Little ficlet that popped into my head. I realize that muggle tech doesn't work at Hogwarts, so this is slightly AU. Contains yaoi, you have been warned. Please don't flame about it, you no like, you no look, it's as simple as that.
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The moment Lily saw James she knew something was off. It wasn't even her normal paranoia, because, even though she was loath to admit it, she was growing rather fond of Potter. But as she watched him and Sirius strut through the great hall to a seat not to far from where she sat with her friends, Remus and Peter trailing behind and laughing at something that Sirius had said, she could tell that something was different. He- no THEY had done something. Now if only she could find out what.
She was about to get up and approach him, to demand an answer, when Dumbledore strode in and took his place at the head table. He did not, however, sit down, but rather faced the students to address them. The great hall quieted slightly after a moment, and he began.
"Students! If I could have your attention for just one moment, I have an announcement to make. It has come to my attention that sometime last night, the laundry room was flooded." Dumbledore said, his voice sparkling with suppressed amusement. Lily sat back in her seat with a groan as the Marauders started sniggering amongst themselves. Well, that answered THAT question.
"Unfortunately, although the majority of the water has been removed, there was severe damage done to several fixtures in the room. As a result the laundry system in the castle will have to be shut down for, roughly the next two weeks. We have provided each house with a smaller makeshift laundry room to serve until this problem has been fixed. We have installed muggle systems called washing machines, and have posted instructions for their use above all of them. I am sure that if you have any problems, one of the teachers or muggle-borns will be able to help you. Thank you for your co-operation, and hopefully the main system will be running again soon." Dumbledore finished, before sitting down to his breakfast while chatter washed through the great hall.
The marauders' expressions, which had been grins at the start of the announcement, had slowly morphed into horror and disbelief as Dumbledore finished. It served them right, Lily thought to herself as she stood up with a sigh to go to her dorm to get her bag before the first class started. But even so, she couldn't help but feel disgruntled seeing as this afternoon had been when she was planning to send down her load of dirty clothes. She was almost out of clean ones.
She walked through the deserted halls and sighed again when another thought dawned on her. Knowing the students of this school, she was bound to be the one handing out help and advice whenever someone had a problem. As if she didn't have enough work already.
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"I can't believe this!" Sirius fumed, stabbing at his eggs with his fork and glaring moodily at his toast. "Did you see Dumbledore?" He asked, before picking up said toast and shoving the entire piece into his mouth, jam and all. "Ee wash EENDOYNIG ID!!!" He continued, spraying crumbs all over the table. Remus picked a small bit off his robes with disgust. Now he remembered why he usually tried to avoid sitting across from Sirius at dinner, despite the view that came with the position. He made a mental note to only admire Sirius' profile when at the table from now on. Sirius swallowed with great difficulty after chewing savagely for a couple of moments in an angry silence. "He could have easily fixed it up with a flick of his wand! It wasn't THAT bad!"
"He's trying to teach us a lesson." James said mournfully. He had tried to use muggle technology before, and it had always ended in disaster for him. After his hair had been burned almost clean off by that toaster bursting into flames when he had been leaning over it to try to get his toast out, he had decided that he and muggle technology just didn't mix.
"He's trying to make it easier for us to live in the muggle world, in case we ever need to fit in." Remus said reasonably, not overly bothered by the prospect of laundry.
"And I was going to send down a load today, too…" Peter sighed. The others all nodded in agreement. They hadn't sent them down yesterday because of the prank, but now three fourths of them were beginning to regret it. The other fourth started to regret as well when he realized that he was going to have to show his friends how to use a washer.
"Lets just get to class…" Remus sighed, and they stood up, along with the students who were beginning to trickle out of the great hall, still grumbling.
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The day passed in a big blur, and before she knew it. Lily was making her way down a new staircase that had mysteriously appeared in the common room while everyone was at breakfast, a basket of clothes resting firmly on her hip. It was the general consensus of about two thirds of the school that they had enough clothes to last and that they would not need to utilize the temporary measures in place. It was generally acknowledged that every person in the school would be putting off doing laundry until their wardrobes were exhausted, so Lily was quite glad that she would have at least a day or so to prepare herself before the first hapless student came seeking her aid.
She reached the bottom of the stairs, and soon realized that this break was a fantasy that would not come true. For standing there, scratching their heads over the instructions, were the Marauders. Remus was trying desperately to explain how a thing that he had never actually used before worked, while Peter stared aimlessly off into space, and Sirius alternated between glaring at the washing machines that lined one side of the room and focusing intently on Remus, determined to defeat this unexpected obstacle. James just gazed at Remus, eyes glazing over slightly as he tried to process what he was being told.
