Hogwarts: 1971 - The Mission

Peter wasn't seen for over a week. His things around his bed stayed untouched and unnoticed for nine days until someone noticed his strange disappearance.

"Have you seen Peter lately?"

Sirius asked James while walking to Potions. Ever since the train James and Sirius had been attached at the hip, they were going everywhere together, doing everything together, and talking about everything together. It was a friendship that was simple enough; they both liked each other and had similar view on almost everything.

"No, I actually haven't... I saw him last when he thought his face was purple..."

James replied confusedly, tucking another book into his bag and throwing Remus a mean look as he passed them.

"Yea, I haven't seen 'em since then either!"

Agreed Sirius, while trying to avoid a cluster of giggly girls, who only seemed to begin chattering faster and more excitedly as he passed. Sweeping his fingers through his messy hair he shook his head, clearly oblivious to the flustered girls. James frowned and turned the corner heading down into the dungeons.

But they had no idea...

"MEEPHHHHH!"

Something was banging and yelling. James jumped in fright and Sirius almost fell to the floor.

"Wh..what?"

"EEELLLLHHPPPP MEEHHHHHH"

The noise grew louder, and the boys could tell it was behind them.

"Should we run for it?"

Sirius asked shakily, pulling himself back to his feet. But James shook his head and turned around, to see a broom cupboard door, shaking and pounding.

"ELLLLLLLPHHHHHH MEEHHHHHH...!"

The noise came louder, making some dust fall onto the floor in front of it. James shook a little but carefully picked his way across the hallway to the door, his heart beating like a drum in his ears. Sirius joined behind him, equally as cautious. But just as James reached the knob a giant gust of air flew at them, knocking James backwards onto Sirius, who tumbled onto the stone floors as well.

Out popped a slivery wisp of smoke and light, which looked almost see-through, they could make out a face and his body.

"ELLO! ME GOOD CHAPS! THE NAME IS PEEVESY, SEE? I CAME UPON YOUR LITTLE FRIEND WHO ASKED A QUESTION FOR ME! HE SAID HIS FACE WAS TURNING BLUE, NO PURPLE'S WHAT HE SAID, HE SAID THAT I SHOULD HELP HIM CLEAN UP HIS LITTLE HEAD! BUT PEEVESY WAS A GOOD LITTLE BOY AND MADE SURE HE WAS KEPT LOCKED UP. 'CAUSE CRAZY FOLK AND RANTING BOYS SHOULD NOT BE RUNNING AMUCK!"

Peeves twirled around and laughed until he disappeared through the ceiling. The voice was now louder in the cupboard then ever before.

"ELLLLLLLLLLLLLPHHHHHHHH MEHHHHHHHH!"

James got up first, and quickly ran to the handle to wench it open.

Out tumbled Peter with a big wad of socks in his mouth and his hands glued together. Peeves had abducted him and stuck him in the closet; apparently on the false pretences it was going to help Peter's face. But the first words out of Peter's mouth once Sirius and James had successfully gotten all the socks and glue off him was:

"Is my face still purple?"

This only made James and Sirius begin to break out in hysterical laughter. Peter blinked down at them, and looked as though he couldn't possibly fathom why they were laughing about this.

Is it really? Maybe my whole body is purple!

Finally regaining their composure, James and Sirius grinned at Peter.

"Yep, defiantly not purple..."

Sirius said nodding solemnly, with James stifling a laugh with a cough.

The finding of Peter proved to be a good thing as they made their way to the potion class room, with the stout Professor Slughorn teaching. Peter seemed to make everything a bit more humorous to Sirius and James, and they both were happy to have found him. Peter took away all thoughts of that mean old crusty Remus, who was sitting only a few stations away with Lily.

Peter was in the middle of talking excitedly to James about his new fear of cupboards when he put too many porcupine quills to his boil cure potion and made it begin to bubble over turning a flamboyant ginger color and begin to smoke. Sirius looked at it and grinned, obviously liking the effect, and took two fistfuls of stewed horned slugs and threw it in the bubbling orange mass. Which made Lily and Remus look over disapprovingly as the cauldron began to spark and turn a violet blue. Professor Slughorn suddenly saw the boys and yelped, running over to them.

"DON'T! WHAT EVER YOU DO MR. BLACK DON'T YOU PUT IT BACK ON THE...!"

But it was too late. The overexcited Sirius had already picked up the smoking cauldron and set it back on the fire.

"DUCK!"

Slughorn yelled, as the entire class flew under their desks, except for poor Slughorn, who didn't react quite as quickly as his students. Suddenly the entire blue mass of potion, which was now thicker and gooey, grew rapidly into a giant bubble until it became too big for the cauldron and popped.

