Second Year, Second Chances

CHAPTER TWO : On Annoying Slytherins and Nifflers

“You know what I hate the most about Potions?” Sirius asked, leaning back in his chair and staring at the high ceiling of the dungeons, where he and his friends were seated and waiting for the lesson to begin.

“What?” James asked, scribbling absentmindedly on a piece of parchment.

“It’s the one class where we can’t hope for Snape to do something stupid and lighten it up for us,” continued Sirius as he noticed a patch of growing mold in the corner of the ceiling. “I mean, at least in Transfiguration and Flying lessons we can hope that he’ll mess up, but in Potions he’s always really good. It makes me mad.”

“That you’re worse than Snape at something?” Peter asked, seated behind them. The blond boy cast a slightly worried glance in Snape’s direction (he was seated a few tables away), but the dark-haired boy was talking with Avery and didn’t notice.

“Of course not!” Sirius replied, looking mortally offended at the mere suggestion. “Just that he doesn’t mess up and I can’t laugh at him. Not to mention that he’s a teacher’s pet. Professor Durkham’s little pet puppy, that’s what he is.”

Peter snickered loudly and then tried to stop as his partner, Lily Evans, gave him an odd look and raised at eyebrow at Sirius, who shrugged, a grin appearing on his face. Rolling her eyes, Lily looked away and Peter calmed down, responding, “I bet that’s it.”

“What’s it?” James questioned, looking up from his parchment (where Sirius could now see James’ scratchy handwriting spelling out “Potions is stupid” and “Snape’s a freak” in the center of the page.)

“That Snape’s Durkham’s pet,” Peter answered, and James sniggered quietly at the thought. “Like, a puppy, or a cat or–”

“A toad,” interjected Sirius, giving Snape a look. “I can just see it, too. It would explain all the warts, too.”

Both Peter and James laughed at this, but Sirius frowned as he continued to watch Snape. The dark-haired boy was heading towards the front of the room, where Remus was seated alone (his partner was absent), and Avery, Took, and Jenkins were following him with not-so-subtle grins on their faces.

“Hold up,” Sirius muttered as Snape approached an unsuspecting Remus, “What are they doing?”

Just as he finished saying that, Snape grabbed Remus’ arm and yanked it up, forcing Remus to drop his quill, which fell onto his half-filled page of parchment. Remus glared up at Snape and yanked his arm back, choosing not to say anything as he picked his quill back up. Snape said something, which Remus ignored, and at that point, Sirius decided that it was time to go up and see what that was all about. Motioning for James and Peter to follow him, Sirius stood up.

As he came closer, Sirius could here the end of Snape’s sentence, “...such a freak anyway, Lupin, it’s not like it’d matter if you messed up your potion. Which you probably will anyway.”

Remus didn’t say anything as he diligently copied the potions ingredients from the board, where Professor Durkham had listed them before class began.

“Aw, what’s wrong? Is little Lupin afraid to admit that I’m right?” Snape sneered, reaching forward and taking Remus’ quill from his hand. Remus turned, visibly acknowledging Snape for the first time, and tried to take his quill back. Snape raised his arm, teasing the brown-haired boy with the object, and smirked. “C’mon, Lupin. Let’s see a freak try and get his precious quill back. Did your Mummy buy it for you?”

“Of course she did, Severus; who else would have? Now give it back,” was Remus’ calm, unraveled response as he glared evenly at Snape.

“You have to come and get it, Lupin,” taunted Snape. Sirius snarled softly as he came closer, irritated by Snape’s obnoxious tone.

Coming to a halt by Remus’ desk, Sirius snapped, “Give him back his quill, you slimy git.”

“Oh, look!” Snape smirked as Sirius, James, and Peter glared at him, looking amused. “Lupin’s bodyguards came to help him. Isn’t that cute?”

“Really cute,” Avery supported, and he reached forward to snatch Remus’ Potions book. Flipping open the cover, he read, “‘Property of Remus J. Lupin.’ How adorable, Lupin; did you get it second-hand?”

“Give it back, please,” instructed Remus calmly, though Sirius could tell that he was getting agitated by the way his right hand clenched into a fist on his desk.

“What’s wrong?” Snape asked snidely, addressing Sirius, “Do all of you act as a single unit now? Whenever one is in trouble, the other three immediately come to help? How sweet.”

Sirius rolled his eyes. “At least we don’t all share a brain like your lot.”

“No, you just share a–”

Snape’s response (which Sirius knew must have been extremely clever and innovative, of course) was sadly cut off by the appearance of Professor Durkham, who glared bitterly down at the two groups of boys.

“What is going on here?” Durkham snarled irritably, his thick, bushy eyebrows narrowed in annoyance.

Before anyone else could say anything (or blame anyone), Remus replied with, “They have my things, Professor.”

Snape rolled his eyes and glared at Remus, dropping the quill on the desk. Avery did the same with the book.

“Sit down, then, all of you,” ordered Durkham, looking less than pleased that the Gryffindor boys weren’t doing anything. Sirius rolled his eyes as he turned and followed James and Peter back to their seats; Durkham wouldn’t have brushed them off if Sirius had stolen Remus’ book (not that he would have, of course.) But no, Durkham loved Snape, so that was that. What a dumb teacher.

