Fawley hadn't been informed any of what happened so the next day before they began Remus told her everything, then showed her the memory of Dedenne completely snapping. Fawley's jaw clenched, the muscles flexing a little as fury radiated from her body.

"I am so sorry, Remus," she said, struggling to keep her voice under control. "You didn't deserve that. I know perfectly well you feel like you did, however you didn't." She stroked his hair gently. "You're not a danger to anyone. You're a good werewolf. Understand?"

He shrugged. "I... guess..." He wasn't, but whatever.

"I am so sorry I didn't realize how she was sooner..." Fawley pressed her fingertips against her eyes. "I knew she wasn't fond of you but I didn't know the extent of things, you never... shared this with me, and I never saw much in your memories to raise any warning flags. I should have seen this. I am sorry."

He promised her it was fine because really it wasn't her fault at all. He didn't understand why she was apologizing.

Of course the rumors were still flying that Remus had been involved in Dedenne's termination. He calmly denied this, then started saying that if he could get a teacher to leave it would have been Binns. Taking the mick worked wonders, and the rumors began dying down. After a few days everyone moved on to something else. Except for Remus who carried everything in his head like a weight, guilt and nausea constantly eating away at his insides.

Study group kept trying to get him to tell what happened. Why he had gone missing. He just said he hadn't been feeling great that day, that he had gotten a letter from home saying his mother was ill again, just... as many lies as he could. That didn't really satisfy Craft so Remus avoided the library for a while, figuring he might as well spend more time with the Marauders while he could.

They were still gearing up for Operation BounceIt. Remus had found a spiderweb spell so he and Sirius were practicing it one evening while the other two were in detention, shooting rather feeble webbing all over the dorm until Sirius started shooting it at Remus. Remus yelped and shot the webbing back but Sirius had gotten the upper hand; soon Remus was covered in the sticky stuff, hardly able to move, feeling a bit sorry for insects who got caught in proper spider webs.

"Thanks, Shelob," Remus said when Sirius freed him.

"Shelob?"

"Never mind."

"Sorry," he laughed. "I couldn't resist. This would be fun to duel with. Next year when we break into the Slytherin dorm we should fill Snape's room with the stuff."

"Break in...?" Remus peeled bits of web off his face before moving on to his arms. "You've got a plan, then?"

"Yeah. Once James-" He stopped himself, biting his bottom lip. "Well, we have a plan."

"When James what?"

Sirius glanced at the door then back at Remus. "I shouldn't say. I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. He doesn't want to jinx himself, you know? If he talks about it, maybe his father won't give it to him."

"Give what to him?"

"Nothing." Sirius got some webbing out of Remus's hair which sent a strange shiver down Remus's spine, probably just because of the close proximity. "All right, I probably did too much. Webs, I mean."

Remus just grunted as he started picking stuff off his midriff. "You definitely made a mess. We have to clean the floors, too." His eyes swept around the room, taking in all the white. "Um. The whole dorm, really."

"Eh, call the house-elves," said Sirius, wiping his hands off on his trousers. "That's what they're there for."

"What, cleaning up your messes?" Remus asked incredulously.

"Yeah?" Sirius frowned. "What about yours, then? What does it do if not clean up after you?"

Remus blinked a few times. "My... house-elf...?" Sirius nodded. "I don't have one."

"Wh-what?"

"I don't have a house-elf, Sirius! I-I live in a tiny cottage! My-" He stopped, averting his gaze, not wanting to highlight how poor his family was. Maybe his father's family had a house-elf somewhere but they certainly didn't.

"Then... who cleans your house?"

"For Merlin's sake. My mother? Me?"

"You?!" Sirius looked shocked. "What? You-clean your house?"

"Yes!"

"But... you can't use magic out of school?" Sirius looked so confused it almost made Remus want to laugh.

"Noooo," he said slowly. "I clean the Muggle way." It was embarrassing to admit all this but almost worth it to see the absolute shock on Sirius's face. His jaw dropped and his eyes bugged out.

