Thursday, 9th September 1971

Remus finished slurping down the dregs of his medi-witch prescribed morning chocolate injection and slapped his lips in appreciation.

'That was as delicious as always, Breen. Thank you.' There truly was nothing better than starting the day with a huge dose of cocoa. The fact that it was good for him was just the icing on the cake. 'Would it be okay if I spent some time in the laundry room? I think the atmosphere would help me meditate,' Remus asked the elf as he stood up from the table.

'Of course, Master Remus,' Breen said, appearing delighted to be able to help him in another way.

Remus thanked him and made his way to the laundry room. Plumes of warm steam billowed out as he pushed the door open and the scent of soap filled his nose. The smell was strong but not unpleasant, so Remus could tolerate it. Once inside, he leant against one of the washing buckets with his arms propped on the rim and stared into the swirling liquid, allowing the heat of the room and the sounds of the water to lull him gently into his mindscape

He wasn't sure how long he had been there when an elf disturbed him by calling his name.

'Is you okay, Master Remus?' the female elf asked.

He jolted painfully from his meditation and opened his eyes. 'I'm fine, thank you. I was just meditating,' he assured her, and she scurried off back to her work. He assumed she put the word out because the rest of the elves left him alone after that. They worked around him, chattering quietly amongst themselves, and their voices added to the ambient background noise of the room in a way Remus found soothing.

He stayed there for the rest of the free period enjoying the atmosphere before a concerned elf alerted him to the time and he realised he needed to leave for Transfiguration.

'Morning, Remus,' Sirius called when he saw him enter the classroom. 'You can sit with us if you like.'

Remus paused at his shout. He'd been heading towards his usual solitary desk on the other side of the room, but he glanced at the corner where the three of them were sitting, shrugged and walked towards them. Sirius felt a thrill of triumph. He was finally getting somewhere.

'You want me to sit with Pete?' James whispered as they watched Remus attempt to navigate the classroom in his too-long robes, tripping twice along the way.

'You don't mind?' Sirius said, surprised by the offer. He did want Remus to sit next to him, but he would never have asked James himself. That would have been rude.

'Course not, I know how much you want him to like you, and I understand why.' James got to his feet and grabbed his bag. 'Shove over, Pete. I'm sitting with you today,' he said, his tone cheerful.

'Oh, you didn't need to move, James,' Remus said when he reached them.

'It's cool. I know you like being at the back with no one behind you. I don't mind,' James said, and then winked at Sirius when Remus turned to pull his things from his bag. Sirius grinned back.

'Why do you have a silver plate?' Sirius said when he saw Remus pull the item from his bag.

Remus' face turned a pleasing shade of pink, and Sirius wondered if he could make the colour deepen.

'I missed the lesson on reparifarge, so Professor McGonagall gave me this to practise on. Well, when she gave it to me it was a weird metallic wood and shaped like a demented frisbee.'

'And you did it without even seeing the demonstration? That's pretty impressive, mate. Well done,' Sirius said.

Remus' blush intensified and Sirius grinned.

'Thanks, it took a while,' Remus said.

'Good morning, class. I hope you're not too tired from your Astronomy lesson last night because today will be your first attempt at transfiguration.'

Cheers went up around the room at the announcement and she smiled.

'Yes, I know. It's very exciting.' She waited for the class to calm down before continuing. 'Today you will be focusing on changing an object's material. You will each receive a matchstick, and I would like you to turn it into a needle. This task should not be too difficult if you have a sufficient understanding of the theory, and I expect all of you to have at least some effect on your matchstick by the end of the lesson. Anyone who does not will be writing me an essay.'

The students groaned, but Professor McGonagall ignored them, dropping matchsticks on the desks at the front of the room before moving on to the next row. When she reached Sirius and Remus at the back of the room, she took the silver plate and congratulated Remus on his success.

The class fell silent as the students focused on their attempts to transfigure their matchstick. No one wanted to have to write an extra essay. The peace was only broken by the occasional cry of frustration, which Professor McGonagall ignored.

