"YOU'RE IT!"
Remus stumbled as James gave him a rather hearty shove. He nearly fell to the ground then steadied himself, spinning around and sprinting back towards James. It was a very crisp sort of beautiful October Saturday afternoon with the sun blazing overhead, although a chilly wind cut through the warmth. At lunch James decided he wanted to go do something outside. Remus had never been much of a run-around type, never before having anyone to run around with, and had never in his life played tag but... it was more enjoyable than he expected. Plus it did help him discover something: he was clumsier than he ever realized, tripping over every rock, stick, or bump he came across. Still, it was a lot of fun.
"You're IT!" Remus shouted as he managed to snag Peter's sleeve, nearly sending the both of them to the ground. Remus scrambled up and took off as fast as he could (tripping a couple of times as he went).
Peter huffed and puffed and Remus wondered if he'd even catch anyone then he finally got James who had to have purposely let it happen. James, declaring it unfair that none of them had caught Sirius yet, decided all three of them were 'it' so they could team up to hunt Sirius down. Sirius, with the long legs, who bounded around yards ahead of James, the most athletic one of the group. Remus and Peter both gave up to just watch James's legs pumping as he tried to catch up to Sirius, finally tackling him to the ground.
"You have to give US a head start," Peter insisted.
Sirius got up, staggering a bit. "All right, all right. Ten seconds, go on then."
After about half an hour more of playing and running, the four of them collapsed on the ground, panting for air. Remus stretched out, staring at the clouds above him drifting across the blue sky. His legs burned for another moment or two then the pain began fading, leaving just the exhaustion.
James was the first to get back up, brushing the grass off his clothes. As he rubbed his head vigorously-mussing his hair up-he froze. He brought one hand down to shield his eyes, looking across the grounds. "Hey, check that out."
Remus held back a gasp. There were figures in the distance, near the Whomping Willow. He remembered seeing people there before, on his day he had detention with Hagrid. Why are they there?! he thought, panicked.
"What are they up to? That tree's dangerous, isn't it?" Peter asked, stepping back as if the tree could reach them from there.
"I've heard some older students are playing some sort of game with it," Sirius replied, hands on hips.
James grinned. "We should go join them."
"What?! B-b-but Dumbledore said the tree c-could kill you!" Peter whimpered.
"That's half the fun," James suddenly swung his arms around, slamming one of them into Peter's midriff, knocking the wind out of him as he went sprawling to the ground. Peter clutched his middle while James laughed. "Let's play Whomping Willow."
"L-let's n-not," Remus stammered out, hoping his legs weren't shaking He wanted to know what game was being played by the other students. It couldn't be good. However, he didn't want to ask. It might make James want to go over. But James was now chasing Peter with his arms flailing around, so Remus turned to Sirius. "What are th-they doing?"
"James and Peter...? Oh you mean those kids over there? Dunno." Sirius gave a little shrug. "I think they're trying to jump over the swinging branches or something."
Remus shuddered, thinking about Pomfrey chucking rocks to hit the knot as the branches tried to hurt the two of them every evening of the full moon. "Th-that's very dangerous."
"Loads of dangerous stuff 'round Hogwarts," Sirius pointed out. "Last week one of the Hufflepuffs nearly broke her leg when she forgot about that disappearing stair."
"That's very different than purposely going up to a murderous tree and playing jump rope with its branches!" Remus chided.
Peter screamed as James caught up with him, shoving him onto the ground, tickling him. "TICKLING WILLOW!" James shrieked as Peter wheezed and choked.
"I think James is k-killing Peter," Remus said as Peter began trying-and failing-to fight back.
"Probably," Sirius said, obviously not caring. He was still watching the kids by the Whomping Willow. Then as if snapping out of a trance, he turned to face Remus. "Say, you're gonna help with the bat-bogey hex now, aren't you? We haven't really talked about it."
Remus folded his arms. "Is that the only reason you wanted to be my friend?"
"What? N-no!" Sirius protested.
