Sweet Success

As soon as they entered the shop, James was immediately on his guard. Sure enough, was sat at the counter glowering at anyone within his line of sight. Anyone who fell for his "weak old man" disguise clearly had not spent enough time under the man's lethal hawk-eye gaze. If he even so much as saw you breathe on treats you hadn't bought, you'd be seen; and Mr. Honeyduke would be planning his sweet revenge the moment the air left your lungs.

The old man watched the four boys enter with a cold, unflinching stare.

'If his merchandise wasn't so damn tasty, I doubt he'd have any business!' Sirius whispered to Remus, making him snort loudly.

'True.' James said casually, trying to blend in with the rest of the shops customers, but he was trying too hard and his walk looked more like a strange dance.

'James, stop walking like that. You look ridiculous.' Remus sniggered, and James immediately stopped walking , looked around, and then carried on in a slightly less ridiculous way, letting his dark hair flop mischievously back over his face.

'What's your target?' Sirius asked subtly. James scanned the counter as inconspicuously as he could manage, spotting the little golden bags of honey flavored toffees that he had seen Lily squealing over last year on the train. Maybe I can use this to my advantage James thought sneakily. If I bring them back for Lily, it might get me one step closer to her forgiveness. As he thought, a cheeky grin played at his lips.

"The honey-toffee" he said, his eyes twinkled as he thought up a plan. James glanced over at Mr. Honeyduke, whose expression made the Shrieking shack seem like the better option – despite Remus' warnings – but James quite liked the challenge. Challenges were his strong-point. James grinned smugly as an idea came to him, laid out as perfectly as a game of Quidditch. He eyed the Honey-toffees which shone like the golden snitch in his mind's eye, before grabbing Peter and whispering harshly in his ear: 'Distract him while I sneak around. Buy something, compliment him, just do something. Got it wormy?' Peter nodded quickly before yelping as James shoved him forward so he was at the counter.

The old man looked Peter up and down before grinning with his nearly toothless smile and saying, 'What can I do you for today son?' Peter stalled a moment; he had no-idea what to do. He was supposed to be distracting this man but peter had never really been good at thinking on his feet.

'Um, w-what do you recommend for me s-sir?'

The old smiled again.

'Sir? I am but a humble shop-keeper, your formality is wasted on me.'

Peter nodded and relaxed a little. Out the corner of his eye he saw James sneaking around the side of the counter. His mind raced and his mouth took a while to catch up.

'So, erm. What would you recommend? My err mother wanted me to buy her something from Hogsmead to err send to her.' that wasn't a complete lie, his mother had asked him to buy something from Hogsmead, but she has said specifically not to buy sweets.

stroked his chin and showed the tips of his blackened teeth in a distrustful smile.

'What would I recommend eh?' his mouth opened a little wider and Peter could smell the strange fermented sugar on his breath. From beside the counter James pretended to gag and reached out carefully for the toffees.

'Son, this is my shop.' James stopped dead for a second, thinking the man had seen him. 'I'd recommend everything because to me I think all my sweets are good. That's why I sell them.' The man laughed and James continued to reach out, his pulse raising, his sight sharpening. Everything swirled into clarity and James could feel his heart-beat in his head; thumping like it did when he reached out for the snitch in Quidditch - that strange sensation of being on the edge of victory and failure, so precariously balanced between the two.

'S-sorry sir…err, Mr. shopkeeper man.' Peter blushed slightly at his foolishness and fumbled for words again. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw James straighten up, put the bag inside his jumper, and give him the thumbs-up. Peter looked at the old man and said quickly,

'You know what? I just remembered that my mother doesn't like sweets haha. S-silly me.' he turned suddenly and made a hasty retreat.

'So, did you get it?' Remus and Sirius both said at the same time whilst leaning forward with eagerness. James nodded smugly and the four boys cheered in hushed voices and slapped him on the back. They turned around to leave but leaning against the door was Professor Romulus, casually sucking a blood flavoured lollypop, his arms blocking their way out.

He crunched the sweet it in his teeth, and the boys could've sworn a small drop of actual blood ran down his chin, but it disappeared with a flick of his tongue so fast that they couldn't tell. Romulus' eyes drifted to James' jacket pocket, where he had stashed the stolen goods, and he raised his eyebrow at them. The four boy's faces dropped. Professor Romulus knew - and he was going to tell. They all braced themselves, but when the scolding they had expected didn't come; James looked up into Romulus' face and saw him give them a surreptitious wink before turning and swiftly leaving the shop. The boys stared after him a moment before grinning wildly at one another.

