Remember, Remember… Not to Get Caught

' What are we doing up here?' Peter whined for the seventh time in ten minutes.

' Why'd you come if you're just going to moan, Wormtail!' James replied, also for the seventh time. ' It's Bonfire Night!'

' C'mon Pete!' Sirius yelled, ridiculously cheerfully. ' Get in the spirit of it! 'Remember, remember, The fifth of November' and all that. You're Muggle-born, you should know this!'

' My Mum's a witch!' Peter cried. ' She was Muggle-born, but she's still a witch!'

' Same difference,' Sirius decided, casually, over Peters continued protests.

Remus understood what was bothering the smaller boy. With all the rumours circulating about these 'Death Eaters' and their blood-politics, and the reported attacks on muggles becoming more frequent, people were getting twitchy about their heritage. But Sirius couldn't understand that in the least, and Remus didn't miss the irony in it. The Back Family name - the one he professed to despise, along with all it stood for - was the one thing keeping him from fully appreciating the building tensions in the wizarding world, and the sudden nervousness of anyone with even remotely questionable blood-ties.

Remus decided not to mention it, instead wondering aloud, ' Why do you two celebrate it?'

' It's a bloody brilliant Muggle holiday!' James said, by way of explanation.

' Have you seen what they can do?' Sirius enthused waving his hand at the sky completely unnecessarily. ' Without Magic,' he added, for good measure.

Remus had to admit the view was spectacular from their vantage point atop the astronomy tower. Fireworks were being let off right on the edge of the grounds, and the sky was alight with every colour. The night was cold, the grass glittering with a coating of frost, and the sky was clear. Unusual for this time of year, but perfect for watching things explode at a distance.

' Ah,' he said, rubbing his hands together in a bid to retain some semblance of feeling in them. ' I should've known it was for the pretty lights.'

' It's a bit weird though, isn't it?' came a quiet voice, and three set of eyes turned questioningly towards Peter. ' Wizards celebrating a Muggle burning.'

The thought had struck Remus before. In their third year, in fact, when James and Sirius had created a miniature bonfire for the common room complete with a Guy Fawkes enchanted to scream as he burned.

' Don't be daft, Pete! Good ol' Guy wasn't a wizard, was he?' Sirius said, still sounding awfully cheerful.

' And if he had been, he wouldn't have been caught, would he?' James put in.

Remus opened him mouth to recount the case of Wendelin the Weird, who liked being burned and let herself get captured repeatedly, but was stopped by a warning gesture from Sirius.

' And before you bring up reliable old Wendy,' James said, jovially. ' I'll amend my statement. If he'd been a wizard, he wouldn't of, y'know, died!'

' I still think it's weird,' Peter reiterated.

Remus agreed with the mousy boy. It was odd seeing two Pureblood wizards so happy about something the muggles probably did to their families. But Remus decided he may very well be bias when it came to unnecessary prejudices against people who were slightly different, and let the subject drop.

A silence fell between them that was both comfortable and disconcerting, so rare were the moments that not a single one of them had anything to say. It was a little awkward and, Remus thought, intimate. Maybe that was just because he couldn't understand the boyish ease with which Sirius draped his arms around his friends as he did now.

The quiet made it strangely difficult to keep track of time, and Remus didn't know how long they were stood like that before the colour display in the sky dwindled. Finally Sirius sighed and pulled out his pocket watch.

' Wow,' he said, stretching his back until something cracked. ' We'd bettered head back.'

The others muttered their assent, and started down the winding stairs of the tower. At the bottom, Peter transformed and the rat was gently placed in Remus' breast pocket, then James handed Remus his invisibility cloak. The theory was that, should they be seen, the two black-haired boys had been caught out of bed after-hours enough times to warrant only minimal suspicion and or punishment. Remus couldn't remember agreeing to this plan but James' face told him not to argue now, so he disappeared under the silvery fabric.

Unfortunately, they had to go down to go back up to Gryffindor tower at the other side of the castle. They made it down to the fourth floor with only a quick detour to avoid Filch, who was searching classrooms. Then everything went terribly and drastically wrong.

As they mounted the stairs to the fifth floor Defence Against the Dark Arts corridor, they caught a glimpse of hunched angular figure in dark robes leaving a classroom, easing the door shut with pale spindly fingers.

' Snivellus?'

Remus cursed under his breath, and Peter shuffled uncomfortably against his chest.

