Author's note: CW snakes, animals dying naturally, fear of pet death.

Thanks to Tsu who was the first response when I needed a plant name, and Korppi for helping actually giving it a nice scientific name.

Also I am going to try to get a bonus chapter out this week; not sure if I'll have the time but I want to try. I've been really exhausted due to the fact I have a new puppy and he really sucks the energy and time haha.

~X~

The first class of the afternoon was Herbology, once again with the Hufflepuffs. It was very hot in the greenhouses with the new September sun beating down through the glass, and everyone was soon soaked in sweat. Even the fact they were in a new greenhouse didn't stir much excitement. Greenhouse Four was full of interesting, neat plants, including a rather temperamental specimen of Tsulius Discordia that Sprout told them to stay away from. Usually it wasn't overly dangerous, but this one had been acting up lately.

Sprout ended class a little early, like Charlemagne had, though she did assign them a short essay to turn in the next week. The Marauders gladly left the sauna, plucking at their sleeveless jumpers and shirts and panting heavily. James took his sleeveless jumper off, stuffing it in his bag as they headed into the castle. There was a Care of Magical Creatures classroom on the ground floor, however when everyone taking the class got there, they found a big sign hanging up telling them to go outside, near the Forbidden Forest, a little to the south of Hagrid's hut.

Back outside they went, James and Sirius both shedding their robes on the way. They trooped down the pathway, going past Hagrid's hut, and finding themselves in a nice cleared area in front of the Forbidden Forest. Professor Kettleburn stood there with a big smile on his scarred face.

There were a lot of students. Remus grew nervous as more and more students came down the pathway, and his stomach twisted at the thought of having a lesson with so many others. There had to be around thirty other students. Though from what he understood, Care of Magical Creatures was a pretty popular class.

"I won't bother with register every lesson, but I'll take it in a few minutes to try to remember names. Not that I do a good job, warning you now. I'm better than Binns though. Only thing is we don't have much time right now so try to gather around as best as you can."

That was the first thing they heard from Professor Kettleburn as he motioned for the crowd to circle him and something that was hidden behind a curtain. Kettleburn yanked the curtain aside to show a very large glass box containing two red and grey snakes slithering angrily around. To the side there was a magnifying spell, sending an image of the ashwinders on an enormous white board so everyone could see them clearly. There were a lot of murmurings and Remus couldn't help but glance over where Spinnet stood, rather pale. His biggest fear was snakes. He took a step back, folding his arms.

"Ashwinders," Kettleburn explained. "They're looking for a dark place to lay their eggs. Anyone know why that's a dangerous thing to happen?"

A few students including Remus raised their hand, and he called on one of the Slytherin girls who said that ashwinder eggs could start fires.

"Exactly." He twitched his hand, pulling a curtain up over the entire box, encasing the glass in darkness. "They should begin to lay their eggs now. The glass is treated with heavy fireproof spells, not to worry. It shouldn't melt. While we wait, I'll take register quickly."

The hand, which usually had a hook on the end, now had a sort of three-pronged contraption. The prongs wriggled and moved like fingers, clamping down around a piece of paper. The first name he called was Avery, and Remus twisted to see Mulciber and Avery hanging out near the back of the crowd along with Bulstrode, the third of the group.

Great, he thought miserably. When Kettleburn ended with Michael Wright, Remus had counted thirty-four students, himself included. Bloody hell. Though really it wasn't much bigger than when Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs had class together; that was thirty-one students. Though it felt bigger, somehow, since it was a mix of all the houses.

With that Kettleburn removed the curtain, revealing that several eggs had been laid in a corner. "The ashwinders don't have much life left in them; soon they'll turn to ash," Kettleburn said, a little too cheerfully. "Everyone get your gloves on. You'll be holding them."

"The eggs?" someone asked.

Kettleburn laughed as he opened the box. "No, of course not. The snakes!"

Spinnet went even paler while everyone else began pulling their gloves out of their bags. Remus was glad he had gotten 'new' ones. He wondered what the ashwinder would feel like. A dying ashwinder. Ugh. It seemed rather macabre.