"You... clean the... Muggle way? Like... how we have to in detention?!"

"Yes," Remus said, moving away from him so he could start picking up some of the bigger pieces of webbing. "With my hands. Sweeping. Dishes. Hoovering."

Sirius began helping with the webbing, pausing to stare at his hands as if he couldn't imagine Remus doing that. "Hoovering? That doesn't sound like a real thing. Now you're making stuff up."

"No, it's like-vacuuming. A Muggle machine that sucks up dirt off the rugs."

"Why not just use a..."

"A what?" Remus smiled as Sirius went a little pink. "A spell?"

Sirius opted not to answered that. "Muggles really have a thing that sucks dirt up?"

"Yes."

"Blimey." Sirius got some more webbing, throwing it into the bin. "Where does the dirt go? When it's sucked up?"

"A bag, inside the machine. Then you throw the bag away, and put in a new one. Except, my dad usually just vanishes the insides so we can reuse bags." He stopped quickly, hoping Sirius wouldn't see his face. He really felt uncomfortable talking about just how poor they were. Reusing vacuum bags to save money. "Anyway. Yeah. Maybe you should take Muggle Studies in our third year. Learn something about them."

"Maybe," Sirius said rather dubiously. "Just sounds to me like you're living in constant detention."

That really irked Remus. He turned around, scowling. "It's not. It's just... a different lifestyle than yours."

Sirius gave him a sheepish look in return. "Yeah, you're right. I-I shouldn't've said that."

"It's okay."

"You think Peter has to clean his house too?"

"Possibly."

"Do all half-and-halfs have to?"

Remus gave a loud groan, head beginning to hurt. "I don't know. It-it probably depends on their family dynamics. My-my father is the one who works, so my mother takes care of the house. And I help. Both of Peter's parents work, don't they? You'd have to ask him how they do the household chores."

He did, once the others returned from detention. Peter explained that the chores were split between everyone who lived in the house-himself including. His mother did most the work, being magic, though his father and grandfather did plenty of chores too, and he did help out. Sirius asked him if he hoovered and Peter laughed saying of course he did. James asked what hoover meant and Sirius actually somewhat remembered what Remus said, though he described it as being a giant bag that sucked in dirt from everywhere. Remus cut in explaining what vacuum cleaners really were. James seemed quite amazed.

"Maybe sometime we can come visit you, and you can show us this machine," he suggested.

"Maybe," Remus replied pleasantly.

Peter elbowed Remus. "Wait till they find out about washing machines."

Both half-and-halfs bust up laughing while the purebloods looked very bewildered. It was the first time since everything happened with Dedenne several days ago that he really laughed, and it felt so good.

()

It was very weird not going to Defense. Suddenly they had almost every single afternoon free except for Thursday. On Friday, after lunch, they went back out to Fort Dragon. Not only to work on their fort but also to practice for Operation BounceIt. They turned a section of ground into bounciness and spent their time playing a one-on-one game trying to get the other to fall. Remus lost every time with his crap balance, but still had a lot of fun. Whenever he wasn't battling he was practicing the webbing spells, sending thick spider webs all over nearby trees. He hoped it wouldn't upset the centaurs.

On Saturday (the last Saturday of their first year, Remus realized at breakfast) they couldn't go to the Forbidden Forest because it was raining pretty hard.

"This is our last weekend!" James complained when they got back to their dorm. "This is crap. Unfair. It's supposed to rain tomorrow too."

"We could explore more of the school," suggested Peter.

"I wanted to work on Fort Dragon," James pouted.

They wound up exploring the school because what else did they have to do? They actually brought some parchment because James suggested they start writing down locations of secret passages plus passwords.

"What if someone else finds it?" Remus asked as they went down one of their well-used passages.

"We'll do it in code, then," James said. "We'll make up a Marauder code. Remy, you're Brains, you come up with a code."

"Remus doesn't have to do everything," Sirius said, surprising everyone.

"He doesn't do everything," James replied haughtily. "Just the Brainy stuff. I mean, remember? Brains? Brawn? Blithe? Beauty? That was all you, Sirius. Sorry. I mean, Beeeeauuuty!"

