"Are we there yet?" James Potter moaned, tramping along the rocky path and glaring at the sheep peacefully grazing nearby. Remus sighed, rolling his eyes at James.
"How should I know?"
James kicked a discarded drinks can moodily.
"This is boring." he announced, pulling at his Muggle sweatshirt. Sirius laughed, giving James a light push and skipping lightly out of reach. James grinned at his best friend, tousling his already messy hair with one hand.
"You don't have to do that any more; Lily isn't here." Sirius reminded him, and James sighed dramatically.
"Alas, alas, my sweet Lily-flower, why hast thou forsaken me?" he asked, clasping his hands and speaking to the azure sky. Sirius sniggered and dodged the punch that James aimed at him.
"Your sweet Lily-flower hast forsaken you because she dropped Muggle Studies." Remus reminded James.
"Why? Why?" James moaned, dropping to his knees.
"Besides, even if Lily had come, it isn't like you would be able to do anything with her." Sirius told him, jerking his eyebrows suggestively. "After all, we will be in tents tonight, with millimetre thin walls."
"Silencing Charm!" James told him.
"With no wand?"
"Oh yeah…" James said, remembering the Professor confiscating their wands at the beginning of the trip.
Remus laughed, looking around at the rest of the class. He and the other Marauders were the only males on the field trip, and indeed the only Gryffindors. The remainder of the group were a mixture of girls from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, including Peter's Hufflepuff girlfriend Kerry Anne. They were walking together, mittened hands clasped. James wolf-whistled at them, causing Peter to blush to the roots of his sandy hair. A couple of the Ravenclaws were shooting hopeful glances at Sirius, who was now chasing a startled sheep, whooping with delight. Remus laughed at his friend's antics, and glanced at the map he was holding to check that they were headed in the right direction. He pulled a Chocolate Frog out of his trouser pocket and bit its head off, smiling at the taste of the chocolate. He ate the rest of the frog and handed the card to Sirius, who had rejoined the rest of the group after thoroughly confusing the flock of sheep. The dark haired Marauder gazed in delight at the moving picture of a wizard on the card.
"Oh excellent! I don't have that one!" Sirius exclaimed, hugging Remus around the middle. The teenage werewolf laughed, especially as Sirius' Ravenclaw admirers were now giving him jealous looks.
"I don't have that one either." James grumbled "Why do you always favour Sirius, huh Moony?"
Remus opened his mouth to answer, but Sirius announced
"Well I'm much better looking for one thing…"
James raised his eyebrows, and snorted. Sirius grinned
"Cheer up, James! This is meant to be fun!"
"I'm having fun!" James insisted "But I still think Muggles are nuts for doing this kind of thing all the time."
"Only one more kilometre to go!" Remus told them, tapping the map with one finger.
"Only???" Sirius asked incredulously. "Oh well. At least we have Remes with us; otherwise we'd be utterly lost. I don't know how you can understand a map that doesn't even move…"
Remus shrugged modestly as they reached a crumbling stone wall. James climbed up it first, jumping lightly down the other side. Sirius followed, balancing on one leg at the top for a few seconds before leaping down. Remus clambered up the uneven stone, standing on the top and looking around at the breathtaking Scottish countryside. Sirius put out a hand and helped him down the other side, smiling at him. Remus smiled back, then jumped neatly out of Peter's way as the smallest Marauder fell heavily off the wall into a pile of sheep dung. After they had helped Peter to his feet and checked that only his pride was damaged, they went on their way.
Soon the camp site came into view, and the group cheered. Sirius ran round in a circle like a dog chasing its tail, James punched the air, and Remus beamed at the sight of a dozen or so tents clustered around a small field.
"Hey Miss!" James grinned, bounding over to the Muggle Studies professor who was sunning herself on a polka dot deck chair. She sighed, getting to her feet and surveying her class.
"I see you didn't get lost… pity."
She smiled to let them know she was joking, and then gestured for them to come close.
"As you are aware, this is a muggle campsite. There are muggles staying here. Therefore we will be not mentioning magic, or of course using magic. To all intents and purposes, we are muggles. We will be using muggle tents…"
There were groans from the group, particularly the girls at this news and they looked condescendingly at the tents which were large by muggle standards but tiny when compared to the expanded insides that wizarding tents boasted.
"… and we will have to cook on a muggle stove tonight." the teacher finished, clapping her hands together and smiling broadly. "Won't it be fun?"
Some of the girls looked ready to turn back to Hogwarts, but James, Sirius and Remus shrugged indifferently and went to explore their tent.
"Hey, it's an eight man tent!" Remus exclaimed happily, unzipping the Marauders' home for the weekend.
"Is that good?" Sirius asked, peering through the nylon folds at the lined up sleeping bags.
"Yeah, since there are only four of us!" Remus laughed, flopping down on one of the sleeping bags and pulling a book out of his backpack. Sirius watched him reading for a while, and then lay down as well.
"Whoah, what's this thing?" he asked, poking the inflatable air bed.
"Muggle fad." James said, jumping on his own in delight. Peter came in but was shoved out again instantly by Remus.
