Friends 'Til The End
- He looked over to see James running towards him, trying to catch up. -
Sirius stood on the foot of the stairs, dumbfounded at what he had just witnessed. He jumped out of the way of a fuming Remus, who had just shoved past him to get to his dormitory. Sirius looked over at Remus’s sister who just shrugged and mouthed for Sirius to go after him and talk to him. She wanted to deal with James. Now was as good a time as any to end this feud before it got any worse.
Sirius was only too quick to oblige the order. He turned on his heel and dashed up the stairs. He opened the door to the second year boys’ dormitory to find Remus in a rage. He was sitting on his bed, muttering wildly under his breath, kicking the nightstand and ignoring the stabbing pains he received in result. Remus muttered something that seemed to be directed to Sirius, but he didn’t understand it.
“What, Remus?” he asked, a bit timidly, not wanting his friend to blow up at him.
“Who does James think he is?” Remus yelled, balling his hands into tight fists. “How could he just say that to me?”
“What did he say anyway?” Sirius hadn’t heard what had set Remus off so badly, but he knew that whatever it was had something to do with Remus being a werewolf.
“He came over to me and said they only wanted normal people on the team, looking right at me! It’s not my fault I’m a stupid werewolf! Why does he have to rub it in so bad?”
Sirius shook his head; he didn’t know how to handle it.
Rachael watched lazily as James came back up from the Great Hall with three ice cubes wrapped up in a napkin and held it gently against the side of his mouth. He sat down opposite Rachael, who immediately sat up and glared at him.
“Don’t even say it,” he muttered, casting his eyes down to the floor. “You’re going to say I deserved it.”
“Yeah pretty much,” she agreed.
“Well, I don’t need a lecture.”
“Too bad because you need one.” James looked up expectantly and settled himself in his seat; this was guaranteed to be long. “What’s wrong with you, James? How could you say those things to Remus?”
“Because!”
“Because isn’t an answer. You can’t just call him those things. How would you like it if he could call you those things and he did? You’d be just as angry as he is. James, Lily doesn’t like you so just face it. Don’t take it out on one of your best friends. It isn’t worth it.”
“Remus, can I talk to you.”
“No.”
“Come on!”
“No!”
James had made his way up to the boys’ dormitory, attempting to talk to Remus, who was lying on his bed, doing some Charms homework. However he wasn’t doing it very well. He was answering all of his questions with an attitude, which he knew Professor Flitwick wouldn’t be happy, but he didn’t care. He just needed something to occupy his thoughts, and what better way than homework?
“Remus!” James whined.
Now he wants to talk to me, Remus thought bitterly as he copied down the next question for his homework. Remus sat up and pulled the hangings around his bed, blocking James out of sight. He watched as the outline of James crossed over to his bed, pulled off his cloak and made his way back over.
James grabbed a handful of the hangings and yanked them back around. “I want to talk to you!” he said firmly.
But Remus didn’t care how firm his voice was. Why should he talk to him? “Oh now you do?” he snapped suddenly. “Why do you want to talk to a freak like me for?”
Oh nice guilt, James thought, mildly impressed. He shook his head. “Because I want to talk to you!”
“Fine, let’s talk. How come you’re acting like such a big jerk? How come your head hasn’t exploded from being so big yet?”
“How come you’re acting like such a baby?”
Remus’s eyes flashed dangerously. “How come I’m acting like a baby?” he asked incredulously. “You’re the one who’s acting like a baby! You can’t handle the truth! You asked for the truth and I gave it to you! Now you’re just proving what Lily said.”
“Yeah I asked for the truth and I’m sorry that I blew up at you. Are you ever going to forgive me?”
“No,” said Remus simply, shutting his Charms book and putting it under his arm.
“Remus!”
“No! You’re supposed to be my friend and you called me a freak of a wolf. What kind of friend does that?” And before James could say another word, Remus had ran out of the dormitory, leaving him open mouthed.
“Remus, what’re you doing here?”
It was a little after curfew for the second years and Remus had just ambled into his father’s classroom. His father was straightening some of the desks out when he saw his son walk in.
“Dad, can I please just stay in here for a while?” Remus begged.
