A/N:

Hello all! Just another quick little update.

As ever, I hope you enjoy!

Nothing said welcome to the weekend like quidditch practice at the butt crack of dawn. James had scheduled their practice from before dawn to about nine o'clock every weekend that wasn't either a Full Moon or a Hogsmeade weekend for the past three years now (he'd become captain in third year to absolutely no opposition whatsoever). While some might say that this was a bit of a giveaway as to their cohort's furry little secret, the wizarding world had a few old superstitions about Full Moon and James's family was old enough that they might have plausibly passed one or two down to him. Regardless, it was the weekend, and here they were; out before even the sun had decided to climb over the mountains, still yawning and mutinously planning various degrees of severe bodily harm to James and his infernal, obnoxious cheerfulness. The fact that James was currently pacing along in front of them with a thermos full of coffee that nobody but him was allowed to drink was not helping the situation much. He seemed to forget that Sirius had a beater's bat in his hand, Benjy had no compunctions about crushing anyone who came between him and his morning coffee, Marlene could easily borrow their second beater's bat from Ian Podmore (the younger brother of Sturgis, who'd graduated a few years before), and Rose would be only too happy to join any insurrection that promised an extra hour or two of sleep. Finally, James seemed to realise that none of them were listening to his inspirational pep talk. It was probably the obnoxiously loud snoring coming from Sirius that alerted him. He crossed his arms and frowned severely at them. "If we don't beat Ravenclaw next Saturday, then Hufflepuff will have to obliterate Slytherin if we're to have any hope of winning the quidditch cup for the fifth straight year in a row."

"We get it, Prongs. Really we do" Sirius drawled, stretching lazily on the dewy grass. "But it's arse o'clock in the sodding morning, mate." James raised his eyebrows as if to say that this was obvious. Sirius cast his mind about, trying to find some way of bringing James around to their way of thinking without using any of the profanities he preferred to keep away from their third year keeper Imelda Robbins. She might have been small, but she was everywhere over those hoops during the games - when Slytherin didn't hobble her deliberately. "Remember the spring holiday? Preparing for Petunia's wedding?"

"Quite vividly" James shuddered. "I still have nightmares about all that pink."

"Exactly" Sirius smirked, tossing his bat from hand to hand. "Now remember the Evans sisters not our Rosebud in the morning, without their coffee."

James blanched. "Excellent point mate" he coughed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well made. I think we might enjoy our post-practice coffee a lot earlier than usual."

"How thoughtful" Marlene snarked, already pouring out mugs to distribute among the others. She glanced up and offered James a smile. "Don't worry, Captain. We'll be back to fighting fitness just as soon as we've given this nectar time to work it's magic." James left them to it, muttering to himself about coffee, strategy, and how the Ravenclaws could apparently defeat them by vanishing all the coffee from the Gryffindor table before the match started. That tactic wouldn't work. Everyone knew the swots loved coffee just as much as the Gryffindors.

Once the training actually began, things started to look up. There were few places that James was so in his element as when he was up in the air on a broomstick. Up here, he was every bit as windswept and interesting as he thought he was on the ground. The training routine was so familiar that Rose assumed she might be able to do it in her sleep - but for that pesky little hiccup that reminded her that she was the seeker and in fact had to have her eyes open to catch the practice snitch. It was a little inconvenient, but at least this way she could watch the others at work. James, Benjy and Marlene ran various drills with a quaffle, while Sirius and Ian hit bludgers near enough to them to simulate real game situations. Imelda stayed by the hoops, her eagle eyes fixed on the quaffle, ignoring who held it in favour of calculating it's most likely path to her. She was a genius at that, James had seen it as soon as she had tried out the year before. Peter had been very relieved to let the position go, muttering something about how he could finally keep his feet on solid ground - he had only filled in for them as a favour when Sturgis Podmore had left the team and passed on his captaincy to James. Rose knew that James wouldn't release the snitch (from the special pocket in his robes) until he felt that they had practiced enough for Rose to be able to try and find and then catch the snitch, but she kept her eyes peeled for that flash of gold on the corner of her vision. Sirius clipped a bludger a bit awkwardly - a sudden drizzle had started, because of course their luck was just that good, making his bat slip a little in his grip. It whizzed by Rose, forcing her to roll on her broom so it didn't knock her off.

"Sorry, love!" Sirius called, only sounding a little sorry, he was practically laughing. She rolled her eyes back, giving him a choice gesture before flying past with a laugh of her own. Marlene grinned at her, lobbing the quaffle straight at Sirius' head. He hit it away at the last minute, James immediately blowing the irritating whistle that signalled someone making a foul.

"Sirius! That's a foul!" James yelled, trying to glare through the drizzle on his glasses.

Sirius gave him a look that clearly said he didn't care. "And which of the seven hundred fouls was that, mate?"

"Quaffle-bumphing" James announced triumphantly.

Marlene laughed, doubled over on her broom. "That's made up!"

"It's not!" James protested, growling as he tapped his wand against his foggy glasses. "It's in the rulebook!"

"You've read a rule book?" Benjy snorted, hovering in the air near them.