Sirius thwacked James's arm rather hard while James laughed. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean he's gotta do everything when it comes to the brainy stuff."

"Um, I-I d-don't mind," Remus muttered. "I can do it over the summer."

James beamed. "See?" He put his arm around Remus, half-hugging him. "Thank you, Brains."

"Anytime, er, Brawns..."

They began exploring parts of the school they hadn't checked out before, paying close attention to the walls, statues, tapestries, looking for possible secret entrances. Peter wrote down every spot James and Sirius though there might be a secret entrance. Remus actually found one himself, though it was one known to staff since the reason he found it was because one particular tapestry smelled strongly of Filch and his stupid cat. He pulled it back to find a wall. Frowning, he tried pushing it aside the other way. Still empty. Then he lifted it up from below and lo and behold an entrance. He couldn't tell them it smelled like Filch so they just went down, excited to find a new place to explore. It actually let out somewhat near Filch's office (which explained why it had such a strong scent).

In the afternoon they sat outside the Great Hall, quietly discussing the final touches of Operation BounceIt. If all four of them disappeared it would be suspicious. They figured probably two at most could slip out. It would have to be right near the end, otherwise anyone needing a bathroom break would find it.

"Whichever two of us leaves, though, will be blamed for the whole thing," Peter pointed out, knowing perfectly well he wouldn't be one of the ones performing the spell.

"What about a distraction?" suggested Sirius. "Remus is best with the webbing, I'm as good as James with the spongify. James, what if you and Pete do a distraction? We can slip out."

James rubbed his chin, eyes narrowed. "Yee-ees," he drew out. "That would be a great idea. Fireworks? We have some left. I was planning on using them Friday night after the feast but we can do them at the feast."

"We can sit at the very end, near the doors," said Remus. "That way you can set them off-aim them sorta towards the teachers' table so everyone's looking over there, then Sirius and I can slip out." It was still a pretty big risk. His stomach hurt just thinking about it, but it was also rather exciting. What could the teachers do? The Cup winner would already be announced (and most likely be Hufflepuff; Gryffindor was pretty much lagging behind everyone thanks to James and Sirius) and they'd be leaving the next day so no detention.

"We should practice being as fast as we possibly can," Sirius told Remus.

So off they went, working on doing the spongify and webbing spells quickly. It was tiring... but they managed to do things pretty quickly. Hopefully quickly enough.

()

Sunday was indeed very rainy so once again the day was spent exploring as well as practicing for BounceIt. Then on Monday they got their exam results back.

There were so many owls at breakfast, dropping envelopes into the laps of students, official Hogwarts crests on them. Up and down the tables came cries of joy, cries of upset, and various other noises along those lines.

James ripped his open right away. "Uh-huh, uh-huh, yeah," he said, scanning down the paper. "Looks like I'll be going into my second year!" He gave a loud laugh. "As if that's a surprise."

Sirius opened his next. "Same," he said, not even looking at all his grades, only looking at the bottom line. He let the paper fall to the table, going back to his breakfast.

Peter and Remus looked at each other. "Y-you first," Peter said.

"Um. O-okay." Remus nervously opened his, stomach swooping in great circles. His hands shook a little as he finally got the envelope open except then he couldn't seem to get the paper out. He dropped the envelope twice then suddenly Sirius took it from him, yanking the paper out.

"Merlin!" Sirius exclaimed in horror.

"Wh-what?!" Remus cried out.

"Just as I thought," Sirius said in a bleak tone. He set the paper down, staring intently at Remus who was shaking with fear. "You, Remus Lupin... are a total nerd." He shoved the paper over to him. "You passed everything, idiot. Well, I guess not idiot."

Remus seized the paper, eyes going wide as he read through all his grades. Os, almost all the way across except for an E in Defense (barely), and an A in Potions, just shy of an E according to the percent number! He got over 100% in History and Transfigure-wait. What?

