Sirius woke up in the morning very well rested. He rolled over to look at his alarm clock; it was still early. He rolled back over and lay in bed for a while, wondering what his very first day at Hogwarts would be like.
He heard a yawn coming from the bed next to him. He looked over and saw it was James.
“ ‘morning, James,’ said Sirius, grinning at him.
James merely yawned loudly again and opened his eyes. He slowly seemed to wake fully, and grinned back at Sirius. He then got up to change into his school robes. Sirius did the same, and by now the other three had woken up.
Peter and Remus were also in their dormitory, as was a boy called Andrew Beldon. He was very good-looking, like Sirius, with light skin, short dark hair, and bright hazel eyes.
When they had changed, they all went down to the common room together. It was crowded with many people chatting excitedly about the day to come. As they squeezed their way through the crowd, Sirius crashed into someone and they both were sent flying in different directions. Sirius picked himself up off the ground and went to see if the other person was okay.
The girl looked his age, was very pretty, and had dark red hair and inquisitive green eyes. She was being helped up by another pretty girl with long dark brown hair and dark, gentle eyes.
“Are you okay?” Sirius asked her.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry,” the girl with the red hair answered. “Are you new?” she asked.
Sirius nodded.
“So am I. I’m Lily Evans, and this is Isabel Gail. She’s new too,” said Lily.
“Hi, I’m Sirius Black,” answered Sirius. “Well, er, we should be getting down to breakfast.” He looked around for James. He was leaning against the wall waiting for him. “Oh, and this is James Potter,” he added. James nodded to them, then turned to Sirius.
“The rest have already gone down. C’mon,” said James, and he led the three of them to the great Hall. They introduced the girls to the other three, and then dug in.
While Sirius ate, James was pointing out who all the teachers were. His parents had told him a lot about Hogwarts before he came.
“That one that did the sorting last night, she’s Professor McGonagall and she teaches Transfiguration. My parents said she’s really tough. And the fat one over there is Professor Slughorn, who teaches potions. Oh, and the giant one’s Hagrid. He’s the gamekeeper. That’s Dumbledore of course, and…” James went through all the teachers, describing them to Sirius.
When they were done eating, Professor McGonagall handed out their schedules, and they headed off for their first class, Transfiguration.
Sirius sighed as he entered the common room after the last period of the day. It had been exhausting, but Sirius had enjoyed it.
Their first subject, Transfiguration, which was taught by Professor McGonagall, had been very hard. Only two of the people in the class had been close to able to turn their feather into a ribbon. Lily Evans was one. She had managed to turn it into a ribbon, but it still had a spine going down the middle. She was very smart, and had known the answer to every question Professor McGonagall. She had proudly told an impressed Professor McGonagall that she had already read all the textbooks before coming to Hogwarts. James had rolled his eyes at this, and when he tried he had turned the feather into a perfect ribbon with ease.
James had also proved to be very good at Defense Against the Dark Arts. So had Sirius, and they both agreed this was the most exciting subject. They were both terrible at potions, and found History of Magic very dull. Sirius and Remus had proved to be good at Charms, while James was not so great. Poor Peter was very clumsy, and not very good at anything.
Lily Evans however, was the best of the whole year. She had mastered almost every task in each subject, including making a very tricky potion perfectly. Her friend, Isabel, was particularly good at Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. She was very smart, like Lily, but was much quieter.
In all subjects they had been given homework, and Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus had set to work in front of the fire in a bunch of squishy armchairs. Sirius sped as quickly as he could through his homework, and then sleepily climbed the staircase to his dormitory where he changed quickly, collapsed onto his bed, and fell asleep.
The first month passed by in a blur. The homework was piled on and Sirius had little free time to spend. On the rare occasions in which he did, he spent the time out on the grounds with his three friends: James, Remus, and Peter. He was very close to them, especially James, and they were almost like his brothers. Recently, the four of them had found their place in the school.
