Chapter 4
Sirius wiped the sweat from his forehead despite the winterish weather and thrust his shovel into the soft earth with more force than was necessary. It wasn’t fair— they weren’t even the ones who started the fight. Snape and his crew were probably organizing potions ingredients with old man Sluggy while they were stuck cleaning up after Hagrid’s new pet-- a baby hippogriff called Buckbeak, who he had bought from some bloke at the Leaky. The little thing was cute, he had to admit but it sure did shit a lot. He wrinkled his nose against the smell and turned to his friends who looked just as put out as he was.
“Sorry for landing you lot in detention,” he mumbled, not being able to look the others in the eyes. It had been the first thing he had said since the incident and the other three looked up from their task instantly. After they were caught by Filch, the four of them were escorted to McGonagall’s quarters where she had a go at them for what felt like hours until she marched them down to Hagrid’s to learn their lesson through manual labor. Sirius hadn’t muttered a word throughout the ordeal and hardly looked up from his shoelaces. It had been a while since he had lost control of his magic like that, and even longer since it happened at school. Tantrums, his mother would call them.
“Don’t worry about it Pads, the look on Snape’s face was priceless! He was all like--” James made a dumb face before collapsing in a fit of laughter. He was trying too hard to lighten the mood and it showed.
“It’s ok,” Remus shrugged, “not like we had much else planned for the evening,” he said with a reassuring smile as the hippogriff wove in between his legs, almost tripping him in the process. The foal was quite playful but would probably grow out of that as he matured. They had learned in Care of Magical Creatures that year that hippogriffs were known to be skittish and aggressive when provoked. Not a great choice for a pet but that didn’t matter much to Hagrid who could love an 8-foot-tall tarantula.
“Speak for yourself,” Peter mumbled, “I was supposed to have a study date with Eugenia Bell.” It took a moment for Sirius to recall a face to go with the name. She was a short Hufflepuff girl with limp brown hair who had once passed him a flirty note in charms back in their second year. He and James had laughed at that note a little too loudly and, when class was over, she fled from the room with red cheeks and teary eyes. Definitely not his proudest moment.
“Wow, how’d you land that one Wormy?” James nudged the shorter boy with his shoulder.
Peter’s face turned pink, but he shrugged his shoulders in faux nonchalance. “Remus might have given me a few pointers.”
“Really? I didn’t know Moony was such a ladies’ man,” James teased.
“Shove off, Potter,” Remus retorted, but there was no malice behind the words. He flung the muddy and questionable contents of his shovel towards James, narrowly avoiding his shoes. Sirius cracked a smile at his friends’ antics, his mood and the aftermath of his meltdown quickly forgotten.
They worked for several more minutes in silence until Remus could no longer ignore the twinging in his joints. He dropped his shovel to the ground and plopped ungracefully down onto the wooden steps that lead from the back door of Hagrid’s humble hut. He stretched and his joints let out an audible crack. Sirius winced at the sound. It reminded him of the way Remus’s bones broke every month. The others quickly joined him and if Hagrid noticed their slacking off, he didn’t mention it. The giant was probably snoozing in his armchair as he supervised the detentionees from the comfort of his home.
What would be considered his backyard was enclosed by a picket fence and was teeming with all kinds of magical creatures, most of which the boys couldn’t name if their lives depended on it. It made Remus think of the old lady back home who fed all the stray cats in the neighborhood. “At least we don’t have detention on your birthday, Prongs,” he said after a moment.
“Yeah, we really lucked out on that one,” Peter chimed in.
“It wasn’t luck, mate, Minnie would never do that to me.”
“Sure,” Sirius rolled his eyes. “We need to plan something epic.”
“Like a party?”
“Well of course we’re throwing a party.” It would be a classic Gryffindor rager, like always. They had thrown a party for him every year, and unlike Remus' exclusive birthday, they were always full of people desperate to be friends with the quidditch star. The attention almost always went to James’ head, but it was worth it to make their friend’s birthday extra special for him. “I’m talking about a prank.”
James’s face lit up with excitement. “A special birthday prank just for me?”
“Just for you, Jamie-boy. Now who will be our victim?”
“Snape, of course,” James answered, “That bloody wanker has been asking for it if you ask me.”
“What if we got the whole lot of them?” Remus said, then added “They’ll be expecting us to prank Snape. This way it can’t be traced back to us.”
