Sirius staggered up the dormitory room stairs, desperately trying to catch his breath. His hands were trembling, sweat pouring down his face. He threw himself onto his bed with a gasp, wiping his head and lying back.
He'd had a shitty day, and right now, he just needed to forget it all.
His hands snaked under his mattress, groping around for a few seconds before finally coming across the cardboard box.
He sighed in relief, pulling out the box and clutching it to his chest.
Reaching inside the box, he pulled out the metal tray, popping pill after pill through the foil until they were all released.
Seven white pills lay on his palm, and he hastily tossed them into his mouth, swallowing them successfully even though his throat felt like sandpaper.
An hour later, the effects of the pain pills kicked in.
Sirius was sat by the fire, ignoring James and Peter whilst they played a game of Exploding Snap. He'd been staring into the flames for a few long minutes before Remus called his name. He glanced up, and froze, an excited grin playing around the corners of his lips.
Remus' face was obscured by the imprint of the light, and his voice was echoing around Sirius' skull. Remus' body began to swim in front of him, and he sighed in delight, contentedly watching the distorted image and becoming completely unaware of Remus calling his name.
"Sirius!"
James' yell penetrated the thick fog around Sirius' mind, and he blinked in confusion, his vision clearing.
James, Remus and Peter were all knelt around Sirius' seated form. Remus was waving his hand back and forth across Sirius' line of vision, whilst James was continuously yelling his name and shaking his shoulders for emphasis.
"Quit it Jjames." Sirius managed to slur, still blinking confusedly.
"Sirius, what the fuck?!"
Sirius giggled, pulling James in by the tie and whispered in his ear.
"Dude, I'm so high right now."
James pulled back. He stared at Sirius for a few seconds before a peal of laughter escaped his lips. Shaking his head, he grabbed the still-grinning Sirius up by the shoulder and pulled him towards the dormitories.
"C'mon mate. Sleep it off. Sleep it off."
The next morning, Sirius was woken up by the shower being switched on, and to his shock and delight, realised sleeping hadn't ridded his mind of that delicious fog.
He was still high as all hell.
"Oh wowwwww." Sirius muttered, jumping out of bed and falling halfway across the room before managing to catch himself on one of the bedposts. He snorted with laughter, lurching to the other side of the room, and dressed slowly, ensuring he was actually dressing correctly.
Twenty minutes later, when James was up, Sirius made eye contact with him for the first time that morning.
James immediately recognised the glassy eyed look in Sirius' eyes, and ran over to the other side of the room.
"Siri?" he whispered, placing both hands on Sirius' shoulders.
Sirius swung out of James' grasp, chuckling loudly.
"Heeey Jamesy Jamesy Jamesy."
James raised an eyebrow, a small smile twitching around the corners of his mouth.
"Ohh, today is going to be fun."
Two periods later, Sirius was hunched over his desk in Transfiguration. The blank sheet in front of him was swimming in and out of focus, and the quill poised near it was shaking in his grasp.
"Class, please put your things away."
Professor McGonagall swept to the front of the room.
"It has come to my attention that conventional teaching methods don't appear to work for this class. It appears for this particular set of pupils, a.. er, new approach is necessary to cater for the need for interaction."
"Meaning we're all a bunch of prats." James snorted from the back.
"What was that, Mr Potter?"
"Nothing, Professor McGonagall." James blinked innocently from his seat.
"So I thought. Now. I thought that everyone could get into groups of three or four, and do a small presentation on a specific spell. I'll come round and tell each of you which spell to do, and you can deliver it at the end of the hour." she announced.
The class exploded with cheers of excitement and the scraping of chairs as people hurried over to sit with their friends.
Peter and Remus came over from the other side of the classroom to join an amused James and a completely out of it Sirius.
They both pulled around chairs from the desk behind and placed them on the other side of James and Sirius, so they all shared one table.
Remus then leant forward, trying to catch Sirius' gaze.
"Padfoot? Sirius? You okay?" he asked, and when he received no response, shot James a look.
He quickly took James' smirk and Sirius' unfocused eyes and pieced them together.
"Is-is he still high?" he murmured softly, and James began laughing again, nodding as he did so.
At that moment, Professor McGonagall reached their table.
"Something funny, Mr. Potter?" she asked sternly.
"N-No Professor." he managed, wiping his eyes and closing his mouth, although he was still shaking with laughter.
"Good. Now, the spell you four will be doing is…"
She was interrupted by a loud clatter. Sirius' chair was overturned, and he was lay on the wooden floor, his face muffling the howls of laughter coming from his mouth.
Seeing this set James off again, causing the entire class to stop and stare at the two almost-hysterical boys.
Remus sighed, but a small grin was playing around his mouth as he stood up and yanked Sirius to his feet, returning his chair to it's original place and pushing the swaying boy back down. He then sank into his own seat once more, returning his attention to the flabbergasted teacher in front of him.
"What on earth…" she began, her mouth opening and closing.
"Sorry Professor. Sirius feels a little light-headed, I think he may be coming down with the flu. James is just being his normal self." Remus cut in smoothly, since James was too incapacitated to do so, and Peter was simply confused by the situation.
"Mr. Potter, if you are too amused to continue, maybe you need to step outside and regain your composure. And as for you, Mr. Black, if you're well enough to attend my class, then you're well enough to do the assigned work." she snapped.
Her warning flew straight over Sirius' head, who was currently marvelling at how soft his quill was, but it was enough to sober James up.
"Now, as I was saying, I'd like your group's presentation to be done on the Vanishing spell, Evanesco. I expect at least one piece of parchment by the end of the lesson, and you are all to speak. Am I being clear?" she asked firmly.
"Yes Professor." James, Peter and Remus chanted in unison, and she nodded stiffly, casting one last glance in Sirius' direction before sweeping away.
"Oh bloody hell, Padfoot." Remus whispered, as soon as she was out of earshot.
"We're so screwed!" groaned Peter, slamming his head onto the desk.
"No. Peter, you and I will start writing this thing. James, you try and bring Sirius down, enough for him to speak sensically." Remus commanded, grabbing a quill from the side of the desk, and Peter nodded, shifting his chair over.
When they began to scribble ideas down, James turned to Sirius, waving a hand in front of his face, which was met with a blank stare.
"Padfoot?" he murmured, and Sirius turned, his eyes glazed over.
"You have rainbow dust in your hair." he slurred, and James groaned, pulling out his wand and conjuring a glass of water.
"Here, drink this." he urged, shoving it in Sirius' hand.
After making sure the taller boy had gulped it all down, James commanded him to recite the alphabet.
When Sirius couldn't make it past "D" without giggling, James manifested some sparks to keep Sirius momentarily distracted, and turned back to Remus.
"Peter was right. We are so ridiculously screwed."
