Chapter Twenty-One: A Provoking Petition

AN: Sorry for the lack of updates lately, this summer is turning out to be a very stressful one. Thank you for the support and understanding! Between my dog dying, my friend being in the hospital, and my family member's cancer being back I've barely been able to catch my breath. I originally wanted to post three chapters today to make up for it but I have no gotten more than ten chapters ahead of this point which is where I try to be at least. I'm doing my best not to go on hiatus for the summer. Thank you again for the patience, you guys are the best :D

...

When James, Sirius, and Peter had reached the Quidditch field they thought Remus had left the area or Patricia had been pulling their legs. Peter had suggested in a horrified whisper that Remus might have gone into the Whomping Willow but Sirius was sure that was the last place Remus would be and seemed nervous about checking.

James figured the most sensible thing to do would be to turn back since it was more than likely Remus was already back in their dorm.

"I don't know why he'd be near the Quidditch pitch anyways. Patricia probably just wanted to make us do something mundane you know how she can be," Sirius pointed out taking off with a long stride to the Quidditch pitch with a grin. "Might as well get some flying in before dinner. Apparently, no one's using the Quidditch pitch today."

James figured this would be fine since he had personally memorized all of the practice times of the teams since he was planning some way at causing mayhem during the Slytherin practice. Only he hadn't told Sirius yet because anytime Slytherin was brought up Sirius could turn downright insane. James despised some Slytherins but Sirius seemed only too happy to cause harm to any Slytherin that wasn't his own brother and ended up picking on Regulus sometimes even then. James knew it had something to do with the letters Sirius had been receiving, so many of them that he had actually opened one and then proceeded to open all of them. Luckily Remus had noticed and James was sure the only other person who seemed to grasp some of the turmoil of Sirius' life would be better equipped to talk to Sirius about it than him. In all honesty, though James just didn't want Sirius blowing up at him, he had experienced enough of that while Remus was gone for break.

"The last one to the brooms is Snivellus' crumpled tissue," Sirius called out loudly and took off running. James stopped thinking about complicated things like the Black family and bolted after Sirius nearly overtaking him.

"HAH!" Sirius laughed looking pleased with himself. James had noticed that as soon as Sirius had won one race against him there had been more and more foot races lately.

"You enjoy it while you can Black I can beat you at a race on our brooms any day," he gloated as Peter reached the door. A door that was cracked slightly.

"...anyone in there?" James called since Sirius was trying to come up with a clever swear and had not yet noticed the irregularity with the supply shed.

"Yeah...I'm stuck..." came a familiar yet surprising voice.

"Remus? Is that you?" Peter called out, sticking his face in the crack.

"...yeah..." he sighed, sounding tired.

"What are you doing in there?" Sirius asked playfully, perhaps expecting some sort of trick. James grinned wondering if Remus was going to pop out with fireworks or something. Maybe that's what Patricia had been teaching him, how to initiate pranks more. James knew Remus was clever; they just hadn't gotten their friend to fully use his talents for mischief...yet.

"Got stuck...can you guys help?"

James was about to enter but Sirius put a hand on his shoulder grinning mischievously. James raised his eyebrows but didn't enter.

"What's this?" Sirius asked with mock surprise, "the Remus Lupin asking for help, well I don't believe my ears."

Peter giggled and James bit back a smile unsure if this was something they should be teasing Remus about or not. Since finding out about Remus' secret James' correspondence with his own parents had nearly doubled and while Fleamont and Euphemia had no idea what the actual situation was they had been giving him advice on what to do.

"Fine, don't help me. But then you guys won't find out the surprise," Remus shot back, seeming unbothered by the taunt. James relaxed wondering if Sirius felt as much unease and second-guessing around Remus as he now sometimes felt. Only Sirius seemed completely relaxed and since their decision about backing off on Remus' secrets, for now, hadn't seemed to struggle at all. James wasn't sure whether to be relieved that his friend had gotten over himself easily or annoyed because Sirius' lax manner could end up hurting Remus again and he didn't seem to care.

"You're lying Remus. I know there's no surprise," Sirius replied though he didn't sound entirely confident. James grinned wondering if his parents' advice about his 'sensitive friend' had been premature in that he needed to be extra careful around him.

"Yeah if anything you're probably gonna prank us aren't you?" James added only to be met with silence.

"Remus?" Peter asked anxiously.

