*****
Sirius watched as Slytherins walked past him, oblivious to what the dark haired boy was speculating. He looked at each of them as they walked by, sizing them up until he found the perfect one. He was a small boy and always seemed to be alone, so no one would miss his temporary absence during the questioning in store for him. He'd also be too scared to snitch to the others about the interrogation yet scared enough to tell them exactly what they needed to know.
Sirius smiled wickedly to himself and walked swiftly down the hallway to where his friends were to meet him, just outside of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. He saw James first and made a beeline towards him.
"Have you got one?" Peter asked knowing he could never pick out someone for this particular part of the plan and marveled at Sirius' talent.
"Yes." Sirius grinned at them like a madman.
"Well, who?" James insisted knowing that if he didn't Sirius would keep playing this mind game.
"Travis Travers." Sirius said in a low whisper. After he had uttered the name his grin grew larger, if that was indeed possible.
James� mouth contorted into a grin that matched Sirius' almost exactly, as he pictured the small boy in his head. "Perfect."
Sirius opened his mouth to retort with a smug reply but Peter interrupted him before he could say anything cocky. "We should go back to the common room. We look too suspicious gathered here�plus all the teachers have you two pinned as trouble makers."
Sirius and James felt themselves roll their eyes and started to walk down the hall in the direction of their common room with Peter struggling to keep up with their large strides. They reached the fat lady and Peter issued a breathless password. The portrait flung open and the boys stepped inside the small hole that lead to their common room. They dropped their belongings on top of a table just under the large window on the right wall across from the fireplace and sat down in the collection of chairs gathered there; the older students had taken the coveted spot by the fireplace.
Sirius took out a small checklist they had made when Remus was still with them and found that all they needed was the password still. Peter had finally gotten the charm they needed down during their free period the day before, and now he just wanted to get to work. He found himself growing impatient as he waited for Remus' return.
It had been almost three whole days since that afternoon with Hagrid and still there was no Remus, no letter saying he was fine or that he had gone to see his sister, nothing. James and Sirius were sure now that Hagrid had only received a bit of misinformation and that Madame Pomfrey had only escorted him to his parents. At least that was what they had hoped for; they didn't have anything else to go on. Do to this small fact the three remaining boys had silently agreed not to mention any of their suspicions upon Remus' return.
The boys sat there in silence and looked at each other before anyone spoke.
"When do you think Remus'll be back?" Peter asked.
James and Sirius shrugged their shoulders for they were both thinking the exact same thing. James gathered his book bag and looked at the others, "I'm going to put this stuff away."
The others nodded and followed him up to their dorm. Once James had entered the room with the others closely behind him, and they had put their books away he unconsciously looked over towards Remus' bed. The curtains were drawn to a close which was odd considering they had been open for the past few days since, obviously, no one had been around to use them. James smiled to himself as Sirius moved from his spot on his own bed over to Remus' after noticing the same thing and in one swift action he pulled the curtains back letting the sunlight in on a sleeping Remus.
James stared somewhat shocked at the boy's appearance as Remus sat up and looked around at each of them. His eyes were glazed and had dark circles under them. His face was pale and had one small cut on the upper portion of his cheek that resembled a dog scratch in the process of healing. His frame seemed weak and there were a few more scratches similar to the one on his face that were located on his arms. Remus, by instinct, grabbed a sweatshirt from off the floor and quickly put it on.
"So how's your sister?" Peter asked oblivious to Remus' condition.
"What?" Remus looked confused, "Oh, er, she's fine...doing much better anyway. The doctors are saying she may be allowed to leave very soon."
Sirius gave him a quizzical look but when he failed to read Remus' face he turned to the thing at hand. "Are you up to a bit of fun?"
James frowned at Sirius, this was not a good time for this, but to his surprise he saw Remus nod his head willingly.
"What kind of fun?"
Sirius smiled and looked up at James. "Well, we still have one more class if you feel up to attending it, and then afterwards we could get the last bit we need for our prank."
James smiled as he thought about their prank, but it faded slightly as he looked at Remus who was evidently thinking through all of his options.
"I'll go. Erm, what class is it?" Remus asked stupidly. He didn't even remember what day it was, let alone how long he had been secluded in the infirmary with a very fussy Madame Pomfrey.
James looked dumbfounded, but answered his question anyway. "Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins."
Remus grimaced but thought on the issue temporarily. "How about this, I'll meet you when class ends and then we can get the password."
James and Sirius nodded not knowing what else to do with their friend. "Sounds good." Sirius and James said in unison.
