Remus got wearily to his feet, and Harry noted with some concern he looked paler than he did yesterday. Was this book really taking that much out of him? He wanted to ask, but felt it slightly rude, so he kept himself quite as Remus went to his chapter.

"Really," Sirius demanded, "he milked that injury for almost four days!"

Harry's face twisted in annoyance, fighting down the urge to say that it was probably longer than that.

"Look on the bright side," Lily smirked, "he probably had to make up all that work. I know none of those teachers fell for that."

"Oh wait," James pouted, "how come you haven't had Remus' class yet?" 'Plus, has Harry really gone four days without talking to him' he added in his head, biting at his lip and trying to not snap at his friend for that. What possible reason could he have now for avoiding Harry? Dumbledore surely wasn't still stopping him?

"We didn't have it until that afternoon," Harry said, also still eyeing Remus curiously as he realized the same thing.

There was a sticky silence for a moment as they all realized this fact, but aside from Remus ducking his head and fidgeting with the sleeve of his robes in agitation, no one said anything this time.

"I'd like to see how he does in a real fight," James snapped bitterly.

"Probably run away, or hide the whole time," Sirius agreed.

"Subtle," Remus frowned in annoyance.

Lily rolled her eyes in annoyance, knowing full well he wouldn't have done that to any other student. His attitude was really starting to tick a nerve with her.

"Glad we're all on the same page," James grumped, keeping an eye on Lily to see if she agreed. To his surprise, she did seem to.

"Oh, this is just going to be brilliant," Sirius scowled in pure annoyance.

Lily grimaced, knowing that would have been an actual concern had something really been wrong with him, but one, there wasn't a thing wrong with his arm, and two, he should get his friends to help him; not pick on her son.

All five of them muttered something foul under their breath, knowing full well this was going to drag on, and already hating it.

Lily couldn't help but give a vindictive smirk, knowing full well she would have done the same thing as this would completely ruin that little jerk's potion.

"Dang it," James frowned, "I wasn't even sure he'd realize that was important."

"Know that look all too well," Sirius grumbled, his face twisting around with dislike.

"What did I do to deserve this chapter," Remus huffed. "We'd gone so long without having to deal with this guy."

"Wow," James said in surprise, "credit to him for that dedication."

James had to bite his tongue to hold back his comment that he didn't find Snape very dangerous at all, but he reminded himself of the age difference again.

"I should feel really special huh?" Harry grumbled.

"Nah," Sirius smirked, "remember, he's going to be sharing that look with Remus from now on."

That at least caused Remus and James to chuckle, while Lily was quickly losing her patience with all of these boys.

Harry scowled even more heavily, more than frustrated he was no longer allowed down at his friend's place to help cheer him up.

"Your father can bite my-"

"James," Lily cut him off, matching him glare for glare. "You lot shouldn't be cussing so much, it's still a bad habit with the baby around."

Sirius rolled his eyes and grumbled something about how he still couldn't understand them, but Remus decided to keep going anyways.

That drew a smirk from James and Sirius again, very much hoping Ron would make good on that threat soon.

"Remembered vividly as the guy who tried to blackmail the school governors," Remus reminded in forced light tones.

"Why's he bragging to you anyways?" Lily demanded, "it's not like you care."

"Search me," Harry huffed.

"Next time I'll make sure it actually is ripped out of socket," Sirius snarled a little too forcefully it seemed, since the baby in his lap gave a little whine of displeasure. Sirius forced himself to relax and give the kid a cuddle then to relax them both.

"At least it was already dead," Remus said weakly, trying to force some humor into Harry's outraged face. Harry ignored him.

James let out a string of words he thought quite appropriate, but low enough under his breath he didn't think Lily heard him.

"Is he really going to do this until he stops faking his injury?" Sirius demanded, looking faint.

"How long can he milk that?" James demanded of nothing.

No one had an answer for either of them.

