The Last Summer Rose

The Last Summer Rose

Chapter Three: Master in Disguise

Peter rushed into the room that Wednesday evening, clutching a frazzled owl in his hands, screaming and whooping. Remus could just imagine the puzzled stares that Peter had gotten when he came through the Common Room.

"He sent it! Remus, buddy, he sent it!!" Remus was stretched out on the bed doing his Transfiguration essay, and James and Sirius were at Quidditch practice. The textbook on Remus' bed was closed with a sigh, and Remus got up to save the poor owl from dying in Peter's grasp. The owl carried a large bottle filled with a thick purplish liquid, and a note was wrapped tightly around it. The owl hooted disdainfully at Peter when he was free of the death grasp and flew out the window.

"Well, I guess he doesn't want an answer then." Peter plopped down on Sirius' bed, opposite Remus, who had sat down slowly, unwrapping the bottle, and then tossed it carefully to one side of the bed.

I'm no crook, I'm an Auror, and I was only too happy to give this to you. Goodness knows you'll make good use of this. Constant Vigilance! Say hello to the others for me. I trust you know how to use it if you asked me for some.

A. Moody ~ Auror of Honor

Remus uncorked the bottle taking care not to spill the stuff when two hands poked him in the sides, causing the bottle to spin in the air, and be promptly caught by the same pair of hands that had poked him. Remus turned around and crawled off the bed, only to see Sirius and James grinning at him, half their bodies covered by the Invisibility Cloak. They sported identical, evil grins and Sirius held the bottle in his hands.

"Careful now Lupin. Don't let your hormonal spasms waste any of this precious stuff." Remus seethed at the joke in poor taste, but decided to brush it off by snatching the bottle back and corking it promptly.

"If we lose this, it'll be your fault, Black." Sirius shrugged as if to say 'point taken' and got up from the bedside to change into some decent clothes inside the most decent of all places; the bathroom. Remus retrieved the notes about the Polyjuice Potion he had been reading Friday night and sat curled up his bed, Transfiguration essay forgotten. Peter turned to try and finish his, and James was attacking Peter at random moments, eliciting an 'Ow!' from the smaller boy, or inspecting his mass of ever-increasing Quidditch bruises. The three sat in the semi-silence for while, James and Peter not having any input in this project, since it only included the other two. Remus thought about what options he and Siirus had. Sure, he could change into Sirius, but then there would be the problem of clothes, mannerisms, and the suave speech Sirius always had around girls. As love struck as Remus was with Meredith, he could not pull of a Sirius on her. Plus, there would also be the problem of two Sirius' wandering Hogsmeade that day. A smart girl like Meredith would have no trouble figuring it out, and it would be only a matter of time before she pointed a finger at the fake, and Remus' cover and heart would be shattered, she was no fool, but Remus was not ready to lie to her. As he sat on the bed pondering, something Remus was so prone to do, Sirius came out of the bathroom, in relatively clean robes and freshly washed hair. James ran into the bathroom eagerly with his clothes spilling out of his arms as Sirius sat next to Remus and clapped him on the back jovially.

"We'll need to divide the potion up, one part so I can look like you, and one part so you can be a perfect embodiment of the already perfect me." Remus nodded, now realizing that Sirius had thought this through a lot more than he had. Obviously it meant quite a bit to him what Remus would be doing gallivanting around in his body. Sirius brought out two vials and snatched the bottle from Remus' hands. He carefully poured half the contents into one vial and the rest into the other, plunging the cork back onto the now empty container. Sirius brought out a few strands of jet black hair from the depths of his pocket, and then plucked a couple out from Remus head, taking the poor boy by surprise who all the while was watching Sirius and the vials intently, ignoring Sirius and those venomous hands.

"Sirius, do ask before ripping out my hair! Hey, wait? Is that what we're gonna use to make the potion turn us into each other?" Sirius ignored him but held up the three hairs that he had just ripped out of Remus' head.

