Saturday, 5th February 1972

The next afternoon Sirius and his friends were heading to their last duelling lesson to prepare for the creature hunt the following weekend. After raiding Slughorn's potion supplies during the night, they had all slept in, but Remus had slept the longest. When Sirius woke at half-past nine, he had to pull Cosmo off of Remus' bed, where she was pawing at his chest while Remus slept on, oblivious.

Their ingredient collecting was going exceptionally well. They only had six items left to find. Though, admittedly, they were the hardest ones. They'd still found nothing that seemed valuable enough to risk offering to the merpeople in return for their scales, and if they couldn't find any signs of mooncalves in the Forbidden Forest during the creature hunt, then he wasn't sure what they would do.

'Woah. Awesome!' James said as they entered classroom 12c.

Sirius had to agree. The Chiefs had transformed the classroom into an arena. There was a small ring in the middle with seating arranged around the outside and magical barriers separating the two areas.

'Looks like they're going to make us duel,' Remus said. He sounded nervous.

'With everyone watching?' Peter asked. 'Oh, Gods. I'm going to make a complete idiot of myself.'

'Don't be daft, Pete,' James said. 'You've been doing fine in our practices.'

'Yeah, but that's just with you guys. I get nervous when other people are around.'

'Just pretend you're in the dorm with us,' Remus whispered as they took seats in the audience. 'Ignore everyone else.'

Sirius nodded. 'You even beat James last night. You're going to do great.'

Peter grinned at that and Sirius didn't blame him. It had been a stunning victory. Distracting James by throwing a pair of Sirius' dirty pants at him had been inspired. Whatever James said about underhanded tricks.

When everyone had arrived, the Chiefs—in their usual disguises—marched into the centre of the ring, and silence fell over the audience.

'Today you will be tested,' Chief number 1 said. 'If you fail, we will not allow you to take part in the Super Secret Creature Hunt.'

A few first years in the audience yelled out in annoyance at the announcement, but they stopped when Chief number 2 held up his hand.

'There has not been a serious injury during the Creature Hunt since we took over the Hogwarts games, and we will not be breaking that streak this year,' he said, glaring at the hecklers. 'If you can't prove you're able to defend yourself from the creatures that live in the Forest, then you can't take part. End of.'

Chief number 1 nodded his agreement. 'You will each enter the ring and prepare to defend yourselves. You will battle five "creatures" in total, and you must defeat them all to pass. The audience is forbidden from shouting instructions, but encouragement is allowed. If the creatures touch you, you lose.'

The room filled with whispers as the watching students muttered to each other.

'Do you think he means actual creatures?' Peter whispered, his voice tense with anxiety.

'I doubt it,' Remus said. 'They're probably just illusions.'

Peter nodded and wiped his hands on his knees. Poor kid. He needed to develop some confidence. If only Sirius could show him he wasn't as useless as he thought he was.

The Chiefs had left the ring and were standing on a raised platform overlooking the enchanted arena. They called in the seventh years to compete first. It seemed to Sirius that they only did so to give the younger students a chance to witness what they were up against because each of them made short work of the "creatures." It was obvious to everyone watching that they would all pass.

Remus had been right about their opponents being an illusion. The creatures were formed from smoke, and they dissipated the moment a spell made contact with them. It shouldn't be too difficult to pass the test.

All the fourth, fifth and sixth years passed the test as easily as the sevenths. It wasn't until the third years started fighting that things got interesting. Sirius had been wrong about the creatures dissipating the moment a spell made contact. It had just seemed that way because the older students knew what they were doing. With the less experienced fighters in the ring, he could see that the creatures only disappeared when the right spell was used, in the right place and at the right time. He leant forward in his seat to get a better look.

The girl in the ring was fighting her last creature. Unluckily for her, it was an acromantula formed from acid green smoke. It looked menacing, and judging by the way she was shaking, she was terrified of eight-legged beasties. She fired a stunner at the creature's head, but it just glanced off, and the spider continued its creepy scuttle towards her.