“It’s already past your curfew; I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be-”
“Please, Dad! I can’t stand being in the same room with James while he’s awake.”
Professor Lupin raised his eyebrows slightly and nodded in a defeated manner. How was he supposed to deny his son when it came to a feud with his best friend? Remus smiled gratefully and took a seat in the nearest desk and restarted his Charms homework while his dad went over the next day’s lesson.
Remus scratched his chin with the tip of his quill as he thought about the question: What is the proper wand movement for the Silencing Charm? Remus didn’t know that… They weren’t due to learn that until fifth year. What was Flitwick playing at? Was he just trying to torment them endlessly with this ridiculously hard work? But it wasn’t so hard… he could have just asked a fifth year for the answer. Now it was too late. All the fifth years were in the common room and Remus couldn’t go now that he had begged his father to let him stay in the classroom.
He stared blankly at his sheet of parchment, unaware that he hadn’t blinked for at least two minutes and his eyes were beginning to water. He quickly blinked and tried as hard as he could to think of an answer. But it was no good. He just scribbled in the first movement that came to mind, which just happened to be the movements for the Levitation Spell.
“What’d James do to get you mad now?” his dad asked, looking up from his lesson plan.
“He told me they only want normal people on the Quidditch team,” Remus answered with difficulty.
Professor Lupin shook his head. He had as much trouble as his son did in understanding how James could act like that. All he could do was try and keep his son’s spirits up, which wasn’t working, as Remus was so miserable. “Don’t let him bother you,” he said encouragingly. Remus shrugged. He couldn’t help but let it get to him. James was his friend and how could he just say those things? Professor Lupin checked his watch. “James should be asleep by now, why don’t you head back up to the dormitory, here’s a pass.”
Remus snatched the pass from his father and left without even saying a goodnight.
It was early Saturday morning. The castle was still quiet and lifeless as the occupants were taking advantage of no classes, both staff and students. Gryffindor Tower was still quiet, as most of the students wanted to sleep in rather than head down to breakfast. However the stillness was broken quiet suddenly by a loud screech owl hovering in front of one of the open windows.
All of the Gryffindors rushed down to see a little brown owl fluttering outside the window, clutching a letter, screeching madly. One of the prefects broke through the crowd of disgruntled first years. He snatched the owl and pulled the letter off of its foot and sent the owl back to wherever it had come from.
“Whose letter is this?” he wondered aloud. “Rachael Lupin,” he read. “Someone go get her.” Alice Gordon heeded the prefect’s request and raced up to the dormitory to find her friend, who’d not been awoken by the loud screeches. “This came for you,” said the prefect, once an extremely groggy Rachael came down from the dormitory.
“Thanks,” she said tiredly, taking the letter and bringing it up to the dormitory. She sat down at the desk and carefully opened the letter. She didn’t even need to look at the return address. She knew who it was from, and she knew it wouldn’t be a nice response. Rachael wondered why she’d even bothered writing to her mother about Remus’s unexpected outburst the other day. She thought maybe her mother would be mildly interested. However the minute she’d sent the owl off she regretted it. She wasn’t looking forward to the response.
She slowly unfolded the letter and, much to her shock, found no capital letters in the response. But it still wasn’t the response she had hoped for. It was short, sweet and very much to the point.
How dare you make up such lies! Stop sending me lies!
Rachael didn’t know why but those two sentences sent her into a fury. She ripped the letter to shreds and tossed them in the waste bin. Her mother was such a… such a… oh she couldn’t even say the word! All she knew was that she was going to get her mother back for all the misery she put her through, all in one simple way.
“You work things out with James?”
“James? James who?”
“The James that shares a dormitory with us maybe.”
“Oh that… I thought that was just a lump taking up space.”
Remus and Sirius were sitting at the Gryffindor table, waiting for Peter to arrive so they could head out onto the grounds, as they’d promised to watch Peter to attempt a flight on a broom. But Peter was sleeping in and they didn’t want to disturb him. “Besides,” said Remus, picking up a spoonful of oatmeal and letting it drip back into the bowl, “what’s the point? He doesn’t want to hang out with me, remember what I am?”
