Peter seemed quite suspicious at the fact James, Sirius, and Remus were all very exhausted Friday morning. James spread marmalade on his eggs while Sirius poured orange juice over his cereal. Remus just fell asleep on his plate shortly after, sleeping all through breakfast until Sirius shook him awake. Remus jerked upwards, grabbing his bag and hurrying along to class, forgetting entirely he still didn't have his Charms text book.

"Mr. Lupin," Flitwick said the second he stepped into the classroom. "Five points from Gryffindor for such a-a-a disarray!"

Remus glanced down at himself. His tie was extremely crooked but worse than that... the shirt peeking out under the jumper was striped. His pajama top! He had come to class WEARING HIS PAJAMA TOP?! "S-sorry." Remus crept to a desk, ignoring some of the others whispering 'Loopy', hoping Flitwick used partners today so he could use someone else's book.

Sirius plopped down next to him. "You've got jam all over your face."

"What?! Remus swiped at his cheeks, bright red jam smearing all over his sleeve. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" He rubbed furiously, trying to get rid of all the stuff on his face, having a feeling there were still stains there plus now his robes sleeve looked awful. "How come you look fine?" he demanded crossly.

Sirius tossed his hair back. "I suppose it's a Black's instinct to look flawless. Could do it in my sleep. You don't go down to breakfast at my house looking less than perfect unless you want-" He stopped then a shaky smile appeared on his lips as he quickly changed whatever he was going to say. "Your hair's a mess too. Did you even brush it?"

He began hastily trying to smooth down his hair, furious at himself now, face hot. Across the room Lily was staring at him with amused eyes. "You don't use your book in class, do you? Can I borrow it? I forgot mine."

"Wow! Remus Lupin forgetting a school book. Red letter day!" He pulled his Charms text out, sliding it over. "Don't you keep it in your bag?"

"I left it in the common room last night." Remus opened the book, horrified to see doodles all over the margins and even among the text. Sirius had turned an illustration of proper wand grips into something extremely dirty. "Oh-Merlin-really, Sirius?!"

Sirius just giggled. "What were you doing in the common room last night?" he teased and Remus elbowed him without even thinking about it, only later realizing how he was beginning to get more comfortable with physical contact.

"Shhh, Flitwick's about to start."

He struggled to stay awake during class then as soon as Flitwick dismissed everyone Remus handed Sirius's book back and rushed to the nearest bathroom. He did had red stains on his face. He quickly scrubbed them off as best he could then fiddled with some color changing spells trying to make his pajama top appear white. Maybe he wouldn't get into any more trouble. The best he could manage was a sort of grey with-in the right light-a faint bluish stripe. Oh well. Their next class was Herbology. You didn't need to be neat and in order for Herbology.

()

"You guys were up to something last night." Lily fell into Remus's pace as they left the greenhouses heading back to the castle. "Black and Potter could hardly stay awake during breakfast. You couldn't at all."

"I was up... studying..." Remus looked over his shoulder at his male friends following at a distance. James and Sirius kept crashing into each other, practically knocking one another over. They had gotten their energy back.

"Them? Studying?" Lily scoffed.

He smiled. "No. Me. Not them. They were... playing games." Not an entire lie. Just the game they were playing was exploring the school. "Um, I'm g-going to go change my shirt. I'll be back for some lunch quick." He jogged off, trying to go as fast as he could to the Gryffindor tower without getting caught running in the halls. He slowed down whenever he heard anyone nearby but otherwise ran (a few portraits shouted at him to slow down however he ignored them).

By the time he changed, washed his face again, and got back down to the Great Hall he didn't have too much time to eat and wound up scarfing some food down before heading to Defense. James and Sirius were discussing their plans of stealing Dedenne's underwear, filling Peter into the plot. Peter looked a little grossed out at the idea of Teacher Panties but was otherwise on board. The first order of business: figuring out where Dedenne's rooms were. Which meant probably stalking her.

Remus felt twisty during the entirety of class. Sirius intended to do the stalking which James and Peter agreed to. But Remus knew he'd be better at it. That's literally what he was built for, stalking prey-not prey, stop using that word! he commanded himself, feeling sicker. Except he couldn't say, hey let me do this because my sense of hearing is best so I could avoid anyone seeing me and my sense of smell is best so I could literally track her down. Ugh. He'd have to leave it to Sirius and hope that he didn't get caught.

