"Eight am classes should only be optional ones," Peter grumbled on Monday morning, staring miserably at the sausage on his plate.

"You get up earlier than that to take photos," James pointed out, far too cheerfully.

Peter scowled. "That's different. That's—that's by choice."

Sirius tilted his head, giving Pete a slight smirk. "Don't you say something like this every Monday?"

"Mmm, probably. Still stands."

Early owl post came at that moment, and all four Marauders received something. Godric dropped a large package in front of James before strutting around looking proud of himself. Cocoa had a rather thick envelope for Peter that he had some trouble carrying. The school owl Remus had sent to his parents was back with a small package. And finally Filibuster practically threw an envelope at Sirius, tried to bite Godric, stole all the bacon off of Sirius's plate, and then took off with bits of bacon falling all over.

Biscuits! Remus thought happily after opening up the package, ignoring James and Sirius arguing about Fili's attempted attack on Godric. Twelve lovely chocolate biscuits that smelled delicious. Carefully he split them up. Two he slid to Sirius next to him, two across the table to Peter, and two to James. Then two more were wrapped up to give to Lily later. Then, after a thought, he wrapped up two more to give to Aegis. Aegis deserved some too.

"You need to keep some for yourself!" James protested, seeing Remus only had two left.

"I don't mind sharing," he said, tucking the remaining two back in the plastic container. Sirius tried pushing his back and Remus shook his head. "I want to share, please. Please," he added when Sirius frowned. "Or I'll give my last two to someone else."

Sirius rolled his eyes and accepted the treats. Remus was about to look for Lily when she appeared as if she knew. Before he could offer her the biscuits, she began speaking.

"Remus, you're not going to the concert, right?" she asked and he shook his head. "What about the rest of you?" She cast hopeful looks at the other boys. "Are any of your parents chaperoning?"

"Mine would never," snorted Sirius.

"Mum won't do it," Peter said rather dolefully. "She doesn't approve of the Hufflepuffskeins. Says their clothes are too revealing and that they're 'bad' girls."

Lily looked at James. "And you? Surely you'd be going."

"Sorry, Red, my parents will be out of the country that week," James said, probably taking pleasure in the downcast expression that filled her face.

"Oh. Er. Well, um, okay, yeah, thank you," she sighed, pushing some hair back. "Thank you," she added when Remus gave her the biscuits.

"Maybe you'll find someone else who can take you?" Peter asked.

She gave a shrug, twisting the napkin-wrapped biscuits around in her hands. "I dunno. I've been asking around and it doesn't seem like many third years are going. The only ones who are as far as I've found is Bones, and he said he's already taking Rivers and he's not sure if his father will want a third kid to watch but he's going to ask. Then I think McCormack is taking some friends but I don't know her that well, it'd be awkward to ask."

Remus felt bad for Lily, knowing how much she wanted to go. He wished he could help but even if he asked his father to chaperone and even if Lyall said yes, he could never bring a friend. "I'm sorry."

"It's all right." She gave him a smile. "Maybe there will be another concert I can go to. After all they performed last October too. See you later! Oh! Remus!" She spun around, nearly tripping over her own feet. "I was thinking perhaps we could meet up later, to start working on our Runes project?"

Snape, he thought, trying not to gag. "Yeah. Ooh, er, well, I—I'm meeting Jean-Marie after supper. To help him."

"Sometime during a free period then," she suggested. "Severus has one at three as well. We could meet then?"

That was after Herbology and Magical Creatures, when most likely he'd be sweaty and stinky. He knew Snape would say some rude things if he showed up like that. "Yes, that will work," he said, trying not to sigh. Lily flashed him a smile before taking off again.

James leaned across the table. "You should—"

"I'm not doing anything to Snape while we're working on our project," Remus cut him off. "I want a good grade."

"But—"

"No."

James stuck his lower lip out. "Right, but hear me out. Imagine—"

"Imagine me putting the silencing spell on you," Remus threatened and James sank back down, scowling. He perked right back up, though, when Remus added, "You can ambush him after our meeting but not during." He said that only because he knew perfectly well they'd eventually settle on that idea themselves.