Sirius groaned. “Come on,” he said desperately. “You know you want to apologise. You’re just being stubborn!”
“So?”
Sirius couldn’t help but smile. He resumed his breakfast, completely dropping the subjects of the Remus and James Feud. As they were heading out to find Peter they saw Rachael sitting under the steps in the Entrance Hall, scribbling on a piece of parchment, looking very irritated to say the least. They walked over.
“What’s that?” asked Sirius, gesturing to the piece of parchment, which she quickly shoved into her robe pocket.
“Nothing,” she said, in a very unconvincing voice. Sirius raised an eyebrow. “Seriously, it’s just a bit of homework.”
“And why are you doing homework under the stairs?” Remus asked, folding his arms across his chest, looking down at his sister.
“Look, drop it!”
The two boys nodded and resumed their search for Peter without another word to her. Once they were gone she looked at the sheet again. It was a calendar of all the full moons. She’d spent all morning charting them, trying to see which one fell closest to her mother’s birthday, December 27th. The closest one happened the fall on Christmas and that was when she was going to put her plan into action. She had it all planned out ever since her mother sent her that first letter back at the orphanage.
She was going to earn her mother’s love back. And if the only way to do it was to condemn herself to the life her brother had been cursed with… well then… she was willing to do it.
“Peter sleeps like a rock!” Remus exclaimed as he and Sirius attempted to wake their slumbering friend, but it was no use. They’d tried rolling him off his bed, only resulting in searing pains in their lower backs. They tried screaming really loudly in his ear, only earning themselves sore throats. And they’d just resorted to dumping a glass of ice-cold water over his head. Nothing worked. He was worse than Sirius sleeping.
Sirius walked back and forth in front of Peter’s bed, rubbing his sore back as he did so. “You know he could always go flying when he regains consciousness,” he said reasonably, but with a hint of joking in his voice.
Remus nodded, seeing as how if Peter wouldn’t wake up, even after having water dumped on him, then he must be really tired. They grabbed their cloaks and went off to the pitch without him. They walked over to the broom shed so Sirius could use one of the school brooms so he could practise for tryouts for the following year.
“Sure you don’t want to try?” he asked Remus as he shifted through the Cleansweeps. Remus shook his head; he wasn’t much of a flier. “Okay, your lose.” Sirius grabbed the one in best condition and led the way to the pitch. Once they arrived at the pitch Remus almost immediately suggested going back up to the castle. When Sirius asked why, Remus merely pointed to the sky and Sirius saw why.
Up in the air, soaring on his Comet Ninety was James, practising some of his Chaser moves. Sirius shook his head; just because Remus didn’t want to be where James was wasn’t going to stop him from practising. Remus shrugged hopelessly and resigned himself to the bleachers.
“Remus!” said a voice from behind. Remus was walking up to the Owlery, eager to visit his owl, when a voice stopped him. He looked over to see James running towards him, trying to catch up. Remus didn’t know why, but he didn’t speed up like he usually would, instead he slowed down his pace. Utterly surprised, James fell in step with Remus. “I need to talk to you,” said James.
Remus half shrugged, meaning ‘whatever’.
James smiled. “Okay, I’m really sorry for saying all that stuff and acting like such a jerk.” He looked at Remus for signs of acknowledgment, but Remus was staring straight ahead still walking to the Owlery. “And…uh… I know you were just saying what Lily said and you’re not a freak.”
Remus still wasn’t looking at James. They’d reached the Owlery and went up so Remus could visit his owl. He spotted him on one of the rafters and motioned for him to come down. Remus took a side-glance at James, who was biting his lower lip, apparently trying to think of something to say. Remus stroked his owl as he looked through the window down onto the grounds.
“I was a real jerk and I know it and I’m just really sorry. I dunno how I could’ve acted like that.”
“I could tell you that,” Remus muttered bitterly, letting his owl go back up to the rafters.
“Come on!”
“Look, you don’t know how angry I was. I never had friends to make me that angry. But I will forgive you.”
