A/N:
Hi again!
I made asmall change to the story, I did a bit of
mooching on the net, and it turns out that Lucius would have been in
his last year of Hogwarts when The Marauders started, so i have
replaced him with a similar dude by the name of Joshua Smithe - not
meaning to confuse you guys - sorry!
Thanks v. much for the reviews! Keep them comming:D
Chapter Two
Just Like Baldrick, James has a 'Cunning Plan' …
The next morning, Remus awoke with a start; he sat up in his bed quick as a flash, breathing heavily. He'd been having the familiar nightmare of biting people, but this time it had had a twist, there was a new nightmare along with it that he was sure was not going to leave him in a hurry.
He had seen everyone he had met on the Hogwarts Express, some were running away from him in fear, whilst the others sniggered and bullied him relentlessly.
Remus shook his head firmly, determined to forget the unpleasant images he had just seen.
To distract himself, he looked around the dormitory. It was slightly littered with clothes and books, all the occupants had been eager to recover from the long day and get some sleep.
Looking at the three other beds in the room, he observed how one might sleep if they were not haunted by horrific dreams.
James was in the next bed nearer the wall, he was sleeping lightly, and only the topmost part of his chest was moving with his breathing. Remus also noticed with amusement, that the messiness of his hair, particularly the tuft in the middle which evidently wanted to be seen, was not owed to moving around in his bed. Remus guessed that it was in fact natural and that James must be constantly annoyed by it.
His eyes then moved over to the bed opposite James' by the window, in which slept Sirius. Remus had to laugh at the way he was arranged, it looked like someone had dropped him from a great height, and that he had 'splattered' on the bed, his legs and arms were sprawled in all directions and Remus didn't envy the house-elf that had make his bed, magically or not. Under his bed, Remus was sure he saw something move, but he decided it was trick of the light; he wasn't even fully awake yet.
And finally, opposite himself, in between Sirius and the door, there slept Peter. He was huddled up to his pillow and Remus, though he couldn't see Peter's face, was sure he was sucking his thumb.
When James and Sirius had come in the night before, they'd told him that they were already in detention thanks to the bubble incident. To his surprise, they had found it extremely funny; they even looked to regard it as a tremendous achievement.
"Must be a record!" James had laughed proudly. "I mean … we weren't even at the school yet!"
Remus hadn't wanted to rain on their parade, and so had kept his mouth shut, however, the question of 'Who told Professor McGonagall?' had popped into his head.
He dismissed the thought deciding it was too early in the day to start plundering the mysteries of tattling, he wanted to see exactly how early it was.
He looked at his watch, (the same one that had got him out of a tight spot the day before) and realised it was seven o'clock. 'And time to get up.'
After doing so, and dressing into his school uniform, (he had took time observing the 'Gryffindor' modifications) he looked at himself in the mirror, he loved the rare experience of having new clothes that were not ripped, bitten, stained or torn. Then he sighed, realising it was only a matter of time before the immaculate robes were reduced to tatters.
He made his bed, sitting on it and looking out of the window next to his friend's bed. 'Wait … his friend's bed? Could it be? These were his friends?' He returned his gaze to the stone floor, as he knew it couldn't last.
Fear hit him as it had in his dream, hot water spread through every nerve in his body, crackling at the ends, it concentrated on his very heart, gripping it tightly as it pulsated faster and faster.
'No!' he firmly told himself, thoroughly refusing to go to that place. 'No … this is a new start for Remus J. Lupin.'
About an hour later when James, Sirius and Peter had joined Remus in the land of the living, (Sirius had been particularly unwilling), they left their dormitory and descended down the stone steps which were too steep for their liking in the early morning, they eventually made it down into their Common Room.
They decided to sit on the sofa near the fire and wake themselves up a bit. Peter chose this time to abruptly fall asleep again, and James decided his morning exercise was to wake him up in a panic, telling him that he was needed urgently by Albus Dumbledore himself.
He was halfway through the portrait hole and Remus, out of pity, dragged him back to a much more awake Sirius and James, who were recovering from a long fit of shared laughter.
Within ten minutes they were down in the Great Hall and tucking into a full English breakfast.
"Slow down, mate!" Sirius blurted with wide eyes, Peter appeared to be actually inhaling his food.
He looked up with a nervous smile and gave a slight giggle, causing a raised eyebrow from each of the other three boys.
