"I made up all sorts of stories."
Chapter Six: The Strangeness of Lupin
James walked down the hall agitated. It wasn't the fact that the team had laughed at him that made him upset; he had expected that. It was what the captain had said to him when he was done trying out. The cool voice ran in his head as if someone had hexed his worst moment to repeat over and over again.
"Wow, you're really good, but we can't put you on the team. It would make us look bad. You understand, right?" James had just stared at the captain in utter astonishment. Why was he even bothering to tell this to him? It made no sense, he could have just said no. That would have sufficed. So, as the words had lingered in the air James just stared stupidly at the sixth year talking too him. When he found that the captain had nothing more to say, he turned away to leave the Quidditch pitch for the library. Then the captain called out to him once more. "Hey, James," James turned around, though, somewhat unwillingly. "Next year, if you try out you'll be guaranteed a spot."
James furrowed his brow as he tried desperately to stop thinking about what had just happened to his pride. It wasn't fair! He hated being eleven. He was too young to do everything everyone else got to do, but, at the same time, he was also too old to do the things he used to do when he was at home with Sirius. He sighed and looked down at his watch, a little after one. He had to get to the library for yet another one of the meetings they had planned to have, which he was already late for. They had been having these meetings for the last few weeks, trying to decipher how long it would take them to get the prank done and over with. And because of all their careful planning they were finding out rather quickly that if they kept up at the rate they were going now, the prank wouldn't even happen until late November, which was a very disturbing revelation for all four of the boys.
They had found the spell that they needed to use for the prank and it was simple enough, Peter was the only one who was having any problems with it. Another thing that they had expected would happen, anyway, because from what they had viewed in the first week; potions was the boys only specialty. Yet, aside from the spell every thing was in fair enough order, all they needed now was the password for the Slytherin common room. This had seemed like a simple enough thing to do, until the beginning of this week when Remus had begun to acquire chronic headaches, which, in affect, had caused him to sit out during their information treks. But the strangeness of Lupin became extremely apparent the day before, when, during History class, he had had a little seizure. This little incident had even gotten the attention of Professor Binn's, which in itself, was quite a feat, especially, when even the man’s death itself hadn't fazed him in the slightest.
When this incident had happened, James found that it was rather strange for him to see one of his best mates bodies tense up for a short period of time and then start to shake violently. However, the strangest part was when they went to help him and he told them to back away, claiming that he didn't want to hurt them. James remembered vividly that tears had rolled down Remus' face as he had uttered those words. When he looked up at his friends, with nothing short of fear showing plainly in his gray eyes, the three Gryffindors: his only friends, had done nothing but stare in shock and fear themselves. For the rest of the day James hated himself for not doing anything for his mate. What kind of friend wouldn’t at least offer some inkling of help? A very bad one, at least in James’ mind, and he had tried very hard to make it up to Remus since then. Though Remus didn’t seem to mind at all, he kept trying to avoid the subject, saying that it didn’t matter.
Yet, as the rest of the week had unfolded it became rather obvious, or at least that was what it seemed like to James, that he had been the only one concerned with Lupin’s condition. Because, even after the seizure had taken place both Sirius and Peter had just gone to the common room without even thinking twice about how Lupin had to spend the rest of the night in the hospital wing with only Madame Pomfrey for company. And even there it seemed that James was wrong once again, for when they were in their dorm, away from everyone and their comments and accusations about what had happed in the class, Sirius had mentioned something extremely interesting. When people have seizures they have no clue what is going on. Lupin had talked to them, right in the middle of his convulsion. Remus had known exactly what was happening to him.
James had had a sleepless night over that revelation and, as a result, had also had a very hard time in Potions class the following morning because of it. It didn't help matters at all that Professor Lamia was also in a very sour mood, for one reason or another, and was taking points off of both Houses left and right. She gave Sirius a detention that would be served later on that evening for talking back when she had taken ten points from Gryffindor when he had answered a question correctly, but hadn't worded it in the exact way their textbook had.
James looked up from his thoughts, amazed to find that he was already in the library with no clues as to how he had managed to get there so fast. He saw his friends sitting at the last table, well out of earshot of the other students. He then noticed the nosey librarian, Madam Pince, who had already yelled at the four many times previously for appearing to be “up to no good,” a phrase the four boys had since taken a rather large liking to.
"Nice of you to join us." Sirius said, without looking up from the book that contained the memory charm within it, but as the words rolled off his tongue he instantly regretted it. "How'd you do?" He asked to make up for his previously cold tone. When he finally looked up at James he hit himself mentally for letting the words leave his mouth at all.
"I didn't make the team, if that's what you mean." James looked at his friend, reading the disappointment Sirius felt towards him that was written clearly in his eyes. "It's okay." Sirius' eyebrow cocked upwards. "Honestly!" James took a good look at his two friends and realized something wasn’t right. "Where's Remus?"
