Hail To The Chief
Summary: It's been a long time in coming. The last of James' sixth year… A.J. and Remus teach, Lil and Sirius break up, James writes poetry. James writes poetry?! That's so cliché. What was I thinking?! Very well. Nobody writes poetry. I'll think something up for my nice poem.
Disclaimer: JKR owns just about everything. However, the poem is mine, mine, MINE, MINE, even if it isn't that good.
Signs your astronomer is having too much fun: Various anagrams for 'Remus Lupin':
INSURE LUMP, URINE SLUMP, RUMPUS LINE, IMPULSE URN …
Her spirit floated atop the Tower, the place she should have belonged. Of course, had she been placed there, she would have been killed so much sooner, and perhaps another ghost would have joined her by then. Or many.
Inside, James Potter tossed and turned, trying to sleep. In reality, he was exhausted, but the constant nightmares of and vigilance he'd been keeping over Lily Evans were keeping him awake. Siren- for she was the spirit above Gryffindor Tower- supposed that Sirius wasn't helping matters very much. She knew it tore James' heart out to see the two of them together, best friend or no, ex-girlfriend or no. Siren was quite glad she'd never gotten romantically involved with either of them.
Strangely enough, neither James nor Sirius was out of the castle with the other two official Marauders. Allya, barely over her bout of pneumonia, wouldn't hear of it. She insisted that Remus wouldn't be any trouble for her own werewolf form to keep in line, as he'd run himself to exhaustion worrying over her the past few weeks. Aside from that, the two of them were planning on sleeping- in their wolf forms- the entire weekend through because of the recent state of pandemonium.
Over the expanse of the Hogwarts grounds, the Shrieking Shack could just be seen, atop the hill in the center of Hogsmeade. Siren couldn't hear their howls- it was much to far, still. If she'd wanted to, she could have visited them… she shook her head. Now wouldn't be a good time. She turned her face away and found herself peering into the girls' dormitory, the sixth years, in fact.
Lily, extraordinarily pale, was the most visible. She looked peaceful and frail while she was asleep, which could also have been the aftermath of pneumonia.
Adrienne Grimsby tossed and turned, much like James did. Siren wondered why- she'd never actually talked to the mouse-like Gryffindor. The same for Lindsay Jones- she was a quiet sleeper, but certainly didn't seem quiet while awake. A ghost of a smile crossed the spirit's face when she noticed that one of Lindsay's arms was heavily bandaged. The poor girl was a drain on first aid supplies.
Another bed was empty- normally, Allya would have slept there, but that night was a full moon.
The final sleeping form, and the one who owed her life to Siren O'Maley, was Mioré Lancaster. Midnight hair fell across her eyes and onto her pillow, a look of mild pain on her face. Siren nodded to herself- four students in pain and so horribly mismatched that they'd never get their acts together. She sighed to herself- of all the boys for Mioré to fall in love with, it had had to be Sirius Black, the one capable of breaking any mortal female's heart.
Still, their lives were their own. Siren floated down through the floor and back to the Ravenclaw common room- there were other students that needed their nightmares guarded.
The silence in the Headmaster's office was deafening and the Head of Gryffindor house had been frightened at first that the two pupils would either scream or go crazy. Slowly, however, the absurdity of the situation sank in, and by then Allya Jade Nightrunner had nearly fallen out of her chair, tears of laughter streaming down her face. Remus just looked at her, a half-smile on his lips.
"You want two werewolves to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts," Allya managed to gasp out, trying to get up but managing only to bang her head on the desk. "Ouch."
Remus grinned. "Ah, the sweet irony of the situation." He extended a hand to his girlfriend. "So. What do you think?"
Allya blinked. "You're serious about this, aren't you?" she asked the man seated at the desk.
Dumbledore nodded once. "Deadly."
A slow, diabolical smile spread across the she-wolf's face, delight lighting up every angle. "We'll do it."
Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore looked relieved. "On one condition," Remus continued.
The two of them exchanged glances. So did their teachers.
Minerva McGonagall was a sensible woman- of course they would have requests! It was a huge responsibility to become a teacher- they probably needed supplies, copies of textbooks, worksheets. There was no reason for alarm.
"You let us teach the third years."
Professor McGonagall fainted dead away.
They left the office, and the minute the gargoyle was closed the conversation began in earnest. "McGonagall… fainted," Remus said, struggling to keep a straight face.
Allya nodded, biting her lip and trying to hide her smile.
