Bedknobs and Broomsticks [HP fanfic; BNB Book 1]

Halloween, 1993

Halloween, 1993

"Did you see the look on Potter's face? Thought he could just walk right out of the castle. Glad to see McGonagall put a stop to that! At least someone's got some sense around here. If they'd let him come to Hogsmeade without a permission slip -- well, my father wouldn't be too pleased to hear about that."

Crabbe and Goyle chuckled appreciatively at what Malfoy was saying and Joel smirked over the rim of his mug before taking a long swig of their butterbeers. The four of them fell silent and eyed Geoffrey as he passed their table, carrying a bottle of firewhiskey and two glasses.

Geoffrey could have sworn he heard the Malfoy boy mutter something about how Mudbloods shouldn't be allowed to teach at the school, and he allowed himself a resigned sigh. Malfoy and his cronies were so like how Rosier and his friends had been back in their days at Hogwarts. He settled into a booth across from Remus, whose face was looking particularly pale today. Geoff set the glasses on the table and poured a measure of firewhiskey into each.

"Cheers," he said, raising his glass as Remus did likewise. He tossed back the fiery liquor in a single gulp and poured two more glasses. "Severus doesn't seem overly thrilled to see the two of us back this year."

"He wouldn't be, would he? We were set on making his life a living hell while we were at school. He's doing me a great kindness, though, despite that, though his quarrel was never with me. It was James and Sirius that were always the trouble-makers. They just sort of dragged us along, didn't they?"

"Mmm. And poor Lily. She'd have fits whenever James would do something to Severus. I think he forgot they were friends at one time."

"I think he wanted to forget." Remus poured himself another glass of firewhiskey. "Lily would never let him. She was always standing up for Severus. You know, the Weasley girl reminds me of her a bit. She hexed a boy for not holding the door open for her as she was leaving my class the other day. Had to take a few points for it to be fair, of course, but it was the best Bat-Bogey Hex I'd ever seen."

Geoff laughed appreciatively. "Yes, I can see why she reminds you of Lily. I can just picture Lily doing that to James. It's strange, being back, isn't it? I feel like I'm a student all over again."

Remus shrugged. "It's different this time around, not having James and the others. I wonder what they'd say, if they saw us teaching."

"They probably wouldn't be surprised at you being here. They'd probably laugh at the idea of me teaching. They never thought I was much good at anything. No one did."

"Emilie did."

"Emilie did," Geoff agreed. He looked pensively into his glass of firewhiskey, his expression suddenly clouded.

Remus eyed him for a long moment, searching for the words to say. "Do you ever... hear from her?" he asked.

Geoff looked up at Remus, then back down at his glass. He knew what his friend meant to ask: had she perhaps written anything about Sirius's escape? "No," he said. "There were owls for a while, right after they took her. But those stopped after a year or so. She's still doing all right, though, from what they told me this summer."

"This summer?"

He nodded, swallowing another mouthful of firewhiskey. He was suddenly very aware of how much the liquor burned his throat as it went down. "They called me in for questioning," he explained. "They wondered, since she's in there, if I knew anything about the... the incident. I don't," he added hastily when he saw Remus raise his eyebrows. "They just wanted to know if maybe she had written me telling me about any plans. I had to tell them I hadn't heard from her in ten years and that I doubted she still had the capacity to do what Black did. They told me that she's doing better than most would at this point, but I don't know what that means. I thought of writing to her, but what would I say? 'Hello, dear, you don't have any plans to break out of prison any time soon, do you? Because that would be a very bad thing for all of us.'" He rolled his eyes and finished his glass.