Author's note: CW for internalized homophobia and accidental self harm (scratching)

ALSO! I've been wanting to announce this for a while and I think now is a good time. There is a wiki for Shifting Lines! (dot com)

Several readers have put a lot of work into this and it's really awesome. Thank you guys!

-x-

Gryffindor's Quidditch practice on Sunday morning went… wild. It was a cold, drizzly morning, and Remus regretted telling James he'd be there. James was very insistent on all his friends being there on specifically that day for some reason, and Remus promised. That was before the Marauders had stayed up till one in the morning playing Wild Adventures in the common room and getting really hyper on sugary treats, and before Remus also stayed up until three to finish as much homework as possible.

Now it was ten till seven, and Remus practically slept as he trudged across the muddy grounds to the Quidditch pitch. James was bouncing ahead of them, full of energy as always. He seemed extra bouncy today, which was explained when they went into the pitch to find Mr. Potter there.

"Dad!" James said happily, running over to hug his father.

"Hallo Jimmy," Mr. Potter said, hugging his son tightly. "Peter, it's good to see you again!" Mr. Potter pulled Peter into a hug before turning towards James's two friends who had been unable to visit. "Sirius, it's good to see you too," he said, offering his hand. "And Remus, I'm glad to properly meet you." He shook Remus's hand.

"Are we allowed in the loop of what's going on now?" Bell asked from where she and the rest of the team stood. "Or do we have to wait till Charmer gets here?"

"Best wait till everyone's here," James said smugly.

Cassandra, as a reserve, was there too, shooting dirty looks at Sirius who pointedly ignored her as he, Peter, and Remus went over to sit on some low bleachers. Remus tried to set up an umbrella spell, but he wasn't really good at it yet and they still got quite damp.

Charmer showed up at two till seven, and Mr. Potter revealed the reason for him being there, which was to donate seven brand new brooms. All of them were MoonGlides, extremely expensive, fancy, and new brooms that had been released only half a year before. James had had one (a custom-made one) since December, though.

The entire team except for Kirke all gasped and oohed and awed as Mr. Potter handed out the carrying cases.

"M-me too?" Cassie asked when one was placed in her hands.

"You're a member of the team, aren't you?" Mr. Potter asked with a big smile.

"Only a reserve," she squeaked out.

"Then you too. It's your broom."

"Are they ours to keep?" Kirke asked loudly. "Or the teams?"

Mr. Potter turned his smile to the bratty Chaser. "What do you mean?"

"I mean Faircauldron graduates at the end of the year." Kirke motioned towards the Keeper. "He'll have to give the broom up when he does, yeah?"

Aside from Sirius's quiet disgusted scoff, nobody made any noise for several seconds. Anemoi Faircauldron was glaring daggers at Kirke for using him as a scapegoat.

"They are yours," Mr. Potter said slowly, carefully. "Yours to keep. Brooms do best belonging to someone."

"Thank you again, sir, this is incredible and so generous," Bell said but then she was interrupted by Kirke.

"So whoever joins next year as Keeper is… what, out of luck of having a decent broom?"

Everyone looked at him again. James curled his hands into fists, while Bell began blushing. "Kirke," she admonished quietly. Kirke opened his mouth to say something then closed his mouth, for once.

"I've donated three more MoonGlides," Mr. Potter said, causing Kirke to go red as well. "I didn't bring them here because there are only seven of you. Madame Hooch has the others, to keep until you get new players."

Bell turned back to Mr. Potter to continue to thank him for the generous and kind gifts. Everyone (even Kirke) thanked Mr. Potter individually, and shook his hand.

It wasn't until Mr. Potter left until Kirke voiced his other opinion, which was that this was a very handy reason to keep James on the team. Bell folded her arms, glaring up into his face saying the 'handy' reason to keep James on the team was because James was a 'damn good Chaser'.

"Better than you," she said bluntly.

