Homework and Hormones
By Hannio
Chapter Four
I get by with a little help from my friends
DISCLAIMER – None of the characters that are mentioned are mine except Professor Jones
AUTHOR NOTE – Here's chapter four and as you may have guessed it's Pete's turn, you find out his problem and learn more about Sirius's problem this turn.
I've brought their ages up to 14 so there in the fourth year, it just makes more sense and all so sorry about that, it doesn't change anything though.
Peter groaned as the seam of his bag broke, spilling his belongings all across the corridor, near the girls' toilets. With a muffled cursed he dropped to his knees and began scooping them up, he muttered a quick spell he had seen the other three perform countless times to fix his bag and began throwing his belongings back in, grumbling irritably as he did.
"What's this, a rat in its natural habitat on the floor in dirt" Peter looked up with a frown and almost groaned out loud as he saw Severus Snape glaring down at him a nasty smirk playing across his mouth this was all he needed to make his day even worse the it already was, Peter stood up, matching the glare.
"What's this, a Slytherin actually coming out of it dark slimy cave? What's wrong, decided to come out and see how the normal people live?" he was quite proud of his cuss, though his slight smile of triumph quickly disappeared as Snape whipped out a wand and pointed it at him
"What was that?" he remarked slowly, Peter weighed his options up, his wand was in the bottom of his bag, the other three were nowhere in sight and the last thing he wanted to be was cursed. Grinding his teeth together he mumbled
"Nothing" Snape looked amused
"Nothing without your friends are you Pettigrew? Always dependant on them, I'm surprised that they put up with you chasing them around like a lost dog and sucking up to them just so they'll like you. They were probably glad to be rid of you for a while" Peter trembled slightly though he wasn't sure whether it was because of his mounting anger or a feeling of miserable hurt that had settled itself in his chest. Instead he spoke in a voice that trembled slightly
"Yeah, well at least I have people I can call friends, I never see anyone with you, why's that? So much grease in your hair that people pass you off for a muggle fuel tank for one of their contraptions? Or is it just that no one can see pass your huge nose?" Snape's face whitened and he held out his wand, pointing it at Peter's chest. The blond boy swallowed hard, it definitely looked like he had gone too far this time and there was no one around to give him a hand. He closed his eyes and waited
"I wouldn't do that if I was you" his eyes flew open and he turned slightly around to see Remus glaring at Snape with his own wand out. The younger boy stepped up to his side and spoke again "If you're going to curse someone, curse someone with a wand out who could actually fight back." Peter almost rolled his eyes. Remus was obsessed with being fair. He would never attack anyone if they didn't have a wand out, nor would he do anything extremely under handed, it was an admirable quality to have but when the other three wanted to do something extra special to the Slytherins, they could always count on his not being involved and dampening their fun with his reproachful looks, several times the looks have dampened it so much that either James or Sirius would declare the prank no fun and not do it anymore.
A smile came to Peter's face as he saw a slight glimmer of fear in Snape's eyes, it was a well known fact that Remus Lupin was one of the best Defence against the Dark arts students out there, the only one who could ever beat him in duelling, except the teachers was Sirius and that in itself was a rarity.
"You're lucky this time Pettigrew but next time your little friend won't be there to fight your battles for you." Remus shook his head in disgust
"Just get lost slime head." he called after the boy who slunk away, a bitter grimace on his face. When they were both sure he was gone, they turned to each other, Remus putting his wand away casually "You ok?" he asked, concern in his face and voice "He didn't curse you before I got here did he?" Remus cast him a quick once over to see if there was any sign of something strange about him. Peter shook his head
"No" he answered, "you showed up before he had a chance" Remus nodded slowly.
"He's such a Git" he proclaimed then sighed "Common room?" Peter looked at him considering. The other boy seemed tired and the fact that he was trying not to frown yet failing miserably, gave Peter the impression that Remus was suffering from another one of his headaches. The common room was the last place he needed to go and Peter did owe him one.
