Balanced

The number of hexes that an average first year Gryffindor student knew wasn't all that high, unlike the number for an average Slytherin. Unfortunately, Sirius was anything but average. James had never been more glad that his best friend had been brought up on Gryffindor morals; if he's been brought up a Slytherin, Madam Pomfrey would have had to remove curse marks from him, Remus and Peter, rather than just hex ones.

It hadn't actually taken Sirius all that long to see the funny side, as he was now sitting on one of the beds in the hospital wing, laughing silently as Madam Pomfrey got rid of any traces. He would have laughed aloud, but McGonagall, who had found him about to murder them all, covered in feathers, was still standing there watching.

'Explain,' she demanded, the second Madam Pomfrey had finished with the boys. They all glanced at each other and decided wordlessly that Peter would be the best spokesperson: he looked innocent, was a hard working Hufflepuff and not as famous for trouble as Sirius and James.

'We're sorry, Professor,' he said in a small voice, staring at the floor. 'It was just a bit of a game really, we didn't mean any harm to anyone.' Peter was very good at this routine, James noted, although the excuse was not a brilliant one. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

'You know all too well that none of you are supposed to use magic out of lessons, unless it's an emergency.'

'Sorry,' said Peter, pathetically, sniffing a bit, still staring at the floor. Sirius looked as though he was fighting back laughter.

'This is, of course, not the first time you four have broken the rules, so I am not inclined to be lenient. Two detentions each and fifteen points from each of your houses. I hope I won't see anything like this in the future.'

'Yes, Professor,' they chorused. She gave them one last suspicious glance before ushering them out of the hospital wing.

Soon after the feather incident, Slytherin played Ravenclaw in the next Quidditch match. They won, of course, and didn't even need to cheat. The Ravenclaw team was particularly bad that year, and was currently in last place. It was mainly their Seeker's fault, but their Chasers weren't all that great either

*

'Look, she's getting better, but it's a long term thing,' said Remus, announcing he would be visiting his mother again in late February. 'I can't help it that she wants to see me.'

'You're always ill at the same time though, Remus,' said Peter.

'It's not my fault! Look, do you think I ask to get ill loads?' he asked irritably.

'Nope,' said James. 'Ravenclaws aren't like that. That's the sort of thing we do, just to piss off the nurses and doctors.' Remus gave him an annoyed look - he always had a bad temper when he was ill.

'Shut up,' he told James and turned back to his letter home.

'So polite,' said Sirius. 'We are all astounded by your wonderful manners and courtesy.' Remus gave him a dirty look too.

'You look so much like Snape, the resemblance is uncanny,' added Peter. He received round three of the evil glare. James considered trying to get a worse look, but he decided that Remus was probably already at breaking point and it wouldn't do him any good to go further until he was better at curses, hexes and jinxes, as well as defending himself. Instead, he got back to his own work, whistling 'Happy Birthday' once again.

James was disappointed to notice that their teachers had seemingly no idea that the Easter Holidays were supposed to be holidays. Because of their exams, the amount of work they were given was enormous and James found, to his annoyance, that he was running out of essays to copy from his text books. Remus went home for the first week of the holidays to spend some time with his family, but he said his mother was fine that time.

James' birthday came in the second week of the holiday. He mostly got sweets, chocolate and Dungbombs, something he had no objection to. He was absolutely amazed to find that Sirius hadn't hexed the Peppermint Toads he'd sent.

'You weren't scared, were you?' he asked his friend.

'Scared of what? That you'd hex me! Not bloody likely, don't you remember I'm a Gryffindor?'

'Then why didn't you hex these?' he said, gesturing to the toad Sirius had grabbed and was eating.

'Gryffindor fairness,' he replied. 'Unlike you, Remus and Peter, I do not take joy from ganging up on one person. If I'm going to hex people, I do it to everyone, and the best time for that is Christmas when you can do it to everyone.'

'Whatever you say, Sirius.'

'No need to inflict your untrustworthiness on me!' he said in mock horror.

