"I cannot believe it of even you, Potter." Severus Snape's eyes glinted.
"Oh, shut up, Snivellus!" James retorted, reaching a hand into his pocket to grab his wand. Snape did the same.
"Snogging in the Owlery!"
"It's none of your business, Snape!" James roared, pointing his wand directly at Snape's forehead. "Say one more word and I swear I'll do it."
"Potter! Snape!" The curt voice of Professor Delanor cut through the tension. James relaxed his wand, pointing it towards the floor, and Snape took a step backwards. "Dueling in the halls! Ten points from Gryffindor, ten points from Slytherin!"
James contemplated for a moment arguing with his former Head of House, but he decided against it. He murmured something unintelligble and stalked away down the hall. He wondered where Malia had gone to—she'd positively fled when Snape had turned up in the Owlery. Probably horrified to be seen with a Gryffindor.
Having nothing better to do, James headed back to the Gryffindor common room, deciding that he might as well get a little studying in. His large Charms book quickly induced a level of extreme lethargy, and James could hardly hold his eyes on the page, staring at the same spot. He should be doing something useful with himself, but he wasn't quite sure what. Revenge on Snape sounded tantalizing, but the cowardly fool had probably retreated to the Slytherin common room. James wondered if Professor Merika had told him about her pending punishment for Sirius. Probably not.
"Prongs!" It was Peter, bursting in through the potrait hole. "Come quick!"
James didn't even have time to question Peter as to why he was still at Hogwarts instead of being on the Hogwarts Express. He jumped to his feet and raced after him, struggling through the potrait hole and sprinting down the halls after him. When they arrived at the Entrance Hall, he was stunned to see it full of students.
"James, there you are!" It was Remus, appearing suddenly at James's elbow. "Come on, it's Sirius!"
"Sirius? Moony, what's going on? Why are you all here?" James questioned as he was hauled through the press of students. Then he saw it— Sirius was lying on the floor, his face deathly white.
"Padfoot!" James exclaimed, dropping to his knees. Blood was flowing from a gash on his leg that looked deep and painful. "Where's Madame Pomfrey?"
Remus shook his head, frowning. "She's attending to someone who broke their arm. You need to do something."
"Why me?" James asked. "I can't do anything about this!"
"Yes, you can, you have to!" Peter said, looking alarmed. "Dumbledore told us not to do anything. He said we're too shaken to be trusted with magic."
"Dumbledore?" James was getting more confused by the moment. "He's gone, he won't be back until term starts."
"He's here, but that doesn't matter, James! You have to do something for Sirius, and quickly."
"Uh, right." James pulled out his wand and gave a negligent wave. A roll of gauze appeared, and he ignored the small 'wow' of wonder from Peter. "He needs to be taken to the bathroom, come on, let's carry him."
"We can't!" Peter sounded extremely nervous. "We can't do anything, Dumbledore said!"
"Fine!" James snapped. "Mobilicorpus." Sirius's body rose into the air and James used his wand to float him to the nearest bathroom, which happened to be a girl's toilet. Moving quickly, he turned on the taps and found some towels and soap. Without speaking to any of the crowd who had followed him, James attempted to clean out the wound with water and soap. He managed to get the flecks of dirt out, but blood continued to flow.
Another wave of his wand brought a box of bandages and tape to the floor near him. He pulled out several lengths of bandaging and covered the gash, hoping that he was indeed doing this correctly. With swift movements he wrapped the gauze around the bandage to hold it in place, securing the ends with tape. It was, of course, a shabby job worthy of a Muggle, but it was the best he could do. The bleeding seemed to have slowed, and Sirius regained a little color in his face.
"Mobilicorpus. Alright, I'm going to take him to the hospital wing so Madame Pomfrey can attend to him. This work won't hold up of long."
All the time that James was moving Sirius, he pushed away the questions that were clamoring to be let out. Once Sirius was safely ensconced in a hospital bed, however, James could hold back no longer. He turned to Remus and Peter.
"What's going on? Why was Sirius injured? Why is Dumbledore back early? Why did that kid break his arm? Why are you here?" Even though his own lack of information wasn't really their fault, James felt anger mounting within him and he unleashed it upon them.
"Dumbledore will explain. Come on, we're supposed to be in the Great Hall, everyone else has already gone." Remus and Peter grabbed ahold of James's arms and began to drag him away from where Sirius lay.
James tried to protest that he was dirty, covered in Sirius's blood, tired, and not in the least bit interested to be hearing this from Dumbledore. His two friends, however, would hear nothing of this and continued to tug and pull on him. Finally James gave in and all three loped through the hallways until they arrived at the Great Hall. The rest of the students were already seated there, craning their necks to look at where Dumbledore sat. James spotted Malia at the Slytherin table and gave her a wink, which she returned.
"What's that?" Peter asked, pointing at a lumpy object sitting on the table.
"The Sorting Hat, it looks like," James answered. "I don't know why though."
"Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, Slytherins, and Gryffindors." Silence fell in the Hall as Dumbledore got to his feet. "Many of you are here today against expectations. For those of you who were not returning home for the holidays, let me explain. This morning the Hogwarts Express derailed and crashed into the countryside. Thankfully, the injuries sustained by students were few. Gregory Martin broke his arm, Sirius Black was cut by broken glass, and Valerie Norman suffered a strike to the head that rendered her unconscious. None of these injuries are serious and will all be rectified by Madame Pomfrey.
