Chapter 19 – Preparations

"Are you out of your mind?" James said to Remus, then he under his breath moaned: "Padfoot is so going to kill me".

"No, he wont, he'd miss you too much" Remus replied merrily "Besides, he doesn't necessarily has to know".

James snorted "He'll find out and then he'll kill me twice. One time for letting you get beat up and another time for not telling him about it." He had a point, Remus thought.

"Don't be foolish, Prongs, he can't kill you multiple times" Remus grinned, then his expression turned to a look of earnest "Who says that I'm going to be beaten up?" he asked.

James looked at him as if to decide whether or not this was a joke "Just look at you" he exclaimed, indicating Remus' entire being.

Remus decided to drop the subject. It was true that he wasn't very tough or strong, but he had a high pain threshold and he was bright. Remus never threw himself into a fight without a strategy, unlike Sirius.

When Remus had been little he'd given up all hope of going to Hogwarts, or any other wizarding school for that matter, therefore his parents had sent him to a muggle school. Remus had lived in a tough neighbourhood as a kid and the school resembled that. The gangs had decided that Remus would make an easy target.

In the beginning Remus had lived with it, avoiding his parents questions by telling them that he'd fallen down and that yes, he had bought lunch that day. During that period Remus had gotten tough, not in a visible way, but he knew that he could've taken down one of the gangmembers any time. Remus didn't though, he was too afraid that he would accidentally use magic on the poor guy.

One time, on his way home they'd passed him up. That one time Remus had gotten fed up, it was the first and only time he'd allowed himself to beat up another person. He'd gone for the leader of the gang, knowing that he wouldn't allow the others to interfere, his image would be torn to pieces if he did, and hit him before the guy knew what happened. Then Remus had dodged all of his attempts to hit back and finally Remus had launched himself on him. Then Remus had lost control and had kept hitting the guy until someone had pulled him away. Remus had been eight years old.

He shook the uncomfortable thoughts off him.

"Prongs" Remus instead said hesitantly "Have you ever, you know, had sex?"

James looked shocked, that pure, virginal Remus would ask such a question, "Well, no. I'm waiting for Lily to come around. I think you'd rather ask Sirius" he sniggered.

Remus frowned. He couldn't ask Sirius, but of course James didn't know that, he blushed at the thought. "And you think the whole 'waiting for Lily to come around' is going perfectly well?" Remus said, raising his eyebrows, in an attempt to change the subject.

James scratched his neck "Umm, it went terrific until today. Haven't you noticed? Since last week she has warmed considerably up to me." Remus had indeed noticed, it was a bit odd. The one day Lily was cursing "The prat Potter" and the next she was as glued to said Potter. Lily had always had an unpredictable temper after all.

Peter was waiting for them at the Defence against the dark arts classroom.

"Hey guys" he smiled at them "Where've you been?"

xXxXxXxXx

After the class James pulled Remus aside "You know the whole Lily matter we discussed earlier… Can't you talk to her or something, just give her a tiny push in the right direction?" James almost begged.

"I don't know… I can try, I guess…" Remus said hesitant. He didn't want to get mixed up in James and Lily's strange relationship any more than he wanted to awake Lily's wrath.

"You're a pal, Moony" James grinned and patted Remus on the back, apparently accepting his answer as a yes.

Remus sighed. He made a mental note of one day learning to say no. Then he walked over to Lily, who stood among a group of girls, Remus quickly waved at Amy, to let her know that he'd seen her.

"Ehh, Lily… Do you have a minute?" Remus said, getting more and more convinced that this was a bad idea.

Lily turned to look at Remus then she smiled brightly at him "Sure."

They moved a bit away from the others, before Remus talked "It's about James."

Lily turned her eyes "Oh, asking his friends to talk to me, is he?"

"Please Lily. He really has grown up lately, that… episode… the other day was just to protect Sirius. He's a really great friend," Remus said in his most winning tone.

Lily chewed her chin thoughtfully. Then her expression suddenly cleared and she hugged Remus "Thanks" she turned to say as she walked over to James and hit him on the arm.

"You're a prat, Potter," she said before putting her arms around his neck and kissing him. The entire class was catcalling and cheering. Someone behind him Remus heard someone moan: "Finally"

When they broke apart James sent Remus a bright smile and mouthed: "Thanks" at him.

Remus shook his head. Lily remained a mystery.

xXxXxXxXx

It was after dinner and Remus sat at the floor in the dorm, preparing for midnight.

He wanted to go see Sirius in The Hospital Wing, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to hide the upcoming challenge from him. Remus was terrible at keeping things from people he loved, he just wasn't capable of doing it. He didn't doubt even one second that he would spill everything if he talked to Sirius. Remus decided to see him tomorrow instead.

All his clothes lay spread in front of him. He couldn't wear a robe. It would be impossible to fight in, he would get tangled into it and it would leave loads of loose material for Mulcriber to grab.

Remus took off his watch, that wouldn't work either. He couldn't leave anything for Mulcriber to grab. His tactic was to avoid that Mulcriber caught him. Mulcriber was about twice Remus' size and he could be sure to be mashed if Mulcriber got a proper hold of him.

In the end Remus decided to wear a tight black T-shirt, a pair of tight black trousers without a belt and trainers. That left nothing for Mulcriber to hold on to and as a bonus Remus would almost melt into the dark surroundings. Remus fastened his wand to his right leg, hidden by the trousers. He didn't want to meet six Slytherins at night unarmed.

Remus wished that James' first detention with McGonagall hadn't been tonight. He didn't want to go alone and he was sure that Mulcriber would bring all of his friends. Remus had for a moment thought about bringing Peter, but he knew that fights wasn't really Peter's thing, so almost at once Remus had decided not to ask Peter.

School has started again and that means less time for writing T-T

Sorry about the kind of shortish, non-eventful chapter o.o hope I made it up to you by adding a bit of Jily :3