June 1994.

"Professor Lupin had compiled the most unusual exam any of them had ever taken…"

Remus threw another shovel-full of sand on the small mountain they'd created, then stuck the shovel firmly in the ground and leaned upon it.

"There must be an easier way to do this," he panted, wiping sweat off his forehead with his handkerchief. "I'm sure Flitwick mentioned a Digging Spell – if only I´d paid attention when he said it…"

Next to him, Hagrid also paused and leaned on his shovel, pushing it a few inches into the ground. "What exactly are we digging anyway?" he inquired.

"Well, that's obvious." Hagrid gave him a blank look. "We're digging an exam."

"Oh yeah, that's obvious," the Gamekeeper muttered so darkly it made Remus laugh.

"No, look, it's an obstacle course," he explained. "They have to find their way through this paddling pool – I´ll fill it with water later – with Grindylows, then get past some potholes with Red Caps, the marsh we created there will be the Hinkypunk-challenge, and then finally I've got them a nice Boggart to fight. And if they do well, they passed their exam!"

"That sounds good," Hagrid commented.

"Yeah, I decided to add a little excitement to the exams instead of always going through the same dull thing." Remus climbed out of the hole they'd dug. "I just decided it is deep enough."

"In other word: ye don´ want to continue digging," Hagrid grinned, and he threw his shovel on the pile and climbed out too. He was barely sweating, while Remus felt so wet as though he had just jumped into the lake.  

"I can't remember it ever being so hot while I was a student," he said. Hagrid shrugged.

"Pretty normal for this time of the year."

"Well, well, well. Treasure hunting?"

Remus could almost feel Snape before he heard him, and the hair on the back of his neck immediately stood on end. He turned around.

"Of course, I could've guessed," the Potion Master continued. "Lupin. Hoping to add some fortune to your salary?" He raised an eyebrow like only he could.

"Hullo Snape," Hagrid greeted friendly. Like Dumbledore, Hagrid usually ignored the hostility between Snape and Remus, and treated everybody equally as friendly. "What's the matter?"

"That Augury I asked you for yesterday – do you have them?"

"Yes, sure, just a minute."  Hagrid bent down to pick up his things. He also patted Monster, who had been exploring the bushes but had hopped to the humans for his share of attention, on the head.

Remus noticed that, the longer Snape had to wait, the more uncomfortable he seemed to get. He was shifting his weight from one foot on the other, and was glancing more and more nervously around him. it was almost as if he was afraid that something, an animal or whatever, might swoop down from the trees and come after him. Remus couldn't keep his tongue.

"God Snape, why are you so nervous? Afraid of the forest?"

Snape´s eyes flashed at him with the speed of a snake's, his gaze cold and murderous. He bowed down until his face was mere inches away from Remus's.

"God, Lupin," he said in the same tone Remus had used, only a lot colder, a lot more sarcastic. "Why are you so annoying? That time of the month again?" He cocked his head and flashed a smile that would have been nice, were it not that his eyes were as cold as ever, dark, fathomless tunnels. He straightened up and turned around, his swishing black cloak nearly hitting Remus in the face.

Hagrid grinned at Snape´s remark, not realising how true it had been – tonight the moon would be full again. Remus clenched his jaw, picked up his shovel and started digging again, anything to keep himself from throwing the shovel at Snape´s head.

When they were gone he stopped digging. He threw the shovel in the bushes, then climbed out to retrieve it when he remembered it was Hagrid´s shovel. He checked the result of his efforts – the yet unfilled paddling pool that would contain a Grindylow, the series of Red Caps – stupefied until the exam began – the patch of marsh where he had set a Hinkypunk loose, and at the end the huge old trunk with a new Boggart.

When Remus returned at the paddling pool, he saw that Monster had found something new to do: jumping in and out the pool. The creature was so soft and furry that, when it hit the bottom, it bounced so high that there was actually very little jumping involved. The sight of that little furball bouncing up and down made Remus laugh out loud.

"C´mon," he told Monster. "Stop fooling around. We got work to do." Monster seemed to understand him; he bounced one more time, then got out of the paddling pool so that Remus could fill it with water and put the Grindylow in it. 

When that was done, and the Red Caps were un-stupefied, he surveyed the obstacle course one last time. It certainly was the most original exam he had ever seen.

"Well Monster," he said. "Let's see what they make of this. Defence Against the Dark Arts put into practice!"

