Gold rush || Jegulus

XVIII. With my Eagles t-shirt hanging from the door.

The four of them had been planning this prank for weeks, and everything was finally done. They may be in their last year of Hogwarts, but they certainly weren't holding back on the pranks. There was only one small worry in the back of his head, it seemed to be screaming Regulus, Regulus, Regulus in his ear whenever the chance was presented.

It was only two days prior - the letter incident that is - and James has barely spoken to Regulus. The only acknowledgement he would get from the younger boy was a mere glance in the hallway, not a word, or a smile, or even a nod. He wouldn't even look James in the eye, which stabbed a vine of thorns through James' heart every time he longed to see those wide eyes staring up at him - laughter bubbling in both boys throats.

The sweetness in the other boy turned sour, the light - the glow that very few people seemed to notice in the Slytherin - turned darker and darker, but James could still see the flicker of a strangeness in the grey abyss of Regulus' eyes every time he smiled at the paler boy.

But those thoughts were grabbed and pulled by dark hands to the back of his brain as soon as he and the other boys draped the invisibility cloak around themselves. It offered a comforting wave of nostalgia over him, the threat of war around them slowly dissolving into dust as the memory of childhood giggles and pranks hit them.

Peter perched on James' shoulder in his animagus form, his whiskers tickling James' cheek ever so slight every time Peter moved.

"We barely fit under this thing anymore." Remus groaned.

Peter squeaked in agreement.

"I don't mind being so close to you." Sirius snickered into Remus' ear.

"Not the time." Remus hissed.

Giving a nod, James guided the group to the entrance of the Slytherin common room. "Yes, not the time." He laughed quietly. "Now- how are we actually getting in?" 

"I bought the password from a random first year, remember?" Sirius tapped James on the skull playfully and ushered the other boy closer to the entrance so he could utter the password to the half asleep portrait.

The Slytherin common room was empty, and it wasn't like James was surprised by it's appearance - they'd pulled of their fair share of pranks on the Slytherins in their nearly 7 years at this school. Yet the fire was still flickering a dim orange light over the green velvet couch, a stack of books piled with a quill and ink pot balanced next to them on the wooden coffee table. Seemingly someone was down here recently, and they even still planned to come down and at least collect their stuff - probably stay for a while longer judging on the still hot mug of coffee on the table.

Hopefully they won't bump into them, they could get their prank sorted and dash out before any trace of them was even shown to the clearly sleep deprived Slytherin.

Their prank was fairly simple, but very effective. See, they'd acquired a ton of this odd muggle dye from Peter's dad. All they had to do was sneak into all of the 6th and 7th year dorms and drop some into their wash load with a concealment charm so even the house elves wouldn't notice when they came to take away their washing.

"We'll spare my brother." Sirius had said. "I fear he might actually curse me." 

Yeah, probably for the best.

Nothing should go wrong, lets hope.

-

About ten minutes ago, Regulus headed down into his room to get changed. He'd left all of his studying supplies and a slightly too hot drink by the sofa because he needed to go back to get some more studying done - his school shirt was starting to get scratchy and uncomfortable while he decided to change into a baggy shirt and some shorts that he'd nicked from Dorcas.