Guess who almost died because of exams? Me! This is for Samrin; I don't know why it takes someone telling me to write to get me to do something
The four Marauders finally regrouped at the border to the woods, falling down in a circle from exhaustion after running for their lives.
"Bloody hell" Sirius panted, raking his hair back off his face and rubbing his eyes "Why is it always us that gets into stuff like this?"
"Oh yeah, why's it the guys that always drop food items and potions onto dangerous Death Eater Slytherins" Remus remarked, throwing his arms out and staring up at the sky "What's wrong with the old whoopee cushion pranks of first year?"
"Don't mock my ways Moony" Sirius warned "Plus there's just a state of dirtiness that only flour and eggs can cover"
"We can't just throw away our signature style" James looked offended.
"OH MY GOD" Peter rolled over onto his stomach and glared at them "WERE WE JUST IN THE SAME PLACE?"
"Not now Wormy" James hushed, lazily brushing his hand over Peter's face.
"Do you have any sense of danger?" Sirius couldn't tell if Peter was bright red out of anger or because he'd just done more exercise then he does in a year in the space of half an hour "Does the fact that you were almost killed not mean anything to you?"
"Wormtail you're too careful" Sirius sighed, patting him on the shoulder "You've got to live a little buddy"
"Live a little!" Peter huffed, throwing his arms up in frustration "Do near death experiences mean life to you?"
"Well unless death means lying in the grass safe with you guys, yes!"
"You know we're not actually safe yet" Remus heaved himself up and looked around the fields around them "Don't suppose any of you do hiking in your spare time?"
"Well backwards isn't exactly an option" James glanced back into the woods in case they'd been followed.
"Where actually are we?" Peter decided let go of his anger for when they were actually safe and away from a house full of the most dangerous people in the country, who'd just watched him help the Marauders escape.
"Do any of you guys know where the House of Prince is?" James asked.
"No-where we want to be right now" Sirius' face dropped at the realisation.
"Why, where is it Pads?"
"Literally the middle of no-where"
Lily had spent the whole evening pacing up and down the common room waiting for James to come back from his lesson, and Marlene and Emmeline had spent most of it watching her.
"You know Lily they were last seen with eggs, they're pranking, who knows where they'll be?" Emmeline pointed out, stretching out over her half written charms essay and sighing as Lily turned to walk to the other side of the room.
"That's why I'm worried! Name me one time you've seen those idiots walking around with eggs with a good outcome"
Smiling, Marlene swung around on her chair and crossed her arms "Pancake day"
"They showered the Great Hall with pancakes! Six people ended up in the infirmary because they almost choked!"
"Is it my fault they don't have one ounce of normal between them" Marlene swung back around, throwing up her arms in defeat "You should have known what you were getting yourself into when you started dating one of them"
"You're right, you're right" Lily flopped down onto one of the sofas "Anyway, what's the worst that could happen? You-know-who's got them?"
"Bloody. Hell. Bloody. Hell. Bloody. Hell."
"SIRIUS" James shouted as they stumbled up the stairs to the mirror entrance "THREE MILES YOU'VE BEEN DOING THAT, SHUT UP"
"Sorry I've been walking non-stop through the ENTIRE MORNING" Sirius shoved open the mirror and lay down on the floor, kissing Hogwarts stone.
"The entire morning, apart from that bus ride that took us most of the way" Remus pointed out, still marvelling at how the bus didn't even become thinner when it came to a small opening.
"Pfft, those were hard times, I mean, there was chewing gum on my seat" Sirius hauled himself back onto his feet "What now"
"OH MY GOD" Lily flew up the stairs and leapt onto James "Where the hell have you been? I've been checking every one of your bloody secret passageways since breakfast"
"We've got a stalker on our hands" Sirius raised his eyebrows at James and backed away from Lily.
"Oh shut up, now come on, what have you been doing?"
"Eating" James blurted as Lily frowned at him "Yes. Eating. In Hogsmeade."
"All night?" Lily sighed, shaking her head "You know what, I don't even want to know, just remember to wash the mud off all of your clothes next time you're out 'eating', come on, we've got transfiguration" She smiled, grabbing his hand and pulling him away whilst Sirius punched him in the arm.
"I can't go to a lesson Lilypop!" Sirius moaned "Especially after… all the eating. Dammit James, Lily we were taken hostage by a group of Death Eaters that stayed in Hogwarts, we escaped by taking Severus captive and turning into our animegus forms"
"Do I look like I was born yesterday Pad?" Lily laughed as they rounded the corner to the classroom "Death Eaters" She chuckled whilst Sirius stared open mouthed at Remus.
