The Marauders' Memories

A Dramatic Day

Chapter 15- A Dramatic Day

Sirius then accidentally on purpose dropped his quill, and bent down, his wand clutched in his hand.

'Sonorus' He whispered, poking his wand at Professor Barchi. He did the same to Bergelmir. Professor Barchi sharply turned the paper around. The Slytherin gasped.

'I don't write like that! It can't be mine! Someone must have tampered with it!' She spluttered. Both seemed unaware of how loud their voices were.

'UNACCEPTABLE! UNBELIEVABLE! UNFORGIVABLE!' He hissed loudly, causing everyone from both potions classes to burst into giggles. Even the the most sensible students had to cover their mouthed to hide back the laughs.

'Sir, I swear I didn't do it, I don't write like that and I never have, never will!' Bergelmir protested, her voice suddenly sounding proud like the Slytherin she was, though several can tell it was on the point of cracking. The professor continued, blatantly ignoring the girl in front of him.

'I SPEND AGES PLANNING LESSONS, PREPARING INGREDIENTS, MARKING YOUR WORK, MAKING SURE EVERYTHING IS READY FOR YOU, AND THEN YOU THINK IT IS OK TO GIVE ME THIS!' Covering his ears, Sirius regretted putting an amplifying charm on him. The class, and Sughorn's would have easily heard Professor Barchi's shouting. He would have only needed to put it or Bergelmir. Or so he thought.

'I TOLD YOU PROFESSOR, IT WASN'T ME! WHY WOULD I DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS, CONSIDERING THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE LESSONS!' Everyone was shocked. Bergelmir was normally the quietest of the Slytherins, and nobody had seen her loose her temper before. She kicked the professors table out of what seemed to be sheer frustration. Her eyes suddenly filled with tears.

'Ow...' she said in a very quiet voice. This sent most of the class into fits of giggles. The professor seemed a bit taken aback, but soon regained his previous manner.

'Right, it will be a double, no triple detention for you, considering you shouted at a teacher. Also, you have to redo your homework, except I want it as twice as long as this, and don't try big handwriting on me, or I shall really loose my temper.' He dismissed the girl, while Sirius quickly removed the amplifying charms on them, and then said,

'Turn to page 251. You will find the instructions for brewing a simple non-rusting potion. I would like you and your partner to brew this for me. It needs 24 hours in a cold space before use, so we shall test it tomorrow. Also, when I get to your price if homework, I shall call you up, and I'll go through it with you.' Sirius quickly opened his book and got to work, while Peter sat there, occasionally passing ingredients to Sirius when he asked for them. Next door, Slughorn was busy rambling on about their practical before the weekend, James hissing at Slughorn's praise of Snape, the only one who did the potion right. Sirius was nearly finished with the potion when Barchi called out Anuguis Amorrow's name. Peter nudged him, and he performed the amplifying spell on the two, similar to the beginning of the lesson.

All the students looked up as professor Barchi's face got redder and redder.

'Like an apple.' Peter whispered. Sirius turned to look at him.

'But apples can be green or yellow and other colours too!' He said, his voice slightly louder than normal.'

'Well, some tomatoes are other colours too!' Peter protested.

'Well, tomatoes are stereotypically seen as red!' Now, most of the class' attention was on the Gryffindor boys.

'It's the same with apples, typically seen as green.' Peter replied, his voice slightly more confident.

'But I stereotype apples as green. Several others do. However tomatoes are pretty much always seen as red! Righ...' Sirius stopped abruptly as he looked around at the class, watching his argument over tomatoes and apples. He blushed and instead muttered 'carry on.' Barchi looked at him for a bit, looking much more normal since he had cooled down. However all he needed to do was to look at the mess in front of him. He turned red once more, but neither of the two Gryffindors compared him to any fruit or vegetable of any kind.

Everyone left the potion room with a buzz, all talking of the loud conversations they either heard from next door, or some were lucky enough to witness. James was waiting outside the door with Remus, when Peter emerged, followed by Sirius, both unusually flushed.

'What's up with you two?' Remus asked in his normal, mild manner, yet he too was grinning.

'Yeah you're as red as a tomato!' James asked, and Sirius and Peter went slightly red.

'We argued over the colour of tomatoes and apples. In front of the whole class.' Both boys looked slightly embarrassed. The other two burst out laughing.

'Oh, Come on, calm down, that prank was epic! Did Bergelmir punch something? That little 'ow' was hilarious!' Remus smiled, and the two suddenly brightened up.

'Close, she kicked the table. She looked rather deranged.' Peter said through sniggered. Sirius then did an overly exaggerated imitation of the scene, pretending to kick the wall, before falling on the floor, wailing and crying 'ow' in an unbelievably high-pitched voice. Remus coughed and pointed to Slughorn's door, which was slowly opening.

'Ah, Sirius!' Was the first thing that Slughorn's said, emerging from his room. What happened in Professor Barchi's room? Oh no matter, I'm going to ask him now, especially since I'm certain an amplifying charm was used on him. It's impressive though, as it means one of the first years can use the charm eh?' He shuffled over to the second potion lab where an angry professor Barchi was cooling down. Remus gave a gasp, and pointed at his watch.

'We're going to be late! Thank goodness the Charms corridor is only on the first floor, not the sixth or something!' He grabbed three hands, one from each of his friends, and dragged them up the stairs, as if they were incapable of doing so themselves.

'You really don't need to drag me!' Sirius shouted

'We are late!' Remus replied. James sighed.

'We've passes all of our Gryffindor mates. They'll be later than us. We caused quite a bit of kerfuffle, Flitwick'll let us off.' The tree being dragged felt the dragged become less tense, and actually stop.

