The Truth About Remus
Chapter Nine
"Got everything," Lily asked me.
"Money – check. Cloak – check. Energy Bars – check. Yup, that's everything," I replied.
"Nice. Come on. The guys are waiting."
Lily and I walked into the common room and saw James talking to Bill. The moment he saw us, however, he stopped talking and stood up straight.
"Good morning, angels," he said to us.
"Good morning, Prongs," I replied, "Where are Moony and Padfoot?"
"In our room, trying to figure out where Padfoot hid his money."
Lily laughed, "The last time I saw him, he told me that he only had one knut!"
A horrified look spread across his face, "My best friend only has one nut? No way, I can't let him live like that! I wonder of St. Mungo's carries ---"
"James Potter, not another word," I exclaimed as Bill was almost on the floor in fits of laughter.
Remus and Sirius, carrying his moneybag (and it looked quite full to me) came over to us.
"Found it," Sirius said brightly holding up his bag.
"How many nuts do you have," James asked quickly, "and you can be totally honest with me. I do not judge ---"
I elbowed James in the stomach, "Padfoot, don't answer that."
Remus smiled and looked at us, "Are we ready to go?"
"Yeah, I believe so," Lily replied.
I kneeled to talk to Bill, who had calmed down by this time, "You be good, Stryker, mmm'kay? Do some homework or something. We will be back before you know it."
"Sure thing, Thumper," he said to me, but winked in James' direction.
I stood, not sure of what to make of it, but ultimately decided to ignore it.
"Lets get going, guys, or we'll be late," Sirius said at last.
Our group nodded and left the common room towards the Entrance Hall. Practically the entire population of Hogwarts' fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh years were huddled tightly together, waiting for Professor McGonagall to let them loose.
"--- Filch will be checking to make sure that no one who is not allowed to be outside the Hogwarts Grounds is released. That is all, and have a nice day."
She opened the doors to the outside of the school. The cool, autumn breeze hit us like a breath of fresh air. The expressions on everyone's faces brightened up as though they were suddenly reborn. Students hopped, skipped, jumped and ran to the edge of the grounds where they were met by the ill mannered caretaker, who looked as though he would rather be slowly and painfully eaten by centaurs than checking off mindless students' names.
My friends and I passed inspection and walked lightly down the road after our classmates towards Hogsmeade.
"What are we going to do first," I asked.
"Zonko's and Honeydukes, of course," James exclaimed.
"I need more quills," Lily stated.
"And I more parchment," Sirius added, "I used the last of mine on the Marauder's Map."
"I need tarot cards," I said as we walked into the village.
Remus looked down at me with a disgusted look on his face, "Why would you need those?"
"I promised Crystal I would teach her how to read them before the next meeting of the Divination Club," I explained to him.
I looked around at all of the shops we were passing. As we passed each one, I grew more and more depressed. There were WANTED fliers up everywhere for the capture of Lord Voldemort – dead or alive, beaten or tortured, cut up in pieces or whole. The award was one million Galleons. Signs for the Death Eaters' capture was almost the same, except the reward was 750, 000 Galleons. News on Lord Voldemort's whereabouts would be rewarded with 5,000 Galleons. My thoughts were interrupted by Remus' next sentence.
"You're still going to go to that," he asked.
"Yeah, aren't you?"
"No."
"Why not," I asked, practically whining, "You are good at it! I can't do crystal ball Seeing without you!"
"Divination is the cheapest God damned fucking magic in the universe, that's why," Remus yelled at me, "Nothing in that class is real."
Remus and I stood, face to face, in the middle of the street.
Sirius whistled, "I think we need to leave while these two sort this out."
"Yeah," Lily agreed, "Guys, we'll be in the writing surplus shop if you need us."
They walked off, leaving Remus and I alone.
"What do you mean, nothing in that class is real," I asked as though we were never interrupted.
"You can't touch the magic in there. All you do is predict, and even that is uncertain. Everything is just a mere guessing game, and I am sick and tired of it!"
Remus turned away from me and hid his face in his hands. I stepped forward and put my hand on his shoulder.
"What is the matter, Remus," I probed, "What happened last time at Divination Club?"
Remus turned around, took one good look at me and embraced me in a hug.
"Nothing," he said, though it sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than me, "Everything this fine. Why don't we catch up to the others?"
He let go of me and we found James, Lily and Sirius in front of the writing supplies store.
By noon, we had found our way to an empty booth in the Three Broomsticks, loaded down with Zonko's jokes, tarot cards, Honeydukes treats and more.
"I hope Stryker will like the Droobles Best Blowing Gum and Sugar Quills I bought for him," I said to no one in particular.
"You like him, don't you, Thumper," Remus asked.
"Its my turn to get the lunches," Sirius said, "The regular for everyone?"
We nodded and I turned to Remus smiling.
