Chapter 28

"Peter stop! Don't add the streeler shells yet!" James exclaimed but he was too late, as Peter had already dropped them into the potion. The next thing that happened was an explosion that shook the dungeons, a purple fog so thick that you could see nothing filling the room immediately.

"Everyone, out!" Professor Slughorn called from somewhere in the middle of the fog.

"Where is out?!" Another student called in a panicked voice from somewhere on the other side of the fog.

"No idea!" James called back loudly making Sirius laugh on his right side.

It took them all a good while, but, despite the dense fog, all of the students managed to get out of the dungeon.

"Nice hair." Sirius commented with a grin.

"I can say the same to you." James answered as he pointed at Sirius' purple hair. All students that been inside the dungeon had their hair turned bright purple, and that includes every single hair: from eyelashes to Remus' hairy feet.

"Well, purple has always been my color." Sirius said with roughish smirk and a wink.

"I just hope it is not permanent." Remus stated, looking relaxed as if having purple hair was a common occurrence. Well, with them as friends, it could be a pretty common occurrence to wake up to different hair colors.

"Well if it is permanent you would be the first purple wolf." Peter said with a small crocked grin.

oOo

"For Merlin's sake, won't you hold still at least for a second?!" Ron cursed the wriggling rat in his grasp. Harry glared at the rat as he held the invisibility cloak over them.

"Ron, be quiet!" Hermione hissed back. Even though they were still outside, Hermione had the suspicion that some teacher could be patrolling the premise, which was also the reason why they were once again beneath the invisibility cloak.

"Easier said than done!" Ron muttered back as Scabbers, or rather, Wormtail continued to struggle in his grip. Hermione opened her mouth as if the argue but Harry interrupted the argument before it could break out.

"Guys, now is not the time for arguments." Harry whispered quietly. Hermione huffed and focused back on the way to the entrance. The castle was coming closer and closer as they descended up the hill.

One of the bushes started rustling. The three of them froze and let out a small sigh of relief when it was only Crookshanks that stepped out of the bushes. But with the appearance of the cat, Wormtail doubled his efforts to break free.

"Go away, Crookshanks." Hermione made a shooing motion but the cat walked directly towards them.

"As much as I no longer hate you, please don't come here." Ron said as tried to hold onto the desperately wiggling rat.

"Crookshanks, leave!" Harry exclaimed. Yet Crookshanks remained undeterred.

"Ouch, he bit me again!" Ron exclaimed as he winced. He had dropped the rat but had barely managed to catch its tail.

"Oh you big baby, give him to me!" Hermione said with an eye roll.

"Guys." Harry sighed still trying to shoo Crookshanks away.

Just as Ron handed Wormtail over to Hermione the rat bit her in the finger.

"Ouch!" Hermione exclaimed stumbling slightly, but effectively headbutting Ron.

"Ouch!" Ron dropped the rat, which immediately scurried away through the grass, Crookshanks right behind him. Before Harry or Hermione could do anything, Ron pulled the cloak off of himself to run after Wormtail.

"Ron!" Hermione ran after him leaving Harry standing there alone underneath the cloak before he also pulled the cloak off of himself and ran after them, leaving the cloak lying in the grass.

"Go away Crookshanks!" He could hear Ron exclaim before there was the sound of something hitting the floor.

"Got ya!" Ron exclaimed. Hermione was trying to keep Crookshanks away and Harry had nearly stumbled over Ron who was lying on the floor, Wormtail tightly held in his hands. He had thrown himself on the floor to grab the rat, which was struggling to set itself free from the boy's tight grip

"Ron, come on we've got to get back." Hermione said as she acted as a human barrier between Crookshanks and Ron. Harry noticed something, or rather, he heard something. It sounded like the steady beat of a drum.

