exactly are you referring to Sirius? I can think of a couple of things that come in pairs..." But Skylar was too far away to hear what James named. She smiled to herself as she passed the painting and muttered to the pear:
"Next time."
Author's Note: So I'm working on another Sirius story at the moment but this idea sort of popped into my head and wouldn't leave so I had to write this lighthearted, fun story. I'll try my hardest to update both stories as often as possible. Anyway, hope you enjoyed!