Up to No Good

Chapter Two: Many Meetings (and Lots of Classes)

When the boys woke up the next day, they got dressed hurriedly and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. The five girls were already sitting there, chatting, and the three boys went over and joined them. They introduced themselves - they hadn't really got around to talking the day before. Apart from Anne O'Reilly, who they already knew, there were Magdalene Millstone, Lucy Hicks, Faith Morgan and Aglaia Warrington.

When the boys sat down next to them, they were just discussing their families. It turned out that Lucy and Magdalene were Muggle-born, Faith was half-and half, and the other two were from all-magical families. Aglaia turned to the boys. "How about you?" she asked.

"I'm all magic," said James. "My parents both were at Hogwarts, and my brother, too. One of my grandmothers was Muggle-born, though."

Sirius smiled sarcastically. "I think Snape would approve of you family tree, Potter," he teased, but when James looked annoyed, he went on, "Not that it matters anyway. I'm half-and-half, my mum was a witch, but my dad is a Muggle. He's pretty cool, though, he knows so many tricks that he can make people believe he's a wizard, for a while at least. He works in a circus, you know," he added, proudly.

"He's a conjurer?" asked Lucy, disbelievingly. Sirius laughed and his eyes twinkled. "No, he's an animal trainer. Tames lions and tigers, you know, one of those frightfully good-looking men who appear in the arena with bare chest, making all the women swoon... I got my good looks from him, they say," he finished, managing to keep a straight face while the girls giggled and James and Peter snorted into their plates.

"How about you?" said Aglaia, turning to Peter. He blushed. "I'm all magic," he mumbled, and then choked on the piece of toast he'd just been chewing.

Faith looked at her watch and started. "Oh my god, look at the time! We should get going, or we'll be too late for Transfiguration!"

Hurriedly, they all snatched up their bags and left, trying to memorize the corridors and staircases and the statues and portraits they passed. They arrived at their classroom just in time, and were just sitting down when Professor McGonagall entered.

Transfiguration looked like a lot of hard work. When they started trying to turn matches into needles after a lot of note-taking and copying of diagrams and formulas, hardly anyone made anything happen. Sirius soon lost his temper and made his match split into four splinters, but apart from him, only James and Anne had managed to turn their match into something vaguely resembling a needle. Magdalene had managed to make it lose its edges, but that was all.

Peter's match looked exactly the same as it had been at the beginning of the lesson, and he looked extremely disappointed. Sirius tried to cheer him up by showing him his splinters, but he only smiled weakly. "At least you made something happen," he said.

Their next lesson was Potions, together with the Slytherins. The teacher, Professor Blotch, was a tall, extremely thin old wizard with a hawk's nose and piercing eyes. The students were quite scared of him at first, before he started to speak with a soft, melodious voice. He didn't talk much, but only told them about what they were going to learn that year, and he warned them to be careful.

"Potions," he said, "is one of the most difficult subjects you're learning this year. It can help you tremendously in all sorts of situation, more than charms and spells, even. It is absolutely necessary that you are extremely careful while mixing a potion, though, or anything could happen. You don't need to have a particular talent for this subject, you just need to be very careful. If you are unsure about what you're supposed to do, please ask me for help before blowing up the classroom."

The students all smiled apprehensively, and James noticed how much happier Peter looked after this introduction. He looked almost eager to get started. James glanced over at the Slytherins. Severus was listening to Blotch's explanations with a hungry glow in his eyes, absorbing every bit of information. James wondered if he was really such an unpleasant person as he had started to think on the train, when suddenly Snape became aware of his gaze, half turned around and shot him a look of extreme dislike. James quickly looked away, following Blotch's movements as he showed them how to slice a shrivelfig correctly.

~***~

After a boring History of Magic lesson with Professor Binns (a ghost) and a delicious lunch, the Gryffindors had their first Charms lesson. This class was taught by a white-haired old witch, Professor Fairbanks. She seemed a bit confused and kept forgetting what she had been about to say, but the lesson was very interesting nonetheless. She started by showing them how to hold their wands correctly, and when they had all managed that, they learnt their first simple spell, the Torch Charm, which made a beam of light shine from the tip of their wands if they said Lumos and which was 'turned off' by saying Nox. It was quite easy, and although some students had a few difficulties at first, even Peter managed to produce a pale glow.

