Chapter Two: Studying
The next morning, Peter and the others awoke to a large thunk and several clatters. Rubbing his eyes, Peter got out of bed and went downstairs to see what was the matter. When he arrived in the kitchen, he saw Remus standing with Mrs. Potter, his trunk open and the contents all over the floor. Seeing Peter, and behind him, James and Sirius, Remus smiled sheepishly.
"Guess we haven't got the hang of Floo powder at my house quite yet," he said, as he began to pick up his things. Remus' family had been living in the Muggle world from the time he was four until he had received his letter inviting him to attend Hogwarts, despite his father being a very talented wizard.
"Never mind that, dear," Mrs. Potter gently replied. "I'll get it." With a flick of her wand, she had all of Remus' belongings back in his trunk.
"Thanks, Mrs. Potter," Remus sighed gratefully. She swished her wand again and the trunk disappeared.
Peter knew now that all four of the Marauders were here, they could start working on the process of becoming animagi, but of course James' mom had no idea, so she reasoned, "I'm sure you boys can't wait to get outside, so go on."
The boys looked at each other, all thinking the same thing. James said, "Thanks mom, but I think we'll be up in my room for a bit."
Mrs. Potter looked confused as the four boys ran upstairs. They each pulled out their copy of Finding Your Inner Animal and settled in, as only James had read it all so far. A few minutes later, Peter interrupted the silence.
"Remus?" he asked. "Why are you reading this if we're only learning it to be with you while you're a werewolf? You're not going to need any of this, are you?" He looked at his friend uncertainly.
"Nah," Remus answered, shaking his head. "I won't need it now, but it's interesting, and I'd like to know what you are all talking about."
His curiosity on that point satisfied, Peter turned back to the book.
Hours later, a knock at the door brought them all back to the present. "Honey?" Mrs. Potter called, sounding concerned.
James looked up guiltily. "Yes, mom?" He motioned for the other boys to put their books away. Peter quickly sat on his and tried to look as if he wasn't up to anything.
The door opened slowly and Mrs. Potter peaked her head into the room. "What are you boys still doing up here?" she asked with a quizzical look on her face.
"We were just comparing some of the homework we had for the summer, Mrs. Potter," Remus stated.
Mrs. Potter looked unbelievingly at her son, but as she looked over the innocent faces in front of her, she sighed and said, "That was good of you boys, but I really think you need to get outside on a day like today."
"Sure, mom," James agreed, standing up. The boys filed out of the room past James' mother. Peter gave her a huge smile as he walked by. She smiled back sweetly.
The Marauders walked outside and across the huge meadow that lay behind the house, giving it its name. There, they were free to discuss what they had read without fear of being overheard. For hours they discussed the methods they would have to use, and what animals each of them thought each other would become.
In the next few days, Peter and the others finished Volume I and had discussed it thoroughly. They resolved on trying the experiments the next time that they were all together, just the four of them. (Remus needed to be there in case anything went wrong, besides his strong interest.) They found that a wizard's animagus could not be chosen from any animal; there were certain animals unique to each wizard that had to be discovered and chosen from. Which of these animals became a wizard's animagus was up to that wizard, but there were ways to find which was the best fit. As Lily and Austin were arriving the next day, the group didn't have time to begin.
Peter was glad to be seeing his good friends Lily Evans and Austin Harris again, though he was sad his animagus training was on hold. When they actually arrived at James', however, Peter was kept so busy he barely noticed he wasn't finding his inner animal.
'Lily looks gorgeous as usual,' Peter thought the day after her arrival, watching her finger her long auburn hair as she talked to Remus, green eyes alight. And Austin, Peter noted with glee, had picked up quite an accent already, but was hilariously unaware of it.
"Who wants to spend the day in Diagon Alley?" Mr. Potter interrupted Peter's thoughts, and everyone's breakfast.
Cheers erupted from everyone at the table, and Mr. Potter smiled. "I had a feeling you would all like that idea. We can go as soon as breakfast is over."
Nobody seemed hungry anymore, so the trip commenced only a few minutes later. Peter followed James through the fireplace to Diagon Alley and they waited for everyone else to arrive. Staring at all the wonderful shops, Peter was amazed by them yet again. He could see a quidditch shop, Ollivander's wands and Flourish and Blotts from where he and James stood. He could hardly wait to spend the day looking through them. The sickles in his pocket were waiting to be spent, so he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, waiting for everyone to arrive.
Finally, the rest of the group appeared and they split into groups, planning to meet later in the afternoon for ice cream. Peter, Austin and Remus found themselves going one way, while James, Sirius and Lily went another, and Mr. and Mrs. Potter went yet another.
