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Are you guy's ready yet? This is going to take forever to write if you two don't settle down! (glare)

Sorry Moony, but Prongs was asking for it! (snicker)

I was talking to Lily! Why can't you stop being an immature brat!

That coming from the guy who gave Snape a swirly! rolls eyes

Prongs and Lily sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G….

All right! That does it! (Pounces on Sirius, bring them both to the floor)

I give up! (sigh)

The next day, James was surprised wide awake as something (or someone) bounced onto his bed and gave a howl, almost like a dog. James grabbed up his glasses and glared at Sirius, who was almost dressed.

"Get up! We don't have time to stay in bed!" Sirius said.

"Nice wake up call that was!" James muttered.

"Oh, Come on Jamie! You know you like me!" Sirius gave a very innocent look, James was almost going to forgive his friend, but the twinkle of mischief in his eyes was enough for James to dismiss that feeling.

"Get down!" James took a swipe at Sirius, who ducked and laughed at his new friend. James smiled a bit. He got out of bed and flung on a school uniform and a robe. He grabbed his tie as Sirius dragged him out of the dorm.

"Remus! Peter you guys ready?" Sirius called. Remus waved at them as they came down the stairs.

"I think Peter is going to faint if we don't get to breakfast any time soon," Remus smiled a little. He glanced at James who was trying to do up his tie without a mirror. Remus promptly took the tie and did it up for him.

"Thanks Remus," James said.

"No problem, it gets easier as you practice a bit more," Remus said.

"Let's go all ready!" Peter said, jumping up and down.

"Hold your Hippogriff's!" James laughed. The boys piled out of the portrait hole and made their way down to the Great Hall.

The boys settled down at the table, each got themselves some porridge and toast. Sirius contented himself with piling fruits on his cereal. Remus poured them all some orange juice. And made sure that Peter didn't put on a whole lot of sugar on his own porridge; a few moments later, the owls began to fly into the room.

There were lots of different sorts of owls, they all knew where their young Masters/Mistresses were, and they dropped their mail in their laps. An Owl dropped in front of Remus; he put a couple of Knuts in a pouch the owl carried before the animal flew off.

"What are the head lines?" Sirius asked.

"Other than the fact that the Ministry can't catch a break? Not much; They were close to capturing a known Death Eater, but they were too late and the guy was able to get away," Remus said.

"Any Muggle Murder's?" Peter asked.

"No, I guess no news is good news," Remus replied.

"I hate reading the news paper, they always have to put all the bad stuff in it," James muttered. Remus put his paper down as Professor McGonagall passed him his class outline.

"Hmm…Transfiguration is first, and then Herbology," Remus said.

"Good, I don't look forward to Potions with those bloody Slytherins," James said.

"Hey! What about me?" Sirius asked indignantly.

"All right, I look forward to going to it with you, but not with those bloody Slytherins," James amended.

"That's better," Sirius said, returning to his porridge.

"You do know that we're going to be in the minority, right?" Peter asked.

"Gee, Peter I didn't know you knew a big word such as that!" James joked.

"Hey! I know big words, I just don't use them a whole lot," Peter replied.

"Makes sense, I mean, it's potions! Bella is always bragging about how she shown up one Gryffindor or another," Sirius said. An envelope from a passing owl fell into his lap.

"Oh no!" he yelped.

"What is it? What is that?" Remus asked.

"It's a…Howler!" James said.

"A what?"

"Watch," Peter whispered.

Sirius ripped the envelope open, he gave his friends brave smile before the chaos started.

"SIRIUS LEIGH BLACK! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU THINKING? THIS IS ALL YOUR BLOODY FAULT! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE BROUGHT SUCH SHAME TO THE GREAT AND NOBLE HOUSE OF BLACK! EVERYONE IN OUR FAMILY HAS BEEN SLYTHERIN AND HERE YOU GO AND DO A GRYFFINDOR ON US! GRRRRR—WHEN YOU GET HOME YOU HAD BETTER HOPE THAT I DON'T GROUND YOU FOR THIS…TRAVESTY!"

