Disclaimer: I still do not own the Harry Potter series. Sigh.

The next morning was both extremely mortifying (for the marauders), and highly amusing (for May).

It had started of pretty well; the plan was that Sirius would go and talk to her first and soften her up with his 'lady charms'. James had been extremely vocal at this point, insisting that he had the same amount of 'lady charms' as Sirius did and that he was only refraining from using them because he didn't want Lily to bonk him on the head (not that she would care).

Once she was mellow enough, Sirius would do the secret signal (a conscious rubbing of the tip of his nose), which would be the cue for the rest of them to enter.

All in all, the plan reminded Remus of a Muggle movie he had watched once, in which they had a similar sort of plan for handling dangerous explosives.


Sirius swaggered into the Great Hall confidently and plonked down at the Hufflepuff table, earning a lot of suspicious looks and glares. He picked a grape from the fruit bowl before turning towards May with a smirk on his face. She, in turn, resolutely ignored him, spooning cereal into her mouth and reading a book at the same time.

Slightly disheartened, he straightened up and cleared his throat with a slight cough. At the sound, she turned to look at him with a sweet smile on her face.

"Oh hello," she said in a sickeningly sweet voice, "I didn't see you there".

He ignored her untruth.

"Well played….that was a fantastic prank. You really have an eye for that sort of thing." he said, remembering the tip on compliments from 12 Fail Safe Ways to Charm Witches.

She just looked back at him with a bored expression.

"Are you done yet, Black? Your friends are trying to talk to you," she said, pointing to where James, Peter and Remus were hiding. Peter was mouthing if it was okay to come, accompanied by exaggerated hand gestures. Sirius rubbed his nose, both from embarrassment and exasperation at Peter's subtlety.

By the time he realized that he had just unconsciously given the secret sign, it was too late. The three of them had made their way over to the table.

"Come and sit down, there's plenty of space," May said, patting the empty seat next to her. Remus and Sirius flanked either side of her whereas James and Peter sat directly opposite.

There was a moment of awkward silence, until Sirius, as always, managed to break it.

"Look, that was a great prank and all, but you really need to change our dorm back," he said, abandoning all pretence and the plan.

"And if you do, then you can be our pranking apprentice," Peter added proudly.

May's eyebrows were raised so high that they were almost in danger of disappearing into her hairline.

"What makes you think I want to be your apprentice?" she asked.

"I'm not going to say I told you so, but I told you so."

"Shut up Moon-face,"

Remus just rolled his eyes and focused his attention on the toast in front of him.

"I'm not going to change your dorm back until I get a proper apology," May said, folding her arms in front of her chest.

James cast a furtive look around before lowering his voice. Their 'little' conversation was drawing a lot of attention and eavesdropping. After all, why would the most popular guys at school be talking to a Hufflepuff, let alone be apologising? (A lot of the young witches and wizards had very keen ears).

"Fine. I….we're sorry," he said in a sulky whisper.

May replied with a dry chuckle. "That's not the type of apology I accept,"

"Well, how do we apologise to you, Oh Great and Mighty May Trim?" Sirius asked. His patience was rapidly running out.

May leaned over and whispered something in his ear. Sirius's eyes went wide and he hastily shook his head.

"I'm not doing that!" he hissed and shook his head, his black hair falling over his eyes and making the girls around him sigh.

"Then, by all means have fun going to sleep in a Hufflepuff beehive," she shrugged, unconcerned, and picked up a piece of toast.

Sirius gave her a half-hearted glare. In truth, he was grudgingly impressed that a Hufflepuff of all people could be this devious. And he did like attention.

He leapt up onto the table, and shouts of surprise from everyone followed suit. He cleared his throat a straightened up.

"Ladies, gentlemen and Remus," he began, ignoring Remus's offended hey, "Yesterday at dinner time, me and my comrades Jamie and Peter here have wrongly treated this young, beautiful lady near me. I would like to apologize and also add that I and my friends are dunderheads who have no idea how to properly treat a lady. I swear that I will never be the annoying toe wart that I am, ever again."

May gave a pointed look towards James and Peter, who also stood up, with some grumbling.

"As Sirius said, we would like to apologise to the git…uh, lady in front of us and not be the annoying toe-rag that I am." James said, pretending that he was extremely ashamed.

"I will also stop assisting my dunderhead friends in their amateur pranks and think before I act," Peter added, with a hesitant look at James and Sirius.

This might have been an impressive speech had it not been for the fact that the owl post came in at that exact moment and all three of them fell off the table with loud shrieks. The resulting chaos that followed took several minutes to sort out, as everyone was laughing too hard to do anything other than hold their stomachs. The screeches of the owls and 'colourful'words of the three marauders as they gingerly rubbed their backsides added to the din, and it wasn't until Dumbledore, with his eyes twinkling, clapped his hands and that the laughter subsided.

"There, happy now?" Peter asked and the three of them turned towards Remus and May with frowns on their faces.

May's face was flushed from laughter as she nodded weakly at them and Remus still had tears in his eyes.

"That was brilliant. Okay, apology accepted, I'll change your dorm back."

"Would have been great if you said that before I ruptured my spine," Sirius grumbled, but then gave her a grin.

May stood up and grabbed her satchel, waved at the marauders and made her way out. Her left hand was still clutching her stomach as the marauders went back to the Gryffindor table to regain what little dignity they had left.