"Where to first?" Austin asked with a smile.
Remus glanced at Peter, and seeing he wasn't going to decide, said, "Smith's Defense Shoppe!"
Peter nodded eagerly, having never been in the Defense Against the Dark Arts store. The trio found the store without trouble and made their way in. Remus immediately went to the counter and began a discussion with the old man standing behind it. A small, pale girl glared at the boys from a dark corner of the store, then quickly left. Austin and Peter, who had grown quite close through their letter writing, shrugged it off and browsed the store together. Remus joined them after a few minutes and they played with everything they could, from the new, but simple Sneak-o-Scopes to the large and heavy Cunning Calculators.
None of the boys bought anything, but they had had a fun time in the shop. As they were leaving, Remus called out, "So long, Mr. Smith!" Peter and Austin echoed the goodbye and walked out onto the street.
They visited the quidditch supply shop, the magical pet shop and the book shop before it was time to meet up with everyone else. Peter hadn't seen James, Lily and Sirius since they had parted, and he had only spotted James' parents once, but with their arms intertwined while staring dreamily at each other, he hadn't thought it wise to say hello. However, both groups were there waiting at Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor when Peter, Remus and Austin arrived.
Everyone ordered excitedly, and Peter was very glad to be with a large group of people who were laughing, talking and including him. He had never had a more fun day. After a quick stop back at Flourish and Blotts for Austin, who had forgotten to pick up a book on learning French (he said the wizards pictured in the French version were too hard to understand), the entire group used Floo powder to get back to James' house.
A large and busy dinner followed their excursion, and Pokey seemed just as excited to have everyone there, but he showed his feelings by offering to do everything for everyone, which got a bit annoying after awhile. Peter enjoyed himself immensely, and he got a chance to talk to Lily.
"How is your awful Muggle sister, Petunia?" Peter asked.
Lily sighed. "Quite as terrible as usual, I'm afraid." She smiled. "She's half afraid of me and half afraid that everyone will find out she's related to a 'freak'." She looked closely at Peter. "Do you have any brothers or sisters? I can't believe I don't know."
"Oh," Peter responded, startled. "I have a brother Brian, who's, like 23. He's a big shot at some company- he handles their runes or something. That's all my parents ever talk about." Peter shredded his napkin as he spoke.
"Oh." Lily looked concerned for Peter, but was a bit lost on what to say. "I'm sorry about that." She continued, in a lower voice, "I know what you did for Remus, you know. I just wanted to tell you thank you, and that I'm very proud of you."
Peter blushed furiously, and Lily kindly turned to Sirius and changed the subject. After he had saved Remus from being shot by a Muggle farmer while Remus was a dangerous werewolf, Peter hadn't wanted to tell anyone. But the others had insisted on telling Lily the entire truth (well, almost, they left out the part about the map of Hogwarts' secret passages they had been making) and Dumbledore had had to tell an extremely edited version of the events to the entire school to explain the points Peter had won for Gryffindor. It wasn't that Peter wasn't happy or proud about what he'd done, he just didn't want a fuss made over him. 'I'm just Peter, after all,' he thought, pushing the events of last year out of his head.
Lily turned back to Peter to ask him who he thought would win the Quidditch World Cup. "I say it'll be Columbia, but Sirius insists France will win."
Peter hesitated, looking over at Austin for a clue as to what he should answer. Austin grinned broadly and Peter smiled back. "I wouldn't bet against the French."
"I think you're sadly mistaken, my friend," James spoke softly. "Columbia can't be beat."
Sirius glared at him, and then he and James turned to Remus, who shook his head.
"There's no way I'm picking sides in this war! I don't know anything about either team."
James and Sirius looked disappointed, and sat back in their seats, still scowling at one another. Trying to lighten the mood, Mr. Potter started reminiscing about the first World Cup he had attended. Soon Peter, and the whole table, had forgotten about the disagreement and were listening intently to James' dad. He was quite a storyteller and for almost an hour he kept them all entertained with descriptions of the game as well as some familiar wizards. Pacified, James and Sirius seemed to forget all about their dispute as Peter and the others followed them upstairs after dinner.
"I just can't wait until we get to see the World Cup," Sirius said with a sigh as he sat on James' bed.
James nodded vigorously. "Then we can tell our children all about it, too."
Lily laughed. "Already thinking about children, James?"
Blushing furiously, James sputtered, "No!"
"We are actually going to arrive at the World Cup a few days before it starts," Remus said loudly, turning the attention towards himself.
"Why?" Peter asked, catching on to Remus' plan. He didn't want to see James embarrassed like that any more than Remus did.
