Disclaimer: I do not own the Marauders. J.K Rowling does.
13-year-old Sirius yawned and stretched his arms over his head as he woke up. The clock was quarter to seven, as always when he woke up on weekdays. None of his friends could believe how he got up this early, but after being awoken even earlier all days of the week except Sundays for his entire life, it didn't give him much choice. Apparently a well-bred gentleman was always up early in the mornings, according to his mother. But he wasn't always in bed early, which could give him complications. For example, it was very rude to leave early from any party or ball or supper he was invited to or hosted. Sirius had hosted his first dinner party at 9 years old. Another thing a well-bred gentleman should be able to do perfectly. But Sirius had early in life learned to get up from bed early in the mornings. Plus, how else would he have time to fix his hair?
He was dressed in red silk pyjamas, courtesy of Mr and Mrs Potter, when he swung his legs over the bedside and stepped down on the cold floor. Sirius felt himself shudder from the cold beneath his feet but overall felt pretty good. He had had a good night's sleep and he had a lot of time to get ready before everyone else woke up. Or well, perhaps Remus would wake up pretty soon – hopefully, he didn't want to think about the alternative – but otherwise he would have some time alone. The solitude here at school and the one at home were so completely different. At home he felt just like that… alone. Like he was alone in the world. But here during the mornings at Hogwarts he felt peaceful, walking around the Marauders' dormitory early in the morning and knowing that he could wake up his friends anytime, hearing their breaths and slight snores from their beds. No, he wasn't alone. Not at all. Sirius smiled at the thought. That was what meant most to him in the whole world, knowing that he was not alone. James, Remus and Peter would all be there for him when he needed them. He just got some time for himself on the mornings.
He walked into the bathroom and opened the locker where he had his products. The locker was filled to the width with brushes, spray, gels and so on. His hair products probably cost more together than Remus got in pocket money for a whole year. If only that stubborn werewolf would allow them to buy him things more often, (as it was now they had to force him to take what they gave him) his low allowance wouldn't be a problem. But nooooo. Remus' stupid dignity forbade him to take 'gifts of pity' as he called them.
After about forty minutes Sirius had almost finished his hair and was waiting for Remus to wake up. The younger boy usually woke up in the same moment as he was finished. But when he had made a swirl with his wand and washed the gel off his hands, he understood that today was going to be one of those mornings. He cringed at the thought but then sighed in relief when he remembered that he had been the one to do it the last time, so today it was either James or Peter's turn.
After another ten minutes he walked over to James' four poster bed and jumped up on it.
"Wake up, Jamie!" he shouted, but not loud enough to wake anyone else. James yawned and rolled over, ignoring Sirius' calls. Sirius shook his head.
"Jamie, Jamie, Jamie…" and then he quickly proceeded to steal James' pillow and hit him with it.
"Ow." James complained and sat up, looking slightly tired but not too bad. He took his glasses from the bedtable before putting them on his nose and smiling. "Morning, Siri."
"Morning Jamie." Sirius nodded.
Luckily James was never too hard to wake up, and neither tended to be grumpy in the morning. As soon as he was awake again, he was usually in a good mood.
They climbed down from James' bed and grinned before walking over to Peter's bed.
The mousy boy was snoring lightly where he was lying, limbs spread all over the bed. The black haired boys grinned deviously toward each other before lining up next to the bed, taking a steady grip on the mattress and counting down from 3 to 1 before quickly turning the mattress over, shouting: "Wakey wakey, Petey!" on the top of their lungs. Peter screamed and rolled off the mattress, falling down on the floor with a thud. James and Sirius roared with laughter as they watched their dishevelled friend trying to orient himself.
"I'm up, I'm up!" Peter croaked as he remembered where he was and why he was lying on the floor, just like most mornings – especially those when Remus wasn't up yet.
"Where's Remus?" Peter asked sleepily when he stood up and got steady on his legs. Sirius froze but then calmed down again. It was not his turn. James on the other hand looked around worriedly.
"He's not awake." Sirius told them and both James and Peter blinked before looking slightly panicked.
"It's your turn to wake him up." They said almost at the exact same time and looked at each other. James glared at Peter and shook his head.
"No way. It's your turn."
"But…" Peter protested before James made a gesture with his hand that told Peter to shut up and he immediately closed his mouth.
"Your turn." James ordered again and the brown blond nodded, crestfallen.
The youngest Marauder walked over to the bed where Remus was sleeping soundly and swallowed in fear. No one liked to be the one to wake Remus up. Remus had two modes in the morning: either he was up second, after the Black heir, housing around, doing a little homework, reading or talking with Sirius, or he slept in until he was awoken by his friends. Luckily that usually only happened around the full moon and maybe once every other month otherwise.
Remus growled in his sleep, like he could sense that someone was coming to wake him up. Peter squeaked, aghast, but James and Sirius urged him on so he swallowed his fear and began to poke on the young lycanthrope. The older boy growled viciously and threw out his arm, hitting Peter in the stomach so he yelped and bent over.
"Just do it, Peter!" Sirius yelled from where he stood safely a few meters away. Peter nodded and began to shake Remus but quickly found it was not a good idea when he got a kick to his chest and fell over on his back.