"Library?" he suggested slowly, speaking the name of the last place he wanted to be right now but the one place that would give Remus the quiet he needed to get rid of his headache. His plan worked as Remus's eyes lit up and he nodded, a slight amount of energy coming to him
"Cool" he stated, turning round and facing the other direction. The two of them began walking slowly
"So um, I thought you were with James and Sirius anyway? Not that I'm not grateful or anything, because trust me I am" Peter ended hastily. Remus shrugged ignoring his friends comment.
"I went for a walk, it was too noisy in the common room and James and Sirius were showing off to a few girls so I thought I'd make my escape before they turned their attention on me" Peter looked confused
"James and Sirius or the girls?" he asked, Remus smiled slightly
"The girls" he replied, Peter gave him a long look
"What would be wrong with that?" he asked slowly. Remus shrugged
"Nothing at all" he replied, "It's just…" he hesitated "the type that I would like girl wise would not be the kind they would like and it's the type they like that surrounds them, you know?"
"You mean you prefer Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw girls? The interesting clever ones, or the nice loyal ones" Peter replied with a knowing look, inwards he was feeling quite excited by the fact that he was going to find out the thing that Sirius was desperate to know. It felt kinda nice to know something the others wouldn't. He heard Remus sigh and look at him, a probing expression on his face
"Perhaps" was all he said, "It doesn't matter anyway" he replied "So anyway, why were you there?" Remus expression turned to curiosity
"Professor Jones wanted to see me about something" he looked worried for a second, not for long, but long enough for Remus to grow a little concerned.
"Everything ok?" Peter sighed again
"Not really, but we'll talk in the library about it ok?" Remus nodded then turned away, they soon reached the big doors leading to the library and entered. While Peter got them a table, Remus drifted off down one of the aisles picking a few random books. With a sigh Peter looked at all the work he had to do. It was already 7 in the evening and things were not looking good by any means. Remus returned with three books and placed them on the side, he folded his arms and placed them on the table and stared expectantly at him
"Well then, what's wrong? I haven't seen you this stressed since Sirius used a spell to cut your hair and accidentally gave you an Elvis quiff dyed luminous pink" Peter shuddered at the memory, What had started as a simple trim had soon turned into a nightmare and he had to go round school for 3 days with shocking hair.
"It's work" he finally said, Remus frowned
"Work? As in school work?" he questioned, Peter rolled his eyes and replied sarcastically
"No Remmie the work I do in the evening for a strip bar. Yes, school work" Remus raised one eyebrow at him and Peter felt his face flush, slumping his shoulders "Sorry bout that" he said quietly "I'm just stressed, as you said"
"So what is the problem with your work?" Remus asked calmly. Peter took a deep breath, at least Remus sounded soothing, which helped his nerves slightly. One glance in the kind eyes in front of him convinced Peter that Remus was the one to confide in. He would never laugh at him like the others may have done.
"I saw McGonnagall today" he said shakily "She said if my marks don't buck up then I… I" he stopped and bit his lip.
"You'll what?" Remus replied quietly, his gaze never leaving his friends face. Peter met his eyes boldly, his eyes daring him to laugh as he spoke
"I'll have to repeat the year" Remus jerked, his arm hitting the pile of books by him and sending them crashing to the floor, he ignored them and the shhh he got from other studying students though he quickly picked the books up before the librarian came to investigate.
"Repeat the year?" he said in disbelief, setting them down on the table again. He shook his head "They wouldn't" Peter laughed bitterly.
"They can and they will, I have to do well in these exams or I'm gone" Remus looked away, biting his lip in shock. Peter watched him with a sad smile, at any other time he would have been happy that he had managed to shock the unshockable one of them but he found himself wishing that it wasn't by these means.
"Well," Remus said finally turning to look at Peter again "Well we'll all just have to help you" he stated firmly, a determined glint in his eyes "The Marauders stick together and you're not being left behind." He frowned "Now lets think, your best subject is Potions right?" Peter nodded
"The only lesson I'm good in" he countered miserably. Remus nodded
"That's good cause the rest of us aren't exactly what you would call good. I'll help you with Herbology and defence against the dark arts; James can help you with Transfiguration, Sirius with Charms. Erm the pair of them are good at Care of magical animals. What else do you take?" he asked
"Divination" it was Remus's turn to roll his eyes at that
"Sirius and James take that don't they?" he asked, when Peter nodded Remus smiled "See you're sorted between us all we'll get you through"
"Through what?" a new voice said at this point. The two boys turned to see James and Sirius pulling out seats and joining them. Even in his depressed mood, Peter couldn't help but smile at Sirius's obvious discomfort at being in the library, the navy blue eyes kept on flickering around the shelves of books as if they were going to bite him.
