A Night at the Golden Snail
Chapter 5 – Happy Happy Valentine's
The rating and spoilers have not changed.
Warning: You guys pretty much said the tasteless humor was up to me, so I took you at your word. Warning: Duck the hexes.
In this part: Lots of good stuff as usual, I hope, and also the answer to the frequently asked question, who on earth voted for Remus as Christine? Besides me and Kurohyou, that is. g
Additions to the usual disclaimer: I got the idea of prefects being able to take a limited number of points from other students from someone else's fic, but I honestly can't remember whose. I ripped the tapestry scene and Sirius's first line off Hamlet, my all-time favorite Shakespeare play. But really, is Shakespeare going to clamber out of his grave and come sue me because I think he's a freaking genius?
%%%
Sirius walked down the hall, headed for Gryffindor, singing something under his breath. His pitch was atrocious but he didn't care, because he knew for a fact that no one could be this happy without bursting something. So he sang a little louder, and juggled his book back and forth, and he was actually thinking about skipping down the rest of the hallway when he heard noises behind one of the tapestries that lined the walls.
Sirius dropped his book, pulled out his wand and stabbed it into the tapestry. Someone squealed, and the timbre of the squeal was unsettlingly familiar. Oh, God, Sirius thought.
"How now," he said. "A rat?"
Peter fell out, scowling. "I hate you filthy bastard," he said. "Gimme my script, would you?" he added to the tapestry.
Ellie crept out, holding two parchments, and when she saw Sirius, her red face went redder.
"Going over your lines, were you?" Sirius said.
"Yes, we were." Ellie stood up and stared at him defiantly, leaving Peter to scramble up on his own. The girl has brass, Sirius thought with reluctant admiration.
"Well," he said, "practice is in a half hour, so we'll see how you've done then." Sirius gave them both a thin smile, pretending not to notice their panicked looks, and moved on.
In the common room, James and Lockhart were huddled on a couch by the fire, having an intense discussion. Sirius stopped and stared outright at them, but James just gave him a half-hearted wave and kept talking. Lockhart didn't even look up.
Sirius ran up to their room.
"Remus," he said. "Thank God."
Remus looked up. He was writing something; Sirius could see his scurrying handwriting from across the room. "What?" he said.
"I think the world's falling apart," he said.
Remus put down his quill, which promptly blurped ink onto the parchment. "This had better not be about your getting a ninety-two on the Potions test," he said mildly.
Sirius dropped his book and went over to the desk. He sat down cross-legged on the carpet and looked up at Remus. "Lockhart and James," he said, "they're down there acting like – like he's supposed to be here, and Peter and Ellie –"
Remus kept looking at him. Sirius sighed.
"I caught them snogging behind a tapestry," he said flatly. "Don't go killing anyone, now."
Remus looked mildly amused. "Is that all?" he said.
No, Sirius wanted to say. I never knew you were left-handed until today. How do I live with you for five and a half years and not notice until this minute?
"What do you mean that's all?" he said. "Doesn't that shake your faith in the universe?"
"It was bound to happen sometime, you know," Remus said.
"But she loves you!" Sirius burst out.
"Oh, I was talking about James," Remus said. "Actually, I'm not surprised about that, either. She's just trying to make me jealous."
"I assume it's not working?" Sirius said dryly.
"No," Remus said. "I don't particularly want to snog her."
"Don't you?" Sirius said, feeling obscurely disappointed.
"No," Remus said, looking at him sideways. "You might get jealous."
Sirius opened his mouth on the off chance that something intelligent might come out of it, but fortunately just then the door creaked open.
It was Peter. "They want you downstairs," he said.
Sirius scooted around and said accusingly, "It's not time for practice yet."
"I know," Peter said. "Hurry up."
Sirius wanted to say something more but he was distracted by the warmth of Remus's hand on his shoulder.
"We'll be right there," Remus said.
Peter smirked and left.
The entire cast was assembled on the couches facing the fireplace, before which McGonagall was standing. She did not look pleased. Remus felt his face flame, but he tilted his chin and walked in with a confidence he did not feel.
"Have a seat," McGonagall said. "We were just discussing the fate of your play."
Sirius gave her a baleful look and sat on the floor next to Remus.
"I have read it in its entirety –" she shook a fistful of parchment at them – "and I will tell you that in its present form, I will not allow it to be performed at Hogwarts."
"Why not?" Sirius said loudly.
