"We have been slacking, my fellow Marauders," James announced loudly, closing the door to the dorm room behind him with an echoing thud. There was no response from any of his friends, however. Frowning, he looked around the room. Peter was laying flat on his back on his bed, fast asleep and snoring loudly. No surprise there, considering none of them knew just what time he had finally returned to the dorm from his date the previous night if he had returned at all.
Sirius' bed was, of course, untouched as he and Remus normally slept in the latter's. The curtains to Remus' bed were shut, and though there was no sound coming from it, James could see the slight dip in the mattress.
Groaning in frustration, James pulled the curtain open.
The two boys reluctantly broke their, quite rough-looking, lip lock to glare at James.
"What the hell, Potter?" Sirius asked, the annoyance in his voice faltering slightly as Remus, who merely growled at the interference before returning to the task at hand, shapely nipped at Sirius' neck to draw the attention from the boy back.
"Would you two stop bloody snogging each other for a minute?" James huffed, crossing his arms. "I'm calling a Marauder meeting."
"Can't it wait?" Sirius managed before he gasped.
"It can and it will," Remus' eyes flashed dangerously at James and he reached to pull the curtains back around them, but James held it firmly open.
"It can not wait, you mutts!" He insisted. "Come on! Marauders come first, remember?" He was nearly whining now. He couldn't help it. He felt like his friends were hardly around anymore and none of them ever wanted to do anything but snog.
"Too right you are, Prongs," the low rumble of Remus' voice surprised James a little, although the full moon was drawing very close. "And as a Marauder, I cannot emphasize how important it is that we do 'come first'."
"Merlin, you're hot when you're like this Moons…" Sirius breathed in awe, gazing up at the other boy adoringly. Then they were snogging again, heedless to the fact that James was still standing there with the bed curtain firmly in his fist.
"Mate, unless you want to watch, I suggest you close that and shove the bloody hell off," Sirius said, failing to stay composed as Remus peppered kisses down his throat.
With an aggravated sigh, James yanked the curtain closed and stormed over to his bed. Bloody moon making his bloody friends bloody insatiable…
He glanced back at Peter, still out cold and drooling all over his pillow. He considered hitting him with a cold jet of water from his wand to wake him up, but he thought the better of it.
I'm being selfish, he thought. He ran a hand through his hair. My friends are all happy and I'm just feeling abandoned and sorry for myself.
He flicked his wand towards Peter's bed and the curtains swung closed around the snoozing boy before quietly leaving the dorm. It was a fairly nice afternoon in late October. Maybe a little chilly, but the sun was shining and the Quidditch pitch wasn't assigned to any of the teams for practice. He decided he'd take out his frustration on some quaffles and work on some new move on his broom.
The portrait swung open to allow him out of Gryffindor common room and he climbed through. He stopped short.
"I just want to talk to her."
"Well, she doesn't want to talk to you, as she's made that perfectly clear."
James stayed silent. Neither Snape nor Mary had noticed him standing there. He should just keep walking, but he didn't like the idea of leaving Mary alone with that creep.
Mary made a move to walk away and Snape reached out and caught the sleeve of her blouse. Mary's brown eyes narrowed on the Slytherin and she yanked her arm away sharply. James' hand moved cautiously to his own wand, ready to intervene.
"Don't you-" Mary began to threaten.
"Would- ugh," Snape sighed. "Would you at least tell her I stopped by?"
Mary laughed sharply. "Stopped by? You've practically been sleeping out in the bloody hall! She doesn't want to see you, Snape. So give it up."
Severus was just as stubborn as ever, and James had to wonder when that prat would learn to let things go and move on. How many werewolves would he have to stumble upon before he figured out how to stay away from people who didn't want him around? Regardless, he didn't seem to be taking Mary's words to heart.
James cleared his throat loudly and the two of them spun around, surprised.
"Alright, Mary?" He asked, his eyes remaining on Snape whose face fell immediately into a scowl at the sight of him.
Mary nodded, smiling reassuringly at James before she took a look at the Slytherin boy. "Everything's fine. Severus was just-"
"He was just leaving, I'm sure," James said firmly, giving Snape a meaningful, if not threatening, look.
Severus' dark eyes glared sharply into James' and he slowly exhaled. "Yes," he muttered. "I was just leaving," he looked back at Mary. "Sorry to have bothered you, Miss McDonnald," he said, barely moving his lips as he spoke. He lingered for a moment longer, his gaze falling longingly on the portrait as if he thought maybe he could see lily right through it, and then he left. Both James and Mary watched him until he was completely out of sight.
