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

Chapter Forty-Seven - The Four Bs of Hogwarts

"That was amazing!" Peter agreed, stars practically in his eyes.

"How did you know she was coming?" Sirius asked, also sounding quite impressed... as well as vaguely suspicious, sending flips in Remus's stomach as those searching eyes appraised him in a terrifying manner.

Remus raised his eyebrows, trying his best to feign surprise. "You didn't hear her coming?"

"N... no..."

"Oh. Must have been too di--distracted, I guess. So Snape did the igloo thing? We need to do s-something about that." There, that would get their attention away from the absolutely foolish thing he had done.

"Yeah!" James said, throwing his arm around Remus's shoulder. "Come on, let's figure out a great way to get back at that stupid git!"

They were thoroughly focused on planning a good prank, forgetting quickly how unnaturally fast Remus's hand had been taking their wands away. Once he was able to get away from them he went into a bathroom, staring at his pale reflection. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. He looked down at his hands, wondering why he had done that. No, he knew why he had done that, to help keep his friends out of trouble but to use his wolf abilities like that in front of other people... It was dangerous... if they thought about it... if Mulciber or Avery thought about it...

Remus felt ill, imagining those two figuring out his secret.

I need to be more careful. He looked back at his reflection with a sigh. A lot more careful.

*

Monday morning Snape received a letter and when he opened it up, there was an explosion of gold and scarlet powder that clung to his skin and hair. He quickly left the Great Hall (shooting dirty looks towards James and Sirius) but when lunch came around he still had a tint of gold in his hair.

"Course he does," Sirius snickered. "I doubt anything would convince him to wash his hair."

"Probably doesn't even have any shampoo," Peter added.

All of them now giggled. Remus could see Lily frowning at them from a little ways down the table. Had she heard them? Apparently she had, because she left before them and when the four of them left James suddenly doubled over, coughing hard. A second later Sirius had bat bogies attacking him. Remus glanced around, seeing a flash of red hair disappearing down the dungeon stairwell.

"Finite incantatum!" Remus began getting rid of the bats but when he tried to remove the coughing hex off of James, he only managed to lessen it a bit. James had to cough all the way to Defense and get Professor Dedenne to properly get rid of the spell. Lily was somehow already there, looking quite smug.

"Who did that to us?" James leaned across the aisle while Dedenne had her back turned, so he could hiss this at his friends.

"Probably Snape," Sirius replied.

"Yeah, who else would have done it?" Peter whispered.

Remus frowned at the fact they were talking so openly in class, then leaned in as well. "Let's talk about this after class so we don't--"

"Is there something you'd like to share, Mr. Lupin?"

He sat upright, gulping as Dedenne came over to his desk, a stern look on her face. "N... nnn-no, Professor..."

She tapped his desk with her wand, flipping open his book to the correct page that was written on the blackboard now. "Five points from Gryffindor. You can gossip with your... friends... later. Today we'll be learning more about hags, then later on we'll be practicing the Knockback jinx for the first time." She marched back to the front of the class, talking while Remus sat boiling with annoyance and shame. Of course he was the one to get caught...