ALRIGHT. If there are any terrible typos, they will be fixed in the morning when I reread this, because I am falling asleep. Here is Part two for my Babu! 4000 words in a day after not doing much writing was really hard.
PRESENT FOR BABU IS WORTH IT.
Mssr. T&C
Part Two- Explosive Reactions
There were many reasons Remus Lupin hated the potions dungeon. Not counting the fact that he was absolutely dreadful at brewing potions, and Professor Slughorn didn't fancy him in the least, it smelled of three hundred million various things. The stone floor had seen so many spills that it wasn't a solid color anymore, and the tables were covered with stains and scorch marks. There were no windows to air out the putrid smells of potions gone wrong. Take into account that it was two days after a full moon and Remus' sense of smell was still heightened, and he already had a headache, there was nothing pleasant, welcoming, or wanted about the double potions scratched onto his schedule.
All the clanging and banging that was happening around him made trying to remember what it was he was suppose to do with the Salamander skin borderline impossible, so Remus dropped his pale face into his hands, rubbing his temples. Maybe he would just vomit on someone and get sent out sick. That seemed like a perfectly logical and decent idea. Someone slammed a cauldron down and Remus winced. There had to be a way out of this.
"Remus?" Sirius' voice cut through the noise like a knife, the familiar touch falling onto his shoulder. He peered through his fingers, eyes dark-rimmed and bloodshot at the pair of concerned gray eyes.
"Brain me. With the cauldron. Please." Remus hissed, voice slightly muffled by his palms. Sirius raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not going to brain you with a cauldron, Moony. That would be a great big mess. Head goo all over and such." Sirius stepped a little closer and looked down at the mess of ingredients Remus had been trying to puzzle out. "Do you want my help?"
"Honestly Sirius, its a lost cause. Just...knock me unconscious. My head is killing me." Remus had little to no intention to work on the rest of his potion, even if Sirius somehow made the directions make sense.
Remus felt Sirius' fingers catch his wrists and pull his hands from his face. He sighed and grumbled. "You're going to make me do this aren't you."
"I'm going to help you do it before you blow the cauldron up in a fit of Moony Rage." Sirius replied with a quirky little smile as he patted Remus' hand.
"Moony rage? Couldn't you just fix it with your jumper mending spell? You should teach that to me, by the way. Where did you learn it?" Remus picked up the Salamander skin with distaste and set it on the cutting board. When Sirius didn't respond promptly he looked up, then paused. Sirius' face was a little red.
"...I-...Learned it over the summer...well, looked for it, actually. I thought about it last year when you picked at the sleeve of our favorite jumper until it got a big old hole...thought maybe I could lengthen the shelf life a bit." he didn't look at Remus, but very purposefully at the instructions in the potions book, under the bold title of 'Dandruff Reducer'.
Remus stared at Sirius, not entirely what to make of this new information. "You did it for me?"
"-See, you were missing the Lavander twigs, you have to mash them to a paste!" Sirius declared over Remus a little too purposefully, his normally pale face still very flushed. Remus counted out the number of Lavender twigs needed, eyes slipping over to Sirius. Why would he spend the time to learn a spell just to mend Remus' jumpers? That was such a...a thoughtful thing for Sirius to do.
A few tables down James was working every syllable of what Remus had told him, leaning against Lily's tabletop and watching her empty the mortar into her bubbling cauldron. She was eying him like he was poisonous.
"What do you mean 'how is my day'?" She raised an eyebrow at him, expecting him to pull something potentially dangerous that might emit a bad smell if thrown or detonated, not look at her and ask her about her day like a perfectly civil human being.
"I mean, how has your day been? Did you do anything fun in class?" James repeated, looking at her with a causal interest, meanwhile internally about to combust from the stress of trying to keep anything possibly offensive or potentially explosive from slipping out of him. Lily narrowed her bottle green eyes.
"Someone hit you in the head, didn't they." she said stiffly. James bristled.
"I just asked you how you were!" He couldn't help the affronted tone to his voice.
"Exactly. You never bother to do that, you always jump right to 'Let me take you out because I think I'm such a stud'!" Lily snapped over her Cauldron.
"Well at least I don't hit people who ask me out!" James snapped back, his manners, once again, forgotten.
Severus Snape, who had been working with Lily before James had come sauntering up, was glaring darkly through his hair at the Gryffindor boy. He then turned without warning and went over to where Remus' cauldron was smoking purple because he had added a bit too much essence of Leech.
"Looks like the tutoring isn't going particularly well." he sneered at Remus, who's pale face was filled with panic.
Remus, for the first time he could possibly recall, actually wanted to punch Snape. This was not something he normally harbored, or participated in, no matter how passively cruel the greasy Slytherin boy could be, he would always find some way to rationalize and stay calm. Instead of punching, however, he listened carefully to what Sirius was telling him to fix the quickly escalating mess.
"You know, that won't do anything," Snape pointed out to Sirius as he handed Remus a bottle of something blue.
"It will neutralize it! Fuck off!" Sirius snapped at Snape.
