037. He chanted under his breath

Word Count: 999

James was one of the first to arrive in the Potions classroom for the 5:00 class, which surprised the only other occupants of the room - Remus and Severus. The two of them seemed even more surprised when he walked over and took a seat on the table, next to where Remus was sitting.

"Is there something you need, Potter?" Severus asked.

"Not particularly," James replied amiably enough. "I was curious about the rumors that have spread around the school as to why Slughorn threatened you with expulsion the other morning," he said.

"And you thought that, because we had such a wonderful report with each other, that I might just hand over the explanation for that without giving you any grief?" Severus asked.

James hesitated for a brief moment, looking around the room and making sure that no one had walked into the room and was paying any undue attention to the three of them. When he deemed it safe enough, he turned back to Severus. "When Siri made the mistake of sending you after Remus in his fully formed alter-ego, you ended up with a number bite wounds that should have resulted in you getting infected with the disease," he mentioned quietly.

Remus smirked. "James, stop skirting around the question that you want to ask and just ask it," he said, just as quietly. "Sev did not catch the disease of lycanthropy," he said.

"So you found a cure?" James asked, looking over at Severus.

The Slytherin smirked. "Not quite," he said. "There was a strange reaction with my Wolfsbane and the Numbing Potions that managed to counter the venom of the werewolf," he said. "I have not been able to pinpoint exactly what it was that caused the reaction that it did, but at this point, there is no way for me to do anything more than hypothesize what happened."

"What does that mean?" he asked, glancing over at Remus.

"It means that no one in their right mind is going to allow Sev the test subjects necessary to verify any of his hypotheses on the topic, no matter how well-researched they are," he said. "Human testing has been illegal for, what, three centuries now?"

"Four hundred and sixty some-odd years," Severus said. "Whatever happened to me is not without any negative consequences."

"What consequences might those be?" James asked.

Remus frowned, crossing his arms, but said nothing.

Severus sneered at James. "Just because I have become slightly less hostile toward you does not mean that I'm going to share each and every one of my personal secrets with you, idiot. Why don't you find somewhere else to make yourself comfortable during this class period?" he asked.

James grinned, opening his mouth to make his retort, but Remus clapped a hand over his mouth to stop him.

"Enough, James," he said. "Go back to your usual seat and try not to act too enthusiastic when Lucius comes in and sits down next to you."

James did so, though he did not stop himself from leveling an irritated glare onto Remus as he situated himself into his usual seat.

Moments later, Lucius took a seat next to him and leaned around his chair to look over at Severus, who gave him the slightest of nods. Lucius smirked and straightened himself, though not before taking hold of James' hand.

"What's going on?" James asked.

Lucius looked over at him. "Just watch."

"Watch what, exactly?" James asked.

He received no answer from the Slytherin, but one was not needed. Professor Slughorn stormed into the room, not hesitating to send Severus a venomous glare before making his way down to his desk.

Lucius smirked, removing his hand from James' hand to rest it on his thigh.

"This isn't going to be pretty, is it?" he asked, looking over at the Elf.

"Not at all," Lucius murmured before nodding toward the front of the classroom.

Slughorn had practically thrown himself into the office chair behind his desk, and he was glaring relentlessly at Severus, who seemed more than willing to return the glare with one of his own.

James paused a moment, thinking that he heard Slughorn muttering something, but when he watched the man carefully, he didn't see his lips moving even a little bit.

Lucius seemed to have picked up on the situation as well, and he leaned closer to James. "He's cloaking his speech, but it's him."

As he chanted under his breath what was most likely some vicious curse that would cause some sort of severe damage to Severus, both James and Lucius turned their focus onto Severus, who was subtly inching his wand from it's hiding spot in his sleeve. Remus had slipped into the chair directly behind Severus, and he looked over at James, silently speaking with him.

Lucius took note of this as well, and he glanced over at Severus before pulling out his wand and locking the door with an incredibly strong spell that not only kept people out, but also prevented anyone from eavesdropping on the conversation taking place inside the room. Slughorn paid him no attention, so Lucius all but shoved James under the table in front of them and sat next to him.

"What's going on?" James asked, his voice no louder than a whisper.

"Stay quiet and hope that this doesn't have to come to bloodshed to end," he replied. "And keep your wand close in hand," he added, giving James a quick kiss.