Virus

2.

McGonagall only raised her eyebrow when he got back in, but did not take any points from Gryffindor nor ask what he had been up to. The reaction of his friends was much the same, if a little more curious, but he just shrugged and smiled.

I´m fine. After six years of secrecy and changing, they knew better than to question him.

Transfiguration ended, and sixteen canaries were handed in, most looking just fine, some looking rather odd, with fur instead of feathers, or teeth in their beaks, or sprouting whiskers. On the whole, though, McGonagall seemed pleased enough, and she declared that the upcoming OWLs should not have them quivering like jelly, because apart from the few hopeless among them, they were really doing well. Lily sighed.

"That really makes me feel so talented." James grinned.

"I don´t think she counted you among the hopeless. Did you see Avery´s canary? It whistled between its teeth!"

"Mine still had teeth as well."

"But it didn´t have ears."

"No..."

"Lil..."

"Be glad you don´t excel at something for a change," Sirius said. "You´d be perfectly horrible. And horribly perfect. Look at your career: Prefect, Head Girl, Cheerleader leader..."

"Only during the weekends," Lily said, and laughed. "Speaking of weekends, Ed Zoë and the Weavers´re having a gig in the Three Broomsticks this Saturday. I thought we could all go together."

"Sure," Sirius nodded. "We´ll ask Cynthia to come as well."

"Sirius!" Peter whined.

"What is it, my sweet little boy?"

"SIRIUS!" The taller boy skipped easily out of his friend´s flailing hands´ reach.

"I actually kind of fancy her myself. No, really. She´s smart, cute, and she turned that silly Hufflepuff Chanceny down, which really is admirable." He slung his satchel over his shoulder and put his hands in his pockets with an air of finality. "Yup. I´ll ask her out. If you don´t mind, of course." Peter pouted, but the rest only shrugged.

"Go ahead. Ask and weep when she turns you down as well," Remus combed his hand through his hair and winced slightly. "You can lend my shoulder to cry out on, but do give me a warning before you start, so I can hang a towel over it."

"Which reminds me," deadpanned Sirius, "that Moony needs a date as well. I mean, James´s got Lily, right, I´ll have Cynthia, Peter´ll have..."

"Cynthia," Lily supplied with a grin, "because she likes threesomes." Sirius´s dark eyes bulged.

"She does?"

"How should I know?"

"Damn. Well, anyway, Peter and I will duel for the graces of Cynthia, which leaves Remus unaccounted for."

"I can do battle as well?"

"D´you think she´ll be into foursomes?" James asked, and Sirius shook his head.

"No. I can best Peter, easily..."

"Hey!" Peter yelled crossly.

"But Remus might just pose a bit of a challenge."

"What if I just pretend to fight," Remus proposed, and opened the door to the back yard, where the Ravenclaws were already assembling, "and let you win after fist tearing up your clothes? Women´re supposed to swoon over battered men, aren´t they?" But Sirius looked doubtful.

"I like my clothes whole."

"You can repair them with a single spell." Peter piped up.

"No no no, that would undo the attraction of it. If you go for the ladies´ sentiment, you must go for it all the way, and no repairing. Imagine how terribly uncool Morpheus the Marvelous´s death would´ve been if he´d been lying dying in Aricula´s cream-white arms, getting kissed and wept upon, and then, while she´s rending her...what was it?"

"Her milky bosom," Lily supplied.

"Right, her milky bosom--dreadful business, that--with her nails and tearing at her raven locks, he suddenly says, "Calm down, love, it´s merely a flesh wound," and heals himself with a single spell." James shook his head.

"Awful. The epitaph of cowardliness."

"Not manly at all."

"Although it would make the play a lot shorter."

"Moony!" Lily brought her hand to her face in mock despair. "Igular Moonflow devoted his whole life to that play! Lords and ladies cried for days after witnessing the anguish and pain of Morpheus and his beloved sister."

"Am I glad he only lived for thirty-two years! Imagine he´d become sixty. Sixty years of anguish and pain for those two wibbling idiots." Lily opened her mouth to disagree, or perhaps to agree, but at that moment professor Cactuar opened the greenhouse, letting out a great cloud of steam, and told them to come in. "And keep close together now," he added with his sharp Portuguese accent, "the giant Venus fly traps are in a very foul and hungry mood. I wish Hagrid would hurry up with those rats."

"Ugh." a small, prettily plump Ravenclaw girl muttered, and Remus smiled at her. A few years ago he´d had a terrible crush on this girl, but he´d kept it a secret--from her, but mostly from Sirius and James and Peter. James, perhaps, would have understood why he did not want to make out with her, and he would have kept silent...but he would have told Sirius, and although Sirius was his best friend, after James, and fun to be around, he could be terribly insensitive. Secrets were safe with Sirius--if you didn´t mind being confronted with them at inappropriate times.

Now he was past the butterfly stage and able to look her in the face without turning beet red, and it was safe to talk to her.

"It´s a pretty romantic idea, isn´t it?" he whispered, loud enough for her to hear. "Some people go and feed bread to ducks. Others fill a basket with rats and feed Venus fly traps." The girl giggled, and shot him a look.

"Are you asking me out for a date, Remus?" Or maybe I´m not past that stage after all, he thought with mild self-discrimination, as he felt his cheeks flush hotly. But he said that he might be, if she cared to bring the rats, and after that they had no chance to talk anymore, because professor Cactuar split them up in teams of three and told them to de-lice the Hungarian moralis moralis, and to put the lice in baskets. "And make sure that you don´t miss a single one," he added as they all obediently began to pluck the greenish lice from the slender stems and the fingered leaves, "because they become highly toxic when they´re left to eat for too long."

"Remind me never to eat moralis moralis," muttered James, and scooped a handful of lice from his plant into the basket.

"Why?" Peter asked. "Afraid you´ll become toxic?"

"Toxic is nice. No, imagine you take a healthy bite and find out that you´re having a mouthful of lice instead. Eew." Sirius grinned.

"Sissy."

"Me, a sissy? As if you´d..."

"You´re a wuss, James me boy. Afraid of a little lice."

Fwap! Sirius wiped a thick glob of green creatures from his nose. "And you are also very dead when we start Quidditch practice," he added darkly, and then, to the disgust of all who were paying attention, he licked his fingers clean and grinned. "They don´t taste that bad, actually, James. You should try some as well."

Quidditch practice left Peter and Remus together, since Lily and the rest of the Marauders were all part of the team. Peter did not fly because he was afraid of heights, as he claimed, and Remus liked flying so much he didn´t dare play. Flying, he found out long ago, was like running, but infinitely faster and more dangerous. When he flew, it was just as when he was a wolf: he could go so fast, so easily, so far and so high. The air whipped all those scents into his face, and the faster, the higher he went, the more scents he would smell, and the happier he was. When he flew, he forgot everything else, even the game, and that was unforgivable. So he remained on the ground and watched his friends feint and swerve, and tried not to feel jealous.

"Moony?" Not taking his eyes off James, who was practicing dives, he made an affirmative sound. "Were you serious about Cynthia?"

"Cynthia? Oh, in that way. No, not really. Why?"

"Um..." This time he did look at Peter, and he fought down a bubble of mirth as he looked at the doodle in the earth the other boy had been making. A doodle of a big-chested woman. Peter´s having issues indeed.

"Don´t tell me you really are in love with her." Peter´s small eyes widened, then he looked away. "You are?"

"Don´t tell Sirius."

"I...of course I won´t." They were silent for a while, studying the Gryffindor team as it spun and dodged. "That was a close call, during Transfiguration," Lupin finally said. "If Snape ever stops insinuating and comes out of the closet for real..."

"Then we´re screwed."

"Worse. We´ll be expelled."

"I had that one filed under `screwed´." Peter murmured. "But he doesn´t know we´re animagi, does he? I mean, we hadn´t transformed yet. All he saw..."

"Was me. But he´s never told anyone I´m a werewolf...not directly. All he does is hint."

"Be glad the Slytherins are so thick," Peter said, and sketched nipples on his doodle. "Or they´d have found out long ago." He looked up as a dull `thwap!´ resounded over the field, and one of the beaters went down with a cry. "Outch!"

"What did he do?"

"Bludger full on the nose, as far as I can see." They both ran onto the pitch, where the whole team and several bystanders were now standing around a large boy, who had his hands cupped around his nose and was bleeding all over the place. Sirius was conjuring tissues, and pushing them beneath the boy´s hands, while Lily kept shouting that he should take his hands away so she could have a look at it.

"If bwokem," the boy said, pulling back whenever she came close enough to pry his hands loose, "if bwokem, go away!"

"Well, then I can try to heal it, can´t I?" she shot back furiously. The boy shook his head.

"Pomfrey." She placed her hands on her hips.

"Pomfrey!? Are you saying you don´t trust me to heal you? I´m the best of M.S. class! I´ve been patching up scrapes and fractures all year!" He laughed in a nasally sort of way.

"Yeah...am wook ap fe refulpf." James laughed aloud.

"Now come on, Creevey! My elbow´s almost back to normal."

"That was a complicated fracture," Lily muttered, but she stepped back and did not protest anymore when Creevey´s girlfriend, a Ravenclaw girl called Cindy, led him away to the infirmary. James kissed her in the neck.

"I did appreciate the effort." Lily grumbled, but smiled when he kissed her again a couple of times and pushed him away gently.

"I´ve noticed.

So, what do we do now? Where´s Richard? We need another Beater." A fourth year shook his head.

"He´s got detention. Filch caught him on his way to the Astronomy Tower last night."

"Ah..." They all looked despondent, feeling for the poor boy. "Although of course he should´ve known better than to walk about the premises at night," James added, drawing from Head Boy authority, and then all Gryffindors chuckled.

"Yeah, right," Liza Wood, a seventh year Chaser and also the Team Captain, snorted. "As if you´re such a saint."

"I never get caught." James argued. "So you might say I´m a saint indeed."

"Basin please!?" Sirius inquired, weakly waving his hand in the air. "I think I´m going to be sick..."

"Be a man, Sirius. We can´t spare another Beater. Now, where do we find another one? I don´t want to stop practicing now; the weather is excellent and I DON´T EVER WANT TO LOSE FROM HUFFLEPUFF AGAIN! It´s just too embarrassing. Ravenclaw...alright. I can live with that. Even losing from Slytherin is bearable because everybody knows they cheat. But...Hufflepuff? No. Never again." She gave her Team a challenging glare. Sirius held up his hands.

"I don´t know why you´re staring at me. I was ill. And so was James. And Lily was having her period..."

"What?" He backed away hastily.

"Well, you played lousily! That´s the only explanation I can come up with."

"My periods do not influence my playing style!" Lily screamed, and all but pushed her fist in his face. "I was worried about James!"

"That´s why you dropped three balls? Come on, Lil, give us a better reason."

"No, don´t." Liza pulled her fellow Chaser away from Sirius, gave him a stern look and tapped her broom on the ground. "Sirius, don´t even try to imagine you know anything about a woman´s periods or I swear to God, I´ll make you go through one. We lost. I ate my hat. I bought a new one. It was expensive. I don´t want to eat that one as well. Now, for another Beater, do we have a spare one hanging around? Dinah, you always wanted to try?" The girl smiled, and heaved her breasts at Sirius.

"Sorry. Can´t, having my period." Liza sighed.

"Remus? You´re pretty good."

"I´d fly away, and you know it."

"Can´t you try and concentrate for one hour? You can hit a ball, can´t you? And you´re horribly strong, so..." Remus smiled.

"Sure. I´ll try. Just whistle if I seem to be catching flies, or something."

"There are no flies," she said, and handed him Sam Creevey´s broom. "Although you will see them if I catch you off guard. Now let´s move move move! Slytherin´s scheduled right after us. Let´s show them what we´re made of!"

Two hours later, the Marauders and Lily walked back to the castle, four of them pleasantly weary and glowing after practicing outside in the cold air and a hot shower afterwards. Peter was the only one who shivered in the damp air, having sat still for such a long time, but he made up for that now, for he had to jog to keep up with the rest of them.

"This was a good day," James said all of a sudden, starting them all out of their private reveries. "Great nightly activities, good practice, good classes, good company. Even seeing Goyle made me feel good for a change. Unless we´ve got bangers and mash for dinner, this might actually turn out to be the best day of this week." The other three boys glanced at Lily, for one moment befuddles by the nightly activities, then Remus threw his head back and laughed.

"Oh, that way. Yes, it was good, wasn´t it? I can actually remember some of it, too. Although that only increases my curiousness about the territory behind the ant hill..."

"I´ve heard Hagrid talk about a unicorn herd." Sirius said dreamily. "I´d really like to see it."

"They´d probably hate to see you though," Peter shot back. "They preferring virgins and such." The dreamy expression vanished like the sun behind the clouds.

"Well, lucky for them we´ll bring you along then, isn´t it, my sweet little boy?" Peter swelled with anger, but James patted his shoulder and told him to ignore Sirius´ gittiness.

"You know he´s only winding you on." The smaller boy still looked cross, but James paid him no more attention. "I don´t know about the unicorns, but I have been thinking about the Green Lake. It shouldn´t be that far away from the ant hill, according to Hogwarts: A History. Nobody´s seen it for years. The book mentions some kind of battle between two tribes of centaurs..."

"I really wish you wouldn´t talk about it while I´m with you," Lily said softly. She was looking a little sad, and a little bit annoyed. "You know I can´t come along with you, and that I don´t agree with what you´re doing at all. It´s pretty irritating hearing you plan out your next great escapism trick while you know I´ll be lying awake all night praying that you won´t get caught."

"Aww, Lily..."

"No, I mean it. I really don´t want to hear anything about it." They walked the rest of the way in silence, still comfortable with each other, but a little put off at the same time.

The fact that Lily hadn´t mastered an animagus form while Peter had, was still a point of regret for both the Marauders and Lily herself, although, as she had said, she wouldn´t have gone with them on their nightly rampants if she had been able. Lily felt highly uncomfortable breaking the rules, and she could not go about and be happy with this feeling weighing her down. The boys evidently could; especially Sirius didn´t seem to have a conscience when it came to breaking school rules. But then, Sirius did not seem to have a conscience at all--at least, not when it did not concern his friends.

Dinner went by, was devoured by the close to six hundred ravenous pupils and teachers, and James toasted on a bangers and mash-free best day of the week. Most Gryffindors drank to that, and when they went to the common room to do their homework or, more often, relax and play exploding snap, invent pranks or simply talk after a long exhausting day, the five of them gathered around the hearth and busied themselves until Peter and Lily went to bed, and the core of the Marauders remained.

The common room was their domain now, and in the dimming light of the fire they sat close to each other, paging through books like Hogwarts: A History, The Forest and its Inhabitants, and Magical Creatures and How to Avoid Them, planning their next adventure.

These hours were often even better than the real thing, Remus sometimes thought. The feeling of secrecy, of belonging together sometimes was so strong it made his belly squeeze together in knots. He didn´t know whether it was the same to James and Sirius, but at those moments he simply loved his friends, loved them so much he never wanted to stop being here, at Hogwarts, as a pupil and as a sixteen year old boy, with James and Sirius. Sure, he liked Peter too, but James and Sirius were almost part of him. James, with his brilliant mind and his fierce loyalty, lying on his stomach with his feet to the fire, eyes glittering behind his spectacles, spinning tales of wonder like other boys whisper locker talk. Sirius, whose sarcastic wit and macho were a façade which cracked so easily when he was moved and then showed glimpses of an astonishing romantic, his tall muscular body (so different from James´s, which was slim and supple, and so different from Remus´s own thin body as well) half sprawled over a chair, his eyelashes throwing shadows over his cheeks, his voice soft and dreamy as he spoke about centaurs and mermaids and everything that lived in the Forest that seemed a world of its own. Remus could watch his friends for minutes at the time, just watch them, and listen to them speak. Sometimes, he noticed them doing the same when he was talking, and that always filled him with a warmth that spread all the way from his stomach to his head and the tips of his toes. If Lily hadn´t been the great girl she was, he might have resented her joining their tight little group, but as it was, she was complementing rather than disturbing them. The fact that she could not and would not go with them on their monthly explorations only added to their friendship.

It´s perfect this way,he mused sometimes, when he was in a contemplative mood. The four of us, or the five of us together. How will we ever cope when we´re grown up? We´re not ready for the outside world. And tonight again, as he was looking at Sirius, seeing the romantic, all his defences down, he thought that it would be hardest for him--even harder than for Remus himself. Because to Sirius, the world is a playground. That´s why he doesn´t care about rules: it´s all a game to him. But werewolves get killed in the real world, and those who break the rules are punished. And if you let your guard down, you get hurt. Did you ever even consider this, Sirius? But then Sirius woke up from his ember-inspired daydreams and looked at him, his dark eyes glittering with mischief and dreams and fantasies, and answered his melancholy smile with a similar one, before blinking away his sudden despondency and grinning broadly.

"The lake it will be, then," he said, and they all agreed on that.

Next morning they were all rudely awakened by James´s Quidditch alarm clock, which pelted them awake with miniature Bludgers until they managed to catch the life-sized Snitch that had taken off at exactly seven o´clock.

"Potions today," Sirius grumbled at breakfast, staring with mild disgust at his sausages. "I know I´m in danger of sounding like a wuss, but I do wonder what they put in those things."

"Gerbil kidneys," Lily began to sum up, shoving sausages into her mouth, "lamb´s eyes. Eye of newt. Tail of newt. Mandragora leaves. Or weren´t you talking about invisibility potions?" She grinned, and wiped grease from her chin.

"Are we supposed to drink that potion?" Peter asked anxiously, and she frowned.

"Oh, do read your books for a change, Pete. No, you don´t drink it. Mandragora leaves? Don´t be silly. You rub the destined body-part in with it, wait, go invisible and have fun. That´s all."

"And you´re sure Dorkham´ll let us make one? He hates it when we´re having fun."

"He said he would, last time, while you were asleep, obviously."

"I was trying to remove the salamander tongues from my ear, thank you," Peter sniffed, and Sirius murmured something about stealing ingredients for hair-dying potion and not having enough hand-ear coordination to listen and nab chameleon vocal organs at the same time. James only chuckled.

"Who cares what Dorkham says anyway? He´s...oy, the post is late!" A flight of owls swooped over their table, dropping parchments, packets and letters as close as possible to their owners. Sirius´s eagle owl screeched loudly as it flew by, and whacked a smaller owl with his wings before landing on the table and gulping the leftover sausages down.

"Sirius," Emily Endale complained, "you owl´s tail hangs in my porridge."

"Keeeeee!" the owl admitted, and flexed his feathers, spraying her with porridge.