"All right, all right." Ron muttered as he got up. The sound had gotten closer and now Harry could identify it as the sound of big paws hitting the ground while running. A big black shadow appeared out of the darkness tackling Ron so that he went down with a shriek. A big black dog was towering over Ron. Padfoot, Harry's mind supplied, but before either he or Hermione could react, Sirius had grabbed Ron's trousers' leg with his teeth and started pulling him away. Harry tried to follow but something hit him in the face, making him stumble disoriented. A branch of the Whomping Willow had hit him in the face, he was able to see after he managed to balance himself again. Harry could taste blood from his split lip. Ron and Sirius were directly beneath the willow, out of the range of its deathly branches, but those same branches prevented Hermione and Harry from stepping any closer.

"Ron!" Hermione called as they watched Sirius drag Ron into a hole between the earth and a root of the Whomping Willow.

"We've got to stop Sirius." Harry said as he struggled back onto his feet. Sirius would never harm Ron, the problem was Wormtail. His dad had warned him that if Sirius got his hands on Wormtail, he would rather kill him than capture him. They needed the rat alive in order to free Sirius.

"How?! We can't even go after them!" Hermione exclaimed with panic in her voice.

"Yes, you can." A voice whispered from behind Harry. Harry whirled around.

"Mum!" Harry tried to calm his erratic heartbeat.

"The knot near the base of the tree, touch it and the tree freezes." His mother said softly as she laid a hand on Harrys shoulder. Her other hand pointed to the knot she was talking about. "Meanwhile, I'm going to get your father, Sirius might listen to him." His mother kissed the crown of his head softly before disappearing like morning fog.

"Great, now we just need to get close enough without being knocked out." Hermione muttered as she pulled her wand. Yet, before either he or she could utter a single spell, Crookshanks jumped forward. He evaded the whipping branches with practiced ease as he ran through the grass. With his paw, Crookshanks touched the knot and the tree froze. The cat looked at them with intelligent eyes before disappearing inside the hole. Harry and Hermione scrambled after Crookshanks and followed him down into the darkness of the tunnel hidden beneath the Whomping Willow.

oOo

'"All right, you guys can stop laughing now!" James grumbled. Not that the statement stopped them in any way. Rather, it made Sirius and Peter laugh all the more.

"Seriously guys, what on earth am I supposed to do?" James exclaimed as he dropped his heavy head on his hands.

"Just skip." Sirius said in between laughter.

"Great, but that is not the problem. Remus will see this and know what we're working on it again." James said as he pointed at his head.

"True, your antlers are a dead giveaway." Peter answered as he tried to stop laughing and failed. James glared at both Sirius and Peter. The antlers on his head were bloody heavy and made moving frustratingly unbalanced.

"Gahhh I am not leaving this bed ever again!" James exclaimed as he grabbed his blanket and hid beneath it. Sirius and Peter just continued laughing. Peter just padded his blanket covered shoulder as James grumbled beneath it. '

oOo

James stared at the essay in front of him and wondered for what felt like the millionth time whether or not he and his friends had been just as stupid as some of his students were during their Hogwarts years. It was not that hard to differentiate a Grindylow from a Merrow, yet one of his students had managed to conclude that they are one and the same, even though he had discussed both species in detail during his lessons. James sighed as he marked the essay.

The scratching of the quill on the parchment was the only sound that filled his office, which was odd in a way. He was used to all kind of complaining from Sirius when he was working. Thinking about his best friend, James realized that Sirius and Lily were supposed to be back that already, and yet they were nowhere to be seen. He frowned before grabbing the next essay. Well, at least this student had not thought that Grindylows and Merrows were equal, but she had still managed to confuse selkies and merrows, something which was a passable mistake, but still a mistake nonetheless.

"James!" At Lily's panicked call, he looked up from the parchment startled. He immediately got up and ran up towards her.

"Lils, sweetheart, what's wrong?" He laid his hands on her shoulders hastily.

