"I know that you will not find this funny at all," Sirius said, "but I almost wish you had killed her."
Remus didn't find it funny, and was slightly disturbed to see that Sirius didn't seem amused by the thought either.
"She didn't know," Remus pointed out. "I mean, she was being horrid, but she couldn't have known how bad what she was doing was."
"What was she doing?" James asked. Like the rest of them, his voice was somewhat duller than usual.
Remus swallowed his bite of sandwich. "She was going to curse me. Said she could do the curse better than Sirius could."
"Wretched hag!" Sirius muttered furiously, but Remus shrugged.
"I really wasn't worried about that. I had bigger things to worry about," he pointed out. "I had no idea what the counter-curse is for the leg-locker curse, and I didn't think it was very likely that someone else would be out on the grounds to save me." He paused. "Hey... why were you on the grounds? Why weren't you at dinner?"
Sirius let out a low snarl from across the room. Remus was sitting up, eating, but the other three were laying subdued on top of their beds.
"Sirius got another letter," Peter said. "He got mad, and stormed out."
"Just wanted to clear my head," Sirius explained darkly. "Or kick something."
"Anyway, we followed him, of course," James said. "And we heard you yelling, and saw what was going on."
"I have to admit," Sirius said, "that was scary, Moony."
Peter nodded. "It was kind of scary anyway, because we knew what was coming..."
"Except we didn't really know what was coming," James said. "When you started screaming..."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, each personally reliving the awful memory. Remus wasn't upset that they were afraid. Instead, for the first time, he felt like they actually got it. They understood how painful and scary it was, and yet, they still didn't look at him with fear. Their faces darkened at the memory, but when they looked at him, it was with the same expression that they had always looked at him.
Remus finished his sandwich and laid back on his own bed. "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't shown up," he said for the third time that evening.
"I do," Sirius said. "You would have eaten my horrid cousin. Or at least bitten her."
"Yeah, that's a great idea," James said. "Give Bella some nice, poisonous teeth to go with that personality."
"Fair point," Sirius admitted. Even Remus chuckled, but the laugh instantly gave way to a groan of pain.
"Isn't there anything Madame Pomfrey can do?" James asked, sitting up to look at Remus.
"She already did all she could," Remus said, grimacing. "They're not normal wounds, James. They don't respond to potions like normal wounds do."
Remus couldn't remember ever being quite this badly beaten up. He was covered in gashes and bruises, and every move hurt.
"You going to able to use your wand tomorrow?" Peter asked concernedly.
"I'm going to have to," Remus said, remembering the impending Charms exam, and letting out another groan that had nothing to do with physical pain.
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"Come on, Remus! Just one more time!" Sirius pleaded. "What have we got to lose?"
"That's true," James agreed. "The train leaves tomorrow morning. They can hardly put us in detention!"
"They've even already given the House Cup, so points don't matter!" Peter pointed out.
Remus had absolutely no counterarguments. His friends cheered as he finally nodded, and James grabbed the cloak out of the trunk.
The trip went quickly this time, since James actually knew where the kitchens were now. They had a hard time fitting everyone under the cloak along with the big basket of food that held leftovers from the end-of-term feasts, along with several of James's favorite desserts. The house-elves knew him by name now, and Remus thought it almost seemed as though they had expected him to come looking for snacks that night.
"Good call," Sirius said thoughtfully, taking a drink of pumpkin juice, "saving the passageway for next year." They were back in their dorm, sprawled out on the floor.
Remus choked on his food. "That's not exactly what I meant," he said.
"No, Sirius is right," James said. "This way we already have an adventure planned for the first week back at school!"
"I just said that it wasn't a good idea to go wandering down an unknown passageway only a few hours before the train left!" Remus cried. "I didn't say anything about next year!"
"Well, it all comes down to the same thing, doesn't it?" Peter said. "Snacks tonight, passageway next year."
"Precisely," Sirius said, nodding to Peter.
"Next year," Remus echoed his friends.
"Still planning on joining us, Moony?" James asked, flicking an apple core at him.
"Or are you still thinking that Hogwarts was really a one-year-only adventure for you?" Sirius grinned at the smile on Remus's face.
"I suppose I might come back for another year," Remus said, fighting back a yawn. They were determinedly ignoring the sky out the window, which was growing steadily lighter. "I'm starting to think that if I end up getting expelled, it'll have nothing to do with being a werewolf."
