Chapter 6

"And here's a picture of her when I first got her! She was so tiny!" Kingsley explained. He was showing Remus picture's of his pet Kneazle. Remus sometimes sat with Kingsley at breakfast, but not way too often ever since he had become close friends with James, Sirius, and Peter.

"Cute," Remus responded. He had once wanted a pet Kneazle when he was younger, but his parents said no, because they didn't have much money.

"Then here was her first birthday! I made her a cake but she didn't like it very much," Kingsley said, giving Remus a picture of the Kneazle next to a small cake.

"And then here's -" he was cut off when Sirius and James came walking up to the table.

"Hey Remus," Sirius greeted, before eyeing Kingsley, "Can you leave please we want to hang out with our friend…"

"Um, I was sitting here first though…"

"Just leave," Sirius growled quickly, which Remus had to admit was quite rude of him.

"Um, bye Remus… See you later I guess," Kingsley stood up, and quickly ran away from the table, leaving Sirius to take his seat.

"So Remus, we wanted to ask you if you could maybe help us with something," James said and excitement gleamed from Sirius's eyes.

"What is it?" Remus asked, he was interested to hear what his friends wanted him to do for them…

"So last night we had this idea…" James began, clearly he was as excited as Sirius, possibly even a little bit more. "So, in Defense Against the Dark Arts we were thinking of causing a little bit of trouble, and you know, we thought maybe you could help."

Remus's blood ran cold, trouble? He wasn't liking the idea of this at all. "Trouble?" he said and his two friends just nodded.

"Don't worry, just a little bit of harmless fun," Sirius reassured, though Remus still wasn't convinced, "And don't worry, nobody's getting hurt."

"Ok I guess… What is this prank thing anyways?"

"You'll find it when we do it, but the role you're going to play will be Distracting the teacher!" James explained putting a bit of an emphasis on the last part.

"Yeah, and it's the safest part!" Sirius said.

"So, you want me to distract the teacher?"

"Yes, but only when we give you the signal." James informed, and the clock bell rang, signaling for class to begin.

"We'll see you in class," Sirius ran off, winking, and he was starting to really have doubts about this whole thing…

Remus walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts, he ran a little late so he took one of the vacant seats, which was next to Severus, the boy that James seemed to not like.

"Good morning," Professor Aubirth greeted with his usual, dark, tone. Everyone muttered their greeting, fear in their eyes.

"Today you'll be practicing the defensive charm we learned recently," he began. I don't remember learning that, Remus thought, but then realized he must have been on full moon leave. "It'll be on page twenty four in case you forgot…"

Everyone began quickly turning to the correct page, and pulling their wands out, as if Professor Aubirth may hurt them if they didn't do so quickly.

Remus opened to the page, and noticed that the charm looked pretty easy. He practiced it over, and over, but he couldn't seem to get it. It was quite embarrassing, especially when Severus kept looking at him.

Remus suddenly realized that maybe he could ask the teacher for help while his friends caused "trouble", but especially now Remus was starting to have doubts about all of this… The idea of causing trouble seemed absurd, but even more so was that Remus was allowed to come to Hogwarts despite his condition, and if he got in trouble for this he would put his entire education in jeopardy. And it would be very selfish of him to do this when Dumbledoore was so kind and generous to let him into Hogwarts, despite him being a werewolf…

Another thought came to Remus's head, if he didn't do this, his entire friendship with James and Sirius might end, and Remus would be lonely. Remus had worked so hard to get real friends, and he had them, but if he didn't do the prank, he could lose them in a heartbeat…

Suddenly, Remus felt something hit him. He looked on the floor, and saw a crumbled up sheet of parchment. He unraveled in, and in ink read a few words, This is the signal to start. Remus looked across the room and saw James and Sirius looking at each other with a smug expression on their faces, and Remus was starting to really worry about what this whole prank thing was going to be about…

Remus knew he had to do it, so he raised his hand, coughing a bit to catch the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher's attention.

"Yes Remus?" Professor Aubirth snapped, and Remus realized it would be scary talking to the strict teacher.

"I think I, I was out when we learned this spell…" he stuttered, gesturing towards the book.

"I see…" the Professor said coldly, walking closer Remus swallowed back a fresh wave of fear.

"I, I was well, wondering… Maybe you could help me with the spell…" Remus asked.

"Did you try it yourself already?"

"Erm… yeah, but I couldn't do it…"

Professor Aubirth sighed, taking out his wand. "Hold your wand firmly, and don't flick your wrist when doing the spell…" Remus watched as he did a demonstration, but lost his attention when he saw Sirius and James tiptoeing to the front of the classroom.

"Pay attention Remus!" Professor Aubirth barked and Remus looked down guiltily.

The teacher showed Remus the spell several times, and then it was Remus's turn to perform the spell. He remembered all the tips Proffesor Aubirth had given him, but he still couldn't do the spell right…

"Honestly Remus!" Professor Aubirth growled quite loudly, and students were turning to look in their direction, "Why did you have to leave on the days we were learning this! Now you're never going to learn this stuff!"

More heads were turning in their direction, and Remus put his head down, wanting to disappear, he hated all the attention.

People began whispering and Remus knew it was about him, suddenly a voice piped in, "I could help him."

Remus turned to see Lily Evans look at him, with sympathy in her eyes.

"No, Remus must learn it on his own…" Professor Aubirth dismissed her and she gave Remus a look saying she was sorry.

Suddenly, everyone turned their head to the front of the classroom, and laughter, and cheering broke out.

"What is going on!" Professor Aubirth exclaimed angrily, turning to the front of the classroom, and Remus turned as well.

His jaw dropped when he saw that James and Sirius were enchanting the Dragon Skeleton in the classroom to fly around. Most people in the classroom were cheering, and Remus saw that the Professor was so angry, that he might burst at any moment.

"Sirius Black! James' Potter!" He began, and everyone went silent. "What in the name of Merlin's Beard are you doing!?"

James and Sirius didn't answer, both of them just looking at each other.

"Put that down right now!" He screeched and Sirius and James slowly lowered the skeleton to the ground, a few of the bones flinged when it hit the ground and Professor Aubirth looked even angrier now…

"Off to Dumbledoore's office now! No questions," the two boys walked out of the classroom, casting Remus a glance as they exited the room.

"As for the rest of you, keep practicing the spells and not talking to each other or you'll be joining Sirius and James!"

Everyone quickly got back to work, casting each other nervous glances, and Remus wondering how much trouble his friends would be in.

When the school day was over, Remus met Peter in the dorm room, and the two of them hung out until James and Sirius walked in. They looked weary, but the same excitement from earlier still shone in their eyes.

"How was detention?" Remus asked, avoiding eye contact.

"Bad, but still, it was worth it." Sirius admitted. "Anyways, thanks for helping us with the prank, we couldn't have pulled it off without you."

Remus just nodded and began working on his essay that they had for homework that evening.

"Hey! Next time you guys do something like that, can I help!" Peter squeaked.

"Erm… I don't know, we'll see…" James responded, but he seemed satisfied with the answer.

"Anyways Remus, don't look so down, the prank had to be at least a little bit fun!" Sirius said.

"I mean, I guess it was pretty funny…" Remus admitted and everyone seemed happy with his response.

"So Remus, as of today," James began excitedly, "You are officially one of us!"

Remus stared at him, suddenly, he felt less regretful of the trouble they had caused in class. I have real friends now!