Come on. Sirius willed her to get herself together. He had no idea who she was, but he wanted her to fight through her fear and win.

'Come on, Alice! Remember your Defence!'

Sirius glanced towards the source of the shout and saw Frank Longbottom standing up in the audience opposite. He looked back down, and Alice had squared her shoulders. She nodded at Frank and raised her wand. But she didn't attack. She waited as the giant spider approached. Nothing but a slight shiver in her shoulders betraying her fear. Sirius was impressed with how quickly she had gotten herself under control, and he was rooting for her.

The spider was mere inches away from her when it reared up to attack. Alice didn't waste a second. She slashed her wand through the air and screamed the incantation out with such venom it sounded like a curse.

'Incendio!'

A burst of flame the size of a hippogriff erupted from the end of her wand—no doubt fuelled by her fear and loathing. It engulfed the acromantula's abdomen, so only its legs could be seen. And a moment later they vanished too as the smoke curled in on itself and was smothered by the fire. The crowd jumped to its feet as one, and the sound of their cheers was deafening. Alice only had eyes for Frank, though. She blushed as she stared at him, and he smiled back at her shyly.

Sirius suddenly felt as though he was intruding on something private and looked away, turning his attention to James.

'We have to use the right spell to defeat the creature,' he said. 'What if we get a creature we don't have a defence for yet? None of us can cast incendio.'

'I was thinking the same thing. They must have thought of that, right? They'll only give us creatures we can fight.'

Peter leant over from the other side of James. 'They can't control what we meet in the forest, though. And this test is supposed to make sure we can survive in there.'

Sirius worried his lip with his teeth. 'What would we do if we met an acromantula?'

'Diffindo, obviously. Slashing spells work just as well as fire,' Remus said.

Sirius turned around to look at him. He was sitting back in his seat with his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankles, the picture of relaxation. He didn't seem worried in the slightest.

'How do you even know that?' Sirius asked. 'You missed the lesson on acromantulas.'

Remus rolled his eyes. 'I missed the lesson, but I still did the reading. It's in the textbook.' He sat up and put his elbows on his knees, leaning towards them. 'I don't know what you're all so worried about. You're excellent fighters, and I bet we've practised more than anyone else here.'

James perked up and ran his hand through his hair, messing it up rather than smoothing it down. 'You're right. We're brilliant. This is going to be a breeze.'

Sirius tried to feel as confident as James looked, but he was still nervous. Only a few people had lost their matches, but it seemed embarrassing. None of them had stayed to watch the rest of the tests. He would be mortified if he messed up in front of all these people. And the Chiefs were watching too. If any of the Marauders failed would they rescind their offer? James would hate him if they lost the legacy because of him. It was so much pressure. He was used to pressure, of course. Being the heir to the House of Black came with a lot. But this was different. This was pressure from someone he cared about disappointing.

He glanced over at Peter. Teeth worrying his lip, fists clenched in his lap, spine as straight as a wand. Yes, Peter was feeling it too. He took comfort in knowing he wasn't alone.

When the last second-year lost on their third creature, Sirius' wait was over. They were calling up the year groups in alphabetical order by surname. And he was first. He gulped when they called his name, and as he always did at times where he wanted to appear confident when he was anything but, he slipped into his arrogant pureblood persona and stood. With his chin in the air, he marched with perfect grace down to the opening and entered the ring.

Taking a defensive stance, he raised his wand and waited for his first opponent to appear. He knew it would be something easy. The first one always was. So he kept his gaze lowered as he scanned the arena. If it was something small, he didn't want to miss it because he was looking too far up.

He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and spun to his right. A doxy, formed from orange smoke, hovered near the edge of the ring. Easy to take out. A simple knock-back jinx would do the trick, but they were fast. He would need to fire from close range so it didn't have time to dodge the spell. Sirius and the doxy eyed each other for a moment before the hairy, winged creature leant forward and soared towards him through the air. The urge to defend himself was strong, but Sirius held his ground and waited. If he fired too soon, the doxy would dodge his spell and be on him before he could attack again. There was no way he was going to lose in the first round.