-x-

Herbology turned out to be rough. Professor Sprout had them grubbing around in dirt to dig up as many Drainer-Worms as they could, a magical bug that while not really ruining the plant itself, would cause the plant's magical properties to fade, or rather 'draining' them of their magical properties. As some had been found in one of the greenhouses… Sprout decided it would be a good lesson for the kids to find them.

"This is more like detention work," grumbled James, squatting in some dirt and poking his fingers down into the earth. "She's just getting us to do her dirty work for her."

"Why can't she just summon them outta the ground?" Peter asked, yanking one of the worms out and wrinkling his nose as he tossed it in the bucket.

"It's something we should know how to deal with," Remus said, carefully sifting through some loose dirt. "If you have a garden at home growing plants you intend to use, you need to know the signs of Drainer-Worms and how to deal with them." He seized a squirmy end and yanked it out. It wriggled between his fingers in protest as he held it up, studying it carefully.

"Orrrrr I could hire someone to do it for me," James said brightly.

"You can't just throw money at all your problems, Potter," snapped a Hufflepuff girl crouched nearby.

James rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out. A moment later Sirius appeared with a wicked grin on his face, the reason becoming clear a few minutes later when Tanaka began screaming and leaping around. Drainer-Worms had 'somehow' gotten down the back of her shirt. She flailed wildly, arms wheeling as she tried to get them out. Her friends grabbed her to try to help, and Sprout ran over. She had Tanaka untuck her shirt and shake the worms out.

Then Tanaka gave a particular blood-curdling scream. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared as Tanaka ran out of the greenhouse. Her friends gaped while Sprout scowled, eyes scanning the room to figure out who had done this.

"Ten to one one of them got in her knickers," Sirius whispered. James began snorting with laughter and that was enough for Sprout.

"Potter! Black!" She marched over, her eyes flashing with fury. "Did you do this?"

"Do what, Professor?" James asked innocently. "I've been over here this whole time. Ask Catchlove," he added, indicating the Hufflepuff girl who had spoken up earlier, "she was complaining about me just a couple of minutes ago."

Sprout looked at Sirius. "I was over here too," he lied, fluttering his long lashes.

The Puffs weren't going to let it slide, and Christopher Jenkins spoke up. "No he wasn't. He was over here a bit ago."

"Was he near Miss Tanaka?" Sprout asked.

Jenkins shrugged. "I dunno, but he had his wand out."

"That's not enough to accuse me!" Sirius protested when Sprout turned back to face him.

"Detention, Mr. Black."

"But—"

"Do you want me to make it more?" Sirius clamped his lips shut. "Miss Torres, go and make sure Miss Tanaka is all right," Sprout said and Tanaka's friend left the greenhouse. Sprout gave Sirius a look then returned to where she was earlier.

"Oooh!" Sirius squat back down, furiously prodding the dirt. "How unfair is that? They had no evidence against me!"

"You did do it, though… didn't you?" Remus asked.

Sirius smirked. "'Course I did. But it's not fair to give me detention without proof. Hmph."

Remus wanted to point out there was little reason for Sirius to be creeping around with his wand out unless he was up to something, but kept his mouth shut.

By the time Sprout dismissed class everyone was sweaty and dirty, trudging out of the greenhouse. The ones who didn't take Magical Creatures got to go to their dorms for showers while the other Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs met up with the Ravenclaws and Slytherins near the lake where Kettleburn had told them to be for today's class. Tanaka and Torres soon appeared, Tanaka keeping her chin up as if nothing happened in Herbology.

They were learning about plimpies. They had already learned a bit about the aquatic creatures on Defense Against the Dark Arts in previous years, however this time they learned more about their eating habits, how they preferred their habitat—things you'd need to know if you intended to keep them.

"Yes, Miss Urswick?" Kettleburn asked. He was standing in the water, trouser legs rolled up which revealed many more scars and marks on one bare leg, and the fact his right leg was a prosthetic. Still, there was a deep scratch in the fake leg and something that looked like it could be a burn mark.

Chloe Urswick of Slytherin lowered her hand. "You—you said these are pets for some people?"

"Yes," Kettleburn replied, holding a plimpy in his hand. It kept wriggling, kicking its feet and trying to get away.

