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A Terrible Idea


Gideon Prewett had not left the school. He was waiting for them not even an hour later in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, sitting on his desk, staring down at his own copy of the Daily Prophet, his eyes trained upon an article on page two. The warrant for Newt Scamander’s arrest had made the front page, but the story about Fabian Prewett being taken into custody had been on page two, accompanied by a picture of the shaggy-haired Prewett brother being apprehended by two burly looking blokes who were aurors, Peakes and Rhodes according to the caption. Gideon looked horribly morose and only just barely looked up when the troop of fifth years came in.

“Sorry about your brother,” said Peter awkwardly as he scrambled into his seat.

Gideon folded the Prophet and put it down on the desk. “I appreciate the sentiment, Mr. Pettigrew,” he replied.

Remus raised his hand.

“Mr. Lupin?”

“They haven’t captured Mr. Scamander, have they?” he asked, nervous.

Gideon shook his head, “Nor will they. Mr. Scamander is quite safe and well hidden. Do not worry for Mr. Scamander.”

“And Tina? And Bradley?” Remus pressed.

“All safe.”

Remus felt better instantly and he breathed a sigh of relief.

“They can’t have much evidence against Fabian,” James said, “Yeah? So they’ll let him go quick, right?”

Gideon shrugged, “It’s hard to tell. These are uncertain times.” He slid off the desk, standing up and walking ‘round it to the professor’s seat behind it.

“They didn’t bring him to - to Azkaban, did they?” Sirius asked, a slight tremble at the name of the wizarding prison.

Gideon shook his head, “The cells in the Ministry are just as bad these days though… crawling with dementors…” his eyes went all funny and unfocused a moment, then he murmured, “We share feelings at times… Fabian and I…” He blinked himself back to the DADA classroom and said, “I’ve been trying to cheer myself up all day, so that perhaps he will feel something besides despair.” He paused. “It isn’t working very well.”

Lily Evans arrived, a bit late, to the classroom, breathless and her hair a bit mussed up. James couldn’t help but wonder if she’d been with Jasper Odair all this time and his stomach felt a bit sick as he looked her over, as he noticed the details of her flushed face and slightly swollen lips... She clutched her books to her chest and slid into her chair. She looked around at the sad expressions. “What’s happened?” she asked.

James reached into his bag and withdrew the paper, tossing it onto Lily’s desk.

“Newt Scamander?” Lily said in surprise, seeing the headline, “But - but he seemed so nice…”

“Of course he seemed nice, he is nice!” Remus exploded. “The Daily Prophet is into publishing lies and rumors, it seems!”

Lily flushed.

Sirius turned ‘round to face Gideon, “What about the Patronus lesson? You said -- I mean, it seems like it would be the best thing now, doesn’t it? Nobody’s safe, and the dementors are being placed everywhere by a nutter who’s going after heroes instead of bad guys now - we can’t be left vulnerable. Everyone should know how to protect themselves against the darkness.”

Remus nodded, and so did Peter, James, and Lily.

Gideon answered, “I agree. Which is why I’ve decided that I’m going to offer it school wide. Dumbledore has agreed and we‘ll be posting the notice in the morning. We’ll be starting Saturday morning.”

The morning after the full moon. Sirius looked at Remus.

James’s hand shot up.

“Yes?” Gideon looked at James.

“Quidditch is on Saturday morning,” James said quickly, never gladder that he had been given such a horrid time for Gryffindor practices. It would help get Remus back from the Shrieking Shack in time for the lesson. “Can we move it to afternoon?”

Gideon made a face. “I’ll talk to the Headmaster.”




True to his word, Gideon’s Patronus class was announced the next day through a parchment on the notice boards in the house common rooms - and he had succeeded in changing it to Saturday afternoon. The whole school seemed to be talking in hushed, excited voices about what the class would entail and what is a Patronus anyway? Remus and Lily were barraged by questioning first years in the Gryffindor common room, and James found that a few of the younger students on the Quidditch team were asking him about it. The presence of the dementors, it seemed, had been bothering everyone in the school, and the idea of soon having a defense against the terrifying creatures brought a bit of hope, despite everything going on.

Newt Scamander, after all, was still on the run, and many of the students in Hogwarts had worked themselves up into a right emotional knot over it.

“What if he comes and takes us away? He can get into Hogwarts.” Ollie looked nervously around the table where the first years were doing their homework, accompanied by Lily Evans and Remus Lupin.

Remus shook his head, “There’s nothing to worry about, mate,” he said, “Mr. Scamander didn’t take those kids. Didn’t kidnap them. He rescued them, and if anyone says otherwise, they’re liars.”

Ollie still looked nervous - all he could think was that if he were stolen, nobody would ever be there to notice he was gone.

“The Minister’s Granddaughter says he’s done it,” said Dexter, “Why would she say that if he hadn’t done it?”

“I dunno,” Remus replied.

Lily said, “Maybe she’s just mistaken. She’s only a little kid.”

“Yeah,” Remus sighed.

“Maybe it was just someone who looked like Newt who kidnapped Lucy,” Lily went on.

Remus mused, “Maybe.”

“Newt Scamander is one of the most famous people in the entire world,” Liam said from his seat on the other side of Dexter, next to Vivian. “She’d have to be thick to mistaken somebody else for him.”

