The Marauders' Memories

Finding Friends

Chapter 12- Finding Friends

After several lessons and even more pranks, the last lesson of the week finished, with quite a bang, as the firecrackers exploded inside Nott's caldron, after James lit them while he was casually walking past. Everyone covered their ears as the loud bang was followed by a high-pitched cry, and red and gold streamers flew into the air and bounced off walls and into everyone's cauldrons. James, and Remus stopped laughing as they were told everyone was going to have to re-do the potion as the streamers made all their potions hiccough and sneeze, and a few burped. When they left the class, they briefly noted Sirius waiting for them before James started complaining.

'See Remus, even your 'safest firecrackers available' caused the potions to become ill. We could have just used the others.'

'James, there's a difference between making a potion ill, and making a person ill. The ones you suggested were very dangerous and could potentially harm others!'

'But all they would need is a trip to the hospital wing!'

'Oh hello, Professor Slughorn!' Sirius said loudly, as the other two had ignored him approaching. Both wondered if Slughorn had heard them, however it seemed he hadn't, he was absorbed by Sirius.

'So you'd be Sirius Black. You look a lot like your father. Excellent student. By the fact that you are not in any of my classes, I take it you are in the trainee teacher's class... Mr Barchi, I think it was?'

'Yeah...' Sirius muttered, while James and Remus watched, the former with an amused face as Slughorn rambled on, while the latter looked more sympathetic.

'Such a shame! Only 10 were chosen from the whole year, and one had to be you! The Backs were always pretty good to potions, and I've had all the Blacks that have come since I've joined, it really is a shame, it would have been nice to have a set...'

'Well, you may get Regulus...' Sirius muttered, but Slughorn continued over him

Of corse, Potions have always been considered a Slytherin subject, so naturally it would be expected a pure blood Slytherin family would be good at it, so I wonder how the first Gryffindor in the direct family for centuries would be at it eh?'

'Not that good at it to be honest professor...' Sirius said.

'Oh, surely you can't be that bad eh? I'm sure you are doing very well!'

'Professor' James said loudly, seeing Sirius was getting nowhere, 'We were all planning on seeing Professor Galloway, for Remus was ill yesterday, and may missed Astronomy, so we needed catchup work.' Sirius was pretty sure that it wouldn't work, However Slughorn gave a knowing and sympathetic look towards Remus.

'Of corse, should've known, sorry if the lesson was a little tiring' he said, shaking his head sadly, before dismissing the boys, who actually did need to see professor Galloway, who gave Remus catch up work. After that Remus went to the library, to do the homework, and to catch up with Peter. James and Sirius also went to the library, and dragged Remus with them, to a place away from Peter.

'So, we saw this little jinx in Sirius' book, and it's quite harmless, so we thought we may try it out on Pettigrew...' Remus stood up.

'Peter is my friend, so while a prank is fine on others, it's not right to do it on a friend...'

'Peter isn't really a friend...'

'Out!' The librarian yelled, as their voices began to rise. Remus, stormed off to the Gryffindor common room, and James and Sirius were both genuinely frightened, they had only seen him angry once on their first journey on the Hogwarts express.

'True the Slytherins have been horrible, but Peter and that Hufflepuff you hexed a few days ago, they hadn't done anything! Why would you try to jinx or hex them!'

'Well, err... ' James looked nervous. Lupin made to speak but Sirius spoke first.

'You know, Remus is right James, we should only take action if anyone annoys us.' Remus could swear the Sirius had a slight glint in his eyes, but dismissed it. Remus got out the extra work, and settled down, but his mind was distracted. Besides him, Sirius and James were reading about the troll extermination in a history of magic.

'Can't you be friends with Peter?'

'Well he isn't very fun, and not that brave either. He's likeable enough, just, being friends with him may hold us back a bit.'

'He was sorted into Gryffindor...'

'Only because he asked!' James retorted quickly. Remus seemed to be getting angry again.

'I'm not the most fun person around, yet you still consider me a friend!' Peter then appeared through the portrait, so Remus and James stopped whispering abruptly. Peter looked ecstatic.

'Sirius, guess what, you didn't just get top of the class, but top of the year, and you beat most of the second years, they got the same test. You were really close too James! Well done!'

'Thanks Pettigrew!' James and Sirius exclaimed together. All of a sudden, Peter looked tired, and drifted like a ghost, up the stairs. Lupin turned to the other two, James seemed to be relishing the praise, as usual, Sirius looked slightly confused, but pleased.

'Well, as you saw' Lupin started.

'Yeah, that was probably a message from McGonagall' James said, still beaming. Remus raised one eyebrow, and Sirius jumped.

'Sorry, you reminded me of mother, she always raises an eyebrow like that!' Seeing Sirius's start seemed to calm him down, and they ended the conversation there.

Remus spent the rest of the weekend challenging James and Sirius about their ideas on Peter. Well, it was mainly James, as Sirius gave in pretty quickly. When Monday arrived, both James and Remus were still having arguments whispered in potions, their only lesson without Peter. The next lesson was Flying. James and Remus arrived, Sirius and Peter already being there. The Professor then placed James next to Peter, and Sirius laughed as James groaned.

'Today, we stall be working on accelerating, decelerating, and abrupt stopping. So, can everyone mount their brooms?' Everybody did, though not all were positioned correctly.

'Hay, Pettigrew, you need to move forward a bit, to stop the tilting, and hold the broom with who hands roughly this far from you.' He showed Peter his positioning.

'T...thank you very much!' James smiled warmly at him.

'You're welcome Peter.' James suddenly looked surprised. 'Peter...' he repeated.

'But...You've never called me Peter...' Peter muttered confused.

