An Unexpected Encounter
The next morning, James awoke to the fresh scent of autumn and quiet tittering voices coming from the grounds below. Rubbing his eyes tiredly, he noticed that a nearby window was open, and that no one was present in his dormitory. Heaving himself out of bed, he changed into a rugged pair of worn out jeans and a plain, navy coloured t-shirt. While pulling on a pair of shoes, he glanced over at his bed-side clock to notice that there was something wrapped in white tissues plopped right beside it. Curiously grasping it, he unraveled it to reveal an apple, a raisin bagel, and a small piece of rolled up parchment. Setting his apple and bagel aside, he unrolled the parchment to reveal a note that read:
Prongs,
Since you slept through breakfast, we brought you something to eat for when you get up, whenever that is. You have some explaining to do about where you were last night. We are all curiously awaiting your answer. Talk to you later.
-Moony
P.S. The apple is from Wormtail, the bagel is from me, and…the tissues are from Padfoot.
With an amused smile, James tossed the note back onto his bed-side table, threw on his black jacket and Gryffindor scarf, slipped the apple into his pocket, and stuffed the bagel into his wide mouth. He headed down the stairs into the common room where he made sure Lily was not present. Taking another huge bite of his bagel, he stepped out of the portrait hole and made his way down onto the grounds.
That afternoon was incredibly beautiful. The sky was clear and pure blue without the faintest trace of a cloud in site. Red, orange, and brown leaves littered the dew drenched grass, and the sun’s presence immersed Hogwarts with comforting warmth. There were many students enjoying the weather while talking, studying, doing homework, and all other things they did on a Saturday.
James glanced around the grounds looking out for at least one of the Marauders as he took in the awesome scenery. After a bit of a walk and no luck on spotting any of his friends, he decided he should maybe go inside and have lunch since the bagel didn’t suffice. Just as he set one foot onto the steps of an entrance, he felt a light tap on his shoulder.
“Hello, James,” greeted a sweet voice, and he turned to face a tall, dark-haired girl wearing a denim jacket and flowing white skirt. Her chestnut eyes gleamed with excitement, and she smiled. “I’m Natalie Cleaver.”
“Hello,” replied James with a grin. “I know you. You were a Hufflepuff Chaser last year. Fourth year now, right?”
“Yeah,” she giggled. “I was worried you wouldn’t remember who I was.”
“Ah, well.”
“Actually, I just spotted you from over there,” she stated as she pointed over toward the lake, “and I was wondering if you could spare maybe twenty minutes?” She hooked arms with him forcefully. “With me?”
“Well, actually…”
“Please? It would mean a lot.”
“Er- Sure, why not?“
“Awww, thanks!” she dragged him off the steps, and he reluctantly walked beside her.
After about an hour of Natalie hanging off of James telling him something about how she had dumped her previous boyfriend, and how she felt that autumn was the most “romantic” season, James made some wild excuse about doing his “crazy, six parchment long charms essay”, and finally pried her off his arms. By the time he had made his way to the Great Hall, he noticed that lunch was already over and that supper wouldn’t be put out until at least two hours later. Trying to suppress a disappointed, loud growl from his stomach, he reached into his pocket and clutched the apple Peter had left for him.
I guess this is as good as it gets for now. he thought drearily and took a huge bite out of his glossy, red apple.
As he strolled through the hallways, he wondered where the other Marauders were. He knew almost for certain that Remus was in the library studying meticulously or reading some massive book. James concluded that Sirius and Peter were most likely back at the common room playing chess or fooling around.
Turning a right, he headed up to the portrait hole and poked his head into the common room. With mild surprise, he found only Peter (who was taking a nap comfortably in a large arm chair by the fire) present in the common room with a group of second years chatting non-stop.
Where is Sirius? pondered James curiously as he retrieved his head from the hole and headed back down the corridor he just came from.
