James plonked himself down on the bed and grabbed a bit of the chocolate from the table. Sirius sat beside him and Peter sat on the seat next to the bed. "Morning!" James said brightly.

Remus' eyes flickered open and he looked over at them. "I thought I told you not to visit." He said hoarsely.

"Yeah, but we ignored you," Sirius said."We're good at that, what you do is you just... Close your eyes." He demonstrated. "And hum." He began to hum tunelessly. "Like so."

Remus ignored him and turned to James. "Why are you here?" He asked, sitting up on his bed. He looked tired and worn, and there was a large bandage around his waist. His nose was a little crooked as if he had broken it during the night. He looked slightly pleased to see them nonetheless.

"Well you know that thing that we were doing?" Peter said. "Yeah that thing, we were apparently using the wrong books,"

He pulled out a large text book and put it on the bed, narrowly missing Remus' bandaged knee. He winced.

"What the hell is that?" Remus asked. "And where on god's earth did you get it?"

"Nicked it from the restricted section," James shrugged. "We figured out how to bypass the libraries security, turns out their security is very lax during the evening."

"Do I want to know?" Remus asked.

"Doubt it," Sirius replied. "Check it out," He opened the book and flicked to a page. "Xeno led us to it, it has some pretty useful stuff, I mean, it won't let us become... In a matter of minutes, we still got a bit of work to go through." He paused. "Moony?"

Remus had fallen asleep. Sirius looked over at James who was watching Remus silently. Calmly, silently and steadily, they all got to their feet, tucking the book into Peter's bag. They stared at each other silently feeling slightly bad for their friend. Sirius patted Remus' knee sadly.

"Let's go," James said. "Maybe raid Filch's office."

"What are we going to find there?" Sirius asked as they left the hospital wing. "Snacks for Mrs Norris? A spare set of..." He stopped. "You know, a spare set of keys would be cool. Do you think he has a set?

"He should. And plans for the school, what do you reckon?" Peter suggested. "He should have some going around."

"Maybe he knows about secret passages," James said excitedly reaching into his pockets and pulling out a couple of dungbombs. "Say we use these as distrac-"

"POTTER, BLACK, PETTIGREW!" said a sharp voice. All three boys stopped dead, and then slowly turned to see Professor McGonagall who looked extremely annoyed. Sirius licked his lips and cleared his throat, ready with whatever she threw at them.

"Yes, Professor?" James asked, interrupting Sirius who had opened his mouth to speak.

"Aren't you supposed to be in potions?" McGonagall asked, peering down at them through her half moon specs. "I hear Professor Slughorn is very displeased with your behaviour of late."

"Oh, he knows we joke" Sirius said waving it away, he put on his most charming face. "How are you professor?"

"That is none of your concern Mr Black. What are you doing out of class?" McGonagall said getting agitated.

James cleared his throat. "We were visiting Remus," He said. "He told us he wasn't feeling too good last night and he didn't come back to the dormitory, we assumed that he would be at the hospital wing."

McGonagall continued to peer down at them. "Understandable," She said finally. "Hurry before I have to give you detention." The three boys gave a grin and began to turn around. "Oh and in future, please refrain from going to visit Mr. Lupin during class hours. Leave it until your free time."

"Of course Professor," James said, giving a toothy smile. "Come on guys!" He turned and began to walk in the general direction of the dungeons.

"We're not going to class are we?" Sirius asked, once out of McGonagall's earshot.

James gave a hearty laugh. "Sod that," He said. "I want to raid Filch's office!"

"Cool," Sirius said taking the dungbombs from James. Once reaching Filch's office which sat just near the dungeons, Sirius took off down the corridor and there was a loud bang. He hurried back and he and James hid around the corner behind a fire pillar as Peter knocked on Filch's door looking scared.

"WHAT?" Filch asked in his usual humourless manner. "Shouldn't you be in class, filthy brat?"

"I was going to the toilets, but someone's gone and let off a dungbomb or stinkbomb or something down the corridor!" Pete squeaked. "I thought you ought to know!"

Filch looked at Peter up and down sniffing slightly. Satisfied when he couldn't smell any evidence on him, he let Peter lead him to where Sirius had let off the dungbomb. Sirius and James ran towards Filch's open office door and ducked inside. Mrs Norris sat perched on the desk, looking at them with her dark eyes. Sirius seemed to be unnerved by her.