While Kettleburn got the ashwinders out and handed them to be passed around, he talked about ashwinders and everyone not holding the snakes took notes. Soon one of the ashwinders came around to the Marauders. It writhed a bit but didn't seem to care much about being handled. When Sirius handed it to Remus, though, the ashwinder thrashed a bit, hissing out some smoke as it was placed in Remus's hands. It was beginning to ash, too. Quickly he handed it off to Peter who immediately turned and gave it to Alice.

Alice looked as pale as Spinnet, her lips turned in a frown, a crease in her forehead. She was breathing heavily and radiated feelings of anger. "Poor thing," she whispered, gently stroking the ashwinder, some ash clinging to her glove's fingertip. "Poor little thing." She swallowed and gave it to Cassie, obviously distressed.

Shortly after the ashwinders were given back to Professor Kettleburn they turned completely to ash, bits drifting off in the breeze. One of the Ravenclaws asked if they could hold the eggs too and Kettleburn shook his head, saying the eggs were a bit too dangerous. He then yanked up the sleeve of the arm with a regular hand, showing them some old scars he explained were from an ashwinder egg. Then he extracted the eggs from the glass box and Remus could hear faint sizzling, like the eggs were coals.

"Now, you could simply destroy the eggs, however frozen ashwinder eggs are not only very valuable, they are also used in a variety of potions." He set the egg down on a large rock before brandishing his wand. "Glacius!" he exclaimed and the egg began freezing over.

"Oh!" Alice cried out. "That's—" She stopped herself from saying anything else, cheeks going red.

"Something wrong?" Kettleburn asked as he put the frozen egg in another box, this one wooden. Alice bit her bottom lip, shaking her head. "You should be learning this spell sometime this year," he continued, pulling another egg out and freezing it. "As was said earlier, ashwinder eggs can and will cause fires if left unattended. They've burned down houses before. I'll show you."

Everyone was excited as he set the remaining egg on top of a wooden platform. At first nothing happened, then there was a sizzling sound, and smoke began rising up. Within a couple of minutes the wooden platform caught fire. There were exclamations and cheering, and Kettleburn put the fire out before freezing the last egg. He closed the box and hefted it up, resting it against his hip.

"One thing to note is that ashwinders do not need eggs to continue their species. Anyone know how else ashwinders are born?"

Several hands raised including Remus's, and Kettleburn called on a Hufflepuff who said she thought they were born from magical fires.

"Yes and no," Kettleburn said. "They're born from magical fires left on their own. Always make sure any fire you make is safely and wholly put out, otherwise you might accidentally cause the birth of an ashwinder or two. Now, we're early but I haven't much else to say on the matter so class dismissed. See you Wednesday."

Kettleburn flicked his wand causing the glass box to shrink so he could carry it with him back to the castle. The students milled around for a second before breaking apart, most of the crowd walking together along the main path. The Marauders, Alice, and Cassie simply climbed up one of the hills, taking a shortcut.

"You all right?" Cassie asked.

"No!" Alice snapped. Then, "No," she said a bit softer. "It seems so cruel."

"What does?" Peter asked.

Alice sniffled. "Using a dying animal for a lesson! Then freezing the eggs! If I had any idea this class would be like this, I might not have taken it!"

Cassie slipped an arm around Alice's waist. "I'm sure it will be all right, he probably found them and thought it'd make a good lesson for us."

"Besides," James said, running the last stretch of hill, "it's not like Kettleburn killed it."

Alice glared up at him. "That doesn't mean he should be giving us dying animals to hold!"

"You could have not held it," Sirius suggested.

"That's not the point!" Alice reached up, rubbing her cheeks angrily. "It's cruel."

James stretched his arms behind his head. "What should he have done then, left the ashwinders to lay its eggs somewhere to burn down a house? Or a room or something?"

"No, but—but surely something could be done to—to—"

"Ashwinders d-d-die after laying its eggs," Remus said softly. "Th—that's their n-natural lifesp—sp-span."

"Natural or not, it doesn't matter!" Alice stomped her foot. "How would you like it if in twenty years someone took your dying owl to pass around to teach someone about owls!"

