The 1|Marauder's era|

Chapter 4

The great hall was filled with chatting students as it usually is. 

When Stella arrived dinner had already started, so the hall was packed with students of every house. Stella took her usual seat, across from Barty and Regulus and next to her brother, as she usually does. When she sat down the three seemed to be in deep conversation, so they hadn't even noticed her. 

She decided that she preferred if they stayed in their conversation, she'd rather have a bit more time to process the encounter she just had with Snape. She started eating and after Regulus looked up to reach for the pumpkin juice, he'd finally seen her. 

"Oh, Stella," Regulus spoke, elbowing Barty to get his attention, "How long have you been there?"

"Just a few minutes," She replied calmly. 

"Oh, merlin. How much of that conversation did you hear?" Barty said worriedly. 

"Calm down Barts, I wasn't listening," She defended, "Hey do you guys want to go out to the pitch after this, I need to hit something. I think everyone would appreciate it if it weren't anything else." 

"Sure, Elle." Regulus said comfortingly, "What's got you worked up this time?"

"Snape." She said, then quickly left the great hall to get out to the Quidditch pitch with her three best friends. 

"Snape." Remus said in disgust. 

"What was that Moony?" Peter asked Remus. 

"I just saw Snape, merlin he's greasy," Remus said looking up at the doors of the great hall. "For our next prank on him we should just shave his head, he'd probably look less disgusting. And I think the rest of the school would thank us." 

"Now you're thinking Moony," Sirius exclaimed patting him on the back, obviously touch starved from the five minutes they've been apart before dinner. "Oi Prongs, it seems like a good night to play some quidditch?" 

James smiled brightly, "If that isn't in our wedding vows, I will file for a divorce." 

"I'm taking that as a yes then," Sirius replied as he took one last sip of pumpkin juice before rushing after James who was already out of the Great Hall. 

Barty, Regulus, and Stella always loved Quidditch. All three had joined the team in second year, Regulus being Seeker, Barty as a beater, and Stella as a chaser. But when it was just the three of them, they had a pretty solid routine. They only used half the pitch, Regulus was keeper and Barty playing against Stella, whoever got the most goals won. Evan was never really into Quidditch, and he couldn't stay on a broomstick for the life of him, so he usually just watched from the sidelines. But tonight, he decided to just stay up in his dorm room to do homework.

Regulus had just blocked a quaffle from Barty as the five Gryffindors walked onto the pitch. It was James Potter, Sirius Black, Marlene Mckinnon, Gideon and Fabian Prewett. The two other marauders weren't big on quidditch like Sirius and James. 

When the Gryffindors played quidditch outside of practice it was always the same five, James, Sirius, Gideon, Fabian, and Marlene. They all loved quidditch and took any chance they could to play. 

The Gryffindors looked up at the three Slytherins, then looked at each other. "We could come back tomorrow," Marlene suggested. 

"No, we could just use the other half of the pitch, they're only using the one," Fabian reasoned. 

"Or we could play with them," James proposed. Everyone shook their head 'no', but James was already in the air, going to talk to them. "Oi Rosier!" 

The trio turned to see who was shouting at them, "What do you want Potter?" Barty started. 

"Well, we," James started pointing to himself and the others on the ground, "We were wondering if you wanted to play a game, if you weren't almost done?" 

The trio made eye contact with one another, in this situation Stella would usually speak up but, "Sure," Regulus replied coming closer to the group, leaving his post. "We could make teams, there's eight of us. Four on each team, a keeper, beater, and two chasers." 

"No seeker, sound good enough to me," Stella said, "Team captains pick players? You can go first." 

James agreed and they all flew down to the ground to pick the teams, James went first, picking Sirius without hesitation. Stella chose Barty, they made a great duo when it came to passing the quaffle and making an amazing play. Next James picked, to everyone's confusion, he chose Regulus. Sirius seemed to be the most concerned about the decision, but James justified it by saying 'he's a good keeper'. The tension between the brothers was so thick you could cut through it with a knife. 

James' last pick was Marlene, giving Stella the twins, but she wasn't upset about that, they were a great duo. The game went by quickly, the Slytherin and Gryffindors being surprisingly peaceful and having a good time. The sun had started to set when Stella's team reached 150 points, which was when they decided they should call it a day. Stella landed and put her arm around Barty cheering how they were so much better. The two went over to Regulus to rub it in his face.

"I could give you some lessons sometime, little Reggie," Stella said as she ruffled his hair.

"I'm a seeker, not a keeper," Regulus replied pushing her away, Stella pushed him back making him fall and the two other Slytherins laugh. Just as Regulus said, "Piss off, Elle," James walked up to them.

"Good game you two," James said to Stella and Barty. 

"Yeah, we kicked your ass," Barty said. 

James rolled his eyes and looked down at Regulus. "Good job, Black. You know your way around a quaffle." 

"That's not the only kind of ball I know my way around," Regulus said lowly as he got up to stand by Barty and Stella. James smiled awkwardly and walked away to go by his friends, the trio didn't miss the red tint on James's cheeks as he left. Stella was laughing at him, and Barty was teasing Regulus for making The James Potter blush. 

The Slytherins were out of the pitch quite quickly, and James and Sirius decided to stay back a little longer. "James," Sirius said in all seriousness, not his usual tone, "Why'd you do that?" 

"Do what?" James said, not looking at Sirius, "It was fun I don't know why your worked up with that." 

"Not playing with them, I get it. You like do these things with Stella like we're a normal group of friends. But you know that's not how it's always going to be, people will start talking if we get more public with her. People will start to catch on, you know what that will do to her. There's a reason we keep this a secret, and it has to stay like that. Stella's family is worse than mine, and you know that," Sirius said to James sincerely. 

"Sirius, I know." James sighed. "I just wish it could be different. I hate how purebloods are. I just wish we could all get along with prejudices. I know we need to give Stella space; it was hard enough for her parents to find out she was queer; I can't imagine what they'd if they found out she willingly talked to muggle-Borns and blood traitors."

"Maybe it's all the incest that makes them such dickheads," Sirius added. 

"Hey Sirius, can I tell you something," James said being really serious. Sirius turned to him with a great amount of empathy that James appreciated. "I've been thinking about this for a while now. And I see how you're so comfortable with your sexuality and it made me think about mine. I've done some research and I think I'm pansexual. Like I like boy and girls and whatever someone wants to identify as."

Sirius gave James a smile, "That's ok James. You know I'll always love you. Just don't fall in love with one of my cousins or something," Sirius said patting James' arm comfortingly. James laughed and smiled. 

"I love you too Pads," James said bringing him into a mother-like hug.