Remus was still feeling a little confused from the weirdness of Potions, so after Charms when they went to lunch he decided to sit with Lily, as well as Colgate and Inkwood, though the topic seemed to be mostly about Professor Prewett. He was, according to all three girls, cute.

Remus poked at his food, trying not to make a face. "If you're just g-going to talk about guys then I'm off," he complained.

All three girls giggled. "Sorry, Remus, forgot for a second you were with us," Lily said. "Though I'm sure you and your friends probably talk about girls a lot."

"No. Not really." Then he remembered the way Sirius and Peter had been eyeing Professor Vector the night before. "Well. I don't."

"Who do they talk about, then?" Inkwood asked.

He didn't want to tell them how much discussion there had been at the end of their first year, when they all got into the big water fight and his friends had definitely noticed the girls' wet white shirts. Even with a whole summer behind him, he still didn't quite get it. He previously wondered if there was something broken about him, because of his lycanthropy. Now he wondered that again. His dad had been 'about' his age when he started noticing girls. Sirius and Peter were noticing girls. James sorta noticed girls. Lily, Colgate, and Inkwood seemed to be noticing boys. So... what was wrong with him?

So Remus shrugged. "I don't know. I don't really pay much attention."

"You're adorable," Colgate said.

Remus went red while all the girls giggled. He wished he had sat with the boys instead. Adorable?! This was the second time a girl had called him adorable, and he still didn't appreciate it. Small fluffy animals were adorable. Not him.

After lunch was a free period then History of Magic, which Sirius declared to be 'nap time, then another nap time'. Even Remus struggled to pay attention in history class. Professor Binns was absolutely boring. Still, he took notes while doing his best not to fall asleep. Then once they were done with that, they headed to Transfiguration.

Professor McGonagall watched the students come in, eyes narrowing a little as the Marauders came in. She took two points away: one for how untidy Remus was, the other for how untidy James was. Remus awkwardly tried to fix his tie but just made it worse. Even after a year he still had no idea how to properly do ties. He needed to ask Sirius for help, whose ties always looked absolutely perfect.

McGonagall took a quick roll call then jumped into a quick lecture on how she hoped everyone retained their knowledge from the previous year, and she'd be making sure by a quick test. There were groans from almost everyone but Remus sat up a little straighter, glad they were jumping right into using spells. He missed this.

The first twenty minutes was spent going over some of the spells they learned in their first year then she began talking about one of the most useful and important transfiguration spells: the untransfiguration spell. She turned a large goblet into a partially transfigured object. It had wings and a beak, trying to flutter. "Reparifarge," she said, and the thing returned to being a goblet.

She handed out half-finished objects to each student. Remus cringed a little at his. A half-mouse-half-snuffbox that gave pathetic attempts to walk around on its tiny little bronze feet. It had whiskers, ears, a tail, yet no mouth so he wasn't sure how it made squeaking sounds. It broke his heart. He took in a deep breath, focused hard, then flourished his wand. "Reparifarge!" The feet, whiskers, and tail shrank into the snuffbox though the ears remained. At least it wasn't squeaking anymore. "Reparifarge!" The ears melted into the metal.

"Very good, Mr. Lupin, a point to Gryffindor," McGonagall said, nodding approvingly. Then she tapped the snuffbox, turning it back into the partial mouse.

Couldn't she make it partially a plant? he thought as the squeaking started again. He sorta wanted to throw up. "Reparifarge!" This time only the tail remained. "Reparifarge..." It was a snuffbox again. He glanced up towards McGonagall however she was looking past him.

"Mr. Potter, very good, a point to Gryffindor as well," she said then her lips formed a thin line. "Mr. Black, where is your jar?"

Remus turned to look behind him at Sirius whose elbows were propped on the empty desk. "Um. It flew off," he replied, waving his hand towards the open window.

"Your... jar... did not have wings," she said slowly.

Sirius shrugged. "It grew wings." James smothered his face, shoulders shaking with laughter.

