Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
The Marauders Year 1
Chapter 16: Arguments
James and Sirius sat at the bottom of the steps in the Entrance Hall. Peter stood next to them and Remus stood a few feet away from the stairs, leaning against the wall, not looking at his ex-friends. The three boys who fought were covered in dirt and had tears in their robes. The robes had specks of blood on them.
James touched his lips. When he took his hand away, he saw blood on his hand. "Are my lips cut?"
Sirius stopped touching his eye where he felt a black eye. He looked at James's face. "Yeah, and you have bloody nose. That's why there's so much blood."
"Sirius, what you said about Remus's dad was a low blow." James said.
Sirius sighed. "I know, but you can't say he and you didn't say anything better."
McGonagall saw the last of the students leave the Great Hall and head to class. They heard the fight and yelling in the Great Hall, but didn't want to go see what was happening.
Lily came out of the hall and glared at the boys on the stairs. She walked over to Remus. "Are you okay? What happened?"
"I don't want to talk about it, Lily." Remus replied, looking away from her. Tears were filling up in his eyes. "You better get to class before you're late."
Lily nodded her head and left.
When all the students were gone, McGonagall looked back at the boys.
The boys stood up and joined Remus, standing against the wall.
"What were you three doing? Putting a show on for your peers?" McGonagall growled.
"We were fighting, ma'am." Sirius replied honestly, no sarcasm anywhere in his voice.
Remus glared at Sirius.
McGonagall looked shocked at the blunt statement. She covered her shock up immediately. "So, what were you fighting about?"
"I…..we'd rather not discuss it again." Sirius replied, glaring at Remus. "I was the one to throw the first punch, punish me."
Remus opened his mouth to object, but James stomped his foot onto Remus's foot, making the smaller boy say "Ow" and hop on one foot while nursing his other foot.
"Potter!" McGonagall barked. Her glare hardened. "I've never been more disappointed in my house. Best friends fighting like muggles in front of all their peers. Have you no shame? If you are having a fight, then you should talk it out, not beat each other into a bloody pulp. Worse yet, it was two against one. That's not even a fair fight. Black, Potter, you will each serve a week of detention and lose thirty points each. Lupin, you will serve three days of detention and lose fifteen points for continuing the fight instead of walking away."
The boys nodded their head, not caring at all about the loss points or detentions.
Peter noticed the Gryffindor hourglass lose more points. At the rate they were going, Gryffindor would be in the negatives soon.
"I want all three of you in the Hospital Wing now, then I want you to get your class." McGonagall pointed up the stairs.
All three of them silently climbed the stairs. Peter went to follow them when McGonagall called him back.
James and Sirius stopped to see why she called their friend back. Remus glanced at Peter, but didn't stop. They weren't friends anymore.
Sirius glared at Remus's retreating back.
"Go ahead boys. I just need to ask Mr. Pettigrew something." McGonagall never took her eyes off Remus's back. She was frowning deeply. He normally would have waited for his friend.
James smiled reassuring at Peter and pulled Sirius along to the Hospital Wing.
Madam Pomfrey looked away from her cabinet of potions and at the two boys when she heard the door open. "Sit down. Mr. Lupin informed me that you were coming."
James and Sirius sat next to each other on one of the beds and glared at Remus, who was on the opposite side of the room on bed across from them. "A real friend wouldn't walk away when someone calls for one of their friends." Sirius's voice was laced with spite.
Remus frowned and looked away from them. "I've already said this. Your friendship meant nothing to me. I've always hated you guys. You know the truth now, so stop bothering me with this trivial stuff about being friends."
"Trivial stuff?" Sirius growled, jumping off his bed. He stalked over to Remus and pulled him up to his face. "Do you know anything about friends? Do you know how great it is to have friends? Friends you can trust completely? Friends that are like brothers to you? We called you our brother. We thought we were true friends. We had so much fun together. How can you say that we were never friends? Was everything these past few months a lie? Everything you told us and did with us, was it all a lie?"
Remus stared into Sirius's eyes, not flinching once. He saw the desperation in his eyes and sadness. Sirius wanted more than anything for the answer to be no. Remus knew Sirius thought of him as a true friend.
Right now, Remus couldn't deal with this. He wanted to stay friends with them more than anything, but he was still angry and couldn't think straight. The full moon was tomorrow night and he was tired and irritable from the lack of sleep.
"Yes." He said calmly, lying though his teeth, never once taking his eyes off of Sirius.
Sirius dropped Remus back onto his bed and walked away, extremely upset. He sat back on the bed with James as Madam Pomfrey came back over with three goblets.
"Drink the potion and wait five minutes before leaving." Madam Pomfrey replied.
Remus chugged his potion and turned around so he didn't have to look at James and Sirius.
Sirius stared at Remus's back, upset. "James, promise me something."
James looked away from Remus to look at Sirius. His eyes held great pain at learning that someone he considered one of his best friends was never a friend of his. "Promise me that I'll never lose your friendship. I don't like losing friends. It hurts." Sirius whispered.
Remus bit his lip. His werewolf hearing was allowing him to hear their conversation. He wished he could turn it off. He didn't like eavesdropping.
"That might be the black eye Lupin gave you." James joked before turning completely serious. "I'll never turn my back on my friends like Lupin."
Remus winced. He didn't like hearing them call him Lupin or saying things like that.
"For someone who is so small and looks so weak, he can throw a strong punch." James said as he looked in a nearby mirror to see his cut lip was healing.
"Or he just got lucky." Sirius snorted. "I mean you guys did tumble down the stairs."
"Yeah, maybe," James replied.
Remus jumped off the bed and stomped out of the Hospital Wing. He hated his werewolf hearing. He could hear everything with it.
James watched Remus stalk out of the Hospital Wing. "Do you think he was telling the truth?"
