Monday, 30th April 1973

The first day of the summer term dragged by unbearably slowly for Remus. They spent their first-period Charms class reviewing the Elemental Repellent Charm, and Remus had used the spell so many times to keep his clothes dry in the rain, or keep candles from being blown out by a breeze from the window, that he could have cast the damn thing in his sleep.

Defence was a little better. Professor Tenebris had been kind enough to partner him with Sirius for their first lesson back, but he found it was actually quite difficult to make himself cast anything at his boyfriend that could potentially hurt him. Fortunately, Sirius seemed to be having just as much difficulty, and their duels ended up consisting mostly of tickling charms and disarming spells. Professor Tenebris turned a blind eye to their less than stellar performance, concentrating her attention at the other end of the room.

By the time he got to Potions, Remus was starting to wonder how he was going to make it through to the end of the year without descending into madness if all his classes were going to be so tedious. Without a distraction, his mind inevitably drifted to thoughts of what he'd done, returning again and again to the memory of sinking his teeth into the man's arm, and the pleasure he felt as he did it.

And if he couldn't concentrate, he would fail his exams and be kicked out of Hogwarts. Which would make his plan to make a safer way for werewolves to transform impossible. What could he do without an education? Without access to Hogwarts' expansive library? Without a wand? Nothing. No, it was imperative he complete his education, and the first step was passing the second-year exams. But how, when he couldn't concentrate?

'Good afternoon, class,' Professor Slughorn said, to call them to attention. There was some rustling and the painful sound of stool legs scraping against stone as the students stopped what they were doing and turned to face him, and the noise level in the room rapidly declined into silence. 'Thank you. Today we'll be reviewing the Forgetfulness potion in case it comes up on the end-of-year exam. The recipe begins on page sixty-three, and I hope you all took detailed notes the last time you brewed this potion, as they will assist you greatly in improving on your past attempt. You may begin.'

Remus hadn't taken any notes the last time. Sirius had been in a coma, and Remus had ruined his potion on only the third step. Not that it mattered. The only time he'd ever managed to brew anything acceptable was when Peter had done most of the work. Regardless, he dutifully filled his cauldron with water and set it to start heating while he checked his kit. Finding he had everything but the mistletoe berries, he took out the other ingredients, placing them on the desk, before glancing at the front of the room. The area around the store cupboard was pretty clear, so it was a good time to go.

'You need anything from the cupboard, mate?' he asked Peter as he sidestepped into the aisle.

'Oh. Yeah, actually. I'm low on Valerian.' Peter looked up from sorting through his ingredients. 'I can go, though. What do you need?'

'No, it's alright. I've got it.' Remus gave him a small smile and moved away, heading for the store cupboard at the front of the room. It was kind of Peter to try to spare him from uncomfortable situations, but he didn't deserve that sort of thoughtfulness, not anymore. The doors to the cupboard were already open, Slughorn having unlocked it for their use at the start of the lesson, and Remus scanned the shelves. He found Pete's Valerian fairly quickly, but the mistletoe berries were proving more elusive and he reached in, shifting some of the containers to the side to see behind them when his eyes alighted on a particular jar of purple-blue flowers and he froze as his mind span out of control.

I'm supposed to be dead, he heard himself saying to Peter. I bit someone. I'm supposed to be dead. He reached out and his hand brushed against the cold glass of the jar. The answer was right there at his fingertips. All he had to do was pick up the jar and slip it into his pocket. Then he could wait until the others were asleep and—

'Hurry up, Lupin. You're not the only person who needs ingredients.' Snape's sneering voice came from right behind him, making him jump, and then the boy let out a derisive snort. 'There's no aconite in the Forgetfulness Potion, idiot. Maybe you should check your book before you collect ingredients.' Snape's voice was loud as he reached past him, grabbing a bottle of Lethe River Water before stalking off, and Remus couldn't bring himself to look at his friends to see if they'd heard.

A hint of red caught his eye, and he turned his head towards it. The mistletoe berries were right there, sitting in full view at the front of the top shelf. He couldn't imagine how he'd missed them before.

Sirius' eyes were sad when Remus returned to his desk with the berries and Pete's Valerian. He didn't say anything, just looked at him in a way that made the guilt weighing him down double in size so it was close to suffocating. He'd definitely heard what Snape had said, and Remus turned his back so he wouldn't have to see the pain in his eyes.

His brewing didn't go much better than it had during his previous attempt, though he did make it two steps further through the recipe before he did something wrong. The thin purple liquid he'd been stirring suddenly turned the consistency of porridge, rapidly changing to a dark brown as it gave off the scent of rotten eggs. Remus covered his nose, grabbing his wand to tap the extinguish rune.

'Bad luck, mate,' Peter said, stirring his own perfectly lilac concoction and shooting him a sympathetic look.

Remus shrugged. 'Not the worst thing to happen to me this month.'

Peter squeaked out a startled laugh. 'No, definitely not. Are we joking about it now, then?'

'I'd rather you didn't.'

Peter nodded, placing his stirring rod into the drainage rack and grabbing his dish of ground Valerian. 'Understood.'

The lesson dragged on as Remus tried to concentrate on writing his potion report, but the fumes in the room combined with the thoughts weighing him down made it impossible, and he gave up twenty minutes before the end of the lesson, packing his things away and sitting with his head in his hands as he waited for those still brewing to finish up.

'Remus?' Peter said quietly a few minutes later. 'You alright? Need something to do?'

Remus lifted his head, looking over at him. He'd extinguished the fire under his cauldron and smoke drifted up from it, the exact shade of pink it was supposed to be. 'That would be good. You want help cleaning up?'

'If you don't mind. Can you bottle some of this for grading while I clean my tools?'

'Sure,' Remus said. 'Want some for our collection, too?'

'No, I got some last time we made it.' Peter started gathering up his tools, moving to the side so Remus could get to his cauldron, and as he stepped away from the desk, he turned back around. 'Vials are in my bag. Sorry, forgot to get one out.'

