"So tell us a bit about yourself." Remus said, after Harry had come back to the dorm room, claiming that he would be sharing it with them for the rest of the year. James and Sirius were sulking, Peter was annoyed, but because he had never really liked the sneaking out they did at night, Remus was quite content with the situation. It would give him more time to figure this boy out.
While he unpacked his things, the boy said, "I'm Harry Potter, seventeen, and in Gryffindor. What more is there to say?"
Undeterred by Harry's tone of voice, Remus said, "James's last name is Potter. Are you two related?"
At this point, James overcame his sulking to study their new dorm mate. "Yeah, I suppose we could be. My family's fairly big, and we do look a lot alike."
"If I didn't know any better Prongs, I'd say he were your twin. Get rid of the scar and give you green eyes, and you two could trick anyone!" Sirius said, with excitement. "Oh, the possibilities…"
Harry thought the idea sounded amusing, to be honest. He wasn't really up for pranking anyone back home, but then, he had never tried it. Now that he would be staying with the infamous Marauders of Hogwarts, in their last year, he realized he couldn't be the one to hold them down. "Well, it wouldn't be that difficult. I have some friends who…enjoy inventing things. They created candies that can change your hair, your face shape…"
"Your eyes!" Peter said catching on to what everyone else in the room hadn't thought needed to be said.
"Yeah, but what about the scar?" Remus said, frowning faintly. "Where did you get that anyways?" From what he knew about scars, it seemed highly unlikely that someone could get such a perfectly shaped one in a place such as the forehead. This one almost seemed like a curse scar, and it seemed like that was even more likely when Harry replied,
"I don't want to talk about that yet."
Yes, Harry Potter would make this year interesting.
Panicking, Harry tried to steer the conversation away from anything about himself. "So, you guys like pranks?"
"How'd you know?" Remus asked. Stop being so perceptive, Professor. Harry thought with amusement.
"It just seemed kind of obvious, from how excited you became over the candies." Remus seemed to accept this answer, and Sirius and James were positively beaming already.
"Love `em." Sirius replied promptly. For a moment, there was an awkward silence, as each of the boys tried to think of something else to say. Finally, Remus asked, "What's your favorite subject?"
"Trust Moony to ask something about school." James muttered, but Sirius and he were both smiling.
"Ah…Defense Against the Dark Arts."
Somehow, this made Remus suspicious. "Why?"
"I'm not a Death Eater, or anything like that, if that's what your thinking. I just have a talent for that particular subject, and a grudge against Dark Magic." Harry replied. Thinking fast, as to how he could try and shake Remus's suspicion about his scar, Harry added, "It killed my parents."
There was a shocked silence this time, until James asked, "Dark magic…killed your parents? Sorry, we shouldn't have…"
"It was a long time ago. I didn't really even know them, and you can't really miss someone you've never known." Harry replied just as easily, shrugging it off. "Better topics…"
"QUIDDITCH!" Sirius said loudly, bouncing from his position on the bed. Harry's mood quickly picked up as he realized that he would be able to play with his father.
"Love it! Were I came from, I was the youngest seeker in a century!" Both boys grinned at him, James saying,
"You'll have to try out!" After a moment of thought, he said under his breath, "You'd have to be good to be put on the team so young… I'll resort to begging if I have to! Please try out! If we have to suffer with me as seeker again…"
"That bad?" Harry asked with mock sincerity, fighting a smile.
"Not at all! I was brilliant, if that's what you're suggesting!" Harry hid his snickering behind a cough at James's hurt pride, but James caught on quickly, and added, "Hey, really! I was awesome, wasn't I?"
"Sure he was." Remus said, smirking.
"Right…" Sirius said, as Peter said,
"I thought he was good." Honestly.
"I WAS FINE!" James insisted. "We didn't win a game last season because we were absolutely slaughtered by the other team's chasers. That's just my natural position, they need me there! But I'm captain, and I want to win the cup this time!"
