The Marauders//COMPLETED

15

Without waiting for his friends' reactions, James squeezed himself through the window and dropped out of the train before he could change his mind. He used the side of the train to propel him as far as possible from the tracks, and landed with a thud on the grassy hill. Laughing he stood up and dusted himself off. "Hurry up, before anyone sees us!" he called up to his friends.

Peter hung out of the window, face as white as a sheet. "I don't want to do this!"

"Just go already!" Sirius slammed the heels of his hands into Peter's back and threw his friend out of the window.

Peter screamed the whole way down.

"Shut up!" James yelled at him, "People will hear you!"

Peter landed a few feet to James' right, followed quickly by Sirius.

"That was fun!" Sirius chuckled, rolling around on the grass.  "We should jump out of moving  trains more often."

"C'mon." James said, moving to the tracks as the train passed them by, picking up his belongings and shoving them in his trunk. The sun was setting and it was getting darker by the minute; if they were going to sneak into the castle, they would have to do it soon before dark.

"But how will we get back into Hogwarts? The grounds have all sorts of enchantments! We won't be able to get past the gates!" Peter's voice shook although he tried to keep it steady like his friends always did. Inwardly, he wanted to vanish like those pillows they had been practicing Vanishing Spells on the previous week.

"The gates only close after dark. If we move now; we can make it." James said.

"But isn't there someone at the gates? To make sure no one sneaks in?" Sirius asked, finally asking the question that James had been waiting for them to ask for so long.

"You can't tell anyone about this," James leaned in closer to his friends, grinning. "You know those Invisibility Cloaks? The ones we always wanted to get?"

"Yeah? But if you're thinking that we're going to find one in Hogsmeade... I'd say that maybe McGonagall was onto something when she said you never use your head..." Sirius frowned.

"Of course we won't find one in Hogsmeade! Can you imagine what kind of freedoms that would give a student? Or...three?" James smiled at his friends' confused looks. He reached into his trunk and pulled out a long cloak, shiny and slippery. His friends gasped.

"W-where did you get one of those?" Sirius asked, mouth agape.

"I'll tell you later, but if we want to get into Hogwarts we have to leave now." James threw the cloak over himself and his friends gasped as he disappeared. "Come on, get under. I think there's enough room for the three of us."

"This is so stupid." Peter muttered under his breath.

~~~

As they approached Hogwarts, they couldn't shake the odd feeling of going back to the gates without the usual storm of students. It was so quiet, it felt as if they were entering a sacred area.

"This is scary." Peter murmured, breaking the silence they had maintained since leaving the hill. For once, Sirius and James felt the same way, although they both stayed quiet. As Sirius had predicted earlier, there was someone standing at the gate. Someone that they all shared a mutual hate for...

Argus Filch stood like he had a metal pole shoved up his back, with his small beady eyes scanning the snowy world around him, as if it were a naughty student that needed punishing.

"We gotta be quiet." James hissed as they approached the gate, moving slowly so that all three of them could be concealed at all times.

"Please let me punch him," Sirius ground his teeth. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!"