So, uh, I found out how much of a gigantic douche I used to be, with all my Slytherin/Peter bashing. Oh, those were woeful times. But anyway, I've fixed some stuff, so hopefully it's less crappy. :) Um, if you were reading this because it was shit, and you got laughs out of it, I'm sorry to have to make it halfway decent, I really am. Sort of.

As usual, don't own.

Oh, and thanks to LunaLovegood and DannyPhantom for the offer to adopt. I'm still deciding on that, but I'll let you know.

Chapter 4: Firewhiskey

'Max, wake up!' Lily bent over me. I was instantly awake. Good old paranoia. It's really good for getting me up in the morning.

'I'm up, I'm up...' I muttered.

'Hogsmeade today!' another girl, Trina, said cheerily.

'Oh goody.' I mumbled.

'No, really, it's awesome. There's the best stuff there.' Lily told me.

'Are you and Fang going?' Trina asked.

'Of course.' I said. 'Why wouldn't we?'

'No, as in, on a date.'

'Oh. Right. Not really, since everywhere we go alone turns out to be...' I trailed off, not sure how to continue. The other girls nodded knowingly. I blushed.

'That's nice. So you and Fang are, like, permanent?'

'Yeah, I guess so.'

'Think of all the poor guys who thought you were available when you first stepped in. I pity them.' Lily smiled.

'I tend to think of all us poor girls who admired Fang.' Chanelle muttered, also smiling. I grinned at them.

'Well, he's all mine so stay away, otherwise I'll hit you with my glittery, pink purse!' I said, using a high pitched, possessive, obssessive, childish voice. They laughed, and I laughed with them.

-o-o-o-o-

'Fang... are you up?' Sirius asked.

'Yes...' came the muttered response.

'Hogsmeade!' James cheered, and danced.

'Yay!' Peter squeaked.

'Aren't you excited?' Sirius asked, grabbing Remus and spinning him around while Remus glared, and kicked Sirius' feet out from under him. 'Ow...'

Fang shrugged, and Sirius dragged him up. Fang quickly tripped Sirius, and retreated with dignity back to his bed.

'BE EXCITED!' James yelled.

'I'M EXCITED!' Peter shouted.

-o-o-o-o-

Down at breakfast, an owl, specifically, my owl, flying towards me. It landed somewhat gracefully on the table, and dropped the letter, before flying away again. I took the letter, and opened it.

Max,
How is everything going? We haven't heard
from you yet, and we want to know everything.
What houses are you in? Are you all happy?
Do you have any friends? Are you and Fang
dating? Nothing much is happening over here,
and Ella and Gazzy say hi. Gazzy and Angel are
happy, but Angel keeps disappearing, but she
comes back every night. She says that she
made a new friend at school, but we're not
so sure. Please write to her, she'd be more
willing to talk with you. Is Hogwarts as good
a school as they make it out to be? We hope
so, and we heard that the grounds are really
beautiful, so maybe you could send us a picture?

The letter was signed by both my mother and Jeb, I noted with distaste. I still didn't trust Jeb. He was capable of killing us if it suited his purposes.

-o-o-o-o-

Later that day, after much hexing of Snape, the Marauders and I arrived at Hogsmeade, all of us (except Fang) grinning like idiots. I was excited, actually. I heard a lot of good stuff about this place, and it seemed good.

'So, where to first?' I asked, surprisingly cheerful.

'Honeydukes!' Remus replied instantly, and the others grinned. We, me and Fang, followed them to Honeydukes, and admired the sweets that adorned the shelves. It was utter heaven. After buying heaps of chocolate, we exited, and Sirius gave me a lollipop looking thing. I took it hesitantly.

'Thanks?' I said suspiciously.

'Don't eat it, Max. It's an acid pop.' Fang told me, and I smacked Sirius, and shoved the acid pop into his mouth, and he whimpered, and left to heal his mouth.

-o-o-o-o-

Later, Sirius' mouth was healed, the acid pop was gone, and we were at Zonko's. I laughed as Sirius ran around, practically bouncing, at pointing out everything to me and Fang. He was almost giggling... 3... 2... 1... THERE! I KNEW IT! HE GIGGLED! Like the creepy childish creature he is! Really nice accepting childish creature, but still.

'Hey, Max, Fang, wait!' I turned, and saw Iggy.

'Ig!' I shouted. I hadn't seen him in ages. Well, I saw him at meals and stuff, but that didn't count. 'How've you been?'

'Well, everything's pretty cool. Classes are great, and I've met all these great people. Also, Nudge got herself a boyfriend.'

'What? Who?' I shrieked, hardly believing the bad news.

'Regulus Black.'

'My little dark wretch of a brother.' Sirius put in, and I looked at him with shock.

-o-o-o-o-

The Marauders took us all, me, Fang, and Iggy, to the Three Broomsticks, where they ordered us butterbeer. I drank shakily, having heard about Sirius' little nightmare of a brother. Fang looked tense, and somewhat angry.

'I don't believe it!' I cried, after I was sloshed on butterbeer. As sloshed as a human avain hybrid could get on butterbeer, anyways. Which wasn't much. So I was more or less still sober. 'We let her come here, and she picks up the wrong friends, hooks up with the wrong boyfriend, and just yesterday at Divination, Valdaen told me that I would face harsh choices and bad news! All because of Nudge!' I whispered harshly.

