"And I thought I was having a good day." James muttered when he and Sirius turned around the corner to come face to face with none other than Severus Snape along with a bunch of Slytherins.
Now that James thought about it, he hadn't seen Snivellus outside the classes the whole week. It was almost as if he was avoiding James which was weird since that greasy haired Slytherin never lost a chance to get him in trouble with Evans.
Silence enveloped the corridor when the Slytherins spotted James and Sirius. James saw their hands move towards their wands as his hand moved towards his own.
"Hey Snivellus! Long time, no see." Sirius was the first to break the pin drop silence as he greeted Snape, with a smirk, like an old friend.
"Oh, you were actually busy turning sausages into snakes. Is that what you do now a days? Turn sausages into snakes?" Snape sneered as rest of the Slytherin's snickered.
"Glad you liked the show." James replied modestly as he tried to keep the conversation light in order to avoid any fights and consequently, Evans' wrath. He could still remember the last time he had hexed Snape. Evans hadn't been very subtle about it as she had yelled at him in the middle of the common room.
"You think you are funny. Pathetic." Snape spat.
"We were thinking more along the line of inventive, creative, dashing, lively but considering your vocabulary, funny will also be fine." Sirius was quick to retort. Unlike James, he had no Evans to worry about.
Snape was about to mutter an insult when he halted hearing another voice.
"10 points from Gryffindor." came the voice of Lucius Malfoy. A badge was shining on his chest as he walked towards them.
James badly wanted to know who made this git a Head Boy so that he could escort them to St Mungo's because no one in their right mind would do that.
"Potter, Black." He greeted, "No magic in the corridors."
"But we didn't-" James started.
"Your wands are out." Malfoy drawled.
When Sirius pointedly looked at the wands of Slytherins, he merely smirked.
Knowing that Sirius was about to explode, James pulled him to walk away from Slytherins but not before Sirius casted a loathing look at Malfoy.
"Wise choice." they heard Malfoy say and the rest of the Slytherins snicker.
"You should've let me use the magic for which he took points." Sirius spat once they were out of that corridor and on their way to kitchens again.
James chose to ignore his comment. Sirius' hatred towards Lucius Malfoy who spared no chance to taunt Sirius at family gatherings, was no secret. Malfoys were close to Blacks, both being powerful pureblood families.
The rest of their journey was covered in silence. They had missed breakfast because they had slept in and had gotten late for lunch since they were busy rescuing Remus from Madam Pompfrey's clutches. It was full moon last night and they had the time of their lives knowing that it was Saturday tomorrow and they don't have to worry about classes.
Frank and Remus had alredy gone to the lake whereas James and Sirius had chosen to grab food from the kitchens before joining them at the lake.
As they entered the kitchens, the house elves were quick to take their orders and rushed around preparing the meal and packing it in a basket as requested.
"Hey Binnie!" Sirius greeted his favourite house elf regaining his cheerful mood much to James' relief.
"Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, How your summer is being?" Binnie asked in a squeaky voice as she handed them the drinks.
"Summer was great, Binnie. How was your summer?" Sirius said imitating her accent to tease her. They hadn't seen Binnie when they had come to the kitchens earlier this week since she had been busy.
"Summer was being good." Binnie replied brightly.
"Really Binnie. So did you finally meet someone special?" James asked suggestively. He used to come to talk to Binnie taking her advice regarding Evans while Sirius just teased them both.
"I is not knowing what you is talking about." Binnie giggled.
"So you have finally met your someone special." Sirius sighed dramatically, "My heart is broken."
"Come on Binnie. You can tell us about him. We won't tell anyone." James promised crossing his heart.
"There is nothing to be telling about." Binnie blushed.
"So now you are going to keep secrets from us, Binnie." Sirius said in a hurt tone.
"There is being a new elf." Binnie finally stuttered.
"New elf? Here? At Hogwarts?" James asked.
"His name is being Dobby. He is being a good friend to me." Binnie told.
"Just friend?" Sirius raised his eyebrows while James smirked.
