A/N: In this chapter time's going to pass a bit quickly, sorry for that. Thank you to Lily-Luna-PotterxD for pointing out I'd forgotten the Whomping Willow in Dumbledore's speech (it's there now if anyone wants to check).

Chapter 4: Planning

Remus's POV

The next day was busy; I woke up to someone screaming – this turned out to be Steven as Sirius had poured cold water over him to wake him – then a mad rush to get showered and dressed before anyone else so no one would see my scars. Then we had to find the Great Hall; this turned out to be more trouble than it was worth.

Luckily, after getting lost, Nearly Headless Nick (the Gryffindor ghost) was able to point us in the right direction.

"There has to be an easier way of finding our way around," Peter moaned as we sat down for breakfast.

"Well, this is an old castle, I bet there's lots of secret passage ways!" James said excitedly.

"It would be great to find them," Sirius sighed.

"We wouldn't be late so often if we could," I added.

Just then Steven walked into the Hall, after a glare at the four of us; he walked to the other end of the table and sat next to Lily Evans.

There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, the coats of armour could walk.

All of this made getting class extremely hard, so it was amazing on our second Friday we made it to the Hall without getting lost once.

"What's first?" I asked, nibbling on a piece of bacon.

"Charms," Peter said dully.

The lessons were amazing once you got there: we had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. I hated this lesson as it meant watching as the moon got closer to fullness.

Three times a week we went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where we learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.

Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was taught by a very old ghost called Professor Binns. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up. Sirius and James used this class to do homework while Peter caught up on sleep and I took notes.

Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. His lessons were interesting, I was second in that class only to Lily Evans who seemed to live and breathe Charms.

Professor McGonagall was again different. I had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. The class was very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized we weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time.

After taking a lot of complicated notes, we were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only James had made any difference to her match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave James a rare smile. Transfiguration was easily James's best subject, he loved it.

Potions were another awful class; we were given a simple boil curing potion to make. I was partnered with Sirius, and it was a good job, Sirius was amazing at making potions, even the complex ones. He wasn't quite as good as Snape (now christened Snivellus by James and Sirius) who seemed to be best in class. I, on the other hand, couldn't brew the simplest potion if my life depended on it.

My favourite class though was Defence Against the Dark Arts, since I'd read through this years book, I found myself more interested in class than in any other lesson, I even found extra books in the library, something that disgusted Sirius and James.

James and Sirius put next to no effort into any of their work, but still ended up nearly top in class. While I studied probably more then I should and still couldn't beat their marks. Peter on the other hand needed help in every subject as he seemed to be good at nothing, I offered to tutor him and he did try hard, he just wasn't any good at magic.

"Lily's good at Charms isn't she?" Sirius said suddenly with a sly glance at James.

"She the red head?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, and I suppose she is, why?" James looked confused.

"Just thought you might like to know more about her," Sirius said airily.

"Why?" James asked.

"Being your future wife and all," Sirius said.

"What!" James choked.

"It's a known fact Potter boys go for red heads and since it's between her and Head Girl Molly, I'm guessing it's Evans," Sirius explained.

"I'm eleven Sirius! Eleven! I'm not even interested in getting a girlfriend, never mind a wife! Plus, if I was, it wouldn't be Evans," James exclaimed.

"Why not?" I asked.

I quite liked Lily, I saw her sometimes in the library and she was always nice to me.

"She's always reading, too smart for her own good," James said. "No offence Remus."

"None taken I suppose, someone in this group has to study," I laughed.

"Anyway, I have an idea," James said.

"What?" Peter asked.

"Well, we've been here a week now, and all we've done is pour cold water on Steven every morning and turn Snivellus's greasy hair pink. It's time we show the school that we're great pranksters…it's time we prank the whole school!" James gushed.

"Excellent! What do you have in mind?" Sirius asked.

"Here, read it in History of Magic, I've written one for all of us, write your ideas under it and we'll figure it out tonight," James handed us a piece of paper each.

Just then the mail came, over a hundred owls swooping down to deliver the mail. The first time it had scared me, sure my dad had an owl that delivered the Daily Prophet, but that was just one owl, not hundreds.

"Oh no," Sirius groaned as a black owl landed in front of him holding a red letter.

"Is that what I think it is?" James asked worriedly as the letter began to smoke in Sirius's hands.

"Yeah, seems my mum's found out about me being in Gryffindor at last. Well, here goes nothing," he opened it.

