Chapter six: Halloween
The boys waited anxiously for their next history of magic class, which was unfortunately two days away. Finally it was time to put their plan into action. They walked into class and Remus approached Professor Binns before he started class. "Sir," Remus said. "Could you help me? I don't understand why the goblin rebellion happened."
As Professor Binns launched into a long and boring explanation, James snuck to the chalk board. He picked up a piece of chalk and tapped it with his wand, muttering quietly. As soon as he was back in his seat, he gave Remus a thumbs up and Remus said, "Thank you sir, I think I understand now."
James could hardly contain his excitement, he kept squirming in his seat. Professor Binns paid no attention to this, he just stood in front of the class and began to lecture. He turned to write an important point on the board. Sirius began to snicker uncontrollably. Remus glared at him, trying to control his growing mirth.
"SH!" he hissed. "He's gonna know something is going on."
The board read "the rebellion began in Dublin, Ireland and lasted 3 months" when Binns turned back to the class and began to elaborate. With a shimmer, the words written in chalk changed to "Professor Binns smells like a goblin."
At first no one said anything, and no one laughed except for James, Sirius, Remus and Austin, who couldn't control themselves any longer. Then snickers began to spread throughout the classroom. Professor Binns took no notice, he didn't pay much attention to the class. He turned to write the leader of the rebellion's name on the board and noticed what was written there. "Oh...that's not what I meant to write," he said, erasing it with a wave of his wand. He proceeded to write down a strange goblin name.
As he turned around, the words changed to "and he has a big nose." The whole class burst out laughing this time, and it was so loud, Binns couldn't hear himself lecture. This made him stop. "What is going on?" he asked. The class stared at his extremely wrinkled old face and long white hair and laughed even harder. Someone pointed helplessly at the board behind him.
The professor turned and read what it said. "I know I did not write that!" he exclaimed. "Who is responsible for this?"
James tried to look innocent, but he fell out of his desk laughing. "Mr. Potter! What did you do to my chalk?"
"Simple spell, sir," James said when he had a breath. "Insults whoever writes with it."
"Extremely amusing, Mr. Potter," Binns said dryly. "I'm sure Headmaster Dumbledore will think so, too, when you go tell him all about it." James groaned, but Binns pointed to the door.
"Wish me luck guys," he said as he left.
Remus and Sirius walked together to their next class, still giggling at Professor Binns reaction. "That was so brilliant," said Sirius.
"I hope he doesn't get into too much trouble," Remus said, but he obviously agreed with Sirius. They were both worried when lunch was over and Potions was starting and James still wasn't back.
Lily came to sit with them. "Where's James?" she asked.
"Haven't you heard? We pulled off the most brilliant prank on old Professor Binns last lesson," Sirius said, smiling.
"What did you do?" Lily asked, very interested.
"Remus distracted Binns while James bewitched his chalk to write insults about him," Sirius said proudly. "It took him awhile to catch on...he just thought he wrote it wrong at first."
Lily smiled at Sirius. "So you didn't really do anything? It was Remus and James?"
Sirius looked a bit embarrassed. "Well, that's what I meant, but Austin and I helped plan it. Could you imagine me asking for help in History of Magic?"
Laughing, Lily admitted Remus was the best suited for that role in the prank. Just then, James came into the dungeon.
"Sorry Professor," he said quickly. "I was with the headmaster." Then he sat down, but as the lesson was starting, they couldn't ask him how it went until they were walking back out of potions.
"How'd it go?" Austin asked anxiously.
"Did you get expelled?" said Lily breathlessly.
"Well, it took a bit of time to find him, but when we got to his office, he sat me down and asked what I did. I told him I bewitched Binns' chalk to insult him whenever he wrote with it. He kind of smiled, like he thought it was funny, but he knew the headmaster wasn't supposed to laugh at students' pranks. He asked me how long it took for Binns to realize it wasn't his own doing and then with a little smirk, he warned me not to try any more pranks or I'd have detention."