"The main character, Mister Black, is a courtesan –"
"Oh yeah," Sirius said. "I keep forgetting that."
"And it is set in a br – a nightclub," she said. "In other words, it is entirely unsuitable. I am afraid I will have to ask you –"
Lockhart made a small sound and the whole room turned to look at him. "Might I say something?"
McGonagall actually rolled her eyes. "Don't waste my time."
"Professor," James said, "can't we just rewrite it?"
McGonagall eyed him. "You may," she said. "Bring it to me when you're done and I will review it." She glared around at them by way of dismissal, then left by the fireplace.
"What a bitch," Lockhart said bitterly. "She sure rolled her chignon too tight this morning."
"Well," James said, "it looks like I have some writing to do." He rose to his feet. "If you'll excuse me –"
"Not so fast," Sirius said, leaping up. "You don't know the first thing about the story, how do you think you're going to rewrite it?"
"I don't have to know anything," James said. "I'm just editing out the Golden Snail, the absinthe, the fact that Christine is a courtesan…"
"You're going to ruin it," Sirius said flatly.
"Someone has to," James said. "You heard McGonagall, if we leave the play like it is, it's going nowhere."
"You're right, of course," Sirius said. "But I'm still allowed to hate you for it."
"Would it help if I rewrote it?" Lockhart said.
James and Sirius both stared at him.
"I mean, you hate me anyway, right?" Lockhart said to Sirius. "And I really have read the books, I swear."
"Would you?" Sirius said. "Please?"
"McGonagall thinks I'm writing it," James said.
"So put it in your handwriting and tell her you wrote it," Lockhart said impatiently. "God, no wonder Gryffindors never get anything done. I'll go get the script, shall I?"
He got up, smoothing his robes, which Remus noticed with disgust had green embroidery round the edges in what looked like a pattern of intertwining serpents. Remus got up too and left the room before Lockhart had even finished primping. He went up to their dorm and pretended to be writing when Lockhart came up so he could ignore the interfering git. Once he'd gone Remus flung down his quill and stared hard out the window.
The door creaked, and Remus jumped.
"Remus?"
"Sirius," he said. "Thank God."
Sirius looked uncomfortable. "What is it?" he said.
"I thought you were Lockhart." Remus got up and went over to his bed. He sat down on the edge of it and began unlacing his boots. After a moment, Sirius sat down on his own bed, facing Remus but trying not to look at him.
"What if I'd been Lockhart?" Sirius said.
"I would have jumped out the window." Remus yanked viciously at the laces.
"He's not that bad."
"Don't you see what he's doing?" Remus said. "He's worming his way into our good graces. First it was James, now you, but I'll be damned if I'll be beholden to a fruit basket like him." Remus pried his boots off and began on his tie.
"What's wrong with him?" Sirius said. "I mean, yeah, he's a Slytherin, but it's not like he's – er, affiliated with anyone."
"How do you know that?" Remus said. "He might be, for all we know. It's not like they go around with freaking name tags."
"He's too big a priss," Sirius said. "He'd never get his hands dirty. Just look at his robes."
"That could be a trick too," Remus said harshly. He took off his tie, undid the top button of his shirt, and stretched full length on the bed, hands folded under his head. "Face it," he said, "there's no way to tell for sure."
"I know," Sirius said softly, looking at the toes of his own boots. "But I think we can trust him."
Remus didn't say anything, just sighed.
"Well, maybe he won't mess up the play too much," Sirius said. "That was rotten of McG, though."
Remus snorted. "You think she just happened to find a copy of the script lying around? I bet someone ratted us out."
"Damn," Sirius said.
"And my money's on Lockhart," Remus said.
"But he wanted to do the play," Sirius said.
"I'm telling you, we can't trust one word out of his mouth. The man's a born actor. Did you just hear something?"
"Er, no," Sirius said.
"Oh, it was probably nothing," Remus said as he pulled his wand from his pocket. He aimed it over his shoulder and shot a spell at the door in one fluid motion. The door obediently flew open, sending Artie sprawling on the carpet.
Both of them leapt to their feet, but Sirius was quicker; he hit Artie with a jet of poison ivy and then, once he was safely out in the hall, a Laxative Hex.
"Too bad he's in our bathroom," Remus said bitterly, sitting back down as Sirius closed and warded the door.
