Remus closed the door of McGonagall's office lost in his thoughts. He had seen Sirius that morning wearing a new golden wristwatch and it seemed that one of the Slytherin boys had reported one missing.
Remus could visualize asking Sirius whether he had stolen these things or not.
Are you kidding Moony, I wouldn't let a Slytherin possession touch my skin. I would have to be put into quarantine.
Remus could not ask Sirius, but Sirius must have had done it. Sirius was the only likely culprit that Remus knew of. There were plenty of motives that Sirius had and plenty of ways to see his reason threw: he hated the Slytherins, he could use James' invisibility cloak and Sirius was fully capable of getting into the Slytherin dormitory.
"Are you going to class?" Remus looked up. Lily had been standing there the whole time.
"Yeah," he managed to reply.
"Could you tell Professor Potio I'm not feeling well," she said in a quiet voice.
"Alright," Remus answered. Lily turned around and walked off leaving Remus in the hall alone.
He walked down the hall and made his way down two flights of stairs to the dungeons. He returned to his potion's class to find them doing a beauty potion. He joined Sirius, Peter and James (although James did not seem to be helping anybody). Surprisingly, Sirius did not seem to be in the mood to play one of his usual potion's class pranks, but rather followed the instructions carefully.
"So, how did your meeting go?" He asked Remus.
"I have a detention Friday night." Remus replied, deciding not to tell Sirius about the thefts.
"Who's holding it?" Sirius asked.
"Filch," Remus replied.
"Oh, I'm sorry mate, that's awful." That was the extent of their conversation, and nobody said anything through all of potions and all of transfigurations, which was afterwards. It was not until lunch that Peter declared that he would be sitting somewhere else. When Sirius asked with whom, Peter turned red and mumbled something about being asked.
"Look at him," Sirius was saying looking over his shoulder as Peter skulked away. "He would rather sit with some other Gryffendor than us."
"Who's he sitting with?" Asked Remus.
"I can't see. Are you going to eat that mate?" Sirius asked, turning to James, who was poking at his sandwich with a fork. James shook his head and pushed the plate to Sirius who immediately took it and began eating. James had not said anything for all of this morning. Remus was starting to get worried. He was unsure whether to say something or not, so he was just quiet. Lily was not at lunch at all. Remus wouldn't habe been surprised if she were in the hospital wing.
"Oh, look Moony, your followers." Sirius interrupted Remus' thoughts. A seventh year hufflepuff couple had walked up to the front of the Great Hall. There were both holding hands. They stood together while everyone whistled, cat called and rung their cutlery against their glasses. The couple kissed each other and the Great Hall erupted into more noise.
"Oh, great," exclaimed Remus hiding his head in his hands.
"Just think, you're the original, Moony," said Sirius. James hadn't even looked up. He seemed to be very preoccupied with his hands. Remus tried desperately hard to find something else to talk about.
"So, er, what's our next class?" He asked.
"Moony, if you are trying to break the lull in conversation, please do it in a more tactful and less obvious way," Sirius said bluntly. "For your ever-so-seeking-desire to know pointless things like the next class which is ancient runes."
"Thank you, Sirius," Remus replied. "I am going to go to my dormitory right now. See you in ancient runes." With that, Remus got up from his chair and made for the door way. He was not in the mood to deal with Sirius' useless rhetoric.
He passed Peter, who was sitting at the very end of the table. He didn't seem to notice Remus, as he was too preoccupied talking to a blond girl. Remus rolled his eyes and walked past. As he got to the doors of the great hall, they suddenly swung open. Lily came into the hall.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you," she mumbled. She did not look up.
"That's alright," Remus replied. Lily bustled past, still not looking up. Remus decided to let the matter go and walked out of the great hall. He made his way up the gigantic staircase lost in his thoughts. He was so preoccupied that he did not notice that he bumped into Severus Snape.
"You should mind where you are going," Snape said coolly, as Remus stepped backwards down the stairs.
"I'm sorry, Severus, it was my mistake, it will not happen again." Remus tried to get past Severus to go up the stairs, but Severus was blocking the way entirely.