Kirke was furious all through practice, though everyone else was overjoyed. Everyone else kept doing tricks to show off their new brooms and Kim and Hooper—the two Beaters—almost had a wreck from trying to do synchronized double loops. In fact, the practice ran over simply because everyone was having fun testing the brooms out, even though it was raining even harder.

James was the first to leave, after making sure practice was officially over. The Marauders gladly hurried back into the school, leaving a trail of water behind them that Remus knew would make Filch mad if they were caught. They managed to avoid the caretaker, taking back routes back up to the Gryffindor common room.

They were talking about Kirke, about how rude (James), jerky (Sirius), mean (Peter), and loathsome (Remus) he was, and Remus was so absorbed in the conversation he didn't really realize where they were going until they were there. He put his foot on the first step and lifted himself—then froze.

It was the stairway where he had heard the voice, all those weeks ago. The one telling him not to use these stairs.

Remus clutched the railing, staring blankly ahead of him as his friends went up, avoiding the stairs that weren't really there. None of them noticed Remus wasn't following until they reached the top.

"Rems?" Sirius asked.

Remus swallowed and put his other foot on the next stair, all the hairs on the back of his neck on end as he waited to hear the voice again.

"You all right?"

He slowly climbed the stairs, carefully avoiding the missing steps, not responding to his concerned friends. He was on edge, listening—waiting—for the voice that never came.

"REMUS!"

"Yeah," he said when he reached the top of the stairwell. "Sorry. Was thinking about, erm, our Muggle Studies assignment. Which painting to do."

"You haven't started it yet?" asked Peter, raising his eyebrows. "You?"

Remus had started it and nearly completed it, but he merely shrugged. "I keep changing my mind," he lied, glancing over his shoulder as they walked away from the stairs. The voice had never spoken. Was it because someone had been pranking him the first time? Or was it because he had company with him this time? The thought that it might be the latter sent a shiver down his spine.

"I'm doing the uhhh, the one," James said, snapping his fingers. "The, uh, you know." He slapped his hands against his cheeks and let his jaw hang open as he gave a creepy wail.

"The Scream?" Remus asked, finally tearing his gaze (and thoughts) from the stairwell, and James nodded. "What about the wizarding painting?"

"The Fat Lady!" James began bouncing happily. "I think they'd have a great conversation, don't you?"

Their Muggle Studies assignment was to choose a famous Muggle painting of a person and imagine a conversation they might have with a wizarding painting. Remus had chosen Lady with an Ermine for his Muggle painting, and Melodica and Minty for his wizarding painting, which was a famous singer from the previous century, and her pet jarvey. The portraits were very similar, and he had written out a long conversation regarding the two mustelids.

"I'm doing the naked lady painting," Sirius said with a smirk.

"The what?"

Sirius turned around and clasped an arm across his chest and the other over his crotch. "The naked lady, on the seashell."

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose. "The Birth of Venus."

"Yeah, sure. She's naked. I bet if Muggle paintings moved, there wouldn't be so many naked people in them."

"You know, there aren't that many naked wizarding paintings," James noted. "Huh, I never thought of that. Or maybe Muggles just have loads of them."

"I haven't decided on mine yet," Peter put in rather glumly. "I dunno what to do."

"A naked lady," Sirius suggested.

Peter blushed. "No! Whose she talking to, then, in yours?"

Sirius got a very nasty grin. "Oh, that portrait of Gelly-what's-his-name who invented the wind spell. Doubt her hair will stay in one place for that."

"You're horrible," snickered James.

"Better that than the Fat Lady and some weird guy on a bridge screaming at each other." Sirius tapped his chin. "Let me guess, half your essay is just AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Remus clamped his hands over his ears while James looked indignant. "N-no!" he squeaked out, which meant yes.

"I was thinking Mona Lisa," Peter told Remus as James tackled Sirius, the two of them rolling around on the ground wrestling. "But that might be too… um, obvious? Easy? It's pretty much the most famous painting."

"I don't think Professor Lewis will care if you do that," Remus said. "As long as you put thought into the conversation."

Peter gave him big eyes. "Could you help me figure out a painting for her to be talking to? Please?"

