The Truth About Remus

Chapter Seven

The beginning of November brought cool breezes, more homework and…detentions. Remus, Sirius and I were sitting at breakfast the morning after the ball and James and Lily walked in looking more worn out than I had ever seen either of them. Lily sat beside me and James took a seat beside Sirius.

"Coffee," Lily mumbled, "Where is the coffee…"

As I handed the pot of coffee to her, she fell forward onto the table.

"Lily," I asked, shaking her. I received no reply, so I turned to James, "Mate, she's out cold."

"Prongs, you go man," Sirius exclaimed, patting his best friend on the back and James blinked sleepily.

"I don't think Lily would mind if you drank her coffee," Remus said, "would you, Lily?"

Of course, Lily didn't respond, and Remus brought it upon himself to slide the coffee that I had poured for her over to James. He took a small sip and blinked again.

"How was your first time, man," Sirius asked.

Blink.

"Come on. You'll have to tell me sometime. I am your best friend," he exclaimed.

Blink.

"Oh well…you will get plenty of sleep tonight, Prongs," I assured him, patting his hand, "You don't have a detention."

"But we do," Remus reminded Sirius and me glumly as Lily's owl flew in with the rest of the post, "and I am not looking forward to seeing McGonagall's looks of shame."

"You can get a slut from Ravenclaw after wards," Sirius told him with a grin, "She will wipe all of your troubles away."

I took the Daily Prophet from Lily's owl's talons, as Remus replied, "No thanks."

"Dude, you are the only one here that is still a virgin!"

"Correction, Ani is a virgin, too," he said.

"Guys, I think we have bigger things to worry about other than who has been banged or not," I whispered as I stared at the front page of the Daily Prophet.

"What," Remus asked, looking at it over my shoulder.

"Voldemort is back," I said.

Remus, Sirius and even the brain dead James, shuttered.

"Don't…do that," James told me.

"Oh, give over," I told the three of them and opened the paper.

"Didn't the Daily Prophet print an article just last week that stated the Ministry had declared that Lord Vol – thingy – was gone for good," Remus asked, "That he had disappeared?"

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, "He hasn't killed in months."

"Has now," I informed them, turning the page, "Him and his Death Eaters went on a killing rampage last night. There is a three-page report on the chaos that took place last night and what the Ministry is doing to get it all straightened out. Several Muggle trick-or-treaters were killed – look, they have a picture of…they call it the Dark Mark," I whispered the name of the symbol while I remembered something I saw a few weeks earlier.

I looked at Lily, to the picture, and back at Lily.

"What's the matter, Thumper," Sirius asked. 

I shook my head, closed the newspaper and ate my breakfast.

"Well, I would love to stay and chat," Remus began, "but Professor McGonagall needs her Prefect badge back. See you all first period."

"Erm, yeah…I think I will get Lily to bed. I am sure that she will thank you for this later, Prongs," I threw one of Lily's arms over my shoulder and began standing up.

"Let me help you," Sirius said.

The both of us got Lily to the common room and up to the balcony.

"I think it would be best if I took her from here," I told him, "If you try to get into the girls' dorms, the staircase will turn into a slide and all three of us will be in trouble."

"No problem," he said, "It is worse in the Ravenclaw dorms. Bloody hell…"

"What happened," I asked.

"Blast-ended skrewts will chase you around the common room. They aren't poisonous, and everyone thinks you're crazy because only the person that tried to get up the stairs can see them."

I laughed and turned to leave but Sirius stopped me.

"Hey, you might need this for detention tonight," he said, slipping something in my pocket, "Its tons of fun."

"Erm, thanks Sirius."

He winked and left and I got Lily to her bed. Once she was lain down, I pulled up the sleeve on her left arm and looked for the mark. To my despair, the Dark Mark was there, above her elbow.

"God dammit," I hissed, throwing her arm on the bed.

Lily stirred and awoke.

"What am I doing here," she asked.

"This is your bed, genius. You fell asleep at breakfast and I brought you here. Be thankful, nasty little Death Eater."

Lily gasped, "You…"

"Yes, I looked at your arm! Are you thick? What in the hell were you thinking when you joined leagues with him? Huh, Lily?"

"I can explain," she yelled.

"Good. Spill it. Give me your lame excuse."

"Well…" Lily thought for a moment, and then looked back up at me, "Okay, I can't explain. I swore to secrecy ---"

"At least I can say I gave you a chance to explain when I tell James what his girlfriend is."

"No! You cant!"

"And why the hell not," I yelled at her, "Forget it, I have to get to class."

"Please don't tell James," Lily begged, "Please don't breathe a word of this to anyone."

