This was written for lella7's 'Fantastic Beasts' competition! Hope I did alright! :)
This is also my very first Marauder's Era fanfic, so try and go a bit easy on me here. But I certainly enjoyed writing it, and I think I like it. So I hope you guys do too! :D
And yes...this is another pretty long oneshot...not sure how they get this long. . But meh. That's okay.
James Potter was sitting at a desk in McGonagall's classroom. James Potter was staring at the parchment sitting in front of him, covered in doodles that ranged from flying snitches to the initials of a certain redhead girl. James Potter was bored out of his mind.
He sighed and looked over at Remus, who was in detention with him. James smiled cheekily as he caught Remus's eye, but the sandy-haired boy just rolled his eyes at him. James attempted to stifle his laughter behind his hand, trying not to catch McGonagall's attention and failing miserably.
"Potter!" she barked from her desk at the front of the room. "May I ask what is so funny?"
"Nothing, Professor," James said quickly, attempting to put a straight and innocent expression on his face.
"Potter, if that is supposed to be an innocent expression, let me just say that you need to work on it some more," she said, the corners of her mouth twitching ever so slightly. Remus snickered, and James threw him a mock-glare. "In any case, you two have been here long enough, you may go."
"Ah, thank you Professor," James said, a grin sliding back on his face as he stood up and stretched. He picked up his doodled on paper and his eagle feather quill, shoving them quickly into his bag and waiting for Remus, who was putting his belongings away neatly. Once Remus had his bag over his shoulder, they both began walking toward the door out to the hall.
"Oh, and boys," McGonagall said just as James put his hand on the doorknob. They both swiveled back around to face her. "Do try and behave yourselves."
"Professor, when you're friends with him," Remus said, pointing at James, "behave yourself is pretty much a foreign concept."
"Oi! I can behave myself!" James argued. After a few seconds, he added, "I just choose not to. Life is more fun that way."
"And that's the reason that Lily keeps rejecting you," Remus muttered to him, a little smirk on his face.
"Moony! Girls love the bad boy!" James said, grinning and running his hand through his already messy hair.
"Not Lily. I've told you before, you need to stop getting into so much trouble, and try and be nicer to people. I should know. She actually talks to me, you see."
James huffed in response. He suddenly realized that McGonagall was still watching them, a slightly amused look on her face. "Sorry Professor. We'll get going now," he said quickly, shoving Remus out the door and following after him. As the door closed behind them, the hallway fell into an eerie darkness.
"How long did McGonagall keep us?" Remus asked curiously. James could just see his outline in the darkness.
"Long enough for it to get dark," James answered, pulling out his wand. He ignored Remus's sarcastic comment at his obvious statement and lit up his wand, holding his wrist out to check his watch. "Blimey, it's almost eleven!" James turned wide eyes toward the outline of his friend.
"Well, apparently being caught spiking Snape's drink with a potion that would turn him into a jellyfish is worth three hours detention in her mind," Remus said wisely, setting off down the hallway. James shrugged.
"Detention is worth it for giving Lily a laugh though. Didn't you see her face?"
"James. Is Lily all you ever think about?" Remus asked exasperatedly.
"No. I think about Quidditch all the time. That, and coming up with wicked pranks," James said, grinning and nudging Remus on the shoulder.
"Oh, of course. How could I have forgotten? We spend half our lives in detention for those wicked pranks you come up with," Remus said tiredly.
"Anyway, speaking of which, do you think Padfoot and Wormtail managed to find one? Or do you think they're even back yet?" James asked excitedly.
"I'm sure they'll be able to find one," Remus said. "I'm just curious as to how they're going to catch it. Or bring it back."
"Well, come on Moony! Let's go find out!" James said, taking off down the hallway at a sprint.
"James! Slow down!" Remus yelled after him, reluctantly speeding up as well. James ran up the few flights of stairs and down the few halls up to the portrait of the Fat Lady, where he gave her the password and dashed inside.
