Ch 3 Early mornings

"That man was a death eater?" Remus said. James had just finished telling them what he had over heard between his parents.

"Yea, my dad says they are still after me. Why would they want me?"

"Well, that's the thing. Besides your family escaping him and having Moody stun him, you haven't done anything." Remus said.

"It worries me. I feel like I'm going to be followed everywhere I go."

"If you aren't supposed to be out of sight, how come your mom let you out on your own for an hour?" Sirius asked.

"I think she just wants me to be able to be free. She's letting me forget about it, which is all I want." James said.

"James, you can't just forget something like that," Remus said but that was the end of the line for James.

"REMUS! DON'T YOU GET IT! I DON'T WANT TO REMEMBER IT! IT WAS HORRIBLE AND I WANT TO BE FREE." James roared at his friend.

"I'm sorry mate. I didn't realize it bugged you that much to talk about it. I won't bring it up again." James glared at Remus when he said this. He felt a little guilty for yelling at his friend but he just wanted to be left alone about it.

An awkward silence filled the room; Sirius was the one to break it.

"Say James, you never did tell us why it took so long for you to get Snivelly smoke covered."

"Well," James said returning to his normal self, but still feeling angry inside. "It's like this. They were talking about us. Did you guys know Snivelly has a nick name for us?"

"Oh really, what is it?" Sirius asked interested.

"Marauders,"

"What is that?" Sirius asked confused.

"Well, a Marauder is a person who commits violent attacks."

"Snivelly thinks we commit violent attacks?" Sirius asked.

"Well, you have to admit, some of our pranks are intense." Remus said.

"Well, what do you say we take on the name? We can be the Marauders." James replied.

"That is an excellent idea James, I second it."

"I agree what about you Peter?"

"Oh, well if it's alright with you then its fine with me."

"Perfect, we are the Marauders." James said. He picked up his wand, which he always had with him and put it in front of him. Sirius took his out and set it beside his and the other two boys did the same. This was going to be an interesting year.

The time before Hogwarts went by to quickly for James. Before they knew it Vallery was waking them up on September the first.

"Boys, if you don't get up now we have a good chance of missing the train," she yelled. James rolled over and looked at his clock. It was eight in the morning. He picked up his pillow and threw it at Sirius.

Sirius was a deep sleeper and normally didn't wake up from hollering. He was able to tune it out because his parents were always fighting or he was being screamed at. When James threw the pillow at him, he knew it would do the trick because the only way to get Sirius up was violence.

"Oi Sirius!" James yelled as the pillow collided with his head and Sirius began to move.

"James, do you know what the bloody hell time it is!" Sirius said.

"Time to wake before my mother comes in and starts beating us to death."

"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked. He was always grumpy when he was forced awake, which happened a lot when the boys got together.

"September the first, ring a bell?" James asked. Sirius just groaned and fell back on his pillow.

"If you don't get up, I will be forced to bring pain to your body," James said grabbing his pillow.

"James, you do that and I will make your life hell when we get on the train. You hit me with that and no one be able to tell you and Snivelly apart." Sirius threatened.

"Oh, well I guess I shouldn't do this then," James said and the next thing they knew they were hitting each other will pillows. Peter and Remus knocked and walked in to see a scene of their two friends, a bunch of feathers and empty pillows.

"What happened here?" Remus asked.

"Just a simple pillow fight between two friends." James replied.

"And it's over what exactly?"

"He bloody hell woke me up!" Sirius said. He was still grumpy. Well, James thought, maybe after we get some food in him he'll lighten up. The boys went downstairs.

"Good you're awake."

"Says the woman who woke us," James said with a smirk on his face.

"Well boys, it's just the five of us for the trip to Kings Cross. Mr. Potter had some business at the Ministry this morning and won't be able to make it. I do have an old friend coming though. His name is Raphael Bonkers and he is an Auror at the ministry. He hasn't seen the Hogwarts express since we were eighteen, our final year at Hogwarts and since he's in town he's decided to come with us."

His mother's story didn't fool him for a second. He knew why this Bonkers was coming. He was coming to protect him and it was because his father couldn't be there. Were there going to be other Aurors there too, under charms and spells?

"James, are you alright?" his mother asked.

"Bloody Brilliant mother, just a little tired from getting up so early." James replied back with a yawn.

