Beware the Ides of March
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March 3rd
Remus woke the next morning before any of his friends. He looked at their sleeping figures scared. He clenched and unclenched his fists a few times. 'Calm down, Remus. Calm down. They are your friends. They aren't going to hurt you. Relax.'
After getting dressed, Remus woke up each of his friends. He would have woken them up before getting dressed, but he didn't want them to see the scars that littered his body. They've seen them before, but whenever they saw them, it led to awkward questions that made Remus have to come up with more lies. He lied to his friends enough. He didn't want to have to lie more than he had to.
"Morning Rems." Sirius greeted, a smile on his face.
Remus saw the smile and frowned. Sirius wasn't a morning person so Remus knew him smiling couldn't be a good thing.
James saw the smile to. He knew it had something to do with their prank against Remus. This made James really want to know what was going to happen. He snuck a glance at Remus, who was frowning and eyeing Sirius suspiciously.
When the three newly woken boys got dressed, all four of them went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Sirius sat next to James, across from Remus. They were half way through breakfast when the owl post arrived.
A tawny owl carrying a red envelope landed in front of Remus, who just stared at the owl in shock.
James stared at the owl with wide eyes then turned to Sirius, who was smirking. He leaned over to Sirius so no one would overhear him. "You sent him that didn't you?"
"You know me so well." Sirius replied, then saw the worried look James was wearing. "Relax. It's nothing bad. Just another warning to freak him out. And that way all will know what is going on."
"But he'll recognize your voice." James said.
Sirius shook his head. "I used a charm to change my voice. It won't be recognized."
Remus sighed. The owl kept pecking him, so he put his toast down and grabbed the Howler. "There. You happy, you deranged bird?"
"Don't be mean to the bird because you have been a naughty boy, Remus." Sirius scolded.
Remus glared at him.
"You better open that, Remus. It looks ready to explode." Peter warned from next to Remus, eyeing the Howler warily.
Sirius grabbed the Howler out of Remus's hands and jumped away from the table. "I say, let the Howler explode."
Remus growled. He crawled under the table to get to Sirius. "Give it here, Sirius."
"No way." Sirius replied. "What did you do anyway?"
"I don't know, so give it here." Remus replied. When Sirius didn't hand it over, Remus tackled Sirius to the ground. Sirius held the Howler out about his head, out of Remus's reach. Remus took one of his hands off of Sirius's neck to reach for the Howler.
The students watched the two on the ground shocked. Remus was usually the calm, polite one. He never tackles or attacks anyone.
James rolled his eyes. "Honestly, you two are so immature."
"Shut it, James." Remus growled.
Sirius smirked and knocked Remus off of him. He looked at the Howler in his hand to see it smoking real badly. "Ooooh. Looks. It's going to explode soon!"
Remus sat up on the ground and glared at Sirius. "I hate you."
"No, you don't. You….." The rest Sirius's sentence was cut off as the Howler exploded, much louder than normal since Remus didn't open it.
Everyone in the Great Hall turned towards him.
BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH, MR. LUPIN!
Remus's eye started twitching.
The students and teachers just thought it was weird.
BEWARE!
The Howler burst into flames when it was finished and the ashes fell onto the ground in front of Remus, who looked really twitching right about now.
"Remus? Are you okay?" A third year Ravenclaw asked him, concerned.
Remus didn't reply. He was too busy twitching.
Sirius had to look away to hide the smirk on his lip.
James put a hand in front of his mouth to hide his grin.
Lily came over and kneeled in front of Remus. "Remus? Remus?"
Remus didn't reply. He just kept staring at the ashes on the ground.
"Remus?" Lily tried again.
"I think he's completely out of it, Evans." Sirius said. He grabbed Remus's arm and pulled him to his feet. "Don't worry. James and I will make sure he's okay. We'll just take him back to our dorm."
Lily stood up and glared at Sirius. "Is that suppose to make me feel better? The fact that it's you and James makes me worry more."
"Evans, he's our friend. We won't do anything to him." James replied. He stood up and swung one of Remus's arms over his shoulder and wrapped his arm around Remus's waist to help James walk him out of the hall.
Lily glared at them. "You better not."
The tone she said it with gave it an "or else" effect.
Sirius rolled his eyes and walked after James with Peter following him. "I think she doesn't trust us."
James smirked. "She's right not to trust us."
"Haven't you done enough to him today? Look at him." Peter said and looked at Remus, who was oblivious to everything going on around him. "He's all pale and twitchy. I think you succeeded in freaking him out today."
James sighed. "He'll get over it. And when he does, we'll be there to freak him out again."
"The Marauders will be paying Mister Lupin a visit in a few days with a warning." Sirius said. "We need to work on a Marauders prank for Mister Lupin."
Peter sighed. "This can't be good."
"You are going to help us with it, right?" Sirius asked in a dangerous tone that told Peter he couldn't object.
