Chapter Seven

What Now?

Where the hell does Snape get the nerve! I mean honestly who- UGH!

Sirius Black frowned at the tattered pages of Remus' diary, wrath bubbling to the surface with every calligraphied word that passed his stormy gray eyes. He felt sick to his stomach as he read about how much pain Remus was being caused, the guilt he felt about what he is doing, but Sirius saw where he was coming from. Had he been in the werewolf's position Sirius probably would have done the same, most other people would.

The door to the boys' dormitory opened and Sirius looked up from the journal. He sighed in relief to see that it was only James and Peter that had walked in and not Remus. He would have been in huge trouble had it been Remus.

James grinned impishly at Sirius, and plopped down on his bed, feet up against the wall as his head lolled against the edge of the bed. Peter scurried about the room, picking up random articles of clothing sniffing them, then throwing them haphazardly behind him. "Sirius, whatcha doing?" James inquired, looking upside down at his friend, his short black hair fanning out under his head.

"Reading," he answered simply turning his back to James and shifting in the armchair he had thrown himself into three hours prior.

Peter stopped his assault on the room and stared at Sirius, "you don't read. Moony reads, you don't read."

Sirius rolled his eyes at the boy, "I can read, I just choose not to, but this is important."

James reached up and grabbed the book from where it had fallen to Sirius' lap when he shifted in his seat. "This is Remus' journal, Mate. He sees you with this, he will have your head."

"Well, something has been up with Remus lately and I wanted to know what was going on!" Sirius snapped defensively, wrestling the worn journal from James' grasp. "And I was just in the middle of why, when you two came barging in like a pack of bloody wombats!"

"He has no idea what a wombat is does he?" Peter asked, continuing his search through the pile of clothes around the room.

"Nope. What did you find out, Sirius?" James asked quizzically, shifting so that he was laying on his stomach, head propped on his hands.

"Snape, it seems, has something to help Remus during the full moon, but the only way he will give it to Remus is if he helps get Snape together with Lily. He is a bloody prat, how could anyone do that to somebody? I mean yeah we harp on Snape from time to time but if his life was in danger we would protect him from harm. We may complain about it and never let him live it down, but we would help him out."

A look of realization hit James, "that is why he convinced Lily to befriend Snape again? Why didn't he just tell me that, I wouldn't have acted like such an arse then!"

"Remus was probably ashamed that he could be manipulated so easily, and he knew what he was doing was going to hurt you, James so he felt culpability for that as well." Peter disregarded the looks of pure astonishment from the other two boys as he collected his dress shirt and pants from where they were on the bottom of his trunk. Slamming the lid shut he sat atop it and stared at the boys with large innocent eyes.

"You really are smarter than you look, Pete." James whispered in an awed voice, his mouth still hanging open a bit.

"Well one can't hear that enough I assure you," the small boy muttered. Shaking his head he sighed, "What are we going to do? Should we confront Snape about Remus, tell a teacher, what?"

Sirius and James glared at him as if he had gone insane, "ARE YOU A MARAUDER OR AREN'T YOU?"

Peter shrank back, "what did I do?"

"We have to teach Snape that the Marauders are not a group to be reckoned with. We have to make Lily believe that he is an even bigger jerk than James is, when Lily drops him like a hot potato, then we will go to the Headmaster and tell him that Snape knows something that will Remus during the full moons. If there is even a little chance to make the full moon safer for everyone Dumbledore will take whatever measures to make sure that Remus has access to it."

"But isn't that a bit cruel? I know we pull pranks on Snape, and yes I realize that he is just as much of an ass to us as we are to him, but the guy has it hard enough. If we bring the Headmaster into it, he may get expelled from school! Isn't what he's doing considered, endangerment of student welfare? Listen, I hate Snape as much as the next guy but I also have a great deal of respect for him. I don't want him kicked out of school…"

James nodded thoughtfully towards Sirius, "now all we need to do is figure out how we are going to make Snape seem like a bigger jerk than I am."

"Well that is going to be a bit of a challenge," Sirius retorted, throwing his head back in a barking laugh. "No one is as much of a jerk as you are."

