Two Heads Are Better Than One

Chapter 3

"James, you didn't tell us how your Head meeting with Evans went." Said Remus, as he unpacked his books and placed them into his bed-side cabinet.

"Not much to tell really. Just discussed what it meant to be the head boy and girl and how special the opportunity is and how serious we must take it etc etc..."

"It is special! And it's very serious too, James." Said Remus, straightening up. "Such an opportunity to be able to –"

"Ooo! Moony's jealous." Laughed Sirius who was lying on his bed and making Peter unpack his case.

"I am not jealous! I'm a prefect aren't I? That's more than you, Padfoot!"

"Yeah but not more than Prongs." Sirius grinned at the stiff expression on Remus' face. "And besides, you know I don't care about that sorta thing anyway, Moony. It's just more work to be done isn't it?"

Remus sighed and went back to unpacking his books. "Anyway, that's not what I meant" he said, not looking up from his unpacking.

"What did you mean then?"

"I meant, how was Lily? Was she nice to you or did she ignore you?"

"We hit it off pretty great actually. Yeah," he added, for they had all turned to stare at him, "I asked her out to the first Hogsmeade trip and she agreed to go with me. She seemed pretty eager to go to be honest."

"You're kidding!" Gasped Remus.

"Really?!" Squeaked Peter. "It was really that easy?"

"No!" James laughed at his gullible friends. "Of course not. She barely spoke directly to me. The occasional thing, but it was mostly about the things we have to do and when we are patrolling and stuff, not anything personal."

"Oh..."

"Haha! Fooled you."

"You didn't fool me!" Scoffed Sirius "I knew you were kidding."

"'Course you did!" James smirked at him. "You are a genius after all, Padfoot."

"It's not easy work either!" Admitted Sirius "I remember one time when I saw this tree, right? And I thought, why can't trees just use -"

"So," said Remus loudly, cutting Sirius off mid-sentence, "when do your head boy duties st -"

"HAHA! Head boy duties! HAHAHAHA!"

"Shut-up, Sirius. When do they start, James?"

"Well..."

"HAHAHA!"

"...they don't really start they just kinda happen when they do...I think."

"James? Did you pay any attention at that meeting at all?" Remus gave James a skeptic look and James' face fell slightly. Sirius was now lying on his back with his hands behind his head and his eyes closed. Peter was un-packing the last of Sirius' things now.

"Well, I...Lily seemed to understand what was going on so I can just ask her if we have anything we need to do! Besides" he added "it will give me more reasons to talk to Lily this year. You get me, right?"

Remus simply stared at him, mouth open slightly while Sirius let out his usual bark like laugh; "HA! Good ol' Prongsie, always thinking on his feet!"

"You...you have no idea what you're doing?" Remus asked quietly.

"Well, as I said I have a vague..."

"Head boy!" Remus spluttered "HEAD BOY!"

"Woah! Jeez!" James took a step back "I know. I KNOW!!"

Sirius half opened one of his eyes "Shut up!" He said. "I'm trying to sleep."

"Sirius! It's 8pm!" said Remus

"Need sleep."

"8pm"

"...lots of sleep." Sirius closed his eye again.

"Look, whatever! James you –" he paused, "Sirius?"

"Yep?"

"Why is Peter un-packing your case when he hasn't even started on his yet?"

"I told you, I need sleep."

"You lazy -"

"It's ok. Besides he said he'd pay me 10 Galleons for it!" Squeaked Peter happily.

"Did I?" Sirius opened both eyes to give Peter a bewildered look. "HA! Moment of weakness there! Sorry mate, I lied."

"Wha -?!"

"I am surrounded by idiots." Remus shook his head slowly, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.

"Oh really? Because you're Mr perfect boy-genius are you?" Retorted James, feeling slightly annoyed now. Not only did Lily hardly speak to him today, but now Remus was giving his grief over his new position as Head Boy.

"Excuse me?" Remus looked taken-aback. "When have I EVER -"

"Woah woah woah WOAH!" Sirius had jumped to his feet and stood between Remus and James. "Now I'm feeling a LOT of negative energy here boys!"

"Boys?"

"Now we will have no fighting in the 'ubber-cool-boy-room-of-awsomeness'. Ok?"

