Remus found out that night who had done the igloo thing. Lily told him after study group that Snape had thought it up then got the help of Mulciber and Avery. He hadn't told her exactly what they had done, only that he had 'gotten back at those Gryffindors' with an exploding igloo. She wanted to make sure it hadn't been anything dangerous that hurt Remus, and when he told her what happened she bubbled over with laughter. She apologized sort of, saying she knew he was friends with them but she really didn't like James or Sirius at all. Remus shrugged, not caring. After all, he didn't like Snape so it'd be hypocritical to get annoyed at her.
Course now he was in a position he hated to be in: tell the others and betray Lily? Or keep the secret? As he trudged up the boys' staircase he knew perfectly well the other three would tell if they had found out. I don't want to hurt her though, he decided.
As it turned out, he didn't need to. The next day Mulciber and Avery gave it all away, laughing at James and Sirius after breakfast, holding their noses as if they still stank. James and Sirius both got their wands out which made Remus upset. They were on the first floor, a little ways from the main staircase, however someone could come by at any minute. Then Avery said something about how Snape had been the brains behind the operation.
"Snape? Brains?" Sirius asked with a bark of laughter. "You lot haven't got a single cell of grey matter between the three of you."
"Like any of you got any," Avery retorted, getting his own wand out. Mulciber followed suit, and so did Peter though his hand was shaking. Avery focused on him. "Except maybe Pettigrew. After all, he latched himself onto you two for protection since he can't do anything on his own so there's some thinking there."
"Talking big for someone who's got four to the two of ya," James sneered.
"Only three, really, and one of them's Pettigrew so really just two on two," Mulciber said.
James glanced over in horror. "Remus! Get your wand out!" he hissed out while the Slytherins snickered.
However Remus wasn't listening to him, he was listening to the footsteps coming up the staircase. Suddenly he whipped his hand out, grabbing wands from his friends quicker than anyone there expected Remus to be able to move, and he tucked him them into his sweater just as McGonagall came down the hall.
"What's going on?" she demanded, seeing Mulciber and Avery pointing their wands at four unarmed Gryffindors. "What do you two think you're doing? Five points each from Slytherin!"
Mulciber and Avery glared at Remus as they put their own wands away. "They were threatening us, Professor," Mulciber tried but McGonagall just shook her head.
"No dueling allowed, and no magic in the corridor!"
Mulciber and Avery left, complaining to themselves about stupid Gryffindors and 'that dumb McGonagall' which sent a flare of rage in Remus. He was tempted, in fierce loyalty to his favorite teacher, to just hex the two of them for saying something like that about Professor McGonagall; actually, he would have if she wasn't there.
"Anyone care to tell me what happened?" McGonagall's eyes swept over the four of them. James quickly jumped in, explaining that they had been walking innocently down the hall when the Slytherins came out of no where and started waving their wands, joking that they were gonna hex the Gryffindors. McGonagall eyed him, obviously not completely believing him ("I very much doubt anything you do is innocent, Mr. Potter"), however she let it slide this time.
Once she was gone, the other three rounded on Remus who pulled their wands out of his shirt to give back to them. "How did you do that?!" James demanded, sounding completely awestruck.
"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...
After a long lecture about hags, Dedenne demonstrated how to do the Knockback jinx then asked for someone to come up to the front of the room to try it. Several hands shot up and Dedenne picked Remus. Who didn't have his hand raised.
I should have put my hand up, I bet she wouldn't have picked me then, he thought as he went up to her desk. She set up a thin wooden target board about eight inches in height and four in width. Remus easily did the motion he had memorized. "Flipendo!" The target went spinning rather spectacularly through the air, crashing to the floor several feet away. Remus kept his face impassive as he put his wand away, waiting for Dedenne to tell him what he did wrong.
"That was luck," Dedenne told the class. Remus did his best not to roll his eyes. "His arm movement was far too jerky, and his pronunciation was a little off. He's lucky it didn't blow up in his face. Yes, Mr. Potter?"
James lowered his hand. "So how is it pronounced?"
"Flipendo."
"That's what he said though," James argued. Remus curled his fingers, trying to send a telepathic message to James to please don't do this! "It sounded exactly the same as you."
Dedenne shook her head, hair bouncing wildly. "I know it probably sounded very similar however it wasn't. Lupin, sit down. Potter, perhaps you'd like to try?"
James cast a curious look at Remus as they passed each other that he did his best to ignore. He sat down miserably as Dedenne set the target up. James performed really well, just slightly short of what Remus did. However Dedenne congratulated him, awarding two points for being able to do so well on his first attempt. For once James didn't soak in the praise. Instead he returned to his seat with a deep frown on his face that Remus did not like one bit.
