Author's Notes: Yes it has been a while. Most of that time was spent bashing my head against the wall in math and chemistry, practising pickup lines that will never be used, trying desperately to fill in plot holes, straying to the Inuyasha fandom (oh, those sexy dog ears), and mourning over the tragic death in Half Blood Prince and lamenting how the new information screwed up my plot. But now I have it all sorted out, so things are good to go. Except, of course, that biology is back with a vengeance, but I'll try to squeeze around it. Besides, nothings more irritating than hiatus. Not that I expect many readers to remember this story…
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related materials. If I did, you could expect higher quality material and more frequent updates.
After the brawl, the Slytherins seemed to have decided not to risk heckling Sirius in the open. By the end of the week, they had stopped trying to bother him at all, grudgingly accepting his placement for the time being. Sirius' mood improved without their bullying, and he was able to feel at ease within Hogwarts at last.
James' attitude wasn't too shabby either. In fact, he began to wonder why he had worried in the first place. Most of the people were downright friendly to him, and he quickly gained unusual popularity for a first-year. Being the Boy-Who-Lived had its profits, apparently. Fellow students even treated his friends with respect, something which Peter adored, puzzled Remus, and Sirius shrugged off. James suspected that Sirius was the only one used to having a gaggle of people trailing after him.
The only uneven stitch was the fact that, even after a precise explanation of James' fame, Lily Evans, the pretty redhead, didn't seem to care. Of course, James hardly expected her to be swooning at his heels, but it wasn't everyday that you met someone who had survived the deadliest wizarding curse around.
Deciding to talk to her, James approached her one Saturday afternoon in the Gryffindor common room (decked in tasteful Gryffindor red and gold, of course). She was sitting in a squishy armchair by the fireplace, pouring over a Transfiguration textbook.
"Hullo," James ventured.
She glanced up, furrowed her eyebrows, and said, "Hullo." Her vibrant green eyes returned to the pages of her book.
James shuffled his feet awkwardly. He sat down in the sofa beside her, suddenly feeling queasy. "You're Lily Evans, right?"
"I am," she responded. "And I already know that you're James Potter."
"I figured," James said. Lily leaned further over, her nose mere inches from the print.
"Um…I was, er, wondering…" James continued, intently waiting for her to move. Or something. "Did I…er, do something to offend you?" She looked up at him curiously. "Not assuming anything, of course," he blurted out. His stomach seemed to be performing acrobatics. "But you don't seem to…ah…you know…"
"Be fawning over you?" she asked, her eyebrow raised.
"No, no," James reassured. "It's just that you kind of – avoid me. Sometimes."
"You're not offending me," she said coolly, and returned to reading.
"But then, why are you-"
"I'm not trying to be rude to you," Lily stated, looking up again. "I'm just not as…friendly as you are."
"Meaning?"
A frown quirked on her face. "I'm not going to follow after you because you're famous."
James was taken aback. "I don't expect you to. But does that bother you somehow?"
She sighed and closed her textbook. "I respect the fact that you are the only one to ever survive the Killing Curse, and that you defeated You-Know-Who at such a young age. I'm very sorry that you lost your parents when he attacked, I truly am. But I don't think it makes you any more important than the rest of us. You've done a great thing, but you're still a regular wizard, just like everyone else. It doesn't give you the right to parade around your popularity."
"I am not parading!" James squawked indignantly.
"You're not very humble about it," she countered.
"And I don't think that I'm better than everyone else because of what happened!"
Her eyes narrowed. "Keep telling yourself that. One day it might be true."
"It is true," James insisted. "I'm not a pig-headed git. If you bothered to talk to me once in a while, you might see that!"
"I would talk to you more if you weren't so – " she inhaled deeply, searching for the right words, "-pompous about defeating a Dark Lord when you were a baby!"
"I am not!"
"I would be even more impressed if you did show some great talent at spells, but so far you've just been like all the rest of us first-years. Yet you think that every little magic you do is so special, and you show off to your little followers all the time, when really it's nothing special at all!" Lily's face had turned red, and she glared vehemently at him. "I would respect you if you did have some power, and you were humble about it!"
James seethed for a minute. Her accusations were completely unfair. He was not pompous, and he was not a show-off. He bit his lip to keep from exploding at her stupid face. How did he ever think she was pretty?
"I don't think that I'm all powerful, for your information," he hissed. "And the only fame that I would ever want is for something that I worked for myself, not some stroke of luck that happened before I could even remember." James stalked off. Lily must have had nothing to say, for she only watched him stride angrily away with a furious stare.
