The Shrieking Shack || The Marauders (Book 1)

JAMES

A weird sense of calm settled over James as he walked towards the Great Hall on Friday morning for breakfast. Only one more day to go for the weekend, he thought to himself.

He found Peter and Remus already sitting there having breakfast. Peter was buttering his toast while Remus sat beside him reading the Daily Prophet. James greeted them both as he sat down at the Gryffindor table, talking about the beautiful weather and the coming weekend. He was munching down some bacon and eggs when Jason Mathews spotted them.

"Hey Lupin, McGonagall's been looking for you," he said.

"What for?" James asked before Remus could inquire himself.

"Don't know," Mathews said, already leaving.

Remus, who had turned visibly paler, cleared his throat nervously and got up ready to leave. "Did you do anything?" James asked.

Remus shook his head and left.

*

"Where's Remus?" Sirius asked as he settled down beside James for breakfast.

"Professor McGonagall's office," replied Peter.

"Oh, what'd he do?" asked Sirius.

"Nothing that we are aware of, apparently," said James, sounding rather miffed.

The whole thing had irked James quite too much. Remus had gotten himself into some kind of trouble all by himself, James felt offended. Add to that the fact that Remus won't even tell him what it was that he had done.

"I'm just saying," started James suddenly after sometime. "If only he'd told us maybe we could have helped him. He wouldn't have gotten caught, you know."

Peter rolled his eyes. "He's been going on about it since the last fifteen minutes," he whispered to Sirius who was having a hard time controlling his laughter as he looked at James's pouty little face.

"Anyways," said James. "I got a letter from Hagrid. Would you like to join me for tea at his place this evening?"

"Sure," said Sirius. "How do you know Hagrid anyway?"

"Oh my father went to school with him," James replied focusing on his food again.

"Hagrid went to Hogwarts?" Sirius stopped eating and looked at James surprised.

"Well of course," James said. "He got expelled in his third or fourth year maybe. Don't ask him  though, he doesn't like talking about it."

"What did he get expelled for?" Sirius asked. James put some bacon in his mouth and shrugged casually. "And Dumbledore lets him work here? For all we know, he could be a murderer. I mean have you guys even looked at him?"

James noticed Peter nodding earnestly at that from the corner of his eyes, before he turned towards Sirius, his face burning with anger.

"Hey!" James objected. "Hagrid is my friend. He's nice and sweet and he wouldn't hurt a fly. Don't judge a book by its cover, like I did for you Black."

Sirius looked like he had been slapped. He stared at James for a second, then nodded and continued his breakfast.

*

"What happened?" James asked Remus who had just joined them at the Gryffindor table.

"Oh um... nothing- really" he replied sheepishly.

"Nothing? Then why did McGonagall call you into her office?" asked James hotly.

"She was just- umm... telling me about my mother."

"Your mother?"

"Yes, she's- she's unwell."

"Oh, what happened?" James asked concerned. So Remus hadn't betrayed him after all. All his somewhat childish anger from earlier melted away as he looked at the sad pale face of his friend.

"Oh, um- I'm not really sure."

"Will she be alright?" asked Sirius.

"Of course- I mean- I- I'll find out... I'm leaving after classes."

"Leaving?" blurted Peter.

"I'll come back! It's just for the night, I guess."

"Don't worry Remus," James patted him on the back. "I'm sure it's nothing serious."

"Yeah, I'm sure she'll be alright soon." Though Sirius and James exchanged concerned looks. They didn't know exactly how bad someone's mother's health condition needed to be to be called back home from school, but they guessed- pretty bad.

That day they waved Remus goodbye as he walked towards Professor McGonagall's office after their classes got over and then walked outside towards Hagrid's for tea.

Hagrid lived in a small wooden cabin at the edge of the forbidden forest. When James knocked, they heard frantic scrambling from inside, then Hagrid's big hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.

"All righ' James?" he said. James couldn't see if he was smiling or not because his bushy beard covered most of his face except for his big black eyes which crinkled at the corners.

"Hey, Hagrid. These are my friends Sirius and Peter."

"Hey." "Hello." They said as he welcomed them inside.

Hagrid's house consisted of only one room. Hams and skinned chickens were hanging from the ceiling with the help of shiny white strings, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire and in one corner was a massive bed with a patchwork quilt.

"Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, while pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes on a plate.

The cakes were like brown lumps of cement with raisins but they all pretended to really like them as they told Hagrid all about their first week.

"He's one trouble maker, that Peeves," said Hagrid, when they recounted their run-in with Peeves the Poltergeist. "Won't even listen ter mos' teachers, tha' one."

"Why doesn't Professor Dumbledore get rid of him?" asked Sirius.

"Who knows?" said Hagrid. "Great man Dumbledore. You ca' never tell what's goin' up in 'is brain."

"Hagrid, how'd you get all those?" said James, pointing at Hagrid's massive hands.

Hagrid waved his hands as if it were nothing, but James had already noticed that they were covered in cuts and bruises. In fact, on a closer look, he could see a few cuts over his face too.

"Had a run-in with the tree," explained Hagrid. "The willow."

"The Whomping Willow?" asked James and continued when Hagrid nodded, "So it's true, isn't it? The tree actually attacks you on getting close."

"Maybe we should check it out tomorrow," said Sirius.

"Now let me tell you summat, you three!" Hagrid rounded up on them before they could even say 'oh'.

"Yer ter stay well away from tha' tree. 'Ts not safe. You can get seriously hurt."

"There's no harm in just seeing it..." James said timidly.

"And- and Dumbledore won't put anything that could seriously hurt us on the grounds, would he?" asked Peter.

"Merlin's beard boy," said Hagrid, looking at Peter with utter disbelief. "Why do ya think the forest's forbidden? Or Dumbledore warned you agains' goin' anywhere near the tree durin' the start-o-term feast?"

They left Hagrid's hut with their pockets full of rock cakes that they had been too polite to refuse and made their way towards the Great Hall for dinner.

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A/N: So Remus is going home to meet his sick mother? Sounds kinda fishy. :P (Just saying)

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