A/N: I'm back! I was intent on writing tons and tons in this story during Christmas break, but for some odd reason, being home is more hectic than being in school! But here's the next chapter, and it's the longest one in a while! 8 pages, opposed to the last chapter, which was only 4. Also, the whole story itself is up to 64 pages in my MSWord document. YAY for long stories!
And of course, I have to thank my loyal reviewers. Breetanya: thanks for the review, and I can't wait for July 16th (but you already knew that, I see you everyday) And I'm not gonna say anything else, since we already discussed it all. ILuvMoony: So do I! He's my favorite character! Glad you found my story and liked it, and hope you enjoy this chapter too! Mosing-Code: What would I do without you! You'll find out about Liz eventually. DON7L37M3G37M3: I'm just gonna call you Don from now on. Thanks for jumping into the story, glad you like it!
Also, if any of you would like to get deeper into my mind (though I'm not sure why you would), I have a weblog now! Check it out at and my username is Becca Lupin…but that doesn't necessarily give anything away, never fear!
Okay, enough from me, here's the story. Once again I don't own HP, but I do own Bec and Liz, who aren't really in this one, but what can I say? I also own my ideas…and that's all we really need, isn't it? Wow, that was deep…now….STORY!
Sammy Solo
Between schoolwork and the fun of new friends, time started to fly for the first years. Adding to the excitement, quidditch season had started, and the entire school was getting into the spirit.
"I can't wait until next year!" James exclaimed after one particularly exciting match in which Gryffindor had crushed Hufflepuff. "Just wait until I get onto that field! They won't know what hit them!"
"Not if I beat you in tryouts," Becca challenged.
"No way!" James argued. "I'm gonna be the best chaser this school has ever seen!"
"Not once they—" Bec started to fight back, but Sirius cut her off.
"What're you fighting about?" he asked. "There's more than one position open next year. There's two seventh year chases and one beater that are graduating this year."
"Even better!" James added excitedly. "They'll really be in trouble with two Potters on the field. Are you gonna tryout, Sirius?" he asked his friend.
Sirius shrugged. "I dunno, maybe," he said nonchalantly.
"Do you think I could play?" Peter piped up hopefully from behind the other three. Sirius looked at him skeptically out of the corner of his eye, but James figured he deserved a little encouragement.
"Sure, mate, why not? Tryout, you never know," he said, though he secretly doubted Peter would be any good. The first years had flying lessons now with the quidditch referee, Professor Volar, and Peter hadn't exactly gotten off to a good start. The first time he had sat on a broomstick, the flying implement had taken off without him, dropping him on his rear and forcing the instructor to go on a ten minute chase to attempt to bring the broom back to the ground. The class had had a good laugh, but neither the Volar nor Peter had looked particularly amused.
"See you guys later!" Becca called, jogging to catch up with Lily and Liz. She looked really tired; she said she hadn't slept at all last night. James just hoped she was feeling okay.
The three boys continued on in silence, lost in their own dreams about quidditch glory. Remus had gone home to see his mother again last night, a sad fact since he had missed the game this morning.
"I thought you said she was feeling better?" Sirius had asked when Remus told them he was leaving.
"She was," Remus had explained. "But she's not one hundred percent better, and since it's the weekend, and we don't have a lot of homework, I thought I should go home and see her." He hadn't looked too happy to be going, though. He had sat and talked with Liz for about ten minutes before he had left, both of them looking rather sorrowful.
"You know, that still bugs me," Sirius said, as if reading James's thoughts.
"What does?" Peter asked.
"The thing with Remus's mum," Sirius answered. "I mean, Remus and Liz looked awful last night."
"She's sick, mate, I don't think they should be too happy about it," James defended.
"Well, yeah, but Remus said she was feeling better. It's not like she's dying or anything," Sirius argued back. As much as he wanted to stand up for Remus, James couldn't think of a good reason to. The fact that Remus had left school twice in the last two months for a sick mum who was apparently not sick enough to require him to stay home had James wondering too. After all, if his mum was sick, he thought he would want to be there with her. And why wasn't Liz going to see her? It was her aunt; you'd think she'd be worried too.
"I dunno," James finally admitted. "Maybe it's just the way his family works."
"I think he's hiding something," Sirius said. James frowned at his friend.
"Hiding something?" he repeated. "What?"
"If I knew it wouldn't be hidden," Sirius answered. "But there's something else going on with him, I know it."
The thoughts continued to run through James's head as they came to the portrait of the fat lady. "Toad's breath," James muttered, still in his own world of thought. His thoughts were cut off, however, when he entered the common room to see that Remus had returned. Remus was hugging Liz tightly with an encouraging smile as the boys walked in, and as soon as he was done talking with his cousin he turned to the guys.
"How was the game?" Remus asked.
