Chapter 6 – Demoted
Sirius had left Remus to his thoughts and headed to the empty Muggle Studies classroom where he spent several hours working on his motorbike and trying, with no success whatsoever, not to think about what had happened down by the lake.
He'd been sitting down by the lake with Moony. They'd been in one of the spots that couples liked to go to on a summer evening. And he'd been holding Moony's hand.
He knew that Remus still thought that he had been talking to the other Sirius and he felt a slight stab of guilt that he'd done nothing to correct him on that false assumption. He realised that if Remus had been his usual cheerful and observant self he'd have easily spotted which Sirius he was talking with, but he'd been too distracted by his own thoughts to notice the switch.
He still couldn't quite believe that Remus thought they'd want to lose him from the group. In Sirius's mind it was just unthinkable, Moony was as much a part of the Marauders as any of the others, including himself. No one could replace him, not even another Remus Lupin.
Sirius knew that convincing Moony that he was still one of the Marauders would be relatively easy providing he and the others made an extra effort to include him again. Not so easy would be dealing with the other thoughts that were now plaguing his mind. Thoughts of how good it felt to simply sit on the damp grass on a January morning while holding hands with Remus.
According to the other Remus, the other Sirius was gay. Sirius frowned to himself as he wondered whether that might be a trait he shared with his other self. He didn't seem to have anything else in common with him, but he couldn't deny that ever since the idea had been put into his head he'd been seeing Moony in a whole new light. To put it bluntly he'd been blatantly checking his friend out at an almost frightening frequency.
"But I like girls," Sirius muttered to himself as he started poking about at the partially built bike. "It's not like I'm repulsed by them or didn't like going out with them, and I certainly enjoyed kissing them."
But you liked holding Moony's hand too a small voice reminded him. That didn't repulse you either.
"What would Moony say?" Sirius mumbled and he realised that this was the one time he couldn't just go and ask his friend for advice. Every other time he'd had a problem Remus had been his first point of call. James was his best friend, but he did have a tendency to find Sirius's problems highly amusing. Remus never laughed at him, no matter what he wanted to know.
He thought back to when his first girlfriend had been expecting him to French kiss her and he didn't know what she meant. Remus had been the one he'd gone to for answers. He'd not laughed at him or even so much as cracked a smile at his embarrassed, barely coherent question. He'd simply explained what it was and promised not to tell James about their conversation.
Sirius smiled as he recalled the memory and before he knew it his mind had drifted in an alarming new direction and he wondered what it would be like to French kiss Moony. "Oh crap," Sirius muttered when he realised how much he liked the idea.
"What would Moony say?" he repeated. "If I went to him for advice what would he say?"
He pictured himself approaching Remus alone and doing his usual stunt of stumbling over his words as he tried to ask him the latest in a long line of embarrassing questions. Remus would nod seriously and say…
Sirius frowned as he tried to imagine what Remus would say and came up with nothing.
Finally he headed to the Great Hall for dinner. His stomach was growling and he realised that he'd missed lunch.
He sat down beside James and looked across the table at Peter and Remus. He knew without doubt that the Remus across the table was the other Remus and he felt a new pang of guilt that Remus would once again have a reason to think he was being replaced.
Sirius studied the other Remus and wondered how it was that no one had realised that he was not the Remus Lupin everyone had known for more than five years. Sirius wondered if this was exactly what Remus would have been like if he'd never been bitten by a werewolf. If it was, for the first time ever Sirius was grateful for the fact that Remus had been bitten because he knew which one he preferred to spend time with.
Through casual discussions, they'd managed to confirm that the other Remus was not a werewolf and had no reason to vanish next week on the night of the full moon. They still hadn't told the others about Remus's furry little problem and Sirius wondered momentarily if Remus had confided in the other Sirius.
"Earth to Sirius," James said in a sing-song voice. "Are you in on this prank or not?"
"What prank's that?" asked Sirius, dragging his mind back to the conversation around him.
"The one we've been discussing for the past ten minutes," Peter said. "Where've you been?"
"I think I recognise that look," Remus said with a wicked grin. He didn't need to say any more and Sirius felt himself blushing as he recalled his earlier reaction to Moony's fingers entwined with his own.
"So what prank are we going to do next?" he hurriedly asked in order to steer the conversation away from less troubling topics.
