A/N: This chapters a tiny bit, well, full of raging testosterone :D
"Look... It's okay, I'll just meet you out there," James commented to Sirius, his foot tapping on the ancient wooded floor.
"Oh, bugger off." Sirius grabbed a fistful of clothes, tossing them up in the air. Frowning to himself, he stepped over the strewn laundry and headed to his dresser. "Where's my bloody uniform?"
"The house-elves washed the bloody one, the clean one is hanging up," Peter replied from over his Charms assignment, chuckling. Sirius rolled his eyes and headed for the wardrobe.
"When did you become so witty?" he growled, pulling on his freshly laundered robes and picking up his broomstick. Still glowering at Peter's amusement, Sirius decided this definitely wasn't a good morning.
The door swung open again, and James stepped inside. "Don't bother, practice was called because of the weather. I also have a feeling it's because this years Hufflepuff team is a bunch of pricks who don't know which way to hold the bludger club."
Sirius froze in his tracks and dropped his broom, pulling the uniform back up and over his head.
Gratefully tossing aside his poor excuse for an essay, Peter pulled a couple Zonko's bags from underneath his bed. "Now we can set up the fireworks before lunch!"
"Good idea. Now, where's Remus? We all know how he loves to pull pranks," James commented.
"He's in the library, studying like a good werewolf," Sirius replied, reluctantly nicking the invisibility cloak from atop James' night stand.
"Should we distract Filch?" Peter asked, wringing his pudgy hands together in an attempt to curb his excitement.
James shook his head, heading for the door. "He's probably still all tied up from the flood on the third floor."
"Pulling off more pranks without me, eh?" Sirius said hotly, running his hand along the banister of the staircase as they descended. James frowned.
"No, Moaning Myrtle had a fit and turned on all the taps," he replied. "I heard Lily telling off some little 1st years that teased her for being dead."
Sirius snorted, obviously unsatisfied with the answer, and pulled the invisibility cloak out of his robes once they exited the scarcely vacated Common Room.
"We can't be sketchy, it's 11 am on a Saturday," he replied shortly to Peter's questioning look.
A trip to the Entrance Hall always seemed much longer when three or more boys had to remain huddled under a single cloak. Leaving Peter behind was always a fair option, as he took up more than half of the space under there. But in Remus' absence, James, Sirius and Peter could somewhat comfortably fit.
Once the coast was clear, Peter slipped out from under the invisibility cloak and stood guard by the staircase. The only Professor patrolling the corridors on a Saturday morning was Flitwick, but he wasn't too difficult to evade.
"Oh, Professor, I... I think Peeves may be... being bad... That way! He's smashing ink bottles again!" Peter had stammered, convincingly capturing the emotion of fear at the very least.
Everyone once in a while, he'd send nervous glances back at the spot where James and Sirius sat, invisible to the naked eye. The duo worked quickly to disillusion firework after firework, stuffing them into various extremities of the suits of armor. A firework slipped out of Sirius' grasp, and went skidding out across the marble tile. James reached out and nicked it.
"Seekers reflexes," Sirius commented. James grinned and opened the chest plate of one suit, loading in a few fireworks.
"So I've been thinking about this prank thing, and well, I'm sorry for being immature," Sirius said conversationally, smoothing over the wrinkled fabric of his robes.
"It's okay. I'm just glad you didn't try to prank me over it," James ruffled his hair, replying with a grin.
Sirius nodded and continued silkily, "Yeah. So you've probably chilled out too, and whatever part of the prank you want me to help with, I'd be glad."
The raven haired boy sighed, and any sign of relief that had etched itself onto his features dissipated. "I don't think you get it. This is still something I have to do alone," James recited. "Just forget I ever mentioned it, okay?"
"No, I can't just forget! I want in on the mischief!" Sirius' voice had risen slightly. Peter squealed nervously, but the short-tempered boy plowed on. "Why are you being such a prat about it?"
"I am not being a prat! This is something personal," James replied hotly.
"Personal my ARSE," Sirius barked, scattering his remaining fireworks across the floor. Throwing the cloak off of himself, Sirius stomped off down the hallway. He somehow resisted the strong urge to whip out his wand and hex James into oblivion.
James scowled and collected the remaining fireworks, jabbing them roughly into place.
Remus uncovered his Potions textbook, and began to scan it's torn pages for a section on antidotes. After a few minutes of flicking through the tattered, secondhand book, he just sighed and set it aside, figuring the pages had been torn out somewhere down the line. Remus' eyes drifted to the clock on the wall, 11:30. He'd been studying for over two hours.
