The Gryffindor common room was a complete chaos as the whole house rejoiced at their victory against Slytherin. But James, Sirius, Remus and Peter left the celebrations quite early, feeling utterly defeated as they sat in their dormitory talking in hushed tones.

"Should've happened by now..." Sirius was saying.

"I told you it won't work," said Remus, sounding rather satisfied.

"Well... at least we tried... right?" said Peter.

"But I planned everything, what could've gone wrong?" said James walking around the room.

"Only everything. Honestly I've never heard a plan where so many things could go wrong," Remus said.

Peter was sure James wasn't listening as he paced up and down the room with one hand on his hip and the other running through his hair. He had worked really hard to make sure everything went as planned. A package containing a jar full of Bulbotuber pus with Filibusters' tiny time bomb inside was delivered to Filch anonymously. It should have exploded during the Quidditch match covering Filch's office and himself in the pus. 

According to Peter the plan had been foolproof. There just wasn't anything that could go wrong. They had the pus, the jar, the bomb and above all, they had Filch conveniently alone in his office. After all, where else would he be during a Quidditch match?

"Maybe Filch locked it in one of his cabinets or something," suggested Sirius.

"Possible," James said. "Do you think we should- maybe check it out?"

"I'm not sure if that's a very good idea," said Peter uncertainly.

Sirius stood up. "Let's do it!" he said and together James and Sirius hurtled out of the room and down the spiral staircase.

*

"We did it! We did it! It worked!" came James and Sirius' combined voice as they dashed back into the dormitory, to Peter and Remus's surprise.

"Are you serious?" asked Peter rejoiced.

"No I am James!" said James and Remus rolled his eyes.

"Tell us everything then!" said Peter enthusiastically.

James cleared his throat dramatically and began- "So listen closely now, non-believers!"

"It was Peeves! Filch did put it in his cabinet but Peeves undid it for us!" interjected Sirius, unable to contain himself. James sighed heavily and slopped down on his bed.

"You could've at least let me say my bit," he mumbled, trying but failing to sound annoyed. 

"Hold up, what?" asked Remus bewildered.

"All that we're certain of is that the time bomb thing didn't work as planned," James said, looking at Sirius pointedly.

"Mate, I told you it was a prototype," Sirius shrugged.

 "And," James continued, "Peeves caused mayhem, practically uprooting Filch's little office. Filch got a bit frustrated, kicked- say- a jar full of unknown liquid. The jar exploded out of nowhere." James smirked as if he had envisioned the entire thing himself and knew that Filch would kick that jar.

"You're kidding," said Peter awed and James gave him a mighty grin.

"Well- is he alright?" asked Remus.

"Who? Oh- yeah, Filch. Madam Pomfrey fixed him up in about a minute but he's taking a week off because of all the mental trauma he had to go through," said Sirius, high-fiving James as he walked across the room to his bed.

"And we get one Filch-free week for all the mental trauma he's caused us," said James and Remus laughed shaking his head.

"Who told you?" Peter asked James.

"Mark," he said. "And he also told us that Jason's a little miffed about it. The prefects' patrolling duties have been doubled now that Filch's gone."

"You know," Sirius went on. "That will make sneaking food out of the kitchens a little difficult for us."

"Oh don't worry about that," said James mischievously. "I have it all covered up."

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A/N: Well this is a rather short chapter but I've been quite busy with stuff. Thanks for reading and if you've got the time, a comment and vote will be much appreciated. :)