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Chapter 3
Meet The Marauders
James Potter sat by the window, watching people saying goodbye to their families and greeting old friends. He couldn't believe that he'd managed to ditch his clingy, overprotective mother already. What luck.
Although it could have been due to the fact that his father had quickly confunded her, and winked at James cheerfully as a goodbye.
Suddenly, the door slid open and a morose but handsome boy was hovering at the entrance, biting his lip.
"Err – is it alright if I sit down? There isn't really anywhere else to go..." he mumbled.
"Go for it," James smiled warmly, and the boy sat down opposite him. He held his hand out.
"James Potter. Nice to meet you," he said, with manners and grace that his mother would be proud of.
"Sirius," said the other boy, shaking his hand firmly. James snickered.
"Sirius? As in ... serious?"
"Yeah," Sirius cringed, "I think my mother's out to get me,"
James laughed loudly and rested against the back of his seat. This kid was quite funny.
Sirius grinned and opened his mouth to say something else when the compartment door slid open again and two more boys stood in the doorframe.
"Come in," James gestured to the empty seats beside them. A small, watery-eyed boy sat beside James, tripping over his overlong robes, which he had changed into already. The other boy had long, sandy-coloured hair and a nervous expression.
"Remus Lupin," he said, sitting next to Sirius and smiling weakly, as the others introduced themselves again.
"I – I'm P-Peter Pettigrew," stuttered the boy, from beside James.
"Nice to meet you, P-Peter," James said with a straight face, and Sirius burst into snickers. Remus too smiled, though not in a mocking way.
"Everyone looking forward to Hogwarts?" he asked cheerfully, looking around at the boys.
"Definitely!" James agreed immediately, nodding his head with enthusiasm, and he meant it. Ever since he first burnt a hole in his mother's best hat, with his father's wand, he knew he'd do just brilliantly at the wizarding school, "Any of you done any magic yet?"
"I'm muggle-born," Peter piped up, "I never knew anything about the wizarding world before a month or so ago!"
"That's fascinating," Remus exclaimed, "My parents are wizards, you see,"
"Mine too," James said, and Sirius nodded.
"It won't make a difference will it?" Peter asked, worry in his eyes, "Being muggle-born?"
"Of course not," Remus shook his head, "It's just the same."
"There'll be people who say otherwise, you know," James said darkly, "People who believe that being pure-blood is all the rage and to have muggle blood is to have dirty blood,"
Peter gulped, and Sirius looked out of the window, avoiding everyone's eyes.
"Of course, we don't think that, do we?" James went on, smiling down at Peter.
"Absolutely not," Remus shook his head. "You know – "
But he was cut off as the carriage door opened and a redheaded girl walked in, her eyes very red, as though she'd been crying.
"Can I sit here?" she asked quietly, and they nodded and moved up to make room, not altogether concerned by her. She sat down by the window, and wiped her eyes, as the boys continued with their conversation.
"Anyway, as I was saying, I was looking through some of my books, and it looks pretty simple in my opinion. Fascinating, definitely, but quite simple,"
"I wouldn't say that," scoffed Sirius, joining in with the conversation again, "Trust me, two of my cousins are at Hogwarts, and one of them has left already. The magic they do looks pretty complicated to me!"
"Alright then," Remus agreed fairly, "But at this level, it's simply a matter of incantation and wand movement, right?"
"I guess," the others nodded.
"How old are your cousins, then?" James asked, hoping that Sirius would carry on interacting with them, instead of staring out of the window.
"Andromeda's in seventh year, and Narcissa's in fifth," he said, grimacing.
"You don't like them?"
"Andromeda's alright, we're good friends. And Narcissa's not that bad I guess, when she's on her own." He paused for a moment.
"But?" asked Peter.
"But my oldest cousin, Bellatrix – she's left Hogwarts, as I said – she's monstrous. Trust me, you don't ever want to get mixed up with her,"
James opened his mouth to ask what house they were in, but he was stopped as the door opened again. A greasy-haired boy with a large hooked nose entered, ignored the four boys as he walked past them, and sat down opposite the redhead girl.
