A/N:

Hello everyone.

Back into the relatively ordinary Hogwarts day-to-day. As ever, I hope you enjoy.

It was a fact well recognised that the sadism of wizarding alarm clocks directly corresponded with the tiredness of the people they were intended to waken. On good mornings, they emitted a soft kind of buzzing noise, one that might almost be called a purr. However, on the mornings when the students had enjoyed a late night, or had interrupted slumber, then the buzzer was more of a high pitched Banshee inspired wailing that set teeth on edge and hair standing on end. The morning following the Marauders' unwelcome discovery was one of the not-infrequent Banshee mornings. At half past six on the dot, the wailing splintered the walls between slumber and awakening, jolting the eight inhabitants of the sixth year Gryffindor girls dormitory cruelly into wakefulness. Alice lobbed her pillow unerringly directly at Marlene, head falling back onto her mattress with a loud groan. "Would you shut that bloody thing up?!"

"It's an alarm, Ali" Marlene yawned, thankfully shutting the infernal wailing up. "It's job is to wake us."

"And as a witch" Alice replied snarkily. "It's my pleasure to turn it into a toad and set it free by the Black Lake. Maybe the Merpeople will enjoy it more than us."

"That's a frightening level of thought for this early in the morning" Lily groaned, emerging from under her blankets with her hair falling out of it's braid. "I approve."

"Why couldn't you just let us sleep?!" Hestia demanded, reaching for the emergency thermos of coffee she habitually kept by her bedside. "We were up until gone three last night, talking about the infernal Slytherins and their bloody insane plans to take over the wizarding world."

"Sleep" Rose intoned with all the gravity of a Marauder. "Is for wusses." She rolled out of bed, pulled on the first robe (uniform not dressing gown) she came to, and popped a chocolate-coffee cauldron into her mouth.

"How do you Marauders cope with pulling those long nights you do?" Dorcas groaned, pulling her own robes on over her head.

"Cope?" Rose repeated dubiously. "Dorcas, you do realise that we skip class a lot, right?"

"Of course" Dorcas replied, because it was a well known fact within the castle. "But McGonagall got wise to your antics a long time ago, and scheduled Transfiguration class for our year traditionally in the first classes of the day. And you lot have only missed Transfiguration class a total of five times in six years."

"That's because both James and Sirius love Minnie" Rose smirked, knowing it was true. McGonagall was their unofficial parent at Hogwarts - only groovier, as the sixties students that were leaving just as the Marauders first entered Hogwarts called her. "But for the rest of the classes in the mornings, especially when we've had a late night, you'll notice that we don't give a flying flobberworm."

"What's first today?" Marlene asked, emerging from the bathroom in a fog of steam. "Charms? I could happily enjoy a light morning of Charms."

"Dream on, Marls" Emmeline smirked, class schedule in hand. "Dorcas called it. We've got another glorious period with McGonagall in Transfiguration to open our day."

"On the bright side" Alice chirped, her demeanour the bright and bubbly outlook of the morning person. "For second period, we have Charms."

"Well, that makes it all better then" Marlene deapanned sarcastically - it was a feat to accomplish, but she managed it. "After a nice long nights kip, I feel all refreshed and ready for an hour of human to animal transfiguration hell with our Head of House."

"It's actually very easy, once you get the hang of it" Rose remarked, knowing it wouldn't be helpful at all.

"And when, pray tell, did you get the hang of it?" Lily asked, fixing her sister with a level look that saw right through her.

Rose hummed, trying to remember exactly. Things had moved so fast once they understood what it had been that they had needed to do in order to help Remus with his lycanthropy. "I think it was some time in the beginning of fourth year. Not long after Sirius' birthday, I think." She shrugged, offering a sunny smile to the audible disbelief in the dormitory. "You'll have to ask James if you want to know the exact date." A wicked smirk crossed her face. "It'll probably be in his diary somewhere." She put on an attempt at James's voice, following her friends down to the common room. "November 7, 1974: Asked Evans to go out with me again. Shot down in flames. Why doesn't she like me?! I can't understand it. I'm the star chaser, handsome, rich, funny. I am the whole package. And yet, Evans says she'd rather snog a merperson. Oh, and we finally achieved human to animal transfiguration today. Maybe Evans will agree to go out with me tomorrow."

