A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long! We hada few connection problems and lots of AP homework. We won't delay you any further, and now, we'll respond to our wonderful reviewers!
TheBeautifulLetDown- We love to make people laugh! It's great to know that you had trouble stopping. In fact, we encourage continuous laughter! :D
brenngt14- It's great that you're such a thankful person! About Peter and the other three becoming friends; just read this chapter and see what might happen...
Saeble- We don't mind short reviews. We appreciate your effort to express your enjoyment of our story!
Marauder4eva- Your welcome! We're glad to help! Your story rocks!
caitiedeezer- Lol! "Regifters!" That's so funny! We're glad you loved the igloo scene. We did too! See you at school!
Alteng-You're on vacation? Where are you? Please tell us the details! Peter didn't go home because he wanted to spend the vacation with his new "friends," as did James.
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Chapter Eight: The One Where Sirius Flips
"How is it that you guys can get higher than me on the History of Magic test when I studied and you didn't even pick up your books? And I know you didn't cheat because you guys were isolated from the rest of the class because of your talking. It's surprising that Professor Binns caught you talking in the first place!" ranted Remus. He was holding two 98 tests and a 94 test in his hands. Sirius snatched his test back.
"The test wasn't that hard. The professor discussed the material well, you shouldn't have to study if you listened," he commented, "but I am surprised that I got number fourteen wrong."
"I know," said James as he took his parchment back from Remus, "I think I deserve full credit on number fourteen."
"James, you said 'A,' but the answer was 'D.'" Remus pointed out.
"Those choices were exactly the same, only worded differently."
"Wow! You guys got A's? I got a 62. Can I check my answers with your tests?" Peter grunted as he crawled out from under the professor's desk.
"Peter, what were you doing under there? Were you spying on us again?" Remus asked.
"No, I was actually hiding from some Fifth Year Hufflepuffs. Oh no! They're coming back! Help me, for that's what friends do!" Peter whimpered and jumped behind the desk.
"We're not your- hello, how can we help you?" James said pleasantly to three large Hufflepuffs.
"Did you see where that Pettigrew kid went?" asked the largest of the three.
"Er… he went that way." Remus claimed, pointing in a random direction. The Hufflepuffs sprinted down the hall in the direction Remus indicated. Peter jumped up and jogged over to Remus.
"Thanks! If you ever get in a sticky situation… I'll run and get a professor, because that's what friends do!"
"Peter, we're not your friends." groaned James.
"Yet." Peter finished. "C'mon guys! When are you going to ask me to prove myself worthy? Give me a difficult task!"
"Alright Peter, this is what we want you to do: you must pull a major prank involving the Slytherins. The prank has to be a creative one." Sirius ordered.
"That's easy!"
"You have to do something special with Snape too." James added.
"That's still easy." Peter said with less eagerness.
"And you, er, have to, erm, have to…" Sirius stuttered.
"Include the sixth year Hufflepuff girls." Remus interrupted.
"Now that's hard! I'm gonna go and get to work on that." Peter stated as he made his way towards the common room. The three of them waited until Peter was completely out earshot.
"Nice one, Remus!" Sirius complimented. Remus smiled, but it soon faded. The three Hufflepuffs from earlier were storming in their direction.
"Not them again!" Groaned James. The largest one grabbed Remus by the collar and pulled him closer.
"Tell me the truth! Where is the fat, little runt?!"
"I, I don't know!" Remus lied. The fifth year's grip tightened
"You're lying." He accused, showing his uneven teeth menacingly.
"Hey! Leave him alone! He hasn't done anything wrong!" Sirius shouted. The other two Hufflepuffs glared down at him.
"Yes he has. He lied to protect his filthy, little friend."
"He's not our-" James began. He stopped himself from finishing that sentence. "Can you at least put Remus down?"
"Maybe later."
