After an early night that was, thankfully, uninterrupted by the nightmare that had plagued his sleep before coming to Hogwarts, James woke when Sirius hit him with his pillow. "What, exactly, did you do that for?" He demanded as he threw Sirius' pillow back at him, rather miffed at being awakened so rudely.
Sirius grinned unrepentantly and raked a hand through his wet hair, obviously over his cousins' behavior from last night, "If you want a shower, you might want to go get one. Or you can go back to sleep, skip the shower, skip breakfast, skip class, and get yourself tossed out. Either way, mate," he shrugged his shoulders eloquently, "it's up to you. I just thought you would like to be awake to make the choice."
Out of habit, James glanced at his watch and bit back a curse. He was late and would really have to hurry if he wanted breakfast before going to class. "You should have woken me up earlier." He grumped as he threw the covers back, raking a hand through his already tousled hair, "We get our schedules at breakfast." Instead of wasting any more time on words, James gathered his shower accessories and headed to the bathroom. After taking the quickest, not to mention coldest shower in his life, James got dressed quickly and headed down to the common room where Sirius and Remus were waiting.
Still shivering slightly, James quickly warmed as the three boys clattered down the stairs at a breakneck pace, delighting at breaking one of the parental rules that seemed ever so senseless. Arriving, finally, at the Great Hall, James saw Sirius glance over at the Slytherin table where Narcissa and Bellatrix were mostly notable due to their absence. His friend heaved a sigh of relief and the three boys walked over to the end of the Gryffindor table, greeting the others as they went past. As the boys sat down and received their schedules, there was a flutter of wings as the morning post. Neither James nor Remus were expecting anything so they kept on eating. Sirius, on the other hand, kept his eyes locked on the birds, looking for his family's owl which, much to his relief, did not put in an appearance.
Completely oblivious to Sirius' inattention to the meal, James picked up his schedule and looked it over. "You have got to be joking." He groaned theatrically enough so that Remus and Sirius grabbed their schedules and looked at them as well, "History of Magic? On a Monday? First thing? How do they expect us to stay awake through that? Rolling his eyes in disgust, James looked over the rest of his schedule which seemed to be jam packed with double lessons. "On the bright side, we do get to fly three days a week."
As one, the Gryffindor first years rose from the table and set off as a pack to go find Professor Binns classroom. Six stairs, four wrong turns, and their first ever encounter with Peeves who gave them the exact wrong directions, they finally managed to find the classroom. Some of the girls gasped when they saw Professor Binns was a ghost but stifled it quickly as the Slytherins, who had obviously managed to find the classroom with no difficulties, turned to stare at them. "Oh hell." Sirius whispered soundlessly as he caught sight of Rabastan Lestrange, his cousin's boyfriend's brother.
James swallowed a similar sentiment upon catching sight of the boy that he had accidentally bumped into yesterday during the Sorting. Catching Sirius' eye and rolling his own, he walked over to the first empty table and sat down, feeling Slytherin eyes on him the entire way. Professor Binns started his lecture as soon as the Gryffindors were seated, not even bothering to introduce himself before launching into full lecture. With a sigh echoed by Remus and Sirius, who sat on either side, James pulled out parchment, ink, and quill and started taking notes.
Not even ten minutes into the lecture, Binn's dry and reedy voice droning on and on about things that no one in their right mind gave a damn about, the entire class melted into a stupor. James tried desperately to take notes, he knew he would never remember all the dates and places, let alone the Goblin names, but found his eyes drooping and his attention wandering. Glancing over at Remus' paper, he was somewhat surprised to see almost an entire foot of parchment filled with neat handwriting about the lecture and James flushed, his notes were a lot less than that. Letting his eyes stray over to Sirius' parchment, James snickered, Sirius had managed to write down today's date and nothing else. Thinking for a second, James reached over and scribbled a quick note on Sirius' notes, "Are you planning on writing any of this down or just staring off into space good enough for you?"
Sirius snapped out of the daze he was in and looked down at what James' wrote. With a smile on his face, he quickly penned, "Come off it, mate, this is really bloody boring." Darting a look over at Lily's parchment, Sirius bit down a snicker and added, "Guess we are surrounded by the good note takers. Remus'll let us copy for sure." With that, Sirius drew a tic-tac-toe board and gallantly gave James the first go.
The first two weeks seemed to fly by and, before anyone could account for it, it was Friday morning again. James, Remus, and Sirius were on their way to becoming best friends, somewhat to the exclusion of the other two boys in their dorm, but they were friendly to all in the House. Sirius had stopped scanning the owls when they came in, figuring that his cousins had not written his parents, and started to relax a bit. That morning, at breakfast, as they were eating, the morning post came in as usual. Sirius was so absorbed in his food that he failed to notice when a showy black owl landed on the table, a red envelope in it's beak. Remus was the first one to notice and he jogged Sirius with his elbow. "Letter for you."
