Author's Notes: Well, thanks to reviews on my second chapter, I've been
able to adjust my writing to something more suitable for my readers. I'm
happy to say that it seems people are enjoying my work, which makes me
really happy. Anyway, I put a few hints to the third chapter in my second
one after I edited some mistakes I made, and.now you'll see where those
hints will lead us!
Chapter Three
The school week had finally come to an end, and Saturday morning had arisen. James had long since been awake, and was seated on one of the large armchairs in the Gryffindor common room. A wide grin was painted on his face as he scribbled something down on a piece of parchment. At the sounds of footsteps coming down the steps leading into the common room, he quickly rolled up his parchment, closed his ink bottle, and stuffed parchment; ink; and quill into his robes.
He glanced towards the steps, catching sight of Sirius leading a group of Gryffindors down the stairs. With his grin still on his face, he climbed to his feet. "Mornin', mate," he said with a yawn. "Gettin' an early start on the day? Sun's just up!"
"Looks to me like you're the one getting the early start," Sirius replied as he pushed ebony locks of hair out of his handsome face.
"Well, you're right, actually. Been working on a few things," James said as he glanced about at the other students, most of whom were making their way out of the portrait hole to go get some breakfast.
"Things? What kind of things?" Sirius asked with a raise of his brow.
"I'll show you later," James paused, and led Sirius off towards the portrait hole. "Where's Remus at?"
"Still in bed, I think," Sirius shrugged and followed James out of the portrait hole and through the halls in a path that would lead them to the Great Hall.
"Oh," James stopped at a window in the hall, brown eyes staring out towards the Forbidden Forest that was on the outskirts of Hogwarts' grounds. "You know,.tonight's a full moon. And rumor is, there's werewolves out in the Forbidden Forest."
"And?" Sirius questioned, leaning up against the wall to face James.
"Well," James started, before stepping back from the window and beginning his trek once more, "I was thinking about sneaking out tonight.going down to the Forbidden Forest to see if the rumors are true."
"You're insane!" Sirius exclaimed as he slapped James upside the back of his head. "Do you know how dangerous that is?!"
"But it'd be fun! Think about it, mate! I was hoping you and Remus would come with me," he grinned, rubbing the back of his head where Sirius had hit him. "Just think about it, alright?"
"How do you purpose we get down there without someone seeing us?" Sirius eyed him, shaking his head slightly.
"Oh," James grinned, shoving open the doors to the Great Hall, "I have my ways. I'll show you tonight, alright, mate?"
"Whatever you say," Sirius rolled his eyes and laughed to himself as they moved to their usual seats at the Gryffindor table. There, they found Remus sitting and munching away on some waffles.
".how'd you get down here before us?" James questioned as he sat down and piled his own plate with food.
Remus shrugged, shoving another maple syrup-drenched waffle into his mouth. His mouth was too packed to speak.
"Mighty hungry, are ya', mate?" Sirius asked as he sat down opposite James and Remus and placed a single pancake and some eggs onto his plate.
Remus nodded, stopping eating only at the sound of owls hooting and wings flapping. Everyone in the Hall looked up and reached out to catch their parcels of mail. As soon as Remus caught his copy of The Daily Prophet, he unrolled it and began reading. "Just as I thought," he started, swallowing the food in his mouth. "Full moon tonight."
"Yeah. I was just talking to Sirius about that," James grinned, reaching out and catching his own wrapped parcel. "We're gonna' try and sneak out tonight, go to the Forbidden Forest and see if we can find some werewolves."
Remus lifted his gaze from the paper, eyes wide, and stared at James, then Sirius, "That's.not a good idea, guys," he said, clearing his throat and looking back down at the newspaper. "Werewolves are very dangerous. What if they see you?"
"I never said I was going, James," Sirius glared at him, taking a bite out of one of his pancakes. As usual, he received no mail, but seemed not to care. "I said I'd think about it."
"They won't see me," James grinned, putting down his fork and unwrapping his package. Inside was a multicolored cloak, embroidered with what seemed to be senseless designs. "Because I've got this."
".what is that?" Remus and Sirius both asked at once, staring wide-eyed at the cloak.
