The Marauders' questions about Easter at Hogwarts were answered promptly, for at lunchtime that evening, Professor Dumbledore stood up in front of the Great Hall and cleared his throat; immediately, the Hall went silent, both because most of Hogwarts was at home and because Dumbledore just had the sort of effect that demanded everyone listen to him. It was one of the most magical things about him, in Remus' opinion.

"As I am sure many of you already know," said Dumbledore, "Easter is in two days. Hogwarts usually does decorations, gift deliveries to common rooms via house-elfs, and a free surprise for everyone, which usually comes in the form of a small chocolate egg. This year, however, we've decided to do something different."

There was a slight murmuring amongst the students in the Hall, but they all went dead silent when Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak again. Such was the power of Albus Dumbledore, and it was fascinating to watch.

"This year, Professor Dilley has organized an egg hunt. Eggs will be hidden all throughout Hogwarts, and whichever team finds the most eggs will receive a very special reward."

"What is it?" a student called.

"That, Mr. Davis, is something that I do not have clearance to tell you—but I would like you to imagine a small pile of dirt as the prize. That way, no matter what it is, the prize will be infinitely better than what you are expecting and will therefore far surpass expectations no matter what."

"I hope it's extra credit on the exam," Peter murmured eagerly. "I'm not sure I'll pass that exam anyway, but at least I want something above a T."

"There will be a sheet of parchment posted next to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom," Dumbledore continued. "Everyone who wishes to participate in the hunt may sign up with a group. Groups must consist of a minimum of two people and a maximum of seven. Be forewarned that a group too small will have less variety and less resources, but a group too large will be more difficult to organize. Because of the nature of the hunt, we request that you do not split up. In fact, we will be placing a temporary spell on each of you that ensures that you stay less than fifteen feet away from a designated group leader at all times."

"So either they merely want to promote teamwork… or the egg hunt is incredibly dangerous," Remus mused, and Peter turned slightly pale.

"The egg hunt is entirely optional," said Dumbledore, "but, between you and me, it would mean a lot to Professor Dilley if you participated. I hear there's a bit of a curse-breaking theme to it."

"Of course there is," Miles muttered.

Dumbledore smiled. "As such, every participant will receive five extra credit points on your final exam."

Dumbledore stepped away from the podium, and then the chattering broke loose like water from a broken dam. "We're doing the egg hunt together, right, Remus?" Peter asked eagerly. "I really need those five points."

"Yeah, sounds fun," said Remus. "Miles, do you want to join?"

"Of course I do," said Miles, and then the Three Makeshift Not-Marauders exited the Great Hall and followed the small crowd to the sign-up parchment by the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Easter morning arrived, and the Three Makeshift Not-Marauders arrived at the courtyard to get their first instruction.

It was uncommonly hot outside, so all the less traditional wizards were wearing T-shirts and shorts. The more traditional wizards had the sleeves of their robes rolled up and/or were wearing lighter-colored play robes rather than the dark school robes. Remus, who could not roll his sleeves or wear a T-shirt on account of his gruesome scars and did not own light-colored play robes, mentally prepared himself to bake outdoors for the next couple of hours in his heavy, black school robes. He was already getting hot, and it was only eight in the morning.

"You don't own any Muggle clothes?" Miles asked him with a frown. "I never pegged you as a very traditional wizard, Remus. I don't have any Muggle relatives that I know of, but I still have a couple of short-sleeved shirts. You may borrow one if you want."

"No, thanks," said Remus quickly. "I'll be all right."

"Are you sure? It's very warm out here."

"I'll be fine," repeated Remus. "Besides, it's too late to go back and change now. We need to start the egg hunt as soon as possible if we want to win, and Professor Dilley is starting it in… two minutes."

"But you'll work better if you're not—" Miles started, but Remus cut him off.

"No. But thank you so much for the offer, Miles. Anyway. What do you think the egg hunt is going to be like?"

