The Marauders: Year 2

"Hello, Remus."

Remus jumped as though goosed. He knew that voice. He spent night after night dreaming about that voice. But what is she doing here? And why is she talking to me? Lily won't let any of them talk to any of us... He nearly grinned despite himself. Although if any of them were going to tell Lily to go fly a kite, it would be her. Finally he looked up.

"Hello, Mel."

Oh just look at her. Remus began to pray fervently that he wasn't turning red. Melissa broke into a wide smile and plopped down next to him at the table. Look at that smile, she just lit up the library, honest to Merlin. She put a finger to her lips and her innocent smile turned into a slightly wicked grin.

"Lily is on the loose," she leaned closer to him to whisper. I think I'm going to die, Remus thought in a fever as her hair brushed his shoulder for a second. What a great way to go. "I need to escape, or I will kill her. Slowly. With great pain."

Remus chuckled quietly. "Is she on again about Nackle and Flitwick both giving an exam on the same day."

Melissa rolled her eyes and groaned, while nodding. Then her glance slipped over to the book in front of Remus.

"That's from the restricted section," Melissa gasped, eyes widening.

"Oh, well... yea. Emerson let me have a note to read it," Remus said, abnormally pleased that she looked so impressed with his reading choice.

"What's it about?"

"How'd you know it was from the restricted section?"

They laughed quietly as they asked the questions at the same time. Melissa made a little shake of her head, as though to say 'well...?', pushed her glasses up her nose, tried, unsuccessfully, to stuff her frizzy hair behind an ear and leaned a bit closer to Remus to tug the book near her.

"Uh, well... dark creatures," Remus muttered, suddenly remembering why he'd been given permission to read the book so easily and blushed.

"What about them?" Melissa inquired, looking very interested.

"Where's your ring?" He'd noticed that she'd stopped wearing the ring she had on back on the train during the first day of classes, but he hadn't had a chance to ask her why.

She blushed, "I'm not much of a jewelry kind of girl." Then she made a squeaking noise, "How to kill dark creatures?" She glared at Remus. "What are you thinking?"

"What? Huh? There's more here than how to kill them, that's part of every book about every dark creature. What do you mean what am I thinking?"

She knows. She knows. She knows. Oh Merlin, that's what that stupid fight was about the first night back. She was hinting that she knew but I just told her to shut up, she didn't know me at all. She knows.

Melissa caught herself. "I just mean, well... maybe some dark creatures are more misunderstood... just, you shouldn't kill them. None of them." She looked right at him. "No matter what." She reached out and gently touch the same place she'd burned on the train, the scar was still there, and visible since Remus had rolled up his sleeves during some point in his studying.

Suddenly Remus dropped his head into his arms onto the table. "Did you tell the others?" his voice was muffled by the wood and parchments.

Melissa snorted, "No. For Merlin's sake, Alice and Becca believe every stupid tale their parents used to feed them... but, anyway... it's not my secret to tell."

"How'd you figure it out?"

"You're always sick..." He felt her lay a hand gently on his shoulder and pull him back into a sitting position. "The ring, really. I'm so sorry, I didn't even realize and I wasn't trying to... I forgot I had it on and I forgot that it could hurt you..."

Remus let out a long breath, not even realizing he'd been holding it. "It's alright."

"But who cares, right? I mean, most of the time, you're just Remus. And, you've got to admit, you're the antithesis of werewolf on those days." He tensed when she actually said the word. Werewolf.

"Antithesis? And Lily says you don't study enough. Where do you pick up words like that?"

Melissa chuckled, "I teethed on a dictionary." She smiled warmly. "And the other Marauder's certainly don't seem to care."

He cut her off with a worried look, "The other Marauder's have no idea, Mel. Don't say anything to them, please."

With a clear look of surprise in her eyes, Melissa sat back. "They don't know? How could you not tell your best friends?"

Remus snorted, "Pretty easily. None of them are really any good at keeping secrets."

"But one like that-"

"-any secret, Mel. I'll... well, I will tell them someday, I guess. If I have to..." he trailed off. "You don't hate me then? Or think Dumbledore's a madman for letting me come here?"

A small smile slid across the slight girl's countenance, "Well of course I think Dumbledore's a madman, why do you suppose I like Hogwarts so much?" Her expression turned serious, "But I don't hate you, Remus." She hopped up, her books in hand. "You're far too much fun to hate." She gently squeezed his shoulder and then headed back in the direction she'd initially come from.

Remus broke into a very wide grin. You're far too much fun to hate. She thinks I'm fun! His face broke out into another blush that he had a bit of trouble explaining to Sirius when he bounded over to the table a moment later.

