It had been three days since that little incident and although James and Sirius were over it, apparently Filch wasn't. Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat with bright yellow eyes and dirty brown fur, followed them around the school with light paws and judging lamp like eyes. From the moment Sirius and James stepped out of the Gryffindor common room in the morning for breakfast, till they said good night to The Fat Lady, Mrs. Norris was always there, waiting for them to mess up so she could do her duty and fetch Filch.

"If you would just let me kick it out of our way, Remus," Sirius said one evening, on his way to the Gryffindor common room after dinner.

"You know Filch will have you for that."

"It's really beginning to annoy me. I think we should do our homework in the Library today." Sirius saw their eyes widen in shock as he proceeded to retrieve his bag from the common room.

"The library?" asked James, catching up to him.

"Yeah well, she can't follow us there now, can she? Madam Pince won't have her there," explained Sirius.

"And the books might actually help us do our homework better. That's what they are there for, you know," added Remus.

Sirius nodded carelessly, making it quite evident that he had no intention of reading any books.

Hogwarts indeed offered its student an impressive collection of books, all tucked neatly in the giant library. It was a brightly lit room lined with rows upon rows of shelves all stuffed with books of different colour and sized. Some were tiny with golden cover, while some were big mysterious and black; some books would scream at you if you folded their pages while some shrieked with happiness if you opened them up. And then there was an entire section of book that was restricted to all students except those who had special permission. From Quidditch to cooking, from potions to astrology, the Hogwarts library really had a book about everything that concerned a student of magic.

However, now that he was there, he had no idea what to do. He didn't at all feel like doing his homework that night and Madam Pince kept shooting dirty looks at him as he prowled through rows and rows of books wondering which one to pretend to read.

He flopped down on the table empty handed next to Remus who was pouring over his Charms homework. Professor Flitwick had given them an assignment to write about all the charms that they thought were useful in a wizard's day-to-day life.

"Refilling charm? I didn't know we had covered that," said Sirius as he took a look at Remus's homework.

"We haven't. But it doesn't hurt to do a little extra."

Sirius shrugged and opened up his star chart. He might as well start with the Astronomy homework, although he hated the subject immensely.

"I don't get why they make us do it? I mean, who cares what Uranus is doing in the sky?" said Sirius, dipping his quill in the inkpot. James and Peter sniggered quietly.

"You'd be surprised how important it is. The movements of moon and starts..."

James looked up from his homework and began- "But of course you'd say that, Remus. You already know enough Astronomy to-"

But they never really found out what the amount Astronomy Remus knew was enough to do, as Madam Pince shushed at James violently exactly at that moment and they had to bury their heads back into their homework.

*

"What happened to you?" Sirius asked Mark Mason, who was grimacing as Hestia Jones gingerly applied Dittany over his burned arms.

"Bubotuber pus," he winced.

"What?" asked James.

"Herbology," replied Mark, as if that was a reasonable enough explanation. But it probably made sense to Remus who said- "Isn't it the stuff they use to clean wounds?"

"Yeah, though that's much diluted."

They had returned back to the Gryffindor common room, after being kicked out of the Library by Madam Pince for laughing loudly, as Sirius chucked a book at Mrs. Norris who had found a way in there somehow.

"We've got to do something about it," said James after a while, "Or that cat's going to destroy our entire childhood! Following us around like some sort of furry little phantom."

"The cat's not even the main problem, its Filch," said Sirius, rolling up his star chart feeling rather frustrated about the helplessness of the situation.

*

The following evening Sirius and James found themselves in detention with Filch after throwing several water balloons at him.

"You don't know we did it," said Sirius stubbornly, "You've got no proof."

"Oh I don't need any proof," Filch replied, with a wicked grin across his face as he thrust an old rag into Sirius's hands. "Now I want all of them nice and shiny. You're not going anywhere until I'm satisfied."

They spent the night cleaning all the coats of armour on the first floor with Mrs. Skower's All Purpose Magical Mess Remover and an old piece of rag Filch had given them. He even confiscated their wands to make sure they didn't use any magic. The next morning Sirius was so sleep-deprived and cranky that he toppled a gleaming coat of armour, the one which Filch had made him clean nineteen times, over Mrs. Norris as she followed them around the school. He then immediately ran trying to escape before Filch could catch him, though it was of no use.

Filch knew the school better than anyone else and was so familiar with all its secret passageways and shortcuts that he could appear anywhere he wanted almost instantly. He didn't only catch Sirius but also gave him another detention, this time- cleaning the trophy room.

Sirius went back to the dormitory late that night, his arms aching and eyes drooping. James, Remus and Peter were still awake, apparently waiting for him.

"What'd he make you do?" asked James as Sirius changed into his pyjamas.

"Clean the entire trophy room," replied Sirius wearily. He sat down on his four poster bed and sighed deeply as he stared out the window at the clear night sky.

"Uh- Sirius? What's going on in your head?" asked Peter cautiously.

"Oh nothing. I'm just thinking of the best way to chuck some bubotuber pus at Filch," replies Sirius casually.

"Now that's what I'm talking about," James grinned.

"Are you out of your mind?" Remus hissed at the both of them.

"Oh don't worry Remus, we won't get caught." But the light hearted tone of Sirius's reply only made Remus madder.

"Won't get caught?" he shrieked.

"And we'll try not to finish him off," added James, "though we can't guarantee anything."

"And mind you, we would be doing mankind a favour if we do finish him off." Sirius threw his arms behind his head as he slumped down on his bed.

"Are you guys even listening to yourselves?"

"Of course Remus, don't you worry, we have a plan," said Sirius, waving his arm airily at him.

"What sort of plan?" Peter asked Sirius.

There was an awkward little pause as Sirius struggled for the right words.

"We're still working on it," James said, "But we'll let you know once we're done."

And with that, the conversation was over. For Remus's part, he was pretty confident that his friends weren't really planning on throwing a dangerous magical liquid on their infamous caretaker, while Sirius and James felt absolutely assured that the only way to stop Filch from terrorising them was to terrorise him instead. Peter, the innocent soul that he was, slept as soon as his head hit the pillow, far from being bothered by the evening's events.

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A/N: Well, we have come a long way. Thank you so much for reading my story. If you have the time, please comment and let me know what you think about it. 

Also, please vote if you liked this chapter. :)