Author's note: This is just the first chapter and all that really happens is that James, Remus, and Sirius (and Peter Pettigrew, but I'm not crazy about him, so he isn't in this particular chapter much) meet and become friends. See how you like it and enjoy.
Meeting of the Marauders
James sat there on the train, staring out the window, looking as all the faces of the people waving good-bye on the platforms grew tinier and tinier. James ruffled his hair. It was always ruffled, never quite smoothed out, even if he tried, but he liked it that way. He wore thin, round framed spectacles, and held his new wand closely to him. It was the Hogwarts Express train he was on, only him and his thoughts. . .
Then he saw, in the corner of his eye, he noticed a dark haired boy sitting across from him, twiddling his fingers. The boy had the same colored hair as James, only it was a little longer, but not quite covering his earlobes. He glanced back at James, then looked back down at his hands. James gave him a small smile, just to be polite.
'Should I talk to him?' James thought, 'I've got nothing else to do. And Lord knows it would be an long an awkwardly quite trip if I didn't say anything.'
"Hi," James said, trying to strike an accord.
"Hello," the boy replied.
It looked as though the boy was about to say something else, but then his eyes turned to the compartment door, which swung open as a red-haired girl and a greasy, dark haired boy stepped in and sat down.
They were talking to each other, but James didn't notice, he was looking out the window again, staring at the scenery, until finally he heard the greasy-haired boy say: "Anyways, you'd better get into Slytherin."
"Slytherin?" the girl asked, obviously not understanding what he meant.
"I wouldn't want to be in that house! I'd leave, wouldn't you?" James said, mainly directing the question at the boy he was trying to strike up a conversation with earlier.
"My whole family's in Slytherin," he said back, frowning.
"Blimey!" James said, "and I thought you were alright!"
This amused the boy, he grinned and said, "Yeah, well maybe I'll break the tradition. What house do you want to be in?"
James held up an imaginary sword, and swung it around while saying "Gryffindor, Like my father," he smiled.
"Tcch!" grunted the greasy-haired boy, who was listening to the conversation, although with little interest.
"What, you got a problem with that?" James asked sharply.
"Oh, no, no. If you'd rather be brawny then brainy-"
"And which house are you going into, seeing as your neither?" retorted the boy sitting across James.
"C'mon Severus, let's go find another compartment!" said the red-haired girl, who was disgusted at James in the boy, who were now rolling in there seats howling with laughter.
"Yeah, see ya Snivellus!" the boy said just before the compartment door closed.
As soon as they regained control over themselves, they sat back up.
"My names James Potter."
"Sirius Black," the boy replied, shaking James's hand.
* * * *
It was evening time now, and they finally made it to Hogwarts. They already changed into their school uniforms and were now in the Great Hall being sorted by the Sorting Hat for which house the would be placed in: Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, or Gryffindor.
James's new friend, Sirius, was up now. He placed the Sorting Hat on his head and let it sit there for a moment or two. . .then another. . .and another. . .
'Did he break it?' James wondered, 'No, of course not! How could you break a hat? Well. . .it is a pretty old looking hat. Maybe it died of old age. Could be very old. That'd be weird to have a dead hat on your head. Wait, what am I talking about?! Hats aren't alive! . . . 'Cept for possibly the Sorting Hat, but that's a magic hat. . .but does that mean it's really alive?'
James gave a bewildered look to himself, thinking how strange he was sounding. He focused back to Sirius, who was beginning to look worried until finally the Sorting Hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" Sirius looked relieved as he took off the hat and gave a look at James as if to say 'Thank goodness! This is great, isn't it?' then took a seat at the Gryffindor table.
Next up was the red-haired girl who James remembered to be the one on the train. She was placed in Gryffindor, and James heard a groan of disappointment behind him and automatically knew it was the greasy-haired boy, Severus. The girl walked to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Sirius. As soon as she recognized him, she turned away from him, making a face of disapproval.
Next up was James, who although looked calm was extremely nervous. It seemed to him like the moment was going in slow motion, drawing out the suspense and wonder, almost as if it the moment was in some way satisfied to know how nervous it was making James. James put on the Sorting Hat; it had barely touched his head when it shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" James gave a sigh of relief as he walked to the Gryffindor table. He heard Severus's name called, and immediately after that he heard the Sorting Hat cry out "SLYTHERIN!"
"Looks like your boyfriend got what he wanted then," Sirius said to the red-haired girl. James sat across from them.
"He's not my boyfriend!" she said sharply to Sirius and turned away from him.