Sirius visibly flinched when he saw what the bird had for him but steeled himself to accept it. As soon as he touched the envelope, it ripped itself open and his mother's voice magically filled the hall, "Sirius Phineas Black!" The letter screeched, causing James to overturn his pumpkin juice and half the students in the Hall to jump, "Your cousins wrote to me and told me all about what you are doing at Hogwarts! Gryffindor! I ask you, what the devil were you thinking, forcing the Sorting Hat to put you in Gryffindor? Why not Ravenclaw? Or Hufflepuff so that you could really bring shame to this family?" James darted a quick glance over to the Hufflepuff table where the students looked mutinously angry at Mrs. Black's words. As she continued, James jerked his attention back to the screaming envelope, "I absolutely forbid you to associate yourself with James Potter anymore! It's bad enough that you have to share a dorm with him without having him as a friend as well. Do you hear me?"
As the letter paused, probably Mrs. Black drawing a breath, Sirius rolled his eyes and muttered, "As if anyone did not hear that, mother."
"And don't you dare sass me, young man! If you set even the slightest whisker out of line, I will pull you from Hogwarts and snap your wand myself! I am owling Dumbledore tonight to see if he can undo this fiasco you have landed yourself in and we will just see what he says! Gryffindor, I ask you!" At that last shriek, the letter tore itself into half and burst into flames, matching the color on Sirius' face.
Taking a deep breath, Sirius looked at James, just a hint too casually, "I guess mother doesn't like me being a Gryffindor." Before James could say anything in response, Sirius grabbed his books and said, "I'll see you two in History." before casually walking across the Hall, whistling a jaunty tune, apparently without a care in the world.
Remus and James shared a wide eyed look, not sure what to say or do in this particular situation. Before either of them could make up their minds to say anything, James felt a polite tap on his shoulder. Turning, he saw Lily Evans standing there, her green eyes intent on his as she twisted her hands together, "James, shouldn't you go after Sirius and make sure that he is alright?"
Raking a hand through his hair distractedly, James thought about her question for a second, "If he wanted me to come with him, he wouldn't have taken off so quickly." He thought that was a good argument and was somewhat disturbed as a frown flitted across Lily's face. Turning to Remus for support, he asked, "Didn't you think so, Remus?"
Looking somewhat taken aback about being dragged into this, Remus thought about the question before answering, "I don't know Sirius as well as you do but I think he just wanted to be alone for a bit." Pausing, he shifted his gaze over to Lily's, whose green eyes snapped dangerously, "We will talk to him in History of Magic, Lily. I am sure he will be fine by himself til then but, if you are worried, why don't you go check on him?"
Paling, Lily flushed, "No," she stammered, backing away and lowering her eyes once more, "I am sure he will be okay." Not watching where she was going as she backed away, Lily managed to bump into Taylor McKenzie, one of the other Gryffindor first years. As the two girls jumped and Lily apologized, the other girls came up, chattering to one another, and swept Taylor and Lily along in their tide. Managing to stop at the table to grab her bag, Lily glanced back at James and flushed once more as he caught her eye.
The rest of the morning passed slowly for James; Sirius was brooding in History so James was left to actually taking notes, something that lost it's entertainment value after about five minutes. After that was transfiguration, a class that James excelled at for some oddball reason or another, so he quickly transfigured his match into a needle and checked on Remus and Sirius. Remus had also managed the transfiguration, though his was more of a knitting needle than a sewing needle, but Sirius could not even manage to get the match to change colors. Of course, he wasn't exactly trying either, unless staring off into space and doodling on parchment counted as trying. Before James could elbow Sirius to snap him out of his reverie, Professor McGonagall swept up to their table and glared frostily down at Sirius, "Black, are you planning on transfiguring today or shall I cancel class on your behalf?"
Sirius seemed to freeze at her words, which were delivered in a low tone that only reached his ears, "Sorry, Professor." He mumbled quickly and pulled out his wand to try the transfiguration. Professor McGonagall hovered over their table until Sirius had managed to produce a needle, a bent and twisted needle, but a needle none-the-less before moving away. Sirius opened his mouth to whisper something but shook his head as James leaned in, apparently he wasn't ready to talk just yet.
As the bell rang, Sirius muttered, "See you guys later." and walked off once more. Exchanging looks, Remus and James let him go without a fuss. Lily frowned at the pair of them as she noticed Sirius heading off in another direction, away from the Great Hall where the other students were filing in for lunch but held her peace. Not only did Sirius skip lunch but he skipped flying as well, causing Lily to give James and Remus another one of those looks but they managed to get to their Defense Against the Dark Arts class without having to answer to her.
Early for class, the two boys loitered out in the hall, waiting to see if Sirius would show up. As a group of chattering Hufflepuffs passed them, James asked Remus in an undertone, "Do you think we should have gone after Sirius like Lily wanted us to?"
Before Remus could answer, they were interrupted by the drawling tones of Lucius Malfoy, "They really should up their standards at this school, Severus. It's bad enough they let the mudbloods in but now they are accepting rabid animals as well." He sighed and shrugged his shoulders, "It does make you wonder what Dumbledore is thinking."
James whipped around to send an icy stare at Lucius, totally missing Remus' reaction to Malfoys words, but not missing the malicious grin on Severus' face. "Shove off, Malfoy."
