First Year - Detention
It vexed Remus as to how easy it was for Sirius and James to slack off in classes, and receive a record-breaking amount of detentions to still be able to keep on top of schoolwork. Their antics seemed to affect the other two slightly more, and once exam season had started to be mentioned by their schoolteachers, Peter had begun to feel the pressure. Normally one of the quieter of the four, tending to join in on conversations when he wished, preferring to listen to the endless banter that is James and Sirius, Peter would endlessly rant about not remembering a single day before winter break, and refusing to admit he knew more in herbology than anyone in their class.
In the weeks following their teachers' warnings, Peter would pipe up stressing about their looming exams, frustrated at the crumpled sheets of homework and parchment that would linger in the boys’ rucksacks. Sirius didn’t even seem to bring a quill to many classes, and would always try to nick one of James’ unsuccessfully, and turning to Remus who kept two spares anyways. Normally, Remus would sneak away to study with the girls in the library, who had somewhat taken him under their wings in some type of solidarity with his friendship with Lily. Mary was much similar to Sirius, and was much more focused on the trivial ideas of society and other people, and didn’t care two bits about her work, not to mention her tendency to bring Marlene into her antics, so most of their afternoons would be spent as just Remus and Lily. Marlene and Mary were much content to spend their time together and avoid their homework, and Lily and Remus could sit with each other pondering their ever-confusing potions work; because listening to Slughorn’s theory teachings and continuing some sort of productivity would always clash.
There would be times where Snape would stalk the library halls, looking for his books on who-knows-what, and stop dead in his tracks to see Remus and Lily working next to each other. The first four or five times, he had ushered her away to ‘talk about the work’, yet Remus could still hear him hiss ‘What are you doing with that guy? I thought we were going to work together. Plus all those boys aren’t worth your time Lils!’, and would then hear the piercing ‘SHHHH’ of Madam Pince.
Lily would always return, brushing off the encounter offering that ‘He was asking about the work, I don't know.’ whenever Remus asked, until he quickly became unbothered and stopped asking questions.
When they weren’t battling through overdue potions work, they would skip to the more enjoyable subjects, relaying through the homework they had been given throughout the week and finishing much quicker than they could ever do in class or with their other friends. Some afternoons when they ran out of books, but were almost too tired to deal with other company, they would huddle into the back corners of the library, finding the soft-ish cushions and making their own little hut - that was easily cleaned up. They would read textbook chapters, or wizard fairy tales, and summarise each chapter in five words, before swapping texts to read the next chapter. Some summaries had made no sense, whilst others could make one another burst into laughter so close to tears that they could only be sobered by the idea of Pince’s glare.
Varying on the amount of work they wanted to get done, or the restlessness that settled into them when spending too much time in between the shelves, The pair would return back to the Gryffindor tower. The marauders and the girls had claimed their spot in the common room, seizing the empty space for their shenanigans and troublemaking. Anyone who had dared to replace them had faced dire consequences of stink bombs, and a variety of pranks in different degrees of pure dangerousness and itching powder. How the marauders came up with their spells, and so many, was a guess to anyone, but they always came up with new ones. Pretty soon no one bothered to try and take that spot, even when left unoccupied. It was home to the marauders and their friends.
~
“Do you know what I think?” Peter asked no one in particular.
“Honestly Pete, I have no clue what’s happening up there. And I frankly don’t want to.” Sirius quipped, ticked off at his friends' endless complaining, and tired after James forced him to join in on a run. ‘If you’re not going to revise, you’ll at least join me. Maybe we’ll be scouted by the Gryffindor team!’ James had insisted. Sirius had zero clue how running could ever be of any use in quidditch, but he wasn’t allowed on a broom without supervision since the ‘incident’. The memories of that night still frequented Sirius’ mind, as much as he would rather push it out. He never wanted to be in the infirmary anyway, so he was fine with taking it easy when flying.
Peter had continued rambling about his coursework, ignoring Sirius’ comment like it was his second nature, and questioning why the school had to test them for everything, all at the same time!!
“Couldn’t they do exams whenever? Like, give us a little time to prepare for each one!! I keep getting my potions and herbology mixed up and it would NOT be good if I added any sort of snail mucus to a forgetfulness potion.”
“I agree with Pete, but I’d rather finish it all up now. I don’t want to focus on this any longer than I have to.” James offered the still very uptight Peter.
“I have no clue what you’ve been focusing on, Potter. You’re too busy visiting detention, or running around staring at the quidditch practice!” Lily replied, sending Sirius in a laughing fit at the face that had been plastered on his best friend’s face.
James immediately ran off to find his discarded rucksack, and everyone joined in the laughter.
“Good luck studying, I’m off to bed.” Lily offered, beckoning the girls up to their dormitory to get ready for bed.
Peter always believed that good sleep meant good studying, and followed an insanely strict bedtime routine, leading him to fall asleep every night at 8:45 on the dot, so already yawning, he gave in for the night. No one else would listen to his debates anyways.
Remus stayed behind to help James with his work, feeling bad for the boy and also wanting him to actually do something helpful, and Sirius stayed behind to annoy Remus and James, and avoid Peter’s bedtime rant, followed by noisy snoring.