All Potter characters are property of J.K. Rowling.

Breakfast in the Great Hall the next day was loud and frantic. Everyone was eagerly anticipating the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match, especially, of course, the involved houses.

"Eat up, team!" called James over the babble at the Gryffindor table. "We'll need plenty of strength today, Ravenclaw's put a strong side together!"

"You know, Prongs, you could probably do with some breakfast yourself," Remus said, looking pointedly at James' gleamingly empty plate.

"Nah ... not hungry," he said shortly. He was continually casting furtive glances at the Slytherin table. "They're going to do something, I know they are ..."

"They might not even be allowed at the match today, Prongs," said Peter reassuringly, piling sausages onto his and James' plates. "In fact, I doubt they will be. McGonagall was raging last night! Eat."

James grudgingly popped a microscopic slice of sausage into his mouth. He looked as though he were trying to chew cotton wool.

"I wonder why Sirius isn't here yet," said Remus, a hint of suspicion in his tone. "You'd think he'd be dying to rub last night in Snape's face."

The three boys looked warily at the Slytherin table, half-expecting to see Sirius sitting there, regaling them with the Disgrace of Snape and Malfoy. There was, however, no sign of him. It came as a relief, therefore, when he swaggered cockily into the Hall a few minutes later, grinning cheerfully at the Slytherins, who scowled darkly back.

"Morning, all," he chirped, loading his plate with food. "I'm starving!"

Suspicious looks were exchanged. None of the other three Marauders knew quite how to phrase the question that was burning at the forefront of their minds. Why, oh why, was Sirius so calm and cheerful when there was an extremely high probability that the Slytherins were going to exact their revenge at the match today? What had happened to General Black, with his determination to rid the school of Slytherin slime through the most embarrassing possible means?

They needn't have wondered, however, as it became obvious that General Black was still very much alive and kicking when Sirius pulled out from under his robes, to the utter incredulity of his friends, a periscope.

"What is that?" asked James, who, having completely wizarding heritage, knew little about Muggle objects. "Why do you have it, where did you get it and what are you going to do with it?"

"Relax, Jamesy," Sirius said calmly. "It's a periscope, you can see things higher up with it. I'm going to use it to spy on the Slytherins today. And I ... found it ... somewhere."

Dangerous words coming from him, but probably wisely, no one asked him to elaborate.

"Si ... don't you think it'll be a bit noticeable? McGonagall won't let you keep it," Remus pointed out. "She'll just think we're trying to stir up more trouble."

James nodded. "Anyway, they won't be stupid enough to do anything after last night. Especially right under McGonagall's nose." He sounded as though he was trying to convince himself every bit as much as he was trying to convince Sirius.

Sirius glared at the other Marauders. "They ... are ... Slytherins!" he hissed, pouring milk onto his toast. "They're evil! You know ... minions of the Dark Lord? I thought we had agreed we needed defences? Hmmm? And unless you lot are happy to let them have their wicked ways with us, I'm taking this with me." He jammed a slice of thoroughly soaked toast into his mouth before grimacing and dropping it with a splat under the table.

The thought of Snape having his "wicked way" with any of them was positively traumatising. Choosing not to delve too deeply into this disturbing train of thought, the three boys tucked back in.

"We're going to have to develop some sort of strategy," Sirius told them a few minutes later.

James sighed, exasperated. "Fine. Just don't do anything stupid."

"Hey," answered Sirius, raising his eyebrows in a cocky, come-on-this-is-me-we're-talking-about fashion, "caution is my middle name."

"Actually, it's Jeremy," corrected Peter, eliciting badly disguised sniggers from James and Remus.

Sirius scowled. "Shhhhh!" He had a rather large complex about this less-than-masculine middle name, thinking it would ruin his image if it got out.

Still grinning, James stood up. "Team! Let's move!"

The Gryffindor table cheered as the red-clad team departed. Sirius and his periscope followed close behind.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

"We have twenty minutes," announced Sirius, two minutes after having announced that they had half an hour. When Peter pointed this out, Sirius' response was that "time flies when you're having fun".

Neither Peter nor Remus pointed out that watching Sirius pace the length of the room planning offensive moves against the Slytherins, occasionally hitting himself over the head with the periscope and muttering "think ... think ...", was nothing like any sane person's idea of fun.

The supposed 'battle-plan' was this: Sirius would remain in the Gryffindor stands, equipped with the periscope, and watch the Slytherins from afar ("with the eyes of a hawk and the dexterity of a ... an eel"). Remus and Peter were to get as close to the Slytherin stands as possible without attracting attention ("Be as a fly on the wall, men. A fly on the wall."), and watch Snape and Malfoy. If they separated, they were to watch one each and send up red sparks to alert the others if anything sneaky seemed to be going on. "And we'll just say it's in support of Gryffindor if anyone asks why!" he concluded blithely, oblivious to the half-pitying, half-bewildered stares he was receiving from Remus and Peter.

Due to the complete lack of a better plan the two had no choice but to agree to their mission. They went down to the common room, followed by Sirius who was loudly pondering the practicalities of camouflage robes, complete with leaves on their heads and mud on their faces.

Peter groaned. "Why don't we just put on dark coats and hats and sort of ... sidle in there ..." The sarcasm was lost on Sirius, who frowned, obviously despairing of his friend's lack of expertise in planning a military onslaught.

"No! We can't be obvious about it! We'd stick out like--"

"--like you're going to when you whip out what looks like a prehistoric drainpipe, point it into the air and stand gawking at the Slytherins?" asked Remus mildly.

"Well ... I'll take Prongsy's cloak, then."

"If we're the ones trying to get near to Snape and Malfoy, wouldn't we be better off with the cloak?" asked Peter.

