A/N: written for the QLFC
Title: A Taste of Freedom
Team: Tutshill Tornados
Position: Chaser 1
Reserve: no
Pairing: James Potter and Sirius Black
Optional Prompts: Fake dating, Cheerful, and Glowstick
James Potter trudged up the stairs out of the dungeons by himself, finishing double-Potions with the Slytherins. It was Friday afternoon, and surprisingly, he was upset. He was sure he performed miserably on the first exam. On the contrary his new friend, Sirius Black, was actually one of the first people to finish the exam, looking smug and confident as he exited the classroom. James had always considered himself smarter than the average pupil, at least by a little bit, but this was definitely an adjustment since potions wasn't even supposed to be his hardest class this year.
In light of that, despite it being the weekend now, James felt pretty low in his first year at Hogwarts. He entered the Gryffindor Common room and noticed how crowded it was. A lot of third and fourth years were particularly present for some reason, and they were talking about this place called Hogsmeade, whatever that was. James kept to himself and went up to the highest part of Gryffindor Tower where the first-years quarters were. To his surprise, Sirius Black was the only one in the room, apparently waiting for him.
"James! What kept you?" he said.
"That test was harder than I thought," said James embarrassedly. "How'd you manage to finish so quickly?"
"My dad actually dabbles in potions a bit on the side," said Sirius.
"Really? I didn't know anyone brewed potions for fun," remarked James, a smirk on his face now.
"They don't," said Sirius glumly. "My dad's a bit...weird...anyways!" he said, suddenly turning cheerful. "Change of subject! You have a package on your bed!"
James looked confused.
"You weren't at breakfast so I brought it up here when I left the Great Hall," said Sirius, shrugging his shoulders.
"Ahh, well thanks," said James. He opened the small box on his bed which appeared to be from his father. It contained a letter.
James,
I feel it is time you learned about some of the greatness of the Potters. Enclosed is a family heirloom of the utmost rarity and importance. Don't tell your mother I gave you this. Use it with caution and wisdom. No doubt it will come in handy during your seven years at Hogwarts.
With love,
Dad
He pulled out a silvery cloak that had a very translucent quality to it.
Sirius gawked, his gray eyes staring at the cloak with disbelief.
"You never told me your parents were royalty!" said Sirius, his eleven-year-old voice cracking.
"They're not!" said James. "I didn't even know my dad had this cloak!"
"But this isn't just any invisibility cloak! This is the Cloak of cloaks! You're 100% invisible with that on!" said Sirius as James put it around himself, revealing nothing but the four-poster bed behind him, leaving him to appear headless.
"Do you know what this means?" said James excitedly.
"Oh yes," said Sirius, a sinister smile forming on his face as he rubbed his hands together.
"Of course, there are limitations. We don't want to get expelled. We can't let the teachers find out," said James sensibly.
"Oh of course, of course," said Sirius in mock seriousness. "Wait...did you say...we?"
James laughed. "Yeah, we! I'll let you use it too if you need it. Just, you know, give it back when you're done using it, of course."
"It looks big enough for more than one person to fit under it actually," said Sirius as James took it off and it resembled its silvery, translucent form once more, revealing that its size was something like a full-size bed sheet.
"Yeah it does. I bet it gets stuffy real quick though," said James.
"I know the perfect way to test it," said Sirius with a devious grin. "We should use it to sneak off to Hogsmeade tomorrow."
"What's Hogsmeade?" said James, still a little nervous about breaking the rules. He had yet to get into any serious trouble in his first few months at Hogwarts.
"Only the coolest all-wizard community in Britain! And it's within walking distance of Hogwarts," said Sirius, feeling so cool that he knew this information already. "Normally you're not allowed to go until your third year of school, but what's the worst that could happen? We'll just go and check out the shops and come back before anyone notices we're gone."
"Umm...won't the other Gryffindors notice that we're gone?" asked James.
"Not on a Saturday. If anyone asks, just tell them you were in the library or in your bed sick or something."
"Seems a little risky though, don't you think?" said James.
"C'mon, James. What's life without a little risk?" said Sirius, unable to hide his excitement.
James thought about it, then a smirk dawned on his face.
"We could use this to sneak out at night too, now that I think about it. We'd have to watch out for Filch, but…"
"But the possibilities are endless! So what do you say?" said Sirius.
James looked at him with the same excitement in his eyes now. "What time do the students leave tomorrow?"
James and Sirius spent the rest of the evening plotting what they could do with the power of the invisibility cloak. James felt so cheerful now and had forgotten all about his troubles with potions and was glad Sirius had convinced him to sneak off to Hogsmeade. Now the question was whether or not they would be caught, but there was something exhilarating about sneaking off the castle grounds at night.
