Remus heard Sirius let out a distraught groan but paid him no mind. The creature that they had captured was way more interesting than whatever had made Sirius frown in distaste.
"What is it?" He asked James, knowing that the pure-blood had more knowledge about magical beings than him.
"A house elf," He told Remus putting his hands out in front in a none threatening gesture.
"It couldn't have been something else?" Sirius bemoaned.
"What's wrong with a house elf?" Remus asked not taking his eyes off the leathery creature with the moon plated eyes.
"Wrong? What's right? They're annoying," Sirius groaned and Remus cast a disdaining look back at him when the house elf's big eyes filled with tears.
"Shut up, you're upsetting it," He demanded and helped James undo the binding spells. James was talking soothingly at the house elf and trying to get it to ignore the tantrum that Sirius was throwing on it's behalf. The thing looked ready to bolt as soon as they undid the last knot on their muggle trap but strangely didn't. "Sirius, I mean it!" Remus threatened and watched as the boy immediately quietened down.
"Sirius is an idiot. I think you're doing a brilliant job around here," James complimented making the house elf look a bit better than before (He wasn't about ready to cry anymore). "All the food is great and my socks haven't been cleaner!" He continued.
"Yeah," Remus joined "I really like your chocolate cake. It's one of my favourites."
The house elf lit up at the compliments about his work in the castle and even smiled when Remus mentioned the chocolate cake. "Hooky is pleased with Master's praises," It spoke and if Remus took a little step back then that was entirely because of something other than the house elf speaking. It had a squeaky voice that gravelled into an almost whisper mid sentence and James had to lean forward to hear what it was saying most of the time "Hooky tries to keep Gryffindor house as clean as Hooky can."
"Well Hooky's doing a very good job," James smiled and whacked Sirius when he scoffed. Hooky beamed and felt safe enough to continue gathering the socks and clothes they had put on the bed. "So is it all house elves that work in Hogwarts or do you work with anyone else?"
"Hooky has only seen house elves. But Hooky knows that the Half-Giant works for Master Dumbledore too if that is what Master is asking," James tilted his head to the side in confusion before snapping his fingers.
"Hagrid!" Remus startled before thinking back on the gamekeeper that he had seen vaguely at Christmas. He was tall but Remus had never thought that there might be a reason for his bulk. Him being a half-giant made Remus wonder if he was just one in a long line of experiments. "Say Hooky?" James called when the house elf looked ready to leave "I don't suppose you would know how one could get some chocolate cake after hours do you? It's only that Remus here," He hauled Remus over with his arm slung around his shoulders "Is looking kind of ill, and like he said, he positively adores your cake."
The house elf vanished as soon as James had finished speaking. Remus guessed that he had been too presumptuous in his questioning and scared the poor elf off.
"What do you have against house elves?" He asked Sirius turning out of James' slung arm. The boy was still pouting where he had dramatically fallen on one of their beds.
"They're just annoying. All that snivelling and favouritism," He shuddered and Remus knew there was more to it.
"He didn't seem too bad," But Sirius didn't answer back. Instead a 'pop' sounded behind him and Hooky reappeared.
He took Remus' hand making him stoop so he wouldn't fall as the house elf led him out of the dorm. James was hot on his heels with Peter, not wanting to be left out of the excitement, trailing timidly behind him. The boy hadn't said anything since the house elf appeared and Remus supposed that he too was in shock of the creature that had been coming in and out of their rooms without their knowledge for a half a year now. Sirius brought up the rear with a concerned scowl painted across his face and kept glancing at the white leathery hand that pulled Remus down the deserted corridors.
Hooky took them through hallways without encountering anyone and down stairs without any incidents such as Remus' imminent demise from walking at an odd angle. They eventually arrived outside of a portrait where the house elf tickled the pear on the painted fruit bowl. Once the portrait swung open Remus could feel nothing but bliss.
The smell was exquisite and flavours assaulted every crevice of his nose. Inhaling deeply wasn't enough to satisfy his palate so Remus stepped through to an army of house elves crowding around his feet. Hooky was beaming at him and welcoming his friends to greet the four boys with the same attitude.