"But—but I've had plimpies to—to—" Urswick turned a little green. "To eat!"

"Yes, plimpies are a popular dish, served in many different ways," Kettleburn said.

To Remus's left, he heard Alice give a disgusted scoff. Urswick seemed to agree since she put her hands on her stomach and began moaning about eating pets. Remus wondered if she knew some people kept chickens as pets, or pigs, or many other animals people ate.

Kettleburn quickly switched the conversation back to some plimpy upkeep tips, while Remus tried to remember if he had ever eaten plimpy before. When he mentioned it after class, James said Hogwarts had served it so Remus figured he must have.

Then his friends wished him luck with 'the greasy one' and Remus stopped in his tracks, remembering suddenly he was supposed to meet up with Lily and Snape. He looked down at himself, covered in dirt, sweat, lake water—from wading in and some splashing from James and Sirius—and other grime. Can't be helped, he thought as he miserably headed to the library.

Lily and Snape were already there at a table, runic books spread out around them. Lily smiled when Remus approached them while Snape pinched his nose.

"And your friends insist I'm the one that doesn't know how to bathe?" he asked.

Remus slipped into a seat as far from Snape as he could get. "I had Herbology and M-Magical Creatures in a—a row, I d-didn't have time to clean up." Snape pulled his wand out and Remus flinched, but Snape used a spell to make the air smell like flowers. It's not THAT bad, Remus silently grumbled. Out loud he said, "We're not supposed t-to use spells in the l-library."

"I doubt we're supposed to smear mud all over the chairs either," Snape said with an annoying smirk.

Lily cleared her throat. "Right, can we focus on the project instead of… er, instead of arguing? Please? I know this isn't the most ideal situation for either of you, however I'm hoping you two can work together well enough for this."

"Of course I can," Snape said quickly.

"I s-said before I could, and I will," Remus said.

With that out, they began working on the project—or rather, planning on their work. They had been given a page of runes to translate and all three had different ideas of how to do it. Lily wanted to work together, translating everything together. Snape thought it'd be better if each of them tackled a section on their own. Remus thought they should each translate the entire page and then compare.

"Why would we want to do more work than needed?" Snape sneered.

"I think th-this way we could most easily figure out the d-difficult areas, and then work on the—the difficult parts together," Remus stammered.

Snape rolled his eyes. "That sounds so stupid, and it sounds as though we'll just end up doing what she suggested only with more work!"

It would mean less time together, he thought rather bitterly, toying with his quill.

"We will have to go over the entire thing together regardless," Lily said hesitantly. "We can't each do a section and call it a day."

Snape went faintly pink. "I never said we wouldn't. We would have to go over it together, to make sure nobody made…" Snape locked his black eyes on Remus. "Any mistakes."

"My r-r-runic work is fine!"

"You weren't even paying attention in class—"

"I w-w-was having a b-b-bad—a bad—a bad—"

"Merlin, you can't even speak English how do you expect to translate anything into—"

"Stop!" Lily snapped, jumping to her feet. "You both promised to be good and not argue!"

Remus and Snape exchanged rather miserable looks. "Let's g-go with your idea, Lily," Remus said, not wanting to do Snape's idea at all. Snape reluctantly agreed to Lily's idea as well. Remus could already foresee long hours in the library with lots of arguing. They'd probably end up being kicked out.

"When would be a good time to meet again?" Lily asked, messing with the end of her braid.

"Tomorrow, I suppose," sighed Snape.

"Er, I c-c-can't do tomorrow evening," Remus got out and Snape pressed his lips thin. "Er, I have—erm, to meet up with P-Pomfrey."

"Your weekly checkup?" Lily asked and he nodded. "I thought those were on Wednesdays now."

"We had to move them back to Tuesdays," he muttered, avoiding Lily's eyes.

Snape gave Remus a weird look. "You see the nurse every week? Why? To make sure you aren't contagious?"

"Sev!" Lily snapped,

"Apparently I'm only c-contagious to pillocks so Lily's fine but you're in danger—"

"REMUS!"

"Oh, what pleasant language to use around a girl," Snape said.

