The Next Great Adventure (A Marauders Fan Fic)

Chapter Twenty Four

Professor Banks’ students began to mutter excitedly amongst themselves and Sirius raised one arm languidly. “Will we get to try and cast one?”

“Unfortunately Mr Black, Patronuses are seen to be far above N.E.W.T level so no, the answer is that we will not.”

“Oh come on Professor, it'll be a laugh,” James added. 

“It's not like it's dangerous,” Sirius chimed in again. 

“Neither is the theory Black,” Banks replied.

“Yeah but the theory’s boring Professor,” he moaned. “Can’t we just try it? Just once?”

Other pupils had begun to agree that it would be a good use of a lesson to try and cast a Patronus and Professor Banks ran her hand through her hair as she considered it. “Right!” she said, silencing the class once again. “This is what we will do. This week we are going to study the theory of casting a Patronus, since that is the only thing which will be covered in your N.E.W.T examinations-” The whole class groaned. “But if you all pass the test that I am going to set you at the end of next week with at most three wrong answers I will then devote two lessons to the practical skill of casting a Patronus. Oh and, since it was the idea of Masters Potter and Black over here, they both have to get full marks.” The whole class groaned again and some boys sitting at the back began to shout that only two lessons was unfair and that she might as well have condemned them to never learning how to cast a Patronus. “Silence!” she shouted. “If you do not succeed in matching the terms I have set but you do manage to finish the year’s syllabus before the summer holidays I will let you have some time then instead.”

“That’s so far away though Professor,” Sebastian Browning complained.

“Just be glad I’ve allowed you any time at all to do this Sebastian,” Professor Banks replied. “Practical casting of Patronuses is not on the school syllabus and it is a spell far too difficult for many to master. I may as well be giving you two free lessons to wave your wand around. Now, enough is enough! Back to the theory,” she said, turning back to the board.

James wandered out of his Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom closely followed by Sirius, Remus and Peter who were all talking about the essay which Banks had just set them. He stopped, letting a group of giggling girls slip past him, some of them turning back to glance surreptitiously, or so they thought, at him before they were dragged away.

“Honestly I’m torn between love and hatred for that woman I swear,” Sirius was saying. “She’s one of the best teachers we’ve ever had-”

“Not to mention drop dead gorgeous,” Remus interrupted dryly as Peter snorted and Sirius cocked one eyebrow at him.

“Oh Remus, don’t tell me you’ve gone and fallen for the young, blonde teacher!” he teased. “Actually it’s hardly surprising; Alfie told me that he heard Cameron saying she was part-Veela.”

“Really?” Peter gasped.

“That would certainly explain her moods,” James laughed as they headed down to the Great Hall. “One minute she’s letting us chat as we write notes and ‘encouraging us to explore Defence Against the Dark Arts by ourselves to find the most interesting parts of the syllabus’ and other times she’s worse than McGonagall!”

“And the amount of work she sets us,” Sirius sighed, “it’s like she expects us to just sit around in the common room working all day. Honestly, who does she think we are? Remus?” Remus merely rolled his eyes at this, used to being held up as a paragon of every rule-abiding virtue that James and Sirius didn’t possess. “I mean she just set us a twelve-inch essay due in for Friday! That’s five days away! How does she think I’ll manage that?” he yelped.

“To be fair I don’t think she does expect you or James to hand it in. You will, because you always do, but it’ll probably be about a week late or half copied from me or Lily,” Remus said.

“Actually I’m pretty good at handing work in on time,” James mumbled as they joined the enormous crowd streaming towards the doors which led into the Great Hall.

Lupin frowned. James was right, unfortunately. Both he and Sirius did somehow, without seeming to ever sit down to work, manage to hand in most of their work on time and it was one of the greatest mysteries of his life though he, without having any hand in the matter whatsoever, ended up with the credit.

“By Merlin! Bloody Circe!” Sirius shouted, sounding more ridiculous than ever – though luckily only a few of the closest people could hear him over the din inside the Great Hall. “I’m so hungry and it’s steak pie today!” He practically skipped over to the Gryffindor table, leaving the others to trail in his wake.

As they sat down James glanced at Lily. He had decided, the day that Sirius had revealed it was nearly her birthday, to try and give her space. Sirius was right for once and it had taken a while for him to see it – not to mention how long it had taken for him to actually manage to stop acting like an utter idiot around her – but he had come to the conclusion that he would rather not talk to her than never know where he stood and he would rather not talk to her than spend his time pining after her. He thought that they had been getting on fairly well over the past few months but he wasn’t sure how to move from being polite to each other to actual friends. Of course, if he was totally honest with himself, he would say that he would rather have Lily love him than be her friend but he didn’t want to go there; he had followed that train of thought once or twice before and it hadn’t turned out well. So, in a move that was completely unprecedented, he had decided to stop talking to her. He could get over her easily and all it would take would be removing her from his life as much as possible. A chorus of ‘Happy birthday’ caught his attention, nearly all of the Gryffindor sixth-years bellowing it at a crimson Lily, and he wondered idly whether she had opened his present to her yet. He hadn’t been planning on giving her anything, that was reserved for friends and they were fairly far from friends, until the very last minute when, on an illicit trip into Hogsmeade, he had seen something which he thought was perfect for her. He had learnt over the years that the girls had the same tradition as the boys, namely that of opening their presents before breakfast on the day of her birthday so he was left wondering why she hadn’t mentioned it to him throughout the day; it wasn’t like Lily to leave anything unsaid, especially when it pertained to him. In fact she had been extremely vocal over the years with regard to him and his many faults and frankly James was surprised that he had any self-confidence left.

Still, he knew Lily and he knew that she was anything but ungrateful and so it surprised him when she hadn’t sought him after one of the lessons that they shared together to stammer her thanks. James tore his eyes away from her and starting putting food on his plate. She was probably just putting into action what he had told her in his letter. It was better that way he supposed. From now on Lily Evans was not important in his life and he would put her out of his mind; it would be easier now that Cassie and Rob had broken up and he had Sirius back. He had always said that too much planning ruined a relationship – not that he had much knowledge of that really – and here was the proof. Rob had been talking about Valentine’s Day more than two weeks in advance when they broke up and that was enough to confirm James’ suspicions.