Part Eight – A Rotten Trick

Remus was relieved when his friends didn't question him again about the injuries he had acquired over the weekend of the full moon. They didn't press the issue and Remus spent next couple of days catching up with the work he had missed at the start of the week.

On Thursday morning he found that he had read over the chapters covered in all the classes he had missed and with the help of James and Sirius he felt that he was no longer behind in his classes. He was thankful that the first full moon of the year had fallen during a weekend. Of the three days he had been isolated away from the school, two of them had been the weekend. The effect had been that he had only missed Monday's lessons and part of Tuesday morning.

The first class on Thursday morning was potions. Remus was relieved that he had not missed any potions classes during this full moon. With his father's reputation as a terrible potions brewer, Remus was determined to ensure that he did not follow in his footsteps.

Sitting down at an empty desk he waited for Sirius to join him. This week it was James who was working with Peter who unfortunately had no talent for potions at all. Remus would even go so far as to say that Peter was an even worse potions brewer than Patrick Lupin.

James and Sirius strolled into the room and Sirius sat down at the desk beside Remus. James took a seat at the desk beside them and Remus noticed that both James and Sirius made sure that they were both on the opposite ends of the table so that they could chat together with ease.

Remus saw that Severus Snape was sitting directly in front of James. He turned round with a small smile on his face. Remus wondered briefly if he was trying to smooth things over and be more friendly with the Gryffindors but there was something sly in the smile that he didn't like.

"What you looking at Snivellus?" James sneered, as the late arriving Peter sat down beside him and went off into a fit of giggles.

"It wasn't that funny," Remus heard Severus mutter as he turned away, his face flushed with embarrassment.

After the instructions from Professor Slughorn were made clear everyone turned to their cauldrons and started working on the Bass potion. It was a potion that once completed would be tested by the students. If it had been made accurately it would result in the deepening of the voices of the class. Professor Slughorn explained that it was always an interesting potion to give to the first years to make as the boys' voices hadn't yet broken and the effect was far better when this was the case.

"So," Sirius asked as they prepared the ingredients, "was it really a family emergency last weekend?"

"Yes," Remus sighed. "I told you it was."

"You know you can tell us if something's up, right?" Sirius said as he shot Remus an uncharacteristically intense look.

"There isn't anything wrong," Remus insisted.

A loud sigh from James drew Sirius' attention away from him momentarily. They turned to see that Peter had dropped a bunch of leaves onto the floor. Bending down James and Peter picked up the leaves, Peter apologising repeatedly for his clumsiness.

"So everything's okay at home now?" Sirius said as he turned away from Peter with a roll of his eyes. "Emergency all sorted out?"

"Everything's fine," Remus insisted as he pretended to look intently at the contents of the cauldron.

"You wouldn't be the only one with trouble at home," Sirius whispered as Remus bit his lip, hating the lies that he was being forced to tell.

"Everything's fine," Remus repeated with a forced laugh. "I promise that my parents are great and if you ever meet them you'll see for yourself."

"What do you mean, if?" Sirius asked. "My family's awful. I'm counting on you and James to have me over for the holidays."

"Sure," Remus laughed. "I'm sure they'll be happy to have you." Providing there isn't a full moon at the time, he silently added.

The subject finally appeared to be closed and Remus and Sirius continued to work on their potion. Finally they were done and the class prepared to test their brews.

He noticed that Severus and his lab partner Martin had successfully managed to mix the potion and their voices were now deep and thick.

Remus and Sirius took a drink of their own potion and found that although it was not as effective as that of Severus it was clearly enough to gain a pass.

He and Sirius talked together in their deep voices for a moment when the sound of a strangled scream came from the table next to them. Turning to see what was the matter he saw James and Peter standing with their hands clasped over their mouths. Peter looked like he was about to be sick.

Everyone in the room had turned to see what was happening and Professor Slughorn rushed over to see what the commotion was.

"Let me through," he ordered and the students stepped back to let him pass.

"Aaahm..mm.aahh...mmmumm," mumbled James.

"Spit it out lad, spit it out," said the Professor. James took him literally and spat into the cauldron a mouthful of bile and saliva.

"Let's see now," Professor Slughorn grabbed James' face and forcibly opened his mouth.

Remus leaned around Sirius to see what was happening. He couldn't tell for sure but it looked like James had lost all of his teeth. He wondered what had happened. With the ingredients they had there was little that could go wrong with the potion, all the ingredients did was alter the pitch of the drinker's voice. Sirius had commented during the class that all that could really go wrong was the pitch going higher if the ingredients were in the wrong order. Remus himself knew little enough about potions and was unable to contradict that, but Sirius and James were the smartest students in the class and if Sirius said that was the case then it must be right. He was rarely wrong when it came to the classes.

