Harry Potter: The Marauders

Chapter-5

Hello Fam :)

Happy Holi to everyone celebrating. Happy Reading to others. 

James and Remus were hunched over the lap and a spare bit of parchment where Moony was modifying the prank, adding the finer bits to the messed-up version of what James and Sirius came up with while Peter was sitting beside them, listening to the plan. Whoever thought Moony was the goody-two-shoes was in the biggest prank the marauders had ever played. James and Sirius were brilliant, no doubt, but they are usually bursting out with energy and the urge to implement the plan that they miss the perfection behind it. Whereas Moony, their resident werewolf extraordinaire, would put all the calmness he had been gathered up in their school library along with his supersmart brain to bring out the best prank the Hogwarts had ever seen.

When Sirius felt they were taking too much time, he grabbed a package from his bedside table and started to leave the room.

"Where are you going? Marlene went to Hogsmeade to meet some Aunt of hers", said James, without lifting his head from Moony's plan.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "My life doesn't revolve around Marlene. And no, I have to meet someone else."

It grabbed the attention of all three. "Other than Marlene? Have you found another witch?", asked James, with a grin.

Sirius cuffed his head. "My life doesn't revolve around girls. Please, stop using your brain. Your guesses are horrible and you would only embarrass me."

James burst out laughing as if it were a compliment and waved his hand offhandedly. Seeing the moment, he slipped out of the room. He could distinctly hear peter trying to convince James to force the secret out of Sirius. He rolled his eyes again. James would never force him into anything. Stupid Peter.

He slipped out of the Gryffindor common room, the handful of students playing games and planning to go out of the occasion of Christmas, and found his way into the hidden corridor of the staff wing. Every Professor's quarter was attached to the main staffroom. Though the staffroom was visible to everyone, their quarters were difficult to notice and it took them a while to figure out how to put it in Marauders map. Once he reached the front of the door he was looking for, Sirius took a deep breath before knocking on the door.

XXX

Minerva was grading some assignments in the quiet of her room. It was Christmas and she would have to do a lot of yelling by the end of the day because four of her favorite students (nope, she would deny favoring students until her dying breath) would prank the whole castle at some point of the day and she wanted to finish her work before that. The staff had already exchanged their gifts and she had just returned from talking to Albus. Hence, she was surprised when there was a knock on her private quarters.

It was even more surprising to find Sirius Black walking inside her living room when she asked the person to enter in. How on Earth did he end up finding her quarters was mysterious but if there was someone who would manage to find it, it would be the marauders. Instead of talking about the reason he came to, he frowned looking at the papers in her hand. "Minnie, why are you working even on Christmas?"

Minerva shook her head. It would be at least a thousand times that she asked not to refer to her as Minnie. She was their professor, not a classmate, and as far as she understood, students don't call their professors by their nickname. But guess what, Marauders. They would do everything that would get them detention. She sighed exasperatedly at the thought. "What do you want, Mr. Black?"

If she wasn't completely blinded, she thought the boy was looking nervous, shuffling from one foot to another, his hands behind his back. It worried her to find one of her favorite students in that state. "Sirius, do you want to take a seat?"