The Losing One || Sirius Black

49. Inside Out

James Potter

Saturday, 17th February 1973.

Hogwarts

From the 19th of October until the end of the year, James and Sirius waited patiently for their revenge, but the opportunity never came. Snape tried to set them up to get beaten up, so, naturally, the understanding between James and Sirius was that the greasy boy must pay.

Remus and Peter didn't really share this understanding though. Peter's excuse was that he wasn't even there and that he didn't have the time for prank research because of some portrait he had to finish for Mr. Pettigrew. Remus argued that just the sight of fear on Snape's face while being escorted through the castle corridors by his lost puppies should be enough to satisfy them.

But it wasn't.

So, James and Sirius came to the most logical conclusion. If they can't get the opportunity to deal with Snape alone, then the whole group of Slytherins will be dealt with. This, however, resulted in way more planning and research than they expected. It turned out that pranking four Slytherins instead of one while not having the usual brains of the operation, Remus, could really take some time. Especially while the only two people who actually want to do the prank had Quidditch practices every morning.

Oh, and friends.

"What's gotten you two into such bad mood?", Marlene asked James and Sirius as she sat down opposite of them to eat breakfast. Ever since he and Peter apologized to her, Marlene has been hanging out around Marauders way more. She wasn't still that close to Sirius or Remus, but they were starting to build the foundation of their friendship. James would describe their relationship as friendly. They were less than friends, but more than mere acquaintances.

Evans and Greenford sometimes joined them too, but it was clear as day that Lily was irritated by the Marauders which was particularly annoying to James for some unknown reason.

He looked around the three of them, making sure that Evans wasn't anywhere near, before answering Marlene's question, "We are trying to prank Snape and his little gang, but the research is going pretty slow.", he whispered to her over the table and Sirius nodded grimly.

Marlene seemed supportive of the two, "Nice, but why? Not that you actually need a reason.", she said as she reached for a piece of toast. James sometimes forgot that she didn't like Snape either, but he still didn't get the chance to ask her why.

"He was the one who told Selwyn that it was us who pranked the Slytherins.", said Sirius while eating a spoonful of porridge. James laughed at Sirius' irritated tone which resulted in him getting kicked under the table from Sirius.

Marlene was almost done with buttering her piece of toast, "But you two did do that.", she said casually.

Sirius wanted to say something, but James lifted his hand to stop him before replying to Marlene like he was his and Sirius' lawyer, "That's not the point.", he said haughtily, "The point is that he didn't know that it was us at the time. He just wanted us to get beaten up."

Needless to say, Marlene didn't look impressed. She reached for another piece of toast and started buttering that one as well, "So what are you going to do?"

"Sorry, Marlene. That is highly classified.", James stated, "Marauders' principals and all.", he saw Marlene giving him an unconvinced look, but he decided to ignore it.

Since he saw that Sirius was finally done with breakfast, James got up and pulled his friend on the back of the shirt. The curly haired boy got up to follow him out of the Great Hall and towards the Quidditch Pitch.