He waited until the last possible moment. Until he could see the tiny, sharp teeth inside the creature's manic grin. And then he cast.

'Flipendo!'

His spell was strong, and the powerful blast spun the doxy through the air, somersaulting it back towards the edge of the ring. The smoke that formed its body dissipated as it whirled away, and by the time it reached the magical barrier, it was gone. The crowd clapped politely, and Sirius grinned, feeling much more confident in his abilities after such a successful first round.

Sirius didn't get long to revel in his victory over the doxy. His next opponent appeared seconds after the first vanished and wasted no time in running straight at him, screeching a litany of rude slurs against his name as it approached. A jarvey. Similar in looks to an overgrown ferret. They had sharp teeth and a nasty bite, but no defence.

Sirius jabbed his wand at the creature. 'Stupefy!'

It stopped dead and rolled to his feet before vanishing. What had he been so worried about? James had been right, this was a breeze. He scanned the ring for his next opponent, not wanting to be caught off guard. A cloud of pale yellow smoke appeared on the other side of the circle, coalescing into the form of a horse, no, a centaur. Shit.

Sirius eyed the bow in the centaur's hands nervously. If he attacked, the creature would fire that bow at lightning speed, and he wouldn't stand a chance. He wouldn't be able to dodge the arrow, and he didn't think he could get a shield up fast enough to deflect it either. But this test was about surviving the creature hunt, and that didn't necessarily mean fighting, did it? If he met a centaur in the Forbidden Forest, what would he do? He wouldn't attempt to fight it, that's for sure. It would be suicide. But if this didn't work, he was going to look like a complete prat. No one else had done anything but fight their opponents, but several had lost after trying to fight something that could potentially be reasoned with. It was worth a shot.

Sirius lowered his wand. 'Good afternoon, noble centaur,' he called, his voice loud, clear and confident. 'My apologies for wandering into your territory, I meant no harm.'

To Sirius' relief, the centaur also lowered his weapon. His plan was working. When it spoke, its voice was airy and whimsical, exactly what you might expect smoke to sound like. 'Your apology is accepted, young human. If you leave at once, you will not come to any harm from us.'

Sirius bowed low, showing the proper respect. And, hoping to Merlin he wouldn't regret it, he turned his back and took several steps away from the centaur. When the crowd started cheering, he knew he'd made the right choice and turned back around in time to see the yellow smoke disappearing into non-existence.

Sirius chanced a glance to where his fellow Marauders were sitting and saw that all three were on their feet clapping and cheering him, and he grinned back at them, but quickly returned his attention to the arena and his fourth opponent. A purple hippogriff that was pawing the ground with one leg.

Sirius gulped. A hippogriff would destroy him. But how would he handle a real one? He bowed, staying bent over as he waited for the creature to react. He peeked out between the curtains of his hair that had fallen on either side of his face. Waiting. Waiting. Finally, the hippogriff bent its knees and bowed back to him, and Sirius stood up. That seemed to be enough to count as a defeat because the smoke disappeared. There was only one round left.

Sirius' knees almost buckled from beneath him when his last opponent took form. He had to crane his neck back to see its head as it towered over him. An enormous, bright red, fire-breathing dragon. What the fuck? There weren't any dragons in the Forbidden Forest.

How the hell was he supposed to fight a dragon? There was no specialist knowledge that would help him there, and they weren't intelligent enough to reason with. And, again, there weren't any dragons in the Forbidden Forest anyway! Was that the point? Were the Chiefs using the arena as an opportunity to further test the Marauders? It seemed strange that he'd been given three undefeatable opponents when no one else had.

He took a chance. Visualising the dragon choking on its own flame, he waved his wand and screamed, 'Riddikulus!'

The dragon doubled over, made a horrible, wrenching choking sound and collapsed in a smoky heap. The crowd burst out laughing and the dragon disappeared. He'd been right. The dragon was a boggart. Not technically his worst fear, but getting an opponent he couldn't defeat had been a concern at the time.

