Hogsmeade Revisited
The morning after the full moon, rumors began flying about the castle that the Head Girl, Alexandra Cooper, was in jeopardy of losing her position after having a loud shouting match with Professor Dumbledore. It appeared that Cooper was seething about a Gryffindor fifth year Prefect by the name of Remus Lupin, who did not show up for his patrol duties and instead had Severus Snape take his place. She was quite serious when she told the Prefects that they would not be able to negotiate their patrolling times nor would they be able to trade with another student, especially without giving her a reason. Needless to say, Dumbledore was furious with the seventh year for taking it upon herself to try and assign the Lupin boy detention the next time she saw him and for having the nerve to barge into the Headmaster’s office and yell at him for allowing this.
Remus found this all out late in the afternoon the day after the full moon. He had been emerging from the Hospital Wing, tired and achy, when Cooper swooped down on him from out of nowhere, and began shouting about how he had no right to skip his duties the night before. She threatened him with two weeks of detention with Professor Kettleburn and Hagrid, helping them care for the school’s pack of Thestrals. Remus had no idea what Thestrals were, but he would not bet anything that they were friendly, cuddly creatures. The moment Remus opened his mouth to retort, Professor McGonagall materialized from around the corner and assigned Cooper to detention with her for all of the month of October and sent her to the Headmaster’s office, again, to be spoken to. The Transfiguration professor filled Remus in on what had passed that day and sent him off to the common room, remarking on how unusually well he looked after a full moon.
Professor McGonagall’s comment was true. He had never felt better after a night in the Shrieking Shack. The only aches and pains he had were from the transformation. There was no sign that he had harmed himself in a brutal manner, except for a scratch or two along his face and arms and they were by no means deep at all. Madam Pomfrey had been able to mend them in about three minutes. The only reason she kept him until the evening was to give him a chance to rest in peace, as he was considerably tired, and, mostly, because she was baffled as to why he was not badly injured, not that she minded this. She was elated that her monthly charge finally was able to keep his wolfish mind under control. It saved her from a lot of work and him from a lot of pain.
Remus found his friends sitting around the table in the Gryffindor common room, throwing Chocolate Frogs into the table until there was a pile that reached Peter’s chin before them. Curious as to what they were doing, he approached them and took the vacant seat beside Sirius, who looked as if he was counting the Chocolate Frogs in the pile.
“What are you doing?”
The three looked around at his voice. “Betting,” Sirius explained, tossing another Chocolate Frog into the fray.
“You know, maybe I should put you guys into a twelve step programme. This gambling is no good for you.”
“You do it too,” James accused him, picking his way through his pile of sweets. He pulled out a pack of Drooble’s and tossed it to Remus.
“Yeah, I do,” Remus agreed fairly, ripping the pack open with his teeth. “But I’m not nearly as bad as you three are.” He pulled out a piece of gum. “What’re you betting on, anyway?”
“How long it takes before Cooper’s sacked as Head Girl,” Peter told him giddily, dropping another piece of chocolate onto the very tip of the pile. They hated the Head Girl just as much as he did, mostly because she caught them trying to set off fireworks under the Slytherin table in the Great Hall during breakfast the other morning.
“The whole school thinks you’re a hero, by the way,” Sirius informed him, opening a Chocolate Frog he had not wagered.
Remus’s eyes widened at this unexpected news. “Me? Why?”
“Because of you missing your patrol last night, Cooper flipped out on Dumbledore and everyone knows it’s because of something you did. We’ve all been dying to see her get in trouble.”
Remus shook his head; it was amazing what the Hogwarts standards were for being considered a hero “ getting the Head Girl, an authoritative figure who was supposed to be respected, in trouble with the Headmaster. Well, he wasn’t complaining; he despised the girl just as badly as everyone else. It was a classic tale of hatred at first sight. He wouldn’t mind if she lost her position, though he was not entirely sure that a Head Girl or Boy had ever lost the title before. He knew for certain it had never happened in his father’s days at Hogwarts. His father certainly would have told him.
“So, about last night,” he began, dropping the volume of his voice so no one sitting around them could try and listen in. “I didn’t… hurt any of you, did I?” He may have, for all he knew, and chosen to block it out. If he had hurt any of them, they were doing an extraordinarily good job of hiding it. The three boys looked remarkably cheerful and uninjured.
“Nope,” Sirius answered, biting off the head of his Chocolate Frog. “Peter’s tail got stuck under a chair at one point, but that’s it. You didn’t have anything to do with it.” Sirius suddenly turned to Peter, observing him with a rather unusual expression in his eyes. “Does that mean you’ve got a bruise on your bum?”
