An: Sorry my chapter names aren't all that creative. That and summaries are not my strong points. Also I'm kind of revamping my story, which might take a while so my next chapter will be a while. Thanks to Maddell, Pysco-babydoll, and lghngslly09 for following my story. If you guys could leave some reviews I'd love some feed back, thanks :) enjoy.
That next morning I woke up, and all my roommates had already gone down for breakfast. So I groggily got dressed, and dreaded classes that morning. I had never in my life been a morning person. I usually didn't even have to get up until 9. I went into the bathroom, and splashed some water on my face hoping it would wake me up, but it only proved in making me sopping wet. I sighed, then dried myself of, and just used a perk me up potion I had taken from my mum's supply. Once I looked somewhat presentable, and ready for the day I went down stairs to the common room to wait for my friends. After ten minutes I decided I would go up there and wake them up myself.
I ran up their dormitory stairs, opened the door marked first years, and yelled, "Rise and shine sleeping beauties!" When that didn't get their attention I waved my wand causing the curtains around their beds, and on their windows to swing open with a loud swoosh. As the sunlight spilled over them there was a collective groan as they all woke up.
"You really think we're beautiful?" Sirius smirked as he rolled out of bed.
"You're right, I'm sorry. I meant to say rise and shine sleeping trolls. How could I be so silly?" I smirked back, and he stuck out his tongue. "Hurry up or you'll miss breakfast." With that I turned and went back down to the common room so they could get dressed.
Once they were ready we all walked down to the Great Hall to eat. When we got there McGonagall handed us our schedules, which I noticed were the only ones left
"It looks like we have double potions first thing this morning, with our favorite Slytherins. What a wonderful way to start a Monday morning." I said sarcastically, making a gaging gesture as we all put food on our plates.
"Maybe we can skip class, and just explore the castle. Say we got lost if anyone catches us." James suggested.
"Sound better already. I hear Slughorn has major favoritism." Sirius griped.
"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I would like to learn while we are at school." Remus said.
"We could walk you down to class, then leave you to learn rules." James smirked, and although Remus didn't seem to catch on I knew he would never make it to that class.
Peter still seemed far too shy to say anything, but just watched us as we talked.
"How about you Skye? Are you in?" Sirius said looking very excited.
"I wouldn't dream of doing anything else." I smiled. "Are you going to come with us Peter?"
He thought a moment before nodding excitedly.
After we finished eating we all started walking in the direction of the dungeons only for James to lead us down the hallway that lead in the exact wrong direction, but Remus seemed far too absorbed in his potions book to notice.
"If you're on your way to potions class, what are you reading the book so thoroughly for?" Sirius asked, yanking away the text book.
"Hey! For your information I'd like to be able to answer the teacher's questions, if there is some sort of pop quiz to test your previous knowledge." Remus said fighting to get his book back.
"That's ridiculous, what kind of teacher would do that to first years?" I asked thinking of all the muggle born who wouldn't know anything at all.
"No what's ridiculous is that I've somehow befriended a teachers pet." Sirius laughed shaking his head at Remus.
"I am not! I just enjoy learning." Remus defended
"Teachers pet! Teachers pet!" Sirius taunted prancing ahead making faces at Remus causing us all to laugh.
James stuck out his foot causing Sirius to trip. "You're such a prat Sirius" he laughed helping him up.
Looking around at all the niches, and tapestries I asked, "I wonder if there are any secret passageways? I mean with a castle this old and magical there is bound to be secrets."
"Yeah, I bet your right! I've asked my dad loads of questions about school, but he'd never tell me anything about the castle, said it'd be more fun to discover for myself."
"We could sneak about the castle at night, undetected, if we knew where they all were." Sirius injected excited as always for a way to break the rules.
"I've got a better way to do that. My dad gave me his old invisibility cloak before I got on the train." James said.
