Clair de Lune

Remus stands up, carrying his bag. He needed to change into his robes. "Pardon me," he politely maneuvers his way past Sirius. He stops by Lily and Alice. He can tell James isn't going to apologize, although, he really should... But he likes James, and he doesn't want to cause him any trouble. He taps Lily's shoulder and clears his throat. Then walks down the aisle, hoping she'll follow.

Lily blinks and stares at James. What a snot! She'd been being perfectly reasonable, she thought, asking him to apologize.

"Neither. He didn't ask me to come in his stead, I just think you should quit being a berk and apologize to him already. You're being awfully rude, James."

Alice giggles in the background. She can't help it.

She coughs and blushes a bit, clearing her throat.

"Hey, I know you! You're James Potter!" she accuses. "Your mum is friends with my mum! You really should apologize. Great prank, though."

Okay, now this girl is getting annoying. James looks up at the red head from his seat and stands up. He leans with one hand on the wall, and holds his head up. "Oh and is ickle Sevvy sending girls to defend his honor, or are you just a busy body?"

"Excuse me," Lily says, nicking James' chocolate frog card and moving closer to him so he paid attention.

"I said I think you ought to apologize to Severus for pranking him," she repeats, patiently.

Boys could be so thick.

James abruptly stops laughing. Who died and made HER boss of all everything?

James decides to ignore the girls.

"Babayaga," he flips over his latest chocolate frog card. "What an old biddy. Oy Peter, have anything to trade?"

Lily frowns and shoves her things into her robes pockets (she had gotten dressed ahead of time so she wouldn't have to change later), then follows the black head of hair.

"That's the same boy who dropped his glasses earlier," she says aloud, then unceremoniously opens the compartment door where James, Peter, Remus, and Sirius are sitting.

She turns to James with a raised eyebrow and a glare, just like her mum does when she's mad at her da. "You pranked a chocolate frog that my friend Severus opened, and now he's going to be miserable all day. I think you ought to apologize," she states clearly, lightening up on the glare a bit. He is an eleven-year-old boy, after all.

Alice leans against a wall, laughing and holding her nose. "Merlin's pants!"

She coughs a few more times. "Brilliant prank! But why'd it have to be us? What rotten luck!"

Several heads poke out of the various compartments nearby to glare at Lily and Alice.

"Who set off a dung bomb IN the train!"
"FIRST YEARS, UGG!"


"Hey!" Alice snaps. "It wasn't us! We were pranked." She groans and grabs Lily. "Come on, this way."

A few feet down, they've caught up with the snack lady, who looks at them funny. Alice shrugs innocently and takes a deep breath of air.

"Ahhhhh, fresh air!"

Meanwhile, a messy head of black hair, way in the back, has peeked out, and he is laughing at them.

"Think I found our prankster, Lily." Alice points, and the head quickly zips back into its car.

In the meantime, the sweets cart has moved on to Lily's, Severus', Alice's, Crabbe's, and Goyle's compartment.

Lily had moved from talking about Wingardium Leviosa to Houses.

"What House d'you think you'll be sorted into, Alice?" she queries.

"Anything from the cart, lovelies?"

Lily turns to stare a bit at the cart. She knows she really shouldn't, but... she can't resist. She buys two of everything with the money she has, and then a few extra for Severus.

"Dig in, Severus, Alice!"

Little does she know that she's bought James' rigged chocolate frog.

Severus takes the rigged chocolate frog and opens it.

Dungbomb smoke pours out of it and into the car, making Lily cough. She quickly scoops up her things, grabs Alice's hand, and pulls her out of the compartment before it gets too smelly and the smell sticks to all of them.

"Ugh! What a rotten prank to pull! Come on, let's go find out who's behind this."

Severus, in the meanwhile, is miserable. Crabbe and Goyle escape the compartment after Lily and Alice, and they force him to stay in it and get smelly. This was definitely not how he imagined his first day at Hogwarts starting.

"It'll be worth it!"

Remus's jaw drops. He had been so certain James was kidding. "A real invisibility cloak. Wow..."

Peter was starring in awe as well.

Remus bites his lip. "Be careful, James. If the professor's catch you, you'll get in a lot of trouble."

"Sure do!" James pulls out his cloak and puts it on. He vanishes from sight, but you can still hear him giggling.

Remus shrugs again. Not a good idea...

"You... have a real invisibility cloak?"

It seemed pretty hard to believe.

"Brilliant!" praised Peter. "I'll do it!"

"Wouldn't it be great if we could pull a prank at the feast? Make a grand entrance into Hogwarts?" James smiles devilishly.

James leans over and whispers to the others. "I have an invisibility cloak. I'm going to to sneak ahead of the other first years once we get off the boats, and plant these dung bombs I have all around the staff table. It's going to be hilarious. I could use your help standing guard."

"Pranks are fun," Peter agrees. "Have any good ones planned?"

Remus just shrugs.

"So Remus, Peter, you blokes like to prank?" James says conversationally. He pops a jelly bean into his mouth (turkey- very odd flavor, but it could be worse).

Remus opens another chocolate frog (not letting this one get away) and takes a small bite.

He subtly glances between the other three boys. He likes Peter. Peter is quiet and keeps to himself. He's sweet and a bit clumsy. Trouble was, he was observant. That could be a problem. Maybe we could be friends.

James is loud. And he thinks I'm weird... But he is nice. Remus decides he really likes James. He's... refreshing. His wild hair reminds him of the boy from The Jungle Book. Mougli liked wolves... Maybe we can be friends...

Then he looked to Sirius. Sirius was beautiful. Remus knows this is a weird thing to think, but it's true. He reminds Remus of an Egyptian prince or a god, from one of the books he's read, like Amun Ra. He was really nice too, Remus thinks, but he has a funny way of showing it. I hope we'll be friends.

Remus finishes his chocolate and looks dreamily out the window.

Apparently Sirius actually had to say that Remus and Pete could take what they want. James already knew or would just do it anyway.

"I put the lot on the seat for a reason you know."

He is at once haughty, petulant, and grumpy.

"Really?" Remus smiles with disbelief and catches the little package. "Thank you."

He opens the box and frog hops right onto Sirius. "Oops."

The card is Helga Hufflepuff. "Here you are Peter. You can have my card."