"We made McGonagall pass out…"
It was too much. Werewolves teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, stern Transfiguration teachers passing out… They started laughing again.
She watched him, wondering if he felt her gaze the way she often imagined that she felt his. He was drafting something- not homework, not for Sirius, but something important- and there was already a sizeable pile of crumpled parchment behind him already. Her silver eyes longed to make contact with his, but he didn't look up, and kept concentrating on his work.
It took all of her courage to stand up and ask him what he was doing, but she knew she had to do it. "Sirius?" Mioré asked, sliding into the chair across from him. "What's up?"
He sighed, pounding his head on the table. "I," he grumbled, "am faced with the unpleasant task of breaking up with Lily Evans."
As quickly as the little triumph gave her joy, Mioré quashed it. It was unfair to glean a sense of personal gain from her best friend's sorrow, she reasoned with herself. "Oh," she said quietly. "Things aren't working out?"
Sirius looked up and shook his head. She's beautiful. "It isn't working," he replied, "but not in the way that you think."
She blinked. "I'm not following." Siren's counsel from the days before seemed to have gotten lost in the mass confusion somewhere.
Sirius drummed his fingers on the desk, dark hair falling into his eyes. "James isn't cooperating."
"He's making it difficult for you?"
Sirius half-laughed. "Not anymore. He's not…" he struggled for how to explain his actions without sounding immature and petty. "He's not acting on his jealousy," Sirius finally said. "He's supposed to be really bad about my relationship with Lily so that I can point out why. He's supposed to-"
"Punch you on principle?" came a voice from behind him.
Sirius whirled around.
This was a very bad idea. He was knocked out of his chair with one solid blow from beside him. James stood over him, distractedly shaking his right hand. Mioré slipped up to the girls' dormitories, not really wanting to see the end result.
Sirius, still quite in shock from James' punch, accepted his friend's offered hand. "I suppose I should explain myself."
James pulled out a chair and sat on it, backwards. "That might be a good idea."
Sirius groaned, rubbing his jaw and wincing. "How much did you hear?"
"Not very much," James confessed. "Just the last couple of sentences, actually."
Sirius sighed, sat down across from James, and picked up his quill again. "You should be with Lily, you know. That's what we were talking about." He wouldn't meet James' eyes. "You belong with her. You know you do, I know you do, even Lily knows."
"If you're so convinced we're meant to be, Sirius, then why are you going out with her?"
Sirius shrugged. "I wanted to make you jealous, for a while," he confessed. "See if I couldn't get you back together."
James' jaw dropped and it took him a moment to regain his bearings. I can't believe I didn't see it before… Well, I suppose I did know… I didn't see because I didn't want to see. "You've been manipulating me," he said finally. "Fuck, Sirius, did you ever stop to think about her feelings? You never did love her, did you?"
Sirius spitted him with a dark glare. How dare he suggest such a thing. But for once, he remained calm. "Have you ever heard the saying that when you love someone, you have to let them go?"
James nodded.
Sirius said, "Well, you can forget it."
James' brow furrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means two things, James," Sirius said softly, finishing a scrawl on his parchment. "The first is that yes, I do love her. That's why I have to break up with her. I don't love her like you do, and I can't." Lily deserves him. She deserves him and nothing less… though not to say that he's more than I am, or that I could ever be. He reread a few lines, then nodded to himself and tucked the whole thing into his rucksack.
James was looking especially grim, and his lips were white because he was pressing them together so hard. "And the second?"
"The second is that I will personally kill you if you let that girl slip through your fingers. She's the best thing that's ever going to happen to you, and you know it." Finally, Sirius turned to regard James again, dark eyes blazing yet somehow sympathetic. "Don't you."
It wasn't a question.
Sirius left James there to think, and only hoped that he hadn't done more damage than he'd meant.
The second years filed into the classroom rather slowly, throwing apprehensive looks towards the two unfamiliar faces at the front of the classroom. Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws each, they knew the two werewolves only from Quidditch, which didn't exactly make them popular as Gryffindor had repeatedly whipped both teams. The fact that Allya was sitting on the desk didn't exactly lend her a lot of respect, although Remus was trying to be stern. He was very serious about his prospective teaching position.
"Good morning, class," he said, and Allya had to stifle a laugh. "Please be seated."
The class sat. A good portion of the Ravenclaws and some of the Hufflepuffs even did it in their seats.
