Wednesday, February 23, 1977
Mary lay on her side, her head propped on her hand and a strand of hair falling into her face.
"We should go down to the common room and finish that homework," she observed without enthusiasm.
"But that would involve moving," Sirius protested. He was sprawled sideways across the bed on his stomach, his legs dangling off the side. "That's more effort than I want to put forth at the moment."
"We'd have to get dressed, too," Mary added regretfully.
"Not necessarily," Sirius pointed out. "Actually, homework might be more fun naked."
"You think everything is more fun naked."
"That's true," Sirius agreed. "Although there are a few exceptions. For instance, I don't think you should care for a fanged geranium while naked." He grimaced.
"Fair point. It's probably not advisable to fry anything while naked either," she added. "You know, because of the possibility of splatter. Actually, we should add any sort of potion making to this list, as well."
"Well, hang on," Sirius said, rolling onto his side to face her."I don't know if I agree with that, because if you're brewing your potion correctly, there shouldn't be any sort of splatter or boiling over, so theoretically it should be perfectly safe to do nude." He tilted his head sideways and smiled impishly. "Think Slughorn's ever done it?"
"Ugh, now I'm never going to get that image out of my head, you prat!" She shoved his shoulder playfully, and he retaliated by whacking her lightly with a pillow.
"Cut it out, Black," she protested, but before he could respond, a slightly-tinny voice interrupted them by exclaiming despondently "Oh dear!"
"What was that?" Mary asked, looking around in confusion and hastily covering herself with the blanket. "Is someone here?"
"No, it's all right," Sirius replied, amused at her sudden panic. "James just got detention, that's all."
"What? How do you know?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "You two can't somehow read each other's thoughts, like twins or something, can you? Cause that's just weird."
"Don't be stupid, of course we can't." Sirius pointed across the room at the large chart hanging on the wall. "It's our trouble tracker. We made this to track when any of us lose points or get detention," he explained. "It has a different alert sound for each of us."
"What's your personalized alert sound?" she asked, interested.
"A dog barking," he said, grinning and glancing at his watch. "We probably should get dressed. They'll be back soon."
When James stepped through the portrait hole with Lily close behind them, Mary and Sirius were fully clothed and waiting for them by the fire.
"Hullo," Sirius said as James plopped down in his usual chair by the fire. "Where are Moony and Wormtail?"
"Library," James replied. "Did you two have a good shagging session?"
"It was excellent," Sirius replied. "Oh, by the way, we heard the trouble tracker go off. What'd you do, and who do you think you are, causing mischief and mayhem without me?"
James grinned and ran a hand through his hair. "Oh, it was brilliant," he began. "You know how we couldn't hex Bertram Aubrey last time he said something tosserish? Well, I got him back."
"Did you enlarge his head again?" Sirius asked.
"Nah, even better," James replied.
"Are you bragging about your juvenile behavior?" Lily asked, perching on the arm of Mary's chair and giving James a disdainful look.
"Don't act all high and mighty, Evans," James shot back. "You laughed so hard you almost fell out of your seat."
"All right, I guess I did find it somewhat amusing," Lily admitted, smiling sheepishly.
"That's what I thought. Anyway, we were translating a passage into Runes, and I managed to get my hands on Aubrey's translation and, er, tweaked it a bit."
"I'm sure you were just helping him with something he'd mistranslated, right, Potter?" Mary asked.
"Of course I was," James agreed. "He had a whole sentence that was wrong, actually, so I just went ahead and replaced it for him."
"What did you change it to?" Sirius asked eagerly.
"'I'm a pompous tosser and the only thing bigger than my head is the giant stick up my arse,'" James answered with a straight face. "Professor Babbling wouldn't have noticed right away, either, except she dropped the pile, and when she picked them up Aubrey's ended up on top, and then it was incredibly obvious I had altered it because I was doubled over laughing my head off."
"There's a rune for tosser?" Sirius asked, surprised.
"Well, the proper translation in Spellman's Syllabary is 'idiot' or 'fool,' but I figure it's about the same. However, there's none for 'arse,' the closest means 'rear end' and that just wouldn't do, so I made up my own symbol instead." He shrugged. "I thought it was rather innovative, but neither Babbling nor Aubrey seemed to think so for some reason."
