SUMMARY: - Who loves the marauders? We do! We do! This is gonna be a long fic following the mischievous pranksters through their school life. Look out for some "Sirius" Snape bashing..geddit?
DISCLAIMER: - I do not own anything or anyone in J.K. Rowling's little magic world but I wish I did.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: - Yippee! Dory's back! I want you to enjoy reading this fic as much as I did writing it....and I hope you pick up on the various morals on the way through....just kiddin'!
Chapter 1
It was a cool clear morning and James Potter leapt out of bed and ran noisily down the stairs.today he was eleven, and that also meant he would be starting Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry in a few short hours!!! James had always dreamt of going to Hogwarts and now his dream was finally about to come true.
As James stepped slowly into his father's muggle car he felt a wave of excitement and yet at the same time he felt nervous and wondered how long it would take him to meet new friends. What he didn't know was that there were many other young wizards and witches across the country feeling exactly the same.
One of these was Sirius Black. He was barely a week younger than James and had always been a bit of a trouble maker with his uncontrollable temper. Sirius was an extremely disorganized person that usually made friends easily because of his ability to stand up from them and also his concern if the slightest thing ever went wrong.
As all the students piled onto the train James fought his way through the chaotic mass to try and find an empty carriage, a nearly impossible feat for any first year! Eventually, however, he managed to find a carriage with only two other first years: a rather short, plumpish boy; and a taller boy with tangled black hair (much the same as James himself!). The shorter boy had a very sour look on his face and a large bump on his head. "What happened to him?" James questioned gesturing. It was the black haired boy that chose to answer with a rather guilty look. "Weeeellllllllllllll..." he began hesitatingly "I can't quite remember." "What d'ya mean you can't remember...YOU DID IT!!!!" James couldn't help but notice that the black haired boy had gone beetroot. He laughed and sat down beside him, clapping a hand on his shoulder and then pushing his glasses up his nose and wiping his brow. After he regained composure he was curious to know more. "HOW did it happen?" "He told me to run at the wall between platforms 10 and 11" James couldn't help but burst out laughing again and this time his two companions joined him and soon their carriage was filled with merriment. "I'm James Potter" he said between laughs "Sirius Black" "Peter Pettigrew" After they had introduced themselves and stopped laughing a greasy-haired sly looking face appeared at the door. "I'm sure you are all laughing for a good reason but some of us are trying to hold a civilized conversation!" "And who might you be??" "Severus Snape.you must be that filthy Potter boy." "His name is James and you have no right to insult him!" Sirius burst out "Why not you.you.SCUMBAG?!?!" "At least we wash our hair and we can get friends! SLIMEBALL!" "Harsh words from someone who is common as a rat..does it run in the family?" "Why you." Before James could grab Sirius and stop him Sirius had punched Severus in the nose and stormed out of the carriage. Severus rose and brushed himself off, and then he turned up his bleeding nose and walked off.
James had frozen. He had barely known Sirius five minutes and already Sirius was springing to his defense! He exited the carriage after Sirius and was halfway down the train when the power went out. He stretched his arms out to find the wall and edged slowly along it but gradually speeding up so soon he was walking faster than usual, though still dragging his hand along the wall next to him. Soon he began to run and as he ran blindly down towards the driver he banged into someone with such force that it sent them both flying! "Sirius?" he stared round him unable to see anything clearly "What?? Who's Sirius? Who are you?" a voice asked in the darkness. "Never mind that now.have you seen---" his voice was cut off by a buzzing sound as the lights came back on. He got up and dusted his robes off, looked about him to see a first year boy with blue eyes and brown hair staring at him from a few feet away. "Sorry!" the boy smiled apologetically "I really should have watched where I was going!" "How could you see if it was pitch black?" "It doesn't matter!" "It does!" "No, it doesn't, but if you must know it's just err..a gift that I have! Anyway you were asking me if I'd seen someone" "Ah yes!" James said clicking his fingers "Have you seen a boy with black hair, looking angry, and probably stamping on your travels?" "Nope!" "Oh, Ok. Where's your carriage?" James asked cheerfully deciding to change the subject "I don't have one." the boy mumbled. "Well, you can come in our carriage..as soon as we find Sirius that is!" "Really??" "Yeah but you've got to tell me who you are first!" "Remus Lupin" "James Potter"
Just then, Sirius appeared as if from nowhere. He appeared to have calmed down but James approached him cautiously anyway. "That was quite some punch you gave Severus!" "I s'pose" Sirius sighed gloomily "Sirius, this is Remus. He's joining our little group of calm, civilized people. Sirius?" "Ok, Ok, I'll cheer up" Sirius answered raising his hands in mock horror.