Immediately the Hall was filled with the high pitched shrieking of Sirius's mother's voice, magnified hundred times:

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK! YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO THE BLACK NAME, A DISGRACE TO WIZARDS EVERYWHERE! WAIT UNTIL YOUR FATHER HEARS ABOUT THIS! HIS SON IN GRFFINDOR! I THOUGHT I WOULD DIE OF SHAME WHEN YOUR COUSIN BELLATRIX TOLD ME! AND HANGING OUT WITH THOSE A BLOOD TRAITOR, HALF BLOOD, AND EVEN WORSE; A MUDBLOOD! I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY, YOU HAVE RUINED THE NOBLE BLACK NAME!" The letter ripped itself up.

"Well, she seemed pleasant," James said sarcastically.

"Yeah, just lovely," I snorted.

Suddenly, the four of us had burst into laughter as the rest of the Hall watched, most likely worried about our sanity.

"Come on, let's get to Charms," Peter chuckled.

We made it to the Charms room, still smiling from our laughing fit in the Hall. The lesson passed in a bit of a blur for me, I was curious to see what James's plan for the prank was and couldn't wait for History of Magic so I could read it.

I knew it was wrong to prank the school, but where was the harm? James wouldn't hurt anyone with the prank, so I couldn't see a problem.

Once settled down in History of Magic, I was sat next to Peter, behind James and Sirius, I opened the note:

Prank for the school, teachers included:

I know it will take lots of studying (your job Remus), but what do you think of charming everyone se when they move a song starts playing, but it's a different song for different people/houses?

Any ideas or modifications, add them below and we'll go through it tonight.

I read the note twice, not even bothering to hide my grin, it was a brilliant idea, James was right in saying it would take a lot of work though.

It would be a great way of getting my mind of the full moon too, which was on Monday, only three days away.

That night we sat on my bed in our dorm – Steven was in the library – and edited the prank, adding songs for each house and finally planning the best time to go in the library and read up on the charms necessary.

"I think we should do it tomorrow," Sirius announced, flopping himself down onto the common room couch next to James.

"The prank?" Peter asked.

"No, the Transfiguration essay. Of course the prank!" Sirius exclaimed.

We'd spent everyday since James had told us about the prank going over spells and ideas for the prank.

"Please lower your voice," I moaned, rubbing my head.

The full moon was that night and I wanted to do nothing more than crawl into a ball and cry, I had the worst headache imaginable and my bones ached, even my blood felt bruised.

"Are you alright Remus? You look very pale," James asked, concerned.

"I'm fine, just stressed; my mum's ill, I have to go see her tonight," I lied.

"When will you be back?" Peter asked.

"I'm not sure, in maybe two or three days I think," I sighed.

"You'll miss classes!" Sirius yelped, shocked.

"I know, can you take notes for me, please?" I asked.

"Of course, I hope she gets better soon," James said.

"She won't," I said.

"Mr Lupin, it's time," McGonagall said, appearing in front of me.

I nodded and followed her out of the common room, glancing back at my friends; they were watching me, clearly worried.

"I heard what you told them, it was a clever lie, it can be used again," McGonagall said.

"Thanks," I muttered.

She got the hint and didn't try to talk to me, I didn't want her praise over lying to my friends, I didn't want to lie to my friends in the first place.

"Here he is," McGonagall said to a woman.

"Hello there Remus, I'm Madame Pomfrey," the woman said.

She had brown hair speckled with grey and kind brown eyes.

"Hi," I mumbled.

"Madame Pomfrey is the schools Matron, she will be taking you to transform every month. Instead of me collecting you, you will go to the Hospital Wing every full moon so Madame Pomfrey can escort you," McGonagall explained.

I nodded nervously; I could feel the call of the moon in my veins.

"This way then," Madame Pomfrey walked on, I followed her, leaving McGonagall behind.

We stopped outside a big tree with moving branches even though there was no wind.

"This is the Whomping Willow," Madame Pomfrey said.

"Dumbledore said we were to keep away from that tree," I said, remembering my first feast.

"Yes, but there is a knot in the tree that when touched the tree becomes harmless, at the base of the tree is a tunnel which leads to a house in Hogsmeade, you'll be safe to transform there and in the morning I'll come collect you and you can go to classes," Madame Pomfrey said happily.

I refrained from pointing out that unless there was a miracle, I wouldn't be anywhere near ready to go to school the next day. Instead, I waited as she froze the tree and led me to a nice empty house.

Upstairs was a bedroom with a bed and red covers, everything looked lovely and it made me feel guilty about what it would look like in the morning.

"You can put your clothes in the wardrobe so they don't get torn, I'll see you in the morning," Madame Pomfrey gave me an encouraging smile and left me alone in the house.

I stripped down and placed my robes into the wardrobe, and then I stood in the middle of the room and waited for the transformation.

A/N: Hope you liked it. :)