The Marauders 2.0

In Which Harry and Ron Become Obsessed with Fluffies, Among Other Things

Ari woke slowly, her vision fuzzy. She was not in her bed, that much could be deduced, but she was probably still at Hogwarts, if the fact that Hermione was sitting next to the bed was any indication. She was sitting in a chair, but had fallen asleep, and now her head rested on the sheets next to Ari.
As Ari moved to disentangle herself, she accidentally woke her up.

Hermione looked up at her, still half-asleep, before it registered that Aquarius was awake.

“Oh my gosh you’re awake!” she said, practically yelling.

“Umm.” she replied eloquently, wondering why this was a big deal and where she was.

“You’ve been out for four days, I was so worried that you would die and WHAT WERE YOU THINKING YOU COULD’VE DIED. Why would you do that?!”

“I guess my Gryffindor kicked in. I didn’t want to see my best friend die.” Ari answered, a little put out.

This seemed to stop Hermione, who had been ranting about creatures and safety and how Dumbledore should have gone immediately to deal with the troll, dead in her tracks.

“I’m– I’m your best friend?” she asked, sounding choked up.

“Yes. Oh no, no, no don’t cry, please don’t cry.” Ari said, her voice trailing off into panic.

“I’m fine, just, no one’s ever called me their– their best friend before.” Hermione had tears in her eyes, which she quickly wiped away before turning back to Ari.

“You know, they haven’t done anything with the points yet. I mean, Harry and Ron defeated the troll, but they were out of bounds. We haven’t had our points added to or subtracted from the attack.” Hermione said, looking thoughtful. “Because you sacrificed yourself to save me they’ll probably give points, but some rules were broken, so that would factor in.”

“Oh my gosh, did I miss the Charms essay and the Potions test?” Ari began panicking, worrying about her grades.

“Yes, you did, but Flitwick said that because you had a good reason to miss class, you can still turn it in. Even Snape decided that it would be fine for you to take the test another time, and he NEVER gives extensions.”

“Hmm. In that case, maybe I should be impaled more often,” Ari joked, amazed that even Snape was giving her a deadline extension. It was almost enough for her to think the world was ending.

The two girls laughed, thinking about it.
“Now Hermione, tell me everything I've missed. Oh, and pass me that chocolate frog. I’m starving.”

~

Later that night, Ari was allowed, after much fussing on Madam Pomfrey's part, to go and join the feast.

Before the food appeared, Dumbledore stood up, his sky blue eyes twinkling, to make an announcement.

“Now, dear students, you may have heard of the troll that managed to get into the castle. (Several people chuckled. With the way Quirrell had announced it, it was doubtful anyone in Hogwarts didn’t know by now.) I am sure you have heard rumors about what exactly transpired. Not all of these are true.” He gave a short account of what had happened, skimming over the fight and hospital stay, before pausing.

“As there were several things to adjust and one of the parties involved was unconscious, the point will now be given out. From Mister Harry Potter and Mister Ronald Weasley, for disregarding the orders of a prefect and running off into danger, I take twenty points. To Miss Hermione Granger, for the quick thinking and flawless performance of a simple healing charm, which doubtlessly saved Miss Black’s life, I give twenty-five points. To Mister Caelus Lupin, for helping fight and disarm a fully grown mountain troll, I give ten points. Lastly, to Miss Aquarius Black, for selfless sacrifice embodying the truest, most essential traits of Gryffindor, I award sixty points!”

The Gryffindor table let out a raucous cheer, drowning out the groans of Slytherins who realized their house was now in second place for the house cup, instead of first place as they had been for the past seven years.

“Now, tuck in!” said Dumbledore, as he stepped down from the podium and back to the staff table, robes trailing behind him.

~

The month of November was rather dull, something that Ari greatly appreciated. Harry won some quidditch, she got ahead in her classwork, Neville excelled in Herbology, and Caelus spent the majority of his time hanging out with Harry and Ron or planning pranks with Fred and George, two third year twins, also Weasleys.

It turned out that her first impression of him was wrong. She had thought he would have been extroverted, but never to this extent. He had become thick as thieves with the third year weasleys, who soon started referring to him as their third brother.

This was in no small part due to the fact that apparently, even though he barely passed in potions and slept through herbology, he was pretty good in charms, an ability the three of them chose to exploit quite often to prank unsuspecting students and teachers.

By the end of the month, they had pranked Snape so much that they all had more detentions than they could physically serve between the beginning of December and summer break.

Harry and Ron were rapidly becoming obsessed with something or other called the Philosopher’s stone, and spent many nights huddled in front of the fireplace, talking about fluffies and stone and Snape. Hermione slowly joined their little group, leaving Neville and Ari to hang out together, more often than not.

It turned out that Neville was actually very good at remembering how to make the potions in the book, but couldn't put it into practice due to his nerves, which arose whenever Snape was near and were made much worse by him needing to prove himself. However, he excelled in Herbology, and the two of them spent quite a while in the library and student brewing rooms practicing. By the time the next test in potions came around, Neville managed a passable Draught of Living Death, which earned him an Acceptable. Snape looked furious as he graded the written portions of the exam, and Neville got an O, meaning that he was now passing his potions class.

Ari began to realize something, though.

Caelus was a very healthy person, always running, and jumping, and yelling, and yet he suffered from strangely coordinated bouts of migraines. She could tell this was false, as her uncle had migraines and they were nowhere near this sudden. Nor did they happen without some cause. She began recording the days on which he feigned illness in her diary.

A/N:
I'm sorry that the first year is so short! I'm trying to make this longer, but it’s still going to be kind of short. This year is basically setting the stage for the story.