Author's Note: chapter title says sweater instead of jumper since it is a reference to the song Heather by Conan Gray and gives me extreme Remus pining for Sirius feels so expect to see more lyrics again

X

Despite Remus's nonchalance over Twycross, he did feel extremely sick. All day long on Friday the words my father works for the Capture Unit pulsed in his head, getting sharper whenever he saw her. What was worse was that he couldn't help but look at her throughout the day. She was only slightly taller than him, her long blonde hair kept back in its usual ponytail, her shoulders constantly back and her nose always in the air. She didn't look like a danger, but… she was. To Remus. He'd have to be extremely careful around her, and also pray she never mentioned him to her father.

There's a boy in my class who's really sick; he misses several classes at least once a month! he could hear in her voice. He's so pale and always looks tired. Says it's some sort of blood disease.

What if she did write to him? What would happen? Did Dumbledore know his classmate—a fellow Gryffindor—was the daughter of a member of the Werewolf Capture Unit? He had to know. And Fawley, did she know? If she knew she would have said something surely…

Dear Miss Fawley, he wrote that evening while the other Marauders tried playing Monopoly again.

Professor Charlemagne had his lesson on werewolves today. I found out that Matilda Twycross—you remember her, she is the one whose boggart is a werewolf. Well her father works for the WCU. She claims to know all about werewolves but most of what she said were lies. I don't think she personally would guess about me however I don't know if she'd ever have reason to write to her father about me. I'll be careful.

Love

Remus

It wasn't until it was closed and he was halfway to the owlery that he realized he signed it 'love'. Like it was a letter to… to his mother or something.

He froze in the corridor, clutching the letter tightly, debating whether to open it up and fix it. Leave it? Would it be awkward? How did he always sign his letters before? Suddenly he couldn't remember, and began panicking. Sweat formed under his arm and his chest clutched up. Was it weird?

He ran to a nearby empty corridor and opened the letter, intending to change it—except he didn't have any ink or quills with him. Licking his lips, he crouched down with the letter on the floor and tried to use his wand to change the word. It ended up becoming a blurred, unreadable smear.

The owlery will have something.

He folded it back up and hurried to the tower, pausing in front of the door. He hadn't been back during the past week, since… since he got Arthur's body. Slowly he went in, eyes zeroing in on Arthur's old cubby. It was completely empty. Cleaned out. Scrubbed out. No sign of an owl ever living there.

Shaking now, he went to one of the tables, pleased to not only find stuff for writing but also a small jar of InkAway. Yours, he signed after using a dab of InkAway to remove the blur. He did love Miss Fawley. Very much so! But he wasn't sure if he wanted to have his letters signed that way, or if Miss Fawley would appreciate it.

"Hey Cocoa." He approached Peter's owl, climbing partway up the ladder since Cocoa was in one of the upper cubbies. "Pete said you could deliver this letter, if you wanted. It goes to Miss Fawley."

Cocoa hooted and then darted forward, nuzzling Remus's hand. While Cocoa did tolerate Remus, that wasn't usual. Toleration usually meant Remus could attach a letter, not… get snuggles.

"Is that… because of Arthur?" he asked, voice breaking. Cocoa stared up at him. "Thank you. Here." He got out an owl treat and Cocoa gently took it. Since it was for snowy owls and not brown owls, it was huge. "Here." He took it back and broke it into pieces. Cocoa hooted and ate the smaller pieces, feathers ruffling. Remus wanted desperately to pick him up and cuddle him, but held himself back. He did not want to push Cocoa's boundaries.

Once Cocoa finished the last bit of treat he stuck his leg out. Remus tied the letter on, thanking him before he flew out the window. Remus watched him until he disappeared into the cloudy sky then pulled three more owl treats out of his pocket, the last of Arthur's treats. He gave one to Godric, was going to give one to Bessie but she wasn't there so he left it in her cubby, and then threw the last one at Filibuster who screeched furiously at him and, after eating it in one bite, flew out of his cubby and began trying to dive-bomb Remus.

He ran out of the owlery as fast as he could, arms over his head to protect himself. Fili wheeled around, returning to his cubby where he made several screeches that were probably owl swear words.

Sirius's owl is absolutely nutters! he thought as he trudged down the stairs, wiping the feathers off his arms and missing Arthur dearly.