Durkham started class quickly, telling the class to pull out their quills and rolls of parchment for a series of note-taking (“Oh, joy,” James had muttered sarcastically to Sirius, looking exasperated.) The lesson consisted of them listening to Durkham’s low, gravely voice harp on and on about how it’s imperative that certain substances do not meet one another, especially not during the lesson tomorrow, when they would be mixing at least two different potions that had some ingredients that were highly reactive to each other. Luckily, the fact that he was lecturing meant that Durkham didn’t have much time to take off points from the students, and through that miracle, Sirius and James only got five points taken away from them that day, from the one time Durkham had caught them whispering to one another. The best thing was that he didn’t notice them tossing a timed dungbomb for his next hour (fourth-year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs) to find.

All in all, it was a fairly decent class. If only Sirius had been able to get Snape back for what he said about Remus, then it would have been better. But no, Snape had gotten away scot-free, because Durkham was a biased jerk, and even after class was over, Snape immediately went up to Durkham to “talk” about something. And of course, Sirius couldn’t curse him in front of teacher; and it would look too stupid (and suspicious, for that matter) for him to wait for the greasy-haired git outside the door. So, of course, Sirius had just stalked off to lunch, still aggravated that Snape had avoided paying for what he said.

James, Remus, and Peter were with him, of course, and they noticed as he stabbed at his plate of spaghetti with unusual malice. Well, actually, no, only James noticed – Peter had cast a charm on his fried potatoes to make them more spicy (or, at least, that was what the book said it did, Peter had told them as he tried to do it), and was now prodding them cautiously with his fork. Remus, for his part, was looking thoughtfully at his plate of fried rice and greens, not paying attention to much of anything. Sirius had briefly wondered what it was before remembering Snape’s comment and knowing that Remus didn’t like being reminded of his less than well-off state. This, of course, served to anger Sirius again, which caused James to notice Sirius acting oddly, which resulted in James poking Sirius in the arm with his fork.

“Ow, geez,” Sirius muttered, glaring spitefully at James as he took a big bite of his noodles. Through the mouthful, he asked, “Whagt wash ‘hagt fer?”

“Huh?”

Sirius swallowed. “What was that for?”

“What’s bothering you?” James asked, frowning at his friend.

“Nothing,” Sirius replied, and went back to shoveling another forkful of spaghetti into his mouth. Chewing slowly, he looked up at James, who was now staring at him with a deadpan expression on his face. Sirius swallowed, realizing that James wasn’t likely to give up on the issue, rolled his eyes and said, “Fine. I’m annoyed about what Snape said to Remus. We need to get him back for that.”

“You’re right,” agreed James, nodding and looking quite relieved that Sirius wasn’t actually upset or anything relatively bad. Being mad at Snape wasn’t a big thing, nor was it a cause for concern; in fact, if Sirius hadn’t been annoyed with Snape, then James probably would have a reason to be worried. But now that Sirius’ cause of irritability was brought into the open, James visibly relaxed, knowing just how to handle the situation at hand. “We need to make him pay for saying that.”

“But it has to be good, of course,” began Sirius, brightening considerably at the prospect of a good prank. “I mean, it’s our first bad deed of the year. We need to make sure that it’s memorable.”

“Definitely,” agreed James, nodding vigorously, “We simply cannot have a performance that’s less than spectacular.”

By this time, Remus and Peter had separated themselves from their respective distractions and were looking at Sirius and James with various levels of intrigue.

“A prank, you say?” Peter asked, a sly grin appearing on his broad face. “Excellent! Against Snape?”

Remus, of course, was a bit more apprehensive about it. “Look, if this is about what he said, I’m fine; he didn’t bother me--”

“He bothered me,” Sirius explained, but as that didn’t seem to be enough to make Remus stop looked tentative, he continued humorously with, “Everything about that guy bothers me! His greasy hair, his outrageously huge nose, his skinny, wimpy appearance, his--”

“We get it,” James dead-panned, rolling his eyes.

“As a fellow skinny, wimpy type person, I am almost offended, however,” added Remus, who Sirius could tell had been won over by the glint of mischief in his eye.

“Oh, no, Remus,” assured Sirius, “you aren’t in the same category. Your skinny, wimpiness is a cool type. Snape’s is just a pathetic, whiny type. You don’t whine, do you?”

“It just wouldn’t be right for anyone in our group to whine,” James supported, “We’re much more classy than that.”

Remus rolled his eyes and sighed, though his stifled laugh showed that he was clearly amused. “Anyway...”

“Right!” proclaimed Sirius, pounding one fist into his hand, “The prank! First one of the year, it’s gotta be good. And it’s against Snape, so it has to be particularly menacing and cruel.”

There was a long pause after Sirius said that, as each of the boys looked at one another with expectancy. After a few moments of silence, a new, common knowledge came over them all.

“Don’t tell me we don’t have any ideas...” Sirius sighed, slumping in his hair and burying his face in his hands.

“Um, it’s the new school year?” offered Peter for explanation, “Or maybe we can’t just force ideas out of each other, y’know? We need inspiration.”

“Inspiration!” repeated Sirius with mock incredulity, “What could be more inspirational than lunch, where the slimy Slytherins are in clear view for everyone to see? Not only that, but Professor Durkham is, at this moment, glaring at Professor McGonagall, which is all but a spoken challenge between our houses.”

All four boys turned to look at the teacher’s table, where -- sure enough -- Durkham was glaring with irritation at McGonagall, who was obviously replying to one of his comments in her knowledgeable, pompous sort of way. Looking back at one another, Sirius nodded once to confirm his suspicions.

“All right,” Remus began, “So everything is ready for a gigantic, unbelievably shocking prank. We’ve got that. What we don’t have is the idea for one.”

“Maybe Peter’s right,” suggested James, “We should just walk around for inspiration or something. Let’s finish lunch quick; we have a free period, so that’s a good hour at least.”

