"Padfoot-"

"Shut up."

"But I-"

"Shut up."

"But I want to-"

"Peter, SHUT UP!" Screamed Sirius Black, glaring as the smaller boy who had been nagging him quickly shrunk away. Peter Pettigrew slunk away to a corner and began murmuring something to himself that sounded suspiciously like 'sorry' over and over again, his watery blue eyes locked on his feet. Sirius, nicknamed Padfoot, smirked and let out a bark-like laugh as he watched Peter creeping sadly away from him, seeming satisfied with his work. Another boy with prematurely graying brown hair shook his head at their antics and returned to the book he was reading, trying to ignore them. A hand quickly shot out from seemingly no where and slapped the chuckling teenager over the side of his head, causing Sirius to yip and hold a hand to his ear.

"What was that for?!" The attacked boy yelled, glaring at the one who had hit him. A boy with unruly raven-colored hair was grinning as Sirius nursed his ear, looking very nonchalant and bored while the hand he had used to slap his friend rested behind his head.

"Leave Wormtail alone- he was only trying to help." He said with a shrug, glancing over to the mumbling and sniffing Peter- or Wormtail- who was standing off to one side, the sound of his constant 'sorry, sorry, sorry' floating through the air. Padfoot looked crossly at the black-haired boy, who was named James Potter, and pointed to the cowering Peter.

"He always trying to help- but he's not!" Sirius shouted, making the smaller boy he was yelling at before shrink down a little lower and let out a small sob. James rolled his eyes at the actions of his two friends- Sirius picking on Peter again, and Peter taking every single thing he said personally and seriously. The wild-haired boy playfully shoved Sirius out of the way, giving him a look that plainly said 'You did it again' as he walked over to where Peter was cringing. He placed a comforting hand around the smaller boy's shoulders, pushing his own glasses that had slid down his nose back to their original place with a finger.

"Padfoot didn't mean it-" James quickly shot a look over to Sirius, who gave him a little indifferent shrug of his shoulders in reply.

"-He was just… um… kidding." The boy said after a short pause, since he had been trying to think up some sort of excuse that would please Peter. And so it did, since the fair-haired boy was extremely gullible. In reality Sirius had not been kidding- everything he said to the poor boy had been true. But James was successful in masking all of it as sarcasm and jokes, just to keep Wormtail from having a nervous breakdown.

"O-oh… okay…" The shorter boy murmured, wiping a hand underneath his eye. Good ole Peter- thank goodness he was so naïve or he probably wouldn't make it through school without having a mental collapse every day. James patted him heartily on the back, making Peter lurch forward from the force. Prongs- James's nickname- didn't seem to have noticed that he had fallen over, though, his amber eyes directed at the sky though he still was talking to Pettigrew and the other two boys.

"There's a good chap. Now, lads, what havoc shall we wreak today?" He grinned and glanced back to Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, the brown-and-grey haired teenager, with a devious look. Sirius grinned, and Remus even glanced up from his book to give a little smile. Peter looked as little unsure, but smiled anyways. Lupin slowly closed his book and set it down on the grass beside him, looking to the black-haired boy who had voiced the recent question.

"Well, full moon isn't for a week…" he noted, looking to the sky. James nodded in agreement, and Sirius scowled in disappointment. Peter looked a little relieved.

"Yeah, I'm bored. Is Snevillus around anywhere?" Sirius questioned, smirking as he glanced around through the black hair that fell so handsomely in front of his eyes. Peter small eyes darted around the area, the sinister grin of a sports fan waiting for a game to begin finding its way on his pudgy face. James lifted his head up to look, a lopsided smile on his face. But Remus pretended to be busy with the book at his side, purposely covering up the small 'Prefect' badge he had pinned to his school robes. Sadly there was no one else around, which made Padfoot frown and moodily lean against a tree, his shoulders hunched defensively and arms crossed. The grin disappeared from James's face, and Peter let out a little sound of disappointment. It was Remus this time that looked relieved.

"Well, what should we do?" Sirius complained, still frowning at the empty land before him, his eyes still glaring straight ahead. Peter looked down and James shrugged, while Remus simply ignored him.