"Oh, sorry! Bad boy, you, Render, bad owl. You didn´t even bring me any letters. Scoundrel!" He held up a disapproving finger in front of the owl´s beak, but had to retract it quickly to keep it attached to his hand.

"Keee!" Render, the reason for whose name was quite obvious, nipped playfully at Sirius´s ear before taking off again, leaving the boy sitting at the table with a bleeding ear and feathers on his plate.

"Stupid thing," he muttered, but not too loudly, for Render had good hearing and the tendency to bear a grudge. "What´d you get?" James waved a small note in the air.

"Invitation from Hagrid, asking us to come over and have tea this afternoon. Apparently he´s got something to show us." Remus groaned.

"Not another Roc egg, I hope? If I remember correctly every single tea at Hagrid´s ended with bite marks, allergic reactions or fits of uncontrollable laughter on our side."

"Cheer up, Remus. If it´s an animal, you won´t have to go and see it," James laughed, sending the owl back with an affirmative reply. Remus grimaced.

"Happy happy joy joy," he muttered, and combed his hand through his hair. Six tiny scabs and one small painful bump reminded him unpleasantly of just how much he hated to go to Hagrid´s when the man had scavenged yet another forbidden species from the black market. Ticks were one thing, Syrian burrowing flies were quite another, and somehow he always ended up as the lucky new host. Not going, however, was out of the question.

Lily tapped on the table, right in front of him, and started him out of his thoughts.

"Hello? Earth to Moony? Are you coming along? Your hair´s looking just fine as it is--I swear, you´re becoming as bad as Sirius."

"I´m not vain," Sirius protested, and checked his face in the reflecting surface of his knife.

"Hey James, d´you recon Dorkham´d let me use invisibility potion on my nose?"

"Better stick your whole head in," James smiled. "He might actually like the idea. Not seeing you for a whole hour might actually improve his mood."

"From homicidal to slightly psychotically deranged, you mean."

"Dead on," James said, and they left the table and headed for the dungeons.

3.

Potions was the Marauders´ least favourite subject. Lily adored it, although, like every sane being in Hogwarts, she detested the potions teacher, Professor Dorkham. And Professor Dorkham, in turn, detested everybody. The sole consolation the Gryffindors had, was that his hatred was impartial to house, sex or colour: he hated everybody and everyone, always and without exceptions. Although he sometimes smiled at Snape. But that weird quirk of his mouth could just as well be some sort of spasm, Peter always said.

It was not fair, James was known to complain, that of all the horrible lessons, they had to have this one with the Slytherins as well--to which Snape, when he was around, sneered and said that at least they had Slytherins for company, while they, the Slytherins, had to do with Gryffindors. But not even Snape (never mind Dorkham´s blatant favouritism, as Sirius called it) ever dared to talk back against the sour old Professor when he stalked around the room calling them names and flattening their ego with one verbal lashing. And not even Snape was spared those lashings.

With another teacher, trying out the invisibility potion would have been great fun, but beneath Dorkham´s baleful glare no one dared to laugh, or try something funny. Remus had been pared up with Magdaliah Thripp, a thin, spotty Slytherin girl who was too deeply lost in her puberty to be of much trouble, but Peter was cowering beneath the commands of Denver Avery, and James and Snape were holding a quiet staring contest over their simmering cauldron. Sirius must be somewhere on the other side of the dungeons, for Remus could see nor hear him.

"What´re ye lookin´ around fore, Lupin," a croaky old voice suddenly boomed in his left ear. "Yore brains? They ain´t in yer head, if ye´r not concentratin´ on yer potion in that pot, boy." A Slytherin snicker (delivered like Homeric laughter, but softer and with perpetual mockery) rose around him, but one furious "Silence!" from the potions teacher shut them up immediately. Dorkham leaned over Remus´s shoulder and peered into the cauldron. He smelled of old, unwashed robes, vinegar and potion ingredients, and Remus wrinkled his nose in distaste.

"And what´ve ye got here, boy? You call that a simmer? I call´at dishwater!"

"We just added the frozen newt, sir. It´s..."

"Be quiet. If the added ingredients interrupt the boiling, ye´r dabbling. And you don´ want to be dabblin´, do ye, boy? Not with these potions!

`And you!" this to Thripp, who gave a small `eep!´ and abruptly sat down on her chair, "I told ye this exactly two weeks ago! Why didn´t ye remember and help this poor sod? One point both from Gryffindor and Slytherin!

`Yes, mister Black? I heard ye talkin´!" From one end of the dungeons, Sirius´s polite and utterly disrespectful voice echoed faintly through the rest of the chamber.

"Nothing, sir. I asked Bentley to pass me my scrolls. Advice like that comes rare; I wouldn´t want to forget it, sir." James, Peter, Lily and Remus grimaced and balled their fists. If Dorkham hated everyone with a similar intensity of hatred, he also loathed Sirius. And Sirius never got enough of baiting the old Professor, even though Dorkham´s idea of detention included physical punishment, and they had once found their friend sitting on his bed, stripped to the waist, examining his bloody shirt with a disbelieving look in his eyes. As it turned out, Dorkham had first made him take of his robes and t-shirt, then whipped him until he bled, and then had him cutting roots till nightfall. Then he had healed him and sent him back to the tower.

That it was the wrong way to make children behave themselves, was something all teachers were aware of--hence Hogwarts´ official ban on physical punishment. That it was the wrong way to make Sirius behave, was something Dorkham still hadn´t figured out, after six years. Detention on the whole was something Sirius didn´t care about at all; although he had been polishing toilets for three days straight only a few months ago, he had managed to do it whistling all the while. Dorkham had had a bad case of indigestion for weeks afterwards.

"Don´t you, boy."

"No sir." Sirius smiled angelically, and even the Slytherins were silent as mice as they waited what would happen next. In that total silence, the sound of Dorkham´s heavy boots stamping down on stone was very loud.

"Keepin´ the potion a-boil, even when ye´re addin´ ingredients."

"Yes sir. Valuable advice, that."

"So, with that advice, yer potion´s still boilin´, even after you added the newt."

"Yes sir, bubbling like mad."

"A hundred degrees Celsius exactly, isn´t it, mister Black?"

Oh God, Sirius, stop doing this! Remus caught Lily´s wide green eyes from a few meters away, and saw her miming something to James as well. We must do something!

"Wouldn´t know that, sir. Could be a bit hotter too."

"Would ye care to find out, mister Black?" He had now reached Sirius´s cauldron, and stared up at the boy, who was slightly taller than he was. He was still smiling, but there was defiance in his face too, and a very clear contempt. "Go ahead, stick in a finger and feel."

"I don´t think so, sir." Sirius said, and this time the `sir´ sounded just like `mate´ or `you old wanker´. "That´s what we´ve got thermometers for, isn´t it?" The man´s lined, sunken mouth twitched, but not in the `blatant favouritism´ way.

"Ye think ye´re very smart, don´t ye, boy?" he said softly. "Well, let me tell ye somethin´. Ye´re not. Ye´re an ignorant little pest who thinks that his friends´ll look up to him when he´s bein´ cheeky with the teacher. Well ye´re wrong, Black. They don´t look up to ye. They only think ye´re bein´ stupid. And they´re right." In a flash, he grabbed Sirius´s right hand and thrust it to the wrist into the boiling liquid.

James screamed, Lily covered her eyes, and the rest of the Gryffindors shot to their feet, gasping. The only one who did not, in fact, utter a sound, was Sirius. He had already torn himself loose, and was now staring at his wet hand with a look of confusion on his face.

"Fool boy," Dorkham said, a satisfied tone in his voice. "Did ye really think I´d maim ye for life? If ye´d paid any attention to what I´ve been sayin´, ye´d have known that as soon as y´add the newt´s tails, the potion absorbs all of its own heat, like it´ll absorb all rays of light when it´s finished. Write that down as well, mister Black. I won´t have you refusing to do my biddin´ another time." And to the Gryffindors´ great relief and to everybody´s surprise, he left it at that.

"I don´t see why you keep egging him on," James hissed angrily at his friend while they were walking towards Charms. "You gain nothing by pissing him off."

"I gain a sense of great self satisfaction," Sirius said, but he was still a little shaken. After all, getting whipped was one thing, having your hand plunged into boiling fluid was quite another thing again.

"You´re mad. He´s crazy enough to make you do the same thing while he´s boiling water. I swear, we´ve got to tell somebody. The man´s a maniac." Remus shook his head.

"Nobody´d believe us."

"We still have that bloody shirt of yours..."

"They´d say we made it up." Sirius absentmindedly rubbed his wrist.

"Moony´s right. Old Dork´s a clever old bastard. He makes you hurt, but he heals you before it can leave any scars. Don´t worry about it. I can live with a little pain."

"But Peter can´t, and neither can Lily," James whispered. "And if Dorkham loses it, I don´t want my girlfriend subjected to whip lashes." Remus suddenly grinned aloud. "What?"

"I don´t think you should be afraid for Lily," his friend said. "I think physical punishment is solely restricted to Sirius. I never heard anyone else about it."

"Was that why you were laughing."

"No, not really. But it´s not funny, so I won´t say it."

"Moony!"

"Just a mental slip of the tongue. A Freudian slip, I suppose."

"Moony!" Remus stuck out his tongue and fled into the Charms classroom.

"As long as he doesn´t bugger me, I´ll be fine," he chuckled, and Sirius guffawed.

"Never replace bother with bugger, Moony," he warned. "You might get more than you bargained for!"

Professor Flitwick, the tiny Charms teacher, sighed. The Marauders were noisy. Charms might prove to become a long, tiring hour.

Muggle studies and Artefacts came and went, and they had lunch in the great hall. Goyle´s dramatic neon hairdo had now faded to a soft pastel violet, making him look adorable for the very first time in his life. The story of Sirius having his hand scalded in potions was buzzing around, but since he neither showed it nor talked about it, the whispers died out swiftly. Defence Against the Dark Arts was cancelled because Professor Furtyle had been called away to Russia for Department´s business, and no substitute had been found for her as yet, which left the Gryffindors free to roam around at will. Lily urged them to do their homework now, so they wouldn´t have to do it at night, and for a change they listened to her and respectively finished their list of edible gnomes and drew moon charts to determine the near future of a child born in February with Sun in Venus. Arithmancy and Plays and Poetry passed without anything interesting happening, and at half past three James, Lily, Peter, Sirius and Remus ran down the path to Hagrid´s cottage.

When they were within a few meters, a dog began to bark and the door quivered beneath two sets of gigantic paws jumping against it.

"There they´ll be, Jaws, calm down! It´s only the Marauders!" The door opened, and one hundred and forty pounds of dog bounded over to them, slobbered James and Peter across the mouth, whacked Sirius in the face with his tail and growled at Remus.

"Hello to you too, Jaws," James spluttered, wiping his face. "Hi Hagrid. What´cha got for us this time?" The enormous man pulled him to his feet and almost sent him flying into the door opening.

"Firs´ we´ll have us some tea, then I´ll show yeh," he said, thriving on the suspense. "Shut up, Jaws. Leave `im alone." The dog stopped growling, but still eyed Remus with distrust, and he let out a short bark as the boy followed his friends into the cottage. "Down! Here, boy! Lie down, that´s a good doggie. Now, y´all take sugar?"

"No thanks, gotta watch my weight." Hagrid grinned, showing white teeth behind the bushy beard.

"Ah, I see. Won´ tempt yeh wi´ home made biscuits, then." Lily faked genuine gratitude.

"Thanks, Hagrid."

A few minutes later they were sipping Darjeeling and breaking their teeth on Hagrid´s rock-hard biscuits. Even Jaws left them lying on the carpet, which brought James in a nasty situation, as he had hoped that the dog would dispose of the dreaded cookie, and now lay there in a highly conspicuous way. Thankfully he was able to kick it beneath the sofa, where he was sure it would lie quietly for the next forty years without rotting or getting stale.

"So can´t you give us a hint?" Peter probed. "Is it an animal?" Hagrid smiled mysteriously.

"Is it? Does it bite?"

"I ain´t saying nothing. Finish yer tea." Peter pulled some very interesting faces as he attempted to drink the livid tea.

"Is it an animal the Book of Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them prohibits as pets?" James inquired lightly, and Hagrid choked on his tea.

"Now why would I ever..."

"Hagrid! Not another Roc...!" The Gamekeeper held up his hands in defence.

"No! No, it´s not wha´ yer thinkin´. It´s perf´tly legit what I´m keepin´ in me shed." Now all five of them hopped up and down on whatever place they were sitting.

"Hagrid!"

"Alrigh´ then. Yeh finished yer tea?"

"Yes!"

"Come on then. Outside." As the other ran for the door he put his hand on Remus´s shoulder, covering most of his neck and upper arm as well. "Er, I hate to say it, but..."

"I can´t go in? That´s alright..." Remus said listlessly, but the feeling of a vice clamping down on his shoulder shook him out of his self-pity.

"No way! Yeh can go in jus´ fine. Just...keep back a little, okay? Jus´ so she won´ scent yeh."

"Sure."

"Good. Let´s go."

Hagrid´s shed was large enough to house an entire family with seven kids, both grandparents alive on mom and dad´s side, and a host of animals. Ordinarily it was stuffed to the roof with fire wood, bottles with brandy from Hagrid´s private distillery and things better left unseen and unmentioned, but at the moment it was almost empty. A great amount of hay lay on the ground near the far wall opposite the door, and lying in that grassy bed...lay a unicorn.

"Oooh!" Lily and Sirius breathed simultaneously, and Peter just stared with wide eyes. They had all seen unicorns before during Care of Magical Creatures (apart from Remus, who was excluded from all classes that involved animals because of their panicky reaction to his werewolf scent), but to see one lying here like some sort of domesticated horse was an unexpected treat indeed.

"A unicorn!" James whispered. "How´d you get it?"

"Can I pet it?" Hagrid gently pulled her back.

"No, yeh can´t. The reason why´ve got her, is that she´s sick. Look atter, her eyes are all wet and droopy. She´s got a mean fever. I don´ know what´s wrong wi´ `er yet, but I hope I´ll find out soon, cause..."

"She´ll die?" Remus asked thickly. "It´s that bad?" The Gamekeeper nodded gravely.

"It appears ter be some kind of virus--I already found `er filly some weeks ago. Died fer some kind of reason, an illness I s´pose, and I´m afraid `er mum´s caught it as well." He sighed. "But, I still wanted ter show yeh. Yeh don´ get the chance ter see a unicorn every day--specially you, Remus. It´s not right, never seein´ a unicorn. Even if it´s ill." Remus smiled, and rubbed his nose, which had gotten suspiciously red.

"Thanks, Hagrid," he said hoarsely. "I really, really appreciate it." On the other end of the shed, the unicorn began to cough. It was an ugly, wet sound that made them cringe, and Hagrid gently ushered them out again.

"Better leave `er on her own fer a bit. I don´ want `er to get excited."

"Of course."

"So, shall we have us another cuppa?" James nodded thoughtfully.

"That´d be nice, thanks. But just the one. I still have to do some Quidditch practice before dinner."

"That´s fine," Hagrid said, and weighed the three litre teapot in one hand. "There´s only about one cuppa left."

On their way back to the castle, they were all a little subdued. It had never occurred to them that unicorns could get ill and die, just like every other creature. Let alone be killed by a virus.

"What if it´s contagious?" Peter wondered aloud. "It might kill all the unicorns in the Forest."

"Viruses are always contagious. Some are just a little less catching than others."

"Let´s hope this virus is one of them."

"Let´s." Remus put his hands in his pockets, drawing in on himself as he always did when he were feeling low. To have seen a unicorn--finally seen a unicorn!--and knowing that it might die made him feel sad and almost guilty, as if he were somehow the cause of its suffering.

"Is Creevey alright now?" he asked.

"Huh? Yes, why?"

"Just wondering whether you still needed a Beater."

"No. Sorry."

"Never mind." He huddled closer into his robe, becoming smaller by the moment. Lily gently touched his arm,

"Are you alright?"

"Hm? Oh. Yes. Just a little...down, I guess. That unicorn..."

"Hagrid´ll find out what´s wrong with her in no time," Sirius said, with certainty. "And either Cactuar or, god forbid, Dorkham´ll make her a potion, and she´ll be back on her feet in a week. Don´t worry about it. You know Hagrid. He´d rather eat his own foot than let an animal under his protection be harmed.

`Cheer up, Moony. I need your support when I ask Cynthia out for our date." Peter made a soft sound, like a curse, and fastened his step.

"You are such a bastard sometimes, Sirius," Remus said tiredly, with a faint smile of affection and a frown of desperation. "Honestly." Peter broke out into a trot. "I´d better run after him, before he drowns in the lake. I´ll see you at dinner."

"What!?" Sirius called after him, unaware of any kind of crime he might have had committed. "What am I a bastard for this time?" Remus did not reply, and he shrugged. "I´d really like to know. Do you know?"

"It might be Cynthia..."

"Oh come on! You can´t be serious. Peter can´t have an affair with Cynthia. It´s impossible. She called him a sweet little boy. If a woman ever called me that, I´d knock her teeth in and then make out with her sister. He can´t be in love with a woman who´s a. humiliated him, b. is five inches taller than him, and c. is drop-dead gorgeous. She´s mine, and I´ll have her go out with me. And what´re you laughing at now?" Lily giggled, and plucked a tendril of hair out of her mouth.

"You´re such a womaniser, Sirius. Honestly. Poor Peter! He´ll never find a girlfriend as long as you´re looking over his shoulder and picking out the nice ones."

"Peter´s got us. He doesn´t need a girlfriend." Sirius decided, which made James cough with mirth.

"You´ve got us too. You don´t need a girl either."

"No," Sirius grinned, "I need a harem. Unlike Peter, I have a sex drive--hey, I´m not afraid to admit it!"

"So you´ll shamelessly seduce Peter´s girlfriend because he has no sex drive."

"She´s not his girlfriend yet. Besides, if he doesn´t make a move, why should I suffer the consequences? Next year she´ll be gone. I might miss out on the woman of my life because our sweet little boy doesn´t have the guts to tell her he loves her. Which I sincerely doubt anyway. Not Peter."

"You really are a bastard, you know that?" James said, but he was smiling, and Sirius´s grin was unconcerned and sunny as if he´d been paid a compliment.

"And loving it too! Oy, is that Liza´s sweet voice I hear, or is it a cow mooing?"

"It´s Liza," Lily said, and they ran all the way to the pitch, their robes and shawls trailing behind them.

