Remus grabbed a dish of chocolate eclairs and proceeded to empty half of it onto his plate. Then he piled six pancakes on his plate and drowned them in chocolate syrup. He frowned and scanned the breakfast table once more. He blinked in surprise when a dozen sausages were dumped onto his plate. He glanced up sheepishly into his sister's glaring eyes.
"Eat something healthy," Raina admonished.
Remus's brow furrowed at he glared at the rude intrusion onto an otherwise tempting plate.
"What are you, his mother?" Sirius said insolently.
"I'm his sister, and I'm not leaving this table until he starts on those sausages," Raina snapped, staring intensely at Remus.
"Chocolate is healthy," Remus muttered. "It makes me happy, and anything that makes me happy is healthy."
Raina crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently.
Remus scowled and picked up his fork and stabbed it into the pile of pancakes.
"Ahem!"
Remus sighed. He picked up what appeared to be the smallest sausage. He wrinkled his nose and gazed longingly at the chocolate syrup oozing out of the pancakes. Then his expression brightened and he then covered the sausage with some of the excess chocolate syrup and swallowed it whole.
"Not bad," he commented.
"You are impossible!" Raina flipped her hair over her shoulder and stalked off toward the Ravenclaw table.
"Sausage, anyone?"
"Absolutely!" Sirius exclaimed, reaching for Remus's plate.
Remus smacked his hand away. "Sausage only. Do not touch my chocolate," he said in a threatening tone.
Sirius held up his hands in surrender. "Sausage is good," he said quickly. "I don't even like chocolate."
Remus's eyes widened. "How can you not like chocolate? It is the most important food there is!" he exclaimed.
"It was a joke!" Sirius said quickly. "I adore chocolate!"
"You will not adore my chocolate," Remus snapped.
"Okay," Sirius frowned for a moment. "I love chocolate, but I will not touch your chocolate, Rem."
"Wow, you thought that one through, didn't you?" Severus said in surprise. "Guess you do use your brain occasionally."
Sirius threw a slice of toast at him. Severus peeled it off his face. Judging by the lack of jam on the bread, his face was a mess. Severus glared at the culprit. "You'll regret that," he said angrily. He pointed his wand at the glass of orange juice Sirius had just raised to his lips. Within moments, all the juice in the glass leaked out of the bottom and dripped into Sirius's lap. Sirius jumped to his feet, staring in dismay at the sticky mess on his robes while Severus tried to wipe the jam from his face. Remus stood up and took his plate down to the other end of the table and sat down next to Lily, where he watched in safety while Sirius upended a plate of scrambled eggs onto Severus's head. Severus retaliated by pouring a silver dish of maple syrup down Sirius's robes.
"They can't even eat properly," Lily complained as McGonagall made her way over to their table. "So, Remus, any plans for today?"
"Study," Remus shrugged.
"Oh, good, you can study with me!" Lily smiled brightly. "And there's a third-year I want you to meet!" She frowned distastefully at his plate. "Like chocolate, do you?"
"A little bit," Remus said, digging into his pancakes.
Lily dragged Remus from the breakfast table before he could slip any more eclairs onto his plate and make them late for class.
"Lily, it's History of Magic! Binns won't even notice whether or not we're late!" Remus protested.
"I have a perfect record," Lily retorted, "I'm not about to let you ruin it now."
"Then don't wait for me," said Remus, staring longingly back at the Great Hall.
Remus sighed as they found some seats and pulled out a quill and some parchment and waited for the class to begin. Remus stared out the window and felt jolt as he gazed at the remnant's of last night's moon. Remus glanced sideways at Lily and wondered if she would be so friendly if she knew what kind of animal she was sitting next to.
He had almost forgotten what McGonagall had said about making excuses for his absences. He realized it was very necessary, seeing how the full moon was the day after tomorrow. Mulciber, Dolohov, and Macnair could care less where he spent his time, so long as he didn't spend it with them. Oh, sure, they love to go to all the trouble of seeking him out when they felt like fighting, but they didn't like sharing their personal space with a half-blood.
The Gryffindors were different. Remus had very few moments of peace from them. It was nice that they clambered around him without feeling the need to curse him, but they would be curious if he was gone all night, and they would definitely notice if he was gone all day. Remus frowned thoughtfully. He would need to think of long-term excuses that would sustain him for the upcoming months as well. How on earth was he going to keep this up for the next six years. Remus sighed. Maybe getting re-Sorted wasn't such a good idea.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," a familiar voice grumbled.
Remus forced himself to calm down. It wouldn't do to appear stressed out before the first week of school was out.
Sirius gingerly lowered into his chair, making a disgusted face as he did so. "Can you believe Minnie wouldn't even let us change before class?" he complained. "Now I'm all sticky, and Sevvy wont even Scourgify me."
Severus scowled, shaking his head. He still had bits of scrambled egg in his hair, the light egg contrasting horribly with his dark hair.
"It's your own fault," Lily scoffed.
"Who asked you, Evans?" Sirius sneered.
The professor floated into the classroom through the chalkboard and Sirius shook the front of his robes. "Now I can't even nap!" he whined. "The stickiness will keep me awake!"
"You could always take notes," Severus said sourly.
Sirius grumbled and tugged at his robes again. "Eeeww! Now my hands are sticky!" he moaned.
"Hush!" Lily hissed as Binns began to speak.
Sirius sullenly grabbed a quill and absent-mindedly doodled on a piece of parchment. Remus kept his eyes focused on the teacher and taking his own notes. James yawned, his head sinking lower and lower, and within minutes he was fast asleep. Peter's eyes were slowly drifting shut. Severus rolled his eyes and began taking notes.
