Chapter Four: Uncomfortable Lies

A few weeks went by and the boys settled into a kind of casual monotony.

"You'd think, with this place being a school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, that something interesting would be bound to happen sooner or later," Sirius complained as they were finishing dinner one evening. James, uninterested, hardly looked up from his meal. He was used to hearing such comments from Sirius by now. "I mean, really. Think about it. Besides in the classrooms, when have you seen anyone using magic?"

"Well, wh-where else would you use magic? We're not allowed to do it in the hallways," Peter pointed out.

"That's if Filch is around to catch you. It's only wrong if you get caught," Sirius argued.

"You know how Filch is, sneaking up on you. He comes from out of nowhere," Remus stated. Sirius thought about this, going silent and picking at his plate. James finished his meal and stretched. He opened his mouth to say something, then noticed Remus staring avidly at his wristwatch.

"Late for an appointment, Remus?" he joked. Remus jumped.

"Huh? What? Oh, no, it's just—it, uh, feels later than what it is," he said, stumbling over his words. James stared at him.

"You all right, old man?" he asked, noting that Remus looked thinner and paler than usual. His robes were practically hanging from his body. Remus nodded. "You're looking a bit sickly. Maybe you ought to go see Madam Pomfrey." Remus opened his mouth to speak, but a hand landed on his shoulder. He spun, nearly knocking his plate off the table. It was Dumbledore. He smiled kindly down at Remus.

"I didn't mean to frighten you, Remus. May I have a word?"

Remus nodded mutely and followed Dumbledore without a word of explanation to his friends.

"Now what was that all about?" James wondered aloud, staring after them. "A bit odd, that." Then, as if a sudden realization hit him, Sirius exclaimed,

"That's it!"

"What's what?" Peter asked.

"Filch! How does he sneak up on people out of nowhere? He must know some of the secret passages! All we have to do is follow him and learn them as well!" He looked around. "Where's Remus?"

"Wonder what Dumbledore wanted with him?" James asked again as they headed up the stairs towards the boys' dormitory.

"Dunno. Maybe…" Peter tried, but seemed to be at a loss for words.

"Exactly my point. There's no logical reason that we know of for Dumbledore to swoop in and collect Remus."

Sirius hadn't said much since his outburst at dinner about Filch. He seemed to be lost deep in his thoughts. Walking with them seemed more of a habit than an actual choice he was making. James was the first to enter their room and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Remus leaning over his trunk, digging around in his things.

"Remus!" he said, rushing his friend. "What happened? Why did Dumbledore want you?" He bombarded Remus with questions until finally Remus held up his hands to silence him.

"James, it's my mum. She's taken ill and I'm going home for a day, two at most, to be with her."

James stared at him, his mouth slightly agape. Then he took a slow step back and said, "Oh. It's serious, then?"

"I'm not sure. My mum's the sickly type so you never really know," Remus said, not looking at James.

"Oh. Sorry about that, mate," James said sincerely, going to sit on his bed. He watched as Remus packed a very small bag with two outfits and left the room. Sirius and Peter watched from their beds as well. None of them spoke.

"He's a bit of an odd one isn't, he?" said an airy voice from across the room. Sirius, Peter, and James all jumped at the sound. Linkin Lovegood emerged from the shadows of his bed and stood, his quill and parchment grasped tightly in his fists. His quill was dripping with unused ink. The boys eyed him warily. This was the first he had spoken to them all year.

"What's that?" Sirius asked cautiously.

"Your friend. A bit odd, don't you think? I was talking with him earlier and he didn't even believe that Giant Carnivorous Flying Dung Beatles or Crumple Horned Snornacks exist," Linkin said seriously.

"What are—" Peter began, but Sirius stopped him by putting a hand none-too-gently over his mouth.

"I don't think we want to ask that question, Peter," he said quietly to Peter, then said to Linkin, "Right you are, Lovegood. Odd one indeed."

"How's your mum, then, Remus?" Peter asked him a few days later as they headed for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Much better, thank you, Peter," Remus said cheerily, looking much better himself.

"Well," Sirius said, clapping him on the back, "we have good news, Remus, old pal." Remus slanted him a look, but said nothing. "I know you'll be thrilled. Tonight after hours we're all going to follow Filch and learn some new secret passageways. That is to say, you, James, Peter, and myself."

Remus shook his head.

"There is no way. After hours, Sirius, are you kidding? We'll be caught for sure!" he insisted. Sirius said nothing, only patted him on the back. "I mean it, Sirius," Remus insisted.

"I'm sure you do, Remus," was all Sirius said, his smile growing.

"How do you talk me into these things?" Remus whispered.

"It's my wit, my charm, my irresistible nature," Sirius whispered back.

"But you don't have any of those things," Remus pointed out.

"Shut up, you two. You'll get us caught," James reprimanded.

