Chapter 19 – The Prank
"You need to stop stealing my ingredients," Sirius said as he and Remus headed down the corridor away from the dungeons. "I won't be held responsible if you accidentally add a dungbomb to your potion instead of a bean."
"Stop stealing my breakfast and I'll see what I can do," Remus replied with a grin. He was a little ahead of Sirius, and turned around to speak so that for a minute he was walking backwards.
Remarkably, he managed not to crash into anything as they headed up the staircase.
"You took the last of the bacon, Moony," Sirius sighed, "you know I can't live without my bacon."
"Then I will be happy to share your potions kit until the end of term – thank you for being so considerate."
Sirius shook his head as Remus laughed at himself. They'd made it to the entrance hall, and Remus hesitated in front of the staircase. He had to head up to his Ancient Runes class, whereas Sirius has Muggle Studies on the ground floor.
"I probably won't make it to dinner," he said, "the sun sets at around half seven and I'm not much feeling like eating anyway."
"No worries," Sirius shrugged, trying not to frown. "I'll see you down at the shack then."
"Yeah." Remus gave him a small smile before he joined the throng of students climbing the staircases.
Sirius watched him reach the first floor landing then disappear behind a group of third year girls. They'd been doing this for over a year now, and he still wasn't quite used to the mix of apprehension, fear and excitement that he felt on days of the full moon.
He could only imagine what Remus felt.
Pulling his bag higher onto his shoulder, Sirius didn't notice the eyes on him until he was half way across the entrance hall. The number of students still around was dwindling, and if he didn't get a move on he was going to be late for class.
"You're up to something."
The accusation came from the door to the great hall, where Snape was leaning casually as students scurried to and fro around him.
"Is going to class a crime now?" Sirius snapped, fully intending on walking straight past him.
"Touchy," Snape mocked. "Your brother has a bit of that about him too."
Sirius stopped.
"Takes everything too seriously, you'd think being the new heir of the family would have loosened him up a bit."
"What's your game?" Sirius asked, approaching Snape. "Why are you talking to me?"
"Because you're up to something," Snape repeated. "Always sneaking about the grounds late at night – I've seen you more than once. And now you're talking to Lupin about the shack. If you mean the shrieking shack I'd be very interested to know how to get all the way to Hogsmede without permission."
"Wouldn't you just," Sirius frowned. "I don't know what you think you've seen Snivellus, but looks like that thick brain of yours has jumped to conclusions as usual. We're not up to anything, and if you think talking about Regulus will make me tell you anything then you're wrong."
"Really?" Snape asked with a smile that for a moment made Sirius' stomach drop. "Because you'd be surprised how much he talks about you."
Sirius shook his head. "You're lying," he said, "and I don't have time for this."
"Oh, so your mother didn't burn you off the family tree then?" Snape sneered before he could leave. "I heard you cried and everything, a little embarrassing but –
"Shut up," Sirius spat, rounding on Snape and pushing him against the wall.
"See what I mean," Snape smirked, "touchy. Don't worry, we'll make sure Regulus can control himself better than you – I think he just needs a role model, you know. Someone to look up to since his brother isn't around."
"If you touch him-"
"Oh, I don't need to. Seems like little brother's already chosen a great mentor in Mulciber. Apparently your parents had quite the dinner party at Christmas."
Sirius pushed Snape back against the wall once, then let go of him abruptly, feeling furious. "Why are you telling me this?" he asked again.
"I don't care about your brother," Snape shrugged. "But he had his uses. I saw him just last week actually, him and some other fourth years trying to pull off an imperius curse. I wonder how Slughorn would feel if I told him that."
"Are you trying to blackmail me?"
"Maybe," Snape replied casually. "What do you do when you leave the castle and what's down by the willow?"
Sirius didn't stop to wonder how Snape knew about the willow, he'd obviously been watching them for a while, and the thought of how close he could come to finding out about Remus made the rage in him even stronger.
"Tell Slughorn what you want," he snarled, "Regulus can make his own decisions."
The words tasted like ash in his mouth. His brother, the brother he'd taught to shoot sparks from his new wand when he was eleven, playing around with curses that could get him thrown in prison?
"I'll follow you!" Snape shouted after him as he stormed across the entrance hall towards the muggle studies classrooms. "I'll find out."
"Do what you want," Sirius yelled back, the anger flooding out as the desire to throw a jinx at Snape burned inside him, "the willow will do us all a favour and smash your head in before you can get inside."
Watching Sirius throw open the door to the downstairs corridor, Snape replayed the words in his mind.
'Get inside?'
He smiled.
James wasn't good at waiting. He, Sirius and Peter had been taking it in turns to watch out of the window of their dorm to see when Madam Pomfrey would finally come back to the castle after leaving with Remus almost an hour ago.
