A/N: Well, the last attempt at posting was a -in a word - fail! And sorry for taking so long to repost. *sigh* Even I'm tired of my "sorrys" and "I promise"... Anyhoo, here's my chapter. I'm typing up the next one!

Warning(s): As usual, this hasn't been beta'd or ever checked for errors (can someone suggest a good Beta?) and there's a risk of people complaining about some uh... violence in this chapter. Should I increase the ratings?

Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine. I just own the plot.

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Chapter 12: Friends and Foes

Heavy rain beat down on the castle roof, much to the irritation of the students of Hogwarts and their equally miserable-looking teachers. Damp November weather hung over the castle like a bad omen, and students were constantly glowering, their faces dark as the clouds on the enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall.

In the Hogwarts library, at a table at the very far corner sat a tired-looking First Year, hunched over his Transfiguration homework and scribbling madly. He crossed out an entire line on his essay and sighed, rubbing his itchy eyes for the hundredth time that morning. But despite his exhaustion, Remus was feeling unusually happy and content, smiling softly as hummed his favourite song from his favourite Disney movie. The past week or so had gone rather well, in his opinion, with time divided among his Marauder friends, Lily and Sybill, sparing a few moments every day to be thankful for such blessings in his life.

The library had been quiet all morning, with merely a few stranglers hanging about trying to finish up their homework before the end of the weekend. Those few who remained, Remus supposed, weren't particularly into the game of Quidditch, which was taking place this very Saturday morning down at the Quidditch pitch; the very first match of the season, between Ravenclaw and Slytherin.

Remus grinned to himself as he recalled his friends, James and Sirius going on about it for a week at every opportunity, lighting up at the very thought of attending their first Hogwarts Quidditch game.

"This is where England's champions are made!" declared a rather excited James, as he attempted to get Remus and Peter as enthusiastic as the two dark-haired wizards were feeling. "This is where all the prep happens, and the training for the big game. This is the Quidditch training grounds, mates!"

Remus had merely chuckled and shared a grin with Peter, thinking that perhaps James and Sirius ought to write an essay each on the excitement of watching a Quidditch match, and share them with Remus, who tended to find reading about a topic rather more engaging and interesting (and safer) than hearing about it, especially anything involving flying with little-to-no support besides a few-inch thick wooden contraptions, that supposedly held your weight and kept you from tumbling through the air in rapid free-fall to your certain death. Remus' first experience with a broom was terrifying enough.

On their first flying lesson, the teacher, Madam Trip – whose name brought Remus silent bouts of unintentional laughter – had clearly instructed her students to take hold of their brooms and mount them, when a tiny shove at the back sent Remus tumbling over his hovering broom, face-first onto the grassy ground. He was hyper-aware of his peers' amused laughter as he hastily pushed himself off the ground, blushing 30 shades of red and wishing the earth had swallowed him up as he fell.

Madam Trip had sternly approached Remus, looking, for all the world as if Remus had personally insulted her doing what he had done.

"Do you require any assistance, Mr. Lupin?" she had asked him, much to his embarrassment and confusion.

Quickly, and as politely as possible Remus had reassured her that he would be alright doing it himself. But the lesson had not gone any better than that, and when Remus had made an effort to keep himself from slipping off his broom once he had successfully mounted it, a heavy object that felt like someone's foot had collided with his right thigh, sending the poor werewolf crashing to the ground again, earning him another round of sniggers and giggles. Feeling disoriented, defeated and woefully embarrassed, Remus had been sent to stand off to the side and watch the lesson for the rest of the period, like a misbehaved toddler.

Today, however, Remus was not required to participate in, or watch any sport with dangerous broom sticks, or bullying peers, who manage to push you to the hard ground twice within a space of 2 minutes, under the watchful eye of a teacher.

Today, Remus could happily sit and study in the Hogwarts library while most of the school was at the Quidditch game, and Remus was finding this change quite enjoyable.

An hour after he had sat at his favourite corner, peaceful and hard at work, Remus decided he needed a stretch, and got up from his seat for a quick walk along the bookshelves.

It was then that he heard the whispers of familiar voices, and he paused against a dusty shelf at the pretense of looking at a book, listening despite the urgent voice inside cautioning him against it.

"-with that Lupin bloke. He's a dodgy one, that, and I don't trust a word he says!"

To Remus' utter horror, it was the speaker's voice more than his words that caused the horrible knot of fear in his stomach, twisted with panic and the violent desire to scream out a warning to whoever Snape was addressing. The dislike and discomfort Snape had brought Remus since they've met was now morphing into a monstrous form, clawing its way up Remus' stomach, his chest, his throat, paralyzing him and giving him the need to run all at once.

'How does know? How did he find out?'

Then Remus heard a second voice and his thoughts froze.

"I've noticed you don't trust a lot of people, Sev," said the voice of Lily, barely above a whisper. "Your parents, my sister, Dumbledore…"

"Of course I trust Dumbledore, don't be ridiculous!"
"I'm not the one being ridiculous, Sev!"

A breath Remus hadn't notice he was holding was released in a rush of air, and Remus sagged against the bookshelf. He could feel cold sweat on his forehead, his back and legs and he giggled weakly to himself as he thought about the conversation he was hearing. So Lily wasn't willing to listen to Snape's claim about Remus. But what exactly was the Slytherin claiming? Did he know… anything about him?

"You have me, Lily," Snape was saying now, his voice rising above the steady whisper he had maintained until now. "Why would you need to be friends with anyone else anyway? Aren't we best friends?"

There was a pause during which Remus was sure Lily was giving the Slytherin one of her famous don't-try-that-on-me looks. Then he heard shuffling and thought he heard a sigh.

"Are you jealous of Remus?" Lily asked, her voice so quiet Remus almost didn't hear it. "Are you jealous of my friends?"

