Chapter Sixty-Three: New Rules

It was decided that they would alternate. Remus was much too tired to feel anything besides irritation at being fought over. But once he woke up a bit, having slept dreadfully the night before, he found himself touched they all wanted to talk to him so bad. Of course, what started off as fuzzy feelings made him feel sick after a few minutes because his friends were going to find out what he was sooner than later if he also randomly, or not so randomly, couldn't talk to them over the summer months.

So his Saturday which was supposed to be spent reviewing for Herbology, Potions, and Transfiguration with his roommates turned into him avoiding them in the library studying instead with Lily. Ever since he had explained to Lily what memories had returned to him, a long conversation ending with her crying on his shoulder. She had been avoiding Severus who seemed just as fine with avoiding them, preferring to spend his time with aspiring death eaters.

"He had the nerve to try to talk to me the other day! Can you believe him." Lily ranted angrily completely destroying the parchment she was writing the uses of nettle on, scribbling with her quill which such ferocity that it was tearing right through the parchment.

"Lily…"

"He was trying to make me feel bad for ignoring him like he's some sort of sad little puppy and not an absolute moron whose hanging out with dreadful cruel people."

"Lily your parchment." He cut in sharply jolting her out of her destruction of her parchment.

"What? Oh, right. Reparo." They were silent for a while, Remus realizing it was too dangerous for Lily's studying to talk about any subject as it would just dissolve into speaking about Severus. After two hours, his guilt at leaving his three roommates to struggle with herbology by themselves finally got the better of him and he excused himself from Lily and headed back to the common room.

On his way, he made a detour to avoid running into a group of third-year Slytherins and ended up in one of the courtyards where a group of seventh year Ravenclaws were sprawled about bragging and trying to one-up each other on their predicted NEWT scores. Meanwhile, a smaller group was bragging about their defeat over Gryffindor who had won the Quidditch Cup last year but was dead last this year.

Remus knew that would be different next year just like he knew with certainty that there was no way the full moon would let him attend all of the games. Just one more thing to "look forward to" with angering his friends. He kept walking, caught up in his fear for the summer and the following year, and ran into someone both of them knocked back onto the floor.

"Watch it!" Remus turned his face towards the seventh year student he had just barreled into. Dark blue, hostile looking eyes glared back at him. The student looked as tired as he felt, deep bags under his eyes, brown neatly combed hair atop his head. But that wasn't what got Remus' attention, nor how angry the boy sounded, nor how sick and tired he seemed his skin nearly as pale as his own. No, what got his attention was the voice, the very same voice he had heard arguing with Professor Blatvnik months and months ago.

He struggled to find words as the student righted himself already collecting his papers Remus had knocked out of his hands.

"I'm so sorry. Here let me help you." He finally managed to speak reaching his own hand out to grab a rolled-up parchment.

"Don't touch that!" Yelled the boy angrily stretching his arm out more. Remus' eyes went from the parchment he couldn't read to a strange tattoo on the boy's arm. The angry young man complained that Remus needed to watch where he was going then scrambled to his feet, leaving a dazed Remus behind. It took him a few minutes to shake himself and rush after the student, not willing to make the same mistake twice.

"Excuse me! Please wait." A mere day before the full moon left him in no shape to run but either the older student couldn't walk very fast or had decided to let Remus catch up.

"What do you want?"

"I…..well…." Again Remus had no idea what to say. He was relieved the student seemed ok. He couldn't find any bruises on him and he certainly wasn't poisoned. Maybe he really had misunderstood things.

"Spit it out." The impatient young man grumbled looking Remus over with a familiar look of disdain he had received from pure blood Slytherins. Feeling self-conscious he stood a bit straighter, not at all liking this student but having to make sure he at the very least wasn't in any danger.

"Um sir I…"

"My names Carlyle. Now what is it?"

"I heard you confronting Professor Blatvnik…..after detention one night. Has he...been poisoning students?" For a second the seventh year looked defensive then a rather coy smile spread across his face.

"You better watch your back. Professor Blatvnik is a cruel and dangerous man. If you aren't careful you'll be next." Then he walked off before Remus could ask him anything else, the old fears about his Professor back and this time he didn't exactly try to shove them back down.

It took Remus awhile to calm down after that, walking around Hogwarts trying to process everything. Then an even longer time to decide whether or not to tell his friends. After much debate with himself he decided not to and went off to lunch to be confronted by his frustrated friends.

"Oi! Lily, you have to share him. Without him Peter doesn't stand a chance at his Herbology exam" James called to Lily after Remus had used her, yet again, as an excuse for not studying with them. Lily looked between them all both annoyed and thoughtful, then to everyone's surprise she left Dorcas and Marlene who she had been eating with and came over and sat down next to him. James and Sirius from the other side of the table gaped at her as if she had just declared she was ok with failing her exams.

