Sirius was bored.
He had already counted all the stone bricks on the wall opposite of him and he had sang "99 bottles of butterbeer on the wall" twice. He had his back against the cold stone wall and was waiting not-so-patiently next to the door of their dormitory. Sirius was waiting for Remus, had been for the last few hours. Remus was late and he wasn't going to get away with it.
They were supposed to be having a meeting, but instead Remus was off doing God-knows-what with God-knows-who while Peter and James slept. James had fallen asleep while writing an essay for DADA, and Peter had passed out somewhere in-between. That left Sirius to his own devices, something that was never good. He ran a hand through his stylishly short hair. Although girls sighed at it, giggling at the softness, Sirius hated his hair. It was just another example of how he wasn't allowed to be himself, of how he was forced to pretend to be someone he wasn't. If given the choice, Sirius would have grown it out, letting it reach just past his ears, and it would always be in his eyes, payback for the five years the black strands had to be neat, without a hair out of place. In stead of doing what he wanted, he was forced to conform to the newest fashions and trends, a condition that did not only apply to hair but to everything else in his being. With a deep sigh he fantasized, not for the first time, of giving up their charade and being himself. He wondered if everyone would still worship the ground he walked on. He wondered if Lily would still be his best friend.
Lily was smart; there was no doubt about that. And sometimes, Sirius thought that she knew about them or, at least, that she suspected. Although she never voiced her questions, after every prank her eyes sparkled with unasked questions. "Where were you last night?" and "Why did you disappear for a few hours?" were always on the tip of her tongue. Of course she wasn't the only one who noticed his absence, but the others assumed he had disappeared to snog some nameless girl. After the prank that they pulled at the feast last year, he could remember her eyes flicking towards him, gauging his reaction. He hadn't shared this information with the other Marauders and he wouldn't until he was certain.
Sirius jumped into position when heard the familiar creak that accompanied stepping on the third step of their staircase. With a smile Sirius thought to himself, "Remus never remembers to skip that one."
With a murderous smile, Sirius prepared to strike as he watched the door handle slowly turn. He knew that Remus expected an attack and that he would have to be extra careful to get a bullseye. The door slowly opened admitting a shaft of light. As the opening grew bigger the werewolf stepped in and Sirius attacked. Remus' handsome face was hit unceremoniously by a pillow with a loud thwack. Sirius pulled it back and hit him again, this time sending a few feathers flying loose. Remus did not move an inch and stood silently still. As Sirius cautiously pulled back the pillow waiting for a reaction, Remus slowly turned his head towards him. The glare that marred Remus' usually pleasant face was met only with a half smile and a shrug from Sirius' shoulders.
"Where had you been?" Sirius questioned in a motherly fashion as the werewolf yanked the pillow form his friend's arms. He leaned forward and sniffed Remus, while his friend gave him a look that clearly questioned his sanity. "You reek of cigarettes. I thought you were going to quit?"
"In the Astronomy tower," Remus stated simply, answering the first question as he shoved the pillow into Sirius stomach. Sirius doubled over with an "Oaf." Remus ignored the second question completely as he walked towards the bed James occupied. The boy's face was lying on a book, his eyes closed. A tiny puddle of drool had collected on the page describing the best way to remove a Red Cap, and his glasses were lying crocked on his nose. Remus gently began to shake his shoulders, this caused James to roll over and mutter crankily, "Go away." After a little more soft nudging, Remus gave up and used a hash shove. This resulted in James falling off the bed, his glasses scattering under the four-poster.
"Bloody Hell," James exclaimed from his position on the floor.
Remus offered him an apologetic smile, Sirius laughed mockingly at him, and Peter, who was snoring softly in his bed moments ago, awoke with a start.
When James finally regained his barring, he unknowingly repeated Sirius' question, "Where have you been?"
"The Astronomy Tower," Remus said as he began to slip out of his school uniform and get ready for bed. James, who was now lying on his stomach, had one hand stretched under the bed. He was trying desperately to find his glasses in-between the countless mothballs.
"Jesus Christ," Remus muttered and grabbed his wand. With a roll of his eyes, he muttered, "Accico glass," and the round rimmed spectacles flew into his hand. James looked at him sheepishly as he stood up dusting off his knees. With a self-mocking grin he grabbed them from Remus' outstretched palm. He wiped them with the corner of his shirt before he put them on.
"The more important question," Sirius said with a leer, "is who you were there with?"
Remus, who had continued undressing after he had rescued James' glasses, was too consumed with untying his shoes to notice the connotations the question held. He answered simply, "Lily Evans." Though, as soon as the words slipped out of his mouth he realized his mistake. His eyes quickly shot to James face and he wasn't surprise to see a look a look of complete shock. James' mouth opened and closed repeatedly and Remus couldn't help but notice how much he resembled a fish out of water. In any other circumstance, the comparison would have mad him laugh, now it just made him feel worse.
"We weren't... I didn't..." he trailed off, "Nothing happened," he explained. It was a well known fact between the group that James was madly in love with Lily. He had been since the end of second year. Lily and James had been assigned as partners for an end of the year project and James had been infatuated ever since. In normal circumstances, this wouldn't have been a problem. James, with his 'Potter Charm', as his father so often called it with a wink and a nudge, and his ever charming smile would have, at least, had a chance with the lovely Miss Evans. But to the bumbling stuttering James, the beautiful red head was unattainable. Although, James admitted to himself, acting like a stuttering idiot wasn't that much of an act when the Lily was around.
"We just talked," Remus continued.