"James." He said. "She's staring into my soul!"

James wasn't listening, he had opened one of the cabinets and was rummaging through it furiously, stuffing things into his robe pockets. He looked up. "For gods sake man!" He said. "Get a bloody move on! Peter's not that bright and won't keep him for very long."

Sirius still stared at the cat before turning his back and helping James by cracking open another cabinet. He grabbed a set of spare keys that Filch kept on a hook beside the door and tucked them into his pockets.

"What do you reckon that is?" James asked holding something out to Sirius who did not look up.

"I dunno," He said.

"You're not even looking."

"I don't need to!" Sirius said. "If it looks vaguely cool, take it and we'll get Moony to decipher what it is later!"

"Cool!" James said distracted. "What do you think this-"

"JAMES!" Sirius said. "I have a bloody cat making me uncomfortable and you are just prolonging the experience. For god's sake, stop it!" He piled the last few objects into his pockets and grabbed James' arm and yanked him out just in time as Filch came wandering back to his office looking extremely pissed off. They hid around the corner as James pulled his invisibility cloak out and pulled it over them. Filch stormed out after a few seconds looking furious. He glared around the corridor and then took off.

"Quickly," Sirius hissed and they began to run down the corridor. Peter was standing waiting for them at the stairs leading to the dungeons. James pulled it off before tucking it into his bag and he and Sirius grabbed Peter by the elbows and practically carried him down the dungeon stairs.

"What did you get?" He asked.

"I dunno," James replied. "We'll find out later, come on or we'll be in detention for a month." He opened the door and looked around the classroom. "Sorry we're late Professor," He said. "We were visiting Remus."

Slughorn was bent over Snivellus' latest potion. He straightened up. "No matter," He said. "Friends first, eh, boys? Come in, and get your things out. You can make a simple draught for the time remaining."

Sirius, James and Peter grinned and sat down.

...

"THERE!" Sirius said excitedly pouring the contents of his bag onto Remus' bed with over enthusiasm. He grinned stupidly and swung from the four poster bed, almost tearing the Gryffindor drapes apart. James was sitting cross-legged at the end of Remus' bed whilst Peter sat precariously on the dresser, kicking his feet as he did so.

"Did you raid the entire office?" Remus asked mildly picking up a fanged Frisbee before hastening to put it down as it tried to bite off his bandaged fingers.

"Well not all of it," James said turning to stare at Peter. "Because someone didn't keep his distracted for long enough!"

"You said five minutes," Peter said. "I gave you five minutes. Get over it."

"So I'm assuming that you didn't turn up for potions?" Remus said.

"We did," Sirius replied. "I take offence to that, we're not all arrogant tossers who think we can get away with murder."

"Sirius, that's all you think," James corrected.

"Be that as it may, I do take offence." Sirius replied. "What do you think this is?" He picked up a tiny glass sphere.

"It's a remembrall." Remus said. "I think it's Franks."

"Then why was it in Filch's office?" James asked.

"Because," Peter said. "You used it with one of the bats from the Quidditch cupboard to make a hole in the astronomy tower."

"Oh yeah," James' face spread into a grin. "That was a fun day,"

"You were in detention for a month." Remus said, itching his leg.

"Bloody worth it though," James replied, picking up a small necklace. There was a vial of red liquid attached to it along with several moons and stars. "Is this...?" He held it out to Remus who recoiled.

"That's blood," He said.

"Shit." James said. "Human?"

Remus shook his head, then slightly revolted with himself, he took it and sniffed the air around it. "No, it's not human. I don't even think its half human."

"Three bets its Xeno's," Sirius said.

"I'll take that bet," James said picking up a small wooden box and opening it. "I think I know what this is," He said.

"What?" Remus asked, giving the necklace to Peter.

"My dad told me about them. They're like vanishing cabinets, only you can hide your most treasured possessions in there and it can never be found again, only by you."

"So..." Sirius said. "There's nothing cool in it?"

"Well not right now!"

"Boring!" Sirius yawned. "Beazors, lace wing flies, boomslang skin... Was this kid trying to make a polyjuice potion?"

