Disclaimer: I don't own the Marauders or anything else in the HP universe, enjoy.
Peter had found at quite a young age that, when he was with the Marauders, he hardly ever found the time to be bored. Between James and Sirius' shared hyperactivity and penchant for all things trouble and Remus' furry little problem, one rarely had the opportunity. Quite unfortunately, on the evening of the 24th March 1974 this wasn't the case. Three days before James' birthday all pranks were on hold, the teachers were well aware of the upcoming event in the Marauders' calendar and often took advantage of it; the previous year Sirius and James acquired eighteen detentions between them for that week, some of which were incurred during Remus' birthday.
The weather was unseasonably warm, for Scotland, but still not warm enough to spend a prolonged amount of time on the grounds of an evening. Peter had, surprisingly, finished his homework (although with a lot of help from Remus who'd been feeling charitable since Peter had procured a bottle of Ogdens' for his birthday) and, with no girls to moon over as James and Sirius were, he was quite frankly bored.
"I'm bored," he announced to the three wizards in different states of disarray around the fire of the common room.
"Bored?" asked James his voice coloured with feigned ignorance for James Potter was keen to pretend that such a state of mind didn't exist.
"Bored?" repeated Sirius, his disgust for the word clear as he, unlike James, would acknowledge it, if only to express his revulsion. "How, in the name of Merlin, can you be," Sirius made a point of shuddering dramatically, "bored?"
Remus smirked at his friends' melodrama and, although he didn't look up from his book, added, "you're surrounded by three of the finest," he coughed lightly, "wizards you know, Peter, how can you be bored?" His sarcasm was obvious, it was clear that he was encouraging James and Sirius and the distraction they would provide his friend. "Anyway, you could read a book, Peter."
"A book?" asked Sirius, this time the one feigning ignorance.
"Really, Mooney," said James attempting futilely to chastise Remus. "A book? He's bored already! Is that the best you can come up with?" James made his disgust clear, as if in that moment he was earnestly considering revoking his friend's marauder status; a book indeed.
Sirius leant forward in his seat, a thoughtful expression on his face that was lit by the fire, "was that supposed to be helpful, Remus?"
James changed his posture to juxtapose Sirius', leaning back in his chair and toying with his hair nonchalantly; Remus noticed that James had taken the opportunity to scan the room for Lily Evans, again. "Honestly, Remus, I don't know why you bother," he told the werewolf whilst gazing at the girls' dormitory stairway.
Remus sighed, wanting the solace of his book, "neither do I."
"Well," said Peter, drawing the attention back to him again. "I'm still bored."
Sirius sighed, "gobstones?"
Peter screwed up his nose in distaste, "nah."
"Exploding snap?" suggested James hopefully while Peter just pulled a face again.
"Hexing first years?" asked Sirus, smiling and sure that this suggestion would be met with approval though unaware of the frowns that Remus and James shared; James had recently started making a conscious effort to only hex those who he felt really deserved it.
"Not my cup of tea, really," replied Peter, who'd been on the receiving end of too many Slytherin hexes to be comfortable with the notion.
"Hexing Snape!" cried James with glee, for Snape was always worth it.
Peter looked sheepish, "I'm not very good at hexing Snape," he muttered meekly. While the other boys paid no heed to Snape's attempts to intimidate, Peter had long succumbed to his dark looks and covert jinxes and was rarely comfortable with crossing the Slytherin.
"That's true," Remus added. While Remus disapproved of his friends' incessant hexing he often shared the opinion that Snape was indeed worth it, especially during the past year when he'd begun to push further in his attempts to reveal Remus' 'furry little problem'.
"He is shockingly awful," said Sirius who often felt that if Snape wasn't worth hexing, then life wasn't worth living.
James growled in frustration, "maybe, Peter, maybe you're so bored because you're so ruddy indecisive!"
"Yeah, Wormtail, this is your fault!" replied Sirius, happy with the suggestion that the boredom couldn't be considered a failing of the collective marauders and the blame solely lay upon Peter.
"Oh, for crying out loud," moaned Remus, who was now regretting his encouragement of his friends, their dramatics no longer an amusement but an annoyance. It appeared that Peter's boredom was catching and had transferred over to James and Sirius (while Peter's boredom was quelled by the pair's frustrations) and an annoyed James and Sirius was asking for trouble.
"I don't think it's worth helping you!" declared James, jumping up in his seat from his lounging position to look at Sirius encouragingly.
Sirius nodded his agreement, "you clearly don't appreciate our help, Wormtail."
"Or us-," said James as he folded his arms across his chest attempting to look hurt but somehow looking rather cross eyed instead.
"Or anything?" suggested Remus dryly as he was unable to contain his sarcasm in the face of his friends acting like fools.
Sirius leant forward in his chair and reached out to pat Peter patronisingly on the knee, "maybe you should just do your homework."
"You could read a book?" suggested Remus for the second time, desperately wishing he could return to his in peace.
"You could think about what you've done," proposed James, his voice stern and his face alight with an amusing attempt at sincerity.
Peter looked from Remus to Sirius and then to James, his boredom was clearly not shared by the rest of the group and, as the least confident, he had begun to think that he was becoming a grievance to his friends and the last thing he wanted was for them to realise it. Instead he shut his mouth and stared into the fire, dealing with his inner turmoil and trying to quash all the thoughts of inadequacy that his mind was entertaining (although he felt deep down that his fellow marauders would probably correct him).
Sirius coughed lightly and Peter and Remus looked up from their distractions just in time to see Lily Evans approach James from behind, "Potter, do you have a minute?" she asked. The boys watched with delight as her voice, though light and quiet, caused James to jump out of his seat in surprise, standing to attention in front of the red headed witch as her green eyes took him in with amusement.
"I'm off," he blurted out, willing to follow Lily wherever she led now that she'd finally started giving him an inch of her patience.
Remus and Sirius shared a look as their friend followed her eagerly out of the portrait hole but neither said anything, the pair were aware of exactly how long James had been trying to get into her good books and neither wanted to jeopardise it with silly teasing in front of Peter who was likely to take it too far.
A few minutes passed, Sirius began doing the homework he'd begrudgingly summoned from upstairs and Remus finally reading the book he coveted when Peter cleared his throat once more and said, "I'm really bored, guys."
Remus couldn't really blame Sirius for throwing his inkpot at their friend or for the emerald green ink that splattered across his face and the cover of his book.
A.N. Just a one-shot I wanted to write, may write more Marauder one shots but none planned at the moment. Have a nice day, reviews are pretty lovely :)