"You know," Sirius said loudly one afternoon. "It's sunny outside." We glanced at the window and then turned back to our work. Sirius groaned and slipped off of his bed. We all watched as he literally rolled across the floor and stopped when be bumped into the foot of my bed.
"This essay is due on Monday," I said continuing to write. "Slughorn said that it was a very important grade. All you have to do is talk about my it's important to measure properly."
"Exactly it should only take a few minutes not all day!" He said looking over the foot of my bed at me. "I was done in five."
"You're probably going to fail it anyways," I sighed. "I could use a break though. What do you have in mind, Black?"
"Well, I have exploding snap and gobstones." James said. "We can play them in the courtyard."
"Alright let's go," Peter said jumping up. I followed behind him, but I wasn't feeling well.
As we played in the courtyard a lot of older kids looked disapproving of the exploding snap being so loud. Peter proved to be quite adept at gobstones but I wasn't really good at either. However Sirius proved to be terrible at exploding snap and refused to play it anymore so Peter and I play that.
"Lily! Severus!" Sirius shouted suddenly. He jumped up from his game of gobstones knocking them everywhere. "Do you guys want to play with us?" He asked them. Severus looked around nervously.
"What do you think, Severus?" Lily asked looking at him.
"I think we got off to a rough start." Sirius said. "We can try again if you like." Sirius offered.
"Um, okay." The two of them walked over and sat beside us. "I like gobstones!" he said.
"Peter's really good at them!" James said moving over.
"I'm not great but I still like to play." Severus said smiling finally.
"Will you show me how to play?" Lily asked.
"Watch Peter and Severus I'll explain as they play." I said. As Peter and Severus started I was amazed at how good Severus was at it. We played in the courtyard for hours and seeing Lily beat Peter at gobstones was the highlight of it all.
"So, Severus, how's the Slytherin house?" Peter asked after a while.
"There are a lot of great people there actually." he said. "You're cousins are nice." he said to Sirius.
"Cissy tends to be over bearing." Sirius said. "But she doesn't have the best intentions. She things anything less than pureblood isn't good enough."
"I'm a half-blood." Severus admitted. "You all would've made great Slytherins."
"The sorting hat almost put me in Slytherin. It took it a long time to make up it's mind." Peter said stretching. He was a little plump and his belly poked out slightly when he reached up.
"Well, it's a good thing that you weren't. I mean could you imagine being a Slytherin?" James laughed a little. Severus looked a little taken aback.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Severus asked a little angrily. "You're in Gryffindor. You scream 'Hey everyone look at me'. Lily's better than that and I think she deserves to be in a house better than the one she's stuck in with you four."
"Oh, don't get defensive, Snivellus." Sirius laughed. Peter turned to hide is laughter and I tried to maintain composure at the name.
"You said you wanted to try to be friends." Lily snapped at them.
"I didn't think he'd want to fight about which house is better. I mean come on, Lily, even you know that Gryffindor is the best house." James said smiling at Sirius.
"Well, he didn't start it you did. You really are nothing but bullies, all four of you." She huffed. "Let's go, Severus." He stood up and started to walk away.
"You know one day I'm going to be a better wizard than the rest of you." Severus said. He skulked behind Lily who had her nose turned up in the air. Sirius shrugged and looked back to his game.
"Don't you think that was rather insensitive?" I asked him. "I mean he and Lily were having fun until the two of you did that."
"He didn't have to take it like that." James said "Besides he blamed you too. Last time we talked to him he did that to us so, I don't think were going to be friends with him." I shrugged and let it go.
"You guys wanna sneak down to the kitchens and eat?" Sirius suggested. He dropped is cards and stood up. "Some of the older kids were talking about it earlier."
"We don't even know where the kitchens are though." Peter said.
"We can find it I'll bet." James said standing up. We gathered the games up and the four of us started wandering. I would say searching but it felt like we were just walking around. The hallways weren't over-packed like they were between classes. In fact I hadn't noticed how large they really were until now. A group of girls walked by giggling and Sirius stopped.
"Dromeda!" Sirius said smiling. One of them swung around quickly. She looked a little disheveled. "Do you know where the kitchens are?"
"Yeah," she pointed down a hallway near by. "Go down the stairs at the end of that hallway. It's not far from the Hufflepuff common room." She joined back with the group of girls who continued to whisper to her. As we made our way in the direction she said Ted Tonks turned the corner in front of us.
"Hey Ted!" James said smiling. Ted seemed to be in a bit of a daze.
"Life is magical isn't it boys?" He said before seeming to float down the hallway in the opposite direction.
As we were walking Peeves appeared around one of the corners.
"Ah, ickle firsties." he giggled. He started pelting us with pieces of chalk.
"Ouch! Stop!" Peter said when one pelted him in the eye.
Some how on our way we got seriously lost however. We started going up stairs to try to find something familiar but nothing was coming to memory. The walking was wearing me out. I was feeling sicker and sicker by the minute.
"Remus, you alright?" Peter asked after a while.
"Um, yeah I'm okay." I lied. James and Sirius turned to look at me.
"Are you sure? You look really pale." Sirius asked.
"You know. I think I'm going to go and find my way on my own and lay down for a bit." I said.
"We can walk back with you if you want." James offered.
"That's alright, uh, find the kitchens. Bring me something back." I said turning to scurry off.
"Okay, Remus." Peter said softly behind me. I started making my way down the halls as quick as I could. Eventually I turned and realized I wasn't far from McGonagals office. I somewhat stumbled into her room and she stood up immediately and ran to my aid.
"Mr. Lupin," she said frantically. "Here sit. If you can drink this do." She poured a cup of tea and set it down in front of me. I was sweating and out of breath. "I'll be back with Albus." she said hurriedly rushing out of her office. I saw her knock a chair over in her classroom as her robes furled around her as she ran off not even bothering to set the chair back up.
I didn't even try to pick up the cup she set before me. I knew I'd drop it.
It felt like years before they appeared behind me.
"Now Minerva, you must remain calm." Dumbledore said very quietly.
"I'm just nervous, Albus. I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt."
"Now the only one at risk of being hurt is himself. Come now I know the perfect place to go." Together they stood me up.
"I'm sorry Professor," I said.
"None sense boy don't apologize." McGonagal said sternly. "We will ensure your safety as well as others."
They quietly swept me out of the castle, and off the grounds.