Peter sulked through dinner and refused to speak to Sirius, even though Remus told him that said rather thick-headed person would never understand why he was angry with him if he didn´t tell him. Sirius took the opportunity to saunter over to the Ravenclaw table and ask Cynthia out for a date. He came back with a broad grin on his face and a cocky swing to his step, leaving the girls at the Ravenclaw table giggly and flustered.

"She´s coming along," he informed rather unnecessarily, and began to stuff himself with baked potatoes. "She´s asked me to wear leather." Lily blinked.

"She´s asked what?"

"Leather. Me."

"You have a leather jacket..."

"Uh-uh. Trousers. Boots. But I haven´t got a leather shirt..."

"You´re kidding." Privately, she´d love to see Sirius in leather. Of course, James was her boyfriend whom she would love forever, and she did love him very much, but James, she knew, would only look like a member of the fire brigade in leather trousers, while Sirius... "She´s nuts." Or she´s smarter than any of us ever dreamed of.

"I hope I still fit into them," Sirius worried, and abruptly stopped eating. "It´s been a while since I last wore them."

"No worries," Remus said, "I´ll help you. I´ll coat your legs with axle grease and green soap and we´ll pull those babies up in no time. You´ll have a sucking fit." Sirius burst out in peals of laughter, and many of the other Gryffindors joined in. Only Peter morosely mashed his potatoes with his fork and sighed. First, a dying unicorn. Then the certainty that even if she had found him sweet, Cynthia Catterwall was now out of reach for good. He heaved another great sigh and stood up, not hungry anymore. Nobody needed him anyway, they hardly noticed him go. Peter climbed the many stairs to the Gryffindor common room, muttered the password to the Fat Lady and went to bed, curling up around his pet rat Luncheon. He liked being part of the Marauders, but at times like these it was painfully clear that he did not really fit in, and never really would.

When they were first years, gazing around with childish wonder, the Marauders did not exist yet. Peter Pettigrew had filed into the great hall with the other first years, tired and depressed after a journey without having anyone to talk to. All first years were small, but of every child in the hall Peter was convinced he was the smallest.

The Sorting Hat pondered for a long time on his head, wondering whether he belonged in Hufflepuff or in Gryffindor, and had finally declared him a Gryffindor. The Gryffindors had applauded when he sat down at their table, and later they had clapped a lot harder when the boy after him, Potter, James, was sorted into Gryffindor as well. Peter recognised the bespectacled boy from the boats on the lake, and tentatively smiled at him. James Potter smiled back.

"So you´re a Gryffindor too," he said, as if pleasantly surprised, and Peter nodded. After those few words James had left him alone and started a conversation about Quidditch with a second year, but Peter did not forget that moment of attention and friendship, and stuck close to James when they were led to their tower. He made sure that they shared a room, not paying any attention to the other three boys, one of whom was very small and looked like a wild young animal, one of whom who had a thick shock of black hair and was appropriately called Black, and one of whom was small and weedy and listened to the name of Will Deveraux.

James put up with Peter, more because he pitied him than because he liked his company, and soon became great friends with the small boy with the unusual grey-brown eyes, who seemed to be so sickly. Will Deveraux had come to Hogwarts at the same time as his twin sister, and they did everything together, which left Sirius Black to fend for himself. And fend he did. A highly intelligent boy, he hardly needed to study to keep up with the rest, and being locked up in a large building filled with moving stair cases and traps did not help his concentration. There was no room, forbidden or not, that Sirius did not investigate, and he did it all on his own, since his fellow first years could not stand him at all.

James detested Sirius, and Sirius, in turn, sneered at James. Both boys were leaders--alpha males, as Remus absentmindedly declared--and neither of the two could stare each other down. He treated Peter with indifferent friendliness because he was too small to pose a threat, but James, who let no one walk over him, refused to let Sirius boss him around, and Sirius detested people who did not listen to him. Remus liked him, although he was too shy to show.

Refusing to be a bother to the second years, who were actually quite keen on having Sirius join their group, Black found a vent for his pent-up frustration in Slytherin bashing.

One of the pale, beaky-nosed Slytherins took great delight in pointing out how sad Sirius´s magical skills were, especially compared to his own. And he hexed Sirius to such measures that he had to spend several hours in the infirmary.

At that point, James´s hatred of him changed slightly. The century old cold war between Gryffindor and Slytherin rendered him and Sirius on the same side, and Snape and his cronies on the other, and for that alone he hated Snape for taking Sirius out. His diminished hatred changed into grudging admiration when Sirius came back the next day, told Snape that he didn´t need magic to teach people a lesson, and beat the Slytherin bloody. McGonagall herself had to step in to tear Black away from his bleeding opponent and stop him pummelling him to pulp. This time it was Snape´s time to spend some time in the infirmary, while Sirius polished all bronze statues on the third floor with a tooth brush, humming to himself all the time.

But the real start of their friendship and the founding of the Marauders happened several weeks after the Snape incident, and had nothing to do with the Slytherins. It had everything to do with Quidditch, which both boys excelled at. James, according to the eagle-eyed madam Hooch, was a natural Seeker, and would be in the Gryffindor Team as soon as he was old enough to join. Over Sirius she shook her head a lot. The boy flew as if he´d been born on a broom, but was so wild and careless there hardly wasn´t a flying lesson in which she didn´t have to take him to see Madam Pomfrey and get his arms and legs mended. One time he even drove his feint too far and slammed head-on into one of the goal posts, cracking his skull against the solid iron beam. It took him three days before he could walk steady again, and another week before he was allowed back on a broom.

Of course, one week was a terribly long time for a boy like Sirius. During Quidditch practice, four days after he had crashed, he was told to stand at the side line and keep the score, but that, he wailed, was almost as bad as dying of thirst in the middle of the ocean. He was fine, his head was okay, he could fly perfectly alright and if she wanted him to take it easy he was just fine with that too, but he did not want to stand at the side line. And for the first time he snarled at Peter, who stood next to him because he was too scared to fly, and called him a spineless coward. Madam Hooch, familiar with the tantrums of little boys, calmly told him to keep quiet, because otherwise she would lock him up in the dressing room, and she was convinced he did not want that to happen. So Sirius stood at the side line, hands in his pockets, glaring at the flying first years from beneath his thick mass of hair and refusing to say another word. When class was over and everybody showered and got dressed, Sirius was missing. Madam Hooch thought he had already gone back to the castle, but when James went back to the dressing room because he had forgotten his gloves, he noticed Sirius sneaking towards the broom closet.

What had happened exactly, Peter did not know, but it had included a broom race between James and Sirius, a lengthy scolding session first on the ground and later in the air, the use of wands, and a totally out of control broom which had plunged into the middle of the lake. James´s broom. A few moments later, when James still hadn´t come up, Sirius sent his own broom to the place where his fellow Gryffindor had disappeared, jumped down into the water and dived to find James. Who found who in the end wasn´t entirely clear, but eventually they dragged each other to the shore, James still clutching his sodden broom.

"You idiot."

"I know..." Sirius replied with disarming frankness, and clutched his head in his hands.

"You could´ve gotten us both killed!"

"I know..."

"Madam Hooch´ll kill us if she finds out. If anyone finds out!"

"I know..." James clambered up out of the mud, looking at the other boy with sudden worry.

"Are you alright?" Sirius remained where he was, kneeling in the mud with his hands pressed against his temples.

"I don´t know..." He suddenly laughed, moaning at the same time. "My head hurts like hell and I´ve lost my broom, I´m soaking wet and in immediate danger of not only getting myself barred from any Quidditch activity in the future, but also getting expelled at the same time, so...no, I don´t think I´m alright. And if you hadn´t stuck in your big fat nose we´d both be a lot more comfortable. But. Er. I´m sorry for...you know." He looked up, narrowing his eyes against the light and the pain in his head. "Nobody seems to have seen us yet."

"Lucky us. We should find your broom right now and put it back."

"We?" Sirius asked in a small, hopeful voice, and James wiped his dripping hair out of his eyes with an impatient smile.

"Of course. Like you said, if I hadn´t interfered, you´d probably have flown safely into the Whomping Willow. Now get up. I´m not looking for that thing on my own." And when Sirius held up his hand, both to ask him to help him up and in friendship, he took it.

And that had been the birth of the Marauders, because now James and Sirius had become friends, Remus and Peter automatically became Sirius´s friends as well. And when they found out that Remus was a werewolf, their friendship only intensified.

Until now, Peter thought, as he lay on his bed, his face pressed against the soft fur of Luncheon´s side. Until now. I´ll get you for this one, Sirius! I´ll be damned if I won´t!

The purple beans being hallucinogens is taken from Cassie´s Draco Sinister, and so is the idea of Sirius wearing leather : )

4.

When Friday arrived, the whole of Hogwarts was buzzing, and even McGonagall gave up trying to get their attention. Every student from the third year to the seventh talked about one subject only: the gig in the Three Broomsticks. It didn´t matter whether you liked Ed Zoë and the Weavers or not; on Saturday, the Three Broomsticks was the place to be. Not one single teacher would dare to enter that portal of hell, so they would all be unchecked. Three cunning fifth years set up a cannabis store, and had made almost a hundred Galleons when they had finally sold all they had. Honeydukes did great business the weekend before the gig, selling four hundred packages of Bertie Bott´s Every Flavour Beans--including the purple ones!, solely because those purple beans were hallucinogens, and the local wizarding shop had been crowded with third and fourth year girls who had all wanted to buy potions and charms to make their hair frizz, unfrizz, turn blue, yellow or black, lengthen eye lashes and enhance general pettiness. That Saturday afternoon the dressing and bath rooms resounded with the giggling, squeaking, moaning and humming of girls, all working hard to make themselves as desirable as possible.

Lily didn´t need charms to look pretty, although she had done her hair up in such an intricate hairdo that James suspected that she had used a spell to keep it up that way. She wore a short jumper that left a charming bit of belly bare, and a knee-length skirt with many petticoats. James, Remus and Peter simply wore jeans, shirts and sweaters, and Sirius was clothed in a black shirt and black leather trousers.

It had taken him the better part of half an hour to wring himself into his trousers, and when he finally managed to do up his buttons James and Remus were falling off the bed laughing.

"This must be so incredibly uncomfortable," James hiccupped, looking at Sirius´s red face. "Can you actually sit down without cutting off your blood circulation? Can you move at all?" Sirius grinned, and walked up and down the room. At first he looked as if he had two wooden legs, but after a few strides his usual swagger surfaced, and after a minute of prancing he moved just as he did when he was wearing jeans.

"It stretches a bit when it heats up. I´ll be fine--unless it starts to freeze suddenly. But I don´t think it will." He made a few deep bows, tipping the ground with his fingers, and groaned. "But it is just a tiny little bit uncomfortable, and I´ve no idea how I´m going to get my boots on."

William Deveraux, their fifth room mate, wandered into the room, obviously looking for his hair gel by the looks of his unkempt mop of hair, took one look at Sirius and cursed.

"Holy shit, Sirius! How´d you get into that thing?" he glanced at Remus, recalling his promise a few days ago, and grinned. "Did you really coat his legs with axle grease?"

"He did nothing of the sort," Sirius said, piqued. "All it took was a good squeeze and a single spell..." James burst into laughter, immediately followed by Will and Remus, "...and I have the sucking fit, as Remus so aptly put it." And suddenly a little unsure, "Do I look ridiculous?" James was too busy biting his pillow to answer, but Will told him to keep standing there and not move a muscle, and ran out of the door.

"What...?" Sirius asked suspiciously, but then they heard him calling down the stairs, "Emily! Lily! Come on up, we need your advice!" Will popped his head back in.

"It´s okay if I call Lily too, right James?" James wiped tears from his eyes.

"Hm. I dunno. He´s barely decent. Haven´t you got a shirt, Sirius?" But Sirius had his eyes on the door and seemed frozen to the spot with apprehension.

And so he was standing there when Lily and Will´s sister entered the room: dressed only in tight leather trousers, flushed with the effort of getting into those trousers, hair still damp from the shower and sticking up in static tangles. James had to admit that Sirius had a good body, with nicely defined abdominal muscles, broad shoulders, narrow hips and long legs, but it still didn´t explain why both Lily and Emily skidded to a halt just in front of him and regarded him with a flabbergasted-turning-to-absolute-admiration expression in their bulging eyes. Lily folded her hands in front of her breasts.

"O wow..."

"God, Sirius..." Emily purred, closing her mouth with a click. "You look...succulent." James bit down on his pillow again, and Remus and Will sank to the floor, rendered totally helpless with hilarity.

"Suc-succulent..." howled Remus, holding his head between his knees to get enough air. "You should´ve seen him trying to get it on!" Emily was unfazed. She was looking very pretty herself with her blonde hair curling in her neck and around her face, her slender figure wrapped in a short champagne-coloured dress and high-heeled boots of a matching colour on her feet. She was pretty, and she knew it.

"Let `em laugh, Sirius," she breathed, stepping closer to him and running one red lacquered fingernail down his chest. "You look great. Don´t bother with a shirt. And don´t do anything with your hair either. Boots? Ah yes, would be nice, but not necessary either. If Lee hadn´t promised to take me to see the Quidditch Cup next season I´d stand him up in a minute..." She growled at him, and pressed her body against his, then began to giggle as he regarded her with a mixture of amusement and distrust.

"So, what is it? Should I take them off?"

"No!" Lily cried. "Don´t! Keep them on. It looks great. Very...tight, but great. I didn´t know you had such cute buns, Sirius."
"Hey!" James warned, and she stuck out her tongue.

"Yeah, that´s what I keep telling them, but they won´t ever listen," Sirius picked up his shirt, shrugged into it and began to fasten the buttons. "Can´t wear briefs beneath this; it´d look as if I were wearing a diaper or something."

"Sirius!" But Sirius was taking revenge for the merciless teasing he´d been subjected to, and flashed the girls an innocent smile.

"I sure hope I won´t need to take a leak in this thing; it´d be hell to get all the buttons done up again once I´ve..."

"Sirius!"

"I guess I just can´t drink too much. Which is a pity."

"Indeed."

"Hello?" James waved his hand in the air. "Can I have some attention too? My new shirt is at least as interesting as Sirius´s old trousers."

"Oh my poor neglected honeybud!" Lily fawned, just as Emily said that she might pay him attention if he´d show her the shirt without any other article of clothing to spoil the view.

"Really?" James squealed, and began to fumble with his belt buckle. "Well, anything to stop you two from drooling all over our floor..." Lily smacked him on the hand.

"No sharing of the merchandise, James Potter. Speaking of merchandise, where´s Peter?"

"Moping." Remus said, with a smile. "With Luncheon."

"Who?" Emily asked.

"Luncheon. His rat. They´ve grown quite close these last few days."

"Poor Peter..."

"Hell no," Sirius said impatiently, flopping down on his bed and attempting to get his boots on, "he´s just being fussy. If he didn´t like me asking Cynthia he should´ve told me. I don´t know if I wouldn´t have asked her if he´d said he didn´t want me to, but he should at least have told me."

"Ah, Cynthia´s the lucky girl?" Emily quipped, with just a hint of jealousy.

"Uhuh. Er, Remus, would you mind helping me? I can´t get my laces done..."

At seven thirty, the great hall turned into a meeting place for friends to pair up, find each other and admire each other´s attire. The Marauders found their missing link huddled near one of the moving harnesses on the left, still a little gloomy but determined to enjoy this evening--even if it didn´t include a date. Peter´s faint smile almost made Sirius feel guilty, but he pushed that thought firmly away when Cynthia joined them. She was looking great in plain light blue jeans and a lacy white top, and unlike most of the other girls she wore her long blonde hair loose, so that it almost reached her waist. Peter sighed. Sirius whistled. The girl looked him up and down, grinned and clicked her tongue.

"I love it when I´m right," she said, and allowed him to kiss her on the mouth. Peter hid behind Remus and cursed.

"Are we complete? Shall we go?" urged James, wrapping his right arm around Lily´s shoulders. "We´ll be late if we don´t go now, and all the seats´ll be taken..."

"Relax, James. We´re ready. Come on!"

It was a cheerful train, the Hogwarts students, as they walked towards Hogsmeade in their colourful dresses and smart clothes, their voices rising up into the chilly autumn air. As it was quite dark already, many of them had their wands lit, and from a distance they looked like a cloud of fireflies. Of course there were they usual taunts and insults between the houses, and especially some of the more elaborately made up girls, Sirius and a few other boys in unusual garb got catcalls and wolf whistles, but on the whole everybody was too pleased with the party to start a serious fight. Snape was nowhere in sight, and even if he had been, James would have wished him a good night. His mood was that excellent tonight.

As soon as they reached the Three Broomsticks it became clear that apart from the young owner, Madam Rosmerta, and Ed Zoë no people over twenty were around. The building was already crowded with students and local adolescents who had just finished Hogwarts and wanted to see the gig; the common room was filled with smoke and light and many, many bodies. Ed was still tuning his instruments and his weavers, who obediently held out their hands so he could untangle their long fingers. James, Remus, Sirius, Peter, Lily and Cynthia crawled through the crowd near the bar and managed to secure a small empty table and five chairs in the back of the room.

"Packed, isn´t it?" Remus said. Already he had to raise his voice to make himself heard. "It´ll be a sucking fit when the band starts to play."

"What is it with you and sucking fits?" Lily wondered. "Some kind of childhood trauma?" Remus smiled.

"Traumas galore, but as far as I know sucking fits aren´t part of those. I just..."

"Noted that it´ll be crowded. `s okay, Remus," Sirius reassured him. "I think they charmed the window side to make it bigger. Don´t worry, you won´t be squashed."

"What relief flows through my veins."

"No need to be sarcastic."

"I was lyrical, not sarcastic."

"Remus, you wouldn´t know lyrical if it sat on your quill singing `muse is in the heart,´ and bared her breasts at you." Remus glared at him. "Well, it´s true, you wouldn´t. Hey, where´re you going?"

"You slighted me," his friend said sulkily. "I feel unwanted. Therefore I feel you should pay for our first round, which I will get now. What do you all want? Peter?"

"Vodka..."

"One butterbeer coming up. James--oh, sorry, where are my manners--Cynthia?"

"Me too, please."

"Vodka or butterbeer?"

"Butterbeer."

"All right. Lily? You too? James?"

"Beer. Just beer, no butter."

"Me too."

"That´ll make four butterbeers and two butter-free beers. Sirius, hand me your purse."

"I don´t think so. Here´s two galleons, that should be more than enough."

"I thank you, sir, for your trust. Um. I need someone to help me carry the glasses." Peter dragged himself up from the depths of his depression.

"I´ll help you."

"Right. We´ll be back in...well, as soon as possible." Remus and Peter disappeared in the crowd.

