Chapter 19

On Monday morning their exam timetables were issued to them at breakfast, along with new anti-cheating quills they were to use in their afternoon exams. After lunch, they made their way to the charms classroom, Remus almost shaking with nerves.

Professor Flitwick was prepared with a box of feathers they were to levitate, then a box of pineapples they were told to make dance across the desks. "It's a common examination question," Professor Flitwick said as he handed out the pineapples. "No talking now please."

The exam didn't go too badly in their opinion. Peter did manage to send his quill rather than the pineapple hopping but at least the spell had worked. Sirius almost poked Remus' eye out with the feather he was levitating and James lost control slightly of his wand so that his pineapple performed some sort of back flip but he was sure he wouldn't have marks taken off for that.

Their second afternoon exam with professor Quibly was also fairly simple. It was in the classroom, but the classroom had been transformed into a maze. They were told to wait at the entrance until called and get past the obstacles to the other side. The obstacles included a locked door, a goblin stunned on the ground clutching a potion (the goblin needed to be revived in order to continue), a wall of small flames and then some creature they had never seen before, right at the end of the maze. They were undoubtedly expected to remove it and it was a perfect opportunity to get some practise for when they were verses Snape rather than the hairy brown thing.

"But what's the difference?" Sirius joked at dinner that evening.

James grinned but at the look on Remus' face decided to try and prevent the conversation yet again developing into another 'Snape rant' as Remus called them. "So how did you find Herbology Moony?" James asked him as they got to their feet and left the great hall.

Remus frowned. "Well… I wasn't sure whether I picked the right fertiliser to feed the Fruticosus plant but I think I at least managed to distinguish it from its very similar brother species," he said as they arrived in the entrance hall.

"Ok, ok whatever." Sirius said looking bored. "Who cares about gardening?"

"You will when we get to fifth year and have to take it for our OWLs." Remus said darkly. "If you're not fussed about failing that's fine by me, it's your future you know."

Sirius laughed. "Alright calm down… Like I'm going to consider a career in weeding anyway."

"There's a lot more to Herbology than 'weeding' as you would understand if you managed to stay awake during the lesson on the uses of magical plant secretions." Remus pointed out as though he was taking personal offence at Sirius' rant on Herbology. "Are you going to make good use of the evening or not?" He snapped, quite unlike his usual self. His pale eyes turned to Sirius and James who looked at each other.

"Course we're going to make good use of the evening." James assured him.

"Dare I ask what…" Remus muttered to himself.

"Let's go find Snivelly!" Sirius said at once.

"How did I know that was coming?" Remus almost shouted. "It's always you two verses Severus! How fair is that?" His usually pale face was reddening as he shouted. James and Sirius realised with a shock that this must be one of the first times Remus had ever called 'Snivellus' Severus. "Why can't you just leave him? He'll leave you alone if you leave him! This has been going on far too long you two, I've put up with it, I haven't minded, I've even joined in but now I'm not going to let you."

Remus stood his ground, glaring at them. "We all thought it was funny at first." He said. "Enough is enough though." His cheeks were losing their colour again. "Just… Leave him be, ok?" With that he turned and before they could call him back, had scurried up to the common room.

"Severus indeed…" Sirius said half-joking, not sure whether to take him seriously or not.

"He's got a point Padfoot," James said. "How about we go keep the old moon happy and revise with him. Only for one night," he added as Sirius scowled.

"Alright then," Sirius said as if the decision was causing him great pain. "Let's go."

It was just as well they had spent a full three hours revising the previous night, as the Transfiguration exam on Tuesday afternoon was the hardest yet. Their other exams like astronomy went fairly well in their opinion but in transfiguration they were required to transfigure a wide range of objects including wiggentree bark and white mice, which caused a great deal of fuss amongst Lily Evans and her friends. Remus seemed quite satisfied with his white almost perfectly square cushion while Peter was having difficulties and his own cushion emitted loud squeaks and tended to race around the desk if he took his hands off it.

James and Sirius were the first to cheer as the exam ended and Professor McGonnagal had finished collecting in the exam papers. James noticed Lily frantically conferring with Alice over the softness of their cushions. He caught her eye and grinned but she seemed to be too intent on finishing her exam rant that she didn't see him. When he, Sirius and Peter entered the Gryffindor common room that evening for a party however, Remus and Lily were sitting together in a corner, deep in conversation.

"Well what do we have here?" James asked marching over, trying to keep his voice free of jealousy.

"Oh… I… We were just talking about…" Lily said looking at Remus anxiously. "Nothing." She finished trying to avoid Remus' eyes.

"Thanks Lily," Remus said. "Lovely to talk to you." He smiled at her. Not the sort of smile he gave when Gryffindor won a quidditch match or when he got full marks on his homework but this was a proper smile that made James want to throw up.

"Right, well sorry if I was interrupting anything." He said icily. "I'll leave you two in peace shall I?" He glared at Remus whose cheeks were flushing red.

"James, don't…" He began.

Lily got to her feet. "I… I'll see you soon." She said slipping off upstairs.

Remus and James were left alone in the corner of the common room, watching as a group of sixth years hauled in baskets of food and as a couple of seventh years set off some filibuster fireworks.

"So it's you and Evans is it now?" James asked trying in vain to sound casual.

"No," Remus said, staring out of the window. "If you really must know… She was talking to me about something. Something she's found out."

"What?" James asked curiously.

Remus mumbled something about not taking seriously and changed the subject quickly. "Anyway, it's not as if she's your girlfriend James. There's no crime in me talking to her. The way you were going on about it! Well if you don't mind, I think I'll go to bed."

"Aren't you going to stay for the fun?" James asked.

Remus didn't reply, he looked suddenly very pale and the scratches on his face were as clear as ever. He opened his mouth in horror and raced upstairs, James staring after him. However he didn't really feel in the mood for the end of exams party either and as he sat with Peter and Sirius, drinking butterbeer and snacking on chocolate he realised that there was certainly a lot more to Remus than he had originally thought.