A/N: Another short one.
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Lunchtime at the Gryffindor table was always rather hectic, and today was no exception. After their exhilarating night of exploring (and almost getting eaten by spiders the size of horses, as they were enthusiastically telling anyone who would listen), they had been stuck in Transfiguration for two hours with a very angry Professor McGonagall breathing down their necks. Filch had informed her that James and Sirius had skipped detention again, and that he was sure they'd had help. She felt that there was no proof that Remus or Peter had done anything wrong, but Sirius and James now had another week of detentions to serve, which they didn't really mind. By now they were used to spending most of their nights cleaning up the castle without magic and they had already nearly doubled the previous school record for most detentions served in a year and the term wasn't even over.
They had been forced to keep their energy bottled up all morning, and they were nearly ready to explode. Sirius was humming a tune by a Muggle band called the Beatles that Peter had gotten him hooked on. Sirius loved the music because it made absolutely no sense. His favorite songs were "Yellow Submarine," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and "Octopus's Garden."
Next to Sirius, James was talking a mile a minute about how wicked cool it was that the Forbidden Forest had centaurs, spiders that were nearly as big as him, and probably all sorts of other things. Remus was just nodding his agreement to everything James said, as his mouth was so stuffed with food that he couldn't speak. Peter was adding in his own comments and egging James on in the rare instances where the taller boy stopped for a breath.
James broke off as he noticed a mischievous gleam in Remus's eye. He followed his friend's gaze to where Sirius was winking at a couple of giggly girls at the Ravenclaw table. He immediately began talking again to make sure Sirius didn't notice what was going on until… splat! A spoonful of Remus's treacle tart hit Sirius square in the side of the head.
The girls began to laugh hysterically as Sirius spun around, grabbed his plate full of French fries, ketchup, and chili and threw it across the table at Remus, who ducked. It hit Peter full in the face and James yelled "FOODFIGHT!"
The rest of the table joined in, as Sirius launched himself at Remus and the two boys started to wrestle on the floor. After a while some flying food hit people from other Houses, and the entire Great Hall joined in the fun. Up at the High Table, the teachers looked shocked. Professor McGonagall tried to restore order, but a flying cherry pie hit her in the face.
"THAT IS ENOUGH!!!" roared a very angry Professor McGonagall as pie slid down the front of her robes. "IF I FIND OUT WHO STARTED THIS, THAT STUDENT WILL BE SERVING DETENTION UNTIL THE DAY THEY LEAVE THIS SCHOOL! NOW, GET YOURSELVES UP TO YOUR DORMITORIES AND GET CHANGED! NOW!!!"
The Marauders fled up to Gryffindor Tower along with the rest of the House, laughing so hard there were tears running down their faces, mixing with all the food.
"That was amazing, Moony! I don't think I've ever seen Professor McGonagall so mad." James crowed.
Once they had showered and changed, they decided that going back to potions would ruin their good day, so they lounged around Gryffindor common room instead. Sirius was rummaging through his Christmas presents when his eyes suddenly lit up.
"Hey guys, I have a brilliant idea!" he said excitedly.
The other three muttered something about Sirius's 'brilliant ideas' and how they always landed the Marauders in detention, but he ignored them and pulled out the map that he had gotten from Andromeda.
"Why don't we make our own map, and put all the secret passages on it?" he suggested enthusiastically.
"Because then they wouldn't be secret." Peter answered.
Sirius just rolled his eyes. "I swear, Pete, sometimes you can be incredibly dense. All we'd have to do is put a spell on it so that only certain people could use it."
James and Remus seemed to be thinking. "It wouldn't be too hard," Remus said slowly, "we'd just have to make it so we could add on as we found more passageways."
James nodded. "You know Sir, I think this is one of the better ideas you've come up with."
Sirius smiled. "Let's get to work, then."
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Ever since he had dyed Bellatrix's hair just before Christmas break, Sirius had been waiting for her revenge. By the time she had returned after the holidays, her hair was as black and beautiful as ever, but he knew that she would be out for his blood. It happened one day as he was heading back toward Gryffindor common room after a detention with Professor Smeral; as he rounded a corner in the staircase, he found Bella waiting for him, wand drawn.
Sirius was an incredibly advanced dueler for his age, mostly because he had needed to learn how to protect himself from his older cousin, but Bellatrix had four years of training on him. He had hardly gotten his wand from his pocket into his hand when her first curse hit him. His entire body seized up in the Full Body Bind, and he fell over. Only his eyes were able to move and he stared up into Bellatrix's dark eyes which held a familiar evil glint.
She kicked him in the side, hard and it was hard to tell whose eyes held more hatred as the cousins glared viciously at each other.
"What's the matter, Sirius?" she taunted. "Can't hold your own when there's no one around to protect you?"
His fury helped him get over the effects of the curse quicker than he would have otherwise; he had just gotten some feeling back in his extremities when she hit him with a curse Sirius had never seen before, one that hurt like hell. Despite his pain, he kept his face carefully expressionless, trying to convince her that the Body Bind was still in effect.
She seemed to buy it, and lowered her guard slightly to taunt him some more. He knew it was the best opportunity he was going to get; he whipped his wand up and shouted "Expelliarmus!"
Bella's wand flew up in the air and arched away from her. Sirius could just barely sit up, but he knew he wasn't going to get anymore time. He pointed his wand at her and thin cords sprang out of it and wrapped themselves around her, knocking her over and pinning her arms to her sides.
Suddenly a loud, angry voice behind him bellowed "MR. BLACK!"
He turned to find Professor McGonagall rushing up, scowling at him. "Haven't you learned your lesson about dueling in the hallways?" Then she caught sight of Bellatrix, and her frown deepened. "Miss Black, as a prefect I would expect you to set a better example! Fighting with your own family! In all my time at Hogwarts, I have NEVER seen the likes of this! 20 points from Gryffindor. 40 from Slytherin; I am disgusted at this behavior from a PREFECT! I shall be talking to Professor Smeral about his choice in leadership!"
She waved her hand and Bellatrix's bindings disappeared along with the lingering effects of the Body Bind. "Now get to your common rooms, both of you."
They hastened to comply, but not before shooting withering glances at each other. When Sirius climbed through the portrait-hole he found his friends sitting at their usual table finishing their homework.
"What took so long, Siri?" James called, motioning for Sirius to join them, but he just shook his head muttering something about being tired before heading off to bed.
"Sirius?" James called after him, confusion in his voice.
When the rest of the Marauders came upstairs a while later, Sirius pretended to be asleep.