"I didn't catch your name," Sirius said, still trying to talk to her.
"That's because she didn't throw it," James said, not realizing he did say that tell several moments of silence from Sirius as he stared at James. Sirius then started to laugh hysterically (loud enough to get some stares from people around.)
"Really?" Sirius said to James in between laughs. James started to laugh to, both because he couldn't believe he said that either, and because of the scene Sirius was making.
"No but seriously," Sirius said towards the girl, "what is your name?"
"It's Lily, OK? Lily Evans!" she said angrily, sounding frustrated with Sirius. James and Sirius exchanged looks before James said, "You know Lily, we really 'ought to stop meeting like this."
She didn't acknowledge him, so they decided to give up trying to talk to her.
"My mum's gunna kill me when she hears I'm in Gryffindor," Sirius said smiling.
"A shame," James said, "Guess I better start lookin' for a new best mate!"
"Gee, thanks," Sirius said sarcastically. A brown haired boy who looked somewhat tired sat on Sirius's right. He looked from James to Sirius and gave a small, bashful smile.
"You know," the boy said, "usually people try to help out their mates when their mum's gunna kill 'em."
"Yeah, I s'pose you're right!" James said laughing.
"I'm James Potter,"
James shook his hand;
"and this is Sirius Black."
Sirius shook the boy's hand.
"I'm Remus John Lupin," the boy said, "you can call me John, Lupin, or Remus, doesn't matter to me, I'm fine with 'em all."
"The girl sitting on Sirius's left is Lily Evans," James said. Lily spun around to see what he was going to say about her.
"But she hates us," James continued, "thinks we're no good, no good at all."
"I never said that!" Lily said, "but you do make a bad first impression!" she added quickly.
"Well Lily, I'm sorry if they haven't quite been gentlemen," Lupin said, and Sirius burped as he said this and gave a small smile. Remus smiled too and continued.
"-but what are you gunna expect of 'em? They're just rascals! I've only spent, what, two minutes with them and I already know they're rascals!"
"Yeah but Sirius is rascally-er," James said.
"No, you are!" Sirius said, "rascally-er isn't even a word!"
Lily looked at Lupin. "Well if they're rascals, then what are you?" Lupin looked back at her and looked almost serious.
"Me?" he started, "Well, er, I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."
James and Sirius started laughing as Lily turned away, thinking that Lupin was just making a rude joke or something, although she didn't even quite understand how that statement could be rude, but Lupin just kept his solemn look, but giving a sly smile, looking as if he knew something they didn't.
They hit it off right from the start with Lupin, and talked about what seemed like everything that night. They finished up there meal, Dumbledore made a short speech and wished them all a good night. Sirius, Remus, and James all headed down to the Gryffindor common room together, and continued talking until finally making it up to the boy's dormitory, where they met three other boys they'd be sharing the dormitory with, a rather tall and skinny by the name of Ted Donnigan, a shy boy named David MacMiller, and a quirky, short, plump, blonde boy by the name of Peter Pettigrew, who never seemed to know what to do with his hands, so he'd just sort of caress them with each other.
* * * *
Weeks have gone by and all they, James, Remus, and Sirius, have been doing is bonding. Playing minor pranks, joking about, and even helping each other out with class work. They were all bright in there own way, one always knowing something the other two didn't, but they all did well in every subject. They also learned that they prank styles were somewhat different, unique in their own way. They'd explore the castle , and in doing so, have managed to find some secret passageways.
It was a bright clear day, Lupin and Sirius were talking with each other, walking down the Great Hall, heading down to the Quidditch field, but stopped because they heard something coming behind them. This something turned out to be James, sprinting towards them.
"I thought you had to finished up your Potions report?" Sirius said to James.
"Nah, Peter's doing it for me," James said.
"Isn't that a bit mean? I mean, he'll miss the game against Slytherin," Lupin said, looking a bit agitated about this.
"Yeah I know, that's what I said to him!" James said. "He practically begged me to let him do it, it was really creepy. Even when he didn't ask to do it he would just stare at me in this strange way!"
"Weird," Sirius said, "Well let's go, we don't wanna miss the game!"
They smiled, glad that they could all head down to the Quidditch field together. Little did they know that right after the game those smiled would seem like they happened forever ago. Gryffindor was beaten badly by Slytherin, one hundred and ninety to ninety. It wouldn't bother Gryffindor as much if Slytherin would just stop bragging about it. For about half a month this went on, and it was getting to the point where a couple of Slytherins wound up in the infirmary with Madam Pomfrey.
