Chapter 4

"Rise and shine!" Remus yelled, and he jinxed the pillows, so they would hit James. James groaned and tried to hide under his blankets, but Remus's bloody pillows wouldn't leave him alone.

"Okay, okay, I'm up!" he cried and he pointed his wand at Sirius's bed. A little wave of it, and Sirius was dangling upside down. He screamed bloody murder at that.

"Bloody hell!" he roared, "Put me down! Now!" James laughed and let his friend back down. Sirius didn't look very happy.

"That was not funny, Potter," he fumed. He slammed the bathroom door in their face and they heard the shower running. James turned towards Remus.

"You think he's really angry?" James asked. Remus shrugged, "I mean, it's not like he's never done it to me before…"

"He's just tired, Prongs," Remus said, while going through James's mess, looking for his tie, "Give him a rest. You know Padfoot. He's never been a morning person."

"You're probably right," James sighed.

"I'm always right," Remus answered with a laugh, "Get up Wormtail! You've been in bed for long enough. You don't want to miss breakfast, do you?"

Breakfast was like a magic word. Peter shot up, stripped of his pajamas (his friends covered their eyes and groaned in dislike) and got dressed as fast as he could.

"Breakfast?" he asked in a squeaky voice, a little out of breath. Remus laughed, and James threw his dirty pants at his friend. Peter shrieked and hid behind Remus, who looked a little annoyed. James laughed loudly, and turned back to his bed.

Something icy hit his back and he shuddered as he shakily drew in some air. He turned around slowly as goose bumps invaded his body. His teeth shattered as he glared at Peter, who was grinning widely, while toying with his wand.

"I kill you Wormtail," James yelled, "What in Merlin's name did you do to me?"

"Ice cube jinx," Peter said sweetly, "Comes in very useful sometimes, don't you think?"

"You're so dead," James answered, laughing, and he leaped for his friend. Peter ran away and shot some spells over his shoulder. James could easily avoid them though, and both friends were roaring with laughter as they chased each other.

"Prongs," Remus half smiled, "could you please get dressed fully, before you carry on your chasing party?"

James tried cutting down his laughter, as he mock bowed towards his werewolf friend and stumbled to his bed. Halfway through, he tripped over a bag he was sure was Sirius's and he remained on the floor for several minutes, laughing hysterically. Remus rolled his eyes and grabbed a book. Here he was, thinking that James wasn't a morning person.

Turned out he wasn't one after all, as Remus turned towards his friend's bed a quarter later, to find him fast asleep. At least he had had the heart to get dressed.

"What's Sirius taking so long?" Peter whined. Remus looked at his mousy friend and shrugged. Sirius was indeed taking an extremely long shower. Usually, he managed to be in an out the shower in twenty minutes, but now he had been in there for over forty minutes. He wondered if his friend had slipped and hit his head. Maybe he was out cold on the bathroom floor, bleeding to death as he was thinking his thoughts. Remus shot up and bolted to the bathroom door.

"Sirius!" he yelled, as he banged his fists against the wood, "Sirius, open up!"

"What's happening?" James asked groggily from behind him, "Are we going for breakfast? … Aren't we late for class?"

"Class!" Remus freaked, "breakfast! Sirius! Shit! Merlin! Sirius!"

"Nice knowing that I'm being shouted in the same breath as Merlin," Sirius grinned, as he reemerged from the bathroom, "What's the fuss about?"

"You're not dead?" Remus asked surprised. Sirius cocked his eyebrow and looked at James for help. James shrugged and laughed a little.

"Never mind," Remus sighed, "I got a little caught up in my own fantasy."

James rolled his eyes but grinned, and so did Sirius. Sirius looked distraught though, James noticed, and his eyes were bloodshot. Probably due to that lack of sleep he kept complaining about. His stomach gave a long and low grumble and he petted it gently.

"You will get food soon, my friend," James smiled.

"Oh no it will not," Remus answered, "You're going to class with us. I can't let the head boy sneak out of class to steal food in the kitchens."

"But Moony," James complained, and he gave his hugest puppy eyes. Sirius laughed, but Remus didn't give in. They would just have to have extra lunch then.

"If I starve and die it is your fault," James said dramatically.

"Sure, Prong," Remus grinned, "I'll take all the blame."

Nearly half an hour late, the four Marauders walked into their Defense Against The Dark Arts class. Lily looked up at them and rolled her eyes, obviously very annoyed. Laura whispered something in Caroline's ear, who suddenly smiled very wide smile. Professor Marble clicked her tong and shot the boys a very nasty look. Sirius gave her a small bow and James looked back very annoyed. Remus started apologizing.

"I don't want to hear it," she interrupted. A shudder ran down James's back. She had this awful voice, which sounded like nails on a blackboard. At first she had seemed nice. Very hot to say at least. With her golden hair and huge blue eyes, all of the boys fell for her spell. That was until she opened her mouth. The sound of her voice had made everyone look up very surprised. It was only a couple of minutes later that she handed out her first detention. After that, James and Sirius didn't just dislike her, they hated her.

"Detention!" she shrieked, "Detention! Detention! Detention! All four of you! You will be in my office Friday night, 8 pm. And ten points from Gryffindor!"

