On Friday morning Remus woke up feeling miserable. The evening before had been rough, as all the events of the previous 24 hours sort of piled up on him, making him feel very buzzy and uncomfortable. He had spent most of his time alone (other than detention), as well as feeling guilty for wanting to avoid his friends. Plus he had been waiting all day to be told they were in trouble for fighting the Slytherins. To his confusion, McGonagall never approached any of the Marauders about the fight, and Remus thought maybe they were doing what Malfoy did: not wanting to admit some second years got the better of them.

Still, everything jammed together made things unbearable for him and when he woke up, he hoped things would be better but they weren't. He had to use his earplugs with a lot of sound blocked to just get through breakfast without screaming. He hated relying on the earplugs like this—it felt weak to him—but he really needed them.

Potions was even worse with the smells. He felt like tearing out his hair while Slughorn lectured on how to prep the ingredients he had laying out on the desks. Smelly ingredients that made Remus want to throw up. I wish I could block the scents, he thought as he picked up a knife. When he cut into the stem of the plant, a stinky dark liquid oozed out and Remus covered his mouth.

"You all right?" Peter whispered.

Remus shook his head, tears welling up from the stench and trying to hold his bile back. The annoying part was he wasn't sure if it was really that smelly or if all the other issues going on made it feel worse.

"What's wrong?"

"N-nothing…"

Peter tilted his head, looking up into Remus's face. Then the next thing he knew Peter yelped as he knocked over a vial they were pouring the liquid into. It oozed out all over his hand and he automatically reached with his other hand, smearing the stuff all over both by accident. At least, Remus thought it was an accident.

"Professor!" Peter raised his hand. "Um, I spilled stuff all over me. It's the, um, dribble-bell stuff."

Slughorn sighed. "Go wash your hands."

"Um, it's on both hands. Can Remus come help me open the door and stuff? I don't wanna get it everywhere."

"Very well, hurry up."

Peter jumped up, elbowing Remus lightly. Remus slowly followed, opening the Potions door for him. Out in the hall, he immediately accused Peter of doing it on purpose.

"Yeah, you looked real upset," Peter explained as they walked down the hall. "I thought you might need to, um, you know, get away from the smells 'cause dribble-bell smells pretty bad even for me so it's probably real bad for you, right?"

"Y-yes," he admitted.

"Well, dribble-bell is pretty sticky so I can't rinse it off, and knew I'd have to scrub it off, so I thought… you know, if I got it on both my hands I'd have to have help."

Remus smiled, feeling very warmed by Peter's actions. It certainly didn't help the overwhelmed part! "You are brilliant."

Peter grinned a little shyly. "It's not—I mean, it's kinda obvious."

Remus opened the bathroom door for him. "I wouldn't have thought of it," he said as he turned on the sink. He then stepped back, leaning against the wall to take in deep breaths of… well, not fresh air. Dungeon bathroom air was far from 'fresh' air, and it stank a bit in its own way. Just not as bad as the dribble-bell!

"You know," Peter said as he scrubbed the stickiness off his hands. "I thought of something. The… the thing that happened before the holidays. You know, the, uh…"

"Cheating thing?" Remus guessed.

Pete nodded. "Yes. That. Well, I was thinking. You were only caught 'cause you had to use the anti-cheat quill. Which we don't use in regular classes." Remus straightened up, staring at Peter, unable to believe his ears. "Couldn't you block the smells?"

"That's cheating," Remus pointed out.

Peter frowned. "No, but—well, it shouldn't be! Besides, how will Sluggy know?"

"Oh Merlin, James and Sirius have really corrupted you," Remus mumbled, pushing his hair back.

"How will he know?" Peter repeated, turning off the sink and drying his hands off. "You could do it now. Maybe pretend to be all grossed out during class so he doesn't suspect. That would work, right? We're not using anti-cheat quills."

Remus stared, absolutely aghast.

"What?"

"Pete, that is cheating!"

