Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail, and Prongs

Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail, and Prongs

Chapter Three:

James' Mistake

James yawned and stretched as he walked slowly down the grand staircase and towards the great hall for breakfast. He shook his head. "Moony's getting worse."

Sirius nodded. "There's no logical reason for it."

James stared at Sirius, disbelieving. "Since when are you one for logic?"

Sirius shrugged. "Since it puts my life and those of my friends in danger."

James nodded, pondering Sirius' response. It seemed to make enough sense. The fear for one's life was always a good reason to turn to logic. Even though, as he had said, Sirius had never been the person for logic.

Bored, Sirius glanced around the Great Hall. His eye was caught by a glimmer of red hair near the Gryffindor table. Apparently, James had seen it too. He looked unhappy.

"Don't worry, mate!" Sirius clapped his hand on James' back, his tone overly cheerful. "Wait until you see...."

Sirius faded off mid-sentence as he glanced over at the Slytherin table. Sure enough, the stream of white blonde still sat on the head of the person at the head of the table. This time, however, something was wrong. Lucius looked the same as ever. Exactly the same as ever. Somehow, something about the potion had gone wrong.

James hadn't been listening; he was still staring at the ruby colour of Lily's hair. She was speaking to her Ravenclaw friends. She was laughing. She seemed so happy, so free. She was glad, but James wasn't. He felt empty. He felt alone. That's how he had felt for the past four years.

As he watched his friend, Sirius became sad himself. He knew how much James adored Lily, and, somehow, he knew things would heal between them. Someday, but how long would James be able to survive against what he considered to be a cruel and unjust punishment? How long would he be able to watch Lily laugh without him, watch her cry, but not be able to offer a comforting hug? Although James was his best friend - and he would die for him - he was surprised that James had last this long. It had been four long years since James had spoken to Lily. Four long years.

"Come on, James," Sirius said finally. "Breakfast is getting cold."

James nodded slowly, as if emerging from a trance. He glumly followed Sirius down the last remaining stairs with an emotionless expression on his face.

As they sat down next to Peter, Sirius spoke again, "Give her time, James. She'll come through."

James tried to offer an appreciative grin, but failed. Peter sighed irritably. No girl is worth that much depression, he thought.

As the three boys began to pick at their food, Sirius grinned. "Morning, Marcia," he said, as the popular girl passed behind him. Her friends were with her, Lily included. James continued to stare glumly at his plate, not noticing Lily's presence. Marcia, naturally, ignored Sirius. He had promised he would leave her alone and he had already broken that promise. She wasn't going to encourage him.

James glanced up slowly as Lily brushed past. It was almost like slow motion. He watched her retreat and sighed again. Sirius spooned a forkful of food into his mouth. "She can't have been that cruel."

James didn't answer. Peter glared at Sirius, as if trying to say that, even if James disagreed, Lily was that cruel. Sirius scowled at the mousy boy. Peter shrugged.

Sirius tried to find another topic to continue conversation. Mostly, he wanted to find another topic to attempt to get James' mind off Lily. He knew James pretty much felt that he had drank a glass of lemonade and a glass of chocolate milk at the same time, and was barely living to tell the tale.

"I think we should talk to the Headmaster about Remus' condition," he said finally.

Peter and James stared blankly at their friend. "That would be like betraying him," said Peter.

Sirius shook his head. "It would be for his own good. I don't think any of us are anxious to see him kill himself while in that state."

James stared at his friends in shock. Deep inside, he knew Sirius was right, but also agreed with Peter's point. Remus was becoming a danger to himself, but to tell the Headmaster could cause Remus to get expelled if the wrong person were to hear. The three boys knew that the Headmaster wanted to keep Remus in the school as long as possible. The only students in the school that knew of his condition were James, Sirius, Peter, Lily, and, due to a dangerous prank Sirius had attempted to play the year before, Severus Snape. Lily had known first. She had uncovered the disease with his symptoms in her first year. Often, the cleverest witches are the Muggle-borns. She had been Remus' best friend through their first year, always sticking up for him as if he were a brother. Then, in an emotional night, she had told the three boys everything. That's how Sirius, James, and Peter befriended Lily and Remus. James sighed.

"I don't care if you disagree, quite frankly," Sirius snapped. "I'd do the same for both of you, and I'd want you to do the same for me."

Upon finishing his argument, Sirius turned to James. "At least eat something," he said.

"I'm not hungry, Sirius," James mumbled.

"Have some pumpkin juice."

"I'm not thirsty, either."

Sirius grumbled nonsense under his breath. "She's just a girl, James. It's not the end of the world. Besides, you need to keep your strength up for Quidditch."

"It's close enough to the end of the world," James disagreed. "I don't see how the day could get much worse."

As if on cue, Lucius, Crabbe, and Goyle stood and began to walk snobbily towards the grand staircase. Sirius tried to grin. "It just got worse, didn't it?"

James banged his head against the table. "Me and my big mouth."

"Well, look on the bright side!" Peter suggested.

"What 'bright side'?" James muttered.