"About what?" Sirius asked.
"Hating us and never actually being our friend." James replied.
"Honestly, I have no idea. I really hope he is lying though." Sirius said, staring at Hospital Wing doors.
James stood up. "Come on. We have to get to class."
Things turned horrible by the time it was dinner time. Sirius and James were mad all day since they left the Hospital Wing. They looked furious and were glaring at everyone. They couldn't concentrate in their last class because they were so mad.
Remus was more upset over the fight then mad, but wouldn't show that he was upset. He would show them no weakness and he definitely wasn't going to go crawling back to them to beg for forgiven and become friends again. So instead, he showed anger. The problem was that he wasn't sure who he was angry at.
Remus was mad at himself for fighting and ending the friendship he had with James, Sirius, and Peter. They were the first friends he had since he got bit by the werewolf. After he was bitten, the friends he had abandoned him and he was forced to move. Now at Hogwarts he had friends, but he just threw that friendship away.
But Remus was also mad at James and Sirius. They were always hexing people. And Peter always stood back and watched them do it, cheering them on. And then Sirius had to go mention his father in the argument. That made it all the more worse.
The young werewolf looked up from eating dinner alone to see Snape dangling in the air wearing nothing but boxers.
James and Sirius high fived each other under the table a little bit down the table from where Remus sat. It was usually where all four of them sat together during meals. They had claimed the spot as theirs.
Remus's hand twitched. He couldn't believe after everything he said, they were still hexing people. Seeing this was all it took for Remus to realize that he did hate his ex-friends. Why couldn't they just leave people alone?
Sirius waved his wand under the table again. Little pink hearts started to cover Snape's body.
Before Remus could even think, his hand plunged into his pocket. He pulled his wand out and discreetly fired two spells at James and Sirius. The hexes hurt them and they got covered in painful green and silver boils.
Remus put his wand away and went back to eating, while James and Sirius jumped to their feet screaming. Remus looked up from his meal and smirked.
"LUPIN!" Sirius stomped over to him after he saw the smirk. He pulled his wand out and had it pointed at Remus's face.
Remus pulled his wand back out and jumped to his feet as well.
The boys glared at each other. Neither of them wanting to lose t
"BLACK! LUPIN! WANDS AWAY NOW!" McGonagall yelled, stalking over to them.
Neither of them listened to her.
James and Peter grabbed Sirius and pulled him away from Remus. "It's not worth it." James whispered to him.
Sirius didn't take his eyes off Remus, but he did put his wand away. Remus lowered his wand and stalked out of the hall.
Sirius and James left after him to go make the potion that would cure the boils they had. Peter grabbed a chicken wing off his plate and followed them.
While his friends made the potion, Remus went to the library to work on his homework. He felt horrible. His Minor Infirmus potion wasn't helping anymore this month. He was too upset and mad over losing his friends. The sadness engulfed his heart. The wolf noticed this and was taking over his mind and was making him think irrationally. He needed something to distract him from his ex-friends, and his homework did that.
That night, the Gryffindor tower was in chaos. Remus and Sirius were standing nose to nose, screaming in each other's faces in the middle of the common room. Peter and James had to hold them back so they wouldn't kill each other.
"Should we do something?" Bilius asked concerned. The two boys looked ready to hex each other. He had a feeling that they would have by now if it wasn't for James and Peter holding them back.
"What can we do?" Angel replied worried. "We can't fix this. The only ones to fix this problem are them. And that is never going to happen after the argument yesterday."
"LET ME GO, JAMES! I'M GOING TO KNOCK THAT SMIRK RIGHT OFF HIS FACE!" Sirius screamed, trying to pull his arms free.
"He's…..not…even…smirking." James said with some difficulty as he was trying very hard to keep Sirius back.
"HE WAS AT DINNER! THAT PRAT HEXED US!" Sirius yelled.
"YOU DESERVED IT!" Remus shouted back, while he tried to pull himself free as well.
"WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THAT?" Sirius screeched.
"HEXING SNAPE! HEXING ANYONE WHO ANNOYS YOU! PRANKS ARE ONE THING, BUT HEXING IS ANOTHER THING!" Remus yelled angrily.
Sirius stopped struggling and looked at Remus shocked. "You don't know?"
Remus glared at him. "I'm not playing stupid games with you, Black."
Remus pulled his arms free and after one last glare at Sirius, he stalked up the stairs to his dorm.
"He doesn't know?" Sirius said quietly so only James and Peter could hear him. "How could he not know?"
"Not know what?" Peter asked.
James sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "When we left the Hospital Wing earlier, we ran into Snivellus. He was saying some pretty horrible stuff about us. Yelling at us about hexing him earlier in the Great Hall. Then he started insulting Remus and saying that he was a weak, pathetic prat who doesn't belong in Gryffindor. He also said that he was a stupid follower who we never considered a friend that we just used him for his brains to pull off our pranks. He called him a half-blood blood traitor too."
Peter growled. "Why did he do that? Remus never did anything to him, except a few pranks."
"Because he's a slimy git," Sirius hissed.
"We should have told him." James said.
"I thought you guys were mad at him." Peter replied.
James shrugged. "We were really upset and mad about what he said at lunch. That is why we fought with him. But we were mostly upset that he said we were never his friends and that he called me a liar."
"And we were mad about what he told us in the Hospital Wing. He said we were never friends and that he hated all of us." Sirius said and sighed.
"We need to talk to him." Peter replied, looking at the steps that led to the boy dorms.
"We'll talk to him tomorrow. We should leave him alone tonight and let him think things over." James said.
The next day, Remus was the first to wake up. He slept on the couch that was still in the room, since his bed was still pushed together with the other beds. After taking his Minor Infirmus potion and getting dressed, Remus grabbed his bag and left the dorm without giving his roommates one glance.
