The Early Years
Recap:
"Jo,
how could you?"
"How could I what?" replied Jo ever so innocently.
"Knock into Kat on purpose," said Lily, hands on hips.
"Oh that, well, I always thought that Remus and Kat would make a great couple
but, they haven't been making much progress so I decided to give them a little
push," said Jo grinning from ear to ear.
Lily began to smile, "Yeah..."
------
Lily breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped onto Platform 9 ¾ .
"At last, away from Petunia," Lily said to herself.
"Away from who?" asked Severus Snape who was behind her.
"Unfortunately not from you," replied Lily
"Why you stupid mudblood…" Snape proceeded to insult Lily with anything he could think of.
Lily just stood there, getting annoyed at Snape and was about to walk off when Snape grabbed her arm, preventing her to walk off.
"I'm getting tired of you mudblood," Snape said and was about to slap Lily when…
"My, my, never thought I'll see Severus Snape trying to hit a lady after what he said about him having good upbringing," said James who had just arrived.
"Well, my mum didn't say I couldn't punch mudbloods,"
"Well, my mum didn't say I couldn't punch slimy gits,"
"That's enough James, let's go," said Lily pulling him away from Snape.
Back in 'their' compartment (A/N Remember the last chapter?), James was fuming, no doubt about it.
"He called you a mudblood Lily!"
"He always does," Lily replied with an amused expression, James never bothers when Snape calls her a mudblood, at least, he doesn't try to beat him up.
"But he was trying to hit you!"
Lily smiled inwardly, when was the last time did James felt concern for her. She didn't know, probably a long time ago.
"Thanks anyway, for helping,"
"You're welcome," James replied blushing.
Lily didn't notice but Jo, who had just arrived with Kat, sure did. When Kat saw that familiar twinkle in Jo's eyes (A/N There's always a twinkle in Jo's eyes isn't it?), she thought, "Mayday! Mayday! Jo's got another crazy idea again!"
Just then, Remus and Sirius made a grand entrance into the compartment (literally). On the floor was a red carpet and there was smoke coming from nowhere (A/N think dry ice).
"Remus! Where did you learn that?" asked a surprised Sirius.
"My father taught it to me, I was surprised it worked though,"
"Remus? You are Remus aren't you? Can't see properly with all the smoke around," asked James.
"Nope, I'm Sirius," replied Remus, obviously in a mischievous mood.
"Hey! I'm Sirius," said Sirius.
"No, I am!"
"No, I am!"
"No, I am!"
"No, I am!"
"Stop it! Will you two act seriously?" shouted Jo.
"But I am Sirius!" said Sirius and Remus together, "Stop mimicking me!"
"No, I'm Sirius!"
"No, I'm Sirius!"
Kat who happened to be reading a book suddenly stood up and shouted, "Shut up!"
Everyone went silent.
"I didn't say that out loud, did I?" asked Kat.
Receiving no response, Kat sighed, "Guess I did, oh well," and saying so, she sat back down and continued reading. The rest of the gang exchanged puzzled looks, shrugged then sat down. The journey to Hogwarts carried on uneventfully.
Finally, when the train pulled into Hogsmeade Station, Sirius asked, "Everyone got their Hogsmeade form signed?"
Everyone nodded slowly, there was something going on in Sirius' puny brain (in Jo's words).
"Yay, I can't believe it! We're in our 3rd year already! Hogsmeade here we come! Or better yet, Zonko's here we come!" Sirius said with a dreamy expression on his face.
"Yeah, I can't believe I actually survived the last 2 years with you two," Lily said pointing to Sirius and James.
"By the way James, only 3rd year and above are allowed into Hogsmeade, how did you get the goo from Zonko's? Remember? The goo you used on Snape?" asked Kat.
"Ah, ever heard of secret passageways?"
"Right, pretend I never asked,"
"Well, at least now we can go to Hogsmeade without crawling through that really squishy passageway," said Remus rather loudly,
"Shut up! Do you want the whole world to know?" warned Sirius.
All six got into the carriages, planning their next prank on Professor McGonagall, or better yet, those innocent first years, or better yet, both…
------
"All first years follow me, " said Professor McGonagall.
The first years followed quietly behind her, sensing she's not a professor to be trifled with.
"Oh come on, where's your spunk?" asked Sirius under James' invisibility cloak (the whole gang was under the cloak thanks to Lily's enlargement charm) "Really don't first years these days know how to have fun?"
Lily, Jo and Kat rolled their eyes, "Keep quiet will you?"
"I'm Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor house, please line up in one straight line and when I call your name, please step forward and wear the hat. It will sort you into your house. The four houses are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. In Hogwarts, you will spend your free time in your house common room."
"Oh my, she told the first years the exact same thing she told us when we were first years! (Don't believe it! Check out chapter 2!) I wonder if she writes it all down on a piece of paper and memorises it and says the same thing to all the first years (It really does happen! My Geography teacher did just that! On the first day of school, she walked in and told us yada yada then we walked past another class to go to the computer lab. We heard her tell that class the exact same thing she told us! Lol!)," said Jo.
