Saturday, 7th October 1972

Remus was roused from his dreams by the now-familiar sound of Sirius' laughter right in his ear, meaning James had awoken first. Since Monday, when Professor Flitwick taught them the tickling charm, both James and Sirius had been practising by using it to wake the other if they awoke first in the morning. Apparently, they found it much more convenient than the manual tickling they used to use, since it could be applied from a distance, making it harder for the victim to retaliate. Unfortunately for Remus, Sirius wasn't gentle in his flailing, and it was impossible to escape the bed quickly enough to not be left with at least one bruise.

Remus scrambled from the bed, scowling at a giggling James, and grabbed his wand from the bedside table. 'Finite incantatum,' he said, pointing it at the squirming boy on the bed.

Sirius stopped writhing and his uncontrolled laughter calmed to a choked giggle as he wiped the moisture from his eyes. 'Thanks, Moonbeam.' He smiled at Remus before turning his attention to James, thoughts of revenge clear in his eyes.

'No retaliation allowed, Twinkles!' James called. 'It's tryouts day, and you promised.'

'I can wait,' Sirius said with a smirk. 'There's always tonight.'

'Don't you think you'd be in better form if you got a little more sleep?' Peter asked, poking his head out from behind his bed curtains. 'It's Saturday, for Merlin's sake.'

'No time for sleep. I need to practise.'

'Mate, you've been practising every night this week,' Sirius said. 'If you're not good enough by now, I don't think another hour or two is going to make a difference.'

'I need to get warmed up, at least. Don't you want to make sure you're ready, too?'

Sirius shrugged. 'It'd be fun to be on the team, but I'm not that bothered, really.'

James looked astonished at Sirius' casual attitude to the possibility of being picked for the Gryffindor quidditch team, so Remus thought it best to intervene. 'We'll all come down and help you get warmed up, though, of course.'

This seemed to cheer him up, and thirty minutes later, they were making their way into the Great Hall for breakfast, James and Sirius both decked out in quidditch gear and carrying their brooms with them.

'Fancy a trip into Hogsmead this afternoon,' James asked as they took seats at the half-empty table. 'We need to find something for the Houses to protect.'

Sirius shrugged. 'Sounds good to me.'

'I can't. I have a tonne of homework to finish,' Peter said, groaning.

Remus smiled at him. 'I really should work on the magic detector some more. You can come to the library with me, and I'll help you when you get stuck.' He looked back at James. 'You and Sirius can handle the shopping trip without us.'

'Course we can. It's just more fun when we're all together,' James said. 'The detector is important, though—'

'Potter?'

James turned his head at the sound of his name. 'Yeah?'

Davey was standing behind him, wearing an eyepatch but otherwise in one piece. 'I just got out of the Hospital Wing,' he said. 'And I wanted to thank you. I would have died if you hadn't come after me.'

James nodded. 'I'm just glad I got to you in time. How's the eye?'

'Madam Pomfrey managed to save it, but I have to wear this thing for another few weeks. Could be worse, though. Seriously, when the tree grabbed me, I thought I was dead for sure.'

'So did I,' James said. 'Do me a favour? Stay away from the Whomping Willow and tell your friends to do the same.'

Davey nodded. 'Already done.'

Davey left to join the Hufflepuff table, and they finished their breakfasts before heading out to the quidditch pitch so James could "get warmed up" which ended up consisting of him and Sirius flying in increasingly dangerous and dramatic ways while tossing a quaffle back and forth between them. Remus and Peter settled themselves in the stands to watch.

It was much colder fifty feet above the ground, and Remus shivered, wrapping his cloak tighter around himself. He was wearing two jumpers underneath it, but it was still freezing. Digging through his bag, he pulled out his notebook and added personal warming charm to the bottom of his list of "spells to learn".

'What's that?'

Remus shoved the book back in his bag and looked at Peter. 'Just a list of spells I want to look up in the library.'

'Why not just wait until we learn them in class?'

'I'm not sure we will learn all of these in class. Some of them, maybe, but why wait?' He shrugged. 'If I'm strong enough to cast them now, I might as well make the most of it.'

'Why wouldn't we? I thought they taught us everything we need to know?'

'Everything we need to know, sure. But not everything there is to know. It'd take a lifetime to learn every spell there is, and you'd never remember them all. We just learn the concepts behind the spells in class, and they have us practise with the most common and useful spells, but they can't teach us everything.'

'So you look them up?'

Remus nodded. 'Whenever I think of something I wish I knew a spell for, I write it down, and then next time I have the chance I see if I can find one. We won't have access to the Hogwarts' library forever.'

'I see your point.'

Just then, Sirius came swooping into the stands and leapt from his broom to land next to them without waiting for it to stop. He wobbled on his feet a little, somehow managing to stay upright, and grinned at them.

'They're testing the Chasers first. Beaters are up next.'