A snort. "That Lupin is hardly worth envying. Or any of your Gryffindor friends, I don't know why you hang around them." There was bitterness in his voice that Remus hadn't heard before.

"My friends are none of your concern," Lily retorted, voice cold as ice, "They're perfectly nice people, which is more than I can say for your friends!"

A pause then: "They're not my friends, I'm just trying to fit in."

"They're a positively horrid lot, Sev! That blonde one-"
"Malfoy's alright!" Snape exclaimed, sounding hurt and determined at the same time. "He knows loads of magic and doesn't keep secrets from me!"

"Since when do I keep secrets from you?"

Remus had strain to hear the next sentence, even with his enhanced hearing, closing his eyes in the hopes of catching what Snape hissed at Lily.

"You know what I mean. If it wasn't for-"

"Wotcher!"

Remus nearly jumped out of his skin at the new voice that alerted him to its presence, and opened his eyes to a tall figure above him, grinning.

Remus blinked once, twice, trying to clear his head of the conversation he had just heard, and instead focusing on the new arrival in the Slytherin robes.

"Sorry, did I startle you? Oh, were you eavesdropping?" she winked conspiratorially, and Remus remembered her as being Sirius' cousin from the aristocrat's birthday. "Should I come back later so you could finish listening in?"

"Uh…" Remus blinked stupidly at her before it occurred to him to stand up so that he wouldn't be looking up from the floor while they spoke. He dusted off his robes and shifted nervously, while Sirius' cousin continued to look at him, as if still expecting an answer.

Finally, he cleared his throat. "Hello," he said, meeting her gaze and finding a teasing smirk plastered there. "You're-er-Sirius' cousin, am I right? Anne? An-?"
"Andromeda," she supplied, still smiling in that slightly unsettling manner that would've been intimidating had her personality been less charming. "And yes: I am. You're that boy from his party. I remember you."

Nodding, Remus told her his name and tried backing himself into the bookcase behind him, but found that he was already pressing his back against the books. He swallowed, waiting for Andromeda to ask him why he was eavesdropping.

"Ah," she said instead, her grin never wavering. "Your red-head friend was scolding me for putting the Gryffindor Heads of House and Prefects to sleep." She shook her head humorously. "That was some night!"

A laugh bubbled up Remus' throat before he could stop it, and Andromeda chuckled along with him.

"Would you mind if I put my books on the table you're at?" she asked, when she was done laughing, and Remus relaxed a little, knowing she wouldn't likely be asking him to explain his unsightly position on the floor. "I sort of enjoy sitting at your table sometimes."

"Sure," Remus smiled. "You could sit with me if you'd like," he added, hoping she would incase he ran into Snape before he left the library. "I wouldn't mind."

"Great!" she beamed, flashing a fresh grin his direction before walking off to the table. "Thanks."

Watching her go, Remus tried tuning back in to Lily and Snape's conversation.

"-arguing about my priorities. I know exactly where my priorities lie and I don't need your help with that, thank you very much!"

Remus caught the finality in Lily's voice and made to get up. He wasn't at all happy about Snape's attempt at turning Lily against Remus if truth be told, but was ever so glad the conversation had shifted elsewhere for the time being. He was also beginning to feel ashamed with himself for listening in to their argument, hearing the little scolding voice – which sounded like his dad today – inside tell him he should make an effort to do the right thing next time.

Andromeda was going through an exceptionally large library book when Remus approached their table, her nose scrunched up in concentration, her eyes slowly roaming over each word. He cleared his throat before sitting down, to announce his presence.

"Hello again!" She responded happily, when she met his eyes.

"So, er… not a Quidditch fan?" Remus asked politely.

"Not particularly," she grinned, eyes returning to her big book. "It's fun to play, but watching a couple teams of idiots catching and throwing balls at each other is what I like to call ' a complete waste of time.'"

"Oh."

"What about you?"

Chewing on his lip, Remus considered just telling the truth about his feelings towards the sport, but then he caught himself; getting laughed at by a Slytherin girl for fearing broomsticks was not on Remus' 'to-do' list for the day, and he was only just recovering from one embarrassing incident with her.

"Not my cup of tea," he said simply, opening a book at random and pretending to be interested in a page about transfiguring minerals.

But Andromeda kept talking.

"Well, what is your cup of tea?" she asked, sounding teasing, rather than curious.

"Books," he replied without thinking.

"A Ravenclaw Gryffindor, huh?"

Feeling his face heat up to a fever-high temperature, Remus sank himself low in his seat.

"Knowledge is wisdom," she continued, sounding impressed, and Remus snuck a look at her. She was now sporting a gentle smile, gazing at Remus rather like an older sister would her younger brother. Fondness, perhaps?

Feeling more confident in himself, Remus nodded. "Knowledge is power."

She grinned. "If knowledge is power, then Ravenclaws are the most power-hungry beings who ever existed."

Remus chuckled.

"Which" Andromeda shook her head "is not true of course because that's what we, Slytherins, are. Power-hungry snakes who won't stop for anything short of death."

Talking to Andromeda easily made him forget what Slytherins were supposed to be like, and he wondered briefly about all the stigma surrounding Slytherin House, and the reasons they were made out to be evil-seeking, power-hungry wizards, with no soul.

"But you don't strike me as a Slytherin," Remus said truthfully, perhaps to make himself feel better about stereotyping and judging her too quickly. "You're more of a Hufflepuff, I think."

Andromeda's laugh was good-natured and humorous, and this relieved Remus' anxiety.

"Oh, no, no. Trust me; I'm a Slytherin," she said seriously, after a moment. "Ambitious, deceitful and all those great qualities."

"Deceitful?"

She nodded slowly. "Very much so."

Remus frowned for a moment, trying to link her words to what he could see of her character.

"Don't look so confused!" she laughed. "Slytherins know how to be nice too. And you're worth being nice to."