As soon as he entered the common room, he could tell something was different. Wrong, almost. There was no noise. It was quiet, and completely empty save for a few fourth years whispering to each other in a corner. Remus came in behind him, panting slightly, and he also stopped and looked around when he entered.
"Where is everyone?" Remus asked, a bit breathlessly.
"I don't know. It's only eleven o'clock…there are always people here until at least midnight," James said. He checked his watch again to make sure it hadn't stopped. It hadn't.
"Hey! You lot!" James said, walking over to the fourth years. "Where is everybody?"
"Well you should know, shouldn't you?" a blond haired girl answered. "It's your best friend that threatened to curse us all if we were here past eleven! Speaking of which…come on you three! Let's go!" she said to her friends, and they all scampered away up their respective staircases.
"I suppose that was actually pretty smart of him. People would be bound to notice him carrying that through the common room, wouldn't they?" Remus said.
"Yeah, I suppose." James agreed. "So…do you want to stay up and wait for them?" he asked, grinning. He knew that Remus would probably rather not get involved in this particular prank that they had come up with, but he would certainly try to convince him all the same. His brains were always very useful.
"I suppose," Remus said, sighing and flopping down on one of the armchairs by the fire and surprising James.
"Really?" James asked, flopping down in a chair across from him. "What convinced you to willingly participate in this one?"
"Well, this particular prank has the potential to go horribly wrong." Remus said. After a moment he added, "But I suppose it is a rather good one."
"Ah. As the creator of this prank, I thank you," James said pompously.
"Oh don't you go getting a big head now," Remus rolled his eyes for what James was sure must have been the hundredth time that day. "Why don't we play a bit of chess?" Remus asked. "Then maybe I can take your ego down a few notches."
"Hey!" said James. "I can win at chess!"
"Yeah, if you're playing Peter," Remus snorted as he pulled out the chessboard.
"But everyone can win against Peter. He's dreadful," James said, setting up his pieces.
"Exactly," Remus smirked at him. Before James could reply, he said, "Now come on. Let's play. They'll probably be back by the time we finish. It can't take them too much longer; they went down the same time we went to McGonagall's."
And yet, three games later (all of which Remus won), Remus asked him, "Where are they? It's nearly one!"
"Oh, they're probably fine," James said, yawning. "Peter probably needed a lot of help with the charms and everything."
"Yeah, I suppose," Remus agreed, standing up and stretching. "I'm going to bed, because I want to get enough sleep to actually stay awake in class tomorrow. Unlike you, who always falls asleep."
"Only in History of Magic, though!" James called after his retreating friend. Remus waived his hand behind him dismissively as he started up the stairs.
James sat before the fire for a few more minutes, attempting to ward off the sandman and failing miserably. The fifth time he started awake, lifting his head up off his chest, he decided to follow Remus's lead and go up to their dormitory. He quietly walked up to the sixth year's dorm and changed into his pajamas, then climbed into bed, snuggling into the covers. He was asleep in minutes.
He slipped into a pleasant dream involving himself, Lily, and a picnic lunch. His dream self was just getting ready to lay his 'sweet moves' on her, when he felt an annoying tug on his shoulder and heard a loud voice in his ear.
James groaned and rolled over, covering his head with his blanket and muttering, "Go away!" and attempting to shake off the hands that were bothering him. He was quite keen to slip back into his happy dream again, but the hands yanked the cover off of his head and found his shoulder again.
"James! Wake up! Something's gone wrong!" the voice continued in his ear. James groaned again and unwillingly opened his eyes, the details of his dream slipping from his mind. James squinted into the darkness and saw the slightly blurry form of Peter at his bedside.
"What is it, Peter?" he moaned, reaching to his bedside and picking up his glasses.
"Something's gone wrong, James," Peter said anxiously, his small eyes round. In the darkness James could see that Peter was wringing his hands nervously. He sighed and swung his legs around so he was sitting up and facing his nervous friend.
"What happened? What's gone wrong?" he asked quickly. "You're not hurt, are you? What about Sirius? Is he okay?"
"Oh, yes. Erm…we're both fine," Peter said quietly.