Concluding that Sirius would most likely be on the grounds outside by now, he quickly stepped outside (first making sure Natalie wasn’t still sitting around just waiting to grab his arm) and peered over at the tall beech tree by the lake. Sure enough, he found Sirius lying against the trunk of the tree on his back, eyes closed, and two hands behind his head. A few crimson leaves had fallen and landed right on top of his black hoodie, but he didn’t seem to care. The shadows of the leaves danced upon his face, and the wind seemed to have blown his thin, dark hair in front of his eyes as if to make him more tempting to the third year girls passing by.
Walking over casually, James made his way to the beech tree and lay down right next to Sirius with his hands together placed on top of his stomach. For a few moments, both of them listened intently to the gusts of wind that rustled the tree and its leaves. During this time, the thought of Sirius actually sleeping came into James’ mind, but then suddenly Sirius said, “Hey.”
“Hey,” replied James. “Anything new?”
“Not really,” said Sirius with a smile and his eyes still closed. “How about you?”
“Nah, you know me,” James answered with a relaxed tone. “Oh, wait! Except, I have another one to add to the list.”
“The list” was something James and Sirius had made up at the beginning of the year. It was a piece of parchment which recorded every girl that tried to flirt “somewhat forcefully” with either James or Sirius.
“Really?” Sirius inquired; his tone full of intrigue. “Who was it this time?”
“You know that chaser for Hufflepuff last year? Natalie Cleaver?”
Sirius shook his head. “Describe her.”
“OK, well, she has long dark hair that’s kind of wavy, she’s sort of tall, and umm…”
“Prongs, you’re horrible at this.”
“You try explaining somebody. It’s hard. You can’t just say they have dark brown eyes and is wearing a Hufflepuff scarf.”
“Oh! Now I remember her! See Prongs, I knew you could do it!”
James just shook his head hopelessly, sat up, and glanced across the grounds. The sun was already near the west side, and it hit the water of the lake to reflect onto the side of his face.
“So, where were you yesterday?” came Sirius’ voice.
“Just looking up hexes. I was trying to find a new one that hasn’t been done before,” recalled James while ruffling the back of his hair.
“Oh, yeah?” asked Sirius curiously. “Anything else I might want to know about?”
There was suspicion in his voice.
“I was staring at Evans,” James admitted with a tone of bitterness at the thought of the scene he made last night.
Sirius erupted in hard laughter and moved onto his side to glance up at him.
“Oh, Prongs, you really crack me up…” Sirius trailed off with more laughter.
“It’s not that funny,” retorted James, slightly deflated as Sirius continued to laugh manically.
“Alright, alright,” panted Sirius still gasping for air, “tell me the whole story then.”
“I bumped into Evans when I was heading back kind of late. I was under my invisibility cloak, and when I got to the portrait hole she climbed out. So I followed her, and- “
“Stared at her endlessly?” cut in Sirius, bursting into laughter once again.
James glared at him. “Anyway, she caught me and then yelled at me for a bit. Then, she left to keep patrolling the halls.”
“I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: Bad luck, Prongs,” remarked Sirius while pushing his hair back. “Oh, well, at least we have another person to add to ‘the list’. That makes how many now? Twelve girls?”
“Nine,” corrected James.
“Yeah, whatever. Why don’t you conjure it over here with your wand, so we can add it before we forget.”
James sighed and dug his hand into the back of his jeans but was aware that there was no wand there. With a sudden thought of panic, he tried to remember where he could have left it until the last event of the previous night came screaming back to him.
After a pause where James didn’t reply, Sirius sat up and asked, “Something the matter?”
“My wand…”
“Yeah, what about it?” inquired Sirius questioningly.
“I don’t have it,” said James almost emotionlessly as he tried to grasp this thought.
“What do you mean you don’t have it?!” yelped Sirius, his eyes goggling at James. “Did someone steal it?!”
“No, no, it’s not that. When Evans caught me in the hall last night she kind of took away my wand.”