The Marauders, as usual, stayed up very late on Friday and Remus complained when James tried waking him up in the morning.

"I'll eat lunch," he mumbled, rolling over. "We just got to sleep a few hours ago!"

"The game, it's the Quidditch game," James reminded him.

Remus rolled back onto his back, peering up at James who had a badger painted on his cheek. "And your point is?"

James huffed, tugging at Remus's arm. "Come on!"

"No!" Remus wriggled further under the covers. "I go to your games and no others. Leave me be, I wish to sleep. You kept me up until five this morning."

"Four," James pointed out. "Well, four-thirty. Aw, come on Remy, don't you want to see Slytherin being slaughtered?"

"I'm sure Peter will take loads of pictures of the filthy massacre." Remus covered his head with his pillow. "Goodnight."

"Dementor."

"And you. Wait." He sat up suddenly. "You should put a honey badger on your cheek."

James frowned. "A… what?"

"A honey badger," Remus repeated. "They're a type of badger that actually eats snakes."

James's face split into a huge grin. "What do they look like?"

Remus miserably got out of bed and pulled out one of his encyclopedias, carefully reading the description so Sirius could paint a new badger on James's cheek. Sirius repainted the ones on his own cheek and Peter's as well, then painted dead, half-eaten snakes at their feet.

Remus gladly crawled back into bed when they left, then groaned when Sirius flung open the door not twenty minutes later. "What now?"

"I brought you breakfast." Sirius set a tray down on his desk. "Just in case you got hungry."

Remus blinked at the food. "Oh. Erm, th-thank you, that's very nice of you."

Sirius gave him a wink that sent hot shivers through his entire body. "Anytime." He whirled around and bounced out of the dorm room.

Remus took the tray and set it on his lap, happily eating all the food his friend had brought him. Toast, eggs, beans, sausage, and a large glass of orange juice. It did make him feel better, getting food in his belly, and when he put the tray back onto his desk he realized he was more awake than he thought.

He pretty much had the entire castle to himself. After a shower and clean clothes, he packed books into his satchel and wandered down to the Great Hall to read. Breakfast had already been cleared, and the only other 'person' in the room was the Fat Friar. Remus went over to the Hufflepuff table and sat with him, chatting a bit. The Fat Friar wanted to go to the game but it was snowing and he didn't like the feel of snowflakes going through him.

"I don't mind walking through walls or furniture," he added, "I just don't like feeling like a… what is it called? A snow-globe. Muggles have those too, you know. A Muggleborn student of mine showed me one a few years ago. Not used with real snow, though. I think they use water and glitter."

Remus was only half-listening as he worked on his homework but at that he paused and glanced up. "I—I'll be right back." He slammed his book shut and jumped up. "I'm going to run to the game quickly and then I'll be back. I'll let you know the score."

He took off, satchel bumping against his thigh as he went. Outside it was very cold and he hadn't put on anything for the snowy weather so by the time he reached the Quidditch pitch he was freezing cold. He slipped in and went up to the Gryffindor section, searching for his friends.

"Excuse me, p-pardon me, just a moment, my apologies," he murmured as he made his way across the bleachers. "Have you seen James and Si—oh, no, that's all right, thank you. Have you—over there? Thank you."

He reached his friends, shivering quite a bit as he stepped over one of the benches and tugged at James's sleeve.

"REMUS!" James squealed happily. "So glad you made it!"

"No, I—"

"Are you mental?" Sirius demanded, and proceeded to pull off his outer jumper. Before Remus could protest, Sirius was jamming it down over his head and nudging him until he put his arms through the sleeves. "What d'you think you're doing, running out here with hardly anything on?"

"I'm not starkers!" he complained until he realized he was wearing Sirius's jumper. It smelled like him, and was very warm. Very big, too, but… He tucked his hands into the sleeves so the ends drooped down loose, and it took a lot of effort not to do the same with his head, to wrap the smell around him even more. "I'm not staying for the game. I just needed to talk to you."

The commentator said something about Black getting the ball and he was confused for a second until he remembered Narcissa Black was a Chaser.

"I know what we should do for the end-of-term feast," he said, leaning in so only they could hear. "Let's turn the Great Hall into a snow-globe."