"Hurray," James cheered softly. "The dateless have deserted us! Opportunity fest!" He grabbed his girlfriend around the waist and kissed her on the mouth. "Come on, Lily, don´t be a prude. Sirius doesn´t mind." Lily squeaked, but when she noticed that Sirius did, in fact, not even notice them snogging because he was too busy doing the same with Cynthia, she leaned into him and opened her mouth as she kissed. There was something secure about making out in a crowded room, she thought as she felt James´s hands stroke her thigh and one side of her face. Everybody saw, but nobody noticed. And nobody cared anyway, even if they did notice. She gave a little purr of contentment, and lost herself in James for some time, until a soft chuckle against her neck brought her back to earth.

"What is it?" James lifted his head from her neck, laughing softly.

"Call me a pervert, but I can´t help feeling for Sirius."

"What for?"

"If he feels the same way as I do right now, he´s probably wishing he were wearing slackers instead of that torture device."

"Ah." She smiled, and trailed her fingers down his thigh. "Is that so? Pervert."

"Do I even want to know what´s going on?" Remus´s stoic voice made her pull her hand back, even though James had arched up ever so slightly and she´d have liked to continue. "Here, can you take this one too? Thanks. I lost Peter in the crowd somewhere, but I´d really appreciate if you´d disentangle yourself from Cynthia, Sirius, and behaved a little more considerately towards him." He actually sounded irritated, and Sirius reluctantly let go of Cynthia´s thigh. He pouted.

"I wasn´t doing anything."

"Really? If you´d asked me you had your tongue stuck so far down her throat you were licking her kidneys."

"Excuse me for interrupting you, but why on earth should we be considerate towards this Peter?" Cynthia asked, irritated as well. "Sirius asked me out, not Peter, whoever that is. That´s that smallish boy, right?" Remus nodded tightly, then sighed and sat down.

"Look, I´m sorry if I sound like somebody´s father, but Peter...he´s got a terrible crush on you, and seeing you with Sirius kinda hurts him, you know?"

"Peter? A crush on me? But...I´m at least three years older than him!"

"Er, no." Sirius corrected. "He´s a sixth year as well. And even if he weren´t, hell, I´d have a crush on you too."

"Sirius. Anyway, I don´t ask you to, like, hold in or something, but...could you at least smile at him once? He´d..."

"Hi Peter!" Lily called loudly, shutting Remus up and waving at her friend. "Can you manage?"

"Sure," Peter muttered, handing Remus his butterbeer and James his beer. One of the butterbeers Remus had brought was sitting before his own empty seat. Cynthia looked up at him, raising her lashes so slowly she seemed to be moving in slow motion, and smiled.

"Is that one for me, Peter?" she asked huskily. Peter flushed bright red, and nodded. He placed the glass in front of her as if it were a diamond ring. "Thank you. You´re very sweet." She glanced at the rest of her companions, who were all biting their lips and looking away to keep from laughing out loud, and made sure that she touched his fingers before he released the glass. Peter was now so red in the face that they all expected him to start steaming from the ears. "So," Cynthia shamelessly led him on, "Shall we toast?" James stopped pretending to drink, coughed and raised his glass.

"Yes. To, er..."

"To Ed and his Weavers!" They clinked their glasses together, drank, and raised them once more.

"To leather trousers and butterbeer!" Another swallow.

"To Saturdays!"

"Hail that!"

"And, of course," Remus added, "To friendship."

"No more alcohol for Remus," Sirius said, but he toasted just as enthusiastically as the rest.

"I don´t drink alcohol."

"Why ever not?"

"Screws with my head."

"Like the purple beans?" James asked with a delicate grin. Remus shot him a look.

"So it was you!"

"Should I feel slighted this time?" wondered Sirius, and downed his beer. "Because if that is the matter I should get the drinks this time, and you can pay for them."

"That is the first sensible thing you´ve said all day. Here is your own change. It should be enough for another round."

"And you´d better hurry, because I think the Weavers´re laid out on the stage. Ed´s bound to begin in a few minutes." Sirius rose from his seat and tugged at his waistband.

"Damn thing...okay, who´s with me?"

"I´ve already done my duty."

"Fine, but I will buy you a beer if you stay there." Remus gave him a wave.

"Do what you can´t help. It´s on your head if I start singing."

"We can live with that. James?"

"Oh, fine. I´ll come along. Be good while I´m gone."
"But of course," Lily murmured, and draped her arm over Remus´s back. "You won´t make me scream, will you, Remus?"

"Can´t promise you anything, Lily-love."

"How disgusting," Sirius said with a funny quirk of his nose, and pulled his friend along before James could start gibbering. The last thing they heard was Remus growling and Cynthia giggling. "I swear, Moony has hidden sides to him as well." James smiled, just a little too sharply to be entirely friendly.

"If he touches Lily, he´ll also be having a major problem tomorrow morning." But Sirius laughed at him.

"You´re one jealous puppy, Prongs. Relax. You know we all love Lily, that doesn´t mean we want to hump her. Hell, it´d be like snogging with my sister."

"You don´t have a sister."

"Exactly. You still want beer?"

They were lucky enough to make it back to the table before the band began to play. Fortunately for Remus Lily had removed her arm and was now sitting beside him without touching him at all, and they were discussing books when James slid in between them.

"Here´s your beer."

"Thanks."

"One butterbeer for madame."

"Merci beaucoup, mon amour."

"And one for you too. Phew! It´s thronged, absolutely loaded. You can walk on heads at the bar."

"Which you did admirably well." praised Sirius. "You must´ve done it before." He fell silent as a hush passed through the pub. Ed Zoë´s magically amplified voice boomed through the room.

"Test. Test. Can everybody hear me?"

"Yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaay!" they shouted back. Peter and James had climbed on the table, Sirius lifted Cynthia on his shoulders and was steadying Lily as she balanced on her chair to see what was going on on stage. Ed Zoë was a tall longhaired Black man, who did not look like a celebrated rock star; he wore a suit of white linen, and both the suit and his teeth shone in the multicoloured light of the many enchanted glow bulbs.

"I can´t hear you!" he called, and cupped his ear with one hand. "Can you all hear me loud and clear?"

"YEEEAAAAAAAAAAY!!" the crowd howled back, loud enough to make the windows quiver in their encasement. Ed grinned widely.

"That´s better! I´m so glad you could all make it tonight! Now, you all know I´m a humble artist..." Laughter. "...but my Weavers´d like to have a little encouragement before they starts, so...can I have a great applause for Qurrk, F´naml and Deeljl?" A deafening applause almost flattened the Weavers against the podium. They chirruped contentedly. "Thank you, thank you!" Ed cried, bowing deeply. "Okay! Enough of the talking, more of the playing! I want to see you people move those pretty young bodies! This is our first song." He picked up his reversed guitar and nodded at the Weaver behind the drum-xylophone. It parted its tentacle fingers on one hand, creating two thick drum sticks to play the drum, and began to tockle the xylophone with the eight separate fingers of his other hand. The two sounds combined formed a rippling beat, not unlike the sound of waves crashing on the beach, and Cynthia clapped her hands excitedly.

"Oh! I know this one." Lily nodded.

"Yes, this is one of their most famous ones."

Now Ed nodded at the second Weaver, who shuffled over to a keyboard, hopped on his crutch and hit several keys in quick succession. A loud cheering arose from the crowd as one after the other they recognised the melody.

"This is Delirium!" Ed Zoë cried, hitting the snares of his guitar, and as the third Weaver joined the music with his pan pipes and cello everybody went wild.

"Delirium!"

It didn´t take long before the Three Broomsticks was filled with dancing, singing and bobbing youths, all milling through each other. James and Lily disappeared first, then, with a half-apologetic look at Peter, Sirius and Cynthia went after them. Remus and Peter sat at the table, humming along with the music but not feeling inclined to dance.

"Bean?" Peter asked, offering a package of Bertie Bott´s including the purple ones!. His friend accepted, and soon they were munching away, complementing on the wonderful taste of the sherry, brandy, champagne and anise coloured jelly beans.

Delirium ended, and Fi Fi Fire began, driving the beat up another notch. A sweating couple fell down on the free chairs at their table, laughing and fanning themselves with their hands. "Great music!" the boy shouted over the din. "But man, it´s hot!"

"You don´t mind us sitting here, do you?" Remus said that he was fine with it. They made polite conversation over the noise for a few minutes, then the girl dragged her boyfriend back to the dance floor.

After Fi Fi Fire, Ed declared that it was time for a ballad, and the next seven minutes the raving crowd changed into a herd of snogging, cuddling, smooching teenagers. Peter watched them with envy, and kept popping beans into his mouth, including two of the famous purple ones. He felt very much abandoned, even if Remus was sitting next to him, equally dateless. But Remus, Peter somehow knew, did not have a girl because he had chosen not to ask one, while he, Peter, did not have a girl because no one would have him. It made him feel very depressed.

"I think I´ll have a beer," he announced, and before his friend could react he had vanished in the crowd.

"Damn!" Remus cursed softly, and after a short hesitation dived into the mass as well.

In the meantime, Sirius and Cynthia amused themselves to the utmost. They had danced themselves out of breath on the first two numbers and were now moving slowly on the flowing sounds of With You. Cynthia was a tall girl, but Sirius topped her with two inches, and she could lean her head comfortably in the hollow of his neck. Her hair smelled of shampoo and some light perfume; Sirius stroked his with his free hand, marvelling at the softness of it.

This is bliss, Sirius thought to himself contentedly. Good music, good atmosphere and a marvellous woman like Cynthia draped around my neck. I wish this would never end. The romantic in him surfaced for a moment, although he tried to push him down, and he kissed the girl lightly on the top of her head.

"Sirius," She looked up, saw his face and stopped. He looked very vulnerable suddenly, and very young, his dark eyes shining with dreams. An odd throbbing sensation manifested in her stomach--a feeling she hadn´t felt before, not even when he had asked her out.

God, but you´re beautiful,she thought, and wondered why she had not noticed how handsome he actually was. But something in her eyes seemed to shake him out of his thoughts, and the beauty was replaced with his ordinary mischievous expression.

"Hm?"

"Shall we go and get something to drink? I´m parched."

"Sure." He led her through the throng, deftly avoiding Slytherins and exes, and halted near the bar. "It´ll take some time before we´re..."

"Cynthia?" A large young man a few years older than them walked up to them from another table. "It really is you!"

"Shit!" Cynthia muttered, and tried to duck back behind Sirius. "Hector."

"Old boyfriend of yours?" Sirius whispered.

"My first. Bad case of love-hate relationship. I hated, he loved." Hector seemed oblivious of her hatred, for he ignored Sirius, grabbed her by the upper arms and kissed her hard on the mouth.

"Long time no see, Cynth. Wanna drink?"

"Excuse me," Sirius interrupted him. "The lady´s with me. And you´re hurting her." Hector released one of the girl´s arms, leaving five red prints on her pale skin. She tried to pull herself loose from the other hand as well, but he kept a firm hold on her.

"Oh. Sorry. I didn´t see you. And who might you be?" Sirius frowned.

"I´m Sirius Black, and Cynthia´s with me. If you´d care to look at her face, you´d notice that she doesn´t want you to buy her a drink, and that you´re still hurting her. So let her go, piss off and leave us alone." A few people around them had noticed that something was going on and had turned to watch. Their attention made Sirius swell with confidence, but Hector flushed deeply and squared his broad shoulders. He was only a little taller than Sirius, but much broader, and the fact that a sixteen year old boy dared to tell him off made him gnash his teeth with rage.

"Slytherin scum," murmured a girl from the side. "It´s time someone taught him a lesson." Sirius smiled.

"Let her go," he said. "She doesn´t want you." He held out his hand to Cynthia, and she immediately pulled herself loose and let herself be pushed behind his back. "Do you, Cynthia?"

"No. I don´t."

"You heard her. She doesn´t want you. Now go away before you make a fool of yourself." He turned around, placed his hand in the small of Cynthia´s back and gently pushed her towards the counter. "Let´s get something to drink, love."

A sigh of relief or perhaps disappointment echoed through the crowd before Ed´s following number, Explode in Dalby, drowned out every other sound.

"Sirius..." He gave her a little push.

"Just keep walking. He won´t try anything here, it´s just too...o fuck, man, are you deaf or something?" Hector the graduated Slytherin had grabbed him by the arm and spun him around, his hands balled to fists. His pupils were the size of galleons. "What do you want?"

Hector shouted something he didn´t understand, and he shook his head impatiently.

"Why don´t you get lost?" He reeled back as a violent shove almost sent him flying into the other students. "Heeey! What´s your problem?"

"It´s a fight!" A circle cleared around them. Several girls Sirius knew began to cheer.

"Come on, Sirius! Hex him! Make him eat your fist! You can handle him!"

A small round head popped out between one of the by standing boys´ legs; Peter sucked in his breath as he saw what was going on in the circle.

"I don´t want to fight." Sirius said firmly, refusing to draw his wand. The crowd jeered.

"Oh come on, Sirius! He can´t hurt you! You know you can beat him!" A few Slytherins gathered behind Hector and cheered him on as well: "Sucker punch him, Hec! He´s just a puny Gryffindor! He doesn´t want to duel, just kick him instead!"

"No." Sirius said, and turned around. He looked straight into Remus´s face, which was smiling proudly.

And then Remus´s eyes opened wide.

"Sirius, watch out!" and he was spun around once more, and right when he finally balled his own fists to smack the annoying bastard on the chin, Hector took one step back, balanced on one foot, leaned forward and kicked him as hard as he could between the legs.

"Oowwwwww!" the male clientele groaned, involuntarily clapping their knees together, and then everything went very fast.

Sirius turned chalk white and sank to his knees before falling over without making a single sound.

"Sirius!" shrieked two furious boy´s voices, and two boys, one tall and lanky, the other small and rotund, launched themselves at Hector and knocked him to the ground. "You bastard! You fucking bastard!"

At the same moment a calm but outraged voice said, "Stupefy!", and a ray of white flew into Hector´s chest. The force of Remus hitting him in the side and Peter crashing against his legs sent him skidding across the floor, where the students stepped aside to let him through and then filled the empty space up again. It was Will Deveraux, who fought himself through the bystanders and dropped to his knees next to Cynthia. From another direction, James and Lily, both sporting drinks in their hands, came running and gathered around Sirius as well.

"What happened? What´s happened to him?"

"Is he unconscious?"

"Solid kick to the groin," informed Will with a grimace. He was a little pale himself. "I swear my own balls pulled up all the way to my guts in reaction. Christ."

"He´s bleeding," Cynthia remarked. She gently shook Sirius´s shoulder. A thin trail of blood trickled down his chin onto the ground. "Hey Sirius. Talk to me." The boy groaned, and curled up further, his hands clasped between his legs.

"Bit his tongue, I suspect," James said. Even though Lily found the situation rather funny, all the boys were highly serious. Apparently it really did hurt as much as they always said, getting kicked in the balls. She stifled a giggle.

"Maybe I could heal you?" she proposed. Sirius opened one dark eye.

"Touch me and I´ll bite you," he said hoarsely. He pushed himself up on his arms, assisted by both Cynthia and Will, but grimaced when he tried to stand up and remained huddled on his knees instead. A few other students asked whether he was okay, but most didn´t pay attention to him now he was awake and talking.

"But you might have burst something," Lily argued, still fighting a smile. She´d never seen Sirius so quiet and helpless before; it was quite refreshing. "You don´t want your scrotum dripping down your legs, do you?" Sirius snarled at her, and a great uncontrollable guffaw bubbled up in her throat.

"I´m sorry...I´m sorry...I´m not laughing at you..."

Cynthia raiser her eyebrow, but a small smile played around her lips as well.

"She does have a point, you know." Sirius wrapped his arms tightly around his stomach.

"The first who tries to touch me I swear I´ll turn into a sandworm." He was slowly swaying to and fro with pain, showing preciously little of his usual cockiness. He didn´t even look up when Remus and Peter joined their little circle.

"Hey."

"Hello, Remus. There´s blood on your hand." Remus carelessly flexed his fingers.

"I cut myself when I broke the man´s nose. It took me a while to notice he wasn´t fighting back. I think Peter bit him in the calves, didn´t you, Peter?" The smaller boy nodded. He was looking down on Sirius with a satisfied smile--the first real smile he´d displayed that entire evening.

"Tasted awful, too. How´s Sirius?"

"Suffering." Sirius supplied. Peter´s smile widened. He looked vaguely psychotic.

"I´m so sorry for you."

"You are such an utter bastard."

"But we can´t stay here," James said. "They´ll trample us if Ed starts rocking. Can you stand up yet?" Sirius tried, and turned so white they thought he would faint again.

"Er. No."

"Right." Remus sighed. "I´ll carry you. No, James´s right, we can´t stay here. Especially with you doing a credible impersonation of a wounded chicken."

"You can carry him?" Cynthia eyed his thin arms doubtfully.

"I´m stronger than I look." He lifted the protesting Marauder in his arms and swiftly carried him through the room to the table where they´d been sitting before, and deposited him on the only free chair. "There you go. Shall I get you something to drink?"

"Yes please," Sirius said quietly, and curled up on his chair. "And please, please get Peter away from me, before I hurt him. If I see him smile that way for one more second I´ll commit homicide."

"Sure," Remus said, and pulled his friend along with him. Peter looked back at Sirius one more time, and began to laugh. And even though Ed and his Weavers made enough noise to make talking all but impossible, his gleeful laughter could be heard for minutes after he had gone.

5.

After watching his friends fidget for half an hour, Sirius told them to stop hovering and have fun.

"Are you sure?" James asked. His friend nodded sourly.

"Having you look at me as though I´m dying doesn´t particularly help me, James. And Lily keeps laughing at me."

"I´m not laughing at you," Lily giggled. "It´s just..."

"Rest assured, Lil, I´ll be laughing at you too when you´re lying somewhere severely hurt in body and soul. Now please go away and let me suffer in peace." Lily ruffled his hair, then leaned over.

"Are you sure? I mean, really sure? I can still try to heal you, you know." Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Puh-lease. Spare me. James´d kill me if you came anywhere near my crotch." He managed a smile. "Go on, have fun. I´ll be fine."

Finally, Lily and James went back to the dance floor, which left Sirius, Cynthia and Remus at the table. Peter had disappeared to some unknown place, for which Remus was thankful. The last time he´d looked his small friend in the eyes, his usual steady light brown irises were swirling like psychedelic patterns. He wasn´t sure what would happen if a high Peter were let loose on Sirius. Probably nothing, with the state Sirius was in. Then again, he still had a wand.

"You don´t need to stay either, Moony," a still slightly hoarse voice cut through his worried thoughts. "I really will be fine." Remus combed his hands through his hair, absently noting that the small infection of the tick´s head had scabbed over.

