Snape was beginning to really annoy Sirius. He was utterly tired of hearing him gloat about the duel. Technically, Snape had won the duel because they broke the rules when James intervened. Not to forget, Sirius had needed the help of two of his friends to get out of the duel unscathed. And Sirius had accepted it all, but hearing about it day and night, and that too in Snape's annoying voice, didn't help his mood at all.

When he couldn't prove that Sirius, James and Remus had been with him on the Astronomy tower that night, Snape was reduced to chiding them during classes, telling exaggerated versions of the night to his House mates and trying to hex them in the corridors when their backs were turned. And of course most of this was directed towards Sirius.

James, as usual, was a big sweetheart and on overhearing an ongoing version of how Sirius tap danced and tried to dodge Snape's hexes during the duel, sent a flying treacle tart straight to Snape's face during dinner one night.

"Maybe you should learn to aim better if you can't even hex a tap dancing defenceless Sirius, eh?" he chided. The entire Gryffindor table roared in approval, and some of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff also snickered. He got a week worth of detention for that and also the concentrated hatred of the entire Slytherin House.

They found quite a lot of snakes sprouting out of James's wizard-hat one morning, and one afternoon during class, Sirius's shoe laces turned to tiny hissing snakes. Meanwhile, no one seemed to be blaming Remus Lupin, that is, except Remus Lupin himself.

As the Slytherin hate continued, followed by the constant reminder that he couldn't beat Snape in a one on one duel, Sirius grew more and more forlorn.

"I have a plan." James whispered conspiringly one evening, when they were all sitting in the Gryffindor common room. Sirius looked up from his Potions homework wondering if this was another one of those throwing-water-balloons-on-Filch sort of plan. To be frank, Sirius was quite done with those, it was getting old and repetitive.

But before Sirius could say anything James pulled out two bottles of paint from his robe's pockets. One was scarlet, the other gold. "The Slytherin's are being quite troublesome, I say let's bomb them."

Sirius's lips perked up in a big smile. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked, his grey eyes twinkling the same way they had the night he sneaked out with his best friends to fight a duel he was sure he'd win.

The Great Hall was a bit quieter the next morning during breakfast, Sirius didn't hear a single jest about the duel, and it certainly helped his mood. He poured a large amount of honey on his porridge while humming to himself. His mood was so infectious that even Remus couldn't help smiling, although he shook his head quite often murmuring, "I can't believe we really did that."

Someone cleared their throat and Sirius looked up to find a girl with straight black shoulder length hair and keen dark eyes. He had seen her before but couldn't remember where.

"Selena?" Peter said, taken aback. "What happed to your hair?"

"Just trying something new," she said distractedly. "Did you guys do it? To the Common Room?"

Remus and Peter's cheeks reddened and for some unfathomable reason, they looked quite ashamed of themselves.

"What if we did?" asked James.

"It was quite brilliantly thought. The school owl with the paint bomb, I'll have to give you that," she said, then paused and traced the Hall. "They're really mad now. Malfoy, Avery and the others." She looked at Remus worriedly.

"Oh, we don't care. We're not scared," Sirius said. Her sharp voice and piercing black gaze were starting to make him feel uncomfortable.

"You should be," she said gravely, twirling the ends of her unevenly cut hair between her fingers.

*

That evening when he went to bed, Sirius was feeling rather fortunate that it had been James who he had shared a compartment with on the Hogwarts Express. He couldn't ask for a better friend. He knew, just the way he knew James would never accept it, that the Aunt that James absolutely hated and at whose place his parents were supposed to be going this Christmas didn't really exist. He had tried thanking James and telling him that he didn't need to stay back, but James pretended to not know what Sirius was talking about and signed up to stay the Christmas at Hogwarts.

The week leading to the holidays was hectic not only because the built-up excitement amongst the students was now bubbling out and resulting in a noisier and more crowded Gryffindor common room every evening, but also because of the increasing work load and all the homework the teachers were giving them.

Meanwhile, the four of them were beginning to feel the collectively increasing detest from the Slytherins towards them, and the shared popularity they got among the rest of the Houses for pulling the paint-bomb prank. It was either the testy little Slytherin girl who had done it or maybe someone else, but apparently the entire school now knew that the four of them had painted the Slytherin Common Room in Gryffindor colours. Sirius didn't know from where James got those paint but apparently, the Slytherins couldn't get them off until a week. And what a rough week it had been for the four of them.

By the end of the term, Peter's head was introduced to Moaning Myrtle's toilet so many times, it was ridiculous. Martyl herself could be seen giggling and revelling in Peter's embarrassing ordeals as it gave her a few moments of side-line glory. Remus had to serve his first detention with McGonagall after he took out his Transfiguration homework only to find it all torn up. From that day on, he decided to do each homework and essay at least six times and store them in different places just to be safe.

Sirius and James though got the worst of it all. There was the usual jinxes that they had be careful for while outside the Gryffindor common room and then there were other instances. On Wednesday morning, a fifth year Slytherin turned Sirius's hair green just as he was coming out of Charms class and whispered- "Now that looks more like a Black." – quietly, just so only Sirius could hear. James on the other hand had Blood-traitor written on his face for a week, something which he bore with pride. Nothing could get the green off of Sirius's head though. With his grey eyes and green hair, he looked like the Slytherin House human mascot. He wondered if he should send his beloved mother a picture of himself as a Christmas present, she would either be proud or amused, and both were better than what Sirius had in store for him once he got back to Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

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A/N: Sorry for the delay, but Christmas holidays approach the Marauders! 

Thank you so much fro reading. Comments and votes are deeply appreciated. :)