A/N: A big stinking thank you to every single person! I'd write it randomly throughout the story as well if I didn't think that would annoy you guys to show just how grateful I am.

Lily took the book with very mixed emotions. Harry was only one week into this school year and already she felt as wrung out and emotionally drained as his other two years. She would also keep a lid on her emotions and not blow up at Snape like she knew they were all expecting. Hoping it just couldn't get any worse, she hesitantly began to read.

Remus couldn't help but beam with pleasure, while James and Sirius were unsurprised and smirking.

Lily's lips formed a sneer of annoyance; she found it horrid anyone would say something about someone else because of the way they dressed, especially when he couldn't help it.

She saw the boys clench as they fought their disgust, only Remus rolled his eyes, not looking very concerned. He doubted this kid could say anything he hadn't already heard before.

"I like to think I'm a little better off than an old pillow case," Remus said lightly.

"Wonder what happened to Dobby anyways," James said with interest, still rather wound up at anybody insulting one of his friends, but recognizing it couldn't really be handled right now.

"I'm rather sure I find out," Harry said with as much confidence as he ever could when talking about his future, but he did seem rather sure on this matter, so the others let it go for now.

"The good people never do care about such trivial things," Sirius nodded in agreement, always wishing he could help his friend out more if he'd allow it, but grateful that the students had looked past his physical appearance to see the real friend and good person beneath.

However much they all forced themselves to continue ignoring the issue, they all felt just that little bit worse when they realized time was still dragging on and Remus very clearly wasn't going to have that talk with Harry. Why though, what possible reason could he have for ignoring him like this? If it really was Dumbledore stopping him, then what motive could the Headmaster have? Harry deserved an adult wizard in his life, one that would make sure to look after him like Dumbledore himself clearly hadn't. No one could bring themselves to say anything aloud about this topic though, having no more answers now than when this had first come up.

Instead, Harry at least tried to push past that awkward part and asked, "why were you focusing on the dark creatures though? Were we that far behind?"

Remus gave himself a hard little shake, uneasily meeting Harry's eyes as he explained, "well, yes and no. I do specialize in dark creatures, as Dumbledore well knows I enjoy studying them in my spare time. Mostly though that's just what the third year curriculum focuses on, scattered in with the spells used to combat them."

Harry nodded in understanding, while James and Sirius tried not to share an uneasy look. On top of Remus' odd behaviour so far in this, they were also well aware that this was the year when most students focused on how to spot werewolves. That wouldn't be an easy lesson for Remus to teach, and it wasn't any more pleasant to wonder how Harry was going to react to that. He seemed fine with it now, but could they stand it if he had an initial bad reaction to their friend? Of course they were just assuming Harry figured it out like they had, but what if Remus sat Harry down and explained that before hand, it could even be the reason why he was so unsurprised to relearn the news here with them.

More questions than answers, and still none of them dared speak any of this allowed.

Lily grit her teeth in frustration, before reading on forcefully, already having to use a lot of self-restraint to read in a normal tone.

"Bitter old bat," Sirius huffed.

Here James and Sirius again didn't bother hiding their laughter one little bit, dearly hoping they never would have to again.

"Glad he blames me for that rather than Neville," Remus frowned, "at least I can handle him."

Lily wasn't the only one seething by the end of this; they all wanted to strangle this overgrown child for treating a student like that. It was Snape's own damned fault he was Neville's worst fear, and the subsequent boggart form. It was infuriating for him to still not have learned his lesson. His continuation of the treatment to Neville and the other students was doing nothing to stop future boggart incidents. Lily was going to give him a not very pleasant visit soon.

"Oh please," James scoffed with perhaps a bit more acid than normal, still distracted and peeved at Snape's actions.

"Ah the easily fooled youth," Sirius said lightly, finding her rather annoying as well.

"And Hermione has to share a dorm with them," Lily asked in disgust, "I feel bad for her now."

"That must get annoying, considering how loud the school can get. Could you even hear them?" Remus asked.

Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes, finding those girls antics rather annoying as he said, "I hardly spoke to them anyways, and no, not really. By that point I didn't care."

"Oh no," Sirius frowned, "what happened?"

