I admit to modifying some cheer lyrics from Bring It On in this chapter. So sue me. Not literally --; I have no money!
Yup, still Moony:
Our detention was to scrub the Potions classroom spotless. This would take hours.
"Geez, you'd think they'd get tired of having us clean this place," Sirius grumbled.
"Are you kidding? We get detention at least once a week, we're the only ones they can count on to be on permanent custodial duty," James said.
"Wow, big words, Jim," I teased.
"Yeah, I know. My head hurts now."
"Could you three idiots keep it down?" Snape growled. He was currently standing on a stool and scraping who-knows-what off the ceiling.
"Bitch," Sirius muttered. Even Peter understood that, and the four of us laughed. Snape glared at us, then went back to what he was doing. Sirius gave us his evil grin.
"Yo, Snape, I can see up your robes, man!" he snickered.
"I'm warning you, Black-"
"Dude, no wonder you can't keep a girl," Sirius said.
"Really? I was sure it was the slimy hair that kept them away," James laughed.
"Alright you morons," Snape hissed, getting down from the stool and pulling out his wand. "One more word-"
"HOO-AH!" Sirius jumped up on the teacher's desk and started dancing and singing. "I'm sexy, I'm cute, I'm popular to boot! Who am I? A genius! Girls want to touch my-"
"BLACK! I WARNED YOU!" Snape bellowed, pointing his wand at Sirius. James and I backed up toward the door, counting on Sirius to have enough sense to run like hell.
"Blow me, Sev," Sirius taunted, doing a stupid little dance. "Oh wait, you'd like that!" Never count on Sirius to have sense. James and I had just enough time to yank our stupid friend out of the way of a curse from Snape.
"Hey!" he cried indignantly. "I was about to kick his greasy ass!"
"RUN YOU RETARD! HE'S COMING!" James and I shouted in unison. Peter was already out of site; he'd hightailed it outta there when the wand came out. The chicken had the right idea.
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Snape roared, charging out of the classroom after us.
"OH SHIT!" Sirius yelled. "HE'S GONNA HURT US!"
"REALLY? I HADN'T NOTICED!" I yelled back as we ran as fast as possible in the direction of the tower. I looked back to see if Snape had stopped chasing us. No such luck.
"KLUTZ, RUN!" I heard Sirius yell.
"What? What's going on?" she asked, looking confused. I picked her up and ran with her.
"SNAPE'S GONNA KILL US!" I answered. "THINK YOU CAN SLOW HIM DOWN?"
"Er...I'll try," she said, taking her own wand out and muttering curses. The guys were out of site now. It was just me and her. Facing a homicidal maniac. Oh crap.
"I'LL MURDER YOU, LUPIN!"
"YOUR CURSES AREN'T WORKING, ARE THEY, MAGGIE?"
"What do you expect? I'm a first year for God's sake! Put me down! Run!" I did this gratefully. But seconds later,
"GOTCHA!" I was grabbed by the back of my robes and slammed against the wall, looking into the pissed off face of Severus Snape. He looked like he wanted to... to do that thing where you slam someone's nosebone into their skull. I don't know what it's called technically, but I'd seen somebody do that before, and it looked like it would hurt. Snape sneered evilly.
"Remus Lupin."
"I SWEAR TO GOD, IT WAS SIRIUS, ALL THE WAY! I'M INNOCENT!" I yelled, shielding myself.
"Not a good enough reason," he said. He raised his wand at me. "I don't like you, Lupin. And I never will. There's something strange about you. I'm not sure what it is yet, but I'll figure it out someday. For today though, I think I'll just curse you-"
"Leave him alone!" Margaret darted in front of me. That move was either very brave, or very stupid, possibly a mixture of both.
"Excuse me?" Snape hissed. Maggie stood her ground.
"Don't hurt him," she said. "Just leave him alone."
"Maggie this is stupid," I said. "He's Snape, he's evil."
"SHUT IT, LUPIN!"
"Don't you dare speak to him like that!" Maggie pulled out her wand again and pointed it at Snape.
"What is going on?" Professor McGonagall demanded. Snape got very pale.
"He was going to curse Remus, Professor," Maggie informed. "So I was going to curse him, and then you came along, and-"
"Miss Baker, please be quiet."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Now, since Mr. Snape and Mr. Lupin just cannot be in the same room together without there being bloodshed," McGonagall went on, "I believe that your detentions tomorrow night will be in separate rooms-"
"WHAT?" Snape and I cried in unison.
"Professor, you can't give Remus detention," Maggie protested. "He didn't do anything this time!"
"Miss Baker, you will be joining him."
"Me! What did I do?"
"You were about to use magic in the halls. That is not allowed. Mr. Lupin is guilty by association."
"You can't do that!" Maggie protested.
"I can, and I have. Report to me tomorrow evening." She walked away.
"I'll get you next time, Lupin," Snape said, whirling around and stalking off in the direction of his Common Room. Maggie looked up at me, her eyes wide.
"Remus, I'm so sorry I got you in trouble," she said.
"I'm going to bed," I muttered, heading back to the tower.
Cleaning every trophy in the trophy room has never been fun. It's even less fun when you didn't do anything to get the punishment.
"I'm sorry," Maggie said quietly. I didn't say anything. I'd been ignoring her for the last half hour. Yeah, maybe it wasn't fair, but neither was my getting punished, so I could overlook that. Ten more minutes of total silence.
"You can't ignore me for the rest of your life because of something so stupid!"
"Oh, no, what you did was stupid," I snapped. "You shouldn't have been down in the dungeons, anyway! All you did was get me in trouble! And I didn't do anything!"
"Mind you that we only got in trouble because I was trying to stop that boy from hurting you!" she retorted, getting to her feet and staring me dead in the eye. "You're so ungrateful!"
"I'm ungrateful? For you getting me detention? I could have gotten myself detention! It's damn easy! I-" My voice died when I saw the look on her face. Her large, light blue eyes were brimming with tears. Something in my chest started to hurt. "I'm...I'm sorry," I said. "I'm acting like a huge jerk."
"Yeah, you are," she replied softly, smiling a little.
"I'm sorry," I said again, wiping the tears from her eyes. "It was very brave of you to stand up for me like that. Thanks." I kissed her cheek.
"N-no problem," she stammered, blushing bright red. She backed up - right into a shelf of trophies, knocking several to the floor. "Oh, no!" she groaned, dropping to her knees and inspecting them all.
"It's not a big deal," I said, kneeling beside her and helping to get the trophies back onto the shelf.
"Yes it is! Don't you see? Your friends are right, I'm a klutz! I can't do anything right." I took her face in my hands.
"Maggie, don't listen to them," I said. "They're morons, really. You're smart, you're sweet, you're beautiful, and I lo- I believe in you," I corrected myself quickly, hoping she hadn't caught that.
"Really?" she asked, gazing at me with her pretty eyes.
"Absolutely."