Halloween was, as James viewed it, the greatest time of the year. It became socially acceptable to play tricks on everyone around you while dressed up like whatever you want. Now, Halloween was coming up and James was ecstatic. This would be his first holiday at Hogwarts and he wanted to do something big.

He made his way back to the common rooms alone after watching the Gryffindor Quidditch team practice. While he was wondering when his parents would send his costume up, his train of thought got interrupted by a loud cackle from behind him. He turned around to see three Slytherin boys from his year, along with two other Slytherins he didn't know, next to a Hufflepuff boy on the floor. From the looks of it he had been tripped. Anger swelled in his chest, but he decided to ignore it since it was almost curfew. He turned back around until he heard something else.

"Watch your step, mudblood." James stopped dead in his tracks. He hadn't heard someone say that all school year, but he knew it was only a matter of time. Without thinking he stormed over to the group.

"Or what? What're you gonna do?" James spat, gripping his wand tighter by his side.

"Why do you wanna know? You a muggle too?"

James' face felt hot as he stared at the boy in front of him. He couldn't think of the name of the boy facing him, but that didn't matter in the moment. "I don't need to be a muggle, I'll kick your arse."

"No you won't, Potter. Just go back up to your little dorm with your little friends and leave us be." James recognized this boy, however. He turned to Severus, fuming.

"I am rather tired, Snivillous, but no thanks. I think I'll stay right here until you apologize to him." The Hufflepuff boy looked like he wanted nothing more than to leave, but James wasn't thinking. His brain had gone into auto-pilot and he was about five seconds away from cursing the greasy-hair off of Snape.

"Not gonna happen, blood traitor," the tallest boy, Muliciber, said slowly, accentuating every word tauntingly.

Without waiting another second, James held out his wand and yelled the first spell he could think of. "Locomotor Wibbly!"

The effect was immediate. The tall boy's legs gave out and he fell to the ground. Realizing what he'd done, James smirked at the other boys and ran as fast as he could back to the common room. He didn't know if anyone had run after him, but he knew for sure Mulciber didn't.

Gasping for air, he finally reached the common room. "Chelidonium Miniscula!" The portrait swung open, revealing the warm room full of students. He ran inside, looking back to make sure he wasn't followed. Not looking where he was going, he ran into a solid mass.

"Watch where you're going, Potter." It was Lily. She was standing and talking to Remus, looking rather annoyed.

"Sorry, I-" James didn't know what to say, he felt like an idiot.

"What happened, mate?" Remus, thankfully, interrupted.

"I ran into some Slytherins making fun of this muggleborn kid and I jinxed one of them. I don't know what happen after, I kind of bolted."

"What jinx?" Sirius chimed in from the chair he was sitting in. He looked from Sirius to Lily and back to Sirius.

"Jelly-legs." Sirius laughed loudly, but Lily didn't seem to think it was funny.

"Why is violence your first resort? You know that there are other ways of getting your point across, right?"

"Well sorry, Evans, but I tried talking and they didn't seem to appreciate that very much." Lily sighed.

"James is right, you know. There's no reasoning with people like that. Trust me, I'd know."

"Who was it you jinxed?" Remus said, changing the direction of the conversation.

"Mulciber. He was with Sniv-" James stopped himself, looking at Lily, "Snape, that other boy they're always hanging around, and two older Slytherins."

"Severus was there?" Lily asked. James nodded. "Oh." She looked down at her shoes. James opened his mouth to say something but couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't make it worse. "I'm gonna go up to my dorm." She quietly made her way up the stairs.

Her curly-haired friend saw this. "What happened to her?"

"Her friend was apparently bullying a muggleborn kid. Can you go talk to her, Mary?" Remus explained to the girl, Mary. James didn't know that Remus knew the girls so well, but he supposed it made sense. Remus was a very likeable person.

Mary sighed. "I seriously have no idea what she sees in him. I guess they grew up together or something, I don't know." She got up from the chair she was in and followed where Lily went.