"We're going to enchant the school carriages to pull themselves," James said with a grin. "Most kids think they do anyway but won't it be great for the staff to see the carriages running around on their own with no thestrals pulling them?"
Sirius grinned. That sounded like a prank the whole school would enjoy.
"Absolutely disgraceful!" Professor McGonagall yelled. "Three of the school carriages damaged beyond repair and one at the bottom of the lake. What were you thinking?"
Sirius, James, Peter and the other Remus stood in Professor McGonagall's office with their eyes downcast.
"Three students in the hospital wing," McGonagall continued at an even higher volume. "You will be apologising personally to each and every one of those students as soon as they are well enough for visitors."
The spell had worked only too well, they just hadn't anticipated that the carriages would have violent tendencies.
"You'll all serve detentions for the next month and forgo any visits to Hogsmeade for the remainder of the school year."
Sirius kept his gaze focused firmly on the floor. The professors didn't know about their monthly visits to the village on the nights of the full moon. As such there was no use in not trying to look as contrite is possible now. It wouldn't do for her to realise that the punishment wasn't anywhere near as bad as she thought it was.
"Remus Lupin," McGonagall continued in a slightly quieter tone. "I'm surprised at you. I thought you had more sense than this. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to revoke your prefect status, effective immediately."
Sirius looked up at that. McGonagall had no way of knowing that the Remus standing before them was not a prefect.
"Your badge please." McGonagall held out her hand.
"It's on my other robes," Remus replied. He was still looking at the floor, though Sirius suspected that in his case it was so that McGonagall wouldn't recognise that he wasn't who she thought he was.
"Then go and fetch it immediately," McGonagall ordered. "Oh get out of my sight, the lot of you."
Sirius hurried with the rest of his friends towards the door. Once outside he cast a look at James.
"Moony's gonna kill us," James whispered.
They found Remus in the dormitory chatting with the other James about, of all people, Severus Snape. As soon as they'd discovered that the other James and Snape were friends Remus had become particularly interested in discovering just how many more differences there were between their two worlds.
"How many detentions have you got?" Remus asked after they'd all piled into the room.
"A month," James replied. "And no Hogsmeade visits for the rest of the year."
"There's something else," Sirius said as he sat down on Remus's bed and looked guiltily at his friend.
"What?" Remus asked cautiously.
"McGonagall revoked your prefect status," Sirius looked at his friend and watched disappointment cloud over his face. "She wants your badge back."
"Maybe we should just go and tell her the truth," Remus said after a few minutes of stunned silence.
"It's not like we're any nearer figuring out a way to get us all back home," the other Sirius added. "Professor McGonagall may be able to help."
"I don't think telling McGonagall about any more mucked up spells is a good idea," Sirius said. "At least not right now."
The rest of the group nodded and Sirius watched as his friend slowly nodded his agreement. He unpinned his still shining prefect badge and held it out to the other Remus.
"Maybe you should take it yourself," the other Remus suggested. "We don't want the old battleaxe noticing I'm not you."
"She didn't notice when you were with her just now," Remus pointed out. "I know we're a bit…different…but we can pass for each other easy enough."
"No sense risking it," the other Remus said.
"Well you're going to have to risk it for the detentions so why not now?" Remus asked.
"I thought you'd be doing them," the other Remus declared with a grin. "You're doing all your own lessons and stuff."
"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed at the same time as every other occupant of the room yelled out. He didn't hear a word the others were saying as he launched into his angry tirade at the other Remus. "You were the one who earned those detentions, you can damn well join the rest of us. Moony didn't do anything to deserve them. It's bad enough he's lost his prefect status and trips to Hogsmeade. He's not going to do your detentions for you."
"What if you find a way to send us back home before the month is up?" the other Remus asked with a smirk.
"Moony," Sirius turned to his friend. "You will not under any circumstances whatsoever help this little git return to his own world before he's served all his detentions."
"Then I guess our Sirius will have to find a solution on his own," the other Remus said.
"No I won't," the other Sirius muttered.
"Traitor!" the other Remus hissed as he turned to his friend and shot him a withering glare.
"You will serve your detentions with the rest of us," Sirius repeated.
"Fine," the other Remus snapped. He stood up and snatched the prefect badge from Remus and stormed from the room.
