“Face it, Sirius, he’s gone.” Remus Lupin leaned against the blackboard of the Charms room, looking quite defeated.

“Just tell me the details, all right?” huffed Sirius Black as he tapped his foot angrily against the stone where James and Lily had fallen through. The room was pitch black, only the light of the half moon shining through the window.
Remus sighed and said, “I already told you all I know. You should have been watching instead of flirting with that girl over there- what was her name? Susie?”

“Sandra,” Sirius shot back. “And it is not my fault! You just happened to be staring up front when James and Lily were sucked into that bizzaro black hole.”

Peter Pettigrew squirmed as he checked the door for intruders. “Guys, should we really be doing this? What is Professor Flitwick comes in here?”

“Wormtail, no one will come in,” Remus said, almost bored. “If you want, though, Padfoot, I could look up the spell in Professor Flitwick’s book of charms. I remember the words.”

“Well, where are we going to find that?” demanded Sirius, starting to stamp his foot on the once black holed floor.

“Right here, on his desk,” replied Remus as he picked up the rather heavy and dusty book from its eternal resting spot on the professor’s writing table.

“What are you waiting for? Oh, let me do it!” cried Sirius as he barged in front of Remus who was gently flipping the pages, murmuring, “P… p… po… ah! There we go, pos…. post…” With alarming speed, Sirius flicked the pages over, skimming over the words in a second.

“You missed it!” moaned Remus. “Now you’re in the Q’s!”

“Moony, of course I didn’t. P is after Q!”

“Did you ever pay attention in kindergarten?” he said, now slightly amused.

“No, I knew all of that already,” Sirius sniffed, exaggerating every movement. “My mum always gave me the most talented of witches for teachers, but none were good enough for me! They told me, never get detention. They said, always be kind! And the one I paid most attention to of all was of course, never run around with werewolves as friends.” At this, he gave a lopsided smile and Remus lifted the corner of his mouth into a half grin.

“Very funny. But if we’re going to find this charm, you’d better go back to the P’s.”

Sirius grumbled good naturedly as he quickly turned the pages back to the P section.

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

Meanwhile, Hermione tapped her wand against her desk. All the students were again in an uproar, many whispering, “I can’t believe he’s back!”

“Do you think because there’s a cure for Lycanthropy?”

“Finally! A good teacher! I mean, really, one was loony, one was a fraud, one was evil- no, I mean really evil as in You-Know-Who, and the other was just plain nasty!”

“Malicious, you mean!”

When class was over, the student rushed out while Hermione gathered her things quietly. Her mind was racing. Why was Professor Lupin here? Did he know about James and Lily? Suddenly Ron rushed into the room, panting.

“Hermione! She… Harry… I know I wasn’t supposed to…”

“Ron!” she commanded, making his jaw drop. “Stop! I can barely understand a word you’re saying. Now please, calm down and explain yourself.” She said with authority, hoping to sound like a teacher. Surprisingly, it worked.

Ron jabbed out the story, his eyes wild. “And then Harry came around the bushes...” he gabbled.

“What??? Harry! Did he find out? Does Lily know? Oh gosh, Ron, we’ve made a mess of the past! Harry might not even be born, You-Know-Who…”

“She doesn’t know. Not yet, but I almost told her,” breathed Ron. “But she heard his story, how his parents died and everything. She thinks it’s terrible.”

Hermione was overcome with an overwhelming urge to laugh. “This is too weird, Ron, way too odd. Yes, even odder than your owl.”

“Lily’s coming over here soon and Lupin’s here to help us. I think, anyways. He went off to see James.”

“Well, I see we have an excellent tab on everyone,” commented Hermione sarcastically. She liked to have everything within her reach, within her knowledge, but not today apparently.

Lily burst into the room, her hair windswept and eyes wide. “Why is James running around the castle as a stag, following Remus around IN PLAIN SIGHT???”

“Oh no,” moaned Hermione as she started to jog up the stairs. “Could he ever stay put one minute?”

“Not the James I know,” Lily added, as she followed Hermione upstairs.

James peered around the wall, watching Remus intently. He was going to show him to be young again, the exhausted old Moony. Prancing eagerly, he waited until Moony rounded the corner before galloping down the hall.

Professor McGonagall was scribbling on a piece of parchment when she saw a flicker of running legs. It actually looked suspiciously like a deer… no. It couldn’t be. Why would a deer be running around Hogwarts? Shrugging her shoulders, she went back to writing as Lily, Hermione and Ron flew past her door, running valiantly to catch James.