Disclaimer – I do not own.
a/n – this came to me while I was in the spa.
Dunked
It had all started when he had been drenched in water.
The one day that he, Remus John Lupin, had decided to spend by the lake under the huge oak tree would be a day that he would regret. It was close to winter but fall had yet to leave the castle grounds. The grass was brown, the forest was quiet and here and there water had frozen into picks that fell from the roof tops of Hogwarts.
Lupin sat there with a ham and cheese sandwich he had nicked from the kitchens before coming out to spend some time to himself. James and Sirius were in detention and Peter didn't like being out doors unless he had too. Remus on the other hand, liked being outdoors. It made him feel free, while indoors almost made him anxious. That was why he didn't mind Care of Magical Creatures, because he could be outside.
On this particular day that all the troubles started, we can find Remus standing against the tall oak. Fairies played around him, for they knew what he was but he had always been nice to him. One even got a piece of cheese. This was when a group of Slytherin fourth years came upon the lone Gryffindor.
It was an unwritten rule that Gryffindor's and Slytherin's roamed in groups, protection in numbers and all that jazz. However, this time Remus had to face the Slytherin's on his own. Who decidedly took advantage of the opportune moment.
"Look, a little Gryffindor all on his own!" one laughed, the boy was particularly tall, but didn't have much of a vocabulary. Remus ignored them, he wasn't like James and Sirius who took offense at anything and everything. But he wasn't a coward, his senses told him that trouble was about to visit his door step.
"Where are your big bad friends, Loopy?" one of the other boys asked.
"None of your business, that's for sure," Remus gave them a look before pushing off of the tree, with his bag hung over his shoulder, he looked pretty suave as he started to walk away. Of course, weather he had meant it or not, this made the Slytherin's pretty much madder than hell.
With a flick of a wand, one of the boys had the lone Gryffindor fly off into the lake where the boy didn't come up for a couple of moments. When Remus came to the surface he was sputtering like mad. He gave the Slytherin's a glare as he swam for shore.
Wringing his robes out he only had one thing to say; "Don't blame me when your underwear and robes get turned pink and you say stupid shite," before walking away towards the castle in order to get changed.
The duo were quite confunckled. For the one thing, they couldn't find Remus. They had gotten out of detention earlier than they had expected since Professor Edwards had a huge accident with one of his spells. The man was very…well – to say the least – he started throwing up an odd strange substance.
Any road, after looking for their friend outside and at the library the two decided to go back to the tower. There, they found most of their class mates, and instead of declaring his undying love, James quickly asked if she had seen Remus.
"Last time I saw him, he was dripping wet. He went upstairs to change, that was two hours ago," she said.
"Thanks," James nodded and he and Sirius ran upstairs. Lily just shook her head, when those two couldn't find Remus; they got very, very odd. It just wasn't natural, she decided.
However, Sirius and James felt much of their anxiety go away when they found out that Remus was in the tower, but things came to a halt when they came upon the boy. There was a bucket by his bed of which an odd smell came from and Remus was blowing into a hankie.
"Hey guys," he said once the handkerchief was done.
"What the bloody hell happened to you?" Sirius asked.
"A group of Slytherin's decided it would be (achoo!) fun to dunk me into the lake," Remus explained. James and Sirius didn't have much time to rant and rave as Remus got an odd look on his face and leaned over the bucket to up chuck again.
"Bleh!"
"Ewww…"
"Sorry,"
"It isn't your fault, I suppose you shant be at afternoon classes then?" Sirius asked.
"I have to go, homework and we're going to learn about boggarts today," Remus said.
"You aren't going anywhere, and…well, maybe we should take you to the hospital wing…"
"He has to go at least once a month! Must we submit him to that?" Sirius objected.
"Your right…we'll just say…oh…I don't know…he had a head cold or something, we'll bring you the work and we can probably find a Boggart someplace in this whole castle!" James said.
"Right, and now, Remus, you stay here in this bed and don't move. Or we'll have to put the body bind on you," Sirius said.
"All right, I will," Remus promised.
James banished the stomach contents in the trash bin so that it was clean for Remus. They helped him change into his pajamas and tucked him into the bed. James charmed the covers with a heating charm and Sirius called a house elf to bring Remus some tea.
They drew the curtains so that Remus could sleep; which he was about to do and they silently left the dorm. At the bottom of the stairs they met Lily and Molly.
"What's wrong with Remus?" Lily asked.
"He's sick, some Slytherin's pushed him into the lake," Sirius replied.
"Your not going after them are you?" Molly asked, glaring at them.
"No, Remus didn't tell us anything but that. Anyway, we still have class to go too. We're just going to tell Professor Edwards that….wait a second…isn't he in the hospital wing?" James asked.
"Dogs bollocks! Your right," Sirius said with a sigh.
"Well, that cancels his class…that means we only have History of Magic," James sighed.
"Must we go?"
"I think you should, leave Remus alone and all that," Lily said.
"All right, we'll go, but only because my Lily flower wants me too!" James said. Sirius thought he saw huge red hearts take the place of his friend's eyes.
"Rest is all he needs, you can check up on him later," Molly agreed.
The boys could hardly wait to get out of class. Once again, on every Tuesday, of every week, at three in the afternoon – James and Sirius found themselves as bored as usual. However, this time their friend Remus wasn't there to take notes for them. So James and Sirius both jotted down whatever they figured was important and then from there they would just put it together. Remus was a stickler for notes and the two knew that Remus would be asking.
Professor Bins was going on and on about the Goblin Wars of 1877. This was the time when Goblins were pretty much left alone to do whatever they wanted. They didn't want to give up any of their gold to the ruler of the previous war and this started another war all together. It was rather stupid, really. How many wars had been started just over riches? Right, at least pirates had the right idea.
