A/N: right, well nearly there, only 6 more chapters to write!

Chapter 25

"I can't believe you're so young Remmie dude," said Sirius lazily one evening in the middle of June. The three first year boys, James, Sirius and Remus were 'doing their homework' by the lake. Only Remus was actually doing his homework.

"I'm not that young," said Remus looking up from his History of Magic essay on ancient Egyptian wizards, "I'm sure there are loads of people younger than me here." As soon as he'd finished speaking he continued to scribble away.

"Name someone," said James who was skimming stones across the lake, he could only do this safely at the moment as the squid was rather preoccupied with some fifth years who were feeding it bread.

"Well, I can't think of anyone right now," said Remus, once again moving away from his essay to talk to the other two.

"Hah! Exactly!" laughed Sirius, "I bet you're the youngest person in our year!"

"I won't be" said Remus, looking up but continuing to write, "I'm sure there are people who have their birthday in July and August. It would be so weird to have you're birthday at the end of July though, you would only just get into this year, otherwise you'd be in the year below."

"Yeah, that would be weird, but you would seem really old to the people in the year below," said James, looking for another flat rock.

"Yeah, that would be pretty cool," Sirius chipped in, "You'd be able to boss them around and everything!"

"Well I was thinking that they might come to you for advice, but whatever" said Remus, talking to Sirius face to face but continuing to write.

"Remus can you either write or talk to me! Don't do both it's creeping me out! What are you a woman or something?" Sirius said taking Remus' quill out of his hand and throwing it behind him.

Remus got up to collect his quill and asked Sirius what he was talking about, James told him that Sirius was just jealous of his ability to multitask.

"So then, Remmie dude…" Sirius started but was interrupted by Remus, "Can you not call me that, my name is REMUS not REMMIE!"

"Fine! So, what are we going to do for your party?" Sirius continued.

"Oh you don't have to do anything, I'm just glad it doesn't land on the full moon this year…." Remus stopped suddenly and blushed.

"Care to elaborate?" asked James looking interested for the first time.

"No, I'm ok!" squeaked Remus.

"Well," said Sirius still looking intently at Remus, "I was thinking that me and Jamsie boy here could slip into Hogsmeade and get supplies and have a big party in the dormitory or something"

"Cool idea Siri. We could have it just us three!" said James.

"We have to invite Andrew, and Katie and Gem as well though," said Sirius, looking pretty serious.

"Well, yeah that goes without saying!" laughed James, "but what are we going to do about Evans and Pettigrew, if they find out they're bound to tell on us, stupid tell tales!"

Sirius thought for a minute before saying, "We'll just have to make sure they have somewhere else to go."

"Like where?" asked Remus incredulously.

"Like……a book reading club!" said Sirius, looking proud of himself.

"There's a book reading club?" asked Remus "Why did no one tell me?"

"There isn't really a book reading club, we're just going to say there is to get rid of them!" said James, looking at surprised at how slow his clever friend could be.

"Ahh right, good idea! But when you go to Hogsmeade, don't get caught!" said Remus.

Later that evening in the common room James and Sirius were pushing Remus over towards Lily and Peter who were playing chess at a small table, away from everyone else.

"I don't get why I have to go over there guys!" hissed Remus.

"Like they're going to believe that either me or Sirius is going to go to a book club!" laughed James giving Remus a final shove.

"Hi Lily, Peter" Remus greeted them, nodding to each in turn. "I just thought I'd tell you that there's going to be a book reading club starting next Tuesday in the Transfiguration classroom and I was wondering whether you wanted to go?"

"Wow, Remus, yeah, that would be great!" said Lily amazed that someone was talking to her, "We'd love to go, wouldn't we Peter?"

"I suppose so. Will James be there?" he asked hopefully.

"Erm, yeah! He will! So see you there next Tuesday then. We're going to decided on a book list then" Remus said and paused for a minute, "Ok bye then!" he said and rushed off back to his friends.

"Did they buy it?" asked James earnestly.

