The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

The Jamesless Days and Nights

The Jamesless Days and Nights

James slept for two nights and just about three days in the hospital wing. Sirius snuck in everyday and stayed as long as Madam Pomfrey would pretend not to notice him there. He would sit with his feet up on the side of the bed, the chair tilted back on two legs, balancing a textbook on his knees, though he only was half reading it, staring at James instead. But then Pomfrey would finally come over to him and chase him off and he'd run to the dormitory and lay on his back on Remus's bed, missing his friend and trying to think up ideas to cheer him up.

The second Jamesless night, Remus sat at his desk, scratching away at a paper due for Divination, concentrating very hard, when Sirius suddenly sat up. "Moony?"

"Hmm?" Remus murmured, not stopping writing.

"Is there a spell that sort of makes things... I dunno... switch places?"

Remus put down his quill and looked at Sirius with a raised eyebrow. "Switch places?"

"Yeah."

"Like how?"

Sirius scooted himself so his back was against the headboard of the bed. "Well, say... say I used this spell on a thing and somebody grabbed, like, I dunno - say - say this book." He picked up Peter's latest Hardy Boys book from the nightstand and held it up for Remus to see. "So the moment I pick it up, boom, the switching spell goes on and suddenly it's not this book anymore it's... I dunno, an apple. Or something."

Remus stared at Sirius with a bit of hesitation. "I dunno if there's a charm that does it but... you might be able to simulate the effect by transfiguration..."

Sirius looked eager. "How?"

"Sirius..."

"What?"

"What're you planning to do with this information, if I were to give it to you?" Remus asked suspiciously.

Sirius feigned his very best attempt at an innocent expression. "Me? Planning to do something?" He smiled, "Moonshine, I'm insulted. You think I'm that devious?"

"I know you are, rather," Remus replied, "And the more you dance about the topic, the more suspicious I'm going to get."

Sirius smiled. "You're a prefect. Do you really want to know what I'm thinking?"

Remus stared at Sirius for a long moment.

Sirius batted his eyes.

"Bloody hell." Remus rubbed his forehead. "Do you like detention? Is that it? Does it somehow turn you on or something?"

Sirius grinned. "I like being a bad doggy."

Remus rolled his eyes.

"It'll be important to helping James out in cheering up," Sirius informed him.

Remus took a deep breath. "Alright."

Sirius flung himself up from the bed and descended into the broken chair at Peter's desk, kneeling on it so it stood on two of it's three remaining legs, and leaned over onto Remus's desk, grinning excitedly. "Let's begin the planning!"

Remus said, "Can't I finish my paper first?"

"Fuck the paper!"

Remus raised an eyebrow, "But if I don't finish it, what will you copy from?"

Sirius frowned, sighed, and slid off the chair. "Alright, fine, finish the paper. But as soon as you're done with that, we start planning. I'll go get Peter. The more brains in on this operation the better."