'Oh hey, you did it!' Sirius whisper-shouted when he glanced at Remus' side of the desk and saw his matchstick was now metallic.

'Well, it's not quite a needle,' Remus said, frowning at his silver matchstick. 'All I've done is make a serviceable item utterly useless.' He picked it up and held it with the end pinched between his thumb and forefinger. 'Can't start a fire with it, can't sew with it. What use is a metal matchstick?'

Sirius sniggered. 'Well, let's see,' he said, taking the matchstick from Remus using the tips of his fingers so their hands wouldn't touch. 'It might make a great drumstick for a mouse drummer,' he said, tapping it on the edge of the table in an upbeat rhythm. 'You may have started a revolution in the rodent music scene.'

Remus snorted. 'Aren't drumsticks usually made of wood?'

'Well, you just want to spoil all my dreams, don't you, Remus?' Sirius said.

James and Peter had turned around in their seats and were watching the exchange with amusement.

James snatched the matchstick from Sirius. 'Clearly, it's a walking stick for an elderly and disabled frog, and I must say, Remus, it was very kind of you to make it.'

'You're an idiot, James,' Peter said, taking the matchstick from James, who had been tapping it across the table in imitation of a walking stick. 'Frogs don't walk. Why would they need a walking stick? It's obviously the balance bar for a tight-rope walking beetle.'

'What's tight-rope walking?' Sirius asked.

'It's a muggle performance. They walk on a single strand of rope really high in the air, and they use a metal bar to stay balanced,' Peter told him.

'That sounds really stupid and dangerous,' Sirius said with interest. 'I want to try it.'

His pronouncement caused the other three to dissolve into fits of suppressed laughter. Sirius smirked and waited for them to regain control. He liked making people laugh.

Remus was the first to stop giggling, and he sat up and wiped his eyes before he said, 'Anyway, beetles can walk upside down on the ceiling, so they wouldn't need a balance bar.' He held out his hand to request his matchstick back, and Peter dropped it into his hand without touching him.

'May I ask what you four find so amusing about today's lesson?' Professor McGonagall called from the front of the room.

'Sorry, Professor,' Sirius said. 'Remus turned his matchstick into metal, but he was concerned that he'd made something completely useless. So, we were trying to reassure him, but all our ideas are terrible. Can you think of a use for a metal matchstick?'

The other students chuckled at Sirius' words, and even Professor McGonagall seemed to be struggling to keep her face straight. Sirius detected a slight twitching at the corners of her mouth.

'Congratulations, Mister Lupin, ten points to Gryffindor. Perhaps you can help your friends to achieve the same results?' she said.

Sirius turned back to Remus and saw he was now blushing furiously. Sirius decided he liked that colour on Remus and resolved to make it happen more often.

The rest of the class passed without further incident. Sirius and James managed to make their matchsticks take on a metallic sheen, but they were still made of wood. Peter had failed to have any effect on his whatsoever and was doomed to write the extra essay.

When class ended, they hung back to let the room clear, Sirius wanted Remus to see that they were considerate of his needs without having to be asked. He was delighted that they had gotten along so well during the lesson and that Remus had seemed to enjoy his sense of humour, and he was determined to not mess up this time.

By the time they left, the corridor outside was deserted. James and Peter volunteered to grab some food from the hall, and they arranged to meet back at the dorm before dashing off, leaving Sirius and Remus alone.

Sirius cast around for something to say and, seeing the torrential rain through the water-spotted windows, settled on, 'I'm glad we don't have to go outside today.'

'Me too,' Remus said.

Well, that was a long and riveting conversation, Sirius thought. What the hell was wrong with him? He finally had Remus alone, friendly and receptive, and the only topic of conversation he could come up with was the weather?

As they entered the entrance hall, a red light shot across the room from the darkness of the dungeon stairwell and hit Remus' bag, splitting the seam at the bottom and dumping the contents all over the floor. Sirius caught a glimpse of the unmistakable greasy black hair of his least favourite student disappearing around the corner. What the fuck was his problem?

