Chapter 7: A Troubled James
"Absolutely no excuse!" shouted Professor McGonagall to James, Sirius and Peter. "You destroyed the potions classroom! You'll have to pay for all the damage you have done! I'm sending a letter to your parents tonight!" she shrieked.
"We didn't do it," Sirius said quickly.
"Didn't do it?" questioned Professor McGonagall looking at the three boys with a mocked shocked face, she stood up and walked around her desk so she was standing right in front of the three boys. "Didn't do it? What if I said Mr. Black, that I know you did it, considering your whole 6th year class walked in on you three looking as guilty as can be!" she yelled. "Locked in a classroom? Do you really think we'd be that stupid Mr. Black?" she asked.
Sirius leaned back in his chair and looked at Professor McGonagall who was glaring at him, so he quickly sat up properly. "Well, no, your extremely intelligent, Professor, one of the best teachers here!" Sirius said smiling 'his' smile, that made all the girls weak.
Professor McGonagall rose her eyebrows. "Mr. Black," she smiled tight lipped.
"Yes?" Sirius said mimicking the same smile Professor McGonagall had.
"Three weeks detention! Get out!" she bellowed. All three stood up quickly, but she motioned for James and Peter to sit. She walked over to her desk and sat down, as she watched Sirius hurry out of her office.
James sat there with an innocent face plastered on his handsome face, while Peter sat there terrified out of the glare they were receiving from Professor McGonagall.
"Do you have something better to say, Pettigrew?" Professor McGonagall asked Peter. Peter shook his head.
"Three weeks detention, Pettigrew!" she said quickly, Peter stood up and hurried out the door.
"Potter, can you top Black's amazing excuse?" Professor McGonagall asked staring at James.
"You think that was good?" James asked amazed. "I've got a better one! The truth in fact!" he said happily. "We were locked in there." He said simply.
"I'm aware of that," said Professor McGonagall not taking her eyes off James.
"Well yes, but you see Professor, someone pranked us," James said looking slightly worried. "You see Professor, Sirius and Peter didn't want to say anything because they were ashamed," he whispered to Professor McGonagall, who looked as if she didn't believe a word coming out of James Potter's mouth. "We were ashamed to admit that we were fooled at a game we're best at!" James said sadly. "We were chased by Peeves all around the castle –"
"What were you doing out at that time of the night?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"We just came back from a detention, ma'am," James said nodding. "Then Peeves came out of no where, on our way back to Gryffindor tower when he chased us down to the dungeons, yelling and all that, then he chased us into the potions classroom, and he started making a mess of the place, then the door locked. Peeves was out of there so fast cackling at our misfortune," James said looking pleadingly at Professor McGonagall.
"Do you expect me to believe that Potter?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"It's the truth," James said.
"Really? Well, I must be hearing wrong, because I heard that exact same excuse from Black and Pettigrew last year," said Professor McGonagall crossing her arms. "You heard me Potter, three weeks detention! OUT!" she snapped.
James shrugged and headed out of Professor McGonagall's office, where Sirius was leaning against the corridor wall, waiting for James.
"Peter's gone to get his books for class," Sirius said, as he joined James into walking back to Gryffindor Tower. "Which excuse did you use?" Sirius asked grinning.
"The one, where we were chased by Peeves, supposedly, you and Wormtail already used that excuse last year," James said, running his hands through his hair, to make it messier than it had been.
"Yeah, and we already used that once before in third year," Sirius said laughing.
James smiled. "Oh yeah," he said to himself.
"How long do you have detention now? See you just made it all worse for you doing that failure of a prank," Sirius laughed again.
"Shit," James muttered. "Five weeks of detention, but you see that was way blown out of proportion, I mean two weeks! We just got three weeks for ruining the potions classroom, and I got two weeks for just terrorizing his class, its like I haven't done that before," James complained.