"No," said Sirius, "how about now?" Sirius swung a punch at the Hufflepuff thug holding Remus. He ducked in time, but Sirius's punch hit the Hufflepuff on the right. The boy with the now bleeding nose aimed a punch at Sirius. Sirius grabbed his book and managed to block it. The other lackey hit Sirius in the back of his head with his sack. James rammed his shoulder into the burly Hufflepuff. From that point, no one could remember what happened until Professor McGonagall intervened.
"What is going on here?" The Professor shouted. A Hufflepuff had Sirius in a headlock, and Sirius's wand was pointed at his opponent's groin. James's adversary had his hands on James's neck. James was sticking his wand up the Hufflepuff's nose. The largest Hufflepuff had Remus hoisted over his bulky shoulder.
"That will be ten points from each of you, and if I catch you fighting again, I will give you a detention." McGonagall warned them. The students nodded obediently. "And please put Mr. Lupin down, Mr. Downey."
"Which one is he?" Downey asked stupidly, with a struggling Remus on his shoulder.
"The one you are holding." Downey nodded and not so carefully put Remus down. The Hufflepuffs each shot one last glare at the trio and left.
"Let's go to the Hospital Wing. I'm sore all over." James complained
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"What happened to you boys?" Madam Pomfrey asked with an air of annoyance.
"We got into a fight." Remus said. Color rushed into his pale cheeks. Madam Pomfrey sighed and indicated for them to sit.
"Third fight today, and its not even lunch yet. First it was Miss Moore and her boyfriend, then it was Miss Black and Miss Carver, and then you three." she mumbled to herself loudly as she pulled items out of cabinets.
"We didn't fight each other." Sirius corrected. She didn't hear, and she continued her rant.
"I hope you three didn't hurt anyone other than yourselves. Earlier today, Miss Black sent a spell at Miss Carver but missed. She hit Miss Evans instead." James sat bolt upright at this statement.
"What happened to her? Is she hurt? Is she still here?"
"She's over there. She was hit with a spell that I am unfamiliar with." Madam Pomfrey explained. James jumped up and trotted over to Lily. Lily's dazzling green eyes followed him, as he got closer.
"Hey, what happened?" he asked. She opened her mouth and blue flames issued out. James leapt back in alarm. Lily closed her mouth and smiled apologetically.
"I guess everyone has to be careful when talking to you, huh." James joked. Lily smiled and signaled for James to back up. He kept walking back until he hit the wall.
"Why are you here?" she asked. When she spoke, the blue flames turned black, and James could feel the heat brush his cheek.
"Remus, Sirius, and I got into a fight with some big Hufflepuffs."
"How?" Lily asked. Her flames caught the bed on fire. She quickly grabbed the water pitcher by her bedside and doused the blaze.
"They thought we lied about where Peter went. I don't know what they wanted with him, but they weren't happy." James explained.
"Were you lying?" questioned Lily, who was now aiming her flames up towards the roof.
"Well…yeah." confessed James.
"I think that it was kind and noble of you to stand up for Peter."
"We weren't- we were, and we couldn't just let some guys pick on Peter." James could hear Sirius cough something that sounded like "liar."
"You don't have that many bruises, that's good." Lily commented.
"Yeah, neither does Sirius, but Remus-"
"Sirius? Sirius Black?" said Terri Carver, "Is he still here? I heard that he was single."
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"Can you believe that we missed two classes over a couple bruises?" Sirius laughed as the trio changed for the night.
"I know." Remus agreed.
"Well, it took a long time for Madam Pomfrey to figure out how to heal Lily. After Lily, she dealt with us." said James. Remus exhaled sharply and gazed out at the early night sky. His eyes widened with fear.
"Crap! I forgot!"
"What?" Sirius asked innocently.
"I gotta go." Remus said as his limbs were shaking. He sprinted out of the dormitory.
"WOW, HE REALLY NEEDS TO GO!" boomed a voice from inside the closet. Peter stepped out smiling.
"Peter, what were you doing in there?" James questioned.
"I WAS CHANGING!" bellowed Peter in a loud voice.
"You're wearing the same thing." Sirius noted.
"NO, I CHANGED MY SOCKS!" Peter yelled.