" A brown one, a brown-blond one and a brown-black-grey one. Sweet Merlin, Moony, stop aging so fast. I can't keep up!" Sirius sprinkled the hairs into the potion and it turned a pearly luminescent color, milky white and gave out a faint silver-ish vapor, which clouded around Sirius' face, giving him a oddly sinister look.

"Delicious. Essence of a Werewolf. Your turn!" He cheerfully handed his hairs to Remus who took them delicately and proceeded to sprinkle them into his portion of the potion. The potion turned blood red, but when Remus brought it up to his eyes, he could see that it was flecked with black and grey. He then thought back to how the hairs had felt in his hand...Sirius. The BASTARD!

"Hey." Remus broke the tepid silence. "Were those hairs, you know, from, well...you know?" Sirius looked at him oddly, then his face split into a grin.

"Of course! Only the best for ickle Moony. And the best hairs on my body are from-" Peter thankfully interjected for everyone's sake.

"Ew! Sirius, that's just perverted!" Peter scrambled from the room, and James walked out of the bathroom, a towel flung over his shoulder.

"What did I miss?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The two boys stood in the empty third floor closet, James and Peter standing outside in the cold Friday morning wind. Remus had Sirius' potion in his hand, and Sirius likewise.

"Okay, remember to take a drink every hour." Remus nodded silently then took the cue, closed his eyes and took a swallow. It tasted surprisingly pleasant, rather like a blueberry smoothie with a subtle hint of rose water. With that taste Remus expected a decent transformation, but it was horrid. He of course had been through many transformations of all sorts, but this was worse than any he had experienced before. Not only was there the physical pain he experienced every full moon, but there was an emotional pain, like his heart was being ripped out, again, and again. Before it was over, Remus had passed out, knees buckling underneath him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It felt odd to be taller like this, odd to look in the mirror and see your best friend instead of you. When Remus looked down he saw the expensive dragonhide boots crunching on the melting snow. The jeans felt weird around his waist, too tight for his taste, but the freshly laundered robes felt good on his bare, pale unblemished back. Remus swatted angrily at a piece of hair that had fallen into his eyes, and in one fluid motion, like he had seen Sirius do so often, he swept it back from his face. He now really wished he had taken up Sirius' offer on that hair gel. There was an unusual lump halfway down his leg in the pocket that contained of course, the Polyjuice Potion. He knew it had to be taken every hour, but there was another, unfamiliar bottle banging against it. He reached down and unvelcroed the pocket, pulling out an unmarked bottle of, oh no. Trust Sirius to do this to him on his first date! Remus tucked the bottle away again with the Polyjuice potion, and straightened in time to see Meredith run toward him. He dearly hoped that she hadn't seen the-

"Is that Firewhiskey, Black? Or do mine eyes deceive me?" Remus was just about to point out that Black was still back at the castle, but then he remembered who he was supposed to be and what he was supposed to do and let a devilish smile grace his features.

"Why not? I was under the impression that Firewhiskey was harmless." The moment he saw the look on Meredith's face, he knew he had said the right thing. Thank you, Merlin.

"I thought I was going to have to supply my own!" She grinned cheerfully, then seeing the expression on Remus-as-Sirius' face she continued, "Jamaican Rum, Jack Daniels, Russian Vodka, Giggling Gin, you name it, I've had it, magical or Muggle." Remus tried to recover fast. Meredith, the perfect prefect, an alcohol addict? Remus pushed the incident aside and held out his arm for her. Together, the two signed out with Filch, who gave them an odd look, and walked out to the snow-covered village. Meredith had her warm body pressed against his, and Remus felt like he had achieved something, those familiar curves against his body.

"You know, Sirius, this looks like one of those scenes that you get on those Muggle Christmas cards. When I was little, I never dreamed a place like this could exist." Remus smiled at her gentle innocent ramblings and then decided that it would look odd if he didn't say something. This being Sirius thing was hard.

