The Marauders and the House of Black

Chapter Eight: We Love You, Mr. Moonlight

When Sirius came to after the Potions lesson debacle, he was surprised that the first person he saw when he woke up was none other than Lily Evans. "Couldn't bear not seeing my face, Evans?"

"Oh thank god, Sirius!" Lily said, springing to life from the chair where she was sitting. "I am so sorry, I don't know what came over me, but I–"

"Lily, stop. It's okay," Sirius laughed, sitting up against the plush pillows. "Honestly it's my fault, I just hope you're not in too much trouble."

"Just detention."

"No!" Sirius mocked shock. "Not THE Lily Evans serving detention."

"Stop," she whined. "I'm distraught enough as it is."

"I'm only joking. How long was I out anyway?"

"Well you missed lunch today," Lily said.

"That's not that bad."

"Well today's Tuesday," Lily finishes.

"That's a little worse," Sirius laughed. "Where's everyone else? Figured I'd have a welcoming party"

"Oh they're in the corridor, I told them I wanted to apologize as soon as I could," Lily says simply. "I'll go get them, I'm sure they'll be thrilled to see you."

"Alright. Bye, Evans!"

"Bye Sirius." Once Lily had left, the remaining Marauders quickly took her place in the surrounding chairs. James even flopped himself on the bed with Sirius, much to the latter's annoyance.

"Hey mate, how ya feeling?" James said.

"Fine, how was class without me? Agonizing?" Sirius joked.

"Not nearly," James replied.

"Speaking of classwork," Remus cut in.

Sirius groaned, "Must you always collect homework on my behalf?"

"Must you even ask?" Remus retorted. "Besides it's not much. Here are my notes for History of Magic, we have a test coming up. Also, we have an essay set for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Lastly–"

"There's more?" Sirius whined.

"Kind of, you need to go see Professor Nyota about your alternative Astronomy assignment since you missed the lesson yesterday," Remus said.

"Or, I could just never go."

"Sirius," Remus said pointedly. "I will drag you up the Astronomy Tower stairs if I have to."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll go after Madame Pomfrey says I can go," Sirius conceded.

Eventually, Madame Pomfrey took notice to the excess amount of visitors Sirius had and quickly ushered them out of the Hospital Wing with a stern glare. After some negotiation, Sirius convinced him to let him go if he promised to take it easy and skip Quidditch practice for the rest of the week. Truthfully, he had no intention to keep his promise, but the important thing was he felt okay and he was finally free of the constraints of the Hospital Wing.

As promised, Sirius made his way directly to the Astronomy Tower to see Professor Nyota. When he walked into the professor's office she looked up excitedly. "Mister Black!" she exclaimed. "So glad you are up and about and feeling well."

"Me too," Sirius said awkwardly. "I'm here about the alternate assignment. Remus told me I should see you."

"Correct! It shouldn't be too hard. I want you to log down in this chart the new and full moon dates from the past six months, this month included." In an outstretched hand, she held the parchment, presumably with the blank charts. "I also wrote down some books that should aid you in your research."