"Probably," Peter said. "It could by why it was confiscated by Filch. Students aren't allowed to make it."

"The word 'duh', springs to mind every time you talk Peter," James said picking up a tiny cats skull. "Some of this stuff is really weird."

"Reminds me of the dark arts," Remus said mildly. James threw down the cat's skull.

"Reminds you?" He asked.

"From the book you gave me two summers ago?" Remus said raising his eyebrows. He reached down to his dresser. "Peter, could you move please?" Peter obliged and Remus opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a thick heavy black bound book. He winced as he brought it up on his lap. "Here." He opened to a page and showed them a very lucid, accurate engraving of Egyptian priests offering some of the things that lay before them up to a depiction of Anubis.

"Sweet," Sirius said, a frown forming on his elegant features as he leaned forward and examined the page.

"I don't like dark magic," James said quietly. The other three looked up at him.

"Well none of us particularly like it either mate," Sirius replied. "Trust me, this is purely academic."

Remus rolled his eyes before folding away the book. He picked up a jar and examined it. "Tentacula leaves," He said. "Worth ten galleons a leaf... To the right buyer of course," He smiled and handed it to Sirius.

"Well that's definitely worth something," He said tucking it into his robes. "What are those?"

"Tarot cards," Remus replied.

"Why would Filch confiscate tarot cards?" James said incredulously. "Sanctus uses 'em all the bloody time and wants to progress to them after bloody tea leaves,"

"Because," Remus said, spreading them out. "They're not pretty to look at." James, Sirius and Peter leaned forward to see the crude skeletal images move in their four cornered frame. As they stared, Peter, James and Sirius felt foreboding wash over them, a feeling of unease. Something was reaching into their minds and almost twisting hands around their senses. Remus saw that his friends were looking uneasy, so he folded them together and put them face down.

Peter, Sirius and James shook the feeling away. Sirius was holding his head in his hands.

"Okay," James said. "Now I get why Filch confiscated them."

"I feel sick," Peter said.

"Ditto," Sirius replied.

"You guys alright?" Remus asked, sitting further up.

"Yeah, it's cool-" James looked around. "Are you okay?"

Remus was frowning. "Why?"

"Didn't it have a weird effect on you?" Sirius asked, his voice muffled as he held his hand over his mouth.

"Not that I'm aware," Remus replied. "It's probably because..." He sighed. "I'm half-breed. I would think that it only works on real humans."

"You are a real human!" James complained. "It's a furry little problem that's all it is!"

"You're not going to throw up are you?" Peter asked Sirius.

"No," Sirius muttered. "Just didn't like it is all."

"Here," Remus reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a piece of wrapped chocolate and handed it to Sirius. "Eat this. It helps."

Sirius took it and bit into the corner automatically feeling a lot warmer and calmer and less sick than he was previously. "Thanks," He muttered.

"Is that all you got?" Peter asked.

"Pretty much," James said still spying the cards. "Although I did see this awesome pimp cane whilst I was leaving."

"Pimp... Cane?" Remus asked.

"Well, I doubt very much it was a pimp cane so to speak," James clarified. "It looked just awesome. Like the thing that Malfoy carries around, but cooler."

"James, you already walk around here like you own the place," Sirius said. "A cane would just make you so much more big-headed that you won't be able to fit through the door or get off on your broomstick,"

"Which reminds me," James said, drawing the conversation somewhere else as he usually did. "When are Quidditch trials starting up again? I want to meet our new esteemed leader."

"Do you think they'll be as bad as Torus?" Sirius asked.

"No one could be as bad as Torus," James said. "It'll probably be Gideon or Fabian."

"Yes because McGonagall can trust them." Peter said.

"She'd rather trust them than us," Sirius pointed out. He picked up a badge and held it out. "Moony it's you!"

"Ha ha ha," Remus said. "Very funny, Sirius," He pushed his friends' hand down as James made a grab for it.

"That's not Moony, you plonker!" James said.

"It's howling at the moon," Sirius said. "Obviously Moony,"

"Mate, it's a shitting dog." James replied. "It doesn't even look like Moony,"

"Exactly," Remus said smugly, folding his arms and leaning back.

"I mean, it's far more handsome than Moony," James continued.

"Oi!"

"I joke, I joke," James said. Then with a hand over his mouth, he said; "I obviously don't joke."

