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

Chapter Twenty-Six - Quartet Of Coolness

"We were caught in the girls' bathroom on the fifth floor," Black answered and Remus's jaw dropped. Black laughed. "We were replacing the soap with frog spawn soap, or trying to. As I said, we got caught. Peter's a rotten lookout. James has got his detention later in the week. Guess ol' McGonagall thought I'd do better with you, huh?" He grinned at Remus who didn't reply. "I wonder what these people did to get their name engraved on metal," Black pondered as he half-heartedly scrubbed. "Imagine, living your whole life and you end up a name on a trophy."

"That one th--there ended up being a Minister of Magic so I'd s-say she did more than j-just end up a name on a trophy," Remus said, glancing over.

Black looked down at the name then made a face. "Did she? Huh." He set it down, half of it still dirty, and picked up another. "I intend to be known for more than just whatever this lot did. I'm going to be famous one day."

"For what? Being annoying?"

Black snorted. "Not for being Head Boy, that's for sure." He studied the shield and then propped it back up, only the name cleaned off.

"You have to c-clean the entire thing, not just the name."

Black stuck his tongue out then picked it back up. "If my name is anywhere on here, it'd be Quidditch. If I join. You like Quidditch?"

"N... not really..."

"How can you not like Quidditch? It's brilliant. James is definitely going to be on the team. He's definitely going to be on some of these awards for Incredibly Talented Quidditch Players." He finished polishing the shield properly and picked up another. "I bet you'll be on here too somewhere. Award for Geniusness or something." Remus tried not to smile at that, and finally finished the trophy he had picked up. He carefully set it down, making sure it was prominently displayed, then went on to another. "I wonder if there's an award for being Astonishingly Good-Looking, I'd get that one. You know, you need to be our friend. It just makes sense, doesn't it? James will be the Quidditch player, I'll be the Heart Breaker... we need a Nerd on the team."

"And Pettigrew?"

"He's the nice one," Black said in a 'duh' voice.

"And what team is this, exactly?"

Black shrugged. "The Quartet of... ummm... Cool...ness..."

Remus couldn't bother hiding his laughter at that. "That is a dumb name."

"You come up with a better one, then," Black said rather hopefully, moving on to yet another trophy, all of his hardly cleaned at all. But Remus just shook his head. "Anyway, you promised to help us out with the bat-bogey hex, didn't you? Plus that sneezing one you put on me was jolly good. You have to teach us."

"How c-come you lied about it?"

"Huh? Oh, that, well... I wasn't gonna turn you in, and figured maybe I could get some Slytherins into trouble."

"But why didn't you turn me in?"

"Friends don't do that."

Remus slapped the trophy down, the noise echoing off the walls. "We're not friends!"

Black just smiled at him. "We could be."

Remus's chest seized, like Black had reached right in and grabbed hold of his heart with his bare fingers. I wish it were that simple. He did, he wanted it to be so bad, and only just now realized. After a week of being bugged by Black, it was just that simple statement that hurt Remus and made him question everything. His thoughts from the previous night came flooding back.