'Does that even make sense?'

'I doubt it very much. Can I copy your Potions revision?' James tossed a bundle of parchment containing all his revision notes, copied from the textbook, Remus and Peter, to Sirius.

'OK, if you want to.'

In the weeks that followed Easter the teachers seemed to take the fact that they didn't die of overwork during the holidays as a sign that they could have even more homework every night and still manage to get it done. Remus was in a mess, trying to sort out what he had missed and forgotten to copy out; he had dozens of bits of parchment in no particular order, most of which were completely unnecessary. He also had to go home again to his great-grandfather's funeral. Sirius and James left everything until three days before the start of the exams, it wasn't exactly the most relaxing way of doing things, but they didn't care. Peter was the only one organized of the four and he helped Remus sort through his own notes as well as doing his own revision.

The exams weren't too bad, although James could quite easily have listed five hundred and forty three things he'd rather be doing. He considered himself lucky: he could understand and remember things easily; a gift that he and Sirius both shared, this was an incredibly useful ability for one such as himself who couldn't work for longer than five minutes.

*

'I'm going to die.' James chose to ignore the comment, he had better things to do than to try and be sympathetic. 'I'm not joking, I'm going to die.' This could get irritating. 'He's going to kill me, I'm going to die.'

'Well could you please do so quietly?' snapped James, annoyed. He was playing chess with himself and was currently losing, as Remus' comments kept throwing off his concentration.

'What's up?' asked Sirius, only just holding back the "now", as Remus had been moaning all week: exams were obviously not his thing.

'Potions,' replied Remus. 'I know I failed the practical.'

'If it's any comfort, then I know I failed Transfiguration,' put in Peter.

'And to comfort you even further:' added James. 'Sirius managed to burn water in Potions, last term.' Remus glanced expectantly at Sirius, as though expecting him to argue.

'What?' muttered Sirius. 'I did burn water! I'm very proud of that too.' Remus sighed and muttered something offensive under his breath, which Sirius chose to ignore.

They had only one day left of exams, James had a Charms practical and a History of Magic exam. Charms was fairly easy, he called them in one at a time to make two apples ballroom dance. James was unsure of how he did though, because the apple that seemed to be posing as a female, tripped up half-way through, however, it/she stood up again, made an apologetic, apple-type remark and continued dancing. His history exam was about as boring as the lessons, but James thought that he probably did OK.

Gryffindor played Ravenclaw at Quidditch that Saturday. Gryffindor won incredibly easily, which was no real surprise. It put Ravenclaw into last place for the cup though, unless one of the teams managed to somehow either lose points, or get disqualified before the end of term. The final would take place the week after, between Hufflepuff and Slytherin, who were currently winning, although they only had a thirty point lead.

On the day of the match, James was feeling fairly nervous, although probably not as bad as the players would be feeling. To lighten his mood, he let off a couple of Dungbombs in the Hufflepuff changing rooms before rushing into breakfast, late. McGonagall gave him a suspicious glance. Severus arrived five minutes after.

'Sev, would you do me a favour?' he asked, quietly.

'What?' asked Severus irritably; he wasn't really a morning person.

'When McGonagall discovers the Dungbombs in the Hufflepuff changing room, can you tell her that I was in the common room until a few minutes before you?' Severus considered it.

'A little immature,' he told James. 'I'd have thought you'd be able to think of something slightly less first-year, but, apparently not. Alright, I'll cover for you. But only if it doesn't get me in trouble.'

They soon headed out to the Quidditch match. Sirius insisted on sitting with the Slytherins, as James had sat with the Gryffindors for their matches. Severus gave him a disgusted look, but said nothing.

'Potter!' snapped McGonagall from behind, without warning. James jumped.

'Yes, Professor?' he asked, not-too-innocently.

'Don't give me that! Where were you before breakfast? You set those Dungbombs off, didn't you?'

'What Dungbombs, Professor?'

