Remus sat upright with a cry of confusion, clutching his chest. He looked at his closed curtains, hearing voices outside of them. James and Peter at least, and music. Pushing the curtains aside, he first glanced at the clock—ten-thirteen—then at the room. Clean.
"You all right?" Sirius asked. He and the other two were on James's bed playing cards. Dave and Spinnet were in their beds, reading a book and a magazine respectively.
"Uh—yeah." He rubbed his head as he got out of bed. "What happened?"
Sirius dropped his cards and hopped out of bed, taking Remus's sleeve to pull him out of the dorm. Once they were alone in the bathroom Sirius hissed, "You passed out again!" He gave Remus a gentle shove. "You bloody idiot! What the hell is wrong with you—"
"I was trying to help!" Remus reminded him, face growing hot. "We had to get everything clean before Spinnet came up. Ugh! It's late now, I had assignments to finish—"
"Remy, it's the weekend! You have two full days before our next class!" Sirius shook his head. "You need to rest. You look beyond exhausted." He reached out, as if wanting to touch Remus's face but his hand quickly pulled back and he looked awkward. "That was bad of us to have you help clean."
"You didn't make me," Remus pointed out. Then, "How did you finish cleaning?"
"House-elves," Sirius replied, and Remus frowned. "Don't scowl. We did a lot of cleaning. They simply… finished the job. It's fine. It was either that or Spinnet catching us."
Remus folded his arms, hunching his shoulders. It would be terrific to cover the sixth year Slytherin dorms in mud, and if Spinnet had caught the mud then it would definitely be an unusable prank. He hated having to use house-elves like that, though. Though Sirius did have a point. The Marauders did do a lot of the cleanup themselves.
So, without anything else to say on the mud matter, Remus said, "Thanks for not taking me to Pomfrey."
Sirius groaned. "We should have. You pushed yourself too much." The irritation in his voice softened as he reached out, putting a hand on Remus's shoulder. "You're barely getting any sleep. You look ready to drop."
"I always look ready to drop." Remus shrugged. "In any case, exams are next week plus I need to perfect the spell we're using for the feast."
Sirius blew up at that, and began lecturing Remus about what he needed was rest. How could he expect to pass anything on so little sleep? Remus said he would get sleep the week of the exams, he needed to study. Sirius said no he needed to rest, and Remus countered with the fact he had taken a nearly two hour nap that night already, he had gotten plenty of rest.
"THAT WASN'T A NAP!" Sirius shouted. "YOU PASSED OUT! PASSING OUT IS NOT A NAP!"
"It was still rest," Remus snapped right back. "I'm fine—"
Sirius grabbed him, pushing him towards a mirror. "You're not fine, you look like—it's ten days away but you look like it's tomorrow!"
Remus turned his head away so he didn't have to look at his exhausted reflection. "The holidays start in a week, I will get plenty of rest then."
"You will not. I know you, you'll spend the entire holiday doing homework."
Remus twisted all the way around, facing Sirius. This was a huge mistake since Sirius put his hands on the sink on either side of Remus, pinning him in. Too close. Far too close. Remus's heart rate went up, and he noticed Sirius's did too for some reason. There was something very wrong with the scenario, though he couldn't explain what.
It didn't help that Sirius remained silent, making the situation even stranger.
"I'll be fine," he whispered, too afraid to speak any louder with Sirius's face so close. "Please," he added, looking up through his fringe.
Sirius stared down at him then pulled away. "You're an absolute buffoon, you know that, right?"
"I learn from the best," he joked. Sirius rolled his eyes and smiled.
"I don't like you pushing yourself," Sirius said after a few seconds of silence. "I don't like seeing you exhausted."
"I'm always exhausted whether I stay up studying or not." Remus ran his fingers through his hair, glancing over as James and Peter came in to get ready for bed. "But thank you for your concern."
