The rest of Easter break passed incredibly slowly. Remus loved his parents, and he loved being home, but everything seemed dull and pointless now.

It wasn't that Remus had a bad family. He had the best family, probably in the whole world. He only had his parents, but they were wonderful parents who did everything for him and loved him no matter what. It wasn't that his home life was dysfunctional or toxic—it was just sad. It was tragic. There was nobody to socialize with, there was nowhere to go, there was nothing to do, and it only reminded Remus of his tragic past, his painful present, and his bleak future. The Marauders helped him forget all that sometimes, but Remus couldn't help but remember when he was around his parents.

And the even sadder thing was that it was nobody's fault. No matter how much Remus' father seemed like taking the blame, it wasn't his fault. No one was actively causing Remus' misery, so he had no one to blame. He had no way to fix it. It was just there: inevitable, inscrutable, and innate.

But Remus tried to be happy. After all, he was only with his parents for a while, so he might as well enjoy it. He joked around, played Boggart Catch, let his mother complain about his hobo hair, read books, and enjoyed the quiet. He and his father went on a walk (but they didn't want to talk to anybody, so they just walked around the house a few times). He and his mother cooked meals (Remus loved the Hogwarts food, but he had missed cooking with his mother). Remus even practiced duelling a little with his father, who was thoroughly impressed by Remus' newfound skills.

Remus tried to be happy, he really did, but it all came crashing down around him on his last day home, when he unexpectedly burst into tears over dinner.

Remus' father looked a bit startled, and he dropped his spoon directly into the soup—upside-down, even, so that the handle got all soupy. "Remus! What's wrong?" he asked, fishing the spoon out and drying it off with a napkin.

"Sorry." Remus wiped off the tears and looked at his plate. He wondered if it would crack if he stared hard enough. It might. He was a wizard, after all.

"No, don't apologize, tell us what's wrong," said Remus' mother sternly. "Anything we can do?"

Remus shook his head miserably. "I shouldn't have."

He heard the scrape of a chair, and now his father was squatting next to him. "Remus John Lupin, you tell us this instant. I haven't seen you genuinely cry like this in ages. It's not nothing."

"Unless you're a teenage girl," Remus' mum said. "They cry for no reason all the time. I used to, at least. Still do."

"I'm not a teenage girl," said Remus dully.

"Then something's wrong. Tell us."

"It's just..." He wiped his eyes again. "I don't want to tell you. It's going to make you sad, and then you'll talk about me after I've gone to bed. No offense, Mum, but I'm really tired of pity."

Remus' father's heart was going a mile a minute at this point. "You don't... hear that?"

"I try not to listen." Remus sniffled again. It was no use lying to his parents. "Actually, yes. I'm a shameless eavesdropper. I hear a lot of it."

"Oh, honey," said Remus' mother. "We didn't mean..."

"It's okay."

"We just need to talk about it; we'll go insane otherwise..."

"It's okay."

"You should tell us next time you're awake and can hear us..."

"It's okay! It's fine. But I don't want to tell you what's wrong. Can't we just talk about... I dunno. Why are strawberries called 'strawberries'? I've always wondered. They're not made from straw."

"Remus Lupin, you're going to explode if you..."

"Fine." Remus drew in a deep breath, and then he said (quite shortly): "I miss my friends."

Silence.

"That's all?"

"That's all."

"Well, you'll see them tomorrow."

"But what about when they find out? I'll never see them again, will I? I'll just have to come back here—if they don't kill me first, that is."

"Remus!" Remus' mum looked completely shocked. "That's not funny!"

"Sorry. I just..." He groaned and mussed his hair. "Now you're going to talk to each other about how it wasn't a good idea to send me to Hogwarts, and about how I'm going to get depressed and such—don't think I don't hear you worrying about depression—and about how you ruined my life by giving me an education." He looked up, now completely irrationally angry with his parents. In through his nose. Out through his mouth. They hadn't done anything wrong. "Look, just because I have some concerns doesn't mean that sending me to school wasn't the right thing, so please don't worry. I like school, I do. And I'll be fine. But it's hard anyway."

Remus' mother smiled and nodded. Remus looked over at his father, who was smiling as well.

Remus was really tired of fake smiles.

Remus hardly slept at all that night out of pure excitement, and he climbed onto the Hogwarts Express the next day with a huge smile. "Remus!" cried James. "I haven't seen you in two weeks! That's forever! How was your Easter? How are you feeling? How is your mum?"