They speculated for a while, and Remus nearly breathed a sigh of relief when Miles finally stopped pressing him to change into a short-sleeved shirt. He missed being with the Marauders, who already knew most things about Remus. Remus never really realize how pleasant it was to be around people who knew until he had to go back to lying and sneaking around people he didn't know. He'd forgotten how exhausting it was.

Finally, Dilley arrived at the courtyard, and students clamored to be first in line. "Calm down, calm down," snapped Dilley. "We're all starting the egg hunt at the same time, so you'll all have equal chances of winning the prize. Everybody get with your groups."

They obeyed.

First, Dilley walked around to every group and performed the spell that forbid them from splitting up. In order to do that, each group had to pick a team leader. To Remus' surprise, both Miles and Peter insisted it be him.

"What?" he said. "What about Peter? Peter would make a good leader."

Both Miles and Peter laughed. "I like you a lot, Peter," said Miles, "but no. He wouldn't."

"Oh, believe me, I know," said Peter. "And Miles is great and all, but he's a first-year. We're both third-years. We can't have a first-year leading us around."

"That leaves you," said Miles, and Remus had to stop himself from beaming with pride. As a close friend to James Potter and Sirius Black, Remus didn't often have the opportunity to be a leader. As small as this role was, he felt important, and such importance was rare for someone who was so often an add-on.

Once all the groups were squared away, Dilley put on his Professor Voice and started pacing in front of them. "This egg hunt is intense," he growled. "You'll sweat. You'll cry. You might even collapse. It is not for the faint of heart. If you've changed your mind, then leave now."

No one left.

"You underestimate me," said Dilley. "And all for a measly five extra credit points. As for the rules: most everything is fair game. The eggs are hidden everywhere. Indoors. Outdoors. The grounds. Even at Hogsmeade. First- and second-years have my full permission to visit the village, but only for today, you hear? You are allowed to use magic, but not on another team without their consent. You are to stay on the grounds or in Hogsmeade. No Forbidden Forest. If you find an egg, then put it in the basket I've given you—it has a charm that will transport the egg directly into a bigger basket in the Great Hall. That way, you won't have to carry them around. Now. Are you ready? On your marks. Get set. GO!"

Students swarmed. Footsteps pattered. Remus, Peter, and Miles, however, stayed where they were.

"Where should we go first?" asked Remus.

Peter shrugged. "You're the group leader."

"Peter, that only means that you and Miles have to stay within fifteen feet of me! It doesn't mean that I have to make all the decisions!"

"Come on, just name somewhere," said Miles. "We can't stand here all day."

"Fine. What about… well, I think we should start with the places everybody's likely to look, because the eggs will be gone from those places if we don't hurry. We can go to the more secret places later. Right?"

"Sounds good. Let's go!" said Peter, but Remus didn't start walking yet. Instead, he looked at Professor Dilley, who was still standing in the courtyard and looking at the Three Makeshift Not-Marauders, evidently amused.

"Wait," said Remus. "There's nothing inside the eggs, right? No chocolate or anything?"

"Nothing at all," Dilley confirmed. "We couldn't have you cheating, now, could we?"

Remus smiled, strangely pleased that Dilley had considered his enhanced senses when designing the egg hunt. "Thank you," he said. "All right, lads, let's go!"

The search in the Great Hall was very uneventful. At one point, Remus tried a Summoning Spell, but it was clear that Dilley had put some sort of charm on the eggs to prevent students from doing that. "Maybe he just didn't hide any in here," Miles said, exasperated. "Maybe we should search somewhere else."

"Yeah, sure." The three of them walked out of the Great Hall and wandered back to the grounds, where flocks of students surrounded them, chattering and sighing.

"None anywhere I checked in Hogsmeade," Remus heard a girl complain to her group members. "Let's check the Great Hall."

"None in the common room," a boy complained. "Let's check Hogsmeade."

"None in the Divination or Transfiguration classrooms," a boy groaned. "Let's check the Charms room."

"Hm," said Remus quietly.

Peter nudged him. "What're you thinking, Moony?"

