Over the next fortnight, Remus often would himself wondering if the boys he so often found in his company were his friends. He had never had a real friend before so it was somewhat hard to tell.

It wasn't until the middle of September that his suspicions were confirmed.

It was later at night, and curfew had just begun.

But, four Gryffindor first years were wide awake in their dormitory.

"Wait, how did you just do that?" James was asking Sirius Black, who had just performed a fairly cool bit of magic.

"Oh, it's not too hard once you know how. My mom taught me loads before I came to school." Sirius explained to the three boys opposite him.

"But isn't that illegal?" Peter squirmed.

"Peter..do you forget who is family is? The Blacks aren't exactly known for following the law." James explained.

"No offense. As always." James looked at Sirius.

"As always. None taken. Sirius quipped.

The pair had become undoubtedly best friends during the past two and a half weeks. Brothers would have probably been a better description.

Remus secretly hoped he fit in with these boys. He'd never voice this worry though.

James smiled mischievously.

"You guys wanna see something really cool?" He mused.

Remus and Peter nodded.

"You mean, you've been holding out on us? Let's see then?" Sirius laughed.

James snuck around to his trunk and opened it, digging through it. He was such a slob sometimes.

"Ah, got it. Here it is." James said, pulling out a silky looking cloak of some kind. Remus thought it looked like it was made of water, it flowed through his hands like it was weight.

Sirius swore.

"You have been holding out on us. That's a freaking invisibility cloak?!" Sirius barked, bounding off the bed, practically pouncing on James.

"Hey get off. I'm gonna let you see it." James laughed, swatting at Sirius.

"Wait, it really makes you invisible, or is it like a disillusionment charm?" Remus mused, profoundly intrigued.

"Oh, it does way more than just your regular old disillusionment charm will. That's a true cloak of invisibility. Super rare, practically unheard of in modern day." Sirius looked at the cloak with a reverence none of the boys had seen before.

"We could get up to some serious mischief with this thing." Sirius looked like Christmas had come early.

James eyes light up.

"Can we all fit underneath it?" Peter asked, squeaking with excitement.

"I don't know, let's find out." James beamed at them.

Together they all huddled underneath the cloak. They just fit, the very bottoms of their toes showed.

"I think this will work. Come on let's go on an adventure." James smiled.

"After curfew?" Peter questioned.

"Well, doing it before wouldn't be any fun." Sirius quipped.

Remus shrugged. They were invisible after all.

But, Peter looked slightly weary still.

"C'mon Pete. Don't worry. If we get caught I'll take the blame." Sirius explained.

"But, we could lose points?" Peter whispered.

"Yeah, and I earn twice as many back in classes." Sirius spat back.

This was true. Sirius was clearly far ahead of a lot of the class. James was naturally gifted, and also got a ton of points in classes.

Remus admired them both. He'd been studying every chance he got to stay on the same level as them. It certainly didn't come naturally, and he certainly hadn't gotten a head start like Sirius.

And, poor Peter. He was abysmal at nearly all of his subjects. He was only getting by, because the other three were helping him so much.

"Are you gonna come or not?" Sirius questioned.

James looked expectantly at him.

"We'll leave you here if you don't want to." James added.

Peter shook his head. "No I want to come. I'll stop making a fuss."

"Okay, it's settled then." Remus mediated.

The four of them crept slowly down the staircase and out the portrait hole. The Fat Lady was sleeping as they closed the door silently behind them.

"Where are we going exactly?" Remus questioned after Sirius seemed to be leading the way.

James nodded. "Yeah, what do you have in mind?"

"Oh you'll see. You'll love it." Sirius whispered.

Soon they were on the second floor.

"Figured we'd go cause a little havoc for ol Filtch." Sirius chuckled.

"Shh. He's coming." Remus whispered. And a few seconds later Filtch emerged around the corner up ahead and was walking right towards them."

Sirius pull out his wand and quickly did a silent spell.

Filtch began gagging immediately and wretched.

He mimed for the others to plug them noses.

They all did.

But Filtch sputtered and gasped. Overwhelmed by stench.

James had to cover Peter's mouth to stop him from laughing.

But then this made Peter not be able to breathe.

He thrashed and squeaked.

Filtch looked around wildly..

"Who's there? P-Peaves is that you? Show yourself." Filtch backed up but slipped and fell, the paintings on the walls around them came to life, all of them yelling at Filtch for disrupting their sleep.

