"Remus, what classes do we have today?" James asked, struggling to pull on his maroon jumper. It was stuck halfway, and you could see one of his arms sticking out of the sleeve. "James, are you trying to stick your head up your sleeve?" Sirius chortled, pointing at him. "Shut it, you tosser!"

Remus waited for them to stop jabbing at each other before he spoke. "I believe we have breakfast, Potions with the Slytherins, a free period, lunch, then flying lessons and charms. And, of course, we have three breaks, one in the morning and the second in the afternoon, and the third before dinner." He stuck out his hand and offered his schedule. James's eyes skimmed over the text.

Monday:

8:30, Breakfast

9, DADA

10:30, first break

11, Transfiguration

12:30, lunch

13, Herbology

14:30, Second Break

15, History of Magic

16:40, Third break

17, Dinner

24, Astronomy

Tuesday:

8:30, Breakfast

9, Potions

10:30, first break

11, Free Period

12:30, lunch

13, Flying Lessons

14:30, Second Break

15, Charms

16:40, Third break

17, Dinner

(Due to my laziness, Monday will have the same schedule that Wednesday has, Tuesday and Thursday have the same order of classes as well, and they alternate every Friday.) Sorry, It's somewhat confusing.

James wrinkled his nose. "Why must we have DADA and Potions with the Slytherins?" Sirius yanked James's jumper down for him. "I don't know, some crap house unity thing probably. Trust me, I would rather not have any classes with the Slimy Slyths."

"Not all of the Slytherins are bad, Sirius. I bet some of them are pretty nice." Remus pointed out. "I doubt it. If their anything like my family, they're all evil buggers." 

"Can we go to breakfast?" Peter asked hopefully. "On Tuesday's the house elves make more drop scones!" Remus clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Sure, Pete. Let's go eat breakfast." He obliged him. Drop scones are the U.K version of American pancakes I think.

"Hey, Sirius, are you okay?" James whispered in his ear. He gritted his teeth. "I don't know James... Druella is going to send an owl home to my parents. I'm sure that will be just wonderful for me." Sirius responded in a dry tone.

James shot a worried glance at the back of Sirius's head.

He wondered what it would be like to have parents who didn't love him. His da and mum had always been affectionate to him because he was their miracle child. They had him in their 40's when they so desperately wanted kids but it seemed like it wasn't going to happen... and then they had him. He imagined not having arms to run back to, a da (Or mum!) who didn't take you to quidditch matches, or comforting words when you had a nightmare. Sirius's parents were the ones causing the nightmares for him.

He bumped into a stone wall, too distracted to see it ahead of him. "Youch!" He exclaimed, rubbing his forehead. Remus looked back at him. "Hey, James, are you okay?" He grimaced while touching the bruise already forming on his forehead. "Yeah, I'm fine."

They arrived at the dining hall, and, no surprise, the 1st year girls were already there. "What happened to your forehead, James?" Mary asked. "No big deal." He shrugged. "Say: 'it was a quidditch injury' James!" Sirius whispered into his ear. "It was just a quidditch injury." He repeated. Lily rolled her eyes.

Lily was buttering a roll she had just picked up when he walked in. "Just a quidditch injury." His voice drifted into her ears. Quidditch injury my arse. She thought sourly. Probably tripped over his large head, arrogant git that he is. She buttered her roll a bit more aggressively, almost shredding the poor thing.

"Do you think you'll enjoy potions?" Lily asked Marlene through gritted teeth. Marlene shrugged. "I dunno. Sounds pretty interesting but I'll probably be rubbish at it." Mary leaned towards them. "Hey, remember that Slughorn bloke we saw in the portrait? I'm pretty sure his son is the Potion Master, Horace Slughorn or something." Lily thought back to that moment again. He had been a nice chap, just a bit bumbling.

Hector Slughorn smiled as the first years passed his portrait again, Lily and Mary waving at him while Sirius chased James down the hall. He stroked his painted-on beard. "I hope they turn out well... especially that Lily Evans. What a nice girl." He mumbled to himself.

He watched them enter his son's classroom, the very same one he had taught in for over 40 years. Horace Slughorn greeted them with a booming laugh, smoothing his robes down. They were a boisterous shade of purple, with sapphires sewn into the carefully stitched fabric. Underneath his extravagant robes, he wore a blue velvet waistcoat that was stretched thin over his impressive gut.

"Welcome class!" He dabbed the beads of sweat that were already forming on his forehead with a handkerchief. "Today we'll be concocting a babbling beverage, but first I have to assign partners." Sirius crossed his fingers, hoping for a talented partner. "James Potter with Sirius Black, Mary MacDonald with Dorcas Meadowes, Severus Snape with Nick Mulciber, Bertram Aubrey with Gordon Avery, Remus Lupin with Peter Pettigrew, Corban Yaxley with Gregory Goyle, and Lily Evans with Marlene McKinnon."

James high fived Sirius. "Bloody brilliant!" He exclaimed, his cheeks flushed in excitement. Severus stared into the bottom of his cast-iron cauldron in disappointment. He had been hoping to be paired with Lily, maybe catch up with her, as he hadn't seen her since they had been sorted.