Three of the latter and a Ravenclaw sat on the floor. One Ravenclaw, a skeptical-looking boy who bore an uncanny resemblance to Sirius, sat on his desk, arms crossed and one eyebrow raised.
Remus just glared at them. Those on the floor cringed first, and slowly sat in more appropriate places. Skeptic-boy took more convincing and the tapping of Allya's wand, but eventually (and with a very dark look) dropped into his seat.
Allya spoke for the first time. "As you all know, Professor Quinn is no longer with us." There was a moment of silence; nobody had really liked the man, but that didn't mean they weren't saddened by his loss; and then she resumed speaking. "Due to that fact, Professor Lupin and I are taking over until a suitable replacement can be found."
This caused a bit of a commotion- Remus fixed it with a simple silencing charm. "As we're late beginning already, please open your textbooks to page three-hundred forty-five…"
The two werewolf 'professors' explained briefly about Romulus, a violent prankster that had existed since the beginning of Rome, and then assigned a short essay. Remus turned to Ally then.
"That went unexpectedly well."
She grinned humorlessly at him. "We have the Slytherins next."
Remus groaned, running a hand through his hair. "Of course we do…"
A motion over his shoulder caught Allya's eye and she pushed Remus gently out of the way. A simple Freezing charm did the trick, and she stared out at 'her' class expectantly. She crossed her arms. "What is the meaning of this?"
None of the children moved, mostly because they couldn't. Allya plucked the note out of the air before removing the charm. "Shall I read this, then?" she asked, blue eyes flashing with a humor the children couldn't understand. She was trying to flush out the culprit, of course; it wasn't really working but it had been worth a shot.
Slowly, so as to increase the tension nearly to the breaking point, she unfolded the note. "'J- Who cares about Romulus when we've got the Roman Love Goddess in front of us? I mean, did you see her…'" Allya trailed off, quirking an eyebrow. "Remus, hon, you wanna read this?" she asked, holding the note over her shoulder.
Seconds later, there was the sound of knuckles cracking, not to mention a low growl.
Several small, male second years swallowed audibly. Ally let the ghost of a smile dance across her lips.
A bell rang.
Remus punched his fist for effect. "Dismissed."
There was a mad dash for the door, in fact it took less than three seconds for the class to empty fully but for its teachers. When they were alone, however, the substitute professors laughed themselves silly.
Remus figured that the least fun class of the morning was going to be that of the Gryffindor and Slytherin third years.
He was wrong.
"Could someone give me a short summary of what a Boggart is?" Ally asked patiently, tapping her wand in her hand.
One of the Gryffindor girls in the front row raised her hand. She reminded Remus uncannily of Lily, and he suppressed a smile. "A Boggart is a Dark creature without form," she answered primly. "Upon spotting a human, it will turn into whatever it thinks will scare the person most. They live mostly in dark places, but because they can change their size, can live almost anywhere."
Remus smiled at her. "Excellent- two points for Gryffindor, Miss Stevenson. Now, does everyone remember the spell to use on Boggarts, or haven't you taken that yet?"
Unsurprisingly, Stevenson raised her hand quick as a whip again. Remus, however, didn't call on her. "Anyone else?" he asked.
The rest of the class just looked bewildered. "I'll demonstrate, then," Remus said, taking out a locked drawer from the filing cabinet and whispering, "Alohomora." Ally ushered the rest of the class back to the wall, then Banished the desks and chairs to another end of the room.
The Boggart saw Remus and took shape- a silvery orb hung in front of him. Remus, looking a bit white, pointed his wand at it. "Ridikulus." The moon began to shake, then bounce around crazily like a rabbit on steroids. A little man who'd been standing on it (he had a top hat in one hand and a cane in the other, as if he were about to do a song and dance routine) struggled to stay on. Remus grinned. "Want to take a shot at it, Miss Stevenson?"
She timidly stepped forward. There was a pop as the Boggart recognized her, and (Remus and Ally winced) a werewolf appeared, growling and snarling. She took a step back.
"Now," Allya commanded, "think of something funny that could happen to the wolf, and say the spell-"
"Ridikulus," Emily Stevenson said timidly. All of a sudden the werewolf was standing up, human-style, still covered in fur. Except now he had a guitar and pink hair cut into a mohawk. Snickers filled the room.
"Line up behind Emily and let's see what else you're afraid of."
