Singled Out

Chapter II

When Lily woke, she felt a vague sense of disorientation. However, she didn’t have anymore time to ponder it. Next to her, Danielle rolled over and in a tangle of arms and legs, fell off the bed.

"Ouch," she moaned. Lily bit back a laugh as she threw a pillow at her best friend. This was what she missed most about Hogwarts, the easy camaraderie that she never quite had with any of her family at home.

"Nice."

"Oh shut it Lily." Getting up, Danielle gave the bed a dark look. "If I didn’t know better, I’d think the bed was trying to spite me. As it is, I suspect someone has been using a charm on it."

She directed the comment at Lily in a rather venomous tone.

Lily stared back with wide eyes that didn’t succeed in looking innocent. "Who, me? Why Ellie, I’m stricken to my heart’s core that you could suspect such a thing of me. Your best friend. Indeed, you have done me grievous hurt with your words."

Ellie laughed and shook her head. "No I haven’t. You’re irrepressible, Lily. Unlike that boyfriend of yours. I swear, he makes you look a fiend from hell in comparison."

Lily suddenly remembered the events of the night before and she saw James in her mind. She drove the image out of her mind and replaced it with Harold’s face as she glanced at her picture of him. My boyfriend, she told herself firmly. Ellie was looking at her curiously, so she forced herself to smile as she tossed another pillow at her best friend. "Maybe that’s why I have red hair. It’s hell-sent. But, you know, we have to get you a guy. That way we could slog through this entire relationship thing together."

"Don’t you mean snog through it?" Ellie had a wicked gleam in her eyes. Gasping and bright red, Lily reached for another pillow to throw at her, only to find she was out of them. Ellie’s mouth had curved into a wicked grin to match her eyes. Grabbing her wand from a bedside table, Lily used a Summoning Charm to grab one of the pillows, but Ellie held on.

Laughing, Lily pulled the bed sheets over her head as she stopped the Summoning Charm. As she had hoped, Ellie tumbled over the bed’s edge again.

"Hey," there came a muffled, outraged exclamation from the floor. Ellie got up, her normally dirty blond hair streaked with gray.

"Where did all that dust come from," she grumbled.

"Oh dear," Lily tried, unsuccessfully, to not laugh. Ellie began sneezing and Lily hit her with a simple Cleaning Spell, repelling all the dust.

"Thanks," Ellie gasped, grabbing her tissue box from her nightstand. "Damn allergies," she moaned, blowing her nose vigorously.

"Well, we’d better get dressed and get out. We’ve missed breakfast again and we’re on the verge of being late to class."

"What does our schedule start with? First week forgetfulness," Ellie grinned.

"Oh, it’s," Lily paused. "Shit." She grimaced.

Ellie glanced at her "Well, you must have a different schedule from me this time. I certainly didn’t sign up to study shit," Ellie said as she grabbed the paper.

"Shit," she blurted out. "Let’s get to class before points are taken from Gryffindor because we weren’t early. That’s the sort of thing she’d do."

James yawned as he sat up in his bed. Rolling over, he looked at his watch before remembering to put his glasses on. When he could actually see the watch, he found himself wishing he could retreat to not being able to see.

"Bloody hell," he yelled.

Remus Levy sat up in his bed, wondering if this was how the mornings were while he was gone. "James," he began in a patient tone.

"We nearly missed-," he continued yelling, but Sirius stumbled out of his bed and punched James on the shoulder hard enough to send him back into the bed with a muffled "oomph". After pulling the covers around James’ head, Sirius stumbled back to sleep. "Just turning off the alarm clock," he growled.

Rubbing sleep from his eyes, Remus swung his legs over the side of the bed, wincing as his bandaged feet touched the floor. He lightly walked to the fourth person still in the dorm.

"Peter," he called softly.

"What," Peter Pettigrew blinked drowsily, his round face still sleepy.

"Time to get up. We’ll miss breakfast if we stick around any longer. There’s only another 15 minutes."

"Oh, OK." Peter obediently got up.