McGonagall marched over, plopping another object on his desk. "Let's see you fix this," she commanded.

Sirius blew his hair from his face and gave his wand a rather showy flourish. "Reparifarge!" he said intensely, the spell shooting out to the furry jar. It wriggled a bit, turned back into a proper jar, fell over, rolled off his desk, and shattered into several pieces. Sirius beamed. "Hey, I turned it back!" he exclaimed as several other students laughed.

McGonagall fixed the jar, half-transformed it, then set it on James's desk. "Your turn."

James pushed his glasses up and licked his lips as he focused on the jar. "Reparifarge!" he said, giving an equally showy flourish. It turned back into a jar, remaining firmly on his desk. He cocked his head to one side, grinning from ear-to-ear at the teacher. "Voila," he said.

She just swept back to the front of the room, getting bigger, more complicated objects for Remus and James to work on. By the end of class both boys were sweaty and exhausted, glad they didn't have any other classes that day.

"Why does she hate us?" James grumbled after they left the room.

"She doesn't hate us, she gave us so much work because we were able to do it," Remus pointed out.

James scrunched his face up. "So, basically, pretend I can't do it? Then I won't have as much work?" Remus stared in horror at his friend while Sirius and Peter both agreed that was a cracking idea. James grinned, a bounce in his step. "Don't get me wrong. I like Transfiguration, it's really easy for me—the easiest, I mean—but still, I don't want to be this tired after every class with her. I need to save all my energy for Quidditch. S'more important anyway. By the way, Bell said tryouts will be Saturday!" James looked at his friends, mostly at Remus. "You'll all be there, right?"

"Um, duh," Sirius said.

"Why wouldn't we?" Peter asked.

Remus nodded. "Of course."

James began bouncing along even happier now. "Perfect. C'mon, I need a shower, then we can work out what sort of prank to pull in the Slytherin common room."

/\/\/\/\/\

Please report to Professor Dumbledore's office tomorrow after Herbology. Pepper Imps.

Remus stared at the note an owl delivered to him during supper in confusion, as well as a little bit of fear. The old feeling he used to get constantly during his first term at school came back with a vengeance. They don't want you here anymore, you're going to be expelled. He shook his head at the dark voice. If they didn't want him back they would have said so over summer. Still, what on earth could Dumbledore want?

"You all right, Remus?" Peter's voice broke into his thoughts. "You've gone pale. Is that the detention slip?"

"We all would have gotten one if it was," James pointed out.

Peter stuck his tongue out. "Not always! Sometimes even when we all have detention they come at different times!"

Remus carefully folded the slip up. "No, it's from—from Pomfrey. She wants to see me tomorrow, before lunch."

"Is everything all right?" Sirius asked, brow wrinkling a bit.

"Yes, of course. Just... a check up, that's all, since she hasn't seen me since June." That was a believable enough lie. James and Peter seemed satisfied. Sirius just stared at him with a frown which made him uncomfortable. Please believe the story, he thought, trying to send out waves of trustworthy aura. Finally Sirius returned to eating.

After supper Remus went to the first real meeting of their study group. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs already had Defense Against the Dark Arts, and shared their thoughts. Bones thought Prewett seemed 'pretty neat' and more active than Dedenne. More lively. Pierce agreed with this, also stating how cute he was (Bones rolled his eyes at that). Buckling's opinion was that Prewett seemed very sharp and if you asked her (which they were) they were in for a pretty intense year of dueling. Craft didn't like him.

"That's because Professor Prewett told him he needed to loosen up," Buckling giggled.

Craft glowered at her. "That isn't why I don't like him. I think he's too... young."

"I have him first thing tomorrow morning," Silverlocke said.

"We get him after lunch," Lily put in. "I can't wait. He seems..."

"Cute?" offered Pierce.

"No!" Lily flushed a faint pink. "Interesting," she said rather haughtily as she flipped open a book. Remus resisted the urge to point out she called him cute that afternoon.

Loosen up, Remus wondered as he, Lily, and Twycross left the library. What on earth does that mean? Loosen up for what?