"That's brilliant mate! We could like sneak into the girl's rooms with it." Sirius said
I rolled my eyes, and smacked him over the head. "Oy! Is it beat up Sirius day or what?"
"No, you're just an idiot, and a creep. Besides even with the cloak there's no way you can get into the girl's dorms. Don't you remember what the prefect said about the stairs? It's a charm, it doesn't need to see you to know that you are there, and shouldn't be."
Sirius frowned, but he was still clearly thinking about other ways to get up there.
Remus looked up from his book puzzled. "Are you guys sure we are going in the right direction? I don't want to be late."
"Don't worry mate, you're in safe hands. We know exactly where we are going. Now get your nose out of that book and enjoy the sights." James said grinning that familiar lopsided grin that almost made you want to trust him.
Remus didn't seem all that reassured, but put his book away all the same. A little part of me knew that even though Remus kept insisting on getting to class he liked hanging out with us, and knew he was never going to make it to potions.
Unfortunately, we walked right past the open door of McGonagall's classroom.
"And where are the five of you headed?" She asked looking particularly stern.
"Well we were just…" James started, but was cut off.
"Don't even start with me Potter. Get to class, now! I'll let you off this time, but next time its detention." She said then shut her door. Not wanting to cross a woman like McGonagall we ran down to the dungeons.
We slipped through the door, hoping not to notice, but as luck would have it one particularly slimy Slytherin caught our eye as we sat down. We all glared at the back of his head as he raised his hand.
"Yes, Snape?" Slughorn asked looking up from his desk.
"Potter, and his four friends just came in, late." Severus said smiling maliciously.
"Ah, yes, 25 points from Gryffindor. Seeing as you won't have time to complete the potion just get started on your writing assignment. It's on my desk."
My dad had told me about professor Slughorn. He was the kind of professor that would have favorites. I for one did not want to be noticed by him because he would surely remember how good my mum was at potions and expect the same from me.
"Hey Sirius, you wouldn't happen to have any dung bombs in your bag, would you?" I whispered.
"Why yes, yes I do." Sirius said seeming to have the same thought I had. He reached into his bag, and handed me one. I palmed it as I made my way towards Slughorn's desk for the assignment with Sirius and James in tow. Severus being the snitching teacher's pet he was, was sitting at the front of the classroom, right next to Slughorn.
I grabbed the parchment, then while Sirius and James distracted Lily and Severus I slipped the dung bomb in their cauldron so when they lit the fire to heat it, it would explode.
I winked at them to let them know it was done than sat back down in the back. Remus of coarse had already began his homework, and was nearly done.
When the bomb finally went off we found out they had been working on a swelling solution, and Severus had made it perfectly. The blast covered four out of six tables.
"I guess we can always count on Snivelous to make sure the potion is as perfect as can be." Sirius whispered as we watched everything in the front half of the classroom, including the students, start to swell. Luckily Professor Slughorn was in back of the classroom examining potions, when the dung bombs went off so he wasn't hit.
"Class dismissed, everyone who was hit with the potion please come up to my desk for a deflating draught. Five points to Slytherin for making such an excellent brew." Slughorn said with a smile of pride as he started fixing his classroom.
"Talk about favoritism. He only awarded point because Snivelous was in his house." James grumbled as the five of us left the potions classroom, "I mean for crying out loud it exploding, even if it was bloody perfect it shouldn't have exploded!"
"Maybe he thinks someone tampered with it." I suggested putting on an innocent looking face, and we all burst out laughing. Then we made our way to charms with Professor Flitwick where we practiced levitation on feathers. By the end of class all of us save Peter had successfully levitated our feather. Peter's on the other hand burst into flames, twice.
When we got to the Great Hall all the first year's and even some of the older students seemed to be talking about the explosion in potions class. James, Sirius, and I grinned as we all sat down for lunch. While Remus just shook his head at us, although I did catch him smiling the littlest bit.
