Chapter 5

Light seeped through a gap in the curtain in the boys' dorm, warming James' cheek. He stretched out on the bed, rolling over straight onto the floor and landed with a thump. Mumbling incoherent swear words aimed at the bed, he clamped a hand onto the side to help him up. Sirius turned in his sleep, and Peter was undisturbed by James falling out, but Remus however was sat up straight.

"Are you alright?" He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, grimacing as James tore open the curtains, letting the September sun flood into the room.

Once again, Sirius turned over, waving his arms about. "Close 'em!" He slurred. "Go away." He thumped his face into his pillow, smothering it to avoid the sudden light difference.

James smirked and left them open, jumping on top of Sirius' bed. "Gerrup. C'mon, Pads. We need to follow out the plan."

Sirius lifted his head an inch and turned it to face James, peeping through one eye at him, before jumping up abruptly. "YES! You ready for this, Wormtail?" Sirius grabbed his pillow and threw it at Pettigrew, making sure he was fully awake.

"Yup." Peter yawned. "I've got everything except the map, which James has got." He grinned, combing a hand through his hair.

"Whoa, hold up. What plan?" Remus pouted. "You already thought of a plan? I thought we were going to do it now."

James shrugged. "Well, Siri had this idea just after you fell asleep..."

"...And we didn't want to wake you. But I must say, it is one of my best." Sirius smirked at Remus, obviously feeling smug that he'd managed to come up with yet another ingenious plan.

"Well, what is it? I need to know it if I'm taking part..." Remus sighed, propping himself by his elbows.

Sirius' grin quavered slightly. "Don't sound too excited Moony... Right, pay attention, it's quite complicated."

"Since when has Remus not concentrated?" James snorted, and Remus rolled his eyes.

On the floor, Sirius was thrown out onto the rug, picking at his fingernails, and began the process of explaining the plan. "So here's the deal. We're fed up of that bloody cat ruining everything, as you already know."

Remus sighed, shaking his head. "Yes, I know. But if you're going to make me kill it whilst I'm..." He shuddered slightly. The full moon was tonight, were they really planning on using this to their advantage?

"No, no way!" James held up his hands defensively. "We wouldn't do that to you, Rem." He reassured, calming Remus down a little to let Sirius continue.

Sirius stood up and began pacing around to explain, as if he were leading a war. "Before I was rudely interrupted; me, you and Peter are going to wait behind the statue down by the Great Hall. We know that Mrs Norris has a routinely patrol at approx 8 AM, just as most students are heading down for breakfast."

"What about James?" Remus scratched his head. "Where are you going with this?"

James grinned. "Wait for it. I'm Head Boy, right? Perfect for distracting a certain Teacher. McGonagall."

"James, stop taking my limelight! This was my idea, so let me tell it!" Padfoot rolled his eyes. "With James being Head Boy, he's going to tell McGonagall that Quidditch practice is more important than the meeting on Saturday, blah blah blah... This distraction'll let us follow through with our plan! Genius, isn't it?" Smirking proudly, he collapsed onto the bed next to Remus.

A small smile formed on Remus' lips. "I suppose. But what is the plan? You still haven't told me."

Sirius leaned against Remus' shoulder now, grinning. "Remember that spell you made way back in our third year, I think? The one Flitwick gave us all detention for?" After a minute thinking, Remus gave a nod, allowing Sirius to continue. "Well, we're gonna need it again..."

"This isn't going to work. There are too many problems." Remus stood leaning against the wall, wand ready in his sweaty palm, with Peter on his left looking just as nervous as he was.

Sirius rested his head on Remus'. "Remmy, chill. It's going to work, just you watch." He nodded curtly.

Remus sighed, but nodded back. "Alright." He waited a second, and then added: "James needs to hurry up, or it isn't going to work. What's keeping him?"

Not a moment later, James skidded on his heels around the corner, with him grinning like a loon. "Here he is..." Sirius smirked.

"Messr. Prongs has completed mission A, Messr. Padfoot." James winked. "I have a feeling McGonagall will be out of our way for at least 10 minutes, so we better get going. Peter, it's your turn."

Sighing, Peter had his wand at the ready, and made his way over to the Great Hall whilst the others peeked around the wall and statue to see if all was going as planned. As soon as he reached the Entrance Hall, now mostly filled with students and teachers, Peter stood by the large mahogany doors, keeping watch for any unwanted tell-tales to attack with Remus' made up spell.

Sirius sniggered, "Don't let us down, Messr. Wormtail" beckoning the others to follow Peter's lead. As on cue Mrs Norris trotted around the corner, as if she had a sense for trouble, and began hissing at the boys before turning on her heel to find Filch.

"Don't even think about it..." Remus muttered under his breath, flicking his wand to cover a dark, green slime all over Mrs Norris, causing her to screech and wriggle uncontrollably. The group laughed at the cat's poor attempt to find the caretaker being still completely swathed in the goo, she tried shaking it off by waggling her paws, but it clung to her fur.

"I... can't... breathe..." James half choked, clutching his stomach from the laughter hurting his insides.

Almost the same, Sirius was clapping James' back, laughing so hard his eyes were watering as Mrs Norris plodded away. "Well, don't you look like a sorry state?" Peter laughed at Sirius, yet Remus seemed to be the only one not laughing. Standing up a little straighter, James wiped his eyes. "Alright, Mission C, Sirius, your go."

"This is going better than I thought..." Peter mumbled under his breath to Remus, whilst Sirius withdrew his wand, pointing it at the stone staircase. After a small incantation and a spark from the wand, the stairs turned into a continuous slide that the poor cat was attempting to climb with her heavy fur. Mrs Norris' paws scratched and clawed, trying her best not to slip down and reach Filch.

James, Sirius, and Peter burst into fits of laughter once more, but all four of them hearing Slughorn approaching as echoes of his rant about too much noise disturbing his morning Daily Prophet crossword.

"I'm going for breakfast." Remus mumbled, pushing past them and dodging the excess goo splattered on the floor.

Peter stopped laughing and cocked his head to the side. "Remus?" He questioned, following on his heel. Once out of ear shot of James and Sirius, he added "Are you alright?"

His sigh should have answered everything, but Remus continued anyway. "I guess I'm just not in the mood for detention, Peter." He rolled his eyes at the thought. Reaching the end of the Gryffindor table, which was now less occupied than a few minutes ago – as many of the students had gone to investigate what all the noise was about – Remus grabbed an apple and a bowl of porridge.

The mousey boy looked at Remus a little curiously. "You were up for it yesterday. Oh well." Peter shrugged Remus' change of heart away, and sat next to him.

"Peter," Lupin started, slightly hesitating "What did Avery want? And please, tell me, because if he threatened you…"

"No!" Squeaked Peter, his eyes screamed the opposite though, and Remus didn't have to ask anymore.

Petey usually gets this kind of treatment, Remus sighed to himself, swirling syrup into his porridge with his spoon. Normally James or Sirius would help sort it out, but it seemed their ignorance was blinding them, so Rem took it on himself to help Peter, even if the boy was following James and Sirius' lead.