"Hey," a nasally, soft voice spoke from beside him. Remus looked up to see Severus Snape lingering next to his table.
"Oh hello," Remus replied. "What's up?"
"I was wondering if I could sit here, the people over there don't like me too much," Snape gestured towards the other side of the quaint library, where a pack of upperclassmen Ravenclaws leered back at him. His black eyes glinted angrily, and Remus felt a surge of pity rise in his chest.
He nodded. "Okay."
Snape took a seat in the wooden chair on Remus' left, dropping his bookbag on the floor. "Thanks," he said.
"It's not a problem," Remus replied. "Erm, d'you happen to have your Potions textbook? I think my antidote section's been ripped out."
Snape nodded and plucked the textbook from his bookbag.
Flipping through Beginner's Guide to Potion-Making, Remus noted many little footnotes and cross-outs scrawled in miniscule handwriting across it's pages. Feeling Snape's gaze upon him, Remus flipped to the antidotes section and diligently scribbled down a few important notes.
By the time he was finished copying, words that had been burning the back of Remus' mind threatened to spill out. He cleared his throat, and handed Snape the textbook.
"Look, I'm sorry," Remus said dully. Snape looked up questioningly, his hooked nose leering at Remus. The sandy blonde haired boy continued warily, "The way James and Sirius act, it isn't right. I know we used to be mates in second year... And I don't really stick up for you... Well... Yeah."
Snape's upper lip twitched, and he quickly buried his face back into notes.
Embarrassed, Remus fell silent for a few moments. "I'm sorry, I've been here all morning and need a spot of lunch now."
Snape nodded his head, a few greasy strands of black hair falling into his equally as oily face.
Remus gathered his books and loose papers before striding out of the library.
Sirius yawned loudly and stretched out across his bed. "What a shitty day. I didn't even get to set off those bloody fireworks."
"If Mrs. Norris doesn't sniff them out, there's always tomorrow," Remus replied, leaning back against the headboard of his four-poster.
"Y'know, if James hadn't snuck off to Hogsmeade, I'd probably have murdered him," Sirius continued sourly.
"Not the most creative way to be expelled," Remus said absentmindedly, nibbling on a square of chocolate and scrawling an essay on a sheaf of parchment. "Now where did Peter say he was off to?"
"Who cares, Moony?" Sirius replied. "It's James I'm pissed about. How could he pull a prank without us!"
"Maybe because in 2nd year we tried to kill him by stuffing tin foil in his hair and leaving that Niffler in his boxers drawer?" Remus suggested, taking another chunk off of the chocolate bar. "He never quite got you back for that."
Sirius rolled his eyes. "But that's old news. He's getting Malfoy back without us! I want to nail the git as badly as he does!"
Shrugging, Remus replied, "You know how he is about Lily."
"Whatever... You know what this means, don't you?"
Remus dipped his quill into an ink bottle, and he looked up into Sirius' intense gaze. His liquid onyx grey eyes bore into Remus, making him feel slightly queasy. Boy how he hated Sirius' sour moods. "What?" Remus finally replied.
"We need to outdo James, of course!" Sirius replied, slamming his fist onto the mattress.
"Okay," Remus responded, turning back to his essay. "We can try."
A long silence stretched ahead, and Sirius rolled over onto his stomach. Burying his face into the pillow, he mumbled something incoherently.
Remus raised his eyebrows. "What?"
Sirius mumbled into the pillow some more, a little bit louder this time.
"Sirius, I can't hear you when you stuff your face in the pillow," Remus said patiently.
The dark haired boy lifted his head. "I said, I love you."
Remus faltered, eyes widened in shock. "Um... What?"
"No, not like that!" Sirius grinned widely, chuckling. "You've just been a good mate to me is all. It's cool."
"Oh," Remus' expression relaxed. "Yeah, same to you."
Sirius yawned again, tugging at the knot on his tie and unbuttoning his wrinkled shirt. Remus put forth more effort to concentrate on the Goblin Rebellions essay in his lap.
Having slipped out of his day clothes, Sirius snuggled up in his bedsheets. "G'night Moony," he said.
"Sleep well," Remus replied. He began to nibble at his chocolate again, brow furrowed in thought.
A/N: Aren't those guys just the cutest?
I've got some really smashing ideas up my sleeve for future chapter, so expect quick updates.