Remus kept waiting for the teachers to get word of what had happened between Sirius and his cousin, but days passed and still Sirius wasn't in trouble. He followed James's lead in not mentioning the incident.
"You look awful, Moony!" Sirius cried the evening following the full moon. Three deep cuts striped his bruised cheek.
"I know," Remus said gloomily. "Where are my sandwiches?"
"They're right here," James said, snickering slightly.
"What's so funny?" he asked suspiciously.
"It's just that you're always so nice and polite-"
"Most of the time," Sirius interrupted.
"-but after every full moon, you're... well, not exactly cranky," James said, apparently searching for the right word.
"I think 'cranky' works," Peter objected.
Remus felt himself blush. "Sorry," he mumbled, but his friends laughed.
"It's not like you're mean or anything," Sirius said. "You're just not quite your normal self. It's really kind of entertaining to see that you're not perfect."
"I'm not perfect!" he protested, accidentally spitting out a piece of bread.
"We know that," James said. "But sometimes you fake it pretty well."
"You definitely have the teachers fooled," Peter agreed. "Perhaps we should make Flitwick bring you sandwiches next month."
They were interrupted by the tapping of a beak on the window, and they all froze. They all generally received their post at breakfast, like everyone else. The only post that ever came during the days and evenings were the letters from Sirius's mum.
James walked over and opened the window, retrieving the letter from the owl.
"Want me to read it first?" he asked.
Sirius flopped backward on his bed. "Go for it," he said resignedly.
James sat down on his own bed, his back to Sirius, and ripped open the letter. His face was completely expressionless for several seconds, his eyes darting back and forth across the page. Then suddenly, his eyes widened and his face went white. He looked up from the letter and stared at Remus, panic on his face. Remus raised his eyebrows questioningly, but James had gone back to the letter.
"So what does it say?" Sirius asked in a monotone.
James looked at the paper in front of him with absolute loathing. "They had a guest last week."
"Who?" Sirius asked.
James spat the words out bitterly. "The headmaster of Durmstrang."
"What?" Sirius cried, leaping up and grabbing the letter. He read it frantically.
"What? They want to send you to Durmstrang?" Peter asked fearfully.
"She doesn't say that," James said.
"But she certainly implies it, doesn't she?" Sirius used his wand to light the letter on fire, and watched it drift to the floor. "I won't go. I won't."
----------
"We ought to respect our elders, don't you think?" James asked the following night in the common room. Most of their fellow Gryffindors had gone to bed, Remus was studying, and Sirius and Peter were playing Exploding Snap. All three of them stopped what they were doing to stare at James.
"What?" Sirius asked, staring at James like he had lost his mind.
"I mean, they're generally wiser than us, right? And they have our best interests at heart?"
Sirius looked over at Remus, dumbfounded, but Remus could only shrug helplessly.
"James?" Peter asked tentatively.
"Yes?"
"Are you out of your mind?" Sirius actually looked almost worried as he stared at his best friend.
"I don't think so," James said thoughtfully. "It's just that my dad did give me the cloak, and he did say it was good for nicking food from the kitchens, and I've never used it for that..."
Relief flooded all three of their faces.
"That was really weird for a moment there," Remus murmured, going back to his book.
"Really, guys!" James said. "We've been far too serious recently. When's the last time we had a little fun?"
"You seemed to enjoy Potions class today, when you were throwing daisy roots into that Slytherin's potion when he wasn't looking," Remus said.
"Yeah, well, he's a little git, isn't he?" James said dismissively. "And he pulled it off all right, didn't he? Not sure how he pulled it off, but he did."
"It's late," Remus said. "If we get caught out of bed, it'll mean detention."
"So let's not get caught," Sirius said, grinning at him. He looked excited. Remus thought about his mother's letters, and sighed.
"Fine," he said. "Let's go get some food."
He couldn't deny that there was something exciting about sneaking through the castle at night. He had only been under James's cloak a couple of times, and it had always been during the day, like when they had snuck into the Shrieking Shack. Slipping through the dark hallways, holding his breath, he felt rather adventurous.
"Does anyone actually know where the kitchens are?" Peter whispered.
"Downstairs, somewhere," Sirius said.
"Downstairs is a big place," Remus pointed out.
"We'll find them," James said confidently. "My dad said something about a painting of fruit before my mom shushed him."
"So we're looking for a painting of fruit, 'somewhere downstairs,' does that sound about right?" Remus said. If his friends caught his sarcasm, they ignored it.
"Uh oh," James said, stopping abruptly. They all bumped into each other and stumbled, trying not to fall over and risk exposing themselves.
"What?" Sirius started to ask, but stopped before the word was all the way out of his mouth. There, a few feet in front of them, was a cat. They had seen this cat before. She was the beloved pet of Mr. Filch, the caretaker whose greatest joy was catching students in wrongdoing.
"Think she can see through the cloak?" Peter asked nervously, but before any of them could answer, Filch burst through a tapestry ahead on the right.
"What is it, my love?" he asked, looking up and down the hallway. "Students out of bed?" He followed her gaze, staring straight through the four boys.
They were standing directly in the middle of the hallway. If Filch tried to walk that direction, it was almost certain that he would walk right into them.
