Finally! After a long time, I had enough time to sit, finish the details and post this chapter!
I hope everyone that is reading it like it! if you reader have any suggestions, comments, compliments and/or remarks about how to improve this piece-of-something, review me (you know, the weakness of every fic writer, a review xD)
woowo! I almost forgot: thanks to my beta (she is on vacations right now, so this chapter is not beta-ed) aaaaand... Thanks to my second reviewer, the first I don't know, Tierfal!! you really made my day this chapter is being posted today because of your review (it made me this happy ')
Well, go ahead, read it ;) and good luck o.o
Chapter 2
The following morning was a sunny Wednesday. As always, the first one to wake up was Remus, and he was already finishing his shower when Sirius first stirred in his bed. The still-dripping-blonde-haired boy tutted, smiling, dressed himself in his school robes and moved to Sirius' bed.
"Hey, sleepy-head, wake up" he whispered, gently pushing his friend's shoulder.
"Mff…" was Sirius' answer. Remus smiled again and moved to do the same thing with James and Peter.
"Good morning everyone!" James beamed, jumping on his bed.
"How on Earth can you do this?!" Sirius's question was muffled by his own pillow, that covered his face to block the sun light that poured from the window that Remus had just opened. "It's too early to be this excited!"
"Actually, if we don't hurry up, we'll loose breakfast" Remus warned, sitting on his already tidied up bed.
"Why do you organize all your stuff?" James asked "The house-elves are supposed to do this."
"Because I like to do so" Remus answered "and besides, they already have a lot of work with the stuff of you guys, with mine added they wouldn't have time to clean anything else in the castle" he finished smiling.
"Hey!" Sirius objected "My things are always organized!"
"Of course they are" Peter said, looking under Sirius's bed, where an indefinite mass of something laid "Your clothes are all inside your trunk" he looked inside that "with your old dungbombs and right next to the food that is there since last year."
"Eww Sirius, that's gross!" James said, closing his own trunk so Peter couldn't see his own mess.
"Guys, the breakfast will end in half an hour." Remus reminded. That was enough to make the other three jump from their beds and get dressed in a record time.
"hmm, lets see..." Sirius said, reading the small parchment that professor McGonagall handed them. "first class of the day: eww, Potions!"
"No Padfoot, that's the first class of Monday, today is Wednesday." James corrected.
"And again those stupid nicknames..." Peter complained.
"You think that they're stupid just because you didn't like yours." Sirius said.
"No, mine is the only one not stupid!" he smiled proudly.
"Good one Peter!" Remus smiled too "But I don't get it. Padfoot?"
"Yeah, nicknames!" Sirius explained "we can't go around with secret identities and with forbidden alternative forms without nicknames. So I came with this brilliant idea last summer and we created our nicknames!"
"Sirius is Padfoot, due to his dog-self" James continued "Peter is Wormtail, because of his worm-like tail, I'm Prongs, because I'm a deer, and you are Moony, for obvious reasons!"
Remus had a smile on his face, but said nothing. The kind of smile from someone who's trying not to laugh of something that the others wouldn't find really funny. Sirius was going to ask him about it, but Moony changed the subject before:
"So, today our first class will be Transfiguration, right?"
"Yeah" James looked again to the parchment "Then we'll have Potions" Sirius again manifested his opinion – eww! – "double period of Charms, lunch, free period, then double period for Defence, History of Magic (nap-time), and to finish, Divination"
"Some differences in Peter's and mine's" Remus looked his and Peter' parchment "after lunch we have Herbology..."
"Why the Hell you two kept this subject?!" Sirius asked, amazed "it's useless!"
"No, I wouldn't say useless" Remus turned and then continued "And instead of Divination I have Ancient Runes"
"Man, you're brave" James piped out. "That teacher is scary!"
"He's not scary" Remus defended "And he's very nice when you get to know him well."
"It only happened with you Moony" James said "You're the only one who likes him."
"James is lying" Peter said laughing "He doesn't like Prof Abraham because he can't understand what he says!"
"That's not true!" James said infuriated "I can understand him perfectly! and besides, it was you that was shaking with fear when he asked us in that creepy voice of his about Remus!"
"Guys, kids, stop the bickering now, this isn't proper in the breakfast!" Sirius laughed lightly, soon followed by Remus. James pouted and Peter resumed eating his toast. The 'argument' was forgotten 10 seconds later, when they rushed to get in time for the Transfiguration class.
"Good morning everyone" Prof McGonagall greeted in her stern voice, silencing all the small talks around the classroom. "I presume that you haven't forgotten everything from the past years, so we'll start today the first chapter of our year's book..."