"I've never seen a Muggle Christmas card. My family isn't the most festive, though I'm very sure it is lovely." Remus managed to remember who he was supposed to be, this time around. The two had reached the village proper and Remus found it fairly easy to talk to her about something other than prefect duties, but incredibly hard to stay in character. He had almost launched into a spiel about Ancient Runes, when he remembered that Sirius had dropped the subject the previous year, and if Meredith was anything like Sirius' previous girlfriends, then she would know his schedule down cold. He then also realized that they had to go somewhere, wandering the whole day outside like this could not be good for Meredith, not to mention his failing health. If I were Sirius, where would I go first? A simple no brainer. Remus picked up the pace and started walking briskly towards Zonko's, Meredith hanging off his arms. Once they entered Meredith's face brightened.

"Ooh, I just knew we would head here first!" The two of them rushed from display to display, ogling the new tricks, the Fanged Frisbees and the Detonating Dresses (Guaranteed to set on fire at a major event!) Meredith had wanted to owl her brother the Bulbadox powder, but Remus advised her not to, knowing full well the commotion that would occur if an owl appeared at a Muggle window, not to mention what the Bulbadox Powder would do to her brother. They left the shop having bought nothing and Remus let his thoughts drift to what the real Sirius would have bought if here were here. Remus would have probably bought the same things too, just to uphold Sirius' image, but only if he had the money.

"You don't like Zonko's?" Remus started. He, err, well Sirius not like Zonko's? Absurd question indeed. Remus racked his brain, trying to come up with a suave answer fast.

"It's cool, but I prefer coming up with my own, original pranks." Meredith raised her eyebrows tauntingly, and playfully smacked his shoulder with the heel of her hand.

"Original, eh? Like what?" Sirius had once told Remus that the werewolf only did two things better than him, better at getting out of scrapes and better at coming up with ideas on the spot. Now was the time to utilize both these qualities, for the way the conversation was steering, Meredith soon might start to doubt the authenticity of her 'Sirius'. Remus had yet to see the day where Padfoot didn't like Zonko's without a valid reason.

"Like how the four of us where planning to make it rain in the Great Hall next Monday." Meredith laughed, dimples appearing on her face. She was just so beautiful, and the snow was falling into her hair, which made it prettier than Hogwarts itself in Remus' opinion. Both were mysterious, Hogwarts with it's winding corridors and Meredith, with her clever smiles that always seemed to hide something. Then he noticed that she had started shivering and they ran towards the nearest shop, Honeydukes.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Things weren't going as well for the real Sirius. He had been lobbed in the back of the head thrice with snowballs by Malfoy, and Snape had made a brick wall appear out of nowhere when 'Remus' was walking out. When Sirius looked down to see if he was still Remus, Malfoy accidentally rammed into him, and Sirius was knocked to the ground. Why were they so spiteful to Remus? It's just usually the real me and James who get all the bad attention. The aforementioned ran to pick Sirius-as-Remus up with Wormtail close behind, but all three were hexed the moment James bent down to help Sirius up. Sirius knew that Remus' life was pretty damn messed up, but was it really like this? No wonder the guy had wanted to get out of his body so badly.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

There was never a better time to go to Honeydukes. Around Christmas, the house-elves popped up every few feet, asking vehemently whether anyone wanted hot chocolate. The steaming mugs appeared at once, decked with none other than chocolate cream and succulent chocolate marshmallows. Remus placed the empty mug back on the try with a dull clunk, and the elf who wielded it bowed deeply and vanished.

"Thi' tuff is goo'!" Remus took a big swallow and the scalding drink burned his throat, but he quickly eased it with a brown jellybean. The candy was popped into his mouth, then came right out into his hand, covered in saliva.

"It tastes like a couch!" Remus made a disgusted face and held his hand over the rubbish bin, watching the bean/thing slide off his hand and fall in with a 'plop!'

"Eerg, Black, that's what is disgusting. Besides, how do you know what a couch tastes like? He knew this question was coming, and of course had a Siriusy answer for it.

"Do you really wanna know?" He surveyed her intently, arching an eyebrow experimentally, he could have never have done that in his own body.

"Yes! Now stop babbling and tell me already!" Remus heaved a huge sigh and slumped his shoulders, as if preparing for the worst. The whole story was made up, just to be thrown back later at Sirius, if needed be.