Lily's eyes kept narrowing the longer Remus kept going, so that it looked like she was squinting over at him, but the expression was so terrifying none of the boys really wanted to call her out on it.

Personally, James was rather pleased at this. It was horrible what Snape was doing to Neville, but it seemed Lily wasn't going to be defending him much longer. It honestly blew his mind how she still was, considering their last rather public conversation.

Lily was bright red in the face by the end of this, so Harry, feeling they may as well get the explosion over with, told her, "Mom, you look like you're fixing to start screaming here soon."

Lily sucked in a very deep breath, then said in an almost steady voice, "probably, but I'm trying not to." She trailed off into foul mutterings about how that wasn't any way to treat someone who had messed up, but when she sat back and made it clear she was still trying to keep it under, Remus decided to keep reading while he could.

"That man has no bounds," Remus scowled, now he was turning on Hermione just for offering to help.

"He what!" They all yelled in outrage.

"He can't do that!" Remus spluttered, "that's endangering his pet."

While Harry was just as furious as anyone else, he did consider Neville his friend if not as much as Ron and Hermione, but his curiosity won over and he asked, "What's the difference between this and using animals in Transfiguration?"

"Well, first of all, you don't use your own pets in classes," James pointed out, "though I wouldn't be too surprised that he does keep Trevor on him, I remember that little thing always trying to get away."

"But," Remus cut back in before James could get to off topic, "the main difference is that in other classes, there shouldn't be any permanent harm. If you get the spell wrong, then your teacher should just be able to reverse the effects. Correct me if I'm wrong Lily, but you can't always correct potions."

Lily shook herself in surprise, she was still introverting on herself in shock that she actually didn't feel any lingering need to defend Snape to these boys anymore. That effect had worn off the moment she'd heard that he was actually willing to hurt this child, in one of the cruellest ways she could deem possible, by purposefully hurting his pet. For what? He had no reason, Neville had never done anything to anyone, and yet here he was singling him out almost as much as Harry and being downright hateful to everyone else. Even after he had called her that awful word back in fifth year, she'd still had hope. No, she'd never forgiven him, nor had she gone out of her way to defend him in school any longer, except to this lot. There had always been something about the Marauders that had gotten under her skin, and even after her and Severus had parted ways she'd never been able to stomach the still rather public fights. So when she'd heard that Dumbledore had hired him, she'd harboured hope, that somehow he had changed after her death, become that same friend she'd once known, why else would Dumbledore hire a known Death Eater? Now, every last bit of that was dashed, and the contempt mounting in her was as fierce as the night that mess between them had started. Then Remus had called her name, and she gave herself a firm little shake and came back to the actual conversation, asking him to repeat the question.

He did, albeit a little hesitantly as she still looked a swirl of emotions, but she answered crisply "you're right, some potions just can't be corrected. From what it sounds like, yes Neville's should be salvageable, he seems to have only doubled some ingredients, so if he does the same to his other ingredients that are in, it should balance out and be fine. Still doesn't excuse that teacher from acting like that though" she finished, fire blistering from her at the end, making Harry want to edge away even when it wasn't directed at him.

James and Sirius exchanged wide-eyed looks, they hadn't ever seen Lily this mad at him before, and it both amused them in the worst kind of way that she finally wasn't defending him, and scared them slightly.

Remus caught Harry's eye, who nodded indicating he was done with his question, so Remus was quick to move on for now.

"Oh bloody hell," Sirius groaned, letting his head fall forward so that it was pressed forehead to forehead with the infant. James and Remus both gave him pitying looks, but no one could think of anything to say to him. If Sirius was going to react like this every time he was mentioned, then they were going to run out of comfort for him real quick. Then the baby hooked his chubby little fists into the length of his godfather's available hair, causing a bit of a distraction as he tried disentangling himself.

Remus still looked like he wanted to say something, but James was now quickly waving him on, trying to press past this as fast as possible while Sirius was distracted.

