Since my last update was so late, I've decided to update again! This chapter is also a bit crap, but never mind :D
Anyway! Here we go!
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Summer faded into autumn and September appeared in a haze of auburn colours, fresh school supplies and the death of a notable wireless personality who Vera Lupin had previously marked a waste of air and now viewed as a grievous loss of talent.
"You hated Alicia Whittaker," Remus snorted, looking at his mother with raised eyebrows.
"I didn't hate her," Vera corrected, rubbing a hand through her hair. "I disliked her."
"So why do you care?"
"Honestly Remus, just because I wasn't particularly fond of her, doesn't mean I wanted her dead."
A ripple of discomfort passed through the three boys in her wake; James spoke up to ease the tension.
"Who's your favourite wireless lass or lad then, Mrs L?"
"Easy," Vera replied, "Dawn Saunders."
Remus groaned, Sirius laughed. "I like her, she's hilarious."
"You are such a middle aged woman, Padfoot, it's unreal," James said, mock-disgust in his voice.
"Are you calling me middle aged?" Vera asked, raising her eyebrows.
Remus laughed. "You are nearly fifty, Mum."
Vera feigned shock. "I've never been so offended in my life!"
"Peter looks middle-aged," James commented as their fourth friend arrived, looking slightly downcast and pale.
"Thanks," he murmured. "Hello to you too."
"Good summer, Wormtail?" asked Sirius cheerfully as confusion swept over their friend's face.
"What have I missed?" he asked slowly, looking from Sirius to Remus.
"Oh, um, we made up," Sirius explained. He grinned widely. "Yay!"
Remus smirked. "It's a long story. We'll explain on the train."
"I wait with baited breath," murmured Peter.
"The first years are taking ages," grumbled Sirius, head on his empty plate.
"They're taking no longer than usual," Remus replied, although he was examining a fork with more interest than seemed humanly possible. "Maybe the lake's a bit choppy."
"The lake's like a millpond," James said bitterly, hunched over on the table. "I'm starving."
As if on cue, the hall doors opened and in entered Professor McGonagall, leading a group of very nervous looking first years behind her. Remus straightened a little; Sirius grinned and James prepared to play the game they played every year at the Sorting.
"Welcome," Dumbledore said, rising from his seat. "And may I welcome you to another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. First years, you shall shortly be joining your new houses but first, we must find the place to put you." He turned to Professor McGonagall, who had placed the Sorting Hat on the three-legged stool that only appeared once a year for this very occasion.
Peter groaned. "Now we have to listen to it bloody serenade us."
"I like singing with it," Sirius replied with a shrug. "James and I do an amazing harmony."
Remus rolled his eyes. "If you were half as good as you thought you were, you'd be twice as good as you are."
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that."
James began to hum along with the Hat, a small smile playing at his face as he looked over at the Slytherin table. "Blimey, Snape hasn't broken his ugly duckling phase yet."
Remus snorted and followed his gaze. "You come out with some strange things, Prongs."
Sirius tilted his head to the side. "I don't know," he said, examining Severus with narrowed eyes, "I think he's getting stubble. Or are they just fleas?"
James aimed a sharp jab into Sirius's ribs when Lily looked up a few seats down with a frown on her face.
"Ow, bloody hell!" Sirius snapped, looking at his friend with a frown. "What the hell was that for?"
"You shouldn't take the piss out of him, Sirius."
Sirius raised his eyebrows but said nothing, instead rubbing his ribs and looking forward.
James turned to stare at Lily, whose eyes flickered away from him and back to Mary, who was chatting about something with vigour.
"I hope there're sausages for dinner," Remus said jovially, watching his reflection in his plate.
Sirius smirked. "Is all you can think about sausages?"
"What are you thinking about?" Remus snapped.
"Yorkshire puddings."
"Yeah, I hope there are Yorkshire puddings too."
Applause broke out then, and Sirius looked up to see that the Hat had finished its song, the point bending in a sort of bow before it stood still, a sort of buzz of magic around it.
"Right," James said, "Ready?"
"And waiting."
"Six galleons to the one who can get the most right. Remus, can you keep count?"
Remus looked at them both. "You're still going to play this game?"
"Why wouldn't we?" Sirius asked, puzzled.
"Last year, you had six galleons," Remus replied, looking at Sirius. "This year, you haven't got anything."
"You think my parents wouldn't give him some money?" James scoffed. "He has six galleons."
"Plus, I always win," Sirius added gleefully.
"Abbott, Elisabeth," McGonagall called, and Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Hufflepuff without a doubt."
"You haven't even seen her face yet," grinned James, and Sirius smiled.
"You can tell just from the name."
A gangly looking blonde girl began her climb to the stool, her robes slightly too short for her.
James sighed and slumped back. "You're right."
The Hat bellowed out "HUFFLEPUFF!" and Sirius grinned triumphantly.
"One for me, Rem," he told his friend as he patted James on the back. "Better luck next time."
"Aden, Charlotte."
"Ravenclaw."
"Slytherin."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Are you cheating?" James demanded as Sirius grinned smugly.
"Not cheating, just very talented."
Sirius eventually beat James by quite a large amount, although James insisted he had let him win on account of him not having a penny to his name.
"You've changed your tune," murmured Remus, before Dumbledore stood up again.
"The time for speech-making is not just yet," he told them all, eyes sparkling. "After all, I fear you will not hear me over the rumbling of your stomachs."