"Of course I am. I was just saying it can't be good." Peter replied, fearfully.
James raised a brow. "It's never good when it's us. You should know that by now."
When the boys reached their dorm, James put the still twitchy Remus on his bed, where he fell over immediately. James stared at him. "How do we fix this?"
Sirius shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know."
Peter rolled his eyes. "You guys have known him for a year and a half. You should know the answer by now."
James and Sirius smiled bashfully.
"Idiots." Peter grumbled and unlocked Remus's nightstand door. He pulled out a chocolate frog.
"Oh." Sirius said, blushing. They all knew about Remus's chocolate obsession. He and James should have known how to fix Remus.
Peter waved the frog in front of Remus's face.
It took less than five seconds for Remus to grab the frog out of Peter's grasp and to eat it. Remus's eyes glazed over when the chocolate entered his mouth. A smiled formed on his lips. He looked like he was on in Heaven as he let the chocolate melt in his mouth.
James rolled his eyes. "Okay Remus. You got your chocolate, but now we got to go or we're going to be late to class."
Remus grabbed another chocolate frog out of his nightstand. "Can't we skip today?" He asked as he eyed the chocolate in his nightstand.
James sighed. Whenever Remus got chocolate before class he always suggested they skip class so he could stay with his chocolate. When James and Sirius found this out, they often gave him chocolate so they could skip classes all day.
They were able to skip classes for a week before the teachers found out what was going on. After that, they forbid anyone to give Remus chocolate before classes.
Sirius smiled at the idea. "I think we should skip."
"Sirius, don't you remember what the teachers last year?" James hissed.
Sirius looked at James confused.
"No giving Remus chocolate before class." James growled.
"I don't think we have a choice in the matter unless we want to inform the professors that we gave Remus chocolate." Peter replied, looking pass James and Sirius to look at Remus.
"We can just drag Remus to class." James replied.
Peter pointed behind James. "I don't think we can."
James turned around to see Remus hugging his nightstand and glaring at them. "No classes." Remus hissed.
"Stupid chocolate always possess him." James snarled, glaring at the chocolate. He crossed his arms and huffed. "Fine, we can skip. But I'm not taking the blame when we're caught. We also aren't staying in our dorm. It'll be the first place they'll look for us."
"So, where are we going?" Sirius asked, eyeing Remus. "And how are we going to get him there?"
James ran a hand through his hair nervously. "The Forbidden Forest. They won't find us there."
"And him?" Peter asked, pointing at Remus nervously.
They always found being around Remus when he had chocolate was extremely dangerous.
James pulled the invisibility cloak out of his bag and moved carefully to Remus. Remus growled like a wolf at him. "Um…" He looked nervously at Sirius.
"Just freak him out." Sirius suggested.
"How?" James asked.
Sirius raised a brow. "Honestly? The way we've been doing it." He turned to Remus. "Ides."
Remus screamed and jumped under his bed.
James laughed and grabbed some chocolate out of Remus's nightstand before locking it up. He put the chocolate in his pockets before kneeling next to the bed. "Remus? Come on out. We're skipping lessons today and need to hide."
"I want chocolate." Remus replied.
"I have some. Come with us and you can have it all." James said.
Remus crawled out from under his bed.
James patted his head. "Good boy."
"I'm not a dog." Remus growled.
Sirius had to bite his tongue to keep himself from retorting.
James held his hands up in defense. "Sorry. Let's just go already."
The cloak was thrown over the four of them when they all got rid of their bags. Before they left the dorm, James turned to Remus, who was beginning to feel the effects of all the sugar he ate. "Remus, you will only get the chocolate if you stay quiet on our way out of the castle."
Remus whined, but agreed at the thought of chocolate.
It took the boys twenty minutes to make it outside. They had to dodge around a lot of students and teachers, who were on their way to class. On their way, they had seen Snape. Sirius couldn't resist, so he had to cast the tripping hex on Snape a few times.
After the fifth tripping hex, Remus was starting to get anxious and kept looking at James. He wanted his chocolate and James saw the craziness in his eyes for the chocolate.
"That's enough, Sirius." James hissed, looking scared at Remus.
"But I'm having fun." Sirius whined.
"Look at Remus." James replied.
Sirius saw the crazy look Remus had and quickly put his wand away. "Moving on."
James nodded his head in approval and they continued on their way.
When they got to a clearing in the forest, James pulled the cloak off of them. He sat down next to one of the trees with Sirius and Peter. Remus stayed standing and looked at Remus with puppy dogs eyes.
James smiled and pulled the chocolate out of his pockets. He dropped it all on the ground.
Remus sat next to the pile of chocolate and started eating it.
While Remus was distracted by his chocolate, James pulled his wand out and pointed it at one of the chocolate frogs. He whispered a spell before putting his wand away. Sirius looked at James questioningly, but James shook his head.
When Remus got to the chocolate frog, he ate the frog without much worry. He looked at the card to see what he got. He screamed and threw the card onto the ground. After that he stood up and ran to the other side of the clearing where he sat in the fetal position.
