Hello everyone!
Autumn has arrived and it's not long until Halloween! I bet some of you have already started to think about what costume you're going to wear or snacks you're looking forward to. Maybe some of you are even making your own snacks this year?
This chapter will have more focus on Remus compared to the third and fourth chapter. I know a number of you will appreciate this :D
Vengeance is best when served cold.
It was Wednesday morning in the Gryffindor tower. "Wake up James!" called Remus as he tried to shake his friend awake. It was 07:45 AM, and time for breakfast. "Huuuh? What is it Moony?" inquired the other guy with a sleepy voice. His hair looked like a crow's nest. The tiredness in his hazel eyes was impossible to deny. "It's almost 8 AM. It's time for breakfast Prongs" informed the male. James nodded while his friend headed off to the bathroom. 'Hm. I need to shave' decided the auburn-haired guy. He picked up the magical razor his cousin had given him for his birthday.
Both of his hands put on the thick shaving cream while the razor floated next to him. "Right…it's all yours" muttered the guy. He tapped the razor with his wand. The razor flied over to his face while the teenager lowered his eyelids a little. This was one of the things he loved about being a wizard. Magic razors rarely cut your skin. Secondly, they were more precise than the muggle razors. He decided to open up his eyes a couple minutes later to check the progress. His razor was floating next to his face. The skin on his face was soft as a marshmallow. "Perfect. Good job" stated the Gryffindor when he tapped the razor again. The razor flied back to his toiletry map. When the male washed his face, he heard some steps behind him. "Morning Moony" greeted Sirius. "Good morning. Did you sleep well?" asked the male. "Yeah, I slept quite well. Have you made up your mind about that dual-event weekend?" inquired the other male. "Well…I found out that its right after a full moon. I'll go if I'm in good enough condition" informed Remus with a small smile.
However, there was one thing that worried him slightly. The dance part meant that he needed to find a partner. He was slightly worried about that. For starters, the teen never had a girlfriend (apart from in kindergarten perhaps). The guy was interested in girls, but was not as lucky as James or Sirius. 'Don't be so pessimistic. I'm sure that I'll find a date somehow. I got decent hygiene and manners after all. That seemed to work for dad' mused the auburn-haired male while rinsing his face. He put on some aftershave before he left the bathroom.
A smile formed at his face when he saw James. He was putting on his shirt while Peter adjusted his tie. "Good to see that you're ready. I'm going down to the Great Hall in a moment" told the male. Green eyes scanned the timetable that lay at the top. 'I've got charms, transfiguration plus defense against the dark arts. Next are potions, a free period plus studies of ancient runes' read the Gryffindor. He double-checked his books just to be sure. The teenager jogged down to the Great Hall. The large hall was quite packed since it was in the middle of breakfast. A familiar smell of toast mixed with tea filled his nostrils.
Remus spotted a place next to an African-looking teenager. Said teenager was currently discussing something with a male brunette. He weaved through the crowd before he approached the free seat. "Is this seat taken?" inquired the guy. The fellow Gryffindor turned towards him. "No…I don't think so" replied the male. The auburn-haired teen nodded before he sat down at the chair. He felt quite hungry, so he picked up an egg plus two slices of toast. 'Perhaps I should try a banana today' thought the male. He stretched his hand towards the fruit bowl. "Hello there!" greeted Sir Nicholas as his head popped out of the fruit bowl. The Gryffindor jumped, dropping the banana in the process. "Jeez. You scared me there" muttered the guy while his heart raced. "Sorry 'bout that! Enjoy your breakfast young man" replied the ghost. Sir Nicholas flied towards the other side of the hall moments later.
Remus laid the banana in his backpacker. He smiled when he saw his friends approached the Gryffindor table. They were not looking their best to say the least. James had not managed to tame his hair that much. Sirius' tie was a bit lopsided. Peter had somehow forgotten to tie his shoes. "I think you guys have to look at yourself before class. Especially since we got McGonagall later today" told the male.
"Ha ha Moony. I could not find my comb. Sirius told me that he would correct his tie after breakfast" told the bespectacled male as he sat down. The auburn-haired guy nodded while he finished his toast. He decided to wait for his friends. 'I wonder where Lil – oh' thought the male when he spotted his charms partner. She was apparently done with breakfast and leaving the Great Hall.