“I guess,” muttered Sirius, looking slightly downcast that they weren’t ready to start planning everything. “But it’d better work.”

________________________________

“Any ideas yet?” murmured Remus lazily from his spot near the window.

“No,” Sirius grumbled in response, slumping lower in the armchair that he was currently resting in. After lunch, the four boys had left the Great Hall with the purpose of searching for inspiration for a new, particularly vengeful prank. Unfortunately, that was before James remembered that he had forgotten to pack a few of his books, and had dashed to the Owlery to send home for them, dragging Peter with him (“Because his owl is much faster than those lame school owls,” James had explained rapidly at Sirius’ frown, “and besides, you and Remus can figure something out.”) So Sirius and Remus had been left to trudge up to the Gryffindor common room, where Remus was now standing, half-alseep, by the window and Sirius was annoyed about getting nowhere on any pranking opportunities.

“This bloody bites,” muttered Sirius, sitting up and leaning over the top of the chair to face Remus. “I mean, really! Last year we had dozens of ideas for pranks. Almost too many, if that is even possible. But now? Now we can’t even come up with a vague outline for one. It’s so pathetic.”

“You can’t force inspiration, Sirius,” Remus advised calmly, staring out the window with half-closed eyes, looking as if he wished for an afternoon nap. “It’s something that just comes, I think.”

Sirius groaned, laying melodramatically across the back of the chair. “Well, why can’t it come faster?”

“Just try and picture Snape or something,” was Remus’ advice as the brown-haired boy turned away from the window and watched Sirius’ actions with a small smirk on his face.

“Um, no, I see enough of the git in class, thanks.”

“That’s not what I meant!” explained Remus, giving Sirius a look that clearly said that he should really shut up and listen. “I mean, focus on your objective. We want to prank Snape, right? So picture Snape, and then think of the funniest thing that could happen to humiliate him.”

Sirius grinned. “Oh, I get it -- just do the same thing I do in class when he’s always going on about how--”

“Exactly,” Remus cut him off, and then looked out the window again. There was a moment’s pause, in which Sirius tried to do what Remus suggested and failed (finding that it was much harder to do without the object of one’s disgust in view.) Remus didn’t say anything during that time, but soon he added, “Or we could go visit Hagrid.”

“Oh?” responded Sirius, “What made you think of that?”

Remus pointed out the window. “I think Lily Evans is going there now.” Sure enough, as Sirius leaned forward enough to look out the window, he could see a flash of golden-red hair down on the grounds, heading towards Hagrid’s hut. “Besides, I’m tired of just sitting here and contemplating Snape’s humiliation,” Remus added, shrugging. “We’ll think of something soon enough, right?”

“I suppose,” murmured Sirius in response, looking pensively out the window as he watched Lily step up to the door on Hagrid’s hut and knock politely. Though the idea of talking to Hagrid had its appeal, Sirius couldn’t help but think that they really should be plotting their revenge on Snape. It was Snape, after all, who deserved plenty of humiliation as soon as manageable. Besides, even if they didn’t have any ideas, surely sitting in the common room would be preferable to spending time with a girl. Lily Evans, no less, who was somewhat of a know it all, and who didn’t like it when he and James goofed off in class; and who was constantly giggling with her other girl friends, which was really annoying to the rest of them.

Sirius had no use for girls; they were dainty and pretty and never knew how to have any fun. He had said as such to his mother awhile back, when she had told him that he should really go play with his female cousins, and she had told him that he should wait, and then he’d like them. But Sirius doubted it; he hadn’t liked girls for all of his twelve years of life and he wasn’t planning on starting any time soon. Girls didn’t do anything fun, after all; they never wanted to get dirty or play jokes or do anything short of hosting dumb tea parties. And the girls at school were worse, because they all walked around in little groups and giggled. Giggled! What was the point of that, anyway? If you were going to laugh, you should laugh loudly. Not giggle lightly like a bunch of tittering little mice. Bloody girly mice.

Unfortunately, Sirius mused as he saw the door to Hagrid’s hut open and Lily Evans step in lightly, Remus was one of those guys who pretended to have a use for girls. This had made him very popular among said girls after the first few weeks of school in the first year, because he was more than willing to stand up for anyone getting harassed, even the girls. So all the giggling little females had adopted Remus as their stand-in hero, and Remus had actually made the effort to speak to some of them. He was even friends with some of them, Lily included, which made Sirius wonder just what was going on in Remus’ mind. A friend of girls, indeed. How did he stand it?

“So?” Remus was asking, breaking Sirius from his thoughts, “Do you want to go down there? I want to ask Lily what she thought of Professor Anthony, anyway.”

Aha! The perfect opportunity!

“Why are you friends with Lily, anyway?” Sirius asked, forcing as much incredulity into his voice as he could. “I mean, she’s a girl. What good are girls, anyway?”

Remus stared at Sirius blankly, trying to comprehend what Sirius meant by his comment. Obviously at a loss, he asked, “What on Earth are you talking about Sirius? I’ve been friends with Lily since last year.”

“I know that, but why?” repeated Sirius. “She’s not any fun or anything.”

“She’s very nice,” said Remus neutrally, pinning Sirius with an even stare, his golden eyes flickering slightly. “Now do you want to go to Hagrid’s or not? I’m going.”

“Sure, whatever,” muttered Sirius, getting up and following Remus out the door of the common room, hands in the pockets of his robes. They were quiet for awhile, but as they were passing the kitchens (or, rather, the picture that led into the kitchens), Sirius continued, “It’s not like you hang out with her or anything.”