"Peter, the kids, Sirius, Shrieking Shack, now!" It was thanks to the fact that he had known her since she was eleven that he understood the general gist of what she was saying. He grabbed his wand from his desk, and ran towards the door.

"In the Shrieking Shack, right?" James asked just to be sure before he left. She nodded, appearing by his side. "I will be there as fast as I can, go back to Harry." He kissed her on the cheek before she evaporated. Hastily he pulled the door open to come face to face with the Minister of Magic.

"Good evening, Professor Petterson." The git said in a calm voice. James gritted his teeth and wished that he had made sure that the slimy worm was incapable of bothering him.

"Good evening, Minister." James answered as the grip on his wand tightened. Now was really not the time for a visit from the Minister of Magic. He needed to get to Sirius and the kids. He didn't know whether or not Harry could prevent Sirius from murdering Peter for what he had done. He would need to get rid of Fudge as quickly as possible.

"May I come in?" Fudge asked.

"But of course." James smile was strained around the edge as he shut the door behind Fudge. In his mind, he was already going through all sorts of plans to get rid of Fudge and be able to run to the Shrieking Shack.

oOo

'Sirius stared at paper in front of him with something akin to disgust. The parchment was already half full with the words 'I shall not glue any student to the chandeliers nor shall I clue them to any other surface in the school'. He sneaked a glance over to James whose parchment was slowly being filled by the same words. The two of them looked at each other and rolled with their eyes. Detention was bloody boring, especially with Flitwick, who was engrossed in a book at the desk in the front.

The two of them startled when they heard the nearly silent squeak of the door opening. Flitwick luckily had not heard it. Peter peeked into the classroom. As silently as possible he sneaked inside, crouching low and hiding behind the scattered desks and chairs.

"Oh, our hero!" Sirius mouthed as Peter handed him their sugar fuel. Peter grinned before sneaking over to James to hand him his sugar as well. Peter winked at them before sneaking back out the way he came. The door closed behind him.

"Did you hear something just now?" Flitwick asked as looked up from his book.

"No, Professor." Both James and Sirius shook their heads all too aware of the sweets lying on their laps hidden by the desk. Flitwick shrugged and went back to his book.'

oOo

"Where does this lead to?" Hermione asked as she clutched Harry's arm. His wand was the only light source in the otherwise pitch-black tunnel.

"Dad never told me where it goes, and the Marauders Map doesn't go that far." Harry answered as they slowly walked deeper into the darkness. Roots were hanging from the ceiling brushing through their hair, making them startle thinking they were hands. It was damp down there and it smelled like earth and a little of mold.

It didn't take them long to reach the end of the tunnel. On the ceiling they could see a trapdoor made out of thick wood, a thick and heavy iron lock hanging on it. The lock was clearly open and this seemed to be the only way out of the corridor, so both teenagers were pretty sure this is where they should head to. Carefully, Harry went first. Only when he gave Hermione the all clear sign did she follow him.

They were standing in a room that looked like some beast had destroyed everything inside. Claw marks marked the walls and there wasn't anything that wasn't broken. They looked so deep it was a wonder that the wood of the walls had not broken. The furniture was destroyed and broken, lying scattered around the room. The windows had been nailed shut.

"The Shrieking Shack." Hermione breathed softly. Harry nodded as they slowly followed Crookshanks across the creaking floor towards the stairs. They jumped over the broken steps in the middle of the stairs before gently opening the door to the second floor.

"Harry! You could have told me that your godfather goes crazy in the face of rats!" Ron exclaimed from where he was sitting on the bed. He still had a struggling Wormtail in his hands. His trouser leg was ripped apart and looked slightly bloody. Crookshanks hissed dangerously at the sight of the rat.

"Never came up in a conversation!" Harry said as he entered the room and walked over to Ron's side, Hermione hot on his heels.

"Where is Sirius?" Harry asked after a moment of silence.

"Right behind you." Ron said as the door swung shut revealing Sirius standing behind it with his wand raised and pointed at Wormtail. His expression was stony and it looked like he wasn't even really breathing.

