Monday, 4th September 1972
With so much to do, the weekend had sped by and much sooner than Remus thought possible it was Monday, and time for classes to begin. He'd been dismayed at breakfast, on receiving his timetable, to find he would have to suffer through double potions that afternoon, but before that nightmare began they had Charms, followed by their first Defence lesson with Professor Tenebris.
'What do you think she'll be like?' James asked as they approached the second-floor where the new classroom was located.
'No idea, I just hope we learn some offensive spells this year,' Sirius said. 'Magical creatures are interesting enough, but it's not very practical, is it? I mean, realistically speaking, how likely are we to ever fight a dragon?'
'Us in particular?' Peter asked. 'Or people in general? Because those are two very different answers.'
Sirius snorted. 'You may have a point there.'
'I liked Professor Hawthorne's classes,' Remus said. His voice came out sounding a little more annoyed than he intended.
'We all did,' Sirius said, frowning. 'I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry.'
Remus sighed. 'Yeah, I know you didn't. It's just having Defence without him. Feels kind of weird, you know? It's making me grouchy.'
'I'm just trying not to think about it, to be honest,' James said. Remus glanced up at him. His face looked a little pale, and Remus felt guilty for reminding him. James had spent the most time looking at the body out of all of them, convinced as he was that it was fake.
'Sorry. I'll stop talking about it.'
James nodded in thanks. 'Let's get this over with then.'
Only then did Remus realise they'd reached the classroom. It looked a lot different from the previous space. It was above ground for starters, so sunlight streamed in through the many windows to the left of the door and bounced off the mirrored glass which lined the wall opposite, making the room feel much larger than it really was. There were no desks or chairs in the room and the students that had already arrived were milling around a little confused as to what they were supposed to be doing.
'Well, this looks very promising,' Sirius said, gazing around.
James grinned. 'I'm very much liking the lack of studying apparatus.'
At the back of the room was a short staircase leading to a closed door, behind which, Remus assumed, the Professor's office was located. His assumption was confirmed when a moment later the door opened and Professor Tenebris descended the stairs wearing a skin-tight suit in deep purple, her white-blonde hair flowing loose around her shoulders. Remus felt that same shudder run down his spine again.
When she reached the bottom, she stood calmly, waiting for the students to give her their attention. It only took a few seconds before the room was silent.
'Welcome, all of you. My name is Professor Tenebris, and this year I'll be teaching you all how to duel.'
At that announcement, a ripple of excitement passed through the room.
'But first, we must of course take the register.'
She worked quickly through their names but glanced up after each one to see which student responded. Remus may have imagined it, but he thought he detected the smallest of sneers cross her face when he answered his own name. Was she going to be prejudiced? Is that why he was sensing something off about her?
'Now,' she said when the register was over. 'Before we begin casting spells at each other, we must learn the proper form. There are many different stances in duelling, but today we'll be concentrating on a few of the most effective defensive poses.'
She had them all line up in front of the mirrored wall with their wands out and practice various defensive stances designed for casting, deflecting, dodging and ducking. She demonstrated each stance herself, explaining its main uses, and both its strengths and weaknesses before asking them to copy her. This explained the skin-tight outfit; it would have been difficult for them to mimic the position of her legs if she was wearing traditional duelling robes.
James and Sirius seemed to be having a great time, messing about and striking silly poses in between practising, but Remus wasn't as keen on paying so much attention to his own image in the glass, and when he glanced at Peter, he thought he might be feeling similarly.
At the end of the lesson, Professor Tenebris clapped her hands together. 'Great job everyone, Next lesson, we'll be learning the shield charm, protego, so I'd like you all to practice these poses for homework, particularly the defensive casting stance. Enjoy your lunch.'
The class began to collect their bags from under the windows when the Professor spoke again. 'Oh. Mister Lupin, would you just wait a moment, please?'
Remus shrugged at his friends' questioning looks and asked them to save him a seat in the Great Hall, before grabbing his things and walking over to the front of the room. Professor Tenebris waited for the rest of the class to file out before turning to him.
'I've been informed of your… affliction,' she said. 'I hope you aren't expecting special treatment because you will get none from me. You'll be expected to have your homework done to the same deadline as everyone else and to make up the work from any classes you have to miss in your own time.'