After their classes, Sirius, James and Peter set out to explore the castle. They started off in the opposite direction of the Gryffindor common room, as Sirius claimed that the best way to get to know a place was to get lost in it.

If this was true, James thought after they had been wandering around for almost two hours, they ought to know the castle better than anyone else already. They had found a number of interesting rooms, statues and portraits, but none that they recognized. Just as they were walking up a staircase, though, suddenly a silvery shape glided through a wall right next to them. It was the ghost of a tall, stern-looking witch in a long, silver robe. Peter jumped when he saw her and almost knocked Sirius down the stairs.

The ghost glanced at them. "What are you doing here, children?" she said sternly. "I think I remember you from the Sorting Ceremony... are you not in Gryffindor?"

"Well, yes, we are", said James, "and we're looking for our common room. Could you help us out?"

The ghost frowned. "I am the Ravenclaw house ghost, I cannot help you," she said, "but wait..." she glided past them down the stairs while they shuffled uncomfortably, then she disappeared through another wall. "What..." started Sirius, but the Grey Lady already came back into view with another ghost, a tall man dressed in funny-looking medieval breeches, with a ruff around his neck. The Lady pointed at them and vanished, while the new ghost glided towards them, smiling broadly.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, my dear Gryffindors," he greeted them. "I usually talk to the new students at the Sorting, but this year I was occupied elsewhere... I am Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, by the way, the Gryffindor ghost." He looked at them expectantly, and they introduced themselves. Then Sir Nicholas led the way to the common room, talking all the while about different happenings in the past, until their heads swam.

Suddenly James remembered something his brother had told him. "Hey," he interrupted the ghost's monologue, "Sir Nicholas, you're not Nearly Headless Nick, are you?" The ghost looked extremely annoyed. "I would prefer you to call me Sir Nicholas," he said haughtily. James grinned and opened his mouth to say something, but Sirius was quicker. "Why Nearly headless?" he said. "I mean, either you are, or you aren't."

With a pained expression on his face, Nick sighed, knowing he had lost. He seized his ear with his fingers and pulled, and his head swung off his neck, dangling from a bit of skin. James took a step backward and saw Peter gasp and turn a greenish color, but Sirius, after his initial surprise, said, "Wow! Nick - now that's what I call a cool trick. I bet not many ghosts can do that, can they?"

Nick looked extremely flattered. "As far as I know, I'm the only one," he said proudly.

~***~

When they had finally reached the common room, the afternoon was almost over. They went to talk to the girls for a few minutes and then went back to their room, to unpack their trunks and make themselves a little more at home. James pinned a poster of Puddlemere United, his favorite Quidditch team, on the wall above his head, and grinned as the players zoomed in and out of the picture on their broomsticks. Sirius gazed at them intently, a curious expression on his face.

"Are we going to learn riding broomsticks, too?" he asked breathlessly. "Now that's something I'd really like to be able to do!"

"Of course you will," grinned James, "otherwise how could Gryffindor get a decent Quidditch team?" Peter and Sirius both laughed.

Suddenly the door of their dormitory opened and a house-elf entered, carrying a heavy trunk. It squeaked when it saw the three boys staring at it and started to apologize. "So sorry for disturbing you, sirs, Bonny didn't know anyone was in here, sirs, I is going to leave them again in a minute..." Bonny carefully placed the trunk at the foot of the spare bed and scrambled out of the room hurriedly, squeaking "Sorry, sirs" one last time before the door closed behind her.

The three boys looked after her, completely astonished. Peter and James recovered first, as they had at least seen a house elf before, but Sirius was completely dumbfounded. "What was that?" he asked at last. "And why was it wearing a tea-towel?"

James let Peter do the explaining this time while he went to inspect the trunk the elf had brought in. It was completely ordinary, but James could just make out the letters "R.J. Lupin" printed neatly on the side. He supposed it belonged to a student, though he couldn't remember anyone of that name being sorted, and anyway, if he had been Sorted, he'd have come to the dormitory together with them, on the previous evening, wouldn't he?

Just as he was wondering about this and Peter finished his lecture on house-elves, there was a knock on the door and Anne looked in. "We were just going down for dinner," she said, "you coming?" - "Yeah, sure," the boys chorused and followed the girls down to the Great Hall.

~***~

After the boys had finished eating, they glanced at each other and, in unspoken agreement, left the table at once and went up to the common room as fast as they could.