Sapphire goop was sprayed everywhere, and especially on the Professor, who was now looking more like a giant blue blob then a stout, chunky teacher. But his face under the goop was steaming with furry.

Sirius on the other hand, was looking rather pleased and was laughing about the matter. It so happened that since Lily and Remus had been right next to the cauldron; they too got a full blast of the gummy mess, and were now having a horrible fit of outrage.

Peter looked terrified and James only looked smug. It served that rotten know-it-all right to have it all over him.

"Class... dismissed..."

Professor Slughorn said tiredly, as if it took all his energy not to blow up as well. Sirius, James and Peter were the first to bolt out of the room, followed closely by the rest of the irresponsible class, which were all still laughing about the incident.

Sirius was now the new class clown, and class hero. What he said or did was automatically turned to gold, like he had the 'Midas touch'. James was now swept up into this whirlwind of popularity as well and now, was getting more attention then he could have ever hoped for. Together, Sirius and James were the most admired boys in the first year, which Peter only saw as a sign that he had picked the right two to be friends with.

The two never had to do anything; if they said it aloud it was like it was done for them. The popularity soon got to their heads and they began thinking that they needed to do something better to keep up their reputation.

But what?

While sitting in the common room one night, the two were talking about possible pranks to do when they found the perfect idea.

"GENIOUS!"

Exclaimed Sirius, dancing around in his pajamas as he listened to James' idea.

"So all we need to do is get a really big blanket or something and get them all into..."

James explained, getting excited as well. But as they were talking a very angry looking scarred face appeared behind James's head, glaring down at him. James, however, kept talking about all the details until he noticed Sirius' terrified expression.

"What is it, mate?"

He said confusedly as he turned around to follow Sirius' gaze.

Bugger.

Remus Lupin was standing there in his night robe and fuzzy slippers, looking furious with his arms crossed over his chest.

"So, You too are going to play a prank are you?"

He said smoothly, walking around them like a vulture ready to strike, while Sirius and James soon found that they were toast.

"Well I'm not going to let you, I'm going to go straight to Professor McGonagall and..."

"Minerva? What does she have to do with it?"

Sirius piped up, cutting Remus off mid-sentence.

"Professor McGonagall...,"

Remus said icily,

"... happens to be the head of Gryffindor House..."

Sirius and James' jaws fell to the floor. That snobby lady was their head of house? Realization now dawned on the two boys as they finally added 2 and 2 together to find the reason why she looked so glum when they were sorted.

Why couldn't they of had Flitwick? He seemed like he would have much more understood...

"... and has no tolerance for troublemakers and pranksters like you two!"

He finished triumphantly, with a slight glowing look about his face, as if he had been waiting to turn them in for ages.

But the two did not go down without a fight, however, in the end, the both promised to annoy neither Remus nor Lily, and not to follow through with their prank.

Unfortunately, the trouble is, when making a promise with James Potter and Sirius Black, you have to make sure they don't have their fingers crossed.

-

The weeks until their big event were drawing nearer and soon the day had arrived that they would unleash their grand prank upon the school, and they had already made up a game plan.

Agents:

Black, Sirius Code name: Black Dog

Potter, James Code name: Great Stag

Pettigrew, Peter Code name: Fat Rat

Your missions, should you choose them:

Mission One:

Fat Rat will be sent to the dormitories when subjects are absent from the home base during their morning meal. Take off all the draperies in the male sleeping quarters and proceed to sew them all together to make the enormous bag. Then hide under Black Dog's bed and proceed to the morning meal as customary and giving Black Dog the signal.

Mission One Accomplished.

Mission Two:

Black Dog will then depart undetected of his next class and proceed to the Care of Magical Creatures store room, where he will continue on to take the most sizeable sack of owl cuisine he can administer and transport it to be stuffed securely under his bed as well, returning to his class and giving Great Stag the signal.

Mission Two Accomplished.

Mission Three:

Great Stag will walk to the sleeping quarters and retrieve both the bag and the seed, pouring all the seed into the bag before enchanting it to float where he wills it before proceeding with caution to the main quarters where he will wait for Black Dog to give him the signal from outside.

Mission Three Accomplished.

Mission Four:

Black Dog will give the signal and Great Stag will open the largest window, making the bag float down into the awaiting arms of Black Dog, who will charm it to fly to the Owlery where both Great Stag and Fat Rat will be waiting for it.

Mission Four Accomplished.

Mission Five:

Black Dog will drop a dung bomb in the Great Hall, which will keep away student subjects, and attract teacher subjects to the area, making sure that none go by way out the doors towards the Owlery where Great Stag and Fat Rat will be opening the bag and letting all the owls fly into it. After securing all the owls in the Owlery into the bag, Fat Rat will give the signal to Black Dog, who will take the bag around the back doors and into the secure designated hallway where Fat Rat and Great Stag will meet him.

