Dear Mama,

You would be pleased to know that I have finally befriended more people (I hope I can call them that). I decided to help them on a very innocent prank (no, I won't get in trouble). James Potter of Gryffindor (Lily doesn't like him one bit) and Sirius Black of Slytherin. I'm following your advice to be more social. Peter will help us as well. Lily sends her love. Give my regards to dad.

Love, Remus

PS- How's the progress with the bakery?

Remus climbs up the stairs to the owlery with Lily trailing behind him. It was still dark outside and if they were really quiet they could hear the rumbles of the some Quidditch team coming to practice on the opposite side of the castle.

The the letter had been written in much haste and barely contained excitement and had left Remus worrying if his mum could even read what he had to tell her. He kept telling himself it was not due to him being close to Sirius but just the thrill of law-breaking even if it were as small as school rules. He lets out a small whoop as he spots his favourite owl and rushes to offer it a few treats.

'How are you so happy at this bloody o'clock?'

'I like waking up early, it's good for the body'.

'And so is sleep'.

'Oh come on, you would have killed me if I hadn't brought you along. I'm sending your love as well'.

'Fine. UGH! Why do these players have to be so loud? It's not even morning yet'.

The Gryffindor Quidditch team that was scheduled for practice at this early part of the day were indeed making a huge racket. The captain, Surinder (Suri) was yelling at his teammates to hurry up and begin before the Ravenclaws come out. The team did not affect and continued walking and changing in their sleepy haze. Only the Gryffindors hated Saturdays.

The owl nibbles at Remus' finger and he offers more something sweet. 'Smelly', as he called the owl due to very obvious reasons was quick to finish them and offers a leg for the letter to be attached. He does so and pets her head before sending her off. Lily continues to groan. Still dressed in her sleeping gown and with hair pointing in all directions, she looks at the owl become a tiny dot in the sky.

'Tell me again why you agreed to help those idiots on a prank?'

'It's a good way to make friends, Lily. Being a stuck-up won't get you anywhere'.

Mildly offended by the stuck-up remark, Lily scoffs at him and smacks him gently on his arm, too drained of energy to give a proper blow. Remus remains unaffected and simply hugs her closer letting her rest her head on his shoulder. They stand there for a while watching the Sunrise and the sky transitions into a lighter blue. The sunlight illuminates their face and while the background is filled with the Gryffindor captain yelling at its Seeker and hooting owls whose slumber had been disturbed, both of them relish the warmth through the dustiest window laded with the darkest of owl poop.

Breakfast on Saturdays is always more or less a silent affair. Not many students are present and it's mostly the revising ones or the ones who had the unfortunate to wake up early and the inability to go back to sleep like a certain Sirius Black. Sirius who is always late to classes and had never really had a proper breakfast his entire time at Hogwarts but had woken up as early as seven to an extreme headache. He probably shouldn't have been up late playing gobstones.

'Morning Sirius.', Regulus offers a courteous salutation and pours his brother a bit of coffee. Nobody likes a cranky Black.

'Why in the name of God are you up so early?'

'Old habits, big brother. I can't sleep past six-thirty even if I tried. I can feel Mother storming up the stairs.'

'Why do you have to talk about that old hag this early? Huh, now, my entire day is ruined'.

Regulus suppresses a smile and quietly butters his brother's toast. The Black brothers were the only ones at the Slytherin table and sat quite close to the teacher's. He could see Dumbledore spreading strawberry jam on his minutely sliced cold bread and McGonagall looking at it disapprovingly. He stifles a laugh again and looks around towards other houses' tables. The Gryffindors only had their Quidditch team members munching away and the Ravenclaws were fully dressed in the playing attire, their time on the field starting in thirty minutes. Next came the Hufflepuffs and Reggie took his time looking at every pupil sitting on it hoping to catch a glimpse of his favourite one. His eyes scan the table expectantly and he finally spots the brown, tawny curls.

As if Remus sensed someone looking at him, he looks up from where he was bent over the Daily Prophet and catches the spectator's eye. He smiles softly and waves at him.

Regulus waves back with his heart beating loud and proud in his chest only to be met with his very own brother also waving back. It takes him a minute and he slowly lowers his hand looking very much like a drenched puppy left alone on a cold, rainy day.

He picks up his textbook he had been reading albeit a little harshly fresh from an incoming heartbreak and embarrassment and charms it to stay covering his face almost entirely. Sirius nudges him and asks him to butter another toast.

'Do it yourself, you daft.'

'And what's got you into a whirl so suddenly?'

'Nevermind.'

Sirius shrugs him off and simply grabs Reg's toast and heads towards the Gryffindor table.

'Alright there, Suri'

'Hello Sirius. James has gone back to his dorm. The new password's gobbletwark.'

Sirius grabs one of everything off the table and heads towards James' dorm. Might as well call it his own with the amount of time he spends there. He mutters the password to the Fat Lady who has given up trying to tell him about the house rules and promptly lets him in. Sirius enters the room without a knock and plops himself down on James' bed waking the boy and earning a flying shoe from a feisty Frank Longbottom.

'What do you want, Black?', mutters a very tired Potter.

'I brought you breakfast. Wouldn't be healthy to sleep after practice on an empty stomach, here.'

The tired Potter grabs the breakfast and bites into the first things he got his hands on. A buttered jam sandwich. He makes a face as he continues to chew on and then perpetually spits it out.