“Good point, Moons. They’ll definitely suspect us. Best to play it safe.”
“So does anyone have any ideas for the prank?” James asked, taking his place as the unofficial leader of the group.
It was quiet again, just for a moment, until Remus spoke up. “Well… there is this one prank I’ve been thinking about. I still need to work out some of the bugs, though.”
The others share a conspiratorial smile with each other. It was no secret that Remus was the best at planning pranks.
…
“So do you think you’ll get a soul mark,” Peter asked after the planning of the birthday prank was settled. Sirius perked up at this question. After everything that had happened on Remus’ birthday, he hadn’t thought twice to ask James about his upcoming one. Granted, he probably would have waited to ask until they were alone.
James shrugged his shoulders, “I guess it doesn’t really matter, but I really hope I do.” Of course, everyone hoped they would get a soul mark, but it wasn’t the end of the world if you didn’t have one. Many wizards who didn’t have them went on to settle down with muggles. Still, the disappointment of waking up on your fifteenth birthday without one was a feeling that Sirius was glad he didn’t have to experience.
“Who do you think it could be?” Pete asked.
“I hope it’s Lily, of course,” James answered quickly, then paused. “Or Frank Longbottom,” he added casually.
“Frank? Why would it be Frank?” Peter asked incredulously.
“Yeah, why not?” James asked. “He’s really good at quidditch!”
“Because he’s a guy! Your soul mate can’t be a guy!” Peter said with such surety that it sent an immediate wave of concern through the other guys.
An awkward silence passed over the group as the three of them shared a look—a silent agreement to not mention the elephant in the room. The elephant being the matching soul marks on 2/4 of the marauders. But Remus had a hard time believing his friend would be capable of such hatred when he was so quick to accept his werewolf status. Sure, he had to suffer through some insensitive questions, but they worked it out in the end. “Would you have a problem with it if his soul mate was a man?” he asked hesitantly.
“No, I’ve heard of muggle blokes dating other blokes but that’s not how soul marks work. My mum said—”
“I hardly think your mum is the expert on soul marks,” Sirius cut in sharply. He was now standing with his arms crossed and an irritated expression on his face.
Peter turned red and sputtered. Remus nudged Sirius’ foot in warning. He could sense a full-on fight brewing so he cut in to try to avoid another mess. “You know Peter, it really is more common than you think.”
“Really? I had no idea,” Peter said.
Remus put on his best professor voice. “Yep,” he said, “you know it’s rumored that Dumbledore shared his soul mark with a man.”
“I didn’t know that. So, do they like shack up together during the Holls? Are they married? Is that how it works?”
“No, I don’t think it’s always that simple. I don’t think they have talked to each other in years.”
“That’s sad.” He said. Remus nodded in agreement.
“Well explains why he is such a nut,” James said with an air of finality, changing the subject to something much more trivial.
…
Eventually, Hagrid came out of his hut and relieved them of their shit-shoveling duties. “Thanks for your help, fellas. This one sure is a handful,” the giant said as he scratched the hippogriff behind its ears. The creature brayed at the attention.
The night air was harsh on their skin as they walked back to the castle. The Forbidden Forest loomed to the left as they followed the familiar path to the castle entrance. Their sweat-soaked shirts had turned cold, and their hair was plastered onto their foreheads. It was almost curfew time, and the night was so quiet they could hear their shoes splooshing in the mushy grass. Peter held his wand out in front of him, the tip glowing with a Lumos charm.
Remus plucked a messily hand-rolled cigarette from the case Sirius had given him for his birthday and cupped his hand around it as he flicked the matching lighter. The flame danced around a bit before it finally took. Sirius watched him inhale, then quickly relaxed his shoulders. The sight of Remus using the gift he had given him made the corners of Sirius’s mouth twitch.
“You know those are bad for you, right?” James teased.
“You don’t say,” Remus retorted and then Sirius’ mouth went dry as he watched Remus’ checks hallow out as he sucked in at least half of the cigarette in one go. Cheeky bastard, Sirius thought. He was positive that no one looked quite as cool as Remus did when he was smoking. It was one of the first things that intrigued him about the other boy. That and he seemed to embody the opposite of everything his family expected him to be.
“Ugh,” James waved his hand in front of his face and the other boys laughed as Remus blew out a cloud of smoke in his direction.
