"There were still 15 minutes left before their next class started. Quickly they made their way to the Gryffindor tower, just as they did before they were interrupted by those Slytherins. "Those gits." Sirius hissed. "They were looking for us, for trouble. There is no reason why they would be on that staircase. First of all it was breakfast time and there are no classes in that area." Sirius flopped down on his bed and grunted in frustration. Remus made sure that the box was not in the way and safely stowed away under his bed. "Of course they had it out of for us. It would be a surprise if they didn't. Remus said. "I feel horrible about all those points. Do you know how long it will take to gain those points back." Sirius waved this away. "Points are points. James can just score some extra goals during Quidditch or you just answer some questions in class." Remus looked at his friend in disbelieve. He thought about maybe saying something, but when he looked James in the eye he saw a small shaking of the head. So instead he rolled his eyes why packing his back. "Let's go, we have potions next. I wonder if Slughorn will say something to us." James nodded. "Indeed. And what kind of punishment they got as well. Slughorn would never extract so many points from his one House."
While walking down to the dungeons Peter was more quiet than usual. "Guys, I swallowed my leaf." He said sad. James nodded. "Yeah, well maybe that was a good thing. After you told me that I swallowed mine as well and I told Sirius to do the same thing." Sirius made a sound like he finally understood something. "Well, I heard you and listened. Swallowed mine. Took me a few times before he completely left my throat, but in the end I did it." James nodded. "Yeah, I was thinking that if she would indeed open our box, with just that she would not have a clue what our plans are. But maybe if she started grilling us and she would notice a leaf in our mouth, she would definitely put one and one together. She is very smart and has been through this process herself. But now it was just some school supplies. Thank Merlin as well that the quills were in there. They kind of threw her off." Everybody nodded and they were silent for a while.
"But now what?" Peter asked. "We need to be smart." Remus said in everyone's surprise. "We will continue with this plan, but not for a while. First of all we need to sit through all the detentions and then just lay low a bit. We cannot do anything in the upcoming weeks about the whole process." Sirius looked in surprise at his friend. "Would you look at that. See who completely turned around." Remus shrugged. "I surrendered I guess. You three will do it anyway, weather I agree with it or not. So I thought that if I just agreed and help you guys it will get done quicker, with more manpower and probably also better and safer. So instead of working against you, I decided to work with you. Make sure that the risks will be as low as possible."
They arrived in the dungeons and Slughorn was already in the room. They quickly walked in and occupied some tables in the back. In the class were already all the Slytherins. They looked loathsome at them. And the four of them happily returned equal facial expressions. Soon professor Slughorn came into the classroom with a hurry. His head was quite red and there were little drops of sweat on his forehead. "Hello everyone." He huffed while sitting down at his desk. "My apologies for my tardiness. I was a bit held up with something. But I won't be wasting anymore of our precious time. Take out your textbooks everyone."
James and his friends were playing it all on the down low. Being unusually quiet for them, they just sat down. Listened to Slughorn explaining a potion they would be making in the upcoming classes. James tried to take notes. He knew that after probably during the potion or after they did it, they had to write an essay about it. James tried to pay attention. Slughorn always talked a lot and 80% of his information was just from the textbook. But it was all about the last 20%. The extra information he gave you. If you could show him you paid attention the class by referring to it in your essay you would have a decent grade for sure. But somehow it was hard to pay attention to Slughorn. James was thinking about everything what happened and that was now the new plan. He knew it was for the best to just lay low for a while. Especially for the duration of their detention. McGonagall will be tracking their steps for sure the upcoming weeks. But somehow James can't shake the small pit in his stomach. He was really looking forward to this process. He knows that it will take a lot time, patience and luck before they will even be close to becoming Animagi, but he knew that when they at least would start the process, they would be working on that goal. It made him a bit restless. Have patience, James, he told himself. You will get there.
Finally the class ended. Most of the students sighed in relieve. "I am so hungry!" Peter said. He was stuffing his book, quill and parchment in his bag. "Ahum!" Slughorn cleaned his throat. "May I have your attention for a few more seconds, please." He looked around, waiting for everyone to look at him. "I want the following students to stay here just for a minute or so now. Mr. Lupin, Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Snape and Mrs. Evans." Remus, Sirius and James were looking at each other, then to Slughorn and then back to each other. All of them shrugged. "I'll wait outside." Peter said warily. He walked out the room.
