Four To The End (prev Shifting Lines) - Book One (Marauder Era)

Chapter Twelve - Bats Are Supposed To Be Furry Anyway

Remus frowned, eyes darting from roommate to roommate, the fear of being beaten up slowly ebbing away. "I d--don't under... stand...?"

Pettigrew put his hand under his nose--fingers down--and began wriggling them. "Any longer and their nose hair woulda been as long as Dumbledore's beard!" Pettigrew giggled.

Oh, that. Potter and Black were both grinning form ear-to-ear and Remus finally stopped trembling. "I d--don't know wh-what you're t-t-talking about."

Pettigrew's hand dropped. "You were the only other one in the corridor. It had to be you. Nose hair doesn't just sprout out like that."

"Maybe they suddenly hit a really bad puberty," Potter said and Black made loud gagging sounds sending both of them into laughter.

"Come on then, Lupin, it sounds like a perfect spell for us to know. All the spells I know aren't the sort to use for fun like that," Black said, a hint of darkness to his voice as he said that, as if he were ashamed of what he did know.

"I still don't get how you guys can even do so much," Pettigrew grumbled. "My dad always said underage magic was illegal and didn't let me do anything or learn anything, said I'd learn when Hogwarts took me."

"My parents didn't care," Potter replied, pushing his hair back (which made it even messier than before). "They disapproved, of course, but... they didn't do anything to stop me from practicing. Course it's all pretty basic stuff. I can make things move real well, when we get to levitation spells I'll be on it."

"You must have been using spells left and right," Black said to Remus.

"I w-w-wasn't allowed t--to use any--any m-magic be--before," Remus admitted. He remembered the last time he tried anything. He floated a book over from an upper shelf and his father exploded, yelling at him, reminding him that if anyone got whiff of underage magic they might send a Ministry worker. WE CAN'T RISK THAT! Lyall had yelled while Hope cried. YOU WANT TO GET CAUGHT?! That was when Remus was seven, and he hadn't done anything since. Intentionally.

"Then how'd you know how to do that spell you did on them Slytherins?" Pettigrew asked.

Remus returned to twisting the hem of his vest in his fingers and he looked down at the floor. "I read," he finally said, knowing how snobby and egotistical it sounded but not knowing how else to say it.

All three of them looked at the books piled around Remus's bed and stacked on his desk and they all knew Remus's trunk was full of books too.

"So that's the key," Potter said in a rather aghast sort of voice as he rubbed his chin. "Books."

"I do my best to avoid'em," Black said.

"Same," Potter agreed and they both began laughing again and Remus glanced up, sure they were laughing at him but they seemed to be laughing at what they had said. Laughing at themselves. "Hey, in your book-reading-ness have you come across any sort of spell that is like... a timing activation spell? Like, you put the spell on something and it, er, goes off at a certain time or after a certain length of time?"

Yes, Remus thought. "Why?"

Potter and Black exchanged looks then both smiled innocently. "No reason!" they chorused, hardly able to hide their mischievousness.

"By the way..." Pettigrew gave Remus's sleeve a tug to get his attention. "Thanks for rescuing me. I d--don't know what they were planning but it couldn't have been good. I thought I was done for."

"Yeah, thanks for rescuing Pete," Potter said and suddenly his arm was around Remus in a far-too-familiar sort of manner that made the panic and fear come back, frothing up inside of him and churning his stomach.