"Is he all right?" Hermione asked softly as she looked at Sirius with worried eyes.

"Really, Hermione? Does he look all right to you? No, he is most definitely not all right just the same as my leg is not all right." Ron stated dryly. At his words, she immediately crouched down to pull the fabric of the trouser on the injured leg aside.

"Ouch, be gentle, that hurts!" Ron exclaimed.

"What happened?" Harry asked as he looked at the still form of his godfather with worried eyes.

"No idea, he has been like this the whole time. Haunted and still." Ron answered as he suppressed a wince as Hermione looked at the bite marks on his legs.

"Sirius?" Harry asked softly as he slowly made his way over to Sirius. There was no reaction from him. His gaze never strayed from the rat.

"Padfoot?" Harry tried again. This time Sirius head whipped towards him. The storm grey eyes locked onto his before they immediately strayed back to Wormtail.

"Give me the goddamn rat." Sirius snarled his voice holding barely contained anger.

"No!" Harry and Ron said at the same time. Hermione was busy inspecting the damage to Ron's ankle and ignored what was going on around her since she believed that Sirius was not a threat.

"For what I think is the billionth time, no Sirius. You will not get the rat and kill him." Ron would have said it calmly had he not winced as Hermione ripped the fabric around his wound away. "Ouch, seriously, Mione, can't you be gentler?"

"I want to kill him." Sirius grey eyes were filled with anger as he stared at the rat like a predator awaiting one wrong move from its prey.

"No." Harry planted himself in the middle of Sirius' line of sight of Peter. He stood between Sirius and Ron with his arms crossed. "You can't, Padfoot."

"Don't protect him! He betrayed Lily and James! They died because of him! He needs to pay!" Sirius voice was filled with agony and rage, so much rage.

"I'm not nor will I ever protect him." Harry said softly as he stepped closer to his godfather. "The one I'm trying to protect is you, my godfather, Padfoot, my father's best friend, and not the traitor." Harry was now standing directly in front of Sirius.

"If you kill him, we have nothing that will prove your innocence and I can't lose you again." Harry hung his head as he as good as whispered the last words. He didn't look up but he let out a breath of relief when he was enveloped in a bone crushing hug.

"I'm sorry." Sirius whispered as he hugged Harry close. Harry shook his head softly. He could understand why Sirius would lose himself in anger. He would do the same had he not the goal of proving Sirius' innocence. He already wanted to punch the wiggling rat in Ron's grip more times than he could count.

"Sirius!" A voice called from downstairs. "Harry! Ron! Hermione!"

Harry stepped out of Sirius hug to call downstairs: "Up here, Moony!"

A panting Moony stepped inside the room. As he saw that all of them were unharmed, he let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank Merlin, I thought I was too late to stop him." Remus said as he walked over to Sirius' side. He was paler than usual Harry noted with a hint of worry.

"And you!" Remus glared at Sirius who took a step backwards.

"Didn't you promise us that you wouldn't run off after the rat on your own?" Remus asked as he raised an eyebrow his mouth set in a grim line. Sirius winced slightly.

"Eh, sorry" Sirius answered sheepishly. The person consumed by anger had completely vanished as he squirmed underneath Remus unrelenting glare.

"You idiot!" Remus exclaimed as he swatted the back of Sirius head. Ron was watching the whole exchange with barely contained amusement as Wormtail froze in his hands at the scene unfolding in front of him.

"Ouch, did you have to hit me?!"Sirius whined.

"What would have happened had it ended like last time?! Do you want to break him?!" Sirius' expression dropped at Remus' harsh words. He opened and closed his mouth but in the end not a word went past his lips. He just continued to look dejectedly at the floor. Remus expression softened.

"Just please think about us before you run after traitors that could hurt you." Remus said softly, pleading Sirius with his eyes. Sirius nodded.

