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It took Sirius a ridiculous amount of time to find Madam Hooch’s office, which was why he was so surprised to find that Severus hadn’t arrived yet by the time he got there. “Well there’s one of you,” Madam Hooch said when she opened the door to find Sirius standing in the hall. “Once Mr. Snape has arrived, we shall go.”

“Go?” Sirius asked, confused. He’d thought they would be staying at the office for the duration of the detention, but before Madam Hooch could respond, Severus came rushing down the hall.

“And there’s the other!” she said. “You know, many of the other instructors at this school might give you a second detention for your tardiness!”

“Sorry,” panted Severus. He’d just run all the way from his meeting with Lily in the Defense corridor.

Madam Hooch huffed and pulled her office door shut behind her, locking it with a flick of her wand. “Come along, then, off we go.” She led the way down the hall to the entrance hall and out onto the grounds.

Sirius was surprised they were going out of doors. It was a nice day, the sunlight streaming down in great big, warm rays, shining off the lake and the leaves of the Whomping Willow. Across the grounds they could see the gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid, out digging in his garden with a spade, wiping his brow with a gigantic kerchief as he took a pause and waved at them. “Mornin’,” he called out as they passed by.

“Good morning, Hagrid,” called Madam Hooch, but she didn’t pause to talk.

Madam Hooch led the pair of them into the equipment house by the quidditch pitch and opened up the broom cupboard. “These brooms,” she said, waving her hands around herself at the motley collection of school broom, “Have not been serviced in some time and are in desperate need of some attention. For the next two hours, the two of you shall consult the owners manuals of the brooms, which can be found there on that shelf in the corner, and trim the brooms’ twigs to standard length, polish and wax the handles, and hang them back on the walls in their proper places. You will find the servicing kits there on the bookshelf as well.” She eyed them beadily. “I will be in the very next room here, making out the gaming schedule for this term. I shall hear if you begin fighting and it will result in another detention if you do. I recommend working together in, at very least, a civil manner. Is that understood?”

“Yes ma’am,” both Sirius and Severus chorused together.

“Okay then. Let me know if you finish before the two hours are up,” she added, and she turned and disappeared into the next room.

Sirius and Severus exchanged a look. Finally, Sirius reached up and took down one of the old brooms and looked it over. Severus inched across the room and lifted a manual off the shelf. “What sort of broom is that?”

“This is a Comet 360,” Sirius replied.

Severus ran his finger along the spines of the books until he found the manual for the Comet and pulled it off the shelf. He carried it and the servicing kit over to where Sirius was sitting down on a bench, the broom laying across his lap. Severus dropped the kit beside him and opened it. “You wax it and I’ll trim it, I suppose,” he suggested.

Sirius shook his head, “I don’t need help servicing a broomstick. It’ll go twice as fast if you do your own brooms.”

Severus felt a flare of anger flash through him, but he shoved the kit at Sirius and got up to get the other one and the manual to another broom as Sirius flicked through the pages of the manual for the Comet 360, looking for the standard twig length for the Comet.

Neither one of them spoke to the other as they worked, the only sound in the broom cupboard being the swishing of their rags or the clicking of the scissors as they trimmed the twigs. Every once in a while one of them would get up to hang up their old broom and get a new one to work on, though Severus was definitely switching brooms more often than Sirius, who kept perusing through the manuals while he worked, reading about the broom specs and manufacturing information instead of staying focused on the task at hand. As he worked, he couldn’t help thinking about calling for the Black family house elf, Kreacher, to come do the work. But then Snape might pitch a fit, he thought, glancing over at Severus. He was too poor to have a house elf and he could just see Severus tattling to Madam Hooch if Kreacher appeared, and that would probably just land him even more detention time. So he slowly did it himself.

