Hormones and Homework
By Hannio
Chapter Two
Checkmate in potions
DISCLAIMER -
Nope, not mine except..... Professor Lawrence (Cheers) and Joseph Matthews and wait for it...... Mark Waterman. Who are they? Read on and see peeps.
AUTHOR NOTE -
Chapter 2 already up. See when I'm in the mood I can be good! In this one we are introduced to Sirius's problem. Well in a certain way. Remember I'm open to suggestion so let me know what you want and I'll let you know if I agree and if I do then it will be included. Enjoy and thanks to all who reviewed.
Even though the plan had seemed good in the common room, actually carrying it out in a manner that wouldn't arouse any suspicion was a lot harder then they had first thought. Remus had remained quiet and any attempt Sirius had to even talk to the other boy was spurned, Remus politely finishing the conversation before it started by answering so shortly there was nothing for Sirius to work on and so he had been forced to give up. The last Qudditch practices had been in the pouring rain and by the time they were finished James was too tired and too annoyed to bother questioning Spencer about anything. He hadn't been able to talk to his friend from Ravenclaw; Joseph Matthews, either. This was due to the fact that the teachers had begun to pile on a great deal of homework, leaving them with little time to do anything except the work. It had only been Peter so far who had managed to set any ball in motion and that was simply to ask Mark Waterman from Hufflepuff who he had worked with in lessons on occasion, which year Mari Hill was in, the answer had come back encouraging being it the same year as them.
It was Thursday when Sirius finally got anything social out of Remus. The blond boy had woken in a good mood and was back to his usual chatty, sarcastic self, making his usual comments about the Slytherins and particularly Severus Snape in a way that had them all cracking up into their breakfast. They weren't sure what happened last night though when Remus had disappeared mysteriously somewhere for 2 hours, but if it gave them their old Remus back then they weren't complaining. Seeing this fact, Sirius had decided that, that afternoon was as good as any and he might as well give it a go.
They had Double potions in the afternoon followed by transfiguration, so potions seemed the ideal chance. Professor Lawrence who took the subject was a good teacher and head of Ravenclaw, she normally let them chat quietly with their partners as long as they paid attention to what they were doing. His mind made up he quickly sought out James.
"Jim boy" he called out when he saw him walking across the courtyard, James stopped and turned round to look at him, Remus and Peter were with him
"Yeah what is it?" he asked, Sirius ran a hand through his hair
"Can I talk quickly to you in private? It's important" James's eyes quickly scanned his face and he shrugged
"Don't see why not, it's not as if I'm in any rush to get to Lawrence's lesson, after all." He inclined his head towards the other two "and we'll meet you in there" Peter shrugged
"Yeah alright then, we'll get the usual two tables together and when you come in I'll move next to Remmie right?" he asked, Sirius shook his head
"No point, you'll work with either me or James today, Remus can get the other one, it probably be easier and Lawrence is less likely to notice if we're late that way" Peter shrugged
"Ok, well, whatever suits you," he said shrugging "It doesn't bother me." Remus shot them a curious look then spoke,
"Come on then Pete, we'll leave the two of them to their talk" he smiled at the smaller boy who nodded and the two of them turned and walked off, deep in conversation if the fleeting of Remus's hands were anything to go by, the boy had a rather irritating habit of moving them around when he was talking. Once they were gone, James turned to him with a frown.
"So what's so important then?" he questioned, Sirius shrugged
"Can you work with Pete today?" he asked, one black eyebrow rose on James's face at the request
"Pete?" he repeated before his face fell slightly "You are joking aren't you?" Sirius shook his head
"What's the problem?" he asked, "Pete's the best potion maker out of us, he gets easy grades all the time, It's Remmie who sucks." James shrugged,
"I guess," he muttered then looked at him expectantly, "Why do you want to work with Remmie so much?" he retorted. Sirius sighed and made an impatient movement with his hand
"Remmie's in a good mood today, perfect for me to try and worm his problem out of him, you were the one who told me to do it, so this is as good an opportunity as I'm gonna get really." James nodded, his eyes lighting up slightly,
"Good thinking, alright I'll work with Pete this one time and you attack Remmie alright?" a wry grin covered Sirius face.