"Wicked," James answered.
"Yeah, we killed them!" Peter agreed enthusiastically.
"Shame you missed it," Sirius commented offhandedly.
"So how's your mum?" James asked quickly. Remus didn't look to James like he was up to facing an interrogation. There were dark circles under his eyes and a definite pallor to his face.
"She's okay," Remus said, his eyes immediately dropping to the floor. "She was feeling better this morning, but I might go home again in a few weeks if she's not totally better."
Sirius opened his mouth to speak, and James was afraid he was going to start asking questions. Instead, he changed the subject completely. "You know what we need to forget about all this stuff with sick mums and schoolwork?" he asked no one in particular. "A prank!"
"Prank?" James repeated. "Like what?"
"Something…something big," Sirius said thoughtfully. "Something everyone'll see…something at the Halloween feast!"
"In front of the whole school?" Remus asked apprehensively. "Won't we get caught?"
"No one will know it's us," Sirius explained.
"How?" Peter asked, sounding excited. Sirius opened his mouth, closed it again, and shrugged.
"I dunno," he said simply. "But we have about two weeks, we'll think of something."
And think they did. Remus said he wanted to take a nap, and when he came back to the common room the other three boys were gathered around one of the tables in the corner. Crumpled and scribbled pieces of paper lay strewn across the table and a few had toppled onto the floor.
"Any luck?" Remus asked as he approached. The three boys jumped and scrambled for the papers. They glanced up with their best innocent smiles, but quickly relaxed when they saw it was just Remus.
"Merlin, I thought you were a prefect or something," James said with a sigh of relief. Remus picked up one of the crumpled papers and squinted to read through the scribbles.
"Not like anyone could say that you're doing anything wrong," Remus commented. "You can't read anything anyway. I guess you didn't come up with anything?"
"Sure, we came up with plenty," Sirius said, casually leaning back on two legs of his chair and clasping his hands behind his head. "But James is being too picky."
"I'm not picky," James defended. "But I know that none of us want to get caught. Everything you came up with we'd have to do in the Great Hall, and everyone'll see us do it."
"What if we do something before the feast?" Peter suggested hopefully.
"Well, we can't plant anything, or else the professors or prefects will find it and we won't get a chance to do anything," James pointed out.
"Maybe…the food?" Remus offered. "Something about the food?" He immediately regretted saying something. After all, Professor Dumbledore had let Remus into Hogwarts on his own good graces, and here he was, helping his friends break the rules. His doubts faded, however, as Sirius's chair suddenly slammed back onto four legs and its occupant leaned forward excitedly.
"That's it!" he cried. "We'll charm the food!"
"Do you even know how or where they make the food?" James asked. "'Cuz I don't." Sirius thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers as his face brightened with an idea.
"I have an older cousin in seventh year," Sirius said. "I'll just ask her."
"A cousin?" James repeated doubtfully, remembering what his father had told him in Diagon Alley about the Black family.
"Yeah, but she's like me, not like the rest of my family," Sirius assured. "She's in Ravenclaw. But once we find out where the food is, what do we do with it?" As if on instinct, Sirius, James, and Peter all turned to look at Remus. After all, he had come up with the idea of the food; he could surely come up with something brilliant to do with it.
"Um…" Remus struggled to think of something that wouldn't disappoint his friends. "I guess I could look in the library for a book that could help us."
"Brilliant!" Sirius said. "You do that, I'll find out where we're going, and the school will never know what hit it."
"Andy! Andy! HEY ANDROMEDA!" Sirius yelled over the heads of the crowd in the Entrance Hall. The tall, dark-haired girl finally turned around, and her face lit up in a smile as she saw her younger cousin.
"Sirius!" she called, pushing her way through the crowd. As soon as she was close enough she embraced him in a hug, then punched him playfully on the arm. "What, you ignore your older cousins now?" she asked mock-seriously. "I haven't seen you since the first week!"
"Hey, I'm a busy man," Sirius responded with an air of pomp. "Anyway, I need to ask you a question."
"Come over here, I can barely hear you," she said, leading the way out of the crowd and to the right of the doors of the Great Hall. "Breakfast time is not the smartest time of day to try to have a conversation around here. So, what do you need?"
"Where do they make the food around here?" Sirius asked. Andromeda shot him a suspicious look.
"Why do you want to know?" she questioned in return.
"Oh, just curious," Sirius answered, showing his best innocent face. Andromeda sighed.
"If anyone asks, you didn't hear this from me," she instructed. Sirius nodded, and followed as she led the way through a door to the right of the Great Hall. Finally, everything for this prank was starting to fall into place.
Remus perused the shelves of the library, looking for anything that would help with this prank. He still wasn't sure he should be helping at all, what with how kind Dumbledore had been with him and all.