Remus returned to the Fat Friar feeling rather giddy for coming up with the plan, wishing he could thank the Friar for the help but of course not able to without revealing everything. He did inform the Friar that Hufflepuff was losing, 30 to 10 but that everyone seemed optimistic that Hufflepuff would win. They didn't, ending up losing 220-30. Apparently mostly due to Narcissa Black. Half the castle was talking about her and her natural abilities.

Sirius told the Marauders that night that his family was upset, repeating what he had told Remus at the Slytherin tryouts. That Narcissa's father believed girls shouldn't play Quidditch.

"She was bloody good," James said defensively. Then, "For a Slytherin."

Now that the game was over they had time to discuss Project Shake It Up, which was what they decided to name their snow-globe plot. Remus wrote furiously as everyone pitched ideas in and in the end they decided to make the floor ice, have it snow, have decorations and music, and attempt to have a globe in the Great Hall—a giant dome of glass or something resembling glass. The ice and snow and maybe glitter would be easy, they could all do that, it was mostly a matter of timing. They didn't want it to be icy floors and snowing before the feast. It would have to start sometime during the feast which was more complicated. The decorations would also be a little complicated since they'd have to appear during the feast, too.

Remus spent the entire evening in the library to hunt down spells. Normally he'd have Magical Theory but it had been postponed a week due to the Quidditch game, so he had the time.

He was also still wearing Sirius's jumper.

He never took it off when he came back to the castle, and when it got to be a little warm he instead took his long-sleeved top off that was underneath. He expected Sirius to ask for his jumper back but he didn't, never even mentioned it, so Remus kept wearing it feeling guilty and bad for doing so.

I'll give it back when he asks for it, he decided but Sirius didn't say anything at all that night even though Remus wore it the entire time they stayed up till three in the morning.

He almost wore it to bed (it was rather long on him) but did take it off and changed into pajamas instead. When morning came, he put it back on, wondering if Sirius would notice or care. He told himself that's why he was wearing it again, just to see how long it would take Sirius to realize. Part of him was even convinced that was the truth, even though deep down he knew the real reason was because it was Sirius's jumper and it smelled like him.

Remus went to James's practice that morning, spending the time with his nose in a book, trying to figure out how to do the dome. There were a variety of options. The simplest one would be a flat pane of glass but he didn't want it to be flat. It had to be curved, had to be a dome. Like a snow-globe. It didn't even need to be glass, only look like glass or look like… something. He supposed he could try to make a curve of fake clouds that the snow was coming from. That might work in a pinch… although clouds were difficult to control, at least at his level of ability. No, they'd need to be under a dome… like what Spring did for Astronomy when it was rainy. He could do that…

No, he thought, chewing his thumbnail. Because while there would be a dome-shaped barrier, the clouds would all drift to the top and not form a dome.

A bubble? he wondered, looking up as James did a flip in the air to avoid a Bludger, nearly falling off his broom. He turned it into a second flip, righting himself while Sirius and Peter muttered their concerns. If I make it a giant bubble it will be dome-shaped, it will just have to be sturdy so it wouldn't pop. But it will quiver and look weird.

He did a bubble spell, pointing his wand at the bench in front of him and drawing his wand up. He studied the bubble quivering in the air, then noticed it stiffening a little. The cold air! Freezing it! He popped the bubble, ignoring the looks his friends were giving him. Okay, a frozen bubble to be a dome. That would look right!

Is there a spell for a giant frozen bubble? He looked at the book in his lap, but it was for things like glass and physical shields, nothing like a bubble; he'd have to get a new book. Maybe. If not then… maybe he could make one. It'd simply be a matter of twisting already existing spells and then making it big. Not quite as difficult as making something entirely new. Plus he had made a bubble spell before. It—

"What if we actually, um, shake it up?" Peter suddenly blurted out.

Sirius and Remus both stared at him.

"You know, make the room shake or maybe just the furniture, I dunno how hard it would be." He then looked a little distressed. "Since we're calling it Project Shake It Up. Um. I mean, it's only an idea—"

"No, no, that would be brilliant," Sirius agreed, turning to Remus. "Is it possible?"

"Erm, it might be. I—I'm not entirely sure, I'd have to do more research. It is a good idea," he said to make sure Peter knew he wasn't dismissing it. "I'm just unsure if we have the time to make it possible. I will do research however there is no guarantee."