"Ouch," Remus winced in sympathy.

"Poor Hagrid," Lily agreed with a frown.

"Guess I can see that happening," James admitted.

"Ron's also got a point," Sirius rolled his eyes, "flobberworms are very self-managing, and they're pretty much just grub for a few creatures. Hagrid's doing the class a real injustice for lingering on these things longer than five minutes."

"I can only imagine the seventh years appreciating this, as if he carries on too long their NEWT's will be a breeze," Remus agreed with a slight wince.

"Yes," all four boys brightened up at that, and then Sirius narrowed his eyes dangerously at Lily and said, "I swear if you get to read his Quidditch chapter, I'm going to have a fit. It's high time I've gotten my turn at that."

Lily rolled her eyes at him; personally she was hoping she didn't get it too since she had hardly enjoyed the sport even before it seemed to have gone out of its way to pulverize her son every chance it got. She'd gladly hand over the book to Sirius if he really wanted to read it.

"Oh here we go again," James rolled his eyes, "the book explaining something we've already gone over."

"Yes well, since it's about Quidditch, I'm willing to allow this," Sirius smirked.

"At least it was brief," Remus shrugged without concern.

"Oh that's right," James nodded, "this will be his last year there. Poor kid hasn't won the Cup once as captain has he?"

Harry shuffled a little, feeling personally to blame for this, but the others still wouldn't hear of it and spent a few more minutes telling Harry why this was ridiculous of him to think so. He did look slightly better by the end of it, and still had a personal conviction that nothing like this should happen this year, he and his team would win that Cup, he hoped.

Hoping to make Harry feel at least a little better Sirius also pointed out, "besides, it's not like anyone who would review him for a professional team could blame any of that on you. They'd look at his statistics of how many goals he's saved, and other such stats."

Harry did look a little better at that reminder, thinking he had won Wood every game he'd been in so far, and ignoring an odd little feeling like he should correct that statement.

"See, that wasn't your fault at all, just paranoid teachers," Sirius said bracingly.

"Rightly paranoid," Lily corrected, "but I'll admit you're still right too."

"Well they're not modest are they," James chuckled.

"Damned straight," Sirius and James both grinned, having called this way back when Harry started playing, and still convinced until otherwise proven that Harry would never lose a match.

"Err, gee, thanks," Lily muttered, though she was smiling a bit too at how happy Harry seemed at such praise.

"Glad they gave him his credit," Remus approved.

"Aw," James and Sirius said with concern.

"Okay, now I'm really hoping you win this year just because of that," Remus agreed.

While the boys were still giddy with excitement as well, Sirius was personally hoping this match got put off for another two chapters, feeling it was high time he got his Quidditch game.

Harry went from pent up excitement at the prospect of winning the Cup like he so dearly hoped, to disgruntled at once. In all the excitement of finding out Sirius and Remus were alive, right now he was more than distracted by the matter, but he knew his thirteen year old self would still be beyond upset at this turn of events.

Then the four of them winced, having a rather bad track record of that holiday in their opinion, but still more than convinced nothing too bad could happen to Harry this year, or any more years for that matter. Remus and Sirius would get this whole mess figured out…why they hadn't already was still too touchy for anyone to bring up. The point was Harry now had two great protectors who wouldn't let anything too bad happen to him again.

"Did someone magically sign his form, and he's still prevented from going this time," Lily asked redundantly.

Sirius winced, but still said in a forced light tone, "that's not why he's not allowed to go, come on Hermione should be able to keep up better than that."

"She's probably so distracted by her butt loads of homework," James reminded.

Sirius was making goofy faces at the baby again and refusing to allow himself to react negatively to this continued topic.

"She'll say no every stinking time," James grumbled, "because he doesn't have his stupid form."

"They really can't keep him locked up forever," Remus rolled his eyes.

"Argue what?" Lily demanded.

"That I shouldn't," Harry shrugged.

"Hermione's being a bit paranoid this year," Sirius noted, "really, I'm with Remus, she can't expect you to stay cooped up forever."

James couldn't help but snort with laughter at that, the cat was hardly being subtle about its feelings towards Ron.