"Master wants some chocolate cake," He squeaked and three house elves disappeared from the back to fetch something.
He glanced back at James and Peter who were similarly crowded next to him. James, obviously used to seeing house elves, complimented them immensely and requested an array of foods to be delivered to his stomach. Peter having took the same route of James was timidly asking for sweets of everything he could think of. The house elves weren't put out though and seemed to grow even happier with every request the two boys put in.
Remus glanced to his other friend who had remained at the back for their whole journey. "Are you alright?" Sirius looked at him strangely before casting a suffering look at his hoard of house elves.
"Fine," He grunted but moved closer to Remus all the same.
A tug on his hand had Remus looking into one of the most mouth watering chocolate cakes he had ever set eyes on. He may have cried a bit at the sight of it and was almost hesitant to taste it. Almost being key. The cake was half eaten by the time James and Peter's food came.
Remus offered some of the cake to Sirius who just picked at the icing "Are you sure you don't want anything?" The house elves all seemed to lean closer to Sirius when Remus asked making the boy scowl and shake his head negatively. "Do you want to share this at least. I don't think I'm gonna be able to eat it all," A lie, but still Remus was trying to be nice to him.
"No that's okay," Sirius reassured and chuckled when Remus dug back into his cake more eagerly than before. "I suppose this is another thing we're gonna add to the list then," He said swiping his finger more confidently through Remus' cake.
He pouted at the black haired boy "List?"
"You know, for that map Peter wants to make," Sirius explained trying to steal more of Remus' food.
"Get you're own you said you didn't want anything," He complained holding the cake out of reach. Sirius just smirked and pounced on top of Remus to get more. Once Sirius had claimed the rest of the cake and the house elves off baking another for Remus to take back to the dorm he agreed that "We'll definitely have to add this place. I think James and Peter may just move in with these elves."
"Hmm," Sirius mumbled shovelling more cake into his mouth.
"So," Remus tentatively tried "What's your house elf like?"
Sirius cast him a narrow look "Awful. He's my mother's pet, let's just keep it at that," He dismissed, not asking how Remus knew he had a house elf.
"Not all of them are the same," Remus tried "It's like saying that all humans are. There are some that are bad and some that aren't. Everything that can think for itself can be either." Sirius seemed to consider his words but didn't agree or disagree with him that night about it.
The cake that the house elves made was carried up by Hooky to their dorm while the boys took the long route back after bidding the rest of the Hogwarts staff farewell. On the way back up James and Peter were indeed making plans to go back to the kitchens at least four times a week and were making menu's up of what they were going to order next. Sirius remained quiet on the way back up and only when they were back in their dorm did he speak. But even that was just a goodnight and a pull of Remus' arm so they could go to sleep.
It didn't really hit Remus' sleep deprived mind that sleeping in Sirius' bed had become a habit. His own was foreign to him now that Sirius was back and crawling in next to the black haired boy seemed like a natural thing to do. He only hoped that James and Peter thought they were staying up late to plot something rather than actually sleeping and wondered why that was. Surely there was nothing wrong in sleeping in someone else's bed.
The next morning saw another day of all four boys trying not to fall asleep in the middle of their lessons. Remus vowed that tonight he was sleeping from eight until morning. Spells seemed to be something of a complication to his brain when he was faced with a transfigured button and he ended up with a button mouse hybrid that wasn't pleasant to look at. James had naturally finished transfiguring his after the first two tries and was napping behind his open book. Sirius was waving his wand sleepily and accidentally removed all of the back from the chair in front of him. The student hit their head but were otherwise uninjured in Sirius' miscalculation. Remus didn't even want to glance over at Peter since the last time he looked there had been steam coming from the end of his wand.
McGonagall wasn't happy with them by the end of the lesson. There were no detentions and James was waiting patiently outside of the door since he had actually done the work when they came out of their scolding. Lunch was one of the shortest he believed he had ever had in Hogwarts. It seemed that he had only closed his eyes for a second reaching for the bread and then he was walking towards care of magical creatures.