James scoffed and rolled his eyes. He, like Remus, was all for Sirius making his way to Hogwarts and coming into contact with Harry, those dementors be damned. If Sirius had figured out how to get past them once, surely he could do it again and have a proper conversation with Harry. Ron's fears were silly, but since everyone here knew that, he didn't bother saying any of that.

"Like yourself," Sirius smirked as he finally got himself loose from the kid's surprisingly good grip.

"Sirius, that's gross," Lily told him pleasantly.

He snickered, not looking very remorseful as he began bouncing the baby around again so that he would be a bit more amused, and not take it out on him again.

Remus raised a brow in surprise, finding that a rather odd thing to say. Looking around, he saw the others seemed just as perplexed.

"Suppose Malfoy knows I'm 'after him'," Sirius offered in forced light tones, "guess he just means Harry's being a coward for sitting around and not taking the fight to me I guess."

"Yeah, guess so," James agreed, "but why would Malfoy know that? It doesn't exactly seem like public knowledge if Fudge is trying to keep it quiet and away from Harry."

"Guess Malfoy really does still have connections in the Ministry to know," Lily said with disdain.

"Half wish he didn't," Sirius muttered in disgust. Despite Harry's adamant mood that he wasn't afraid of him now, it still bothered him that his little pup would think that at any time in his life.

"Revenge for what?" James demanded of nothing, starting to clench up his hands in disgust. He hated to hear this continuously talked about, and he already had a dozen reasons to punch this brat in the face, so this continued conversation was getting under his skin.

"Lucius would know you and Sirius are friends," Remus pointed out. "Perhaps Draco thinks Harry knew about that, and that Sirius 'doing this' would be offensive to you."

"That's a little loose if you ask me," Lily shrugged.

"Got any better ideas," Sirius shot right back.

There was silence, which meant that none of them really did.

They all breathed a silent sigh of relief, knowing full well if Hermione hadn't stepped in something really awful could have happened. It still didn't excuse the act itself that Snape had done of course, but at least this way there wouldn't be any lasting damage.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Sirius meant to smirk lightly, though it looked a little more forced than he'd planned.

All who weren't reading muttered some crude thing or another under their breath, finding it loathsome that he was clearly wanting an audience for this.

"Blackhearted little monster ain't he," Sirius muttered for his friends ears alone. The three of them were still rather wary that Lily hadn't said anything yet, so they were trying their hardest to keep the comments down…for now.

"All of them," Lily asked warily, "really?"

"The ones I was looking at," Harry shrugged, "which was mostly Malfoy's, and Pansy's friends." He did note that he hadn't exactly sat there and pointed out every single student's expression, so maybe he had generalized that.

There was a much more profound breath of relief this time, each of them very happy Hermione had clearly done a good enough job the potion was the correct color.

"Can't believe they let this turd be around kids," James muttered furiously.

"Say what?" Lily snapped in outrage.

"That's what finally got to you?" Remus demanded right back, looking over at her in surprise.

Lily wasn't listening, it seemed to be taking every ounce within her not to start screaming at all of the problems with this. His abuse of power, his clear displeasure that he hadn't managed to kill the pet in front of its owner, now he was punishing him for doing it right! What in the bloody hell had happened to him to turn him into this?

When the silence continued to drag on, Remus decided to read on, noting he hadn't exactly gotten his answer, but the deadly expression on the red hairs face was plenty answer enough.

"I'm with Ron on this one," James hissed.

"First of all, because that git wouldn't have believed either of them anyways," Sirius pointed out.

"Also, because what would be the point? He'd still take the points away, if not more because he'd then accuse her of lying," Remus agreed.

"Think she forgot something in class?" Lily noted absently, still more red in the face then anything and clearly only half paying attention.

Harry puzzled, somehow knowing that wasn't actually the correct answer, but the others were appeased enough by this, and he had no real idea why he would correct her as there really wasn't any other answer, so he said nothing.

