As the snow started to lighten, as January neared its end, as the clouds became less and less grey, and as the exams drew nearer and nearer, the first-years found themselves packed with homework never quite like before.
"I don't get this," groaned Peter. "Who cares how to turn a pencil into a jar, anyway? It's not like while killing bad guys we're going to turn pencils into jars."
James looked at him oddly. "Who said we're going to kill bad guys?"
Peter looked at the floor. "I mean, it was just…"
"You think you'd be interested in that stuff?" Sirius frowned. "I could do that. I'd just have to kill my family."
Remus leaned forward. "Would you really do that, Sirius?"
Sirius shrugged casually. "Why not? If I become like...an Auror, then yeah."
"Auror...what's an auror?" asked Peter, new to the term.
"Good people hunting bad people."
"So detailed, James," said Remus sarcastically. "No, Peter, an auror is a person who tracks and kills - or sometimes catches for interrogation - dark wizards who are causing some harm around the place. They're a branch of the ministry."
"Oh," said Peter, twirling his wand subconsciously. "So like...Tom Riddle?"
Sirius smiled a crooked smile that wasn't like him. "Nope. He hasn't done anything yet. Nobody's got any proof, except me, because I'm an expert snoop."
"You are an expert snoop," repeated James, snorting. "So Aurors can't hunt down people who haven't done anything yet?"
"No, I don't think they can unless they have really good proof. And four first-years' words aren't going to change anything," Remus said.
"Point taken."
"Speaking of which," said Peter, realizing that he didn't know this about his friends, "what do you guys want to be when you grow up?"
James narrowed his eyes. "Are you really asking me this?"
Peter shrugged. "Okay, not you. Remus? Sirius?"
"Wherever I get employed, I guess," said Remus quietly, not meeting Peter's eyes.
Peter frowned, wondering if there was a hidden meaning to this. "Why? You should have ambitions, Remus, you're smart enough that anyone would hire you."
Remus muttered something that sounded like, "As if that would be enough."
"Let's say you had all options open," suggested James. "Then what?"
Remus seemed to contemplate this. "Then a healer, maybe?"
"You'd make a good teacher," commented Sirius.
Remus cracked a smile. "Can you see me teaching Transfiguration?"
"Is it just me, or are you guys seeing an image of Remus in McGonagall's clothes?" asked James. When they told him it was just him, he added, "Oh great, now that's stuck in my mind eternally."
The other three cracked up. "But Remus," said Peter, "you teach me Transfiguration all the time."
"I teach you Transfiguration," corrected James. "And Sirius helps us with potions. Remus teaches us everything else."
Peter rolled his eyes. "Same thing. Remus, you could be a DADA teacher, you're really good at that."
"Yeah!" Sirius enthused. "Please?"
"Who would waste their life becoming a teacher?" asked James.
"You get respect," pointed out Remus. "And you help children learn. McGonagall, Dumbledore, Flitwick, they all do it and they love it."
"Though how they love it with James around…" Sirius muttered, ducking when a pillow sailed at him from James's direction.
"It wouldn't be too bad," continued Remus, putting a pillow away from James's reach as James reached to get it - most likely to hit Sirius.
"Okay, but why healer?" Peter asked.
"I don't know, ask James why he'd be a Quidditch player!" moaned Remus.
"How about we ask Sirius what he wants to be?" suggested James.
"I really don't know," mused Sirius. "What do you guys think?"
"You could...I don't know...start a shop," Peter said.
Sirius eyed him skeptically. "A shop?"
Peter turned red. "I mean...it was just…"
"You've said that twice today," noted James.
Peter scowled. "Stop picking on me! How'd we even get into this conversation? The exams are soon, we have to study."
"The exams are soon?" Sirius asked. "Seriously, Pete?"
"Don't call me Pete."
"You're sounding like Remus. The exams aren't until May."
"First week of June," corrected Remus. "And he's not sounding like me. I said that we should get a headstart on our homework because we have a lot, not that the exams are soon."
"Fine, fine," said Peter. "Just help me turn this pencil into a jar."
James came first. "Take the wand, point it at the pencil, and recite the spell. Imagine it turning into a jar."
Peter pulled out his wand and pointed it at the pencil. "Musflito."
Nothing happened.
"Why isn't it working?"
James looked slightly amused and slightly annoyed. "Try it again, with more force."
Peter waved his wand with more force.
Nothing happened.
James raised his eyebrows, his patience deteriorating. "Don't change the movement of your wand. Just do it with more force."