"All good, James," said Remus, still smiling. "Where's Peter?"

Sirius made a face. "Saying goodbye to his mum. It's taking forever."

Remus set his bag down next to him. "So you had fun at James', Sirius?"

"You sound like someone's mother," James chortled. He raised his voice to a treacle whine. "Did you have fun on your playdate?"

"I don't sound like that. Shut up."

"I did have fun on my playdate, actually," snickered Sirius. "And James and Peter and me are really good at "Jingle Bells". We're doing that today, right? The Marauder Music Prank? Musical Marauders?"

Remus wasn't sure why they were doing "Jingle Bells" in April, but James and Sirius and Peter had assured him that it would be hilarious. He'd eventually agreed. "James and Peter and I," he corrected, not able to ignore that Sirius had used the wrong pronoun.

"Yeah!" said James. "And Sirius. Remus, show us the lights."

Remus had been practicing for the whole remainder of Easter break, and now he could reliably cast moving spots of light on the walls and manipulate them as he pleased. James seemed duly impressed. "This is gonna be perfect," he said. "The electric guitar that Mum bought me is in my pocket. I shrank it."

"Ah." James had been bragging about his electric guitar abilities on the notebook, but Remus wasn't entirely convinced. As clever as James was, there was no way that he had managed to learn the electric guitar in such a short period of time.

"Hey, there's Peter," said James. "Peter!"

Peter rushed over, a recorder in his hands. Remus covered his mouth to stifle his laughter.

"Idiot," said Sirius. "You need to shrink it and then put it in your bag. Otherwise, everyone's going to suspect."

"I know," said Peter. "But my mother asked me why, and then she thought that I was up to something, and then I had to carry it here to convince her otherwise."

"How could anyone think that sweet, adorable Peter is up to something?" said James.

"Perhaps because he was an accomplice to your crimes so many times that he's had nearly as many detentions as you?" offered Remus.

"Oh, yeah."

The train started up, and Remus looked out the window to wave good-bye to his father. Peter pressed his face against the window, right next to Remus, and waved to his own mother, and then James and Sirius did the same. "BYE, JAMES' MUM!" yelled Sirius, and James' mother waved enthusiastically.

Then they all leaned back into the seats, Easter holidays already forgotten completely. Remus was unfathomably glad to be back.

The clinking of silverware against bowls sounded throughout the Great Hall, the ceiling was dark and starry, the chatter of students filled every crevice, and the Marauders couldn't wipe the silly grins from their faces. Especially Remus, who hadn't heard any "Jingle Bells" rehearsals yet and was dying to know how it actually sounded. James and Sirius slowly cleared off as much of the table as they could, ready to hop on top of it.

"Now," James whispered, and Remus conjured bright-colored dots of light on the wall. They hardly showed up because of the light that was already in the Hall, and Remus frowned. That wasn't supposed to happen... but they were a little more apparent when he made them move around, so he figured it was okay. And it was probably a good thing that they weren't exactly visible—Remus didn't really want detention. Fortunately, even if someone did notice the lights, Remus could do the wandwork under the table. No one would ever know that it was him.

James leapt out of his seat and onto the table, and he pulled the guitar out of his bag. "Engorgio!" he cried, pointing his wand at the guitar, and the Hall went silent.

Sirius jumped on the table next to him and pointed his own wand at his throat. "Sonorus!"

Remus glanced at the staff table, where McGonagall was standing up. She looked completely furious. But then Dumbledore put his hand on her shoulder and said something that Remus couldn't hear over the whispered chatter in the Hall. McGonagall said something back, and then she slowly sat down, still looking furious.

Score!

Remus lit up on the inside, but he tried to look unsuspecting and exasperated with his friends. It was harder than he thought.

"Good moooorning Hogwarts!" cried Sirius. "It's the first day after Easter break! In honor of classes beginning again—"

"Oh, joy! Classes!" said James. he didn't even need a Sonorus Charm.

"And also in honor of April Fool's Day, we are going to sing you a song!"

"A song!" echoed James. Then he started playing the guitar.

It sounded awful. Horrible. Completely. Remus covered his face with the hand not holding the wand and tried to suppress a laugh. He could feel his face turning red.

Peter started violently squeaking on the recorder, and then Remus completely lost it. He nearly fell out of his chair.

"Dashing through the snow!" yelled Sirius. "On a Unicorn-drawn sleigh! O'er the hills we go! Laughing all the way!"