Sirius had taken a breath to continue but was interrupted by Isabel. "Morning, guys." They were sure it was meant to sound cheerful, but it had come out positively sulky.
"You alright?" Remus asked, earning a smile from Lily, who had landed next to Peter, but momentarily she was frowning at the breakneck speed in which Mr. Pettigrew was dining.
"Well, no. Not really. I can't find Tabby, y'know … my cat?" Isabel looked around worriedly, as though she was expecting to miraculously spot her estranged pet under the Hufflepuff table.
"Oh," Remus replied. "Well what did you do with him after Sirius gave him back to you?"
"I know this sounds really pathetic and stupid, but I don't actually remember! I was somewhat preoccupied with your prank to really think about it."
"It wasn't me," Lupin answered quickly.
"No, sorry … I meant 'you guys' as in the four of you, or at least Sirius and James, anyway."
"Oi!" James protested. "Who says it was us!" he was feigning shock, but the smirk on his face was screamingly obvious.
"We had met you guys, remember?" Isabel frowned, some of the humour returning to her face.
She had decided not to mention the previous night, even though Lily had been trying to cheer her up all morning with jokes concerning the boy's 'escapade'.
This humour was quickly replaced by her previous cautious look; she didn't want them to think she'd suddenly forgotten Tabby.
"Well regardless," Remus jumped in before James had a chance to retort with a witty and probably mildly insulting comment. "I – We…" he corrected himself. "… Hope you find him."
Sirius, who had blatantly been too absorbed in his breakfast to listen, turned to Isabel and smiled. (This was proven to be difficult by the bit of bacon he was chewing.)
Swallowing, he did a double-take on the girl sat next to him. "What's going on with your uniform, Isabel?"
She had rolled the sleeves back on her shirt and robes, her tie was so loose it could have fit two of her heads in it. 'Even heads her size!' Sirius thought with a shadow of a smile, and her top button was undone, as well as three more below it.
"I just personalised it a bit, I haven't cut it or anything though …" She realised nobody really understood a word she was saying. "… Well don't you think that when it's worn 'as it should be', that it looks, err … what's the word?" She adopted a thoughtful expression.
"Smart?" Remus suggested.
"Uncomfortable?" Peter tried, resurfacing from his scrambled eggs to catch a breath.
"No … frumpy, more like." This strange declaration from the girl was met with a long silence, almost agonising in its nature, nobody wanted to have to answer to that.
One whole minute went past. Eyes were searching for anything except other eyes; forks were scraping unnecessarily hard on plates in an attempt to make at least a slight noise. The general babble of the Hall seemed to fade away momentarily, giving each of the six Gryffindors an intense feeling of tongue-tied-ness in their awkward moment.
Lily eventually saved them, "I think it's alright, but it is a little uncomfortable." Everybody seemed infinitely grateful for her conversational skills.
"I agree," said Remus heartily.
"Mm …" Came the replies of James and Sirius, Peter didn't seem too bothered with the conversation at the table; it was more what was on the table that concerned him.
"What's McGonagall doing?" Isabel asked, looking curiously ahead at the Professor as she was sweeping down their tale handing out pieces of parchment to every student alphabetically.
They all looked at her, and even Sirius looked pitiful towards the girl this time. "Well," James began, in an amused tone. "What do we need in order to go to our lessons?"
Isabel gave him a 'Ooh, I like this game!' look, and quickly answered after a brief thought. "Err pencils! I mean quills, no? Magic! Wands!"
The other Gryffindors blinked.
"That's made of paper?" Remus urged, using his ever-faithful air-quotes.
"Books!" Peter said triumphantly, partly because he had finally defeated his mound of food.
"Oh, timetables." Isabel had gotten there, she looked as though she was proud she had been the 'first to think of it.'
"Oh well, only took me three guesses." She smiled.
"Yeah, but only because that Ravenclaw was mouthing 'See you in Herbology.' " Sirius, who had been strangely quiet up to now, added this to their conversation, but he didn't take his eyes of the back of the blonde-haired-boy's head.
Isabel didn't seem to think this made a difference and had smiled at the boy with blue on his robes.
Now she turned to him, "You're feeling very perceptive this morning." She stated, and they all pretended not to be surprised at her use of the relatively long word.
Sirius merely frowned, inwardly shrugging.
