A/N: Alright, second chapter already, I'm a roll... The story is starting to pick up more, so I hope everybody likes it. Please review if you do read, I love reviews! Many thanks to Ciria for reviewing so far. : )
Disclaimer: Again, I'm just writing a fan fic here, this is all JKR's. (Can I make this apply to all the chapters so I don't have to keep typing this?)
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The next morning, Remus was wakened by a pillow that was brought unmercifully down on his face. He sat straight up in his bed, trying in vain to see his attacker.
"He's alive!" he heard Sirius shout. He rubbed his eyes to help them focus, and when he opened them he say James and Sirius, dressed already in their school robes, laughing. He spotted the pillow in James's hand, and he reached behind him and chucked his own pillow at James's head. Sirius started laughing harder as James stumbled backward.
"He's more than alive, he's vicious!" James said, straightening his glasses that were knocked askew.
"Revenge is sweet." Remus grinned as he stretched and got out of bed.
"Yeah, well, so is breakfast, which just started." Sirius said, looking at his watch.
"What?" Remus shouted as he ran to the bathroom, leaving a laughing James and Sirius behind.
~~~~*~~~~
James and Sirius waited for Remus in the Common Room, and while they were there, they began to look at the room more closely. After a few minutes they sat down on different, over-stuffed chairs.
"This is a really nice place." Sirius commented.
"Yeah, these chairs are really comfortable." James said as he stretched and lazily sprawled out over the chair. But a minute or two later, footsteps we heard thundering down the stairs, and a flushed Remus came into view.
"Ok, ready." He said almost in a pant. Sirius laughed and stood up, but James continued to sit in the chair.
"You coming?" Sirius asked, looking down on the small boy.
"Too comfortable.. can't get up.." James mumbled, closing his eyes. Sirius looked at Remus and raised an eyebrow. Then both of the boys reached down and pulled James up. The smaller boy whimpered in reply and held an outstretched arm out to the chair as he was pulled away.
"I'll come back, I promise!" he called before being pulled through the portrait hole.
~~~~*~~~~
The three boys got a little confused as they tried to find the Great Hall, but the smell of food was all they needed to guide them. They finally walked into the Great Hall and walked over to the Gryffindor table. There, they spotted the plump, short boy named Peter sitting by himself. Sirius elbowed James and Remus, and pointed at Peter. They nodded in reply before making their way to sit by him.
"Hey Peter!" James greeted the shy boy as he sat down across from him. Remus and Sirius sat on either side of the now startled boy before piling food onto their plates.
"Good morning Peter."
"Hi Peter."
Peter looked at the three boys with wide eyes, and he mumbled a barely audible reply. James looked at the other two boys, who just shrugged their shoulders.
"So, uh, Peter," James began, searching for something to say. He looked at Sirius, who was just as curious as to what he was going to say as James was. He looked back to Peter who was now looking at James, waiting for him to finish.
"Uh, what, er, classes are you interested in?" James finally finished. Sirius smiled and turned to Peter.
"Yeah, what are you looking forward to?" Sirius added. Peter shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"Um, I really don't know. I'm not very good at much." He said, getting quieter as he spoke so that the three boys had to lean in to catch his words.
"Oh, well, that's alright. Neither am I." James said with a smile to help reassure the quiet boy.
~~~~*~~~~
James quickly proved that statement as false in their first class, Transfiguration. The three boys sat next to Peter, who was once again sitting by himself. The teacher was Professor McGonagall, and before she started teaching, she gave a lecture over the way one was to act in her class. At the end of her lecture and before she started her lesson, Sirius looked over at James and shot him an evil grin, which James returned.
After a long period of taking notes over the lesson, Professor McGonagall passed out matches to everyone in the class and told them to transfigure it into a needle. After looking over his notes very carefully, James picked up his wand and studied the match very carefully. Sirius was making very good progress on his match, which became pointed at the end. Remus's match still looked like a match, but his had changed into silver. Peter looked in dismay at the half-match, half-needles next to him before looking again at his match that, despite much effort, remained a match. After studying his match for a few minutes, James finally pointed his wand and said the spell.
"Mr. Potter! How is your match?" Professor McGonagall said after she noticed that Sirius and James were laughing about something.
"Professor, I don't know what you're talking about." James replied, the smile still on his face, as she made her way over to him.
"What do you mean, Potter?" She asked just as she got to his table.
"Well, I don't have a match." James replied, holding up a needle. Professor McGonagall took the needle from him and looked it over. It was a perfect needle, and she probably would have smiled if he hadn't been joking around with Sirius.
"Very good, Potter. Five points to Gryffindor. Mr. Black, please continue working." She said and started to return to her desk, but Sirius caught her attention, and she turned to see him holding up and equally perfect needle.