“No!” Peter defended heatedly, shifting his chair away from Sirius. “And don’t think of checking either.”
Sirius shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
“I still can’t believe we did it.”
“Come on, Peter, we’re us. How could we not get it?” James boasted, drawing himself up to his full height.
“James Potter, once again thinking he’s the height of cool.”
The four boys whipped around to see Lily Evans standing behind them.
James’s hand instantly went through his hair, ruffling it. “Evans, you’re looking quite nice today.”
Lily ignored this and instead focused her attention on her fellow Prefect. Her eyes were filled with concern. “I just came over to ask how your mum’s doing. Is she doing any better?”
Remus fidgeted uneasily in his seat and stared at the girl’s right shoulder when he answered. “Oh… yeah, she’s feeling better. She sent me back here a few hours ago, didn’t want me missing too much school.” He swiftly changed the subject. “Did Snape mind taking over for me?”
“No, he seemed fine with it.” There was a hint of something else in Lily’s voice, but she said nothing to indicate what it meant.
“I bet he didn’t,” James hissed under his breath.
“Good…” Remus then went out on a limb. “Tell him, if he wants, I’ll do both his shifts for him next week.”
James, Sirius and Peter simultaneously dropped their mouths open. Remus was a fair person, they had learned to deal with this a long time ago, but they never thought it went to such an extent. “Oh, shut your mouths, you three,” he snapped at them when he saw their mouths gaping open.
“I’ll tell him you offered,” Lily promised. “Well, I’m meeting Alice and Frank. See you later.”
“Remus, are you mad?” James said once Lily had disappeared through the portrait hole.
Remus was undeterred by James’s shocked tone. “What? It’s only fair. He took my place for me, so why shouldn’t I do the same?”
“Because he’s Snape. He’s Snivellus. He’s revolting. That’s why!” Sirius raged as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“He’ll probably make you do his shift and yours,” Peter said, crumpling up a sweet wrapper and shoving it in his pocket.
“Lily said he didn’t mind taking over me for.”
“And we all know why.” James’s face contorted in disgust. He stood up and pushed his chair in under the table. “I’ve got to get down to the pitch.”
“Tryouts are still going on?” The last Remus had checked, Quidditch tryouts took no more than a day.
“Yeah, well, Jamie’s having a hard time deciding who our new Chaser should be.” Jamie Kirkland, James’s fellow Chaser, had been made captain of the Gryffindor team for her final year at Hogwarts. There were two exceptionally skilled players who had tried out “ sixth year Phillip Murphy and fourth year David Green. Today they were going to play a few scrimmages, using each boy to see who played better with the entire team. James waved to his friends and left down the same path Lily had taken moments earlier.
“So, what d’you guys want to do today?” Peter asked once James had gone.
Sirius’s eyes lit with mischief. “Blow up something in the dungeons?”
The new Gryffindor Chaser ended up being Phillip Murphy, who clobbered David Green in the final tryout, scoring twenty goals on his own, while David only managed to score six. The Gryffindor team began practises immediately following the tryouts. Those who had been on the team during the reign of Cory Hamilton and Lawrence Biggs were relieved to see that, while dedicated to her sport, Jamie was slightly more realistic than her predecessors were. She realised her teammates had lives outside of the Quidditch pitch. Their first match would be against Slytherin, a tough and determined, not to mention ruthless, team.
The first Hogsmeade trip of the year was approaching in mid October, during the second weekend of the month. This Hogsmeade trip was highly anticipated, as all the trips the previous year had been cancelled due to an attack on the village. But the village had recovered enough to now allow students back in to visit. Every student third year and up planned on taking the greatest advantage of their time in Hogsmeade, stocking up on supplies from Zonko’s Joke Shop and replenishing their sweets supply from Honeydukes.
The day before they were set to visit Hogsmeade, the boys were seated at the Gryffindor table, bemoaning the obscene amount of homework Professor McGonagall had assigned them. Professor McGonagall was renowned as a strict teacher, but she was going to lengths they had not thought possible “ a two foot long essay and practising spells. They would be up into the early hours of Monday morning completing this, even if they started Sunday morning and worked through the day.
“She’s mad,” Sirius hissed as the Transfiguration professor passed by on her way to the Staff Table. He checked to make sure she had not heard him and was now well out of earshot before continuing. “Doesn’t she realise that we have other classes?”
“Probably,” James lamented, spearing his potato with unnecessary force. “There goes all of Sunday.”
“At least we’ve got Saturday in Hogsmeade,” Remus said, trying to push some optimism into this conversation.
“Yeah,” Sirius agreed grudgingly. “But then when we get back and don’t come out of the common room for days because we’re doing that assignment, everyone will be wondering whatever happened to the Gryffindor fifth years.”