Nothing happened.
"Just...flick with more force. Like...jab it."
Peter jabbed the pencil, snapping it in half.
"It's so easy! Just jab it and recite the thing!" cried James, standing up. "Nobody asked you to break the pencil!"
Peter frowned. "You're not explaining it properly."
"Just...I give up," muttered James. "Remus, give it a try?"
Remus shrugged and came over, wearing a maroon sweater. Sirius was watching from the side, smirking. "This spell needs theory."
"I'm shocked," said Sirius dryly, his smirk growing wider.
"Shut up, Sirius, do you want to give it a try?"
"With that lump of jello? No."
"Did you just call me a lump of jello?" demanded Peter, but Remus cut in before Sirius could answer.
"Sirius, stop it. Peter, listen. This spell has lots of theory behind it, so it'll help you understand. There's an equation that goes with it."
Peter nodded. "Wait, I need to take notes."
"You don't need to take notes on a spell," groaned James.
"If it works for him, sure," said Remus.
"Did you write notes for this spell?" Peter asked Remus.
Remus looked uncomfortable. "No, but it was just this spell. You should take notes if it helps you."
"Oh please, Remus, don't feel guilty in being better than others."
"Remus is not better than me!" interjected Peter.
Sirius raised an eyebrow.
"Remus is better than me," amended Peter quietly.
Remus laughed softly. "Let's keep going. So basically…" Remus launched into a colorful explanation on the theory behind the spell and how to do it properly.
After around fifteen minutes of lecture and demonstrations, Remus said, "You do it, Peter."
Peter did it, and nothing happened, except the pencil (a new pencil, since he'd broken the other one) grew bigger.
"You're getting there! Wait…" Remus paused, thinking. "I have an idea."
"Yeah?"
"Let's make this more interactive. So we're going to start by making the pencil bigger. Engorgio."
"Engorgio," repeated Peter, and the pencil grew bigger.
"How did you manage that?" Remus asked, smiling.
"I just pointed it at the pencil, flicked it, and sort of felt the pencil growing bigger inside me," answered Peter.
"Good," said Remus. "Now, turn this matchstick into a needle."
Peter frowned, as this was beginner material, but he did it.
"You did that, too," commented Remus. "What did you do?"
"I visualized the ends, and then the middle turning into metal, and then the middle. Why?"
"See, you visualized and felt that, right? So imagine the pencil growing bigger, then wider, then the transparency, and then a lid."
Peter tried it, with all his might. It worked.
"Remus...you just…" Sirius's mouth dropped wide.
"You just did the impossible!" James supplied.
"Yeah, that works," said Sirius.
"Me doing a spell is not impossible," Peter retorted.
"You've been working on this spell for an hour," James returned.
"Guys, stop. At least Peter got it to work," Remus chided.
"Can we take a break?" begged Sirius, dropping his essay on the table. "I've finished my essay, and I'm bored. Can we map more of the castle?"
"Yeah, I want to do that!" cried James. "Please, Remus?"
Remus seemed to consider this. "Yeah, okay. We deserve a break, anyway."
"Yay!" cheered James and Sirius, racing over to James's trunk and pulling out their parchment.
"Let's go for a walk around the castle," suggested Peter. "And draw out corridors while we're there."
"We're not drawing the actual map yet, though, right?" said James. "We don't know how to fit the entire castle on our parchment."
"And doing that would take lots of difficult magic," added Remus. "We can do a rough draft map."
"I like that," supplied Sirius. And so they set off, outside the Gryffindor Common Room and started mapping out the stairs of Gryffindor Tower.
"One...two...three...four...five...six…six before the bend," Peter said, counting the stairs quickly.
"The bend has three," James piped in.
"Okay. Is this drawing clear enough?" Sirius asked, waving his parchment in their face.
"Yeah," said Remus. "You're a good artist, Sirius."
Sirius smiled. "Thank you. Traits of a Black."
Peter sniggered as they continued down the steps and reached a hallway.
"Mark it," ordered James.
As Sirius started scribbling, Peter asked, "How are we going to map out this whole place? Don't staircases move and everything?"
"Good point..." said Remus. "How would we do that? James, Sirius, any ideas?"
"We could do where the staircases are usually supposed to be…" Sirius sounded hesitant.
"We'd be ashamed to call ourselves Marauders if we only did that," commented James lightly.
"So what do you propose we do?" Remus asked.
"Is there some way we could make the staircases on the map change when the staircases in real life change?" suggested Peter.
