A/N: I do not own Harry Potter.
James Potter grunted as he tugged at his best friend Sirius Black. His best mate, fellow Maurader and Animagus, he was the brother James never had.
And despite this, he was, as usual, at wits end when it came to trying to get him to wake up.
"Padfoot! For the love of Merlin, will you get up; we're going to be late! I wouldn't put it past McGonagall to give us detention."
Sirius mumbled unintelligently and simply buried his head deeper into the pillow. James sighed exasperatedly. It was normally Remus who dealt with the thankless task of getting them all out of bed. But it was that time of month and James couldn't condone his poor friend for feeling crappy and not up to par as usual.
Giving up, James grabbed his wand and with a mischievous flick, summoned a fountain of water and sent it crashing down on his friends head. It had no effect save for a single grunt from Sirius, before starting to snore.
James sighed. Not again. Sirius to all intents and purposes, was a dead man when he was asleep. He idly chucked another water blast at his other mate Peter, whose squeal and accompanying thunk meant it had done the trick. The noise also roused a groggy Remus from his bed.
Satisfied with his other charges, he turned his attention to Sirius again. Flicking his wand upwards, he thought, levicorpus!
A flash of light and Sirius was dangling upside down as though held up by an invisible hook around the ankle. Sirius's head lolled to the side as he still slept, water dripping from his hair.
An evil grin crossed James face and he pointed his wand at Sirius's pyjamas.
A loud yell later, Sirius woke violently, swinging from side to side. Disoriented, he fumbled widely for his wand before comprehension dawned and he spotted James.
"Good morning Messer Padfoot" James said cheerfully. "How wonderful of you to join your peers on this fine summer morning."
"James!"Sirius roared, wiggling madly and shivering. He swore a mixture of colourful curses as he tried to either get down or get within striking range of James, it was unclear.
"What did you do?" Remus inquired, eyeing Sirius's state with vague interest.
"Froze his pants" James grinned as Sirius continued to swear, his voices pitch growing higher as he thrashed about. Peter giggled, having awakened enough to appreciate the hilarity of the situation.
Taking pity on his mate, James undid the curse and unfroze Sirius's pants at the same time, leaving an infuriated Padfoot lying, sopping on his bed. He raised his hands in defence at his irate best friend.
"Now don't be cross Messer Padfoot" he said in a tone worthy of their Headmaster, Dumbledore. "You see, you have never had the misfortune of trying to rouse yourself in the ungodly hours of the morning such as myself and Messer Moony have suffered with for six years. Such drastic measures would not be considered necessary for ordinary people, but..."
"You're not normal" Remus finished tiredly. "None of you are."
James grinned at his friend and then turned to Sirius who was muttering darkly and siphoning off the residue water clinging to his pyjamas.
"Cheer up mate" he said brightly. "At least you don't need to shower."
Sirius gave him a filthy look and then grinned reluctantly. "Be that as it may, Messer Prongs" he proclaimed in the same tone as James had gone with "do expect to receive my-appreciation- of your lengthy measures to rouse me. I trust you'll find it of worthy merit."
Peter let out a snort of laughter. James gave him and Remus a grin and then said, deadpan, "I'm dead aren't I?"
"Yes" Remus responded in kind, his eyes twinkling. Peter didn't even try to compose himself, he just laughed harder.
"Come on then" Sirius said briskly. "Breakfast and then a lovely encounter with Minerva, the sole reason of my existence." He bowed dramatically and the others cracked up.
They dressed and left the dormitory and the Common Room.
Sirius now awoken looked full of live, next to Remus's weary frame. He was in the midst of recounting a detention he'd been given last night (much to his displeasure and consequently the DADA teacher's last dregs of sanity) when he broke off for the slightest moment. He nodded surreptitiously to the side and continued as though uninterrupted.
James knew better and out of the corner of his glasses, he spotted his long time crush Lily Evans. His heartbeat quickened and he found it difficult to concentrate on what Padfoot was saying. From what he could see in his limited peripheral vision, Lily was with her friends Mary MacDonald, Alice Smith, and Nancy McKinnon. And judging from the looks she was sending in his direction and the way she was walking, she had spotted him and his friends.
James felt some of his cheerfulness fade as an old problem surfaced. He was obsessed with Lily, to the point he was fairly sure he was in love with her. How could he not be? She was beautiful, smart, funny in a different way than his friends were and had a fiery personality. James had fallen for her a long time ago but it made no difference to the problem-she hated him.
What was it she called him? An arrogant, bullying toerag. As if he could forget those words she flung at him at every one of his advances. It hurt somewhat, but she had a point, James was immature compared to her and it didn't help that one of his enemies happened to be her old childhood friend. It was annoying, but every time he went near her, he felt nervous and resorted being true to James Potter that everyone knew-a joking, hexing prat.
"Messer Padfoot calling Messer Prongs. Does Messer Prongs respond?"
Startled, James's head snapped up. "Huh?"
"He's alive!" Sirius and Peter cried as one. Moony snorted as they sat at the table.