Throwing one of his pillows at Sirius' head, James laughed, "It's true. We need to try something though."

Peter threw his hands in the air, frustration present in his features. "Again, I am being bloody ignored, why do I even bother trying anymore? Nothing ever changes."

"What you boys need to do is make a Poly Juice potion."

The three boys looked up towards the door of their dorm room, their faces twisting into humorous perplexity, "how long have you been there!" Sirius demanded, jumping up from his place on the arm chair hugging Remus' journal close to his chest possessively.

Tonks ran her hands down her dress, smoothing out the creases. "Not too long, maybe ten minutes." She waved her hand frivolously, rolling her eyes towards the ceiling. "That really isn't what is important here."

Peter blushed and looked down, suddenly finding his shoelaces quite fascinating. "How do you suppose we make a Poly Juice potion?" James asked, rolling over and sitting upright, legs crossed carelessly in front of him. "Two of us lack the necessary potions skills, and the other well…. We are not quite sure Sirius can actually read-" "Hey!" "…Not to mention even if we had the skills, none of us know how to make the potion or even what it entails."

"Well, you would need to go to this amazing place known as the library. This remarkable place has all these contraptions known as books. Books have words in them. The words will tell you the information you need to make the potion."

"Any book that has the Poly Juice potion in it will be in the Restricted Section. How do you suppose we get into there, hmm?" Sirius smirked, and almost tumbled back in shock when a smirk identical to his flashed back at him.

"You guys are the Marauders. I am certain that something that contains the words Restricted Section is not enough to stop you from obtaining what you want. In fact if legend serves as accurate then that would make you guys want to enter it even more."

Peter, who seemed to have lost all his energy when Tonks entered the room, slid himself off of his trunk and inaudibly made his way towards the bookcase on Remus' side of the room. Tonks, Sirius and James fell quiet and watched him curiously as he ran his fingers over the worn titles of the numerous books Remus had shoved onto the shelves.

"What is he doing?" Tonks whispered quietly to the other two. Both boys shrugged their shoulders their expressions perplexed. None of them were prepared for when Peter suddenly gave a small cry of 'Ah ha!' which caused them all to jump about a mile in the air. Peter pulled out what seemed to be a faded green ten thousand page encyclopedia.

Vigilantly he carried the book over to James' bed and motioned for Sirius and Tonks to approach the bed. The four teenagers gathered on the bed sitting in a circle with the tome lying between them. 100,000 Difficult and Dangerous Potions was scrawled in gold across the top of the book. There were no other markings on the cover save scratches, and bits where the material cover was beginning to peel off.

"Why would Remus have a book like this? He hates the potions classes we have here in school." Sirius cocked his head to the side, studying the book as if it would give him the answers he was seeking. It didn't of course, and he sighed, looking away from it disgruntled.

James turned the book towards him, and flipped open the book, coughing as a cloud of dust shot out from between the yellowing thin pages. His eyes widened when he saw the amount of highlighting on the pages of the book, even the index had a good twenty phrases, or pages highlighted. "Whoa," James breathed, pushing his glasses up from where they began to slip off his nose and leaned down to get a closer look at what was highlighted.

"What did you find, Prongs?" Sirius tied his hair back into a ponytail, and leaned down squinting to read the text where his friends head cast a shadow over them.

"Pete, hand me that Muggle notebook Remus gave me for Christmas last year." James leaned behind himself, opening his bedside table and digging though it until he found his extra quills and ink.

By the time Peter had received his notebook, and he had obtained the quill and ink, Tonks had already grabbed the book, her finger marking the pages of the index as she flipped through the tome stopping at the pages Remus had marked. "He was looking up old potions for werewolves." She pursed her lips, stopping at a particularly grotesque picture of a man changing into a werewolf. "Why would he be doing that?"

"Let me see that!" Sirius demanded ripping the book from her hands and dropped it down on the bed. His eyes scanned the page, and indeed it seemed that Tonks was correct.

Every word and phrase that had anything to do with werewolves was highlighted in a bright purple. Anything highlighted in orange it seemed were phrases Remus was either unfamiliar with or needed more information on. Notes were scrawled along the margins, there was barely a space where there were no words covering the page.