James cut a glare over to him, not even slightly amused. "Fenwick, go get the quaffle."

"You have the quaffle" Rose pointed out, grinning at Benjy's confusion. James smirked at her and tossed it towards the ground. Benjy cursed, flattening himself towards his broom, speeding to catch the quaffle before it hit the muddy ground. "Mean" Rose chided, biting the inside of her cheek to prevent herself laughing.

James smirked happily, returning to the business at hand. He was never happier than when he could use his extensive and often useless knowledge of obscure quidditch fouls. "Quaffle-bumphing is a legitimate foul, Sirius Black."

"McKinnon threw it at my head, Prongs" Sirius replied evenly. "It was merely a case of self defense." He smirked teasingly. "Now if you could kindly remove your head from your sphincter, we might be able to proceed with this training session."

"James enjoys the view from up there" Marlene smirked, sharing a conspiratorial grin with Rose. "It colours his world view nicely." Rose snorted, flying close enough to Marlene that they could high-five.

"You know what" James began, shaking his head at the lot of them. "Training is back on. Pads, don't hit quaffles with your beater's bat. McKinnon, don't throw quaffles at Sirius' head, Godric knows it's bloody tempting, but there we are." He blew his whistle, the sound shrill in the still morning dawn air. "Positions please! I'm releasing the snitch before Sirius and Marlene devolve into hitting bludgers at each other like our last rainy training session."

"It's only drizzling" poor Frank felt honour bound to point out, content in his position as their back up player (for the times when the Marauders might have been indisposed for the matches). Of course, as soon as the unwitting moron had pointed that salient fact out, the heavens opened, drenching them quicker than it took James to get shot down by Lily.

Marlene hovered her broom near James, glaring at him with enough heat that Rose half expected the rain around her to vaporise. "You promised that there wouldn't be any rain today! You said that there was no rain forecast at all! Clear skies, you said. Not a cloud in sight, you said!" James subtly maneuvered his broom away from the ranting Gryffindor. "It's pissing down, I'm soaked, and we're all seconds away from catching our bloody deaths of cold!"

"I may have misread the weather report" James allowed, still drifting away from Marlene as much as he was able to.

"We told you that you were looking at the weather report for Abergavenny, Prongs" Sirius smirked, a safe distance away from both of the enraged chasers. Benjy by now was floating off towards the left of the group, chuckling at whatever Frank had said.

"Er, if I might pop my two sickles worth in" Rose offered tentatively, grinning at her friends. "But I would have to completely agree with Marley. It is, in fact, pissing down, and I don't much fancy another stay in the Hospital Wing this school year. So, if you wouldn't mind demonstrating that chivalrous nature apparently so deeply ingrained in us Gryffindors, we might not have to risk the wrath of Poppy Pomfrey."

"Alright" James sighed, not looking happy about it. "We made good progress last night, and we've got another two sessions booked before the match next Saturday, so as long as you all promise to pay attention in our strategy meeting on Wednesday night, we can call it a day."

"Whatever you say, Cap!" Ian called, hurtling towards the castle as fast as his broom could take him.

Rose made a soft 'huh' of consideration, watching Ian go. Then, she smirked at James, waved once and hurtled towards the castle herself, feeling the rain sting her cheeks as she flew as fast as she could go. This was why she loved flying. Not the adrenaline rush of the game, nor the glory that came from winning, they were both fine, of course, but there was something so freeing about flying through the air, fast as she could go, just because she wanted to. Plus, breakfast was about to be served, and if she was lucky, she might be able to eat something warm and then head back to bed for a quick kip before anyone stupid tried to wake her up on her weekend. Sleep was the most underrated thing when one also happened to be a Marauder - apparently mischief never sleeps, and thus neither did she.

Just as Rose and Marlene agreed it would be, it was a reasonable time (by normal person standards) when they were awoken by Alice and Lily's playful bickering over their homework. Alice said it could stand to be left for a few days - not being due until the next week - but Lily was arguing that it would just be irresponsible of them to put off until a later day what they could reasonably achieve today. Rose groaned into her pillow, wishing she had thought to soundproof her bed curtains. "Merlin, you sound like Remus, Lil."

"Thanks for the compliment, Rose" Lily beamed, bouncing onto Rose's bed. "Back me up here, though. You agree with me."

"Oh yeah, sure" Rose smirked sarcastically. "Why have fun when you can be boring on your weekend."

"Agreeing with me for once won't kill you, Rose" Lily chided, frowning severely at her. "Why don't you try it? You never know, you might find out that you enjoy it."

Rose blinked blankly at her, unable to process what Lily was insinuating. "You do realise that we're almost polar opposites, right Lily?" she remarked, eyebrows raised. "Me: mischief maker, rule breaker, reckless Marauder." Rose gestured at Lily, softening her words with a smile. "You: studious, rule abider, prefect." Lily raised her own eyebrows, as if asking why that was important. "We'll very rarely agree on discussions about studiousness, sister mine. Some other things I will happily agree with you on, but not on this one. Sorry."