"C'mon, I'll show ya'," James grinned and stood up. He tucked the cloak inside his robes and led the other two out of the Great Hall.
*
"Pumpernickel," James said to the Fat Lady portrait, which moved aside to give the three access. Once inside, they found the common room to be empty aside from a slightly pudgy-looking boy sitting by the fire, staring intently into it. The three stared at him questioningly for a moment, before moving to the other fire and sitting down around it.
"Alright, guys," James said, beaming at them all. "Watch and learn." Sirius and Remus stared at him with a humored look on their faces. The look disappeared, however, when James threw the cloak around him and he disappeared entirely. "Invis --"
James was cut off as he spoke by the high-pitched, squeaky voice of the boy sitting by the other fire. "How did you do that?!" he squealed, climbing to his hands and knees and crawling quickly over to them.
The three fell silent, and they all glared at the squeaky boy. James' head had appeared in thin air, the cloak obviously having been lowered. "Err.it's an invisibility cloak, mate," James said with a raised brow. "Who are you?"
"Oh! I'm Peter Pettigrew," he replied, sitting down between James and Sirius.
"Remus," Remus stated, giving Peter a nod.
"Sirius," Sirius did the same. "The floating head there is James."
James beamed with a grin, and removed the cloak from his body. "So what do you say, guys? Up for the trip tonight?"
"I don't know, James," Sirius said uncertainly, leaning back on his hands.
"I can't," Remus piped in nervously, "I've.got homework to do. And I have a test on Monday that I have to be prepared for."
"Trip? What trip?" Peter questioned anxiously, obviously wanting to fit in with the others.
"We're --" he paused at glares from Sirius and Remus, "I'm planning to sneak out to the Forbidden Forest tonight and see if I can find any werewolves. I'm trying to talk them into coming, but they're chicken. What about you, Pete? You wanna' come?"
"Sure! Sure thing," Peter grinned and nodded furiously. "When should I meet you, and where?"
"That's what I was about to talk about," James said, setting the cloak to the side and reaching into his robe for the parchment he'd been writing on earlier in the morning. "Alright, here's the plan," he unrolled the parchment and spread it out on the floor in front of him. "Everyone who's coming, I'll give you until tonight to decide, will meet here in the common rooms at exactly eleven thirty."
*
The day went by excruciatingly slow that day, due to James being so anxious. However, when eleven thirty struck, and the moon was shining brightly in the sky, James was seated by the fire -- on the floor -- adding a few things to his piece of parchment. He turned and glanced to the stairs at the sounds of footsteps, grinning as he saw Sirius and Peter coming down. "Great! You decided to come! Remus coming, too?"
"I don't know. He's not in his bed, so I thought he was down here," Sirius replied, shrugging his shoulders as he and Peter moved to sit next to James.
"Well, he's not. Maybe he's already waiting outside?" James said, handing the parchment to Sirius and Peter so they could read over it.
"How would he have gotten out, though? I mean, he doesn't have an invisibility cloak," Sirius said as he took the parchment and overviewed it, then handed it to Peter. "Does he?"
"Don't think so," James shrugged, taking the parchment back from Peter and stuffing it into his robes. He held up the cloak and grinned. "Well, let's go. Maybe we'll run into him somewhere."
*
"Oww! Watch out, Sirius," James muttered in just above a whisper, from under the invisibility cloak, "you're stepping on my toes, you git!"
"Sorry, mate, but this thing is so bloody small!" Sirius replied with a chuckle.
"We're almost there, guys," James whispered as they reached the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest.
"Can we take this off, then?" the squeaky voice of Peter Pettigrew whispered, as he toggled along from the back.
"Yeah. I think we should be safely out of view for now," James replied, yanking the cloak off and tucking it into his robes. He stepped into the Forbidden Forest and pulled out his wand. "Lumos!" he muttered, and a light shot from his wand to illuminate a narrow path ahead of him.
The others did the same, and they began their trek into the forest.
"D'you think there's actually werewolves out here?" Peter asked shakily, sticking close behind Sirius.
"Hopefully," James replied as he pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "I'd love to see one!"
