Hey! Sorry this chapter took so long, but the holidays were kinda hectic. Although (and I have no idea how this happened) this is actually the longest chapter so far. Also, a word of warning, I'm planning on working on some other stories as well soon. So if you see any of them, it doesn't mean I've stopped working on this one. It just means I'm good at multi-tasking. ;) The next chapter shouldn't take as long though. Hope you enjoy!
The week started off so perfectly normal, one Remus Lupin couldn't help but foolishly hope it would stay that way. But alas, it was not to be. But what could you expect when you're a member of the famous Marauders?
This particular "normal week" began in the stands of the Quidditch pitch. There was no game going on, but James had dragged his three friends with him to practice and once it was over, they had decided to just stay seeing as they had nothing better to do. Remus had a book open in his lap, reading and grinding his teeth as he listened to his friends complain for the millionth time…
"I'm boooored…"
"Me tooooo…."
"Should we go back to the common room?"
"Naw, it's too far away."
"But there's nothing to do here!"
"Nothing to do in the common room either."
"Hm. Good point." Remus twitched a little and sent a glare in his friends' direction. James picked up on the werewolf's steadily declining good mood, so decided to get himself out of harms way.
"Uh, come on guys! Lets fly around a bit." The other two merely shrugged and mounted their brooms and flew away, leaving Remus to sigh in relief at the peace and quiet. About twenty minutes later, Remus had finished quite a few chapters and decided to spare a glance up to see what his friends were doing. He quickly wished he hadn't.
You see, what he found when he looked up was Sirius hanging upside-down over the side of his broom, his knees keeping him from falling; James standing on his broom, similar to a surfer and holding on to Sirius' hands above him. Both of them were shouting at a poor nervous Peter (the only one who was properly on his broom) to throw the quaffle he was holding through the ring their arms made.
Remus just about had a heart attack. It was no secret that Peter Pettigrew could not throw to save his life (or in this case, his friends'). This was the entire reason he was hesitating to give in to his friends' request. If he tried to throw it through their arms, it would probably hit either Sirius' face or James' stomach, either of which would cause both to fall a significant distance probably to their deaths.
Dropping his book, Remus jumped to his feet and ran to the edge of the stands. Being a reasonable person, he was mildly freaking out at the prospect of his friends getting themselves killed.
"JAMES! SIRIUS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!!" The two over at him and grinned.
"We're being a human goal! Cool, huh?"
"Cool!? Were you two listening at ALL during flying lessons first year? You're suppose to grip the broom with BOTH HANDS!!" James rolled his eyes.
"Oh come on Moony, Quidditch players use one hand all the time!"
"Fine! One hand! Right now I'd be happy with one hand, seeing as you are both currently using NO HANDS!!" The two boys sighed and flew over to Remus together (still in their "human goal" position).
"But we're fine!"
"Sure you are now. But you were both egging on Peter to throw a quaffle at you!"
"Hm… he makes a good argument." Remus sighed and ran his hand over his face.
"Just… get down please."
Walking back to the common room ten minutes later, Remus still hadn't regained all the color in his face.
"I don't even want to know what was going through your heads…"
"We were bored!"
"…of course…"
It was the next day, lunch had just ended and the Marauders were standing outside the Ravenclaw common room. Remus turned to his friends with a sigh.
"Look, I'll only be in there for a couple minutes. I just need to talk to Kevin about the group project on Wednesday. So just stay her and try to stay out of trouble, ok?" Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Moony, you worry too much. We'll be fine!" Remus shook his head doubtfully, but knocked on the door none-the-less.
A good fifteen seconds after Remus had been let in found James and Sirius having a very familiar conversation.
"I'm booored."
"Me toooo." Sirius looked around before grinning at James.
"Hey, watch this!" Looking both ways to make sure their were no professors coming, he turned and started jogging down the hall way. After a moment, he pointed his wand at the floor directly in front of him.
"Aguamenti!" Immediately, a jet of water was released from his wand and James and Peter looked on as he slid across the floor, balancing on his heels and looking undeniably very cool. Once he ended the spell and came to a stop, he turned back around, grinning at his two friends, who were grinning back.
"Wicked!"
"That was awesome, Padfoot!"
"Let me try!" James ran forward towards Sirius and pointed his wand down at the floor.
"Aguamenti!" Unfortunately, James pointed the want too close to his feet and only managed to soak his shoes and trip himself up, falling forward and barely managing to catch himself. Sirius laughed and helped him up.
"Good effort though."
"Ah, shut up!"
"Come on, Peter! Give it a try!"
"N-no thanks. I'll just watch from back here." The three laughed before James insisted on having another go. He managed to get it, although he didn't look as graceful or cool as Sirius. Soon, a small crowd had gathered to watch the two Marauders sliding across down the hallway. James suddenly got a mad grin.
"Hey Padfoot! Wanna race?" Soon, Sirius was wearing the same grin and they ran to the end of the hallway. The crowd got very excited at the prospect of a competition and soon Peter was surrounded by people, taking bets on who would win. A Ravenclaw boy, who had gotten caught up in the game on his way back to his common room, was chosen to start the match.
"Alright! On the count of three…" James and Sirius were grinning like Cheshire cats as the prepared to run.