"Not everything is about you, Padfoot. I haven´t got anything to do myself." Cynthia leaned her elbows on the table.

"What did you call him? Padfoot?" Remus stiffened, then rested his chin on his templed fingers.

"Yeah. It´s his nickname. Moony´s mine. Together, James, Sirius, Peter and me, we form the Marauders."

"Named thus by McGonagall." provided Sirius. "After she caught us fishing in the Lake one sunny morning..."

"At six o´ clock." Cynthia laughed.

"So you four form a gang. How quaint. Especially Peter being part of it. He doesn´t strike me as the marauding type."

"He isn´t, really." said Remus, and Sirius growled,

"Don´t speak about Peter! I´m not finished with him yet." His last few words seemed very loud as the current song ended. "What´s going on? Why´d they stopped?"

"I think the Weavers need watering," Cynthia guessed. She turned out to be right: Ed called for a break and a few buckets of water to hose his Weavers down. They had gotten quite dry after more than an hour of non-stop playing and were in need of refreshment.

During the pause, most dancers flocked towards the bar to have something to drink themselves. The air was stifling hot and heavy now; Remus´s sensitive nose was assaulted with the scents of smoke, weed, perfume, sweat and alcohol and pheromones. After the single beer he´d had it was enough to make his head spin.

"Okay, I finally found something to do." he decided. "Be good while I´m gone, will you?"

"Where´re you going?" Remus stood up and pointed his thumb to the windows.

"Outside. Get a bit of air. I´m suffocating." A third year Gryffindor gratefully plunked down on his vacated chair. "Anyway, I´ll see you in a bit." Suddenly impatient to get out, he went away at a trot.

Outside, the air seemed freezing cold, but was wonderfully pure after the cloudy air in the Three Broomsticks. He inhaled deeply, clearing his head from fumes. Parties like this were great fun--well, not that much fun, actually--but they always made him feel a little nauseous. He frowned as he caught a whiff of cannabis, and walked away until he didn´t smell it anymore. A good breath of such a cigarette had him tottering on his legs for minutes, and he wanted to stay clear-headed. Maybe he´d have to carry Sirius back to the castle, if that kick really had done damage.

"Stupid git," he muttered aloud. "Not letting yourself get treated. There´ll be no end to the complaining if he can´t get it up next week."

A tinkering giggle made him look up, and a slow, shy smile spread over his face as he recognised the small, rather plump girl who was sitting on the window sill behind the roses.

"Hi Remus." she called softly. "Worrying about Sirius´s misfortunes?" He grinned, and ducked behind the roses as well. A few petals fell down, and filled the air with their fragrance.

"Would you think me very silly if I did?" She nodded.

"Yes, I would. Sit down, there´s more than enough space. Want a cigarette?"

"No thanks, I don´t smoke."

"Good. Neither do I. I hate the smell of those things." She kicked her foot against the rose bush, watched a few more petals fall to the ground. The time for roses was over. "It´s far too hot inside, don´t you agree? Much nicer here, outside." Remus agreed.

"Though the music is good." She ummed.

"I´m not that much of a Weaver fan. I mean, they´re octopi, for Chrissake. I can´t stop thinking about their nasty beady eyes...although I think Ed´s great." She smiled. In the changing light shining through the window her dark brown curls seemed red one moment, blue another. "So, why aren´t you dancing?"

"I can´t. No feeling for rhythm at all. Besides, I don´t have a date."

"You don´t?" She really seemed surprised. "Oh."

"You?"

"Er. No. Not really. Actually...I was stood up." She looked at her knees, showing beneath her narrow skirt. "Highly embarrassing."

"I can imagine." Though not hardly as embarrassing as having ticks. He grimaced and held out his hand.

"I could be your date for the rest of the evening?"

He half expected her to laugh and turn him down, but she didn´t, and stared at him wide-eyed.

"You would?"

"Sure. Why not? Unless you don´t want me to..."

"I do! I do!" She grasped his hand with her own, then dropped it and buried her face in her hands. "Oh God, that sounded so pathetic! You must think me such a trollop!" Remus laughed.

"I don´t even know what a trollop is, let alone find you one."

And he truly did not find her anything of the sort. If anything, he found her highly desirable. The crush he´d thought he´d been over had returned with a vengeance--and the full power of a sixteen year old´s hormones--and if there was something he wanted, it was to gather his soft body in his arms and hold her for a long part of the night. He was grateful for the darkness and the uneven light, for he felt his cheeks burning. He must be beet red--just like her. Oh hell, who gives a damn anyway.

"Um. I, er...so. Shall we be shy for a while, talk about uninteresting things and hold hands, or can I kiss you now?"

"Excuse me?" she asked, then shook her head. "Never mind, I heard you. Um, let me think. I don´t want to...you know...but..."

"No, j-just kissing." Remus stuttered. He felt as if his hair might catch fire any time soon. Embarrassing moments, take two. Saying the stupidest things when you finally get the chance to talk to the girl you´ve been fancying for three years. Ready...action!

The girl giggled. He wished he could sink into the earth and disappear for good.

"Okay." she decided all of a sudden, and inched a bit closer to him.

"Okay?"

"Yes." She tilted her face up to him, smiling. Three years of longing and fantasies exploded in the pit of Remus´s stomach, and even though she´d been much prettier in his fantasies than she was in reality, he was, for the moment, perfectly delighted.

"Right then," he said, took her in his arms and kissed her.

The pause lasted twenty minutes, and all the time Sirius sat pitifully on his chair, arms wrapped around his belly, trying to make conversation. Finally, when the Weavers were dripping water all over the stage, ready to continue, and the chairs were deserted, Cynthia tapped him on his arm.

"You´ve done enough suffering for one night." Sirius blinked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it´s time you should let me look at it." The boy flushed, and looked away.

"It´s embarrassing..."

"Maybe, but not half as embarrassing as a certain rumour I could spread."

"You wouldn´t...!"

"Does it still hurt?" Sirius nodded. "D´you think you can walk?"

"Maybe...why?"

"Because I´ve got my mind set on you, and I´m not going to let Hector spoil my plans." She stood up, brushed her hair out of her face and took his arm. "Come on. At least try." Obediently, Sirius pushed himself to his feet. He couldn´t straighten up all the way, but at least he could stand, now. He prayed that no Slytherins would see him; it would be so bad for his ego to be imitated all week.

"Okay, I´m standing. I might even walk, if I go slowly."

"You´re my hero."

"Sure, mock me," he said bitterly. "Make me even more miserable than I already am."

"I´m not mocking you. I´m admiring you. And I´m planning to stop your misery as soon as we get upstairs, so stop complaining. Come along." Dragging him with her like a mother with her toddler son, she made for the staircase. The first few meters were incredibly painful for Sirius, but after a couple of steps he actually began to feel a little better. The pangs of pain first shooting through the entire lower half of his body faded a little in his stomach and now concentrated in his balls--which was still bad, but an improvement nevertheless. He didn´t know what Cynthia had in mind, but at least he felt better enough to be curious.

They arrived at the stairs and managed to climb it, disregarding the snogging students on every step, and finally arrived on the first floor, where Madam Rosmerta had her billiard rooms. Sirius raised his eyebrow. He had spent quite some hours in a few of these rooms, and he was convinced that they were used for that particular activity this evening as well.

"I´m sure they´re loaded," he said, leaning against the wall. "If they start kissing on the stairs you can be certain that the billiard rooms are taken."

"Maybe," Cynthia said mysteriously. She opened the first door, muttered an apology and shut it, grinning widely. "This one is. One couple more and they´ll be sharing laps."

"Told you so."

"Stop being a smart aleck, Sirius. I´m still a year older than you are. I´ve taken precautions. One of these rooms is bound to be vacant. I only need to...nope, not this one. Sorry! This one then? No...Cute boy, though. Aha, here we are." She opened the fourth door and pulled Sirius inside. It was utterly empty.

"I put a repelling charm on the door the day after you asked me," she said matter of factly. "Nobody besides me´d go in unless they were being chased by demons."

"Pretty close for me, that," Sirius muttered, but he followed her to the overstuffed sofa in the corner and sat down. "Now what?"

"Now, we continue what we were doing until your friend told us to behave."

"That´s all?" A look of relief passed over his features. "I can do that!"

Which he proved immediately. Sirius prided himself on the fact that he could make women swoon in his arms, and kissing alone didn´t involve any body parts below the arms (which were necessary to stroke, hold and tease).

The only problem was, he noticed after a few minutes, that Cynthia herself was no stranger to the art of kissing, and the rest of his body was beginning to react to that. And that reaction was growing increasingly painful. He squirmed a little, unwilling to stop but getting very uncomfortable all the same.

"Cynthia..."

"Don´t stop," she murmured, and began to undo the buttons of his shirt. Even if he hadn´t been kicked in the groin he would have felt as if he were ready to burst his trousers--damn those things! I won´t ever wear them again!; as it was, he was moaning softly in a mixture of pleasure and pain and he didn´t seem able to stop doing it either. One of Cynthia´s breast pressed against his chest; she was sitting next to him on the sofa, one leg pulled up beneath her to enable her to half-turn her upper body towards him and kiss him without sitting on his lap, and her left hand was drawing lazy circles on his chest, going a bit lower every time she completed a circle. He was aware of what she was doing, but couldn´t help gasping when she finally reached the fastening of his trousers.

"Ohhw..." She smiled against his lips, and he kissed her again, pulling her closer, trembling as she deftly unbuttoned his trousers. By now he didn´t know what was worse: the pain or the need, and when she touched his flesh he gave a small sob of frustration.

"Take it easy," Cynthia whispered. She fished her wand out of the special compartment in her jeans and pushed him back into the pillows. "You´ll be fine in a couple of minutes."

Compared to her fingers her wand was hard and stiff, but she used both of them with great skill. While she was healing him she did not stop kissing, murmuring her spells against his lips. He wondered if she´d think less of him if he screamed out loud; until now he´d been able to keep more or less quiet, but whatever she was doing--perhaps the combination of healing and stroking--had him digging his fingers into the sofa´s frame with the effort to remain that way.

"Still hurts?" Cynthia purred. He opened his eyes, took a deep, steadying breath.

"Just...a little. I´m..." he arched up into her hands and bit on a piece of shirt as she cupped his balls.

"I guess you are," she chuckled, and after a while the pain disappeared completely, leaving him only extraordinarily aroused and panting her name against her mouth. Cynthia put her wand away.

"Feel better?"

"Yesss...God, yes..."

"Good. So I can have my payment now?" Sirius looked up at her; she was straddling his thighs, blouse hanging open to the waist, her hair falling down to his chest. It was a sight he wished he could keep in his memory forever. He grinned.

"Payment? Oh, I guess. Although I really hope you weren´t planning sex. I´m gay, you know, and I couldn´t...ohhh...." She squeezed, and he began to scrabble for her zipper. "You´re not...a virgin...are you...?"

"No. I´m the whore of Raveclaw. Been there, done that. And I´ve taken my pills as well, so...--Christ, Sirius, can´t you hurry up?"

"You´re kinda...distracting me there, love...would you stop doing that, you´re driving me nuts..." He made a triumphant sound as he finally found her zipper. "Got it!"

One floor lower, Ed Zoë and his Weavers started a number called Hurricane. Sirius couldn´t have described it more aptly. Later, he would fondly remember Cynthia crying his name into his neck over and over again, and the scent of stale cigarette smoke combined with her perfume, and the smell of leather and arousal. He couldn´t recall how long they were in the billiard room, but when they opened the door and peeked outside, Ed had gone and only a few locals still hung around the bar. Hector, he was relieved to see, was nowhere in sight. He was too tired to fight, and he would have felt obliged to fight the utter piece of shit if he´d seen him.

"Time to go home, love," Madam Rosmerta remarked with a straight face as he came ambling down the stairs on legs as limp as spaghetti. "Your friends already left." She looked Cynthia up and down, smiling just a little bit. "You look like you had a good evening." The girl smiled shyly; with their lips swollen and their hair dishevelled, they must look a sight indeed.

"It could´ve been worse, yeah." Sirius grinned, and yawned.

"What time is it anyway?"

"Almost three." He cursed.

"Filch´ll have a cow!"

"If he sees us."

"True. Where´s your cloak? Where´s mine, come to speak of it?"

"There are the coats that were left behind, love," Rosmerta pointed, and a few minutes later they were running down the road, back to Hogwarts. They managed to sneak in unnoticed, neatly avoiding Filch´s Persian feline, and said their goodbyes in front of the statue of the one-eyed witch.

"Wait," Sirius whispered, and walked after her when she would have left for her dormitory. "I still wanted to know. How did you...you healed me. How did you do that?" Cynthia swished her wand.

"Lily Evans follows Medical Sorcery, doesn´t she?"

"Yeah, but she isn´t near anywhere as good as you are."

"But then she isn´t a soon-to-be Medi-witch either, and I am. I start at Saint Mungo´s coming September."

"I see." He suddenly looked a little sad, as if the idea of a time after Hogwarts distressed him. "So, after next semester I won´t see you again."

"No. No, I don´t think so. Unless you come and visit me at the hospital."

"Uh-huh." That look was there again, the wistful look that made him beautiful rather than just handsome. She hugged him, laid her head on his shoulder.

"But there´s still the remains of this semester, and the next before I go." That seemed to cheer him up.

"That´s right." He hugged her back, then stepped away. They looked at each other awkwardly for a moment, and he chuckled, a little nervously. Weird. I didn´t feel so uneasy when I was banging her brains out on the pool table.

"Good night, Sirius. I´ll see you tomorrow."

"Good night." She hesitated, then waved and quickly ran away. Sirius climbed up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower, murmured the password to the Fat Lady, who was snappy because he was the umpteenth student who woke her up, and tiptoed into the sixth years´ dormitory. Peter lay sprawled over his bed, snoring softly. His face was black with mud.

"Right. I don´t think so." Sirius muttered. "First you laugh at me in my hour of need, now you soil my bed. Off with you." And he unceremoniously dumped him on the floor. Peter slept on unhindered.

"Sirius?" A shadowy figure sat up in the bed next to him.

"Yes James?"

"You´re late. We couldn´t find you."

"That´s okay." He pulled at his boot laces and kicked just as long till his boots came off. "I hope you didn´t worry about me."

"Worry? About you?" James laughed. "You seem to walk just fine right now. Did Cynthia heal you?"

"You knew she was a Healer?"

"Lily told me."

"Ah." Removing the leather trousers was like peeling his own skin off; he got stuck halfway his thighs. James snickered in the dark.

"Need help?"

"I can´t find my wand..."

"Enlargo." The trousers dropped on the floor. Sirius heaved a deep sigh of relief.

"Thanks." He kicked them away, reaching for his pyjama bottoms. "It´ll be a long time until I´ll wear those again."

"Aw. You´ve had your fun, haven´t you?" Sirius snorted.

"If you count having your balls squeezed to mush as having fun, yeah, I guess so." James chuckled. "Where´s Moony, by the way? He´s not in his bed, is he?"

"I dunno. Last saw him talking with Julie Pelting. Maybe she dragged him off to a hayloft or something."

"Great. We´ll be godfathers to curly-haired little werebabies. And where´s Will?"

"In the bathroom, probably," James yawned. "He´s been running to and fro since he came in about half an hour ago."

"Alcohol abuse is a bad thing."

"Ha. And you´re dead sober." His friend laughed softly.

"After all the exercise I´ve had I´m sober as a daisy." James groaned.

"Too...much...info..."

"Serves you right for not trusting me." He stretched, luxuriating in his freedom of movement. "So, should we wait up for Remus? I´m not sure I can stay awake for much longer."

"Me neither. I´m knackered. And Lily kept reading on my toes; my feet are black and blue..."

"Good night."

"Night."

"Night," also grumbled Will Deveraux, who came staggering back into the room. It was quiet for a few seconds.

"Or maybe not." Will choked, and ran away again.

"And that´s four," James said, with a wicked smile.

"Night once more, Sirius." But Sirius was already fast asleep. James turned on his side and closed his eyes. Within a minute he was sleeping as well.

Well, that´s cleared up as well, then, Remus said to himself. He was sitting beneath one of the great oak trees in the Garden, his long legs drawn up and arms wrapped around his knees. Not much of a surprise there, but still...He sighed.

He liked Julie. He really did. But after three hours of kissing and fondling, he knew liking was all he did. For a girl who firmly maintained that she didn´t want to go `any further´ than kissing, she certainly had known what places to touch to make him want to tear off her clothes and brutally have her in any way imaginable. But still, that had been nice. He was too familiar with unfulfilled desire to make a problem out of that. But she´d never love me, if she knew what I was.

Do you like animals, Julie?The Question he asked every girl he liked. It was the first question he had asked Lily as well.

Animals? Oh sure! Well, I like cats, and birds, and horses. I don´t like dogs. They´re so... toothy and pungent. Why?

"Oh, nothing, Julie. Well, apart from the fact that I change into a big toothy pungent wolf every month, of course, but that shouldn´t bother you." He smiled bitterly. It had been a rewarding evening, but he couldn´t help feeling frustrated. After dropping her off at Hogwarts he´d sneaked out the door again, hoping that a midnight stroll would calm him down a bit. His head was still spinning with smoke and alcohol.

Now it was almost five, and he was still sitting here, cold to the bone but wide awake. I´m glad it´s Sunday today. I couldn´t have performed a single spell without messing up. He yawned, rubbed his eyes and scrambled to his feet. After sitting for such a long time, his legs were tingling. What now? Back to the castle? I can´t sleep anyway. I wonder if Peter made it home safely. And Sirius. Would the unicorn still be alive? He kicked at the leaves on the ground--almost autumn again. In the winter his brown fur turned to grey. I could check. Just a peek through the window. Hagrid wouldn´t mind. Maybe he´s awake already, I could have a cup of tea with him.

Decision made, he wasted no more time, and jogged down the path towards Hagrid´s cottage. In the darkness, his eyes lit up like lamps in the light of the stars. The moon had appeared again as well, just a tiny white splinter low in the sky. It was dark, but he didn´t mind, he knew the way by scent alone.

That was so odd about being a werewolf: that it wasn´t a bad thing, not really. If you didn´t count the change, it really was wonderful. Enhanced senses of smell, sight, taste and hearing, a solid immune system, inhuman strength and, if you weren´t shot down by a raging mob, a longer life as well.

But there´s always the Change, and the danger. And the fact that I can never have a girlfriend because I turn into a monster every few weeks.

Hagrid´s cottage was right in front of him now. The windows were unlit, and not even Jaws´s barks broke the silence.