"So you didn't get in trouble at all?" said Remus in disbelief.
"Nope, he didn't even take points from Gryffindor," James said proudly.
"I can't imagine how you pulled that all off, James, but I'm impressed," said Lily. "But I have Defense Against the Dark Arts next and I cant be late. See you at dinner," she called as she walked away.
Remus stared after her, very glad that she was part of their group. James saw his stare and hit Remus on the back, laughing. "She was quite 'impressed' with our prank, Remus," he said.
"It was really your prank," Remus said, turning slightly red.
"Couldn't have done it without you, though," James replied as they walked out to their flying lesson.
A few weeks later, the quidditch season started with a match between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Remus was very excited since he had never seen a real quidditch match before. The whole school went out in the chilling wind to support their teams and to watch the most exciting of wizarding sports.
Remus watched in amazement as the Ravenclaw chasers threw the quaffle and flew in formation perfectly. The Slytherin keeper was good, but not good enough to stop all of the Ravenclaw goals. Soon the score was 70-10. A gasp filled the stadium as a glint of gold was seen near the Ravenclaw hoops. The Slytherin seeker, in green robes, raced towards it, but the blue robed Ravenclaw seeker got there first and landed clutching the golden snitch in his hand. Remus and his friends were sitting with Lily in the Ravenclaw seats, but now they were all standing, cheering at the Slytherin defeat. Lily was so excited, she hugged the people on either side of her, who happened to be Remus and James. "Oh I just love quidditch," she said. "It's so exciting! And to see Slytherin crumble...oh what a great match."
Remus agreed, but he didn't speak about the other feeling that was growing in him, it wasn't the excitement of quidditch. It was more in the pit of his stomach and it made him happy and nervous all at once. He didn't have time to examine his thoughts at the time, because the crowd moved back to the castle for lunch, talking loudly and pushing. But as he looked at Lily's green eyes, glowing brilliantly with excitement, his stomach lurched and he knew she was the cause of his new feelings.
The thing that worried Remus the most was how he was going to keep his huge secret from his friends. Now that James had a bit of doubt, he might begin to see through Remus' visits to his mother. He tried to think of an excuse that would take him out of the castle every month. Nothing seemed believable.
If James finds out, that means other people might figure it out as well, Remus thought. What if Lily figures it out? She'd never like me if she knew what I really was.
Of course, all of Remus' friends were better friends than that, and deep down he knew it, but he was so worried, he wasn't thinking. With the thought about Lily, Remus became more determined to hide his condition from his friends even better.
With his mind working overtime to complete his lessons, and think up explanations for his monthly departures, Remus hardly noticed that October was almost finished. It wasn't until he heard Sirius and James talking excitedly about the Halloween feast that he realized how time had flown by.
"What's so great about the Halloween feast?" Remus asked.
"Well," James started, "they decorate the Great Hall with all sorts of spooky decorations, floating pumpkins and real bats, or so I heard. And sometimes they invite a band, and the ghosts always have something special planned, it's Nearly Headless Nick's deathday also."
"And the food is great!" Sirius interrupted. "Even better than the start of term feast, my dad says."
Remus smiled. "That sounds like fun. When is Halloween again?" he asked.
"Umm...this Wednesday," James said.
Remus groaned. Wednesday would be the first night of the full moon. He would probably have to leave the feast early and his excuse to visit his mother just wouldn't cut it.
"What's wrong?" Sirius asked. "You don't have to see your mother then, do you? I mean, you could put it off a day, I'm sure your dad would want you to be here."
"Oh, no, that's not it," Remus said quickly. "I just remembered I haven't done my red cap essay for Professor Carter yet and it's due tomorrow."
James looked puzzled. "I thought you and Austin were working on it yesterday in the library."
"Yeah, well, I didn't finish. I had better go do that now." Remus quickly gathered his books and papers and went to the library. As he sat there, looking at his finished essay, he thought about what excuse he could use to leave the feast early. He had just decided to fake an illness partway through so he could go to the hospital wing to meet Madam Pomfrey and warn her of his excuse to miss the next day, when Lily came and sat with him.
