"Moony!"

"Shh!"

Sirius rocked on the balls of his feet, glancing between Remus and the lithe woman still speaking at the front of the Great Hall.

"Moony!" he tried again.

"Shut. It," Remus hissed back through gritted teeth.

"Don't tell me you're actually listening to this rubbish," Sirius said with a grin.

Remus didn't respond, sending an exasperated glare over his shoulder before returning his attention to the front, arms crossed defiantly.

"Why bother? You've already managed to apparate just fine."

"It doesn't hurt to be too careful."

"It does when you could die of boredom," Sirius said with a head tilted towards the instructor, still describing the same steps and the same banal details in the same monotonous way.

"Right. On the count of three, I want everyone to give their best attempts at apparating into their hoops. Then we'll go over what went well and what went poorly and give it another go. Okay?"

Sirius watched the rest of his peers draw in breaths, steeling themselves for the start of their third apparition class. Grinning arrogantly, Sirius shoved his hands into his pockets and stared listlessly into his hoop.

"One…"

"Two…"

"Three!"

Sirius stepped into the blackness, feeling the darkness squeeze his lungs and whip around him until he felt the stiff wooden floorboards rise to meet his feet. Unknowingly, he had closed his eyes somewhere in the process so when he landed, he blinked his eyes open and immediately stumbled backwards, tripping out of the hoop.

James was already in his hoop, hands deep in his own pockets, his lips puckered and leaning slightly forward, waiting for Sirius to land beside him.

Sticking his tongue out and pretending to retch, Sirius shook his whole body violently like a dog drying itself, trying to get the image out of his head. "You git!"

Students nearby who saw the encounter and weren't overly frustrated with their own attempts yet laughed at their antics while James just grinned at Sirius. "What? You looked bored. I thought I'd entertain you."

Sirius huffed and after slitting his eyes at his friend for a moment, he brushed back his hair and straightened his shirt, retrieving some of his lost dignity. "As much as I appreciate that, I've had a better thought," Sirius said.

Remus stepped out of his hoop and approached them with a knowing mischievous glint in his eye.

"Let's hear it then," James prompted.

"Well, it's more of a genuine question to test than a thought."

"Sounds promising," Remus commented slyly.

"No one really knows where you physically are in between your starting and ending position, right?"

Remus and James shook their heads.

"And most people feel like throwing up after their first time apparating, right?"

Remus and James nodded simultaneously.

"But what would happen if you threw up while apparating?" Sirius asked, a grin already spreading across his face.

An identical grin stretched across James' lips and he nodded slowly while he considered the question.

"What's going on?" Peter whispered hesitantly, walking over from his spot and looking around cautiously to see if a teacher was nearby to scold them for being out of place. Though with the Great Hall was in such tremendous amounts of chaos, no one was paying them any mind considering three out of the four of them had already managed to apparate successfully a few times during their second class.

"A necessary experiment, Peter. That's what happening," Sirius prevaricated smugly.

Peter's eyes lit up, but before he could ask for any sort of clarification, their instructor clapped briskly and strode back to the front of the room.

"Back to your starting spots, please!" she called, her head bobbing just above the sea of students in front of them.

"See you soon," James winked. With a pop, he returned to his own hoop, directly behind Sirius while Peter walked back to his own with many eager glances over his shoulder.

"I saw a lot of you muttering to yourself this time around. Keep in mind, this may actually be a detriment since it's one more thing for your body to have to do," the Professor said in a soothing tone.

Peter craned his neck, hanging on to every word, desperate to manage at least one apparition today. Remus had given up being the good Prefect example; he was now smirking as he watched Sirius silently conjure a water glass and filled it with water. Sirius pocketed his wand and held the glass up to his lips, poised and ready for the next countdown.

Soon enough, the entire room drew themselves taller and began to stare down their hoops as the counting began. Sirius took a swig of water and carefully bent to set the glass on the floor beside his feet. He stood just in time to apparate simultaneously with Remus and James on the count of 'one.'

Sirius twisted into nothingness and did his best to squeeze his cheeks together, trying to force the water out of his mouth. Though it seemed he was incapable of moving any part of his body, his limbs were simply frozen in place, and for the first time he realized he couldn't breathe while the uncomfortable darkness closed in on him.

James and Remus had both apparated just in front of Sirius' hoop and were waiting expectantly for his arrival. Half a second after they had reappeared, Sirius landed and finally managed to release the water from his mouth, spitting it dramatically all over the Great Hall floor in a puddle. James recoiled as it landed on the base of his pants and Sirius wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

"Well that didn't work," Sirius said happily.