"It looks like he was doing some serious research." Tonks murmured, and the others murmured their agreement.

Peter tapped Sirius' shoulder, "What, Pete?" Their eyes all followed Peter's finger to where it was pointing to a particularly sloppy note at the bottom of page 714.

A werewolf's life expectancy is 13 years from when they were bitten. Potions to lengthen life expectancy have been known to exist MUST find out more information on these potions.

"Sirius, how old is Remus again?" James asked quietly, unable to take his eyes off of the note.

"He will be eighteen in March, so seventeen at the moment." James stiffened, and Peter whimpered both of them doing the math in their heads.

"If Remus was bitten when he was five…" James' breath caught in his throat, he was unable to finish the sentence.

"… then he has less than a year."

o0o

Snape flipped through New Potions Encyclopedia 1977, and frowned as he read through the fifty three pages of the particular potion he was looking up. Thoughtfully he scratched notes into the margins of the pages, crossing out ingredients and adding the proper ones in the space above the scratches. He muttered to himself about the incompetence of the Potions Masters of the century, shaking his head at their sloppy work. "Severus?"

Snape looked up from his book, his expression curious. He closed the book delicately and placed it on his lap, smiling up shyly at the figure. "Lily."

Lily pointed towards the grassy grounds, "would you mind taking a walk with me. It's pretty out and I fancy a walk. You know how I hate going alone."

"Sure, I would love that." Stowing the book in his pack, Snape threw the bag above his shoulder and followed her off the front steps of the castle towards the lake.

"So how is everything going?" Lily slid her hair behind her ear and looked up at Severus, smiling sweetly.

Snape blushed, looking down at the cobblestone ground they were walking across. "Well, not so bad honestly. No, Marauders around messing with me. My housemates now pretty much leave me alone, well, except for Regulus, but I like having him around." At Lily's smirk he held up his hand, "but don't tell him I told you that! He will never leave me alone."

"Your secret is safe with me," she promised as she crossed her heart with her fingers.

"What about you?" He shoved his hands into his front pockets, and shook the curtain of hair out of his face, looking up at the perfect clear sky above them.

Lily hummed thoughtfully, her fingers twining together behind her back. "Potter and I had a conversation the other night, which has left me a bit confused," she admitted to him wrinkling up her face. "But that isn't what worries me at the moment."

"What is it then?" Snape inquired curiously, as he stopped under the great oak tree at the foot of the Black Lake. Lily leaned against the tree, and shrugged nonchalantly.

"It's Remus."

Severus' eyes darkened, "What is wrong with Lupin now?"

Lily sighed softly and slipped down to the soft ground at the foot of the tree. "He has been so upset lately, hasn't had any sleep. I see him crying all the time when he comes into the common room. He looks so torn; it kills me seeing him in so much pain."

Snape made a noise in his throat and sat beside her on the ground. "Problems in paradise I take it?"

She snorted, "I suppose you can say it like that. I just wish there was some way for me to help him."

If Snape noticed her emphasis on the word way, he didn't make any indication of it. He leaned back against the tree, allowing their arms to touch. "I am sure he will be fine in a few days. Boys go through a mood swing phase every thirty three days or so. He is probably in the middle of his."

Lily gave him a look of exhaustion and ever so slight amusement, "you think he is on his man period?"

Severus smirked, and shrugged his shoulders. "It's probable."

They sat in comfortable silence, watching as the Giant Squid contently swan through the murky waters. Lily cleared her throat, her eyes moving to Snape's, searching. "How long have you known?"

Severus stiffened, and the question. He took a deep breath and replied in a monotone voice, "About?"

"Don't play dumb Severus, it doesn't suit you."

"Since the end of fifth year."

Lily leaned her head against his shoulder, and snuggled close to Snape. The cold afternoon air chilled her to the bone, as she was merely wearing her thin cotton school shirt and skirt. "How did you find out?"

