James Potter had always been an animal person. So naturally, when he finds a cat without a name tag or collar wandering around the castle, he immediately takes it to Gryfinndor tower.
He had been walking back to the dorms after his last class of the day when he had seen a fluffy tabby cat, with no nametag or owner to be found. He assumed this cat to be a stray and picked up,
“Well aren’t you just the sweetest little thing?”, James said in a baby voice, “I think I'll name you Muffin.” He put a lot of thought into that name.
When he and Muffin entered the common room, they got a lot of strange looks and James couldn't understand why. “James-”, Marlene called out but James went to the dorm directly, excited to tell Remus and Sirius about their new pet.
James entered the dorm room without knocking(as usual),he held the cat behind his back for a surprise element, and he found both Remus and SIrius lying on Remus’ bed, cuddling. James quickly remembered why he'd been asked to knock so many times, but on the bright side, at least they were wearing pants this time. Peter was studying in the library, James remembered.
'`Good evening Gentlemen”, James said, alarming the couple. “Merlin, you've got to start knocking James' ', Sirius groaned as he looked up. Remus nodded, “exactly, who knows what we could've been doing”, he said, winking at Sirius.
“ Anyways” , James started and he brought the cat into the couple’s view, “This is Muffins, she’s our cat now”
Remus and Sirius stared at him blankly, and then at each other, completely dumbstruck.
“Actually I’m not sure if it’s a He or a She, but whatever”, James said, he then looked back at the cat, “It doesn’t matter, cause Muffin is still such a cute kitty”, he said the last part in a baby voice. Remus looked at Sirius, then back at James, then got up from his bed as if he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t have.
Sirius, who was clearly holding back laughter, turned to Remus and said, “You’ve gotta tell him, I can’t handle this”, and then burst out laughing. “Tell me what?”, James asked.
Remus put his hand on his face, hiding his smile very unsuccessfully, “James, I don’t know how to tell you this but-”
“That’s Minnie”, Sirius finished, then burst out laughing.
James looked at them for a second, processing, “You’re kidding, right?”, He asked. “No, no we’re not”, Remus said, laughing at his friend’s cluelessness.
James looked positively horrified as he put the cat down. It didn’t turn into Professor McGonagall, but it looked back at him and James realized, he just made an absolute bloody fool out of himself.
Not that he doesn’t do that regularly, but this is a bit much, even for James.
The cat walks out of the dorm calmly, and James looks back at his friends, his jaw on the floor. “Peter’s gonna be so sad he didn’t witness this”, Sirius said, laughing his ass off. “James Fleamont Potter, how do you manage to do these things?” Remus asked him, shaking his head but he had a huge grin on his face.
“It's a skill one must master”, James said, and through the horror and the shock a smile broke out on his face. Sirius made his way to Remus’ side and leaned on him slightly, “Good Potter, now Minnie knows Moony and I are dating”, he scolded but James could tell he wasn’t actually upset.
“Oh please, She already knew, One time she saw the two of you holding hands in the Great Hall and she slipped Dumbledore ten galleons”, James scoffed. “And you didn’t tell us this before?”, Remus said, with mock offense.
“Wait, that's what Marlene was telling me!”James said loudly, his head in his hands and Remus and Sirius looked at him like disappointed but slightly amused parents at a parent teacher conference.
The next detention the Marauders had with McGonagall for a prank they pulled two days ago consisted of them awkwardly doing their own work, until their Professor burst out laughing, and so did they.