"Of course, yes, I'll help you."

After warm showers and dry clothes, the Marauders sat in the common room, cups of tea held in their hands as they basked in the warmth. It was unusually cold in the common room and Remus soon realized the fireplace wasn't going. Which, an hour later, James and Sirius were blamed for. One of the male Prefects approached them, chiding them for pranking the fireplace, and telling them they had to go see McGonagall. Both of them swore they hadn't touched the fireplace, but the Prefect hauled them off anyway.

Not longer after they were left alone, Peter and Remus found out someone had hexed the fireplace. Anytime anyone tried to light it, it would spray wet ashes onto whoever was there. Curiosity overwhelmed Remus and he tried to light it from across the room. All the Gryffindors watched as a damp grey spray shot out, coating the couch in front of the fireplace.

"You have to clean that up!" snapped the seventh year female Prefect. "For bloody Merlin's sake, Loopy! No, don't help him," she added when Peter followed. "It's his mess."

Remus kept his head down as he cleaned up the gunk, knowing his face was bright red. He was still cleaning when James and Sirius returned, both of them furious for being accused of something they didn't do, especially since it was something they would have liked to have done. James wanted to see the hex himself and more grey gunk sprayed everywhere, and the Prefect shouted at him, making him clean too.

Instead of cleaning, James went around the room demanding to know who had hexed the fireplace. Nobody owned up to it, naturally.

"We've got detention for two nights," Sirius told Remus when he returned to his friends, sweaty and grimy from the cleaning. He tugged at his sleeve, miserable at having to get another shower. "It really isn't fair. Professor McGonagall didn't believe we didn't do it!" He gave a loud yawn. "Can't imagine why."

Of course that's all they could talk about for ages, until Remus grew very weary of them going in circles. So he said he needed to finish some essays and took his leave, first going to his dorm to get his things then going to the library. He wasn't lying, really; he did have two essays he needed to finish. The Muggle Studies one, and then a research paper for Potions. It wasn't due until Wednesday however with the full moon coming up he didn't want to have any extra work to do.

Mr. Farrow nodded at Remus when he went in and Remus nodded back, relieved to find the library fairly empty. On rainy days like this it was usually fairly packed…

He went down the Potions aisle and began scanning the titles for something that might help. He had a vague idea of what he needed but it was always good to keep an open mind when it came to reference books.

Suddenly he stopped, eyes zeroing in on a thick tome, the name of it snagging in his brain. A Sacred Guide To Potions. For some reason the word 'sacred' stuck in his head. Slowly, he pulled the book out to see who had written it. Sure enough it was by a Carrow, one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight.

Remus almost put it back when something in the back of his mind surged forward. The history book where he had heard of the Pura Linea potion… it had been written by a Malfoy… and the potion had been used primarily by those who eventually became the Sacred Twenty-Eight.

He licked his lips nervously, glancing around as if expecting someone to be watching him. Nobody was around. Of course if they had been he would have heard them.

His hands grew sweaty as he took the book to the nearest table. He nearly dropped it twice before he sat down. It can't be this easy. All his plans of getting money and finding a book in Hogsmeade spun in his head—but he hadn't expected anything to be in Hogwarts for some reason.

Stop getting ahead of yourself, he commanded, knowing it was silly to get his hopes up.

Carefully he scanned the contents list, heart pounding hard as he looked at the Ps and then stopping when he saw Pura Linea. Page two hundred and ten.

Just like that.

No, no, it probably only mentions it. He flipped the pages, hands shaking now. He paused to steady himself, terrified he might rip the paper if he kept going like this.

Two hundred and ten.

The Pura Linea potion.

An explanation of what it did.

And instructions on how to make it.

Remus stared in absolute shock at the page in front of him, until the words blurred together and he couldn't really see anymore.

Can't, not this lucky, it's not this simple!