"Relax, Prongs. We've got a chance this year." Sirius said amused at how enthusiastic James was taking his Quidditch.
"I'm going to try out for seeker this year too!" Peter added, feeling left out. "James was training me all of last year! I think I'm finally ready!"
And now Harry knew that this would be harder than he had thought. Every time his father's friend-who-would-turn-traitor spoke, Harry felt like strangling him. But as Remus was already watching him with too much interest, Harry didn't think that this would be a good way to become friends and throw Remus off of his scent.
Off his scent.... knowing that werewolves had canine senses, he had joked about it like only Snape would. Sometimes Harry marveled at his bad sense of irony. Deciding that this must be his Slytherin side, and wondering if Malfoy thought like that all the time, Harry threw himself onto his bed, the one next to Remus's and continued to talk with the Marauders late into the night.
"This feels weird." Remus stated after a pause. Harry smiled at how childish he sounded, until he realized that Remus was as much a kid here as he was. Of course Remus would sound like that.
"What feels weird?" Harry asked, wondering if Remus had already figured him out. But there was no way…was there?
"It feels like I'm meeting you again." `You have no idea' Harry thought in reply, saying aloud,
"I know. I got so used to my old school and friends, and my old school is similar to this one-" `It would be seeing as it's the same school', "So seeing it without my friends," `and with my dead father and his dead best friend, not to mention an old professor who happens to be a werewolf and the traitor who ruined my life,' "Is a little strange."
`I need to control that sarcasm. It won't make me friends with anyone else.' Harry thought, as he and Remus talked about little things. Neither seemed to want to say what they were really thinking, and Harry responded to every question without really thinking, until he realized what direction the questions were going in.
Somehow, Remus had to know what Harry thought about werewolves. When his new roommate had said he'd slept lightly, Remus had joked around by saying that that was a good thing, because he would hear Sirius and James trying to pull one over him, but secretly, he was worried. There was no way they would be able to keep the secret from Harry for long.
"So what do you think about…giants?"
"They can be talked around. We'd get along fine, if wizards would make the effort."
"Trolls."
Harry winced, clearly lost in memory. "Ah, I have some bad past experiences with trolls…"
"You've met a troll and lived to tell about it?" Remus asked, impressed. Usually that took a large amount of magic.
"Yeah…In our first year, it was in our school in Halloween. Everyone else was in the dungeons searching for it, but I ended up being in the same room as it, which happened to be a girl's bathroom. It was a fully-grown mountain troll we just got really lucky. My friend hit it on the head with it's own club using the only charm we knew."
"The levitation one?" Remus asked, amused. "That's pure luck!"
"That's what our professor said when she found us. But we needed good luck, because bad luck had gotten us in the same room in the first place. Besides," Harry mock-pouted. "you're just jealous of my obvious talent."
Remus smiled, and said, "Well, we don't have to worry about trolls entering Hogwarts. It's the safest place in England."
"Believe me," Harry said, remembering that Hogwarts' safety had been the reason the troll had been let in, "I know."
"Uh…house elves?"
Harry smiled at the vision of Hermione and her SPEW badges. "My friend had a rather large opinion of them, but they're just other magical creatures who happen to like work and are put to good use, so long as they aren't mistreated." He frowned, knowing where Remus was going with this questioning. Wanting to get to the point without showing it, Harry asked, "What about you? What do you think about…werewolves?"
Remus visibly paled before saying lightly, "Uh, I don't know…I've never really heard anything other than awful stories…"
Ah, Harry thought, smirking. He wants to see if I'll agree or disagree. Smart. If Remus could only lie a little better, I bet even the Marauders would never have figured him out. "Actually, I used to have a friend who was a werewolf, before I came here. We were really close, and he was so sad all the time. But he'd just lost his best friend of even longer, so that's understandable."
"Really?" Remus asked, trying to hide hope.
"Yeah. I think people just hear the bad, and refuse to see the good about something they don't understand. If I could transform like that, I'd welcome the change for a night. I think I'd like to be able to forget myself for a while, and I know a lot of other people who wouldn't mind either. That is why most people get drunk, isn't it?"