'Oh no,' Remus said, dropping to the floor and scrambling to gather his things back together. Sirius crouched down to help and started stacking the books and shoving things into his own bag to help carry them back to the dorm.

Remus looked up, and Sirius caught sight of his face. His cheeks were wet with tears.

'Hey, it's okay. We can get the bag fixed.'

'I just don't understand why he keeps picking on me,' Remus said, 'I've done nothing to him.'

Sirius wanted to offer him comfort, but it was so hard when he couldn't touch him.

'He's just a little prick who wants to feel big. It's not your fault,' he said, glaring at the stairwell where Snape had vanished. 'Don't worry, James and I will get him back.'

Remus sniffed. 'Thanks.'

After spending the free period that morning and part of lunch with Sirius, James and Peter, Remus was calm and relaxed around them when they all arrived at Potions class. As they entered the room, the stench of ingredients and brewing potions assaulted Remus' nose. It must have shown on his face because Sirius asked if he was okay.

'Yeah, it's just the smell in this room. I can't stand it,' he said.

Sirius sniffed. 'It's not that bad.'

Remus realised his mistake. The others wouldn't be able to smell what he could. 'I have a sensitive nose.' he said quickly, trying to cover the slipup. 'It's alright, I'll get used to it.'

'Do you want to sit with us again?' James asked.

'Yeah, okay. But I don't want you to move. I'll sit with Peter. I don't mind having you two behind me.'

Remus noticed that Sirius' smile dropped for a microsecond at his words. Was he fed up with Remus' company already, he wondered, but didn't dwell on it. He took his seat next to Peter and set-up his cauldron on the firepit area of his desk.

While they waited for class to begin, Remus idly stared out of the window at the view under the lake. The rain hammering down on the lake's surface had turned the water cloudy, and the particles swirling in the maelstrom were beautiful to watch.

It didn't take long before he was interrupted by Professor Slughorn's jovial voice announcing the beginning of the lesson.

'Many potions begin with an infusion of a certain ingredient as the base. While it is possible to buy readymade infusions, it is far cheaper to buy or even grow the base ingredient and brew your own infusion. Today's lesson will teach you this process. The method is on the board. You have two hours. Begin.'

Remus looked up at the board and noted that the first step was to fill the cauldron with water. Realising he would have to wait to avoid being jostled, he stayed put in his chair while Peter left to fetch water for himself. Merlin, he hated how much his condition affected his everyday life here. There were constant reminders at home too, but here it was so much more pronounced. He shouldn't complain, though; being here at all was such a huge privilege.

'Do you want me to pour it in for you? It's kind of heavy,' Sirius said, startling Remus from his thoughts. 'The water,' Sirius said, nodding to the jug in his hand, 'I can pour it in for you if you like?'

'Er, yeah. Thanks,' Remus said, sidling out of the way so Sirius could pour the jug of water into his cauldron.

'No problem. That's what friends are for, right?' Sirius said. 'Here, James grabbed you some wormwood from the storage cabinet too.' Sirius tossed a packet of pale green herbs onto his desk and sauntered back to his own workstation, where he leaned in close to speak to James.

Remus stared at the greenery on his desk and the water in his cauldron and fought to blink back tears. Who were these people? Eleven-year-old boys didn't consider other people's needs like this. Not in the books he had read or in the tv shows he had seen, which was, admittedly, his only frame of reference. It was making it so much harder not to break his resolve. They were so kind. Why couldn't he be friends with them? But he knew why. It was too much of a risk. Getting close to them would mean they paid more attention. They would figure out his secret and reject him, or worse, report him. But Sirius did seem to be keeping his word and not prying so much. Maybe it wasn't impossible.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, he tried to concentrate on his work, but the stink in the room was getting worse as students began chopping their wormwood, and his head was swimming.

'Woah, Remus. You're chopping it too finely; it'll be impossible to strain,' Peter said.

'Oh bugger, really?' Remus said. He stopped cutting and stared down at his wormwood sadly. 'Is it ruined?'