Both Remus and James exchanged perplexed looks.

"Now you two be good; apologise, kiss and make up ok?"

"Sorry, Moony." Muttered James. "I guess I should've taken it more seriously. I know you really wanted to be Head Boy."

"It's fine." Said Remus "I guess I was more jealous than I thought."

"Good. Now kiss..." Sirius looked at both of them expectantly.

"Go to Hell." Said James.

"Fine." Said Sirius, wiping away a fake tear and pretending to be hurt. "Now if you excuse me..." He jumped back onto his bed and closed his eyes "Wormtail, I was joking, now go un-pack your own case!"

"But I've already finished un-packing yours!" Whined Peter.

"Really? Well that's even better."

Peter swore quietly so Sirius couldn't hear him and James laughed. Remus smiled, but only when he knew Peter couldn't see him, and continued to un-pack.

"Wake up, Padfoot!" James shook Sirius to try and wake him early the next morning.

"Nehh. Ma...wha?!"

"Wake up! Wake up! Time to get up and start a new wonderful day!"

Sirius' hand emerged from under the quilt and gave James a rude gesture before disappearing back under again.

"Help me out here guys?" James looked up; Remus had just appeared from the bathroom, fully dressed in his robes and Peter was sat upright in his bed, fast asleep.

"He not getting up?" Asked Remus.

"Nope." James tried furiously to think of reason that would make Sirius want to get out of bed. "Um...ok. Sirius? Zonko's is giving away free stuff!"

"No they're not" Came the muffled, sleepy reply from under Sirius covers.

"Um...It's a Saturday."

"Then let me sleep."

"Ok ok. Um..."

"Naked girls?" Suggested Remus hopefully.

"Really?" Asked Sirius.

"Yes."

"Then tell Prongs to put his clothes back on!"

"Hey!" James hit the bundled lump "Shut up! I'm not a girl."

"Coulda fooled me."

"Fine." Said James, heading towards the bathroom. "I guess I'll just have to eat all your pancakes too then!"

"Pancakes?" Sirius threw the covers aside, scrambled down his bed, jumped over his trunk, grabbed his robes from on top of the trunk, shoved James onto the floor and raced into the bathroom, locking the door behind him.

"You said the magic word." Remus smirked, staring at James who was now lying on the floor with his robes on his head.

"What happened?" He looked around wildly. "Moony! I'M BLIND!"

"No you're not you plonker!" Remus crossed the room and lifted the robes off James' head. "You just woke up Sirius."

"Oh...damn. No pancakes for anyone then."

"Woo-hoo! Look, Prongs, we have no classes first on a Monday. How excellent is that?" When he received no reply, Sirius looked round to see an utterly vacant expression on James' face. "Prongs? Prooongs?" Sirius followed James eyes and saw Lily sitting much further down the table eating toast with some of her friends. Sirius snapped his fingers in front of James' face.

"Huh? What?" James quickly shook his head and gave Sirius a bewildered look. "You say something Padfoot?"

"Me? No. I was...I was just practising my jazz beat." Sirius started to snap his fingers again, closing his eyes and shaking his head in time with his fingers.

Remus, who was sitting opposite them, lowered his Daily Prophet slightly to stare at Sirius, open-mouthed. Peter, sitting next to Remus, also stared at Sirius, looking unable to speak. James stifled a laugh then quickly stole the last pancake from Sirius's plate.

"Mr Black! Mr Black what are you doing?"

Sirius' eyes shot open. "ARGH!" he almost tumbled backwards off the bench until James caught the front of his robes and pulled him sideward.

"Now, surely I'm not that ugly, am I Mr Black?" Professor McGonagall stared at him over the top of her square glasses.

"N – no, professor. You just" he sat back upright on his seat "startled me is all."

"Apparently. Disturb your little music session did I? Anyway," she continued quickly turning to Remus and not giving Sirius the chance to reply, "sorry about the delay of your timetable Mr Lupin. Yours was much more difficult to figure out considering the amount of subjects you were hoping to take this year. Maybe you would consider swapping..."

"What we in first?" James asked Sirius.

Sirius stared at him. He stared at him long and hard. In fact he stared at him for such a length of time that James cautiously looked over his shoulder in case Sirius wasn't staring at him. There was nothing behind him of interest. "Hellooo?" James waved a hand in front of Sirius's face.