"Go have a shower!" he scolded, and Sirius laughed as Peter slunk off.
"What?" Remus asked defensively. "He was covered in sheep dung. He would make our tent smell."
Sirius snickered, leaning back on the sleeping bag and pulling Remus towards him. He wound his arms around the werewolf and looked over his shoulder at the book.
"Good book?" he asked.
"Yes."
"What's it about?"
"It's Romeo and Juliet."
Sirius blinked.
"Right…"
Remus sighed.
"Basically it's about a girl called Juliet who falls in love with a guy called Romeo. But they can't marry because their families hate each other. So they devise a complicated plot in which Juliet fakes her own death. But Romeo thought she was really dead and killed himself. When Juliet found out that he was dead, she killed herself as well."
Sirius blinked again.
"That's cheerful." he said sarcastically.
"It's a tragedy." Remus replied, going back to his reading.
Sirius yawned, looking over at James.
"What you wanna do?"
"Play truth or dare??" James suggested wickedly.
"I'm not playing." Remus said quickly, and his friends both sighed loudly.
"Yes you are." Sirius told him, tugging the novel out of Remus' hands and tossing it out of reach.
"Hey!" Remus protested, pouting. Sirius grinned, pinning Remus down so he couldn't get to his book.
"You can help me think of a good dare for Prongs!" Sirius smiled.
"I choose truth!" James objected, but Sirius shook his head firmly.
"You never tell the truth anyway. You choose dare and there is nothing you can do about it."
James sighed, grinning.
"Alright then, do your worst."
Sirius frowned, skimming his hand along Remus' thigh distractedly. Remus swallowed, pretending he hadn't noticed.
"Uh… I dare you to run outside in just your boxers screaming that there's a spider in our tent." Remus said with a smirk. Sirius looked delighted
"That is brilliant, Moons. That's why I love you."
Remus blushed, looking at James.
"Fine." the messy haired Chaser said eventually. "I'll do it."
"Yay!" Sirius cheered. "Go on then!"
Grumbling, James pulled off his shirt and trousers and got to his feet. He saluted to Sirius and Remus and then ran out of the tent, squealing at the top of voice. Sirius and Remus peeked out of the tent door, and laughed hysterically as James jumped up and down on the spot, pretending to brush invisible spiders off his arms.
"Too rich…" Sirius grinned, as some of the Hufflepuff girls started to come out of their tents and practically swooned on the spot. Remus sniggered as James came back into the tent, grinning.
"Okay, Sirius. Dare or Dare?"
Sirius grinned.
"Dare, naturally."
"Good choice." James replied. He frowned, eyes travelling over the ebony haired boy lounging casually across the tent.
"Kiss Moony." James said.
"What?" Remus asked, sitting bolt upright.
"Okay." Sirius said simply. "Like, on the cheek, or…"
"On the lips." James said evilly. "With tongues. For thirty seconds."
Remus swallowed, as Sirius shrugged, seemingly indifferent."
"Okay then."
"What?" Remus asked again, weakly. "You can not be serious."
"Remus doesn't want to." Sirius said.
Remus only wished that was true.
"Remus has no choice." James grinned. Sirius shook his head.
"I am not doing anything to Remus if he doesn't want me to."
"Jeez Sirius, when did you grow a conscience?" Remus asked. Sirius smiled slowly, messing with his fraying shirt cuffs.
"You two are boooring." James scoffed, pulling his shirt and trousers back on and stretching. "I'm gonna go find Peter."
"He's probably with what's her face… Kelly thing." Sirius suggested. James pulled a face.
"Ditching his mates for a girl… traitor."
Sirius and Remus looked at one another.
"Ooooh Lily!" Sirius said in a ridiculous imitation of James' voice. "Marry me, Lily!"
James punched him lightly on the shoulder.
"You guys want to play flightless Quidditch?"
"Hmmm… that'll be fun." Remus said sarcastically.
"Fine, amuse yourselves." James said, ducking under the tent flap and leaving. Remus zipped the flap closed and picked up his book.
"How's your book going?" Sirius asked "They all dead yet?"
Remus raised an eyebrow, and started rummaging around in his backpack.
"Damn, I must have eaten all my emergency chocolate." he moaned, thinking of all he had consumed over the journey, convinced that he would have enough.
"Well, I might have some in my bag…" Sirius said casually. Remus froze, looking hopefully at Sirius.
"You might… or you do?"
Sirius pretended to think, and then pulled a huge bar of Honeydukes Finest out of his backpack.
"Just look at that. Chocolate. And it's all mine."
"Please? Please can I have some?"
Sirius tilted his head to one side, eyes glittering.
"What will you give me in exchange?"
Remus bit his lip, thinking.
"My Romeo and Juliet book."
Sirius' lip curled in disgust.
"Why would I want that?" he asked disdainfully. Remus shrugged.
"You may have got a sudden intellectual urge."
Sirius looked alarmed
"What's that? Is it contagious?"
Remus laughed, looking thoughtful.
"All right." he said simply "I give you me."