Hope's Children

Chapter Ten: Contemplating 'and' and 'or'

Last Chapter

"Nothing, I need help with my Charms and last time you and James helped me I nearly failed the test we were studying for. I would rather not fail again, so I want Remus to help me because he can teach."

"Fine then, but can it wait 'til tomorrow? Remus is asleep."

"All right, then I'm going to sleep. Unless one of you wants to play chess?"

"No way," they said together.

"Now that's just freaky," Peter said, before going upstairs.

This Chapter

"…So with the correct incantation, the chair's molecular set up will re-arrange itself as your will bends it to. It's all a matter of the correct pronunciation and the amount of will power you put into it; once you grasp the concept and practice a little it's not that hard. Understand?"

"I think, what happens if you say the incantation the wrong way?"

"I'm not sure, it's never happened to me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, well my parents never let me near a wand until I went to Hogwarts."

"Oh I see, what do you think will happen?"

"It depends on how off you are, it could be anything from the chair changing into a color you don't want it to be, to blowing up or something."

"Did someone say blowing up?" Sirius said, plopping down on the bed next to Remus. "What're you guys planning?"

"Nothing, Remus is helping me with my Charms."

"Well blowing something up sounds fun, how about Malfoy or Snape?"

"What do you have against them anyway, Siri?"

"They're practically family," Sirius said sourly.

"Wouldn't that make them your friends?" Peter asked, puzzled.

"It's more like they're practically my family's family, and I am not my family."

"That's very confusing, but I think I get it," Peter said, still concentrating on his homework. "Remus, what is the incantation?"

"I'm not sure what they're going to teach us, but I know what my parents used to say." Remus didn't seem to realize he had said used to say, and Peter was too worried about catching up with the wizarding students to think any more of it.

Sirius, however, heard it in a rather subconscious manner, and his mind filed it away in some dusty corner to pull up at a later date, when he could use it to his advantage. He smiled mischievously and asked again. "So are we going to blow Snape or Malfoy up?"

"Seems a little mean, and won't they tell your parents?"

"I'm not scared of Malfoy or Snape, and I am not afraid of my parents." His eyes flickered and Remus was quite sure he was afraid of his parents.

"Well Peter and I are busy, and you should be too."

"Doing what?"

"Homework perhaps?"

"Are you kidding?"

"No, not really, but maybe I should have been."

"Yes you should have been, I finished all my homework. Please help me blow Snape and Malfoy up."

"I thought it was Snape or Malfoy?"

"Evil gits tend to run in packs." He didn't see Remus flinch. "Blowing up one means blowing up the other. So or and and mean the same thing."

"They do?" Remus asked. "I though they were different?"

Sirius looked at him in surprise. "Only in this case. Most of the time or and and are different. Sometimes I forget English isn't your first language, and then it just springs into my face like a jack in the box."

"A jack-in-the-box?"

"Yeah that weird muggle toy, that clown in a box and you turn the handle and it pops out and scares the little kids half to death."

"Sounds like a very…um…interesting toy." Sirius laughed. "How do you know so much about muggles and their toys anyway? I would think your family would frown on that kind of thing."

"That's why I learned as much as I could about muggles; when I was little my philosophy was that if my parents thought it was bad it must be good. Got me into quite a few scrapes before I figured out that maybe not everything they thought was bad was good." It was Remus's turn to laugh as he imagined a miniature Sirius in trouble for everyday things. "You laugh at my misery?" Sirius asked, his voice full of fake hurt.

"Of course not, I laugh with your misery!" Sirius only stuck his tongue out. "You resort to childlike insults because you have no further argument."

"Fine then, do you know what a jack-in-the-box is now?"

"Not really."

"Well what did you play with when you were a kid?"

Remus opened his mouth to answer, and couldn't think of anything. His memory before his fifth birthday was hazy, and after that his brother had never had enough money to buy him toys. "Um…my…family was big on…um…imaginary games…we didn't have many toys," he mumbled.

"Oh, well we'll have to get you some then."

"I don't need any toys."

"I know about needing toys, it's more about if you want toys."

"But I don't want any toys."

"Everyone wants toys."

"Well not me!" Remus snapped. "Sorry, I'm just a bit stressed."

"About what?" Sirius asked, sitting down on the bed next to Remus.

"Moon," he said quietly. "School work, life in general," he said, flopping back onto his pillow and closing his eyes. "All right, I'll help you blow Snape or Malfoy up, but you have to pick one, and Peter has agree that he's fine without my help."

"Good then. Malfoy," he said, hopping off the bed. "Hey Peter, can I borrow Remus for a while?"

"U-huh," Peter mumbled, not looking up from his essay.

A/N again sorry for the short-ish chapter, and rather pointless to, I am taking a moment to remind you that the Malfoy I'm referring to is not Lucius but rather his younger brother Duncan, its written in one of the earlier chapters. This chapter is dedicated to foureyedsnail you was the first person to figure out what I meant the title of chapter 8 to mean, its not in chapter 9 because I already sent that to the beta's. It is also dedicated to Raichuu who got closest to the real meaning; Contradictory, which was only the title because there is no Italian word for oxymoron. Please review on your way out.

Twa Tea

Xandria Nirvana