Tuesday 4th September, 1973
Ancient Runes Classroom, 10:00
Sirius tried to slip into a seat as unobtrusively as possible as he carefully entered the class last (but before the Professor). He saw Peter in a seat close to the middle but he wasn't going to sit with him, as weird as that felt. He hadn't told any of his friends that he was taking Muggle Studies but had unfortunately not realised that there was only one class for this subject. Or realised that Peter was actually doing it - he had been so indecisive last year.
It was no big deal. No one who mattered (socially anyway, Peter mattered to him, obviously) took this class. He shouldn't be so worried. It wasn't like anyone else saw him go down this corridor. Hopefully anyway.
"Black, what are you doing here?" Vance suddenly asked with a frown.
So much for him keeping a low profile. Did her voice have to be that loud? Whispers broke out amongst the class as it seemed that everyone turned their heads to him. Great. He saw Peter giving him a confused hurt look. Also great.
With a sigh, Sirius decided that he might as well sit with Peter now. He obviously wasn't going to be able to get away with hiding.
Eyes followed him to his seat and he scowled at them but that didn't do anything.
He was sure by lunchtime the whole school would know that a Black was doing Muggle Studies. Brilliant.
Hospital Wing
"I can't believe I let you talk me into this," Marlene complained as they were handed the syllabus for this year.
There was an awful lot on it. And far too much supplementary reading materials in Marlene's opinion.
"It's interesting," Lily told her.
Marlene just gave her a disbelieving look. Watching people bleed and throw up was interesting? What sort of mad person was her friend?
"Useful then," Lily amended.
Marlene grumbled, even though she knew it was true. Still didn't mean that she had to like it. Which she didn't. She had heard some of the older students talking. This was one of, if not the hardest of the electives. Great. Because that was what she needed. Why hadn't she heard this before she put her name down? That would have been extremely useful information to know.
Lily nudged her, "You can't say it won't be useful."
Well, no, she couldn't. Of course, it was useful. Someone had to know how to fix injuries. It just didn't mean that it had to be her.
"Has everyone got one?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
Everyone, all fifteen of them, nodded. Madam Pomfrey also nodded at that and bustled around to her desk. They all awkwardly followed her, making a semi-circle around it, not knowing exactly what to do. They weren't exactly in a classroom.
"This year will be more about memorising the systems of the body and learning how magic can interact with them. We'll also be covering simple Healing Potions as well. Some of which you'll be covering in Potions," Madam Pomfrey lectured. "As you move up the school, I will be expecting you to put what you've learnt into practice in the Hospital Wing."
Okay, that was kind of cool. And terrifying. They were going to be trusted to cast spells on other students? Wow. Marlene did not know what to think of that. Should mere students really be entrusted with such a thing?
Marlene looked around her, it seemed that she was the only one who was wary about this. Everyone else looked excited and Lily looked positively impatient. Remind her not to let Lily anywhere near her internal organs any time soon.
"As you can see, the first thing we are going to look at is how to remove bodily fluids from surfaces."
Lily pulled a face at that and actually went a little pale. Marlene, however, perked up. Hey, something interesting!
"We're going to see vomit?" she asked eagerly. "Cool!"
Great Hall, 17:30
It hadn't even taken until dinner before it seemed like the entirety of Hogwarts knew Sirius Black was taking Muggle Studies. James frowned as he heard the whispers. There was an awful lot of them. He didn't see what the big deal was. If you didn't know anything about something you went and learned about it. And that's what Sirius was doing. It wasn't like it was a big deal.
Unless you were a Black, of course. Lots of things were a Big Deal if you were a Black, James had come to learn over the past two years. A lot of it seemed silly to James but Sirius didn't seem to think so. Not with the way he agonised over such things. But apparently not with Muggle Studies. It looked like Sirius just jumped straight into that.
But why hadn't he told James or any of them? Why the secret? None of the would have minded - he should have known that when Peter had been talking about taking Muggle Studies.
