- Text Size +
Sleekeazy


James and Sirius were strangely quiet that night. Sirius was busy worrying over his plan, working out the details in his head, angry with James for not wanting to help him, and James was busy thinking about Lily Evans, going over the details in his head, angry with Sirius for not listening to him. This left Peter in the awkward position of having nobody to talk to in the dormitory that evening, and he ended up working at his homework in silence, biting his tongue and hunkering over his desk.

The next morning, the morning of the full moon, Sirius went up to the hospital wing first thing, even before breakfast, because he did feel bad for yelling and upsetting Remus the day before, but Newt Scamander had already taken Remus away to prepare for the full moon night and it was an empty ward and an agitated Madam Pomfrey that greeted him when he arrived. He sighed heavily and went down to breakfast in the Great Hall.

“Morning,” Lily said, sitting down across from Sirius on the Gryffindor bench. She looked around, “Is… is James coming to breakfast?” she asked. “And Peter?” she added as an afterthought.

“Dunno,” Sirius answered, “I came from the hospital ward.”

“How’s Remus?” Lily asked. She’d gone once to see him over the weekend, but hadn’t stayed long because he’d been tired when she’d been there.

“Dunno,” Sirius answered. “He was already gone.”

The other Gryffindors came downstairs in trickling clumps as they woke up. Frank and Ali arrived together, Ali still yawning widely as Frank steered her along to the table, laughing and calling her a sleepy-head.

Peter arrived before James and sat beside Sirius. He looked nervously between them. “Okay. Guys. You - You can’t laugh when James gets here. Promise me.”

Sirius looked at Peter, “What’re you on about?”

“James. You can’t laugh at him when he gets here.”

Lily looked at Sirius questioningly - he shrugged - and she turned to Peter, “Why would we laugh at him?”

But before Peter could answer, Sirius choked on his pumpkin juice so hard that some sprayed onto his plate and went into his lungs. He instantly started hacking quite violently, drawing attention from Frank Longbottom, whose eyes widened when he followed Sirius’s gaze... “Mother of Godric,” he murmured.

Lily turned around. There stood James Potter in his school uniform, his tie done nicely, and a pair of black loafers in leiu of his trainers… and his hair… neatened and straight and shellacked to his head with gobs of sleekeazy.

Sirius hooted, “Blimey, Potter, what the hell’ve you done?”

James sat down at the table next to Lily Evans, careful to stay sitting up straight, “I’ve… I’ve combed my hair,” he replied, and he reached for some bacon and eggs and filled up his plate, carefully looking down at the plate, trying not to blush as Lily stared at him and Sirius laughed. Peter stomped Sirius’s foot under the table.

“Well it’s wonderful,” Lily said, lying.

Sirius was wheezing.

“Ignore him. If you like it, that’s what matters,” Lily said firmly. She stared at him as though he were from another planet. “Do you like it?”

James said, “It’s… more grown up.”

Sirius’s laughter doubled and James kicked him under the table now.

Lily nodded slowly, “I s’pose it is…” she turned back to her breakfast.

It wasn’t just Sirius, Frank, and Lily that were reacting to James’s hair, either. Everyone at the table took notice and when the boys walked into Transfiguration class, McGonagall stared at him as he took his seat with an uneasy expression on her face and one eyebrow raised. Sirius raised his hand, “Professor Minnie, does Jamesie get some points to Gryffindor for transfiguring his hair?”

“Shut up,” James hissed.

“Oh that I could,” Sirius grinned.

Lily smirked down at her notes.




Newt Scamander put his briefcase down on the kitchen table in the Shrieking Shack, looking around at the thick layers of dust. Tina’s eyes were wide with disapproval. “We haven’t cleaned it in sometime,” Remus was saying apologetically.

“We?” Newt asked.

“Er… me, I haven’t,” Remus corrected himself, thankful that the inside of the Shack was dark enough that it hid his flushing face. His bandages were wrapped tightly - it was the first time he’d really been out of bed since his birthday. But he’d wanted to show Bradley the place he changed every month. His plan was to get Newt and Tina to go away so he could show Bradley the clubhouse upstairs and tell him that being a werewolf wasn’t always dismal if you had friends that cared for you, but it didn’t seem that Newt and Tina planned to leave.

Tina looked at Newt. “I don’t know if this is a good idea,” she said, her voice quavering with nervousness. She looked at Remus, “I’m sorry. It’s not you. I’m just - I’m worried, he’s just so tiny when he’s in his wolf form and --”

“Teeny, n-nothing is going to go wrong,” Newt said, “You’re - you’re worrying too much, far too much. The werewolves respond to their - their own kind so - so Remus’s wolf form will respond to Brad-Bradley’s wolf form and they will treat each other as equals - if - if anything, Remus’s wolf will be more likely to be protective over Bradley’s and - and this way we - the Resistance - can monitor if any - any of Fenrir Greyback’s army comes poking about, looking for - for whatever it was that he was after last month.”

