Chapter 26

October 5th 1976

"Tell me again why we are sitting out here?" Vega complained while nudging Remus.

Things had been quiet for the Marauders, James had insisted on it, Sirius and Castor staying out of trouble meant they wouldn't miss training. In fact Vega was highly suspicious that it wouldn't take long for Sirius to snap from the lack of pranking other students or Filch or for even hexing the Slytherin students.

"You and I both know the rest of them enjoy having us out here watching them"

"No I believe Padfoot enjoys the look on the other girls faces when he notices the jealously they have towards me" Remus raised an eyebrow at the bitter tone to her voice.

"Don't tell me they have started annoying you again"

"No, no they have kept away this year. They heard what the Slytherin girls did in the bathroom and their punishment, plus I also think the fact that Pads and I are still together helps since technically this is his longest relationship"

"Don't tell me you are still worried about him leaving you?"

"Oh come on don't tell you haven't noticed he is different, he has been for a while now"

"What do you mean different?"

"I think the lack of sex is getting to him Moony, he hasn't had sex for almost a year"

Remus was shocked, he didn't want to talk to her about this. He saw her as his sister, he was just glad Sirius kept quiet about their relationship but he suspected that was because of Castor. "Why can't you talk to Lily or Alice about this?"

"Because they don't know him like you do"

"I sure as hell don't want to think about you two having sex"

"Please Moony" Vega pouted at him and it wouldn't take long for him to give in

"Fine but seriously I doubt he will leave you because you won't have sex with him, have you spoken to him about it?"

"No but when exactly do we get the time alone to have the chance?"

"No idea and point taken, I know he won't take you into empty classrooms and it's not like he can use our dorm"

"Exactly but still my worry stands and I think that fact that Prongs is making us all stay out of trouble is also getting to him"

"How about this, you talk to Padfoot about the sex issue while I talk to Prongs about the pranking issue. Maybe I can get him to agree to something on Halloween"

"Why can't we switch?"

"Oh no, I am not talking to Padfoot about his sex life. It's bad enough I had to talk to you about yours"

"That was nothing, you should hear what I talk about with the girls"

"No, I do not want to hear about it. Please continue talking to the girls about it"

"Oh come on Moony, you aren't the least bit interested in what we all talk about? Who they are all interested in?"

"Nope not at all" Remus shook his head and Vega couldn't help but laugh

"Oh come on you've gone on less dates then Wormtail"

"And you know why"

"Don't let your furry little problem prevent you from dating"

"How about this, you talk to Padfoot about your lack of sex life and your concerns then I will think about going on a date"

"That is too easy and look at that training is finished"

"V come on I wasn't serious"

"Fine but you can't hold back because of it, you are a great guy and any girl will be lucky to have you" Vega gave him a smile and placed a hand on his arm

"I have to go, I will see you later"

"Moony wait" Vega called after Remus but he didn't turn around or even stop he just continued towards the stairs.

It was a couple of days later and Vega nor Remus both had yet to talk to Sirius or James about their intended topic. The Marauders were currently sitting in the common room going over homework, well Remus and Vega were doing homework while James was going over Quidditch plays, Sirius was goofing off, Peter was asleep and Castor was too busy staring at Elizabeth.

"You should stop doing homework and sneak upstairs with me" Sirius whispered in Vega's ear but all she did was turn and look at him with a raised eyebrow and he grinned at her.

"Nope, we actually need to talk"

"What about babe?"

"Later, just wait until everyone has cleared out"

"Babe?" Sirius was worried, he knew what that meant. He knew the 'we need to talk' was code for I'm breaking up with you, he didn't want to lose her.

"Its fine Pads, I just want to have it in private"

"Then come upstairs"

"And if the boys follow us?"

"We can tell them we need to talk"

"We can just wait until everyone has cleared out, it won't take long. It's pretty empty anyway" Vega kissed Sirius' cheek and she noticed the look on his face but he didn't say anything.

Eventually the common room cleared out, in fact Castor was the last one to leave warning Sirius about not taking too long but both Sirius and Vega knew the warning wasn't about staying up late instead it was more about the two of them being alone in a room and given Sirius' past and Vega refusing to talk to Castor about her love life no matter how much he tried to get it out of her.

"We're alone what did you want to talk about?" Sirius spoke as soon as Castor was out of sight.

"Jump right on that why don't you?"

