Chapter Two – Morning
"Sirius! Wake up, you prat!" The words screeched in his ears, loudly, and he sat up quickly, eyes half-open, feeling as though his head was entirely too heavy. It was Friday morning, and he was suffering from end-of-the-week burnout, having not slept very well the night before. Neither had any of them, for that matter, having been out bewitching a skeleton to dance through McGonagall's office in the middle of the night.
The one yelling at him was one Lily Evans, who had noticed, much to his dismay, that he had fallen asleep again, thus waking him from his only naptime of the day. Unfortun-ately, he had managed to fall asleep into his porridge, and as he raised his dripping head he realized that the entire hall appeared to have noticed and were laughing their heads off. Especially Lily, who already believed that he and James were both bloody idiots. This probably wasn't helping with that notion.
"Padfoot, mate, you might want this." A sleepy-looking Remus handed him a hand-kerchief, and he raised it to wipe the remnants from his features, brushing it out of a few strands of his hair while he was at it.
It had been a late morning for all four of them, and while all of the Marauders bore dark circles under their eyes and a tendency to yawn, Sirius seemed to be taking the lack of sleep the hardest. The Slytherins were having quite a bit of fun at their expense, and so, apparently, was Lily.
"I hate Fridays," he mumbled, and shoved the porridge away as if it were the plague.
"I agree with you there, believe me." James yawned hugely and stretched, accidentally knocking the glasses off of a first-year's face in the process. "They should install naptime. All of the Muggle schools have it."
Remus turned to look at him, curiosity on his face. "How do you know so much about Muggles, anyway? I thought you were pureblood."
James shrugged. "My parents sent me to a Muggle school when I was a kid. Said it'd be good to learn the culture, or something."
"Well, on the bright side, if you ever get Evans to go out with you, you'll know a few things." Sirius grinned at him.
"Hello! Do neither of you have ears? I'm sitting across the table from you!" Lily snapped, looking at them as if their stupidity were contagious. It was well-known that the one thing she couldn't stand were stupid people.
Sirius looked at her bemusedly. "I'm sorry, did I say something about you that you didn't already know? Live with it or invest in ear plugs, but don't whine."
"Hey! Back off." James smacked him in the arm. Lily looked from one to the other and rolled her eyes, shooting a look at Remus as if to say 'How do you put up with this?' It was also well-known that the two of them were close, a fact that James had tried and failed to exploit numerous times in the past.
"Oy, Prongs. Enemy sighting, dead ahead." Sirius shaded his eyes as if from the sun, even though the ceiling above displayed clouds. Lucius Malfoy had entered the Great Hall, walking as arrogantly as ever, haughty look on his face. When his gaze fell on the four of them, his expression twisted into one of absolute loathing, much like the one that Snape always gave them. He swept by, ignoring them completely, and sat at the Slytherin table like some kind of prince.
"You don't think he's still pissed at us from yesterday, do you?" James craned his neck, trying to see what he was doing.
"James, you do that to him every day." Remus let out a sigh, laying a hand on his arm, forcing him to face their table once again. "If that doesn't make him angry, then the incident with the pink robes should be enough."
"Oh, yeah…" James smiled, basking in the glory of the memory.
"Point being, maybe we should scram?" Peter looked around nervously, as if something was going to land on his head and attack him at any moment.
"Wormtail, relax. He's not going to do anything in full view of the whole school." Remus tried to smile reassuringly, but it was somewhat ruined by a sudden yawn. "Besides, I'm a prefect, and so is Lily."
"I wouldn't count on that, mate. He's coming this way." Sirius watched as Lucius rose from his seat, hand in his pocket as if to draw a wand, setting a book down on the table before he turned and began to head in their direction.
"What do we do?" James looked around, panicked, while Peter made a slightly frightened noise. "For all we know, he'll use some hex we've never heard of!"
"Oh, don't be such a coward, Potter." Lily looked at him coldly before drawing herself up to her full height, ready to act the uptight prefect if anything happened. Needless to say, James and Sirius were not reassured. They exchanged a look, deciding in silence what course of action to take.
A moment later, Sirius keeled over sideways, coughing and turning an interesting shade of purple. James leapt to his feet, dragging Peter and Remus with him, and together the three of them hightailed it out of the hall, never once looking back. Only when they were all out on the staircase did they stop and collapse, catching their breath.
"What on earth was that?" Remus gasped, looking at them, halfway amused and halfway bewildered, not sure if he wanted to know.
"Escape plan 23B, of course."
"Which one's that?"
"The one where Sirius fakes sick and we run away."
"Oh, right." Remus nodded in understanding, then frowned. "So why did we run away? I thought we all knew how to deal with prats like that."
James shuddered. "Clearly, you did not see what he did to that second-year who ran into him last week. She's still in the Hospital Wing, and they're thinking of transferring her to St. Mungo's because she's still hallucinating. I did not want that to start happening to us, believe me. Since I was the one who hit him yesterday, after all."
"Okay, so we've established that Malfoy is evil, but now we have no breakfast." Peter let out a long-suffering sigh, as if the lack of sustenance might kill him in some later life. He was already skinny as a rail, though, so perhaps there was some merit to it.
"Shut your trap, Wormtail. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life babbling to yourself like a loony and seeing things."
"What a charming notion, boys, but I'm afraid I may have to correct you." The smooth, icy voice cut through their thoughts, jolting all four Marauders back to the reality in which Lucius Malfoy had followed them out of the Hall, and had clearly heard at least some of the conversation.
James jumped, falling backwards and nearly landing on Remus. "Oh! Lucius." His expression snapped into wariness. "What do you want?"
"Oh, nothing." His grey eyes held an uncanny glint as he raised his wand, pointing it at James and then Sirius, as if deciding who to hex first. "Just this." He said nothing more, but two different streams of light erupted from his wand, landing first on James and then on Sirius, both of whom went sprawling backwards.
Just then, the hall's doors came flying open, and out came Lily, sprinting. She looked from Lucius to James and Sirius, who were both unconscious, and then at Remus, who was pointing his wand at Lucius and snarling, while Peter cowered. Her expression grew indignant, and she whipped out her wand, stalking over. "What one earth do you think you're doing, Malfoy? I could have you expelled for this!"
"Oh, no, I don't think so." Lucius turned to face her, wand ready, and smirked. "Oh, hell, why not? Let's make this really fun." Again, another silent spell, and Lily flew backwards off her feet, landing on the ground and blacking out.
"You're not getting away with this, Malfoy!" Remus lunged at him, about to hurl a hex, but Lucius blocked it neatly and stepped aside, sticking a foot out. Remus went sprawling, and as he tried to get to his feet, he found Lucius already standing on his wrist, keeping him from using his wand.
"You know what? You're not even worth it." Satisfied smirk on his face, Malfoy aimed a kick at his ribs and then disappeared down the stairs towards the dungeons, leaving Remus to climb awkwardly to his feet, injured, while Peter still sat cowering from the battle, utterly useless.
"Help!" Remus yelped hoarsely, and then, regaining his voice, added, "Somebody, help! Professor! Dumbledore!" Scrambling to his feet, he took off for the door of the hall, while Peter sat rocking back and forth, hugging his knees and wondering what on earth he had gotten himself into this time.
If only he'd known the nightmare had yet to begin.