Oops, I guess I didn't get the tone right. "No, I-I'm so-sorry, I w-was t-t-teasing!" he said anxiously, his stammering coming back with a vengeance.
"Ohhh! Sorry, I guess I never thought of you as the teasing sort," Sirius replied. "I guess I sort of just saw you as the... you know... quiet... serious nerd..."
Remus pressed his lips together, trying not to laugh. "I'm the 'serious' one?"
Sirius's face went blank then he covered his face. "I walked into that one!" he groaned while Remus giggled.
"Yes, though to-to answer your question, I'll do research on how we c-can make them all furry."
Gasping sounds as James staggered over with Peter following. Poor Peter was bright red, mud all over him, hardly able to breathe. "I won," James said, and Sirius pat his shoulder, offering his congratulations.
Remus stared towards the Willow, hoping this game would get boring soon for the older students. He considered telling Dumbledore but he didn't want to be a snitch, plus he figured if the first years knew about it surely the headmaster would find out about this sooner or later. Hopefully sooner. Remus finally tore his gaze away from the entrance to his wolf den, feeling very ill, shaking his head when Sirius asked him if he wanted to play tag. None of the others really wanted to either, so they headed back to the castle, Remus doing his best not to look back.
()
Halloween was a big holiday for the wizarding world. Remus had always loved Halloween, even as a little boy before It happened (at least according to the stories his parents told him about his pre-bitten life). Even after he became a monster he still loved the holiday, looking forward to it every year (the worst was when he was six, when he was recovering from the full moon from the night before. He had to spend the day in bed but his mother had brought in decorations and told him spooky stories). He had gone trick-or-treating when he was very little that he sort of remembered but of course his parents stopped taking him after.
Remus wasn't sure what Halloween was like at Hogwarts though the older students seemed pretty excited for the feast. About a week before Halloween, James and Sirius began forming an idea to try to pull a big prank during the feast. On Sunday afternoon they discussed at great length various possibilities while Remus tried to work on some schoolwork, and Peter desperately worked on doing the locomotion charm, since they knew sometime this week they'd be moving on the the levitation charm.
"We don't wanna do anything to ruin the feast," James mused as he played with a toy griffin that kept flapping around his head.
"Yeah, I don't want to do anything with dungbombs or anything like that," Sirius agreed. James reached out to grab the griffin but it flapped away. "Maybe firecrackers?"
"Locomotor quill," Peter said, focusing hard, the quill barely moving. "Locomotor quill."
James stared up at the griffin then slowly got out of bed. "Hey, uh, Remus? Would it be difficult to do this?" He pointed at the griffin.
Remus glanced up from his book. "Do wh-what?"
"This."
"Erm, there's a lot of p-possibilities to what 'this' entails," he said, trying his best not to roll his eyes.
James frowned. "Make something fly around like that."
"You mean, the sp-spell we're learning this week...?"
"No, not the levitation spell, like this." He jumped up and caught the griffin. It squawked loudly, struggling to get out of his hand. "Flying around on its own."
Remus swung his legs out of bed, sitting up straight. "You mean, sentient magic? Wow, th-that's pretty advanced."
"No, not sentient magic," James said, shaking his head. "I just mean like make an object fly around like this." He let go of the griffin. It began flapping away from him wildly. "And avoid being caught." He reached out and the griffin flew higher to avoid him. "Like that."
"So... sentient magic," Remus said while James just stared. "You're t-talking about making an object be able to act and r-react, yes?" James nodded. "Th-that's sentient magic. We won't be doing that for-for a while. Not until... n-next year at the least, and even then it won't be as advanced as that." He squinted up at the griffin. "You're thinking about making... griffins... for the feast?"
"Nah, bats," James replied, flopping back onto his bed, looking quite put out that his idea was shot down. "So making bats and having them dive bomb the tables is... not... gonna happen...?"
"N-not in a week," Remus answered and James snapped his fingers.
"Next year, then," Sirius said cheerfully, patting James's back.