He took a cocky bow to the audience before returning to his friends, and their back-slaps and congratulations.

'When you lowered your wand against the centaur, I nearly had a heart attack,' James said.

'Well done with the hippogriff,' Remus said. 'At first, I thought you were going to try to fight it.'

'How did you know the dragon was a boggart?' Peter asked.

Sirius basked in their praise, enjoying every minute of it. But he made sure to return the favour when first Remus, and then Peter and James, were each called up and successfully defeated their own five creatures. They all received "trick" opponents similar to his, but no one else did. By the end, he was convinced it was another test, and he expressed as much to the others on the way back to Gryffindor Tower.

'We'll have to be on the look-out for more surprise tests,' Remus said when Sirius finished explaining his theory. 'If they've done it once, they might do it again.'

Peter rubbed his arms, and his eyes darted around nervously. 'I don't like it. What if they're watching us all the time?'

Sirius put his arm around Peter's shoulders and squeezed. 'Don't worry, we'll look out for you. You did great today.'

'I did, didn't I?' Peter said, smiling.

'Chocolate hearts,' Remus said to the Fat Lady when they reached the portrait.

Sirius climbed through first and checked the noticeboard while he waited for the others.

'We're fighting next weekend,' he said when James emerged.

'Brilliant, it's about time,' James said, bouncing on his toes at the news.

Remus came through next and joined them. 'What's got you all excited?'

'It's our turn to fight in the sand-wars next Saturday.'

'Oh good, we'll get a last bit of practice in before the Creature Hunt.'

'What's that?' Peter asked, coming to stand with them.

'Sand-wars, next Saturday. We're up,' James said.

'Hope we don't get too much homework on Friday,' Peter said. 'We're going to have a busy weekend.'

Tuesday, 8th February

Three days after the Creature Hunt test, Remus was exploring the fourth floor with his fellow Marauders. They were mostly looking for somewhere safe to brew the Spectral Essence but continuing their detailed log of the castle's secrets at the same time. The fourth floor was proving difficult to search because almost the entire floor was taken up by Hogwarts' vast library, and the librarian was not keen on noise. They were keeping out of her way as much as possible, but she kept tracking them down and shushing them. Remus was worried that if they annoyed her too much they'd get banned from the library, and he really didn't want that to happen.

They had reached a secluded corridor between two sections of the library and were searching along it. Well, some of them were searching. Sirius had become distracted by a mirror hanging on the wall halfway down. He kept leaning forward to polish it and then stepping back again.

'Don't you get enough of looking at yourself when you do your hair in the morning?' Remus asked, walking over to join him.

Sirius turned his head to look at him. 'How could anyone get tired of looking at this?' he asked with an arched eyebrow. 'But there's something weird about this mirror. Look.'

Remus turned to face the glass. He tended to avoid mirrors as a rule. Lycanthropy had ravaged his body, and he didn't like seeing it. Being reminded of it. And standing next to Sirius while looking in the mirror was even worse. He was beautiful, with his perfect skin, silky hair and silver eyes. And Remus was… well. He was not.

He kept his eyes on Sirius' reflection, avoiding his own, and crossed his arms. The mirror was huge. It took up almost the entire space between the floor and the ceiling, and it was wider than it was high. But there was nothing strange about it that Remus could see. It was just a plain piece of glass. It didn't even have a frame. 'What's weird about it? Looks normal to me.'

As he spoke, the entire surface of the mirror fogged over. Okay, so that was kind of strange.

'See,' Sirius said, waving his hand at the mirror. 'It keeps doing that.'

Remus used his sleeve to wipe the mist away. 'That is odd.'

Sirius was staring at Remus' reflection with a frown. Remus bristled. He knew he wasn't much to look at, but there was no need to scowl about it.

'What's even odder,' Sirius said, 'is your eyes look like mine in the mirror.'

