Remus approached Potions with trepidation. He hoped that Slughorn wouldn't pair him up with Snape again (or any other Slytherin). Lily was sitting with Snape when Remus arrived, looking a little embarrassed while Snape glowered at him. When Slughorn mentioned they were once again working on a difficult potion Remus's heart sank, but then their teacher allowed them to choose their own partners so Remus ended up with Sirius, who didn't seem too keen on properly making the potion. Instead he spent the time flicking things at other students and making jokes. They didn't receive a very good grade but Sirius didn't care and Remus was used to it.
After Slughorn dismissed them, they left the classroom and were halfway down the dungeon corridor when James and Sirius realized their robes had turned green with silver trim. Sirius actually screamed out while James whirled around, eyes meeting Snape's eyes. He was a little ways back, wand in his hand, a sneer on his face.
"I know it was you lot yesterday."
"Change it back!" Sirius snarled.
Snape's lip curled. "Weren't you supposed to be in Slytherin anyway, Black?" Sirius stood stock still for a second then lunged forward. James and Peter grabbed him, yanking him back while Snape laughed. "Temper." He put his wand away and walked past them, purposely bumping his shoulder against James as he went. At that he slowed his steps, turning back to face them. "If any of you ever attack Lily again, you'll regret it." His eyes locked onto Remus's for a brief second before he stomped off.
"GREASY HAIRED GIT!" James yelled after him as the few students who had stayed behind hoping for a fight scattered.
Sirius was pulling off his robes, throwing them to the ground. "Change them back, someone change them back now!" He looked at Remus expectantly.
"I--er, I c-can try..." He pointed his wand at Sirius's abandoned robes. "Finite incantatum!" Just as he figured the robes stayed green and silver. "I'll have to do some research, it's not just a basic charm. I think he properly dyed them."
"Hurry up and find it then," Sirius growled, still eyeing the robes on the ground. "I'd rather die than wear Slytherin colors."
Remus picked the robes up, folding them over his arms. James shucked his robes off and tossed them at him. I'm not your servant! he thought rather bitterly. "You're so dramatic," he grumbled back. "Why don't you ask Flitwick, or McGonagall? They could probably do it better anyhow."
But Sirius was walking off already with James, both of them discussing the best way to get revenge. Remus just stood there, fury quivering through his body. He was half tempted to just throw their robes on the floor but then someone took them from him. He blinked, looking at Peter who have a tentative smile. "You know them, once they got revenge on the mind nothing'll sway them."
Remus pushed his hair back then took one of the sets of robes. "Yeah..." He folded and refolded the one in his arms, almost absentmindedly. It was Sirius's, he knew by the smell.
"How come Snape didn't change our robes?" Pete wondered as they followed their friends.
Remus just shrugged however he suspected he knew exactly why. Even though Snape had verbally attacked Remus the week before, it was Sirius and James who were the ones he seemed to hate more. The show offs, the popular ones, the pranksters. Remus thought that he and Peter were probably more like footnotes for the rest of the students at the school. And after the way Sirius and James just seemed to dismiss them, Remus wondered if they were footnotes to them too...
Then Remus poked at the robes, mumbling a spell, putting all his concentration into them. Peter gasped as both robes turned black though there was a hint of silver trim in the light. "How'd you do that? You said you couldn't."
Remus just shrugged. "I didn't get rid of his spell, just put my own over it."
"So it's still green under the black?"
"If you want to think of it that way."
Peter shook the robes out that he was carrying then gave Remus a grin. "Are you gonna tell them that?"
Remus raised his eyebrows, unable to stop a return grin from forming. "Of course not."
Both boys were still laughing when they finally caught up to Sirius and James, James wanted to know what was so funny. Remus and Peter just handed their robes back to them, goin on ahead, still snickering to each other. After that, Remus told the others he wanted to be alone, spending the rest of the afternoon under a table in the library, trying to tamp down his annoyed feelings towards Sirius and James, mostly Sirius. Remus couldn't help wonder if he had done something to deserve to be treated like that... or if he had just overblown the whole thing. Perhaps his reaction had been too... personal? Had Sirius meant to hurt Remus like that? He's probably not even aware he did, Remus thought, tracing his finger over the picture in the book he was trying to read. Peter's right, revenge just filled their heads and everything else left.
*
At supper Lily came over, tugging at Remus's sleeve until he left the Great Hall with her. She wanted to know if it had been James and/or Sirius who did the bat-bogey thing the night before. Remus shifted his weight and chewed at his nails, no idea how to respond. He didn't want to give away his friends but--Lily was also his friend. He didn't want to lie to her about things he didn't have to lie about...
"Yes," he finally admitted. "I snapped at James for it though. I d-didn't realize what he was doing until after he did it."
"He's done it to Severus before?" she asked and Remus nodded. "I see. Just James?"
"I haven't!" he promised. "I've never used that--" Then he stopped, looking away. Lily folded her arms, giving him a stare until he confessed, "All right, I have used that hex before. Only p-practicing though. On Peter. Willing."