"I think you might have failed this lesson today Mr Potter." Professor Slughorn was calm as he explained that their teeth could easily be restored with the dental version of Skele-Grow. Remus didn't envy his friends having to drink it though; he'd had to try it himself after losing a couple of teeth during a full moon and he still recalled the awful taste of the stuff.

"Do you know what you did wrong?" Professor Slughorn was asking.

James shook his head whilst Peter continued to spit into the cauldron.

"Well I guess you had both better go to Madam Pomfrey and grow your teeth back."

He watched as James and Peter grabbed their books and practically ran from the room. Sirius made to follow after them but was halted across the room by Professor Slughorn who pointed out that the his two friends were quite capable of finding the hospital wing for themselves.

Sirius made to walk back to his desk where Remus was noisily clearing up the equipment. The look on Sirius's face was one of fury as he took his seat again. Remus wondered what had happened to anger his friend, though he didn't have to wonder for long.

No sooner were they out of the door than Sirius turned to Remus. "Did you hear what he said?" he whispered.

"You mean about them knowing where the hospital wing is?"

"No, not Slughorn," Sirius shook his head. "Avery."

"No," Remus shook his head in confusion. "What did he say?"

"He said 'Nice one' to Snivellus," Sirius said with a sneer.

"You think Severus had something to do with that?" Remus asked. He recalled the sly smile Severus had directed at James when he had taken his seat at the start of class. He wondered whether he should mention it to Sirius but decided against it. There was no sense in stirring up more trouble. There was plenty as it was.

"I'll bet anything that he did. But don't worry, we'll make him pay." Sirius nodded thoughtfully as the walked to their next class.

"But what if you're wrong?" Remus asked. "You should at least make sure that it was him. How do you know it wasn't something else they were talking about? And you know Peter isn't that great at potions?"

"Or anything else," Sirius muttered. "We'll make sure it was Snivellus, okay?"

"Okay," Remus agreed although he already suspected that Sirius's suspicions were right on target.

"Then we'll make him pay," Sirius declared.


Remus sighed at the determination he heard in the voice of his friend. It looked like the hostilities were far from over. Why couldn't Severus have left well enough alone?

When Remus and Sirius went to visit James and Peter in the hospital wing that evening, Sirius wasted no time in voicing his suspicions of what had happened. Remus was disappointed to see that James and Peter agreed with Sirius at once. Peter especially seemed relieved to pass the blame for the disastrous potion onto another person beside himself.

"Ah gnew i'," James mumbled between his half grown teeth, wincing slightly in pain. "iggle gi'."

"No talking," Madam Pomfrey called from across the room as she popped her head out of her office. "That's the second time I've had to tell you. If I have to remind you again you won't get any visitors at all. Understood?"

James and Peter nodded silently.

"I've got to get going anyway," Remus said as he stood up. "I still have to finish my astronomy assignment before tonight."

"Me too," Sirius said as he stood up to follow Remus towards the door. "At least you get out of that one."

James grinned and gave him a thumbs up sign.

Leaving the ward Sirius and Remus headed to the common room. He wondered if James would even let Severus try to deny he had done anything to their potion. It seemed to him that James and Sirius had already convicted him for the stunt. Remus had also noticed that Sirius was repeatedly making faces and gestures towards Severus every time he saw him in an effort to wind him up.


It was Sunday morning before James and Peter were finally released from the care of Madam Pomfrey. Remus and Sirius gave a cheer as they entered the common room.

"How'd you get out of so many classes?" Sirius asked. "Lucky gits."

"Madam Pomfrey wanted to make sure that we had all our teeth back again," James explained. "Took ages 'cos we had to have a separate dose for each separate tooth."

"Bet it's the longest you've ever stayed quiet for, right?" Sirius laughed.

"Probably," James grinned. "So, what've we missed?"

Sirius and Remus spent the rest of the morning filling the duo in on their assignments and the school gossip before they headed down to the Great Hall for lunch.

"Don't see him here," James commented as he looked over at the Slytherin table.

"He'll he hiding out somewhere," Sirius snickered. "We'll track him down after we've eaten."

"Then he's going to be sorry he tampered with our potion," said James as he took a bite of pie.

After leaving the Great Hall it didn't take long for them to track down the sneaky Slytherin. He was walking casually across the courtyard as they came out of the doors into the cool fresh air.