"Good, give the old man a reason to kick you out," sneered the wolf. The voice was just a whisper in the back of Remus's mind, but it still sent chills down his spine. "You think helping the boys with this prank will make them accept you more? How ridiculous! When they find out what you are, they'll still going to know that you're a monster, and never speak to you again. It's only a matter of time…"
Remus shook his head and concentrated on the titles in front of him. His eyes scanned the spines of the books until he spotted one that looked promising. He pulled the book off of the shelve and blew dust off the cover, revealing red binding with the title written in bold green letters: The Joke Is On Them: 1,001 Goofs for the Everyday Prankster.
Remus flipped open the book and glanced at a few of the pages, covered with lists of ingredients and instructions on how to perform spells. He smiled to himself, satisfied that he had done his job, and took the book to the front counter.
"Checking out?" the librarian asked harshly. An elderly woman, she was rather intimidating, and Remus simply nodded and handed her the book. She glared at him suspiciously over the rim of her glasses, but nevertheless stamped the book and handed it back to Remus. "It's due back in three weeks."
"Thank you," Remus said, and quickly turned and strode from the library, eager to show his friends what he had come up with. He found the four of them gathered around the same table in the common room, Sirius excitedly describing something to the other two. Peter pointed as Remus approached, and Sirius turned around and grinned broadly.
"Good, you're back!" Sirius exclaimed standing up. "C'mon, I have to show you guys what Andy showed me." He led the way out of the common room. James and Peter followed, and Remus turned on his heel and did the same.
"Did you find anything?" James asked Remus as they started descending the stairs. Remus nodded and held out the book. Taking it, James flipped through the first few pages, grinning as he did. "Remus, this is great! There's enough pranks in here to last us til seventh year!"
"Excellent!" Sirius called over his shoulder. "We'll be set for life!" James grinned and handed the book back to Remus as they boys stepped off of the staircase and into the Entrance Hall. "Wait til you guys see it, it's great!" Sirius said, leading the way to a door off to the right. He eagerly pulled open the door and led his friends down a corridor until they came to a painting of a bowl of fruit. "Gentlemen," Sirius said with a mock bow. "I proudly present: the kitchens."
The other three boys exchanged quick, confused glances. "That's great, mate," James said. "But…um…how do we get in?"
"Watch and learn, chaps, watch and learn," Sirius said with a smirk. He reached out and started rubbing his fingers along the pear in the painting. After a few seconds, the pear started to shake and giggle. A small handle formed, and Sirius stopped tickling and turned the knob. The door swung open to reveal a room of semi-organized chaos. House elves were running everywhere, cleaning dishes or preparing food. The boys stood there for only a few seconds before one of the elves noticed that they were there, and she seemed intent on letting the whole school in on the secret.
"Master Sirius has returned!" she squealed loudly. Immediately, a dozen elves crowded around Sirius, shoving food into his hands and pockets and chattering wildly.
"Guys, these are my friends James, Remus, and Peter," Sirius introduced, practically shouting to be heard over the cacophony of the elves. A sea of small bodies and large eyes engulfed the other boys as well, clearly excited by the company. The boys enjoyed being spoiled for a good while, staying to explore the whole area of the kitchens. They had a bit of a hard time leaving, as every elf in the kitchens seemed to have his or her heart set on keeping them there until they were practically exploding with food. Pockets overflowing with sweets and other such paraphernalia, they finally made it back to the door. Peter scrambled out first, followed by Remus and James. Sirius stood on the threshold of the portrait and bowed to the house elves, who all bowed back.
"We shall return!" Sirius announced triumphantly, and all of the elves cheered. With a broad grin, Sirius let the portrait swing closed behind him and joined his friends in the hallway.
"Well, they're a happy bunch," James commented after the door had closed.
"Yeah, they got all excited like that when me and Andy came down here too," Sirius agreed. "Did you guys see the four big tables?" The other three nodded. "They make the food, then put it right onto the table and it goes straight up."
"That's great!" James said. "All we have to do is figure out which one is the Slytherin table, and we won't have to worry about pranking anyone else."
"Now all we need to figure out is what we're gonna do to them," Sirius said as he pushed open the door that led back into the Entrance Hall.
"What you'll be doing to whom?" asked a drawling voice as soon as they stepped through the door. The four boys glanced up, past the gleaming Head Boy badge and embroidered Slytherin seal, into a pale face. Bleach blonde hair fell into icy blue eyes as a smile crept across thin lips. "My my, four Gryffindors out after hours. What is a responsible Head Boy to do?"
"It's not after hours," Sirius retorted. "We've still got ten minutes."
"And you could not make it back to your common room in ten minutes, I'm sure," the older boy said slowly.
"You don't even know where the Gryffindor common room is!" Sirius argued. "It could be right down the hall for all you know!"
