Chapter 1: Grindelwald
The first broomstick to ever enter Minerva McGonagall's room was a dark mahogany Silver Streak and its owner wasn't going to make it the last much to McGonagall's dismay. It was a gloomy afternoon, the sky a dull gray blue with no clouds in sight. The ground was brittle and it a single leaf was left hanging on the skinny bare branches. It was the kind of day that made her want to sit by the fire,l and ignore anything to do with anyone. Unfortunately for her though she was in the middle of grading the third years particularly grueling midterm exams and was hoping to finish earlier to catch some daylight before it disappeared. She was just about to add the flourish to the 'E' on the top of Aviva Bond's diligently written exam when the boy had come zooming in, almost on purpose if she wasn't mistaken.
"JAMES CHARLES POTTER WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" she shouted diving out of the way instinctively before remembering she was a witch. She brandished her wand towards the chalkboard where he was going to crash and transfigured it to a jelly like consistency so the boy would simply bounce back. It occurred to her depending on how fast he was going he might bounce back into her and she braced for the impact.
James had barely a half second before crashing headfirst into the chalk board, but he still managed to turn his head and wave triumphantly to his Transfiguration professor. He braced himself for the hard collision but instead he felt himself bounce back once he hit the chalk board. Confused and slightly miffed that he wouldn't have a battle scar to show the others he sat up even more disappointed only to notice he had only knocked a stack of parchment, jar of ink and an unopened pack of luxury peacock feather quills. So much for total mayhem.
Professor McGonagall made her way towards James Potter pulling him upright by his collar and looking down at him sternly.
"Fancy seeing you here?" James managed still grinning. He had most definitely won the bet at least, however unheroic his crash was. Sirius owed him many, many chocolate frogs. He grinned wider now, and his Professor looked equally as annoyed at that.
"James Potter, you may recall that broomsticks are not allowed inside my classroom." His professor swooped down and seized his broom next before he could spare it another glance. "And I'll be taking this."
"But professor it's a new broom-" he insisted. He hadn't thought as far as what he would do once he got inside the tower. He made a mental note to decide how it was that he was going to get out once he got in-next time of course.
"Out Potter."
James pouted but left the room with a wide grin, and a weeks' worth of detentions.
"Time to pay up Sirius." James announced climbing through the portrait hole and pumping his fist to show the Gryffindor's who were waiting in anticipation.
"Go James!" someone was patting him on the back and James stood up straighter, liking the feeling of having everyone's attention on him. It fueled him. Breaking rules in general excited him. After-all rules were meant to be broken at least once or twice.
"Potter 12, McGonagall 6."
"Nice-add that to the list."
"What's next?"
"I didn't think you could pull it off," Frank grinned pulling him away from the crowd. "Now we'll definitely find the Grindelwald card!"
"If Sirius is up to his bet, that is." Remus added joining them, a parchment in his hand ticking of another mark under James's name. "Peter says he's locked himself in his room ever since you managed to fly through McGonagall's window."
They found a nervous Peter standing guard by the dormitory door.
"Peter," James started carefully eying the short dirty blond haired boy "Where's Sirius?"
Peter shook his head and mumbled. "I don't know."
"Peter." Frank moved forward swiftly. He was easily the largest out of them and Peter trembled quickly stepping out of the way. Remus swing the door open where Sirius was sitting upright on the bed, a mess of chocolate frogs lying around him. James and the others immediately noticed the lack of cards accompanying the wrappers and eyed him evenly.
"You at all the chocolate?!" Remus exclaimed faintly looking up at Sirius missing the entire point of the bet. "All the chocolate…"
"Impressed?" Sirius grinned at Remus who was looking in awe of the sheer amount of wrappers on the ground.
"Black, we won fair and square," Frank added stepping forward ready to fight, though he was the last person to ever actually fight in such a situation. "Now hand over the cards."
Sirius looked up at them sheepishly. "Oh, the cards." he grinned devilishly and paused making James uneasy. "About that."
James shook his head and asked carefully. "Come on now Sirius where are the cards? I won the bet." He gave his friend a smirk. "What, you're not ashamed that you lost to a Potter now, is it?"
