The Saturday James headed to the Dragon Club. He had an interrogation from Gwen, but luckily, he was able to calm her down by taking the conversation down a different path, and they ended up practicing some offensive charms.
'It's very tiring dealing with her when she's angry...' thought James with sweat on his forehead.
...
October passed, and so did Halloween. It was a big party. The whole castle was decorated with pumpkins that seemed to have a life of their own, hundreds or thousands of real bats in the Great Hall, and some scary scarecrows that if you saw them at night you would be scared to death.
The feast was delicious like last year and after that, there was a party in the Gryffindor common room. As James wanted to attend the party and not study alone, in the previous days, he had increased his study hours to have that night off.
The Prewett brothers were very good at organizing parties. They had already warned all of Gryffindor. So if James didn't come, he would look like a nerd who was studying all the time.
There were already many people who called him a nerd. Since he started Hogwarts every day, he has visited the library for several hours and even more on weekends.
Besides, now he was always seen with Lily Evans, who was a second-year Gryffindor smarty-pants student.
If they knew that he also studied at night for longer hours. They would call him a super nerd. The funniest thing of all is that her grades are still very similar to last year. Except for subjects like Astronomy (which he spent the least amount of time on).
The difference was that last year he didn't spend as much time in the library, and it took him a few months to visit the library because he was so excited to start school and have friends.
During this time, James' study sessions in the library were accompanied by Lily. Then, they would go to an empty classroom to practice practical Transfiguration spells.
Because of this, his relationship with the redhead improved. James would even go so far as to call her a friend. On weekdays, they would spend between two to three hours a day in the library together. On Saturdays and Sundays, they might spend up to four hours or more.
They both loved Transfiguration so they had interesting and useful conversations for study.
Another person with whom his relationship improved was Lupin. In addition to sharing a dorm room, exploring with the marauders, and classes, they also practiced and studied in the evenings in the Room of Requirement.
Their training had paid off. James was already managing to cast an Incorporeal Patronus. It looked like a puff of steam or smoke with no clearly defined shape shot from the tip of the wand.
Lupin's progress wasn't as fast as James', but it wasn't bad at all. At the rate he was going, he would achieve an Incorporeal Patronus in a month or two.
Not everything was rosy. DADA classes were torture for all the students of Gryffindor and the other houses.
Professor Eustace's classes were useless and super boring. Plus, you had to perform embarrassing moves as homework. The only ones who were spared were the Slytherin students, but they didn't like the professor because they felt they were wasting their time and not learning anything useful.
The worst part was borne by the Gryffindor students. Professor Eustace seemed to have a personal grudge against the lion house and was very unfair to them.
'The Fucking Bald' was the nickname given to him by the Prewett brothers, and now everyone called him that. He became the enemy of the house, as he deducted points from them in very unfair ways. Especially the freshmen and sophomores since they were the most docile.
"That fucking bald son of a bitch!" cursed Sirius slamming a table in the Gryffindor common room. Again he had been punished for not wanting to make an embarrassing display. Luckily, he only got a week's punishment.
James, this time was called upon to perform a sequence of 11 dancing moves. To the surprise of the whole class, he did them in perfect form, so Eustace could do nothing against him.
Why? Because he didn't want to be punished. He couldn't break his great training and study routine. However, he hated the fucking bald more and more every day. He had his pride. It was unacceptable to be made to perform such shameful movements.
"We should complain to Professor McGonagall!" said Peter angrily. There were countless times he spent embarrassing himself in front of girls in DADA classes.
"It's no use. What he teaches us is from a book that the Ministry itself endorsed. And as for the points it takes away from us it doesn't get to the point of being super unfair either," said Lupin, shaking his head.
"What can we do...?" said Toby with his hands on his head. Just like Sirius and James today, he had to go through an embarrassing sequence of motions, and he couldn't get it out of his head.
"Revenge," said James, who had an icy look on his face. No one had ever put him through such embarrassment. The bald professor had to pay.
James in his past life was a Rothschild. A family that was on par with royalty or higher. Now, he belonged to the Potter Family an ancient pureblood family. He had great pride and thought it was a great insult what Professor Eustace had made him do.
'How scary...' thought Toby and Peter as they saw James' cold stare. There were a few times when his personality took a 180-degree turn.
Thanks to this the Slytherin students stopped bothering them as when they saw James they would run away with their tails between their legs. Although on the other hand, the Slytherin students were saved from being targets for pranks, since, by not teasing them, they had no reason to play practical jokes on them.
However, it was also due to James' demanding routine.
"Got something on your mind?" asked Sirius with a wicked grin. What he wanted most at the moment was to get back at Professor Eustace.
"Laxative Potion," James replied.
