Chapter 2

"So then," Peter finished his story, guffawing, "she just came out of nowhere and attacked me."

James, Sirius and Remus burst out laughing and shook their heads. These kinds of things could only happen to Peter. He definitely was the only one who would call a first year with a crush on him an attacker. The poor girl hadn't done anything, but jumped in front of him, blushing and giggling. The Marauders had always been popular, but it wasn't usually Peter they went after.

"First years are scary, mate, I tell you," James chuckled, "They get so clingy all the time. You think they have these altars with our pictures and incense and stuff?"

The boys shuddered and laughed some more. The thought of someone being so obsessed over them kind of scared them. Of course, they all secretly thought it would be something for James to do to make such an altar to worship Lily. James knew they thought that, and smiled by the thought of it. If he was honest, he did stalk her, but he would never sink so low as to make an altar. Besides, he was pretty sure the other Marauders would send him to St. Mungo's to get a checkup.

"When is it our first match?" Sirius suddenly asked. James looked at him strangely. Sirius was on the team. Why didn't he know when their first match was?

"Thirteenth of November," he answered, hesitating.

"Oh," Sirius nodded, thinking, "Really? Weird, I thought it was still in October…"

"Nope, Padfoot," James grinned at him, "And here we are, thinking that I need a checkup at St. Mungo's."

"Alzheimer," Remus said wisely. The other three boys looked at him with blank faces.

"It's a muggle disease," Remus explained, "Like, when you forget everything. It's very scary, actually."

"You know someone who has it?" Peter asked, interested.

"Ehm… yeah?" Remus looked a little sad, "My neighbor got it when she was 36. She is in some sort of muggle hospital right now."

"Oh," Peter thought for a second, "That's sad."

"Yes," Remus nodded, "It sure is."

James looked at Sirius, who seemed deep in thoughts. He wondered what it would be like if one of his parents got this Alz-something disease. Would they forget he existed? Scary. Maybe wizards couldn't get it. Maybe at St. Mungo's they could cure it.

James saw Lily coming towards them. His heart skipped several beats as he watched the redhead approaching them. Caroline walked next to her, talking animatedly, but glancing at the Marauders every few passes. Someone had made a couple of small braids in her short, dark hair, so that her hair was out of her face. Her big brown eyes looked hungrily at Sirius and James, but neither of the boys really noticed.

"Hey Remus, Peter!" Lily smiled, ignoring the other two boys, "I finished the book you gave me."

She rummaged for a few seconds through her bag, before she gave him a very thick book. James looked at it with a slightly scrunched nose. He didn't like reading. Unless of course it had pictures or was about quidditch.

"You have a problem with what I read, Potter?" Lily spat. James looked at her with adoration in his eyes.

"I didn't say anything, did I?" he said gently.

"I heard you thinking."

Lily turned around with her nose sticking into the air. She grabbed Caroline's upper arm and dragged the girl away from the four boys. James sighed and pouted a little. He hadn't even said anything. He had been trying so hard, this year, not to do or say anything that would upset Lily, so she would see how much he'd matured. And yet, every time she saw him, her words lashed out at him and she made him feel inferior.

"Careful Prongs," Peter joked, "Apparently she's a legilimens now."

"Shut up, Wormtail," James sighed. Then, he shook his head and carried his happy face again.

"So," Remus asked, "What are we going to do to fill the rest of the afternoon?"

"We haven't planned a proper prank in weeks," Peter offered.

"Nah," Sirius answered, "I don't feel like planning pranks right now."

"Then what do you feel like, Padfoot?" James asked.

"Sleeping?" Sirius offered with a sheepish smile. James laughed.

"It's the middle of the day, Padfoot," he said with an unbelieving grin, "You're not tired yet, are you."

"Apparently he is," Remus smiled.

"It's been a long day," Sirius defended himself.

"No it's not," James said, smiling. His smile though didn't quite reach his eyes and he looked at Sirius curiously.

"What do you know?" Sirius asked agitated, "You're not the one who couldn't fall asleep of your bloody snoring, are you?"

"Hey!" James looked hurt, "Don't get personal."

It was quiet for some time and the four boys looked at everything but each other in the awkward silence. Then, Sirius sighed.

"I'm sorry, okay?" he sighed, "It's just that I haven't been sleeping well for days, and I'm a little on edge."

"A little," James snorted, but he accepted the apology and they all breathed in relief. The four boys strolled through the castle, not really caring where they were going. In the end, they would end up at the kitchens or the Gryffindor common room anyway. They had some small talk and laughed at the people they crossed. Isabelle Prince was dressed as the slut she was, and blown off by the guy she had a crush at. It was actually really funny to see how she ran after him in tears, after he had cocked his eyebrows and walked away. She really was a whore, so the boy was clever to turn her down. James gave the guy a thumbs up and whistled at the girl as they passed them, Isabelle stamping her feet angrily. She turned around to glare at them and gave them her finger. James laughed.

"Padfoot!" Peter suddenly yelled, shocked. James turned around, ready to see his friend making obscene gestures, but that was apparently not the reason why Peter had yelled.

"Shit Sirius," Remus breathed, "How did you do that?"

"How would I know?" Sirius shrieked. His nose was swelling fast, and he was already swaying on his feet because his face was now way heavier. They heard chuckling and James whipped his wand out, ready to hex whoever had done this to Sirius. Snivellus grinned widely at them, pointing his wand in Sirius's direction.

