So 422 reviews (LAST TIME I LOOKED IT WAS ONLY 30! WTF?) I thought I should post a chapter in occasion for it. Thank you everyone who has reviewed, favourite-d, followed etc. It means the world to me.
The air was stiff and cold. Like someone had sucked all the life from the room. The dying embers of the fire were glowing absentmindedly as James leaned back against the armchair, rubbing his eyes. Sirius was napping beside him, his parchment stuck to his cheek and his quill still stuck in his hand. Peter had given up earlier in the evening and had trumped off to bed. But Sirius and James were determined to stay and get it finished.
James sighed and flicked through the papers and re-read his notes. He could pick out the moment where he started to lose all comprehension. Now everything was blurring and he couldn't make sense of it.
The door of the common room clicked open and Remus stepped in with Lily, both laughing, snow in their hair and wrapped up warmly.
"Hello James," Remus said brightly, before frowning and checking his watch. "It's quite late, why aren't you in bed?"
"I thought I could cram," James shrugged.
"Cramming isn't really the best idea," Remus replied, pulling off his scarf and sitting down beside his friend as Lily bade them goodnight, marching up to the girls dormitories.
"Pfft," James rolled his eyes. "I'm not taking your advice."
"I never offered advice, I merely pointed out a flaw in your grand scheme of things," Remus said lightly taking the pages away from James.
"How was patrol?"
"Boring, got hexed by a few Slytherins, Hufflepuff third years are as rude as a badgers backside," Remus chuckled at his own joke and James rolled his eyes again in exasperation. "And sadly the Ravenclaws were snarky again."
"Sounds fun,"
"You bet it was." Remus said.
"Remind me never to become a prefect or head boy," James said grinning.
"Consider this a reminder,"
Sirius snorted in his sleep and rolled over onto the floor, jolting awake with a gasp and cry. He looked around wildly, unable to place where he was or why he was there. He blinked, bleary eyed out and saw his friends and grumbled something along the lines of; "This isn't my bed," Before pulling himself up and sitting back on the chair.
"You alright there Padfoot?" James asked.
"I like jam and toast not peanut butter and toast thank you very much," Sirius muttered, folding his arms, his work getting crumbled underneath his grip as he closed his eyes again.
Remus pulled out two cauldron cakes from his robes and threw one at Sirius' head. It bounced off his head, then his knee before landing in Sirius' hand. James' mouth gaped.
"Keeper remember?" Sirius muttered, taking the cake and stuffing it into his mouth whole. Remus handed the other one to James.
"So you were down in the kitchens?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I was down in the kitchens whilst Lily was yelling at some poor 2nd year who got lost on their way back to their dormitory and accidently ended up in the girl's toilets. He disturbed Moaning Myrte who decided it would be a good idea to flood the corridor." Remus said.
"Poor guy," Sirius grunted, his mouth full of cake.
"For Merlin's sake, please close your mouth when you're eating," James said, throwing a cushion onto Sirius' face.
Sirius stuck out his tongue in defiance. James looked back over at Remus before Sirius spoke, this time without food in his mouth. "Moony you bad boy, did you make the House-elves bake you cauldron cakes?"
Remus went dark red. "No," He said. "I stole them off the tray while they were going to bed."
"See, this is what I love about you Remus," James said proudly. "You pretend to act nice and get the ladies that way, but in fact you are the biggest trickster out of us all."
"I'll take that as an insult," Remus said, pulling his best offended face.
"Now I'm offended," James said.
"You should."
"I am."
"I want another cauldron cake," Sirius grunted, not paying any attention to his friends. He had closed his eyes again, his hair draping over his arms. "Say Moony, fancy another trip down to the-"
"No," Remus said flatly as a flash of lightning burst through the sky outside and a loud thunderclap echoed shortly after. The last of the embers died, leaving the room in almost complete darkness. James got up, rubbing his knees and went towards the window, looking out as the heavens fell to the earth in rage and fear. He leaned against the stone brickwork and pushed his glasses up his nose.
He stayed there for a few seconds, his mind focused on something. Instead, he shook his head and announced that he was going to bed. Sirius grunted and Remus kicked him.
"Come on," He said.
"No I don't want to go to school today," Sirius groaned. "All the other kids make fun of me,"
"Shall I hex him, or do you want that honour?" Remus asked.
Sirius' eyes shot open. "Nope," He said, getting up. "I'm not wanting to be hexed by either of you."
"Scared you won't be able to defend yourself?" James teased.
"Oh be serious," His friend replied, rolling his eyes.
"No that's you," Remus replied.
It took a few moments for Sirius to understand the pun. He sighed, rolling his eyes. "That was lame beyond all measure. But seriously. I could take you both out in a second."
"By sitting on us?" James asked. Sirius lunged at James and he jumped out of the way onto the stairs up to the boys dormitories. "Now that was lame,"
"I'm going to kill you Potter," Sirius said, a grin spreading across his face.
"Have to catch me first." James taunted.
"Maybe I should have just went up to bed," Remus sighed, following his friends up the stairs. "Instead of waking you up,"
Another crash of lightning made them all jump and Sirius gave out a nervous laugh.
"Not scared of a little stormy weather are we?" James teased.
"Dammit I run around with a full grown werewolf every full moon, how dare you think I'm scared," Sirius scoffed as a bolt of lightning hit the astronomy tower. Sirius jumped, crashing into Remus and James.
