Sirius turned around, look of shock on his face.
"Is there something you'd like to tell me about Mister Potter, Mister Black?" She asked, tapping her foot impatiently.
"Er—" He looked around for some sort of help. Ah…breakfast roll. Quickly he shoved the entire thing into his mouth. "Muffer old me nefer oo alk wif my mouff full."
McGonagall stared down at him, a disapproving glare on her face. "Well then, since I know how much you love your mother…"
Sirius cringed. She had him there; he despised his mother. "Yeff! I lub er!" Get ready for the lightning bolt.
Peter looked at McGonagall, purple face fuming with anger. Peter didn't like getting in trouble. "M-my M-mum! I m-miss m-my m-mum!" He sobbed.
McGonagall rolled her eyes. "Oh, well then send her an owl."
"I-I n-n-need help!" Peter looked at Sirius, whose roll was falling out of his mouth.
"Mister Black will escort you then." Sirius spit out the remnants of his roll and smiled.
"I'd be happy to! Come along Peter, mustn't keep Mrs. Pettigrew waiting!" He jumped up and patted her on the back. "We'll talk later then?"
She turned to answer him but he was half way out of the Great Hall.
* * *
"She's been telling us off a lot lately." Sirius exclaimed as they climbed the windy stairs to the Owlrey.
Peter laughed. "Yes," He looked around. "Why are we really going up here?"
"To send a letter." Sirius said matter-of-factly. "Why else?"
"I thought we were just getting away from McGonagall." He shrugged, opening the wooden door that led to the hundreds of owls. "I hate being in here, I always get pooed on."
Sirius laughed. "Well everyone's got to go sometime."
"Hello?" Said a voice amidst the barn owls.
"Hello." Sirius called back.
Through the hooting of the birds, he made out: "Hold on, I can't hear you."
"Maybe there's a leak." He said back.
"A beak? Where? Wait, of course there's beaks."
"Come again? I didn't catch that."
"I can't hear you."
"For Merlin's sake." Peter ran around the octagonal shaped room. "It's Lily!"
Sirius grimaced. He really didn't want to see her here. "Hold on, let me come and give her a proper greeting." He shooed owls away so he could walk straight across the room. "Hello!"
"Hi." Lily grumbled, tying a letter to an enormous snowy white owl.
"What are you doing here?" Sirius and Lily asked in unison.
"Sending a letter, not that it's any of your business." Again, perfectly synchronized.
Sirius narrowed his eyes. The last thing he wanted was a mind link with Evans.
"To who?"
"Dammit Evans, let me ask by myself!" He growled after they shared another similar thought.
Peter giggled. "So, I'll leave now."
"Why?" Sirius asked angrily.
"Because…I have to go see if Lupin got off."
"Good idea." Sirius commended him. After he heard the door slam he remembered what he was doing. "Wait don't leave me with her!" He called, but her could clearly her the loud thumps of feet on the stairs.
"Thanks." Lily said, shooing the owl out the window. "That was nice of you."
"What? Do you really want to be in here alone with Sirius Black?"
There was silence.
"Oh wait, Sirius forgot: Every girl wants to be alone with Sirius Black!" He smiled at her.
"Why is Sirius talking about himself in the third person?" Lily asked, feeding some owls breakfast scraps from her hand.
"Am not."
" 'Oh! Sirius loves it when he's alone with a girl! Sirius came to send a letter!' " She imitated him.
"Will you stop your imitation of a deformed House Elf, it's offensive." He tied a letter to an owl's scaly leg.
Lily made a sound that resembled an angry cat. "You just can't be nice…"
Sirius patted his owl. "Excuse me?"
"Never mind. So whose letter is that?" Lily quickly changed the subject.
"No one's." He said, trying to push the owl out of a small window it was clearly too big for.
"Really?" She said, snatching the letter off its tether. "Let me make sure you addressed it right." She began to open the letter.
"That's a federal offense!" He screamed as she unfolded the paper. "Please Lily!"
Ignoring him, she began to read the letter out loud. " 'Dear Mr. And Mrs. Potter: I just wanted to thank you…' " She trailed off, obviously reading it in her head. "Here you go Sirius." She handed it back.
He glared at her. Tying it back on the owl and motioning for it to begin it's delivery. She was blushing. Serves her right. He thought as he soaked up the awkward silence.
"Sorry." She said as she grabbed her bag and left the room.
* * *
The Marauders sat in their usual seats during History. None of them paying attention, except for Moony of course. James was busy trying to get Lily's attention through the mobs of snickering girls. Sirius was busy trying to avoid Lily and entertaining the mobs of girls. Remus of course, was taking half-arsed notes and Peter was drawing a picture of a centaur. A very inaccurate picture, but Remus didn't have the energy to correct him. When it was time to hand in the Uric Essay, only Remus did.
