Disclaimer: The world belongs to J. K. Rowling, I am merely writing a history to go with it.
"Morning, Professor," Remus greeted the woman sitting at her desk, marking a few last papers before class.
"Morning, Remus, I daresay that James and Sirius got to much for you at the breakfast table again?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary."
"Indeed."
I*CRASH*/I
James and Sirius blundered into the room, managing to trip over at the door and knock over an antique brass birdcage - empty. James ended up sprawled across the Sirius and Sirius had managed to lose a shoe.
"Gerroff!" Exclaimed Sirius, who would have hit James if it wasn't for the fact that his arms were held to the ground by the dead weight on top of him.
"Sorry," James hurried to get himself up, only resulting in him falling over a second time, only this time his pocket croaked.
"Frogs, Mr. Potter? I see that your divination skills are beyond perfect, now who was it that told you we were working with frogs today?" Professor McGonagall looked up at them from her marking.
Sirius grinned at him, wondering how he was going to get himself out of this mess.
"Nobody Professor, it came to me in a dream."
"Then your dreams won't mind telling you the way to your seats."
"No, Professor"
James managed to get to his feet uneventfully and help up Sirius.
"'Bout bloody time," he whispered to James.
"What was that boys?"
"Nothing, Professor"
"Then please, make your way to your seats. Class will begin soon."
Sirius, on all fours, scrambled back into the corridor to find his shoe. Despite his slight dizziness, he not only managed to find it, but he also managed to put back on the right foot. Silently laughing at Sirius's now instinctive dog-like behaviour, James reached over to pick up the birdcage, slipping a frog from his pocket into it. Smiling, he and Sirius pulled on their usual air of superiority and made their way over to their usual seats, nearer to the back of the classroom than the front, and right on the aisle. Remus joined them from the corner, silently laughing at the comic pair.
Almost in perfect unison, the three reached back into their bags and pulled out their books, parchment, quills, inkpots and nameplates, arranging them in order. All three boys placed their nameplate to the front right of their area, and their textbooks to the left. Their paper was laid out directly in front of them and the quill lay across the parchment on an angle. Their inkpot was placed on the left side of their parchment. The three boys smirked at each other as James pulled out the remaining three frogs from his pocket, three lime and lemon tree-frogs that he had ordered through Whizzy-Mail - "The way to whiz your wizarding needs, since 1953" which he deposited one in front of each person. By this time most of the seats were filled. Lily then slid in next to James, smiling, she put her head on his shoulder.
"You weren't at breakfast."
"I wasn't hungry."
"Oh…" he paused slightly, feigning deep thought. "Why not?"
"Should I have been?"
"Yes!"
"Well maybe my stomach isn't as big as yours now is it?"
"Your stomach is just the right size."
"I thought so."
Professor McGonagall shot them one of her looks, silencing the pair of them. Now the only empty seat in the place was next to Remus, right on the aisle, where Peter normally sat.
"Alright, seeing as we are almost all here, I think we can begin the days lesson." Professor McGonagall rose to her feet. "As Mr. Potter had the foresight to discover that our lesson will entail some revision, vanishing frogs. Given the practise that he must have had so he could excel at this lesson, would he be so kind as to demonstrate such a feat?"
"No problem Professor!" James got to his feet with a bang, (aptly supplied by Sirius) and whipped his wand out of his sleeve, before bowing to the front rows and the back row. In his best announcer voice, above the general giggles in the classroom "I will now preform the most amazing of deeds, the most magnificent of - "
"Oh Mr. Potter, save the show and get on with it."
"Yes Professor."
"As I was saying, this frog will now be vanished by my very wa - "
Peter came rushing into the room, bent over double and red-faced. His bag fell to the floor as he gasped for breath.
"Good morning, Mr. Pettigrew. I'm sure your excuse as to why you are so late will be fascinating."
"I.. I… got lost?"
James, Sirius and Remus all buried their hands in their heads and Lily simply giggled at the sight of the other three's exasperation while the rest of the class laughed at the boy in the doorway.
"Mr. Pettigrew, you have been at this school for all these years and you still don't know your way around? Perhaps you should join me in a detention tomorrow night, 7 o' clock. I presume you won't take as long as it took your comrades to find their seat?" McGonagall sat down at her desk as Peter gathered up his belongings and hurried up the stairs to his seat. "Slight modification of the way I will run class today. You are to find the necessary spell and wand movements in your textbook on page one hundred and forty-three, interpret and practise in small groups, I will supervise and give help when required. Please take out your frogs."
Peter was halfway through unpacking his belongings onto the desk in similar fashion to the others, and realised he had not taken out his frog.
"It's in the cage, mate" James whispered down the row, though he need not have as the rest of the class gradually became noisier.
"The.. cage?"