"Lupey?" Sirius asked dumbly as James glared at him. It wasn't right to call Remus a name that all of them knew he hated just because he wasn't there. Sirius felt the glare and went on with his voice sounding more aggravated than it had to begin with. "Oh, he said something about having to visit his sick cousin or something."
James nodded and took a seat directly across from Sirius. They sat in silence for a while as Sirius reread the directions on how to do the charm aloud to Peter, which gave James time to slip into his own thoughts once again. Lupin had said something about having to visit his cousin earlier that week, but was it truly a good idea for Remus to be visiting a sick cousin when he himself was ill. After awhile James was brought out of his train of thought when Sirius stared at him for a bit and then waved his hand in front of his face to get his attention once more.
"Come back to earth, James."
James blinked and stared at Sirius as he slowly but surely managed to process his words. Once they had clicked fully in James’ mind he sighed. "So did we get any new information?"
Peter nodded enthusiastically, obviously very proud of some deed he and Sirius must have accomplished while James had been busy being humiliated by the Gryffindor Quidditch captain. "The common room. It's really far down in the dungeons-"
"It's located way under the school. We took your cloak so we could follow a Slytherin down there while you were busy trying out for the team." James nodded as Sirius had confirmed his beliefs.
"So you got the password?" James said finally feeling that his day was beginning to look up.
Peter and Sirius exchanged glances. "Well, no." They stated together.
James couldn't hide his disappointment. Sirius immediately saw this and took over the meeting once James’ face had fallen into a look of complete displeasure. "James, don't. We actually almost got in but we couldn't understand what that Douglas Spinat was saying. So Peter and I have been thinking an-"
"That could be dangerous."
"I don't appreciate your sarcasm." Sirius retorted critically. James just gave him a defiant stare willing himself not to come back with anything he might regret later on, which would almost certainly be the case if he did. "Anyway, as I was saying. Peter and I were thinking and have come up with two plans. One, we can go back down there and wait for them to actually say the password intelligibly-"
"Which will probably never happen." Peter chimed in.
"Or we could gang up on one of them and scare them into telling us the password. I'm quite partial to that idea." He said with a mild smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.
"Fine, when Remus comes back we'll do it." James said earnestly, torn between the fact that Sirius was right about the password and just wanting the meeting to come to an end.
"Okay." Sirius replied disappointedly. Then he pulled out James' invisibility cloak from Peter's backpack and placed it on the table. "I have to go." Sirius continued with a sulking manner.
James watched him leave and turned to Peter who kindly pointed out the obvious. "He's mad at you."
"I know." James sighed. "He's been really touchy lately." James looked down at his cloak sitting openly on the table, and took it in his hands and turned to Peter. "You don't mind?" He asked.
Peter just looked at him. "Go."
James smiled at him, appreciating the fact that he didn’t care if he was left alone, and got up and walked down the hall. He threw his cloak around himself once he had reached an abandoned hallway just outside of the Defense Against the Dark Arts room. Then he continued to walk down to where Sirius was supposed to meet Professor Lamia; the dungeons. When he reached the classroom he lingered just outside of the room, waiting for the occupants to leave for the designated detention room for the night. Eventually, Sirius was lead out of the Potions classroom and down the hall, up the many stairs, and out of the school to a large hut just outside of the forbidden forest. He followed them as silently as he could. Once Professor Lamia knocked on the door the giant man they had seen during their first night at Hogwarts, opened the door and greeted them with a warm smile.
"This is Sirius Black, Hagrid. The student that will be helping you this afternoon."
"'ullo, Sirius." He greeted pleasantly.
Professor Lamia frowned at the giant, and spoke to him as coldly as she could. "Don't be friendly with him. He is in detention, remember."
"Righ'." Hagrid agreed and looked down at Sirius. "So yeh were talkin' back in class." Sirius nodded. "Well, you'll jus be helpin' me in me garden." Hagrid then led Sirius to the opposite side of his house where a large garden laid. James followed them shortly after he had gotten out of Professor Lamia's trek back up to the castle in her usual hurried yet, oddly enough, graceful huff.
James watched as Hagrid explained to Sirius exactly how he was to weed the garden, without magic, and how to use the bug killer. Which was to aid against having any unwanted pests that might eat away at his giant pumpkins that were just beginning to grow. When Hagrid was sure Sirius had understood and could do what he had just instructed, he left the garden patch and walked over towards the Quidditch field. James took this as his only chance to talk with his friend that evening, aside from after he got back from his detention. And who ever knew when that would be? He hopped over the large fence that surrounded the garden, stood behind Sirius and poked him in the back. Sirius jumped slightly at the unexpected event and turned around and stared right where James was standing.
"What do you want?" He asked with a tone of indignant hurt hanging clearly in his voice. James took off his cloak and sat on the fence, ultimately choosing to ignore Sirius' attitude.