He rubbed his eyes before leaning in closer but the instructions remained, along with a notice about it being illegal to use on others, the sentence many years in Azkaban. Not illegal to make, he thought, chewing at his lower lip. I thought…

He had assumed this potion was why the other book was in the Restricted Section, which, in retrospect, was a little silly. There were loads of other reasons the book could have been in there.

Curious, Remus flipped through the book, wondering what the Sacred Twenty-Eight were anxious to make with their potions. The answer was mostly health-related potions. Better hair, whiter teeth, stronger bones, smoother skin. There were a few romance-related potions, and even an abortive potion in case someone in the family happened to 'mingle' with someone unwanted.

Remus's stomach lurched at that and he shut the book, a scratchy sort of feeling in his throat. The feeling began creeping all over his body until he reached into his sleeve to scratch. This sort of book… these sorts of potions… he normally wouldn't want anything to do with them. But he needed to do something to cure his problem and this was the closest thing he could find.

He flipped back to the potion, eyeing the ingredients list. They were all fairly inexpensive and the recipe made a lot of potion. It also held for a long time and he didn't need too much at one time. He did some maths in his head and figured he could make one batch of potion stretch out to six or so weeks, assuming the effects only worked half as long as they should. With the ingredients he could find on the grounds of Hogwarts, that meant he'd only need a few sickles, maybe a galleon, every month and a half to purchase the other ingredients.

Still have to tutor, if Regulus wants me to, he thought, standing up and stretching. Or rather, if he ever wants to actually do spells properly. Or he could find some other way to earn money. Perhaps he could try offering his tutoring to others? For a little bit of money?

Or sell body parts to Slughorn, a nasty little voice whispered in his head which he dismissed immediately.

He'd find a way. He had enough to get the ingredients for the first batch and that would work for now. Who knows, maybe it wouldn't even help him at all. At worst it would do nothing to him, at best it would only sorta work, or wear out quickly.

Remus took the book back to the Potions aisle and found some other books that discussed health potions—as an excuse to check the book out—but Farrow didn't even bat an eyelash at his choices. Remus thanked the librarian before scurrying out, finding a private place to hole up in and reread about the potion multiple times, praying to whoever would listen that this would work.

-x-

Monday dawned with more rain, making everyone miserable. Everyone except Remus, who kept thinking of the potion and the fact in a little over a week he'd be able to hopefully stop having these stupid wrong feelings. He'd have to wait until after the full moon, of course, and see if Lily was still willing to help him. If she helped him with the first batch he was pretty sure he'd be able to do the others without much issue.

Sirius was in a particularly foul mood when he showed up a little late for breakfast. He flung himself into the seat next to James and glowered until finally he snatched a fork to yank some pieces of sausage onto his plate.

"Wha's won?" James asked, mouth full.

"I found out why Cassandra is mad at me," Sirius sniffled, stabbing one sausage until it broke into pieces. All three Marauders stared at him expectantly until he explained, "Her birthday. Was last Wednesday. Apparently she was mad at me for forgetting it because obviously I should remember!"

"How did you find out it was her birthday?" Pete asked.

Sirius jerked his chin towards some older students. "Seo-Yun. Said she figured I suffered enough. Can you believe it? Her birthday!" He chopped at the pieces making them smaller. "Pardon me for not remembering something I don't think she's ever brought up! If she did, it was only once or twice and how am I supposed to remember something like that?"

You do have a good memory, Remus thought, thinking about all the little things about himself that Sirius somehow stored away in his brain as well as things about James and Peter (probably?) but he kept that to himself, not wanting to anger Sirius more.

"Birthday!"

Peter frowned at a piece of sausage that rolled across the table and bumped against his hand. "Are you going to apologize to her?" he asked after brushing it away. It came to a rest near Remus's hand.

"Apologize for what?" Sirius demanded. "Having a shite memory?"

"Well." James sounded a little miserable as he spoke and all three of them looked expectantly at him, Remus having no idea what was about to be said. "Your memory isn't completely shite, only some of it."

"Eh?"

James gave him an apologetic smile and said the very thing Remus had been afraid to say. "You remember stuff about us all the time."