"There you go then, Lily was right," James shrugged, "maybe she has a necklace that fell off."

Harry very quickly opened, then closed his mouth. That his dad was closer to the mark he was sure, but somehow this still didn't feel like the full answer. Again he chose to say nothing, for the same reasons as before.

"She's really fast," Sirius rolled his eyes, noting he might not have noticed someone turning around behind him either if he'd been raging like Ron had.

"Did he really just ask Hermione why she was carrying books around?" James laughed in disbelief.

"But a dozen?" Remus demanded. "Exactly how many classes is she taking?"

"All of them," Harry reminded.

They all sat around, newly puzzled but still blank on how Hermione could be pulling that off. Could it be possible she was simply getting one of the students in that class to copy notes and give them to her? At least that would make sense how she was keeping up with more than one class at a time, but not how or why they were still marked on her schedule that she needed to go.

"Yes!" James and Sirius cheered, instantly distracted from Harry's friend. Yes they had all noted Remus' absence this week, and were beyond confused and slightly hurt he still didn't seem to be going out of his way to try and talk to Harry like they would have thought, but getting to sit in one of his classes first hand felt like a real treat to them.

"What did you think she was going to do with them?" Lily chuckled, finally coming off of her bad mood at least a bit. "Run all the way back to the dormitory? She's got them with her now, so she's obviously going to keep them the rest of the day."

"Very much so, yes," Harry agreed.

"For shame Moony," James snickered, "being late. Can't hardly tell off your students for that now, can you?"

Remus rolled his eyes indulgently, half wondering if he wasn't still stalling a bit on being around Harry, and half wondering if he actually did have a good reason. He probably wasn't going to get a real answer to that though.

"This is depressing me again," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"So sorry Harry describing me, very accurately I might add, is so awful to you," Remus smirked.

"So this is going to be fun," James brightened all the more, knowing any practical lesson from a teacher was always better than book ones.

"Which is awful really," Lily noted. "DADA is one of those classes where you really should have just as many practicals as lectures."

"I'd be very insulted and confused by that if I didn't know what you meant," Remus laughed.

"Ooh, is he going to take you outside?" Sirius asked, looking likely to start bouncing in place here in a moment.

"You two are way too excited about this," Remus told them pleasantly.

"No such thing," James scoffed, "we know you'll do brilliantly, we just want to see what you actually do."

Remus didn't actually seem to have a response to that so, blushing slightly now, he was quick to move on past.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Did you really just ask why that Poltergeist did anything," Lily laughed, "he does it because he thinks it will cause problems."

"I just meant why this in particular?" Harry corrected himself. "It wouldn't really stop anybody in the castle would it?"

"Filch," James pointed out, "he couldn't magic it out, or otherwise open the door without the key."

"Oh, right," Harry nodded, then he eyed Remus curiously, wondering what he was going to do about the matter. Ignore it, or stop him?

"Glad to see he still remembers me," Remus laughed.

"Guess it doesn't count after Remus locked him in a closet one time," Sirius snickered.

"Only worked for about a second, but it made me feel better," Remus shrugged, "he's hated me specifically ever since."

"And Merlin knows how awful that would be," Lily giggled.

"Not going to take that now are you," James smirked, even more bright-eyed now as he recognized all too well the expression on his friend's face. No way was he going to let Peeves do that without some small payback, especially in front of students.

"Sure this is just heart wrenching for you," Sirius snickered.

"Cool," the other three said with interest, James and Sirius only half manageable since they were still snickering away at this lovely visual mental image. Harry watched them all curiously, but didn't interrupt to ask what that spell did, since the book was obviously fixing to say.

Now Harry was laughing right along with them, mentally storing that spell away for future use, and hoping he'd asked for specifics of that spell. Was it a spell that merely shoots gum up a person's nose, or was it more generalized that it would shoot anything up a nose, or perhaps it simply shot a small object in a preferred direction? He decided to ask for the details later.