Despite the small, light blush creeping up his neck, Remus felt pleased. He smiled gratefully.

Andromeda was about say more when they both heard footsteps approaching, and Remus looked up to see Lily, face slightly ashen, walk towards their table with an armful of heavy books. He rushed towards her and offered to carry half her load, and she brightened.

"Thank you," she breathed out, her eyes scanning the vicinity and landed on Andromeda.

"Hello," she said hesitantly, her lips twitching undecidedly. "I'm Lily."

Andromeda smirked a little, returning Lily's greeting. "Wotcher, Lily. Nice to see you again."

"Same here," Lily said softly, and Remus had to look at her to guess her emotional response. Since he couldn't tell either way –she was currently sporting a blank look – Remus concluded that the two girls had decided to be civil to one another.

An hour later found Remus discreetly banging his forehead on the table in anguish, as the two girls –now the best of friends, it seemed – chatted on endlessly, about anything from homework to dresses, to how to make a good tuna sandwich. Remus was not impressed.

"Lily," he spoke up suddenly, tired of having to block out their girlie screams every time they talked about something particularly lady-like, "I think I'll go study in the Gryffindor Tower."

He wasn't really up to leaving his favourite spot in the library, and he was hoping to God he wouldn't have to and that Lily would offer to move somewhere else with Andromeda, but Lily smiled brightly.

"Okay," she told him. "We'll see you later, Remus!"

"Well the match must be over by now," Andromeda said brightly, checking her rather expensive-looking pocket watch. "Wonder who won."

And just like that, as if magically summoned to the library, thirty or so students entered, sporting soggy-wet silver and green Quidditch robes, smug smiles on their abnormally good-looking faces, and making as much noise as possible without making it seem noisy.

Briefly, in the time it took for Remus to notice that the whole Slytherin team was here plus their fans, he wondered what they were up to in the most unlikely of places any Slytherin could be. And then he saw it; Professor Horace Slughorn, Head of Slytherin House, in the midst of his students, smiling proudly in his dripping wet Slytherin robes and directing the sea of green to the end of the Hogwarts library.

"Is this traditional in the game of Quidditch?" Lily asked in an honest, curious voice. And Remus looked back at her, shrugging just as Andromeda answered.

"For Slytherin House, it is," she said, matter-of-factly. "Ever since my cousin, Lucias Malfoy suggested it at the end of the year when Slytherin won the House Cup after centuries of defeat, it became a tradition. Honestly, I think it's just rubbing it in the faces of the losing House, but that's just me."

"But what are they doing?" Lily asked, sounding a little impatient. "Is it just gloating, as you said?"

"I expect they're announcing their win, but what they're really doing is just walking around the school like 'hey, look how better we are than you at everything!' Typical of Slytherin House. Nothing new."

"It's disgusting behavior!" Lily half-whispered, half-yelled as Remus watched a particularly evil-looking hulking Slytherin fan, in a massive vomit-green coat, grab a book from a nearby shelf and hurl it in the direction of a Ravenclaw, who happened to be studying there in the library with them, and laugh stupidly.

'What was the point of that?' Remus' inner voice said, repulsed and equally annoyed by what he had just witnessed. The young Ravenclaw student, attacked by a flying book, had ducked at the wrong moment and received a face-full - Whack!

"Oh, let's get out of here!" Lily said, finally, after watching a few more Slythrins bully their way through with Professor Slughorn. "I can't stand not telling those horrid boys and girls off for being stupid and mean. Let's go."

But it proved more difficult than they thought, and Remus found himself being knocked sideways as he shuffled through to the exit with Lily and Andromeda, jeers following them, insults thrown at them, and Andromeda bearing the worst of it all for hanging out with "The Lions."

One exceptionally large bloke from Slytherin had pushed her to the floor and sneered, "You should be celebrating with us, Blood traitor! Leave them be." But Andromeda just waved Lily and Remus off when they helped her up putting on a brave front and smiling sweetly to her offender.

Once they were out the library, Remus pulled his friends to a spot he knew no one was likely to find them and turned to Andromeda. "Blood traitor, he called you. What does that mean?"

She grinned her confident grin and winked, "It's what I am."

When Remus knew she wouldn't elaborate, he pressed on. "Does he mean you treat us Half-bloods and Muggle-borns the same? Is it wrong in your-your um…"

Andromeda watched him struggle for a moment, a look of evident enjoyment on her face, then finished his question for him. "In our society, yes. The Purebloods don't like the Halfbloods or Muggle-borns, but that's no secret. The secret is what they're planning against you… one day, and I won't go on pretending that I'm okay with that. I won't go on with their plan to take over the Wizarding World, so I'd like to make it clear that I think of Muggles and Halfbloods as just the same as we are. No different, in fact, than the best of us."

She said that all calmly and plainly, as she's said it a hundred times before, and Remus was impressed. The newfound admiration for his new Slytherin friend was growing even as Lily asked Andromeda why she was sorted into Slytherin House in the first place.

"I'm a born Slytherin," Andromeda replied confidently. "I have all the qualities of a Slytherin, and some, but I don't share their beliefs in how to treat non Pure-blooded wizards. That's what makes them different from me. You'd find plenty of friendly people in my House but you wouldn't know that because of their beliefs that Halfbloods and Muggles are dirty, filthy animals who need to be slaughtered. Did you know that Gryffindor and Slytherin were once friends? Power spilt them apart. Power made Slytherin what you see in members of his House now. I love power, I'm not saying I don't, but at least I don't see myself as superior to any of you lot."

There was a slight pause before Lily asked, "I read that Slytherin was not a Muggle-hater, so where did Muggle-hating come from exactly?"

Resting her back against the wall behind her, Andromeda spoke again, with all the confidence of a Pureblood, and all the compassion of a Hufflepuff. "It came from the notion that all things pure must remain, and all that isn't should be pruned from the trees of our ancestors. This was long ago, but not quite as far back as the founders' time.

