— CHAPTER SIXTEEN —

Frank's Flask

Madam Pomfrey had been right. Ruby was completely okay, with none of the symptoms she'd shown previously.

"I have as much idea as you do regarding why she's cured," she admitted. "I'm thinking maybe it's because she's a rabbit and all the other diseased are people."

Whatever the reason, Remus was perfectly content to enjoy his time with Ruby again, even if she was a little quieter than before. Remus thought that the incident with Jewel's Incendio had fazed her slightly.

Still, Madam Pomfrey had to deal with dozens of sick students—reportedly, the Arithmancy Professor had taken ill as well. Remus was glad he was one of the unaffected. Same with James. Sirius still sniffled every now and then, but he hadn't been massively affected, thank Godric.

With the Easter holidays coming up, Remus wanted to spend his remaining free time before exams on trying to fix the Bottomless Pit. It was his promise to Lily.

Many an evening was spent in the library, looking up explosion spells, or fracturing jinxes, or breaking curses. Once he even fell asleep at a desk, only to be awoken by the shrill screech of the librarian Madam Pince.

"Exams aren't till June, mate," complained James when Remus declined his invitation to go prank some first year Hufflepuffs.

"Sorry, lads," Remus said. In actuality, he was going to try a new charm he'd learnt to try open the Bottomless Pit.

Sirius was giving him an odd look, but before Remus could scrutinise it, he'd turned away and his two fellow Marauders had left the castle.

Soon Remus had entered the room with the wastebasket and began to practise the new spell he'd learnt on the Pit. " Bombarda !" he said, only managing a small explosion. It did nothing to the Pit, which remained just as black and full as ever. He tried again, with more emotion. " Bombarda Maxima! "

"I thought I'd find you here," came Lily's voice coolly from the doorway, and Remus also yelped in surprise.

Lily came forward. Today, she was dressed in distressed jean shorts and a denim sleeveless jacket. "Is it working?"

Remus shook his head. "Nope. I've tried everything."

"That's a really powerful spell. Where did you learn it?"

"The fifth-year prescribed text," said Remus, who performed it once more. To his pleasure, the explosion grew, yet it was still futile.

"Swot," she said.

Remus laughed at the irony of it all, and to his pleasure, so did Lily.

There was a soft silence for a while.

"Where'd you get all your clothes and your make-up?" Remus asked.

"Can we talk somewhere else? This place reeks."

Remus smiled. "All right."

When they'd finally made it back to the Gryffindor common room, throwing themselves onto the sofas, with Remus having grabbed Ruby from his room and now hugging her tight, Lily finally said: "My sister."

"Your sister?"

"All of this," she said, gesturing to herself, "belongs to my sister. I stole it from her," she admitted, smiling a cheeky grin so reminiscent of the old Lily that Remus had to grin back, "because last summer she'd really gotten on my nerves. She kept calling me a good-for-nothing freak, making fun of my magic. Telling me I was a big fat liar."

Remus felt his jaw drop. "She did what? Lily, that's awful."

Lily shrugged. "I normally don't hold it against her. I get it. I love my parents, don't get me wrong, but they sort of dropped the ball with Petunia and me. Like, I've always been better at school, but so what? It doesn't mean they should just ignore her. Once, she had a piano recital at a school assembly, and they both forgot, even though they both remembered to go to my debating competition the month before. Oh, and once, I fell and broke my arm, and they both came running from work, right, but nobody remembered to pick Petunia up from school for hours. I felt so bad for her. And the Hogwarts letter was the last straw. My parents were so chuffed about it, and Petunia was so jealous 'cause she's a Muggle." She shook her head. "S'why summer was so unbearable this year. My parents would bring up Hogwarts and magic in every conversation like the idiots they are, and Petunia would storm off like a little toddler."

Remus thought in that moment that Lily must be the most mature girl in the world.

Lily kept going, and Remus didn't stop her. "I think that's why I like Hogwarts so much. It's nice to feel like you belong somewhere. It's nice to not have someone try to bring down my successes everywhere I go. Well, except Potter and Black." She glared straight ahead. "They're why I'm wearing this rubbish. Acting a bit more like Petunia would."

"They're idiots, my friends and your sister," assured Remus. "It's really good that you feel like Hogwarts is somewhere you can be yourself. Don't let them ruin it for you."

"It's not just them, though," she said uncomfortably, looking around the common room to make sure no one else could hear. "It's nice to feel like you're cool. That people like you, that you have friends."

Friends? Cool? "Lily, you're plenty cool," Remus insisted. "You're friends with all sorts of people—Severus, me, the girls, the groundskeeper, Filch , of all people! That's as cool as you can get in my book."

