Chapter 48: The Most Eligible Bachelors

There's only one sorting hat on earth,

Which obviously that is me,

I think I'm quite pretty,

Though not many people agree with me.

I'm smart and I'm fair,

Placing you in the right air.

Try to find a better hat out there,

For there is only one hat like me.

I can't see what you try to hide,

But I can see what you think.

I'm the Hogwarts Sorting hat,

The best and the greatest one.

So don't be afraid to try me on,

I'll decide where you go.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where the brave and fearless go,

Their intelligence and their wits,

Shall make great things happen.

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where the average people go,

Nothing great, nothing more,

Just where Huffies can ever go.

Or yet in the smart old Ravenclaw,

If you are clever and witty,

You know where you ought to be,

The wise old Ravenclaw you shall be.

Or perhaps you might be stuck in Slytherin,

They're evil, cunning and mean,

Stupid and foolish dimwits are the best words,

To describe the people there.

So put me on with assurance,

That I won't eat up your head.

I'll leave your brains for the rest of the years,

Where you shall be here with the Marauders.

Marauders are the best and smartest Gryffindors,

Who helped me wrote this year sorting song,

They're going to be the greatest wizards of all time,

For that's what the brilliant hat say so.

The hat bowed at each of the four tables after it finished the song and became silence. Everyone in the Great Hall burst into applause and cheered loudly. Some guys whistled while most of them were already standing up and clapping especially all the Gryffindors.

"Thank you!! Thank you for all your support!!" James and Sirius stood onto the bench and looked over at everybody else in the Great Hall. Remus and Peter remained standing on the ground humbly.

"Thank you Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin and Mr. Pettigrew for the brilliant Sorting Hat song." Dumbledore announced, attracting the attention of the students to him. "We shall now continue with the sorting ceremony so we can start on our feast soon."

"Please lower your volume." Professor McGonagall said loudly. The noise level reduced drastically as she proceeded on with the Sorting Ceremony. "When I call you name, you'll put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted."

"I can't believe you guys wrote the sorting song!!" Lily exclaimed, her eyes were a little teary after all the laughing.

"Well, we found that it could be a better way of introducing ourselves to the school." James said.

"It's not like the whole school haven't heard of you guys yet." Stefanie joked.

"We just want to create an impact, leave a history." Remus explained, laughing at the reason himself.

"You guys are just attention seekers." Arabella pointed out.

"We love the attention. Anyway we just want to let the female population notice us. Look how manly we had became over the summer break." Sirius said confidently.

"I can't see any difference actually. Perhaps because I've been seeing you for my entire life." Stefanie remarked.

"That was a really brilliant song I must say." Lily praised.

"Does that mean that we've to come up with a new song for the hat for the next two years as well??"

"Anyway how did you guys make the sorting hat sing that??"

"We traveled to Dumbledore office via Floo network. One day when he came over to see my father. Then I had this brilliant plan in mind. By the last second week of school when he had came over to meet my father again, we flooed to his office and talked to the Sorting Hat and he had agreed."

"I can't believe you guys could do such a thing."

"Perhaps we could compose the song next year." Lily joked.

"It won't be refreshing anymore."

"True. By the way you guys should be proud of yourself now."

"Why??"

"Some Huffies are walking over now."

"Hi Marauders, I'm Prue Halliwell. These are my sisters, Piper and Phobe. We just want to tell you that the sorting hat song was really brilliant." Prue Hallowell introduced herself and her two sisters. The three girls all had dark brown hair, and big hazel eyes.

"Thank you for the compliment, Prue." James said modestly.

"We actually have some sort of an unofficial Marauders fan-club in Hufflepuff and we're sort of like the leaders of this little club." Piper said.

"Wow, that sounds cool. We didn't know about that." Sirius exclaimed.

"It started somewhere last year. At least half the Hufflepuff girls are in it with some from Ravenclaw and Slytherins." Phoebe explained.

"Thanks for the thought. But I think it's too exaggerated." Remus said humbly.

"We actually had fun from the fan-club. Especially since you're all brilliant quidditch players." Prue said. "Peter, no offence on that." Peter nodded his head but kept quiet.

"Well, if you're happy with it then go ahead. We've no objection." James said to the three sisters.

"Thank you. Perhaps we can go Hogsmeade together for a chat or something soon." Phoebe said excitedly.

"Yeah, perhaps." James said and the three girls returned to their table happily.

