To Stitches: You weren't exactly right in your guess, but I hope you like the location anyways. Thanks so much for always reviewing and engaging, it always makes my day!
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No one even had the chance to scream as they all landed in a very small room, but instead watched the transformation happen in reverse in rapid succession. Moony had barely gotten to his feet before Remus stood in place, and that only lasted long enough for his eyes to roll back into his head and he fell to the floor, unconscious and naked. The other two animals vanished with much less fanfare, a little pop and only one was left.
Peter rolled off the bed he hadn't even registered he'd been on, blanket in hand to cover him, while all eyes instead turned to the still whimpering dog splayed out on the floor in a puddle of black and red.
Not an ear had been saved from his cries in those echoing mountains, even Alice who hadn't dared turn on a light once she'd been able to go no further in the disturbingly small cave.
James was already knelt over him, speaking fervently the spells they usually used on Moony until his high-pitched keening finally subsided, eyes still half-lidded. Too in pain from the burning wounds to get comfortable to sleep, too exhausted to even take in this new place.
Prongs sat on the ground to pull and rearrange gently so that Padfoot's large head was cushioned on his thigh, sprawled out on his lap and still halfheartedly whimpering. "Everyone's okay, don't worry," he crooned as if to an infant, one hand kneading gently at the scruff of his neck, the other tucking away his wand and turning a gentle palm over his spine and down his legs to make sure he hadn't missed anything. Finally his heavy breathing evened out, but James still winced and held him tighter as his hand came away covered in so much blood.
He'd healed the gashes and mended the broken bones, even the internal damage should have sown itself back together, but he did not know the spell to help with blood loss or even if there was one other than a potion they had no hopes of getting the ingredients for. They'd only ever learned enough to help ease Remus of the worst of it until Madam Pomfrey arrived, and despite the dangers of running with a werewolf, only a few bites and scrapes ever came of it as he never had any interest in fighting them for dominance, let alone trying to eat them. Nothing ever this serious.
He snorted softly at his own train of thought, letting his hand rest gently against the beating heart. He'd be alright, he had to be. He'd sleep it off, they'd get some food into him and Alice, everyone would be fine, they just had to survive this.
"How long will he have to, be like that?" James looked up in surprise, his eyes finally taking in where exactly they were, and his heart thudding for a moment in shock as he realized it was just Regulus in front of him, wide-eyed and curious once more.
"Um, probably should be for a day or so," he answered, distracted as he looked around properly. A large queen-sized bed dominated the room, a thick, crochet blanket still clung to the foot of the bed that Peter was eyeing like he wanted to rip that off too, the quilt covering Moony also looked homespun. A pair of thin, wire-framed glasses sat on the table behind him, and the black book rested on the opposite nightstand, but otherwise there didn't seem much decor to speak of. "A lot of saliva got into the wounds-" he stopped and winced heavily, that was going to burn worse than the original wounds, not to mention scar. "Just, better safe than sorry, he'll work it out of his system and be back to normal in no time. So long as he stays Padfoot, there won't be any problems."
Regulus didn't seem to question any of this, but instead reached his hand out tentatively, brushing his fingers across the crown of his skull. The dog's thick fur felt surprisingly soft. Lupin had said they helped like he'd never believe, and damn if that didn't make more sense than ever right now... "Where did everyone else go?" Potter asked, his eyes on the open door behind him.
"Alice was hoping to find a bathroom, said something about a potions kit if they were lucky, but it leads into a scullery. I don't know more than that." Longbottom had been limping and she'd been anxious to mend that, werewolf in his vicinity or not. Evans had hovered and kept watching Potter, but she'd backed out of the room. He hadn't been able to do more than turn his head slightly to see it all, eyes still trained on his brother.
James sighed, they probably should check that out just to be safe. The last thing they needed was yet another surprise in some stranger's house. Gently nudging until Padfoot was off his lap and apologizing quietly as the soft whimpers started up again, he went over to Peter and grabbed Moony's feet in the burrito of blankets he was still in, the dried blood on it already covering Peter's own spells to heal the damage done to his leg. Peter supported under his arms as they got him onto the bed, and then the two repeated this on Padfoot. He did awaken, stirring and huffing, but a few gentle words calmed him and his bright gray eyes lit with understanding, as he went slack in their grip until the mattress was beneath him. They watched as he nuzzled up against Remus's legs and curled into a ball still trembling slightly, Peter finally taking the quilt and throwing it over him before joining the other two at the door, but leaving it open behind them, just in case.