"What is it you were doing here anyway, cousin?" the Slytherin asked. Sirius glowered as the boy addressed his as "cousin." Remus realized that this must have been one of the "Slytherin gits" of his family that Sirius was always complaining about.
"Just out for a walk," James answered quickly, seeing that if he let Sirius talk they would probably just end up in more trouble.
"Indeed? I would suggest that you refrain from any further late night excursions." There was a hint of threat in the older boy's slow drawl.
"And why is that?" Sirius asked defiantly. In response, the Slytherin held up the five fingers of his right hand, slowly lowering one at a time until only his index finger remained. He pointed this finger directly at Sirius's face. As he did, chimes began to ring out throughout the castle.
"Because," he said without moving his finger. "You are out after hours. That's twenty points…"
"What!" Sirius exploded. "We're only late because you…"
"From each of you," the Head Boy finished. "And I'm being lenient. Now, get to your common room before I catch you out again." He moved his finger and smiled triumphantly down at Sirius. "It was lovely to see you again, cousin." With a final glare at the other three boys, he turned on his heel and stalked away towards the dungeons. Sirius looked like he was about to follow and tear him apart, but James grabbed his arm and started dragging him up the stairs. Peter followed immediately, looking quite scared. Remus let his eyes linger a little longer on the spot where the Slytherin had disappeared, then followed his friends. From behind, he saw Sirius wrench his arm from James's grip. Remus was afraid that Sirius would try to go after his cousin, but instead he sped up his pace and ascended the steps even faster. The other three struggled to keep up.
Still trailing behind, Remus stepped through the portrait hole in time to see Sirius fly up the dormitory steps, James following. Seconds later, a door slammed from above. Remus was about to follow him, but he felt a hand grab his arm.
"What's wrong with him?" Liz asked, here eyes focused on the steps.
"He had an argument," Remus answered simply, not wanting to go into any detail about the prank and not sure that Sirius would want him telling anyone how bad his family was.
"Oh," Liz said. Over her shoulder, Remus could see Becca and Lily looking on curiously.
"I'm sure he'll be okay," Remus said a little louder so the other girls could hear. They both smiled in thanks, and he felt his chest jump suddenly. He smiled in return, then looked back to the steps. "I should go make sure everything's alright."
Liz nodded. "I'll see you later." Remus bid her goodbye and walked toward the steps. Peter was standing at the bottom, looking nervously upwards.
"D-do you think we should follow them?" he asked. Remus admitted that he was hesitant; the look on Sirius's face had been a little…well, scary. But Sirius was his friend, and he wanted to make sure he was okay.
"Yeah," Remus said, giving Peter an encouraging smile. "Let's go help our friend."
James was about half way up the stairs when the door slammed. He knew that Sirius was angry, but James wanted to make sure he was okay. He finished climbing the stairs, took a deep breath, and tentatively pushed open the door. "Sirius?" he called into the dark room. He looked around and spotted the form of his friend, silhouetted against the window, where moonlight was creeping in. "Hey, you okay mate?"
"I'm fine," Sirius answered with an air of finality and a cold edge to his voice.
"You sure?" James asked. "You had us all a little worried back there."
"I said I'm fine," Sirius snapped, turning to face James. "Is that so hard to understand?"
"Hey, I was just trying to help," James said defensively, holding up his hands in a passive gesture.
"Don't," Sirius replied, turning to continue to stare out the window.
"I know you're not like them," James offered. "We all do. Me and Remus and Peter…we know." He shrugged and turned back towards the door.
"James?" He spun back around as Sirius called his name. The other boy was facing him again, grey eyes seeming to glow in the moonlight. "If I ever get like my family, don't let me stay like that. Punch me or curse me or…or kill me or something, but don't ever let me become like them." James laughed at what he thought was a gross exaggeration, but Sirius's face was deadly serious.
"You won't be like them, mate, ever," James assured. "You're too much like you." He flashed a lopsided grin, and Sirius smiled in return.
"Thanks," Sirius said. A light knock echoed from the door.
"C'mon in," James called. Remus's face appeared at the door, with Peter looking nervously over his shoulder.
"Is everything okay?" Remus asked. James looked backed to Sirius, who nodded and smiled at his friends.
"Yeah, everything's fine," he answered. "Now, what are we just standing around for? We have a prank to plan! We have to make sure Malfoy pays for those points he took from us!" James laughed as Sirius sprinted past Remus and Peter back down the steps. It was definitely good to have his friend back.
"Wow, what did you say?" Peter asked, in awe at the sudden change in Sirius.
"He just forgot who he was for a second," James explained. "But now he's okay. Let's go help him finish this prank off, shall we?" The other two boys nodded, and together they descended back into the common room, intent on causing mischief and mayhem for the Slytherins.