"Miss Evans, gentlemen" McGonagall frowned as they entered the classroom "As unworthy as I am of your presence, can you explain why it's come half an hour late to my lesson?"
"We're ever so sorry" Sirius put on his business voice, James sighed in the background as he knew the sucking up was about to come "We overslept because we were up late practising the homework spell when the lovely Lily here was kind enough to come and get us"
"As little as I believe that, and as certain as detention is, I'd like to see this perfected spell" McGonagall had known the Marauders for seven years and wasn't stupid, but as Sirius shot a spell at the turtle Dorcas was labouring over, turning it straight into a bowl she sighed and shooed them over to their seats.
"And the Sirius charm hits again" He grinned and James as they fell into their chairs, falling asleep for the rest of the lesson.
A couple of weeks later Remus sat breathing heavily on the bench in the changing rooms repeatedly hitting himself in the head with his broom before the Quidditch match.
"Come on Moony, you'll do great!" Sirius tried to cheer him up, attempting to juggle multiple beater bats before dropping one on his foot and collapsing to the bench cursing.
"You always know how to cheer me up" Remus chuckled, nudging him as he cradled his foot.
"Try not to injure yourself before you even get onto the pitch Pads" James sighed, tapping him on the head with his broom "I know it's crazy but I feel more safe when you're flying about in control of deadly balls"
"And then I'll come along and ruin it all" Remus groaned "Ravenclaw are our main competition right now, you want me to start now?"
"No Moony. After saying we need you every day for the last two months, now, right before the match, we don't need you anymore" Sirius remarked, laughing and ruffling his hair "Now come on, you've missed too many of James' lame excuses of a pep talk"
"Ha, prepare to be pleasantly surprised today!" James clapped his hands together and shouted for the team to gather around him "Ok guys, we have three more games this season, for some of us that's three more games ever, Ravenclaw almost caught us after Christmas but now we need to show them when you peck the lion, it bights back, let's go!" As everyone ran out Sirius caught up to James.
"How long have you been working on the pecking line" he grinned, realising what all of the crumpled sheets of paper on his floor were.
"Longer then anyway ever needs to know" James blushed, shoving him lightly as they entered the pitch "Just shut up and beat the crap out of them"
"You don't need to tell me twice Prongs" Sirius winked, jumping on his broom and kicking off.
After the whistle was blown, Remus managed to catch the ball first and immediately flew off in the wrong direction in a panic before Sirius managed to catch up and twirl him around, unable to control his laughter. Red from blushing Remus tossed the ball straight to Mary and flew away to the other side of the pitch watching from afar, when suddenly the ball was back in his hands and Ravenclaw chasers were charging towards him whilst Sirius whooped for him above them all. Swinging towards the hoops he closed his eyes and took the shot.
He almost didn't hear the roar of the crowd because he was expecting sighs of disgust, but suddenly Marlene was whirling him around laughing.
"Don't go telling us you're terrible next time, now come on it isn't nap time" She patted him on the back and flew off to join Mary down the pitch.
Cheering quietly for Remus, James stayed above everyone else with the Ravenclaw seeker getting bored, the snitch had disappeared behind a cloud ten seconds in and that's the last they'd seen of it since. After glancing at the new nervous third year opposite him James decided to have a bit of fun.
"Yes!" He gasped, dashing to the right and speeding towards the ground, the Ravenclaw panicking and jolting his broom after him. Pulling up at the last second and sweeping around the outside of the pitch he quickly returned to his original spot and smiled sweetly at the panting Ravenclaw "Just fancied a fly" He grinned.
After whacking the keeper out of the way of the quaffle so it went flying through the hoops, Sirius high-fived a Ravenclaw chaser who flew away looking confused and regretful as Sirius did a victory loop-the-loop.
"60-10 to Gryffindor!" The commentator called out over the cheers.
Remus managed to score another two goals before James spotted the real snitch coming down from the clouds for a split second. Angling his broom up he sped towards it through the clouds, the Ravenclaw seeker quicker to follow him this time. They were right next to each other as they continued bombing through the clouds, blind to anything else around them, until the snitch came into view just ahead. As James reached out ready to grab it the Ravenclaw got cocky, attempting to slide up of his broom to get closer to it, when his hand slipped.