All day, Remus avoided his friends. He was still mad at them for hexing Snape for no reason the day before and upset over their fight.
"He's avoiding us." Sirius said that night at dinner. "Why?"
"He must still be mad." James replied sadly.
Peter looked around the Great Hall. "I can't see him anyway. I wonder where he is."
"We'll just talk to him tonight in our room." Sirius said.
Peter frowned. "I still don't understand why though. You said that he said that we were never friends. Why would you want to try to get something back with him if it was never there to begin with?"
Sirius frowned and looked at James, who was also frowning and staring at his plate.
"Pete, yesterday when we were fighting, we all said things we didn't mean. I called him a horrible friend. Sirius said his father hated him. And I think….that everything Remus said about hating us and never being our friends was a lie." James said quietly. "We were are mad and not thinking straight. We need to talk with him. I think he was our friend but said he wasn't out of anger. We have to fix this. We have to get his friendship back."
"I really hope he was just saying that stuff because he was mad." Peter replied.
"Same here. The Marauders aren't the same without him." Sirius said sadly.
The Marauders sat in their dorm that night waiting for Remus to come back. They stayed up until midnight when they finally went to bed. All of them were worried about Remus. None of them saw him since their last class for that day.
"Where is he?" Sirius said quietly.
No one answered. No one had the answer.
The wolf was running around the shack, extremely upset and alone. It had no one anymore. His father: dead. His friends: abandoned. He was completely alone now. No one could help him. There was to keep his mind somewhat peaceful as he attacked himself and the shack. The wolf felt so alone. It was going insane with the thought of being alone. Its attacks on itself were getting more violent.
The wolf howled in pain as it scratched itself. The wolf jumped over the stair railings. It slammed into the ground. The cracking sound of a bone breaking echoed around the empty house. The wolf howled in pain and struggled to get back up. When he was up, he ran back up the stairs, scratching and biting at himself as he ran up them.
When morning came, the wolf howled in great pain from its wounds and from transforming back into a human. The wolf fell unconscious as it was transforming back and fell onto the bed.
Remus awoke to hear a fanatic Madam Pomfrey bustling around him. He groaned. He felt horrible. "Madam?"
"Thank Merlin, you're awake, Remus. You've been unconscious for two days." Madam Pomfrey sighed in relief. "This month was really horrible. You almost died this month."
Remus's eyes widened.
"Why was it so bad this month? What happened that made you so distressed that made the full moon hard this month?" Madam Pomfrey asked concerned. "Was it the argument with your friends?"
Remus snorted. "We're not friends. Our friendship ended."
"That would do it." Madam Pomfrey tsked. "Losing the friendship must have upset you extremely and made the wolf angry and upset."
"And lonely," Remus muttered. "It didn't like the thought of having no friends again."
Madam Pomfrey frowned at that. She gave Remus his potions before hearing the Hospital Wing doors slam open at in the main part of the wing. Remus smiled at her and said thanks as she went to attend to her new patient.
Remus climbed out of the bed when she was gone. He padded quietly to the door and opened it a crack. He peered outside his private room to see Madam Pomfrey healing one of the fourth years on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team.
Two beds down from them was a second year Ravenclaw with oversized teeth that needed shrunk. On the other side of the room a first year girl was sleeping.
Madam Pomfrey finished healing the fourth year. Remus closed the door just as Madam Pomfrey turned around. Remus climbed back into bed with some difficulty from his wounds. He waited twenty minutes before getting back up again. He grabbed some extra muggle clothe that he had in the room. Students wore muggle clothes on the weekend.
After he was finished getting dressed, Remus peered outside the room again. The fourth and second year students were gone. The first year girl was still sleeping. Madam Pomfrey wasn't around so Remus assumed she was in her office.
Taking a deep breath, Remus slid out of the private room and walked quietly to the Hospital Wing doors. He didn't want to spend his weekend in the Hospital Wing. He had more important things to do like his homework he missed yesterday and sulking somewhere about being alone again. He couldn't believe all the stuff he said to his ex-friends.
Remus walked into the Gryffindor common room to a strange sight. Everything was turned over. His peers were lying on the ground, tangled in each other's limbs. Some of the kids were trapped under the flipped over furniture.
Remus blinked. "Uh…What's going on?"
"Hi Remus," A cheerful Bilius greeted him. He was trapped under a pile of students, but still looked really happy.
"What happened? It looks like a tornado went through here." Remus said.
Bilius chuckled. "Your fri….roommates were bored so they decided to run around the common room. They kept running into everything and everyone."
Remus had to fight hard to keep himself from smiling.
Bilius raised a brow when he saw Remus's mouth twitching, as if he wanted to smile. "Remus, is what you said the other day true?"
"I don't know. What did I say?" Remus asked.
Bilius didn't reply right away. He was busy getting out of the pile of students. When he was free, Bilius patted the dust off himself. He looked down at Remus and frowned. "The argument you, James, and Sirius had. You said you hated them and was never their friend. Is that true?"
"Why would I say something I don't mean?" Remus retorted. He wasn't looking at Bilius though. He kept looking around the messy common room to avoid eye contact.
"Because you were mad," Bilius answered simply. "People say things all the time that they don't mean when they are mad."
Remus frowned.
"Think about what you said," Bilius said.
Remus shrugged and walked up to his dorm without another word. The dorm looked like it did the day he left.
Remus hopped into the shower to clean the dry blood off his body from his wounds. His wounds stung when the hot water hit them. He tilted his head back and let the water rain down his face and body. He closed his eyes and thought back to the day he fought with James and Sirius. A lot of hurtful things were said in that fight by all three of them. Remus felt ever guiltier by bringing Peter into it when he was just watching them argue. Peter didn't do anything to be targeted by him in that fight.