When they finally got their own timetables, they realised one particularly foul thing about them. "We have most of our classes with the Slytherins!" James exclaimed. "Charms, Transfiguration, Potions!"
"Well, yeah, but we have Transfiguration with Hufflepuff and Herbology with Ravenclaw." Lily pointed out.
"What's first?" asked Isabel, who had only glanced at her timetable long enough to admire her own name before stuffing it into her bag.
"Potions," Peter replied, "with the Slytherins."
"Oh brilliant! You reckon Medusa is any good at them?"
James and Peter snorted into their pumpkin juice, but Remus spoke up in Morrigan's defence.
"You know very well what her name, is." He said angrily. "And with her there it promises to be an intellectually stimulating lesson, unlike one with-"
"Mr. Lupin, a word in my office please." Professor McGonagall interrupted, cutting off his furious splurging before it gained any more steam.
Remus froze. Professor McGonagall offered no explanation as to why he had to go, she just continued walking, supposedly heading in the direction of her office.
Fear stole his thoughts again. 'Oh Merlin. I've just blown it. The Headmaster gave me a chance and I blew it! Before I even got to a lesson!'
Wide-eyed and scared half-to-death, he stood up and walked to the end of the Gryffindor table where the Deputy-Head was currently tapping her foot.
"Truly sorry, Isabel." Was all he said before he took off, dragging his feet.
He left them all looking shocked, they'd not yet experienced a lesson with him but they could tell he was no trouble-maker.
"Oh my god. I'm such a bitch. I didn't mean to-"
"No you're not, it's like he was saying himself yesterday, 'everybody's entitled to their opinion.'" Lily offered to Isabel, though there was no confidence behind her words.
"But I just got him in trouble, didn't I?"
"Nobody knows that." Said James rationally.
People started moving off to their first lesson of the year, and the Gryffindors, deciding Remus wasn't to make another appearance at breakfast, set off too.
They walked down the deep stone steps into the dungeons. Lily kept glancing up at the ceiling to ensure there were no spiders, her worst fear was of spiders.
James and Sirius, however, found it all brilliant, "What a setting for a lesson!" Sirius was whispering excitedly, he hadn't stopped to think about why it was a whisper, but the first years had fallen into an ominous silence.
A broad man with a small bald-patch stepped out of a huge pair of heavy-looking wooden doors at the end of the solid stone corridor.
"Good morning first years!" he said cheerfully, eyeing each one of them with a brief interest.
His face fell a little, as though he had been expecting something, after a few seconds he continued briskly, "I am Professor Slughorn, your potions teacher. Now, if you'll follow me through these here doors, we can start your first lesson."
After pushing them open he turned, beaming. "It's not the most comfortable classroom in the school I'm afraid, but as they say, a boring atmosphere encourages a student to listen to the teacher.
"Now, my young Gryffindors, I fear the Slytherins do have a slight advantage over you as I am their head of house, but I expect to know you all equally well soon enough.
"Two to a workstation please, and seat yourselves boy-girl, chattering- whilst interesting, is no good to you when getting your head around a new subject." His demeanour offered a complete contrast to the spooky dungeon … it was almost funny.
At the front-most workstation, positioned also directly in front of Professor Slughorn's desk, Lily sat, and was soon joined by the pale-faced boy that James recognised as Severus Snape, that charming fellow from the Hogwarts Express.
Next to James there appeared Isabel, who's look of worry had increased tenfold, James guessed that she had added the worry of Remus to the worry of the whereabouts of Tabby.
Behind them Sirius sat with Morrigan, who was looking sarcastically at the state of Isabel's uniform.
"Problem?" Isabel asked, prompting Morrigan to glance away with an obvious dislike.
James and Sirius both controlled their urges to make angry cat noises at the girl next to them.
All of the class looked to the doorway when it was intruded upon by Remus, he looked paler than ever, but Isabel could now stop worrying about the worst of her fears: that he was going to be expelled.
He walked into the classroom and clearly hated any situation where he was the centre of attention. Nonetheless, his compulsion to not have his first lesson of Hogwarts be taught by a professor who considered him something other than punctual was stronger than his compulsion to quickly sit down and get out of the limelight.
"Sorry, Sir. Professor McGonagall wanted to see me, Sir."
Slughorn looked up from preparing an exemplary potion.