"Dragon eggs," James said impatiently when they reached the Fat Lady's portrait, and together they scrambled through the hole into the common room. It was completely empty, as everyone else was still at dinner. They went upstairs to their dormitory and pushed the door open without knocking.

A boy was sitting on the ground, going through the things in his trunk. He started when they came in so suddenly, and then smiled uncertainly at them.

"Hi," he said, "I'm..." - "Don't tell me - let me guess", Sirius interrupted. He pretended to concentrate extremely hard, screwing up his eyes. "You look like something starting with R... Rupert, or Ron, or Reginald... something like that, anyway... Lupin, right?"

The other boy looked startled. "Remus Lupin," he said, "but how..." Suddenly he noticed that James was trying hard not to laugh, but not hard enough. A grin slowly spread over his face. "Oh, right," he said, "my trunk, right?"

Sirius grinned broadly while James and Peter laughed out loud. "Of course," he said, "did you think I can really guess a person's name from their face? I mean, would you guess my name is Sirius?"

Remus looked at him critically and raised an eyebrow. "Actually, I'd probably guess your name was Merry," he said.

Sirius laughed and cocked his head to one side, like a dog. "That's the first time I heard that one," he said. "Usually people say, 'are you serious?' or something like that." The other boy smiled.

"Oh, by the way," Sirius went on, pointing to the other two, "that boy who looks like he's called Smartass is James Potter" - James pulled off an imaginary hat and bowed low - "and the fierce Goliath over there is Peter Pettigrew." Remus chuckled as the small, plump boy blushed and smiled timidly.

"So, why weren't you here yesterday?" asked James. The other boy looked suddenly uncomfortable. "I was ill," he said, and he looked it. He was thin and very pale, and he had dark shadows under his eyes. James decided not to ask him more, he obviously didn't want to talk about his illness. Instead, he asked him something else.

"If you missed the Sorting, how come you're in Gryffindor?"

"Well, it's really only the Sorting Hat that's important, not the ceremony," Remus replied. "When I arrived this evening, I went up to Dumbledore's office and he sorted out a few irregularities..." - he hesitated - "...because of my late arrival, and everything, and then I just went and put on the Sorting Hat, and it said I should be in Gryffindor, so here I am," he finished. "I had dinner in Dumbledore's office as well - that room is way cool, you should try to get into trouble so you get a chance to look around there sometime," he added, grinning.

The other boys laughed. Then they filled him in about everything that had happened the previous evening and in the morning. Remus sighed. "It's horrible that I had to miss the first day of school," he said unhappily.

"Oh, never mind," said Sirius cheerfully. "Hey, come on, let's go down to the common room and introduce you to everyone, they'll be back from dinner by now."

Remus seemed to cheer up a bit. "Yeah, ok," he said, and the four of them left the room and trooped down the stairs to the common room.

~***~ ~***~ ~***~

Lessons continued the next day. The class they had been looking forward to most was Defense against the Dark Arts, but the teacher, Professor Grimm, told them that he'd only be teaching them theory the first couple of terms, as they hadn't learnt enough magic yet even for the simplest anti-dark creature spells, to say nothing about curses.

Remus, James and Sirius had been so eager to get started that they were dreadfully disappointed. On the other hand, Peter looked almost relieved; obviously he had been dreading an encounter with a creature of any kind.

Herbology proved to be quite interesting, at least for James. Sirius looked extremely bored throughout the lesson, and rather than listening to the teacher's explanations, he ducked behind a table and started to explore the greenhouse on his own. At the end of the lesson, Professor Sprout, a young witch still in her twenties, positively had to drag him outside, as he had just discovered a rather interesting flesh-eating cactus and was looking for things he could feed to it.

~***~

Flying lessons didn't start until their second week. James and Remus already knew how to fly a broom, and so did Peter, although he admitted that he wasn't very good at it. He hadn't really had the chance to practice, as he lived in a Muggle town, where it was difficult to find a place where you wouldn't be disturbed by Muggle children.

Sirius knew that his mother had played Quidditch at school, but he had never seen her fly, and he certainly hadn't sat on a broom himself. He looked rather apprehensive as they walked outside, where their flying lessons were supposed to take place.

They were met by a very young witch, who looked as though she'd only just left Hogwarts herself. Next to her were about twenty brooms, arranged in two tidy rows lying on the ground. The witch nodded to them, but continued looking towards the castle, as if waiting for someone. Eventually, a group of students emerged, walking towards them.