"Then what is it?" James asked, wishing desperately to crawl back into bed.
"Well, we managed to catch one! And we got it back to the common room and everything! But, it sort of… got away," Peter said, looking down at his feet.
"What?" James asked, amazed. "How can it have gotten away? It lives in water. It needs to be in water!"
"That's just it! I don't know! I have no clue as to how it escaped!" Peter moaned. James rubbed his eyes.
"Do you at least have any ideas where it went?" he asked.
"That's a problem as well. We know exactly where it went. Um… it went into the girl's dormitories," Peter confessed.
"Oh, that's just bloody brilliant!" James exclaimed, throwing his pillow over at his still slumbering friend, who jerked awake as it hit him in the face.
"What?" Remus asked sleepily, attempting to sit up and disentangle himself from the blanket wrapped around him.
"Come on Moony! Get up!" James said, grabbing his wand as he stood up. "We've got a…" James paused for a few seconds before saying, "a rescue mission to go on!"
James snatched up his robe and bounded out the door and down the staircase, leaving Peter to explain things to Remus. He pulled it on over his pajamas as he stepped into the common room, and spotted Sirius over by the door to the girls' dorms. Sirius was leaning in as far as he could without touching the stairs, attempting to try and see up.
"What the bloody hell happened?" James asked as he stepped over to his dark haired friend. Sirius started and almost lost his balance, catching himself just before he hit the stairs. James heaved him back up and asked, "Well?"
"I'm not even sure, mate." Sirius replied grimly.
"Just tell me what happened. And start from the beginning," James said.
"Okay. Well, we managed to do the charm. I did have to help Wormtail a bit, but we both had the bubble head charm on us in the end. So we swam down into the weeds, and I spotted a few of them, but they are bloody fast. For a while I didn't even think we were going to catch one. We must have been there for hours, we had to re-do the charm twice! But I did end up catching the one that started attacking Wormtail," Sirius said.
"That figures," James agreed, noticing for the first time a tipped over tank and a great puddle of water on the floor. "So then you got ahold of it, swam back to shore, got some water into that tank, and threw it in."
"Correct," Sirius said. "Then I magicked it back up here. Thank god we didn't come across anyone; the cloak wouldn't cover both of us and the tank. Imaging seeing that tank floating along the halls all by itself!"
"Yeah, I got that. But how did it get itself up there?" James said, stopping his friends' random tangent of thought and pointing up the staircase.
"Right. Priorities," Sirius said. "We got it up here and set it down, and then we contemplated on where to hide it, if we should bring it up to the dorm, or what. But then we heard a huge crash. And I spin around and see the bloody thing tipped over! And there it goes, flopping across the floor toward the staircase. It was moving pretty good too!"
"Wait! Padfoot, how did it tip over by itself? That little creature isn't strong enough to tip it over!" James said suspiciously.
"I don't know!" Sirius said loudly. "That's the part that confused me the most!"
At that moment, Remus walked down the stairs and into the common room, followed by a very timid looking Peter. Remus walked toward them, yawning, and managed to step directly into the puddle of water on the floor.
"Gah!" he said as his bare feet hit the cold lake water. Remus surveyed the tank and the puddle for a few moments, grumbling, before he took out his wand and shot a stream of hot air to dry the end of his pajama pants and his feet. James had the urge to laugh, but instead turned to Sirius and motioned for him to continue.
"Right," Sirius said, focusing back on topic. "Anyway, the tank tipped, and it started flopping towards the staircase. It took me a few seconds to react, I was so stunned. So I ran over and tried to grab it, when it flopped around and bit me with those stupid little teeth, see?" Sirius held up his left hand and showing off a row of bleeding puncture wounds.
"You should probably get that cleaned off," Remus said, finishing drying off his feet and stepping over to them.
"Nah, it'll be fine," Sirius said dismissively. "And how would I explain it to Madam Pomfrey anyway?"
"I didn't say go to the nurse, I just said wash it off," Remus said exasperatedly.
"Oh Moony, quit worrying!" Sirius replied.
