Peter had hugged him when he found out Sirius was coming back to the group, or attempting to anyway, he mumbled something about stupid Ravenclaws and his books but didn't elaborate other than to stare at Sirius rather hungrily.
Sirius extricated himself from Peter, for some reason he always felt more awkward hugging Peter than he did James or Remus, maybe because it seemed a lot more… unequal coming from Peter, still he appreciated the warm welcome.
James was the last to arrive in the disused classroom they had agreed to meet in the night before. He was looking much better but greeted them both with a business-like demeanour and a tight smile that Sirius knew meant he wasn't altogether forgiven.
He didn't care, he'd take anything.
James marched over to the board at the head of the classroom they had managed to sneak into and wrote the word 'IDEAS' in the centre of it.
He turned to face Sirius, who was looking more attentively at the board than he had ever done in his entire stint at Hogwarts, and Peter who was on the verge of complaining about how hungry he was.
"Ok" James began "so what do we got? Peter?"
Peter turned red, he'd never liked being called on. "Chocolate gift basket?" he suggested nervously. James smiled but shook his head a little.
"Nice start Pete but it's a little small, we've gotta do something big. I reckon we might be able to convince Hazel to take him back but it's whether he reacts well to that or not" James said while swiftly writing 'chocolates' and 'Hazel' on the board around the brainstorm he had written 'ideas' in.
They spent a short time brainstorming, with James writing, then connecting each point with lightning bolts, before he turned back to face Sirius who hadn't contributed for quite a while.
Sirius was thinking deeply, staring at his hands before a thought struck him, a crazy thought "What about project McGonagall?" he suggested quietly.
James and Peter turned to stare at him.
"It's perfect." He added standing up.
"It's crazy" James said apprehensively.
"It'll work" Sirius replied calmly, his eyes sparking just like when he came up with a particularly spectacular prank. James had missed that look.
James hesitated, "Mate I know we've talked about it before and had some… attempts, but… we haven't tried in a while. It could go wrong. Badly wrong."
"It's worth the risk." Sirius said softly
"You know you're mental right?"
"Yep."
"Then you've come to the right place." Sirius grinned at his best friend who returned it after only a moment's pause "we've got about ten days to get this done or we'll have to wait another month. You ready?"
"Doesn't matter. I'll get it."