"We have to arrive in waves, so as not to attract Muggle attention," Remus explained. "My dad just found out that with our tickets, we have to arrive 3 days in advance."
Peter's face fell. This meant they would be leaving James' two days earlier than planned. He didn't want to lose this time with his friends. But he needn't have worried- the remaining time at James' was fun and fast paced, but the group was closer than they had been when they had left Hogwarts last June. The time came to leave and Mr. Lupin appeared at the Meadow to meet them.
"Hello boys," Mr. Lupin said, grinning like a schoolboy.
"Hello, Mr. Lupin," Peter answered, grinning back.
Mr. Lupin held up a hand. "Call me Nick," he insisted.
Lily, James, Sirius and Austin answered, "Hello, Nick!" while Remus said, "Good to see you, dad!"
"We have to get all of our stuff together so we can go catch our Portkey to the World Cup site," Nick said, and Peter and the others ran off to get their bags. In a minute, they were back and after thanking the Potters for having them over, they walked through James' neighborhood to a park.
"Where are we going?" Austin whispered to Peter.
"We have to take a Portkey to the World Cup," Peter answered. "I bet it's in the park, that way several groups can go together."
Austin still looked confused, so Peter continued, "A Portkey is an ordinary object that when touched will take you to a certain spot."
"Oh," Austin replied, as they arrived in the park.
Nick picked up an old shoe. "This is probably it," he said. "Everyone touch it, it is scheduled to go in two minutes."
As Peter put a finger on the shoe, he began to get nervous. He had heard of Portkeys, but he had never traveled by one before. What if he got left behind or went to the wrong place? Nick looked at Peter and smiled reassuringly.
"I guess we're the only ones from around here going to the World Cup today," Nick said.
"Or we're the only ones young enough to not be able to apparate there," James countered.
Nick smiled. "Maybe, but apparating to France would be a bit dangerous. It isn't as reliable at long dis-"
At that moment, Peter felt a strong tug behind his stomach as the scene around him swirled out of control. A moment later, Peter fell on the ground with a thud. He heard the others hit the ground as well, and they struggled to disentangle arms, legs and bags.
A hassled looking witch called out to them in a French accent, "Welcome to ze Quidditch World Cup. Could you come over 'ere pleez? We're expecting anozer group from Bulgaria in one minute."
The next morning, Peter and the others awoke to a large thunk and several clatters. Rubbing his eyes, Peter got out of bed and went downstairs to see what was the matter. When he arrived in the kitchen, he saw Remus standing with Mrs. Potter, his trunk open and the contents all over the floor. Seeing Peter, and behind him, James and Sirius, Remus smiled sheepishly.
"Guess we haven't got the hang of Floo powder at my house quite yet," he said, as he began to pick up his things. Remus' family had been living in the Muggle world from the time he was four until he had received his letter inviting him to attend Hogwarts, despite his father being a very talented wizard.
"Never mind that, dear," Mrs. Potter gently replied. "I'll get it." With a flick of her wand, she had all of Remus' belongings back in his trunk.
"Thanks, Mrs. Potter," Remus sighed gratefully. She swished her wand again and the trunk disappeared.
Peter knew now that all four of the Marauders were here, they could start working on the process of becoming animagi, but of course James' mom had no idea, so she reasoned, "I'm sure you boys can't wait to get outside, so go on."
The boys looked at each other, all thinking the same thing. James said, "Thanks mom, but I think we'll be up in my room for a bit."
Mrs. Potter looked confused as the four boys ran upstairs. They each pulled out their copy of Finding Your Inner Animal and settled in, as only James had read it all so far. A few minutes later, Peter interrupted the silence.
"Remus?" he asked. "Why are you reading this if we're only learning it to be with you while you're a werewolf? You're not going to need any of this, are you?" He looked at his friend uncertainly.
"Nah," Remus answered, shaking his head. "I won't need it now, but it's interesting, and I'd like to know what you are all talking about."
His curiosity on that point satisfied, Peter turned back to the book.
Hours later, a knock at the door brought them all back to the present. "Honey?" Mrs. Potter called, sounding concerned.
James looked up guiltily. "Yes, mom?" He motioned for the other boys to put their books away. Peter quickly sat on his and tried to look as if he wasn't up to anything.
The door opened slowly and Mrs. Potter peaked her head into the room. "What are you boys still doing up here?" she asked with a quizzical look on her face.
"We were just comparing some of the homework we had for the summer, Mrs. Potter," Remus stated.
Mrs. Potter looked unbelievingly at her son, but as she looked over the innocent faces in front of her, she sighed and said, "That was good of you boys, but I really think you need to get outside on a day like today."
