The Better Chaser; James Potter

Chapter 34- Back to Hogwarts

There were only a couple days left until school began and I was honestly looking forward to it. I love Effie and Monty, but I've been feeling a little cooped up because I'm not allowed to leave the house. I spent the last few days of summer skimming the material we're taking in our sixth year. People usually slack off because it's the year in between O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts but we actually covered a lot of interesting material. Unfortunately the majority of my shit, like my school robes and trunk were at Mark's inn. But thankfully, Monty offered to apparate there and pick my stuff up for me because I'm not allowed to leave.

That's one positive thing out of that,

So I packed up everything I owned in my trunk and duffle bag. I knew I was basically homeless so knowing all my belongings were in these bags made me a bit sad. 

I need to start looking for apartments, possibly a muggle area,

Anyone after me wouldn't expect that

Before I left I gave Monty and Effie a letter I wrote showing my gratitude of them just letting me stay for the past month, and taking care of me. I told them that by next summer I'll have my own place and I'll visit them and all, and hopefully they can visit me then too. They then apparated us to Kings Cross and Potter, Sirius, Remus and I said our goodbyes on platform 9 and 3/4. They kissed us all goodbye, and made sure we had everything before apparating away as we boarded the train. We found Peter on the way there and we all sat in an empty compartment together. It was really weird going from disliking the marauders to being friends with them. Don't even get me started on seeing Regulus, or Severus too. I'm friends with Lily again so he's probably going to go back to hating me. Shortly after Lily popped in to say hi and hang out with us a bit. But she put her things in Marlene's compartment with her other friends. Apparently while I was off being a death eater, Lily grew close to a bunch of Marlene's Gryffindor friends. Suffice to say I was jealous. I'll admit it, but I can't blame her for making friends while I was gone. She didn't owe me anything. She offered to introduce me to them and I said maybe later. I don't think a bunch of Gryffindor girls will be fond of being buddies with me. But if it makes Lily happy, I'm willing to try I guess. 

So I spent the rest of the train ride with the marauders. I sort of became close to the group that I made fun of last year. I mean I spent a month with them in summer and now, apparently even at Hogwarts. We were discussing the next full moon, which was on the 8th of September, and the boys invited me to come along. It was then when I realized I became an animagi for Remus, but I had not spent one full moon with him. Guilt washed over me in how badly I treated my friends this year, but instead of wallowing, I made it my sole focus this year to make amendments and show my friends that I'm not a shit person. 

I noticed that Potter was being much more civil towards me, I mean we had the occasional banter here and there, and we would tease each other. But it seemed like we were almost friends who made fun of each other, rather than rivals. This concerned me because I didn't want him to pity me or be nicer to me all because he was there when Mark and I fought. No way am I letting him do that,

First thing when we get back, I'm pranking him, or fighting him, or something! I don't know what but I need things to get back to normal,

I'll admit I'm not really good at pranks, so I might enlist Remus to assist with that,

A plan already started formulating in my head so I asked Remus if he wanted to go out for a smoke. He agreed and we walked out of the compartment to the empty corridor and opened a window to let the smoke out. I pulled out two fags and offered one to him which he took eagerly and he lit them with a snap,

"I can't wait to be of age, then we can do magic whenever and wherever," Remus said as he exhaled some smoke,

"Oh yeah, me either," I agreed, "To think by the end of this year, all of us can do magic freely. It's really going to be chaotic," I added laughing,