I'll show her, James thought as he made a beeline towards the boy's dormitories. I'll prove that there's more to me than some deflected old curse.
He bumped into Sirius on his way up the stairs.
"Hey, James," he said casually, "Something nibbling your bum?"
"What?"
"Something bothering you?"
James shook his head. Sirius said the strangest things. "It's just that Evans girl. She's calling me pompous and a show off."
Sirius chuckled. "Pompous, eh? I believe that's Malfoy's picture in the dictionary, not yours. I'd be more concerned about her confusing you with that blond pansy. Besides, we have bigger fish to fry." He grasped James' arm and lead him back down the stairs. "What say you about…secret passage hunting?"
A smile tugged at the corners of James' mouth. "I say we hunt, my good fellow."
Sirius' teeth were bared in a mischievous grin. "Excellent."
The rest of the afternoon went splendidly. He and Sirius found around three different tunnels and corridors, all in the floor just below Gryffindor tower. They had only managed to follow two, because halfway through the third passage they realized that it was time for supper. They managed to sprint out just in time, and walked nonchalantly with the rest of the students down to the Great Hall.
"You know," James whispered, looking around to make sure that no one was watching, "we ought to mark where the passages are. They might come in handy." He caught Sirius' eye and they both grinned. It was never too early to make their first school year interesting.
"A map should do the trick," Sirius ventured. "But it has to be in some sort of code. We can't have anyone else reading it."
"We could trust Remus and Peter," James said thoughtfully. "They seem like the kind of people that would be able to keep it a secret."
"But are they pranksters?" Sirius pointed out.
James stroked a pretend beard and said, "We'll just have to find out."
Their two quiet friends had saved them each a seat. Remus was reading a Muggle book, and Peter kept on trying to read over his shoulder.
"Will you please stop?" Remus said, sighing with exasperated patience. "I'll let you read it once I'm finished."
"What is it?" Sirius asked. He snatched the book from Remus' hands, skimming over the book summary at the back.
"Hey! Give it back!" Remus protested.
Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Lord of the Rings, eh?" he read further, and looked at the detailed illustration on the front. "Is it just me, or are Muggles absolutely fascinated with our fine wizarding selves?"
"It's a very popular book," James said approvingly. "I've never read it before. Is it any good?"
Remus nodded shyly. "Yes. The first book is a little boring, but the last two are all right." He took the book back from Sirius and shovelled some potatoes and gravy onto his plate. "Mum's got me hooked on them. In fact, she actually ordered me to read them. She's got a whole stack of Muggle books waiting for me at home."
"You'd think she'd have had enough of books by now, what with all the stuff she's written," commented James. He took some chicken and passed the plate to Peter. "How many has she done now?"
"A lot," answered Peter.
"Speaking of your Mum," Sirius said through a mouthful of chicken, "have you read about the Gringotts break in?"
"Gringotts?" James pondered. "The wizard bank?"
Remus looked taken aback. "What's that got to do with my Mum?"
Sirius shrugged. "Nothing, of course."
Peter stared at his meat. "I thought no one was able to break in there."
"You and everyone else," Remus said.
"'Cept for the robber."
"Quite right, James," Remus agreed. "I heard that nothing was taken, though."
Sirius snorted. "The idiot broke into an empty vault. It had been cleared out before he got in there."
"What was in the vault?" James queried. "Just money?"
"Probably not. The only way for a person to just take out all their money for one outing is if they are extremely poor, or moving," reasoned Remus. "The robber would have only made the effort if he could get into a vault with some value to it, so that means it wasn't a poor person. I haven't seen any adverts about mansions for sale anywhere, and I haven't heard of any aristocrats moving out either. So, my guess is that it was an object of some sort."
"You seem to have thought this out pretty well," Sirius said suspiciously. "Are you sure you're not the thief?"
Remus snorted. "Oh yes. Schoolboy by day, burglar by night."
All of them snickered.
A sudden silence spread through the hall, drawing the boys' attention away from their meals to the head table, where the headmaster had stood up to make a speech.
"Before I send you off, I have some important news to inform you of."
"Remus really is the burglar," Sirius whispered. A potato suddenly walloped his forehead.
Dumbledore continued. "There has been a Whomping Willow planted on the grounds for Herbology research. I can trust that you will all do your best to avoid it, as Whomping Willows are very dangerous. They will hit you if you come within reach, and they have a very poor temper. I advise caution to you all."
Remus seemed unusually attentive to this announcement. James and Sirius exchanged a look, while Peter munched on his supper obliviously.