"Ha-ha-ha!" screamed James, still playing clusters of unrecognizable notes. Peter screeched along on the recorder.

Remus could barely breathe.

Suddenly, the lights in the Great Hall cut out, and Remus' colored dots were shining brightly on the wall. He glanced up at Dumbledore, who was holding a small metal object and smiling innocently. Remus tried to compose himself and make the dots fly around the Hall, but it proved very difficult.

"It's Christmas in the spring! Making spirits bright! What fun it is to stand and sing a Hogwarts song tonight!"

The school was in an uproar now, but Sirius' singing was at such a high volume that Remus couldn't quite make out what everyone else was saying.

"Oh, Hoggy Warts, Hoggy Warts, teach us something please! Whether we be old and bald or young with scabby kneeee-eeeeeees! Hoggy Warts, Hoggy Warts, bring back what we've forgot! Just do your best, we'll do the rest, and we'll learn till our brains all rot!"

Now it was time for the second verse. James did a weird lick on the guitar, and then Peter started playing one very, very high note on the recorder for thirty seconds straight. Remus was impressed in spite of himself at Peter's lung capacity, but his ears were killing him. It was, however, well worth it.

"We rode our brooms to school, we almost were expelled! We're talented a-plenty with our potions and our spells! Detention is the worst, we've learned an awful lot... we're such a funny bunch of young Marauders, are we not? Oh, Hoggy Warts, Hoggy Warts, teach us something please! Whether we be old and bald or young with scabby kneeee-eeeeeees! Hoggy Warts, Hoggy Warts, bring back what we've forgot! Just do your best, we'll do the rest, and we'll learn till our brains all rot!"

Another guitar lick and recorder solo. James was really getting into it. They all were—even Remus, who was manipulating the dots to shine in Sirius' eyes, and Sirius was laughing and squinting. It was time for the third and final verse. Remus had never heard this one before; they'd written it without him at James' house.

"Feel free to throw us Galleons; no need to hold applause. I'm sure you all appreciate the chaos that we cause! And Remus Lupin's here, and his face is kind of red... he'll lecture us for years tonight as soon as we're in bed! Oh, HOGGY WARTS, HOGGY WARTS... sing along! TEACH US SOMETHING PLEASE..."

Remus cut off the lights in protest of the verse (why had they mentioned him by name? Why had they mentioned him by name?!), and now the school was plunged into darkness. Remus' werewolf-eyes adjusted rather quickly, and he could just barely make out an outline of Dumbledore singing along. Nearly the whole school was, noted Remus triumphantly. Sirius sang the chorus twice more, and then the school erupted into cheers.

The cheering lasted for quite a bit, and then Dumbledore finally cut the lights back on. When he did, James, Sirius, and Peter had disappeared into the night—as invisible and nonexistent as James' electric guitar skills.

Remus wasn't sure where his friends had went; he'd seen them walk out of the Hall, but nothing more. He smiled and picked up his bag to find them. They'd probably donned the Invisibility Cloak and were now hiding in the dormitory.

Remus found that he sort of liked making a spectacle.

Remus' friends were a lot faster than him, so they were indeed in the dormitory when Remus arrived. He Knocked out "Moonlight Sonata" on the door and then entered. His friends were all laughing hysterically, and Remus couldn't help but join in.

"That was... so... bad," he choked. "Oh, it was awful. I've never heard... anything so horrible... in my entire life."

"Musical Marauders, Year One," gasped James, and then Remus couldn't breathe again.

"Oh, Merlin's beard, this is brilliant."

"Did you see Albus Percival Wulfric Brian? He loved us."

"And Minerva!"

"I think... Pomona has heard more... in-tune performances from... Mandrakes," said Sirius, clutching his stomach.

"Peter, that recorder..."

"A Banshee!"

"I saw Peeves trying to sing along, I think."

"Peeves!"

Finally, the chuckles died down, and Remus wiped his eyes. "When I heard my name, I thought you were going to tell everyone that I was doing the lights," he said.

"No way. You've already accumulated two detentions this year. You know, the seven quota is only for you—we've surpassed that by..."

"A few months," Remus deadpanned. "But really. Why didn't you tell them? And why did you have to mention me if you weren't going to say? And why did you have to insult me like that?"

"I think that a rule-abiding Marauder would do a lot for our appearance," said James, smirking. "We were talking about it the other day. If the teachers think that you're keeping us under control, then they won't be on our case as much."

"But..."