"Most probably," replied Remus.
"Hurry up! This is our chance!" exclaimed Sirius, "Minny has her back turned!"
Few seconds later, everyone had their under wear outside. (Think Superman!)
Back in the great hall, the other students at the Gryffindor table were wondering what the Marauders and the girls had gone. Most agreed that they had went to play a prank. Just then, a shout could be heard just outside the great hall, it sounded much like Professors McGonagall's.
"DETENTION!!!"
------
"Really, detention on the first day of school…" said James, "of course, not that I mind, I am, after all, competing with Sirius for the title of Most Detentions,"
The gang was back in the common room.
"So, what do we do next?" asked Sirius with a very mischievous glint in his eye.
"We don't do anything," replied Kat, "Enough is enough, we shouldn't pull any pranks anymore, at least no more for today,"
"You're kidding!" James exclaimed, "How about dyeing Dumbledore's beard neon pink?"
"Great idea!" said Jo as the rest of the group listened intently to James' plan.
"So much for putting my foot down," Kat thought as she walked over to the group.
"So we put the dye in…"
------
"Remus Lupin! Where the heck are you?"
It was a bright sunny afternoon and the girls were getting ready to go to Hogsmeade. However, Remus who had promised them a treat at Three Broomsticks was nowhere to be found.
"Let's just go, maybe he's waiting for us there!" said Jo impatiently.
"Let's wait awhile longer, he wasn't at breakfast, maybe something happened to him," Kat said, looking a little worried.
"James and Sirius said he was still sleeping because of last night's transformation, why don't we go up to his room and check? Just in case," suggested Lily.
They nodded and proceeded up the boys' staircase.
Then, they opened what they thought was the Marauders' room. It was in a total mess. Clothes strewn everywhere and spell books all over the place. The girls practically had to swim through the mess.
"Looks empty to me," commented Jo.
It was funny Jo chose that time to say that because suddenly, a lump on the bed (previously thought to be a pile of clothes) moved.
"Ahh!!!"
The lump seemed surprised and then, a head poked out. Remus' head to be exact, Remus' red head to be more exact.
Kat being concerned, moved over to feel his forehead and immediately withdrew it exclaiming, "You're running a fever!"
Remus looked dazed, "Fever?"
(A/N Ever heard of wizards catching a flu or down with chicken pox? You only hear them breaking out in horrible warts, growing tentacles and turning into ferrets right? Let's just pretend that running a fever is really extremely rare in the wizarding world.)
Lily and Jo moved over to Remus and both concluded that not only was Remus running a fever, he was also down with the cold, and had a throat infection.
"Better bring him to Madam Promfey (uh… is that how you spell her name?)," Lily said.
"Okay, but how?" asked Jo as she tried to lift a very drowsy Remus.
The girls tried to lift, carry and even resorted to pulling Remus out of bed to no avail.
"Where are James and Sirius when we need them?"
Finally Kat said, "I'm so stupid! A simple levitating spell would do the trick!"
"Great, and you had to take such a long time to tell us," said Jo who was sprawled on the floor, exhausted from her efforts of getting Remus out of bed.
"Sorry," Kat apologized sheepishly.
Five minutes later, they were at the hospital wing.
"Remus is down with the fever, cold and he has a throat infection," Lily informed Madam Promfey.
She looked really confused, "I never heard of those illnesses before,"
"Muggle aliments," Jo said, rubbing her sore arms, "Say, do you have anything for sore arms?"
"Muggle aliments? I can't treat muggle aliments! I don't have the medication!" Madam Promfey said, distraught and completely ignoring Jo's question.
"Erm, okay, so… what do we do?" asked Jo, raising a brow.
Kat, meanwhile, was staring at Remus and wiping his sweat, she turned to face the girls, "Should we consult a professor or something?"
Just at that moment, Professor McGonagall walked in with green warts on her face (what did I tell you!?) and James and Sirius by her side, who both by the way had grown two tentacles each.
"Professor!"
"What?" Professor McGonagall snapped, clearly irritated either by the warts on her face or the two sniggering Marauders by her side.
"It's Remus, he's very sick," Kat said, moving away from Remus for the first time since he got to the hospital wing.
Professor's McGonagall's eyes widened and the two Marauders stopped sniggering. They hurriedly strode over to Remus.
"He's very hot," Professor McGonagall observed.
"Yes, it's some kind of Muggle sickness called the fever and Madam Promfey doesn't have the medication to treat Remus," explained Lily.
At that, Madam Promfey started wailing, "I can treat hexes and curses but a fever? Wah!!!"
"Is it serious?" asked Professor McGonagall
"It's actually quite a common Muggle sickness, its cure can be readily found in pharmacies but sometimes, without medication and proper care, it could prove to be fatal," Jo replied as if she was reading out of a medical book.
Meanwhile, James and Sirius hovered over Remus, "We didn't know it was so serious, we thought it was just side effects of his transformation,"
Suddenly, Remus vomited deep, red blood.
------
Whew! Done with another chapter. All that editing is making my eyes swirly. Haha. Review please!