Author's note: Thanks for the reviews . . . they make my day! I'm not actually sure when James and Sirius became good friends, but I will assume that they hooked up in first year. This is really myinterpretation or something like that. As for the title: heh heh heh, you'll see what it means, the original was "Destruction of the Headmaster's Office" but it was too long . . . anyway, enjoy!

Disclaimer (I forgot this the last time, sorry!): These characters belong to J. K. Rowling

Chapter 2: The Mischief Begins

James awoke the next day feeling refreshed and ready to tackle anything. His good cheer was almost hampered by the presence of Peter, who insisted on following him to the bathroom because the other Gryffindors, apparently, had developed a liking to pushing him around. But he cheered up at the sight of Sirius waiting for him at the portrait hole of the Leaping Lion.

"Ready to go, James?"

"Yep, oh no, hang on, I've left my Potions for Beginners behind."

"It's okay, I'll wait for you with Pettigrew here," Sirius gave Peter a sidelong look which made James laugh.

"All right then. Valiant veal."

The Lion gave a deafening roar and the portrait swung open. James climbed into the hole in such a hurry that just as he swung his leg into the common room, it made contact with a fellow human.

"OUCH!"

"Oh God, I'm so sorry!" he looked and saw that he had hit Lily Evans, the pretty girl who had made him wish that he was Sorted into Gryffindor. Her enchanting green eyes were furious at first, but then they softened. She smiled instead. "No problem, but you might want to, er, you know, watch where you throw your leg."

He nodded quickly. "Yes, yes, of course, I'm sorry if I'd hurt you or anything."

"Just, just my leg. That's all." She smiled again, such a smile that made James's heart flutter uncontrollably.

"Yeah, uh, okay, I'll see you around?"

"At Potions."

He nodded foolishly again. "Yeah. At, uh, Potions."

"See you."

"See you too." He watched as she climbed out the portrait hole and disappeared. For a moment, he stood there, grinning like an idiot, thinking of what had actually happened between him and Lily Evans, until the portrait hole swung open once again and Sirius stuck his head through it and yelled, "HURRY UP, LOVER-BOY!"

"I see what's going on," Sirius said slyly to James at the breakfast table, forcing him to avert his gaze from Lily Evans and hurriedly stuff a chunk of maple-syruped pancakes into his mouth.

Peter giggled. "We know what happened."

James swallowed the pancakes. "What are both of you talking about?"

"You know what we're talking about," Sirius put his fork down and wiped his mouth with a napkin. "That's it. I'm stuffed."

Against his own will, his face turned red. Had they known?

"Ah ha!" Sirius exclaimed. "You're blushing. Goodness are you a boy?"

"James is blushing, James is blushing!" Peter chanted. His chants drew the attention and laughter from other students.

"Shut up, both of you," he hissed and snatched up his bag, no longer in the mood for breakfast. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Lily Evans laugh with her friend.

Sirius caught up with him. "Hey, James, be cool, okay? It's nothing."

"Oh, it's just a joke, is it?" James turned on him angrily once they were out of the Great Hall. "How would you feel if I found out who you liked and taunted you in front of everyone?"

"I'd feel the same way, James. The point is, a real guy doesn't let himself be bothered by silly things like this. Guys don't squabble over petty stuff like being teased."

"Yeah? Then who was it who walked out on me yesterday on the train?"

Sirius was about to answer when a voice boomed behind him, "Mr. Black!"

He turned around and found himself face to face with Professor McGonagall.

"Mr. Black, I believe you have committed a serious school offence yesterday on the Hogwarts Express."

James was horrified as the truth dawned on him: Peter was right. Sirius was going to be expelled. He looked at Sirius.

Sirius had his hands in the pockets of his robes but he was looking directly at her in the eye.

"Yes, I did, Professor. I performed the Tap-dancing Charm and the Repairing Charm yesterday."

"On who, exactly?" her voice this time was a little choked.

"On a group of Slytherins, and then later on the glass of the compartment door," he replied calmly. James was shocked and amazed by his stark honesty. He expected Professor McGonagall to expel him anytime now.

But to his utter surprise, she said, "Well, I appreciate your honesty very much, Mr. Black, so, well, I will let you off today with a warning," her voice became stern again. "If I catch you breaking any school rule again, I will not hesitate to bring you to the Headmaster. But for now, as a punishment, fifty points from Gryffindor for such misbehaviour. Yes, Mr. Potter, fifty points from my very own House!"

James couldn't believe his ears. Fifty points at one go! Sirius however, looked just as calm as ever. "Thank you, Professor." He grabbed James's arm and almost dragged him down the great marble steps. He didn't release him nor did he speak until they were down in the dungeons.