"If you absolutely insist."

Sirius spun angrily as the spell hit him in the back of the head. Andromeda shouldn't have let Bellatrix and Regulus mess with her wand; Ravenclaws could be devilishly tricky if they wanted to be. Suddenly Sirius felt an urge, a need to...no the mere thought was ridiculous. But...it was possible, bastards of cousins and brothers. There was no way that they could have...he was going to kill Bellatrix, he was sure she had fired the spell. He found himself automatically walking towards the couch, that disgusting black leather couch, he was bending over it, it was getting closer and closer. Sirius tried to fight the charm, but a spell was a spell, and that bitch Bellatrix had done it correctly. Closer, Sirius moved closer, his brain shutting down fast. His eyes closed, and his lips came into contact with the couch, and he started kissing it hungrily. He opened his eyes to hear the peals of laughter coming from behind him, and he tore himself away from the couch of death.

"That was a Kissing Charm. You had to kiss that couch!" Bellatrix was doubled over, sheer malice and glee showing in her eyes, Regulus was rolling on the floor beside her and Andromeda had wisely gone, no doubt cracking up in the kitchen.

"Ridiculous. I wasn't kissing it, the brilliant couch was just telling my lips a secret!" This only made Bellatrix laugh harder, bending backwards on her knees.

"Oh, so now the couch can think, can it?" Sirius snarled.

"Yes. And you can't, otherwise you would have seen this coming!" Sirius raised his wand and-

Meredith's laughter rang through the room, and people stared at her frame shaking with mirth. She soon sobered up, only an occasional giggle escaping her lips.

"Ick. Poor you. I even got an inkling of what a couch tastes like after that. You want to go to the Three Broomsticks for some Butterbeer to cleanse our mouths?" Remus nodded, happy to have come up with something worthy.

"I would kiss a dozen couches for one with you."

The pair traipsed towards the old homely building, and when they opened the door the warm air engulfed their frigid bodies. Remus let Meredith sit at an empty table and walked up to Rosemerta to get a couple of Butterbeers. Rosemerta smirked at him, and quietly slid him another galleon with his change. Remus looked up startled. Everyone knew that the Black family was rich, rolling gallons of Galleons. Oh, no! Remus thought! I must be turning back into myself! Madam Rosemerta always had a habit of slipping in an extra galleon with his change, knowing full well that the Lupin family earned just enough to put Remus through Hogwarts. With his back turned to Meredith, Remus took the two vials out of his pocket. He added a dash of the Polyjuice potion to his drink, then hesitated, and then dumped half the bottle of Firewhiskey into it as well giving it a pale orange color, as opposed the dark brown that was Meredith's. He proceeded to pour the other half into her Butterbeer thinking it would look suspicious if his was a different color.

"Ah, well that's what it was meant for. That's why I gave it to you." Remus jumped, sloshing his 'Butterbeer' onto his shoes. He had been walking back to the table when the voice spoke inside his head. It was terribly familiar, but Remus just couldn't place it. Then it struck him. Sirius was an Occlumens, not to mention a brilliant Legilimens. Legilimency was for reading the memory, but was it possible that you could actually talk to the person that you had eye contact with, without saying a word?

"You don't need to have eye contact, actually. Just knowing the person real well works do. And I do know myself pretty darn well." So it was Sirius. The clever bastard had come up with a way to do this. Remus was going to kill him later, for starling him like this. He walked back to their table, managing not to spill anymore. He handed the Butterbeer to Meredith, and the two of them sat in silence for a while, sipping the refreshing drink. I should talk, thought Remus. Sirius is such a chatterbox, he'll probably kill me when he finds out what I've done to his reputation. Fortunately for him, it was Meredith who opened her mouth first.

"So are we heading back after this, or do you want to go round a bit more?" Do I want to go round? She needed to see the Shrieking shack. If Remus planned on revealing who he was to her at some point in time, then she'd need to know about the mysteries of the Shrieking shack. But despite her alcoholism, Meredith was a bright girl and would never enter there unless she was really drunk.

