Chapter 7 ~ End of Year Exams
It was a week after classes resumed before Muriel made it back. Severus had flooed secretly each night to St. Mungo's to take her their assignments, and she'd owled them back to the professors.
It turned out that the added lacewings, without the dandelion seeds to soften them, had turned the potion into a slow acting poison that affected the muscles, and had to be countered just as slowly. "Like time-release aspirin," Marisa had said when Muriel explained it. Mur had only nodded. She didn't know what aspirin was and it didn't matter. Some muggle remedy, she supposed.
She and Marisa were getting along pretty well now, since Mur had apologized to Kyle and explained her mother's prejudices to the rest of her house. Even the other girls in the dormitory were speaking to her guardedly once in a while.
When end of term tests came around, she was still feeling pretty weak. She'd been charming her books to follow her to class, because it tired her so much to carry them. Filch had given her detention for it once, since that was technically using magic in the hallways, but Professor Warrington had spoken with him, and now she was allowed.
She was on her way back from the library late the night before her Defense Against The Dark Arts test when her books suddenly thudded heavily to the ground behind her. She looked around, but no one was in the corridor. She was alone.
No sooner had she charmed them back into the air and turned than they fell again, this time bouncing forcefully off the wall. She turned again, her lips pressed into a thin line.
She charmed the books a third time, walking a bit faster ahead of them. Suddenly, instead of falling to the ground, they came out of the string she'd bound around them and pelted her in the back of the head, one after another. She ran, but she was still weak, and stumbled on the steps. She covered her head with her hands as the last of the books came tumbling out of the air to land on her head.
Muriel was starting to get very annoyed. Panting, she summoned her books and grasped them tightly. With so many, it was hard to make it back to Ravenclaw tower, and it seemed to take forever. She'd just managed to reach the top of the stairs, and the portrait hole was in sight when one of her legs gave out. With a cry, she dropped her books and tumbled backwards.
She only fell a few stairs, however, before something stopped her. It felt like hands had caught her, and she felt an arm around her back and a hand on each of her elbows, helping her up remaining stairs. It was obviously the same person who had enchanted her books to attack her, and she couldn't quite determine who it might be. Severus would have pulled a prank like that, but not when he knew she was ill.
Could it have been Black? But then why had he followed her back and caught her on the stairs? She gathered her books slowly, thinking hard. When she finally had them all, she turned back to the stairs. She tried to listen for thoughts, but heard only a confused jumble. She couldn't make any sense of it.
"Thank you," she said into the silence. Then she turned and went up to her room.
Sirius, still covered by Potter's invisibility cloak, turned when he heard her speak. He felt bad now that he realized that she really WAS too weak to carry her books. He'd thought that she was just taking advantage of the situation to do something no one else was allowed to do. When she'd fallen on the stairs, he'd decided that he had better follow her just in case, and he was glad he did. If she had fallen all the way back down that staircase, he'd have been in a lot of trouble. He hoped she wouldn't figure out who had done it.
He sat beside her as they took their Defense Against The Dark Arts exam the next morning. She looked awfully pale and he felt another wave of guilt, but thrust it away as quickly as it had come. Instead, he concentrated on his test. He knew a lot about the Dark Arts thanks to his mother, but it was hard to keep straight which of the things she'd taught him were considered defensive, and which were considered offensive. He wondered if Deesia was having the same trouble. She'd grown up in a house a lot like his, he was sure, with a Karkaroff for a mother. His mother was a Malfoy, Lucius' 3rd cousin, so he knew what it was like.
He looked up as Muriel finished the last question and lay down her quill. She flipped the paper over. Sirius was shocked as she looked him in the eye, put her wand away and then laid her head down on the desk and closed her eyes.
He turned back to the last question, jotted down an answer, and followed her example, though he didn't put his wand away. He knew how fast she could draw that thing.
A few short minutes later, they both raised their heads as their papers whizzed toward Professor Tantry's desk. Muriel made no move to get up as the rest of the class put away their quills and filed out.
Sirius jammed his into his bag, along with his ink, then turned to face her. She smirked at him a bit.
"Where's Remus?" she asked, knowing that last night was the full moon. She still wasn't sure if it was him. She'd felt a flash of guilt from him during the test, but maybe he'd just seen one of her answers by accident.
"He's in the hospital ward." Sirius answered shortly. He didn't know why his dorm mate was so sick all the time, and visiting only made him uncomfortable. He was usually wrapped up in bandages. They had all just stopped going to see him. Now, when he came back, they acted like he hadn't been gone at all. It saved him having to make up excuses, and it kept them all friends, which was becoming very important to Sirius.
"Maybe I'll go up and see him. I'm not feeling so great myself," she said with a wry grin. If she hoped to make him give up his secret that way, she was disappointed, however, because he seemed to feel no emotion about her illness at all. It hadn't been his fault.