"So you might have wondered why I gathered you. Well, it is because of another get together I am throwing in the beginning of February. I am inviting a lot of students this time, more than I usually would. But this little party will be also different than usual. So, I will give students from two houses in each year different tasks. Gryffindor and Slytherin will work together, just like Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. The task that you will need to work on are appetizers for during the party. So small bits of food that the house-elves can carry around on trays." Sirius raised his eyebrows. "With all due respect professor, but why do you want us to make it if we also have house-elves who can do that? And probably better and faster than we." Slughorn nodded. "Fair question, Mr. Black. I want to answer your question honestly, but I don't want to speak ill about my colleagues. Let's say that I am asked not use them anymore for personal matters that often. I have to limit my requests. Furthermore I think it is a great way of making sure that houses are working together instead of fighting. And I must say that everyone here, except for Mrs. Evans of course, have yourself to thank for. I thought of it this morning after your little rivalry." Slughorn stopped talking and turned his head to Lily. "Mrs. Evans, you know it is no secret that I am very fond of your abilities. Not only in the classroom, but also your leadership abilities. So I don't want you to make the referee, but I have the feeling you somehow have to be while working with them." James looked at Lily. She seemed to look proud with this task, but also a bit taken aback. Well, James couldn't blame her. Being a referee between the three of them and Snivellus is quite a task. But somehow he didn't doubt that Lily could do it. She nodded in understand while soaking in the words from Slughorn. "No problem professor. I will make sure they won't fight and we will get it done." Slughorn smiled. "Of course you will my dear. And give me till the beginning of next week for your supplies, recipes and schedule." Everyone nodded. "Okay, off you go then. Enjoy lunch!"
James, Sirius and Remus quickly left the room and were joined by Peter outside in the hallway. "Let's walk before we fill you in. I don't want to look at Snivellus any longer than needed." Sirius said while speeding up. They almost ran up the stairs to the Great Hall. Quickly they sat down at the table and started eating. While filling their plates they started telling exactly what Slughorn told them to Peter. One for one they covered a different part of the story. "So that is it." Remus said. "We will get our supplies, recipes and schedule somewhere next week." Sirius grunted. "Ugh! Isn't it enough already that we have detention? McGonagall already punished us. And now we have to get punished by Slughorn as well? Working together for a month with Snivellus? Merlin help me." James laughed. "I know right. Well, he is alone and we have us three." Sirius nodded. "Nope, that is were you are wrong mate. He has Evans as well. She is definitely on his side. They go way back. Like childhood back." James looked around to see if he could see Lily anywhere. She was no where to be seen. "Well, we'll see what will happen. Maybe we can divide stuff and tasks and make sure we would see him as little as possible." "Yeah, let us pray for that." Sirius said hopefully.
XXX
The rest of January flew by quite quickly. The detentions were boring, but at least they weren't being separated. The four of them had to work with Pringle in restoring a lot of old paintings. Of course non-magical cleaning and scrubbing. By the time they were done with their detention they had cleaned, retouched and restored all the paintings on the first two floors. Pringle was always breathing down their neck, yelling that they would get more detention if they messed this up. James and Sirius knew that he didn't had the authority to give someone detention so they slipped some Stink Pellets in his office while he saw scolding at Remus and Peter. He didn't have the proof that James and Sirius had done it, but he said he just knew. Sure, Pringle was completely right, but James and Sirius kept denying.
At one point he threw his hands up in frustration and demanded to smell their hands. Luckily they didn't smell like any of those Stink Pellets, so they were in the clear. Pringle then left them to roam the corridors for nearby students. "Someone did it!" He said again and again. "He won't be back for another hour at least and we are supposed to be done with 30. Come on, let's bounce." James said while throwing his cloth down. The three friends quickly threw down their stuff too and they left. The quickly walked back to the tower and sat down in some chairs near the fireplace. "Only tomorrow left and then we'll be done." Remus sighed while massaging his hands. "I hate how my skin feels after this." James saw someone approaching them from the corner of his eyes. It was Lily. "Hey." She said while putting her hands on her hips. "I just wanted to let you know that Severus and I decided to divide the tasks. I got everything from Slughorn that we needed. I will just give you now half of the recipes and the ingredients. You will have this week to make the food, next Friday is the party." She opened her bag and reached in. Lily pulled out four papers with writing on it, those had to be the recipes. And then a lot of ingredients. "How did all of that fit in your bag?" Peter asked impressed. "An undetectable extension charm." She said while putting the last of the ingredients in Sirius his lap. "Would you mind putting all of this on the table, Evans?" Sirius said annoyed. Lily rolled her eyes but wisley decided not to answer.
She started to close her back and made her way away from them. James stopped her by putting his hand on her arm. "Hey." He said softly. "Don't mind Sirius. He is just annoyed with the detention." Lily looked at him. "Okay then. Will that be all, James? I have to go and meet Alice in the library." James didn't really know why he made her stop. She clearly didn't feel the need to talk to him. "Well yeah, I guess. But I wanted to know as well why you decided to divide it between us?" Lily looked at James in disbelief. "You are seriously asking me that? You really don't know why I thought that was the best idea?" James felt a bit embarrassed. "Well, if you were afraid we would get into a fight, you were wrong. Okay?" Somehow James felt the need to defend himself. He hated feeling embarrassed and stupid for asking certain questions.