A howl echoed throughout the forests, coming from not far away, which caused the three to stop in their tracks. James grinned wildly, Peter began to shake even more furiously than he had been, and Sirius kept an emotionless façade as he glanced about.
"I think you're about to get your wish, mate," said Sirius as he pushed Peter away from him. Peter had been practically clinging to him.
"Guys, look!" James exclaimed, pointing his wand towards a shadowy figure that ducked into the bushes.
"That.didn't look human, James," Peter said, followed closely by what seemed to be a whimper.
"Toughen up, Pete," James said, stepping slowly closer to the bush. "I'm gonna' check it out."
As James grew nearer to the bush, he heard sharp breaths. Ten feet away.nine.six.five. Just then, a large figure shot out from the bush and tackled James to the ground -- causing him to drop his wand, which tumbled away from him. He managed to keep his glasses on, and eyes widened at the sight of a hairy beast growling in his face.
".! SIRIUS, PETER. GET 'IM OFF!" James yelled, right hand reaching for his wand.
Peter was stunned. He was now on the ground, hiding behind a bush. Sirius, however, pointed his wand towards the large creature -- which was now distinguished as a werewolf. "EXPELLIARMUS!" Sirius shouted, and the light on the end of his wand went out followed by a red blast firing at the beast.
With a yelp, the beast flew off of James and then ran off deeper into the forest. Sirius snatch James' wand from the ground and ran over to him. "You okay, mate?"
"Y-yeah, I think so," James replied shakily as he lifted to a sitting position and stared in the direction the werewolf had run.
"C-can we.p-please g-go inside n-now, g-guys?" Peter's voice came from behind the bush where he was peeking around.
"Yeah. Definitely," Sirius said as he helped James to his feet. "Let's go."
As they walked back to the castle under the guise of the invisibility cloak, James was muttering to himself.
*
"You know, it's a shame Remus missed that. I think he would have liked it," James finally said to the others, as they were slipping through the portrait hole and into the common room.
"I doubt it, James," Sirius said, as he departed from the other two towards the stairs. "I'll see you two in the morning."
"Yeah," James said with a yawn, following Sirius. "Later, Pete."
Peter, without a goodbye, climbed the steps after the two -- his knees still shaking from the night's events.
Chapter Three
The school week had finally come to an end, and Saturday morning had arisen. James had long since been awake, and was seated on one of the large armchairs in the Gryffindor common room. A wide grin was painted on his face as he scribbled something down on a piece of parchment. At the sounds of footsteps coming down the steps leading into the common room, he quickly rolled up his parchment, closed his ink bottle, and stuffed parchment; ink; and quill into his robes.
He glanced towards the steps, catching sight of Sirius leading a group of Gryffindors down the stairs. With his grin still on his face, he climbed to his feet. "Mornin', mate," he said with a yawn. "Gettin' an early start on the day? Sun's just up!"
"Looks to me like you're the one getting the early start," Sirius replied as he pushed ebony locks of hair out of his handsome face.
"Well, you're right, actually. Been working on a few things," James said as he glanced about at the other students, most of whom were making their way out of the portrait hole to go get some breakfast.
"Things? What kind of things?" Sirius asked with a raise of his brow.
"I'll show you later," James paused, and led Sirius off towards the portrait hole. "Where's Remus at?"
"Still in bed, I think," Sirius shrugged and followed James out of the portrait hole and through the halls in a path that would lead them to the Great Hall.
"Oh," James stopped at a window in the hall, brown eyes staring out towards the Forbidden Forest that was on the outskirts of Hogwarts' grounds. "You know,.tonight's a full moon. And rumor is, there's werewolves out in the Forbidden Forest."
"And?" Sirius questioned, leaning up against the wall to face James.
"Well," James started, before stepping back from the window and beginning his trek once more, "I was thinking about sneaking out tonight.going down to the Forbidden Forest to see if the rumors are true."
"You're insane!" Sirius exclaimed as he slapped James upside the back of his head. "Do you know how dangerous that is?!"
"But it'd be fun! Think about it, mate! I was hoping you and Remus would come with me," he grinned, rubbing the back of his head where Sirius had hit him. "Just think about it, alright?"