Since Remus was already doing exactly that for all his other classes, he wasn't particularly bothered by the content of her speech, but her tone made him bristle. 'I do not, and never have expected special treatment,' he said. 'And I think you'll find my work more than satisfactory despite my affliction, as you put it.'
'Five points from Gryffindor for your rudeness, Mister Lupin. Perhaps you should remember who you're speaking to.'
Remus had to bite his tongue to keep his temper from exploding. That wasn't even fair; she'd provoked him! Points are a meaningless tool used to control, he told himself, repeating James' favourite reasoning whenever they lost more points in a single day than Gryffindor had earned all week. It didn't really help much, though. He wasn't upset about the points; he was upset about the unfairness of her punishing him at all.
She let him leave after thoroughly upsetting him, and Remus stormed from the room and felt a wave of relief when he found Sirius leaning up against the wall right outside, waiting for him.
'Hey Moonbeam,' he said, pushing himself off the wall to walk beside him. 'James and Pete went to grab our spot. What was that about?'
Remus shrugged but avoided looking at Sirius. 'The usual. You know—' He glanced around to make sure there was no one nearby. '—just because you turn into a bloodthirsty monster once a month, don't go thinking you can hand your homework in late.'
Sirius scowled at him. 'Okay, one, Moony is not a bloodthirsty monster. Moony is a puppy dog. And two, did she say that? Cause if she did—'
'You'll what? Duel the duelling teacher?' Remus asked with a raised eyebrow.
'I was going to say I'd speak to Dumbledore, but if you want to watch me duelling, I could do that.'
Remus laughed. 'It's fine. She didn't say anything awful, really. She called it my "affliction".'
'Well, that's… I guess she was trying to be polite.'
Remus didn't really think that was the case, but he didn't want to make a fuss. When he turned seventeen, his details on the werewolf registry would be made public, so he'd better get used to people being rude when they learned what he was.
'Yeah, at least she tried,' he said.
Potions class was uneventful. They weren't brewing today, just learning the properties of new ingredients. But the smells from the previous class hung around in the air, so Remus tried not to breathe too much, and only through his mouth.
Since they were already in the dungeon, they took the opportunity when class ended to meander down to the old Defence classroom but found their way blocked by a new door that had definitely not been there the year before.
'Should have known they wouldn't just make it out of bounds and expect us to obey,' James said, frowning.
'It's probably alarmed too,' Remus said, letting his hand hover close to the wood. The energy in the door was hot, and it crashed through him like a wave on a stormy day. He pulled his hand back quickly with a gasp. 'Yeah, there's definitely something protecting it. Something strong.'
'Right, so best not attempt to open it just yet then,' James said. 'How's the detector coming along?'
Remus rolled his eyes. 'I've barely started. It's not exactly simple.'
'How long do you think?'
'A few weeks at least.'
James sighed, but it sounded more disappointed than annoyed. 'Back to the dorm, then?'
They congregated on the floor in the middle of the room. James, Peter and Remus all sat with their backs up against the foot of their beds but Sirius, in his characteristic disregard for conventionality, decided to instead drape himself across the floor with his head in Remus' lap. Much to his surprise, Remus found he didn't much mind and proceeded to run his fingers through Sirius' hair while they talked.
'The Niffler Hunt will have to be the last weekend of the month since the full moon isn't until the 23rd,' Peter said. 'I've worked out a brewing schedule, we'll need to start on the 16th.'
James was noting the dates down in their newly purchased Marauder Journal as Peter spoke. The notebook they'd been using the previous year was far too small for the purpose, and James had spent a large portion of his pocket money over the summer on a self-expanding journal. New pages would materialise as needed until the magic wore out, and it was guaranteed for at least 5000 pages. The new book was dark red with Marauder's journal written across the front in swirly gold lettering.
'Great, that gives us two weeks to organise everything else. We need a list of items people need to find and posters to announce the event,' James said.
Sirius stuck his hand in the air. 'I can do posters.'
James nodded and wrote something in the book.
'Pete and I can work out a list,' Remus said. 'Include some obscure muggle stuff and whatnot. From looking through Fab and Gids journal, its only the low point items that change each year, The high value ones only change if the teachers do.'
