The Marauders//COMPLETED

14

"Why would they lie to us?" James was pacing the small compartment. "And why would Remus go along with it?"

"I dunno, mate." Sirius sat against the window. "Maybe it's something embarrassing."

"You're just making me want to find out even more," James smirked before returning to seriousness. "What could it be? Is he actually sick?"

Peter was watching the two boys excitedly, "maybe he has a girlfriend!"

The boys turned to look at him, and he turned beet red. "Just an idea." he muttered, turning away from them to stare out the window at the nearly empty platform outside.

"It's going to bug me all Christmas if I don't know!" James tore a hand through his messy black hair. "We have to figure out what's going on! I can't wait until we get back from the break!"

Sirius sat up suddenly, eyes bright. "Then we won't wait."

"What do you mean by that?" James stopped his pacing. "How would we find out sooner?"

"Think about it; if Remus had left Hogwarts by some other means-say, his parents picking him up- then why would the teachers lie and say they sent him home on the train? There's only one solution I can think of; Remus never left Hogwarts." Sirius looked at his friends significantly. "The best way to find out why they're lying to us is to go back to Hogwarts, now when only a few people are there and we don't have any lessons."

Peter bit his lip nervously, "We can't do that! Our families expect us to go home, so do all the teachers."

"You're right." James said, thinking. He dropped down onto the seat beside Sirius. "Now is the perfect chance to find out what's going on with Remus. But what will we say to our parents and teachers without seeming suspicious?"

"Ha! I don't have to tell my parents. They'll be thrilled if I don't come home for the break, maybe they'll think I died or something and I won't have to go back!" Sirius laughed bitterly.

"Wouldn't they just sell all your stuff then?" Peter asked him, grasping for something, anything to get him back to his warm house for Christmas.

Sirius pondered it for a moment before answering, "No. I think my Permanent Sticking Charm should hold."

James outright laughed at this, "You put charms on all your stuff?"

"Well, my family doesn't exactly approve of my choice of decoration. They've been trying to gradually sneak stuff out of my room since I was young, small things, so I wouldn't notice. It was much easier to just put charms on all of it; it drives them absolutely mental, and I get to keep all my stuff." Sirius shrugged. "Anyways, that's not the point. We need to find out what's going on with Remus, and the only way we can do that is if we stay at Hogwarts over the Christmas break."

Peter opened his mouth to protest, but was silenced by James' hand in the air.

"Peter, you can go home if you want. But me and Sirius are going to find out what's going on," James said determinedly. "They wouldn't be trying so hard to get us to believe the lie if it wasn't extremely important."

Peter stammered for a moment when they felt the jerk of the train as it started to pull out of the station.

"Better make your choice quick, we got to get off the train right away." James said.

"But what will we tell our parents?" Peter sputtered as his two friends rose and grabbed their trunks.

"We'll write home and tell them that we were behind on some work and thought it would be best to stay at Hogwarts to catch back up," James said without hesitation. "And if they've seen our grades...they won't question the story."

"But how will we get off?" Peter asked, reluctantly standing up and gathering his belongings.

James' eyes suddenly glinted with a light that could only mean one thing...they were about to do something very stupid.

He strode over to the window and opened it as far as it would go, and looked out at the small village of Hogsmeade as they passed it at snails pace. But the train was picking up speed as they went, getting more dangerous every second they waited.

"Give me your trunks." James ordered. The boys handed him their trunks unquestioningly, Peter with a little more hesitation than Sirius. With a grunt, James heaved his trunk up and out the window. When it landed, it burst open-something it had been threatening to do since he buckled the lid. Clothing and books spilled out on the hill beside the train.

Sirius laughed as James did the same thing with the other two trunks, and Peter chuckled nervously.

"What good does that do us? Won't we need our stuff?" Peter asked.

"Oh yes, we do need it." James began to climb up on the seat, swinging a led over the edge of the window. "You ready?"

"Ready for what?" Peter gulped. But he already knew the answer, even before James opened his mouth to answer. The mischievous glint in his eye, the way his fingers twitched with adrenaline, it gave it all away.

"We're going to jump out of the train."

A\N Since schools are starting up again, I'm going to be abandoning my schedule of releasing a chapter every Monday and instead focusing on my growing workload. Never fear, though! This story will not be abandoned! I will update whenever I have new material, so if I release 3 chapters in one week, then disappear for several weeks, please give me patience!

The next chapter will be out soon, so please stick around to find out what happens next! Love you all!💕