The washroom at least didn't seem very threatening. There was a bathroom door ajar, but his eyes focused on the stack of freshly laundered wizard's robes sitting in a wicker basket, and James peeked into the cupboard above this to find several threadbare pants and shirts. He dug around for a moment before selecting one of each that should fit Remus, then shrugged and went through them again looking for some for himself. There seemed to be a bit of a variety to his surprise, and wondered how many people lived here. He set those aside for now to keep going though.
The answer came when he followed the two into a very familiar kitchen. He'd only been in it once, but it had been a memorable experience.
"Oh good, you stayed awake," Alice called from the stove. She didn't have the red hair, but she easily reminded him of Mrs. Weasley, the amount of times he'd pictured her here in her home turf.
"Was too keyed up," he admitted, but even to his own ears his voice dragged a bit. They'd only been awake two hours at best since their last lie down, but the night caused a bone-deep weariness in him like they'd just spent a whole twenty-four hours dealing with Moony again.
"Here then," Lily got up from the table and offered him a plate covered with sausages already half-drowned in syrup. "I'm sure they won't mind," she added with a smile.
A real, genuine, one could almost call it teasing smile. His brain shut down. His stomach sent a sizzling sensation tracing through every nerve ending in his body. "I, um," he took the offered plate on autopilot looking her dead in the eye, and she let the smile linger as she went back to the table, sitting back down next to Frank as she went back to her fried potatoes and tomatoes.
Silence hung in the kitchen for several long moments as he stood there like he'd been clubbed over the head. Peter and Regulus went forward and began helping themselves to the feast and had dug in for several moments and he still hadn't moved. Peter bit into his eggs with a little too much gusto to stop himself from laughing. Remus and Sirius were going to die they'd missed this. He cleared his throat and directed at anyone who would answer, "so, since when can we leave the room we landed?"
"We could back in the Divination classroom from Trelawney's office," Regulus kindly reminded, but they'd had a lot going on during that time, so he wasn't surprised this detail hadn't been acknowledged in a while. "Maybe we could even before that, but none of us tried to get back inside the Dursleys' home." He was personally glad nobody had tried in Grimmauld place either, someone probably would have died if they'd tried traversing that whole house at once.
"No one tried to leave the Gryffindor dorms to see if we could go into the common room," Alice added. She was kicking herself a bit she hadn't realized the Dursleys' one specifically, her foot had been hanging out of the cat-flap door to Harry's room and she hadn't thought of trying to get the rest of herself out by just opening it?
Frank's eyes glazed over in thought for a moment before saying, "maybe we even could have left the locker rooms to go onto the Quidditch pitch, but I wonder if we couldn't still go beyond that. We can go up the staircase here, but only into Percy's room, none of the others. We still can't even get into their living room or the yard, so we still seem pretty confined, it's just slowly getting better."
"I'll take that," Lily said in delight.
"Molly does have a potions kit by the way," Alice added in kindly, scraping the last of the bacon onto a plate and bringing that to the table before digging in herself. James still hadn't moved. "I'm not surprised really she'd keep something like that on hand, with all these boys here. There were quite a few things in there Lily and Frank seemed excited over."
"Ditany," Frank nodded seriously.
"Some bubotuber pus," Lily stated.
"A bit of Wiggenweld Potion," Frank added.
"And some blood restorative," Alice finished, taking a hearty bite of a bacon and egg sandwich she'd put together. Clearly she spoke of that one from experience.
"We'll probably just have to nick the lot," Frank winced in shame for admitting this, even as he patted the little white box and cast Alice a smile of no regrets.
"We'll definitely find some way to pay them back if, you know, if it's actually gone or something for real in their time, or whatever," Lily stated in no uncertain terms for the wonky sentence.
"Great," James finally snapped out of his reverie, but then set the plate on the counter even as he still hadn't taken his eyes off of her. "I should, probably give that to them now, they'll sleep even better."
She nodded without surprise, going back to eating her food with far more investment than should really be needed as she gave it a little push in his direction.
Peter stuffed one last bite of eggs into his mouth and followed him, stopping to pick up the clothes left out, James coming in with the tiny vial of blue potion, still full from someone having the forethought already to use a refill charm on it.
The four left in the kitchen didn't break the silence, not yet, as they all reflected how different things felt from the last time they'd been here.