He must be asleep...

Slowly, he walked towards the shed, his hands held out to keep whipping twigs out of his face. The unicorn´s light shone dimly through the window. So it must be alive.

"Oy! What d´yeh think yer doin´ there, mate?" a loud voice boomed from behind him, and he flung himself against the wall with a strangled yelp. A dog the size of a small boar bounded up to him, baying as if it wanted to tear him to pieces. "Get outta there!"

"Hagrid!" Remus squeaked. "It´s me, Remus!" Jaws had planted both forefeet on his chest and was growling furiously. "It´s me!"

"Remus? Wha´ on earth are yeh doin´ here? Down, Jaws! Here! Are yeh alrigh´, Remus?" He shone a bright light in the boy´s face. "Yeh look a li´l pale." Remus shielded his eyes from the light.

"I couldn´t sleep. I wanted to know whether the unicorn was still alive. It is, isn´t it?" Hagrid´s teeth showed briefly in the mass of his beard.

"Yeah, it´s still hangin´ on. Yeh know what, follow me. Now yeh´re hear, yeh migh´ jus´ as well help me. Come on, to me hut." Remus, still blinking his blinded eyes, trotted after him.

"I´ve bin up mos´ of the night as well," the gamekeeper said, putting his lamp away and opening his door with an enormous key. "Less make a li´l light...there. No, Jaws stays outside. Out, Jaws!" Remus closed the door behind him. "Bin out in the Fores´ since sundown, chasin´ Centaurs. The whole si´uation´s got `em skittish as hell."

"What situation?" Hagrid shrugged. He opened his moleskin coat, and Remus finally saw that he wasn´t the only creature Hagrid had taken in. Several white, furry balls as large as a quaffle were tucked securely beneath the large man´s arm.

"The virus. Can yeh take `em over for a while? Thanks." He piled ball after ball in Remus´s arms. Up close he could see the balls had pink hands and feet, and sniffling pink snouts.

"What are those? And what virus? The same as the unicorn´s?" Hagrid busied himself behind his couch, apparently building a bed for his guests near the hearth.

"Yeah. I thinks it´s the same virus. Those´re Trotters."

"Trotters?"

"Righ´. Yeh don´ see `em often--this is the only nest in the Forest. They all got the virus. It´s spreading like hell." Remus granted that the Trotters were very warm. Their small claws scratched weakly over his arms.

"I think they´re afraid of me."

"I´m almos´ ready. Hold `em fer a li´l longer, if yeh can..." One of the Trotters keened. "Oh me cute beastie, don´ worry, yeh´ll be safe in here. Hand `em over now, Remus. There yeh go..." Clucking soothingly, Hagrid eased all seven Trotters down in their new nest. "There, finished. Wash yer hands, Remus. I don´ know much abou´ this disease, bu´ it migh´ affect other non-magical animals as well. We wouldn´t want all the pets die out, would we?" The boy shook his head, obediently rinsed his hands.

"You still haven´t found a cure?"

"No´ yet. It´s a nasty bug, this one. Mutates all the time, attacks all animals sooner or later. I´ve already found a dead Hippogriff as well--Tha´s why the Centaurs didn´t wanna talk ter me. Afraid I migh´ carry the disease wi´ me. Even Aragogg wasn´t too fond t´see me comin´."

"Aragogg?" Hagrid cleared his throat.

"Yeah, well, an old friend of mine. Care fer some tea?" Remus smiled. I wonder what kind of monster this Aragogg might be.

"Please." he said. Even though it wasn´t exactly positive, this morning turned out to be rather interesting. Soon all thoughts of a plump girl who didn´t like dogs had disappeared completely from his head.

6.

Morning had broken when Remus made his way back to the castle. The Trotters were dozing peacefully now, he was warm from Hagrid´s fire and his belly was taut with tea. He was very tired now, but infinitely more happy than a few hours ago. Happy enough to dive into bed and sleep until noon, if possible.

One of the House ghosts, the Fat Friar, waved at him before disappearing through a wall, but the rest of Hogwarts was still asleep.

"Oh no..." the Fat Lady moaned as he knocked on her frame, "Can´t you boys just sleep during the night?" Remus grinned.

"Sorry. It´s getting light outside, though." She muttered something about nocturnal animals and pasty complexions, and let him through. He softly padded up the stairs, opened his room door and sat down on the edge of his bed. A thin beam of cold morning light fell though a slit between the curtains, straight on Peter Pettigrew´s face. He was lying on the floor near Sirius´s bed, mouth wide open and face pitch black.

I so want to know what has happened to you, Remus thought. I really can´t wait to find out what you´ve been up to this night. James, Sirius and Will were sleeping as well, Will looking just a little the worse for wear, with dark shadows beneath his eyes. Of both his Marauder friends all he could see were their black mops of hair: both boys burrowed beneath their blankets like moles. Repressing the sudden urge to get a pair of frying pans and a wooden spoon and wake them up, Remus stripped and crawled into bed.

"You´d better have turned your alarm clock off, James," he murmured sleepily. "Because if you haven´t, I´m going to force those Bludgers down your throat."

However, he had turned his clock off, and when James awoke, the sun was shining from its zenith in the sky. He yawned, stretched and automatically looked at Remus´s bed--a habit picked up from the times his friend Changed. Most of the time, a look at that bed could tell him whether the moon was full or not.

He´s back. All right.James crawled out of bed, grabbed a towel and sauntered towards the bathroom, hoping that he wouldn´t have to share it with a bunch of hung over fellow Gryffindors.

The house elves considerately offered breakfast several times that morning, and prolonged lunch with two hours. At two PM, the Marauders were sitting at the Gryffindor table cramming food down their throats as if they´d been starving for days. Especially Remus and Sirius ate like maniacs; the first because his body´s metabolism equalled that of a young wolf, the latter because physical exercise always made him hungry. While they were silent, James tried to get Peter to tell what had happened to him last night, but the boy kept shaking his head, saying he didn´t remember.

"Did it involve pigs?" James asked. "You were covered in mud."

"I...I don´t think so. I can´t remember any pigs."

"Cows, then?"

"No."

"Slytherins?" Peter shrugged, and took another bite of his sandwich.

"I really don´t know." Sirius clicked his tongue.

"What can you remember, Wormtail?" The boy gazed at him slyly.

"I remember laughing very hard..." Sirius turned red.

"Yeah? Well, can you remember my fist connecting with your nose? It went a bit like this!"

"Sirius." Remus caught his fist before it could make contact. "You had it coming."

"Yeah!" Peter said with sudden heat. "You certainly had. Cynthia was..."

"Not the least bit interested in you. And even if she was, you didn´t ask her, I did. And I don´t feel at all sorry for dating her. You were right, Peter, she´s pretty, sweet and intelligent to boot. Precisely the reason why you wouldn´t know what to do if she sat on your lap and asked how you wanted to be pleased." His voice had gotten steadily harsher, but he kept it down for the Slytherins. Although many of them were hung over and too miserable to crack jokes at his expense, he´d had a few inquiries as to how his balls were doing after their acquaintance with Hector´s boot. The fact that he was able to walk around properly improved matters drastically, but it didn´t stop him from being furious. Sirius didn´t forgive things that easily.

Peter faced him, turning red himself, but then looked away.

"Yeah," he said softly. "I know. I know I´m hopeless with women. I hope that makes you feel good, Sirius, because it sickens me to the core. Doesn´t change how I feel, though." And that shut Sirius up faster than a punch in the mouth.

"Peter..."

"It´s true," Peter maintained. His fingers were plucking his sandwich apart, but he didn´t seem to notice. "It´s always been that way. And you were always laughing at me for being such a git. Well, I got my own back yesterday, and yes, I know I shouldn´t have laughed at you, but..." a small smile curved the corners of his mouth. "Seeing you sitting there, all curled up and looking like you´d just swallowed something large and spiky..." he snickered. James, recalling that particular image, began to chuckle as well.

"I was in pain!" Sirius hissed, but he was also fighting a smile. "I must say I don´t need enemies with you guys around. And Remus keeps on eating! Why aren´t you telling them to stop giggling?"

"Waste of time and energy," Remus said, and took another sandwich. "I really can´t be bothered." He took an enormous bite.

"Bothered or buggered?" Remus closed his eyes with long-suffering patience and chewed until he could speak more or less clearly.

"Firiuf? Fjut uf."

The peace re-established, the Marauders spent the rest of the day in each other´s company.

The following Monday, Dumbledore asked for their attention during breakfast. They all knew, he said, that the Forest on the ground´s floor was prohibited terrain for all students. He would like to stress that now it was not only prohibited, but very dangerous terrain as well.

"A few days ago a unicorn was found, infected with an as of yet unidentified disease. This disease seems to be spreading at an alarming rate. We have found no cure or even the cause yet, but we do know that this virus is very, very nasty." He leaned forward, his twinkling eyes serious for a change. "It affects all creatures in the forest, and makes them unreliable in conduct. All students whose pets are cats or rats, make sure that you keep your animal inside the castle. We can´t risk them catching this disease. And please," he looked a few people square in the eye, including the Marauders, who shifted on their chairs, "restrain your curiosity. I will not call anyone by name, but I´m very well aware that not all the rules are obeyed by every pupil. In this case, however, no risks should be taken. The Forest is off limits. Trespassing will be severely punished. That´s all."

As soon as he had sat down a murmur rose up.

"He knows!" Peter squeaked. "He knows we´re..."

"Shut up. He doesn´t know anything. He´s just guessing." James shook his head.

"I don´t think so. He knows, I´m sure. He just doesn´t care that we´re doing it--until now, because of this disease. But that´s okay, we can do other things. We still didn´t explore that hazy part on the fourth floor, you know, the part that the map won´t show." Sirius agreed enthusiastically, Peter simply nodded his consent. Remus said nothing.

If we can´t go into the forest, what´s going to happen to me next month?

"Moony? Is it okay with you too?" He blinked, then pushed his anxiousness away. Full moon was still more than three weeks from now.

"Fourth floor? Fine by me." And then they left for Ancient Runes.

On Tuesday Remus finally had the chance to look at Professor Binns, and just like the rest he was amazed that the man was still teaching. However, after a while even his ghostly appearance became boring, and he went on with his Quiz of teachonal habits.

Q: Why is Professor Binns still teaching after death?

"Sirius?" He caught his friend in the middle of a jaw-cracking yawn, and threw a small wad of paper into his mouth. Sirius began to cough.

"What?"

"Shh!" But Professor Binn´s voice droned on, and only Lily seemed to be paying attention.

"What?" Sirius repeated, softer this time.

"Why´s Binns still teaching?"

"How should I know? Maybe he´s necromatically tied to his books or something."

1. a. Because he is necromantically tied to his books. Remus grinned.

"Any more theories?" James, who was sitting in front of him, looked over his shoulder.

"Perhaps because he still doesn´t know he´s dead?"

b. Because he doesn´t know he´s dead, Remus scribbled.

"...and because of this seemingly unimportant fact, the treaty of Darna Hunn was rendered non-valuable," Binns intoned. "Therefore, a mere four years later, in 854 AD, write that down, Martha the Martyrous raised an army..."

"I know," Sirius hissed. "He´s still teaching because he does know he´s dead, and he wants as many people as possible to join him. That´s why he´s trying to bore us to death." Remus grinned, and wrote it down. He added the last answer himself: d. Because he wants to become famous as Binns the Boring, the only teacher known in history more tedious than the famous Marcello the Mind-Numbing.

All in all it was quite a pleasant hour.

After lunch James, Peter, Lily and Sirius went to Care of Magical Creatures, while Remus climbed the stairs to the abode of Divination.

"I´m curious, actually," Sidh Patil whispered as they climbed the sports to the trapdoor. (They looked silver, but to Remus´s relief they were made of steel, and he could touch them without difficulty). "What can she be planning, and will I survive it?"

"I´ve learned long ago to just ignore all her predictions." Sidh laughed.

"I don´t mean her predictions, I mean her means of unfogging yourself. Do I really want to know what lies beyond the veil?" Remus hadn´t even thought about it that way. Suddenly, he felt a little afraid.

I know what lies beyond the veil. It´s wild, and preys on humans, and tears its own body apart if it cannot run free. He shivered, despite the scented candles and the incense.

"Already feeling the call of the Outer World, Mister Lupin?" Trelawney´s lilting voice spoke up from the smoky room. She was sitting in her winged armchair, her glasses glittering in the light of the candles. He smiled at her, then, as he sat down next to Sidh, stuck out his tongue.

"Be careful you won´t get lost," Sidh sniggered. "You might miss your veil on your way back."

After a short while, when all fourteen students, four Gryffindors, two Slytherins, five Hufflepuffs and three Ravenclaws were seated, Professor Trelawney handed them each a small porcelain bowl, and a packet of what looked like dried leaves.

"Here you go, yes, pass them on if you like...Do you all have a bowl and a Key?"

"Key?" Marjorie Mincing, the girl from Slytherin asked. "All I´ve got is this bag of tea leaves."

"They are not," Trelawney corrected, "tea leaves, my dear. Those herbs you´ve got there are a mixture which is known as the Key to Outside Travelling. No, miss Brockhurst, they will not cause a rash. You do not drink these herbs; you light them. I sense that you have all read chapter one to three from Unfogging Yourself and the introduction to Beyond the Veil? Even you, Sidh, although you´ve been skipping through the pages much too hastily." Sidh looked shaken, and she smiled beatifically. "No need to be overly concerned, mister Patil. Just pay attention and you´ll be quite alright.

`Now, let´s commence." She opened her little packet and shook its contends into the bowl. "As you have all read, the mind is blocked by an inner wall. You can´t see beyond, because that wall is in front of you when you have turned your eye inward. The Key enables you to open a door in that wall--it would be much too dangerous to try to pull the whole wall down, I´m sure you understand. That would take advanced magic, dark magic, even, far beyond my humble skills." She waved her wand in the air. "Have you all placed you Key in your bowl? Good. Then all it takes is a little spark," she touched the tip of her wand to the herbs, and they began to smoke, "and a few deep, steady breaths. That´s it, mister Sujet, breathe in deeply." The Slytherin boy began to cough, choking on the smoke. Remus looked down on his Key; at the moment it only made his eyes water.

If she keeps this up she´ll be hyperventilating within a minute, he thought, fighting down a chuckle. Trelawney was taking such immense breaths that she´d gotten quite red in the face.

"Breathe, mister Lupin! It won´t do you any harm."

The herbs smelled of mint, something cloyingly sweet he did not recognise, and cannabis. He took a great big lungful of it, coughed it out and eyed at the burning stuff suspiciously. Surely it can´t be weed...

Next to him, Sidh had begun to giggle.

It can´t be weed...right?

...

"You´re doing great, my dears," the great glittering insect in front of the class said huskily. Fourteen drugged-looking children winked up at her. "Can you see anything yet? Remember to relax. Be introspect. See beyond the veil."

"I can´t see a bloody thing," the only Ravenclaw boy muttered. His neighbour, Marjorie Mincing, was staring hazily at the ceiling.

"I think I dooo..." she drew out. "It´s beautiful..."

Remus blinked. The ceiling was moving. It used to be an ordinary stone-and-wood-beam ceiling, but right now it was covered with bright orange threads, and they were forming patterns all over the place, descending slowly down the walls, until they reached the floor.

"Is that a frog?" one of the girls asked, her voice slow and heavy as if she were asleep. "What´s it doing on the window?"

He looked at the window. There was no frog, but he did notice that the glass was behaving rather peculiarly. When he touched it with his finger, it stuck to his skin and drew a long sticky thread.

Ah. Trelawney´s cocoon,he understood, amazed that he had not worked that out before.

Professor Trelawney flexed her great butterfly wings and stuck out a long, long tongue--right into the ear of one the Gryffindor girls.

"That´s gross," he tried to say, but his tongue did a weird flip-flop in his mouth and all that came out was gibberish. "Hey. Weird. Do you have that as well?" Sidh did not reply, as he was watching his fingers drip down the table like melting wax. The threads of cocoony window had covered him almost from head to foot.

But I´m not seeing beyond the veil...I think...Suddenly it was very important that he did. He closed his eyes, breathing deeply. His head was filled with sweet smoke, but apart from the crazy patterns from the ceiling (now dancing against the back of his eyelids) he did not see anything.

...

"Why is it raining?"

He woke up with a start. The room was filled with small white feathers, but that was only logical, with so many geese sitting on the blackboard. Far away, someone seemed to be crying. Closer to him, he heard the sound of a quill scratching on paper: Sidh was writing away like mad. A thick role of parchment hung down from his desk, most of it covered with writing.

"What...w-what are you wriiii-ting?" Remus drawled.

"Seee-crets," the other boy answered, without stopping. "Secrets from Outside..." A great many flies were buzzing around his head, but he did not seem to notice them.

"Oh...maybe I should write something down too..." He rummaged around in his satchel, removing two large fish that had somehow crept in, and found his quill and parchment. For some reason the quill was singing softly.

"But what should I write?"

...

"Write what you See," Professor Trelawney´s head appeared in front of him, startling him so badly he almost screamed. Her great bug eyes winked lazily beneath her antennae. "I shall open the windows in a bit. Time flies when you´re having fun, doesn´t it?"

"My legs are gone!" somebody screamed. The professor clicked her tongue.

"Well, I must go. Do try to See something, mister Lupin. You´d be surprised at what your wall is protecting."

She was gone, and he stared dimly at his parchment. Three inch of it were covered in writing.

How did I write this? And when? And what did I write? His arms felt very heavy, and when he studied them he saw that they had Changed. Instead of arms and hands he now had paws, and in his right paw the quill was still singing. It was singing `Groove is in the Heart´.

Well well. I´ve Changed. Isn´t that odd? I didn´t feel anything. And nobody´s watching me. Should I write that down?

Trelawney did something with the window, and it exploded into a thousand pieces. The Hufflepuff girls shrieked as they were showered with glass.

"Oops." Trelawney giggled, and sat down in her chair. A cold gust of wind blew through the room, taking some of the smoke with it. "Welcome back, my dears. Did you have an interesting journey?"

The only Ravenclaw boy was sobbing brokenly into his arms while the others sat in their chairs, looking around them with surprised lethargy--it really was as if they´d been gone for some time, and only now returned.

Remus rubbed his eyes.

There were still geese on the blackboard.

"Where´s he keeping? We´ll be late," Lily said, checking her watch.

"Maybe Trelawney did something to him, the ugly old bat." James grinned.

"I doubt it. I´ve seen Remus talk to her; he winds her around his fingers." Sirius covered his eyes.

"That´s gross!"

