Chapter 14: Minnie

Remus was gone again.

On the excuse that his mother was deathly sick (again), he had left school for a few days.

And his friends were getting more suspicious each month.

They were positive by now Remus was lying to them. If his mother truly was as sick as he said, she would be dead by now. They didn't wish to be mean, but that was the fact. And, she had gained a total of six different diseases throughout the year, from Spattergroit to the flu. It just wasn't logical.

They were lying on their beds in the dorm on Tuesday night, talking quietly to each other.

"Why would he lie to us?" asked Peter nervously for the millionth time. He had only just accepted that Remus was lying to them, and he wasn't taking it well. Remus had always been kind to him, and the thought of his friend lying to him hurt.

"I don't know," said James exasperatedly. "I know the same things you do."

"He should be back soon," commented Sirius, "if he stays with the same pattern. He disappears once a month for two to three days."

"I don't like him lying to us," James said. "He shouldn't be. We don't lie to him! We're his friends! We should be able to tell each other everything!"

"Exactly," said Sirius. "I think-"

They fell silent as the doorknob rattled and Remus walked in. He looked exhausted and sickly, his skin pale. There was a bandage wrapped around his arm. He smiled wearily at them all, flopping down on his bed with a sigh.

"Hey guys," he said.

"Remus!" said Peter. His eyes darted over to James and Sirius for a moment. "How's your mom?" he asked.

Remus shrugged. "A little bit better. She's still pretty bad, though."

Sirius narrowed his eyes at the boy, but Remus didn't see. James frowned, glancing over at him. "You okay? You don't look that good."

"Just tired," Remus said, waving him off.

"What happened to your arm?" Sirius demanded.

"My uncle's dog," Remus said, sounding as if he had rehearsed it. "It didn't like me."

"Madam Pomfrey could fix it," James said.

"No," said Remus quickly. "I mean- no, that's alright. It's just a little scratch. No need to bother her with it."

Sirius' glare intensified. "Right," he said. He shoved James off his bed. "I'm going to bed. Night."

"Ouch!" said James from where he was sprawled on the ground, but Sirius just drew the curtains around his bed and fell silent.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Remus in surprise.

"I don't know," lied James, scrambling up. "But there was no reason to push me off the bed," he said, directing it at Sirius' bed. With a sigh, he too jumped onto his bed. "I guess it is time to turn in," he said. "Night, guys."

"Goodnight," said Peter, laying back.

Remus drew the curtains around his bed, feeling troubled. Something wasn't right with Sirius' actions. He knew they were starting to grow suspicious about him, and he hated lying, but there was nothing that he could do. They couldn't find out the truth about him. It would ruin everything. They would hate him, of course, and tell everyone. Remus would be kicked out of Hogwarts and sent back home. Remus knew that he wouldn't be able to handle that, not after all the wonderful things that had happened this year. His only choice was to continue lying and hope that his friends wouldn't find out the truth- at least until after they had graduated.

Finally, Remus slipped into sleep, and the thoughts changed to dreams.

"I'm not waking him up!" squeaked Peter.

"I did it last time," said James.

"I already have a hurt arm. I don't want a black eye to match it," muttered Remus.

The three of them were grouped around Sirius' bed. Their friend was still sleeping, sprawled out across the mattress, and all of them were frightened about waking him. Sirius tended to be very… violent in the mornings, and did not enjoy being woken.

"Remus should do it," said James.

"Why me?" asked Remus indignantly.

"You're best at it!" said James. "He's only hit you like, once. Every single time Peter or I do it, we get hurt!"

"Please, Remus?" Peter pleaded.

Remus scowled at them. "Fine," he snapped. "But you guys owe me."

"Of course," they agreed frantically, backing away quickly. Remus cautiously reached out a hand to poke Sirius.

"Wake up."

Remus ducked down as an arm came flailing out, narrowly missing his head. When he stood up again, there was an expression of irritation on his face.

"I said, wake up!" He roughly jabbed at Sirius' side and stepped to his left to avoid the punch directed at him. "That's it," he said, glaring at his sleeping friend.

He took hold of one edge of the pillow and pulled it out from underneath him. Sirius' head smacked down against the mattress and he shot up in his bed, blinking sleep out of his eyes. "Huh?" he asked roughly. "Whassa matter?"

