"Great to have you back, Lupin." Sirius grinned, pulling back the invisibility cloak as they entered the (previously locked) Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.
"What d'you mean?" Remus replied, watching James climb the ladder in the corner of the room to reach the highest shelf, where stood a cage of sleeping pixies. "I haven't been anywhere."
"Come on, mate," Peter said, holding the ladder for James, "It hasn't escaped our notice that you've been avoiding us like the plague."
"I haven't." Remus twisted his mouth, "Just been busy. You know, studying and stuff."
"Well I hope you're over that phase now," James laughed, slowly climbing down, clutching the huge cage in both hands, "I'd really appreciate it if you stopped working so hard - it makes me have to work hard, you see, and I'm not used to the competition."
"Oh, do one, Potter." Sirius snarled, rummaging through drawers and inside desks.
Remus had decided that this prank wouldn't be too bad - it didn't require him to use any magic, anyway. If he was completely honest with himself, he had really missed all of their mischief. Being a swot was all well and good, but it wasn't half boring. No wonder Evans was always frowning.
"How are we going to get them into the dining hall?" He asked, bending down to gaze at the tiny blue creatures, still sleeping, curled up at the bottom of the cage. There must have been about fifty of them, which Remus felt was rather cruel. Much better to liberate them.
"Under the cloak," James replied, spreading it wide now so that they could all get under, "Come on Sirius," he rolled his eyes at the long-haired boy who was now on his hands and knees under the teacher's desk.
"What are you even looking for?" Peter asked, muffled under the cloak.
"One of the Ravenclaws told me there was a trap door under here." Sirius sighed, getting up and dusting off his knees. "Liar."
"This is Black's newest obsession," James explained to Remus as he closed the cloak over them and they headed for the door, "Finding secret doors."
"Hogwarts: A History says there are loads of undiscovered passages!" Sirius said, defensively. "Like that one you found, Lupin. There are definitely more, I want to find at least one before we leave."
"There's also supposed to be a monster hidden somewhere in the castle." James whispered back, as they made their way along the halls towards Gryffindor tower. Peter shuddered.
"A risk I'm willing to accept," Sirius replied, and Remus could hear the grin in his voice, "My legacy is much more important."
"Typical," James laughed.
* * *
The next evening at dinner, James was grinning like a maniac, trying to look like he wasn't hiding fifty sleeping pixies underneath the table and failing miserably. Peter, who was good at Astronomy, was busy checking over the other marauders' homework, which was to label every star on their chart.
"Honestly," Peter groaned, scribbling something out on Sirius', "You'd think you'd get your own bloody star right..."
Sirius laughed,
"What can I say, I'm hopeless."
"You have your own star?" Remus frowned, once again finding himself on the back foot. He never paid any attention in Astronomy - he knew the phases of the moon and that was plenty.
"'Sirius.'" Peter replied, "Come on, Lupin, we've done this. It's the brightest star in the sky? The dog star?" He sighed, looking at Remus' work now, "Yep, you've missed it too." He groaned.