"You really think drawing a symbol that looks like a tiny butt counts as innovative?" Lily asked, rolling her eyes. "Never mind the fact that it was unwarranted - he was literally just minding his own business."
"First of all, yes I do, thanks very much," James said. "And second, it was not unwarranted. We had to pay him back for saying Cannons supporters are pathetic tossers. You can't discriminate against someone just because the team they support is the arsehole of the British and Irish Quidditch League!"
"Prongs," Sirius warned, but James ignored him and plowed on.
"That's not all, either. I heard that comment he made to you about how you seemed to be slipping because you made several errors in your translations and you'd been late for the last prefect meeting."
"Well, he wasn't wrong," Lily said, appearing slightly embarrassed.
"But who is he to speak to you that way?" James demanded indignantly. "I wanted to smack the smug little smile off his stupid face. Honestly, he's lucky all I did was spice up his translation a bit."
"Well, thanks, I suppose," Lily said, sounding rather touched. "But you didn't have to do that on my account."
"It was my pleasure, Evans," James replied. "Anyway, I've got detention tomorrow night."
"Me too!" Mary said, with more enthusiasm than a detention would typically warrant.
"What for?" Sirius asked. "Did McGonagall catch you with too many buttons unbuttoned again?" He eyed her chest meaningfully. "She's got a point, you know. How's a bloke supposed to concentrate in class with those things hanging out?"
"Don't be a prat," Mary said primly, adjusting her shirt. "Babbling happened to catch me out of bed after hours. And before you make some ridiculous suggestion, no, I wasn't meeting up with Stebbins, or Dan Dingle, or anyone else, for that matter. I just, I dunno, couldn't sleep and felt like taking a walk." Her tone remained, but her eyes had a distant, closed-off quality that warned the group not to ask questions. Sirius raised his eyebrows at her but said nothing.
"Well done, Macdonald," James said, giving her a thumbs up. "Now we can keep each other company in detention."
"If you play your cards right, I'll bring you both a snack," Sirius said cheerfully. "Speaking of snacks, should we go down to dinner? I assume Moony and Wormtail are meeting us there?"
Thursday, February 24, 1977
"Mr. Potter, Miss Macdonald. Come in and have a seat," said Professor Babbling, gesturing at the many empty desks.
Mary sat down at the back of the classroom, and James chose a seat nearby but not directly next to her, fully aware that he should not push his luck or he might end up being forced to move all the way across the room. Professor Babbling handed them both parchment, quills, and ink, then returned to her desk at the front of the classroom.
"Are we doing lines, then?" James asked.
"No, Mr. Potter." She selected two books from the cluttered pile on her desk and strode back across the room to hand them to him. "You are going to translate a section of this book into runes, since you struggled to complete an accurate translation during class yesterday."
"Technically, my translation was perfectly correct," James pointed out. "It was Aubrey's translation that I tweaked a bit that was not technically accurate, although I still maintain that it was better that way."
"That's enough, Potter," she said sternly. "I've given you a copy of Spellman's Syllabary for reference. You are to translate the passage as it appears without altering or adding anything. Is the task clear?"
"Crystal," he said, giving her a thumbs up before opening both books and dipping his quill into the ink.
"Miss Macdonald, you are to write an essay detailing the reasons it is inadvisable to wander the corridors after hours," Professor Babbling continued. "No less than a foot of parchment, please."
Mary sighed but nodded, setting to work on what promised to be a long and boring task. After about five minutes she had a few sentences about the possibility of losing house points if caught out of bounds at night, but her attention was diverted when she noticed James pull something out of his pocket. He glanced at Professor Babbling, and, noticing she was deeply absorbed in whatever she was reading, he turned to face Mary.
"You hungry, Macdonald?" he hissed.
"A bit," she admitted. "Did you bring snacks?"
"No, Sirius is supposed to bring us some, remember?" James reminded her. "What do you want?"
"Er," she began, looking at him strangely. How did he plan to place an order for specific snacks when Sirius was, as far as she knew, well out of earshot back in the common room. "Whatever is fine, I guess."
