Disclaimer: The ideas are mine, the characters belong to J.K.


"Those who entered to investigate refused afterwards to talk of what they had found inside, but the least frightening part of it was that the place was infested with dementors." Pottermore


"Padfoot! Padfoot!" James called him, "Put your shirt back on, we gotta run!"

"Oh, right," Sirius said, looking arround to find his shirt, his hand still under the girl's blouse. "I'll be right there."

"Where are you going?" The girl in the bed asked, watching him as he finally stepped away, buttoning down his shirt.

"I have to go, baby," He said, putting on his sailor's cap, once more. "I told you, they'll be looking for me."

"But we had just begun..." She said languidly, once more.

"Oh, I'll come back to finish this," Sirius said, kissing the girl on the lips one more time and sneaking out of the window, jumping in a flowerbed next to the place where James had been standing, waiting for him.

"What took you so long, come on!" He tapped Sirius in the shoulders and the two of them started running down the street, each of them holding a broomstick.

They took a turn to the right at the end of the street, ans as soon as they found themselves surrounded by trees the boys jumped on their broomsticks and flew away from there.

"Hey, Padfoot!" James called, from his broom, "Catch this!" He said, throwing a tennis ball at his friend. Sirius caught it with the tips of his fingers, and threw it back at him, this time in a curve. James nearly fell off his broom trying to catch it that time.

It had been like that every day of that summer. They would dress up, go into a muggle dinner or something like that and hit on the girls. Sirius could always come up with some story and at some point they would show them some card tricks that looked 'just like real magic'. Muggle girls were so easy to impress. James had figured out last summer that the Ministry could detect magic, but they couldn't detect who was doing it, so as long as they didn't do any of that close to home and left the scene before any Misnistry investigator arrived, they should be safe. They had been doing that every day since the summer had started and they hadn't been caught yet.

That day, they were dressed as sailors. James had taken the clothes from a Mugle shop with his invisibility cloak. It was a tiny little place, full of masks, costumes and make-up itens, and it had been very difficult to walk around without bumping into anybody. It was called 'magic-' something, 'magic-chest' perhaps, although James couldn't find anything propery magic inside. They had costumes for things he didn't recognize, captains and police officer he had never heard off. The elves in the cover of the boxes looked more like really tall people with pointed ears, and their werewolf masks didn't look anything like Monny during a full moon at all. But James did snatch a couple of sailors outfits before anyone could step on his cloak and expose him, so it had been a successful trip.

They walked into a place that was supposed to look like an American dinner from the 1950's and ordered soft drinks. It didn't take long for a couple of girls to notice them. They were a year or two older than the boys, but they did come over when Sirius and James smiled and sent them soft drinks of their own.

"So you're sailors?" The red haired had asked, studying James carefully.

"Our ship has just docked," James answered gravely, "we just have one day here, before we leave for the North sea.

"Prongs here is the captain," Sirius intervened, one arm around James' shoulders, using his free hand to reach out and touch the brunette's hand over the table.

"Aren't you too young to be a captain?"She asked, unwilling to believe their story.

"I am older than I look," James said simply, with a boyish smile, "Besides, sailing the North Sea is really dangerous. Most of us don't make it pass thirty years or so."

"That's so sad," the brunette, said, sitting a little bit closer to Sirius.

"Yes, it's tough thinking we might not live to see you again," James said, theatrically, "we have to make the most of tonight."

"Don't say things like that," the read haired squeezed James hand.

"You're right," he said, pretending to make an effort to look a bit more cheerful, "it's best not to think about such things. I'm lucky I have Padfoot here in my crew. He's the ship's magician."

"Really?" The brunette asked, while Sirius took off his cap and placed it in her head.

"Would you like to see some card tricks?" He asked, taking a deck out of his front pocket.

Then the boys would spend twenty minutes or so dazzling the girls with their magic. Sirius started by asking them to memorize a card and then pulling that exact card from the deck after it had been shuffled. It was not difficult to do with a self shuffling deck. Then he would go on to more extravagant tricks, like making the girls faces appear in every card or making the whole deck disappear. At some point, he even pretended to make a glass levitate with the power of his thoughts while James did a non verbal Wingardium Leviosa under the table.

By the time they were done the redhead was sitting on James lap and the brunette's fingers were playing with Padfoot's hair. It was not difficult at all to convince the girls to invite them to their place, and once they were there, Padfoot was quick to take her to her bedroom.

Nut when James heard the loud pop that meant someone – probably someone from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement – had just apparated nearby, he knew it was time to leave. So he called Padfoot through the window and the boys ran away.

When they gott off of their broomsticks they were in a large field of tall turf. The boys sat on the downs, watching the sun hiding on the horizon for a while.

"Best day ever!" James sad, looking at Padfoot with a large smile.

"She let me touch her breats, Prongs!" Padfoot said, "under the shirt, over the bra! Best snogging session ever."

For all their flamboyance when they were around the girls, the two Marauders were still very young and innexperience. They seemed like different people now that they were by themselves and could speak freely.

"My girl had some sort of floral perfume." James said, smelling the collar of his shirt, "I think it's still in me."

"I think mine would have let me go even further! You should have seen her taking my shirt off, I thought she would torn the buttons out."

"Mine had this thing she did to my neck while she was kissing me! So, so good!"

The boys lay back on the turf, looking up the sky. James had never been happier. As an only child, he had always hated the summer. All the endless possibilities of fair weather and no classes or responsibilities seemed a little bit dimmer if there wasn't anybody around to enjoy it with.

Sirius felt the same. It was wonderful to be out of that dismal house at Grimmauld place, and free of the nearly constant arguments with his parents for once. He had a brother, but James was like a brother who understood him. And the Potters treated him like he was their own son.

"Are there any lipstick marks on me?" James asked, "I don't think my mum is gonna like to find lipstick on my neck when we get home."

"Don't worry about your mum," Sirius said, with a large smile, "I'll keep her distracted."

"Shut up, Padfoot," James hit him in the arm.

Sirius had been joking about hitting on his mum all summer. Mrs Potter was really beautiful, and by far, the most intelligent, kind and energetic woman Sirius had ever met. More than once he had told James he would challenge his father for a duel over the love of his mum. And then James would have to call him 'sir'. Prongs had hexed him a couple of times for that daringness.

James had never teased Sirius about his parents, and Sirius understood why. He had a werewolf friend and they didn't crack jokes about assassin beasts around Moony. When you have a friend who doesn't have magic, you don't joke about squibs.

"Come on, let's go home," James said, finally, poking Sirius in the ribs. As they walked back home, to the room they'd been sharing since Padfoot moved in, neither of them had any idea just how ephemeral all of that would be.


Author's note: This is an experiment... I don't write much about James (and I definitely don't write James&Lily), but I wanted an item in the Ultimate Battle Competition, so here it is... In addition it's been inspired by the Pinterest picture prompt challenge. I hope it's not that bad... I know it needs a Beta but I've been writing a lot lately and I think it's hared for any beta to keep up :) If there's anyone interested please let me know