"Well I guess that must have been the plan all along!" Remus smiled inwardly. No matter how much he hated the boy from taking Meredith from him, Remus was glad to know that Sirius was behind every step he took.

"Meredith, I want to show you something before we head back." Meredith nodded, noticing the solemn tone in his voice. She stood up and followed Remus out the door, who had a very grim, determined look on his face

"Where are going?" Halfway along the path to the Shack, the snow had picked up and made it practically impossible to see. Remus had been forced to grab her wrist and pick up his pace towards the ramshackle old building. Her wrist felt smooth and her touch was surprising, he had never really noticed it before. Remus gave himself a little shake and focused on what was ahead. If Meredith had to understand him properly she would have to see the evidence before he broke the news to her.

"Meredith, I need to show you something." He reiterated the phrase and made use of his newly found long legs by parting the snow, sending mist around him, like Moses had parted the Red Sea years ago. Except that Moses was looking for a land to give his people, Remus was just trying to show his wayward 'girlfriend' something. Once they reached the Shrieking Shack, Remus turned around to see how Meredith was holding up, if she was having difficulty keeping up with him. Horror was written on her face as she stared up at the tall sinister black building that towered over the both of them

"The Shrieking-!" she started, but Remus clamped his strong hand over her mouth. Her brown eyes were wide with fear and she was trembling like an autumn leaf in a high wind. Remus snapped at her cowardliness.

"I am fully aware of the supposed ghosts that inhabit this place, and trust me, no harm will come to either of us." He hissed the words in her ear, and felt her calm down, a bit, but the shaking was still noticeable. Her body was pressed up against his in fear, and Remus, oddly enough seemed ot be enjoying it, just slightly. She nodded but it was clear that she did not believe him, she was staring with wide eyes straight ahead.

Remus led her to an old side door, which looked as if it was made by a blind man with rotten wood, but it opened easily to Remus' touch, the hinges not making a noise. He gestured to Meredith to go first, but the poor girl was scared stiff once more. His hand was slipped in hers and the pair went down the almost invisible stairs. If anyone else walked down here, they would expect every stair to creak, but Remus knew better, the two went down to the bottom floor without a noise.

"There's no dust here. Ghosts wouldn't disturb the dust." Meredith was staring at the floor with a keen interest. The room was dust-free indeed, but all the furniture was ripped apart, and there were paw and hoof prints on the dirt floor. The house looked haunted indeed, but not as if haunted by ghosts, or not even goblins would cause this sort of damage.

"Sirius...what's doing this?" Meredith was hugging him around the middle in fear, and with her strong grip Remus found it hard to choke the words out, though mostly in fear of telling her. There had to be some level of trust if he wanted to someday reveal to her that Remus was a werewolf, and he might as well extend that trust now.

"Werewolves. There's a student at Hogwarts who is a werewolf; comes down here once a month to transform." Meredith's eyes widened, and she drew herself closer to Sirius.

"That's really dangerous. What if they got loose? What it tonight's a full moon and he's coming down here right now! What if-!" Remus sighed. Now or never. Not exactly one of the most romantic spots, but the situation had brought itself up.

"They wouldn't get loose, too many anti-wolf charms around the school. Tonight is not even a moon night. And plus, if it were..." Remus lowered his head over hers, "...you know I'm here to protect you." He brought his lips down to make contact with hers, and was scared that she would recoil. But her soft, warm, inviting lips responded and the two of them stood locked in their passion, neither of them willing enough to deepen the kiss. They broke apart staring at each other breathlessly, Remus' mind refusing to focus or concentrate properly.

"Just don't tell anyone." Remus couldn't have chosen a better person to impersonate, Sirius' deep voice managed to make those innocent words seem mildly flirtatious.

"I won't, I promise." And her eyes glittered.

As the two of them walked back to the castle, hands linked, Remus dwelled on the way her eyes had shone after they kissed, and her final words, and saw much more of a promise than was actually meant.