"Nothing." Sirius stone cold expression didn't change.

"Nothing?"

"We're off first period today. I told you earlier."

"Did you?"

"Yes."

"Right. That's good then." There was a long silence in which James began to feel rather uncomfortable. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"I know you did it."

"Did what?"

"Don't deny it."

"How can I deny it if I don't know what you're talking about?!"

And without saying anything else, without even taking his eyes off James' nervous face, Sirius simply pointed to his empty plate.

"Your plate? What about it?"

"It's empty."

"I can see that. What about it?" Then it clicked. "Oh..."

"You bastard."

James let out a loud laugh. "Is this what this is about? Because I ate your pancake?"

"It was my pancake!"

James laughed some more at Sirius' blatant over-reaction. "I'm sorry, Padfoot."

"Sorry doesn't cut it. Sorry doesn't bring back pancakes!"

"Ok ok, what if I got you another pancake. Then will you forgive me?"

"Three more."

"Three more pancakes. Ok done."

"Now."

"Now?"

"Now. I noticed there were some sitting by Evans. I want those pancakes."

James froze a little. "You want those specific pancakes?"

"Yes. Go get them. Now. And all will be forgiven." A small smirk crept onto Sirius' face. "Unless you're scared?"

"Of course I'm not scared." James got to his feet.

Sirius smiled. "Good. And get some syrup when you're down there."

"We have syrup!!"

"Not enough for three pancakes." Sirius smiled sweetly.

"You know what? Sometimes you can be a bit of a git did you know that?"

"Yep!"

"Well, as long as you know..." James started to walk down the table towards Lily.

"For his best friend, sometimes you can be quite mean to him." Remus was smiling slightly watching James shuffle his way down the Great Hall.

"He deserves it. He ate my pancake, Moony!"

Remus sighed, still smiling "Fair enough..."

"Hey Evans." James stood at the opposite side of the table from Lily, and now she and all her friend were watching him suspiciously.

"Yes, Potter?"

"Can I have some of those..."

"Can you have some what?" Lily was smiling a sweet yet evil smile, leaning her elbows on the table, her chin resting gently on her hands.

"Um..." James swallowed. They were all still watching him "Pancakes!" He blurted out.

Lily sat up straight, looking a little taken-aback. "Pancakes?" she asked sceptically.

"Pancakes. Can I have some...please?"

"I can't believe he's actually doing this!" Laughed Sirius as he, Remus and Peter watched James make a full of himself with delight.

"Do you not have pancakes of your own?" Lily smiled that beautiful, evil smile at him again and several of her friends began to giggle.

"Sirius ate them all" James shrugged, staring at the platter of pancakes which sat, conveniently enough, in front of Lily.

"Ah..." She stared at him. "So you're telling me, you came down here to ask me for...pancakes?"

"Yes."

Still smiling, she casually waved a hand over the plate. "Help yourself."

"Thanks." He reached in between two of her friends, suddenly very aware of his hands, and lifted the plate. Without a backwards glance at Lily or her friends, he started back towards his seat again. He looked up to see Sirius lift their own small syrup jug.

'Syrup' he mouthed, pointed to the jug.

James sighed loudly, doubling back. "Excuse me. Sorry. Could I just?..." He gestured awkwardly towards the syrup jug and without waiting for an answer, picked it up with his free hand and sped back off to his seat again.

He thumped himself down into his seat, shoving the plate and jug toward Sirius. All three boys were laughing heartily.

"Well done, Prongs!" Laughed Sirius "All is forgiven." He beamed at James.

James simply groaned and slapped his hands to his face.

"I thought you were very brave, James." Said Remus, his voice quivering slightly. "Very...brave...indeed!" And with this, they started laughing again.

"Your face!" choked Peter.

"Oh haha." James was too embarrassed to find the humour in the moment.

"Oh, cheer up, Prongs." Sirius patted him on the back, "C'mon, let's go to the common room and relax, we're off this period remember?" Sirius stood, along with Remus and Peter, and headed towards the Entrance Hall.

James uncovered his face and stared at the table in disbelief; Sirius hadn't even touched his pancakes and syrup. "That bastard..."