PART 1: 'NO FRIENDSHIP IS AN ACCIDENT' - O. Henry

Chapter 11 - Showing up and showing off

'You're back early,' Sirius observed as they lined up outside the greenhouses for their very first lesson in Herbology on Monday morning, which they would have together with the Hufflepuffs.

Remus Lupin, unusually pale-looking, had showed up unexpectedly in the line of queuing students, having returned from his visit to his mother earlier than expected.

'Mum wasn't as poorly as initially feared, so she wanted me back at school before lessons started,' Remus explained. He sounded tired, but he looked happy enough. Sirius assumed that this must mean his mother wasn't about to die just yet.

'It's good to have you back,' James smiled.

'We missed you,' Peter piped up.

Speak for yourself, Sirius thought. Remus was fun, and he seemed like a kind boy who didn't deserve what he was going through, but the only thing Sirius had missed about the thin boy with the light brown hair and green eyes was his role as Peter's friend, so that Peter didn't bother him and James.

'Thanks for the letter... that - that meant a lot,' Remus said, and Sirius was surprised at the sincerity in Remus' voice.

'Well, as Pete said, we missed you,' James said, and Sirius supposed that there was some truth in that, after all.

A murmur started as a small boy with brown curls that fell almost to his shoulders made his way to the greenhouse.

'That's Davey Gudgeon,' Sirius heard Peter whisper to Remus. 'You won't have heard, but he got beaten up real badly by the Whomping Willow - he nearly lost an eye!'

'That's what they say at least,' James added, eyeing Gudgeon with a mix of curiosity and annoyance, 'and it's because of this git we're all now forbidden to go near the tree.'

'I didn't think you had planned to go near it again anyways,' Remus said, frowning.

'No, but now that we can't...' James shrugged, looking at Sirius for support.

Sirius was happy to oblige: 'Yeah, if the teachers didn't want us to go near it, they shouldn't have forbidden it.'

Remus and Peter looked unconvinced. This is why Sirius preferred James. He, like Sirius, always seemed to be on a lookout for a challenge.

'Come,' James said to Sirius as a squat little witch, who wore a patched hat over her flyaway hair and had a large amount of earth on her clothes, opened the door to the greenhouse, 'I want to speak to Gudgeon about yesterday.'

'Hi,' James said to Davey Gudgeon as they all filed inside. 'I am James Potter and this is -'

'Sirius Black,' the boy next to Gudgeon finished for him. 'Yeah, we know who you are.'

James seemed pleased at being recognised, Sirius couldn't quite share his friend's enthusiasm.

'This is Simon Stebbins,' Davey Gudgeon said introducing the boy next to him, 'and I am -'

'Davey Gudgeon - we know who you are too,' James grinned.

Davey Gudgeon seemed to share Sirius' feelings about being recognised. He looked down and his cheeks had gone slightly red.

'So is it true?' James asked eagerly, 'about the Whomping Willow? Did it really beat you up?'

'I suppose so,' Gudgeon shrugged.

'What happened?' James asked curiously.

'To be honest, I don't remember much... I remember going down to the tree with Simon, but then it all gets blurry.'

'So you were there?' James asked Stebbins, clearly unwilling to give up on learning more about what happened.

'Yeah, I was,' Stebbins confirmed.

'So... what do you remember? The tree didn't beat you up now, did it?' James pushed, impatiently, and rightly so, as it seemed the class was about to begin.

'No...' the boy agreed, sounding doubtful. 'I remember that it got Davey in the face, and there was blood...'

But that seemed to be about it, because Simon never finished the sentence. Before James could continue to push for more intelligence, professor Sprout called out to the class: 'gather round, everybody.'

'Typical...' James muttered to Sirius. 'Totally useless Hufflepuffs.'

Sirius agreed. Talking to Gudgeon and Stebbins had been a complete waste of time.

/

Luckily Sirius had something to look forward to after the Herbology class:

'Defence Against the Dark Arts next,' Sirius said, monitoring James' face carefully (not that James' face needed diligent studying, his friend was like an open book), 'it'll be nice to see Madame Maxwell again...'

