Y1: De-Inking and Overthinking

James' big "secret" turned out to be an Invisibility Cloak—Remus had never read nor seen of such a cloak before, but figured that it had to have been extremely expensive. "I got it from my dad," James said proudly, as if inheriting an Invisibility Cloak required only the most sophisticated of talent. "He used to get in trouble at Hogwarts all the time with this thing." At this, James flung the cloak over his head and promptly disappeared.

It was odd: with Remus' enhanced senses, he still knew that James was there, even though he couldn't see him. He could hear his breathing. His scent lingered in a way that it was impossible that he was anywhere else. Remus, who had used his other senses to navigate for his whole life, couldn't imagine what it was like to look at the expanse of air where James should be and not know that an eleven-year-old boy named James Potter was standing there. Remus was suddenly very painfully aware that he was not human.

"I bet it'll fit all four of us," said James, mercifully pulling Remus out of his thoughts. James pulled the cloak down under his chin (ignoring Peter's noise of disgust at the disembodied floating head). "We can sneak anywhere!"

Remus felt a little relief. James' secret wasn't much; not really. If people knew that James had an Invisibility Cloak, they would be on their guard more often—which wasn't what James wanted, but it wouldn't be awful. Remus' secret was a lot more dark and twisted.

But he also felt a little disappointment and envy, which he stuffed in the back of his mind and did not allow himself to feel. Of course he didn't want James to have a dark and painful secret, like he did. He wouldn't wish that on anyone else, even if it meant that they would more readily accept him... after all, it's much easier to be accepting of someone with a secret that resembled one's own... like Hagrid... But no. Remus did not want his dormmates to have dark and twisted secrets. A lighthearted lark involving an Invisibility Cloak was James' deep, dark secret, and Remus Lupin was not jealous.

"So what are we doing with it?" asked Remus. "Just sneaking around and watching Sirius write lines?"

"No, silly. We're going to give him a taste of his own medicine—just like you said. Do you know the Ink-Reversing Charm, by any chance?"

Remus did, but only from countless lonely hours of reading The Complete Book of Spells. "Atrimentum Converto," he recited. "And you move your wand sort of like this—more like a pull than a jab."

James nodded. "Think you can manage it?"

"No! There's not enough time to learn a spell like that—it's ridiculously advanced. And why would you want to make Sirius start all over again?"

"Psh. He doesn't mind, mate. I reckon he likes being in trouble. I know I wouldn't mind, and Sirius and I are basically the same person. Here, let me try. Atrimentum converto, you said? I need some ink... let's see..." James wrote "Remus is being annoying" on a spare bit of parchment and mimicked Remus' wand movements. "Atrimentum converto."

Sure enough, it worked the very first time; ink splattered all over James' sleeve and both James and Peter let out a whoop of joy. Envy was clearly showing on Peter's face—Remus hoped it wasn't written all over his as well. "Impressive," he said, "although I'm not annoying."

"I know," James confirmed smugly. "And you are, kind of. Come on, let's go prank Sirius! Oh, wait. Evanesco." James jabbed his wand at his sleeve, and all the ink disappeared. Peter clapped, and Remus gaped.

"James! That was dangerous! You could have vanished your arm or something if you had messed up, or said it wrong, or aimed wrong..."

"But I didn't. Come on, lads, let's go prank Sirius before he finishes writing."

Remus couldn't tell if he admired James' courage or abhorred his stupidity.

James tossed the Invisibility Cloak over Remus and then crawled under it as well, a little too close for comfort. "Coming, Pettigrew?" Peter lifted the edge of the cloak and positioned himself next to James. "Stand up on three. One, two, three."

They all stood up, and Remus noticed that they had to duck a little in order to ensure that the cloak reached the floor. It was an uncomfortable way to walk—even more so with an injured leg. Remus heard Bufo croak from the other end of the room. "Be right back, Bufo. Don't do anything rash while we're gone."

"Talking to a toad," James scoffed. "Let's go. Right foot, left, right, left..."

Together, they managed to get themselves out of the dormitory and down the corridor. Remus had a fleeting thought that someone would hear or smell them coming, but then realized that he was probably the only one that could do that. Even though it should have been good news, Remus did not feel relieved.

They walked down the corridor as quietly as possible. Remus wasn't actually sure if they were being quiet or not—to a werewolf, they wouldn't have been, but he didn't know anything about human hearing. Every swish of the Cloak, every footstep, every heavy breath by James or Peter, every heartbeat... they all caused Remus to panic as he thought about how loud they were being. Suddenly, Remus heard footsteps that weren't theirs and smelled someone unfamiliar. "Stop," he commanded, barely whispering. "Get to the wall."

