The Marauders had figured out the plan within an hour. By then, History of Magic was practically over. Since they hadn't shown up, people would assume that they wouldn't be in lessons. Hopefully it would work to their advantage.
Shrouded in the invisibility cloak, they crept through the empty corridors.
"Which way to the storeroom?" Peter whispered.
"Left and down a flight," Remus whispered back.
They lapsed back into silence as they made their way around the corner and down a flight of stairs. A minute or so later, they were in front of a small wooden door, which had been latched shut.
"Alohomora," Sirius muttered.
The latch undid itself with a click, and the Marauders slipped inside of the storeroom.
"We're going to need boom berries, dragon horn, fluxweed, lacewing flies, and essence of wormwood," Remus said.
"Alright," James said. "Can anyone read this? I think this one says 'bat spleens,' but I'm not sure."
"Lumos," Peter said, sticking his wand hand out of the cloak.
"We'll get caught!" James protested.
"We can't see anything, we'll just have to be fast," Sirius said.
With a sigh, James drew his own wand and began reading through the various labels.
They were out of the Potions storeroom soon enough, and then it was back to the dormitory, where Peter pulled out his cauldron and Remus his textbook.
"It needs about an hour to simmer," Remus said, pointing at the passage. "That's when we can go out to the forest and get that scale. Someone will need to stay here to stir every so often, though."
"I'll stay, I'm the best here at potion making and all that," Sirius volunteered, almost eagerly. "Just don't have any fun without me."
"No promises," James said, oblivious to his friend's lack of want for adventure. "So what do we do first?"
"We need a fire," Remus said, "but I'm not sure how that will work, because I don't think anyone would appreciate the dorm on fire."
"Relax, that was only once in first year. Incendio!" James pointed his wand at the cauldron.
There was a spark, but nothing else happened.
"Why didn't it work?"
"Because the cauldron is fireproofed. Here, grab mine. We can throw some old papers into it, start those on fire, and then set Peter's on top of mine," Remus said.
It took a good five minutes to set up the workspace, and another half hour to get the potion to the simmering point.
"I'd better not miss anything," Sirius said as the others got ready to sneak back out.
"You won't. That is, unless we find that group of Red Caps," James said.
"Don't find them without me," Sirius said.
"We aren't planning on it," Remus assured him.
"Alright, let's go," James said.
He, Peter, and Remus disappeared once again under the invisibility cloak, and they began their walk through the newly fallen snow to the Forbidden Forest.
When they had gotten past the tree line, the light dimmed slightly as they followed the slightly-tread upon path.
It took a few short minutes to reach the location of Adain's cage.
Adain was pacing back and forth, watching the forest from behind the metal bars. She looked back and forth in an almost bored manner.
"I don't see any scales," James said.
"They'll be buried, it just stopped snowing not too long ago," Remus said.
"Good point," James said, "but do we really have to dig through the snow?"
"Unless you've got a better idea?" Remus said casually, making to remove the cloak.
"Accio dragon scale," James said smugly.
Like a bullet, a green scale shot from beneath the snow cover and into James' hand, which he had stuck out from under the cloak.
Adain's earthy brown eyes snapped to where James' hand had appeared and swiftly vanished. She gave a odd noise, somewhere between a growl and a chuff.
"What does that mean?" Peter asked nervously.
"She knows that we're here," Remus said. "We should get back."
"Agreed," James said. "Doesn't Kettleburn have another class this hour?"
"Probably."
Quietly as possible, they began to hurry back to the castle.
They returned as Sirius was completing his third stirring session.
"You're back. Brilliant. Did you stop by the kitchens?" he asked.
"No," James said. "We got the scale, though."
"Remind me why we needed one from Addy," Sirius said.
"Adain," Remus corrected, "and it was because it had to be from a live dragon. The scales in the storeroom were years old, there was no way of telling whether their owners were alive or not."
"What would happen if we had used one of the scales from a dead dragon?" James asked.