Sirius to snap up. "Now now James- we Blacks don't cry over little things like this. And for the record I let you win- it easy to break into McGonagall's office-"
"Says the bloke who tried to last week." Frank laughed and Sirius gave him an irritated glance but continued. "As for the cards don't worry they're in the proper hands."
"Proper hands?" Frank repeated dumbly. "What do you mean?"
Remus who was crouched on the floor still looking solemnly at the chocolate frog wrappers around Sirius's bed looked up. "You didn't-tell me you didn't." He looked at Sirius nervous slightly intrigued and doubtful.
Sirius was heading towards the door now hands up in the air. "Oh now don't look at me like that Remus. I had to do the right thing. These cards, they-they were getting in the way of our friendship." He gave them an innocent look.
"Didn't what?" James asked looking at Remus. "What did you do?" He turned back to Sirius who was at the door now hand on the golden knob.
Frank looked livid following Sirius. James and Remus followed suit cornering the Black boy between themselves. "Sirius you better fess up and tell us what you've done with the cards before James and I do something."
"Yeah." James added. Turning to Frank he whispered. "What are we going to do exactly?"
Peter was wringing his hands by the door and Frank didn't answer. James decided he was going to have to step up and fix it himself. He was going to be the one to save the day, as usual.
"Sirius just tell us where the cards are." James sighed. "It's not like we were going to find Grindelwald anyways. It's even more ancient than Binns."
Sirius only laughed loudly. "Oh Jamesie, I think that's the least of your worries. She's even worse than Grindelwald and Binns combined."
James mouth hung open. Remus looked up apologetic. "I thought he was joking when I suggested it. He wasn't actually supposed to do it."
"Do. What?" James asked not being able to take it on any longer. "Where are the bloody cards?"
Peter sighed. "I told him not to do it. He made me go and give them to her. You know how she looks at you when she's mad-"
"Lily?" Frank cried breaking through the tension. "You gave them to Lily Evans?!"
James got a mental image of the red head greedily counting all his chocolate frogs' cards before throwing them into the fireplace and cackling evilly. Sirius turned the knob and quickly sped out the door, his laugh echoing into the room. Peter followed him and James fell to the ground. Not getting the cards was bad enough. But chocolate frog cards in the hands of Lily Evans was even worse. Lily Evans was a tyrant with freckles and red hair. She was the thing that caused James to run in the opposite direction in the halls. She was an absolute nightmare.
From day one she had annoyed him for some reason. The way she walked, the way she simply looked at him like he was nothing. He vividly remembered the first day of class when she had laughed with that creepy bloke Severus Snape and talked about unity between houses as if she wasn't a Gryffindor and as if befriending Severus, a Slytherin, wasn't a breach of contract for being a Gryffindor. She had not only joined hands with the enemy but became an enemy of the house itself. When he and Sirius had dropped a vial of minced wing-worms into Liam Carters cure for boils potion to see if it would explode or not, she immediately let Professor Slughorn know who took 25 points from them!
And now she had his chocolate frog cards. His cards! Imagine what she could do with them. He gulped.
"Come now-we're getting them back."
"For Grindelwald." Frank agreed.
"For Grindelwald." He nodded.
"And how are we going to do that?" Remus asked jumping over a gobstones game on the floor as he caught up with them. "We can't enter the girls dormitories remember?"
James paused. He had forgotten about the barrier charm in the girls dormitory.
"Why?" Peter asked
"It doesn't matter." James shook his head. "Who would want to go there anyways?"
"Us." Frank said. "We need to get those cards back."
"What are we going to do now?" Peter asked.
"Mate you can't say that after you handed them over to her." Frank said looking at Peter, arms folded.
"Sirius made me!" He whined. "I didn't want to."
"James?"
"I'm thinking!" He shook his head. The longer he waited, the more concerned he grew. What if she threw them out of vengeance? She hadn't exactly been on best terms with him since he tripped Severus a few time in the hall. To be fair it was Sirius who came up with the idea and James simply went along with it.
"Mars." He whispered, repeating it once more with conviction when he realized that he had a way in.
"What?"
"Mars? James we don't have Astronomy until third year." Remus told him matter of factly."
"No Mars is-point is we're getting those chocolate frog cards." He grinned.
Peter as slow as ever followed them confused. "How?"