It was hard to tell if the kitchen felt the same impact. Despite the fact that it was still night outside, it was blitheringly obvious this wasn't the same night they'd just left, let alone the day they'd been here last, yet nothing of consequence had changed that they could see. The clock with the Weasley's hands was still drifting aimlessly, the drawers were still overpacked with the same muggle paraphernalia. None of it yet answered the much less pressing question of how much they impacted each environment when they left it.
They weren't really surprised when the Marauders didn't come back, but none of them felt like trying to fall asleep either. Lily finally got up and snagged that deck of cards off the counter, the self-shuffling charm must have worn off, because she began shuffling them and asking if anyone wanted to play a game.
"I've never heard of it," Regulus whispered quietly.
"Neither have I," Frank shrugged, helping Alice to stack up some plates and lead them to the sink which began cleaning them at once.
"I can teach you, it's really simple," she promised, and nobody argued after that.
Lily was the only one who spoke as she explained the game to the three of them, but they were all smiling just a bit at the mostly luck-based structure after only one practice hand and three real rounds. It only took five though before Frank was trying to stifle a yawn, and Alice was quick to make an excuse.
"Neither of you are tired yet?" She still confirmed.
"Not even a little bit," Lily shrugged.
"Nah," Regulus frowned, all thumbs as he tried shuffling the deck again, but it scattered across the table as his bridge collapsed. He couldn't even blame it on an injury, they'd kindly dabbed Wiggenweld Potion onto his sore fingers. His face puckered, but he leaned forward and quickly began pulling them all back to him to try again.
"Well, we're going to borrow Percy's bed for a bit then," she only barely blushed at saying this so casually, but they'd been doing it for practically this whole trip so most of the embarrassment had subsided long before now.
"Alright then," Lily did look up at them with clear curiosity, Alice didn't sound even the least bit sleepy, but offered her hand to Regulus to show him how to do it again instead of saying anything.
He handed it over wordlessly and watched her every move as she shuffled in slow motion.
The two held hands up the narrow staircase up to the second floor, slipping into Percy's room properly now, when they'd only opened the door before just to check if it would.
Here, it seemed, finally was some sort of answer that their passing through didn't have an affect. The bed was still properly made, when she knew for a fact they'd left the blankets in disarray from their springing upon it, and the bottle of ink Sirius had knocked over looked untouched, and there was even more thick dust upon every surface.
One could argue somebody had just straightened up and abandoned the place again, but it was hard to fathom a motive for any of the Weasleys' doing so. They both had to cast Tergeo several times to get the room any kind of bearable, let alone sleep in without sneezing their noses off, but as the two crawled under the covers, Frank whispered in her ear, "I was faking that yawning you know."
Alice laughed in surprise as she nestled against his chest. "No, I hadn't suspected you of that." She ran the tips of her fingers across his palm for a few moments before whispering, "that's the first thing you've really said since we landed here."
Frank kissed her temple as he mulled over how to answer her. "I suppose I'd never stopped to consider, why exactly, those guys went and did something so wildly dangerous and illegal themselves to hang around a werewolf. I was more stuck on the man-eating monster bit to, ah, see the other aspects."
He grasped her fingers to get her to stop, that was starting to tickle. "I saw it out there though," he breathed into her ear, "what you and Lily seemed to instantly get. They care for each other, they'd die for each other, Sirius Black really was going to die to stop Lupin from getting to me." It should have been obvious long before now, but he really would admit now his prejudices had kept him pretty narrow minded on this. It wasn't Lupin's fault, he didn't want to hurt any of them, and those three Marauders knew that, everyone had figured that out before him. "Remus," he corrected, deciding if going through all that hadn't put them on first-name terms he didn't know what could.
She shivered at the idea of how close that must have been for him to have had such a good picture. The story had been easy enough to piece together, why else but her boyfriend bleeding would Padfoot have to restrain him with such ferocity? She hadn't exactly wanted details though. "I thought he was dying out there," she hadn't wanted to admit this, afraid it would only make him hate Remus more telling how close she'd been to him as well in such a dangerous time, but now she admitted, "he just looked, so in pain, right before," she stopped with another shiver at just the idea of having to go through something like that once a month. Then the heart wrenching cry of the animal, she'd been convinced Sirius Black was dying on the other side of that log barrier keeping the werewolf away and she'd done nothing to help.