"I wanted to ask you what's wrong. You've been kind of detached lately." Sirius made a mocking chuckling sound but said nothing. "Oh, come on Sirius, don't be like that." Sirius just pulled out a very large weed and tried as best as he could to ignore James.
James sighed after ten minutes of sitting, finally realizing that Sirius was not going to talk with him, and hopped back over the fence. He then began to walk back up the hill to the castle, completely defeated for the day. Sirius tried dreadfully to keep his mind on his detention work but ultimately he couldn't. He threw down the weed that was gripped firmly in his hand, stood up and turned towards James' retreating body heading off towards the castle.
"James wait!" James stopped in his place and turned towards Sirius as the setting sun glared in his eyes. "You want to know what's wrong?" James nodded. "You don't do anything with just me anymore. It's always let's wait for Peter to get it! Or let's wait until Remus has gotten better from his seizures or whatever else he comes down with! It's not fair! You're my best mate and I'm being pushed to the sidelines as you usher in new people to take my place!"
James felt his mouth drop. This was absurd. How could Sirius even feel that way? "Sirius, don't be daft! I'm not pushing you aside you're still my best mate!" Sirius rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine so now I can't have any other friends but you, fine! I'll just go up to the castle and tell Peter to shove off and find another mate."
Sirius stared at his friend blankly. He hated it when James did that. He always had a way of putting things that made him feel both daft and terrible all at the same time, and he often found that he hated that feeling too. He looked at James; too prideful to admit that he was wrong, and concentrated on the spot just over James' left shoulder. He starred there intently as two figures came over the ridge. He looked at them as they walked closer. "Remus?"
James rolled his eyes. "What about Remus?"
Sirius shook his head. "No, Remus." He pointed to the two bodies walking towards the both of them. James looked quickly behind him, threw his cloak back on and watched his sick friend walk past them with a older looking woman leading him across the grounds towards the Quidditch pitch. Sirius looked dumbfounded. "That was not Remus with his cousin." He said rather bluntly.
James nodded. "But why on earth would he be with Madame Pomfrey?"
"Maybe he got sick and had to change his plans."
"Maybe." James replied as he stared over at the position they had disappeared at. Both of them stood in silence, lost in their own thoughts. They didn't even notice the huge shadow that had loomed over them.
"Aren't yer s'posed tur be workin'?"
Sirius screamed and jumped a foot off the ground, before he turned around with his face painted a deep crimson color from his over reaction to the giant of a man’s voice. Once he did turn around, he was face to stomach with Hagrid. His head moved up the length of the gigantic man’s body and he just smiled weakly once his eyes landed on the kind face. "Sorry."
"Well, jus' get yer work done. The sooner yer get done the sooner yeh can get tur bed." Sirius nodded and went back to his weeding. James looked up at Hagrid, hidden underneath his cloak, as the giant started to work on the pumpkin patch, with Sirius, tackling the bigger weeds.
"I'll talk to you later." James whispered before he turned back towards the castle.
"Hey, I'm sorry I was a jerk." Sirius whispered back.
"No problem." James said as he started off towards the castle.
As he made his way back up the hill to the castle he found himself contemplating what exactly he and Sirius had just witnessed. He could hardly bring himself to believe that Remus would openly lie to them, but what he had told them certainly did not add up with what they had just seen. When he reached the fat lady and said the password in a hurry and stepped inside the whole which lead to their common room. Once he was inside he spotted Peter on the couch with a chessboard in front of him. James sat down opposite of Peter.
"I thought you might want to play." Peter said sheepishly.
James smiled at him and made the first move as a way of saying that he would definitely love to play with the small boy. They played two games in which James lost both of them because he was an absolutely horrid chess player. When Sirius came into the room he sat down across from Peter and looked directly at James.
"Something's up with Remus," Sirius said out of nowhere. "I don't know what, but there has to be."
James looked up from the chessboard at his friend with a lopsided smile. "I figured that."
Peter just sat between the two of them, glancing back at each of them, as they spoke while he tried his best to decipher the code in which they were speaking.
"Yeah, well, I asked Hagrid about what we saw and he said Remus had a detention."
James' brow furrowed in concentration. "But Remus never gets detention."
"No kidding." Sirius said rolling his eyes. They all knew that Remus tried his hardest not to cause problems and when it came to their pranks he was the one that made sure all evidence was dispensed of so that no one would get into any trouble. "Plus we would have been there had he have gotten one. I'm telling you, something is not right." Sirius leaned back in the comfy chair as he ran his fingers through his smooth black hair in frustration.
Peter continued to give the both of them strange looks, for a few seconds as they talked back and forth over what could possibly explain what they had seen. All the while, he tried to take in every word that they said only to find that he still could not understand any of it. Eventually, Peter gave up his futile attempts at trying to figure out what exactly they were going on about and swiftly told his Queen to take James' King and won the last match of the evening.