Are you serious?
"I can't believe you guys would even think that." Remus gave his friends a look between betrayal and, honestly, pure amusement. "Why would I chose chocolate over helping the old lady from being attacked by Peter?"
Sirius gave their friend his signature are you serious look. Anyone who's ever met Remus would know of his infatuations with chocolate. "So, you didn't choose chocolate over her, then?" That shut Remus up almost instantly. A grin spread across Sirius's lips as he crossed his arms, raised a single eyebrow, and sent the other boy a knowing look.
"I never said that."
A glimpse of guilt struck the boy's face, and his eyes moved down to his food, staring hard at that one chicken piece. James sent the two boys a knowing smile, knowing that Remus didn't feel guilty at all. It was a known joke in their group that if any of them ever were to go to Azkaban, it would be Remus probably for trying to kill anyone denying or taking his chocolate. Without his permission, of course.
"You guys should have been there. If anyone scared the old lady, it wasn't me. Sure I ran towards her, but he was grilling her about all the different sorts of chocolate they had. Honestly, it was kind of scary." The rest of the boys laughed as they heard the true story of what happened. Looking up from his plate, he gave Peter a look and slightly shook his head, thinking that his friend would have his back.
"Well.. thank you for sharing that, Peter." His three grinning friends looked at him and laughed once more. The group snapped out of their little bobble as the doors to the great hall opened, and they could see all the new first years walk in. As they walked their way down the hall, Sirius couldn't help but lean into Remus.
"Were we that small when we started?"
Remus turned his head, so he was facing his whispering friend. And a small grin along with a slightly mischievous look covered his face as he leaned slightly closer and whispered back."If I remembered correctly, you were smaller." Sirius took a sharp breath, and he looked as if someone had insulted his entire life. Pulling away from his friend, he put his hand on his heart and gave a disbelieving look.
"Take that back."
A smile grew on James's lips as he witnessed the banter between his two friends. Though he wasn't going to say it, he agreed with Remus. The former Black heir had been the shortest until he had hit his growing stage the summer before third year. James remembered it well, considering how much he used to tease his friend in second year as he was the taller. However, by the start of third year, Sirius thought it was an excellent choice to return James's favor and keep teasing him for months.After getting sick of the teasing, James decided to get back at his friend by getting Remus to teach him a shrinking spell. One day, while they were sitting in the great hall eating dinner, Sirius was as usually teasing James and talking about how tall he would be when he grew up, ignorant of the fact that James had whipped his wand out and muttered the spell underneath his breath.
Without realizing it, Sirius started to shrink at the same time as he continued to brag about his growth spurt. Peter tried hard to keep a straight face but failed miserably, ending up laughing so hard that he almost fell off his seat. That stopped Sirius, who looked at his friend, trying to figure out the cause of his laughter.
"What? Did something happen? Did Malfoy fall or something ?"
That only caused Peter to laugh harder, and at this point, even Remus had started to laugh a little, though he was a little more discreet than his friend. James just sat there, looking at his curly-haired friend, wearing a rather satisfied look on his face.
"What did you say again, pads? How much did you grow?"
The confident look returned to the boy's face as he started yet another one of his rambles. That only made the two other boys laugh louder, Sirius who had now noticed that Remus was also laughing, looked at his friends with a look of confusion.
"What? What is it?" His eyes wide, not understanding why Remus was having trouble catching his breath while Peter looked like he would almost wet his pants. "No seriously, What is it?"
A frustrated look covered his face, and that's when James lost it. His hand came slamming down at the table, looking down at his plate, with his shoulders shaking violently. He looked up at Sirius's frustrated face, along with his entire body that had shrunken, and laughter shot out of James's mouth once again. He couldn't help but let some words slip out.
"Oh.. de... Oh, dear... Oh, merlin... You look... soo.. hahaha.."
He couldn't manage to continue before another wave of laughter came out. It all ended with a loud shriek echoed through the great hall when Sirius noticed that his body had shrunken. Even Professor McGonagall struggled to keep her face straight as she sat at the professor's table, looking over her house.
Just as the sorting started, James leaned a little bit over the table, trying to get the attention of his two friends.
"Pads, have you heard anything from her?"
The older boy let his eyes wander over to where his sister sat a few seats down, along with Lily, Alice, and their two dorm mates Dorcas and Marlene. He returned his gaze to the boys while shaking his head.