"Why are you yelling?" James asked while covering his ears.
"SNAPE USED SOME SPELL ON ME!"
"The Sonorous Charm," Sirius groaned.
"CAN YOU TAKE IT OFF FOR ME?" Peter's voice pounded through the school. People throughout the closest corridors stopped and wondered from where the ultimately loud voice was coming.
"Only the person who cast the spell can lift it." Sirius explained.
"OH DARN! WELL, I'M TIRED! LET'S GO TO SLEEP!" Peter shouted as he hopped into his bed.
An hour later, neither Sirius nor James had fallen asleep. James rolled over. He noticed that Remus was missing.
"How long has Remus been in the bathroom?"
"I dunno," Sirius muttered, "a long time. Hey, could you shut the curtains? It's so bright in here, with the moon and all."
"Why me?"
"You're closer."
"Oh, that's mature." James scoffed at Sirius's childish remark, and Sirius smiled impishly. James groped for his glasses on the bedside table. He sleepily made his way over to the window.
"No wonder it's so bright. Tonight's a full moon." James pulled the curtains together. He lay back down in his bed. Minutes passed, and a booming noise sounded. Thomas, their Muggleborn roommate, sat bolt upright.
"We're under attack!"
"Ah, it's Peter. He's snoring, and he still has the Sonorous Charm on him." Sirius grumpily explained. Peter let out another roar. James grabbed his pillow and pushed it as far as he could into his ear. As Peter's snoring became more frequent, and students from other dorms, even girls, were becoming aggravated. James and Sirius decided that it was too much. James sat up and threw his pillow at Sirius. He quickly withdrew his head from the mountain of pillows he created.
"Let's go look for Remus." James suggested.
"We'll never find-" Sirius was cut off by a deafening snort. Sirius cupped his ears and shouted, "Never mind. Let's go!" Sirius and James hopped out of bed and ran out the door. They came back in the dorm within a few seconds.
"Trousers!" James exclaimed. "We'll need those!" They slipped them on, and were off.
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"How could we have been so stupid?" Sirius scoffed silently, "We forgot our wands, and we can't see a bloody thing!"
"Well, at least we're not wandering around in our boxers." James whispered
"How are we supposed to get back now?" They pondered for a moment in the darkness. It was only a half an hour ago when they decided to search out Remus, but they had forgotten about that and were now focused on finding their way back to their dorm.
"I have an idea." James said finally, "We should turn around now, and follow Peter's snores. We'll hear him within ten minutes."
"Sounds good." They turned and were stopped by a pair of luminescent yellow-brown eyes. They knew almost immediately that they belonged to Mrs. Norris. Her ears stretched straight back, making her eyes look menacing. She hissed and ran past them. Sirius and James looked at each other and bolted.
"Who's out of bed?!" The obnoxious caretaker, Argus Filch, was soon stampeding down the corridor. He nearly stepped on his cat, who was close at his heels.
"Left! Left! Left!" Sirius whispered hoarsely. They turned sharply and slid a bit. Clearly Filch was doing his job. Their feet kicked up uncontrollably. Sirius slipped and fell forward. He hit James in the back, and his momentum caused them both to tumble repeatedly. Their unending series of rolls began to descend. They were somersaulting down the stairs. Near the bottom of the staircase, Sirius finally planted his feet on one of the steps and leapt into the air. The spinning motion of his tumbling continued, and he flipped over a few times before landing gracefully on his feet. Beside him, James painfully landed on his rump.
"Did you see that?" Sirius nearly shouted. "Did you see it? I did a real flip!" Sirius jumped up and turned over in the air. "I did it again!"
"Shhh!" James hushed him as he stood up while rubbing his throbbing backside. "It's great that you're a gymnast, but could you be a silent one?" Sirius continued to practice his flips. He was also able to accomplish back flips now. James looked up at the top of the staircase. Light was gradually creeping through the corridor. James ran and made a grab for Sirius's collar. He missed as Sirius thrust himself forward in an attempt to do a handspring. He placed his hands on the stone floor and swung his legs in front of him. After a series of front and backhand springs, James stopped him.
