Year of the Wolf

13. Levicorpus

Remus was glad that Sirius was much happier and had finally escaped the clutches of his poisonous family, don't get him wrong, but he was rather dismayed to find that the slight calm that had come to his and James's antics the previous term was not due to an increase in maturity, but rather both boys' preoccupation with an issue now resolved.

In short, things were back to normal. Fourth year normal. Two detentions in the first week of term normal. Even Lily Evans had earned herself a rare detention when a teacher found her screaming red-faced at James for some action Remus had missed. She had almost walked away free too, until James had smiled that charming smile and offered to trade a week of calm for one kiss. James didn't get his kiss, and Lily lost a Thursday evening to helping Madam Pince recategorise the library.

To make matters worse, there was a new hex doing the rounds, and it was virtually impossible to walk down any reasonably crowded corridor at peak time and not find oneself hoisted into the air by the ankle. The only ones who seemed immune to the casting of this spell were the four of them. Remus was not sure if it was out of respect or fear of creative reprisals. Either way, he had still taken to looking over his shoulder when walking alone.

'Where is Wormtail anyway?' he asked as he made his way to Defence Against the Dark Arts in their second week back.

'He was in the library,' Sirius said, walking casually beside him. 'Skipped lunch to finish his essay.'

'I thought you helped him with that?'

'I did! He was still awake when I went to bed, thought he'd finished it last night.'

They saw Peter up ahead of them, rushing with his head down to get to class. And he was alone.

'Hey, wasn't Prongs supposed to be getting him?' Sirius asked, almost annoyed that it was now James who had gone AWOL. 'He better not be skiving without me.'

It all happened so fast. One minute, Sirius was frowning handsomely, the next his face was upside down and filled with confusion, his bag falling to the floor with a thud and his long black hair hanging vertically from his head.

People around them stopped, some laughing, some looking like they wanted to but dared not. But even they fell silent as a louder cry of amusement reached their ears. It was the wheezing, howling kind of laugh that suggested its owner was under the grip of hilarity so profound that they were struggling to breathe. And James Potter was leaning against the wall next to a connecting secret passage up ahead, clutching his sides and struggling to remain on his feet.

'You!' Sirius growled. He began to swing his arms, and Remus was unsure if his face was so red because blood was pooling there or because he was actually furious.

With a wave of his wand, James removed the spell and Sirius fell to the floor with a louder thud than his bag. James was still laughing, but a moment later he raised his hands suddenly to his face just in time for a stream of bats to begin flapping all over it. This time it was Sirius's turn to laugh as James fell back against the wall, batting away at the things.

'What is all this noise?'

The bats flew away and James righted himself.

'Don't tell me you boys are fighting in the hallway?' asked Professor Nocturn exasperatedly.

'Just practising counters, Professor,' said Sirius. James sneezed and a pipistrelle flew out of his left nostril.

'Detention, both of you,' said the Professor. 'Duelling in the hallways will not be tolerated! I am very disappointed in the two of you!'

'We're still going to get an "Outstanding" in your O.W.L., Professor,' James said with a sigh. Nocturn looked like she might just give them another detention but seemed to decide against it and walked away shaking her head.

'A Bat Bogey Hex?' sighed James, rounding on Sirius as though they hadn't just earned another detention (really, did they even care any more?). 'That was the best you could do?'

But Sirius didn't seemed to be paying attention to what he said, and was grinning madly.

'You found the spell?'

James matched his smile with eager excitement.

'Levicorpus,' he said. 'Non-verbal. The counter is Liberacorpus. I can't wait to try this on Snivellus!'

Remus felt his heart sink. He had hoped, for the sake of the student body at large, that they wouldn't discover the incantation for the new spell.

James was laughing again and slapped Sirius on the shoulder after he picked up his bag and they began to move again.

'I'm sorry, but- You know what? I'm not even sorry, that was too good. Your face!'

'I've got another of those hexes if you want one, Prongs.'

Sirius was beginning to get offended by Remus's anticipation of Quidditch practise nights. When questioned, he had claimed that it was the only time he and Peter ('People who actually need to study and can't get by on latent talent, Padfoot') could study in peace. They had even tried to study with them one night, but had gotten bored rather quickly - James was too lazy to even open his book and got Remus to read it out to him until their friend cottoned on and refused to continue.

'Given much thought to N.E.W.T.s?' James asked as they changed out of their Quidditch robes one night.

'You should be thinking about Quidditch, not N.E.W.T.s!' Reed grumbled. 'Can't flatten Hufflepuff with Herbology, can we?'

'We could with Transfiguration,' James replied. 'Well, maybe not flatten, but we could turn them into teacups.'

The only reason James could get away with joking about Quidditch to Reed's face, Sirius realised, was because the Captain knew how deadly serious he was about it beneath the humour. Serious enough that he was a shoo-in for the next year's captaincy.

'Just win me that cup, Potter, and you can do whatever you like to them.'

Mary, who appeared in their little gathering as if out of thin air, made a huffy little sound.