"Yeah, I reckon I do," I stated after a moment, "He is my ideal son, I guess."
"Awl, that is sweet," Lily exclaimed, "What about you, Remus? How would you picture your ideal son or daughter?"
Remus blushed as he thought for a moment, "I'd have to agree with Thumper on ideal son. Stryker is an awesome kid. He would have to have a strong, solid name, like Wolfric. That is one of Dumbledore's names.
"Wolfric is a good, strong name," I replied, "but I would want something with a bit more 'umph' to it."
"Like…?"
"Draco," I said finally, "It's the first word in the Hogwarts' school motto and is Latin for dragon."
Remus shrugged, "It's a good name, but it has a more evil air to it than 'umph'. What about you guys? What would you name your son?"
"Harry," James and Lily said in unison, and then looked at each other in surprise.
"I didn't know ---"
"Since when did you ---"
They looked to one another, confused for a moment, and then burst out laughing as Sirius came back, levitating our orders with a Wingardium Leviosa spell.
"What did I miss," he asked, setting out plates down in front of us.
"Nothing," James replied with an air of chuckle still in his voice, "Thanks, bro."
We talked while we ate, about this and that, and began planning our next attack on Snape (which Lily didn't approve of and Remus stayed out of entirely) when I felt a hard slap on my foot.
"Prongs, please don't kick me," I requested, looking across the table at him.
"I didn't kick you," he replied, "My feet are perfectly still!"
"Sirius, don't rub my leg," Lily exclaimed, slapping his shoulder.
"I was getting my napkin out of my lap," he told her.
The four of us argued until Remus quieted us. From under the table, came the muffled laughter of a little boy. James reached under the table and pulled the kid up.
"Stryker! I am glad you found your way here," James exclaimed, patting him on the back.
"Wow, this map rocks," Bill exclaimed, holding up the Marauder's latest invention, "Oh, and I walked by Snivellus while under your invisibility cloak. I pushed him over and he landed head first into a puddle. Jesus wept, you should have seen his face when everyone was laughing at him. It looked kind of like this…"
Bill screwed up his face as though he himself had just fallen into a puddle and was being laughed at. It was the greatest impression of Snape any of us had seen; only I didn't crack up.
"William, what are you doing here," I hissed, "My last words to you was to be good!"
"But Prongs told me to come!"
I looked angrily from James to Bill and back a few times.
"James, take him back up to the school. In fact, I will come with you. I need to have a nice long chat with you both."
Fearing what I might do, Remus and Lily decided to go back to the school, too, and not wanting to spend the rest of the day in Hogsmeade alone, Sirius followed.
The walk was silent as Bill stayed hidden under the invisibility cloak and I gathered my thoughts. Everyone else, especially James, feared to speak. We reached Gryffindor Tower nearly thirty minutes later, but we didn't stop walking until we were in Sirius, James and Remus' room.
Bill and James sat on the edge of James' bed while the other three sat on Sirius' bed. I stood in between the two beds, pacing back and forth. Finally, I stood before Bill.
"What in Merlin's name were you thinking," I asked him in a harsh tone, "Do you know what could have happened to you if you had been caught?"
"I am sorry, Anistasia," he told me, "I just thought it would be fun to hang out with you in Hogsmeade. I didn't think ---"
"Well, there is my answer," I interrupted, "You didn't think, did you? Of course, its not entirely your fault, is it, James?"
"No, I guess not," James replied quietly.
"You guess not? If you have to be completely honest with yourself, what would you say? I know what you would say. It is almost entirely your fault! You knew good and well what the consequences would be if Bill had been caught. You knew that Bill is only a first year and is easily influenced. You knew that what you were doing was wrong," I yelled, "and yet, you did it anyway! In fact, I am laying all of the blame of this incident on you! You are to take all responsibility for this adventure and you are to pay your friends back for the risks you took in exposing the work of the Marauders and nearly getting one expelled by doing one subject of a Marauder's homework a night for the next five nights, starting with my astronomy homework."
James nodded, "I am sorry."
I sighed and kneeled beside Bill, "Sweetie, you have got to learn to use better judgment in the future," I said softly, "You really put yourself out there today, and I am just glad that you are alright."
"Am I going to receive a Marauder punishment, too," he asked sadly.
"No," I told him, smiling, "but you are going to receive a treat from Honeydukes."
I handed him the bag of candy I got for him and he hugged me tightly.
"Thank you, Ani. This looks great."
"You are certainly welcome," I said, "So, how about you go find Crystal and tell her that I've got her tarot cards. Then I can spend the afternoon teaching them to you."
The rest of the afternoon was spent in the common room. James did my astronomy homework, Lily wrote a note to her parents, Remus and Sirius went back to Hogsmeade and Crystal, Bill and I learned how to read tarot cards while we chewed Droobles Best Blowing Gum and watched the bubbles soar around the common room, refusing to pop.