The Infamous Marauders

Chapter Three

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters featured in my story they belong to the utter genius J. K. Rowling.

Late September 1976

In the first week of September Sirius and James completed their "welcome back prank" they managed to slip a potion into the pumpkin juice supply which made all the students who were unlucky enough to drink it at breakfast sing instead of talk for the full day until an antidote could be found and supplied to the students at tea that night. When questioned by Professor McGonagall about their knowledge on the situation, the two boys had played innocent, however Sirius' comment that he thought "everyone must be so joyous to return to school they simply couldn't help but sing" earned him and James a detention

After that incident, the next few weeks of school were relatively calm and flew by quickly for the four marauders as they settled into their NEWT schedules and attempted to make their way through the ever-growing mountain of homework that was being assigned to them. The calm however was broken one morning late September when a screeching James burst through the dormitory door waking up the three other occupants.

Remus caught the blurred shape of James diving into the bathroom before he slammed the door shut behind him. It was still early and Remus was tired from the night before as he had difficulty sleeping and spent most of the night tossing around his bed, the moon was near and it made the wolf anxious and eager to escape.

"Prongs you loud mouth git what on earth are you waking us up for at this ungodly hour you know Peter needs all the beauty sleep he can get?" Sirius demanded.

"Hey!" Peter exclaimed looking insulted, but he quickly shrugged it off as he was also intrigued as to what could get James screaming like a little child.

No answer came from the bathroom so Sirius huffed and rose out of bed to try the door, it wouldn't budge and after a tactical alohomora still didn't open the door they begun to realise something bad must have happened, Prongs wouldn't usually use complex locking charms around them.

Remus felt tired and irritable but decided to help "Prongs what's happened? We cannot help you if you won't speak to us, we need to go to breakfast and I'd much prefer to not be late and be able to use the bathroom before we have to leave"

It was at this point James spoke for the first time since his ear-splitting scream had rang out throughout the dormitory "She's bloody mental!"

"Who's mental?" Sirius asked.

"Evans"

Remus, Sirius and Peter shared a knowing look, Lily must have hexed James after a failed attempt at flirting, however this seemed to be an overreaction even for James' standards.

"Come on out it can't be that bad" Remus encouraged.

The door clicked after a couple of minutes and James re-entered the room. "MERLIN!" Sirius cackled as he saw James' appearance. Even Peter and Remus joined in on the laughing.

James eyes met that of his friends with a wounded look of betrayal "See even you three are laughing"

"What did you do this time mate?"

"I didn't do anything" James answered Sirius.

"Prongs you don't get long golden locks with bright pink bows in for nothing, although I must say you look like quite the pretty princess" Sirius added with a wink.

James flung himself down on his bed grumpily "I thought Evans liked me why would she ruin my good hair like this"

Sirius looked at James in disbelief "I think you must be the only person who thinks Evans likes you"

James then went on to explain to his fellow Marauders the tale of how he had acquired golden locks to rival that Rapunzel girl Remus had once told them about from the Muggle fairy-tale. It had all begun early that morning, James had woken up before everyone else and decided he would go for a run around the Quidditch Pitch he wanted to keep in shape as this year he would leading the Gryffindor Team in winning the Quidditch Cup, and he wasn't going to achieve that if he didn't put the effort in. On his way, back to the castle he had spotted Evans who was out walking the grounds, she didn't spot him until he was close, he was in his Quidditch gear and flashed Lily his best smile whilst he ruffled his hair and had asked "Like what you see Evans?" that is when Lily had lost it and hexed his hair into the monstrosity it now was and screamed at James to run before she did something worse. James had made his escape back to his dorm and had proceeded to sit in the bathroom for fifteen minutes ignoring the other Marauders in the hope he could reverse the spell.

At the end of the story Sirius and Peter were laughing, Sirius more so at James' misfortune, it wasn't the first-time James had been at the receiving end of Lily's wand. Remus however looked thoughtful and had excused himself soon after the tale had been told, Remus was going to find Lily and he knew exactly where to find her, in the Library.