Sirius spoke first. "Fifty points, huh? Should be a hundred, don't you think?"

"Are you joking, Sirius? You could have been expelled!"

"Sssh!" He hissed and yanked James with him behind a pillar.

"What?"

Sirius pointed at a tall girl with luxurious black hair tied up in an extremely neat ponytail. She looked as if she had applied too much mascara, so much so that she looked like a raccoon. James snickered and Sirius turned slightly pink, but his mouth was screwed into a scowl.

"She's my cousin, Bellatrix Black. And the pale girl beside her," Sirius pointed again, and James noticed the ghostly pale girl walking beside Bellatrix. "That's Narcissa, her sister. Bellatrix is elder and she's in the fourth this year. Narcissa's a second-year." He made a face. "They're the worst sort of females I ever had to put up with. Especially Bellatrix, she bullies. But my mother loves them. And their sister, Andromeda too. But Andromeda's nice. She's in Ravenclaw." He smiled at James. "She thought me spells."

James stared at Bellatrix and Narcissa until they were out of sight. "They're in Slytherin, too?"

Sirius nodded and made a funny noise. "Yeah. Come on now, I'm pretty sure Potions is on this floor."

Potions, his first lesson that year, was taught by an impossibly fat man called Professor Horace Slughorn. James immediately disliked him as soon as he had been greeted when he and Sirius had arrived at the dungeon several minutes earlier than the rest of the class.

"Well, well, hello, boys. Early, aren't we? Who are you, may I ask?"

"James Potter."

"Sirius Black."

"Sirius Black!" Professor Slughorn's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "My goodness, from the most noble and ancient House of Black?"

Sirius squirmed a little. "Yes, Professor."

"Ah, Sirius! Sirius! You are well known to me, yes, you are! Did you know that I had seen you when you were but a little baby? Oh yes, it was your mother's cousin wasn't it, Araminta Meliflua, who used to work for the Ministry in the Pest Advisory Bureau before she moved on to the Goblin Liaison Office, ah yes! Great friend of mine! How is she now?"

Sirius smiled uneasily. "She's, er, still alive, and trying to get support for Muggle-hunt – "

"Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes," Professor Slughorn interjected immediately. "But still, quite a genius though, wasn't she? How is your mother, Quintillia?"

At that, Sirius completely abandoned his good manners altogether. "She's fine," he said curtly.

"Is she? Well, I never saw a more beautiful lady than she was in her day! Yes, you won't believe it, she was a favourite of Witch Weekly until they decided that they were bored of her face," he clucked his tongue and shook his head. "Poor woman. She was never quite the same after that, are you sure she's all right?"

"I'm very sure, Professor. She just yelled at me last week and threatened to throw me bodily into the Thames when I had set fire to her hydrangea bushes." Sirius laughed shortly. "Yes, she's still right in the head."

James fought not to laugh at the horrified look at Professor Slughorn's face. Suddenly, he caught sight of another apparently famous person and exclaimed a little too loudly, "Malfoy, isn't it, Lucius Malfoy?"

Sirius whipped around and a look of pleasure alighted on his face. James followed his direction. A boy with pale blonde hair neatly slicked behind was smiling, but a little confused at which way he should go. Finally he waved at Sirius and headed instead for Professor Slughorn.

James readjusted the bag on his shoulder and said to Sirius, "Come on, or we won't get any seats."

Sirius followed him to the back and they dropped their bags onto the floor and retrieved their Potions for Beginners. James was reading halfway through a set of orders on how to brew a Dizziness Draught when someone banged into his cauldron and toppled him over too.

"What the – "

"I'm sorry," a hollow and low voice said. James looked up and saw a very sickly thin boy with a hooked nose and greasy black hair picking up his books from inside James's cauldron.

"It's, it's okay," James said and bent to help him pick up the books.

Sirius brandished his wand and said, "Hey James, leave it to me." He pointed his wand at the cauldron and said, "Accio books!"

The books suddenly flew up through the cauldron mouth and hit the boy in the face in their hurry to get to Sirius. James dodged them just in time. Sirius caught the books neatly and handed them to the boy, his face flushed a little amid the clapping and cheering from other students.

"Here you go, and, er, sorry about the face," Sirius smiled apologetically.

The boy looked up slowly and his face was contorted with a hatred that James had never thought possible. He looked as though he wanted to swallow Sirius whole.

He snatched the books roughly from Sirius and stuffed them into the bag before saying, "I'll wipe that grin of your face, git."

That instantly wiped the grin off Sirius's face. "Are you calling me a git?"