"Oh, not to worry, Lupin. Professor McGonagall told him last night that she needed to see you. Take a seat, oh there's only one left ... well I suppose I'll let you off, go and sit next to that boy, but don't chatter, there's a good lad."
Remus was dumbstruck when he realised that Slughorn was being so lenient, but smiled when he realised that Peter was the boy who had a free seat.
Slughorn was now adding the finishing touches to his demonstration, and looked to be about to start the lesson, before glancing around the Gryffindors a bit more. "Oh, I do recognise some of you."
His eye rested on Sirius, who, at that moment in time, was seemingly preoccupied with the construction of his long-awaited pencil-fort. "You must be a Black?"
Sirius looked up immediately, leaving the pencil's to roll about the workstation, and nodded. His resentment was only evident to those who had met him.
"Yes, you are certainly as handsome as the rest of them. I immediately noticed the family resemblance in Bellatrix too," Slughorn said whilst inclining his head towards the girl in the front row next to Joshua Smithe.
"But you … you must be a direct descendant, yes? I must say I am surprised you aren't in my house … anyway, the ladies'll be after you, m'boy!" he grew a smirk, and lifted his gaze from the now annoyed and slightly pinker Sirius.
"Ah, Jones … I knew your mother, started school a few years before I left, what does sh-"
Slughorn was clearly suddenly shaken by the fact that he could not put Sirius' family or Jones' mother into a potion and make it work properly.
"Yes, well …" he spluttered. "- Potions."
He proceeded to launch into the 'Start of Year' speech that Lily decided they were going to receive a lot of in this first week.
This long-winded, and ultimately boring speech took Professor Slughorn most of the lesson to conclude, and after he'd made sure that his new class had all their equipment for his subject, he let them leave five minutes early.
The Slytherins and Gryffindors travelled more-or-less together to Charms.
James stayed relatively quiet during this journey, he was deep in thought. 'How could Professor McGonagall have known last night that Remus would that Remus would insult someone this morning? …'
"Hey, Sirius," Isabel was walking beside him. "If you don't mind me asking, what's the deal with you and your family?"
Remus, Peter and Lily also seemed very interested in his answer, even James momentarily came out of his thoughts.
"I do mind you asking." Sirius replied flatly, speeding up to catch Morrigan.
Isabel didn't quite believe her ears and seemed more than annoyed at his response, nobody ever said 'no' to Isabel Viellard. Now she looked like a lobster with a blood-pressure problem, especially when she noticed who he was now talking with.
James made a mental note to tell Sirius about Ms. Viellard's anger.
The Charms classroom was on the third floor, it was a huge wooden room with a curious stack of books in the middle of it.
James noticed that their teacher was in fact perched on top of this huge pile, he looked like a colossal accident with some shrinking solution, he was rather tiny for a person with such authority.
Everybody in the doorway started at him. He was clearly used to this reaction. "Yes well done, children, I am small. Now if you will kindly take your seats we can begin."
The desks in this classroom were all arranged around the mound of literature, and everybody sat with a friend.
Sirius went to sit with James, and Morrigan pulled out the seat on the other side of Black.
"Thanks honey." Smiled Isabel as she sat in it before Morrigan had even realised she was in the classroom.
Instead, she went to sit next to Bellatrix.
"You have a real thing for my cousin, don't you?" she said in an annoyed whisper.
"No."
"Oh come on! You know, Ms. Morrigan Simare, you have a very good thing going for you … don't ruin it. My cousin is a repulsive blood-traitor, I mean, just look at him, he's a Gryffindor. Honestly … you're insane to refuse what you have."
Morrigan couldn't be sicker of comments like this. Bellatrix was obsessed, and Morrigan was sure she was not a little jealous.
Nonetheless, whatever her reasons – Bella had 'taken Morrigan under her wing'.
The night before, when they had left the Great Hall, Joshua had told Morrigan in her ear that he was going to get even with Sirius, and that he'd see them later.
Bella and Morrigan had followed their prefects down into the dungeons. 'Surely they can't expect us to sleep down here …'
However, once onside the Slytherin Common Room, she realised that it wasn't so bad, this part of the castle was certainly furnished for the 'upper class' of Hogwarts.
It had lots of antique furniture and an overall air of importance.
She had been ushered into the Girls' Dormitories before she knew it, and discovered she was sharing with Bella and another two girls, Violet and Dawn.