"They're horrible!" Lupin said almost in a shout when they reached the common room. This was a sign that the Slytherins had gone too far, because even though things could annoy Remus Lupin, he rarely ever shouted about something that seemed so little as this. "I don't blame you for trying to hit Lucius Malfoy in the face, even if he is a prefect!"
"Yeah," Sirius said, "even though I would've gotten detention for three weeks or something, it would've been worth it just to shut Malfoy up!" He kicked off his shoes angrily in the remembrance of the insufferable blonde-haired Lucius Malfoy. He stared at the fire in the fireplace, it's warmth filling the common room. "I suppose we should get to bed."
"Yeah, s'pose we should," James said, although sounding like he didn't agree. He too was looking in the fire, and looked like he was in a deep thought. "But the night is still young. We shouldn't have to turn in yet. I mean, I'm not really sleepy, are you guys?"
"No," Lupin and Sirius said together, giving each other a small glance, knowing that James was up to something.
"Exactly, so why should we go to bed? Let's go down to the kitchen, pay a little visit to the house-elves." The three of them smiled, put their shoes back on, and headed down to the kitchen.
* * * *
It was morning now, James awoke with a big smile on his face. He sat up and looked over to Sirius, and saw that he had the same smile. They got dressed and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. They sat down next to Lupin, who had awoken earlier and headed down to breakfast while they, Sirius and James, were still asleep. Lupin too had a grin across his face.
"My my, Remus, you're up early!" James said jokingly, "Why is that?"
"I just felt like this morning was gunna start with a bang," Lupin replied, smiling in the same way Sirius and James had. "So shall we get this thing started?"
"Right after I finish eating," James said, grabbing some food, "I have a feeling that we'll be hauled off before being able to eat."
" I don't know about you guys," Sirius said with a grin, "but I'm rather in the mood for some Jell-O." Lupin and James gave a small laugh.
"There's always room for Jell-O," Remus said smiling, quoting the old Jell-O commercial.
They finished eating, although rather fast, being some of the first people to finish.
"OK, let's do this," James said with excitement noticeable in his voice.
Lupin got out his wand, waved it above the Slytherin table and muttered something under his breathe, and suddenly two large, green Jell-O squares with a big silver S in each appeared above the Slytherin table. Some Ravenclaws gasped and people began to point above the Slytherin table, causing the Slytherin table to get curious.
"Wait for it. . ." James whispered. He and Sirius had their wands at the ready, pointed at the large Jell-O squares. About half a dozen Slytherins saw it, more and more looked up, due to the fact that the Jell-O squares caste a large shadow over the entire Slytherin table.
"-wait for it. . ."
Then all of them saw, everyone in the Great Hall saw. McGonagoll's jaw dropped and many people gasped and covered their mouths ("Oh my, oh my, oh my," Professor Flitwick repeated). One of the Slytherins was beginning to stand up to get away but barely made it two inches off the bench before-
"NOW!" James whispered loudly, he and Sirius muttered something under their breath just as Remus had and made a swift downward movement with their wands in unison, and the Jell-O squares fell quickly down on every Slytherins face, since they all had looked up at the Jell-O squares, which now covered them all. A Slytherin girl gave a large squeal and tried to run away in embarrassment, only to slip and fall in the Jell-O. The Gryffindor table howled with laughter, glad that Slytherin got what they deserved for being so annoying for the past couple of weeks. James doubled over laughing, Sirius was holding his stomach, which was cramping up, Lupin almost fell off the bench in a fit of laughter and high-fived James. It was all great until James felt a hand squeeze tightly on his shoulder.
"You three. My office. Now," said a voice behind James. He knew it was Professor McGonagall.
They were in McGonagoll's office, Dumbledore sitting behind McGonagoll's desk with McGonagall herself standing at his right. McGonagall had her lips shut so tightly that her lips were almost white.
"So," Dumbledore started, looking and sounding very calm, 'we know, for a fact that you boys were the ones who pulled this stunt."
"How?" Sirius asked curiously, quickly adding sir to the end.
"Peeves saw you," McGonagall said sternly. ("Peeves!" Sirius whispered angrily.)
"Yes, well, you three will be serving detention with Professor McGonagall every Tuesday for a month, starting today, you will be cleaning up the mess you have made, and we'll be writing to your parents telling them what you've done. But, what I'd like to know is," Dumbledore moved forward a bit, putting his elbows on the desk and asked curiously, "how did you do it?
They glanced at each other, wondering if they should divulge.
"How did you make it invisible?" Dumbledore asked with curiosity.