He quickly left to get his wash bag to get ready for bed; as the door shut he heard James say, "'Thank you for your concern' like we're strangers putting in a complaint to a shop or something instead of VERY WORRIED FRIENDS!" That last bit was shouted, completely intended for Remus to hear. And ignore.
They were absolute hypocrites though, as all three of them stayed up till at least three. James and Sirius went sneaking out to explore while Peter stayed up to check the door for them. Remus was still awake doing revisions for the exams when they finally returned, and he glared at the curtains even though they couldn't see.
The next morning he brought up their hypocritical behavior. They simply said they hadn't stayed up super late every night; it was fine to stay up late occasionally but every single night was too much. Remus sniffled, not arguing any further on the matter. Besides, it was a game day and he already had a headache since he had forgotten his earplugs. The Great Hall wasn't super loud, but the excitement for the Quidditch game bumped the volume up a few levels. Especially since this was the final game for both Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.
The others were going, though to Remus's surprise they were rooting for different houses. James and Sirius were decked out in blue and bronze for Ravenclaw. Peter was in yellow and black for Hufflepuff.
"If Ravenclaw wins, Gryffindor has a better chance at the cup!" James squeaked out, disgusted.
"I don't want to root for Ravenclaw," Peter said simply, spreading marmalade thick on his toast. "I wanna root for Hufflepuff. I'm not the only Gryffindor doing that." He indicated a large group of Gryffindors also in yellow and black.
"You're a traitor," Sirius joked and Peter shrugged, not caring.
"If Hufflepuff wins, Gryffindor still has a chance," he pointed out.
"A very narrow chance," James reminded him. "If Hufflepuff gets more than two hundred points, we have to be ahead of Slytherin by at least two goals before catching the Snitch! Unless Ravenclaw somehow gets two hundred and fifty points, we'll be fine if they win."
"That is a feasible score, is it not?" Remus asked and they stared at him. "Didn't you win your first game with… two hundred and seventy?"
"Yes but that's different," James said. "Our Chasers are better than Ravenclaw's Keeper, so it was easier for us to get the goals. Hufflepuff's Keeper is good, and I don't think the Ravenclaws have a chance to get that many goals off them. Ravenclaw's Keeper is all right. More than five goals from Hufflepuff is possible, unless Ravenclaw gets the Snitch first. Now, if Ravenclaw gets the Snitch first it will have to be early in the game, see, and they wouldn't be likely to have ten goals by that point. See?"
"Yes," Remus replied, a little uncertain. While he got the gist of it, Quidditch scores made little sense to him. He still thought there should be another, final game between the two best scoring teams. It just seemed so weird that if Hufflepuff did really good this game then they'd win, even if Gryffindor did pretty good their final game.
Plus his head ached and that didn't help trying to figure stuff out.
He wished his friends luck with the teams they were rooting for (which made Sirius call him a traitor too, when he told Petey good luck) then he gladly retreated to the cool, quiet of the library. Mr. Farrow greeted him with a smile, which cheered Remus up since he had never seen Mr. Farrow smile at anyone except for an older Ravenclaw he knew spent most of her time in the library too.
The late morning and afternoon were spent cramming by himself. After Ravenclaw won (one hundred and seventy points, which Remus knew would make James super happy), Aegis showed up to revise as well. Eventually Lily came in, and she and Aegis discussed the game, telling Remus about some of the highlights; all of which he heard again at supper from James.
"Their reserve keeper is too good," he sighed. "He was brought in for the final bit when Doyle got slammed by the Bludger. After that, Hufflepuff could not score at all. It's going to be rough next year when Doyle graduates."
"How about we not talk about the Ravenclaw team right now?" Peter asked in a rather bitter voice.
"What's wrong?" Sirius asked.
Peter began pouring gravy over his potatoes and the gravy spilled all across his plate, seeping into his vegetables and meat. "Nothing, I just don't want to talk about 'em." He set the pitcher down then stabbed the bit of beef rather viciously. "Are we doing written Potions first or practical?"
