Chapter 4: Poems and Ice roses

Revera had to be dragged to the hospital wing.

"I have Quidditch practice!" she wailed. "Kingsley will kill me if I miss it."

" I will deal with Kingsley," said Remus firmly, making a mental note to speak to Ravenclaw's Quidditch captain. "That cut looks bad and it might re-open."

"Isn't your next match against us?" asked James, grinning. "You might as well not bother practicing – you won't ever win."

Revera shot him a disdainful glare.

Madam Pomfrey clucked over the group ["Seventh years' duelling! When will you ever learn sense?"] but bustled off for a Blood Replenishing potion.

"You had better stay here overnight," she said reprovingly to Revera. "You should rest too, dear," she suddenly softened as she looked at Remus. "Full moon's in two nights."

"I know," he said softly. " I am fine, thank you."

Madam Pomfrey looked unconvinced as she minutely obeserved Remus' tired, pale face but pursed her lips and chose not to comment. "I'll give your sister a sleeping draught. You can stay awhile if you like but the rest of you- OUT!"

"Transfiguration' in 10 minutes, Moony," reminded James as they left. "See you then, mate."

Revera's eyes were already drowsy when Remus turned back to her.

"Wish there was a way to stop the moon," she murmured.

His mouth quirked into a tiny smile. "I should be used to it by now." With his friends on midnight wanderings, his time as a wolf was almost fun although the transformation was no less painful.

"Severus is so strange today," she moved rapidlyto another topic. "He is usually rather nice."

"Nice is not quite the word I would use," he replied, remembering Snape's incessant prying and colourful variety of hexes. Revera knew very little about their enmity and he did not feel obliged to enlighten her. Remus could not like Snape but unlike James and Sirius, he could tolerate him especially since Revera seemed to rather liked him. Then again, she liked everybody. "You think everybody is nice," he commented.

"He is," she insisted. "He reminds me of you sometimes," Remus looked horrified. "Very principled, reserved and stubborn."

"As is half the wizarding population, I imagine."

" True. And he can't laugh at himself while you have a pronounced sense of the absurd."

"Glad to hear that. I wouldn't like to think I am a carbon copy of Severus Snape. Go to sleep, Vera."

"Ok," she assented, yawning.

"You are late, Lupin," Professor McGonagall said crisply as he rushed into the Transfiguration classroom. An hourglass dribbling sand sat on her desk. "You won't get any extra time for the revision quiz."

Remus frowned. He had fallen asleep over 'Advanced Transfiguration Theory' in anticipation of such a happy event but the facts seemed to have drifted out of his mind. And now, he had lost 10 minutes.

He hurriedly reached for his quill.

Explain, in less than 150 words , the basic theoretical principles of animagus transformation.

That's lucky, he thought, the four of us could probably write a book on this. His quill raced over the parchment.

He was halfway through the final question when the spare parchment he kept beside him gleamed wetly.

'Onward, my Light Brigade! Charge for the marks!' – Prongs

Remus chuckled. James had a fondness for mutilating Muggle poetry ever since he attempted to read up on Muggle Literature to impress Lily during their sixth year. Not surprisingly, despite her fondness for Tennyson, Keats and Wordsworth, she had remained unmoved.

Another line appeared on the parchment.

'Shut it, Prongs, they are still hard at it. Need help? I am done' – Padfoot

'Show-off. I am just giving encouragement,' – Prongs

"Hey, I finished! Looks like I beat Moony ' – Wormtail.

'Right, the best man won,' scribbled Remus. ' Put a sock to it for a minute, can't you, I have one more question.'

'The answer to the last question is..'

'SHUT UP, Padfoot!' - Prongs

Around them, the better students were fidgeting restlessly as Remus penned his last paragraph.

'Alright, what's up?'- M.

'Full moon's in two nights. Where d'you all want to go?"-P.

'Only two choices isn't there? Hogsmeade or Forbidden Forest?' – P.

"Which P. is James? Amyway, Hogsmeade gets my vote. We can go all the way up to the mountains. Moony might meet another unicorn in the Forest' – W.

Remus winced at the memory, hish hands going cold. He could recall the pure white creature- and his sudden hunger for its blood. He would have ripped it apart. –"Not me," he reminded himself. "The monster."

He shook his head to clear the pictures from his mind, sliding his gaze at the scribbles now almost covering the parchment.

'I am P., he is just an S. ' – P.