Frank shivered with her, but then instantly relaxed and just held her tighter. "I don't think Lily was kidding about trying to invent that Wolfsbane potion even earlier," he added on.
"No, I'd imagine she wasn't," she could hear the grin in his voice. She still held tight to him as guilt warred with practicality. She couldn't deny anymore Frank hadn't been all wrong either, they really could find themselves in 'Moony's' vicinity again at any time, but there must be some better option out there than his mates constantly taking a beating for them every time.
"Might help her with that," he muttered, thinking he definitely owed the guy more of an apology than that, but it was at least a start.
Lily and Regulus were both very much aware this was the most time they'd spent around each other period. There was no peril to avoid, no book to read, they were simply trapped in this room with only each other for company and a deck of cards.
The game simply gave their hands something to do, and they did have to concentrate on it a bit, but the awkward silence started to wane as Regulus really got the hang of it. By the tenth hand he was shuffling with moderate success and dealing out the cards like he'd done it countless times, and by the eleventh the two started to realize they may both have a bit of a competitive streak.
Regulus was finally the one to break the long stretch of silence as he managed to beat her for the first time, and her response was to sigh she shouldn't have taught him that move. "Who taught you how to play this?" He hoped his voice wasn't as stiff as it sounded to his own ears, and that she wouldn't realize same as him this was the first time he'd tried talking to a muggle-born.
Though technically, he had no idea what Peter's blood status was. He'd admitted once already he'd never met his father, and though he hadn't outright said it Regulus had sussed out from his home and a few lapses in knowledge of wizarding society over their talks his mother was a Muggle, so he was as good as a muggle-born in some people's eyes. He just didn't want to be one of those people anymore.
"My mum," she smiled at the memory, while doing several extra shuffles of the deck to make sure she didn't get that hand again. "My sister got very bored with it and didn't want to stay past the second time, so it became a thing with me and her, we'd play for hours," as she dealt out the next hand.
He found himself completely fascinated at nearly everything she'd just said. He wasn't unaware she had a sister, that Petunia Dursley deserved a far worse word than mudblood thrown at her, plus he still remembered that boggart they'd come across, but it was the way she spoke about her in past tense, like he kept thinking about Sirius.
There was also the fact that she'd done such a thing as play a game with her mum, did all parents do that, or was it a Muggle thing?
He thought over his words as he collected the new cards, but didn't think there was anything offensive in them. Still, he spoke cautiously as he arranged his hand, waiting for her to give him a dirty look any second so he would stop and not ruin this. "Me and Sirius used to play Three Brothers, but not since we were a lot younger, he hadn't even started being an arse yet if you can believe it."
The cheek had not been the part of that he was concerned with sharing, but to his disbelief she actually giggled.
He sat there just staring at her despite the fact that it was his turn. He kept waiting for something to happen, but even he wasn't quite sure what. He'd never asked why you shouldn't hang around muggle-borns.
"What's Three Brothers?" She asked.
"It's a kids' story," he paused and chewed on his cheek for only a moment, but it was ridiculous at this point to even let the thought flutter about her learning something to do with wizards as he finally went and the pattern continued. "There's these three objects these brothers won from death, and when you have them all, you'd be master of death. A stone that lets you see the dead, a wand that can't be beat, and a cloak that repels any spell. When Sirius read it to me, we went on a quest about the house, looking for them. In the attic, all the spare rooms, you name it."
Lily was baffled something so lighthearted could have taken place in that miserable home, but then she wasn't more sure if she was disappointed, or unsurprised when he finished, "we eventually nicked father's wand, and he grounded us for a week for doing something so silly. Sirius doesn't like playing games with me much since."
His smile was childishly delighted as he won the hand again, it was hard to believe this was the same lad simply sitting here chatting with her when he'd once laughed at the most degrading of insults right in front of her.
He'd never outright called her that though, never really bothered to speak to her at all anymore than she had him. It was not lost on her as he now shuffled for a new game with ease that they'd all been rather stuck in their ways.
Alice and Frank really had dozed off, but only for an hour or two for a nap, when they came back down they saw Regulus and Lily were still at it, and a scorecard had been produced at some point. They'd won a pretty equal amount of times, and both seemed convinced they were going to trump the other eventually, but they spoke to each other with casual ease as they recalled what had happened at Slughorn's last party.
"The boys still out?" Alice felt bad for interrupting, but she was starting to get worried. How long were they supposed to sleep that kind of thing off before someone checked on them?