"How do you know his name?" Sirius stuttered, still half out of breath from his laughing fit.

"How should I know?" Remus reminded, thinking most likely he'd just come across him in a hallway or something as unmentionable.

"Kind of makes you wonder if that was just a little setup?" James muttered to his friend, who nodded with enthusiasm. The pair wouldn't put it past him to perhaps go that particular direction that Peeves was in, since despite his words, Remus most likely would want his class to respect him, especially this class.

"Now Remus," Lily began, unable to keep a teasing tone out of her voice, "what exactly are you getting these students into?"

"Nothing that you're thinking," he responded back kindly, causing Sirius to release a bark of laughter.

James was looking lovingly over at his wife, never not finding it amusing when she beat him to a comment.

"Oh not him again," Sirius groaned, "as if I didn't want him dead once today already."

To be perfectly honest, he actually said that while eyeing Lily, hoping to finally get some sort of response out of her. Still no one answered him, and while Remus agreed, it didn't stop him from reading what was about to happen.

James frowned and cocked his head to the side, silently noting that Snape wasn't exactly being professional right then, he really should have addressed him as a Professor in front of the students. Then again, this was Snape he was thinking about.

That finally seemed to have done it, Lily got to her feet anyways, but instead of the screaming fit they were all expecting, she walked calmly over to Sirius and took her son away, then went up the stairs muttering that he needed his diaper checked.

Harry watched after her, a little fearful at how she seemed to be handling this. The other boys were more than wary at this point. "Can't believe Lily's still sticking up for him," Sirius said in disgust, craning his neck around to keep an eye on the stairs to make sure she hadn't heard that.

Remus shrugged and leaned back casually as he said, "personally, if she is still defending him, someone really needs to get it through her thick head enough is enough. How on earth can she excuse him after this?"

"I don't think so," James shook his head, looking more puzzled than anything now. "D'you see the way she looked right before she did that? Honestly I think the only thing stopping her from screaming her head off about him was the baby in the room."

Harry was personally on his Dad's side, he'd recognized that look of loathing on her face before as well, but before any more could be said Lily came back in, and offered the baby back to the boys. Sirius took him happily, and no more was said after Lily simply waved Remus on.

"Agreed," Sirius nodded with conviction, still keeping a wary eye on Lily like he was still expecting her to snap at him. She did no such thing, and her expression remained almost neutral.

"Thank you Remus," James said sincerely, "that poor kid needs someone to stand up to Snape for him."

Remus was beaming, knowing full well he'd do this again in a heartbeat.

"Good riddance ya foul little beetle," Sirius said in a goofy, baby tone of voice, getting a reaction from the baby, but clearly still not pushing Lily's buttons enough. James gave him a hard nudge in the side, clearly saying he needed to knock it off now, but Sirius was enjoying this too much. He'd held back a lot of comments on account of getting told off by Lily for it, now it seemed that wasn't going to be the case anymore, he was going to have a field day with this.

"Oh," Remus said brightly.

"Know what it is?" Lily asked with interest.

"A couple things came to mind," he nodded, "and it makes plenty of sense now why I would have brought them there."

"Can't hardly blame them," James agreed, "they haven't exactly had a lot of good practice dealing with anything in this class."

"Ooh, this is going to be fun," Sirius nodded happily.

"Glad you lot approve," Remus chuckled lightly when the others agreed.

"Impressed those two know what that is, considering the little education that's been going on in this class," Lily rolled her eyes.

"Don't think it's fair for you to have said that, when I'm the one who told you that happened in my house," Sirius pointed out.

"Still a relevant point," Remus shot back.

"No surprise there," Harry nodded.

"Then what does it look like?" Harry asked inquisitively.

Remus cocked his head to the side in curiosity, thinking on that for a moment before answering, "no one knows. I'd assume it would likely be in a form it thinks would scare anyone who snuck up on it, yet until it grasps hold of one mind, there's no real way to tell."