"Sure, mom," James agreed, standing up. The boys filed out of the room past James' mother. Peter gave her a huge smile as he walked by. She smiled back sweetly.
The Marauders walked outside and across the huge meadow that lay behind the house, giving it its name. There, they were free to discuss what they had read without fear of being overheard. For hours they discussed the methods they would have to use, and what animals each of them thought each other would become.
In the next few days, Peter and the others finished Volume I and had discussed it thoroughly. They resolved on trying the experiments the next time that they were all together, just the four of them. (Remus needed to be there in case anything went wrong, besides his strong interest.) They found that a wizard's animagus could not be chosen from any animal; there were certain animals unique to each wizard that had to be discovered and chosen from. Which of these animals became a wizard's animagus was up to that wizard, but there were ways to find which was the best fit. As Lily and Austin were arriving the next day, the group didn't have time to begin.
Peter was glad to be seeing his good friends Lily Evans and Austin Harris again, though he was sad his animagus training was on hold. When they actually arrived at James', however, Peter was kept so busy he barely noticed he wasn't finding his inner animal.
'Lily looks gorgeous as usual,' Peter thought the day after her arrival, watching her finger her long auburn hair as she talked to Remus, green eyes alight. And Austin, Peter noted with glee, had picked up quite an accent already, but was hilariously unaware of it.
"Who wants to spend the day in Diagon Alley?" Mr. Potter interrupted Peter's thoughts, and everyone's breakfast.
Cheers erupted from everyone at the table, and Mr. Potter smiled. "I had a feeling you would all like that idea. We can go as soon as breakfast is over."
Nobody seemed hungry anymore, so the trip commenced only a few minutes later. Peter followed James through the fireplace to Diagon Alley and they waited for everyone else to arrive. Staring at all the wonderful shops, Peter was amazed by them yet again. He could see a quidditch shop, Ollivander's wands and Flourish and Blotts from where he and James stood. He could hardly wait to spend the day looking through them. The sickles in his pocket were waiting to be spent, so he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, waiting for everyone to arrive.
Finally, the rest of the group appeared and they split into groups, planning to meet later in the afternoon for ice cream. Peter, Austin and Remus found themselves going one way, while James, Sirius and Lily went another, and Mr. and Mrs. Potter went yet another.
"Where to first?" Austin asked with a smile.
Remus glanced at Peter, and seeing he wasn't going to decide, said, "Smith's Defense Shoppe!"
Peter nodded eagerly, having never been in the Defense Against the Dark Arts store. The trio found the store without trouble and made their way in. Remus immediately went to the counter and began a discussion with the old man standing behind it. A small, pale girl glared at the boys from a dark corner of the store, then quickly left. Austin and Peter, who had grown quite close through their letter writing, shrugged it off and browsed the store together. Remus joined them after a few minutes and they played with everything they could, from the new, but simple Sneak-o-Scopes to the large and heavy Cunning Calculators.
None of the boys bought anything, but they had had a fun time in the shop. As they were leaving, Remus called out, "So long, Mr. Smith!" Peter and Austin echoed the goodbye and walked out onto the street.
They visited the quidditch supply shop, the magical pet shop and the book shop before it was time to meet up with everyone else. Peter hadn't seen James, Lily and Sirius since they had parted, and he had only spotted James' parents once, but with their arms intertwined while staring dreamily at each other, he hadn't thought it wise to say hello. However, both groups were there waiting at Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor when Peter, Remus and Austin arrived.
Everyone ordered excitedly, and Peter was very glad to be with a large group of people who were laughing, talking and including him. He had never had a more fun day. After a quick stop back at Flourish and Blotts for Austin, who had forgotten to pick up a book on learning French (he said the wizards pictured in the French version were too hard to understand), the entire group used Floo powder to get back to James' house.
A large and busy dinner followed their excursion, and Pokey seemed just as excited to have everyone there, but he showed his feelings by offering to do everything for everyone, which got a bit annoying after awhile. Peter enjoyed himself immensely, and he got a chance to talk to Lily.
"How is your awful Muggle sister, Petunia?" Peter asked.
Lily sighed. "Quite as terrible as usual, I'm afraid." She smiled. "She's half afraid of me and half afraid that everyone will find out she's related to a 'freak'." She looked closely at Peter. "Do you have any brothers or sisters? I can't believe I don't know."
"Oh," Peter responded, startled. "I have a brother Brian, who's, like 23. He's a big shot at some company- he handles their runes or something. That's all my parents ever talk about." Peter shredded his napkin as he spoke.