"The house-elves'll clean it up," Sirius said dismissively, returning to his own bed. "So d'you think –"
The door banged open and Ellie came barging in, followed by Peter.
"I just got done warding that door," Sirius yelped.
"You might tell them that," Remus said, looking with distaste at the amorous couple, who were now tussling breathlessly on the floor. He stood up and glared at them. "Excuse me," he said. "Sirius and I have to go snog."
They left, Sirius locking the door behind them.
"I don't think they heard you," he said, pocketing the key.
"Of course they didn't," Remus said. There was a sudden, violent noise from the bathroom. "Want to go downstairs?"
Sirius nodded fervently, and they descended the stairs.
In the common room, Lockhart and Potter were hunched over the script, writing in turns with the same quill and speaking in low voices. James's blond head was practically touching James's black one. Sirius jerked his head towards the portrait hole, and Remus nodded.
Once they were outside, Remus said to Sirius, "You were right, you know."
Sirius looked at him inquiringly. "What about?"
"The world is falling apart."
"I know," Sirius said. "So what do you want to do?"
"Find something to transfigure into boots first," Remus said.
"Right," Sirius said. "Then maybe a quick stop at the Astronomy Tower?"
"Yes," Remus said, "but only if we can go to the library afterwards and do some of that extra reading Flitwick suggested."
"Come on," Sirius said. "I don't think anyone'll miss a couple shields from the trophy room, do you?"
%%%
At nine-oh-seven on Saturday morning, Remus was awakened by a flock of owls attacking his bedcurtains and Sirius cursing at top volume. Of course, Remus didn't realize they were owls until he'd ripped open the curtains and lunged for his wand, only to be pelted with two dozen envelopes and a few owl feathers. As the flock exited through the open window, Remus noticed Sirius on his hands and knees by the desk trying to blot the carpet with his robe. The cauldron was on the floor, bleeding out the last of the Love Potion.
"Oh God," Remus said. He grabbed one of his robes and joined Sirius by the cauldron. "What're we going to do?"
"Buggered if I know," Sirius said heavily. "I haven't got the time to make another batch and I'm broke too."
"Can't you just tell them what happened?"
"I could," Sirius said. "But, you know, the only reason they haven't said anything before now is because they think they're going to get Love Potion for their trouble, and when they find out they aren't –"
"The entire school's going to know," Remus said. "Oh well –" he sneered a little – "it'll just make the play that much more interesting."
"Oh God," Sirius said. "We're going to have to kiss in front of everyone."
Remus suddenly had a nasty thought. "Sirius," he said. "Do you think – would they have told people to vote for us, for Sebastian and Christine?"
Sirius stared at him, Love Potion dripping all over his socks. "Shit," he said. "What a bunch of voyeuristic turdbags."
"I don't believe this," Remus said. "How much of this crud is there anyway?" he added, dropping his sodden robe. He went over to his trunk to get another one and realized that he still had twenty envelopes to open.
"Do you mind?" Remus said, indicating the pile.
"I don't care," Sirius said. "But I could use another robe."
Remus tossed him one, then settled down on his bed and slit the first envelope.
"Why would someone send me a love poem?" he said, frowning at the card.
"It's Valentine's Day, you numbskull," Sirius said, blotting faster.
Remus stared at the pile of envelopes. Then he stared at the calendar. Then back at the envelopes. "Are you sure?" he said.
"Fairly."
"Shit."
"What?" Sirius said. "You forget to send yours out or something?"
Remus snorted. "Did you send any?"
Sirius looked at the carpet. "No."
"You're lying," Remus said gleefully. "Who?"
"I don't have to tell you," Sirius mumbled, turning red.
"Yes you do," Remus said. "I bet it was Viola, wasn't it? You have the biggest crush on her."
"The hell I do," Sirius said, flinging down the robe and making for the door. Remus jumped up and grabbed him by the shoulders.
"You tell me not to run away from things," Remus said reasonably, looking straight into Sirius's dark glare. He said nothing.
"Is it really that big a deal?" Remus said quietly.
"Yes," said Sirius.
"Okay." Remus dropped his hands. "I'm sorry."
Neither of them moved.
"I'm not running away," Sirius said. "I'm just going to breakfast."
He turned away, jammed his boots on and left.
"What about the potion?" Remus said to the door. "I guess I get to clean that up, huh."