"You is being a bad boy, Mr. Black." Binnie blushed attempting to look angry.
"Oh come on. We have to meet him now." Sirius said while Binnie stuttered.
"You is not meeting him." She handed them the basket containing food, "Or your food is getting cold."
"Well, we will meet him later when we have more time so that we can have a proper chat with him." James smirked as he and Sirius moved towards the exit.
"You is doing no such thing." Binnie spluttered.
"Bye, Binnie." Sirius winked at her as he and James left the kitchen to join their friends at the lake.
The four laughed as they remembered the events of last night when they had roamed the surroundings of Hogsmeade. Frank being an eagle had first confirmed the area as clear before they had let Remus free and played, chasing each other around and exploring the moors.
The other three knew that since they had began accompanying Moony during his transformations, he was starting to become more in control and could now even retain some memories from full moon nights.
James was only sad because they couldn't be with Remus during his transformations in summer. When he had mentioned this, Remus had merely shrugged him off saying that they were already doing enough for him. But deep down he too wanted his friends to be with him. The transformations he had to go through alone were a nightmare. He was indeed lucky to have friends who not only accepted him for who he was but also helped him be who he is.
After dinner that evening, James and Sirius went to have a chat with Gideon and Fabian about their research. The whole week had kept them busy since there were OWLs this year on the top of their hobbies.
When they entered the common room, Remus was sitting at the table in the corner with Evans, both doing homework. Frank and Alice were on the other side of the common room sitting on the couch talking. Whereas Isadora was on the couch next to Lily's and Remus' table reading a book.
The moment James saw her, his mind went back to a conversation he had overheard. He mentally face-palmed himself as he realized that he had totally forgotten about that.
He nudged Sirius, "Do you remember what I told you on Tuesday?"
"What?" Sirius raised his eyebrows.
"I had overheard someone talking in Potions."
"Oh, that." Sirius said him face expression morphing into those of pure concentration, "Nops, don't remember." He concluded, "It was something to do with Dumbledore, wasn't it? Anyways, don't you have something to put on noticeboard?" Sirius added diverting James' attention.
"Oh, right. I almost forgot." James said rushing up the stairs to his dormitory.
He come back a couple of minutes later with his bag and a parchment to find Sirius sitting with Isadora.
James quietly went to the Gryffindor noticeboard to pin the parchment there. Hoping that nobody had noticed him, he joined Sirius and Isadora placing his chair so that he had Evans and Remus in clear view and hearing range. Blocking out whatever Sirius was saying to Isadora, he concentrated on Evans and Remus.
"Lily, can I have your notes of History of Magic lecture on Friday? Mine don't make much sense." Remus asked murmuring the last part. Before full moon Remus always had difficulty concentrating and studying.
"They aren't complete. Professor Slughorn, remember?" Evans replied.
James could vaguely recall Slughorn asking Evans to stay behind after class on Friday. Hence, she had come in History of Magic after half the class had passed not that Binns cared of course.
"Oh." Remus said clearly wondering who will he ask from now.
"Wait a minute." Evans said before turning her head to look at the wall beside the couch. James moved a little to have a good view of what she was looking at.
To his surprise, Hale was sitting there crossed legs against the wall with a book in her lap and her head in the book. No one would have noticed her unless they knew she was there.
"Lina" Evans called her.
When she didn't look up, being deeply immersed in her book, Evans used discarded parchment to make a paper ball and threw it at her. It landed in her lap on her book at which she looked up and raised her eyebrows before asking, "What?"
"Can we have your History of Magic notes?"
She blinked twice before rummaging through her bag beside her. Out came a book which James realized with a jolt was a muggle notebook. She levitated it towards Evans before going back to her reading.
As Evans continued to study, James continued to stare at her. He remembered Remus telling him a couple of days ago that her mother had died this summer of cancer which was a muggle disease with no cure. James wanted to talk to her to offer his condolences but he couldn't gather the courage or the words. After all, what do you say to a person you like who hates your guts when they lose a loved one?
