Mischief Managed Year One: Mayhem of the Moon

Chapter Forty-Six- Sneaky Sassy Slytherins

"She's...different. Look...don't tell her about this. It's not- you don't understand," he hurriedly explained, true worry in his voice. For a second Remus wondered if he really should tell Lily, but Severus looked so nervous that he knew he couldn't bring himself too, not after causing the last fight between the two of them.

"I won't, I just...I'm worried about you, Severus."

For a second it looked like Severus was going to say something. He had a peculiar look in his eyes full of surprise and sadness. But then Lucius shouted down to him and his eyes hardened once more.

"I'll talk to you later," Severus finished his tone sounding rather threatening.

Remus nodded, stunned by the two sides of Severus he was beginning to understand existed. There was the side with Lily, the almost vulnerable boy who would do anything for her friendship. And then there was the side he seemed to have more often, the side that lied to impress his fellow Slytherins. At least Remus hoped it was a lie. He didn't want to think about what it would mean if Severus was actually lying to Lily. If his views on blood status truly began to turn into the same as his fellow Slytherins.

No, Remus didn't want to think about that at all.

.................................................

Sirius watched Remus closely throughout the day when he wasn't with Lily. But as far as he could tell, Remus seemed to be telling the truth. There were occasional awkward moments now when grades or Sirius' family was brought up, but for the most part, it was ok. Things went back to normal, sort of.

They had tried to convince Remus to let them throw a party for him but he had declined the offer. Basically, they had to shove the presents they got down his throat. Then there was a hesitance about him, not quite as bad as Remus denying their friendship, but just a slight...off-ness about him that stressed Sirius out.

But they still went to their secret passages, or the kitchens, though they were all starting to itch to find another one. Sirius was delighted when he realized Remus was keeping a slight sketch of where the passages were, trying to determine if getting a whole layout of the school would somehow help them find others.

James and Peter both seemed interested in the idea and they were all given a part of the school to map before they realized that only Peter was actually good enough at drawing to really make it worth their while. This led to a bit of an argument as James wasn't used to being bad at things he tried to be good at, especially compared to Peter out of everyone. So they all dropped the matter, though it lingered in their minds.

They had James' party to plan anyway which Peter was very excited about. Sirius could sometimes force Remus to partake in preparing for the party, though he seemed to become more and more withdrawn as the month went on. It was like his friend was preparing himself for something bad and Sirius didn't like it one bit. He tried to corner Remus alone a few times to figure out if the boy had been lying about the whole grade thing. But Remus kept evading him, leaving Sirius to ponder on his friend's words that one night when he let slip the whole "he thinks I'm someone else" statement.

That didn't sound like it had anything to do with grades, and when Sirius brought it up to James since there didn't seem to be any need to keep what he discovered about Remus secret anymore, he pointed out it probably did have to do with grades. That "someone else" referred to someone who didn't try at school, and while this seemed plausible it didn't seem right to Sirius.

"Come on, Sirius. Now you're just torturing yourself over nothing," James pointed out, causing Sirius to crumble up the piece of paper he'd been scrawling "someone else" over and over like it would make sense.