One of Slytherin's descendants started talking about how to get power, and then little by little, people were suggesting that power is not given to someone but taken by force. They began to see Muggle-born witches and wizards as thieves –and this is another story – and that they were unworthy of carrying a wand. But wizard families grew, marrying into Muggle families and having Wizarding children. It's been argued for centuries whether the magic was rightfully theirs, and in the meantime, other Pure-blood Slytherins were suggesting to rule over these Muggles because they can't take care of themselves, or can't afford to handle magic. At least that's how it started out. But now, Purebloods are arguing that we're the only ones worthy of having magic, and the rest are just dirty, thieving animals."

"They must be a pleasure to hang around," Lily said, in a false-cheerful voice and Andromeda smirked.

They were interrupted by the laughing voice of Sirius Black, and Remus was surprised to see him with James Potter, both of them applauding loudly outside the library as if to congratulate the Slytherins on their first Quidditch win.

"What idiots," Lily remarked under her breath, as James jumped up and down, pulling Sirius along with him, face wild with laughter and excitement. "Those two couldn't tell a tea cup from a coat hanger. Let's get out of here before they spot us."

"They're wearing Slytherin colours!" Andromeda exclaimed as Lily began making her way to the staircase with Remus and Andromeda close behind, and Remus looked at her. She looked positively delighted and a little surprised, but Remus didn't know what to make of her reaction. "I'd have thought they were Ravenclaw supporters!"

"Ravenclaw supporters or not, they're being absolute dingbats, the both of them! Why encourage the Slytherins to show off at the library with all that noise? Idiots!"

Judging by Lily's reaction, Remus could tell she wouldn't appreciate it if Remus asked to join James and Sirius in the festivities, but he was itching to be with his friends after the long hour and half in the library with Lily and Andromeda. He was just about to make some excuse about forgetting a book in the library when Lily spoke.

"Oh, Remus!" she wheeled around suddenly, fiery-red hair whipping about her as she turned to face Remus, eyes wide. "I almost forgot our walk. Andromeda, would you like to come with us? Remus and I are going for a 15 minute walk outside on the grounds."

Andromeda smiled. "Why not?" she said, brightly. "Sounds like an adventure."

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"Can we talk, Sirius?"

A smirk found its way to the Pureblood's face as Sirius looked up from playing Exploding Snap with James on the Common Room floor. He winked once (making Remus flush confusedly, as he never understood what winks meant) and flipped his annoyingly-long ebony hair out of his eyes, gazing up at Remus as if waiting to hear that he's won the lottery. "Of course, we can. What do you need?"

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Remus glanced at James who was currently studying his and Sirius' tower of cards, and whispered to Sirius, "Privately, please, Sirius."

"'Course, Darling," Sirius winked again, causing the unmanly red colour to return to Remus' flustered face, and got up in one fluid move, towering over Remus for a second before casually leading him off to the Common Room entrance.

Remus faced his taller friend outside the Common Room and cleared his throat, producing a folded note from his right pocket. "I want to talk about this note, Sirius. And-and the one before it."

"What about it?" Sirius said, in the casual manner that was beginning to annoy Remus.

"It's your note."

"I know."

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, and to give himself time to think of the best approach to the situation, Remus shut his eyes for a moment.

"Are you asking me out on a date?"

Sky-blue eyes shot open at that. "What?"

There was a tiny smirk on Sirius' otherwise blank expression - just a little lift of the right-hand corner of his face – which Remus almost didn't catch, except that he was actively looking for clues that betray his friend's true emotions.

"Sirius," he started again keeping his emotions in check. "I don't know why you think I favour Lily over you and James and Peter… She's my friend too. I-I may not know how to manage my time with the four of you, but I'm really sorry if I ever made you or James or Peter feel replaced. I… I'm sorry."

Remus looked down at the note again, out of words. It had been the second note left on his bed from Sirius since the Halloween party, and this one had deeply affected Remus, asking Remus to "stop hanging around girls so much" and join in the Marauders' pranks more often. Remus felt guilty but also couldn't help the feeling of betrayal from Sirius: Sirius, after all, knew of Remus' shyness and the werewolf was hoping his friend would understand the need for more socializing.

Sirius finally spoke after a few moments, and Remus looked up to see him smiling – only just.

"At least you're agreeing to our pranks, eh?" he joked.

Remus chuckled feebly. "Only because I don't want you lot going on about how I'm more a Ravenclaw than a Gryffindor," he admitted. "I would actually prefer studying… if I were given the choice. So… er… when will you open my present?"

"Now, if you want," Sirius beamed, searching his pockets and pulling out a wrapped package of blue and white. "Ravenclaw colours," he noted thoughtfully. "Hmm…"

"Not really," Remus said in a small voice, as he watched Sirius turn the present around and around in his hands, as if examining it for defects. "Ravenclaw colours are blue and bronze, actually."

Sirius gave a chuckle and tore at the package with his hands and teeth, like a dog devouring its meal, and Remus' heart did a flip-flop as he watched, worried Sirius might hate the present.

Finally pulling the wrapper off, Sirius looked at his belated birthday gift.

"It's a book, Remus," he stated dully, still looking at the thing in his hands.

"It's actually a photo album," Remus explained, gently taking it from Sirius' slack hands and opening to the first page. "See? You can put your photos in here. You've-er-seen a camera before, haven't you?" he asked uncertainly.

"Sure," replied Sirius still staring in confusion. "But how do you take the pictures out of the chimaera to put it in this book thing?"

Remus couldn't help but giggle at Sirius' wrong pronunciation, and he felt better that Sirius was unsure as opposed to angry. "Camera," he corrected kindly. "I could help you with that. But first… you need this…"
He took out his own wand and muttered, "Accio camera," and old, battered up, brown, 1960's camera came whizzing into Remus' outstretched hand.

