Saturday, September 23, 1971.
"Wanna grab some breakfast?" asked Sirius, waking up.
Since today was Saturday and they had the whole day off, they woke up later than usual. However, Toby had already left.
"No. The moment I get out and Lily sees me she'll tell me to start teaching Mary and Toby," commented James, shaking his head.
"Toby keeps ignoring us," said Lupin, looking at the short boy's bed.
"Let him do whatever he wants," said Sirius in an annoyed tone. They had tried multiple times to get him to come back to be with them, but he always turned them down. This is what annoyed Sirius.
"He must have his reasons. I'll try to talk to him today," James said as he opened his trunk and began to pull out his tools for brewing the potion.
He pulled out the petre cauldron, grade 2, the brass scale, the mortar, a glass flask, and a small silver knife. He arranged everything on a small coffee table in the center of the bedroom.
He left his wand at hand and finally began to arrange the ingredients in the order he should, "Okay, all set," he said with a slight smile.
"You're sure nothing will explode, right?" asked Sirius worriedly. He didn't want the room to be damaged, he had a lot of items he cherished on the shelves and in his trunk.
"It's my first time brewing this potion. It should go well..." said James, leaving Sirius very unsure. So he decided to put his things away in the drawers in case something went wrong.
"How long will you take? I'm hungry..." said Peter as his stomach roared.
"An hour at best," said James as he started the potion brewing.
"Do you remember the formula without a book?" asked Lupin with a raised eyebrow.
"In the first-grade book, it doesn't appear. So, I had to write down the steps I remembered. These days, I review so I won't forget," nodded James. Despite his good memory, he didn't want to take a chance, and in the middle of brewing, he would forget a step, and the potion would come out wrong.
"Hey, Lupin, play some music," said Sirius as he grabbed a deck of cards. Lupin nodded, and on an old record player, he placed a vinyl record. A Beatles song began to play.
Sirius and Peter began a game of Exploding Snap. Lupin watched James attentively prepare the potion. The potions class was not his forte, so he wanted to improve, and watching James prepare a more difficult potion than the ones they were watching was a great opportunity.
1 hour later.
"The final seasoning," James said as he poured in the octopus powder and the glu-glu of the potion boiling could be heard. He then mixed it lightly and made a gentle movement with his wand, and the potion began to take on a purple color.
Sirius and Peter had stopped playing and were looking intently at the cauldron which was giving off an overly sweet-smelling smoke.
"If someone walks into the room, they'll think it's a girls' dormitory," Sirius said sniffing with his nose. The whole room had been covered in a very sweet fragrance.
James carefully poured the potion into glass containers leaving the cauldron empty. To everyone's surprise, he managed to fill three vials, "It's more than I expected," he said, passing the vial to Sirius, who looked at him with an evil grin.
"How long does the effect last?" asked Sirius, playing with the flask.
"It should last about four hours thanks to the octopus powder," replied James.
"That's great. They should be walking the halls with colorful wigs," said Sirius as his grin widened.
"Are you sure they're well made?" asked Lupin as he looked at the purple liquid in another of the vials.
"Yes. The color and thickness are as the book indicates..." said James as he watched again that everything was right, as it would be very dangerous if he prepared it wrong. If prepared incorrectly it could have a poisonous effect and put them in serious trouble.
"Monday shouldn't be the day we do the prank," commented Peter, and everyone looked at him with question marks on their faces.
"Why?" asked Sirius, who wanted as soon as possible to see Rabastan and his friends in flower wigs for four hours.
"We'd better give them the potion on the day we have Potions class, that way we can share classes with them while they have flowers on their heads," replied Peter.
"You're a genius, Peter Pettigrew!" said Sirius, patting Peter's shoulder roughly. Peter smiled happily. It was the first time Sirius had ever praised him.
Breakfast doesn't last long, and once Rabastan and the others have flowers on their heads they run towards the dungeons to hide, but they must go to class as the potion is inoffensive and the only way for the flowers to disappear is for time to pass.
"Good thinking, Peter," said James with a grin. He hadn't thought of that. It would be great fun to share a class with Rabastan as he brewed a potion with flowers on his head.
James put the vials away carefully as if they were his babies, then they all left together heading to the dining room for breakfast.
As soon as James stepped into the Gryffindor common room he noticed Lily's disapproving look on his face, "We have to start teaching them. We don't have much time," said Lily, approaching him.
"Greetings, Evans! Have you read your 500 pages a day yet?" said Sirius in a teasing tone.
Lily scowled at Sirius. She decided to ignore him and continue waiting for James' answer, "How mean..." said Sirius, acting hurt.
"Finished breakfast, and we started," said James lazily.
"Breakfast? At this hour?" asked Lily, dumbfounded as she glanced at the clock in the Gryffindor room, just to make sure she wasn't wrong. She could see that it was almost noon, an unusual time for breakfast.
"Yeah... I slept more than usual. See you in a bit," James said as he and the others guffawed their way out of the room on their way to the dining room.
'This boy...' thought Lily irritated as she went back to her table where she was reading a thick Astronomy book.
"What happened? Won't they become private tutors?" asked Jasmine, looking up from her book.
"No," Lily said dryly, not wanting to talk about it. Jasmine sketched a smile but decided not to bother her friend this time and leave her alone studying.
James wanted to make breakfast as long as possible. He knew a boring study session awaited him with Lily Evans, Mary Macdonald, and Toby Copper.
Since everyone was already full, he had no choice but to return to the common room. Sirius, Lupin, and Peter said they would explore the castle since they had the whole day off, even though they should be doing homework.
'Lucky bastards...' thought James as he walked back into the common room, and the first thing he saw was Lily Evans' outstretched hand calling out to him. Beside her stood Toby and Mary.