Sirius, for his part, was sorely tempted to offer to help her carry her books to make up for what he'd done, but knew that would give him away. Instead he shrugged. "What happened over holiday anyway?"
"I blew up my best cauldron and poisoned myself," she said, as if it happened every day. As she spoke, she wrapped her books with twine again and enchanted them to follow her. She was feeling rather ill, and thought maybe another dose of the counter potion was due. She couldn't remember if she'd taken any before the exam.
Sirius laughed. "Well, since your sick, I guess I won't hex you as you come out the door today." He had tried to hex her after Defense Against The Dark Arts every class period all year long. Once he had managed to hit Remus instead, but it was a spell that gave you elephant ears, and partial transformation spells didn't work well on werewolves. Everyone had just assumed that he had hit the wall behind them, but Muriel knew better. She'd been careful not to meet Remus' eyes as she'd shouted "HA, you missed," and chased Sirius down the hallway.
She made her way up to the hospital wing carefully. Severus caught up with her halfway there and took her elbow. "You shouldn't be on the stairs yet by yourself," he scolded. She grinned up at him. He'd grown at least 3 inches in the last year, and was finally taller than her.
"Thanks, Sev. I'm headed to he hospital wing. I think I could use some more potion." They ran into Remus as he exited the ward, smiling, but still with a wrist wrapped in gauze.
"Alright Mur?" he asked. She nodded, winded from climbing the stairs.
"You?"
Remus ignored the look Severus was giving him. "Sprained my wrist," he said. He looked away quickly when she raised an eyebrow at him. Madam Pomfrey could mend sprains instantly. There was no reason why he would still be bandaged if that were all that was wrong.
"Fall off Potter's broom Lupin?" Severus asked scathingly. Muriel, knowing how fast Severus could make any situation ugly, let her knees bend a bit, and leaned hard on her best friend.
"Sev, enough, let's go." His attention snapped back to her and he brushed roughly passed Remus, who chuckled softly to himself and headed back to Gryffindor Tower. He'd been allowed to take his exam early, so he wouldn't have to make it up.
Remus entered the Gryffindor common room and was about to head up to the dormitory to get his books for the next test when he heard whispering in the corner, and looked over to see James, Sirius and Peter. He started when he realized they were looking at a lunar chart.
"So, if it's true, then he'll be sick the second week in September and the third week in October?" Peter was whispering just a little too loudly.
"That's got to be it," James answered. "Look, he's been sick on the full moon every month all year."
Remus felt his stomach clench. He watched a moment longer to see if Sirius would say anything, then turned and made his way silently back out of the portrait hole toward the library.
'They know!' he thought vehemently to himself, trying his best not to stomp in the deserted hallways. Most of the students, freed from exams until tomorrow, were out on the grounds. He felt almost sick with anger and worry. He'd finally been able to make some friends and now it was all over. They would figure it out and tell someone and he'd never be allowed to come back next year.
He thought about marching right back up there and confronting them about it, but decided against it. If Sirius was still deathly afraid of werewolves, then the last thing he should do is be aggressive.
He was surprised when he looked up from the book he'd been staring blankly at to see Muriel pushing open the door to the library. She looked awful.
"Are you alright?" he asked, jumping up and helping her to the nearest table.
"Yeah," she said quietly. "I sneaked out of the Hospital wing while Severus was talking with Madam Pomfrey. Honestly, you'd think I was dying or something the way he fusses." She smiled.
"What I want to know is, are YOU okay? What are you doing by yourself in the library when today's exams are over, and everyone else is outside?" She was holding her chin in her hands, and obviously exhausted, but Remus suddenly felt like a powerful force was playing with him. How had she known that he'd be in the library?
"Er, I'm fine. Just didn't want to be around the others right now," he said. Muriel could tell that something had happened to really upset him.
"Were they mean to you?" she asked. What she really wanted to know was if they'd confronted him about his monthly transformations.
"No, nothing like that. They just found out something that is - er - rather personal about me, and I'm worried that they aren't going to take it very well." It was more than he'd meant to say, and Remus chided himself for giving away too much.
"But you haven't talked to them about it yet?' Muriel was starting to feel a little dizzy. She'd left the hospital ward before Madam Pomfrey had finished the potion, and thought maybe she ought to get back.
Remus didn't seem to notice. His eyes seemed glued to the table. "No. I guess I'm too afraid of what they'll say." He was grateful that she didn't probe him about what they'd found out.
Muriel knew she'd better say what she'd come to say and soon. She was having trouble focusing on the boy before her. "Remus, those boys will like you no matter what. Especially Black." She forced a laugh that made him look up. "You could probably tell him you were a werewolf or something and he'd still be your friend!"
She felt Remus' alarm at this declaration, but swooned a bit and decided she didn't have time to say any more. "Remus, I think I'd better get back to Madam Pomfrey," she whispered.
