I hope this one's not too bad, since I was in a rut when I wrote this and just, yeah.

I googled 'characteristics of a stag' for the ending, but I got onto a page that described an Irish stag night and wow, can I just say that was enlightening?

Anyway, hope y'all like this :")

word count: 1085

"BLOODY HELL," A voice shrieked in the bathroom, causing all three boys lying on their respective beds to jump in surprise, one chubby boy even falling off.

"What the fuck, Pads? What happened now?" James groaned, rubbing his hip where he had jumped right back onto the very pointy corner of the nightstand.

Sirius came out of the bathroom with a horrified expression on his face, "THIS happened."

One look at him and all the three boys in the room almost fell over in shock. Shock, that slowly turned into raucous laughter that made Sirius scowl and turn away.

"Sirius, wait." James called out to the younger boy, causing him to slowly turn back.

James was the first to stop laughing, partly due to the look on Sirius' face and partly due to curiosity. The lower half of Sirius' face was covered in a very thick, scraggly beard. His hair, that he was recently growing out and was just below his ears the previous night, was now well past his shoulders.

James hesitantly walked up to him and held a hand up, silently asking for permission. At Sirius' jerky nod, he ran his fingers through the beard and gasped as the surprisingly silky feel of it. He threaded his fingers through it, eyes wide in wonder.

"Stop that, Prongs," Sirius muttered, his face slowly turning pink.

James smirked knowingly but withdrew his hand.

"But what in the name of Merlin happened, Sirius?" Remus exclaimed from where he had previously been lounging on his bed, but was not sitting upright.

The boy in question exchanged a panicked glance with James, before turning to Remus with a perfectly innocent expression on his face. "Oh, Moony, you know how these things happen."

Remus cocked a suspicious eyebrow.

James sighed. "Okay, fine. I'll bite. It was me alright? I wanted revenge on Sirius and I thought why not attack him where it hurts most; his hair." To further convince him, he sent a very pointed glare towards the bearded fifth year, who quickly looked down to hide the growing smile on his face.

Remus slowly nodded, the suspicion still present on his face. "And exactly what did he do thar warranted revenge, James?"

Face paling slightly, James muttered, "Uh-it's just, he-uh, he stole my favorite boxers!"

Recognizing that James' credibility was rapidly declining with each word that left his mouth, Sirius stepped in. "Well, you see, all my boxers were dirty, and I didn't have the time or energy to wash them, so I borrowed one of his."

Remus' face showed that he still did not believe them but for the sake of his sanity, he dropped the subject.

Sirius, on the other hand, stalked into the washroom with a scowl on his handsome face when he realized just what kind of a predicament he was stuck in.

He could hear James' booming laughter in the other room and stuck his hand out through the doorway in an obscene gesture that only served to make him laugh harder.

"I swear, if this doesn't work out in the end," he muttered darkly under his breath. He grabbed his wand off the cabinet and transfigured his comb into a temporary razor. He scowled at the offending item in his hand, never needing it before now.

Fifteen minutes later, however, he was feeling positively homicidal towards the razor. He had tried every method, every spell in the book and yet the beard refused to go away, or at least keep to a respectable length. He roughly grabbed the shoulder length hair and tied it up into a messy bun on top of his head. He took one look at the beard that was now at least two inches below his chin and threw the razor onto the ground, where it clattered and turned back into the wooden comb, and stormed out of the washroom.

"From all the expletives, and the banging towards the end, I'm assuming it didn't work?" James chuckled from where he was lounging on his four poster bed.

"Oh, fuck off, Prongs," Sirius growled, before taking his book bag and leaving the dorm. For the second time that morning, James' laughter followed him as he stalked down the stairs.

"People have been staring and gaping and giggling and..and giggling, James!" Sirius ranted hotly. James schooled his features into one of appropriate sympathy, nodding along with whatever Sirius was saying.

"And McGonagall, James! She threatened to throw me into detention. I mean, can you believe that?" he continued, pulling at his hair as he paced in front of the fireplace in the Common Room.

"And you guys weren't helping either," he accused, turning to James. "Sitting there, laughing as if your lives depended on it."

James held up his hands placatingly. "Now, now, Sirius. You should be treating this as a good thing, a blessing in disguise."

Sirius cocked an eyebrow at him. "And why is that? I hardly think walking around looking like a hooligan who can't afford a razor is a boon."

James ignored his attempt to provoke him. "This shows that we're finally making some progress!"

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Look at it this way," James lowered his voice to a whisper. "This means that our efforts the past two years haven't been in vain."

His voice grew more passionate and determined as he continued, "We know now that your form is very...shaggy. Maybe even canine?"

Sirius grey eyes lit up in as James' words washed over him. "So, I guess we could call this a...partial transformation?"

James snickered. "That would be a stretch, but I guess, yeah you can."

Sirius started pacing again as excitement leaked into his words. "And this means that complete transformation is not too far away, either." He stopped and turned to James.

"You, Prongs, are a genius."

James smirked. "But of course."

"No one would be foolish enough to call you arrogant, I see," Sirius retorted. However, he had a smile on his face that was not there a few minutes ago.

The rest of the week, which was how long it took for his beard to go away, he held his head up high and smirked at anyone who did a double take at him.

It was all for Remus in the end, why should he be ashamed of it? And when James sprouted a pair of tiny antlers just a couple days after his sudden burst of hair, they carried it with pride.