Chapter Four: Bittersweet Memories

Arabella tumbled out of the fireplace at Hogsmeade Station, trying desperately to reclaim her balance. She hadn't traveled by Floo in….well, it had been years. Since before she had learned to Apparate anyway. The sensation of traveling by Floo powder definitely took getting used to. Holding her head in an attempt to steady herself, Arabella slowly began to regain her equilibrium. Quickly straightening her outfit, she headed towards Hogwarts, determined to speak with Dumbledore.

However, when she arrived, she found it wasn't as easy to break into Hogwarts as she had remembered. For some reason, the front gates repelled her every time she got too close to them. It was obvious that the later events of the war had caused security to be tightened considerably. That meant Arabella would have to try a different mode of entry. However, many of the old passages seemed to be blocked off. That left her with seven different choices from Hogsmeade: the Three Broomsticks, Zonko's, the Post office, Dervish and Banges, the Whomping Willow, Honeydukes, and right under High Street. After momentarily considering, Arabella headed to Zonko's. Upon entering, she was assailed by memories of her first experience at the joke shop. Such pranksters, even then…

****

Ari couldn't believe that she and the other girls had allowed James and Sirius to talk them into this. Sneaking into Hogsmeade! As second years! What on earth were they thinking? If they got caught, well, she didn't even want to think about how many detentions they would get. Sirius might enjoy the smell of cauldron polish, but she certainly didn't.

At least Remus and Peter look as nervous as we do, Ari thought to herself. Or at least as nervous as Jane and I do. For some reason, Lily seems to be staying calm. I don't know why she actually trusts those two gits. One of these days, they are going to get someone killed.

Nervously continuing down the newly discovered passageway, Ari fell into line beside Remus. Out of all the boys in her year, he was probably the one she knew the least about. James was the natural leader, and probably the most serious of the group. Sirius was the eternal sidekick, constantly dragging everyone around him into detention. Peter was always with the two of them, eager to help them achieve their every whim. But Remus…well, he didn't exactly seem to fit the mold.

Truth to be told, Ari wasn't even sure what she had to say to the boy. He was always so quiet, and he always seemed to be getting sick. It was practically a schedule: the boys would do something stupid, and then Remus would come down with a flu, or a bad cold, or would get horribly injured and spend a few days in the hospital wing. Gran would probably describe him as "delicate", she snickered. That's just a nice way of calling someone a wuss. Not that Remus was necessarily a coward, it was just that…he didn't appear as able to cope with life as the other boys did. How many twelve year-old boys got ill practically every month? It just didn't seem natural to her. Something about him just made her feel ill at ease. Generally though, she kept that feeling to herself. She'd mentioned it to Lily and Jane once, and their responses had been quite interesting. Jane had immediately decided that Ari was secretly in love with him, and her uncomfortable feelings was just the crush. Lily on the other hand, had hit her on the head, demanding to know how she could think that about one of the nicest guys in Hogwarts. Of course, Lily was partnered with him in Potions, so she knew Remus a lot better than Ari did.

Maybe I should trust her advice, Ari thought to herself. After all, she generally does seem to be right about everything. Making her decision, she quickly tapped him on the shoulder, then jerked her hand away, almost as if she'd been burned. Remus stopped briefly to look at her.

"Yes?" he inquired. There was a pause.

Luckily, Ari was saved from having to start a potentially awkward conversation by a commotion from up above. James and Sirius had been guiding the expedition throughout the tunnels quite well so far, but now they appeared to have reached an impasse. A fork in the road, literally.

"I'm telling you James, we're supposed to go left here. It's leading straight to the joke shop."

"You're out of your mind Sirius, although that isn't anything new. That way curves all the way back around to Hogwarts, remember? We end up at the statue of Gregory the Smarmy, which doesn't help us much."

Just when the argument seemed to be getting out of hand, fate, also known as a redheaded witch, intervened. "This is getting us nowhere!" Lily snapped. "Now, either you work out where we are supposed to be going, or I am just going to pick a passage and see where it goes. And if I came all this way, only to end up back at Hogwarts, I am going to be VERY unhappy."