"You're basically a staff member already. They know and trust you, don't they? So if you're babysitting us..."

"James..."

"And, come fifth year, you'll probably be a Prefect. If you stay out of trouble, that is. That'll be so good for us! Everyone will think that you're a fun-sponge, boring, studious, rule-abiding, lecturing friend. And then we can get away with all kinds of stuff!"

Remus was definitely not going to be a Prefect. He probably wasn't even going to make it to fifth year. "Well, why me?" he asked. "If you needed to paint someone as the annoying-and-lecturey Marauder, maybe it should have been someone else."

They stared at him blankly. "Because you're already halfway there, mate," said Sirius.

"What? No, I'm not! I don't lecture."

James made his voice all high-pitched and squeaky. "Go near that Whomping Willow one more time and I swear I shall tell Professor Dumbledore!"

"You were going to get hurt."

"This is completely impractical! You can't learn an instrument in one week! This will never work!"

"Well, it didn't, to be fair. You sounded like Banshees."

"Stop teasing Peter! He's not thick!"

"He's not, though."

"You shouldn't hex students in the corridors! It's doesn't matter if it's fun! They feel helpless! And fun is for losers!"

"I didn't say that."

"And Professor Questus is the best teacher ever, and I'm such a teacher's pet that I know all their first names!"

"I listen, James. Maybe you should try it sometime."

"And you shouldn't have flown your broomsticks to Hogwarts! You almost died!"

"You did."

James lowered his voice again, ending the (frankly insulting) impression. "You lecture constantly, Remus."

"Peter, back me up," said Remus. "I don't lecture. I'm just a good friend and I don't want them to die. After all, if they die, then I'll have to sit alone at meals. You believe me, right, Peter? I don't lecture."

"Er." James leered at Peter, who looked quite nervous. "Er. Sorry, Remus. But you kind of do."

"Traitor," said Remus good-naturedly, and he threw a pillow at Peter. He was a little bit worried, actually. What if they didn't actually like him?

That was a weird feeling. Everybody who disliked Remus did so on the basis of his lycanthropy (except Snape, but Remus didn't know him very well). Now that Remus didn't have that to hide behind, anyone who disliked him actually dislike him, not a made-up myth about bloodthirsty monsters. If Remus' friends disliked him without knowing about the lycanthropy... well, that was Remus' fault. He felt sort of exposed. What if he really was annoying? "You three are secretly glad you have me," he said, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice.

"Ah, it's not a secret," said James, and Remus breathed a sigh of relief. "You're great. And you'll make a great Prefect."

"And Head Boy, even," said Sirius.

"I will not be Prefect, and I will not be Head Boy."

"You totally will. The teachers all love you. They hold you after class all the time, they talk to you privately, they whisper to you sometimes, and John even gives you private lessons."

Remus rolled his eyes. "At least I don't sound like a screaming Banshee."

"Speaking of which," said Peter, looking a little worried. "I'm really sick of detention, you know, and we only just finished serving our broomstick detentions. Do you think they'll...?"

"No," said Remus. "Did you see Professor Dumbledore? He was having fun. And I don't think... correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that any of this was against Hogwarts rules, was it?"

"They'll probably add a new rule, just for us," said Sirius.

"Maybe. But I think we're off the hook for now."

James grinned lazily. "All in all, I'd say that Musical Marauders, Year One was an utter success. What do you say we sneak around the castle and annoy some portraits tonight to celebrate?"

The next morning, Remus slept in for an extra ten minutes. The previous night had been enjoyable, but also very tiring—the Marauders hadn't returned back to the dormitory until eleven o'clock.

He walked down to the Great Hall with his friends and ate his breakfast. Sirius had received a torrent of letters from his mother, who had already heard about the Musical Marauders. James read them to himself and then made each one into a paper airplane. "Can I throw them at the Slytherins?" he asked Sirius.

"Absolutely not. I don't need them to know that my own mother thinks that I'm the cockroach of society... sorry, James."

James was making a horrid face at the mention of cockroaches. "Okay. We'll throw them in the fire later."

"Sounds like a plan!"

The Marauders began walking to their first class—Potions today—when Madam Pomfrey pulled Remus aside in the corridor. "Madam Pomfrey? I have to get to class..."

"Oh, no, you do not. You're coming for a check-up."

James snickered. "Yeah, Remus, go for a check-up!"

Remus scowled at James. "Madam Pomfrey..."