James was tapping everybody on the arm, trying to get their attention. Jerking his head, he began to inch toward the wall. If he hadn't been so terrified of getting caught, Remus would have found the whole thing very funny. The four of them were trying to move as one body, very slowly, without making any noise, and it was very crowded under the cloak, forcing them to take very small steps. It was almost as though they were shuffling along as a silent, eight-legged penguin.
They made it to the wall and took refuge behind a statue of a one-eyed witch. Slowly, listening hard, Filch walked past them, stepping through the exact spot they had been standing moments before.
"We'll find them, Mrs. Norris," he murmured to his cat as they turned the corner and disappeared.
James busted out laughing, a desperately-trying-to-be-silent, stifled, tears-filling-his-eyes laugh.
"Shut up!" Remus hissed, pressing his hand over James's mouth. "You're going to get us caught!" James composed himself, his shoulders still shaking, but no longer making any noise. "You better?" Remus asked. James nodded, eyes still twinkling, and Remus removed his hand. "Can we go back now?" he whispered, the thrill of the adventure gone.
"Of course not!" James said mischievously. "We haven't found the kitchen yet!" He set off again, and the others had no choice but to follow him, trying to keep under the cloak. "Let's try down this way."
They slipped through a tapestry and started down a staircase. They were halfway down when, with a yelp, Sirius's foot went straight through a trick step. Peter ran into him, knocking him forward into James, who lost his footing and tumbled down several steps, his wand clattering out of his hand. He yelled as he landed at the bottom, the cloak hanging off of his foot.
"You okay?" Remus called, trying to help Peter lift Sirius out of the trick step.
"Yeah, I'm fine," James said, laughing. "I just..." he trailed off, his eyes wide as he stared at something beyond them. "FILCH!" he yelled. "RUN!"
They didn't need to be told twice. Without even looking over his shoulder, Remus gave a final jerk under Sirius's arm and freed him, and the three of them took off down the steps. He turned left as they reached the hallway, heading back the direction that he knew Gryffindor tower to be. He was down three hallways, through two tapestries, and up two more flight of stairs before he realized there was no one behind him. He backtracked down one flight and looked around, but there were no moving shadows, no footsteps echoing. He looked around uneasily. Should he try to find them? He felt very exposed without the invisibility cloak, but it might be stupider to try to track down James and the cloak than to just try to sneak the rest of the way back. He debated for only a moment before turning around and heading back to the dormitory.
He worked his way back cautiously, moving slowly, poking his head around corners, and listening hard for the pitter-patter of feline footsteps. Fortunately, the entire trip back was silent, and he reached the portrait hole without incident.
Peter was already in the common room when he got there, red-faced and panting. "Oh good," he gasped. "You made it! Where are James and Sirius?"
"No clue," Remus said, collapsing into a chair and looking around the empty common room. "I figured they were with you."
The portrait hole opened again, and Sirius climbed in. He grinned at them, flicking his hair out of his eyes. "How long have you guys been back?"
"About four seconds," Remus said. "You know where James is?"
"Nope," Sirius said cheerfully. "We got separated about two hallways into the flight. No idea where he went." He hummed to himself as he sprawled out in front of the dying fire. "So how were your escapes?" he asked, as though asking about the weather or the latest homework assignment.
"I got lost," Peter said miserably. "Ran around the third floor twice before I figured out where I was. I heard noise at one point and hid in the trophy room, but I never saw who it was."
"Nothing exciting," Remus reported. "Just came back slowly. Didn't run into anyone or anything."
"Filch chased me for a while," Sirius said, sounding delighted. "James had the cloak, the little git, so of course he got away. I had to run all over the place. Finally found a stone gargoyle to hide behind, and gave him the slip."
The portrait hole opened again, and a grinning James entered. In his arms he carried a huge basket, full of every kind of food imaginable.
"I thought I would be rummaging through cabinets for leftovers," he said as he set the basket down, "but they wanted to make us an entire feast!"
"Who's 'they'?" Remus asked, peering into the basket.
"The house elves," he said. "Must've been hundreds of them."
Sirius made a face. "House elves?"
"Yeah," James said. "Friendly little things, aren't they?"
"Ours is the only one I've ever met," Sirius said, "and he's not particularly friendly. I'll have to go with you next time and meet the ones here. Oh, wait a minute!" he said, feigning a realization. "I was supposed to go with you this time! But you ran off with the cloak!" He reached over and began punching James, and James threw his arms over his head, blocking the attack and laughing.
"Hey, I brought you all food, didn't I?" he argued. "Isn't that enough to earn your forgiveness?"
"That depends," Remus said. "Is there any meat in there?"
They sat in the dark common room for hours, eating and laughing, and considering different strategies for not getting caught when sneaking around Hogwarts at night. The horizon was turning pink by the time they crawled into their beds upstairs, the near-empty basket sitting beside the table with the water pitcher.
----------
Author's Note: I'm almost finished. Alas, tomorrow I go back into the real world where I have little free time, and no guarantee of internet access. As such, it may be Saturday before I can post the rest of the story. Hopefully not, but it is a possibility.