"Professor!" Hermione called. She felt uncomfortable calling him anything other than that. "Could you help me?" She pointed at Ron's injured leg.

"Sirius!" Remus sent Sirius a reproachful look.

"I already apologized!" Sirius exclaimed as he raised his hands in surrender. Remus rolled his eyes as he conjured up a roll of bandage. He crouched down in front of Ron's leg and with practiced ease he started bandaging the boy's ankle. He ignored the rat that tried to squirm out of its previous owner's hold on purpose.

"Yeah, just before the whole Ron-give-me-the-rat-thing started. Ouch, does nobody here know how to be gentle?!" Ron exclaimed. Hermione just rolled her eyes.

"Why is it not written on the map that the tunnel leads to the Shrieking Shack?" Harry asked. The map was written so detailed that it seemed weird that it was not written on the map to where the tunnel leads. At Harry's question Sirius sent Remus a look. Remus sighed rubbing his temples.

"He told you about a secret concerning me, didn't he?" Remus asked softly as he stood up. Harry nodded. "And obviously he never told you what it was, respecting that it should be my choice. The reason that it is not written that the secret passage leads to the Shrieking Shack is that if it would ever fall into wrong hands that they couldn't figure out my secret. The marauders called and still call it my furry little problem, only it was never really little." Remus took a deep breath. After Sirius sent him a reassuring look he continued. "I'm a werewolf."

Harry and Ron looked at him stumped. They hadn't expected that, not really.

"Oh that. I already knew that since Snape's lesson." Hermione answered with a shrug of her shoulders and Remus burst into laughter.

"You are one intelligent witch, Hermione. It took them a year to figure it out and they lived with me." Remus said with mirth. Sirius pouted.

"Hey, we knew something was off months before that!" Sirius protested. "He was a horrible liar." Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius protest.

"The Shrieking Shack was built for me, so that I could transform without putting anybody in danger. The Whomping Willow was planted when I started school. There was never any ghost, just me howling and screaming when I turned into a werewolf." Remus explained calmly.

"Is that why Snape did that lesson on werewolves?" Harry asked after a moment. Remus nodded.

"He wanted me to be found out and be fired." Remus answered with a shrug of his shoulders. "It sort of worked on the first part, at least." He finished, sending Hermione a wink.

"He has a bit of a grudge." Sirius said with a small smirk.

"Why?" Ron asked as he kept a close eye on the desperate rat in his hands.

"The willow incident." Remus answered dryly and Sirius winced slightly. "Sirius here thought it would be entertaining to tell Snape about the secret passage beneath the Whomping Willow."

"He said something he shouldn't have." Sirius muttered darkly.

"That may be so but that was no reason for you to blurt out one of our secrets. Even stupider was the fact that he told him so on the evening of the full moon. Upon hearing the whole thing, your father went after Snape and dragged him out, but he had already seen me transformed." Remus ran a hand through his hair as Sirius watched him guiltily.

"Stop looking like a kicked puppy, Sirius. I forgave you long ago for that." Remus said with a wry smile in Sirius direction.

"Anyways, he thought and still thinks that all four of us were involved in that disastrous prank." Remus said.

"Indeed" A voice drawled from the door. Professor Snape pulled off the invisibility cloak and stood with his wand pointed towards Remus and Sirius.

oOo

'Remus looked up startled from his book when Peter ran into their room and banged the door shut behind him. Sirius and James looked up startled form their game of exploding snap.

"You all right, Wormy?" Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow. Peter shook his head fanatically.

"What's wrong?" Remus asked as he looked at Peter with a worried frown.

"Snape." The name escaped him with fear.

"What did he do?" James expression darkened like it always did at the mention of Snape's name.

"Tried to cut me open." Peter whimpered.

"Wait! What?!" Sirius exclaimed. Clear disbelief, anger, amusement and confusion were warring on his face. The same expression was on James' and Remus' faces, only in James', anger out weighted anything else.