Glancing down at the pitch, Remus saw the quidditch captain had arrived, along with last year's team, and the potential new recruits were gathered around him, James among them.

'What do you think his chances are?' Remus asked.

'From the way he tells it, he's already on the team,' Sirius said. 'Rivers just wants him to try-out as a formality. But there might be someone else here who's better.' His eyes suddenly widened. 'Don't you dare tell him I said that!'

Remus laughed. 'Your secret is safe with me, Twinkles.'

Sirius grinned and dropped a kiss on Remus' cheek. 'Thanks, Moonbeam.'

Remus felt his cheeks burn in the cold air and coughed, looking away.

A few minutes later, last year's keeper flew up to the goalposts, while James, along with twelve other Gryffindors ranging from second-years to seventh, flew up and formed a line in front of him. Rivers joined them in the air and threw a quaffle to the first person in line.

Each prospective chaser took three penalty shots at the hoops, and the few that missed all three were told they were no longer needed. Thankfully, James wasn't one of them. After taking his turn, he'd flown a victory lap involving several loop-the-loops in celebration of scoring on all three attempts to the backing music of Sirius, Peter and Remus cheering and clapping.

Next, they were asked to split into two teams and play a ten-minute skirmish so Rivers could observe their skills. Remus knew very little about flying, and even less about quidditch, but even he could see that James was better than anyone else there. He was a natural on the back of a broom, and he seemed to anticipate what his teammates would do before they did it, positioning himself to be ready to assist them when they completed their manoeuvre.

When the short game was over, Rivers had the possibilities whittled down to six. And James was still in the running. He sent them off to the stands and Sirius clapped James on the back in congratulations before mounting his broom and flying down to receive his own instructions for the Beater position.

James was breathless with excitement. 'Did you see? I scored all three times!'

'You were amazing,' Peter said. 'There's no way he's not going to pick you.'

James ran his hand through his hair, messing it up, a gesture that Remus had originally thought was vanity, but on getting to know him better had later realised was a product of anxiety.

'Do you think so? Some of the others were pretty good too.'

'He'd have to be mad not to,' Remus said. 'Even I could see you were better than everyone else.'

James grinned. 'Thanks, Moony. If you can see it, it must be true.'

They stopped chatting then to watch Sirius. Along with six others, he flew up to playing height holding his beater's bat and hovered in wait. He'd tied his hair up in a bun to keep it out of his eyes, but a few strands had escaped and they fluttered around his face in the breeze. The look suited him.

Rivers released several bludgers into the sky and cast a spell that conjured targets into existence. They were bright red, circular and flat, and they zoomed around the playing area in imitation of other players. Sirius and the other prospective Beaters looked like they were having a great time as they flew around, hitting the bludgers at the targets. Sirius was grinning broadly the entire time, and Remus knew his eyes would be sparkling if he was close enough to see them.

Unfortunately, he had more enthusiasm than skill, and most of his hits were powerful, but wide off the mark. So it came as no surprise when he was told he was no longer needed.

'Bad luck, mate,' James said when Sirius flew up to join them in the stands. 'I'll help you practise and you can try again next year.'

Sirius shrugged, still grinning happily. 'I'm not bothered. It would have been fun, but it's not a big deal to me.'

James looked like he was struggling to understand Sirius' attitude, but he shook it off and mounted his broom again. 'Well, I'm glad you're not upset. Wish me luck?'

They all did so, and James joined the remaining potential recruits for another skirmish. This time with a full team on both sides. James' team had last year's Seeker, Richard King, and the other a potential new Seeker vying for the position, fourth-year Sophie Blott.

The game lasted for close to an hour, and Remus' teeth were chattering and his voice was hoarse from cheering by the time Blott caught the snitch. James and his fellow Chasers had scored enough goals during that time that they still won the match, hence Remus' sore throat. It was worth it, though, to see the genuine joy on James' face when they met him on the pitch.

'I'm on the team!' he cried, hugging each of them in turn. 'Practices are Monday and Wednesday evenings, so it shouldn't affect our activities too much.'

'We'd work around it, anyway,' Remus told him. 'Congratulations, mate.'

'Well done, Sunshine. Knew you could do it,' Sirius said.

Peter nodded. 'You were amazing.'

After showering in the changing rooms, James and Sirius met back up with them in the Great Hall for lunch, and then they went their separate ways for the afternoon. James and Sirius to Hogsmeade via the third-floor passage, and Remus and Peter to the library, specifically Remus' favourite secluded nook.

Situated at the furthest point from the entrance, the area didn't get much traffic and so he was rarely disturbed there. It was secreted within a spiralling arrangement of shelving and boasted a trio of comfy armchairs to curl up in. The only drawback to the area was a lack of natural light, but Remus had long since remedied this problem and was now quite proficient at the Sunlight Charm.