“They were swallowed up by the black hole known as Transfiguration homework.” James speared another potato so hard that it split in half around his fork. “She’s even affecting the way I eat!” He dropped his fork noisily onto his plate and pushed it away, his appetite gone.
“Glad to see you boys taking the homework load maturely,” said a bright voice from behind them.
“Stuff it, Evans,” Sirius muttered, throwing an angry glance Professor McGonagall’s way.
“Cheery,” Lily commented to Alice.
“I repeat: Stuff it, Evans.”
“Sirius, stop being rude.”
Sirius turned to gape at James. James was usually the only other out of the four of them that ever told Lily to stuff it. Now he had a problem with being rude to her? Remus and Peter were also wearing similar expressions of shock.
Lily shrugged and continued down the aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables with Alice to where Frank was sitting. The moment the redhead took her seat, James leapt from his own, gaining some curious looks from his friends, and walked casually to where the girls and Frank were.
“Evans,” James began, ruffling his hair once more. “I was just wondering… would you like to accompany me to Hogsmeade?”
Lily considered his offer for about a millisecond before shaking her head. “No, I don’t think so.”
The corners of James’s mouth turned down, but he instantly pushed them back up. “Are you sure?”
“Quite.”
“Come on, Evans.”
“I said no, Potter.” James’s mouth opened again. “No, Potter.”
But the rejection did nothing to thwart James. Every opportunity he could find, he asked Lily the same question and each time she responded with the same answer.
Saturday morning was chilly, the biting air immediately assailed the students third year and up that were making their way to the village. Many were surprised by this unusually cold weather. October was obviously a time when the temperatures started to decrease but not at the rate they had this day. It must have only been forty degrees out, forcing the students to bundle up in their heaviest cloaks, scarves and gloves. The Three Broomsticks, Hogsmeade’s local pub inhabited by the students, would undoubtedly be filled to the brim. Everyone would be desperate for a foaming mug of butterbeer to get warmed up with just after the walk into the village.
“So,” James said as they stepped onto the High Street. He blew into his hands and rubbed them together. “Where to first?”
“The Three Broomsticks?” Peter offered hopefully, wrapping his arms around his torso.
Sirius shot down this idea at once. “No way, do you know how packed that place is going to be? We’d be lucky not to have to drink our drinks pressed up against the windows.”
“And with our luck, we’d probably be squished right next to Snivellus,” James added, shuddering at the very thought.
Remus pulled his cloak tighter around his body, his teeth chattering slightly. “C’mon, guys, it’s cold. Can we just go somewhere?” The three equally freezing boys nodded eagerly. “Good, let’s just start walking. We’ll get warmer that way.”
And so they began their trek through the bitter gales assailing the High Street, their breath visible whenever they chose to speak. Yes, this was the first trip to Hogsmeade they’d had in a year, but they were now wishing Professor Dumbledore had thought to cancel it until the climate was more suited towards outdoor treks. As they made their way down the cobblestone street, they noticed that Hogsmeade seemed more crowded than usual. Every store appeared to be filled beyond capacity, leaving next to no room for movement. Every idea they had “ going into Honeydukes, Zonko’s, Dervish and Banges “ was shot down as they realised that, however cold they were, they did not want to be squished against others.
They had turned off the High Street without realising it when a fresh batch of rain fell from the sky. Now they sincerely wished they had gone into some store, rather bunched up than soaked through. The boys peered through the never-ending sheaths of rain and spotted a dingy pub just feet away. Judging from the wooden sign swinging in the wind, they still did not know what it was called. Glancing at each other, the boys shrugged and made a beeline for it. They didn’t care that they had no idea where they were going; they just wanted out of the cold. James pushed the door open and gestured for his friends to enter.
Their first impression of the room they were standing in was that something wet and hairy had recently died there and the smell was only made worse by the damp and gloomy weather outside. The floors were filthy beyond recognition and a person could barely see out of the windows. Still, they needed somewhere to sit and this place had available tables. Sirius volunteered to get their drinks, while the others picked a table.
“This place smells,” James hissed under his breath.
“What died in here?” Remus asked, keeping his voice quiet as the barkeeper looked their way. The man had probably never seen students in his pub before.
They took a seat at the first wooden table they approached and waited for Sirius to return. When Sirius did reappear, he was carrying four dirty glasses filled with butterbeer. “Cheers,” he said sarcastically, holding his filthy glass in the air. “The Three Broomsticks is looking pretty nice right now.”
James laughed and clinked his glass to Sirius’s. “I’d even brave Madam Puddifoot’s.”
