Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, his parent's, or their friends that I didn't make up.
Chapter 12 Maybe I'm being an Arse
By the end of the third week of September James had had enough of Sirius's behavior. Sirius was being completely ridiculous and it was time that he saw reason. As James headed back to the Gryffindor Common Room from Quidditch practice he decided that if Sirius wouldn't talk to him willingly then James would simply corner Sirius and make Sirius talk to him. James gave the password to the Fat Lady and entered the Common Room, looking for his friends. He spotted Remus and Peter playing chess and headed over to them.
"How was practice?" Remus asked as James walked up beside him.
"It was fine," James replied.
Remus who was used to that question being followed by at least a ten minute rehashing of how practice went looked up at James.
"Have either of you seen Padfoot?"
"He's upstairs, why?" Peter replied not looking up from the chessboard. He was winning.
"Because I've had enough of his nonsense. I'm going to make him see reason!" James declared his frustration evident in his voice. "And if we're going to help you with your furry little problem it would be better if he were speaking to me," James added in a more hushed voice.
With that James turned and marched up the stairs.
"Let's give them a few minutes before we go and stop them," Remus advised after a moment still looking at the foot of the stairs leading up to the boys' dormitory.
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," Peter replied. "Checkmate."
Remus looked at the board in disbelief and realized he'd lost…again. Not that this was entirely unusual. Peter might not be great in class, but he had an uncanny knack for chess.
Remus sighed. "Well let's clean up and then go stop them, shall we?"
In response Peter began to pick up the chess pieces, smiling, and put them back in their respective bags. Peter liked chess; it was the only thing he was better at then his friends, it was rare that any of the Marauders could beat him at it.
While all this was going on James was confronting Sirius…
"Hey, Sirius," James said as he entered.
Sirius ignored him and bent down to examine his parchment more closely.
"Sirius you're acting like a five year old!" James shouted angrily.
Sirius turned to face James, "And you're supposed to be my best mate, yet you put me in detention AND you took twenty points, that's two zero, from your own house!" Sirius yelled back.
"I was doing my job, you prat! Just because you're my best friend doesn't mean I can let you off the hook! It would have completely undermined my authority if I had just stood there and done nothing! Dumbledore trusted me to do this job and I am NOT going to screw it up!"
"But I'm your best mate!"
"If you really were my best mate you wouldn't have gone out of your way to try and make me look foolish. Some friend!" James hollered back now furious.
Sirius was at a loss for words so he did the only thing he could think of, he leapt at James knocking him to the ground.
Remus and Peter came in about thirty seconds later to find James and Sirius rolling around on the ground in a furious wrestling match. They stood in the doorway for a few moments watching. Only being able to discern the occasional, "Bloody prat!" "Kick your arse!" "Raving lunatic!"
After a few moments Remus stepped in or he tried at least, but he backed away quickly when a wayward punch almost hit him in the face.
"Break it up you two, come on now, you're supposed to be friends."
When this didn't work Remus looked at Peter.
"You take Sirius, I'll take James."
Remus nodded. "One, two, three!"
Remus and Peter charged at them. Peter grabbed James and pulled him backwards. Remus grabbed hold of Sirius as he tried to lunge at James again and pulled him over to the other side of the room as far away from James as he could get and still be in the room.
James calmed down a bit once he was separated from Sirius but Sirius was still struggling against Remus's grip.
"Come on you two," Remus growled. "This isn't how best friends are supposed to act."
"He started it!" Sirius shouted.
"No he didn't, you did!" Sirius stopped struggling momentarily and stared at Peter. It wasn't often that he was outspoken.
"Don't look at me like that. James told you to leave Snape alone and you didn't listen. If he hadn't given you detention and taken points when YOU didn't listen he would have looked like a fool and nobody would have taken him seriously as Head Boy. But you just kept at it with no thought to how your actions would affect your friend." Peter gave Sirius a significant look as he said this last part.
"That is so, so…!" Sirius fumed.
Sirius turned to Remus for support. "Wormtail's right mate. James would have looked like a fool if he hadn't punished you, did that ever occur to you?"
Sirius looked at Remus, then over at James and Peter. He sighed and hung his head.
"I'm sorry I was such an arse," he mumbled.
"Just don't do it again," James responded holding out his hand.
Sirius took it and pulled James into a manly backslapping hug.
