For James, everything was going great.
Their potion was at its final stage, and it would be finished in eight days, the 22nd of December. And Dumbledore was going to Italy next in January. Term would end in six days, December 20th, and students could go home on the 21st. Homework would be let out.
"So we go over the plan again," said Peter.
"We're going to go decorate on Christmas Eve," narrated Remus.
"And then we slip some potion - a lot of potion - into his drink," said Sirius.
"Yeah, and then he gets over the Imperius Curse and we tell him everything that's going on!" cried James.
"Sounds easy enough," said Peter.
"And then hopefully everything gets sorted out," prayed Sirius.
"Yep," said James.
There was a pause.
"Should we study now?" asked Remus. "We have that essay due for Binns."
"Right," grumbled Sirius. "That useless essay due for Binns."
"It's still due," pointed out Peter.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," muttered James.
"Well then, shall we get started?" asked Remus. When everyone grudgingly nodded, he pulled out a roll of fresh parchment and a quill with a bottle of ink. James pulled out a wrinkled piece of parchment, a torn quill, and an almost empty bottle of ink.
"This is destroyed," he noted, picking at his quill-feathers. "I'll have to owl my dad to send me a new one."
"Will your dad really do that?" breathed Sirius. He froze. "Oh. Right."
James nodded and smiled at Sirius. "Yeah, my dad will. Do you want one too?"
Sirius pulled out a piece of parchment and flattened it, before pulling out a quill with a half-empty bottle of ink.
"You might need new ink," suggested Peter. "I need more parchment. I'm done with my rolls because I scrap the work that's terrible."
"But then you'll have no parchment left if you scrap your work at that rate," teased James. "Kidding, kidding. Anyway, let me owl my dad."
"Go ahead," said Remus. "But don't think this will get you out of writing your essay."
That was exactly what he thought. But he shrugged and said, "Me? No way!" He dipped his quill in ink and started to write.
Dear dad,
I hope you are doing well! I certainly am. Hogwarts is amazing, like I told you. I haven't got in much trouble since that incident when we went to Paris. Don't worry, I haven't been caught after curfew yet. Not that I went out curfew, of course not!
I'm really good at Transfiguration, but I doubt you'd really want to know about that. And the howler you sent me the other day, it made me go deaf! Did you yell that loudly on purpose, dad?
Professor Dumbledore asked us to help set the Christmas Decorations before Christmas. Do you think that would be a lot of fun? I think it would be a lot of fun. I don't know why he picked us instead of any other students, but it sounds great!
There's a lot of stuff more I would like to tell you, but Remus is telling me I have to get back to my essay, and that this letter is getting annoyingly long - of course it isn't! Do you really think it is? - so I should come straight to the point. Could you send me some ink, quills, and parchment? And some for Sirius, too. Well...only ink for Sirius. I told you about Sirius. Would you please buy him some? His dad won't send it to him, so can you? And a little extra parchment for Peter might be nice.
Tell mum I said hi, and tell her I'm missing those shortbread cookies she makes just for me. I know I'm the best son you guys have ever had ;). Okay well, Remus is INSISTING I have to go now, so I guess I really do. Will you send me those supplies?
Lots of love,
James
"Okay, guys," said James. "I asked. I'll mail this to the owlery-"
"-after that essay is ready to be handed in," said Remus, smiling in a sarcastically sweet way.
"Killjoy," mumbled Sirius. "Okay, let's write."
They traded supplies they were low on, and they got to work.
"Okay, so who was the General of the Battle of Levglin?" questioned Peter.
"It was Trungy the 3rd," answered Sirius.
"No, he was Lieutenant," corrected Remus. "Levglin was Garlo the 6th, remember?"
"They're all giants," grumbled James, scribbling down, Garlo the 6th was the General of the Battle of Levglin. "He was born in what, 1345?"
"1346, I thought," argued Sirius, frowning. "Peter? Remus?"
"I thought 1346 was Gruella?" asked Peter.
"No, 1346 was Emter," complained James. "We're talking about Garlo."
"Yeah, 1346," said Sirius.
"No, it was 1345. Remember, they moved to the hillside then?"