~~*~~

Peter scurried down the hall quickly. Up ahead he could see the lanky frame of one of his best friends speaking with Frank Longbottom and the Rob's.

"Sirius," Peter yelled.

The boy whirled around and smirked at his best friend, "Yesssss?"

"We need your help!"

Whatever it was in Peter's tone of voice, Sirius immediately bid the others farewell and rushed off after the plump boy. "What is it?"

"The trick step."

"Who's stuck this time? And why is that so urgent?" Sirius asked, rather annoyed that his discussion with Rob Cage about the finer points of Madison Bell had been interrupted.

"He's not stuck, he-" The two rounded the final corner to see James perched a level above the step, talking to what appeared to be... the step below him. "fell through the step. He's... gone."

"Remus?" Sirius asked, looking to James for confirmation. He nodded his head.

"I need you to hold my ankles and lower me through the step," James said without even a glance in Sirius's direction.

"I'll go," Sirius offered stepping forward.

"No, you're too broad. I'm the only one thin enough to fit through the space," James said. "Now would you come on! Who knows what's down there?"

The argument gone out of him, Sirius firmly grasped James legs as the boy began to crawl head first into the step.

"This is surreal," Peter muttered as he hopped down to the lower step, ready to grab should Sirius's grip slip. He glanced at James and Sirius only to realize that James was entirely submerged in the step and Sirius was pulled in up to his forearms. "Are you alright, Seer?"

Sirius grunted in reply.

"Black, Pettigrew! What are you doing?" Both of their eyes widened in shock as Filch came sprinting toward them. He smacked into Sirius, causing both of them to tumble and Sirius to loose his grip on James. Sirius, Filch and Peter all began to scream bloody murder, the former two as they fell down the steps and the latter as he realized that the step had now apparently eaten two of his friends.

As though this scene weren't chaos enough, before Filch or Sirius even had a chance to recover from the tumble, Peeves the poltergeist shot out of a nearby wall and began to bombard the three with goo filled water balloons. Without a second glance back at the boys, Filch took off after Peeves.

Sirius and Peter's gazes met and Peter watched as the tall, dark haired boy crumbled to the ground. Peter quickly rushed to his side.

"They can't be gone, Sirius, really they can't be. Dumbledore wouldn't allow something like that in Hogwarts. I'm sure they're... they're fine, I bet. Come on, we'll just go get McGonagall and she'll get them and everything will be fine. We weren't doing anything wrong. Come on, Seer. Come on," Peter crumbled next to him. "They can't be... no, they just aren't. A step couldn't... not to James and Remus..."

"What the bloody hell are those sods doing?"

The two miserable boys sitting dazedly on the floor whipped their heads in the direction of the sound just in time to see two thoroughly disheveled boys tumbling out of a nearby door. Remus was attempting to dust off his robes as James pulled off the glasses that were lying askew on his face to wipe the muck off of them.

"Where?" Sirius began.

"How?" Peter added fully perplexed.

"Seems to go to some sort of mad storage room," James commented.

"You slide through it nearly, very odd. Like a long slide... saw a cow at one point, thought of you, Seer," Remus grinned stepping towards the other two boys.

"A... storage room with... cows?" Peter said slowly as he climbed to his feet.

Remus nodded as James cocked an eyebrow at his best friends, "What, did you think? A step was going to do us in?"

"Well, you certainly did before you fell through it too," Peter squeaked, near ready to pass out in relief.

"Sirius?" Remus asked, looking carefully at his friend, dropping his previously teasing tone. The tall, dark haired boy dragged himself to his feet and glared at his two dusty friends.

"You great sodding gits," Sirius muttered, clapping them both harder than usual on the backs before starting off in the direction of the Great Hall.

~~*~~

"Oi, Pete, Sirius!" James came bursting into the Common Room. "I've been looking for you all day!"

"Well, you've found us," Peter said, setting down his quill on his Herbology parchment.

"Hey mates." The three whirled around as Remus dragged himself through the portrait hole and collapsed into a nearby chair. Despite Remus's absolutely horrid state, James's smile broadened even more at the approach of his dear friend.

Remus cocked an eyebrow at James, figuring another mad scheme was about to come flooding out of his mouth and nearly fell out of his chair when it was nothing of the sorts.

"What have you been doing with Melissa Denezyuk, Remus?" James launched at him.

Remus choked and his eyes widened, "Excuse me?"

"Rumor has it that you and the lovely Ms. Denezyuk have been seen hiding in various dark corners of the library without the company of either of your friends for hours on end," James announced proudly to the group.