A yell brought James back to earth. On looking around he saw a fourth year boy standing in front of the notice board calling for his friends and soon enough, there was a crowd gathered around.
"What is that about?" Isadora frowned at the crowd.
"Oh, it's the announcement for Quidditch trials." James replied before Sirius could.
"Prongs here is the captain." Sirius added with a proud smirk on his face.
James knew he would become the captain this year hence when Professor Mcgonagall had called him on Wednesday, it had been no surprise. He had been playing Quidditch since his second year as a chaser.
"When are they, the trials?" Dora asked slowly deep in thought.
"Next weekend." James told her adding, "Although Quidditch season doesn't start until next month, we have to start early if we want to thrash the Slytherins."
"You play?" Sirius asked her.
"No, I don't." She added after a pause, "Ro does."
"What position?" James asked feeling interested.
"Seeker."
"Oh."
"Doesn't look like she plays." Sirius muttered.
At Isadora's raised eyebrows, he added, "She looks bookish and nerdy. Like Moony and Evans."
Isadora laughed lightly, "Yeah she is bookish but I won't call her a nerd. Drowning in books and work is just her way of coping."
"Coping?" Sirius pressed.
She looked uncomfortable saying, "You know, with sudden change of environment, new people and stuff." She added a moment later mumbling under her breath looking lost, "Not to mention she didn't particularly want to come here."
James wasn't sure the last part was for them to hear. Before Sirius could say something insensitive, he said sympathetically, "Must be hard."
"No worries. We'll live." She said cheerily before standing up. "I'll call it a day. Good Night." She added before going up the stairs leading to girls dormitories.
James noticed that some time during their conversation Lina had also gone though he had not noticed her leaving. He wondered if he should talk to Evans now but then he decided to do it tomorrow. Yes, he'll definitely talk to her tomorrow.
"Want a game?" Sirius asked taking a pack of exploding snap out of his pocket snapping James out of his thoughts.
"Prepare to lose Padfoot." James replied.
"Oh, we'll see about that." Sirius smirked.
They had played two games both won by Sirius when Frank joined them as Alice had left. Sirius dramatically told Frank that he was hurt by Frank's actions which implied that they, his friend are no longer his first priority to which Frank only replied, "You never were. Stuff it." And they continued to play the game but not before Sirius dramatically clutched his heart at Frank's words.
Sirius won all the games they played. It wasn't until their sixth game that James realized that Sirius had been cheating the whole time. After chasing Sirius around the common room, growing his eyebrows ankle length and a couple more games of exploding snap, they joined Remus at the table since Evans had left.
"Moony, why are you still studying? It's first week. For Merlin's sake, have fun with us." Sirius said.
"Unlike you, I am 15, not 5." Remus retorted.
"Yeah, he was definitely 15 when he and Pads were chasing that ball around last night." Frank laughed.
Remus scowled at him before saying, "Shh. Let me study in peace. Its OWLs this year and I-"
"Moony, not you too." James protested, "I am tired of hearing this."
"Well, it's true."
"That doesn't make it any less annoying." James insisted.
"What are you studying?" Frank asked picking up the notebook that was in front of Remus. James realized it was Lina's. It was definitely muggle.
"Woah. Never would've thought Binns taught all that." Frank said amazed.
"That would be because you are sleeping in his class." Sirius told him.
"I know, right. Besides, I think she might've consulted some reference books." Remus said ignoring Sirius' comment.
"Evans?" Frank asked flipping through the pages.
"Lina." Remus replied as James took the notebook from Frank.
The notes were definitely different and detailed written in neat cursive joining writting using muggle pens most probably.
Sirius peered over James' shoulder as James flipped through the pages backwards.
"They should be in a museum along with Professor Binns." Sirius stated.
"Fits well. He is ancient. This is antique." Remus laughed.
When the first page finally opened, James saw that written on it in calligraphy was, 'A Man Can Be Destroyed But Not Defeated.' - ERNEST HEMINGWAY