"You don't sound sorry" Lily smirked, helping herself to one of the chocolate cauldrons on her beside cabinet. "I've heard you lie better than that." She laughed suddenly. "Remember that time you convinced Potter that his Christmas jumper wasn't that hideous?"

Rose laughed, falling back on her pillow. "Oh Godric! He came downstairs on Christmas morning wearing that jumper!"

"Was that the one that flashed different colours? Had a picture of Santa and a snowman that seemed to be, ahem, farting a string of fairy lights?" Dorcas blurted, her cheeks red. Rose nodded, briefly embarrassed for her friend. That had been a truly awful jumper. Poor Remus hadn't been able to look at James without giggling the entire night.

"That's the one" Lily giggled, the sound cheerful and bright. She turned to Rose, a question forming on her lips. "How did you manage to convince him to go out in public like that?"

"It's a long story" Rose smirked, remembering all too well. "Let's just say, it involved Sirius, certain misplaced beliefs about what you might like, and James's well known gullibility." She shrugged, eyes sparkling. "And the fact that James actually thought it was a suitable cheesy Christmas jumper."

"So you will prank each other as well as everyone else in this castle?" Emmeline laughed, re-entering the dormitory with stacks of toast for breakfast.

"Of course" Rose agreed easily. "We are Marauders individually as well as collectively."

Emmeline nodded, pulling bottles of pumpkin juice out of her bag. "Speaking of individual Marauders; Potter and Black said they're off to spy on the Slytherins some more, Peter is on a date with that Hufflepuff who asked him out, and Remus is-"

"Going to the library to catch up on some homework" Rose finished, grinning at his predictability. Emmeline opened her mouth, undoubtedly to ask how on Earth Rose knew that. "Remus has a foot and a half long essay due for Ancient Runes that he wants to get done before most of you even start it. He's responsible like that." Rose inclined her head, helpless to add. "And it gives him more time to prank with us irresponsible folk." She leaned back on her bed, enjoying the prospect of a true lazy Saturday laid out before her. Godric, she hadn't had one of those without being stuck in the hospital wing for far too long.

Marlene turned to face them all, midnight blue eyes sparkling. "You know what we have to do?"

"Homework?" Lily cut in, reminding Rose hilariously of Remus at his most long-suffering.

Marlene wrinkled her nose, shuddering gracefully. "No" she said, looking at Lily as if she had grown a second head. "It's a Saturday, it's pouring down out. I say that we go spy on some snakes of our own."

"Marlene" Hestia began hesitantly. "You do know what you're suggesting is dangerous?"

"They started it" Marlene replied coolly. "If they can't handle us escalating things, then they're clearly never going to be of service to Voldemort."

"Not that I don't agree with you here, Marls" Rose began slowly, ignoring the wide eyed glares she was getting from Lily and Hestia. "But James and Sirius are already out surveiling the suspicious bastards. If we don't know what snakes they picked, it could just end up redundant."

"Plus, we don't know where the snakes are, so we'd just be wandering about the castle hoping to run into them" Dorcas added, nodding at Rose to say she was happily her backup on this one.

"And how do Potter and Black know?" Marlene challenged, glaring pointedly at Rose.

Rose looked back levelly, ignoring the fact that this was one of the questions that she (and her fellow Marauders) would never tell the truth to. "Practice."

"See?" Marlene smirked, as if her point was made. "If they can fluke it, who's to say that we can't too?"

"This is one of those 'what Marlene says goes' things, right?" Dorcas guessed, popping her final bite of toast into her mouth.

"Pretty much" Lily agreed, smiling at Marlene's offended noise. "Don't deny it, Marl" she continued brightly. "We all know what you're like. And we love you anyway."

"That's not a choice, it's a lack of options" Marlene smirked, but her eyes were dancing. "Come on, then. Those that want to be boring can stay behind, the rest of you groovy people can come along with me."

"Godric" Mary giggled, tossing a pillow at the pure blood witch. "Never say groovy again. You're not made to be hip, Marlene."

"And besides" Rose added, laughter tinkling along her voice. "You're at least a decade too late to say the word groovy."

"Shut up" Marlene smirked, stowing her wand into the pocket of her jeans. "We've got Snakes to see and secrets to uncover. And if you're lucky, we might get Rose to raid the kitchens so we don't miss anything around lunchtime."

"Why me?" Rose demanded, voice muffled in her jumper. She pulled her head free, glaring at the elegant witch.

"The House Elves love you" Marlene replied obviously. "It would just be weird if any of us showed up to get food when lunch was being served in the Great Hall. You have precedent as a Marauder. We don't want anything unusual to tip off our suspicious friends."

"As if I wouldn't look silly walking through the corridors with food" Rose muttered, nonetheless following Marlene out of the dormitory, through the common room, and out into the castle proper.

"You Marauders do it all the time though" Dorcas pointed out mischievously. "Don't you look silly then?"

"Of course not!" Rose replied haughtily. "James and Sirius make Peter do it. I get to stay and do the fun things with the others."

Lily tossed her hair over her shoulder, smiling in fond indulgence. "Why does that not surprise me?" Rose just smirked and left it at that. Lily didn't really need or want an answer anyway.

Thank you for reading!

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