"You don't hafta."

"No, it's a good idea," Remus promised, and Peter smiled.

They shared the idea with James after practice and he jumped on the idea, begging Remus to try to find a way. Remus again promised he would try his best. They chattered about decorations as they went to the Great Hall for breakfast, not bothering to change their conversation since hardly anyone was there. They just lowered their voices, trying to figure out what would be the most typical snow-globe type of decorations as possible. Just as James said they would have to look in the shops on their next Hogsmeade visit, owl post arrived. On Sundays there wasn't any real owl post… nothing scheduled. Instead owls would come in now and again to see if their recipients were there.

Godric and Cocoa flew down to the Marauders, Godric depositing a large box in James's arms and Cocoa sticking his leg out for Remus to take Miss Fawley's response.

"Thank you again for letting me borrow him," Remus said as he took the letter.

"Oh, anytime," Pete said, scratching Cocoa's head. "'Sides, he likes Miss Fawley."

James ripped open the box to reveal a small mountain of sweets, a bag full of galleons, a small jar of polish for the white-gold parts of his broom, and a letter. He opened the box of raspberry-fudge chocoballs, offering one each to his friends. They all took one, Remus setting his aside for after breakfast which lasted until he opened Miss Fawley's letter. As soon as he took the parchment out of the envelope, he picked up the chocoball and bit into it, raspberry and fudge dripping down his chin. He had to set the letter down and scrape up the ooze back into his mouth.

"Don't look at me like that," he grumbled, realizing Sirius was staring. "The raspberry ones are messy."

He ate the other half and cleaned his hands off on a napkin, feeling a blush rising when Sirius said, "It's fun watching you eat sweets. You're a disaster."

"Let's see you do it, then."

Sirius shrugged and took a delicate bite of his, twisting the chocoball away in a manner that didn't leave anything dripping down. He swallowed, smirked at Remus, and took another easy bite.

"Oh, bugger off!" Remus threw his napkin at Sirius who laughed.

Remus,

I am very sorry I never thought to warn you. I had no idea that the Twycross in the WCU had any children near your age. I should have done more research. Please be very careful, although I know you already know this. Unless you become part of her life other than a classmate, I cannot imagine any reason for her to write to her father about you.

Dowie Twycross is a very odd man. He is full of himself, and thinks so little and so poorly of werewolves he is of the mind that they are easy to spot by their brutish and uncouth manners. I met him in person once, when Morrigan was taken. He made many strange comments about her appearance and size, deciding that she hadn't been a werewolf long enough to develop the usual traits other than the 'bloodthirstiness' made obvious by her killing Black.

Do not worry too much. If he told her what he knows of werewolves, I highly doubt she will ever be able to figure out you are one. But still, be cautious.

Yours,

M. Fawley

Remus's lip curled a little at the description of Twycross's father even though it was a relief. Twycross had seemed very sure of herself calling werewolves monsters and brutes; he might not like being small however, his size was definitely working in his favor.

Good thing I'm not part of the study group anymore, he thought as he folded the paper up and put it deep in his satchel; he'd have to destroy it later. It would be easy to avoid Twycross. At least it wasn't Spinnet!

Even though the Hall was only half-full, it got strangely noisy. Students began talking loudly about something and the Daily Prophet was being passed out. Soon a copy was shoved into James's hand. They were simply told 'page six' then the older Gryffindor turned back to her friend, discussing shock over whatever it was.

James opened the paper and his eyes widened. "Holy Hippogriff feathers. It's the Gossiping Ghoul."

"In the paper?" Peter asked.

"A letter from them." James set the paper down, smoothing it down. "It says, 'Hello Everyone. It seems my program the other day caused quite a stir. Besides my identity, the biggest thing people seem to want to know is 'why'. Why did I do that? Will I do it again? Because, rest assured dears, I will be doing it again.'"

James paused, glancing up at the others before continuing. "'The reason is simple. Did anyone notice what all the families mentioned in my program had in common? That's right, they're all purebloods. And that is the why. I am tired of you purebloods acting like you're perfect and better than the rest of us, when you all have dirty little secrets hiding in your closets. Well, dears, let's say it's time for some spring cleaning. The magical world does not revolve around you. Love, The Gossiping Ghoul.'"