Sirius' bark like laugh alerted Rose to the fact that they'd reached the common room and had an audience. "You got Prongs down pat, Rosebud" he chuckled, James scowling at her from behind his glasses. "He actually did sound like that."

"When was that supposed to be?" Peter wondered, far too perky considering the late night they'd had.

"Well" Remus began, giving it the consideration he felt it was worth (ribbing James never got old). "Rose used the term 'snog a merperson', which Lily used before a hippogriff, but after a banana slug. So" his eyes light up. "Fourth year."

"What is this?" James complained, crossing his arms with a pout. "Pick on Prongs day?"

"If the shoe fits" Remus shrugged, winking at Rose.

"Or the hoof" Sirius murmured, breath tickling Rose's ear. She turned and grinned at him.

"Morning, Siri!"

"Good morning, Love" Sirius replied with a soft smile of his own.

"Breakfast!" James announced, clapping his hands sharply. "Before we all lose our appetite for it."

"You're just jealous, mate" Sirius smirked, wrapping an arm around Rose's waist. She leaned into his side a little, content in the moment for the first time in a while.

"Oh no" James shook his head emphatically. "I'm really not."

"It's okay, Jamie" Rose teased, the collected Gryffindor sixth years beginning the march down to the Great Hall for breakfast. They garnered quite a few odd looks but that was par for the course for most of them. "I know you're just miffied because Lily would rather snog the Giant Squid than you."

"Actually" Lily interrupted, James perking up like one of the Meerkats at the London Zoo. "It's not the Giant Squid anymore." For a fleeting instant, something like hope flashed across James's face. "This year, I'm sure I'd rather snog a basilisk."

James kicked a discarded Berty Botts bean that had been dropped on the floor. "Yes, yes" he grumbled, scuffing his shoe. "Very humourous."

Rose darted ahead to kiss James on the cheek. "Poor Jamie."

Sirius coughed pointedly. "Rosebud?"

"Oh hush you" Rose grinned, tossing him a wink over her shoulder. "Poor James just had his fragile hopes crushed as if you'd hit a bludger at it."

"Speaking of bludgers" Sirius smirked, rubbing his hands together in undisguised glee. "Keep your pitifulness to yourself, Prongs, or I'll be hitting them at you all night during training."

Remus shook his head, internally weighing up the pros and cons of pulling out his novel to enjoy on the walk down to breakfast. "You're a neanderthal."

Sirius frowned at him, a wicked glint in his eyes. "I'm a wizard, Remus."

"You're something alright" James muttered, dancing away from the playful punch Sirius threw at his arm.

"My honour has been impugned" Sirius announced, bowing formally to Rose. Before any of them knew it, he had James in a head hold and was towing him down the corridor, enumerating all the reasons why being an annoying berk to him was not a good idea.

"They're odd blokes, your mates" Hestia commented, frowning at the picture James and Sirius made as they stumbled along.

"Prats, the both of them" Rose agreed cheerfully. "Remus, if another wall springs up out of nowhere, you're only going to walk into it like that."

"Worth it" Remus mumbled, attention focused on the continued Pickwickian adventures of The Pickwick Papers.

Rose rolled her eyes, calling out down the hall. "That's enough, Siri! James is sorry he was a berk, but you did sort of deserve it."

"If I let him get away with everything I might deserve, Rosebud" Sirius commented, uncaring of the dozens of people who overheard them. "Then I'd never get to do this sort of thing at all. Don't take away my fun already."

"Fine" Rose sighed, shaking her head. "Let him play the injured party all day. You can listen to him whine about you as well as about Lily."

Sirius dropped James to the ground like a hot potato. "Godric" he groaned. "The incessant whining."

"Your interest in my feelings warms the cockles of my heart" James stated, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Prick."