'No problem.' Remus hooked his foot into the strap of Peter's bag and dragged it out from under the desk before lifting it up so he could snatch it off his foot without having to bend over. His back had been playing up that morning, and he didn't want to stress it if could be avoided. He knew Peter kept his vials in the front pocket, so he unzipped it and pulled one out before dropping the bag back to the floor and pushing it back under the desk with his foot.

It only took a few drops to fill the small vial. Slughorn didn't need much to grade their work, and Remus eyed the full cauldron of perfect potion with regret. It seemed like such a waste, throwing it away.

It's nice, forgetting, even if it's just for a few hours, Peter's voice said in his head.

The empty jar his mistletoe berries had been stored in was still sitting on his desk. He'd been planning to return it to Slughorn at the end of class, but… He glanced around. Peter was still at the sink with his back to him, and Sirius and James were both engrossed in the last few steps of their brewing. Slughorn had his head bent over his desk, his attention completely taken up by whatever he was reading, and the rest of the class were focused on their own work.

Without taking another second to think about it, Remus grabbed the jar, filling it quickly and screwing the lid on tight before slipping it into his bag, ignoring the sharp pain in his lower back from bending too fast. His heart was racing as he stood back up, and he glanced at Sirius to see if he'd been alerted to his actions, but he was still stirring his potion, his lips moving as he counted under his breath. Another quick scan of the room revealed that no one was paying the least bit of attention to him, and he let out a breath, lifting Peter's cauldron off of the fire pit. He wasn't sure if Peter would notice there was less potion left than there should be, so he carried it over to the sink next to the one Peter was using, tipping it so Peter couldn't see inside, and poured the contents down the drain.

Remus was tense all afternoon, waiting for Sirius to mention what he'd heard, but he said nothing about it in the two hours between classes ending and dinner being served. The tension only grew as the afternoon wore on, and by the time James and Peter left for Quidditch practice, Remus felt ready to explode with it, especially since he could feel Sirius' gaze burning a hole in the side of his head. He didn't want to look.

'You know what I'm going to ask you, don't you?' Sirius said after at least a minute of complete silence. 'That's why you're pretending not to notice we're alone.'

There was really no point in lying. It would only delay the inevitable, but Remus still couldn't look at him and he ducked his head further as he answered. 'Yes.'

He waited for the question, but it never came. Sirius remained silent, but Remus could still feel his gaze, and after several long moments, he heard the rustle of the bed covers followed by footsteps. Then the mattress dipped next to him.

'I was going to ask what you were planning to do with the aconite, but I think the fact that you won't look at me answers that question.' Sirius sighed in a way that sounded sad, and Remus' guilt doubled in size again. 'Then I was going to ask why, but I think the answer to that is obvious. Then I thought to ask how you could possibly think of doing that to James and Peter, and your mum. To me. But that was such a selfish thought, I wanted to smack myself around the head.'

'It's not,' Remus said, finally looking up and meeting his eyes, which were wet with tears. 'It's not selfish.'

'I know you're in pain, Moons,' Sirius said, reaching for his hands but stopping before he made contact, letting Remus decide if he wanted to take them. He did, and Sirius squeezed his hands tightly as he continued speaking. 'But please, don't…' he paused to swallow, and he finished in a whisper. 'Don't leave me.'

'I won't,' Remus said, tugging on his hands to pull him into a hug, speaking into his neck. 'I promise. I won't. It was just a passing thought. I'm not going anywhere.'

Sirius sniffed and hugged him tightly. 'You Solemnly Swear?'

'Yes,' Remus said, thinking of the jar of potion in his bag. 'I Solemnly Swear.'

Sirius took a frustratingly long time to fall asleep that night, but Remus waited patiently, listening for the change in his breathing that indicated he would be impossible to wake, before finally slipping out of the bed and grabbing his bag on the way to the bathroom. With the featherlight enchantment on it, Remus didn't need to worry about how much the contents weighed, and he kept his entire set of vials in his potion kit, which he hadn't removed from his bag when they got back to the dorm. Keeping his ears open for any sound from the next room, he pulled the jar of potion out and placed it on the counter, lining his vials up beside it before picking it back up and unscrewing the lid.

It was tricky to pour the thick liquid from the wide opening at the neck of the jar into the much smaller vials, and a fair amount was wasted as it spilt out onto the counter, but Remus managed to fill seven of his ten vials, and he corked them quickly, stuffing them into his bag. It took a couple more minutes to rinse out the jar and clean up the mess he'd made, but Sirius hadn't moved an inch in the time he'd been gone, and he slipped back into bed beside him as silently as he could.

The potion lasted a maximum of eight hours, and he didn't want it to wear off in class, so he waited until after breakfast, and when they were on their way out to Herbology, just before they left the castle, he told his friends he needed the loo. 'It's alright. I'll meet you there. No point us all being late.'

Safely hidden away inside a toilet cubicle, he pulled one of the vials out and uncorked it, focusing on his memory of sinking his teeth into human flesh as he swallowed it down. His brain fizzed as the potion went to work, and he tried to ignore it as he quickly transfigured the glass vial into tissue paper and dropped it into the toilet before he forgot he needed to hide the evidence. Every memory associated with the main one would be forgotten, altered, or replaced by the magic in the potion, and by the time he'd flushed the toilet, he was smiling.

Humming a tune, he grabbed his bag and exited the cubicle, washing his hands before heading out of the castle to join his friends in the greenhouse. He glanced up at the sky as he crossed the grounds. The sun was blazing and the greenhouse would be stifling, so he pulled his wand out and cast the Cooling Charm on himself that he'd looked up at the beginning of the Easter holidays. It would be funny to see how long it took the others to notice he wasn't sweating his ass off like they were.

Despite Remus' Solemn Swear to not ingest aconite and leave Sirius forever, Sirius watched him carefully the next day. He'd tried to stay awake until Remus fell asleep, but the exhaustion of so many late nights during the holidays had caught up with him and dragged him into slumber. Thankfully, Remus was still wrapped in his arms, safe and sound, when he woke up, so it didn't matter. And the late nights had been worth it. They'd managed to copy everything they needed from the animagus book, circumventing Madam Pince's wards against Duplication Charms the muggle way.