Lily looked ready to throw something. "All right, stop, stop, both of you! First of all, Sev, I've heard and said worse. Second of all, Remus isn't contagious. Third of all, Remus, don't call Severus a pillock!" The two boys glared at one another but remained silent. Lily rubbed her forehead then began gathering her things. "Right, we might as well end this now before you two kill each other. Is Wednesday evening all right?"

"Why can't we meet tomorrow after he sees the nurse?" Snape asked, folding his arms. "How long could it take?"

Remus opened his mouth to say an hour then closed his mouth, realizing it wasn't anymore. "Two hours."

"Two hours?!" Snape goggled at him. "What the hell, Loopy?"

"Sev," Lily moaned. "Wednesday. We'll meet Wednesday."

Snape grabbed his books. "Fine, Wednesday."

Remus shrugged and began putting his things away. "Oh, Remus, I had a question," Lily said. Snape gave them a curious glance but when Lily only smiled at him he scowled and stormed off, muttering under his breath. "Yeah, erm, I was wondering what you think about David?"

"David?" Remus stood up, swinging his bag over his shoulder. "Struthers?"

"Mmhmm!"

"Er, he—he's nice," he said slowly. "Good taste in music. We've talked sometimes. We usually partner in Divination. He's nice."

"Nice?"

"Yes."

"Spinnet doesn't seem nice."

Remus wondered what this was about. "No, he's not. I thought you were asking about David, not Spinnet."

Lily shook her head. "I was asking about David. I just wasn't sure since he's such good friends with Spinnet, and Spinnet isn't nice."

"I'm good friends with James," Remus pointed out.

Lily began giggling. "All right, that's a good point. So you like David?"

"I mean we're not—"

But before Remus could finish there was a very loud shriek from the front of the library that sounded remarkably like Snape. Lily and Remus looked at each other then hurried off, Remus suspecting what they were going to find and sure enough right outside the doors of the library was Snape covered in smelly, gloopy mud.

Snape spun around, sending mud flying. "Lupin!"

"I d-d-didn't do it!" he protested, mostly to Lily.

"Where're your friends?!" she demanded.

Farrow was pacing around to make sure none of the mud crossed over into the library and at this point he shooed Lily and Remus out, shutting the doors quickly.

"I don't know where they are," Remus said as soon as the doors shut, though had the feeling they were nearby watching.

Snape picked up a large bucket, brandishing it at Remus. "You had something to do with it, you and those idiot friends of yours. Barmy and Pratty and Pokey!" He lobbed the bucket at Remus who ducked under it as Snape fled the corridor, ignoring the laughter from other students.

"I swear I didn't have anything to do with this," Remus told Lily.

"It was still your friends," she said stiffly.

He couldn't deny it and began tugging at the hem of his sleeveless jumper. "Er. Well. Um. It's possible it was them, but you don't know for sure."

"Right."

"I—I'll see you in class."

He walked off quickly, trying to figure out if he had enough time to get a quick shower and figured that while he didn't, he did have enough time to put a clean uniform on so he wouldn't show up for Study of Ancient Runes covered in mud. Snape, however, didn't show up until halfway through class, slinking to his usual seat while the teachers gave him rather stern looks. Apparently, he had preferred getting a shower to showing up covered in mud which considering the fact the mud was from the Marauders and had who-knew-what in it, Remus couldn't really blame him.

-x-

"You put what in it?"

Sirius grinned while James and Peter snickered. "So we found out how wet it needs to be for frog spawn soap to activate and we managed to get the mud at the right… uh… you know…" He waved his hand.

"Consistency?" Remus offered.

Sirius snapped his fingers. "Yeah. Anyway, so the frog didn't spawn until he got his shower."

Remus covered his mouth, giggling at the thought of Snape starting up the water only to have frogs spawning. Then he realized he was thinking about Snape in the shower and wanted to drink a memory erasing potion immediately.

"Ugh, I feel sick." He clutched his middle, bending forward. "Can nobody ever mention the words 'Snape' and 'shower' in the same sentence unless it's jokes about him not showering?"

Peter nodded. "Yeah, I had the same reaction."

