Author's Note: I've gotten a few inquiries about when I will return to twice a week. I promise I will eventually soon. Right now I am still healing over the trauma over the hate, my mother, and my dog. Due to all of that, I'm unfortunately not getting much written a week. But I promise that soonish I will return two twice a week, I miss being able to post that much! I am sorry about the one a week right now, and hopefully soon it'll be back to two. Also I don't feel pressured or anything by these questions. On the contrary, it makes me VERY happy to know how excited y'all are for more chapters!

-x-

Remus woke up on the first morning of school—or rather, the first morning with classes—feeling somewhat all right. He hadn't had very many nightmares and the ones he did have weren't too intrusive. And despite waking up an hour earlier than he used to for classes, he felt decent.

"Can we sign a petition complaining about having a lesson so early?" Peter grumbled as they trudged through the common room.

Remus glanced at the table where the Marauders had left the maps, along with a sign saying they were for the first years. None of them were gone yet, though since the first years wouldn't need to be up for another hour that didn't surprise him. He hoped they liked the maps. He hoped they were helpful.

"Can we sign a petition complaining about having to deal with Slytherins so early?" Sirius joked. "Or at all?"

"What all do we have today?" James asked, the only one of them actually fully awake.

Remus yawned as he recited the timetable for the day which, for him, included Study of Ancient Runes. It was going to be weird having a class without the other Marauders, though at least Lily would be there. Divination was going to be the biggest test for him. None of his friends were taking that.

It was strange being in the Great Hall in the early morning with so many older students and most of the teachers. The Marauders plopped down in an empty spot and began eating breakfast, with James being the only one talking. He didn't seem to care that he was more or less talking to himself, though the others occasionally gave vaguely responsive noises. Soon the owl post arrived, letters arriving for all four Marauders. Remus was very surprised when a letter landed in front of him, since he hadn't expected anything from his parents, then when he picked the envelope up he realized it was in Miss Fawley's writing.

Dear Remus,

I was hoping to meet with you in our usual room at our old time on Tuesday? Only for a quick meeting to figure out a good time.

Good luck with your lessons!

M. Fawley

Remus glowed a bit with pleasure, feeling good at seeing Fawley's little note, at her wishing him good luck.

But before any of them knew it, it was nearly eight and they had to go down to the dungeon. The third year Gryffindors and Slytherins made their way down, most of them too tired to do much more than give each other dirty looks. When Remus shuffled into the classroom he expected to be overwhelmed with stinkiness and when he wasn't, he was very confused. It wasn't until the Marauders sat down that he realized: this was the first lesson of the entire year. The classroom hadn't been used all summer. Of course it wouldn't have much stink yet.

Then he glanced up to see Professor Slughorn standing by his desk, hands against his stomach as he rocked back and forth, waiting for all the students to file in. Remus gave a slight shudder and ducked his head. His relationship with Slughorn was very… confusing. Slughorn was his teacher and a good teacher, yet there was something about him that made Remus uncomfortable. Plus the fact Slughorn seemed adamant about Remus joining his weird club… then the whole 'cheating' thing…

"Good morning," he said once the last student filed in a minute before class started. Slughorn took register before going behind his desk. "Today's lesson will be a test."

There were grumbles all around, and Remus's heart sank. First lesson and a test!?

"Not fair!" one of the Slytherins hissed out, obviously trying to be quiet enough so Slughorn wouldn't hear.

"You won't be graded," Slughorn said, frowning at the girl. "It's more to see what you retained through the summer." He waved his wand and the room dimmed with the chalkboard fading to white. "You'll be identifying the ingredients as shown here, and afterwards we will be going over everything. Everyone get out some parchment, that's it. Good. Everyone have their names down? All right." He flicked his wand and in the lightened part of the chalkboard a picture of a leaf appeared, magnified large enough to see the details.

Thank MERLIN! Remus was elated. Identifying pictures of ingredients would be a thousand times easier than having the ingredient in front of him! He happily wrote down that the leaf belonged to the darsheaf plant, doing his best to keep his handwriting neat. Slowly, carefully he listed the ingredients Slughorn showed on the blackboard, not caring that next to him Sirius was blatantly copying whatever Remus wrote. They weren't being graded, so it didn't matter much in Remus's opinion.

