A/N: This one took a bit longer to get done than I had planned, it's been a busy week. It's my plan to have a new chapter uploaded by this time each week, though you'll have to forgive me if I'm a little late, study and work don't always play along with these plans. Please let me know what you think!

*I own nothing Harry Potter related with the exception of the few original characters finding their way in from time to time. the Harry Potter universe comes to us of course with thanks to our queen J K Rowling*

6th September 1971

James had awoken late that morning and rushed to wake Sirius who was snoring heavily, the two of them had hurried to the great hall for breakfast only to find that they had missed it completely when they were met at the doors by a rush of students heading to their first classes of the day.

The pair had sat through transfiguration with Professor McGonagall and History of magic with Professor Binns trying to ignore their roaring stomachs.

It was with a flicker of greed that the two boys now sat in the great hall piling their plates high with sandwiches, each eating two before saying a word.

"where the hell is Remus?" Sirius asked through a mouth full of roast beef and cheese sandwich "he always wakes us up for breakfast"

"I don't know" James responded quietly "I hope it's nothing serious, McGonagall did say not to worry and he'd be back today though"

This seemed to be enough for Sirius as he grunted in response and the two turned to discussing their mornings classes while they continued eating, both proudly recollecting being two of the only students in the class to successfully transfigure a mouse into a goblet by the end of the lesson. The conversation eventually turned to what they thought they might be doing in potions that afternoon when Sirius suddenly fell silent, James looked to his left to find Remus lowering himself into the seat beside him.

His eyes had dark rings beneath them and he seemed paler than he had on Friday, Sirius met James' eyes as though he was noticing the same things.

"hey" Remus greeted them quietly as he reached for a ham and tomato sandwich.

"hey" James responded "where have you been? We've been pretty worried"

"um… I had to go home for the weekend… just family stuff" he replied slowly before changing the subject "what did I miss this morning?"

James recapped what they'd done in the mornings lessons and he and Sirius vowed that they would show him the spell they had learnt in transfiguration that evening after dinner.

The three boys chatted about the goings on in the castle over the weekend as they finished their sandwiches, Remus laughing when James had told him about shooting a nose bleed hex at Corrigan from behind a suit of armour after dinner on Sunday night, then they all stood and made their way towards the dungeons for the afternoons potions lesson.

As James took his usual seat with Remus and Sirius he noticed that there was nothing but a page number written on the blackboard as Professor Slughorn finicked around with his potions kit, excitement built within him as he came to the realisation that this meant they might be brewing today rather than doing theoretical work. He turned to point this out to Sirius but was interrupted by the Professor commanding the attention of the room.

"good afternoon, good afternoon, and what a lovely Monday afternoon it is indeed! Today we will be doing something a little bit more invigorating than the potions theory we covered last week. But first to refresh your memories!" the professor said cheerfully to the class "can anyone tell me what potion we researched on Friday morning?"

James looked to Sirius, trying to remember, the two had spent that lesson discussing the places the entrance to the castles kitchens may be.

"yes, Miss Evans, is it?" the professor said, snapping their attention back to him.

"yes sir, it was the antidote for common poisons sir" the girl with the auburn hair replied, James was not surprised that it was her who had answered, she seemed to know the answers to any questions the professors asked, it was rather irritating if he was honest.

"that is correct Miss. Evans! Today we will put aside the theoretical work and begin attempting to brew the antidote for common poisons! A simple yet crucial potion for any witch or wizards' repertoire! There are six of you per row of desks so you will work with the person directly beside you, please set up your cauldrons and open your books to page 28, when you are confident that you understand the recipe and are prepared, you may begin brewing your potion. Any duo who has brewed a successful antidote for common poisons by the end of Fridays lesson will receive 5 points each for their respective houses" the professor explained before watching the class spring to life preparing to brew.

It was at this moment that James realised that he wouldn't be working with either Remus or Sirius, who were sat at the end of the bench to his right. He glanced to his left to find the boy who had sat with the sorting hat on his head for five minutes setting up his cauldron and potions kit. Outraged he turned to Remus and Sirius, the latter of the two was snickering as he had clearly just come to the same realisation as James.

"what the hell? I don't want to work with that freak!" he declared, his voice lined with outrage.

"don't be mean James!" Remus said immediately "I talked to him on the train for a while and he's actually not that bad, extremely enthusiastic and a little strange, but he seems alright"

James sighed as he turned back to his new partner and started setting up his potions kit, smiling to himself as he removed all of the tools from their slots. His dad was a brilliant potioneer, world famous for his hair potion so James was confident that he would also be remarkably skilled at the craft.

"hi, I'm Peter" the boy introduced himself happily as he began going over the recipe.

The rest of the lesson went smoothly as the students started brewing their potions, Peter wasn't particularly bright but he wasn't completely useless, for the most part he just read the directions aloud to James and stirred the cauldron while James made additions, though he stopped James from adding the Bezoar instead of the Mistletoe berries when Sirius had distracted him by imitating Snape lecturing the Slytherin girl he was working with for using the wrong knife to prepare the Bezoars.

"I'm afraid that's all the time we have today" came Professor Slughorns voice after an hour had passed "though I see some immense potential amongst this class I must say! Now for your homework tasks! You will all be expected to hand in a roll of parchment in next Mondays lesson documenting the process of brewing this potion, the desired effects of the final product and the techniques you have learnt in brewing it, you should update it following each lesson and include an overall summary after I grade them on Friday morning. You will be expected to complete these reports as a pair. Now please clean your work areas and have a lovely afternoon!"

The students all hurriedly cleaned their respective messes and made their way out of the classroom, all grumbling about the homework which faced them. With these reports on top of the two rolls of parchment for Professor McGonagall and the two for Professor Binns they were in for a long week.