So all was right with James and Remus and because of their forgiving James was able to make amends with Sirius and Rachael, who were more than happy to see they had stopped fighting. Later that day the four boys were sitting at the table in the Gryffindor common room, talking in hushed voices so as to not attract the attention of the other Gryffindors. They had been discussing Remus’s situation with the full moons and how it was hard for him to handle them while being by himself.
Sirius was talking about overhearing Professor McGonagall giving a lesson about Animagi to a group of Hufflepuff third years. She had explained it as being very complicated and that there were many risks involved.
“But how’re we going to know what animal we’re going to become?” Peter asked Sirius.
Sirius scratched his head, trying to remember what he had heard his professor saying. “I think it was something like whatever our personality was like, our animal would portray it or something,” he said uneasily. He wasn’t entirely sure but he was sure that was more than likely the answer. “The only bad thing is it takes a really long time to learn. We might not master it until fifth year.” He glanced over at Remus, who grinned slightly.
“They’re plenty more full moons to come.” Remus couldn’t help but smile at the idea his three best friends had made because of him. Even though it was illegal, he wanted the company of his friends on the nights when he was forced to transform into a werewolf. He could only imagine what his friends would be able to turn into. Sirius was loyal and always there when you needed him. He was a little bit of a sneak at times; particularly when there was a plot against the Slytherins was involved. A dog maybe…
James was difficult, not as easy to point out as Sirius. He was also pretty loyal, a true friend, although he did tend to be a little pompous and overbearing at times. Remus just couldn’t think of an animal that best suited James’s personality, nor could he think of one for Peter.
He’d just have to wait and see.
The next few weeks were very uneventful. As a matter of fact a mere three weeks seemed to be three lifetimes at the speed it was going. Rachael sometimes felt as though time had stood still for a month and was surprised to find that it had only been one day. James, Sirius and Peter had begun their research on Animagi, and so far their searches were fruitless. It was impossible for them to find any information in the library, which had been purposely been stripped of any books teaching the art of human transformation. All of the teachers had also refused to give the boys permission to look in the Restricted Section, which was where all the books were held.
Meanwhile, Remus was doing all he could to help them, trying to persuade Professor McGonagall to give them permission that is. Remus was always very persuasive and could usually get his way if he really tried. But, try as he might, none of the staff, not even his father, would budge and give them a book. So they were left to teach themselves. He thought at least his dad might give him permission. But he was just a strict as Professor McGonagall when it came to practising Animagi, though Remus failed to mention that they were going to attempt it when he mentioned it.
The first full moon of the school year was approaching, of course setting Remus a bit on edge. But other than being a little quiet, he was fine. However it wasn’t Remus that everyone was worried about, it was his sister this time. She was acting very oddly, always seeming to be looking at the moon intently whenever they were up in the common room, something they’d never seen her do before. But whenever any one dared to approach her about it, she would simply brush away the subject and go about her business.
They didn’t dare approach her after she’d finally blown up at them about it, yelling at the top of her voice that what was wrong with her was none of their business. However she had inadvertently told them that there was something wrong, just not what it was. But still, now that they knew, they wouldn’t ask her about it. They’d figure it out on their own.
The day of the full moon James, Sirius and Peter bid Remus farewell as he made his way to the Hospital Wing, just a mere hour before the full moon would rise. Unlike the year before, Remus felt that he didn’t need to spend the entire day of the full moon in the Hospital Wing. It was just giving himself more trouble by constantly being bored. So at six in the evening he left the common room and went down to the infirmary. While Remus was spending his night in the Shrieking Shack, his friends would be spending their night in the Restricted Section. They’d figured it all that morning as they were heading to Transfiguration.
“We use my Invisibility Cloak,” said James in a hushed voice as they trudged through the mass of students making their way to their first period classes.
“You have an Invisibility Cloak?” asked Remus, sounding fascinated.
James nodded proudly and explained it was a family heirloom that his father had just passed down to him. He said he kept it stashed in his trunk at the very bottom, just in case any curious folk wanted to snoop around.
“So tonight,” James said in an official tone. “We go to the Restricted Section and research away!”
“You guys are sure about this?” Remus questioned, sounding a bit nervous. He didn’t want his friends stepping out of bounds on account of him.
“Dead sure.”