Professor Kettleburn had them working outside which soon woke all of them up. The wind was freezing what little warmth Remus possessed in his body while the snow was sucking out the rest through his feet.
The creature that was so important for them to see was nothing more than a skittish unicorn that wouldn't let anyone of the male gender see it let alone study it. It was pointless for the boys to be out in this weather but Kettleburn insisted so Remus suffered.
By the time classes had finished he devoured one slice of chocolate cake that the house elves had made and crawled into bed to sleep until morning.
Remus knew that Sirius and him had definitely developed some kind of habit when he woke in his own bed and found a face full of Sirius' hand on top of him. The sun was shining merrily through the window and the open curtains which he had forgotten to close that night and promptly stung Remus' newly awoken eyeballs.
He shook Sirius awake before climbing over the boy and starting their morning routine with a spring in his step. Regardless of the painful awakening it was nice to have all of his functions responding with renewed vigour that can only occur after a good nights sleep.
It seemed he wasn't the only one affected by the early night since James and Sirius were back to their usual selves in classes. They used whatever they had been taught for the lesson to torment Remus and Peter whilst amusing the rest of the class.
After classes though they became serious in their next venture that they had vowed to undertake. The idea of a map that could tell them every secret passageway that they discovered seemed to have taken root in their minds. Remus could even see the merit of having a map like that. It would mean that he would never get lost, not to mention that he wouldn't be standing outside one of them and wondering whether it was a tap or a knock that opened it. So they all circled around the floor of the dorm that night whilst sharing Remus' reluctantly given chocolate cake and brainstorming how they could accomplish such a feat.
"I mean it is unplottable so there would have to be some counteracting spell that would allow us to create the map without hindering any of the wards Dumbledore put up," He said around a mouthful of chocolate.
James nodded "Not to mention we'd have to explore every inch of this castle. Including the forest and every restricted area. The price of this map is pretty high."
"But worth it," Sirius chimed, his eyes sparkling at the possibilities laid out in front of him "I suppose we'd have to start at the foundations though. Try and find spells that would allow us to draw the bloody castle before starting the exploring," which meant that a trip to the library would be coming.
"Why can't we just split off into pairs," Peter suggested "There's four of us so there'd be an equal number in each group and we can rotate every week so no one complains."
"Not a bad idea Pete," James relented and pushed more of Remus' cake into Peter's lap. He growled a little under his breath watching more of his cake disappear.
"So who would go first?" Sirius asked stealing the remainder from James and handing it back to Remus. "I think that maybe you and Remus should hit the library first and me and Peter explore the dungeons but if you have an objection to this..." It was strange that Sirius would volunteer to take Peter as his partner. The boy hadn't really shown much affection towards him but Remus thought that maybe he had a different way of showing friendship to the small boy.
"What? Why?" James groaned.
"What do you have against Remus?" Sirius argued.
"Nothing!" James reassured "I just don't want to go to the library first. I wanna go down the dungeons," He whined.
"Well tough! You and Remus are the only ones that can make sense of half those books. Not to mention he'll need the cloak to get into the restricted section," This piqued James' interest. He had been waiting for another opportunity to use his cloak and now it had presented itself.
Remus could tell that James was sold and smirked at the fact that the boy was trying to play it cool with his relenting "I suppose. I mean Remus would probably be found in minutes without me there." Remus scoffed and disguised it with another bite of his cake.
The weekend came quicker than Remus expected and found both him and James sneaking around the dust laden shelves trying to find the restricted section in the dark. They had decided to wait for Saturday night to try their hand at stealing some books since they still had homework and their promised duelling session to attend. He could tell that James would rather be anywhere but the library and thanked that the thought of the cloak being more use for exploring hadn't crossed James' mind.
James prodded him in the stomach before motioning his head towards the back of the library. A rope was the only thing sectioning off the restricted books so both were wary when ducking under it for fear of wards being around to alert Madam Pince of thieving first years. They needn't have worried about the rope being what gave them away since the first thing they noticed upon entering the restricted section was the amount of spells placed on every book there. The presence of magic was heady in the quiet library and they knew that they couldn't so much as touch one of the books without something happening to them.
