The feelings of worry subsided quickly enough as the week progressed and there still was no mention of what Remus' friends knew (or didn't know) or even any reference to the "fight" he'd had with James. So things simply continued as usual. The dreadful feeling that the psycho mystery man would strike again faded as the weeks turned slowly into months and things returned to what one would dub normal.
The only real exception to this concept of normality was the night in late March when Dumbledore had stood up from his seat at the head table and addressed the students. "Now, now," the entire Great Hall went quiet at the sound of the ancient mans voice, "I am sorry to say that Professor Lamia has officially resigned from the school."
"Yes!"
Remus, surprised by the outburst, looked up at Sirius who had so unceremoniously jumped out of his chair at the announcement, and tried not to laugh. He rather felt like joining his mate in his joyful outburst but said nothing too him as Dumbledore continued, "Yes, thank you Mr. Black. You may sit again," Remus smirked as he looked at the headmaster whose eyes twinkled a bit at Sirius as he sat down.
"Now, without anymore interruptions," he took one final glance at the four of them, "I am happy to say that Professor Slughorn, who has so kindly come out of his early retirement to substitute for all of you has reluctantly agreed to continue teaching full-time."
Dumbledore smiled at Professor Slughorn, who had stood up at the announcement of his name, before he continued, "He will also take the post of Head of Slytherin," he gave one final sweep of the students before and then he announced, "tweak," which all the students took as a sign to get up and clear out of the hall and head for their common rooms.
"I can't believe she's really gone!" James said happily as they wandered up to Gryffindor tower.
"It does seem a bit too good to be true, doesn't it?" Remus stated simply.
"Yeah, but, hell, I don't even care that she was replaced with another Slytherin, at least he's somewhat decent for the house he came out of," Sirius muttered as the Bloody Barron flew past.
The four agreed hastily on that and quickly wandered back to their dormitories. After that night everything hastily returned to usual. Although, they quickly found that their homework was, once again, beginning to pile up. And despite Professor Slughorn's fairness in class, (and to the extreme pleasure of both James and Sirius, it seemed, Slughorns apparent dislike of Snape's teacher's-pet-like tendencies) the class was no easier for Remus, who kept getting slight hints from Slughorn that perhaps he should take up private lessons from Lily Evans, who was quickly becoming one of his favorites.
With these new distractions, Remus' need to speak with Kara, to try and con her into letting the truth out, slowly diminished, and he too fell back into the habit of ignoring her or mocking her when he saw her. All of which he later regretted when the full moon came around and he had had plenty of time to dwell on his behavior.
Remus sighed deeply as he turned his attention to the window beside him. He glanced down at his arm where there were the few leftover gashes from the beast that were heavily scabbed over.
He glanced back out the window only to see the grounds, now green, and the sun shining brightly down upon them. He longed to join the other students romping around, going to classes, or to the lake because they had free periods, or just had to get to class. It was so boring being locked up in the hospital wing, and he would have voiced his opinion to Madam Pomfrey if he didn't suspect that she'd thump him in the temple with her forefinger if he mentioned it once more.
He smiled slightly at the thought, as much as he disliked her seriousness when it came to healing, he had grown attached to the woman. As had the rest of the family. Even his mother tried to keep in touch with the medi-witch as often as she could. She had become somewhat of an honorary member of the Lupin family.
"Er, hello."
The voice startled Remus so, that he moved his arm far too quickly when he turned to see who had come into the room, and ripped open some of the healing flesh. He let out a soft whimper at the hot feeling that was spreading through his arm, but tried desperately to ignore it when his eyes finally fell upon Alexial.
"Oh, hello," he doubted that he had gotten the surprise out of his voice. He watched intently as her eyes shifted from him to the large amount of prank supplies on his side table that James and Sirius had left "for his own amusement."
She smiled weakly at him and slowly stepped closer, "Wow, I... you look horrible."
Remus cocked his eyebrow at her, "I mean," she seemed to take a small breath before she went on, "Kara told me that you'd gotten attacked by a plant in Herbology, but I didn't expect it to be this bad."