"One mind?" Harry repeated, just a bit of anxiety creeping in now.

"It can read your mind," Remus nodded, "that's how it knows what will fear you most."

"Now that we've got that covered, though you're likely to just go over it again," Sirius pointed out in a long-suffering voice. Remus gave him the stank eye for a moment, but didn't deny that.

"Poor kid," James couldn't help but grin.

"Like Remus is going to let anything too bad happen," Sirius rolled his eyes at the ludicrous thought.

"That was almost rude," Lily said a little cheekily, not really meaning it as Harry hardly looked upset. "He didn't exactly have his hand raised."

Remus shrugged, not looking very abashed, he was sure he wanted to know especially what his little cub might know about magical creatures, no he wasn't taking a special interest that would be ridiculous…

"Does she really answer every question from a teacher?" James now asked. "That hardly seems fair to any other student."

"I'm sure if anyone else ever volunteered, the teacher would pick someone else," Sirius shrugged.

"Now when did this happen?" James asked in surprise.

Remus then had a surreal moment as he realized he was very soon going to be experiencing and doing things, without any of his friends around. What exactly had he been doing these past twelve years? He couldn't help but sink down into himself a bit when he realized he had no answer, nor did he particularly want to find out. It was also rather odd to think he had memories then that he had no idea about now… but since it was a rhetorical question anyways no one said anything.

"Always loved the name of that spell," Sirius said, maybe a little too loudly that time, as he noticed Remus' mood seemed to have gone down a pinch. They were still enjoying his first class too much to allow him too much self-depression again, so he was hoping to cheer his friend back up. It didn't actually seem to work that well.

"That poor boy," Lily fretted, "has he no confidence at all?"

"Then this class will help," James said adamantly.

"You seem to be enjoying this a little too much," Sirius smirked at him.

Getting a smile in return as Remus answered, "I always enjoy watching others interact with Boggarts, never ceases to amuse what interesting things people will come up with to laugh at."

All four boys released surprised and amused snorts of laughter, while Lily pursed up her lips so tightly the skin went almost white. She didn't find it the least bit funny that he had clearly scarred this student so badly, this little third year was now terrified of him! Despite the fact that there wasn't any danger around, Lily reached over and clutched her son's hand to her for a moment to comfort herself and convince her mind not to start screaming about this as well, she would have to hold it in until she was a little more alone without an audience for when she broke down and really dug into these soon overflowing emotions that she was trying very hard to keep a lid on.

"I note Remus actually used his title, not that he deserved it," James pointed out, in a less harsh tone than he would have liked to, still too keyed up and happy to be hearing about this.

Which gained yet another laugh, this time from all present. Even Lily couldn't deny that, yes, the adults of your life that you lived with would tend to scare you a bit.

Sirius and James lost it. They knew quite well what exactly Remus was planning just by that simple sentence, but they reined themselves in very quickly, refusing to explain to a confused Harry and Lily what they were now very sure what was about to happen. Remus looked pleasantly amused with himself as well, feeling this was more than justified just from the little comment he'd made about Neville at the beginning of class.

"Brilliant, this is beyond perfect," Sirius muttered, pure glee in his expression.

"He has no idea," James guffawed, almost stuffing his fist in his mouth to keep himself contained so he could listen.

Remus couldn't get through that whole sentence without having to stop and stifle his giggling. James and Sirius didn't even bother, and by the end where Harry and Lily realized where this was going, they weren't any better. They didn't even need to be there to see this, the vivid mental image it painted was one of the best any of them could have come up with.

Sirius tried to speak in between bursts of laughter, "this…is…your…best…prank…ever!" There might have been more, but he still wasn't that intelligible.

"I wouldn't really consider it a prank even," James disagreed, wiping at his eyes to clear his happy tears away, "'cause he's not really doing it to Snape. He's just creating a little revenge for the poor kid, and no one can even do anything to say it's wrong."