Sirius frowned. "Would that ac-"
"Good afternoon, boys!" McGonagall's voice rang out as she came down the corner. She spotted the piece of parchment in Sirius's hand as they all jumped. "What is that? Not homework, I presume." There was slight amusement in her voice as she said it.
"It's not homework," said Peter, exchanging a look with James that clearly meant "We can't tell her."
"I'm not surprised, frankly," McGonagall said. "I hope you are having fun. Now that there's rain all over the grounds…"
"Do you not like the rain?" Sirius asked, trying his hardest to stray her mind away from the Marauders' Map.
"I'm not against the rain," she said, as though the idea of being against a non-living object was ludicrous. "It helps our plants grow. Unfortunately," - she sighed heavily - "our caretaker, Argus Filch, is quite the opposite. He hates the rain. It makes a lot of extra mopping for him to do. You should never go out in the rain and come back making a mess of mud...Argus gets quite annoyed. He has all right to," she amended hastily, clearly not allowed to complain about staff - especially to students - to others, "but still...it's not advised."
"We'll keep that in mind," chirped James brightly.
"Have a good day," Remus said.
"Thank you." McGonagall nodded curtly and left. Once she had left, Sirius turned to the three of them, a wild look in his eyes.
"What happened," sighed Remus. Peter smirked at the fact that Remus phrased it as a statement, not a question, and at the fact that Remus knew Sirius too well to know that that look in his eye meant only one thing: Danger.
Peter knew that look too. It was the same look he had had before he suggested they go to Italy. It was the same look that he had whenever he had a good prank idea.
Which meant one thing for sure: Sirius had a prank in mind.
"Did you hear what Minerva said?" Sirius asked.
"Min- You mean professor McGonagall?" James asked, his mind spinning.
"Yeah. Minerva. That's her first name."
James snorted. "Minerva said a lot of things. Which one might you be referring to, Sir Black?"
Sirius grinned as Remus raised his eyebrows, not amused. "I am referring to what she said about Sir Filch and the rain, Knight Potter."
"Can we cut out the medieval times act and just get to the main point already?" Peter cut in sharply.
Sirius sniggered. "But, tiny, squeaky, gentle man"
"Tiny, squeaky, and gentle?" demanded Peter furiously.
James bit his lip, hiding a laugh.
"Guys, stop," said Remus wearily, he too hiding a smile. "What...what's the prank, Sirius?"
"Sir Black to you, Colonel Remus."
"Colonel- Okay, fine, Sir Black," Remus said, "what is the prank?"
"I was explaining, Colonel Remus."
"Wait, this isn't fair," Peter argued. "James is a knight. You are a sir. And Remus is a colonel! And what am I...a tiny, squeaky, gentle man? Doesn't this strike you as unfair?"
"Unless you'd rather us lie." James snorted.
"You are so-" Peter got cut off.
"Stop," Remus said. "Keep going, Sirius."
"Sir Black. Anyway. Did thee hear what Minerva said about Sir Filch and the rain?"
"What...that Filch hates the rain?" James asked.
"Hates the mud getting into the castle, art thou see," Sirius explained.
"You really need to learn your medieval speak," snorted Remus.
"Yes, whatever." Sirius grinned.
"So you mean…" James's eyes gleamed. "Oh, you are wicked! I get it."
"I don't get it," admitted Peter.
"Because you don't have the pranking spirit, tiny, squeaky, gen-"
"I have the pranking spirit!" Peter cried, crossing his arms and staring at Sirius indignantly. Why was he the one always getting picked on?
"Yes, you do," Remus sighed. "Sirius does too. So does James. But that's not the problem right now. We know Filch hates mud getting into the castle. Especially on rainy days. Why is that important right now? What prank are you pl-" Remus stopped. "Oh. No. Please don't tell me it's...oh Merlin, Sirius, no."
"Why not?" Sirius grinned. "It's brilliant!"
"Have you seen how Filch yells at people? We'll be in so much trouble!" Remus looked from James to Sirius, and then to Peter. "Peter...please tell me this is crazy."
"I don't get it!" Peter cried.
James looked away from Sirius and to Peter. "You really don't? Look at this. We love annoying Filch. We just figured out Filch hates getting mud in the castle. So what do you have to say about that?"
Peter finally figured it out.
"Oh no."
A few minutes later, they were standing by the doors. "I've got two brooms," said James.
"How did you get into the broom shed?" Remus asked, his tone half-reprimanding and half-amused.
"I snuck in. Just like last time."
