It still continued to bother me, the longer Remus' absence became. What truly puzzled me was the fact that none of the teachers seemed to either notice nor care where Remus was at. Sure, Binns barely noticed if any of us were there at all...ever… but Flitwick, for instance, is much more attentive. But he hadn't said a word during our Charms class that morning.
Sirius decided to speak up about the matter later during Transfiguration, as he raised his hand.
"Yes, Mister Black?" McGonagall asked.
"Do you happen to know where Remus is?" he asked, before adding a quick "Ma'am," to the end. We all stared up at her hopefully.
Professor McGonagall's stern eyes peered down at Sirius as she stood before him at the desk. "Does Mister Lupin's location somehow affect your ability to transfigure that pin cushion into a porcupine?" she asked.
"Well," Sirius hesitated, "No, professor, but-"
"Then it does not matter at this time, does it?" she asked rhetorically, with a tone of finality.
I frowned down the table over Remus' empty seat. When Professor McGonagall turned back to her chalkboard, Lily leaned over me and hissed, "I thought you said Remus was in the hospital wing?"
I sighed and shrugged. "Why do you care all of a sudden? Do you fancy him?"
McGonagall cleared her throat. "The speaking I overhear better be a discussion about the task at hand."
Lily frowned, then grabbed hold of her pin cushion and waved her wand. "Ericius factus!" and suddenly before her sat a quivering porcupine.
"Bloody hell," Peter said, glancing over. "How'd you manage that?" I too was in awe at how she executed it so quickly.
McGonagall turned around. "Oh very good, Miss Evans! Ten points to Gryffindor."
"I don't fancy Remus," Lily whispered to me as McGonagall inspected the porcupine proudly. "I'm just curious."
I nodded in understanding, and went back to desperately casting the spell, but all I could seem to do was make my pin cushion turn brown.
That evening at supper, Sirius spoke up a few minutes after we had sat down, "Well there you are at last," I looked up to see Remus sinking down next to me. He looked tired enough to fall over. "Been bloody wondering where you've been." Sirius added.
"And don't say Madam Pomfrey's either, cos we tried to visit you," I said.
Peter gave Remus a suspicious eye. "You didn't have Cauldron Pox, did you?" he asked.
"Cauldron Pox?" Remus exclaimed, "No! Galloping gargoyles, I'd look like that Mulciber bloke in Slytherin if I had!" James snickered and high-fived Remus for the burn against the notoriously nasty Slytherin student. I would laugh if I didn't have this nagging feeling in the back of my stomach. "I just… I had to kip home for a bit, that's all."
"You went home?" Peter sounded surprised.
"Family emergency, then?" James asked.
"Y-yeah, something like that."
James turned to Sirius, "I told you! You owe me a chocolate frog, mate."
Remus blinked in surprise, "You were betting on where I was?"
James nodded as Sirius dug a chocolate frog from his book bag and chucked it at James. But I didn't want this conversation to cease until I got a sufficient explanation for what I saw Sunday night. "So what was the emergency? Nobody died or anything, I hope?" I asked.
Remus shook his head, "Nobody died."
"So what was so important that Dumbledore let you leave Hogwarts for?" I pushed. Unfortunately I didn't get an answer as it was at that moment that said headmaster stood up, waving his palms for silence in the Hall.
"Before we begin eating," Dumbledore said, his voice magically amplified throughout the Great Hall, "I do have an announcement to make. In light of recent discoveries, the school will be shutting down access to the floo network as a form of communication within house common rooms until further notice." A great deal of complaint rippled through the Hall and Dumbledore raised his voice to carry over it until the protests had died down. "Floo network access will be limited to just a few rooms of the castle, and will require the use of a network pass, which can be obtained from your head of house. The network will be monitored. There are dark wizards in this world, and I must caution those whose wishes are to communicate with them that there is much at risk. Much indeed. Do think twice before joining the ranks of those who request your allegiance, rather than earn it." Dumbledore stared around the room carefully, then clapped his hands together. "Let's eat!"
Sirius grinned as we turned to our food. "Well there's my excuse for not flooing home to Mother."
"Who do you suppose was talking to dark wizards on the school's floo network?" I asked.
"Some prats, that's who!" James exclaimed. "Now I actually have to write letters if I want to reach home!"
"Probably some git from Slytherin," said Sirius darkly, and I looked over at the Slytherin table across the hall. "Perhaps it was Snivellus. He looks awful guilty."
Peter and James turned to look at the greasy boy with me, while Remus gnawed on the bone of the chicken leg he had just finished.
"That Lucius bloke seems mighty smug, too, doesn't he?" I commented.
"I'm sure he's involved somehow. His family's close to the Dark Lord," said Sirius lowly. "He's cousins on one side and his girlfriend, Narcissa, she's my cousin too. They're both quite nasty." Sirius scowled.
"They should chuck the lot of Slytherin out," boasted James in a carrying voice, "Filthy lot they are; too keen on blood purity to give a damn about being any good!" He shrugged to someone further down the table, who I saw was Lily staring at him with a disapproving look. "Lot of traitors, they are, only interested in power and being better than everyone else. Well they aren't any better."
I don't exactly know how I feel about this discussion of blood purity, so I just kept my head low and focused on my pasta, eating in near silence save for some small talk with Remus and Peter, trying to drown out James and Sirius going on and on about Slytherins and their bloodlines.
Later in the evening, around midnight, we Gryffindor first years, along with the Ravenclaws were huddled on the top of the Astronomy Tower with Professor Zosma. We were setting up our telescopes, preparing to begin our star charts.
Lily had pointedly separated herself a few feet away from any of us, likely still annoyed by James earlier. She, of course, had already assembled her telescope completely before any of us had. Remus was a far second, followed closely by me, but we had still completed ours before James and Sirius, not to mention poor Peter, who I eventually lent a hand to.
Professor Zosma walked along behind us, instructing us in the degrees to which our telescopes needed to be aimed. "Tonight, we will be talking about Uranus…"
Sirius cackled.
"...and the meaning of its placement in the sky," Zosma finished, ignoring Sirius. "Have you all correctly aimed your scopes? You should see Uranus to the left."
I grinned as I saw the faint blue glow of the planet from a distance, but was soon distracted by some movement next to me. I looked and saw James aiming his telescope at Sirius' rear end. "I see Uranus, Sirius," he said, and it took a lot out of me not to burst into giggles.
Sirius was not as successful at holding back. He laughed so hard he snorted.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Really!" she said in indignation.
"Really," snickered James.
I helped him realign the scope to find the planet as Zosma continued lecturing us.
"Who's that down on the lawn?" asked Peter suddenly.
I looked at the blond boy in confusion. Peter's scope wasn't even aimed at the sky. I guess in trying to copy James' joke, he'd managed to throw off the aim of the scope so abysmally that he was looking down past the Whomping Willow towards the shore of the Black Lake. Sure enough, there was a dark figure there, walking along in the shadows of the forest.
"Can I see?" I asked.
Peter moved for me to peer through his scope. Adjusting the focus for my eyes, I watched the figure moving, skulking along. It looks rather familiar, I thought, and I waited for the figure to step into the relief of the moonlight.
My eyes widened. "I think it's Professor Tutman!" I said in surprise.
"What would Tutman be doing on the grounds at this hour?" hissed James. He'd whirled his scope to take a look, too, and Sirius peered into James' scope.
"Does look like him, though," said Sirius.
"Funny," pondered Remus. "I wonder what he's up to." he gave us a puzzled expression. I simply shrugged.
Even after we had returned to looking at Uranus, I noticed that Peter never stopped watching Tutman.
