Sirius didn't realize when the table filled itself with a lot of delicious food. He bit into chicken wings, blood pudding. As he finished off treacle tarts the plates automatically cleaned themselves of every trace of food. Leaving it to look like it did before the feast. Sirius got up and followed James, Remus, Peter, and Frank to the Gryffindor dorm. He didn't bother to follow the prefects with the other first years sorted into Gryffindor because that would look weird if Sirius acted like the intimidated first years.
The boys led Sirius out of the great hall and up a grand staircase near the entrance hall. They led him up the stairs, which his magic scooter was able to climb, and to the Gryffindor tower. Once they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady she squealed, "ohh my friend Violet said a mer person came to Hogwarts. I didn't expect you to be so old. Where did you go to school before this?"
"I went to the Teargem School of B'witchery and Wizardly-craft at the Great Lake," Sirius replied."{
"There's a school in this Great Lake?" James asked surprised.
"Yea that's the Great Britain school for b'witchers/wizardesses, merpeople, and other sea beings," Sirius replied.
"Have you seen Hogwarts before?" James asked.
"I didn't really hear about Hogwarts was here until right after I got my letter, I swam here by accident instead of taking the train from King's Cross Station," Sirius said, remembering the train station from the letter.
""I have to tell the mermaid at the 7th floor boys' bathroom," The Fat Lady gushes. Then she opened the portrait door to let them in. "Do you know any merpeople?"
"I only know a few, some b'witchers/wizardesses I know are half merpeople," Sirius admitted. He didn't want to admit his bigoted family never let him talk to part merpeople, let alone pure merpeople.
Sirius followed them through the Gryffindor common room to the dormitory for the 5th years. Sirius took the bed between James and Remus. Peter and Frank had the beds on the end. Sirius learned James, Remus, and Peter were good friends. And they invited Sirius to join their friend group because he had similar interests to them. Meanwhile Frank was very close to the 7th year Prewitt twins.
Sirius also learned James, Remus, & Peter called themselves the Underadars because they went under the Radar. And they invited Sirius to join them. "Now Sirius is with us should we can get underwater and get out of the radar?... B'witcher... Mer-"
"I'm not part Merper-" Sirius tried to explain.
"Marauders!" James screamed.
"Marauders!" Remus exclaimed at the same time as James.
"We should be the Marauders," James said. So the Underadars became the Mauraders. They snuck out with James' invisibility cloak for awhile before they went to sleep.
The next day Sirus got a very wet Howler. His mum wasn't happy he was sorted into Gryffindor and associating with lesser blood on top of going to land school. Sirius forgot about his mum or the Blacks' expectations after the excitement of entering Hogwarts. He didn't even pay attention to the houses and definitely didn't care he wasn't in Slytherin, but Gryffindor of all houses. James looked at him shocked. "You're from a pureblood family? I thought you were half water troll, mate"
"Mate the water troll in my blood made me more beautiful!" Sirius replied. He'd never speak like this around his family. But with the the Gryffindor Mauraders, all the tension he felt about lesser bloods or half breeds wasn't there. James snorted.
Yea, the Blacks are purebloods," Sirius explained. "We don't have any river genies, water sprites, or muggles in the family tree."
"Do you believe in blood purity? Granted I haven't met many of those types of the Sacred 28, but it seems it's the trend these days," James said. He thought of the Weasleys. Arthur Weasley is nice. So were the Prewitts, the Prewit twins, 6th years were the people James met on the train 4 years ago. He wanted to join the Quidditch team with them.
"We're part of the sacred 28," Sirus told him. "No one tells you about the b'witchering families," Sirius siad. "Selwyn, Rowles, and Shafiqs are another Witching family. There aren't many of us, because most Witching families intermarried with river genies or muggle born Bewitchers or Wizardessess."
"Wow there's stuff I didn't even learn that being from a pureblood family," James said. "My family didn't make the list because the author of the sacred 28 list assumed our common muggle name meant we descended from non pure blood." James made a face.