Remus sighed slightly, apparently having wanted to drop the topic. Patiently, he responded, “Look, I met her at the Sorting Ceremony, because we had to ride the boat together beforehand. I was really nervous about it, and so was she, and well... we just started talking. She thought she was going to be in Ravenclaw.”

“Oh?” Sirius asked, suddenly interested. He liked hearing about people’s thoughts about the Hogwarts houses, especially since he himself had been curious about it; his family had equal experience in both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, so it was somewhat of a toss-up for him. James, of course, had known that he was going to be in Gryffindor (his entire family was, going back for ages), and even though Sirius could tell he was a little nervous, he had adamantly denied it, because he was rather stubborn. “I didn’t know that.”

“That’s because you’ve never spoken to her,” Remus stated as they stepped out the doors and onto the Hogwart’s grounds. It was a very nice day out; the sun was warm on their backs and the air had a cool breeze in it as they walked towards Hagrid’s hut. “She’s a muggle-born, too, so she didn’t know the differences between the houses before I told her about them.”

“What house did you think you were going to be in?” Sirius asked, looking at Remus with an inquisitive expression on his face.

Remus’ face flushed slightly, looking a bit embarrassed. He waited a second before murmuring softly, “Anything but Slytherin. I was terrified that I was going to be in Slytherin, because I had heard that they were all... you know, evil.”

“Ugh, who would want to be in Slytherin, anyway?” Sirius agreed, ignoring the somewhat pained look on Remus’ face. He was going to say more, but at that moment they arrived at Hagrid’s door. Remus stepped up to knock, but before he did they heard noise coming from behind Hagrid’s shack.

Sirius looked at Remus with raised eyebrows; Remus shrugged and moved to look behind the small house. There, Hagrid was talking with Professor Kettleburn and Lily was looking into a pen, cooing at whatever it was that was in there.

“– really quite magnificent,” Professor Kettleburn was saying, looking over Lily’s shoulder into the pen. “I’m happy with the numbers we have this year; sometimes I have problems with the breeding and we’re short, but this year we should have plenty.”

“Yeh don’t have ta worry, Professor, they’re safe wit’ me,” Hagrid assured, grinning at the things in the pen. “Feisty little buggers, ain’t they?”

“Oh, yes, they– oh, hello.” Kettleburn just noticed Sirius and Remus standing there, looking curious, and he turned to face them. “I don’t think I know you two.”

Hagrid and Lily turned to face them, and suddenly, Sirius felt a bit embarrassed for interrupting them. Still, they had noticed them, so Sirius just grinned and greeted, “Hi.”

“Hello, Hagrid, Lily, Professor,” murmured Remus kindly, sounding much more polite and well-mannered than Sirius had. Then again, Remus was one of those people who were endlessly polite, so Sirius wasn’t exactly surprised by his brown-haired friend’s reply.

“Sirius! Remus!” Hagrid greeted loudly, smiling and stepping back to allow the two of them into the semi-circle that surrounded the pen. “Haven’t seen yeh two since last winter.”

“Been busy,” replied Sirius, grinning. He remembered when they had last spoken to Hagrid; it was just after they had gotten into a fierce snowball fight with a group of Slytherins and had clobbered them. Unfortunately, then they had gotten cheap and started cursing the snowballs, so he, James, Peter and Remus had dashed to Hagrid’s hut for safety. James had gotten hit by a snowball with a laughing hex on it, so the entire time he was snickering uncontrollably, even when Hagrid’s pet dog Fang had started eating his hat.

“What’s in the pen?” asked Remus, stepping closer and giving Lily a small grin. The red-haired girl waved back at him, moving over to give him and Sirius room beside her

“Nifflers,” Kettleburn answered proudly as Remus and Sirius stepped forward to look over the side of the pen. “Brilliant little creatures. They are irresistibly attracted to gold, so they sniff out anything golden and dig it up for you.”

Brilliant wasn’t exactly the word Sirius would have used to describe the small, dog-like creatures in the pen, even if they were gold-diggers. It was a large area, and all around there were various holes in the ground, obviously made by the Nifflers’ large, odd-looking paws. There were quite a few of the creature in the cage, most of them yipping around and chasing each other. To his side, Sirius felt Remus back off a bit, and looked back to see Remus standing an arm’s length away from the pen, his expression blank.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “Don’t like dogs?” he questioned Remus.

Remus looked a bit embarrassed, and he moved closer in, replying, “Kind of, I guess. But they aren’t really dogs, so I don’t suppose...” He trailed off, moving back to the side of the pen and looking over the edge curiously.

“They are a lot like dogs, actually,” Professor Kettleburn said eagerly sounding very much like a teacher at the moment. His nearly black eyes were lit with genuine interest as he went on, “They possess most of the natural canine instincts, for one, and they are usually quite friendly towards humans. Not like wolves, who are by nature wary of humans, but Nifflers are like most of the canine species.”

“Oh,” Remus commented lightly.

Lily grinned over at him and Sirius, smiling as she asked, “Aren’t they just adorable?”

“Oh yeah, really sweet,” Sirius commented, trying to keep his sarcasm to a minimum as he watched the little creatures chase one another around the pen. Two of them got into a brief fight just in front of the pen, and Sirius grinned. “They really are feisty, aren’t they?” he murmured to himself, silently cheering the bigger of the two pups on.

“Oh, Professor, could we go play with them?” Lily was asking, her green eyes wide and pleading. “They look so lonely.”