"Oh, no," James sighed when they got near, "Not the Slytherins!" Sirius groaned. Sure enough, there was Snape and the rest of the crew, scowling at the Gryffindors. Faith and Lucy were looking daggers at Judith Anderson, who stared pointedly back, her eyebrows raised.

"Looks as though the girls already started a war," muttered Remus. James grinned in spite of himself, but Aglaia, who had heard the comment, half turned towards them. "The filthy little bitch called them 'mudbloods,' " she hissed. The boys looked shocked. "She didn't!" Aglaia nodded. James frowned at the Slytherins and spotted Snape wearing a sarcastic smile as he muttered something to another boy, and both boys sniggered, looking at Sirius who was eyeing the brooms nervously.

James felt his face grow hot with anger. "You're right, Remus," he said, "This means war." His friend nodded grimly.

At that moment, the witch spoke. "Welcome to your first flying lesson, boys and girls," she said. "I'm Madam Hooch. We will begin by learning how to hold your brooms properly. First, stick your right hand over the broom and say, 'Up!' "

"UP!" they all yelled, but only a few brooms jumped up at once. James, Sirius and Anne got their brooms at their first try, the others managed soon after. James, looking over at the Slytherins, noticed gleefully that Snape's broom jumped up only a second after Peter's. Then they mounted their brooms, and Madam Hooch went along the rows, correcting their grips.

Finally, she blew her whistle and they kicked off the ground. James soared upwards in an elegant arch, circling the others once before flying towards Sirius. When he passed the Slytherins, he saw that Severus was actually quite a good flyer, although his style looked a bit wooden. Peter had stayed quite close to the ground, obviously afraid he'd fall off.

Remus had joined Sirius and flew alongside him, correcting a few faults and giving some advice. James flew over to Sirius' other side.

"How's it going, friend?" he asked. Sirius managed a nervous smile. "Well, I'm still up, and that's something," he answered. James looked at him critically. He was sitting on his broom in a perfect position, and although you could tell that he wasn't used to it and that he had trouble steering, he wasn't having the problems most wizards experienced the first time on a broomstick.

"Hey, you're good," he said, giving his friend an appraising look. "You've got a good sense of balance, and a better seat than Snape, if I'm any judge."

Sirius looked pleased. "I guess it's because I'm used to a unicycle," he said. Remus and James both gave him a quizzical look, and he explained. "Well, it's a sort of bicycle, only it's got only one wheel and no handlebar. You can fall off in any direction, and you steer by shifting your weight. To stay still you have to pedal backwards and forwards, cause if you stop, you fall over."

Remus shook his head. "No thanks, I'd rather stick to my broom," he said. Sirius grinned.

Suddenly James, looking over his shoulder, let out a cry of indignation and whipped his broom around, speeding towards the lake. When they saw why, Remus and Sirius turned and followed suit, as fast as Sirius could go.

Severus Snape and another Slytherin were circling closely around Peter, herding him off in the direction of the lake and forcing him to fly much higher than he wanted to. Peter looked quite frightened and indeed close to tears, as the Slytherins were hissing taunts and insults all the while. Madam Hooch hadn't noticed this scene yet, as she was just sorting out a tangle of students who hadn't quite managed to control their brooms at the first try.

James raced towards the students. He swooped down on the Slytherins from above, shouting, "Hold on, Peter!" as he kicked out, aiming at Snape's head. Severus lost his balance and was forced to swerve away, while James shot straight at the other boy, aiming to knock him off his broom. The boy only just managed to avoid the collision by dropping several feet through the air. He looked extremely angry, but rather scared at the same time.

In the meantime, Sirius and Remus had arrived at the scene. They joined the shaking Peter and escorted him back to the ground.

The Slytherins, both seething with anger, now turned towards James, who was the only target left, and furthermore they outnumbered him. Seeing them close in on either side, James gave a mirthless laugh and sped away, rising and dropping in height all the time and changing direction now and again to shake off his pursuers. Once they managed to close in on him as he dived, and he only managed to avoid collision by pulling his broomstick up almost vertically, and he shot upwards while the two Slytherins bumped into each other.

