Is It Over Now?

Chapter One

He watched as the younger boy seemed to eye him consideringly- as if he was seeing something that he hadn't before- but shifted his gaze away when the younger Black brother moved to stand beside him at the table, looking down at the paper with that too familiar pinch in the younger boy's brows. Remus had seen it on Sirius more times than he could count when the four of them were drawing out the lines for the map. He'd always had to look away from the older Black when he did that and found himself instinctively doing the same with the younger.

"You're going to need to out the Algiz before the Dagaz rune," the younger boy decided after a moment, "simce with this Theron you can use literal translations."

"So it will be 'shielding from change', that way the painting will remain unabated by time" Remus remembered quickly before grabbing his quil to do just that, only stopping to gesture to the three Slytherin boys and the one Ravenclaw girl to take their seats as they had agreed to before.

For the next few hours the odd group sat at the table in a comfortable silence that was soon filled with the quiet complaints at the work and questions being exchanged with one another.

Remus found that the Ravenclaw girl was named Pandora Lestrange and was a particularly gifted witch in just about everything that she tried, and was often prone to experimenting with spells- even right before finals it seemed as none of her mountain of books were about anything that they were currently studying, but her current fascination instead.

Bart Crouch and Evan Rosier seemed to share one mind as the pair filled the table with scathing remarks that Remus somehow found himself adding to when familiar names came up. Somehow plans for an exorcism were brought up for Professor Binns, and Moaning Myrtle before long. The only problem that the group found was how to make sure that it was limited to just the two ghosts and cover their tracks enough that it would look like a natural passing.

Regulus Black had been the most surprising of the odd group, the quiet boy that seemed the best behaved if the lot holding more than his fair share of his brother's talent for trouble as Remus caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a modified duplication spell created just for alcohol so that it wouldn't modify the taste or strength of the original or the copy. The younger Black brother had only smiled when he saw what Remus was looking at and the pair had adjusted one or two things together, 'the exact opposite of what a prefect should be doing,' as the Slytherin boy had felt the need to point out.

Remus hadn't known it then, but that simple decision to allow the group close had changed everything.

—-

Pain was the first thing that Remus had known when he woke up the morning after the last full moon of fifth year. It was the mind recking sort of agony that the boy hadn't endured in so many months that the Gryffindor had almost forgotten just what it felt like. Confusion swept up on the boy quickly because he knew that this pain wasn't right, it wasn't supposed to be his just then.

And yet it was happening.

Blood spilled down Remus's chest as he pushed off of the dirty floor and to the equally appalling bed, alone in a room that should have held three others. The wolf's frustration curled in his chest as Remus pulled the blanket over himself and his mind ran away with him, filling itself with all of the things that could have led to him being without the other Marauders; terrible phantom images of the other three bloodied somewhere at his doing. Because nothing short of something absolutely horrible could have kept them apart on the night of their last hurrah.

A miserable feeling curled in the boy's stomach as he wished for Madam Pomfrey. It didn't die once the witch finally did come.

The poor school nurse had a nervous air about her when she walked into the room, one so strong that Remus could smell it from a good deal down the hall before he even saw the unusually pale looking witch. Saw the sad gaze that the older woman held so openly.