It took them five minutes to get back to their carriage where they introduced Remus to Peter and then they started to talk about what would be waiting for them at Hogwarts when they got there. When the food trolley came round they looked longingly at the rows upon rows of magical sweets. James produced a handful of Galleons and gave them to the trolley witch buying a bit of everything. "You're not going to eat it all by yourself are you?" Peter squeaked desperately. "Course he's not!! He's going to share it with me and Remus here!" Sirius piped up as he chucked a chocolate frog at Remus. "You can't be Serious!" "Of course I'm Sirius.unless I've changed my name in the past five minutes!" At this point Remus spluttered with laughter, choking on his chocolate frog as he did so. When he'd finished coughing, he leant back, took a deep breath and blew his hair out of his eyes. "Have you finished dying now?" Sirius asked. All Remus could do was nod his head and smile shakily, struggling to keep himself from laughing again.
A short while later the train jerked to a halt throwing all four of them off of their seats. They landed in a crumpled heap on the floor with Remus at the bottom and Peter, who was by far the heaviest, at the top!! Once they had untangled themselves they tried in vain to "de-crease" their robes and then jumped off of the train to join the other first years in the boats.
By the time they reached the Great Hall it was quite late and all of them were yawning. They knew they would see a few unexpected things but what they least expected to see was a hat that burst into song!!!! As their names were called they walked slowly up to the platform and seated themselves on a stool and the hat was placed on their heads. It then placed them in one of four houses; Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor or Slytherin. "James Potter" "Gryffindor!" The hat called loudly. The Gryffindor table erupted into applause. "Sirius Black" "Gryffindor!" Once again cheers echoed round the hall. A short while later Remus was called. "Remus Lupin" "Gryffindor!" The Gryffindors yet again made a deafening sound of applause. Peter was then called four or five names later. He too, was in Gryffindor.
After the great feast, they were shown to their dormitories by the prefects. They picked their beds, and four in a room meant that no one unwanted would be in their dorm. They unpacked and then agreed to go on an exploration of Hogwarts. After they had unpacked they started down the shifting stairs. Sirius went ahead and turned to see that he, James, Peter and Remus had been separated. He saw James waving from a staircase on one side, and Peter waving from one on the other. There was no sign of Remus anywhere nearby. Sirius called to his friends to meet him at the dorms again. When they all reached the dorms twenty minutes later Peter looked around him and a puzzled expression came over his face. "Where's Remus disappeared to?" Sirius and James looked at each other and then shrugged.
Later that evening, they found their friend back in the Gryffindor common room. He was flicking through a magazine called "Dark Creatures-How to dispose of them-Featuring the new werewolves code of conduct." They rushed over to him all silently agreeing that he had gone really pale and shaky and couldn't be well. "Remus?" "Hello?" "Anyone there?" "Earth to Remus!" "Sirius!! No joking!" This signaled that the matter was now closed. "Remus?" he continued "Are you feeling Ok?" "Yeah" Remus replied absently. "You don't look it!" Peter added. Just then Professor McGonnagal entered "To bed everyone!" Then she turned on her heel and flounced out.