Peter frowned. "No it's not! He should let you block the smells anyway, what does it—why does it even matter if you are or not? He's being mean. James an' Sirius agree with me, you know. We talked about—" Suddenly Peter stopped, and went beet red. "Um, anyway—"

"You talked about what?"

"We should get back to class. You—the—aw, Sluggy won't know anyhow."

Remus folded his arms. "I'm not going to use the spell, as tempting as it is. I probably wouldn't be caught, however if I am, I have no idea how harshly they will punish me. Worst case scenario is they expel me." Peter pressed his lips tightly together. "Now, what have you talked about?"

Peter let out a long sigh. "Getting revenge. James was researching potions that make a person smell things really strongly to make him realize, but Sirius said if we did it then—"

"Slughorn would either blame me, or discover that you lot know," Remus finished for him.

"Er, well, yeah," muttered Peter, looking down. "Sirius realized that. So we stopped that idea."

"Good." Remus shook his head as they left the bathroom. "I do appreciate your willingness to get revenge on my behalf, though. And thank you for helping me out just now."

Peter bumped against him, beaming. "Anytime I can help, let me know!"

Remus smiled and forced himself to bump lightly back even though physical touch was agony. "Same here."

/\/\/\/\/\

Normally, owl post came in the morning however it wasn't restricted to mornings, and shortly after lunch started Arthur finally returned. Remus had almost skipped lunch, not wanting to deal with the sounds (or his friends), however he had cranked his earplugs to block as much sound as possible to try to make it somewhat bearable. He didn't want his friends thinking he was avoiding them after everything the day before. And, as it turned out, it was good he stayed.

"Arthur!" he said when his owl flew in. Arthur landed near him (a proper landing too, not a crash like before). He pulled Arthur close to hug him gently. Arthur nuzzled him happily, accepting the bit of beef Remus offered from his sandwich.

"He looks so much better," James said brightly.

Remus smiled. "Yes! The medicine did him so much good." He stroked Arthur's head a few times before taking the letter.

Dear Remus, 7/5/73

It's been a week since you left and the house is so lonely without you! I'm already counting down the days until you come home for the summer. It's such a shame you cannot return home right after your exams. Then you could be home during the moon in June too. Your May moon is coming up in one week, and it always makes me ill to think of when you must endure four nights!

Oh! I've been working on a new rug for your room! I am making it in red and gold. I knew you would like that. At least I hope you like it. Perhaps one day I can try to make one shaped like the Gryffindor mascot, or at least the head since I don't think I could do a whole body. Is it a griffin? I can't remember. Either way, I'd like to try that for you.

Anyway, regarding the electives, I suppose that is very exciting for you. I can't say much since I don't really know much about the subjects. Though I don't know why you want to take Muggle Studies, darling. It's strange to think there is a subject devoted to that. I asked Lyall and he said there was a similar subject at Beauxbatons though he didn't take it. As for the money, it is a little worrying. We spent so much money on you the past few months already. I'm sure we'll figure something out, though. Hopefully we'll be able to find everything secondhand.

I know your heart is set on taking these classes but I do want you to be prepared for needing to cut back in case. Your father is very worried, especially about divination. He says all the extra things tend to add up. Just keep that in mind, please. We will see when we get the letter this summer. I mean, if you really do want to go back to Hogwarts after the summer! If you change your mind about that, you know we'll do what we can to continue your education at home!

Missing you so much, baby. Less than seven weeks!

Love always,

Mum

Remus wished he had read the letter in private, since he knew his face fell when he got to the bit about the expense of his books, and when he folded the letter up his friends immediately wanted to know what was wrong.

"N-nothing," he stammered out, tucking the letter in his bag. "It's nothing," he added when Sirius gave him a rather intense look. "Mum mentioned… you know, next week. That's all."

"Next w—oh," James said, making a face.

Sirius whispered something so quietly Remus couldn't hear him. He adjusted his earplugs, having to ask him to repeat it. "It's four again, isn't it?" Sirius repeated.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah."

"Are you going to say it's your mother?"