'Thank Merlin for that,' James said. He wrote something else in the journal and looked up. 'How're the designs for the Den coming along?'
Sirius sat up and crawled over to his desk, grabbed a few sheets of parchment off the top and crawled back over to hand them to James, before resuming his spot next to Remus. After settling his head back in Remus' lap, he grabbed Remus' hand and placed it on his head. Remus chuckled and resumed stroking him. The nickname he had given Sirius in his full moon letter couldn't be more apt.
'I can do more if you don't like any of those,' Sirius said after James had looked at them all and not said a word.
'No. No, these are great. I'm just struggling to decide which one I like the most.'
'Can I see?' Peter asked.
James shuffled over to him so he could look too.
'Oh, I like this one, with the vines.'
'Yeah, me too. But don't you think this one is more suited to the purpose of the room?' James held up one of the sheets.
Peter nodded thoughtfully. 'I can see your point. You don't think it's a bit cheesy, though?'
'Hm. Maybe,' James put the sheet to one side and held up the third one. 'What about this one? I like all the colour.'
'Might give us a headache if we're in there a long time, though.'
'True, true. So the vines then?'
Peter nodded.
'Don't I get a say in this?' Remus asked.
James laughed. 'Depends if you can escape from Sirius' clutches and make it over here.'
Remus glanced down at Sirius, who grinned at him, then looked back at James. 'That doesn't seem likely. Can't you bring them over here?'
'Urgh, fine. But only because Sirius looks so comfortable.' James crawled forward and handed the papers to Sirius, who handed them to Remus with a smug grin on his face.
The topmost paper showed the Den, the walls alive with swirling colours. It was mesmerising, but Remus could see how it might become nauseating after a while. The next showed the Den again, but this time each wall was painted the colours of one of the houses with its animal mascot and a banner showing the main traits of the house. While the animals were beautifully rendered and the style suited to the room's usage, it was, as Peter said, "a little cheesy." The third picture, though, took Remus' breath away.
The walls of the Den were hidden behind snaking vines in black, bronze, silver and gold, bursting with life. Crimson, emerald, yellow and blue flowers covered every inch of them and there were so many different varieties that Remus struggled to find two alike.
'This is beautiful. You really think you can do this?'
Sirius put on a suitably wounded expression and clutched at his chest. 'I can't believe you would doubt me. I'm devastated, Remus. It's like a dagger through my heart.'
'Remus, how could you?' Peter said, laughing. 'You know his ego can't take anyone questioning his abilities.'
'I only meant, it looks like a lot of work.'
'Are you questioning my stamina?' Sirius asked him, quirking an eyebrow. ''Cause I'll have you know my energy levels are unsurpassed. You can test me if you like?'
Remus flushed. 'No, I think you'd be far too energetic for me. Sleep seems far more appealing.'
Sirius wiggled his eyebrows. 'One day, you'll get bored with sleeping so much, Nerd Boy. And I'll be waiting.'
James snorted. 'Alright, give him a break before he passes out from all the blood rushing to his cheeks.'
Remus ignored James' interruption; he wasn't going to let Sirius get the better of him this time. 'I hope you enjoy waiting then, Sirius, because if I get bored with sleeping I still have a lot of books I can read before I'll be bored enough to take you up on your offer.'
Sirius laughed. 'So what you're saying is, I need to burn all the books?'
'What? No! How on earth did you reach that conclusion?'
Remus' horror only made Sirius laugh harder. 'Merlin, your face!' Sirius reached up and patted Remus' cheek. 'Don't worry, my little Nerd Boy, I promise not to harm the books.'
Remus scowled at him. 'You better not.'
'If you two are finished?' James said. His grin morphed into an evil smirk. 'We need to discuss my plans for Snivellus.'
Several hours later, Remus dumped a pile of books onto the library table and scraped the chair back to sit down. He was beginning to regret his suggestion of manufacturing a magic detector. It was turning out to be a lot more complex than he'd anticipated, and they already knew the door was likely to be warded. Did they really need something to tell them what it was warded with? But James was so excited by the idea, and he didn't want to let him down. Even if he didn't have any real idea where to even start.
Remus let out a heavy sigh and pulled one of the thickest tomes towards him, Magical Theory by Polina Sinthe. Before he could figure out a method of detection, he would need a thorough understanding of magic itself.