"That's different," Sirius spluttered. "And I remember things about Cassandra too! Her favorite flower is the sweet pea and that's her favorite scent too. Her favorite color is yellow. Gold sorts of yellows especially. Dates are different than stuff. And don't bring up your birthdays, because I've had two years of your birthdays. Cassie and I didn't… do anything last year, we weren't really… you know…"

"Dating?" Peter offered.

Sirius coughed. "We aren't. We're… just… friendly."

"Very friendly," snickered James.

Remus cleared his throat. "Erm, even if it isn't your fault, perhaps you should apologize or show her some way that you're sorry? Whether you knew it or not, you missed a big event in her life and she fancies you so that's bound to hurt her."

Sirius grunted at that, not really responding properly, so Remus didn't push it further. He continued to be in a foul mood through Potions and History, then disappeared somewhere during free period. When he showed up again in time for Defense, Remus thought perhaps he had talked to Cassandra, but when James asked Sirius just shook his head.

Instead, Sirius decided to broach the subject during Defense. Professor Charlemagne had them pair up for some spell work and while Sirius chose Peter as a partner, when Charlemagne split everyone into two lines to face each other, Sirius maneuvered himself right next to Cassie. Remus saw him lean over and whisper stuff to her while Cassie gritted her teeth and tried to ignore him. Peter and Alice (Cassie's partner) kept shooting the offensive spells. Sirius managed to block Pete's spells without trouble, while him distracting Cassie made it difficult for her to block Alice's.

"Would you stop?!" she finally hissed out, loud enough for Remus to hear, before yelping as a spell stung her cheek.

"I'm so sorry!" Alice cried out, covering her mouth with her hands.

Cassie rubbed her cheek. "It's all right, not your fault."

Charlemagne walked over and Remus half expected him to chew Cassie out for not paying attention. Instead he asked, "Is everything all right, Cassandra?"

"Yes," she replied, straightening up. "Mr. Black is trying to distract me."

"I'm not trying to distract her, Professor; that's only an incidental side effect," Sirius said.

Charlemagne looked more amused than anything else. "While dueling another person there will be many times you are, unfortunately, distracted by other going ons around you. However, I do not wish that to be the case for now. Perhaps later we will work on dueling while distracted but for now please keep to your own partner, hmm, Sirius? Thank you."

"Aren't you going to punish him?" Cassie asked as Charlemagne walked back to the front of the room.

Charlemagne turned around, raising his eyebrows. "For what? I've given him a warning. If he chooses not to heed that warning then I shall have to remove points but I do not believe in giving a warning and a punishment together. That seems rather… what is the English word… counter-intuitive? Is that right? Now, continue, please."

"What's Sirius up to?" Lily whispered, as she was standing next to Remus.

"I think he's trying to apologize," Remus whispered back. "At least, I hope he is."

"For…?"

"Missing her birthday, even though he didn't know it was."

Lily pursed her lips at how defensive Remus sounded. "She told him about it several times."

Oh. He said nothing, returning to shooting offensive spells at James. Sirius seemed focused on his spell exchange with Peter for a few minutes until he began talking to Cassandra again. She looked angrier and angrier until finally she spun around to face him.

"I TOLD YOU!" she shrieked, confirming what Lily had just said. "I TOLD YOU LOADS OF TIMES! YOU JUST NEVER LISTEN!"

"Cassandra," Charlemagne tried.

"You never told me!" Sirius snapped right back. "So what if I made a little mistake? This sort of thing isn't… look, you probably don't even know when mine is!"

"Sirius," Charlemagne said, "we are practicing dueling, not having a chat right now." Though everyone else had stopped their dueling completely and were watching the two of them now.

Cassie gave him an icy glare that would have frozen Remus to the ground. "The third of November," she answered stiffly. "Exactly one month after mine which I said multiple times because I thought it was SWEET that our BIRTHDAYS were exactly ONE! MONTH! APART!" She flung an arm out as she said this, sending a spray of angry-looking red sparks across the room, though they fizzled out harmlessly when they touched anything, not causing any damage.