"Not going to say anything Lily," Sirius asked, still trying to get a provocation out of her, and being more amused the longer this went on. She was trying so hard not to react to anything.

"No," Lily shrugged without looking up, "I'm not perfect, and I'll willingly admit I had to sometimes get help from others on some homework. I think Harry should have tried first, but there's nothing for it now."

Harry wasn't the only one who gave her a surprised look at that, but he did look the most grateful.

"Dang," Remus winced, "is he still after Scabbers?"

"Apparently," James grumbled, feeling all the more annoyed at both cat and girl now.

"Really?" Sirius demanded. "He's trying to eat Ron's pet, and that's her response."

"Both of them need to learn to keep their pets separated," Lily agreed.

"Kind of hard to do when they spend so much time together," Harry sighed.

"Uh oh," they all muttered, knowing Scabbers was much safer in Ron's bag, not that the rat could understand that.

"Good thing he's not a Chaser then," Sirius muttered without any real humor, feeling just as uneasy as anyone else at how this might turn out.

"Where the cat hopefully can't follow," Remus nodded happily.

"At least that went better than I feared," Lily sighed in relief.

"Yeah, but how many more times is it going to happen," James was still frowning, "Hermione should have realized it was a bad idea to buy that particular cat back when this happened before."

None of them could think of anything else to say, all having a very bad feeling this was going to get worse before it got better.

"True," Lily nodded, "but she should have thought of that back when she bought him, and not bought him."

"Buying a cat when one of your best friends owns a rat feels like a recipe for disaster," Remus agreed.

"Now he's just being a little ridiculous," Sirius smirked. "'Heard'? Nah, he smelt him obviously."

"Not the point," James reminded.

"A very good point," Lily huffed, while Remus cocked his head to the side, thinking over that sentence. Scabbers had been getting sick before Hermione bought Crookshanks, so Ron was obviously exaggerating that part as well. This also couldn't be the first time Scabbers had interacted with a cat; surely some other Gryffindor owned one. The truth probably was; Scabbers was getting old, and Ron was projecting his fear of his pet dying of old age on his hatred of the cat.

"At least she asks," James said still a little stiffly.

"Hermione cares," Lily snipped at him for the tone, "perhaps she's not showing it that well, but it's not like she set that cat on Scabbers on purpose. She'd be just as upset if an accident did happen and Crookshanks ate him."

James backed off slightly, noting that at least Hermione's asking was an attempt at the start of an apology.

"And Ron's clearly still holding a grudge," Sirius noted.

Harry's startled look was enough to make the others laugh, never getting tired of his constant surprise of the magical world.

"Know the answer to that already," Remus sighed.

"He's got a point," James nodded when Harry looked like he might try and argue his point. "Unless you outright tell McGonagall why they hadn't signed, which by your track record you won't" he finished in a rather grumpy tone.

Harry sighed, knowing full well he'd never tell a teacher something like that, so remained silent and hoped anyways.

"Oh no," Lily frowned in concern.

"She's a girl," Sirius scoffed, "I'm sure she's just exaggerating."

"And here I thought you actually had a heart," Lily snapped at him at once, ignoring his eye roll. Whether he meant it or not, he really needed to stop making jokes like that.

"Shut it Sirius," Lily snapped at him before he could open his mouth.

Sirius pouted at her, grumbling that she was kind of proving his point about how dramatic girls were, but then James nudged him and convinced him to let it go.

"Aw," Sirius winced, "okay, poor kid."

"Thank you," Lily acknowledged.

Sirius made sure she could see his eye roll this time, stating, "come on Lils, I'm not heartless. I own an owl; I'd be pretty upset if anything happened to him too."

Lily still didn't think he'd gotten her point, that he shouldn't have made the joke in the first place, but decided to let it go.

"Oh crap," Remus said, blinking in shock.

"I'd honestly forgotten about that," James admitted.

"Wow, honestly, I think that Trelawney might have some real Seer's blood," Sirius said in surprise.

"Really Sirius? One right prediction and that's what you go with?" Lily asked, not bothering to try and hide her disbelief.

