Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the all mighty and powerful J.K Rowling, knowledge belongs to Minerva and it is currently 5:50 am so I am going to sleep.

Marlicat you are really a wonderful person.

The Best Laid Plans

Fred and George peeked down the corridor to where Lee was keeping watch. It wasn't that they didn't trust him, per say, but Percy had really started to crack down on rules lately and they definitely didn't want to be on the wrong end of that. Especially when this particular transgression involved their dear brother Ron and the two yellow canaries currently clamped tightly in George's hands.

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A plan, a plan was exactly what he needed. Now all he had to do was dust the cobwebs from his brain and try to think of one.

...

...

...

If he was Remus he would already have a plan A, B, C, D and possibly E by now... Though, if he was Remus, he would have also found all the microscopic holes in said plans and spent twice as much time worrying over them.

..

And if he was Remus he would be trying to kidnap himself, so this would all be a whole lot easier... Assuming of course, that Remus would want to kidnap himself. Always pegged him as smarter than that.

..

.

..

If he was James he would have said screw plans, those are for sissies.

...

Sirius Black sat with is back to a tall oak tree, burying his head in his hands and sighed for perhaps the twentieth time that morning. Thinking had really never been his forte. In the past he had only ever needed to rely on his charm and quick wits to get him out of a given situation. There had been few occasions where he needed to stop and actually solve an issue. Maybe that's the key. Maybe thinking is in fact just an exercise in futility and his old way was inherently better. He never needed plans before, right?

The man sunk closer to the trunk of the tree and signed once more. And maybe I could get away with not having a plan in the past because I wasn't a wanted criminal... or a walking skeleton... or completely friendless.

And maybe, before I let this pity-party progress any longer, a walk would be nice.

Black slowly got up from his resting place and stretched his gangly limbs above his head. After sluggishly looking around him as if searching for a path, and groaning when he realized that of course there wasn't one, he headed into the woods in what he determined was a vaguely hogwartsish direction.

Fresh air is supposed to be good for you, right?

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'Defiantly' didn't want to be on Percy's bad side was an understatement. For some reason their oh-so stuck-up brother was having a bad day. Let it not be thought that this had anything to do with the water the twins may or may not have pored over him this morning as a wake up call. It also had no correlation with that charms homework that mysteriously moved from Percy's desk to the dustiest corner of the forbidden section of the library this morning. Really Percy should be more careful with things like that. The point in this, of course, being that Percy should be avoided at all costs.

Fred ducked as a heavy book flew through the air where his head had been seconds before and continued running. The book's flight ended with a sickening thud against the wall behind him. Well, he mentally corrected himself, should have been avoided at any rate.

George was several steps ahead of him when he turned sharply to the left and pulled open a non-descript wood door. Fred was barely though the doorway when his twin slammed the door shut behind them and tugged him down what was thankfully another long corridor. George always was a smart cookie, studying the map and stuff, maybe this would buy them some time.

Or, he thought as he glanced behind him at the burst of flames that was making short work of the flimsy door that separated him from his very upset elder sibling, not.

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Sirius roamed aimlessly along the edge of the Forbidden Forest. At first it had felt good to get out of his little hollow, you know get his blood pumping and all that, but now he was just restless. As nice as it was to take a break from thinking, not having a plan was making him a little anxious. And the thought had recently crossed his mind that when he did manage to come up with a plan to get Remus he would not only have to pull it off, he was also have to be able get in and out with out alerting teachers or *shudder* dementors.

About time to head back and pull out the drawing board again. He kicked a small rock from the path in front of him and watched as it clattered against a trunk. He smirked. Well, at least I know that no matter how bad things get, I can still always take my anger out on innocent undergrowth.

Sirius started to lazily steer his meander back in the direction of his safe haven. He hadn't gotten more than a handful of steps away from the edge of the forest when faint voices sounded from behind him. Curious, he turned back the way he came.

He was almost past the last tree when he saw several figures running across the lawn like the devil was after them. It took him a moment to process that they were headed directly toward him and that he was in fact in plain view. He swore and quickly darted behind the tree to his left, praying to every god he knew and some he didn't that they didn't see him.

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"-and to think I just"-pant- "told Dumbledore last week that you two were going to"-pant-"to turn over a new leaf! No more ridiculous bids for attention!"-pant- "No more endangering your fellow students for no good reason."-pant- "But, of course, you have to prove me wrong! Our own brother of all people! Do you two have no sense? How"- pant- "how do you think internal discord make our family look!?", Here the speaker paused his triad to calm his breathing before he suddenly jerked his head up as if he just remembered something and yelled, "And animal cruelty to top it off!"

Someone needed to tell Percy that he needs to concentrate more on running during a chase scene and less on making a fool out of himself with a big vocabulary. Unfortunately, Fred felt like air should be used for breathing and energy should be used for running under this particular set of circumstances. Thankfully, George was there to say it for him.

"F-Frivolus?!" Percy screeched from several feet behind them.

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After determining that by some miracle the boys running pell-mell toward him had not in fact spotted him, Sirius let out the breath he had been holding. He really should be more careful in the future. If he is spotted this close to the castle it will cause another stir and make his target even more unreachable. And he really should not compromise his hiding place by trying to find out what they are up to. He's just not that curious or that stupid.

Really.

Sirius slowly leaned out from behind the tree until the three boys were in his line of sight. One of them was searching the forest around him, turning his head from one way to the other so fast it had to hurt and giving his surroundings a downright vicious glare. The other two boys, who Sirius quickly noted had to be twins, where huddled behind a tree less then ten feet from Sirius's own hiding place. They both had their eyes shut tight and their fingers crossed... and on closer inspection they both appeared to be attempting to hold back laughter.

There was tense silence for several seconds. The twins struggled to not laugh, the other boy searched and Sirius found himself thinking that being found by a stupid kid who wasn't even looking for him would be a rather sad way to get caught. Then as quickly as it started the moment passed; one of the twins didn't quite manage to hold back a chuckle, which of course had the angry one on their hiding place in seconds. With some rambunctious laughter and an unhealthy amount of yelling their chase continued back toward the castle and away from the dangers of the forest.

Sirius waited for a few seconds before forgoing his hiding place and once again trudging back to his hollow. This time he was a little more appreciative of the fact that he still had the freedom to do that. Really though, he hadn't expected anyone to venture so far outside of the safety of the castle after the Halloween incident. How stupid did those kids have to be? They were loud enough that he would have to be deaf to not know where they were and they were obviously not paying attention to their surroundings. Did they want the crazy mass murderer to get them? And it couldn't be easy for the teachers to have to deal with childish antics and watch every corner of the castle for Black at the same time. What were they-... well, hello plan.

And like that the cogs in his head started to turn.