"Hey," Remus greeted him as he sat down at the table and then frowned. "No Sirius?"
"I thought he was with you two," James answered, confused.
Because he hadn't been with James, so of course he should have been with Remus and Peter. Where else would he be?
"Maybe he doesn't want to face all the stares and whispers," Peter suggested.
"But he's used to that," James protested.
He was the Black Heir who got sorted into Gryffindor. He still got stares for that and he didn't seem to mind those.
Peter shrugged and speared a few potatoes from the bowl.
"Doesn't make them any less annoying."
Well, James supposed that was true. He wouldn't know. He didn't get stated at. Glared at was more likely considering the pranks they all pulled.
"We should make sure that he gets some dinner," Remus said.
"We'll go to the kitchens after if he doesn't show," James assured him.
No one would say no to cakes and buns. And some vegetables to. Had to make sure everyone stayed healthy, after all.
With that decided, James settles down to dinner. He was a growing boy after all and he was hungry! There was plenty of good food to satisfy that.
He had just taken a mouthful of chicken when the loud whispers started up again. Oh, what was happening now? James looked up and almost spat the chicken out of his mouth.
"Sirius?" he gasped, choking slightly as some food went down the wrong way.
Remus pounded on his back and there was a brief moment of him hacking and spluttering until his airway was clear
"Are you okay?" Sirius asked, slipping into his seat opposite him.
James waved a hand at him as he chugged back a whole glass of pumpkin juice.
"Are you okay?" Remus asked for him.
That made Sirius' while demeanour change and go on the defensive.
"Of course, I am. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Because everyone is talking about you."
Sirius made a scoffing noise.
"I'm sure it's not everyone."
"It is," James told him.
He didn't think he'd heard anyone talk of anything else.
"Then no one has a life," Sirius snapped.
James gave him a shocked look. Sirius had never snapped at anyone like that before. He was usually very controlled about his emotions.
"Sorry I said anything," James mumbled, looking back down at his plate. Suddenly, his chicken didn't seem too appetising anymore.
There were a few awkward minutes of silence where none of them really did anything except poke at their plates, their dinners getting cold. Sirius interrupted it with a heavy sigh.
"No, I'm sorry. I'm just, I'm just sick of the stares."
"There is a lot of them," James stated unnecessarily but hoped that the unspoken "It's okay," got across.
Sirius' lips quirked upwards briefly so it looked like it did. Unfortunately, his best mate's mouth almost immediately settled back into a frown.
"You okay?" he asked quietly.
Sirius nodded even though it was incredibly obvious that it was a lie.
"So, is it true?" a loud, obnoxious voice asked.
The four of them looked up and almost rolled their eyes as one. It was Jones from the year above. One of the most annoying people imaginable in James' opinion. He was always trying to get in with who he deemed to be "important". A real social climber if he ever saw one.
None of them said anything, hoping he'd just go away. No one liked dealing with him. James was pretty sure that he'd managed to alienate the whole House. Mainly because, like now, the guy just didn't seem to realise when he wasn't wanted (which was, admittedly, most of the time).
"Black is taking Muggle Studies?"
His whole tone rubbed James the wrong way and he bristled in Sirius' defence.
"What's it to you?"
Jones blinked in shock, obviously not expecting any sort of a response.
"Well, I just couldn't believe it."
"Not that anyone cares," Remus muttered making James snort.
"And why couldn't you believe it?" James demanded.
"Well, it's Muggle Studies."
James didn't think someone could put more disdain into a word than what Jones just did.
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
Jones was the type of person who James despised. Almost as much as those who considered themselves "Dark". They thought that Muggles were little more than animals. No, Jones wasn't one of those but he did think himself to be above everyone else - thought that there was a list of increasing status that he was somewhere near the top of and muggles were very firmly near the bottom.