"Wouldn't have been too surprised if it had simply disappeared then," Lily chuckled.

"No, it has to be more direct," Remus coached.

That finally dried up a bit of laughter in the room as one person in particular from that class came to mind. All eyes flicked to Harry and away quickly, not really wanting to think on what could scare him the most. A Basilisk came to mind, or giant spiders, even that demented spirit of a creature Voldemort had become, sticking out of the back of Quirrell's head. Any of those were likely to come up when the boggart turned on him, and none would be very pleasant reminders.

They all made a face and shifted around uneasily, not exactly happy they had been right in one of their guesses, and also wondering how you even could make that funny. Putting him up in a dress and handbag just might not work as well.

"Should probably be everybody's greatest fear," James nodded in agreement.

Sirius couldn't help the involuntary shiver that came when he heard about those things all over again, matched by Harry now.

"Now that's interesting," Remus noted lightly, eyeing both Harry and Sirius curiously.

"What?" Lily asked, a little reproachfully. She didn't think anything that scared her son should be treated with interest.

Remus didn't seem to notice the tone as he answered, "their greatest fear seems to be fear manifested itself. I've never heard of that before, but it makes sense."

Sirius huffed and grumbled something under his breath, cuddling the baby closer to him and muttering that wasn't what he was really afraid of, but the others ignored him as James said, "agreed, now let's see how Harry decides to make that funny."

It was clear he didn't want to linger on the subject, and no one argued the point.

"Well kudos to Ron, he both admits what he's afraid of, and knows how to deal with it," Sirius nodded in approval.

"Can't even blame you on that one," Lily said with sympathy.

"Though I'm sure Remus would have given it to you anyways," James shot back.

"Still don't want to ask for it," Harry reminded with a shrug.

Sirius snapped his fingers and said, "I know, you could light its cloak on fire, might look funny to watch it flail around the room like a ninny."

The others managed a small smile for his attempt at humor, but none of them really thought it was that funny, or that Harry would think to do this; though they all hoped.

All of them smiled with real pride at this, he wasn't even really anything to do with them, but they still couldn't help but feel proud this boy was clearly forcing himself to stand up to this.

"Give it to him Neville," James said under his breath, eyeing the book with wide-eyed hope.

"Could the Boggart actually perform a spell," Harry blurted out, instantly feeling bad as he too wanted to know if Neville had pulled this off, but the question had just sprung to mind.

No one actually looked annoyed at him, indeed they were rather pleased he truly didn't seem to be bottling up his questions anymore, and Remus was quick to answer, "no, it doesn't carry the magical ability of what it turns into. In this case it would just brandish a wand, scaring him further, until it could pounce and kill him."

Having already pictured this lovely mental image didn't draw back the laughter one bit. The four boys were very sure indeed they would never not laugh at this mental image, it was far too perfect for anything they'd ever come up with. Lily couldn't deny she was still amused as well, though now her lips were more twitching than outright laughter.

Sirius randomly noted that Remus had actually known all of these kids' names, but decided to let it go, who knew why he knew these students names before they introduced themselves. It's not as if he'd called roll to learn them, but maybe he was just overthinking this one.

"Oh yes, those can scare the daylights out of you," Lily nodded in agreement.

James and Sirius released snorts of laughter at that, that's not what they had been thinking to do to it, but that was funny all the same.

"Wonder when Seamus would have run into one of those?" James asked with interest.

"Wonder where that other girl would have run into a mummy?" Lily countered.

"You don't actually have to run into it for it to scare you," Remus reasoned out, "just the thought of it can be enough for the boggart to latch on to."

All of them laughed lightly at this, James actually applauding that logic.

The three Marauders winced at the random reminder that their friend wasn't here to enjoy this, but Remus didn't pause to let it last.

"Bloody hell," Sirius spluttered, looking genuinely disturbed at that, "who thinks up that?"