"Is that a Muggle thing?" Sirius asked, looking, for all the world, like he's been told to kill a cockroach with a tissue. "A ca-carm-"

"A camera. Here, it's yours." Remus handed him the device, smiling brightly, proud that he could teach Sirius something new. "You know how to use it, don't you? You look through this hole, and click this button when you're ready to take the picture."

Sirius brought the camera up to his face and looked through the eyepiece as he was told and giggled. "I can see everything!"

"Now aim and click the button," Remus urged.

Completely ignoring the first part of the instructions, Sirius moved his left hand to the camera's shutter-release button and pressed – hard!

The flash went off and a dull Click! sounded. Sirius jumped back and shrieked fearfully, nearly dropping the camera in the process. "That was so cool!"

Remus chortled and tried to explain the steps once again, as Sirius watched in fascination. He got the hang of it after the third try, and then James appeared in the portrait hole, adjusting his glasses and asking Sirius what was taking him so long.

"Look, James!" Sirius cried out in glee. "It's a ca-mir-ra! Look, it can take pictures! Remus gave it to me."

James looked at it for a moment before smiling. "I've seen those around before," he said proudly, "Dad used to bring them home for inspection sometimes. Wizards use them too. They're brilliant."

"Here, let me take a picture of you, James!"

"Uh, I'd rather not. I haven't got my best robes on."

Remus watched as Sirius attempted to take a picture of their messy-haired friend anyway and James backed away, yelping when the flash went off. Remus laughed particularly hard when he noticed Sirius had the camera upside-down.

When James ran away, screaming that Sirius had destroyed his eye-sight, Sirius laughed louder and put his arm around Remus, leading him back to the Fat Lady portrait and offering the password. "And that's why we need you to be more involved in our pranking, Mr. Lupin. You being the smart one could lead us to certain victory in the Pranking World. We need you to –what were your words? – "perfect" the prank plans?"

While Remus had to admit the title of "Pranking Extraordinaire" was a catchy name and playing pranks was indeed a lot of fun, he wasn't fond of the idea of getting caught red-handed by a teacher. He mostly encouraged an idea or discouraged a flawed one and gave his views on how to make a plan better. James and Sirius seemed satisfied with this, and Remus felt much better knowing he would be comparatively safe from blame and detention.

There are days when Remus is completely excluded from a small prank or joke, for which Remus is truly grateful.

Once it happened when the Marauders were walking to lunch after a Transfiguration class, during which Lily had tried to transfigure her textbook into a vase, but only managed to turn it pink, decorated with flowers.

"I can't believe Miss-Know-It-All couldn't transfigure her textbook!" laughed James, as the four of them walked excited towards the smell of roasted beef and ham. "That was hilarious."

"Did you see her flowery book?" Sirius hooted, as Remus watched him try to contain his giggles unsuccessfully. "Someone forgot to actually listen to instructions today! I wish I had my ca-mi-ra."

The two laughed loudly and Remus sadly stayed quiet.

Suddenly James stopped in his tracks and cleared his throat, making Remus worry that he might be told off for not laughing along with them.

"Gents," he says, sounding serious. "I would like to announce that I shall marry the most beautiful creature on this Earth one day. She makes my heart swoon, she makes me want to get on a broom, she-"

"Makes you want to go to the loo!" Sirius hollers, with his bark-like laugh, and James scowls.

"I shall marry… QUIDDITCH!"

There was a silent pause, during which Remus was thinking 'What?' and watching James' proud and expectant expression linger on the dark-haired boy's face. Then Sirius broke the silence with the loudest laugh Remus has heard from him yet.

"OHHH-OHMYMERLIN!" Sirius chokes in between fits of hysteria. "QUIDDITCH! YOU'RE-HAHAHA-GOING-HAHAHAHA-TO HAVE-AHAHA-QUAFFLES AND BLUDGERS FOR CHILDREN! AHAHAHAHA!"

Remus was starting to find it funny as well and let out a small chuckle as James bowed his head in affirmation. Peter giggled beside Remus.

"And I'm going to have a Quidditch-themed wedding," James added brightly, still looking proud and resolute. "It's all settled, lads. You're all invited."

Sirius was still roaring in laughter when Remus suddenly bumped into Snape's shoulder and backed away fearfully.

"Sorry, Snivelly, you're not on the list," James said cheerfully, when Remus quickly changed places with Sirius on his left, and Snape glared angrily at them. "I'm not inviting anyone who has an aversion to shampoo, I'm afraid. You'll scare everyone off with all that grease."

As Sirius fell into another fit of laughter, Remus quietly hid his face behind his scarf and walked in Sirius' shadow. On his left, James chuckled softly at his own joke and Remus prayed they wouldn't do anything further than verbally taunt Snape.

Snape suddenly turned around and walked faster towards the Great Hall, and Remus found himself breathing a sigh of relief.

"Let's spike his potion in class next time," James suggested, with a wistful look on his face. "I'd love to see how that slimy git reacts when he gets a zero for the first time in something he actually excels at."

"Ha!" Sirius laughed, making Remus jump a little. "We should make the potion explode on his face. See how he likes that!"

Privately, Remus thinks, 'He won't,' and hopes it wouldn't have to come to that at all.

When they finally got to the Great Hall, Remus made his way to a seat next to Sybill and smiled politely to her, and she dived right in sharing a story about her mum's tea-leaf reading business as they ate.

Suddenly, when Remus decided to listen in on James and Sirius' heated debate on jeopardizing Snape's potion in class, Sybill attracted Remus attention again with a question.

"Would you like to see the Astronomy Tower?" she asks excitedly, her eyes sparkling behind her big, brown eyes. "It's a marvelous place! You should really see it. I'll show you tonight."
Pleasantly surprised at being invited to such an exciting place, Remus nodded and smiled along. "What about Lily?" he said.