Remus blanched, freezing in his place, a sick feeling coiling tightly in his stomach. All he could picture was Arthur nestled up in the owlery, his life slowly ebbing away.

"I d-don't have to w-wait twenty years, p-p-p-p-probably only twenty days," he snapped before turning away, walking quickly to the castle. He knew he shouldn't have said that, Alice hadn't known—couldn't have known—but being reminded of the fact Arthur would probably pass away any day now was painful.

He could hear his friends—and Alice—calling after him. All he wanted to do was go to the owlery to make sure Arthur hadn't grown worse somehow in twenty-four hours; he had gone to see Arthur the day before, to make sure his owl was all right and he had seemed fine, but…

"Remus!"

Alice somehow caught up with him, taking hold of his arm.

"I'm sorry," she panted out, glasses slipping down her nose. "Bloody hell, I didn't know—"

"No, it's f-f-fine," he mumbled, looking down at his shoes. "I sh-shouldn't have l-let my—my—let my—let—"

Alice let go of his arm, tilting her head to try to look in his eyes. "How bad is it?"

He clutched the strap of his satchel, twisting it a bit so it dug into his finger, watching the others walking slowly over towards them. "I d-d-don't know. He's—he's old. N—he—he d-doesn't—probably not—"

"I am sorry."

"You d-d-d-d-didn't know. And—and I d-do agree it w-w-was… a bit ma—m-macabre to p-pass around a—a d-dying animal," he relented, feeling bad for storming off like that.

Nobody spoke for several seconds then James said, "Well, it may have been ma… me… micobb but still really cool. We got to hold a three-X beast."

Alice rolled her eyes but didn't make any comment about what James said. Instead she suggested she and Cassie go find Lily. Cassie gave Sirius's hand a squeeze, and Sirius leaned in to kiss her cheek. She began giggling, grabbing Alice's hand and taking off while Sirius grinned.

"I think it was cool too," Peter said, beaming. "I think it was very cool!"

"You know…" James's eyes glittered and Remus had a bad feeling. "You know what we could do?"

"Is it dangerous?" Remus asked with a sigh.

"Very."

"Is it stupid?"

"Oh, without a doubt."

He closed his eyes, feeling a slight headache coming on. He had certainly missed his friends dearly but sometimes he wanted to throttle them. "What?"

James clapped his hands. "Start a magical fire—"

"No," Remus said, knowing where this was going.

"—and leave it unchecked. OH! Would those blue flames you can conjure work?" James turned his eyes to Remus.

Sirius grabbed James's arm. "What if we put it somewhere in a Slytherin dorm, where nobody will find it?"

"We are not unleashing ashwinders on the Slytherin dorms," Remus snapped while James began bouncing, saying how brilliant it was.

Peter shrugged. "Mulciber and Avery usually deserve it."

"It'd be—be—be—" Remus floundered for the right words to use in this situation.

Sirius smirked. "Dangerous and stupid?"

Remus glared. "Exceedingly."

"What if it's Malfoy?" Sirius asked.

Remus hesitated for a split second. "No," he tried but his hesitation had been noticed.

A group of older students came by so they fell silent, which seemed to be an even more suspicious thing to do; all the older students cast them glances and as they walked past, Remus heard one mutter that James and Sirius were probably up to something.

Once they were gone, Peter quickly said, "Malfoy always deserves it too."

"Ooh, I bet he's bullied Silverlocke already," James drew out as he began walking, which signaled to the others to walk too.

Remus glowered. "You're using my friendship against me! That's—that's rude!"

Sirius slithered an arm around his waist; he almost jumped at the feeling and immediately felt heat where Sirius was touching him, and a prickly sensation through the rest of his body.

"Come on," Sirius whispered, "you know Malfoy deserves an ashwinder to lay eggs beneath his bed."

Remus spun away, swatting at Sirius's hand. "You've no guarantee it'll lay eggs there." For a brief second his head was full of Sirius's arm around him and what it might mean… but Sirius just put his arm around James, making him feel both confused and relieved.

Merlin, what the hell was wrong with him?

"It could lay eggs under someone else's bed, or even leave the dorm and—and go lay eggs under Aegis's bed."