He'd been a little anxious when Remus excused himself to the bathroom after breakfast, but he'd arrived at the greenhouse a few minutes after them, proving he really had just needed a piss, and Sirius felt bad for doubting him. Not bad enough to stop keeping an eye on him, just the merest twinge of guilt.

It was because he was watching Remus so carefully that Sirius was the first to notice that he wasn't sweating in the heat like the rest of them were, and he was sure it had nothing to do with his lycanthropy. He'd definitely suffered alongside them last year. Realising that Remus was fucking with them made his stomach tingle. It was the sort of thing he'd done frequently before Easter, and it was the first real indicator that he might be on the mend, so Sirius didn't want to ruin the joke.

'Don't suppose you could cast one of those Cooling charms my way,' he whispered, leaning in close to Remus' ear, 'you sneaky fucker.'

Remus smirked at him. 'Depends. What are you offering in return?'

'Anything you want.' Sirius stepped back and let his eyes travel down Remus' body and back up again before wiggling his eyebrows. 'And I do mean anything.'

Remus laughed. A real, actual, proper laugh, and pulled out his wand, pointing it at Sirius under the cover of the plants on their worktables and muttering an incantation. The effect was immediate, like stepping into the magically cooled pantry at home, and Sirius let out a breath of sheer relief.

'Thanks, Nerd Boy.'

Remus laughed again, and Sirius' heart felt like it might burst at the sound.

'I've not heard that name in a while.'

'Well, I've not had cause to use it in a while. But looking up Cooling Charms before the weather gets hot is definite nerd behaviour.'

'Then you'd think you'd be grateful I'm a nerd.'

'Oh, I am,' Sirius said, smirking at him. 'I'll show you how much later.'

'Promises, promises,' Remus said, turning back to the Dittany plant he was supposed to be harvesting.

James and Peter didn't cotton on to their lack of suffering until the lesson was almost over, and so after Transfiguration—during which Professor McGonagall had them each transforming a miniature rose bush into a bouquet of glass roses, and when James had presented them to Lily, she'd actually accepted them—James forced them all to spend their free period learning the Cooling Charm from Remus.

As the day continued, Remus' good mood didn't falter and Sirius couldn't find a single reason to doubt the sincerity of it. If he was wearing a mask over his misery, it was a flawless one. He laughed and joked with them through Charms, and even joined in with their games of Burn the Witch in History. So when they returned to their dorm to change out of the school robes after classes ended for the day, and Remus excused himself to his bed to meditate after changing in the bathroom, Sirius wasn't worried about not being able to see him. Whatever dark thoughts had been running through his mind the day before, they'd clearly dissipated.

'Hope Professor Tenebris doesn't have too much of a workout planned for us tonight,' James said, jumping onto his bed. As he relaxed back onto his mattress, he let out a groan. 'I'll be glad when the flying competition is over. Four whole weeks with nothing to do but school work and hanging out with Lily to keep her distracted. It's going to be bliss.'

'I was hoping you'd help me with this electricity stuff,' Peter said. 'But it's alright if you don't want to.'

James sat up. 'No, of course, I will. I'd just forgotten about it. What do you need?'

'A cauldron that will conduct heat, but not electricity,' Peter said, frowning.

'Well, that shouldn't be too hard. I bet there are spells we can use for that.'

Peter shook his head. 'No good. They'd screw up the potion. But I found a material that will work. We'll need to make the cauldron, though. It's not going to be something you can buy.'

'What's the material?' Sirius asked.

'It's called mica, and I'm hoping we'll be able to find some in the cave. If not, I have no idea where we can get it.'

'You want us to go mining?' James asked.

'Sort of,' Peter said. 'I found a spell for it. It's a specific type of Summoning Charm.'

'And once we have the… whatever you called it. Then what?' Sirius asked.

'Mica,' Peter said. 'I think we should be able to Transfigure it.'

'Alright,' James said. 'I can't do it tomorrow afternoon. I'm going out with Lily, but how's Thursday for you?'

Peter's face fell. 'Oh, Thursday's not…'

'Shit, I knew that,' James said, wincing. 'Saturday. We'll do it on Saturday.'

Peter nodded. 'Yeah, Saturday is good. But if we're going out to practise the Flying competition spells tonight, I'm going to try to get a couple of hours sleep before dinner.'

'Alright, we'll go downstairs,' James said, jerking his head at Sirius.

They found Lily and Mary in the Common room and joined them, chatting for a bit before James ran back up to the dorm to fetch Merlin's Adventure so they could teach the girls how to play. Mary chose to play as the house-elf, and Lily picked the centaur, which left Sirius and James to fight over Merlin, and to his delight, Sirius won the coin toss. The game progressed rather differently than usual without Remus' logical mind behind the main character, and even though the others teased him for continuously getting them into sticky situations, Sirius argued that it was more fun that way. Because it was. They were all just boring.

Peter and Remus came downstairs when it was almost time for dinner–Remus looking all cute and damp from washing his face–and they all went down together, meeting Marlene and Dorcas on the fourth floor as they emerged from the library. It was a rowdy mealtime, with eight of them all trying to talk at once. Well. Four of them, anyway. Mary and Dorcas were just as quiet in a crowd as Remus and Peter were but the rest of them more than made up for it.

As the meal came to an end, Sirius was wondering how they'd get away from the girls to attend their lesson with Professor Tenebris, but he needn't have bothered. As usual, James had that covered.

'We've all got detention with Professor Tenebris,' he told Lily when she asked what they were doing that evening.

'All of you? What for?'

James shrugged. 'She caught us breaking into the library last night.'

'Why were you breaking into the library?'

'Needed to look at some books in the restricted section. It's for the Ship project. You remember we were talking about—'

'Not here,' Lily hissed, glancing around the crowded room. 'Tell me tomorrow.'

James grinned. 'Alright. We better go anyway. Professor Tenebris gets grouchy if you're late.'

Sirius huffed a laugh. Grouchy was the least of their problems with Professor Tenebris. Personally, he was more concerned about her apparent enjoyment of making them suffer in new and unusual ways.