Sirius nodded and entered the Gryffindor Common Room, with James behind him. Peter came down the boy dormitory stairs with his bag, when the bell rang for next class. James and Sirius hurried up the stairs to their dormitory and got their bags.
"What lesson are we heading to?" Sirius asked James as they went into the corridor.
"History of Magic," James said turning left down another corridor.
"Good, because I'm tired after not sleeping last night," Sirius smiled.
Sirius let out a loud snore that startled James, as he woke up from his daydreaming. He looked down at the piece of paper that he wad doodling on. 'L.E' covered the sheet of paper, James sighed and lifted his head to stair at the ghostly teacher, who was talking in a bored monotone voice. James moved his gaze to the back of a girl. Her red hair was up in a pony tail and she was writing quickly as she was summarizing what Professor Binns was telling the sleeping class. James sighed and rested his head in his hand. He didn't feel tired after that night. When the bell rang for the end of class and lunch James slowly started to pack his books into his bag, as Remus was doing. James moved in between the rows of desks to exit the classroom. He saw Remus give Sirius a kick to wake him up, and Sirius too was moving slowly. James exited the dull classroom and was walking alongside Remus, Peter and Sirius.
"How did your genius prank go with Professor McGonagall?" Remus asked smiling cheekily.
"Three weeks of detention," Peter said.
"Not much better from when you started, huh?" Remus asked James, who wasn't paying anyattention.
Remus rolled his eyes and looked at Sirius who wasn't beside him anymore. Remus looked behind him to find Sirius talking to a girl, who seemed quite happy that Sirius Black was talking to her. Remus rolled his eyes again.
"Everyday the same thing happens," Remus said to Peter.
"What do you mean?" Peter asked Remus confused.
"James gets depressed over Lily, Sirius charms a few girls, I study, you watch everything. We're getting dull and boring," Remus chuckled slightly.
"We do other stuff too," Peter said. "We prank, we go out on dates," Peter said shrugging. "Yeah, it's the same thing every day." He muttered.
They continued to walk to the Great Hall, with a silence, that was oh, too familiar.
The three Marauders sat down at three empty spots at the Gryffindor table, and started piling up the food on their plates.
"James," Remus said.
James looked up from his plate. "Where's Sirius?" he asked looking down the table for his best friend.
"With a girl," Remus answered, like it was nothing new, which it wasn't.
"Oh," James said not caring really.
"Haven't you realized that we do the same thing everyday," Remus said.
"No," James said taking a bite of his lunch. "What do we do?" he asked, he swallowed his food and smiled at a girl who was sitting across the table and a few seats down. The girl started giggling and talking to her friends.
"You mope, Sirius flirts, I study, and Peter watches," Remus said frowning, "the same thing every day! And of course the never ending nagging on Snivellus."
"So?" James asked not really getting the point.
Remus shook his head in defeat.
Britney skipped over to where James was sitting and she sat down beside him in the empty seat. "So, what do you think?" she asked James smiling.
"What do I think about what?" James asked quickly, putting more food into his mouth before Britney could say anything about it.
"Didn't you get the letter?" Britney asked confused.
"Letter?" James asked confused (once again).
"You're thick!" Britney laughed. "And definitely not on Haylie and Michael's 'Need to Know' list!" Britney grinned and took a bread roll and took a bite.
"Obviously not," James said. "So what's happened?"
"Haylie's pregnant!" Britney said happily.
"Really?" James asked wide eyed. "Since when?"
"Since the wedding night," Britney laughed. "She told me, the baby is due in March, and she still hasn't told mum and dad!" Britney said excitedly. "Dad will flip!"
James smiled. "I'm going to be an uncle," he announced to Remus, who was talking to Peter.
"I know," Remus said, and turning back to Peter.
"How does he know, before me?" James asked.
"I told him," Britney said, finishing off her bread roll.
"Before me?" James asked upset.
"Well, I thought you knew!" Britney defended. "And besides, you weren't in a place I could contact you with ease," Britney laughed, and she got up and headed further down the table to where her friends were.