Upon entering the Library Remus realised there was only one other person in the room with him, his senses always got stronger around the full moon, Madam Pince must be having breakfast down in the great hall he thought. It didn't take long to find Lily hidden deep among the books of the restricted section she looked up when she heard footsteps, her face was red and puffy and her eyes were full of unshed tears, she quickly turned away.

Trying to compose herself she spoke "Oh hello Remus, you here for a book?"

Remus laughed softly "No actually I came here to commend you on the hairstyle you gave James it is ever so pretty"

Lily smiled faintly, but the smile didn't quite meet her eyes "Oh yes well he's always ruffling it so I thought he might appreciate more to play with"

Remus stepped closer "What's wrong Lils you know you can talk to me?"

Lily began to violently shake as a new wave of tears hit her, Remus rushed towards his friend wrapping a protective arm around her "It's okay Lily, it's okay we don't have to talk about it, why don't we go see Madam Pomfrey I'm sure she'll have something to help you, maybe a calming draught?"

Lily straightened up at this "No Remus its quite alright I don't want to cause a fuss" She swallowed and breathed deeply before continuing "It was just my sister, Petunia, she wrote to me to inform me she was getting married and that there was no need for me contact her again since she was starting her new life away from freaks like me" Lily paused composing herself further before quietly adding "It's just I need to be able to check she's okay Remus, the attacks on Muggleborn families have been increasing what if something happens and I don't find out, she doesn't want to know me anymore I don't know what to do?"

Remus looked at his friend with sympathy, he and Lily had never really spoken to one another until last year, it was after Remus had a bad transformation. Sirius and James couldn't accompany him to the shack as they had ended up in the infirmary after possibly the most violent Gryffindor vs Slytherin Quidditch match to occur at Hogwarts, not wanting to make the boys feel guilty at his state he had hid away in the Library. That is where Lily had stumbled upon him, she was always a bright girl and one of Remus' main contenders for high marks DADA, he should have known she would figure out his condition, she had spoken to him that day and asked him to go for a walk, it was outside the castle away from the gossipers listening ears she had confessed she knew what he was and asked him if there was anything he needed. For some reason, still unclear to himself he had confided in her that night instead of brushing off her comment and trying to cover up his secret. Remus was never a person to trust or to share his secrets but there was something about Lily Evans that had made him open himself up, he thought that she had a way of seeing the beauty in others, even, and perhaps most especially, when that person couldn't see it in themselves and that made her special.

Lily had been there for him and now he was able to return the favour he knew her fear, he himself had some Muggle family, on his mother Hopes side, and he felt the stress of not being able to protect those he loved, those defenceless and without magic, he had also suffered rejection from his father due to his affliction so in a way he could imagine how Lily felt when her own Sister was cutting ties with her, however his father still took him in, he knew all of this would be over the fact she was a Witch, the animosity had come up in conversations in the past. He wasn't sure what Lily needed she had always seemed so strong, had such a fiery personality and was much better at being the supporting friend but he would try, he knew one thing Lily would always love and that is practicing Charms. "I know it's getting late and we should be going up to lessons but would you like to go down to the Lake and practice some Charms instead?" he asked hoping a friend and a distraction would do Lily some good.

And that was the first and only time Remus John Lupin missed a mornings worth of lessons without permission from a teacher, caring for a friend was more important than anything, school included, being a Marauder had taught him that, and he knew Lily needed company right now she would be feel rejected by one of the people who were meant to love her the most, so he spent the morning trying to entertain her and bring a smile back to her face.

Back inside of Hogwarts below ground down in the dungeons in the Potions Classroom two of the Marauders were sat very confused as to where Remus and Lily were, James was soon openly panicking demanding that he, Sirius, and Peter leave to search for the two missing Gryffindors.