Do I really need to say this again? J K Rowling IS Harry Potter. If you recognise anything from any movie, TV show, book or whatever else, it's probably because it is from them. If you want my 'full' warning, you can check out either 'Dormant Power' or 'Beginning of the End'.

If you've read both those fics, then you know how my version of it ends…but how did it begin? Again, only some names are mine, everything else is not! I've based this from the Marauders perspective so…well you'll know the story when something happens to a certain someone, even though I don't write about it in this one! Also check out 'The Apprentice', it has some info you won't find in my other two stories (wink, wink!).

Well, I just reckon that Peter must have somehow figured out he was quite good at getting out of trouble. Remember, in this story he is still 'good'…and yes it was rather tough trying to write him like that. Also have to add 'Gone In Sixty Seconds' now to my list, just one quote…and if you're good at guessing stuff like that, I reckon you can probably figure out which one!

Chapter 11 – A New Ride

"You gave him a tail!"

"And you gave him fleas!"

Remus and Peter looked at each other and started laughing…again.

"Get over it you two. This is starting to get old" James said.

"Yeah. It was funny the first ten times, but not anymore" Sirius added.

This only gave Remus and Peter more incentive to laugh even harder, until both of them had tears trailing down their cheeks.

James glared at them before turning to Sirius. "Padfoot, this is ridiculous, let's go."

"Where?"

"I don't care. Someplace where no one is laughing" he replied, with heavy emphasis on the last word.

Sirius nodded and the two of them vacated the common room, with the laughter being cut off once they shut the portrait.

"Merlin, I didn't think it was that funny" James said as he ran his hand through his hair.

Sirius shrugged. "Maybe we'd react the same as them if we were in their position."

"Maybe. Anyway, let's go. Any ideas where?"

"Actually, how about we sneak off to Hogsmeade? I wouldn't mind getting some supplies if you know what I mean."

James nodded "good idea. I'm starting to run low on butterbeer now you mention it. One-eyed witch passage?"

"Yeah, we'll just have to hope our luck holds and that no one sees us when we come back."

"Mmm, should've brought the cloak. Oh well, I'm not going back in there now, they'll still be laughing."

"True, besides, we can always sneak our stuff back into your room when those two aren't there."

James nodded in reply as the reached the familiar statue. Sirius whispered the password and the two of them made their way down the passage towards Honeydukes.

Severus was walking down that particular hallway, making his way back to the Slytherin common room when he heard the grinding sound of stone on stone. He stopped by the statue and gave it a curious look before tapping it with his wand. Nothing happened so he shrugged and continued on his way.

Meanwhile, back in James' common room, Remus and Peter had finally recovered from their latest laughing fit and were currently discussing Christmas.

"You do realise that he'll kill us when he finds out what we've got him."

"Oh, come off it, Moony, Sirius wouldn't do that. You remember waiting for him in that place when he took the test, he'll be thrilled!"

"Yeah, but he'll still wonder why we haven't gotten him anything else" Remus argued.

"Good point, but the truth is we couldn't afford to buy him anything else!"

Remus snorted before replying "you mean you and me couldn't afford anything else. James most certainly could."

"Whatever, the point is that Padfoot will be too excited to even care that he's not going to get anything else from us."

"Yeah, you're probably right, Wormtail. You reckon Prongs was telling us the truth about why he hexed him in the first place?"

"That Sirius was humming a certain song detailing what James and Lily would be doing up a tree? I most certainly would believe that, after all that's what Prongs sent him to the hospital wing for last year."

Remus nodded in agreement before the two of them headed back to Gryffindor tower to get ready for bed.

As James snuck off to grab the butterbeer, Sirius decided that he'd stock up on some firewhiskey. The final Quidditch game was a month after they got back from holidays, and Sirius wanted to make the celebrations even better than usual. He left the money on the counter as James came back and did the same for the butterbeer.

James looked quizzically at his friend before shaking his head in amazement.

"As Head Boy, Padfoot, I'll pretend I can't see what you've got!"

"What? Since I'm of age, I'm allowed to buy this stuff. Besides, don't you want to celebrate after beating Slytherin in the next game?"

"Of course I do," James scoffed. "It's just that firewhiskey is supposed to be quite strong, and I'm not sure…"

"So you're going to wuss out, are you? Don't you want to see Moony and Wormtail get rip-roaring drunk?" Sirius grinned.