"What are we gonna do?" James asked poking his wand close to a book about Vampires.
"For starters we're going to have to find the books we want. We'll worry about the counter spells after that," Remus waved away and started off on one isle.
He hadn't a clue what he was looking for and just hoped that something along the lines of map making would emerge from the titles on display. It was in the third isle he checked that something half useful caught his eye. A book about landscaping spells. It could hold some answers to their unplottable problem so Remus wrote the title down on the parchment that he brought with him. There was no use trying to figure out the counterspells just yet since he didn't even know a detection spell. Writing down that he needed to remedy that on the way out, Remus continued his search.
The allotted two hours they had given each other passed and both boys met up again near the entrance of the restricted section. James showed his list to Remus whilst Remus checked over the books James had found. Most of them seemed like they could be of some use and in total he was proud to say they had ten books together to work from. Their work was done for the night after that so James held the cloak ready for Remus to disappear under and they journeyed out of the library. But not before Remus swiped some books on detection spells.
Naturally Sirius and Peter would be gone longer than they were so the boys had the dorm all to themselves for another couple of hours. Remus got started on reading about different detection spells and jotted them down on the spell list that he had the other three learning.
"How did you get this one?" James asked pointing to another scar on Remus' leg. It was something James had done the past ten minutes to pass the time before Sirius and Peter made their way back.
"I told you I don't like to talk about them," He muttered back which was the same answer he had given every time James pushed more of his trouser leg up.
"Ugh, you're so boring," James complained and went back to looking at his broom that was perched happily beside his bed. Of course that only deterred his attention for another two minutes before he was poking Remus' flesh again.
"You know you could help," He held a book out and smiled at the distasteful look James gave it. "It won't bite, it's just a book."
"Says you. I don't suppose you've read many wizarding books," James joked. Remus liked it when James joked with him, it wasn't often that the boy would pay his sole attention on him and it was nice to know that Remus wasn't just a background character in his life.
"Not really." He smiled back "But I suppose I will have by the end of the year," he held the book he was reading up as proof and pulled a face at James.
The boy laughed and picked up one book at random to start flitting through. "So when's you're birthday?" James asked casually peering up behind his glasses.
"February 12th. Mum jokes that if I had waited a bit longer I could have been a little Valentine for my dad," They laughed. "What about you?"
James beamed "April 21st. Sometimes it falls on easter so I get eggs and presents. It's brilliant!" Conversation between reading became easier after that. They talked about their parents and lives before Hogwarts and soon Remus could name every single owl that the Potter family ever had.
Peter and Sirius were late coming back to the dorm. Not late in the night since they were all up beyond acceptable hours, but late as in they hadn't come back at the specified time that they were allotted. James began pacing whilst Remus jotted down notes next to him. He looked calm but was really hoping that they hadn't been caught by Filch. After being blamed for something he didn't do over the Christmas he had a low opinion on the man.
"They have to be somewhere!" James kicked at Sirius' trunk in a rage.
"I'm sure they're fine," He jotted down a useful spell along with the movements "Do you think this enough?" He held the covered parchment up eliciting a laugh from James.
"More than enough mate. I think Sirius might ban you from book duty if you keep that up," He smiled which soon turned into a frown and pacing again.
When the boys did return to the dorm James pounced on both of them with a stern word in their ears. He almost woke the entire house up with his ranting and Remus was cringing at every time a knock sounded in the room in case it was someone telling them to keep the noise down. No one came to their door though and soon Sirius tired of the rant and shoved James away.
"Would you let me speak!" He shouted over James' tirade "We ran into some trouble when Peter saw Filch's stupid cat. He didn't catch us but it was a close one, we had to hide in the charms classroom until he left."
"The charms classroom?" James was puzzled and Remus noted Peter's eyes getting wide at another rant that was sure to follow "That's nowhere near where you were supposed to be. Sirius what the hell did you do?"
"Nothing," He defended.
Peter was the one that caved "We went to the kitchens for something to eat," He whimpered and cowered when James sent a death glare his way.
