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A Curious Happening (Moony)


Hogwarts was particularly deserted. The Gryffindor common room was silent and the halls were nearly empty. Remus felt like the only person in the castle practically. He sat in the Great Hall for breakfast, at an awkwardly clear Gryffindor house table, a stack of textbooks on the bench beside him where James, Sirius, or Peter usually sat, and watched the cluster of Slytherins across the Hall as they leaned close together, talking in muted voices amongst themselves. Most of the students had gone home for the holidays, leaving behind only thirteen - seven of which were Slytherin. The only other Gryffindor was a fourth year girl who had a boyfriend in the fifth year Ravenclaw house and she'd spent all her time either in the library with him or at the Ravenclaw table, making friends with them, leaving Remus quite alone. Remus hated being alone, it reminded him of his time spent in the Shrieking Shack, missing his friends.

“My, my,” came a voice, “Aren't we studious?”

Remus looked up to find Professor Tutman standing opposite, looking down at the stack of books that towered around him. “Oh. Yeah. Well, all my friends went home for the holiday,” Remus explained with a shrug, “So I thought I'd just keep brushed up, sir.”

“Very good,” Tutman said with a smile.

Somebody cleared their throat from the doorway of the Great Hall and both Tutman and Remus looked over and saw Lucius Malfoy in the frame of the great arched door, peering in their direction before walking swiftly across the Hall to the Slytherin table, where he bent low, talking into the ear of Severus Snape.

“Odd,” Remus commented. “That Malfoy bloke is strange. I'm surprised none of your dark detectors pick up on him. I'll bet he's loaded with dark intentions.” He frowned, thinking of some of the things Sirius had said about Lucius.

Tutman seemed nervous. “Well… I suppose… too many variables...” he murmured. Then, “I'll see you in class, Remus. Keep up the good work studying. I need to go and see Professor Slughorn about… something. Good day.” And off he went, quickly, his robes swishing around his ankles.

“Odd,” he murmured for the second time.

Remus turned back to his books for but a moment because before he had even figured out where his place had been in the book, none other than Horace Slughorn came in the room, nearly walking into Professor Tutman as he crossed the entrance hall, and disappeared through the door to the dungeons, glancing back over his shoulder as he went.

Remus's suspicions rose.

Tutman had not even slowed down to pause when he passed Slughorn.

He'd lied to Remus about where he was going.

But why?

Remus got to his feet, nervous, and tucked his school books into his bag hastily, then rushed after Tutman into the corridor that led down to the dungeons, trying to move lightly to keep his trainers from making a racket on the flagstone steps. He could just see Professor Tutman's robes disappearing around the next bend in the corridors as he rushed past Professor Slughorn's office and the potions storeroom. Remus clutched his book bag to his hip, pausing in the stairwell that led up to the storeroom to watch down the next corridor and catch his breath.

Tutman had come to a stop in front of a doorway, looked both ways (luckily Remus ducked back into the well just before being caught) and then went inside.

Remus's heart was pounding so heavily in his chest that it felt as though it might burst at any moment. He sat down on the step, staring across the dungeon, wondering what on earth that room was. His mind went fleetingly to the map that Sirius had proposed and how nice it would be to know what every room in the castle contained – if that were even possible, given the magical properties of a place like Hogwarts, that is.

One thing was certain, however, and that was that Professor Tutman was someplace that he shouldn't be. He was miles away from the Defense Against the Dark Arts wing, and nobody but Slughorn had offices in the dungeons. The only other thing down here was the Slytherin house common room.

Remus decided to go and see if he could hear anything through the door. He got up and snuck down the corridor, hoping for some clue for what was in there.

“What are you doing down here?”

Remus turned around quickly and found Lucius Malfoy's steel-blue eyes staring down at him quite coldly. Severus Snape was at his side, giving Remus a funny sort of look. Remus looked up at Lucius Malfoy, glowering down at him, and thought quick as he could, reaching into his bag and withdrawing his potions book. “I had a question for Professor Slughorn, if that's quite alright by you.”

Malfoy stared for a long moment at Remus, and Remus hoped against hope that Malfoy hadn't seen Remus see Slughorn enter the Great Hall or else his whole lie would collapse. “So go to his office then,” he said sharply, “We don't want any Gryffindor half-bloods skulking around Slytherin corridors.”

Remus feigned surprise, “Oh. Sorry. I though this was his office. I must be lost. Is this the Slytherin Common Room, then?”

Lucius and Severus answered at exactly the same moment:

“It's a toilet,” said Lucius.

“You're lying,” said Severus.

Remus swallowed back his nerves.

“You know where Slughorn's office is, you were at the Slug Club Christmas Party. I saw you. You brought along Potter.” Severus said Potter with so much contempt that the name sounded like a curse.

“Snooping about, are you?” Malfoy sneered.

“No, no,” Remus replied, shaking his head, “I thought – I thought I saw Slughorn and Tutman… go in this – this door -”

Malfoy stared at Remus.

The door opened and Tutman stepped out and for the split moment that it was opened, Remus saw past Tutman that the room was indeed a toilet. A very nice toilet, indeed. One wall was entirely lined with a mirror and there was a great sunken bath and an ornate sink. Then the door slammed closed.

“Get out of here,” Malfoy snapped. “Stop putting your filthy nose in where it doesn't belong or you'll be bloody sorry.”

Not about to question Malfoy further, Remus ran from the corridor as quickly as he could, his trainers smacking the stone floor and his books thumping against his hip without a mite of hesitation. He rushed up the stairs, through the castle, all the way to the Gryffindor common room, the only place in the whole castle where he was sure they wouldn't follow him. He didn't stop to catch his breath until he was safe, the door locked behind him, in his dormitory, sitting on his bed, hugging his pillow. He panted, his lungs burning.

What had he just witnessed? What was going on? Why was Professor Tutman in that Slytherin toilet? Malfoy had something to do with it, Remus was sure of it, and if Malfoy had, then so had Severus Snape. Maybe there was something to Sirius's issues with Snape, more than Remus had given credit for. He'd always felt a bit bad for Severus whenever Sirius and James started teasing him, but now… Remus wasn't sure what to think. He was so confused, and he wished more than anything else that one of his friends were there to discuss this with him, to help him figure out just what was going on.

When he'd caught his breath a bit better, he got up and went to his desk, pulled a bit of parchment to himself and quickly wrote a letter to James. Of all his friends, James seemed like he would be the best to write to because his parents weren't into dark magic, like Sirius's were and Remus was much closer to James than to Peter, really, and so it was James to whom the note was written.

Something just didn't seem right about it, Remus wrote, his quill scratching the parchment urgently. Tutman never paused at all when he saw Slughorn and then Malfoy and Snape just happen to be in the corridor at that exact time as well… It looked like a prefect's toilet. Why would he be sneaking off to a Slytherin prefect's toilet?

Once he'd finished his note, he rolled it up and sealed it and carried it off to the owlery tower, jumpy at any sound that might be Malfoy or Tutman coming after him. He was glad to find Bubo, James's owl, on a perch among the school owls. He called Bubo down and tied a note to his leg. “Bring this home to James,” he said to the owl. “It's very important.”

Remus stood and watched as Bubo flew off, becoming a dot over the Forbidden Forrest, frustrated that he was alone and having to ponder such a curious happening without any of his mates.