"Oh shut up" James rolled his eyes.
"You were somewhere mate but you weren't here" Sirius smiled unrepentantly.
"Yeah" Peter added. "You looked like the time you got hit in the head with the Bludger."
"Which time?" James rolled his eyes again.
Remus snorted into his cornflakes.
James sighed and tucked into his own breakfast, forcing himself not to look down the table at Lily. After several years of listening to Sirius's advice on girls (which was extensive, but had no luck with Evans) he'd appealed to Remus, who said to leave her alone and act more normal. James was quite sure his mate had lost it, but Remus insisted it would wake Lily up if he stopped pestering her and it would help (he stressed repeatedly) not to hex everyone who annoyed him or because he felt like it. He had nothing else to lose so he tried it. He didn't notice any change, but Remus said to give it time.
He grimaced. Patience was not his strong suit. But he trusted Moony and he was the smart one of the lot of them.
After breakfast, they made their way down to Transfiguration. Forcing himself to stop thinking about Evans, he concentrated on chatting to the guys, while making sure Remus was alert enough to stay awake in McGonagall's class. It wasn't so bad in other classes that fell on days after the full moon, the guys covered him, but in McGonagall's they didn't wish to find her reaction if he fell asleep in hers. They played the fool with her (Sirius especially) but none of them were foolish enough to push their lick with her. Much.
Remus seemed semi alert, but at the presence of McGonagall he perked up a little. They trooped in, along with Lily and her friends and a few Hufflepuffs.
"Alright that's enough" McGonagall announced. Silence fell. "Your sixth year exams begin tomorrow and I should hope you are studying for them appropriately."
Sirius rolled his eyes at James. He grinned. Peter was looking a little worried while Remus's head drooped a little. James nudged him slightly.
"Since there is no point in covering much, I will give out some mice and kittens for you to practise Vanishing, non verbally."
Peter stifled a moan. James smiled. Peter hated Vanishing mice, having a certain affinity for rats and of course, he hated cats.
"Cheer up Wormtail, only exams tomorrow" Sirius whispered cheerfully while Professor McGonagall handed out mice and cats out. Peter just groaned quietly, while James and Sirius sniggered and Remus chuckled.
James quickly grabbed his mouse's tail, while it wriggled wildly. Quickly he Vanished it without saying a word and Peter's eyes widened in horror. James just shook his head at him and reached for the kitten. Transfiguration came easily to James, it was his best subject. Apart from Quidditch.
He was in the process of Vanishing his kitten when there was a knock at the door and Professor Slughorn stuck his large balding head in the door and beckoned to McGonagall. Immersed in his Transfiguration, he was consequently startled when Professor McGonagall's voice rang out.
"Mr. Potter, I need you to accompany me now please. Bring your things."
Puzzled, he looked at his friends and the rest of the class and then at McGonagall.
"Whatever it is, I didn't do it Professor" he said, causing the class to snigger.
"Now Potter" she ordered. She seemed grim.
James packed his bag and swung it over his shoulder. The other Marauder's looked at him confused. He shrugged, racking his brains trying to think of a reason he'd be in trouble. The only thing he could think of was when he and Sirius had hexed Barry Macmillan and they'd already got in trouble for that.
He left the classroom, aware that eyes were following him, all undoubtedly wondering what he'd done. He passed Professor Slughorn who seemed more agitated than usual. Feeling a little uneasy, he followed McGonagall down the hallway. After a couple of corridors, he realized where they were going to Professor Dumbledore's office. His unease grew.
They arrived at the gargoyle that stood guard outside Dumbledore's office.
"Cockroach cluster" McGonagall said and it moved aside. James smiled slightly. For all his brilliance, Dumbledore was a little predictable at times.
They went up the staircase and McGonagall knocked and then opened the door. She ushered James into the large circular office filled with books, odd spindly silver objects, many portraits of dead Headmasters and Mistresses and Fawkes, Dumbledore's beautiful phoenix.
Dumbledore stood at the desk, dressed in blue robes and wearing a grave expression. James's unease was growing bigger now. He'd only been in Dumbledore's office once on an occasion he had been quite sure he would be expelled.
"James" Dumbledore inclined his head at his wayward pupil, a small smile appearing.
"Sir" he ducked his head back. Then feeling a little impatient "I know I don't have the greatest record in the school sir, but I swear I haven't done anything."
Dumbledore waved at a seat in front of his desk and James sat. Dumbledore followed. McGonagall had stepped back to the door and James became keenly aware of the gazes of the portraits on him.
He looked at the Professor, silently asking for him to explain. Dumbledore sighed and then his piercing blue eyes met his hazel ones.
"I am very sorry to tell you this James" Dumbledore said quietly. "Your parents have been found dead."
A/N: Ok, this is my first Harry Potter fic, I don't know how'll it turn out, hopefully well, but I don't know. But my God I've been going through stories on Harry Potter and there are sooo many! It's staggering, the number of pages right now is 10,199, how will I manage to read them all? I'll grow old beforehand.