None of them spoke for a few seconds until James got up to pass the paper on to the next Gryffindor in line, telling them which page it was. He returned to his seat and removed his glasses, cleaning them off on his shirt.

"I don't understand," Peter whispered.

"Whoever it is hates purebloods," Sirius said flatly. "I mean, I can't blame them for hating some of the families."

"But—but the Longbottoms always seemed nice, why are they being targeted?" Peter asked, eyes going huge. "And the Minister is doing good for, um, non-purebloods, why was she targeted too?"

"I guess it doesn't matter if you're nice or not," James said, putting his glasses back on. "Seems like the Ghoul has a bone to pick with everyone." He grinned broadly, wriggling his eyebrows. "Eh? Eh? Get it? Ghoul? Bone—"

"We get it," groaned Sirius, shoving him. "We just don't want it."

"Still doesn't make sense," muttered Peter, and Remus nodded his agreement to that, wondering what would happen next; he had a bad feeling about what might come of this. He kept thinking of the witches and wizards attacking Muggleborns. Surely they wouldn't let this slide. The question was: would they hurt the Ghoul… or worse?

X

James decided waiting until a week before the feast to check out snow-globes for inspiration was 'cutting it too close' so after he got a shower he suggested they sneak into Hogsmeade for the day. All of them, including Remus, to get stuff for the prank. Remus hemmed and hawed, trying to think of an excuse. Finally, he told them he really needed to stay and work on the spells.

"I'm the brains," he pointed out, trying not to look too anxious. "So let me stay and do, erm, brainy stuff."

"You're just gonna work on your homework," Peter accused.

"No, no, I'll work on Shake It Up, I promise. I swear. If you come back and I haven't done anything then next time you sneak in I will go with you. How about that?"

They agreed to those terms and then the others left. Remus got out some books about snow spells, studying it for a while until he decided they were really gone and not going to simply sneak back in and surprise him, then he got his homework out.

He wasn't lying, he was going to work on Shake It Up. After some homework.

And he did. After finishing up almost all his homework due that week he went down to the library to start figuring out how to make giant frozen bubbles. Should I work on the giant part first, or the frozen part? He took a multitude of notes and decided on a couple of books to check out. He and Farrow made some small talk, glad that the librarian liked him. It was probably a silly thing, feeling good about that, but it meant that Farrow trusted him with the books. And Farrow didn't trust many people.

Ten minutes later Remus was sequestered in the room behind the mirror with food, books, notes, and a plan, knowing that's where his friends would be coming through. They could see he was working on the spells. Which was going to be a lot of work. There were spells for large bubbles, even enormous bubbles, but none big enough to encompass almost the entire Great Hall without a lot of practice and focus. None for frozen bubbles, either. He tried making huge bubbles and then freezing them but it wasn't working out too well. No, he'd have to come up with his own spell. Hopefully in time for the prank.

Remus flopped down, munching on an apple as he began writing down possible words and combinations. Thinking about what he learned in Arithmancy, he also wrote down a few ideas and got the numbers for those, not sure if that meant anything or not. Perhaps if he found one that matched his heart number which was what Talkalot said was connected to magic. Of course he had no idea what he was really doing, and regretted not bringing his Arithmancy book which almost made him laugh.

My least favorite class, he thought, shaking his head. Well. Maybe it would prove to be helpful. He'd have to wait and see how this spell turned out.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed before he heard voices down the passage. He looked up, blinking wearily as he heard them getting closer. There were piles of crumpled up parchment around him, his hands were covered in ink, and most of his food was gone. There was also a soapy scent filling the air from all his attempts.

"—icked out of there!" he could hear James complaining.

"It wasn't my fault!" Peter whined. "It was an accident, you know it was an accident! I'm sorry, okay? I'll… I'll pay you back." He sounded very unsure about that.

"It isn't the money. I don't care about the money. Oh, Remy!" James stopped when he reached the end of the passage, peering into the enormous room.

Remus raised his arms, stretching them out. "Where did you get kicked out? What happened?"

"Eye Of Newt, the old ingredients shop. And we didn't get kicked out," Sirius explained, setting a bag down. "We only nearly did."

"Because Peter broke a display full of leeches," James said. "I had to pay for some of the leeches that got destroyed."