Once in her bed, Morrigan reflected on the day she'd had.
It had started with a whole lot of driving, going to Kings Cross Station, it had taken her considerably longer than most because she lived up in the North-East, and therefore simply changed trains at Kings Cross.
Once there, she had said goodbye to her parents, and looked around for people she knew, she spotted Joshua Smithe, who was standing alone by the train.
"Joshua." She inclined her head; it had only been a month since she'd seen him.
"Morrigan! I wasn't expecting you for a good while yet. How are you?" he asked heartily, sounding around thirty years older than he really was.
"I'm alright, a tiny bit nervous if I'm honest." This was not at all honest. This was a lie.
Morrigan was tired and couldn't resist. She knew very well that Joshua had been infatuated with her since the age of around five.
But right then she was looking for some attention and she new how to get it.
Joshua immediately pulled her into a hug as she was expecting, but only a very brief one, which surprised her, he pushed her away again quickly.
She had figured out what he was doing. Joshua Smithe needed a reputation and 'Joshua Smithe' would not be seen hugging girls sympathetically, in fact, had it been anybody else, Morrigan was pretty sure she'd have been laughed at.
Though now she decided she wouldn't find it so bad, the idea of being involved with Joshua even partly used to make her cringe. Her case wasn't helped by both sets of parents constantly egging Joshua on.
Since Joshua was considered to have next-to-no chance of marrying into the esteemed house of Black, his parents had decided that the next best thing was marrying into the respected Simares.
When Joshua, (as young as he was at the time) met Morrigan, he had never questioned the brilliance of this arrangement.
Therefore, Morrigan had taken to entertaining his wishes when it suited her, like the situation at Kings Cross.
Whilst she had been on the train, two memorable things had happened.
One, she had met Sirius Black, an old friend from years ago, but they had grown up and drifted apart, she had seen him earlier in the year though at one of his mother's get-togethers.
Two, was the incident when Isabel and Lily had come into the compartment she'd moved to.
Morrigan fully believed what she had said earlier in the journey about muggle-borns, but her parents had at least told her never to use the word 'mudblood' in public.
She felt that all Bella had done by calling Lily that was prove Isabel's earlier opinion about Morrigan to be right, which annoyed her.
But for the rest of the night she had endured comments about how 'brilliant' Joshua was from Bella, Morrigan could only stomach them for so much longer.
"Morrigan! Morrigan …" The aforementioned Bellatrix was saying, suddenly the Charms classroom came back into focus, and Morrigan realised she had spaced out.
Eager not to answer Bella's probing questions, she said in a whisper that was a little louder than necessary.
"Quiet Bella, I was listening to Professor Witflick- Flitwick." She corrected herself hastily, realising that the whole room was watching her.
Professor Flitwick smiled at her, as though he was grateful that someone was paying attention.
"Well, I'm glad you are listening Miss …?"
"Simare."
"Well, Miss Simare, as I was saying, Charms are used in hundreds of situations, the first being …"
He continued with his speech, every now-and-then casting a smile at Morrigan, who readily accepted his praise.
'Nothing wrong with a bit of favouritism coming my way.' She thought with a miniscule shrug, she liked favouritism, she felt it put her in her proper place – above everyone else.
The same was true with Joshua, and she decided that she couldn't wait to annoy Bella with it.
"Well, that just about covers what we will be studying this year. Next lesson we'll learn and practise the 'Wingardium Leviosa' charm, which is both easy and fun, perfect to start with." He squeaked half an hour later as they were putting their notes into their bags and standing to leave.
Morrigan split off from Bella during the break that followed, she went to the owlery to send a letter to her parents, as she promised she would on the way there.
She literally bumped into James on the way there; he was still deep in thought.
"Sorry" he mumbled with a smile, and then he carried on following the crowd for no reason in particular, Sirius caught up with him.
"What's wrong with you, mate? You've been acting funny all morning." James jumped at the chance to share his suspicions.
"Well, Remus got into trouble this morning with McGonagall, right?" he asked eagerly.
Sirius made an agreeing noise.
"Well, when he came back into potions, Professor Slughorn said McGonagall had told him Remus would be late last night … How could McGonagall have known?"
Sirius made another noise, and then after some thought, said "Have you ever heard of Divination?"
"Yeah."
"Maybe that's what McGonagall teaches, I mean, she turned around to walk to him way before he said it."
