I know I said that I hadn't planned any sequels but the reviews were so nice. :) So it's just a bit more as long as I have any ideas what to write. Thanks for reviewing!
Sirius was sitting miserably next to his trunk in the dorm. The others were all in the common room for the end-of-year festivities but he didn't feel like celebrating. He was going home.
Home.
Grimmauld Place.
He hadn't been there over Christmas or Easter, claiming that he wanted to study and that travelling made him sick, when in fact he had spent most of the time roaming Hogwarts with James and trying to befriend Peeves, a task at which the two boys had been surprisingly successful. He still played tricks on them just as he did on everyone else but he also sometimes whispered warnings at them when a teacher was about to discover their latest pranks.
Sirius looked around the dorm and sighed. It had been such fun in Gryffindor once he was settled, which had taken a week of changing beds and rooms back and forth until he and James roomed with Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew and the other five stayed together in the second room. Lupin hadn't minded rooming with Sirius, and Peter had just been told what to do. He was also forced to join James's crazy ideas whenever he and Sirius needed a third person and Lupin wasn't in the mood for it. Most of the time, Peter complied with a helpless sigh.
Sirius grinned. Yes, they had begun to form a very nice gang indeed.
The door opened. Sirius didn't have to look up to know who it was.
"Aren't you coming?" James asked.
Sirius shook his head.
"Why not?" James walked in and closed the door behind him. "Canary Nightingale has been sent a couple of Cackling Cakes!" He sat down next to Sirius. "Only two more hours to have fun together," he added then with a wink. "How about asking Peeves for help at a real goodbye moment?"
"I don't want to go home." Sirius was shocked at the desolate sound of his own voice.
James looked at him and his grin vanished. "I know."
"No, you don't. You don't know what it's like. You don't know my mother. You have no clue what it'll be like to have Bellatrix visiting us in August. You don't know what Pureblood Festivals are like. You don't know how I'll feel having the Malfoys over for tea every other week. You don't know a thing." Sirius had said all this with such a leaden calm that he began to be scared of himself.
"You're right. I don't." James ran his hand through his unruly hair to make it even more spiky. "I don't think your parents will allow you to visit me, will they?"
"Never."
"Thought so. Not a Mudblood-loving Potter."
"Exactly."
They sat together in silence for a while. "It's only till autumn, though," James said then. "It's not forever."
"Autumn IS forever," Sirius sighed. "It means weeks of my mother asking me why I'm not in Slytherin, and weeks of my father complaining that I'm so bad in Charms –"
"But you're top of class in Transfiguration!"
"Oh, James, he never cares about things someone's good at, only things that don't go well matter. Success isn't something worth talking about, it's expected…" Sirius plucked at his dirty fingernails. "He'll ask me why I'm not the best in everything."
"Only because you're a Black doesn't mean you have to be a git," James muttered and grinned. "There's life apart from studying, tell him that."
Sirius sneered. "I want you to walk up to my father and tell him that."
"No thanks."
"Thought so."
They sat in silence for a while. Sirius had cleaned his fingernails and started searching for another way to keep his hands busy.
"I could visit you on my broomstick," James said suddenly.
Sirius gaped at him.
"At night, of course. I'll send you an owl telling you when so that you can keep your window open."
"But – I mean – your parents will never allow it!"
James grinned his usual broad mischievous grin. "They will if I tell them it's to deliver someone from the claws of the Black family."
Sirius couldn't help smiling. "They'll never allow you to fly such a long way on your own, Jamie."
"We'll see. Wait for my owl."
"Alright, I will," Sirius answered, trying to hope for it to really happen.
The door burst open and in came Peter, giggling and snorting. He stopped dead as he saw the two calm figures sitting on Sirius's bed. "Oh, here you are. What's wrong?"
"Nothing," James said quickly before Sirius could answer.
Peter stared at him like a dog whose tail has just been stepped on.
"I don't want to go home," Sirius explained.
"Oh." Peter looked embarrassed. "Yes. I guess your family won't be happy about a lot of things. I mean, you almost failed Potions and Charms and then there's all the detentions and –"
"Thank you, Peter, I know what went on this year," Sirius growled.
"Oh, leave him alone!" Remus said from behind Peter and joined them in the dorm. "If you want to be grumpy, go ahead, but don't vent it on us. You're always picking on Peter even though he's part of our gang."
"Oh, don't go howling at the moon," James grumbled and smiled as he saw Remus blush. Peter didn't know his secret yet. James had guessed it and confided in Sirius and they had talked to Remus about it, but Peter had been, as so often, left in the dark.
"Are you going to sulk until we leave?" Peter asked, as usual not noticing something was going on behind his back. "Or are we going to do something?"
"We'll do something!" Sirius decided and got up.
"BRILLIANT!" James was on his feet in a second. "Like what?"
Sirius thought for a moment, then grinned broadly.
"Uuurgh!" Lucius had stepped out of the Slytherin dungeon and right into a heap of dung, and the others coming out behind him forced him to wade further into the muck until they noticed it too, only to be pushed on by those still in the common room.
"What the –"
"Who –"
"Someone call the headmaster!"
"That was Peeves, I bet it was!"
The four boys behind the turn in the corridor had seen enough. Before someone with authority could find them, they hurried through a secret shortcut and back to Gryffindor and into their dorm where they collapsed panting, gasping and laughing so hard that their sides seemed to burst.
"Oh, his EXPRESSION!" Sirius howled.
"I'll never forget that face again," James chuckled madly, "I've been wanting to do something like this for ages!"
Remus only lay on his bed laughing helplessly and Peter started to say something, choked, and began to cough violently.
"We have to hurry," Remus said after a moment, "or they'll leave without us!"
Still chuckling they grabbed their trunks and walked to the carriages that'd bring them to the Hogwarts Express. Sirius felt a lot better now. It was only for the summer. It wasn't forever. James was going to visit him on his broomstick and Remus and Peter were going to write to him.
Quite cheerful they found a compartment for themselves and spent some nice time planning what they'd do as soon as they were back at school when suddenly the door opened.
Lucius Malfoy glared at them. "I know it was you!" he growled at Sirius. "You and your sad little gang! And I'll make sure your parents will hear about it and that they'll make you pay!"
"I was what exactly?" Sirius asked innocently.
Lucius looked ready to kill him on the spot.
"He's right, though," James smiled, "it was you who beat him at Transfiguration."
Lucius eyed him icily. "I wonder what your parents will say when they learn about your marauding friends here."
"You're just jealous because you don't have any friends, Lurkius," Sirius retorted. "You only have you little snivelling servant…"
"Yes, Snivellus," James cackled, "did you put the Imperius on him or is he such a creep by nature?"
"Better Severus than that halfblood halfwit there!" Lucius pointed at Peter, who blanched. "Or someone as poor as Lupin! Or a Potter!" He stormed out of the compartment, slamming the door behind him.
"You're right," Remus grinned, "he IS jealous."
"Marauding friends, huh?" Sirius barked a contemptuous laugh.
"I quite like that," Peter said quietly. "Sounds stylish."
James eyes him thoughtfully. "You know, Peter's right. It does sound…"
"Nifty," Sirius completed.
"Yes."
"Dangerous." Remus winked.
"Glorious," Peter added.
"Famous and invincible!" James smiled, pleased with himself, and bit in one of the Chocolate Frogs they had bought earlier. "To the Marauders!" he munched.
The others grinned, took their bites as well and joined in the chewed toast. "To the Marauders – to us!"
"You know, Sirius, your parents can't really be angry with you," Remus said once his mouth was free of chocolate, "you're making your time at Hogwarts as uncomfortable for Dumbledore as you can…"