Chapter 117

Remus' Skillz

"Why are we taking them to the dorm? Sirius, he has to go to the medical wing." Remus had a fainted Peter hovering alongside him as they went entirely the wrong way.

"We can't take them to Pomfrey," Sirius answered he had James in a similar manner than Remus had Peter.

"What? Why?" he was fairly certain that he already knew the answer, but he was hoping he was wrong.

"She'll know too much," was all Sirius answered and Remus felt his heart drop. He'd known it, it was the same reason Sirius didn't go to Madam Pomfrey, or even James' parents, about his allergic reaction after the Christmas holidays.

"You can't be serious! This is about that stupid secret isn't it? Sirius, James could have died!" Remus didn't get angry very often, not in the middle of the day at least, and the coming full moon may have impacted his mood just a little, but now he was furious.

"He'll be fine." Sirius tried to reassure him as they climbed through the fat lady's portrait, she assumed some prank had backfired. James was only bleeding a little bit, but there would be bruises to heal and they weren't sure exactly what it was that had knocked him out since his head didn't look too injured. He looked like it wasn't so bad.

"Sirius!" Remus tried again but was interrupted.

"Shush!" Sirius quickly put on an act of amusement for the sake of the handful of people in the common room, infuriating Remus even more. Even so, he waited until he was out of earshot of the common room before continuing. The moment they entered the dorm Sirius set to work on healing James, or more specifically learning what was actually wrong with him, only responding to Remus' complaints with a grunt or an unconcerned "yeah" until Remus got the irritation out of his system.

"What can I do?" he asked when Sirius seemed to learn something of James' condition. He didn't tell Remus what it was, of course.

"Shacklebolt's coming up the stairs, he'll say McGonagall wants to see us. Make some excuse, you're good at that. Don't let him in the room." Sirius' attention was focused on James, but Remus knew he was right, the werewolf could hear the prefect's deep voice coming from a few floors down as some first year distracted him. Though how Sirius could hear it Remus didn't know.

He didn't ask, with James and Peter safely in their beds, Sirius obsessing over his brother in all but blood, and Remus himself with little to no idea what is actually going on he decided it was best to just do what (as Sirius said) he was good at.

Making random stuff up on the fly to get them out of trouble.

He was a boy of many talents, for sure.

Kingsley Shacklebolt wasn't a stupid man, honestly Remus felt proud of himself for fooling the prefect into thinking he'd caught Remus off guard, but even he didn't have a chance of seeing through Remus' perfect facade. As far as Shacklebolt knew Sirius, James, and Peter were all in bed already and Remus simply didn't want to wake them after such a rough fight. Shacklebolt was also a good natured man and could respect Remus' fake desire to give them some rest.

Moony didn't even feel bad for deceiving him, not even when they were happily chatting away about James and Sirius' recent quidditch game as they headed to the teacher's office. Lies had always been a part of Remus' life, there was no point of feeling guilty for everyone he told. He preferred honesty, but sometimes it wasn't worth it to tell the truth.

He entered the office, his story only half completed and so bad that he knew the only reason McGonagall believed it was him that was telling it rather than Sirius or James. Snape looked like murder was at the forefront of his thoughts when Remus claimed it had been a Slytherin the werewolf didn't recognize that had actually injured his arm. (Sirius doesn't use dark magic like that anymore, everyone knows that.) One of the Slytherins was aiming at Sirius and Sirius dodged, that was all. As for James, he was fine, of course, a display container from Honeydukes shop hit him in the head. He was sleeping off a headache now, in fact. Snape contradicted everything he said, even the parts that were true (because every good lie has to have some truth in it.) It only helped Remus' case, really, since it made Snape look like he was being spiteful. Which he was, Remus could see it in his eyes.

Remus had never done anything to Snape. Not once, the worst offense he could claim was that he never stopped James and Sirius from their 'fun.' Yet Snape hated him just as much as the others, it killed a lot of the sympathy Remus once had for the greasy-haired git. He used to see similarities between himself and Severus Snape, the raggedy clothes mostly, but Snape killed that with his bare hands when he tried to claim it was James who threw the first spell. Remus wouldn't condone James and Sirius' treatment of him, but he couldn't help but think Snape deserved every bit of it.

