𝕏𝕀𝕀𝕀

                                    

                                          
Since James had gotten back to Hogwarts, classes had been mostly uneventful. The same old lectures, essays, readings, and too much homework. James wondered how some people actually enjoyed this stuff. Like, sure, he'd do it, but he didn't like it.
Sirius, meanwhile, refused to do his work, because of course he did, the rebel. Anytime anyone told him to do anything, he never did. His teachers assigned him homework? It never got done. His parents wanted him to meet some pureblood girl? Didn't happen. Someone asked him to stop talking? He'd just talk louder. The only person that Sirius would listen to was Remus. Sirius had the attention span of a fly, except when he was around Remus or someone was talking about Quidditch. Homework was no exception to this, but when he tried to do it with Remus, he at least got some of it done. He would still procrastinate a lot, which annoyed Remus, but James was impressed that he even got Sirius to do anything at all.
Remus, on the other hand, was the smartest of the Marauders and never submitted an assignment late. He, like James, didn't necessarily like it, but he never complained. To put it simply, he was the complete opposite of Sirius in every way. James wondered how they got along so well. Another difference was that, while Sirius absolutely despised it, Remus loved to read. Not for school, because that was boring. But he liked reading other things. You could never catch Remus anywhere without his nose in a book. James had to side with Sirius when it came to reading. He didn't really understand the hype about it. Sure, it was cool to imagine a whole different universe, but it wasn't his favorite activity. That award had to go to Quidditch, same with Sirius. So, really... James was just some weird mixture of Remus and Sirius.
Peter was probably the most like Remus when it came to schoolwork. He'd do it and get good grades on everything (never as good as Remus', though). However, like Sirius, he would complain about it. And, Peter was the world's biggest procrastinator. Even bigger than Sirius, and that bar was high. He usually waited until the night before an assignment was due to even start it. James wondered how he managed to get such good grades with such rushed work. Still, even if he wasn't the best with time management, Peter was smart. He was the best at chess, and could beat anyone he played against. He knew cool facts about everything, and would happily go on a four hour rant about the most random things. He reminded James of Regulus in a few ways, actually.
Speaking of Regulus...
James had been thinking about him again in potions class, the day after he received the letters. He hadn't had a chance to write back yet, but he'd been thinking about what he was going to say. His thoughts began to stray from the letter, and James began to think about Easter break. He couldn't wait to see Regulus again. March couldn't come fast enough.
James was broken from his thoughts when Professor Slughorn called, "Mr. Potter..." James lifted his head from the desk quickly, adjusting his glasses. He'd blurred out whatever Slughorn had just been talking about with thoughts of his Starboy back home, so he was screwed if the professor was about to ask him a question. "You're paired with Mr. Lupin," Slughorn said instead, and James let out a sigh of relief as Remus sent him a look from a couple desks over.
"So..." James began a couple minutes later as Remus sat down next to him. "What are we doing? I wasn't listening at all."
"I could tell," Remus replied. "You were zoned out for the entire lecture."
"Yeah... you're going to have to re-explain the whole thing. Sorry about that."
Instead of acknowledging the apology,  Remus asked, "Wanna tell me what you were thinking about?"
James didn't answer. He couldn't tell anyone about Regulus, even Remus. As much as James hated keeping secrets from his best friends, it was for Regulus' own safety. Instead, he shrugged.