Sirius made one too. "I wonder if these sound different when they're wet," Sirius held up the wet howler. "I don't know if they sent it in mermish or english."
"How about underwater?" James asked.
"It's still smoking mate," Peter pointed out.
"Smoking means it's going to go off very soon," Remus said.
Sirius grinned at James. "You read my mind!" He put the howler under water and it exploded. Except Walburga's voice was clear underwater. Sirius pulled it over water and they heard mermish screeching.
"Put it underwater or milk mate, I don't know what's worse her mermish screaming or long rant!" James yelled holding his ears.
"I vote pumpkin juice," Peter yelled holding his ears too.
"I second that," Remus trying to take off his ears. Werewolf hearing sucked around howlers.
So Sirius dunked it in his glass. Walburga's voice changed. "Well it seems we can talk in pumpkin juice well too. Noted!" Sirius ignored the whole loud speech of the howler. Something about him joining dirt-land school without their permission, and joining a mudblood house on top of that.
Sirius idly wondered if Dumbledore would ban Walburga from sending howlers if she kept using slurs. He'd have to report her to Dumbledore soon.
"Are you willing to try swimming in an pumpkin juice pool?" James cut in his line of thought.
"Do you want to hear if my singing voice gets better?" Sirius asked.
"You give a new meaning to singing in the shower mate," James said, shaking his head.
"Let me bless your ears one day," Sirius said.
"I'd rather rip my ears off," Remus replied.
James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter went to Hagrid's Hut before dinner. Well first they stopped by the Great Hall and nicked the whole table's cups of pumpkin juice. James got some invisibility potion, shrinking potion, and engorgio potions from home so the task wasn't too hard.
When they got to the hut, James and Remus were able to transfigure a log into a 3 foot kiddie pool between the two of them. The used the engorgio potion on all the goblets of Pumpkin juice. Then dumped it all in the pool.
Then Sirius went inside, ducked under and started singing. James climbed after him and ducked his head under to hear. Sirius sounded a bit different under pumpkin juice. Since they made a second pool with water and Remus knew how to cast Augumenti.
Remus and Peter joined Sirius in both pools to hear his singing under both. "Well mate you sound different under pumpkin juice," Peter said, emerging above water. "Must be the pumpkin."
Then Hagrid came back to his cottage. "What are ye lot up to?"
"Extra credit studies?" James tried. It was safe to say they got detention but not as much as they would've if another professor had caught them.
The year went by without much incident unless you could all the pranks and detentions. The Great Hall lost some food or well in its original form due to the many pranks. They caught the attention of the Prewitt twins. Especially as James made the Gryffindor team as a seeker, Sirius as a Chaser, Remus a reserve Seeker, and Peter a reserve Keeper.
By then they found out Remus' secret one day while in the library doing their Care Of Magical Creatures essay. James, and Sirius seemed to put it together that Remus had the signs of being a werewolf. It was Peter who pulled out a book on transformed magical creatures while they researched creatures that change.
"You can't tell creatures that change are that creature," Peter said, noting stuff for their essay.
"Hey have you noticed Remus is always gone during a certain in the month?" James asked.
"Yea," Sirius glanced out the window, absently. "I always notice brighter moonlight on our rule breaking trips without Mooney." James got his invisibility cloak recently.
"Our friend might be a werewolf," James said. Sirius had no opinion besides this wizard was not native to this area like him. "You know what that means?"
"He didn't live with wizards before Hogwarts?" Sirius asked naively, not knowing about land life. He didn't pay mind that Remus was a werewolf.
"We have to stick by him more," James said. Sirius agreed.
So when they confronted Remus they would insist they'd stick by him. They'd go a step forward and become illigal animiguses. The animugus potion process worked for Sirius too. He became a dog, whether he was a dog with some fins was up for debate. The marauders didn't see him well in the dark.