'Not completely,' Peter said, 'Here, let me...' Remus stepped out of the way, and Peter moved over and separated out the parts that were too finely chopped. 'There, this stuff is good, just keep doing it like that.'

Remus smiled at him. 'Thanks, Pete.'

'That's okay,' Peter said, smiling back.

With Peter's watchful eye on him, Remus managed to concoct a reasonable infusion and earned himself an A, James and Sirius both got Es and Peter was awarded an O for his perfect infusion, which Slughorn asked him to bottle so he could use it later. After packing away, they returned their things to the dorm and parted ways for dinner.

Remus was more conflicted than ever before. He wasn't sure what to do about his dorm-mates at all. Being friends with them would make his life so much easier. They were thoughtful and considerate, seeming to anticipate when he would have difficulty and helping before he even asked, and Peter appeared to be a whizz at potions. Remus could really use his help in that class. But at the same time, spending so much time with them made it easier for them to notice things. If they found out his secret, it would all be over. He didn't know what to do. Should he follow his heart or his head?

He reached the kitchens, ate his dinner as fast as he could, and returned to the laundry room. None of the elves had bothered him at lunch. They seemed to have accepted his presence beside the wash buckets. Looking at the five buckets, Remus decided it would look strange if he meditated by each of them in turn and could arouse suspicion. He would have to cast the spells on one of them at each mealtime. He'd be done by Saturday morning, so if he set the timing charm for a week on Monday, it would allow nine days for everything that was washed to be transfigured. That should be plenty.

He had already done the calculations, using generous estimates for the amount of students in each year, plus the teachers and an average of four outfits a week. He figured out he needed to channel his magic for fifteen minutes. He then doubled that to thirty to be safe.

Remus positioned himself next to one of the buckets in the same manner as the last two times, this time with his wand in his hand. He allowed the tip to rest against the rim of the bucket and closed his eyes, focusing on his magical core. It was easy to locate now that he'd practised so much, and he was soon whispering the words of the combined incantations. He stayed there for the full thirty minutes and was exhausted by the time he was finished.

Sirius took a seat in the Great Hall across from James and Peter and glanced up at the ceiling. James followed his gaze.

'Doesn't look so pretty when the weather's bad, does it?' James said.

'I don't know, I kind of like it,' Sirius said. 'It's all dark and moody.'

Peter was too busy loading his plate to take any notice of their conversation. Sirius looked around. The hall was busy but not full, and there wasn't anyone sitting in their immediate vicinity.

'Guys, I need to talk to you about something,' he said, leaning forward across the table. 'It's about Remus and Snivellus.'

'What about Snivellus? What did he do now?' James growled.

'He split Remus' bag with a severing charm.' He hesitated before continuing in a lower voice. 'It made Remus cry.'

'We have to do something,' Peter said, scowling.

'Oh, we will,' James said, turning his head to glare at Snape across the hall.

'What are you thinking?' Sirius asked.

James' eyes were gleaming with mischief when he turned back. 'Well, we still have that frogspawn soap for one, but I don't think that's quite good enough for the evil little git. I do have one idea, though. It's something I did to my dad once during a joke contest.'

'Wait,' Sirius said, holding up a hand. 'You have joke contests with your dad?'

'All the time,' James said, laughing. 'Mum hates it. Anyway, this one time, I put stinksap in his shower potion. Not enough that you could smell it in the bottle, just enough so that anyone who washed with it would smell faintly of shit until they washed it off with something else.' James was laughing hard now, obviously enjoying the memory. During the brief respite between fits of laughter, he managed to get the rest of the story out.

'He couldn't... couldn't work out... work out where the smell... the smell was coming from.' James took a deep steadying breath and blurted the rest out in one go before dissolving into fits of giggles again.

'He smelt like shit for WEEKS!'

Sirius took a moment to consider this idea, imagining Snape going around smelling like a dung heap and not being able to figure out why. And washing more would only make it worse. Seconds later, all three of the boys had their heads on the table, shaking with laughter and holding their sides from the pain.

Eventually, they got themselves under control and sat up straight again. Sirius wiped away a tear and said, 'It's perfect, James, utterly perfect.'