Lucius raised one perfectly sculpted blond eyebrow and stared down his nose at James, "Mr. Potter." He said icily, "I have as much right to be here as anyone else. I also have the right to talk to anyone I choose about any subject I choose. You need to learn to keep that nose of yours out of other people's conversations." Glancing around, his features sharpened as he noted Sirius' conspicuous absence, "So Black has taken his mother's advice and dropped you as a friend. Bet that stung a bit, eh Potter?"
"At least I have friends." James shot back, at once knowing how lame that was, "I bet you had to buy yours."
Narrowing his eyes, Lucius bent over and hissed at James, "Severus here tells me that you spend your time in History of Magic goofing off with your little friends. How would you like me to tell Professor Binns that? Hmm?" Rising back up, Lucius continued in a splendidly urbane manner, "Or how about Professor McGonagall? She would have no problems taking, oh I don't know, ten points from Gryffindor for that."
James stared at Malfoy and Snape, feeling a flush rise up his neck, "Go ahead." He snapped back, anger starting to blend into hatred, "Go ahead and tell her. Show her that all Slytherins are a bunch of whiny tattletales." At this point, Remus made as if to step in between James and Lucius, not wanting Gryffindor to loose points and have James get into trouble over something this dumb, but James pushed him off. "Show her your true colors, Malfoy. Of course, I bet she knows already. Your heart is a black as the Dark Arts you and the rest of that family of yours practice."
"How dare you!" Lucius snarled, loosing his control over his temper. "An insignificant blood traitor like yourself and you dare to cast dispersions and slurs upon my family's name?" Straightening to his full height, Lucius looked as if he would dearly love to pull out his wand and fry James where he stood. James refused to back down, his own hand clenched tight about his wand even as he shook with nerves and fright.
The two boys stared at one another, both breathing hard and a split second away from attacking one another, when Sirius strolled up to the classroom door. That broke the spell and, with one last icy look at James, Lucius gathered his dropped dignity about him like a cloak and swept down the hall, James glaring daggers at his retreating back. "What's going on?" Sirius asked, a tad too cheerfully.
Seeing that James was not going to answer, Remus filled Sirius in, "Snape here has been carrying more tales to Malfoy." Snape flushed guiltily and walked past the three boys down the hall and away from the classroom, trying to emulate Lucius' walk. Remus let him go by with nothing more than an arched eyebrow, "Malfoy threatened to tell Professor McGonagall and James said that he knew about the Dark Arts the Malfoys are neck deep in." he shrugged, as if to say it was no good blaming him, "Malfoy took exception to that and, well, you walked in on the end of that."
Sirius turned his gaze to follow Lucius striding down the hall, "Somehow," he said grimly, "it just doesn't surprise me that the Malfoys are into the Dark Arts. I assume that your parents dropped something about that, James?'
James started at the sound of his name and flushed, "Dad might of mentioned something along those lines." Guilt crossed his face along with a touch of resignation, "If Malfoy was just threatening me about telling McGonagall, I think I just made sure that he would tell her. And, if he tells her what I said to him about being into the Dark Arts, that will surely get back to my dad." Raking a hand through his hair, James looked furious at himself, "Damn it, I should have thought before I blurted that one out."
"Cheer up, mate." Sirius said, punching James lightly on the arm, "You can get a Howler at breakfast like I did and we can both be humiliated in front of the entire school. Now all we have to do is figure out a way for Remus to get one as well and then we will be a matched set." Sirius' ability to laugh at himself was rather remarkable considering his age but James was, never the less, grateful for it, and he smiled at his friend.
As the three boys went into class, Remus looked over at Sirius and said dryly, "You know, Sirius, just because the two of you courted your own Howlers does not mean that I am going to do the same thing, if you don't mind."
Taking their usual seats at the back of the room, the three of them got out parchment, ink and quills, assuming that the worst of the day was already behind them. Before Professor Hawke entered the class, however, Snape and Lestrange showed up. As Lestrange walked past the boy's table, he casually whacked James in the back of the head with his book. "Hey!" James yelled indignantly, eyes smarting from the blow.
"Sorry, Potter," Lestrange smirked at him, "Didn't see you there." Before James could do much more than scowl, Professor Hawke entered the room, preventing any more conversation, and Snape and Lestrange hurried to their seats.
James glared at Lestrange all the way to his seat, still rubbing the back of his head. "What do you want to bet that Snape told that looser what I said to Malfoy?" He whispered bitterly to Remus and Sirius before bending over his parchment to take down what Hawke was writing on the board. "Talk about making a whole bunch of friends in one day, now all of Slytherin will be after me." Sirius and Remus winced, sensing the truth in James' words but could offer no words of solace for him. You are my enemy, Malfoy. James thought furiously as he started to write...
Author's response to review from Rileona - Nah, James wouldn't recognize Lily from the dreams because all he remembers are the emotions he felt. He doesn't remember seeing anything other than the flash of green light, which would have no true significance at this point. Thanks for the R&R and I hope you keep reading.