"You mean stop being logical? That thing eats fish! Raw fish! Think of the bacteria!" Remus argued.
"Moony, hush,' James said finally, attempting to put a stop to the bickering. "We'll get his hand washed off after we re-capture it! Now, Padfoot, what happened after it bit you?"
"Well, I was stunned. I mean, it bit me! So it kept flopping, and I examined my hand, just to make sure I had all my fingers and everything," Sirius said, counting his fingers again. "But next think I know it's halfway up the stairs!"
"Do you have any idea if it went into a dorm? Or if it just went all the way up the stairs?" James asked hopefully.
"Yeah, it went in the third one up. I could just see it," Sirius answered, wrapping his bloody hand up in his robes.
"Huh," said James. "Well, we have to get it back. I mean, we wouldn't want it terrorizing those poor girls up there. Might even have to play 'knight in shining armor'," he said, winking over at Sirius.
"That and that it lives in water. It will die if we don't get it back into the tank," Remus said.
"Yeah, that too," James said dismissively.
Remus rolled his eyes again, before asking, "How did this thing tip, anyway?"
"I don't know!" Sirius nearly screeched again. James immediately shushed him, not wishing to be caught at three in the morning with a tipped over tank and staring up the girls' staircase. He could only imagine the detention he might get. It would most likely be more than the three hours he'd served earlier.
"Neither of you two touched it? It just fell?" Remus asked, looking back and forth between Sirius and Peter. They both shook their heads. "Well, it certainly wasn't strong enough to tip it by itself," Remus muttered, walking over and running his hand over the tank. "That leaves one possible option…"
James looked over at Sirius, who had such a look of confusion on his face that it was almost comical. But as Remus straightened up, he said just one word that cleared up the confusion completely.
"Peeves!" Remus said firmly. James heard Sirius swear under his breath. "Peeves! Show yourself!"
With a faint pop, a small man with a wicked grin appeared in midair. He was wearing a shiny red party hat and was carrying a noisemaker in his hand, which he immediately blew at them.
"Shh!" James immediately said. "You'll wake up the entire tower!"
"You four was up to no good," Peeves said, ignoring what James said. "Had to stop you, I did."
"You knocked the tank over?" Sirius asked furiously.
"Had to stop you," Peeves said again, blowing the noisemaker as he flew around the room. The four boys hushed him again.
"You think it's better to have that thing loose in Gryffindor tower than stuck in the tank?" Remus asked exasperatedly. Peeves simply cackled and swooped out of the room, pelting them with stink pellets as he went. James stared after him.
"And I thought all the stuff he did was funny," Sirius said bitterly.
"Anyway," said James. "At least we know how it got away now."
"That doesn't get up any closer to catching it again, though," Peter said softly. They were all silent for a few moments.
"How are we going to get up there?" Remus asked finally, looking up at the third door. "We obviously can't touch the stairs."
A sudden idea occurred to James, and he exclaimed, "Oh! Wait a second!" He ran back up the boys' staircase and up to his dorm. He ran back down triumphantly, holding his broomstick.
"Do you think that'll work?" Sirius asked as he caught a glimpse of the broom in his friend's hand.
"Well, it should," James said. "Just as long as I don't touch the stairs and fly directly into that dorm." He hopped on his broom and hovered for a few seconds before slowly beginning to fly up the narrow passageway.
He heard Remus whisper, "Be careful!" behind him, and he turned his head to see his fellow marauders all gathered at the bottom of the staircase. He nodded and continued to fly up. After a few seconds more, he reached the third door, seeing that it was open just a crack. He spotted a bit of dampness on the floor where the creature must have squeezed through.
James slowly pushed the door open, wincing when it creaked slightly. Once the door was open wide enough, he flew in and gently touched down, setting his broom by the door. He stood still for a few seconds, allowing his eyes to adjust. Once they had, he looked around the unfamiliar room. He noticed the five four poster beds draped in velvet hangings, and he could hear several people breathing slowly.
