Chapter Five: An Unforeseen Problem and an Impromptu Game of 'Which Door?'

Scene: Hogwarts; a corridor and various classrooms; a few days later (Wednesday, September 15, 1971).

"Say, Remus, where were you yesterday?"

"Huh?" Remus looked up from his book. "Oh, my—my mum was sick, I had to go visit her. Sorry I didn't tell you in advance, it was a sort of spur-of-the-moment decision..."

James and Al shrugged. Sirius did not.

"You looked pretty sick yesterday, mate, how'd you get well again so fast?"

"I went to Madam Pomfrey for medicine, so that I could go visit my mum. Can we talk about something else, please?" And Remus looked so uncomfortable that they all exchanged glances—but complied.

"I wish first-years were allowed on the Quidditch team," James complained, moving from his position against the wall and pacing briefly before turning to face his friends. Ever since a notice had been pinned up in the common room the day before, stating that flying lessons were to begin next week, he had been talking almost non-stop about Quidditch. "I really want to be a Chaser!"

"We know," Al muttered, leaving his position against the wall to move to a relatively safe place—a few feet away from James.

Sirius grinned, ignoring Al, even though the redhead was about a foot away from him and was now watching him as though fearful for his sanity. Well, to be fair, he probably was worried for Sirius' sanity...

"I want to be a Beater, myself—but you're in luck, mate," Sirius added, "all three Chasers are seventh-years."

"Why is that lucky?"

"All the Chaser positions will be open next year, and second-years can be on the—wait, who just asked that?"

Al sighed. "She asked. See?" He reached out and turned Sirius' head until the taller boy was facing April King. Sirius' eyes widened immediately, and he ducked behind James, who had already ducked behind Remus, who had moved inconspicuously to stand behind Al the moment he had spotted the witch.

With no hiding option left, Al sighed. "Hello, April."

"You remembered my name?" April squealed.

"Unfortunately," James muttered, raising both hands to cover his ears. Sirius stifled a snicker, and even Remus found it hard not to grin.

"Er—yeah," Al replied to April, looking rather as though he wished hadn't remembered her name after all.

April beamed. "I remembered your name too, A—"

"Ah, Mr. Prewett. Might I have a word?"

April stopped mid-name, Al turned, and James and Sirius straightened (James' hands quickly falling from his ears), they and Remus all trying to pretend that they hadn't been hiding.

"If I'm in trouble, professor, then it was either James or Sirius who did it," Al said quickly.

"Hey!" Sirius protested.

"You—" James began.

Professor Dumbledore chuckled, cutting James off. "You are not in trouble, Mr. Prewett. I merely have a question which requires an answer. If you would?" He set off down the corridor, motioning for Al to follow him.

Al glanced at his friends, and followed.

They spoke for a minute or so, guarded by privacy charms. Finally the Headmaster removed the charms and they walked back towards the three boys, who had waited not very patiently for Al.

"I shall inform Madam Pomfrey, then," Dumbledore said as they approached.

"Thank you, sir...I should have thought of that." Al was flushing slightly, presumably from embarrassment.

Dumbledore waved a hand. "Even the best of us tend to forget the smaller details...I myself had forgotten until this morning. Good day, Mr. Prewett."

"Good day, sir."

Al watched as Dumbledore walked away, and then turned to his friends. "So! What should we do now?"

"Talk about your conversation with Dumbledore?" James suggested.

"What was he saying about Madam Pomfrey?" Sirius asked curiously. "Inform her of what?"

"Something I should have thought of and didn't—and that conversation was private. Ever heard of that concept?"

James and Sirius exchanged glances, and then shrugged. "Nope!" they replied together, grinning.

Remus and Al exchanged glances as well, although their glances said, rather clearly, 'idiots'.

"C'mon," Remus said with a sigh, "let's go before we're late for Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Aw," Sirius whined. "You're actually making us go to class?" He exchanged a pained look with James, who looked to be in complete agreement with his craziest friend.

"Yes," Al returned. "C'mon." He and Remus exchanged glances and nodded. Remus grabbed Sirius' arm and Al grabbed James' arm, and they began to pull their friends down the corridor. Needless to say, Remus was making more progress.

Sirius looked back at James with a 'help me!' expression. James just laughed from where he stood with his feet planted firmly against Al's tugging.

"Remus!" Al called, scowling. "A little help here? Please?"

Remus looked back and immediately turned away with a hand over his face, shoulders shaking. Sirius slowly started to grin.

Glancing up at James, Al noted that he was smirking, and slowly starting to shake with laughter as well.

"It's not funny!" Al protested.

"I beg to differ," Remus choked out, and started to laugh in earnest. He was quickly joined by James and Sirius.

"You lot are ridiculous," Al said, shaking his head. "Remind me why I'm friends with you again?"

James looked up from where he had been nearly doubled over with laughter, and smirked again, barely holding his laughter in check. "We have your timetable?"

Al gaped at him for a moment before this sank in properly. "That's right! Give me that!"

"No way!" James returned, barely managing not to laugh as he pulled the four's timetables from his bag and proceeded to hold them, now laughing properly, above his head, where the smaller boy couldn't reach them. Sirius was laughing hysterically now, and Remus was trying to stop laughing without success.