Both boys squirmed nervously under the intense glare they had been put under, and quickly conferred. However, they still appeared unable to reach a decision. Just when it looked like Lily was going to lose her temper, luck had it that a third opinion came into play.

"It's the right fork," Remus said quietly. "At least I'm pretty sure it is."

Peter glared at him. "How would you know? You weren't here when we found it."

Remus shrugged. "Well, James has to be right for two different reasons. First of all, if you look at the left side fork it does seem to be curving in the apparent direction of Hogsmeade. But, if you recall, we've already curved once, so our perceptions are off. And secondly, the last five times we've listened to Sirius, we were wrong, and four of those times we ended up in detention. And I for one don't want to polish the silver again. Ever."

James grinned triumphantly. "See I told you I was right," he bragged.

"You know," Remus said thoughtfully. "We really should map these passages, just so we don't get lost."

"Could we just get on with it?" Jane snapped from behind Peter. "Maps can wait. This tunnel is getting rather cramped, and I don't like it. There could be rats in here," she said, and shuddered in disgust. "They scare me."

Peter grimaced. "You're right about that one," he said. "So, can we hurry up?"

James nodded quietly, and headed down the right fork of the tunnel. The other six trailed behind him single file. Remus and Ari were once again relegated to the end.

"You were saying something before?" Remus asked her quietly from behind.

Ari was startled by the sound of his voice. "Oh, I don't remember actually."

An uncomfortable silence followed.

"How did you lot end up polishing all the silver?" she blurted out.

Remus was silent for a moment, and then quietly began to speak. "You know that potion Professor Ward mentioned in class a few months ago? The one that can cause lengthy…indigestion if it is prepared wrong?"

Ari nodded, not really sure what that had to do with the silver. However, a certain incident at breakfast nearly two months prior suddenly sprung to mind.

"You don't mean, that you four are responsible for causing Snape and Avery to get violently ill all over breakfast, do you?" she gasped out, before collapsing in a heap of giggles.

Remus started laughing himself. "Yeah, it was Sirius' idea. James made the potion, Peter gathered the ingredients, and I dropped it into their porridge on the way in."

Ari couldn't believe her ears. Shy little Remus - a prankster? Who would have thought that he was partially responsible for one of the greatest pranks of all time?

"Wow," she whispered. "I had no idea that you liked to cause trouble."

"On occasion," he said. "Although, as good as that one was, I'm not sure the consequences were worth it. McGonagall caught us almost instantly, and we had to polish all the silver in the castle. Turns out," he added, "that I'm mildly allergic to the polish we used, and I spent almost a week in the hospital wing."

"Oh," Ari said quietly. "Is that why it always seems you're sick? I mean, you're in the hospital wing a lot, Madam Pomfrey even knows you by name…" she trailed off, because from the look on Remus' face, she was treading onto dangerous territory.

He sighed. "I'd probably say it's all Sirius' fault, but that isn't completely true. I just have a low resistance to stress and disease I guess. Of course, the stress is generally his fault, so therefore, Sirius causes me to be in the hospital wing a lot."

"I heard that!" Sirius shouted from ahead.

Luckily, the argument that was sure to follow never occurred. James and Lily, who had been at the head of the line, had just spotted the exit. After a brief flurry of spells, one piece of the tunnel ceiling opened up, and the young pranksters found themselves in a basement. Upon exiting the basement, they entered every young prankster's dream.

Apparently, Christmas had come early this year. Expressions of pure joy overtook James' and Sirius' face. Both stood in the center of the room, tongues hanging out of their mouths. At the same time, a mischievous gleam appeared in both their eyes, and the two boys began running rampant throughout the joke shop. Dung bombs, stink pellets and other supplies to drive the Slytherins mad adorned the shelves. James scowled. "Too bad none of us have any money with us." Then he brightened. "Next time then!"