"What time is it?" he asked, leaning his chin on his hand and mindlessly staring out at the grounds.
"Half seven," Peter replied. "She should be back soon if she doesn't want to get eaten."
"We could just go down now," Sirius suggested impatiently. "We have the cloak."
"No need," James said, sitting up straight. "That's her."
"Finally." Sirius leapt off the bed, which he'd been lying on for the past half hour floating random objects above his head for no discernible reason. "Let's go."
"Hang on." James pushed his glasses back up his nose and frowned at the tree far below them. "I swear there's someone else down there."
"A teacher?" Peter asked.
He shook his head. "Come here – look, there was someone behind the bushes near the lake. It looks like-"
"Snape?" Peter said incredulously as he spotted the figure below them. "What's he doing down there? You don't think he's found out about Remus, do you?"
"Oh, shit." Sirius darted across the room and squeezed between them to see for himself. "I didn't think he'd actually listen."
"Sirius," James said sternly. "What did you tell him?"
"Well he overheard us talking about the shack…" Sirius squirmed under James' gaze. "I told him it'd do him in before he made it inside. I didn't even realise I'd said it until later."
"You've got to be kidding me. What the hell were you thinking?"
"I didn't mean it! He was talking about Reg and I didn't think-"
"No, clearly you didn't." James turned back to the window, gripping the ledge tightly and watching as Snape floated a stick towards the base of the tree. The branches abruptly stopped moving and Snape was able to pass unimpeded beneath the tree. "Shit. He must've seen Pomfrey press the knob to get out. Shit."
"But he'll find out about Remus," Peter squeaked. "He could tell the whole school!"
"If he lives long enough," James said. He had gone very pale, and his voice was unnaturally calm. "Sirius, you're going to go and get McGonagall right now and tell her Snape's gone down to the Shrieking Shack. Peter, you're going to come with me and stop Snape before he gets himself killed."
Neither of them moved, too frozen with shock at the sudden seriousness of the situation. "Come on," James snapped, grabbing Peter's arm and dragging him out of the door.
There were still lots of people in the common room, chatting by the fire or doing homework at one of the tables. Everything seemed normal, but if they weren't in time, things would never be normal again. They'd be expelled, most likely, and Remus might be-
James pushed the thought from his mind and ignored the stares they got as they ran towards the portrait hole and scrambled out. He kept running down the seven flights of stairs, shoving people out the way as Peter puffed and panted behind him. He heard a voice shout "Mr Potter!" in a disapproving tone as they sprinted through the entrance hall, but he didn't stop. Sirius would tell a teacher; James just had to stop Snape.
The air was shockingly cold when they pushed open the main doors and staggered out. It caught in his throat with each laboured breath but he didn't stop running, not until he skidded to a halt in front of the willow. He waited impatiently as Peter caught up, but before he could say anything Peter held up a hand, scrunched up his face in concentration, and all at once shrank down into a rat, his clothes pooling around him. He sniffed around for a moment, disoriented after the transformation, and James turned him around to face the tree so he could go and press the knob. When that was done, James hurried over.
"Stay here," he said firmly, hoping that the words would make it through Peter's rat brain. "Wait for Sirius."
It was a squeeze to fit through the hole beneath the willow, and once he was down there James had to run as fast as he could while bent over in the low passageway. It felt like he was taking too long – would Snape be at the shack by now? Would he have the sense to turn back when he heard Remus' howls and scratching? James could only hope something terrible hadn't already happened.
Eventually the passageway grew wider and the ceiling was high enough that he could run flat out, his chest now aching and a sharp pain in his side. A little light filtered into the passage as it started to rise upwards, and then – finally – when he turned a corner he saw Snape. Still alive. But standing with his head and shoulders inside the trap door that lead into the shack.
"Don't!" James roared, not slowing down as he dashed towards Snape and rugby tackled him to the ground.
As the trap door fell shut, James heard the deafening screech of claws scraping the wood above him.
Sirius was leaning against the wall in McGonagall's office – where he had been pacing until James and Peter came in a few minutes ago. Neither of them were talking to him, and he didn't dare open his mouth to ask what had happened. It couldn't have been too awful… If Snape had actually gotten himself killed, James would have told him. Snape was probably with McGonagall and Dumbledore; hopefully being convinced to not tell the entire school about Remus, or what had nearly happened. Sirius felt sick. Not the kind of sick he was used to feeling after drinking too much, or when he had the flu, but an unpleasant gnawing in his stomach that rose every few minutes to the top of his throat like bile.
"What - " Sirius began, unable to keep quiet any longer, but just as James threw a murderous look towards him, McGonagall entered the room, looking worn out and very angry.