James watched her leave and stood there for a second. Had he done the right thing? He made the decision to walk up the stairs in pursuit of the girls to check on them, but only got up two steps before the stairs transformed into a slide, making him slip and fall backwards onto the ground.

He only wished there was some way to truly get back at them, something that played to his strengths. What was he good at? Well, he was a good flyer. And he was a natural at spells and jinxes. But then, as he sat on the floor, a smirk creeped onto his face. He knew just the thing.

♡♡♡

"You really think it'll work?" Sirius asked, leaning closer to James, who was on his bed, with an expression that had mischief written all over it.

"Course it'll work! Have faith, Sirius. But we should probably tell Remus and Peter, maybe they can help." Sirius nodded and they pulled open the red curtains to the four-poster on both sides at the same time. Peter looked startled at the scraping noise the hooks made, while Remus poked his head out of his own curtains looking confused.

"Listen here old chaps," Sirius said with a very posh accent, "we have a plan of attack on the Slytherins."

"Attack?" Peter questioned. Remus looked at Sirius, unimpressed.

"Yes, dear fellow, attack!" James tried to sound posh but failed. He was sure Sirius had a family who sounded like that, as his family was quite rich and his accent was perfect. James decided to drop it and explain normally. "Our plan is simple. On the night before Halloween, we will break into the Slytherin boy's dorm. I can fly in on my broom through the window and take one of you with me," James looked at Sirius, "Then we go into their shower and put zonko's long-lasting red dye in their shower head. They'll be in for a fright and show up to school stained red!" Sirius was smiling and Peter looked excited but Remus looked skeptical.

"What if the windows don't unlock?"

James hadn't thought of that. After a moment of thought, he had a solution. "We can wait until a Slytherin comes by and go in their common room."

"Won't they see us?" Remus asked. A smirk found its way onto James' face.

"Leave that to me."

♡♡♡

The boys struggled to keep their feet hidden, the invisibility cloak barely covering the four of them. On top of that Sirius and Remus slowly began to bicker, as Sirius kept stepping on his feet.

"Sirius, do that one more time and I'm knocking your arse to the ground."

"Don't threaten me with a good time!"

"Shut up!" James interrupted sharply as a girl with blonde wavy hair and earrings that seemed to be homemade walked by.

She stepped up to the entrance. "Draconian." The door swung open and the girl stepped through. Before it closed, four sets of feet made their way into the dark stone common room.

The dungeon was huge, decorated with paintings of all sorts of wizards. Neutral couches and emerald curtains were everywhere you looked. James looked around for any of the Slytherin boys in his year. The girl they had followed in sat next to someone he recognized was in his year but he couldn't remember her name, she didn't talk much. His eyes moved around the room before landing on Snape, and for the first time he was actually happy to see him.

They stood by the couch he was sitting on to read, silently hoping he'd get tired and go up to his room. After about 10 minutes that contained a lot of whispering, Snape went up to his room, the 4 boys unbeknownst to him.

When they reached the room, they saw all beds other than Snape's with closed curtains. "Guess they don't like to talk much," muttered James before Snape too closed his curtains. They waited until it seemed the coast was clear before Sirius slowly opened the door to their bathroom. The bathroom looked the same as theirs, but green and silver tile instead of red and gold. James uncloaked himself and stepped into the shower. However, as he stared at the showerhead he realized he had no idea how to unscrew it. He looked back to where he estimated the cloak was and shrugged. He heard a sigh as Remus appeared as well.

"You didn't think of this beforehand?"

"My shower runs on pure magic! I don't see why some wizards choose to have shower heads, my dad enchanted ours."

"Well thankfully one of us wasn't raised magic, here." Remus held out the unscrewed head. James poured a large quantity of red powder dye into it and handed it back. Remus screwed it back in and Peter stuck out his hand so they could find them and get back in the cloak. James couldn't wipe the smile off his face, imagining which unlucky boy would show up to school dyed red in the morning.

♡♡♡

James set his costume out on his bed, making it stand out from his usual clutter, and looked at it for a second. He didn't care if he was the only one dressed up, he was showing up to the feast in costume.

