Sirius Black was slowly making his way through the dimly lit corridors of the Slytherin dungeon toward another one of Slughorn's dreaded NEWT potions lessons, when something shiny-looking a few meters on ground away from him caught his eye. Ever the sneaky Marauder, he quickly looked behind him to make sure no one was coming down the hallway and when satisfied there was no one there, tip-toed towards the source of his unexpected attention.
There on the floor, was a rather powerful looking rusty gold medallion, with what looked to be Latin runes on the front on the front of it, the edges chipped slightly. Brilliant! He grinned, as he stuffed the thing in his pocket without at second thought . After all, Sirius believed there was a chance that it would come in handy for a later prank, or if that failed, he'd just give it to some girl on a date, girls loved jewelry right?
"Oi Padfoot, what you found over there?" Sirius suddenly heard James's voice a few feet behind him and jumped, quickly straightening up while trying not to look too suspicious. "Bloody hell Prongs, you nearly scared the shit out of me" He turned and mock glared at his best friend, arms folded across his chest.
"Oh no, that can't be good" James's hazel eyes twinkled "We wouldn't want a repeat of the unspoken Quidditch match of 67', would we?". "Hey! I was eight! And the bludger go this close to my face" Sirius defended, shoving his fore finger and thumb that were a mere millimeter away from each other in his accuser's face.
Said accuser scoffed "Some Gryffindor you are" he muttered smirking, not noticing the look of hurt on Sirius's face just before he wiped it off. "Excuuuuse me?" Sirius drawled out, doing the perfect imitation of his mother after she'd caught him doing something particularly distasteful. "Did you just accuse me of not being Gryffindor enough, James Charlus Potter?" His eyes took on a mischievous glint.
James took a step back and proceeded to splutter, knowing the look could bring no good "I-I m-meant nothing like tha- Moony!" He suddenly screeched as he caught sight of their werewolf friend coming round the corner, jumping (Quite literally) into his arms. "Oof" Remus let out as he hit the floor, James sprawled out on top of him, hanging onto his waist for dear life.
"Hmm" Sirius smirked, but didn't step closer to the two boys, knowing that Remus was going to attempt to get James off and that it wouldn't be pretty "I wonder whose not quite Gryffindor enough now James? If I were you I wouldn't want Evan's to see me in your current predicament". James haughtily ignored him in favor of grabbing Remus's face and putting his lips against the struggling werewolf's cheek.
"My hero!" He crowed and Sirius attempted not to burst into laughter at the horrified look on Remus's face. "Get off James" He said through clenched teeth, his green eyes flashing dangerously. "But Remyyy!" James teased in response but quickly got off of him anyway, in favor of brushing down his robes and attempting to smooth down his static hair, notably not having much success.
Remus in turn then got up, muttering something about how it was close to hunting season. Then he sighed "What are you two doing out here anyway? I only came out here to see where you were, Slughorn sent me" Sirius's nose wrinkled. He didn't have much tolerance for the man after he'd been forced to attend one of the Slug Club's dinner parties in second year and had had to tolerate Lucius Malfoy's not so subtle comments on how he thought Sirius's mother must have felt about him being sorted into Griffindor, with his obnoxious cousin Narcissa giggling and hanging onto his every word. Needless to say, he did not return to the next gathering.
Besides, there was something undeniably sinister about the way Slughorn looked at Sirius and it gave him the willies, in a 'I never want to be left alone in a room with you for fear of pedophile related activity', kind of way. He didn't think anything would come of it, so he didn't mention it to any of the other Marauders, but instead did his best to subtly stay as far away as he could from the man, something that was proving to be rather difficult due to the fact the he'd had to take potions for his NEWT's in order to become an Auror.
"Where's Peter?" James asked Remus, unconsciously avoiding the question while proceeding to grab Sirius's arm and tug him towards the potions classroom after noticing that he was not willing to move of his own accord. "Not sure, thought he was with you?" Remus replied looking around worried "Where did you last see him?".
Sirius patted Remus's head reassuringly without halting his strides in fear of James dragging him across the floor (It wouldn't have been the first time) "Don't worry about him Moony, he'll get here" Remus glared in response as he pulled open the potion room's door.
"Found them Sir" He nodded respectfully to Slughorn before taking his usual seat next to Frank Longbottom who smiled cheerfully in greeting at the Marauders. The slightly overweight teacher glanced at the two standing Marauders and smiled bemusedly, his eyes attempting to pull off the twinkle that only Dumbledore was able to master "And just where were you gentlemen?"
"Sweeping" James supplied helpfully and Sirius nodded eagerly, not at all sure why James had given that particular reason, but glad that he wouldn't have to respond to the man himself. He proceed to support his friend's idea by slinging his arm over James's shoulders while making a sweeping motion with his free hand. It was then he heard a familiar female scoff from the back of the classroom.
"Really Potter, as if you'd even think about doing such a lowly task" Lily mocked as James turned to look at her, his face transforming into a grin even as she glared at him. It seemed she still hadn't gotten over the fact that James, with the help of Sirius of course, had hit Snape with a slug vomiting charm earlier that week after he'd overheard the greasy git call Xenophilius Lovegood a freak.
I mean, he was a little strange, but that didn't give Snivellus the right to say so. The greasy git was one to talk anyway, when was the last time he bloody washed his hair? He and James were doing the world a service by getting the idiot to shut up, Sirius was sure of it. Evans... She didn't see it that way... She thought that they were purposely targeting him.
As if noble Gryffindors would do such a thing! The cheek! Sirius turned to give Lily a grin of his own, the one that he knew reminded her of James and infuriated her twice as much as his normal smirk. "Lily flower!" Sirius exclaimed flamboyantly while giving her a not so subtle wink "I do hope Prongs's and mine's absence did not put too much strain on your tender heart?"
Lily proceeded to turn the color of her hair and James glared at Sirius for "flirting" with his "girlfriend".
"Mr Black, Mr Potter" Slughorn coughed in attempt to make both of the boys turn round. After they did so, Slughorn gestured to their seats and raised an eyebrow. "If you gentlemen wouldn't mind?"
Sirius nodded and both Marauders sat down, silently victorious that they had managed to escape what would doubtlessly be an extremely boring detention.
"As I was just explaining, today we will be brewing the Girding Potion, now can anyone tell me the properties of this potion?" A hand hesitantly shot up "Yes Miss Vanity?" The blonde Slytherin cleared her throat "The girding potion gives the consumer extra endurance, though most people tend to use Pepper Up instead due to the foul smell it sends out". "Brilliant! 10 points to Slytherin"
Sirius tuned out after that, deciding any information involving the Girding Potion was unimportant, after all in his third year he, James, Remus and Peter (Okay mainly Remus) had brewed it for a particularly stealthy rescue mission to retrieve their newly created regurgitating toilet from Filch's office at 3 in the morning. Needless to say, without it they would have probably have passed out in one of Hogwarts many corridors carrying the bloody thing only to be found in the early hours of the morning in a predicament none of them would have wanted to explain. Yep, Sirius decided. He liked that potion.