A/N: yes, yes I know about the lyrics, but I couldn't help it they fit so well! (At least for the beginning)

And I know
We get a little crazy
And I know
We get a little loud
And I know
We're never gonna fake it
We are wild
We are free
We are more than you think
So call us freaks
But that's just the way we roll

Chapter 7: That's Just the Way We Roll

On the first day of classes, most everyone in the school got up with a groan. Not many were looking forward to a whole new school year of class, cramming, and exams. Well, there was always quidditch some supposed.

The boys of Gryffindor whom this story focuses on woke up with those exact ideas in their head. They were so preoccupied with attempting to wake up and dress themselves; they didn't notice that one of their members had disappeared in the night.

When they eventually made it down to the Great Hall it was to find their female counterparts already digging into their morning meal. Stephanie and Megs were fully involved in a game of Exploding Snap, which upon closer examination was revealed to truly be a card trick that Stephanie was attempting to perform on Megs. Key word: attempt.

"Okay, okay Marge, Marge, Marge," (for that was Stephanie's nick name for Megs), "Pick a card, any card."

When Megs just pointed at one Steph rolled her eyes and said, "Take it out and memorize it smart one. No, not that one, I saw it."

Megs grumbled and shoved the eight of clubs back in the deck. "Then don't look next time!"

She carefully chose another card and showed it to Lily and Jax, who were next to and across from her. Stephanie was on her other side. This time the card was the Ace of Hearts. Quickly Megs pushed the card back in the deck. Steph pulled the deck together and shuffled it twice.

"Okay. Is this your card?" she flipped the top card up to face Megs.

"No." she scoffed.



"Alrighty, then." Stephanie put the card at the bottom of the deck and flipped the next card up, "Is this your card?"

"Nope."

After five more tries, which included a three of hearts, ten of diamonds, Ace of spades, four of clubs and a joker, Stephanie flipped up one more card.

"Is this your card?"

"Yup."

"Seriously?" Stephanie looked at the card. It was the nine of hearts.

"No."

"Dammit, Margaret!"

A king of clubs and eight of diamonds later Steph said half joking half exasperatedly, "Can't you just say yes to make me feel better?"

She held up another card, "Is this your card?"

"NO!"

"Is this your card?" it was the six of spades.

"Yes. No. What? You said say yes!"

"You suck."

"Your mom sucks," Countered Megs

"Shut up I know."

"All right Sherlock lets speed it up."

But after going through the entire deck and Megs has not legitimately said yes yet, Stephanie held up the Ace of Diamonds before asking the ultimate question, "Is this your card?"

"Er, yes? I think so, but it might be the ace of hearts. I'm not really sure…" Megs trailed off.

"Jeez, Marge the whole point is to remember your card!"

But before Megs could answer the deck blew up in Stephanie's face, leaving her with a very sooty nose that reminded everyone in the vicinity of a dog's wet sniffer.

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter had chosen this exact moment to enter the great hall, and their roar of laughter caused the majority of the room to look first at them, then at the Gryffindor table, where Sirius was pointing while doubled over with laughter.



Of course this did nothing but cause more hysterics over Stephanie's extraordinarily sooty and hairless face.

"Hey, Breen!" Yelled Sirius, "Did it ever occur to you that you might want to use an ordinary deck when playing a card trick? Less chance of an explosion that way!"

Stephanie just glowered at her plate as Sirius sat down beside her, but before a real argument could be started, Lily butted in.

"Hey, where's Sam?"

Sirius, James and Remus looked around, but Peter said, "He left early this morning, he and his little sister. I woke up while he was walking out. He - he told me."

"But, why? If they weren't going to stay why did they come on the train the other day?" asked Jax.

"Apparently his parents died late last night, and he needed to come home to take care of the rest of his family. He has another sister who's only nine. The sister in fourth year would have stayed but she wanted to go with him."

The table fell silent.

"Well," Lily spoke up, "I hope they'll be okay."

Luckily Professor McGonagall was coming around giving the students their empty schedules, which preoccupied the Gryffindors from becoming too depressed.