~~~~*~~~~
"That was cool how we got 10 points on the first day." Sirius said to James as the boys returned to the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Yeah, did you see her face? You could tell that she didn't think we had done anything." James said as they reached the portrait hole. Sirius stated the password and they walked in.
"I almost got it, but my needle would still light." Remus said, and the other two laughed. Behind them walked Peter, who had made no difference in his match at all. The boy felt embarrassed that he was sitting next to the smartest kids in class; they made him feel so stupid. His embarrassment changed to anger when he remembered how they had sat next to him in the first place. Peter left the other three boys, who decided to lounge in the Common Room, and he went up the stairs.
"Where's Peter going?" James asked as he settled himself in his new, favorite chair. Sirius shrugged his shoulders and checked his watch.
"We have 10 minutes to our next lesson; do you think we should go ahead and go?" He asked, and Remus nodded.
"Yeah, we probably shouldn't have come back here." Remus said and stood up.
"Yeah, why did you want to come back here anyway? James?" Sirius asked James who was beginning to fall asleep in the chair. Sirius sighed and looked at Remus, who shook his head.
"Not again."
~~~~*~~~~
The three boys made their way to the next class which happened to be Charms. It was when they got there, right on time, that they realized that Peter wasn't there.
"Peter, where'd he go?" Sirius asked, looking around.
"He probably left right behind us, don't worry." James reassured him. The three boys sat next to each other, leaving a spot for the other boy. They began to grow uneasy when Professor Flitwick started to call roll, but they forgot once they started work on a basic charm. James wasn't as good at Charms as Transfiguration, but he was still very good. Sirius was in his element, though, and he enjoyed it. Professor Flitwick was very pleased, overall, with the three boys, as Remus did very well also.
As they left the class, they ran to the Gryffindor tower to see if Peter was still there. They didn't see him in the Common Room, so they ran up to their dorm, where they found him lying on his bed.
"Peter! You missed Charms!" James shouted, and the small boy jumped up.
"What!" he cried in dismay as the other boys nodded their heads.
"Did you forget?" Sirius asked. Peter, instead, didn't answer. He was staring, as if in shock, at his schedule.
"I don't believe this." He said to himself.
"Well, we have Potions in a few minutes, we better go." James said and started to leave. Remus and Sirius followed behind him, but Peter stayed staring at his schedule. Then he looked up and glared at the spot where the three boys had stood.
'Why didn't they come and get me? They probably left me here on purpose.' Peter thought as he finally left the room and made his way to the dungeons.
The boys were a little early to Potions, and they ended up waiting outside the door with the other students. It seemed that they were having Potions with the Slytherins, James noticed, as a large group of Slytherin first years approached. Peter also showed up a minute later, and he kept a fair distance away from the other three boys. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even hear what anyone was saying, but he was quickly brought back to what was going on when someone pushed him, rather hard, and made him fall over. He looked up to see a group of Slytherin boys laughing at him. His face reddened in embarrassment, and he started to get up. But he didn't have to bother, because he was lifted up by someone, and when he looked up he saw Sirius helping him up, and Remus was picking up Peter's things for him. Peter turned back to the Slytherin group to see James standing in front of the Slytherin boy who had pushed him. The Slytherin boy was very pale, with greasy, black hair. James was pointing a finger in the boy's face, who seemed to be backing down, but he was now glaring at James. After James had finished, he walked back over to Peter, who was now steady on his feet with all his things again.
"You ok?" James asked quietly. Peter nodded, but before he could give any kind of thanks, a tall, and thin, woman, wearing deep blue robes walked up and opened the door.
"Everybody in, sorry for being late."
~~~~*~~~~
Potions wasn't a favorite for James, Sirius, or Remus, but it wasn't too bad. Professor Rosse was the Potions teacher, and she seemed to teach well enough, but she had a bad habit of getting sidetracked rather easily. She forgot to assign any homework, which was lucky for the three boys, because Professor McGonagall has assigned a rather weighty assignment for their first day.
The three boys were working on that very assignment at dinner when Peter approached them. James looked up and noticed him.
"Hi Peter!" He said. Sirius and Remus raised their heads from the parchment they were currently writing on to greet Peter as well.
"Um, hi, uh.." The small boy started.
"Do you want to sit down?" Remus suggested, and Peter quickly sat.
"I just wanted to thank you all.." Peter said rather quietly. James looked at Sirius and Remus who were smiling.
"It was no trouble Peter, if you have any problems, any at all, you just come to us. Alright?" James said, and Peter nodded his head, smiling a bit.
"Yeah, we'll take care of you." Sirius added with a smile.
It was then that Peter finally let his guard down and started to talk to the other boys. Any anger he had felt towards them earlier was gone, and, for the first time since being at Hogwarts, he felt safe and comfortable.