Remus sighed and looked at his arms and torso. He was littered with bite and scratch marks. It would be a few days before they healed, maybe longer since he wasn't in the Hospital Wing getting potions that would help the healing process.
When Remus got out of his shower and got dressed, he went into the bedroom to see his roommates were back. Sirius and Peter were lounging on the couch and chair that they stole from the common room. James was lying on his stomach on his bed, looking at a brown leather book and biting the end of his quill.
James looked up when the bathroom door open. He closed his book and stood up, smiling weakly at Remus. "Remus, can we talk?"
Remus looked from James to Peter to Sirius, then back to James. Remus bit his lip.
"Please Remy, we want to fix this." Sirius pleaded.
Remus shoved his hands in his pockets and looked out the window. "Fix what?"
"Our friendship," James replied.
Remus wanted to talk to his friends, but he had questions that he needed to answer himself. Can he forgive his friends? Does he want their friendship back? Was he ever mad at them to begin with? How can they fix their friendship? And most importantly, can he forgive himself for yelling at his friends and hitting them?
The young werewolf was snapped out of his thoughts when he felt himself being pulled onto the couch. Sirius and James sat on either side of him and Peter sat on the chair.
"We need to fix everything." James started. He looked at Sirius and Peter. "Remus, we're sorry. We all said horrible things in that fight. We said things we didn't mean. You are a real friend. I'm sorry about calling you a heartless git and saying that you lie about where you go every month. You are our friend. We should trust you."
Remus wanted to slam his head into a wall. Everything they said about him lying was true. He was wanted to come out and say it. He hated lying to them.
"I'm sorry for saying everything I did about your father." Sirius said. "I was way out of line when I said that. I know I hurt you a lot by saying that. I'm sorry, Remy."
Remus sighed. "James, I'm sorry about calling you a lying and not trust you. Sirius, Peter, I'm sorry for everything I said about you guys too. I wasn't thinking straight these last couple days. I've been really sick these past few days and haven't been thinking straight. I didn't mean anything I said. When I said I hated you and we weren't ever friends…."
"Remy, please tell me that wasn't true. I don't want to lose you as a friend." James said. He looked at Sirius and Peter, then back at Remus. "None of us do. You're one of our best friends. We don't want to lose that friendship. We always thought we were friends. Please tell us you were lying when you said that we were never friends."
Remus was biting his lip as he thought. "I have to know why you hexed Snape the other day after our fight. When I saw that, I really hated you guys. I told you in our fight that I hated when you guys did that. Then after the fight, you go and hex him again. It really angered me to see that and to see that you guys were so happy about it."
"We figured that out when you hexed us in defense of Snape." Sirius said bitterly.
"It wasn't in his defense. That was because I was mad and upset. You guys looked so happy and like you didn't care that I wasn't your friend anymore. It hurt me. It made me think you really didn't care about our friendship." Remus replied.
"No, losing your friendship really hurt us too. We hexed Snape because after we left the Hospital Wing after our fight, we ran into Snape. He started saying really horrible things about you. We couldn't let him get away with that." Sirius said.
Remus raised a brow. "Why did you defend me after I said all those hurtful things to you guys and then saying that we were never friends?"
James grinned. "Marauders Forever!"
"No matter what, we are still Marauders." Peter said. "A fight isn't going to change. Nothing will break us apart."
Sirius grinned. "So, all is forgiven and we're all friends again?"
"I never wanted our friendship to end in the first place." Remus said.
"As Pete said, nothing is going to break us apart." James replied. "Now, I do believe the Marauders got a prank to pull on the Slytherins."
Remus smiled. "And for the Marauders to pull this prank without any suspicions to us, I say we pretend to still hate each other. So we can't act like friends to each other until the prank has been pulled."
"But I hate fighting with you." Sirius whined.
"It's only when we are in public." Remus replied. "I say about a day after we pull the prank we can make a show of making up."
Sirius and James perked up at that. "Make a show of it?" James questioned.
"Oh, this is going to be fun." Sirius smirked.
"Let's pull the prank tonight." James suggested.
"Why?" Remus asked.
"So we only have to pretend to fight with you today and we can make up tomorrow after prank." Sirius explained.
Remus smirked. "Want to hear my idea of how we should make up?"
The three other boys grinned and put their heads together to listen to his plan.
"Where are James, Sirius, and Peter?" Angel huffed as she helped some second and third years fix the table in the common room.
"Their dorm," Bilius replied.
"They should be the ones fixing this, not us." Angel growled. "They are the ones who did it."
Bilius frowned. "They would probably make everything worse." He looked up the stairs leading to the boys' dorms. "Remus is up there too. I wonder if they've killed each other yet."
As soon as Bilius said this, angry yelling started.
"BLACK, POTTER, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Remus yelled.
"YOU DESERVED IT!" Sirius yelled back.
"WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS?" Remus shouted.
"BEING A BLOODY PRAT!" James screamed.
Much banging, screaming, and sounds of stuff breaking after that.
"They are really mad." Shawn said as he walked down the dorm stairs from his room where he was resting until he heard the noise. "Don't you think someone should stop them?"
"We can't get into their dorm, remember? They put traps on it so no one could get it." Angel replied.
Inside the room, Remus and Sirius were rolling around on the floor play wrestling. Peter and James took turns breaking things, then repairing them with a charm, then breaking them again. All four boys were grinning brightly.
"Sirius, James, we have to give each other real injuries to really fool everyone into thinking that we are still fighting." Remus said, while trying to get his breath back. He rubbed his chest where a real nasty cut from the full moon was.
James and Sirius glanced at each other. "He wants to ruin my perfect face again." Sirius pouted.
Peter looked at the ground and frowned. "Who's bleeding?"
James and Sirius looked where Peter was looking and frowned. There were specks of blood on the ground. Remus's eyes widened in fear.