~*~

SPLASH! Neville tripped and fell head-first into the water. He disappeared under water, but Remus arrived just in time to pull him up again before the Grindylow drowned him.

"Sorry, professor," Neville gasped, blinking water out of his eyes. "It's that Grindylow…"

"Don't worry," Remus assured him, helping the boy out of the paddling pool. "You're doing excellent so far. Just keep your head cool. It's the perfect weather for a swim anyway, so where it not that this is an exam, you did the wisest thing. It's only too bad there's a Grindylow in the water."

Neville smiled shyly, braved himself and walked on towards the potholes with Red Caps, his wand ready, determined to do well on this exam. A few yards ahead, Harry struggled through the patch of marsh with the Hinkypunks, almost with his hands over his ears to ignore the Hinkypunk, who tried to give him wrong directions, to get him lost. Harry made it, however, and Remus arrived at the end of the obstacle course just in time to see Harry climb into the trunk with the Boggart. Remus didn't worry about that part; after the anti-Dementor lessons, Harry could fight a Boggart in his sleep. And he was right: after not even a minute, Harry climbed out again, a wide grin on his face.

"Excellent, Harry," Remus complimented him. "Full marks."

Ron came directly after Harry, but he didn't do as well. The Grindylow and Red Caps were no problem, but the Hinkypunk had more success. The red-head sunk waist-deep into the mud, and had to be pulled out to continue the rest of the exam.

Hermione was the inevitable next one. Careful not to make the mistakes Neville and Ron had made, she successfully managed to avoid the Grindylow, get past the Red Caps and ignore the Hinkypunk. The Boggart was not so easy. Unlike Harry, Hermione had never had the chance to practice on fighting her worst fear, so she had hardly any idea what to expect. After a minute in the trunk, she practically fled out of it, screaming and pale as snow.

"Hermione!" Remus said, startled. "What's the matter?" 

"P – P – Professor McGonagall!" Hermione stuttered. She pointed into the trunk. "She – she said I´d failed everything!"

When he heard this, Ron broke into a hysterical laughter, which was maybe not the kindest thing to do, but completely understandable. Remus bit back a grin himself, and offered Hermione some chocolate. A Boggart was not the same as a Dementor, but the good thing  of chocolate was that it could be used in various situations. She accepted the candy shakily, tears in her eyes. It took her a few minutes for her to recover from the shock, then she, Harry and Ron went back to the castle, Ron still grinning at Hermione´s Boggart.

Remus watched the rest of the class do their exam – Neville compensated his Grindylow-failure with his complete success over the Boggart – and graded them. When the last of them, Parvati Patil, had finally fought the Boggart, got her grade and said goodbye, he cleaned up everything, put the Grindylow into the bucket where he kept it in, and he walked back to the castle. Monster sat in the pocket of his cloak, humming contentedly as Remus stroked him.

The steps to the oak doors of the castle were crowded with students. Most of them had had their last exam this morning – the first years had had potions as their last exam, and many could be heard expressing what exactly they were thinking about Snape, and that wasn't exactly very friendly – and many of them were taking the opportunity of the fine weather to sit outside in the sun and discuss the exams, the weather and the upcoming summer holidays.

"Professor! Professor!" Remus' own little fanclub was sitting on the top stairs, waving at him. 

"Hello," he greeted, pausing to talk with them.

"Professor, did we pass our exams?" The question sounded suspiciously much like a poor excuse to talk to him, but he took out his notebook anyway.

"Let's see… third year Ravenclaw?" He flipped the pages. "There you are… Well, it looks like you all passed it with excellent marks. Nothing to worry about!"

"Yes!" Lara sighed. "I was a bit worried there."

"Why should you be?" Remus commented. "You did everything perfect!"

"Gee, thank you." Her cheeks slightly flushed.

"What about me?" Lucy tried to draw the attention to her.

"Like I said, everything's fine. Each one of you passed."

"Oh." They were silent for a moment, trying to think up another topic to make him stay a little longer. To no avail, though.

"Was that everything?" he asked. "Okay. Glad to be of service to you, but I really must be going." Without giving them chance to say something or even open their mouths, he quickly disappeared into the castle.

~*~

Remus took the last pile of washed clothes the house-elves had laid on his bed, and put it in his wardrobe. It was clearly visible that he finally had enough money to spent on clothes; the drawers barely shut, and he had to push his handkerchief-collection back into its drawer with one hand and shut it with his other hand, else it wouldn't close.