"When he was born," recalled Remus. "Guys, it's 1345. Stop arguing."
"Oh good," said Peter. "I thought you would say 1344 and we'd all be wrong."
"It's not like it matters anyway," grumbled James. "Like, in our job interview, they're not gonna say, 'Please name when Garlo the 6th was born.' Unless you get some boring job writing textbooks."
"Oh no, that would be terrible," said Sirius. "Who wants to write textbooks?"
"Not me, for sure," laughed Peter. "Remus, can you read over the first two sections?"
Remus sighed and grabbed over Peter's essay. "Don't expect me to keep doing this. In the second term, I'm not going to write over your homework for you."
"You will always check over it, right?" asked James.
"Nope."
"He won't do that," said Sirius. "He can't!"
"Try me."
"Fine," pouted James.
Remus took a minute to read Peter's essay. "This part is good, Peter. A little bit is wrong, though. You forgot the "w" in Pettigrew."
"Oops!" Peter quickly scribbled in a "w" in his name. "Anything else?"
"The content is pretty good. Write a little more about the conflict between the two goblin sides, and why the rebellion started. You jumped straight to the casualties of the trolls."
"Right," mumbled Peter.
"And the grammar is not very good. But other than that, this first section is looking nice."
"What grade would you give it?"
"An Acceptable," answered Remus without hesitation. "But work your way up. If the rest of the essay is looking like this, you'll get a P."
"Okay."
"Read mine!" ordered Sirius, shoving Remus his essay while Peter made amends.
Remus grumbled and read his sections. "Awesome grammar. But you are WAY too verbose about the Apparition Strikes in 1434, and not enough about the casualties of the trolls. Swap with Peter to get some context, but don't copy his."
"Okay," said Sirius.
"Am I going to have to read yours too, James?" asked Remus.
"I haven't finished Section 1," he admitted sheepishly.
"Seriously? Even Peter has finished it!" laughed Sirius, dipping his quill in ink. "Remus, how far have you gotten?"
"I've written three sections, and I'm almost done with the fourth," answered Remus promptly.
"Oh, lucky you," moaned James. "I've done like...three quarters."
"Peter and I have finished two!" said Sirius proudly. "Alright, help. Arnuk, the Goblin Secretary of that Goblin Bank died in the Second Goblin/Wizard war, right?"
"I think it was the first war for Arnuk," said James. "Botnak died in the second."
"They all end in k," argued Sirius.
"That's really not how it works," interjected Remus.
"You ruin all our fun," sighed Sirius, crossing out his sentence. "Okay fine. Arnuk, the Goblin Secretary of the Goblin Bank of 1233, died in the Second Goblin and Wizard War in 1464. Does that sound good?"
"Mine's more detailed, but the same thing," said Remus. "Arnuk was a Goblin born in 1432. He grew up in Macedonia and moved to Latvia to work at the Goblin Bank of 1233 when he was 25. He worked as a Secretary there until he died in the Second war between the Goblins and Wizards over a land that they'd fought over for years as a dispute. He died in March of 1464."
"Who's Arnuk?" asked Peter.
They turned to stare at him in disbelief.
"Here we are, arguing over when Arnuk died and what position he worked in at his bank...and you don't know who he is?" asked James, his mouth wide.
"I forgot," Peter argued.
"Clearly you did. He wanted that in the essay."
After twenty minutes of writing, they'd finished their essays. Remus was looking over James's conclusion and editing minor stuff.
"Finally, we got that stupid thing out of the way," grumbled Sirius.
"I need a walk," declared James. "I'm going to the Owlery now. Any of you people coming?"
"I can come," offered Sirius. "I want a walk too."
"Alright," said James. "Peter? Remus?"
"I'll stay," said Peter. "I think I'll take a nap."
"Remus?" asked James, knowing what the answer was going to be.
"I need to catch up on some homework I missed," Remus said apologetically. "The Herbology diagrams."
"Alright," said Sirius. "Come on James, let's go."
They left the building and climbed up the tower to the Owlery, where a lot of owls were chirping and hooting on their poles.
