[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
The Jamesless Days and Nights


James slept for two nights and just about three days in the hospital wing. Sirius snuck in everyday and stayed as long as Madam Pomfrey would pretend not to notice him there. He would sit with his feet up on the side of the bed, the chair tilted back on two legs, balancing a textbook on his knees, though he only was half reading it, staring at James instead. But then Pomfrey would finally come over to him and chase him off and he’d run to the dormitory and lay on his back on Remus’s bed, missing his friend and trying to think up ideas to cheer him up.

The second Jamesless night, Remus sat at his desk, scratching away at a paper due for Divination, concentrating very hard, when Sirius suddenly sat up. “Moony?”

“Hmm?” Remus murmured, not stopping writing.

“Is there a spell that sort of makes things… I dunno… switch places?”

Remus put down his quill and looked at Sirius with a raised eyebrow. “Switch places?”

“Yeah.”

“Like how?”

Sirius scooted himself so his back was against the headboard of the bed. “Well, say… say I used this spell on a thing and somebody grabbed, like, I dunno - say - say this book.” He picked up Peter’s latest Hardy Boys book from the nightstand and held it up for Remus to see. “So the moment I pick it up, boom, the switching spell goes on and suddenly it’s not this book anymore it’s… I dunno, an apple. Or something.”

Remus stared at Sirius with a bit of hesitation. “I dunno if there’s a charm that does it but… you might be able to simulate the effect by transfiguration…”

Sirius looked eager. “How?”

“Sirius…”

“What?”

“What’re you planning to do with this information, if I were to give it to you?” Remus asked suspiciously.

Sirius feigned his very best attempt at an innocent expression. “Me? Planning to do something?” He smiled, “Moonshine, I’m insulted. You think I’m that devious?”

“I know you are, rather,” Remus replied, “And the more you dance about the topic, the more suspicious I’m going to get.”

Sirius smiled. “You’re a prefect. Do you really want to know what I’m thinking?”

Remus stared at Sirius for a long moment.

Sirius batted his eyes.

“Bloody hell.” Remus rubbed his forehead. “Do you like detention? Is that it? Does it somehow turn you on or something?”

Sirius grinned. “I like being a bad doggy.”

Remus rolled his eyes.

“It’ll be important to helping James out in cheering up,” Sirius informed him.

Remus took a deep breath. “Alright.”

Sirius flung himself up from the bed and descended into the broken chair at Peter’s desk, kneeling on it so it stood on two of it’s three remaining legs, and leaned over onto Remus’s desk, grinning excitedly. “Let’s begin the planning!”

Remus said, “Can’t I finish my paper first?”

“Fuck the paper!”

Remus raised an eyebrow, “But if I don’t finish it, what will you copy from?”

Sirius frowned, sighed, and slid off the chair. “Alright, fine, finish the paper. But as soon as you’re done with that, we start planning. I’ll go get Peter. The more brains in on this operation the better.”

“He’s downstairs, I think he’s studying with Lily and the first years again…” Remus said, then, “If you’re going down to the common room, I’ll go with you, I should actually be helping Lily with them… I’ve been a horrible prefect…”

“You haven’t.”

“I have, really.” Remus stood up and grabbed his textbooks and the parchment, sticking his quill between his teeth and carrying the little ink pot in his palm. Sirius opened the door for him. “I’ve shirked off my duties quite horribly,” he said through the gritted teeth he held on the quill. “Including, perhaps most notably, having yet to actually assign you detention. Multiple times over.”

Sirius grinned. “You fancy punishing me, Moonsicle?”

“Moonsicle?!” Remus sputtered, spitting the quill to the floor.

Sirius grinned and grabbed the quill off the floor and put it into Remus’s mouth again. “Don’t you fancy your new nickname?”

“Not particularly,” Remus muttered ‘round the quill. Even as he said it, though, he couldn’t help thinking how glad he was to hear Sirius Black saying silly things again.