"I'm not bleeding." Sirius said. He glanced at Remus, who looked scared and worried. "Remy?"
""Huh?" Remus replied.
"Are you bleeding?" Sirius asked. He noticed Remus had a hand over his chest and frowned. "Is something wrong with your chest?"
"No," Remus said too quickly.
James raised a brow and looked at Sirius, who looked skeptical. "Remus…."
Remus stood up and glared at Sirius. "We have to finish the prank." He hissed.
"Leave it alone," James whispered to Sirius. "I don't want to lose his friendship after just getting it back."
Sirius growled annoyed, but agreed with James. "Fine," He turned back to Remus. "So we have to punch hurt now?"
"That or we hex each other real badly." Remus shrugged. He looked much happier now that Sirius wasn't questioning him.
"We beat each other up last time, so let's hex each other this time." James replied.
Three wands were drawn and hexes started flying. Peter ducked behind a couch so he wouldn't get hit.
The hexes stopped flying after a few minutes, so Peter stood up. James and Remus were lying unconscious on the ground. Sirius sat on the ground, rubbing his chest. Their wands lay forgotten on the floor in a pile next to Sirius.
"Should I go get someone to take you three to the Hospital Wing?" Peter asked.
Sirius nodded his head. His eyes were beginning to droop. The last thing he saw before everything went black was Peter running out of the dorm and yelling for help.
Sirius opened his eyes to see James standing over him, frowning. "AHHH!" He screamed, falling off the bed. "That's a horrible sight to wake up to."
James sat on the now empty bed and pouted.
Laughing, Sirius stood up and looked around the room to find himself in the Hospital Wing. There were on a few other kids in the room.
"McGonagall wants us in her office. That prat, Lupin, is already there." James said after a few moments of silence.
Sirius frowned at James when he called Remus a prat.
James saw this, so he moved his eyes in the directions of the other students.
Realization dawned on Sirius. He groaned and stood up. "Let's get this over with."
They left the Hospital Wing and headed to McGonagall's office.
"We're in so much trouble." James said as they walked.
Sirius shrugged. "We knew this was going to happen if we wanted to play this prank. At least we got Remus's friendship back."
James raised his hand to knock on McGonagall's door, but stopped when he heard voices on the other side. He put a finger to his lips to let Sirius know to be quiet.
"…Leaving the Hospital Wing?" McGonagall was saying.
"I was thinking that I didn't want to spend my whole weekend there. I wanted at least one day to myself." Remus replied calmly.
"And what if you fainted when you left? You almost died. You should have stayed in the Hospital Wing. If you had, you wouldn't have gotten into another fight with Mr. Potter and Mr. Black and made your condition worse." McGonagall scolded.
Sirius and James looked at each other. They were both extremely pale.
"Almost died?" Sirius mouthed.
"But I didn't. I woke up today and felt fine, just a little sore." Remus retorted.
James brought his fist back up and knocked on the door. He didn't want to hear anymore.
The voices fell into a hushed silence.
"Come in," McGonagall called a few seconds later.
James and Sirius entered their professor's office quietly. Neither of them looked happy.
"Sit," McGonagall commanded, pointing to the two empty chairs next to Remus.
The boys obeyed, casting worried covert glances at Remus as they did.
McGonagall placed her hands on her desk and frowned. "Well?"
A few moments of silenced passed by before Sirius spoke up. "Well, what ma'am?"
McGonagall's nostrils flared. "What were you three arguing about that made you hex each other? Wasn't it just the other day you three were fighting like common Muggles? I expect fighting between houses, but not in the same house, especially between three boys who have been friends since school started."
None of the boys replied. James and Sirius had to look away to keep from grinning. Remus looked at the ground so McGonagall wouldn't see that he was red in the face as he tried to keep his laughter in.
"Why were you fighting?" McGonagall asked again.
McGonagall pinched the bridge of her nose when she received no response. "Fine, you three solve this yourself. I have other things to attend to then to solve your problems. Ten points from each of you. Now, please leave."
Remus cast a glare at James and Sirius for show as he left the office.
When the two black haired boys left McGonagall's office, they looked at each other and burst out laughing.
"If we can fool Minnie, we can definitely fool the rest of the school." James grinned.
Remus grinned to himself as he headed to the Great Hall for a later lunch. A whole day of fake fighting to play a prank. This is going to be so much fun.
Remus stopped in the Entrance Hall to look at the Gryffindor hour glass. He laughed when he saw there were only sixty-two rubies in it.
"What are you laughing about, Lupin?" Sirius asked as he marched down the stairs.
Remus smirked. "Your hair. Have you seen it?"
Sirius stopped walking. "What happened to my hair?"
James looked at his friend. "Nothing, it looks…." He stopped talking to see Sirius's hair turn a bright orange. "Well, now it's orange."
Sirius screamed. He pulled some hair to his eyes to see that it was indeed a bright orange. He looked back at Remus, who laughing with tears of mirth in his eyes and twirling a wand in his hand.
"You know Black, maybe I should cut it too. It's getting much too long." Remus said through his laughter.
Sirius's eye started twitching. "You've gone too far, Lupin. No one messes with my hair."
"I just did," Remus smirked.
James stepped to side. He saw where this was going and he wanted no part in it.
Sirius had his wand in his hand in a flash. "You're going to pay, Lupin."
He fired a spell at Remus that made his skin black and gray stripes.
Remus retaliated with a spell that made Sirius's pants turn into a skirt.
Sirius responded by tripping Remus with a trip jinx.
Remus growled as he stood up. "Tarantallegra!" He shouted.
Sirius feet started to dance uncontrollably.
"Lupin, Black, stopped at once." Professor Rana said angrily as she came down the stairs. She cast a charm on Black to stop his feet. "Five points from each of you."