Remus ignored the confused look from Miles (he and Peter had been trying to avoid "Moony" and "Wormtail" lately, but sometimes it just slipped out), and said, "I don't think anyone's found an egg yet. I think… I think there's some sort of trick to it, but I can't for the life of me think what it possibly could be."

"It's gotta be something curse-breaking-related," Miles said. "He talks about nothing else."

"Hmm," said Remus again. "You know what? Let's go visit Hagrid. Perhaps he knows something."

They walked towards Hagrid's hut, keeping a close eye out for eggs… but they didn't find a thing, even when Peter dove into the long grass by the pond to search. "Dilley's a regular Easter bunny," Peter grumbled. "There are no eggs in there; only bugs. Is there one in my hair, Remus?"

Remus checked. "Yes." He plucked it between his fingers, but just as he was about to throw it away… he noticed something.

"All right?" Miles asked. "You've the queerest look on your face."

"Er… yeah. All right. I'm just… I hear something."

"Is it coming from the beetle?"

"Oh. No. I just got distracted." Remus chucked the beetle into the water before turning his head back to the source of the sound. "It's… buzzing, I think. Some sort of… some sort of soft buzzing. Almost like electricity, but not quite."

"Might be heatstroke," Peter said. "I don't know how you're surviving in those thick black robes, Remus. Maybe you're going to faint."

Remus shook his head, even though he could definitely feel sweat dripping down his back. It was awfully stifling. "No, I definitely hear something. I think… why don't we go to the pumpkin patch by Hagrid's house?"

They were only a few meters away, and the buzzing got louder with every step. "It's so weird," said Remus. "Can't you hear it?"

Both Peter and Miles shook their heads. Typical.

"Perhaps we should ask Hagrid," Peter suggested, so they knocked on Hagrid's door—Hagrid opened it for them, grinning, and Fang loped to Peter's feet. He really liked Peter, for some reason.

"Come on in!" Hagrid shouted. "What a surprise, eh? Bin waitin' ter see yeh for what feels like forever, I have. Hey… aren't yeh participatin' in the egg hunt?"

"We are," said Remus, "but there's a bit of an odd sound coming from your pumpkin patch, Hagrid. We were hoping you could tell us what it was."

"Nope." Hagrid waggled his finger and frowned. "Can' give yeh any hints to that egg hunt. Not a single one. Yeh hear?"

"So it's something to do with the egg hunt?" said Remus.

Hagrid suddenly went pale. "I shouldn't've said that," he muttered, and then he backed into his hut and shut the door behind him.

"Huh," said Miles. "Now that you mention it, there's a bit of a… a shimmery thing surrounding the pumpkin patch. Don't you see it?"

"Yeah," said Peter.

Remus squinted. If he tilted his head just right and didn't breathe, then he could indeed see a slight shimmer surrounding the patch. He hadn't even noticed that. "It's probably a concealment spell of sorts," he mused. "Maybe… Revelio."

Suddenly, the shimmer went away; Remus saw a bright blue egg on the ground for a mere half-second before Peter dove forward to grab it. He dropped it in the basket, and then it disappeared.

"We found one!" Miles cheered. "Now on to find the rest!"

The next stop was the Care of Magical Creatures classroom. Kettleburn was sitting on a bench, a strange bird-like creature on his shoulder. "Hello, there," he said cheerfully. "You're the second group to have stopped by!"

"Who were the first?" Peter asked.

"Oh, Basil Huckleby and Valencia Frasier. Fortunately, there's another egg here for you that they didn't find."

"How do we find it?" Miles asked.

Kettleburn laughed. "Nice try. I can't tell you that. I can tell you, however, that Dilley wants to make sure you know how to deal with creature-related curses."

Even though Miles was in the vicinity, Remus couldn't help it. "Oh, yeah," he said, "I really need to brush up on those."

Peter giggled, and Kettleburn blinked. "Anyway," he said, and it was clear that he was holding back a smile, "there is a creature in the area that has the egg, but it's a bit of a dangerous creature. You'll have to break or avoid the curse in order to retrieve the egg."

