Winterstar

“OY! PRONGS!”

Sirius Black grinned as several residents of the tables near the front of the Great Hall turned toward the sound in shock, revealing themselves as first-years. He ran a hand through his hair, enjoying the effect it had on some of the female first-years, and sauntered toward the Gryffindor table, where a hand had shot up and was waving frantically.

He slid in beside James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. Remus greeted him with a smile, while James seemed occupied by something, not even lowering his hand until Sirius grabbed his elbow and forced his arm down. Sirius followed James's gaze until it fell on Peter. The fourth Marauder was determinedly stabbing away at his strawberries with a fork, but they seemed to be eluding its tines. Sirius glanced at James, who shrugged almost imperceptibly, eyes dancing.

“Who forgot about our table this year?” Sirius asked Lupin, who rolled his eyes. “You won’t believe this,” he said. “Fourth-years.” Every year, some unfortunate group of students sat, knowingly or not, at the table self-reserved by the Marauders. A very unfortunate group of students. With the exception of first-years, who were not yet considered “real” students by the four—they were seen more along the lines of minions, clumsy but useful—anyone caught at the Marauders’ table was in for an interesting morning.

With an air of great reluctance, Sirius got to his feet. “Well,” he said, sighing heavily but with an evil grin hovering around his mouth, “time to go show them the error of their ways.”

Remus, ever the cautious one, said, “Padfoot...”

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “Coming or not, Moony?”

James, who had been strangely silent during this exchange, sprang to his feet before Remus could reply. His face was lit like a beacon. “Lily!”

Remus grinned. Sirius looked over at their occupied table, then at James, and relented. James hadn’t seen Evans for an entire summer, after all, and, though he would never admit it, he counted on Padfoot and the others for moral support.

For a moment, he looked like he might really need it. Sirius couldn’t see Lily yet, but there was a dazzled expression in his best friend’s hazel eyes that he hadn’t seen before.

Lily Evans came into view, dragging someone behind her, and Sirius understood James’s expression. She had truly grown beautiful over the summer. Of course, to James she had been the loveliest thing on Earth since she was a freckled little first-year with braids and a gap between her teeth...Sirius grinned at the memory. Lily was now quite stunning with her green eyes and flowing dark-red hair; her face had matured and any trace of baby fat was gone. Sirius watched in amusement as James looked momentarily at a loss for words—since when had that ever happened?—and stared. Sirius clapped a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Go for it, mate.”

James snapped out of his trance. Ruffling his hair, he walked up to Lily, closely followed by Sirius. Remus and Peter turned to watch the exchange, the latter having given up on his enchanted strawberries. Lily looked quite intent on getting to the table, where her favorite breakfast food, pancakes with fruit, was being served. Her hair wasn’t even fixed, to Sirius’s surprise; after all, she was Head Girl, and it was the first day of term. He noticed the hair implements sticking out of her bag and one corner of his mouth went up.

James stopped in front of her, blocking her way. She ignored him and tried to move past, but he was standing in just the right spot and her book bag wouldn’t allow her to edge by. The girl behind her—Sirius didn’t think he’d seen her before—looked rather amused at the proceedings while simultaneously unsure of herself. He allowed himself half a second to study her—dark brown hair, features that were more striking than beautiful—before turning back to the exchange in front of him.

James cleared his throat, not his normal confident self. “Lily,” he said, trying to appear as mature as possible. “How did your summer go?”

“Save it, Potter,” Lily snapped, green eyes sparking with annoyance.

James looked hurt for a moment, but tried again. “Really, did you go see that new—”

“Like you care. Move, will you?” Lily was not in a good mood. Recognizing the danger signs, James backed off, protesting, “What? All I did was ask you a question!”

Lily glared at him and stopped, hands on her hips. “Would you move? I’m starving!”

Sirius popped his head around James, who was looking very dejected. “Now, now, Evans. Be nice to the Head Boy. He might dock points.” He grinned.

“Black, I swear—”

“And who’s this?” Completely ignoring a very annoyed Lily, he smiled at the girl behind her while simultaneously ushering a loudly protesting James back to his seat.

The stranger had been watching James and Lily and was now sending the former a sympathetic glance; startled at Sirius’s question, her eyes flickered upward to rest on his face. “Sorry, what did you say?”

For a second, Sirius stopped dead. He didn’t notice that Lily managed to move past him and sat glowering at a terrified Peter. Neither did he see that James inched away from her, not wishing to incur her wrath—which in the early morning could be terrible indeed—or that Remus was staring at him oddly. He was trying to convince his speech centers in his brain to work. Her eyes were incredible; gray-green with nearly charcoal rims and little flecks of gold, they seemed to gaze straight through him with the intelligence of a far older person—Dumbledore or McGonagall for instance—and there was a fathomless well of laughter hidden just behind the intelligence.

“Wha—oh, just basic introductions,” he managed, unconsciously running a hand through his hair.

“Oh...I’m Sabrina, Sabrina Godfrey. I’m sorry, I think I missed your name.” She extended her hand.

“Bond. James Bond.” He took her hand and shook it in a James-Bond-ish manner, smirking.

One eyebrow went up, and to Sirius’s delight, Sabrina...Godfrey? laughed and said, “Name and rank, soldier.” He opened his mouth to respond, when—

“Sirius!”

The Marauder in question turned to see his girlfriend coming down the aisle between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. He smiled at her and she slipped her hand into his. “Morning,” he said.

“Morning.” The petite, fair-haired girl turned to the newcomer. “What’s your name? I’m Katie Fleming.”

Sabrina smiled and extended her hand for the second time. Katie glanced at it; the other’s smile faltered a bit and she withdrew her hand. “I’m Sabrina Godfrey.”

“It’s nice to meet you. Are you...sixth-year?”

“Seventh-year. I’m in Gryffindor.” Sirius watched her expression; her smile looked genuine, but her eyes seemed to be gauging the girl in front of her, just as they had done to him moments before. He wondered why he hadn’t seen her last night in the Gryffindor common room, but his question was answered as she added, “I arrived just this morning.”

“Oh, sorry. I can’t tell ages well.” Katie smiled, then quickly looked up at Sirius, whose shoulder was level with the top of her head. “What happened to your table? I was looking for you all!” She glanced at Sabrina, who smiled somewhat awkwardly and said, “Nice to meet both of you.” She turned and went to sit beside Lily, who to the disgust of James was now chatting animatedly with Remus. Lily turned to her and spoke; Sabrina laughed and, making a face, said something that made Remus nearly choke on his pumpkin juice. Sirius couldn’t hear what was being said, and was trying to read Remus’s expression when there was a not-so-subtle tug on his elbow. He turned to see Katie looking annoyed, a bad sign. “Sorry, did you say something? It’s really loud in here, you know.”

Light brown eyes looked at him suspiciously. “I said, for the third time, what happened to your table?”

“Fourth-years. James had a good idea, though, we’ll use it tomorrow. Breakfast is almost over, there’s no point to do it now.”

“Well, come and sit down, it looks good.” Katie gently pushed him toward his customary spot beside James, and sat down on his right.

Peter was stabbing at his strawberries again. Sirius sighed, exasperated. “Prongs, just let Wormtail eat already.”

James looked highly indignant. “Me?”

“Yes,you. That sound’s driving me mad.”

James grinned. “Anything for you, my dear Padfoot.” He took out his wand and aimed it at Peter’s plate. “Finite Incantatem.” The strawberries immediately stopped moving, and Peter speared one with glee. Remus laughed as he began to cram them into his mouth as quickly as possible.