James rolled his eyes.
Sirius kicked a rock into the lake and sighed in satisfaction. "That was a good dinner," he said, rubbing his stomach.
"Yeah," James nodded in agreement. "Remus thinks we're predictable."
"What?" Sirius asked outraged and he headed for a tree and sat down, as the darkness overtook the Hogwarts castle and grounds. They stayed silence for a while, as James sat down beside him. "I guess we are," Sirius said shrugging at the realization.
"Not much difference from eight years of friendship, huh?" James asked smiling.
"No, we've definitely changed into amazing men," Sirius said arrogantly. "But, I'm tired," Sirius yawned loudly.
James grinned widely. "How about some Snivellus?" he asked.
James could tell Sirius was shrugging, since he was watching Snape's movement through the sun setting light. "He looks like he's hiding. He's hiding from us," Sirius said. Snape was then heading towards the lake near the tree where James and Sirius were sitting. He obviously didn't notice the two of them sitting there.
James and Sirius stood up and got out their wands. They waited behind the tree for Snape to walk past. Once he did, James and Sirius walked on either side of him.
"How was your summer Snivellus?" James asked. Snape pulled out his wand quickly.
"Expelliarmus!" James said, and took the wand out of Snape's hand.
"Greasy enough for you?" Sirius asked smiling.
"Where's your mudblood Potter?" Snape sneered.
James backed away and quickly yelled. "Petrificus Totalus!" Snape froze and fell backwards on his back, stiff as a bored. "We'll catch up on our summer another time Snivellus," James spat.
He quickly walked away angrily, with Sirius beside him. The Hogwarts grounds were now completely dark and shadowed.
"That's all we're doing?" Sirius asked upset.
"Yeah," James said, as he pushed open the Entrance Hall doors, and entered.
"He's getting to you, Prongs," Sirius muttered.
"He's not!" James snapped.
"Well don't let him," Sirius said and stopped, as did James. "You seem troubled since this morning!"
"Let's go to the kitchens," James said ignoring Sirius' last comment.
"Of course, you're going to ignore me completely, with that comment," Sirius said angrily. "Evans, is taking over your mind," Sirius exaggerated as he gripped James head and shook it.
James smiled. "No, it's not Evans," he said.
"Your over Evans than?" Sirius asked, as he and James walked down a corridor full of portraits.
James didn't answer as he stopped at the portrait with the bowl of fruit, and he tickled the pear. Him and Sirius entered, and were immediately bombarded by house-elves. James and Sirius told the house-elves what they wanted.
James raised his head from looking down at the house-elves when he saw Lily sitting at the replica of the Gryffindor table, eating some pumpkin pastries and reading a book. James walked over to where Lily sat. She didn't seem to notice everything around her, and she was just noticing her book. She took a bite of her pastry.
"Hey Evans," James said, as he sat down beside Lily, who jumped when she saw James. Her cheeks were stuffed full of the pasty. She looks so cute, James thought. Lily scooted down the bench in her seat and slid her book down to where she now sat. She swallowed her food and looked at James shocked.
Sirius came and sat down on the opposite side of the table. "Hey Evans, what are the chances of you being here too." Sirius said happily.
"I feel as if I'm being stalked," Lily said uneasily as she looked at the two Marauders.
"Your not being stalked Evans, no worries," James said, shaking his head. "What are you reading?"
"It doesn't matter," Lily said quickly. She seemed to realize that she was having this conversation with James, and she quickly grabbed her book and her pasty and stood up. She quickly moved to exit the kitchens.
"Evans! Don't leave!" Sirius shouted. "We won't bite!" But Lily kept walking and she soon exited the kitchens.
A/N: Sorry it took a while to update. I haven't been in the mood in writing and the next time i'll update won't be till i write two more chapters. Lord knows how long that will be...but i'll try my best to do it quickly. Thanks for your patience and your reviews. SO please review. REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!