"How do you purpose we get down there without someone seeing us?" Sirius eyed him, shaking his head slightly.
"Oh," James grinned, shoving open the doors to the Great Hall, "I have my ways. I'll show you tonight, alright, mate?"
"Whatever you say," Sirius rolled his eyes and laughed to himself as they moved to their usual seats at the Gryffindor table. There, they found Remus sitting and munching away on some waffles.
".how'd you get down here before us?" James questioned as he sat down and piled his own plate with food.
Remus shrugged, shoving another maple syrup-drenched waffle into his mouth. His mouth was too packed to speak.
"Mighty hungry, are ya', mate?" Sirius asked as he sat down opposite James and Remus and placed a single pancake and some eggs onto his plate.
Remus nodded, stopping eating only at the sound of owls hooting and wings flapping. Everyone in the Hall looked up and reached out to catch their parcels of mail. As soon as Remus caught his copy of The Daily Prophet, he unrolled it and began reading. "Just as I thought," he started, swallowing the food in his mouth. "Full moon tonight."
"Yeah. I was just talking to Sirius about that," James grinned, reaching out and catching his own wrapped parcel. "We're gonna' try and sneak out tonight, go to the Forbidden Forest and see if we can find some werewolves."
Remus lifted his gaze from the paper, eyes wide, and stared at James, then Sirius, "That's.not a good idea, guys," he said, clearing his throat and looking back down at the newspaper. "Werewolves are very dangerous. What if they see you?"
"I never said I was going, James," Sirius glared at him, taking a bite out of one of his pancakes. As usual, he received no mail, but seemed not to care. "I said I'd think about it."
"They won't see me," James grinned, putting down his fork and unwrapping his package. Inside was a multicolored cloak, embroidered with what seemed to be senseless designs. "Because I've got this."
".what is that?" Remus and Sirius both asked at once, staring wide-eyed at the cloak.
"C'mon, I'll show ya'," James grinned and stood up. He tucked the cloak inside his robes and led the other two out of the Great Hall.
*
"Pumpernickel," James said to the Fat Lady portrait, which moved aside to give the three access. Once inside, they found the common room to be empty aside from a slightly pudgy-looking boy sitting by the fire, staring intently into it. The three stared at him questioningly for a moment, before moving to the other fire and sitting down around it.
"Alright, guys," James said, beaming at them all. "Watch and learn." Sirius and Remus stared at him with a humored look on their faces. The look disappeared, however, when James threw the cloak around him and he disappeared entirely. "Invis --"
James was cut off as he spoke by the high-pitched, squeaky voice of the boy sitting by the other fire. "How did you do that?!" he squealed, climbing to his hands and knees and crawling quickly over to them.
The three fell silent, and they all glared at the squeaky boy. James' head had appeared in thin air, the cloak obviously having been lowered. "Err.it's an invisibility cloak, mate," James said with a raised brow. "Who are you?"
"Oh! I'm Peter Pettigrew," he replied, sitting down between James and Sirius.
"Remus," Remus stated, giving Peter a nod.
"Sirius," Sirius did the same. "The floating head there is James."
James beamed with a grin, and removed the cloak from his body. "So what do you say, guys? Up for the trip tonight?"
"I don't know, James," Sirius said uncertainly, leaning back on his hands.
"I can't," Remus piped in nervously, "I've.got homework to do. And I have a test on Monday that I have to be prepared for."
"Trip? What trip?" Peter questioned anxiously, obviously wanting to fit in with the others.
"We're --" he paused at glares from Sirius and Remus, "I'm planning to sneak out to the Forbidden Forest tonight and see if I can find any werewolves. I'm trying to talk them into coming, but they're chicken. What about you, Pete? You wanna' come?"
"Sure! Sure thing," Peter grinned and nodded furiously. "When should I meet you, and where?"
"That's what I was about to talk about," James said, setting the cloak to the side and reaching into his robe for the parchment he'd been writing on earlier in the morning. "Alright, here's the plan," he unrolled the parchment and spread it out on the floor in front of him. "Everyone who's coming, I'll give you until tonight to decide, will meet here in the common rooms at exactly eleven thirty."