They arose the next morning to find that most of the other students were still in bed, with the exception of the excited students who had just become old enough to go to Hogsmeade. James and Sirius were the only ones awake in their dorm. They decided that to avoid being heard, they would wear thick wool socks instead of shoes. At the very top of Gryffindor Tower, they slipped the cloak over themselves and sneaked their way down to the common room right as the students were leaving to meet Professor McGonagall with their permission slips in hand.
"This is crazy!" whispered Sirius, unable to contain his excitement.
"Shh! Look! Filch is coming too!" said James, as they approached the Great Hall. Sure enough, Filch and Mrs. Norris were together, helping to make sure that no inappropriate students went on this excursion. James and Sirius could've sworn Mrs. Norris was staring right through the cloak at them, but the cat didn't do much more than stare in their direction.
When the third years were far enough away, James and Sirius retreated to the edge of the forest.
They removed the cloak when they were sure no one was around.
"I needed to breathe for a second…" said Sirius. "That cloak is pretty stuffy you have to admit."
James rolled his eyes. "It's not that bad. C'mon. I bet that Hufflepuff chaser, Mary Carlyle, is gonna be there today,"
Sirius went red in the face. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"You fancy her, don't you?" said James, as if this was the most obvious statement in the world.
"I just made a comment about her being a really good flyer at the last Quidditch match!" said Sirius, but his blush said otherwise.
"Okay…" said James, rolling his eyes again. "C'mon. Let's see what they got in this town."
They donned the cloak again and made their way to Hogsmeade. They sneaked off to the first building on the right of the main corridor.
"Zonko's joke shop…" whispered Sirius in James' ear from behind him. "Let's check it out."
They entered behind a lone third year boy who was oblivious to their presence. The shop contained all sorts of prank merchandise that quickly captured the imaginations of James and Sirius. There was everything from pixie dust (which was basically like itching powder) to fake dragon wings that were bewitched to flap on command. James and Sirius tried to stay well enough away from the other customers to avoid being detected. They went over to a secluded corner where there were some small glowsticks on the shelf in all seven colors of the rainbow.
"Glowsticks, huh?" whispered James. "I thought this was just like a cheap Muggle novelty."
"No, no," whispered Sirius. "It's a Vanity Potion. You drink the fluid inside and it makes your skin glow that color. Plus, I hear they taste really good too. Like yellow tastes like lemon while red tastes like strawberry, etc. Also, some of them have side effects like..."
"D'you hear that, Cheryl?" said a nervous girl's voice close to the two first years. "I think I hear someone whispering."
Sirius' eyes went wide under the cloak as James tried to cover their mouths to be silent.
"Dang it! Should've kept my mouth shut!" thought Sirius to himself as James had shushed him silently. "They're just stupid glowsticks!" They tiptoed away from the corner and into an open space.
"I heard it too," said the other girl. Coincidentally it was Mary Carlyle, the Hufflepuff Chaser who, and her friend, Cheryl, a brunette that neither James or Sirius had ever even seen before.
Just then, James stepped on a board that was particularly creaky. Mary and Cheryl's eyes went wide when they heard the sound. James and Sirius motioned to each other on how to best escape. They waited for someone to open the door, but unfortunately, when they finally exited through the back, Mary and Cheryl's curiosity got the best of them as they followed the strange unseen activity.
"I think I still hear footsteps…" said Cheryl.
"Ahh! Feet!" shrieked Mary, and sure enough, both girls could now barely see a wool sock-covered foot by its lonesome in the grass.
Both girls shrieked. James and Sirius quickly bent down to secure the foot and become completely invisible. The back door to Zonko's opened. A fifth-year Hufflepuff boy quickly took notice and asked, "What's going on?"
"F-f-feet! In the grass!" said Mary, pointing to where she saw them.
The boy gave them a disbelieving look. "You haven't been drinking at the Three Broomsticks have you?"
"No!," said Mary irritably. The fifth-year shook his head in disbelief and went back inside as Mary and Cheryl huffed at him.
"I know what I saw…" said Mary defensively.
"I have an idea," said Cheryl, pulling out her wand and pointing it in the direction she saw the feet. James and Sirius had been trying to tiptoe away while crouched down to avoid their feet being seen again.
"Revelio!" said Cheryl quietly. The invisibility cloak flew off the two boys into the grass. The two girls gasped but did not scream this time.
"Please please, PLEASE don't tell on us!" said Sirius imploringly as the girls walked up to them to interrogate them.
"What are you two doing?" said Mary incredulously, ignoring Sirius' pleas. Sirius clammed up, his brain flying in all directions. It was one of the few times he had ever even spoken to a girl before besides his mother.
Apparently James was struggling too. "We were...just...er…"
"Aren't you two both first years?" said Cheryl with a condescending tone.
"Er...n-no…" said James. "We're….third-years. We're in Gryffindor."
"You look kinda young to be thirteen," said Mary with a smirk to James.
