James, Sirius and Peter did not notice the absence of Remus during the evening until the lack of his presence was dully noted at breakfast.
"So, where did Remus run off to, last night?" asked James, helping himself to a second serving of eggs.
"Dunno. I guess we haven't seen him since he ran off," said Sirius.
"What do you think happened?" asked Peter, looking scared.
"Maybe he's sick."
"Nah," said James. "He said he was late for something."
"You think he'll come back?" asked Sirius after a pause.
"Of course!" said James, sounding more positive than he felt. The truth was, he had absolutely no idea what had happened to Remus, and he was worried for his friend. Looking back down at his food, he realised he was no longer hungry. "I'll see you guys later," he said, leaving the table, slinging his bag over his back and heading towards Potions.
"Bye."
James didn't know where he was going, nor did he know why he left Sirius and Peter at breakfast. His mind was on other things, and the thought of food was not pleasing his stomach. He wandered aimlessly down Hogwarts, pausing in front of random doors, wondering whether or not he should go through them, wondering what was on the other side, wondering.
This place was strange.
He didn't feel like a little child who needed his mother to feed him, who needed his father to help him tie his tie.
Hogwarts made him feel grown up.
He didn't like it.
So lost in thought, James Potter didn't notice it when he ran into a group of girls, knocking over one in particular for which he would later thank Merlin.
"Oh!" He rushed to his feet and helped the fallen over girl get back up. "I'm so sorry." Looking into her brilliant green eyes, James suddenly realised who she was.
The red-headed Gryffindor beauty.
"No, it was me, I should have looked where I was going."
There was an awkward silent pause where the world halted, waiting for the two Gryffindors to exhale. The girl's friends smiled knowingly and patted her on the back before leaving.
"I'm James," he said, offering her his hand. "James Potter."
"Lily Evans," she said, smiling and shaking it.
He didn't look away from her captivating eyes. His mind flooded with things he wanted to tell her.
That's a wonderful name.
Your hair looks nice.
You have beautiful eyes.
But somehow, his mouth could not form the words and his tongue just hung limply in his jaw, completely useless.
"Well, it was nice meeting you, James," she said, before walking away in the direction of the Great Hall, following her friends.
"Uh … yeah, bye," he called after she had already left.
James mentally beat himself.
"Nice James. My goodness, how hard is it to say something to a girl?"
Harder than you'd think! his mind replied. Anything you said, anyway, would have just sounded scripted.
his mind replied."Just shut it," he said to himself, ignoring the strange looks passing students were throwing him.
Potions was going rather uneventfully. Remus had entered the class with a note about half way through the lesson and Professor Rembrandt, the Potions Mistress, gave him a pitying look before sending him off to the empty seat next to Peter. He refused to answer any of James, Sirius or Peter's questions about where he had gone. Instead, he turned to his cauldron and started working quickly and quietly. James couldn't help but notice how pale Remus had been the past few days.
Rembrandt was fair, the Hufflepuff Head, and somewhat plump. Some rumours suggested she was a descendant of the painter, but they were just rumours, and she was so artistically challenged, James doubted it was true.
The class was concocting the boil cure potion and not concentrating too hard. All except for Peter. James and Sirius made their potions carelessly and perfectly, playing around and poking each other with porcupine quills, while Peter's cauldron sprouted big clouds of acid green smoke.
Rembrandt rushed over to help him, showing him that he had to add the porcupine quills after taking the cauldron off of the fire. She managed to clear up his potion before it exploded and he began anew, James and Sirius laughing madly beside him as he blushed profusely from embarrassment.
"Hey, Peter!" said Sirius.
"What?" he said miserably.
"Say 'silk' three times fast," said Sirius.
"Why?" asked Peter, looking somewhat scared.
"I want you to."
"Silk, silk, silk."
"What do cows drink?"
"Uh, milk, right?"
"No, water."
"Uh, yeah. I was testing you. You passed." He laughed nervously.
"Say silk three times fast again."
"Silk, silk, silk."
"What do cows drink?"
"You already asked me this."
"I'm asking you again."
"Water."
"Good, now say silk three times fast."
"Is this going anywhere, Sirius?"
"Just do it, Petey."
"Silk, silk, silk."
"What do calves drink?"
"Water!"
"Nope."
Peter paused, frowning. "What?"
"Calves are baby cows, Peter. They drink milk."
From his cauldron, Remus could be heard sighing as he rolled his eyes and James and Sirius began laughing madly at Peter's lost and confused expression, as his potion emitted another acid green cloud, this time spraying him with angry red boils
"Oh no!" he said in exasperation.
Rembrandt rushed over and began fussing madly, clearing his potion and pushing him towards the door, telling him to go to the Hospital Wing. When she brushed past the other three, James could have sworn he heard her mutter, "Stupid first years, not next year, I tell you…"
Homework was slowly devouring the four boys' lives. They hardly created any time for rehearsing their play and also get their work done. It was becoming steadily obvious that Peter was the most academically challenged of them all. Remus was often helping him with his homework long before he, Sirius and James had finished. The class at which Peter excelled compared to the others was Herbology, but all of them made top four in the class together anyway, so he was not ahead by much.
The play, however, was coming along nicely. Remus was being less stick-in-the-mud about wearing a dress as the time progressed. James had to admit as he watched a scene between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, things were coming into place.
There was a stall in the speaking and Remus and Peter looked helplessly off stage to where James was standing with his arms crossed, watching them happily.
"Uh, I said, 'I WONDER WHERE GODRIC COULD BE?'" said Remus, enthusiastically craning his neck in James' direction.
James jumped and walked into the stage they had created in their dormitory, and placed his prideful cap on as he strode towards Rowena.
"You weren't talking of me, dear, were you?" he said, his voice pushed to the lowest it could go. Sirius stifled a laugh from his corner of the room, waiting for his cue, and James couldn't help but notice how wonderful these next seven years would be.
I'm putting the A/N at the end of the chapter so that you didn't have to wait to read this boring thing for the actual story. Anyway, I need to apologize. First, my computer was all of a sudden attacked by a swarming heard of viruses and it really virtually destroyed this document on my computer, so I've been restoring it. Then I had an uncontrollable case of writer's block, and just as it was about to break, finals week began, but it finished today with French and make ups ... so yay. I know that this chapter should be long since it took so long, and I'm sorry it's not. I'm trying to get through first year fairly quickly while maintaining an interesting first year since, well - they're the marauders, after all.
So, on to thank my reviewers.
Sparkling Cherries: I'm not sure I quite understand how I spliced this with the original. But it must mean something that has to do with comparison to JKR, and for that, I worship you!!! Thank you so much, your review made me really happy.
Stella Blu: Sorry bout the delay. I'm glad you got a kick out of my Remus-and-Peter-in-a-dress ordeal.
PentagonMerlin: Gosh ... thanx. I don't have a beta, and I needed to update. But thank you for the "utterly brilliant" comment.
WritingsOfATeenageDramaQueen: Thanx. I wasn't too proud of that part, but you've restored my confidence. Yay!
Pixy-Misa-Misao-Amano: I thought it would be a cute touch to have the metro of the group dress as a girl. It's not like he wanted to, but Sirius and James could easily have beaten Remus in a fight, so naturally, he's gonna spare his good looks and just accept his fate.
If you can, recommend this story. Lol. Sorry, I love reviews. Any constructive criticism is accepted with open arms and a sour, gracious face.
BTW: I know James is too young to be thinking about Lily like that, and I tried to create a young love type thing, I'm just trying to get the ball rolling for later years.