I'll Take it Shaken, Not Stirred

Chapter 6: All Those Little Things

Cheers, Gideon Prewett and Fabien Prewett (who would like to point out that "chasering" isn't a word)."

The head boy imagined reading the message and laughing at it under different circumstances. But even his favorite ex-upper-classman, the Prewett twins, failed to amuse him at the moment. He just wanted a distraction for the next two hours. Sirius and Paul read the note, smiled weekly, and Sirius pocketed it, probably hoping that he would appreciate it better at another time.

James sat up, and the game commenced. Paul watched dully from the side. They knew the castle wouldn't begin to awake fully for another two hours, and it was destined to be a very long two hours.

OoOoOoOoO

"But, Madame Pomfrey! Look at that! The room is practically calm..."

"Calm?" shrieked Madame Pomfrey, glaring at James; she tried to tower over him, but couldn't. He was quite tall. "Calm? That is not calm, Mr.

Potter. That is chaotic. That is insane!"

"But, Madame Pomfrey," pressed James, who now stood before her at the door to the infirmary, "its Remus. It's Moony! It's a Marauder!"

"I don't see what that has to do with anything..."

"Well, see Sirius here and I are the other two Marauders and Peter..."

"I know that! Now shoo! Absolutely not! No! No! No! Shoo!"

James stepped out of the game momentarily to discuss tactic with Sirius. "Try the guilt trip card," the latter whispered.

"Madame Pomfrey! You've got to let us in! His mother wrote us and asked us to make sure he was alright! What can we say if we can't even see him for five minutes?"

Madame Pomfrey sighed. After a thirty-second internal battle, she sighed again and said: "You have five minutes to talk to him. After that, you're out of my hair until I release Mr. Lupin. Understood?"

"Of course!" chorused James and Sirius (who stood a step back). The unfortunate Madame Pomfrey gave them a warning glance, before stepping aside and permitting the two seventh years to enter.

"Mrs. Lupin didn't really write, did she?" Sirius whispered. James shook his head.

His eyes scanned the room for a moment, before they fell on a bed near the corner, where a familiar mop of brown hair was just visible. He pointed it out to Sirius, who nodded and led the way towards the person who was undoubtedly Remus Lupin.

Remus looked up in surprise at the appearance of his two friends.

"Little early for you, isn't it? I mean, I expected the two of you to get your asses down here the second you woke up and all, but I didn't expect that to be until around two or three in the afternoon..."

"Us?" asked Sirius with mock curiosity; "but we're such early risers... such morning people!"

"I can tell," replied Remus wryly; "it's seven o'clock... impressive!" "We haven't slept all night," James admitted sagely.

"Ya, we were really worried about Peter," agreed Sirius, sighing.

Remus almost grinned. He, along with the others, liked the idea of making light of serious things. It was much easier to talk about serious things when they were pretending not to.

"So... any news?"

"Mhm. Wanderers beat the Tornadoes two days ago. Was a brilliant match from what I hear."