'Evening boys,' she greeted when they entered the classroom (after testing the door with the magic detector and Remus' senses). 'How are you all?' She looked at all of them when she asked, but her eyes lingered on Remus the longest, which Remus didn't fail to notice.

'I'm doing better,' Remus said. 'Wouldn't mind a good distraction, though.'

She winced. 'I'm afraid you won't be getting that here, but what we are doing should help to put your mind at rest a little.'

'And what's that?'

'We're going to devise a way for your friends to subdue the wolf without hurting you.'

'Is that possible?' Sirius asked.

'Anything is possible if you're crazy enough to try and determined enough to see it through,' Professor Tenebris said. 'I suggest a spell. I know you're a skilled Potioneer, Peter, but spells are far quicker to craft than potions, and we only have seven lessons left until the end of the year.'

'You'll be coming back next year, though?' James asked. 'Won't you?'

She gave him a sad smile. 'Probably not, no. I have… other things I need to do.'

'Oh,' Remus said, his eyes widening with surprise. 'I'll miss you.'

'I'll miss you all, too.'

In an attempt to keep the mood from descending into sadness, Sirius clapped his hands together. 'Well, let's get to work then,' he said brightly.

'I have a question first,' Remus said. 'How do you propose we test this spell while we're working on it?'

Professor Tenebris grinned. 'If I remember rightly, your boggart was a werewolf the last time you faced one?'

So that's what the chest was for, Sirius thought, eyeing the wooden crate sitting under the windows. He wasn't sure Remus was ready to confront Moony face to face, so to speak, but when he looked at him, his back was straight and his eyes were burning with determination, so he didn't object. Remus was perfectly capable of speaking up for himself if he didn't want to do something.

'Yeah, it was.'

'Well, let's check it still is, shall we?' she said, moving towards the chest. 'If not, I'll have to think of another way to do this.'

Remus followed her, and Sirius stayed back with James and Peter so they wouldn't confuse it. Taking up a position behind the chest, Tenebris waited for Remus to give her a nod before waving her wand at the chest to fling it open. A deep growl emerged first, followed by the front paws of the wolf. It climbed out and stood, crouched aggressively, baring its teeth at Remus, saliva dripping from its mouth. It looked like Moony but also didn't. There was an evil aura about it that the real Moony just didn't have.

They stared each other down for a moment, and Sirius watched Remus' back, waiting for any indication that he needed to intervene, but none came, and when the wolf took a step towards him, Professor Tenebris darted between them. At her appearance, the wolf turned into a corpse, striped with fresh blood, which she quickly stuffed back into the chest.

'Alright,' she said, turning to face them. 'That all seems to be working. Let's get to work. What sort of spell are we thinking?'

'Voldemort's followers were using Stunning charms,' Sirius said. 'It seemed to hurt him, but they just bounced off.'

Professor Tenebris hummed. 'Thick, impenetrable hide. It makes sense. The virus would have evolved protections against being stopped over time. We could test for a vulnerable point on the boggart. The mouth or eyes maybe, you'll need crazy good aim for that, though. Alternatively, we could go for something that works more externally, like ropes or chains.'

'We're not tying him up,' Sirius said. 'No fucking way.'

'I understand it's unpleasant,' Professor Tenebris said. 'But it won't hurt him.'

'It would,' Sirius said. 'Maybe not physically, but it would hurt. We're his pack. If we tie him up, he'd never trust us again.'

'We should concentrate on magic that doesn't need to penetrate,' Peter said. 'You know? Most spells considered offensive need to penetrate the skin, but there are other magics that don't.'

'Like the Unforgivable Curses,' Sirius said. 'There's no physical manifestation, so the skin can't deflect it, no matter how thick the hide. Well, except the Killing Curse, but that thing can blast through solid rock.'

'What makes them Unforgivable?' James asked.

'You have to mean them, so you can't cast them accidentally. You have to want to kill, torture, or control someone's mind.'

'Yeah, like that,' Peter said. 'But without the killing, torture, or mind control.' He turned to Sirius. 'Mind-control, really?'

Sirius nodded. 'My dad's going to teach me to throw it off during the summer.'

'Damn, we should learn that too,' James said. 'I'd hate for someone to be able to control me like that.'

'One thing at a time, boys,' Professor Tenebris said with a chuckle. 'Your idea's a good one, Peter. I think transcendental magic is the way to go with this. Did you have anything in particular in mind?'

'What if,' James said. 'And this is going to sound mad, but what if we could bring Remus' mind back? Make Moony ride on the back of the broom for a minute or two?'

Sirius grinned. 'That wouldn't just give us a chance to run, but it would let Remus take Moony somewhere safer.' He turned to Professor Tenebris, his stomach fizzing with excitement. 'Do you think we could do that?'

Professor Tenebris hummed thoughtfully. 'Remus' mind doesn't leave the body once it's transformed, so it should be possible to bring him back into control of it. His magical core suppresses the wolf's consciousness for the majority of the lunar cycle, so if we could find a way to mimic that effect…' she paused and waved her wand. 'Accio spell-crafting books.'

Roughly fifteen books streamed out of her office and stacked themselves neatly on her desk, and she tucked her wand back into her holster and smiled at them. 'Grab a book.'

They didn't get very far with their research that evening, but they took several of the books back to the dorm with them to continue looking in their free time, and Professor Tenebris promised to continue working on it too, whenever she had a moment to do so.

It was while they were preparing for bed—early because they were all going out later that night to help Peter learn the spells for the Flying Competition, which he would be hosting alone—that an officious-looking owl swooped in through the open window and dropped a scroll bearing the Daily Prophet symbol on Sirius and James' beds.

'Late-night Special Edition?' Sirius asked, walking over to pick up his copy.

'Must be the election results,' James said, grabbing the scroll from his bed to open it. 'Yes! Jenkins won by a landslide. Thank fuck for that.'

Sirius scanned the article. 'Lord Voldemort was unavailable for comment. Ha, I bet he was. Probably still nursing his wounds over being outsmarted by a thirteen-year-old.'

Grinning, James chucked the announcement onto his desk and took a bow. 'Thank you, thank you. You're all very welcome.'