James caught him grasping at his broom in the corner of his eye, and turn just in time to see him slide off the back shouting. Forgetting about the snitch, James flicked around and dived after him, seeing the snitch whizz down as he did. When he finally escaped the clouds he was met with the screams of everyone in the stands as the seeker tumbled down from the sky, but James hot on his heels. Pushing his broom faster he felt the felt the bristles start to vibrate from the strain, the handle heating up until he passed the seeker and pulled him towards his broom, trying to grab hold of his arms.
Metres before they were going to hit the ground the Ravenclaw managed to secure himself on the broom and James pulled them back up, acknowledging the hoots of the crowd. Through the cheers James heard Remus calling his name from above.
"Um, James? You might want to take a look at this" He called, opening his hand to reveal the snitch he'd somehow caught as it sped past, thinking it was the quaffle in his panic.
"MOONY YES!" Sirius barrelled into him, grabbing the front of Remus' broom and spinning him round "MY BLOODY HERO"
The entire stadium erupted as James pointed it out, and Remus tried to stop Sirius grabbing the front of his broom again.
"What's going on!" Remus couldn't grasp that what was happening wasn't a dream, and was trying to figure out what he'd just done.
He still didn't know what was happening as James rushed him up to the common room that night excitedly babbling about a party.
"You know, I'm not really in the mood for a party, just maybe go down to the kitchings, get something to eat, maybe some cake..." Remus smiled at the thought but James was already ushering him through the painting, smiling like a mad person. The noise hit him like a brick wall as he was pushed through into the common room.
"REMUS!" Sirius hoisted him over his shoulders, the entire house crowding around him shouting his name.
"Don't hurt the almighty Moonster" James shouted at the people smacking him on the back before he carried on bowing to him.
"Lily could you please get your boyfriend under control?" Remus pleaded over the cheering, trying to pull himself out of Sirius' grip.
"I would but I have no idea what this is and I'm kind of scared" She laughed as James came up from the next bow "Sorry!"
"Lighten up Moony!" Sirius called up to him"You'll never guess what I've been saving since the last party"
"I'm scared to ask to be honest Pads" Remus held on for dear life as Sirius started jumping around the common room so everyone could get a look at him.
"You'll love it I swear" Sirius shot a spell into the air to release the sticking spell holding the sheet to the ceiling, showering the common room with popcorn "WOOOO!" he screamed, opening his mouth to try and catch a load.
Finally letting go, Remus jumped down from his shoulders laughing, catching a load of popcorn in his hands and shoving it into his mouth.
"It's weird" James shouted over the music to him "I finally know what it's like watching me. Turns out I'm a bit of a douche bag"
"Yeah I know" Remus grinned. Offended, James hauled a load of popcorn off the floor and shoved it down Remus' shirt "Oh yeah really helping the whole douche thing there!" Remus remarked, attempting to do the same back and accidentally hitting Sirius "Oh God" he muttered to himself,
"POPCORN FIGHT!" Sirius screamed, and that's when it got messy.
Later on the fight had ended, and someone had slipped Remus a fire whiskey, and him, James, and Sirius were up on a table doing a Russian squat dance while everyone cheered them on, so no-one noticed Peter slipping out of the painting.
Creeping down the stairs, Peter constantly looked over his shoulder and wrung his hands, terrified of being caught. He found Wilkes and the others outside just inside the forest.
"Well if it isn't the rat come scuttling back! Did you enjoy your little escape?" Wilkes growled, shoving Peter up against a tree.
"I-I had t-t-to" Peter whimpered, sniffing back tears and clenching his fists and Wilkes' hands dug into his neck "I need to blend in"
"You wouldn't have had to blend in if they were dead" He spat, letting Peter fall to the floor and kicking him in the stomach "Do you understand what this means?" Wilkes yanked up Peter's sleeve revealing the dark mark that writhed there.
"It's even harder to blend in?" He built up the courage to say, every day he cursed the mark they'd put on him so he couldn't go back on his word as he rubbed make-up over it.
"No you bloody idiot" Evan Rosier bent down close to his face so Peter had to stare right into his eyes "It means you're property of the Dark Lord. We own you."
"I'm sorry" Peter couldn't stop the tears as they ran burning hot down his face.
"Oh well that's ok then, he said sorry boys!" Wilkes called to the gang who cackled at Peter "I hope you know how much planning was ruined by you not being able to stop them"
"I do, I do!" Peter tried to pull himself up but Evan threw him back down, spitting in his face as he growled
"Then you know what you have to do to make up for it" They threw a bottle down to him before leaving him crying on the floor.