"One…two….three!" And the two boys were off their wands soaking the floor in front of them as they slid down the hall. They were neck in neck, each trying to gain the upper hand as the crowd cheered them on. It was at this moment that Remus chose to reemerge. For the second time that week, he found himself paling at the sight of his friends. The two weren't even looking where they were going any more. They were just grinning at each other, going faster and faster, not even seeing what was right in front of them.
"PADFOOT! PRONGS! LOOK OUT FOR THE-" But it was too late, as the two boys looked up just in time to watch themselves slid right down a flight of stairs. Now normally this, while probably painful, would not worry Remus too much as they tended to fall down the stairs a lot. What did worry him was the fact that the second flight of stairs, which James' body was about to push Sirius into, had just moved, leaving nothing but empty air. Remus watched in slow motion as Sirius hit the landing of the first flight of stairs, soon followed by James who crashed into him sending him over the edge where the stairs would have been had they not been magical stairs.
They entire crowd gasped as Sirius began to fall. However, he somehow managed in his disgruntled state to reach out and grab the banister before he fell to his death. Remus immediately pushed through the crowd and ran down to his friends. James had hit his head and, while still conscious, was not coherent enough to realize the danger his friend was in. Remus quickly reached out and grabbed both of Sirius' wrists and pulled with all his might. In a moment, both his friends were groaning on the floor while Remus was panting from the strain of lifting his friend out of the air. After getting his breath back, Remus sighed and turned to the crowd.
"Someone wanna help me get them to the hospital wing?"
Half an hour later, Remus was standing in front of two hospital beds. One held Sirius, who had managed to crack two ribs in the fall and bruise his back in the landing. The other held James, who had a mild concussion and a few bruises. The two had had to be half dragged to Madam Pomfry by himself, and a Ravenclaw Prefect. Now, Remus was pacing in front of the two.
"I was gone for ten minutes. TEN! And you two go and throw yourselves down the bloody stairs!"
"We were bored!"
"ARG!" Remus, looking like he was about to tear his hair out, simply stormed from the room. The two idiots- I mean, Marauders, were still grinning through the pain. Once outside, he ran into Peter.
"Wormtail! Were've you been?" Peter grinned and held up a large sac, jingling with money.
"Collecting my winnings."
The next night Remus, James, and Peter were sitting in their dorm room when Sirius burst in, holding a weird black box thing in his arms.
"Hey guys! Guess what I got!"
"What?"
"Dave, that fourth year, got this from his muggle cousin and didn't know what to do with it so he said I could have it! Apparently it's called an x-box, or something like that."
"Well, what is it exactly?"
"Uh, I'm not entirely sure…"
"So what are you going to do with it then?" Sirius simple shrugged before placing it on his bed to look at more. Remus shrugged as well before getting up.
"Well, I've got to get a book from the library for this charms homework. I'll be back in a couple minutes, k?" The others nodded and Remus left to get his book.
Fifteen minutes later, Remus opened the door to his room. He immediately dropped the book he had gotten and, for the THIRD time, lost all color.
"Remus! It's not what it looks like!"
"Well, it probably is…"
"Er… it's not what you think?"
"No, he's probably got a pretty good idea." Remus was still staring at the scene in front of him. James had many ropes around him, tying him to a chair. The 'x-box' or whatever had been torn open and had many wires sticking out, sending sparks of electricity out. Sirius was holding two of these wires in his hand, holding them in front of James so the sparks were mere centimeters away from James' body. Peter was sitting on his bed, his face a mixture of curiosity and nervousness. Sirius quickly dropped the wires and he and James began explaining.
"You see-"
"we were bored-"
"So we opened up the weird box thing-"
"and it had all these wires in it-"
"that were sparking!"
"And one of them shocked me-"
"And he said it had hurt-"
"So we were wondering-"
"if it hurt more than that shocking spell-"
"but James is the only one who's been hit by it recently enough to compare-"
"darn those Slytherins!"
"But then he started getting cold feet-"
"Cause those shocking spells hurt!"
"But he had already agreed to it and I wasn't about to let him just back out!"
"Admittedly it would be un-Marauder like."
"So I tied him to this chair!"
"And then you walked in…"
"And got really…pale…"
"Amd haven't…said…anything…."
"…"
"…"
"…"
Remus sighed and walked silently over to the parchment on the wall.
16.) Almost getting yourself killed on a regular basis out of BOREDOME!!!
Putting his quill down, Remus walked over to his bed and fell into it, his arm covering his eyes. Sirius chuckled as he looked at the list.
"How on Earth did we become friends."
"I don't know, but I'm starting to regret it. You two are going to send me to an early grave!"
"Awww, Moony cares!"
"Please, maybe next time I'll let you two kill yourselves, if only to save me anymore stress!"
"You know you love us."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…yeah…"
"Told you so."
Ok, so this is another chapter sorta taken from my life (not the actual instances though, obviously. I don't have a flying broomstick, moving stairs, or an x-box). I actually tend to be the Remus of my group cause I always worry about my friends cause they're idiots when they're bored. Anyway, please review! And any suggestions for symptoms would be much appreciated! Thanks!
