Author's Note: Sorry about the last chapter, there was about a million typing errors, and I didn't realise FanFic didn't recognise stars, so that's why there's big jumps. So yeah…

Chapter 4 The days drew on, and the animosity between Sirius and James didn't look like it was going to blow away, in fact, quite the opposite seemed true for the pranks they played on each other worsened by day. This resulted in them having several points docked from Gryffindor, and earning themselves several detentions together.

It was with an immensely heavy heart and even heavier feet that took James to McGonagall's office at 7:30 on Monday evening. Knocking on the heavy oak door to alert her of his presence, he opened the door and shot Sirius who was already there a particularly dirty look.

'Right, you both know why you're here.'

James nodded his head in a non-committal manner, whilst Sirius answered brightly: 'Yes Professor McGonagall.'

'For your detention you are to scrape the mucus left by the Flobberworms off the desk, no magic is to be used. Just good old fashioned elbow-grease.'

James' nose wrinkled slightly at the thought, of all detentions…it would be mucus. From the look on Sirius' face, he was none to pleased about it either. 'Why?' Sirius demanded.

McGonagall fixed Sirius in a very steely gaze, 'I don't know what your idea of detention is, Mr. Black, but here at Hogwarts its known to be a punishment, and if that means cleaning up mucus from desks, then so be it.'

'Why should we?' James joined in, determined not to appear a goody-goody in front of Sirius.

'Because it is your punishment.'

'What? For belching?' Sirius half shouted.

'For displaying disgraceful and uncouth mannerisms,' her spectacles flashed angrily, 'do not undermine my authority, or I shall keep you here longer than I intended to do so in the first place.

The pair of them gave McGonagall identical black looks, before rolling up their sleeves and slaving away at the desktops.

Remus looked up from his Potions homework and smiled at Peter who was sitting opposite him. 'Are you alright Peter?' he asked pleasantly.

Peter nodded his head in deadly earnest and looked at the blank piece of paper in front of him, with the title scrawled across the top in fading blue ink.

'Are you sure?' Remus persisted.

'Um…I'm a little confused,' Peter slowly admitted, underlining his title, only to find that there was no ink in his inkwell left.

'Here, you can share mine,' Remus said warmly, nudging his own inkwell towards Peter, 'and what are you stuck on?'

'I just don't get it,' Peter blushed heavily. 'I'm not stupid or anything, I just…'

'Alright, alright,' Remus thumbed through his Potions textbook and opened it to the appropriate pages. 'You just need to read through pages 64 to 69 and summarise in your own words.'

'What does summarise mean?' squeaked Peter, flicking his own book open and knocking Remus' inkwell over, and spilling all the content.

Bending down to clear up the puddle of blue ink, Remus looked up at Peter, 'to shorten.'

'Oh right!' a very peculiar form of a smile wiped across Peter's rat-like face. 'I can do that.'

'Of course you can,' Remus grinned as he sat back up, his hands noticeably inkier than what they had been just minutes previously.

They fell silent for a while, all that could be heard was the cackle of the lit fire, the scratching of their quills and people around them just talking.

'Excuse me?' a girl tapped Remus lightly on the shoulder.

Remus finished his sentence and looked up, 'yes Lily?' he asked.

'D'you know where James is?' she asked, running a hand through her dark red locks.

'He's in detention with Professor McGonagall,' Peter squeaked, dropping his quill at the mere excitement of talking to a girl.

Lily raised an eyebrow at him, but a sweet smiled graced her lips, 'Oh…thanks anyway Remus and…Peter?'

Peter verified this with a bouncy nod of the head.

'What do you want with him anyway?' Remus asked her.

'No, I was just wondering, the Common Room seemed very quiet…'

Remus laughed, 'true…probably because Sirius and he aren't shouting at each other.'

Lily joined in with the laughter, before returning to her friends.

'Remus?' Peter squeaked nervously.

'Yes?'

'Can we be friends?'

Remus smiled and nodded, 'Sure, I'd like that.'

Just do it Sirius

Sirius shook himself mentally, clutching the wet sponge as tightly as he could without causing all the water to cascade over him.

But look…his back is to you, and he's bent over…it would so get him back for staining your trousers…

At the thought of getting his revenge on James, Sirius couldn't help but grin, and without thinking about it, he dunked his sponge into the bucket and hurled it at James, hitting him square on the arse.

James jerked up at once, whacking his head on the edge of the table, causing himself to fall backwards and land on his arse. Slightly dizzy and under the impression he was concussed, he got up and span around, picking up his bucket and throwing its content over Sirius, who ducked last minute, so the water splashed all over McGonagall who had picked this moment to walk in.

She stood there, dripping for a minute, looking down at her soaking form, before looking up and fixing James with a furious look. 'WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS TOMFOOLERY?' She shouted at him.

Sirius hurriedly turned around, shaking at the supreme effort of not laughing.

'AND IF YOU THINK ITS FUNNY,' she shouted at Sirius, 'YOU CAN JOIN MR. POTTER FOR A DETENTION HERE, NEXT WEEK.' Storming over to her desk she rummaged through a cupboard to write them each a detention slip.

James scowled at Sirius, of whom tears of laughter were streaming down his cheeks. 'You're so immature!' he hissed at him.

Sniggering, Sirius returned to wiping the tables, 'I'm not the one who wet himself…'

'I'm not the one who shit himself,' James retorted, anger beginning to better him.

Sirius scowled, and he spoke with dangerously smooth tones, 'Didn't anyone ever tell you that revenge is sweet mate?'

'Aww…do you want a little cheese to go with your wine?' James snapped back.

Sirius stood there, eyeing James warily, before turning around and sloshing the sponge back on the table and scrubbing and the desktop as though James' face was blemishing the surface and he simply wanted to wipe it out.