"So." James slung an arm around Remus's shoulder and he covered his mouth and nose again, this time to try to block out some of the sweat stench; it was obvious James hadn't taken a shower after today's practice. "What's the plan for tomorrow?"

"What's tomorrow?" Pete asked.

Sirius nudged him. "Fawley's going to go into your head and see you pissing."

"DON'T!" Peter shrieked, giving Sirius a shove. "You know that thought makes me feel uncomfortable—"

"She doesn't," Remus promised before a fight could start. "She leaves the memory if I'm…" He trailed off, not wanting to tell them the full truth because he didn't want to talk about certain things. "You know, in certain situations. She is very good at not invading privacy. I promise. And if I ask her not to stay in certain memories she won't."

"Certain memories?" James asked.

Remus shrugged. "For instance… if you tell me something private, I could tell Miss Fawley 'if you see me and James in our dorm, leave the memory'."

"Ooh, that's good she does that," Peter said.

James gave Sirius a strange look, then whipped his head back to Remus. "So I could tell her to avoid certain memories?"

"Yes…"

"All right yeah, that's great." James put on a big smile. "I'm so excited to start learning Occlumency! I bet I'm amazing at it!"

"You do understand you're supposed to empty your head," Sirius teased. "Which means not even thinking about how 'amazing' you are."

James gave a roar and tackled Sirius, the two of them going down and rolling around on the floor until James came out the champion, pinning Sirius down and sitting on him. Remus watched, amused, wondering if James was going to be good at it. Better than him. Or Peter—would they both zoom past him? He began tugging at the end of his sleeve, knowing that controlling emotions was a big part of Occlumency and that was part of his problem. All his anxiety and worries…

Then suddenly he was knocked back as James tackled him, shouting something about a Marauder fight, and then all the Marauders were on him, dragging him into a four-person dogpile. He laughed, wriggling under their arms and trying to win the battle without using too much strength. Of course, since he didn't want to hurt them he wound up losing, but it was a lot of fun anyway and he got to be smug over the fact he was the only one that didn't need to use bruise balm afterwards since they faded so quickly.

-x-

Arithmancy was fast becoming Remus's least favorite class. It wasn't horrible or anything, it just felt like an extension of Divination with numbers. And the adding and dividing wasn't that difficult either, so usually when they were given something to do he'd be done before anyone else and have to sit there daydreaming.

Today he was daydreaming about finding out about the Pura Linea potion, and debating about taking up Sirius on the tutoring thing. He chewed at his quill, staring blankly at the numbers on the blackboard, brain flipping back and forth.

Would it be wrong to take some money to tutor someone? he scribbled down and flicked the paper to Lily who was also done with her calculations.

Yes, Remus, it is absolutely wrong to charge money for your expertise and your time, was the response. Remus looked at her and she rolled her eyes.

I've never seen ink drip with such sarcasm, he wrote back.

Considering your friends I'll take that as a compliment and a victory. Who are you going to tutor?

A friend of a friend.

Ooh! Mysterious.

I'm not charging Jean-Marie anything, so it feels wrong to charge someone else.

I see. Well, you were asked by the teachers to help Jean-Marie you weren't hired. There IS a difference.

Remus was just about to write a reply when a shadow fell across his desk. He glanced up guilty at Professor Talkalot whose finger came down on the parchment.

"Mr. Lupin, Miss Evans, let's see what's more important than your lesson," he said, snatching the paper up. "Would it be wrong to take money to tutor—" he began to read then trailed off, lips tugging down. He peered over the parchment at Remus. "Tutoring." He somehow sounded disappointed and surprised at the same time. "You're passing notes about tutoring."

"I'm s-s-sorry, Sir, I finished my numbers—"

Talkalot took the other paper, scanning down the page. "Hmph. These are good. Right." He put that paper back down and crumpled up the one with the tutoring notes. He tossed it and flicked his wand, sending the ball of paper whizzing to the rubbish bin. "Four points total from Gryffindor. Pay attention, please."

After class ended Lily discussed the tutoring thing, encouraging him to go for it. He nibbled at his thumbnail, staring at the scuffed, dirty toes of his trainers as he shuffled along the hall. He mentioned the whole thing with Jean-Marie again and she repeated what she told him in her note: there was a difference.

