Chapter 147

Prefect Duties

James stopped being jealous very quickly.

It wasn't that he didn't want a girlfriend anymore, he'd give anything to get Evans to say yes, just once.

But Sirius wasn't exactly cut out for dating. He was good at it, sure, or he would be if he put any actual effort into it. Girls just creeped him out entirely.

They didn't see much of Alice at first, and Sirius was perfectly happy to lock himself in the room of requirement at all hours of the day, but after about two days Alice started to complain ambushing Sirius after class. How was it supposed to look real if they were never together! So Sirius was forced to come out from hiding for meals, that was pretty much all the effort he was willing to put in, though. Remus bravely went with him so James and Peter could stay behind and get some real work done. He always came back with a stressed look and Remus trying very hard not to laugh at him.

He'd never expected Alice to be a clingy girlfriend. It didn't seem like her, but Sirius would rant about how she'd latched herself onto her arm or tried to feed him.

James was upset with her if Sirius had ever had a chance of giving a nice girl a chance and settling down some day, she was pretty much killing it stone cold dead right now. He'd never want to go out with anyone else after this.

"Dump her," James said after only a week and a half of the two being together.

"He tried," Remus said, rolling his eyes and angrily throwing himself onto the couch they were used to Moony getting irritable, but it was always worse on the day of a full moon. "She started crying and he gave up."

"You're joking." He looked at Sirius who's face was bright red. "Every girl on the planet is going to be able to take advantage of you if you cave to fake tears like that."

"I know!" Sirius almost yelled in frustration and pouted, "but I can't help it. I panic anytime someone starts bawling, not just girls. Reg used to do it too."

"How much money did you lose because he knew this?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.

"More than I even care to count. A lot of candy too."

James couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Well, you're either going to have to suck it up and dump her, or deal with it." Remus shrugged, not sympathetic in the least bit.

"You want me to dump her for you, Paddy?" James said as though he was speaking to a small child, his only response was a pillow thrown at his face.

"On to more important things…" Remus said rubbing his temples. "I'm supposed to do rounds tonight, which of course is impossible. Is McGonagall completely stupid or just a little bit? Making me a prefect. She must have been drunk."

"Oh, come on, Moony. You make a great prefect. Just yesterday you went all awesome on that Ravenclaw prat." James tried but Remus just glared at him.

"I wasn't trying to be a prefect! He just ticked me right the bloody hell off." Remus answered.

"But it was awesome, you can't deny that." Sirius piped in, Remus just cussed him out, though it only made his grin bigger.

"Don't worry about rounds, Pad and I figured out what to do about that ages ago." James shrugged, his hand gravitating to his hair as he always did when he was trying to prove how clever he was.

"And you didn't think to mention it?" Remus said just to argue. "Still think, she was drunk."

"Whether she was drunk is neither here nor there, but we've got you covered, Moony." Sirius didn't take the bait, grinning like... well like a marauder. "human transfiguration."

"And if you get caught?"

"Then we tell the truth. She's not gonna punish us for doing your job because you can't. Especially when it's her fault in the first place."

"I suppose that's true."

"We're used to staying up all night anyway."

"Thanks, you guys," Remus said, finally gracing them with a smile. "This really means a lot to me, that you'd do this for me."

"anytime, Moony."

—-—

James looked around the entrance hall, bored out of his mind.

He could be doing so many things right now, and instead he was wondering around the castle tripping over his own feet, Remus' feet were quite a bit bigger than his and he was having trouble adjusting.

He really wanted to find some kid wandering out after curfew just to give him something to do.

He looked outside for that very reason, the grounds were empty, he didn't even see an animal, possibly because of the full moon.

"Ah, there you are."

James jumped at the sound of the transfiguration teacher's voice.

"Professor. You shouldn't startle people like that." James turned, trying to act as much like Remus as possible.

"I was hoping to find you, Potter," she said as though he was completely transparent.

"I don't know what…" he tried but knew it was no use.

"Lupin doesn't strut like that." She interrupted, smiling at him. She seemed to be in a rather good mood. "Of course, there is also the telling sign of a full moon outside."

"I could be Sirius."

"Black wouldn't have sounded so disappointed when Miss Evans told him that you didn't do rounds together."

"If you had opened with that this conversation would have been entirely unnecessary."

She looked him over, "do you plan on this being a regular occurrence?"

"If it has to be."

"I see well than ten points for Gryffindor. For a surprising amount of responsibility from you Potter." She said surprising him, he ran a hand through his hair. "And another ten, I think. That is quite a good transfiguration, Potter."

James laughed. "I know, right? Sirius didn't think I could do it, but I showed him."

"Indeed."

"You're not mad that I'm out in the middle of the night?" James asked.

"I think, sometimes, an exception may be made to a rule, Potter. Just don't push my patience." She said as she turned to leave.

"Thanks, Ma'am." James gave her a salute, grinning.

A foul smell wafted out from the great hall causing both of them to gag. She turned around glaring at him

James chuckled awkwardly and ran a hand through his hair.

"Potter!"