He started creeping around the room quietly, looking under and behind tables and chairs, seeing nothing but empty space. He had been hoping he wouldn't have to look under any of the beds, but he was forced to step over to the one on the far left and get down on his hands and knees to peer underneath. He was sorely tempted to light up his wand, but he knew that it might very well wake up one of the sleeping girls.
Not seeing anything, James stood up and padded over to the next bed, then the next. He was starting to become nervous that he hadn't found it yet. Had it slipped out and gotten away up the stairs even farther? 'No,' he thought to himself. 'It has to still be here."
He crawled towards the fourth bed slowly, attempting to be as quiet as possible. But, he could suddenly feel his wand starting to slip out of his pocket. He stopped to make a grab for it, but it was too late; it clattered to the floor and rolled underneath the fourth bed. He froze, his heart plummeting when he heard the creak of bed springs.
After about ten seconds, he let out a breath and continued crawling, hearing no more movement from the occupant of the bed. But he froze again upon hearing the rustle of covers being thrown off and seeing the figure of a pretty girl about his age sit up in the moonlight.
"Who's there?" the girl whispered fiercely. James cursed under his breath and scrambled toward his wand as fast as he could. He could hear whoever had woken up reacting to his sudden movement as well. His hand was mere centimeters away from his wand when someone else's was shoved in his face and a bright light momentarily blinded him.
"James Potter?" an amazed and furious sounding voice said loudly. James snatched his wand and stood up, blinking a few times to try and bring his vision back. After a few seconds, he realized that he was face to face with Lily Evans. A fuming Lily Evans. The Lily Evans that was wearing nothing but a purple nightshirt that only came down to mid-thigh. That Lily Evans.
James swallowed nervously at the furious expression on her face. But he summoned up some of his Gryffindor courage and plastered a grin on his face and saying, "Hey Evans. Fancy seeing you here."
Lily spluttered for a moment before saying, "James Potter! You had better explain yourself right now! What are you doing in my dormitory at three in the morning?"
"Well you see, I lost something pretty important," James said.
"What would it be doing in my dormitory?" Lily shrieked. "And how did you even get up here without setting off the alarm?"
"Oh, I rode," James replied cheekily, motioning to his broom. He suddenly realized that the four other girls in the room were now watching him with wide and confused eyes. He looked back at Lily again, seeing that she still looked angry and bewildered.
"You… you have ten seconds to get yourself back onto that broom and out of here before I curse you," she snarled at him, her grip on her wand tightening. At that he paled considerably and started panicking. He knew he couldn't leave without rescuing the creature that had hidden itself in that room, but Lily was raising her wand threateningly.
"Three….two…" she said, taking a few steps toward him.
James had a sudden idea, and not sure if it would even work, he shouted, "Accio Grindylow!" He stood still for a few moments, Lily looking at him like he was mad, before something slimy connected with the back of his head. He felt sharp teeth clamp down on his right ear, and long bony fingers snake around his neck. He yelped from the pain and the unexpected lack of oxygen he was receiving.
He struggled with the desperate creature for a few seconds, dropping his wand and his hands flying to his neck, before he heard Lily shout, "Impedimenta!" The creature went limp in his hands and he pulled it gently off his ear.
"Thanks for that," James said, grinning at Lily again. "Now, if you don't mind, I've got to get this guy back into water." He grabbed his broom again, hopping on and leaving Lily looking flabbergasted. "Bye, now!" he said, flying out the door and shutting it as soon as he was back in the staircase.
The second he landed back on the common room ground he was bombarded with questions from his friends. "Did you get it? Where was it? Did you have a lot of trouble? What was that shriek we heard? What dorm did you go in? Why is your ear bleeding?"
But he waved them all off, shouting for them to go and begin refilling the tank with water. They all stopped talking and stared at him curiously, before he yelled, "Go!"
The three boys looked at each other for a few seconds before doing what he asked. James stood watching the staircase nervously, waiting to see if Lily would follow him out.
