Lesson Twenty: Newspaper Heritage

The book seemed to be glaring at him, shouting obscenities, as Remus glanced at the contents. What English is this? he thought bitterly to himself as he flipped to the back looking for the glossary for some translation he knew he wouldn't find. There was no possible way the words printed in his textbook were English. Nor were the words coming out of Slughorn's mouth.

It was nothing short of frustrating for Remus to come to terms, yet again, with the fact that he had been out of the hospital wing for nearly two weeks, and had caught up with all of his assignments only to find that he still could not understand Potions. What was wrong with him that he couldn't do something Peter could do? It couldn't really be that hard, could it?

But it was.

He smiled widely as the bell rang loudly proclaiming his temporary freedom, and quickly jotted down the assignment that the professor had just written on the board. He stood up from his seat and joined James and Sirius with Peter behind him as they walked out the door. He half listened as they discussed the lesson while he double-checked that he still had his Transfiguration essay with him. When he finally located it he looked up a moment later and noticed Kara coming towards him heading to her next class. He forced a grin onto his face, quickly making up his mind.

He hadn't had the chance to talk to her since she had stood him up in the infirmary because she seemed, to his disgust, quite keen on avoiding him. It had not taken him long to come to this conclusion because she evaded him in the Great Hall, choosing to take her meals at a different time or just not having them at all. And then the fact that it went past even that, he never saw her in the usual places he would have run into her had it been earlier in the year. So in a quick stride, just as she reached the classroom, he bid farewell to his mates saying he would be up in a bit. Then he walked towards her placing a hand on her shoulder. "We need to talk."

She let out a low growl before she met him face to face. "No I don't think that we do."

Her tone was cold and he met it with his best challenging look. "Really?"

"Really."

He glared at her when she spit the word back at him. How stubborn could she be? He ground his teeth a bit holding in his own frustrated growl before he continued. "You have to tell them! Or… or I won't keep covering for you. They'll find out anyway so it's bes-"

"That they hear it from me! Bullocks, Remus! If they find out then they find out. I am not going to open up what happened to me for a chat at teatime. It's my problem," she then seemed to realize that her voice was rising and leaned into him to whisper into his ear. "It's my heritage."

Then, before Remus could scorn her for being as inflexible as she was, she turned around and shut the classroom door in his face. He kicked the door with beast-like fury and heard a first year yip slightly at the unexpected noise before he too, turned on his heals and headed for his last class until Astronomy much later that night.

"She's too stubborn for her own good," he growled out as he walked into the Transfiguration room and sat down in his self-assigned seat.

James turned back to him with an inquisitive look but Remus just shrugged in a way that said: "I'll explain it later" knowing that he really wouldn't. Moments later McGonagall stood up from her elevated desk, having taken roll, and commenced with her lesson, (changing a feather into a pillow) which to Remus' grand surprise didn't start out all too badly for him. Amazingly, on his third attempt he had managed to turn his feather into what looked like a stuffed canary without the added appendages. And despite the mild comments from his teacher about his pronunciation of the spell he was still rather proud of his mediocre job.

Eventually, though, by the end of the class Remus had successfully managed to produce a completely de-feathered pillow. Granted it was shortly after Sirius had accomplished the task and long after James had, but he was still glad, nonetheless, to be the third one in the class to manage the feat.

The bell rang a good twenty minutes after he had first gotten the assignment down and he quickly packed up his attempt at the beginnings of the new and equally unpleasant assignment that would be due the next time they had class. He then, stood up and left the room with his mates.

Once they were out of the room the group rounded the corner and headed for the Great Hall for supper. They sat down in there usual spots without any ado and simply went to eating they're meals.

"You know that assignment today wasn't all that easy," James spoke up once the silence became too much for him. "It took me eleven tries to get it. I should have had it in ten but there were still four feathers attached to it. Four feathers!"

Remus chuckled a bit at James' comment before he took a bite of his sandwich. "Yes well, I was just happy to get it by the end of the class."

Sirius nodded his agreement while Peter bitterly poked at the innocent piece of bread that was sitting upon his plate. Obviously perturbed at the fact that his feather had stayed a feather for the whole of the double period. Remus smirked slightly at the saddened look on his mate's face as Sirius chortled. "Perk up Peter. The poor roll didn't do anything to you, there's no need to rip it to shreds," he winked at their sandy haired friend as Peter seemed to force a smile and then stuck a small bit of the broken bread into his mouth.