Remus stared at Harry for a bit, measuring his trust. But if Harry had been expecting Remus to tell his secret so early, he was disappointed, because Remus only replied with "Yeah… I agree."
A loud and dangerous boom reverberated through the room as the occupants on the other side of the bed were leaning over something. Sirius, James and Peter now had soot-blackened faces and all three sat, gaping at Harry's trunk.
"Ouch." Harry said for them, smirking and standing up. "Yeah, should've warned you about that. I, um, appreciate my privacy."
"That's just paranoia, mate." Sirius said in awe, cautiously standing and arching his back in a stretch, all the while watching the trunk. "You're worse than some Aurors I've seen, and believe me a few of them are really bad. Who did you get to put that charm on your trunk?"
"Dumbledore." Harry said casually, intentionally failing to mention that if you asked the Dumbledore of this time, he wouldn't have an idea of what spell it was. This spell was a little too complex for the Dumbledore of this time period.
"Have anything to do with the war?" Remus asked, and Harry mentally cursed. This conversation wasn't going the way he wanted it to.
"Yeah. That's how my parents were killed. They were one of the first ones dead as a result of Dark Magic, and it was because a traitor, who they thought to be their best friend, gave away their location. I guess I'm a little slow to trust."
"Good thing too!" James chirped, glowing.
"Because you're sleeping in the same dorm as the infamous Marauders, and trusting us to not prank you could be dangerous." Sirius finished, showing Harry a smile identical to James'.
As they laughed through the rest of the night, drinking bottles of butterbeer (Harry realized he'd really taken advantage of the drink, and was making up for all of the time he'd been forbidden to go to Hogsmeade to retrieve some,) they eventually fell asleep, all piled somewhere on a single bed, exhausted but happy.
But at some point in the night, Peter Pettigrew was pushed onto the floor in his sleep, where he woke up the next morning, feeling more left out than he had since his first year at Hogwarts. He was tempted, but in the end, he didn't wake the new kid up too early for any human to be comfortable. He let him sleep. With any luck Harry Potter would sleep in too late.
James was the next to wake up that morning. Still groggy, he turned to see that Peter had disappeared, which was odd, as Peter was usually the last one awake, and had be dragged out of bed, only finally letting them win because of how hungry he would become.
Next he took the time to study the very amusing scene before him. Harry, who looked just like him, was sleeping curled up against the headboard, looking almost afraid and a little protective. Remus was lying like most normal humans do, only being different by stretching his arms out. (James couldn't resist and had to poke him in the armpit, which, as always, made him slap Sirius in the face.)
But Sirius had to have been the most comical. His limbs were so spread apart and angled so odd, James had to wonder how his friend had managed to stay on the bed. His mouth was open wide, and his tongue was lolling out, as a snore escaped him. James was pretty sure even a volcano couldn't have awoken Sirius from his state of hibernation at the moment.
At that moment, Harry shifted and his bangs hid his lightning bolt scar, and James couldn't help but notice for the second time how alike he and this boy were in appearance, if they were alike in nothing else. Before Harry could shift and ruin his chance, James grabbed the camera and took a picture, smiling at it with affection before turning to wake the others up.
The poor remaining two Marauders, despite sleeping in the same quarters for six years, were too slow. Moony and Padfoot seemed too tired to do anything, let alone to wake up, so neither boys were prepared for the large tub of cold water about to be dumped on their heads.
Harry, however, rolled off the bed just beforehand, and James realized that he hadn't been joking the night before; he really did sleep on needles.
Unfortunately for Harry, there are hangings on the sides of the bed, and landing with you legs still up in the air tangled in the sheets and hangings of a bed with two other boys in it scrambling to catch the boy who had gotten them soaked wasn't a pleasant experience.
"PRONGS!"
With great care, James set the picture on his nightstand, (planning to use it as Blackmail, on his best friend for his appearance while asleep,) and ran for his life and dignity.
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