"You risked your necks for something to eat? How could you be so stupid Black! You were meant to go to the dungeons and then come straight back. Not detour to the kitchens for something to eat. What, was tea not good enough?!"
"I don't see what you're in such a strop about. We did it a couple of days ago, how is tonight any different?" Sirius shouted back. Remus got up to gather his pyjama's together and started changing. This looked like a long argument and he didn't want to stay up to hear it.
"Because you had something else to do tonight. Not fill your bellies up," He put the books back in his trunk and gathered the parchment together before separating it into piles.
"No, you know what this is. This is all because you weren't there. You can't stand the fact that Peter and I went to the kitchens without you." With them into piles he folded the ones he would be giving to Sirius and put them on the small table next to his bed and put the other pile in his trunk.
"No it isn't!"
"Yes it is!" Peter hadn't moved from where James had petrified him and Remus was half tempted to go over and nudge him into his own bed.
"Not everyone is as self obsessed as you Black!" Then again Peter moving might cause more of an uproar when James notices he exists again.
"Self Obsessed? How the hell am I self obsessed!" He hopped onto his own bed and closed the curtains to block out James and Sirius' red faces.
"Oh please, everything's about you," He adopted a poor imitation of Sirius "Oh poor me wallowing in my own self pity because I'm in Gryffindor. Poor me that Remus won't talk to me, I suppose there must be something wrong with him after all who can resist the charms of Sirius Black! Where the hell do you think you're going!" A slam sounded and Remus gathered that Sirius must have stormed out.
There was a quiet in the room that was only broken by James' heavy breathing. Remus stuck his head out tentatively to find that Peter still hadn't moved and James was glaring at the door. "Maybe you went a bit far," Remus supplied but only received a glare and 'shut up' before James turned to get ready for bed.
Remus hoped that Sirius would sneak in the dorm that night but when he woke up it wasn't Sirius' black hair that was fanned out on Remus' pillow but James'. He was snug under the covers and almost hugging the pillow in his sleeping state. Remus frowned and glanced at the time before deeming it was acceptable to wake James up. The boy was groggy and seemed a tad startled when he saw he wasn't alone but calmed when he put his glasses back on.
"Any reason you're in my bed?" Remus asked sitting up along with James.
He shrugged and scratched his hair that was possibly the worst it had ever been "Sirius does it," He mumbled "Thought I'd see what all the fuss was about. You two never sleep in separate beds anymore you know," He remarked mostly to himself.
"He used to keep me up with his nightmares," Remus explained and picked at his covers hoping that James would relent the real reason he had hopped into Remus' bed.
"You were asleep. I wanted to apologise for what I said and when I couldn't I just..." He shrugged again.
"Why are you apologising to me. It seems that Sirius is the one you need to do that to," James scowled at that but didn't argue so at least he knew he was in the wrong.
"Yeah but I said that thing about you and I just want you to know that I didn't mean anything by it. It's just what Sirius said at the beginning of the year. You know when we didn't know you and he didn't even say it in a bad way, he just wondered whether you had some kind of people issues or something. I dunno..." His apology was awful but Remus could see that he was sincere and took it anyway.
"It's fine. But you really should apologise to Sirius not me. He said some things that he needs to apologise for as well but I think that you should go first. That last remark you made was kind of mean," James nodded.
"I don't suppose you could talk to him beforehand though could you?" Remus was confused as to why James was asking him to. "It's just that you and him seem really close. I know that we play pranks and stuff but you're the only one he actually talks to about what's wrong. Even I didn't know the Blacks were that bad and I have to see them at reunions. Please Remus?"
He nodded "Of course."
James bounced a bit on his bed "Thanks. You know, Sirius might be onto something, I haven't slept this good since I came back. You make a nice heater Lupin," He joked making Remus snort.
Sirius wasn't anywhere in the common room nor was he in the great hall when Remus went down. In fact he didn't see the boy until he gave up his search and went back to the dorm. There Sirius was huddled on his own bed looking over the spells that Remus had written down the night before.
"I've been looking for you," He told him quietly sitting on the edge of the bed. Sirius looked warily up.