"Don't you mean another fight?" Lily said with squinted eyes. "How do you think that I feel about all of this? The four of you get into this stupid fight with the Slytherins. Fighting over a box for crying out loud. And somehow I get caught up in the middle of this. What did I do to you guys to end up as a referee?" James was astonished. He could not believe what Lily was saying. Was she blaming him and his friends for this? For the decision that Slughorn made? "Excuse me? We never asked you to be a part of this and you know that. It is not like we asked Slughorn to drag you into all of htis!" Lily took a step back. "Don't you get it, Potter? It is not about whether you would ask it or not. Have you never heard of something called consequences?" James had the feeling she got really, really pissed now. She almost never used his last name. "We are in this together. And with we, I mean all of us! Everyone from our year of Gryffindor. Whatever you four decide to do reflects on all of us. All the teacher know that you won't change, that you lot will keep doing all these pranks and stupid fights. They gave up on the four of you during our first year, I would say. So they feel the need to turn to the rest of us to keep you in check. I am not your babysitter. So maybe if you could just behave for once!" Sirius stood up. "As if we would want you to be our babysitter. Why is this the first time we hear you nagging about this? You already know we have to do this for almost a month."
Lily turned around and shot him an angry look. "Because I blamed Slughorn more than you lot. It was just the wrong teacher at the wrong time I said to myself. Do you think McGonagall would have made us prepare food for a party? Put one Slytherin in a group with five Gryffindors? Especially if that single student had just been in a fight with the other ones? Well, she wouldn't, but Slughorn most certainly would and he did! He puts one unbiased person as a referee. I was just unlucky enough that I am one of his favorites and I am now that referee.
But what baffles me now is that you guys don't even seem to understand that I want nothing to do with all of you and your stupid, childish pranks. And somehow I still got dragged into all of this. That is why I am so upset right now, but I wouldn't expect a single of you lot to even care or understand this." She glared at every single of them in anger before walking away. She climbed into the whole, pushed the painting aside and vanished from everyone's sight.
"Jeez, Merlin. Who got her knickers so twisted?" Sirius sat back down in his chair. Remus shrugged. "I kind of understand her." Sirius looked at him. "Is that why you didn't say anything? Because you disagree with us and agree with her?" Remus looked at Sirius. "No. I didn't see the reason to say anything at all. And well, I do disagree. We do drag our fellow students down with us. We only get points taken from our house, we barely earn them." James protested. "That is not entirely true. I earn points with winning Quidditch matches." Remus laughed. "Mate, that is a team sport. You win a game with your whole team. You cannot take credit for that on your own. And you have to admit you lose more than you earn." James didn't had a response to that, because deep down he knew that was true. Remus at least gave right answers in the class earning them points. "Who cares about those points?" Sirius waved it all away. "That is just a messed up way trying to make us feel superior to other houses and also to other students. They think that this idea of a competition will make us want to give the right answer for just 5 points. So, just maybe, that at the end of the school year, we might see banners in our House colors. This whole thing is a scam for trying to make us do our homework, keep us in check and make sure we obey the rules. But there is so much more in life than just giving the right answer to the teacher to earn your house a miserable amount of maybe 10 points." Sirius rested his case and nobody felt like arguing with him. Not after the speech that Lily just gave them.
James got up and mumbled something under his breath that he went to bed. He walked up the stairs, changed into his PJ's and lay down. This argument with Lily Evans was on replay in his head and every time it had a different ending. It kept playing in his head until he finally fell asleep.
The following day they ended their last and final detention quite fast, happy to be done with it. Pringle let them leave after inspecting each painting at least five times. Quickly they ran to the Great Hall hoping to still catch dinner. They quickly sat down and put some food on their plates. While grabbing some chicken James asked. "So what are we going to do with those recipes from Slughorn?" Peter helped himself to some pumpkin juice. "That is all you guys, I am off the hook." Sirius groaned. "Yeah, that is such bull. You participated in our duel with those gits as well." Peter shrugged. "You know that Slughorn doesn't like me. He barely pays any attention to me during class. Which for once is quite nice now. It is almost as he doesn't notice me, but that goes for more people. You either have to know famous people or you have to have this great talent." Remus nodded. "Yeah, that is so weird. He just lets you be when you are not valuable to him." Sirius snorted hard. "Well, I kind of suck at Potions. So why me? I don't know any famous people. Not as far as I know." Remus snickered. "You are a Black, mate. That name gives you opportunities almost everywhere." Sirius thought about that for a second. "Okay, that might be true. But why is this the first time he invited me for one of his parties? It isn't like I just became a Black last week you know." Remus shrugged. "That is kind of strange. But Slughorn is very calculated in this sort of stuff. He must have his reasons." The rest of the dinner they kept discussing potential guests and students going to Slughorn's party.