"Love you too, mate" Sirius grinned, loping down the stairs in easy strides.

Peter stopped halfway down the staircase, sniffing the air hopefully. "Bacon! I smell bacon!" He danced down the stairs like something out of Morecambe and Wise, humming happily to himself the whole way down.

No matter how late a night the Marauders might have had, breakfast in the Great Hall did wonders for their disposition. There was nothing quite like strolling in, and immediately being hit by a wave of deliciousness. Bacon, eggs, cheese, coffee, tea, mint humbugs (though nobody was exactly sure why), and a myriad of other scents filled the hall, beckoning them inside with promises of delicacies untold and caffeine aplenty. The sixth years dropped down in the middle of the table, each immediately reaching for their preferred caffeine source. Marlene in particular reached for an entire carafe of coffee, glaring at anyone who glanced at her as if she should consider sharing. The Marauders meanwhile were in bacon heaven, adding rashers of bacon to whatever breakfast item appealed the most to them. James had selected his usual Full English with extra bacon, Remus joining him but with the addition of a grapefruit half (Petunia had tempted him with it during the holidays and he'd actually enjoyed adding citrus to his meals). Sirius, being Sirius, had just grabbed a platter of bacon, growled at the third years who'd tried to tell him it was supposed to be shared, and added a small plate of baked beans to accompany the veritable mountain of bacon. Rose, because she was unable to resist a good omelette, was eating a bacon-stuffed omelette and considered herself the most normal of her friends. Especially when one considered Peter. The rat animagus, cheese lover, and fudge fly aficionado, was breakfasting on a cinnamon danish, a handful of mint humbugs, and the aforementioned bacon - all in one disgusting mouthful. "You're a class act, Peter" Remus sighed, shaking his head.

"What?" Peter complained, swallowing his mouthful. "It's nice."

"You are a rat, you will eat anything" James muttered, keeping his eyes fixed on his overflowing plate.

"Not anything" Peter wrinkled his nose, shuddering dramatically. "Vegetables. Eugh."

"You eat fries" Rose pointed out, a thought hitting her. "Speaking of, why do they never offer those for breakfast?"

"I'd have a word with the House Elves, if I were you" Mary muttered, hands wrapped around her mug of tea.

"Oh, you can't do that" Remus replied quickly, shocked at the very idea. "It would upset them. They pride themselves on offering us the best possible selections for breakfast. Suggesting otherwise" he shuddered, looking around. "It wouldn't bear thinking about."

"It truly wouldn't" Rose agreed conspiratorially. "There'll be plenty for dinner though" she smiled, nodding at James. "Friday means fish and chips night. Sides of mushy peas, spuds in gravy, all the trimmings."

Benjy leaned forward, an expression of amused curiosity in his eyes. "Do you actually run the whole school?"

"Not run exactly" James conceded, grinning wide enough to light up his eyes like Christmas. "More oversee in a supervisory capacity."

"With creative input" Sirius added, slapping Peter's hand away from his bacon. "Get your own, Wormtail."

"How can I?" Peter demanded, glaring at him. "You have the bacon for the entire table."

"Don't complain" James chided, on Sirius' side as he usually tended to be. "You snooze, you lose. Go get bacon from somewhere else."

Sirius' eyes lit up, a lightbulb practically in the air above his head. "I've got it!" He jumped up on the bench, turning to face the other tables. Rose had a feeling about what was going to happen, shifting down the table as far as she was able to get. "Accio, bacon!" In an instant, all the bacon in the hall flew towards them, surrounding not only Sirius and Peter, but James, Remus, and - for some reason - Dorcas.

James popped his head out of the bacon mountain, a wide grin on his face. "That could not have gone better!" Up on the high table, McGonagall continued eating her breakfast, the only person in the hall not seated at Gryffindor table to still have her bacon for breakfast. Beside her, Dumbledore smiled serenely, his scrambled eggs missing the tiny bacon pieces it had had a few moments earlier, the Headmaster not so much as glancing at the bacon-fuelled riot about to start at the tables.