"Remus...hey Remus..." Sirius followed suit, paling slightly. They entered the shack quickly lighting their wands and finding Remus caught beneath a pile of what must be at least half of the brooms stored in the shed with a heavy Quidditch trunk on his foot. He shifted slightly, eyes closed, but looking fine other than embarrassed.

James snorted in amusement and Peter and Sirius broke down into laughter.

"Tossers," Remus muttered but he was smiling now.

"What did you do? Did you damage one of the brooms?" James asked, absolutely appalled once the initial amusement wore off. Sirius and Peter laughed harder at this not seeming to care if any of the broom bristles had been bent or not.

"Don't think so. Now could you stop laughing and help?"

"You're a right clumsy git aren't you!" Sirius laughed and bent over slightly in his laughing so hard, since really Remus looked quite ridiculous, his limbs sticking out of the pile as if he had been trying to untangle himself.

James stopped laughing once he realized that Remus could have gotten up but was in fact nervous about damaging the brooms. He would not laugh at Remus over his noble attempt to preserve the integrity of the Hogwarts' brooms.

"Lumbering Lupin," Peter wheezed and James lost it at that one laughing so hard he had to lean against the wall so he didn't knock a pile of brooms down on himself.

"Ha...ha...ha..." Remus replied sarcastically but even he started laughing since whenever Peter started his sort of high pitch wheezing laugh it was hard not to join in.

"I bloody love the Marauders," Sirius declared the first to stop laughing and start carefully lifting the brooms off Remus.

"Wish we had a proper camera to document this," James added, coming over to help as well.

"Maybe you'll get one for your birthday," Peter pipped in missing the point slightly.

"None of you lot, are getting a present from me ever again!" Remus huffed in fake irritation batting Sirius' arm away as he attempted to mockingly pat his head.

"That's not very nice. Not after all the trouble we are going to go through to make your birthday special this year." James laughed.

That shut Remus up for a while! Long enough for them to rescue him anyway.

By the time they had gotten Remus free while also not damaging brooms, they were late to dinner which Remus was very apologetic about. They assured him it was fine, Peter with a little bit of nudging, and were informed by Remus that Patricia had been trying to get him to play Quidditch.

James wasn't sure why Patricia would do that but it sounded like something she'd do if not just to boss around Remus into doing something he didn't want to do. After dinner they studied for some time then Peter and Remus snuck out to get snacks. After they returned with a haul of treats the Marauders treated themselves since the immense amount of homework they had been working on had been finished in a relatively short amount of time. So in their free time, they ate snacks and played a game of exploding snap before going to bed. Everything seemed normal even if Remus was spacing out a bit more than normal. James considered versing Remus in chess since he was pretty sure he could win with his friend staring off into the distance so much but Peter stopped him from doing so by pointing out that if Remus was feeling extra tired or sick because of his 'furry little problem' as they now all called it, that it wouldn't be fair to him.

James knew Peter was right but it didn't stop him from wanting to use this opportunity to win. Still, James resisted the temptation and instead helped Remus into his bed who looked so dead tired it was almost funny before retreating to his own bed. James slept through the night like a rock unaware if any of his roommates were sneaking out of the dorm or having nightmares or not, only aware of his amazing dream about being a world-famous Quidditch star.

...

James woke up cheerfully the next morning only to find both Sirius and Remus were fast asleep which was odd, and that they had fallen asleep holding hands which was even odder still. Hoping the both of them hadn't stayed up all night he got himself showered and dressed before creeping over and shouting loudly.

"RISE AND SHINE!"

He regretted his actions instantly since Remus sprung up looking terrified, nearly trembling until he realized it was just James. Remus gave him a shy smile, dark bags under his eyes.

"Morning."

"Sorry, Remus I just wanted to pay Sirius back."

"I get it," Remus whispered and hastily retreated to the bathroom. James nudged Sirius with his foot.

"Morning! Come on get up," he grumbled when Sirius only groaned and buried his face under his pillow. "It's not my fault you stayed up all night, we've got practice before breakfast, come on," he urged, correctly predicting Sirius had forgotten all about their scheduled Tuesday practice.

"NOOOOOOOO. Go without me," Sirius whined but got up with more prompting and James helped him get into his flying gear. Sirius' grumbling lasted until they got to the pitch and even with James' kindness in privately helping Sirius practice, during which Sirius had nearly fallen off his broom, his friend seemed to droop. Usually, Sirius stayed and watched the Gryffindor practice, convinced that him showing up pretty often would increase his chances of getting on the team next year. James was glad his friend had gotten over being a prat about not getting onto the team. Only James didn't think Sirius was making a good impression this time around, not with him actually falling asleep in the Quidditch stands during the Gryffindor team's practice anyway.