James returned the grin and eagerly nodded as the duo set off back to Hogwarts.

The holidays came quickly, and with it, Christmas. Peter had come over a couple of days before, and the four of them had spent most of their time coming up with new prank ideas. Christmas morning dawned, with Peter being the first one up. He was sitting by the fire with a mug of hot chocolate in his hand, and started to drift back to sleep. After about half an hour, he was roused from his doze by a loud scream coming from upstairs. A few minutes later, Sirius and James came storming down into the living room.

"What is the meaning of this!"

"The meaning of what, James?" Peter asked, a look of innocence on his face.

"This!" Sirius said, pointing to his red and green hair.

Peter merely grinned at him. "I just thought it best for you to be in the Christmas mood."

"We don't need green and red hair to be in the Christmas mood!" Remus grumpily added, as he appeared in the room similarly affected.

Not long after, James' parents came downstairs and started laughing when they saw what Peter had done. Everyone scowled at them, except for Peter, who discreetly waved his wand, changing the two adults' hair, along with his own, red and green. This brought a smile to his friends' faces as they all congregated around the tree to open their presents.

It was in a midst of wrapping paper; books for Remus, pranking items and a new broomstick for James (the newest model of the Silver Arrows) and sweets for Peter, when Sirius finally found that he didn't have any presents.

"You didn't think we'd forget you, Padfoot" Remus said with a playful smile.

"But there isn't anything…"

He was cut off when James raised his wand and pointed upstairs. "Accio Padfoot's gift!"

A small package came whizzing down the stairs and James caught it rather nonchalantly in one hand before handing it to his somewhat confused friend.

"What's this?" he asked before opening it to find a key on a chain. "A key? Well, keys are good. But what's it for?"

His three friends and James' parents all smiled before leading Sirius outside into the backyard.

"Now Padfoot, close your eyes, we want this to be a surprise, all right?"

Sirius nodded at James before tightly shutting his eyes. Remus smiled at this before whispering the summoning charm to remove James' invisibility cloak. James then grinned and enlarged Sirius' present to its proper size.

"All right, Sirius. You can open them now" Peter said after the other two had given him the nod.

"What the…RUDDY HELL!"

"You like it?"

"Mr Potter, I'd be lying if I said I did. I ruddy LOVE it!" he replied in a stunned tone, looking in awe at the gleaming new motorcycle in front of him.

"We'll leave you to get acquainted with it then. Just be careful, muggle vehicles can be very dangerous."

"Don't worry, Mum, we'll be fine" James answered and watched his parents walk back inside the house.

"Er, are you sure you know how to ride that thing, Padfoot?"

"Of course I do, Moony. I've got my license for it, so I can ride it no worries!"

"You hadn't actually ridden one before you took your test though."

"Oh stop worrying, Prongs. It'll just be like riding a broom!"

"And that's why I am worried! You're hopeless on a broom!"

"Compared to you, Prongs, everyone's hopeless on a broom!"

"Good point, Wormtail. But really, are you sure you know how to do this, Padfoot?"

"For Merlin's sake, Prongs, I just said that! Now, I'm going to get on this thing, so can you please kick away the stand thanks Moony."

Remus got an evil glint in his eye and nodded. While Sirius wasn't looking, Remus retracted the foot-stand and waited for Sirius to jump on his new bike. No sooner had he done this, the bike tipped over on its side and Sirius was left sprawled out on the ground, his three friends roaring with laughter.

"DAMN IT, REMUS! I MEANT FOR YOU TO WAIT UNTIL I GOT ON THE BIKE FIRST, YOU GIT!" Sirius yelled, his face red with embarrassment.

Remus stopped his laughter to respond. "Whoops, my mistake!"

This only had the effect of making James and Peter laugh even harder, with Remus following shortly after, until they all had tears streaming down their faces. Sirius meanwhile was doing his best to glare at the lot of them, but was struggling to not laugh himself.

After a little while, Sirius had finally managed to control his new toy and was starting to get the hang of riding.

"Told you I can do this!" he beamed.

James just arched an eyebrow before smirking, "well, I'd hardly call going in a straight line riding, Padfoot. Let's see how well you can steer!"

Before Sirius could even react, James had conjured a log directly in front of the bike's path. Time seemed to slow down as they saw Sirius' eyes widen in shock before the bike hit the log, and its momentum ceased, unlike the person riding it. The young wizard was thrown over the handlebars, screaming, and tumbled through the air before landing unceremoniously on the ground.