"Finishing your red cap essay?" she said, smiling.
"Yeah," Remus said. "I just had a bit left to do."
"Don't you just love Defense Against the Dark Arts?" she asked excitedly. "I would love to go out and battle evil monsters and wizards."
Remus looked a bit wistful as he replied, "Yeah, I think it would be great to go around saving people from all of the bad stuff." He still had trouble expressing himself well in front of Lily.
She nodded enthusiastically. "I agree! To protect wizards' rights world wide and to keep our world safe from evil forces, it would be bloody brilliant!" Remus admired her passion and his stomach gave another one of those strange lurches as his listened to her speech.
Soon it was time for dinner, so Remus gathered his belongings and the two of them walked to dinner together. "I'm really glad I ran into you at the library today, Remus," Lily said, flashing him a beautiful smile. "I really enjoyed our talk." Then they joined their friends, and Remus still felt his new and odd feeling, but the overwhelming feeling throughout the meal was one of friendship and belonging. Too bad I have to keep lying to them, he thought with a pang, not realizing that he could drop the charade at any time without losing any of his true friends.
It wasn't long before it was Halloween and everyone in the castle was anxious for the celebrations to begin. Even Professor McGonagall, one of the strictest teachers, let the class talk excitedly for the entire lesson. They told stories their parents had told them about their feasts, and they argued about who the entertainment would be. Finally, the anticipation was over and the whole school rushed to the Great Hall.
Remus stopped in the doorway, gaping at the magnificent decorations. Floating jack 'o lanterns hovered about the room, black cats ran hissing around the tables, bats swooped across the room. No sooner had Remus stopped to admire these wonderful decorations when he was pushed from behind by the huge crowd still waiting to get in. As he stumbled to the table, he was joined by Lily, Austin, James and Sirius.
"Wow," they all said, looking around in awe.
Looking up, James remarked, "It looks as if we'll have a full moon for Halloween, too. Maybe they've got werewolves as the musical act." He and the others started giggling. Remus tried to join in, but only managed a weak smile.
"Oo," Lily said, jumping to her feet. "Look who they got, it's Johnny Warlock!"
"Who's he?" Remus asked. He hadn't heard much about wizarding music yet.
"Only the hottest teen rock star ever," Lily said, entranced by Johnny's grunge look.
In a high pitch voice, James echoed, "..the hottest teen rock star ever!" Everyone laughed, even Lily.
"Well he is," she said, still laughing. "Look at that hair and his voice." She sighed.
Dumbledore stood up in front of the hall. Immediately everyone quieted down.
"Welcome to the Halloween feast," he began. "For our entertainment this year, we have invited Johnny Warlock." He was interrupted by the loud cheers of the (mainly) female students. "Dinner is served."
Hundreds of mouthwatering dishes appeared on the long tables. Remus piled his golden plate high, eating and listening to wizard rock and roll, which was not unlike Muggle music, but included hits like "I dated a teenage banshee."
Remembering that he had to put his plan into action soon, Remus stopped eating and clutched his stomach. When no one noticed, he groaned a bit.
"Are you ok?" James asked, looking at Remus' painful expression.
"I think I ate too much or something," Remus said. "My stomach hurts really badly."
"I would hate for you to leave the feast, but do you think you should see Madam Pomfrey?" Lily asked nervously.
"No, I'll be ok," Remus said, but then he said, "Oh...it just got worse. Maybe I should go."
Lily nodded. "I'll walk you down there."
"No," Remus shook his head. "You'll miss some of Johnny Warlock. I can get there by myself." The look on his face made Lily cut off her reply of 'i insist.'
Instead she said, "Ok, but we're coming to see you when the feast is done."
Everyone voiced their agreement. Remus smiled through a grimace of pain. "Thanks guys, I'll see you then."
Then he walked slowly from the hall, still clutching his stomach. But someone was watching him leave.