Sirius dutifully clapped and cheered, and Remus and Peter soon joined in. It was a wonderful end to a good day, and Sirius had a smile on his face when he fell asleep, cuddled up to Remus' warmth. The next morning, that smile was very much gone because,

'What the hell is this?' Sirius said, marching out of the bathroom to James' bed and pulling back his bed curtains. He was blinking rapidly, clearly having just woken up.

'What?'

'This…' Sirius pointed to his right cheek, '… deformity that's grown on my face overnight.'

James reached for his glasses and pushed them on before squinting at Sirius for a moment. Then he flopped back onto his bed and closed his eyes. 'It's a spot, Sirius. I can't believe you woke me up like that because you got a spot.'

'I know it's a spot, James. I'm not an idiot. What I want to know is what it's doing on my face?'

'Living the good life?' James said. 'I don't know, Sirius, but at a guess, it's because you're thirteen.'

Sirius stomped his foot on the ground in frustration. James was not showing the necessary level of panic. 'No, you don't understand. Blacks don't get spots. We just don't. It's never happened. So what is it doing on my face?'

'Maybe you're adopted,' Peter said, climbing out of his bed. 'Ooh, maybe your mum had an affair.'

'Ew, gross,' Sirius said, trying to get rid of the mental image that suggestion conjured. 'Why would you say that?'

Peter was rooting through his desk drawer, but he shrugged. 'A sudden, sharp shock helps bring people out of panic. Seemed like you might need one. Here.' He stood up, turning around, and chucked a small pot across the room at him. 'It's spot cream. It'll be gone by the time we reach the Great Hall. I'm going to shower.'

'Thanks, Bubbles,' Sirius called after his retreating back as he went through the bathroom door, then he turned back to James. 'I'm serious, though—no, don't say it, now is not the time—this,' he pointed at the grotesque eruption on his cheek, 'shouldn't be there.'

James shrugged. 'It's probably just your family trying to make themselves seem special. Everyone gets spots, Twinkles. There's no way your family is just somehow immune to that. But you have a reputation to uphold, so get that cream applied. We can't have people thinking Blacks get spots. The horror.'

Sirius laughed. 'Yeah, you're probably right.' The bathroom door opened as he spoke and Remus emerged, dressed in his school robes, making Sirius smack his hand to his cheek. 'Don't look at me, Moony.'

Remus laughed. 'I've already seen it, you idiot. We sleep in the same bed. You woke me up. Remember?'

Sirius did remember. Vividly. They'd kissed for several minutes before getting up to shower. They'd talked with their faces mere inches apart. Oh, gods. Sirius gaped at him, and Remus laughed again and walked over to him.

'It doesn't change anything. Do you think I'm ugly when I get spots?'

'No.'

'Well then, stop being stupid.' Remus kissed him gently, and James cleared his throat, rustling the bed covers as he climbed out of bed.

'Think that's my cue to go shower. Don't mind me. I'm leaving. Carry on.'

'So, what's the plan?' James asked five hours later as he left the Great Hall with Lily. He'd spent most of the morning yawning his head off after their midnight spell practice on the Quidditch pitch and Sirius' early morning dramatics over a spot, but flying lessons had woken him up and after a decent (healthy) lunch, he was full of energy again.

'Well,' she said, taking a look around to make sure they wouldn't be overheard. There was no one close enough to listen to their conversation, but she lowered her voice anyway as she continued speaking because she was thoughtful and considerate like that. 'I think the werewolf is a bit of a dead end. We can't find how they're moving them, and we can't get near the Shack, so I think we're going to need to investigate Sunshine.'

James nodded. He'd been expecting this sooner or later. 'Alright. What do you have in mind?'

'They sent me flowers and chocolates for my birthday, and the flowers were from the florist in Hogsmeade. I thought we could go and see if they remember anything about the person who ordered them.'

'You haven't already done that?' James asked, a little surprised. It had been three months, but then he wasn't supposed to know when her birthday was. Better cover that up. 'Or was it recent? Did I miss it?'

Lily laughed. 'No, you're fine. It's at the end of January, so before we were friends. And, no, I haven't already been. I was hoping I wouldn't need to. It's kind of embarrassing. You know?'

Trying to hide his internal panic—what if the florist recognised him?—James chuckled. 'I don't see what's embarrassing about having a secret admirer. But if you don't want to go, we can find another avenue to investigate. What else do you know about them?'

'They're either in our year or third-year. There are more than two in the group, so they have multiple friends—probably close friends that are together a lot. They're smart, and good at potions too because they use Polyjuice and that's a hard potion to make. But not much else. They really don't give a lot away.'

James nodded, pretending to be thinking about it. 'They're probably in Ravenclaw, don't you think? Some of the magic they use seems really advanced. Like the enchanted suit of armour for the Niffler Hunt. How do you even do something like that?'

'That does seem the most likely House, yeah. I still want to go to the florist, though. Even if they only remember if it was a boy or a girl, it'll help narrow it down.'

Dammit. Alright. There was no way around it. He would just have to hope that there was a different florist there today. 'Okay.'

'So which floor is the Honeyduke's passage on?'

'What?'

'We took my passage last time because the shops were closed, but it's daytime now, so we should take yours. It's only fair.'

James wrinkled his nose. 'It's kind of hard to sneak out of the cellar.' And he'd never even tried to do it without the Cloak. 'Your passage is so much more convenient.'

'I suppose. I really don't want to get caught out of bounds again,' she said, frowning. 'Alright, but you are showing me that passage sooner or later.'

'Of course,' James said, agreeably, making a mental note to ask his friends if he could tell Lily about the Cloak, but knowing full well he'd forget, anyway. The problem was, that he didn't have his notebook with him to write it down, but hopefully, he'd remember the next time he used the Cloak.

It was a long trip to Hogsmeade, and they chatted about various things along the way, including the Ship project, their mission to locate the Beach Room again (which had so far not yielded any results), and what Lily had done with the glass roses James had given her (she claimed to have left them in the classroom at the end of the lesson, but James suspected she was lying).

