The train ride wasn’t the same without Remus there. He was always had the logic input into our prank planning, and it was odd feeling have to think of all the other things other than the fun stuff. Of course he got the prefect’s badge; James and I spent most of our lives in detentions, or plotting what our next prank would be.
Peter was nowhere near prefect material either, as he was too forgetful. If he was a prefect it would be a nightmare, but he was a good friend, I’d give him that. He had always stuck by all of us, especially with what we had nearly perfected this summer to help Remus’ ‘furry little problem’, as James liked to put it.
When the train pulled into Hogsmeade, we were among the last to disembark from it. James, Peter and I waited for Remus, to finish patrolling the train, so we could update him on our plans for our prank of the year. Tomorrow’s breakfast had better be a good one, since I had spent at least two galleons in Zonkos for everything we needed. Even though we’d been over it enough times, Peter looked ready to faint like a girl.
“All you have to do, Peter, is get the house elves to put the potion in all the Slytherin drinks and then wait for the results, which should be pretty spectacular,” I reminded him. I laughed internally, imagining the Slytherin’s sour faces in reaction to it.
“Alright, but what if I get caught?” Peter asked, looking frightened for his life at the thought of a detention; I sometimes wondered why he got so scared, considering James and I were the joint kings of detention. Nothing too bad had happened to us. If anything, we enjoyed holding the title, as we considered it a reward for all our good work.
“That’s what we’ve got dear old Remus for, isn’t it? He’s a prefect, so he’s bound to be able to get you out of trouble,” James replied with a smile.
“James, I’m not really sure I’m meant to be abusing my position on the first night,” Remus said out of nowhere, his sudden appearance startling us. He looked slightly worried at the implications we were throwing around.
“Relax,” James said, patting Remus on the back. "That’s why Dumbledore probably made you one, so our detention record will go do.”
“Where did you come from, anyway?” I added. “I thought you’d still be helping the first years off the train.”
“Sirius, I’ve been standing here for the past five minutes. Honestly, you need to pay more attention.” Remus sounded rather annoyed. “Besides, I don’t think Dumbledore will appreciate me abusing my badge.” By the looks of it, he was taking his role as a prefect very seriously.
“Oh sorry, Moony,” I replied jovially, hoping to brighten his mood. If he didn’t lighten up soon, he would sink into depression.
My eyes scanned the platform, and I was surprised to find it completely deserted. The lamps on it had begun to flicker and it made the whole place feel a little eerie. I glanced over to the carriages and due to our idle dawdling, there was only one left.
“Quick guys, it’s the last carriage, and I don’t fancy walking all the way to Hogwarts on an empty stomach,” I said anxiously. Food was a very serious matter to me. To all of us in fact. It was almost as if a love of food was required of a Marauder.
The other boys must have also realised what a precarious situation we were in. We all grabbed our bags and legged it towards the carriage. It had been raining the previous day, so the ground was slippery underfoot. Unfortunately for James, his quidditch co-ordination skills weren’t as good as they were when flying, so he slipped and nearly collided with two girls who were already climbing in.
“Potter, for once in your life could you please stop acting like a little child? A three year old would be more mature than you,” spat out a voice who abused James on a regular basis.
“Hello Evans. How was your summer? You never replied to any of my letter!” James sounded like a child who had just been told they couldn’t go to Honeydukes. I often worried whether he would ever mature.
“Well, if you honestly think I had the time to reply to approximately five letters a day, you’re deluded,” Lily Evans retorted. “Besides, there wasn’t anything to reply to. All that your letters contained was mindless drivel.”
Oh Merlin, I thought to myself. James had been talking about how much he missed Lily over the summer for the entire train journey. He seemed to think if he sent a letter to her every day, he might be able to prove that he was actually serious about her and it wasn’t a joke. I didn't think it worked.
Not wanting to stand in the drizzly rain and listen to James and Evans argue for any longer, I climbed into the carriage. I felt sorry for Peter and Remus who were behind James, as their arguments could last for several hours. I think the record for the longest was three hours and forty seven minutes. I sincerly hoped that it wouldn't hold up for that long. These carriages didn't have any drivers anyway, so they probably wouldn't even wait for them.
I was greeted by an angry looking Thalia Longwood. Thalia and I had never really got on that well, considering we were both the respective best friends of Lily and James. The fact James and I crashed into her this morning while racing to the train, probably didn’t help much either.
“Black,” she said with a curt nod.
“Longwood. Sorry about earlier, by the way.” There. I had that off my conscience now.
“Don’t worry. I didn’t expect anything less from you. I see you’ve just exchanged the same courtesy to Lily now, anyway.” I could tell she was still bitter about what had happened. Honestly, girls really did hold grudges over pointless things.
She was angry with me for helping James in his efforts of gaining Lily, and I was annoyed with her for not persuading Lily that James was actually serious about wanting to go out with her.
I never really had much to do with her other than that. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her. She could be quite funny when she forgets it was me she was talking to. It was just that I never really got to know her. Our groups of friends never had much to do with one another.
“Anyway, why aren’t you two with the other?” I thought you girls were inseparable?” I asked in an attempt to continue the conversation. It was a better alternative to sitting in silence and listening to James and Lily finish their shouting match.
“Well, I was looking after Lily’s cat,” she said, indicating to the ball of grey fluff nestled in the furthest corner of the carriage. It was almost as if it was avoiding her. “Then Lily came back, and Calliope tried to run to her, but got lost in the process of doing that. So Lily and I just spent the past twenty minutes trying to find her in the darkness. The others decided not wait, as the rain had already started. Not that I blame them, to be honest. I’d much rather be warm and dry than be stuck in a carriage with the devil cat. And you,” she snickered.
