Chapter 24
Reunions
"James! Remus! Peter!" James heard the yelling over the crowd, which was a pretty big accomplishment with how loud it was. James laughed when Sirius nearly tackled him.
"I missed you too, Si" James watched as Sirius put one arm around Remus' shoulders, causing Remus to laugh and half hugged Peter with the other hand. When he dropped his arms he still had a huge smile on his face.
"At least you got to be around people you like. I had to spend my time with Snivellus and a couple of sixth year girls." Sirius attempted to frown, but he was so happy he couldn't. Instead he just looked funny and they laughed all the way back to Hogwarts. When they got to the castle they went straight up to their dorm. James flopped on his bed.
"Man, it's good to be back." He said as he watched Remus unpack a few things, mostly books. He heard Sirius laugh.
"You haven't eaten all that yet?" He said to Remus. Remus looked confused for a moment then laughed.
"Not yet, there is a lot of it?" James and Peter looked at each other with confused looks.
"Where did you get it? It must have cost a fortune." He looked at Sirius with a worried look. Sirius smiled he seemed proud of himself.
"What?" James asked, but Sirius ignored him.
"Was it that good? I didn't spend anything on it." Remus' eyes widened. "Actually I didn't spend anything on any of you." James felt surprised; the mirror Sirius had given him looked expensive.
"How did you get them then?" James asked.
"Peter's was a book I already had. He barrowed it from me at least three times and I don't care for it all that much so I gave it to him." Peter smiled.
"Thanks."
"No problem." He turned to James. "Yours was a gift from my uncle, I have the other one. Remus'…" He stopped when James gave him a confused look. "What?"
"The other one?"
"Ya, they don't work if there aren't two of them."
"There are two of them?" They stared at each other for a moment than Sirius laughed.
"You have no idea what that is do you?" He said pointing to the mirror that was now in James' hand.
"It's a mirror." Sirius sighed.
"It's a two way mirror." James continued looking confused for a moment, and then he seemed to understand,
"No way!" Sirius laughed and pulled out the other one. James ran over to look at it.
"What is a two way mirror? Remus asked and walked over to them. James ran out of the room. Sirius laughed.
"You'll see," he said pointing at the mirror. Peter also walked over though he knew that it was. Remus jumped when he saw James' face in the mirror.
"Hey, James" Sirius said calmly. He was loving this.
"This is so cool!" James responded and Sirius smirked. He stood and leaned on the door.
"I know, Jamesie, I know." He said laughing, James was silent, and Remus could see James turning red.
"How did you…?" His voice trailed off. Remus was confused, but Peter started laughing.
"Your mommy sent me a letter with her present, Jamesie." Sirius started laughing again. James' face was now very red with embarrassment. Remus laughed quietly.
James' face disappeared from the mirror and Remus could hear him coming up the stairs. He didn't bother to try and open the door. He already knew Sirius would be blocking it.
"Let me in Sirius." He said sounding mad.
"What's wrong, Jamesie-poo?" Sirius laughed even harder at his new nickname.
"Sirius let me in so I can KILL YOU!" James yelled and started pushing on the door.
"Oh, ya, because that is going to make me let you in sooner. Really smart Jamesie-poo" Sirius said barely able to stop laughing long enough to finish.
"Fine then. I'll just wait here. You have to come out sometime. Unless you want do starve to death." Sirius' smile faded and he sighed. He knew it was better to just get it over with so he opened the door. James tackled him.
When James was done with him they walked down to the hospital wing hoping Madam Pomfrey could keep the sore spots from becoming bruises. She was laughing as she rubbed some ointment on his 'wounds'.
"Does no one care that I'm in pain?" Sirius complained because everyone was laughing at him.
"Of course not, are you kidding." James teased. Sirius stuck his tongue out at him and looked at Remus.
"You care, don't you Remmy." Remus looked at Sirius for a second before turning away and laughed again. Sirius pouted, then smiled he'd really missed his friends.
He was almost completely healed when they left. Remus looked at Sirius attempting to keep from laughing again.
"You never told me where you got my present." He reminded. Sirius stopped walking and smiled another big smile.
"I'll show you!" He grabbed Remus's arm and pulled him down the stairs. James and Peter ran after them.
"Where are we going?" Remus asked.
"You'll see!" Sirius answered as they entered the dungeons. The stopped in front of the ugly picture of the bowl of fruit.
"You found out what is behind here?" James asked excitedly. Sirius smirked, then walked up to the picture and tickled the pear. It laughed and turned into a handle of a door. Sirius pulled it open. Their mouths dropped in surprise when the saw the room and at least a hundred house-elves.
"Whoa! What is this?" James asked.
"This is the kitchen where the world's best food is made." Some of the elves came over to them.
"Hello Mr. Sirius! Would you like something Sir?" Sirius gave them a friendly smile.
"Hey guys." He turned back to the Marauders. "You guys hungry?" He smirked when he saw them in shock.
"Hungry?" James was the first to recover.
"Ya, they will get you anything you want if you ask."
"Awesome!" James exclaimed. What interested Remus the most was the house-elves themselves. He had never seen one before. When Sirius explained that they were servants Remus felt rather bad for them. It took a while before he realized that they liked it that way.
"Did you add this room to the Map, Si" James asked with his mouth half full.
"Of course I did!" Sirius looked offended then laughed as he pulled out the Map.
"Woah." Remus said looking at everything Sirius had accomplished while they were gone. He almost had the first floor done. "You've been busy."