It would have been so easy, so easy for Severus to just tell her the truth. Tell her about how that stupid prick Black had told him how to get down into the Whomping Willow and when to go down there. How Potter had saved his life, because he had gone too far and was almost attacked by Lupin. He knew that it was something that would turn her against the Marauder's forever, but as he went to tell her… he couldn't bring himself to do it. As much as he hated the Marauder's he knew deep down that they were good people and cared deeply for one another. He didn't want to break up Lily's friendship with them because of petty jealously.

"I was in the Hospital Wing then they brought him in one day. The teachers probably thought I was sleeping because they hadn't bothered talking in private about how that full moon had been a really bad one for Lupin, and were discussing if he had better odds being in St. Mungo's or staying in Hogwarts." He lied, staring out towards the lake so he wouldn't be forced to look into her eyes and tell her the truth. "Did you know he has less than a year left?"

Lily lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him through wide eyes, "what?"

"Lupin," Severus clarified, "he has less than a year to live."

Lily's lips pressed together as she took in the information just provided to her; finally she gave up and shook her head. "What are you talking about, Severus?"

"Werewolves from the time they are bitten live an average of ten to thirteen years." Lily nodded her head, remembering reading something about that in her DADA textbook a couple of years prior. "Lupin was bitten when he was a mere five years old. He is now almost eighteen."

Lily covered her mouth, "oh my god…. We… Severus, we have to do something we can't just let…"

Snape cursed his luck, pushing his hand into his robes pocket and produced a piece of paper, handing it to her. "Here."

Lily took the offered paper and looked at it inquisitively, "what is this?"

"It is what I need to make the potion to lengthen Lupin's life." Severus admitted to her, looking to the ground suddenly feeling ashamed. "And… and it'll make his transformations easier as well."

Lily's eyes grew and she held the paper to her chest, "and you kept this from him? Oh Severus, how could you! This could potentially save his life!"

"Don't you think I know that?" Snape growled, "I wanted to make sure I was able to make it for him before saying "Oi, Lupin. I have something that is going to save your life, but guess what? I may not be able to make it and you will prob–, " Lily leaned forward and kissed Snape gently on the lips. As quickly as she kissed him, she pulled away. Lily slipped the paper into the front of her skirt, and smiled affectionately at Snape. "You are a good man, Severus. I don't care what anyone says about you, this proves them all wrong."

For the first time that day he smiled a sincere smiled, "thank you, Lily."

o0o

Remus sighed in relief, stopping at the table that Lily, Severus, Sirius, Marlene, Dorcas and Peter were sat at, and fell into one of the final vacant wooden chairs looking completely exhausted. "Sorry I am late, I needed to stop by Madam Pomfrey."

Sirius squinted at his friend, and reached out his hand to place it on top of Remus', and squeezed it reassuringly. Remus smiled before pulling his hand away to take his parchment from his bag. "Where are James and Brooke-Lynn?"

Lily looked up thoughtfully from her parchment, quill feather stroking the bottom of her chin as she pondered his question. "I actually don't think that I have seen either of them all day."

Peter and Sirius nodded their agreement, sharing a meaningful look between each other. Remus studied his friends suspiciously, but shrugged off his concern and turned to his parchment. "So have we come up with partners yet?"

"Yeah, and Marlene is not happy with the arrangement." Dorcas giggled gently causing Peter to blush. She twisted a lock of her hair around her fingers, "Sirius and Marlene are together, Peter and I, Lily and Severus, and you and James."

Remus frowned in mock disappointment, "I want Sirius!"

"Oh Merlin, please do, I beg you take him! I will pay you ten gallons if you do!" Marlene crossed her legs and slumped in her chair.

Remus wrinkled up his nose, "nah it's ok. I always had a secret love for James anyway."

Remus jumped as two arms engulfed him from behind, hugging him tightly. "OH MOONY, I NEVER THOUGHT YOU WOULD FEEL THE SAME WAY!" A hand ruffled his hair, and chapped lips kissed his forehead before the person fell into the chair beside him grinning mischievously

Placing a hand on his forehead, Remus's smiled his expression not clouding the deep confusion in his eyes. "Why, Prongs, my brother, how absolutely amazing it is for you to join us!"