Sirius shrugged, personally he found the odds that not only had she chosen the death omen that was dogging Harry this year, but now this? No, he truly was beginning to believe this woman might really have a power, even if she did still annoy him for her use of it on his pup. He said as much aloud, and while he didn't really seem to convince anyone but Harry, the others found the argument to become rather circular after a time. Sirius wasn't letting up and he wasn't convincing anyone else so Lily decided to forcefully read on past him.

"Really Hermione?" Remus said with a frown. "Now, really?"

"I can see what she's trying to do," Lily nodded in agreement with both the girl and Remus, "but, yeah, wrong time and place."

"A fair reaction honestly," James sighed.

"Harry, now would be the time to be a good friend and drag Hermione away," Remus pointed out.

"Before she continues making an arse out of herself like this," Sirius agreed. While he still would have argued the point on the probability of this happening on this day, he more than agreed Hermione wasn't doing it the right way.

Harry just sighed, he'd only observed the scene and hadn't really put an opinion on the matter, but he had felt rather bad for his friend as the rest of the class had been giving her harsh looks.

"Now that was just tactless," Lily winced.

"And that was just heartless," Remus huffed.

"Finally I can count on her good timing again," Sirius said weakly, more than happy himself to have avoided that fight, and they weren't even his friends.

"Ouch," all five of them winced, though none of them would admit rather selfishly pleased if Neville wouldn't be permitted to go either. They could hardly get mad at Hermione and Ron for wanting to go, but it would certainly make them feel a little better if Harry wasn't left behind on this.

"Smart woman at least," Lily said aloud, ignoring the internal wince.

"Still don't understand why she's arguing that one," Lily shook her head in disbelief. "Harry deserves to have a little fun."

"Forgot," the four of them muttered in disgust, eyeing Harry in disbelief. They honestly wondered if Harry had told her what really happened if she would have really done something about it, but they couldn't say they were surprised at this point either. Harry's bad habit of glossing over this clearly hadn't gotten any better now that he was older.

"And stammering on top of everything," Remus sighed.

"I could already tell her answer from the look on her face before I finished," Harry sighed.

"That's what you're going with," Lily groaned, "just tell her the truth, and let's sit back and see how quickly they continue living."

Harry gave her a rather edgy look for her tone of voice but chose not to comment on that.

"And now I want to cry for that reminder," Sirius hissed, looking far more deadly than upset in that moment at that stupid reminder they were all Harry had to claim as guardian right then.

"I'd like to think more like confusion," Remus huffed, "since she'd probably be wondering why you really hadn't gotten your form signed."

"With any luck she'll bring it up to you, and you'll investigate," Sirius murmured to him, causing a vindictive smirk to appear on both of their faces.

"The worst part is, McGonagall's still in the right," Lily sighed.

"Yeah, she's not exactly being helpful this year," James sighed.

"Not exactly the worst consolation prize," Sirius offered bracingly, and Harry tried his best to give him a smile he didn't really feel.

"Now there's an idea," James said, going bright-eyed.

"Except that Harry just got done saying he hadn't had his form signed," Remus reminded.

"Harry could have mailed it back and had it signed," Sirius said, mind now churning with possibility as he came up with a story for this. "He shouldn't give it to her until the day before, gives some credibility to the idea, and he'd have to mail himself something that looks like that in case McGonagall notices how often he gets mail. Most likely she doesn't, but it's a safe backup."

"You are putting way too much thought into this," Lily told him.

"Nonsense," Sirius scoffed at the same time James said, "no such thing."

While Harry didn't disagree with them, he had a sinking feeling that all of Sirius' planning didn't actually come true then, and hardly looked happy about it as Lily read.

"Well dang, clearly no one in your dorm thinks outside the box," Remus sighed.

"Wish you'd go to the twins for help," James grumbled, "they could sneak you in no problem."

Harry perked up suddenly, his dad's words finally gave him that feeling he'd been missing, and he had a very good feeling this just might be what happened at some point. Still too worried about being wrong on the matter though, he didn't say this.

"Which might have worked if not for those bloody dementors," Sirius grimaced.

"Oh this can't be good," James groaned.

"Not as Seriously as I could have," Sirius said quickly, clutching the baby to his chest to prevent either of his friends from smacking him.