James snorted. The idiot. Like his dad said, just because muggles didn't have magic didn't mean they were stupid or useless. Actually, they were a hell of a lot more inventive than wizards because they didn't have magic. Personally, James found their rocket ships fascinating.
Unfortunately, Jones was still talking.
"It's not exactly proper is it?" he continued in a tone dripping in self-importance. "People of his status don't need to concern themselves with mere Muggles."
"I'm right here, you know?" Sirius said sarcastically, giving a little wave. "And what do you know about what's proper, Jones? It's not like you have experience with people of high status."
Oh, that comment really struck home and the older boy visibly flinched. James gave Sirius a high five. That was good! That put him down a bit! Maybe the boy could get off his high horse down. He was no better than anyone else, after all.
"Well, we'll just see what happens, won't we," Jones blustered and left before they could say anything else to him.
The four of them looked at each other before bursting into uncontrollable giggles. McGonagall was really giving them a dirty look now.
Saturday 8th September 1973
Fourth Floor, 10:00
"I told you this wasn't a good idea," Remus told them as they ran away, a wave of water close to their heels.
"Shut up, Moony," Sirius snapped, slipping forwards a few feet in said water.
Well, that was one way to move faster. Not the most steady though. As evidenced by Sirius' careening into a suit of armour.
James and Peter leapt forwards (more like also slid) to help him back on his feet before the wave of water engulfed them.
All they had wanted to do was mimic little tidal wave in the bathroom sinks. That was it. Give people a bit of a chuckle and maybe splash them a bit. An extremely harmless prank and a very straightforward spell. If you used it the way you were supposed to.
Which they didn't. Because of course not.
See, the original spell was meant to be used in things ready full of water. Baths, sinks when washing your face, buckets, etc. Something that didn't happen when you were washing your hands.
Which meant that, which the four of them quickly found out, that the source of the tidal wave came straight from the tap. And rose from there.
You can see where this is going, can't you? If you guessed that the water would come shooting straight out of the tap then you would be entirely correct. None of the water even hit the basins of the sinks, never mind be held in by them.
Of course, they had decided that they should split the sinks between them to speed up the work. They had been going to go to different bathrooms to make the job go even faster but they had wanted to make sure they all knew how to do it, considering they adjusting the spell.
Thankfully, they hadn't or else they would have done an awful lot more damage. Unfortunately, it had meant that they did at least four taps at the same time. Which produced a lot of water in a confined area.
Hence the sprinting out of said confined area and leaving the door wide open. Another bad decision. You know what? Today was just a long series of bad decisions. But back to the last one.
The open door meant that all the water went, quite literally, streaming out into the corridor. At quite a force too, they had all been pushed out and dragged along by the current for a few feet until they were pushed into the walls.
They had thought they were safe and had apprehensively watched they wave go further and further away from them, thankfully shrinking in height as it went down the corridor.
Personally, Remus had been hoping that it would just shrink and shrink until there was no more water.
The hadn't accounted for the second wave. Or the third. Or even the fourth. It turns out that the spell they used continuously produced waves until it was cancelled. Or the water ran out (I.e. splashed out of the container they were supposed to have it in). Which it wouldn't. Because it was coming from the plumbing system. Which wouldn't run out unless it drained the lake or something. Though, Remus could see that happening if the volume of water that was currently on their heels was anything to go by.
"Isn't it meant to be getting smaller by now?" James gasped out from beside him.
That was a very good point actually. Remus was pretty sure that the other waves had petered out at this point. That was not good.
He was about to answer when someone stepped around the corner. It was Professor Flitwick. Remus realised that he was just about the same height as the waves.
"What is all this water-?"
"Professor!"
"Out of the way!"
Monday 10th September 1973
Third Floor, 09:00
'Splash, splash'
"Urgh," Lily said disdainfully, taking large but careful steps.