"Every word!" grinned Remus, "You guys have well and truly corrupted me you know!"

"Not quite Remmie, not quite!" laughed Sirius.

A week later in the first year girls' dormitory Lily couldn't understand why everyone she asked about the book club had either never heard of it or had too much homework, she was told personally and she hadn't had homework for weeks, just revision for the end of year exams.

"Anna, are you sure you don't want to go to the book club with me?" Lily asked one last time to make sure.

"Yeah, I do love reading but I have this astronomy homework that just can't wait," Anna lied, trying her best not to give anything away, she would feel safe as soon as she was in the boys' dormitory at Remus' party.

"But we didn't get any astronomy homework!" said Lily, astounded.

"Oh yeah, well, this is extra credit work!" Anna managed to stammer out.

Lily looked stumped as Anna didn't seem the type to ask for extra work but she looked pretty certain as to what she was doing so she just left and made her way down to the transfiguration room by herself. She slowly walked along, thinking to herself about the turnabout in the year. At the beginning of the year she had plenty of friends and a best friend but now she had no one, except Peter but he didn't really like her, he was just in the same situation as she was.

Lily reached the classroom after about five minutes of meandering along the corridors. She found it empty and sat down and waited for everyone the turn up, Peter arrived after about ten minutes and apologised for not being able to make it as he had to help Professor Dreamstone with some marking so Lily sat alone in the dark classroom and waited, and waited and waited.

"Right, so me and Sirius…" started James but was interrupted by Katie clearing her throat, "oh right, and Katie, are going to go to Hogsmeade and by sweets and butterbeer and the rest of you stay here and GET THIS PARTY STARTED!" There was a loud cheer from the majority of the Gryffindor first year and James, Sirius and Katie left the dormitory.

"Come on you guys, we've got to be quick and we can't be seen! Alright?" said James to his companions who nodded dutifully. They found their way, eventually, back to the statue of the one eyed witch and found their way into the cellar of Honeyduke's. Katie was wide eyed with wonder as they stepped into the shop, she'd never seen so many sweets before.

"Right," said James, who was the self elected leader of the mission, "we buy as many sweets as possible with the money we've been given then we make our way to the Three Broomsticks to buy butterbeer!" once again the other two nodded in agreement.

Lily sat in the dark, by herself wondering what she would do if the next six years of her life were to be anything like this one. Would she ever make any more friends? Was there the possibility that she could make friends with people in other houses? Or were they already in set groups? She would have to wait and see and if things got worse there was always the option of dropping out and returning to normal school with her sister.

"Why are they taking so long with the food?" asked Gemini, her stomach grumbling.

"What if they've been caught?" asked Sarah.

"They won't have been caught!" laughed Anna, "They're way to smart!"

"Anna, they're not that smart, Sirius couldn't even spell 'rabbit'" said Sarah seriously.

"Ok, well they're not smart in a traditional, academic sense but they're good at pranks, right?" Anna replied, Gemini and Remus nodded in agreement.

"Ok men!" said James, Katie looked and him, "Fine! Ok man and woman! We're going to proceed to the Three Broomsticks now, make sure we don't get…." But before he could finish they were interrupted by a loud cry of "MR POTTER! WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

"Oh no!" cried Sirius "It's Dreamstone!"

"What? I thought she was marking tonight, with Peter, that's what he said!" said Katie, beginning to panic.

"Oh the little sneak! Why when I catch him I will…" started James but decided to run and hide and think about that later. The three twelve year olds ran as fast as their legs would carry them into an old wooden building.

"I think we lost them," Sirius managed to say through gasps of breath.

"Yeah, thank god! We're going to be so dead when we get back up to school though!" James said, looking around, "Where are we?" he added as an after note.

"Oh no!" said Katie, turning pale, "I think we're in the Shrieking Shack!"

"THE WHAT?" asked Sirius and James at the same time, not liking the look on Katie's face.

"The Shrieking Shack, my brother told me all about it, apparently it's haunted!" she whispered to the others, they all turned around to see the battered, shabby room and stared in horror.