*
The day went by excruciatingly slow that day, due to James being so anxious. However, when eleven thirty struck, and the moon was shining brightly in the sky, James was seated by the fire -- on the floor -- adding a few things to his piece of parchment. He turned and glanced to the stairs at the sounds of footsteps, grinning as he saw Sirius and Peter coming down. "Great! You decided to come! Remus coming, too?"
"I don't know. He's not in his bed, so I thought he was down here," Sirius replied, shrugging his shoulders as he and Peter moved to sit next to James.
"Well, he's not. Maybe he's already waiting outside?" James said, handing the parchment to Sirius and Peter so they could read over it.
"How would he have gotten out, though? I mean, he doesn't have an invisibility cloak," Sirius said as he took the parchment and overviewed it, then handed it to Peter. "Does he?"
"Don't think so," James shrugged, taking the parchment back from Peter and stuffing it into his robes. He held up the cloak and grinned. "Well, let's go. Maybe we'll run into him somewhere."
*
"Oww! Watch out, Sirius," James muttered in just above a whisper, from under the invisibility cloak, "you're stepping on my toes, you git!"
"Sorry, mate, but this thing is so bloody small!" Sirius replied with a chuckle.
"We're almost there, guys," James whispered as they reached the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest.
"Can we take this off, then?" the squeaky voice of Peter Pettigrew whispered, as he toggled along from the back.
"Yeah. I think we should be safely out of view for now," James replied, yanking the cloak off and tucking it into his robes. He stepped into the Forbidden Forest and pulled out his wand. "Lumos!" he muttered, and a light shot from his wand to illuminate a narrow path ahead of him.
The others did the same, and they began their trek into the forest.
"D'you think there's actually werewolves out here?" Peter asked shakily, sticking close behind Sirius.
"Hopefully," James replied as he pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "I'd love to see one!"
A howl echoed throughout the forests, coming from not far away, which caused the three to stop in their tracks. James grinned wildly, Peter began to shake even more furiously than he had been, and Sirius kept an emotionless façade as he glanced about.
"I think you're about to get your wish, mate," said Sirius as he pushed Peter away from him. Peter had been practically clinging to him.
"Guys, look!" James exclaimed, pointing his wand towards a shadowy figure that ducked into the bushes.
"That.didn't look human, James," Peter said, followed closely by what seemed to be a whimper.
"Toughen up, Pete," James said, stepping slowly closer to the bush. "I'm gonna' check it out."
As James grew nearer to the bush, he heard sharp breaths. Ten feet away.nine.six.five. Just then, a large figure shot out from the bush and tackled James to the ground -- causing him to drop his wand, which tumbled away from him. He managed to keep his glasses on, and eyes widened at the sight of a hairy beast growling in his face.
".! SIRIUS, PETER. GET 'IM OFF!" James yelled, right hand reaching for his wand.
Peter was stunned. He was now on the ground, hiding behind a bush. Sirius, however, pointed his wand towards the large creature -- which was now distinguished as a werewolf. "EXPELLIARMUS!" Sirius shouted, and the light on the end of his wand went out followed by a red blast firing at the beast.
With a yelp, the beast flew off of James and then ran off deeper into the forest. Sirius snatch James' wand from the ground and ran over to him. "You okay, mate?"
"Y-yeah, I think so," James replied shakily as he lifted to a sitting position and stared in the direction the werewolf had run.
"C-can we.p-please g-go inside n-now, g-guys?" Peter's voice came from behind the bush where he was peeking around.
"Yeah. Definitely," Sirius said as he helped James to his feet. "Let's go."
As they walked back to the castle under the guise of the invisibility cloak, James was muttering to himself.
*
"You know, it's a shame Remus missed that. I think he would have liked it," James finally said to the others, as they were slipping through the portrait hole and into the common room.
"I doubt it, James," Sirius said, as he departed from the other two towards the stairs. "I'll see you two in the morning."
"Yeah," James said with a yawn, following Sirius. "Later, Pete."
Peter, without a goodbye, climbed the steps after the two -- his knees still shaking from the night's events.