Gateway to Heaven - James and Lily Potter (Jily) #Wattys2016

Mischief Managed - James

A/N: I wrote this imagining the marauders in their early stages... You could say this chapter is like connected one shots of Sirius and James slowly letting Remus (and Peter) into their little gang... For those of you wondering about the Jily excitement, don't worry, all in good time :)

There's a lovely picture of Ciara Baxendale in the media, who I imagine as Lily. I'm still not sure who could play James best, though. Any suggestions? Comment/message me!

Happy reading!

"And thus the Second Great Wizarding Duel of the Roman Empire ended with the complete annihilation of the town of Pompeii, only to be rediscovered by Muggle Archeologists nearly 2,000 years later, who, with their muggle ways, mistook for a volcanic eruption..."

I yawn loudly, sitting only on one leg of the chair. Remus, my seating partner during History of Magic, scolds me gently. "This is really important stuff, James," he half-whispers to me, taking notes as he speaks."I heard it's O.W.L material." I let out a barklike laugh, making the classmates sitting in front of me jump. "Ha! The O.W.Ls are two years away, Remus. We're third years. We're basically the babies of Hogwarts. There's nothing we're learning here that's one hundred percent relevant." Remus, who knows there's no point in arguing with me on such matter, rolls his eyes. "Whatever you say, James, but I won't let you copy my notes whatsoever." "Not that I need them," I whisper back cockily,"I've got top grades in nearly every class including this one." Feeling confident and bored once more, I close my eyes and lose myself in the usual daydreams.

In my head, I am on the Quidditch pitch again, Gryffindor versus Slytherin. As I fly through the fields on my brand-new Cleansweep two, the autumn wind blowing through my hair, Kevin Jordan, a fellow Chaser, passes me the Quaffle. This is my moment. Soaring through the air as if I have wings, I approach the highest goalpost where Hermann Crabbe, the Slytherin Keeper, waits for the right moment to block me. I suddenly change my course and head for the goalpost far left, confusing the keeper. I glance towards the stage, spotting a blob of red hair, cheering not for the team but for me and only me, and as I prepare myself to score...

"OUCH!" Something large and sticky hits my head with tremendous speed. I turn around only to see Sirius guffawing at my annoyed expression. "Really?" I mouth to him. "It was more or less supposed to land on your desk," he whispers back, still sniggering. I scowl at him, robbing the sore on my head. "Open the note!" he whispers eagerly. I look from him to professor Binns, who just drones on and on as always, to Remus, who's looking at me partly disapprovingly and partly curious for what Sirius has to say, to Lily, who I believe has followed every single exchange between Remus and I for the past five minutes yet pretends to ignore me. "Fine!" I say, and proceed to open the enchanted spitball. James, Remus. Heard Hagrid's out of town tonight. Fancy an adventure in the Forbidden Forest? I smile at the note. I try showing Remus the note, but he purposely ignores me and is back to taking notes again.

Sirius and I, we befriended Remus in our first year, but never got too close. Not that we didn't try. He was always cordial and kind, but never personal. He also happened to be a huge nerd - studying day and night, we often wondered whether he ever finds the time to have some fun. Which is exactly why Sirius and I decided to let him into our adventures - to show him the fun side of life, in a way. We'd stolen food from the kitchens in our second year and held silent food fights in our dorms, along with Peter, this scrawny and twitchy kid from our year.

To our immense surprise, Sirius and I discovered there was more to Remus than just the silent student that spent hours in the library. For one, we started noticing his frequent absences. He's always find an excuse, claiming he was feeling so very poorly or his aunt was fatally ill or whatever. What he probably didn't realise is that we knew there was a relationship between his distant behavior and these absences. In fact, Sirius and I had had a pretty good idea of what was really up with Remus Lupin but we thought it unwise to just butt it out. No. Remus, to our surprise, had become a valuable friend we did not want to lose so easy. So we'd planned a little thingy for him - it would happen tonight, as a matter of fact.