Peter's face went red. "Accidentally. It was an accident. James was waving a squid in my face and saying it was a baby kraken and then it wriggled at me and—and I panicked! I jerked backwards and knocked the case over."

"Oh, excuses, excuses," sighed James.

Remus tilted his head. "Were you waving a squid in his face and calling it a baby kraken?"

James straightened up, looking rather haughty. "I might have been. What are you doing?"

"Not changing the conversation like you are." Remus got up, stretching his legs which were stiff and a little achy. How long had he been there? "You can't fully blame Peter if you were attacking him like that."

"How is waving a dead squid in someone's face attacking them?!" James demanded.

"It wasn't dead!" Peter huffed out. "It wiggled. The tentacles…" He trailed off and shuddered.

"It was tiny," James pointed out. "The size of your head, maybe."

"It's still a big fear for him," Remus said, defending Peter who was looking more and more upset. "If someone is afraid of something you shouldn't wave it in their face."

"Yeah! Would you want me waving a Dementor in your face?" Pete demanded.

James cracked up laughing. "I'd like to see it."

"Can we stop arguing about the leeches?" Sirius yawned. "They've been fighting about it the entire way back and I'm tired about hearing about it."

"Some of the leeches fell in my shirt," Peter told Remus. "It was awful, I had to pull my shirt up so the clerk could get them off. It was humiliating!"

"I'm sorry," James said, throwing his arms out. "All right? I am, I shouldn't have waved a maybe-dead-maybe-alive squid in your face calling it a baby kraken."

Peter sniffled. "Thank you."

"Why were you in the ingredients shop anyway?" Remus asked and got three blank faces staring at him. "You were supposed to be looking at snow-globes."

"We did!" James set his bag down and tipped it over, a dozen different snow-globes tumbling out. "Ta-da! Lots of inspiration. Look at this one!" He picked one up that was decorated on the outside with a lot of scarlet and gold. "We need to do this, not just with the lion." Inside was a snow lion dressed in Gryffindor hat and scarf, prowling around and batting at the snowflakes. "Can we? Make snow animals that move around?"

"It… I don't know," Remus said, chewing his lip. "Maybe. If we have time which I'm not sure we will, this bubble spell is proving to be harder than—"

"Bubble?" Sirius asked. "What bubble?"

"For the dome." Remus waved his hands out to form a dome shape. "The top of the snow-globe, to make it look like one. I thought we were doing that. If not, we—"

"Nonono!" James flapped his hand furiously. "We are, yes, the dome. We need the globe part of it. If there's no globe part then it's just… snow and decorations. And music! Look what I got!" He pulled a record out of the bag Peter was holding. "The Crystal Wand!"

The Crystal Wand was an old wizarding symphony whose music was now mostly used during Christmas. It would fit perfect. They also got small containers of fake snow that when activated would start shaking gently and snow would fall in a fairly wide pattern.

"That way you don't need to worry about a snow spell too," Sirius explained. "My idea."

The snow spell wasn't very hard, but that would lift some of the burden off his shoulders, and Remus thanked him. In addition there was a lot of glitter, and also loads of various decorations that were small and simply needed an activation word to make them bigger. James figured they could place them around the Great Hall and have the word be spoken as the music started. They were all Gryffindor decorations.

"You really want the teachers to know it was us, huh," Remus sighed.

"They're gonna know it was us no matter what we do," James pointed out. "Let's make it as red and gold as we can, in that case! Oh, don't worry, Sirius and I will make sure to take all the blame."

Remus made a mental note to do the lumos spell or something after any of the spells needed, so if McGonagall checked his wand it wouldn't be like what happened with Operation TJ.

"So what have you done?" James inquired.

Remus pushed his fringe back. "Erm, not much honestly. I'm trying to do the bubble. That's all I've really been working on." He swallowed, suddenly realizing the bubble might not work at all. Maybe it had been dumb to think of this prank. "I—"

"You're looking panicked," Peter noted.

He took in a deep breath, trying to calm down. "I am trying to figure it out. I'm not entirely sure if I'll be able to do it. I can do this…" He pointed his wand at the floor and did a large bubble spell, twisting his arm up and flinging it upwards so the bubble went high up, surrounding him. "But I'd have to be in the center and it'd be very obvious I did it, and I don't know if I could even get it big enough." He did another spell, gently pushing the bubble to make it bigger until it surrounded all four of them. "And now it's very fragile and the slightest thing will pop it—"

"I WANT TO DO IT!" James shrieked and popped the bubble, suds gently floating down on them. "That was fun."