Remus led Peter to the space he considered his and waved his wand, causing the area to light up with the illusion of sunlight filtering in from an unseen location. 'Have a seat.'

Peter chose the leftmost chair and pulled out his Transfiguration textbook, some parchment and a quill before dumping his bag on the floor and glancing around. 'This is cosy.'

'Yeah, I found it about a month before the end-of-year exams. The library was so full, I searched everywhere for somewhere quiet to study.' Remus pulled his notes on the magic detector and the metal discs he'd been working on from his bag and took the seat next to Peter. 'Do you need help right away, or…'

'No, I think I understand this, but I might have some questions if that's okay?'

Remus smiled at him. 'Sure. Just don't interrupt me if I'm using my wand.'

'Of course not.'

They both settled down to their tasks.

Remus had made good progress in figuring out how to make a device to detect and categorise magic. When James had first assigned him the task, it had seemed close to impossible, but—as he'd come to expect in the past year—the Hogwarts' library had shown him that very little was truly impossible if one had the courage to try, and the perseverance to not give up.

So far, he had five rings crafted from stone, each one slightly bigger than the one before. Each disc had runes drawn around the edge, carved into the stone and filled in with pure silver (repurposed from some old jewellery belonging to James). Lines of silver linked the runes on the smallest disc to the central hole on one side and the edge of the disc on the other. The runes on the larger discs had more lines of silver. These also linked the symbols to the edge on one side, but on the other, the lines joined together in several groups before stopping halfway across the stone ring. When the rings were fitted together, the lines would join up, channelling the magic along the silver thread and into the runes.

He picked up the smallest of the discs. This one only had three runes; the symbol for transfiguration, the symbol for charm, and the symbol for potion. Sifting through his notes, he found the section on magic categories and read through them. This first layer should be fairly simple; charms, transfigurations, and potions all had distinctly different magical signatures. The method he'd devised pulled a sample of the magic from the enchanted item, location or potion and passed it through a series of filters embedded into the silver, routing it to the matching rune on each disc in turn, and lighting it up. With the first layer having only three options, it had been easy to select a unique aspect of each category to filter it by.

Remus pulled out his wand and pointed it at the disc, reciting the incantations he'd memorised. The disc warmed in his hand as his magic flooded into it, before rapidly cooling again. Now to test it.

Before he could decide what to test it on, Peter interrupted him. 'Moony? Can you check these calculations? I think I've made a mistake somewhere, but I can't figure out where.'

Remus smiled at him and took the sheet of parchment Peter had been making notes on for his essay. He glanced over it and immediately saw the problem. 'You have the wrong value for intent, It should be a four for transfiguring a leaf, not a three. Three is for a complex object.' He handed the parchment back to him.

Peter took it and immediately started scribbling. 'Thanks, mate, I'd been staring at it for so long, I just couldn't see what was wrong.'

'It's no problem,' Remus said. He held up the small stone disc. 'I'm about to test this, though. Want to watch?'

Peter nodded eagerly. 'Definitely. I could use a break.'

'We've only been working ten minutes.'

'Exactly. Break time.'

Remus chuckled. 'Do you have any potions with you?'

'Of course,' Peter said, reaching for his bag. He pulled out a small vial of purple liquid and handed it to Remus.

'Wound-cleaning potion?' Remus took the bottle and pulled the stopper out.

'Yeah. Thought it might come in handy, so I bottled some when Slughorn wasn't looking.'

Remus held the disc over the top of the open bottle and activated it. 'Deprehendere.'

All three runes flashed several times, before the symbols for transfiguration and charm dimmed to nothing and the one for potion lit up bright red.

Remus grinned. 'It works.'

'Awesome,' Peter said, his eyes wide with awe. 'You really are a genius, Moony.'

James was practically skipping along next to Sirius as they walked down the passage towards Honeydukes' cellar. His joy at being picked to play for Gryffindor hadn't lessened over lunch. Sirius wasn't sure if it ever would. He couldn't help but be happy for him, though, despite not getting onto the team himself. Playing quidditch for Gryffindor had been James' dream since he'd first ridden a broom, if he was to be believed, and, honestly, Sirius had only tried out because James had wanted him to. He hadn't been lying when he said he wasn't all that bothered.

Anyway, he wanted as much free time as possible to work on the animagus project. There was no way he was going to wait until they covered everything he needed to know about arithmancy in class. He'd already visited the library and checked out several books covering the basics. If he worked hard, he reckoned he could be proficient enough to finish step one by the end of next year. He couldn't wait to find out what his inner animal was. Project animagus was a stupid name, though. James was right about that. It needed to be subtle, so they could talk about it in public without anyone figuring it out.

'How about project wolf-pack?' Sirius said as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

James blinked at him, frowning. 'What?'