“No you stupid pawn! Move that way!” Rachael shouted at her chess piece as she prodded it to the correct square on the chessboard. She and Lily were having a grueling match of wizards’ chess and Lily was winning at the moment. Rachael had particularly rebellious chess pieces that were purposely moving to different spaces. Lily, on the other hand, had most obedient pieces that were obeying her every command. Lily was enjoying this very much, as she’d never beaten her friend at chess before.
“Stop laughing,” Rachael muttered as she threw a smashed piece of her bishop at her giggling friend. Lily dodged the flying pieces, but wouldn’t quit laughing. “It’s not that funny!” snarled Rachael indignantly.
“Yes it is!” Lily chocked.
Rachael rolled her eyes at the absurdity of her friend, who was still chuckling as she tried to give her pieces a command. “Oh suck it up already!” she shouted, grabbing another handful of smashed pieces and chucking them at her friend, who yet again dodged them and burst into another fit of hysterical laughter. Rachael stood up and stood over her chuckling friend. “Did someone give you a Laughing Potion?”
Just at that very moment there was a shriek of laughter, this time not coming from Lily. Rachael looked up to see James, Sirius, and Peter sitting on the steps, laughing their heads off at Lily, who was completely unaware of what was happening.
“We couldn’t help it!” Sirius blurted out, looking at the evil glare of his friend. “It was too good of an opportunity!”
Rachael nodded. “Sure you couldn’t,” she said sarcastically, kneeling down next to Lily and pulling her up off the floor where she was pounding her fists. “Now what to do with you…”
As a debt for giving Lily a Laughing Potion, the boys were now forced to break into the storage room in the dungeons to get the potion to reverse it, along with their midnight trek to the Restricted Section. The boys stole out of Gryffindor Tower, narrowly avoiding waking up the slumbering Fat Lady, and made their way through the dark to the library.
The boys walked quickly and cautiously, hoping to not run into Mrs. Norris, because then they were as good as caught as Filch would be running towards them, Invisibility Cloak or not. The boys had never wandered around castle after dark and they suddenly realised that it was both terrifying and yet the most exciting thing they’d ever done. The castle creaked and made odd noises, scaring the boys at first. But then they realised that it couldn’t be possibly anything that would harm them. It would just be a ghost and what could a ghost do?
Then again it might be Peeves causing his usual havoc… but it was the dead of night and there was no one to unleash the terror on. In the end, they knew that it must be things all extremely old castles did, so they paid the noises no mind. They crept down the second floor corridor, looking around for the library, which was near impossible with the torches missing their bright flames. However they did manage to find it, only after walking into it.
James rubbed his throbbing nose and gently leaned forward on the door, pushing it open, while carefully avoiding making it creak. They tip toed across the threshold, cold on their feet, absent of shoes so their footsteps wouldn’t echo in the corridors. Sirius pulled out his wand and muttered, “Lumos.” The tip of his wand ignited, letting a feeble amount of light shine a path for them. They crept slowly around the library, looking around for the Restricted Section.
With the help of Sirius’s wand, they managed to find a mangled and dusty sign hanging above a set of bar doors. They had found the Restricted Section. They had never been near the Restricted Section, let alone this far into the library, before and they found it quite odd that it wasn’t guarded or locked. All there was was a pull out latch that separated this section from the others. They thought this was too easy.
They entered the Restricted Section, expecting sirens to wail and teachers to come bursting in. But there was absolutely nothing. Removing the cloak cautiously, the boys made their way to the A Section.
“So we just need to find a book,” James hissed as he bundled up his cloak under his arm. Sirius nodded, eyes wide open and ears perked for sounds of Mrs. Norris or Filch. James stepped over to a shelf and began sifting through all of the books. “Eh… Alchemy of the 20th Century…Alice the Warlock wow that’s weird…Animagus for Beginners. Found it!”
He pulled out a thick book that was chained to the shelf and dropped it on the desk with a particularly heavy thud. The three flinched and looked wildly around, fearing that the thud may have attracted some unwanted attention. To their intense relief, however, the castle was still and no one had noticed. Sirius and Peter crowded around James, who heaved the book right side up and opened the cover.