He went back to his tiny excuse for a living room, where warm tea was waiting for him. He would usually have tea in the staffroom, with the rest of the staff, but none of them felt like chatting; today Hagrid´s Hippogriff would be executed, and everybody was feeling moody because of that. Even Dumbledore wasn't acting like his usual cheery self.

Remus poured himself a cup of tea and sat down. He had almost two hours and a half before the moon would come up, so he might as well enjoy himself. He took the Marauders Map from his desk, where he kept it. Let's see who's roaming the castle this evening.

"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good." The familiar ink-black lines appeared, drawing the complex castle in mere seconds. Dumbledore was outside with Hagrid, McGonagall was in her study, as were the rest of the teachers. Percy Weasley was enjoying the company of Penelope Clearwater near the Astronomy Tower, and Harry, Ron and Hermione were walking towards Hagrid´s hut. Twenty minutes later, they left the hut, with a new dot. Their new companion was Peter Pettigrew.

Remus thought that thought again. Harry and Ron and Hermione are walking away from Hagrid´s hut with Peter Pettigrew.

Peter Pettigrew.

Who is supposed to be dead.

Who is clearly still alive! He jumped to his feet and seized the Map. There, clear as the sky on a summer's day, was a dot named Peter Pettigrew. And the Map never lied…And Ron has a rat, a really old rat… and he has it exactly twelve years, he told me so himself!

He was busy hyperventilating over this, when he saw another dot moving fast, really fast, towards the four people. It collided with the four, and dragged two of them, Ron and Peter, towards the Whomping Willow.

When he saw that the dot was labelled Sirius Black, Remus didn't waste another second, grabbed his wand, and ran out of his office, heading for the Whomping Willow.

~*~

Snape impatiently tapped the door. "Lupin?" The Wolfsbane Potion in the goblet he was holding, was still warm, and the scents coming from it nearly made him dizzy. "Lupin? Open the door you stupid – " He knocked harder, but got no reaction. Muttering darkly about stupid werewolves and 'supernatural hearing my a-', he kicked the door. He was taken aback when the door opened.

Severus Snape was not a nosy man. He liked to keep to himself, and wasn't really interested in other people. The sudden disappearance of his hated colleague intrigued him, however. 

He peeked his head around the door. "Lupin?" There was no one there, so he took the liberty of welcoming himself in the office. Lupin was nowhere to be found, but there were some signs that he had been there, not too long ago, and had left in a hurry, or with the intend to return soon. The fire was still cackling in the fireplace, and a teapot stood, it's cosy next to it, on a small table. There was tea – Blueberry, he noticed almost subconsciously – in the cup. He touched the cup with his fingers – still warm.

"C´mon Lupin, were are you?" he muttered. "You'd better not be standing under the shower or something." Snape briefly explored the bedroom, but that was equally deserted.

Really getting angry now, he put down the goblet with Wolfsbane on the desk and started leafing through the other man's papers for a possible clue. Nothing. He left the desk and searched the books – he didn't feel the slightest embarrassed because he couldn't care less about Lupin´s stuff – when he found the Map.

Snape picked it up and studied it. It looked peculiarly much like that stupid bit of parchment Potter had had on him, that day when Draco Malfoy had reported seeing him in Hogsmeade. But this parchment didn't insult you – it was a map. And not just a map, but a complete map of Hogwarts, complete with labelled dots for the people in it. He amused himself a few minutes by looking up his own dungeons and the Slytherin Common room, then he switched his attention to the little dots. He nearly smiled when he saw himself standing in Lupin´s office. Minerva McGonagall was in her office, together with Filius Flitwick it appeared – I wonder what they're talking about… - and Albus Dumbledore was where Snape expected him to be; with Hagrid.

A small dot near the Whomping Willow got his attention. It was labelled Remus Lupin, and swiftly moving towards the Willow. It seemed to hesitate for a moment, then it ran down a passageway and disappeared out of sight.

Snape only briefly wondered what Lupin would be doing outside at this moment, then his brain put two and two together. Or, rather, Lupin and Black.

Of course, I was right. And where else would Black be hiding than in the Shrieking Shack, the same place where he tried to kill me?

A predatorily grin appeared on Snape´s face. But this time he won't escape me. They thought they were so clever, Lupin and Black. But we'll see who is the better man this time…

He flung the Map on Lupin´s desk and stormed out of the office, heading for the Whomping Willow, and the passageway towards the Shrieking Shack.