Remus glanced at his own reflection for the first time. Sirius was right. His eyes were silver, just like Sirius'. 'Freaky,' he said. 'I look weird.'

'Yeah, I like your gold eyes better,' Sirius said. He turned away and shouted to the others. 'Hey, James! Pete! Get over here!'

Gold? His eyes were a very light brown, but they certainly weren't gold. Maybe Sirius was colour blind or something.

James and Peter walked over and stood in front of the mirror with them.

'What is it?' James asked.

Remus looked at James' and Peter's reflections. Their eyes were both silver. 'It's doing it to them too,' Remus said. His speech caused the mirror to mist over again.

Sirius nodded, frowning. 'Do you think it's connected to how easily it gets fogged up somehow?'

James stamped his foot. 'For the love of Gryffindor, will one of you tell me what's going on?'

Sirius laughed. 'Sorry, James.' He cleaned the mist from the mirror and pointed. 'It makes everyone's eyes turn the same colour as mine.'

The mirror immediately fogged over again when Sirius spoke, so James wiped it before examining his reflection. 'Freaky,' he said. 'Were you the first to look in it?'

Sirius nodded. 'You think that matters?'

James shrugged. 'Who knows? Let's test it.'

They all moved away from the mirror, and then James went and stood in front of it alone.

'No, still grey,' he said.

'So it's just a coincidence that it's my eye colour,' Sirius said, walking to stand next to James.

'Looks like it,' James said. 'But why does it fog up so easily?'

Peter leaned forward and drew a smiley face on the glass. The face stayed for a moment, and then the mist covering the glass vanished.

'Huh,' James said. The glass fogged over again.

'Maybe we have to write the password on the glass,' Remus said. 'And the eye colour is the clue.'

Sirius leant forward and wrote grey on the mirror. The mist disappeared just as it had with the smiley face, but nothing else happened.

'Maybe that wasn't specific enough,' James said. The mirror had misted up again when he spoke, so he leant forward and wrote light grey. Again, nothing happened.

Remus rolled his eyes. Why did everyone think Sirius' eyes were grey? Grey was boring, and Sirius' eyes weren't boring. They shone and sparkled, and they were made up of so many different shades.

'Let me try,' he said to make the mirror fog up again. He leant forward and wrote silver with his finger. The mist vanished and then, starting in the centre of the mirror, the glass melted away revealing a wide passageway behind it.

'Yes!' James said. 'Well done, mate.' Without pausing to discuss it, he marched inside and Peter scurried after him.

Sirius quirked an eyebrow at Remus. 'So, my eyes are silver, are they?' he asked before following the others inside without waiting for a response. Remus felt his face heating up. Why did Sirius get to him so much?

It was the widest secret passage they had found so far. So wide that they could walk comfortably side by side and still not be able to touch the walls. Once all four of them were inside, the mirror sealed itself behind them, but they could still see the library corridor on the other side. From the passageway, the mirror acted as a window. That would be useful for sneaking back out.

The Marauders lit their wands and chatted and joked as they walked for over half an hour. The route twisted and turned but stayed flat the entire way, and the walls and floor of the passageway started out as stone-brick, but ten minutes into the journey, the brick gave way to earth and, later still, to solid rock. The earth floor was packed and smooth, as if the weight of hundreds of feet had traversed it, but the rock was jagged and hard to walk on without stumbling. They had to slow right down to make sure no one got hurt.

It was all worth it when they reached the end. The darkness ahead of them widened, and they stepped out into an enormous cave.

'Woah!' James said.

'That about sums it up,' Remus said, staring up at the far-off ceiling with awe.

Sirius grinned at them. 'I think we've found it, boys. This is perfect.'

James clapped his hands together. 'I agree. But it's up to our safety monitor. Remus? What do you think? Is it suitable?'

Remus nodded slowly. 'I think so. Stone isn't flammable, so we won't be able to start a fire. There's plenty of room, and it's quite far from the school, so if something goes wrong we'll only blow ourselves up—'

Peter snorted. 'It's great that you have so much faith in me, Remus.'