James shrugged, throwing his bag to the floor. He winced as the bag fell to the floor with a loud BANG! Remus looked down at the bag suspiciously, "What the hell do you have in there, gold blocks?"

" No, books." James answered, simply.

Remus' eyebrows knitted together, "you don't read."

"We can start!" Sirius and James snapped in unison, arms crossing together.

Remus smirked at them, reaching down to grab his quill and ink from the front of his pack. "Well I already started on my letter, though I guess now I may have to change a couple of things." Pursing his lips Remus tapped his quill against his cheek thoughtfully, "where is Brooke-Lynn by the way."

James waved his hand glibly, "she had to get something from Mcgonagall, she said she would meet up with us in the commons later." His face twitched, causing Remus to squint at him.

"What is wrong with your face?" James jumped up, slamming his hands against the maple wood desk. "Order, I will have order! We are here to discuss our letters not accuse people of having weird faces. So who is up first?"

Reaching over the table Sirius grabbed the parchment Marlene was writing on, waving it violently in the air. "Have you seen this bloody thing?

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Black,

I am pleased to inform you of your son Sirius Black's pregnancy! He will remain here the rest of the year with his classmates, as well as the summer. I don't have to tell you the responsibility there is in raising a child, and because of Sirius' instability there is a slight cause for concern. But I feel that if he were to stay under my care, he as well as the baby will be fine. If you have any concerns please contact your son, for this is completely his fault.

sincerely,

Marlene McKinnon ...

What the fuck is that?"

"Language." Remus reprimanded, taking a sip from the butter beer that appeared in front of him. "Thank you, Twinkie." A delighted squeal sounded beside him, before the crack of a house elf disapparating sounded.

Lily watched amused over her parchment "It amuses me so, how they always serve you, no matter where it is."

Sirius rolled his eyes, "they bloody adore him. Haven't a clue as to why. Now back to this letter."

Marlene tutted, arms crossed, "well I would hope they realize it was a hoax, Moron."

"That isn't the assignment!" Sirius protested, "They are supposed to think we are pregnant."

"Regulus owes me," Remus commented, his eyes sparkling mischievously. "I could easily have him convince them that you are in fact truly pregnant."

Sirius opened his mouth, before shutting it. "Never mind. I think I rather not know why my brother owes you. What is Prongs' letter to you anyway?"

James grinned proudly, handing the parchment to Remus. Clearing his throat, Remus scanned the parchment quickly rolling his eyes at the ceiling,

"Dear Mr. and Mrs. Lupin,

I regret to inform you that your son has gotten another student pregnant. The totally gorgeous and talented James Potter. Anyway he will be staying at the school for the remainder of the school year as well as the summer. Also we regret to inform you due to your sons Lycanthropy, he may have to go in front of the ministry. Well anyways' have a good day.

Sincerely,

James Potter.

Whatever, my parents are just going to laugh at it then throw it away. McGonagall already sent them a letter over the summer about this."

"But I worked so hard just to try and shock them!" James pouted, crossing his arms.

Lily cleared her throat, "well I checked over Peter's and Severus'. I trust that Remus looked over Sirius', and that he and Dorcas are able to use their brains and write an appropriate letter so why don't we wrap this up?"

The group all muttered their agreement; Sirius and James jumped out of their seats, and grabbed their bags.
"Oi, where are you two going? I was hoping to go down to dinner with you guys."

Sirius threw Remus an apologetic look, waving to the group as James pulled him away. "We will catch up later I promise, we just have Astronomy homework we need to do right away." Sirius shook James off him and both ran from the library, ignoring the widened eyes of the group and the shooting glare of Madam Pince.

Remus turned to the others throwing his hand in the direction of the boys, "what was that about."

Lily shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know, but maybe we should remind them that we haven't has Astronomy since first year?" Peter and Dorcas waved their goodbyes, leaving Snape, Lily and Remus alone. "We are heading to dinner, if you would like to join us."

Remus shook his head, "no, I think I will make a visit to the kitchens. I am still feeling a bit exhausted, so I just want to go to sleep early tonight."

