The Marauders: Year Six #Wattys2017

Be Careful Out There

Be Careful Out There

The next week went by like lightning.

Saturday, Sirius and James came back in the afternoon covered with white paint - the smell of it made Remus ill, so they'd spent a good deal of time scrubbing off in the showers, but Sirius was still exiled to James's bed that night, curled up about his feet as Snuffles, whimpering all night because his dumb hair smelled like dumb paint and why'd he have to climb on that dumb fence in that dumb class for anyway?

Sunday, James posted a poster on the board in the common room announcing the try-outs for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He underlined and highlighted the fact that they were doing a full reconstruction, so even people who were previously on the team wouldn't be promised a spot and that everyone was trying out, aside from himself.

Frank Longbottom nudged him at the breakfast table, "Except for me, yeah?" he'd whispered.

James had nodded, "But don't tell anyone else that. Bloody hell, I'd be mad to get rid of you, Frank."

On Monday, it was the first Potions class and Slughorn cornered Lily, Remus, and James, and offered an invitation to the next Slug Club brunch the following Saturday. As they walked from the dungeons up to the Great Hall for lunch, James turned to Sirius, "So... how do you reckon we go about getting another Saturday detention to get me out of that bleedin' brunch?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Sirius had said, grinning as he flung his arm about James's shoulder.

"Oh gods," murmured Remus.

They achieved the Saturday detention on Tuesday while Remus and Peter Pettigrew were at Muggle Studies, which Peter had signed up for to replace some of the classes he couldn't take for the N.E.W.T. years and Remus had decided to continue on in, even without Sirius in the class. Without Remus there to keep Sirius in check, it was easy to earn detention. James and Sirius did it by dismantling the suits of armor on the third floor outside McGonagall's office and putting on the pieces so that they were all armored up and proceeding to fly broomsticks at one another in the corridor.

"What are you doing?!" McGonagall had shouted, coming out of her office after she'd heard Sirius's shouted followed by the loud crashes of the armor striking each other and James cries when his helmet got stuck turned the wrong way, breaking his nose. "For pity's sake!" she'd shouted as she had to engorge the helmet to get it off his face. "Episky! Can't leave you two alone for even a second..." she glared at Sirius.

"Sorry Minnie - we were just jousting is all," Sirius said. "I mean, I s'pose we could've done it without the armor, but I reckon a stabbing by lance would hurt a good deal more unarmored."

James high-fived Sirius on the way to their afternoon Herbology lesson. He was just glad he didn't have to go to the damned breakfast.

On Wednesday, Sirius threw himself into his seat in Defense Against the Dark Arts and, as a joke, set Professor Urquart's chalk to drawing funny caricatures of the crazy-haired nutter on the blackboard until he came downstairs from the office. Professor Urquart stared at the board and shook his head, "Exactly like Mia Black," he said, shaking his head and looking at Sirius.

"How do you know I did it?!" he asked, his smirk crawling over his face.

Professor Urquart stared at him.

"Could've been Remus," Sirius said, pointing at Remus, who was feeling ill and looking quite miserable, leaning over his textbook. Remus looked up, a confused expression on his face. "Okay so maybe not Remus," Sirius ceeded. "But it could've been James."