Cascadingmagic: I'm glad you liked the chapter so much. Yes, they are a nasty, evil family. And you're right. It is a raspberry! I always get those two mixed up, and I guess I just missed it when I re-read what I had written. Props to you! Yay!

Monika Batch: I hope you got the e-mail!

Chapter 3

As the term progressed, James's influence, Sirius's love for pranks, and his repressed rebellious nature began to severely dictate James and Sirius's behavior. "Are you sure we're allowed to do this," James asked his partner in crime as they hid in the bushes by Hagrid's hut.

"Are you going to let that stop you," Sirius asked.

"Good point," James noted. The two remained huddled in the bush for another hour before the light in Hagrid's window went out.

"Finally," Sirius grumbled standing up and dusting off his shirt and pants. "Let's go." A few Silencing and Floating charms later, Sirius and James were making their way back up the trail to the castle, a number of inflated horklumps trailing in the air behind them.

The twin terrors silently made their way through the castle halls until they came upon the Care of Magical Creatures indoor classroom, where they would be having class first thing the next morning. The two flicked their wands and the inflated creatures floated into the classroom. Sirius muttered a spell, and the now nearly circular beings began to float around of their own accord up by the ceiling.

"Mission accomplished," Sirius smirked as he shut the door behind them. From a distance, the boys heard the clicking of heels and took off silently as possible for their dorm.

The next morning Sirius and James silently congratulated themselves as Professor Kettleburn wailed while trying to chase down the inflated horklumps. "Competency level: negative," Sirius joked.

"I knew you two had something to do with this," Remus said in a scolding tone, but Sirius did not fail to notice the small smile on his dorm-mate's face and felt the need to point it out.

"Perhaps," Sirius said lazily, "but I guess we're not the only ones who find it amusing."

James then noticed Remus's smile, and he whooped in triumph. Remus chuckled and said, "I guess not."

James and Sirius shook hands in success, but their victory was short lived. "Black! Potter!" Kettleburn yelled. "You two are coming with me to the Headmaster's office." James and Sirius's mouths dropped.

Despite all their pranks, they had yet to actually be sent to Professor Dumbledore. "Ms. Evans," the professor said. "I want you to watch the class." Lily beamed and shot a smug smirk at the retreating boys.

Sirius and James followed the angry professor silently through the halls. Finally, they came upon a stone gargoyle. Kettleburn clearly said, "Frizzing Whissbees." Then, the gargoyle jumped aside to reveal a spiral staircase.

James gaped at it for a moment, and Sirius whispered to him, "My father's study does that too." Kettleburn continued to lead the boys up the staircase. He knocked on the door and forcefully pointed ahead of him.

"Come in," a voice said, and the door opened. The boys walked the Walk of Shame in, but as soon as Sirius saw Dumbledore raise a questioning brow at him, Sirius stood up straight, pointed at Dumbledore and thundered, "You can't prove a thing, dude!"

The jaws belonging to James and Professor Kettleburn dropped to a level somewhere near the ground, and Dumbledore continued to stare at Sirius, blinking every few seconds. Sirius held his position and his firm frown. Suddenly, the headmaster began to chuckle.

This caused James to laugh and Kettleburn's jaw to finally meet the floor. Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and said with a smile, "I must say, Mr. Black, I have never in my many, many years of teaching had a student report to me like that."

Kettleburn turned on Sirius and immediately reprimanded him. Sirius, however, waved him off seeing as Dumbledore was still laughing. "Now," Dumbledore said, his smile still lingering, "What's all this about?"

James and Sirius walked out of the office with only one detention, of which both were quite proud. "I say we go irritate another teacher," Sirius offered.

"I'm game," James laughed. "But it needs to be something totally impromptu. We don't have enough time to plane something out, and I think we should get something done in the Great Hall. We've never done that before."

"You speak many truths, my friend," Sirius said. "At lunch, then?"

"At lunch, Sirius."

Lunch that day in the Great Hall was, for some odd reason, very slow and boring. The school bells did not seem to want to ring, and many of the students were getting restless. James and Sirius sat beside each other staring off at some unknown object. Both looked as though they were about to fall asleep.

James was tapping his fingers to an unknown beat, and Sirius was absentmindedly spinning his fork around. At one point Sirius accidentally knocked the fork in James's direction. The other boy stopped his drumming and looked down.

Suddenly his face lightened up, and he grabbed his butter knife. He quickly shoved it up under Sirius's nose. With a smirk, he said, "Draw, ye olde villain!"

Sirius laughed heartily and said, "Draw! Ha, I will give you the honor of a quick and painless death!" He grabbed at the closest piece of silverware and held it up in James's face. James raised a dark brow at the spoon in front of him. Sirius drew a deep breath and said, "Yeeeaahhhh. But not with that." He looked down and saw his knife. "Wa HA!" he cried and brought it up to clash with James's.

It took barely a minute for the mock butter knife battle to develop into an all out war. Sirius jumped up on the table and transfigured the knife into a plastic sword, James following in suit. James hopped up on the table after Sirius and began to chase his friend up and down it.

Plates and goblets magically flew out of the way, and the other Gryffindors cried out in shock as the two bold first years shuffled past. "Whoa," James cried as he ducked a swing from Sirius. "Sirius, you're good at this."

The plastic swords met and Sirius smirked. "Perhaps you should not have challenged me, Villain. I've been trained at fencing since I was five."

"Are you serious," James asked, and as soon as Sirius began to laugh, he realized his mistake. "Oh my God," he muttered, but then noticed Sirius had let his guard down. James took a swing, but Sirius gracefully flipped out of the way.

"Not to mention Martial Arts, which involves gymnastics," Sirius gloated.

"Well, Your Majesty," James replied mockingly, "I might not have all that, but can you street fight?"

Sirius laughed as James very ungracefully charged swinging like mad. By now students from the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables had ventured over and were cheering the two boys on. From behind James, Sirius could see a few teachers trying to make their way through the students to stop then, but seeing as how Dumbledore was reclining back and watching them with great amusement, Sirius gave himself props and jumped over James's head, catching the other boy by surprise.

Sirius poked James in the back. "Give up?"

"Never!" James cried dramatically.

"You asked for it," Sirius shrugged and shoved the plastic sword under James's arm. James preformed a brilliant death scene, and Sirius put on foot on the fallen boy's chest and held his sword over his head. "Victory!"

The crowd cheered and Sirius took a bow. James revived himself to share in the bow just as McGonagall arrived. "Down," she hissed. "And follow me." Sirius and James high fived and jumped down off the table and walked after the deputy headmistress towards the doors.

They stopped short just before exiting and yelled out, "Thanks you, thank you, ladies and gentlemen! We're here on Tuesdays." McGonagall reached back into the Hall and pulled the two boys out by the back of their robes.

Yay, a new update! I'm sorry this is such a short chapter, but I wanted it to only be a light, joking kind of one since the last one had some heavy stuff in it. It turned out shorter than I meant, but I think the next one should be longer. So review and it will get out faster!