"Hang on, th-this can't be right." He squinted, leaning in close. "No. This-this isn't right." He checked the top of the paper. His name was there. Remus John Lupin, First Year, Gryffindor. But- "This isn't correct."

"What? What's wrong with it?" James asked, stuffing half a muffin into his mouth.

Remus looked up at the teachers' table. "Um. I-I need to talk to McGonagall. This isn't right. Um, excuse me." He got up, not even aware of half the student body watching him walk directly to the teachers. All he could think was wrong, wrong, wrong! "P-Professor?" he asked meekly, approaching McGonagall. "Um, I'm-I'm sorry for interrupting your breakfast... but I think there's been some sort of mistake with my-my exam results?"

Next to McGonagall, Professor Flitwick looked rather amused. McGonagall just raised one eyebrow. "What is the problem, Mr. Lupin? Is it your Potions score?"

"N-no. Um. My-my Defense. Um." He set the paper down, suddenly aware of how many eyes were on him. Shoot. He should have done this later, in private. "This can't be-be right. I've barely been p-pulling As. Mostly Ps and Ds."

McGonagall pushed the paper back towards him. "There's no mistake, Mr. Lupin. These are your exam results. Frankly, if I had my way we would have gone back and rechecked all your test results as well as give you the practical exams again however-" She quickly stopped herself. "In any case, congratulations on such good grades." Her eyes flickered to Flitwick then back to Remus. "Certainly one of the top first years."

Remus looked down at the paper. Dedenne hadn't graded his exams. She left before they could be. Someone else had done it. His overall percentage was pretty low because of all the failures Dedenne gave him however his exam grade... but even so, his written exams had been so good it pulled his final grade to an E.

"I-I see," he whispered, pulling the paper close. "Th-thank you, Professor. Sorry to have b-bothered you."

He slunk back to the table, brilliantly red especially when his friends asked him what that had been about. He told them and they all pat his back, congratulating him, telling him they knew he deserved better grades in that class. While he was gone Peter had gotten his paper out. One D, two Ps, three As, and one E.

"Congratulations!" Remus said when he saw the E Pete had gotten in Potions.

"At l-least I won't be held back," Peter sighed. "I have some extra summer homework I need to do for History, Astronomy, and Charms." He indicated the three failing grades.

"I'll help you," Remus said without thinking.

"Annnnd you'll be helping me," James said, eyes going big. "We made that bet!"

"Yes, we did," Remus said, smiling at him. "I will."

"Help me too?" Sirius asked, fluttering his eyelashes. "I don't wanna be left out."

Remus just sighed, hoping he would be able to hide all the letters coming for him over the summer.

()

The last week slipped by. Hardly anyone paid attention in class, the teachers didn't seem like they were in the mood to be strict, and the Marauders-well, Sirius and Remus-worked hard on perfecting being super fast with the spells for BounceIt. Remus went to the library on Monday night but only Silverlocke was there. Apparently no one else felt the need to continue with study group. Remus joined him, and Silverlocke smiled, looking rather happy at having company. Remus decided he'd go in on the other nights he could (Wednesday and Thursday).

Tuesday night was the last night of Occlumency for two months. Remus felt a little sad, knowing he wouldn't see Fawley for a long time. He managed to put up a little bit of pressure, got a pretty nasty headache, then hugged her goodbye.

"I hope you have a good summer, Miss Fawley," he said when they stepped back. "Thank you for everything."

"Feel free to write to me if you need anything," she said, patting his head. "And continue to practice emptying yourself. I don't want to come back in September to find you back to how you were at the beginning of our practicing."

"I will. I mean, you won't. I mean..."

Fawley laughed. "Have a good summer too, Remus."

()

Thursday was clear and dry enough that they were able to go to the forest after Potions, figuring this would probably be the last time they'd be going to Fort Dragon until autumn. They didn't build, practice, or anything like that, they just sort of hung out. They still needed to make a door on the proper fort so it was off to the side for now.

"Can't believe this is it," Peter said, stretched out on top of the rock. "Saturday we go home."