"No, I haven't been able to talk to her alone yet. But I wouldn't be surprised if it has happened. You know how they are." He looked at his food before taking another bite of his pie. Having heard no news about his sister's engagement, Sirius knew that it was only a matter of time before the word would spread. He knew without the confirmation from his sister that their mother was probably sitting at home at this very moment, planning everything along with the groom's mother.
"Suppose they already know?" Remus said while nodding towards the Slytherin table, where many students were already whispering while looking at Cassie. James, Sirius, and Peter all turned their heads facing the Slytherin table as well. However, Sirius met his younger brother's eyes, who sent his older brother a firm nod before turning back to his friends.The older boy let out a rather loud sigh, as it caused Remus to turn his gaze back to his friend.
"You okay?"
Amber eyes met grey, and Sirius knew that he couldn't lie to the young werewolf no matter what.
"I was right; she's already engaged to some prat. The Slytherins are whispering and gossiping as if you'd think you-know-who was here. Besides, Reg just gave me the nod." At this, James turned his full attention from a certain red-haired girl back to his two friends. Raising his eyebrows, he sent a curious look at them, wondering if he had just heard him right. "The nod? He gave you the nod?"
The nod had been a rather often occurrence in their younger years, however, the older the boys got, the more they drifted apart, and less the nod was used. As the two boys were sorted into two very different houses, it became their only way of communicating.However, the message was usually the same. You're right. It mostly happened when Sirius had told or warned the younger one about something that would end up being true; it became a you're right sign. The three remaining members of The Marauders knew of this as well; they knew that Regulus had to be careful now when associating with his brother, but that didn't stop him.
The four boys broke out of their conversation as they realized that the other students were standing up from their seats and making their way out of the great hall. A small chuckle escaped Remus as he almost couldn't believe that they had drowned out the entire sorting ceremony. Grabbing his book with his right hand, he stood up and started to walk away. Though, it wasn't until he realized that he was walking alone that he turned around and looked at the other boys who were still sitting at the table looking all lost like they had no idea where they were.
"Are you guys coming?"
A smile graced his lips as the words snapped his friends back down to earth. They looked at him for a second before they looked at each other, jumped out of their seats, and darted over to the werewolf. Sirius, who reached him first, threw his arm over the prefect's shoulder and looked at the two other boys, shaking his head with disapproval as if they were taking too long to reach them.
Cassie stood up just in time to see her brother practically sprinting over to Remus. For a moment there, she was scared that he was going to tackle the younger boy, but thankfully he stopped just before he reached his target.Seeing him standing there with his arm around his friend's shoulders, shaking his head while smiling mischievous to the two other boys walking towards them, gave her a feeling of happiness.
"What are you smiling about?"
She felt an arm across her shoulders, and Alice's voice appeared, filled with both curiosity and a hint of teasing as she witnessed her friend smiling into thin air. Alice followed the girl's gaze to try and find out the source of her happiness and let out a smile herself when she saw the four boys known as the Marauders, standing there smiling at each other.
"So that's why. You missed him this summer, didn't you?" The look in Cassie's eyes said everything. She had indeed missed him those months, though she knew that it was for the best. Smiling at her friend, they started walking towards the exit of the great hall.
Just outside the entrance, they found their three other friends, having what looked like an intense conversation, or at least two of them were. Dorcas's hands flew immediately to the sky when she saw Cassie and Alice, making the remaining two wondering if their friend had gone bonkers as she was standing there waving like a mad man, before they also saw the two girls.
"I thought we had lost you two for a minute there." Marlene smiled at them. However, Cassie raised her eyebrow and gave her friend a small look. "Sure looked like you and Lily were waving your hands off as Dorcas did." Alice let out a chuckle as the five girls started their way towards the common room.
"At least they didn't fall off. Imagine Lily's reaction if they had just... fallen off."
"She would have screamed bloody murder, and James would have wondered who to kill."
Lily gave her roommates a disapproving glare. "Guys, stop it." She quickly moved her eyes, searching the corridor. "What if he hears you?"
"Well, I, for one, don't think he would have minded knowing that you thought about him." Dorcas sent the redhead a knowing smirk and heard Marlene let out a slight snicker. Lily's face burned red as she sent Dorcas one of her infamous Evans glare.
"But knowing James, I suppose it rather would have been him who screamed bloody murder at the sight of Dorcas's arms, or any one's arms disembodied for that matter." A big grin spread on Marlene's face as she saw that the remaining four cracked up and started laughing.
"Oh merlin, imagined if that happened. Wait... that would be the perfect prank." A knowing glint appeared in the brown eyes of the middle Black child, and a mischievous smile graced her lips as her friends looked at her as if she had grown a third head.