Sirius slipped behind the current of Remus' designated space in the hospital wing. Perhaps he could hide long enough for McGonagall to forget to punish him. Not likely, but worth a try.

Remus shot up as he entered, pulling the sheets up to his chin, but relaxed when he realized it was just Sirius. "Merlin, Pads, you scared me."

Sirius put his finger to his lips and plopped down on the bed.

"Oh no," the other boy said dryly. The bags under his eyes were a little better than they'd been when Sirius had left him in the Shack earlier that morning, but Remus was still gaunt and white as a ghost. Aside from the spattering of tan freckles on his nose, the only color in Remus' face was the fresh pink gash beside his ear. "Now what have you done?"

"It wasn't my fault! Peter must've gotten the spell wrong!" Sirius defended himself immediately and crossed his legs underneath him to get comfortable.

Remus glanced around the little space sectioned off by thin turquoise curtains, noticing for the first time that the remaining half of the group was missing. His face fell further. Cautiously, as if not wanting to hear the answer, he asked, "Where's James and Peter?"

Sirius smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Oh, they're here too... just chatting with Poppy at the moment."

"Sirius, what happened?" Remus demanded. He crossed his sinewy arms, drowning in midnight blue sleeves of his button up pajamas, over his chest the way he always did when he was trying to act responsible. It was hard to take him seriously when his bed head was so bad. Hah, seriously, Sirius thought. Remus raised his eyebrows expectantly.

"We were bored, okay? Well, I was. Wormy was asleep and Prongs was-"

Remus cleared his throat.

Sirius glared at him and summed it up into as few words as possible. "We were trying to make all the tarot cards say death, y'know, to freak everyone out for a bit, but Peter's glamour spell didn't work, probably 'cause he got it from Pamela, but anyway, it made everyone go blind-"

"It what?" Remus choked.

"Not permanently!" Sirius added quickly. "Poppy's fixing 'em all up! They'll be fine!"

"James and Peter?"

"Yeah and everyone else..."

"Everyone else?" Remus let out a string of expletives. "I knew I should've gone to class today."

Before Sirius could argue, the curtain was thrown back once again. Remus tensed, only relaxing when James pranced in with Peter on his tail.

"Ah, the bounties of sight!" James exclaimed, holding the metal frames of his glasses as if they'd vanish should he let them go.

Peter's eyes, however, were red and puffy as though he'd been crying. He probably had been. Sirius didn't understand why. None of their pranks had caused any permanent damage thus fair, what would make this any different from the rest?

"I thought I'd find you in here." Another voice joined in. Sirius cringed, turning around with a sheepish smile. Just as he'd anticipated, Professor McGonagall stood with one hand holding the curtain back and the other on her hip. Madam Pomfrey stood right behind her. "Come with me, Mr. Black."

"Traitors," Sirius hissed at James and Peter as he slid off the bed to follow McGonagall who was already strutting to Pomfrey's office. "You led them right to me!"

Remus rolled his eyes. "They would've found you anyway. You're too predictable."

No one paid him any notice.

James put a hand to his brow and saluted him. Peter quickly followed in suit.

"Your sacrifice will not be forgotten," James said. "Marauders kind shall forever sing praises to the great and terrible--mostly just terrible--Sirius Orion Black."

If looks could kill, James would be six feet under from the glare Sirius sent him. The curtain fell back in place behind him as he followed Madam Pomfrey and McGonagall into the nurse's office. The remainder of the class had evidently been helped and had cleared out of the Hospital Wing, yet Sirius was still forced to receive his punishment from within the confines of the office where all the potions and poultices could glare down at him from the safety of their shelves.

Sirius attempted to look guilty and attempted, "No harm done, right? Right? Poppy, back me up here."

"Mr. Black!" McGonagall said in disbelief. "An entire class went temporarily blind due to your reckless antics! I will not stand for this no harm done nonsense!"

"That's exactly it, Professor! Temporarily! Poppy fixed 'em up easy! No permanent damage!"

Since Sirius was the only one not affected by the failed prank, all fingers pointed to him as the perpetrator. Marauder's code stated that only those who couldn't get out of it would face detention. Since James and Peter both looked at the card and were cursed with blindness, there wasn't a way to prove that they'd participated in the prank and they got off scotch free, though everyone suspected they'd also been involved.

Poppy Pomfrey crossed her arms over her girthy bust. "It's Madam Pomfrey to you, Sirius, and you're lucky I was able to fix this at all. You could've really hurt someone, your friends even."

"Poppy!" Sirius exclaimed. She gave him a withering look. He grimaced and corrected himself, "M- Madam Pomfrey, I mean. You're supposed to be on my side!"

"Not when it comes to the safety of the students."

Sirius' eyes darted from Professor McGonagall to Madam Pomfrey and back. There was no way of getting out of this one. Both women had set their faces in a way that Sirius knew meant he was in trouble. Real trouble.

With a sigh, he looked down and put his hand up, curling his fingers in towards him as if to say 'lay it on me.'

McGonagall huffed. "Since you seem to have no remorse for your actions, I think it'd do you well to better understand what it's like to be blind, just all of your classmates have because of your little game."

"What?" Sirius exclaimed. His wide gray eyes darted from McGonagall to Madam Pomfrey, who'd been silently listening and nodding along to whatever McGonagall said.

They couldn't be serious. They wouldn't make him go blind because of a little prank. Panic took hold of Sirius, a vise-like grip around his chest squeezing like an anaconda on his lungs. He was sure he'd wake up in a few moments, zonked out on the Divination table just as Pete had been. There was no way McGonagall was being serious. The panic was so much that he couldn't even laugh at his own joke.

Professor McGonagall cracked a smile. Sirius didn't realize she could smile. She shook her head and continued, "Don't worry, I'm not entirely heartless. I'm sure you know of Colleen Cassidy?"

Sirius squinted at her, trying to decipher where this conversation was headed. "The blind girl? Yeah. What's she have to do with this? It's not like anything happened to her! She was already blind!"

"I'm getting there," she said. Her voice was clipped and short, evidence of her growing impatience. "Colleen needs a scribe to write her essays and various assignments. Alice Fortesque usually volunteers for the job, but seeing as she's busy studying for her OWLs-"

"Oh no, you don't want me! M- my handwriting is terrible!" Sirius said, grasping at straws. Sirius had seen Colleen doing homework and he was frankly shocked that Alice had had enough time to do her own school work. The two girls would sit in the library for hours and when that closed, they'd move into the common room to finish up. If Sirius had to do that... there's no way he'd have time for pranks or Quidditch or, or anything.

McGonagall scoffed. "Oh, please. Do you know how many of your essays I've had to read? There will be no pulling the rug over my eyes. You can play the part if you like, but I'm no fool. You're not the careless buffoon you pretend to be. You're smart."

Sirius didn't know whether to say thank you or get upset so he instead stayed silent.

McGonagall went on, saying, "Three weeks. That's all I ask of you."

"And if I say no?"

"Four."