A deathly silence followed until Sirius let out a groan, "I think I'm alright."

After realising Sirius was uninjured, James and Peter used each other for support to keep from falling over in laughter yet again. Remus had an amused look on his face as he walked over to his comrade.

"Padfoot, are you aware that you scream like a little girl?"

Remus then offered his hand while Sirius just rolled onto his back and stared at the sky.

"Oh shut up, Moony" he croaked out before accepting the hand and letting Remus pull him to his feet.

It was with a tinge of sadness that the four of them reached Kings Cross Station to catch the train back to Hogwarts for the final time. They were soon joined by Lily, who once again thanked James for his thoughtful gift of a bracelet, and also told Remus that Petunia understood and respected his letter. Again, Sirius tried to grill Remus about what the letter contained, but the young werewolf smiled and politely told him to keep his nose out of his, Remus', private life.

"No Aurors this time" Peter said, abruptly changing the topic.

"No, there are. But they're just patrolling the corridors instead of coming into our carriages," Lily replied before looking at James. "Did you finish your transfiguration assignment?"

James' eyes widened a bit, which was all Lily needed to see. "It's due next week! And we've got our NEWT's coming up in a few months…"

"Which gives us plenty of time to study for them" Sirius cut in, and both Remus and Lily glared at him.

"Are you really expecting them to be easy, Sirius? I can assure you they'll be much more difficult than the OWL's were."

"Don't worry about it, Moony. We'll be fine" James told him but Peter looked a bit nervous, something Remus noticed.

"Yes Peter, I'll help you where I can" he sighed.

"Thanks Remus, I hate exams!"

"Don't we all" Sirius muttered, and Lily shot him another glare that Sirius ignored, much to her annoyance.

The weekend soon came around, and James, Sirius and Peter were all frantically trying to finish their transfiguration essay that, once again, they had left until the last minute. They had been constantly bugging Remus and Lily all day about it, to the extent that Lily announced that she'd be in the library. Remus envied her, since this meant his friends had all but ambushed him in the common room.

"C'mon Moony! You promised you'd help us with this, remember!"

"I said no such thing! It's not my fault if you three don't listen in class!"

"Actually, it is. We know you always let us borrow your notes, so it is your fault" James replied.

Remus glared before grinning, "then maybe it's time to see what you'll do if you can't use my notes."

The other three looked at him in confusion, before looking at each other. Remus used that particular moment to quickly cast a charm on all of his notes.

"Please Moony, we won't ask you again, Marauder's honour!" Sirius begged.

Remus narrowed his eyes before sighing "fine. But this is the last time it happens, got it."

Peter, Sirius and James quickly nodded in agreement before settling down to copy Remus' notes. As they were writing, Remus noticed James' confusion while looking at his notes, and put on his best poker face.

"Er, Moony? Are you sure that's right?"

"What? I just wrote down what Professor McGonagall was saying."

"Yeah, but it doesn't make any sense" Sirius said, scratching his head.

"Quite right. I mean look at this bit; the animagus portkey charm helps with the addition of floo powder. What's that all about?" Peter added.

"It makes perfect sense to me" Remus mumbled, looking at his own notes to help hide his grin.

"And then that bit there; transfiguring a Dragon into a sock is easy compared to changing a matchstick into a needle. We haven't done that before!"

"And the matchstick to needle transfig is easy. We did it in first year. You sure your notes are right, Moony?" James asked.

"YES! My notes are perfectly fine. If you've finished criticising me, I need to go to the library to get some more books out to start studying for our Defence NEWT" Remus growled. He was quite pleased at his ability to hide his amusement at his friends' predicament.

"Alright, the transfiguration homework's due tomorrow though" James reminded him.

"I know, James. I've finished it. It's underneath my notes."

Remus watched gleefully as his three friends' eyes all lit up.

"Now, I don't want you copying it while I'm gone, all right?" he asked with a glare.

"No, of course we won't, Moony. We wouldn't do that, would we guys?" Sirius replied.

"Not at all, you can take your time if you like, Remus. We'll still be here when you get back" Peter added.

"I'm sure you will be" Remus said with a grin, before heading off to the library. He had barely managed to close the portrait before he started laughing.

'Pity really, that that charm only lasts a day' he mused as he set off to the library to tell Lily to use the same spell on her notes in case they figured out what he'd done.