The Marauders: Year 2

The abnormally tall man strode to the front of the classroom. "Well? Sit down then," he bellowed in a deep baritone voice.

The Marauders quickly slipped into their seats in the back of the classroom. Last year's Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Eugene Shacklebolt, had resigned from the position to go out in search of more practical experience. To replace him, Dumbledore had hired Raleigh Emerson, a very tall, very thin man who looked very much like a bowtruckle, with a disturbingly deep voice. The majority of the students were in agreement that the man was nuttters but knew his stuff.

"Wands out. Today we'll be studying boggarts. Who can tell me what a boggart is?" He rested his hand on top of a large box that had begun to rattle. Sirius looked over and saw that Peter and Remus had paled considerably. Last time a professor had started asking questions about a boxed creature, neither of them had seen daylight for weeks.

Severus Snape raised his hand. Emerson acknowledged him with a nod. "It's a shape shifter, sir. It will proceed to take the shape of whatever will frighten us most. They like dark, enclosed spaces such as cupboards and gaps below beds."

"Very good, Mr. Snape, ten points to Slytherin. Now perhaps you might tell me what sort of advantage we will have over it?"

"Well, there are a lot of us here. It won't know what to become immediately."

"Exactly, another five for Slytherin. Now everyone, wands out. You need to know the charm to banish the boggart and that is Riddikulus. Everyone now."

The class all proceeded to wave their wands and mutter the incantation.

"However, what will really finish a boggart off is laughter. Therefore, when you take your turn in facing the boggart you will need to find some way to make it appear humorous. In doing so, you will manage to defeat it. Right then, everyone up and in a line. Miss Longbottom if you might begin. I'll open the box..." Emerson stepped behind his desk and unlatched the large box.

Rebecca stepped up to meet the creature and shrieked in terror as the rest of the class burst into hysterical laughter. The boggart had turned into a mirror image of Rebecca wearing a long frilly dress, playing with her hair and putting on make-up.

"R-r-r-riddikulus!" She stammered and all of a sudden her hair turned into a fifties style beehive and her makeup took on a clown-like appearance. She began to laugh with the rest of the class and the boggart stepped back.

"Very good, Miss Longbottom. Miss Smith, then?"

Alice hesitantly took her friends place, her wand drawn and a look of determination on her face. A crocodile popped into place. A second later it began to tap dance and Alice smiled brightly as Tessa stepped forward. A large, black dog, foaming at the mouth appeared. Tessa actually jumped back a bit before managing to make it shrink into a Chihuahua. Lily walked up and there stood Dumbledore, expelling her from school.

The entire exercise had to be halted for a few moments while Alice and Rebecca chased after Lily when she bolted from the room in tears.

"Well what do you know, the Mudblood's too chicken to even handle a little boggart," Malfoy sneered.

"Shut it, Malfoy," Melissa snapped, whirling around to face him.

"Amazing to think though, isn't it? Everyone expects so much from perfect little Lily Evans, well I suspect with the coming time, if she's unable to handle something as simple as a boggart... perhaps I needn't be worrying about Mudblood's lasting for long anyway." The superior expression on his smug face was just too much.

Before even realizing what he was doing, James Potter stalked right up to Lucius Malfoy and swung hard, his fist connecting firmly with Malfoy's jaw. James leaned down over the dazed boy, a fire shining in his eyes. "She's worth ten of you Malfoy, and don't you ever forget it."

"Potter! Malfoy! Twenty points from each of your Houses. Someone help Mr. Malfoy to the Hospital Wing," Emerson was now towering over the two boys.

Narcissa and Bellatrix Black rushed forward and helped Malfoy up, fawning dreadfully over him and aided in supporting his weight to the door.

"Detention tonight, Mr. Potter. We'll discuss the details after class. You are all to behave now, not another outburst like that from any of you or it'll be one hundred points from each person involved. I'll be back in a moment." The professor stalked out of the room.

Melissa looked over at James who was nursing his hand, shaking her head. "Oh here, you big baby." She crossed over to him and said a quick spell, causing the swelling in his knuckles to go down. "I thought you hated Lily?"

"I do. But no one calls any Gryffindor a... you know."

"A Mudblood."

"Mel!" Tessa gasped.

"Oh for Merlin's sake, Tessa. It's just a word. You shouldn't have done that James..." she paused. "But that was one hell of a punch."

"Mel!"

"Maybe we're done with boggarts for the day, then," Peter said, clearly not too keen on facing whatever his biggest fear was.