"It's absolutely disgusting," Lily said as she took a step closer to him. He thought she'd start shouting at him however instead all she did was lean in and go eagerly, "What's the incantation?"
He spent a good ten minutes with her showing her the proper wand movement and pronunciation, then they waited until James, Sirius, and Peter were coming out of the Great Hall. Lily aimed at James and whammied him with the hex. Since it was her first time attempting it on anyone it wasn't as gloriously awful as the ones James managed however one large bat bogey formed, attacking James so viciously it knocked his glasses off while Sirius laughed and Peter panicked. Lily tugged Remus down a side corridor, both of them giggling.
"His dumb face!" Lily wheezed, clutching her sides as a few tears rolled down her cheeks. "I love magic!"
*
They were waiting for Remus after study group, the three of them chilling out near the entrance to the common room. As soon as Remus, Lily, and Twycross clamored through the hole (Remus falling to the floor), James jumped out of the chair he was in, grabbing Remus, hauling him to his feet. Without another word, he dragged Remus up to the dorm with Sirius and Peter on their heels. Remus hated that his automatic thought was he was gonna be beaten up. He doubted they would (you're a monster you deserve it if they do) but it still filled his head anyway, that they were going to hurt him for whatever reason. When James let go, he cringed back, waiting for the blow.
"I'm sorry," James said.
Remus's body slowly untensed and he stared at James. "What?"
"We both are," Sirius mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. "We were rude to you earlier today."
"About the robes," James added, noticing how confused Remus seemed. Now Remus switched his gaze to Peter. "Pete told us you seemed a little upset. And--you put the bogey hex on me, didn't you? To get back at us?"
"M... me?" Remus squeaked.
James raised his eyebrows. "Who else? Nobody else we know seems to be doing that hex, unless Snape's figured it out..."
"Nah, Big Nose was still in the Great Hall when we left," Sirius said, sounding a bit bored now. "I saw him dripping grease into his soup." With that, Peter began gagging a bit.
Remus chewed at his bottom lip. He knew if he told James that Lily had put the hex on him that would probably spark something. James didn't seem to like her at all, and the others were on his side about the redhead. "Yeah, well, it isn't as if you--you d--didn't deserve it," he finally settled on. Not the truth. Not a lie.
James clapped Remus's shoulder. "It was a jolly good bat! Really big!" Remus smiled, filing the compliment away to tell Lily later.
*
There was a great big snowstorm the next morning and when it came time for Herbology the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs just sort of stood at the entrance to the courtyard nearest the greenhouses, staring at the blizzard before them. No one wanted to go out into it and no one was sure if Herbology had been canceled or not. The storm made Remus feel uneasy. It was covering up most the smells he was accustomed to, and since he couldn't see very far either it made the wolf uncomfortable. He wrapped his arms around his middle, shivering... though not from the cold.
Finally James just plunged out into the white, ignoring Remus and Pete both shouting at him not to.
"He's gonna get lost and wind up in the Forest and die or something!" Pete declared, hopping anxiously from foot to foot.
"Shame it wasn't Black, then," Remus heard Spinnet mutter.
A figure appeared in the snow and then James stumbled forward, nearly crashing into Sirius who kept him upright. "Blimey it's a mess out there! Oh."
Another figure appeared: Hagrid. The students all backed up as the gamekeeper came in, shaking the snow off of him. "Bin sent by Professor Sprout ter let yeh know class is cancelled today."
Several of the students cheered and most of them wandered off. James and Sirius stepped closer to Hagrid. "What are you doing this afternoon? Anything interesting?" James asked.
"Nah, jus' gotta help Kettleburn out with some of the animals." Hagrid looked at their eager faces and shook his head, knowing precisely what was on their minds. "No. Yer not goin' out in this with me. Too dangerous."
"We haven't anything to do," Sirius said.
"Absolutely not. Go on, then, back into the castle with yeh." Hagrid pointed one huge finger and James and Sirius reluctantly went back in, grumbling to themselves that they never got to do anything fun because obviously going out into a monstrous blizzard was fun. Actually, Remus got a little worried they might try to go out into it so even though he wanted to spend some time alone he stuck with them for the rest of the morning. They wound up in the Great Hall, playing cards, and watching the fake blizzard on the enchanted ceiling.
Remus had to stop them probably a dozen times from sneaking off outside. He kept telling them they could easily get lost and probably die however the thing that finally actually stopped them from attempting to kill themselves with hypothermia was when he threatened to never help them with their homework again. They finally settled down, not trying anymore.
*
Saturday morning the grounds were absolutely covered so of course as soon as they finished breakfast, Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus all hurried to their dorm to throw on their warmest clothes before running outside (Sirius stealing a shield from a suit of armor on the way) to spend the morning in the winter wonderland of snowballs, snowmen, and sledding. Remus's friends were absolutely gobsmacked when he admitted he had never gone sledding before. They realized he hadn't gone earlier in the month and with much poking and prodding got him to the top of the hill on the shield.
