A/N : I do not own Harry Potter or anything from that universe. This was written for The Houses Competition.

House : Hufflepuff

Year : Prefect 2 (stand in)

Category : Short

Prompt : [Speech]"It seemed like a good idea yesterday!" [Speech]"You were the one with noodles in your hair."

Word Count : 651

A Gift for Lily Gone Wrong

"What do you think you are doing?" the disappointed voice of Minerva McGonagall sounded through the darkened hallway.

James and Sirius skidded to a halt in front of the stern professor. Seeing her tapping her foot, waiting for an answer, the two stammered and stumbled over each other's words.

"Umm… well, you see, professor…" James said.

"We, well, we were just going…" Sirius started at the same time. The two boys looked at each other.

"He was just…" James started again.

"Well… James and I.. were…" Sirius said at the same time again.

Sighing, McGonagall said, "My office, both of you. You had better have your stories straight before we get there." She then spun around, leading the way to her office.

James punched Sirius in the shoulder, "If you had just shut up, I would have gotten us out of this."

"Hey, I can get us out of this, too," Sirius protested. He had vanished the evidence from his head as soon as McGonagall had turned her back.

The professor stopped in front of her office door and ushered the two mischievous boys inside. "Sit," she demanded and strode over to her desk. The two boys sat in front of the professor's desk, heads hanging down, hoping to look contrite.

"You boys better have a good reason for being out after curfew. Students are not allowed to roam the corridors of the castle after hours, you know the rules," she stated.

"Well, professor, you see, we heard that there was this huge dessert buffet up for grabs near the kitchens, so we thought we'd check it out," James said with a grin.

Professor McGonagall shook her head, "Tell the truth for once in your life, James Potter. I don't believe you."

"You see, professor, James wanted to get this really great gift to give to Lily so that maybe she would go out with him. He really likes her, you know, and she hates him. So, anyway, we were coming back from Hogsmeade…" Sirius stopped short when James hit him on the arm. "Ow… What did you do that for?"

James straightened up, "Sirius is right, professor. We snuck out to Hogsmeade to find this gift for Lily. I really like her."

Professor McGonagall's face softened slightly. "And where is this gift?" she asked. When both boys looked at each other, she knew that they had failed to get what they were after. "Boys, you can't just go sneaking around anywhere you want. I'm going to have to take 10 points from each of you and give you a detention for being out after curfew. Now, off to bed."

James and Sirius sighed, they weren't getting out of this one. They rose and made their way to their house common room. They were quiet on the way, not wanting to raise any more alarms and earn more detention.

Once inside the common room, they sat down on the sofa, joining their friend Remus who had stayed behind to study. "I told you that you would get caught," Remus said, not looking up from the book in his hand.

"It seemed like a good idea yesterday!" Sirius exclaimed.

James smacked him on the shoulder, "You were the one with noodles in your hair. If not for that, we wouldn't have gotten caught. How did you get noodles in your hair, anyway?"

Sirius ducked his head, "Marlene hexed me so that any time I leave the castle, something happens when I return. This time it was the noodles appearing in my hair."

Remus guffawed, closing the book and looking at his friends. "Maybe one day you two will learn that you will always get caught sneaking about." He knew his friends had a penchant for trouble and they never listened. This was going to be a long three years that they had left here at school.