It hadn't been Sirius who had given away their position so carelessly, but James.

Snape jumped, his gangly limbs jerking, his black eyes twitching in search of the danger. He spotted James and his face flickered with shock and fear for a moment before he realised where they were - an empty corridor in the dead of night, completely unsupervised. His thin face twisted into a sneer, and Remus could only think 'bugger'.

' Potter. Wandering the corridors alone,' he said it silkily, but there was a hint of hopefulness. ' What are you doing?'

' Who said he was alone?' Sirius said, stepping out from behind James.

' Should've guessed. Forever joined at the hip.'

' It's called having friends,' James said, coldly, and Remus knew he would have his fist curled tightly around his wand in his pocket. ' Not an art you've quite mastered though is it, Snivelly.'

' That why you wouldn't tell me where you were?' Snape spat. ' Lovers tryst?'

James raised an eyebrow, looking thoroughly unimpressed with the insult. Sirius grinned.

' Yeah,' he said, slinging his arm around his best friends shoulders. ' That's exactly what it is. And clearly nobody'd want to drag you into an empty room to cop a feel, even in the dark, so what're you sneaking about for?'

Snape had drawn his wand now, and held it loosely but readily. ' I don't see how that's any of your business, Black.'

Both Gryffindor boys were itching for an excuse to whip out their own wands and cast the first hex that sprang to mind, so Remus backed out of the firing range. He kept his eyes on the scene though, and walked straight into a door with a loud thunk. Fortunately Snape didn't notice. The same could not be said for the occupant of the room.

Remus heard the soft footfalls just in time to avoid being hit by the door as it swung open. He had sudden vision of Professor McGonagall with a face like a thunderstorm, or Dumbledore and his disappointed expression. What he was actually confronted with was the amused smile of Professor Knox.

The fighting boys hadn't noticed her, so she cleared her throat and said gently, ' If I'm not interrupting, gentlemen.'

They froze so suddenly it was almost comical. Remus bit his tongue in an effort not to laugh.

' Care to explain,' she said lightly. It wasn't a question.

Snape merely gaped at her, not even lowering his wand. James and Sirius knew better, and put on their best winning smiles.

' Having a grope, miss. Terribly sorry, just can't keep my hands off him,' Sirius said fluently and casually. Then he grimaced, eyes flickering to the third boy in the corridor, and added, ' James. Not… that.'

' Hm,' she said, pleasantly. ' And you, Mr Snape.'

' Studying,' he mumbled, waving a potions book at her vaguely.

' I'm sure,' she said quietly, then paused. ' I'll have ten points from each of you, for being out of bed. And another ten from you, Mr Snape, for having your wand drawn on another student. Now off to bed with you.'

The oily boy took his chance and disappeared into the darkness of the staircase. Padfoot and Prongs stayed where they were.

' He's lying,' Sirius said, adamantly.

' You don't believe him do you, Professor?' James asked, remembering he was talking to a teacher, and one that could give them a detention for any number of reasons, but hadn't. Yet.

' Not in the least,' she replied, keeping her voice even. ' Unlike your own story, which is remarkably believable.'

Once again, Remus bit his tongue to stop himself from laughing. He received the sharp metallic taste of blood for his troubles, but it wouldn't do to give away his position now. James and Sirius both had their mouths open to press their point, but Knox held up her hand to stop them.

' I assure you, I am perfectly capable of assessing students intentions,' she said, patiently. ' I will keep an eye on Mr Snape. This isn't your concern. You two should be in bed. Go on.'

Sirius looked like he wanted to protest further, but James grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the dorm.

' You don't want to know what he's up to?' Sirius asked, one they were out of earshot.

' Of course I do,' James replied. ' But we don't need a teacher knowing what we're doing!'

' What are you goi… Oh,' realisation flickered across Sirius' face, followed by a satisfied smirk.

' If they don't know, they can't stop us. We'll…'

' Prefect, remember,' Remus put in.

The boys communicated silently all the way back to the dorm, then shut themselves in James four poster and silenced it.

Remus groaned, and knew he was going to regret whatever came of this.

Sorry this took longer than expected, deadlines to meet and such. But here's chapter 6. I've been working on my plan for the whole story, too. So hopefuly it'll flow okay.

I've been review starved lately! It makes for difficult motivating. Please let me know what you think.

Thank you for reading, once again!