Desire
Eight days before the Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL.
Remus woke up to a face looming over him. Frantically, he drew himself backwards, fumbling around for his wand. As soon as he grabbed it, he recognised the face, and regretfully dropped his wand. "Yes, Wormtail?"
"It happened again. What do I do?" the chubby teen said fearfully.
"What happened?" Remus asked, somewhat scared.
"He's going mad!" Peter said, his eyes quickly glancing around. "He hasn't slept all night and he's going mad!"
"What?" Remus sat upright.
"He's revising again," Sirius said from under his covers.
Peter pointed at the hunched-over form of James, who was indeed looking through a Defence Against the Dark Arts book: he was probably revising for OWLs. As James glanced up, Remus raised a light eyebrow questioningly. "What?" James said. "I'm good at Transfiguration, remember? I don't get Defence!"
"James Potter, the genius, admitted he isn't good at something?" From beneath his covers, Sirius chortled loudly.
Peter giggled as James chucked his pillow at Sirius. "Just because you're going to get perfect O's in everything," James said, but his reply lacked venom.
Remus glanced between the two. James was right: Sirius didn't even have to try to get Outstandings in everything, but neither did James. In fact, only Remus and Peter had to study like rabid beasts to scrape a grade higher than Acceptable.
"And you don't?" Powerfully, Sirius threw the pillow at his best friend.
The pillow fight escalated, with the two purebloods ensnaring the two innocent half-bloods into their violent game.
Six days before the Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL.
"You need the fresh air," Sirius had said, tugging on James' sleeve inside the common room.
Reluctantly, James agreed, and all four of them ended up crowded under the loving shade of a tree, watching as he attempted spells.
"Lumos!" A feeble light dripped out of the end of James's wand.
"It's brighter this time?" Peter said, as Sirius barked with laughter.
"This is hopeless! I can't even do a first-year Defence spell!"
"You're not articulating enough." Sirius laughed, a melodic sound to Remus' sensitive ears, as the light died out.
"Come on, Sev," Remus heard a feminine voice say from a few yards away. "You have to stop hanging around them."
"I can't,"said a man who sounded suspiciously like Severus Snape.
"Why not?"
Remus felt James stiffen as he noticed the duo. "Snivellus," he said lightly under his blanched as James shot to his feet.
"Ooh, Snivellus!" Sirius said, clapping his hands and jumping to his feet to follow James. Peter looked at Remus, but didn't move.
James and Sirius sashayed over to where Snape was sitting with Lily Evans. Lily's face curled in disgust. Snape just sneered. Sighing in defeat, Remus closed his Defence Against the Dark Arts book and dropped it into his lap, realising the preparation would be useless if he was distracted.
"You lot! I needed help with Defence." James smirked, marring his perfect features. "Snivellus is a Dark Creature. I can practice on him."
"Oh, shove off," Lily said. Even from here, Remus could see her gritting her teeth.
James narrowed his hazel eyes, regarding the two he desired, although for two very different reasons, closely. "Let's start off simply," he said. "Lumos!"
The bright light that shot out of his wand was staggering. Remus quickly grabbed the book on his lap, shielding his eyes, as Peter squeaked from beside him. Sirius seemed close to death from how hard he was hard, Snape got to his feet and swished his cloaks as he stormed away. "Idiot," Lily said to James, before racing after Snape.
"Evans, wait!"
But Lily never looked back, and James returned to Remus and Peter, looking crestfallen. "What did I do wrong?" he asked, turning his blinding wand to them.
Remus hissed as the light seeped through his fingers that were holding the book. "You tried to blind your friends," he said weakly.
"What?" James looked down at his wand. "Oh, forgot about that. Nox."
"You forgot about it?" Sirius looked incredulous. "How could you forget about it? That was bloody brilliant, mate!"
"I don't even know how I did it."
"The starting point of all achievement is desire," Peter said, smiling lightly.