"So, lightning bad?" Remus raised an eyebrow.
"Shut up Moony," Sirius muttered, pulling himself up.
"Perhaps it's to do with your animagus form," James attempted. He noticed the look Remus was giving him and then tried to justify his reasoning. "No hear me out, do you know when it's stormy and a dog gets all barky and jumpy?"
"Barky is a technical term now is it?" Remus asked pushing open the dormitory door to find that Mithradates, Peter and Frank were already asleep.
"I'm just saying, maybe it's that side showing through," James said, flinging himself onto his bed.
"Then why isn't Moony going mad?" Sirius asked jumping slightly as another flash crashed outside.
"Because I'm not a dog 24/7 or whenever I can be." Remus removed his tie and draped it over his bedpost.
"You make a very sweet disposition as a dog," James said lightly. Remus gave a scowl and James rolled his eyes. "Not you, Padfoot."
"I try," Sirius said smugly.
"You should make the change permanent."
"I do hope you're joking," Sirius said.
James shook his head and smiled and Sirius threw a pillow at him.
…
"Oh O.W.L's how did I ever survive in my life without you?" Sirius sighed as they left a very heavy transfiguration class with McGonagall putting the fear of death into their heads with talk of their ever approaching exams. Peter was visibly shaking and a few girls in their class looked close to tears.
Remus veered off to try and comfort Sarah the best he could as James watched.
"I want that," He said.
"What?" Peter looked around absent-mindedly.
"Someone to love and to hold and to…" James pursed his lips. "I sound like a right princess don't I?"
"Nah," Peter shrugged.
"Excuse me Moose-head!" Sirius said his hands on his hips. "And what the hell am I to you?"
"Oh Paddy you'll always be my girl." James laughed.
"On request though,"
"Anything darling,"
"You never refer to me as Paddy again. And I get a boat." Sirius said, his eyes darted to the side of his head as he thought for a moment. "And Brazil."
Quick as a flash Sirius jumped onto James' back. James instinctively knew that it was his duty not to shake off his friend but rather hoist him further onto his back and run down the corridor.
"I'M A BIRD MOTHERF-" Sirius bellowed.
A whoosh of black and brown and glasses went past Remus' nose and he almost stumbled back, Sarah catching him firmly. He offered a smile in thanks before deciding he had to follow otherwise they would end up in detention for the next term. Which wouldn't help anyone.
Peter was running after them too, not the most athletic; he hurried, passing by Sarah, stopping, holding her arm to catch his breath and then taking off again.
"You're welcome!" She called after him.
"I'd hate to ask," Lily said, gliding over to Sarah, folding her arms over her text books. "But what the hell is Potter doing?"
"You know," Sarah said lightly moving away. "For someone who hates Potter, you take very keen interests in him when he does something unexpected."
Lily's eyes narrowed. "All I wanted to know is what he was doing," She said.
Sarah's lips stretched into a smile. "You always seem to want to know… Have a thing for him do we?"
"Been talking to Remus have we?" Lily snapped.
"So what if I have. Not a crime for us to converse," Sarah shrugged. "Besides, you do ask to know a lot… I'm just wondering…"
"I. DO. NOT." Lily hissed through gritted teeth.
"See you in potions," Sarah smiled moving away.
Lily grumbled something under her breath and followed the four boys, Snape trying to catch up with her, his over-sized robes flapping behind him.
"Lily," He said. "Lily, you don't really want to find out what they're up too…"
"And why not?" Lily snapped, tucking her books under her folded arms.
"Because they're trouble makers," Snape replied.
"And you hexing Frank last week was just deserved am I right?" Lily asked. Snape stopped, stunned. Lily sighed and looked back towards him. "Look, I'm not saying that Potter isn't bad news, but for Merlin's sakes Severus, stop being such a bloody hypocrite."
Snape muttered something under his breath and Lily rolled her eyes joking to catch up.
"PUT IT BACK ON!"
"MCGONAGALL IS GOING TO KILL US!"
"PETER STOP DOING THAT AND GET ON MY SHOULDERS!"
"I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO MY WHOLE BRAIN IS CRYING!"
"SIRIUS FOR MERLIN'S SAKE WILL YOU PUT IT BACK WHERE YOU FOUND IT!"
"BUT I DIDN'T FIND IT! IT WAS IN MY HAND FROM THE MOMENT WE GOT HERE!"
Lily paused and turned on her heel. "You know what," She said to Snape taking his arm. "I'd rather not see what's going on."
Sirius peeked around the corner and burst out laughing. James wiped away tears from his eyes, trying to breathe properly.
"They actually fell for it?" Remus said through his laughter.
"Idiots!" Sirius proclaimed. "The Great Black can nought break such things!" He struck a pose, landing on Peter's foot. Peter let out an exclamation and fell back into a metal suit of armour. It clanged, wobbled and then with a mighty crash it toppled over directly onto the one standing next to it. This continued down the entire corridor as each suit of armour fell like a domino. The four boys looked on dumbstruck before the final one fell to the ground.
"Oh crap," James said.
"Times like this, I wish I was a frog," Remus said.
"On the count of three we run and leave James here to explain the mess," Sirius said. "THREE!"
"Wait, what?"
Sirius, Remus and Peter were already bolting down the corridor making a run for it. James shrugged and pulled out his invisibility cloak and pulled it over his head.
"Clearly I am the most intelligent," He muttered, as he walked in the opposite direction.