A sudden influx of students entering the library an hour later made Remus look up from the notes he'd been taking and check his watch. He was startled to find it was already lunchtime. Magical theory had turned out to be absolutely fascinating, and he was loath to stop reading, but his stomach grumbled at him, so he put the rest of the books back, before taking Sinthe's up to the checkout desk. He could continue studying it in the dorm later.
As he left through the main doors and started down the corridor towards the Grand Staircase, Snape and Regulus rounded the corner up ahead.
'Seems like you've lost your boyfriends, Lupin,' Snape called to him with a sneer.
Remus rolled his eyes. Did Snape really think that insinuation bothered him? 'Looks like you finally managed to make a friend, Snivellus. Your mother must be proud.'
They had reached each other by this point, and Remus met Regulus' eyes. The boy looked uncomfortable, and Remus felt a flash of sympathy. It wasn't his fault he didn't have the courage to go against his family, and now he was left with people like Snape as his only choices for companionship.
Snape lifted his arm and only then did Remus notice he already had his wand out. Bugger.
'Langlock,' Snape whispered before Remus could even reach his own wand.
Remus gasped as he felt his tongue glue itself to the roof of his mouth.
Snape smirked at him. 'Perhaps that will teach you to be quiet when around your betters, Lupin.' With a toss of his robes, he walked away. Regulus shot him an apologetic look before following Snape into the library.
Remus growled in frustration at not being able to respond and began descending the stairs. He would need to make a detour to the Hospital Wing before he could meet the others, and, if his treatment took long enough to make him miss lunch, Snape was going to regret his actions today. Remus would make sure of it.
Sirius tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the show to begin. He was supposed to be using reparifarge to revert the partially transfigured teapot on his desk back into an orchid, but most of his concentration was taken up with watching the blackboard behind Professor McGonagall. The rest was trying not to think about sneaking through the castle under the invisibility cloak with Remus the night before.
They had all travelled together to the Den, before Sirius and Remus took the cloak to the Transfiguration classroom and then the Slytherin dungeons, leaving James and Peter to brew the necessary potion. Sirius wasn't sure why being so close to Remus was making him feel so warm and tingly in his stomach now when he'd spent a considerable amount of time during the last weeks of the previous term making sure he was as close to him as he could get. But he thought it probably had something to do with the kiss and the way he'd been thinking about him all summer to get through the torture. He needed to put a stop to it, but he hadn't figured out a way to do that yet. Instead, he was just trying to not to think about Remus like that anymore.
The most difficult part of Mission Secret Admirer—as James had named it—had been getting the potion into Snape's morning juice. Spiking the jug in the kitchen had been ruled out because they wanted Snape to be the only one affected; the potion had to be added to Snape's goblet only. After much discussion, it had been decided that the best way to accomplish the task was through distraction and deceit. And so the four Marauders had approached the Slytherin table at breakfast on the pretext of Sirius needing a word with Regulus. While Sirius spoke to Regulus about a completely fictitious letter he'd received from their Uncle Alphard, inviting them to spend the Easter holidays with him, James engaged Snape in an argument about the ludicrous size of his nose and Remus had slipped behind him unnoticed, and poured the few drops of potion into his pumpkin juice. Sirius felt it was their smoothest execution of a plan to date.
A few minutes later, Sirius' wait was over and he watched with unrestrained glee as the first lines of the poem chalked themselves across the blackboard.
Oh Snivellus Snape, I love you so.
You look so dashing in your hot pink robes.
As the final 's' finished forming, Sirius glanced over to the object of the poem's affections and was gratified to see that Remus had timed it perfectly. Like James' robes had done the year before, Snape's robes changed from regulation-black to hot pink in the space of a second; unlike James, Snape could not pull it off, and he looked between his robes and the words on the board in horror. A few students had noticed the words on the board and were pointing them out to their friends and giggling. Professor McGonagall hadn't yet noticed; her focus remained on the papers she was grading. Hopefully, that would continue for another minute or two. Remus said he didn't care if he was caught, but Sirius would prefer it if he wasn't.
The next two lines began to form on the blackboard and Snape's lips moved as he read them to himself. His expression becoming more horrified with every word, and his hand creeping up to touch his hair gingerly.