"We would have zombie dragon hybrids," Remus said seriously.
"That would be brilliant," James said, while Sirius asked, "What's a zombie?"
"They're dead people that have been resurrected," Peter explained.
"Aren't those called inferi?" Sirius said.
Peter shrugged.
"Anyway, can someone take this over or go down to the kitchens? I'm starved!"
Sirius said.
"You keep stirring," James said. "Peter, I'm enlisting you to journey to the kitchens with me to grab lunch. Remus, make sure he doesn't blow anything up."
With that, James and Peter vanished yet again under the cloak.
"We're getting our use out of that thing," Sirius noted.
"Yeah," Remus agreed.
They were quiet for a moment.
"You don't usually volunteer to stay behind," Remus said at last.
"Just didn't feel like it," Sirius said, suddenly sounding sharp.
"It's about what Regulus said earlier, isn't it?" Before Sirius could make a retort, Remus pressed on, "You don't have to talk about it, I'm not going to force you, but if you want to, I'll listen."
There was quiet, then-
"The last time they were proud of me- really proud of me, I mean- was the beginning of the summer before first year. I singled out a shopkeeper as a muggle-born. They were so proud," Sirius said bitterly, "So bloody damned proud. The shopkeeper, instead of looking 'put in his place,' as Mum and Dad always called their hurt looks, was more angry than hurt. He shouted at my mum and dad, told them off for raising me to judge people that way. Then he turned to me and said that if you really want to judge a person, you do it based off of how they treat their inferiors, not their equals. I was confused, and asked my mum what he meant. She told me not to think on it, then shouted at the shopkeeper for putting ideas in my head, then hexed him so badly he had to go to St. Mungo's. After that, they told me they'd buy me an owl if I didn't think on what he had said. I agreed, and I was true to my word; I didn't give it any thought until that train ride to Hogwarts, when I met you, James, and Peter. Then you three and Minnie were able to straighten me out. When I went home for the Christmas holidays, my mum had been sorely disappointed because I had been put in Gryffindor, and she was beyond furious when I referred to Evans as a 'muggle-born' and not a you-know-what. As punishment for letting myself go soft, she used…. Well, you know."
Remus was unable to keep quiet any longer. "Sirius-"
"She said it was also punishment for disgracing the Noble House of Black, for not making her proud." Sirius' voice dropped in volume as he whispered almost inaudibly, "I said that maybe I didn't want to make her proud. She then shouted a bit, and told me that if I ever changed my mind, she'd be happy to remind me of my place. If making her proud means being like her, using that, judging people right away, being so uptight and snobbish and loud, then I don't want to do anything that even resembles something that would."
The two were silent as this sank in.
"For what it's worth," Remus said eventually, "I don't think that you're much like your mum. Well, based off of what you've said."
"Thanks," Sirius said.
"Hey," Remus said softly, "If you do happen to make them proud, at least you did it for you, not them."
"That's a good way to think of it," Sirius said with a weak smile.
They sat quietly for a few minutes before Sirius gave a start. "I should be stirring, shouldn't I?"
"How long has it been since you last stirred?" Remus asked.
"Ten minutes or so," Sirius said.
"Then yeah."
Sirius moved towards the cauldron, picked up his stirring stick, and began to swirl the mixture in a counterclockwise manner. He repeated this motion a few times before switching to a clockwise stir. "Why does the direction and the number of times you stir even matter?" he said. "It's pointless, and it just makes your arm hurt."
"Well, sometimes it's based on how the ingredients have to be distributed," Remus explained, "Other times-"
"No, I know, but it's impractical. I mean, for this, you stir seven times counterclockwise, then twelve times clockwise. Why don't you just stir it five times clockwise?"
"I don't know…." Remus thought for a moment. "I bet we covered it in first year, though. I should look through that textbook." He stood and moved to rummage through his trunk.
"You have your first year textbooks here?" Sirius said.
"Yeah, they're good to have on hand."
"You really are a nerd."