Once each of their schedules had been set up, they realized that they nearly all had the same classes. Sirius, James, and Megs were all taking the appropriate classes for rising Aurors, and as Lily was becoming a healer she had almost all of the same classes, with a few differences.

Remus, Peter, and Jax all planned to gain a job in the ministry other than an Auror, and had classes suiting their choices.

Stephanie was planning to join the auror sub-division, the investigators; a team of wizards who investigate the scenes of crimes after the regular aurors have made their arrests.

All of them groaned as they saw their first day. Monday looked awful for the lot of them. It was also incidentally one of the few days where they all had almost every class together.

To start the day, the lucky eighteen year olds had Double Transfiguration, then Defense Against the Dark Arts, followed by lunch, then Potions, and to conclude the day, Double Charms.

James gawked. Sirius stared. Remus groaned, and Peter exclaimed, "What the bloody hell is this?"

"This, Mr. Pettigrew, is you schedule for this year. And if you do not like it I suggest you choose a new career!" snapped professor McGonagall, before sweeping on down the table.

Grumbling, they went off to get their books.



--

Wednesday of the next week, the boys woke to find one more of their number missing; Will Collins had left in the night. They looked at each other glumly, would all of them eventually trickle out? How long did they have left together?

Somewhere during the day, maybe it was during charms? James realized that now he had to find two replacements for the Gryffindor quidditch team. As both Caroline and Will had now left, he was short a chaser and a beater. Chaser was all set, Will Turner, Liam's younger brother, was the backup chaser, but there was still the matter of beater.

As a result of a meeting with Professor McGonagall Gryffindor quidditch tryouts were to be held that Friday, for beaters only.

James would die with worry until then.

--

At dinner that night, Liam Turner, the Gryffindor sixth year sat down by James and Sirius at their house table.

"Did you boys hear about the first year flying lessons today?" he asked casually as he piled his plate with food.

"No, wot 'appened?" James said through his dumplings.

"That kid – mint or something – kicks butt mate! I guess his friend the girl – Breena, or something? – isn't too shabby either, apparently she and he got in some fight with your typical stuck up Slytherin and they ended up having a fly – off!"

"Don't tell me any more unless we won," shouted Sirius, clapping his hands over his ears.

Liam wiped the spittle that had flown from Sirius' mouth off of his face, "Anyways as I was saying, those two were amazing! I can tell we won't have issues filling the team spots once you guys leave."

James took another bite of his dinner before asking, "Did you see keg fly?"

"Nah mate, I wasn't there, little Will told me about it because he heard it from someone in second year who heard it – okay, I'll stop now."

"How is Willy anyway? I haven't seen him in a while."

"Eh, he's fine. Ever since he started fourth year he thinks he's king of the world, but this summer I just told him that he would love fifth year. He actually believed me the twat; last year had to be the worst year of my life."

"Yeah, well," grunted Sirius, "Little brothers tend to be twats."



James playfully punched Sirius in the arm, "Ignore him Liam, he's prejudiced," he grinned at Sirius's scowling face.

"Right," said Liam warily, "anyway, Willy told me what happened, so I guess Keg couldn't get his broom up until the fourth try. But seriously, Marble is insane!"

"Right," Said James, and turned back to his supper.

Maybe he could convince Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore to let first years try out for the team. But that was absurd, he only needed one position filled, and surely there was one competent soul in Gryffindor house that was older than eleven. Yet James couldn't help feeling that nagging feeling that he would be needing first year help in the quidditch department before long.

--

A/N: dun dun dun…! What could that mean?! Moving on, fast update right? It's been what, a little over two weeks? From scratch? In the middle of finals (oh shit I'm screwed oh god oh god) review? Damn I'm good! Aiight you guys know what to do! Type away! (and wish me luck on my finals – I'm doomed, so I should probably go study bio…)

Oh and FYI that whole card trick thing, was a Steph Breen original. I doubt anyone but she could pull that off. You want proof? I have the video of it! (though without exploding snap cards, though they would have made it more hilarious…)

--Wicked