Sirius, out of curiosity, looked at the card. The picture was that of a famous wizard, which made Sirius really confused. Then he looked at what the card said about the wizard. Instead of explaining the wizard, Sirius saw:
Beware the ides of March.
The care kept repeating the words over and over again.
Snickering, Sirius threw the card back on the ground. "Do you think Remus will survive the next twelve days?"
"I hope so. This game would be pointless if he died." James replied. He stood up and dusted himself off. "Time to act like friends."
James moved over to Remus and kneeled next to him. "Remus, you okay?"
Remus glanced up at James. "What do you think? Someone is haunting me and you three are treating it like a joke."
"How are we doing that?" James asked, confused.
"By joking around and telling me to beware. I swear that I'm being haunted." Remus replied.
James patted Remus's arm sympathetically. "Of course, Remus. We're sorry."
"So, you believe me now?" Remus asked.
James nodded his head.
"Goody!" Remus replied.
The four boys stayed in the forest for the rest of the day. Remus ate all the chocolate that was brought and was in a hyper, crazy mood when they decided to go back to the castle for dinner.
When they made it into the Great Hall, McGonagall stalked over to them. "Where have you four been? I've been informed that you skipped all your classes today."
James, Peter, and Sirius looked at her nervously. They couldn't tell her the truth about giving Remus chocolate. Of course they would never tell her the truth of why they skipped classes.
"Um…"
"Well, you see…."
"We….uh…we….."
Remus looked at McGonagall happily and was bouncing on the heels of his feet. "HI PROFESSOR MINNIE!" He screamed and hugged her around the waist.
James eyes widened and he pulled his friend away from the professor.
McGonagall looked shocked when Remus hugged her.
"Um….professor?" Sirius said hesitantly.
"PROFESSOR!" Remus screamed again and started talking really fast. "I got chocolate today! Then we got to skip class and I got more chocolate! We hid in the Forbidden Forest and hung there all day! It was sooooo fun!"
Professor McGonagall stared at Remus for a few minutes. She pinched the bridge of her nose and turned to James, Sirius, and Peter. "My office now."
The boys chuckled nervously.
Remus didn't notice. He was jumping up and down excitedly. "Do you any chocolate, Minnie? I want some chocolate!"
Sirius grabbed Remus nervously. He covered Remus's mouth and pulled him out of the Great Hall. James and Peter followed him.
Remus was talking again, but the boys couldn't understand him since Sirius still had his hand over Remus's mouth.
McGonagall followed the boys to her office. When they got to it, she closed the door and stood behind her desk. "Chocolate? How many times do we have to warn you not to give Mr. Lupin chocolate before classes?"
"Well, it was the only way to bring him out of his twitchy state the Howler gave him." Sirius replied, struggling to keep Remus from bouncing while keeping his hand over his mouth.
"That's another thing. What was that Howler about?" McGonagall asked.
"How should we know? We didn't send it." James replied.
Sirius whined and looked at James pleadingly. Rolling his eyes, James took over for Sirius and pinned Remus's arms at his side and covered his mouth.
McGonagall frowned. "How much chocolate did you give him?"
James shrugged. "Um…..I think about…a huge hunk of Honeydukes chocolate, twelve chocolate frogs, a few cauldron cakes, and I think he had some chocoballs."
"No wonder." McGonagall replied, looking at Remus. "Let's see for skipping class and disobeying the rules by giving Mr. Lupin chocolate, twenty points from the three of you. And all four of you will have a week of detention."
"Yes ma'am." James replied.
"Dismissed." McGonagall said.
The four boys left the office and went back to the Great Hall for dinner.
Lily stalked over to them and glared. "What did you do to Remus?"
"Chocolate, Evans." James replied, struggling to get Remus to sit down and stay.
Lily frowned. "Idiots."
Sirius glared at her. "Do you want something else?"
"I knew I shouldn't have trusted you with Remus this morning." Lily said, grabbing a fork and putting broccoli on it. "Remove your hand, Potter."
James looked at her weirdly, but did as he was told. "What are you going to do?"
As soon as James's hand was removed, Remus started talking. "Hi Lily! How was your day? Mine was...mmhmf."
Remus stopped talking when Lily put the fork in his mouth. He ate what was on the fork. When he was done, Remus screamed and grabbed a goblet of pumpkin juice. After drinking the whole glass, he glared at Lily. "How could you, Lils? Broccoli is evil."
"That's all it takes? Give him broccoli?" James asked, incredulity.
"He's your best mate and you don't know that?" Lily asked, shocked.
Sirius glared. "He never told us of his hatred of broccoli."
Lily laughed. "He doesn't need to tell you everything for you to know things." She sat next to Remus and started talking with him.
"He doesn't tell us a lot of things." James hissed.
Sirius nodded his head in agreement.
A/N: Please review!