"I was in rat form and he-he needed the spleen of a rat for the potion." Peter managed to explain after Remus instructed him to take a few deep breaths to calm down. "I managed to escape." Peter said with obvious relief.

After that incident Peter developed an irrational fear of Snape. He squeaked every time he saw him and hid behind one of the other Marauders. In retrospect, the Marauders found the whole thing quite hilarious.'

oOo

Harry cursed himself for leaving the invisibility cloak outside unsupervised. Had he taken it with him, Snape wouldn't have been able to sneak up on them. Crookshanks hissed from net to Hermione.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Snape drawled his dark eyes never straying from Sirius and Remus.

"Severus..." Remus was watching him warily. His own wand clasped tightly in his hand.

"Snivellus, good evening." Sirius said as pleasantly as possible, which, in the face of Snape, was not very much. He had his wand raised and pointed at Snape. Snape's face transformed into a grimace of disgust.

"Very useful, Potter." Snape commented as he let the invisibility cloak drop to the floor. "Just as useful as the map that was lying open in your office, Lupin."

"Severus-" Remus tried to interrupt him but Snape just continued talking. Sirius was watching him warily, his gaze no longer focused on the rat. Harry, Ron and Hermione were also clutching their wands tightly ready to interrupt if something happened.

"I told the headmaster over and over again that you would be aiding your old friend. The evidence is plain to see. Yet even I could not imagine that you would use this shack as a hide-out-" Harry had the urge to snort at everything that Snape got wrong but he was wary of what Snape was capable of in that moment.

"Severus, you're making a mistake..." Remus said calmly, his voice soft and persuasive.

"It seems there will be two prisoners for Azkaban tonight." A mad glint had entered Snape's eyes. His wand was still pointed at Sirius who growled low in his throat. Snape was completely ignoring Ron, Harry and Hermione which was the reason why he didn't notice that Harry and surprisingly Hermione had pointed their wands at him. Ron hadn't pulled his wand because he was busy holding on to Wormtail, so he could only glare at their greasy professor.

"What will Dumbledore say when he realizes that his domesticated werewolf is not all that domesticated?" Remus' face hardened at Snape's words and Sirius made a sound that sounded like a dogs angry snarl.

"You fool." Remus said darkly, "Because of a schoolboy's grudge, you would let an innocent man be imprisoned."

Snape's swirled around, his wand pointed directly at Remus, who stared back grimly.

"Careful what you say, half breed." Snape snarled. Remus had raised his own wand and was pointing it at Snape's heart.

"You should be the one to be careful." Remus words were said in a soft voice yet they were dripping with contempt.

Somebody cleared her throat behind Snape and both Sirius and Remus stances relaxed slightly. A translucent hand tapped Snape on the shoulder.

"Sev, could you lower your wand please?" His mother asked softly from behind Snape. Snape's whole body froze. He slowly turned around his wand still pointed towards Remus. He came face to face with the ghost of Lily Potter.

"Hello, Sev." She was looking sadly at him.

"Lily…" He breathed the name in utter disbelief. It was the only thing he had managed to utter before he was blown backwards onto the dusty couch on the other side of the room. He had fallen unconscious from the blow.

"Remus, Sirius!" Lily stared at the two of them with disapprovement etched into her features.

"It wasn't us!" Sirius and Remus exclaimed as their raised their hands in apparent innocence.

"Then who was it?" Lily asked as she crossed her arms over her chest. Both Sirius and Remus pointed towards Harry and Hermione. Hermione was looking at her wand with apparent horror.

"Harry." Lily said with a sigh and a shake of her head.

"Sorry mum but he had that coming." Harry said with a small wince as Ron exclaimed "That was bloody awesome!" in a high pitched voice, whereas Hermione was having a small nervous breakdown over the fact that she had just knocked out a professor.

