Revised and Extended

CHAPTER FOURTEEN Brand New Year

But it was decided they would try to tackle the Animagus potion for a second time over Christmas break. Until then they would concentrate on their new course load. Talia, Lily and Ophelia had taken Arithmancy, with Peter. And Ophelia and Sirius, alone of the group, took Muggle Studies.

They found themselves sitting at that all too familiar table, glancing over their third year timetables.

"What the bloody hell is Divination?" cried James with a mouthful of scrambled eggs.

"Your registered for a class without knowing what it was?" Lily giggled. "Real smart, Potter."

They made their way to their first class, a double Defence Against the Dark Arts with Slytherin. As per usual they immediately claimed the back rows. But this year, however, Severus chose the table in front of them.

James nudged Remus. "Aw, look," he whispered. "Snivellus hit a growth spurt over the summer."

"Yeah, his knuckles are almost dragging on the floor." said Peter, joining the conversation.

"Looks like a spell gone wrong, if you ask me." growled Sirius.

"Well no one did, Sirius, so be quiet." said Ophelia,. "It's the first day of school and already you're acting like a git." Sirius reached inside his robes for a Dungbomb but Remus quickly stopped him.

Professor Riley confidently strode to the front of the darkened classroom. "Good morning everyone." he said. "I trust that you all completed the work I assigned in June?" he looked at a few students for confirmation. "Would I be going on a limb to presume that Mr Black, Mr Pettigrew and Mr Potter will not be submitting their essays on the sub-species of the Larnachs and the various types of poison they emit?"

Sirius grinned mischievously. "Here's the deal, Professor Riley, James has a Bulgarian Bottle-Nosed dragon and--"

"Did he eat your report, Mr Black?" asked Riley, hovering over their desks. "That's terrible, really. I'm sure they were top-mark quality."

"Dragons don't eat parchment, Professor, not enough potassium you see. He had a cold, and while James, Pete and myself were putting the finishing touches on our essays, Hippo- the dragon - sneezed, and our papers caught fire."

"That's how it happened." Peter nodded.

Professor Riley raised an eyebrow, obviously enjoying the work Sirius had put into his story. "Miss Vance?"

Emmeline, the fair Ravenclaw, jumped in her chair and quickly lowered her wand, which was emitting a pale blue flame. "Y-Yes?"

"How long did it take you to complete this summer's essay?"

"Er..four or five hours maybe.." she answered.

"That will be good." said Professor Riley. "Five nights detention will give you sufficient time to submit your essays. I'll see the three of you tonight."

James groaned loudly, his head hitting the table. Emmeline gave them a weak smile and mouthed her apologies. With a swish of Riley's wand , seventeen rolls of parchment flew across the room to land upon his desk.

"Well," he continued, "With that nonsense out of the way, we'll begin something new. Can anyone tell me what a Boggart is?" Lily and Remus shot their hands into the air. Professor Riley clicked his tongue in disapproval. "I usually don't cover them until the fourth year, but the Headmaster thought it could be covered a little bit ahead of schedule. So, Miss Evans, enlighten us..."

Lily cleared her throat. "A Boggart is a creature that embodies the worst fears of whoever is near it. Put simply."

"Miss Evans is correct. Boggarts pose no physical harm to us, but if we believe them to be a reality, it may terrorize our minds. How may we exterminate one, Mr Lupin?"

"By forcing it to take the shape of something that will make us laugh."

"And we do this by.."

"By using the Riddikulus charm." said Remus.

"You are correct." he repeated. "I had planned on using a Boggart in Mr Filch's office, but he seemingly misunderstood me when I said 'I will take care of it', and proceeded to exterminate it once I had left." Professor Riley chuckled to himself. "So until another is located, I will ask you to spend the remainder of the class reading up on the Boggart, noting especially where they are found, physical characteristics- or lack thereof - you all know the procedure."

During lunch, they took turns guessing at each others Boggart.

"Pete's would be an empty room." said James. Everyone at the table laughed, including Peter, who obviously did not understand the meaning behind James' joke.

"And mine will be Petunia." said Lily, sipping at her pumpkin juice. "What about you, Phe?"

She thought for a moment. "I don't know."

Throughout the conversation Remus had been unusually quiet. They all knew what shape his Boggart would take and he was becoming anxious at the thought of the other students seeing the full moon materialize.

Peter smiled at him encouragingly. "Maybe Riley won't make you have a go at it." he muttered.

Remus shrugged. "I hope you're right."

James was careening wildly across the grass a few weeks later, with Peter perched precariously on his shoulders. Sirius and Remus were running ahead, loudly announcing themselves in their typical fanfare fashion.

Bumping into people as they went, Severus Snape went unnoticed as he staggered towards them carrying a tall stack of books.

James' foot snagged a gnarled tree root and he tripped, sending Pete flying into Snape. After throwing a particularly ugly look at James, Snape quickly gathered up his things.

A scrap of parchment caught Sirius' eye and he snatched it up. It was a crudely drawn picture of the four friends, after their wands had backfired, giving them all extremely exaggerated features.

"I didn't know you were such an artist, Snivelly." said Sirius, waving the drawing in front of him.

"That's not mine." Snape sneered, grabbing for the parchment.

Sirius threw it to James who looked it over, a faint smirk appearing on his face. "I must say, Snivellus, I think I look better without the elephant's trunk. But that's just my opinion.

Snape turned crimson. "It isn't mine." he said through gritted teeth before stomping off to the castle.

Remus, now holding the cartoon, was laughing uncontrollably. "He drew me without any hair. Bit ironic, don't you think?"

"He's not just miserable and greasy now." said Sirius. "He's a prat."

"Oh, I disagree with you, mate." grinned James. "I think he's always been a prat. Only now he's a prat who's gotten in our way."

Remus sat down on the grass, resting his hands behind his head. "Are you proposing we do something?"

"Like filling his robes with tar pellets?" Peter suggested.

"Mmm, maybe for an introduction." said Sirius.

There conversation was abruptly cut short as Ophelia and Talia collapsed next to them on the grass, laughing like maniacs.

"What's the matter with the two of you?" James asked.

"We were in the library," Talia began. "And it was fairly deserted except for us, Mai, Pandora and Rianna."

"We were reviewing our Astronomy notes with Mai, and you know how she gets when she hasn't cursed anyone in a while."

"And she was getting antsy being around the Slytherin tarts and not doing anything about it."

"So as we were leaving, she asked us to create a diversion for her." said Ophelia.

"Phe starts crying that she'd gone blind and was running aroung knocking books of the shelves."

"And Mai cursed Rianna and Pandora, making them do a stream of back flips. I didn't catch the wording. Did you, Tal?"

"No," replied Tal, "It sounded a bit Circe, though."

"Mmm, I guess."

"Oh right! So the reason we came to find you was because--"

"We need an alibi--"

"If anyone asks--"

"We were with you." they said in unison.

Remus cleared his throat. "Well, that was different."

"Wait a minute." said James, wide-eyed. "You mean to tell me that you...you cursed someone?"

"Were you not listening to our story?" cried Phe. "We just knocked over a few books."

"Small steps." said Sirius. "You're both on your way to becoming Grade-E pranksters."

"Please." Talia scoffed. "If I wanted to waste my time I would find something worthwhile."

Before the Marauders could reply, Ophelia pushed Talia to her feet and they ran back to the castle.