James watched Sirius closely as the envelope disappeared in a flash of black light. Sirius sighed, and then gave his friends a smile. "That's my Mum, now you know why I don't like her," Sirius said.

"Sorry there Mate," Remus said.

"No problem, besides…I haven't pissed her off in a LONG time!" Sirius joked.

"You are weird," James said.

"Very weird," Peter agreed.

"Come on, we have Transfiguration in ten minutes!" Remus said. All four boys jumped from the table in order to be at class on time.

"Prat!"

"Git!"

"Jerk!"

"Bloody moron!"

"Hey, what are you two fighting about?" Remus looked up from his notes.

"Sirius said that his match stick turned into a needle, but I know it didn't," James said.

"Neither did mine," Peter said.

"Or mine or James'," Remus said.

"All right, I was joking," Sirius said.

"Than why fight about it?" Peter asked.

"Well, James started calling me names, so then I called him some and it just continued from there," Sirius shrugged.

"You two have made no sense whatsoever!" Remus sighed.

"Hey, that's what we're here for mate!" James smiled.

"Right," Remus decided to leave this conversation be.

"Oh cousin! Come here!" someone ordered behind the four boys. Sirius winced at the call.

"Oh, Bellatrix, Narcissa, what a pleasant surprise," Sirius said with a phony smiley.

"Cousin, we heard about your slight problem," Narcissa said.

"Which one may that be, you or her?" Sirius asked.

"Grow up! We were talking about Auntie," Bellatrix replied.

"Well, she can go and turn her hair pink, I didn't want to be put in Slytherin," Sirius said.

"The hat asked you?" Remus asked.

"No, but he meant just that. Why? Did it ask you?"

"My Mum was Ravenclaw," James said.

"I don't know how these thing worked so I told it that Gryffindor was just fine by me," Remus said.

"It didn't ask me a thing!" Peter grumbled.

"Shut up, Sirius, by the time we go home for Christmas break, I doubt that you'll be on that tree at home," Narcissa said.

"Does it look like I care?" Sirius muttered.

"But if things go bad, Auntie won't bother about you," Bellatrix said.

"Are you worried about me? Or do you have nothing else to do?"

"The second if you'd rather," Narcissa smirked.

"Well, we have to go, please excuse us ladies," Remus said, he pulled Sirius and James away form the older Slytherin girls, Peter following.

"Bloody snobs!" Sirius muttered under his breath.

"Why were they so interested in what you were doing?" James asked.

"Mum probably told them to keep an eye on me. It's bad enough that I'm a bloody Gryffindor, but she'll hate it if I make too much trouble," Sirius said.

"Let's forget about it then, what come will come," Remus said.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed.

"Race you too the green house!" James said. With shouts of "Wait for me!" the boys took off down the hall. The boys raced out to the front hall and out the doors. Student's looked after them and then shook their heads as they calmly walked to their classes.

"Today, children, we will be learning about the Whomping Willow," Professor Sprout said as she passed into her green house class room. She had a very long stick in her hand, and a pot of magical plant fertilizer under one arm. Her hair was messy and she had dirt all up the front of her gown.

"Can anyone tell me where it originated?" she asked. Remus raised his hand.

"Ah, yes Mr. Lupin?"

"The Whomping Willow was a gift from Zeus to Hades as a peace offering. Hades liked how violent the tree was and planted it to guard the entrance to his domain. No one alive could get passed it," Remus explained.

"That is how the story goes," Professor Sprout said.

"There is another," this time a Slytherin spoke up.

"What is that other Mr. Snape?" Sprout asked, though she all ready knew.

"It is also said that the Whomping Willow was an accident. Merlin is supposed to have been practicing his magic in a glen near his home and accidentally cursed a Weeping Willow, and then it became violent, hence the name change," Snape said.

"Very good, now if you all will come with me…" Professor Sprout led the way out of the magical green house. It wasn't a very long walk, and the atmosphere was filled with the student's excitement. Anything that had such a daring name meant that it had to be interesting!

"Why would the Professor's be planting such a dangerous tree?" Peter asked.