It was a week after classes resumed before Muriel made it back. Severus had flooed secretly each night to St. Mungo's to take her their assignments, and she'd owled them back to the professors.
It turned out that the added lacewings, without the dandelion seeds to soften them, had turned the potion into a slow acting poison that affected the muscles, and had to be countered just as slowly. "Like time-release aspirin," Marisa had said when Muriel explained it. Mur had only nodded. She didn't know what aspirin was and it didn't matter. Some muggle remedy, she supposed.
She and Marisa were getting along pretty well now, since Mur had apologized to Kyle and explained her mother's prejudices to the rest of her house. Even the other girls in the dormitory were speaking to her guardedly once in a while.
When end of term tests came around, she was still feeling pretty weak. She'd been charming her books to follow her to class, because it tired her so much to carry them. Filch had given her detention for it once, since that was technically using magic in the hallways, but Professor Warrington had spoken with him, and now she was allowed.
She was on her way back from the library late the night before her Defense Against The Dark Arts test when her books suddenly thudded heavily to the ground behind her. She looked around, but no one was in the corridor. She was alone.
No sooner had she charmed them back into the air and turned than they fell again, this time bouncing forcefully off the wall. She turned again, her lips pressed into a thin line.
She charmed the books a third time, walking a bit faster ahead of them. Suddenly, instead of falling to the ground, they came out of the string she'd bound around them and pelted her in the back of the head, one after another. She ran, but she was still weak, and stumbled on the steps. She covered her head with her hands as the last of the books came tumbling out of the air to land on her head.
Muriel was starting to get very annoyed. Panting, she summoned her books and grasped them tightly. With so many, it was hard to make it back to Ravenclaw tower, and it seemed to take forever. She'd just managed to reach the top of the stairs, and the portrait hole was in sight when one of her legs gave out. With a cry, she dropped her books and tumbled backwards.
She only fell a few stairs, however, before something stopped her. It felt like hands had caught her, and she felt an arm around her back and a hand on each of her elbows, helping her up remaining stairs. It was obviously the same person who had enchanted her books to attack her, and she couldn't quite determine who it might be. Severus would have pulled a prank like that, but not when he knew she was ill.
Could it have been Black? But then why had he followed her back and caught her on the stairs? She gathered her books slowly, thinking hard. When she finally had them all, she turned back to the stairs. She tried to listen for thoughts, but heard only a confused jumble. She couldn't make any sense of it.
"Thank you," she said into the silence. Then she turned and went up to her room.
Sirius, still covered by Potter's invisibility cloak, turned when he heard her speak. He felt bad now that he realized that she really WAS too weak to carry her books. He'd thought that she was just taking advantage of the situation to do something no one else was allowed to do. When she'd fallen on the stairs, he'd decided that he had better follow her just in case, and he was glad he did. If she had fallen all the way back down that staircase, he'd have been in a lot of trouble. He hoped she wouldn't figure out who had done it.
He sat beside her as they took their Defense Against The Dark Arts exam the next morning. She looked awfully pale and he felt another wave of guilt, but thrust it away as quickly as it had come. Instead, he concentrated on his test. He knew a lot about the Dark Arts thanks to his mother, but it was hard to keep straight which of the things she'd taught him were considered defensive, and which were considered offensive. He wondered if Deesia was having the same trouble. She'd grown up in a house a lot like his, he was sure, with a Karkaroff for a mother. His mother was a Malfoy, Lucius' 3rd cousin, so he knew what it was like.
He looked up as Muriel finished the last question and lay down her quill. She flipped the paper over. Sirius was shocked as she looked him in the eye, put her wand away and then laid her head down on the desk and closed her eyes.
He turned back to the last question, jotted down an answer, and followed her example, though he didn't put his wand away. He knew how fast she could draw that thing.
A few short minutes later, they both raised their heads as their papers whizzed toward Professor Tantry's desk. Muriel made no move to get up as the rest of the class put away their quills and filed out.
Sirius jammed his into his bag, along with his ink, then turned to face her. She smirked at him a bit.
"Where's Remus?" she asked, knowing that last night was the full moon. She still wasn't sure if it was him. She'd felt a flash of guilt from him during the test, but maybe he'd just seen one of her answers by accident.
"He's in the hospital ward." Sirius answered shortly. He didn't know why his dorm mate was so sick all the time, and visiting only made him uncomfortable. He was usually wrapped up in bandages. They had all just stopped going to see him. Now, when he came back, they acted like he hadn't been gone at all. It saved him having to make up excuses, and it kept them all friends, which was becoming very important to Sirius.
"Maybe I'll go up and see him. I'm not feeling so great myself," she said with a wry grin. If she hoped to make him give up his secret that way, she was disappointed, however, because he seemed to feel no emotion about her illness at all. It hadn't been his fault.