"Oh, well he gets that all the time. And I skipped a grade," said Sirius, his voice cracking. James punched him in the arm. Cheryl laughed at the way Sirius' voice cracked. Something about the boys seemed cute and amusing to Mary and Cheryl so they started playing along.
"And how do you just happen to have an invisibility cloak? You can't buy those at Zonko's or anywhere in Britain," said Cheryl with genuine curiosity.
"It's, er, a family gift," said James, who wasn't really lying.
"Yeah, and, er, we were...just out looking for some other gifts in Zonko's...you know...doing some early holiday shopping,?" said Sirius. Mary and Cheryl raised an eyebrow.
"And….why did you need to be invisible to go to Hogsmeade to do some shopping? Looks awfully suspicious to me," said Mary. She knew they had to be lying, but it was fun to hear their story.
"We...er didn't want to be seen because…" began James.
"Because we were shopping for our dates, and we didn't want them to know we were here…" said Sirius.
Mary and Cheryl gave each other a look, fighting back laughter.
"Who is your date?" said Mary to James. James went wide-eyed. "I'm not telling you! It's a secret!" he said, glad to have a defensive answer that actually made sense.
Sirius stepped on his foot. "Oh c'mon James. Everyone knows it's Lily Evans," he said.
James' face became as red as a tomato.
"You're dating Lily Evans?" said Cheryl. James and Sirius looked at each other.
"Er, yeah he is," said Sirius with a grin. "He's just being modest, aren't you James?"
James gave him a scathing look. But he said, "Er, yeah," clearly at a loss for words and forced to play along.
"Wait a minute…" said Cheryl, thinking out loud. "Lily Evans is that first year girl from Gryffindor! She's not here in Hogsmeade. You don't need to be invisible!"
"Yeah...but," began Sirius. James cut him off decisively. "But Jannelle is one of her best friends and she's in Gryffindor. We didn't want her spying on us and seeing us buying something for Lily," he said. "Plus, I mean we're two elev….thirteen year-old boys. Doesn't it make sense that if we had an invisibility cloak this cool that we'd want to use it whenever we could? It's not that weird, right?"
Mary and Cheryl studied them as if preparing a verdict.
"It's a little creepy, I must admit," said Mary. "But I won't tattle on you or anything, at least not this time."
"Er, thanks?" said James, not sure what to say to that.
"We'll….just be going now," said Sirius in a would-be-casual voice, forcing a smile.
"Goodbye boys," said Mary, still eyeing them with suspicion for a moment. Eventually the two girls went back inside.
"Dang it, our secret is out!" said James irritably as they went back under the cloak. They instinctively made their way back to Hogwarts, deciding that their fun had been cut short. They didn't want to take another chance anyway.
"Yeah, but at least they barely know us, right? Maybe they'll just forget the whole thing," said Sirius hopefully.
"Fat chance," said James miserably. "They'll blab everything they saw to the whole school. YOu just wait. Ugh! You just had to go and mention Evans too didn't you?"
"Sorry, mate," said Sirius. "Thought it would be more believable that way."
James shook his head in annoyance and embarrassment. "We need another way to sneak around, Sirius. Have you noticed how Remus always seems to be gone for long periods of time on certain weekends?"
"No, but now that you mention it, I do," said Sirius.
"It'd be cool if we could disguise ourselves somehow, like even in public places, so we won't have events like what just happened happen to us again," said James. "We should ask Remus if he does anything in particular to sneak out."
"Yeah," said Sirius, as if deep in thought. "The coolest way, in my opinion, is to be an animagus. Someone who transforms into animals…"
"Hmmm…." thought James. Curiosity struck him like lightning at those words.
The duo continued under the cloak back to Hogwarts, avoiding detection and whispering to themselves about future attempts to sneak out. Sirius had flung a craving on James, and neither one could tolerate just sitting around on the weekends when there were limitless possibilities around the castle grounds.
To Sirius' surprise, James suggested they go to the library when they got back so they could do some preliminary research on animagi. Sirius obliged, thinking it was a stretch but finding nothing else to do. He couldn't help but enjoy hanging out with James too.
They spent the next several hours studying animagi, including the idiosyncrasies for different animals. The information was remarkably fascinating to the duo.
"We should ask Remus if he knows any of this stuff," said Sirius.
"Yeah, let's go and see if he wants to eat dinner with us," said James, putting up their library books and heading back to the Gryffindor common room without the cloak on.
As soon as they stepped into the common room, they saw a few first years studying in the corner. Some of the older students were still in Hogsmeade.
Sure enough, Lily Evans was reading with her friend, Jannelle, but upon noticing the duo entering, she sighed with impatience, put her book down and walked over to them. James began blushing at her approach.
"I've heard an odd rumor going around lately," asked Lily to James with an annoyed look.
"Aww crud," said James.
"I'll go find Remus," said Sirius with a smirk before dashing off, leaving a flustered James and Lily to talk it out. It was going to be a long evening.