"You shouldn't be allowed to do that," James grumbled, looking rather disappointed that he didn't have a chance to get at him.

"I think I should claim rights," Remus huffed, eyeing the baby, "you've been holding him long enough."

"I might share if you didn't look like you were about to slap me once I did," Sirius smirked.

"He only listed like a fourth of the good stuff," James huffed under his breath, making sure Harry didn't hear that one so he really wouldn't feel worse.

"That's when you know you have some good friends," Sirius smiled brightly, "when they put aside their differences for you."

Harry couldn't help but beam right back, trying his very best to smother how much he really missed his friends.

"I get the feeling it wasn't actually an offhand tone of voice," Remus said lightly, "but good effort for trying."

'Which was basically every third year and up, aside from Harry,' they all sighed in their head, but kept that comment to themselves.

"Of all the bloody rotten timing for him to-" Sirius began, using a bit more of a threatening growl than normal because of his depressed mood for his little pup being left behind.

Harry grumbled something about he really couldn't picture that. Honestly the other four really couldn't either, it was never worth passing up an opportunity getting out of the castle, with permission the three trouble makers mentally added on.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot about him," Remus said in surprise.

"Well he clearly wasn't dogging you that year, or he would have been mentioned by now," Sirius pointed out.

"No, thankfully he hadn't memorized my schedule again," Harry said in relief, but repeated, "but he still went out of his way to talk to me." He didn't exactly look pleased, but he had to admit this was still better than last year.

"I don't see that as being at the top of his to do list," James smirked.

"Pretty good on the spot lie," Remus appraised.

"Because you deserve it for sleeping in the middle of the day," Lily snapped right back.

All four of them were wincing in pain, hating how truly upset and lonely he seemed to be right then.

"You can't ever really be doing nothing," James said loudly, trying to get at least a small smile out of Harry again.

Sirius noticed at once and continued, "yeah, like technically right then you were walking, that's something. Or you were standing, that's something to. You can't ever really be doing nothing."

Harry recognized what they were doing and really did give them a small smile for the effort.

"Funny part is he actually wasn't doing anything wrong right then," Remus chuckled.

"Probably had another flashback to when he caught James like that," Lily pointed out lightly.

"He just thinks so much of all of them doesn't he?" Sirius snickered.

James rolled his eyes and pointed out, "it's not like it's curfew or anything; Harry can go wherever he wants to in that castle."

"Like that's ever stopped Filch," Remus pointed out.

"At least that'll be something pleasant," Lily sighed.

"Yes!" All five of them brightened at once. Surely the fact that Remus had just called out to him meant he really couldn't ignore him this time! Why he had waited until now, months after school had started they still couldn't guess, but now would be the most perfect time to finally have that talk Harry so desperately deserved.

"Well I should hope so," James agreed.

"Remus I will give you all of the gold in my vault right now if you bloody ask him about this," Sirius said, nearly bouncing around in anticipation for what this could mean.

"And Harry actually tells him the truth," James noted.

Remus couldn't help the pessimistic little niggle that Harry had known him for far less a time then he'd even known McGonagall, so why would he tell him something like that? He looked so dejected Sirius finally gave up the baby and passed him along to Remus, which put a smile on his face at once.

The two boys refused to let them get their hopes down. So Remus hadn't started off like they would have preferred, but it was finally happening. He and Harry were completely alone with the best amount of time no one would walk in on a conversation that was so desperately needed. If Remus didn't get to it this time, they would know something was up.

"I always get those confused with kappas," Lily said absently.

"Kappa is Japanese for cucumber," Remus said randomly.

At Lily's blank look he shrugged and said, "when I was first learning about them, I found that a random and interesting fact, so when I got to grindylows it was an interesting distinction."

"Okay then," Lily said with a shrug and a small smile, not having actually expected an answer.

"You are the only person who would actually keep that thing in his office," Sirius snickered.

"It's not that weird," Remus defended. "Where else would I keep it?"

"In the staff's supply room, where all the other teachers keep their stuff, like live animals, they plan on using for class," James said in a duh like voice. "Did it never occur to you why McGonagall and Flitwick don't have a bunch of random animals around their offices?"