Shaking his head, Remus walked over to Sirius. Peter was the easy one to wake up. Although James and Sirius usually rocketed out of the room if there was food involved. "C’mon, Padfoot. Rise and shine. It’s a bright new day."

"No it isn’t," Sirius muttered from under a pillow.

"Yes, it is," Remus tried to be politely disagreeable, knowing from bitter experience the fate that befell those who incurred Sirius’ wrath in the morning. "Sirius, wake up." As he expected, Sirius swung a foot out to kick him where it would have hurt, if he had been there. Instead, Remus grabbed the foot and pulled as hard as he could, which was fairly hard. Sirius slid out of his bed onto the floor, where he blinked owlishly. Remus suspected Peter had picked up that habit from Sirius, or possibly someone else. As was his wont, Remus thought wryly.

As Sirius took a step on the cold floor, he stepped squarely on Remus’ foot. Remus suppressed any sound, but Sirius noticed the way his friend stiffened and his gaze dropped to the floor.

"Gods above, Moony! I didn’t mean to step on your foot! Are you OK? Did you do that…" Sirius left the question hanging awkwardly.

"Yes," Remus replied in an even tone. After all these years, his lycanthropy was still an uncomfortable topic.

"Er, sorry," Sirius had the grace to look embarrassed. Remus was surprised. It was rare that Sirius didn’t act like a total prick, so when he showed sympathy it came as a surprise.

Meanwhile, James had gingerly picked his way across the floor. "Why does the floor have to be so damn cold," he muttered, as he pulled on robes over his pajamas.

"It’s a castle. Being drafty and having cold stone floors is in the job description," Remus pointed out.

"It was a rhetorical question," James looked smug. Of course, that wasn’t much of a difference since it was his normal expression.

"I knew that."

No you didn’t."

"Yes, I did."

"Nuh-uh."

Are you planning on wearing what you slept it under your clothes all day?" Remus changed the subject, rather deftly in his opinion.

"Yeah," James shrugged. "What’s wrong with that?"

Sirius edged out of the area. When Remus started on cleaning, it was time to make a hasty exit. Unfortunately, it wasn’t hasty enough.

Remus wheeled around. "Sirius, make your bed."

"C’mon Moony! It’s OK to not be perfectly neat."

"I like order."

"You’re obsessed."

"No; I just don’t think it’s so great to live in a room that looks like its been invaded by pixies. Your room is a…" Remus faltered. "What’s the word," he muttered. "Pigsty!" he finished triumphantly.

"No it isn’t. This is a pigsty." With a twirl of his wand, Sirius transfigured his bed into a pig covered in bedsheets so that only two beady angry eyes, a long snout, and two long sharp tusks were visible. It was a very large pig. A very large, angry-looking pig. "Bollocks," he exclaimed. James was grinning widely. "Wait," Sirius snapped his fingers as the pig glared at the trio.

"Um, don’t want to disturb your train of thought, but shouldn’t you get rid of the pig before it charges us?"

"It doesn’t have real legs," Sirius said airily.

"And you say Transfiguration is your strong point?" James’ grin widened, though Remus hadn’t thought that possible.

"I meant to do that," Sirius said defensively.

"Right. Whatever you say."

"Quiet, fool. I’m thinking." Sirius was silent for a moment. "I have an idea," he pronounced grandly.

Remus and James stared at him.

"You could show some reaction."

"Yay! Clap hands, dance around and squeal aloud in glee." James raised his eyebrows. "Reactive enough?"

"Hmph. It’ll do. Anyway, this is my idea: we should make three pigs with 1,2, and 4 written on their backs and let them let loose in the school."

Peter had returned from the bathroom, and at Sirius’ words, he looked confused. James, on the other hand, looked delighted. Although he showed no expression, Remus was impressed. It was a good prank, although it would hardly endear Sirius to the staff. But then, nothing he did could endear him to the Hogwarts teachers, so he might as well go ahead with the joke.

"Um, guys, what’s so funny about that?" Peter asked, his voice timid.