The boys waited anxiously for their next history of magic class, which was unfortunately two days away. Finally it was time to put their plan into action. They walked into class and Remus approached Professor Binns before he started class. "Sir," Remus said. "Could you help me? I don't understand why the goblin rebellion happened."
As Professor Binns launched into a long and boring explanation, James snuck to the chalk board. He picked up a piece of chalk and tapped it with his wand, muttering quietly. As soon as he was back in his seat, he gave Remus a thumbs up and Remus said, "Thank you sir, I think I understand now."
James could hardly contain his excitement, he kept squirming in his seat. Professor Binns paid no attention to this, he just stood in front of the class and began to lecture. He turned to write an important point on the board. Sirius began to snicker uncontrollably. Remus glared at him, trying to control his growing mirth.
"SH!" he hissed. "He's gonna know something is going on."
The board read "the rebellion began in Dublin, Ireland and lasted 3 months" when Binns turned back to the class and began to elaborate. With a shimmer, the words written in chalk changed to "Professor Binns smells like a goblin."
At first no one said anything, and no one laughed except for James, Sirius, Remus and Austin, who couldn't control themselves any longer. Then snickers began to spread throughout the classroom. Professor Binns took no notice, he didn't pay much attention to the class. He turned to write the leader of the rebellion's name on the board and noticed what was written there. "Oh...that's not what I meant to write," he said, erasing it with a wave of his wand. He proceeded to write down a strange goblin name.
As he turned around, the words changed to "and he has a big nose." The whole class burst out laughing this time, and it was so loud, Binns couldn't hear himself lecture. This made him stop. "What is going on?" he asked. The class stared at his extremely wrinkled old face and long white hair and laughed even harder. Someone pointed helplessly at the board behind him.
The professor turned and read what it said. "I know I did not write that!" he exclaimed. "Who is responsible for this?"
James tried to look innocent, but he fell out of his desk laughing. "Mr. Potter! What did you do to my chalk?"
"Simple spell, sir," James said when he had a breath. "Insults whoever writes with it."
"Extremely amusing, Mr. Potter," Binns said dryly. "I'm sure Headmaster Dumbledore will think so, too, when you go tell him all about it." James groaned, but Binns pointed to the door.
"Wish me luck guys," he said as he left.
Remus and Sirius walked together to their next class, still giggling at Professor Binns reaction. "That was so brilliant," said Sirius.
"I hope he doesn't get into too much trouble," Remus said, but he obviously agreed with Sirius. They were both worried when lunch was over and Potions was starting and James still wasn't back.
Lily came to sit with them. "Where's James?" she asked.
"Haven't you heard? We pulled off the most brilliant prank on old Professor Binns last lesson," Sirius said, smiling.
"What did you do?" Lily asked, very interested.
"Remus distracted Binns while James bewitched his chalk to write insults about him," Sirius said proudly. "It took him awhile to catch on...he just thought he wrote it wrong at first."
Lily smiled at Sirius. "So you didn't really do anything? It was Remus and James?"
Sirius looked a bit embarrassed. "Well, that's what I meant, but Austin and I helped plan it. Could you imagine me asking for help in History of Magic?"
Laughing, Lily admitted Remus was the best suited for that role in the prank. Just then, James came into the dungeon.
"Sorry Professor," he said quickly. "I was with the headmaster." Then he sat down, but as the lesson was starting, they couldn't ask him how it went until they were walking back out of potions.
"How'd it go?" Austin asked anxiously.
"Did you get expelled?" said Lily breathlessly.
"Well, it took a bit of time to find him, but when we got to his office, he sat me down and asked what I did. I told him I bewitched Binns' chalk to insult him whenever he wrote with it. He kind of smiled, like he thought it was funny, but he knew the headmaster wasn't supposed to laugh at students' pranks. He asked me how long it took for Binns to realize it wasn't his own doing and then with a little smirk, he warned me not to try any more pranks or I'd have detention."