"Pen them in," Peter said. "Kettleburn said, um, they lay eggs within an hour of being born, didn't he? Or did they die within an hour of laying eggs?"

"Er, both, I think, or something close to it." James yanked open one of the side doors into the castle. He made sure nobody was down the corridor then said, "They lay eggs as soon as they have a nice dark place, wasn't it?"

"Mmhmm." Sirius nodded. "Petey's got the idea there, we pen it in, leave a fire unattended, it dwindles out, an ashwinder is born, has nowhere to go, lays its eggs under Malfoy's bed and—"

"And risk burning the entire dorm down!" Remus folded his arms.

Peter's hand went into the air. "What if we put them in a fireproof box? Um. With stuff that burns so—so you can smell something burning."

"What's the point of that?" Sirius asked.

Peter frowned. "I dunno. What's the point in—" He had to stop since they passed by a busier corridor where some other students were. They hurried to the staircase where they were more alone. "What's the point in burning Malfoy's bed down?"

"He deserves it," James said, and Sirius nodded. "Besides, you were on our page five seconds ago!"

"Yeah, well, Remus is right, it could burn the whole dorm down," Peter said, shifting from foot to foot. "That'd be real bad."

James pushed his glasses up. "Right. How about this. We figure out if we can even, er, birth an ashwinder, then go from there. Figure something out. We can try later this week."

"Yeah, besides, aren't you busy?" Pete asked.

James stared at him and Sirius closed his eyes. Remus glanced between the three of them, brow furrowed.

"Yeah." James coughed. "Yeah, we've got to plan for the song prank."

Peter opened his mouth then quickly shut it, face flooding with color. "Exactly, yeah!"

Remus knew damn well that wasn't what Peter was referring to. Whatever he was meaning, it was clear Remus wasn't supposed to be part of it.

Fine. He affected not to notice or care. It's fine. The last time this happened, the Marauders had been discussing his lycanthropy, before Sirius admitted to Remus they knew the truth. Obviously it wasn't anything like that. So what are they…? No, no, it doesn't matter, you're not part of it. A rather painful feeling swelled up in his chest.

"You know, 'birth an ashwinder' sounds really weird," Sirius said in a very smooth voice. If Remus hadn't caught the awkwardness from James and Peter, he wouldn't have realized how obvious it was Sirius was trying to change the subject.

"What would you call it?" James demanded, and the two fell into a light squabble over the best way to refer to what they wanted to do. Peter cast an amused glance at Remus and Remus managed a small smile back.

Remus's second free period of the day was spent mostly wandering around the castle with his friends, none of which had any real plan. They checked out their favorite secret passages, though avoided their favorite location to hang out from their second year: the Pits Passage. None of them mentioned the Trophy Room, and, when they wandered down the fourth floor corridor, none of them looked at the second entrance to the passage.

Finally, though, it was time for Remus to go to his first class ever without the Marauders and he panicked a little when he realized he had no clue where the classroom was. He thought it was on the fifth floor which was nearly empty. He began panicking a little until Theodore drifted through a wall, giving Remus a curious look. He motioned down the corridor then at Remus.

"I'm lost," he panted out. "Ancient Runes."

Theodore smiled and floated down the hallway. Remus followed, thanking his ghost friend when they reached a sixth floor corridor where other third years were going into a classroom. Lily spotted him and waved excitedly. Remus turned to thank Theodore again, however the ghost had disappeared.

"There you are!" Lily grabbed his arm. "I was so worried! Haven't you lot explored the castle?"

Remus took a deep breath. "Yes, but I didn't know that this classroom was for Ancient Runes."

He felt eyes on him and glanced over his shoulder, meeting the angry glare of Severus Snape. Snape's glare shifted to where Lily's arm linked with Remus's. Before anything could happen, Lily yanked Remus into the classroom.

There were two witches standing near the desk, watching the students file in. One was a very elderly dark-skinned woman, whom Remus recognized as being the teacher a lot of kids thought wasn't all there in the head. She was often seen talking to herself. The other witch was old as well, though not quite as elderly as the other. While the dark-skinned witch was probably in her early hundreds, the tall, willowy Chinese woman looked to be around her fifties or sixties.

