It was late September when Remus left. "My mum's ill. Professor Dumbledore's letting me go see her," Remus explained before he left.

"Hope she gets better soon," Peter called after him as Remus climbed out of the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Lucky," James muttered as they entered Transfiguration, "He gets to miss the test."

"Probably has to make it up," Sirius reasoned, back to normal.

"Today, we will be having our test on Human Transfiguration," Professor McGonagall informed the class.

"Knew it," James whispered.

"The test consists of two parts. The first is a written essay and questions. The second is a visual. There will be a series of pictures of different types of Human Transfiguration with a process or incantation and you will write in which it is on the back of your paper. You have a half an hour to complete the first part of your test. Start when you get your paper." A stack of papers flew from a shelf in the back of the classroom as McGonagall flicked her wand, each landing face down on a desk. Within seconds, the scratch of quills filled the room. Each student did their best to make it look neat, as sloppiness would downgrade them.

When the first part of the test was over, Professor McGonagall gathered the classes attention and asked for them to flip over their papers. When she had seen to that each one had been flipped over and numbered up to three, she walked back up to the front of the classroom. She summoned a large picture, which she pinned up to the chalkboard. It showed a witch with pastel orange hair and blue eyes. Within seconds, the witch had black hair with brown eyes. The description below said "born with ability to change appearance at will." The sound of scratching quills again filled the room. With each picture that camp up, the sound of quills became more relaxed, until the three blanks were filled in and the test was over. Once the papers were collected, the bell rang and the group made their way to Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was the same as every lesson. Read a chapter, summarize it, and turn in the summary.

When the day's lessons were finished, James, Sirius, and Peter made their way to the Gryffindor Common Room to start on their homework. When they got there, however, there was a crowd in front of the notice board. "What's the big news?" Peter asked curiously.

"Tryouts for the Gryffindor Quidditch team is on Saturday. They're in need of a chaser and a keeper," Frank Longbottom informed him, as he peered over the crowd.

"On Saturday?" James asked excitedly. "I don't have a broom, but the school's got those, maybe I can try out."

"You know, to be on the team, I bet you have to get good grades and everything. No missing work," Sirius pointed out.

"Maybe we should start our homework," Peter said, settling down in a chair by the fire.

"Maybe we should finish it before James gets caught up in his fantasies of winning the World Cup in a few years," Sirius suggested.

"Or actually winning it!" James protested, "Although, I don't think it will take years to do an essay on counter jinxes."

"We wouldn't have to do it in the first place if she would just read the chapter, for Pete's sake! Bloody lazy," Sirius moaned as he pulled out a blank piece of parchment and labeled it Counter Jinxes. He stared at the heading for a while before he asked, "Did any of you read the article? I used a spell to switch the covers of the textbook and this muggle book called The Book Thief."

James looked at him, grinned, and exclaimed, "That's genius! I should do that so I can read fun stuff rather than that trash she calls education."