Sirius cleared his throat, sounding very teacher-like as he paced in front of McGonagall, Slughorn and Flitwick. 'You will do your detentions at breakfast time, in the Great Hall. You will write three-hundred lines, with chalk, on blackboards. You will do this without the aid of magic.' Lily realised the marauders would have the rules of punishments memorised for occasions like this one.

'Fillius,' Remus said, 'Your lines will be "I will not attack students".' Flitwick nodded glumly.

'Horace,' Sirius said, 'Your lines will be "Gryffindors are more capable, ingenious and intelligent than Slytherins. For this reason, I will never again invite Lily Evans to a party".' Lily laughed.

'Bu-'

'No buts,' Remus said sternly. 'The school rules clearly state that detention lines must be relevant to the reason for punishment. We have pulled off a prank, without breaking school rules, but it was still effective, something no Slytherin could have done. This whole thing was brought about by you inviting Lily, so you must learn your lesson. You will write the lines assigned to you by Sirius.'

'Minerva,' James said, 'Your lines will be "I was outsmarted by the marauders. Again.".' McGonagall smiled a little, looking dignified, despite the circumstances.

'Are we clear?' Sirius asked. The three teachers nodded. 'Good. Now off to bed with all of you.' He clapped his hands in a very good impression of McGonagall. The teachers filed out of the room, muttering to themselves.

'That,' Sirius said.

'Was,' James said.

'Brilliant!' Remus yelled.

James hugged Lily and swung her around. The three left the office and made their way up the dungeon stairs. Upon entering the Entrance Hall, they could hear Filch screaming at the three teachers. It sounded to Lily like he thought they were the marauders. Sirius whistled innocently, and neither James nor Remus would meet her eye.

'What did you do?'

'He might be Confounded...' Lily watched as McGonagall pulled out her wand and tried to counter-curse Filch who was screaming about giving them all detentions. Lily didn't like Filch, so she didn't bother telling them off.

'So how did you switch, back at the party... I thought Sirius was the dog?'

'He is. Millie was already Disillusioned; Sirius did that the first time they Disapparated. When Remus made the flash of light, he was actually taking some Polyjuice Potion.'

'Where in Merlin's name did you get that?' Lily wondered out loud.

'Slughorn's dumb enough to leave a huge vat of it lying around in his dungeon,' James said, 'He always uses it for sixth year demonstrations at the start of the year... but he never puts it away. Paddy and I altered the potion slightly so that the appearance charms would stay on the user. Moony can't be trusted with Potion alterations... too dangerous.' He grinned.

'How did you make it change? It's supposed to last for an hour.'

'Yes, and it should wear off in... about fifteen minutes,' James said. 'Remus still looks like Sirius and Sirius still looks like Remus. When McGonagall made his features back to normal, Sirius was doing a shield charm on Remus and I was re-charming the features to make it look like Sirius again. McGonagall didn't suspect a thing.'

'So... you're Sirius?' "Remus" nodded. 'My head feels funny,' Lily sighed, leaning against James. 'I have another question,' she said suddenly, 'Why are you two only in pyjama pants?'

'Two reasons. Firstly, if we'd gone back to wearing our dress-robes, she would've suspected our being Animagi. Secondly, most transfiguration hexes vanish clothes... but we couldn't have that happening, not around teachers. Although, I'm sure if it were just you and James...' Sirius winked at James who looked embarrassed.

'Cocoa,' Sirius said, grinning at Lily who wrinkled her nose; the Potion was wearing off, but he still had Remus' sandy hair.

'You're a bit late tonight, dears,' the Fat Lady said sleepily, but she swung open and admitted them anyway.

'Come to our dorm tonight,' James said, steering her toward the boy's dormitory stairs.

'I need pyjamas,' Lily said, yawning.

'Nah, you can borrow mine. We can't have you waking up your entire dorm.'

'What about Peter?'

'Pete's one person. You have three others,' James said reasonably.

'Two actually,' Lily corrected. 'Mary will be with David.'

'And we only have one. It's more economical this way.'

'What?'

'I don't know,' James said defensively, 'I'm tired.'

Lily crawled onto his bed when they entered the dormitory, and dressed herself in the pyjamas he passed her through the curtains of the bed. James stood guard on the outside of the bed and more than once she heard him threaten Sirius with death and hexes if he decided to take a peek.

'Are you done?'

'Yes,' Lily was already curled up under James' quilt. James slid into the bed next to her and cast a silencing spell on the curtains, which were almost immediately ripped open by Remus and Sirius.

'Pete's not in here,' Remus said anxiously.

'Maybe he's with a girl or something... or in the kitchens... don't worry about him. I'm sure he's fine.'

The other two left and James resealed the curtains and re-cast the charms. Lily could feel him tension coming off him in waves. 'I'm sure he's fine,' Lily said, stroking James' cheek. James nodded but didn't say anything. 'James, he's fine. He's probably getting something from the kitchens or maybe he fell asleep somewhere else... you of all people know what he's like.' James just nodded again. 'I'm going to sleep now,' she whispered. 'I love you, James.'

'Really?'

'Yes, I am going to sleep.'

'Lily,' he whined. She grinned.

'Of course I love you, silly. I like you as a stag as well. You're cute.'

'Ughh! Cute!'

Lily laughed, 'Sure. I'm sure you'd rather "cute" than "fuzzy", which is what I think of when Sirius is a dog.'

James laughed too, 'Yes, I would.' He pulled open the curtains. 'Oi! Snuffles! Lily thinks you're fuzzy!'

'What? Fuzzy?' Sirius shouted. Remus chortled at Sirius' expression

'Who's Snuffles?' Lily asked quietly.

'Snuffles is the nickname I gave Sirius when we first became Animagi... before he was Padfoot. We don't use it much,' James murmured.

'What were you, before you were Prongs?'

'I was always Prongs.'

'Fuzzy!' Sirius was still saying loudly, over Remus' howls of laughter. 'I'll show you fuzzy!' He threw a pillow over at them and then before either James or Lily could react, there was a big black dog pouncing all over their bed, barking and carrying on, slobbering all over pillows and licking Lily and James. Lily squealed as the dog's long pink tongue licked her hair.

'Wingardium Leviosa!' James yelled. Sirius was lifted from the bed and back over to his own four-poster, which James transfigured into a cage as soon as he let Sirius down. He then cast a charm to prevent Sirius from morphing back. The dog looked up at him balefully. 'Bad Snuffles,' James said, 'You know you're not allowed to jump on the furniture! Aguamenti!' A thin jet of water shot out of the end of James' wand and sprayed Sirius.

'I don't know what's been up with him lately,' Remus said dryly. 'He used to be so well behaved... perhaps we ought to have him neutered. That'll settle him down a bit.' Sirius yelped, looking quite distressed, and retreated to the back of his cage, with his tail between his legs. Lily giggled.

'If you say so, Moony' James said, yawning. 'We'll talk about in the morning, see if he doesn't settle down between now and then.'

James closed the curtains around the bed again and siphoned dog saliva off of the bed clothes. 'Night, Lils,' James whispered. 'I love you.'