"They tightened the security after we snuck in last time," Peter pointed out.
"I ramped up my sneaking skills after we snuck in last time," retorted James.
"Good for you." Sirius smirked. "Now James, who's going to be on the brooms and who's just going to run?"
"What do you mean run?" Remus asked nervously.
"Just run across the ground...sloshing your feet into the mud…" sang Sirius.
"I'm not running," said Remus immediately. "I want to be clean."
"Who doesn't want to be dirty?" Peter asked.
"You want to be dirty?" asked Sirius, grinning. "You'll run, then."
"Yay!" cheered Peter. Getting dirty wasn't a problem. It was fun. As long as he got cleaned right after. He did not like the feeling of sitting on a couch with mud all around him. It got sticky. Dirt was already on everyone. A little more couldn't hurt. "Who else?"
"As much as I want to slosh in mud," James started with a grin, "my love for being on a broom exceeds that."
"So it's decided." Sirius's grin matched James. Peter found it stunning how James and Sirius could practically read each other's minds. They were like brothers. "Peter and I will run in the mud."
"Your feet are most likely going to get stuck and sink in the mud," Remus warned.
"You don'tworry about us," Sirius said, smiling. "I love getting stuck in the mud."
"Then let's go!" cried Peter. "Why are we waiting?"
James pushed open the doors, and they were met with the rain hailing down on them. It wasn't a light drizzle, it was an extremely violent storm.
"I really don't think we should do this." Remus's voice was nervous.
"This is w-w-wet," said Peter, shivering. He could feel his clothes getting wet and sticking to his body.
"Well said, genius," said Sirius, snorting. His black hair was becoming long, pointed, and retaining it's curliness.
"It's also cold," continued Peter.
"Once you start running, you won't have to worry about that," said James. Peter turned to look at him. He always looked good - in a roguish way - but the rain was just making him even more good-looking. His hair was pushed back, still messy, but wet.
"Then c-can we hurry?" Remus requested. "I'm getting really soaked." Peter looked at Remus. He was more scrawny and skinny. The rain had completely drenched his shirt, and Peter was seeing...were those scars?
"Remus-"
"Yeah, let's not talk and just go," Sirius advised.
Peter nodded, making sure his boots were on tight, before he stomped into the mud.
"It's kind of tough to run in this," Peter complained.
"That's what makes it fun," Sirius sang. "Come on!" Sirius started running - more like kicking - his way through the mud. Mud splashed all over Peter, who was standing awestruck in the mud. "COME ON!" Sirius hollered over the loud beating of the rain. "DON'T STAY BEHIND!"
Peter braced himself and started maneuvering his way through the mud, his feet coating themselves with mud.
"This is kind of fun," Peter said quietly to himself. He looked up and saw James whooping and hollering as he flew.
"YEAH! COME ON! BRING IT ON, RAIN!" James yelled. Peter rolled his eyes, but he was laughing as he sought out Remus. Remus was flying more carefully through the air, looking like he could be sick. Peter would be sick if he had been up there, anyway. "AAH!"
Peter whipped around and saw James, who was attempting to stand up on his broomstick, slip and fall. He screamed as he toppled through the air.
Peter's first instinct: Save him.
Peter's second instinct: My feet won't budge.
Peter's third instinct: Why on Earth is James laughing?
For indeed, James's laugh was echoing through the extremely loud rain as he fell face-first into the mud.
"Ouch," muttered Peter.
Then he heard another laugh: Sirius's.
"JAMES, ARE YOU OKAY?" Remus asked loudly, swooping down and hovering with difficulty where James was.
James said something that Peter couldn't hear, but Remus laughed. Peter watched as Sirius quickly reached where the two of them were, and he joined in on the laughing.
Wanting to join the fun, Peter lugged himself to where they were, but he fell in the ground with an "ACK!"
"Oh, Merlin," Peter grumbled, hugging himself and standing up. After around seven minutes, he reached the three of them. "What's going on?"
"James fell," Sirius said.
"Yeah. I noticed. Are you okay?" Peter looked at James.
"Of course I am. I'm dirty now, aren't I?"
"What were you guys laughing about?" Peter asked interestedly. The three of them were extremely cool, and he couldn't believe he was included in such an amazing group of Marauders. He had so much luck sometimes.
"Why?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.
Peter frowned. "Just asking…?"
"It's just something funny," James said.