When they reached the door to the florist, James crossed his fingers and wished for luck, but his heart sank when they walked in and he saw the same witch from his last visit behind the counter. Well, Plan A was out. Time for Plan B. James dropped back, letting Lily take the lead as they approached the counter, and positioned himself behind her right shoulder.

'Good afternoon. How can I help you?' the florist said, giving the standard shop greeting. Gods, that must get boring after a while. If James ever had to work in a shop, he'd spice it up a bit. Give a different, new and interesting greeting to every customer.

'Hi,' Lily said. 'I don't know if you'll be able to help, actually. I was sent some flowers from this store a few months ago, and I was hoping you'd be able to tell me who ordered them.'

'I'm sorry. Any customer information is confidential. I can't tell you anything.'

James let out the breath he'd been holding, but slowly, so Lily wouldn't hear his relief.

'Could you at least tell me if it was a boy or a girl?' Lily asked. 'Help me narrow it down a bit?'

The witch smiled. 'Is this a secret admirer situation?'

Lily ducked her head. 'Something like that.'

'Alright, I'll have a look,' she said, making James' stomach sink into his shoes. 'What's your name, dear?'

'Lily Evans.'

'Lily Evans,' the witch repeated, tapping the records book with her wand. The book cover flipped itself open, and the pages began turning, rapidly, before stopping somewhere near the middle, and the witch ran her finger down the page. 'Ah, here we are. I'm afraid it was a cash sale, so there's no record of a name.'

James relaxed again, but she continued to speak.

'I do remember this sale, though,' she said, her eyes briefly flicking to James and then back to Lily. 'It was an unusual bouquet, and the customer was very specific about what he wanted.'

'It was a boy?' Lily asked, excited.

'Yeah.' She nodded, her eyes flicking back to James again, and he shook his head frantically. 'Around your age, I'd say.'

'Do you remember anything else? The colour of his hair, maybe? Or… I don't know. Anything.'

'I'm sorry, I don't. It was winter, so he was probably wearing a hat. But I remember he was eager to make you happy. His friend had to stop him from buying you lilies because your name's Lily.'

Lily laughed and glanced over her shoulder at James. He really hoped he wasn't blushing. Was it warm in there? It felt warm.

'Maybe not a Ravenclaw then.'

James chuckled. 'Yeah, maybe not. What an idiot.'

'Aw, don't be mean. It's kind of sweet.' She smacked him on the arm and turned back to the florist. 'Thanks, you've been a huge help.'

'You're welcome. I hope you figure out who it is.'

Lily turned away to the door, but before James could join her, the florist winked at him. She was a good sport, James thought, giving her a grin in return before following Lily back outside.

'Well, that wasn't as helpful as I'd hoped, but at least I know Sunshine's a boy now.'

'Does that bother you?' James asked.

She shook her head, making her ponytail swing from side to side. 'No, I didn't care either way, but it helps narrow it down.'

'Do you have any other leads?'

'Not that I can think of. But we can have a look around the Hall during dinner and see if anyone fits.'

'Yeah, sure,' James said. 'A second or third-year boy with close friends, who's smart and good at potions.'

'Well,' Lily said, tilting her head. 'It doesn't need to be him that's good at potions. It could be one of the other Marauders.'

'That's true,' James said, cringing inside. She was getting too close. He never should have started this in the first place. What he needed to do was plant some false information to throw her off. But what?

Unlike the worst day of Remus' year, there was no way the Marauders could turn the 3rd of May into a celebration to help Peter through it, but they were doing their best to distract him from the memories, and he was grateful for that. Like the previous year, they'd brought him breakfast in bed so he could avoid the crowded dining hall, and Sirius and James had been on top form with the jokes to keep him laughing.

Their morning lessons had kept his mind occupied. He adored Herbology—tending to the plants that would later be used to brew potions was therapeutic and he enjoyed it immensely—and duelling in Defence required all of his attention. There was no time to think about anything. The free period between the two lessons could have been a problem, but James had dragged them off to the library to work on their Moony Defence spell, and the complexity of the work prevented his mind from wandering. He didn't understand the theory behind spells quite as well as he understood potions theory, but he wasn't ignorant by any means. Being a Marauder had made sure of that.

At lunchtime, Remus had led them down to the kitchens, and Breen had taken them down to the little room where they'd held Sirius' birthday lunch in first year. The tiny elf had served all of Peter's favourite dishes, and Peter hadn't been able to refuse his eager little face, not that he wanted to. Nobody could cook like the Hogwarts' elves and everything was delicious.

Thoroughly stuffed and feeling a little sick because of it, Peter wasn't sure he particularly wanted to move when Remus asked Breen if they could go through now.

'Yes,' Breen said, nodding excitedly. 'Whenevers the masters is ready.'

'Where are we going?' Peter asked, reluctantly climbing to his feet.

'I got special permission from Teely to see something most students never get to see,' Remus said, his eyes sparkling in a way Peter hadn't seen since before Easter. It was good that he was feeling better. 'Have you ever wondered where all the food and potions ingredients come from?'

'Actually, I have,' Peter answered truthfully. The amount they got through must cost a fortune.

'Really?' Sirius asked. 'It never even crossed my mind.'

'Mine either,' James said. 'I guess I just assumed they bought it all.'

'Oh no,' Breen said, shaking his head with an offended expression. 'We would never buys it.'

'Come on,' Remus said, grinning. 'Let's go see where it actually all comes from.'

What followed was a fascinating tour of what could only be described as a farm. Somehow, hidden behind a door in the furthest corner of Hogwarts' basement, there were fields and fields of crops, pens of various animals, and buildings for processing raw ingredients into different products, all set beneath an enchanted sky. It was incredible.

'But this is the buildings Master Remus thought you woulds enjoy the mosts,' Breen said, pausing beside an enormous frosted glass dome after showing them where the chocolate was made—apparently, the elves there had worked overtime for Easter, making hundreds of enchanted chocolate eggs.

'What is it?'

'We calls it The Grotto,' Breen said, pushing the door open. 'It's where we grows the potions ingredients.'