Sirius, for his part, was sorely tempted to offer to help her carry her books to make up for what he'd done, but knew that would give him away. Instead he shrugged. "What happened over holiday anyway?"
"I blew up my best cauldron and poisoned myself," she said, as if it happened every day. As she spoke, she wrapped her books with twine again and enchanted them to follow her. She was feeling rather ill, and thought maybe another dose of the counter potion was due. She couldn't remember if she'd taken any before the exam.
Sirius laughed. "Well, since your sick, I guess I won't hex you as you come out the door today." He had tried to hex her after Defense Against The Dark Arts every class period all year long. Once he had managed to hit Remus instead, but it was a spell that gave you elephant ears, and partial transformation spells didn't work well on werewolves. Everyone had just assumed that he had hit the wall behind them, but Muriel knew better. She'd been careful not to meet Remus' eyes as she'd shouted "HA, you missed," and chased Sirius down the hallway.
She made her way up to the hospital wing carefully. Severus caught up with her halfway there and took her elbow. "You shouldn't be on the stairs yet by yourself," he scolded. She grinned up at him. He'd grown at least 3 inches in the last year, and was finally taller than her.
"Thanks, Sev. I'm headed to he hospital wing. I think I could use some more potion." They ran into Remus as he exited the ward, smiling, but still with a wrist wrapped in gauze.
"Alright Mur?" he asked. She nodded, winded from climbing the stairs.
"You?"
Remus ignored the look Severus was giving him. "Sprained my wrist," he said. He looked away quickly when she raised an eyebrow at him. Madam Pomfrey could mend sprains instantly. There was no reason why he would still be bandaged if that were all that was wrong.
"Fall off Potter's broom Lupin?" Severus asked scathingly. Muriel, knowing how fast Severus could make any situation ugly, let her knees bend a bit, and leaned hard on her best friend.
"Sev, enough, let's go." His attention snapped back to her and he brushed roughly passed Remus, who chuckled softly to himself and headed back to Gryffindor Tower. He'd been allowed to take his exam early, so he wouldn't have to make it up.
Remus entered the Gryffindor common room and was about to head up to the dormitory to get his books for the next test when he heard whispering in the corner, and looked over to see James, Sirius and Peter. He started when he realized they were looking at a lunar chart.
"So, if it's true, then he'll be sick the second week in September and the third week in October?" Peter was whispering just a little too loudly.
"That's got to be it," James answered. "Look, he's been sick on the full moon every month all year."
Remus felt his stomach clench. He watched a moment longer to see if Sirius would say anything, then turned and made his way silently back out of the portrait hole toward the library.
'They know!' he thought vehemently to himself, trying his best not to stomp in the deserted hallways. Most of the students, freed from exams until tomorrow, were out on the grounds. He felt almost sick with anger and worry. He'd finally been able to make some friends and now it was all over. They would figure it out and tell someone and he'd never be allowed to come back next year.
He thought about marching right back up there and confronting them about it, but decided against it. If Sirius was still deathly afraid of werewolves, then the last thing he should do is be aggressive.
He was surprised when he looked up from the book he'd been staring blankly at to see Muriel pushing open the door to the library. She looked awful.
"Are you alright?" he asked, jumping up and helping her to the nearest table.
"Yeah," she said quietly. "I sneaked out of the Hospital wing while Severus was talking with Madam Pomfrey. Honestly, you'd think I was dying or something the way he fusses." She smiled.
"What I want to know is, are YOU okay? What are you doing by yourself in the library when today's exams are over, and everyone else is outside?" She was holding her chin in her hands, and obviously exhausted, but Remus suddenly felt like a powerful force was playing with him. How had she known that he'd be in the library?
"Er, I'm fine. Just didn't want to be around the others right now," he said. Muriel could tell that something had happened to really upset him.
"Were they mean to you?" she asked. What she really wanted to know was if they'd confronted him about his monthly transformations.
"No, nothing like that. They just found out something that is - er - rather personal about me, and I'm worried that they aren't going to take it very well." It was more than he'd meant to say, and Remus chided himself for giving away too much.
"But you haven't talked to them about it yet?' Muriel was starting to feel a little dizzy. She'd left the hospital ward before Madam Pomfrey had finished the potion, and thought maybe she ought to get back.
Remus didn't seem to notice. His eyes seemed glued to the table. "No. I guess I'm too afraid of what they'll say." He was grateful that she didn't probe him about what they'd found out.
Muriel knew she'd better say what she'd come to say and soon. She was having trouble focusing on the boy before her. "Remus, those boys will like you no matter what. Especially Black." She forced a laugh that made him look up. "You could probably tell him you were a werewolf or something and he'd still be your friend!"
She felt Remus' alarm at this declaration, but swooned a bit and decided she didn't have time to say any more. "Remus, I think I'd better get back to Madam Pomfrey," she whispered.