"I had a lot of free time. I did this and the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff dormitories and common rooms. It was a lot easier for me to do it now that there was no one hardly left in the school. I put the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw towers on different parchments. We can move them over when we get far enough." It was obvious Sirius was proud of himself. "I also got all my homework done and even studied some."
Remus smiled at him, pride was obvious in his face. He had expected to have to make Sirius do his homework. James laughed.
"Our little Siri's all grown up now." He looked at Remus with fake tears and they all laughed.
"So what if I have… Jamesie-poo." James stopped laughing and slammed his head on the table. Sirius was never going to let him live that down.
"So we heard about our gifts, but what did you get Si." James asked desperate for a subject change. "Did you like them?"
"Very much." Sirius had a mischievous smile on his face.
"What all did you get?" James asked and Remus turned a little red.
"Mostly books. I got that biography from your mother, finished it already. Another book from Peter, half done with it. I've read a few pages from that one you got me." Sirius told them.
"I didn't read anything but the fist page. Are they any good?" James asked and Sirius thought about it for a moment.
"Eh, their ok. None of them are brilliant so far, but they aren't amateurs either. Probably won't use any of them exactly but it has given me ideas." James smirked.
"What kind of ideas?"
"Well I have a few things planned for Snivellus." Sirius grinned evilly.
When they left they headed towards the Gryffindor tower. It was past curfew so they had to be careful. It still didn't keep them from talking though.
"You didn't tell us what Remus got you." James reminded. Remus turned red and refused to look at anyone.
"From Remus' facial expression I don't think he wants me too." Sirius laughed and Remus turned redder. "But I do feel the need to warn you that if you smell an extremely foul stench it means Filtch is somewhere close by." Sirius laughed and Remus hid his face in his hands, although he was trying not to laugh. "Oh and Fanged Frisbees are going to be banned." Remus couldn't keep from laughing any longer; thankfully he managed to keep quiet.
"Remus gave you a Fanged Frisbee! Remmy I didn't know you had it in you!" James looked proudly at Remus.
"And a whole pack of dungbombs," Sirius added and James' eyes widened.
"Remus those are against the rules!" James laughed and hugged Remus. "Our little Remmy is finally loosing up!" Remus was extremely embarrassed by now.
"What did you do to Filtch?" Remus asked when he pulled away from James.
"Stuffed half of them in his pockets and set them all off at the same time." Sirius smirked. "I plan to do the res when the smell starts to go away."
"You are evil," James smirked also and gave Sirius a high-five. Remus laughed quietly. They walked to the portrait of the fat lady and told her the password. She was half asleep and didn't bother telling them off for being out after hours.
"Did you get the present from my parents?" Remus asked noticing Sirius blush a little.
"Ya, did you read the card they sent with it?" He asked and Remus shook his head. Sirius sighed in relief. "Good you don't want to." Remus looked at him curiously.
"Why? What did it say?" Remus asked.
"You really don't want to know" Remus looked away hiding his embarrassment.
"I'll take your word for it."
"What did they get you?" James asked and Sirius pulled out the journal. "Wow, this looks rather expensive." He flipped through the pages.
"It wasn't expensive at all. My mum bought it at a muggle store and my dad enchanted the pages to look cool." Remus made a mental note to tell them that he liked it so much.
"Very cool, only problem is that I'm worried if I actually write in it, it might ruin it." They laughed. Sirius sat on his bed. "So what did you guys get?" James smirked. It looked like he had been waiting for someone to ask him that all day.
"I got an invisibility cloak." He said it so calmly that at first none of them noticed what he said but they slowly noticed.
"You got what!" Sirius exclaimed sitting up. James smirked again."
"An invisibility cloak." Sirius stood and ran over to James.
"You're kidding!" James laughed and began looking though his trunk. He pulled out a silvery cloak. Sirius' eyes widened. Remus came over to them and looked at it.
"What does it do? I mean it can't actually make you invisible right?" Remus asked. Sirius seemed speechless and James had a huge grin.
"Let's see shall we?" He said putting on the cloak. He was completely invisible.
"Woah" Remus managed to say. Sirius still seemed speechless. James' head appeared out of nowhere behind Sirius.
"BOO!" Sirius yelped and jumped back. He stared at James' floating head for a moment.
"Don't do that!" Sirius said breathing heavily and causing James to laugh even harder. He took it off.
"Wanna try?" James said holding it out to Sirius. Sirius completely forgot he was mad at James.
"Ya!" James handed it over and Sirius put it on. He poked his head out and looked at himself. "Awesome!" He disappeared again. James was laughing and Remus noticed the door open by itself.
"Sirius? Um James I think Sirius left." James stopped laughing and looked at the open door. James looked back to Remus.
"Perhaps giving Sirius an object that turns him invisible is not such a good idea." They stared at each other for a second.
"Aw crap! I got him a Fanged Frisbee!" They dashed out the door and Peter followed, laughing a little.
They sighed in relief when they got to the common room and it was still intact, until they heard someone yelling. Remus jumped when someone put their hand on his shoulder. They heard Sirius chuckle though they still couldn't see him.
"What did you do?" James asked quietly so it didn't look like he was talking to thin air.
"I stuck the frisbee down that guy's shirt." They looked and saw someone dancing around. They started laughing hard. They headed back to their dorm when Sirius managed to get his frisbee back. He took off the cloak and they laughed until their ribs hurt, by then it was past midnight and they remembered they had classes in the morning. They quickly went to bed, knowing they would regret staying up so late in the morning.