Remus rolled his eyes; he wasn't going to argue the point.

Remus grimaced and turned his attention back to the child, hating just how awkward it clearly was for the two of them to be in the same room. He felt lucky Harry had accepted at all, considering the past two DADA teachers had attacked him.

Harry tried to catch his eye and give him a reassuring smile now, to prove he didn't still feel that way, but Remus was clearly ignoring everyone else in the room now.

Sirius couldn't help but give a little surprised laugh, Remus had obviously been checking up on Harry's other classes.

"I'm sure you two had a nice long conversation about him," James snickered, having quite the amusement at McGonagall telling Remus all the things Harry had been up to the past two years at school.

Harry looked mildly annoyed at this, not really appreciating the thought of teachers sitting around gossiping about him, but couldn't find it in himself to be to mad at Remus for this, knowing now that he probably just wanted to know more about him.

"Now that would have been interesting," Lily said, eyeing Remus who did look mildly entertained at how that reaction would go. Most likely, if his assumption was correct, Sirius would have already told him that he'd seen Harry then; but he certainly wished Harry would tell him. It would help ease into the conversation they were all wanting to hear about Harry's past really being explained to him by someone who really knew.

Which popped any form of happiness Remus was feeling, and he turned as if to quickly say something to Harry, who waved him off and said, "I know, you already said it now. I didn't know then."

Remus still didn't look very happy, but admitted there wasn't much else he could say right then.

Remus winced and began bouncing his leg in high agitation now, greatly amusing the baby at least though it didn't seem to be helping him now. He would never not hate just how little Harry seemed to trust him, Harry should have been able to come to him with any of his worries since he could talk, not this nonsense where he was lucky Harry was talking to him at all!

His emotions were written all over his lined face, so Sirius took pity on him and tried to put some comfort into his words as he said, "Let it go Remus. Yeah this sucks, but there's no sense in dwelling on this now that we're going to fix it." Sirius was still rather torn about Remus in the future. His actions were more annoying than anything; what could be holding Remus back, from stopping him from seeing Harry like he should have. But had decided to wait until that reason was revealed before he fully passed a judgment on Remus' actions.

Remus didn't exactly look comforted, but Lily decided to read on anyways.

Which made them all perk up as if Christmas had suddenly been announced. It didn't matter what had changed Harry's mind about telling Remus, the fact that he was meant more to all of them then they could have put into words.

"No, sorry, not really," Harry told him, still smiling faintly.

Remus fidgeted around a bit, but shrugged all the same, still unsure what to say about his future actions.

"Now that would have been just stupid, one thing Remus usually isn't," James noted.

"Usually?" Remus snapped without any heat, to which James ignored him.

Remus rolled his eyes, he still didn't think this was a good enough reason to publicly deflect Harry the way he had, though his classmates clearly hadn't noticed, he still didn't like the way it had made Harry feel. Then Sirius leaned over and whispered in his ear, "glad to see you obviously still know him so well, even then." Which caused him to smile in spite of himself.

Lily was watching them curiously, noting the change in Remus' demeanor, but kept going when it didn't look like they were about to explain.

"I can see why you'd find that so surprising," James said fairly, "since, aside from Dumbledore, you've yet to see anyone else do that."

"Whom Remus idolizes, so even if he didn't have his own brain, he'd still do whatever that man said," Sirius rolled his eyes.

Remus scowled lightly at him. Yes he was eternally grateful to the headmaster for everything he'd done for him, but Sirius had made it sound like he had blind faith in the man… which he didn't. Mostly. Okay, maybe a little, a lot, before they had read this, but after all the things the book had implied Dumbledore had done to Harry he wasn't one hundred percent sure on that anymore.

"I can see that," Harry said fairly.

"But it still wouldn't do you any good, even if I had been right. You still should have had practice at it just like anyone else," Remus argued back.

James suddenly burst out laughing, causing Remus' annoyed look to double up on him. "What?" he snapped, his tone far sharper than Harry would have thought.

James hardly looked offended, or even surprised, as he admitted, "you do realize you are arguing against yourself right. How is that not funny?"