"Indeed I am," Remus said, holding up the textbook he had recovered. Sitting down on his four poster bed, he began paying through the book.
It was then that James and Peter came back, arms laden with food.
"We have food!" Peter announced.
"And good news," James added.
Sirius grabbed a biscuit and popped it into his mouth.
"Don't eat by the cauldron, something could get in the potion and ruin it, or you could accidentally eat some of the potion ingredients and poison yourself," Remus said disapprovingly.
Sirius sighed, but took a few steps back from the cauldron.
"Anyway, you'll want to hear the good news," James said excitedly. "We ran into Minnie in the kitchens, and she asked us where we had been during lessons because there was no way we were all sick at the same time. I told her that we were planning something- hypothetically- and she said after that, 'Hypothetically, Mr. Potter, Mr. Pettigrew, even after all the trouble you've caused, the headmaster isn't going to expel any of you. Hypothetically, he's found you quite entertaining. In fact, he wants to give you an award for special services to the school.'"
"That last part isn't true," Remus said. "There's no way he would do that."
"He gave me points to Gryffindor when I kissed Minnie," Sirius pointed out.
"Well, you can't blame me for embellishing a bit," James shrugged. "Anyway, the good news is, we won't be expelled!"
"You're not joking?" Remus checked.
"I'm as serious as Sirius," James assured him solemnly.
"And I'm always Sirius," Sirius nodded.
Remus grinned.
"Which means we can still pull off this prank," James said. "And I think we get a free pass on the Transfiguration homework, so nothing from Minnie to worry about."
"Brilliant," Sirius said. "I just finished the last rotation, by the way, so we're onto the owls now. I was thinking that since you and Peter were off in the kitchens, Remus and I could take care of the owlery."
Peter shrugged. "It might go faster that way."
"What do you mean?" James asked.
"You and Sirius always argue over which owl you use," Peter said.
"Good point," James said.
"Alright, then Remus and I will be off," Sirius said. "Remus, mate, let's go."
"Hold on, I think that I found the answer to that question about stirring rotations-" Remus started, but was cut off.
"That was rhetorical. Let's go," Sirius said. He then took the book out of Remus' hand and began dragging him out of the dormitory.
"You don't have to kidnap me," Remus said.
"You weren't moving," Sirius said. They exited the dormitory, then clambered out of the portrait hole. "Anyway, I wanted to say thanks. You know, for listening."
"You do it for me," Remus said simply. "It helps to talk it out, and sometimes to have someone tell you that you that you're going about it all wrong."
"Yeah," Sirius agreed.
They walked quietly for a few minutes before Remus exclaimed, "Bugger!"
Sirius looked to him, startled.
"We forgot the cloak," Remus said.
"Oh," Sirius said. "Oh yeah, we did. Well, at least everyone is is class and at lunch or something."
"We'd better not get caught," Remus said.
"Relax, we'll be fine," Sirius assured him.
The conversation became more casual as they went on. Eventually, they reached the owlery, which was, thankfully, empty.
"How many owls do we need?" Sirius asked.
"I think we were doing eight," Remus replied.
"Alright," Sirius said. "You grab four and I'll grab four."
The two were pretty quick in selecting the owls. Within five minutes, they had eight that they began to corral back to Gryffindor Tower.
Fortunately, the corridors were still empty and devoid of both students and staff. That being said, it still took a good twenty minutes of hassle to get the owls up to the dormitory.
James and Peter were waiting when they entered the dormitory, arms laden with birds.
"It's time," James said.
"Did you add the scale?" Remus checked.
"What? Oh-" James tossed the scale into the cauldron. The liquid inside it turned a light blue shade as the scale dissolved. "Now I did."
"What's the stirring pattern?" Sirius said, shooing the owls off of him.
"Three times clockwise and four counterclockwise," James said, glancing at an open textbook.
Sirius did as instructed.
"Now it's time," James said. "Peter, grab the ladle, we've got some owls to feed."