Remus shrugged. What difference did points make now? There was no way Gryffindor could win the house cup now.
"Nice going, Lupin." Sirius snarled.
"Watch it, Black, or I will cut all your hair off." Remus growled.
"You wouldn't dare," Sirius said confidently, but he did take a couple of steps back.
Rana clapped her hands impatiently to get the boys' attention. "Boys that is enough. Fix yourselves and go."
Remus changed his skin back and Sirius changed his skirt back into pants. When Sirius tried to change his hair back, it wouldn't work.
Remus smirked and put his wand away. "The orange won't go away for two weeks.
Sirius gaped at Remus. He tried to lung at him, but James chose that moment to intervene. He held Sirius back by his robes so Sirius wouldn't kill Remus in front of a teacher.
Rana pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sirius, calm down. Remus, just get into the Great Hall."
Sirius and James entered the Great Hall a few minutes later. Everyone who was still in the Great Hall took one look at Sirius's orange hair and started laughing. James dragged Sirius to their usual seats at the Gryffindor table before he could kill Remus for his new hair color.
"How could Remus do this to my beautiful hair?" Sirius whined.
"He had to make it look like you guys are really fighting." James replied nonchalantly as he started to fill his plate with food.
Sirius angrily stabbed a chicken wing with his fork. "He didn't have to target my hair."
James rolled his eyes. Sirius was obsessed with his hair. He spends twenty-five minutes every morning to make it perfect. Remus and he had a big laugh about that and called Sirius a girl for a week before Sirius blew up and tired to strangle them.
Remus was sitting on his bed, quietly reading a fascinating book when Sirius slammed the dorm door open. He stalked into the room angrily with a laughing James and Peter following him inside. Peter closed the door behind them.
"What's up?" Remus raised a brow.
"Look at my hair." Sirius said in a dangerous voice.
Remus looked at his hair for a long while.
"I give up. What's wrong with it?" Remus asked.
"Besides that fact it's orange?" Sirius growled. "Some stupid slimy gits put sparkly stars in it."
"Oh, that's what that is." Remus said. He turned back to his book. "Well, you can get them back with tonight's prank."
Sirius calmed down some at the mention of their prank. "Yeah, that'll teach those slimy gits not to mess with the Marauders."
Remus opened his nightstand drawer and pulled a vial out without looking up from his book. He tossed it to Sirius. "That will get rid of the orange." Then he pulled his wand out and fired a spell at Sirius.
"What did you do?" Sirius screamed scared.
James laughed and flopped down on his bed. "Relax Sirius; he just got rid of the stars. He must be feeling generous today to do that for you."
Remus looked up from his book looking offended. "I'm always generous."
James turned his head to look at Remus and snorted. "Oh yes, you are very generous. You were very, very generous the other day when you gave me a bloody nose and Sirius a black eye."
Remus blushed. "Who are you to talk? You broke my nose."
"I had to get you back somehow." James laughed.
Sirius plopped down on his bed. "Hey Remy, what did McGonagall mean earlier when she said you almost died?"
Remus froze in turning his page. His eyes never moved from his book.
"Remus?" James sat up on his bed and turned to Remus, who was sitting next to him on his bed. He looked at him concerned. "Remus?"
Remus shook his head. "Sorry, did you say something? I spaced out."
James frowned. "What did McGonagall mean when she said you almost died?"
It was Remus's turn to frown. "What are you talking about?"
"You know what we are talking about." Sirius snarled, sitting up into a sitting position. "She was talking to you earlier before we entered her office."
Remus clenched his book tightly in his fists. He was very pale and his eyes were darting around the room to avoid eye contact with his friends.
"I….she…was…" Remus bit his lip and rubbed his forehead nervously, which was becoming a habit of his.
James raised a brow. "She was what?"
Remus turned his eyes back to his book. He tried to read it to give himself time to think, but all he saw in the book was the same sentence over and over again. They're going to find out and abandoned you. They're going to find out and abandoned you. They're going to find out and abandoned you.
Eyes very wide and scared, Remus screamed and threw his book across the room. It bounced off the wall and hit the ground with a THUD!
Sirius, James, and Peter stared at the abandoned book.
"What the hell, Remus?" Sirius asked amused.
Remus shrugged.
"I think he's getting over his Library Disease!" James said excitedly.
"That's amazing! I didn't know it was possible to cure yourself of that horrid disease." Sirius said amazed.
Remus slapped a hand to his face. "Peter do they actually believe that Library Disease exists?"
"I think so," Peter replied, staring at James and Sirius astonished as they danced and sang around the room very excited.
Remus stared at them to. "Please stop, you're giving me a horrible headache with your horribly off-key singing."
This resulted in James and Sirius singing much louder.
Peter plugged his ears with his hands, while Remus put a pillow over his head to muffle the sound.
A little while later, a pillow was smacked into Remus's stomach.
Bleary eyed, Remus opened his eyes to see two bleary figures sitting over him. He blinked his eyes a few times and sat up. After rubbing his eyes, he looked at James and Sirius who were grinning at him.
"Ello mate!" James greeted.
"You fell asleep to our beautiful singing." Sirius said.
Remus stared at them like they were crazy. "I was just blocking the sound out with my pillow."
"But you fell asleep when you did that." Peter replied.
"Why'd you wake me up?" Remus asked tiredly.
Sirius grin turned into a smirk. "Time for our prank."
Remus smirked back. "Awesome, let's go."
James moved to his trunk and pulled out his invisibility cloak.
"That was my foot." Sirius growled.
"Sorry," Remus whispered.
Remus looked around the dungeon. "Um….we go left."
"Are you sure?" James asked.
Remus looked up and down the corridor. It all looked the same to him. How could anyone be sure? "Almost sure." He whispered and led his friends down the corridor without another word.