Remus fought the urge to sigh in exasperation. He tried to be nice to everyone, even Peter. It was what distanced him from wolves. It was what made him human. Wolves had no patience with idiots. In their world, it was survival of the fittest. But he was human. Most of the time. That was why he was always trying to be neat. Animals didn’t make their beds. But he had to prove he wasn’t an animal. Briefly shutting his eyes to clear his head of the dark reflections of his true nature, his animal nature, which he could never overcome, Remus turned to Peter.

"What would you think if you saw three pigs coming towards you and they were labeled one, two, and four? What would be missing?" Remus tried to keep his tone as gentle as possible.

"Um," Peter began with his customary start, licking his lips. "Eight?" he ventured. "Powers of two?"

Remus blinked. He tended to forget that though Peter was a dunce at magic, he was brilliant at Muggle subjects like math. Perhaps that was why he was bad at magic, Remus mused. Doubt and logic were the enemies of magic, and math was essentially a logical subject.

"No, Peter. Think of a simpler pattern. Don’t make the problem more complicated than it actually is." Merlin’s beard! I sound like a teacher, he thought.

"One, two, and four?"

"Yes." Remus smiled encouragingly.

"Oh! Three!"

"Exactly. Now what would you think had happened to three?"

"It’s missing," Peter began slowly, his brow creased in a frown of concentration. A flicker of recognition lit up his brown eyes. "They’ll think that there was a number three pig, and that it’s still loose in the school!" He smiled broadly.

Remus returned the smile warmly.

Meanwhile, James and Sirius had sat down on Sirius’ bed and were discussing the prank intently.

Peter stepped forward hesitantly, the thrill of discovering the humor in the joke forgotten immediately. "Um, guys, can we go now? I’m hungry. And we’ll be late to class soon." He sounded terrified at the idea of even making a suggestion.

"I nearly forgot about food," James looked deeply horrified at the thought.

"That’s OK, Prongs. It won’t hurt you to skip a meal once in a while. You can lose some weight, slim down."

"Oh, Moony, do these robes make me looks fat?" James affected a high voice.

"Actually, they do. Since you’re still wearing your pajamas under them," Remus said pointedly.

"Give it up, Moony. I’m a hopeless case. Besides no one ever died of wearing pajamas."

"Famous last words," Remus retorted.

"And Peter could afford to ditch some pounds. That way he can wear the new, incredibly sexy style of robes," Sirius continued, ignoring James and Remus.

Peter’s face flushed.

"Just kidding, Wormtail," Sirius said hastily. He was always forgetting to keep teasing at a minimum around Peter.

"Um, so, guys, can we get going?" Peter pleaded in a faint voice.

"Yeah, let’s go," Remus said. "We’ll skip breakfast to get to class on time."

"Skip breakfast? Sorry, can’t. It’s against my religion," James replied swiftly. "We can eat as we walk to class."

"Run to class, you mean."

"Run, walk, whatever."

"Let’s try to Apparate!" Sirius’ eyes lit up.

"We can’t Apparate. We’re too young."

"We can try. What’s the harm in trying?"

We’ll get splinched," said Remus, ever the voice of reason.

"Sirius," James interrupted.

"What?" Sirius turned, tottering on the brink of the staircase.

"Are you planning on sleeping on the pig?"

"Oh. Right. I forgot about that." Sirius hurried back through the open door.

"Somehow I guessed. You didn’t strike me as the sleeping-on-animals type. Maybe sleeping with animals," James said thoughtfully.

The door slammed shut so hard a crack appeared in the bottom. "Reparo," Remus whispered.

"Prongs," Sirius hollered.

"Just an observation," James yelled back. "You don’t have to get so hacked off. You need anger management classes."

"No! It’s the pig."

Remus felt a twinge of suspicion. "What did you do?"

"Me?" James shrugged. "Nothing much."

Remus gazed at him steadily.

"Just some simple Transfiguration."

Remus returned to the room to find Sirius on James’ bed frantically waving a bedsheet at his former bed. Remus noticed that it looked awfully wooden, and its legs still resembled the legs on the bed. Only, now they moved. Just them, Sirius noticed him.