"You see, what if the potion worked, but we got caught? Filch would have a field day with our detentions!" Peter paused to take a drink of his pumpkin juice before continuing. "You and Lily might have still been friends, but then you wouldn't be as close to the rest of us. And Sirius, he might have miraculously gotten Marcia to go with him to Hogsmeade, but then Winchester would have to beat the pulp out of him."

"You're coming from the point of view: 'No matter how bad things seem, they can always get worse', aren't you?" James asked.

"Precisely."

"Why didn't you just say that in the first place?"

"You wouldn't have listened."

"True," James said slowly. "Very true."

* * * * *

"History of Magic," Sirius exclaimed. "My favourite class."

"Oh, absolutely." James rolled his eyes.

Sirius shrugged. "Hey - I was being completely honest."

"You only enjoy History of Magic because it's the only class that you can work on practical jokes during."

"Not entirely," Sirius said. He received a cruel look from James and rephrased his answer. "I don't always work on practical jokes in History Magic. Sometimes I sleep."

"Case dismissed," James announced.

Sirius shook his head sadly. "We need to do something about Malfoy."

James turned to look behind him; Lucius was entertaining a group of Slytherins with a false tale. He glared at him. "We tried, Sirius. It just didn't work. We're doomed to tormentation."

"I don't understand," Sirius said. "The potion should've worked fine. What went wrong?"

James shrugged. "Who knows? It was an old recipe...maybe it wasn't accurate."

"Perhaps. I doubt it."

"It's okay, Sirius," James said, turning the corner into the classroom. "It wasn't a big deal."

Sirius opened his mouth to respond, but was distracted by his favourite Ravenclaw student who was sitting near the front of the class. He ran his fingers through his messy black hair and walked over to Marcia. James watched him go, but dared not to follow. Lily turned to watch Sirius approach, and James ducked and hid behind Peter.

"What are you doing?" Peter's tone resembled a mother talking to a child whose hand she had just caught in the cookie jar.

"Nothing," hissed James. "Just keep moving."

Peter rolled his eyes. "And people say that I hide behind you."

"Hush!" James whispered, giving Peter a little push towards his seat.

"Alright, I'm moving!"

"Thank you!"

As they sat down, Professor Binns floated in through the doorway. He made his way through students and towards the podium at the front of the classroom. He opened his book slowly and began to turn the pages. When he reached the page he wanted, he spoke.

"Class, please be seated and turn to page one-thousand ninety-three."

Sirius slid into a seat behind James and next to Peter. As Professor Binns began to drone on in his usual manor, Sirius prodded Peter in the shoulder.

"Ow!" Peter muttered, rubbing his shoulder.

"I didn't poke you that hard," Sirius pointed out.

"What do you want?" Peter asked in a bit of a crude manner.

"James has been acting odd."

"Are you telling me that you only noticed that this morning?"

"I've been noticing it. He's just particularly depressed today."

"What's your point?"

"We ought to do something to cheer him up."

"That's what a friend would do." Peter emphasized the word 'friend' to the point where Sirius wondered if he might be implying something.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Sirius asked. Before Peter could answer, Professor Binns spoke again, a bit louder then he had been before.

"Mister Black, would you mind reading to us from the fourth paragraph?"

"Yes, Professor!" Sirius answered in a mockingly obedient voice.

As Sirius read, Peter continued to doodle on his paper. He drew a Golden Snitch, which took the liberty of flying in circle all around his piece of parchment. He drew a niffler chasing the Snitch. Finally, he drew a black Lily flower being choked by a snake-like vine. He grinned as he looked at his creation.

Sirius poked Peter with the edge of the quill after he finished reading. Peter pulled his gaze away from his creations and turned to look at Sirius. "What this time?"

"Same thing," Sirius responded casually.

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"Come up with a plan of some sort."

"Me? Come up with a plan?" Peter laughed. "Why me? You are the criminal mastermind, not me."

"Oh," Sirius frowned. "That's right, isn't it?"

Peter rolled his eyes and returned to his drawing. Sirius surveyed the classroom. A few students, James included, had their heads down on their desks as if trying to sleep. A handful - including Lily Evans and Marcia Bitterspoon - were jotting down notes from Professor Binns' lesson. Most of the students were, like Peter, doodling. It seemed as if Sirius was the only one observing, and Professor Binns was the only one who didn't look completely and utterly bored.

"Peter!" Sirius hissed again.

"Can't you entertain yourself for just one class, Sirius?" Peter asked.

"Not today," Sirius admitted. "I'm completely brain dead. I can't even think of any entertaining pranks!"

Peter sighed and returned to his doodling. When Sirius Black, the King of Detention - couldn't think up a suitable plot, he was in trouble. When Sirius couldn't come up with a practical joke, the Marauders themselves were in trouble.

Sirius sighed and laid his head down on his desk. He pondered the different possibilities. He could set James and Lily up the old-fashioned Muggle way, but that seldom worked in the Muggle world. He groaned. Eighteen, and still unable to muster up a good matchmaking prank.

* * * * *

Another day passed and the full moon faded, allowing Remus back into the school. He was in a horrible state and was brought immediately to the hospital wing. His arms and legs were covered in gashes. Worst, he managed to scratch himself right across the face so that he had three deep gashes running across it. He was in agony.