"Or leave home," Sirius muttered under his breath so softly that Remus knew he was the only one who heard. He wanted to reach out to try to comfort him, but kept his hands to himself. Is it that bad? he wondered, having a difficult time understanding how someone could see this as leaving home. He-loved Hogwarts very much and felt like it was home, but home was also with his parents.

Then Sirius added, loud enough for everyone to hear, "Two stupid months."

James reached over, taking his hand. "Even if we don't get to see each other I'll send about a million letters, I promise."

Sirius smiled. "I will too."

"I think my favorite thing was the Bat-Bogey prank," Peter said.

James began laughing. "Yes, me too!"

"Same here," Sirius put in.

"Yes, that was definitely the best," agreed Remus. "It was in the newspaper."

"I can't believe our prank got in the Daily Prophet that's just-" James stopped and let out a triumphant crooning sound, punching his fist in the air. "How many people can say that?"

"Imagine the pranks we'll be pulling next year," said Sirius, spreading his hands out. "Bigger, better... umm... bogier."

"Bogier!" Peter laughed.

James tapped his wand against his chin. "I think we should make sure to do something big at different... feasts. Maybe not the starting feast but maybe for Halloween, before we leave for the Christmas holidays, before the Easter holidays... I'm gonna write down loads of ideas all summer."

"It's been a great year, though," Sirius mused.

James fell silent. "Yeah," he finally agreed. "I've been looking forward to Hogwarts all my life but I never imagined it'd be this brilliant. You three are definitely amazing. I'm so glad we became friends."

"Me too," said Pete. "I never imagined I'd make friends like you guys."

I never imagine I'd make friends period, Remus thought, watching the leaves rustling above.

"I was expecting school to be shit," Sirius said as James began sending green sparks shooting off towards the trees. "Wish it didn't have to end. Man, wouldn't it be cool if we could stay here all summer?"

Actually, it wouldn't be so bad if I could come back to the house in Hogsmeade, Remus thought, kicking at the dragon rock. Better than that small room. He shuddered, not looking forward to Sunday night when he'd be locked up in the darkness.

"We'll have to hang out plenty over the summer anyway," Peter said brightly. "Surely there's gotta be a way we can. I really don't wanna go nine weeks without seeing you guys."

"At the very least we can meet up in Diagon," suggested James.

Sirius and Remus, as always when it came to summer plans, remained silent. Remus just kept scuffing the toe of his trainer against the stone. James gave them both rather annoyed looks but neither said anything.

"Remus, when do you think would be good for you?" James pushed.

"No idea," he mumbled, looking down. "Depends. Um, we'll see."

Nobody talked for a moment and Remus thought he put a downer on the whole thing but then Peter began talking about some of the plans he had with his family (he kept mentioning something about his grandfather and 'outdoors crap' but Remus wasn't sure exactly) then James talked about his family plans (not much, apparently, since his grandfather was pretty much on his deathbed; at first he didn't sound concerned but then Remus noticed a sad expression as James looked away so he thought maybe James was putting on a front that it wasn't bothering him).

"Any big family plans for you two?" Pete asked.

"Surviving," both of them said as the same time, then they looked at each other. Pete furrowed his brow as he glanced back and forth between them. Remus looked away from Sirius first, blushing slightly.

"Surviving?" Peter asked. "What do you mean?"

"My family can be... intense," Sirius finally said with a loud yawn.

Remus hugged his knees to his chest. "I tend to get sicker in the summer."

"I thought summer was good for you?" James asked.

Did I say that? He couldn't remember. "No, not usually. It's worse in the summer."

"Oh."

More silence. Then Sirius jumped to his feet, clapping his hands. "Come on, then, let's go find some Slytherins to have a final bash."

James grinned and the rest of them got up as well, going back to the school to trip up some Slytherins which was a lot better than talking about Sirius's intense family or Remus's illness. Remus kept eyeing Sirius, though, wondering what he had meant by that, what exactly went on in the Black family that Sirius had been smelling extremely anxious and upset since they started talking about their summers.