Sirius and Peter also got awarded for being able to flip the target on their first tries (Peter's actually spun quite nicely even though it didn't go quite as far as his friends' attempts). Lily managed to nudge hers and Colgate actually got hers to tip over; everyone else couldn't do anything. After everyone took their turn at the front of the room, Dedenne put more targets on everyone's desks, having them practice by themselves. Remus's target went flying and he promptly got into trouble as it hit Dedenne's desk ("It almost hit me, you need to be more careful!"). Rage swelled inside of him, the wolf stirring. He fought off the urge to just leave the class. He didn't feel any need to be there, nothing he did was right, nothing he did would ever be right. He clenched his teeth hard, concentrating on not letting the emotions get the better of him, concentrating on not letting the tear threatening to drip down to actually leave his eye. He coughed, giving him an excuse to bring his hand to his face to wipe away the bit of wet that leaked onto his cheek.
After Dedenne dismissed everyone, James, Sirius, and Peter all began talking about how Dedenne treated Remus. She had gone far enough this time that he couldn't even find an excuse, try to dampen their questions. He just clung to his bag strap, fingers twisting it around anxiously, hoping they'd just chalk it up to a bad day and move on.
Then Sirius said something that plunged Remus into icy coldness: "You know, she always seems to have something bad to say about Remus." He lifted his eyebrows at Remus who quickly stared down at the floor. "Didn't she give you a bad grade cause you turned it in late, cause you were visiting your sick mum?"
"Yeah, she did," Peter said, butting in before Remus could argue.
"What's she got against you?" James asked.
Remus's breath was sharp, his chest aching. He desperately tried to figure out what to say, how to get through this. "I--I think she knew m--my dad and the--they didn't g-get along at all." He held his breath, praying for a couple of heartbeats until...
"That's crap," James grumbled, believing him. "You shouldn't mistreat a kid just cause you hate his father! She's supposed to be a teacher! What a loser."
"It really isn't fair, that's completely wrong," Peter agreed, also believing him.
He waited. He couldn't breathe again until he knew that they all accepted his lie. Except, "Is that really what's going on?" Sirius asked, eyes narrowed. He clearly didn't believe him.
Remus tried not to squirm under Sirius's intense silver eyes. He could feel them burning into him. "What else w-would it be?" he asked as casually as he could. Those silver eyes just stayed on him. "It's no b--big deal..."
"It isn't fair," Peter complained. "It's your grades she's messing with and those are important to you, huh?" Remus wanted to retort grades should be important to everyone however he kept his mouth shut. Peter went on with, "And your future."
"Yeah but the position is cursed sooooo I doubt she'll be here long," James said.
Peter stopped in his tracks. "C... cursed...?"
Finally Sirius turned his gaze, lips forming a wicked smile. "Didn't you know? That position is very cursed. Nobody's been able to stay for a few years now. Dedenne is the sixth in as many years; one of them died!"
"It's m--merely coincidence," Remus said, glad the conversation sorta shifted.
"Is not," James said. "Bet you a galleon she's gone at the end of the year."
Peter looked expectantly at Remus who just shook his head. "I don't have a galleon if I lose so--I c-can't take that bet."
"Cause you know you'll lose," James said triumphantly.
"I--I don't know I will, I don't think I will but--I can't afford to lose so I won't take the risk."
Now James frowned again. "It's only one galleon, who doesn't have one galleon?"
Remus's face burned and even Peter stared at James in a 'really?' sort of way. Sirius elbowed James who still looked a little confused. Sirius tugged James closer, whispering, "Not everyone's got a vault full of inheritance, dummy." James's eyes roved over Remus--his way-too-big secondhand uniform, his very worn out, grubby trainers about to fall to pieces--then quickly averted his gaze, obviously embarrassed and uncomfortable as he rubbed the back of his head Remus just went even redder, head ducked, fingers plucking at the hem of his sweater.
"Okay how about if you lose, you do some of my summer homework?" James asked, putting a (slightly hopeful) smile back on his face, trying his best to smooth his blunder over.
"O--okay, I'll... take that bet," Remus answered. James pumped his fist victoriously as if he already won which Remus suspected he pretty much did and really it'd be more of a win if he did lose and Dedenne was gone next year.
*
Assuming Snape had put the hexes on them, James and Sirius jumped right into another revenge plan. Since Tuesday afternoons were very open for the first years now, the three others spent a while building a snowman near the main entrance. Remus sat back, watching, not realizing this had anything to do with revenge until James stuck a rather large gourd for the nose, and Sirius put really stringy, greasy looking strips of black paper for the hair. James attached a sign to the snowman's hand. 'Hi! I'm Snivellus the Big Nosed Snowman!'.
"Remus, do you know any spells to make it not melt?" Sirius asked excitedly. "We could put it in the entrance hall!"
"There's definitely spells for that but I don't know any of them," he answered, stretching his legs out.
Sirius tilted his head to one side, eyes big. Remus suspected he knew what this look meant and decided to ignore it. If Sirius wanted something, he needed to come out and ask. After nearly forty seconds of awkward silence Sirius finally went, "Can you figure it out?"