"Erm, what you doing here?" Peter questioned absently biting his fingernails. It was a bad habit, something he only did when he was stressed or nervous about something and he was feeling both of those emotions right now.
"We were looking for Remmie" Sirius stated turning his eyes onto Peter "We'd noticed he'd done a runner and decided to track him down and see what he was up to" Sirius cast a quick suspicious look at Remus, who either didn't see it or ignored it because he spoke, directing it to both James and Sirius.
"I'm glad you came looking for me actually, saved me time on tracking you down" James frowned
"You were looking for us?" he said in surprise, then he frowned "What's up?" he looked at both Peter and Remus; Peter met the hazel eyes directly on, hoping his feelings weren't in his eyes. It was ok for Remus to know, he understood but Peter wanted more than anything for James and Sirius to respect him. He looked up to both of them, especially James. They were everything he wanted to be and everything he knew he wasn't. The hazel eyes moved away and Remus spoke to him, in the same soothing tone he had used before
"Do you want me to tell them?" he asked gently. Peter shrugged and nodded jerkily
"If you want" he said quietly, trying to appear nonchalant though clearly avoiding the 3 pairs of eyes focused on him. He listened quietly as Remus began to inform the others in hushed tones "Pete went to see McGonagall today about his work and she told him that if he didn't start improving his grades then well…" he hesitated for a minute, giving the said boy a careful glance before continuing "Then next year Pete would be made to repeat this year and we'll be separated" a silence followed which made Peter feel all the more embarrassed.
"Were those her exact words Pete?" James said seriously "If you didn't improve then you'll be left behind" Peter nodded shamefully, not trusting his voice, hearing them say it was making him feel a whole lot worse then when he said in his head
"It's not going to happen" Sirius said determinedly "We'll sort something out, we always do" James nodded as Peter looked at the pair of them with something similar to wonderment
"We won't desert you Pete, we'll help you get those marks, we're all your best mates and we're all here to look out for each other. We just gotta figure out how we're gonna do this, that's all" he promptly folded his arms, leant back in his chair and tilted his head up to the ceiling narrowing his eyes in thought when Remus spoke
"I think I've got it sorted" he said mildly amused at Sirius's serious determination "Pete, do you have any after school activities we don't know of? Any extra lessons?" Peter considered for a moment then nodded, lowering his eyes to the smooth wooden surface of the table
"Yeah Tuesday evenings I have extra Transfiguration." Remus nodded
"We can all give up some of our evenings to help him" he stated. For a minute Sirius and James looked horrified before they glanced at him and nodded, Remus caught the looks but continued "We'll will of course each have time off though, we've all work to do as well, now let see, I have duelling club on a Thursday evening and Herbology at Lunch on a Monday.
"Loser" Sirius coughed out and grinned innocently when Remus shot him a glare
"I'll help you on Wednesday and Friday then, we'll do Herbology on the Wednesday and Dark Arts on the Friday, sound good?" Peter smiled brightly at him and got a quill out and some parchment, he quickly drew a rough timetable and wrote Remus's name in the times.
"That's fine" he said warmly, Remus smiled back and spoke again, turning to James
"James, I was thinking you could help Pete with Transfiguration since you're the best at it and also give him a hand with care for magical creatures and divination" again scorn came into Remus's voice as he uttered the last subject, suppressing a shudder of distaste. His views on that particular subject were well known.