Al finally gave up on getting his timetable from James. Wondering idly why the other boy had them in the first place, he started walking towards the DADA classroom, waiting for his friends to realize that he was leaving them behind.

Two seconds later, Sirius nearly knocked him over, catching them both at the same time.

"You left us behind!" he cried in mock indignation.

"'Course I was, you were laughing at me." Al smirked at the taller boy and walked slightly faster, leaving him behind again.

Sirius shook his head and ran several steps, easily catching up once more.

"Say, where'd April go?" Al asked, not very curiously.

"A friend of hers came by a while back," James put in as he and Remus also caught up. "Said something about getting to class on time..."

Remus glanced at his watch and said something that he had learned from Sirius and James about a week previously.

"Remus!" Al said, somewhere between pretending to be shocked and actually being shocked.

Remus just shrugged and quickened his pace.

"Speaking of April," James said, now jogging to keep up with Remus, "I think she might be a bit off."

Remus turned, incredulous, his pace never slowing. "And you think you're one to talk?"

"Hey, at least I'm not a—a menace like her!"

"True, true..."

"A menace," Al muttered. "Merlin, she really is..."

"April the Menace," Sirius mused. "It has a ring to it."

"Come on, we're already late!"

The four broke into a run, dashing through corridors and up a flight of stairs. Twice they narrowly avoided running into walls. They ran down another flight of stairs, stopped abruptly, nearly bumping into each other, turned a corner, yanked open a door, and stumbled into—

"Er, what class is this?" James muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

The students occupying the room turned to stare at the four first-years, who confusedly took in the fact that the students in the class were quite a bit taller and older-looking than most of the first-years were.

"This is sixth-year Muggle Studies," squeaked the teacher. "I am Professor Lordenpra. Aren't you a little too young to be in my class? And may I point out that you are late?" The squeaky-voiced little old lady, who had looked reasonably kind so far, suddenly seemed to loom threateningly above them.

"Er—no!" Remus said, nearly as squeakily. "I—that is, yes—I mean—"

"We're not in your class, and we know that we're late—sorry—must've misjudged the doors, they all look the same—we'll just be going now—sorry for disrupting your class—" Sirius quickly pulled his three panicked friends out of the classroom and shut the door on the irate professor and the snickering sixth-years.

"Merlin, that was..."

"Scary?"

"Odd?"

"Something like that. Remind me never to take Muggle Studies unless there's a different teacher." Al ran a hand across his face, shaking slightly.

"Got it." James was still rather pale, mostly from the shock of the innocent and harmless looking little old lady suddenly turning into a terrifying old lady who didn't seem innocent or harmless looking at all.

"Ahem." Remus cleared his throat pointedly. "Class?"

Sirius made a face, but he grabbed James' arm and started to pull the other boy along.

James glared, bracing himself against the pull. "Stop ripping my arm out, will you?"

Sirius shrugged. "As you wish," he said, and let go. James, overbalancing, stumbled back a few steps and grabbed the nearest thing, which happened to be Al's shoulder, for support.

Seconds later, Remus grabbed James by the collar and pulled him upright again, as Al also started to fall. Al, arms pin-wheeling, managed to grab James by the shoulder of his robes and pull himself up as well. He then let go and started to walk again, ignoring James, who was massaging his throat where his own robes had choked him and glaring at the redhead as he did so.

"You did nearly make him fall," Remus pointed out, noticing James' glare, but James just transferred the glare to him, and he fell silent.

"Hurry up, will you?" Al said, rather crossly, and they complied, James muttering mutinously.

After much careful checking of doors, they finally made it to DADA.

Professor Jurfarg Ootenshmuk, or Professor O. for short, was not exactly pleased to see them walk in late. He turned to look at the four, raising an eyebrow.

"Ah, Messrs Potter, Black, Lupin, and Prewett. You have finally decided to grace us with your presence today, I see."

Al and Remus winced, trying to blend into the background with little to no success. Al's flaming-red hair really didn't help him.

"Well, we did run," James said. "And before that, Al was talking to Du—Professor Dumbledore."

"And we did run, like James said," Sirius continued, "but the doors look the same, and we opened the wrong one..."

"And ended up in a sixth-year class," James finished.

Professor O. raised his other eyebrow. "And which sixth-year class was this?"

"Muggle Studies," Remus replied, as Al mumbled, with a shudder, "Professor Lordenpra's."

Professor Ootenshmuk started to laugh. Al, Remus, Sirius, and James exchanged glances, wondering what he was laughing at. There had been nothing funny in what they had said, and none of them felt that their encounter with Professor Lordenpra was something to be laughed at.

"Ah," the teacher said finally, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes, both of his eyebrows now back to their normal position, "that will have been punishment enough. Take your seats, gentlemen, and perhaps memorize the location of your proper classrooms so that you do not accidentally run into Professor Lordenpra's class—or indeed, any other—again..."

The four complied, happy not to be in trouble. They had plans for the next few evenings, and had no wish (for once) to spend them in detention, even to set a record.

A/N: Another chapter! Next up is chapter six, which is...well. It's going to look a bit different; I do have a piece of it written from way back, so likely it's going to be that piece plus a quick summary of what else I had planned for that chapter. Will try to get it up before too long. ~DF