"Sit down, Mr Black," she said curtly, waving her wand so another chair appeared next to James' and Peter's. She crossed to the other side of her desk and took off her glasses to rub the bridge of her nose. "I hope you all realise the seriousness of what you've done." She replaced her glasses and looked down at them with steely anger. "Mr. Snape could have died today. He could have died. You were almost responsible for the death of another student who did nothing to you but, what, insulted you? Cast some petty hex?"
None of them said anything, so she continued. "What's more, you used your own friend as a tool to do so. Had Mr Snape been killed, Mr Lupin would have been expelled, if not sent to Azkaban. I'm sure you're all well aware of how the Ministry views werewolves. I have had many students in my office in all my years of teaching, and the three of you have been in here more than most, but I have never, never had cause to blame any of them for something this severe. Do you have anything to say for yourselves?"
Sirius looked at James, who had been glaring at him furiously for the entirety of McGonagall's tirade. The sad thing was that Sirius somehow knew, as mad as he was, that James would take part of the blame if Sirius let him.
"Professor," he said, trying his best not to look away as he met McGonagall's eye. "I was the one who told Snape about the willow. He overheard us talking this afternoon and I mentioned he could get inside the willow. James and Peter didn't even know what had happened until we saw Snape hanging around the tree through the window."
He took a deep breath, glancing back at his friends, who looked slightly more at ease if not any less angry.
"Is this true?" she asked, peering at them over her glasses.
James and Peter exchanged a glance and James nodded once.
"I see. In that case, perhaps the two of you should return to your dormitory and get some sleep. I'm sure Remus will need you to explain what has happened in the morning. I don't expect to see any of you in class first period."
James and Peter slowly got up and left, with Peter glancing back and shooting a worried smile at Sirius before he closed the door.
"Well, Mr Black, are you pleased with yourself? All of this because of a moment of foolish pride."
"I know," Sirius said quietly. For all the certainty he'd felt owning up with his friends still in the room, now Sirius found himself unable to look anywhere but at McGonagall's desk. "It sounds stupid but I never meant for any of this to happen. I would never do that – not to Remus. He's my friend and now he's going to hate me and I didn't really want to kill Snape; I'm not like them - my family. I don't just go around trying to kill people. I'm – I'm sorry."
McGonagall's expression softened just a little. "I didn't really believe any of you were capable of plotting murder, despite Mr Snape's certainty that you were. But the fact is that Lupin's condition can put people in danger, and when he told you about it he was trusting you to consider that." Sirius tugged at his sleeves and McGonagall sighed. "I know you would never intentionally do anything to hurt Remus, but your thoughtlessness nearly did a great deal of damage. You will have detention at 7pm every evening until I say otherwise, and I'll be writing to your parents."
"They won't care," he said bitterly.
She raised her eyebrows. "Since Mrs Potter personally asked to be considered your guardian, she is the one I'll be writing to."
Sirius finally looked up at her, stern as ever but slightly more pitying than she had been five minutes ago. In all the times he'd sat in her office over the years, he'd never felt this guilty. For the sake of a jibe at Snape, James would barely look at him, The Potters would be receiving a letter detailing how he almost killed someone, and Remus would surely never want to speak to him again.
"Okay," he said to McGonagall, completely defeated.
"You may go, Mr Black." He nodded and rose to leave, but as he opened the door she added, "Despite what you may think right now, your friends will forgive you. I've rarely seen students who are as inseparable as the four of you."
After writing a quick but heartfelt letter to the Potters in the owlery to assure them he hadn't actually tried to kill anyone, Sirius got back to the dormitory exhausted at just gone 10 o clock. Usually on the nights of the full moon, he would be wide awake at this time, roaming the forest with the others, but all he wanted to do now was crawl into bed.
When he entered the dormitory, he found James and Peter sitting on their beds, talking in low voices, which they stopped the moment they saw him. He closed the door heavily behind him and awkwardly stood there for a moment, swinging his arms and not knowing where to look.
"You're not expelled are you?" Peter asked worriedly.
Sirius shook his head. "Just detention for the rest of my life and she's writing to the Potters." He tried to keep his tone light but it faltered when he glanced at James and saw the annoyance in his expression. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I didn't mean-"
"I just can't believe you were so stupid," James said harshly. It was the first thing he'd said to him since telling him to fetch a teacher what seemed like days ago. "I hate Snape as much as you do but he could've died. And Moony-" He broke off. "Forget it. I'm going to bed. Don't talk to Remus in the morning – I'll do it."
He got into bed and pulled the curtains shut tightly around him. With a small shrug Peter did the same, and Sirius was left to collapse into bed feeling like he was going to cry. He'd been yelled at more times than he could count in his life, but never by someone who mattered as much as James did.