"The cage," Sirius echoed in a pseudo, muggle "ghost" voice. The red faded from Peter's face, replaced by a blanket white.
"He means the birdcage, by the door," Remus pointed him in the direction of the brass stand, emitting loud croaks every so often. "Go get it." Peter ambled over to the cage and opened the little brass door. He reached in, facing the other way with his eyes tightly shut; Disgust was quite clearly painted on his face as he pulled out a tiny but colourful tree frog. Miserable, he went back to his seat and sat down. He placed his frog on the table and put a holding charm on it to keep it in place while he looked up the page with the information on it.
"one.. four.. three.. one.. four.. three.. one.. four.." He muttered under his breath, attempting to find the right page. "three.. one.. four.. three.."
"Why were you so late?"
"Yes, why were you so late? You were gone at least a good half hour, maybe more."
"Don't tell me you actually got lost"
"I.." Peter looked up, stunned at the four faces that were all leaning over to look at him.
"Yes?"
"You can tell us, you know Wormtail, you can trust us."
"Peter, why were you late?"
"I actually did get lost!" He burst out. "I took one of those staircases that goes somewhere different on Tuesdays, you know, the one near the painting of Alderc the heroic?"
"Not so heroic anymore now is he?" Sirius claimed.
"Yeah, he's just a painting," James agreed.
"You lot," Lily indicated to the group, "You honestly have no respect for history, now do you?"
"Remus is the scholar, not us."
"What's this?" Professor McGonagall stood behind them, "Why are your frogs still visible?"
"Well you see, Professor, that the frogs are still visible because.. because - " James floundered hopelessly.
"Because we can't get this wand movement quite right. It says to flick it up at the end of the point, but we can't get it quite right. Perhaps you could show us?" Lily saved the group's face.
"That would be because you are reading the wand movements incorrectly for this spell. You will find, on closer inspection, that the movements you require are illustrated on the opposite page." Professor McGonagall pointed out.
"Oh, silly us." Lily smiled shamefully at the Professor.
"Perhaps next time you will be more prepared to excuse your lack of work," the Professor moved on to the next group.
The group had no intention of beginning. Instead, they wrote notes to each other on the side of their textbooks, on the desks, on their parchment, on their chairs and on the stairs. Themes varied from what they could vanish when they actually learnt the spell, to who was dating whom, and what dangerous beasts they wanted to meet on their next trip to the shrieking shack. Their efforts were rewarded - a joint detention with Peter was in order.
"Morning, Professor," Remus greeted the woman sitting at her desk, marking a few last papers before class.
"Morning, Remus, I daresay that James and Sirius got to much for you at the breakfast table again?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary."
"Indeed."
I*CRASH*/I
James and Sirius blundered into the room, managing to trip over at the door and knock over an antique brass birdcage - empty. James ended up sprawled across the Sirius and Sirius had managed to lose a shoe.
"Gerroff!" Exclaimed Sirius, who would have hit James if it wasn't for the fact that his arms were held to the ground by the dead weight on top of him.
"Sorry," James hurried to get himself up, only resulting in him falling over a second time, only this time his pocket croaked.
"Frogs, Mr. Potter? I see that your divination skills are beyond perfect, now who was it that told you we were working with frogs today?" Professor McGonagall looked up at them from her marking.
Sirius grinned at him, wondering how he was going to get himself out of this mess.
"Nobody Professor, it came to me in a dream."
"Then your dreams won't mind telling you the way to your seats."
"No, Professor"
James managed to get to his feet uneventfully and help up Sirius.
"'Bout bloody time," he whispered to James.
"What was that boys?"
"Nothing, Professor"
"Then please, make your way to your seats. Class will begin soon."
Sirius, on all fours, scrambled back into the corridor to find his shoe. Despite his slight dizziness, he not only managed to find it, but he also managed to put back on the right foot. Silently laughing at Sirius's now instinctive dog-like behaviour, James reached over to pick up the birdcage, slipping a frog from his pocket into it. Smiling, he and Sirius pulled on their usual air of superiority and made their way over to their usual seats, nearer to the back of the classroom than the front, and right on the aisle. Remus joined them from the corner, silently laughing at the comic pair.
Almost in perfect unison, the three reached back into their bags and pulled out their books, parchment, quills, inkpots and nameplates, arranging them in order. All three boys placed their nameplate to the front right of their area, and their textbooks to the left. Their paper was laid out directly in front of them and the quill lay across the parchment on an angle. Their inkpot was placed on the left side of their parchment. The three boys smirked at each other as James pulled out the remaining three frogs from his pocket, three lime and lemon tree-frogs that he had ordered through Whizzy-Mail - "The way to whiz your wizarding needs, since 1953" which he deposited one in front of each person. By this time most of the seats were filled. Lily then slid in next to James, smiling, she put her head on his shoulder.