Caradoc leapt to join the Gryffindor table, Edgar sliding on the ground like a commando to join them. "Food fight!" Edgar yelled, hidden under the Ravenclaw table, rolling out to bounce up behind Caradoc.

Rose grabbed a handful of scrambled eggs, flinging them in a perfect arc over the Ravenclaws to hit the Slytherins. "You had to start this, didn't you, Siri?!"

"We haven't had one of these in ages" Sirius smirked, grabbing a projectile sausage as it was about to clip James on the ear. "Enjoy yourself, Sweetheart."

"She never said she wasn't!" Lily grinned, flinging a pitcher of pumpkin juice at the Ravenclaws.

"You're a prefect" Remus called, echoing Lily's often-voiced reminder for him to behave.

"Live a little, Remus" Lily laughed, turning a bright smile on him. "This is war, remember?"

"It's not war until we involve the Professors" James yelled, turning a slightly manic gaze on the aforementioned teachers. McGonagall was giving him her usual 'dont even think about it, Potter' glare, but if they stopped every time she gave them that look, they'd never get anything done. He shrugged in an empty apology, loading a plate of baked beans on to their makeshift catapult. With nothing more than a tap from his finger, it sailed through the air, and dropped its cargo on the front of McGonagall and Dumbledore's robes.

Benjy took one look at the thunder cracking on McGonagall's face, and jumped up on the table. "SCATTER!" The students needed no other warning, they followed his sight line, then legged it out of the Great Hall, causing a veritable stampede.

The Marauders put their fingers to their lips, nodding towards a corner of the Hall that the stampede protected from the gazes of the professors. James tapped the right stone with his wand, opening a small doorway long enough for them all to flee through it. "Secret passage" Marlene approved, nodding her head. "Nice."

"Where does it lead?" Mary wondered, peering as far into the dim tunnel as she could.

"The corridor off the kitchens" Rose replied, lighting the torches with a wave of her wand. "It's useful for getting out of the Great Hall when everyone in the Hall wants to kill you, or maim you with whatever piece of cutlery comes to hand first."

"You'd be amazed by how many times it's a spoon" James commented, rubbing his left bicep. "That bloody hurt by the way, Pads."

"Don't want to get stabbed by a spoon, don't piss me off" Sirius shrugged, as if the causality made perfect sense. To him, there was no doubt it did - a wizengamot of crusty old blokes who were in no way, shape or form his peers might see it a different way, but nobody cared about their opinion.

"He barely provoked you" Rose teased, looping her arm through Remus'. "Rem, Pete and I were the witnesses."

"Can't you be on my side on this, Rosebud?" Sirius called, not sounding as though he particularly believed that she would do it.

"I could" Rose conceded, turning her head to grin at him. "But would that be the fun thing to do?"

"I can be fun" Sirius cried, clapping a hand to his heart as if mortally wounded.

Rose rolled her eyes, really the drama of that man. "I know, but it's more fun like this right now."

Sirius laughed, the sound echoing off the walls. "Oh you are a cruel woman."

"Have you met my sister?"

"Both of them, yes Rosebud" Sirius smirked, his hands finding his pockets in that perfect expression of arrogant handsomeness he exuded so well. "To which one are you referring?"

"Yeah, Rosie" Lily said, putting her two knuts in to the conversation. "Which of us were you referring to?"

"Both" Rose decided, having originally just meant Lily for how unintentionally cruel she could be to poor lovesick James. "Equally."

"Touche" Lily approved, wiping scrambled egg goo from her hair. "How do you lot stand it?"

"The food fights or the neverending parade of secret passages and quick getaways?" Remus wondered, always enjoying his specificity.

"The latter" Lily replied, casting a quick cleaning charm to spruce up her appearance.

"Experience" Remus said eventually. "You get used to these sorts of things. It's either that or just behave ourselves, and as you saw for yourself in the Hospital Wing, we go mad very quickly at inactivity and good behaviour." James and Sirius promptly hissed at Remus as if he had said a naughty word (or uttered the name of the Scottish play in a theatre).