September was full of welcome back homework, but October passed quickly, and November even faster. Remus' cuts began to heal, the ones on his face slowest of all. Even with Madame Parsay's assistance, the facial wounds were still scars when December came. It was on a rainy day near the beginning of December when Remus heard some terrible news on his way back from the infirmary.

"James, I have a bit of bad news," said Remus as he slunk into the half empty common room.

"It shouldn't be raining," Sirius grumbled, staring out the window into the dreary afternoon sky. "It should be snowing."

"Sirius, it's the second of December. It is never going to snow," James mumbled as he took Peter knight in the game of wizard chess they were playing. "And Remus, please, don't tell me. Creed just came in and told me that we're two games behind Slytherin in the competition for the Quidditch Cup. Who knows how we'll be able to practice and improve in this horrible weather? Creed says we're unlikely to catch up, and as Captain, I'm supposed to find a way! I'm under enough stress as it is, I don't need any more bad news."

"It's about Lily," Remus said hesitantly. "You might want to know."

Sirius stopped staring at the window and yelling at the rain long enough to give Remus a harsh look. James was frozen, as if he had never expected to hear Lily's name come from Remus' lips. Peter wasn't paying attention - he was losing the game of chess badly and was attempting to cheat, which James' pieces weren't too pleased with.

"What happened?" James asked in a calm tone he barely recognized to be his own.

Remus looked from James, to Peter, and then rested his gaze on Sirius. "James, do you remember how near the beginning of the school year, Sirius mentioned how he would never date Lily out if respect for you?"

James nodded slowly, so Remus continued. "Do you also remember how he said that the only person in the school probably lacking that respect would be Lucius Malfoy?"

James pounded his fist down on the table. The force was so intense that nearly half of the chess pieces fell over on their side. He ignored the loud complaints of his friends and grumbled a few foul words under his breath.

"I should have known it would come to this."

With that, he stomped out of the room and down towards the Great Hall.

"Smooth, Remus," Peter said sarcastically.

Remus scowled at Peter. "Better that he find out from me than Lucius."

Remus and Peter began to argue; only Sirius remained silent. Silence was a bit of an odd change for Sirius. It only occurred when he was deep in thought. Which was rare.

"Remus," he said softly, "whatever became of that potion?"

"Huh?" asked Remus, but then he caught himself. "Oh, right, the potion. I think it's still beneath one of the beds. Probably yours, yours tends to collect objects that will help it improve its fungus collection."

"And it's bloody murder to clean at the end of the term," Sirius agreed. "And what of the book?"

"Considering it was dusty and full of mildew, I'd say it's probably-"

"Under my bed," Sirius finished for him. "Thanks, Remus."

"Nothing to it," Remus responded. "May I ask why?"

"You can ask," Sirius said, "but I probably won't answer."

Remus accepted the response and turned back to his arguing with Peter. Sirius slunk up the stairs. When he reached his dorm, it took all his will to look under his bed.

"Hmm," he said to himself. "Not quite so bad as I expected."

He wound a couple spider webs around his wand and then wiped his wand on Peter's bed. He then hid himself behind a chair, bracing himself for what ever creature that might be living under there. "Lumos," he said.

As he spoke, the rays of light that flew out of his wand could've lit France. He shook his head as the light faded away.

"I'm a seventh year, and I still haven't mastered Lumos," he grumbled and impatiently brushed some hair out of his face. "Maybe Moony's right. Maybe I do need to worry about my grades."

"Indeed," a voice came from behind him and startled him. He jumped.

"That's not fair, Remus," he muttered.

"If life were fair, we'd all be bored," Remus announced. Peter shadowed him. Apparently, they had seen Sirius' creation of his own personal sun and had figured he had burnt himself to a crisp.

"I'm alive and well," Sirius announced sarcastically.

"Clearly." Remus rolled his eyes. "Honestly, Sirius, it's not that difficult. Watch."

Remus pulled out his wand and pointed it towards the space under Sirius' bunk. "Lumos!"

As he did so, his wand lit just enough to fill the entire space beneath Sirius' bed. Sirius grimaced. Peter rolled his eyes.

"That's gross," Sirius said.

"It's your bunk," Peter replied triumphantly.

Sirius rolled his eyes, and, guided by Remus' light, pulled out a small cauldron. The solution in the cauldron had turned a murky grey. Sirius reached underneath again and pulled out a dusty, leather bound book. As he did so, the book pushed a small tube out from beneath the bed. Remus picked it up and examined it.

"I know why the potion didn't work on Lucius," he announced.

"And why's that?" Asked Sirius as he flipped mercilessly through the ancient book.

"He forgot to put the hairs in." Remus dangled the tube in front of his friend.

Sirius grinned. "Looks like our potions master messed up!"

Peter rolled his eyes. "You'll never let him forget it, will you?"

Sirius grinned, but all three boys already knew the answer. When James was wrong, Sirius always felt more then obliged to make sure he knew. Especially as James was the best potions student of the four. Indeed, there would be no rest of the subject.