"Excuse me…you're Sirius Black right?" inquired a voice from behind. Sirius turned around to see who it was. The "who" was a blonde girl at his age. She was in Ravenclaw judging from the uniform. "Yaf" replied the guy with his mouth full of toast. "Your tie is kind of lopsided. I wondered if I could test a charm on it. The charm is supposed to make clothes stay in place" informed the female. He nodded, and the Ravenclaw smiled. "Just sit still there" muttered the blonde. She pointed her wand at his tie. The tie swung a bit to the right before it straightened itself. "Thanks" told Sirius with a smile. She gave him a quick smile as she left the Gryffindor table.
"Did it work Silver?" inquired her friend. "Mhm. He won't notice it until he's going to remove his tie. That glue spell was GENIUS!" chuckled Alice with a grin. A part of her knew it was wrong. However, Sirius DID slime her brother without apologizing. Furthermore, they would probably practice on spells after their charm lesson. Besides...who would suspect a semi-innocent blonde? Especially one that received her last detention nearly two years ago.
The duo entered the library. They needed to hand in some books they had used for divination. "I can't wait for tarot lessons" muttered Mathilda. "Me neither. I bet we get some kind of 'predict the future for two random people' for homework" replied the girl. She did not hate their professor since he was a true Seer. So far, the man had done several accurate predictions. Sadly, he had a tendency of giving them rather boring homework. Palm reading, making horoscopes charts or tarot cards were the most common ones. This was usually done in groups of three or four and try this on each other. However, it was a limit on how much they could predict each other's future.
The Ravenclaw then approached the counter before she put down her school bag. "Hello. I'm here to hand in 'Zodiac calculations and interpretations' by Dana Chavez" whispered the blonde. "All right. Name please?" inquired the librarian. "Henderson, Alice. I'm from Ravenclaw" replied the girl. The woman nodded before the student laid the book at the counter. "Good. You did not hand in your book too late either. Have a nice day" told the librarian. "You too" answered the teen as she zipped up her bag. She went out of the library before heading for her charms lessons.
Many of the students were a bit anxious. They were going to showcase their skills in charms today after all. These spells were quite basic, and required a bit of accuracy. "Do you think we have to do them non-verbally?" inquired Sirius while looking at James. "I bet Flitwick want us to perform AT LEAST one non-verbal spell. They are quite basic, but we can't lose our concentration either" replied the male. A part of him felt a bit nervous. The teen had just started to get a grip on non-verbal magic. What if he froze something or someone else in the room? 'Calm down James. Think of something that makes the nerves go away. Or make you more confident at least' thought the Gryffindor. His thoughts wandered to the middle of his fifth year. That was when he finally could transform himself into a stag.
The guy felt his nerves die down a little bit. It turned out to be just in time. Moments later, professor Flitwick climbed up on the teacher's desk. "Good morning students! I hope you have all slept well. Today is test day after all" greeted the man with a smile. Some murmur was heard through the room. The atmosphere was a bit tense. "I am going to give you twenty minutes to prepare yourselves. We will go alphabetically. That means Abrams and Black are our first couple" told the teacher.
"Good luck" whispered the bespectacled male as he patted his friend on his shoulder. The black-haired guy nodded while his partner checked his notebook. "Please come up guys. Don't be scared, I'm sure you can do it" encouraged the teacher. He stepped aside as the two students stepped up. Two egg glasses were placed on the teacher's desk. Both of the guys pointed at the egg glass. 'Looks like they're going non-verbal with this one' observed James. His friend tapped the egg glass with his wand, and muttered the spell. His partner did the same just moments later.
Flitwick stepped forwards to looked into the egg glasses. "Very well done both of you. I'll give you this grade" told the man while pointing at a sheet in his hand. Both of the guys grinned with satisfaction. "What did you get?" asked the black-haired guy when his friend returned. "An E" replied the male with a sincere smile. Two other pairs were then called up to show off their work. One of the pairs overflowed their glasses a bit, but froze it quite fast. Pair number two however was not able to freeze the water completely.
