"They need disciplinary action," Umbridge insisted. "I've given them all detentions-"

"I'll take care of it, Delores. Potter has a detention with me already tonight. I'll double his time and take the others as well. Then you can get yourself ready for tomorrow. I'm sure your classroom is a mess after that spectacle," McGonagall said.

"Hem, hem-"

"I'll handle them."

"Minerva, if I may-"

"No, you may not." McGonagall led Umbridge to the door.

"Hem, hem." Umbridge cleared her throat to speak.

"Do you need a cough drop, Delores? I'm sure I have one somewhere," McGonagall said sweetly.

"Oh, fine." Umbridge flounced out of the office.

McGonagall closed the door and turned to see Sirius grabbing a biscuit.

"Sorry, Professor," Lily started, "James and Sirius-"

"Have a biscuit, then we'll talk," McGonagall said simply, cutting her off.

Lily grabbed a biscuit.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Pettigrew. That includes you."

James and Peter each grabbed a biscuit.

"Sit," McGonagall told them, conjuring four chairs before her desk. When everyone had sat, she spoke again. "Hypothetically, I think that went well."

James's face split into a grin.

Peter nervously laughed.

Lily stared at the boys in shock.

"I told you so," Sirius said, smirking. He reached for another biscuit.

"Mr. Black, enough biscuits! You've almost used up my supply!" McGonagall sighed.

"Come on, Minnie! They're so good," he said as he bit into one.

"Hypothetically, what should we do next?" James interrupted.

"Hypothetically, could we miss detention?" Peter asked.

"Hypothetically, no. You need to go to detention," Lily grumbled.

"Hypothetically, I'd do something outside of lessons," McGonagall said quietly, glancing at Sirius and James.

"Brilliant. We'll get that started," Sirius said. "We'll just go to lunch now."

"My office tonight," McGonagall reminded them.

"We'll be there."

That night, the boys and Lily reported to McGonagall's office.

"Boys, Ms. Evans," McGonagall greeted them crisply.

"Minnie," Sirius replied cheerfully, heading for the biscuits.

"Mr. Black, no more of those."

"Sorry, Minnie."

"So…. What are we doing for detention?" Peter asked awkwardly. He fidgeted with his tie.

"As Mr. Black has eaten most of my biscuits, I need to get more. However, the house elves are busy enough, so we'll be making another few batches ourselves," McGonagall said crisply.

"We're baking you cookies for detention," Lily said flatly.

"Yes, Ms. Evans."

"That's it?"

"Yes. Come on, we can't bake in here," McGonagall said, and led them out of the office.

Rather than leading them to the lower floor as Sirius, James, and Peter had anticipated, McGonagall led them up to the seventh floor.

"Er, Professor? The kitchens are downstairs," James pointed out.

"Did I tell you we were going to the kitchens?" McGonagall asked.

"No, but-"

"Here we are."

The group was face to face with an empty wall.

"This isn't the kitchens," Peter noted.

"No, Mr. Pettigrew, but it is a kitchen," McGonagall told him.

Sirius chuckled. "Minnie, this is a wall. Biscuit don't come from-"

He trailed off as a oaken door materialized before them.

McGonagall opened it and led them inside.

The room was light grey and windowless, though cheerfully lit. In one corner, a black stove rested. Next to it was a sink and long wooden counter. On the opposite wall, there were some shelves, laden with spoons, bowls, plates, cookbooks, and ingredients.

"The recipe," McGonagall informed them as she strode to the shelves, "is here. Page 493." She dislodged a thick volume and passed it to Sirius.

He staggered under its sudden weight. "Bloody hel- heck, I mean. Sorry, Minnie, but this thing is heavy!"

"You'll find what you need in here," McGonagall continued, "I expect that when you finish, you'll bring the finished product to my office. Mr. Potter, Mr. Pettigrew, Ms. Evans, try to keep Mr. Black from eating the whole batch." With that, McGonagall left them standing in the room.

It was silent for a minute, then-

"So, what do we do now?" James asked.

"It's obvious, isn't it, Potter?" Lily said, a smile playing on her face. "We bake."

"What do these numbers mean?" Sirius asked, squinting at the page. "Two and a fourth cups of flour?"

"You've never baked?" Lily asked him. She was rummaging around the shelves.

"No, my mum never let, uh, baked. She never baked. We had a house elf," Sirius said quickly.

"Potter, pull out the rest of the ingredients. I'll help Sirius."

James sighed. "I'm on it."

Lily came over to Sirius, a set of brass measuring cups and spoons in one hand and a large bag of flour in the other. "Hey, Peter, can you grab a bowl? We need to put this in something."

"Yeah!" Peter scrambled to the shelves and grabbed a large metal mixing bowl. He passed to to Lily.

Lily set everything on the counter. "So, these cups? We use them to measure things like flour and sugar. The spoons are usually for salt, vanilla, and whatnot. There are also liquid measuring cups, but I didn't grab one of those. Anyway, two and one fourth? You measure that out with these. Two one cup measures and one one fourth measure. Just like this." Lily scooped the one cup measure into the bag of flour, leveled it out, and dumped it into the bowl. "That's all there is too it. Now you give it a go."

Sirius carefully took the measuring cup from Lily and scooped some flour into it. He leveled it out, then carefully poured it into the bowl. The flour puffed up in a cloud of white.

Lily coughed. "That's how it works, but you need to do it closer to the bowl, or it poofs like that."

Sirius stared at the settling flour in shock. "Oh no!" he exclaimed dramatically, "It escaped the bowl! Oh, it has been wasted! My flour, my dear, dear flour, I'm so sorry!"

Lily raised her hand to swat at Sirius. She missed.

Sirius tensed, a look of expectancy plain on his face. All humor gone.

Lily didn't notice. "Don't worry! It's just a little flour," she said, grinning.

There was a beat of silence.

"How do you keep it from exploding?" he asked after a minute.

"Just pour it in closer to the bottom of the bowl," Lily said, shrugging.

"You're really good at this," Sirius told her after a few more minutes of measuring and mixing.

"Mum, 'Tunia, and I did it all the time back home," she said, a small smile on her face. It quickly faded. "At least, before school started."

An hour later, the biscuits were out of the oven. Sirius and Peter hovered over them, breathing in their sweet, citrus scent.

"Just one?" Sirius asked James. "Please?"

"You know what Minnie said," he replied seriously.

"Maybe three?"

"Sorry, mate."

"Out of the way, Potter." Lily pushed her way ahead of him and snatched a biscuit.

"You're not supposed to eat those!" James whined.

Peter grabbed one. "Well, we have to taste test them," he said.

Sirius grabbed a biscuit and stuffed it in his mouth before James could protest.

"Mmmm," he moaned blissfully. He reached for another one.

His hand was knocked out of the way. "Come on. We still have to get them to Minnie," James pointed out.