"So you didn't get in trouble at all?" said Remus in disbelief.
"Nope, he didn't even take points from Gryffindor," James said proudly.
"I can't imagine how you pulled that all off, James, but I'm impressed," said Lily. "But I have Defense Against the Dark Arts next and I cant be late. See you at dinner," she called as she walked away.
Remus stared after her, very glad that she was part of their group. James saw his stare and hit Remus on the back, laughing. "She was quite 'impressed' with our prank, Remus," he said.
"It was really your prank," Remus said, turning slightly red.
"Couldn't have done it without you, though," James replied as they walked out to their flying lesson.
A few weeks later, the quidditch season started with a match between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Remus was very excited since he had never seen a real quidditch match before. The whole school went out in the chilling wind to support their teams and to watch the most exciting of wizarding sports.
Remus watched in amazement as the Ravenclaw chasers threw the quaffle and flew in formation perfectly. The Slytherin keeper was good, but not good enough to stop all of the Ravenclaw goals. Soon the score was 70-10. A gasp filled the stadium as a glint of gold was seen near the Ravenclaw hoops. The Slytherin seeker, in green robes, raced towards it, but the blue robed Ravenclaw seeker got there first and landed clutching the golden snitch in his hand. Remus and his friends were sitting with Lily in the Ravenclaw seats, but now they were all standing, cheering at the Slytherin defeat. Lily was so excited, she hugged the people on either side of her, who happened to be Remus and James. "Oh I just love quidditch," she said. "It's so exciting! And to see Slytherin crumble...oh what a great match."
Remus agreed, but he didn't speak about the other feeling that was growing in him, it wasn't the excitement of quidditch. It was more in the pit of his stomach and it made him happy and nervous all at once. He didn't have time to examine his thoughts at the time, because the crowd moved back to the castle for lunch, talking loudly and pushing. But as he looked at Lily's green eyes, glowing brilliantly with excitement, his stomach lurched and he knew she was the cause of his new feelings.
The thing that worried Remus the most was how he was going to keep his huge secret from his friends. Now that James had a bit of doubt, he might begin to see through Remus' visits to his mother. He tried to think of an excuse that would take him out of the castle every month. Nothing seemed believable.
If James finds out, that means other people might figure it out as well, Remus thought. What if Lily figures it out? She'd never like me if she knew what I really was.
Of course, all of Remus' friends were better friends than that, and deep down he knew it, but he was so worried, he wasn't thinking. With the thought about Lily, Remus became more determined to hide his condition from his friends even better.
With his mind working overtime to complete his lessons, and think up explanations for his monthly departures, Remus hardly noticed that October was almost finished. It wasn't until he heard Sirius and James talking excitedly about the Halloween feast that he realized how time had flown by.
"What's so great about the Halloween feast?" Remus asked.
"Well," James started, "they decorate the Great Hall with all sorts of spooky decorations, floating pumpkins and real bats, or so I heard. And sometimes they invite a band, and the ghosts always have something special planned, it's Nearly Headless Nick's deathday also."
"And the food is great!" Sirius interrupted. "Even better than the start of term feast, my dad says."
Remus smiled. "That sounds like fun. When is Halloween again?" he asked.
"Umm...this Wednesday," James said.
Remus groaned. Wednesday would be the first night of the full moon. He would probably have to leave the feast early and his excuse to visit his mother just wouldn't cut it.
"What's wrong?" Sirius asked. "You don't have to see your mother then, do you? I mean, you could put it off a day, I'm sure your dad would want you to be here."
"Oh, no, that's not it," Remus said quickly. "I just remembered I haven't done my red cap essay for Professor Carter yet and it's due tomorrow."
James looked puzzled. "I thought you and Austin were working on it yesterday in the library."
"Yeah, well, I didn't finish. I had better go do that now." Remus quickly gathered his books and papers and went to the library. As he sat there, looking at his finished essay, he thought about what excuse he could use to leave the feast early. He had just decided to fake an illness partway through so he could go to the hospital wing to meet Madam Pomfrey and warn her of his excuse to miss the next day, when Lily came and sat with him.