To be fair, he'd been midway through recounting his incredible dive and catch when someone on the other team had dropped the quaffle during try-outs, so it wasn't his fault he didn't know what Sirius was talking about.

'For the animagus project,' he clarified. 'Because that's what we're doing, isn't it? Making a pack for Moony.'

James' face cleared with understanding. 'Right.' Then he frowned again. 'I don't think Remus will like us going around talking about wolves, though.'

'That's true.' Sirius hadn't considered that. Something less obvious then. 'Project fang?'

James shook his head. 'Project fur-ball.'

'Project claw.'

James laughed. 'I think we need to move away from the animal parts and think more conceptually. But first…'

They'd reached the top of the staircase, and both fell silent as James pushed the trapdoor open and peered inside. 'All clear.'

Neither of them spoke as they climbed inside and donned the invisibility cloak before creeping up through the shop and out into Hogsmeade.

'Project rescue,' Sirius suggested as soon as they removed the cloak hidden in the alley next to Honeydukes.

'Interesting,' James said. 'But a bit too on the nose, I think. Where do you want to start?'

Sirius shrugged. 'Dervish and Banges is probably the best bet.'

'That's what I was thinking, too.'

They searched Dervish and Banges from top to bottom, no mean feat considering the magical junk shop was packed with towering piles of goods with no sense of organisation. Eventually, tucked away amongst a collection of rusted potions equipment, they found a box containing five crystals. Roughly the size of an apple, they were clear and set in silver stands.

'These look perfect,' Sirius said. 'But what the hell are they?'

'Merlin knows. Probably part of a game or something. Can you see a price?'

Sirius closed the box and flipped it over. On the bottom, the price glowed in orange lettering, two Sickles. He showed it to James.

'Oh, cheap,' James said. 'Excellent. We can go to Zonko's next.'

It was another hour before they were back in the Honeydukes' passage, returning to the school. They had a bag of supplies from Zonko's, sweets and chocolate from Honeydukes and two bags of butterbeer, along with the box of crystals.

'I did some research last night,' James said. 'I was trying to take my mind off of tryouts. It didn't work for very long, but it helped for a bit. Then I got distracted and started worrying again. It's fine, though, I got on the—'

'The point, James?'

'Right, yeah. I did some transfiguration calculations. Even if we're all small animals, we'll need a power level of thirty-two. Anything bigger and we're looking at needing as much as forty-eight. A bird wouldn't be so bad, only twenty-nine, but still, way more power than any of us have, and birds wouldn't be much use to Moony.'

'So we'll definitely need to work on increasing our focus then.'

'Yeah, I was wondering if you could teach me that medition thing Remus taught you?'

'Meditation,' Sirius corrected. 'Yeah, sure. We can all do it together, it'll be fun. But we should look in the library for books about it, too. There might be special techniques we can use.'

James nodded. 'Yeah, I was planning on doing that tomorrow. I got some books on Ancient Runes already, but I'm worried Madam Pince is going to get suspicious if I check out too much in one go.'

'Remus can check them out for us. He's always getting books, so it won't seem odd at all.'

When they reached the slope behind the statue of the one-eyed witch, they stopped and transferred all their shopping into the backpacks they'd cleverly thought to stow there in advance. Okay, it was James' clever idea, but Marauders share credit as well as detentions. It was tough getting up the slippery hill with the weight of several bottles of butterbeer strapped to his back, but Sirius managed it on his fourth attempt; James did it in three and didn't stop crowing about it until they reached Gryffindor Tower to drop off their shopping.

Dinner had already started, and the common room was deserted. Remus and Peter were probably sitting in the Hall wondering where they were. So they hurried back down the Grand Staircase, not really watching where they were going, which explained why Sirius ran straight into someone on the second-floor landing.

'Watch it!' Sirius said, grabbing the other kid's arm before they went tumbling down the stairs. The back of the kid's head looked startlingly familiar, and Sirius pulled them around to get a look at their face. 'Reg? Why aren't you in the Hall? Are you okay?'

Regulus blinked at him slowly. His face was paler than usual, and that was saying something since they were both pretty pale normally. The confusion cleared from his expression and he scowled, shaking his arm out of Sirius' grip.

'I'm fine. Get off me.'

'Alright, keep your hair on,' Sirius said. 'Fuck off to your little Slytherin friends then. You've clearly got no interest in talking to me.'

Regulus rolled his eyes at him, straightened his robes—it was the weekend for fuck's sake, why was he even wearing robes?—and turned on his heel to continue down the staircase with all the grace born of hours of tutoring. Regulus always had been better at playing the perfect little pureblood. Sirius wasn't bitter. Not at all.

'What was that about?' James asked, watching Regulus until he was out of sight.

Sirius shrugged. 'What does it matter. He doesn't want my help.'

'He might need it, though.'

Sirius ignored him. James didn't have any siblings, so he didn't understand how it worked. It wasn't his fault.