The next day was a day for exploring and as Remus was looking slightly better, they would explore the grounds. They had a lot of fun even though James earned a couple of hard slaps round the head for not shutting up about his new found passion; Quidditch. That night Remus wasn't at the feast and his friends started to worry, and when he'd been absent for nearly a week they went to Dumbledore. He wasn't much help to them so they continued to be anxious about the welfare of their friend.
The next morning Remus turned up at the first lesson looking very ill and tired. His friends bounded up to him and asked him where he'd been for the past week and they were shocked to find out that he had "been in the hospital wing unwell". They started fussing over him, constantly asking if he was ok. The usual, but false, answer was "yes". Usually Remus was good at making up excuses, but he was running out of them FAST
For about one week every month Remus disappeared and despite making up all sorts of excuses James realized he was lying to them and started trying to find out what was actually going on. He worked extra hard in all lessons to see if any of the information he picked up from the teachers would help. He was just about to give up when he was asked to keep a lunar diary in Divination and he soon figured out that every time Remus was away it was a full moon. Also, James had noticed that in every Defense against the dark arts lesson, Professor Kestrel brought up a certain dark creature and glanced at Remus, who by then looked like he was going to be sick, with a smirk on her face and a queer gleam in her eye. To test his theory he walked past Remus one day and simply greeted him with: "Hey Moony." Remus froze in his tracks and turned sharply. "What?" he stammered as fear crept slowly across his face. "I found some very interesting things out about you Moony." James said casually "You.you know?" "Yes." "You know I'm a werewolf?" "So you admit it. Yes I know, and I can't believe you didn't tell us." "Would you tell someone?" "I dunno. However, I do know you lied to us and to be honest?? I'm VERY disappointed." "That's because you don't understand!"
This was too much for Remus. He fled down the stairs at top speed and ran straight out into the grounds and into the Shrieking Sack, his hideout to transform, and broke down in blind despair, fury, fear and bewilderment. Was this the end? Was he going to lose his friends? James? Sirius? Peter? He just didn't know anymore. He collapsed on a broken old chair, sobbing into his hands. If he ever could face his friends again then it wouldn't be anytime soon.
Meanwhile Sirius arrived in the Gryffindor common room with Peter. They were both laughing.but their faces turned deadly serious when they saw James sitting on his bed, shaking, and his head in his hands. As they approached, he looked up and ran his hands through his messy, black hair. He breathed deeply and then spoke, a quiver of fear in his voice making him seem unsteady. "I.I think there's something..you..well, I have to ummm.tell you something. It's important." "What? Shouldn't we wait for Remus before you tell us?" Peter piped up. "No..he already knows." "Well come on then!" Sirius was becoming impatient "Out with it!" "It's Remus..he a...." seeing his friends faces filled with concern struck something in James and he couldn't quite say what he meant. "There's something about him you don't know. He's uhhhhhh..really ill!!" James knew that this would only be a temporary excuse but he couldn't give his friend away.at least not yet, anyway.
When they all arrived in Potions next morning, Sirius pulled Remus to one side and whispered sharply in his ear. "Why didn't you say anything?" "James told you then..you know about.." "Yeah he told us. I can't believe it! It's nasty to have an illness isn't it?!" "It's NOT an illness!!!" Remus raised his voice and looked over at James who had buried his face in a potions book.upside down! "I mean come on Remus; James didn't WANT to tell us! He said you were really ill and it affected you once a month.it must be pretty nasty!" "What? Oh.yeah!" Remus looked gratefully at James, who looked up and gave him a small smile. "I'm just going to talk to James a minute.you start setting up the cauldron with Peter." Remus walked slowly over to James and sat down next to him. "You didn't tell them. Why?" "I couldn't." "What?" "I want you to tell them Remus. I can't." "Ok. I'll tell them.but not just yet!" "Moony..." James nagged his face pleading. "Don't call me that! At least not until the others know!" "Alright, but promise me you'll tell them!" "Done." Remus felt happier by the end of Potions and was almost on full talking terms again with James. Soon it would be Christmas and all of them were going to spend a week meeting James' family. What could go wrong?