After their two hour class they were finally let go. At this time James would usually try and get Lily to go out with him, but both boys bypassed the girl and practically ran to the tower. They didn't even stop to greet anyone as they ran up to the dorm room. Throwing the curtains aside, they found Remus blowing his nose again.
"Remmy! Are you all right?" James asked.
"Cold, even with the heating charm," Remus sniffed. He got a new tissue.
"We'll get you more blankets," Sirius said. He went to the linen closet where extra blankets were stored while James put a stronger heating charm not only on the blankets but also on the bed and pillows. Remus sighed at the warmth and immediately snuggled down.
"Thank you, I didn't think of that,"
"Not a problem, that's what we're here for," James said.
"How was class?"
"Yes," Sirius shook his head, "We took notes,"
"Good, I really feel bad about missing," Remus said.
"Who cares? We have it covered, you'll be back on your feet in no time," James smiled. Remus just sneezed in reply.
"Come on James, let's see if there is anything in our books for a cold or something," Sirius whispered. James nodded his head and they brought out their potions books. Both James and Sirius got a good note in potions – but Lily was the best out of all of them. However, they honestly didn't want to ask her because she would just lecture them. It was slightly annoying really – even James would admit that much.
When the boys had a headache potion well on its way; Peter marched up the tower; "I heard Remus was sick," the boy said. James and Sirius shushed him quickly. They pointed to the bed where Remus was deep asleep.
"Oh, what are you doing?" Peter whispered.
"We're brewing potions, this stuff is first year level, there is no way we can ruin it," James replied softly.
Sirius waved his arms and drew out a paper;
Stop bloody talking all ready! He wrote.
FINE! Gee wiz! James rolled his eyes as his friends read his note.
Is there a potion I can make? Peter asked.
No, you're terrible in Potions!
It ain't nothin' against ya; you can watch and hand us ingredients though.
All right!
With that done, they got down to business.
That evening, a house elf gladly brought dinner to the tower, especially when it found out the Remus would not be going down to the Great Hall. Remus visited the kitchens frequently – he got hungry all the time, and though he did not say it out loud, everyone knew by when he got a bit shaky.
It was nice eating in the dorm – they had piled onto Remus' bed with their trays. Remus would take the potions after dinner – but he honestly didn't want too. It wasn't that he didn't trust that his friends made good potions; it was the fact that he hated taking potions. He hated the smell and he hated the taste and he hated the lethargic state he went into sometimes. His mother couldn't really explain what it was that made him do that, but if he had gotten sick when he was a child, she would make him stay home and take potions till he got better.
"How'd you get sick anyway?" Peter asked.
"What?" Remus looked up from his bowl of soup, "Oh, well, I was by the lake. I like it there; anyway, it was Mertin and his cronies. They want to be just like Malfoy," Remus sighed.
"Cheeky little bugger," Sirius muttered.
"Anyway, I just started to walk away, because I hate to fight, however, they spelled me into the lake and here I am," Remus finished.
"We'll get him back good," James said.
"Yeah!" Peter agreed.
"So, pink robes or should we do something worse?" Sirius asked.
James started giggling; that was a bad sign.
Sirius had insisted that they do the prank "full Monty". He wasn't about to let the Slytherin gang get away with making one of his closest mates sick. It just wasn't right and no matter what the Marauder's did, that was uncalled for and so they felt very much justified to do their little prank.
First of all, it would just be their little gang; sure, the Marauder's didn't do that often, just target a few and not the whole lot – however, this was supposed to be a lesson. And only those that needed to learn it needed to be punished. That was what had brought them to the statue of Salazar Slytherin in the middle of the night underneath the invisibility cloak. Peter had turned into his rat form; it would be easier for them to sneak into the common room this way than if they were all under the cloak.
James said the password and the statue moved to let them by. The common room was as it always was; black leather couches and chairs a roaring fire and green everywhere. No one was in sight, for the next day there were exams to be done. However, there really wasn't much they could do, Remus insisted on going to exams and to go to their head of house and explain his disappearance the day before.
This did not stop the Marauder's from getting revenge.
They found the second year Mertin and cronies in the second year's dorm. It really wasn't at all that hard to find and the three of them got to work. First casting a sleeping charm and then casting the charms that made up their most brilliant revenge plan ever!
"Mr. Lupin, your friends got the home work from the last class correct?" McGonagall asked.
"Yes ma'am,"
"Then do not worry about it, your mother has informed me that you do get sick easily. I'm sure your friends took care of you?"
"Yes Professor, they did," Remus smiled a little.
"Then if you feel well you can attend classes, but please, go to the hospital wing otherwise," she said before she patted him gently on the shoulder before walking away.
Sirius, James and Peter came up then; they smiled as they saw Remus up and about. He still looked pale and he sneezed into a handkerchief.
"Hey, Remmy!"
"Hello, guys!" Remus said.
"Let's go ear," Peter said. The other three laughed at Peter as they entered the Great Hall. They stopped to watch the chaos over at the Slytherin table. Mertin and the other second year boys were all dressed in bright pink and purple dresses with green poke-dots. They also wore tiara's and had make up on, except the make up looked much like the sort on a clown.
"Mutts nuts," Remus whistled.
"HEY!"
"Not you! Them, what are they doing dressed up like that?" Remus asked.
"We don't know," James shrugged, but grinned as they made their way to their table. If Remus hadn't cottoned on by now, what was the point in telling him?
THE END
A/N – Okay, this was just some silly little thing that I came up with. It really isn't at all funny. But I had the flew about a week ago and I did feel a lot like Remus. Since this was third person, there wasn't much spot light on that. But hey, I tried.
Ta,
Dizzy