"Worked for me," Remus added, watching James shake his pant leg in disgust.

James glared at him while searching in his robe for his wand. He flicked his wrist and dried his leg first, then the floor. "Some Prefect you are."

Remus shrugged, unconcerned, and turned back to Sirius. "I think you need to start spitting before you apparate instead of while apparating."

"Could be. 'Cause I couldn't move at all in the middle of it," Sirius replied with interest, as if they were discussing the newest critical magical theory of the day rather than the effects of barfing mid-lesson.

"You should use more water too. Then you could get my whole leg wet instead of just the bottom half," James cut in dryly.

Sirius nodded placidly. "Good note."

"Back to your starting positions everyone! We're going to give it one or two more attempts before we review," the instructor called out.

The Marauders complied and disapparated. Sirius hastily bent down to retrieve his water and took a much larger swig, filling his entire mouth like a balloon before straightening up again. Without his knowledge, James was doing the same thing directly behind him while Remus tried to hold back his laughter, guessing exactly how this was going to end.

Three painfully slow seconds later, Sirius began to spit out the water before letting the darkness close in and he spun on the spot. A glorious sprinkling of water rained down on the Great Hall in unpredictable bursts. Sirius landed in his hoop to shrieks erupting around the room as random students felt water land on them, some getting full streams of water while others got nothing more than a drop or two. Remus flinched as some landed on his sleeve. Then he flicked it off and watched Sirius open his mouth to comment on the success of their experiment, just as James appeared out of thin air less than a meter in front of Sirius.

James landed, waited for Sirius to turn towards him with a victorious grin, then let out all the water he was holding, spewing it all over Sirius' face. Sirius squeezed his eyes shut and barely moved as the water hit him, accepting the inevitable comeuppance. With deliberate movements, he wiped the spit from his eyes and glared at James who stood smugly before him.

"Sorry. Should have started before I apparated apparently," James commented, feigning nothing more than casual curiosity.

"I would like to reiterate my previous statement of; 'you git,' "Sirius said calmly.

James did nothing but smile pleasantly while Remus laughed and Sirius looked around, surveying the damage of his experiment. Everyone was looking around, trying to determine what happened; some were laughing while others were grimacing in disgust, reaching for their wands to siphon it off. The instructor was lifting her hands up, trying to cast her voice far enough to quiet the students, but the Great Hall was too far gone now as everyone fed off of each others' energy, the chaos reaching a fever pitch, most finding the random fireworks of water much more entertaining than staring dispassionately at a hoop for an hour.

McGonagall's voice cut through the racket easily, clear and crisp, demanding, "Who is responsible for this?"

James and Sirius shared a knowing and proud look with just a hint of guilt, ready for the moment when McGonagall naturally came to the conclusion to make them her prime suspects. The moment came much sooner than expected however.

"Honestly! You two are so irresponsible!" Remus admonished loudly, painting a mask of scorn across his amused expression. "Who knows what could have happened?"

James sighed, not even bothering to fight with the reputation that Remus somehow managed to maintain with the Professors, even after all these years of mischief making. Sirius still had enough spite to send Remus a withering glare before turning to McGonagall who was striding towards them, the sea of students parting before her.

"I should have known," she said, crossing her arms firmly across her chest.

"You really should have," James replied easily.

"Detention for you both," she said easily, her tone almost bored.

"Of course," Sirius accepted graciously. "I'm free tomorrow."

"Oh, no. That doesn't work for me. Lily told me I have to study tomorrow night," James replied, gesturing casually with one hand.

"Hmm… Thursday evening?" Sirius offered.

"That should work. How does seven o'clock sound, Professor?" James asked, turning to McGonagall who was watching their exchange while desperately trying to keep a straight face.

"Delightful. Now if we could please get back to the task at hand and listen attentively for instructions," she said sternly.

"Certainly, Professor," James said, apparating with a snap back to his spot.

McGonagall nodded briskly and let her arms down to her side.

"See you at seven," Sirius said with a wink and pointed a finger gun her way before disapparating back to his spot just three feet behind him.

McGonagall turned on her heel and once she ushered the entertained students' attention back to the front of the room, she allowed herself a small smile at their antics. Meanwhile, Remus was coughing loudly from his hoop as he choked on a restrained laugh, earning him no sympathy from Sirius or James, the latter of whom only muttered, "Serves you right, snitch," to his back.

Another short and sweet story, but this idea has been stuck in my head for so long, I just had to get it out! I hope you all liked it and remember, reviews are better than a cold glass of butterbeer.