They hurried through the rest of their meal and held a rapid planning session in a nearby hidden passage, during which Peter pulled his herbology textbook out to search up the best way to extract stinksap from a Mimbulus Mimbletonia, and Sirius volunteered to be the one who snuck into greenhouse three and did the extracting.

An hour before curfew, they were outside greenhouse three with the invisibility cloak, a potion vial, a pair of ultra-thick dragon-hide gloves, and an old quill.

'Now remember, you have to tickle the largest boil, and the stinksap will be released from the smallest one,' Peter said.

'Yeah, I know,' Sirius said. 'Give me the cloak, James.'

James handed him the invisibility cloak, and Sirius wrapped it around his shoulders, leaving his head uncovered before taking the gloves and putting them on, tucking the ends of his robes inside and tightening them securely. He had no desire to get that shit on his skin.

He took the quill and potion vial, nodded to James and Peter, and pulled the hood over his head. Creeping along so as not to make any sound, Sirius approached greenhouse three and turned the door handle. He glanced back over his shoulder once before pushing the door open slowly and tip-toeing inside.

The greenhouse was blessedly empty, and Sirius breathed a sigh of relief. He closed the door behind him so he'd be alerted if anyone arrived while he was working and then looked around. The glass room was filled with far more interesting plants than they were working on in greenhouse one. He shook himself. That wasn't why he was here.

Spotting the Mimbulus Mimbletonia in the middle of a collection of magical cacti, Sirius hurried over and inspected it. The largest boil was definitely the big fat one on the side, but the smallest was a close tie between the one on the very top and another just below the fattest. It was impossible to guess. There was no other choice. He would have to pick one and hope he was holding the vial in the right place.

Sirius chose to cover the one on the top, on the basis that having stinksap spurt straight up would be disastrous for his hair, whereas if it came out the side he could just keep out of the way. Decision made, he positioned himself on the other side of the plant from the boil he wasn't going to cover and held the vial over the boil on the top, before tickling the largest bulge with his quill.

It was an awkward dance, but he managed, and luck was on his side. The thick, green goo spurted out of the top boil and into his vial, which he tilted back to keep the viscous liquid inside. He stoppered the vial and put it in his pocket before hurrying back to the door.

Peeking through the glass of the door, he saw James and Peter talking to Professor Sprout. They'd positioned themselves so the professor had her back to the greenhouse, so Sirius pushed the door open as quietly as possible and tip-toed out before closing it behind him. His heart was hammering in his chest and his breathing sounded loud in the quiet evening.

'If that's everything, boys, you two should get back to the school. Curfew's in half an hour,' Professor Sprout was saying to James and Peter. They nodded and James glanced in Sirius' general direction, though his aim was a little off. Sirius slipped a hand out from under the cloak and waved.

'Of course, Professor. Thank you for your help, I understand much better now,' James said.

'You're welcome. I expect an Outstanding essay on my desk on Friday.'

Professor Sprout turned and strolled in Sirius's direction, but he sidestepped out of the way and joined his friends who were walking slowly in the direction of the castle.

'Leaving without me?' he said, making them jump.

'Did you get it?' James asked.

'I'm pleased to report the mission was a complete success,' Sirius said, pulling off the cloak, and handing it to James.

'Bloody good job too. We had to listen to a ten-minute lecture on shrivelfigs to keep Sprout out of the greenhouse.'

'Your sacrifice was not in vain, my friend,' Sirius' said, putting his arm around James' shoulders.

'Excellent,' James said. 'We better get back under the cloak, though. We still need to find out the Slytherin password.'

They didn't expect it to be difficult, considering they already knew where the entrance was and they had an invisibility cloak. Needless to say, they were correct in their assumption. It had barely been ten minutes when a careless first-year approached the blank stretch of wall and announced in a loud, clear voice, 'Salamander eggs.'

The boys smirked at each other under the cover of the cloak and crept away. Mission accomplished.

Several hours later, they were preparing to leave for their midnight excursion, and this time Remus was awake to see them off. They'd explained their plan to him, and he had thought it a little harsh at first, but they'd talked him around.