Remus watched Severus come to an abrupt halt. He wondered for a moment if he would run off but then realised that he was going to stand his ground. Remus glanced at James and Sirius and saw that they too had spotted their quarry.

"You're going to give him a chance to explain, remember?" Remus whispered to Sirius. A moment later he realised he had asked the wrong person as James broke free from their group and sprinted across the courtyard to where Severus stood waiting. He watched him pull out his wand and thrust it into Severus's face. Severus stepped back and reached for his own wand.

"You sabotaged my potion you little git!" shouted James. So much for giving him a chance, thought Remus as he and the others hurried after James.

"You jinxed my broom!" Severus yelled back.

"You don't deny it then?" James spat out in fury.

"No, do you?" replied Severus who was clearly seething himself.

"He can't deny it anyway," interrupted Sirius. "I heard Martin congratulate him in class. And the whole of the Slytherin house knows about it. Right proud of him they are." News to me, thought Remus, though he couldn't deny that it was probably true.

"Proud are they?" said James thoughtfully. "Bet they won't be so proud of him when I've done with him."

"What you gonna do?" jeered Severus as he raised his wand higher.

"Come on, calm down now," interrupted Remus. Things were getting well out of hand. He moved to step in front of James and stretched out his arms in an attempt to move them further apart. Unfortunately neither of them were going to budge an inch.

"Calm down?" James yelled. "He tried to poison us!"

"Yeah," said Peter. "He could have killed us."

"Rubbish," answered Severus. Remus thought he sounded very sure of himself and he knew that the Slytherin had a talent for potions, he gained top marks nearly every week. Perhaps he had known that what he had done could be easily remedied.

"Come on now," tried Remus again. He silently hoped for one of the Professors to come along and break things up but there was never one around when you needed one. Turning to James he tried to reason with him. "You jinxed his broom, he messed up your potion. Some might say it evens the score."

"Does it heck! He got praised for sticking on that broom. We got failed for that potion. I don't call that even. Do you Peter?"

"No," agreed Peter. "We would have got top marks that lesson if not for Snivellus here."

"Right," said James.

"Whose side are you on?" asked James shooting a glare at Remus. Remus stepped back a pace at the hostility in his friend's face. "You're not taking the side of this greasy little git are you?" James asked as he jabbed his wand at Severus.

"Of course not," answered Remus. He glanced at Severus who was making no effort to try and help put things behind them either.

"You're sure about that?" James scowled.

"Yes," said Remus quietly and he stepped back a little further from James. He still had his wand out and he didn't want him pointing it at his direction.

"Good," said James in a quieter voice, his temper receding. "Us Gryffindors stick together. Loyalty is just as important to us as to the Hufflepuffs."

"Remus didn't mean anything by stepping in, did you?" said Sirius. "Just not used to all this action after living out in that isolated village of yours, are you?"

"That's right," said Remus, as he felt a wave of gratitude for Sirius wash over him. "Besides one of the Professors could come by here any minute. I don't want to see my friends getting into trouble. Just watching your back. That's all."

James was pacified and smiled at Remus, their differences forgotten. Remus felt a rush of relief at his friend's smile.

"You're right," James agreed. "Too many people could see us here."

"Somewhere else then?" suggested Sirius.

"Yeah." James stood and thought for a moment. "How about round the back of Hagrid's next weekend? I heard Dumbledore telling Madam Pomfrey that Hagrid was going to London then to run some errands. He was asking her to stop by twice a day to feed his dog. It should be deserted the rest of the time."

"Perfect," agreed Sirius. "Is that okay with you Snivellus?"

Remus looked at Severus who merely glared at the group. It was clear that any chance of friendship with the young Slytherin had vanished the minute he had sabotaged James's potion.

"We'll take that as a yes then." James lowered his wand and put it back into his robes. "A proper duel, without cheating."

Severus still didn't reply and James merely turned from him and walked away back towards the doorway. Remus turned with Sirius and Peter to follow him.

Remus silently admitted to himself that he had been wrong about Severus Snape. What sort of student would do something so awful to another pupil? He didn't know a great deal about potions but according to Sirius and James what Severus had done was very dangerous. He wondered what else the boy was capable of doing and considered that it might be best to just stay out of his way altogether in the future. But how was he to do that when James and Sirius were determined to teach the Slytherin a lesson?

Remus knew didn't want anything to do with the duel but how was he going to get out of it? For the first time in his life he wished that there were a full moon coming up so that he could use it as an excuse not to be a part of what he was sure was going to be a complete disaster.