"Yeah," Regulus said casually enough. His sharp eyes missed nothing as he played his next card but kept the door to the scullery in his periphery.
"I think this is a common thing though," Lily added, her voice trying for casual, and failing. "I mean, Lupin does miss classes quite a lot, we all knew that, and those guys make up excuses for him all the time, so they probably know better than us."
"Did you want back in the game?" Regulus asked, and Frank wondered if it was his imagination some of the stiffness had left his voice.
"Sure," they both agreed.
The four whittled away at least another hour at it, until Alice finally convinced the two with a mild insanity problem they could call it even, and went to make some more breakfast, as all the ingredients were ready about the kitchen instead of hoping she could get into the Weasleys' cellar. By then though they were all growing restless and obviously watching the door.
"I'll go try and wake them up," Regulus finally volunteered what they were all thinking. "If they try to kill me, just know, I would have won eventually," he finished with a leveled look at Evans, who just smirked and pocketed the deck.
He pushed the door open quietly to find them all piled onto the bed. Sirius, err, the dog, Padfoot?, was now stretched out almost comfortably with his head across Peter's chest and feet digging into Potter's back, his own furry behind right in Lupin's face. He sucked on his cheek for a moment debating how to do this, before finally deciding Peter was the least likely to sock him in the face on any given occasion, let alone being woken up.
He eased up and gently tapped him on the shoulder, but it wasn't his voice who said, "going to take more than that to get them up."
He made a very undignified squeal of surprise that should have woken up the whole house as he watched Potter. His eyes hadn't opened, he didn't even seem to have moved, but when he frowned around at the others again he realized it was the truth. Peter had merely grumbled and twitched but kept on snoring, and Sirius and Lupin hadn't even done that.
When he looked at Potter again his eyes were blinking hazily open, rubbing his knuckles into them and finally shifting to get up. He grabbed Arthur's glasses by mistake, went cross-eyed, and then finally stretched as he eyed Regulus wearily fixing his own in place. "How long we been out?"
"Couple hours, five maybe," he shrugged, none of them had been wearing a watch when this happened, and they weren't even sure it would have worked regardless.
"That's it?" His face scrunched up with displeasure. "Oh we're doomed, Moony's been out for two or three days after a night like that." Then he paused and assessed the lot, and glanced out the window as he reconsidered, "but, he also wasn't changed for nearly as long as usual, so we might get lucky and not have to set the house on fire."
"I'm sure the Weasley's would appreciate that," he nodded, eyeing the giant black shape curiously once more.
"Any food?" James cut in, and Regulus dragged his eyes back away from his furry brother but merely shrugged. Then he seemed to take the hint, and finally left.
James rubbed his eyes for a few more moments, but thankfully the tempting sounds of sizzling meat already had Padfoot and Peter's nose twitching to life. Maybe this process would have been easier if they were all Hufflepuffs instead.
Regulus hadn't been all wrong going after Peter first, only a few pointed prods and shakes with the promise of breakfast and he was rolling out of bed with some unintelligible grumbling before stomping off. Padfoot was usually more difficult, but his tail was thumping in excitement as he stretched instead before James even had to say anything, the food probably smelt even better to him like that.
"Ahah," he quickly scolded when he recognized the other way he was stretching, about to change back. "You are not to change back for twenty-four hours mister."
The dog huffed, and Regulus couldn't help but agree. "How exactly are you going to enforce that?"
Potter whirled on the spot to scowl at him, clearly annoyed he was still hanging around, but he was just too curious to pass this up seeing Sirius like this.
"Fine then," he turned back, "until we finish this book."
Sirius huffed again, and Regulus laughed to realize he still recognized that gleam of challenge in his brother's eye. "I imagine that won't be any easier to stop him talking that long."
Potter threw his hands in the air in frustration before turning to him and snapping, "can I help you?"
"No," Regulus shrugged, "just watching."
"Well I'm so glad you're enjoying the show," he grumbled, turning back to Padfoot with actual sternness in his voice that surprised him, he really hadn't thought Potter had it in him. "I mean it Padfoot, you do not change back until I say so, you got really messed up, and I want you to wait. Better safe than sorry."
His brother finally let out a huge bursting sigh, but nodded and hopped off the bed still on all fours. He reared up and snagged the book on his way out, tail held jauntily in the air with an odd bit of smugness Regulus couldn't guess at. Did he think he could read that while barking at them?