Sirius’ inquiring face turned into a smile and then a dog like bark of laughter. James shrugged his shoulders with a grin plastered on his face.
“She took your wand?!” asked Sirius through laughing fits.
“I’m really screwed right now, aren’t I?” indicated James with his grin still in tact.
Sirius nodded as he struggled to suppress his dog like laughter, and James added, “That Evans, I don’t know what I’m going to do about her.”
That evening over dinner in the Great Hall, Sirius explained quite loudly to Peter and Remus about how Lily had taken James’ wand. Rumor and gossip spread through the Gryffindor table, onto the Hufflepuff table, Ravenclaw table, and finally to the Slytherin table. By the end of dinner, the rumor was that James had been up late at night fighting off Death Eaters and that when he came inside, Lily was there. She was supposedly put under the Imperius Curse for half a second and had no choice, but to disarm James and snatch his wand. James was said to jump into the common room with Lily, and then she fainted. Supposedly, when she woke up, she had no recollection of what she was doing.
This rumor created enormous female attention towards James, and as he left the Great Hall that night, he had one girl on each arm.
“Was it true that you had to fend off the Death Eaters using really advanced magic?” squeaked one girl clinging to his left arm.
“Well…” started James, but he was cut off.
“I heard Thora Cooke saying that you heroically pulled Lily with you into the common room as the Death Eaters shot severe curses at you!” peeped another girl on his right arm.
“Er…”
He was bombarded by more questions that kept getting farther and farther away from the truth until James had to literally dash into the Gryffindor common room and swiftly shut the portrait behind him to get rid of them all. Exhaling sharply, he rumpled his hair and glanced up to see Peter and Sirius erupting in laughter at the site of him. Remus’ lips seemed to want to twitch into a smile but remained a frown.
“I bet you wish it was full moon now instead of a week ago,” laughed Sirius.
“Because then you could hide in the Shrieking Shack until the barrage of female questions died down,” snickered Peter, finishing off Sirius’ sentence.
Both of them erupted in laughter once more, holding each other so they wouldn’t fall down. Tears of laughter slowly came out of Sirius’ grey eyes. Remus on the other hand, remained silent.
“No thanks to you, Padfoot!” yelled James with a tone of irritation.
“Chill, Prongs, it was just a little joke. A little rumor,” said Sirius trying to catch his breath.
“I have to say that it’s a rather big rumor,” stated Remus with a tone of disappointment.
“OK, so it was sort of a big rumor. So what?” challenged Sirius with a mock tone.
“Yeah, it was really a funny one too,” piped in Peter.
“It’s not the fact that every person in Hogwarts thinks that Prongs did some amazing death-defying feet, but the fact that every student in Hogwarts knows he is now wand-less and defenseless.”
“C’mon Moony,” sighed Sirius. “Our little Jamesey here can get out of anything. Even without a wand.” He walked over to James and slung his arm around him.
“I have to admit, Moony, that I’m not too worried about that, I’m just worried about getting mobbed again,” admitted James sheepishly.
“By females?” added Peter, and Sirius snorted.
James couldn’t help, but smirk about the situation Sirius had gotten him into, and even Remus rolled his eyes and grinned.
The nice weather from yesterday carried over to Sunday, and the four Marauders were caught scratching quills frantically against parchment under the beech tree by the lake.
Sunday was always dictated as “study like crazy and finish homework” day for all the Marauders, well, other than Remus, who thought of Sunday as “finish studying ahead two chapters in each subject” day.
“I don’t get this question!” squeaked Peter while grasping his hair tightly. “Help!”
“Calm down, Wormtail,” replied Sirius with a bit of stress hidden in his voice. “You have a brain! Use it!”
James reached over to apply more ink on his quill but ended up spilling his ink pot onto his Transfiguration essay.
“Crap!” yelped James helplessly as he quickly tried to tip the ink off the page.
“I told you guys you should have done it earlier,” added Remus sharply.