"So why the sudden plan to do this?" Peter asked after class.

"Shh, not so close to her classroom!" James complained.

Peter clapped his hand over his mouth. "Sorry," he mumbled, quite muffled. Once they were a couple floors away, Peter repeated his question. Sirius informed him that it was revenge for how she treated Remus. Pete looked at Remus then nodded solemnly. "She deserves it."

Remus tried not to smile. Sure, he knew a large part of this echoed back to what McGonagall told him after the potion-balloon incident. Mr. Potter and Mr. Black are the sort of students who always find an excuse to cause mischief. However they had originally been on track to pull this prank on McGonagall and he managed to deviate them from the path by pointing out Dedenne had wronged him, and they were on board with that. Revenge against someone who wronged him. It just-made him feel warm and bubbly inside. He'd do the same for them, of course.

Fawley's going to see this... The same thought that plagued him whenever they were planning something big. I don't think she'll care though. The Bat-Bogey trick was different than this. This was targeting an adult, a teacher. Would she? How far did her entertainment of his pranks go?

()

Sirius didn't come back to the dorm until very late at night, well past curfew. He appeared with sparkling eyes and motioning for his friends to follow him to the bathroom so they could have privacy without Spinnet or Struthers overhearing them.

"Found it," he said as soon as Remus shut the door. "Took her bloody long enough to return to her rooms. I was nearly caught!" He ran his fingers restlessly through his hair, his locks falling back into place as if by magic. Remus wondered vaguely if maybe Sirius did have spells on his hair so it always looked nice. "There's a password, but I heard it. We can sneak in when she's occupied somewhere else."

"Not till Monday, then," James said as he messed his hair up, as if seeing Sirius's hair reacting differently made him want to reassure himself that his own hair remained sticking out everywhere. "We should wait until she's definitely busy with class. That would be the best opportunity-the safest."

"I was thinking... she might have paintings up in her room," Remus said, tugging at his sleeves. "Whoever goes in to nick them-"

"Nick the knickers," Sirius interrupting, sending all four boys into a fit of giggles.

Once Remus calmed down he tried again. "Whoever goes in to-to steal them-should have some sort of disguise. So if there is a painting they won't give it away."

"What kind of disguise?" James asked. Remus shrugged, not having any idea about that, he had only just now thought of the possibility of there being something to see them in her rooms.

"Maybe another uniform?" Peter suggested then winced when three sets of eyes turned to him. "Or-or not."

"No, that's brilliant!" James exclaimed, punching Peter's arm. "Change the colors to Slytherin. That means it'll need to be Siri or Pete."

"Why us?" Sirius asked.

"Because there's not many glasses-wearing Indian boys in Slytherin?" James asked as he spun his hands near his glasses, raising his eyebrows rather loftily. "Nor are there many tiny little sickly boys?"

"Oi!" Remus complained as James flourished his hands in his direction.

James pulled a face. "Sorry, but it's true." Remus folded his arms, unable to argue.

Sirius and Peter exchanged glances. "Me, then," Sirius said and Pete let out a sigh of relief. "Ugh, I don't want to wear Slytherin colors. But I'd rather a Slytherin get blamed than anyone else."

James pat Sirius's back. "A true sacrifice. We salute you."

Sirius gave a theatrical sniff. "Remember me. Always."

"You'll just be wearing a Slytherin uniform, you won't be dying!" Remus grumbled.

"Wearing Slytherin colors? Might as well be me dead," Sirius retorted, giving Remus a playful shove. Remus considered giving a push back then changed his mind, not wanting to risk hurting him nor did he particularly want to touch him. While he had casually elbowed Sirius earlier, it had been an automatic response; when he thought about doing something like that it made him a little queasy still. Sometimes.

"All right so Monday? After we have Defense we just go to her rooms?" James asked and everyone nodded in agreement. "We three can keep a lookout. Remy, can you change the uniform color?"

Remus rubbed the back of his, remembering the failure just that day of changing his pajama top. "I can try. I can work on a tie tomorrow and at the least you can go in without the jumper, just the tie." He figured he'd be able to change a tie with some time, not panicked between classes.

"I'd say sounds good to me but wearing green and silver doesn't sound good at all."

"Do you always have to be so dramatic?"

Sirius smiled broadly and answered with a simple, "Yes." Remus rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "Cool so, Operation Panty Plot is a go."