"It's time to wake up," said Remus, throwing the pillow back at him. It caught Sirius in the face and dropped back to the bed. "Breakfast starts in three minutes."

"Three minutes!?" Sirius jumped out of bed, narrowly missing Remus, and started rummaging through his trunk. "Why didn't you say so?" he snapped, tugging his robes over his head in his haste to get to breakfast.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," snapped Remus. "I was too busy trying to fend off your attacks while I was trying to wake you up."

"I do not attack," snarled Sirius.

"You kind of do!"

"Guys!" said James, stepping in between them. "Relax. Breathe in. Breathe out. Sirius, get your robes on, and let's go."

The two boys shot a last glare at each other before Remus stomped off to grab his bag. "I'll meet you down there," he said sharply, and left the dorm room.

"What was that all about?" James asked Sirius as soon as Remus had gone.

"He's so… ugh," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "I don't know. He's lying to us, James. We don't know anything about him."

"Sure we do," said Peter. "He's our friend."

"Yeah?" asked Sirius roughly, picking up his bag and slinging it over his shoulder. "Well, I'm starting to think that he might be lying about that, too."

It was a very tense breakfast. Remus and Sirius sat far apart from each other and didn't speak, instead glaring moodily at their breakfast. Peter and James tried fruitlessly to fill the awkward silence, but soon gave up, focusing instead on their food and trying to ignore the frosty mood between their two friends.

When they finished, they all stood up and headed off to their first class, Transfiguration. No words were exchanged, although James and Peter kept glancing at each other worriedly. They made it to class just in time, sitting down in their usual seats.

Professor McGonagall walked in briskly, setting a pile of paper down on her desk. "Settle down," she snapped at two boys who were still talking. "Please hand your homework assignments from last night forward, thank you." They all passed up their sheets of parchment, which she collected with a wave of her wand. They flew over and touched down in a basket on her desk.

"Now then," she said, clapping her hands together. "We will be continuing our work with mice. Today, we will be attempting to change them into snuffboxes. Be vigilant- this will appear on your exams. Miss Levoid, will you please pass the mice out?"

A brown haired Hufflepuff in the first row wrinkled her nose, but stood up and took the box from McGonagall. She dispersed the mice as quickly as possible, never holding one for more than a few seconds.

The four boys set to work. Peter spent most of his time trying to stop his mouse from escaping. James was able to transfigure it in the first ten minutes, followed closely by Remus, then Sirius. While Remus helped Peter with his mouse, James and Sirius talked.

"Mc-Gon-a-gall," said Sirius thoughtfully, twirling his quill in his hand. "McGon-agall."

"Er- what are you doing?" asked James, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

"Her name's so long," Sirius explained. "McGonagall. And so hard to say. She needs a nickname."

"A nickname?" asked James. He thought it over. "Yeah," he said. "A nickname. Let's do it."

"Okay," Sirius said. "Any ideas?"

"McGee?" asked James.

"Nah," said Sirius. "That's stupid. M-Dog?"

James snorted. "We are not calling her M-Dog, Sirius."

"Why not?"

"That's just…" James shivered. "Not right. What's her first name?"

"Minerva," said Sirius. He frowned, then realization brightened his features and he grinned broadly. "Minnie!" he said excitedly. "Minnie McGonagall!"

"Fantastic!" James said approvingly, giving him a high-five. "It's perfect!"

"I know," bragged Sirius. "I'm just that awesome."

"Mr. Black! Mr. Potter!"

The boys glanced up to see McGonagall glaring at them over her spectacles. Her lips were pursed. "Is there something you'd like to share with the class?"

The boys smiled innocently. "No, Professor McGonagall."

"Then why aren't you working?" she asked.

"We finished," said James, holding up his snuffbox.

McGonagall sniffed. "Good, but you should still be practicing. Transfigure it back and do it again."

"Alright, Minnie," said Sirius.

The class went silent. Everyone stared open-mouthed at the boy who had dared to call their Transfiguration professor 'Minnie'. In front of a class, as well! Surely, no one had ever dared to do this before- or, if they had, they had not lived to tell the tale.

McGonagall's mouth thinned to a straight line, and her nostrils flared. "What did you call me?" she asked in a dangerous voice.