"Psst! Evans!" James whispered in Charms' class, throwing a small piece of paper to get her attention. She looked murderous. "Do you want to, you know, do something after dinner?" She merely rolled her eyes and looked again to the teacher.
"Maybe if you had asked when she wasn't in class, you know, since she likes classes..." Remus suggested, whispering.
"No, it's all wrong. Prongs, mate, you have no talent to seduce girls" Sirius disagreed. "Watch and learn" he added with a sly smile. Then he scribbled something in a piece of paper, turned it into a small butterfly and tossed it on a pretty Ravenclaw sitting right across from him. She looked a bit annoyed, took the butterfly and opened it. A few seconds later, she had a blush on her face, and Sirius had a date for the night.
"You know, this is mean." Remus whispered "Giving the girl hopes that you'll finally stay with only one this time and just throw her away after tonight."
"I never said that I was going to stay with them longer than what I stay." Sirius excused himself "I never gave false hope"
"But you never denied" Remus turned lightly.
"Are you jealous, Mr. Moony?" Sirius asked a bit annoyed.
"Of what?" Remus asked back, annoyed too "Of not being capable of go around destroying hearts?"
"No, of not having all the girls begging to you for one night" Sirius shot back.
"Your essay will be two rolls of parchment about the pros and cons of the non-verbal spells." The professor said "Class dismissed." Remus grabbed his things diligently and walked out of the classroom with Lily.
"What's wrong with him?" Sirius asked James. The other merely grunted at him without hearing a thing, too busy staring at the red-haired getting out. So Sirius started to think, witch was never a good thing. 'Perhaps he is jealous... perhaps he wants a girlfriend! And I rubbed in his face that he doesn't have one yet, and that's why he's angry! I'm brilliant! Now let's fix everything!'
Sirius, James and Peter arrived for lunch the same time Lily and Remus did.
"... but I think it's fine, as long as you get the same results..." Remus was saying.
"Ok then." Lily smiled "See you later!"
"See ya!" Remus smiled back. Lily sat near Frank Longbottom and her best friend, Alice Jones, while Remus turned to his three friends. "Good morning, gentlemen" he said, trying to sound solemn.
"And soon good afternoon, I hope!" Peter said, and the four laughed. They made small talk during the lunch, and when James started to narrate a Quidditch match Remus whispered:
"Sirius... I'm sorry... about earlier, in Charms. I totally overreacted, I shouldn't have..."
"No worries Rem!" Sirius smiled reassuringly "Actually, I was going to apologise to you, ya know, about what I said. In fact, I'm going to help you to get a girlfriend!" Remus choked on his pumpkin juice when he heard the last sentence.
"What?!" he asked exasperated.
"I'm going to check if there is some girl into you and then arrange a date for you!"
"Hm... Sirius, you know, we're even about this, I apologised, you too, do not help me and we'll be even, ok?!" Remus said rather alarmed.
Sirius's reply was cut by the owl post arriving.
"Good" James spoke happily. "Our package arrived, Mr. Padfoot"
"What is it?" Peter asked, curious.
"This, my dear Mr. Wormtail, is a box of the finest kind of dungbombs!" was James' answer.
"You guys couldn't wait till the next weekend at Hogsmeade?" Remus questioned in disbelief.
"Of course not!" Sirius explained "It'll take ages till the next one!"
"But you could always use that one-eyed witch statue" Remus pointed out, while peering over James copy of the Daily Prophet.
"Yeah, we could, but Zonko's have a low stock of dungbombs, we would be lucky to get some" James said matter-of-factly. But Remus wasn't listening: he was reading one of the news with a growing expression of horror on his face.
"What's up Moony?" Sirius asked worried.
"An entire village was destroyed... All the inhabitants were slaughtered"
"It was those guys again? The Death-Eaters?" James asked in a weird tone.
"Yes... they left that symbol on the sky, the skull with the serpent... what the Ministry is waiting to stop them? an invitation?!" Remus said exaspered. A thunder was heard, and heavy drops of rain poured at the windows. Peter stood up to see the article too and gasped. "Peter?" Remus called, seeing his friend's reaction. The plump boy had paled visibly now. "Peter!"
"This..." Peter choked "this is were I live" everything stopped for the four boys. "Does it mean... does it mean that my parents are... my parents are...?"