What did Pandora Silverlocke say? he thought as he took a seat next to Lily. Professor Quirke rambles a lot and is… loopy. Yes, Pandora had used that word, he remembered clearly since it was his nickname at school. Professor Codde… he looked at the Chinese witch. She's demanding and particular.

Study of Ancient Runes was almost as crowded as Care of Magical Creatures. This wasn't surprising for while it wasn't necessarily a popular class, it was probably the most practical elective offered. Remus winced, the memory of what his father said over the summer filtering through his head.

"Hi Sev," Lily said lightly as Snape took the seat behind her, glaring at both Remus and the Ravenclaw girl on Lily's other side.

Someone took the seat on Remus's other side and he looked over to see Aegis's smiling face. Remus smiled back, having forgotten Aegis had chosen this class too. Two friends. This was much better, though still made Divination feel daunting.

"Good morning class," the dark-skinned witch suddenly said, resting her hands on the desks and leaning forward, peering through thick-lensed glasses.

Some of the class said a confused good morning back while some said a confused good afternoon.

She blinked several times, looking over at the other witch. "It's an afternoon class," the Chinese witch whispered.

"GOOD AFTERNOON CLASS!" she amended, very loudly. "Forgive me, it's been a long day. I am Professor Quirke and this is Professor Codde, my assistant." She whirled around suddenly, the beads in her braids clacking together. Quickly she drew out several large runes. "Runes are extremely important in the magical world. Oh." She dropped the chalk and frowned, flicking her wand to summon it back into her hand. Annoyed, she put it in Codde's hand to finish drawing the runes. While Codde drew, Quirke turned back to face the class. "They are one of the foundations of our history, our present, and certainly will continue to be an important factor in our future. Not only are runes their own languages… they are also magic. You'll find a lot of our history is written solely in runes, originally. Most of what you read about our history is translated from runes."

She turned to study the board, nodding at the runes Codde had drawn. "They're still used in our daily lives. You'll find runes everywhere, especially if you enter a career at the Ministry of Magic. And when you turn seventeen and register for ID, you'll be given your own set of identifying runes."

Remus went completely still, his knuckles turning white as he gripped his quill hard. Register for an ID. Bile rose sharply in his throat and it was all he could do to hold it back. She's talking about the regular registering at the Ministry that all witches and wizards do, he reminded himself, swallowing heavily. Not the werewolf registry.

Still, he had forgotten completely about that. Needing ID. Getting an ID. Would he be able to? What was he supposed to do? After a few more seconds of panic he forced it back down, since he realized Quirke was still talking. He needed to pay attention, and hadn't taken any notes. If she said anything of importance he could ask Lily, at least.

"—used commonly within the legal system, so if you're planning on a career there you'll need this class. While it is required if you want to pursue a career for several positions at the Ministry, it's not required for many other positions. For instance, while it is used within the Auror career, it's not necessary for them to know for some reason; I suppose the Ministry thinks that the Aurors can get by on simple translation—" Quirke peered around at the students, frowning deeply. "I've forgotten something, haven't I?"

"Register," Codde said from where she leaned against the wall.

Quirke frowned more. "You're right. You can take it."

Professor Codde straightened up, waving her wand so a piece of parchment slid off of the desk and into her hand. She calmly took register, which Quirke obviously didn't pay any sort of attention to. At least it seemed like Codde took note of who replied 'present' to which name. By the time she was finished, Professor Quirke was asleep and snoring. There were several titters as Codde gently shook Quirke's shoulder.

"Eh?!" Quirke jumped up, knocking a bottle of ink over. A puddle of ink splattered across her desk, dripping onto the floor. "We have a lesson right now, Amelina! No time for messing about. Oh! I did that, then," she said, seeing the mess on the desk. "My apologies, dear."

She cleaned up the ink while she began talking about runes again, mostly a brief history, most of which Remus already knew. Still he took meticulous notes. Quirke's rambling wandered into Merlin and the books he wrote in runic language, dropping a few titles. Remus wrote the titles down, wondering if the library had them in their original language. That would be interesting. One of the books he had read an English translation of.