After half an hour of walking, avoid Ms. Norris and Prefect, and two wrong turns, the four boys made it to a dead end.
"Nice going, Remus. You got us to a dead end. I thought you knew where you were going." Sirius hissed.
"Pure-blood," Remus said.
"What does that…." Sirius stopped when the wall started to move. "Oh."
Remus rolled his eyes. "Let's go."
Evil smirks were worn all around as the boys went into the Slytherin common room. They were still under the invisibility cloak for safety. Someone might still be in the common room and the boys didn't want to be caught before they could pull their prank.
Luckily, the common room was empty so they could get started on their prank right away.
Peter and Sirius began working in the common room. They were changing everything to gold, red, blue, bronze, yellow, and black, all the Hogwarts' colors except the Slytherin colors.
While they were doing this, Remus and James, still under the invisibility cloak, snuck into all the boys' dorms. James transfigured their pajamas into different types of clothes while Remus went around collecting the rest of their clothes and stuffing them into the bags he brought.
When they were done, they lugged the bags downstairs to see Sirius and Peter relaxing on the couch.
"You finished?" Sirius asked quietly.
James grinned. "They won't know what hit them."
"Let's go finish our prank already. It's two in the morning and I want to go to bed." Peter complained, but he couldn't hide his grin.
"Just one more thing." Remus pulled out his wand. He whispered a spell and started to write. Silver letters appeared on the wall.
Don't mess with us!
The Marauders
When he was done, Remus put his wand away.
James threw the cloak over them after they each picked up some bags of clothes. The bags were so heavy that they slowed the boys down, but the boys were determined to finish the prank so they kept the bags with them.
They dragged the bags outside and down to the lake. They threw the cloak off and sat on the ground, very tired.
For a few minutes, the boys sat, resting and looking at the sky.
"Guys, it's cold. Can we just finish already?" Peter asked.
The other three boys agreed, so they pulled their wands out. They used the levitation spell to lift the bags into the air. The bags were levitated to the middle of the lake where the boys turned the bags over and let all the clothes fall into the lake.
When they were finished, they grabbed the cloak and threw it back over themselves. They began their long trek back to the castle, tired and sweaty, but very satisfied.
"What's that?" Sirius stopped to look at a small hut on the grounds. The boys hadn't spent much time outside on Hogwarts ground because they were so busy exploring the inside of Hogwarts.
Remus glanced at it. "Hagrid's hut."
"He's the groundkeeper, right?" James asked.
"Yeah," Remus answered.
"We should visit him sometime." Sirius said.
"Fine. Can we go now? I'm tired and I want to be able to get up early tomorrow to see the result of our prank." Remus said.
Sirius and James exchanged evil grins behind Remus's back.
James and Sirius stood over Remus's bed the next morning. They both looked very tired, but very happy.
Sirius pulled Remus's blanket off of him, then James poured a glass of ice cold water on him. Remus screamed and shot up into a sitting position, coughing up water, when his mattress was flipped over. He fell to the ground, trapped under his mattress.
As soon as Remus got free, he turned to glare at Sirius and James, who were sitting on the bed next to his and smiling innocently at him. Remus didn't buy that for a second. He looked at the clock and frowned. "POTTER! BLACK! WHY THE HELL DID YOU WAKE ME UP AT SIX IN THE MORNING?"
"You said you wanted to get up early today." Sirius replied happily.
"I DIDN'T MEAN THIS EARLY!" Remus yelled.
"You don't have to yell at us. I mean really, this isn't our fault." James said merrily.
Remus's eyes twitched. "Then whose fault is it?"
James and Sirius looked at each other and grinned. They looked back at Remus with evil grins and said together, "Yours."
"How is it my fault?" Remus hissed.
"You said you wanted to get up early today but you didn't say how early you wanted to get up. We didn't want to upset you by waking you up later than you wanted, so we figured we would get you up at six." James replied, smiling innocently.
"So, you see, this is all your fault for not giving us an exact time to wake you." Sirius finished with a smirk.
Remus jumped back onto the beds and tackled Sirius over. They tumbled back onto Peter, who woke up with a start.
James watched his friends wrestle, amused. He turned to look at the shocked Peter. "Good morning, Pete."
"What's so good about it?" Peter grumbled, rubbing his bruised ribs. He looked at the clock. "It's six twenty in the morning. It's too early for this."
"We just get an early start today." James said cheerfully.
"How can you be so happy?" Pete asked. "I don't think I'll survive the day with only three hours of sleep."
James shrugged. He turned back to his friends to see that they had rolled off the bed and were now on the ground. "Okay kiddies, that is enough." James jumped off the beds and landed on the floor next to his friends.
Remus and Sirius stopped wrestling to look at James, then they looked at each other before turning back to James.
"You're not our boss." Remus went back to trying to get Sirius to let go of his wrist.
James sighed before joining in. He launched himself at the two boys and pulled Sirius off of Remus. Remus took that moment to pin James to the ground.
Peter watched his friends for a few minutes before falling back over, asleep.
After another ten minutes of wrestling, James stopped. "That's enough of this. I'm going to take a shower. Sirius, can you wake Peter back up?"
Sirius rubbed his sore chest. "Sure." He glanced at Peter. "YO PETER! GET UP YOU LAZY BUM!"
Peter screamed in surprise and tumbled onto the ground, trapped in is blanket.
Sirius grinned. "He's awake."
James rolled his eyes, but was laughing. He helped Peter get free of his blankets before going into the bathroom.
Remus flopped down onto the couch and stared at the ceiling.
Sirius stole a glance at Remus, before turning back to Peter. "You can go take the second shower."