"I'm not going to attack the boy and beat him for answers!" he remarked dryly "But puppy dog eyes had never failed yet so fingers crossed he'll crack soon enough" James nodded and glanced at his watch.
"C'mon, we better go, the lesson's about to start." Sirius nodded and they ran for it, making it through the door just before it was closed. James winked at Sirius as he plopped himself next to Peter with a cheerful, "Looks like just you and me today Pete." Sirius sat in the chair next to Remus and grinned brightly as he saw the surprised look on the other boy's face melt into an answering grin before he turned his attention to the front of the room. Professor Lawrence swept into the room and after keen blue eyes skirted the Gryffindors and Slytherins for a moment whilst everyone settled down, began the class.
After about 15 minutes into the lesson Sirius decided to risk a glance at Remus to see him staring at the board with his usual look of concentration, amber eyes narrowed slightly as he absently bit his quill. Sirius sighed, as interesting as he found potions and as good as Professor Lawrence was at her subject he just couldn't concentrate for the life of him. He was actually feeling nervous.
How exactly was he meant to phrase this? They had never discussed that before was he meant to just come out with it? A casual "So Remmie, got a thing for Marigold Hill do you?" Remus would probably give him a cold look and act as if he'd never spoken, his love life was one of the only things he kept totally to himself, normally not even enlightening them, his best friends, to his fancies. They had found out from Lily Evans the last time that he even had a girlfriend. James had told him to be subtle with his questioning and not to raise Remus's suspicion unfortunately being careful with words was not his speciality by a long shot.
He jumped as he felt an elbow suddenly dig his ribs and he looked up in surprised to see Remus on his feet with a cauldron already set up on the table, grinning down at him, even his eyes seemed to be laughing at him. Remus leaned down slightly more and pulled Sirius's elbow off his work and looked at it before standing straight again and commenting brightly,
"Yep fantastic notes there, Siri', they are really going to help you big time coming up to revising for our exams." Sirius blinked in surprise as Remus pulled a jar of newt eyes out of his potion bag and measuring out spoonfuls before he glanced down at his work. The page was blank except for the title and some casual doodles in the margin. He rolled his eyes as he came to his feet and pushed the sleeves of his jumper up to his elbows.
"Oh well" he replied shrugging his shoulders as his eyes landed upon Remus's full explanation of the potion in his own book. "That what's your notes are for. We use them now and then I copy them later and stop right there Remus Lupin!" he warned as Remus went to tip something in. Remus looked at him in surprise as Sirius prised the bottom from his hand and looked at it before shaking his head "Wrong ingredient Superstar" he commented, "This would have made it explode. Try..." he reached into his own and pulled out the correct bottle "Three of these" Remus flushed slightly even as he took the bottle and spoke.
"Cheers." he muttered, absently "Anyhow I think you're faced with a small problem with these notes." Sirius raised an eyebrow in response, an amused smirk making an attempt to shine through. "What makes you so sure I'd actually be willing to lend them to you at all?" Sirius grinned up at him from bending over a large bowl of jellied crickets.
"Ah, you'll lend them to me anyway, after all, we all know how fantastic you are at making notes and all and you wouldn't want your dearest, bestest friend in the whole world to fail and be left behind would you" Remus snorted and looked at him incredulously.
"You?" he repeated, "Fail the year? Not bloody likely." he added a splash of a potion before placing the stopper firmly back on. Seeing that his reasoning wasn't working, Sirius decided to draw out the big guns; he used his ultimate weapon on him.
His puppy dog eyes.
Remus glanced at him and groaned, melting instantly at the powerful weapon of mass destruction.
"Fine you can borrow them tonight, but only tonight, now put that look away before a girl gets sight of them, falls in love and causes an explosion that would wipe us all out." Sirius chuckled as his face reverted to its normal cheeky expression ego now in full bloom.
"Wouldn't be surprising, y'know. Women are always throwing themselves at me." Remus nodded,
"I know, they normally trample me and the other two just to get at you." Sirius nodded, his eyes twinkling and a big grin planted on his face.
"So true" he cast him a quick look, then continuing chopping up some of the ingredients, he spoke in a causal tone to him though his eyes remained cautious. "It looks like you feel a lot better now. That's good" Remus looked up in surprise at him
"Huh? What are you talking about? I'm fine" his voice took on a note of confusion. Sirius continued to look at the plant
"You seemed quiet the other day" he replied, throwing the chopped up plant in and giving it a quick stir before looking at the younger boy "I thought you may have been ill or something. You really weren't yourself" Remus adverted his eyes and stared at the page of notes instead, a crimson tint coming to his cheeks that Sirius noted.
