Things didn't go back to normal.
Not immediately anyway.
But Sirius was happy with what he got; his friends could take all the time in the world to forgive him as long as they were still his friends.
It did hurt not to be completely forgiven though, especially by James, but he imagined if he just gave his friends time they would be ok.
Oh how wrong he was.
Really Sirius should have known that time was not the way a Marauder healed.
He really should have seen it coming when he asked James for the thousandth time if there was anything he could do to be forgiven and James' face had cracked into a terrifying evil little smile as he got slowly to his feet.
He looked down at Sirius whose eyes widened at the expression on his face "oh I was hoping you'd say that."
And with that he stepped up to stand on his seat and simply waited expectantly for the buzz of the Hall to die down.
For some unexplainable reason the Hall fell completely silent, each student turning their heads in James' direction as he waited patiently for their attention.
Professor McGonagall's first instinct was to order James to get down from there but when she glimpsed the almost hopeful look in Sirius Black's eyes, she couldn't help but hover hesitantly at the teacher's table instead and decide to only intervene if absolutely necessary.
James cleared his throat into the silence. "Now some of you may have noticed that the fight between our little friend group has been somewhat fixed… but, although the offending party has been mostly forgiven" he glanced slyly at Sirius "that doesn't change the fact that I, and to a lesser extent, Remus, are still furious at said friend's actions."
He paused, all attention still fixed on James "Anyway" he grinned "instead of dwelling Remus, Peter and I all agreed on a way to speed up the forgiveness and since Sirius just told me he would do ANYTHING for us to forgive him, he has also agreed, by default."
James' grin widened and took on a decidedly evil quality. He turned to Sirius before announcing to the waiting crowd "so, without further ado I, James Potter, declare the last ever Open Season on Sirius Lee Black."
Some gasped, remembering the last three Open Seasons, some laughed but all four tables buzzed with hundreds of prank ideas to use against Sirius during the Open Season which he could do absolutely nothing to retaliate for an entire month due to his own rules set up with his so-called friends.
Sirius simply looked amused "My middle name isn't Lee, idiot."
"I know but wouldn't it be funny if it was?" James smirked.
Sirius looked thoughtfully at the expressions on all the faces of everyone he had annoyed or hurt or pranked over the years, there was A LOT of them, and felt a small creep of fear when he thought of what was done to the last three people the Marauders had unanimously agreed to use an Open Season on.
"Ok, ok" James called over the excited murmuring of the crowd, "you all know the rules. It's a complete no holds barred for the next month, starting in half an hour. All pranks are welcome but no bodily or horribly emotional damage is to be done… well no permanent bodily damage and only a little emotional scarring but absolutely no torture, little league Death Eaters we're looking at you."
James' stern expression at this statement melted as he turned to the teacher's table "of course teachers are welcome to contribute" he added with a wink "so… let the games begin" he flashed one last grin before stepping down from his seat to slip back into it.
Sirius sucked in a deep breath before turning to face James' smug expression with some trepidation "Will this make you forgive me?" he sighed resignedly. Peter blushed, Remus simply flicked some toast at him with a grin while James' self-satisfied smile melted into something that seemed much more like affection before nodding.
"In that case" Sirius stated confidently, standing up fluidly and flinging his arms wide "COME AT ME BRO!"
Sirius knew he was in for a month full of hell but one glance at his beaming friends told him it would all be well worth it.
Another glance told him that he was extremely lucky he knew all the secret entrances, exits and passageways to the school and his friends' class schedules because he was going to need them all.
Sirius took off down the aisle towards the Great Hall's massive doors.
He only had a fifteen minute head start and James and Remus had been thinking of this for a while, not to mention all the people vying for long awaited revenge were already looking at him like he was a piece of bacon and they hadn't had food for months.
Turns out it was Sirius who needed more time in the end.
Though he finally had his friends back and that was worth all the horrible, twisted pranks in the world that he was about to endure.
Now all he needed was a way to get the slime out of his underwear.
Any suggestions?