"Oi, scared Nackle will shoot out of that trunk trying to fail you?" Sirius joked.

"That's not my worst nightmare, that's a living reality," Peter conceded. "I'm not sure what it'll be."

"Me either," said Melissa.

"Then how come you don't look as scared as I feel?"

Melissa shrugged. "No point in worrying over something I can't even properly worry about yet. And Emerson may be nuts, but he's not going to let anything happen to any of us."

At that point, the aforementioned professor strode back into the classroom with Rebecca, Alice and Lily in tow. "Well, who was next?"

"I'll go," Frank Longbottom said, stepping forward. A giant eyeball slid out of the box. A second later it deflated and the first Slytherin stepped forward. Snape. The boggart came out of the box and became... Snape. Unlike with Rebecca, there were no changes at all. Snape was looking at an exact replica of himself. The entire class watched as the real Severus Snape's jaw dropped open and he looked over to the teacher.

"I... I don't know how to make this funny," he spit out the last word, staring back horrified at the boggart.

Professor Emerson stepped forward, "Very well, step back then Mr. Snape. Mr. Nott, if you would?"

Frederick Nott stepped forward and the boggart morphed from Snape into a werewolf. James saw Melissa and Remus exchange a strange look while Nott tried unsuccessfully to make the hair fall off the werewolf. After a few more unsuccessful tries, he stepped back and Crabbe stood before the boggart. It turned into a giant, man eating cupcake. The entire class exploded into laughter and the boggart became confused before Crabbe even had to do anything. Goyle stepped up and was met face to face with a very tall, very cute bunny, which, to much of the classes surprise, he made bounce like a ball and burst into laughter at.

There was a moment's hesitation before Peter walked up to the boggart and it turned into a full grown, vicious acromantula. Peter shrieked and jumped back before regaining himself. The acromantula's legs fell off and turned the color of a football with the black and white pattern. Several of the Muggle born students chuckled as Peter returned to his friends, a triumphant smile on his face.

Sirius stepped up to the box with a cocky grin on his face that vanished faster than you could say 'quidditch' when a large cow made its way out of the box. The Marauders and Lily were in hysterics laughing and the rest of the class just looked very confused, a few moments later though, Sirius had successfully managed to banish the boggart.

Striding over to the box as though he didn't have a care in the world, James Potter walked right up to the boggart and waited for it to change. When he did, his gasp was completely inaudible as the entire class was doing the same thing. At his feet lay a clearly dead Sirius Black. There were pools of blood around various appendages and his eyes were staring unseeingly into the ceiling.

James backed up. "No... n-n-no! R-r-rid-dik-riddikulus!" But his incantation was weak and instead, he boggart just changed from one horrifying sight to another. With a sharp crack, Sirius's corpse disappeared and was replaced by Remus's. There was no blood this time, but from the odd angle his neck was lying at... James backed father away from the boggart until be smacked into the classroom wall. "R-r-riddikulus!" He closed his eyes and heard another crack, but he knew he hadn't been successful and he was sure that someone else- Peter? His mother? His father?- would be lying on the ground. Sure enough, there lay Peter, his head completely severed from his body. James moaned and collapsed against the wall. He looked up and saw Professor Emerson walking towards him. No. No! I can do this without his help! It's just a boggart. None of this is real. I don't need to make it funny, just say the bloody incantation and laugh, James. Do it this instant, you sodding git. You already look like an idiot. He raised his wand and glared at Peter's corpse. "Riddikulus!" He bellowed at the top of his lungs and a second later the corpse was gone and in its place was the boggart getting ready to change back.

James barely noticed when Remus jumped in front of him and the boggart turned into a large, silver orb. A second later the orb appeared to have a large bite taken out of it and it was gone. Remus and James were both back with the other two Marauders and Melissa was standing in front of... Melissa.

The exact same thing that had happened to Severus Snape was now occurring to Melissa Denezyuk. She was staring wide eyed at herself shaking her head. Finally she narrowed her eyes and mumbled, "Riddikulus!" Her alter ego began to can-can and the ensuing laughter caused it to disappear.

A Slytherin whose name James couldn't quite recall stepped up and the boggart became a large, ugly toad. Then it was a vampire. And then a hag. And then they were done and dismissed.

The other three Marauder's gave James several very odd looks as he walked up to Emerson's desk to receive his detention.

Emerson looked him over and offered him a piece of chocolate. James chewed on the morsel as Emerson dished out his punishment.