When the group of boys fell into a deafening silence Sirius decided to picked up his book for Defense Against the Dark Arts and shoved it into Peter's bag, as a way to keep his mind busy during the silence that was unbearable, or at least it was for him. The other two followed Sirius' lead and picked up their own supplies for that class and then went down to lunch, waving to Remus as they left to room ultimately leaving him to rest in peace. They walked down to the Great Hall in silence, none of them knowing exactly what to say or even how to put their thoughts into words so they just took their usual seats at the very end of the Gryffindor table, well out of everyone's earshot.
"Did you see that scratch on his face?" James asked as soon as his lunch had appeared before him, he couldn�t take not talking about what they had just seen.
Sirius looked at him. "Yeah, but I wasn't going to say anything." He took a large bite of his turkey sandwich. "I mean for all we know he might have a hyper dog that jumps on you the moment you enter your house. I mean you remember how my dog Cash used to act each time we entered the house."
James shook his head in agreement. That had indeed been one hyper dog. You never could escape the wrath of its claws because it would jump up to lick you and if you had shorts on or even a short sleeved shirt you were bound to be ruffed up. "Could be." Was all James could say.
"But I thought he was visiting his sister at the hospital, why would there be dogs there?" Peter asked not sure if he was just over thinking the topic.
Sirius looked at him. "Well, he probably went home sometime. Honestly, who on earth wants to spend all their time in a hospital? There dreadful places, so depressing, plus the healers are creepy."
"That's your opinion. If I had a sister and she were sick, like Remus', I'd spend all my time by her side." James said knowing full well, Sirius had a major fear of both healers and blood, both of which were bound to be found in a hospital.
Peter looked at them. "Well, Madame Pomfrey's a healer and she isn't creepy."
Sirius glared at the small boy. That wasn't his point. "I know that. I'm just saying sometimes you have to get away from those places even if someone you love is in pain because it'll only make you hurt too." Sirius' eyes grew dim at his last comment.
James had lost his grandmother to a terrible illness only a year ago and knew full well what Remus was going through. James thought back on the experience, for she had been as much Sirius� grandmother as his because Sirius was always over when James had family over, or even when he didn't. Sirius was pretty much like a second child to the Potters. It had hurt him to see that woman slowly die as much as it had for James because Sirius had never even cared to know his own grandparents for they were terrible people like the rest of the Black family and Sirius was determined to detach himself as much as possible from his own family. And it also seemed that it was during that time that Sirius had added the healers to his small list of fears.
James gave Sirius a weak smile. "I guess your right."
Peter looked at the two of them as they gave each other that look that he had learned meant that they once again were sharing a moment that didn't involve him. "So, did any of you understand the homework?"
A girl stifled a laugh at the down the table a little bit from them. They had been so busy talking amongst each other that they hadn't even noticed that she'd sat down next to them. Sirius turned and looked at her. "You think that's funny?"
James looked at her and realized she was the muggle girl that always sat with the Weasley family and also the one he'd talked to about Quidditch. "Hello Lily." He greeted and Sirius gave him a curious look as he handed Peter the assignment so he could copy it.
"Hello." She said shyly now not very sure of what to do. "I was just listening to what you were saying. Who has a sick sister?"
"None of your business." Sirius warned and the red headed girl's bright green eyes dulled as she searched for something clever to say back to him.
"James, did you try out for the Quidditch team?" She asked after realizing she had no comebacks so she just opted to ignore Sirius instead.
"Yeah, I didn't make it though."
"That's to bad." She looked down at her empty plate searching for something else to say but couldn't think of anything. "Well, I better go." And with that she got up and left the hall.
"A bit nosy, isn't she?" Sirius said eyeing James who nodded still not seeing the harm in her curiosity.
"She didn't mean anything by it." He looked down at his own watch. "You done Peter?" The boy nodded his head. "Then we best be getting off to class then."
They stood up once Peter had put both his and Sirius' assignments into his bag and went to the second floor where they had their Defense Against the Dark Arts class. They went inside, avoiding all contact with the Slytherins, and sat at the back of the room. James just set his bag down and walked over to where Lily was sitting, in the front row.
She was busy talking with another girl, probably one of the girls in her dormitory. He watched her smiling and cleared his throat to get her attention. She just looked up and smiled at him.
"Er, I just wanted to apologize for Sirius." The other girl was watching him closely.
"Oh, it's no problem. I really had no right butting in on you guys anyway." She said sincerely as she smiled up at James.
He smiled back at her. "Yeah, well, I just thought I'd make sure it was okay because you left in a bit of a rush."
The girl just smiled at him. "Oh, really there's no problem." Professor Malvitz walked into the room and directed everyone to sit in their seats. Lily looked up at James as he started to walk to his seat. "Hey, it was nice talking with you again." And she turned back to her friend.