Something smacked him on the side of the head, James had a second before he realised it was a cushion. He feigned a death.

"OH HE GOT ME!" James cried dramatically. "OH HELP!"

"Potter, I have the right mind to throw you out of a bloody window." Sirius said.

James looked up excitedly. "Can I choose the window?"

"Be my guest," Sirius said. "So long as you are quick."

James frowned in mock concentration. He stared around the dormitory before deciding on the window beside Frank's bed. "That one,"

"Alright." Sirius stood up and rolled the sleeves of his robes. "Come on then,"

James grinned. "Okay, Black, we've had fun."

"Oh, you thought I was joking," Sirius said, yanking James by the arms and pulling him up. "Well I have news for you my friend."

"What are you doing?" James asked.

"Watch," Sirius grinned.

James' eyes widened. "No, no, no, you are not throwing me out of a –" Sirius lifted James over the shoulder. "LET GO OF ME!"

Remus and Peter were pissing themselves laughing as Sirius yanked James across the room. James desperately grabbed one of the four poster beds, dragging it along with him. Sirius struggled on. "A little help guys?" He called. Remus remained lying though he wanted to get up. His injuries from the previous night stopping him. Peter jumped up immediately and drew out his wand and tried brandishing it at James. "What are you doing?" Sirius yelped. "Hit his fingers!"

"Don't hit my fingers!" James pleaded. "I need them for... Fingering stuff."

Remus, Sirius and Peter all burst out laughing. So much so that Sirius dropped James by one of the beds.

"What?" James asked confused.

"You're such an idiot!" Sirius said wiping his eyes. James in this moment of madness tried to make a bid for freedom. Sirius grabbed him under the arms and hauled him back. "And where do you think you are going?" he asked.

"Nowhere," James replied. "Since... Gravity... Increasing... On... Me..." He made himself get heavier and heavier until he was lying on the floor giggling like a four year old school girl. "You should see your face!" He laughed.

"Right," Sirius said. "This calls for some serious tactics," He pursed his lips and began to lean down. James stopped laughing immediately.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Well, I was thinking going in for a kiss then maybe full-frontal nakedness." Sirius shrugged.

James leapt up in an instant and darted across the room, Sirius following. "Now, Sirius," He said trying to be reasonable. "I love you and all, but we aren't going to be anything more than friends."

"I don't care!" Sirius said. "Potter, I NEED YOU!"

James jumped on one of the unoccupied beds and darted from one to another. Sirius followed. He grabbed James' legs causing him to go flying through the air and land on Peter who was trying unsuccessfully to get Remus to stand up. All four tumbled to the ground laughing.

"I hate you so much!" Remus grumbled holding his side as he tried to get up.

"Oh you're not getting away that easy," Sirius said, grabbing his friend and pulling him down.

"Well I know you guys are mad for cock," James said. "But I have only one person in mind."

"Yes," Sirius said, sighing getting up and sitting on one of the beds. "It's Peter isn't it?" He pushed Peter back down just as he got up wiping his robes. Peter landed head first into James who fell back down onto the ground.

"OH BOLLOCKING HELL!" James shouted. He got up, still laughing his head off.

"Can someone please help me up?" Remus asked, lying on the stone cold floor. "I can't actually move you see..."

Sirius leaned down and helped his friend back onto his bed.

"Sometimes I wonder if you actually take crazy pills in the morning," Remus said, grimacing as he touched his bandaged waist. "Or if you were born this way."

Sirius winked. "We take the pills and we were born crazy. Makes us... Borderline insane. Trust me, some of the crazy people in Azkaban couldn't hold a candle to us."

"Ah well," Remus said. "Maybe one day you'll be holding the candle in their place."

"Shut up!"

A/N
I seriously do not like this chapter. Not only is it too short but it just isn't the way I planned it to go. BLAST VILE EXAMS FOR RUINING ALL MY INSPIRATION BARR SCENES FROM WHEN THEY LEAVE HOGWARTS! Argh... I'm having a tough time at the moment so please, I'd rather you didn't come after me with pitchforks and fire...

Oh and everyone please leave a review. It means a lot to me and makes the writing of this worth it.

See you in a few days... I hope... That is if Revision doesn't kill me first :/