Then suddenly a new picture showed up and Remus was unsure. There were slight mumblings from the room, and he suspected this was something they hadn't been taught about yet. He squinted at the orange flower. It looked like some touch-me-nots. He wrote down impatiens, figuring that the genus was right. He just wasn't sure what the species was. Next up was some kind of animal organ, which was always difficult to tell just by picture. He looked at the sizing on the side and wrote down the word spleen, knowing that he was supposed to properly identify it. Then he wrote lizard in front of it.

The next picture was a handful of long, dense, mostly grey fur. The fur was several inches long, around nine or ten inches long. Remus knew immediately what it was and stiffly wrote down werewolf fur. What a way to start the year.

Next to him, Sirius paused, quill hovering a little over the paper. He nudged Remus, raising an eyebrow. Remus just shrugged, waiting for the next picture.

Finally, it was all over and Slughorn waved his wand, the room returning to normal. One by one he went through the list of ingredients and Remus put a check mark next to all the ones he knew for sure. The ones he had guessed were either correct or very close. Then Slughorn dimmed the room again and went through the new ingredients, talking about how to recognize them, discussing their properties and so on. When he got to the werewolf fur Remus pressed his lips thin, feeling a prickling sensation go down his spine.

"Like all parts from a werewolf, even the fur is incredibly valuable due to how incredibly dangerous it is to get these ingredients," Slughorn said, tapping the picture with his wand. "An ounce of good werewolf fur can currently fetch up to a galleon."

"Emphasis on fetch," called out one of the Slytherin bullies, named Avery. His friend and fellow bully, Mulciber, let out a laugh. They began barking then Avery let out a howl.

Remus felt Sirius take in breath to say something and he slid his foot over, stepping on Sirius's foot.

"That's enough," Slughorn said in a firm tone. "If you continue to cause a distraction you may step out of the classroom, and lose Slytherin six points each."

The two of them quieted down, snickering softly, and Slughorn continued through the pictures. Once they were done the lesson was over. Usually Potions was a double lesson lasting nearly two hours, however this year the class was split up. They had two forty-five minute lessons on Mondays and Fridays, and one double lesson on Wednesday.

"I want you to hand in your parchments, and I also am going to assign an essay," Slughorn said, ignoring the groans and protests. An essay on the first day back! "Please describe the similarities and differences between the amphyr and alihotsy plants. I only expect at least six inches, and it's not due for a week. See? That isn't so bad, is it? Class dismissed. Ah, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, a word?"

Shit, Remus thought, shoulders slumping. Great. Great! He was going to be roped in with the whole cheating thing, and Slughorn was going to be furious this time. The previous year Remus had used a spell on himself without even thinking about what would happen, and when he tried to take his Potions exam all that he could write was that he was a cheater. Professor McGonagall had thankfully smoothed everything out, but Remus knew if Slughorn connected his name with cheating then it would be bad.

"Mr. Black," Slughorn said, raising his bushy eyebrows up. "While you are a terrific student, I find it difficult to believe you came to the same conclusions as Mr. Lupin in regards to the final ten ingredients."

"I think I'm developing psychic abilities, sir," Sirius said brightly. "For instance, I'm getting from you that you're going to look very disapproving and—yes, there it is!"

"Mr. Black." Slughorn gave a long sigh. "Don't do it again. Next time, I may not be so lenient. Please do your own work. Mr. Lupin, I am going to be kind and assume you didn't notice him copying you." He then gave a small lecture about the importance of figuring things out on one's own, and learning to think without relying on stealing from other students, and finally the importance of being aware of others around you. Then he waved his hand, dismissing them.

"Didn't mean to get you lectured at," Sirius whispered as they left the classroom.

Remus glanced around, hoping Aegis had lingered behind, though with the other Marauders there, it didn't surprise him that the Slytherin had left already. "I'm just glad he wasn't very angry. Sirius, are you all right?"

Sirius was rubbing his eyes, frowning rather deeply. "Yeah, just got a headache from that lecture, is all. I'm all right."

"So, are we going to do something about what Mulciber and Avery did in class?" James asked, hands behind his head as they walked. "I wanted to lob my cauldron at them."

"Bloody hell, it's the first day and you already want revenge?" Remus asked, though he wasn't surprised; even if the two of them hadn't done anything, he figured it wouldn't take long before his friends got the itch to prank them. "How about we worry about it after classes? We have a long day ahead of us."