James smirked to himself as he went to sit next to Sirius who was giving him a quizzical look. He ignored Sirius' looks and took out his parchment and quill as Professor Malvitz went on about dark curses. It was unbelievable listening to this man. He always made it sound as if there was a person out there, lurking, just waiting to put the Imperious Curse on you. So James just made himself busy writing little notes back and forth with Sirius during the duration of the hour as Peter attentively took notes that the other two would copy later on.
Class ended quickly enough, though not without a long essay due on the powers of dark wizards due at the beginning of class next Monday. James exited the class carrying both his own and Sirius' books, he had to remember to ask Peter if he was ever going to buy Sirius a new bag because he knew Sirius would never write his parents and ask for a new one. They'd never send him one. They'd only come back with an answer telling him he was irresponsible and that it was his own fault his bag had been reduced to ashes on the first day of school, and then probably add a side note telling him he was a terrible excuse for a son.
He sighed to himself as he spotted Remus, true to his word, standing across the hall waiting faithfully for them. The boy looked worse in the light. The window he was standing under was shining on him so that it shaded the dark circles under his eyes giving him a very eerie stature. The three boys walked over to him and he gave them a weak smile as a sort of greeting.
"Hey, Remus." Sirius said. Then his face grew severe as he looked at each boy in turn finally stopping once more on Remus. "Now we're after Travis Travers, no one else." He looked at them once more stopping again on Remus. "You do know which one that is right?" Remus nodded. "Good, now let's just split up and wait for him okay." They all nodded and then broke into their separate corners somehow knowing precisely where to go.
They only had to wait a few seconds before Travis came out of the classroom. He always had a habit of waiting behind after class to ask teachers bothersome questions on the lessons and to clarify the bits and pieces of the lectures that he would never understand. When he exited the room James signaled to Sirius and the two slowly moved towards the boy with their robes swaying swiftly behind them.
Travis looked up at the two boys coming towards him in fright. He didn't want to cause any trouble especially with those two, whom everyone had learned meant lead to nothing less than trouble. He moved to the left trying to avoid them as Peter came in and blocked his way. Sirius smiled as he and James crowded around the boy that was roughly the same height as Peter.
Sirius spoke roughly. "What's the password to your common room?" He asked calmly.
Travis' facial features changed from fear to fury. "I'm not telling you." He said mustering up as much courage as he could.
James and Sirius looked at each other and chuckled bleakly at him. "Really, and how are you going to stop us?" James inquired.
The boy said nothing. He just turned around trying to get away from the three boys only to find himself face to face with Remus, who had his head tilted in such a way that he was using his tired eyes to their full advantage. The young boys eyes grew incredibly wide as he looked at the boys head which was turned down and so that the light shadowed his eyes making them dark and emotionless. Travis gave a small squeal as Remus moved towards him. "What is the password?" Remus growled.
Travis didn't say anything at first and then as if realizing there was no way out of his situation and finally he muttered something unintelligible under his breath.
"What was that?" Sirius asked.
The boy just looked up with tears brimming in his scared eyes. "Sacron." Travis said and then turned his face to the ground as if he�d been broken.
"Thank you very much." Peter said.
"See it wasn't that hard." Sirius said smugly.
The boy didn't look up at any of the four boys, he just moved to get away with them. James and Sirius moved to the side so he could get through but as he took one step forward Remus grabbed the back of his robes and turned Travis around to face him. "If you say one word to the others," he warned, "I'll come after you." The boy only nodded and as soon as Remus had let him go he sprinted out of sight.
Once the boy had gone James turned to Remus. "That was a bit harsh, wasn't it?"
Remus turned to them and shrugged. "Well, we don't want him telling, do we?"
Sirius and James exchanged glances. No they didn't want him telling anyone about what had happened but they also didn't want to scare him that badly. James shrugged his shoulders, what was done, was done, there was no use dwelling over it. He turned to Sirius. "Well, we�ve got the password. Are you happy now?" Sirius nodded. "So when are we going to go through with this?"
Sirius thought for a second. "Tomorrow night. I should really get started on my Potions homework."
James laughed. It just figured that Sirius would do that. He always managed to complain about something and then when they finally could do whatever they had planed he'd tell them to wait until later. He looked at his friends and smiled at their accomplishment. This was the first thing they had ever done together and everything was going as perfectly as they could have hoped for.
They made their way to their own common room talking in happy whispers among each other. Sirius kindly pointed out the perk to this whole plan coming to an end...the moment they had been waiting for, and how that in approximately forty-eight hours Snape would be wishing he was never even born.