And sure enough, when the tank was about half full, the door opened and she stepped out, spotting him looking up. He paled again and ran over to the tank, throwing the still sluggish creature into it and yelling, "Let's go!" to his friends. He sprinted over to the boys' staircase, his friends following confusedly. James was just about to step onto the first stair when a very ruffled Lily appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
"Ah. Now I get it," Sirius said, grinning. James yelped again and continued up the staircase. The other three shook their heads and followed him. As soon as they were all through the door to their dorm, James shut and locked it, leaning up against it and letting out a deep breath. He stood looking around at their amused expressions.
"What? You know what her temper's like!" he said defensively as he went and sat down on his bed.
"So. I'm guessing it was the sixth years' dorm you went into?" Sirius asked, still grinning.
"Yeah. It definitely was," James answered.
"And I'm guessing she woke up and caught you?" Remus asked.
"Oh yeah. She did," James said.
"So what exactly happened?" Peter asked, looking at James with wide eyes.
"Well, I got in and started looking around, under and behind things. I go to look under one of the beds when my wand falls out of my pocket and hits the ground. Loudly. So she wakes up, holds me at wand point, and tells me I've got ten seconds to get out before she cursed me," James said, still catching his breath a bit. Sirius snorted.
"Anyway," James said, glaring at his friend, who was grinning still, "I panicked and tried to use a summoning charm to find it. Never, ever, ever do that by the way! Ever! Very bad idea! I cannot emphasize that enough!"
"I can see it as being a bad idea," Remus nodded.
"It was. It landed on the back of my head, clamped its stupid teeth on my ear and wrapped its fingers around my neck," James said, feeling his ear and attempting to wipe off some of the blood.
"What did you do?" Peter asked in an awed voice.
"I dropped my wand and started pulling at its hands to get some air," James admitted. "But then Lily used 'Impedimenta' on it, so I pulled it off and grabbed my broom and scampered out of there as fast as I could."
"Good one, Prongs," Sirius laughed from where he was stretched out on his bed.
"Ah, shut it Padfoot," James said.
"James, I have one question," Remus said. "You said you dropped your wand when the Grindylow attacked you. You also said that once Lily subdued it you picked up your broom and left."
"Yeah," James said, nodding slowly.
"So where was the part where you picked your wand back up?" Remus asked. James immediately started digging in the pockets of his bathrobe. After a few seconds he looked back up with a very sheepish expression on his face.
"You left your wand?" Sirius asked. "How could you leave your wand?"
"I don't know!" James shouted. "I…I just panicked!" James sat on his bed, pouting slightly. But at that moment, the door burst open and a still angry Lily stepped through.
"You forgot something," she said, holding up James' wand and grinning evilly.
"Thanks for bringing it back," James stammered, attempting to compose himself. Lily, in his dorm? Still wearing that short nightshirt? He could see Sirius smirking at him out of the corner of his eye.
"Who said I was giving it back?" she asked, almost innocently. James could have sworn he almost had a heart attack at the expression on her face.
"Wow. Feisty, that one," Sirius piped up. Lily glared at him fiercely, and he quailed a bit. She turned back to James.
"What were you doing with a Grindylow, in my dorm, at three in the morning?" she asked, emphasizing each point. "And you are going to explain this time!"
James quickly decided that it would be best to just tell her, so he said, "Our original plan was to sneak it into the prefect's bath. But it got away…up to your dormitory. And I had to come get it, seeing as it lives in water! It would have died if I hadn't!" Remus snorted at James' sudden change of attitude.
"You bunch of idiots!" Lily hissed at them. "Don't you know that Grindylows have been known to eat people?"
"Really?" Remus asked curiously.
"Yes, really! That's the reason it's classified as dangerous!" she said angrily.
"It's classified as dangerous?" Sirius asked. Lily glared at him again.
"But it's only two x's in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them, though," Remus said.
"It might not happen very often, but it has happened enough times for people to know about it!" Lily screeched.
"Well…then it's a good thing you put a stop to us," James said. She turned her glare back to him, and he winced.
"I expect that creature to be back in the lake by morning, or I will inform Professor McGonagall of this," Lily said sternly.