"Oh." Lily looked concerned for Peter, but was a bit lost on what to say. "I'm sorry about that." She continued, in a lower voice, "I know what you did for Remus, you know. I just wanted to tell you thank you, and that I'm very proud of you."
Peter blushed furiously, and Lily kindly turned to Sirius and changed the subject. After he had saved Remus from being shot by a Muggle farmer while Remus was a dangerous werewolf, Peter hadn't wanted to tell anyone. But the others had insisted on telling Lily the entire truth (well, almost, they left out the part about the map of Hogwarts' secret passages they had been making) and Dumbledore had had to tell an extremely edited version of the events to the entire school to explain the points Peter had won for Gryffindor. It wasn't that Peter wasn't happy or proud about what he'd done, he just didn't want a fuss made over him. 'I'm just Peter, after all,' he thought, pushing the events of last year out of his head.
Lily turned back to Peter to ask him who he thought would win the Quidditch World Cup. "I say it'll be Columbia, but Sirius insists France will win."
Peter hesitated, looking over at Austin for a clue as to what he should answer. Austin grinned broadly and Peter smiled back. "I wouldn't bet against the French."
"I think you're sadly mistaken, my friend," James spoke softly. "Columbia can't be beat."
Sirius glared at him, and then he and James turned to Remus, who shook his head.
"There's no way I'm picking sides in this war! I don't know anything about either team."
James and Sirius looked disappointed, and sat back in their seats, still scowling at one another. Trying to lighten the mood, Mr. Potter started reminiscing about the first World Cup he had attended. Soon Peter, and the whole table, had forgotten about the disagreement and were listening intently to James' dad. He was quite a storyteller and for almost an hour he kept them all entertained with descriptions of the game as well as some familiar wizards. Pacified, James and Sirius seemed to forget all about their dispute as Peter and the others followed them upstairs after dinner.
"I just can't wait until we get to see the World Cup," Sirius said with a sigh as he sat on James' bed.
James nodded vigorously. "Then we can tell our children all about it, too."
Lily laughed. "Already thinking about children, James?"
Blushing furiously, James sputtered, "No!"
"We are actually going to arrive at the World Cup a few days before it starts," Remus said loudly, turning the attention towards himself.
"Why?" Peter asked, catching on to Remus' plan. He didn't want to see James embarrassed like that any more than Remus did.
"We have to arrive in waves, so as not to attract Muggle attention," Remus explained. "My dad just found out that with our tickets, we have to arrive 3 days in advance."
Peter's face fell. This meant they would be leaving James' two days earlier than planned. He didn't want to lose this time with his friends. But he needn't have worried- the remaining time at James' was fun and fast paced, but the group was closer than they had been when they had left Hogwarts last June. The time came to leave and Mr. Lupin appeared at the Meadow to meet them.
"Hello boys," Mr. Lupin said, grinning like a schoolboy.
"Hello, Mr. Lupin," Peter answered, grinning back.
Mr. Lupin held up a hand. "Call me Nick," he insisted.
Lily, James, Sirius and Austin answered, "Hello, Nick!" while Remus said, "Good to see you, dad!"
"We have to get all of our stuff together so we can go catch our Portkey to the World Cup site," Nick said, and Peter and the others ran off to get their bags. In a minute, they were back and after thanking the Potters for having them over, they walked through James' neighborhood to a park.
"Where are we going?" Austin whispered to Peter.
"We have to take a Portkey to the World Cup," Peter answered. "I bet it's in the park, that way several groups can go together."
Austin still looked confused, so Peter continued, "A Portkey is an ordinary object that when touched will take you to a certain spot."
"Oh," Austin replied, as they arrived in the park.
Nick picked up an old shoe. "This is probably it," he said. "Everyone touch it, it is scheduled to go in two minutes."
As Peter put a finger on the shoe, he began to get nervous. He had heard of Portkeys, but he had never traveled by one before. What if he got left behind or went to the wrong place? Nick looked at Peter and smiled reassuringly.
"I guess we're the only ones from around here going to the World Cup today," Nick said.
"Or we're the only ones young enough to not be able to apparate there," James countered.
Nick smiled. "Maybe, but apparating to France would be a bit dangerous. It isn't as reliable at long dis-"
At that moment, Peter felt a strong tug behind his stomach as the scene around him swirled out of control. A moment later, Peter fell on the ground with a thud. He heard the others hit the ground as well, and they struggled to disentangle arms, legs and bags.
A hassled looking witch called out to them in a French accent, "Welcome to ze Quidditch World Cup. Could you come over 'ere pleez? We're expecting anozer group from Bulgaria in one minute."