"We have a free period after History, and the rest of the afternoon after Magical Creatures," Peter said.

"Not for me," Remus pointed out.

Peter's face fell. "Oh. Right."

Sirius flung an arm across Remus's shoulder. "It's going to be awful without you."

"I thought you liked it when I was otherwise occupied," Remus teased. "Isn't that when you lot pull the pranks I'd disapprove of?"

James grinned from ear to ear. "Guilty as charged there."

History of Magic, unfortunately, had not changed at all despite the fact they now had it with the Ravenclaws. Both houses eyed each other as they took seats; the only class they had together previously was Astronomy. It was a little strange seeing each other in the middle of the morning. Plus Astronomy was only once a week. The two houses hardly knew one another, except for those who happened to befriend one another.

Other than that it was the usual thing. Professor Binns drifted in and after taking register—getting none of the names correct—he went right in to reciting a lecture almost straight from the book. His voice droned on and soon half the class was asleep. Remus struggled to take notes, blinking away the sleepiness, until giving up. He folded his arms over his desk and dropped his head down, napping for a good twenty minutes before class was over.

-x-

Free period was spent outside in the sunshine, James explaining his Big Prank Idea for the first time. Sirius and Peter laughed while Remus shook his head, marveling at how many ways his friends could get into trouble. However he agreed to do the research needed, making sure James was aware it could be weeks or months before Remus could do the spell. James was fine with this, happy enough in the knowledge it could be done.

When eleven grew close, the Marauders excitedly headed back inside to go to their final class of the morning: Defense Against the Dark Arts. Everyone was eager to see what the new teacher would be like. Remus still wasn't sure what to make of Professor Charlemagne.

He was standing near his desk, a cheerful smile on his face as he nodded at each of the students coming in. When the Marauders came in he kindly pointed out that Sirius didn't have his sleeveless jumper on. He didn't remove points, though, just told him he probably should get it on before his afternoon classes.

"I like him already," Sirius whispered as they took seats.

With Professor Dedenne the desks had been arranged in neat rows. Under Professor Prewett's time, the desks had been in a big U-shape facing the front of the room and leaving plenty of space for dueling. Now they were back to rows which Remus suspected meant they wouldn't be focused on dueling so much.

"Heya Lupin!" Donald Rivers threw his stuff onto the desk on Remus's right side. "Mind if I sit here?"

"Er, n-no. G-g-good morning. Er, m-morning, Bones," he added as Simon Bones took the desk on Rivers's other side.

"Morning sucks," Bones grumbled, flopping into his seat.

The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs knew each other a bit better than the Ravenclaws, since Herbology happened multiple times a week.

As soon as 11am hit, Charlemagne shut the door and began speaking. "Good morning class. I am Professor Charlemagne. You can call me that, or Professor, or even just Charlemagne," he said, going around to the other side of his desk, picking up a piece of parchment to take register. When he finished with the last name—Stephen Yardley—he set the paper down, clearing his throat. "As I am your third teacher in this subject in as many years, I think perhaps it would be best to go over what you have learned in the last two years. I wish to know what foundations you have." His voice was soft and gentle, and very soothing, even though he sounded a little nervous.

As he went over their lessons from the past two years, Remus thought he figured out what part of Defense Against the Dark Arts that Professor Charlemagne liked. With Dedenne he had never been sure since he despised her and her mistreatment of him. With Prewett it had been dueling. With Charlemagne, Remus… knew there was something Charlemagne wanted from them, he just couldn't tell what at first. He'd ask questions and whenever a student answered he'd stroke his beard and ask 'Why do you think this is so?' or something along the lines. Usually the student didn't say much more and Charlemagne would simply nod and scribble something down; the student talked more about it, Charlemagne would smile in addition to the nod and scribbling.

Then after a lot of this, Charlemagne stood in front of the room, surveying the room. He met the gaze of every single student before continuing talking.

"Both your previous teachers have done a decent job of giving you what you need to grow as a student. But I feel like there are certainly some missing pieces in your education and how you approach things. Most notably the whys of the situations. You know the answers. Do you know why those are the answers? If I ask you to list some of the most effective ways to take care of a pixie… what would you say?"

There were several responses which Charlemagne wrote down on the blackboard.

"Good, good, and what do all these spells have in common?" he asked, turning around. Nobody answered, and Charlemagne didn't say anything either. He waited until Remus raised his hand.