'Could that Professor get anymore awesome?!' Sirius said, waving his hands around ecstatically. 'I can't believe you got away with it!'

James grinned at Sirius and laughed but stopped when a hand gripped tightly on his shoulder.

'Where do you think you're going with that un-paid for merchandise of mine son?'

James turned to find himself face to face with, the now very angry, Mr. Honeyduke.

'I-I didn't steal anything sir.' James said as calmly as he could, but try as he might, his tone of voice could not hide his inner alarm.

'Boy! Don't lie to me!' the old man thrust the hand that wasn't clamped down on James' shoulder into James' pocket and pulled out the honey flavoured toffee he had nabbed only a few moments ago. James thought furiously back at Romulus' wink, thinking that the professor had probably told on him before he left, but then he made eye-contact with an overly self-satisfied Severus Snape, and the truth dawned on him.

'It was you! Wasn't it Snivelus?!' he shouted as Mr. Honeyduke pushed James and his friends outside his shop. 'I'll get you for this you filthy, slimy, greasy little – ' James' cursing was cut off as the door shut behind him, leaving him no other option than to face Mr. Honeyduke's wrath.

'You four boys are here-by banned from my shop, I don't ever want to see your thieving little faces again. Do I make myself clear? Now scram!' He slammed the door harder than necessary and left the boys to stare at each other in the ensuing silence.

Sirius was the first to laugh. 'Well, at least McGonagall didn't find ou-' Sirius was silenced by a tall figure looming over them. The growing look of disappointment on McGonagall face was ten times scarier than anything they'd ever seen in class, and they'd done some pretty bad stuff in class. All four boys gulped simultaneously.

'When we get back' McGonagall said with a voice like the quiet in the middle of a storm, silencing them before the chaos began. 'You will report immediately to my office. No dawdling. Now go and gather yourselves with the other students at the entrance of Hogsmede.' She left them then, the perfect image of quiet rage and controlled justice.

'Whose idiot plan was it to steal from Honeydukes?' McGonagall slammed her hands against her desk and the four boys in her office took a step back. Nothing in the world was scarier than McGonagall's perfect fury.

Remus took a cautiously small step forward and spoke very, very quietly.

'It was mine, professor.'

McGonagall blinked in surprise.

'Mr. Lupin? I would've expected this from Black or Potter, but not from you. Why?'

Remus shifted uncomfortably. 'We were doing dares, I didn't think it would do any harm.'

'Oh Merlin protect us, what other dares did you do before this?' McGonagall groaned.

Remus' voice shook a little as he answered. 'None. This was the first.'

'Well, it may have seemed like fun and games then, but theft is a criminal offence. I hope you boys realize that you can't go unpunished by the school. Twenty points each will be taken from Gryffindor and you will be banned from all future Hogsmede trips. There is nothing more I have to say to you. Goodbye.'

The boys stood where they were for a moment, their mouths wide open, and then James grabbed Remus by the shirt and growled threateningly at him.

'This is your fault Loopy! If we had just gone to the shrieking shack instead, we wouldn't have gotten banned! 'James punched Remus hard in the stomach, a little harder than he had planned, and Remus doubled over, clutching his midriff protectively.

James looked down at the red patch that had started to appear on Remus' shirt and his mouth made a startled 'o' before he knelt beside Remus and began stumbling over countless apologies, his face an open display of guilt and regret.

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to punch you that hard!'

'It's ok.' Remus managed to huff through clenched teeth, ignoring the stinging of tears in his eyes. 'There was already a cut, it just re-opened…not your fault…you didn't know…' Remus then promptly fell over backwards and his head smacked the floor, loud.

'Remus? Remus! Can you hear us?'

Sirius reached out and prodded him.

'W-we should take him to the hospital g-uys!' Peter stuttered, his eyes wide and terrified. The three boys struggled between them to lift Remus Lupin from where he lay and carried him down the hallway carefully.

A: Sorry we havnt updated in a while, we`ve both had exams and been ill :O

D: Fun times ;D

A: Yeah :/

R.L: ...

D: Stop faking it, we all know youre not unconcious...

R.L: ...

A: Umm Dark, i think he really is...

D: No no, hes fine. He'll get up in a minuite.

(2 hours later)

R.L: ...

D: Fine! Hes unconscious, lets take him to the hospital.

R.L: *suddenly sits up* NOOO! Not the hospital, i hate it there!

D: HA! I knew you were faking ;P

R.L: Whoops ^_^

A,D+R.L: Thanks for reading :D please review kindly