Sybill turned back to her food and drank from her glass, shaking her head. "I've already taken her to see it," she said, after putting her glass down. "I want to show you alone."

Remus nodded again, only slightly worried that something might wrong; he'd been looking for a place to look at the stars for a long time, and felt excited that he'd finally found a place.

When he opened his mouth to reply to Sybill, an explosion went off from behind them, making Sybill jump and squeak in surprise, and Remus look around for the source.

It doesn't take him long to locate the victim: Severus Snape was glaring angrily among the crowd of green, black soot caking his face, and hair sticking up on end as if electrocuted, with smoke still coming off from his goblet. It looked like he was about to take a bite from his food, when the explosion went off, and his was food was also covered with black stuff.

There was a burst of laughter, starting from the Gryffindor table, and the rest of the Great Hall joined in – including the Slytherin students around Snape.

Remus' eyes found James, and he saw the wizard stuffing his wand back into his pocket, chortling along with everyone else, tears running down his face, and Remus laughs.

'Typical,' he thought to himself as he continued to watch James attempt to blend in with the crowd, but sharing a look with Sirius. 'Never one to miss an opportunity to hex Snape.'

When Remus looked around back a Snape, the embarrassed Slytherin was waving his wand in front of his face, no doubt trying to vanish the mess, but failing to the obvious pleasure of James and Sirius. A particularly loud Slytherin sitting close to Snape, snorted out his drink when Snape snapped his wand so forcefully it bounced back and poked him in the eye.

Remus had to duck his head to hide his mirth.

Walking to the staircase with Sybill, the young werewolf was still laughing to himself when he noticed a scene he hasn't seen before at Hogwarts and was fascinated by it; Arthur Weasley was standing at the foot of the staircase, his arms wrapped around someone with bright orange hair who was kissing him tenderly. He watched the scene for a moment, entranced until he felt someone shaking him – hard – and he was jerked back to his senses.

"Wha-what? Sorry?"

His bag fell off his shoulder and hit the floor with a thud, as he tried adjusting the robes Sybill had disheveled, and he bent down to pick it up. A pair of smaller hands got to one of the books that fell out of his bag first, and Remus froze in the process of returning the items in his hands, heart hammering in his chest.

"What's this?" said Sybill curiously, turning the book over so she could read the front cover. "'Old English Poems' - you like poetry, Remus? You copied all these old poems?"

She began flipping through the tattered, old, grey book and Remus' breath caught in his chest as the pages protested weakly with the sound of drying leaves. He watched as his beloved childhood book of poems was handled with less-than-gentle hands, its pages pried apart roughly under Sybill's fingers, and his favourite work of European writers exposed.

"Yes," he croaked, feeling his throat tighten with emotion. "Can I have it back now, please? It's very special to me."

'Why would you carry it around like that if it were that special, you dim-witted fool?'

Trying to calm his inner critic and his racing heart, Remus watched helplessly as Sybill's nimble fingers leafed through the book, making the young wizard wish he hadn't brought the book along with in the first place. But then it was over as quickly as it began, and Sybill returned his book, smiling kindly in the way that made her eyes sparkle and her cheeks glow.

"Will you show me some of your poetry, Remus?" she asked, as he caught the book in his hands carefully, making sure not to bend any pages. "One day… I'd love to hear some of what you've written."

Sighing inwardly, Remus nodded as he replaced his book into his bag swiftly, not glancing at Sybill lest her excited face make him feel sorry for her. Quietly, he fell into step with Sybill as they made their way to Charms.

"How long has it taken you to copy down all those poems?" Sybill asked casually as they walked together. "There must be around a hundred poems in there."

"Two hundred and seventeen, actually," Remus corrected, feeling hot all over and exceedingly uncomfortable. "And it took me 4 years and a few months. But it's difficult to get them on the book any other way. I don't own a type-writer."

"A what?"

Remus turned towards his Sybill and saw the look of utter confusion on her before he realized what he'd said.

"Oh, sorry. It's a Muggle thing you use to-to get words onto paper. Very handy. Very expensive for my family."

Sybill looked only slightly less confused as she asked, "Don't your parents do magic at all? Couldn't they just replicate the words from the original books onto yours?"

Biting his lower lip, Remus answered thoughtfully, "I suppose they could've… I just never asked."

Remus would've been happy had Sybill stopped with the questions once they reached the Charms classroom. But to his dismay, his curly-haired friend wouldn't stop even after the lesson had started, asking Remus if he could show her some of his own work from his poetry book. He had to repeatedly tell her he wasn't any good at poetry before she threatened to not show him the Astronomy Tower that night, and he reluctantly passed her his book, his eyes firmly on his own notes.

"It's like a story," she finally said after a few moments, returning Remus' book to him, and he looked at her quizzically. "Interesting and tragic."

Swallowing hard, Remus opened to a page with one of his favourite poets, Robert Frost. "I get my inspiration from him," he whispered under his breath, for fear of being caught by squeaky Professor Flitwick, who had been explaining the principles of rotating objects using magic. "Robert Frost is amazing, and he's written some of my favourite poems. Read this one," he pointed to a poem titled 'The Road Not Taken,' and slid the book back over to Sybill.

He watched her out of the corner of his eye, and tried to read her expression. But her nose was so close to the book, her face almost hidden. Finally, he gave up and went back to his notes.

"Two roads diverged in a wood… and I took the one less travelled by."

Remus looked up and saw the frozen expression painted on Sybill's features, but couldn't read it. Her eyes had a far-away look about them, but her lips… her lips were trembling. He wondered – with what?

"It's a metaphor for Life," he felt the need to explain. "Everyone has their own journey to make, but we get to choose if we live the life everyone else does or have our own adventures. I like it because… I feel I've got a life that's very different from… most people. I feel I can relate to Frost."