He wadded up the sodden robes and stuffed them in the cauldron, resolving to break into Filch's cleaning supplies later, and sat down to read the rest of his valentines. All of the signed ones were from girls who thought he was a fantastic actor, with one exception.
"Oh God," Remus said, holding it in his hand. It said Happy Valentine's Day – Your Friend Sirius.
"I don't believe this," he said more quietly, thinking, and I called him thoughtless.
He dug out James's cloak and the map and stole Filch's personal cleaning supplies from his office to clean the carpet. Then he took the robes to the house-elves to get them washed, came back and wrote Sirius a note, which he left on his pillow. After that nothing remained but to hide all the valentines at the bottom of his trunk and wonder where Sirius was until lunchtime.
All three of them were at the Gryffindor table, talking intently, when Remus came down. He sat down across from Sirius and said, "Long breakfast."
"Oh," Sirius said. "I went to watch practice."
"Oh," Remus said. Just then Lockhart came over, a stack of cards in his hand, and began distributing them to the Gryffindor table.
"Sorry they're late, gents," Lockhart said as he handed them their cards, "but I thought I'd wait until everyone was here," and he actually winked at Remus before he moved on.
"Aren't you going to open it?" Sirius said snidely. "I bet he made yours extra pink and frilly."
Remus shoved it under his plate, hoping it would disappear when the food did. "This day's been bad enough already, thanks," he said.
Ellie was sitting next to Peter and all through the meal Remus tried to pretend they weren't hand-feeding each other their entire meal, tried in fact to pretend that Sirius was resolutely not looking at him and that he could not stop himself blushing with shame every time he looked at Sirius. As soon as Remus was done he shoved back his chair and announced, "I'm going to the library."
"Not with all those valentines you got this morning, you're not," Sirius said.
Remus noticed with a touch of panic that half the Gryffindor girls were blushing. He stood up abruptly.
"You're running away," Sirius said in a sing-song voice.
Remus glared at him. "Listen, if you're just jealous, why don't you find some other way to humiliate me?"
"I don't give a shit about your stupid valentines."
"Then why'd you send me one?" Remus said, and as soon as he did he regretted it, because Sirius looked like he had just gotten an arrow in the heart. He jumped up to leave and Remus said, which was another mistake, "I'm not running away."
"Fine," Sirius said in a poison voice. "I will stay here as long as it takes to prove I'm not."
"Fine," Remus said in a matching voice.
They both sat down and glared at each other, as everyone else finished their meals, as they left in pairs to snog in their common rooms or snuggle in the library, Remus and Sirius sat on either side of an empty table with the pale dead sky over their heads.
They had only been there half an hour when Remus shifted in his seat and said, "I am such a jerk."
"Yes," Sirius agreed. "You are."
"I shouldn't have said that," Remus said.
"I shouldn't have sent it," Sirius said. "But I thought –"
"I thought it was wonderful."
"You did?" Sirius lifted his eyes, and Remus gave him a tiny smile.
"I've never gotten a valentine before," he said.
"Besides the twenty you got today," Sirius pointed out.
"I meant one that meant something."
Nothing much to say to that. Sirius squirmed in his seat. "Do you think," he said, "if we leave at the same time it wouldn't be running away?"
"I think you're right," Remus said.
They got up and walked together back to the common room, watching each other to make sure that neither was a step ahead.
James was stretched out on his bed reading. "Sirius," he said, "you might want to read your secret admirer love note."
Sirius looked at Remus. Remus blushed.
"Oh, and by the way, your Love Potion's missing," James said.
%%%
That evening in the Gryffindor common room, there was a Valentine's Day party. Viola Cunningham had organized it, so it was a cast party, theoretically at least. In reality, it was composed of the sort of people who couldn't get anyone to snog them in empty classrooms, which meant that it was quite a boring party. Making it worse was the fact that Lockhart was there.
"Uh-huh," Remus said in response to one of his idiocies or other, and sampled his drink again. It still tasted like cotton candy.
"Viola?" he called.
"Did I hear my name?" She turned around and spotted Remus looking at her. Sirius was holding onto her hand, looking like he wanted to burst into flame.
"What is this stuff?" he said, holding up the goblet.
"Oh, that." She tittered musically. "My own special recipe. Come on, snugglebunny," she said to Sirius, and they left.
Remus sniffed suspiciously at the drink, then realized he and Lockhart were the only ones left in the room, unless you counted the five or six couples who had found more corners than Remus had thought possible in a round room. Remus also noticed that Lockhart's drink was more than half gone.