“Well–” Kettleburn began, looking apprehensive.

“Please, Professor?” Lily asked again, clenching her hands in front of her. “We won’t hurt them!”

“Yeah, Professor,” Sirius supported, nodding. He had always liked dogs – they were good, dependable creatures, always right for having a little fun. So going into the pen would be plenty fun, and suddenly, Sirius found that he really did want to play with the little buggers. And if girls were only good for one thing, Sirius decided, it was most definitely being able to charm teachers, because Kettleburn gave in almost instantly.

“But I’m not sure how taken they’ll be with you,” Kettleburn said, reaching into the pocket of his robes for the key to the pen. Hagrid had left the area and gone back into his hut, so it was just the four of them sitting around the pen at that time. “They apparently had a bad experience with humans when they were little – in the care of a few graduates; very irresponsible, they were – and I made things worse when I went to go pick them up a week ago. Accidentally stepped on the big one’s tail; they haven’t trusted me since.”

As Kettleburn moved forward to open the pen, Lily asked, “Are they mad about that or something?”

“No, no, just untrustworthy,” explained Kettleburn. “I’m not sure how they’ll take to you, actually. It’s something of a problem, because if the Nifflers aren’t willing to work with humans, it’s going to be rather hard to go over them in class.” The lock on the door clicked, and Kettleburn stepped into the pen. “Here you are, then.” He gestured for the three of them to follow.

Sirius stepped in first after Kettleburn, noticing as he did the way nearly all of the Nifflers had moved to the opposite side of the cage and were now regarding the new visitors with wary eyes. Lily stood beside him, and as Sirius looked at her, he could tell that she was upset by the way the little creatures were avoiding them.

“See what I mean?” Kettleburn asked, leaning against the side of the pen and sweeping his arm towards the pups. “They don’t like humans. Usually, Nifflers are a very friendly sort, but those blasted graduates messed everything up. I have no idea how I’m going to walk them, and they can’t be penned in all the time. It’s a bit of a mess, really.”

Sirius vaguely listened to Kettleburn’s rant, but his attention was mainly focused on the little creatures on the opposite side of the pen. Tentatively, he stepped forward and held out his hand, having heard from somewhere that if a dog is wary of you, you should let him sniff you before approaching him. One of the pups came forward slightly and Sirius moved forward slowly, making sure that he got a big whiff of his hand. Unfortunately, upon sniffing him, the canine barked and growled slightly; Sirius jumped back as Lily gasped behind him.

“Ah, don’t worry about that,” Kettleburn said, laying a hand on Sirius’ shoulder. “They aren’t vicious at all. I bet you just got too close too soon. Still, if only they weren’t so afraid of humans, then maybe...”

Sirius heard a shuffle behind him, and turned to see Remus standing at the gate, not having stepped into the pen. He didn’t look afraid, merely curious, but he maintained his distance from the rest of them. Sirius frowned slightly, and he called out, “C’mon, Remus. They’re okay.”

“That’s all right,” Remus responded, smiling gently. “I’d rather not risk it.”

“Honestly, you’re a Gryffindor!” Sirius said, acting outraged. He walked over to Remus and grabbed him tightly on the arm, tugging his friend away from the fence. “You heard Professor Kettleburn; they aren’t dangerous or anything. And they’re cute.” The last bit was added somewhat sarcastically, and despite himself, Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius, amused.

“Really, though,” commented Remus as Sirius dragged him forward, looking apprehensive, “I – I don’t get along well with dogs –”

“They aren’t dogs, they’re Nifflers!” Sirius corrected, smirking at Remus as they approached the pups.

Lily looked at Sirius with a half-worried, half-reprimanding expression on her face. “Sirius, if he doesn’t want to see them, you really shouldn’t make him–”

“Oh, shut it, you,” muttered Sirius, trying his best to ignore the fact that a girl was telling him what to do.

“Sirius--!” Remus began, but at that moment they were close enough to the pups for them to smell them. Without any warning, Sirius pushed Remus forward lightly and stepped back, leaving Remus standing about five feet away from the group of Nifflers. After all, Sirius figured, if Remus really was afraid of dogs – which was a really stupid fear, Sirius thought – then he should face it. At least, that was how he approached any fears of his, so why should Remus be any different?

Actually, Remus didn’t look very frightened by the prospect of being so close to the Nifflers; rather, he looked a bit perplexed at why Sirius had pushed him, as well as a little nervous. The surprising thing was the way the Nifflers reacted: instead of backing away and barking, like they had with Sirius, the pups suddenly broke away from their apprehension and trotted up to Remus cheerfully, yipping and acting excited.

Sirius gaped, watching as the puppies surrounded Remus and starting licking him and nuzzling his legs, much to Remus’ digress.

“Oh, how sweet!” Lily murmured, eying the hyperactive puppies with an appreciative expression on her face. “They like you, Remus!”

“Amazing!” Kettleburn said, a grin appearing instantly on his weather-worn face. “They haven’t been so active with a human for quite some time; how astonishing. You must have a way with animals, Remus!”

Remus didn’t seem to think it was so amazing; in fact, he looked startled by the way the animals had reacted and then alarmed as they attempted to play with him. Looking back at Sirius, he pleaded, “Help me!”

Sirius grinned. “Hey, they don’t like me.”

“You – you-!” was Remus’ attempt at a furious response, but it died out before he finished. Instead, he started petting the Nifflers begrudgingly, who all looked very excited that he was paying attention to them. More than one of the dog-like creatures leaned forward on their front paws, an expression Sirius knew meant, “Play with me!”