The tone Sirius said it with made Peter realize that Sirius wanted him out of the room, so Peter hastily agreed. He looked back at Remus to see that he was now alert. Peter guessed that Remus heard Sirius's tone too and was worried about something. Peter hurriedly closed the door. Whatever was going on, he was sure he didn't want to be a part of it. Another fight was probably coming.
As soon as the bathroom door was closed, Sirius got off the floor and sat on the chair. He noticed the suspicion in Remus's eyes.
"What's up?" Remus asked carefully.
"I asked you something yesterday but you were able to divert my attention from the question. Remus, I want an answer now. What did McGonagall mean when she said you almost died? And don't lie to me." Sirius said, staring at Remus with determination in his eye to get a truthful answer.
Remus rubbed his forehead nervously. He moved his eyes from Sirius. His heart felt like it was going to pound out of his chest and his breathing was picking up. 'They can't know the truth. They can't know. I have to lie. Damn it, Sirius. You're making me lie so much more then I need to because you can't let things go.'
Sirius watched Remus closely. He saw his breathing speed up and sweat rolling down his face and neck. "Remus, tell me the truth now."
Remus sighed. "Fine."
'Come on Remus, think, think. You can do this.'
"I've just been having a little problem with some Slytherins. They attacked me the other day in the corridor. They sent me to the Hospital Wing after they attacked me." Remus explained.
Remus was surprised at how easy the lie came. As much as he hated it, Remus had to admit that he was getting better at lying. He figured he'd just have to choose something that James and Sirius would believe. Being attacked by Slytherins was a good lie because they hated the Slytherins and looked for any reason to pick a fight with the. If Remus gave them a reason to fight with the Slytherins then they wouldn't question him anymore.
Just as he thought this, Sirius stood up angrily. "They did what?" He growled.
"It's nothing to worry about." Remus tried to calm his friends. He didn't want anyone hurt because of a lie he told. "Just calm down."
"Calm down?" Sirius snarled. "They are messing with my friends, with the Marauders. They have to pay for this."
Biting his lip, Remus looked at the floor. He got his friend off his back, but now the Slytherins were his target. He was out of trouble for now, but he had to the save the Slytherins from Sirius's and most likely, James's wrath. He didn't want them hurt because of him. How can he fix this without revealing that he lied again?
James came out of the bathroom to meet an unhappy sight. Sirius was pacing around the room and was looking angrily at everything. He shot a glare at James as he came into the room. James turned to Remus to see him staring at the floor and wringing his hands around each other nervously.
Sighing, James got dressed quickly. When he was clothed, he turned to his friends. "So, what's wrong this time?"
Sirius stopped pacing and crossed his arms. He looked at James furiously. "The Slytherins have been picking on Remus. They sent him to the Hospital Wing and are the reason he almost died."
"What?" James hissed angrily.
"That's wrong. I didn't almost die. McGonagall was exaggerating when she said that. I just got really hurt." Remus corrected, but was a shaky voice. He needed to get the Slytherins out of James's and Sirius's target range.
James crossed his arms. "It doesn't matter. They still hurt you. We have to teach them a lesson."
"Teach who a lesson?" Peter came back into the room.
Remus grabbed his clothes and went into the bathroom before anyone could answer Peter. He stepped into one of the shower stalls and banged his head onto the wall. "I can't believe I said that. They'll torture the Slytherins now. I have to fix this, but how? I can't tell them the truth." Remus talked to himself. "I don't like lying to them. How many lies am I going to have to tell them in this friendship? What kind of friendship is based around all these lies? But I don't…"
The bathroom door opened and clicked closed again, making Remus to stop talking. Footsteps were heard. Remus heard them walk to the second shower stall. There was a sound of clothes being removed then the water being turned on.
Realizing that it was Sirius, Remus sighed. He rubbed his abused head before turning his water on too. He let the water run down his body with closed eyes. This was going to be a long day.
The Marauders, minus Remus, sat down at their regular seats in the Great Hall. James and Sirius were glaring at the Slytherin table. A little ways down the table, Remus sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He looked at the Slytherin table to see that so far there were only girls there. The Marauders didn't do anything to them since they couldn't get up the girls' step.
"When do you think those gits will get here?" Sirius asked.
James looked at the Great Hall doors and smirked. "Now."
Sirius looked where James was looking to see a bunch of angry Slytherin boys coming in. They were all wearing girl pajamas at all different colors with little flowers or hearts on them.
Students from the other three houses took one look at them and burst out laughing.
"Wait until you see Snivellus." James took a few seconds to stop laughing to say this, before he started laughing again.
Sirius searched the crowd of boys for Snape. After a few minutes of searching, Sirius fell off his seat. He was clutching his sides in pain and had tears of laughter rolling down his face. He found Snape and it was the best of all.
Snape was wearing a pink nightgown with the words 'I'm a dunderhead' in bright yellow letters that were surrounded by a heart. He also had hair that was six colors: red, gold, blue, bronze, yellow, and black.
Professor Slughorn stared his students in shock. "Boys…."
Professor," A seventh year Prefect stepped forward. "I don't mean to interrupt, but all our clothes were stolen last night and our pajamas were changed into what we are wearing now. Also, our common room has been changed to and we got a message."
Slughorn raised a brow. "And what would this message be?"
"'Don't mess with us. The Marauders.'" The Prefect said angrily. He looked at all the other students venomously.
Professor McGonagall stood up. "We'll have to find their clothes and the students responsible for this. Rest assured, they will be severely punished for this."
Remus smirked and looked down the table at his friends to see them grinning broadly. James saw him looking and turned to Sirius to say something. Sirius looked towards Remus and winked.
Remus smirked at his plate. The plan to change the Marauders back into a foursome has officially begun.
A/N: Please review!
I noticed a mistake from an earlier chapter. I called Shawn, Shawn Oliver. Don't know what I was thinking when I wrote that. His name is Shawn Wood, not Shawn Oliver.