Mummies, vampires, Death Eaters, Dementors, griffins, vultures and the occasional ghost of Professor Quinn all appeared in the room at different intervals. The mummy grew a skirt and did the Can-can, on one of the kicks its foot flew off; one of the vampires clucked like a chicken; two Death Eaters juggled bowling pins; a Dementor pulled back his hood to reveal bunny ears, then proceeded to chomp on a carrot and ask, "What's up, Doc?". The griffin's fur was singed off and it danced around naked, trying to cover itself, before being replaced by a vulture with no beak. Professor Quinn's ghost seemed most confused; he reached for his chalk to write 'detention' on the blackboard but his hand went through it. Then he stomped around the room, screaming and cursing the Potions master for all he was worth.
"One last demonstration," Remus said. "Ally, if you please?"
She bit her lip, unsure, but stepped to the front and took out her wand. Pop.
Several of the Slytherins even screamed. A Gryffindor who'd been sitting on her desk gave a sharp little cry, and even Remus was taken aback.
On the floor in front of them lay two figures- a small white wolf whose muzzle was covered in blood… and a carbon copy of Remus himself, quite obviously dead.
Allya just stood there, eyes looking quite sorrowful and face somber, as she murmured, "Ridikulus." The wolf shrank to the size of a hamster and the adolescent opened his eyes, now free of blood, and picked her up, putting her into his pocket. The she-wolf peeked out and tried to bite his hand, ending up dangling from the end of his finger. 'Remus' shook her off and caught her in the other hand, earning applause and laughter from the class, and there was a final pop before the Boggart disappeared.
Remus passed out some chocolate and bade the students on their way before holding Ally for a long, long time.
They made it to lunch with plenty of time to spare, although they did attract funny looks from several fellow students when they sat down. Indeed, Sirius was about to ask where they'd been all morning when one of the younger Gryffindors from their second morning class asked to be told what the homework was again.
What's more, the boy called Remus, 'Professor Lupin.' And left with a cordial, "Thank you, Professors!" after his conversation with the two werewolves.
Sirius didn't bother trying to hide a grin. "Moony," he said, "Mrs. Moony, have you been impersonating teachers again?"
"Now Sirius," Allya answered between mouthfuls, choosing to ignore the 'Mrs. Moony' comment, "You know we'd never do such a thing."
"Yeah," Remus chimed in. "We're actually professors."
Sirius, Lily and James looked at each other. Finally, Padfoot turned back to the Dark creatures. "Where did you two learn to lie? Come on, you know we won't be mad if we find out you were exchanging saliva all morning-" Sirius trailed off as he spotted Professor McGonagall approaching. "Can you two teach me the Ancientanus Charm?" he asked, watching his Head of House suspiciously.
His jaw dropped, however, when she handed Allya a fourth year DADA textbook and said, "Here's the material you requested… you didn't need it this morning, did you?"
Ally shook her head no, vocalized her thanks, and went back to her spaghetti.
Sirius looked like he'd just gotten run over by an eighteen-wheeler. "You're teaching?" he said.
"You're teaching?" James repeated.
"You're teaching?!" Lily asked incredulously.
"Is there an echo in here?" Remus and Ally just grinned.
It was the day after her breakup with Sirius that Lily found the note. She was in the library, looking for something she hadn't read yet, and as the only section left (besides the Restricted Section) was Muggle poetry, that was where she was, sitting on the floor in front of the shelves. Occasionally, she would take out her wand and whisper, "Accio," sending an ancient or out-of-reach volume her way. Mostly, however, she preferred to search out books on her own. She seemed to be able to feel the contents of each book through every soft leather cover, and only pulled out the volumes which felt somehow magic- a good, clean, human kind of magic. As she pulled out what had to be the thickest volume there, Lily noticed a bit of paper fluttering to the floor. She picked it up in one hand, delicately running her hand over the old parchment and reading the barely legible text.
Leave Miss Jolly
A feeling I didn't recognize:
To lose my heart within your eyes.
To say the least, I was surprised.
All my soul, without compromise
Deserted me; now I surmise
There's something you must realize-
Lily turned the paper over, frantically searching for the remainder of the sonnet- but for naught. She couldn't find it. That's the most profound feeling… Lily shook herself out of the reverie. The only other words on the paper were 'Raul Sibsick.' The author's name, perhaps? The redhead shrugged and tucked the slip of paper into her pocket for safekeeping.
"Today," Allya announced to the excited third year Gryffindors and less-than-enthusiastic Slytherins, "We'll be learning about werewolves."
Remus didn't look terribly happy.
