Mischief Managed Year One: Mayhem of the Moon

Chapter Seventeen- Balance and Black's Wish

Remus thought they were all over-exaggerating. He hadn't really looked in a mirror yet, but he felt fine so he couldn't imagine he looked that bad.

"Hello to you to Sirius, James," Lily huffed, rolling her eyes.

Remus tried his best to ignore them, then let out a yelp as Peter clutched his shoulder tight enough to hurt.

"I...I thought you died! Remus, we went to check up on you but you weren't there!" Peter whined looking petrified. Remus realized with a jolt that all three of his roommates had bags under their eyes, as if they had been up the past two nights worrying.

"I'm sorry I frightened you. I was contagious, and Madam Pomfrey doesn't talk about any of her patients; she's quite adamant about that. I'm fine though," Remus insisted with finality, hoping they would buy it.

"You don't bloody look it at all, mate," pointed out James, who ignored Lily's look of irritation and sat down next to Remus. Without warning, James leaned closer to Remus and put a hand to his forehead looking thoughtful. "Well, you don't have a fever so I guess you are ok."

"That is what I said," Remus muttered trying to keep his patience.

"As if we'd trust your opinion of your health," scoffed Sirius who sounded nonchalant. But Remus suspected the young Black had in fact been the one most stressed, and had no doubt worked the other two into a frenzy.

He only hoped that Sirius hadn't voiced what he thought he knew about Remus' past to the other two. But when he tried to catch Sirius' eye, he found the taller boy was pretending to be fascinated with his shoes. This increased Remus' worry and suspicion considerably.

"Potter, we were talking to Remus first! You can't just stroll up and steal him away," Lily finally pointed out, with as much calm as she could muster. Dorcas actually was calm, and seemed to be overseeing them all with the detached air of one who avoided drama any chance she got.

At this rate, this was going to turn into a dramatic battle between the two strong-willed children. James had a rather smug look on his face as he put a hand on Remus' shoulder. The boy whose head was already beginning to hurt unfortunately knew what was coming next.

"Sure can. Come on, Remus!" James called out confidently.

Then Remus was being unceremoniously dragged away from an irate-looking Lily who stood up stiffly from her seat, glaring daggers at James. Remus attempted to protest but it fell on deaf ears. Sirius looked as smug as James, and Peter looked relieved to be leaving the scary creatures that were girls.

"Stupefy!" Lily shouted, leaning over the table and getting a bit of pudding on her robes in order to obtain the right angle to aim at the source of her anger.

James went still, stunned if not unconscious. Remus was impressed Lily could manage such a spell this well with a mere month of schooling under her belt.

The spell didn't last long, as they were only first years after all. James rounded on his heels, nearly shoving Remus down whose arm he had hooked on his own. The former stunned boy pointed at Lily and spluttered at her shocked and undoubtedly impressed. "Y...y...you stunned me!"

Sirius looked less impressed and more irritated, looking this way and that for a professor to come and give the blushing girl detention. But only prefects were nearby and they all seemed more amused than anything.

"I suppose I did," Lily sniffed, sounding very defensive. Dorcas had set down her book and was looking much more interested now. She even thumped Lily's back in a friendly yet jarring way that Remus could sympathize with. Lily nearly buckled from the force of it but Dorcas seemed to have given her courage and she stopped looking like she might be expelled at any minute. "Well, you deserved it, Potter! You are insufferable!"