"Yes, ma'am," Sirius said, winking and giving a fake salute.
"Honestly," she said angrily, looking around at Sirius again. He managed to grin back at her still stern glare. She finally rolled her eyes and looked away. Right back at James, whose eyes had begun to linger on the hem of her nightshirt.
"Potter!" she snapped at him, turning slightly pink. He looked up, startled. "You've got a bit of drool on your chin. Just there," she said, pointing at her own chin for emphasis. Sirius laughed. "And don't let me catch you in my dormitory again!"
She began to storm out of the room, but was stopped by James shouting, "Wait! My wand?"
"Oh, right. Your wand," she said, turning and shooting a silver jet of light at James. He fell into silent hysterics.
"You were right, Padfoot. She is feisty," Remus said, eyeing his friend, who was laughing so hard his glasses had fallen off. Lily glared at him too.
"Remember. Gone by morning," she said, tossing James' wand at Sirius, who was closest to her. She looked back over at the laughing James and smirked. "And if I catch any of you in my dorm at three I the morning again, you'll get so much worse than that, it wouldn't even be funny." The three Marauders who weren't in hysterics all gulped and shared frightened looks.
"Don't worry Lily. We all know what you're capable of" Remus assured her.
"Good," she said, smirking again. "Now, goodnight boys." She turned and sauntered back out the door and down the stairs. They stared after her for a few seconds before James caught their attention again by falling right off his bed and onto the floor with a loud thump. Remus started and flicked his wand at James, who immediately stopped laughing and started trying to catch his breath.
After a few minutes, James managed to wheeze out, "She… is… bloody… amazing."
"Yeah. She just chased us up to our dorm, cast the strongest tickling charm I have ever seen on you with your own wand, threatened to hex us all, and threatened to tell McGonagall on us," Sirius said. "She's a real keeper."
"Exactly," James said matter-of-factly. "All that shows she's got spirit. And, you don't cast a tickling charm if you're really mad. She could have done much worse, she said so herself. That means she must not want to really hurt me. Which means she totally likes me," James said, grinning, his hair incredibly messed up.
"Or she just wanted to humiliate you," Remus snorted.
"No. She likes me. You guys don't have to believe me, but I'm pretty sure I'm right," James said smugly.
"I'm pretty sure too. Sure you're delusional, that is," Sirius said as he climbed into his bed. "Now, why don't you go take that Grindylow back to the lake?"
"Fine," James said, going over and picking up his wand. "Where did you two put my cloak?"
"I've got it," Peter said, speaking up for the first time in a while. He was looking very pale. James laughed.
"What?" Peter asked defensively.
"Oh, nothing. Nothing," James said quickly. "Anyone want to come with?" Sirius mumbled something into his pillow that sounded like a no, and both Remus and Peter shook their heads, beginning to climb into bed themselves. "Alright then, be back in an hour."
James threw his cloak over himself and crept back down to the common room, which empty again. He magicked the tank up and out the portrait hole, and out onto the grounds of the castle. The Grindylow inside the tank was quite upset. It kept making odd growling noises. James laughed when he got outside, not having to be quiet anymore.
As he walked down towards the lake, he began to whistle a bit, thinking of the events that had just occurred. And as he dumped the tank out into the lake, he watched the Grindylow swim away as fast as it could and laughed again.
"Good riddance," James said happily. He smiled up at the moon, which was thankfully nothing but a sliver that night. He smiled and thought about how cheesy is was that he was acting the way he was, smiling and laughing, and staring at the moon. But he didn't really care. He allowed the breeze to ruffle through his hair for a few minutes more, before turning and beginning the walk back to the castle.
He stopped at the front doors and looked back at the lake, vowing to the calm water and the green forest, "I am going to marry her someday." He laughed again and silently slipped back into the castle, ready to maybe get just a little bit of sleep.
So. Did you enjoy? I hope so! :D
Also, yes. There is a definite lack of Peter in this story. But that's mainly because I just really can't stand him. At all. So that's a thing!
Reviews are always appreciated!