He didn't go back to the tower right away, instead he went to the owlery to use a school owl, to send a letter to his parents. He had realized that McGonagall probably sent a letter to them informing them of his detention, so he wanted to send his own to 'explain'. As in, lie. He had written he had been 'sucked in' when he had been innocently walking by, stating that the Slytherins had been attacking some other Gryffindors and when they saw him they assumed he was with the other Gryffindors so they attacked him too.

I should not have fought, I apologize completely for this, but I had to defend myself! he had written desperately, praying that they'd believe him! He wasn't sure what would have been in the letter from McGonagall but he hoped it wouldn't be anything about his friends...

Once in his dorm Remus set his stuff out to work on his special essays. Everything Prewett had listed were pretty simple, most of them relatively short. There were ten listed and he had already finished one and a half since yesterday. Did Prewett really expect him to take the entire month to do these? He'd be able to get them done by Saturday, if he worked hard enough. The only one that would give him trouble was the one about gytrashes since they hadn't learned about them at all in their first year. He didn't know much about them and was very surprised when he read that they were similar to the Black Dog legend, which was where he had gotten Gwyllgi's name from; except Gwyllgi was an actual legend whereas gytrashes were real. And could be found in the Forbidden Forest, according to the book. Remus shivered a bit, glad they hadn't come across any during their adventures! Although it seemed gytrashes were nocturnal. Probably.

Music blared around him, the other Marauders dancing around while they talked about various things most especially ideas of pranks for the Slytherins now that they had the password.

"Remuuuus!" Sirius flung himself at Remus, knocking his arm which sent a great black slash across his parchment. "Sorry. Um, come on, we need some brainy advice for this."

"I'm busy," Remus complained as he got his wand out. They were to learn a helpful spell this year, later on in Charms, to remove ink smudges and he might as well give it a go now. "Cha—"

"Remus, come on we need advice!" James said.

Sirius poked at Remus. "Please? You can do your homework later, this is more important."

It seemed he wasn't going to be left alone. He put the stopper back in his inkwell and turned the chair around to face the others. "What sort of advice?" he asked, rubbing his temples as he felt a headache from the loud music. Headaches were always frustrating. They started, then his regeneration ability would help get rid of it, but usually it would just start again. The start-stop-start-stop drove him mad and he would have much preferred the pain to just stay.

"We have three ideas," Peter said, clapping his hands. "Each of us came up with one."

"But we won't tell you who came up with what, so you won't be biased," Sirius added.

I wouldn't be biased anyway, he thought then shrugged. "All right."

"Idea one!" James thrust his finger in the air. "Sticking spells in their shoes so when they put them on they get stuck. Idea two, dead fish on top of their canopies." Remus knew that one was Sirius's since he had considered the prank before, with Spinnet. "And idea three... taking some of the underwear from the Slytherin girls and putting them in the boys' dorm so they get in trouble."

Remus snorted loudly, covering his mouth. "They're all good but the last one's my favorite—"

Peter pumped his fists in the air while James and Sirius pouted. "Yes!"

"—but we can't do it."

Peter dropped his hands. "How come?"

"Because their staircases are enchanted the same way ours are," Remus explained. "If one of us tries to go to the girl dorms it will turn into a slide and the alarm will sound."

He expected James to be victorious they couldn't do Pete's trick (which meant the sticking spell shoes was his) however instead he looked deep in thought. "Not necessarily," he said slowly.

Remus sighed heavily, feeling the headache growing. "Yes necessarily. It's laid out clearly in Hogwarts, A History. All of the dorms are set up that way."

James flapped his hand. "No! I mean, yeah it might do that but... we could probably get around it. We need to test it. Here, in the tower, we can test it. Maybe tomorrow night during dinner. Or lunch. When almost everyone else is out of the tower."

Remus folded his arms, raising his eyebrows. "And what is this great idea?"