"Thanks," Remus said as he looked at his friends one by one.
"You look surprised," Sirius commented. "Did you think we'd let him have all the fun of pranking whilst you do the detentions?"
Remus shrugged but didn't say anything.
"Oh crap!" Sirius muttered. "You did, didn't you? You really thought we'd let that selfish git take advantage of your good nature like that."
Remus shrugged again and Sirius shifted his position so that he could put his arm around his friend's shoulders. "Hell Moony, you don't have much faith in your best friends do you?"
Over the next week Remus came to realise that the rest of the marauders, and Sirius especially, seemed to be making an extra effort to include him in the group. For the first time since their doubles had come into their lives he began to feel like part of the group again.
If it weren't for the overcrowded dormitory and the constant worry that they were going to get found out any day now Remus could almost forget the spell altogether.
"What happened to you?" Remus asked Wormtail as he sank onto the bench at the opposite side of the table for dinner.
"Got slapped by Meg, that fifth year from Hufflepuff," Peter replied as he continued to rub at his rather red cheek.
"What did she do that for?" James asked as he tried to smother a grin.
"I was trying out one of his lines," Peter replied. "He said it worked for him and I thought I'd give it a try."
"Probably most of the girls at his school are fawning over him because he's the star of the Quidditch team," Remus pointed out. "They probably aren't even listening to whatever nonsense he's blabbering about; as long as he's talking to them they couldn't care less."
"You think so?" Peter asked.
"Well he does tend to come out with some crap," Remus assured him with a snort. "Chances are if he tried it here himself he wouldn't get any further than you."
Peter nodded thoughtfully.
"They're really not as much fun as we thought they were, are they?" James asked. "All he does is yammer on about how happy he and Lily are and how lucky he is to have her, and how much he misses her and Sev."
"The other Sirius is all right though," Sirius commented with a surreptitious glance at Remus. "It's like having two Moonys here."
He turned to smile at Remus and was surprised to see that he was glaring at him with an unusually hostile expression. He dropped his fork in surprise. "What?" he asked. "What did I say?"
"You really think I'm like that?" Remus finally whispered. "Working and studying all the time?"
"Of course not," Sirius interrupted but Remus wasn't listening.
"Always serious and never having a joke with anyone?" Remus continued. "I'm amazed you've all put up with me for so long. That you haven't just dropped dead from the sheer boredom of my company."
Remus jumped up from the table and ran from the Great Hall, his meal unfinished and his friends stunned.
"I don't think Moony's boring," Sirius said.
"'Course you don't," James replied. "None of us do."
"I thought he got along with the other Sirius," Sirius said in a lower tone so that no one else could hear him. "I thought they were…you know…"
"Together?" James whispered back with a sly grin.
"Yeah," Sirius replied. "I don't know how far they've gone but I'm sure there's something going on between them."
"There are eight of us crowded into the dorm at the moment," James pointed out with a quiet laugh. "With the extra beds we've transfigured in the room we can hardly move about without tripping over at least two other people. They can't have gone that far."
"We don't know that," Sirius muttered. "Silencing charms, disillusionment charms, levitation charms in case the bed creaks. They could have."
James picked his jaw up and shook his head. "You've really put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?" he asked with a grin. "Is there something you're not telling us mate?"
Sirius felt himself flushing in embarrassment and knew the second the light dawned in the dim recesses of James's brain.
"What's up?" Peter asked from across the table. He'd been too far away to hear the whispered conversation between James and Sirius and hadn't realised the direction the conversation had drifted in.
James howled with laughter, drawing the attention of numerous other students and several teachers.
"Glad you find this so terribly amusing," Sirius muttered. "You might offer some helpful suggestions, instead of merely choking with laughter."
"Oh Padfoot," James spluttered. "I'm sorry, but this is just too priceless. You're jealous…of yourself. You're your own rival. You've got to see the funny side."
"I'm in stitches," Sirius muttered with a deadpan expression. "And would you keep your voice down."
"Look on the bright side," James continued in a much quieter tone. "Moony didn't sound like he was too happy with the other you when he stormed off just now. In fact, reading between the lines I'd say he thought he was boring."
"So you think I'm in with a chance?" Sirius whispered. If he'd been hoping for reassurance or helpful tips he was sorely disappointed as James merely collapsed in peals of laughter once more.