"Stop talking about Remus as if he's incapable of making his own decisions. If he'd rather spend time with me, well that's certainly not my fault." She explained with a slight smirk.

"YOU…..you…..you…."

"Seems like your the one who needs help Potter you can't even finish a proper sentence." She laughed a little and Peter laughed along with her before stopping abruptly due to the nasty look James gave him.

"Why are you sitting here?" Sirius demanded gesturing to her like she was somehow invading their privacy.

"It's the Gryffindor table, not your dorm which is apparently no girls allowed." She huffed and Remus realized she was still sore at them for leaving her out, even if he had explained later. It also occurred to him that she might be a bit more lonely than usual without Severus. She had confessed to Remus she could only stand so much of her own roommates who all got a bit short with her around exams, though she honestly couldn't imagine why.

"Yeah but that doesn't mean you can sit with us!" James exclaimed angrily.

"Why ever not?" She asked calmly which just seemed to infuriate James more. While he struggled for an answer she turned back to Remus and Peter with a friendly smile that made Peter go dark red and look quickly away.

"If you want to study with Remus we can all study together. Peter, I can help you with herbology if you want?" Peter looked at her in surprise and glanced at James and Sirius who were still whispering amongst themselves trying to come up with a good enough reason to make her leave, before he gave a tentative not.

"Good. Now that that's taken care of. If you lot are all passing around the two-way mirror over break I want a turn with it too."

"Absolutely not." Sirius quickly spoke up sitting up so fast he smashed his forehead into James' who wobbled slightly as if he might pass out. Remus was trying not to worry about their argument forcing himself to eat as much as he could, knowing he'd need his strength for tomorrow night.

"Why not?"

"Because you'd break it." Lily looked between Sirius and James and then laughed.

"I'd break it?" She scoffed incredulously.

"Uh yes?" Sirius replied, though he didn't sound too sure of himself.

"Oh please I'm much more careful with my things than you are."

"That's not true."

"Sirius last time I saw you your robe was torn."

"That was because…" But James stopped him quickly, also looking unsure. Lily smiled pleasantly, pretending like she didn't know she had just cornered them to agree with her. Remus hid his smirk behind his hand as he took another bite of roast beef. He knew that Lily knew Sirius and Peter had been up to no good that day. Meaning either they could admit they had been exploring passages they had no business being in or they could agree with Lily that she was more careful than them and thus let her use the mirror.

James and Sirius huddled together again whispering furiously back and forth to one another. Lily's smile widened slightly before she leaned forward and talked to Peter about what he was struggling with in Herbology. Peter who seemed afraid of girls warmed up pretty quickly to Lily who was being awfully kind and patient with him, something James and Sirius certainly weren't when it came to him not getting things.

It wasn't until Remus saw Severus storm out of the Great Hall from the corner of his eye that he realized Lily might have had yet another reason for sitting with them.

Caught up in neither of the two conversations going on, and just fine with this, Remus was thinking once again about Carlyle when a student came running back into the Great Hall shouting loudly.

"Come quick! Please come quick there's been another poisoning!" Remus felt himself go cold as the Great Hall exploded into chaos. All the Professors rushed out as the Prefects struggled to control the students and keep them at their table.

Prefect Liam who neither liked Sirius and James, nor could ever get them to listen to him was perhaps having the hardest time of all. But considering all the students wanted to go and see, and the first years were much smaller than some of the older students getting in Liam's face, they were able to slip away. So James, Sirius, Peter, Lily, and Remus were all able to leave the Great Hall, Lily chiding them for doing so but following along all the same.

Once out of the hall they followed the sound of the grave voices of Professors until they were close enough to hear.

"Albus this is the third one."

"Poppy has already sent for someone from St. Mungos to come get him. Let us find some relief from the fact not a single student has died."

"Not yet you mean. You don't think ..., is it possible this has something to do with Voldemort?" The five first years crouched in a corner all shuddered at the same time as they listened to Professor McGonagall.

"Now surely not. This is Hogwarts after all." Slugghor's nervous laughter was cut short by Professor Blatvnik pointing out angrily anything was possible.

"We can't rule anything out at this point." Dumbledore's calm voice somehow rose above the din as all the heads of houses and Professor Blatvnik argued amongst one another.

"What do we do now?"

"Adrian you'll come with me. Everyone else should go back into the Great Hall and calm any frantic students we now have. Let us show as well as tell Hogwarts is a safe place and…" None of them heard the last bit of Dumbledore's speech as upon hearing the Professors would return to the Great Hall they had taken off running back the way they came.

"We could have gotten in so much trouble we could have..."

"But we didn't Evans so shut up," Sirius grumbled as they all took their places at the table, the situation in the hall not changing at all.

"You know what this means right?"

"What does it mean Potter?"

"Adrian has got to be Professor Blatvnik so I was right after all."

"Right about what?"

