Chapter 9

The Marauders

"I wonder what Professor McGonagall is going to think when she finds out about what we did to the Slytherin common room." James laughed, all thoughts of the detention and the calls to parents were forgotten. It once again amazed James how easily Sirius could change their moods, and in a good way too. He was defanetly not you typical Black.

"Do you think she'll know it was us."

"Of course she will, Peter, who else could it have been?" Remus answered, he was a little worried that they would get in even more trouble, but deciede to forget it. It was too late to worry about it now.

"I'm sorry I got us in trouble." Peter apologized sadly.

"It's alright Peter, it wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was. You do again Peter and I'll skin you alive." Sirius said almost angrily.

"Sirius don't be so hard on him, he didn't do anything wrong." James defended his friend

"If he can't be quiet I'm not taking him anymore."

"What made you think that you get to choose who comes and who doesn't." James stood and was glairing down at Sirus.

"The fact that I seem to be the only one who was listening to what Professor McGonagall said in there. She didn't exactly say it, but it sounded like if Remus gets into too much trouble they might kick him out." They were all surprised at this new information.

"What? What makes you think that?" James asked looking back and forth from Remus to Sirius. Remus paled for the second time that night.

"She said "If it wern't for Dumbledore you probably wouldn't even be here!" Was I the only one paying attention or what?" Sirius quoted

"Why wouldn't you be here?" James was very confused, he though every witch or wizard was allowed in.

"Ummm..." Remus trailed off. He was terrified, if they found out he would be alone again.

"If he doesn't want to tell us then he don't have to, mate. Still though, we need to be more careful." Remus was instantly greatful to Sirius.

"Thanks." He said quietly.

"No Prob, Remmy." Remus sighed, sooner or later he was going to have to get used to that stupid nickname.

"Does that mean I can't go anymore." Peter said sadly.

"Of course not Peter." Sirius half glared at James. "You just have to try to keep quiet a little better."

Peter nodded "I will I promise."

"Unfortunetly now Professor McGonagall knows your working with me. So anything I do you'll be suspected now too. Which means I can't take credit for them." Sirius complained.

"What if they didn't know it was you?" Remus thought outloud.

"You mean like a nickname?" Sirius thought of this for a second. "I like that idea, but here's an even better one. What if we all have a nickname? Like a name for our little group."

They all loved that idea. The problem was they couldn't agree on the name. They knew there couldn't be any connection between this name and any of their names. They didn't even want to risk their initials, not with Remus' education on the line.

Remus remembered a word that Professor McGonagall herself had called them. Maraders, wouldn't it be ironic that the teachers own words would come back to haunt her.

"What about The Marauders?" Remus suggesed, he really liked it and was prepared to defend it. Surpisingly he didn't have to.

"Marauders, I love it" Sirius was the first to respond.

"Me too." Peter said happily. He was still happy that he was still allowed to hang out with them.

"Yes, finally something we agree on." James cheered. "What does it mean?"

"It's basically a name used for troublemakers, although it is usually used to describe pirates and stuff. I got it from Professor Mcgonagall."

"Oh that's kinda bad, I mean if you got it from her won't she know that it's you that's using it?" For once it was Sirius that noticed a problem.

"No, she wasn't talking to me when she said it. She basically was talking to herself."

"Oh that's better. Great Marauders it is then. We are The Marauders! That totally rocks." Sirius cheered and gave Remus a high five. Remus was surprised, usually James was they only one that got a high five.

"It does rock, and it's even better because we are the only ones that know about it." James said also giving Remus a high five.

"Wooho." Peter cheered half heartedly "Can we go to sleep now?"

They laughed, and went to bed.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

The next morning at breakfast came a harsh reminder of why James,Remus, and Peter did not want their parents to be called. None of them got Howlers but they received very stern letters from their parents. Remus' almost made him cry. James began to regret last nights redecorating, that is until the Slytherins came in the room. All of which looked extreemly angry. James and Sirius both laughed at them. Remus chucled a bit but look at Professor McGonagall, whom had just been told of the Slytherin common room by the their head of house.

Remus was shocked when she burst out laughing. He elbowed Sirius and pointed to her.

"The head of the Slytherin house just told her about what we did to their common room." Sirius' mouth hung open.

"Are you sure that is what he said? Maybe he just told her a joke or something." Remus just shook his head. He had specifically heard him telling her, but he wasn't going to tell Sirius that he heard their conversation from so far away. "So she does have a since of humor after all." Sirius was smiling as the Slytherin head of house stood up and spoke to the school. He told them all that the colors of the common had changed from silver and green to red and gold, resulting in laughing from the entire Gryffindor house.

"We assure you that we will have the Slytherin common room back to normal by the end of the week." The news that it would take the rest of the week to fix it caused another round of laughing from the Gryffindors. Once it died down to a low roar he continued. "We will also find the culprits behind it and they will be severly punishied." He was looking angrier and angrier by the second.