Before Remus could snatch the bottle from Sirius' fingers the contents of the cauldron exploded, sending globs of stinking ooze in all directions.
"I told you-" Snape started.
"Shut up!' Sirius snarled.
"Severus?" Lily looked across the classroom at the boys now covered in snotty looking globs of potion.
"...I am going to fail this class." Remus groaned.
"Lily, just keep talking to me!" James caught her wrist.
"Let go Potter!" Lily whirled and smacked James squarely across the face and crossed the room without hesitation. James stood their, stunned as if it had never happened before.
"-Well if he had added a few rose petals-" Snape continued.
"Did you not hear me through all the grease in your ears?" Sirius caught Snape by the robes and yanked him forward.
"SIRIUS STOP!" Lily and Remus snapped in unison.
Lily shot forward and caught Snape's hand, glaring angrily at Sirius. Remus sighed and caught the arm that Sirius had raised to deck Sirius. Professor Slughorn always picked the worst times to step out of the classroom. He held on to Sirius firmly.
"What? Are you going to let him from punching me? That never stops you...You just don't want to admit you were wrong!" Snape continued.
"Severus, stop egging him on!" Lily gave Snape a confused look, she didn't hadn't seen Snape like this before, and he rarely got feisty when she was around, always playing victim.
"I will punch the bleeding fuck out of you you slimy-" Sirius lunged forward again Remus, who really wasn't in any shape to hold him off, and was obviously not going to get help from James, who was still in shock.
"Sirius-no-you can't-hit him-" He snapped through gritted teeth. Sirius was already on detention for getting caught setting off dungbombs in the Slytherin common room, (despite what Remus had told them.) and he couldn't get another does without suffering in the homework department.
"Why not!" Sirius snapped at Remus, who was barely keep him in check by this point.
"Because I won't ever see your stupid face if you get more detention!" Remus glared, his voice rough with effort.
"Are you going to hit me or not!" Snape snarled, piratically manic. "Do it! I dare you! Or are you too much of a prat? Gonna listen to the goody little Prefect?"
"Severus stop!" Lily's voice broke with desperation, still trying to tug him free of Sirius' grip.
Sirius was shaking, fingers trembling. Remus could see how much he wanted to just shove him off and smash his fist into Snape's sneering face. However, Sirius glanced over at Remus, who was exerting far more effort than he should be using. Remus could feel himself about to give up, shaking with exhaustion trying to keep Sirius in check.
"Please-" Remus tried again.
Sirius' eyes locked with Remus.
"You're a coward!" Snape snarled, yanking free of Lily, who was trying to pull him away as Sirius' grip went slack on his robes. Snape lunged forward and punched Sirius in the face. No one was expecting this and Sirius yelped, then tripped backwards into Remus and they both went crashing to the floor. Lily stared. Snape made a vicious noise and stormed out. James stared.
"Merlin's beard. Snivellus...just punch Pads." He announced.
"Thank you for the observation, James Bleeding Potter." Lily snapped, then went after Snape.
"Owowowow-Moony-that hurts-" Sirius gasped as Remus pressed a icepack to Sirius' bruised jaw.
"Just hold still...I can't believe he actually punched you..." Remus murmured, shifting on the common room sofa to get a better angle at Sirius' face.
"You should have let me punch him." Sirius pouted. "Before he punched me."
"Sirius...you couldn't afford another detention sentence." Remus didn't meet Sirius' eyes, praying that he wouldn't bring up that that wasn't exactly why he had kept Sirius from punching Snape.
"I can't believe she hit me!" James moaned from the chair weakly.
"...I can." Remus grumbled. "As soon as she hit a pressure point you turned into a twat."
"...How would you know?" James sat up in his chair.
"...I'm a werewolf James. I hear better than most people." Remus rolled his eyes. "You have to expect that she won't believe that you are changing your ways. After all, she has four years and three weeks of proof that you are and always be, nothing but trouble."
"But I'm sexy trouble." James replied.
"Excuse me, but I think I was the one who was punched in the face. Why am I not being coddled?" Sirius pouted at Remus pathetically.
"Because it was your own fault." Remus replied. Sometimes he felt like the babysitter of a lot of children. Sirius made a rather undignified noise and pouted at his shoes.
"Remus, she doesn't believe me! You have to have a better idea than talking to her." James replied desperately. "What else can I do?"
"James...honestly. You have to be polite even when she isn't, it will surprise her if you don't blow up or get offended. It will show maturity." Remus sighed. "You could also try doing something nice for her. Something nice like flowers, not taping pictures of yourself blowing her kisses all over her books."
"That was only once!"
"It was still creepy mate." Sirius replied, looking up, wincing. Remus caught his chin and held him still with surprising firmness.
"Oh fine then!" James snapped, standing and stalking off to the dormitories.
"And you say that I act like a woman." Remus looked at Sirius, arching an eyebrow and fixing him with a rather curious expression.
"...You know, sometimes you and Prongs tie for the Womanly Flower of the Month award." Sirius nodded. Remus smooshed his hand against Sirius face as a response.