Remus paused with his head cocked to the side as he realized what James meant, then gave a wane smile and sat back and cuddled the baby as he gave up on the pointless argument.

"Glad to see you agree with yourself on some things," Sirius snickered, causing Remus to stick his tongue out at the pair.

"Well you can't blame him for thinking that," Lily defended.

"Oh I know," Remus said at once peaceably.

"Dang it," they all muttered, wondering who on earth could be interrupting them now when they were finally talking!

"What were you going to ask anyways?" James inquired.

"I was going to ask him about the effects dementors could have on people," Harry admitted. "Wanted to ask why I passed out and Ron didn't."

They looked all the more annoyed now, very much wanting Harry to be able to get that answer, so even before the person came in they were in a disgruntled mood.

"Gah! Can't go one bloody chapter without wanting to hex him lately," Sirius snapped.

"What's he even doing there?" James frowned, "I sincerely doubt it's a casual visit."

Harry was just as curious as the others, thinking back and wondering why something significant might be fixing to happen, so eagerly asked his Mum to go on.

"Try something in front of Remus you slimy little git," Sirius growled.

Remus couldn't help but agree this time, if he started in on Harry he'd have every reason to step in, though he somehow doubted Snape was that stupid.

"Say what now?" James demanded, doing a double take on that.

Lily was looking down at the page, clearly just as confused as anyone else.

"What would you be accepting from him?" Sirius demanded, looking at his friend like he'd just declared he and Snape were the best of friends.

"Whatever was in that goblet I guess," Remus shrugged, looking just as perplexed as anyone else.

This was such an odd interaction, they were still pretty stunned and no one protested when Lily decided to carry on and hope for a better answer.*

"Probably wondering if he's concocting some mad scheme with you," Lily smirked.

"He might have been having a flashback to be honest," James agreed with a laugh.

'Wish he was joking' Sirius noted sourly, wanting very much to grumble about how Snape shouldn't have shown up for hours so these two had a better chance to talk, or not at all preferably.

"Well I obviously know what it is," Remus observed quirking a brow in surprise.

"Wish you did now," James frowned.

"The fact that you two are being so polite to each other honestly scares me," Sirius grumbled.

"I'm just waiting for Harry to ask what's going on," Lily sighed.

"I don't like any look from him," James agreed, his eyes still narrowed suspiciously. Snape wouldn't do anything too bad to Remus in reaction to that Boggart mess, and Remus clearly wasn't bothered by the interaction in the future. Then again, Harry wasn't the best eyes to go on for that, as he might not have even noticed Remus' tells.

"Be a little more scared if he was smiling," Sirius snapped.

"But what is it?" Lily huffed, her eyes narrowed in high agitation that she didn't know the answer to that, though she couldn't help a sneaking suspicion of something it could be.

"Wish I knew," Remus answered with a shrug.

"I don't like this," James and Sirius said in sync, still frowning in concern that Snape might be trying to get some sort of payback at Remus for that boggart stunt. Then again, Remus didn't seem very concerned for this, in fact if they were hearing this right he seemed rather grateful to Snape for whatever that potion was. It was driving them all crazy none of them could figure it out.

Sirius and James exchanged wide-eyed looks at that. 'Off-color' was a kind of inside joke that Remus said when he wasn't feeling well around the full moon, and the 'many wizards aren't up to making it' bit sort of made it seem like it might be about the same thing. Had a potion actually been discovered to help with his lycanthropy? If so, then this was a miracle as much as it was mind-blowing. Neither voiced their suspicions though, wondering if it would give Remus false hope.

"Can't blame you on that one," Sirius agreed, "I wouldn't trust him not to poison me any farther than I could throw him."

"He wouldn't do something like that right under Dumbledore's nose," Lily said at once, and all of the boys noted she had just so phrased that in the way she hadn't exactly said he wouldn't poison Remus. It was far from reassuring, even if it did mean she really wasn't exactly in Snape's corner anymore.

"Which is not a surprise to me, I can assure you," Remus rolled his eyes.

"Glad Harry's so trusting of his potions teacher, really makes me feel all warm and fuzzy," James said with only mild amusement, still stuck on the potion itself.