Slughorn waddled over to the board in front of the room, scrawled writing appearing on the board with a wave of his wand, which was also encrusted with gems.

Lily studied the recipe, taking note of what supplies it required. "Here, I'll fetch the ingredients, can you flip to the Babbling Beverage in your textbook for extra tips?" She asked politely. "Sure!" Marlene flipped to one of the first pages in the book, pursing her lips as she read. It sounded pretty arduous for a beginner's potion...

Lily's eyes roved over the shelf, her foot tapping a steady beat on the stone floor. "Aha. Finally!" She grabbed a small sheaf of Alihotsy leaves, adding to the billywig stings and powdered erumpment tongue she already had cradled in her pale, freckled arms. She turned to leave, knocking into another person who was entering. It wasn't like the movies, where the chest was big and muscular and stopped her from tripping. Instead, she bumped into scrawny 11-year-old James Potter, and they fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs and potion ingredients. Lily sat up, spitting an alihotsy leave out of her mouth. "Ugh... that tastes like rotten fish." James nodded his head. "Whenever my mum is making a potion with alihotsy leaves she adds some mint to improve the taste." She tilted her head curiously. "Wouldn't that affect the potion?" He smiled at her. "No, she adds it after it's brewed. Plus, most muggle ingredients don't affect potions."

"Oh. Thanks." James brushed a few alihotsy leaves off of his robes and stood, offering her a hand. Lily eyed it warily; she still had some reservations when it came to James Potter. He flashed a toothy grin. "I don't bite, Evans." Lily reluctantly let him pull her up. "Plus, I'm sure holding my hand will be a thrill for you." He added. She gave him a dirty look, picked up all her ingredients, and marched back to her table. He swept a hand through his disorderly hair. It seemed to be a recurring theme, he thought. Watching her retreating figure as she walked away from him in annoyance.

"The nerve of that James Potter!" She muttered under her breath as she started to boil water. Marlene looked at her curiously. "What did he do?" She enquired. "He's just so... egotistical." Lily started chopping alihotsy leaves, reducing them to thin slivers with her anger.  "Okay, first of all, why are you murdering our alihotsy leaves, they probably have a family. Secondly, how many drops of leech juice were we supposed to use?"

"Two, why?" Marlene pointed guiltily at their table. "Because I spilt some..." She wiped a bit up with a corner of her robes. "I have to get some more now from the potion supplies! "Lily groaned. Marlene held up her hands defensively. "Hey, I told you I would be rubbish at potions."

"I can't believe people actually drink a potion that has animal poo in it!" Sirius snickered as James added the armadillo bile to the mixture, stirring it in patiently. James shrugged. "I mean, I bet there are way nastier ingredients. This potion also requires leech juice, so..." Sirius wrinkled his nose. "Nasty! You better not spill that stuff in my hair!" James grinned. "Your wonderful, beautiful hair?" He teased. Sirius flicked his hair behind his ear. "You're just jealous your hair isn't as fantastic as mine." He sniffed, adopting an imperial tone. He accidentally knocked in a few dried billywig stings with his elbow as he jabbed James. "Whoops!" The potion bubbled and turned a nasty shade grey that mirrored the colour of concrete.

Around the room, students were having varying degrees of success. Remus was patiently trying to coach Peter, although it was obviously a lost cause. "Why can't it be as easy as cooking?" He complained. Goyle had accidentally dispensed an entire vial of leech juice into his potion, causing it to ignite. He shouted as he tried to put it out by dumping another vial in, which only succeeded in enlarging the flames. Severus was skillfully manoeuvring around his cauldron, adding in ingredients as required, following the instructions to a tee.

Slughorn had begun to make his rounds, peering into all of the cauldrons. He praised Severus, also patting him on the back, wisely avoided Goyle and Yaxley's table, smiled at both pairs of the Gryffindor boys, and gave Mary and Dorcas potion a hearty thumbs up. He halted in his tracks when he came to Lily's table. "Oho! Marvellously brewed, Mrs Evans. I don't think I've seen a babbling beverage with the shade of colour so on point! Did you make any modifications to the alihotsy leaves? That's what gives it it's colour!" His moustache seemed to bristle with happiness as he patted both of them on the back, more enthusiastically than he had thumped Severus.

"Yeah, I chopped them very fine, thinner than the recipe required." She told him. Severus carefully noted this in the corner of his potions book, intent on picking up as many tips as he could.

"Thoughts on potions?" Sirius asked, lounging on one of the plush couches in the Gryffindor common room. James shrugged. "It was okay, though I'm definitely more excited for flying later today. Wanna know one other good thing about potions?" Sirius sat up, looking eagerly at him. "What?" James smirked impishly. He pulled a small vial of potion out of his pocket with a flourish. It was some of the babbling beverage they had brewed. It was a pale brown colour, and the mixture shimmered in the vial, looking more pleasant than it had in their cauldron. "What'd you take that for?" Sirius asked, a mischievous smile forming on his face. "Remember Bilius talking about pranking? I reckon since he's the head boy now, he won't pull as many pranks. Why don't we take up the mantle of resident Hogwarts tricksters?" Sirius leaned forward conspiratorily. "Excellent. Shall we convince Remus and Peter to join us?" James put a hand on his shoulder. "We shall."