"The rest of you, while uninjured physically, are extremely shaken. None of us ever expected the Hogwarts Express to fail. It has, however, and I trust that you will all enjoy your stay here at Hogwarts through the holidays. The train is being repaired and will not be ready to be used until spring. This unexpected accident made me decide to cut short my, ah, visit with the Wizengamot. This does mean that I can announce to you that Professor Delanor has retired as Head of the Gryffindor House. Professor Merika, I am delighted to inform you, has consented to fill the position."
"That's just great," James muttered. "The Hogwarts Express derailed? Isn't it like magical or something?"
"Yeah, it is," Remus agreed. "You know, have you heard?"
"Heard what?" Peter asked.
"About someone." Remus nodded emphatically as if that explained it all.
"Yes, I did!" Peter sounded delighted to know what was going on. "A new Dark Wizard. Do you know his name?"
"No," Remus admitted. "I hadn't heard."
"I did," James added, finally realizing what they were talking about. "Voldemort."
"The Ministry will take care of him in a second." Peter waved a hand negligently. "I wish Dumbledore would hurry up. I'm starving."
"Some of you may see that I have the Sorting Hat here with me," Dumbledore continued. " Some of you may know why. We have a new student with us this year, and I am excited to allow her to be Sorted now. Malia Lessknot, please come forward!"
James could only stare as Malia stood, a fluid movement that made many heads turn towards her. James was certainly not the only one who had noticed her beauty, and it made him feel quite proud to think that he was the one she had snogged in the Owlery with. The best of it was that she wasn't a Slytherin! She wasn't even Sorted yet!
"I thought she was a Slytherin," James said casually to Remus.
"No," Remus shook his head. "Didn't you know? She couldn't be Sorted because Dumbledore was gone."
"Oh, yeah," James agreed casually, but inwardly his heart was soaring. Malia Lessknot was not a Slytherin!
"She might be Sorted to Slytherin, though, since she's spent so much time with them," Remus mused, watching Malia's progress as she approached the staff table where Dumbledore sat.
"Malia, please place this hat upon your head."
Malia nodded, her magnificent hair shining in the winter sunlight streaming in through the ceiling. She set the delapidated hat upon her head, closing her eyes and waiting with a hint of a smile on her face. James was clenching his fist so hard that his fingernails were biting through his skin. Not a Slytherin! he wished, staring fixedly at Malia.
"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat roared to the student body, and a great explosion of noise burst from the Gryffindor table. James grinned, relaxing visibly. Malia was a Gryffindor! She was walking to their - her - table now, her strides long and graceful. Before James could even think about where she would sit, she was next to him, asking Lily Evans to scoot over. Lily did so without blinking, and Malia took a seat.
"Congratulations, Malia!" James told her, and she gave him a beautiful smile. James was aware that some people were still watching, including Severus Snape from the Slytherin table. In front of all these people, Malia kissed James before settling down to eat the food that had appeared before them.
"Prongs!" It was Sirius, looking healthier and more fit already. "She's a looker!"
"Thank you, Padfoot." James spared no more time to converse with his best friend - he could hear Malia's smooth voice starting to speak.
"You know, it's a shame that I've come midyear," Malia said, taking a large bit of a potato. "I would have liked to try out for the Quidditch team. I'm a fair Chaser."
"A Chaser?" James repeated. "That's wonderful!"
"Wonderful?" Malia looked confused. "Why?"
"Because Valerie - that's our captain - asked me to find her a new Chaser. One of our Chasers, Larett Anders, got a nasty dose of Transfiguration and is at St. Mungo's."
"St. Mungo's?" Malis asked.
"The hospital," James explained. "We've already played Hufflepuff, we beat them 170 to nothing. I caught the Snitch in about two seconds. Out next match is against Slytherin. Valerie will be thrilled when I tell her. You will do it, won't you?"
"Of course!" Malia sounded delighted. "That works out well!"
James quite agreed. Everything was working out well, really. Malia was a Gryffindor, he'd found a Chaser, the marauders were together for the holidays to work on their map, Sirius was not going to be taking Remedial Potions, Snape hadn't gotten a chance to curse him in weeks, he would never be returning to the Forbidden Forest and those nasty spiders again, and he'd studied for a whole five minutes. Everything was working out really really well.
Epilogue: Sirius Black's work in Potions increased so much as to surpass it's former level. Malia Lessknot became Gryffindor's Chaser and helped them defeat Slytherin in the March match, 240-60. Larett Anders recovered from his bout of spell damage only weeks afterwards. Malia's mother fell ill and Malia left Hogwarts to return to Wendelin Academy. Although James Potter was very sad to see her go, Sirius was happy to point out that Lily Evans was still single. The marauders finished their fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in fine style.
THE END
A/N Thanks to everyone who read this! Please review as I like to know what people thought of my work. This is an older piece that I wrote a year or two ago, so I know it's not that great. My newer stuff (The Next Generation) is better I think. Thanks for reading! Nora