“I’m impressed, Remus,” Kettleburn said admirably, stepping forward slightly. “Not very many people have a touch for Care of Magical Creatures, and I think that you just might–”

“What’s happenin’?” a voice asked, and they all turned to see Hagrid standing outside the pen, a large mug held in his large grip. Noticing the Nifflers, his eyebrows raised and he said, “I though’ yeh said they were wary of humans yet, Professor.”

“I thought so, but Remus here seems to have a touch with them,” Kettleburn said excitedly, standing a good five feet away from the said boy, as to not distract the Niffler pups. Turning back to Remus, he asked, “I didn’t quite catch your last name there, son.”

“Ah, that’s Remus Lupin, Professor,” Hagrid suddenly cut in, looking oddly alarmed. “‘E’s a second-year, Remus Lupin.”

Sirius didn’t know why Hagrid had answered for Remus, but suddenly Kettleburn’s expression turned from excited to inquisitive. Then, briefly flashing with realization, Kettleburn said, “Oh... Oh.”

“Oh, what, Professor?” Lily asked, looking at Kettleburn with a wide-eyed, curious expression. Sirius, casting a furtive glance at Remus, saw the brown-haired boy tense up, his face pale as he mechanically continued to pet the Nifflers. Sirius frowned as he looked back at Kettleburn; had one of their pranks gone so far as to have a Professor they didn’t even know be aware of their names?

“Nothing,” Kettleburn responded a bit too quickly. After a bit of a pause, Kettleburn’s eyebrows rose and he asked Lily, “Second-year, are you? Shouldn’t you be getting to class, then?”

“Pardon?” Lily asked, blinking in surprise. Then, remembering, she gasped, “Oh, you’re right! We have Charms!”

“Oh, great, just when things get exciting,” Sirius grumbled, crossing his arms. “I thought we could play with the Nifflers–”

“We can’t miss our first Charms class!” Lily told him with an astonished expression on her face, as if she couldn’t even imagine the thought of it.

“Yeah, yeah,” was Sirius’ answer, rolling his eyes. “C’mon then, Remus.”

“Ah – yes,” agreed the brown-haired boy, turning away from the Nifflers (with some difficulty, as the pups didn’t seem to want to let him leave) and walking up to Sirius. The Nifflers stopped as soon as Sirius was a few feet away from them, suddenly wary again, but quite a few of them whined, upset at having lost their playmate.

“Yeh better get going,” Hagrid said as they exited the pen, placing a large hand on Remus’ shoulder. “I don’t imagine Professor Flitwick wants yeh ta be late.”

“Okay, then,” Sirius responded. “See you later, Hagrid! Professor Kettleburn!”

Remus and Lily said their farewells as well, and soon the three of them were walking quickly back to the castle, Lily checking a little watch on her wrist they went (“Magically powered,” she informed them, at Sirius’ confused stare.) They arrived at Charms, breathless but on time, and Sirius dragged a still quiet Remus to the back of the room, where James and Peter were already seated.

________________________________

“So what happened?” questioned James, leaning over so Sirius could hear him as he continued to meticulously take notes. In the front of the room, Professor Flitwick was droning onwards about something or other, of which Sirius (to be quite frank) had no real interest. Not to say that Charms was boring, but... no, wait, Charms was boring. Never mind.

Besides, it was the first class of the year. Barely anything happened during the first class of the year, and Sirius had resolved that if he heard any Latin that he hadn’t already memorized, he’d listened. As that hadn’t happened, Sirius was still cleverly lost in reverie. Or at least he was, until James had started chiding him for being late, which he felt obliged to explain.

“Professor Kettleburn – y’know, the weird one with all the scars – said that Remus must have some kind of talent or whatever with magical creatures,” Sirius explained in undertone, pretending to take notes for the sake of the conversation. “Which is brilliant, if you think about it, because that could help with some pranks or something later on. Y’know?”

“Yeah, I get it,” assured James quietly, nodding slightly and giving Sirius a wide grin. Then, the smile slowly vanishing, James pondered, looking slightly confused, “I though Remus didn’t like dogs, though.”

“He doesn’t,” Sirius confirmed. “I pushed him into the pen.”

James rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically, giving Sirius an exasperated look. “Why’d you do that? If he doesn’t like dogs–”

“–then he should face his fear and get over it,” Sirius finished, nodding as if it was obvious. “He can’t avoid them forever, right? And besides, they loved him.”

“They... they did?” James looked incredulous as he regarded Sirius, taking a quick glance over at Remus, who was sitting by Lily and taking notes diligently. “No way; I always thought they attacked him or something when he was little.”

Sirius frowned. “Why’s that?”

“You ever see that scar on his shoulder?” James questioned, dropping his voice a notch as Flitwick looked over at them with a disapproving stare. “It looks like he was attacked by a dog or something. I never asked him about it or anything, but when Remus said he didn’t like dogs, I just kind of assumed...”

“Hn,” murmured Sirius, “Weird. He didn’t really seem afraid of the dogs or anything. Just... I don’t know, wary. Or something.” Then Sirius grinned, “Maybe he just doesn’t like the way they look. He always did strike me as more of a cat person.”

“Yeah,” agreed James, “We should introduce him to Professor Figg’s kneazles sometime.”

“So that’s really true?” Sirius whispered hastily, knowing full well that Flitwick probably wouldn’t allow them to talk to each other for much longer without getting annoyed, especially since Sirius wasn’t even making the attempt to look like he was taking notes.

