Epiphany

4 ~ Not So Serious

James loved his friends. The Marauders were like family to him. But right now, he couldn't help but be annoyed at Remus. Moony had to go and interrupt his, perfectly healthy, argument with Evans and Snivellous Snoop. He had it all under control, as he kept reminding Remus as he dragged James over to their compartment, and the unwelcome intrusion meant that he wasn't able to hex Snivelly for insulting him.

"James, will you bloody shut up about it for one goddamn second!" Remus snapped after the fifth- sixth? who was keeping count at this point- complaint from James. They continued in silence until they reached the compartment. Inside, Sirius and Peter were having an arm-wrestle for no particular reason, and Sirius was clearly winning.

"I knew he'd convince you to sit with us!" Peter exclaimed as James begrudgingly sat down beside Sirius.

So it was Peter who sent for Remus, the little rat. James, being a mature 15 year old, responded in the mature way: "Snitch!"

"Quaffle." Peter responded, no one could tell if he had understood the insult, but no one was going to fill him in.

"So, how come your first instinct was to visit good ol' Evans and not-so-good ol' Sniv?" Sirius asked, seemingly offended.

"Thought it'd be funny." Was all James said, but even he doubted it was genuine.

The next few hours seemed to breeze by like seconds. Sirius, cocky from his victory against Peter, challenge the rest of the Marauders to arm-wrestles. He was only beaten by Remus. During this time, Peter left mysteriously (according to him he had "important business" but since when did Wormtail have business, let alone the important kind) and never returned. Sirius suggested transfiguring some of Mrs Potter's sandwiches into cheese to 'summon'- as he put it- him, however he quickly gave up on this after his third try turned a perfectly good ham sandwich into a frog which Remus and he had to chase up and down the train.

This, obviously, left James alone for a while. And James had the tendency to do stupid things when he was alone. So, of course, he started wandering the train. And, of course, he just so happened to end up outside the room that Evans and Snivellous just so happened to sit in, whilst Evans had just so happened to have left.

"I'd say what a coincidence, but I'm inclined to believe this isn't one." Snoop said as James entered.

"Well, at least you have a few braincells up there." James replied with a smile.

"Why are you here Potter?" Snivelly asked, the annoyance clear in his voice.

"Am I not allowed to have a chat with my good friend Snape every so often?" James grinned mischievously. After his not-so-good friend glared at him for a minute straight, he decided to cut to the chase. "Look, Snivellous," Snoopy scowled at the name, but James continued, "Despite everything, I have decided to be generous. I'm willing to completely ignore you this year, like everyone else does, as long as you do one teeny-weeny thing for me."

"And what might that be?"

"Leave me and my mates alone. I don't want you to so much as breathe in their direction, do you hear me?"

For a moment, Snivellous made no response. In James' humble opinion, there wasn't anything to think over. The deal was in the snake's favour, yet think he did. Whatever resentment Snoop held for James and his friends was clearly greater than James had ever thought.

"Fine, but only as long as you leave Lily alone as well." He finally replied.

Now it was James' turn to think. He bore no hate for Evans, though he actions suggested otherwise, and had honestly hoped of becoming her friend this year. She seemed like a cool gal, and James had decided that whatever hit his reputation as a prankster took was worth it. But he knew that Snivellous had his suspicions on Remus' status as a werewolf, and wanted no attacks on Sirius or Peter either.

"Fine." James said coldly, still undecided on whether he would regret it or not. "And so it begins."

With that, he returned to his own compartment with a growing feeling of uneasiness.