She let out a breath of laughter. "I'll believe I'm cool when I do something cool." She leaned back on the sofa. "I just wish the Wild Wind would, like … carry all my worries away. That would be fantastic."

"It would be," mused Remus, thinking about his own life. The Wild Wind … oh, Godric, the Wild Wind!

He gasped. That was it!

"Lily, you're a genius!"

It was simple enough. Having declined James's invitation to study together for their upcoming exams, Remus approached Frank, who was sitting and reading by himself. A thrill of excitement shot through Remus; Frank read! Instantly, Remus was a hundred times more endeared to him.

"Remus?" Frank grinned at him lopsidedly, tilting his head to the side like a dog. "Did you have something you wanted to say?"

"Er, right! I was wondering if I could ask a huge favour: could I borrow that thermos of yours? For a bit?"

"The one with the Undetectable Extension Charm? What do you need with it?"

Remus hesitated. "It's a secret."

Frank raised his eyebrows, though he had his perpetual Frank Longbottom smile plastered all over his handsome face. "All right, I'll bite. But you have to do me a favour too."

"What is it?"

"A Gobstones game, if you will," Frank said goofily. "I was actually digging around my thermos yesterday and found this Godstone!" Frank took out his set from his pocket and picked up a particularly large Gobstone, which appeared larger and heavier than even a Kingstone. "You'll have to play a Godric's Stone game with me."

Remus had never played this version of Gobstones before, but he quickly got the gist of the game as they started playing. It was much like a Slytherin's Pit game, in that players had to fire their stones carefully and precisely to get as close to the Godstone as possible. The difference lay in the fact that the Godstone could be moved around with enough force. An expert move would be letting an opponent gather all their Serfstones around the Godstone, and then using your own Gobstones to flick it away and make their moves futile.

Which is exactly what Remus did as his last move. He knew it was risky, since his own Serfstones were close to the Godstone, but he understood that it had to be done if he were to win. So Remus's Kingstone went flying, squealing, smacking into the Godstone. It curved to the ideal position Remus had hoped for, closer to a cluster of Remus's Serfstones.

"Wow," said Frank in awe. "I think you've won. Metimini! " he said, his wand pointed at the playing circle. Immediately magical lines appeared, measuring the relative distances of each of their Gobstones to the Godstone. The Globstone that ejected gunk into Frank's face indicated that Remus had won.

"Remus, that was spectacular," Frank said after Scourgifying his own face. "Truly spectacular."

Remus felt his cheeks warm up. "It was a fluke!"

"No, no," said Frank. He really was handsome, Remus realised, with perfect blonde hair. A brilliant smile. Coffee-brown eyes. "All right, well, it's clear you've made it to the finals."

"What?"

"My opponent's meant to be this Ravenclaw girl named Leticia Wang," explained Frank, "but she's one of the people sick with that flu that's going around so she can't compete anymore. So I propose that my semi-final opponent be you."

"But I lost!"

"Not against me," said Frank, "and, respectfully, I always thought I was the best in the club. Certainly, I was wrong! All right. Regulus beat Paula Rodrigues, so you'll be up against Regulus again for the finals."

"Frank, I don't deserve it."

"I believe in you," said Frank winningly, the last thing he said before he went to grab the flask for Remus.

After that, it was easy, just inconvenient. Every morning, Remus would peer outside the set of windows flanking his bed, looking for the tell-tale signs of flying branches zooming by, or swirling tornados of dust.

"So interested in the sky, Remus," Sirius commented one day.

"Waiting for an owl," he lied.

The day Remus was looking for fell on the same day as the full moon, which also happened to be one of the last days before Easter. He awoke to the sound of violent thudding against his window. For a strange second, he thought someone was knocking, but as he scrambled to see, he realised it was what he'd been waiting for: dusty debris lining the sky, plants being uprooted, the Whomping Willow (which he'd visit tonight) shuddering in the distance. Finally!

"The Wild Wind," groaned James as he woke up. His hair was messier than usual, and he still hadn't placed his glasses on his nose. "Another bloody day inside."

"Remus doesn't look too upset," yawned Sirius.

"You know how I love the indoors," Remus said while rapidly changing into his robes, making sure to grab Frank's flask. "All right, I'll see you lads in a bit."

He raced down staircases until he reached the Entrance Hall. The double oak doors had been closed since last night. Remus could hear the rapid beating of the wind against the doors.

"Alohomora," said Remus, and the latches on the door magically undid themselves.

