Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
The Marauders Year 1
Chapter 12: Never Change
The next morning, Remus was the first one to wake up. He brought a hand up to his face to feel that it was still wet. 'Must have cried all night.' Remus looked at his sleeping friends. They all looked peaceful and content with sleeping.
Remus wrung his hands around each other. If it was anytime before Christmas, he would play a prank as a way to wake them up. But right now, Remus didn't have the heart to do it. With his father gone, he didn't have the heart to do many things.
Instead of waking his friends up, Remus took a shower and got dressed for school quietly. Then he sat on his bed and stared out the window. He would wait for his friends to wake up by themselves.
The first of Remus's friends to wake up was James. He rolled over on his bed and grabbed his glasses off the nightstand. He opened his eyes to look at Remus to see him staring at absent mindlessly out the window. "Morning Remus. How long have you been up?"
"Bout an hour." Remus answered, turning his sad gaze to James.
James looked at the clock and fell out of his bed in shock. "Remus, why didn't you wake us up? We are fifteen minutes late for double defense." He jumped out of his bed and started digging through his dresser for clothes. "SIRIUS! PETER! UP NOW! WE LATE TO DEFENSE!"
Sirius tumbled onto the ground in a flurry of blankets. Peter joined him a second later.
"What?" Sirius asked, stupidly.
"Late to class." James repeated, pulling his pants on. "Remus didn't wake us."
Sirius untangled himself from his blankets and stood up. "Rem, why didn't you wake us?"
"You guys looked content with sleeping. I decided to wait for you to wake up." Remus replied with a shrug.
Sirius frowned, but didn't reply. He helped Peter free himself of his blankets and started getting dressed. "We missed breakfast too. This is just great. Next time, wake us, Remus. I don't care if we looked content with sleeping. At least we don't have McGonagall first thing today. That would be horrible."
Remus watched his friends get dressed, disinterested. "Can't we skip? I really don't feel like going back to classes."
"No." James snapped. "Normally, I would be all for it, especially if we were going to pull a prank. But Rem, this is your depression talking. Going to class we help you with your depression, because you'll be going back to doing something you enjoy. Now let's go!"
James pulled Remus out of the dorm behind Sirius and Peter.
"You four are late." Rana growled. Her hands were planted on her hips and she was glaring at the four boys. "Care to explain why you were late? Planning another prank?"
James frowned and looked at Remus out of the corner of his eye. He looked fine and didn't seem to care that there was a yelling teacher in front of him. He seemed far more fascinated by the wall. "Well, no prank this time. Remus decided that we, as in Sirius, Peter, and me, looked happy with sleeping, so he didn't wake us up. So, we just overslept, ma'am."
Rana frowned and looked at Remus to. "Is he okay? He doesn't look normal."
"He's still depressed." James explained.
"Would explain why he allowed you guys to be late." Rana grumbled. "I let you out of trouble this time. Just don't let it happen anymore. And please help Mr. Lupin feel better. Now, take your seats."
The boys complied and moved to their seats.
"Okay, as I was saying before we were interrupted. We are going to start learning jinxes. Jinxes are spells with negative effects. Most of the time, jinxes are used for amusement, but they can be helpful when you are trying to escape from a bad situation. They cause the victim minor discomfort." Rana explained to the class.
Some of the students were taking notes, while others were just listening. Remus just sat staring at the wall, not really caring about the class.
"Can anyone tell me about some jinxes that you know of?" Rana asked, looking at the class expectantly.
Lily's hand shot up into the air.
"Ms. Evans."
Lily smiled at being called on. "There is the jelly-legs jinx, tarantallegra, and the knockback jinx."
Rana nodded her head, smiling. "Yes, those are all jinxes. Can anyone, besides Ms. Evans, tell me what the jelly-legs jinx does?"
No one raised their hands.
"Come on. Surely, someone knows what it does." Rana said, looking around the classroom. Her eyes stopped on Remus, who still wasn't paying attention. "Mr. Lupin, would you care to tell us what the jelly-legs jinx does?"
Remus moved his eyes towards his professor. "Not really, professor."
James frowned and smacked Remus in the head. "Answer the question." He hissed quietly.
"Why?" Remus whispered.
"You like answering questions correctly. Just do it." James replied, bitterly. His old friend was missing in the sea of depression. He wanted to save him.
Remus sighed and turned back to the teacher. "The jelly-leg jinx is…..uh….."
Sirius raised a brow. "Remy, you know the answer. You've done the jinx before. Are you okay?"
Remus turned to look at Sirius nervously. "I don't know the answer."