"Hi, Hootie," sang James, walking over to a snowy owl. They were adorable, as was Hootie.
"Hootie?" snorted Sirius. "You named him Hootie?"
"Shut up," laughed James, pulling out a ribbon from the community basket and tying it through his letter. "Why, what's your owl's name?"
"Amaia, and she's a girl."
"Good for you," James responded, attaching the ribbon to his owl's foot. "There we go, boy. Fly off."
Hootie hooted (wow) and soared off through the window.
"My dad will reply fast," said James, shrugging. "Alright, then, let's go back."
They descended the steps and landed at the door. Looking outside, they saw that the grounds were coated with snow, and snowflakes were gently falling on the ground.
"We have to go have a snowball fight," said Sirius.
"Let's go get Remus and Peter...and our coats," James suggested, as they ran up to their dormitory. He dove into his wardrobe and pulled out a thick black jacket, a purple fluffy hat, and a red scarf. He was pulling on some white gloves when Remus and Peter agreed to go have a Snow War with them.
After a few minutes, they'd managed to cover themselves in appropriate clothes for the cold, and they hurried outside.
"Can we build a snowman first?" asked Peter.
"Sure," said James. "Remus, you and I can build the base. You guys get the head and the...body? Then we can put like...carrots and eyeballs and stuff."
They quickly rolled up the three balls and hefted them into their snowman position. "I'm getting the arms," announced James, running towards the tree and snapping off two dead branches. He ran back and skewered them into the body.
"I'll get the eyes...will grapes work?" asked Peter.
"Why not?" Remus was smiling. "I'll get...like...buttons."
"Get it a tie!" cried Sirius, positively jumping with enthusiasm. "Licorice tie!"
"I'll get both," offered Remus, running into the building with Peter, emerging a few minutes later with carrots, grapes, hard round candies, chocolate pieces, and licorice strands. They stuck the carrot as a nose, the chocolate pieces as the mouth, the grapes as the eyes, the licorice strands as the tie, and the candies as the buttons on the tie.
"Finished," announced James, proud of their work. "We will name him…"
"A mix of all our names?" suggested Sirius, his eyes gleaming. "Jaresipe."
"I like it!" Peter was jumping up and down, clapping his hands together. "Jaresipe. We will rebuild it every year."
"Yeah, he migrates every year," said Remus, and they started building a story for Jaresipe. "To live in...Antarctica."
"Yeah, with his friends," added James enthusiastically.
"We rebuild him as Jaresipe the Second and Jaresipe the Third and so on every winter," put in Sirius, his smile so wide and energetic that it was contagious to probably even McGonagall.
"Yeah! Now we let him be, and have our snowball fight," said Peter.
"I'm on a team with Sirius!" announced James. He felt that Sirius was probably the most reckless at throwing snowballs.
"Fine with me," said Remus.
"Me too," chirped Peter.
"Let's have it away from Jaresipe so we don't destroy him, but still can keep an eye on him." When they found a prime spot, they immediately jumped into their fight.
Sirius and James got to work building up their snow fort. Sirius was patting the snow to sturdy it, and James was balling up snowballs.
"Three...two...one...go!" cried Peter, and they started aiming snowballs all over. Remus managed to shoot one directly in James's chest, knocking him over onto their fort.
"Hey," complained Sirius, before snow filled his mouth and he yelped. James sniggered, brushing the snow off him and jumping up.
James aimed a ball at Remus, and it narrowly missed - hitting Peter instead. James shrugged. It'd have to do, anyway.
They were all shrieking, screaming, and yelling, and having so much fun that some other first-years had come out to see what was going on.
"Can we play too?" asked a first-year Ravenclaw by the name Marcus.
"Go ahead," offered Sirius. "James, is that okay with you?"
James shrugged. He had planned for it to be just the Marauders' Snowball fight, but he guessed the more the merrier. Plus, he didn't want to deprive other kids of playing. For what he knew, it might be fun.
"You're on Remus's team," James directed.
"I can play too," Marcus's friend offered. "So the teams are even."
"Sure. Come over here." Sirius beckoned for his friend - Jacob - to come over. "You can help ball up the snowballs. And help sturdy the fort, because one of our friends ruined that."