Remus laughed. 'I was thinking more of these two idiots,' he said, jerking his thumb at James and Sirius who were shoving at each other as he spoke.

'Hey!' they both yelled in unison.

Remus ignored them and turned back to Peter. 'I'm a bit worried about how uneven the ground is. Will you be able to set-up a cauldron?'

'I don't know,' Peter said, rubbing his chin. 'We might have to smooth it out a bit, or the cauldron could topple over halfway through brewing, and we barely have enough time as it is.'

Sirius stopped play-fighting with James and perked up. 'We can do that,' he said. 'Right, James? Defodio should work.'

James pulled his wand from its holster and grinned. 'Sounds fun.'

The four boys set to work smoothing out a large square area in the centre of the cave to install the cauldron. When they were done, Remus stood up straight and rubbed his lower back. 'We're going to need light and a table for preparing ingredients, too.'

'The house-elf storage rooms will probably have what we need,' James said.

Remus frowned. 'I don't like the idea of stealing from the elves.'

'Not stealing,' James said. 'We'll just ask them. They love us.'

Sirius nodded. 'It's because of my painting.'

'Course it is,' Peter said, laughing from where he was sitting on the floor. 'But talking of house-elves. I'm starving. It must be nearly dinner time?'

James checked his watch. 'Shit, it's almost five o'clock.'

Peter leapt to his feet. 'We'll miss dinner completely if we don't hurry.'

Remus didn't think he'd ever seen Peter put as much energy into anything before as he did into getting back to the school in time for dinner.

They spoke with the house-elves the following afternoon and Teely was happy to give them a table and some candles. She agreed to bring them to the fourth-floor corridor early on Saturday morning. It was the safest time; the risk of anyone else being in that part of the castle to see them was low.

After Teely dropped the items off, they took them a little way down the passage to hide them before going to breakfast.

'How soon do you think we can start?' Remus asked while piling bacon on to his plate.

James gave him a disapproving frown and pushed an apple across the table towards him before he answered. 'The silver cauldron should arrive any day now. We still need a few ingredients, but we should have most of them by the end of the month, as long as we find something suitable for the merpeople. We can't get the thestral tail hair until the Easter holidays, but we won't need it until the end, anyway.'

'So we can start at the beginning of March then?' Remus asked, picking up the apple and rolling his eyes at James before taking a bite.

'Unless Pete wants to go home for Easter?' James said, raising his eyebrows at Peter in question.

Peter swallowed his mouthful of sausages and shook his head. 'No. If we don't start until April, we might not get it done in time. I already told Mum I want to stay here for Easter to revise for the exams.'

'Good man,' Sirius said. 'We better make sure you get good marks to back up your story.'

Peter smiled. 'Yes, please.'

After breakfast, they took their supplies down to the cave and set out the ingredients they'd already collected.

'What about if we need to sleep down here?' Sirius asked. 'It's not going to be very comfortable.'

'I think even the house-elves would get suspicious if we asked for beds,' Remus said.

'We'll figure something out,' James said, unconcerned. 'Right now, I think we should get some last-minute practise in before our matches this afternoon.'

They spent the rest of the morning practising all the spells they knew from class that were useful, the spells they'd learned at the Creature Hunt lessons, and a few Remus had looked up once they knew how strong their cores were. By lunchtime, they all felt as ready as they could be. Even Peter was expressing confidence.

For their first match, the Magical-Mischief-Makers were up against three other teams of first years. Two of the teams were mixed gender, and they weren't people that usually spent time together. They must have joined out of necessity because they needed a team and the lack of trust would work against them. The fourth team, though, was all girls. Lily Evans, and her best friends, Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes and Mary MacDonald. They were going to be a problem. A group possibly as close as the Marauders made up of skilled witches, and James could not be trusted to keep his head around Lily.

They'd decided James and Sirius would be attacking while Remus and Peter defended, and as they walked to their sandcastle, Remus took the opportunity to whisper to Sirius. 'Focus on Lily's team if you can. I think James might ignore them.'