'After you,' James said with a smile and a wave of his hand.

So Peter stepped through the door and into paradise. It was as if a chunk of natural woodland had been cutaway and plonked down in the middle of this magical field. A small stream trickled through the centre of the space, slicing the dome in half, and rocky outcroppings littered the ground, providing shaded areas for the less sun-seeking plants that grew there. And there were a lot. Magical plants of every shape, size, and colour of the rainbow sprouted from every conceivable location, some that Peter had only seen in books, and some he'd never seen before at all.

He gazed around with wide eyes. 'This is incredible.'

Breen grinned, his ears perking up. 'Thank yous, Master Peter. Breen takes cares of the Grotto at weekends.'

'Well, you've done an amazing job,' Peter said, watching as a Skulking Fluxroot strolled over to the stream and sat on the bank, dipping its roots in the water. 'Can you show me around? I don't know some of these plants.'

'Breen would be delighted,' Breen said, taking Peter's hand and tugging him towards a cluster of purple, bell-shaped flowers. He didn't fail to notice Sirius, James, and Remus grinning at each other triumphantly as he was pulled away, but he pretended not to see. He hadn't thought they'd be able to find a way to take his mind off of everything, but they'd proven him wrong, so he would let them have their moment.

It was several hours later when he was lying alone in bed, that he realised he hadn't thought about his mum, or his guilt, the entire time he was there. Maybe he should feel bad about that, but he didn't. It was like he told Remus, forgetting was a break, and everyone needs a break sometimes if they want to be able to keep going.

And keep going, he did. On Saturday morning, he was the first to awaken for once, his excitement at crafting his own cauldron for the first time waking him up at the crack of dawn like it was Christmas and he was five years old again. This put him in the rare situation of having the jump on both Sirius and James, and the only problem was that he couldn't decide which of them to cast the Tickling charm on.

After a minute or two of contemplating his choice, he finally decided to allow Remus the luxury of not being kicked awake by a laughing Sirius for once and he stalked over to James' bed, pulled back the edge of the curtain, and poked his wand through the gap. 'Rictusempra.'

James didn't shut up about the betrayal of it all until they reached the cave after breakfast.

'So, traitor,' James said, turning to Peter. 'How do we find this mick stuff?'

Peter rolled his eyes. 'Mica. And it shouldn't be too difficult. There are two spells. One to locate the different minerals, and one to summon them out of the rock. Here, I copied out the instructions.' He pulled the folded sheet of parchment from his pocket and handed it to James. 'Only one of us needs to get the hang of each one.'

James scanned through the instructions before handing the sheet to Sirius, who huddled up to Remus so they could read it together.

'Seems simple enough. Just a bit of visualisation and a bunch of intention, and the wand movements aren't complicated.'

'Yeah, that's what I thought too.'

As it turned out, it was a lot harder than it seemed, but after nearly an hour of them all trying to cast the first of the two spells, Remus finally succeeded, and the cave lit up with colours.

'Wow,' Sirius said on a long breath, slowly spinning on the spot as he gazed around at the sparkling walls. 'That's just… wow.'

'I'm going to have to agree with you there,' James said, staring up at the ceiling, which was streaked with purple and green. 'Well done, Moons.'

'We're looking for a very pale blue,' Peter said, showing them the right shade on another sheet of parchment. 'It's going to be hard to spot, and it's not very common in this type of rock, so there might not be much of it.'

They spread out, scanning the rock face for anything blue, and found plenty of areas that were a little too dark or a little too green, but eventually, after another hour, Sirius called out that he thought he'd found some and they all hurried over to him to look.

'See, it's speckled with it,' Sirius said, waving his arm to indicate the wall in front of him which was, as he said, speckled with the exact shade of pale blue they were looking for.

'Doesn't seem like very much,' James said, doubtfully.

'We won't know until we extract it,' Peter said. 'And we won't need tonnes, anyway. I can make the potion a dose at a time, once a month.'

The Summoning charm was much easier to master than the Location charm had been. Remus got the hang of it after just three attempts, and the rest of them only took five. The targeting of the spell was limited to a very small area, though, so it took all of them casting the spell a good twenty times to extract all the Mica from the stone.

James took over for the transfiguring part of the quest. He was by far the best of them at it, and they all stood back and watched as he masterfully formed the tiny white shards into a perfectly shaped, medium-sized cauldron.

'It's beautiful,' Peter said, staring at it for a moment before offering James a broad smile in thanks. 'You did a great job.'

'We should test it down here,' Remus said. 'Less chance of anyone getting hurt if something goes wrong with it.'

James nodded. 'I was going to say the same thing.'

'We didn't bring any ingredients, though,' Sirius said.

Remus shrugged. 'I don't think we need to actually brew something to test it, just fill it with water and put it on the firepit. See if it holds up.'

'No, we should definitely brew something in it,' Peter said, shaking his head. 'We need to make sure the transfiguration magic doesn't react with the magic in the ingredients.'

'Is that likely?' Remus asked.

Peter shrugged. 'I don't know. I couldn't find anything about transfiguring cauldrons, but I didn't look very hard, so.'

Remus laughed. 'Alright, we should brew something that's not too volatile then.'

If only it were that simple. Feeling a little bad for arguing with Remus so much, Peter shook his head again. 'No, I need to test it with the ingredients I'm actually going to use.'

Remus raised his eyebrows. 'Chances of an explosion if the cauldron fails?'

'Fifty-fifty?' Peter answered, but it came out sounding like a question. 'I'm not sure, but we should definitely be prepared for the worst.'

'Right, well, we're not doing that today then,' Remus said. 'Let's go back to the dorm and think about it so we can do this safely.'

This time, Peter was quick to agree. He had no desire to accidentally blow himself up, or anyone else for that matter, so making safety plans before they started seemed like a good idea, and neither Sirius nor James argued with the plan either. So, leaving the cauldron where it was, they headed back up the passage, and by the time they reached the library corridor, it was past midday, and Peter's stomach was insisting quite vehemently that he feed it, which thankfully, no one objected to.

