The Gryffindor common room was bustling with noise, students running, playing and being rowdy overall, though not as much as usual since there were a lot of tensions due to recent events, even Hogwarts was a bit influenced. James was sitting in the common room in a good mood, his relationship with Lily Evans was advancing quite tremendously if he were to say so. Though according to Padfoot, and I quote "Suuure! a girl finally talking to you means she couldn't wait to get in your pants!" well, it doesn't mean he couldn't stop rambling to his best mate who kept growling at him. Looking clearly irritated and annoyed, an almost canine scoff on his face. Sirius sighed exaggeratly and threw his arms in the air.

-"Prongs, can you just stop? I do not want to hear about swotty Princess Evans anymore. Moony, say something."

Remus looked up from his book, glared at Sirius then an apologetic grimace appeared on his face when he turned to James.

-"Sorry James, Sirius is right. It's great that...Lily", he looked pointedly at Sirius... "had started to open up to you, but you need to start talking about something else, how about the upcoming exams? You know, the ones Sirius" he glanced at Sirius again..."planned to play a prank in? We are in 7 year and you are headboy after all."

An exasperated sigh escaped from Sirius again as he slouched even more on the sofa...

-"Moony, can you stop being such a swot? Why did all the swots around decide to make my life miserable! Evans turning my best mate into a boring bloke is already hard enough!"

-"Hey!" James yelled, "I am not boring!" He threw a pillow at Sirius who grinned at him.

The door opened and the girls entered, at the sight of Lily, James sat straighter, waving at her with a wide grin. Lily rolled her eyes, but approached them nonetheless. Her relationship with James has become warmer since he started behaving better, just a few months ago and she would still call him a toerag.

-"Lily flower, how was your day?"

-"James, I told you to stop calling that." She glared at him. "Well it was good. Hello, Remus...Black." said Black started exuding exasperation the moment he saw her, well she didn't like him either.

-"night, Evans." He replied boredly.

She looked at him critically, Black was Potter's best friend. He was always extreme and over the top, even a bit unhinged. He was very famous for his looks, many girls swooning over him. She shuddered, really not understanding what they found in him. He was immature and childish, always backing up James in whatever endeavor he was prepared to do. Well, though they were a group of four, Potter and Black were just always together, always egging on and backing up each other. Black was certainly not James' voice of reason, if anything maybe he was the voice of "unreason" if that was a word. No, maybe that would be Remus but he could never properly stand up to his friends when it came to their behavior. It's true that James toned down his bullying for the last two years but she was no fool as to why that was, part of it was for her, to get in her good graces and another was due to some horrible incident that happened last year that she knew created a crack between Remus and Sirius, even James was furious at him. Well, she was not surprised that Black had something to do with it, he always seemed unhinged to her, she was not even surprised it hurt Remus in some way, as even though they were friends. Black only ever seemed to curb himself or whatever selfish tendencies he had when it came to James. In fact, Black seemed to always relish in James presence, he almost had some obsessive loyalty/friendship, in her opinion , it was an unhealthy attachment to James.

-"Like what you see, Evans? " mocked Sirius, a raised eyebrow with a cocky smile hanging on his lips. James bumped at Sirius, looking scandalized at his best mate's words. Remus looked on with exasperated amusement

-"You wish." She scoffed. How he could think that was beyond her, yes black was truly not right in the head.

-"Why are there only you three? Where is Pettigrw?" She asked looking around

-"Probably went to the kitchen to stuff himself", answered Sirius

-"Really? But there is only half an hour before dinner in the great hall, some early students are probably already sitting at the table." She looked bewildered at that "besides,won't the elves be busy at this time?"

-"Who knows?" James shrugged "That's wormy for you, he can never stop stuffing himself."

He really didn't know how Wormtail could keep stuffing himself so much yet never seem to tire. Sirius snickered at his comment, then got his arm around his shoulders and slouched off him.

-"Well, don't let poor old Wormy hear you" He didn't look sorry at all, "Isn't it time we go to the great hall?"

It's true that they should go if they didn't want to be late, though nobody would dare take their spot at the table, marauders privilege. Speaking of which, it has been such a long time since they did a prank, he has been busy trying to chase after Lily and getting in her good graces, well it worked since at least she was willing to talk to him now and no longer him a toerag. He also toned it down a bit after last year's incident, he grimaced. Snivellus still glares at them and makes comments whenever they met at the corridors. But he has to say, it's different now than before, there is something much more darker and dangerous about him now, he looked like he wouldn't hesitate to harm or even kill them, him specially once they got outside Hogwarts. At this thought, his brain conjured the latest news he kept hearing about the recent events. Even in Hogwarts now, tensions loomed too and a portion of Slytherins kept feeling more and more dangerous. He suddenly felt uncomfortable at the thought process and tried to vanish it from his mind. They probably should cook some big prank before the end of the year and end it with a bang. He should discuss it with Padfoot and the rest of them after dinner maybe. He looked at Sirius who was hanging off his shoulders, he too was feeling starved.