'You're right. Sorry.' He looked at them apologetically, and they walked to Charms. After an hour of learning the theory of locomotor Charms, and questions on the amplifying charms (James had to continually hit Sirius on the head for acting too smug and all knowing, and then giving away something) they went for break.

The lessons ended quickly and the four immediately went to the Gryffindor common room, due to an excited Remus and an ecstatic Peter. When they got there, they went straight to their dormitory, to find Peakes and Coots waiting there.

'Remus, your owl has been tapping at the window persistently, I think it would like to be let in.' They immediately resumed their talk, which was surprisingly not on Quidditch, but on Celestina Warbeck's new single 'False Charms'.

'You couldn't have let it in?' Remus asked.

'The letters open, so we may accidentally read it.' Remus only smiled at this, before opening the window. A chestnut coloured screech owl entered, her silky feathers tipped in white, golden eyes seemed to examine all of them. She hopped over to Remus, who stroked the two tufts at the top of her head, before sending her off, promising owl treats for her next time, as he had forgotten them. Peter on the other hand, picked up the letter and smiled. The Black and Potter looked at it curiously, before Remus provided an explanation.

'It's from Grey, or Grace rather. She bought this muggle single about a milkman that was super popular when it was released last year. She's put it on a magical tape so we can play it here!'

'It's perfect for a prank' James said at the same time Sirius asked,

'What's a milk man? A man who milks cows or something.' Sirius then witnessed the quite funny looking event of his three friends, as well Peakes and Cootes, face-palming.

'How ignorant can you be of the muggle world?' Someone asked. Sirius shrugged.

'The milkman is the man who delivers milk to your doorstep if you order it.' Remus said. There was another tap at the window, and Remus brightened, pretty certain of what it was. He swivelled around, revealing two owls knocking at the window. Remus was confused. Surely a magical tape didn't require two owls. The first one that hopped in he instantly recognised as the Glant's family owl-Grace's owl. He was an unusually large snowy owl, each of his soft, white feathers had grey flecks, while one odd reached by his beak was a dark brown. He petted the bird, while opening the package. The second owl hooted loudly and Remus spun around once more, however this time, everyone could hear his neck give a painful-sounding click. They all assumed that' what made him go visibly paler as he looked at the package the dusty brown owl was trying to get off.. He slowly removed it, and gave it to James, who opened it, who too turned a shade paler. Sirius was next to grab the book, but contrary to the previous reactions, Sirius looked a lot happier.

'Ah, the book on abuse has finally arrived! I had actually forgotten we had ordered it!' He then went down to the common room, presumably to read the book. Peter pointed at Remus' watch. It seemed little to no time had just passes since their last lessons, meaning Sirius had ample time to complete the book before curfew for the first years. Peakes and Coots very bewildered.

'James, the fact that your never troubled face is now troubled, means something is majorly wrong. Could we do anything to help?

'Yeah, just watch him. Bring him up if he gets upset angry, or something like that.' After checking where his classmates had gone, James shut the door, and looked at Remus.

'You actually ordered it!?' Remus nodded solemnly while James face-palmed again.

'He'd find out anyway...I can't believe he didn't know in the first place.'

He's staying with them over Easter. I don't know what he'll do...'

'James, you're being unreasonable. We'd have too wait until he's 17 and can live alone, or he'll end up saying there every holiday.'

'Well, he can live with us or something!' All three in the room knew that was unlikely. James had invited him over for Easter, yet he refused, and it was hard getting him to change his mind. James sighed and they waited for Sirius to come upstairs.

Roughly two hours later, the door was flung open, revealing a startled looking Sirius, a Peakes and a Cootes.

'James- I believe this book is implying that I'm abused by my parents. I really don't think it's...'

'Yes it is.' James, Remus and Peter said at the same time. 'And, the wizards who wrote it said they had met people like you, which is why they wrote it.'

'Wait, didn't you say it was a muggle book?' Peter asked. Remus couldn't hide his guilty look.

'Wait, you had this planned!?'

'Yeah, you had find out sometime, and since we didn't know when that'll be, its best to be in a place you feel comfortable, with your friends on standby.'

James however saw it as a negative thing.

'You knew he's going to his parents for the holidays, so how's he going to cope?'

'Well, I've survived 'till now, and I'll just cope like how I normally do- with pranks and now using some Gryffindor banners!' James couldn't not smile at that. Remus maintained his serious look.

'You know this'll become bigger in the future?' Sirius shrugged.

'It's not that point now so why worry? I'll worry at that time, not now.' It was weird seeing Sirius seeming the most carefree on this issue, yet all the boys were certain he was effected more than he was putting on. Sirius then sat on Remus's bed, surprised to find it felt hard. He stood up and picked up the tape labelled 'Ernie, the Fastest Milkman in the West.'

'So, how are we going to do this milkman thing?' He was relaxed, his eyes twinkling, a smile on his mouth that could only be genuine. He was met with 5 similar grins, and surprisingly, it was Peakes who spoke.

'I thought it would be nice to play it at dinner or something, like the lion. It's apparently a really catchy song, so any muggleborns, or half-bloods will most likely join in. It'll be funny if everyone joins in! Cootes then began humming what they all thought was the rhythm.

Once they had all gotten into bed, it was silent, all reflecting on the unusual day. The bit all about the abuse, planning the prank, Sirius' hair actually being messy from when he pulled at it, the actual prank...

Sirius then stood up and said

'It's still before curfew. What are we all doing in bed like first formers?'

'We are first formers' a sleepy voice replied. Sirius threw a pillow at the tired Remus, and it bounced off onto James, who responded in a similar way. It was ten minutes later that a full pillow fight broke out, ending in James running into the wall with a loud 'OWW!'

'Wow, you sounded like Bergim...' Remus' comment was muffled by a pillow. And as Remus threw one back, the pillow fight resumed.