It didn't take long after that for them to clear off all the contents on their plates, which left them only to discuss the upcoming and last Quidditch game against Ravenclaw. Remus listened for a while to James and Sirius discussing tactics as if they shared the position of team captain. He smiled slightly as James scolded Sirius for saying he'd just randomly shoot Bludgers at people and hope that they'd hit. Then before it fully registered he found himself joining in with his two sickles.

"Your chances are definitely better than usual. Quinn never really recovered from being hit with that Bludger in that last match against Hufflepuff. I heard that they are having a hard time with him. 'He seems disorientated on the field.'"

James turned and looked at Remus. "Where did you hear that?"

Remus shrugged. "I spend a lot of time in the hospital wing, remember?" Sirius cocked an eyebrow at him. "When I was still in hospital they brought him in because he'd managed to get decked with the Quaffle this time during practice. I don't think they even knew the bed I was in was occupied."

James and Sirius exchanged a glance. "You're brilliant! Now we can pass that information to Cooper and use it to our advantage."

"It's perfect to the highest level," Sirius interjected and received a series of strange looks from his mates. "I think we should go."

The other three boys stood up and followed Sirius out of the Hall. As they left Remus casually looked over at the Ravenclaw table where Kara and Alexial were talking. Kara looked up at him and glared before she went back to her story, which Remus couldn't help but think was her simply retelling their argument.

He felt his brow furrow as James tapped his side. "Remus, we're going to head to the library, you know, because we don't have class until Astronomy."

Remus nodded at him. "I'm coming with you."

If he hadn't had his mind so focused on the imaginary conversation going on in his head between Kara and Alexial, he most likely would have laughed at the look of shock displayed so bluntly on all three of his friends faces. James' face settled most quickly into his normal expression. "Are you sure, because we do respect the fact that you don't really want to look into this guy. It really is okay, mate."

"I've changed my mind on that," he unconsciously gave a pointed look at Kara. "I think I have to."

Sirius cocked his eyebrow at the comment but when he received no further reply on the thoughts of his friend he let Remus be. Then with a shrug he stated. "All right, well then, let's get at it then. Only two hours till nightfall."

And with a smart-assed grin plainly on his face, he by passed James and led the way to the library. Remus smiled uneasily as he trailed behind James. His mind silently reeling over his decision, what if he was doing the wrong thing?

He sighed deeply as they wandered into the library gathering a warning glance from Madame Pince, which seemed to say: "I've warned you lot a thousand times to keep quiet in the library. If I hear so much as one word you're out for the rest of the semester." They passed her, while Sirius offered her a casual wave coupled with a wink.

"I think Filch refused her a date again," James whispered once they were well hidden behind a number of bookcases.

The other three chuckled while they filed into the seats at the corner table as James ran off and gathered a number of Daily Prophets and set the pile down before them. In the next second James, Sirius, and Peter pulled out the newspaper that followed wherever then had last left off.

Remus merely stared at the stack for a while before he finally leaned forward and began to shuffle through the yellowing papers. He carefully glanced through the different dates before he stopped suddenly when his eyes fell on a paper dated January 5, 1945. He had no clue why the date seemed right to him; why, that in his gut, that year seemed to have some dull cry of importance, he did not know.

But it did.

He gently pulled the old parchment out from under the other papers. James, appearing to have read the date over his shoulder, cut into his thoughts. "We weren't planning on going back that far," at the blank look on Remus' face he went on, "but if you feel the need to, be my guest."

He then proceeded to pull out the chair next to Remus and sat down. Remus smiled slightly while he opened up his newspaper to the obituaries and glanced over to the paper James was looking at. The date popped out from the rest of the script, September 22, 1965, and Remus felt his skin tremble a bit.

Remus attempted to ignore the feeling of uneasiness that had passed through his body and has seemed to settle there, making itself comfortable. Then with a shrug and another tremble he flipped the first page of the Daily Prophet and slowly looked through the aged paper, with only one thought running through his head:

What am I doing?