Back To The Old House ♡ Marauders Story

chapter eight year one- halloween

Halloween was, as James viewed it, the greatest time of the year. It became socially acceptable to play tricks on everyone around you while dressed up like whatever you want. Now, Halloween was coming up and James was ecstatic. This would be his first holiday at Hogwarts and he wanted to do something big.

He made his way back to the common rooms alone after watching the Gryffindor Quidditch team practice. While he was wondering when his parents would send his costume up, his train of thought got interrupted by a loud cackle from behind him. He turned around to see three Slytherin boys from his year, along with two other Slytherins he didn't know, next to a Hufflepuff boy on the floor. From the looks of it he had been tripped. Anger swelled in his chest, but he decided to ignore it since it was almost curfew. He turned back around until he heard something else.

"Watch your step, mudblood." James stopped dead in his tracks. He hadn't heard someone say that all school year, but he knew it was only a matter of time. Without thinking he stormed over to the group.

"Or what? What're you gonna do?" James spat, gripping his wand tighter by his side.

"Why do you wanna know? You a muggle too?"

James' face felt hot as he stared at the boy in front of him. He couldn't think of the name of the boy facing him, but that didn't matter in the moment. "I don't need to be a muggle, I'll kick your arse."

"No you won't, Potter. Just go back up to your little dorm with your little friends and leave us be." James recognized this boy, however. He turned to Severus, fuming.

"I am rather tired, Snivillous, but no thanks. I think I'll stay right here until you apologize to him." The Hufflepuff boy looked like he wanted nothing more than to leave, but James wasn't thinking. His brain had gone into auto-pilot and he was about five seconds away from cursing the greasy-hair off of Snape.

"Not gonna happen, blood traitor," the tallest boy, Muliciber, said slowly, accentuating every word tauntingly.

Without waiting another second, James held out his wand and yelled the first spell he could think of. "Locomotor Wibbly!"

The effect was immediate. The tall boy's legs gave out and he fell to the ground. Realizing what he'd done, James smirked at the other boys and ran as fast as he could back to the common room. He didn't know if anyone had run after him, but he knew for sure Mulciber didn't.

Gasping for air, he finally reached the common room. "Chelidonium Miniscula!" The portrait swung open, revealing the warm room full of students. He ran inside, looking back to make sure he wasn't followed. Not looking where he was going, he ran into a solid mass.

"Watch where you're going, Potter." It was Lily. She was standing and talking to Remus, looking rather annoyed.

"Sorry, I-" James didn't know what to say, he felt like an idiot.

"What happened, mate?" Remus, thankfully, interrupted.

"I ran into some Slytherins making fun of this muggleborn kid and I jinxed one of them. I don't know what happen after, I kind of bolted."

"What jinx?" Sirius chimed in from the chair he was sitting in. He looked from Sirius to Lily and back to Sirius.

"Jelly-legs." Sirius laughed loudly, but Lily didn't seem to think it was funny.

"Why is violence your first resort? You know that there are other ways of getting your point across, right?"

"Well sorry, Evans, but I tried talking and they didn't seem to appreciate that very much." Lily sighed.

"James is right, you know. There's no reasoning with people like that. Trust me, I'd know."

"Who was it you jinxed?" Remus said, changing the direction of the conversation.