“Unless they were in disguise,” said Darcy. “Like in a costume, playing at being Newt Scamander.”

Remus looked down the table at him.

“Like a mask? That’s stupid,” Liam said. “Where is a person supposed to get a mask of Newt Scamander?”

“I dunno. A costume shop?” Darcy said, shrugging.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Wally spoke up. “They don’t have Newt Scamander masks at a costume shop.” He rolled his eyes.

Remus stood up quite suddenly. “Merlin’s beard. I gotta go.”

Lily watched as he crossed the common room to the stairs up to the dormitory, cramming his books into his bag as he went. She rolled her eyes and wondered if he planned to do any of his prefect duties of if they’d all end up falling to her to do?

Remus busted into the Marauders’ dormitory and was pleased to see that it was only James in there. He was sitting on his bed, playing with the snitch while he read his transfiguration textbook, lazily flicking his wrist to capture the tiny gold ball before it could get too far away as it zipped about his head. He looked up when Remus came in the door. “Sirius is downstairs,” James said.

“I was actually hoping he would be,” Remus replied, and he locked the door - just in case. “I need to talk to you. Without Sirius.”

James raised an eyebrow. “What’s up, Moony?”

“I’ve had an idea how you can get Regulus to talk to you.”

James sat up straighter, letting the textbook slide off his lap and the snitch took off to the ceiling with a gleeful buzz of it’s wings. “Yeah? What’s that?”

Remus sat on the edge of Sirius’s untouched bed and said lowly, “A disguise.”

“A disguise?”

“Yes.”

James narrowed his eyes.

“You have somebody dress up as Sirius.”

“That seems… like a very Sirius-ish idea you’ve just had. What the hell, Moony? Has he rubbed on you too many times and you’ve caught his tendency towards horrible ideas?” James teased, smirking. “Regulus is Sirius’s brother, I think he’ll notice if somebody’s just pretending to be Sirius.”

“Unless they looked exactly like Sirius, yeah?”

“Nobody looks exactly like Siris. Except maybe Regulus himself,” James argued.

Remus said, “Yeah. Too bad we don’t know anybody who can change their hair and face to look anyway they like…” He stared at James meaningfully.

“Maryrose?” James asked.

Remus raised his eyebrow.

“She’s Regulus’s girlfriend,” James argued. “She’ll never want to help us with that!”

“All the more reason she should want to help,” Remus said, shaking his head, “Regulus wants to talk to Sirius more than anything else, right? And Sirius won’t talk to him because he thinks it’s something horrible Regulus has to say. And I don’t blame him, I have my doubts about Regulus, too. But if we knew what it was Regulus wants to talk to Sirius about - then we can use that information to determine how hard we push Sirius to talk to his brother. Meanwhile, you get the information about Snape that you want.”

James stared at Remus, “That is a terrible idea, Moony.”

Remus stared at James, “I know. But it’s the only one I’ve got.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I definitely am going to try it, but it’s still a terrible idea,” James laughed. “Padfoot’s definitely infected your brains.”

Remus laughed. “He is pretty infectious.”




James stood nervously at the desk in Herbology, his palms sweating. Maryrose was unbundling herself from her coat and scarf in the corner. When she’d finished putting it all up, she came over and took her spot beside him at their rough hewn wood table, sitting on the tall stool that was hers. Before them sat pots with soil and shovels that Professor Viridi had put on all the desks. James stared at the vines that hung over the edge of the clay pot and he glanced a nervous eye to where Sirius and Remus were, Sirius prodding his plant with his wand, distracted by the way the vines reacted… Now was his moment, Sirius would never hear him in all the pre-class talking and shouting.

James turned to Maryrose. “Hello.”

She looked at him like he was mental. This was one of the first times he’d done more than grunt in her general direction. “Um…. hello.”

James cleared his throat. “I um. Nice, er, weather. Yeah?”

“....yeah.” Maryrose tried not to look out the window at the blistering wind and snow that was swirling its way across the grounds - it was anything but nice.

James shifted uneasily, “Look, I know we never talk… but, um… see, there’s this thing going on -- between me and your, uh, your boyfriend… Regulus Black.”

Maryrose looked at him.

“And I need your help.”

My help?”

“Yes.”

Professor Viridi was at the front of the classroom then, clapping her hands and getting all of their attention turned to the front of the room. At their desk, Sirius was fighting with the vines to give him his wand back after they’d taken it away, sick of him poking at their leaves.

“Can we talk? After class?” Jame asked her. Maryrose had turned to face Viridi, her bright pink hair nearly neon against the earthy colours of the Herbology green house. James’s eyes were bright and hopeful as he stared at her. “Please.”

She took deep breath, and nodded.

James smiled.

At her table, Lily looked up from her spot next to Peter and her eyes fell on James just as his mouth split into a grin as he looked at Maryrose… it was the sort that made his lip catch his tooth and her heart gave a little jolt. For some reason, Lily had always had it in her mind that James Potter only looked at her like that, and… and somehow she felt rather disappointed that it wasn’t a private grin that he reserved only for her. She picked up her little shovel and pulled the pot of vines closer to distract herself.

Peter looked up at her. “Alright, Lily?” he asked her.

“Yeah.” She lied, “I’m fine.”