Chapter 45

RESTRICTED SECTION

"I'm bored." Sirius complained. He leaned back in his chair. They were in Professor Slughorn's classroom. They were in the middle of detention with the Potions teacher when one of the Slytherins came into the room yelling something about their prefects being stuck to the ceiling of the Ravenclaw common room. Of course Peter wasn't able to hold back his laughter at Professor Slughorn's facial expression when he learned of their latest accomplishment, so they had to come back tomorrow.

Still, the only way he was going to see more then two of them was if Quidditch practice was suddenly canceled at the last minute. Naturally, the chance of this happening was so rare that James would have bet every thing his family owned against it. Matt, the coach, would have held practice even if there was a tornado on the field. He would probably use it to test their control over their broom, or something. Even if he slipped into a coma they would have practice without him in fear of what they would do to him if he found out they didn't.

To their surprise Remus didn't argue for a second when they skipped detention for practice. James figured Remus had just fallen in love with Quidditch. He was right, even Remus was surprised that he liked the game that much. Making them sit in detention wasn't worth risking a loss for the Gryffindor team, especially since they weren't 'learning their lesson' as the teacher's put it. What lesson they were supposed to be learning by sitting in a classroom for half an hour completely unattended was beyond them though.

"Why are we still here?" James complained.

"I told you, James. If you are good now there is a very little chance he will come find you on the Quidditch pitch tomorrow, because you know he is going to know exactly where you are." Remus answered his eyes not leaving his transfig homework. He was going to use the time he was stuck here wisely, and to his relief, Peter was doing the same. Sometimes, though rarely, he was glad Peter had no sense of individuality whatsoever. Though most the time he followed James and Sirius' examples every once in a while he would follow/copy Remus'. This was probably the only reason he ever passed a class.

"You think he'll come look for us?" Sirius turned around in his seat to look at Remus sitting behind him.

"You just glued his prefects to the ceiling. Of course he will."

"He did look mad enough when he walked out." James gave Sirius a thoughtful look.

"I don't know. It sure would be a shock if Slughorn actually went out of his way to enforce the rules." Sirius responded looking back at James.

"I think I'd rather not take the chance. Matt would kill us if we missed practice over a prank, you know how he spent half an hour making us promise that we wouldn't miss practice due to bad behavior."

"That was funny." Sirius chuckled.

"Speaking of pranks..."Remus started with a rare smirk. "Halloween is four days away."

"Got any ideas, Moony?" James asked

"None in the slightest, I was just reminding you." Remus told him. "And it's 'Do you have any ideas, Moony.'" He rolled his eyes. Sirius chuckled.

"Do you realize you just called yourself Moony?" They laughed as Remus blushed.

"I was just correcting him, not calling myself..." He started but Sirius interrupted him.

"Then why didn't you correct what he was calling you?"

"Because I knew it wouldn't help."

"And you think correcting his grammar is going to make him use it?"

"Shut up." Remus finished blushing harder. Sirius and James gave each other a high five while laughing.

"Admit it. You're starting to like the name." James continued to tease.

"Do not."

"Do"

"Don't"

"Do"

"Don't"

"Do."

"Don't"

"Don't"

"Don't...Ha You can't trick me like that!"

"Dang." Sirius burst out laughing.

"You two are so immature." James responded by sticking his tongue out at Sirius.

"I've never had anyone see though that before." He said.

"My dad does that to me all the time. After a while I learned."

"Darn." James responded.

"Changing the subject." Sirius warned."What are we going to do for Halloween?"

"I don't know, we are starting to get limited, now that they completely trust us." James complained.

"And they know that any mysterious writing is more than likely us."

"Hmm. You know masters like us should automaticly be able to figure it out."

"We could go to the library." Remus suggested.

"Ya, anyone would think the world was ending if we showed up in the library." Sirius laughed.

"No that's just you, and that isn't what I meant, you numskull. There are thousands of books there, at least one of them has to give us some ideas."

"Did you just call me a numskull?" Sirius asked but everyone ignored him.

"Moony, I know you love the library and never ever want to believe that it can't do everything for you, but allow me to crush that dream. I highly doubt there is going to be a pranking section of the library."

"I know that! And I am not in love with the library!"

"Oh please, you're practically married to it."

"I am not! I spend more time with you guys then in the library." Remus defended. Peter chuckled.

"Ohhhhh Remus is having an affair against the library with us!" James and Sirius burst out laughing, Sirius ended up on the floor. Remus banged his head on the desk.

"What's so funny boys?" James and Sirius instantly stopped laughing when a new voice was heard. They looked at the door only to find Professor McGonagall standing there with her hands on her hips.