Returning to the dorm, he was pleasantly surprised to find a conscious James and Peter, healing spells had never been Sirius' strong suit before.

He didn't want to know what had convinced Padfoot to spend more time on that particular branch of magic.

"So what's the verdict?" James asked, munching on an acid pop like it was a muggle sucker... how he did that not even Sirius could figure out.

"Snape hates us even more now, but that only made McGonagall distrust his story even more. No detentions, though she's highly considering nailing Padfoot to a desk every Hogsmeade trip from here on out. Y'know, even I sometimes forget that he isn't allowed?" Remus shrugged a smirk on his face.

"Moony, you're a miracle worker, I don't know how you do it." James shook his head, though he held it afterward, betraying the fact that he had a killer headache.

"The teachers trust me, hanging out with you lot makes me look good by comparison." Remus chuckled stretching as he walked over and sat at the edge of Sirius' bed, Sirius' being the closest to James' without actually being on James' bed. Sirius laughed and reached over to rub Remus' head like a well-behaving pet.

"They only trust you because they don't know you," he teased, the petting turning into tickling which had Remus in stitches so he couldn't respond.

"So what now? We've got a whole Saturday, and Sirius won't let me get out of bed till my headache goes away. What are we supposed to do now?" James asked, a small, but pronounced, smile on his face from watching his friends play around.

"What are we going to do over spring break?" Peter asked. He still looked pale, like he was going to pass out at any minute, but he wasn't shaking like he had been when Remus first walked in.

"That's next week, isn't it." Remus had completely forgotten about the upcoming break, being preoccupied with his friends' vows of silence, Hogsmeade trips, and the secret they were keeping from him hadn't given him much time for other things.

"Yeah, Prongs' birthday is coming up too." They all turned to stare at Sirius for the comment, their faces a mixture of surprise and amusement."What?"

"I thought you said birthdays were silly and pointless," James teased, his head resting on the headboard of his four-poster.

"They are." Sirius crossed his arms looking away, Remus detected a faint tinge of pink on his cheeks. He was fairly certain that the others couldn't see it, though. "But you celebrate them don't you?"

"Aww, Paddy, I didn't know you cared," James teased knowing that Sirius couldn't even smack him for it because he was injured.

"You're not cute, Potter." Sirius rolled his eyes at James' sense of humor (or lack thereof.)

"I know, we should all get together at my place Wednesday, Sirius will already be there..." James started and Remus felt a wave of guilt wash over him.

"It's Wednesday..." he said his voice betrayed his discomfort. "Wednesday is bad for me."

"What? Why? It's not a full moon... is it?" James asked. Remus looked away, it was answer enough, but he couldn't bring himself to say it out loud. "Well, crap, suddenly celebrating doesn't seem so appealing."

"No, don't. It's okay. I'll come over later or something," Remus tried, but James wouldn't hear of it, claiming that Remus needed to rest after a full moon.

"Why don't we go to Remus' place then." Sirius made it sound like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "That way he doesn't have to get up and we can still hang out."

Remus refused the suggestion immediately claiming it was too dangerous, but it was too late. James was likely already deciding what to pack.

"We'd be just as safe as your parents. Safer even since there'll be so many of us. C'mon, Remus, I hardly even know your parents it'll be awesome! And you can show us all those muggle movies you keep saying we need to watch!"

"You... I... But!" he stammered. He was sure his face was red.

"Please!" James begged. Remus couldn't resist, he was pretty sure that was a bad thing... but hey it was James' birthday, and his mum wouldn't mind. He sighed, "I guess I'll ask."

The three cheers that resulted made him smile though he was still blushing. For the next two weeks, his friends would be over at his house watching muggle movies (probably all night long) and gorging themselves on whatever snacks James and Sirius could cunningly (though they would call it strategy) convince his parents to let them pay for.

Remus thought it was safe to say it would be a spring break to remember.