"Panty plot?!" James screeched.

"EWWWW!" Peter moaned. "Seriously, the idea of actually... stealing a teacher's underwear is just... ew."

"At least Sirius will be the only one touching them," Remus said, shuddering at the idea of-of handling such a thing. Definitely ew. He was very glad it wasn't him going in.

"Wh-what?" Sirius paled a little, realizing what going into her rooms actually meant. "Gross! Can I wear gloves? I'm wearing gloves."

"You're gonna go through her underwear drawer!" snickered James. "Touching all of them!" Sirius began staggering around, gagging. "ALL her underwear! Find us a good pair."

"What's a good pair of underwear?" Peter asked, scratching his head.

"I dunno, girls probably have frilly undies," James replied, wriggling his fingers in the air to probably indicate the frills.

Pete crinkled his nose. "Wouldn't that itch?"

"Sounds like it would," Remus agreed. His mother had some lacy doilies sitting out on some of the tables at home and they all seemed a bit scratchy. Did girls wear things like that? Was James just taking the mickey? "I really haven't the faintest what sort of-undergarments women wear."

"NICK HER BRA!" James suddenly yelled. Sirius stopped staggering, eyes going wide. "Oops, didn't mean to say it that loud. But get a bra too!"

"Bras are for boobs," Peter said and all four boys collapsed on the floor laughing until they couldn't breathe.

()

The next day it took all of ten minutes to get one of Sirius's ties to turn green and silver. Sirius scowled at it when Remus handed it back, holding it between thumb and forefinger like a-well, like a snake.

"You can turn it back, right?" Sirius asked, face wrinkled with disgust.

"Yeah, won't be too hard," Remus promised, and Sirius tucked the tie deep into his pocket.

They joined the others on one of the couches. James and Peter were playing chess, Peter losing pretty wildly. Remus sat on the couch next to him then timidly scooted a little closer, making sure there was still a couple inches between them, so he could help Peter which James found to be very unfair. As he aided Pete, he wondered if the other boys were always so hyper aware of proximity. James never seemed to care about touch he was always putting his arms around his friends, flopping against them. The other day he flopped into Remus's bed next to him, halfway crashing on him, laughing an apology.

"Know what we should do?" Sirius asked as they waited for James to make his next move. "Panty Plot Part Two." He jerked his thumb towards the girls' staircase, grinning. "All their underwear."

"That'd be hilarious," James said, face still close to the chessboard

"That'd be kinda mean," Peter said. "B-but funny," he quickly added.

"That'd be impossible," Remus finished.

"Impossible?" Sirius cocked his head to one side.

"Yes. There isn't any way to get up to the girls' dorms." Remus met Sirius's annoyed gaze.

"Yeah, not like there's stairs or anything right there!"

Remus glanced over then back at his friend. "Can't get up there. Haven't you read Hogwarts, a History?"

Sirius brushed some hair back. "Do I look like a nerd?"

"Yes," James replied, still focusing on the board, then laughed when Sirius smacked him. "Rook to C4. Don't help him, it's supposed to just be us two. But yeah, come on, there's stairs right there. I know we're not supposed to go up but since when do we do what we're supposed to?"

"I'll give you the last of my chocolate from Easter if you can go up those stairs," Remus said flatly.

"Is that a bet?" Sirius asked, voice full of determination. Remus nodded then all four boys got up as Sirius marched towards the girls' staircase, not caring about the candy but instead wanting to prove that he could do what he wanted. Remus now smiled, arms crossed, waiting for it. "Watch this, Nerd." And Sirius began walking up the steps with confidence, everyone in the dorm watching him. He turned around, going backwards up the steps, arms spread out, his face smug.

He got up a good half dozen or so before the alarm went off. AWWOOOOOGAH! AWWWWOOOOOGAAHH! Remus put his hands over his ears, having not realized how loud it would be. Sirius's arms began flailing wildly as the steps beneath his feet disappeared, smoothing out. AWWOOOOOGAH! AWOOOOOGAH! He gave one feeble attempt to grab the wall (for some reason) then crashed to his butt, sliding down the smooth incline. The entire common room was laughing now, though it was hard to hear over the alarm wails.