As soon as this happened, the power of the Wild Wind caused the doors to burst open and Remus was sent flying, skidding against the flagstone floor. The Wind blustered at him with such incredible force that it slammed him against the bottom of Hall's marble staircase, pinning him there in a seated position. He winced in pain; he could barely open his eyes. That was how strong the Wind was.

"Come on, Remus," he said to himself through gritted teeth.

Reach out! the voice in his head screamed.

He reached into his robes, dragging out Frank's flask with painstaking effort. He gradually managed to twist the cap off, and then, with all his strength, pointed the uncapped thermos shakily upward.

Immediately, a noise like a bathtub plug being pulled erupted in Remus's ears. The flask began to suck in the wind as fast as it came, and Remus felt the incredible weight on his body get lifted from him.

"Oh, my Godric," Remus marvelled, standing up and walking towards the door. The Wind kept flying into Frank's thermos, so much so that Remus was scared it would overfill. Once at the double doors, Remus pushed them close. Instantly, the roar of the Wind disappeared.

He quickly capped the flask so that none of the Wind could escape. Yet.

"All right, I'm going to do it," said Remus later that day. "Are you ready?"

Lily nodded, her jet-black shag shaking along with her head.

"All right."

They were in the wastebasket room once again. Even the stench couldn't undermine Remus's anticipation. Lily had long suspected that the Pit's brokenness stemmed from the fact that it was clogged with too much rubbish. So, naturally, Remus had tried unclogging it with explosion spells and the like. But Remus's spells weren't powerful enough, being only a second year, and the really strong spells were all too advanced for Remus to attempt. And what was stronger and simpler than the Wild Wind, the natural, magical phenomena that came and went at random, the sign that old magic was reawakening?

Remus aimed the flask at the Bottomless Pit. Then he uncapped the flask. He instantly felt the remarkable might of the Wild Wind blast out, and really focused on controlling his hand. Promisingly, the Wind did not bounce back; it seemed as if the Pit had finally met its match.

When Remus felt like he'd released enough, he capped the flask once more. (There was definitely still Wind left in the flask.)

"Throw something in," he said excitedly.

Lily picked up a scrap piece of parchment and flung it in.

To their delight, it did not bounce out. They both leaned forward to see where it had gone, but the Bottomless Pit was as bottomless as ever.

"We did it!" cheered Remus.

"You did it," said Lily. "You're—you're amazing, Remus. Thank you, truly."

Remus gave her a smile.

Lily looked at the ground and, for the first time in a long time, squealed. "Urgh, there's so many bugs here."

It was true; there were little critters lining the walls and the floor. Remus shuddered. Hopefully now that they'd fixed the Pit, Hogwarts would be a lot cleaner. Maybe they'd come back one day and toss all the room's rubbish inside the Pit.

Remus noticed it was concerningly near evening. "All right, Lily, I've got to go somewhere. Shall we head out?"

He met with Madam Pomfrey at the Hospital Wing. As she usually did nowadays, she looked extremely frazzled and distracted. Remus felt quite bad for the woman; he didn't want to be an added burden to her.

The Wild Wind, as most people had observed, had died down since this morning. Their furtive afternoon walk on the grounds to the Whomping Willow was, as a result, a calm, quiet one.

"How are the sick students, Madam Pomfrey?" he asked.

"Well," she said briskly, "the good thing is that whatever these kids are coming down with, it isn't fatal. The bad thing is I can't figure out what the damn disease is, meaning I can't cure it!" Then she went on a spiel about the Ministry and their lack of help, how they were enforcing a quarantine period on them soon probably, among other things.

Normally, Remus would've listened politely. However, something else had caught his ear. The sound of a twig snapping. It was the full moon that night, so his senses were more acute than usual. It was a quiet afternoon too.

He didn't turn around, yet.

A horrifying realisation dawned on him. Someone was there, following him and Madam Pomfrey. Someone disguised or hiding or … invisible.

It was Sirius, he was sure of it.

Before he could hesitate any longer, Remus swivelled around, pointing his wand, and said, " Petrificus Totalus! "

He heard the unmistakable thump of a body hitting the ground.

"Remus, dear, what was that?" Madam Pomfrey asked incredulously.

Remus stared at the ground, unable to keep his eyes from widening. He could be looking straight into Sirius's eyes for all he knew. This couldn't be happening. This was exactly what his father had been worried about. Remus felt as if the Wild Wind had returned, pinning him in a position he couldn't get out of. But Remus couldn't just stay here forever as if he were the one Petrified. The moon was ascending slowly, and she was full tonight.

He would find a way to deal with it. He always did.

"Nothing," he answered, and continued walking.