"Is that him?" Lily wondered, standing on her toes to see more clearly (one of her inexplicable habits). "Yes, yes I do think so, and that´s Sidh and Tony Morrison. And Katie and Linda. But what´s wrong with them?" The three boys and the girls slowly walked towards them, holding their arms out on either side, taking small considerate steps as if they were tightrope walking.

"Hey Katie. What was it like?" The ginger-haired girl flashed her a rather vague smile.

"What was it like? Oh, I don´t knooow..."

"It was all a bit...confusing..." Remus supplied. He swayed dangerously far to the left and would have fallen if Sirius hadn´t steadied him. "Whooo... I still feel a little bit...woooozy..."

"Woozy or not, we should get inside," Lily urged. "I don´t want to miss the Hundred-year Bloom."

"Ooh suuure..." Sidh agreed. He followed her, walking like duckling on the shore.

The Hundred-year Bloom was separated from the rest of the plants, and now stood in a special section of the greenhouse. According to Professor Cactuar it would start blooming today, and he had invited today´s classes to come and witness the wonder. So now they were all standing around a waist-high, sleek and rather uninteresting plant, waiting for the miracle to happen.

"Are you alright?" James hissed, when Remus leaned heavily against his shoulder. The weight disappeared, then he heard Sirius ask the same. The weight came back again.

"Why is the floor moving?"

He began to fall forward, and James hastily grasped his arm. In the low light required for the Hundred-year Bloom to, well, bloom, Remus´s pupils shone like small moons, covering almost his entire eye.

"Silence please," Professor Cactuar whispered. "Noise disturbs the blooming." Remus giggled, then clasped his hands over his mouth.

"Sowwy..."

Careful not to draw Cactuar´s attention, Sirius inched closer to James, making sure to stand behind Remus when he whispered in his friend´s ear,

"He´s high!" In the sparse light the dimple in James´s cheek made strange shadows on his face as he grinned.

"I know."

"He´s going to fall over anytime, if we don´t catch him."

"He isn´t the only one either. Look at Sidh. I don´t know what he´s doing, but it looks kinda odd to me."

"What on earth did Trelawney do to them?"

"There it comes!" Professor Cactuar hissed suddenly. "Pay attention now!" Drugged classmates forgotten, they all focussed on the Hundred-year Bloom, which had begun to rustle softly. Then at once, one of the pods hanging from the plant´s twigs popped open, and a waterfall of colours streamed out of it: red, pink, bright yellow and a deep indigo at the edges. A flower the size of a cauliflower and roughly the shape of a fuchsia dangled from the pod, glowing faintly in the darkness. As Cactuar flicked on his wand, most of the students let out a sigh of wonder (apart from Remus, Sidh, Tony, Linda and Katie, who covered their eyes with a pained squeak). The flower´s bright colours made it look like an exotic bird rather than a flower. A sweet, heavy fragrance filled the air.

"Isn´t she beautiful?" Cactuar sobbed. "For twenty years I´ve taken care of her, and now she finally blooms." Sirius, less impressed by the flower´s beauty, laughed softly.

"You´d say he´s talking about his daughter." he whispered. James nodded, but he was unwilling to take his eyes off the Bloom. Although he wouldn´t want to admit it, he could understand why their teacher was so emotional about the flower.

Imagine, he thought, waiting for a flower to bloom for more than twenty years. Like waiting for your child to get born, and wait twenty years.

But when Professor Cactuar was still lying on his knees ten minutes later, stroking the leaves of his beloved plant, he lost interest.

"Maybe," Lily said, "we should leave him alone with the Bloom for a while. You know, let them have some time together."

"It´s not as if he´d notice if we went away," James agreed, and with an eye of Remus, who was sitting on a large flower pot with his head in his hands, "Yeah, let´s go. See if we can wake Moony up." Apparently the Ravenclaws had the same idea. After a muffled goodbye to their teacher, who muttered something unintelligible back, they all left the greenhouse, those who´d had Divination swaying drunkenly as they walked.

"So what did you do during Divination?" James wondered when they had gathered their Quidditch items and were on their way to the pit. "Share joints?" Remus shook his head and almost walked into the wall.

"No, no...but we did have to burn herbs, and maybe there was some stuff in it...or opium...or something like that..." He smiled dreamily. "I had these really weird visions...and the window was make of silk..."

"Sounds like a good trip," Sirius grinned.

"But I didn´t like the geese..."

"I can imagine." snickered Peter. Usually he was the one walking around stoned, either because the Slytherins had put something in his tea, or because James or Sirius slipped him purple beans. Seeing down-to-earth Remus head to the stars on silver wings was a new experience. Remus frowned.

"I really wish you wouldn´t make fun of me," he said testily, as far as that was possible without any intonation in his voice. "If you´d seen Trelawney stick her tongue into somebody´s ear you wouldn´t be feeling all that well either, you know..."

His friends stared at him dumbly, then burst into laughter.

"What? D´you think I´m lying?"

More guffaws.

"Would you stop laughing at me?"

James beat Peter on the back with hilarity, and Sirius hunched over to gasp for breath while Lily leaned limply against the wall, giggling helplessly. Remus looked very angry indeed.

"This is not funny!"

"It is...it is!" James chortled, then tried to regain control as he saw a familiar gnarled old man approaching, his face predicting thunder and rainstorms for the following weeks to come. And to make things worse, Snape followed behind him. "Oy," He elbowed Sirius in the side. "It´s Dorkham." Sirius fell to his knees, eyes streaming.

"Oh..." was all he got out, "Oh..." He crammed his fists into his mouth to keep from howling with laughter. Remus, unaware of the approaching danger, scowled at him with his dilated eyes.

"Stop that! It´s incredibly rude to laugh at people´s traumatic experiences..."

"WHAT do ye think ye´re doin´ here?" Dorkham barked from right behind him.

Remus turned around.

Saw Dorkham, and the sneering Snape.

Let out a strangled, highly unmasculine `Eep!´

Reached for his wand...

And thrust it into Dorkham´s face, screaming "Riddikulus!" Dorkham stared at him with comical confusion before turning red with rage. Remus eyed him with growing panic and shook his wand.

"Riddikulus!" he tried again. James and Sirius were laughing so hard they could hardly breathe. Behind Dorkham´s vengeful figure, Snape was laughing just as hard, although he tried to keep his chortling under control by covering his mouth with his hands.

"It´s not working!" Remus wailed despairingly. "He´s still here. My wand must be broken..."

"WHAT ON EARTH DO YE THINK YE´RE DOIN´, BOY?" the potions teacher hollered, spraying saliva all around. "DO YE THINK YE CAN MAKE FUN O´ ME LIKE THAT?" Sirius deemed it time to scramble. Still hiccupping with mirth he took his confused friend by the arm.

"I´m so...sorry...professor," he wheezed, pulling Remus away. "He´s...he´s a little mixed up...at the moment. Divination, you know." Dorkham bared his yellow teeth.

"Yes, I know," he sneered. "Divination. Of course. If you boy," to Remus, who stumbled backwards, "just had a glimpse o´ the future, you probably knew I was goin´ to take twenty points from yer House, isn´t that so, mister Lupin?" Remus gaped.

"What? No, I didn´t know...but the geese..."

"Come along, Moony,´ Sirius begged, as James and Peter doubled up again. "You´re only making it worse." Dorkham fumed.

"Worse? Worse? I´ll show ye worse the next time I see ye in class, mister Lupin! And you too, black!"

A spark of recognition flickered in the boy´s eyes.

"Don´t say it!" Sirius pleaded, but Remus opened his mouth with an air of finality, looked Dorkham straight in the eye and said, "I really, really can´t be buggered, sir."

And then Sirius hauled him along, dragged him all the way to the other end of the hallway and down the stairs, where he collapsed in a fit of hysterics and let him go.

"Never, ever do that again," he gasped when he could speak again. "You just took twelve years off my life. And twenty points from Gryffindor." Remus leaned his head against the wall.

"I really can´t be bothered," he said, and closed his eyes. When the rest of their group had

caught up with him, he was fast asleep.

7.

A good night´s (and afternoon) sleep left Remus clear-headed and heavily flustered. When he walked into the hall, Snape whispered something to his fellow Slytherins, and they all laughed uproariously.

"Ready to be buggered, Lupin?"

"What´s your greatest fear, Lupin? Oh no, wait, I already know!"

"Did you have your wand looked at, Lupin?"

"Hey Lupin, seen any boggarts lately?"

"Let `em talk," Lily took pity on him when he sat down next to her, cheeks burning, "who knows what they´d have done when they were as stoned as you were." Remus moaned.

"I still can´t believe I riddikulused Dorkham..." Sirius choked on his tea and coughed three minutes before he was able to speak.

"You can´t?" he grinned. "Neither can I, for that matter. I thought I´d die when you kept repeating it..." Several other Gryffindors laughed as well.

"Come on, Remus," Emily said, "be glad they pay attention to you."

"Oh, I feel so flattered!"

"Well in any case they´re not used to you clowning around. If you look at Sirius...he needs to cut somebody´s head off before they talk about it."

"Hey! I resent that!" yelled Sirius.

"If only it hadn´t been Dorkham..." Remus groaned. "Any other teacher would´ve laughed about it, he took twenty points!" James frowned.

"Stop complaining, Moony. You win us far more points that you cost. Sirius and I alone have been penalised for at least a hundred points this year."

"You have?" Emily shrieked. Sirius poured himself another cup of tea.

"At least," he said airily. "And that´s without counting the points old Dork´s probably going to take when I tell him how much I detest his sense for personal hygiene."

"Sirius!" howled Emily. "I wanted to win the House Cup this year!" The boy smiled beatifically.

"Keep your shirt on, Emmy. I´ll win those points back by doing something incredibly heroic. Everybody knows Dumbledore rewards heroics with extra points." The girl eyed him with scepticism so thick her face looked like a mask.

"You will do something heroic. You."

"Yes. Me."

"Really. What will you do then? And don´t give me any `save a drowning Slytherin´ because everybody´ll know that you pushed him in first." Sirius sighed.

"You lack of trust in me is wounding. And so, if you´ll forgive me, is your imagination. I´d never save a drowning Slytherin. Never. No, I´d do something truly heroic, something world-improving, wonderful, Grand Deed-like something." He took a sip of tea and sat there with his eyes closed, smiling blissfully with good intentions.

"Yes?" James asked. Opening his eyes, Sirius saw about seven expecting faces turned towards him.

"What, yes?"

"And what may this world-improving, wonderful, Grand Deed-like act be?"

"How should I know? It´s not as if I can plan Grand Deeds in advance, you know." Emily threw her hands up.

"In other words, you´re full of shit again."

"I´m not!"

"You are so too! You´re never serious."

"I am always Sirius. You just don´t know how to appreciate me."

As Emily began a lengthy discussion about why precisely she should appreciate Sirius if he were as unappreciatable as was humanly possible, perhaps with the one exception of Dorkham himself, James patted Remus on the shoulder.

"Cheer up," he said. "Dork´s got no reason to pick on you. You insulted him," he grinned, "he took twenty points, case´s closed." His friend gloomily scrambled his already scrambled eggs.

"It´s not me I´m worried about," he said softly. "It´s Snape. He won´t stop hinting until someone finds out now. I´m so stupid! Trying to dispel Dorkham! As a boggart no less! As if I don´t know any things worse."

"I´m sure it´ll turn out fine. Ah, there´s the mail."

James got a letter from home, Lily a message from her sister. It was a small piece of paper, not parchment, and dangled awkwardly from her owl´s leg in a small square envelope. Lily smiled, but there was a sadness in it that only James noticed.

"Petunia still doesn´t like owl post?"

"No. Not really."

"What´s she want?" Lily opened the envelope, read through the note and hmph-ed.

"She wants a magically enlarged handbag. She´s such a silly muggle, really. A handbag! I could magically enlarge her trouser pockets, but no, she wants a handbag, because that doesn´t draw unwanted attention."

"Why´d she write you? She could´ve asked, couldn´t she?" Lily shrugged.

"We´re not really on speaking terms, you know." She looked up as someone let out a yelp, then grinned when she saw Sirius trying to remove a folded parchment from Render´s leg. Whenever his fingers came within biting range, the owl attacked his hand, and already the table cloth and the letter were smudged red with blood.

"Why don´t you just charm him?"

"He´d damage my wand. Stop it, you stupid piece of fowl! You´re supposed to bring me letters, not keep them so I can´t read them!"

"Kee!" the owl disagreed, and shook his wings, eying Sirius´s fingers with appetite.

"O for God´s sake. Pacify!" Render´s vivid eyes glazed over and blinked close, enabling Sirius to snatch his letter and, for once, caress his savage pet over the head.

"Good. Now, give James the letter and let me heal your fingers. You´re bleeding all over the place."

"But am I not taking it with manly valour?" Lily snorted; Emily echoed her.

"I fall down at your feet in adoration." the latter grumbled. "I´ll call Dumbledore and have him give points right away."

"Pest," Sirius muttered, and flicked his fingers in her face. She gave a small scream as several blood drops landed on her nose.

"Sirius!"

"I´m so popular..." Sirius mused, while Emily clasped her hands around his neck in a straightforward attempt to strangle him. "Girls shout my name all day...heal me...wrap their hands around my neck...arrrrg..."

"Shall I read your letter for you?" James asked politely. "It´s from Hagrid. I wonder how he´d gotten it attached to Render..."

"Animal...magnetism..." Sirius choked. With Lily holding his hands, he couldn´t defend himself against Emily´s offensive actions, and he was beginning to grow purple in the face.

"Possibly," James said thoughtfully. "though still unlikely. Let´s see, he...o damn..."

"What?" Remus asked. He ripped the letter out of James´s hands, read it and slammed his fist down on the table. "NO! No, damn it! That´s not fair!"

"What is it?" Lily asked anxiously, and Sirius stretched out his hand as well.

"Let me read it!"

"The unicorn died," James summarised softly for Lily. "One of the Trotters Remus told us about died as well. He´s found a few other animals, and they´re all ill."

"But the unicorn..." Remus cast his eyes down. The unicorn...

"We´d better go visit him this afternoon," Sirius said quietly. Emily had released him. She sat down again, gazing mournfully at the letter. "He´ll be upset. He´ll need our help." The others nodded. They were a quiet group as they made their way to Potions.

This morning they were expected to concoct a truth serum and test it out as well. Dorkham had, with obvious relish, paired those Slytherins up with the Gryffindors they hated most, and vice versa. The whole class was horrified with the idea that they were to spill their inmost secrets to those whom they least trusted them to.

"And no meddlin´ up either," the old man warned. "I wanner hear everyone answer any question posed to him or her, any question at all. I myself will ask some as well," even more horrified looks, "And I´ll know when ye´re be lyin´ to me, so do the best ye can." This last part he said with a contemptuous sneer, as if he expected them to prepare a vegetable soup at best. Some pupils squared their jaws in reaction, but most simply gave a mental shrug and set to work. Dorkham rarely gave any praise, so trying your best wasn´t really worth it. Nevertheless they all paid close attention to the ingredients list, knowing that a small mistake could have them raving in the infirmary for hours--sixth year Potions classes may be unpleasant, but they were not without interest or danger. Although, Sirius thought, the danger lay with the teacher, and not with the potions. Of course he was paired up with Snape.

The combination James-Snape was bad, because they loathed each other and could hardly look at each other without vomiting, but at least their fight remained verbal, most of the time. The Sirius-Snape combi, however, tended to produce an explosive, both being well-educated in sarcasm while being quite hot-headed, as well as hating each other with a vengeance. Before the accident last year, Snape and Sirius simply detested each other. Ever after it had happened, they despised each other so absolutely that whenever they were in the same room their hands crept to their wands and some kind of cheap excuse was invented to attack the other one. Dorkham delighted in pairing them up. It gave him a cheap excuse to take points from both Houses.

"Tell me, Black," Snape smoothly opened his attack, "how´s your lapdog doing after yesterday´s fiasco? Still wondering why his wand wasn´t working?"

"His wand works better than yours," Sirius shot back without looking up, and added three drops of lemon juice to the potion. Snape clacked his tongue.

"Solving your problems with ambiguous sexually tinted interpretations again, Black? Hand me the ginger roots."

"Get them yourself."

"You´re closer to them."

"Then walk around the table." He chopped a handful of mugwort to small pieces, narrowly missing his fingers. Snape waited a few seconds, then got the ginger root himself.

"You know, Snape, every time I see you walk I wonder why I haven´t beaten you into a wheelchair yet."

"Because you´re a cowardly git who wouldn´t be able to touch me if you tried." Sirius smiled nastily.

"Would you care to try me out?" Snape sneered back, and waved his hand, encompassing the whole classroom and the skulking creature between the cauldrons that was their teacher.

"Sure, Black, go ahead. See if you can managed to extract some more point out of him."

"I´m not that dumb."

"No? Somehow, you don´t convince me." He cut the roots in small squares and added them to the potion.

"Really. Well you never were very bright.

`Let simmer for three minutes, then add the mugwort."

"Black, compared with you, I shine like a beacon in the dark when it comes to brightness."

"I´ll have an ordinary lamp anytime, thanks. Looks better, smells better, and brings warmth to my life as well as light." He looked up, dark eyes shooting daggers, which were shot right back at him by even darker eyes. "Unlike you. You only bring me misery."

"Another task well-done," Snape said, with pleasure. Sirius´s upper lip curled up, revealing his even teeth, that could look positively canine when he wanted them to.

"What a great life you must have, existing solely to make mine miserable."

"I cannot imagine a better way to spend my days."

"That explains your lack of friends."

"What on earth do you know about my friends, Black?" Snape growled. The other boy grinned.

"Very little as of yet, Snape my man, but after you take a good swallow of that potion I´ll be sure to ask." Snape scowled.

"I´m sure that my secrets can do me a lot less harm than the secrets you keep you," he said threateningly. Sirius´s grin faded. Snape´s grew. He leaned over the table and whispered,

"But rest assured, Black. There´s someone who´s even more scared than you are. What, do you imagine, is the general reaction of the people in this classroom when your precious Moony starts spilling his well-guarded secret? Cress Dominus is a moron, but he´ll ask about Lupin´s secrets, you can be sure of that. Dumbledore might have sworn me to secrecy, but things can always come out--especially during potions. Right?"

The other boy hadn´t been listening to a word he´d been saying, not after Snape mentioned Remus.

God! he thought, and searched for his friend. He noticed him staring at the cauldron he shared with Cress Dominus, looking so pale he was almost translucent. Remus! I´d forgotten all about it! All I thought about was us being animagi, but Moony...

At that moment his friend looked up, not at him but at someone else, and following the direction of his gaze, he saw James mouthing something. Remus blinked his eyes. For one moment he grew even paler, then he nodded quickly.

