The Brightest Star {Sirius Black}

Chapter Eight

"Marauders," James whispered, testing out the name on his lips. The boys sat in complete silence for a few moments, each thinking of the name and other possibilities. "I like it."

"It's better than any of the ideas I had," Sirius said, scratching his head with his quill.

"I agree about that," Remus spoke. "Your ideas weren't the best. What do you think Peter?" Remus turned to Peter, who squeaked quietly, frightened that he was singled out.

"I-I like it..."

"It's decided then," Sirius announced. "We are now officially the Marauders." Each of the boys smiled at each other, excited for new memories soon to come from spending the rest of their fun-filled, 7 years at Hogwarts together.

"Wait," James interrupted. "Should we make Nimaine a member as well?"

"Yeah, she's the one who gave us the name," Remus agreed. "She also helps us with a lot of our planning too."

"I think that's a good idea. I think she'd appreciate that as well." Sirius quickly dipped his quill into the bottle of ink, tapping the feathered end against his chin as he thought of what to say. 

Dear Nimi,

We, the Marauders and I, would like to know how you came up with this name. We all like it a lot, a lot more than any of our ideas. That's not saying much actually, considering our ideas were rubbish.

We have come to the decision that you're a part of this group too. After all, you're the one who gives us most of our ideas. You gave us the name as well, as Remus so kindly pointed out. (Thank him, I probably wouldn't have remembered to add you.)

Because of this, we have decided to make you an honorary Marauder. Maybe HQ or something, but now you're one of us!

I doubt that,

Sirius

The boys laughed at the goodbye message that Sirius wrote in reply to Nimaine's. Sirius folded the paper, sliding it into an envelope that he took out of his bag, and quickly sealed it.

Without missing a beat, he stood up, about to head to the Owlery in one of the towers of the castle. However, he quickly remembered that it was past the time students were supposed to be in bed.

"James, I'm going to use your invisibility cloak, is that alright?" Sirius asked, turning to the bespectacled boy. 

"Yeah, go ahead," James answered. "Just put it back in my trunk when you're done?"

"'Course." Sirius climbed the boys dormitory stairs, opening the door to their dorm room. He dug through James' trunk, finding the cloak buried beneath the scattered items.

He ran down the stairs, pulling the cloak over himself as he opened the Gryffindor Common Room doorway.

"Who's there?" called The Fat Lady, as Sirius made his way down the stairs near the portrait. He waited for the next staircase, which he soon climbed down, towards the fourth floor of the castle, where the stairs leading to the owlry were.

He soon found himself in the West hand corridor of the fourth floor, tracking along towards the tower. Opening the tower door, he found himself faced with stairs, and he began to climb.

Part of the stairs were not covered by stone, open to the snowy outside air, making Sirius wish he had brought a coat with him as he made his way slowly up the higher landings. Careful not to slide on ice, Sirius made his way inside the Owlery.

The Owlery was a circular stone room, rather cold and drafty, because none of the windows had glass in them. The lack of glass in the windows allowed the owls to come and go as they pleased.

The floor was covered entirely in straw, owl droppings, and owl pellets. Looking up, Sirius could see the many owls nesting on the perches that rose right up to the top of the tower.

Sirius whistled, pulling the cloak off of him, and down flew a single owl. A tawny owl, seemingly jittery, rested down in front of him. He gave the letter to the owl, which the owl held in between its beak.

Off the owl flew, leaving Sirius to head back down the steps of the side of the tower carefully, before exiting the door that led back inside of the tower. Making his way back to the Common Room, he found himself wondering how she had come up with the Marauder name.