And your greasy hair sticks up in the air,
so gloriously it's beyond compare.
Over the past few seconds, Snape's hair had been inching its way into the air until every strand was standing on end. Most of the class had noticed his predicament by this point and were openly staring while trying to suppress their laughter so as to not alert the teacher. Sirius was struggling on that front himself. As soon as the next part was complete, he would let himself lose control, but they needed all eyes on Snape so no one would see where the spell came from. It hadn't been possible to set this part up ahead of time.
As the next words scrawled themselves across the board, Remus bent forward with his wand near the ground and whispered, 'Furnunculus maxima.'
It was a delicate task. Remus needed to aim precisely to make sure he hit Snape's leg while missing everyone else's between him and them, but, as usual, Remus pulled it off spectacularly. The jet of orange light skimmed across the floor of the classroom, passing between the legs of several students before hitting Snape in the ankle. The boils would burst to life first at the place of impact, and so it would take about three seconds for them to spread out to a place where they'd be visible; exactly how much time it would take for the next two lines of the poem to finish writing themselves across the board.
The weeping pustules that adorn your skin,
are the loveliest things I have ever seen.
The class could no longer contain their laughter by this point, and Snape had let out a little shriek when the spell made contact. Either of these alone may have been ignored by McGonagall. Neither occurrence was exactly uncommon during Transfiguration. But the two things combined made her look up and take notice of Snape's situation.
'Mister Snape,' she said. 'Who did this?'
'I didn't see anyone. But I believe it was Potter and his friends.' Snape pointed at the board, and McGonagall looked around to see the last lines of the poem appearing. 'They're the only ones that use that name.'
McGonagall was silent for a moment as her eyes scanned over the words on the board. It was long enough for the poem to finish writing itself, much to Sirius' delight.
And when I get close enough to you,
to smell the stench of animal poo,
I breathe in deep, and say to my mates,
that Snivellus Snape is just so great.
At the exact moment that Professor McGonagall turned back to face the class, the dungbomb attached to the ceiling unglued itself and landed on Snape's head, coating him in the noxious substance inside, and splattering many of those sitting closest to him. Including Evans. Everyone in the room that hadn't been hit erupted into peals of laughter at the sight of Snape's boil-covered scowl.
Professor McGonagall sighed in the manner of one who dealt with this kind of thing every day. 'Take yourself to the Hospital Wing, Mister Snape.' Snape hurried to obey, clearly wanting to escape the classroom as fast as possible, and McGonagall turned to the Marauders. 'Potter, Black, Lupin and Pettigrew. Detention tonight. The rest of you, get back to work.'
She cast a few spells to clean the students affected by the dungbomb and remove the smell from the room. The second she returned her attention to the papers on her desk, James spun around in his chair and gave Sirius and Remus a high five.
'Just one detention! That couldn't have been more worth it.'
Sirius couldn't agree more.
After the lesson, they bid farewell to Remus as he split from the group to head to the library to do more research while the rest of them walked downstairs and out of the main doors towards the training grounds. Remus, unsurprisingly, had opted not to continue flying lessons after the first year. But for James and Sirius, while they didn't strictly need them, the opportunity to spend an hour a week on the back of a broom was irresistible.
They had a great time flying the obstacle course Madam Hooch had set up to test their abilities, and by the end of the hour, all three of them were windswept and ruby-cheeked.
'Hey, Nerd Boy,' Sirius said, taking his seat beside Remus in the Great Hall. 'You missed a great lesson.'
'And you missed a wonderfully peaceful hour in the library,' Remus replied.
'Sounds awful.'
'Well, then I think we both chose our preferred option, don't you?'
'Did you make any progress?' James asked.
'A little,' Remus said with a nod. 'I have some workable theories about how to pull this off.'
'Excellent.'
'Check out Snivellus,' Sirius said, making Remus look up, and James and Peter turn around.
Snape was sitting near the middle of the Slytherin table. His robes were back to their regulation-black, his hair was as lank and greasy as always, hanging down around his boil-free face. But there was a good six-foot gap between him and the people closest to him on both sides. Clearly, he hadn't been able to remove the stench of being hit with the dungbomb yet, and not even his fellow Slytherins wanted to be anywhere near him.