'It's not Nudge's fault, Max.' Sirius said, looking concerned. Actually, they all looked concerned.

'What? So now you're blaming me?' I was hardly able to believe my ears. What did I have to do with this?

'No, I'm not. I'm blaming Lucius Malfoy. This was his trap, his fault.' Sirius said calmly. I thought about his words, and they made sense. I inhaled deeply, and Fang wrapped his arms around me.

'Don't worry. It'll be fine, in the end.' Fang murmured into my ear. I nodded.

'Sorry.' I said, at a normal volume.

'Sorry for what? Nothing happened.' James said. I felt better immediately. They knew I didn't want to acknowledge it, and let it slide. I smiled shakily.

'Now, before we go...' Sirius muttered, and called Madam Rosmerta, ordering something quietly.

A few minutes lator, the Rosmerta arrived with several bottles of... something. Sirius pushed one over to me.

'Firewhiskey.' he said, and took a gulp out of his own bottle. The others, including Fang and Iggy, followed suit. I reached hesitantly for mine, and put it to my lips, sipping a tiny sip.

'Wow.' I said, quickly draining the rest of the firewhiskey. I grinned. 'I think... that I'm a little perky now.'

James, Sirius, and Remus exchanged a glance.

'Is that good?' Peter asked.

-o-o-o-o-

'Let's visit the Shrieking Shack!' I exclaimed, unusually high. Firewhiskey had a weird effect on my body, one that no one else seemed to get, except maybe Peter.

The original four Marauders exchanged glances again, but this time somewhat apprehensively.

'Sure.' James said carefully.

I danced over the the shack, looking around for the spirits that were supposed to inhabit it.

'Where are the spirits?' I asked. My back was to the others, so I couldn't see a weird expression flicker over Remus' face.

'Max.' Iggy said, nearly laughing. 'First, I think you're drunk. Second - '

I cut him off. 'Me? Drunk? Me? Maximum Ride, drunk? Over one bottle of firewhiskey? Yeah, you keep believing that.'

'Oh, I will.' Iggy muttered. 'Second,' he continued more loudly. 'You can't see spirits.'

'Oh. Right. I knew that.' I said.

'Suuuure.' Fang said disbelievingly.

'I did! I did!'

'Waaay deep down, right Max?' Remus smirked at me. I glared at all of them.

-o-o-o-o-

We returned from Hogsmeade sometime later, and we were all bored. So Sirius, being Sirius, decided that we should find out more about each other through Never Have I Ever. You know, the drinking game. But Fang agreed, so I joined, albeit reluctantly, so Sirius passed us all some firewhiskey.

My first thought: what the hell is firewhiskey, anyway?

My second thought: what if somehow they find out that we have wings?

My third thought: oh, to hell with caution! Let's get drunk!

The third thought was after we'd all had a couple of sips to prepare, and I was even more sloshed.

Sirius went first. 'Never have I ever mown a lawn.'

No one drank.

James was next. 'Never have I ever eaten so much chocolate I threw up.'

Peter drank.

Peter's turn. 'Never have I ever spent four hours styling my hair.'

Sirius and James drank, much to everyone's amusement.

Fang was sitting next to Peter. 'Never have I ever been so drunk I snogged someone by mistake.'

James drank. I looked at Sirius, surprised.

'When I snog someone, it's on purpose.' he explained. Ugh. Didn't need to know that...

My turn. And I had no idea what to do. Crap. 'Uh, never have I ever been inside the Shrieking Shack.' I said. The door had been locked and boarded up, so we couldn't get inside.

Remus drank.

'Never have I ever drank expired milk.' Sirius drawled.

Peter blushed, and drank. I raised an eyebrow. Fang, of course, did nothing.

'Never have I ever sneezed so hard that snot came out and hit someone in the face.' James said, grinning.

Peter drank again, and I was mildly repulsed.

'Never have I ever flown through a cloud.' Peter squeaked.

Fang, James, and I took a drag out of our firewhiskeys. I guess that was the good thing about wizards. They assumed you were on a broomstick if you ever referred to flying.

The game went on, and eventually we stopped after Peter threw up at the sentence: 'Never have I ever worn pink fuzzy socks.'

Luckily, he made it to the bathroom.

-o-o-o-o-

It had been about a week, and I had a pretty good idea of what the Marauders were like.

James was the leader, the prank thinker upperer, and the owner of the invisibility cloak. He hated Snape with a passion. Mostly over Lily. James was absolutely infatuated with Lily, but she hated him. A lot. He was probably my closest friend, other than the flock and Lily.

Sirius was the other prank thinker upperer, and the executor of most of the pranks, and hated his pureblood family, and every other Slytherin, except his good cousin Andromeda. He was known as a rebel, and most of the girls fell head over heels for him.

Peter was the sidekick, who was usually underrated. Surprisingly, he was like the mother of the group, comforting them when they were upset, and boosting egos when necessary. He was pretty nice, if a little shy. I got the impression that his idiotic demeanour was just an act

Remus was the sensible one, who talked the others out of their more crazy plans, and made sure that they weren't caught too many times. He was the normal one (well, except for that time he disappeared and turned up looking like he'd gotten into a fight with a brick wall and a truck).

Fang was Fang, as always. My official boyfriend, second in command of the flock. I loved him.

Oh, hell. Did I just say that? My mind must have been affected by the firewhiskey. Yes, of course. I am drunk. I don't go around pronouncing my love.

Do I?