His mind wandered as he sat there, trimming broom after broom, and he thought about his idea for the map of Hogwarts. It really was a brilliant idea, he thought, and it would be a great thing for the four first years to work on together. Maybe they could even sell the maps to other students and make some extra galleons to spend. He imagined the four of them making millions and being able to send an owl to the Quality Quidditch Supply in Diagon Alley and order themselves each a top-of-the-line broom, like the one James had back home, and all become stars of the quidditch team next term.

Sirius was grinning stupidly as he thought about the glory of being the best damn keeper Gryffindor ever saw when Severus’s low voice cut through his day dream, “Is that the last one?” he asked.

Sirius blinked out of his reverie and looked around, “I guess it is,” he answered with a nod, clipping the last of the twigs.

“I’ll go tell Madam Hooch,” Severus said and he turned away.

“Whatever you want, Snivellus,” Sirius answered, and he hung the broom back up on the wall.

Severus balled his fists and gritted his teeth. “Stop calling me that, will you?” he hissed.

Sirius grinned. “I will once you stop being so snivelley.”

“I’m not snivelley,” Severus snapped.

Sirius shrugged. “Go on and tell Madam Hooch we’re done then.”

With a sigh of exasperation, Severus turned around and stormed into the room where Madam Hooch was working on the schedule. Sirius looked around the room and spotted the lockers off the side and he glanced at the door Severus had gone through and snuck over to the lockers. It was the Slytherin team’s locker room they were next to and he ducked in, looking around at the emerald and silver hangings on the wall and the snake mascot head in one corner. Green and silver robes hung up all around the room on pegs. Then he spotted a small wood box, like a little suitcase, leaning against one wall and curiosity got the best of him.

He glanced back through the door to the broom cupboard once to make sure Madam Hooch and Severus weren’t there already, and knelt down in front of the little box, tipping it onto the floor and opening it up. Inside he found a whole bunch of quidditch balls – a great big quaffle, a couple bludgers, and a tiny snitch. He reached out a shaking hand and took hold of the snitch, releasing it from the little compartment it was held in and looked it over. The tiny gold ball looked so innocuous. He grinned and shoved it into his pocket, picturing how excited James would be if they could practice catching an actual, real snitch in the common room.

He heard the footsteps of Severus and Madam Hooch and quickly slammed the case shut again, leaning it back up against the wall with haste, and rushed back to the broom cupboard just as they returned from the other room. Though Madam Hooch didn’t notice, Severus gave Sirius a look that clearly said he knew that Sirius had been up to no good. Sirius tried to catch his breath quietly.

“These brooms look very nice, you boys did a very good job servicing them,” Madam Hooch declared. She glanced at her watch. “And that was near enough to the two hours for your detention, you can go back up to the castle for supper now. No more fighting you two!”

“Yes, ma’am,” they said again in chorus, and before she could change her mind they both ran off out of the pitch.

Severus looked over at Sirius as they ran. “What were you doing before we came back?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Sirius replied.

“I saw you come back out of that locker room.”

“I was just looking in there is all.”

“Then why did you look so panicked about it?” Severus demanded.

Sirius scoffed, “I didn’t look panicked. I was just looking – there’s nothing to be looking panicked about.”

Severus didn’t look like he believed Sirius, but he didn’t pry any further and when the boys got to the castle and stepped into the Great Hall, they split up and each went their separate ways. Sirius joined the other first years at the Gryffindor table, where they were just starting supper, and threw himself down onto the bench next to James.

“Well hello there,” James said. He gave a great theatrical sniff, “You don’t smell too horrible, so I guess his greasy hair didn’t touch you.” He paused then said, “But you do smell like broom wax. Were you servicing the brooms, then?”

“Good nose,” Sirius laughed. “That’s exactly what we were doing. Trimmed about a hundred brooms myself while ol’ Snivelley sat about and read the manuals.”

“What a great prat, making you do all the work,” James scoffed, shaking his head.

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” Sirius added under his breath.

“Do you? What is it?” James looked excited, eyes sparkling with eagerness.

“You’ll see,” Sirius said, “In the common room.”