'Let's just go have dinner,' he said.

James took the hint, thankfully, and nodded. They reached the Great Hall a few minutes later and joined Remus and Peter at the table.

'Did you find anything?' Remus asked.

James nodded while piling grilled chicken and salad onto his plate. 'It's perfect. We'll show you after dinner. How did you get on?'

'Really good,' Remus said. The corners of his mouth turned up ever so slightly. 'The further I get, though, the harder it becomes. It's probably going to be another few weeks before it's ready.'

'That's not so bad. I just hope we find something when we get through,' James said. He frowned down at his plate, pushing a slice of cucumber around with his fork. 'I keep thinking about Emhio. She must be so scared right now.'

They were all quiet for a minute, lost in their own thoughts about the friendly kelpie that had taught them so much about magical creatures. She had been so kind, always willing to shift if a student asked her to because they needed to check something for their homework, and never too busy to talk. The thought of her shut up in a Ministry cell, waiting to be tried and probably executed for a crime she didn't commit, was too painful for words. It just wasn't fair.

'We'll get her out,' Peter said, breaking the silence. 'She's innocent. All we have to do is prove it.'

They all nodded in agreement, and the conversation moved on. By the time dinner was over and the table cleared itself to make way for dessert, they'd shrugged off the weight of Emhio's fate and were once again behaving like twelve-year-old boys.

'What do you have planned for your next date with Marlene?' Remus asked.

Sirius groaned. To be honest, he was running out of ideas. They'd done the picnic thing, and the watching the sunset from the astronomy tower thing. He'd even taken her for a private meal in the little room off the kitchens where they'd had his birthday meal. There really wasn't much else he could think to do in Hogwarts. And he wasn't letting an outsider in on Marauder secrets, so unless he blindfolded her, he couldn't take her to Hogsmeade.

'I have no idea.'

'You could take her flying,' Peter suggested. 'Both of you sharing a broom. Might be romantic.'

That just made Sirius think of the time he shared a broom with Remus. It had been thrilling for sure, but that was just because out of all of them, Remus had trusted him the most, and he wasn't used to being trusted. It was nothing more than that.

'Yeah. That's a good idea. Thanks, Pete.'

The desserts appeared on the table and Sirius looked over the options, eventually deciding on the Bakewell tart and custard. Taking a big bite, he relished in the sweetness of the raspberry jam and the flavour of almonds, but when he raised his head, it took all his limited self-control not to spit it out in shock. James' hair was bright yellow. What the fuck?

'Mate. Your hair! It's purple!' James cried, staring right back at him. His eyes were wide and his hair was rapidly changing from yellow to purple.

Sirius looked at Peter, to find he had purple hair too, but when he looked at Remus, his hair was its normal golden brown. He glanced down the length of the table. Almost everyone's hair had changed, and there was a rainbow of colours, representing the entire spectrum from red to pink, with a few blacks dotted around—mostly in the upper years. When he looked across the Hall, he saw Gryffindor weren't the only House affected. The other three were just as colourful. Last, he turned his attention to the teacher's, and yes, they too were sporting new hair colours. Dumbledore's normally white locks were a bright golden yellow, and his mouth was twitching at the corners as if he was trying not to laugh. Professor McGonagall's hair was slightly more orange than yellow, but Madam Pince and Filch both had matching bright red.

Sirius turned back to the Marauders in time to see James' hair fade to green. 'This is brilliant. Why didn't we think of it?'

'Brilliant? My hair's fucking purple!' Sirius said.

'It's more red, now, actually. What do you think is making it change?'

'Seems to be dictated by the person's mood,' Remus said thoughtfully. 'You're jealous and your hair's green. Sirius is angry and his is red.'

'I'm not angry,' Sirius snapped.

Remus chuckled and ruffled Sirius' hair. 'Your hair begs to differ. Oh, it's turned pink now. I wonder what pink means.'

Soon after, the students were dismissed to their common rooms and the Marauders immediately retreated to their dorm to talk.

'Who could it have been?' James asked, his hair now a pale yellow—curiosity? He was sitting on his bed, cross-legged and bouncing gently.

'We need to figure out how they did it before we can figure out who it was,' Remus said. 'I'm thinking probably a potion.'

'Why don't we test it and find out?' Peter said, holding up a chocolate muffin.

Remus grinned. 'Peter. You're a genius.'

Sirius watched Remus rummage through his bag, confused. 'I thought it wasn't ready yet.'

'It's not, but the first two layers work. It'll tell us whether the magic is a potion, a charm or a transfiguration, and what its basic purpose is.' He pulled out two stone discs and fit them together, the smaller one on top of the bigger one. 'Pass us the cake, Pete.'