"Remember what I mentioned before? When we tried?" His friend slid over to his bed, pulling his broom carrying case out from under his bed. "The siren sounds when a boy's foot hits the stairs..." He unsnapped the clasps and flicked the lid open. "But what if a boy's foot doesn't hit the stairs?"

They wanted to test it out immediately but of course they couldn't since the common room was super crowded. Sirius wanted to wait till everyone went to bed then test it but Remus shot that one down, stating how awful it was if using a broom didn't work they'd just wake up the entire tower. Peter stated how James's idea of waiting till a meal time would work best, and finally they talked Sirius round to agreeing. After that big to-do they wound up playing the board game Hippogriff Flip for a while, played cards, ate sweets, ignored Spinnet when he and Struthers finally came into the dorm and Spinnet complained about them 'always taking over the dorm', stayed up probably way too late, and as Remus climbed into bed he realized he hadn't gotten the essay done at all.

Maybe I do need the whole month, he thought before falling asleep.

/\/\/\/\/\

Remus spent breakfast studying up on gytrashes for the essay, so into the book he didn't hear the bell ringing and had to be tapped on the shoulder by Sirius. He quickly shoved the book bag in his bag as he took off after his friends. They went out into the bright morning sunshine and it wasn't until they approached the greenhouses that he realized he hadn't eaten any breakfast.

Professor Sprout took them to Greenhouse Three which was very exciting. Remus (and most the others) had expected to go to Greenhouse Two. They were whispering as they went in, taking up spots along a very long table. There were dozens of pots and colorful earmuffs sprinkled around which made sense when Sprout explained they were working with mandrakes. Remus was a little surprised. Mandrakes could be pretty dangerous.

Remus raised his hand when Sprout asked about them. "They're used for m-medicinal p-p-purposes," he said when she nodded at him. "It's a common ingredient in m-many antidotes and rest-toratives. A lot of the p-potions you can make are used to heal th-those who have been t-t-transfigured or—or cursed." He faltered a little at the end, a memory rushing back to him. His father planting a mandrake in the backyard, he and Hope taking care of it. It was cheaper to get an actual mandrake rather than its grown leaves so that's why they went that route. It took months but when the mandrake was grown Lyall had made a potion, forcing Remus to drink it. It heals those whose forms have been cursed, he explained as Remus crinkled his nose up at the awful smell. Maybe it will cure you.

He still recalled the disappointed look Lyall got after the next full moon.

"Very good, five points to Gryffindor," Sprout said. "Mandrakes, while very essential, are also very dangerous. Does anyone know why? Lupin?"

Remus lowered his hand, staring down at the tufts of leaves sticking out of the pots. "Because when they're older their cr-cry is fatal to—to anyone who hears it. However these l-ll-look to be very—y-young so the most these ones can do is—is just kn—knock you out for a couple hours." He was aware of Sirius and James elbowing each other at that, getting a bad feeling.

"Very good, another five points. Have you dealt with mandrakes before?"

He shook his head. "No, ma'am," he lied. "J-just read about them." Sprout knew he was a werewolf however mandrakes—while a common potion ingredient—was not a common garden plant and he worried it would seem odd to some of the students if he told the truth that he had, in fact, had one in his garden for a while.

Everyone grabbed for a pair of earmuffs, Remus ending up with the garish orange ones since he didn't care about colors. Remus felt a wave of absolute joy when the earmuffs clamped into place. They were magicked to block out all sound and for once in his life (that he could remember) he felt at peace. No sounds. No background noises. No distant voices, leaves rustling, animals moving, things knocking together, footsteps, nothing. He could hear his blood pounding in his body, in his head. A sort of weird sound that he wasn't sure what it belonged to but it must have been something from within. He was so distracted by not hearing anything that he didn't realize Sprout had pulled the mandrake out until she was putting it into another pot. Its mouth was wide open as it squalled, nobody hearing it. Sprout packed dirt around it then gave a thumbs up indicating everyone could take the muffs off. Remus didn't want to. He wanted to keep these forever. Reluctantly he removed them, barely paying attention as Sprout talked about what they'd be doing. He clutched at the orange faux-fur, wondering if he could steal them.

