Part Ten – The Victor's Tale

By Saturday morning Remus had made his mind up that he would make sure that he was not going to be going along with his friends to the duel with Severus. He had listened to them as they had discussed the curses and hexes they were planning on practising all day before the battle late that afternoon. Nothing seemed to be especially dangerous and Remus decided to leave them to go alone.

The main thing that had brought him to this decision however was a letter from his parents, delivered by the family owl at breakfast. The letter was long with lots of news about the recent happenings in the village and Remus was thrilled to receive it on the bright Saturday morning. But it was the postscript at the end that brought about his decision to distance himself from the inevitable trouble that the duel would bring.

Most of the letter had been written in the neat script of his mother. But at the very end his father had added a line, obviously out of sight of his wife.

PS: Your mother has coped very well with your first month away from home. I believe the break has been good for her so be sure to behave yourself and we'll have an extra special surprise for you at Christmas.

Remus noticed that both his parents had been very careful not to mention the full moon in their letter but his father's final words were a clear reference for the monthly nightmare that ruled their lives. The last thing he wanted to do was cause more pain for his family by getting sent home in disgrace.

"Got a letter from home Lupin?" James asked from across the table.

"Yeah," Remus replied, casually waving the same.

"Me too," James answered. "And look what else there is here. More Dungbombs."

"Your parents sent you Dungbombs?" Remus asked as he looked across the table in astonishment.

"My dad was a bit of a prankster too," James grinned. "I'll bet he didn't let mum know he was sending these."

"Wonder who we should use them on…" Sirius contemplated as he looked at the letters his friends had received.

"Nothing from your family yet?" Peter asked.

"No," Sirius snapped. Then, almost as if he realised he was giving away more than he had meant to, he added in a jovial tone, "with a bit of luck they'll have forgotten all about me and won't notice if I don't go home. James's house sounds much more fun than mine."

"Have they written to you at all?" Peter asked, completely oblivious to the subtle attempt of Sirius to direct the subject away from his family.

"Just once," Sirius answered. "Mum wrote after my aunt had told them about me being in Gryffindor. I bet it was Bellatrix or Narcissa who wrote to tell her. They'd do it out of spite."

"So your mum wasn't happy about you being in Gryffindor?" James asked.

"Hardly," Sirius replied with a grimace.

"Never mind," James said. "If they kick you out you can always come and stay with us. My parents won't mind."

"They won't kick me out; I'm not that lucky," Sirius said with a frown. "So what does your letter say Remus? Anything interesting?"

"See for yourself," Remus replied as he handed the letter over, silently relieved that his parents were alert enough not to put anything in their letters to him that would give away his secret to someone else who might read them.

He watched Sirius's reaction as he skimmed through the letter. He knew that Sirius, even more so than the other two, was suspicious about what his family was like. Too late he recalled the letter not only had no reference to his supposed trip home, and actually had a postscript referring to his being away for a month. He caught the quick frown from Sirius as he read the last page but he remained quiet as he handed the letter back and finished off his pumpkin juice.

When they had all finished eating Remus followed his friends out of the Great Hall. James, Sirius and Peter soon found a spare classroom to practice in for the duel and Remus tagged along with them for a while.

Finally he decided that the work for his classes could not wait any longer and he returned to the common room to make a start on his Defence Against the Dark Arts essay. He knew his potions essay should come first but if James and Sirius were pressing him to go to the duel with them it was his last ditch excuse to stay away. The decision made he began the other essay and worked steadily as the room grew darker and darker as the storm clouds that had been on the horizon since the morning moved overhead and the rain began to pour down over the school.

Taking only a break for lunch Remus ploughed on through his work and was just finishing off his last assignment, save for the Potions essay, when the sound of James and Sirius laughing drew his attention to the door of the common room.

His jaw dropped as he saw Sirius. His black hair that was usually collar length was now down to his waist and still growing. Sirius stood with his hands holding his ever-increasing hair back and Peter was helping him to keep it from entangling itself around his throat.

"I can't believe you didn't check you had the counter-curse before testing this," Sirius laughed.

"I have a book upstairs with it in," James replied between guffaws of laughter.

"You have to use that one," Peter chuckled. "It would be great on that greasy little worm."

"Yeah," agreed Sirius with a smirk at Peter, before turning back to the hexer. "If James will stop laughing long enough to go and find the counter-curse."

"Okay," James spluttered as he made his way to the stairs. Sirius's hair was now down to his ankles and Remus stood up to help him carry it and keep from tripping over it as he made his way across the room.

"Hey look, it's Rupunzel," laughed Lily Evans from where she sat in front of the large roaring fire.

"Huh?" Sirius looked at Remus blankly.

"A muggle fairy tale princess," Remus explained with a smirk. Sirius rolled his eyes good-naturedly before turning to Lily and batting his eyelids wildly in a gesture that had she and her friend laughing again.

A few minutes later James returned and quickly spoke the words of the counter-curse that caused the excess hair to fall away and vanish, leaving Sirius's hair exactly as it had been before.

"It's quarter to five," James announced a short while later. "Time to go teach the slimy Slytherin a lesson."