"Remus is having an affair." Sirius said very calmly, causing James to burst out laughing. Remus sighed, stood up and whacked Sirius in the side of the head, before sitting back down. "Ouch." Sirius responded rubbing his head, making James laugh even louder.

"Why are you in Slughorn's classroom?" McGonagall asked choosing to ignore the rather disturbing bit of information.

"We are supposed to be in detention." Remus said glaring at Sirius. "But Slugbreath left in the middle of it." Sirius chuckled.

"Professor Slughorn! Remus I'm surprised in you." McGonagall reprimanded.

"What? What did I say?"

"You said Slugbreath, Moony." Sirius answered on the verge of laughing.

"I didn't! Crud sorry Professor. Sirius is starting to get to me." Remus apologized.

McGonagall sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Are you trying to tell me Professor Slughornjust left in the middle of your detention."

"Yes ma'am." Sirius answered. "He just up and left, he isn't good at giving detentions. Maybe you should fire him."

"I think I am going to have to have a talk with Horace." She shook her head. "What time is your detention supposed to be over?" Remus looked at his watch.

"Half an hour ago."

"Then why in Merlin's name are you still in here?"

"Because if we left now Slughorn would think we left when he did."

"Oh. Well in that case you may leave. I will have a word with Horace." She said moving out of the doorway.

"Yes!" Sirius exclaimed before running out of the room with James following soon after.

"Thank you Professor." Remus said and walked out of the room with Peter. They found Sirius and James waiting for them outside the room talking again about their next prank.

"I still think we should try the library guys. I mean it can't hurt." Remus told them once they caught up to the boys. Sirius shrugged.

"I don't mind."

"Alright let's go." James agreed and they headed for the library.

When they got there they really couldn't do more than roam. They had no way of finding what they needed to find. Even Remus, who had the place memorized, didn't know where to look.

Half an hour passed and they were finding nothing.

"Remus' dream has shattered." James said leaning against a bookshelf giving up. "The library has finally failed him."

Remus sighed and shrugged. "Nobody's perfect."

"I'm perfect."

"Shut up Sirius you are not." James rolled his eyes.

"You'll regret saying that when you find out what I've found."

"You found something!" James stood and looked at Sirius who was standing in front of a door.

"Yep."

"What?" James walked over to him curiously. Sirius didn't answer instead he pointed at some writing on the door.

RESTRICTED SECTION

"You think they will have something there?" James asked excitedly.

"If it's not there then it doesn't exist. I'm sure of it." Sirius answered.

"Guys, you know we aren't allowed in there." Remus said. They gave him an annoyed look for a moment. "I should have known you didn't care."

"Ya you really should have." Sirius said opening the door and going in. The other Marauders followed.

"What if we get caught?"

"Peter, just shut up." Sirius said rather rudely.

"Sirius, stop being mean to Peter. It isn't his fault. Peter why don't you stay out here and be a look out." James suggested, Peter quickly and happily agreed.

"Whoa, look at all these books! James get in here! They've got an entire section on killer plants!" James laughed and walked into the restricted section.

"We shouldn't be here. This stuff isn't legal, these spells can seriously hurt people." Remus told them looking though one of the books.

"Well we aren't going to pick something that can really hurt anyone. The Marauder aren't cruel. And since when have we cared about following the rules."

"These are laws, James. They're a bit more important than rules."

"Not really."

"Ya there is. You can go to jail for breaking laws."

"Only the really bad ones. We aren't going to kill anyone, or anything. No one is going to send us to Azkaban for pulling a prank on someone."

"What's Azkaban?" Remus asked causing James to sigh.

"The only prison for wizards. Only the really, really bad people go there."

"How do they enforce the laws then?"

"The don't. How do you think my family gets away with all the crap they do." Sirius complained.

"That's not true, the Blacks are just above the rules. Most people are just fined or something like that."

"That's unfair, no one should be above the rules." Remus said his opinion of the wizarding community was diminishing. Sirius sighed.

"Everyone is afraid of them. If you get one of them in trouble chances are that all, and I mean all, of them will get him or her out of trouble using bribery or threats. Then they will go and kill your family just because they can."

Remus looked at him in shock. There were absolutely no signs that he was over-exaggerating so Moony had to believe him.

"I thought they didn't care about each other?"

"They don't, they care about their image. They are very proud of their name, if one of them gets in trouble then they will be known as common criminals. They are above that title. It is dishonorable for them to get caught, and that dishonors the entire Black name. And that black, no pun intended, mark will stay in the family forever."

"Wow, that's really sad." Remus replied quietly. He closed the book and put it away. Sirius looked at James who was being uncharacteristicly quiet.

"What's wrong?"

James looked back at Sirius and worded his answer carefully knowing he was treading on painful ground for Sirius.

"I don't get it." he said quietly. "If they're so uptight about fixing each others mistakes, why didn't they try to do that for you?"