'The ones in the Hufflepuff changing room, which ones did you think? Where were you?' McGonagall had just made a big mistake, James decided: telling all the Slytherins that he had sent the Hufflepuffs some Dungbombs would put them all on his side so they would all vouch for his story.

'I was in the common room, Professor,' he said.

'Can anyone confirm that?'

'He was there until a few minutes before I left, Professor,' said Severus.

'I saw him,' said a Prefect who James had never spoken to before in his life. 'He was quite late leaving.' A third year girl also said she'd seen him. McGonagall finally accepted his story and stalked away. Although James was not the most popular Slytherin, he was very well known for his unorthodox behaviour and the majority of those who'd heard the accusation congratulated him.

'I can't believe you did that without my being there,' moaned Sirius, who, to the disgust of the Slytherins, was sitting with James. The Hufflepuff team soon emerged from their changing rooms, not looking very happy. 'You can almost see the stink waves coming off them, can't you?' he added and James nodded in agreement. He doubted Peter would be so amused, but he didn't really care.

'Welcome to the Quidditch final!' yelled Malcolm Lander. He didn't sound too pleased, apparently he couldn't take a joke. 'This one's between Hufflepuff and Slytherin.' Although everyone knew who was playing, assorted cheers and boos followed this, James wasn't sure whether to cheer for Slytherin, or boo for Hufflepuff. Listening to Sirius, next to him, he decided that doing both at the same time was impossible and sounded stupid.

'And Madam Hooch releases the balls, blows the whistle, and they're off!'

'He obviously believes,' James whispered to Sirius, 'that we can't see what's going on.'

'Obviously,' replied his friend, turning back to the game.

'Slytherin Chaser Callaway takes the Quaffle and zooms down the pitch and through the Hufflepuff Chasers and throws the Quaffle straight into the goal and he scores! Well done, Slytherin.' Lander didn't show quite the amount of enthusiasm he would have done had Hufflepuff scored.

'Useless team,' yelled Sirius, over the cheers from the Slytherin stands.

'They beat you,' replied James, smirking. Sirius poked his tongue out.

However, Hufflepuff then began to fight back: their Chasers were very good and they managed to equalize after five minutes, and quickly scored another. Although Lander showed no blatant favouritism, it was obvious who he supported - even if you didn't know that he was a Hufflepuff.

'And Callaway has the Quaffle again, he passes to Parker who is tackled by Davis of Hufflepuff. And Davis gets it!' James cursed, he had no idea what Parker was doing on the team because he was incapable of keeping the Quaffle for longer than about a second. 'Davis passes to Greenaway who passes back to Davis, and then to Castall who SCORES! The score is thirty, ten to Hufflepuff.' James decided that booing wasn't worth the effort.

Thankfully, Slytherin managed to get another goal fairly quickly, so they were only ten points down. One of the Beaters also hit one of their Chasers on the head with his club.

'And Slytherin is catching up! But wait! Have our Seekers seen the Snitch!?' James jumped to his feet and watched to two Seekers dive. Marian's brother: Judas Wilkes, a fifth year, played as Slytherin Seeker and he was slowly gaining speed and overtaking the Hufflepuff Seeker. James held his breath as the two neared the ground.

And then the Bludger came.

Wilkes was smashed off course in less than a second, leaving the path clear for Hufflepuff.

Damnit.

*

'They cheated! They must have done! Hufflepuff do not win at Quidditch!' said Severus, scowling.

'They'll probably win the house cup now!' muttered Julian.

James had been willing to appear a good winner in front of his friends, but in the common room he had to agree with all the others: it was just wrong for Hufflepuff to win. However, the idea of doing something about it seemed like far too much work, there would always be the next year. The others were all plotting revenge against the Hufflepuffs, but it wasn't to James' taste: everything suggested involved at least one curse or some illegal magic.

Warning Peter and the others of his house would probably be the nice thing to do, but James couldn't be bothered to do that, either. If Peter moaned about it, he'd just lie and say he had no idea that his housemates were plotting the demise of every single Hufflepuff.