Downstairs, Peter had left to go to the library and Lily gone upstairs to get her textbooks, but Sirius joined Frank Longbottom by the fire at a game of chess and Remus headed over to settle in at the table with his homework. The first years were atwitter with excitement - it had been quite a while since Rey had joined them and they had loads of questions since they knew he knew James and Sirius quite personally and the rumors that were filling the castle about the circumstances surrounding Maryrose were quite wild with fiction. So far, those who knew little had cooked up such stories that ranged from a high speed broom chase gone wrong to Newt Scamander being every bit the insane kidnapping murderer the fake Minchum had painted him to be to Sirius Black having gone as mad as his folks and killed her himself with his bare hands.

The first years were especially interested in verifying that this last thing was not true.

“Sirius Black did not go mad and kill anybody,” Remus hissed, glancing over to be sure Sirius wasn’t listening. “Bloody hell - Sirius would never!”

“Just what we heard is all,” said Liam, shrugging, “And after how he’s been acting lately I s’pose it was just a matter of time ‘fore he ended up being the centerpiece in a bit of rumor like that, yeah?”

“Well it’s absolutely not true,” Remus snapped. The last thing he wanted was that ridiculous rumor reaching Sirius’s ears. He was only just starting to act more like himself! He turned back to the first years and asked, “Who told you a thing like that anyway?”

Vivian replied, “Marcella Rigby, she’s in Ravenclaw. She heard it from Asher Gould who heard Carly Shaw talking about it to Marlene McKinnon.”

Remus glanced around and saw Carly Shaw sitting with Annalee McKinnon and whispering quietly over their potions homework across the room, stealing glances Sirius’s direction. Remus turned toward them with determination, passing Lily Evans on his way. Lily looked over her shoulder as he passed, “Where are you off to looking so peevish?”

Remus muttered, “To set things right.”

Lily still looked rather confused, but turned to the first years at the table anyway, joining them and putting down her text books. Dexter and Wally were standing up on their chairs to see what Remus was about to do though, and Liam had craned his neck about. Lily raised an eyebrow, “What are you doing?”

“Watching Remus go mad on Carly Shaw,” replied Dexter.

“What?” Lily turned about to see Remus leaning over her chair to whisper in her ear....

Carly jumped as Remus leaned close to her and hissed, “What’s this about you’ve been talking rubbish with Marlene about Sirius Black? Starting rumors isn’t very nice.”

Carly looked up at him, “I didn’t start it! I heard it in Potions. Some of the Slytherins were discussing it. I was just telling Marlene about it.”

Remus scowled.

“Maybe if Sirius wasn’t being such a horrible bastard these days, things like that wouldn’t be started,” suggested Annalee.

Remus said, “Take it back and apologize.”

Annalee made a face, “I’ll take it back and apologize when Sirius Black takes back what a terrible person he’s been all month!”

“He’s been depressed!” Remus hissed, “Not that anyone else has taken the time to look beyond the sour attitude - so quick to write him off as evil and horrid when he’s only been hurting --”

“Sirius Black needs to get over himself!” Annalee snapped, “It isn’t as though he’s the first person in this castle to be sad! And what does he even got to be sad about anyway!”

“Depression isn’t the same as sadness!” Remus exclaimed.

“Well whatever it is, he needs to suck it up and stop being an overdramatic, horrible bitch to everyone!” Annalee said hotly.

Remus’s face burned red as beet, “You’re the bitch, Annalee, not him! You’re a heartless bitch!”

In the mysterious and annoying fashion that things like this often happen, the entire common room had managed to fall silent at the exact moment that Remus Lupin shouted the words you’re a heartless bitch so that his voice seemed to echo off the walls. Everyone in the room stared.

“WHOAAAA,” yelled Dexter from where he was standing on the bench of the table.

Lily suddenly appeared grabbing Remus’s shoulders and Annalee’s jaw dropped and her eyes went ‘round as saucers. Lily pushed Remus away, “He doesn’t mean it, Annalee, has had a terrible day, he has ---”

“But I do mean it!” Remus snapped. “You’ve broken Peter Pettigrew’s heart multiple times over because of your careless selfishness, and you say rude things, and do whatever it is you like! You’re a horrible heartless bi--”

“REMUS!” Lily said, covering his mouth with her palm, “Don’t say it again or I’ll give you detention!”

Annalee stared on shellshocked even as Lily led Remus away.

