Accio Evans

Chapter 9: The Patrol

Sirius had been sat in relative silence for some time, Remus was beginning to feel unnerved from behind his Ancient Runes textbook - never had he been able to study in the common room for this prolonged amount of time without a nagging voice whining at him and as Sirius had started doing recently, charming books to hit him over the head until he moved and gave into Sirius who was just very bored.

"I wonder..." Sirius said out loud, a few moments later.

"Don't do that Padfoot, you might hurt yourself." Remus interrupted without looking up from the book he'd been reading, half irritated and half relieved he'd been interrupted, Ancient Runes was not exactly the most riveting subject he had taken. Peter chuckled, Sirius sent him a scathing look, Peter ignored him and carried on chuckling to himself as he absently flicked through the comic pages of the Daily Prophet.

"Ha bloody ha." Sirius countered when he received no sympathy from Peter. "I was just wondering, you know that McGonagall's hair is scraped back tight, like really tight?"

"Yes?" Peter answered uneasily, unsure of where the conversation was going.

"Well, I wondered if her hair was scraped back tight enough to stop her face from wrinkling, you know? Like it's holding all her skin tight across her face? I bet when she takes her hair out her face is all wrinkly and saggy..." Sirius mused, Remus wasn't even sure that Sirius knew he'd said most of that out loud. Peter rolled his eyes, was this really what the evening had come to? Fair enough it was late, they were up waiting for James return from his first patrol as Head Boy; but really? Remus had come in from his patrol with Alice half an hour ago - he explained that Lily and James would probably be the last ones in, being Head students and all that. When questioned as to what time he thought they'd be back, he had no answer; funnily enough, he'd never discussed patrols thoroughly with the previous Head students. Silence fell momentarily on the three Marauders, Peter had time to reflect that the common room was quiet, a few older students sat around the room in groups talking or doing homework, but on the whole everyone had gone to bed - probably trying to get back into the term time sleep pattern. Sirius didn't like silence, and was seemingly bored with his train of thought surrounding McGonagall's hair style/wrinkle reducer system (Peter didn't even want to know how he had arrived at that thought) and had now decided that Remus should entertain him...

"Reeemus?" Sirius whined.

"What?" the man himself replied, forcing himself to read the textbook was becoming more and more difficult, maybe he'd just give up and try again in the morning, he mused.

"You know your secret stash of chocolate, the one you hide under your bed? Can I have some? Pretty please?" Sirius asked, clasping his hands together and fluttering his eyelashes in his friend's direction. Peter scoffed.

"If you know where it is, why don't you just go get some?" Remus said, his hand idly tapping his knee as his eyes tried to focus on his textbook but to no avail, he was now just using his book as a shield between himself and the whining Marauder.

"Really?!" Sirius excitedly replied.

"No."

"Why not?!"

"Because, you are acting like a five year old child tonight, and if we add concentrated sugar into that mix, it'll be all out chaos. And anyway, have you spoken to Hestia yet?" changing the subject, Remus knew he's struck a chord with his friend.

Sirius looked around the room desperately for something to distract Remus with to avoid the subject, the only thing within reaching distance was Remus' Ancient Runes textbook... grasping the book with both hands, Sirius wrenched the pages open near the centre and held the book up in front of his face, effectively making a shield between himself and Remus' knowing looks, just as the man himself had only a moment ago.