I sighed, "Fine, I will keep your secret – for now."

"Thank you, Ani."

Why am I so nice, I thought as I picked up my books and headed to my first class in a total daze.

"It looks like we've got ourselves a few trouble makers."

Filch and McGonagall looked down upon Sirius, Regulus, Remus, James and I.

"Regulus, Anistasia and James – starting with the Entrance Hall and working your way up, down and around, you three will be mopping the floors of the castle," Professor McGonagall told us, "Sirius and Remus, the trophies haven't been dusted all summer. I will take you to the Trophy Room."

Remus sighed as McGonagall escorted him and Sirius to the Trophy Room. James, Black and I went with Filch to get the mops and buckets. The three of us mopped for quite a while with only James and I talking.

"Out of all the classes I could have fallen asleep in, why did it have to be McGonagall's," James asked me.

"Hey, it was your choice," I told him as I dipped the mop in the bucket and continued to scrub, "but if you had slept through her lecturing you and assigning you detention, you wouldn't be in this mess."

"Of course then you would be here alone with this bastard," James pointed to Regulus, who was just in earshot, "and I wouldn't let that happen to you. He might rape you or something."

Regulus scowled at us and I could see the bandage on his ear from where I bit him.

"Anistasia Willow," I heard come from my pocket, "Oh Ani, are you there?"

"I hope she didn't keep the other one in her room," I heard another voice say.

"I propped the mop against one of the walls and I pulled the talking object out of my pocket. It was a mirror and when I looked into it, Sirius' face was looking out at me instead of mine.

"Wow, I look horrid," I said, smiling, "I should have put on a bit more blush…"

"Ha, very ha," Sirius said.

"Enlighten me – what is this thing that you slipped into my pocket this morning and why is it talking to me," I asked, tapping on the frame of the mirror.

"It's a magic mirror."

"Tell me something a less bit obvious."

"You've read the Muggle fairy tale, 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', right?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, that story is no fairy tale," Sirius explained.

"I should have known. Go on."

"Well, you know that witch that always went 'Mirror, mirror on the wall, whose the prettiest one of all' to the mirror and a face appeared in the mirror and replied, 'Dear me, dear me, Snow White is much prettier than thee!'"

"I think that you'd better get to the point, Padfoot," I heard Remus say in the background.

"Right," Sirius said and went on, "Well, that witch was my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-I could go on ---"

"Please, don't," I begged.

"All right, well, she was my grandmother from way back when and the one who appeared in the mirror was her sister – named Mirror. Well, I found these in the attic of my house, reduced their size and now they are used for communicating purposes between detentions."

"Well that was short and sweet," I yawned.

"The story was much longer when I was first introduced to them," James said from behind me, "You truly received the shorter of the versions."

"So, how are the trophies going," I asked Sirius.

"Since you asked…" Sirius looked at the cabinet behind him, "fairly dusty."

"Why am I not in complete awe?"

"Well, by the Ministry of Magic Educational Decree Number Twelve, 'no detention can last for longer than five hours on one given day', and I know McGonagall will stretch this detention to the limit, therefore, I have two and a half hours to work."

"Good calculating, Paddy," I commented, "but what will Professor McGonagall say when she sees that hardly anything is done?"

"Oh, but Professor," Sirius began in his most innocent tone, "as you said yourself – the trophies haven't been dusted all summer…so on and so forth."

"Okay, Padfoot, its my turn for a break," Remus' voice said in the background.

"Hold on a minute, Moony. Thumper, ask Prongs how the you-know-what is going."

"But I don't know what," I replied grinning.

"You will know once its finished."

"What is it?"

"A Marauder surprise for you and Moony – now don't ask anymore questions."

"Padfoot, your minute is up," Remus exclaimed, pulling the mirror from Sirius' hands, "Now get to work."

"That is no way to speak to your friend, Moony," I sad to him.

Remus shrugged, "Have you and the oaf Regulus gotten into a brawl yet?"

"Nope, I don't think he'll want to fight with me until his ear heals…but James did call him a bastard," I grinned.

"You're lucky I'm not there. I still have to pay him back for punching me."

"Oh, and my risking my ass and sticking up for you wasn't enough?"

"Well, now that you mention it, sure, but I would still like to see his face if I went up to him and said, 'Hey, Regulus, fancy an engagement,'" he replied smiling.

I put my index finger to my temple and acted dumb, "Uh, are you asking me to marry you?"

"Matter who you are asking as," he said smoothly and a sideways grin spread across his face.

"Thumper! McGonagall is coming," James hissed to me.

"Bye, Remmie!"

I smiled once, shoved the mirror in my pocket and got back to work.