"Well, he is still alive but unconscious." Remus said after he had checked on Snape. There was a small satisfied gleam in his eyes that no one was going to mention.

"Ouch, if my hand looks like Swiss cheese at the end of this, I'm completely blaming you!" Ron exclaimed when Wormtail bit him again. He sent a pointed look towards Remus who chuckled softly.

"Weren't you getting dad?" Harry asked his mother.

"I did but I think he was held up by somebody annoying." Lily said with a small shrug of her shoulders as her eyes were glued to Peter.

"Ron, can you give him to me?" Remus asked.

"Finally, I thought I would have to hold onto him for forever!" Ron said as he gladly handed the squeaking Peter over to Remus. Remus grabbed the rat's tail and held him up.

"Ready when you are." Sirius said grimly. Lily floated to the doorway and blocked the way with her silvery form.

"You're not going to kill him, right?" Harry asked warily as he sat down next to Ron on the bed.

"As much as I want to, no, we are not going to kill him." Sirius answered as his eyes watched the rat hungrily.

"We are just going to force him to reveal himself." Remus said as he raised his wand till it was pointed at Wormtail's struggling from.

"Together?" Sirius asked as he as well raised his wand. Remus nodded. "At the count of three. One-two-three!"

Bright blue light manifested from the tips of their wands enveloping the rat. Remus let go of it and Wormtail continued to float in the air before he tumbled to the ground as a second blinding light enveloped him. As if in slow motion, a head grew, then a body from which the limps started sprouting. Where the rat had once been stood now a man. Crookshanks let out a loud an angry hiss, its orange-red fur standing up as the cat glared at the man.

Peter Pettigrew was a small man, not much taller than Harry and Hermione. Around the big bald spot on his head was tiny wisp of colourless but once blond hair left. He used to be quite a chubby man but he looked like he had rapidly lost weight lately and a part of Harry hoped that it was out of fear. His skin looked dirty and looked a little bit like the fur he had as a rat. His pointy nose and the small watery eyes underlined the impression of a rat even more. He looked around, his eyes immediately seeking the door. He blanched when he saw his mother blocking the path with a hard gaze.

"Hello, Peter" Remus said with a friendliness that dripped of falsehood. He looked at Peter calmly. His wand still pointed at him. "Long time no see."

oOo

'"Oy! What was that for?! I was sleeping!" Peter exclaimed from his bed. He had had a really wonderful dream too.

"Yes, and we were trying to sleep but your snoring prevented us from doing so!" Sirius exclaimed. He had been the one to throw a cushion at him.

"You sound like... what was that muggle thing called again?" James asked as he turned towards Remus.

"A chainsaw, James. It's called a chainsaw." Remus said as closed his book.

"Sounds more like a snoring Troll." Sirius said with a snort.

"Oy!" Peter called again, grabbing his cushion and throwing it at Sirius. If Sirius had expected the cushion, he would have been able to easily evade it but he had not expected it so it ended up hitting him straight in the face. Sirius spluttered indignantly before he grabbed the cushion and threw it back at Peter full force. Peter tried to retaliate but his throw was off and he ended up hitting James on the back of his head. Remus was about to break up the pillow fight but ended up getting a pillow in the face and so ended up joining the fight. Laughter filled the room as they beat each other up with feathery pillows. At some point a perfect had entered to tell them to be quiet but said perfect ended up with a pillow to the face and left with an angry huff. In the end, the four of them lay on the floor amid pillows and feathers, their faces and stomachs hurting from laughing so much. And not for the first time Sirius hoped that it could stay like this forever.'

oOo

A.N.: hehe I know I'm evil for ending it there. Don't worry I'm already working on the next chapter. It might take a while though. Anyways thank you for the reviews up till now and also thanks to MSupernatural for finding and erasing my quiet hilarious typing mistake ("Peter, the kids, Sirius, Shrieking Shag, now!" ) .

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and reviews are as always welcome.