Remus glanced up, briefly meeting Sirius's gaze. "Um, I'm n-not sure yet." He saw the disappointment flash through Sirius's eyes, and he glanced away. "We'll see. I don't want to think about it right now, honestly."

He didn't want to think about much of anything, except his mother's voice kept filling his head. It made the overwhelming feelings even worse and he adjusted his earplugs again, blocking out as much sound as possible. Thankfully, after lunch was a free period and he was able to make an excuse about studying, disappearing into a secret passageway instead of the library. The cool, quiet darkness felt so good against his body, and he spent pretty much the entire free period just sitting there with his eyes closed, trying not to think about the fact most likely he wouldn't be able to take all the electives.

/\/\/\/\/\

Whatever the problem was Friday that caused him to be uncomfortable with everything was mostly gone by Saturday, though he still felt a bit blegh with touch. Of course, the best part about Saturday was the fact he only had one more detention! With… Prewett… but at least then his week of detention would finally be over.

James complained at breakfast when Remus revealed he couldn't join them for their plans since he had detention.

"That's not fair," he whined, angrily poking his eggs. "You should skip it, and come have fun with us."

"I want my detention to be over," Remus replied. "Skipping will give me more detention."

James huffed. "Yeah, well. I supposed we can put it off till you're done."

Remus narrowed his eyes. "Put what off exactly?" They hadn't told him what their plans were, which probably meant some awful prank they were going to convince him to join in on. Which he'd inevitably end up giving in and helping with.

James brightened up, very excited which gave Remus a bit of a stomachache. "All right, you know the wing spell we learned."

"Yes," he said slowly.

"Right, well, we were thinking—"

"Those two," Peter said, indicating James and Sirius, so Remus would know Peter didn't have any part in the idea.

James stuck his tongue out. "Fine, Sirius and I were thinking we should nick all the fish from the kitchens, give them wings, and let them loose somewhere."

"Then you'd have to get rid of the wing spell to get them," Sirius snickered. "Voila! Fish rain! Sort of. Unless you can actually make it rain fish. Can you make it rain fish?"

Remus rubbed his temple. "Probably, but not in one afternoon."

"So… yes, eventually," James said, exchanging a high five with Sirius. "And in the meantime: winged fish. Winged dead fish. I'd prefer doing that in the Slytherin common room but I don't think we'd be able to pull that off."

"Library?" Sirius suggested.

"Absolutely not!" Remus snapped.

"We should do it somewhere with a high ceiling," Peter suggested. "Like in here, or the entrance hall."

James glanced up at the ceiling. "In here would be fun. OH! What if the spells start, uh, ending at suppertime!"

"I think someone would notice them before that happened," Remus said. "We'd have to hide them somehow."

"We could bundle them up in your cloak," Sirius said to James.

James kicked Sirius who began laughing. "I'll bundle you up in my cloak, and toss you in the lake if you suggest it again!" he threatened.

"Like you'd waste your cloak on murdering me," Sirius snorted.

"Like I'd waste anything on murdering you, much less my energy," James retorted.

"Anyway." Remus turned to Peter, ignoring the others. "Your idea of a high-ceilinged room is very good, I think we should go with that. We—" He stopped, eyes going wide. "Oh. Oh!" He covered his mouth, trying not to giggle.

"You've got a plan?" James asked, turning away from his discussion with Sirius on murdering him.

Remus nodded. "Uh-huh. Yes. We—we do it in the Grand Staircase with all the moving stairs, where the fish will drop in all sorts of places? On all sorts of levels?" He could see it already. Fish dropping all over, sliding down stairs, falling into crevices. Oh, it would be terrible for the poor staff trying to clean it up! Or them, if they were caught. But it would be so funny.

The others laughed so hard that several students looked their way, and some Gryffindors sitting somewhat near them scooted away.

James grabbed Remus, yanking him in a tight half-hug. "You are an absolute genius, Brains!" he said, giving Remus a noogie which at the moment he really didn't like; it took a lot of effort not to shove James away. Luckily, James released him once the noogie was done, and Remus sank back, smoothing down his hair. "Come on, skip detention," he begged.