'Serves him right,' James said, turning back to face him with a derisive laugh. 'Maybe he'll leave Regulus alone now.'
Sirius scowled. 'He better.'
They retreated to their dorm after lunch and spent the afternoon getting all their homework done, knowing that if they left it to pile up, it would impede their Marauder duties, and none of them wanted that to happen. When all the written work was out of the way, they practised their stances for Defence, before testing each other's shields with stupefy, although no one dared to stun Remus; he was the only one who could revive them.
Later that night, when they were changing for bed after spending a few hours in the common room (enjoying the fact that they were no longer the youngest students in the Tower), Remus approached him. He was rubbing his hands together as if he was nervous, and Sirius raised a questioning eyebrow at him.
'You've been having a lot of nightmares,' Remus said.
Talk about stating the obvious. Sirius just nodded at him to continue.
'Every night since we came back to school.'
'What's your point, Remus?' Sirius was getting annoyed. If he asked what they were about again, he was going to snap.
'You don't seem to have any more after I wake you up.'
'No.'
Remus swallowed and then spoke in a rush. 'What if I just sleep in your bed from the start instead of waiting until you've had a bad dream? I think we'd all get a better night's sleep.'
Sirius stared at him for a moment. He hated feeling weak; like he needed help. But this was Remus. 'Yeah, alright. If you're okay with that,' he said.
Remus merely smiled at him, his golden eyes glinting in the torchlight, and climbed into Sirius' bed holding a book. 'Do you mind if I read for a bit?'
Sirius scoffed. Of course he didn't mind.
With Remus cuddled up on his chest, and Cosmo curled up beside him, Sirius slept through the night for the first time since the sleepover at James' and he woke up feeling refreshed and full of energy. There was nothing he couldn't do.
The morning sped by fast. In Charms, they finished up their work on duro by making a pillow rock-hard, and in Transfiguration, they covered the theory of altering a plant's material make-up to change it into an inanimate object. After lunch, it was finally time for their second Defence lesson with Professor Tenebris, and Sirius was looking forward to showing off his skills with the shield charm.
She had dispensed with the skin-tight outfit that day and instead was dressed in traditional robes, blood red in colour. After demonstrating the charm, Professor Tenebris asked them to form a line in front of the mirror and practise casting it while maintaining the correct defensive stance. It surprised no one when the four Marauders all cast perfect shield charms on their first attempt, grinning at each other triumphantly through their reflections.
'Mister Lupin, since you find it so appropriate to show off, perhaps you would help me demonstrate how the shield charm might be used in an actual duel?' Professor Tenebris said in an icy tone.
Sirius didn't think that was very fair. Remus hadn't been the only one showing off after all, and what exactly was wrong with showing off, anyway? They could do the spell, were they supposed to pretend they couldn't? But Remus shot him a warning look, so he kept his mouth shut and watched as Remus took a position opposite the teacher and raised his wand in preparation.
Remus easily shielded against the first stupefy and held the shield in place through the second and third. As his spell began to falter, he shifted from the defensive casting stance into one for dodging and when the shield failed he dodged left to avoid the next stupefy. Unfortunately, that was where his luck ran out. Professor Tenebris cast a barrage of spells in quick succession. Remus threw his shield back up, and the first two jets of light hit the shimmering wall of magic and dissipated, but the third passed straight through and hit Remus square in the chest. He crumpled to the floor as if his legs had turned boneless, and his head hit the ground with a thunk.
'Remus!' Sirius, James and Peter all cried in unison, rushing forwards to check on their friend. As Sirius crouched down beside him, James whirled on the teacher.
'Why would you use a spell he couldn't shield against?' James demanded.
Having made sure Remus was still breathing, Sirius glanced up to see Professor Tenebris frown at James.
'I didn't mean for that to happen,' she said. 'Could you all move out of the way, please? I need to make sure he's okay.'
Sirius and Peter backed away so she could reach Remus, and she quickly cast a diagnostic charm. James wasn't ready to give up, though. 'What did you expect to happen exactly?' he demanded. His tone was bordering on insolent and Sirius winced.