"You should really be more specific, otherwise he'll bring you the most random assortment of food you could imagine. He once brought Peter a chicken leg, treacle tart, and a jar of peanut butter." He grinned fondly. "I'm not kidding."
"All right," Mary said, still uncertain what James intended to do with her answer. "Some biscuits, I suppose?"
"Right." He looked down at the object he had taken out of his pocket, which Mary now saw was a mirror, and said softly but clearly, "Sirius Black."
For a moment nothing happened, and Mary stared at him blankly. Then, to her surprise, Sirius's face appeared in the mirror.
"Hullo, Prongs," he said, the volume of his voice jarring in the quiet classroom. "How's detention?"
Professor Babbling looked up in confusion, and James hastily hid the mirror under one of his books.
"No talking, Mr. Potter," she said, before adjusting her spectacles and returning to her reading.
"Keep your voice down, you prat," James admonished him, after sliding the mirror out from under the book.
"Sorry," Sirius said, more quietly this time. "What's she got you doing?"
"Translating some random passages into runes," James whispered back. "And Macdonald's got to write an essay on the dangers of wandering the corridors at night."
"Ooh, make sure she includes a paragraph on the temptation of empty broom cupboards, which can lead innocent students down a path of premarital sex, teen pregnancy, STDs, and loss of self-respect," Sirius said solemnly.
"Tell her yourself," James replied, pointing the mirror so Sirius could see Mary's reflection in it. "Hi, Macdonald," Sirius said softly. "You should write a paragraph about-"
"Got it, thanks," she said, trying to stifle her laughter.
"Hang on, Prongs? Can you tilt the mirror forward a bit?" Sirius brought his face closer to the mirror and cocked his head to the side. "A bit more, a bit more, there, perfect!" He gave a thumbs up and grinned wickedly. James glanced in the direction the mirror was now pointed and laughed.
"Nice, Padfoot," he replied, returning the thumbs up.
"What?" Mary asked. She looked at the mirror and followed the angle it was pointing, then took in the mischievous expressions on both boys' faces and rolled her eyes. "You've got that pointing right down my shirt, don't you?"
"Why am I hearing your voice, Miss Macdonald?" Babbling asked sharply.
"She was asking for ideas for her essay," James replied promptly. "Since I'm a bit of an expert at roaming the corridors after hours."
"Hmm," she said, frowning suspiciously. "Well, please keep talking to a minimum." She returned to her reading; it appeared to be some sort of magazine.
"Can either of you see what she's reading?" Sirius whispered, once they had remained silent for several minutes.
"What? Who cares what she's reading? You're meant to be taking our snack order," James said impatiently.
"Oh, right. Well, place your orders, but then please try to check and see what Babbling is reading, if you can manage it."
"Macdonald would like an assortment of biscuits, and I'd like a sandwich if at all possible," James said, then after some consideration he added, "and maybe an apple as well."
"Your wish is my command," Sirius said, chuckling.
Mary stood and walked slowly over to the desk. She waited patiently for Professor Babbling to look up. When she finally noticed Mary standing there, Professor Babbling raised her eyebrows and Mary smiled politely.
"Excuse me, Professor? Sorry to bother you, but I just had a quick question about the essay. Did you want me to discuss reasons why it's inadvisable to wander the corridors at night at other schools, or just at Hogwarts?"
"In general is fine, Miss Macdonald," Babbling replied with a touch of impatience.
"Okay, cheers," Mary said, heading back to her seat. As she passed James's desk she bent close to the mirror and whispered, "She's reading Witch Weekly."
"I knew it!" Sirius said triumphantly, then clapped his hand over his mouth when he realized how loudly he'd spoken. "Sorry. All right, I'll be there with snacks in approximately 20 minutes. Be ready for the diversion."
"We'll be ready. See you soon, mate," James said, slipping the mirror back underneath the book.
"What does he mean, be ready for the diversion?" Mary asked.
"Who knows. If he doesn't give specific instructions, it's usually pretty easy to figure out. Guess we'll see when he gets here." James shrugged and returned to his translation, and after a moment Mary did the same. Time passed slowly, with only the scratching of their quills and the occasional turn of a page to break the silence. Mary found herself struggling to keep her eyes open, and was beginning to suspect that Sirius had forgotten about them, when a loud clanging sound outside the classroom rent the sleepy quiet of the evening.