Sirius lagged behind as he watched the others laugh and mess around like boys often do. He was quiet, exhaustion from the day hit him like a train, but he felt a lot better than he had earlier. He was lost in thought when Remus turned around, holding out his nearly spent cigarette. “Want to kill it?” he asked quietly.
Sirius nodded, took the cigarette between his fingertips, and tried not to think about how close it was to sharing a kiss.
...
James’s soul mark appeared at the stroke of midnight on March 27th. They were in their dorm, finalizing the last bits of the plan for the special birthday prank when he felt an odd sensation, like a current of magic, coursing below the skin of his forearm.
“So, Wormtail will be here,” Remus said pointing at the page in James’s quidditch playbook on which they had drawn up the plan for the prank. “And will give us the signal when the coast is—” he trailed off as James exclaimed.
“What the—” James quickly started to roll up the left sleeve of his flannel shirt. His eyes widened as he caught the first glimpse of the bottom edges of the mark.
The others whipped their heads around and looked to Remus’s muggle alarm clock that sat on his cluttered nightstand and gasped as it dawned on them. “Give us a look!” Sirius jumped onto James’s bed and crowded into his space. James held up his arm triumphantly once he was able to get his shirt rolled past his elbow. The white scar-like mark was big, taking up most of his forearm. Sirius pulled his friend into a hug that was more of a headlock and smacked a sloppy kiss onto his temple.
“Egh, dog breath,” James muttered and wiped at the saliva on his face.
The four marauders admired the intricacies of the design that swirled around the veins in James’s arm. They were quiet, contemplative, for a few moments until Peter broke the silence. “Well, that’s going to be hard to hide,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Why would I want to hide it?” James asked but rolled his sleeve back down anyway. It was a bit of a taboo to show off your mark if you could help it. It was unavoidable for some people who got theirs on highly visible areas, like their face for example, but it was a societal norm to politely ignore those unfortunate marks. Most people regarded them as deeply personal, a private matter, but that was mostly the older generations. His parents had always worn theirs proudly and openly and James had always admired them for that.
“Well, I think this calls for a celebration,” Remus stated as he pulled a bottle of some muggle liquor and a joint out of his trunk.
“Ok, but only one shot. We still have a prank to commit.”
Sirius transfigured the four hairpins on his nightstand into shot glasses and Remus filled them all generously. They toasted James. Sirius even tried to give a long-drawn-out speech about his best friend, but James cut him off, downing the shot with a wince and the others followed shortly.
“You know, your soul mark is in the same spot as the death mark,” Peter pointed out.
“Maybe that means your soul mate is a death eater,” Remus teased with a smirk.
“Yeah kind of suspicious, mate” Sirius added. “Not going to switch sides on us, are you?”
“Not a chance,” James scoffed.
“Guess you were always one to wear your heart on your sleeve.”
One shot turned into two and then three and then four. They were tipsy and red-eyed by the time they came down the stairs at three in the morning. The Gryffindor tower was quiet, and the stairwell was only dimly lit by dripping candles that perched on the occasional sconce.
“Quiet down, you’re going to get us caught,” Remus, who was handling himself the best, scolded Sirius as his boots fell heavy on the stairs. The pink on his cheeks from drinking did a good job of covering up his blush and he refused to acknowledge the effect Remus’s scolding had on him. He tried harder to make his footsteps lighter with his next steps.
“Are you sure the Slytherins won't be able to just use a drying charm?” Peter asked, a little too loudly, for what seemed like the hundredth time that night.
“I’ve already told you,” Remus whispered, “We’re going to summon water from the Great Lake. There’s an anti-evaporation spell on it,” he explained.
“How do you even know that?”
Remus shrugged. “Read it somewhere.”
No one was in the common room when they reached the bottom of the stairs. They lucked out-- there was usually at least one poor soul up late doing homework. Peter turned into Wormtail and James tucked him into the front pocket of his shirt, then threw the invisibility cloak over himself and Sirius. Remus had been too tall to fit under the cloak comfortably for a while now and avoided it whenever possible. He walked beside them with the map open under his nose. Filch was somewhere on the 3rd floor, far away from where they would be, and if he was caught by anyone else, he could just say he was on his way to the hospital wing to get a pain-relieving potion. It dawned on him that they would probably get away with the prank.
“Where are you going at this hour, boy?” The Fat Lady asked as the portrait hole swung open for them to exit.
“Oh, just out for a stroll,” he answered.