One night, James had been digging through his trunk when he had found a cloak with a note from James’s father on it. It had read:
Dear James,
I used this a lot when I was at school to explore the castle, and I thought you might like to have it. Use it well!
Love,
Your Father
“What is it?” Sirius had asked, frowning.
“It’s an invisibility cloak!” said James in awe.
And that had started their career in Hogwarts as troublemakers, or the Marauders, as they called themselves. James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus had explored the castle every night from then on and had so far discovered many secret passageways that they used as shortcuts to get to classes.
They also had found another use for the cloak. Sirius had many cousins in Slytherin that had been teasing him maliciously about being in Gryffindor. They were all much older than he was and Sirius could do nothing to get revenge. But that was where the cloak came in.
One day, after one particularly bad fight with Sirius’s cousin, Bellatrix, the idea came to them. They nipped back to the dormitories during lunch break and got the invisibility cloak. It was harder for all four of them to maneuver under the cloak, so it was only James and Sirius. When they got back they went to the great hall, covered in the cloak, over to the Slytherin table and found Bellatrix talking to a bunch of older Slytherins. They then snuck up behind her and set her robes on fire, and quickly stuffed the cloak into James’s bag. When they heard a scream coming from the Slytherin table and saw Bellatrix running from the hall, her robes ablaze, it was very hard for them to contain their laughter.
This was very amusing for them, and they hadn’t been discovered so they kept doing it during meals. It became almost routine every day, and none of the Slytherins had any idea who had been doing it. In fact, no one besides James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter knew about it all, until one day.
One day their victim had been another of Sirius’s cousins, Lucius. They did their normal routine, and it went smoothly, as usual, until Lily Evans and Isabel Gail, saw the cloak lift a little to reveal James and Sirius’s ankles. James and Sirius had quickly covered them again, but the damage had been done. Lily and Isabel were smart enough to figure out who had been hexing the Slytherins.
Although they both had, and in Lily’s case, grudgingly, agreed not to tell, they had kept at a distance, mostly from James, who was the leader of the group. Sirius was regretful about this because he had become good friends with Isabel, and couldn’t talk to her much anymore.
Even though Lily was angry with James, James had still somehow managed to get a crush on her. Every time he passed her he would rumple his hair, turn his walk into a kind of cocky stride, and call out “All right, Evans?” and she would merely scowl at him. Sirius had found this quite annoying and had hoped that since she remained angry with him, this would stop. However, it didn’t, and Sirius, Peter, and Remus would roll their eyes every time James did this.
But at the moment Sirius had more pressing worries. He had noticed that Remus Lupin had become quieter as the month wore on. His friend had also become very pale and sickly looking. Sirius had asked him many times if he felt okay, and Remus would nod and attempt a smile, which came out as more of a grimace.
One night, after Remus and Peter and everyone else had gone to sleep, and Sirius and James were sitting in front of the fire in their favorite comfortable armchairs, Sirius decided it was necessary to bring up the subject of Remus.
“Er, James?” he asked.
“Huh…what?” James answered, snapping out of his daydream.
“Well, I wondered if you’ve noticed anything different about Remus lately.”
“Yeah, he has been acting strange,” answered James.
“I know. I think there’s something funny going on. He barely talks to any of us anymore.”
“And why’s he always so sick? I mean why would he deny that he was?”
“I dunno, but I think we should find out.”
“How?” asked James, frowning.
“I dunno, but what ever it is, he obviously doesn’t want to tell us, so I think we should just be extra nice to him, and watch him closely.”
“Right,” said James distractedly. “Well, I’m off to bed.”
“I suppose I should be going to,” answered Sirius, and he followed James up the stairs. He changed quickly and sank into his bed, thinking. He sighed. Well, he thought, I suppose I’m going to have to figure this out by myself, since James isn’t going to help me. He shifted his body into a more comfortable position and fell into an uncomfortable sleep.
Why Couldn't the Good Times Last? by FredsFriend
Chapter Notes: Sorry this chapter took a little while!
I would be grateful for any reviews!!!!