What actually happened was rather pathetic. Every Hufflepuff on the team and Malcolm Lander were hit with one or more hexes the next day before breakfast. Fortunately, James had an alibi: he was busy setting off Dungbombs on Parker, the Slytherin Chaser who had messed up.

He had detention the next night, cleaning the Transfiguration classroom, along with all those involved in trying to revenge on the Hufflepuffs.

'That was a pretty pathetic way to get back at them,' he informed the others there. Severus and Julian were the youngest two involved, there were also quite a few older students. 'Very unoriginal too.'

'Who are you to lecture us?' asked one of the fifth years, sneering in the typical manner. 'You set off a couple of Dungbombs, if that's original then I dread to think what's not.' James just smiled pityingly.

'The Dungbomb will always be original, no matter how often it's used,' he said, using a rather Sirius-ish argument. He hit himself mentally - that was not good. The fifth year glared at him and got back to work.

The good thing about being uninvolved in the hexes on the Hufflepuffs, was that he got out earlier than them. The others found this incredibly annoying, when James slowly strolled out, making a few unhelpful remarks. He decided he should probably have learned more hexes, as no doubt they would begin to plot his murder once he left.

*

The exam results came the next day. James was glad to find that he hadn't failed anything, even Charms; his marks were all very high actually, above eighty percent. Sirius had somehow managed to pass Potions with a fairly high mark, much to the surprise of everyone, especially Severus, who had been telling Sirius that he would fail ever since their first lesson.

'How on earth did you pass?' Remus asked, annoyed. He hadn't exactly failed it, but he'd only just passed. 'I thought you were crap at Potions?'

'Just because I mess up in the lessons doesn't mean I can't do anything under exam conditions,' replied Sirius. 'Besides, my mother would skin me if I dared get less than seventy-five in anything. So, most unfortunately, I won't be dying just yet.'

'Most unfortunately,' agreed James.

Hufflepuff won the House Cup as well as the Quidditch one, of course. Slytherin came a most annoying second, although James was glad they managed to at least beat Gryffindor, and Ravenclaw. The feast was good too, the food certainly wasn't as revolting looking as it had been on Hallowe'en. Dumbledore stood up at the end to give some sort of boring speech:

'Well done to all of you. You've survived another school year. The Hufflepuffs have, as you can see-' he gestured to the disgustingly yellow banners decorating the walls and ceiling. 'Won the House Point Cup. Congratulations.' He began to clap and the Hufflepuffs cheered loudly. James didn't boo with the rest of his house, but he didn't cheer either. 'Let's hope next year will be as much fun as this one,' finished Dumbledore. Thankfully, he seemed to understand that most of the students wouldn't listen to a speech much longer than that.

*

On the train journey back, James allowed himself to forget his house for what seemed like the first time in ages. They spent most of the time playing Exploding Snap and they were all rather scorched by the end of it.

'You lot have to come and stay sometime,' Sirius offered. 'I'll send you an owl.'

'I think I'll be able to,' said Remus. 'But we'll probably have some relatives to visit during the holidays, so I'll have to see them.'

'I'll probably be allowed, and if I'm not, I'll come anyway. I hope Aunt Susan doesn't notice the owls.'

'How did you arrange for her to pick you up if she can't have owls?' asked Peter.

'I asked Brauhum that a while ago,' replied James. 'He said seeing as it was an exceptional circumstance then I could give them to him and he'd make sure they got through the Muggle post. I also told her to wait outside the station so she doesn't see me coming off Platform nine and three quarters.'

'Muggles,' muttered Sirius, exasperatedly.

'Don't you go acting like a Slytherin now,' said Remus.

'James is the only Slytherin here,' replied Sirius. James just grinned.

'Nice to see you've caught up, Sirius, I wondered when you'd realise.'

~*~

A/N

I know the Slytherin revenge is pretty pathetic, but they haven't had much practice at doing things like that, usually it's just curses and insults.

That's his first year done, I will, of course, be continuing into his second year next chapter. Thanks for reviews and to my betas.