The class was dead quiet, watching the four best friends. Remus always had the answer. He was one of the best in their year.
"Then I'll ask some…." Rana started.
Sirius snapped his eyes to his professor. "I'm not trying to be rude, ma'am. But he knows the answer. His depression is fogging his brain. He'll answer."
"I don't know the answer." Remus snapped.
"Yes, you do." James growled. "You've practiced the jinx on me. What does it do?"
Remus glared at James. "I don….."
James poked Remus hard in the chest. "Don't say it. Say the answer."
Remus clenched and unclenched his fists. He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. As soon as his eyes closed, Remus saw his father.
"Hi Remus." Auva greeted.
"What are you doing, dad?" Nine year old Remus asked, curiously. His father was hiding under the stairs with his wand out, as if waiting for something.
Auva pulled Remus under the stairs. "I'm going to show you a jinx."
Remus smiled. He loved it when his dad showed him magic.
They only waited for a few minutes before Lena was walking down the stairs. When she was at the bottom of them, Auva threw a spell at her. Her legs immediately wobbled and she fell over.
"What was that?" Remus asked.
"The jelly-legs jinx. Causing the victim's leg to become really weak and to fall over." Auva explained.
"AUVA!" Lena yelled angrily, as she stood up.
Auva smiled. "Time to run." He ran out of the house with his wife chasing after him.
Remus laughed.
"It's causes the victims legs to become really weak and they fall over." Remus explained, smiling as he remembered the jinx. "The tarantallegra jinx forces another person's legs to dance uncontrollably. The knockback jinx knocks the victim back, blasts jars and creatures, and activates magically charmed switches."
Rana smiled. "Correct on all three. These jinxes are all simple. We will be practicing them next lesson. For now, I want you all to start reading up on them and do a three foot essay on jinxes with examples of different jinxes, what the jinxes do, their incantations, and the wand movement for the jinxes. Due next lesson."
The class groaned.
"Stop your complaining and get to work. You got thirty minutes left." Rana replied, happily.
"What's she so happy about?" James grumbled.
"She loves torturing kids with homework." Sirius mumbled. "Sadist."
James laughed. "Probably true."
Remus closed his eyes and rested his chin on his hand.
"Remus?" James questioned, slowly.
"Uncle Auva died to save you because he loved you and wants you to continue living. If you're going to stay in your room and wallow in self-pity and quit Hogwarts, then his sacrifice was pointless. Do you want his sacrifice to be in vain? If so, stay here. If not, go back to Hogwarts. Go back to your friends."Jason said.
Jason, who was like an older brother to him, cared. He wanted Remus to be happy.
"I know that and I don't think he would be happy with you right now." Angel replied. "He would be upset to see his son starving himself and wallowing in self-pity the way you are. It's almost like he wasted his life by saving you, since you're slowly killing yourself like this. You need to eat and rest properly."
Angel, who didn't have to, came to him on the train. She spoke to him like he was family. She cared for him and wants to help him.
Lily hugged Remus after that. "I'm here for you."
Lily, a friend to him. She didn't have to help him. She hated his friends, but she always talked with and helped him with homework after the full moon.
Sirius clenched his fists. "No. One. Cares? Why the hell would you say something like that? We care, you bloody prat! Everyone who spoke to you about this cares! How can you say that we don't care? We're your friends! Do you know what that means?"
Sirius made it perfectly clear that he cared for him.
"Friends are like family. They are always there for each other. They never leave one of their friends alone. If their friend is hurt or severely depressed, friends will be there to help him or her. No matter what happens between friends, no matter all our faults, no matter our problems, no matter how many fights we have, no matter the hardships we face, we will always be there for one another." Sirius explained.
James hugged Remus. "Friends are people who care for each other. They love each other like they were a family. We're brothers, Remus. We will always be here for you. Nothing is going to break us apart. We're brothers and we're here for you. We want to help you through this. Let people help you, Remy. Wallowing in self-pity isn't the way to deal with your father's death."
James, Sirius, and Peter said that all four of them were brothers. They wanted to help him.
"Remus, are you okay?" James asked, quietly.
Auva looked down at his son, who was sitting quietly in the living room. "Son, tomorrow's September first. Are you all packed?"
"Yep." Remus replied, nervously.
"There's nothing to be nervous about. You'll do fine." Auva said, reassuring.
Remus smiled slightly. "Thanks Dad."
Auva sat next to his son on the couch. "Maybe while you're at school, you can revert back to your troublemaker self that you buried years ago."
"I don't know about that." Remus said.
"Come on. Troublemaker Remus is a lot of fun. And besides, breaking a few rules every now and then never hurt anyone." Auva replied.