"I suppose that would explain it …" James wasn't convinced.
"'Course it does, mate." Sirius assured, using what was to become his trademark grin.
By this time, their feet had carried them unknowingly to the Great Hall, and then over to the Gryffindor table.
"Oh, by the way, you really annoyed Ms. Viellard earlier." James chuckled, and Sirius exhaled a laugh through his nose.
"Well she shouldn't have asked should she? Anyway, about our little detention …"
In five minutes they had devised an amusing game involving 'Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans' and each other, and were quite looking forward to their 'punishment'.
Remus was not so enthusiastic about their plan.
"You two had better not do that, you know. I mean something like that could land you in yet another detention and that could lead to much worse things like-"
Sirius threw his 'Standard Book of Spells: Grade One' down on the table in front of Remus.
"Hey Lupin, look at that."
Remus lifted the book and looked at the title of the page it was open on.
"Lumos?" He muttered confusedly.
"Yeah, lighten up, mate." Sirius grinned, punching Remus' arm lightly.
Again, the crowd started to rise from their seats and they guessed it was time to leave.
"What do we have next?" Peter asked, prompting James to realise that he had tagged along since Charms.
"Erm …" said Sirius, pulling out his timetable. "Astronomy," he began "With Professor … Sinastra."
This lesson had seemed to be the most boring lesson possible, they got a speech (that had become the usual), and then they'd spent half and hour learning how to put a telescope together properly.
Stumbling out of the corridor that lead to the Astronomy Tower with sore fingertips James was almost afraid to ask.
"Lupin?"
"Yes?"
"What do we have next?"
"Transfiguration."
"Does that involve a telescope?"
"No."
"Anything I have to set up?"
"Nope."
"Is it with Slytherin?"
"No, Hufflepuff."
"You reckon I can use my wand finally in it?"
"Maybe."
"Brilliant."
Some of the colour returned to James' face, and he walked quite happily along to Transfiguration.
It turned out that Sirius' earlier conclusion about Professor McGonagall was actually wrong, and she didn't have a liking for Divination at all when James asked her as casually as he could.
She was in fact, the Transfiguration teacher, and whilst she seemed strict, at least you always knew where you stood.
Isabel had found herself sat in between Remus and Lily, both of whom refused to talk whilst Professor McGonagall was speaking, and so she sat, bored with a pout until the Professor had given out matches and instructed her class to turn them into needles.
"How do I do that?" she turned to ask Lily, who was already sat as though she was ready to sew.
"The way she just said. Honestly Isabel, listen." She received a pair of eyebrows arched at her in response.
Lily just laughed. "Hey, listen, you know when just before James and Sirius got their detention?"
"Mhm …" Evidently Isabel had heard enough jokes about this subject.
"Well I saw who told McGonagall." Lily continued, quieter than she had before.
Isabel's eyes lit up, it appeared that she was most definitely a gossip. "Who!" She almost squeaked.
"Severus Snape and Joshua Smithe."
Isabel squeaked in a more high-pitched voice now, and moved her hand to cover her mouth, in her haste, the end of the match caught against the worn wood of the desk, setting it alight.
At the sight of the flame burning rapidly down towards her nails, Isabel gasped and dropped the match back on the table, setting Remus' carefully taken notes ablaze – he just sighed.
Professor McGonagall had extinguished it within seconds and turned on Isabel, "Ms. Veillard! Do be more careful!"
The first year's eyes just widened.
"The same goes for you Mr. Pettigrew; I've seen a few near misses." McGonagall added.
"Sorry, Remus." Isabel was pleading. "I'll take some new ones if you want, but she'll have to say it again, I wasn't really-"
"It's alright. Only a few words." Remus thought that Isabel was overreacting hugely, he had understood everything anyway, he didn't need his notes.
"But after earlier as well" Isabel continued, "I'm sorry these things are accidents, really. I didn't mean to get you in trouble or burn you I promise." She took a breath.
"Okay." Remus said, perhaps a little too sarcastically.
Over the other side of the classroom, James and Sirius were laughing at the whole situation; this didn't go unnoticed by professor McGonagall, who stalked over to them with pursed lips.
"Since you boys find it so terribly amusing that Miss. Viellard made a mistake, perhaps you'd like to give the class a demonstration on your brilliant Transfiguration skills …"
Her eyes lit up a bit, but then darkened a few seconds later when both boys turned their matchsticks into needles, perfectly executing the correct spell.