"No, because you're going to be in camouflage!"

It wasn't until Remus pointed out that camouflage robes tended more towards green than red, adding that the wearing of green robes was the exact situation they were doing all this insane scheming to avoid, that Sirius gave up.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

The crowd roared as the two teams flew out onto the pitch. Timothy MacMillan, an enthusiastic Hufflepuff, was commentating as usual.

Sirius pointed to where they could see Snape, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle standing in the Slytherin stands. "You two get as close to them as you can and watch them," instructed Sirius.

The two boys departed, pushing through the crowd. Sirius, satisfied that the plan was in action, stepped back a bit and held the bottom of the periscope up to his eye. After a few minutes of sniggering as he watched people pick their noses, he focused on Snape and Malfoy. They were at the end closest to the Gryffindors, which piqued his suspicion, and seemed to be casting frequent evil glances at James, who was now zooming toward the Ravenclaw goal with the Quaffle in his hand. Sirius didn't like the look on Snape's face as he watched.

He hoped that Remus and Peter were on the case. He put the periscope down so he could watch the game for a few minutes before returning to his mission. A Bludger shot at James and he only just manage to throw the Quaffle before he had to veer abruptly upwards in a movement that Sirius thought he would probably fall off trying to imitate. The Quaffle sailed past the Ravenclaw keeper and into the goal. The Gryffindor stands went wild, Sirius included. "That's it Prongsy!" he roared, mindless of the fact that there was no way James would hear him.

He was brought out of his short-lived joy by the sight of red sparks shooting up into the air from near the Slytherin stands. Hurriedly, he looked through the periscope for Snape and Malfoy, but he couldn't see them. He pushed his way through the throngs of Gryffindor supporters towards the Slytherins, wand out. He knew he wouldn't be able to see Remus and Peter, but they'd be looking for him, or so he hoped. He looked around. There! Snape and Malfoy were hurrying towards the nearest exit onto the grounds. He followed them at a distance, wondering where on earth Remus and Peter had got to.

He sneaked down the stairs behind Malfoy and Snape, careful to keep far enough back that they didn't suspect anything. Where were Moony and Wormtail?

He kept a few metres distance between himself, Malfoy and Snape. Just as they were coming to the bottom of the stairs, something barrelled into him from above, sending him tumbling down the stairs. He landed, dazed, flat on his back at the bottom. After gathering his bearings, he could feel something struggling beneath him. "BLACK! Will you get off!"

With a start, Sirius recognised Snape's voice. "Get up, you cretin!"

Sirius hurriedly rolled off and looked around. Lucius Malfoy lay, apparently unconscious a few feet away, Snape lay where he had been. A quick look at the stairs showed Remus hurrying down them. "Sirius! Are you okay? Where's Peter?"

Sirius scanned the ground around them again. "Peter?"

"Yes! He—oh ..."

"What? What oh?" Sirius was confused, to say the least. Why would he know where Peter was? He'd been with Remus last thing he knew.

"Well, I took the cloak off me so I could stop people bumping into us ... he must have tripped at the top of the stairs."

Sirius groaned. Why? Why? At that moment a pained groan sounded nearby. Sirius turned around to see Peter crawling out from under the invisibility cloak. He whipped round, seeing to his relief that Snape was trying to wake up Malfoy, and thrust the cloak at Peter. "Hide it under your robes!"

Peter did so just in time because at that moment, an angry voice sounded from half-way up the stairs. "What is going on here?"

Sirius could have screamed. McGonagall.

He, Snape and Remus began talking at once. "Enough!" roared McGonagall. They all fell silent.

"Now, Mr Snape. Please tell my why Mr Malfoy is lying unconscious and why Mr Pettigrew looks concussed."

A quick glance in Peter's direction confirmed that he was indeed looking particularly vacant. "Professor, Lucius and I were just heading back to the castle for our detention when Black here leapt on me and knocked Lucius out with that ... thing."

Sirius looked suspiciously at Lucius' prone body. Sure enough, there was the periscope, lying innocently a short distance from his head. He glared at Snape.

"That isn't true, Professor! I ... tripped," here he cast a dark look at Peter who was still looking utterly blank, "and fell on Snape."

"Then how do you explain that periscope on the floor over there? What on earth were you doing with one of those?"

"I ..." Sirius faltered, trying to come up with something that wasn't too incriminating, "wanted to see the match better ... yeah ..."

"I'm afraid, Mr Black," said McGonagall curtly, "that I don't believe that."

"But it's true!" Sirius spluttered, looking to Remus for support.

"It is true, Professor," he said earnestly.

McGonagall just looked angrier. "Detention for attacking other students and thirty points for lying about it! For all three of you! I am getting fed up with you lot," she glared at all of them, Snape included, "fighting and brawling. You will serve detention tomorrow with Misters Snape, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle."

Sirius' jaw dropped. Remus looked incredulous. Peter looked blank. "But ... that's ..."

"That is when you will be serving detention," McGononagall snapped. "You will be notified tomorrow where and when it is."

She spun on her heel and levitated Malfoy away, Snape following, looking particularly smug.

"Pete?" gritted out Sirius. "What ... happened?"

Peter looked solemnly at him. "You know what, James?"

Sirius looked questioningly at Remus, who shrugged in reply.

"I think," said Peter, smiling serenly, "that you're a good chaser."

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

"You did what?!"

"It wasn't my fault, Prongsy! I had them! They were going to do something! If Peter hadn't fallen--"

"Come on, it wasn't all Peter's fault. It was busy..." Remus interrupted, looking doubtfully at Peter, who was in turn looking doubtfully at a fly on his knee.

"Well...whatever. We're going to get them back for this. Detention with them!"

Snape, Sirius thought grimly, was going to pay.

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