James and Sirius exchanged looks at the extremely blunt change of conversation. "Pr—practical," Remus replied, trying to ignore what just happened. Peter didn't want to talk about it. Maybe one of the Ravenclaw team members bullied Peter at some point and he never told them?
"Good, I like practical," Peter said, brightening up. "The writing stuff isn't too bad but practical is easier."
"Hopefully we don't have to deal with any Mulciber and Avery shit this time like we did in December," Sirius said, still eyeing Peter.
"Naw, I think we're doing the potion all in one go," James said, waving a butter knife around. "Individually."
Remus thought of the spell Aegis had given him the night before. He hadn't had a chance to practice it yet. With the practical exam on Monday, he needed to get it down pat. How advanced was it? It was in a pretty heavy medical tome so probably rather advanced. Could he get it perfected by Monday, or at least well enough to help some? On top of working on the Easter spell and revising for all the exams?
His shoulders drooped as he felt exhausted thinking about everything he needed to get done. He hadn't even gone through his History flashcards yet or practiced some of the spells he was sure would be needed for Charms! All right, spells he could do easily, but still. He needed to practice.
"I—I'll see you later." Remus pushed his plate away with one hand and grabbed for his satchel with the other.
"You barely ate," Sirius noted. "You're not going off to study more, are you?"
"Er, no, I'm not studying," he replied honestly. "Bye."
He went outside, marching across the grounds until he got to a place where there were loads of Griffin Claws, very pretty flowers shaped like bird claws… and with a powerful smell. He sat down by a patch of them, pulling out the note from Aegis.
"Caria-abseni—oh, no." He squinted, rereading Aegis's handwriting. "Cariabsenium." He tapped his nose then took in a deep whiff of the flowers. He could still smell them. "Cariabsenium."
Remus tried again and again as the sun moved closer to the horizon. He grew exhausted and a little weak, continuing to push himself until he finally was able to block some of the scent out. By that point the sun had set. He had been sitting there for almost three hours.
"Ooof!" He stretched his legs out, rubbing them as the cramps faded. "Finite incantatum." He hoped that would end the spell. "Finite incantatum!" No, some of the scents were still faded. "Shit." He scrambled to his feet, panicking a little. "Finite incantatum!" He tapped his nose desperately, then wondered… would it be so bad if the spell remained?
Yes, he realized, after a few seconds of thinking. Not necessarily this version of the spell when he could still smell things, but if he completely blocked scents out that—he wouldn't like that to be permanent.
Right. He grabbed his bag and hurried back to the castle, going as quickly as he could, hoping the spell would just wear off on its own. He thought it was a little before eight, and maybe had time to swing by the library; except when he went into the entrance hall he ran straight into a prefect who took points off for him being out of his common room after curfew.
"It's—it's n-not eight yet!" he argued.
"It's after eight," the prefect said, pointing at a nearby clock. 8:14. "Get to your common room."
"I need to go to the library!" he said without thinking.
She folded her arms, giving him a glare. "It's after curfew, Lupin. Common room. Now. Before I remove more points." She wrote out a quick note saying she had removed points for his infringement, and at what time. That way so long as he went straight for the common room he could show other prefects without losing more points.
Remus debated going to the library anyway, then remembered he still had to go to the owlery. It would be four weeks since he started the medicinal regime, and the last day of giving it to him three times a week. On the sixth floor he had to show another prefect both the note from the first prefect and the note about being allowed to give Arthur medicine. The Gryffindor prefect took him to the owlery, obviously not trusting him.
Arthur was doing loads better. He flew down to Remus's arm as soon as he went in, snuggling up against him. "You look so good," he said, stroking Arthur. "So much better. You look several years younger."
Arthur puffed his chest out, feathers plumping out too. He gave a happy hoot and began nibbling at Remus's tie, demanding his treat. Remus laughed and sat on a bench, getting the owl treats out as well as the medicine. He carefully put three drops on a treat before feeding it to Arthur who gobbled it down.
