Chapter 2- The Potion's Cupboard
******************************************************************************************
Remus was practically being dragged behind Sirius as he excitedly led the werewolf out of the portrait hole and away from the safety of Gryffindor tower.
He checked his watch quickly. It was eight o'clock, an hour until they had to be back inside their common rooms. He looked guiltily down at his prefect badge and then hastily pocketed it. No good about worrying about that now...he was on one of Sirius's missions- he was doomed in some way or another.
'Let go of my arm,' Remus instructed, rubbing the sore part on it where Sirius had held tightly. 'Why are you in such a hurry anyways?'
Sirius held out the spell book open on the page for the potion and pointed at a stage in the instructions.
'We have to leave it over night to let all the ingredients calm and mix with one another,' he informed Remus somewhat knowledgeably. 'Else it will have adverse effects.' He chuckled, imagining what these "adverse effects" could be little did he know that he would be experiencing them himself by tomorrow.
The two young men snaked their way down the main staircase then bypassed the huge doors to the main hall and made their way quietly into the dungeon hallways.
Although they were still within their rights to be wandering the corridors at that time, Remus stayed warily silent. Sirius did also but a few paintings greeted them on their way down to the potions office.
'Ah…Black! Still remember that great prank you played on that Malfoy while he was still here- excellent show, young man! A real corker!' enthused a wizened old wizard chortling from his frame and winking at both of them.
Sirius grinned to himself as they continued along the dank, thinning corridor. 'I remember that one…' he mused. 'The look on that stupid git's face…' He was cut off at this point when Remus elbowed him sharply in the ribs.
'Wha…' he continued but quickly cut himself short as he also heard voices at the end of the corridor. Then they both saw two shadows, elongated by the flickering light from the torches set in brackets upon the dark, stone walls.
'Yes, yes Professor.' The slimy, simpering voice of a Slytherin well known to both Sirius and Remus answered the Potion's master. 'Of course, I am honoured to be appointed with a job filled with such responsibility as this. I will be down tomorrow after classes to help you sort out the potion's cupboard.'
The two marauders heard the sweeping sound of robes as Snape turned his back on the Professor and slunk back to his common room. Sirius narrowed his eyes at the receding back and made a sound in disgust.
'He'll have left slime all over the door handle now,' he complained to Remus who dutifully slammed his elbow further into his ribs. They both watched the professor tiredly wave his wand over the door of his office and drag himself off to his chambers.
'Not the usual precautions I see,' Remus's eyes twinkled. 'That should be easy enough.' He shook his head. 'I have obviously been spending too much time with you or I wouldn't be enjoying breaking the rules for no good reason so much.'
'Comes with experience, my dear werewolf!' Sirius replied heartily and jumped up from where they had been crouching and examined the door to the potion's cupboard. After a few minutes he exclaimed, 'It's just a simple ward spell.'
He waved his wand and uttered a spell under his breath and then Remus muttered alohamora and they both head the familiar sound of a lock clicking inside the heavily latticed door frame.
The storeroom itself was a mine. Unordered and haphazardly placed, row upon row of vials and things pickled in unearthly coloured bottles were packed together on spindly shelves.
Sirius reached out his hand towards what looked like a dragon's eye.
'Don't touch anything,' Remus instructed without turning around.
'Wha? I wasn't…how did you…?' Sirius marveled at Remus. He narrowed his eyes suddenly and asked, 'Well how are we supposed to get the ingredient's we need, duh!'
Remus sighed dramatically. 'For someone as intelligent as you are, you seem to survive most of the time by only using a quarter of your brain. I will collect the ingredients, you just read out what we need.'
'Okay, okay,' Sirius replied grumpily.
* * * * * * * * *
After collecting the ingredients on the list, and a few others in Sirius's case, the two young men quietly made their way up and beyond the dungeon's and then up the main staircase.
'That was fairly painless,' Remus commented.
'Well, Remus Lupin- who are you to condemn my plan-making genius skills!'
'Well I don't know about your 'plan-making genius skills' but certainly your grammar…'
This conversation led them both to the portrait hole to Gryffindor tower and Sirius uttered the password, purple haze, and the fat lady swung open.
'Now all we need is to leave it overnight and add the hair…Prongs!' he exclaimed as James stood before them just inside the common room. 'What are you doing here?'
'Erm…it's the common room Padfoot,' James answered, looking at his two very guilty looking friends. 'What hair?'
Remus and Sirius looked at each other desperately.
'Padfoot wants to get hair…' Remus started.
'Extensions!' I want to get hair extensions!'
James looked confusedly between them. 'But your hair is already long.'
'He has a point there,' said Remus unhelpfully.
'Yeah well, you're idea was hardly much better,' Sirius hissed back. 'Why would I want to have hair?'
James merely shook his head, used to strange behavior from Sirius at least. 'I'm going to bed. Tell Peter when he gets back not to even attempt the Potions' homework- it's impossible.'
At this exact point, maybe due to coincidence or a truly malicious twist of fate, Peter burst through the portrait hole. Crashing into all three of them as they stood next to the entrance, the vial that Remus had been holding all of the ingredients and the unfinished potion inside flew out of his hands.
Both Remus and Sirius winced as it came down between the three of them and the contents burst over their bare arms. However none landed on Peter's bare flesh as he was still wearing his thick outdoor robes that covered his arms.
'What is this stuff?' James asked as he shook it off his arms and tried to wipe it away with the corner of Sirius's robes.
'Hair gel,' Remus answered quickly.
'What??' Sirius snapped incredulously.
'Just thought it was in keeping with the theme,' Remus mumbled back.
'Look I'm going to bed,' James sighed tiredly and made his way back over to the stairway to the boy's dormitory. Peter followed him quickly, knowing better than to hang around and witness Sirius's wrath.
'It won't have worked, will it? I mean, we haven't left it over night or added Lily's hair.'
'No, it'll be fine,' replied Sirius with more conviction than he felt. 'But hair gel, I ask you?'
Review please and I'll write more!!! That was my basically pure Remus and Sirius chapter but there will be a lot more of James in the next few chapters (but not much of the rat- couldn't let him share the fun).
Look out for Snape's role soon.