"You're a dead man, Snivelly," roared James and he threw a jinx in Snape's direction. Snape evaded it and hid behind an armor, throwing a hex back. James couldn't avoid it and was covered in some kind of sticky slime. He choked on the stench and hit his rival with a Levicorpus. Snape was yelling bloody murder as he hung upside down.

"Coward," James said, "Attacking people in the back, and then hiding. You're such a coward."

"I'm not a coward," Snape snapped.

"But you are," James spat, "Coward."

James made sure there were growing grapes out of Snivellus's nose, before he turned away from him and towards Sirius. Remus had fixed the problem by now, but his friend still looked a little shaken. James was mad. He was raging, and he had the feeling he was going to choke if he didn't go outside and pump some fresh air into his lungs. His fury was completely overtaking him and he stalked away, afraid that he would hurt some passer-by or his friends if they said something wrong to him right now.

"Prongs!" he heard Peter yell, "James! Stop!"

He just walked on and on, until he was outside, standing in the rain that had started pouring down during potions. He hated rain. Rain made him feel depressed and lonely. He screamed in frustration and felled the slime wash off him. Merlin, he hated that git. He always found a way to ruin his day.

"Shit, Prongs, you're fast when you're angry," Peter panted as he, Sirius and Remus had arrived at where James was standing, "And shit, it's raining and I'm getting wet."

"Go inside then," James grumbled. What he really wanted was a hot shower, but the water that had already soaked him was welcome to. Sirius and Remus stared at him and he stared back. Slowly, the rage left his eyes, and he started feeling ashamed for his outburst.

"Let's just go inside," he said after a long time of silence. The other three Marauders nodded and the four of them paraded back to the castle. James saw a bunch of girls stare at them from a few of the windows that looked out at where they were walking. He saw them gossiping amongst each other and grinned shyly at them and he was pretty sure he saw some of them faint. Or maybe that was just his overactive imagination playing.

"Guys!" Laura was standing at the front entrance, just outside of the rain, "Are you okay? I saw what Snape did. He such a bastard! I wanted to come check on you, but you all walked so fast and I really can't go into the rain. My hair, you know?"

"Laura," Remus said, giving her a small smile, "We're fine."

"Really?" she asked, looking intently at Sirius. James glanced at his friend, who was staring at Laura. Or maybe he wasn't staring at her, but through her. He didn't answer her question, just stared through her.

"Sirius?" she softly asked, "Are you okay?"

There was a short silence, followed by Sirius grumbling, "Yes. Let's go up, I want to change these wet clothes into dry ones."

"Sure," Laura smiled. Then, she turned around and seemed to remember her boyfriend was standing right behind her. Her face fell slightly and she told the Marauders she couldn't come with them. Instead, she would go study with her boyfriend in the library. They parted and the Marauders slumped up the stairs towards their common room. Several girls stared openly at them, and James saw a lot of them whisper behind their hands.

"Their shirts are see-through," he heard a Huffelpuf fourth year moan to her friend, "I never knew they had such beautiful bodies."

James heard the girls sigh and it made him smile a bit. They all ran after them, but barely any girl had the guts to ask them out. All they did was giggle and stare, but they never came to action. Maybe they wanted it all to stay a fantasy. It was possible that they were scared that it would get too real. The other possibility was that they were afraid to be turned down. James didn't date because he didn't want to betray his feelings to Lily, Remus didn't date because he only wanted serious relationships and he was afraid that if he got into such a relationship his girlfriend would find out about his condition and Sirius had apparently stopped dating too. However the reason wasn't really clear. Maybe he'd matured after all, and didn't want to be Hogwarts's most famous sexgod anymore.

"You have rounds tonight?" Remus asked, when they were in their ward, getting rid of their wet clothes.

"Yup," James answered sarcastically, "I wonder what we will fight about tonight."

"It'll be fine," Remus assured him.

"Fine like last time?" James asked with a snort, "She gave me a black eye? What have I ever done to her?"

"Apart from embarrassing her?" Remus grinned, "She's probably just scared. After all, we are the most infamous boys in Hogwarts."

"She should realize by now that we're not playing a prank upon her, shouldn't she?" James asked desperately. Remus shrugged and smiled a sorry smile. James rolled his eyes and turned to his friends, to ask him some advice.

Sirius sat on his bed, staring out of the window at the rain. His head rested against one of the bedposts and his fingers fidgeted with something in his hands. James saw his back slowly rising and falling, along with his breathing. He had this dreamy look in his eyes that he'd been having a lot lately and it made James wonder about what was going on in his friend's head.

"Padfoot, catch me!" he yelled, as he ran and jumped on top of his friend. Sirius wasn't fast enough, and James and he tumbled onto the ground. He groaned as James's full weight was crushing him and struggled to get his friend off of him. James was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes and he heard Peter and Remus snicker at the awkward position they were in. He looked down at Sirius and saw his face, red from the effort of trying to push him off him. He rolled off him, and the boys laid next to each other panting.

"That was no fun," Sirius said, after a while.

"Of course it was," James answered happily, "Wasn't it, Wormtail?"

"It was," Peter agreed. James got up from the ground and grinned as he pulled Sirius up too. Sirius looked at him, sighed and told them he was going to take a shower. The other three boys nodded and Remus took out his homework. James and Peter went to playing wizarding chess. They didn't hear nor notice that Sirius locked the door.