"I'd like you to help Madame Pince shelve books for an hour after supper this evening."

"And then?"

"That's all Mr. Potter. You may go now. Just be warned, I won't be lenient next time."

"No sir, of course not."

James ran for the door, not entirely excited at facing the friends he'd just killed with his own mind, but that prospect was better than hanging around and receiving a far worse punishment.

~~*~~

"Well... ah," Sirius tried to break the uncomfortable silence that encased the four Marauders as they sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. "Oh, come on mates. So James worries about us? If you think about it, that's a rather nice gesture, isn't it then? Bloody hell, it's the Halloween feast. We've been like this all day, now it's time to knock off and go back to normal."

"Right," Remus muttered.

"Sure," Peter said quietly.

"Oh bloody hell, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to kill any of you lot!" James finally gasped exasperated.

Finally Peter looked up at him and looked him straight in the eye, "Why are you scared we'll die?"

Remus and Sirius both turned to look at James who blushed bright red. "Dunno. Maybe... maybe this Voldemort business freaked me out more than I initially thought."

Remus sighed, "Well then. If it's about that... I'm sure we'll all be fine. There haven't been anymore deaths since last June and they're still not even sure that he kill them. The McGonagalls. Well, you know."

James just shrugged. "Can we just drop it? Look, I don't tend to spend my days worry about your demises, really. It just... must've been somewhere in the back of my head and that's what the boggart locked onto. I don't know. There were definitely weirder things, like Snape and Mel. What was that all about? Anyway... can we change the subject?"

The group sat and ate in silence for a bit until Peter looked up with a bit of a smile playing on his lips. "So, Sirius..." He paused until he had his attention. "Moooooo?"

Remus and James burst into laughter and a moment later Peter was picked a bunch of peas out of his hair while chuckling madly.

~~*~~

"Oi, are you two alright?" Peter yelled into the small bathroom from his bed. From what he could tell, it was still very early.

"Would you great prats shut up?" roared Remus.

"We're fine. Just fine," Sirius yelled back cheerily. "That's right, Jamesy boy, get it all up."

"Get it all up?" Frank Longbottom muttered from his bed. "Are you sick James? You want one of us to get Madame Pomfrey?"

"No," a hoarse reply that sounded vaguely like James came back. "No, I'm just-" A very loud, disgusting and unmistakable sound of vomit crashing into a toilet met the ears of the other three boys. "-peachy," he croaked.

Peter rolled out of bed and made his way to the bathroom. James was resting his head against a toilet and Sirius had plopped a sopping wet washcloth on James's neck. Peter picked it up to wring it out a bit and realize it was very hot. "It's supposed to be a damp, cold cloth, Seer."

Sirius's mouth made a small 'o' as Peter crossed over and ran the washcloth under cold water before replacing it on James's neck.

"Do you need Madame Pomfrey, James? One of us will go get her," Peter offered quietly and looked up to see Remus and Frank standing in the doorway.

James shook his head softly and looked embarrassed. He began to stand up and instead dove back towards the toilet, proceeding to finish emptying the contents of his stomach into the bowl. After wiping his mouth on the cloth, he stood up and grinned sheepishly at all the others. "Nerves. It's just nerves."

The other four all looked at him as though he was mad.

"First quidditch game this morning. Actually, I'd better get down to the Great Hall. Uh, thanks guys." His face was flushed as he crossed back into the bedchamber and pulled out his quidditch robes. Remus, Frank and Sirius quickly collapsed back into bed, but Peter decided to accompany James down to the Great Hall.

"You know you'll do fine, James. You're a great Chaser," Peter said.

"Yea, I know... don't tell about this morning, would you? Stupid, I know," James muttered.

"Like Hogwarts would believe me if I told anyone that the great James Potter actually gets nervous sometimes? Likely, I'm sure," Peter scoffed.

James grinned at him.

"Remus is getting sicker again, did you notice? He really never is entirely healthy, I don't think," Peter commented trying to distract James.

"I thought we've been over that if he isn't, then it's his business."

"You know, for someone who worries so much about his friends, you don't seem to be overly concerned when one is actually ill."

"I am. I'm just I'm pretty sure there's nothing any of us can do about it."

"Well, how do we know unless he won't tell us?"

"Sometimes you just don't want to tell people things. Like spending an hour tossing up everything you've ever eaten, that would suck if that became common knowledge, as far as I'm concerned."

