Get Ghost! | Marauders Ghostbusters AU

Chinese Food and Silent Musings

"I don't believe it, Remus? Of all people, beat up four teenage boys, who tried to jump YOU guys first?" James laughed, but when he saw Sirius' face, his laughter died down.

"James, it's true, but don't bug Remus about it. I don't think he wants to talk about it right now." Sirius whispered, wary of Remus, who was in their makeshift lab, unpacking his things from the many trolleys they had stolen.

The boys all lived together in a fancy apartment block in the upper west side of Manhattan. Sirius came from an old money, snooty, sleazy, good-for-nothing family, so before he left, he'd managed to funnel enough cash out of his parents' bank account into his, so they could afford the apartment's costly rent.

But had Sirius 'borrowed' enough money for them to happily rent the apartment 'till they were all old and grey? No. Instead, Sirius found out he had enough money to BUY THE ENTIRE BUILDING. So he did just that, in fact, Sirius had enough money in that bank account to buy the whole upper west side of Manhattan.

How was having that much money possible? James had no idea, it gave him a headache thinking about it. But it made him happy, living together with all of his friends, so if any of them needed him, he was there for them. He made a mental note to check up on Remus later, as the man tended to shut down when he was upset, burying himself into his work, with no regard for the outside world.

It was sometimes difficult for James to live with people like this, but he wouldn't have it any other way, and besides, they needed him - right? So as long as he could put all his heart and soul into making Sirius and Remus happy, he could set aside his needs. (who needs to take care of yourself when you can just take care of your friends instead?)

Sirius danced around the kitchen to the David Bowie song coming out of the tape player. "Hey, James! whadda ya feel about getting Chinese food for dinner? The fridge is empty, and we've got some cash left over from whatever we stole from the Dean Slughorn's top desk drawer." Sirius shouted across the room, interrupting James' silent musings.

Maybe he needed to go outside a little more, as he was starting to get cabin fever from being stuck inside for too long. Maybe he needed to go on a walk, get some fresh air, there was nothing to do inside anyway.

"James-"

Perhaps if he went outside he could meet new people! New people are always fun to meet, but then they come with problems, new people always do.

"James-"

But then he could solve those problems, and put his heart and soul into making those new people's lives better, even just for a second, just to see them smile.

"James!"

But then if he spent too much time trying to help those new people, then he wouldn't have enough time to be around Sirius and Remus, and help them. And if he spent too much time away from them, and didn't focus on them and their problems as much, things would change. James didn't like change, not the type that he could control, but what he couldn't control. That was the whole point of being a scientist, find the problem, find what was causing it, and then change the cause and find a solution, and then the problem would go away! So in order to not upset the fragile balance between Sirius, Remus and him, he wouldn't meet new people, go for a walk -maybe- but not meet new people. New people cause problems.

"JAMES!!" Sirius shouted, clicking his fingers in front of James' face. "I asked if you want Chinese food tonight, are you even listening to me? Are you okay?" He questioned, starting to look worried.

"Yes Sirius, sorry, I must've zoned out, Chinese food sounds great." He responded with a weak smile.

"Are you okay, James?" Remus asked, eyeing him with concern.

"Yes, Remus. Don't worry about me, I'm fine - just gonna go for a walk, think I need some fresh air, that's all." James said, standing up and heading to the door.

"Okay!" Sirius shouted, "Can you take the cash and go pick up the food? If I order now it should be done in about half an hour!"

"Yeah, sure!"Sirius grinned, and tossed him a rolled up $50 bill.

James smiled and closed the front door behind him. Standing out in the open hallway he wondered where he would walk to. Obviously he wasn't going to talk to anyone new, because new people cause problems, maybe he could go to the park, it was always well lit and at this time there would be no people, just animals.

Maybe he could make friends with a duck or something. They don't have problems, and even if they did, they couldn't tell him. James started walking to the closest park. The longer he could have to make friends with a duck, the better, as ducks were often skittish.

It was 7:00 by the time James made it down to the park. It was cold, but he didn't mind. He was dead set on making friends with any ducks he could come across. As he was sitting on a park bench, he realised all the pigeons and other animals were probably asleep. It would be difficult to make friends with anything if it was asleep.

A sharp gust of wind suddenly whipped by James' face, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end. The idea of sitting in a park, all alone, wasn't too appealing anymore. James checked his watch, he had only been at the park for about 5 minutes, and he wasn't about to let a gust of wind scare him out of his serenity.

Another sharp gust of wind whistled through the air, sending a coke can rattling across the park pavement. James sighed and went to pick it up to put it in the bin, as he didn't have anything else to do. Just as he stepped towards the can, it rolled a couple metres away, further into the park and its playground.

"Why can't people just put their own rubbish in the bin?" James grumbled as he stomped toward the can. The can rolled away, stopping near the slide, just out of James' reach. It was mocking him. As a frustrated James launched himself towards the can another insanely powerful gust of wind rocked the park, pushing the swings and spinning the roundabout and rocking one of those weird horses on springs back and forth.

During that mini-tornado, the coke can somehow was at the top of the slide, like it was about to slide down. James, (not one for giving up) climbed up the stairs to make his last attempt at getting that can. Just as he made it to the top of the stairs, the can toppled down the slide. Letting out a garbled shout of frustration, James dove down the slide, hands outstretched, trying to grab that blasted can. Just before James made contact with the ground, all the streetlamps within 100 metres exploded, showering glass everywhere, plunging the park into darkness.

Luckily, the moon was out, slightly illuminating the park, but it was hard for James to see more than a metre in front of him. But what wasn't hard to see, out the corner of his eye, was a massive blob of glowing blue light, bobbing slowly towards him.

Can 1, James 0. I don't like this chapter. That's all I really have to say.