"You weren't at breakfast."
"I wasn't hungry."
"Oh…" he paused slightly, feigning deep thought. "Why not?"
"Should I have been?"
"Yes!"
"Well maybe my stomach isn't as big as yours now is it?"
"Your stomach is just the right size."
"I thought so."
Professor McGonagall shot them one of her looks, silencing the pair of them. Now the only empty seat in the place was next to Remus, right on the aisle, where Peter normally sat.
"Alright, seeing as we are almost all here, I think we can begin the days lesson." Professor McGonagall rose to her feet. "As Mr. Potter had the foresight to discover that our lesson will entail some revision, vanishing frogs. Given the practise that he must have had so he could excel at this lesson, would he be so kind as to demonstrate such a feat?"
"No problem Professor!" James got to his feet with a bang, (aptly supplied by Sirius) and whipped his wand out of his sleeve, before bowing to the front rows and the back row. In his best announcer voice, above the general giggles in the classroom "I will now preform the most amazing of deeds, the most magnificent of - "
"Oh Mr. Potter, save the show and get on with it."
"Yes Professor."
"As I was saying, this frog will now be vanished by my very wa - "
Peter came rushing into the room, bent over double and red-faced. His bag fell to the floor as he gasped for breath.
"Good morning, Mr. Pettigrew. I'm sure your excuse as to why you are so late will be fascinating."
"I.. I… got lost?"
James, Sirius and Remus all buried their hands in their heads and Lily simply giggled at the sight of the other three's exasperation while the rest of the class laughed at the boy in the doorway.
"Mr. Pettigrew, you have been at this school for all these years and you still don't know your way around? Perhaps you should join me in a detention tomorrow night, 7 o' clock. I presume you won't take as long as it took your comrades to find their seat?" McGonagall sat down at her desk as Peter gathered up his belongings and hurried up the stairs to his seat. "Slight modification of the way I will run class today. You are to find the necessary spell and wand movements in your textbook on page one hundred and forty-three, interpret and practise in small groups, I will supervise and give help when required. Please take out your frogs."
Peter was halfway through unpacking his belongings onto the desk in similar fashion to the others, and realised he had not taken out his frog.
"It's in the cage, mate" James whispered down the row, though he need not have as the rest of the class gradually became noisier.
"The.. cage?"
"The cage," Sirius echoed in a pseudo, muggle "ghost" voice. The red faded from Peter's face, replaced by a blanket white.
"He means the birdcage, by the door," Remus pointed him in the direction of the brass stand, emitting loud croaks every so often. "Go get it." Peter ambled over to the cage and opened the little brass door. He reached in, facing the other way with his eyes tightly shut; Disgust was quite clearly painted on his face as he pulled out a tiny but colourful tree frog. Miserable, he went back to his seat and sat down. He placed his frog on the table and put a holding charm on it to keep it in place while he looked up the page with the information on it.
"one.. four.. three.. one.. four.. three.. one.. four.." He muttered under his breath, attempting to find the right page. "three.. one.. four.. three.."
"Why were you so late?"
"Yes, why were you so late? You were gone at least a good half hour, maybe more."
"Don't tell me you actually got lost"
"I.." Peter looked up, stunned at the four faces that were all leaning over to look at him.
"Yes?"
"You can tell us, you know Wormtail, you can trust us."
"Peter, why were you late?"
"I actually did get lost!" He burst out. "I took one of those staircases that goes somewhere different on Tuesdays, you know, the one near the painting of Alderc the heroic?"
"Not so heroic anymore now is he?" Sirius claimed.
"Yeah, he's just a painting," James agreed.
"You lot," Lily indicated to the group, "You honestly have no respect for history, now do you?"
"Remus is the scholar, not us."
"What's this?" Professor McGonagall stood behind them, "Why are your frogs still visible?"
"Well you see, Professor, that the frogs are still visible because.. because - " James floundered hopelessly.
"Because we can't get this wand movement quite right. It says to flick it up at the end of the point, but we can't get it quite right. Perhaps you could show us?" Lily saved the group's face.
"That would be because you are reading the wand movements incorrectly for this spell. You will find, on closer inspection, that the movements you require are illustrated on the opposite page." Professor McGonagall pointed out.
"Oh, silly us." Lily smiled shamefully at the Professor.
"Perhaps next time you will be more prepared to excuse your lack of work," the Professor moved on to the next group.
The group had no intention of beginning. Instead, they wrote notes to each other on the side of their textbooks, on the desks, on their parchment, on their chairs and on the stairs. Themes varied from what they could vanish when they actually learnt the spell, to who was dating whom, and what dangerous beasts they wanted to meet on their next trip to the shrieking shack. Their efforts were rewarded - a joint detention with Peter was in order.