Peter crossed the room and handed the cake to Remus. Sirius and James both joined them, interested to see what happened—all three of them now had pale yellow hair, definitely curiosity. Remus placed the cake on the bed between them and held the discs over it in his right hand. With his left, he picked up his wand, pointing it at the device, and murmured an incantation. 'Deprehendere.'

The runes on the inner disc flashed several times before two went out and the third glowed bright red. 'A potion,' Remus said, as two of the runes on the outer disc started flashing. When it stopped with one lit and the other not, Remus looked up.

'Physical effect only. So it's probably just the hair.'

'So it's someone who's good at potions then,' James said. 'And they must know how to access the kitchen.' He turned to Peter. 'Was it you?'

Peter laughed. 'I wish.'

James groaned, his hair turning green again. 'I know. I'm dying of jealousy here.'

'We need to do something better,' Sirius said, grinning, but a strangled choking sound made the grin fall from his face as he looked back around.

Remus was red-faced, clutching at his throat, and there was a smear of chocolate at the corner of his mouth. His lips and tongue were swollen and a red rash was rapidly spreading across his face. It was obvious what had happened; his hair was jet-black.

'Remus! Fuck!'

'We need to get him to Pomfrey,' James said, frantically tugging Remus' arm around his shoulder to help him up.

'There's no time,' Peter said. 'He's not breathing and the Hospital Wing is six floors away.'

Thinking fast, Sirius looked down at the floor and screamed, 'Breen! Remus needs help!'

There was a loud pop and the house-elf appeared in the middle of their dorm. 'Breen is not supposed to be here when students is present,' he said.

'Never mind the rules,' Sirius said. 'You need to take Remus to Madam Pomfrey. He's dying. Please.'

Breen took one look at Remus, still choking, his face now a horrid purple colour, and scuttled over to him, grabbing his arm. With another loud pop, they were gone.

'Come on,' James said, already out of the door.

Sirius followed James down the stairs and through the common room. He could hear Peter behind him, his footsteps sounding more distant every second, but he couldn't slow down to wait for him. They took the slide down to the ground floor, before pounding back up the stairs to the first floor and sprinting down the corridor, bursting in through the doors to the Hospital Wing.

Madam Pomfrey looked up at their entrance. 'What happened? His airway's completely closed up.'

Remus was lying on a bed, his skin was back to its normal colour but he was no longer moving. His hair was white. 'He ate a bit of cake from dinner. It was laced with a potion, but we don't know what,' Sirius told her. His knees gave out, and he sank to the floor.

'The potion wasn't you four?' she asked, looking at them through narrowed eyes.

'No!' James shouted, before continuing in a calmer tone, 'We'd tell you what it was if it had been. Please, stop questioning us and save him.'

'Calm yourself, Mister Potter. I have a charm breathing for him right now. He's in no immediate danger.'

Sirius breathed out a sigh of relief and stood back up. His legs were still shaky, but he stumbled over to Madam Pomfrey and hugged her. 'Thank you.'

She patted him on the head twice before gently tugging his arms from her waist. 'Yes. Well. Best you let me return to my patient. Yes?'

James joined him and pulled Sirius over to a chair, grabbing another one for himself. Peter pulled up a third and sat on the other side of Remus' bed.

Madam Pomfrey went into her office and returned a few minutes later with a vial of pink potion. She pulled Remus' mouth open gently and poured the potion in. She then cast a charm and Sirius saw him swallow.

'What was that?'

'An antidote for aconite poisoning,' she said. 'There must have been some in the potion.'

'But the rest of us are fine,' Sirius felt the need to point out.

'Only the leaves are toxic usually, but werewolves are sensitive to all but the flowers.'

Sirius nodded. 'How long will it take to work?'

'About an hour. You can stay as long as you're quiet. I need to work on a cure for this epidemic of colour changing hair.'

She disappeared back into her office but left the door open, so the three of them kept their voices low as they talked.

'Do you think he was the target?' Sirius asked.

'I was wondering the same thing,' James said. 'As much as it pains me to admit it. Snape's good with a cauldron, and he's always following us around. He might have overheard us talking about Remus' furry little problem.'

'It could just be an unlucky coincidence,' Peter said.

James nodded. 'It could. But I think we need to work under the assumption that this was a targeted attack on Remus. Just until we know for sure it wasn't.'

Madam Pomfrey returned an hour later and performed some tests. 'He's breathing on his own again now. I'm going to wake him up.'

Waking up had never been harder. Remus felt as though he was swimming up through treacle, clawing his way to the surface with desperation. When he finally managed to force his eyes open, he was greeted with the sight of his three friends, all with jet black hair—Peter looked especially weird with his pale eyebrows—and Madam Pomfrey. All were looking at him with concern.

'What happened?' His voice came out croaky and he coughed to clear his throat.

'Well, it would seem that you don't have the sense not to eat something you're aware is contaminated with an unknown potion, despite being deathly allergic to a common potion ingredient.'