"Yes, but all the Marauders and Frank know that that's how you spent your morning and we don't really care. We were only worried about you and then we tried to help you, why wouldn't Remus want us to help him?"

"Probably because we can't."

"You know what's wrong with him, don't you?"

"What?"

"You're not worried because you know what's wrong with him."

"I don't know, I've just got ideas..."

"Such as."

"I'd rather not."

"Git."

"Prat."

The boys grinned at one another.

"Fine then. So what was up with his boggart? Who's scared of the moon? Really now."

James blanched. He really hadn't expected anyone to pick up on what the silvery orb had been. That class, while absolutely horrifying, had been quite informative. Seeing Remus's deepest fear only verified what James had already been pretty certain of, but the glance between Remus and Melissa when Nott had picked a werewolf... he wouldn't tell her and not them, would he?

"I mean... the only thing I could think of that would be scared of the moon would be a werewolf, and it's not as though Remus is one of them," Peter continued.

James gasped. "What did you say?"

"I said, it's not as-" Peter stopped short. "Surely you don't think Remus is a-"

He was stopped short when James clamped a hand over his mouth. "Listen, what I think or don't think, doesn't matter and just suppose he were, I'm absolutely certain he wouldn't want it broadcasted around the school." James let go of Peter.

Gaping at his friend, Peter stuttered out, "That- that is what you think, isn't it?"

James closed his eyes for a second. He'd wanted more proof before he brought up his idea to the others, but it seemed like he wasn't going to get that option. He nodded and heard Peter gasp.

"But werewolves are dangerous! Remus isn't dangerous! He... he can't be a-," Peter paused and lowered his voice even more, "-a dark creature."

"Listen," James whirled and looked him right in the face. "Don't tell Sirius yet. Or Remus, I think he'd just get mad. We need... Sirius you know, he overreacts, we need some sort of... plan. I'll come up with it, just don't tell anyone, Pete. Understand? Absolutely no one."

Peter looked up at his taller friend, "I promise. I'll keep your secret."

"Good," James looked relieved and the two walked the rest of the way to the Great Hall in a companionable silence.

~~*~~

"... Bagman, Whimple and Alderton!"

The voice of the Hufflepuff burst across the stadiums. It was a well known fact that Agatha Chubb was one of the quietest, hard workers at Hogwarts, but put her near a Quidditch pitch and you'll get a thoroughly interesting and descriptive announcer.

"And now this year's Gryffindor line up! Beamish, Vance, McKinnon, Bell, Longbottom, Potter and Bell! This year's team hosts the largest amount of new players of all four Houses. Let's hope Bell, Bell and Beamish managed to fill those four spots well!"

Peter, Remus and Sirius were crowded in the stands with the rest of the Gryffindors for the first match of the Quidditch season. Sirius and Peter were pressed up in front of the crowd, already hollering for James. Meanwhile, Remus had already pulled out a book and was settling in for what could be a long, dull afternoon.

"And Hufflepuff is in possession. Oi, watch it there Whimple! Nearly took off McKinnons head and might I add, what a lovely head it is!"

"Chubb!"

"Sorry Professor Sprout, I only call them as I see them. Back to the game, Merlin! The Hufflepuff Chaser takes a bludger to the head and... and Potter's got the quaffle! He's heading for Alderton and, would you look at that! He clear rolled his broom midair to avoid that bludger. Nice save. He's closing in."

Remus took his head out of his book and began to peer out at the pitch. He could see a single red figure sailing towards one of the goal posts. A moment later the crowd erupted as-

"And Potter scores the first goal of the game! Nice find, Bell!"

The game was fast and furious. In ten minutes Gryffindor was up by two hundred points. Between James, Rebecca and Margaret, the Hufflepuff's didn't stand a chance. Just when the Gryffindor's thought the game couldn't get any better, Peter Bell went into a steep dive and snatched the snitch right out from in front of the Hufflepuff Seeker's eyes.

The stands went wild.

Sirius nearly leapt out of the stands and clear onto the pitch in his excitement, but Peter and Remus managed to guide him down the steps and over towards James, who was standing with the rest of the team, a dopey grin of sheer happiness plastered across his face.

"We won," James said as he walked over to the Marauders.

"Well duh," Peter said.

"No, you don't seem to understand... we won," James said again, very calmly.

"Right, James," Remus said as they joined the throng heading for the castle.

"No, no, no," the messy haired boy repeated once more, decided louder. "We won!"