James heard some muttering further down the table. Many of the students seemed confused about this new development. "First the third floor corridor, now a violent tree!" and, "I swear, somebody out there wants to see which student will be the last one standing."
He turned his attention back to his friends, perplexed. "What's a Whomping Willow?"
"A willow that whomps," Sirius explained, "obviously."
"We'd all best stay away from it," Remus said quietly. He gathered up his book and a last piece of toast before he left the hall.
Sirius watched him leave. "What's wrong with him?"
"With who?" Peter asked from his plate.
&
Classes were not very difficult, despite what Lily Evans had to say about James' magical talent. In fact, after the first few days, they had become comfortably easy. The teachers seemed pleased with James' progress. All except three. Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor she may be, treated all her students the same. She could care less about James' fame, and she cared even less about which house a student came from. This earned her several degrees of respect amongst the students, even with some of the Slytherins. Then there was Professor Binns, the History of Magic professor. He was a ghost and had taught all of his life and after life, so it wasn't surprising no longer could tell the difference between one student and another. It didn't really matter to James anyway, since History of Magic was as dull as Geography had been back at the orphanage.
And then there was the pallid Professor Snape, the Potions Master. He didn't favour him, like McGonagall and Binns, but he didn't disregard him either. Snape simply didn't like him. On his very first day in Potions, he had deliberately tried to stump James by asking him random questions from the textbook. James failed to answer all of them correctly, much to the Professor's delight. It infuriated James to think that the man expected him to memorize the entire book, yet skimmed over any error made by even the stupidest of the Slytherins. It was true that Snape held no favour for any Gryffindor, but he disliked James more than the others. Unfortunately, he included Sirius and the others in his contempt, just because they chose to associate with James. When James was complaining about it, Remus shook his head and explained.
"Your dad and him never got along back in school. Mum told me they fought all the time."
"Did my dad kick his –"
"They argued. Snape wouldn't have stood a chance in a fistfight."
"Bugger."
Besides hating James, Snape adored the Slytherins. Lucius Malfoy was a particular favourite of his. Snape relished contrasting the two, pointing out faults both real and imagined in James' concoction and praising Malfoy's endlessly.
"This is stupid," James said bitterly after one lesson, trying his hardest to ignore the cocky look Malfoy sent his way. "There was nothing wrong with that one, I'm sure of it."
"He's never going to like you James," Sirius said frankly. "Just face it. You could make the best potion in the world, and he would grade Malfoy's pig slop better than yours."
Still, James thought, what if he did manage to do perfectly in Potions? It might not make the git like him, but it would certainly make James feel better about it. After all, what else could you do about an insult but prove it wrong?
That night, when the four of them were sitting around the fire, Sirius and James decided to test their two comrades.
"Honestly," yawned Peter, "What are we waiting up for? We've finished our homework and whatnot –"
James shushed him. Remus and Peter simultaneously furrowed their eyebrows.
"Look at dear little Evans," Sirius said in a motherly voice. Lily was currently hunched over her parchment, scribbling fervently. "Isn't she a busy little bee. She'll get right worn out if she works much longer."
As Sirius said this, Lily went to dip her quill in the ink bottle. A cloud of grey smoke exploded in her face. She reeled back, fell on the floor, and laid there, sprawled out in a blissful sleep.
The boys tried their hardest to contain their laughter, but it was too irresistible when Lily began to snore softly. They guffawed heartily, watching her snooze happily away. Fortunately, everyone else had gone to bed already, or they would have been reported to a prefect in an instant.
"Slumber potion from Wednesday," James clarified once the laughter had died down. "We couldn't resist keeping a bit for ourselves."
"That was great!" Peter blurted out. He could barely contain his excitement.
"How did you get it in the ink bottle?" Remus asked.
"It's a secret," supplied Sirius, winking.
James pretended to look at his fingernails nonchalantly. "We could tell you, but that all depends."
"On what?" Peter asked eagerly.
"If you're willing to keep quiet about it," Sirius said, his tone serious. "If we include you on the next prank, then you have to agree not to tattle on us. Or tell anyone how we did it."
Peter and Remus looked at each other. It was easy to tell that Peter was more than willing to comply, but Remus' face was unreadable.
"So," James persisted, "do you swear to secrecy?"
Peter nodded so enthusiastically James thought that the boy's head might fall off. "Yes, yes! Of course!"
Sirius grinned at him, then looked at Remus, expecting the same sort of response. However, Remus remained withdrawn. Sirius began to frown as Remus thought for a while.