Sirius got up, rubbing his backside as he stomped back to his friends. "Point taken," he grumbled, glaring at the steps-turned-slide. At last the alarm faded and Remus lowered his hands, though the steps remained a slide. "You win. I don't have any chocolate though." Sirius dug around in his pocket then pulled something out. "Here." He flicked the thing towards Remus.

Remus put out his hands to catch it then everything went in slow motion. His skin began pricking as it came closer. That's when he realized what it was: a coin. To be specific, a sickle. A silver sickle. A pure silver sickle. He could feel it spinning through the air towards him. He knew if he caught it that it would burn in his hand, burn his skin, blister him, possibly permanently scar him, then everyone in the room would see and know and-

He took a few steps backwards, trying not to cry out. Then time sped back up to normal time. The sickle landed harmlessly at Remus's feet.

"You suck at catching things," Sirius said.

"I don't want your money." Remus took another step back, praying that he could play this off coolly, that it didn't turn into Some Big Thing. His heart was racing and he could feel sweat on his palms.

"We made a bet."

"Technically you never told me what you'd give me if I won," Remus said, trying his best to smile, to look calm and collected. He could feel the sickle on the ground at his feet. He always knew when his friends had sickles on them, had felt it through Sirius's pocket earlier-just hadn't been thinking when he had tossed it. "I don't want money."

Sirius came over to pick the coin up. "So what do you want?" His eyes flashed in a weird way that made Remus feel incredibly uncomfortable. He knew on the surface what Sirius meant but had the feeling there was something else there.

"Chocolate."

"I don't have any."

"Then get some, oh hotshot prankster." He knew his tone would hit all the right buttons, goad Sirius into doing just that. Sirius narrowed his eyes then spun around, heading out the common room.

James, Peter, and Remus returned to the chess board however before they could begin Lily came over. "How come Black tried to get up into the girls' dorm?" she asked.

"Because I told him he couldn't. He wanted to prove me wrong."

Lily looked quite amused by that. "Mmhmm, and that's all he wanted with the girls' staircase?"

"Yes, of course." But he couldn't quite meet her eyes.

Lily tried for a few seconds then finally glanced away, seeing the chess board. "Who's black?"

"Me," Peter said. "James is white."

"Only in chess," James joked.

"Is it your turn?" she asked Peter who nodded. She went over, picking up one of the black pieces and moving it. Physically, with her hand. The chess pieces all began exclaiming in disgust. "Checkmate, Potter."

"'Checkmate, Potter'," he mimicked in a nasally tone. "Go away, Evans. Nobody likes you."

Lily ignored him, turning back to Remus. "See you tonight?"

"Yes, I'll be there," he said. Lily nodded then headed back to her friends.

James glared after her then spun around to glare at Peter who gave a squeak, shrinking back. "You only won cause they helped you."

"I kn-know," he stammered as James began hastily putting away all his chess pieces. He turned frightened eyes to Remus who mouthed 'sore loser'. Peter managed a small smile at that. Once James finished boxing up the set he seemed to have calmed down, apologizing for snapping at Peter, then began complaining about Sirius being gone. He sat on the couch, elbows on knees, chin in hands, eyes focused on the girls' stairs. After about five more minutes they became steps again.

"Speed," James said, getting up. "That's the key."

And he took off before Remus could stop him. Heads turned, watching as James sprinted as fast as he could across the common room, charging up the girls' stairs, taking a few at a time. To his credit he probably got nearly halfway to the first dorm door (if the girls side was the same as the boys) before the alarm went off and he came shooting down the slide, glasses askew.

Remus had his hands over his ears, laughing so hard he could hardly breathe as James skulked back to the couch. James asked Pete something that Remus thought might be 'your turn to try'. Pete shook his head, eyes crinkled up from laughter as well. James turned to Remus and he shook his head as well. James shrugged and plopped down, giving a sigh.

"We'll get it one of these days," he said when the alarm finally stopped. A couple girls came sliding down, both of them giggling wildly about 'two in one day'. "I bet I could fly up there. On a broom. Yeah!" He sat up, adjusting his glasses. "That's the key."

"Like speed?" Peter asked. Remus snorted.

"When I get my broom I'll fly up. Even if it turns into a slide it won't chuck me off, I'll be in the air." He nodded to himself at this plan, settling back. It didn't seem to be a bad plan, to Remus. Actually he thought it might work.

Soon Sirius reappeared with a plate full of chocolate cookies he had stolen from the kitchens which he triumphantly handed over to Remus.