Ally was having a field day. Her grin was putting the children off their learning, which wasn't exactly the most difficult thing to do, but it was unusual to do it purposefully. She and Remus had done a Temporary Telepathy charm on themselves to better know what the other was saying and to make the lessons better coordinated. Cheer up, Moony. "After Remus explains, you'll get a chance to ask any questions that you have. He's a particular expert on this topic, so you can all put your textbooks away now. All you need is a quill and some parchment if you want to take notes." There was a long, drawn out thudding sound as textbooks were dropped into rucksacks or onto the floor.
"While I'm explaining," Remus took over, brandishing his wand, "I'm going to be tying Professor Jade" ('Professor Nightrunner' took far too long to say) "to the chair." In answer to the dubious looks and the harsh scratching of quills on parchment, indicating note-writing, he explained, "She has a friend and distant relative who are werewolves, and gets a bit testy where the subject is concerned. We will not," Remus emphasized the word, eyes glinting, "be engaging in any sort of activity that one might describe as 'kinky'," (he heard, 'Aw… why not?' in his head and grinned, 'Maybe later.'), "so clear your filthy little minds of that subject."
The Gryffindors looked absolutely bewildered that their idol would be speaking in such a manor, then laughed, realizing the hilarity of the situation. Thus, Remus tied Allya to the chair and gagged her while he explained a bit about werewolves, separating myths from facts and vice versa.
The questions tested the very limits of Remus' patience and the strength of the ropes binding Allya to the chair. "What do werewolves look like when it's not the full moon?"
"They're hairy and savage, idiot, what do you wa-"
The poor boy was interrupted by an incredible string of cusswords from the blonde being in the chair, who had somehow loosened her gag. "…say that to my face, you little-"
Remus looked at Ally, and all of the fire drained from her. She simply glowered at the boy. Stupid Slytherins. "A werewolf looks and acts just like anyone else if it isn't the full moon," Remus corrected sternly. "Occasionally they can get very tired because of the energy the transformation takes out of them, so they're often very meek."
The Slytherin, obviously feeling Ally's reprimand more harshly than he liked, sulked in the corner.
"Is there any cure for a werewolf bite?" one young Gryffindor wanted to know.
"Not as of yet," Remus answered, looking a bit contrite as he pulled out a chair to sit on again. "There is, however, a potion that has been developed that renders the werewolf harmless during the transformation. It's known as the Wolfsbane Potion and keeps the human inside the wolf sane, so that he or she will be able to control the wolf."
"The wolf? It's like a different person?"
Remus thought for a second. "Think of it as a mild case of schizophrenia: during the day before, during, and after the full moon, the human inside the werewolf cannot control itself and will bite anyone that comes near it, unless they drank the Wolfsbane potion beforehand."
The questions went on and on, and when the bell finally rang, Allya and Remus were exhausted. "Why did we agree to this again?" Remus asked.
"Gets us out of exams in three subjects of our choice," Allya replied, still tied to the chair. "Say- do you want to untie me now?"
Remus grinned. "Well, it's break- there are ten minutes before the next class…"
Allya groaned. "Don't remind me."
Remus kissed her, and Allya struggled to move. He broke away after a moment, and she tried unsuccessfully to glare at him. "Next time, I get to tie you up."
Neither really minded that the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw fifth years walked in on them kissing.
James slammed his Charms textbook closed in disgust, eyes attracted to a piece of paper fluttering to the floor. What's this? he wondered, snatching it out of the air with the expertise of a once-Seeker, and thought that it was no wonder Gryffindor had recently won the Quidditch Cup for the third year running. The ancient piece of paper nearly crumbled in his grasp, but he smoothed out the wrinkles and set it down on the table.
Each time I see you, something dies.
You smile at me, and my heart cries.
You are the one my heart desires,
And I lost you
-Raul Sibsick
Trust it to some poet to capture my exact feelings. Hey, watch what you're thinking. James frowned, turning the paper over. There must have been more to it than that- it was senseless the way it was! "Revealio," he said, pointing his wand at it. Nothing happened. "Discuvrum." Nothing happened again.
He bit his lip, examining the parchment. He noticed that the paper was torn at the top, and rifled through his Charms book, then the rest of his rucksack, for a matching slip. He finally gave up and tucked it into his pocket for safekeeping, then went back to studying for his exams.
To relieve pre-exam stress and to get Sirius another detention for his logbook, the Marauders grabbed James' cloak from the trunk and headed off to the room behind the portrait of Sir Cadogan.