'Actually he has sometimes, like right at the beginning of the year, when you questioned Peter about the hat stall.' Remus interjected.

'Well, that was due to me forgetting...' the rest of James' statement was drowned out by Sirius shouting,

'HOW IN THE NAME OF MERLIN'S BEARD DO YOU REMEMBER THAT?'

'SHUT UP AND FLY!' The teacher yelled even louder.

Their next lesson was history of magic. James, Sirius, Peakes and Cootes all sat in the second to last row, Remus and Peter just in front of them. James, Sirius and Peter were whispering.

'So, I'm really your friend?'

'Of corse! It'll be nice for us to help you catch up with lessons too!'

'Wow, I'm really friends with some really cool people! I couldn't even dream of it!'

'Who said dreams can't come true?'

'I said I didn't dream of it, Sirius'

'Oh. Yeah.'

Remus gave up with his notes, and joined in the conversation.

'Well, have you got any tricks planned?'

'Who do you think we are? We've got a big one next! We are going to make copies of the trophies in the trophy room, and break them, and then we shall hide the real ones under the invisibility cloak. Then, when he leaves to get a teacher, we shall reverse it. We've planned to do the same with his cleaning equipment. He shall go mad.' Remus looked at them sternly.

'And how are you going to hide all the trophies and both yourselves under that invisibility cloak?'

'Ermmm...' Was the only reply from Sirius, James said absolutely nothing. Remus shook his head.

'It's best to do the cleaning equipment, near his cupboard there are loads of big flowerpots you can hide behind, and most of the stuff in his cupboard should under the cloak.' So it was set and done, and the four boys waited until the next weekend as per Remus' request.

'Why does the school week have to get longer when we plan a prank!'

'It doesn't, .It just...'

'Oh, you know...'

'Shh! Filch is coming.' They looked with excitement from behind their red flower pot, as Filch stalked to his cupboard, continually muttering. He stopped abruptly at the sight of his 'broken' cleaning stuff. His eyes bulged with horror. He stood there for a full minute, staring at the horrific scene, before yelling,

'PEEVES!' So loud, the four boys winced, as Filch stumbled away, muttering about Peeves and Professor Dumbledore. James quickly removed the cloak covering the equipment, still in the cupboard, while Sirius and Remus removed all the broken copies, they then dashed back behind the flower pot. Filch came wheezing along, professor Dumbledore behind him.

'So...Peeves...has been damaging school cleaning supplies, and this requires me to see him expelled?'

'Not damage, completely and utterly destroy! And this isn't the first time Professor, he has done it countless times, I am at my limit professor!' They stopped by the door, Filch still facing the headmaster, his eyes burning with rage.

'See Professor, See what Peeves has...' He turned around slowly, and his mouth fell open. 'But...but...I saw it with my own eyes! Peeves destroyed them!' Dumbledore merely chuckled and smiled.

'Well, mistakes happen. It seemed everything is in order. Well, if that is all I shall return to my knitting.' He indicated to his pocket, in which two knitting pins and some red and pink wool was showing. Remus covered the mouth of James and Peter as they nearly burst into fits of laughter, he himself biting his lip to keep himself from giggling. Sirius was laughing silently. They watched Dumbledore, who was looking...at them. He winked, before slowly walking back. Filch resumed his mumbling, grabbing a bucket and mop, and slouching away. The four Gryffindors started to get up, when Mrs Norris slicked around the corner. The four stopped. The cat walked up to the storage cupboard, looked up and down it, before going to to the flowerpot, and glaring at the boys. She walked away quicker than normal, and the Gryffindors ran to the common arrived panting, and the flopped onto the couches by the fireplace. A fifth year looked at them, and muttered,

'I bet those are the boys said to prank everyone. So cute, the little first years trying to act cool and rebellious!' James scowled and casually fired a jinx at him, but it missed. The Gryffindor smiled and went to his dormitory.

'Dang! Just to ruin the mood!'

'Still, I don't think you should just throw out jinxes and hexes like that!' Remus said as loudly as he dared.

'Well, If they annoy me enough to make me loose my temper, one must face consequences!'

'Come on James, he just mocked us a bit, no need to go all mental' Sirius added, quite surprised at how angry James seemed. He did then suddenly calm down.

'Sorry, I'm too used to life with my parents. I forgot how bad people can get. That truly was nothing.' He looked apologetically at all three of his friends. Sirius grimaced and threw a pillow at him.

'Don't act like that! It doesn't seem right at all! Go back to the former James!' James nodded, and he grinned.

'How about we play a prank on somebody who actually deserves one? I think you family members may do for that!'

'Yeah! How about dad this time! We can pretend some muggle has written a love letter or something to him! And we put it in a muggle envelope, made of muggle paper, written in muggle pen! We could send it by muggle post, but that past-man thingy won't know where to go!' The three other boys were happy to see such an enthusiastic Sirius. Remus suddenly ran upstairs and returned with a muggle letter set.

'My mum prefers it when I write muggle letters to her, so I can lend some paper, a pen and an envelope.'

'Hey Sirius, how about we try to do one of those love letters like the ones we found a Grandpa's place! Sirius laughed, as he recalled the was of love letters Henry Potter received.

'Hang on! My mum gave me some pressed flowers! Let me get those!' Peter excitedly chirped. He ran up the stairs as Remus (He had the best handwriting) began to start the love letter. After around half an hour, they were done.

My dearest Orion!

A flame burns deep within me, a never ending desire for your love.

Your dark eyes are full of mystery and magic, my heart pounds at the near sight of it.

The rose of love joins us together, the thorns making no impact on our innocent and wholesome love for one another.

I love you, my dear Orion,

I love you...

From, your lover xxx

Sirius smiled as he thought of his father reading through the mail the following day.

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