Sirius nodded and entered the lower level behind James. Remus and Peter made their way upstairs, where they would have a better view of oncoming spells to defend their castle.

The prefects were watching from a raised seating area just beyond the battle zone, and they stood to start the match. 'Raise your wands.'

The competitors obeyed. Remus eyed the attackers through the openings on the lower level of the other three castles. They looked nervous. He smiled.

'Three. Two, One. Let the battle commence,' the prefect yelled.

Spells began flying back and forth immediately. Lily was an attacker for her team, and she shot Remus an apologetic look before firing a transfigured projectile at his castle. He deflected it easily and smirked at her. She smirked right back at him before firing a barrage of spells at different parts of their fortress. Remus had to work quickly to shield against them all, but they had practised hard, and he ignored the ones directed at Peter's half of the castle, trusting his friend to do his job and protect them.

A number of spells flew towards Lily's castle from his own. Either James was ignoring his interest in the girl for the sake of his team, or Sirius was focusing on them to make up for James ignoring them. Either way it was working, and Lily's castle was gradually descending towards the ground. The other two teams were even farther along. They were a mess. A complete breakdown of trust in their teammates meant that the attackers were defending, and the defenders were attacking. A few minutes into the match and only Remus' and Lily's teams remained.

Sirius' voice drifted up from below. 'I don't care if you fancy her, James. It's a game!'

Remus chuckled and shook his head. But the number of spells shooting out from the lower floor doubled. Sirius had obviously gotten through to James.

The battle continued in earnest. No one was holding back anymore, and both castles were steadily declining in structural integrity. Remus was preparing himself to fall through the floor at any moment. They had planned for it, and both he and Peter moved themselves to the edges—trusting that Sirius and James had moved to the middle to give them a clear landing—continuing to cast shields and deflection spells the entire time.

Twin jets of light shot from the lower level of Remus' castle and sliced through the air, hitting the upper floor of Lily's and sending Marlene and Mary through the floor. Lily disappeared from view for a moment. Her team must not have planned for it. They had been unprepared, and Marlene had landed on Lily. James and Sirius lost no time in taking advantage of the opposing team's loss of defenders and an attacker. They shot a barrage of spells at the four corners of Lily's castle, rapidly bringing the flags down to ground level and turning them white.

'The Magical-Mischief-Makers win!' the prefect shouted, just as the floor finally gave way. Remus and Peter fell the few feet to ground level, landing neatly beside Sirius and James on their feet without so much as a wobble. It was one of the things they had practised in preparation.

'Hey, guys. You wanted to celebrate with us?' Sirius asked with a grin.

James waved a greeting before dashing over to Lily's castle to help her out of the heap of sand that was all that remained. Lily ignored his hand and pulled herself to her feet before helping her teammates, and James returned looking crestfallen.

'I just don't get why she doesn't like me,' he said.

'Never mind, mate. You've got plenty of time to win her around,' Sirius said.

They watched the next three matches between second-year teams and third-year teams with interest, taking notes on their tactics and which spells they favoured. And when they were called up for their second match to fight the winners, they wiped the floor with them. Next month, they would be up against the upper-year winners. They were going to have to practise hard if they wanted to beat them.

Remus and his friends returned to their dorm to celebrate their victory with butterbeer, and on the way there, they saw a notice for the Valentine's Day dance on Monday evening.

'We have to do something,' James said, his eyes shining with mischief. 'Spike the punch maybe?'

Sirius pulled out four bottles of butterbeer from their stash and handed them out. 'With what? Rosmerta might not snitch on us for sneaking out of school, but I doubt she'd sell us alcohol.'

James grinned. 'I was thinking more along the lines of spiking it with a potion.'

A/N: Hi! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm sorry to say that updates are likely going to slow down for a while as I've just started back at uni and won't have as much time to write. But I will do my best to write as much as I can. Thanks for all your wonderful support, it's very much appreciated :)