Remus stared at the toes of his boots as he wriggled his feet then began burying them down in the snow. "Figure what out?" he asked lightly, relishing in irritating Sirius. It felt rather delicious hearing the complete annoyance in his voice when he spoke again.
"Unmelting snow thingie."
Remus gave out a long sigh as if it were too much. "I suppose." He looked up suddenly nervous he had pushed too much, that the teasing had gone over that line he couldn't figure out... but Sirius had a cocky grin on his face. "It w-won't be anytime soon, though."
"I know, I know. We're first years and most spells are too advanced," he sighed then flopped into the snow next to Remus. "Like the tripping jinx..." He leaned in closer. "The bat-bogey hex..." He came in even closer now, just an inch or two away from Remus's face, voice a stage whisper now to emphasize what he was getting at. "Like putting spells to go off when someone walks through a door..." His eyes were sparkling. Remus snorted, giving him a light shove.
"I think first years are just as capable as adults." James whumphed down into the snow on the other side of Sirius, and Peter lowered himself next to Remus. "What's stopping us from learning seventh year spells?"
Remus kicked his feet out from under the snow. "Go for it then. I'll visit you in the hospital wing when it goes wrong because you don't have the simple comprehension of the basics and beginnings." He smiled brilliantly at James who glared back.
"All right, point taken."
"You're such a nerd," Sirius told Remus. Remus averted his gaze, figuring that that was teasing also. Right? Was it? It had to be. Nerd could be rude but in this context it wasn't. Was it? Urgh he wished he had a manual to explain this sort of thing! He was probably just overthinking it, as always. Sirius noticed the wrinkles that appeared on Remus's forehead. "In a good way. Remember what I told you that night? The night you finally realized we had to be friends and I gave in?"
"Wait, what?! Th--that's not how it--"
"We need a Nerd among us," Sirius continued, ignoring him. "It's a good thing." He reached over, giving Remus's shoulder a gentle punch.
"Wait, do we have titles or something? Like, if he's the nerd what am I?" Peter asked.
"The Nice Guy," Sirius replied without hesitation. Peter looked beyond ecstatic. His entire face glowed and his ears went quite red. "Wait--WAIT!" Sirius jerked forward, back ramrod straight. "Ohhh, I am a genius! Except..." He turned to Remus, grabbing his arm. "I need a word that means nice guy but starts with a B."
"Wh--why?"
"I just do!" Sirius whined. "A word to describe Pete that starts with a B, like not a long word or multiple words, a simple word."
Remus frowned then looked at Peter. "Um. Er. There's not that ma-many. Let me think. Um. B...enign? Er, blithe maybe? Bubbly...?"
Sirius waited and when Remus didn't go on he said, "Is that it?"
"There's really not much that's simple. Why?"
Sirius stretched his arms out towards James. "Brawn." He poked his fingers into his face on either side of his wide smile. "Beauty." He flourished his hands at Remus. "Brain. Annnd..." He waved his hand towards Peter. "We need something for him too. Blithe works I think. Brawn, Beauty, Brain, and Blithe. Yeah! That sounds good! Oooh! We could call ourselves the Four Bs."
James groaned. "That is such a stupid group name, you really need to stop. But--the nicknames are nice." He began flexing. "Yeah. Brawn. I like it."
"Isn't Sirius stronger than you?" Peter asked.
James scowled. "Yeah, but I'm the athletic one. The Quidditch player. It only makes sense."
"I don't really like Blithe though, it sounds kinda girly," Peter complained.
"Yeah, and do you really want to go around calling yourself Beauty?" James teased Sirius.
"Why not?" He pressed his hand dramatically to his chest, tossing his beautiful black locks back. "I am the best looking first year!"
James rolled his eyes. "You're Beauty and the Beast all rolled into one."
"Oi!" Sirius tackled James and the two began rolling around in the snow, wrestling.
"BEAST! BEAST!" James shouted. "Brawn, Brain, Blithe, and BEASTLY!"
"Yeah well you're--brug--"
James stopped fighting, staring at Sirius. "Dude, what?"
Sirius pulled away, laughing. "Er. Tried to say Brute and Thug at the same time."
"Brug," Peter snickered.
"New nickname for the Slytherins, then," James decided. "Call'em Brugs."
Remus marveled at how quickly the argument between Sirius and James had been forgotten by the two; they were all smiles now, enjoying thinking up mashed up words to throw at the Slytherins. Finally Remus suggested they all go inside. It was cold out, and did they want to be seen next to their Snape-Snowman? He knew Snape would figure out who had done it as soon as he heard about it, but still. The others agreed so they got up and went inside, stomping and shaking snow off them, then running off as fast as they could (except Remus who held himself back, running only at a pace he thought believable) when Filch showed up to yell at them for making a mess.