Remus thought he was going to be sick, and said so.
He ran for their dorm, hoping to find a small piece of normality in this truly awful day. Unfortunately, in his troubled state of mind he had forgotten that Peter and Ellie had disappeared up there hours ago.
"Don't you people lock the door?" Remus yelled, thoroughly revolted. He slammed the door shut and warded it several times over, including two Silencing Charms just in case. He sank to the floor, pressing his eyelids closed in an attempt to forget what he'd just seen. Whatever it was, they were breaking, Remus estimated, at least seven school rules.
"Twenty points from Gryffindor," he said to the door, wishing he was allowed to take more. "And don't let me catch you anywhere near anything of mine."
Not likely, Remus thought grimly, getting to his feet. There was only one place in this crazy castle where he would be safe tonight, and that was the library.
Somehow, Remus was entirely unsurprised when he arrived at the library to find it deserted except for Lockhart, who was sitting at one of the long battered tables and consulting the latest issue of Runic Quarterly.
Lockhart looked up and smiled at him. Remus was surprised he didn't glow in the dark. "You can sit here," he said, "if you like."
Remus did. "May I ask you a nosy question?" he said.
Lockhart flipped the journal closed, still grinning. "I live for nosy questions," he said.
"Okay," Remus said. "What is your deal?"
Lockhart looked politely puzzled. "I'm sure I don't know –"
"I'm sure you do," Remus said. "You were in the common room when I left."
Lockhart shrugged. "And now I'm here."
"Reading RQ," Remus said. "And I know you're not in Ancient Runes. Why are you trying to impress me?"
Lockhart looked at him consideringly. It occurred to Remus that if he was a girl he would think Lockhart devastating, and then he wondered why on this particular night Lockhart was sitting across from him in the darkened library. Several possibilities occurred to him, none of them pleasant.
"Because," Lockhart said, "I get the idea that you don't impress easily. And I want to impress you."
Remus thought about that in silence. "I think I should be impressed by that," he said.
"Aren't you?"
"I don't think so."
"What do you think of me?" Lockhart said.
"I think you're a flamboyant, self-absorbed elf-man," Remus said. "And I don't trust you."
"You shouldn't," Lockhart said. "Trusting people these days isn't advisable."
"Do you trust anyone?"
"I trust certain people to act certain ways some of the time," Lockhart said.
"Do you think I'm –"
"You don't seem the type," Lockhart said. "But I'm sure you know how little that means."
"But why do you want to impress me?"
"I told you," Lockhart said. "Because conjuring tricks aren't good enough for you."
It occurred to Remus that Lockhart might be telling the truth. "Can you read runes?" he said.
"No."
"You might start there," Remus said, pushing the journal toward him. "And don't act fake around me, either." He got up, gave Lockhart a tight smile, and left.
Out in the corridor, he realized that there was nowhere left to go. Whatever was in the air tonight was probably even making the house-elves giggle. So he went out to the Shrieking Shack. There was a couch there that wasn't too badly ripped. Remus stretched out on it and, a long while later, fell asleep.
%%%
The next morning Remus woke late and went slowly back to the castle. Sirius was in their room, sitting on the carpet and carefully studying a section of his robe. Remus pretended not to notice.
"How was your night?" he said, going over to his bed.
"Very good," Sirius said. "But it seems yours was better. Where were you, anyway?"
"The Shrieking Shack," Remus said.
Sirius frowned. "How inventive."
"I wasn't with anyone," Remus said irritably. "I had a rotten night, if you must know."
"That's too bad," Sirius said.
Remus scowled at him, but he didn't appear to notice. Sighing, Remus reached for the clean folded robes that were sitting on top of the covers.
"Don't put those on," Sirius said sharply.
"Why not?" Remus said. "Will I stir up too much air?"
"Those are the robes that the house-elves cleaned," Sirius said.
"I know that, now why can't I put them on?"
"Try it and see, then," Sirius snapped.
"Fine, I will." Remus pulled off his old robes and replaced them with the new, and promptly sagged against the bedpost, staring at Sirius. "Oh," he said. "Shit."
"Take them off, please?" Sirius said.
"If you want." Remus did, reluctantly, and sank to the floor to sit by Sirius.
"Why does it do that?" he said.