"Excuse me?" Remus reiterated, beginning to blush.

"Remmy? You finally did something about that? About time," Sirius crowed and happily slapped his back. "You sly old dog."

"We're not," Remus sputtered. "We've just been doing homework. Lily's been driving her mad about her studies recently. Honestly, we've just been doing homework."

"I didn't know they offered anatomy in wizarding schools," Peter mused with a smirk.

"It's not what you think!" Remus stammered, growing redder by the second.

"Of course not."

"Never is."

Remus leaned back and groaned in frustration.

"So..." Sirius prompted.

"It's absolutely nothing," Remus barked at them and hauled himself up off the chair. "I'm going to bed."

As Remus departed James burst into laughter.

"Where'd you hear that rumor?" Peter asked.

James shrugged casually and leaned back in his chair. "Made it up. I've only actually seen them together in the library once."

Sirius burst into raucous laughter, slapping his knee. "You definitely have too much time on your hands, Jamesy boy."

Shaking his name at the use of the horrible nickname, James pulled a textbook out of his book bag and began studying, still chuckling to himself quietly.

~~*~~

"What are you doing?"

Remus whirled around guiltily. "Ah, Frank. Right then, didn't see you there."

Frank shook his head and glanced in the direction of Remus. "Socks?"

Remus grinned, "Ah, yes. Socks."

Frank made a gesture as though to say 'and what are you doing to the socks?'.

"Just a bit of revenge..." Remus trailed off and picked his wand up again.

"Ah, revenge. Speaking of which, might one of you sodding idiots be kind enough to explain to Alice and Rebecca that I really had no idea what you were doing back in September. They're both still on about it and don't entirely believe I was innocent." Frank walked into the bathroom doorway and began to brush his hair.

"Actually, I wasn't one of the sodding idiots that evening. I was in the infirmary." Remus waved his wand over the socks twice, muttering two different incantations, and then glanced at the pages of a book lying open upon his bed, smiling. "That should do it."

"None of those socks are mine, correct?" Frank asked as he reached for his toothbrush.

"No, James and Sirius. Don't worry about it," Remus replied as he gingerly picked one set up and tossed it onto the chaos Sirius Black called a bed. He then carefully placed the next set along the top of James trunk.

Frank came out of the bathroom and looked in the direction of the socks. "So what do those do?"

"Let's just say they're in for a bit of a... shock."

Frank quirked an eyebrow at him, grinning slightly while shaking his head, "I've got no idea what you mean, but I'm sure it'll be amusing."

"Going somewhere?" Remus asked looking over his friend. Frank turned a slight shade of red.

"Er... just to study with ah... Alice, you know."

Remus chuckled as Frank then quickly scurried out of the dormitory and down the steps.

~~*~~

"Very funny, Lupin," James Potter said as he sat down for breakfast and tossed a pair of socks onto Remus Lupin's plate.

"Yuck," Peter commented as Remus pulled the socks off his toast, while giving James a most innocent look.

"I damn near fell off my broom when those bloody things started shocking my feet. It's like I'd jammed my foot in one of those Muggle ecklewristnasties outlets." Glaring angrily at his thin friend, James pulled over a bowl of porridge.

Peter snorted into his cereal.

"What?" James asked, his sour mood still apparent.

"Ecklewristnasties?"

"Yea? So."

"I suppose you were aiming to say electricity?"

James waved a hand dismissing him. "Whatever. Where's Sirius?"

Remus and Peter both snorted this time.

"Upstairs trying to figure out what in the name of Merlin is wrong with his feet," Remus said gleefully.

"You know, Remmy," Peter began, "I don't think I've ever seen you so chipper in the morning."

Remus just laughed some more and grabbed another piece of toast.

"So, Halloween Feast tonight, then?" Peter commented, attempting to get his friends speaking again.

"Mmmm... I love the feasts," Remus said, his eyes beginning to glaze over as his thoughts drifted to the different desserts the house elves so skillfully prepared for such events.

James and Peter nodded in agreement. "Boggarts today though, in Defense Against the Dark Arts, that Emerson's a loon."

"How'd you know that?" James asked Remus.

"I was talking with Trixie yesterday. Their class does everything a day ahead of ours."

"What's a boggart?" Peter asked.

"Eh, kinda like the Muggle boogeyman from what I can surmise," Remus said. "It likes dark places like basements and under beds and it turns into whatever will scare you the most."

Peter swallowed hard, "Just great. How do you get rid of it?"

James and Remus both shrugged. "Dunno. Guess we'll find out."