Remus snorted. "Except the people you prank."
"Well yeah, but they'll get over it." Auva responded.
Remus smiled a little at the memory.
"Remus?" Sirius asked. He turned to James. "He's smiling and it looks like a real smile."
James nodded his head, eyes wide.
"Have a good Christmas, son?"Auva asked that night after dinner.
"Yeah. It was great, Dad." Remus responded, smiling happily at his father.
Auva laughed and ruffled his son's hair. "That's good. So, I hear that you've become somewhat of a troublemaker at school."
Remus grinned. "My friends are prankster and they are slowly reverting me back into one."
"Wonderful. That school needs some chaos." Auva replied. "It's always good to have some fun chaos going on."
The young wizard nodded his head.
"Remus, will you promise me something?" Auva asked, suddenly turning serious.
"What?" Remus inquired, slightly worried at the sudden change of mood.
Auva grabbed his son's shoulders and looked him in the eye. "Promise me that no matter what, you won't change who you are. You will stay the same. You won't let anything change who you are. You'll stay this fun, happy boy."
Remus stared at his father, scared. "You're scaring me, dad."
"Remus John Lupin, promise me." Auva demanded.
"I'm promise to never change, Dad." Remus said, gulping in fear. "What is this about?"
"Thanks son. I needed that." Auva replied, hugging his son.
"Dad, what is this about?" Remus demanded.
Auva ruffled his son. "It's nothing. I just needed the reassurance that my son would never change. I love you, son."
"I love you to, Dad." Remus replied, baffled.
"So, these pranks I've been hearing about. Your teachers are being driven crazy." Auva said.
Remus blushed. "Well, you know."
"Keep doing the pranks. The teachers need to loosen up some." Auva replied. He looked around the living room to make sure the coast was clear. When he was sure it was, he pulled his wand out and whispered a spell. A gift appeared under the tree. "I had to make it invisible so you mother wouldn't find it. Don't let her find this gift."
Remus smiled and opened the gift. It was prank supplies. "I understand why I can't show it to mom. She would freak out if she knew you were giving me this."
"Exactly. Don't let her find out." Auva replied, winking at his son.
Remus eyes snapped open. "Never change." He whispered.
"What?" Sirius asked.
Remus didn't reply. He just stared at his Defense book for the rest of the class.
No matter how hard James, Sirius, and Peter tried, they couldn't get Remus to talk to them. When the class was over, Remus ran out of the classroom before James, Sirius, and Peter could say a word to him.
"What the hell was that about?" Sirius grumbled.
Remus didn't show up for the rest of his classes that day. He didn't come to lunch either.
"Where is Remus?" James said anxiously that night at dinner.
Sirius looked around the hall. "I don't know. Maybe, he decided that he wanted to be alone. He did skip the rest of our classes."
Just as Sirius said this, Remus came running into the Great Hall, grinning. He slid into the seat next to Sirius. "Hi guys."
"What are you so happy about?" James asked. He found it weird that his friend, who was moping around and being all depressed, was smiling like no tomorrow. He was really happy to see Remus smiling for real this time since the smile reached his eyes, but it was still strange.
Remus's smile faltered for a minute and pain flashed in his eyes. It was only a minute before he smiled again. "You'll see. It took me the whole day to get set up."
James shrugged and went back to eating. Sirius and Peter did the same thing to. Remus grinned and started eating. While eating, he kept glancing over at the Slytherin table.
Sirius noticed this and smirked. "What did you do?"
Remus shook his head. "You have to wait to find out."
Remus took a small vial out of a pocket of his robe and drank it.
"What was that?" James asked.
"Just something I need." Remus answered, smirking.
James blinked and turned to Sirius and Peter. "This can't be good for anyone."
Students started to get up to leave the Great Hall since they were finished with dinner. As soon as they stood up, the students changed color and screamed in shock as they felt a small electric shock. Each time they took a step to leave, their skin changed to another color and they felt another small electric shock. Every ten steps the students took, a polka dot was added to their skin.
"Remus, please tell me that you didn't do that to everyone." James said, looking at all the students who were standing up, with their friends jumping to their feet to help their friends, only to join in on their friends' misfortune.
The young werewolf smirked. "Why would I leave anyone out of this fun?"
James's eyes widened and he jumped out of his seat. He instantly changed color and felt the small electric shock. Sirius and Peter stood up to and felt it. They looked at each. James is pink, Sirius is light purple, and Peter is red. As one, the three boys turned to glower at Remus, who was smiling innocently.