There was a titter of agreement before Dumbledore clapped his hands.
"Therefore, let the feast begin!"
There were two new members of staff that Dumbledore was going to introduce to them, a severe looking young woman named Professor Sinistra ("who will be using her excellent knowledge in the field of constellations to guide you all through the science of the stars") and the new Defence Professor, another woman by the name of Winslow. She was sipping from her goblet when her name was announced and gave a little wave.
"I wonder what they'll be like," Remus said interestedly.
"Well," Sirius said, grinning, "Sinistra doesn't look like a Death Eater, so that's an improvement."
"And we'll only have Winslow for a year, so it won't matter either way."
"It will matter," Remus corrected, frowning. "This is NEWT year. I don't know about you two but I'm not planning to lark about. I'm actually going to put my head down and work and it would help if I had a good teacher."
"You've always put your head down and worked," Sirius said with a smile. "You didn't have a single fail grade on your sheet."
"You even managed an A in Potions," teased James.
"Oh, shut your face."
"And you got four bloody Os," Sirius said, shaking his head. "You're too well behaved to be real."
"I'm proud of my Os."
"So you should be," James replied with a smile. "That's four more Os than Peter got."
When Peter didn't complain, James raised his eyebrows. "Nice to know he's listening intently."
"And now," Dumbledore announced, "I believe it is time for bed. Prefects will show first years to their dormitories."
"The only people Moony's taking to bed," Sirius joked, earning himself a smack from Remus.
"Still an arrogant prick, Black?" a voice from over his shoulder sounded, and he turned to look at Lily with a big smile.
"Still ginger, Evans?"
"Sirius," James snapped, and Remus, Sirius and Lily all turned to look at him in surprise at this admonishment.
"Well," Lily said, breaking the silence, gaze lingering on James a moment longer before turning to Remus, "We'd best get going." She pushed Sirius and James apart, stood on the gap between them on the bench and bellowed, "Gryffindor first years! This way please!"
"Care to explain?" Sirius asked after she had left, looking at James through narrowed eyes.
"We tease her too much," James said flatly.
"What the hell?"
"You almost killed her best friend," James snapped. "We could at least cut her some slack."
Sirius's expression was incredulous. He gaped at James and was about to say something when Peter interrupted.
"I'm in love," he said with a smile.
"With who?" James asked tiredly.
"Professor Sinistra."
"Oh," Sirius said with a sigh, "you do bloody pick 'em, Pete."
The first lesson of the week that the four of them shared was Defence Against the Dark Arts, which also seemed to be the most anticipated.
Lined outside the classroom for their sixth teacher in the art, the class was buzzing as if they were first year again.
"It's a whole different stage in our lives," Mary MacDonald told Sirius, who nodded slowly, "because, we're like, doing a whole different set of exams and stuff and it's going to be super cool when they're all studying for OWLs and we're like, hel-lo, NEWT student here."
"I hope this teacher's good though," Sinead O'Donnell said as she threw her bags to the ground and joined the queue. "I only just got on this course as it is. I don't want to be pushed off again."
"Sinead, Mary got on this course," Sirius said flatly. "You are in no danger of being chucked."
"Disrespectful students will be though," a new voice joined the conversation, and everyone turned to the front to see Professor Winslow leaning against the doorframe, wand in hand. She raised an eyebrow at Sirius and looked at the rest of the class. "Everyone ready to come inside?"
The class began to pile in and Snape shot Sirius a very malicious grin, which Sirius matched with a rude hand gesture.
The classroom hadn't changed much; the only real change was that there was a large painting of a gremlin hanging on one wall.
"Ew, what is that?" Mary asked, shrivelling her nose as she looked at the canvas.
"Oh, this is Doris," Winslow said casually. "I think she's cute. Plus she looks like how I imagine Sméagol."
"Why do you want a painting of Gollum?" asked Lily with a frown.
"Why does anyone want anything?" she replied, before smiling. "However, I'm pleased to know there is a Tolkien fan amongst us. What's your name?"
Lily blushed. "Lily Evans."
"How many books does she read?" Sirius muttered to Remus.
"Come on, Sirius, I've read Lord of the Rings."
"You're letting the side down."
"It's really good, actually. You should read it some time."
"Oh, I will," Sirius said with an over-exaggerated smile. "I'll read it as soon as I become head boy."
Remus rolled his eyes.
"Have you seen the size of it?" Sirius asked incredulously. "It's huge. I can only do little portions at once. I couldn't tackle that, it'd... eat me." His sentence faltered as he noticed Winslow looking straight at him. He smiled sheepishly at her as she raised both eyebrows again.
"What's your name?" she asked him.
Sirius Black. "Remus Lupin." Remus kicked him. "Okay, Sirius Black," he corrected, sighing.
"Are you going to take this lesson seriously, Black?" she asked him slowly, before smiling. "It is your name after all."
"Miss, that is dreadful," James groaned. Winslow bowed.
She was normal-sized, brunette with very dark eyes and green robes. She was definitely in her late thirties to mid-forties, and yet she was attractive in a way that older women sometimes had.
Raising her eyebrows again (she has a talent at that, thought Sirius), she turned back to the painting and grinned. "So, Doris, what are we learning about today?"
"She's nuts," Sirius muttered.
"She's wicked," grinned James. "This is going to be a great year."