"Why did you stay up all night?" James accused, unable to hold back the question any longer. He was nervous Sirius would tell him exactly why and it would have to do with the Black family and James would be woefully lost in what to say to his friend like he, unfortunately, appeared to be. James had slowly been losing his confidence in his ability to console and help his friends, especially since even with all that Peter and he had done to help Sirius over Christmas break nothing had successfully helped for very long until Remus had returned.

"You'll find out soon so I guess it's ok to tell you," Sirius mumbled after hesitating which made James realize it had to do with Remus.

"What is it?" he asked with an added level of urgency since the problem with Sirius' family was non-existent until Spring break which James hoped the continued presence of the Triwizard Tournament took care of.

Before Sirius could answer though James heard the answer for himself as three Hufflepuffs walked ahead of them muttering about how the petition better be passed and that they had heard Davey had died because of the Whomping Willow tree.

"Oh..." James replied dumbly, knowing Remus well enough to know exactly who, his sometimes sadly foolish friend, would be blamed for this.

"Stupid Regulus and his stupid friends. Stupid Davey. He didn't actually die by the way...at least I don't think so. But I guess when Peter and Remus took their turn sneaking snacks from the kitchens they overheard students talking about it. Apparently, Davey has returned to Hogwarts and started telling anyone who would listen how evil the Whomping Willow is and how it ought to be burned down. It took a few days for him to spread the word and no one was really paying him much mind but then he was rushed to St. Mungos last night. I really don't think he died but everyone is going to be talking about it today. Also, I was told by Dorcas during practice that she heard one of the blasted students from Abraeselt started a petition to get rid of it. Digore students apparently think it's cool what with them fighting dragons at their school I guess but the Abreaselts think it's 'unethical' having something so dangerous on the grounds," Sirius ranted, once he started on the topic unable to shut up about it in a sort of frenzied tone that lack of sleep probably wasn't helping.

"Is Remus going to be at breakfast?"

"Probably not. He's blaming himself. I tried to convince him not to last night...stayed up all bloody night with him trying to get him to see sense but I don't think I did a lick of good honestly..." Sirius shouted in frustration and James elbowed him worried the slap-happy, well slap angry, teenager would hint at something he shouldn't. Several older Ravenclaws along with two Abraeselt students shot tired grumpy looks at Sirius' loud tone but didn't seem to register or care about what the actual meaning of his words was.

"Keep your voice down," James instructed, secretly a little pleased it was Sirius almost letting something slip rather than him for once.

"Sorry it just isn't fair it's not fair at all! He already deals with so much. Why can't we just blame Davey since it's actually his bloody fault and then stay away from the fucking tree," Sirius grumbled as protective as all the Marauders were of their kindest member.

James wasn't sure what to say other than to agree with Sirius because it really wasn't fair. It was eating him up that there wasn't something more concrete he could do and he wasn't sure he'd stop worrying about Remus until he saw their friend right after the full moon and he was fine. James really hoped that happened for all of their sakes...

Remus wasn't at breakfast and he was dodgy in classes, sitting by himself during History of Magic and partnering with Lily during Herbology. But Lily was magnificent and brilliant and as such was not usually someone Remus usually avoided. Remus' avoidance wasn't a surprise to anyone, but Peter who despite hearing the rumors last night hadn't thought about how it might affect Remus until Sirius literally spelled it out for him with much more irritation than he should be having with their friend. So it wasn't shocking when he didn't appear at lunch and when he didn't even meet their eyes in Charms or Transfiguration.

Then came DADA which still was Sirius' least favorite subject as he had confessed to James that it was harder than he let on not being prejudiced and all. James' initial reaction had been to get angry at Sirius but he had stopped himself not wanting Sirius to get into the state he had been in during break again. Whatever he had ended up saying, something along the lines of 'at least you're trying', had seemed to be the right answer which was a relief.

James had been nervous about the next 'guest' of Professor Corbyn for weeks after Mr. Howell but it turned out that their professor had taken a break from guests after Mr. Howell for a while. Whether that was because he knew what was going on with the Marauders, felt guilty about the effect on Remus their last guest visit had, or simply because he couldn't find any willing participants, it didn't matter because it meant that there were no surprises in class.

But it seemed that today Corbyn had taken special consideration to find a guest astounding enough to halt the conversations about Davey Gudgeon.