"That thing you drank. It was the antidote to this, wasn't it?" Sirius snarled. His eyes flashing dangerously.
"Of course. I would never fall for my own prank." Remus said, happily. He looked up at the Head Table to see the teachers standing up to see what was going on. "Look at the professors."
James looked at the teachers to see they were all different colors too. "You put this prank on the teachers to. Do you have a death wish?"
Remus frowned.
Sirius groaned and hit James in the back of the head. James was all pale and looking frantic. "Remus, I….."
Remus took a deep breath and exhaled. He smiled. "Relax James."
James and Sirius looked at each other and shrugged.
Professor McGonagall stalked down from the Head Table and looked all the students. "Who did this?" Her eyes ran over each student before landing on Remus, who was the only one still sitting and a normal color. "Mr. Lupin, would you like to say something?"
Remus grinned. "I've got nothing to say, Minnie."
"Mr. Lupin, what have I told you about that name?" Professor McGonagall asked, trying to stay calm.
"Something." Remus replied, eyes narrowed in thought.
Professor McGonagall frowned and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Mr. Lupin, are you trying to test my nerves?"
Remus tilted his head and thought. "I never thought about that."
Breathing out, McGonagall pointed to the Great Hall doors. "My office, Mr. Lupin. Students, the professors will fix this."
Remus looked like he was about to say something, but McGonagall glared at him so he shut his mouth. Sighing, Remus stood up and left the Great Hall, receiving many glares on his way out. He smiled and waved innocently at them before followed McGonagall to her office.
"So, Mr. Lupin, care to explain why you did this?" McGonagall asked.
"On Christmas, before the attack, my father asked me to promise him to never let anything to change me. He asked me to continue my pranks. He always liked them." Remus explained, staring at the ground sadly, tears filling up in his eyes.
McGonagall's frown softened and she sat down. She conjured up a chair for Remus. "Take a seat, Mr. Lupin."
Remus sat down, but kept staring at the ground as tears slid down his face.
"I remember your father. He was in his fifth year when I started working here. The instant I met him, I knew he was a troublemaker. Do you know how I figured that out?" McGonagall looked sadly at her student. "He pranked me. I started working here in December of 1956. He was in my first class I taught. The students were told ahead of time that I was coming. They had no idea of they were getting into when I became their teacher. They thought I would take their pranks easily like Albus."
Remus smiled slightly. "I guess you didn't have an impact on him. He always played pranks at home on my mom, cousins, uncle, and me."
"He's probably the one who taught you all about pranks." McGonagall said.
Remus nodded his head. "Yeah, but what he taught me didn't last long since I got bit. A few years after I was bitten, I started to stop doing pranks. I stopped them altogether because of my lycanthropy."
"Since you met Messrs. Black, Potter, and Pettigrew, you've been doing pranks every month." McGonagall replied.
"They got me back into them. I always thought I didn't deserve friends or to have fun because of my lycanthropy. But meeting them, makes me think otherwise, right now anyway. If they ever find out about my lycanthropy, they'll abandon me like everyone else." Remus said.
McGonagall frowned. "I see there are more problems here then just your father. You are afraid of being abandoned. You had your father always there for you to run to after you got betrayed by friends or people when they found out about your lycanthropy, right?"
Remus nodded his head. "He was always there. He always made me feel better after I got betrayed. No one else could do that. I don't know what I'll do if anyone finds about it. I'm so lost without my father. Whenever someone hurt me after they found out about my lycanthropy, he would get so mad and hex the person who did it, if it was a muggle, he would fight them the muggle way."
"What do you mean by hurt you?" McGonagall asked, bitterly at the thought of what it meant.
Remus's clenched his fists. "When people found out, they would hit me or fire a hex at me. They would be so scared of me. Some of them would come to our house and try to convince my parents to put me "out of my misery" as they say it."
McGonagall looked furious at this point. "How dare they suggest such a thing? And hitting a child because of something he can't help. It's not your fault that you have lycanthropy. I can't believe some people. I especially can't believe wizards behave like that. They can be so blinded when it comes to things people can't help."
The young werewolf bit his lip and wiped his face of the tears. He looked up at McGonagall. "Can I ask you something, Professor?"
"Go ahead, Mr. Lupin." McGonagall answered.
"If it wasn't for Professor Dumbledore accepting me into the school and explaining to the teachers about me not being dangerous and setting up the routine for me on the full moon, would you be as kind to me as you are now? I have a feeling that some of the teachers hate me because of it. They only put up with it because they can't contradict Professor Dumbledore about this." Remus accused.