"… Well I suppose this merits five points each for Gryffindor. However, I have not forgotten about last night, how could I with the bubbles refusing to dissipate?" She added, muttering almost to herself.
"Your detention tonight is at Six O'clock, you are to go to the trophy room and meet Mr. Filch, the caretaker, he will tell you what to do."
When the lesson had finished and Remus had decided to discreetly re-take his notes anyway, the Gryffindors went down to dinner.
"Four lessons on the first day isn't bad." Peter was saying.
"I'm already getting bored of these 'Introductory Speeches'. I mean, it's probably going to be two week before we even do anything challenging." Sirius said to nobody in-particular.
They sat down to dinner, and the Headmaster stood up.
"I trust you have all enjoyed your first day back, or indeed your very first day. There haven't been many changes at Hogwarts over the summer, as I said last night. But that does not mean there aren't many surprises around the corner." He allowed a moment for this to sink in, then with amusement, he continued. "Enjoy the feast."
The food miraculously appeared once more on the tables, and Dumbledore sat down.
"I respect that guy, but he talks like a bit of a loony doesn't he?" James was saying during dessert.
"He's only being friendly." Lily insisted.
"Unlike McGonagall, was it me or did she seem almost disappointed when you got that spell right?" Isabel said, looking up from her meal.
"She didn't want us to be able to because she wanted to make an example of us. You don't pick up too much, do you, Isabel?" James smirked in reply.
"What's that supposed to mean!" Isabel snapped.
"Nothing." James wasn't stupid by any means; he knew when 'not to go there'.
"If you were referring to Transfiguration, I would like you to take into account that I lost my pet this morning." That was the last thing Isabel said to James for a week, she turned around to some second year Gryffindors and introduced herself.
"Oh dear, ideas, Black?" James frowned.
"Only to put it down to her being a girl. Anyway, what do you reckon our 'punishment's' going to be?" Sirius asked more excitedly.
"Cleaning probably, that's what they had my dad doing – Oh yeah, my dad! I'm gonna send him an owl, in don't think those bubbles are going anyway for at least a week! He'll be so proud!" James looked as though he was preparing to accept a medal.
Remus hadn't had the best day, whilst he wasn't angry he decided to open up a darker conversation before anyone got too happy.
"Who do you reckon told McGonagall?"
His question hung in the air for a few seconds, before Isabel turned to him, and pointedly not looking at James or even Sirius she said directly to Lupin. "Severus and Joshua."
Then she turned around again and pretended to listen to the second years' conversation, whilst mouthing 'He forced it out of me!' to a disgruntled-looking Lily.
"Well if you'd have given me two guesses …" Sirius looked menacingly over at the Slytherin table.
"Now usually I'd let it slide," James announced. "- But those two … revenge must be had." He turned to Sirius. "Listen mate, I know you barely know me but -"
"Don't bother, I'm in." Black interrupted him with his grin.
A few hours later, Sirius and James were cleaning trophies …
The job had been given to them by Argus Filch, the caretaker, who seemed to be enjoying their punishment entirely too much.
"One hour left, boys." He grinned.
"Looks like our 'Bertie Botts detention invention' is out of the window, eh?" Sirius muttered angrily, dusting a 'Wizard Chess Tournament' trophy, awarded to 'Gary Goob'. Sirius snorted at his name.
"No talking!" Filch growled, as though noise would spoil the fun.
Both boys frowned and went back to dusting, a little while later, Filch's back had been turned for a good ten minutes, and Sirius had dared to show James yet another amusing name he'd found on a crumbling plaque from one hundred years ago.
As they were chuckling as silently as they could, James' voice filled the room.
"FILCH IS AN INCAPABLE OLD GIT WHO'S TOO CLOSE TO MRS. NORRIS!" it boomed.
Instantly Filch turned around, anger exploding from behind his pupils, it couldn't have been more obvious that this was the worst thing Filch could possibly have heard even if mushroom clouds had appeared in his eyes.
"That'll be another hour, Potter." He croaked. "Two can play that game."
Sirius and James looked at each other, dumbstruck. James' mouth had not moved at all.
When Filch turned back to the old trophy cupboard, barely hiding what the boys were sure were angry sniffles, a ghost appeared next to them, he seemed to be miming manic laughter.