"What's that?" Sirius said, walking over to James' bed.

Before James could answer, Remus spoke. "How do you know Spiderman?"

"I love muggle comics! They're one of the few things I prefer about muggles, wizard comics are fewer and not as good. Me and Pete have a comic collection, right Pete?" Peter nodded, smiling. "Spiderman is my favorite, but I think you'd like Daredevil, Sirius. I brought some if you wanna read!" James had his signature wide, dimpled smile on his face as he did when talking about his interests.

"We should probably go to breakfast first, but sure yeah," Sirius said, grabbing his wand and shoving it into his pocket. Sirius was wearing a pair of Remus' jeans–which were too long for him and dragged below his shoes–after begging for weeks, he didn't like the clothes that his parents bought him and thought, like many wizards, that muggle clothes were more practical. James had to agree, he was wearing red converse, grey sweatpants, and a yellow polo shirt. He had no idea how muggles wore these items but thought he looked pretty good.

The boys headed down to breakfast, seeing the beginnings of Halloween decorations being put up by some of the professors. A decent amount of the student body was there, but as breakfast was optional not everyone was there. One thing James noticed with a smile is that among the students not present, were all the Slytherin boys in his year.

"Where's Sev? Have you boys seen him? We were gonna meet up this morning to work on our potions homework," Lily announced to the group from across the table.

"No, I haven't seen dear old Severus. Which is a shame, I was just about to invite him out for a spot of tea," Sirius responded, earning a sarcastic laugh from Lily, who turned to Remus.

"If you see him, please let me know." Remus nodded and Lily turned back to her friends.

"You're real buddy-buddy with the girls aren't you, Remus?" James asked.

"What's your point?"

"Well maybe you could, you know," James paused for a response, but none came so he continued, "get Lily not to hate me so much. Tell her about my many charms!" Remus just blinked at him. "Please, Remmy?"

"If you never call me that again, I'll try." James smiled and took a bite of his potatoes. Just then, James heard laughter and whispers coming from the end of the tables by the door. Looking up, he saw Byron Mulciber with his skin and hair covered in red dye. He made eye contact with the other boys, who had the same smiles as he did. Even Lily, though looking stern, didn't have a complaint, as this boy was one of the worst bullies of the year.

He wasn't sure if Mulciber alerted the other boys about the shower or not, but even seeing just Mulciber, alone and covered in dye, was worth a dozen detentions.

♡♡♡

James slipped on the skin-tight Spiderman suit and looked in the mirror. As he looked at himself in the mirror, he couldn't help but wonder if a certain red-haired girl was fond of Spiderman.

"You look absolutely barking, James."

"Thank you, Sirius." James messed up his hair a bit more and left the bathroom.

"Shouldn't you wear a robe or something over that?" Remus asked as he waited by the door.

"Why would I do that? Peter Parker doesn't wear robes when he's fighting criminals."

"Peter Parker doesn't wear robes at all," Remus replied and they headed down the stairs.

Mary's eyes widened when she saw him step into the common room. Lily followed her gaze to James, who stuck out like a sore thumb as the only one wearing a costume.

"Like it, girls? I'm Spiderman." James posed.

Mary and Lily just stared at him for a moment, then at each other. "You know Spiderman?"

"Of course! I'm very well versed in muggle culture," James boasted, making Remus stifle a laugh. The only one who knew less about muggles was probably Sirius, who knew close to nothing.

Mary didn't look convinced. "Really?"

"Yeah, of course! I'm a pretty cool guy once you get to know me, right Remus?"

Remus didn't move. "Yep."

"Well we should head down to the feast now, James."

James nodded and started walking. And while his body moved, his eyes lingered on dark red hair and bright green eyes.

"Do you think McGonagall will let you in dressed like that?" Peter said, poking at James' costume.

"'Course she will, she loves me. Maybe not as much as she loves Sirius though!" James pinched Sirius' cheek jokingly.