"Dumbledore did say that it was an endangered species," Sirius said.

"But why not just put it in the Forbidden Forest?" Peter persisted.

"Maybe there is some parasite that'll kill it off if it is planted there," James shrugged.

"I don't think there is," Remus said.

"Huh?" James looked puzzled.

"The Whomping Willow has been around for centuries! It's guarded many secrets from mortals of long past. I believe that nothing in our modern world of magic can kill it off," Remus said. By now they had gotten to the knoll of which a large tree stood.

The tree was knarred in places, and looked to be very old. There weren't a lot of leaves on its branches, yet, but that would change. James got the feeling that there was something….mysterious about this tree. Even Remus had hinted at it, but James doubted that anything really adventurous was going on. The reality was that the Professor's thought that having the tree on the grounds was for the best, and since no one would go near it anyway. Well, the tree wouldn't get chomped into firewood any time soon.

"Ah, as Mr. Lupin was saying, there is no parasite in our world that can kill a Whomping Willow. These tree's are so versatile that they can stay in one place and not have to worry about anyone chopping it up into fire wood, or carving crude marks on it's bark," Sprout said.

"What about fire?" a first year HufflePuff asked.

"Ah, and that is the secret is it not? However, I don't want to set fire to such a fine old tree," Sprout said.

The rest of the time period was spent with student's asking questions and getting straight and thought out answers. Professor Sprout knew what she was talking about, and it showed in the way she looked at the tree.

Soon, the student's were on their way back to the castle, all buzzing about what the tree could possibly mean.

"What if there is a secret passage hidden beneath it?' a Ravenclaw girl asked her friend.

"Don't be silly, why would they need a secret passage?" was the answer.

Remus felt himself becoming dizzy. He hadn't thought that his fellow students would catch on so fast. What if they found out how to immobilize the tree? What if they saw him transforming and he attacked them? What if coming to school was a bad idea?

"Hey, Remus, you all right?" James asked.

"Yes, just excited about the rest of the day is all," Remus gave James a smile.

"Me too, I can't wait for flying lessons!" James jumped up and down. Several other students looked at him like he had gone mad, but Sirius laughed and started to do the same thing.

The murmurings died low and then stopped all together as Professor Slughorn marched into the room. He was a fat old geezer, he wore dark green robes, and he wore a pout on his face which almost made him look as if he had drank a potion gone bad or something of that nature.

"Good morning," he said in a voice that was measured.

"If you don't all ready know, I am Professor Slughorn. Today, we will be brewing a potion called Ararum; this is Latin meaning 'Bitterness'," Slughorn explained.

"What is it for?" someone asked. Slughorn smirked at the class.

"This potion is a weapon," he said.

James looked over at Sirius, who looked a bit pale.

"Why?" James suddenly asked. He ignored the look Sirius shot at him.

"Ararum, once brewed correctly, can be used to make your rival writhe in pain, oh and please don't excuse the pun," Slughorn said.

"Now, if you will get out your cauldrons…"

Sirius knew this potion, by heart! He had never made it, and he had only once come upon a reference to it in a book. This potion was a travesty to mankind, Sirius thought as he followed the directions. He could tell that no one in the class knew what it could do. What sort of pain it could impose on someone.

Sirius, bit his lip, he waved the memories back. If this potion was done wrong, it could blow up and a lot of the student's would get hurt if that happened.

Sirius could hardly wait for the bell to ring…

"Blimey am I glad to be out of there!" Sirius said.

"Yeah, that potion was hard and we're only first years," Peter said.

"Well, at least those goons of Malfoy's blew their potions up," James snickered.

"But some of the HufflePuff's got hurt," Remus said.

"I know, but come on! Anything is funny when they ruin it!" James replied.

"Sometimes I wonder about your head, James," Remus shook his head.

Funny, Padfoot you haven't told us why your so scared of that potion..

Ummm….

That was his Bogart! Remember that one class we had?

How can we forget, Sirius stood their for a full fifteen minutes just staring at the thing.

To be continued! (storms off someplace to give into his black mood)

Gee, is it something we said?