That night in the dining hall was the most enjoyable lively night that james had had in awhile. He had missed hogwarts with it's suits of armor in every hall and the ceiling of the dining hall enchanted to reflect the sky above it. He had missed the banter and laughter of the students. He had missed remus and peter and the four marauders being all together. And, of course, he had missed lily. He glanced to his right where she sat a few seats down flanked by alice fortescue and marlene mckinnon. The three were in outrageous laughter about who-knows-what and lily was trying desperately to not spit her food everywhere by the looks of her.
"Good to be back, isn't it?" remus asked and james turned his attention back to his friends
"Indeed, moony. I missed your sorry arse." sirius answered. Peter cleared his throat rather loudly
"Missed you too, wormtail." sirius clapped him on the shoulder
"What, you didn't miss james?" he asked
"Well," sirius started looking a bit uncomfortable all of a sudden "you see, i kind of spent the entire summer with james over at his place…"
"Oh. no reason attached? Just shacking up together?"
"My family… got even more sick of me than they previously have been." sirius stated vaguely, but remus and peter understood and picked up a new subject.
"So," peter started "anyone else have divination this year?"
"Oh merlin no." remus shuddered "i didn't think i could take anymore staring into my tea cup endlessly and making charts of when i might die." james smirked over at remus. His scarred face normally held too much darkness but tonight that darkness was nowhere to be seen as he laughed with his friends. Yes, hogwarts truly was a magical place.
…[...[]...]...
It was later that night after the feast. The marauders were in the same dormitory they'd shared since first year. They were always completely sure it was the same one because of the initials they'd carved into their bedposts during third year. Fourth year they'd tried to switch bunks just for the heck of it but it was mainly just confusing so they went back to their self-assigned beds.
James unpacked his books from his trunk and stacked them in no particular order next to the head of his bead and put his quill on top of them as kind of a nightstand. Of course almost immediately sirius's large orange cat came out of nowhere and knocked it off onto the floor. James tried to scold the cat as he picked his quill up but the cat's squished face was just so ugly that he ended up laughing instead.
"What's so funny?" sirius insisted launching a pillow across the room at james
"It's your cat, pads." james said as he finished his laughing fit "it's just so bloody ugly."
"I would love to correct you… but sadly that is one homely cat." the squashed-nose wonder didn't seem to appreciate this very much because it simply hissed at both of them and slunk off to who-knows-where. James didn't particularly care as long as it wasn't wreaking havoc in their dorm.
"Oh, merlin!" james heard peter exclaim from behind him
"Wormy, what seems to be the problem?" sirius asked pulling an old potter family quilt james's mother had given him from his trunk
"I spilled the new bottle of ink i bought all over the bottom of my trunk and it soaked the bottom half of my ancient runes book!"
"Yikes." was all sirius offered. As far as sympathy went sirius wasn't really your go-to guy.
"Aw, it was the red ink too so now my trunk looks like the scene of a bloody murder!"
James and sirius laughed and james went to go help him clean out his trunk.
"What's all this nonsense?" remus asked opening the door to their dormitory. He had been down in the common room.
"We're not even doing anything odd?" james questioned from the floor beside peter's trunk
"Honestly i didn't actually look at what you were doing i just kind of assumed it was nonsense."
"Good assumption." sirius offered as he made his bed across the room
"Well, peter has been hiding his murder victims in his trunk and now he has to deal with the mess he's made." james said and then turned to peter with a solemn expression on his face "you know, wormtail, actions have consequences-"
"Oh, shut it!" he hit james on the arm with a his stained runes book and the marauders laughed. Together. It was times like this when james felt as if the four of them would be together forever. They were family, after all.