"No, no, I can't," Remus protested. "I don't want to go tomorrow."

"Please?" Sirius asked, giving him puppy dog eyes which made Remus feel quite wobbly. "For me?" which made the wobbliness even worse.

"No," he said again, not as firmly. Then, "No!" again, this time in a more determined manner. As tempting as it was to go with them, he simply couldn't skip detention. "Skipping detention is wrong."

"You've said that about class, yet you've skipped class before," Sirius pointed out.

Remus sniffled, going back to his breakfast. "I'm not skipping. Look, you guys can get the fish while I'm there—"

"Make us do the dirty work," James teased.

"—and we can do the prank after. What?! It was—it was your idea in the first place! You were going to nick the fish anyway."

"James?" Peter asked. "Um, how are we gonna get all the fish out of the kitchen?"

James blinked a few times while Sirius began snickering. "We can use the cloak—oww!" he yelped when James kicked him once again. "We're going to have to! I wasn't meaning putting the fish in the cloak. We'll have to put them in a big cauldron or something."

"I swear to Merlin if you get fish juice on my cloak…!"

Sirius put his hand over his heart. "I promise, on my honor as a Marauder, I will do my absolute best not to get any fish juice on your cloak."

"That's not a promise of not!" James grumbled.

"Well, I mean, if something happens I have no control over—"

"Which means it's a good thing I won't be there," Remus interjected quickly. "I'd probably trip and get the fish all over the cloak."

James glowered. "I hate it when you're logical." Remus spread his hands out as if to say, you know it's true.

"We could probably fill cauldrons full of fish and make a couple of trips," Sirius said.

Peter coughed, reaching over to tug at Sirius's sleeve. "Wait, is this a good idea?"

"It's brilliant," James giggled.

"No I mean, cause of the smell," Peter said, nodding at Remus. "It's gonna stink."

James and Sirius both faced Remus who gave a small shrug. "I can use the spell," he said. "I'll be all right." Then he realized the time and began eating quicker. He didn't want to be late for detention! The talk about the prank had taken up more time than he expected. Since they didn't know when Remus could get out of detention, they agreed to meet up in a secret passage near the Grand Stairwell at noon. No way would his detention last three hours! Would it?

Soon he was in one of the Defense Against the Dark Arts 'storerooms'. One he had never been in before. There was a lot of room, several windows, and quite a few cages and aquariums. All of which were empty except for one. Remus's eyes went wide when he realized he was almost face to face with a red cap. The creature curled its lip, shaking a thick stick at Remus.

"Careful," Prewett said as he came in. "She'll try to hit you if you get too close."

But the red cap wasn't doing any such thing; she was just watching Remus, who was probably too close to the cage—close enough that the red cap could have reached him. But Remus obediently took a couple of steps back.

"What's she doing here?" he asked.

"She was in Hogsmeade," Prewett explained. "I'm taking her to the Ministry later for them to deal with."

Remus watched the red cap pacing around. "You could use her for a lesson."

"Hmm?"

"Er, n-nothing, sir." I bet James and Sirius would take note if there was a real, live red cap to see!

Remus spent the next hour and a half helping clean out the storeroom and reorganizing some of the supplies in there. The red cap shook her stick at him whenever he got too close, but whenever Prewett got too close she tried to smack him with the stick. When Prewett wasn't looking Remus got very close, sticking his fingers through the bars. The red cap scowled at him, squatting at the ground and tapping the stick against the floor. She wasn't going to attack him.

Interesting, he thought, backing away before Prewett could see him there.

"You should use her for a lesson," he said again, the idea wriggling around in his head.

Prewett turned, raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you said before that you w-wanted to b-bring in a boggart for—for a proper lesson with them, to sh-show us how to fight them. Why… why not d-do that with other creatures? Not—not fighting them. Only as a visual." Remus gestured towards the red cap. "You could do a lesson on red caps, and show a real one. I know James and Sirius would be very intrigued by that. They would probably pay a lot more attention! Er, n-not that they don't pay attention," he added quickly.