Professor McGonagall looked aghast at Remus. "Mr. Lu-Remus, I can assure you that not everyone turns their backs on werewolves. They only become a werewolf twelve days a year. People fear werewolves on those days, but think they act like werewolves every day, so that's where all these prejudices come from. Still, not everyone thinks like that. What I see when I look at you is not a werewolf. I see a kid, who has had bad luck in life, but still a kid. I'm sure you'll find people in life, like Albus and me, who don't shun people with lycanthropy. Albus was a teacher of mine when I attended Hogwarts as a student. I picked up some of his beliefs. One of those beliefs is that werewolves are still people. If I met you before Hogwarts and knew about lycanthropy, I would have treated you like a kid, not a werewolf. But I probably would have given you pity. Not many kids have to deal with this. It's rare for a kid to be a werewolf."
"I don't want pity." Remus replied.
"Of course." McGonagall said.
The office door opened and Shawn came in, looking annoyed. He was covered in colorful boils that looked painful and was blue with polka dots everywhere. "Professor, no one can get this to end and when they try a spell to change us back to normal, we get boils."
"I tried to warn you guys not to try any spells or potions." Remus grumbled.
"Mr. Lupin, a week of detention for this. Now, I want you to fix this." McGonagall said.
Remus smiled. "It's going to take time to fix it. There's a certain potion to fix this, but I don't have it. I have to brew some. I made some earlier for myself, but not enough to fix everyone."
"How long will it take?" McGonagall asked, stiffly.
"I don't know. If I had help from someone, a few days." Remus replied, thoughtfully.
"Have Messrs. Black, Potter, and Pettigrew help you." McGonagall said.
Remus stood up. "Yes ma'am. Where would I find them, Shawn?"
"Great Hall." Shawn snarled, storming out of the office.
Remus smiled and followed him to the Great Hall. He was met with angry glares, which he smiled at. "James, Sirius, Peter, Minnie has ordered you three to help me make the antidote for this."
"Mr. Lupin, show respect to the professors." Professor Dumbledore reprimanded.
"Righty-o sir." Remus said, cheerfully. "James, Sirius, Peter to our dorm!"
The three friends mentioned groaned. "How can he be so happy?" Sirius grumbled.
"I swear we get revenge against him." James growled.
Remus smiled at them when they reached their dorm. He pull three vials out of his cloak and gave them to his friends. "That's the antidote for this potion."
The three boys drank the antidote. Their bodies changed back to their normal color and the polka dots and boils disappeared.
"That's all I had of the antidote." Remus said. "We need to make more."
"What was it that you used anyway?" James asked.
"It's something my dad gave me for Christmas." Remus replied quietly. "He gave me a whole bunch of prank supplies. What I used was pill that dissolved in the drinks. You saw the effects of it in the Great Hall. And if you try to use spells or the wrong potion to fix it, you get painful, colorful boils."
"So, you want us each to make the antidote, then put it in the drinks for breakfast tomorrow?" Sirius asked.
Remus nodded his head. "We probably need three cauldrons of it for everyone."
Sirius sighed. "Wonderful. Do we have the ingredients for the antidote?"
"We should." Remus replied.
"How many detentions did you get for this?" James asked, as he pulled his cauldron and ingredients out.
"A week." Remus answered.
The next morning all the students and teachers turned back to normal after drinking their morning drink.
"Hey Remus, if you're feeling better," James started uneasily, glancing at Sirius warily.
"We were wondering if you wanted-" Sirius added, wringing his hands together under the table. He looked distressed and kept looking away from Remus.
"To do a welcome back to school prank," James finished, pushing the food around on his plate with his fork, while he was looking Remus in the eyes a little afraid of his reaction.
Sirius frowned when Remus didn't reply. He just kept staring at them. "We know it's a little late, but we wanted to hold off on the prank because of what happened during the break. But you seem to be better, but then again I wouldn't know. I don't know what's going on in your head. How could I know? I'm not you, so I couldn't possible know…."
James hit Sirius in the back of the head. "You're rambling." He turned to look at seriously with his eyes shining with sadness and pain. "We know that you are having trouble adjusting with what happened to your father, but from the prank you pulled yesterday, we just want to know if you want to help The Marauders with the return prank."
Remus nodded his head absent mindlessly.
Auva smiled down at his son. His eyes were shining with pain, sadness, and love. "Love you. Never change, son." He mouthed, before his eyes emptied of all emotion and he collapsed dead on top of his son.
"Never change." Remus whispered to himself, looking at Sirius and James. "Sure, why not? Got an idea?"
"Of course we do. Who do you think we are?" Sirius replied, grinning madly.
A/N: Please review!