"Can you tell us the password, Siren?" Ally pleaded, on her knees before the ghost. "Please?"
Siren sighed dramatically. "Fortuitous bitch," she grumbled.
Remus growled, "Pardon me?"
"The password," Sierra said, "is 'Fortuitous bitch.'"
Allya grinned devilishly. "Why, it seems that Snapie had me in mind when thinking up his password…"
James and Sirius exchanged glances. "Let's move it out, people."
The hallway was dark and, as Sirius couldn't see anyone, he kept stepping on people's feet. "Sorry," he whispered, stepping back sharply, then, "Sorry!" again and moving forwards.
"Shut up, Sirius," James ground out, looking from side to side. "Mrs. Norris'll hear you…" He finally came to a stop in front of a statue. "Fortuitous bitch," he muttered, and the four of them slipped inside. "Right," he said, standing in the middle of the Slytherin common room. "You all know what to do."
Wands and dungbombs distributed, the Marauders split up.
Sirius visited the dormitories while the others meandered around the common room- dungbombs under Snape, check; clown makeup, check; disable alarm clock, check; hair in pigtails (Ugh! Greasy!), check.
In the common room, a massive redecoration was taking place. Green turned gold and silver red; lush carpets covered elegant marble, and the walls turned a shocking pink color. Gold, red, and pink was not the nicest color combination, and Allya was glad that she'd not thought up the idea. James was setting the huge alarm in the corner and Remus performing the Singing charm upon it. Ally pointed her wand to the ceiling, conjuring a huge face and a bunch of words, before sneaking back out with the other three troublemakers. Exam day one was going to be fun…
The next morning, Severus Snape woke up late to an infernal racket coming from the common room. His dorm, minus one traitorous early-riser, rose with him, running down to the dungeon only to find it in total disarray. From the ceiling came an improvised rendition of 'Hail to the Chief' involving a piano, a violin, and several voices ("Hail to the chief, he's the one we all say 'hail' to…"). The common room must have had a makeover from Hell with some sort of twisted Barbie fanatic; everything was pink and red and really didn't match at all. But it was the clock on the wall that grabbed Severus' attention. Oh no… his first exam started in five minutes. He raced out of the room without even thinking about changing out of his pajamas.
(you can guess what happened then)
The last day before summer break was a lolling about sort of day. Exams passed and mischief managed, the Marauders Plus Two sat around a table, just talking about nothing like one can only do with the best of friends. Lily was speaking:
"…but I wish I'd found the end of that poem," Lily grumbled. "I mean, I searched every library book here for 'Raul Sibsick.' Nothing."
James perked up. "Raul Sibsick?" he asked, rummaging in his pocket. "Hold on a sec… what part of the poem did you get?"
Lily presented a much-wrinkled sheet of paper and laid it upon the table. "Just this," she said morosely, smoothing it a bit.
"Raul Sibsick?" Remus said, looking suspiciously around the table.
James finally found what he was looking for. "Here it is…" he lined it up under Lily's half of the poem.
"
A feeling I didn't recognize:
To lose my heart within your eyes.
To say the least, I was surprised.
All my soul, without compromise
Deserted me; now I surmise
There's something you must realize-
Each time I see you, something dies.
You smile at me, and my heart cries.
You are the one my heart desires,
And I lost you
-Raul Sibsick
James finished, quite oblivious to the obvious looks he was getting from pretty much everyone around the table. "What?"
"Raul Sibsick," Remus said again, the hint of a smile on his lips. "James, could I see that for a moment?"
James handed him the parchment. "Angramus familiaris," Remus said softly. Slowly, the letters resolved to spell something quite different: Sirius Black.
"Well done, Sirius," Allya commented, rereading the poem. "But I don't get the title."
Sirius smiled elusively. "You will," and he, James, Lily and Mioré headed up to bed.
Allya stared at the words. Leave Miss Jolly… "What was that spell you used, Remus?" she asked softly into the darkness.
From over her shoulder, Remus mumbled, "Angramus familiaris."
Ally smiled, the hint of a smile playing onto her lips. She pointed her wand at the title. "Angramus familiaris."
Remus, watching her, laughed a little. "Well, that was sweet of him."
Allya nodded. "I'm going to bed- you should too. We have one last day here and then two months of nothing."
Remus nodded, and after a kiss the two parted ways.
But in shining text on the table they'd just left, words spelled out destiny:
James Loves Lily
The End
