Disclaimer: I wish I owned them... ::sniffle:: Even if it was only one of them... Andromeda Black forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Summary: Sirius James and Peter have started to question Remus's monthly disappearances...
A few months had come and gone as the school year progressed. Since the start of school Remus Lupin had dislplayed a recurring habit of vanishing for a few days out of every month. This detail was blown off by Sirius, James, and Peter the first few times; accepting the excuse about sick relatives. But as this routine continued predictably, they all began to question his family's health.
The day started as it generally did. As always Sirius was the last to rise, James had woken earlier but was still laying sleepily on his four-poster, and Peter was already waiting for them in the Common Room or the Great Hall. However, a slim brunette member of their troupe of terror was absent. Remus would always be awake before his two Gryffindor companions, though it was hard to tell if he rose before his Hufflepuff friend. Surprisingly, Peter Pettigrew was an early riser.
Sirius and James trudged groggily down the staircase dressed for the day, but hardly presentable. James's hair looked as though it were exposed to static electricity for it stood on end in a fashion messier than was normal; Sirius's hair looked no better either. Both had on their school robes, which were crumpled and haphazardly thrown on. James adjusted his glasses. Of course, this was also a daily routine. Once the clock passed ten o'clock the boys would suddenly spring to life and switch to "terrorize-everyone-and-everything-in-sight mode", so when the half asleep duo met Peter in the Common Room, the Hufflepuff felt no need to die in a fit of hysterics or from visual shock.
"Remus gone again?" the shortest member inquired, for lack of any better conversational material at a time in the morning in which his companions deemed ungodly. Sirius nodded his head lethargically.
"His cousin's sick again," James croaked. As they made their way to the Great Hall Sirius turned and headed in the direction of the Gryffindor Tower.
"Where're you goin?" James grumbled after his friend.
"Forgot my Transfiguation book," Black responded leaving the other two in the corridor to await his return.
Sirius plodded wearily up the stairs back to the First-Year dormitory. He was always unbearably tired in the A.M., but for some reason he felt like a walking corpse today. Maybe it had something to do with his dream involving himself in a dog's body bounding aroung all night chasing nocturnal creatures in the Forbidded Forest. Active dreams drained Sirius physically.
He shuffled through his trunk before realizing none of his schoolbooks were there. Scratching his head in a puzzled manner he looked up to find his bag hanging from a post on his bed. He pulled the bag down and was thouroughly pleased to discover that all of his textbooks were safe inside and felt rather stupid that he forgot all of them. Not that the dark-haired boy would need them today since he planned on snoozing through most of his classes to catch up on lost mental energy.
He turned to leave the room before swivelling around and facing the source that caught his attention. Remus's four-poster was next to Sirius's own, and above the tawny-haired young man's night table hung a calendar. Nothing unusual, but Sirius noticed red circles on the calendar. He examined closer and discovered that the date of the full moon was encircled in bright red. Curiously, he flipped through the rest of the calendar only to find that every full moon out of the year had been circled as well. Sirius backed away and left the room pondering this pontential mystery. He could've sworn Remus hated potions.
What Sirius Black had failed to notice was that last night had been a full moon.
James Potter stared blankly at his quill pen. Physically he was awake and there, but mentally he was wandering far from the Hogwarts grounds. Next to him, Sirius was dead to the world, and on the other side of him Peter was furiously taking notes. The poor boy looked terribly confused. James was happily staring at the crossbeams on the ceiling until a large book was slammed before him on the table and he and Sirius was jolted back into reality.
Before the three boys stood an extremely vexed Professor Wydell. The silver-eyed professor raked a dissapproving glare over Sirius and James.
"Snoozing in class are we gents?" She inquired venomously, donning her characteristicly wicked grin. Peter backed his chair away from the all-too-calm Defense professor.
"Don't move another inch Pettigrew. You're not in trouble yet," she snapped, not bothering to look in the Hufflepuff's direction. Her glare was fixed on the darkhaired pair.
"I think a pop quiz is what this class needs, and you all have Potter and Black to thank," the woman declared before striding over to the blackboard to post the quiz assignment for the rest of the class.