"Now that might actually have a story to it," Remus nodded with just a hint of disgust, but he still read curiously to see what Dean might do with it.

Which garnered a new round of laughter from all of them, definite points for originality on that one.

"I'd like to remind someone of this the next time they pick on Ron for being afraid of spiders," James said, giving a lofty look at Lily, who pointedly ignored him. She'd already taken back and felt bad for giggling at him before, no need for him to remind her of that.

"Poor Ron," James said in sympathy.

"Give him a chance," Harry disagreed, though he personally couldn't blame his friend one bit if he had frozen, he was probably reliving that awful scene from last year in the Forbidden Forest.

James instantly looked abashed for not having enough faith in Ron, and he laughed right along with the others and applauded him for pulling that off.

"Hey!" Harry said indignantly.

Remus pursed his lips as the others gave him confused looks as well for stepping in like that, but then he shrugged and offered "Guess I really didn't want a Voldemort, or a dementor, appearing in the room right then and scaring the other students." Even to him it felt like a lame excuse, why wouldn't he have given Harry the chance to fight off the boggart like everyone else? Harry was still frowning, not looking very happy with that answer, but Remus really couldn't think of anything else to say. He felt like he should apologize, but would Harry really take it now when he hadn't technically done it yet…or perhaps he might even still be resenting him for still not having come to talk to him this week. Either way, he turned back to the book rather shamefaced at his actions.

None of them really needed to ask, it made perfect sense this would be his greatest fear.

"A cockroach, that's the funniest thing you could come up with?" Sirius muttered, and Remus ignored him.

James and Sirius gave another laugh, but this time they were the only ones who did. Then they frowned at each other, rather annoyed the mood got popped so easily, and really hoping the Remus in the book would get a move on already with what was weighing them all down.

"Can boggarts die?" Lily asked randomly, never having thought of that.

Remus was fidgeting with the pages, not really looking like he wanted to answer. Sirius considered smacking him to try and get him to stop acting like this when he really hadn't done anything wrong, yet. Before he could though James already answered, "nah, they're amortal."

At Harry's continued blank look, Sirius said, "that means that they never truly existed, so they can't ever truly die. It's not really like immortal, dementors are actually the same. They were never born, nor can they ever die, they just exist."

Harry nodded in understanding, and the second the silence lingered Remus was quick to read.

James let out a low, throaty whistle saying, "wow, spoil them much?"

"Oh I'm sure Remus is above favoring," Lily smirked lightly, and then they both frowned when he still refused to react.

"Ugh, I wish Moony was above giving homework," Sirius said in disgust.

Remus did react then, giving his friend an annoyed look, he seemed very close on the verge of pointing out the importance of homework, but let it go at the last second.

"That's not it at all!" Remus flipped, and Harry couldn't help but smile along with everyone to see him talking again, animatedly as he was quick to explain "Harry, I know you're not weak. Then and now," he stopped for a moment and went a little cross-eyed, but ignored the odd time loop, "I'm sure I simply just didn't want you to do it, ah for the same reason I said." It still sounded false to his own ears, but Harry was now eyeing him hopefully, so Remus at least hoped he'd made him feel better. Harry didn't say anything aloud though, so he didn't really think so.

"Oh please let them continue believing that," Remus muttered to himself.

"Now that was funny," Sirius snickered, "you being afraid of a glass ball."

"I'll take that over what it really was," Remus shot back, and Sirius frowned at him, feeling Remus was being a little snappier than was called for. Then again, he was used to Remus getting snippy with him this time of the month, so he didn't push it.

"Well there is that," James nodded eagerly, and Remus really did offer a small smile then for the compliment.

All of them released surprised snorts of laughter then, Harry loudest of all as he had a funny feeling Ron wasn't too far off, but having no idea why that could be.

"Chapter's over by the way," Remus said, giving the book a gentle toss over to Lily, who caught it lightly.