"Babe I've been worried ever since you said you wanted to talk"

"It's nothing, well sort of nothing. It's about sex"

"Ohh, what about it?" Sirius voice was soft, he knew this was something they had to talk about at some point but with Castor breathing down their necks they never really had the chance to be alone long enough to even get close to having sex.

"Why are you so worried?"

"Let's start with the fact that you know I've had sex and something tells me you haven't"

"That would be it"

"Babe surely you know I won't pressure you to do anything you aren't ready for" Sirius gave her a smile as he leaned over and caressed her cheek

"But aren't you struggling without it? It's been almost a year since the last time I could think of you having sex"

"Babe, I've only had sex a couple of times and with that girl you found me in the classroom with. I haven't had sex since then"

"But Henderson?"

"Wouldn't, she wanted to wait until she was married but she was also more than happy to let the rumours float around about us. Please don't tell me…"

"Tell you that I've been worried you'll get fed up waiting and break up with me?" Sirius smiled at her before laughing, Vega didn't even have the chance to frown at him before he leaned over and kissed her.

"Vega I know you didn't exactly come to us about that sort of thing before we started dating but I had a feeling you hadn't had sex yet mainly because you've only dated McLaggen and something tells me you aren't an empty classroom type of girl, I knew what I was getting into when I fell for you that also included having your brother breathing down our necks"

"We're alone now" Vega smiled at him before wrapping her arms around his neck

"That we are, that we are" Sirius smiled back at her before pressing his lips against hers.

It was the week leading up to Halloween and Remus had held his end of the deal with Vega and talked to James, he was more than happy to agree to the Halloween prank and Sirius was bouncing up and joy when he heard that James had agreed and he instantly begun coming up with plans.

"Oh come on seriously, Padfoot this idea is going to get barking balls added to the list of banned items" Remus looked over at Sirius, he was laying on his bed throwing one of the training Quaffles up and down in the air. In fact that was how he came up with the idea.

"Yes Moony a list that compromises of products mostly because of us"

"Moony he has a point"

"Don't start Prongs"

"Oh come on Moony, this is only going to cause harm to Filch what is the worse that is going to happen. No one is going to know it's us"

"V I can't believe you're agreeing to this"

"Because nothing can go wrong, we can sneak down to his office and place the box without being caught and we can also sneak down to Hogsmeade without being caught"

"This is still insane, I've liked the quiet year"

"No you haven't you're worried they were going to snap at one point"

"Oh shush V"

"Don't start Moony, if you don't want to help then don't but I'm all for this. Filch is annoying me and he needs pay back, I got a detention for sneezing in the hallway the other day"

"Alright fine I'm in" Remus finally gave in and the boys all had massive grins on their faces.

"Wait what do barking balls do?" Peter piped in and everyone laughed at him

"Oh come on Worms, surely you know what they do"

"I'm actually surprised they aren't already banned" Vega spoke to no one in particular

"Yes anyway, Wormtail what they do is weird and I would love to know the charm behind them so we can do our own. They are perfectly quiet and look like normal balls until they bounce, once they've bounced they chase the person closest to them continually barking. Depending on how much money you have paid for the product depends on how well it is, sometimes you can buy ones that are charmed so they only bark for the person they are chasing"

"Oh wow, poor Filch"

"Yeah and if we're lucky they bite" James grinned

"We are not buying biting ones Prongs"

"Oh come on V"

"No way, I draw the line at the personal barking ones. Those things are loud when they are chasing you"

"How do you know V?"

"She accidently dropped one when we were younger, she was running around the house crying trying to get it to stop"

"Ass" Vega hit Castor over the back of the head but all it did was cause the rest of the boys to begin laughing at the two of them.

The next night they had snuck downstairs and placed the box above Filch's office door, Vega placed a charm that held the box up in the air until the door opened and they all hoped that it was Filch that opened the door.

They were eagerly sitting in the Great Hall the following morning waiting with anticipation until when Filch had come into the Hall. They were worried something went wrong since it was taking so long for him to enter the hall but soon enough they were glad to see a reaction.

Filch had finally entered the Great Hall yelling and screaming while being chased by bouncing balls that weren't making any sound but everyone knew what they were and knew that a lot of money was paid so that only Filch was the only one to hear the barking.

The students were spilt, most of them were laughing but the ones who had been on the end of them before were sympathetic towards him having known how loud and annoying they could be but the fact that it was rumoured that Filch was a squid since no one ever saw him with a wand or produce a single spell that was bit funnier to everyone else that was already laughing.

A/N: As far as I know barking balls aren't a part of the Harry Potter and it is something I made up for the story.