The Gryffindors were making their way back to the castle and Sirius let the sentence hang for just the right amount of time before he continued: 'what do you think James: d'you reckon you can manage to say more than two words put together without making a fool of yourself?'

James didn't answer, but a slight pinkish tint had spread across his cheeks. Oh, this was too good.

'I think your only hope is to stay quiet,' Remus suggested with a small smile. 'But then again, -'

'When have you ever been able to stay quiet,' Sirius agreed, earning him a scowl from his bespectacled friend.

To Sirius' slight disappointment, James had few opportunities to embarrass himself in front of Madame Maxwell during the class, which thus passed with little incident. It was a good thing Madame Maxwell was as interesting as she was, otherwise Sirius would have been bored to death.

Sirius didn't understand why teachers would repeat the information that was included in the text books - they could read couldn't they? He had hoped his classes would have been more about applying the knowledge, which to be fair could be said of Herbology and Potions (Potions just had the disadvantage of Slughorn), but not the other classes. In Transfiguration they had at least started doing some actual magic, but judging by his classmates, he and James would be transfiguring piles of matches into needles before anyone else made any progress.

They hadn't been taught any magic yet in Defence Against the Dark Arts, which Sirius had immediately found disappointing, as it was the class he - and James - had most looked forward to. But then Madame Maxwell had started sharing some stories from her life as an auror - proving herself to be a far more interesting and knowledgeable person than their other professors, who all seemed to lack practical experience. Even professor McGonagall, whom Sirius knew was a talented witch, had not done anything interesting with her life as far as Sirius could tell, and he was sure she was a sorry dueller.

Once the class was finished, Madame Maxwell called to James, asking him to stay behind for a moment. James' hazel eyes widened and he fell off his chair in his eagerness to get up. Sirius felt he deserved a medal for his efforts to stop himself bursting into laughter. He had to turn around and wipe his eyes.

Well, he'd be damned if he missed out on the action so he bent down, pretending to tie his shoe laces.

'Monsieur Pottair, 'ow are you feeling? Ze injury, it iz 'ealed?'

'Y-yes, professor,' James stammered. Oh, what Sirius would give to see his friend's face.

'Wat 'appened?'

'Nothing,' James said and Sirius could hear the mortification in his voice.

Sirius knew how embarrassing the cover story they had come up with would seem to James just then. James wasn't about to admit to 'slipping and falling down the stairs'.

'But of course! You yong boys need your secrets,' Madame Maxwell said, and Sirius, glancing up, saw a warmth in the professor's chocolate-coloured eyes as she looked down at James.

'It was somezing 'eroic, non?'

Sirius imagined that James must have nodded (he wasn't about to turn down this opportunity to impress Madame Maxwell), but Sirius was once more pretending to be focused on his made-up task. James didn't make any verbal reply in any case.

'Bon! Well, I weel see you tomorrow. Au revoir, mon petit.'

James spotted Sirius as he made his way out and Sirius got the impression James was trying to look angry with him, but flushed with the success from his conversation with Madame Maxwell, the effect was not quite what James might have hoped.

/

James continued to provide some entertainment in Transfiguration. As McGonagall summoned their essays, she quickly learned that James had not completed his.

'Five points from Gryffindor. Care to explain yourself, Mr Potter?' she asked.

'I forgot, professor,' James said, innocently, but Sirius knew this was unlikely. 'But I read the chapter and I don't mind summarising it now, if you let me.'

Professor McGonagall seemed to consider this for a second, then said: 'Very well. Stand up so the class can hear you.'

James stood up and looking like he enjoyed every moment, he went on to summarise the chapter so effectively that Sirius was convinced James had written a summary and was reciting it by heart. Sirius felt this was going a bit far to show off, even for James. But then again, it did break up the monotony of the day.

'Very good, Mr Potter. Five more points from Gryffindor,' professor McGonagall said when he had finished.

'But professor!?' James exclaimed in surprise.

'Be grateful it's not fifteen, Mr Potter. When I ask you to do your homework, I expect you to do it. You, Mr Potter, have just proven you are perfectly able to do it, which means you've just chosen not to. Such behaviour is not tolerated in my class. Do I make myself clear?'