"But professor," James protested, "We have quidditch training!"

If eyes could kill, James would have been lying dead on the floor by now. She snorted something that sounded like 'I guess you'll be losing the game then' and pointed towards their places. Very moodily, the Marauders sat down and watched down the class. Lily and Caroline gave them a 'deserves you right' look and Laura a sympathetic one. Then Laura whispered something else in Caroline's ear and they both giggled softly.

"Stupid Marble," James muttered, "Stupid detention. Stupid hunger. Stupid stupid stupid."

"I miss Ravish," Sirius moaned softly, "He was a way better teacher. Marble can't teach even if you paid her for it."

"The dude died because he overdosed on muggle drugs," James said with a grin, "He was definitely our coolest DADA teacher ever."

"And you say Marble can't teach," Remus mumbled, "At least she isn't high on muggle drugs all the bloody time."

"She better took some," James grinned, "Maybe that would loosen her up a bit."

"Or she could go straight to overdosing," Sirius said with a devilish grin, "Then maybe we'll get someone fair and interesting to teach us."

"Or just another Binns," Remus said. All four boys groaned. And Professor Marble shot them a glare.

"Well?" she asked, "Why aren't you working? You guys fancy another detention?"

The boys shook their heads and James poked Laura with his wand. She looked over her shoulder and he asked her what they had to do.

"Write an essay on vampires," she whispered.

"Isn't that like third year stuff?" Peter asked surprised. The others nodded. He made a face and grabbed a quill.

"Sometimes," he said, "I truly think she does it on purpose."

"Only sometimes?" Sirius asked and he cocked an eyebrow. Peter turned a little red and wanted to defend himself, as he found he couldn't. Neither could his three friends. They looked up at professor Marble, to see her standing with her wand pointed at them.

"Silencing spell, my dear boys," she said, "You will not speak in my class."

Was she even allowed to do that? James wondered. He wished they'd just fire her. She took every opportunity to make their lives miserable. His fists itched to stand up and punch her in the face. The only thing that kept him from doing that, was the thought that his parents wouldn't be too happy if their son got expelled for punching a female teacher in the face. He'd happily strangle her, if it wouldn't give him too much problems with his parents. He didn't like disappointing them.

Maybe if they pranked her. People hadn't been able to prove it was them earlier, so why would they do now. Everyone of course always knew that it was them, but without any proof Dumbledore couldn't expel them. That was good. They hadn't gotten caught in years, so why would they this time. If only he could poison her, but the house elves would never allow that. Perhaps hexing all of her stuff could do the trick. Tying her up and leaving her in the Forbidden Forest sounded great too, but the centaurs probably wouldn't like that. Boring gits they sometimes were.

He wondered what Laura and Caroline were talking about. They just kept giggling and whispering behind their hair. They were probably gossiping, but James really died to know what was so interesting in Girl Land. He caught Nina Sanders's name and wondered what was so interesting about her. Maybe the Ravenclaw had switched boyfriends again or she'd gone anorexic or something like that. Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to be a girl. Did they really enjoy spreading rumors? If he was really honest with himself, he liked listening to girls gossiping. Especially when it was Lily gossiping, but that may be just because she was Lily. He didn't always know whether it was her he loved, or the things she did. Not that it really mattered.

James had never been more happy as when professor Marble dismissed class. Outside the room they were able to speak again and Sirius immediately decided to proof that to the world by complaining loudly about professor Marble. He called her names, which they all hoped she couldn't hear, and told her what he thought about her crappy lessons.

"Shut up, Black," Lily snapped from the other side of the hallway, "It's your own fault anyway: if you had been on time, nothing would have happened."

"I was talking about her poor lessons, not the detention we have," Sirius answered annoyed, "What business it that of yours anyway?"

"You cost us points! That makes it my business!" she was really fuming now, and her hair was fluttering in the wind. It looked as if she was on fire. James sighed, finding her flaming hot. That was until she turned her anger towards him.

"And Potter!" she all but shrieked, "You're a head boy! I expect so much more of you! You're supposed to be an example! But no," she lowered her voice and pinched her beautiful green eyes to little slits, "All you do is disappoint us all. Deeply. I don't understand how someone with the brains of Dumbledore would trust you with something as important as a head boy badge. I wouldn't even trust you with my least favorite pair of socks."

She turned around, grabbed Laura and Caroline by their forearms and stormed off, leaving a very baffled James behind. He felt his heart breaking in his chest and a knot forming in his throat. The knot was so big that he couldn't breathe. He coughed to get rid of the choking feeling. His eyes were burning and there was a ringing in his ears, which left him dizzy. He was pretty certain he was about to be sick, when Sirius called his name and the feeling disappeared again. Lily was not yet out of sight.

"Well," Sirius said semi-happily, "Now that we know how Evans thinks about it, I propose we just ignore it all and don't stay standing here. People are kind of watching."

"Yeah…" James mumbled, "Let's go. Let's just go."

Author's Note:

I'm so sorry I haven't updated in so long!

Reviews are still very much loved, both good and bad ones (I can only learn from the bad ones, now can I?) If you see any mistakes, please point them out to me.