"You're not gonna shout at me too are you?" Remus shook his head no and crossed his legs under himself.
"I told James to apologise. He's going to but I think that you do too. You both said some things and if you want to move on then you can't hold anything over each other," Sirius set the parchment down with a sigh "Please."
"Fine. Here by the way," He tossed something to Remus. Looking down he saw that it was a cupcake with chocolate icing "I got it for you at the kitchens. I thought it might make you happy, you're looking kind of sick," Remus glanced warily up and made a note to himself to check his appearance after this conversation.
He then glanced back at Sirius with an odd thought "You didn't go to the kitchens just for this did you?"
Sirius looked embarrassed and scoffed a half-hearted "No."
"You could have gotten caught," He chided and heard Sirius' muttered 'knew you were gonna shout' "Of course I am. We spent an hour worrying about you. I thought Filch had kidnapped and tortured you."
Sirius laughed "He was close," he patted Remus on the knee "If it makes you feel any better I promise not to do anything nice for you again."
Remus playfully shoved him before telling him "Don't do anything stupid like that again."
"I won't." He promised "Now where's James, I have an apology to make," Remus directed him to the common room.
By the time night had fallen Sirius and James were friends again and seemed to not even acknowledge that there was something amiss in the first place. Peter still cowered whenever James looked over at him but other than that there was no sign of the earlier dispute left in the room. They had bargained again that the continuation of the map should be left until the following Saturday evening so that they weren't too exerted for their lessons for which Remus was grateful for. However there was something he knew the others were bound to notice when the Saturday evening came. He didn't dwell on it too much and decided to face that obstacle when it arose.
The week passed with little to no problems. James and Sirius kept out of trouble to make their Saturday free and even participated in classes. Slughorn had started eyeing the two pure-bloods greedily ever since James had answered the correct solution to a shrinking potion on Monday. Remus had to hide a grin whenever he asked them to stay behind after the lesson.
Professor Kettleburn had concluded that the unicorns weren't going to show up to the males when, Again, they were stranded outside with nothing to study so he sent them in to look at the theory on unicorns instead. It meant that they had a whole period to themselves which Remus took advantage of to get most of his weekend homework done and even some further reading so as not to be caught behind. Peter had tried to take Remus' lead but failed when some Ravenclaw managed to get a hold of some fizzing whizbee's and was gladly handing them out.
To be honest the only odd thing that Remus noted in the passing week was Sirius' changing attitude towards him. Like on Sunday he kept venturing out late at night and returning with chocolatey goods for Remus' consumption. Whenever asked Sirius would just say that he wanted to do something nice for him. He let it slide on the fact that he enjoyed a midnight cupcake and by Thursday didn't sleep until Sirius was back and handing him something nice to eat.
Friday came much too quickly for Remus and he could hardly contain himself in his seat. His bones stretched uncomfortably and his legs ached to be stretched. When the last class let out he was more than happy to suggest a race back to Gryffindor tower "Last one there has to do my charms homework!" He called halfway up the hallway. He heard muffled shouts before James was neck and neck with him.
James won when Remus had to stop to say the password meaning that the boy only had to wait for the portrait to open and vault into the common room to claim victory. Laughing and panting James pulled Sirius into a half hearted hug and tugged him up the stairs for them all the catch their breaths. Remus was having none of it though, he was too wound up and just waited for them to be on a flat surface before he brought James into a wrestling match.
It carried on for the rest of the evening that the others tried to engage in quieter activities only to be thwarted by his hyper self. When four hit Remus made his excuses of getting something from the kitchens to tide him over until tea and made his way out. The others didn't offer to come since they were recovering from his last tackled wrestling match so making more excuses wasn't necessary.
The shack was still cold since the snow hadn't melted and froze him rigid when he stowed his clothes away. He hated winter moons for the sole reason that they didn't often stop when day broke. Just last moon Pomphrey had to wait until the howls died down before deeming it safe to retrieve him a full twenty four hours later. He hoped that this wasn't the case again as he sat on the hard bed. Ten minutes later his jaw broke and he forgot about his worries.