"Our next pair is Elliot and Henderson. Please come up here" called the teacher. Two girls then walked towards the desk with a slightly nervous look at their faces. Sirius recognized one of them. It was the blonde girl who had corrected his tie that morning. He was quite sure the second girl was at the Hufflepuff quidditch team.
"Please go ahead" told the older man as he gestured towards the egg glasses. Both of the girls pointed their wands at the egg glasses with a concentrated look in their eyes. The Ravenclaw female closed her eyes for a second. She tapped the egg glass one more time with her wand. Her red-blonde haired friend did the same seconds later. Flitwick then came over to inspect the egg glasses. "Impressive. I'll give you this grade Henderson. Elliot gets this one" told the male while he gestured towards the paper he held. Both of the girls let out a small squeal in joy before they sat down at their respective places.
'I wonder what they got' thought Lily as the duo sat down. "Next couple up is Evans and Lupin" said the teacher in a clear voice. The female stood up from her chair. She had worked together with her partner for a couple days, so they were both ready. Her eyes glanced towards her partner. Remus looked quite serious while his right hand tightened around his wand. The duo walked towards the teacher's desk. "Please go ahead" said the man with an assuring voice. "Right" muttered the redhead as she pulled out her wand.
Emerald green eyes looked at the egg glass. Her hand held the wand over the small container. Water came out from the wand. The teenager kept a close eye on it to see how quickly it filled up the glass. The girl decided to stop when she saw the water reach the ¾ mark. 'I'll try to do it non-verbal first. Glacia is not a hard spell' decided the Gryffindor. She pointed the tip of her wand at the glass while thinking of the spell. Her imagination made mental images of frozen water she had seen as well. 'Concentrate now Lily. You're going to turn this water into solid ice!' thought the female. She looked at the egg glass moments later to see her result. It was half-frozen, so she had to keep things up. Lily bit her lower lip in concentration as she pointed at the egg glass. This was harder than what she had imagined. Her mind started to slip after ten seconds, so the girl was forced to resign.
She lowered her wand before looking over at her partner. Her eyes widened when she saw his creation. All the water in his glass was frozen. It only had a few small cracks on the top. Flitwick climbed up at the chair to see how they had done. "Very good. That goes for both of you. I'll give you both a borderline grade" told the male. He first pointed at the 'E' before he pointed at the 'O' at his paper. The two students looked at each other in mild bewilderment. This was a much better grade than they expected. "Thank you professor Flitwick" told the auburn-haired guy. Both of them went down to their seats with a bright smile at their faces. 'Oh my...If only Lily knew what her smile does to him' mused Sirius as he looked at James.
"All right class! I must say that most of you did very well. You have all noticed that we're having a special event coming up. To refresh your knowledge, we're going to practice on some charms. These are charms you can use in duels. I'm going to write them up at the blackboard first" informed Flitwick. He waved his wand, and the chalk started to move. The chalk wrote up three charms on the blackboard. Number one was 'epoximise', the second one was 'depulso' while the last spell turned out to be 'finite incatatem'.
All of the students let out a small sigh in relief. All these charms were quite familiar to them. "I know these are basic charms. However, we need to practice on them in order to learn new ones. Keep in mind that complex charms often builds on basic ones. I want you to pick a practice partner. We're going to do this for ten minutes. Off you go!" stated the older guy. Everyone scurried around to find their partners. James went towards Lily, hoping that she would not pick the people closest to her.
'Perhaps I should try to sit a bit closer to her in the future' decided the male. He had tried the 'sitting next to' strategy in their fifth year. Sadly, it did not work out. Not to mention that the female tried to avoid him during the first month of their sixth year after the incident with Snape. The black-haired male cleared his throat as he approached her. "Hi Lily. Want to partner up with me?" inquired the guy while he tried to calm down his pulse. Why did his heart beat increase every time he spoke to her? Was it some kind of curse he did not know about? The redhead measured him with her eyes. "All right James. However, I won't partner up with you next round" told the girl.
At the other side of the room, Mathilda had gotten a Slytherin partner. Her blonde friend was up against Sirius. Remus was with one of the Hufflepuff boys. "Good everyone! Let's line up in one line at the center of the classroom. Make sure that the distance between each partner and each pair is at least four feet. Try to do the spells without saying ANYTHING" told Flitwick. All the students spaced out a bit, and started at their spells.
