James' birthday had passed and now it was April. Just like James had said in Hogsmeade, in the dirty bar, he did have a quiet affair. He was obviously given presents, and he decided to practice Quidditch, which we all got involved in, but then we all just went into the boy's fourth year dormitory and played Gobstones and Wizarding Chess. Peter and Remus also introduced us to a Muggle game called charades.
The other upside of moving into April was that we had made a list of things we needed to do and the list was as followed:
1. Produce a Patronus
2. Gather ingredients for an Animagus
3. Become said Animagus
4. Make a magic map
5. Take over Hogwarts
6. Do another prank
7. Ask Evans to go out with me and get a yes.
The last one was written and suggested by James but we all wanted to see it happen, there was many occasions when we were absolutely anywhere and James would suddenly start pining over his beloved 'Lilyflower'. This was only one of the reasons we wanted Lily to say yes to James very soon. Many things on the list were very possible, the other's not so much.
Our main aims were the Patronus, Animagus, and the Map, we had all of these as plans for a while and as for the Patronus, it was actually becoming a reality. So far, Remus had managed to cast a fully fledged Patronus and it was, unsurprisingly, a wolf, which seemed very fitting. Sirius and James had also managed it in not a large amount of time, Sirius had a dog, and James' a stag.
He swore to curse anyone who called it a deer.
Peter and I struggled a lot more, Peter on the concentration and the actual magic, myself on the happy memories part, it was obvious none of them were with my family, so I tended to stay away from them and think about my friends. Only problem was, as I was practicing my happy friend memories, they were also either whining, complaining or being a general distraction so that I constantly had to shout at them.
"Where are you going again?" Gideon asked me. I was sat with him, Fabian, Leon and Frank, and we were all playing exploding snap in teams. Currently, I had no idea whose team I was on, but I was clearly not winning. It also happened to be the moment when the boys wanted to try and help to get me and Peter to finally conjure up a Patronus.
It was rather unfortunate I had to leave the warm, chaotic common room, to a small classroom where it was even more chaotic and extremely uncomfortable.
"Hey guys," I said, walking into the classroom which was seemingly empty. I was also right with my predicament as the Invisibility Cloak came off and out popped four teenage boys, all having a whispered argument. "I told you that this cloak wasn't necessary, no one meets here except us," Remus whispered.
James sighed and walked forward into the middle of the classroom, rolling his sleeves up, "I'm going through puberty, let me off."
"So is just about everyone else in this castle James," Peter argued. James tutted and then smiled at me, waving his wand and showing off his Patronus skills, as it was the last five times, it was still a wispy stag. It seemed that Peter had nearly also perfected his as there wasn't a clear view of the animal, but there was a defined shape that looked like something small and had a tail.
Twenty minutes later, I held my wand up and screwed my eyes shut, focusing on a memory I found to be happy, but instead I was faced with a memory that was slightly sad. It was the memory of my childhood when my mother had had enough of me talking back to her at the dinner table, and she had used the curse which resembled a whip.
It had hurt enough but coming from your own mother, it hurt more. It was strange that it came up as a happy memory but then I remember the next part of the situation, it was the first and only time when my sister Belle had comforted me, she had snuck into my room later on in the night, and she had recited the stories from the tales of Beedle the Bard, which was always a bedtime favourite as a child.
Maybe that was the strangely comforting, happy memory.
I whispered, "Expecto Patronum," and opened my eyes when I heard happy noises and a cheer. I had opened my eyes to a rather large panther, walking around majestically, occasionally looking to the side. "It's beautiful," James breathed out, "But I guess Sirius has competition, a cat and a dog are usually seen fighting."
I suddenly heard a noise from behind me and as I turned around, Peter grumbled, "It's better than a rat." I inspected Peter's Patronus, it was definitely a rat, there was a small body and a rather long tail, the rat having tiny ears and twitching constantly.
It was quite a sympathetic sight, Peter sighed in disappointment at his Patronus, "Does that mean my animagus will be a rat?" James coughed and looked around for encouragement, but when he got none, he said, "No Peter, it doesn't define you, I'm sure whatever animal you are will be as wonderful and handsome as you."
Remus slumped and sat on a table, looking awkward, I quickly broke concentration, my panther disappearing, James licked his lips, his eyes darting between everyone. Sirius was the only one who laughed and said, "So, a rat?" I tried not to smile, surely Sirius thought that Peter was better than a rat? At least for now?
I decided to try and help cheer the boy up, so I slapped the black haired boy on the head, and said, "Don't listen to him Pete, I'm sure whatever animal you are will be fine."
We all quickly dispersed together, the cloak was too much of a squeeze now, so much so that it meant that someone could see our ankles. It may have been dark but there was no guarantee that a student or teacher would miss the bright colours of Sirius' yellow trainers, however much we persuaded him not to put them on.
"Where have you lot been?" Lily asked as soon as we stepped through the portrait hole. Remus was the one who answered her, even though I had a ready made excuse. Remus told her "Detention. As per usual." Lily raised one eyebrow and narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him but said no more on the subject.
The only one who was stupid enough to ever give something away, said, "Look Lily, I wanna show you something I've learnt."
The red headed girl sighed and said, "James, if it's something stupid or Quidditch related I don't want to know." The curly haired Potter grinned and shook his head, about to show her the spell what I think he was going to, the Patronus spell.
Sirius and I grabbed the boy under the arms and dragged him up to his dorm, all the while, he was complaining like a small child. "Thank you!" I heard Lily shout after us.
"Are you in your right mind around Evans, huh? I thought the whole Patronus sneaking out thing was supposed to be kept a secret, at least for now," Sirius told him. I found this impressive, it was probably the first and last time that the Black boy was ever going to be serious about something, no pun intended.
Sirius then voiced what I was thinking, "I'm being serious, siriusly." Remus sighed disappointedly, obviously having heard that joke too many times, the rest of us laughing at him.
"Alright mate, just because I have a crush doesn't mean you have to steal me away from her," James said after his grin had faded. Sirius rolled his eyes and flicked his hair, "Since when has the Sirius Black ever been jealous of someone just based on girls?" Peter mumbled something that made me and Remus laugh, "You forgot Orion and the third."
This caused a major pillow fight between the two boys. Soon enough, the other boys joined in too and I saw Andre pop out of the bathroom, blink worriedly, smile slightly, and then rush out of the dormitory room and down the steps into the common room. I decided to leave the boys to it and follow him, wanting to actually have a conversation with the boy that had been here for a while yet I had barely even talked too.
"Have you learnt enough English to talk to me yet?" I asked Andre as he was sat by one of his favourite spots by the window, one leg dangling down, hair in front of his eyes, I had observed that much about him. He laughed, "Oui. I'm kidding. Thank you for talking to me." I frowned, the boys in his room had obviously never made the effort to talk to him.
I said, "It's fine, do you have any siblings?" I was trying to make simple conversation but instead he did the unexpected. Andre shrugged, how did you not know if you had siblings?
He then answered my unspoken question, "My family thought we safe in France. Nope, there is war going on in France. I can feel it here too, they sent me here. I have two older brother and sister, I do not know, they have no wrote to me in forever. I live with my aunt and uncle, I am sorry." He closed his eyes and I immediately felt sorry for the boy, I would demand others to make more of an effort.