"If I made it much bigger it will probably pop, too. On its own. Now I could do this…" He did another bubble spell, going in a large circle, tracing along the floor and when he finished the bubbles walls rose and met in a dome above them.

"That's perfect!" James exclaimed.

"Except I think the teachers would notice me going 'round in a circle in the Great Hall," Remus said. "Plus I don't know how to alter it to be frozen."

Pete frowned. "Your eye is twitching a little."

Sirius put a hand on Remus's shoulder. "Deep breath, Remy, come on. Calm down."

"I am calm," he said but took in some deep gulps of air. "Maybe we should do something else."

"After I bought all these snow-globes?" James argued, picking another one up.

"What if you did the same thing you did for Overgrowth?" Sirius inquired, hand still on his shoulder. Remus looked up at him. "Making it delayed. You could do the circle thing, couldn't you? Like that? And you wouldn't have to come up with a new spell either, you could, erm, overlay the freezing spell over it."

"Will we need sunglasses again?" Peter asked.

Remus looked down, thinking. "I—I might be able to do that. Except Peter does have a point, it would be difficult to do it without being caught."

James began giggling, rubbing his hands. Remus gave him a confused look. "We don't hide it. Look, as we talked about everyone is gonna know it's us, right?"

"Yes but I'm the one doing the spells—" Remus started but James held up his hand.

"Right, so you hide under my cloak and do the spell and I walk around too, with you, so people think it's me. And also to keep anyone from getting too close to you. Would that work?"

Remus thought about it, tried picturing it in his head. "If a teacher stops us, though…"

"If we do it early enough most of the teachers will be in class," James answered. "We could do it at four. Would those two spells work on a two-ish hour delay? The bubble and the freezing?"

"Yes," he said slowly. "I could probably do more but I have class at four on Fridays."

"Three-thirty, then. Two and a half hours. Is that too much time?"

"No, it… it might not be. I will have to work on it but that will be easier than coming up with a brand new spell. Hold on." He began going in a circle doing the delaying spell on a short timer. Then he did the bubble spell, another delaying spell, and the freezing spell which he still wasn't too great at.

They waited a couple of minutes and then the bubble began forming and almost as soon as it reached its peak, the sides started freezing up until soon there was a frozen bubble around them. But the frozen bubble was patchy in some spots and began cracking and falling to pieces until the whole thing came down around them.

"Can you get them mastered enough in three weeks?" James asked.

"I can try," Remus said, trying not to sound or look tired because it wasn't really three weeks. Not for him. Because he had to study for the exams, and take the exams, plus the full moon was coming up. At least it was only for two nights this month but still…

"You don't need to push yourself," Sirius told him. "If you can't, it's all right. We can do something else."

"Yeah it's fine," Peter said as he picked up pieces of frozen bubble and watched them melt in his hand. He rubbed his hands together, making it sud up a little, and then he began doodling little hearts in the suds, looking amused. "This is really soapy."

"Yeah, I guess we could do something else," said James.

"No." Remus forced a smile on his face. He wouldn't… couldn't let them down. "I can do it. I mean, maybe we should have a backup plan in case but I can get those spells perfected by the time term ends, if you guys take care of everything else." With the snow boxes and the decorations, it really wouldn't be much work for them.

"Whatever I can do to help you," Sirius said, giving his shoulder another squeeze. As he did, he glanced at the jumper and Remus wondered if he was finally going to ask for it back. Instead, he looked back up into Remus's face and smiled.

Dumping Cassie would help, came unbidden into his head and he nearly winced as if he said the words out loud. He stepped back so Sirius wasn't touching his shoulder anymore, trying to look casual. "There is something you could do that would help me big time."

"Anything."

Remus grinned. "Do what you need to do to stop your headaches."

Sirius stared at him for a few seconds before his face darkened and he grabbed Remus, trying to throw him to the ground, yelling rather rude phrases while Remus shrieked back that Sirius had promised anything. James and Peter watched with interest and then James asked what Remus meant. Sirius shoved Remus's head into his armpit and swore it meant nothing, while Remus gagged at the smell.