"You act as if I starve you," he accused, and Arthur flapped his wings. "I need to go, I can't stay. I'm sorry." He kissed Arthur's head then stood up, watching him fly back to his nest. "I'll come by tomorrow."
The prefect led him to the Gryffindor tower, and Remus stammered out a thanks before slipping through the entrance hole, managing not to fall for once. He scanned the room, not seeing the other Marauders. First he checked the dorm, not at all surprised to find them not there either. Sighing, he trudged back down to the common room to work on his flashcards. A few minutes after he sorted them out, a shadow crossed over the table.
Remus glanced up to see David standing there, looking awkward.
"I hate to bother you but could I get a little help? With—with some revision?"
He didn't really want to help, feeling more in the mood to be by himself. Feeling too tired to be much of a help anyway. However, if David needed help he'd be glad to try. He liked feeling useful, liked feeling like he was doing some good. "Of c-course." He scooped up the cards, straightening them out before setting them on the corner of the table. "What do you n-need help with?"
David sank down into the chair across the table. "It's stupid."
"It's n-nothing ever stupid," Remus reassured him. "Some p-people have difficulties with—with certain things. Nothing wr-wrong with that."
"It's stupid because I need help with some of the maths stuff, in Transfiguration," David admitted.
"Why w-would that be st—stupid?" Remus asked, digging into his bag for parchment.
David shrugged. "Because… I'm—I mean, well. I've actually taken maths classes before. You know, Andy said—he says more purebloods don't. Take classes, I mean. Before coming here."
Remus shook his head. "No, that's—yeah. No, they d-don't. Most families either t-teach their ch—children what they n-need to know or else they—they hire tutors."
David made a face. "Seems weird to me."
"Well…" Remus nibbled at his quill, trying to figure out how to say what he meant. "A—a lot of pureblood ch—children c-can't be trusted to keep their tongues, if they're in a—a Muggle school. I mean, I c-can picture six year old James r-rambling about Quidditch and—and the Ministry n-needing to swoop in with oblivation spells."
David grinned. "You've got a point about that. Still, you'd think there would be a primary school."
"Well, in—in a l-lot of communities there's a—a t-teacher usually, if there are enough kids to warrant one," Remus explained. "It d-depends on the size. Hogsmeade has—has one, while places such as where P-Peter grew up do not. His mother taught him m—magical stuff at home, however his c-case is a bit different since he did go to a Muggle school. B-but since he's half-and-half he underst—stood Muggles more than, say, J-James would."
"What about you?"
Remus averted his gaze. "My p-parents taught me. Which parts of—of the Transfiguration are you—you having difficulties with?"
"Figuring out weight and mass," replied David. "You know, we don't even use it when we do the spells. I don't see why we need to know…"
"If you d-don't have a basic understa-standing of the calculations your—your transfigurations could go wrong," Remus said, looking down at the blank parchment. "You d-don't need to write out the—the additions or divisions every time but as long as you have a—a grasp of the numbers behind what—what's needed the spell works b-better."
"That makes very little sense to me! I mean, you know some numbers—in your head—so somehow the spell goes better?" David snorted, shaking his head. "So weird."
"M-magic is part of you, it's not—not just… wave your w-wand and something happens. It takes what you know and what you can do. It goes off of that." He had begun doodling on the edges of his parchment which gave him an idea. "Here." He pushed the parchment over. "Write the word 'dissimulation'."
"Diswhat!?"
"Dissimulation," Remus said. David hesitated then carefully wrote it out. "Good, now write down your name."
David sighed, writing it down. "The point of this? Besides probably being amused that I can't spell diswhatever. Which I misspelled."