Charlemagne hurried over, looking stricken. "All right now, please, let's calm down—"

"I bet you know when THEIR birthdays are!" Cassie continued, ignoring the teacher. She waved her hand towards the other Marauders. "Because that's all you care about! Them, and yourself!"

Sirius scoffed. "I've been friends with them longer, it isn't fair to compare!"

"Yes but you haven't been snogging them!"

Most of the class began giggling at that, though several girls looked shocked. Sirius went slightly pink and he began to shout something back however he couldn't. He opened and closed his mouth several times with no sound coming out. Cassandra opened her mouth too, but nothing came out.

"There." Charlemagne lowered his wand. "I am sorry that you two are having, ah, problems, however please keep this out of the classroom! We are here to learn about defending ourselves against the Dark Arts, not having a domestic squabble. You two are dismissed for the remainder of the lesson, and I will be giving both of you one night of detention. I'll return your voices to you after I finish the lesson with everyone else."

Sirius kept mouthing things while Cassandra clamped her lips shut, looking on the verge of tears. She jammed her wand in her robes pocket, grabbed her bag, and stormed out. Charlemagne gave Sirius a stern look until finally Sirius tucked his wand away and skulked out, lips still moving. Probably swear words, Remus figured.

"Alice, Peter, you two shall be partners now," Charlemagne said as soon as the door shut. "Let us continue."

Everyone slowly returned to what they were doing, a little distracted now; Remus was very distracted and James even managed to hit him with a spell.

"Was it because you're tired?" James asked after Charlemagne dismissed everyone.

"No, I was—I mean, the whole Sirius thing…"

"I can't believe he did that in class," Peter squeaked.

"You say that as if Sirius actually cares about lessons," James pointed out, and Peter wrinkled his nose, giving an agreeing sort of shrug.

Sirius, his voice returned, stormed out of the classroom, muttering about how everyone was bullying him today. James and Peter commiserated with him while Remus did his best not to roll his eyes.

-x-

"What do you mean you lost it?!"

James tried his best to look innocent, while Remus stared in horror. It had been a long afternoon with Sirius grumbling about Cassie throughout lunch and Herbology (occasionally complaining about Charlemagne). Now it was time for Care for Magical Creatures and apparently James had lost the puffskein he and Remus were supposed to take care of.

"I don't know where it went." James toed the ground, flashing Remus a big smile. "I looked."

"It—you looked—you—you said you had it!" Remus clutched at his hair, feeling his stress levels rapidly rising. "James, you knew we were returning them today! I told you we were returning them! You said you were getting it!"

"I looked!" he said again. "All over our dorm, it's not there!"

Remus glanced over at Sirius and Peter, the latter of which held their puffskein in his arms. "He did look," Sirius confirmed, rather grouchily. "He even looked in his pants drawer."

"WHY WOULD IT BE IN YOUR PANTS DRAWER?!" Remus screamed, gaining the interested attention of all the other students nearby. Several began snickering, causing Remus to go rather pink, realizing what he had shrieked.

James shrugged, inspecting his fingernails now. "Maybe it likes wearing my boxer shorts, I don't know. Look, I'll explain to Kettleburn, all right? It's no big deal."

Remus grabbed James's arm, yanking him away from everyone else. "James. You lost a living creature. This is a big deal. What if something happened to it? We were supposed to be taking care of it!"

"And I put it in its box before classes today!" James hissed back. "I swear I did!"

They had built a little nest for their puffskein to rest in when they didn't bring it with them.

"So why wasn't it there?" Remus asked, feeling frantic as the other students began going into the classroom. Perhaps the puffskein really did hate werewolves and made an escape attempt finally? Except no, other puffskeins tolerated him well enough. Which made him want to talk to someone about it, eventually.

"Um. Welllll about that…" James fluttered his eyelashes and gave another blinding smile. "I might have maybe—perhaps—forgotten to put the lid on a little bit."

Remus stared at him for several silent seconds before burying his face in his hands. "My first failing grade," he moaned.