"Stop it, okay?" James was nervous now. Fortunately, Professor Slughorn had clapped his hands up at the front and was now calling for the class to begin.

The boy whirled around and stalked off moodily. Sirius scowled. "What did I do now? I helped him collect his books."

"And you hit him in the face," James muttered and, under Professor Slughorn's orders, turned to page 5 and began to read 'The Subtle Art of Potion-Making.'

Sirius snorted.

"Now," chirped Professor Slughorn when James was about to finish the last sentence, "please turn to page 6, just the next page, and read about the Cheerful Concoction, a fairly simple potion that we will do today, if you please, but first: what is a Cheerful Concoction?"

Two hands shot into the air. One, James noticed with a weak heart, belonged to Lily Evans, while the other belonged to the boy who hated Sirius for making his books slam into his face.

Professor Slughorn tipped his head in Lily's direction. "Yes?"

"The Cheerful Concoction instantly improves the mood of a bad-tempered living organism, and can be applied to not only humans but also plants and animals. It is magenta in colour and light to taste," she recited.

"Excellent! Excellent! Ten points for Gryffindor!" Sirius shook his head disbelievingly and James grinned a little weakly.

"The Cheerful Concoction is, like I said earlier, relatively simple, but its ingredients are difficult to find. Can anybody tell me, what are its ingredients?"

The same hands were up again, and Sirius was shaking with silent laughter.

Professor Slughorn nodded this time, in the hook-nosed boy's direction.

"Two fists of a newly bloomed dahlia's petals, a tail of a cat, a jar of goblin drool, the full bones of a red herring and the skin of a newly hatched lizard," he recited confidently.

"Well done, ten points to Slytherin, Severus, I mean, er, Mr. Snape," Professor Slughorn beamed at him.

Sirius and James snickered. Sirius mumbled to James, "Slughorn's the Head of Slytherin House." He snorted again. "Snivellus."

James could only grin.

When Professor Slughorn had ordered the class to begin brewing the Concoction, Peter Pettigrew burst in through the dungeon door. Everyone looked up, startled, and James almost dropped his goblin drool.

"Why so late?" Professor Slughorn asked a little too cheerfully. Now that the tension had dissipated, the class returned to work.

"I lost my way, Professor," panted Peter.

"Very well, it's only your first, I mean, second day, here. Run along now, we're doing Cheerful Concoctions today."

James crossed his fingers, hoping that he would not join them. Peter, to his relief, went over to the only partnerless student in the dungeon: Severus Snape.

Sirius grinned as he dropped his dahlia petals into the cauldron and stirred them clockwise once. "Poor Pettigrew. That Snivellus can really use a Cheerful Concoction right now. Look at him," he nudged James, "writing on the book as he holds the ladle like that. It'll be a blessing if he doesn't scald anyone."

James laughed and accidentally broke off a herring bone. "Gosh, look what you made me do." And they were engulfed in fits of uncontrollable laughter as if they had actually taken the Concoction themselves.

Some time later, James decided that his potion was the right shade of magenta and scooped them into a small vial that Professor Slughorn provided. Sirius shook his head and shrugged, his potion was a murky and unfathomable colour. "That's it, I've got no talent for Potions."

"Snivellus on the other hand doesn't seem too accomplished either," James looked in Snape's direction. Snape was still scrutinising his book and his cauldron was letting off pleasant pink bubbles.

Sirius quickly dipped his vial in the cauldron and corked it. "Watch this, James." He stood and pretended to drift in Snape's direction. James watched with fascination, his uncorked vial still in his hands.

Sirius edged closer towards his cauldron and winked. James gave a thumbs up back, wondering what Sirius will do. Suddenly a girl hissed into his ear, "What – is – he – doing?"

James turned around to see Lily Evans looking furiously at him. James shrugged hastily. "I don't know." She pursed her lips together and marched off.

He watched as Sirius stood close to Snape's cauldron, Snape still oblivious to Sirius's presence, pointed his wand at it, and muttered something.

The pink bubbles disappeared and Sirius dashed back towards their table, shaking with quiet laughter.

"What did you do, Sirius?" James whispered to him.

Sirius pointed his wand at his cauldron and said, "Evanesco." The potion disappeared, his cauldron as clean as ever. "And this, with a sleight of hand youcouldn't possibly have caught." He took out a bag of Timed Dungbombs.

James's eyes widened and they watched as Snape, his eyes still fixed on the book, lowered his ladle into the cauldron, heard a dull 'thunk', and, seething with rage, looked into it. The cauldron exploded, blackened his face and singed his curtain of hair.

James and Sirius collapsed onto the floor with hysterical laughter.