"I don't know," Sirius said. "It looks as though the potion's out, but it can't be. I have to admit, I'm stumped." Sirius stood up, muttering Finite Incantatem. "I think I'm going to take this to Professor Paquerette," he said firmly.
"You're an idiot," Remus said.
"I know," Sirius said, "but I have to know."
"Sirius –" He didn't know what to say. "I think this is a majorly bad idea."
"Probably," Sirius said.
"Love Potions are illegal," Remus said quietly. "And I think we both know why."
Sirius's face twisted. "I know," he said. "But I can't just leave them like this and I don't know how to fix them either. I'll just have to tell her and hope –"
"Hope she doesn't ask?" Remus said sharply.
"Yeah," Sirius said. "Something like that."
Professor Paquerette's office was on the third floor. Sirius knocked, and she called, "Come in."
"Hello, Professor," Sirius said, taking the chair opposite her desk and shifting a stack of parchments so he could set the robes down.
"Hello, Sirius," she said, corking her ink bottle. "Is there a potion involved in this somehow?"
"Yes, actually," he said.
"Oh," she said.
"Well, tell me all about it."
"Okay," Sirius said. He sighed, and told
her the story, all of it except for the part about Remus. Paquerette had picked up one of the robes and
was inspecting it closely.
"Are you going to expel me?" Sirius said.
"That depends," Paquerette said. "Does it work?"
"I, er – well – yes," Sirius said, blushing.
"Not many sixth years are up to making a Love Potion," she said, looking at him intently.
"It was fairly difficult," Sirius admitted. "I had a bit of trouble with the morning dew since it's the off season, you know."
"Do you mind if I try this on?"
"You, er, won't want me in here for that," Sirius said, leaping up. He waited outside the door until she called him back in.
"I'm not going to expel you," she said.
"Good," Sirius said fervently.
"However, I do have to make sure this doesn't happen again," she said. "You know where that workroom is, in the dungeons?"
"Yeah," Sirius said, looking puzzled.
"It's yours." Paquerette took a key out of her desk drawer and handed it to him.
"Wow," Sirius said, staring at the key. "This is incredible. Thank you."
"Well, I can't have you spilling illegal potions on the carpet, you know," Paquerette said, smiling.
"Wow," Sirius said again. "This is amazing."
"You know, you have an innate talent for potionmaking, Sirius," said Paquerette. "If you work at it, you could do just about anything you wanted."
"Thank you," Sirius said. "You don't know how happy that makes me."
"But Sirius – no more Love Potions, all right?"
"No," Sirius said. "Of course not."
Sirius went back up to Gryffindor feeling as loopy as a love letter. He felt as though he could jump off the Astronomy Tower and bounce.
"It went well, then," Remus said dryly, seeing his face.
"Better than you would ever believe." Sirius told him the whole story, even showed him the key.
"Sirius," said Remus. "I need to know something."
"Anything."
"Were you alone when you tried on the robe?"
"Yes," Sirius said. "Why?"
"How did it make you feel?"
"You know," Sirius said, blushing a little. "You tried it on too."
"But you were here," Remus said, "and that was – er, you know."
"Me?" Sirius said.
"Yeah," Remus said almost inaudibly. "And I thought it was because you were there – but if you were alone –"
"I think I know what happened now," Sirius said, an abstracted look on his face. "Normally, you know, you'd add your hair, and the potion would bond to that. But the potion wasn't finished yet, so it must have bonded to the fibers instead, and you probably got my robes by accident."
"Does that mean you got mine?"
"Er," Sirius said. "Yes, actually. Oh, shit."
"What?"
"Paquerette tried one on."
"Oh, shit," Remus said. "Whose?"
"I couldn't tell." Sirius put his head in his hands. "This is bad."
"It doesn't last, does it?" Remus said, sounding faintly panicky.
"Only as long as you wear it, probably," Sirius said.
"Didn't she say anything?"
"Yeah," Sirius said. "Not to make any more Love Potions."
"Oh, God," Remus said with finality. "This is so bad. She didn't say anything else?"
"She did say I was innately talented at potionmaking," Sirius said, which thought made him grin.
"That's no help," Remus said irritably. "She would have said that anyway."
"Yeah," Sirius said dreamily. "Well, don't worry about it too much. I mean, the worst thing that can happen is your Potions grade'll go up a little."
"I hope it was me, then," Remus said, brightening. "You sure don't need it."
"Yeah," Sirius said. "What an amazing day."
To Be Continued