Then, without warning, Quirke told them all to copy down the runes from the blackboard. Remus nearly dropped his quill from the sudden change in topic. He dipped his quill in the bottle of ink then very carefully copied the rune down. His handwriting was terrible, normally practically ineligible to anyone but himself. He was pleased to see his runes looked very close to how they looked on the blackboard… that is, until Codde went around the room to look at the copied runes while Quirke went back to her initial ramble about runic books.

"Incorrect," Codde told a student. "This line is far too wobbly and this line sticks out at the wrong angle, it changes the meaning. Incorrect," she told another student. "This looks simply like an English 'S'. The basic Old English runes do not have soft curves like that. Make them harder."

Aegis passed without any trouble then she got to Remus. "Incorrect." Her finger came down on the runes. "The lines need to be completely even, and this rune needs a more pointed top. You've changed the meaning."

He heard snickering behind him as Codde went over to Lily, also telling her that her runes were messed up. He knew it was Snape, and ignored it, though smiled when Codde moved to his row and told him that his copy of the runes were all wrong too, complaining about the angles.

Remus had to copy the runes five times before Codde agreed they looked 'passable'. "Practice making straight lines," she said quietly in his ear. "Don't worry about copying runes from the book, simply draw straight lines." She took his quill and made a few marks on his paper, random straight lines. "Like this. Focus on the straightness."

By that point class was almost over. He wrote out the last of Quirke's ramble, hoping Lily or Aegis had anything he missed, then shut his notebook as Quirke told them to practice copying the runes from the blackboard over the next few days.

"I expect everyone to be able to draw them perfectly by Friday," Codde added as everyone stood up.

"Have a good evening!" Quirke added with a nod.

"Goodness," Aegis breathed out as he, Remus, and Lily left the classroom. "I do not think I have taken so many notes in one class."

"My hand hurts," Lily said, stretching and curling her hand. "What about you, Sev?"

Snape froze in the doorway, a slight look of panic on his sallow face. Someone bumped into him trying to get past and that shook him out of whatever was going on in his head. He glared at Remus and Aegis before sliding his glance back to Lily, his lips curling into something that could be called a smile. "It didn't take me very long to get the runes right," he said, not-so-subtly looking at Remus out of the corner of his eyes. Then Avery and some Slytherin girls emerged from the classroom. "I—er, I better go." He took off down the hall without another word, his robes flapping behind him.

Lily watched him go, a strange expression in her eyes. Then she shook her head, turning to Aegis. "You did well."

"Runes are important for the Silverlocke family," Aegis said carefully as the three of them began walking. "I have been writing runes for a long time, although I only really know about the basic runes. Even then, not all of them."

"Wait." Lily yanked her notebook out of her bag, flipping through. "Were we even told what these runes mean?"

"No," Remus said, a little stunned to realize Quirke never mentioned that.

"Maybe she'll tell us later this week," Lily said though there was uncertainty in her voice. "Do you know what they mean, Aegis?"

"Yes," he said, getting his own notes out, pointing to the runes. "This one that looks like a pointy 'R' is, actually, an R. This is a 'U'—oh." He began laughing, a sound he rarely made. "This is an 'n'. Care to guess what the final two letters are?"

Remus looked at what looked like a weird M and a pointy S. "It spells out runes," he said.

All three of them fell into laughter; for some reason it was very amusing to think Quirke had them write this out. Aegis then explained that the word 'rune' did have its own rune and wasn't spelled out like this usually. He drew it for them then Lily and Remus both thought it'd be fun to practice copying it, so they drew it in their own notebooks too. Then they took off running because it was almost five pm, and they were all very hungry after their first day of classes.

I have to meet with Jean-Marie tonight, he reminded himself, thinking of the agreement made the day before which had felt like an eternity ago. And then we have Astronomy tonight too. He felt tired, thinking about having to wake up early enough the next day to get breakfast in time to go to an eight am class.

You did this to yourself, you actively chose this, you WANTED this, he reminded himself after remembering the first class on Tuesday was Arithmancy. His stupid friends could sleep in.

Damn them.