"Well. You got some in Defense our first year," James said and Remus glared through his fingers. "Yeeep!" James stepped back, putting his hands up. "Right, right. Your first deserved failed grade."

"I! DO NOT! DESERVE THIS!"

James took hold of Remus's arms. "Come on, mate, it's time for class. I have an idea, all right? We'll nick someone else's puffskein. Avery and Mulciber!" He indicated the two Slytherins who were headed towards the door. "Watch this. Locomotor puffskein!" He flicked his wand and the puffskein settled in Mulciber's bag popped out. As it began rolling towards the two of them, Mulciber spun around and grabbed it, complaining about the 'damned' thing trying to escape again. Avery laughed and said it was probably the hot peppers Mulciber had tried to force feed it earlier. Their puffskein looked a little less than healthy, Remus noticed.

"Well. That sickly thing would probably give us a poor grade anyway," James muttered, running his fingers through his hair. "Maybe Sirius and Pete'll lend us theirs."

Remus groaned and began hauling James to class. "Lost the—of all the ridiculous—can't trust you with a spoon!" They went into the classroom, the last ones to do so. "P-Professor—" Remus began.

James, however, interrupted. "Licorice Wand!" he suddenly squealed, running over to Crabbe and Urswick. "You found our puffskein!"

Crabbe withdrew from James, her forehead wrinkling in annoyance. "What in Merlin's name are you talking about, Potter? This is ours!"

Remus snatched James's sleeve, yanking him back towards the front of the room. "Professor," he said again, feeling sweat prickling in his armpits and on his palms. "We—"

"Professor!" James cut him off again. "I'm sorry but our puffskein is gone. It's entirely my fault, he was in my possession this morning—it was my turn to be the dad, you see—and I fell. On the Grand Staircase. Licorice Wand—what I named our precious puffy—rolled away and I searched everywhere for him but we couldn't find him. Her. Ours was a girl, right? Yeah, I couldn't find her. I'm terribly sorry, Professor. I'll look for her after class, I promise. But it was entirely my fault so please don't punish Remus for me being brilliantly stupid."

Kettleburn listened to all this with a slight frown on his face. When James finished, he asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Uh, our puffskeins?" James waved his hand towards the other students, all of whom had theirs. Remus blinked, realizing no, only some of them had their puffskeins. A shuddery feeling went down his spine. Did I…? "We needed to turn them in today…?"

"You're turning them in Friday," Kettleburn said. "You're turning in your weekend assessment today."

Weekend assessment, Remus thought, feeling, as James put it, brilliantly stupid. He could have sworn they were supposed to return the puffskeins today!

"Weekend assessment," James repeated, blinking.

"Um. I h-have that," Remus mumbled, scrounging around in his bag, trying to avoid James's eyes. "Um. H-here, Professor. Ah."

Kettleburn took the papers, obviously trying not to laugh. "Please do find your puffskein, though, Mr. Potter. And hope she's in good condition. Now both of you have a seat."

Everyone except for Sirius and Peter laughed as James and Remus slunk to their seats, both boys burning with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry," Remus whispered as James elbowed him. "I thought—I really thought we were supposed to today! I got mixed up."

"And why didn't either of you say anything?" James whispered to the other two.

"Um, I thought we were turning them in today too," Peter admitted.

Sirius was poking his desktop with a quill. "Probably because I only care about myself," he said loud enough for Cassie to hear. Other than a slight snort she ignored him.

Remus got out his papers about what assignments were due when, frantically going through them. COMC: Return Puffskeins, 12th October. Bloody hell. He had been so focused on other things he had really messed up. He burned all the way through class and was in near tears by the end, trying to apologize to James who didn't care anymore.

"Eh, everyone messes up, only means you're human," James joked, punching Remus in the arm, apparently forgetting the fact Remus was most certainly not human. "Now let's go find our precious Licorice Wand, dear husband."

After spending most of the free period searching the Gryffindor tower they wound up finding her in their dorm, in James's pants' drawer.