'Yes, professor,' James said, looking moderately serious.

'You can hand in your summary on Wednesday morning, together with today's homework.'

Sirius noticed that that red-head, Lily Evans, seemed particularly pleased about this outcome. She had to be one of those fairness-obsessed people that Sirius could not fathom. Life wasn't fair, and people like her did better to accept this sooner rather than later. But then again, Sirius thought with a slight pang of guilt, she would learn that quickly enough, being muggle-born.

While James' attempt at impressing the class - or possibly the professor - had to be judged a mixed success or an utter failure (depending on his objective), James transfiguration skills quickly seemed to redeem him somewhat in professor McGonagall's eyes. Having completed transfiguring his second needle within the end of this single lesson (the former transfiguration class having been a double one) professor McGonagall did give him back five of the ten points he had lost.

Sirius hadn't done too badly himself. His match from the previous class was almost a perfect needle, which was leaps ahead of his classmates. But rather than excite him, this worried Sirius. What on earth were James and he going to be doing while the other students made their sluglike progress transfiguring something as small and uninteresting as a match? Was it too early to ask James if they should skive off their next transfiguration lesson? Possibly, if Gryffindor were to avoid losing another fifty points from James not turning in his homework for a second time this week.

Sirius felt downcast as he walked to lunch with an excited James, a despairing Peter (he wasn't the only one, Sirius noticed leaving the classroom - transfiguration seemed to produce that effect on most of his classmates) and a distant Remus.

But at lunch, he and his fellow Gryffindors got something else to talk about. Midway through the meal, an excited-looking Maeve Ryan and a nervous-looking Mary Macdonald took the seats next to them.

'We've just been to the common room," Maeve said, eagerly. 'There's a new notice posted since this mornin': Flying lessons are startin' on Thursday.'

James looked as if he had just been told Christmas had arrived early - and Sirius too felt excited. Until they had completed their flying lessons they weren't technically allowed to fly around on the school grounds. Not that this so far had stopped him or James, but this would simplify things.

'Great!' Sirius said, at the same time noticing how this news hadn't necessarily produced happy faces all around. Peter looked excited enough, but Remus looked nervous and Mary looked directly scared.

'She's not told you the bad bit yet,' Mary said.

'What's that?' Peter asked, suddenly looking anxious. There wasn't a lot needed to topple that boy's confidence, that was for sure.

'We're with the Slytherins,' Mary said with feeling.

'That's good news,' Sirius said, not understanding why this would be such a terrible thing.

This gave them another chance to demonstrate to those slimy Slytherins how superior Gryffindors were. James might talk a lot about his skills on a broom, but having seen it first hand, Sirius had to give it to James: he was as good as he believed he was. Sirius was planning to encourage James to show off in every way possible in front of the Slytherins - not that he suspected encouragement was needed.

'No, that's excellent news,' James corrected, and meeting Sirius' eyes he said gleefully: 'want to bet whether Snivillus has ever been on a broom?'

Sirius thought about the worn down potions equipment and second-hand robes, the jerky way the git moved and the air he gave of having come from an even less loving home than himself. The odds of Snape having been on a broom were slim to none.

Sirius grinned at James. His friend was right - this was well and truly excellent news.

A/N

We will get Remus perspective of what has happened - why he's recovered before he expected, how he got the letter etc, but I wanted to start by exploring it from the other Marauders point of view. I think it's a lot easier to understand how they initially could buy into Remus' story if we've not just read about the transformation from Remus POV.

As I am working on this story I am increasingly convinced a lot of James' and Sirius' bad behaviour comes from the fact that they weren't challenged in school academically. If they really were as talents as JK tells us via some of her characters, they would have been beyond bored at school. Does that excuse their behaviour? Of course not. Just like I cannot possibly excuse Snape for joining Voldemort because he was bullied in school or had a terrible childhood - it would do such a disservice to the millions of people who have pulled through similar or worse challenges and decided, I don't know... to NOT join a mass murdering supremacist group.