“Oh, shut-up,” retorted Sirius and Peter at the same time.
“Alright, if you’re so smart, get this ink off my paper,” remarked James.
“Why don’t you do it yourse- “ Remus paused. “Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.” He flicked his wand, and James’ parchment returned to normal.
“I still don’t understand how Muggles can survive,” sighed James as he went back to finishing his essay.
James wouldn’t finish homework until late in the evening, ironically, in the library. Peter and Sirius were still hard a work, scribbling away, while Remus had already retired to the Gryffindor common room.
Stretching, James jumped to his feet and yawned just as he finished his last word on his Potions questions.
“Well, boys and girls, hope you have fun finishing that. I’m going to hit the sack,” he announced and quickly dumped all his items in his book bag, and then left the library with relief.
As James walked down a quiet hallway on his way back to the Gryffindor common room, he thought about how he was going to get his wand back. He hadn’t seen Lily all day, and he highly doubted that he would see her back at the common room. He couldn’t possibly go to class without his wand though. He could just imagine McGonagall lecturing him on proper wand handling.
So immersed in thought, James had not noticed that someone had been following him at a close distance. Then, suddenly, there was a rustle of robes, and James instinctively turned behind him. Peering down the corridor, he didn’t see a soul. Thinking that maybe Peeves was playing a cruel joke on him, he shrugged his shoulders, but the tension in the air seemed to stay. He took another step forward and heard another rustle. Pausing for half a second, James decided to walk extremely slowly so he could hear the footsteps. Sure enough, there were some, and they seemed to be getting closer and closer until finally, James knew they were in at least two meters length of him. Whipping around, he suddenly felt a huge force bang against his chest that sent his book bag flying, and him skidding across the stone floor on his back. Grasping his chest, James lifted his head up to see Severus Snape (whose face was a sickening puce colour) with a wand pointed directly at him. Without another word, Severus waved his wand and flung James across the hallway to bash against the wall.
Falling to his knees, James gasped for air as he glanced up to see Severus walk over with the wand still raised. Thinking quickly, he rolled over to the side just as Severus had yelled, “SECTUMSEMPRA!”
A huge slash on the wall appeared, breaking through some bricks, and James felt a sudden gashing pain down his right arm.
He had not avoided the full blow.
Clutching it, he felt some blood soak his robes.
“What’s the matter Snivellus?” taunted James furiously. “You couldn’t take me on yourself when I had a wand, so you decided that I would be easy prey without one?”
Severus’ face turned a fuming crimson, and he shot another hex at James.
“You can’t even get me when I’m defenseless!” shouted James, as he avoided the hex.
All of a sudden a searing white pain slapped him across the face, and he fell backwards still clutching the side of his arm. He had heard something shatter, and when he opened his eyes, he noticed that his glasses had been broken. Severus was now approaching James closer.
“Potter,” spat Snape, and he stomped his foot on top of James’ right arm.
With a gasp of agonizing pain, James tried fruitlessly to shove Severus’ foot off his arm, but it seemed to be permanently planted there. Severus grasped James’ throat and pointed his wand at him. “Goodnight Potter,” he grinned.
“EXPELLIARMUS!” shouted someone, and Severus’ wand had flown out of his hand.
He retrieved his foot from James’ arm, and the pain subsided somewhat. Snape’s grasp around James’ throat was released, and he coughed for air.
Some shots of green light zoomed across the hall, and finally, James saw Severus running hastily past him with lavender hair and green scales on his face. As James heaved himself up, Sirius ran towards him with his wand still in hand.
“Coward,” spat Sirius after Severus as he helped James to his feet. “You OK, mate?”
“Yeah, fine. Just don’t- “
Sirius grasped James’ right arm to swing over his shoulder.
“Touch that!” gasped James as he winced with pain.
Sirius glanced down at his hand and saw the blood from James’ robes.
“Gosh, Prongs, you really got to take better care of yourself.”
With that, the both of them headed to the Hospital Wing.