Remus closed his eyes. He was an idiot. The chocolate had just smelled so good. 'Monkshood root.'

'Precisely, I would've expected you to have more sense, Mister Lupin.'

Remus couldn't help but agree with her. He should have had more sense than to eat the cake.

'I'm sorry.'

'As you should be.' She patted his hand. 'Thank Merlin your friends were smart enough to call a house-elf.' She left him alone with his friends after that and returned to her office.

'You okay, Moons?' Sirius asked.

Remus smiled. 'How'd your hair go back to normal?'

'Oh. It's not. I think black means worried or scared,' Sirius said, twiddling the ends of his hair.

'I'm alright. Throat's a bit sore.'

'I'll ask Pomfrey for a pain potion.' Sirius went to stand up, but Remus stopped him with a hand on his arm.

'I can't take them. They all contain monkshood.'

'Well, that's shit,' Peter said. 'There must be a way to make a pain potion without aconite.'

'But why would anyone bother?' Remus said, pulling himself to a sitting position. 'Not a lot of people care about werewolves. Even less that are any good at potions.'

'I know of one person,' Peter responded. 'And I also happen to know he's been looking for something new to work on.'

Remus smiled at Peter. It was kind of him, but Remus didn't want him wasting his time on something so unnecessary. 'You don't have to do that.'

Peter rolled his eyes, but all he said was, 'I know.'

Despite Madam Pomfrey's best efforts, she hadn't managed to brew a cure before the end of the weekend. So when they arrived at Charms Monday morning, everyone still had multi-coloured hair.

'Lily does not look right with blonde hair,' James said, sadly, his own hair turning dark blue. 'Curses on whoever did this. Horrifying curses.'

Remus chuckled. 'It's not that bad, Sunshine. Cheer up or we'll have to start calling you Storm Cloud.'

James' hair turned yellow with amusement. 'That's a terrible name.'

'Will you stop being funny,' Sirius growled. 'I need to stay anxious to keep my hair black.' His hair had begun turning yellow at the roots but quickly faded back to black.

'I have to say, you're showing an impressive amount of control over your emotions right now. What are you thinking about?'

'You don't want to know,' Sirius said, darkly.

The Charms lesson on the scouring charm, Scourgify, was a lot of fun. Flitwick looked hilarious with bright yellow hair, but it was nice to know how much the man truly enjoyed teaching. They spent the free period between classes making more plans for the Halloween event. Now that they had the crystals, they could start devising the story for the game, and there was much discussion about what to do with the fifth crystal.

The time flew by and it was soon time for Defence. Professor Tenebris was one of the few teachers unaffected by the potion laced desserts. She'd been absent from dinner that evening, and so her hair was still as white as ever. The same could not be said for the students, however, a fact she was quick to remark upon.

'Today's lesson will be made extra interesting by the unfortunate potion effects most of you are suffering from,' she said by way of greeting. 'I understand the colour reflects your emotions?' When the class murmured in agreement, she continued, 'I'll be testing your knowledge today with mock battles, and the hair will be very useful in letting me know how well you control your emotions under strain.' She eyed the Marauders for a moment. 'However, as your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, it would be remiss of me not to use this as a teaching opportunity. So I'm going to show you a useful little spell for testing your food for potions.'

Remus perked up at that. Every meal since Saturday night, his friends had been testing the food themselves before letting him eat any. It was sweet of them, but Remus would much rather be able to do it with a spell. Eating it was a good test, but it didn't allow for delayed effects. He could, of course, use the device he was building, but none of them wanted other people to see that.

Professor Tenebris demonstrated the spell for the class, and they all copied her with their own wands. 'The food will glow for a few seconds, white if it's clean, red if a potion is detected.' She tucked her wand back into its holster and rubbed her hands together. 'Now that you're all better prepared, let's get on with the duels. Who wants to go first?' She scanned the room and then her eyes settled on James and Peter. 'How about Potter and Pettigrew? If the rest of you could move to the edges of the room?'

James grinned, but Peter looked nervous and his already dark hair turned black as the two of them waited in the middle of the room while everyone else positioned themselves against the wall. Professor Tenebris waved her wand and a transparent dome shimmered to life around them.

'So we don't need to worry about any spells going astray,' she explained. 'Now, your goal is to disarm or incapacitate your opponent to the point that they can no longer attack you. You may use any spell you've learnt in this class or your other classes, and anything you have looked up yourself in the library as long as it doesn't exceed second-year level,' she smirked at them. 'That should encourage you all to make the most of the resources at your disposal. Take your positions, boys.'

Standing back to back, James and Peter both took ten paces away from each other before turning back around and bowing. James immediately moved into an attacking stance, and, seeing this, Peter set his feet in a defensive position and raised his wand. Remus smiled to himself. This was going to be good.

