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Fancy a Swim


Regulus was sitting at the Slytherin table next morning, quite happy looking, and Sirius watched him from Gryffindor, distracted from eating his sausages and toast. James laughed and waved his hand in front of Sirius’s eyes. “You with us, Sirius?” he asked, smirking.

“Sorry, what?” Sirius realized he’d missed half a conversation and looked about at his friends.

“Remus was just suggesting that we show him the Secret Room today so he can add it to the map,” Peter supplied between shovelling food into his mouth.

Remus waved his fork as he talked, “I mean, since there’s not a lot else to do. I’m really excited to see this room. It sounds brilliant.”

“Yeah, sure,” Sirius nodded, “That sounds great. Maybe we can figure out what the bloody hell went wrong with the potion while we’re up there.”

“Yeah,” James said excitedly. “Rey can take a look and see what he thinks.”

Remus looked uneasy, “Guys, I don’t know if it’s a good idea. I mean, what would’ve happened if Sirius got stuck -- you know, as Snuffles,” he said looking around.

Peter snickered. “I still can’t believe they called you Snuffles.”

“It’s a perfectly dignified name,” Sirius said, puffing himself up.

James said, “Yeah, you should’ve seen his ickle little collar with the lovely charm on it.” He held his hand up to mime the dog tag’s location at Sirius’s neck. “Wish I took a picture of that one.”

Remus looked about them, “You aren’t listening to me.”

“You’re being paranoid,” replied Sirius.

“I’m not - you’ve already gotten stuck once…” Remus started, but he was interrupted by the screeching of the post owls as they came soaring in through the high windows and began to descend on the tables. James grinned seeing Bubo coming swooping towards him and held his hands up for her to land on his arm.

Sirius caught a flash of familiar black feathers out of the corner of his eyes and spotted Adolf across the Great Hall, just fluttering to a landing at the Slytherin table. He sat up straighter, his eyes widening, watching as the owl hopped up to Regulus and delivered a package, wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. Regulus grinned and patted Adolf and untied the pack from his ankles before the owl took off with a friendly nip at Regulus’s thumb. Sirius watched as his brother unwrapped the paper and started sharing what looked like bits of pistachio fudge with his mates ‘round the table as he read a note that had been included. Sirius felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. The pistachio fudge was his favorite, something that Walburga only made for special occasions, and it made his tongue ache for the taste of it as he gripped the table. If Mother had sent Regulus a care package on his first day, she must’ve heard that he’d been sorted Slytherin already.

James elbowed Sirius. Sirius blinked, coming out of the jealous trance he had been drawn into watching Regulus with the treat from their mother. “I - yeah?” he asked, looking over at James in confusion.

James was holding up a small box. “Mum sent us each a box,” he said, smiling. Sirius took his box, stunned, looking around as Remus and Peter were both opening iden tical little boxes to find homemade butterbeer lollies. James grinned, “These are the best,” he said, sticking one in his mouth. “You’re going to love them. Wait ‘til you try it.”

Sirius opened his box up to find the lollies wrapped up in maroon tissue paper and a little note on a parchment, Dora’s scripty handwriting across it - Have a marvelous term! Dora Potter. Sirius’s heart swelled with gratefulness and he quickly snatched up one of the lollies, nearly completely forgetting about the pistachio fudge and his brother.




Sirius ran across the grounds after breakfast, leading the way toward the boys’ favorite tree by the lake, the others following along at a slower pace. He loved the way the wind felt in his hair and the sunshine on his back. Dora’s gift and note had made all the difference in his emotions for the day and he just felt so good that he couldn’t imagine standing still. As he reached the sloping end of the hill, coming up to the edge of the lake, he grinned to himself and quickly shrugged off his robes and kicked off his shoes.

“What’re you doing down there?” shouted James, “Keep your clothes on, mate, we don’t need to be seeing your naked bum running about!”

Down to his undershorts already, Sirius turned about and gave James a rude gesture before grinning wildly and throwing himself into the lake.

“He’s gone mad,” Remus said flatly as the boys came to a stop by Sirius’s discarded robes.

James said, “Well… it is warm out,” and started shedding his own things.

“What about the giant squid?!” shrieked Peter, “And the merfolk?! And grindeylows?!”

James shrugged, “Look, he’s alright.”

Sirius had already splashed several feet into the water and was jumping about, spraying water every which way, loudly singing the Yellow Submarine song again, extremely off key. James grinned, tossing down his shirt and ran in after him, sloshing his way through the muddy bank. When he reached Sirius, he leaped up and knocked him over, both of them submerging under the water for a moment before coming back up, spitting water and laughing while splashing one another.

Remus looked at Peter.

“No way am I doing that,” Peter squeaked.

“Nor am I,” Remus replied, and they spent a few moments collecting all of Sirius and James’s things, piling them up beneath the tree before settling down and pulling out their books to do a bit of pre-studying.

The boys had been at it in the lake for some time when Lily and her friends came by, walking along the path a few feet away. Sirius spotted her looking at them with wide, disapproving eyes and stopped splashing James. “OI! Evans!” he shouted, “Fancy a swim?”

Remus and Peter looked up from their books on the shore. “Oh no,” murmured Remus, seeing the sparkle in James’s eyes as he turned to see the girls.

“What oh no?” Peter asked, confused.

James grinned widely, “Yeah, the water’s fine, love,” he called.

Annalee McKinnon had come to a stop and was staring at James’s bare chest with a dreamy sort of look in her eyes. “You look like you’re having fun,” she shouted over.