The book was passed back to Remus and he caught it lovingly, recalling all the memories of sitting in his tiny bedroom, reading by the light of his dad's wand at midnight. It still ached him to know he was disobeying his parents' wishes by staying up past 10, but he smiled fondly as he remembered the excitement, the thrill of the moment as he read and read, poem after poem by wand-light.

He was still in day-dream mode when the Gryffindors met the Slytherins in D.A.D.A, and Professor Johnson gave them the leisure of choosing their own partners for the duration of the class. Remus happily paired up with Sirius, and they watched the teacher demonstrate the Shield Charm for the first 10 minutes before letting the class all practice with their respective partners.

Remus was finding it difficult to concentrate as Sirius hit him with a number of battle spells, sending him flying out the way just in the nick of time, jumping dodging and ducking in the process.

Sirius, in the meantime, was finding it extremely funny and entertaining, and wouldn't give Remus enough preparation time, presumably in the hopes that he would catch his friend unawares and make move like an acrobat to get out of the way.

"Sirius, wait!" Remus says, finally, after Sirius had aimed at him with a dangerous-looking spell Remus was glad to have dodged in time. "Let me be ready first. I'm not ready!"

"Stay focused!" Sirius commanded joyfully, as he aimed another dodge-worthy spell at the flustered werewolf. "You need to be prepared for your enemy all the time!"

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Remus at last had had enough. He clenched his mouth shut and cleared his mind of everything but the 'Protego' spell their teacher had just taught them to use, breathing through his nose and out through his mouth.

"Protego!" he whispered, as another attack spell came from Sirius' raised wand, and an invisible force materialized in front of Remus' own wand, shielding him effectively from the offensive spell, and sending it off the right as it bounced away.

It caught Sirius squarely in the face, and he was sent spiraling off the ground like a ragdoll, yelping in surprise.

Shocked at his own skill, and a little scared that he might have hurt Sirius, Remus rushed over to his friend on the floor, as everyone gathered around to catch a glimpse of the Pureblood's injury. Sirius seemed to be shaking, clutching his face like he was punched there and making noises that didn't seems human to Remus' ears.

But when Sirius finally took his hands away from his face, upon Mr. Johnson's request, there was a large red thing in the place where his nose should've been – a bright red strawberry – and he was shaking with silent laughter as his chest rose and fell quickly. His mouth hung open and his eyes were squeezed shut but not a sound came from him. Remus worried that his friend was hit by irreversible spell as he watched their teacher lift the silent wizard off the floor and urge his to take a breath of air through his mouth.

Suddenly, there a small rattling noise and Sirius took a huge gulp of air, choking on it once then laughed so loudly, several people took a step back in fright.

"Breathe in now, lad," Johnson coaxed. "I need you to breathe for me. Can you do that?"

Sirius nodded jerkily but still had his mouth wide open, and all that was coming from it were dying whale sounds which made Remus cringe considerably. Whatever spell bounced back at him was making the dark-haired boy unable to function properly, it seemed, and Remus was glad he was able to block that particular jinx in time – he wouldn't want to be in the poor Pureblood's position any day.

"I-I wan-I wanted-to turn-his head into-a-a-strawberry-hahahahahaha!" Sirius managed, in between bouts of hysterical laughter as the teacher tried to calm him down with his words. "He deflected-hahahaha-my spell-hahahahahaha!"

Mr. Johnson finally looked up at the other students and said gravely, "Looks like we won't be getting much out of him. Evans, please take Mr. Black to the infirmary. Merlin knows he'll need a dozen calming potions as well as a reverse-spell for his fruit nose."

As Lily put her arms around Sirius' still-shaking shoulders, Remus lowered his head, trying to hide his face from anyone who might suspect him. His chest was insisting on heaving heavily, and he feared someone would take his fear for guilt. Biting his bottom lip, Remus watched the floor even as the teacher asked them all to go back to practice.

With his back turned to the crowd, Professor Johnson completely missed the glare that Snape aimed at Remus when the werewolf finally looked up from the ground. It was intense and scornful, and Remus was more scared than affronted with the look. He immediately averted his eyes and followed James and another Gryffindor boy towards the other end of the classroom, his hands in his pockets to hide his shaking, his head ducked down.

"Was it Snivellus?" James asked Remus, as the three of them came to a stop by a wall near the back. "Where is that git?"

Remus shook his head, still gazing at the ground. "It was my Protego charm that deflected his own spell," he said quietly. "Snape had nothing to do with this."
"Would Sirius really use that spell though?" the other Gryffindor asked skeptically, and Remus remembered he was one of the first people he'd talked to at Hogwarts. "It seems dangerous – he can't even breathe properly!"

At last looking up to meet his companions' eyes, Remus spoke a little louder, "I think I may have did it.. He can't breathe because it was a shock. I've heard people go into shock because of something, and they go into fits of hysteria – it's quite scary actually."

"I'm sure Madame Pomfrey can fix him up good," James supplied confidently, after a moment of silence among the three. "She fixed that Slytherin's Beater's nose after a bludger broke it badly. She's a miracle-worker."

Remus was about to agree somewhat hesitantly when James abruptly raised his wand arm and aimed above Remus' left shoulder to something or someone behind him. He muttered 'Protego' and Remus heard a loud crash and spun around to see the damage. Right there, before his eyes, lay a sight he wouldn't soon forget: Snape, on the worst ballet outfit he'd ever seen, a look of bewilderment on his greasy fetures. Remus couldn't help but let out an amused chortle.

"Detention, Potter!" cried Professor Johnson, as Remus, James and his partner struggled to control their laughter, and it wasn't long before everyone noticed the boy in pink and began laughing. "What did I say about raising your wand to another other than your partner?"

As James (in the midst of uncontrollable giggles) tried to explain that it was, in fact, Snape who aimed his wand at Remus' back, Remus' eyes found Snape, and watched the Slytherin's expression go from seething to unquestionably pleased as James got a telling-off from the teacher. Remus finally looked away from the evil sneer of Snape's dark face when he heard the bell, and he turned to find James and the other Gryffindor ('I know this boy! What's his name?')already headed towards the door.