"Need help?" Lily called out, taking pity on Remus. He shot her a grateful glance before herding his friends over to the washer where Lily was setting up shop. After she had everything she needed, she turned around with her hands on her hips, looking all four of them up and down. She took a deep breath and began.
"This is called a washing machine. Now, I am going to explain this as simply as I can, and hopefully you aren't as idiotic as you first appear." She said, slipping into her head girl/professor voice. They all looked at her attentively, even Peter, though he just might have thought McGonagall had entered the room. Maybe this wouldn't be quite as bad as she first assumed.
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Two and a half hours and a bottle of spilled detergent later, Lily's, James', Remus', and Peter's laundry was washed and dried completely, and Sirius' second load of laundry was about halfway through the dryer. Lily was getting on much better with the Marauders, as she had loosened up as time went on, and Remus privately marveled at her ability to adapt to any situation. He watched in slight disbelief as Lily and James talked civilly to each other as they carried their laundry upstairs, with Peter trailing behind. He didn't even want to consider talking to him for the next twenty-four hours, but knew it would be inescapable.
He remained behind, folding his clothes and placing them neatly into his basket, so that Sirius would have some company, and would not destroy a second laundry room in his boredom.
Sirius had stretched out on one of the benches in the middle of the room and was counting the cracks in the ceiling when Remus paused in his folding with a frown. Five, Six, Seven, Eight… Nine? Where was nine? There were supposed to be nine pairs, and yet there were only eight. What in the world?
"Padfoot." Remus said, recounting his clothes for the third time.
"Yeah?" Sirius said, not looking away from the ceiling. Remus turned to look at him.
"Have you seen my boxers?" Remus asked, and Sirius froze. From his point of view, Remus could just see Sirius' face go the slightest bit pink. Remus had to force himself to focus on the issue at hand, and not on the appealing color his friend's face had just turned.
"Moony?" Sirius asked, sitting upright.
"One of my pairs of boxers is missing, do you know what happened to it?" Remus reiterated, watching his friend closely.
"Huh." Sirius says, not answering the question directly. Instead he tried to maneuver around it by making little noises and glancing around the room searchingly. Remus shook his head slightly to dispel the images that this combination caused, drawing Sirius' attention back to him. He shrugged, sheepish smile in its place on his face. Remus recognized the look and held his hand out sternly.
Sirius sighed and heaved himself to his feet, shuffling ashamedly over to his basket of already dry clothes. He dug around for a moment, before pulling out a pair of pale blue and green boxers and tossing them through the air towards Remus. Remus caught the ball of fabric deftly, used to such gestures, and untangled it from itself before folding it and placing it in his basket as well.
Sirius' second load beeps its finish, and Sirius strides over and begins emptying it. Remus watches him, amused by the sight of Sirius doing domestic work.
"What if Lily had seen?" Remus asked him as he piled his clothes haphazardly into his second basket. Sirius shrugs, tossing a careless smile over his shoulder in Remus' general direction.
"Oh? Well, I'd tell her it's a prank and not to tell you!" Sirius said flamboyantly as he finishes and closes the machine and straightening.
Remus smiled and picked up his basket as Sirius stared perplexedly at his two baskets, wondering how to get them up all the stairs. On the trip down, he had just dragged them, not caring if the occasional piece fell out seeing as they were already dirty. But this method wouldn't work going up the stairs, especially with clean clothes. Sirius never thought ahead.
Remus walked over to him and planted a quick kiss on his lips.
"Good luck with that." He said, motioning with his head to the two baskets at Sirius' feet, before walking up the stairs and leaving Sirius with his problem.
"Wait! Moony, you can't just leave me here!" A pause, and still Remus continued up the stairs. "Moony! What am I supposed to do?" Remus reached the top of the stairs and kept on walking, grinning, as Sirius' voice grew more and more agitated. He doubted that Sirius would think to levitate them up, which was the most obvious answer, and knew that Sirius would arrive in their dorm a little while later, panting and rather red in the face from the effort of carrying two baskets, one at a time, up the stairs. And knowing Sirius, he wouldn't want to leave a basket untended, seeing as when he did his clothes had a nasty habit of disappearing. So he would walk up a step with one basket, place it on the ground, turn around, pick up the other basket, and step over the original one, repeating the steps over and over until he reached their dorm.
Remus was halfway across the common room when he heard Sirius' last attempt.
"Moony! Don't leave me stranded here! MOONYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!"