Sirius came bounding over, “What’s going on? Moonpie?”

Remus shook his head bitterly, “Nothing,” he said, but he glowered at Annalee McKinnon and then grabbed his textbooks and stormed away.

Sirius looked between Lily and Annalee. Lily, who had not yet heard the rumor or the first year students’ accounts of where they’d heard it, shrugged. Sirius turned to Annalee, “What’d you do to him, you nasty thing?” he demanded.

Annalee’s eyes flashed as she looked up at him, “I told him the bloody truth!” she said, and she got up from her chair and stormed off, too.

Lily looked just as confused as Sirius felt.




Luckily, Remus managed to keep Sirius busy and out of the earshot of whispering people the rest of that night and most of the next day, simply by indulging him in the quest to find a switching charm, for the prank he was planning, whose details he still had yet to divulge. “It’ll be brilliant, you’ll see,” was the most he would say on it, even as he requested help on the project.

But it was bound to only last just so long and Remus dreaded the moment when the rumor reached Sirius’s ear. It was only a matter of time.




Early Monday morning - what would be the third Jamesless day - in their double Potions with the Slytherins, rather than working alone on the assignment - since James was in the hospital wing still - Slughorn asked Sirius to join Lily Evans’s table… with Severus Snape. Sirius stood at the end opposite Snape, Lily in the center looking nervous, but doing her best to keep it from getting anymore awkward than it already was, babbling on and on while doing a majority of the work so that neither of the boys could really get a word in edgewise.

Mainly because she didn’t want what happened next to have happened at all.

“So is this how you plan to pass Potions, then?” Severus drawled, looking over at Sirius as Lily’s hands cut up a root they needed to add to the cauldron, “Sopping off other people’s work until you’ve scraped up a barely passing grade?”

“Sev, please,” Lily whispered.

Sirius looked up, “I’m working quite hard actually.”

“Yes, hovering a quite detailed process,” Severus muttered.

“Severus,” Lily hissed.

“I’m not just hovering,” Sirius answered.

“Then make yourself useful and cut up the roots instead of making Lily do it,” Severus said.

Lily looked up, “Why don’t you help me with them yourself?”

Severus looked abashed.

“Yeah, Snivellus, why don’t you help her yourself?” Sirius snickered.

“Sirius,” Lily turned to snip at him and when she did, her hand slipped and she cut herself. “Bleeding snorgaluff pods!” she yelled so that everyone else in the class turned to look.

Severus and Sirius both attempted to fix her, fighting over who was going to do it so that they ended up basically sword fighting with their wands as Remus looked on in horror from across the aisle between their desks. Slughorn ran over, shouting for them to stop and Lily turned and healed it herself as Slughorn attempted to break up the fight as Sirius began jabbing at Severus as though he were a swash-buckling sailor of the high seas and Severus finally got angry and shouted, “Pugnus!” and the spell swept at Sirius, who ducked it, laughing and waved his wand, shouting another incantation, and their fight turned into a miniature duel until Slughorn waved his wad and shouted, “EXPELLIARMUS!” and both their wands flew into his hands, effectively ending the commotion.

Remus, who’d ended up hit with Snape’s hex against James, had doubled over with a broken nose, dripping blood and Peter was leaned over him, squeaking “are you alright are you alright” at him as his face twitched nervously.

Sirius saw Remus bleeding and Peter panicking and his eyes widened as he looked turned to look at Lily, who was staring at him with stern eyes. Slughorn’s face was quite angry and red, too, as he declared Sirius and Severus would be serving a detention and he decided to keep their wands on his desk ‘til the end of class and declared that they would both be doing the work together - Lily Evans was to sit and let her hand mend - and they were to cooperate on completing the potion or they would both fail the assignment.

“But sir, you know I can brew this!” Severus complained, “I’ve done it before, in our private lessons! You called my draft of this most excellent! If it ends up messed up it’s because of him being careless! He doesn’t know how to do it right!”

“Then I suppose, Mr. Snape, that you ought to show Mr. Black how you do it right then, haven’t you?”

Severus looked like he wanted very much to send a pugnus spell at Slughorn himself.