Mischief Managed Year One: Mayhem of the Moon

Chapter Seventy- The Ride Back

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Sirius stood up on his tiptoes as the students thinned out. He had told James that they should have waited until most of the students had left so that they could walk out together. But James had insisted they needed to get a good compartment on the train.

Feeling rather robbed that he wasn't able to walk across the Hogwarts grounds with his three best friends in the whole world, he tried to find them. He didn't care if it was sappy or 'girly,' he just wanted a proper send-off with his mates before they got on the train and he was going to tie down James if that's what it took.

"Sirius," a familiar voice called from somewhere within the crowd.

"Peter! Over here, Peter," he hollered as his friend appeared briefly, struggling to force his way over. However, the shorter boy was soon swallowed by the crowd. He was going to punch James when he saw him!

"Sirius!" James gasped, squeezing between two older Ravenclaws, ignoring their protests. The boy with even more messed up hair than usual sounded terribly relieved to have made his way out alive.

"Well, at least I found one of you." Sirius grabbed James's hand tightly as the boy motioned for him to keep walking to the train.

"Sirius, let's go or we aren't going to get good seats," James protested, trying to pull Sirius in the opposite way.

"I don't care! I want to say goodbye together beforehand."

"Oh come off it, mate! We'll get to say goodbye when we reach the station," James pointed out, clearly thinking Sirius was being ridiculous, which he probably was, but luckily his friend didn't fight him on it.

"There's Remus and Peter." Sirius pointed, feeling relief. He realized he didn't really care about saying goodbye to the castle with his friends, which was ridiculously airy-fairy. Rather, he wanted to stop it, wanted to prevent it as long as possible.

"Over here you two. Sirius is being a bit bonkers!" James called happily. The four of them stood together as the students thinned more. They looked at him expectantly, but words wouldn't come. He glanced back at the castle, his heart aching.

"Sirius," Remus said gently, but he refused to meet his friend's eyes because he was sure Remus understood. If he saw that understanding he'd probably start crying, and then he really would be a mushy swat.

"I just wanted to...to...to leave our mark somehow," he mumbled, feeling foolish.

"James, wait. Where are you going?" Peter asked, alarmed. Sirius snapped his head forward, his sadness turning to anger as James walked away.

"Sirius..." Remus began hesitantly.

"Don't! It's fine. It's just stupid is all," Sirius muttered, unsure whether he felt more shame or anger. Then he saw James coming back, dragging a confused Dorcas with him.

"What are you doing James?" Peter asked, for once sounding no more confused than him.

"Well, if Sirius is going to be a nutter then we might as well do it right. Dorcas has a camera. Will that satisfy you, princess?" he teased lightly. Sirius flung himself at James, pulling him into a headlock and ruffling his hair.

"Yeah that's nice and all, boys. But I want to get on the train too so let's hurry it up," Dorcas sighed, sounding resigned.

"Thank you, Dorcas," Remus said politely. Sirius caught her pulling out a small camera before James jostled him around again trying to pull him into a headlock. Taking the picture momentarily forgotten, Sirius wrestled with James, both of them trying to headlock the other. Both of their hair had gotten completely messed up by the time Dorcas shouted she'd take a picture of them like this if they didn't stop.