"I think –" Remus started. "I mean, I won't tell anyone about anything. But I don't think that I should help you with it. We might get in trouble, and I couldn't…"
"What are you saying?" James said. "We won't get caught. We'll be careful. Besides, it's not like we're going to do anything illegal."
"I know," Remus said, looking at them worriedly. "But there's…I just can't do it. I can't afford to be caught."
"Why?" Sirius said. "All you'd get is a detention –"
"It's not just that!" Remus snapped. All of them were taken aback, staring at their normally mild-mannered friend. "My family – my mum – and Dumbledore…" He made a face. "Forget it. You wouldn't understand."
He turned and made for the dormitories sullenly. Peter called after him.
"Remus?"
But he didn't answer. They heard the door open, then close, and silence was cast about the Common Room. Lily's subtle snoring rumbled on ignored as the three remaining boys shared glances both worried and perplexed.
"There's something he's not telling us," Sirius said darkly, but his expression was still concerned.
"You don't think" Peter said timidly, "that maybe it's something to do with his dad?"
James and Sirius shrugged.
"Maybe, but Sirius' entire family is more suspicious than Remus' dad," James pointed out. "No offence."
"None taken."
"But what else could it be?" Peter mused. He began to absently chew on his fingernail.
"He's not really poor, is he?" James asked. "His mum did write an awful lot of books."
"No, he's not. But that would make sense if it was true," Sirius said. "He wouldn't want to blow his chance at school if he could barely afford it."
James furrowed his eyebrows. "Maybe he's just worried about getting caught. He might feel like he has to obey all the rules, or something."
"We should ask one of his cousins," Sirius concluded. All of them nodded complacently. After all, with so many relatives at Hogwarts, one of them was bound to know what was wrong with him.
&
Breakfast was ate in contemplative silence, despite the cheerful normalcy around them. Apprehensive, James cautiously tried to sit near Remus, who was once more engaged in his novel.
"Hullo," he ventured. Remus looked up from his book reclusively. At least he doesn't look mad, James thought, disheartened.
"Oh, hi," Remus said quietly. James stood still, feeling very stupid. "You can sit down," Remus added quickly. "That is, if you want."
James sat down awkwardly, and chewed on his lip.
"Look, I'm sorry if we offended you or something," he began. Remus waved him off.
"No, it's not your fault," Remus sighed. "I overreacted. I'm just not a prankster. You can go for it, though." He swirled a sausage on his plate with his fork, abashed. "Besides, Mum would kill me."
James smiled. "All right."
Peter came in a bit later, and sat down across from James. After his unsure glance to Remus, James explained.
"He's not angry." Peter still looked wary, so Remus flashed him a little smile. Peter returned it, and become noticeably more comfortable after that. Sirius instantly accepted the situation upon seeing the three of them sitting together.
"All made-up, I see?" he commented, sliding in beside Peter.
"I'm just not a prankster."
Sirius nodded. "We understand." He reached over to cuff Remus lightly on the back of the head. "Someone has to be the sourpuss." A bit of egg was launched his way in reply.
The rest of breakfast went on quite pleasantly. It was made all the more sweeter when Lily Evans, donning mussed up hair and yesterday's robes, stumbled into the Great Hall.
Sirius chuckled, and James attempted to keep a straight face. She sat down with the other first year girls, where they fussed over her unkempt appearance.
"Hey, Evans!" Sirius called out. Mystified, she turned to face him. "Have a good sleep?"
As Peter, Remus, and James all started to snicker, her eyes widened, then narrowed to venomous slits. She scoffed and whirled back around, determined to ignore them.
"Will she tell on us?" Peter asked, suddenly nervous.
"What proof does she have?" Sirius said calmly. "Besides, Remus couldn't have done it. He was off looking for the people who emptied the vault."
After James had finished off the last of his sausages and potatoes, he told the others that he had to use the washroom. Sirius took the hint, and followed James under the pretence that he also had to make a trip to the boy's room. Once safely out of sight, they began to search for a head of vibrant red hair.
"Statistically," Sirius said matter-of-factly, "the Weasley clan makes up one twentieth of the Hogwarts population, so we should really have no trouble finding one."
"There aren't that many Weasleys," James insisted.
"Au contraire, my good fellow," Sirius continued. "Remus has around seven sets of aunties and uncles. And most of them had at the very least three kids. I think it's pretty safe to say that there's an abundance of ickle redheads."
"One of those 'ickle redheads' beat you ten times at arm wrestling the other day."
Sirius ignored this. "Good, let's look for her then."