"No, Peter" Remus cut him short, standing up, taking his bag and placing a hand in his shoulder "it means nothing right now, we don't know yet. Let's see Prof Dumbledore, he would be the first one to know if..." he couldn't bring himself to say it "besides, in the article it says that it was a muggle village, they would've mentioned if there was a wizard family... involved anyhow."
"Yeah, they're fine Peter, you'll see" James said reassuringly, leading the way to Dumbledore's office. Sirius just embraced him, and the four made their way.
When they arrived to the gargoyles, James asked "Someone knows the password?"
"I'm always here, why I don't know?!" Sirius was intrigued.
"It's because you always is brought here by some angry teacher" Remus explained "We don't have much choice but to look for some teacher and ask." He added, turning around. The next moment the passage opened. Remus tilted his head, wondering. Then, Prof McGonagall came out through the stairs.
"What are you four up to?" She asked, suspicious.
"We would like to see Prof Dumbledore, if he's not busy" Remus explained politely, before Sirius or James could ruin everything by opening their mouths.
"He's with someone now on his office, but you can wait outside, I don't think it will take long." She said, still looking rather suspicious, and left.
"Ok, then..." Remus murmured. "Let's go" They climbed the stairs not fast nor slowly, and arrived to a small hall.
Sirius leaned against the wall, looking down. James was side-by-side with Peter, which seemed on the verge of tears. Remus leaned closer to Sirius.
"You're upset." He stated. Sirius remained silent. "Well, don't be" Sirius looked up and saw Remus' face, his golden eyes locked with his own dark blue ones. The smallest gave a nod, and Sirius felt suddenly better.
"What's going on in there?" James asked worried, whispering. They heard through the doors to the office an altered voice.
"Can you understand them Moony?" Sirius asked, knowing his friend's superior hearing.
"Not much..." Remus replied. He closed his eyes and focused harder on the faint sound. "Hmm... something about Prof Dumbledore not allowing someone to teach here..." he whispered "It's a man... and he's not pleased..."
"Then we have nothing else to discuss." This time they all could hear the chilling voice through the double doors. Moments later they were opened. The man that came out was tall, and looked terribly authoritarian and cruel. He looked each boy in front of him, as if measuring them. Peter shrunk back behind James, which looked just curious about the man. Sirius put his best defiant glare, but the man took some time with Remus: the light-haired boy just kept eye contact, totally unreadable. Then the tall, chilling man left.
"Phew!" James finally breathed, just now realising that he had held his breath. "What's wrong with that guy?!"
"You noticed it too?" Remus asked. His tone was so cold and devoid of emotion that the others were taken aback. The werewolf looked down for a second and then said with a small smile, as light-hearted as always "Let's get in" Sirius stared at him for another moment, then asked to get in. Dumbledore promptly invited them to sit. Remus was scared. He had no idea from where that reaction came. If Dumbledore noticed his uneasiness, he made no mentions to it.
"How can I help you?" Dumbledore asked with a smile.
"Professor" James decided to do the talk, since Peter couldn't utter a word, Sirius was tactless and Remus made no moves to do so. "We read today on the Daily Prophet that a village was destroyed, and... the village is where Peter lives. Lived." He corrected himself.
"I read that terrible news too" Dumbledore said simply "Fortunately I already checked, and nothing bad happened to the Pettigrew family. Apparently, they were on a trip." Peter exhaled loudly and all the tension left his body. "If I'm not wrong, you would have Herbology lessons to attend... five minutes ago, am I correct?" Peter nodded "Well, I'll give you permission to skip it, and write a letter to your parents, which, I assume, would happen even if I had never given you permission to do so." He looked at James and Sirius when saying this, with a twinkle in his eyes "And I'm sure Mr. Lupin will be pleased to take my permission note to Prof Sprout and help you later with your assignment"
"Of course!" Remus answered promptly.
"I guess that was all you needed me for the moment?" Dumbledore asked smiling.
"I guess..." Sirius said.
"Thank you, professor" Peter managed to say, relieved.
"You're quite welcome, Mr Pettigrew" Dumbledore said, taking a quill and a piece of parchment. "And I hope to not see your faces here with some angry teacher that often, you can come to have some nice talk instead if you like here that much" James and Sirius grinned identically, and they and Peter left. Dumbledore wrote the note and handed it to Remus "I trust that you are fine Remus" the professor left it as a question.
"Yes professor" Remus smiled, but he wasn't that good at lying. Finally, he said truthfully "well, not quite, but I'll be" he assured.
Quite big this chapter, huh? or maybe not... well, keep checking on this story, next chapter is coming... someday o.o now, seriously, I'm already finishing chapter 3, so I think it won't take as long as this one hopefully...