(A/N) My story is set with The Marauders & co. as the class of '72, making the current year in the story 1971.
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The next few weeks passed rather quickly. Sirius never got a hold of James' desired goods. James was getting pretty serious about Casey, while Sirius, on the other hand, was going through a girl about every two days. Jessica and Lily had remained single, though they were often asked out.
The Marauders were planning out their upcoming adventure, as the full moon was rapidly approaching. They huddled around a rough map of the Hogwart's grounds and Hogsmeade in the corner of the common room.
"So, gents. Where are we off to on our upcoming adventure?" said Sirius.
"I think we need to find out more about the grounds besides the Forbidden Forest. We can't accomplish much more by hanging around in there," said Remus.
"Mmmm, yeah, I don't want to spend another night in the forest. Let's go into Hogsmeade, that's always fun," James put forth.
"But with Hogsmeade the chances of an –" Remus paused here, "- accident are increased. I could never live with myself if that happened, you know that." He indicated to an area south of the castle. "I don't think we've been here much. Let's check it out."
"Alright, Moony, sounds great. I'm starved, let's go get some dinner," said Sirius.
The four of them headed out through the portrait hole. Instead of going down the stairs at the end of the corridor, they walked to a portrait of Mungo Bonham, the wizard for which St. Mungo's was named. He swung over, revealing a smooth, twisting slide. Taking a running start, James dove head first down the slide. Sirius followed suit, as did Remus. Peter timidly went down the conventional way.
James was airborne as he flew out of the painting on the first floor of several disapproving ball attendees. He went flying straight into the opposite wall, which absorbed the impact like a pillow. Sirius and Remus hit the wall one after the other, all three fell to the ground laughing. Peter skidded out of the painting after the rest had already gotten up.
"Wormtail, do you have any balls?" Sirius asked. Peter hung his head, he was often a target of Sirius' bullying, but it was better to be in with The Marauders then out of them.
They continued in towards the dining hall, so absorbed in their own conversation that they didn't see who was approaching them. Severus Snape, Regulus Black, Antony Dolohov, and Bellatrix Lestrange were headed towards them. Severus and Antony were in sixth year, but Regulus was in his fifith year and Bellatrix was in her seventh.
Sirius looked down the corridor and saw the Slytherins approaching them.
"Hey Snivellus! Take a shower you greasy bastard!"
Snape pulled out his wand and shot a curse at Sirius. "Cuncido!"
Sirius ducked, but the curse hit Remus in the face. His cheek started to bleed profusely. He muttered a quick healing charm and shouted the disarming spell at Snape, who dodged it. A scuffle broke out between the eight students. Spells were being shot left and right, curses and hexes flew threw the air.
"Offensio Murem!" James shouted, the jinx hit Dolohov full on. He was bodily picked up and thrown against the wall, falling to the ground unconscious.
"STOP! If you don't stop right now I'll throw you all in detention for the rest of the year!"
"Good. McGonagall. That's just what I need right now. Looks like the four of us are in detention again, boys."
McGonagall hurried up towards them. "Lupin. Explain. Now."
Remus looked at his friends, then at those he was fighting only moments before.
"Well, professor, James, Sirius, Peter, and I were walking down to the dining hall, when we saw these students coming up. Sirius shouted out 'Snivellus', and Snape hit me with a slicing curse. Then we just started cursing each other. Dolohov ended up knocked out. We're all sorry, professor. We aren't supposed to use magic in the halls, let alone fight with one another."
Sirius looked at Remus and gave him the tiniest of nods. It was good to let a teacher know you knew that you broke the rules. They tended to go easier on the punishment if one does so.
"Very well. Normally I would give all of you detention, but I happen to be in a very good mood today. Dolohov should get up to the hospital wing. Consider yourselves very lucky. Potter, Black, if I could speak with you please."
James and Sirius exchanged astonished looks with one another before walking with McGonagall to her office.
"I understand that you two, Lupin, and Pettigrew have a musical group. The headmaster is considering having a competition between all of the musical groups in the school. If we do decide to have this competition, representatives from the WWN will be broadcasting live from the school. A cash prize would be rewarded to the winner, and a large amount of points will be awarded to the respective houses of the winners. I thought it would be best to alert you in advance, as a victory would greatly help our chances in the house cup. Perhaps this will bring some happiness to our school, goodness knows we could all use some with what's going on in the world today."
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Sirius and James hurried to the Great Hall. They sat down with Remus and Peter, shoveling food onto their plates.
"What did McGonagall want?" Peter asked them.
James explained all that McGonagall had said to them. Remus and Peter looked extremely excited at the prospect of playing on the Wizarding Wireless Network.
"So what do you think we should play?" Remus asked.
"Let's worry about it later, some ladies are headed this way," Sirius responded.
Lily, Sarah, and Gina sat down with The Marauders. James, who was on speaking terms with the girls (but only just), gave them a militaristic greeting.
"Evans."
"Potter."
"Brown."
"Potter."
"Black," Sirius said. He looked at the others, trying his hardest not to laugh at their expressions. "What? I like being noticed."
That lightened the mood considerably.