"I get that," grumbled Peter. "You wouldn't be laughing at something not funny, would you? Because then whatever's not funny would have to be funny because whatever you laugh at would have to be funny because something not funny is not funny by definition because you wouldn't laugh at something that's not funny because it's not funny and funny is what makes you laugh so it would have to be funny. I get that."
Silence.
"Could you repeat the first part, please?" mocked Sirius.
Sirius and James burst into howling laughter, and even Remus was laughing a little bit.
"That's not nice," Peter said.
"Don't get upset," Remus said, hiding a smile. "They're just teasing you. They tease me too."
"I just asked what was so f-f-funny," Peter said, covering his head from the rain, which was growing worse.
"I can't even remember. I think I said something stupid," James said.
"You always say something stupid," accused Sirius.
Peter didn't know how it happened after that. All he knew was that James threw a glob of mud at Remus - why, he didn't know - and Remus shrieked. Then, mud was sailing everywhere, the rain not helping.
In a matter of minutes, Peter found himself on the ground, the mud pulling at his ankles. He looked up, squinting his eyes in the fog, and saw James's slender figure covered in mud, his grin wild and messy, and Sirius flailing his arms around with a scream as he fell (after a mud ball smacked him in the chest), which made Peter snigger.
"You find that funny?" Sirius asked, scooping up mud. "Laugh at this!"
Peter couldn't stop it. He was practically glued to the ground, the mud messing up his mousy brown hair. The mud sailed and whacked him in the face, which made it Sirius's turn to snigger.
"I hate you," groaned Peter.
"You're saying this?" Remus asked, his expression horrified as he looked at his shirt. "I specifically asked not to get muddy. Do you see this?"
"You were going to get wet, anyway," pointed out James.
"Yes, and I did that grudgingly!" Remus exclaimed. "I did not ask to get so muddy and dirty!"
"Look at me!" cried Peter, slumping his head onto the ground as the water splattered on his sticky shirt.
"You don't look that good," Sirius muttered.
"What? I- No!" Peter wrenched his arm from the mud and smacked his forehead. "I mean...I'm covered in mud. Remus, you can't complain! You only have like a few stains on you."
Remus glared at him. "A few? A few?" He tugged on his shirt, and Peter blinked out the raindrops from his eyes and took in Remus's appearance.
He was probably worse than all of them. His hair looked like a muddy mohawk. His shirt was practically coated in thick mud. Dirt was piling up his pants, and you could see the water spilling out of his shoes.
Peter blinked a few times, but he couldn't help it. He burst out in sniggers. Remus - the clean boy, was covered in mud. He didn't know why, but the sight was hilarious.
"Stop laughing," Remus muttered, wiping the mud off shirt with one hand and keeping his balance with the other.
James looked over. "Guys? I think we're covered in mud enough. Can we go back in now?"
Peter, still hiding giggles, nodded. "Okay."
The four of them sloshed (or flew, in James and Remus's case) back to the castle, where they stomped inside. Peter flinched as James and Sirius purposely started squishing their shoes, which made an extremely squeaky sound.
Squish. "James, can you please stop doing that?" Peter asked. SQUISH. "You too, Sirius."
Sirius shrugged, easily reverting to a skater. He slid back and forth, spreading mud all over the floor.
"Muddy enough?" James frowned, admiring their handiwork once they'd reached the end of the hallway.
"Definitely," emphasized Remus.
They moved on to the next hallway, and the next, dripping water and mud all over the Hogwarts floors. The squeaking sound was so worth the large smiles on their faces as they squeezed water onto the floor, not leaving a single corridor untouched.
James shook his hair, spraying muddy water all over the place - including Peter's face.
"Argh," Peter muttered. "It's like you're a wet dog."
James kept shaking.
"Seriously, James," started Sirius, but Remus cut him off.
"Serious-ly?" he asked, the corners of his mouth twitching.
"Oh, no, that is old," cried Peter, but Remus and Sirius had already started laughing. "I will kill you for this!"
"And I will kill all four of you for doing this," came a new, feminine voice. Peter and the three of them whirled around (James actually stopped shaking his hair), looking into the face of a thoroughly annoyed girl.
The face of Lily Evans.
A/N: Hi guys! I really thought it was high-time I brought some more Lily into the story, and she's really going to be making more of an entry now. I really hoped you like this chapter.
Next up: Lily and the Marauders get in multiple fights... the Marauders get in a fight over her... Fights all around! Will they make up? How will they make up? Why will they fight? Read Ch. 25 to figure out!
Please, please, please review! If you do - you get a free Peter Pettigrew (I have a few in my storage room right now)!