"He can't take a bloody hint, can he?" James grumbled and he heard Mary sigh beside him.
"Apparently not. He's been trying to get Lily to speak to him since the start of term. She won't have it though," she looked at James and smiled. "Thanks for stepping in. I don't think he'd have let up as easily if it were only me."
"Any time," James replied, returning the friendly tone. "Although, I think you had it going pretty well on your own. I think you could've taken him on if you had to," he smirked as the girl laughed in response. She had quite a nice laugh, he noticed. In fact, nearly everything about Mary was pleasant. She was quite petite, and her chestnut brown hair fell in tight curls at her shoulders. And he had never noticed how pretty her chocolate brown eyes were.
Suddenly aware that he was staring, James cleared his throat. "Well, er… I'm off to the Quidditch pitch. See you around, then?"
"See you," Mary said in her usual bubbly voice with a small wave of her hand as she headed back into the dorm.
Maybe Sirius was right… there certainly were plenty of other girls at Hogwarts than just Evans.
—-
By the time James was able to get the Marauders together for a meeting, they all agreed that it was too late to plan a successful prank by Halloween night.
"Besides," Remus reasoned, his voice already sounding tired as he laid his head in Sirius' lap. "The timing is bad. We always get caught for our Halloween pranks, there's no getting around it, and everyone knows it's us. You lot would end up in detention the following Friday and that's the full."
James let out a loud groan and flopped back onto his bed. "We never plan anything these days!"
"Careful," Peter snickered. "Any more dramatic than that and you may out-queen Sirius."
Sirius flicked his wand towards Peter, hitting him with a quick stinging jinx and he yelped. James didn't respond at all, he just folded his arms over his chest and pouted, staring up at his canopy. He was starting to feel childish in his jealous behavior, but something eventually had to give. Just because they were all in relationships and he wasn't, didn't mean they just all of the sudden had no time for him at all…
"Well, what if we threw a party instead?" Sirius suggested, eyeing James with mild concern as his normally much more collected best friend seemed to be throwing a temper tantrum. "We haven't done that in a while, and as long as it doesn't make it to the wrong set of ears, no one could get in trouble and no one misses the full moon."
After a second of consideration, James rolled on his side to face the other raven-haired boy. "We could nick some Firewhiskey from Rosmerta's. She's always easy to bribe." A slow grin was spreading across James' face and the aching jealousy in his chest started to ease up as Sirius' expression matched his.
"I'm sure Peeves will be down to help us spook some of the firsties as well if we want to plan a small Halloween prank." Sirius' eyes lit up before he even finished the sentence, ideas filling his mind. "Nearly Headless Nick as well…"
James sat up, perching on the edge of his bed as he and Sirius began to toss ideas back and forth, with Peter and Remus chiming in here and there.
This, James thought fondly, was what he was missing. It didn't matter to him that he was the only single Marauder. What mattered is that he missed the adrenaline he used to get when the four of them sat together in a circle to plot out their biggest and best ideas. The Marauders were supposed to be about each other first and the rest of the world after. What was best for the group and not them individually or, in Sirius and Remus' case, as a couple. They were a family above anything else. And with the way, the outside world was starting to look, and the supposed war on its way, James was determined to make sure they all remembered that golden rule.
—-
"So, I was thinking about going out tonight after the Halloween feast," Lily said, glancing up from her Transfiguration homework to address the other girls. "It'll be fun. There are tons to do in Hogsmeade on Halloween."
Marlene frowned up at her, looking confused. "Haven't you heard? The boys were throwing a party in the common room tonight."
"Oh." Lily blinked back at her. "Er... No, actually. I hadn't heard." She was surprised. Normally something like this would have been an opportune moment for Potter to ask her, in one obnoxious way or another, to be his date for the night. But he had done no such thing.
In fact, now that she thought about it, Potter hadn't said much more than 'Pass the pumpkin juice' to her in over a week. Odd.
"We don't have to go, of course," Dorcas piped up as she noticed the conflicted look on Lily's face. "If you'd rather go out, we could-"
Lily shook her head. "No," she said quickly, forcing a laugh. "No, don't be silly. Of course, we'll stay for the party. I mean… for all the trouble those boys are worth, they do know how to throw a good bash, don't they? It's fine." She dipped her quill back into the inkwell and went back to answering McGonagall's homework questions. Just then, the portrait swung open.