Remus smiled at her, thankful to his cousin for coming up with a sincerely valid reason for him to be in the hospital wing, "Yes, well, I shouldn't have bothered it, or it wouldn't have attacked," Alexial grinned at him, "So, what brings you here?"
Her smile faded a bit as Remus held out his hand in an offer for her to sit in the empty chair beside him. She followed the unsaid direction, before she answered, "I think I've become your cousin's personal messenger."
Remus chuckled slightly at the announcement but stopped abruptly at the uneasy expression on her face and let Alexial continue, "Kara said that she is going come down to visit you later so she can talk over some things with you. She didn't tell me what, but it probably is important. With you being family and all."
"That's it?"
"Yeah, I'm sorry it's not much. I told her she could have done this herself but then she seemed to get a little offended," she shifted slightly in her seat before she continued, "I heard that Sirius took some of his revenge against Snape, he cast a nasty curse on him or James, I don't know and I don't care. Either way he took it out on her. She's not very happy to be around anyone who hangs out with Sirius Black at the moment, and I think that includes you."
"Well, that's pleasant," he stated ruefully, "Are you sure she'll make it up then?"
Alexial nodded quickly, "Yeah, I am. She doesn't usually fall back on her word, does she?" Remus shook his head and Alexial stood up, "Well, I have to get to Charms now. I hope you feel better soon Remus. I mean that."
She smiled gently at him. He watched her get up and walk nervously out the door somewhat sorry to see her go so soon. Then Madam Pomfrey bustled back into the room, with more oddly colored potions, "Who was that dear?"
"Alexial Mune."
Madam Pomfrey nodded at it, seeming only to half hear what he had said before she issued him a healthy does of a potion that smelled like sulfur, "You know you are not to have visitors at this time, you're to be resting," she tutted a bit at the newly ripped skin on his arm, "You can't heal properly if you don't rest."
Remus held back the urge to roll his eyes at the medi-witch but the thought quickly left him when she painfully re-"stitched" his arm with a spell that seemed to heal his wound far better than the original slave she had used on it.
"I know that, but she wanted to tell me something urgent. I couldn't just tell her that I'm perfectly awake, but can't except visitors."
The elder woman gave him a stern look that stated merely, "Yes, you could have," but he ignored it as well. "You will rest now. That's final," and with a flick of her wand she closed the curtains completely around his bed so that he could no longer see even the window. He let out a low frustrated growl at the medi-witch as the sound of her feet retreated out of the room.
How could she honestly expect him to rest? He felt fine. Well, aside from the claw-"plant"-marks on his arms and legs that was. The last thing he really wanted to do was take a nap.
He sighed deeply as he threw his head back onto the pillow, and glared at the curtains that were stubbornly blocking his view, when they suddenly sprung open. He instantly closed his eyes, hoping that Madam Pomfrey had not noticed him postponing her strict instructions.
"We know you're not sleeping."
Remus felt a smirk cross his lips at the sound of the voice, "You know I'm not supposed to have visitors," he stated firmly to what appeared to be thin air.
Then his curtains shut once more and he felt a hand feeling the bottom of the bed for his legs, followed shortly by the whole end of his bed dropping a few inches from the added weight, "I mean it. You're going to get me in trouble."
There was a smug laugh and shortly after both James and Sirius materialized from beneath the invisibility cloak. The fleeting thought of "Where's Peter?" crossed his mind but then he noticed the identical smirks on his friend's faces and all his concerns of Peter and Madam Pomfrey left him just as quickly as they had come.
"You won't get in trouble, we placed a silencing spell on the door," Sirius said simply, though he looked over his shoulder as if checking that it had worked before he continued. "Granted it'll probably wear off soon because it's third year magic and I only just tried it out."
"So, in short, we must get this out fast, I think Evans has gone out to sick Filch on us," James stated bluntly as he smiled widely at Remus.
Remus tried not to show his mild look of concern for the effects of whatever they had done to the other party involved, "What did you do?"