"He called you Minnie!" James said brightly. "See, your name is so long, we decided to shorten it. 'Minnie McGonagall'. It has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

Remus and Peter were staring at their friends, horrified. What were they doing? They couldn't call Professor McGonagall 'Minnie'. She was going to murder them…

McGonagall stood for a long moment, glaring at the two boys in disbelief. James and Sirius smiled easily back up at her, unfazed by her hard gaze. They looked perfectly happy and pleased with themselves, not at all like the rest of the class, who were terrified of what McGonagall was going to do to the two Gryffindors.

"Detention," she said finally in a quiet voice. "For the rest of the week. That is completely disrespectful, and I am disgraced that it comes from my house. Twenty points from Gryffindor. And if you ever call me that again, it will be one hundred!"

James nodded solemnly. "We deserve it," he said mournfully. "We shouldn't have called you Minnie."

"It was very wrong," Sirius agreed, "calling you Minnie. We should use the respect we have for you when speaking to you!"

"And calling you Minnie McGonagall does not show respect," James said.

"No, calling you Minnie doesn't," Sirius nodded.

"We're sorry for calling you Minnie McGonagall!" they said together.

Everyone was snickering behind their hands by now, except for Lily Evans and Professor McGonagall, who were both glaring at the boys.

"Two weeks detention!" McGonagall snapped.

"But why?" asked Sirius. "You told us not to call you Minnie, and we haven't!"

"Really, your punishment is invalid," nodded James.

"Completely unfair," agreed Sirius.

"But don't worry," said James. "We accept your apology, and consent to our one week of detention!"

They grinned broadly at their Transfiguration professor, who glared at them before turning on her heel and sitting down at her desk, going back to her paperwork.

The two boys went back to their snuffboxes, ignoring the fact that everyone in the class was staring at them. They muttered the incantation under their breaths, tapping their wands against the boxes.

"What was that?" Remus hissed at them.

"What do you mean?" asked Sirius, turning his snuffbox back into a mouse. "You know, I like him," he said to no one, stroking the rodent on his furry little head.

"You called her Minnie at least five times, and got away with only a week of detention!" said Peter in an awe-filled voice.

"We did," agreed James, ruffling his already messy hair with a grin. "We're just awesome like that."

They were dismissed from class five minutes later.

"Drop your mice in the box on your way out," McGonagall snapped at them, still peeved over the 'Minnie' comments. The class filed out, dropping their mice in the box one by one.

The boys walked together through the halls on their way to Herbology. Remus and Sirius seemed to have forgotten they were arguing and were being perfectly friendly again, laughing as they remembered McGonagall's face. About halfway to Herbology, Sirius pulled a mouse out of his pocket.

"What is that?" asked Remus immediately.

"It's my mouse," said Sirius. "I saved him."

"You stole him from McGonagall!" said James.

"Saved him," corrected Sirius. "Besides, he likes me. Isn't that right, Chester?"

"You named him Chester," repeated Remus faintly.

"'Course I did!" said Sirius. "He has to have a name, right? Why not Chester?"

"You're going to be a criminal," James said, humor in his voice. "When you graduate, you'll pull this grand mouse theft or something. You'll land yourself in Azkaban."

"Azkaban couldn't handle me," Sirius said, waving him off. "I ain't going to that place. It's creepy."

"Yes, that's all it is. Creepy," scoffed Remus, "what with all the Dementors floating around."

"Dementors?" asked Peter nervously.

"Dementors," repeated James ominously. "Scary wraith-things that fly around and suck out people's souls!" he said, wiggling his fingers in the air.

Peter let out a squeak, grabbing at Remus' robes. Remus looked at James reprovingly. "James, don't scare him," he said.

"It's true!" said James. "They do suck out people's souls! My dad told me!"

"Chester will save me from the Dementors," cooed Sirius, scratching the mouse under the furry little chin. He was seemingly oblivious to the conversation going on around him, completely focused on his new pet. "Won't you, Chester?"

"I'm going to go crazy," Remus muttered. "They are going to literally drive me crazy one of these days."

A/N: Hey everyone! Hope you liked this chapter : ) It was really fun for me to write!

The next chapter will have a lot of drama in it, lots of fighting, so I hope you're ready!

Thanks for the reviews, and PLEASE keep them coming! They mean so much to me!

Merry Christmas, everyone! The next chapter will be up soon!

Xoxo,

Kayla