"I know, I know" Remus rolled his eyes. "A plague on my house. Shame on me. I get it."

Caradoc glared blankly at them. "What?"

"Remus suggested that they behave themselves, however indirectly" Rose clarified, shaking her head at the morons she loved so well. "James and Sirius take offense to any such implications."

"We live to misbehave, not behave" James sniffed, holding his head high in the air. "Suggesting otherwise is an affront to the very ideals of Marauderdom."

Peter nodded once in emphatic agreement. "Don't worry about Moony though. He likes to behave, obey rules and do homework. He's just weird like that."

"Imagine that" Lily mocked, eyes wide. "Studiousness."

James and Sirius hissed again, Rose giggling at their antics. "Studiousness is for goody-goody teacher's pets, Evans" James informed her haughtily. "Not for brave, chivalrous mischief-makers."

"Brave?" Mary chuckled. "You lot just fled the Great Hall after splattering McGonagall with baked beans."

"We said brave, not foolhardy" Sirius replied, his tone suggesting that this should have been obvious.

"Because you never cross the line into that" Emmeline muttered, Dorcas and Hestia snorting at the comment.

"Hush up, Vance" Peter mock glared, frowning as severely as he could at her. "We may occasionally be reckless, impulsive, and act with flippant disregard for our own skins, but we are never foolhardy."

"We can be stupid, though" Remus added, winking to show that they hadn't taken any offense to Emmeline's comment. "There are a myriad of times and situations in which we have, can and will act stupidly." He smirked sideways at James. "Right, Prongs?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about" James said immediately. "And bog off."

The bell rang just as the group exited the secret passage. Peter cast a longing look towards the picture entrance to the Kitchens, but shouldered his bag bravely. "Are we skiving off McGonagall this time?" Peter wondered, unable to completely hide the slight hopefulness from his voice.

"Don't be stupid, Wormtail" James frowned, cleaning his glasses so he could finally see without the smear of sausage meat on them. "Minnie will kill us wherever we are. It would be the height of foolhardiness to give the woman more amunition."

"I think Peter's problem is the whole 'killing us' part of your statement" Rose told him helpfully, waving off their friends/accomplices as they trudged their way up to the Transfiguration classroom.

"See!" Peter waved his hands expressively. "Astra gets it!"

"We've faced Death Eaters in Hogsmeade" James reminded him, unable to believe that he had to explain why attending this particular class was the smart thing to do. "We stalked more of the bastards in London. What can Minnie do to us that hasn't already been done worse?"

"Lots of things!" Peter squeaked, his watery blue eyes insistent. "She could look at us with those thin lips and that glare, and- and" Peter dropped his voice to a surreptitious whisper. "What if she says she's disappointed in us?"

"She's been disappointed in us before, Pete, and she'll be disappointed in us again" Sirius informed him wisely. "That's the nature of our burden. Mischief necessitates some level of disappointment, no matter how much we might wish it were otherwise."

"Besides" James grinned, clapping Peter on the back. "You just want to skive off because you don't want to get yelled at."

"Can you blame him?" Remus wondered, rolling his eyes at the black haired Marauders. "He's showing a sense of self preservation."

"I don't think any sense of sense is applicable in our day to day lives, Rem" Rose pointed out, beginning the walk to the Transfiguration class. "Common sense, self-preservation, you get the picture."

James snapped his fingers. "What about sense of humour?"

Remus turned to him, his driest expression on his face. "You have one?"

"He does" Sirius confirmed, James turning to him with a bright grin at his solidarity. The smile turned to a scowl with Sirius' next words. "Pity it's only a sense and no real humour."

"You're a riot, Pads" James growled, glaring at his back as Sirius easily ran up the stairs. "Git!"

"Language, Mr Potter!" Remus cried, scandalised. James flipped him the finger and jogged to catch up with Sirius. Before ten seconds had passed, the two were laughing and joking. Rose watched them and sighed. She didn't think she'd ever understand them.

Thank you for reading.

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Next chapter will be up soon.