Oh dear. How long have I left it this time? Why haven't you hounded me? I'm terrible at finishing projects that I start… I really have no excuse, so I am sorry. Enjoy.
"Oh, you have no idea how much I hate you."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Sirius said ducking as an empty ink bottle was hurled towards his head. He hid behind Peter, bending down since Peter's height wasn't much to hide behind.
"En GARDE!" James bellowed, jumping onto the back of the chair and pulling out his wand threateningly and brandishing it like it was the legendary sword of Godric Gryffindor itself.
"I WILL FIGHT YOU TO THE DEATH!" Sirius shouted, jumping onto the coffee table, pulling out his own wand and sending a spark of magic towards James.
James jumped out of the way, landing in a pile of just conjured cushions. Sirius took the chance and cast more sparks towards his friend setting some of the cushions alight. James swore as the flames licked at his hair, his cussing mixed with spells. Some flew over and almost hit Peter who had ducked out of the way, smashing a plant pot behind him.
Wednesday mornings were great. Since it was barely a few days before they broke up for Christmas, fifth years were skipping classes that they didn't really care about so they could complete homework that they did care about.
Well, that was the excuse anyway. It was definitely the excuse that they had given Remus. But at that moment a pile of forgotten charms essays lay on the coffee table with scribbles and games of hangman dotted around their notes. James had taken to drawing the stick hangman to look like Snape, even enchanting them to move and say things that would often come out of Snape's mouth.
"I WILL DESTROY YOU BLACK!"
"NOT BEFORE I DESTROY YOU!" Sirius roared.
"I'm going to run away," Peter squeaked, ducking once again as spells were flung his way, whether on accident or not, he wasn't too sure.
"COWARD!" James bellowed. A cushion was flung at him and he fell back with a nasty clatter, knocking over the ink on the coffee table and spilling it all over himself."Bloody hell,"
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE?" shouted a familiar voice from the common room door.
Sirius, Peter and James all looked around to see a disgruntled Remus with several books laden in his arms, his face red and angry. Behind him was an equally annoyed Lily but she wore a small smirk on her face.
"See? Told you!" She said. "Can't trust Black or Potter with anything. Especially homework."
Remus shot an annoyed look at Lily and she silenced herself, but still looked mildly pleased that Sirius and James had proven her point.
"We were battling to the death," Sirius replied, standing on the armchair, his leg bent and holding his wand like a sword above his head. "Watch the floor, its lava!"
James promptly jumped onto the table as if in fright. "My beautiful toes! They are lava-ed! Oh shit, look at the mess."
Remus sighed before pushing his books onto the table.
"Oh no," Sirius said. "I know that look. I hate that look."
"You realise we're going to have to take points off for you behaviour." Lily said, folding her arms, she looked thunderous.
"But mum!" James whined. "He started it." He pointed over at Sirius who looked shocked.
"You threw an ink bottle at my head!"
"You called mummy fat!"
"Okay, my head is going around in circles," Remus said massaging his temple. "By 'mummy', did you mean your real mother or Lily?"
"My mother," James looked over at Remus. "Merlin, Remus, you really ain't that smart."
"I did tell you," Lily sang, sitting down, and crossing her legs, watching carefully.
"Right, if you can reorganise the common room," Remus said. "We won't dock points."
"Remus!" Lily cried.
"I'm being diplomatic! At least let them have a chance."
"Thank you dad!" James said.
"Don't refer to me as your father, otherwise I will take points off." Remus said. "You have five minutes."
"I bet you love being called 'dad'," Sirius said picking up some of the cushions and throwing them onto the sofa. "Makes you feel all powerful and mature." Remus rolled his eyes and looked away. Sirius pointed. "AH HA! SEE!"
"Four minutes," Remus said
"Fine!" James pulled out his wand and gave it a swift flick as the cushions fell back into place.
Remus turned. "Peter, you can come out of your hiding place now."
Peter crawled from under one of the tables, looking shaken. He cleared his throat. "I was cool. I kept my cool." He fixed his tie.
