All the Young Dudes ( Sirius' Perspective )

First Year : End of Term

At the end of his first year at Hogwarts, Sirius discovered that there was no better place for mischief-making than a castle full of students during exam period. With two weeks off lessons, he had more than enough time for any last-minute revision, and he intended to put his newfound freedom to good use.

Most of their peers were frantic with anxiety, including Peter, who spent hours staring helplessly at his notes and pulling his hair out in the library. Luckily, James seemed to share Sirius’s confidence, and since they had already spent weeks revising it wasn’t too difficult to convince him to turn his attention to other endeavours. They discovered the wonders of flameless firecrackers and delighted in vanishing unsuspecting students’ books bags in the library—the two of them would duck behind the shelves and stifle their laughter as they watched their victims desperately searching for their things. One fifth year Slytherin leapt out of his seat so quickly that he ended up tripping over his invisible bag and falling flat on his face, which sent James and Sirius into hysterics and got them both kicked out by Madam Pince.

Privately, Sirius didn’t mind that Peter was too busy studying to join them—he was so worried about exams that he was becoming an unbearable nuisance, always muttering to himself about potions ingredients or asking them to quiz him on historical dates. Even James was losing patience with constantly consoling his nervous friend.

Remus, on the other hand, was more relaxed than Sirius had ever seen him. But he also seemed disinclined to join in all the pranking, preferring to spend his days lounging around the castle with a book or wandering about with his map. Sirius would have enjoyed his company much more than Peter’s, but at the end of the day he still had James, and that was more than enough.

The exams themselves went just as smoothly as Sirius had expected. First up was Charms, where they had to enchant a coconut to dance an Irish jig—child's play. He, James, and Remus all executed their task flawlessly. Peter’s coconut, on the other hand, refused to move at first and lost control once it actually did begin to dance, spinning off the desk and smashing itself on the flagstones. Sirius didn’t blame it—with the way Peter had been acting recently, he’d been about ready to do the same.

Transfiguration was a breeze; they were turning stag beetles into pepper shakers. Sirius finished within five minutes, flawlessly transfiguring the insect into a beautiful glass number. McGonagall, who was walking about the room and watching the other students struggle, stopped by Sirius’s desk and declared that it was the best example of small scale transfiguration she had ever seen from a first year, which made Sirius feel as if he might burst with pride. It took his friends longer to finish, but they all eventually managed, with varying levels of success. Remus’s pepper shaker was still shiny and black, and James’s looked porcelain, but it spread its wings and flew off when McGonagall tried to shake some pepper out of it. Peter managed to get his to remain still, but it still had legs and antlers, even after an hour.

Herbology was boring but easy, a written exam. History of Magic was the same, although Sirius was a bit shocked when he looked over and saw Remus furiously scribbling on a third roll of parchment, first two already set aside. He was pretty sure that their textbook chapter on the goblin riots wasn’t half as long as his friend’s essay. Potions was, frustratingly, one of the harder exams, only because they had to brew a cure for warts from memory and Sirius knew that if even a single measurement was off it could ruin the whole thing. He still did alright, but it was one of the only classes where he wasn’t expecting top marks.

Between exams, Sirius continued his reign of terror with James, slipping trick quills into students’ bags, creeping about under the invisibility cloak, and putting the last of their dung bombs to good use. They were almost caught by Filch a few times but managed to evade capture—although Frank Longbottom did threaten to give them detention if they didn’t stop levitating inkwells in the common room.