The two walked into the kitchen amongst several odd stares, but Peter explained before he could while making a plate, "James wants him to wait, better safe than sorry."
It wasn't so funny anymore hearing them both say the same thing back to back in the exact same weary tone.
"Okay," Alice drew the word out a bit, but finally set up a plate, hesitated a moment, and just put it on the floor. Padfoot pounced on it and was licking the plate clean in moments, but in fairness, he did that even when he didn't have that kind of tongue just to annoy people.
The bathroom in the scullery was only a toilet, sink, and medicine cabinet, so sadly nobody got a shower this time, but Remus considered that a good thing as he shuffled along, James probably would have followed him in there as he stayed right behind him. It was a miracle he didn't have his hand on his back like an invalid.
He'd blindly dumped half a jar of brown sugar onto his eggs and scarfed down those before finally some real life began to stir in him, and he blinked around in confusion muttering, "how are we back in the Weasleys' kitchen?"
"Magic Moony, keep up," Peter snickered as he dumped yet more ketchup across his eggs, the plate looked more like a bloody mess than the werewolf's.
James properly explained their new theory, and by then everyone had finally slowed in their eating, if not stopped altogether.
Remus had nothing to argue against any of that as he scraped his fork uneasily across his plate for a moment before finally putting his dishes away and going over to Padfoot to fetch the book. He figured people were going to be glaring at him regardless from now on, may as well pretend in his own head it was at that.
Padfoot had been waiting for just such a thing, and quickly snagged up the book he'd kept under him while eating, and took off to the opposite side of the kitchen. "Oh no, we are not doing this again!" His face was almost luminescent pale, despite the sleep and food he still seemed only passably functional, but there was a genuine smile on his face as he effed his own words and started after him.
The game didn't last long, no one was in doubt Padfoot was going easy on him and let himself be cornered after only one romp around the kitchen, but finally Remus bent down and grabbed the book. Even Sirius didn't dare play tug of war with such a precious thing as their escape, and he let the slightly soggy mess splat to the ground.
"You're disgusting," Remus told him pleasantly.
The dog barked a laugh, did a little spin on the spot, and then went over to plop down in front of the still hot stove. He was still smiling as he eased back to the table and almost forgot to tense up at putting all attention on him as he read, "The Eye of the Snake."
"Oh great, what does Malfoy do to annoy him now," Regulus huffed under his breath. He'd already gotten Harry kicked off the quidditch team, a grievous insult that even he would have decked his fellow student for. Malfoy had been a sore loser from the beginning and even this was still a new low.
"Erm," Frank surprised them all by clearing his throat, and almost meeting Lupin's eyes without flinching. "I'm ah, curious, but um, how do you, I mean, what do you remember, well, we can't read when we're not all awake, so-"
"Well, technically, he is awake," Potter stated, eyeing him oddly, his tone much more sarcastic than waspish, but Longbottom had sounded nothing but curious, so he was trying to restrain himself.
"I remember," Remus answered much more quietly but sincerely, eyes twitching to a few more bits of toast left, to Frank, to the book like he couldn't decide what to address. "Hagrid came back and told where he'd been, Umbridge was an arse. The details are fuzzy and vague, but," he shrugged and finally settled on telling the book he remembered what had transgressed, fighting back the urge to scream as the pain had been the most clear in his head, and Padfoot wouldn't have had to restrain him like that except for the worst of reasons. Something had nearly gone very wrong, he hadn't needed James to tell him that.
He decided against elaborating that he did remember things better when he'd eaten, he didn't think Longbottom would want to know that. It had only happened a few times anyways, he'd come across a few predators that met Moony's liking, like a blood-sucking bugbear or even an acromantula that was only human-sized, more for the challenge and then eating the kill for victory rather than actually having a taste for it. They all knew what Moony really had a craving for.
Nobody interrupted him again as he started, the trio worrying about Hagrid's coming lessons and the range of possibilities of how he'd get fired for basically anything he brought to class.
The lesson turned out to be fantastic though, as it went over Thestrals.
"I've heard of those!" Remus exclaimed with the most energy yet, though really it was a miracle that amount of sugar he'd ingested hadn't done that already. "My dad's mentioned them, you can only see them if you've seen death."
His grin slipped away though as he muttered, "oh," in surprise, now eyeing Peter and Longbottom.
"Guess your dad never actually described them as creepy, skeleton, horse-looking things," Peter sighed.
