Oh my God the heat. Heat wave here in England and I'm practically a puddle on the floor -.-
"James!" Lily yelled down his ear, kicking him in the leg under the table
"Uh, what, yes, hello?" James snapped into consciousness and looked around to try and remember where he was. Slowly his eyes focussed on the dimly lit walls of the library, and he could see all of the prefects staring at him from around the table.
"James you're supposed to helping up decide healthy food options to add to the evening meal" Lily moaned "not falling asleep at the table"
"But we all know how this is going to end! Someone will say the ingredients for any actual good stuff are too expensive so we'll put carrot sticks on the table. They'll be totally ignored then we'll leave it to the house elves for the rest of the year before some idiot decides we're all becoming obese again" everyone just stared at him for a minute contemplating what he just said whilst Lily clenched her fists, glared at James, and scribbled 'health' off the list; she was the 'idiot' who'd suggested discussing it.
"Well now, the great James Potter has spoken, why don't we let him give us some good topics to discuss?" Lily huffed, sliding the paper over to James.
"Right. Yes." James didn't realise being head boy actually meant work and he'd been daydreaming about the quidditch trials that Saturday when they'd find out who the captain was so he hadn't done anything "Well I suppose it would be beneficial to look into the running and or maintenance of the thing done relating to…" he began to stutter before Lily put him out of his misery.
"Thank you for that James" she sighed, taking the list back off him. That was it for James, he decided to really throw himself into prefect work from then on, no-one would be able to say he didn't put his all into it "Next we'll discuss the placement of the new flower baskets for the… JAMES WAKE UP!"
It was as if the weather knew when anything to do with quidditch was on, in one day the rain started pouring and grey clouds filled the sky. James, Sirius, Amos, Kirk, Gideon, Benjy, Marlene, Davey, Mary, Josh, and Tom were soaking wet and stood in a line in front of McGonagall as she wrote down names.
"Alright then, Quidditch" McGonagall started
"Ohh, is that what this is?" Sirius fake sighed.
"We've kept the cup for the past 5 years so let's not let that slip! We need a solid team, and as you know the most important part of a Quidditch team is the captain, which is why it's my pleasure to announce this year it will be James Potter"
"YES!" James whooped, doing a front flip on the spot, failing, and landing in the mud.
"Behold your great leader" Sirius laughed as he pointed at James.
"I wouldn't be sarcastic to the guy who can decide whether or not you're on the team Pads" James pointed out, slapping him in the back of the head after quickly jumping back up. Smiling, McGonagall left them to the trials.
"Ok guys! We'll start with a warm up, I just want you to do three laps of the pitch before going into the drills for your position" Everyone leapt onto their brooms and took off in a race to get around the pitch fastest to impress James. Sirius made it back first easily, picked up a bat, and automatically whacked a bludger through the middle hoop as the first one flew at his head.
"Do I even need to do this?" he asked James as he watched the others trying out for beaters, Josh and Tom the two fifth years could barely hold onto the bat and the broom at the same time "Davey Gudgeon's better than them and he's barely got two eyes!"
"At least go through the drills with them Pads, they're all Gryffindor's got after you've left, they need your guidance" James knew playing up to Sirius' ego would work and sure enough he was off giving the two advice and flicking his hair.
Determined to get a good team together James flew up to watch Marlene, Amos, Kirk, and Mary throwing the quaffle back and forth in an elaborate swirling pattern.
"Right then guys, it's a simple test to get onto the team, all you have to do is score a goal" The four sighed and Amos even laughed at how easy the task was "Only thing is there will only be one ball and you'll have to fight for it, I'll be keeper for this, start… now!" James threw the quaffle in the air and flew off fast to avoid the mad scramble.
Marlene easily scored the first goal, getting the quaffle from Kirk within the first ten seconds and hurling it through the left ring. After that there was a big bust up between Mary and Amos, with one of them getting it back of the other straight after, finally Mary did a somersault to throw him off and hurled it past James. In the end Kirk and Amos were pretty much equal, alright at keeping the ball but neither of them could get it past James, in the end he let one of Kirk's balls in just to save time "he'll do as a passer" He thought to himself.
Finally it was the two keepers turn to try, Gideon and Benjy, who flew eagerly up the rings to meet James.
"There's really no other way to test a good keeper other than seeing who can save the most balls" James sighed at how boring he was being before calling up the new chasers to hurl balls at them. Gideon was first, brother of the greatest Hogwarts keeper of his time - Fabian, he had a lot to live up to. By saving all 5 shots he was living up to it too.
