James Potter woke up yawning. He stretched his arms and sat up to see if any of his other new friends were also awake and ready to go down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Putting on his glasses, he found that Remus and Peter were awake, lounging in their beds and Sirius was still sleeping.
He looked at his watch and saw that it was a quarter past eight and they would have to quickly get ready because their lessons started at 9:30. He got out of bed and headed over to where Sirius was quietly snoring. James pulled out his wand and, realizing that he only knew a few useless spells, stuck it up Sirius’ nose.
“What the bloody...” yelled Sirius with a snort. He jumped out of his bed and looked around for who had caused him such misery. Spotting James, holding his wand with a humored expression on his face, Sirius lunged at him and knocked him to the ground. They laughed and wrestled each other and made quite a lot of noise.
Remus and Peter cheered along and woke up two boys who they hadn’t notice before.
“What’s going on?” shouted one of them.
Remus quickly turned around to see where the voice had come from. The boy had gotten out of bed and he could see that he was about as short as Peter. He had dirty-blonde hair that hung neatly over his forehead.
The other boy had dark brown hair and tons of freckles that were splattered across his face and contrasted with his pale skin.
“Are they fighting?” asked the second boy.
“No, no,” replied Peter, “they aren’t hurting each other. They’re just goofing around.”
The boys came over and introduced themselves. The first boy called himself Danny Finch and his friend Reginald, Reg, Cattermole.
“Hello,” said Remus, “I’m Remus Lupin and this is Peter Pettigrew, on the floor is Sirius Black, and the one hiding behind the bed is James Potter.” At that James pounced at Sirius and held him down for seven seconds, winning the game.
They helped each other up and went over to their friends and the other Gryffindors. They smiled and shook hands with Reg and Danny. James glanced down at his watch and saw that it was almost forty minutes after eight.
“Okay, come on guys!” said James” We have to hurry if we want to get some food.”
The boys went back to their trunks and brought out their school robes. James continued to tell them of his domination of Sirius Black when he noticed something about Lupin. He had horrible cuts and scars running up his back.
“Remus, what happened to you?” said James.
Remus quickly put on his shirt to hide the wounds. “Well, I... I was sailing with my parents and we crashed into some rocks.”
He crashed into rocks and now it looks like someone attacked him? thought James. No way did a sailing accident do that to him. James didn’t believe Lupin’s story, but he didn’t want to force him to share if he didn’t want to.
“Ouch,” said Sirius, “that sounds painful.”
“At least you didn’t die!” Peter pointed out. James chuckled to himself and buckled his trousers.
“Shall we head down?” he asked the others.
The six boys made their way down the stairs and headed to the portrait. After a while of searching, the Gryffindors found the great hall and took their seats at the long table. James spotted Lily, who was talking to a girl with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. Another girl joined their conversation who had hazel eyes and dark hair that was put lazily in a bun. She had a round face, lots of pale freckles and was laughing happily with the other girls.
James met Lily’s emerald eyes and she scowled at him before turning back to her fellow dorm mates. Lily had been in James’ dream, or rather his nightmare. She did nothing but glare at him, yet that was enough to scare him.
James shook his head, trying to forget his dream, and turned back to his friends. They were piling eggs onto their plates and Peter was nibbling a piece of toast.
“Try the sausages,” said Sirius, “they’re amazing!”
“No thanks,” James said, “I’m not that hungry. I think I’ll just go get my books together ‘cause our lessons start in twenty-five minutes.”
They let him go and said that they would meet him in the common room once they were done eating. He waved goodbye and left the great hall to search for a way to get back to the portrait.
After finding the picture of the fat lady, James went to his trunk to gather his books for his first lesson, Charms. The Gryffindors had Charms with the Hufflepuffs and James was looking forward to it. He wanted to be able to make things fly and explode in mid-air and grow wings to soar away. He retrieved his new copy of Magical Theory by Albert Waffling and went to wait on one of the big, red sofas in front of the fireplace.
James waited for his friends, but soon became bored. He tried to entertain himself by playing with a loose strand from his tie, but he found that rather dull and decided to read his book instead.
The first chapter was called Wingardium Leviosa. It then went on explaining wand movements and correct pronunciation of the spell. Suddenly, the portrait swung open and Lily Evans walked in saying goodbye to a boy on the other side. Snape. She had shown Snivellus the entrance to the Gryffindor common room.
“What do you think you’re doing?” said James. He jumped up from the couch and approached her.
“I’m walking,” she replied, “What else does it look like I’m doing?”
“I mean, what were you doing showing that slime-ball how to get to the common room?
“Sev? Sev is my friend! It doesn’t matter!”
“He’s in Slytherin! This is a Gryffindor common room! HE is not allowed!” said James. How come she likes this Sev character anyway? James thought. He was getting annoyed that Lily couldn’t understand why Snivellus wasn’t welcome.
“Why does it matter what house someone’s in?” she asked. Then it hit James.
“Who are your parents?” he asked, trying to sound less angry.
“Um, Jennifer and Henry Evans,” she said, sounding confused.
“No, no, that’s not what I meant. I was wondering if your parents were wizards or not.”
“Oh,” she said, looking embarrassed, “no, they’re Muggles.”
“That explains it,” said James, “You don’t know about the four Houses. Well, Ravenclaw is for the smart kids, Hufflepuff is a mix of personalities, Gryffindor is for all the bravest students, and Slytherin is for all the nasty evil ones.” He felt like he gave a very good explanation that a Muggleborn would understand. Lily just crossed her arms and stared at him.
“I have read most of Hogwarts a History,” she said, “and I know about the Houses. I also know that Sev is not nasty and evil and he is plenty brave. In fact, I bet he could have been in Gryffindor.”
“I bet that twerp hasn’t done a brave thing in his whole life!” said James.
“Well, I bet that he’s done more brave things than you! You’re just a mean boy who makes fun of other people! You should be the one in Slytherin!”
This comment made James very angry. What does she know! She’s just a Muggleborn! James hated Snape more and more with each passing second. Why did she fancy him so much?
“I give up,” he said and turned to walk up the stairs to the boy’s dormitory, leaving Lily standing there.
But James would not give up. He would prove to her that Snape was a no-good Slytherin and that he was the heroic one, worthy to be in the house of Godric Gryffindor.
The Marauder's Map to a Gryffindor's Heart by The_Dream_Team
Chapter Notes: Here is chapter 2! thanks to my mod, mudbloodproud!
Chapter Endnotes: Thanks for reading and please leave a review!