"Yeah I had a bit of a headache and I was tired so that's probably why, I can never think straight when I'm tired." Remus replied after a moments hesitation.
"Really. A headache?" Sirius remarked calmly "Reading that big heavy book must have been killing you then especially since it was in French, I'm surprised you went off to the library to finish reading it since you were so tired. You should have gone straight to bed." Remus's hand slipped and one of his careful strips was ruined. He laughed, uneasily, a nervous sound that reflected in his voice that seemed to shake ever so slightly. If Sirius hadn't of been listening to it then he may have missed it
"Oh you mean that day" Remus commented, his tone still guarded. "I thought you meant yesterday. No I was just busy with something then, that's all, so I wanted to get it done" Sirius threw in the last ingredient on his side and stirred it with more force then was needed.
"You're lying" he remarked calmly and quietly. Remus slammed the knife on the table and turned to him, an angry glint in his eyes. If there was one thing he couldn't stand then it was being called a liar.
"What?" he said a dangerous tone edging his voice.
"I believe I called you a liar" Sirius replied back evenly. His voice turned soft, "Remmie we've been friends for 2 years now, ever since the first term. If you think that I can't tell that something is troubling you after all that time then you are less intelligent then I thought you were" Remus remained silent but the fact he hadn't turned away or hit him yet made Sirius continue putting his most persuasive voice on. "Tell me what's wrong Remmie. I want to help you" a small smile covered Remus's lips as he spoke.
"Tell you what Siri I will tell you what's wrong with me" he said with a bitter cheerfulness causing Sirius to frown slightly. It definitely shouldn't have been that easy, and he didn't like the cruel mocking stare that seemed to eat at his resolve. "I will, if you explain to me what's troubling you so much." It was Sirius turned to look startled.
"Me?" he repeated "Remmie there's nothing wrong with me, I'm better then usual if anything" Remus shook his head the smile remaining
"Now who's being the liar" he accused softly taking over the stirring "There's something wrong with you and has been going on ever since you came back from Christmas. You've been moodier and more miserable then I've ever seen you. Even if the others haven't noticed yet, I have. So you have a choice," he paused as Sirius continued to look at him dumbfounded, "You can either tell me exactly what's wrong and in return I'll tell you the secret I've been keeping, or we both remain knowing nothing. Each keeping our own little secrets safe" Sirius shook his head.
"I taught you too well." he muttered with a sad frown. He hadn't realised that Remus had been keeping such a close watch over him, close enough that he was able to see what Sirius was trying so desperately to conceal. He sighed, then again that was the kind of person Remus was. Sirius would be damned though if he was going to spill his life's problems to anyone. They were his to deal with and he'd deal with them alone.
He cast a look at the other boy who was looking around the room at the other people to see how they were going with their potions. There was something though that caused people to want to confide in Remus, probably the kind look in his eyes. Sirius had seen people from James, to his sister to a Slytherin tell their secrets to the blond boy. Sirius knew why too. If there was anything Remus was good at then it was keeping a secret. He doubted that even torture could get something out of him if he didn't want it to.
"Fine" he finally remarked coolly "Keep your secret and have it your way." He was more ruffled then he liked to think. Remus turned his attention to him
"I will and it will eat you up inside. You'll be desperate to know soon enough and you'll get the same answer, you tell me yours and I'll tell you mine" he grinned brightly at Sirius who was left glaring at him. His curiosity rising, the more he thought about it. He growled stubbornly, now in a foul mood and began throwing the ingredients roughly away, leaving a serene and satisfied looking Remus to stir the black potions and laden some up into a flask to be marked. Sirius glared at him, now even more aggravated by the seemingly smug demeanour whilst he wrote out their names on sticky labels and went to the front to hand it in. It wasn't going to be him who broke first if it killed him. That he was sure of and even if it took years, Remus would tell him first he'd stake his life on it.
There you all go, slightly shorter than the last chapter but a potion lesson only goes on for all long.
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Thanks people!
Hannio xxxx