When they finally reached the dorm after lunch, they settled down to make some plans to prevent any disasters should anything go wrong with their home-made cauldron, but after they'd been working for close to an hour, they were interrupted by a knock on the door, and James got up to answer it.

'Lily! Hi! Come in,' he said when he saw who was on the other side, taking a step back so she could walk through.

She hummed. 'No. Thank you, but I'm not really in the mood to produce giant bats from my nose this afternoon.'

James laughed. 'Damn, I thought you might have forgotten.'

'Like anyone could forget that,' Lily said, laughing with him. 'I just came to see if any of you want to play Spots with us?'

Everyone was game, and they ended up spending the rest of the afternoon in Classroom 12c with the girls. Since there were eight of them, they decided to create a tournament of ten-minute matches with two players per game, each of them competing once against every other player. The four players that won the most matches (Sirius, Lily, James, and Dorcas) then competed against each other in a four-player match lasting twenty minutes. The extended time meant endurance was just as important as precision and speed, and James won, with Dorcas coming a close second.

The final match, with James and Dorcas going head-to-head, was intense, but Dorcas managed to beat him by just three points, and James was quick to congratulate her.

'Your aim is incredible. Have you thought about trying out for Gryffindor? You'd make an excellent Beater.'

Dorcas smiled. 'I had been thinking about it, actually. Do you think I'm good enough?'

James nodded. 'Definitely. But hey, why don't you come over to mine in the summer? I have my own pitch. You can get some practice.'

'You have your own Quidditch pitch?' Lily asked.

'Er, yeah. My parents gave me it for Christmas?'

Lily shook her head. 'Rich people are insane. Utterly insane.'

Dorcas laughed. 'That would be great, James. Are you sure your parents won't mind?'

'Positive. They'll be thrilled. Sirius, Peter, and Remus are coming to stay for a month.'

'Maybe,' Remus said. 'I haven't asked my mum yet.'

'Yeah, and I need to speak to Bella about it,' Peter said.

'Technicalities,' James said. 'I'm sure we'll figure it out. So you'll come?'

Dorcas nodded. 'Yeah, definitely.'

'Great.' James seemed genuinely delighted about getting to share his pitch with someone else, and Peter knew it wasn't an act. He was just that kind of person. Nothing made him happier than making other people happy.

After dinner, which was once again a communal affair, they went up to bed early. There was no need to explain why. The girls knew about the Flying competition and were also planning an early night. Both Dorcas and Marlene would be taking part this year, and Lily and Mary would be going down to watch and cheer them on.

At eleven-thirty, Peter took his dose of Polyjuice and flew out of the dorm window to set up. It would be his first time hosting an Event, and he was doing it alone, which was extremely nerve-wracking. But he had prepared well, and if asked how he was feeling, he would say he was quietly confident if a little nervous. He hoped he didn't mess it up.

Remus waited a full fifteen minutes after Sirius and James left the dorm before climbing out of bed and retrieving James' Cloak from his trunk and his own Snitch-O-Scope from his desk. Despite not taking a dose on Peter's Bad Day, wanting to be able to be there for him properly, he only had three doses left, and there were still four weeks until the end-of-year exams. It was nowhere near enough, but he knew of somewhere he could get some more.

Under the cover of James' cloak, Remus crept down to the first floor and through the doors of the Hospital Wing. He wasn't sure where Madam Pomfrey kept her potions, but she always went into her office to get them, so that's where he headed. Despite the late hour, Madam Pomfrey was seated at her desk, scribbling notes in a book, but there were two occupied beds on the ward, so she'd have to leave at some point. Remus could wait.

Holding his breath and placing his feet as gently as possible, he slowly moved around behind her, positioning himself in the back corner of the room, furthest from the door, and leant back against the wall to save his legs. He wasn't sure how long he'd have to stay there, but if the others returned to the dorm before him, he had an excuse ready, so he wasn't worried. There would be no reason for them to suspect he was lying if he said he'd changed his mind about staying behind, but become trapped by a patrolling Filch on his way downstairs and had needed to wait him out.

It was at least thirty minutes before Madam Pomfrey stood from her desk—Remus couldn't be sure without checking his watch, and he was trying to stay still. He expected her to leave the room, but instead, she moved to a bookcase on the adjacent wall to the one that hid his room and tapped her wand on the head of an ornamental badger that sat on the second shelf from the top, acting as a bookend. The bookcase swung open, revealing a large room behind it, filled with shelves of potions, creams, and salves. A sink sat in one corner, and there was a compact brewing station in the centre of the room. She stepped inside and Remus followed her, timing his footsteps to coincide with hers.

His heart pounded with the risk he was taking, but he wasn't afraid for his life, so he didn't think Sirius would be alerted to anything. Keeping to the edge of the room, but not too close to the shelving that he risked dislodging anything, Remus kept himself away from Madam Pomfrey as she went about gathering a few bottles and vials, before walking back out into the office, leaving the bookcase open.

Remus moved quickly back to the door and peered out. The office was empty. This might be his only chance. With no idea how long he had, Remus scanned the shelves for the distinctive bright orange of the Forgetfulness potion, spotting several orange potions that weren't it before he finally saw the right one. There were four large bottles on the shelf, and Remus grabbed one of them, tucking it under his arm while he pulled out the empty bottle he'd brought with him and transfigured it to look like the one he'd taken.

It took him a moment to get the orange colouring of the glass right to make it look like it was full of potion inside, and then he tucked it behind the full bottles so it wouldn't be noticed any time soon. With his task complete, he headed for the door, reaching it just as Madam Pomfrey returned, her vials now empty. He took a sharp step back to get out of the way, almost tripping on the back of the Cloak, but he managed to stay upright. Madam Pomfrey must have heard something, though, because she froze, looking straight at him with a frown of concentration on her face as she scanned the empty space.

Remus held his breath, waiting for her to give up, or step closer, and after several long moments during which he felt sure she must be able to hear his heart because it was beating out of his chest, she finally shook her head and continued on her way to the sink in the corner. Not daring to move, Remus stayed where he was until she turned the taps on, letting the rush of the water cover his rapid footsteps as he hurried out of the room and back to his dorm.