Chapter 128

Rumor Management

Peter wasn't sure how they'd managed without Remus before now. Now that he knew what was going on the brainy Marauder had made it his mission to get them through the animagi training as safely as possible. He was the voice of reason James and Sirius desperately needed. When their plans got a little out of hand Remus put his foot down and came up with a better idea.

He was Peter's saving grace.

He even found time for them to study for exams in the middle of everything. They still weren't sleeping much, but they didn't have teachers hounding them for late homework anymore and they weren't constantly blowing themselves up, that reduced Peter's stress level, at least.

"You know, these classes get a lot more boring when you actually try," Sirius complained his head resting lazily on one hand and his wand in his other. His wand gave a sweeping motion and the pillow in front of him flew in the exact direction he intended it to go, right into a Slytherin's hand causing her to accidently make her own pillow explode.

"Nice one, Padfoot." James laughed, before launching his own at the back of Evan's head leading the red-head to banish her own pillow right into James' face without even looking into his direction (which, no doubt, had been his goal.) Sirius snorted, his face dropping into another pillow as he laughed at his friend's misfortune, which in turn resulted in James hitting Sirius with Evans' pillow without bothering with magic.

"You could try doing it nonverbally," Remus replied to Sirius' comment before they had a chance to get into a pillow fight and interrupt the entire class. His pillow stopped just short of the target but still managed to irritate the Slytherin he'd been trying to trip.

Peter was the only one actually aiming for the target Professor Flitwick had provided, he always missed but at least he always got the banishing spell to work. That was improvement enough.

"Good job, Peter." Remus encouraged when Peter tried again, still not getting it in the box, but it at least hadn't gone behind him this time.

"Thanks, Moony," Peter smiled, satisfied that he wasn't absolutely abysmal.

"Yeah, Wormtail. Most people can't even get it to reliably fly yet. You're actually ahead of the curve." James gave him a pat on the back.

"That's where all those ridiculous nicknames come from!" Remus exclaimed in the middle of banishing another pillow causing him to go entirely off target and hit Evans once again. Evans, thinking it had been James again, flung another three pillows at the future-stag in rapid succession. They could hear Sirius' laughter through the pillow now.

"Solemnly..." James began, smirking at his misuse of the word solemn, "you only just now figured that out, Moony? It's been a month."

"Shut up, I've been busy trying to get you lot from killing yourselves. Honestly, how have you survived all this time." Remus' smile was a direct result of Evans' unwarranted revenge rather anything James did or said.

"Dumb luck and skill," both Sirius and James said at once, Sirius lifted his head from the pillow to answer and James took the opportunity to smack him in the face with one of his own.

Sirius' retaliation was swift and brutal and caused the Professor to call them out.

"Sorry, Sir," James said back when he finally unearthed himself from the mound of pillows he'd been buried alive under. Sirius snickered at his misfortune. Flitwick redistributed the pillows, complementing James' use of the banishing charm to help him out.

Evans was once again smacked in the back of the head, and Peter could swear he saw James gulp in fear as she finally turned to face him with fire in her emerald green eyes.

Sirius was still laughing as they exited the classroom, James and Evans were both being kept after to clean up the mess they made so the other Marauders and Alice waited outside for them.

"Did you guys hear the rumors going on about you lot?" Alice asked, her smile still in place from watching her friend completely own James.

"Nah, we've been busy lately," Remus answered for them but Peter knew exactly what he was talking about. James' fan club had been all over the mouse about it.

"Apparently, finally managed to get these cabbages in line, huh," Alice asked, even with her limited knowledge she could see the difference in the Marauders in the last month. Everyone could, all the sudden they were laughing and messing around again rather than the sullen pricks that, at best, annoyed everyone around them.

"Yeah, well. I haven't been feeling well lately. And you know they can't handle themselves without me." Remus gave a good-natured smile in Sirius' direction, the canine rolled his eyes but his smile was still in place.

Evans came out about then, the red-head was red-faced and she continued walking at a brisk pace not even noticing that Alice had waited for her.

James followed after stopping in the doorway with a dazed look on his face.

"Prongs, Mate. Earth to James Potter, come in James Potter." Sirius pushed himself off the wall and waved a hand in front of the future-stag's face causing the older boy to jump and push him away.

"Wait, what?" James asked, startled by the sudden movement of Sirius' hand.

"Congratulations, you've reached a new level of creepy stalker." Sirius shook his head with a groan and led the way back to the common room.

"She thinks I'm brave," James said with a goofy smile as he followed.

"James, I believe we talked about you and the planet you live on."

"No, really she said that." James defended himself, looking a little offended that Sirius didn't believe him. "She said she heard about me saving Snape from a monster at that it was brave. She even thanked me."

If James' head wasn't in the clouds he would have noticed Sirius and Remus go deathly quiet.

"Oh, yeah. That rumor. Everyone's talking about it." Alice added looking a little confused by the silence.

"What exactly is everyone saying?" Sirius asked failing at sounding casual, Remus' face was as white as the shirt he was wearing.

"Um, basically what James just said. I'm pretty sure it was the Hufflepuffs that started it, but Lily would know more. If she believes it enough to thank James, of all people, she must have found some solid proof it happened. So did it? Marline thinks you lot were exploring the forest at night or something, and he followed."

"Yes, that is exactly what happened. Make sure you tell everyone exactly that and nothing else." Remus replied not in the least bit convincing.

"Uh, huh." She smiled at him, more amused than angered by his obvious lie. "Yeah, I'll let them know. I assume you want me to leave out the fact that it's a complete lie?"

"If you'd be so kind."