"Are they in the right mind or what?? Set up a fan-club for the Marauders?!?" Arabella said in disgust.

"You're just jealous." Sirius taunted Arabella and continued eating happily.

"I'm not!!"

"You're!!"

"Not!!"

"Yes!!"

"No!!"

"Cut that out." Lily laughed at her constantly bickering friends. I can't believe that someday both of them will walk down the aisle happily.

I agree that with you.

Stef??

Yup.

Great minds think alike huh.

Foolish minds seldom differ.

Bell?!?

Why are all of you always gathering at my thoughts??

Because you can't read ours.

Oh well.

"Hey, why are you girls so quiet suddenly??" James asked.

"Nothing." Lily said quickly.

"Are you ok??" James asked in a concerned manner.

"Yup. I'm fine." The five friends exchanged a knowing look with one another.

"I'm hungry." Sirius said suddenly.

"Do we have to go through this every single year??" Arabella said in an annoyed tone.

"I'm really hungry."

"Not like we're not like that."

"Fine, I shall keep quiet this year." Sirius told Arabella. "Feed me some food in case I faint by the time they are served."

"Don't worry, I'll stuff your mouth later if you ever faint."

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"Our head boy and head girl for this year is Andrew Spinnet from Gryffindor and Michelle Brocklehurst from Ravenclaw. Seventh year prefect from each house, please inform the new fifth-year prefects and brief them about their duties and responsibilities." Professor McGonagall briefed the prefects after Dumbledore finished his announcement and the student population was about to leave the Great Hall.

"Hey James and Lily, wait a moment." A seventh-year prefect called them, as they were about to leave the Great Hall with their friends.

"Huh?? What's up??" Lily asked the prefect.

"Both of you are our new fifth year prefects." The seventh-year explained. "I'm aware that McGonagall did not send the letter to both of you because of some personal reasons. So I'm here to inform you guys about it."

"Er.. Ok. I'm surprised." Lily said in amazement. "I never thought I could be a prefect."

"I don't know. But McGonagall picked both of you. Anyway I'm Loucelle Brown, in case you don't know." Loucelle said. She was a pretty girl with long wavy brown hair with golden highlights.

"Don't worry, I know the names of all pretty girls." James complimented.

"Anyway, generally you know the normal prefect duties. For fifth-year, it's more like a trainee. Shouldn't be much of a problem actually. Just don't create trouble, especially James." Loucelle said and smiled teasingly at James.

"We don't create trouble. We just bring joy to others." James said wittily.

"Whatever you call it. So basically we've meetings, prepare school events and stuffs. I believe you know the stuffs that we do. And keep control in the common room etcetera." Loucelle explained as the three of them walked up towards Gryffindor tower behind the entire Gryffindor students, both new and old.

"Yup. We're aware of the general stuffs." James said.

"I think that's about all. I'll inform you guys about the meetings and stuffs soon. Password is Wingardium Leviosa." Loucelle said and bid the two good night and ran to the front of the Gryffindors and gave a short briefing to the first-years.

"I can't believe I'm made prefect." Lily said to James in amazement.

"Well, I'm not surprised. I know I'll become a prefect someday." James said confidently.

"Why??"

"Sirius is too I-don't-know-how-to-say to be a prefect. Remus, is well, you know, he can't be present all the time. Peter is too quiet and everything. There's only four guys in our year." James pointed out.

"True. But I thought Samantha ought to be a prefect. She's smart and everything." Lily said sincerely.

"I think partially it gotta do with the rapport between the prefects. And especially since we're different, it's easier to be out if we're prefects."

"What you mean by different??"

"We're the saviors of the world."

"We haven't even save the world!!"

"We're going to."

"Whatever."

"Wingardium Leviosa."

"I can't believe Andrew use that as a password."

"I think it was meant to be a joke. He's pretty fun-loving as we all know."

"Definitely."

"Good night."

"See you tomorrow." Lily and James went up the separate dormitory.

"Why did Loucelle call you two for??"

"We're made prefects."

"Wow."

"Congrats!!"

"Why are you the prefect and not anyone else??" Samantha asked.

"I don't know. James said our rapport was good. I really thought you would be the prefect and not me."

"Don't worry about it. I'm just kidding." Samantha said smiling. "I'm not such a person to be jealous of my friend for being a prefect."

"Thanks Sam."

"Anyway faster go bathe and we can have a short catch up tonight."

"Okie dokes."

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"I can't believe those three." Arabella said exasperatedly during breakfast a week after school started.