“What’s really true?” James asked, jotting down something about Charms being a key class in their Hogwarts learning experience– well, duh, Sirius thought, we only take it for seven bloody years – and not looking at Sirius. “That Remus doesn’t like dogs?”

“No, prat,” muttered Sirius, rolling his eyes, “That Figg’s cats are really kneazles.”

“Of course they are,” confirmed James, who finished his sentence and shot Sirius a vaguely irritated glare for the insult. “Christopher said so himself, and you know how much of a stickler for the truth he is.”

Sirius took in the information, knowing full well that Christopher – James’ obnoxious, rule-abiding, and endlessly over-bearing older brother – wouldn’t make up something about one of the professors. Or even make up something at all, due to the fact that Christopher’s creative streak essentially ended when he was five and started drawing pictures of architecture. Having known Christopher for the better part of his existence, Sirius could safely say that he was easily the most boring person on Earth.

However, Christopher was honest. So whatever he said was probably true, no matter how boring he was. (And if James hadn’t also been an honest type of person, Sirius would have sworn that they couldn’t have been related. Oh, sure, they looked really similar – same unruly black hair and brown eyes, even if Christopher didn’t need glasses –, but truly, their personalities were like night and day. Or, at the very least, night and twilight.) And luckily, Christopher was a seventh-year prefect – which meant that he was going to be gone next year, and then they wouldn’t have to worry about being watched over.

Sirius grinned at James, who was smirking in his direction. “That’s so cool,” he said, eyes lighting up. “I mean, really, kneazles? We should put them in the Slytherin common room and make them all go haywire.”

“That would be kind of pathetic, though,” murmured James as his bit the edge of his quill thoughtfully, “if you’re going to use that for our first prank, I mean.”

“Nah,” Sirius denied, shaking his head, “You’re right. It’s too mean to the kneazles, anyway. We need to think of those poor creatures, after all – how would you like having to possibly see Snape in pajamas?”

Both boys shuddered at the same time, something that was the result of having spent practically every day with one another since they were one. It was a common occurrence to them (and those who knew them) that they would sometime behave as twins would, and be synchronized with each other and the like. Sirius was particularly proud of the way he was sometimes able to predict what James was going to say, as well as the way they were able to effortlessly play off of each other’s words. It had bothered him a bit – just a bit, not that much – when Remus had learned to do it, too, but Sirius chalked it up to the fact that Remus was just a really quick thinker, rather than him actually being able to predict what might be said. Peter hadn’t picked up on that talent just yet, but that didn’t matter much to Sirius. It was still mainly he and James who did it, anyway.

“Ugh,” James whispered as soon as he had finished being disgusted, “Snape in pajamas. I wonder what he wears.”

“Probably really dorky ones, like... duckies or something,” suggested Sirius, grinning.

“Or stars.”

“Or little puppies.”

“Or little dragons EATING the little puppies.”

Sirius made a face. “Ew, you’re probably right.” Then, after a bit of a pause, Sirius smirked and offered, “No, I bet his are really dorky. Like, oh, I dunno, little golden snitches on a red background.”

“Hey,” James protested, looking offended, “I liked those pajamas. My Great-Aunt Gertrude made them for me.”

This was too much for Sirius, who snorted into his hands as he struggled not to laugh. “G-Gertrude? Oh, that’s priceless!”

“Oh, shut up–!”

“Boys,” a voice snapped suddenly, and both James and Sirius looked up, identical angelic looks appearing instantly on their faces. Flitwick stood in front of their table, and even though Sirius couldn’t exactly say that he was towering over them (he was, of course, only three feet tall or so), he was certainly making a valiant effort to do so.

“I would appreciate it if you would pay attention to me when I go over Redolente charms,” Flitwick reprimanded them. James, for all his bragging about how he was able to charm any teacher, looked rather embarrassed and put-out, and Sirius – surprisingly enough – was also feeling a bit guilty. “Now, would you please pay attention and stop making it difficult for the rest of us?”

With that, Flitwick turned around and continued to teach. From behind him, Sirius could hear Lily Evans whisper, “Serves them right.”

Annoyed, Sirius whipped around as soon as Flitwick’s back was turned and snapped, “Stuff it, Lily, just because we’re not goody-two-shoes like you–”

“Turn around,” hissed Lily, her green eyes flickering with irritation. Seated beside her, Remus watched the quarrel with wide eyes, looking both bemused and nervous. “We’re supposed to be listening.”

“I was just going to ask Remus to copy his notes,” Sirius explained smoothly, creating the cover story off the top of his head. Lily frowned, looking indignant, and Sirius looked over at Remus, “Can I, Rem?”

“Sure, I guess,”agreed Remus, though he looked slightly disapproving as he handed Sirius the parchment. As Sirius turned around, he saw Remus shrug apologetically at Lily, who had turned her frown towards him. Serves her right, Sirius thought, for trying to be such a teacher’s pet...

Glancing at the sheet of parchment he had retrieved from Remus, Sirius passed by most of the writing because it was trivial stuff, like important dates for the rest of the year and such. This stuff didn’t concern Sirius, of course, because he figured that he’d hear about the stuff plenty of times before they actually occurred. And then there was stuff about Charms class itself, which was pretty much useless, unless Sirius was planning on becoming a Charms professor or something – which he most certainly wasn’t. Finally, near the bottom of the page, was a bunch of notes on Redolente charms, written neatly in Remus’ small, cramped handwriting:

Redolente charms (also known as Smelling charms, or Perfume charms)are commonly used among most young witches as a substitute for Muggle perfumes or added scents. Most Redolente charms last up to 12 hours before the charm wears off.

