Disclaimer:

This is my interpretation of the Marauders life at Hogwarts. I am planning on doing all seven years, but for now this is year one. I hope you enjoy it.

All rights belong to J.K. Rowling.

Chapter 6 - A night in the Astronomy Tower

The day came to an end and the students had all retreated to their house common rooms. There was only one subject left for the day, Astronomy. For the first years that meant midnight and as no one was tired after only one day of school they stayed up after dinner waiting for their class.

"Wingardium Leviosa." Peter was busy practicing the levitation charm from where he lay on the ground at the back of the common room.

"You're flickering your wand too much," James told him from the chair he was sitting in, "if you keep going on like that, you're going to take somebody's eye out."

"And besides you're pronouncing it wrong." Sirius added, "It's LeviOsa, not LevioSA."

"Wingardium LeviOsa." Peter tried again.

"Remus, what are you doing mate?" Sirius asked.

"I'm reading up on Defence Against the Dark Arts. I've always hoped to teach the subject one day." Remus replied.

"With those three as your buds, you'll be lucky if you don't end up in Azkaban." Kingsley snorted from his armchair a few feet away.

"Hey! We earned 35 points last night, so our misbehaving is actually a good thing." Sirius replied.

"Be sure to tell the judge that before your taken to Azkaban." Kingsley joked.

"Wingardium Leviosa." Peter continued working on the spell, "Oh, it's no use!"

"Why don't we work on that spell for Transfiguration for a while?" James suggested.

"So that you can show off?" Sirius questioned.

"Just a little." James grinned.

Ten minutes to midnight, the first years gathered by the exit and headed to the Astronomy tower. They passed by many sleeping portraits and when they neared the door leading to the astronomy classroom a light bulb fell and crashed on the floor in front of Marlene McKinnon who was leading the group.

"Hahaha!" someone from above laughed.

"Boys." Marlene said after spotting the cause of the disruption and she continued walking.

"Woah! That was awesome!" James said from where he was standing in the middle of the group. "Who are you?"

"Peeves the poltergeist." the ghost floating over their heads introduced himself.

"Oh, we're going to have so much fun together. I'm James." James smiled back.

"A fellow trouble maker." Peeves laughed, "I look forward to seeing you around school." and he floated away.

"Come on mate, we're going to be late for class." Remus said.

They hurried on and climbed the last few steps into the astronomy tower and then opened the door that lead to the classroom. The sight that greeted them was spectacular. The room looked like a standard classroom but in the back wall was a door that lead to a balcony outside. The room was also encircled in glass windows through which one could clearly see the stars twinkling in the sky.

"Hello class. I'm professor Strauss and we are going to have a wonderful time plotting and exploring the sky this year, but for tonight, I would like all of you to grab a blanket from the shelf behind me and go outside where we will be spending the night looking at the sky and appreciating it's magnificent beauty." the teacher instructed.

"We're gonna be here all night?" Sirius asked.

"It seems we are." James replied.

"This gives you the perfect opportunity to get back in Lily's good books." Remus jumped in.

"Yes and it gives me all night to practice my wand work." Peter chipped in, "Wingardium Leviosa." he pointed his wand to his astronomy textbook which lifted an inch of the ground before falling back down almost a second later.

"You need to trust yourself more Peter." Remus told him, "Wingardium Leviosa." he pointed his own wand to Peter's book and balanced it in the air for a minute before setting it down again. "Try again. And FOCUS."

"Wingardium Leviosa." Peter said again.

Meanwhile James walked over to Lily and sat down next to her. "Beautiful night isn't it?" James asked.

"Yes it is James. Anyway, as I was saying…" Lily turned her back on James and continued talking to Marlene who was sitting next to her, "Neil Armstrong walked on the moon on July 20th 1969."

"You mean to tell me that muggles have figured out how to get people to the moon and we haven't?" Marlene asked as James got up and walked back to his group of friends.

"Who's Kneel Armsstrongs?" he asked them. They answered him in unison with a shrug.

"Wingardium Leviosa." Peter tried again.

The night continued and the crescent moon climbed higher into the sky. Students were pointing out different constellations to each other and soon some people fell asleep on the balcony.

"There's Andromeda." Sirius pointed out to James, "And there's Bellatrix." he pointed to another one, "And there's the Regulus star system which consists of at least four stars and then there is Sirius."

"Dude, how do you know this?" James asked, "Also, you're named after a star?"

"Yes, my family thinks it represents the fact that our family burns brighter than others. Like that we're better or something. The only member of my family not named after a star is Narcissa although through some mythological tie she still represents the burning brighter thing." Sirius said.

"Oh." James said, "That's a little strange."

"Yeah, you wanna know what's even worse, Sirius is known as the Dog Star. My parents decided to give me a name that compares me with a dog!" Sirius complained. James, Remus and Peter burst out laughing and Sirius soon joined in.

Eventually the whole class but those four were asleep and they stayed up watching the night get brighter. They glimpsed the first rays of light coming up over the horizon and watched as the night turned to day.

"Wingardium Leviosa." Peter mumbled tiredly when the last bit of hidden sun became visible in the distant sky.

"Peter!" Sirius exclaimed, "You're doing it!"

"What?" Sirius looked at the book he was levitating, "Wow! I'm doing it! I'm actually doing it!"

"Will you guys keep it down?" Kingsley's sleepy voice spoke up, "We don't all have the energy you four posses."

"Rise and shine class!" Professor Strauss came out to wake the class up.

The class gathered their bags and headed back to their house common rooms to freshen up for the day and then they headed down to breakfast in the Great Hall, still yawning after the long night.