Lily caught up with James just before Remus did, and they all walked together to History of Magic, Lily jabbering away at James' "unnecessary attack" on Snape, as the other boy smirked proudly and waved off her indignation as if turning down a small favour.

"You're welcome by the way, Remus," James suddenly said to the surprised but slightly pleased werewolf.

Remus grinned lightly as Lily went into another tirade of complaint.

"He attacked Remus from behind!" James stated calmly, as they marched through the History of Magic classroom, where Professor Binns was floating among the students' seats, a vacant look in his eyes. "It's my job to attack. Now if you'll excuse us…"

They drifted away to sit at that back, Remus taking a seat next to Peter, as James found a chair next a pretty Ravenclaw blonde.

Quite used to their ghost teacher's boring droning about old wizard wars and the like, Remus found himself an empty parchment in his bag and, under the pretence of taking notes of the lesson, started constructing a new poem. It was going well, and Remus was very much enjoying himself until he saw a shadow hovering on his writing and he looked up, questioningly, at Peter.

"Heard you like Poetry," Peter smiled bravely. "Can I see what you're writing?" He gestured to the parchment on Remus' desk, now almost covered in black ink.

Feeling only somewhat more comfortable about showing Peter his work, Remus nodded and passed over the page to the eager-faced friend, then stared resolutely at their hovering professor at the front of the classroom feeling hot all over.

He fidgeted and squirmed all the while, as he heard the page lightly crackle in the small breeze coming in the through the window, and watched from the corner of his eye as Peter's lips moved soundlessly and his eyes roamed across the words slowly, word-for-word. It drove the young werewolf mad. Finally when Peter slid the single parchment back across their joined desks, Remus' let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding in and breathed easily again.

"It looks cool," said Peter in a low voice, and Remus looked up to see his chubby friend grin widely. "I like poetry too."

Remus, not knowing exactly what to say to that, nodded mutely and put his parchment away.

Five minutes later he got another parchment passed across their desk to him, and he took it, frowning a little.

Peter's messy little scribble took up a tiny corner on his yellow page, and Remus had to squint to read:

"Beautiful mother, your eyes are like rubies, and your hair like gold.

You seem to never grow old.

I love you now, I'll love you forever,

Rain or shine, or stormy weather."

A small smile found its way to Remus' lips and he looked up at Peter again.

"This is very good," he told the boy, who was now flushing so deep a red that Remus couldn't help but feel slightly alarmed at the change of complexion. "You're a good poet!"
"I wrote it over a year ago," Peter told him, flashing a shy smile and taking his poem back. "School project…"

"It's really good!" Remus assured him again. "Do you write poetry often?" He felt he was gaining his confidence back, but saw the rapidly-draining self-esteem in Peter right away, and quickly decided to assist him any way he can. "What else have you written?"

"Only that one," Peter admitted quietly, his face flushing several shades of crimson. "All my others were rubbish… I threw them away."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"I wonder if we could sneak into Hogsmede when the second Hogsmede visit comes and all the others get to go into the village?"

Sneaking was not a new thing amongst the Marauders, but if truth be told, Remus was getting fed-up with their nightly escapes to the corridors for "treasure hunting" or "mischief making," but politely listened never-the-less, to James talk about his new grand idea, as the four of them stride back to the Gryffindor Common Room after class.

"It's the second visit?" Peter asked confusedly, interrupting Remus' internal battle. "When was the first?"
"During Remus' trance on Halloween," laughed Sirius, not unkindly, but Remus still felt himself grow uncomfortably hot under his warm clothes and quickly changed tactics.

"Why can't we just go when the rest of the school is not visiting, like we always do?" he asked exasperatedly. "We're not trying to get caught, are we?"

"Not really," James shrugged. "But we could easily blend in, I'm sure. No one will suspect a thing."

"We stick out like sour thumbs!" Remus insisted, hoping he wouldn't really have to go when the whole of Hogwarts was at the village too. "There's no way people won't recognize us as First-Years, and we'll get reported to McGonagall. Or worse: Dumbledore!"

Sirius tapped him on the shoulder and Remus saw the famous silver gleam in the Black's eyes. He shivered.

"We won't, Remus," he winked, surreptitiously, and they walked into the Common Room behind an older Gryffindor who gave the password ahead of them.

Remus was about to excuse himself when, all of a sudden, James cleared his throat and made his was over to one of the empty couches near the fire pace, and leaped gracefully onto it. He cleared his throat again and clapped his hands twice, in a manner that Remus had seen Dumbledore adopt when the Headmaster had visited him at the Lupin household and made his brilliant Wizarding robes turn pink.

"Attention, Ladies and Gentlemen!" called the messy-haired, bespectacled eleven-year-old, self-importantly. "Would anyone who has any Jellyslugs please make themselves known to me. I would really appreciate a handful at the moment. Anyone? I'll pay you 5 galleons for half a dozen slugs."
Briefly wondering how and why a young wizard their age was carrying that amount of money around on a daily basis, Remus walked over to his favourite corner and sat himself opposite Sybill, who was already engrossed in her homework.

She looked up as he sat down, and grinned one of her sunshine smiles.

"Want to go to the Astronomy Tower after dinner?" she asked, as Remus glanced back at the crowd now gathered around James.

"Sure," he answered distractedly, rummaging through his bag and taking out all his homework for the day.

ENDOFCHAPTERENDOFCHAPTERENDOFCHAPTERENDOFCHAPTERENDOFCHAPTER

I'm not entirely sure what happened to the chapter last time, but I'm sending out special thanks to those who have informed me!

Thank you, "Guest" and Abel for letting me know! Thanks so much for sticking around! I love you all xoxo