It was Monday when he woke up. Pomphrey was fussing at the side of his bed and muttering about the upcoming flying lessons that were restarting in two weeks. She fed him potions that made his throat close up and his toes curl but he knew they were there to make him feel better.
She let him go at lunch telling him that he was to go straight to the dormitory and that he wasn't to use his arm. He didn't know why until he tried to push himself up from the bed and fell promptly down again. It turned out that his wrist had been bitten off around two on Saturday since he was unconscious and had been for some hours when Pomphrey retrieved him. There was a jagged line from where the wrist had been put back on and Remus kept glancing at the lines leading into the separation with fascination and sickening disgust. He had never bitten anything off before and to see that it was still working, if a little painfully, was surreal to him. Pomphrey warned that he couldn't hold anything in it for two days which meant trying to write with his left hand and that it might be a while before it works normally again. There was a potion in his robes that would ensure a full recovery but the when of it was unknown.
The others were off to lunch and classes when Remus returned to the dorm so he stripped and collapsed back in his bed for another two hour nap.
Sirius was next to him when he woke. The room was dark but he could hear the other two outside of the curtains so it couldn't have been that late. He tentatively used his left hand to sit himself up and looked at the notes that Sirius was sorting through. They were the ones from today.
"Where were you?" Sirius muttered not looking at him.
"I-" Remus thought. He had an excuse planned from the beginning of the year and it took some time for him to remember it in his weak state "Visiting my mother."
Sirius did turn to him then with a concerned frown on his face "Why? What's wrong?"
"She's ill. It's a muggle thing and she doesn't trust healers. Dad arranged it that I can see her every month just in case this one is the, you know..." He trailed hoping his lie was believable.
"Oh," Sirius picked at the bedspread "I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"I didn't tell you," Remus said with a smile trying to alleviate the tense atmosphere.
Sirius scoffed "True. Here," He handed the notes over "They're not very good since I didn't know I'd be needing to share them, so..."
"Thanks," Remus sorted through them noting all the little doodles and written conversations that James and Sirius had throughout the day.
"Is he awake?" James called from beyond the curtain.
"Yeah, but he's tired so don't bother him," Sirius shouted back and clapped Remus on his bad arm before sliding out of his bed.
"I'm fine now," He told them following Sirius "I don't suppose the food's been served yet has it?"
It had but that didn't mean that they couldn't go to the kitchens for something. The house elves were, like always, happy to see them and when it was known that the four boys were back in the kitchen Hooky made an appearance and showered them with delicious delights.
Remus kept his word to Pomphrey about not using his wrist but he did have to inform the professors beforehand that his writing utensil was out of commission for the moment. They saw no objection to him reading ahead and making notes with the hand he could write with instead of participating in spellwork.
Unfortunately this made Sirius' interest in him grow. All week the boy had been following Remus like a bloodhound. There was not one place he went that Sirius didn't follow which included the toilet. He was even worse when Friday came and refused to even let Remus shower alone in case he disappeared without him knowing. Remus should have known that a simple explanation wouldn't deter Sirius despite what he claimed and scowled at the hands washing his hair for him in annoyance.
"I do know how shampoo works," He remarked trying not to yank his head out from Sirius' iron grip.
"I know, but you can hardly wash your hair adequately with that dodgy hand of yours," Again Remus had made the excuse that he had fell wrongly on it as an explanation for his sudden injury.
Remus sighed "At least tomorrow is Saturday. Have you been practising the charms I found?"
"Yep," He let Remus rinse his hair on his own before pulling him back for a condition. "Some of them were a bit difficult without a practise ward but I think I'll be able to perform it. Besides you'll tell me if I'm doing something wrong."
This was news to him. He was supposed to be partnered with Peter tomorrow on a trip to the dungeons "But I thought James was going with you?"
"We switched. He complained about being in the library too much so I said that you'd be more than happy to. You don't mind do you?" Remus could hear the sly notes in his lilting voice just begging for Remus to give some objection.
"No, I suppose another go in the library is better than running from Filch," Which was true. He disliked some of the stories the other three had told him about their last exploration into the dungeons. The caretaker had figured out that someone was out after hours and made it his mission to stake the dungeons out to capture them.