Lily nodded, placing her hand on his shoulder and squeezing reassuringly, "if you need anything just ask."

Remus held up two fingers, "scouts honor." Remus watched as Severus and Lily left the library, falling deep into thought. "I wonder what Padfoot and Prongs are up to, they were acting so odd." Remus dug the map from his bag, and tapped the cover gently, watching as the writing appeared on the page, footprints walking back and forth on the parchment. "Sirius black," he whispered, the map enlarging next to Sirius' name. Remus frowned noticing that Tonks and James were with him in what appeared to be Moaning Myrtles bathroom.

"What are they doing there?" Closing the map and placing it back in his bag, Remus made a beeline towards Myrtles bathroom intent on finding out what mischief his friends were up to this time, and what exactly Tonks' had to do with it.

o0o

"Before we even start you should know that 16 scruples of Fluxweed and the horn need to be picked during the full moon. Now I don't know about you, but I have no idea where to even begin finding that stuff." Tonks sat cross legged on the sink closest to the back windows of the bathroom, Sirius and James sitting on their robes across the floor.

"There are some in the forbidden forest, towards the middle." Sirius answered, remembering how the scents had bothered his oversensitive nose during his full moon adventures with the other Marauders.

"What about Moony," James pointed out, leaning back on his hands. "We can't just leave him running around the grounds unwatched."k

"We just won't let him out of the Shack that night. Brooke-Lynn can go get the ingredients safely then."

Tonks looked up thoughtfully, "safe my arse have you ever been in the Forbidden Forrest? Are either of you good in potions? I for one am not."

"My Mum and Pop forced me to make potions like this as a child, it shouldn't be too much of an issue." Sirius said, scanning the page of ingredients and instructions. "Some of this stuff is only in Slughorn's stores, if we are lucky that is, I don't see how anyone plans on getting in."

"Are you guys sure you are the Marauder's?" Tonks scoffed, folding her arms across her chest, "you needn't worry about that, I have it covered."

"How-"

"Never mind that, all you need to know is that I have it covered. Now the next full moon is in what…"

"25 days," James responded, flipping open his Agenda to the full moon schedule. "So if we want to do this potion we should start in three days. Is that enough to get the ingredients you think?"

Tonks nodded, "plenty. I'll probably find most of them either tonight or tomorrow. Actually, if you can distract him while we are in class that may work better. There is less chance of getting caught."

"What like, let a dung bomb fall into a cauldron or something?" Sirius asked his eyebrow cocked.

Tonks grinned, "Surprise me."

o0o

Remus allowed himself to fall back against his bed, his face pressing against his soft chocolate scented pillows. He groaned happy to be back in his bed after a long day. He had traveled around the castle trying to find Sirius, James and Tonks, but no matter where he went, he couldn't seem to find them. It was as if someone had placed a spell on the map to deceive him. "What are they up to?" He muttered to himself, throwing an arm over his eyes, the flickering candlelight bothering his sleepy eyes.

"Well Sirius and James are downstairs pulling a prank on the first years, Lily is yelling at them and I am not sure where Peter and Dorcas are. Last I heard of them they left the library quite giggly."

Remus smiled against his arm, "oh boy." The bed sank next to his body and Remus lifted his arm to see Tonks smiling down on him. "What have you been up to? You have been MIA for most of the day."

Tonks shrugged her shoulders, leaning back against his pillow. "Here and there. I had to do something for McGonagall."

Remus rubbed his hand against her arm, before running his fingers up her arm, tangling his fingers into her hair short hair. "I don't believe you."

She laughed, slapping his arm lightly, "it's true! You can go and ask her."

Remus shifted his body and leaned closer to her, "nah uh." He whispered, leaning his forehead against hers. Tonks' breath came out in a sharp puff, and she closed her eyes pushing herself closer to him. Remus pushed her nose with his, tilting her head to get a better angle at her mouth, "Tonks… I-"

SLAM! Remus and Tonks jumped a foot in the air staring flabbergasted at the door as Sirius and James ran up to his bed looking frantic, "Guys what the hell!"

"It's Peter and Dorcas… Remus, the Deatheater's got them."

To be continued…