Madam Pomfrey frowned at Remus and gripped his forearm more tightly. "You can miss Potions today," she said sternly. "You're just doing a review of Wideye Potion."

Oh. Wolfsbane.

"Fine, fine," said Remus. "Shut up, James."

"Language, Remus," taunted Sirius, and Remus considered hexing him.

He had just started heading to the Hospital Wing with Madam Pomfrey when Sirius started mockingly singing some sort of lullaby, and then Remus really did pull his wand out. But he wasn't nearly Gryffindor enough to do anything with it under Madam Pomfrey's stern countenance, so he put it back slowly and glared at Sirius, who was now openly laughing.

What a day.

"You seem to be happy," said Madam Pomfrey upon arriving at the Hospital Wing. "Was everything all right at home?"

"Oh, yes, Madam Pomfrey. It was lovely, seeing Mum and Dad again."

"And the transformation?"

"Just as it was the eighty-something times that I did it before coming here."

Madam Pomfrey pressed her lips together. "Remus..."

"You don't have to worry about me."

"I know. But I do anyway. You can't just stop worrying about someone. If you die, then all my hard work will have gone to waste."

Remus giggled. "Yeah, okay. But I'm sick of pity."

"I do try, Mr. Lupin. Sit down, let me check on your hands." Remus rolled his sleeves up, and Madam Pomfrey tutted. "I can do better. Stay here."

Remus watched her rub some sort of goo that smelt of tree bark on his hands. "Tell me about your friends' rendition of 'Jingle Bells'," she said.

Remus grinned. "I know as much as you do."

"Hm. Well, I wonder who was doing the lights."

"No idea." Remus was suppressing laughter now, and Madam Pomfrey told him to be still. "Maybe Professor Dumbledore."

"Perhaps. You know, you looked a bit distracted."

"Hard not to be when one's friends are dancing on top of the table."

"True. You know, for lyrics written by eleven-year-olds, they seemed to be very... rhythmic. Relatively so, at least. Most eleven-year-olds just sing normal, non-rhyming sentences, but this was a fully-fledged song with meter and rhyme, wasn't it?"

"Sirius and James and Peter are very clever."

"I wonder how they know so much about poetry."

"They live with me."

"Hm."

Remus suddenly gasped dramatically. "Madam Pomfrey! Are you accusing me of orchestrating the entire thing? I would never!"

"Oh, I wouldn't do that."

"Good. I didn't know a thing about it."

"I thought not. Must have been hard to learn the spells when you were so injured after the transformation. I'm surprised you were awake at all, much less competent enough to do anything useful."

Remus rolled his eyes. "I wasn't that injured, and there was a full week at least after the transform... I mean, yes, it would have been very hard." He brought his free hand to his forehead and groaned. "I didn't say anything, Madam Pomfrey."

Madam Pomfrey snorted. "I'm amazed that your friends haven't gotten the truth out of you yet, Mr. Lupin."

Remus smiled. Then... "We're not going to get detention, are we?"

"No. Professor Dumbledore thought that it was genius. And he even persuaded Professor McGonagall to see the funny side after a while." Remus couldn't imagine Professor McGonagall ever thinking that their stupid song was funny. "Besides, I think a little mischief is good for you. I rarely see you acting like an eleven-year-old."

Both Professor Questus and his parents had said something along those lines. What was up with adults and wanting kids to act their age? "So what you're saying is..." said Remus slyly, "you want me to cause more trouble? Is this an official prescription?"

"Absolutely not."

"So when I get caught filling the Hospital Wing with Bertie Botts' I can just say that I was acting on the matron's orders."

"Remus John Lupin, if I ever find a single Bertie Botts' bean out of place in my Hospital Wing..."

"Only joking," said Remus, grinning. "Or am I?"

Madam Pomfrey shook her head good-naturedly. "You're in such high spirits today."

"Well, I'm glad to be back. I... I missed them. Sirius and James and Peter. It's nice to be here again."

"I'm sure it is, Mr. Lupin."

"I love my parents and all, but it's... not the same."

"Children aren't meant to have only their parents for company," said Madam Pomfrey. "Friends your age are important."

"For psychological development," said Remus, bobbing his head. "Professor Questus told me that, too."

Madam Pomfrey made a face. "Excuse me while I go vomit."

AN: Thus concludes the Lupin family saga... until summer vacation, at least. If you want more Hope Lupin, feel free to check out my short story "Platypus", which I published as a little extra a couple of days ago. I love her so much!