"Well, a Disillusionment Charm, sir," Lupin said, folding his hand. His mouth twitched, trying hard not to smile with pride of how well his first Disillusionment Charm went.
"I see," Dumbledore said, "and you made it float by. . ."
"Using a Hover Charm," Sirius said. He too was twitching his mouth a little, proud of how well that went.
Ah," Dumbledore said. He looked down, trying to hide his own smile. "My final question is, how and where did you get the Jell-O?"
"Had the house-elves brew it up for us down in the kitchen," James said.
"Amazing!" Dumbledore said smiling. McGonagall looked at him wildly. " For first years, that is of course. Although," he continued, the smile now gone from his face, " I do agree with Professor McGonagall: it was a very bad thing to do, and I hope nothing like this ever happens again. Professor McGonagall will now take you to the Great Hall for your first detention."
They stood up and walked to the door with McGonagall, but Sirius hesitated.
"Sir," he said, " the house-elves down at the kitchen shouldn't be punished for making the Jell-O -"
"they didn't know what we were going to do," James finished for him. Lupin nodded in agreement.
"I have no intention to punish the house-elves," Dumbledore replied, glad to see how they cared about what happened to the house-elves.
They headed down to the Great Hall with McGonagall. When they got there she turned to face them with a stern look across her face.
"You may not use magic to clean up this mess!" she said, "Do you have ANYTHING to say for yourselves?"
They shook their heads no.
"Why?" she asked, "WHY would you do this?"
"Professor, they were being terrible winners!" Remus said, "They kept bragging and-"
"That is no excuse, Mr. Lupin!" said McGonagall. She sighed, "although it is true..." They boys smiled, glad she agreed with them
"But," she started, as soon as she saw them smiling, " I never want to hear that you have done something like this again!"
She gave them a final stern look and pointed at the Jell-O. They sat there for awhile and stared at the Jell-O in silence.
"Guys," Lupin started, finally breaking the small silence, "how exactly do you clean up this much Jell-O?"
Sirius and James shrugged.
"Do we sweep it up? Or throw it away?" Lupin said, wondering just as much as Sirius and James how you do it.
They sat there shortly before James stood up quickly.
"We'll scoop it up, put it in a bucket and throw it out," he said, looking up at McGonagall. She nodded, and turned a fork into a large bucket that was bigger than a usual sized bucket so that they could carry more Jell-O.
They started scooping up handfuls of Jell-O and putting it into the large bucket, when Sirius said "Yep. My mom's definitely gunna kill me now!" They all grinned.
"Don't worry, we'll save you," James said, he and Remus slapped Sirius on the back reassuringly.
They finished pretty quickly, and headed outside, heading down to Herbology class. Almost everyone applauded when they saw them, because the news traveled fast that they did the Jell-O prank.
"Well done Remus!"
"Great job, Sirius!"
"That was amazing!
"You guys are great!"
"JAMES!" said a voice from behind. They turned to see a short, plump, blonde-haired boy run up to them, who they automatically recognized.
"That was amazing!" he said, "absolutely amazing! Brilliant!"
"Thanks Peter," James said. Peter walked away, "Brilliant!" he shouted back one last time.
"Thanks for teaching Slytherin a lesson, Remus!" shouted one of the Chasers in the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
"Thanks," Lupin said with a smile, giving her a small wave.
They started heading to Herbology again, when Severus ran up to them.
"YOU!" he said furiously, "YOU DID THIS! You'll get what's coming for you! YOU WILL! I'll see that you get expelled eventual-"
"Back off, Severus," said a fifth year boy. He and two of his friends stood in between Severus, preventing him from getting at James, Sirius, or Lupin, even though they weren't remotely scared of him. Severus stood there still, not sure what to do exactly, torn between leaving and staying.
"I said: Back. Off. Severus!," the boy repeated slowly but sternly. Finally Severus gave them one last look, a look of hate, and turned away to head to the castle.
"Thanks," James said with a smile to the fifth year boy with a grin.
The boy was grinning too now. "No problem," he said, "anything for the guys who shut Slytherin up!"
The fifth year boys walked off, and Remus, Sirius, and James once again headed off to class.
"You know," James said smiling at the people who were congratulating them still, "even though we've got detention for a whole month and all, this stunt was definitely worth it!"
Remus and Sirius grinned ear to ear, "Definitely!" they said in agreement.
"But we gotta figure out how to keep Peeves from seeing, or blabbing about anything we do!" Sirius said, half laughing, although still sounding annoyed.
They opened the door's to the greenhouse and stepped inside.