James immediately had a hunch and narrowed his eyes in realisation.
"Let me guess …" he hissed in low whisper. "- You're 'Peeves the Poltergeist'?"
"Another pathetic Potter! Ha!" he sniggered back.
"What was the point in that though!" James demanded gesturing towards Filch.
Peeves only resumed his mime and then disappeared.
James shook his head with a sigh and tried to prepare himself for the extra hour of detention without the vital company of Sirius.
When his friend had actually left, he attempted to keep his head down and work his way around the various awards, only spreading dust if anything, but the time alone did give him a chance to contemplate things that he needed to … and suddenly a brilliant idea hit him like a lightning bolt.
Sirius made his way back to the Gryffindor Common Room, he had experienced an entertaining day, even considering the introductory speeches, people had been different to how he had supposed them to be on the train.
His biggest surprise had been Remus; Sirius had expected him to be exactly what he appeared to be, - a friendly yet timid character with a liking and respect for rules.
However, Sirius was sure there was a part of Remus that would love nothing more than to break the rules and live on the wild side, all Sirius had to do was exploit it.
Sirius entered his dormitory and crossed to his bed, it looked so attractive after two hours of being on his feet, cleaning trophies that he hadn't won - yet.
Just as he made to fling himself down on the bed, there came a rustling noise from in-between his bed and the window, it made him jump and he stood back.
"Remus?" The noise came again and something else was added on, Sirius suddenly realised how dark it was.
"Pete?" Nothing but silence.
"James, did you get out early? How'd you do that?" he tried to bait what he was now sure had to be James into a conversation.
Then something jumped up from the shadows and hurtled towards Sirius' face, he fell backwards in an attempt to move. "Aaaaagh! … Huh?"
Whatever it was felt very small and didn't appear to be tearing him limb-from-limb. It jumped off him and began to walk towards Remus' bed.
Still very suspicious, Sirius stood up and went to the window, drawing the curtains and letting in what little light the half-moon had to offer.
He scanned the room and realised that instead, the creature in question was curled up on James' bed, purring happily.
"T … Tabby?" The kitten looked up, and jumped down off the mattress.
Sirius picked him up and gave a small laugh in spite of himself; he had just been scared by an eleven year old girl's pet kitten. … If the guys ever knew …
"How about we just keep this between us?" Black offered to the ball of fur which was currently very interested in his elbow.
"C'mon mate, I need to go and make a friend …"
He went down the steps that seemed easier to defeat than they had that morning, and scanned the room, he saw Lily.
"Hey, do you know where Isabel is?" The girl lifted her green eyes from reading her Transfiguration notes, and took a double take on Sirius.
"Oh is that Tabby!" She smiled. "She's upstairs, I'll go and get her."
A moment later, A grinning Isabel came hurtling down the stairs and lifted Tabby out of Sirius' arms without a word, and seemed to be checking if he was okay, once she decided her answer was 'Yes' she looked up at him.
"Where'd you find him? I thought I'd looked everywhere."
"He was in my dorm, I don't know wh- Oh, the House- Elves must've thought he was mine, I brought him over the river, remember?"
"Sirius, please don't talk to me like I'm nine, okay?" Isabel sighed, and looked down for a moment. "Thanks." She finished, nodding down towards Tabby, and she turned to go back up the stairs.
"Wait." Sirius walked towards the foot of the staircase, and lowered his voice. "I don't get on with my family because they have very different opinions on what is wrong to me." It was his turn to look down. "Just thought I'd tell you that, night."
He immediately went up the stairs and into his dormitory without looking up, until he was at on his bed, then he lifted his head.
"Aaaaagh!" He realised there was another person in the room, looking straight at him. It was James.
"Oh it's just you; I thought you were another bloody kitten …"
James knitted his eyebrows together and gave a sarcastic expression. "What?"
"Nothing." Sirius mumbled, deciding is had to be down to fatigue that he was so jumpy. "It's been an hour already?" he changed the subject, whilst rubbing his face.
"No something came up with the Slytherins … he let me go."
"Probably Joshua and Snivellus."
They both sniggered at what would grow to be their favourite name for him.
"About them, I've had an idea …"
(Hi! Sorry It's been soooo long since my last update, but I've been busy … Mocks and the like, grr … but a new chapter is coming soon:D)