"What?"

"Someone's coming. This way." Remus led them against the right wall. They waited.

"I don't think anyone is coming, Remus..." Suddenly, a hunched-over man walked down the hallway, followed by a scrawny cat.

"Could've sworn I heard whispering..." The man muttered. "Come on, Mrs. Norris. Let's look that way." The man walked right past them, and Remus held his breath. One wrong move and I could be expelled, no one wants me here as it is, Hagrid was expelled and he would never do anything wrong, maybe people who aren't completely human are expelled for small reasons...

The man disappeared from sight. "Wonder who he was," said James. "Good call, Remus. How did you know?"

"Have a good sense of hearing," Remus whispered, which wasn't untrue. "He heard us earlier; we should probably stop talking so much."

"Glad we brought you along, then—"

"Shhh!"

They walked further down the corridor and out onto the grounds. It was getting very dark; Remus felt a sudden jolt of panic. It's not a full moon, he told himself, glancing up to the sky just to make sure. Sure enough, the moon was still steadily waning. Remus saw the Whomping Willow swaying leisurely in the distance and felt ill.

He wasn't sure why he was so panicky today. He really was being stupid. "I'm kind of an idiot," he whispered, not realizing that he had said it aloud until it was too late.

James, however, didn't bat an eye. "Yep, we know. Come on, let's go this way."

It was still very uncomfortable to walk under an Invisibility Cloak, but the three of them managed to make it to the greenhouse. The light was on; Remus figured that Sirius was, indeed, still writing. "This is it," whispered James. "Greenhouse Seven."

The door to Greenhouse Seven was open, and James, Remus, and Peter slipped through as quietly as possible. Professor Sprout was standing over Peter; she must have vanished the ink, because the front of her robes were clean... but there was no vanishing her angry expression.

The three walked around Sprout to give James a better shot. Remus tried not to panic even more. They were being so noisy.

James poked his wand out of the edge of the cloak, ever so slowly. The tip was barely visible. "Atrimentum converto," he whispered, his mouth barely moving. Remus figured that it must have been quiet enough, because Sirius and Sprout didn't seem to notice.

Until the ink sprayed all over Sirius' face—then they noticed.

It was terrifying, Remus thought, to see the paper expel itself of ink. Rivers of black were gushing into Sirius' eyes—Remus hoped that he wasn't hurt. Sirius put his hands over the paper, trying to stem the violent flow of ink, but it just spurted around his hands and splattered the sleeve of Sprout's robe. All too suddenly, it stopped, leaving Sirius with a dripping face. He brought a hand to his face and wiped the ink out of his eyes, looking shocked.

Remus was confused. Sirius and Sprout were covered in massive amounts of ink, and Remus was quite certain that massive amounts of ink were not used to write one page of lines. The inkwell was only half gone. But Remus supposed that magic never really made sense in the first place. It was best not to ask questions.

"I don't know how you did that, Black, but I'm giving you another detention—now you have one tomorrow AND the day after! And this time there will be no wands allowed! Do you hear me?"

Sirius' mouth was tightly shut in order to avoid getting ink in it. He wiped his face with both sleeves, but it didn't do much good; ink was steadily dripping onto the floor, leaving a huge puddle underneath his chair. Sirius nodded, splattering a little more ink on Sprout. Remus was glad that he, James, and Peter were standing far enough away so as not to get any ink on the Cloak.

Sirius stood up and all but ran out of the greenhouse. Remus caught a glimpse of the parchment, which was the only thing in the area that was completely clean. Quite impressive magic, he thought. He could hear Peter's breathing raise an octave and get quicker, and he figured that Peter thought so too.

They hightailed it out of the greenhouse, James stifling laughter all the way. Remus felt a little bad—the prank had been a bit mean-spirited, in his opinion. He wondered if Sirius would be angry. The less friends the better, he told himself, but he wasn't sure that he could make himself believe it.

They followed the ink trail all the way back to the dormitory. James only fought harder to stifle his laughter when he heard the hunchbacked man's furious gasp. Remus supposed that he was a custodian of sorts, and he felt worse.

Sirius was in the shower, which made sense, and James and Peter took the time to change into their nightclothes. Remus figured that he'd just sleep in his robes—after all, the lavatory was occupied, and there was no way that he'd be able to explain away the wounds if he changed in front of his friends.

Sirius finally stepped out of the shower, ruffling his hair with a towel. "The weirdest thing happened," he said conversationally. "Sprout let me out of detention early. She's fit to be tied!"

"Really? What happened?" asked Remus. James muffled his snort with a pillow.

