"Oh no! What a tragedy!"

All eyes had turned to the large black dog that had bounded into the room and snatched the roll of parchment that James Potter was holding.

The dog began chewing at the parchment.

"That dog just ate my homework! The whole roll that was my essay on the effects of spell conjugation! Hours of work, wasted!"

Half of the class was snickering at the absurdity of the whole situation, while the other half was rolling their eyes. It was staged, of course. With the Marauders, things often were. No one was entirely sure how they had managed to stage the dog stealing James' homework this time, or the time before, or the time before that, but they knew it was staged. Dogs didn't just eat homework for a mid morning snack.

The teacher, McGonagall, seemed to have come to this conclusion as well.

"Mr. Potter, this is the third time this year that your dog has eaten your homework," she said sternly. "If you do not learn to control him, I will go to the headmaster about it."

"Sorry, Professor." James didn't look the least bit abashed.

"I would like you to redo the assignment. It will be due tomorrow."

"But it's a whole roll!" James protested. "I can't write a whole roll of an essay in a night! I have quidditch practice!"

"Monday morning, then," McGonagall said. "Mr. Potter, take your dog back to your dormitory so that we can continue the lesson."

"Come on, Snuffles," James said, giving the dog a pointed look.

The dog glanced up at him, then back down at the slobbery mess of parchment.

"Snuffles, let's go," James tried again.

Snuffles had decided that he preferred the parchment, and was chewing on it happily.

James muttered something under his breath, then grabbed the dog by the scruff of its neck and began dragging towards the door.

Snuffles gave an annoyed sort of growl, but followed James outside of the classroom and towards Gryffindor Tower.

"I can't believe that she's making me redo that," James grumbled.

"She wouldn't make me redo it." Sirius Black had appeared where the dog had been moments before.

"Of course she would," James said.

"Nope. Minnie and I have a special relationship," Sirius said.

"That's in your head, Padfoot," James insisted.

"Not at all, Prongs," Sirius grinned. "I'll bet that if you came in and stole my homework, she'd let me off."

"Why would I steal your homework?" James asked.

"To prove your point," Sirius suggested. "Well, mine, actually, and to pay me back for the times that I've done it for you."

"You want me to burst into Transfiguration and eat your homework to prove my point and pay you back."

"Exactly."

"Tell you what- you give me a galleon when she resets you the essay. If for some reason she doesn't, I'll give you a galleon."

"You're on."

In all her years of teaching, Minerva McGonagall had seen many strange things. Strange enough things that the Marauders' shenanigans weren't even in the top ten.

Then, as her Tuesday lesson was beginning, a stag pranced into the classroom and took the essay out of a grinning Sirius Black's hand.

That had, without a doubt, been one of the strangest things she had seen. In the top ten, without a doubt. Stranger than the time when she had seen Kettleburn carrying a creature that seemed to be a cross between a niffler and cat. Stranger than Albus Dumbledore showing up to a staff meeting in an orange muggle golf shirt.

"There goes my homework," Sirius said. "Shame, huh, Minnie?"

The stag was chewing at the parchment, then spit some of it out as though it didn't taste very good. (She didn't imagine that it did.)

"Mr. Lupin, would you find Hagrid and ask him to help us handle this?"

"Yes, Profess-"

The stag huffed loudly.

The boy sitting next to Sirius looked oddly exasperated, as though stags frequently interrupted him. "I'll find him." He left the room.

McGonagall tapped her wand against the chalkboard loudly, drawing the class' attention from the stag to her. "As I was saying, non-living to living transfiguration is quite complex, since it recreates 'life.' However…."

Sirius smirked at the stag. "You owe me," he whispered.

The stag glared at him and huffed.