1
It was winter 1777 and James Potter had just arrived back at Hogwarts–with Remus, Sirius, and Peter of course.
The castle glistened with the snow reflecting the winter sunlight.
“Hey prongs,” Sirius said, “What’re we doing this semester? Are you gonna keep trying to get Lily?”
James had told them over the break that he was over Lily. But, as expected, his friends didn’t believe him. Something about “YOU’VE LIKED HER FOR YEARS MATE WHAT DO YOU MEAN,” and skeptic “really”s.
But the truth was that he meant it, though; he meant it very much.
He just didn’t like Lily anymore–not in that way. In James’s mind, it was simple; he had moved on, just like that.
It had been a long time coming though, he reckoned, 6 years.
Six years of non-stop rejections and non-stop ways of trying to get Lily to go out with him.
“Nah,” James said, “as I said, I’m over her. I’m just going to try to be her friend.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Sirius said rolling his eyes and exchanging glances with the others.
James saw it and also rolled his eyes.
“Seriously, I-”
“What do you mean, ‘Siriusly’, your love for Lily has nothing to do with me!” Sirius said as he gasped with mock surprise.
The rest of the group gave him a look and Sirius rolled his eyes and sighed.
“My friends have no sense of humor! What have I done to deserve this, moony?” Sirius exclaimed dramatically as he mimicked being a damsel in distress and fell against Remus.
Remus huffed a laugh at that. “Nothing, love,” he said as he pushed Sirius off him. They clasped hands, and right on cue James and Peter said, “You just made that joke too many times that’s it, ‘Siriusly.’”
The whole group–except Sirius–laughed at that, while Sirius pouted.
“Moony, you traitor!” he huffed out, arms crossed.
“Boys, quickly, you guys are late for the feast” They heard McGonagall shout.
They looked around, quickly realizing that they were the only ones outside. The sun was also already dipping.
They sprinted through the cold snow, getting to the doors.
“That’ll be 20 points from Gryffindor,” they heard Professor McGonagall say as they passed her.
Only 20 that's not bad, James thought.
The doors thudded shut and the icy wind stopped. The warmth of the castle filling their bones.
“Each,” they heard the Professor shout their way, completing her sentence.
Sirius groaned, “We just got back and we already lost–what 70 points.”
“80 actually,” Remus corrected not missing a beat.
“Ughh, the rest of the house will hate us,” Peter complained.
“Yeah,” the rest of them replied to the statement, downheartedly.
“Oh well, nothing we can do about it now,” said James, optimistically, “We just need to come up with a cool story for how we lost all those points.”
Sirius nodded, “You’re right.” His face then shifted to the calculated expression that James had seen on most of the blacks at one point.
They walked the rest of the way to the great hall. Peter and James discussed the quidditch scores for the season. “The Falcons are gonna win this year,” James said enthusiastically. “I mean look at their current scores!” “Nah, I don’t think so,” Peter replied. They bickered for a while back and forth on who would win this season.
They stopped when they got to the gates of the great hall, looking at Remus and Sirius. They had lagged, Remus, supporting Sirius as he thought about what to do.
“Hey we’re here,” Remus nudged Sirius. Sirius was startled, evidently having been lost in thought, and flushed. He looked ahead and ran to catch up to the other two. Remus followed, laughing.
“What were you thinking about pads?” James asked him amused at how much Sirius had jumped when Remus had nudged him.
“Oh nothing, just some stories we could tell the rest of the house,” Sirius said.
“Yeah, yeah whatever,” James said echoing Sirius’s past words, “definitely.”
Sirius squeaked in annoyance, “I was,” he huffed.
“Sure,” James said skeptically.
“Moony, he doesn’t believe me,” Sirius said, arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed.
“In Prongs’s defense, you were pretty lost in thought, love,” Remus said, shrugging with a small smile on his face.
“Mooonyyyy,” Sirius whined.
“It’s the truth love,” Remus replied.
“C’mon gang,” James said as he opened the doors and walked into the great hall.