Like usual the Great Hall was bustling with activity as they entered. Three of the four tables were up and walking around. Talking to friends from other Houses they hadn’t seen all summer.

“Oi Potter!” a familiar friendly voice called.

James looked down the red and gold table to see Frank Longbottom the Headboy badge on his chest, he sat with his arm around Alice Max, a sixth year from a smaller pureblood family not in the “Sacred Twenty-Eight.”

Again James saw the visions of the future. Alice and Frank, frail, thin, shock white hair and blurry unfocused eyes. Alice handing her son a candy wrapper.

James shook away the images, annoyed he kept seeing his friends' fates.

Frank waved James over and James complied, the other three of his troupe following along.

Frank was a strong jawed, light brown haired boy with a large frame. In James’s first year the third-year had looked chubby and was made fun of a good amount despite being great in most of his classes.

Now he was the biggest kid in Gryffindor, his baby fat gone and now made the other girls of the school swoon. Of course none of those girls ever had a chance. From what James had heard Alice and Frank had started going out two months into Alice’s first year, and had been inseparable since.

They had two titles often called depending on the situation. When someone wanted to joke around they would call the two The Most Boring Couple at Hogwarts, and when someone wanted what they had they called them The Ideal Couple.

Sure they fought sometimes, had arguments about school, friends, politics, but instead of breaking them apart it always seemed to make them stronger.

Alice was a cute girl with a rather thin body and big baby face cheeks, her light blonde hair was straight and she usually let it fall down her back.

“Hey Potter,” Alice said with an easy smile. “Gonna cause even more drama than you did this summer?”

James smirked, sitting down next to Frank and having to lean back to see the girl behind the man's frame. Sirius sat opposite him and Remus to his left.

“Obviously, that was just the prelude.”

“Gotta apologize for my mum James.”

“What did she do?” James asked, confused.

“Ah, guess your parents didn’t tell you. Once you came back from whatever it was my Mum did her best to try and make sure you were okay.”

“Oh, makes sense. My parents didn’t want me to be stormed by worried people after it so its all good. You can tell her I’m all good.”

Augusta Longbottom was a very nosy, loud person. She’d defend those she cared about with nothing but a toothpick if she had to, but she could hound someone if she thought something was wrong.

“Sweet, I’m not going to ask for anything if you don’t want to share, sure your friends here have done that enough for you. But I do want to talk to you.”

“‘Bout what?” James asked, squinting at Frank.

“Well, its my last year, I’m going to be busy with Headboy duties, NEWTs and being the Quidditch Captain, not to mention getting ready for Auror school. So I wanted to start training you this year to take some of the burden.”

“I’m not gonna be Headboy, and I also have OWLs,” James said, but he felt he knew what was coming, excitement building at the thought.

Frank rolled his eyes.

“Sure, like you can’t already guess. Quidditch Captain. McGonagall pretty much said it was a done deal that you’d get it next. So I’m going to start going over the training and planning with you, I’m hoping by the end of the year we’d be sharing the burden fifty-fifty.”

“So you can have an easier time with your NEWTs and me a harder time with my OWLs? Why not ask to give it to Alice instead? She’s on the team.”

“Not next year I’m not,” Alice said.

James spluttered.

“What! Why not?”

“I only joined because Frank was on it. Honestly, I never really cared for Quidditch.”

The four Marauders and even Frank looked offended at that. Remus and Peter were just doing theatrics. Remus didn’t like Quidditch and flying made Peter queasy.

“But what about our seeker?”

She shrugged.

“Find a new one.”

An unfamiliar hand landed on James’s shoulder and he turned to see Lily.

“Thank you for not making it worse with Sev, Potter.”

Before he could reply she was walking further down the table until she sat with her own group of friends.

The others looked at him with various amounts of amusement.

“What did you do? I’ve never heard her actually say anything nice to you?” Alice asked.

“Uh-”

“Snivellus sent a Cutting Curse at him,” Sirius said, the anger that had disappeared when they arrived coming back in full force.

Frank and Alice’s faces darkened.

“What! Why?” Frank asked, glaring at the table across the hall.

“James made Evans cry,” Remus said, leaning forward with a smirk.

“Well that’s no good, not worth a Cutting Curse but at least a Jelly-Legs or a Stinging Hex,” Alice said, but there was little humor in her voice.

“Didn’t hit, and it was all a misunderstanding anyways. Not like I did anything mean. Snape was just defending his friend,” James said.

Sirius glared at James and the couple looked at him with raised eyebrows.

“Man, getting kidnapped does wonders for the temper it seems,” Frank said dryly. “Again I won’t push anything, but Curses like that are no good. If it happens again, tell a teacher.”

James nodded, but the rest of the Marauders knew James wouldn’t.