Tina frowned, “I don’t like it.”

“What’s not to like?” Remus joked dryly.

“I just… I have a bad feeling about this, Newt,” Tina said.

“It’s - it’s perfectly safe, my love,” Newt nodded firmly, “It’s best if the boys transform here, in the Shack tonight, rather than the - the case. You’ll - you’ll see, Teeny, it’s the best - the best thing.” He patted her shoulder.

She sighed heavily. “But Newt…”

To give them some privacy, Remus sat down on the couch, tired from standing, and tried not to listen as they argued quietly. When he sat, the familiar scent of Snuffles lifted to his nose and he closed his eyes a minute, missing Sirius, wondering if he was alright after the horrible meltdown he’d had the day before… He hoped so. He wished he’d gotten a chance to say bye to Sirius, to tell him about the plan for them to stay in the Shack instead of the briefcase. Perhaps if he’d been given the chance, Sirius could’ve snuck out and joined them and helped out with Bradley’s werewolf lesson…

Remus wondered what Sirius was doing right then.




Peter stared fearfully up at Sirius. “Is - is this really a good idea, Padfoot?” he asked, twitchily. “I mean, it seems… dangerous.”

“Dangerous!” Sirius scoffed. “Hardly! Snivellus wants a werewolf - then we’ll give him a bloody werewolf!” he laughed, “It’ll serve him right getting a good bite in the leg… I can’t wait to sink my teeth into that wanker!”

Peter looked sick to his stomach.

“Wormtail! You must relax,” Sirius said, “There’s nothing that could go wrong. Remus is transforming in Newt Scamander’s briefcase tonight, so Snape’s not even really going to see a werewolf. He’s going to see me - an ordinary dog - which he will believe is a werewolf and I’ll give him a good chomp and he’ll run back here and spend the next month wondering if he’s going to end up turning.” Sirius chortled.

“But what if he goes to Dumbledore and Dumbledore sees the bite you leave and blames Remus and Remus gets chucked out for biting when he didn’t?!” Peter worried.

“Dumbledore knows he’s with Newt, I’m sure! And besides, Dumbledore’s not a complete git, he’ll be able to tell it’s a regular dog bite and not a werewolf bite, and he’ll think Snape’s a bleedin’ idiot - which he is!” Sirius said, waving off the question, “You worry too much. Now listen up, this is important.” He cleared his throat, “So you’re going to go do whatever until 8:30 or so, make sure James stays in the dormitory, and you sneak down to the Great Hall and come out to the Willow - but you gotta mutter about being late and catching up to James while you do it so he thinks we’re already out here, and then Snape will follow you… You get to the tree and go in the tunnel, turn into your rat once you get in there so that when he follows, Severus won’t be able to see you when he sneaks into the tunnel, thinking he’s so blasted clever, and he finally gets all the way out to the Shack and the moment he pushes open that bleedin’ trap door, I’ll have at him and he’ll be scared positively beyond repair. Then we catch up to him and tell him that’s the bloody price he pays for being a gigantic dumbfuck and sticking his abnormally large nose into other people’s business and to stop.” Sirius beamed, “It’s foolproof. There’s not a thing that could go wrong!”

Peter couldn’t help but think that there were, actually, quite a few things that could potentially go wrong… but telling Sirius that proved quite impossible, and finally Peter just agreed to do what Sirius had said because it was just do whatever he was asking than it was to argue with Sirius Black.




That evening at dinner, Peter was extra twitchy and near to silent and Sirius was extra loud. “PASS THE BUTTER!” he shouted, “WAIT NO…….ACCIO BUTTER!!!” and a stick of it went flying down the length of the table, overshooting Sirius’s outstretched arm and flapping onto the staff table, nearly hitting Flitwick, who, not seeing what direction it had come from, glared over at Albus Dumbledore suspiciously as he waved his wand to get rid of the errant butter.

It was nearly time for pudding when Sirius suddenly stood up, “I need to go.”

James looked up, “What?”

“I’ve… just remembered something and I need to go. I’ll see you lot later. Yeah?” and he looked at Peter, who shivered as he nodded. The assortment of desserts appeared on the table with a pop and Peter eagerly turned back to collect his from the center, his nervous eyes relaxing a bit when he saw a lovely custard waiting for him to eat.

James stared after Sirius as he left the room. “Pete, are you sure he hasn’t told you what he’s doing?”

Peter looked at James, mouth full of custard, and said, “What?” He didn’t want to lie, but Sirius had said not to tell James what they were up to. So he played the stupid card.

James shook his head, “Nevermind.” Sirius would never tell Pete something he hadn’t told me about a plan, he told himself. He reached up to run his hands through his hair and felt all the gooey sleekeazy there and made a face as his hand slid over all the greasy hair potion and he wiped it on the knee of his robes, glancing over at Lily, who had sat between Peter and Frank for dinner. He smiled sheepishly at her as she giggled at the face he’d made touching his hair.