Prewett laughed quietly, shaking his head. "Mr. Lupin, I know perfectly well they don't pay much attention, you don't need to lie to protect them." He eyed the red cap with interest. "That is a good idea. Perhaps not the red cap, as I do need to give her to the Ministry tomorrow. But… hmm, that is a very good idea." Prewett gave Remus such a dazzling smile that it slammed through his chest like an arrow, knocking all breath from his body. He physically took a step back, and reached out to put his hand against an aquarium to keep himself from falling over. "Are you all right?"

"Y-yes, only a little d-dizzy, from the smell of the—the cleaning potions," Remus lied. "I'll be fine." He picked up a damp rag, wiping away his handprint.

"Well, it is getting late. I think you've served your detention satisfactorily."

Remus was glad to get away, scurrying out of the storeroom. It was only eleven, so he had an hour to relax before meeting up with the others for the prank. Really, he could go looking for them and help them with stealing the fish… but he didn't want to, so he found a secret passage to hide out in and read for the next hour.

"Cariabsenium." He put the spell on himself before going, not wanting to risk going near all the dead fish. A strange tingle went through him when he did the spell, and he began trembling as he pictured Slughorn yelling at him. What if for some reason he ran into Slughorn and Slughorn somehow knew he had the spell on him? What if he got into trouble? It'd wear off by the next day, and be long gone by Monday morning but Remus grew panicky anyway.

By the time he arrived at the meeting spot, his armpits were fairly soaked, making him quite glad his friends were unable to sense that sort of thing. Unless it was stinkier than he thought. He couldn't exactly smell to make sure his armpits weren't too odorous. He was also glad he already put the spell on since the vague scent of all the dead fish was still rather strong. The others had handkerchiefs tied around their lower faces.

"Stick'em up!" Peter joked when Remus slid into the passage. Remus laughed, though James and Sirius obviously didn't get it.

There were four cauldrons full of fish, and Remus was a little annoyed realizing they had used his cauldron too. James was ready to start enchanting the fish until Remus pointed out they needed something else to hold the fish so they didn't fly all over the passage.

"Why didn't you mention it sooner?" James grumbled.

"I didn't think of it," Remus said, tugging at his sleeve. "Sorry."

James promised it was fine, and said he'd be right back before diving out of the passage. The others waited rather impatiently, Sirius and Peter edging away from the fish. While they waited, Sirius began staring at Remus's face.

"What?" he asked, nervously.

"You're getting freckles."

"What?"

"I noticed them before. Last September you had some faint freckles but they disappeared over winter, now they're back."

Remus reached up, touching the side of his nose. "I get them sometimes in the sun. During the summer."

Sirius bent in squinting. "I dunno, it hasn't been very sunny. Maybe you're developing proper freckles."

Why does it even matter?! he wanted to ask but remained silent.

Ten minutes later James reappeared, panting heavily from running through the school. He had two sheets which he threw on the ground.

"Will these do?"

"I believe so," Remus said, figuring they could put them over the fish and keep them in one place. "Peter, since you're still having trouble with the wing spell do you want to use the levitating charm to keep the sheet above the cauldron, to keep the fish into place?"

Peter looked quite relieved at having a task to do that he could do. "Yes, I can do that! Wingardium leviosa." The sheet drifted upward, hovering above the cauldrons.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out so well. The first few fish they enchanted did indeed fly straight up but then some of them began trying to fly away, easily sliding away from the sheet. Sirius chased them down and they wound up needing two people taking care of the sheet. James and Peter held the sheet by the corners which made it more of a balloon shape when the fish flew up, keeping them there. Once the first sheet was full, James tied all four corners together then grabbed the next one. They had so many fish left that Remus had to use the engorgio spell on the sheet to make it big enough to hold the remaining fish.