"What's going on?" Professor Babbling cried, jumping to her feet and almost knocking over her chair.
"Want me to go investigate?" James offered, flashing her his most chivalrous Gryffindor grin.
"No, that's all right, Mr. Potter, I'll go," she said, striding briskly out of the room. James and Mary waited, not daring to speak, as they heard her footsteps echoing down the hallway.
"Hello, you delinquents," said a familiar voice, and they both turned to see Sirius leaning against the door frame, clutching an assortment of snacks to his chest.
"Hurry up, Padfoot, she'll be back soon," said Remus, peeking his head through the doorway and smiling anxiously. "You two doing all right? Enjoying detention?"
"We can't complain," James said cheerfully. "We've missed your sexy arses, though. Is Wormtail on lookout duty?"
"Yup," Sirius confirmed. "He's supposed to squeak like a rat when she's heading back." He crossed the room and deposited his armful of food onto Mary's desk, then bent down and kissed her, twining his hand through her hair and letting his other hand drift down to the skin exposed by the top buttons of her shirt that she liked to leave undone.
"What was that for?" she asked when he finally pulled away. A faint flush had tinged her chest and face with color, and she was slightly breathless.
He shrugged. "I dunno, I just felt like it. I think detention suits you." He studied her for a moment, letting his eyes linger a bit longer than was strictly necessary, and nodded in confirmation of his previous statement.
"Does detention suit me?" James asked, running a hand through his hair and adopting what he must have believed to be a macho, suave pose.
"Absolutely. In fact, I think we should get Evans to catch a glimpse of you serving detention - I bet she'd drop everything and snog you right then and there," Sirius said, straightfaced.
Remus snorted with laughter. "You're a genius, Padfoot. I can't believe we've never thought of that before."
Before Sirius could retort, a high-pitched squeaking could be heard from outside the classroom, and Sirius and Remus immediately became businesslike again.
"Gotta go. Be good, you two, and enjoy your snacks," Sirius called over his shoulder as he hurried out the door. Remus merely waved, still chuckling softly but attempting to stifle the sound. After a minute, Professor Babbling returned, wearing a cross expression and shaking her head.
"Did you find the source of the disturbance, Professor?" James asked earnestly.
"Someone dropped a suit of armor down a staircase," she replied, her face creased with irritation. "I didn't catch the culprit, but I suspect Peeves. Anyway, sorry for the interruption. Please continue with your tasks." She settled back into her seat and opened her Witch Weekly magazine once again, not seeming to notice the pile of food on Mary's desk.
Mary and James glanced at each other, then over at Babbling. As the coast seemed to be clear, Mary handed James the sandwich and apple he had requested, then selected a biscuit for herself and hid the rest under her parchment. She took a bite, doing her best to chew quietly.
"Hey, Macdonald?" James asked, his mouth full of sandwich. "You think Evans would really think detention suits me?" He spoke in his usual flippant tone, but the loom of urgency on his face revealed his true feelings.
She smiled. "Honestly, I think she's really starting to like you, she just doesn't realize it yet."
James's eyes widened and filled with an earnest hope that was almost heartbreaking. "Really?" he asked, beaming. "So how do I make her realize it?"
"That is an excellent question, and one I don't have an answer to," Mary admitted. "I think you'll just have to let things play out."
"I suppose I will," James agreed. He glanced at her, his lips turning up in a smug, knowing smile that made Mary wonder what secret knowledge he possessed.
"What's that look for?" she asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
He shrugged. "Oh, nothing. You'll just have to let things play out, that's all."
"Quiet, Potter," Babbling said, glancing up from her magazine. "You're both out of here in an hour, so finish up your tasks so I don't have to keep you longer."
"Right, because she has such important things to do," James muttered, eying her Witch Weekly pointedly, but he nevertheless set to work finishing his translation.
Mary watched curiously him for a minute, unable to make sense of the sly smile he still wore, but eventually returned to her own task. For some reason she kept replaying the kiss with Sirius over and over in her head, and she let the pleasant memory sustain her throughout the rest of her time in detention.