"Think the charm backfired. It happened again, right in my face! It was pretty funny," said Sirius, giggling, and Remus felt a bit of relief. He wondered if James was going to own up to the prank, because he certainly wasn't. Sirius could go on believing that the charm had backfired; that would be nice and safe...

"It was us, actually," said James, struggling to keep a straight face.

"What?" Was that an angry tone of voice? Remus couldn't tell. The less friends the better, he repeated to himself like a mantra. The less friends the better.

James pulled out the Invisibility Cloak and swung it over his shoulders, and Sirius immediately understood. "The Cloak! The one that you were telling me about on the train? You dog!" Sirius ran at James and tackled him, but Remus noticed the grin on his face and the playful implication. He breathed a sigh of relief.

As soon as James was subdued, Sirius turned to Peter and Remus. "And you were in on this too? It wasn't just James?"

Remus nodded warily, and he saw Peter do the same out of the corner of his eye.

Sirius grinned animalistically, and Remus suddenly felt something heavy slam into him. He fell backwards on the bed, and realized that Sirius had tackled him. He didn't know how to feel. Joyful, because Sirius treated him just the same as James—a normal human? Guilty, because if Sirius knew what he was, then he wouldn't be touching him at all? Afraid, because Sirius was a lot bigger than he was? Terrified, because perhaps Sirius knew and was doing this with the intent to exterminate a monster? Angry, because his leg hurt?

He decided on the first one.

"Ahhhh! Geroff me!" Remus laughed, his words muffled.

"Do you yield?"

"Never!" Remus pushed on Sirius shoulders, but he didn't budge. Suddenly, he had an idea. He grabbed his wand—which had fallen next to him on the bed—and swished and flicked. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The Levitation Charm didn't work on humans, of course, but Remus managed to Levitate Sirius' shirt backwards enough that Sirius was forced to let go of him. Remus wriggled away, feeling very clever.

James cheered.

Peter clapped.

Sirius laughed.

And Remus felt a sudden rush of rebellion, camaraderie, hilarity... and... what was that last one?

Ah, yes.

A penchant for chaos.

Remus was in high spirits by the time his next Defense Against the Dark Arts class rolled around. He had finally mastered Aguamenti that morning and was feeling rather unstoppable.

He took his seat next to Lily, and paid no attention to Questus (Disillusioned again) at the front of the classroom. The class was quiet that morning. Remus heard a few whispers from the back of the class about quills and parchment and classes, but nobody was really talking as they had been in the previous two classes that Remus had attended. "Hi," Lily said quietly, and Remus greeted her back.

Questus became visible once more, and the class stopped talking immediately. "Morning," he said, leaning back on the desk and crossing his arms.

Lily furrowed her eyebrows in anger, and Remus supposed that she was still bitter about the detention. He wondered if she had been writing lines, like Sirius, James, and Peter—his friends, he thought with an odd fluttery feeling—had been doing.

"I was wondering when this would happen." Questus walked up to Lily's desk and surveyed the class. "You all finally learnt from your mistakes. The first time you attended my class, I was Disillusioned and listening to your conversations. Had Lupin not known I was there, I would have stayed there for another five minutes." Remus wasn't sure whether Questus was angry with him or not. He thought not—after all, hadn't Questus complimented Remus that time?—but Remus was never sure exactly what to expect with Professor Questus.

"The second time you attended class, I did the same thing. However, you all didn't learn—you began talking about things that you most likely did not want me to hear." Remus looked to his left, and noticed a small boy whose cheeks were coloring a little. Remus wondered what had happened.

"The third time you attended class, there was still quite a bit of talking. I suppose you did not expect me to do it a third time—or perhaps you were not thinking at all. This time, however, you learned—you all behaved exactly as you would have had you seen me standing there."

Lily's cheeks were nearly as red as her face, but Remus could tell that it was out of anger. "Professor," she blurted out, sounding as if she were trying to be polite, but failing. "I have learned from my mistake, trust me... but why did you choose eavesdropping, of all things? Why not something else that's less... well, I don't want to say impolite."

"I see you have learned quite admirably, Evans," said Questus, "and, as we discussed earlier, it was not your opinion that landed you in detention. It was your refusal to state your opinion politely. Quite hypocritical, might I add, and I don't stand for hypocrites." Lily tapped her fingers angrily underneath her desk, and Remus noticed that Questus had not answered her question. He was... kind of a git, Remus thought.

"I used to be an Auror—there wasn't room to make mistakes. One wrong move could be fatal. We got lucky sometimes, however—and whenever we made a mistake once, we were very careful not to make it again. If one wrong move is fatal, then two wrong moves is doubly fatal. Learning from one's mistakes is one of the most important steps to survive in such a dangerous world.

