BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE - REMUS LUPIN

102 - "THE LAST DAY"

Finally, not even a minute after Hollis, James full out tripped over his own bright yellow fluffy socks that he had worn to transform with Remus and not bothered to either put on shoes or change out of for breakfast. His copper rimmed, circular glasses were so askew across his face that there was no way they were doing anything to improve his already awful eyesight. The Gryffindor earned several laughs as he just laid on the floor for a few minutes after tripping, but then finally pressed his palms flat on the ground in order to pull himself back up to the table where the rest of his best friends were. Scooting next to Hollis and resting his head heavily on her shoulder, James dozed off nearly as fast as Peter across from him had.

Long story short, the five Marauders were barely fighting to keep their eyes open and heads from feeling like they were spinning out of their sockets whenever they moved too quickly. They were quite a sight, the sixth years all passed out in obviously uncomfortable positions somehow still almost fully overlapping each other even while sitting down on their own benches.

Thankfully, their school mum was watching out for her five favorite students with the classic Minerva McGonagall tough love. Walking over to her dead asleep sixth years, the Transfiguration professor held up her wand and let out a loud bang that made Hollis, James, Peter, and Remus wake up with a start of rapid blinking and the hasty covering of their ears.

Her brown eyes widening, Hollis started at the still fast asleep Sirius Black.

"PADS!" she shouted, slapping the table aggressively with a scarred palm.

The black-haired boy's head jolted up so fast that for a moment all of the other four Marauders thought that he was going to fall backward off the bench. James was never too tired to laugh, but he just barely managed to push this one out through his exhaustion.

"How," Peter groaned, staring with unfocused eyes at the cup of pumpkin juice in front of him "are we supposed to go to Sluggy's party tonight?"

They all thought about this for a moment. Or at least they tried. It was taking everything in Sirius especially not to fall back asleep on the hard mahogany that seemed oddly comfortable at the moment.

"Invigoration Drought?" Hollis suggested with a shrug as she straightened her back slightly at the idea.

"Brilliant," James muttered, nodding his head. "But don't we need dried billywig stings for that?"

Remus rubbed his eyes before answering James.

"Yea, but Slughorn'll probably be happy that we want to come to his party awake, plus he always loves it when we show an interest in potions outside of his class," Remus pointed out, standing up from the bench. "So if we go now, he can lend us the ingredients and we should be able to finish it before the party starts at eight."

And so, half leaning on each other for support and half straight up tripping, Nott watched as the Marauders exited the Great Hall to go do Merlin knows what.

The letter with a black wax seal with the Nott family crest pressed into it looked back up at him, and Theodore ripped it open and began to read its contents to himself in his head.

Theodore,

Since you will be coming home soon for the holidays, your father and I thought it best to pre-inform you with some of the knowledge you will be receiving once more so that you may have a bit of time to take it in.

You have always been such a good son, one that both me and your father can agree on that will go far in our pureblood society. To continue and uphold the Nott name down this prestigious line, we have made a match for you with Appoline Rosier. The Rosiers and we came upon this arrangement rather fluidly, and you will do best to uphold this betrothal.