"And five points apiece shall be deducted from Gryffindor for Potter and Black's typical display of miscreant behaviour," Wydell gaily proclaimed as she finished posting her assignment. All eyes in the room focused on Sirius and James in smoldering glares. The two Gryffindors were profusely thankful that glares couldn't kill, for the pair would have been dead long ago by the looks they had recieved that day.
"YES!!! Fresh air!!!!!" James cried jubilantly as he dashed about the school grounds, rejoicing to be freed from his shackles for the day. After surving Wydell's pop quiz of the century, all three boys graciously welcomed the end of the day and the emergence into the sunlight. Sirius followed James's lead and ran around like a madman, attempting a handspring once on a while and failing miserably before getting up to expell more pent up energy. Peter laughed as he ran to catch up with the two, just as happy to be outside.
After a while of pointless running around, the three boys found an activity more worth their while upon sighting a small group of Slytherin girls. The trio grinned at one another as they realized that one of the girls among the group was Sirius's unbearable cousin Narcissa, Andromeda's Sixth Year sister. As if on cue, a figure lurking in the shadows of nearby shrubbery emerged from hiding and latched on to Sirius, sending him toppling to the ground with a rather high and feminine shriek. The spry figure of Andromeda Black fell over in fits of hysterics upon hearing her younger cousin's scream and seeing the expression on his face. Apparently Andromeda was in one of her "latch-on" modes and was giggling like and intoxicated madwoman.
"Watcha ya up to lads?" she chirped still sitting proudly atop Sirius. "We were scheming up a preemptive strike against Slytherin snobs," James offered, glad he was not the object of Andromeda's hyperactivity, "Wanna help?"
Andromeda looked in the direction of the aforementioned Slytherins and took notice with a snort of disgust that her sister was among them. She faced James and grinned suddenly, a malicious and terrible grin that warned even the bravest among men to keep their distance.
"Love to," she confirmed.
"What are we going to do anyway?" Peter asked, causing the crew to stop a minute and think.
This plan wasn't elabourately plotted hours or days in advance, it was a spur-of-the-moment development that required quick wits and clever improvisation... much to their misfortune the one needed for such a task was absent due to his so-called "ill" cousin. Sirius highly doubted Daphne was really sick to begin with. But that was not the important topic of the hour; an impromtu prank was. The four seated themselves beneath the willow racking their brains for the perfect small-scale war, everything that came to their minds was far too grand or required too much advanced preparation- but Sirius mentally stored the ideas away for use at a later date. Much plotting and planning had gone by when suddenly James's face brightened.
"I have it!" he exclaimed, the others focused intenly on the bespectacled youth awaiting his plan, "We've been going for the complicated stuff too much when the answer is way too simple.
"You see, in the ways of all geniuses, we have advanced very far in our area of expertise and have adapted to all things grand-scale and elabourate. We have long forgotten that primitive solutions are often the best and in the haste of progress we have given little respect to the great pranks of old."
Sirius, Peter, and Andromeda all stared blankly at the boy before them; Sirius then spoke up.
"Potter, what the hell is that supposed to mean? And how, praytell, does it help us?"
As if waiting for that very question, James pulled several limp rubber object from the pockets of his robes. Balloons, but not just any old balloons,
"Muggle water balloons!!!!" Peter squeaked in excitement. Andromeda nodded in approval, and Sirius frowned.
"I could've thought of that," he grumbled.
"Then why didn't you?" James asked simply, leaving Sirius at a loss for words.
The quartet dissappeared into the castle for several minutes before returning to the scene of their future crime to begin short preparations for their assault.
To their great forutune, the group was still in their previous spots and now facing their backs to the small crew of deviants. James gave his motley crew the thumbs-up as they readied their water balloons for launch. Following the tousle-haired boy's lead, Sirius, Peter, and Andromeda stealthily snuck behind the oblivious girls with water projectiles at the ready. Each of the pranksters staked out behind various shrubbery with Sirius as their go ahead signal. He glanced at the prank leader for a go-ahead. James Potter nodded, and Sirius gestured to the others to attack.
With a great cry each of the four emerged from their hiding positions in an all-out guerilla attack, pelting the older Slytherin girls with their water balloons. The girls screamed in surprise, others yelled threats- the pranksters felt it in their best interests to flee from the scene before any true terror could be unleashed from the wet and furious young witches.