"Hm-mm…" Remus pretended to agree. "So when I left this morning to gather books, you decided that your time, skipping class, would be better spent not doing the work I had assigned to you, but rather act like a bunch of four year olds and throw ink bottles at each other?"
Sirius frowned. "That sounds like a trick question,"
"I would answer it," Lily said in a sing-song voice.
"Evans, this is grown up talk, not girly chit chat." James said, waving Lily away. "Oh and whilst I'm at it-"
"You're not going to ask her out whilst I'm in the middle of telling you off?" Remus raised an eyebrow.
"Now, Prongs, that is definitely a trick question," Sirius said, patting James on the shoulder.
"Is that not allowed?" James asked.
"No," Lily said.
"No." Remus agreed.
James frowned. "Wait, is that a no to me asking her out or is that an answer to me asking her out?" He asked.
Remus looked around to Lily who had her eyebrows raised. In unison they turned back to James and nodded. "Both."
James' face fell like a ton of bricks. "Mm… I have a feeling that my 7 year plan to day Lily is failing."
"You have two years yet," Sirius reminded him.
Lily let out a laugh and got up, grabbing some of the books from the table. "Good luck with that Potter," She then disappeared up the staircase to the girl's dormitories. James made a move to follow her getting halfway up the stairs before remembering about the enchantment and sliding down landing with a soft thump on the carpet. Remus had his arms folded and was tapping his foot patiently.
"Are you done?" He asked.
"Not quite," James threw a cushion at Sirius before glancing back to Remus. "Okay, now I'm done."
Remus sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb. He pulled off his robes and adjusted his shirt before quietly moving towards the coffee table. He glanced at their "work" and his face grew red with annoyance.
"So are you actually planning to finish anything whilst you skip classes?" He asked.
"No." Sirius said. "I think that is quite obvious."
"Mm…" Remus decided that it would be better for his blood pressure if he sat down. He ruffled through the parchments and his thumb smudged the stick ink Snape causing it to bellow out "filthy half-breed". Remus ignored it as James and Sirius jumped down beside him on the couch.
"Are you angry with us?" James asked.
"I trusted you to actually get your work done, so yeah, I'm a little angry." Remus admitted.
"We always thought Charms was a waste of time anyway," Sirius shrugged as Peter joined them, sitting on the armchair.
"We can't write essays," James said.
Remus leaned back. "You are smartest in the school. You excel past even the Ravenclaws. Why…?"
"Well to be honest," James said, leaning forward. "With Voldemort out there causing his little ruckus, I don't there's going to be much time for essay writing. I'd rather know what I know, rather than sit around trying to prove to some idiot who doesn't know me that I do know it."
"And what if Voldemort is stopped before you get out of Hogwarts?" Remus asked. "Your future employers are going to be looking for set skills, including the ability to write essays."
"I'm much more concerned over whether you're going to get a job or not." Sirius shrugged.
Remus frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Your condition," Sirius said. "The furry little problem, no employer will take you on, even with good grades."
"I'll think of something," Remus was growing red. He clearly hadn't thought about it at all.
James nudged him playfully. "I'll keep you supported," He assured him. "Besides, a job might be the last thing you want if Voldy is still going around. I mean, he hates half-breeds, so a job would leave you pretty much exposed."
"Mm," Remus still flicked through the pages he held in his hands. "If I give you some of my notes, will you try and attempt to write an essay?"
"Perhaps, what's in it for us?" Sirius asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
"One of you gets to set fire to one of my ugly sweaters," Remus said.
James looked at Sirius before they both made a grab towards one of the books fighting over it. "I WANT TO BURN THAT HIDEOUS PURPLE THING YOU'RE SO ATTACHED TO!"
"BITCH THAT STRIPY PATTERNED THING IS GOING TO BE INCINERATED!"
Remus gave a small smirk before getting up and rubbing his hands on his trousers, grabbing his robes and pulling them on. "I'm going to go to class," He said. "Since, you know, we don't actually finish until Friday."
They didn't hear him as they squabbled over the book. Remus sighed, knowing that they'd eventually come to a compromise. He plucked out a book from the pile on the table and picked up his satchel and left them be.