"Enough with the flips! Let's go in here!" They stumbled into a dark room and closed the door behind them. James looked around in the darkness as he heard Sirius bump into something. "Where are we?"
"Well," Sirius piped up, "judging by the many bookcases, I would say that we are in the Library."
"How do you know that there are bookcases?"
"I just walked into one." Sirius stated as he passed James a book. They turned sharply as the door creaked open. They ran frantically to the other side of the library.
"We know you're in here, and I'll find you!" Filch shouted. "You can't run from me!" Sirius and James crept as far away as they could from the light of Filch's lantern. If he could see them, it would be all over. They were hiding in a small corner, but the darkness was soon ebbing away. They had to get out somehow without Filch seeing them. He was very close now. James had an idea. He picked up one of the books and chucked it into the darkness far from their position. It landed with a loud thud.
"Eh?" Filch and Mrs. Norris turned their attention to the commotion on the other side of the Library. "You can run, but you can't hide!"
"I thought he said that we couldn't run!" complained James quietly.
"I'm not liking my options." Sirius whispered. He looked up and got an idea. He motioned upward to James. "He didn't say we couldn't climb! Those bookcases are twice as tall as he is. He won't see us from up there." James glanced up skeptically.
"How are we supposed to get up there?"
"It's simple: I'll give you a boost, and you can climb the rest of the way." Sirius explained.
"Well, what about you?" James inquired softly, "How are you supposed to get up there? Will Filch give you a boost?" He let out a quiet derisive laugh.
"Hey, I'm a gymnast now. I can get up there." Sirius assured him. James shook his head doubtfully. Sirius grabbed James's foot and thrust him upward. With some difficulty, James pulled himself on top. Sirius leapt confidently and grabbed one of the middle shelves. He swung his legs and flipped onto the top. "Ha!" James covered Sirius's mouth and pointed to the door. Sirius nodded in agreement. They silently and quickly hopped from one bookcase top to another. They gently dropped from the closest to the door and sped out of the Library. The light was in the far corner.
"We did it!" James whispered excitedly. "We won!"
"No," a scratchy and familiar voice came from above them, "I won, you rotten intruders!" Sirius and James felt their insides freeze. For several moments, they were numb and couldn't feel anything. It took a while to thaw out before either of them could speak.
"How.." Sirius couldn't finish the sentence.
"Mrs. Norris told me that you were on top of the staircase, trying to sneak past me. It was a nice try, but I knew better!" Filch had indeed won. There was no possible escape. Sirius and James were caught for their very first time.
"Wait a minute," James turned to face Filch, "did you just say that 'Mrs. Norris' told you?" Filch paused. For a minute he did not say anything.
"Er…" Filch looked down at his filthy nails. Sirius and James smiled at each other.
"Well?" Sirius broke the silence. Filch looked up.
"That's, er, not the point." He concluded lamely. "You two have detention. Go to my office tomorrow at 6:00 in the evening. Consequences shall be severe if you do not show up. Now, go straight back to your dorms."
"May we please borrow a lantern?" Sirius asked politely. "We don't have our wands, and we won't be able to find our way back without a light." Filch looked at the pair suspiciously.
"Ruddy kids."
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Remus, James, and Sirius were exhausted the next morning. Their heavy eyelids drooped over their red eyes. Their hair was untamed; not even Sirius had bothered to comb it. They lifelessly stared at their slowly cooling breakfast. Peter casually strolled over to the Gryffindor Table.
"Morning!" Peter bellowed brightly. The spell hadn't been lifted. "What's wrong with you three?" James's right eye twitched. Remus fell face first into his eggs and finally slept.
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A/N- Sorry about the strange dividers. The horizontal rule isn't really working for us, so we used an 'x'design instead! We hope it's effectual! The next chapter is great, so be sure to read it!
Preview of Ch. 9
"Yellow? Why's everything yellow?"