Severus was tied up to the bed.
A piece of tissue in his mouth was keeping him from speaking but his eyes were full of anger and embarrassment. He looked like he had been crying.
James untied him with a movement of wand and tried to approach him, but Severus had puuled out his wand too.
"You stay away from me", he said in a harsh voice.
Sirius, who has top laughing, raised both his hands.
"Listen", he said, "we won't do anything to you."
Severus snorted with disbelief.
"We have no memory of last night", Sirius continued, "and we're just trying to find Remus…"
"You don't remember anything from last night!" Severus interrupted, his voice high-pitched, like hysterical. "How convenient!"
James took a step forward, his hands also raised.
"We're sorry for whatever we might have done to you, Severus…"
"I doubt that", Severus interrupted again, holding his wand higher.
"I don't remember anything", James continued, "but I'm sorry for what I can see."
"No, you're not!" Severus shouted, his voice almost hysterical again. You just want me to help you find Lupin."
He walked pass them.
"You can kiss my ass!"
Sirius made a move to stop him, but James put himself between them.
"No", he said softly. He turned to watch Severus' back hurrying down the stairs. "I think we did enough to him already."
"Then what do we do next?" Sirius snapped, annoyed.
James took a deep breath, as if what he was gonna say was hard to let out.
"We go ask Evans."
Peter had a little laugh and Sirius smirked.
"Right behind you, Prongs!" Sirius said.
James shook his head, sighed deeply, and followed Severus' step down the stairs.
"This is gonna be so much fun."
It was Saturday, one semester away from the exams, which meant Lily Evans had every chance to be found at the library. James pushed the door with an expression on his face close to someone going to their best friend's funeral. The fear of embarrassment was strong on this one. Sirius bumped loudly into him, taking his place to lead the way.
"Cheer up, Prongs!" He said, a little bit too loudly. "I ain't dead just yet and her having seen you with your pants off is just another version of first base!"
The librarian glared at them with discontent.
Sirius spotted Lily, sitting alone at a table, and sat by her side. James swaggered his way to her other side, and Peter let himself down on a chair facing them.
"What is it?" Lily said in a bored voice, without looking up, her eyes fixed on her book. "I'm in no mood for a lap dance, Potter."
Sirius and Peter giggled, but James ran his fingers through his hair and said, with a smug expression on his face:
"Everybody says that until they eventually get a lap dance from me."
"Yeah, just ask Peter!" Sirius added. "Listen", he continued quickly, preventing James from protesting, "we don't remember anything from last night and we lost Remus. Can you walkus through what happened with you?"
Lily glanced at him for a few seconds, squinting. She looked like she wasn't sure if he was making fun of her or not. Finally, she took a deep breath, put her book down, flat on the table, and turned to face Sirius. She was turning her back on James who seemed deeply annoyed by it.
"I don't know exactly what had happened between the moment you first left the Common Room because you were hungry and when you returned, but at about 3 am, all four of you stumbled in the Common Room, apparently coming back from the park. I was alone so you –", she marked a pause to look at Sirius with immense annoyance, "decided that it was a great time for James to show me his 'attributes' – your words, not mine. Anyway, you all started singing and James took off his pants. I decided that it was time for me to go to bed, so I left you there."
Her monologue was followed by a long silence. Eventually, Sirius broke it by bursting out laughing. The librarian appeared out of nowhere to hit the back of his head with a book.
"My bad", Sirius said, tearing up.
"Do you remember anything about Remus?" asked Peter, probably to keep Lily from noticing James' very red face.
Lily frowned with concentration.
"I don't know", she said slowly. "None of you were really coherent… I think you mentioned the Great Hall."
The boys looked at each other, defeated.
"You know", Peter said, "maybe we missed him. We weren't very thorough in our search arounf the Great Hall."
James and Sirius frowned. Sirius seemed unsure, but James nodded.
"Worth a shot", he said. "Twenty bucks he's sitting at the Gryffindor's table with the worst headache ever and no idea what's going on."
"Bet taken", Sirius said.
They all stood up, thanking Lily for helping and made their way to the Great hall.