They walked along the deserted corridors looking for any sign of one Mr. Argus Filch. It seemed that every time they heard him just around the next corner, he disappeared on them. James had to agree with Sirius that Filch probably did use some hidden passages.

Just then, James saw a light ahead and gave the other three boys the signal to hide. Which was basically him waving his hands frantically in front of their faces and making 'shooing' motions. They each found different places in the corridor in which to hide: James behind a statue of a one-eyed witch with a hump, Sirius standing stiff-legged behind a suit of armor, Remus ducking inside an empty classroom, and Peter…James looked around…where was Peter? A loud clanging from somewhere down the hallway made him jump. He looked and was horrified to see Peter actually trying to climb inside one of the suits of armor, which was fighting back viciously.

"Get off me!" Peter was shrieking frantically, flailing at the suit of armor. James, Remus, and Sirius all emerged from their hiding spots as one and ran to aid Peter in escaping the clutches of the normally immobile suit of armor. It grappled with them ferociously, seemingly unwilling to give up its prisoner. James saw movement out of the corner of his eye and looked up just in time to see an outline that looked suspiciously like that of Snape round the corner nearest them and disappear from sight. Then, around the opposite corner, ran Filch at full speed.

"I've got you now, you filthy cretins!" he called.

"Though it pains me to have ever had to ask this question, what were you doing trying to climb inside the suit of armor?" Dumbledore asked calmly. Filch had taken them straight to the Headmaster's office after he had helped pry Peter from the deadly grasp of the suit of armor. Dumbledore had been in his chair, rubbing his eyes sleepily, as though he had been waiting for this exact thing to happen. Sirius had to wonder if Dumbledore's powers perhaps extended to being able to tell the future. Sirius figured he could have made just as good a living off telling fortunes as being a headmaster. Neither, he was sure, paid well. Though, as in cases like this, his skill would come in handy to—"Mister Black? If I could have your attention long enough to distribute your punishments?"

Sirius jerked out of his reverie.

"Sorry, Professor, I was just…"

"About to find out your punishment. Firstly, you should know that it is not normally my place to hand out punishments. As a rule, you would be sent to your head of house, which, in your cases, would be Professor McGonagall. However, I would hate to wake that dear woman in the middle of the night just to punish you four. So this is what I am going to do." He opened his mouth to continue, but was cut off abruptly by Sirius' ill-timed proclamation of guilt.

"It was all my doing, Professor. I—I made them come with me. Held at wand-point, they were," he said hurriedly.

"Mr. Black"

"No, honestly. You may think that just because I'm in my first year that I don't know much, but—but the Blacks…they have lots of magic. Yep. We're taught early on all the dark magic you could ever need to…"

"Mr. Black," Dumbledore said loudly, "if you would please calm yourself for a moment. Now, as I was saying, your punishment is this: You are to be in your dormitories two hours before curfew every night,"

"But, Professor," James said, speaking up for the first time, "that would mean we'd have to go up right after dinner!"

"Yes, James, I realize that. Your free time will be limited. Also, you will be in bed an hour before your fellow classmates, and once you are in bed I expect you to stay there. If you are found out of your dormitories again after that time, your punishments will be…" He peered at them over his half-moon spectacles and his eyes narrowed. "…severe."

The boys didn't speak again as they trudged up to the Gryffindor common room. Dumbledore's warning rang over and over again in James' head. What, exactly, did he mean by 'severe'? Like, 'let Filch hang you up in the dungeons by your thumbs' severe? Or 'kicked out of school' severe? He heard Remus sigh and was surprised when he didn't say anything. Remus, James knew, hadn't wanted to come along, but he'd accepted his punishment with the rest of them. James felt closer to him for it. True enough, Peter hadn't said anything either, but James just figured that he was too traumatized by the suit of armor incident. He'd half expected him to wet himself in Dumbledore's office. He chuckled to himself at the thought.

"Don't know what you find so funny," Sirius said grouchily. "We're practically on house arrest! We'll never find out anything now!"

"But we don't have detention," Remus said, his voice less than the cheerful he was going for, "so call it an upside."

"'Upside' my arse," Sirius grumbled.

"Well, Dumbledore didn't give a time limit on how long this would last. Maybe it won't be all that long," James said, trying to convince himself as well as the others.

"Or maybe the reason he didn't specify a time was because it's indefinite," Sirius said, his scowl darkening.

"Oh, come on. Halloween's coming. Even Dumbledore can't be a spoil-sport on Halloween!" James said.

"That's right!" Peter said, speaking for the first time since he'd shouted at the suit of armor. "And then we'll have the Halloween Feast and all the celebrations. I even heard from Amos Diggory and Bertha Jorkins over in Hufflepuff that Dumbledore's planning something."

"Like what?" Sirius asked, eyeing Peter owlishly. Peter flushed.

"Well, they didn't know what exactly. But they said they heard it was big."