Merlin, your friends are rubbing off on you, he thought as he put them on the table. But he had to put them back on so they could work on repotting which was not very easy. The mandrakes fought violently getting out of the pot as well as going into the new ones. James had one that clung to the pot's edge and when he tried to pry its little fingers loose the mandrake sunk its teeth into his glove. James's arm began flailing, the mandrake flying back and forth in the air. Sirius grabbed the mandrake then Remus and Peter joined in, and it took all four of them to get the mandrake off of James whose lips were forming swear words. It was so bizarre doing all of this only hearing his own inner body.

Sirius held the mandrake, Peter kept its head still, and Remus poked his finger into its mouth to push its mouth open. The mandrake let go of James who went tumbling backwards, but the teeth came down onto Remus's glove. His friends tried helping him but he shook his head, transferring the mandrake into a new pot. Since it was busy biting Remus's hand it didn't fight too much until it realized it was halfway covered in dirt (which was difficult with one hand however Peter quickly joined in to help with the dirt). It let go of Remus's hands and began fighting but it was too late, and Remus got it covered.

All four boys slumped against the table, panting heavily. They still had several mandrakes to go. They exchanged looks then began working again, this time going two per mandrake which sped up the process a lot. In fact, despite James's incident, they were the first table done. Sprout examined the pots then wrote down that they got five points each plus got to leave a little early. Gryffindor had gotten thirty-five points in one class! Which helped make up some for all the points lost Sunday.

"That was annoying," Peter said as soon as they left the greenhouse and could take their earmuffs off. They left them by the door though Remus stared at his, a longing feeling curling around him as he walked away.

"No it was brilliant!" James pumped a fist in the air. "We have to get a mandrake."

"Why?!" Peter demanded, looking disgusted.

James flung an arm across Peter's shoulders. "That is what we're doing to the Slytherins."

"YES!" Sirius shouted.

"No!" Remus gasped out. "Are you crazy?! Did—did-did you NOT hear me say their cries are fatal? Do you not know what fatal means?"

James rolled his eyes. "I know what fatal means. I'm not meaning adult mandrakes. Young ones. Knock the Slytherins out for a few hours."

"We can rig it up so when someone opens the door the pot falls, breaks open, and then the cries hit them," Sirius said, rubbing his filthy hands together. All four of them were covered in dirt and sweat.

"No!" Remus snapped. "No way! No! Breaking into the greenhouse? No! I refuse to be part of this."

James, Sirius, and Peter all gave him disappointed looks. "Fine," James said rather stiffly. "We'll do it without you."

Remus took a few quick steps, grabbing James's sleeve. "It's too risky, too dangerous! Besides, you could hurt the—"

"Who cares if we hurt a Slytherin?" Sirius cut him off.

Remus glared. "I was going to say hurt the mandrake. Besides, can you imagine how much trouble we'd get in? Forget detention! We'd be expelled."

Sirius tousled Remus's hair, getting dirt in it. "You don't have to help us."

"If I don't help, you'd definitely get caught," Remus grumbled, trying to knock the dirt out of his hair but just ended up rubbing it in more. "No, I'll help if you're that determined."

"Thattaboy!" Sirius put his arm around him as he moaned miserably. "Come on, let's get cleaned up."

"Can't... I have to meet—Pomfrey soon." He had nearly said Dumbledore, yikes. Remus checked James's watch. They got out a bit early from class but not early enough to make it to the dorms for a shower. He was going to be covered in grime. Great. "I'll see you at lunch." He stopped by one of the bathrooms so he could at least scrub off his hands and face before heading to the gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore's office. There was a clock down the hall which he kept an eye on until sufficient time had passed, then told the gargoyle, "Pepper imps." The gargoyle moved, revealing a staircase. Remus climbed up, feeling nervous, feeling gross for not being able to get clean. He knocked at the door then cautiously opened it when he heard Dumbledore's voice.