Then they all pulled a face remarkably close to how Remus had looked finishing off that potion, Harry noted, but didn't need to ask why. He knew they were just as disappointed as he was that their little talk was clearly over, and they actually walked out with more questions than answers.

"Ominous," James drew the word out, still giving the book a significant and haughty look.

"Please, do anything but tell him what all you did," Lily sighed without any hope.

"Well Harry's not helping anything," Remus grumbled.

"And Ron and Hermione clearly weren't pulling any punches," Sirius winced.

"That would have been a fun sight to see," James chuckled, remembering sneaking into there all the time just to watch who came and went.

"Oh yeah, he really sat around and hit the books," Sirius rolled his eyes. "Honestly, doesn't Hermione know him at all?"

"That's actually a fair question as of right now," Sirius agreed sagely.

Remus rolled his eyes at him, stating in as sane a voice as he could muster, "despite my friends, I actually like to argue that from time to time." Even his own face though was showing his misgivings at this fact currently.

"Don't think Harry could really have done much to stop him," James frowned, "or known to do otherwise."

"I still kind of agree with Hermione," Lily said thoughtfully, "Snape's not so stupid to do that in front of someone like Harry, even if he didn't understand what was going on."

"If you're all done deciding whether I'm going to die or not," Remus pleasantly mocked Harry, the pair exchanging amused looks.

James and Sirius frowned, not finding that funny in the least. They'd only just found out he was actually going to survive, the thought of him being killed right now made them want to lash out at anything even slightly threatening. Whether they were right in their guess or not, they still didn't trust Snape to do a damned thing for Remus for any reason.

"I'll admit, I do find that rather comforting," James nodded in agreement, suddenly putting the date with the act and remembering all over again Harry's spectacular bad luck with this particular holiday. If something bad was going to happen to Remus, he wouldn't even be surprised if it had happened on this day.

"Please tell me you are exaggerating," Sirius groaned, "cause otherwise, that is creepy."

"Glad to see they still think that's funny," Harry said, trying to move on to lighter topics, and ignoring the mounting feeling he'd had earlier. He was still so sure something did happen today, but it clearly didn't involve Remus and Snape, so what could he be thinking of?

"That joke is still not funny," all three boys on the couch snapped, thinking this kid really needed to get a grip, or at least a new book of jokes.

"Did McGonagall change the password without telling anyone?" Lily asked in confusion.

"She's only ever done that to us, not the whole house," James disagreed with a frown in place.

Harry was starting to get fidgety again, instinctively knowing something bad was about to happen, and trying his hardest to keep that feeling suppressed.

"Yes, because that will make them move out of the way so much faster," Sirius rolled his eyes, thinking that even if their unlikely guess was right; Percy would know the new password at least.

"What, why, what happened?" The boys demanded at once.

Lily desperately wanted to pause and bite at her lip again, fearing that anything that made Percy upset couldn't be good, but read on quickly anyways for her answer.

James was blinking spastically like someone had just shined a bright light in his eye, while Sirius' mouth was hanging open in shock. Remus and Harry leaned forward, not wanting anyone to pause and try to guess what had happened, but encouraging Lily to keep going and try to get an answer already.

James was getting jittery all over, and keeping a paternal eye on Harry as he watched him continually rub at his temple, a sure sign something important was fixing to happen. Who, or what, on earth would have attacked that painting?

"Found the other person, besides the Bloody Baron, who Peeves won't mess with," Sirius said, but was ignored by the others.

"Running from what?" Remus muttered, though not loud enough Lily stopped to acknowledge it.

The book slipped out of Lily's numb hands and landed on the floor with a thunk.

*I would just like to note before anyone says anything, in chapter eighteen Remus says that the invention of the Wolfsbane potion is 'very recent' which makes me think that it possibly wasn't even discovered until after the events of their deaths. So no, they really don't have any idea what Remus drank.

You can all yell and scream at me all you want, but I wanted to end it there for the dramatics… don't worry you'll get your reactions in the next chapter. Love this chapter, it's a personal favorite of mine watching Remus and Harry interact…heh hope you enjoyed and don't want to kill me now.