She didn't want to get any water in her shoes after all. Especially when she wasn't even outside. Which was quite silly if you thought about it. Why would there be water inside? Potter and his little band of Marauders, that's why. It was another one of their "great ideas". What was supposed to happen, Lily didn't know. What she did know was that there were still several inches of water on three separate floors of Hogwarts (one of them inexplicably above the floor they did this on) even two days after it happened. Apparently, getting rid of water was difficult no matter what world you were in.
"It was pretty funny," Marlene told her.
Lily gave her a look. She couldn't see what was so funny about this.
"It was," Marlene insisted. "Did you see them running away from those waves?"
Okay, that made her crack a grin. That had been pretty funny. Especially when the four of them had been swallowed up by the waves and pulled down a flight of stairs.
"They deserved it," Lily said with a sniff. "Should have used the charm properly."
That's how accidents happened, misusing spells like that. They were very lucky nothing worse than flooding a few corridors happened.
"They got detention," Marlene said.
She supposed that was enough for what they did. At least they were being punished without the rest of the House having to suffer losing points.
Not that giving them detentions ever seemed to deter them. They just seemed to brush them off and kept on acting childishly. Actually, that was an insult to children. They acted stupidly. And not even for a good reason, most of the time. Only sometimes they were actually funny. Things like this definitely weren't. They were just annoying. And damp. Several first years ran past, giggling at the splashes they made. Water got into her shoe. She could feel it seeping into her sock. Great. Now she was going to be squelching around all day.
"Morning, Lily!" Severus greeted, looking more than a little annoyed. "McKinnon."
"Sev!"
"Morning, Snape!"
Lily still couldn't quite get used to using surnames instead of first names but she supposed it was just the done thing. Muggle schools did it too. Didn't make it any less weird.
"Did you get splashed?" Marlene added knowingly.
Lily looked her friend up and down and saw that his robes were wet.
"I forgot to hold my robes up when I got to the wet corridors," he grumbled. "Now the ends are all wet."
Lily tried to be sympathetic, she really did, bit he looked so disgruntled by this that she had to bite her lip to prevent herself from laughing. Marlene had no such compunction and snorted. Loudly. Which, of course, set Lily off. None of which improved Severus' mood.
He folded his arms. "Oh, shut up."
That just made them laugh harder, especially since him moving his arms caused his robes to move and make a 'slooshing' noise against the floor.
Fed up with them, Severus kicked at the floor, splashing water all over them.
"Hey!"
Friday 14th September 1973
Third Floor Corridor, 20:15
Sirius never wanted to see another mop for as long as he lived. Actually, he never ever wanted to do manual labour again. He was a Black, he didn't do manual labour. That's what House Elves were for. He actually preferred essays and lines and he didn't think that he'd ever say that. Writing essays and lines didn't make his hands ache like they currently did and he was pretty sure he was getting a blister on his hand from that stupid mop handle. Which couldn't be allowed.
"You won't be doing anything to mess up my nice floors again, will you?" Filch sneered at them, not doing anything except watch them.
He'd been a real slave-driver, standing over them and barking orders. Not to mention telling them off for every little thing they had apparently been doing wrong.
Sirius had been tempted to tell him to do it himself of they couldn't do it right but held his tongue. He couldn't cope with any more detentions. Or any more of Filch.
The man took perverse delight in making them mop the floors that their little prank hadn't even affected. Apparently if they were going to clean one or two floors they may as well clean them all. Yeah right. He just liked watching them suffer. Why were the corridors so long? Also, he was never going to get rid of the smell of whatever soap was used to wash the floor. Sirius was convinced that it was imbibed in his robes by now. It was all he could smell. He didn't know how Moony was coping with it (they had started calling Remus that now, because, you know, werewolf, full moon - it was funny), the full moon had just been a few days ago. He'd missed two nights of detention - not that any of them begrudge him that. Somehow, Sirius suspected that a werewolf transformation was way worse than some manual labour. He had been reading up on it. Actually, Sirius gave Remus a critical look, Remus still didn't look fully recovered. He was still a bit too pale and there were dark rings under his eyes.
