The Little Centaur

(One-Shot)

Disclaimers: I don't own anything apart from some DVD's/books for this series.

AN: This is a short standard prompt for "The Houses Competition" set in 'Marauders' Era' time. As I am old (ish), my views of them may vary from the young ones, including the fact that I am TeamCharlus/Dorea, have Sirius/James as distant relations through Black blood, as well as TeamTrans (as an ally). I do not accept any new stuff by Rowling.

House: Gryffindor

Class: Prefect

Category: Standard

Prompt(s): [Dialogue] "It wasn't me!" / [Location] Hogwarts Express / [Creature] Centaur

Word count: 1,060 according to AO3 (2.5 pages)

Summary: In which the Marauders chase a centaur foal.

"Hurry up, Jim, dear! The train's leaving in a minute!"

"Yes, Mum," James groaned, pulling his trunk along. "Really, why can't you just apparate us over to school?"

"Your hair's as messy as your—"

"Stop!" James ducked out of her reach. "Mum? Not in front of everyone, please. I'm bloody sixteen!"

"Mind your tone!" Mrs. Potter ordered. "Now, you get up there with Sirius."

"Uh-huh," James grumbled, tossing his trunk up to Sirius before climbing on board just as the train started to move. After waving a hurried goodbye through the door that Sirius was already pushing shut, James turned away, finally able to roll his eyes without Mummy Dearest seeing it. "Swear to Merlin. Just swear to Merlin, already."

"Still treating you like a child?" Sirius asked with a grin.

"I know she was using my hair as an excuse," James muttered as the pair of them moved down the cars to find seats. "It's the second year in a row that I manage to dodge her hug that has me all squashed up into her..." His eyes darted around before he lowered his voice so much that even Remus might have difficulty hearing it. "Her breasts."

Sirius just laughed as he pushed open the door where Remus was. "Hiya, Moony! Where's Wormtail?"

"Sh!" Remus hushed them as he pointed up. A large grey rat was curled up on the shelf next to the bags. He was fast asleep. Remus waited for the other two to settle in before leaning forward to whisper, "Which one of you did it?"

"Did what?" James asked as Sirius just shrugged.

"Better not have been you," Remus went on. "Whoever did it is going to get expelled, for sure."

"What?" James asked again.

Before Remus had a chance to answer, everyone suddenly found out what.

There was a loud, unearthly scream of rage somewhere in the train car. The sound of a horse's hooves hitting the ground rang out, but of course, that would be impossible. Right? After all, why would a horse be on the train?

It wasn't impossible at all.

Furthermore, it was not a horse at all either.

It was, in fact, a centaur foal that went stampeding down the hallway, desperately looking for a way out. The poor thing was scared out of its mind as it dodged several students trying to catch it.

"No, Remus," James said in a voice loud enough to wake Wormtail. "It wasn't me!"

Sirius stared in surprise before saying, "I wouldn't bring a centaur foal onto the train!" He leaned close to whisper in Remus's ear. "I already have my hands full with a werewolf puppy on the train."

"Dude, shut up," Remus muttered, trying desperately not to laugh as he pushed Sirius away.

The grey rat dropped into the seat beside Remus. Peter appeared a moment later. "What's going on?"

"You can tell him," James said as he nodded to Sirius. He opened the door to see better while he let Sirius explain it all to Peter.

James himself stepped out into the hall as he saw the young centaur slide into the division between cars. He watched it frantically skitter about, its hooves sliding on the hard, metallic floor, before suddenly, it came running back the way it had come. James let out a little yelp as he jumped aside barely in time, narrowly avoiding getting run over.

The centaur foal scurried on by as if it didn't even notice.

Remus pushed by James. "I was waiting for that thing to come back here," he said. "Let's go help catch it!"

The four of them joined the throng of others trying to subdue the terrified foal. It was eventually trapped in the Prefect's train car, where it was left alone with some water.

Lily bolted the thing shut before turning to everyone crammed up in the narrow hallway. "Everyone, return to your seats, please! Just leave it alone until it calms down." She moved forward, her eyes scanning over the group before locating the four prime culprits. "Please tell me none of you did this?"

"For once, Lily," Remus answered. "I don't think so. James was late. He nearly missed the train. Sirius was waiting for him in the doorway." He hesitated for a moment, trying to explain Peter. He couldn't exactly say that there was a grey rat sleeping near him. "Peter was asleep next to me until Jim woke him up." It would have to do. Being in his rat form up on the shelf, Remus would have appeared alone. He only hoped that Lily had not looked in his seating area before now.

Lily nodded. "I suppose so. But we will find out who did this. I can't even begin to think about the repercussions this will have concerning the centaur nation. They'll definitely demand expulsion!" She headed to her seat without another word.

As she marched on by, Remus let out a sigh of relief. He may have had taken a risky chance, but that still had been too close for comfort. But he knew it could have just as easily blown up in his face. It was a good thing Lily had not been around his seat yet, or else she would have questioned his explanation of Peter's whereabouts.

When the Hogwarts Express pulled into the station that evening, no one was allowed off until Dumbledore came on with several Professors following him. They removed the foal after stunning it before letting anyone off.

Once allowed to disembark, it was a rather boisterous crowd that spilled out of the train as everyone chattered excitedly about who brought the foal on board. No one could figure it out; although, a few people did blame the Marauders since they were well-known for pranks.

"It wasn't me!" every single Marauder declared more than once.

People only stopped blaming them once Lily herself finally had to stand up for them.

As for whoever had done it, no one really knew for a few days until the truth finally came out. It had been someone from Slytherin in their seventh year who had been hoping to get any of the Marauders in trouble for it.

But it wasn't worth it in the end, for they only succeeded in getting themselves expelled so close to the end of their schooling years.