Finally they had two 'balloons' full of winged fish who were fluttering angrily, determined to get out. Sirius peeked out the exit of the passage, and when the coast was clear they dragged the sheets to the Grand Stairwell and untied the corners.

Winged fish zipped out, wings fluttering wildly as they flew upwards. The Grand Stairwell was so big it reached up through most of the castle, and the fish were flying at all sorts of levels. Some went all the way to the top, others stayed lower down, and a few with broken wings fluttered pathetically on the first floor.

There were shrieks from above, from students on the stairwells, and the Marauders ran away as fast as they could, returning to the secret passageway to hide out in before they were caught. Quickly, they abandoned the sheets, tucked the handkerchiefs into pockets, and left through the other side of the passage. Before anything else, James, Sirius, and Peter washed their hands. After that they went up another floor to watch the chaos from behind some statues.

It was magnificent, seeing all the fish flapping around everywhere. Occasionally one would smack the wall, leaving a glistening mark of fish juice. Or they'd smack into a painting resulting in shouts of anger until soon all the portraits were empty, their subjects fleeing for a less fishy place to be.

Two Prefects appeared, frowning at the flying fish. They were on the first floor and too far away for Remus to hear whatever they were saying, but one of them got her wand out and began attempting to shoot spells at the fish. Only one hit and the wings shriveled up, the fish falling two stories before landing on a railing, slipping down some more, and settling behind a potted plant.

The Marauders covered their mouths, trying not to laugh, not wanting anyone to see them.

The Prefects left, soon returning with Professors McGonagall and Flitwick. By this point several students had gathered on various floors, watching what was going on. None were near the Marauders, thankfully. Hopefully no one could see them.

McGonagall and Flitwick began attempting to get rid of the enchantments, sending fish falling everywhere. They realized their mistake quickly, switching gears to freezing the fish in midair.

"Damn it," James swore softly, gripping the railing of the banister they were hiding behind.

"So much for the plan," Sirius sighed.

But it wasn't as simple when McGonagall froze the tickling feathers in November. The Grand Stairwell was so big and the fish so scattered it was difficult to freeze more than a few at a time. They had to traipse up the stairs, chasing the fish down more or less.

"It's a shame the wing spells didn't work so well," Remus whispered.

"What do you mean? It worked fine—" Sirius began, then fell silent when Remus shot out the reversal spell towards some fish. Their wings disappeared, and the fish fell. The others giggled while Remus shot out the spell a few more times, not daring to do too much in case he was noticed.

"We definitely need to figure out a spell to make it rain fish or something," James snickered.

They continued watching the fish hunt which lasted for a lot longer than any of them expected it to go. Some of the fish were quite adept at dodging the spells that the teachers shot their way, and some, Remus noticed, escaped down hallways.

"Those must be yours," Peter said, nudging Remus when a fish darted away from Flitwick's spell.

Remus smiled, blushing a little at the compliment. "M—maybe."

McGonagall left Flitwick to take care of the fish, then reappeared with more Prefects and the Head Boy and Girl. It took all of them quite a long time to get all the fish frozen—or most of the fish at least. Several fish escaped, and more lost their wings (not just from Remus removing the spell, some of them lost the wings on their own). Only Merlin knew where some of the fish ended up!

"What now?" James asked as McGonagall, Flitwick, the Head Boy and Girl, and the Prefects all stared blankly at the frozen fish.

McGonagall summoned an enormous fishnet then began summoning the fish. They flew towards her, getting caught in the net. Within fifteen minutes it seemed as though they had gotten all the fish from the air. Once that was taken care of, they began attempting to summon the fish that had fallen. A few fish flew out from nooks and crannies, but Remus knew they had missed a lot of them.

The fishnet bundled itself up then disappeared. All the students who had been watching cheered and McGonagall turned, eyes scanning the crowds.

The Marauders ducked back behind the statue, covering their mouths as they giggled. They began smacking each other then crept down the balcony area, ducking into a corridor before taking off as fast as they could, all them laughing, all of them wondering how long it would take for all the fish to be found.