"Just hold onto the edges," Peter said. Remus gripped the edges of the shield nervously. He had seen them wreck plenty of times already and there were quite a few objects at the bottom of the hill he could crash into.
"How d-do I get it to gooOOOOOOOO!" Remus shrieked as Sirius gave him a hearty shove. The hill was very steep with the snow packed down from the others sledding, very slick. He zoomed down the hill faster than he thought he'd go with no way of controlling it, his stomach rising into his throat as thoughts of falling from great heights filled his head. The hill was also longer than it seemed so it took longer than he expected to get to the bottom however as he finally approached the bottom he saw he was far too close to a tree. He yelped in fear and jerked, tumbling off the sled while it was still going, tumbling head-over-heels before landing with a heavy thump into a snowbank.
He heard muffled laughter, emerging from the snow to see Sirius slipping and sliding down the hill while Peter lay at the bottom already. James remained at the top, pointing and laughing. Sirius trotted over to Remus, offering a hand to help him up out of the snow.
"That was hilarious!" he said, grinning from ear to ear. "You lost your hat."
Remus knelt down, feeling around in the hole his body had made until he found his hat and he jammed it back on his head even though it was covered in snow and ice. "That was--"
"Fun?" Sirius asked, eyes twinkling.
Remus managed a smile. "I guess."
Peter came over, breath rising in little puffs. "You all right? You crashed hard!"
"I'm f--"
"It was terrific!" Peter cut him off, face glowing. Remus snorted.
"Wanna go again?" Sirius asked. "I'll go with you, if that helps."
So they pulled the sled back up the hill and Sirius sat cross-legged on the front edge of the shield while Remus did his best to sit behind him. The shield was definitely not big enough for both of them. Almost as soon as they started going down, Remus fell off. James started laughing again.
"You were supposed to hold onto him, dolt," James said when Remus got up.
"N--nobody told me that," he complained. "I've never gone sledding before."
James covered his grin. "I thought it'd be obvious."
Remus couldn't argue that. In hindsight it was obvious however in the moment he would have never thought to purposely hold onto someone. He was still trying to get used to that sort of thing. Lily's hugs still unnerved him, and James being so--so... touchy-feely distressed Remus a lot. He didn't want to tell them to stop (it'd just set him apart). He knew he could deal with it, just--purposely touching someone else was definitely not something he'd generally do unless it was for a real good reason (like comforting Lily, or helping Pete).
He did notice Sirius and Peter weren't as touchy-feely as James however they didn't seem to be as adverse to it as Remus, unless they were better actors than Remus thought. He wasn't sure if others were as uncomfortable as he was... but he did know the reason he felt this way was because of his curse. And that was one reason he wanted to avoid touching people. He wasn't human and it wasn't right to... touch them... as if he were...
Still, the next time he went down on the shield he nervously put his arms around Sirius and stayed on the shield the entire way down; it was quite fun. He went down a few more times, mostly with Sirius but twice with James and once with Peter which ended in a spectacular crash into a tree. Peter wound up with a bloody nose but he didn't want to go in yet so he just held some snow against it with his head tilted back until it stopped bleeding.
They weren't the only ones playing out in the snow by this point, there were loads of students crawling around the grounds and enjoying themselves. So just before lunch when the four boys headed back to the castle, they weren't very startled to see a big igloo with a Slytherin flag stuck out the top and a sign on the front. Gryffindors keep OUT! James and Sirius exchanged identical grins before creeping. over. James held up his fingers. Three. Two.
A familiar scent wafted past Remus's nose.
"Wait, DON'T!"
One.
"HYAAAAA!" James and Sirius both dove onto the igloo, crashing it in. However the result was not what they expected: there was a sort of kaboomy sound and the snow went flying then there was a disgusting smell that filled the air. Remus covered his nose and mouth, gagging. James and Sirius sat up, coughing and gagging too. The igloo had been filled with dungbombs, and the remains clung to the two black-haired boys. They looked at each other again, their grins long gone. Slowly they both got up, shaking themselves off.
"Those rats knew..." James glared at the mushy brown-and-white mess on the ground.
Sirius nodded miserably. "It was a trap."
"How did you know?" Peter peered curiously at Remus.
Remus took a step back, tugging at his scarf so it covered his lower face, trying to block out the smell. "It just s--seemed suspicious," he lied, though he was trying his best not to laugh. It was very clever bait on the Slytherins' part. Most Gryffindors wouldn't care however whoever built it knew James and Sirius wouldn't be able to resist. He wondered who had built it... assuming it was for James and Sirius and not someone else. He also knew if it had been anyone besides the Slytherins (or them as the victims) James and Sirius would have agreed that it was a great prank. It was just too perfect. Plus seeing the looks on his friends faces made it even better. He knew revenge would be happening the second they discovered the culprits (which Remus could guess would be Snape) but for the time being it was entertaining to see someone got the better of those two. A traitorous thought which he most certainly kept to himself.