"Can't one of you do it?" He begged his friends from where he was lying on the floor. He saw that they were smirking and knew they probably wouldn't, but he couldn't help but ask. After all, they were both bigger, stronger, and braver than he was.
They shook their heads at the exact same time and grinned before waving him on.
Peter sighed and stood up once again, determinedly shaking Remus and ignoring the fact that he was doing his best to kick and hit him in his sleep. Remus was really aggressive when he didn't want to be woken up. They didn't know if it was his furry little problem or if it was just him, but it didn't really matter. What mattered was that it hurt to be hit by him.
Suddenly Remus curled up in a ball and then with a growl threw himself over Peter, who fell to the floor once again, with Remus upon his chest. Peter screamed as he felt himself fall, before finding himself beneath his friend who was standing in straddle over him. Remus blinked and shook his head and Peter sighed in relief as he looked confused.
"Peter? What are we doing on the floor?"
James and Sirius began to roar with laughter again as the boys stood up and dusted themselves off, and Peter explained that he had been trying to wake Remus up.
"Oh, I am so sorry, Pete." Remus apologized profusely, as always. "So sorry."
"It's fine, Remy." Peter assured him. It really was. Remus couldn't help what he did in his sleep. Remus glared at the black haired boys, who was trying to catch themselves and breathe.
"Why didn't you help him?"
James shrugged.
"Because it was hilarious?" he asked with a smile. "Good job, Pete! I think that might be a record on getting him up from bed. He sleeps like a wolf."
Remus rolled his eyes over the stupid pun but smiled back. He couldn't be angry at them, especially since Peter didn't seem to be mad.
Peter soaked up the praise. He loved getting praise. Especially from James or Sirius. When they told him he did well, for a short while it always felt like he was immortal and could do anything. He suspected they knew it and took advantage of it sometimes, but it was totally worth being exploited sometimes to have friends like James, Sirius and Remus.
Not least because it made him one of the most popular boys in school, something he never would've been without them. It certainly wasn't the biggest reason, but it was a great advantage of being a part of the Marauders.
"Uhhh, not to destroy the good mood or anything…" Sirius said "but we should probably get down to breakfast."
The three other boys cast a look on the clock on the wall before hurriedly dressing in their school uniforms and packing their bags to hurry down to breakfast before going to lessons. As always. Somehow they always had to hurry down to breakfast. But what did that matter, it was always funny to mess around in the dorm and compete in who could dress the quickest (James usually won) and then run through the hallways and short-cuts to get down to the Great Hall.
As the Marauders ran into the Great Hall, laughing and talking loudly, demanding everyone's attention as usual (and the entire student body and the teachers were relieved because it was when they did not demand everyone's attention they had reason to worry), taking their usual places as long from the teacher's table as possible.
In the beginning of the term some first years had taken their usual seats, even though they had gotten multiple warnings from the other Gryffindors and a few Hufflepuffs that passed them to talk to a Lion. James and Sirius had quickly made sure that no one would take their places again. Usually not even the older students tried to, they had found that even though most of them could take the 13-years-olds (at least 6th and 7th years) it was not worth the effort, plus they always could count on being pranked later. Not necessarily the same day. Maybe not the next day, or the next week. But they would receive a revenge prank, for sure. So obviously their seats were empty. They sat down and began to scoop food onto their plates.
"Siriusly, why are you so dangerous to wake up sometimes?" Sirius asked with a smirk, still amused by the episode earlier this morning. It was never funny to be the one to wake Remus up, but watching other people do it was hilarious. Remus shrugged and looked sheepish as he swallowed a piece of slightly raw bacon. The house elves had learnt that the Marauders always sat at those seats and had begun to place slightly rawer meat than was healthy for normal humans there – with a special sign so no one but Remus would eat it – since the lycanthrope found meat so much more delicious when it was rawer. Not entirely raw, but he didn't want it well-cooked either. His body could handle more of the bacteria of raw meat than normal humans, but it wasn't good enough (except during the Full moon of course) to eat entirely raw meat.
"I've got no idea. I didn't even know I was like that before I began to attend Hogwarts, since you know that my parents always let me sleep in when I wanted to."
Mr and Mrs Lupin had been doing everything in their power to keep Remus as healthy as possible, so if letting him sleep until eleven o'clock was what was needed for him to have more energy, then so it would be.
"So unfair." James muttered and they all broke out in laughter. Mr and Mrs Potter would let James do whatever he wanted – he could start a street gang and they would ask him if he wanted cookies on the road – as long as he didn't break any important laws or got into any life-dangerous situations. Not being allowed to sleep until midday was not something he had the right to complain about and he knew it.
"We can swap if you want." Remus said with a smirk. "You get my furry little problem and I will get up early every morning the rest of my life."
"You wish, Lupin." Sirius smirked back and threw a piece of ham on Remus, which he caught in the air and devoured with a grin.
They all laughed again. Remus couldn't help but feel unbelievably happy. It felt bloody wonderful to be able to laugh about his lycanthropy. Then they finished breakfast and went to Charms.
What did you think? Review!
You see, I wanted to write something that was about just everyday life for the Marauders, not something that only happened once or twice, or the first time of something. So I wrote about their morning. And I also realized that I think I've almost only written about their positive sides and about them being really nice to Peter (mostly), so I wrote them being a little mean to Wormy because we all know James and Sirius were sometimes. Was it realistic?