James grinned sheepishly as Jacob started patting up snow into a snowball.
"Can we play?" asked some Hufflepuff girls, marching over.
"Yeah! Divide evenly into our teams!"
They scattered across.
"No magic allowed in this fight," sang James. "And you guys can help extend the fort. It needs to be longer if we need to beat their team."
"Yeah!" chorused the girls. Soon, kids from every house had joined them. Girls and boys. Some second-years had joined as well. Two third-years had come. A couple fourth-years had come. One lone fifth-year came, lots of seventh-years, and no sixth-years.
"Spread out!" screamed Peter. What were two small forts and weak snowballs launched at each other had become much larger. The forts were twisted, bent, and almost a labyrinth of snow, stretching into the Forbidden Forest and touching the building. The snowballs were almost as big as Jaresipe's bottom (and Jaresipe himself was completely safe and untouched), and there was complete havoc. Some kids had resorted to throwing their mittens and hats.
The doors swung open and Dumbledore walked out, suspended by the sight. His eyes widened as a large snowball smacked him in the face.
All throwing stopped. Yelling stopped. Cheering, screaming, chaos stopped. The crowd drew in their breath as the snow slid off Dumbledore's face. Was he going to yell at them?
To their surprise he laughed. "Who threw that snowball?" he asked, smiling.
A terrified second-year Slytherin raised her hand.
"Very well thrown," he chuckled. "You just wasted a very good snowball."
"Thank you," the girl squeaked, turning dark red at being addressed by the headmaster.
"Well, don't let me stop you!" he cried. "You guys have every right to be playing a snowball fight out here. Please continue." He swept across the grounds, carefully avoiding the fight.
There was silence.
And then…
"YAAAARGH!" Snow clumps started sailing in the air, forts started crumbling, and the fun was back in action.
"Hey, Lily, is that you?" James squinted his eyes through the snow and found a group of first-year Gryffindors watching near the door.
"Yes," snapped an impatient voice.
"Come play!" Sirius invited. "It's lots of fun."
"Couldn't be terrible," pondered a voice that belonged to Valerie. "Lily? Mary? What say you guys?"
"A snowball fight?" Lily asked. "I don't know…"
"You guys divide between the teams!" instructed Sirius, aiming a snowball at a Slytherin from the opposing team, smiling when it hit its mark. "And then...play!" He launched a snowball.
"Alright, I'll play," one of the girls said. She headed into a team, and the other girls distributed themselves evenly. Mary, Valerie, and Isabelle were on James and Sirius's team, and Ariana, Emmeline, and Lily went to the other team.
"S-Sirius," breathed James, slumping to the safety of their fort. Sirius slid down next to him.
"Yeah?"
"We need a better plan," James said firmly, untying his boot and pouring out the snow inside it. "Brr, this is freezing. And snow keeps getting on my glasses."
"Remus probably has some spell against that," grumbled Sirius, untangling his hair which was sprinkled and caught in ice.
"What is it though?" James moaned. "I can't seem to remember."
"I don't think he taught us. Let's ask someone older." Sirius pointed to the lone fifth-year who was close to them and was also wiping snow off herself.
"Hey," hissed James. The girl turned.
"What?"
"Can you help me get the snow off my glasses?"
"I know a spell for that," she said. "But it's just going to get back on it anyway."
"Not like there's m-m-much we can do against t-t-t-that," said James, shivering.
"Of course we can. Impervius."
James grinned. "This will work?"
"Of course," she responded. "Now I have a plan. We should intrude on their fort by extending ours to just a little above theirs. They'll have to retreat, or they'll have to lose. There's no way we can be so c-c-close and lose. We can intentionally maim their fort."
"Oh, that's genius." Sirius's eyes glinted. "Alert the fourth-years. Oh and, I'm Sirius. He's James. What's your name?"
"Patricia," she replied. "Call me Ricia, or Cia, though, I really hate Pat, and Patricia can be too long. Do not call me Pat."
"Okay Pat," said James, smirking.
"Alright Jamie," she snapped back.
"It's James to you."