Lupin, Peter, and Toby's faces turned ugly. Sirius's face broke into a wide grin.
"Is there a potion for that...?" asked Toby in horror. Only your enemy would give you such a potion to drink that causes horrible diarrhea, muscle aches, stomach aches, and something else.
"On one of my visits to the forbidden section of the library, I read a book called Most Potent Potions. Chapter XVI explains how to brew this potion," said James, who never thought he would use the horrible potions in that book.
The laxative potion was the mildest of them all. He couldn't understand how they left such a dangerous book within reach of the students. There was no security in the forbidden section.
What was its use if it was forbidden? Wasn't it better to put those dangerous books away from the students? These questions kept James awake at night. He couldn't make sense of such a section.
"What ingredients do we need to collect?" asked Sirius. He had already decided to go on this new mission.
"No need to collect ingredients. It's too difficult to get them here at Hogwarts. I'll take care of it. The essential thing is how do we get the fucking bald to take the potion," said James.
"How will you collect the ingredients?" asked Lupin curiously.
"I'll ask my grandfather to send them to me through the owls," replied James with a slight smile. At Hogwarts, they don't control if your family sends you some potion ingredients or the odd gift or two.
"What...? He'll agree to it? Any adult would punish you before you do that," said Lupin.
"My grandfather, he's not like the average adult," said James without further explanation.
Henry was always rebellious and came from a tougher generation. As soon as he hears about the humiliation James had to do in class, he will agree to send James the ingredients for his revenge. The Potters are not to be bullied, so he always says. He always stood up to pureblood supremacists and would side with Muggles, Muggle-born and half-bloods. He would not be afraid of a professor who is unfair and humiliates his grandson.
"When are we going to do it?" asked Sirius, who was eager to get his revenge as soon as possible.
"This Sunday, we have our first quidditch match. After that. First, we need to concentrate on beating Hufflepuff," said James. After the match, they will arrange all the details to perfection.
Sirius nodded in agreement. They should concentrate on the last few practices before their debut. The team was confident. The training went from good to better, and they were having a good time.
"Speaking of training. It's time, let's go," Sirius said, getting up from his chair and going to get his broom. James followed him.
Even though James didn't have as much time to plan pranks and explore as he used to, his relationship with Sirius was maintained and you could even say improved. This was thanks to quidditch.
They trained together and were on the starting team. Also, since Rabastan and his gang didn't bother them anymore, Sirius had no reason to try to prank them, so he wasn't obsessed with playing big, complicated pranks like before.
...
"That was an excellent training session! We have one more training session left before the opening match. It will be lighter so we won't be so fatigued, but we'll go over a lot of tactics," said William with a smile and looking at all the team members who were sweaty sitting on the grass.
"Ugh... I'd rather train for two hours non-stop than listen to your boring lectures, William," said Fabian Prewett, who was leaning on his brother's shoulder.
The other team members laughed at this comment. They all agreed William was very enthusiastic. Perhaps the only one who could keep up with him was James.
"Very funny, but you're going to have to listen to it anyway. On the other hand, I sent a boy, and he managed to spy on Hufflepuff's training. They have a new seeker, his name is Amos Diggory. He's a second-year like you two," William said, looking at Sirius and James.
'Amos?' thought James, remembering the boy he first met at the 1971 quidditch final.
'A second-year seeker? They're gambling a lot," said Annabeth, the most experienced chaser on the team. She was in her sixth year just like William.
She said it was a big gamble as seeker is the hardest position, and giving it to a second-year boy just starting to fly isn't very common. No one thinks the same with James because he got special permission and trained with the whole team last year.
"I thought the same thing, but it's not like that. Amos just like James started training with the Hufflepuff team last year. They kept it a secret well those buggers. When McGonagall said that your head of house and quidditch team should evaluate your flying skills to see if they would permit you, Amos was one of many who applied, and Hooch vouched for his ability." explained William.
James looked at Sirius with judging eyes. Because Sirius made him open his Nimbus 1001 in front of everyone, McGonagall had to explain herself. If this hadn't happened perhaps Amos would never have been noticed by his house.
Sirius began to whistle slyly and looked out into the beautiful sunset as if none of it was his fault.
"Don't worry, Will. I'll take care of landing a good Bludger on him," Gideon said confidently.
"That would be nice. Okay, you can go back now. Training over!" said Will.
...
The day before the match, James had an agreement with Lupin. If Gryffindor won and he caught the snitch the next day they would tell the marauders about his werewolf status.
He did this, as Lupin kept putting off telling them about it. James could understand that he has his fears, but it wouldn't do to keep putting it off more and more.
Lupin agreed. It would be a good time, as everyone would be happy about the first victory of the year.