Sirius rolled his eyes; who really cared about stupid perfume charms anyway? Though, he thought, it probably explained why Lily was so eager to listen in on class. Sighing, Sirius picked up his quill and a spare piece of parchment and began to copy down Remus’ notes, including the list of the most common scents used through Redolente charms.

By the time Sirius had finished recording all of his missed notes onto his own sheet of parchment, the lesson was very near completion and Flitwick was just about to hand out homework. Fortunately, before he could, a knock came at the door and Professor Kettleburn stuck his head in, looking a bit more grisly than usual.

“Ah, Professor Kettleburn,” Flitwick said with a smile, halting his lecture mid-speech. “What brings you to the Charms classroom? Oh, class, by the way, this is Professor Kettleburn, the Care of Magical Creatures professor. He’ll be teaching a great deal of you come next year.”

Kettleburn gave Flitwick a half-hearted smile before stating, “I don’t mean to bother you, Professor, but I would like to speak with Mr. Lupin for a moment, if that’s not too much.”

Sirius blinked and looked over at James, who seemed to be just as confused as he was. As one, they turned to look at Remus, whose face was carefully neutral as he picked up his books and walked to the front of the classroom, where he and Kettleburn exited the room.

Flitwick resumed his lesson, apparently unperturbed by the odd happenings, but Sirius ignored him. Knowing that he would probably get detention if Flitwick caught him speaking with James again, Sirius scribbled a hasty note to his best friend: What do you think that was about?

He shoved it over to James, who read it over once and replied almost instantly. I don’t know – maybe it has to do with the Nifflers?

Sirius frowned, then wrote: We didn’t hurt them or anything.

James read this last note, paused, and then shrugged over at Sirius. Just then, the bell toned, and James stuffed the piece of parchment into one of his pockets. Now able to voice his concerns, James responded, “Who knows? I bet Remus just left his books down at Hagrid’s or something.”

“We never went in his house,” Sirius began as he, James, and Peter exited the room. James and Peter immediately turned to go down to the Gryffindor common room (presumably to get started on the Charms assignment, which Sirius hadn’t even heard), but Sirius suddenly noticed what he had in his hands. “Oh – wait, I still have Remus’ notes.”

“Yeah? So?” James asked, pausing and looking back at Sirius. “Just give them back to him when he gets back.”

“No, you go ahead,” instructed Sirius, glancing over at the partially open office door by the Charms classroom, where he could see a bit of Remus’ frayed robes and light brown hair from inside. “I’ll just wait for him – I want to know what Kettleburn wanted anyway.”

James shrugged. “Okay, see you later, then.”

“Bye,” murmured Peter as he walked after James, waving slightly.

Sirius pulled out Remus’ sheet of notes as he walked over to the slightly ajar door, from which he could hear the voices of Kettleburn and Remus speaking softly. He was just about to push the door open when he paused, and instead listened to what they were saying. As he leaned in next to the door, Sirius could hear Kettleburn’s raspy voice speaking.

“...know it might be an bit of a hassle for you, but they need to be walked, and they responded so well to you, Mr. Lupin.”

“I-- I know,” Remus answered, sounding tentative. “I would be happy to walk the Nifflers, if it would help you.”

“I don’t want you to think that I’m using your, um, conditi–”

“Of course not, Professor,” interrupted Remus suddenly, sounding a bit rushed. Sirius’ eyebrows raised; he had never heard Remus interrupt a teacher before, and especially not one who didn’t even have him in class. From outside the door, he could see Remus’ shoulders tense a bit before the brown-haired boy continued, “I’ll see you tomorrow morning, then?”

“Of course. Thank you very much, Mr. Lupin, I’ll see you then.”

Sirius, realizing that he had about two seconds before Remus was going to come out and see him spying, jumped off to the side of the door just as it opened more and Remus stepped out. Sirius let Remus take a few steps away from the door before jumping out beside him – and grinning brightly as Remus stumbled, startled by Sirius’ sudden appearance.

“How long have you been there?” Remus asked, his eyes wide with surprise as he regarded Sirius.

“Just a few seconds,” Sirius answered, cleverly interpreting Remus’ question to mean “How long have you been standing behind me?” rather than “How long have you been listening?” Grinning, Sirius probed, “So, what did Kettleburn want?”

Remus relaxed slightly and smiled slightly at Sirius, looking embarrassed. “He, um, wants me to walk the Nifflers for him.”

“That’s cool,” Sirius said, raising his eyebrows at his thinner friend. “But you said you didn’t like dogs.”

“That didn’t stop you from shoving me in the pen, now did it?” questioned Remus as he gave Sirius an even glare. But he grinned at Sirius soon afterwards, so no animosities were left between them. “And anyway, Professor Kettleburn asked me, so I couldn’t really say ‘No’, and he says that they are being really hyper and agitated lately, so... I just agreed, I guess.”

“Awesome,” congratulated Sirius as the two of them walked down the hallway towards the common room. “Wish it was me. I love dogs.”

Then Sirius paused, an idea suddenly sparking in the back of his mind. In front of him, Remus stopped and turned around to stare at him, looking confused.

“Sirius?” was Remus’ concerned prod, “Are you all right?”

“Oh my God,” Sirius said, eyes bright with excitement as he looked up at Remus. Something had just connected in his mind, and he could barely speak for how great it was. “I got it. I just got it.”

“Um,” Remus murmured, “Got what, exactly?”

Sirius’ grin brightened as he locked eyes with Remus. “I just figured out the perfect prank on Snape. The absolute most perfect prank.”