"Wondering how he can get out of it, huh?" Snape smirked. He tapped his knife against the edge of the cauldron.

"Potion´s ready for drinking. Shall I do the honours or will you?" Briefly distracted, Sirius missed Lupin´s next action.

"What? Oh, you first. I´ve no intention of drinking any of it if it kills you." Snape barked a mirthless laugh.

"No way, Black. We drink at the same time, or not at all. In which case we´ll both look like idiots." He filled two small glasses and plunked one of them in front of Sirius. "Although that shouldn´t make a difference for you."

Sirius growled. The other boy sneered. They both drank.

James winced as he felt the draught glide down his throat. Its taste was not particularly vile, but knowing that it could make him reveal all he´d ever kept silent made it worse than castor oil. He caught Lily´s frightened face from the corner of his eye; she was drinking as well. Marjorie Mincing, her partner, had also emptied her glass and was now breathing in shallow gasps. The Slytherin boy he was paired up with himself, Keith Sujet, was eyeing him with a mixture of eagerness and fear.

"Well, Potter. Let´s commence. Have you done any interesting things lately?"

"O yes, lots," James truthfully said. "I brushed my teeth this morning, something I guess you never do. I showered. I put on my clothes. I took a piss, and washed my hands afterwards. I could undoubtedly keep you entranced for hours with my morning activities, but I choose not to. What about you, Sujet? Tortured any small animals last week?"

"I don´t torture animals!" the boy snapped angrily.

"No? Girls then?" Looking away, he fastened his eyes on Remus. He was only now drinking his truth serum--and what he´d put in it. James shivered.

"I chased down that gitty little speccie girl from Hufflepuff and tripped Rosy Walker during Care of Magical Creatures, and..." He clasped his hands for his mouth, stifling his flow of words, and looked as if he´d been kicked.

A few tables further on, Cress eyed Remus with malevolent glee. Remus slipped his glass into his own pocket and took a deep breath. James gave him a sympathetic nod.

"God damn you, Potter! What are your weakest points?" Unable to escape the effect of the potion, James opened his mouth.

"I can´t bear tickling, and I couldn´t stand losing Lily because I love her so much, and I..." He pressed his hands against his mouth, still talking, but unintelligible now. Sujet gloated.

Cress Dominus was vainly trying to stop describing just how much he loved his kid-sister, when Remus doubled over, clutched his stomach and vomited into the cauldron.

At the same moment Snape started hexing Sirius, and Sirius hit him a bloody nose. Lily punched Marjorie in the eye screaming "Pervert!", and Nicholas McNab kicked Sidh against the shins.

"I´ll show you my secrets!" McNab yelled, and screamed as Sidh flung a piece of cow´s liver into his face.

"...I love eating because it makes me forget my loneliness," Crabbe informed Peter while he chased him around the table, "get over here, you disgusting nit! Somehow, I´m convinced that food will accept me the way I am, and...damn it! Stand still!"

Within moments the potions class had changed into a battlefield. Between insults, threats and battle cries, people yelled out their most private thoughts at the top of their voice, cursing as they did so.

"I am secretly in love with you, you bastard! Now stand still so I can kill you!"

"I jerk off over my collection of Wizard cards...Joan of Arc´s my favourite, if I look at her I can just..."

"Shut up! Shut up! I don´t want to know about your putrid fantasies!"

"Then stop asking me to reveal them!"

"Expelliarmus!" shouted Sirius, and Snape´s wand flew through the air, straight into the cauldron into which Lupin was still chucking up his breakfast. By now he had exhausted his supply of food and was merely retching, wheezing for air in between dry heaves. Cress was shaking him like a rat, demanding to know all about his trespasses and personal weaknesses, but Remus was too busy puking his guts out to tell him.

"Let him go," James said, as soon as he had extricated himself from Sujet´s fists. When the Slytherin didn´t listen he looked around him, saw that Dorkham was comfortably lounging on his chair without showing the faintest desire to interfere with the pandemonium in his dungeon, and knocked Cess on the head with an Erlenmeyer. The boy sank to the ground, a lump swelling rapidly behind his ear. Remus wiped his mouth with a trembling hand. Perspiration beaded on his nose and made his hair stick to his forehead.

"You okay?" James asked. Remus shook his head. His face had now taken on a greenish tinge.

"Come on, I´ll take you to the infirmary. Dorkham´s not paying attention anyway." Remus nodded weakly, and tottered after him as James cleared the way.

"I hate you, you cow-faced bitch! I hate you I hate you!" Lily´s high voice shrieked behind them, making James snicker softly.

"I guess she didn´t need truth serum to make that clear," he muttered, then laughed out loud when she added some personal sentiments to her statement he had never heard her use before. "Or maybe she did."

Madam Pomfrey looked up from a collection of pills and sighed when she saw James dragging the considerably worse for wear Remus into her office.

"Mister Potter," she greeted, rising from her chair and pulling Remus towards it, "Remus. What have you done this time?"

"We had potions," James said, as if that explained everything. As far as he considered, it did. Madam Pomfrey sighed again.

"And what kind of potion did he mess up and drink?" She handed Remus a handkerchief to dry his damp face, and felt his forehead. She frowned. "You´re cold as ice."

"He didn´t mess up the potion," James said, still potion-compelled to answer every question. "We were doing truth serums. And Moony...sorry, that´s his nickname, Remus didn´t want to tell everybody that he was a werewolf, so he..." He bit down on his tongue, hard, and squeaked with pain. Madam Pomfrey studied him with her eyebrows raised.

"You know," she said.

"Yes," James agreed, before taking a handful of hair and yanking on it to keep quiet. "Aaarg! Haven´t you got an antidote?" Remus smiled faintly, then clenched his teeth together when another spasm bent his body double. The nurse pressed a warm, comforting hand against his forehead.

"I find it extremely useful to have you speaking the truth for a change, mister Potter. Remus, what did you consume to make you so ill? Wolfsbane?" The boy nodded. "How much?"

"A-about a spoonful," Remus whispered hoarsely.

"I see. Wait here while I get you the antidote." She turned away from him, walked to a large cupboard against the wall and took out a flask of greenish potion. "Where´s my mug?"

"It´s on the chair next to the third bed to the right in the infirmary," James said dully, and moaned. "How long´s this serum supposed to work anyway?"

"One to two and a half hours, depending on the amount you´ve taken," Madam Pomfrey said absentmindedly. She went out to get her mug, rinsed it in the sink, filled it with milk from a bottle and added two spoons of antidote.

"Here, take this. You should feel better in a few minutes." Remus murmured his thanks, drinking quickly. When he had finished, the nurse took her mug back, rinsed it out once more and put it on the sink.

"Remus?" He opened his eyes.

"Yes sir?" She smiled at the `sir´, then grew serious again.

"Don´t do this again. It´s bad for you. Very bad."

"With all due respect, so is the whole of Hogwarts finding out that I´m a werewolf," he countered, with unusual sharpness. Madam Pomfrey´s even expression didn´t waver.

"I perfectly agree, and I´ll have a word with Professor Dorkham on this subject. But next time when you feel threatened, don´t use wolfsbane, and certainly not as much as you did this time. Like I said, it´s bad for you." Remus ummed, then nodded.

"Okay, I promise."

"Good." She smiled. "Now, what time is it? Almost nine. You´ve missed the rest of Potions, so you can run along now--that is, if you feel up to it. You can stay for a bit, if you like." Remus shook his head.

"I feel fine." He did look a lot better.

"Very well. Oh my, there are the other ones!" Her mouth twitched into a funny lopsided smile as several other sixth years stumbled into the infirmary, some sprouting plants from their ears or noses, others with bleeding lips or burned fingers. "You were having Potions, you said? Looks more like Duelling to me!"

"Whak can I chay," Sidh Patil lisped from behind his swollen lips. "We heark `e `ruth, ank we didn´ like ip."

For the next two hours, Professor Flitwick and Professor Zelany from Artefacts were astonished by the openness and frankness of their pupils. Never before had the children asked either of them to explain a conundrum so often. After every "Does any of you have any questions?" a few students would open their mouth to ask what he meant by this or that, looking very unhappy and increasingly tired. Especially Zelany was thrilled by this rapt attention, and went into detailed explanations of magical artefacts that mimicked the Mimic, a box-like creature that lured unwary treasure hunters to their deaths. Everybody was glad when the potion wore off and they could stop telling the truth.

"Imagine," Sirius shivered, "having History while under the influence of truth serum. I can just picture it: Binns saying, "And, have you all written that down?" and all of us going "Whuh? What? No, of course not you old git." He´d have us copying those horrible maps of his until we were fifty!"

That afternoon Lily and the Marauders went to see Hagrid. They were half and half afraid that he´d be out hunting for infected animals, but he wasn´t, and he opened the door with a large kerchief in his hand.

"Hey," he sniffled. His eyes were red-rimmed, but he seemed reasonably composed--perhaps because the other creatures needed him.

"Hey," they said back. "We thought we´d come by..."

"See how you´re doing." Hagrid smiled, touched, and honked in his baby blanket. He did not, however, move to let them in.

"Tha´s very consid´rate o´ yeh, James, Peter," a nod to the rest. "Bu´...I can´ let yer inside. Con´amination danger an´ such. I couldn´ even go ter the owlery this mornin´--if that crazy beast of yers hadn´ insisted on molestin´ me gloves I wouldn´ even´ve bin able ter send yer a letter at all."

"It´s that bad?" Lily asked. Hagrid nodded sadly.

"There´s only one thing tha´ s posi´ive," he said, looking as if it was the most terrible thing he´d ever witnessed, "and tha´s that the virus only infects magical creatures." James frowned.

"Then why can´t you go to the owlery? The owls aren´t magical."

"Some o´ them are," the giant man corrected him. "an´ so are some o´ the other pets. Even if they can´ get the disease themselves, they do carry the virus and can infect other magical animals." He snirfed, and dabbed at his nose. "No risks, Dumbledore said. Good man, Dumbledore, and wise too. So I ain´t takin´ no risks. Can´ let yer lot in. Very sorry."

And that was it. The virus loomed over Hogwarts like a threatening thunderstorm. So far, none of the pets had gotten ill, but the Forest remained forbidden grounds for students and pets alike. There was still no cure.

Even though he wouldn´t have them visiting him anymore, Hagrid faithfully kept his young friends up to date, sending Render (who didn´t care about orders or limitations) with a message every few days. So far, the news was rarely positive. He found infected animals every day, and most of them died within a few days. His shed was filled with unicorns and even the odd centaur, his house had stowed sick animals on every free place. Of the seven Trotters, three had died now, and the remaining four were weak and listless. The back yard was full of small burial mounds--Hagrid having shrunken every carcass to the size of a guinea pig--and he was afraid that he´d have to take down the fence to create room for more.

All in all the Marauders felt depressed. There was nothing they could do, and that made them further depressed. Over the next two weeks Sirius vented his frustration on Snape, which cost him five points, and Snape retaliated, which cost him five points in return, because Dorkham was nothing if not consequent. James took consolation in Lily, which meant that they were making out at every opportunity and drove even Remus to violent outbursts.

("Highly inconsiderate...pull up your pants when I´m talking to you! Lily, fasten your bra! I´m only human, you know!...Would you please stop doing that here on the sofa? I´m trying to do my homework here!")

After Emily threatened to bash his head in with the nearest set of pans if he lost Gryffindor any more points, Sirius vented his frustration on Cynthia, who proved a far more effective vent than Snape. Peter, faced with this female effectiveness, went back to moping about his lack of vents, and Remus pulled into himself and lost himself in his daydreams.

It was during one of those dreams that he was called into McGonagall´s office, and he was still a little distracted when he knocked on the door to her room.

"Enter." He went in, and halted when he saw Professor Dumbledore standing behind McGonagall´s seat, in which she was sitting herself.

"Ah, mister Lupin. Do sit down."

What´d I do this time? As he lowered himself on the chair, glancing around shiftily, Dumbledore´s eyes twinkled reassuringly.

"Don´t worry, Remus. That is, if there is nothing you should be worried about."

"I can never be sure," Remus said honestly, and Dumbledore grinned. McGonagall merely waited, she never smiled much.

"I´ve called you here--we called you here, because of certain...complications that have arisen because of your nature."

"The virus?"

"Yes. Your next Change will be in three days, isn´t it?" She leaned her chin on her templed fingers. The boy nodded.

"But I don´t even come near the Forest--I´m in the Shrieking Shack all night." Dumbledore smiled, but McGonagall´s mouth pursed.

"That, precisely, is the problem. We know that you are not. Not always. I´m perfectly aware that you have no human recollections when you have Changed, but...you were seen in the Forest, at least three times." Remus stared at her, eyes wide with panic.

She knows...if I´ve been seen, what about...but no, nobody knows they can transform themselves too...He stole a glance at Dumbledore.

"But sir..."

"We don´t blame you," the headmaster soothed. "We don´t know how you got out, but since you´re a particularly bright young man, I´m convinced that your wolf-part is also highly intelligent. He´ll have found out a way to manipulate the Whomping Willow from the inside."

"What matters now," McGonagall took over again, "is that you cannot go into the Forest this time. You see, Remus, in wolf-form, you are a magical creature as well. You might catch the virus. We can´t have that."

"N-no," Remus stuttered, uncertain what to make of this conversation.

"Therefore, we see no other solution to this problem than to tether you."

"WHAT?" She started at his outburst.

"I mean that..."

"You can´t tie me up!" Remus cried. "You can´t! I´d kill myself! I´d break every bone in my body! You know what happens when I can´t go anywhere when I´ve Changed!"

"Take it easy, mister Lupin," McGonagall´s voice was cool. "We will not leave you awake all night. There is a potion..."

"No." Remus said. "No. I can´t...you can´t tether me. You can´t! Isn´t there some other forest you can set me out in?" Dumbledore shook his head.

"I´m sorry, but no. In every other forest there is the possibility of a muggle enjoying a late-night stroll. We simply cannot take the risk."

"But..."

"If you´ll let me finish. You will be tethered, but you won´t notice. Only very recently, Professor Dorkham has invented a potion that sedates both the were and the wolf part of a werewolf--you´ll be asleep all night."

"The only reason why we haven´t given you this potion before," McGonagall added, "is, that when used often, it can become addictive while doing massive damage to the brain. However, for times like these, it is the perfect solution."

"Dorkham knows?" asked Remus thinly. He was gripping the side of his chair so hard the tips of his fingers were growing numb.

"He has a brother in law who´s a werewolf," Dumbledore supplied lightly. "He´s caused the Dorkhams some unpleasant...scandals. Valentine abhors scandals in the family. He invented the potion to keep his brother in law from biting the neighbours. He knows nothing of your particular problem, and he never will, as far as I´m concerned. There, I´ve even given you blackmail material."

"Albus," McGonagall sighed, and he chuckled. Remus did not laugh.

They´re going to tie me up. They´re going to strap me to the bed, like...like a criminal!

He´d been tethered a few times before, mostly when he was small, and his parents did not have a clue about what to do with their cute toddler gone feral. The first time he Changed while he was bound to the bed, he´d cracked one arm and a leg, and when he Changed back in the morning he´d bitten through a large part of his wrist in his attempts to free himself. He still sported the scars on his arm. Another time he´d snapped most of his ribs, and had lost consciousness during the night. They had to rush him to Saint Mungo´s to have him saved, or he would have choked on the blood in his lungs.

Later, his parents had simply locked him in his room with the fortified door, or let him roam free when they were in a part of the earth where no other people could be endangered. But still...the mere thought of being tethered made his heart pound in his chest with fear.

"You will be quite alright," Dumbledore promised, and McGonagall leaned over the table and said, "It´s really for the best, Remus."

"The best!" the boy spat, with such vehemence that he startled her again. "That´s what they always say. The best! If I´m a magical creature, I could´ve gotten the virus last month. I had a few...ticks...so I´m probably infected as well. I´m not ill, so why..."

"Because we simply cannot take the risk." said Dumbledore firmly. "You´re right, the illness´s incubation time seems to be a few days to a week, so if you´re feeling fine up to now, you´re most likely not infected." His glasses glittered in the light. "Be grateful for that. It´s a terrible disease, for which we still haven´t found a cure. But still, we cannot take the risk."

"So you´ll tie me up," Remus said bitterly.

"Yes."

"What if I promise I won´t go out into the Forest?"

"You don´t have full consciousness during your Change. We cannot take the risk."

Remus sat in his chair, flattened. There was nothing he could bring up, no way to persuade them to abandon their plans without betraying his friends, and even if he would have betrayed them, it would change nothing. It was true, he did have little control over his actions when he was a werewolf. More than he used to have, under the Marauders´ influence, but still very little. McGonagall cleared her throat.

"When Poppy takes you to the Shack, she´ll give you the potion. You will drink it, and you´ll fall asleep. If everything goes according to plan, you won´t even feel the pain of the Change." There was some sort of plaintive tone in her voice, as if she desperately wanted him to believe her. Remus did not look at her. Even when somebody knocked on the door, he kept staring at the ground, his shoulders drawn up, hands curled into his lap.

"One moment," she called, and stood up. "Come on, Remus. No need to droop like that."

He snarled silently, but slid off the chair and walked towards the door.

"Oh, and Lupin?"

"Yes sir?"

"I´m not accusing you or your friends of anything...but do tell them not to try to contact you."

"Sir?" he squeaked, heart constricting again. McGonagall favoured him with a rare smile. All teachers were easily charmed by his use of `sir´, no matter whether the person addressed was male or female.

"Nothing. You may go."

Remus opened the door. Snape was waiting on the other side, his back against the wall. As soon as he saw Remus, he sneered.

"Are they going to truss you?" he asked nastily. "Make sure the foul creature doesn´t pick up any deadly diseases in the Forest?" Remus stared at him with utter disdain.

"Fuck off, Snape."

"Oh, I would, but I have a meeting with McGonagall, so I can´t. So sorry, Moony. Oh, beg your pardon. Lupin. God, but everybody must be stupid in this castle. Even your name betrays your curse. Why did you choose a name like that?"

Remus did not reply. He longed to plant his fist in the other boy´s stomach, but dared not, not in front of McGonagall´s office. Snape´s grin grew wider.

"You aren´t so brave without your friends to back you up, are you?"

"I could slam you through the wall and then throw you across the Quidditch pit," Lupin snarled, pulling up his lip in a remarkable imitation of his feral side. "But you know what, Snape, you´re just not worth it. You´re just Not. Worth. It." He turned around and stalked away. Behind him, Snape began to laugh.

Lupin balled his fists, and kept walking.