"It's a really good idea," Peter said, finally looking up from his quill. "Can you imagine them dive bombing the Slytherins?"
James lay on his back, grinning up at the ceiling. "That's exactly what I was imagining, buddy. Remus, are you sure...? Ah, well," he sighed when Remus nodded. "Next year. So, Sirius, firecrackers you say...? How many do you have left? I'm down to my last dozen..."
()
Sir Nicholas seemed pretty excited about Halloween too. On Monday he floated alongside Remus and Lily (who still seemed quite edgy around the ghosts), talking about his Halloween death nearly five hundred years before, and that he was thinking about performing a reenactment of the beheading at some point.
"Albus has been asking a few years now," he said as they turned a corner. A student accidentally walked through him, yelping from the sudden cold.
"You should, if you think it won't bother you," Lily said.
"I've been dead four hundred and seventy-nine years, I've long stopped being bothered about my death... for the most part..." He reached up, touching the ruffle around his neck. "The only thing I'm bothered about is the fact they didn't get my head off cleanly." He swung his head off his neck and Lily recoiled a bit, sliding to the other side of Remus, holding onto his arm. Sir Nicholas popped his head back on right, chuckling to himself.
"So what's Halloween like in the magic world?" Lily asked, trying to change the subject from Sir Nicholas's grisly death.
"A really b-big deal," Remus said, rather excitedly. "I don't know wh-what it's like for Muggles but for us it's... very important. It's a night when... magic is r-really strong. When the veil between worlds is thin. It's a-a celebration of us. Of magic."
"So, really similar to the Muggles and their history of Halloween just more so. Are there any traditions?"
"Always a big feast here," Sir Nicholas answered proudly. "Depending on the Headmaster you'll get some entertainment; Albus has been pretty good at doing things for the feast. Often he'll have us ghosts put on a show. We did last year; not this year, not sure what he's got planned for this one."
"Trick-or-treating, p-parties, costumes, pranks, telling sp-spooky stories," Remus listed.
"So a lot like Mu-wait, pranks?" Lily raised her eyebrows. He knew exactly what was going on through her mind.
"N-not that they need a special day for it," he said and she giggled. "I imagine it'll be-be worse on April first." He figured it'd be best not to mention James and Sirius had gathered up all the firecrackers they had between them and were planning on setting them off during the feast.
"I'll be dreading that day, then," Lily said. "So... are we supposed to dress up for the Halloween feast? In costume?" She looked at Remus who shrugged, as it had never been mentioned in Hogwarts, A History.
"Some students do," Sir Nicholas answered, "though in general most don't."
"Maybe after I've been here a year or two," Lily said, though had a look on her face like she wanted to this year.
Remus sort of wanted to as well. He had seen pictures of his first four Halloweens where he was dressed up in little baby costumes. A pumpkin when he was seven months old, a spider at nineteen months old, a Quidditch player when he was two (his father's hopes and dreams), and a bookworm when he was three (according to his mother his own idea). He was bitten just before the Halloween when he was four. Literally, ten days before. I suppose I was a werewolf victim that Halloween, and a werewolf ever since.
It was a bit of a wonder to him that he never associated his attack with Halloween. They had always been two separate things, despite being so close together, and he felt very glad that's how it was in his head.
"Tell us about past feasts, please?" Lily asked, looking up at the ghost.
Sir Nicholas smiled and began telling long rather rambling tales of past Halloweens at Hogwarts. It seemed previous Headmasters and Headmistresses hadn't really gone as all out as Dumbledore did. They did the decorated feasts, of course, but Dumbledore was the one who started bringing in various entertainments. As he spoke, both children grew quite excited, unable to wait to see what their first Hogwarts Halloween had in store for them.
()
On Tuesday James Potter got some really terrible news. When the Gryffindors went out for their Flying lesson, Madame Hooch gave James a look and informed him that in her opinion he didn't have to come to these lessons anymore.
"What?" James looked horrified.