…
"GOD REST YE MERRY HYPOGRIFF-"
"Padfoot, one more verse out of you and I swear to Merlin…" James groaned, pulling his pillow over his head to block out the noise. It took him a moment to realise the reason why Sirius was singing was in fact because it was Christmas day. With that he leapt out of bed in a frenzy, hitting his head against the bed post and tripping over his blankets into landing head first into Peter's bed.
Peter woke up with a start; James looked up and gave a small toothy grin before reaching for his glasses and pulling them on. A pile of presents lay on the floor in a sack at the end of their beds. James dove for his large pile, ripping open the packaging with some severity, and throwing the silvery wrapping everywhere, including into Sirius' own pile of presents.
Sirius was already half way through his dismal pile of dark presents that his parents had sent him. Including a very dangerous looking set of chains.
"I hate my family," Sirius muttered throwing the chains aside and ripping open his next present.
"Shouldn't we wake Remus up?" Peter asked.
James glanced over at the last of their group, lying on his bed. He was still recovering from the full moon from two nights ago, they knew it had taken a larger toll on him than usual, probably due to the fact that they weren't with him.
"Na, leave him," James said, turning back around only to be met with a tackle from Sirius.
"I BLOODY LOVE IT!" He bellowed.
"Please, if you're going to kiss me, wash your mouth out first," James breathed, pushing him off. Sirius held up the small golden pocket watch with the numbers swirling around. Sirius puckered his face leaning forward and grabbing James.
"Okay, this is the opposite of what I wanted." James kicked him off. "Geroff you lump!"
"Guys, shut it," Peter said, nodding over towards Remus who was growing restless in his sleep.
"Maybe later my lover," James patted Sirius before returning to his presents.
James was particularly pleased that his personalised pocket watches for Peter and Sirius had gone down well, he would have to wait until Remus woke to gain the satisfaction that he had done something right. He had gotten several defence books from Remus which he decided he would tuck some money into the poorer boy's untouched present sack in order to compensate for them. He felt supremely guilty that Remus had once again spent what little money he had on him. Peter had gotten him a broom servicing kit that he loved immediately and Sirius had gotten him a very elegant velvet cloak that was heavy but suited James well.
He gathered up the rest of his presents, piling it up on his bed before changing quickly into a large jumper and a pair of jeans. Sirius and Peter changed too, Sirius deciding that he would dispose of the ridiculous and probably cursed presents his parents had sent him later.
Together they walked down to the great hall, passing students who were singing joyfully. Peeves the poltergeist was also in a particularly good mood, but Sirius supposed that was probably because the mischievous spirit's gift to the resident caretaker was a large ball of chewing gum stuck to the ceiling.
Only a few had remained at the school over the holidays, there was a remarkably scarce amount of teachers there too. Only Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and Professor Kettle were there. Sirius, James and Peter sat down looking around the table that they shared together. Lily sat with Snape and there were a few fourth and some 7th years amongst them but no more than that.
Dumbledore was speaking hushed tones to Professor McGonagall, who was growing more worried by the second. He looked up and smiled.
"Will Remus be joining us?" He asked, his eyes twinkling.
"We hope so," Sirius muttered, his mouth full of turkey.
"Still exhausted?" Dumbledore asked.
"Last we checked he was still in bed," James said. "Sirius, shut your mouth when you chew."
"No," Sirius stuck out his tongue and Lily shook her head in disbelief. Snape leaned over to her and whispered something in her ear before she waved him away and told him off under her breath.
"Ah, Remus!" Dumbledore cried. "Come sit down with us, try the Yorkshire puddings, they are divine,"
Sirius, James and Peter twisted around to see Remus as he climbed over to sit next to his friends. He certainly looked a lot better after some rest, but under his jumper a tiny bit of bandage poked out.
"Thank you for the pocket watch," He murmured, before handing James a pile of galleons. "I know it was you, don't insult me like that again. I saved up for those books and I gave them to you in return for your kindness. I don't want pity."
James blinked, growing a little red. "Sorry mate, I was just…"
"I know, but please, I'd rather you didn't."
"You have to get over that pride of yours," Sirius muttered gnawing on some roast potatoes. "Peter hand me over the gravy."