𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗥 𝗢𝗙 𝗔𝗭𝗞𝗔𝗕𝗔𝗡 [𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚍]

Chapter Thirty Eight: Pink Paint

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ ･⋆✵⋆･ ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Sirius sat on the window sill of their dorm again and watched Madam Pomfrey go through the motions of quarantining Remus.

Then they gave it a few minutes to make sure everyone was down at dinner before slipping through the portrait hole, the Fat Lady's string of colorful words helping to muffle their hurried footfalls.

They'd just passed by the doors of the Great Hall when the three boys saw Severus Snape walk through the Entrance Hall like he'd just been outside.

James stretched out both hands to stop Sirius and Peter, catching them somewhere around the middle (almost in the face for Peter, actually). "Let's have a little fun." he whispered and took out his wand. He pointed it at Snape's back and muttered, "This ones for Ross and the game your house cost us. Diffindo."

Snape let out a startled yelp when his bag burst open and books, leaves and roots tumbled across the stone floor of the Hall.

Snape wasn't responsible at all for what happened on the pitch today, both Sirius and James knew that, but they thought he would have to do until they can think of something good enough for Lestrange and his teammates.

Snape was running around, to the amusement of the Marauders, and trying to gather his things when he stepped on an ink bottle and it rolled out from under him, causing him to fall hard on his bum and tumble into a suit of armor in the process.

"Watch it, mate." the suit of armor was saying when it was cut short by the patter of feet running on stone floors.

"What's all this racket?" wheezed Filch, running towards Snape, his jowls quivering dangerously. He scowled when he saw the spilled ink on the ground. "Thought you'd dirty up what I spent the whole day cleaning, did you? Well, joke's on you because you'll be scrubbing pots in the kitchen for the whole of next week. Starting tonight." he said and cackled. "No magic."

Snape was left sputtering on the floor, trying to tell Filch that someone, Peeves or most likely Potter, did this.

But Filch would have none of it and Snape was given detention.

"The odds really are in our favor tonight." whispered James with a grin. "That went better than I would have dared to even dream of."

The three boys snickered quietly and left for the Willow. Sneaking in to Remus wasn't hard this time. Their routine was very polished by now. Sirius went in as Padfoot first and took Moony to another room. Then Wormtail and Prongs entered and they spent the night distracting Moony so he wouldn't hurt himself too much.

Stealing back in to the castle was a bit challenging though because Filch was in the Entrance Hall, manually scrubbing the ink that Snape spilled but the Marauders (minus Remus) eventually made it to Gryffindor tower.

"My eyelids are killing me." yawned James as he peeled off the Invisibility Cloak and tucked it under his arm.

"Sirius?"

All three of them froze in their tracks, wondering who in the world was up at this hour in the common room.

"What are you doing here at this unearthly hour, Ross?" asked James when he spotted Blake siting in one of the armchairs by the fire.

"I could ask you the same thing." she said. "Where were you?"

"Hospital wing?" squeaked Peter.

"Where's Remus?" she asked without missing a beat.

"Hospital Wing?" Peter repeated.

"We were in the Hospital Wing to visit Moony." Sirius blurted out then gave himself a mental slap when he realized he shouldn't have said that.