"No problem, but you owe me." She sang and turned to head in the direction of the library, no doubt knowing Lily would be there, an off-handed wave as she left.

"We need to get to the bottom of this..." James said, finally having come back from Pluto and realizing the situation they'd found themselves in.

"Oh hello, Prongs, did you enjoy your holiday? Ready to stop acting like an idiot now?" Sirius smacked James upside the head to emphasize the end of his question.

"Ow! I'm sorry, she was complimenting me I wasn't actually listening to her!" James defended rubbing the newly acquired sore spot on his head.

"And that's why you're still single," Remus grumbled, questioning Lily about it would have been the best way to get the information they needed. Alice was right, she must have some really good proof to complement James over a rumor.

James protested his comment but no one was listening to him anymore.

"We could still ask her," Peter suggested, knowing they were more likely to go bully a bunch of Hufflepuffs for information instead.

"I like Peter's idea," Remus added and Peter knew he was thinking along the same lines.

"Okay, you two go get as much information out of Evans as you can. Shut up, James, we want her to actually answer our questions so no you can't go with them." Sirius glared at his brother who had opened his mouth to argue but started pouting when he'd been cut off. "We'll go see if we can interrogate a few Hufflepuffs ourselves."

Remus sighed but consented unwillingly to protest against the likely methods they'd use. Peter didn't care much if they bullied anyone, he just didn't want to get in trouble, or for the victims to come after him later.

He'd have to stick close to them for a while. Hufflepuffs weren't as likely to look for revenge but better safe than sorry.

Following the path, Alice had taken towards the library they walked mostly in silence. Peter considered saying something reassuring to get the look of barely hidden panic off Remus' face, but he couldn't think of anything. It left on its own anyway when they entered the quiet study room and there were other people around to see it beside him. It didn't take long to find her, her dark red hair stood out in any crowd. Alice wasn't there, though she had been walking in that direction.

"Lily?" Remus said gently, smiling when she looked up. Her annoyed look scared Peter more than he'd like to admit, and he only had Remus for protection. In his mind, Remus' could only be relied on for protection around the week of a new moon and they were only half a week from the last full moon now. "Do you mind if we sit down?"

"If this is about what I said to Potter..." She started, not yet giving them permission so they didn't sit.

"Well, sort of, but not in the way you'd think. You see, no one's supposed to know about that and we were kinda hoping you'd tell us what you know about the rumor." Remus asked his soft voice would convince anyone of his good intentions. Remus had this way of projecting innocence. Peter didn't get it, but even teachers fell for it. Even when it was dead obvious he'd been at fault teachers just blamed Sirius and James anyway, citing them as a bad influence on a good kid or pretending it had been an accident. He wished he could do that.

"Why? So your mates can go pick on her?" she accused but didn't look sure of herself. "It won't do you any good, everyone already knows you lot were out after hours."

"We know, we don't care if everyone knows about that. Everyone knows we're never where we should be," Remus joked lightly, "there's something else we need to know, though. Did the rumor say anything about what the monster was? It's kinda important."

She looked them over, judging their intentions and making Peter feel self-conscious. She must have liked what she saw because she shook her head.

"No, there was nothing about the monster, I even mentioned it to Severus and he wouldn't tell me anything. It was odd and unlike him. He's been acting strange for a while actually." She allowed, closing the book she'd been studying as her mind was now distracted.

"I noticed he hadn't been..." Remus paused looking for the right word.

"Snooping?" she prompted with a roll of his eyes. "I'd like to think he'd finally given up on that ridiculous business, but I really don't think that's the case."

"More likely he just owes James." Remus agreed with a nod, accepting Evans' attempt at casual conversation as an invitation to sit down and Peter followed his lead.

"Owes him? Severus said it was James' fault he was out there in the first place." The look in Evans' eyes told him that she'd taken the information with a grain of salt anyway.

"You know as well as I do that that's not true. Sure James can be mean sometimes but the forbidden forest is dangerous, especially at night, he's not cruel." Remus shook his head, trying to emphasize his lack of bias towards his friend. "Do you know who started the rumor? And how she knew about it?"

"I don't know her name, I wasn't interested in who started it. I was told that she overheard James and Sirius talking about it, though." Evans reopened her textbook, signaling the end of the conversation without being rude about it.

"Okay, thank you." Remus stood smiling at Peter, a job well done.

"Hey, can you guys keep what I said on the down low? I don't want the whole school acting like we're dating or something just as stupid." She looked up as they were moving to leave. Remus turned back.

"I'll try, but no promises. You know how James can get."

"I know, he's the one I'm worried about the most."

They found James and Sirius by following the path of crying Hufflepuffs they'd left in their wake. They had gotten the name of the rumor spreader, and Peter recognized it as one of the girls who were in both James and Sirius' fan clubs. But by now it was obvious it was someone they'd all encountered in the medical wing while he'd been sleeping so they didn't bother confronting her about it. They were all quite sure that they hadn't said anything to give her any idea that there was a werewolf involved.

Remus breathed a sigh of relief while James went back to daydreaming about the stubborn red-head as though all of this had been just a side diversion from his true calling.

"Well, at least things are back to normal." Sirius shrugged at him and rolling his eyes. Peter laughed, relieved that he could finally, finally stop watching his back constantly.

A/N) So you guys surpassed 600 reviews. Seriously that is awesome, thank you all so much. ^_^ I am going to try to upload a new chapter every Friday after work. (AKA Saturday morning at like 1 AM) I've got myself into a writing habit during breaks at work so I'm pretty far ahead and getting farther.

If I skip a week without warning you feel free to yell at me in the reviews. ^_^