"They did." Sirius looked at the ground as he spoke. He hadn't really wanted to tell them about that. "At first they tried to get Dumbledore to try to re-sort me. He completely refused, he is one of the few that isn't afraid of them. Since that didn't work they tried to get me transferred, but I have to be willing and I'm not.

"All summer they tried to trick me into transferring to Durmstrang, but I'm smarter then I look. They gave up after a while." Sirius finished it was quiet in the room. Sirius still refused to look them in the eyes while he thought of the yelling fits his mother had thrown when he refused to transfer. They were trying not to think of how close they were to losing their friend. It was a good thing Sirius was so stubborn. After a while the silence became unbearable.

"Even if the punishment isn't that bad, this stuff is illegal for a reason." Remus said breaking the silence and changing the subject. Sirius chuckled halfheartedly.

"Ya because some stupid wizard used it for a stupid reason and the stupid ministry needed a reason to stop them."

"But..." James continued for Sirius. "We aren't stupid wizards, and we aren't using them for stupid reasons."

"Only if you swear no one will get hurt." Remus said wearily.

"We promise." They replied at the same time, before going and looking though the books, yelling random ideas that quickly got shot down each time.

"Hey guys look at this." James called out to them and they stopped what they were doing and jogged over to him.

"What is it?"

"It's a potion. It causes the drinker to live though their worst nightmare for an adjustable amount of time." James said showing them the book.

"Brilliant!" Sirius said giving James a high five.

"Problem." Remus told them. "We don't have all the ingredients for it."

"What are we missing?"

"Frog's toes and rat fur."

"Slugbreath keeps some of those in his storage cabinet. At leas he did when he made me organize it last year."

"Wasn't that your first detention?" Sirius asked.

"Ya, but chances are when he runs out he will restock them. They are pretty common ingredients for advance potions."

"Advanced potions?" Remus repeated a little worried. He was really bad at potions.

"It's no big deal, Moony."

"Are you suggesting that we steal the ingredients?"

"Yep." James said happily.

"I'm not doing it."

"I will." Sirius replied excitedly. Ever since they found out Remus was a werewolf Sirius' dislike for Slughorn had increased tenfold.

"Ok. So we need to think of a safe place to brew it."

"Actually I think we should tell Peter next." Remus said, reminding them that there wasn't only three Marauders.

"Oh, right. Let's go." James said heading for the door. Remus closed the book and he and Sirius followed.

They were surprised when they got back to the library and Peter wasn't waiting for them. Sirius sighed. He was getting rather tired of Peter.

It actually wasn't that hard to find Peter. All they had to do was follow the path of overturned bookshelves. Needless to say they were rather worried by the time they found him cowering in a corner with three Slytherins surrounding him.

"Gosh Peter, we can't leave you alone for ten minutes without you getting into trouble." James said before he and Sirius pulled out their wands. Remus decided to stay out of it knowing that they could do fine without him.

"You lot have five seconds to clear off." Sirius threatened. The Slytherins hesitated for a moment. "Five, four, three, two..." The Slytherins didn't wait for one before all three of them attacked.

"Protego!" Sirius smirked as the Slytherin's spells backfired.

It wasn't a long fight. The Slytherins were outmatched in every way. They didn't stand a chance.

"Come on Peter, let's get out of here." James said stepping over a petrified Slytherin.

"R-Right thanks." Peter replied quickly.

"I thought you spent all summer learning new spells?" Sirius questioned.

"I-I forgot them all."

"Then why did I waist all summer teaching you?"

"Sorry."

"Let's just go guys." Remus told them. "Everyone get scared sometimes and this was three against one remember?"

"I guess so." James said and turned to leave the library. "We got our prank, Peter."

"Really? What is it" Peter said delighted at the change in subject.

"We'll tell you when we get to the dorm. We don't want to be over heard." James told him as Sirius gave the Fat Lady the password. They ignored everyone in the common room and went straight for the dorm.

James showed Peter the book and described the potion to him.

"We should get the ingredients now. The book says it takes a few days to brew." Remus told them.

"I'll do that now." Sirius said and left the room.

"He really doesn't have a problem with thievery does he." Remus thought out loud.

"You have to remember, Moony, he's a Black. Compared to what most of them are willing to do, thievery is a act of kindness."

"I know, I just forget that a lot." Remus sighed and James chuckled.

"That and he really hates Slughorn."

A/N I really didn't like this chapter. Not because it was bad, it was just really hard to write for some reason. I wrote this once and then scrapped most of it because I hated it. That's why I haven't updated in so long. I was dreading trying to rewrite this chapter, so I kept putting it off. Sorry about that. I don't know why it's so hard, maybe I just have writers block or something.