She looked at him, before looking out the window again.
"I don't want to talk to you," she muttered.
"Why not?"
"Tuney h-hates me!"
As she continued talking in constricted whispers to the boy, Sirius started talking again.
"Oh, this one time, I was at my Aunt Druella's, when I was about eight and Bellatrix, she tried to steal my teddy bear, right – "
"You had a teddy bear when you were eight?" smirked James.
"Shut up!" laughed Sirius, "Anyway, she used to always steal my stuff right, so this time, I soaked my teddy bear with this undiluted Bubotuber pus I found in my mum's cupboard. She was covered in boils for weeks!"
The boys burst into laughter, imagining the sight he described.
"Oh, and this other time – "
"- this is it! We're off to Hogwarts!" the greasy-haired boy said excitedly, and James glanced over at them, only half-listening to Sirius' story.
"You'd better be in Slytherin," he continued.
"Slytherin?!" exclaimed James, and the others stopped talking and turned around, "Who wants to be in Slytherin?" he smirked, and looked at Sirius, "I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"
Sirius glared back at him. "My whole family have been in Slytherin,"
"Blimey!" James raised an eyebrow, "And I thought you seemed all right!"
This time, Sirius grinned back at him. "Maybe I'll break the tradition," he said, "Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"
James grinned and mimed lifting a sword. He'd always known what house he was going to be in, ever since he was a child. "Gryffindor! Where dwell the brave at heart," he said excitedly, "Like my dad,"
From beside him, the greasy boy made a disgusted noise, and James squared himself up. "Got a problem with that?" he demanded.
"No," sneered the boy, "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy – "
Sirius, who had been sitting up, looking quite excited at the conflict between the two, cut him off. "Where're you hoping to go," he said, cocking an eyebrow, "seeing as you're neither?"
James threw his head back and laughed loudly, and Sirius smiled in self-satisfaction.
The girl glared at them both, and stood up. "Come on, Severus," she said, "Let's find another compartment."
Sirius and James looked at each other, a glint in their eyes. They jeered and mocked her, mimicking her haughty tone. As Severus passed, James stuck his foot out, and the boy tripped over it, tumbling over his own overlong robes.
Sirius laughed, and called out "See ya, Snivellus!" after them.
"Snivellus," chuckled James, "That's a good one,"
"I'm full of them," Sirius grinned, spreading himself across his own seat and the one that Lily had occupied before. James laughed again, and looked over at Remus and Peter, who had remained quiet during the incident.
"What's up?" he asked, a slightly challenging tone in his voice.
"Nothing," Remus shook his head, smiling, while Peter just remained quiet and eager to please.
"You know what, I reckon that kid's gonna give us trouble at school," Sirius said, one head cocked to the side.
"That Snivellus? Nah, he's harmless," James said breezily.
"All the same," shrugged Sirius, "If he wants to be in Slytherin, he's clearly got something dark about him,"
"Your family all wanted to be in Slytherin though, right?" asked Remus.
"Yeah," nodded Sirius, "And there's clearly something dark about them too," he said it casually, as though it was just a joke. James smiled.
"My dad's an auror," he said, looking around at the others for their reactions, "He hunts down dark wizards," he added for Peter's benefit.
"Impressive," Remus said, smiling.
"Yeah," agreed Sirius, and James grinned. "You want to be an auror too, huh?"
"I do," nodded James, "Definitely,"
"It's a difficult career path, you know," Remus said, warningly.
"So? I'll still do it," he said indignantly, and Sirius chuckled.
"Hey, do you think we should get into uniform?" he asked.
"Why, we've got ages yet," James said lazily, but Sirius was already dragging his trunk out from above them.
"Come on! I'm bored," he insisted.
James grinned, and rolled his eyes cheerfully.
Hahaa, chapter three.
First-year marauders are adorable :)
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Love,
Ash x