Sirius, who had been doing an insane little jig, stopped and looked up at his friend, replying with a very solemn, "Why yes, we did win."

James nodded at him and the two boys began to do the strange little jig.

"Sweet Merlin, are they going to do that all night?" Remus asked Peter.

"We'll have to keep them away from the sugar," Peter replied as they entered the castle.

"Definitely."

~~*~~

Sirius paused, his arm raised in midair holding an apple, to snort. "Well that must've been an odd shock."

"Interesting letter, Seer?" James inquired peering over his friend's shoulder.

"From Andie," Sirius replied, his eyes never leaving the letter.

"Andromeda?"

He nodded and put the letter down next to his lunch.

"How is she?" Remus inquired.

"Pregnant."

"Good for her," Peter cheered, looking up from the parchment he was rushing to finish for Charms.

"But how is that an odd shock, wouldn't you expect that if you're married?" James looked at his best friend with a rather amused expression on his countenance.

"Ah, no, that's not it," Sirius said as he took another bite of his apple. "She's been living as a Muggle, this Ted bloke never knew she was a witch. Thought she just went to some boarding school and I don't think he ever met anyone in our family. But when she got pregnant, she thought she should tell him. You know, since the baby could be magical, too."

"He didn't take it well?" James said, the amused look dropping from his face. All witches and wizards were warned from an early age that Muggles weren't usually very receptive to magic.

Sirius snorted again, "The opposite actually. From what her letter says, that kid has got a great chance at being a witch or a wizard. Ted graduated from the Salem Institute of Magic three years ago."

James jaw dropped, "So he was pretending to be a Muggle, too?" He burst into laughter, "Well what are the odds of that?!?"

Sirius shrugged and grinned. "Well, at any rate, they're both pretty happy and Andie sounds excited that she's going to be a mom. And that she can stop doing dishes the Muggle way."

"I can understand that," Peter agreed.

"Oh bother," Remus said, glancing over to the entrance to the Great Hall. Standing in the doorway, levitating a large trunk, was Rebecca Longbottom with a rather annoyed expression on her face. She scanned the Hall furiously and her eyes stopped on the Marauders. "What did you do to her?"

"Ah, er... nothing," James said as he slid under the table and began crawling towards the exit. "But if you could distract her for us, we'd appreciate the head start," he muttered from under the table.

"Us! Us?" Remus mumbled and then noticed that the spot Sirius had been occupying a moment ago was now vacant. He turned to Peter, "Any idea what she's about to go off about?"

Peter shook his head.

"Then any idea why she's got a bloody trunk with her?"

Peter shook his head again.

"Right then." Remus grinned cheerily and looked up at the angry female now stationed with her hands on her hips right in front of him.

"Fix this," she said, gesturing to the trunk.

"Excuse me?" Peter asked with an innocent look on his face, perhaps too innocent.

At that moment, something inside the trunk gave a mighty thump. Rebecca narrowed her glare even more.

"Would one of your bloody gits be kind enough to let my brother out of his trunk?"

Remus and Peter's eyes shot open in shock, which, even in her angered state, Rebecca noticed. "Ah, I see. So you two aren't the bloody gits. It's the other two. Still... can you undo their handiwork?"

Remus slid under the table and pulled himself back up on the other side. He pulled out his wand and began to work on the trunk. When a simple unlocking charm didn't work, he began to examine the box.

"What did Frank do to get him shoved in his trunk?" Peter asked Rebecca.

"You're implying I can hear him through it. All I can understand are muffled shouts and the thuds." Her hands were still on her hips.

"Ah, oh alright then," Remus said more to himself than the others. "Waddiwasi." A small piece of clay shot out of the lock and onto the table. "Alohomora." The top popped open and Frank Longbottom, with his skin such a bright shade of pink it was nearly glowing, shot out of the trunk.

"Potter! Black!" he roared and then looked around. He paused for a second and blinked, rather confused. "This isn't the dormitory."

"You're right about that Frank," Peter commented, earning him a glare that was identical to Rebecca's.

"Why were you in that trunk?" Remus and Rebecca asked at the same time.

"I hid their texts for classes this afternoon. A bit of revenge for when they turned Arthur into a tree stump last week," Frank replied quietly. Then he held up his hands to Remus and Peter, "I admit defeat. The Marauder's win. Just leave my toad alone in the future, deal?"

Remus, biting back his laughter as he recalled the strange accident that ended with a very green tree stump growing roots into their dormitory floor, readily agreed.