Sirius pulled a face. “No way, mate, I’d come here over that place.” Just then the door to the pub opened and Severus Snape, followed by Evan Rosier and several other Slytherins they did not know by name, entered. “Lovely,” Sirius muttered. “The sight just got better.”
The Slytherins went to the bar to order drinks, as though they frequently came to this place and did not find it off-putting upon first glance. The boys returned to their drinks, not in the mood to start something with the newcomers. However, it was the newcomers that decided to start something with them.
“Isn’t the Hog’s Head a bit rough for you four?” Severus Snape sneered as he made his way toward their table.
“It must be,” James agreed sarcastically. “If people like you come in here.”
“I reckon we should be wetting our pants right about now,” Sirius added, feigning a look of the utmost terror.
“What brings you here?” Rosier asked in a low voice.
“We were hoping to avoid you,” Remus snarled, his hand clenching his glass so tightly his knuckles had turned white.
“Afraid of us, are you?” laughed a Slytherin they did not know the name of.
“Terrified.”
The boys drained their glasses and headed for the street, where the rain was still coming down in buckets. Much to their misfortune, they were followed.
“Running?” Snape jeered loudly over the splattering of the rain on the cobblestones. “I thought the Gryffindor boys were supposed to be courageous? Or was that a farce?”
“At least we’re not cowards like Slytherins,” James shot back angrily, turning to walk backwards so he could face Snape.
“Cowards? Hark, who’s talking!” shouted another nameless Slytherin.
James shook his head disgustedly and turned back around. He didn’t feel like dealing with their inane behaviour today. The visit to the village had been a bust and this was just making it worse. The moment he turned, however, he was struck in the back of the head with a hex and felt his front teeth elongating at an enormous rate. From the shouts of surprise from his friends, he knew he was not the only one hit with a curse. Sirius’s eyebrows had started thickening until they resembled black bushes hanging over his grey eyes. Peter’s legs were locked together and he overbalanced, toppling forward into the mud. Remus was still standing, but cursing under his breath and gripping his arm with a look of severe pain on his face.
“And you call us cowards?” Remus yelled at the Slytherins, rounding on them. “You attacked us with our backs turned!”
“That’s not cowardice, that’s strategy,” Snape retorted. The Slytherins surrounding him laughed appreciatively. “You do it to me all the time.”
Remus gritted his teeth and plunged his hand of his good arm into his robe pocket where his wand resided.
“Oh no you don’t, Mr. Lupin!”
The boys whirled around to see a harried and enraged Professor McGonagall rushing at them. What she was doing so far away from the High Street, they did not know. They did know, however, that she had seen the tail end of the spectacle. “What do you think you’re doing?” She stopped to catch her breath and her eyes took in the sight before her “ James with his teeth almost touching the ground, Sirius who could no longer see for the width of his eyebrows, Peter still lying in the mud and Remus who had paused midway through getting his wand and was watching her with widened eyes.
“They¬-” Remus began, but his face fell when he turned to where their attackers had been standing just seconds ago.
The Slytherins had taken this opportunity to bolt before Professor McGonagall could get a good look at their faces. The only sign that they had been there at all were their footprints in the mud and, of course, the four injured or misshapen boys.
“We didn’t do anything, Professor,” Remus assured the Transfiguration teacher. The last thing they needed was to serve detention for two weeks for a crime they had not committed. “I know you didn’t, Mr. Lupin,” Professor McGonagall said, her narrowed eyes following the path the prints were going in. “I was merely stopping you from giving me a reason to give you detention.”
“Oh,” Remus said, completely thrown by this. He bit his lip uncertainly. “Well… err… thank you…?”
Professor McGonagall nodded swiftly and turned her attention to James, Sirius and Peter. With three simple flicks of her wand, James’s teeth were back to their normal size, Sirius’s eyebrows were now neatly trimmed and the proper length and Peter’s legs were no longer locked together and his robes and face were clean of mud. “If you’ll excuse me, I have some business to attend to with Professor Slughorn about the behaviour of his students. Good day, boys.”
As Professor McGonagall vanished from sight, the boys continued on their way back to the High Street, their hair dripping with the relentless rain. “That was… I don’t even know what that was,” Sirius muttered, rubbing his eyebrows to make sure they still did not resemble overgrown caterpillars.
“Slimy gits,” James snarled viciously. “Attacking us with our backs turned. If that’s not being a coward, what is?”
“Just be glad they’re gone now,” Remus told him, rubbing his stinging arm. He rolled his sleeve up and saw the skin on his forearm was red and irritated. He winced, but continued rubbing the spot. “But you’re right, that was uncalled for.”
“Take points from Slytherin,” Peter begged him.
Remus’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t worry; when we get back to the castle they’re down at least twenty five points.”