James woke up as pale light filtered through the window. Sitting up in bed, he put his glasses on and tried to work out what had woken him up. He narrowed it down to either his own brain or Sirius' incredibly loud snoring right by his bed. Probably the latter, really. He looked around at his three roommates.

Sirius had somehow managed to tangle the covers around himself until he looked like a half attempt at origami and he somehow had found the perfect angle to snore right into James' ear.

Remus was just a head, a hand and a foot sticking out from different parts of the blanket.

Peter was just a head and a curled up lump underneath his blanket.

All so peaceful. Not for long.

James stood up on his bed and cleared his throat. "I'm a little tea-pot!" He half screamed, half sang, waking his dormmates up with a start. "Short and stout! Here's my handle! Here's my spout! When the-" He got no further before being hit with a pillow by Peter.

"Shut up, Prongs." Remus mumbled into his pillow.

"It's too early for this." Peter said, crossing his arms and glaring at James.

"It is, in fact, five am." Sirius mumbled, trying to hide under the covers he'd twisted around himself in the night. "And it's a Sunday. I intend to sleep all day."

"No, no, no, you're not." James said, jumping down from his bed. "You're the reason I woke up, which is the reason for all this."

"You still didn't have to wake the whole castle." Remus mumbled. "I agree with Padfoot, I'm sleeping all day. I'm pooped."

"You've just had eight hours of sleep."

"Eight hours which were unceremoniously interrupted by you. If you do that again, Prongs, I will make antlers made of carrots grow out of your head. Let that be a warning."

"Yeah, if you wake up early, do something quietly." Peter said. James huffed.

"Fine. But since you're now all awake-" This was cut short by loud snores coming from the pile under the covers that was Sirius.

"He's seriously fallen asleep?"

"I don't know if you noticed, Prongs, but it's five in the Goddamn morning. Go back to sleep."

"No."

Remus grabbed a book from his bedside table and threw it in the direction of James. "Then read." He said sleepily. "And let the rest of us sleep."

James huffed again but saw that no one was going to listen to him. So, he gave up and decided to start reading.

"That book you leant me was insanely dull, Moony." He said a few hours later as a still-yawning Remus came out of the bathroom, pulling his tie tight. "I mean, who wants to read about werewolves when they're our age?"

"Me." Remus said, snatching the book back from James. "And I didn't lend it to you. I threw it at you. There's a difference."

"Whatever. Now come on, guys, the day awaits."

"The day can await a little longer. We need a name."

"Huh?"

"A name." Sirius repeated. "For our group."

"We don't need a name."

"We do. Who thinks that we need a name?" Sirius and Peter raised their hands. Remus looked up and sighed, raising his hand slightly too.

"See. We need a name." James sighed and sat down.

"Fine. Anyone got any ideas?" There was a beat of silence.

"My mum used to tell me a story," Peter said slowly, "about two brothers. The Marauder brothers. They were the tricksters of the village and..." He trailed off when he saw everyone looking at him with rapt interest. "I just thought... cause we play pranks..." His voice came out a lot squeakier than before.

"I love that, Wormtail." James said. Sirius and Remus nodded in agreement. "Marauders? Everyone happy with that?

"Yep."

"Sure."

"Then it's decided." James grinned his crooked grin. "Marauders, the day awaits."

It's surprising how long you can drag out the wait to Halloween in a story.
Bye,
Blaize