Remus was looking at invisibility quills, while the girls drooled over a collection of hair ribbons.

Jane smiled. "See, this is more useful. A nice, simple hair ribbon." She picked one up and then screamed in terror. It had turned into a pile of slime, and was slowly oozing its way down her fingers.

Lily and Ari burst out laughing. "I thought you knew that was a fake," Ari giggled. "Why else would Zonko's be selling it?"

A noise from behind them caused a brief flurry of panic. They all turned around, and saw that Peter had managed to accidentally set off a batch of Filibuster Fireworks. Peter blushed, and quickly dropped the evidence. However, the damage had already been done. One of the fireworks had sped into the wall, leaving a mark, and even worse, a light had appeared upstairs. The young Gryffindors had no choice but to run, leaving all their dream items behind them.

"We made it!" Jane cried, once they were all safely back in the tunnel.

Lily mock-glared at Peter. "What were you thinking, setting off fireworks like that? You could have ruined everything."

Peter hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry, it just slipped! Really, I didn't mean to cause any trouble."

Remus laughed. "Who do you think we are, Professor McGonagall? Nobody is going to blame you Peter, we're just glad we all got out of there." He paused. "Right Sirius?"

Sirius appeared to think for a moment, and then nodded. "Right," he said glumly. "At least we know the passage works though."

The group nodded, and began the long trek back to Hogwarts, determined to get back before someone realized they were missing.

***

As Arabella recovered from the fresh assault of memories, she took in the familiar sights of the joke shop. Not much had changed since she had last been there. True, new products lined the shelves, and many of the old ones seemed to be missing, but the ambience still remained the same. The old scar from Peter's fireworks was even still there. To the best of her knowledge, the owners had never figured out where the mark had come from, resulting in Sirius offering them a different crazy theory each time he went into the shop. Hopefully, some other things had remained the same as well. Arabella headed into the back of the store, and quickly opened up the passageway.

It's smaller than I remember it, she thought to herself. In fact, Arabella barely fit into that passage, but this was one of the most accessible routes there was. Of course, they hadn't used it very often, but she would be damned if she could remember why.

As she crept through the passage, Arabella was amazed at how quiet it seemed. On all of her trips through it, the seven of them had made the passage ring with laughter. Now, only echoes remained. If she strained hard enough, Arabella thought she may even be able to hear Jane's voice, shrieking in mock fear as Sirius tackled her, or James' laugh, or Lily's nagging.

Suddenly, a noise did jump out at her, and Arabella remembered a bit too late, exactly why they had stopped using this passage.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? This is even better than a student out of bed my sweet, it seems we have a spy coming into Hogwarts."

Arabella glared at the bitter old man in front of her. "I am certainly not a spy, Filch," she spat out. "I am on my way to see the Headmaster, and this route was quicker."

"Well, your visit to Dumbledore can be easily arranged, isn't that right me pet?" he said to his cat, who stood in front of him, eyes fixed on Arabella.

"Oh no, that won't be necessary, I know the way easily," she replied, gritting her teeth.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist. Can't let a bad influence like you go polluting any of our fine students, now can we?"

Arabella pointedly ignored him, and began to walk around him. Mrs. Norris hissed at her suddenly, and Filch roughly grabbed her arm. "I'm afraid that I'm going to have to insist," he said coldly, a malicious grin coming over his face. "I still owe you for that little prank you and your friends played on me during your seventh year, and you'll find that I always pay my debts."

Author's Note: Yes, I know this is a short chapter, however, it was almost impossible to write. Of course, the next part is going to be even harder… ::sighs:: Anyway, many thanks to Leesie, Amy, and Liz for refusing to let me give up on this, and also for helping me keep everyone in character. Next chapter, Dumbledore, and the return of an old foe. Also, everything Remus is dedicated to Liz. Happy now? He is IN the chapter!

Also, 10 points to whoever (besides Anne) catches the Monty Python reference, in honor of GT's theme this month.

To be continued...