"Th-they're all w-ways to im—immobilize the p-p-pixies?"

"Yes, correct." Charlemagne wrote down immobilize on the board. "Immobilizing pixies is how you defeat them. I know this. You know this. But do you know why this is how you go about defeating pixies?" He glanced around the room again then nodded at Twycross who raised her hands.

"Because stopping them from moving prevents them from hurting you," she said smugly.

Charlemagne smiled. "Yes. Very good, Matilda. That is why we use these spells. However, why do you think this is so?"

"Because they can't move," she said again, sounding a little annoyed.

"Yes. Hmm. Let me approach this in a different way." He began pacing again. "If a powerful witch has put the freezing charm on one of you that would mean she stopped you from being able to move, yes? She stopped you from being able to hurt her. If you put the freezing charm on her you've stopped her from being able to move. Does that stop her from being able to hurt you?"

"Yes," said several students.

"N-no," Remus answered. "Not nec—ne—n-necessarily."

Charlemagne raised his eyebrows. "Why is that, Remus?"

"B-because some witches and—and w-wizards are able to use magic even with—without their wand or saying sp-sp-spells. If they c-can control their magic well enough," Remus stammered out.

Charlemagne smiled. "Precisely. How about… a dementor? If you use the freezing charm on a dementor, are you safe?"

"No?" said a few students in confusion, while Remus and a few others said "No," more firmly.

"Good. Why is that? Isabel?"

Isabel Torres of Hufflepuff lowered her hand. "Because their ability to pull joy and life out of you still happens?"

Charlemagne nodded. "Exactly. Which means what, in regards to pixies?"

"They don't perform magic!" Bones blurted out.

Charlemagne wrote that on the blackboard. "They cannot perform magic. Immobilizing pixies works because their danger lies in their ability to move. Immobilizing dementors would not work, as their danger is in their natural and innate ability to hurt you. Yes, James?"

James lowered his hand. "I don't mean to question Remus since he's a genius and all, but can you perform magic without a wand or a spell?"

Charlemagne stroked his beard once more. "Yes and you all have done it at some point in your life or else you wouldn't be here." He sat down at his desk with a slight grunt. "The ability to perform magic is within us, and sometime between the moment we are born and when we turn ten or eleven, it manifests itself. We do magic without a wand, we do magic without spells. This, obviously, is dangerous which is why our guardians need to keep an eye on us as children, and tell us no. It's the same as telling a child 'no' when they try to touch something hot. Soon we learn to reign it in. Then we have our education and hone our ability using wands—or, at least most magical folk do. We control the magic. Magic that is left otherwise… well, those who do not learn to control their magic… usually end up perishing young because it is beyond their control." He shook his head sadly. "Those who do learn to control their magic can eventually attempt to use their magic without the wand, and without the spell. It takes a great deal of self-control.

"Can I, personally, use magic without a wand and spell? Yes. I have done so on a few occasions. Albus Dumbledore most certainly can. In your sixth year you will learn how to do nonverbal magic. Wandless magic, on the other hand… hmm, well, that is something very difficult and near impossible for magical folk like us. And by that I mean those who use their wands to manipulate magic."

"What does that mean? Who doesn't use wands?" asked a Hufflepuff girl.

"Oh, there are many who don't," Charlemagne explained. "African tribes, most notably, and many indigenous people from various countries. There are so many different magical cultures, ours is only one. I admit, it has become the most popular way—using wands, most countries do that now. I will say, a lot of magical folk tend to look down on those cultures who do not use wands as backwards and uncivilized and that, my children, is further from the truth than I can ever say. Just because someone does magic in a different way, does not make it less. Understand?"

Then, after everyone nodded, Charlemagne stood back up. "But I'm not here to educate you on magical culture from around the world, am I? I'm here to teach you how to defend yourself against the darker parts of magic. Now, let's continue."

After class was let out a few minutes early (with no assignments, to the joy of Remus's friends) there was, of course, an immediate discussion of whether they liked Charlemagne or not. Twycross began complaining about him as soon as the door shut, saying how it wasn't fair he didn't acknowledge her answers as being right.

"He did, though," said Kyra Pierce, raising her eyebrows. "He said they were right, they just needed to be… um…"

"Explained why they were right," Lily said brightly and Pierce nodded.