"Shove off." James saw that despite his words, Sirius had a small smile on his face. Sirius talked about McGonagall a lot and though he'd never admit it, he really seemed to like her.

The great hall's walls were covered in even more candles than normal, and the floating candles were accompanied by floating jack-o-lanterns with varying carved, glowing faces.

James was making his way to his seat when stopped by McGonagall, who had her pointy eyebrows up in a surprised expression. "Mister Potter, what are you wearing?"

James paused. "A Halloween costume."

"Oh," McGonagall looked like she didn't know what to say, which was quite rare for her. They just looked at each other for a second.

James fidgeted with his fingers. He wasn't good with awkward silences but didn't want to get in trouble for saying something, then he'd be made to change.

"Well, I suppose there is nothing in the code of conduct about wearing costumes on weekends, presuming you will be back to your required robes tomorrow?" McGonagall questioned.

James smiled. "'Course I will, you know me professor! I'm a stickler for rules."

"That would not have been my exact description of you, Potter." McGonagall gave one last judging glance and made her way where she originally intended, to fix one of the banners a second year boy had gotten caught in.

James sat next to Sirius, watching Dumbledore beginning the feast.

"Why didn't any of you dress up? Halloween's my favorite," James asked, helping himself to a slice of pumpkin pie.

"My family doesn't celebrate Halloween," said Sirius gloomily. "Which is ironic, because they're dark creatures if I've ever seen some. Wouldn't even be surprised if one of my uncles or aunts was a vampire or a werewolf or something, they're the sort."

Remus coughed abruptly, grabbing a glass of water. James noticed his hands shaking slightly. "You okay, mate?" Remus nodded and gave an unconvincing smile. "You're not sick again, are you? That'd be, what, second? Third time this term?"

"I don't need another nurse, James. I'm perfectly content with Madam Pomfrey." Remus looked back at his food, indicating that the conversation was over. James just stared at him. He hadn't had much one-on-one interaction with the boy, since he was closer to Sirius and Peter, but looking at him closely made James grow even more concerned. He hadn't really thought about it, but Remus seemed to have constant bags under his eyes. He saw a scar emerging from the small portion of skin on his neck not covered by a sweater. He'd never seen a kid so young look so old.

Interrupting his thoughts was the sound of silverware clattering on the ground. The source of the sound was two older boys; one Slytherin with long pale hair and grey eyes wearing a prefect badge, one Gryffindor who was the physical opposite of him in every way, dark with short curly hair. The Gryffindor boy had his wand out and by his side while the Slytherin wore an evil smirk.

The Slytherin said something James couldn't make out which caused the other boy to put his wand to his throat.

At this point the teachers began to notice, but before they could do anything a blonde girl with stern features stepped in between them. "Lucius," she scolded, "he isn't worth it. Come on, we're supposed to be prefects." Lucius stayed for a moment, then walked back to his seat.

James finally looked away. Sirius had joined Remus in looking down at his food, while Peter looked at James and shrugged.

"I think I'm gonna go back to the dorm," Sirius decided, standing up.

Remus stood as well. "Me too, I'm not very hungry right now." They both left their near-full plates with little enthusiasm and walked off.

James scooted closer to Peter. "What's up with them?" Peter asked.

"I dunno, Remus gets like this sometimes though. Best to just let it go." This was the truth, Remus seemed to get moody for a few days every once and awhile. Now that he was thinking about it, it always seemed to happen right before he got sick. "Pete, d'you think there's something wrong with Remus?"

"Why would something be wrong?" James couldn't think of a clear reason. He was probably just reading too much into things again. He tended to do that when it came to his friends.

"Nothing, probably just his time of the month," James chuckled. Then, his smile faded. His time of the month. His thoughts flashed back to the bruises and cuts he would suddenly have after a night in the hospital wing. The scar hiding under his sweater. His choking at the mention of–

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

A/N
It's my birthday tomorrow! In honor of that, my next chapter will feature a birthday party for one of the main characters ;) hope you enjoyed this special chapter!