'Expelliarmus,' James shouted.

The scarlet light from his spell shot towards Peter, but he slashed his wand through the air and yelled, 'Protego,' and James' spell bounced off his shield, ricocheting harmlessly into the protective dome encircling them.

James grinned, and his already yellow hair brightened to the point of glowing.

Jerking his wand back to end the shield charm, Peter fluidly moved to an offensive position. 'Rictusempra.'

James dodged the charm before shooting a stunning spell in Peter's direction, chasing it with a knockback jinx to the right, and another to the left.

Peter dodged the red light of the stunner, but doing so put him in the path of the second flipendo and he fell on his ass with a thump. Taking immediate advantage, James yelled, 'Expelliarmus.'

As the scarlet light flew towards Peter's chest, Remus thought for sure the match would be over, but Peter apparently wasn't ready to give up. He flopped backwards, letting his head hit the ground, and the spell passed over the top of him, barely missing his nose. A few of the watching students gasped; a couple of them whooped. The moment it was past him, Peter sat back up, pointed his wand at James, and cast mucus ad nauseam.

James was not prepared for this—probably expecting Peter to be disarmed—and the spell hit him square in the face. He immediately began sneezing uncontrollably, his eyes and nose streaming as he tried to regain control. Peter used the distraction to climb back to his feet and followed up his attack with a stunner and a disarming charm.

Completely unable to speak between sneezes, James could only dodge the attacks, and Peter kept on firing spells, practically making James dance as he tried to avoid them. Peter's hair finally began fading from black to yellow at the sight, and he was smiling.

But James wasn't ready to admit defeat yet. Still unable to speak through his sneezing, he turned to transfiguration for help. Pointing his wand at Peter's feet and screwing his face up in concentration, he transformed Peter's shoelaces into winding vines and tripped him up.

Peter fell flat on his face.

With Peter down for a moment, James was finally able to cast finite incantatum on himself and stop the sneezing. It didn't cure the physical result of the curse though; his eyes were still wet with tears and his glasses blurred from his damp eyelashes brushing the lenses. Squinting in an attempt to see better, James again tried to disarm Peter, but he rolled to avoid it, cast a smokescreen and got back to his feet.

The two boys stared each other down for a moment, both grinning, before James shot a barrage of knockbacks and stunners. Peter's hair turned immediately black and, clearly panicking, he apparently fired the first spell that came to mind. Not a shield, as one might expect, but a scouring charm. Remus groaned. Dammit, Pete, you were doing so well.

James didn't even bother to dodge, not expecting the spell to have any adverse effect on him, he allowed it to impact him in the chest. Remus was as surprised as everyone else when James' mouth filled up with soap and he bent over double, spluttering and choking on the pink bubbles.

'Expelliarmus!' Peter yelled. And James' wand flew out of his hand and clattered to the floor halfway between him and Peter. Peter immediately ran to James. 'Mate, are you okay?'

'Finite incantatum,' Professor Tenebris said, and James stopped choking, but stayed doubled over, gasping for breath.

'Five points to Gryffindor for innovative usage of the scouring charm, Mister Pettigrew, nicely done. Let's have McKinnon and Meadowes next.'

Peter helped James to the side of the room as Marlene and Dorcas entered the ring.

'I'm sorry, James, I didn't know that would happen.'

James laughed. 'It's fine, mate. That was awesome.'

The lesson continued. As each battle ended, Professor Tenebris sent in a new pair to fight, and five minutes before the end, she chose Remus and Sirius.

Neither of them held back. Knowing the other was more than capable, they both put their all into the battle, and it was fast and brutal. Five minutes in, they were still going strong, neither of them able to land a single spell they were so evenly matched. Remus was vaguely aware of the rest of the class filing out of the room, but forced himself to concentrate.

After another five minutes, Remus managed to get a flipendo through Sirius' defence, knocking him to the floor, and he followed it up with, 'Ciricumrota!'

Sirius, still on his ass on the floor, began to spin, slowly at first but rapidly gaining speed. Remus choked out an 'expelliarmus,' through his laughter and Sirius' wand shot out from the spinning blur of black and pink and straight into Remus' hand. He looked up to see James and Peter both laughing too; it seemed they'd stayed behind when the rest of the class was dismissed.

'Finite incantatum,' Remus said, pointing his wand at Sirius. The spinning slowed to a stop and Sirius looked rather green in the face; his skin clashing horribly with his bright pink hair.

'Aw, don't be embarrassed, mate,' James said, going over to help him up.

'When you're ready, boys, I'd like a word,' Professor Tenebris said.

They took a few minutes for Sirius to recover from his dizziness, before asking what she wanted.

'How do you feel about some private lessons?' she asked. 'You all fought very well today, but there's much more I'd like to teach you that we won't be covering in class.'

The four Marauders all grinned at each other.