Remus, Miles, and Peter began looking for anything of value. They saw a Hippogriff, but neither Remus nor Peter remembered any Hippogriff-related curses. They saw a Bowtruckle, but Remus knew from first-hand experience that those were pretty harmless. They saw a small snake, but that wasn't even a magical creature.

Just as they were about to give up, Miles spotted an egg. It was a bright purple color, beautifully smooth, and lying in a ring of mushrooms.

"I'm afraid to get that one," said Peter after a long moment of silence.

Remus shrugged. "I'll get it."

He stepped over a few rocks, jumped over a mud puddle, and waded through some tall grass (all of which were difficult when Remus was experiencing borderline heat stroke and had long, black robes that nearly reached the ground). Finally, he arrived at the ring of mushrooms. He took a deep breath, and then he stepped inside.

Nothing happened.

Remus grabbed the egg and stepped away from the mushrooms. He went all the way back—through the tall grass, over the mud puddle, and over the rocks—and dropped the egg in the basket. It disappeared.

"Where was the curse?" Miles asked.

Remus turned to Kettleburn, who was laughing slightly. "Seems that the Pixies didn't want to bother Remus today," he said. "If a human (a witch or a wizard, specifically) steps into a Pixie ring, the Pixies are able to control their movements for a while. Nothing too serious, and an onlooker not in the ring can break the curse with a simple Finite Incantatem. But… I suppose the Pixies… got tired and didn't want to do that."

Oh. The Pixies hadn't bothered with Remus because, as magical creatures, they were afraid of his werewolf status. Besides, Remus wasn't human, so perhaps he hadn't even registered as "inside" the Pixie ring to the watching Pixies.

"Are you sure that's okay?" Remus asked Kettleburn quietly. "I don't want to cheat."

"Absolutely fine. Professor Dilley actually saw this coming—the Pixies getting tired, that is—and he said that a group is allowed to use their specific talents and resources to help them win. Er… that includes luck."

"Oh," said Remus. "Thank you."

"Go along and find the other eggs, then! Don't tell anyone, but I'm rooting for you three."

Miles beamed, Kettleburn winked, and then the Three Makeshift Not-Marauders were on their way once again.

The next stop, as per Remus' request, was Professor Flitwick's classroom—and that was only partially because Remus was extraordinarily hot and wanted to go indoors. Flitwick was a good teacher, Remus liked him a lot, and Remus thought himself to be pretty good at Charms. Perhaps it would be easier for Remus to find this egg.

"Ah, Remus!" squeaked Flitwick as they entered, practically bouncing. "Miles! Peter! It's excellent to see you three! I assume you're doing the egg hunt?"

"We sure are, Professor," said Remus. "I'm guessing there's at least one egg in your room."

"Yes, there is. But a group has already found it, I'm afraid."

"Which group?" asked Peter, alarmed.

"Er, it was a rather large one. Lily Evans, Severus Snape, Thierry Mulciber, Osman Avery, and Regulus Black."

"James is going to be spitting mad if they win," Remus mumbled, and then, louder, "Thanks anyway, Professor."

"You're very welcome. Best of luck!"

Remus thought he'd have good luck in the Arithmancy classroom, but he didn't think it worth it to mention that to Miles. Instead, they went to the Ancient Runes classroom and tried to decipher some confusing-looking runes.

"It's a special dialect," Professor Finley said. "This type was specifically developed for curses. See the jagged writing and sharp angles?"

"How do we read it?" Miles asked. "Remus, do you know this dialect?"

"No," admitted Remus.

"Students don't learn this at Hogwarts," said Finley. "It's a strictly post-Hogwarts dialect, mostly because it's so niche. The only things written in this dialect are usually quite graphic, and it was only popular for one specific time period in one specific culture. There's no use learning it here."

"Then how do we read it?"

"I have a dictionary for this dialect on that bookshelf," said Dilley.

"We should make copies of the dictionary," suggested Miles. "That way, we can each search a word. It'll go three times as quickly."