'I wish I could come,' Remus said, as he watched them prepare from his seat on the bed.

'You could try,' James said. 'I mean, you like us don't you? It might be okay touching people you like.'

'No!' Remus gasped, seeming horrified by the idea.

Sirius slapped James round the back of the head. 'Idiot,' he said. 'If he can't touch his own parents, he's not going to be able to touch us. He barely knows us.'

'Right. Sorry, Remus,' James said. 'I wasn't thinking. I just didn't want you to be left out.'

'It's okay. I just don't want you to get your hopes up. I doubt I'll ever be able to touch you.'

'Yeah, we understand, mate. It's cool. We'll tell you everything when we get back,' Sirius said.

Twenty minutes later, they were standing outside the Slytherin common room under the cloak. Their own common room had been empty when they passed through it, and they hoped the same would be true for the Slytherin's. Everyone should be asleep. It wouldn't mean instant capture if people were still awake, they were invisible after all, but it would make their task more difficult.

'Salamander eggs,' Sirius whispered, and the wall in front of them vanished, revealing a short passageway. They crept in and down the corridor lined with portraits of famous Slytherins, most of whom were ugly.

The Slytherin common room was fancier than Gryffindor's, but not as inviting in Sirius' opinion. It had the same rough stone walls covered with tapestries, and the same general layout of chairs, tables and sofas, with a roaring fire in the fireplace, but that was where the similarities ended. While everything in Gryffindor tower was red and gold, warm and comforting, everything here was green and silver. The upholstery, the carpets, even the light had a green tint. The colour gave the room a sickly, cold atmosphere. Even though the furniture was top quality and the room was pristine, Sirius thought if he had to spend his free time here, he'd go mad.

It was, much to their relief, empty of all life, and they hurried towards the stairwells at the back of the room which led down, not up like Gryffindor's.

'Which one do you think is the boys'?' James whispered.

Sirius shrugged. 'On the right, like ours?'

'I don't have any better ideas,' James said, before starting forward down the right-hand staircase.

It was difficult to navigate the narrow staircase, crammed together as they were under the cloak, but they managed it without falling and breaking their necks. The first door they came to listed two names, neither of which were Snape, but they were male.

'They only have two people to a room?' Sirius asked with a frown.

'Seems a bit unfair,' Peter said.

'Yeah, but I like our way better,' James said, smiling at them.

'Yeah, me too,' Sirius said. 'Slytherins don't understand friendship.'

They continued down the stairs until they found Snape's room; he was sharing with someone called Adrian Blishwick. Poor Adrian was not going to enjoy sharing this room for a while. After listening at the door for a minute to make sure they were asleep and hearing no sound from inside, they pushed it open gently.

The moment the door was unlatched, the sound of snoring leaked out from inside. Of course, the room was silenced. That could have been disastrous if the occupants were awake. Thankfully, they were both sound asleep. The boys tip-toed over to the only other door in the room and entered the bathroom, closing the door quietly behind them.

There were two cubicles inside, each with their own set of toiletries, and a single bath behind a screen at one end of the room.

'Hey, we don't get baths!' Peter said.

'Totally unfair,' James said.

Sirius nodded in agreement and then glanced at the shower cubicles. 'Which do you think is Snape's?'

'Whichever one doesn't have shampoo?' Peter suggested. Sirius and James both snorted and shushed each other. Sirius inspected both cubicles.

'I reckon it's this one. Everything looks old and tatty, and these toiletries are cheap. The other one's got expensive things.'

James got to work adding the stinksap to the bottle and shaking it to mix it in before putting it back exactly as he found it. Snape wouldn't suspect a thing. The boys crept out and up the stairs before hurrying across the common room and through the door.

They returned to their own dorm without any problems, and Remus was dozing but woke up when they entered. So they told him everything that happened, and he grinned and thanked them. Sirius found it hard to get to sleep that night. He had finally found a way to pay his debt to Remus, and the joy he felt kept him awake for a long time.