Filtch got to his feet quickly but not gracefully.

He groaned looking around once more.

He looked livid. He threw all the things he had in his possession onto in the floor in rage before stomping off.

" Marauders, thieves, and wayward

children everywhere." Flitch groaned as he marched back Arthur corner once more.

Filtch's office door was open next to them and it was filled with all manner of objects.

Remus' eyes went wide and he stifled a laugh as the caretaker stumbled off.

James mouth hung open in silent laughter.

Sirius snickered. " sounds like a Flaming Hippogriff song."

"What is that?" Remus asked, slightly horrified.

James snickered.

"It's a band..you've never heard of them?" Sirius asked.

Remus shook his head.

"You're lucky I'm your friend, I've got a lot to teach you." Sirius shook his head in dismay.

Remus beamed.

"Ha, he called us marauders. How cool." James chuckled.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we were the wayward children in that scenario." Remus joked.

"Ah. Who cares. I'd rather be a marauder." Sirius quipped..

All the boys laughed.

"What's that he dropped there?" Peter pointed to a large and apparently blank piece of parchment.

Remus grabbed for it. It appeared once unfolded to be an old blank piece of parchment.

This was an odd thing for Filtch to have.

"Bring that with us, I want to look at that." Sirius whispered.

Remus agreed, it wasn't like it seemed valuable or anything. And Filtch had clearly not cared for it much.

Together they walked back to Gryffindor tower.

~~~~

Once back in the common room they were surprised to find it wasn't empty.

One of the other first years was sitting on the sofa crying. It was the red headed girl.

When they made it to the stairs, Remus whispered to the others.

"Maybe we should go check on her?" Remus asked.

Peter nodded along.

Sirius looked uneasy about this.

James shrugged. He indicated that Remus could go.

Remus pulled off the cloak and walked quietly over to the girl. He was pretty sure her name was Lily.

"L-Lily, right?" He questioned, when she looked up at him.

She looked embarrassed.

"Yeah?" She replied. "Your Remus?"

He nodded.

"A-are you okay? He asked, unsure.

The girl wiped her face.

She had what looked like a letter in her lap.

She sniffed a bit.

"It's nothing. It's just my-my sister?" Lily cried.

"Oh. Did she have an accident or something?" Remus gasped, sitting down in the armchair opposite of the girl.

Lily shook her head. "No, she's just not like us. She's a muggle. She hates me now." She admitted.

"Oh. I'm so sorry. That's terrible. But, doesn't she have her own school that she goes to?" He asked.

"Y-yeah, she does."

"But, she's unhappy still?" Remus continued

"She's just wishes she could come to school here too." Lilly shrugged.

"It is a cool school." Remus admitted.

Lily nodded.

"Just tell her how hard it is to get from one class to the next. She'll change her mind." Remus joked, kindly.

Lily chuckled at this.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. I still get lost." She admitted..

Remus snorted. "Yeah, me too."

He could hear the others in the stairwell whispering. It was distracting.

"Will you be alright?" Remus checked before getting up.

Lily nodded. "Yeah, thanks Remus."

"Anytime."

"C'mon ya softy. Let's go to bed, Looney" James joked, resting his head in his shoulder briefly as they ascended the stairs to their dorm..

Remus rolled his eyes. "I hate that name." He groaned.

Sirius barked, laughing.

"Well, maybe if you're really lucky one day it'll get updated. Sirius patted him, slinging his arms around his two friends.

Peter snorted behind them.

"James has a little crush I think." Sirius elbowed James playfully.

James rolled his eyes. "Evans is kinda cute, I was telling Sirius I clearly made the wrong choice not going over there with you to impress her." He grumbled.

"That wasn't really my intention." Remus chuckled. Lily seemed nice, but he was only interested in being her friend. Nothing more.

"She's a know it all." Sirius laughed as they got ready for bed.

"Ah, but she's a cute know it all." James quipped.

The other boys chuckled. Then they settled down into their beds.

That night Remus fell asleep with thoughts of the day dancing in his head. It had been the best day so far in his entire life. He'd write about it tomorrow morning in his journal.

They were the friends he had never knew he needed, or even wanted. They were the friends he found not when he wanted them, but when he needed them.

But, regardless of all that, They were his.