"That's brilliant," said Remus, and he duplicated the dictionary twice. It took about twenty minutes for the Marauders to find every word and piece it together.

"Search protection versus black creativity teacher also him donate password frog," read Miles with a frown. "What…? Did we do something wrong?"

"No," said Remus, who had plenty of practice translating runes. "We just picked the wrong synonyms. It should be… er… oh! 'Find the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and give him the password frog.' Or maybe toad. Or… lizard. Right, Professor Finley?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny," said Finley, but he was smiling.

Remus, Miles, and Peter dashed out of the room, being very careful to stay within five meters of each other, and found Dilley in his classroom. "Frog," said Peter, who was very out-of-breath and panting heavily. "Toad. Lizard."

Dilley smiled and tossed a pink egg to Miles, who caught it and threw it in the basket. That was another egg down!

Miles, predictably enough, did not want to go to Hogsmeade; after all, that was where his mother had been attacked and killed. Instead, they stayed on Hogwarts grounds—at one point, they accidentally set off a curse that made Peter fly, but Remus and Miles got him down (and Peter found an egg attached to the ceiling). There was an egg underneath the bench, but anyone who touched it grew sunflowers from beneath their fingernails. Fortunately, Remus was able to get rid of the sunflowers before they got too large and uncomfortable. There was yet another curse by the lake—Remus had to walk through a giant waterfall that had formed in the sky in order to get ahold of the egg. He didn't mind getting wet, though. It was hot.

At the end of the day, the groups all gathered in the Great Hall so that Dilley could remove the five-meter spells and announce the winners. "The winner," he said importantly, glancing around the room with far too much drama. Remus could hear Peter's heart hammering.

"The winner," he said again. Remus glanced at Miles, who was chewing his thumbnail.

"The winner," said Dilley. Even Remus was nervous now, and he didn't even care that much about the competition. Knowing Dilley, it was probably a pretty boring prize.

"The winner," said Dilley. Now it was just getting annoying. Remus heard students grumbling from all over the Hall.

"The winner," said Dilley, "is…"

There was a long, dramatic pause, and no one breathed.

"The winner is no one," said Dilley.

Noise erupted all over the Great Hall. "WHAT?!" cried a Ravenclaw fifth-year. "What do you mean, no one?!"

"I mean that no one got any eggs," said Dilley.

Basil stood up. "Valencia and I got some," he announced. He smiled at her, and she smiled back and tugged at his wrist, bidding him to sit.

"Nope," said Dilley. "No one got any. Does anyone know where their eggs went, exactly?"

Heads swiveled. "You said they would be transported to the Great Hall once we dropped them in the baskets," said a Slytherin fourth-year.

"So I did. But people who are planning to place curses on you don't usually tell the truth. No, there was one very important curse that each of you had to either break or avoid: the curse on the basket itself. Every egg that you dropped in the basket was Vanished."

Everyone was shouting now. "But that's not fair!" a Hufflepuff girl wailed. "There was no way for us to know!"

Dilley frowned. "What have I been teaching you all year, Hendricks? One: never trust unfamiliar items. I gave you a basket. You shouldn't have trusted me. Two: always test unfamiliar items. You should have dropped something insignificant, like a quill, into the basket and then made sure that it had landed in its intended location. Three: use Finite Incantatum on anything suspicious. Is it foolproof? No. But it's a good start, and it would've worked on the baskets. Four: trust no one. Not even me. Especially not me!"

And so the Great Hogwarts Egg Hunt of 1974 ended in violent waves of grumbling and whinging. No one had officially found a single egg, and a whole day had been wasted. Remus was wet and hot now, Peter was in a bad mood, and Miles was exhausted. They'd worked hard all day, and now they had nothing to show for themselves.

But, Remus reflected as he lied in bed that night, listening to Miles and Peter's quiet snores, I thought it was pretty fun, actually.

And he had. But he was very glad that James and Sirius hadn't taken part—they would have probably thrown full-on tantrums. Remus loved all his friends, but the time with Peter and Miles—much more mild, agreeable people—had certainly been nice.