"Does anyone know why Muggles are typically more intelligent than wizards? Don't shake your head at me, Black, it's often true. Not all the time, of course, but often. Greensburgh?"

"Problem-solving abilities. They don't have magic, so they have to think for themselves."

"Perfect. Who here has one or more Muggle relatives or close friends? Don't be embarrassed, it's not a bad thing."

A little more than half the class raised their hands, and Remus noticed that Sirius was not one of them, nor James. That was to be expected, he supposed.

"You were correct, Greensburgh; they often do have better problem-solving abilities, as I'm sure all of you with your hands raised know. And some others who were too frightened to raise your hands, of course. Why? Because they learn from their mistakes. Magical folk, because they can do magic, often forget to use their heads. They don't learn because they think that they can wave their wand and fix it all. But you can't solve everything with magic. Think critically. The Dark Arts will not allow you to compose yourself before they strike. So don't be ashamed of your mistakes—well, be ashamed a little. But it's more important to learn from them. Think like a Muggle. Your magic is a weapon, but it is not your only one. You are not nothing without a wand, and critical thinking skills may save your life someday."

Remus tried not to imagine his wand being snapped by an irate Ministry member. He glanced at Lily, whose red color had faded considerably. In fact, she was almost smiling.

"Anyway," said Questus, "I should probably start with the actual lesson plan, lest we fall down a rabbit hole and never resurface. Unfortunately, there's an exam at the end of the year, and I do have to finish the curriculum. Lesson number four: sensitive information, particularly how to keep it secret." Questus tapped his wand on the blackboard, and writing in chalk materialized on it. There was a flurry of movement as all of the students removed parchment and quills from their bags.

"Being an Auror, I've dealt with spies. I've been a spy. I know sensitive information like the back of my hand, and the Ministry has often suffered from entrusting their secrets with the wrong people. People can always be listening, whether it is impolite or not." Professor Questus glanced at Lily, who colored slightly. "The Dark Arts do not care about manners. Opposing forces will not stick to proper etiquette. Today we are going to learn how to keep secrets as secrets.

"There are five categories of sensitive information that you will come across in many careers, and there are six main ways that opposing forces will try to learn this sensitive information. Get ready to take notes. Today we will be listing each and coming up with ways to keep sensitive information secret..."

Secrets? Remus figured he'd better listen up.

"Well, I had my doubts about Questus, but he sure can teach," Lily declared as they left class. "That was a very good lesson, even though he has no sense of etiquette."

"What did he have you do in detention?" Remus asked quietly.

"Nothing much. We just talked a little. He lectured me. Then he complimented me on my bravery again. Then I sorted his bookshelf."

Remus' friends came up behind them, and James slung a shoulder over Remus' arm. Remus jumped at the casual contact. "Talking to your girlfriend, I see?"

"Shut up, Potter," said Lily. "He's my friend. I'm allowed to have friends."

"Ah, yeah. Forgot you were going out with Snivellus. Sorry, Remus, she's taken."

"Shut up, Potter," said Remus, mimicking Lily perfectly.

"James! Remus! Evans. What did you think of the lesson?" said Sirius, who had just caught up to James. Peter was right behind him.

"It was pretty good," said James slowly. "Never heard anyone talk about Muggles like that."

"Me, neither," said Sirius. "Do you think they're really as intelligent as Questus said?"

Lily glared at him. "I'm Muggle-born. Yes, they are. I grew up without magic, and I'd say I'm a fair sight more intelligent than you."

Lily walked away briskly, on the verge of running, and turned the corner out of Remus' sight.

"What's up with her?" asked James. "It was an honest question."

"I don't think anyone likes having their intelligence... and humanity... questioned," said Remus, knowing this all too well. "And, well..." he started laughing. "She got you good!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I don't know how you can be friends with her. Honestly."

Lily's words echoed in Remus' mind. He's my friend. I'm allowed to have friends. That, he supposed, brought the friend count up to five. Things were getting dangerous, yes. But dangerous, Remus was discovering... was fun.

Merlin's beard. What was wrong with him?

AN: I'm thinking about switching the chapter update schedule. I really do have 200 chapters written, and I'm hoping to get them out as fast as possible before slowing down—but I do want to spread things out for reader convenience. Thoughts? Should I slow down? Speed up? Should I lessen it up a bit (down to twice a week) or speed it up a little (every other day)? I actually don't read a lot of fanfiction, so I don't know what's considered overwhelming. Since my following right now is relatively small, I'll consider any and all input—and remember that you can leave a review even if you don't have an FFN account!