James, Sirius, and Peter had all read through all three hundred pages of The Complete Animagus Transformation.

"This is going to be worse than exams," James said when they finished it.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, "but we've got to try."

"We don't have half of this stuff,"Peter pointed out.

"So we'll get it," Sirius said. "What do we need?"

Peter began to recite a list.

"Well," James said when he had finished, "I think the easiest thing to get will be the mandrake leaf. We should start with that."

"Sprout has charms and jinxes surrounding the mandrakes, you know they're one of her favorites," Peter said.

"How'd you know that?" Sirius asked, surprised.

"Sprout told us last year, when we were reported them," Peter said.

"I don't remember that," James said.

"You were trying wooing Lily and passing notes with Sirius."

"Ah. I remember that day," Sirius said, nodding. "That was the time Lily called him a 'pompous, big headed git.'"

"You told me she would like it if I called her 'darling'!" James said defensively.

"Did I?"

"Yes, you-"

"Anyway, Pomfrey didn't say what defenses she had around the mandrakes," Peter interrupted.

"Well, we'll just have to figure it out," Sirius said calmly.

"How?"

"By setting them off, of course."

"I'm not doing that."

"Yeah, me neither."

"Don't look at me like that, I'm not doing it!" James protested.

The three of them sat in silence for a minute.

"I have an idea," Sirius said.

"What?"

Sirius grinned. "I do believe that Snivellus could use some excitement."

A week later, they had found the spell for their ruse.

"What are you luring Snape to Greenhouse Three for?" Remus asked them, peering over Sirius' shoulder as he scribbled a note onto a piece of parchment.

"Oh, nothing," Sirius said. "Just thought he could use some excitement."

"Are you going to feed him to one of those plants Sprout has? That's not allowed, you know," Remus said, frowning slightly.

"Oh, lay off, it'll be fine. He won't die or anything," Sirius said distractedly.

"That's reassuring."

"I know."

"You're signing it from Lily? Are you mad?" Remus asked. "That doesn't even look like her handwriting, and anyway, she shouldn't be pulled into this."

"Watch and learn," James said. He made a languid slashing motion offer the parchment.

Remus blinked.

The handwriting was now almost identical to that of Lily Evans'. Had he not been there, Remus would not have known that Sirius had penned it.

"What spell was that?" Remus questioned, hiding some excitement. "That's brilliant."

"Dunno, it's nonverbal, but it's in that one we got from the library," James said, examining the parchment.

"Woah," Peter said, eyes wide.

"It's not quite the same. She loops her 'g's and crosses her 't's differently," James noted.

Sirius grinned. "Have you been stalking her, James? Do we need to turn you into the Ministry?"

"The Ministry won't send him to Azkaban for that, Sirius, honestly," Remus sighed.

"Stalking is a very serious crime!" Sirius said dramatically.

"So you do it," James said.

"Exactly. So no one else can do it," Sirius agreed.

"You're impossible," Remus grumbled.

"I know," Sirius said cheerfully.

The next day in class, James, Sirius, and Peter managed to slip the note into Snape's bag undetected.

Smirks were shared, particularly during Potions, when the feat was completed.

That night, they snuck out of the castle to the Greenhouse, where Snape was caught unawares.

"Hey, Snivellus," James said, closing the door to the Greenhouse.

"Potter," Snape spat, "What are you doing here?"

"I could asked the same of you?" Sirius said, popping up from behind Snape.

"Black. I should have known Potter wouldn't go anywhere without his backup," Snape hissed menacingly.

"He's not my backup, he's my friend. Where are yours?" James asked scathingly.

Snape had nothing to say to this, he simply glowered.

"So," James said, looking around the room. "Big crowded in here, isn't it? Tell you what, we'll let you out the back door, because Peter just finished trapping this one, and it would be pointless to hex you if you didn't have legs, then the jelly jinx I've been working on would be useless."

"I'll take my chances," Snape said, and made for the front door, pulling out his wand.

Sirius was faster. "Expelliarmus!" he shouted.

Snape's wand flew out of his hand.

"Other way, Snivellus, we can't hex you if you go out this way," Sirius said, smirking.

With a string of curse words, Snape tried to tackle him.

It didn't work.

"Don't worry, we'll give it back after," James told him. "Now, other door."

Snape grumbled, but obeyed.

While James and Sirius had held up Snape, Peter had levitated the table of mandrakes in front of the door. Without his wand, Snape would have to push the table, and then they would see what Sprout had used to protect the mandrakes with.

Sprout obviously had not lectured the Slytherins as much as she had the Gryffindors. Either that, or Snape simply hadn't been paying attention.

He rolled up the sleeves of his robes and made to push the table away from the door.

Immediately, Snape was covered in large, red angry boils that went from his greasy forehead, down his neck, and probably to his feet, for he winced as he lept back.

"Pomfrey has a nice taste in jinxes," James said.

"Yeah, we'll have to learn that one," Sirius agreed.

"You-" Snape started angrily.

"I remember how to undo that one," Peter said. "Give us some mandrake leaves and I'll fix you."

"I don't believe you," Snape said.

"Peter's really good with undoing stuff," Sirius added.

"I'll second that," James said.

Snape seized some mandrake leaves and thrust them at Peter. "Fine! Take them!"

Peter stuffed the leaves in his robe pocket and wandered off into another section of the Greenhouse.

"There's a plant that fixes boils?" James asked.

"I dunno, Peter's the plant person," Sirius answered.

"Here," Peter said, passing Snape a writhing stalk of something. "That'll reduce the swelling, but you'll have to go to Madame Pomfrey for the scarring."

Snape snatched the plant and turned to James and Sirius. "Now give me my wand," he snarled.

"Oh, alright," Sirius said, throwing it back to him.

With that, Snape levitated the mandrakes out of the way and stormed out of the Greenhouse.