Rainy weather and treacle tart

Sirius James Peter Jessi

While the students had been sitting in their carriages rain had started to pour from the almost jet black sky. The road up to the castle was muddy and the weather was cold, but somehow, the sight of the familiar Hogwarts castle made all the students get a warm feeling of safety in their stomachs.

"I can see it! I can see it!" every time they passed through the huge Hogwarts gates Sirius reacted the same way. Hogwarts had always been his home and he sure missed it when he was gone.

"Yes, yes we can all see it Sirius" James was used to Sirius behaving like this and decided to ignore it.

"What's the difference… goat…pig…oh sod it! When I heard it this summer I laughed so much I almost started crying…I can't believe I've forgotten it" Sirius was still trying as hard as he could to remember the end of the joke, but without result.

"Give it a rest will ya?" James was a bit frustrated, for even though Michael Davies was known for his height, James had not been able to spot him, nor Lily.

Peter was still staring at his feet but Jessi had gone from fiddling with her hair to fiddling with the sleeve of her robe.

"At Beauxbatons our robez were much prettier, why must I wear ziz ugly ting?"

"You have no choice" said Peter softly.

"But it iz ugly"

"Well…that's the way it is"

"Pig…goat…difference…blast it!"

"Ugly…ugly…"

"Goat…pig…argh!"

"SHUT UP! Just...shut up…please?" James opened the carriage door and jumped out.

"What's the matter with him eh?" said Sirius while getting out quickly and caught up with James.

Molly Remus

"So how was your summer Remus?" asked Molly.

"Can I be completely honest?"

"Of course" said Molly convincingly. "It's just you and me here".

"Ok…it was a complete…bore" Remus and Molly started giggling. Not until they had reached the castle and were practically being forced out the carriage by the 7th years sitting opposite them, did they stop.

"So how was yours?" asked Remus after whipping a tear of his cheek.

"If you don't mind me saying…mine was a BLAST!"

"Oh, really? What did you do?"

"I went to Spain!"

"That sounds really great! Are the people nice there?"

"Well the muggles were complete idiots, but otherwise the people were great!" Molly and Remus broke out into another fit of giggles and hurried into the castle under the pouring rain.

Lily Michael

During the whole carriage ride Lily and Michael hadn't spoken one word to each other, there was some sort of wall between them that none of them could seem to break down. When they got out of the carriage and started running towards the castle, Michael grabbed Lily's hand, and at that moment Lily stopped in her tracks.

"What are you doing? You're going to catch a cold standing out in the rain like this!" Michael stretched out his arm as if hinting to Lily to grab his hand, but Lily stayed put.

"Something's changed…and not in a good way" screamed Lily.

"What do you mean? We have to get inside! Can't we talk inside? You're going to catch pneumonia, and me too for that matter" said Michael.

"You're not listening to me!" Lily took a step back.

"What on earth do you mean?"

"If we can't talk here then we really have problems" said Lily, and even she didn't really understand what she meant.

"Come on Lily!"

"There are millions of raindrops between us and all you can think about is getting inside. We need to talk Michael, and if I can't talk to you here I'm not likely to be able to talk to you anywhere else"

Michael took a few steps forward until he was inches from Lily's face. He bent down and brushed his lips against hers.

"We need to get inside Lily, and when we do, I promise, we can talk about anything you want, ok? Lets just go inside before they lock the doors" he grabbed Lily's hand and she could do nothing but follow him inside.

Once they were inside Michael performed a drying spell on both of their coats and gave her his to keep her extra warm.

"Thank you" Lily said softly. She was rather ashamed of the way she had behaved outside. "I'm sorry Michael. I'm not sure what was happening and…I just…I'm sorry"

"You have nothing to apologize for" Michael was the type of person who forgave almost anything.

As Lily and Michael walked into the Great Hall almost all faces turned to face them.

"Sorry we're late Professor" Michael said loudly to Dumbledore who nodded towards him and said:

"No matter at all Mr. Davies, not matter at all. Now that our Head boy and his lady friend (at this Lily furiously blushed) have arrived I think it might be time to tuck into our exceptionally good feast" Dumbledore sat down once more and at once all the plates in the Great Hall filled with delicious dishes. There was everything from liver pie to mashed potatoes to chicken wings to cooked tomatoes.

Everyone

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" said Sirius as he immediately grabbed all the food in sight and stuffed his mouth full.

"That's repulsive Sirius, absolutely repulsive" Remus was disgusted and decided to ignore him and continue his conversation with Molly.

Michael had gone over to sit at the Hufflepuff table which left Lily to go over and sit with her fellow Gryffindors.

"There you are!" said Molly loudly as she spotted Lily walking towards her.

"Yes, here I am" said Lily sounding rather sad.

"What's the matter?" said Remus and Molly at once.

"Oh…I'm just in a mood, its no matter" said Lily as she sat down and started eating the food that Molly had piled up on her plate, unaware that James was staring at her. Seeing her sad was breaking his heart but he could never tell her because he knew she would turn it around and make it seem as if he was making some sexist joke or bullying her. That was often how Lily's and James' conversations were like. He would sit for hours thinking of the perfect line and when he said it to her she would look disgusted at him and tell him to 'sod off'.

"James? Hello? Are you there? Earth to James! POTTER!"

"WHAT SIRIUS?" James had intentionally ignored Sirius but at moments like this he couldn't do it for long.

"What's up with you today, mate? You were fine when we were on the platform but then you kind just slipped off into another world…what's up mate?" said Remus who had too noticed James' weird behavior.

"I…" James had always had trouble talking about Lily to Remus and Sirius or to anyone in fact. Every time he tried he would end up saying something completely different. "I… I have a stomach ache"

"Maybe you should go see Madam Pomfrey" said Remus.

"Yeah I will later" James said softly.

"Sow whuds ou fiush pwankh?" said Sirius with his mouth full of mashed potatoes.

"What on earth did you just say?" asked Molly.

Sirius took a while to chew, swallow and then he said:

"What's our first prank?" Sirius said as if it was the most obvious answer.

"You know what? I can't really think right now… can't we just do this tomorrow?" said James

"Tomorrow we'll have tons of homework to do and besides, tomorrows the first day of school, and you know what happens on the first day of school" said Remus.

Every year since their second year on the first day of school Peaves would fly around the school throwing water balloons and mud at 7th years. Peaves also went through all the common rooms and annoyed all the students who were trying to concentrate on their work. The Marauders often used this as an excuse to do whatever they felt like and mostly that consisted of playing pranks on Professor Cleavry, the Defence against the Dark Arts teacher who was a very nervous fellow or stealing food from the kitchen.

"Oh yeah! So I guess this year we'll just go to the kitchen right? Since Mr. Potter here is in a mood!" teased Sirius.

"Oh very clever" said James as he accidentally jabbed the fork into the table having missed the potato he was aiming for because he was so distracted by the beautiful red head sitting opposite Molly.

"Oh lord, please help us guide this young unfortunate lad out of the dark claws of Lily Potter" said Sirius as he shut his eyes and placed his hands in a praying position. James hit him on the shoulder and went back to staring at Lily. At that exact moment the plates emptied and were refilled with deserts.

"TREACTLE TART!" yelled Sirius so that everyone heard. In an instant everyone was staring at him and then everyone laughed. In the corner at the Slytherin table his brother Regulus was sitting feeling deeply ashamed.