They had gone through five corridors before deciding that checking the grounds might be more fruitful, seeing how students didn't take walks to their classrooms on their days off. There they found not one but five Weasley cousins, all casting breadcrumb offerings to the giant squid. Regrettably, the second-year girl who had been victorious against Sirius was not amongst them.
"Hullo, Potter, Black," said the tallest, a fourth year boy with a wide nose called Rupert. "Where's Remus? And the little one always tagging along with you…"
"Pettigrew?" another ventured.
"Yes, him," Rupert said. "Where are they?"
"Off doing homework."
Kent, the third year with shaggy, dog-like hair, shook his head and clucked his tongue. "Shameful. Dad always said that Aunt Hermione made him read too much as a child."
"At least she didn't wait 'til he was nine," Rupert countered.
"I knew how to read before that!"
"Yeah, just enough to know what the labels on your dad's products said."
Ignatius, the smallest but most mischievous of the bunch, threw a bit of bread wrapped around a rock into the lake. "I can't believe he actually let you test them."
"Luck of the draw," Kent said simply. "I got ol' George, and you got Uncle Percy, that's all."
"Ahem." The attention returned to James and Sirius. "Not to interrupt, or anything, but we need to ask you something about Remus."
The mood suddenly tensed tenfold, and James suddenly wished he hadn't spoken at all.
"What is it?" Rupert asked, his voice devoid of any tone.
"He seems a little worried, and…"
"Uptight?" Sirius provided.
James gave him a withering look. "Not uptight so much, just very rule – er – abiding. He got upset last night over a just little joke. Is there any reason why he might be afraid to-"
"His mum," the Weasleys all said. They turned their attention back to the lake.
Sirius and James exchanged glances. "Are you sure that's all?" Sirius pressed.
"She's got a tight reign on him."
"Just let him be. It's his choice."
"Not really, but –" The rock he had hidden in the bread was suddenly pelted at Ignatius' face, cutting him off tantalisingly mid-sentence.
Another redhead with almost invisible lips, Conlan, perhaps, looked reproachfully at his cousin – or brother – and said, "All there is to it. Auntie Granger got him on a leash, s'all."
James raised one eyebrow. He didn't really buy it, but what could he do? Their lips were sealed. With one last look at the tentacle retreating into the lake and at the passive faces before him, he bid the Weasleys farewell and walked contemplatively back to the castle with Sirius.
"Tight knit, that family," Sirius mumbled. "Doubt that we'd get much more from any of the others."
"But they were hiding something, weren't they," James whispered darkly. He didn't like it when people kept secrets from him. They nagged at the back of his head for weeks until he could do nothing but try to blow away whatever cover there was.
"I wasn't sure about it before, but now," Sirius threw a furtive glance at the group by the lake. "Definitely. You can't hide a lie from a professional."
James recalled a psychology special he had seen once on the television. "I heard that when people lie, they look to the left."
"Were they?"
"I don't know. I didn't remember it until now."
Sirius blew a frustrated hiss upon the air. "Well, it sounded like a lie, so we'll just say it is." He opened the doors to the Entrance Hall and they slipped inside. "If we keep an eye out, something's bound to slip."
"Or we could shine a very bright light in his eyes and yell at him until he cracks," James said placidly. Sirius stared quizzically at him.
"Are you saying he's a vampire?" he asked incredulously.
"No. It's a police tactic. It works on the television all the time."
Sirius shook his head. "Muggles. It's weird, some of the thing they do to make up for magic. Veritaserum would work better."
"Vera-what now?"
"A truth potion," his friend provided. His words became quieter as a gaggle of Hufflepuff girls tittered by. "Pretty powerful stuff. Mum used it on me once when I nicked a pastry before supper. Wasteful, really. She should have used it to see what cousin Marius really did in Borgin and Burkes. Bet that'd be a bit more interesting." Here Sirius gazed into the distance, looking wistful.
But James wasn't quite as interested in Marius' shady doings. "A truth potion?" he repeated thoughtfully. "Could we get some?"
"Sure!" Sirius said with an all too wide grin. "All we have to is wait 'til we're finished school, go through Auror training, and make sure we sit in on a murder trial so we can nick some!" Sirius ignored the unimpressed glower sent in his direction, adding with flourish, "It's perfect."
"You could have just said we couldn't get some," James said irritably.
"But now we have a plan for the next ten years," Sirius asserted. "Who else can honestly say that?"
"I guess we'll just go to the old standby, then," James sighed.
"Extendable Ears?"
"Precisely."