"Well if you boys learned to go to bed earlier…"

"Mom, its eight thirty, the train leaves at eleven. Why do we need to be up now? We won't even leave here for another two hours."

"I wanted to make sure you had your trunks packed, and everything ready." Vallery stated.

"What's for breakfast?" Sirius asked.

"Bacon, toast, eggs and hash browns. Normal September the first breakfast meal."

"It's sort of a tradition," James replied.

"Yes, my parents used to have the same one and so did Victors parents. It's sort of odd how much we had in common when we first met," Vallery sighed.

"Hey James," Peter said as Vallery went to make up the food.

"Peter," James replied.

"Have you thought of any brilliant prank to pull for the first day back?"

"I was thinking about it all night and couldn't come up with anything. Bit of a bummer if you ask me." James replied.

"Oh Merlin, James you are the planner, Sirius is the prankster, I'm the brains and Peter's the…what would you call it?" Remus sat in thought for a few seconds, "I guess he's our inside man."

"What does that mean?" Peter asked.

"You do everything we can't or know couldn't pull off. Like the day we washed out the greasy git and you had sympathy from Evans. None of us could've pulled it off."

"Oh," Peter looked happier. "Thanks Remus." He replied.

"So, Marauders," James said.

"Yes our fearless leader?" Sirius asked jokingly. It had taken a while for his friends to get used to the name 'Marauders' but after James constantly called them it, they got used to it. Because of James's planning skills and pranking ideas Sirius had started jokingly calling him 'fearless leader'.

"What say we think of a brilliant prank before we leave? Whoever comes up with it takes credit."

"I thought we all took credit?" Peter asked,

"Well, normally we do. But this is first day and therefore credit should be taken by the one deserving it."

"James, this is so unlike you. Are you perhaps hoping that one Miss Evans will like you if you pull a brilliant prank on her best friend?" Sirius teased. James' face fell.

"No, of course not." James replied.

"Well that's good, because I don't think pranking her best friend will make her like you."

James thought in silence while his mother, who didn't seem to have heard any of the conversation, served them food. Sirius had a point. He did want Lily to like him, but if he kept pranking Snivelly why would she? Would he ever get her to like him?

"Oi James!" Sirius yelled throwing a hash brown at James's head.

"What?" he asked outraged.

"What's got you thinking so deeply?"

"Going back to Hogwarts, where I can do magic and make you look like a fool."

"I thought that treatment was for Snivellus alone?" Peter asked.

"It is, my sneaky rat friend, but when it comes down to it, I can pull it on either of you."

"James, you feeling ok?" Sirius asked in concern. James normally didn't threaten his friends and he didn't know why he just had.

"Fine, look I'm sorry for saying that. I didn't mean it. It was a joke." James said. His friends told him not to worry about it, it was sort of funny. James didn't believe them but played along anyways.

After they finished eating they went upstairs to make sure they had everything together.

"So, we leave here in an hour," James said.

"And we still need a prank." Sirius finished.

The Marauders were sitting in James's room. Their trunks had been taken down stairs for them.

"Well, I kept my stuff I got from Yates up here for now," James said. He grabbed the bag and started pulling various things out. "So all we need to do is decide what we can do with them." He said as he pulled out a bottle of ink that exploded when opened.

"Well, that we can use. But not now," Sirius said.

"Agreed, I already have a plan for those."

"I wonder what Snivelly will look like when we see him." Sirius sat in wonder.

"Unless he knows someone really advanced in magic, he should still be covered in black soot." James said.

"Ah, good times. I can still see his face. And the look on Evans' face when she saw us. Priceless."

"Yes Sirius, it was funny, but we need a good prank."

"Well," Sirius said. "What if we jinxed a chocolate frog to jump up his nose."

"How are we supposed to do that?" James asked.

"Or we could charm one so he vomits bowtruckles," Sirius suggested.

"Hm, I think your getting closer," James said.

"What's something we can get Snivelly to do that's entirely disgusting?" Remus asked.

"I got it, frogs eat flies so what if the frog started burping up flies and Snivelly ate them, not chocolate either,"

"It'll have to work. I know I said the one who came up with plan should take credit but in this case, we all sort of came up with it." James said.

"Then we share the glory as usual." Sirius said and the boys laughed.

A/N: Well I hope you liked it! Please let me know what you thought in a review! Much love for you then!