"Oh, shut up." James laughed, but Remus saw his eyes flick up to the castle entrance, where a flash of red hair was rushing into the open door.
The day of the Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL.
The Defence Against the Dark Arts exam did not go as planned.
The practical was supposed to be simple: go through an obstacle course of traps and dangerous creatures and make it to the other side. The examiner, however, decided to turn the course into a race and make two students compete against each other.
Remus was pitted against a Ravenclaw named Fallon Day, and they raced each other at a steady pace, firing spells at the creatures they faced when it came to it. Neither of them faced any difficulties, although Fallon did have tears lingering in her eyes after facing a boggart. Remus faced the moon, as always, but as he thought of how his friends would be there for him during his monthly transformations, he managed to brush it off easily. Both of them were concentrating on their own paths too much to even think about sabotaging the other.
Sirius competed against a Hufflepuff called Marlene McKinnon. They casually flirted with each other, swapping witty remarks and subtle gestures. Sirius stopped right near the finishing line when Marlene blew a kiss at him. She overtook him, passing the line first and winning the race, and Remus had to fight to keep the smirk off his face as Sirius jogged to the end, looking equally defeated and intrigued.
Peter went third. He raced against another Gryffindor, a girl called Alice Macmillan. They were an even match, as both of them were students who averaged an Acceptable in most classes. They slowly advanced upon the Dark creatures in their paths, and Alice only won by a small margin. Neither of them tried to divert the other, as they both knew that the other was having enough troubles without the added pain of a distraction.
James faced Snape.
"Are they joking?" James said when he saw his name listed next to Snape's on the exam schedule.
"This is excellent." Sirius was grinning. "Hit him with a few hexes and pretend you misfired!"
"I'll tear him apart if he gives me the chance."
Remus pursed his lips and said nothing.
"Mr. Potter and Mr. Snape," called the examiner, and the two stepped up to the starting line, wands in hand.
It was a peaceful, friendly race. For the first five seconds.
Shockingly, it was Snape who cast the first spell. A tickling jinx, Remus thought, based on the way James had stopped in his tracks and broken into a fit of hysterical giggling. With a flick of his wand, James broke the charm, and then sent a jellylegs jinx at Snape, whose smug smile quickly disappeared as he sank to the ground.
Snarling, Snape brought his wand down in a sharp slant, sending a stinging hex toward James, who had run ahead in the obstacle course to face a grindylow. "Oi!" said Sirius, and James turned around just in time to duck. The stinging hex sailed over his head and clipped the examiner on the shoulder.
"Never am I doing this again," the examiner said, rubbing his shoulder. "But that's a strong stinging hex, all the same."
Two months after the Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL.
"Got an Exceeds Expectations in Defence," Sirius said, setting down his letter. They were gathered at James' house over the summer holidays. "Would've been higher, I reckon, if Marlene McKinnon hadn't distracted me."
"Don't complain," Peter said. "I only got an Acceptable."
Remus looked up from his own Outstanding. "James? Did you at least pass?"
James grinned. "Got an O."
"What?" Sirius grabbed James's letter. "How? You hexed the examiner!"
"That was Snivellus, not me." James took back his letter.
"But you're rubbish at Defence."
"Guess it was my desire to do well. Like Peter said."
Sirius snorted. "Desire to curse Snivellus, you mean."
"Yeah," James said. "Git."
"Or his desire to impress Lily Evans," Remus said.
James carefully folded up his letter. "Just to curse Snivellus," he said, and Remus was the only one who caught the smile that swept across James's face.
Quidditch League Round 2: Hogwarts Subjects
Holyhead Harpies, Chaser 3: Write about a Defence Against the Dark Arts exam
Bonus prompts: 7 (word) light; 14 (quote) 'The starting point of all achievement is desire.' - Napoleon Hill; 15 (dialogue) "It happened again, what do I do?"
Word Count: 1451, ffn
Might be AU, might be canon. We don't know enough about the maurauders era to know.
~Buttercat