Chapter 9-Whiskers The Feline Devil
After cleaning up the Polyjuice potion, James exited the boys' dorm and strolled into the Great hall, joining a seat at the bench of the Gryffindor table. He was in utter astonishment that his fellow Marauders were all back to their own bodies.
"Padfoot! You're you again," James spoke in delighted bewilderment, poking Sirius in the arm.
Sirius gave him a disturbed look in return. "Well, duh," he said lamely.
"I thought the potion effects were still going…Did the Polyjuice potion wear off whilst I was in the shower?"
Sirius furrowed his eyebrows at James. "Well, I woke up like this. It must've worn off eventually."
James looked confused at Sirius' words, but simply thought it was just Sirius getting his information wrong as usual and must have banged his head on something.
James nudged Remus with his elbow. "Glad to be back in your own body, Moony?"
"I cannot contain my excitement," Remus spoke tonelessly, chewing on a bagel while he kept his eyes down reading the Daily Prophet.
James turned his gaze on Peter who was eating porridge. "Hey, Wormtail," James patted him on the back, causing Peter's spoonful of porridge to miss his mouth and land in his eye. "Oops, sorry." He quickly changed the subject. "The Polyjuice potion didn't last long on you. Bet you're glad, right?"
Peter squinted with his painful eye and gave him the thumbs up confirmation, although really inside he was seething because he was now Peter Pettigrew and not James Potter who everybody loved.
"By the way, it seems as if cough medicine is on Filch's list of forbidden objects," Remus mentioned, glancing over his paper.
Sirius spat out his pumpkin juice - sadly over Remus' reading material.
"What?"
"Don't ask me how. Word must have got around about our antics last night." Remus wiped the droplets of juice that was staining and blurring the words of a possible interesting article that could have occupied him for the next five minutes.
"What happens if somebody has a cough, then?" Peter said worriedly, clutching his neck which suddenly felt tight and scratchy. "What will we do? Where will we go? What will happen?" he shrieked.
A boy sitting to the right of Peter suddenly made a spitting cough, making him squeal in horror.
"Then Hogwarts will be filled with rabid coughing spitters," Sirius said cheerfully. "Stupid Filch. He really needs a woman." He munched on a piece of toast, purposely not eating the crusts and flinging them at James who regrettably had sat across him.
"I take it you're back to your usual self, Padfoot," James commented, flinching as a piece of crust was flung at his nose. "You were acting really weird this morning. How come you didn't wait for me?"
Sirius stopped his crust throwing and smiled in amusement. "Well, considering you didn't tell me to wait for you - that might be a great factor on the not waiting for you."
"What?" James looked puzzled. "I told you before I had a shower, you pillock, before you were giving yourself a saliva licking." He shuddered, remembering Sirius licking his hands.
"That's unhygienic," Remus commented, still keeping his eyes on his paper.
Sirius' mouth opened in confusion. "What are you on about, mate? I never even saw you this morning!"
James didn't understand the conversation at all; he knew he hadn't hallucinated seeing the stripped James Potter look-a-like in front of his bed because all the cough medicine had gone. Plus, he had a bump on his head to prove his reaction to seeing a duplicate of him completely stalkers.