Professor Tenebris stood up and turned to face James. She eyed him up and down, and Sirius saw the tip of her tongue dart out to wet her lips as she considered him. 'Detention, Mister Potter. My office, tomorrow at six pm. Speaking that way to a teacher is unacceptable. But to answer your question, if Mister Lupin had been paying attention to the lecture, he would have known that protego is useless against jinxes. I expected him to dodge. Honestly, he'd appeared quite proficient up to that point, but I clearly overestimated his abilities. My mistake. Still, no harm done, Mister Lupin will be fine after a quick trip to Madame Pomfrey.'
'I'll take him,' Sirius said quickly.
Professor Tenebris looked at him doubtfully. 'He's unconscious, I think it will take at least two of you.'
'I'll help,' James said, giving Peter a significant look.
Peter got the message. 'I'll go with them too, open the doors for them.'
Professor Tenebris nodded her assent, and Sirius and James hooked Remus' arms over their shoulders and hauled him to his feet. His head flopped forward onto his chest and they dragged him from the classroom as Peter held the door open for them.
They were halfway to the Hospital Wing when Remus came around. Honestly, with how long he was unconscious for Sirius was wondering if he would've survived without the lycanthropy.
'What happened?' Remus asked blearily, trying to support his weight by himself and failing miserably.
'Jelly-legs jinx took you out, mate,' James told him.
'Gods, really? How embarrassing.'
'Not really,' Sirius said. 'You were on fire before that. Holding your own against the Defence teacher for as long as you did was pretty impressive.'
Remus rewarded him with a bright smile. 'Yeah, I was pretty awesome, wasn't I?'
'You were magnificent,' Sirius said. 'Now up you go.'
They'd reached the Hospital Wing, and Sirius and James deposited Remus onto the nearest bed. Sirius looked around to find Madame Pomfrey, but she was already hurrying towards them.
'What seems to be the matter?'
'He got hit with a jelly-legs jinx and banged his head on the floor,' Sirius said.
'Alright, you three can go. He'll be back with you in an hour or so.'
James looked set to argue, but Sirius and Peter grabbed his arms and dragged him from the room. Sirius shouted a cheeky, 'See you later, Nerd Boy,' over his shoulder as they left.
'You already got detention for arguing with Professor Tenebris,' Sirius said. 'Last thing you need is to be banned from the Hospital Wing for annoying Madame Pomfrey.'
'But don't worry,' Peter added. 'Sirius and I are here to save you from yourself.'
Remus didn't appear during lunch, so they took some food back to the dorm for him and he arrived an hour later, his legs back to normal and a smile on his face.
'All better,' he said, sitting on the bed next to Sirius and letting his head drop onto his shoulder. 'I'm still pretty tired though.'
He knew it was just habit leftover from spending several weeks immersing himself in contact to desensitise himself to touch, but Sirius still got a little thrill whenever Remus chose to sit beside him instead of on his own bed.
'Have a nap if you want. We've got Astronomy tonight, anyway. I'll wake you up for dinner.'
Remus agreed, snuggling down next to him on the bed and Sirius continued working on his essay for Transfiguration, occasionally glancing down and smiling at how relaxed Remus looked in sleep, his forehead smoothed of the pained creases that so frequently marred his skin.
By Friday evening, a full week had passed since they'd arrived back at Hogwarts and Sirius was feeling more like himself. With Remus spending the nights in his bed, he was sleeping better, and regularly consuming three solid meals a day had his appetite almost back to normal.
Really, the only issue still plaguing him was Regulus. His brother seemed to have turned against him more thoroughly in one short week than Sirius had thought possible in a full year. It broke his heart that his only ally in his first eleven years of life would no longer give him the time of day, but he had no idea what he could do about it.
The problem came to a head on Saturday morning. The Marauders were enjoying a lazy morning in the dorm, listening to their radio, knowing that the next weekend they would need to start brewing the potion for the Niffler Hunt when the peace was interrupted by the click-click of an owl's beak against glass. They all looked towards the window, but it was Sirius that stood to open it. He would recognise his mother's screech owl anywhere.
After removing the scroll from the owl's leg, he unrolled it and read the short missive quickly, growing angrier by the second. When he reached the end, he closed his hand into a fist, screwing the parchment up into a ball in the process, and stormed from the dormitory to hunt down Regulus.
What the fuck did that boy think he was doing?