“You know, this is too easy…” said Peter apprehensively, looking over his shoulder.
“Oh come on,” groaned James.
“Pete’s right,” Sirius agreed. “Don’t you think they’d’ve made it a bit harder to sneak in here? Being ‘restricted’ and all…”
James glared at his friends for being so sceptical. If this place were guarded at all, then wouldn’t the guard have shown himself the minute they stepped foot in the library? But nothing had indicated that they shouldn’t be there (with the exception of the rules to which they had purposely neglected) so they needn’t be worried.
“Guys, if there was any guard then we would’ve been caught already,” James reasoned. But nothing James said would reassure them that they were going to get caught and receive detention for a month for being out of bounds. James shuffled through the first few pages of the book before he suddenly felt a burning sensation on the palms of his hands, which were laid across the book.
“Uh, James…” Sirius jerked his head down towards the book James was looking at and saw that it was glowing red and smoking. James jumped backwards into Peter, knocking him into a bookshelf, which began swaying violently.
“Peter, move!” James shoved Peter out of the way, Sirius following at a quick pace. They raced out of the library while the books began falling out of the shelf.
“The cloak, James!” Sirius yelled.
“Where’d I put it?” James hissed, noticing he wasn’t holding it. Peter looked over his shoulder and saw the cloak lying helplessly under a pile of books. Panicking, James doubled backwards and began throwing the books that were on top of his cloak in various directions.
“’Ey, who’s there?” came a voice not far off.
“No it’s Filch!” Sirius panicked. He and Peter ran into the main section of the library and saw a faint light growing larger and larger as Filch approached the library. “James! Hurry!”
James grabbed three more books and dropped them next to him and picked up his cloak, dashing towards his friends and flinging it over them. They ran to the library exit but stopped short upon noticing that Filch was standing there, hunched over and holding a bright lantern.
Holding their rapid breath, the boys slid over to the left and waited for Filch to enter far enough so they could slip out unnoticed. But Filch was taking his time observing the room, listening with perked ears for the slightest sound of movement to indicate the boys’ presence. He turned from left to right, left to right holding his lantern farther out.
“Now what’s this?” he wondered aloud, having spotted the mess in the Restricted Section. The boys glanced at each other. They were more than dead now. Filch would find them and they’d be scrubbing the floors for the rest of the year. But to their luck…
“PEEVES!” Filch barked, trudging to the pile of books that James had made. “I’LL HAVE YOU NOW PEEVES! Wait until the Headmaster hears about this one…” Filch laughed menacingly at the thought and went to fix the mess. Thinking they’d better leave now rather than later, the boys slipped out of the library and began making their way back towards Gryffindor Tower.
However the moment they’d reached the portrait of the slumbering Fat Lady, Peter remembered that they had to go retrieve a reversal potion for the one they’d given Lily.
“Can’t we do that tomorrow?” James whined, wanting to go to sleep.
“No,” said Sirius firmly. “Rachael’s had to wear earplugs all day to drown out Lily. And, might I add, it was your idea to give her the potion anyway.”
“But-”
“Come on, James.” Sirius and Peter grabbed James’s shirt collar and pulled him off down in the direction of the dungeon. This was the one part of their evening trek they had not been looking forward to. If the rest of the castle was this dark, they could only imagine how pitch black the dungeons could be… and the dungeons were their least favourite part of the castle.
“The door’s locked!” James said the moment he attempted to turn the doorknob to the storage room, only to discover that Professor Binstom had locked it. Immediately suggesting defeat, James made to run.
“James Potter, are you a wizard or not?” Sirius whispered in an offended tone. Sirius pushed James aside, nearly knocking the Invisibility Cloak off them in the process, whipped out his wand and muttered, “Alohomora.” Sirius pushed the door open and gave James a knowing look. The boys removed the cloak (knowing that Binstom would not be awake at two on a Saturday morning), and James pocketed it this time. He knew they needed to avoid another close call.
The storage room was cold and damp and the jars of potions rattled noisily in the constant breeze. Peter pulled out his wand and lit it, guiding them to the potion they needed, which they hastily grabbed and dashed out of the dungeons and back up to Gryffindor Tower.