"Runs in my veins" he beamed, flying away from the rings "We're a family of keepers" he announced, winking at Marlene as he said it.
Benjy hesitantly went up after him, but bottled out after missing the first quaffle "Who would have guessed it" he moaned, glaring at the still bragging Gideon as he flew back to the changing rooms.
Not wanting to see the train wreck of the beaters James politely told the fifth years it'd be great if they tried next year and gave Sirius and Davey the places.
"Right, we've got our team, it's going to be a bloody great year guys I can feel it. We've just got to get out there and smash it!" James shouted passionately "Our first match is against Hufflepuff in two weeks on Sunday so I want everyone in training next Saturday and Sunday, then the Saturday before at 8:00am, see you then"
"Changing the colour of human hair" Professor McGonagall announced from the front of the classroom "A skill that may seem unimportant, but can be crucial for disguise" The Marauders were sat on a table opposite Lily, Mary Macdonald, Emmeline Vance, and Marlene Mckinnnon – Lily had insisted she sat away from them as she couldn't bare seeing them grasp the spells so quickly in transfiguration when it took her so long.
"Not only can you change the colour, but also grow it. Simply point your wand and say 'Crinus Muto'. There is an element of non-verbal magic involved to specify the colour of hair but you should be alright with that from sixth year. Grab a mirror and whoever can change their hair colour first will get ten points for their house"
Almost immediately the Marauders were up out of their seats and charging across the classroom to grab a mirror. Within minutes they were all proudly sat around the table, James with red hair, Sirius with blue hair, Remus with purple hair, and Peter with pink hair.
"Seriously Peter?" Sirius slapped him in the arm "You don't do yourself any favours do you? Pink?"
"NO. FOR GOODNESS SAKE" Lily shouted from across the classroom, although it didn't look much like Lily. She was sat hiding her face with the mirror looking furious.
"Uhh Lily, what's behind that mirror?" James asked, scared of what the answer was, Sirius was already crawling over to her table.
"I'm not putting this mirror down unti… SIRIUS!" He yanked the mirror out of her hands to reveal a bushy red beard.
"Argggghh me matey!" Sirius burst out laughing, twiddling the end of her beard before getting punched.
"What's going on over… ah Miss Evans" Professor McGonagall was clearly holding back laughter "something seems to have gone wrong" much to the disappointment of the Marauders Mcgonagall quickly removed Lily's beard and they set about practicing other variations of the spell.
"Nice hair worm" Rodolphus sneered, shoving into Peter as they walked down to the Slytherin common room.
"What.. ur… ah… yes" Peter stuttered, trying to get rid of the colour but only making it brighter.
"I think the traitor's trying to tell us something" Bellatrix cackled as she ruffled his hair "Now get inside before any of the lickle angels see you" and before Peter could panic and run away he was flung into the common room and put on a tiny wooden stall.
"W-why did you want me?" Peter dared to ask as he was being scrutinized by the Slytherins.
"This is your loyalty test, you're disgusting and weedy enough to betray the only people in this school who can bare looking at you, so we're not having the same thing done to us" Regulus explained, an evil grin spread across his face.
"It's simple Pete really" Bellatrix couldn't help laughing as she said it.
"As you know we have a… a sign that will forever be with us to show our loyalty" Regulus continued, pulling up his sleeve to reveal the writhing snake running through a skull.
"No, no, no, no" Peter started, rubbing his wrist at the idea of the hideous mark.
"Oh, so you dare go against us to? Do you know how special getting this mark is? You know what we do to people who go against us" Rodoplus slowly raised his wand at Peter.
"NO!" Peter put his hands up to his face like a coward "I mean, surely it would give me away, and I wouldn't be able to spy on them"
"Hmm, an almost convincing excuse worm" Worm was Rodolphus' insult to Peter's place in the Marauders "But get your wrist out" Peter fidgeted for a bit before pulling up the sleeve to his robes revealing the bright pink skin underneath.
Still grinning Regulus pulled out his wand, walked over to him, and pressed it's sharp point into his arm harshly. After uttering an incantation the same snake slithered onto his arm and the skull pushed its way up through the surface, eyes dead and staring up at Peter as if mocking him for being trapped.
"Don't take this lightly" Rodolphus growled "The mark is the greatest honour, and believe me you don't deserve it, but we want to use you. Be ready for whenever you're called" and with that Peter was kicked out of the common room, he felt like weeping in a corner and winced as he pulled back his sleeve to find the skull still glaring at him. Tying a knot in the end of his robe to make sure it stayed there, Peter slunk back to the Gryffindor common room trying to comprehend what he was now committed to.