"Finishing your red cap essay?" she said, smiling.
"Yeah," Remus said. "I just had a bit left to do."
"Don't you just love Defense Against the Dark Arts?" she asked excitedly. "I would love to go out and battle evil monsters and wizards."
Remus looked a bit wistful as he replied, "Yeah, I think it would be great to go around saving people from all of the bad stuff." He still had trouble expressing himself well in front of Lily.
She nodded enthusiastically. "I agree! To protect wizards' rights world wide and to keep our world safe from evil forces, it would be bloody brilliant!" Remus admired her passion and his stomach gave another one of those strange lurches as his listened to her speech.
Soon it was time for dinner, so Remus gathered his belongings and the two of them walked to dinner together. "I'm really glad I ran into you at the library today, Remus," Lily said, flashing him a beautiful smile. "I really enjoyed our talk." Then they joined their friends, and Remus still felt his new and odd feeling, but the overwhelming feeling throughout the meal was one of friendship and belonging. Too bad I have to keep lying to them, he thought with a pang, not realizing that he could drop the charade at any time without losing any of his true friends.
It wasn't long before it was Halloween and everyone in the castle was anxious for the celebrations to begin. Even Professor McGonagall, one of the strictest teachers, let the class talk excitedly for the entire lesson. They told stories their parents had told them about their feasts, and they argued about who the entertainment would be. Finally, the anticipation was over and the whole school rushed to the Great Hall.
Remus stopped in the doorway, gaping at the magnificent decorations. Floating jack 'o lanterns hovered about the room, black cats ran hissing around the tables, bats swooped across the room. No sooner had Remus stopped to admire these wonderful decorations when he was pushed from behind by the huge crowd still waiting to get in. As he stumbled to the table, he was joined by Lily, Austin, James and Sirius.
"Wow," they all said, looking around in awe.
Looking up, James remarked, "It looks as if we'll have a full moon for Halloween, too. Maybe they've got werewolves as the musical act." He and the others started giggling. Remus tried to join in, but only managed a weak smile.
"Oo," Lily said, jumping to her feet. "Look who they got, it's Johnny Warlock!"
"Who's he?" Remus asked. He hadn't heard much about wizarding music yet.
"Only the hottest teen rock star ever," Lily said, entranced by Johnny's grunge look.
In a high pitch voice, James echoed, "..the hottest teen rock star ever!" Everyone laughed, even Lily.
"Well he is," she said, still laughing. "Look at that hair and his voice." She sighed.
Dumbledore stood up in front of the hall. Immediately everyone quieted down.
"Welcome to the Halloween feast," he began. "For our entertainment this year, we have invited Johnny Warlock." He was interrupted by the loud cheers of the (mainly) female students. "Dinner is served."
Hundreds of mouthwatering dishes appeared on the long tables. Remus piled his golden plate high, eating and listening to wizard rock and roll, which was not unlike Muggle music, but included hits like "I dated a teenage banshee."
Remembering that he had to put his plan into action soon, Remus stopped eating and clutched his stomach. When no one noticed, he groaned a bit.
"Are you ok?" James asked, looking at Remus' painful expression.
"I think I ate too much or something," Remus said. "My stomach hurts really badly."
"I would hate for you to leave the feast, but do you think you should see Madam Pomfrey?" Lily asked nervously.
"No, I'll be ok," Remus said, but then he said, "Oh...it just got worse. Maybe I should go."
Lily nodded. "I'll walk you down there."
"No," Remus shook his head. "You'll miss some of Johnny Warlock. I can get there by myself." The look on his face made Lily cut off her reply of 'i insist.'
Instead she said, "Ok, but we're coming to see you when the feast is done."
Everyone voiced their agreement. Remus smiled through a grimace of pain. "Thanks guys, I'll see you then."
Then he walked slowly from the hall, still clutching his stomach. But someone was watching him leave.