"Doesn't matter if it's m-misspelled." Remus tugged the parchment back. "Using magic and spells is like when you write. How to form the letters is there inside of you, but you had to learn it before you could. You don't think when you're writing a letter. Those are the very basic spells. Lumos, and such. You know the spell, you know the wand movement. As we get to more complicated spells it's like writing down words. When you know exactly how a word is spelled it's not something you really… call on whenever you write it, it's a bit automatic. And when you get to words you're not used to, you have to think of the letters. Write the word—or do the spell enough times—and it becomes easier. Knowing how letters are shaped… or knowing how spells are done… makes it easier."
David stared at him, and Remus was aware some nearby seventh years were staring at him too. He became extremely self-conscious, and tugged at his collar, wanting to pull his jumper up over his head to disappear.
"Excuse me," one of the seventh years said, leaning across the armrest of her chair. "What year are you?"
Remus did tug the collar up a bit, just over his chin. He knew his face was bright red. "Um, se-s-s-second."
"Huh. Good explanation, kid."
"Th… thank… you?"
She returned to her conversation while Remus debated running up to his room to stay in for the rest of the night; he probably would have if David didn't still need help. He took in a deep breath, forcing himself to stay put.
"You're really smart," David said, impressed. "You really like school, don't you? Learning and all that?"
"Y-yes, very much so." He slid down in his chair a little, grateful the only eyes on him seemed to be David now. "Learning new thing is—is one of the best feelings in the world. I love knowing things. Knowing n-new things."
"Hey, that's cool," David said, and Remus smiled a little. "I like learning some things. Magic's pretty neat but sometimes it is a bit hard for me."
Remus studied him for a few seconds. "If—if you don't mind me asking, what was it like for you? Finding out about m-magic."
"No, I—that's fine," David said. "I wasn't surprised—all right no, I was surprised a bit just not… shocked. I've always been able to do odd things. Sometimes I'd have dreams that came true, or I'd say something and it might happen."
"Like what?" Remus asked, very curious.
David sat back, eyes drifting around the common room as he thought of examples. "Like one time I got really excited over seeing this dog and I kept describing the dog. Nobody in my family ever saw a dog like that until a week later when we got new neighbors and they had that exact dog. Um, one time I told my grandparents not to leave the house. I forget how old I was but I was begging them not to go cause I had this real bad feeling. I threw a fit, holding them up. They eventually left then came back to our house because there was a super bad wreck—multiple cars, a few deaths. If they had left on time they probably would have been in it. Oh, another time I suggested some numbers to my parents who used them and we won two hundred and fifty pounds."
"You're psychic," Remus said, very startled by this. He had lived in the same room with David for well over a year and a half and had no idea.
David looked a little uncomfortable. "I don't know if I'd go that far. It wasn't only psychic stuff. I've always had this thing with water too. Well, liquids." He began messing with the cover of his Transfiguration book, chewing at his lip. "One time my sister knocked over a glass of juice and instead of spilling into my lap where it should have gone, it stayed in the cup."
"Still, th-the other stuff… are—are you going to take Divination? Next year?"
"I might," David whispered then looked embarrassed. "Andy says that psychic stuff is mostly made up and not actually magic. That Divination is boring and dumb. It's for people who have no sense of the real world."
Remus scoffed. "It's not! Divination is as im-important a subject as any other. It's important enough to be its own class. Out of all the—the possible things we c-could have been given as an elective, we have Divination. It's magic in its own right."
David glanced up, eyes wide. "Guess I didn't think about it that way."
"If you f-feel closeness with your possible abilities—possible psychic abilities—you sh-should go for it. If it doesn't work out you can drop it."
"That's true. Are you taking it?"
"I—I might," he said. "I'd like to. It d-depends on how many electives Professor McGonagall allows me to take. I'd like all of them, honestly."
David laughed at that. "That doesn't surprise me. I guess if you take Divination too maybe it won't be so bad. I know Andy would never."