Thankfully, Filch left them when they satisfied him that they were cleaning properly. Apparently, if his grumbling was anything to go by, there were another set of students who he was supervising tonight. So, he was away to try and intimidate them.
"Did you see Snape going around with a wet trail behind him all day?" James sniggered once the caretaker was out of earshot. "He got his robes wet and they dragged across the ground."
"Left a trail like some sort of slug!" Peter said gleefully.
"That's nothing, I saw Higgins slide the whole length of the corridor completely upright until the last few feet when he just went face first into the water!" Sirius said happily. "He was completely drenched!"
Tuesday 18th September 1973
Second Floor Corridor, 12:30
Tonks and Chryssie were giggling at each other as Tonks was showing her friend how quickly she could copy people's hair now. It was really quite fast - even between dramatically different lengths. Currently, she was sporting Chryssie's short curls. Her friend always had shorter hair at the start of the year. Something about getting annoyed at the lack of proper growth and straggly ends. Tonks was glad she didn't have to deal with that.
A couple of Slytherin students loitering about outside a classroom were staring at her and whispering. Tonks ignored them. She was becoming very good at that. She had to be considering the number of stares she still got. You would think that people would have got bored by now but no. Apparently, between her abilities and her link to the Black Family, Tonks had a lot going for her when it came to the Hogwarts Rumour Mill. It was annoying. Just like the stares and whispers were right now.
"How do you stick them?" Chryssie asked, also noticing the stares.
"Just ignore them," Tonks advised in a whisper.
They wanted a reaction of some sort from her and she wasn't going to give them it. Which did not make them happy.
"Freak!" one of them called after her.
Tears automatically pricked her eyes but she blinked rapidly so that they didn't fall. That was the last thing she needed them to see. It would just make the teasing worse. She knew that from experience. "Freaky cry-baby" was an awful lot worse than just "Freak".
Chryssie turned around to say something to them but Tonks pulled her along. There was no point engaging with them. They just got nastier. And she didn't want to listen to that.
"Guys, let's just go," she heard one of the Slytherins say.
Tonks looked up and nearly gasped in surprised when she noticed it was Regulus. Regulus Black, Sirius' little brother. She hadn't had much dealings with him. Or any, actually. He didn't seem to want to know her.
"No way, Black," another boy, he had curly hair, scoffed. "Freaks are fun."
"Yeah," a third agreed, he was the tallest. "It's not like anyone normal would care."
Regulus looked uncomfortable but didn't say anything. Instead, he just turned his head away. Tonks' heart sank. She had hoped that maybe, just maybe, he would stick up for her. They were family, after all. Right? Maybe not.
More worryingly, the other Slytherin boys - she noted that thaler were actually four of them in total, not counting Regulus - took this as their cue to come towards her. She didn't know what to make of that but it couldn't be anything good so she took a step back. Frustratingly, she stumbled which only made them laugh unkindly at her.
"Aw, poor freaky freak," the tall one mocked in a baby voice.
They were now looming over her. Why did she have to be so short? She really did have to figure out how to morph her height. It would be a lot better if she was even just a little bit taller.
Tonks noticed that Chryssie had pressed herself against the wall and tried to edge along it. Maybe she could get someone to help or at least scare them off. But it wasn't to be.
"Hey," the curly-haired one said. "Looks like we've got ourselves a mudblood as well."
Chryssie froze with wide eyes and Tonks winced. She wasn't sure what was worse, being a muggleborn or a freak when you were around people like these. What were they going to do to them?
"Oi! Leave her alone!" bellowed a familiar voice.
She looked up; it was Sirius! And his friends!
"Bog off!" He shouted, running over and shoving his way through them. "I said, leave her alone!"
"Shove off, Black!" the snubbed nose one spat, be seemed to be the defacto leader. "This doesn't concern you!"