"I can do that but remember I have Qudditch practice twice a week on a Monday and Thursday" Remus frowned
"Er Tuesday and Saturday sound good?" James nodded slowly; he turned to Pete as he wrote it down
"The only time I won't be able to do it is if we have a match" Sirius waved him away with a grin
"Fear not dearest James, I happen to be pretty good at Transfiguration myself so if need be I'll take over your lesson with him on that odd occasion, if not Remmie can do it" Remus nodded encouragingly at him and smiled
"Great, so that leaves you Sirius to help him in charms and the same as James sound ok?" Sirius nodded
"Give me plenty of warning though" he stated folding his arms behind his head and closing his eyes "I'll need to know when I can go on dates or not" James and Remus rolled their eyes while Peter smirked, it was nice to know that when his life was going bad Sirius was still the same. He looked at them all and spoke
"I… you guys… I" he coughed before he continued, wiping his sweaty palms on his robe "I really appreciate you going through all this trouble for me, I don't know how I can repay you" the three other faces smiled as they looked at him, eyes warming.
"It's no trouble what so ever Pete, we're happy to do it for you" Remus stated gently, Sirius nodded
"You're one of us and we look after our own" he added, James smiled
"After all your problem is our problem, we all get affected by it" Peter smiled and nodded
"As it should be" he ended. He sighed and looked around his eyes focusing on a small boy with black hair and worried looking brown eyes, he was fidgeting around as if he was covered in moving insects as the eyes moved frantically around. He spoke not taking his eyes off the boy "Sirius isn't that your little brother?" Sirius sat up and turned round in his chair to look at the boy as the rest of them did.
"Yep that's definitely Regulus" James said with a curious look, "I wonder what he's doing in the library" Remus laughed slightly
"It might be a foreign concept to you and Siri but people do come here to study and read, it's probably that"
"I see no books," Sirius said in a surprisingly serious tone. He pushed his chair back and got to his feet, eyes never leaving the small figure, Remus shook his head
"He probably hasn't been in here that often and is trying to look for a book or something, he is only 11 after all, won't be a sec, I'm just gonna go and help him quickly" he stood up and went to walk over to the boy when Sirius grabbed him by the arm and flung him back into his seat
"Stay where you are Remus, I'll deal with him, he's my brother so you just park it" he said without his usual warm tone. The three remaining boys swapped confused startled look as the tallest of them stalked over to his brother. They weren't sure what happened but Regulus first looked shocked to see him, then a mutinous expression came over the young face as Sirius spoke to him, he'd obviously said something because Sirius went red and went to make a grab for him but the other boy evaded him and ran for it out of the library before Sirius had even recovered himself. He made his way back to the table in a foul mood picking up his bag and slinging it over his shoulder
"See you later" he growled at them sourly then left without even a glance back.
"What was all that about?" Peter asked finally. Remus and James looked at each other with worried expression
"I don't know myself" Remus admitted slowly, "James, what about you? You know him better than any of us, his past at least" James made a face
"Not the details, Sirius hardly ever talks about his family. The only thing I know for certain is that Regulus is his only sibling though he has loads of cousins"
"Like?" Peter asked, James sighed
"Bellatrix and Narcissa in Slytherin well Bellatrix has left but she was in it, Andromeda was in Ravenclaw and a few others I think"
"I wouldn't want to be related to those two Slytherins" Peter said with a shudder "They're a pair of the worse kind" the other two nodded, finally James got to his feet
"Well, he's not going to reappear here" he said sensibly "It's 7.30 now so it's time for dinner, we might as well go and eat and if he doesn't turn up then we'll hunt him down later" Remus nodded
"Sounds good, Pete, its Wednesday today, so do you want to start tonight? I've done my work so I can help you with the essay on it and stuff. I won't do it for you mind, just give you a helpful shove in the right direction" Peter nodded even as James spoke
"Speaking of shoving, I can't believe Sirius shoved you out of the way like that, he certainly wasn't being gentle" Remus shrugged
"It wasn't really a shove" he defended "Anyway the sooner we find him the sooner we'll know" they nodded and made they way out of the library. Once outside the library Peter couldn't help but sigh. Not only did he have the entire problem with his schoolwork and now all the extra tuition but he also needed to help solve Remus's problem and now Sirius's it seemed. It was definitely going to be a full year for them, no doubt about that.
Here you go, my chapter on Pete/Siri is finished and no it's not a romantic pairing, next chapter should be up soon I hope.
Please Review, flamers to the top, actual reviewers to the bottom.
Cheers
Hannio xxxx