Sirius felt someone poking him in his side, groaned and woke up. Remus was standing over him with a damp cloth in his hand.
'Sorry I woke you up. You started bleeding again. I didn't want you to choke on it or anything,' he whispered, handing the cloth over.
'Thanks,' Sirius said, wiping his face. 'What time is it?'
'Around 3 or 4 in the morning,' Remus answered. 'James and Peter are still asleep.'
'I should bloody well think so,' Sirius grumbled. 'Why are you awake?'
'I don't know. I just woke up and couldn't get back to sleep again. I've been up for about half an hour,' he replied, lying once more. The truth was that, as a werewolf, he had heightened senses, and the smell of blood had woken him up.
'Pass me my wand, Remus,' Sirius said, muttering 'Lumos' when he got it. As the wand tip ignited with light he got up and walked into the bathroom, leaving the door open so Remus could follow if he wanted, which he did. With the added light of Remus's wand, Sirius washed all of the blood off his face in the sink.
'Do you want to go back to bed or do you want me to take you down to the Hospital Wing now?' Remus asked.
'Madam Pomfrey will be asleep will she not?' Sirius replied, gently touching his broken nose.
'Maybe, but she sleeps in her office at the Hospital Wing. It'll take her literally two seconds to fix you up and then she can just go back to sleep,' Remus answered.
'Alright then, let's go.'
'That potion tastes disgusting!' Sirius complained, as the pair headed back up to the Common Room.
'It's supposed to make you better, it's not supposed to taste nice,' Remus sighed, checking around the corner for Filch before continuing to walk.
'We have an excuse, mate. Filch couldn't give us detention for going to the Hospital Wing.'
'Yes, but he would still try,' Remus sighed, approaching the Fat Lady who began complaining about ignorant students waking her up in all hours of the morning. When they got back to the dormitory Remus's watch read that it was almost half past four in the morning. The pair climbed into their beds and lay awake, staring at the ceiling.
'Remus?' Sirius whispered into the darkness.
'Yeah?'
'You're a really awesome friend.'
Remus felt his eyes slightly tearing up. His friends meant everything to him; he would die for them but how long before they left him? He knew that he couldn't keep lying forever and sooner or later they would find out his secret, and then he would be alone all over again. How could he be a good friend when he lied to them so much, and kept so many secrets? He didn't deserve them, and they deserved better than him. Not for the first time, Remus closed his eyes and prayed that he was normal, wished that he was just like everyone else but he knew that he would always be a monster. Still, he smiled sadly and replied 'You too, Sirius, you too.'
'WAKE UP REMMY!' came Sirius's voice after what seemed to be ten minutes. Remus groaned and opened his eyes to the still very dark room. Looking over at his watch, he saw that it was only half past five.
'Go away, Sirius. M'sleeping,' he mumbled, turning over.
'NOOO! WAKE UP REMMY!' came the voice of James, leaping up on top of his friend's bed and jumping up and down.
'Go away, James,' Remus mumbled once again.
'WAKE UP REMUS!' Peter joined, poking Remus continuously in the side.
Sirius looked at the three of them and shook his head in dismay. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. He stomped up to the pale boy's bed, gripped the sheet and yanked it off as hard as he could, causing James to back flip onto the floor and Remus shoot up into a sitting position simultaneously. James lay on the ground groaning.
'Ow,' he said.
Sirius shot a look at his best friend and burst into roars of laughter, closely followed by Peter and James. Remus sat up in his bed and looked at all of them through confused, half asleep eyes and wondered aloud what in the name of Merlin was going on.
'I've got a plan, Remmy!' Sirius grinned, looking incredibly proud of himself.
'Very well done, I do as well,' Remus replied.
'Really? Great! What's yours?' Sirius asked, grinning wider yet.
'That you all shut up and let me go back to sleep!' he said, trying to look angry but smiling a little at the sight of Sirius grin faltering a bit. 'Fine, I guess I'm up now anyway. What's your plan Sirius?'
'Is that it done, Remus?' James whispered, holding his lit wand above his head.
'Nearly. It just has to be left to brew and then one last ingredient added,' Remus whispered back.
It was the second night since Sirius revealed his plan, and the four young Gryffindors were crowded around a bubbling cauldron in their dormitory, heated by a little blue flame of James's making. Peter was slouched against his trunk, having fallen asleep about ten minutes previously while Sirius, James and Remus sat staring at the bubbling concoction with wide-eyed excitement. Even though he knew he should be completely against it, and he pretended to only be doing this for his friends but really, he couldn't wait! He was, however, able to hide it, unlike Sirius and James who were bouncing up and down where they were sitting.
'It'll be ready for tomorrow?' Sirius grinned.
'Yes,' Remus smiled back
Sirius smirked and the three still awake boys shared an evilly happy grin.
Peter entered the Common Room and threw himself down onto the couch with his friends. He had just been down to the kitchens and thus completing phase one of The Plan. His friends turned to look at him with wild, excited eyes.
'It's done?' James whispered, the anticipation in his voice almost tangible.
'Yes, everything's set,' Peter replied, grinning.
'Well, that's that then. Now we just have to wait,' Remus said, throwing his arms behind his head and relaxing.
'How can you be so calm, Remmy?' Sirius asked. 'I feel like I'm going to be sick with excitement!'
'If we act too excited, the teachers will notice and get suspicious and suspect us when it happens. I'd rather not get caught,' Remus replied. 'Plus, I'd rather not make myself feel ill for this, it's pointless. And don't call me Remmy.'
Sirius rolled his eyes at his friend and resumed staring into the fire. In a few hours, he would have his revenge, not only on his cousin and her group of friends, but the whole of Slytherin house.
The four young Gryffindors walked down to dinner that night, bouncing as they took a step. Within an hour, their prank will be done. Even Remus was finding it hard to contain his excitement. As they took their regular seats on the Gryffindor Table, they were too afraid to speak to each other in case they started shouting in excitement. Dumbledore's speech seemed to last for hours. Finally, the food appeared on the plates and everyone excitedly began to tuck in. Out of habit, the four boys started piling food onto their plates but never took a bite. Soon, they were thinking, any minute now…
Suddenly, a bellow rang out from the other side of the room. Everyone in the Great Hall whipped their heads around to see, one by one, all members of the Slytherin House cry out in shock as their hair turned scarlet and boils appeared on their faces. The entire hall, with the exception of the teachers, burst out laughing and the four perpetrators fell off their seats backwards onto the floor. The Slytherins stared at each other in shock and confusion, clutching their boil-filled faces and grabbing at their hair. Chaos erupted as the members of the green and silver house began to shout and scream and Sirius smirked when he saw tears of rage in his cousin Bellatrix's eyes. He looked around at his friends, all of them still lying on the floor trying to catch their breath from laughing so hard and smiled wider still. His friends meant the world to him, they were his new family and the fact that they helped him to do this meant more to him than anything else in the world. He looked once more at the Slytherin House, where it was thought he belonged, and felt a surge of hatred towards them all coupled with the thought that, as he looked at their ridiculous scarlet hair and painful boils, revenge was sweet.