It wouldn’t have been the first time one of their exchanges had turned bloody, but neither the Gryffindors or the Slytherin had ever gone to a teacher about it. This was the closest it's ever gotten to truly maiming though.

-

The sorting and feat were normal as usual. Dumbledore said some things about not going into the Forbidden Forest, some banned items that fifty-percent of the students had, rules that made no sense to follow. Like why wouldn’t you be able to use magic in the hallways?

He talked about Quidditch tryouts in two weeks, how teamwork makes the dreamwork. Congratulated the new Prefects, Headboy and Headgirl. (It had been a tossup between Narcissia Black and Amelia Bones, but the Hufflepuff got it.)

Then it was off to bed. Remus stood, walking with them for a few paces before a voice called out.

“Remus!”

“How come she calls him by his first name?” James asked.

“Because his first name doesn’t make her want to vomit,” Sirius replied.

Remus looked back to realize the Gyrffindor first-years and a peeved Lily Evans were looking at him.

“Oh, right. I’ll see you guys in the dorm alright? Don’t start the Annual Marauder Scheming without me.”

“Gotcha,” Sirius replied waving. “Ah, they get sticks shoved up their arse so fast.”

James and Peter shuddered.

“We did not need that imagery.”

Sirius shrugged and they made their way to the Common Room, Frank opening the portrait for them with a dramatic sweeping bow. The first-years were still being shown around. Hopefully it would be enough for the little guys, they did have classes the next day. They’d been talking about giving the students a free day right after arriving, but it hadn’t gone through the Board of Governors yet. James knew it would, as Harry had it back- or he guessed forward- in his time.

“You guys can hang around if yall want, but try and head to your rooms soon, don’t want to crowd the first-years and you know how McGonagall likes her welcoming speech,” Frank said before heading over to a loveseat where he sat with Alice. Him being big enough that she had to practically sit on his lap. Which James was sure was the point.

The Marauders minus one looked at one another before scurrying up the steps to their room, Sirius grabbed the back of James’s robe making him fall on his face and he cursed as Sirius stepped over him. Only for him to trip as well and land right on top of James. Peter scurried around them and both Sirius and James tried to make a grab for his ankles, but the little man was able to dart away. James pushed Sirius off, damn the pureblood black heir had gotten fat and stumbled up the steps trying to catch up to Peter.

“Oi! Get back here you- Oof!” Sirius began before he fell again. “PETER! Did you jinx my shoelaces together!?”

Peter’s high pitched laugh echoed down the stairs and James joined him before yelping and dodging a Jelly Legs jinx from Sirius.

“Obscuro!” James yelled, and Sirius cursed as a blindfold wrapped around his head.

“OW!”

James winced, he still wasn’t too used to the huge increase in power.

James found Peter laughing uncontrollably on the ground of their dorm and James joined him.

“Nice one, didn’t even hear you say the incantation!” James said.

“W-whispered it,” Peter heaved, his laughter dying down before it came back in full force.

Sirius found them like that, a strip of red across his eyes and his chin bleeding slightly.

“James! That really fucking hurt you bastard!”

Peter and James stopped, looking at Sirius. Then they began laughing again.

“Alright you wanna laugh!”

Sirius began peppering them with tickling jinxes for a few minutes.

“HAHAHAHAAHA,” Sirius yelled maniacally. “AHA, now I get why my parents do this so much. Mad bastards must’ve found it fun.”

James groaned, tears falling from his eyes and abdomen clenching in pain.

“I… I doubt it was a tickling jinx.”

Sirius grinned in a not as funny way.

“Nah, but I think this is better.”

“Oh… I think I’m gonna be sick,” Peter grumbled, holding his stomach and moaning in pain.

“Good, it's what you deserve,” Sirius said, giving Peter a kick in the arse.

James stood looking around the familiar room.

There were nine boys in his year in Gryffindor, five had taken another room, and it had been fate that the four of them were in another. It was what let the shy Peter and Remus become such fast friends with Sirius and James.

There had been a fifth bed in the room, but they had taken the mattress off and turned it into a little fort in their first-year. Now it would be difficult for all five of them to fit in it. The house-elves thankfully hadn’t put it back to normal like they had the first time. Sneaking them butterbeer in their second-year really was one of the smartest things the group ever did.

Half of the stuff they got into trouble with in the first-year had been caught by house-elves, who not only cleaned, but also helped to make sure kids didn’t end up getting hurt, or in some darker cases, hurting others. Didn’t always work, but it was a deterrent.

James also now knew they, along with the portraits, acted as a spy network for the Headmaster. Not a perfect one. Elves couldn’t be everywhere, and Portraits were mentally static and prone to memory loss.

“Alrighty let's get the room back into shape!” James said.

-

10 more Chapters up on my Pa treon

Pa tre on.c om/BronzeTurtle