"Could… I ask something else?" Remus wondered, and David nodded. "Is Spinnet… I—I know we have our problems with—with each other, but it seems a bit… um… unfortunate for a-a friend to be saying those things, if you have those abilities."
"About Divination?" David cocked his head to one side. "Oh, he was only talking about the class. Not my—I don't know if he knows I have those abilities. If I do. I haven't talked about it with him. Andy—no, Andy's nice." He drummed his fingers against the table, frowning. "I know he can be rude and blunt, I get that he does that, I do. It's just he's always been very kind to me. He's helped with a lot of my… trying to figure the magical world out. I have told him off for the things he's said about you, you know. And about Pettigrew. I was very angry for the things he said about you at the last Quidditch game. Or, erm, after. You know, I've always wondered why you're friends with Black and Potter. I can't stand them. Wasn't Potter saying those awful things about you before you became friends?" David raised his eyebrows. "If you can forgive Potter for saying you're crazy, how come you can't forgive Andy?"
"Because James has apologized for wh-what he's said, and stopped doing it," Remus pointed out. "James has gone above and beyond as a good, kind, caring, supportive f-friend. Spinnet doesn't seem to actually mean it the f-few times he's apologized to me. I forgave him for the—" Remus dropped his voice very low so nobody else would hear, "the poof comment. But I'm st-still hurt that one of Spinnet's reactions to my—my nightmares was trying to put the full body bind on me. He's never once apologized for that."
David sucked in some air. "I forgot about that."
Remus met his eyes. "I haven't."
David stared back for a second before averting his gaze.
"I think p-perhaps talking about Spinnet isn't a very n-neutral conversational topic," Remus said, and opened his Transfiguration book to a calculations table. "We've gone q-quite f-far from the initial topic. Now, what's the p-part giving you the most trouble? Weight and mass? Th-that's not too bad. All right, look here…"
/\/\/\/\/\
By the time morning hit, the spell has thankfully worn off. When Remus woke up to find all the scents as strong as they normally were, he let out a sigh of relief. At first he intended on staying in bed but when he heard the others getting ready he figured it'd be better to spend the time studying rather than being asleep, and hauled a satchel of books with him to James's practice. At least, that was his intention; soon Sirius and Peter had a game of cards going and Remus got sucked into playing after they begged and wheedled about it being more fun with three players.
"I think I'm gonna stay with my Grandpa and Muggle cousins over the holidays," Peter said at one point, staring miserably at the cards in his hands. "I really don't want to."
"That means no letters, right?" Sirius asked with a frown.
"Uh-huh. No letters."
"Nothing from you, very little from James, annnnnd probably nothing from Remus either, right?" Sirius glanced over.
"Probably not," Remus said, biting his bottom lip. "Arthur isn't quite up to anything too long distance and Filibuster hates me."
"I'll have a talk with Fili," Sirius said. "I'm not going through two weeks with hardly anything from anyone." He angrily slapped a card down. "Merlin, this holiday is going to be absolute hippogriff shit."
"Yeah," Peter agreed quietly.
Remus thought of two weeks in the house without his friends, of spending the full moon down in that cellar again. "A bit, yeah," he agreed as well, putting a card down and scooping up another.
"Looks like James is the only one gonna have any fun," Peter said, glancing over at the team. "Man, I'd love to go to Italy one day."
"We will," Sirius promised. "All four of us. We'll take a big Marauder holiday, go all over the world. Italy, Australia, the Caribbean—everywhere. I'd love to go somewhere tropical the most, I think. How about you?"
"Egypt, probably," Peter said brightly, picking up two cards. "See the pyramids. That would be so cool! How 'bout you?"
Remus stared at his cards, thinking. There were many places he'd enjoy. But one especially. "Alaska."
"Alaska!?" they both shouted.
"Only for a little while, in the summer," Remus clarified, glancing up. "They've got a two month long day there. No night time. No dark." He set another card down. "No full moon—well, not much of one that'd affect me."
