Best Friends

Best Friends

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Homework And Enemies

*

"Chose your side at last, eh, Lupin?" asked a nasty voice behind Remus.

The small brunet glanced up from his homework. "I fail to see how you've come to that," he answered as calmly as he could. He only barely hid his nervousness.

"Don't play innocent," James Potter snarled, leaning over the smaller boy. "You were seen with Black last evening."

"Yeah," said Todd Calmson, one of Potter's Hufflepuff followers. "And we don't like that."

"Not at all," confirmed Cindy Mallow, a Ravenclaw girl with brown hair and no eyebrows - a really weird sight, but most had already got used to it - accompanied by her friend Jane Crowley's firm nod.

Remus swallowed. Being surrounded by a bunch of malicious fellow students, who were almost all bigger than he, and all his enemies for sure.

"Remus?" asked a familiar voice just as the others began moving nearer him.

"Over here, Sirius," he replied, sighing quietly in relief. He now knew that he wouldn't get beaten this time.

A black-haired boy came in sight from between the book shelves. He laid a stack of books on the table next to Remus's own books, casting a glare at the threatening group. "Go 'way," he spat, and sat on a chair next to Remus. "I don't want to hex you."

Potter sneered, and Peter Pettigrew said, "Very well, then. But Lupin... You'd better not be alone anymore."

Then they left, however. There were five of them, true - but Sirius Black was worth more than four with all the curses and hexes he knew already. Nobody, not even James Potter, wanted to be on the receiving end of his wand. Therefore, no one dared to start a fight with him without a lot of friends around.

"What do we have today?" Sirius asked, glancing at the book Remus had open in front of him.

"We have to practice the light spell for Charms, write ten inches about the differences between Monkshood and Aconite for Herbology, read the next chapter for DADA, and learn to find Sirius from the sky for Astronomy."

"Hey, that's cool!" the other boy exclaimed. "You mean that Sirius is a star? I didn't know that!"

"You didn't?" Remus asked, bemused. "And here I was thinking that you'd been awake in Astronomy at least once! Well, seemingly I was wrong. Yes, Sirius is a star. Commonly known as the Dog Star."

"Cool," Sirius said again, and grinned. "I think we both can do the spell, right?"

"Yeah," Remus replied. "It's almost too easy. And the Herbology essay is a joke, or something. Monkshood and Aconite are both names for the same plant, also known as the Wolfsbane. I think we have to make up something, but not more than we need to point that out. So, what about you help me understand this DADA stuff, and then I'll teach you to find your star." He smiled, and Sirius smiled back.

"Yeah. And then, I could teach you some hexes," Sirius said, grinning. "Just in case they surprise you alone again."

Remus smiled slightly and said, "I somehow doubt they will."

"Not if it depends on me," Sirius said lightly. Then he examined his friend more closely, and frowned. "Is something wrong with you, Remus?" he asked, sounding a bit worried.

The smaller boy startled. "What? Oh, no. Everything is all right," he lied. In his mind he silently prayed that Sirius wouldn't ask anything else, since something was wrong. The moon, to be exact. It was just a few days from the full.

"Are you sure? You don't look all right," Sirius said suspiciously. "Maybe you should see Madam Pomfrey."

"See, Sirius, I'm absolutely right, okay? I'm just a bit... tired." Remus sighed as his friend's doubtful expression didn't fade the faintest. "If I still don't look well tomorrow, I'll go to see Madam Pomfrey, okay?" he promised. At least he could that way avoid the Herbology lesson, on which they were bound to handle the Wolfsbane. Professor Sprout would understand.

"I'll hold you to that," Sirius said, then dropped the topic. Remus thanked Merlin for his friend's short attention span.

They began studying.