'Us!' she pointed out. 'He'll be winning us that cup, not you. And it's not just going to be him, you know!'

'She's right,' laughed Sirius. 'His face wouldn't be looking so pretty without me behind the bat.' Reed's expression soured. 'Or...you. You pitch in too.'

'It's a damn good job I like you, Black,' Reed muttered as he wandered away.

Mary smirked at Sirius and he smiled right back before she followed Reed out of the changing rooms.

'So what about N.E.W.T.s?' Sirius asked James. He was thrown a little to see James grinning as he carefully folded his Quidditch robes. 'What?'

James shrugged, then looked at his best friend in secretive amusement.

'Spit it out!'

'You're so thick sometimes, Padfoot.'

Sirius wrinkled his nose.

'How'd you figure that?'

'Macdonald was checking you out.'

He could see James gauge his reaction and tried to remain stony-faced.

'She was not.'

'Mate, she looked at you like you were a box of Honeyduke's best.'

Sirius snorted at the idea. It was Mary Macdonald. She didn't flirt or ogle, and she certainly didn't eye up her friends. Even so, he found that a part of him was rather intrigued. She was rather pretty and had the kind of personality that usually made for a good snog. But she was his friend and besides, he would much rather spend his time raising a little hell with James than with a girl.

'The way you look at Evans then?'

James raised his eyebrows.

'Evans is a lady, and I will ask you not to insinuate such things.' He picked up his bag and pushed Sirius towards the door.

'So if she walked up to you right now and begged you to take her to the empty classroom on the third floor, the one with the bolt on the door, you'd turn her down?'

He had expected James to say 'Well, I wouldn't go that far!' or laugh and say that no, he would not dream of turning her down. But instead, he looked conflicted. Like, yes, he would very much like to meet her in that empty classroom and finally discover what her kiss tasted like, but there was perhaps a more vocal part of him that wanted much, much more.

Sirius didn't know what to say, so he muttered a quiet apology. Because James had eyed Lily Evans for years, had become drawn to her vivacious personality, her striking eyes, and her flawless hair (his words) and seemed to grow more and more serious in this interest over time . If Sirius could have done anything, anything at all, it would be to help her see James as he did, and maybe, just maybe, she'd give him a chance.

James cried out in a sudden anguished gasp, and right before his eyes Sirius saw angry red hives appear up his neck and over his face. James hissed as he touched his cheek, the skin flushed and raw, and Sirius stood in front of him, looking for the source of the hex.

Just in time, he saw Snape emerge from the corner he had been hiding behind. Snape was fast, but Sirius was faster.

'Mucus ad nauseam!'

Snape's free hand rose to his nose, which had begun to turn a sickly shade of red, accompanying grey circles beneath his eyes and a stream of snot that he wiped away with his sleeve.

Sirius had not seen the other students in the hallway, but from the shriek that followed he assumed that they had only recently arrived. But he didn't care. Snape was sneezing now, and had slid down the wall to sniffle into his robes.

It was James who he turned to, the younger boy wincing in pain, tugging at the neck of his robes to loosen them. There was something wrong with the hex, Sirius noticed, because the hives had begun to darken and now more closely resembled burns. James even removed his glasses, evidently finding the touch of them to his skin too much.

The anger that rose inside Sirius was volatile. It was only concern and empathy for his friend that stopped him rushing over to the fallen Slytherin, wands be damned, and making him pay.

'I tried to...counter it,' James seethed. 'But...this...'

Had Snape modified the spell? Was he even capable of that? It was a cruel trick to play, making it so that the regular counter-hex made the effects worse, not better. Or was it a new spell, one meant to mimic the Hive Hex and react badly to its counter?

There was someone standing beside him. He wanted to tell them to bugger off, but they helped him pull James to his feet and push his glasses into a pocket.

'Go,' Lily said. But Sirius was too shocked to move, too stunned to say anything. He knew now who had shrieked at him for hexing Snape, but why was she now helping him?

And then he saw it, the shock in her eyes and upon her pale face as she looked at the burns now covering a large portion of James's face. Had she seen Snape cast first? Or had she just assumed what had happened?

'Sirius, he needs to go to the hospital wing!'

Her voice snapped him from his reverie and he nodded gratefully.

He wanted to do something, anything, to fix whatever had gone wrong. James may have been laughing (sprinkled with intermittent gasps of pain and discomfort), but there was nothing about this that Sirius found even remotely funny. It was tragic, in a way, because casting Curse of the Bogies on Snape was genius, really, and something they'd both talked about since they had learned it and its counter in Defence Against the Dark Arts years ago.

'Am I still pretty, Padfoot?' James asked, laughing, as Sirius helped him stagger down the hallway.

'Beautiful, Prongs. Certainly caught Evans's attention.'

AN - Thanks for reading! And thank you to all who reviewed the last chapter - PhoenixFireHope, Daisy, Kazo Sakamari, xforgottenxmemoriesx and Shannonleaa.