"Yeah," agreed Sirius standing up. "You ready Remus?"

"I can't come," Remus replied as he shifted in his seat at the looks from his friends. "I've still got to do the extra potions essay for Professor Slughorn. He wants it by tonight."

"Didn't you do that earlier?" James asked. "You've been working all day. What've you been doing?"

"The Defence Against the Dark Arts essay, the Transfiguration practical and the astronomy chart," Remus answered with a gesture to the completed work on the table.

"You could have done any of those tomorrow," James pointed out with a frown. "I've not done most of those myself yet."

"I forgot," Remus replied with a shrug, his eyes downcast. He really didn't like lying to his friends, and this time it wasn't even because of his secret.

"Never mind," Sirius said. "We'll fill you in on all the gory details when we get back from trouncing Snivellus."

"Okay," Remus answered with a forced enthusiasm he didn't feel. "I can't wait to hear about it."

James nodded and he and Peter followed Sirius out of the common room. Remus was just wondering if he should forget about the Potions essay and follow after them anyway when Lily came across to the table and sat down opposite him.

"So they really are going to have a duel with Severus?" she asked with a glance towards the closing door.

"I guess," Remus answered.

"I think you're right to stay out of it," Lily said with a shake of her head. "I told Severus not to go but I don't think he'll listen. I said I wouldn't have any part of it…but maybe I shouldn't have been so hasty."

Remus looked at the worried countenance across from him. It seemed that he was not the only one who had been worried about the duel that was no doubt going to start any minute. He could see that Lily was as concerned as he was that perhaps they should be down at Hagrid's hut, rather than sitting in the common room wondering about what had happened.

"I don't know." Remus sighed. "Maybe I should go after all and keep an eye on things."

"They can't do anything really bad to him can they?" Lily asked as she chewed on her lip.

"Depends on their definition of bad," Remus replied as he considered yet again whether he should go after them.

"They'll not do anything that'll get them into too much trouble," Lily commented, and Remus had the impression she was talking herself out of going down there as much as him.

"You're probably right," agreed Remus. "And this potions essay won't write itself."

Lily grinned momentarily before she moved back over to the fireplace, leaving Remus to quickly write the essay before the end of the evening. He couldn't help glancing across the room towards Lily who it appeared was far less sure of her decision to stay away than her words had implied.

It was not too long before James and Sirius returned to the common room, full of the news of their victory over Severus Snape. By this time the common room was crowded with Gryffindor students who were relaxing in front of the fire as the storm raged outside. Everyone in the room went quiet to listen to the account of the duel of the year.

"The loser didn't bring a second with him," James told his captive audience.

"That's 'cos he's got no friends," Sirius explained to the snickers and giggles of the crowd.

"Peter here acted as judge," James said with a gesture towards Peter who glowed with pride at being the centre of attention for the moment. "And as a fair and impartial judge-"

There were a few snorts from around the room at this.

"As a fair and impartial judge," James repeated, slightly louder, "he decided that it was a Gryffindor victory of two rounds to one."

"For round one," Sirius called out, "James used the tried and tested collapsing legs jinx for an easy victory over Snivellus's wasps that flew from his wand following his successful incantation, but decided against attacking James and instead flew for the Forbidden Forest."

The crowd laughed and even Remus felt himself smiling at the thought of the wasps having no interest in the duellers and going exactly where they pleased.

"For round two." Sirius paused for dramatic effect. "Snivellus made a surprise comeback with the frozen man spell. Our champion would no doubt have retaliated brilliantly but as he was frozen it was decided that it would be fair to award this round to Snivellus."

A few boos sounded around the room. Remus looked about to see who the sounds came from but he could not tell. It seemed however that Severus had been making more enemies than he thought. That or the rest of the Gryffindors were as prejudiced against the Slytherins as James and Sirius appeared to be. He wondered briefly whether James and Sirius would have remained friends if Sirius had been sorted into the same house as the rest of his family.

"For the final round," Sirius called out once the room had again calmed down. "Snivellus found that an arm-locking spell was not match for the suffocating hair spell. Although James was again incapacitated with the spell directed at him, it was not before he was able to successful extend Snivellus's greasy hair. Snivellus failed to use the correct counter-curse to revert his hair back to it usual revolting state and instead had to cut it off. So be sure to check out his wonderful new look when you next see him."

The crowd roared with laughter and even Remus couldn't help but laugh at the thought of the spell James had used on Sirius being used on Severus too. The effects of the spell were amusing. His laughter died however when he saw Lily sitting across the room frowning. Remus looked around the room and it was obviously clear that she was the only person who had not found the exploits of his friends amusing. In fact she looked disgusted with them.

"He'll be hiding out in the Slytherin common room for the rest of the weekend," one of the second years laughed.

"You might be able to see him before he gets there," James said. "The little cheat tried to trip me up as we came back so I used Impedimenta on him to teach him a lesson. He's probably still out there trying to break free."

Remus looked out of the window of the tower. He sincerely hoped that Severus had managed to free himself and get inside out of the storm.