"Nothing really," James muttered as Remus cocked his eyebrow at them.
"No really," Sirius interjected seriously, then smirked once more, "It was only a little leg-locker curse, I swear. And it was only because she tried to get in the way of chucking a Filibuster Firework into the back of Snape's robes."
"Kara."
"Yeah, how'd you-"
"Alexial came in, said you did something to her and now she doesn't want to speak to me."
"Oh."
James, sensing the slight tension filling the room, stopped smiling as he turned his full attention to Remus, "That's not what we came here to tell you. And I promise that your cousin is in fine shape, a little upset, but she's fine," he looked into Remus' eyes as if to make sure that he wasn't going to scold him before he went on, "Okay, you'll never believe this, after Sirius hexed Kara, Lily turned up all upset and went on about how we're horrible people and whatnot. She lifted the curse off of Kara and then turned on us so fast that I think we were both afraid she'd jinxed us.
"Well, she starts going on, lecturing us on how we should treat people and how Snape had been 'extinguished' and we should think about what we'd done."
"Then I made the mistake of laughing," Sirius said almost ruefully, "So she turns on me and basically starts repeating the same thing she'd just gone and told James. I don't think I listened because after awhile it seemed more like a high pitched drone."
Remus smiled at the thought of Lily's reprimands becoming a drone, only Sirius could make a connection like that.
"Anyway," James stated, as if Sirius' interruption was not only annoying but unneeded as well, "she then seemed to get bored with him, I think it's because she wasn't getting anything from him, he kind of seemed to shut down. So she turned back to me flabbergasted and starts stuttering," he quickly made his voice to sound high pitched and angry, "'You… you… marauder,'
"I stared at her for a while before I asked, 'Marauder?'
"I swear she had to actually think about what to say. I think she thought the word was going to make me say I was sorry. Which, I most certainly am not. But anyway, she then looked me straight in the eye and said, 'It's the pedestal you put yourself on!'
"Well, to be honest that did shut me up… for a while, because she left in a huff and soon we saw that blasted Mrs. Norris which means, as we said, that Filch is out on the loose trying to find us.
"But you know what, I rather like that… 'Marauder.' What do you think?"
Remus stared at him for a moment, trying to take in the entirety of what he had just said. He then slowly ran through a few of the more "memorable" things they had done that were undoubtedly against the rules, and smiled. It really was fitting.
Then as the back of his mind screamed just to let it be and not say anything his mouth beat him too it, "I like it."
James and Sirius beamed at him, before they gave a great start, "Remus J. Lupin, I told you there was to be no visitors, you're to be resting!"
Remus jumped slightly as the curtains sprang open to reveal a rather confused-looking Madam Pomfrey, "I don't have any visitors," he said as he heard the infirmary door close.
"I could have sworn I heard voices. You're little friends' voices."
"I think you just want me in trouble."
She shot him a warning look, before she ran and got out one more potion, and issued it to him, "Yes well, you should rest so you'll be fine for school tomorrow."
He smiled pleasantly at her as she closed the curtain around his bed once more. Remus let out a sigh of relief, thankful that James had at least had the brains to bring his invisibility cloak with him, and lay back comfortably in his bed. He smiled slightly at the thought of James' tale. He then went back to waiting patiently for his cousin to stop by. But the only person who persistently came into the room was Madam Pomfrey, who kept scolding him for not at least trying to sleep.
Still, there was nothing.
And by the stroke of midnight, with a reluctant sigh Remus shut his eyes, realizing truly, for the first time all day, that this was one of the rare times that Kara had actually fallen back on her word.
AN: This one is just for fun... ignore it if you want, I simply feel the need to say this. The relayedconversation between James and Lily, over theterm 'marauder' ...that took place in real life. One of my good friends got mad at me (I think I was picking on her)and called me that. She's never read any of the Harry Potter books so it was in no way a complimentfrom her... but I found it so perfect that I stored it in my mind to use over a year later! It's amazing how these things work out... haha... me a marauder...