Remus glanced distractedly in Sirius's direction. Sirius was waving his hand wildly, trying to get the parchment off his very sticky hand. Remus stared from the ghostly teacher to Sirius in amazement, wondering why the ghost didn't even notice the commotion. Remus turned his head in the other direction in attempt to ignore him, but this had him staring out the window at the ghost of a moon.
Remus shook his head. He yanked his bag open and stuffed his quill and unfinished notes in it and stood up.
"What are you doing?" Lily hissed.
"Leaving," Remus shrugged.
He walked out the door and walked down the hall. At the end of the hall, he stopped and looked back in amazement. Binns truly did not notice anyone had left. Remus shook his head and walked on, thinking he would go to the dorm and study for a little while without any distractions to bother him.
"Wait for me!"
Remus turned around again as Sirius ran to join him.
"Evans looked like she was going to have a stroke," Sirius laughed.
"History is just memorization," Remus shrugged.
"Can we stop by the bathroom?" Sirius asked. "I really would like to get cleaned up."
Remus stopped in front of a bathroom. He gestured at the doorway grandly, "Ladies first," he said with a devilish grin.
"Ladies? Why you little-"
Remus laughed and shoved Sirius into the bathroom. "I'll wait out here while you finish beautifying yourself," he said.
"Suit yourself," Sirius huffed. "Just for your cheek I'll take my sweet old time."
Remus raised an eyebrow and pulled a book out of his bag. "Knock yourself out," he replied. He then slid to the floor and begun reading the second chapter on non-verbal spells.
Remus became so engrossed in his reading that he didn't hear the footsteps approaching him from down the corridor. In fact, he didn't even notice anyone's presence until a shadow fell across him. Remus slowly closed his book and looked up. When he did so, he thought his heart had jumped in his throat. There, glaring down at Remus with his arms crossed was Lucius Malfoy.
Never show your fear. Remus forced a smile on his face. "Hello, Lucy," he said brightly. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"
"We have a score to settle," Malfoy smiled nastily. "Since we're all alone, this is the perfect time to do so."
Without warning, Malfoy reached down and lifted the smaller boy from the ground by the collar of his robes. He then slammed Remus into the stone wall, pinning him to the wall with his feet dangling at least a foot from the ground. Remus struggled vainly against his vice-like grip."S-surely we can settle this like- like civilized-"
"Did you just imply that I wasn't civilized?" Malfoy breathed dangerously.
Remus shook his head frantically and yelped when Malfoy slammed him even harder into the wall. With one hand, Malfoy kept Remus pinned against the wall, and the other hand whipped out a wand. Remus stared fearfully at Malfoy's wand, knowing he would never reach his own wand in time. Malfoy whispered, "Contraho!" even as Remus searched his pockets urgently for his wand.
Just as Remus raised his own wand, his air passage constricted and he panicked when he realized he couldn't breathe. Malfoy released his grip and Remus slid to the ground. Remus struggled to bring air into his lungs, his wand clattering uselessly to the ground.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" a voice behind Remus rang out.
There was some commotion around him but Remus didn't comprehend it. His world was spinning wildly and his vision was slowing growing darker and darker.
Sirius sighed contentedly and took one more look in the mirror. At long last he was free of that abhorrent syrup Severus had seen fit to pour all over him. True, he had had to drench himself with water, but that was nothing a few Drying Charms couldn't take care of. Sirius pulled out his wand and began casting said Drying Charms on himself. He hadn't fully gotten himself dried off when he heard a yelp of pain from out in the corridor. Sirius froze and turned towards the door, a cold feeling settling in his stomach. He had only left Remus out there for ten minutes. Surely nothing serious could have happened in that short span of time?
Then Sirius heard James's furious voice, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Sirius rushed out of the bathroom. He took one look at Malfoy's smug face and didn't even hesitate before sending out the first hex that came to mind, barely aware of James and Severus's voices mingling with his own.
Somehow, Malfoy dodged the spells from all three of them and disappeared around a corner. Sirius bristled in rage and started to go after him, but Severus held him back. "Another time," Severus muttered.
Sirius started to argue, but his angry words stuck in his throat as Peter's shrill panicked voice broke through his mind. "He- he's not breathing!"
The other three boys knelt down. Remus was still trying his hardest to get some air, but it was not working. Remus started to panic, which made it worse, and he was started to go limp.
"Aperio!" Severus snapped with a flick of his wand. No change. His eyes widened and he began muttering spell after spell, his breathing growing faster as he, too, started to panic. "Finite!"
At long last, Remus gasped, and the boys all sighed in relief. Remus shakily sat up as his vision slowly returned. He was startled to find himself surrounded by his dorm-mates, but rather than send him into another panic-attack, he felt oddly calmer.
"Are you okay?" Peter asked hesitantly.
"M-Malfoy-" Remus shuddered.
"We chased him away, the coward," James said in disgust. His hazel eyes darkened in anger. "We should tell a teacher."
"There's no- no need," Remus whispered. "I'm f-fine."
"No need?" Sirius demanded. "He could have killed you!"
"But he didn't," Remus mumbled.
"He could have," Sirius repeated. "You should at least go to the hospital wing."
"No! I said I'm fine," Remus protested. "I just need to- need to catch my breath is all."
"You weren't breathing!" Severus said insistantly. "We should at least make sure..."
But Severus's words were growing further and further away as Remus's world faded to black once more...