He saw his friends' eyes widen slightly. He might have thought he imagined it if Sirius and James hadn't exchanged the briefest of looks immediately after.
"What?" he asked, looking around at them.
"That's the first time you've ever actually said the word," Sirius said.
"Really?" Remus asked.
"Really," James said. "You usually try to skirt around it. Just like you don't say things like, "transform," "howl," or "yummy human prey."
Peter snorted orange juice up his nose, and Remus's mouth fell open. He couldn't decide whether to laugh or be horrified. Sirius pointed at him and began howling with laughter..
"Moony, I wish you could see your face right now!" he said, tears forming in his eyes.
Finally, Remus shook his head and let himself laugh with his friends.
"I can't believe it," James said smugly. "We finally got Moony to lighten up!"
It was on instinct that Remus threw the pillow at him. As soon as it left his fingertips, he realized that it had probably been a bad idea. Sure enough, a few seconds later three pillows were raining down on him, and with his arms over his head, he was scrounging around on the floor, trying to figure out where the fourth one was so he could defend himself.
----------
Remus, James, Sirius and Peter got a compartment near the front of the train. Remus was trying not to doze off, wanting to savor every last minute of his first year at Hogwarts. It was hard, because the four boys had never gotten around to going to bed. Remus felt a little guilty that morning in the Gryffindor common room when he saw that several of the other Gryffindors looked quite tired as well, and were glaring at them suspiciously.
"There's no way they can know it was us being noisy," Sirius had said unworriedly. "I'm sure loads of people stayed up late, with it being the last night and all."
If people were upset with them, it didn't last long. Several of their fellow students came in and out of the compartment to say hello to them and to wish them happy summers. Lily Evans came in with her friend from Slytherin, and Remus recognized him as one of the gang who had been with Bella. They scowled at each other, and Lily must have sensed something was going on, because she said a very hasty hello to Remus and hurried out, looking slightly confused as she waved goodbye to him.
"Looks like she's got a new boyfriend, Moony," Sirius said. "Tough luck, mate." Remus rolled his eyes.
"How long, do you figure?" James asked
He checked his watch. "We still have about another hour."
"No," James said. "How long before we get bored? I was thinking you should come in about two weeks. Three weeks max."
"Three weeks will be a bad time for me," Remus pointed out.
"Good point," James said. "Right after that then? I'll check with my parents and make sure it's all right, but I'm sure it won't be a problem. Maybe we can go see a Quidditch match!"
"You know what I'm looking forward to about second year?" Sirius asked. "James can finally bring his damn broom with him-" He didn't even finish the sentence before James was punching him.
Sirius's eyes darkened as they approached London. It seemed he had been trying not to think about the reality of going home until he absolutely had to, but now everyone was changing into their muggle clothing and buildings were flashing by the windows, and the inevitable was arriving.
"Hey," Remus whispered. "It's just three weeks, all right?" Sirius nodded.
"You'll write?" he asked, looking around at the three of them.
"Of course," James promised.
As they got off the train, James grabbed them and dragged them over to meet his parents. His father looked almost exactly like him, right down to the mischievous twinkle in his eyes, and his mother wrapped James in a hug while he struggled to get away.
"Stop it, Mum!" he muttered, wiping his cheek where she had kissed him. "People are staring!"
The only person who was staring, though, was Sirius, who had a strange, pained expression on his face. James glanced at Sirius out of the corner of his eye, and Remus suspected that he had pushed his mother away more for Sirius's sake than anything else.
But when James introduced Sirius, he also received a tight hug from Mrs. Potter, along with the declaration of, "So you're Sirius! James has told us so much about you!" When she pulled away, Sirius looked slightly pink, but rather pleased.
As Remus scanned the platform for his own parents, he saw Sirius walking towards a rather surly looking couple and a young boy. They did not hug Sirius as he walked up, or even smile. As he trudged away behind them, Remus tried to catch his eye to smile encouragingly, but Sirius didn't look back.
Spotting his own family, Remus made his way through the crowd to them. As they headed back toward the gateway into the muggle world, he looked back at the scarlet train. He couldn't help grinning as he thought about how, come September, he would get to ride it again.
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Author's Note: Well, there it is! All finished! Hope you all enjoyed it, and thanks for the reviews. :)