James didn’t even seem to hear her.

“A blast,” Sirius answered for him. “You ladies should come in.” He grinned, flipping himself onto his back and paddling a circle ‘round James.

Lily shook her head, “No, I don’t think so.” She nodded for the other girls to keep walking, but Annalee didn’t seem interested in going anywhere.

“Let’s just sit with the boys for a little bit, I’m tired,” Annalee said, unable to tear her eyes off James, whose hair was hanging in a stringy mop over his forehead. He grinned and ducked backwards into the water with Sirius.

Remus murmured, “Don’t do it, Potter, don’t do it…”

“Do what?” asked Peter.

Lily said, “But we’ve just started walking, how are you tired already?”

Annalees shrugged, but she bounded over to the tree, where Remus and Peter were and set herself down on a rock a few feet away. Marlene looked at Lily as Ali Prewitt went running after her. “It’s just a little break, I suppose,” Marlene said with a shrug.

Lily sighed, “But -- oh fine.” She followed Marlene over to the edge of the lake, too, but stayed standing, making sure it was known that she didn’t want to stay long.

Remus kept an eye on James and Sirius, who were roughhousing in the water, arguing about something quietly enough that the others couldn’t hear them, especially as Ali and Peter started chatting about how excited Peter was about Care of Magical Creatures class. “Are you reading the Divination book?” Marlene asked Remus, “Does it seem hard?”

“No hard, a bit complicated, perhaps, but…” Remus stopped. He’d only looked away for a second, but it was all that James needed. “Bloody hell.”

There was a loud shriek and suddenly Lily was airborne, flying toward the lake, a blur of red hair and fluttering black robes. There was a terrific splash as she hit the surface of the water, Sirius diving out of the way. James stood, dripping on the shore, in nothing but his undershorts, and grinned at the other girls, who were staring at him, stunned, and tipped an invisible hat. “Ladies,” he said, and he went splashing back into the water.

Remus held his face in his hands.

“Oh my,” gasped Annalee, her eyes practically shaped like hearts over the sight of James.

Peter looked at her and thought how silly she was. James’s legs were pale and scrawny and his lanky shape wasn’t anything to get so worked up over, he thought.

Lily was screaming when she surfaced in the water. “YOU WRETCHED, IDIOTIC, HORRIBLE --” she shrieked, flapping her arms, treading water.

“Take your robes off, you’ll be able to swim better,” James commanded, “They’re weighing you down.” He swam over to help her.

“DON’T TOUCH ME, YOU TOERAG!” she bellowed, shoving him good and hard away from her so that he went below the water as he fell. She struggled to get to the shore, stepping out of the lake, her shoes squashing as she stormed by.

“Evans!” James shouted from the water, “Where are you going, love?!”

“I’M GOING INSIDE!” Lily shrieked.

“DON’T LEAVE ME, EVANS! I NEED YOU!” James cried out, “Look!! I’m drowning, I need you to save me! Give me mouth-to-mouth, Evans!”

“I hope you do drown!” she yelled.

“BUT EVANS!” He shouted, “If I drown -- You’ll miss me!”

“I HOPE THE MERMAIDS SPEAR YOU!” she screamed.

Sirius was grinning.

“EVVAAAAANNNS!” James wailed mockingly, but she was already gone, running to the front doors of the castle.

Remus shook his head.

Marlene and Ali got up, “We better go after her,” Ali said, “Bye guys.”

“C’mon Annalee,” Marlene added, nudging her sister’s shoulder, “You’ll need to look at Potter later.”

Annalee turned scarlet, “I wasn’t looking at Potter, we were having a talk with Remus and Peter…” but she hurried after Marlene and Ali to go find Lily and calm her down anyway.

“How did you know he was going to do that?” Peter asked, looking up at Remus, “Have you learned Divination already in just one read?” He looked at the book curiously.

Remus shrugged. “I knew the moment he looked at her she wasn’t going to walk away without going in the lake.”

“You’re good,” muttered Peter in awe.

“It isn’t Divination, Peter,” Remus said, “It’s just James.”

“What’s just me?” James had come ashore, followed by Sirius, who was shaking off like a dog behind him. Apparently new habits die just as hard as old ones.

“Peter thinks I’ve learned divination because I knew you were going to throw Lily into the lake,” Remus answered, “But I told him it was just because I know that look you get in your eye that you’re up to no good.”

James grinned, “There’s a look I get in my eye?”

“Yes. It’s a sort of twinkly thing that happens about the corners. Like you’re dazzled by the concept of wrecking havoc on others.”

James’s grinned widened.

“Did you see her face, though?” Sirius laughed, “She was so shocked.”

“She was mad as a hornet,” Remus said, shaking his head.

“She’ll get over it,” James said with a wave of his palm, “Evans needs to loosen up and have some fun. She’s too uptight. She should’ve just joined us, rather than running off like a bloody -- oh no.” He stopped mid-sentence.

Storming across the grounds was Professor McGonagall, followed by the still soaking wet Lily Evans.

Remus looked up. “Serves you right,” he said. He nudged Peter, “C’mon, let’s go before we end up in trouble, too.” Peter jumped up and the two of them ran off toward the castle.

Sirius was hopping, pulling his boots on, “Ruddy cowards,” he muttered, watching the two of them run.

“Mr. Potter! Mr. Black!” McGonagall’s voice carried over the grounds to them as she neared.

Sirius looked at James with a grin, “This has got to be a record of some sort. Second day of term, classes not even begun yet and already we’re about to have a detention.” James smirked at him.