Time Is A Pretzel

Time Is a Pretzel

Chapter One:

Crashing

"Time, why you punish me?

Like a wave crashing into the shore,

You wash away my dreams.

Time, why you walk away?

Oh, oh…

Like a friend with somewhere to go,

You left me crying."

James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin were "casually strolling" along the grounds of Hogwarts, pondering the best way to hook up Peter and Moaning Myrtle, when they saw something plop into the lake.

"What was that?" whispered Peter.

"I dunno what 'that' was, but I do know my foot isn't the ground," Sirius hissed back.

James normally would've silenced them both, but a shrill scream erupted through the silence.

"What was that?" James said.

"Isn't that what I just said?"

"Shut-up, Peter. I'll go check it out." Sirius darted out from underneath the Invisibility Cloak and changed quickly into his trademark bear-sized dog. Prongs followed behind him.

Remus turned to Peter. "Up for a ride?" he asked.

Peter shrugged. "Beats walking." And with that, became the rat that clung to Remus's shoulder.

James caught up with Sirius, who was looking at a girl very curiously.

'What is it?' James asked Sirius through an Animagus' telepathic communication.

'Look at her robes!' he commanded. 'They've got the Gryffindor seal on them, and she's obviously not a first year, but I've never seen her before.'

'Me neither. So what do we do?'

There was silence between the two of them for a moment. Remus walked up behind them. "What I want to know is how she appeared out of thin air."

James flashed back to his human self quickly enough to say, "Maybe it was a *Chameleon Cloak*."

"Maybe," thought Remus out loud, "but then how was she revealed? Chameleon Cloaks are designed not to fall off."

Peter shivered on Remus's shoulder. 'Can was just get her inside? It's cold out here,' he pleaded to Sirius.

Sirius popped back to relate Peter's good sense with the others.

"You take her, Moony. You're the one with arms and the Invisibility Cloak," James commanded. "We can stay outside the Cloak until we get inside Hogwarts. And what's the point of changing carriers?"

"Fine," Remus grumbled. He threw the cloak behind his shoulders to make his arms more capable of holding her as Peter scurried off.

Remus tucked his hands under her neck and knees. Scooping her up as if she was a bag of potatoes, her body made an "M" shape over him. He hugged her to his chest, and James swept the cloak over them.

'Well… I guess being a werewolf has its advantages,' thought Remus. He had discovered that the brute strength of the wolf was accessible when he was human. Although it was only limited to half what he could manage as a wolf, it was still enough to make James and Sirius jealous. Peter merely dismissed it as another way his friends surpassed him.

Remus shifted the girl more into his grasp, as she was slipping. Her head lolled back, and her lips parted slightly. 'Finally!' he thought. 'I found someone else who knows about oral hygiene!' He mentally smacked himself, and was glad none of the other Marauders had heard that. He would have never heard the end of it.

He soon lost interest in her snow-white teeth and focused on her lips. Pink and full, with merely a tiny hint of lip gloss. Definitely not lipstick. Lipstick took away the virtue, whereas lip-gloss merely added shine, and kept them from drying up. And it didn't show up on your collar.

He'd listened to James and Sirius talk about it so many times that he could probably have listed properties about forty-two different varieties of make-up without really thinking. Which was just as well, because he'd never allow himself to have a girlfriend, though he couldn't help flirting with a few of the nicer ones. Remus grinned as he thought about flirting with this girl…

He shifted her even closer. 'She smells like… the forest after a morning rain,' he decided.

Talk about your poetic subconscience.

James shifted to open the door in front of them. Peter scurried up his leg, and Sirius shifted with him. Remus followed him, kicking the wall with his foot, a signal that he was inside. James closed the door silently behind them.

Sirius gestured them inside an empty classroom after Peter had checked it for occupants.

Remus moved deftly but hurriedly inside and dropped the girl on the couch. He unlaced the Cloak from around his neck. James looked at him as he looked at the other three humans.

"What do we do with her? We can't take her to the tower; we don't know who she is," Peter hissed.

Sirius shook his head and grinned. "Peter, you may be an idiot (Peter scoffed), but you don't waste time with small talk."

James took the neatly folded cloak Remus was offering him. "I have two ideas, if anyone wants to listen to them." Peter and Sirius stopped bickering long enough to acknowledge the fact that they were listening. "We can either go to Dumbledore, or we can leave her on the bench outside the Hospital Wing and let those nuns take care of her."

"Where am I?" whispered a voice from the couch. The Marauders spun around to look at the girl from nowhere. "And what are your names?"

Remus quickly knew that this girl was new. Everyone in Hogwarts knew the full name of the Marauders by the first week’s end.

"You're in Hogwarts, and I'm James Jeffrey Potter," said a tall, scrawny, messy, black-haired boy with sparkling sapphire eyes hidden behind round spectacles.

"I'm Sirius Orion Black," gaped the other tall, scrawny, black-haired boy with soft green-brown eyes. But this one was fuller in build, his hair was tame enough to be common, and he was definitely better looking.

'Not a bad specimen," thought No-Name amusedly.

"I'm Peter Pabulum Pettigrew," said the short, slightly chubby, sandy-haired boy. She didn't bother to notice the color of his eyes.

"And I'm Remus Jade Lupin," he said with a blush. The girl noticed his milk-chocolate eyes, his shaggy brown hair (but not unmanageable), his worn robes, his forehead creases, and slight tints of gray among his hair. She made a mental note to know this one better.

"And who are you? Huh?" Sirius retorted, obviously displeased that he had to explain himself to anyone, much less a fellow Gryffindor from what they could gather.

Remus could practically smell her temper flaring. She opened her mouth to snap back, but after a blank look crossed her face, she made her mouth smaller and whispered, "I don't know, really…"