This maneuver had almost made him lose control of his broom, and it had cost him a second, so his pursuers were even closer than before, when -

"POTTER!! SNAPE!! ROSIER!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" came an angry roar from below. Madam Hooch was speeding towards them, looking furious. "Come back down THIS INSTANT!" she yelled. The three boys shot one last wrathful glance at each other and followed the teacher towards the castle.

"What on earth was the meaning of this?!" she demanded when they were back on the ground, her eyes narrowed dangerously. None of the boys spoke, but only shot looks of venom at the others. "I shall have to take points off your houses for this outrage, and detention for - " suddenly, she was interrupted as Remus, Peter and Sirius landed behind her and came running up, panting, Peter still looking slightly green.

"It wasn't his fault - " "Those gits were trying to get Peter to fall in the lake - " "It was Snape, he started it - " "James didn't do anything really - " "Professor, don't - " - they all started talking at once.

Madam Hooch put her fingers in her ears. Then - "SILENCE!" she yelled, and when they had shut up, she turned to James. "Please explain."

James took a deep breath. "Well, I was over there," he waved his hand, "when I spotted Snape and the other git forcing Peter to fly towards the lake. He was ready to fall off, too, he's scared of heights..." Peter looked at his toes and shuffled awkwardly. James went on. "So I went to help him, and then they turned on me," he finished.

Madam Hooch turned towards the other three Gryffindors. "Is this true?" she asked them. They nodded fervently. Snape broke in. "He kicked at my HEAD!" he yelled.

"Too bad he missed," retorted the teacher, shooting an angry glance at him. "Bullying smaller students because they can't fly as well as you do! You should be ashamed of yourselves! Twenty points off Slytherin and a detention for each of you. Potter," she went on as the two boys scowled angrily, "three points to Gryffindor for this. You deserve more, but as I should take points off you as well for disobeying my directions, that's all you'll get."

James looked rather relieved that he hadn't been punished as well, as Madam Hooch had been looking so fierce a moment ago. Now she smiled at him, as the Slytherins walked away towards the castle. "That was quite some show," she said. "You're an extremely good flyer. As good as your brother. I played Quidditch with him for Gryffindor," she added. James grinned at her. She winked and turned back towards the other students.

Blowing her whistle, she yelled, "All right, that's it! Come back down here and return your broom, then off you go back to the castle!"

As the boys turned and walked back, Remus and Sirius thumped James on the back, cheering and congratulating him for his 'victory' over the Slytherins. Sirius was punching the air gleefully, shouting "Potter for President!" and other things like that. James grinned.

Peter, still rather pale, ran to catch up with him and said in a voice that was almost a whisper, "Thanks for saving my life, James." James looked startled, his grin fading a little. "You don't think they really would have killed you, do you?" he asked, his voice full of concern. Then he smiled once more. "Anyway... no problem, Peter, if you ever need saving again, tell me," he teased.

Peter looked relieved and then started smiling himself. "Thanks, James", he said again.

At that moment, the girls caught up with them, cheering almost as loud as the boys. Lucy and Faith in particular looked delighted, and Lucy thumped James on the shoulder, crying, "Good for you, Potter! You showed those Slytherins!"

Anne grinned and added, imitating a Quidditch commentator "The score at this point of play is: Slytherin: zero, Gryffindor: TEN! Potter's got the Quaffle!"

They all started laughing, but as they watched the Slytherins disappear in the castle, every single one of them giving them a look of pure hate as they passed, they became more serious again.

"It's still war," Remus voiced the general opinion, "and the fact that we're a few points ahead doesn't mean they'll give up."

"Exactly!" chimed in Sirius, his blue eyes twinkling mischievously, "So we had better ensure that we stay ahead of the game and start planning an attack right now, before they can plan their revenge!"

Magdalene looked shocked. "You're not going to do anything dangerous or against the rules, are you?" she asked. "I mean, I hate that Snape boy, too, but you can't go and hex people just because you don't like them..."

Remus smiled and said, mildly, "Who said we'll hex them?" That seemed to put the girls at ease again. They went up to the girl's dormitory to change, while the boys stayed in the common room.

James shot Remus a very curious look. "What did you mean, we don't have to hex them?" he asked. "Your angelic expression just now did NOT fool me, you know."

Remus grinned and winked. "Well, you know," he said, "there are other ways..."

Sirius looked at him, and a very wide grin spread over his face. "So, Major Lupin, what's your plan?"

"Well, I think there are some points that still need working on, but basically, it's this..."