Moving with a very ungraceful stagger, with Harry's face still mashed into the back of Sirius's neck they managed to lurch around the corner and were safely tucking themselves out of sight in the broom cupboard when Ron and Hermione rushed rather gracelessly out of the lounge.
In the broom cupboard Sirius was now laughing hysterically. "I'll have to go to St Mungos - I've got this terrible unsightly lump growing on the back of my head!"
Harry growled and clapped a hand over Sirius's mouth, and immediately found that he could now move his face, and did so with some relief. Though if he was honest, he'd secretly rather enjoyed the excuse for being pressed that close to Sirius.
"Hmm, maybe I'll keep the contact like this for the next two days." Harry teased.
Sirius mumbled something that sounded as if it might have been rude and licked Harry's palm. Harry snatched his hand away and ended up with Sirius's tongue stuck to his hand instead.
Now Harry was the one laughing hysterically as he groped for some impersonal patch of bare skin to hold on to. He blushed as he managed to fumble his hand over Sirius's groin before successfully latching on to his hand, which gave a relieved Sirius, back the use of his tongue.
No longer so uncomfortably locked together they both slowly slid down the closet wall and sat and laughed until tears ran down both their faces.
"Now we know why the twins let us apply that stuff and didn't insist on being present for the show." Sirius mused once they had both calmed down.
"Yeah, what a pair of bloody mugs we are." Harry agreed a little ruefully.
"Oh well, we'll get them back good once this has worn off." Sirius said with a shrug. "Two days stuck together should give us plentiful time to plan something spectacular."
"Though really… we could have worn gloves to apply it, or I could have applied both lots, not to mention they couldn't guarantee we'd be in direct skin to skin contact when we cast the fixative spell." Harry mused. "It could just be coincidence or our own idiocy that has us stuck this way."
"I'm still going to get them." Sirius said stubbornly.
"We spend a fair bit of time together anyway, and we don't have to make the contact obvious. Just rolling our sleeves up and leaning our arms together counts and wouldn't look obvious at all." Harry protested, not keen on letting it be known that he had been so superbly pranked by the twins – with some special help from his own stupidity.
Sirius smiled at Harry in the darkness of the closet. "But people are going to wonder what is going on if anyone wants to talk to just one of us; the other won't be able to leave - which will look distinctly odd."
"We'll manage." Harry encouraged. Then faltered as a disturbing thought occurred to him. "Oh shit. I don't really fancy two whole days with no shower or bath, particularly right before the bloody ball, so I'm somehow going to have to squash you into the cubicle too, and people are going to wonder what we're both doing sleeping in one bed and showering together, not to mention when every time one of us uses the loo the other one will have to tag along too – we are going to seem downright weird."
"Oh shit." Sirius agreed as he suddenly had disturbing visions of wet naked Harry in the shower and his own probable reaction to such a glorious sight on obvious display for his oblivious godson.
"I quite agree Sirius." Harry was having his own thoughts about how embarrassing this could get. "Not to mention the stupid ball that we will now have to attend hand in hand."
"Oh shit." Sirius mumbled again, ducking his head to hide his overly wide grin. Harry wouldn't be able to go with Oliver now. He somehow resisted the urge to actually start whooping and bouncing up and down, but in his mind the cheering and gloating was deafening. Nyah, nyah to Oliver! This could be his chance to get rid of the git and firmly stake his own claim!
"It seemed a lot funnier when I was pushing this on Ron and Hermione." Harry grumbled.
"Maybe Fred and George will un-stick us." Sirius suggested unhelpfully, knowing damn well that that he was safe and that it would never happen.
Harry snorted in disbelief. "I'm sure that the twins have left the scene of the crime by now, and I'm certainly not going to run around the country hand in hand with you in search of the stupid sods."
"Well Remus then. He was decent at potions when we were at school." Sirius continued, trying not to feel hurt that Harry wouldn't want to be seen in public holding his hand.
"Which was in fact twenty-odd years ago." Harry insisted. "He'll have forgotten all that unnecessary crap by now, and besides, this sticking solution is most likely a very special creation by the diabolical duo – it probably isn't in any normal potions texts."
"Well, we can pretend to be working on something for the Victory bash and hide upstairs a lot, and if we only come out for meals then it won't be obvious that we are having the same problem as Ron and Hermione, and its not like we need a reason to prank the twins. We don't even need to tell them why we're pranking them but we'll still be getting them back." Sirius warmed to the idea. Okay, so hanging out in a bedroom with an oblivious Harry for two days had definite potential for embarrassment, but so much time to be spending up close, and hopefully personal with Harry simply had to be exploited.
"True." Harry agreed. "Okay, lets see if we can get away with hiding for now. But if people start to think we're being too bizarre even for you then we'll just have to confess and take the consequences."
"Confess what precisely?" An amused voice enquired. "Something relating to why you two are squatting in our broom cupboard holding hands?"
Harry and Sirius squinted into the bright light now streaming in from the hallway and fixed their gazes on Remus Lupin who was standing in the doorway clutching a broom. "Bugger off." They whined in unison.
"I wanted to put my broom away - in the broom cupboard." Remus persisted, intrigued by this strange new sight he had discovered. "But now I want to know what you're doing."
Sirius scrabbled to his feet, and Harry followed, both cautiously poked their heads around the door before scurrying out and heading for the stairs.
"I don't get an explanation?" Remus asked with deep amusement.
"No." Growled Sirius as he started to climb, before being yanked back by Harry.
"He'll tell people that there is something wrong with us though, and Hermione will figure it out, and then she'll laugh at us before she kills us."
"You've made Hermione homicidal?" Remus shoved his broom carelessly into the closet and followed them with interest. "How excessively silly of you both."
"Fine! Follow us." Sirius grumbled as he galloped up the stairs dragging an unresisting Harry in his wake.
"Who are these idiots I am surrounded with?" Remus asked loudly as he climbed the stairs after his friends.