"We help Macdonald without payment," he murmured.

Lily smacked his shoulder. "Also different! We offered. This person is asking you. Wanting to hire you." They turned a corner and saw the other Marauders waiting for Remus. Lily gestured towards them. "What do the idiots say about it?"

"Errr—"

"Oi!" She took a few jogging steps before he could stop her. "If someone asks Remus to tutor them, he should get money for it, right?"

Sirius's eyes pierced into Remus who glanced away, knowing he was flushing.

James, on the other hand, began frowning. "Look. Look, he offers to help us, you know. He wants to help us with our homework—"

"Oh, shut up, Potter," she sighed. "I'm not talking about you. I'm meaning if someone wants him to tutor."

"Oh. Er, then yeah, of course he should be paid!"

"Uh-huh," Pete agreed.

"Well, I certainly think so," said Sirius with an annoying smirk that made Remus want to slap right off his dumb face.

Lily turned back to him, triumphant. "There you go, even the Three Stooges agree."

"The Three what?" James asked.

"I'm Moe," Peter said quickly, and James looked even more bewildered. "You can be Larry."

Lily covered her mouth, giggling. "Really? Making Sirius Curly?"

"Or Shemp."

Sirius held up his hand quickly. "I have no bloody clue what the hell you are talking about, but neither of those names sound interesting so I'm going to have to say 'no'."

"This from someone whose self-proclaimed nickname is 'Beauty'?" Remus asked and then yelped, ducking as Sirius took a swat at him.

Lily put a hand on Peter's shoulder. "I'm so glad someone around here understands Muggle things."

Peter gave an incomprehensible squeak and Remus thought he was blushing, but since Sirius had gotten hold of Remus and was putting him in a headlock he couldn't be sure. They struggled all the way to Muggle Studies until finally Remus got free, smoothing his hair down, bickering about the nickname Beauty.

Right before they went through the door, however, Sirius seized Remus's sleeve and yanked him back. "Are you really thinking about tutoring?" he asked.

Remus hesitated, thinking about the potion and needing to find more information about it. Needing money to try to find a way to stop the butterflies that were currently fluttering around his stomach as he looked up at his friend.

"Yes," he mumbled. "Yes, I am."

Sirius smiled and reached out, mussing up his hair. "Good for you. Maybe tonight while Jimsy and Petey are undergoing You-Know-What we can talk about it?"

Remus ducked his head, nodding, not trusting his voice at the moment from all the touching Sirius had done. He dove through the door, sliding into his seat, relieved that most of the class was spent with most the lights off and the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks playing on a big white sheet on the wall so he was able to have as much time alone as one could have during class.

Though since this was the first time watching a film, everyone who hadn't seen a film before—which was almost everyone—was extremely excited and curious. They had seen groups playing music, and documentaries, and other real-life things but they hadn't seen anything fictional.

"Is this real?"

"Wait, did this actually happen?"

"Why would someone be using the whatchamacallit, to um, you know, make us see it? The—to—photograph it—"

"You mean the camera?" Peter asked.

Adelaide Edelman of Ravenclaw blinked at Peter before turning back to Lewis. "Yeah, the camera. It looks like it's—I mean, usually it's not so—it looks different."

Lewis had to stop the film and explain to them—again—what a film was, that it was fictional, that it was a story that Muggles wanted to put on film for others to watch. Her voice was a little strained since they had gone over this multiple times but Remus figured nobody believed her.

"So it's fake," said James.

"It's fictional," Lewis said. "These are actors and actresses, like on a stage. This is like a stage production. Did nobody pay attention last week when I was explaining this?" Nobody responded, though Remus was trying not to laugh. "This is like a stage production only there is no stage or audience, it's recorded onto film for people to watch. It's a story. Actors… people acting out a story, like from a book. Any other questions?" More silence. "All right."

The film started again, and most of the class whispered while it went on. James and Sirius threw multiple notes at Remus with questions which he ignored after sending them one back saying he didn't know much about the process of making films and to ask Peter. After the fifth ignored note, Sirius sent him a drawing of him with an exaggerated grumpy face, but left him alone after.