"It's clear you're an excellent flyer already," Hooch said, arms folded. "You're far too advance for anything you'll learn here, so there's no need for you to attend my classes."
"But-Madame Hooch-I like the lessons..." He gripped the school broom tightly, as if daring her to try and take it away.
Hooch shook her head. "All you spend your time doing is showing off."
"I won't anymore!" James promised, stepping forward. The group of kids that always came out to watch were gathered around on a distant slope. The fact it was a cold drizzly October day hadn't deterred them. "Give me another chance, you'll see."
Hooch looked doubtful but nodded. "All right then. Today we'll be flying higher than you have before and working on turning sharply. Then you'll be partnering up to practice balancing by tossing Quaffles around again."
"Oh, joy," Remus grumbled under his breath. He mounted the school broom, slowly rising up into the air, having to be urged by Hooch to get to the asked for minimum height of twenty-two feet. He felt shaky and frightened, knowing how stupid it was to feel this way. The height made him dizzy; he just wasn't any good at flying.
The students began flying, trying their turning. The brooms weren't great so the turns weren't too sharp... however James seemed to be doing a pretty good job of it. Hooch had to shout at him to come down a bit since he was flying way higher than the maximum height, which he did reluctantly. Then he began flying around, doing flips and loops. Hooch demanded he come down to the ground.
"I didn't mean to!" James protested, wet hair hanging limply on either side of his face.
"You did mean to, and that was it."
"One chance-"
"I gave you your chance. You blew it. Back to the castle with you, you're done with flying lessons."
"But Madame Hooch-"
"No buts! Go on."
"This isn't right! You shouldn't be able to deny a student the right to learn!"
The two of them faced off, Hooch looking very intense, James looking very angry. "And what exactly are you learning in my lessons that you don't already know?" she asked in a weirdly smooth, silky sort of voice. James breathed a bit heavily as he tried to figure out what to say in response. "That's what I thought. If you're that upset about it, go talk to Professor McGonagall and have it out with her. My decision is final unless she says otherwise. The rest of you, come down and partner up."
"Hey Potter!" one of the other students called, one of the older ones. "Wanna fly around on the Quidditch pitch? You can borrow my broom again." Remus recognized her as Patricia Bell (mostly due to the bright blue streaks in her hair), the one James had said would probably be Gryffindor Captain next year. James grinned and handed his school broom back to Hooch quickly before taking off with the older students.
Hooch sighed rather heavily and had to blow her whistle a few times to get the attention of most the students who were all watching James with jealously. Sirius clearly wanted to go with them to watch his friend fly on a proper broom.
"Maybe they'll still be at it when we're done, eh?" he asked, elbowing Remus as they were handed their Quaffle, then flew back up into the air for the worst part of these lessons, in Remus's opinion. Sirius was quite a good flyer and worked well with the Quaffle but Remus still sucked. He wound up falling off his broom yet again (Hooch had to use her wand to slow his fall and he landed on the ground with nothing more than a bruised backside). When Hooch dismissed the class almost everyone ran to the Quidditch pitch to see what was going on, Sirius, Peter, and Remus included. The older students were there, some of them on brooms though they weren't doing much, mostly watching from the air. James was on a broom too, a proper real broom-not an old school one-doing tricks, flips, and spins. He had a Quaffle, too, tossing it around with Patricia Bell.
"Wow, he's so good," Peter said, clapping loudly every time James did... well, anything.
Remus watched James with envy. He didn't care if he could do those things just the fact James stayed on the broom so easily. He was even doing his standing trick on the faster broom, arms outstretched, suddenly reminding Remus of a picture from a book about Muggle circuses his mother gave him. He couldn't remember exactly what it was called but just a thin wire and someone could walk across it like they were on the ground, their arms out just like that for balance. Sure the broom was thicker than a wire, but the broom was moving. Remus had to clap as well, quite impressed.
James sat on the broom proper now, pumping his fists into the air like he had won some big victory, a huge grin on his face, soaking all this attention in like a sponge with water.