"Yeah ok, Sirius." Scoffed James sounding dubious as Sirius resorted to his old suspicious. Remus shifted slightly but kept quiet.

"No I'm right and you know it! That's why Dumbledore wants to talk with him alone. You have to admit it James, I want to hear you say it."

"Remus what are they talking about?" He gave a weak shrug. What if Carlyle had been the boy poisoned? What if after Remus talked to him he had confronted Professor Blatvnik again. He had said their professor was a dangerous man, and even though the young man hadn't sounded like it maybe he cared and was reminded by Remus to confront their Professor again. Didn't that make it his fault?

"Fine fine, Sirius you're right...probably."

"Geez thanks for the bloody vote of confidence."

"Enough! Someone tell me what's going on and why you're suspecting a Professor of this." Everyone went quiet as Lily looked at each one of them for an answer. When Remus, who she looked at last in hopes of some semblance of sanity, wouldn't meet her eyes she stormed off with strong words at how completely idiotic she found the lot of them.

"Guess we caused a fight with your girlfriend Remus." Sirius teased in quite a good mood at being proven right, or at least now being listened to again. Remus was about to open his mouth to say Lily wasn't his girlfriend when the Professors came back in, each head of house gathering up their students and leading them back to the dorms.

Everyone had thought someone had died until it became clear the reason Professor McGonnagal had continued with them into the Gryffindor common room wasn't to report a death but to enforce strict new rules everyone was supposed to follow until the end of term or whoever was poisoning students was caught. When she asked if anyone had any information about it, both Remus and James had to stop Sirius from compulsively speaking up.

After she left, any hope of studying today was ruined as all the Gryffindor's were off in little groups complaining about the new rules which were very problematic, especially for Remus.

No student is to be anywhere alone, they must be accompanied by another student or a Professor at all times no matter the reason.

Curfew is now 8 pm, all students must be in their dorms at this time.

We strongly urge students not to drink or eat anything unless it comes from the Great Hall

The Kitchens will be guarded to ensure all food is safe

Madam Pomfrey encourages anyone who feels even the slightest bit sick to come be checked out

"This is terrible." Groaned James for the fifth time, even when they had all left the common room and moved to their dorm room.

"Yeah the rules blow but we have an invisibility cloak so who cares."

"No not that. Well, that too but Lily Evans sat with us at lunch." He groaned flopping back onto Remus' bed in a dramatic gesture of despair.

"You're right Potter that's much worse. In fact, I daresay the world is ending." Sirius replied sarcastically. They were all on Remus' bed pretending to study though no one was.

"Shut it Sirius. I'm just saying it's annoying."

"You spend way too much time thinking about Lily mate, you're losing your marbles over her."

"I don't spend too much time thinking about her." James replied sounding extremely offended.

"Yes, you do every time you see her you have some sort of complaint about her. If I didn't know any better I'd say you really do fancy her."

"Now who's losing his marbles. I don't fancy her I hate her. You don't like her either Sirius."

"Yeah, but do you hear me bringing her up all the time?"

"That's just because she annoys me so much."

"Yeah, ok." Sirius scoffed rolling his eyes. James opened his mouth but Peter, for once, beat him to speak first.

"Well I think she's nice." There was silence for a few seconds and Remus shot Peter a sympathetic look knowing what was coming next.

"Oooooo little Petey has a wittle crush~!"

"You don't have a chance with her Peter." The boy had gone very red and fled the bed his eyes welling with tears.

"Can't you two be nicer to him?" Remus sighed. Normally he would have gone over to Peter's bed to see if he was ok but he was much too tired to do so.

"Oh come on Peter we're only joking."

"Yeah Pettigrew lighten up."

"Can you two get off my bed now. I'd like to sleep." He grumbled at them having to all but push Sirius off. There was an awkward second in which James had gotten up and gone over to Peter's bed either to check on him or harass him more, leaving Sirius and Remus basically alone. Sirius stopped abruptly being dead weight as Remus shoved him a little and got up his cheeks rather pink. This, in turn, made Remus go red remembering all the words left unsaid between them. He really was sick of this but he didn't have a clue of how to fix it, nor it seemed, did Sirius.

"Well…...goodnight…..then?" He ventured quietly almost hoping, strangely enough, that Sirius would flap back on his bed and refuse to leave until they talked stuff out.

"Yeah….goodnight….." Sirius was still standing there, unmistakable hurt in his eyes like he expected Remus to say something else. Maybe if the full moon wasn't tomorrow Remus would of considered it, would have finally folded under the hundreds upon hundreds of puppy dog eyes Sirius had sent his way either consciously or unconsciously.

But he was, at the moment, painfully aware of what Sirius' meddling would lead to, what consequences it would have. So instead Remus closed the curtains to his bed with a heavy heart trying to ignore the shock and tears that had filled Sirius' own eyes before he crawled into his own bed.