"Sirius," added Sirius.
"Right. Jamie and his midget friend."
"Just because you are a fifth-year doesn't mean you can boss us around," retorted James.
"I can be a prefect."
"Too bad," snorted Sirius. "Put us in detention. Doesn't affect us."
"I can't do that," laughed Patricia. "I'm not a prefect. Do you really think I could be a prefect?"
"I dunno, only sissies become prefects," said James.
"I'm not a sissy," insisted Patricia. "I'm a rule-breaker. My teachers hate me."
"Not hard to tell why," Sirius said, grinning. "They don't hate us, though, and you must've heard of our Halloween Prank."
"Oh yeah, well, I'm more rebellious, if that makes sense." She winked. "Anyway, before we lose, I'm going to go round up the fourth-years."
"See you around," said James.
"Oh yeah, definitely. I'll see you guys sometime in the Common Room, then?"
"You're in Gryffindor?" yelped Sirius.
Patricia laughed. "You really don't pay attention to 5th years, do you. Of course I am. I see you guys out and about all the time."
"Whatever," dismissed James.
"Alright, well, see you sometime tonight or tomorrow," she said, smiling. "I'll see you."
She left, and James and Sirius watched her go.
"She could be a useful asset to some of our pranks," mumbled Sirius, watching her carefully.
"Yeah," echoed James. "Now come on, let's beat the magic out of the other team."
"You said it."
Patricia's strategy turned out to be a success. They tweaked it a little bit, building around their fort to capture them, but it was her strategy nonetheless.
"We're going to win," hoped Sirius, dodging a snowball and throwing his, hoping it hit the opposite team's someone.
"Peter? Is that you?" The snow had gotten much worse, and it was almost impossible to see what was happening. The snowflakes whirled around, and James could see a slight figure making his way across the snow.
Peter stopped his attempt to sneak across to their side and ruin their fort unnoticed, and nodded glumly.
"Oh, you're so dead!" James and Sirius scooped up snow and launched it at Peter, jumping themselves on him.
"Ow! Ow! I'm sorry! Ack! Ah!" Peter dodged the snowballs and ran back to his side, screaming and yelling.
"This fight was the best idea we've ever come up with," muttered James, packing snow into their fort and extending it into the forest. "Okay, we've reached our boundary here."
"We can't go into the forest, those idiotic centaurs would kill us," sighed Sirius, chiseling the snow to precisely block up. "They are so...argh."
James smirked. "What do you have against centaurs?"
"We are not the friendly playthings of humans. Don't take us lightly. We are not easy to deal with. We are dangerous. This is our territory. Go away. Shoo, you filthy creatures."
James looked at his friend for a moment, and then he burst out into laughter. Sirius was amazing. "That was a good impression."
"Thank you," laughed Sirius, taking a bow. "Not that I have anything against them...but they're half-breeds. My family grew me against half-breeds." His mouth twisted into an unpleasant grimace. "I'm learning to get away from my family values - but they're not easy, you know? It's like you've been living a lie for eleven years of your life, and it's just not easy to get away with."
"I know," said James, thinking what it would feel like if his family had brought him up with horrid values. He shivered, which didn't have much to do with the cold.
"Let's get back to our fight," decided Sirius. They'd extended the fort to a discreet area, and the fight was going on a few meters away.
"Yeah," agreed James, as they raced back to the fight.
In the end, James and Sirius's team won. Very narrowly. James had decided his glasses were going to ruin him - if anything - and stuffed them in his coat pocket. Remus and Peter had fought very well, but some third-year had accidentally slipped on their fort and ruined half of it, which helped James's team intrude on their area and claim victory.
"WE WIN!" boomed James, raising his arms.
The boo's from the other team were loud, but the cheers from his own team were much louder. Caps, mittens, scarves, jackets, they were thrown in the air and everyone was cheering so loudly, it was as if they'd won a war. Which they had. "WOO!" and "WE WIN!", and "WE ROCK!", and so many more cheers were calling throughout the grounds. All the birds in the trees flocked off, and the students who hadn't played were watching through the windows, as were some teachers.