"Nope, he's just mentioned them in passing. Ah, sorry, again," he finished sheepishly.
Peter just shrugged and helped himself to more juice. He'd never held anything against his friends, he wasn't going to start with that. A part of him still remembered how resentful he'd been feeling right before his catastrophe of a future was spelled out, and he'd spent many an alone hour worrying how that had built up and turned him into someone who could do that to James.
"Who did you see die?" Regulus blurted in surprise.
James twitched like he wanted to reach across the table and slap the idiot on the neck, even Padfoot huffed and eyed the heel of his brother's shoe with temptation and they all suddenly realized what a bad idea having him run around with available sharp teeth was.
Peter didn't seem bothered by it though, answering casually enough, "my Uncle Pierce*. He'd been sickly for ages and bedridden for that week, Mum told me not to go in there, but I did, guess it was just bad timing I happened to be watching him when he, you know, wasn't sleeping anymore. I was ten," he finished with a casual shrug that he hoped hid well how he'd come blubbering into the living room to his mother about his Uncle starting to look funny.
His friends had heard this before, but Remus still felt like an idiot and was kicking himself as he kept going he'd never put that together as he eagerly read the descriptions of them again and all of Hagrid's fun facts.
Alice laid her hand on Frank's, rubbing her thumb over his knuckles with a silent question, but he merely answered by kissing hers in return and turning quietly to ask Lily if she wanted to play that card game again. He'd tell her, just maybe not now, she already had a dislike for his mum and this probably wouldn't make things better.
Lily had barely gotten the cards clear from her pocket though when everyone really was scowling at the book in Lupin's hands just like he'd wanted as Umbridge arrived, and made even more of an arse of herself than usual.
"That woman has no bounds," Lily seethed, nearly crumpling the queen of hearts up in her fist before correcting herself.
"Can hardly believe someone so bloody awful exists, treating him like that in his own class, and we've been living with You-Know-Who murdering people by the day in our Daily Prophet," Alice agreed with quiet ferocity.
Frank just winced, but not for the reason everyone but Alice assumed. He now thought himself being just as bad as her, the way he'd treated Lupin, but certainly wasn't sympathizing with her like Potter's glare insinuated. He wanted to correct him, but the words 'I don't think your friend wants to eat me anymore' sounded obtuse to his own ears.
Their terse mutters and grumbles weren't making this better though, so Lily offered offhand and absolutely casual if Pettigrew and Potter wanted to be dealt in.
Peter agreed, he'd even heard of the game they'd been playing, but James opted out and tipped the chair back, rocking it casually as he watched everyone, especially her, with open interest once more. He still didn't know what she meant by it, that plate of food from before his nap, nor just casually speaking in his direction at all! It's not like he expected her gratitude at protecting her out there, he'd do it for anyone for Moony's sake.
It killed something inside of him to even turn down this offer and enjoy her attention freely, surely they could even partner up on whatever this game was, but Remus was already shuffling uncomfortably at having put himself the center of attention like the idiot they knew he was, but he'd been as aware as Padfoot he was going to do this to himself just to prove how normal he was when he woke up. At least him not playing along didn't make Remus feel so singled out. That didn't mean he wasn't slightly tempted to push the idiot out of the chair and have him sit on the floor with Padfoot, all attention would be off him anyways, win win for everyone-
Regulus had eaten no less than half the loaf of bread with just butter and cinnamon, and soon began regretting it as his stomach swirled when the pleasant DA lesson ended and the book spiraled into territory he'd certainly never expected this to go in, and was clearly the only one. Everyone around him was laughing and tittering softly about Harry's first kiss with Cho, when Regulus had dropped half his hand in surprise.
The good mood wasn't meant to last in anyone though as Harry went off to bed, and his thoughts weren't able to linger on girls much longer at the following nightmare.
Potter tipped his chair over in surprise, Padfoot jumped to his feet, hackles raised but no snakes to fight off in here, the rest of them stayed still as statues when Arthur Weasley was attacked, and in the deadly silence that followed as McGonagall arrived for Harry, Remus loathed finishing the last sentence as he looked one more time around the homey kitchen with dread, he wasn't the only one wondering if they'd ever come back here again.
HPHPHPHP
*Do I in fact imagine that Pierce Polkiss may be a Jr., and is some relative of Peter's, considering they're both described with a rat like face? Yes, yes I do.