The Shrieking Shack || The Marauders (Book 1)

SIRIUS

It had been three days since that little incident and although James and Sirius were over it, apparently Filch wasn't. Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat with bright yellow eyes and dirty brown fur, followed them around the school with light paws and judging lamp like eyes. From the moment Sirius and James stepped out of the Gryffindor common room in the morning for breakfast, till they said good night to The Fat Lady, Mrs. Norris was always there, waiting for them to mess up so she could do her duty and fetch Filch.

"If you would just let me kick it out of our way, Remus," Sirius said one evening, on his way to the Gryffindor common room after dinner.

"You know Filch will have you for that."

"It's really beginning to annoy me. I think we should do our homework in the Library today." Sirius saw their eyes widen in shock as he proceeded to retrieve his bag from the common room.

"The library?" asked James, catching up to him.

"Yeah well, she can't follow us there now, can she? Madam Pince won't have her there," explained Sirius.

"And the books might actually help us do our homework better. That's what they are there for, you know," added Remus.

Sirius nodded carelessly, making it quite evident that he had no intention of reading any books.

Hogwarts indeed offered its student an impressive collection of books, all tucked neatly in the giant library. It was a brightly lit room lined with rows upon rows of shelves all stuffed with books of different colour and sized. Some were tiny with golden cover, while some were big mysterious and black; some books would scream at you if you folded their pages while some shrieked with happiness if you opened them up. And then there was an entire section of book that was restricted to all students except those who had special permission. From Quidditch to cooking, from potions to astrology, the Hogwarts library really had a book about everything that concerned a student of magic.

However, now that he was there, he had no idea what to do. He didn't at all feel like doing his homework that night and Madam Pince kept shooting dirty looks at him as he prowled through rows and rows of books wondering which one to pretend to read.

He flopped down on the table empty handed next to Remus who was pouring over his Charms homework. Professor Flitwick had given them an assignment to write about all the charms that they thought were useful in a wizard's day-to-day life.

"Refilling charm? I didn't know we had covered that," said Sirius as he took a look at Remus's homework.

"We haven't. But it doesn't hurt to do a little extra."

Sirius shrugged and opened up his star chart. He might as well start with the Astronomy homework, although he hated the subject immensely.

"I don't get why they make us do it? I mean, who cares what Uranus is doing in the sky?" said Sirius, dipping his quill in the inkpot. James and Peter sniggered quietly.

"You'd be surprised how important it is. The movements of moon and starts..."

James looked up from his homework and began- "But of course you'd say that, Remus. You already know enough Astronomy to-"

But they never really found out what the amount Astronomy Remus knew was enough to do, as Madam Pince shushed at James violently exactly at that moment and they had to bury their heads back into their homework.

*

"What happened to you?" Sirius asked Mark Mason, who was grimacing as Hestia Jones gingerly applied Dittany over his burned arms.