"I forgot how much they hate us." Peter was starting to worry again.

"I think it's time to give The Marauders a little attention." Sirius said. James nodded and stood up.

"What are you doing?" Remus wispered. James winked.

Professor McGonagall noticed James standing. She was almost sure he and his little group were to blame for this. "What do you want Potter?" Everyone turned to his direction.

James had extreem trouble trying to hide his smile, it would ruin the whole thing. He sucked in a breath and said loudly. "We saw who did it." Remus slammed his head on the table. "Calm down Remus they won't hurt anyone they were just bluffing." Remus pretended to ignore him, he had no idea what was going on. Peter didn't either but decided to join in anyway.

"How do you know that?" He said and James smiled at him, but Sirius was the one to answer.

"Did you even look at them? Their a bunch of troublemakers, and I can tell when a troublemaker is bluffing."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Professor McGonagall grew serious, she knew these boys well enough that she knew that she could not tell if they were lieing or not. Usually students were easy to read, but not these boys.

"The Marauders." James said simply, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Wispers broke out amoung the Great Hall.

"And who are they?' She couldn't help but believe them, she didn't like not trusting students.

Sirius stood and answered this question. "We don't know exactly, they looked like ghosts. Although they wern't see though or intangable, but they were as silent as ghosts."

Professor McGonagall was surprised by this information. If they were making this up they were doing a very good job of it.

"We saw them yesterday and they mentioned that they were going to redecorate the common room to celibrate Godric Gryffindor's birthday, which is today by the way." James told them.

"And why didn't you say something to someone before now?" Professor Dumbledore asked, he was quite amused with this whole situation.

Sirius laughed. " Duh, because it was going to be hilarius. I only with that I had though of it before they did." Professor McGonagall sighed, she should have expected such an answer.

Dumbledore just laughed. "I assume by the way Mr. Lupin is acting I assume that they threatened you in some way." The way he said that made Remus paranoid that he knew they were lieing.

"Ya, they threatened hurt all of us if we told anyone. They were lieing of course, Like they could hurt any of us." James smirked. Remus just continued pounding his head on the table. This was the worst idea they ever had. He was sure that everyone would know that they lied

James and Sirius sat back down and continued eating. Of course, not before Sirius looked at the Slytherin table and saw many of them glareing at him. They didn't believe in any way shape or form that Sirius hadn't been directly involved. Bellatrix's glare seemed to be the most peircing though. It almost scared him, almost.

The rest of the day was rather uneventful. Everyone came up and asked the same questiones over and over about the Marauders. At first they loved all the attention, but after the thirtieth time they were getting tired of telling the same story over and over again. The Slytherins never changed their mind that Sirius was to blame and everyonce in a while they tried to get revenge. It never worked of course. Sirius could see though it all.

It was when they got back to the common room after Defence against the Dark Arts class that they found the note. Flying lessons were about to begin. This was the best knews they heard all day, exept of course that it would take a week for them to get the Slytherin comman room back to normal.

"I can't wait, that is the only thing I miss from home. Flying! I hope they don't go into detail about how to do it and just let us fly." Sirius flopped over the back of the couch.

"Boy, this is going to be fun. I wonder if their going to let us play Quidditch." James agreed.

"Probably not, it isn't really that long of a class. Only a few days, and they will go into detail about it, you know some of us have never flown before right." Remus rolled his eyes and went back to studying.

"What! Never flown before, how could you have not flown before!" Sirius looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

"I've never flown before either." Peter said quietly.

"Well I can understand Peter, I mean he falls enough on the ground, let alone in the air. But I don't understand why you haven't Remus, I mean you have really good balance." Sirius questioned.

"I'm a half blood, Sirius. My mum is a muggle." Remus tried to explain

"So, why didn't you dad teach you?" Remus sighed.

"Because he was trying to hide it from my mum." James burst out laughing. "Ya, he knew it was stupid, but he also knew he should have told her before they got married. He forgot to then, and now he was sure that she would be ticked when she found out."

"Was she?" Sirius couldn't hold back the laughter any more.

"Very, it was the only time I ever heard her yell at anyone." They all laughed. "You should have seen her face when we got my letter, and then after Dad told her that he had known all along. She looked like she was going to kill him."

They didn't stop laughing and joking about it until they were sure that they were going to fall asleep standing if they didn't get to bed.

A/N Yes I can finally stop calling them 'James and the others' Wooohooo sorry kinda hyper here.

And now not so hyper. I haven't gotten any revewes from the last three chapters. _ It's making me sad. Someone tell me they like my story or something. I'm starting to get kind of emo over here. I may just decide everyone hates it and stop wrighting it. The more reviews I get the more I know people like it. Then i'm able to get more motivated into it. So the more reviews I get the faster I update.