The game had lasted throughout dinner, it had started just before lunch, and was the best game some students said "we've ever had in all our years at Hogwarts!"
"Remus! Peter! Are you guys here?" James and Sirius squeezed through the yelling crowd, smiling at the congratulations directed at them, and found Remus and Peter, who were talking to Lily.
"Huh? Hi guys!" Remus flinched as James launched himself on Remus, tackling him to the ground.
"Leave me!" cried Peter, who was pinned on the ground by Sirius.
"Are you not happy to see us?" asked James. "Good game, guys."
"You too," said Remus, smiling. "Good job! You guys won."
"Only because that third-year Hufflepuff fell onto the fort," laughed Sirius.
"Yes, he was extremely embarrassed about it," added Peter.
"Well, he still cost you guys the game. Wait, why am I complaining?" asked James. "I need to congratulate the guy! That's how we won."
"All I need is a warm cup of hot chocolate," sighed Remus. "Some guy stole my hat to throw it in the air."
James snorted. "Where do you think my jacket went, cookie boy?"
"Cookie boy?" Peter looked incredulous. "Did this fight snatch your sanity?"
"What, am I not worth a hello?" snapped Lily, who had been talking to Remus and Peter.
"Hello," said Sirius. "Anyway, Peter, it didn't snatch our sanity, it gave it back."
"You call this sane?" laughed Remus.
"Being sane is extremely pointless," pointed out James.
"You-"
"You realize you were just interrupting a very nice conversation," sighed Lily.
"Go have your very nice conversation somewhere else," suggested Sirius.
"But-"
"Good day." Lily rolled her eyes and left. James didn't know why she took it so personally. He annoyed everyone, not just her. She was just a rule-follower.
"Did you guys see when Blake made that snowball bigger than that seventh-year?" asked Peter. "It was so funny, except that it didn't go far."
"Yeah well, it doused that Ravenclaw," laughed James. "It showered her."
"Her expression was priceless," croaked Remus. "Can you get off me now, James?"
"Hmm? Oh sure." James jumped off Remus.
"Finally." Remus rolled his eyes.
"It's getting cold out here," Peter mumbled. "Can we go in now?"
"I guess." Sirius looked sad, but they headed inside, nodding and smiling at the congratulations they were getting from all around - the Four Founders of the Snowball Fight.
"Ah, the warmth of our common room," sighed James once they had reached their Common Room.
"I really could use some hot chocolate now," said Sirius.
"Are you implying?" James waggled his eyebrows.
"Yes, maybe I am."
"Whatever. Reffo?" James called. He and Remus had found the kitchens the other day, and that was an elf's name. He hoped this was how you called one.
"What are you-"
"Shh. Reffo?" James's voice was a bit stronger now.
The air cracked and an elf appeared at James's foot. "Yes, master Potter?"
"James will do just fine," said James, patting the head of Reffo.
"Sorry, master Potter. What can I get you?"
"Four warm cups of hot chocolate with marshmallows," answered Sirius promptly.
"Yes sir!" Reffo immediately disappeared.
"Hey, good game," came the voices of some second-year boys, entering the room loudly.
"Thanks," they responded lackadaisically.
"Here is your hot chocolates, sir," said Reffo, immediately appearing at the feet of James again, holding a tray of hot chocolate.
"Thank you," said James kindly.
"Do we...do we need to pay for this?" Remus asked in a small voice.
"No sir," said Reffo, his eyes wide. "We get enough salary from Sir Dumbledore, see, and we couldn't ask for more."
"If you're sure." Remus smiled at the tiny elf.
"Enjoy the food, masters!" Reffo bowed and disappeared.
"Ah." James took a sip of his hot chocolate and sighed. It was perfect, just what he needed after hours in the snow. It was warm, tasty, and amazing.
Sweet.
A/N: Hi readers!
School is starting up again soon, so my update schedule is going to change a little bit. Don't worry, I'm not ditching this story :), I'm just changing the schedule. Updates are probably going to be once a week, on Fridays. I'll update as much as I can!
Thanks again to all of my readers, reviewers, favorites, and follows, it means a lot that you're enjoying the story!