"James is taking the cloak with him and Peter so we'll have to be sneaky," He warned.
"They need it more than we do. Besides this isn't our first mission after hours and we certainly didn't have a cloak then," Sirius barked a laugh behind him and let him rinse off the conditioner before he towed him to the towels. "Sirius, really I'm fine."
The library was just as dusty and large as the last time he had been here after hours. It seemed that it took up some kind of transformation in the dark. Instead of a haven for knowledge it became something that warned off those who would want to know too much.
Remus had to keep a tight grip on Sirius to stop the other boy from wandering off down a wrong isle. He hadn't been in the library more than twice and it showed. They stepped over the rope together with Remus' wand held high to cast a light on the books they were looking for before Sirius went to work on disarming them.
"Not to make you uneasy," He mumbled "But if you do get something wrong we may have to run for our lives." Sirius laughed quietly.
"Thanks Remus, you really know how to take the pressure off."
They had managed to retrieve three books in two hours which Remus concluded was a good haul. He made Sirius turn around and go back to the dorm despite the boy wanting to get the whole list. Remus argued and told him that this lot would keep them going for a couple of days. They would come back when they needed the others.
The way back to the dorm was pleasant since they knew that Filch was in the dungeons and therefore they both took their time to stroll down the low lit corridors and skip up the winding staircases.
Once their Remus perused the spoils of their plunder. Many of the books in the restricted section were there because they had content that was beyond the level of most students attending Hogwarts at the time, the only ones Remus imagined ever laying eyes on these books were seventh years that were somehow advanced. The books they had picked up were on unplottable land. The aim was to look through them and find a loophole in their workings that would allow them to make the map.
"Don't read all night Rem, we have other things to do." Sirius was picking up his pyjamas to get changed whilst tugging his trunk open for the spells that they needed to practise. It made Remus smile to think that despite everything they learn making mischief they still hold on to the tradition Sirius and Remus had made in their first month.
"I was thinking about learning that glamour charm. I think it would be useful if we're going to be sneaking around," He said placing the stolen books carefully on his bed before rifling through his drawers for his own notes.
James and Peter returned an hour later to a blonde Sirius who was complaining loudly at the loss of his glossy locks. "No!" He bemoaned "I'm no better than Cissy now. Worse," He grabbed his face and turned it side to side "I make this look good. She'll go spare."
"What's going on?" Peter asked when Sirius' look hadn't been explained right away.
"He messed up his glamour," Remus told him with a smirk.
Peter nodded and watched as James tried to fix Sirius' hair with the charms he knew. Peter turned to him "Don't suppose you know how to fix that?"
Remus felt hid mouth widen "Maybe. I thought I'd let him stew for a bit though, it's fun watching him whine," They both shared a satisfied look. They knew what it was like to be in Sirius' shoes and decided to let him suffer while much like James and Sirius do when they do this thing to them.
"So where did you go?" Peter asked turning away from Sirius' now pink hair.
"Hmm?"
"Last weekend. You went down for something to eat and never came back until Monday. Sirius was going mental, he didn't sleep all of Friday and ended up keeping both of us up on Saturday. James gave up on Sunday and finally stunned him asleep," Remus looked back to where the boys were wrestling for James' wand on Peter's bed.
"He didn't tell me that," And then thought why would he? Sirius wouldn't want anyone to know he was worried. It probably wasn't a done thing where he came from.
"Yeah well he did. He kept accusing us of being awful friends for not caring. But we do care," Peter recovered "It's just that we have different ways of worrying. James kept asking McGonagall in the hall and again in her office. And I went all over the castle and the kitchens to see if you were stuck anywhere like the first week."
Remus felt awful "I'm sorry," He muttered "I didn't mean to- my mum's ill that's all. I have to go see her every month..." And he told his lie for a second time. He hoped that Peter would relate the story to James after this so he wouldn't be cornered a third time.
"That's awful," Peter patted him on the knee "If you need anything..."
"Thanks," he smiled and felt even worse about his deception.