Sirius slumped onto the large squishy red couch in the common room clutching his sides while tears of mirth filled his eyes. Now in the safety of the Gryffindor Tower, the quartet felt they could now fully enjoy the effect of their attack.
"Did ya hear Juniper?" Peter was still laughing, despite the pain in his side, "'Damn you! Stupefy!"
The mousy boy stood up to imitate the Slytherin girl while the others shrieked in hysterics.
"I know! They all tried I think!" Sirius howled, "They never expected something so simple! Great job Jimbo!"
"Damn clever if I do say so myself," James beamed.
Eventually the laughter died down and all regained control of their jubilee, still wiping away tears from their eyes and managing exhausted chuckles here and there. Another Gryffindor girl emerged at the top of the stairs.
"Hey, Andy," she shouted, "You wanna come with me and check on the garden?"
Andromeda looked up and grinned,
"Sure!" she replied and then looked back at the boys, "Will you three survive without moi?"
Sirius put on a sad pout, "I don't know how, but we'll try to carry on without you here," he responded with mock sorrow. Andromeda giggled and reached over to muss his hair,
"You're so cute," she chirped, standing up, "Don't have too much fun without me."
The other Gryffindor girl had decended the stairs and was waiting for Andromeda at the portrait hole.
"Why do you hang out with those first-years?" the other girl asked as they left the Common Room. Andromeda smiled and responded simply,
"Cuz they're cool, and they're my friends."
"If you say so, Andy," the other girl shrugged.
Night fell on Hogwarts as Sirius lay on the couch in deep thought. Everything about Remus was beginning to puzzle him; it seemed as though everyone of the tawny-haired boy's quirks were all connected somehow. For some reason Sirius was unable to figure out just how it all fit together though.
"Don't hurt yourelf, Siri," James said after seemingly appearing out of nowhere causing Sirius to jump about a mile off the couch. The bespectacled youth snickered at the stealth of his entrance, glad he could finally catch his friend off guard.
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Sirius shot back defensively.
"That's twice in one day that you've asked that," James smirked, "You're showing your intelligence. Did thinking so hard hurt, you troll?"
"Sod off Potter," Sirius growled.
"Fine, fine," James resigned, moving to seat himself on the couch and forcing Sirius to move his feet and sit up. Sirius stared into the waning fire intently, the thoughtful look still plastered on his face. James's humour faded as he took note of Sirius's brooding mood.
"Hey," he asked cautiously, "What's up mate?"
Sirius took a few moments to respond,
"Remus," was the answer. James nodded, the topic now brought up, it had been on James's mind for a while.
"Everything's linked somehow," Sirius said quietly, "I just don't know how."
"What's linked?" James asked.
"His relatives can't be in that poor health," Sirius started, "He leaves around the same time every month, he's so pale. Whenever he comes back... he's so tired, and worse than usual. And then there's also his calendar. He has the moon phases marked. I thought he hates potions."
"Maybe..." James started, "I think we should go to the Library tomorrow. I think I might have an idea, I want to check it out first though."
"An idea?" Sirius perked up.
"Yeah," his friend responded, "Like I said, I want to check it out first before I say anything. What'd you say we call it a night?"
Sirius nodded,
"Sounds good to me."
However, neither boys slept well that night. Both racked their brains trying to solve the mystery that was Remus Lupin. They had known him before Hogwarts of course, but they hadn't been around the boy enough to notice anything out of the ordinary.
One thing was certain:
Starting tomorrow, the three boys would begin a tireless search to get to the bottom of the suspicious absences of their friend. A new mission was beginning.
To be continued in chapter seven...
A/N: I hate writer's block. I must confess this fic was created on a whim and is updated on whims. I don't have anything grand planned for it or outlined, it just comes as I get inspired. I'll probably update more now that I'm on break.
Anyways. I don't like it in the majority of fics when Peter is just this annoying little loser that follows the others like a shadow. It's hard, but I've taken the challenge as great writers who inspire me have, and I shall attempt to give him a personality. Also, Andromeda's the most fun ever to develop. Hehe... I drew her.