"Would that work?" Peter asked, tilting his head.
"I think so," Remus replied. "If there's not enough of the—the moonlight then I don't… turn. I think it would work."
"We'll do that one summer," Sirius said, staring intently at Remus. "Two months in Alaska. Hah." He threw down all his cards, revealing a winning hand. "Shuffle the deck, let's play again."
/\/\/\/\/\
James, Sirius, and Pete wanted to spend the rest of the day working on prank stuff (both the pre-Easter prank and also pranking other students) but Remus disappeared back into the library. He sat on the floor in the back, with earplugs in to block out the other students studying, and piles of books around him as he tried to memorize information. He whispered spells, doing the wand movement with his hand without his wand except at one point when he did one of the spells for Charms… it worked. Even without his wand. A book went flying off the shelf, sprouting wings.
"Shit!" he whispered, grabbing for the book. Unfortunately it fluttered above his reach. "Oh no, oh no, oh no-no-no!" He jumped, fingers barely grazing the spine. How did that happen?! No way could he perform wandless magic! I'm light enough, he thought, and grabbed hold of a shelf, pulling himself up. "Hrrrr!" He climbed a bit more, reaching for the book which was still out of reach, then climbed a little higher. "Come—on—almost—there! Ahhhhh!" His left hand slipped and he went falling backwards—
Straight into Sirius's arms. Sirius was laughing so hard he had tears rolling down his cheeks, and beyond him stood Peter who was doubled over, and James who was twirling his wand.
Remus was so annoyed he barely registered the fact he was cradled in Sirius's arms.
"You arses!" he hissed out, smacking Sirius's chest. Sirius set him down, saying something so faintly Remus could barely hear him. "What?" Remus tugged the earplugs out.
"You should have seen your face!" Sirius whispered, smacking his thigh.
"He can," Peter said, wriggling his camera.
"We thought you'd hear us!" James added, flicking his wand to get rid of the spell on the book; it landed with a heavy thud "Didn't realize you had the earplugs in."
"Brilliant—absolutely brilliant!" Sirius wheezed, sliding to the floor. "Petey give me ten copies of that one please."
"His face or the fall?" Peter asked.
Sirius wiped his cheeks off. "Everything!"
Remus gave him a light kick. "I hate you. I hate all of you! I thought—"
James sidled up to him. "You thought what?"
"N—nothing!" He knew perfectly well he was going bright red.
James poked him. "You thought you did wandless magic, didn't you?"
Remus stepped back, theatrically brushing his shirt off. "No! I knew perfectly well I did no such thing! However, I was rather confused at what happened. I didn't know what caused it. Besides, you shouldn't be doing these things in a library!" He scooped the book up, shoving it back into its place. "You shouldn't be doing that to library books either. If Mr. Farrow catches you—"
"He's busy over in the magical creatures section," Peter said, referring to a section clear on the other side of the library.
Remus grew suspicious. "And you know that how?"
"Some of the books might have grown legs," James answered, lips twitching. Peter snorted so hard that he began choking.
Remus shook his head, grabbing James by the shoulders and spinning him around. "Out, all of you! Out before you destroy everything!"
"It's only a bit of fun," Peter protested after managing to gulp in some air.
"A lot of fun," Sirius corrected him, still on the floor.
"Out!"
Sirius got up, giving Remus a mock salute. "Aye-aye sir!"
"See you at supper," Peter said.
"We better," added Sirius with a vaguely threatening tone.
Remus watched them leave before settling back down on the floor, rubbing his head. He hadn't even thought of asking what they were doing in there besides causing mayhem. Hopefully enchanting some of the books was all they did! Except less than a minute later he jumped so hard he knocked his head against a bookshelf as fireworks began to go off in the library.
Farrow shouted, demanding to know who had done it. Remus waited to hear if his friends were caught but couldn't hear much else over the loud crackling sounds. Sighing, he put the plugs back in his ears and returned to his studies.