Suddenly a stern voice from behind us said, "So you five think it's funny to explode another student's potion?" As we turned around all of our faces fell when we looked up at Professor McGonagall standing behind us with her arms crossed.
James was the first one to recover, putting on an innocent face saying, "Honestly Minnie you don't think we did this, do you?"
"It's Professor McGonagall to you Mr. Potter, and yes I do have a very strong suspicion that you and your little gang of marauders had something to do with today's little mishap. I know your family personally, and I know the kind of trouble you get up to. But seeing as there is no proof this is merely a warning to not make a habit of this." With that she turned on her heal and strode back over to the staff table.
"Well if she thinks we are a little gang of marauders then marauders we shall be." James smiled
"I agree, it's the perfect name for us, and from now on every student shall come to know us as the Marauders, creating mischief and mayhem around every corner." I said also smiling, and Sirius nodded in agreement.
After Lunch we had Defense against the Dark Arts with Professor Helling. He was a rather tall, strong looking man, but he wasn't the kind of strong man that made you feel safe. He was more like the guy you worry is going to beat you up, and his penetrating black eyes made you even more wary of him. He had this look of distaste that was permanently etched onto his face as he called out the names of the Gryffindors, but when he came to a select few Slytherins such as Antonin Dolohov, and Dolores Umbridge, a short, squat looking girl who looked very much like a toad, and wore an awful lot of pink, he seemed to smile a bit like he approved of their existence or something. It was very odd.
Professor Helling talked the entire class, unlike the other teacher that only talked half the class before starting on our first spell or potion. He seemed to be very strict about rule breaking, even more so than McGonagall which was a little frightening.
While he droned on about the defensive spells and dark creatures we would learn about, Sirius was doodling on his parchment a picture of Severus, that was actually pretty good, and charmed it so it would cause his cauldron to explode and his head would swell up so big that he fell over.
After class we went up to the common room and finished only the homework that was due the next day. When we finished it was just about time for dinner so we slowly made our way down to the Great hall. On the sixth floor Peter stopped realizing his shoes were knotted together so we all stopped to wait for him. As he was trying to untie the knot, that Sirius had put there 'for educational purposes', I looked at the wall with a tapestry, which had a strong looking man gazing into the distance with a tiger by his side, hanging on it. I leaned back against it, and fell through into a narrow staircase instead of hitting solid wall.
"Hey guys look what I found!" I said, my head peering around the tapestry. I quickly pulled out my wand and undid Sirius's knot in Peter's shoe, so he wouldn't be left behind, and they all pilled in after me. We followed it all the way until we hit a fork in the path.
"Peter and Remus can go right and we'll go left, and we'll all meet in the Great Hall to tell each other where they come out." I instructed and Sirius, James, and I set off down the left path. After few minutes we opened the back of a painting, which had a hippogriff painted on the front, and found ourselves in the dungeons.
"This will be perfect for getting to potions class." Sirius said obviously excited, "That is when we actually show up."
"I wonder where the other one lead" I inquire looking back up the path before shutting the painting,
"Well, let's get up to the Great Hall so we can find out." James answered as we started to make our way up.
Once we reached the Great Hall we saw Remus and Peter were already waiting for us at the Gryffindor table.
"It comes out just around the corner in a painting of a giraffe!" Peter blurted out as we sat down next to them. We were all quite shocked at his sudden outburst, as he hadn't said more than a sentence since we met him.
Quickly I recovered, and told them where our path led. I smiled about the prospect of having a passage pretty close to Gryffindor Tower that took us to the dungeons and right around the corner from the Great Hall. It would be a lot easier than using the main stairs, what with them changing all the time.
After dinner I went to the owlery before going back to Gryffindor tower so I could send my letter. When I got up there I found Ginger and went over to her. I pulled out my letter from my backpack and an owl treat for her. She nibbled on the treat while I tied my letter to her outstretched leg and told her to take it to dad, where ever he might be at the time. I watched for a while as she flew into the distance then walked backed to Gryffindor tower.