"We could release rats in the girl's dormitory!" The long-haired boy offered, the scowl slowly disappearing from his face as he looked hopefully to his friends. Potter grinned, but Pettigrew and Lupin had different thoughts.

"I'm offended. Release rats?" Peter protested, since his animagus form was a rat itself. Sirius and James sniggered beneath their breath as Peter pouted. Lupin, who had opened up his book and had begun reading, offered his criticism without even looking up.

"First, how are going to get hold of these rodents- without using Peter as one, that is. And second, how would we even get up to the girl's dormitories? You know that the stairs don't allow boys up."

"They don't?" Peter said with a wondered voice, since he himself had never tried to actually get up to the Gryffindor girl's room. Sirius and James, on the other hand, let expressions of remembered pain flash across their faces as they looked to each other, showing that they had tried and obviously something bad had happened. The boy who had last spoken looked a little curious and confused, but neither James nor Sirius looked as if they wanted to talk about it. After sneaking each other a quick glance, Prongs and Padfoot both turned their backs to Wormtail and Moony and began to whisper loudly, discussing their own version of the incident of the Girl's Dormitory and obviously hoping that the most gullible of the group was listening.

"Oh, it was terrible. When those knives swung down on us-"

"Yeah, I almost lost an eye!"
"Ha, I almost lost an arm!" Sirius' bark-like laughter erupted as both chattering boys turned around to look to their eavesdropping friend. Lupin was chiding them quietly with a few disapproving grunts. Peter, one the other hand, stared at the pair with wide eyes and his face the picture of pure terror, his hand clutching his arm as if he had been imagining himself loosing it instead of his long-haired companion. James smirked a little and swaggered over to their obviously frightened friend and once again swung his arm around his shoulders, talking as his free hand rumpled his already disorderly jet-black hair.

"We were kidding, Wormtail." James announced; making Peter's once tense shoulders and fidgeting fingers relax a little. Sirius muttered something to himself about 'ruining his fun again'. With a playful smirk, Potter pulled his friend a little closer and whispered a comment in his ear that would probably please Black.

"Well, maybe he'll want to test out if we were lying or not." He gestured towards Peter with a flick of his finger, and, as he had suspected, Sirius grinned.

"We can only hope." He muttered through a smirk, pulling away from James with another dog-like chortle. Remus had obviously heard the conversation exchanged between the two, rolling his eyes and sticking his nose even farther into his book. There was a few moments silence between the four students, each shifting their weight from foot to foot as if trying to think of something to say. Finally, Sirius's exasperated sigh broke the silence.

"So, what are we going to do?"

"Well… er, I've got some studying to do in the… library. Yes, right, the library. Well, it was nice talking with you chaps- really must be off- bye bye!" And James ran off after sputtering out his very unconvincing excuse for leaving. The three remaining boys watched as their friend didn't go to the castle, but headed towards the other side of the lake where a girl with long red hair was sitting alone. Sirius rolled his eyes, Peter frowned, and Remus smirked slightly as he once again buried his nose into his book. Mr. Black watched through narrowed eyes his friend sit next to the girl, glaring across the lake at the back of his head. He murmured something beneath his breath, but the undertone could be heard clearly the two others.

"Figures- prancing off with Evans. Why doesn't he just give up already?" Lupin gave a small nod of agreement, but Peter looked either indifferent or simply tuned out again. A satisfied grin crept across the teenager's face as he watched the two figures across the lake converse, and it was obvious it wasn't going well. Loud voices of shouting, though the words muddled from the distance, promised that the two were in a fight. Sirius watched with a happy grin as the red-haired girl, whom he had called Evans, slapped James across the face. The slapped boy finally seemed to give up, since the figure slumped away, one hand held to his cheek while the other was fishing around in his robe pocket, probably looking for his wand out of habit. Sirius let out a bark-like laugh at the sight, though it was probably good that Prongs couldn't hear him from over the expanse of the lake. He looked triumphantly back to his two friends.

"See- she doesn't like him, and he knows it. But he just keeps trying- oh, look, now he goes to the library. I say we join his 'study group', eh?" The long-haired boy smirked and galloped off towards the library, Remus reluctantly following and Peter hurriedly sprinting after them both.