Sirius planted himself in front of her and crossed his arms.
"Yes, it does."
"She's not even in your House!"
"She's not in yours either," the tall, sandy-haired one pointed. Lupin she thought his name was.
"Shove off, Lupin. No one asked you!"
Good, she was right. Nothing worse than getting someone's name wrong.
"Get out of here!" James demanded, trying to look intimidating.
It didn't really work. James Potter was definitely not what Tonks would call intimidating. He wasn't that tall and he was extremely skinny and his glasses always looked like they were going to fall off his face.
Apparently, the Slytherins thought he did as they eyed him and the rest of the Marauders up and basically deflated as one. They didn't look nearly as scary now.
"Get out of here," Sirius tried again.
This time they listened. Mostly. Three of the four boys stormed off, heads held high like they hadn't just lost. One of them lingered behind.
"It was just a bit of fun, Sirius," Regulus told him.
"Didn't look like it," Sirius replied venomously.
Regulus opened and closed his mouth before looking briefly at his feet and then down the corridor where his friends had scuttled to. They were in the shadows, just watching creepily. Kind of like the snakes they were. Tonks half expected to hear hissing noises from them.
"I better go," the younger Black said with a sigh.
"Whatever," Sirius muttered darkly.
Neither brother looked at each other again and Regulus soon tugged his friends around the corner. Instead, Sirius looked to Remus.
"They gone?"
Remus tilted his head to one side and listened. Tonks did the same, she couldn't hear anything.
"Nearly, one of them got shoved into the wall."
"Which one?"
"Your brother, I think."
Tonks looked at Remus in awe. How did he hear all that?
"They're gone now."
"Probably down the stairs," James said.
"You okay? Remus asked turning to her.
She nodded mutely in response, not knowing how they were going to react to her.
"And you?" James asked, turning to Chryssie. "You're Evans' little sister, right?"
Chryssie nodded, her eyes wide.
"Yeah. Chryssie Evans."
James nodded. "You good?"
"They weren't teasing me."
"That wasn't teasing. That was bullying," Remus said vehemently.
Both girls nodded at him, not like they were going to disagree with that dark look on his face.
"Still, are you okay?" James repeated.
Tonks looked to Chryssie who nodded.
"Yeah, we're okay," Tonks replied for both of them. "Because you showed up."
James struck a ridiculous superhero pose.
"Because we're amazing, that's why."
"No," Sirius shook his head and then also struck a pose. "We're the best!"
That got the two of them giggling and suddenly Tonks felt much better. Remus and Peter were rolling their eyes but also smiling at the other two boys' antics.
"What on earth is going on here?"
Every single one of them stiffened at that voice. It was Professor McGonagall. Great. She still kind of scared Tonks. Just a little.
"Professor!" Sirius greeted in a borderline cheeky tone.
Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow at him and was about to answer when James broke in.
"How are you doing this fine day?"
"Morning," Peter amended.
"Afternoon," Remus corrected.
"Is it really?" James asked in false surprise.
"Doesn't feel like it," Sirius said, nodding his head.
Tonks was sure her neck was going to get sore trying to follow all of them talking like that. She swore she saw McGonagall's twitch.
"Is there a problem here, gentlemen?" McGonagall asked, peering over her glasses at the Marauders.
Tonks answered for them, not wanting anyone to get into trouble, "No, Professor. Nothing's wrong."
Professor McGonagall looked like she didn't believe her but no one else spoke up so she had to.
"Very well," she said, adjusting her glasses. "Can you please continue your way to the Great Hall and not block the corridor, please."
Tonks' stomach rumbled. Oh yeah, it was lunch time. Amazing what you forgot when you were terrified.
"This way, secondies!" Sirius happily declared, leading the way down the corridor.
"That's not a thing, Sirius!" Remus shouted after him.
"Also, it's this way!" Peter added, pointing down the opposite end of the corridor.