Twycross hmphed, her ponytail swinging rather wildly as she shook her head. "I don't like him."

"Why do you think this is so?" Bones asked and he and Rivers burst into giggles, and several other students snickered too.

"How many times d'you think he said that?" James asked.

"At least once every five minutes," suggested Rivers.

"I can find out, if you like."

This was a new voice, one Remus didn't recognize. He turned, surprised to see Nirav Jha standing near them. A Hufflepuff of Indian descent, he barely ever spoke up in class and, really, Remus wasn't even sure if he had even ever heard Jha speak.

"Oh, that's right, you can!" Bones said eagerly.

Jha opened a very fancy looking notebook, flipping through. He frowned, touching the pages with one gloved finger. Remus wondered why Jha was wearing gloves inside until Jha shut his notebook, tucked it under his arm, and began making motions with his hands.

"He said it eleven times in forty minutes," Jha said, except he never opened his mouth. The voice came from the gloves. "That makes it a little over once every four minutes."

"Hah, I was right," Rivers said proudly.

None of the Marauders spoke. James, Sirius, and Peter were all looking at Jha curiously. Remus was curious too, but he kept his gaze elsewhere. It was rude to stare. Besides he could tell Jha was growing uncomfortable.

"Sorry," James said suddenly, breaking the moment. "Er, I didn't realize you were—were—"

"Deaf-mute?" Jha asked, the voice coming from the gloves. Remus looked up in surprise, realizing the gloves were magicked to interpret sign language as he used it.

"Sorry," James mumbled again.

Jha gave a shrug. "I keep to myself, so it's not something I expect everyone to know."

Remus remembered hearing that there was someone in their year who was deaf and mute, but hadn't really thought much about it. It wasn't something that was brought to his attention more than once or twice and he had sorta forgotten about it.

Bones slapped Jha on the back and he stumbled a bit, grimacing. "If you've got any problem with him—"

"No," James said quickly. "I was just surprised, is all."

"How… do you… I mean, lessons…" Peter stammered out.

Jha looked in his notebook then smiled and turned the notebook around. Written in neat handwriting was How do you I mean lessons. Above it was No I was just surprised is all, and above that, If you've got any problem with him. Their entire conversation was written down. Jha flipped back a page, showing a page full of everything that Professor Charlemagne said.

"I can read lips too," Jha added after closing the notebook and putting it back in the carrier attached to his waist.

"So, you don't need to take notes?" James asked.

Jha frowned. "No, I still need to copy everything down. The words disappear after a certain amount of dialogue has been recorded down…" He shuffled from foot to foot, still radiating a sense of discomfort.

The other two Hufflepuffs must have noticed as Rivers shouldered his bag and said, "Let's get to the Great Hall, I'm starving."

"Yeah, breakfast was way too long ago," said Bones. "See you guys later!" He waved at the Marauders as the three of them ran off.

"That was awkward," Sirius said the second they were out of sight.

"Well if you hadn't stared," Remus muttered, wondering how Jha performed magic. How could he do spells? He was very curious, but knew it would be awful of him to go ask.

James put an arm around Sirius's shoulders. "Let's go eat, it's been a long day already."

"It's not even noon," Peter whined as they began walking. "I feel like we've been up forever." His stomach gave a loud growl and he clutched it. "How can an extra hour make all this difference?"

The others agreed it was unfair and miserable, all of them unhappy about the scheduling until Remus pointed out it was either waking up an hour early or else having even less free time during the day.

"I'd only have one free period a day, and on Thursdays none at all," he said. "Today, you'd only have two free periods instead of three."

That began a big discussion of which would be better. Waking up early and having more free periods, or having fewer free periods and sleeping in an extra hour? They couldn't come to a unanimous decision. James and Remus both preferred waking up early (well, not really 'preferred' in Remus's case; his choice was mostly due to how little free time he already had) while Sirius and Peter preferred sleeping in.

"James, you could get one hour of sleep and still be energetic," Sirius complained. "You shouldn't be allowed to vote. You don't care how little sleep you get. You're ready to go the second you wake up."

James was bouncing along the hallway, grinning. "Yeah, that's true. I don't mind mornings, really. Or afternoons. Or nights," he laughed.

They found seats at the Gryffindor table, gobbling down food as they prepared for the second part of their first day, mostly curious about their first elective class.