"Moony, toss me your wand, will you?"

"Where is yours?"

"James stole it!"

"Are you sure?"

"Well, no. But I’m almost sure. And this isn’t the best time for a discussion," Sirius made shooing motions at the pig. It looked even angrier than before.

Remus murmured a spell and the pig turned half-wooden. It gave an enraged shriek. "Shit," he began, continuing with some very original oaths. He swore rarely, but when he did, he was very serious about it. Sirius gave him a look of awe that would have been comic in any other situation. The pig, boar really, rushed towards him, creaking slightly. It jumped in a way no normal pig could. Apparently Sirius had imagined the boar to be much stronger than it should be. Remus grabbed it by its tusks, but his hands simply slid off the smooth grains. He noticed that the wood was dark reddish-brown, the color of dried blood. He felt adrenaline rushing through his veins, surging under his skin. He fell to the floor under the animal’s weight, and he felt his vision clouding as his blood pounded. Snarling, he fought back. The boar looked startled, or at least as startled as a wooden pig’s face could manage. His nails, longer and less brittle than a normal human’s, raked the boar’s face, leaving grooves in the wood. Sap leaked out from the furrows. He clawed and bit and kicked until the mist hanging in front of his eyes cleared. Sirius was looking frightened, and Remus glanced at his handiwork and felt sick. The wood was combed with scratches and was oozing a pinkish fluid. His robes were torn across the back and chest. Glancing down to assess the damage done to him, he saw the thick light brown across his chest and knew that it spread on his back spanning his shoulder blades, a constant reminder of what he was. Sirius jumped off the bed and disappeared behind him. Remus realized that he was trembling. All that effort, and he was really no better than an animal. His eyes returned to the boar and sought out the deep bite on the neck. Teeth marks scoured the wood around where the jugular would have been on a living creature. He felt a light touch on his shoulder.

"Here," Sirius said, holding out a robe. "Your robe’s torn."

"Yeah, I noticed. But thanks for pointing it out, Captain Obvious."

Sirius grinned, and Remus thought he could sense a hint of nervousness in the smile.

"Shall we go?" He tried to keep his voice steady.

"Good idea."

"Oh, by the way, thanks for the robe."

"Hey, I know how it feels. I feel like attacking Peter and James sometimes while I’m a dog."

"Yeah, but not when you aren’t a dog," he said bitterly.

"Oh, I don’t know," Sirius said thoughtfully. "I feel like attacking James right now. And when Peter’s being stupid, I feel like attacking him. And that’s all the time."

"Sirius!"

"OK, sorry. That was cruel, wasn’t it?"

"Yeah."

"Let’s get out of here."

They pounded down the stairs.

"So, where is my wand?" Sirius demanded.

"James probably has it."

"Then I was right."

Before Remus could reply, they slammed into two grinning faces. He jumped, and felt his feet sting as they hit the ground.

"What took you guys so long?"

"Nothing," Remus said quickly. Sirius gave him a curious look but remained silent. "We really have to run, though."

"I say we Apparate," Sirius said stubbornly.

"That’s stupid."

"Is not."

"Is too."

With James leading, Sirius and Remus arguing, and Peter following them, panting slightly, they reached Greenhouse Two and slid into seats around a table. As they dropped their bags to the side, the Professor walked in. Remus sighed in relief.

James glanced out the window and saw a flash of red. Craning his neck, he watched as Lily and her friend, another Gryffindor 4^th year, raced into Greenhouse Seven. He felt a surge of annoyance. He had nearly managed to forget her.

"Potter, would you care to join the class?"

As he turned, he felt a slight tugging on his stool, which was balanced on two of its four legs, and he collapsed in an undignified heap, his robes swirling up in a unnatural breeze. He started to turn to look for its source when he heard the last think he wanted to hear.

"You wear pink pajamas?" Severus Snape’s voice was smirking. James looked down in horror.

"Just a little pay-back," Sirius whispered, twirling James’ wand, his face completely straight.