CHAPITRE NEUF (sorry…chapter nine…)
Raven was never used to questioning odd requests, so she'd left the library that evening sure that whatever James had up his sleeve was business between Remus and himself. Raven tried to leave it at that, but she couldn't help being curious, especially on Remus's behalf, since he was, after all, a good friend, and she'd been concerned about him lately. She'd not come up with any ideas, but was trying to figure out how he could continuously be ill once a month. Maybe she'd made an error, but t seemed like sometime each month he was absent for one reason or another.
She slowed her procession towards the Ravenclaw common room, and stopped at the sill of one of the castle's tall, ornate windows. She gazed absently into the forbidden forest's solemn treetops. The sun had set, but the moon couldn't be seen, leaving only the orange glow of the castle windows to fall onto the grounds below.
Raven found it tempting to leave the castle and tread the faded slopes of the grounds, but remembered it'd cost a weekend's detention if she were caught.
Instead, she amused herself by pondering what James had to talk to Remus about… she wished it were as easy as simply asking him later, but she wasn't so sure she'd get a fully truthful response - one could never tell with James. Raven could only assume it something to do with a prank of sorts. She reasoned it'd be better to stay out of it, but her thoughts strayed back to Remus. He had approached her that day at the end of a History of Magic lesson to ask if he could copy the notes she'd taken from the day before - when he was absent. She, of course, told him could have them, but also accompanied him in the library.
Raven was suddenly torn from her meditating when she heard the shuffling footfalls of the caretaker right on the corner, and, realizing it was past curfew, made her way back to the Ravenclaw common room.
Saige was reading in an armchair, away from the crowd round the fire when she saw Raven come through the had let go of the banner behind her and the exit had turned back into a blank archway.
"Where've you been all this time?" Saige's voice wasn't irritated, but actually quite interested. Raven laughed.
"Oh…nowhere…" she said idly. Saige's mouth fell open in mock horror.
"You mean to come in here at nearly ten o'clock, and tell me you've been nowhere?" said Saige. "Come off it, Raven, you've been somewhere."
"I was just in the library helping Remus catch up in his classes." Raven replied. "What?" she added at the look Saige had given her. Now it was she who laughed.
"What?" Raven persisted.
"Oh…nothing…" Saige said, in the same idle tone Raven had used. Raven was sure she'd get nothing more out of Saige, and, utterly baffled, she left to her dormitory.
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Winter was upon Hogwarts, and the first snowfall had stopped all classes taking place outdoors that day. This meant snowball wars for the younger students.
A small group of the third years, however, had their own battle nearing an end. Saige had gotten Peter and James down, and Sirius had gotten Lily, and Raven got Remus, but at great cost to her own life, as Sirius had nearly pelted her down.
Fallen against a snow-packed barrier, and covered in snow, Sirius advanced on her with his last snowball in his hand.
"Sirius!" Raven cried dramatically, "Sirius, you wouldn't kill me, would you?"
From somewhere behind Sirius, James lifted his head from where he lay and said, "don't do it, mate, it's a trick!"
"Oh, quiet you, you're dead - " said Raven, who couldn't help laughing, and chucked a handful of snow at James, finishing him off.
But no sooner had the snow left her hand, did Sirius drop his fistful of snow on Raven.
"Victory!" he cried, his fist triumphantly in the air.
"Oh, rot you, Sirius…" Raven groaned as she helped herself up, along with the rest of them, but she couldn't help laughing.
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"There's got to be a way we can help."
It was late in the afternoon on a Sunday, and Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter were to be found laying about the Gryffindor common room. Most of the snow had melted, but the grounds were still painfully cold. James had voiced a thought that's been consuming him since the discovery of Remus's lycanthropy. Sirius, Remus and Peter looked around at James.
"Help what?" asked Peter, who was curled up in an armchair near the fire.
"Help you, Remus," James replied, frowning a little. "You can't be having much fun being - " he lowered his voice, " - a werewolf all by yourself."
Remus gave a disbelieving "ha" of laughter. "James, d'you want to be a werewolf too? Come on, it's risk free!" Sirius laughed.
"I was being serious, mate!" said James
"I know James, but there's…nothing…anyone can do for this sort of problem."
"No," said James, again, with a thoughtful frown, "there must be a way."
"Well…" Sirius began, thinking. "Werewolves are only a danger to humans…so…what if we - "
" - Could turn into animals?" said Peter, rather uncertainly.
"Exactly!" said Sirius sitting up. "We could become Animagi."
"You know how difficult that'd be?" Remus said uneasily. "Not to mention dangerous."
"Well, we can research it a bit more," reasoned James simply. "Sirius, I think you're onto something."
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::: I'm so sorry for the long haul for lack of updates…school's taken up most of my time, but I'm mostly to blame for neglecting Harry Potter for the past few months - but no longer! I've picked up the series again and am not only bursting with inspiration for this fanfiction, but I'm drawing more Harry Potter fanart, so I'll be updating my website as well. Stay tuned, any of my upcoming free time is spent on this!!! :::