Next was Transfiguration. This was hardly a nice class to have on a Monday. McGonagall got all up in your business and it was no use trying to fall asleep in class.
"Now everyone pair up and turn this parakeet into a piggy bank." She ordered, waving the students on with her hand.
"I call Moony." James said, watching Sirius's face grow red.
"That's not fair you had him last time."
"You know, I think I want Peter." Remus said, closing his notebook. "At least he'll try to do some of the work."
"Too late." Sirius motioned to Wormtail sitting next to Lily. "He called Evans."
James looked over. "Great, now I don't have anyone."
Sirius looked at him, a hurt expression on his face. "What am I?"
"Not a girl." James said.
"Well I want Remus." Sirius said matter-of-factly.
"Then who do I get?" James asked, slumping in his chair.
Sirius looked around the room. "Snivellus."
James's face dropped. "What?"
"Snivellus, he's the only one without a partner." Sirius said, devilish smirk on his face.
They looked over at the greasy haired boy, who had his nose deep inside a book.
"Why am I friends with you?" He asked as he began to walk over to Snape.
"Because you'd have just as much fun doing this to me." Sirius called as he patted his parakeet.
"Want to be partners?" James asked, slamming his books on Severus's desk.
He looked up, a smirk on his face. "I'm sorry, Lucius is my partner."
"Isn't he like two years older than all of us?" James asked, ruffling his hair.
Snape shot him an evil glare. "Why are you still here, Potter?"
"Potter?" He heard a cold drawling voice come from behind him. "Seen any Dementors lately?"
James looked to see the yellow-haired, pale-faced fit that was Lucius Malfoy.
"Dunno, seen any passing grades lately?" He asked.
"Funny, Potter. I would have expected more from a pure blood." He said, gripping his blackened wand. "But then again, you do hang out with that mudblood Evans, and that fat thing you call a boy."
James could feel his wand hand twitching. "I-I—" Rage hindered his speaking abilities. "Twitchy Ears!" He had no idea what the spell was, he knew what he wanted it to be, and how to flick his wand, but he had no idea what the incantation was.
"That was pitiful." Lucius said as his ears flicked one or two times, then stopped. "What was it supposed to do anyway?"
"Voldemort!" James yelled. The whole class fell silent.
"How dare you speak the Dark Lord's name?" Lucius asked, pointing his wand at him.
"Voldemort, Voldemort, Voldemort!" James said teasingly.
"Don't speak He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named true name!" A girl squealed from somewhere in the room.
"More like He-Who-Must-Be-Nutters." James retorted.
"Boys!" McGonagall came storming over, face redder than it had been for the past two weeks. "This is quite inappropriate. Fifty from both of your houses. Potter, you can work by yourself." She pulled him by his robes and sat him in between Sirius and Lily. She must've not been looking because any teacher in their right mind wouldn't put a boy in trouble next to the two people that meant most to him.
"Good one." Sirius mumbled to him.
"Thanks." James answered sarcastically.
"Like our piggy bank?" He held up a pig with multicolored feathers. "Do you think it would fly?"
James shrugged. "How'd that happen?"
"Sirius thought he'd help me with saying the incantation." Remus's said. "Of course he didn't know the incantation…"
James laughed. "Shall we see my piggy bank?" He waved his wand and instead of a pig beautifully adorned with feathers, he got a huge parakeet.
Sirius began to laugh wildly. "Ah…that's funny mate! An Ani—"
"Yes! It is funny…" James cut him off.
"You waved your hand wrong." Lily said.
Sirius shut up as soon as Lily began to speak.
"Thanks Lily." James smiled. "Sirius will you help me?"
"Of course let me just pluck the feathers off of this before Mickey sees." He began to pull the feathers off of the pig with Remus.
"Ah, I am done." He said a little while later. "So how did you wave your hand before."
James showed him and the parakeet blew up even more. "I need to remember this…I could blow up so many things."
"Well, if you were supposed to blow it up that would be great…" Sirius looked at the blackboard. "Now it says to flick the wrist and then wave." He squinted. "And some other stuff that I can't see—"
Remus jabbed him in the side with his elbow. "I don't think he needs to know anymore."
"Why not?" Sirius looked over and saw Lily had leaned over and was showing James how to flick his wand. "Oh…" He glared at Lily. "Ow! Why did you do that?"
Remus had slammed his heel on Sirius toes. "To show you how it feels."
"How what feels?" Sirius asked, looking like he was ready to stab Remus with his wand.
"How it feels to have someone step on your toes." He said just before the bell rang.