Alice noticed that her partner moved his shoulder. She did not hesitate, and did a quick stabbing motion towards his tie. She pretended that the spell had failed. This would make his now sticky tie more believable. It was all a part of her plan in order to get back at him. The female suddenly felt her body being pulled to the left. The male pointed his wand at her. 'Shoot! He must have used the depulso spell!' concluded the blonde. She pointed at herself with the wand while chanting 'finite incatatem' inside her head. It was harder than she had imagined. It took almost half a minute to end the spell.
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at her partner. Her hand did a quick motion as she yelled 'epoximise' inside her mind. The wand was aimed at her partner's shoes. "OI!" yelled the Gryffindor when his shoes then got glued to the floor. He attempted to point his wand at her shoes, but his hand seemed to have a mind of their own. The girl grinned as she waved her wand slightly. She could not keep it up for a long time, but this was a bit fun.
Suddenly, someone let out a horrific scream from the other side of the room. Everyone turned their heads in surprise to see what had gone wrong. It turned out to be Mathilda. Her right hand was covered in giant pink snails. "GET 'EM OFF ME NOW!" yelled the female while she tried to push them away with her wand. Her face was quite pale. Not a lot of people knew this, but she found slimy creatures to be repulsive. Snails were one of the top at her list.
"Now now miss Elliot. Stand still and I'll get the snails away" assured the older man as he climbed down from his teacher desk. She stretched out her hand while she looked away. The teacher pointed his wand at her hand. Seconds later, the snails exploded into a number of pink bubbles. "Thanks professor" sighed the Hufflepuff in relief. Sirius snickere. He had never seen anyone be that scared of snails in his entire life. He then felt someone poke his back quite sharply and turned around to see who it was.
"Don't make fun of my friend Sirius" warned the girl who he had partnered up with. She had a cold look in her eyes. "Uhm…sorry" muttered the guy. It was not a completely sincere 'sorry' though. 'Jeez. Someone is overreacting a bit' observed the teenager. Sure, he was no stranger to defending his friends. Her stare however could probably kill a puffskein. Everyone then returned to their spell activity a few moments later. "Don't forget to let me know if any of you are attending the event in the end of this month!" told the teacher at the end of the class. After the bell rang, some of the students queued up in front of him. Two of them were Mathilda and Alice.
"I'm SO HAPPY! I could not believe that I got an O at my charm homework!" squealed the female in glee. "I'm quite happy with my 'E' as well. It's a good start at the school year" replied the other girl with a grin. After a minute, they got the chance to speak with the older man. "Hello professor. We would both like to sign up for the event" told the Hufflepuff girl. "Very well then. And your names are...Elliot Mathilda and Henderson Alice" told Flitwick as he picked up his quill. Both of them nodded while he wrote up their names. "Good. I'll see you both there" stated the male with a small smile. "Thank you professor" told the Ravenclaw. The duo exited the room. There were still a couple more lessons to go.
The Marauders were on their way to lunch. 'Maybe I should loosen up my tie. It's a bit tight' noticed Sirius as they approached the Great Hall. He raised his left hand and tried to adjust his tie. Surprisingly, it did not work. 'Weird' thought the male as he tried to pull a bit harder. Suddenly, he felt something sticky on his fingers. "What the-" muttered the black-haired guy as he raised his hand. At least three of his fingers were covered in transparent goo.
"What happened with your hand?" asked James as he looked at his hand. "I don't know! I was going to adjust my tie, and they got all slimy!" explained the guy with a semi-confused expression at his face. He was not sure how that could have happened. "Hm…do you think it could have happened during our charms lesson? We did have a sticky charm to practice on after all" suggested Remus. His friend closed his eyes as he tried to remember what had happened. He then remembered that the blonde he fought against had troubles with a non-verbal charm. "I think so. That girl I practiced with seemed to miss at one of the spells. Maybe that was a sticky charm" told the Gryffindor. "Case solved then! Your sticky fingers were the results of a sloppy blonde" concluded his friend. Little did they know that the said girl had walked next to them when Sirius had adjusted his tie...
Maybe not QUITE the payback, but Alice is a bit uptight that way.
I wish all of you a happy autumn and happy Halloween for those who celebrate that! Please read and review this chapter if you can.