Mission Five Accomplished.

The bag of owls began hooting shrilly and was rather hard to handle as the three boys carried it to the largest stairway they could manage and were about to open the bag when they heard footsteps.

"Abort! Abort Mission!"

Sirius cried, trying to stuff the fluttering bag into the nearest corridor. But soon the footsteps were growing louder and louder, too fast for Sirius' vein attempt in hiding the massive wad of drapes.

Soon the origin of the footsteps was visible, and its maker only made Sirius and James groan.

Remus Lupin.

Remus looked absolutely appalled at them. Sirius' heart beat quickened and he felt a sudden jolt of energy, followed by a little voice in his ear.

Run for it,

Quickly he attempted to bolt down the stairs but Remus was close behind, catching his robes in his hands. Sirius tumbled down the stairway with Remus along with him making a massive blur of cloak and body. James and Peter both took this opportunity to run off in separate directions, unnoticed by Remus. When the two boys finally hit the bottom of the staircase, they were a mess, feet and arms flailing everywhere, cloaks ripped, bruises forming, and to top it all off, a mad scramble to get unwound before the other.

Sirius was untangled first and began sprinting back up the stairs, trying to get to the bag of owls. However, Remus was just as fast, tailing after him closely. Finally Sirius reached the floor with the bag and began running towards it in a mad frenzy when he felt something seize the tail of his robes which sent him flying forward onto his face with a large CRACK!

Remus was holding on to his robes with a firm hold, his knuckles turning white from his grip.

Quick footsteps were now heard down the hallway and soon the body of Professor McGonagall was seen sprinting towards the two boys, who were sprawled out on the floor next to a hooting and moving mess of hangings. This was a very odd sight indeed.

"WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"

McGonagall shouted with a furious look upon her stern face. Pushing themselves up slowly the boys looked at each other with an expression of disbelief and almost a hint of absurdity. But with a loud throaty noise from the Professor, both of them snapped their heads back to look at her.

"I said: What has happened here!"

She repeated a little more calmly this time, eyeing the bag skeptically with a raised eyebrow. Remus looked to Sirius, to the bag then back again as if fighting a battle inside his head.

He's going to rat me out...

He's going to rat me out...

Sirius could already hear McGonagall's voice in his head: DETENTION FOR ETERNITY MR. BLACK! And as for you, dear Mr. Lupin, you will be given honors and a medal for services to the school.

Meanwhile, the professor was getting very impatient with the two boys and sighed angrily.

"Well if you won't tell me what's in this bag, I'll just have to open it..."

"No!"

Both boys chorused, but it was now too late. McGonagall had opened the top and all the owls had came shooting out into her face, knocking her backwards onto the ground as they began to shoot around the school, hooting loudly and dropping special surprises everywhere.

Just like they'd planned.

Remus looked close to laughter and Sirius' eyes were watering. The look on her face was the most priceless thing they had ever seen.

After re-gaining her composure the professor had looked Remus straight in the eye and said.

"Tell me the truth, Mr. Lupin, what happened?"

Obviously, Remus was the responsible one and surely wouldn't have had anything to do with it so he'd be the perfect one to ask. Sirius threw Remus one more pleading glance before Remus opened his mouth.

Bugger.

"Professor, Sirius and I were walking to the Owlery when we saw Peeves there stuffing the Owl in the bag. We tried to stop him but he ended up just stuffing us both in as well. He had dropped us here. We had barely gotten out of the bag without getting all the birds out but we managed, and once we were here I realized too late that Peeves glued my hands to Sirius' robes so when he was running to go fetch you, I came with him and we both fell onto our faces, Then you came here and found us after I had managed to say the charm for getting glue off things,"

He said it so effortlessly and with enough emotion that Sirius himself almost believed him. But not even Remus' convincing manor was enough to break the look Sirius had on his face at that moment, which was sheer and utter disbelief. The boy looked as if his eyeballs had been popped out from his head. But Remus didn't look at Sirius, only at Professor McGonagall, with a very embarrassed and shameful look in his eyes, as if he was humiliated by the story of Peeves tricking him.

Apparently, McGonagall ate up every word he had said and they were free.

Sirius recognized that there were certain things that a person could do for you that you were just obligated to be fond of them for...

...And lying to a teacher to get them out of trouble was definitely one of them.

PLEASE REVIEW

Or I will come at you, perform Avada Kedavra on you and then release my werewolf on you! XD

So please gimme some feedback!

-Kisses!

TTOYL-Obsession 33