“Hey, I thought I’d apologised already for that…” I was cut off midway due to the commotion James, Remus, Peter and Lily were causing while trying to climb into the carriage, all pushing and shoving in an attempt to be the first one in.
Lily succeeded first, probably due to James pushing her forwards, hoping that this will try and help him recover from his faux-pas earlier. I didn’t think it worked as the girls didn’t want to chat. We all spent the remainder of the journey sitting in a stony silence. Anytime one of us tried to speak, the girls responded with looks of annoyance. I finally resorted to tapping my fingers on the window.
As soon as we arrived at Hogwarts, Thalia and Lily practically ran out of the carriage in a bid to flee us. Wow, were we really that bad? Maybe they didn’t like the song I was tapping to. It was a Celestina Warbeck one, mind. I would have thought they would have liked it. I can remember seeing masses of squealing girls when she was in Diagon Alley one time. Even my mother, the cold hearted, Walburga Black, got swept up in it all.
I had forgotten all about argument by the time I approached the doors to the Great Hall. The thought of food had taken over my mind completely. However, we were so late that the first years and McGonagall were already lining up outside it. All the first years looked petrified, the silly things. All they had to do was sit on a stall and have a hat on their head. It wasn't that bad.
McGonagall was looking as stern as usual, and had a grim expression on her face, when she noticed our arrival. I would have thought a holiday would have cheered you up, I guess it wasn’t the case for her.
“Potter, Black, Lupin, Pettigrew. What is the meaning of this? You've just set a terrible example for the first years! You think it’s acceptable to turn up whenever you want? Mr Lupin, I expected better from you. Considering you’re now a prefect, we thought you would exert some of your more responsible influences onto your friends,.” McGonagall said, finally finishing her rant. Oh, I've missed you, Minnie.
“Sorry, Minnie. We just missed you so much over the summer, and wanted to have a quick catch up before our next Transfiguration lesson.” I earned a thumbs up from James and Peter and an annoyed look from Remus. That guy really needs to lighten up.
Remus cleared his throat. “What we mean to say Professor, is that James lost his school robes on the train. We were helping him look for them, as we knew you wouldn’t appreciate him turning up in muggle attire. This took a long time, and that’s the reason we were delayed. We really are sorry,” Remus said, trying to not get into trouble for not performing his prefect duties on the first day.
“Thank you, Mr Lupin. I see I don’t have to lose faith in you yet.” McGonagall turned her eyes to the rest of us. “Your friends, to my great dismay, haven’t changed their ways over the summer. Now get into the hall right away, unless you want to receive detentions for the entire first week,” she said, ending the conversation.
We knew McGonagall meant what she said, so we hurried into the hall. I mean, we tried to avoid detentions in the first week back; we did at least have some standards. McGonagall was lying about us being later either. Lily and Thalia were already seated at the far end of the Gryffindor table, and they were probably the last people to arrive before us. Oh well, we Marauders always had to arrive in style.
The sorting took forever, as usual. I didn’t see why they couldn't do it after we had eaten, as no one really cared about who gets into which house. Well, apart from when I was sorted. I could still vividly recall the awkward silence after the sorting hat pronounced I was in Gryffindor. Those looks my cousins Narcissa and Bellatrix sent me could have killed. I didn’t think my eleven year old self fully understood the gravity of the situation, as I merely laughed them off and happily scampered over to the Gryffindor table.
At least Andromeda was still nice to me that year. But, then again, she had been in her seventh year and had begun dating Ted Tonks, who was a muggleborn. When her parents found out, there was a family crisis, which resulted in her running away and eloping with him. Sometimes I thought about running away too. Andromeda seemed so much happier, now that she was away from the poisonous Black family.
I only paid attention to the last person, who was a timid looking girl. Once “Yew, Ella,” had been sorted into Ravenclaw and had trundled over to the table, it was finally time to eat. The best part of the evening, frankly. I always loved this part of magic. I could almost say it was the best part, when the food miraculously appeared out of nowhere. Moony brought up something about Gamp’s Law and how food couldn’t appear out of nowhere, but I paid no attention. It would just spoil my fun.
I immediately filled my plate with mashed and roasted potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, sausages, bacon, salmon fillets, chicken legs and carrots (I had to be healthy!), followed by servings of treacle tart and sticky toffee pudding for desert. It could be considered heavenly compared to the food at home. Our old house elf, Kreacher, strongly hated me, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he made it deliberately horrible. Or he could be untalented in the kitchen, but somehow the other option appeared to be a more realistic one.
Once I was fit to the burst, it was time for Dumbledore’s speech. It was the usual tedious talk of not going into the Forbidden Forest, not bringing in any of the objects on Filch's list and no magic in corridors.
For some funny reason, Dumbledore was looking at me and James in particular while mentioning all of these things. Honestly, who did he think we were? We were probably the most rule-abiding students out of anyone, well in the first week back at least. James winked at me at that part.
We all stumbled up the many stairs to the Gryffindor tower after the feat, I personally felt as if I could never eat for another decade. We were too full to talk properly, and the only think I managed to mutter, was promising that I would never, ever eat so much again.
As soon as we entered our dormitory, I collapsed onto my bed. I didn’t bother to unpack as I knew it would be futile, as I was too tired, and full up to do it. Instead, I let my mind drift in and out of consciousness. It was good to be home, I thought, while listening to the murmurs of the three other boys, as they unpacked their trunks.
Author Note: This has now been updated as well, thanks to my wonderful beta pixileanin! Did you like this chapter from Sirius' POV? You got to see more of the boys in this chapter, so how was that?
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