'Oh, and Hogsmeade's fine with me, mates.'-P.

'Haha, that's a P.brained joke. Hogsmeade, it is. A last trip to our favourite haunts.' –S.

'You look sick. Are you alright, Moony?" – W

Remus scrawled his response. 'Sorry. Yes, Hogsmeade is fine with me. Would Lily mind, Prongs?"

James frowned before replying. 'What she doesn't know can't hurt.' –P.

'Spoken like someone with very little understanding of girls.'- S.

'What, you want me to tell her? – P.

'Hell, no. Leave it. – S. The underlying thought was clear to Remus. She was not one of us. He was almost sorry she wasn't. As fellow Gryffindor prefects, they were friends even before James dated her.

'She already suspects something. Keeps asking me where I disappear to at night' – P.

'What did you tell her?' –S

'Nothing. It's not my secret alone. She can be trusted to keep it though, if all you agree to tell her? I trust her with my life.' – P.

'No way' – S.

Peter looked undecided. It was rare that the two leaders in the group had no position for him to follow.

'Remus?' –W.

He chewed the edge of his quill nervously. It was so easy to like Lily. She liked people for who they were, being both quick to recognise kindness and disdain weakness. He didn't want to risk the friendship and respect.

'Tell her nothing. Sorry, Prongs'- M.

James looked unhappy but did not protest. 'If you say so.' –P.

The last grain fell from the hourglass, setting up a shrill alarm.

"Right," said Professor McGonagall. "Time's up. That means quills down, Mr Potter," -James was halfway through another note – " We will be going on with the lesson once I collect this." With a flick of her wand, rolls over parchment from all corners of the class flew to her desk and arranged themselves into neat piles.

At the other end of the castle were two students who had been glad to give up Transfiguration. Severus had found it worthwhile just to see a little less of James Potter although he was finding Rodolphus Lestrange equally annoying at the moment.

"I know roughly where he will be all summer, " snapped Severus irritably. He took Rodolphus' questions as insults to his capability. "We shouldn't have trouble carrying out surveillance and picking him up as and when the Dark Lord desires."

"The Dark Lord doesn't take failure well, Severus," Rodolphus warned." First timers don't get second chances – especially not when we are not full Death Eaters yet.Still dispensable."

Snape flicked his hair into Rodolphus' face, a gesture he knew Rodolphus found irritating.

The other boy coughed. "Where are you going?" he asked as Snape turned into another corridor.

"Somewhere you wouldn't want to," Snape swept off before Rodolphus could decide whether to follow him or not.

The door to the hospital wing was locked.

"Aloho-.." he nearly jumped as Madam Pomfrey's voice boomed behind him.

"What are you doing here, Snape?" she asked suspiciously. "Looking for some Pepper-up potion?"

Severus' scowl deepened. He hated being surprised. He especially disliked being surprised into having to explain himself.

" I just have something for – her-..Occlumency class notes..she missed it," he improvised.

Madam Pomfrey sniffed. "Revera Lupin? I though you were the one who.."

He glared at the overbearing old bat. " Accidents happen."

"Hmph. She's asleep," she said. "I'll give you five minutes, if you still want to go in."

" Fine". There was no point in being grateful when he had a perfect right to be there so he walked in without thanking her.

Revera was fast asleep, her usually rosy cheeks looking a little jaundiced although she still looked as if her thoughts were peaceful and joyous. Severus, on the other hand, hated, people who were too happy. They generally tried to jolly him along as well.

Yet, it was that look that drew him when they had first met in an old disused Magical Music classroom. The classroom had been his personal sanctuary at Hogwarts. Very few students were interested in music, much less playing and composing so he usually had the room to himself. Yet, here was a first year boldly using his place. She had been playing the piano, a dreamy expression on her face.

"Get out" he had said curtly. The liquid notes stopped.

"Excuse me?"

" First years shouldn't be here," he snapped, making up his own rule.

" Oh," her forehead creased a little. " Professor Sinistra said anyone can." Then she brightened. " Maybe we can share, there are a couple of pieces here for two people."

It would take a much nastier person than Severus to be rude at someone looked so happy at the thought of sharing the instrument.

Lupin's sister, of all people. His scowl returned. A glass of water was on her bedside table. He flicked his wand "Flora genaro." The water iced into a crystal-like rose.

He didn't know whether he was apologizing for what he had done or what he was about to do.