"How did they offend you besides those took away the attention Sirius used to shower on you??" Lily said reasonably.

"I thought that's what you wanted for the last four years??" Stefanie teased.

"It's like they're spending so much time with each other so suddenly." Arabella said, eyeing the three sisters who were talking with the Marauders animatedly.

"Are you jealous of them or something??" Lily asked.

"I'm not. It's just that our friendship seems to be drifting apart."

"Did you foresee this to happen??"

"Yes."

"What's next??"

"We won't be that great buds anymore. That's why I'm pissed off."

"Well, they need time with other girls just like we need time with other guys."

"But still, aren't we supposed to be good friends??"

"We'll still see them at the practice tonight and during our quidditch practice, so why are you so worried??"

"I'm not worried. Never mind about it then."

"Let's finish our breakfast so we can head to Charms earlier."

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"Do you think the three sisters seems to be hanging out with us unusually often lately??" James asked the other three Marauders one night.

"Yes. Anyway they're pretty, with good figures and everything." Sirius said dreamily.

"We seem to be drifting apart from the girls. It's like we barely had a proper meal with them lately. And our pranks hasn't involve them at all." Remus said.

"I think we should have our own friends." Peter spoke up. Master was brilliant to tell me to make the three Huffies to disrupt the friendship between the six. I don't even need any spells or whatsoever to make the three girls glue themselves to us.

"You've got a point there, but afterall our four years of friendship with them shouldn't end just like that." James remarked.

"Probably it's time we should start dating other girls. There're better girls out there besides the three of them." Sirius said. He was particularly attracted to Phoebe.

"Perhaps. At least we still have our quidditch training and night practice together. Maybe we can spend time together during that time??" James suggested.

"But we're usually too tired after that. Mealtimes are definitely off. Did you see the number of girls we had been having our meals with lately??" Remus pointed out.

"The girls seem ok with that except Bell who appeared to be rather annoyed with us." Sirius remarked.

"I don't blame them. We're not being good friends here." Remus said.

"Well, let's talk about this another time. Full moon is two weeks away, shall we go to the shack this Saturday for our final practice??" James asked the group.

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"Hi guys." Prue said and settled herself between Remus and Peter at the Gryffindor table.

"Hi." The Marauders said simultaneously.

"Looks like girls had been flocking to you guys." Piper remarked.

"Yeah, it was rather annoying at times." Sirius said honestly.

"In what sense??" Phobe asked, raising her brows.

"We barely have time for our good friends lately." James said and he looked over at Lily, Arabella and Stefanie who were eating together with Samantha and Joey not too far away from them. Lily looked up and locked eyes with James for a moment and she smiled warmly at him before continuing her conversation and dinner.

"Aren't we your friends as well??" Piper asked, pouting at James.

"Yeah, we're. But some friends are just more special than the others." James said absentmindedly and continued eating his dinner.

"Ignore them, they're always like that." Sirius told the three girls. James and Remus talked much lesser during dinner while Sirius and Peter were deep in conversation with the three sisters.

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"You guys are the most eligible bachelors in Hogwarts." A third-year Slytherin said. Four Slytherin girls had come to join the four guys for dinner. The Marauders had been having their meals with different girls all the time.

"Thanks." James said and continued eating his food, trying to get some peace.

"We would like to have our dinner just between the four of us today. Would you ladies mind leaving us now??" Remus said in as politely as possible.

"Don't you enjoy our company??" Another girl asked and pouted.

"We do, but we need to have some men's talk." Sirius said smoothly.

"Alright then, we find you guys tomorrow." The third girl said and the group turned back to the Slytherin table.

"This is getting rather scary." James said after the girls were far from earshot.

"Maybe we should start eating in the kitchens from soon." Remus said.

"You know where the kitchens are??" A fourth-year Ravenclaw asked from behind.

"No, we don't. We were just joking around." James said, lying without blinking an eye.

"Oh I see. Mind if we join you for dinner??" Another girl said.

"We would like some time for our men's talk today. Another time perhaps." Remus said.

"Alright then, we come and join you guys tomorrow." The first girl said and the three girls walked towards their house table.

"At first I thought it was rather cool. After two months of this torture. I think I rather die!!" Sirius exclaimed in a soft voice.

"I thought you're enjoying yourself."

"I was."

"You only think like that after two months. Remus and I almost gone nuts after two weeks."

"So what can we do now??"

"Kitchens." James whispered making sure no one could hear him.