'Who in the name of Merlin eats this monstrosity?'

'What? It can't be that bad,' Sirius takes a bite and makes an even more exaggerated face at it, 'It is bad'.

'Why would you bring something like this?'

'Hey! At least be grateful I brought you anything in the first place and I waved at Remus today!'

'Oh what a great achievement. I can already hear wedding bells.'

'Right, that's more than you and Evans ever interacted'.

'Piss off.'

'Bugger.'

'Wanker.'

'Would you two shut it?!'

And so like this, the rest of the morning is spent wasting away precious time. After all, they still had one entire day to complete any pending homework and there's nothing that can match one's accuracy and speed of accomplishment at the last minute.

At sharp 2 pm, both the boys walk excitedly towards the library chatting away mindless thoughts. They arrive at the entrance much sooner than Remus and wait while discussing possible fellows Remus could bring along. James very much had his hopes high for Lily and was even bet two galleons on it. Sirius very much hoped it was indeed Lily and James would stop bothering him for the entirety of it and maybe he and Remus could have a moment.

So, as the both of them look up with eyes shining brighter than ever, lips curled into dopey smiles with their thoughts and face momentarily lighting up, Remus walks up to them along with Peter Pettigrew, a fellow Hufflepuff. Their faces fall as fast as they had risen and both of them look visibly distressed with Peter not meeting any of their expectations.

'Uhh... hi'

'Hiya Remus! Alright there? Who's this?'

'Hi James! This is Peter, a friend of mine, he's really good with charms, thought he might be of help'.

'Oh, hi, Peter'.

While Peter acquaints himself, Sirius continues to shoot him daggers. He hadn't expected his hopes to be crushed so easily.

Remus signs James and Sirius to put on the cloak and they enter inside. While Madam Pince greets the Hufflepuff boys sweetly, Sirius and James remain astonished at her candour. Just the thought of the librarian being nice to anyone is surprising itself but having to watch it firsthand is startling. All four of them reach the 'Spells and Spell Making' section and James takes the cloak off.

'So, what exactly are we looking for?'

'A spell that keeps one thing dry while everything around it is wet as the ocean'.

'Like a drought charm?' Peter chimes in and James is almost impressed. Sirius remains sour.

'But that wouldn't be so practical and it depends on how large the water body is in the first place.'

'So, perhaps a spell that would act as a shield?'

'Yeah could be, right, Sirius?'

Sirius grunts in response and it does not go unnoticed by both James and Remus. While James squints his eyes in annoyance, Remus looks at him worried that perhaps he wasn't enjoying his company very much. He mentally decides to let James take the lead and maybe that would cheer the Slytherin up a bit.

'But what exactly is the prank going to be about? Ooh is it something related to The Black Lake?'

'Oh, we just thought of flooding Sirius' dorm to annoy Snivelly and make sure his bed doesn't get wet in the process. Just mild stuff'.

'That sounds absolutely boring'. Peter remarks and then covers his mouth immediately horrified he had actually said it out loud. Sirius' glare turns even colder, possible.

'Oh really, do you perhaps have a better idea?'

All three of them are immediately silenced by this and Remus even manages to briefly glance at Sirius. He is clearly annoyed and Remus spots such huge difference of demeanour in both the brothers. While Regulus can manage to remain cool in the hottest of situations, Sirius has very little tolerance to it. He probably learned to do so watching his brother make such mistakes.

James, ever the best friend tries to diffuse the situation before it could get any ugly and with his quick thinking manages to laugh it out and divert it entirely.

'Yeah, Peter, you're good at Charms, you probably may have a better idea'.

Peter blushes slightly and opens and closes his mouth looking very much like a fish. Remus continues to watch in silence. His gaze remains fixed on Sirius who had now rebuked to reading the book titles.

'A-Z list of household spells for your daily needs', Sirius pronounces out the title loudly and puts it on the table loudly making a huge 'thump' as he plops it down.

'This could have the spell we need'. Remus immediately agrees with Sirius ensuring as to not get on his bad side. Sirius offers him a smile.

The book is plonked open and all four of them surround it going through the index. They point at a few topics, suggest some better alternatives but could not come at any conclusion. A simple prank was not expected to be so exhausting.

It was nearly five in the evening and still no success.

'Did we look through 'E'?'

'I'm pretty sure we did, mate'

'Let's check it again, you know what they say bloody hundredth time's the charm'.

The 'E' section is scanned once again. Each of them is assigned a quarter of a page and they bend overlooking at it with the maximum amount of concentration that they could muster.

'Hey, I don't think we've learned this one, look'.

All four of them immediately look at where Peter points and lo and behold is the Exaresco charm. The charm used to immediately dry anything.

'That's amazing, you go Peter!'

James high-fives him and even Sirius looks impressed. Peter is a flustered mess and Remus just nods at him while beaming proudly.

'And what if we could time it!'

'Merlin's beard, Remus, you literal genius!'

All four of them let out a shout of glee and James nearly lifts Remus. While the charm and the timing were ready, the prank, its outcome and as to what exactly they were supposed to do remained undecided. But the happiness of having finally found something even if their research was limited to a single book overwhelmed them to the point Remus didn't mind being kicked out of the library and the disapproving glare from Pince. He was too happy at being helpful he would have kissed Sirius right there and then. Years later, when Remus would look back to this day, he would forever remember it as the birth of 'The Marauders'.