pranksters: a microfic about how the marauders met the rosier twins :)
James Potter doesn’t really care what house he ends up in. His Dad was in Gryffindor, yes, but his Mum was in Slytherin.
“Never judge someone for their house,” his Mum was always telling him. “Judge them for their character.”
On the train, James meets three boys named Sirius, Remus, and Peter. He already knows Sirius — or knows of him, at least. Sirius is a member of the Black family, and everybody knows them.
“What houses do you all want to be in?” Peter, a small, roundish boy with sandy blonde hair and pale blue eyes asks. “I like the sounds of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor.”
“Don’t care,” Remus shrugs. He’s a lanky guy with brown hair and scars all over his face. James knows it’s rude to point them out, so he doesn’t, but he really wants to tell Remus how cool they are. He bets Remus already knows. It’s the only thing keeping him quiet.
“Practically my whole bloodline’s in Slytherin,” Sirius says. “But practically my whole bloodline is evil, so I guess that makes sense.”
James makes a face. “Slytherins aren’t evil,” he says. “My Mum was one. She’s very nice.”
Sirius thinks about this for a moment before he nods and shrugs and says he just doesn’t think he’d do very well in Slytherin is all. They drop the subject there.
As it turns out, all four of them are Gryffindors. James finds his friend, Mary — also a Gryffindor — and sees that she’s made a few friends of her own.
“There were some others, too,” she tells him. “Evan and Pandora Rosier. Twins. They got sorted into Slytherin.” She nods to them across the Hall. They’re around the same height with dark skin and blonde hair, though the girl’s is more white-blonde than honey blonde like the boy’s. Two of her new friends, though, are Gryffindors named Lily and Marlene.
Marlene has choppy black hair and dark eyes and lots of freckles and a loud voice. She also has a big grin. James can relate.
Lily, though. She’s got straight red hair and bright, bright green eyes and millions of orange freckles and she might just be the prettiest girl James has ever seen. He decides right away that he loves her.
“No way,” Lily says the first (and last) time he asks her out. “First of all, we’re eleven. Who dates at eleven? Second of all” — she holds up two fingers — “I like girls. Sounds like you’re out of luck.”
Except he’s not. Because then, they become the best of friends.
Marlene is the only one of the group who not only shares James’s love of quidditch, but also his skill for it. Even though the school brooms are terrible, she and James ride them around the pitch whenever they can. Sometimes Mary and Sirius come to cheer them on, leaving Lily, Remus, and Peter sitting off to the side with a pile of textbooks and bored looks on their faces. Even if they’re alone, they still manage to have a good time.
The first time James gets a good look at the Rosier twins is after curfew.
See, he, Sirius, Peter, and Remus turn out to be quite good at pranks. They started small, just a way to cheer Remus up since he gets ill so often. But it turns out Remus is also sort of a genius when it comes to pranks, so tonight, they’re heading for the Restricted Section of the library. Remus swears he has a plan to get them in.
They don’t expect anyone other than the grumpy caretaker, Filch, to be walking around, so when they hear footsteps, they dive into an alcove and pull James’s Invisibility Cloak over them. It’s quite large, and they’re quite small, but there’s still four of them, and Remus’s elbow is in James’s gut, and Sirius has managed to get his hair in all of their mouths. Needless to say, it’s quite uncomfortable. And it’s also completely unnecessary.
The Rosier twins turn the corner, Evan holding a Lumos up in front of them.
“That’s not Filch,” Sirius says, accidentally saying it loud enough for the twins to hear them. Remus elbows him in the ribs, Sirius yelps, and Peter hastily throws the Cloak off of them before Evan and Pandora can run away.
“Sorry,” Peter says. “We thought you were a teacher.”
“Right,” Evan says. He narrows his eyes at them. Both he and Pandora have amber-colored eyes that’re almost gold in the moonlight. It’s a bit unsettling. “Where are you all going?”
They all glance at Remus, who thinks for a moment before nodding to James.
“Library,” James says. He figures he got chosen to speak since, generally, he and Peter are the most friendly looking. “We’re trying to get into the Restricted Section.”
Evan’s eyes widen, and Pandora’s face lights up. “Us too!” she says, and she hops over and extends a hand to help James and Remus up. Grudgingly, Evan helps Peter and Sirius.
“Let’s go together,” Pandora says, still sounding overly excited. “The more the merrier!”
Evan does not appear to agree, and neither does Remus, but neither of them argue with the logic, especially when James takes Pandora’s arm and agrees, “Six is far better than four and two.”
He and Pandora lead the group, and James spends the whole walk thinking of his two new friends. There’s no doubt about it: this is gonna be a great year.
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