James had fallen so hard for Lily that Remus and Sirius had often talked about giving up the charade for him. In fact, they had come within inches of calling it off, when James overheard and stopped them. He had said, "If something's going to 'out' the Marauders, it had better be something better than a stupid crush." But over the years, Remus had begun to think it was more than a 'stupid crush.' He wasn't naive enough to believe that it was love, but whatever it was, it wasn't going away anytime soon.
"Since when do people meet in the Astronomy Tower to talk?" Peter asked.
"We didn't plan to meet there," Remus continued pleadingly, silently begging James to understand, "I went up there to think and while I was there she showed up. She had a fight with that big lump," he said nodding to Sirius, "and was trying to escape."
James looked at Sirius questioningly. "Yeah," he said, "I don't even remember what we were fighting about but with a temper like hers it could have been anything."
"Hey man," Remus said, again looking at James, "You know I would never do that to you."
"Yeah," James said his once solemn face, now being lit up by the grin that graced his face, "It's just..."
"The girl drives you wild," Sirius said with a smirk, sitting down on his bed. Sirius had, in the past year, periodically thought of Lily as more than a friend. "How could I not?" he thought to himself. She was beautiful, funny, and, more often than not, nice. But the thought of his best friend had always stopped him from acting on those feelings. He could never do that to James. Besides, afterwards he was always glad that he didn't get caught up in the moment, because, besides ruining his and James' friendship, he knew that it would permanently damage his and Lil's relationship.
"You can't help it if you're whipped," he said teasingly to James.
James proceeded to gracefully tackle Sirius to the floor. The two wrestled, each one gaining and loosing control, while Remus and Peter looked on amused. It was a sight the two had often witnessed in the five years they had known each other. Most of the time, Sirius won. It helped to be bigger and stronger and all. James, although outnumbered by size, still put up a good fight. This particular battle, however, was a close match. Finally the two came to an unspoken truce and separated, both breathing hard. James' hair was, if possible, more out of control than usual. Sirius eyes were wild and his cheeks were pink from the exertion. They both wore identical grins, wide, toothy and reckless.
"All right," James said, suddenly turning business like as he stood, helping Sirius up as well, "Let's get this started."
"Marauders Meeting called to order, Sir," Sirius said in mock seriousness, clicking his heels together and saluting James.
Remus turned to Sirius, he too turning serious. As he rubbed his eyes tiredly he said, "No he's right, we do need to do this. We might as well get it over with."
"Says the guy who disappeared for four hours," the black haired man joked.
Remus only response was to roll of his eyes.
James ran a hand through his hair and started, "I talked to a group of fifth year Ravenclaws and a bunch of Hufflepuff girls. Their theories ranged from 7th year Hufflepuffs to 4th year Slytherin, but nobody so much as mentioned any of us."
"I covered pretty much all of Gryffindor," Sirius said, "No one suspects a thing. Although Patricia Herning did complement whoever it was on a prank well done," he remarked with a bow.
"I talked to a bunch of guys in our year and older from Hufflepuff," Peter said, "and a few guys from Gryffindor. No one said anything except, a sixth year Hufflepuff who suggested James as a suspect," at this three boys drew uncharacteristically serious. He continued, "Don't worry, everyone burst out laughing. So were in the clear. Besides, I think the guy was joking anyway." The boys relaxed with this information. Although Sirius noticed that James seemed a little upset by the news. "Well, you would too," Sirius thought to himself, "If the whole school thought you were a pathetic loser."
Ever since a close call in second year, when a Slytherin prefect saw Peter outside the dormitory moments before a dozen dung bombs along with a message from the Marauders appeared in their common room, they have held meetings after each prank to see if anyone suspected them. So far no one had ever seriously brought their names up, although Remus and Sirius had been casually mentioned once or twice.
"I heard a group of Slytherins in the hall and they thinks it's the sixth year boys. I also heard a group of the professors talking and they were all arguing about the identity of the troublemakers. None of our names were mentioned. Dumbledore was there but he wasn't offering his opinion. Sometimes I think he knows," Remus said with a slight yawn at the end.
"I know what you mean," James admitted, "Last year when we made all the turkeys get up and dance at the last feast before winter break, I swear he was looking right at me and laughing."
"That's just a guilty conscious," Sirius said unbelieving, "Besides, there's no way that he could know and even if he did, we would have gotten in trouble a long time ago. He might like a good laugh as much as the next guy, but he can't let a group of students run around campus after hours unsupervised and unpunished."
"I don't know..." James said sharing a look with Remus.
"Either way," Peter said, "If he hasn't done anything yet, he's not going to, so we might as well go to sleep."
Remus agreed, it was a school night and he still hadn't caught up on his sleep from the full moon. But before they could retreat to their beds James brought up the last issue.
"Who' s going to do it tomorrow?" he questioned.
"Well, it might as well be me and Remus. We haven't had a bad row in a long time and people are starting to think I'm a softie," Sirius offered. After each prank, sometimes directly and other time a week or two after, the boys made sure that at lease two of them got into a fight. Sometimes it was a simple, "Don't touch my stuff," or a small argument about someone snoring. Other times it was all out wars fully equipped with screaming and occasional physical contact. When Sirius and Remus fought it was usually bad. The boys had ended up in the hospital wing a few times. The Marauders hoped these fights reminded people that they hated each other. They seemed to help keep the suspicion off them and it allowed them to keep up their image.
As Peter yawned loudly, James finally agreed that it was time to go to sleep. It was a Friday tomorrow and they were lucky enough to have History of Magic as their first period so they could catch up on their Z's. The four boys slowly went to their separate beds and pulled the curtains around them. The lights magically turned out and soon the only sound heard was the heavy breathing of Remus and the light snoring coming from Peter's bunk.