"Pardon me," Remus said in an attempt to get past him.
"Pardon me is right," said Severus. "That was an interesting little stunt, what you pulled off this morning."
Remus rolled his eyes. He could not believe it. Why did his worst enemy have to bring up this at this time when James and Sirius weren't around to stand up for him? Remus did not know how to reply. "Pardon me," he said again more quietly.
"I bet you planned that out," continued Severus, sneering now. "I bet you planned it out all to the last detail. What a funny pair you make. Evens and Lupin. A mudblood and a half blood. Your children will be nothing more than…muggles." That was enough, nobody made fun of Lily's or Remus' lineage. It wasn't enough that Remus was a "half-breed", he had to be a "half-blood" as well.
"Take that back, Snape," Remus said, a lot more strongly than he felt.
"Take what back? The truth?"
Remus sighed very deeply. Loosing his vengeful behavior and being reminded of his weariness he said: "Look, Severus, I'm tired. I'm not feeling well. I'll forget you said anything…"
"But he did say something, and I'm not going to forget it." Sirius was at the bottom of the stair case.
'Oh bugger,' Remus thought. A brawl on the Hogwarts stair case between Severus Snape and Sirius Black. This was going to become historic. Sirius' wand was out before Snape had time to breathe. Sirius bounded up the staircase and was standing in front of Remus and ahead of Severus with his wand pointing at Severus' chest.
"Speak one word," he warned, "and I swear I will push your purple spot stained body off the stair case."
"Try me," replied Snape. Sirius shouted something. Pink smoke emanated from his wand. All of a sudden Snape was breaking out in dark red boils. He was scratching his skin in such a way that it looked like every move pained him. Suddenly, there was a lurch. There was a deep tremor and everything shifted. The first thought that crossed Remus' mind was some sort of earthquake, but in Hogwarts? Then the detection came through. The staircase was moving! Remus felt heavy vertigo. Remus had always been weary of heights and he had never been a great fan of moving objects. He especially found the moving staircases intimidating. Remus closed his eyes as the staircase made a heavy, continuous lurch. He sat down on the step and held his head in his hands. He felt very light headed and dizzy.
From behind Remus' veil of sickness he heard a shout. His first thought was that Sirius had pushed Snape off the staircase. He risked opening his eyes. Snape was leaning over the edge of the staircase on the verge of tumbling off. Sirius seemed to be trying to help him up! Remus couldn't believe his eyes. Sirius Black, actually seemed to be helping Severus Snape.
The staircase came to a heavy stop. It sunk into place. Sirius grabbed Severus by his robes and pulled him over.
"Don't you ever expect something like that from me again." Said Sirius. "I only saved you for my own benefit." Remus stood up from where he was sitting on the steps. Snape still had his nasty boils and he was itching at them horridly.
"If you want gratitude, Black, I'm afraid you won't find it here."
Remus couldn't believe it. Both of them were too stubborn to acknowledge each other. Severus turned and started off down the stairs and Sirius turned and went up the stairs. Remus could do nothing but follow Sirius.
"That worthless, thankless git. I saved his life for him and he didn't even say a measly thanks, Black or other pointless Snivillius-y things to say." Sirius muttered. Remus didn't mention that Sirius had just hexed Severus or that Sirius had specifically told Severus not to thank him. Rather, Remus followed Sirius silently up to stairs to fetch his books from his dormitory for the next class.
A/N: OOHH! An action chapter! This chapter has never really made me happy. I'm a real perfectionist when it comes to quality writing, and this chapter never seemed to fit. If it sounds kind of funny as you read it, that's why. From here on in it starts to get a little angst-y, I'm afraid. I'll still add in some funny lines, for comic relief. Next update on Wednesday!
I really want to thank all of my reviewers you have made me unbelievably happy.
Hermione 'DB' Granger: I would be delighted to join. I had a look at the website yesterday and it's fantastic! I'll send my application in as soon as I can. Thanks so much for inviting me!
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