In came Potter and Black themselves, loudly, as usual, discussing the plans for the party that supposedly everyone in Gryffindor Tower had heard about, sans Lily. She watched with mild amusement as Sirius pulled bottle after bottle of Firewhiskey from a book back that did not look nearly large enough to fit all he had managed.
"Enough to spike the punch and then some, eh?" He grinned proudly at Potter.
"Merlin." Lily shook her head, laughing softly. "You two really can't go a day without committing a felony, can you?"
James smirked and gave a small shrug. "We're Marauders, it's what we do."
"Bollocks," Lily said, still smiling as she pointed to the overstuffed armchair across the room. "Remus is over there, reading and not causing any trouble. He's a Marauder as well, isn't he?"
Both James and Sirius exchanged a look before they howled with laughter.
"You think we should be more like Remus?" James chortled, nodding to his friend who was, in fact, sitting with his nose in a book.
"Remus is high right now, Evans." Sirius chuckled, eyeing his boyfriend with a knowing look as Lily's face fell and she stared at her fellow prefect in shock. "He's probably read the same bloody sentence in that book five times and still hasn't a clue what it said."
There was a loud groan from behind the large book Remus was holding and the werewolf let it fall into his lap. "More like twelve times, and I still haven't the slightest idea how to answer this bloody transfiguration homework." He rubbed his already bloodshot eyes.
Sirius snorted. "That would be because that's your potions textbook, Moony my love."
Remus frowned and turned the book over in his lap. "Oh for bloody- ugh. Fuck it. It's not due till Monday anyway." He tossed the book onto the table in front of him and stood up, stretching his arms over his head until something cracked loudly. "I'm bloody hungry. I'm going to the kitchens." He gave Sirius a significant look and the shorter boy grinned.
"Sorry, Prongsie. We'll be back in a bit to help set up, yeah?" Sirius shucked the book bag into James' arms, who looked slightly put off but sighed and waved him along. Sirius gave one last nod to the rest of them. "Ta ladies. See you all tonight." He then hurried off after Remus.
"See if you can at least bring up some pumpkin pastie while you're down there!" James called after them with a sigh. "Pete doesn't like them so, of course, he didn't get any. Always bloody thinking of his own stomach and no one else's…" he trailed off as Sirius and Remus were already gone.
The girls were all giggling at their antics when James turned back to face them. "Honestly, it's like those two can't keep their hands off each other for five damn minutes. They never used to be this bad…"
Lily frowned, something about the way Potter spoke was different. Sad, almost. He had never seemed to have an issue with his two closest friends dating before. She almost wanted to ask-
"Are you alright, James?" Mary beat her to it.
Potter's expression quickly changed back and he smiled charmingly at her. "Yes, of course. Sorry, just thinking of all I've got to get finished before tonight."
"Would you like some help?" Mary asked, placing her quill and ink back in her bag.
James' hand darted up to his hair. But it wasn't in that obnoxious purposeful way he usually did that drove Lily up the wall. He gave a little shrug, his eyes lingering on Mary's for just a moment longer than necessary. "Well sure, if you girls aren't too busy."
Marlene was already packing up her things. "Sorry, maybe later if you still need it. Dory and I actually have to stop by McGonagall's office. The shower in the girl's Quidditch lockers won't stop chanting Slytherin cheers ever since that last match we lost to them."
"It's doing it on purpose to get a rise out of us, I swear," Dorcas grumbled, throwing her bag over her shoulder and waiting for her girlfriend. "But we'll see you lot tonight!"
Lily stared between James and Mary for a moment, suddenly feeling very misplaced. "Er… I've actually got to finish this assignment… so I… I'll just be up in the dorm room then." She collected her things hurriedly. She had no idea why she felt so anxious, but the common room suddenly seemed stuffy and she quickly bolted towards the girl's dorm leaving behind a very confused James and Mary.
Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter... Don't worry there's still a lot to come. Anyway, you can find me on Instagram at Via889 . Fanfiction as well as my podcast's Instagram at themaraudersoliviasversion. You can find The Marauders (Olivias' Version) on Spotify and Anchor. I hope you check it out, it's pretty much just me and my friend being chaotic for 45min to an hour...
