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James’s Idea


Every motion of Remus’s body was like a sharp reminder of how horrible he was. He winced as he bent down to pick up the used copies of textbooks he’d got and put them in his bag. He cringed at the weight of the bag on his shoulder and the feeling of the starched school uniform shirt touching the raw skin on his arms and chest where he had scratches and cuts still healing from the moon. And worse was looking at James. James would be smiling at him and all Remus could think was how close he’d been to biting his neck, how much he’d wanted to taste his blood. It made his stomach churn and he hung his head, staring at his feet, not wanting to look up. Every time he saw any of his friends eyes he felt a pang of guilt, and he imagined disappointment in their eyes, even if it wasn’t really there he saw it anyway.

He’d been most upset to find Lily knew about what happened, too, when she’d pulled him aside after their first Charms lesson and hugged him, “I know why you’re upset, Remus,” she’d whispered softly, “It’s going to be alright… please, don’t look so sad.”

“So they told you, then?” Remus murmured, keeping his eyes downcast.

“I made Potter tell me,” Lily admitted.

“Just as well, you should know to avoid me, I’m dangerous,” he whispered and he’d pulled out of the hug and walked away.

Lily caught up to him, “It wasn’t your fault,” she said.

“Of course it was,” Remus said, “I never should’ve taken the risk I did and --”

“Rey, you took a nap,” Lily said, “You took a nap, that’s all you did. There’s nothing wrong with taking naps. It’s perfectly allowable. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Remus shook his head, “You don’t understand… I knew I needed to go to the Shrieking Shack. I should’ve gone and taken my nap there if I was going to take one. I’m horrible. I nearly murdered one of my best friends.”

Lily said, “But Rey - you aren’t yourself when you’re -- changed.”

Remus didn’t cheer up though.

In an effort to cheer him up, Sirius dragged him along to see Professor McGonagall to add Muggle Studies to their class roster, saying it would be great fun to study muggles together. “Imagine how angry my mum will be when this trickles home that I’m studying muggles on purpose?” he laughed, “And you’re half-blood so you’ll do brilliantly - you know how muggle stuff works… and it’ll be fun, having a class, just us two, won’t it? We can trade notes and do homework together… We can work on assignments on Moon Days in the Shack together!”

Remus had just shrugged, “Whatever you want to do,” he’d said.

“I’m worried about Remus,” Sirius said quietly at dinner to James and Peter that night, when Remus refused to go down to the Great Hall with the others, saying he thought it would be best if he stayed in the dormitory unless he had to leave it. “He’s taking this whole thing entirely too hard on himself. I’m trying my damnedest to cheer him up, but it’s simply not working. Any suggestions?” Sirius looked between the two of them.

James sighed, “I dunno mate.”

“Nor do I,” Peter agreed. He sighed, “I think we need to think of something, though. I feel so awful for him.” He hesitated, “I hate that I was right about this being a possibility.”

“Was wondering how long it would take you to bring that up,” James said, rolling his eyes.

“I mean it though, I hate that it’s happened!” Peter said, “I do!”

Sirius shook his head, “He didn’t mean for it to.”

“I know that,” Peter argued, “I didn’t say he did. I’m sorry that I was right. I didn’t want to be!”

“Then why are you gloating on it?” Sirius snapped.

“I’m not gloating on it!” Peter exclaimed, not understanding how they’d got so wildly defensive so very quickly. He scrambled, “I’m not, I don’t care that I was right! I wasn’t even trying to point it out or anything - I was just --”

“Then why bring it up at all?” James demanded.

Peter looked desperate, “Because! I was just saying I felt bad for him and --”

“Shut up, Peter,” Sirius said, “Bloody hell. Why are you so obnoxious about everything? It’s not Remus’s fault, alright?”

Peter stared at Sirius with big, wet eyes, and he got up and ran off from the table.

James sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “Well, you’ve done it now,” he said to Sirius.

Sirius scowled.




It was the middle of the night. All four of the Marauders were asleep in their beds, Peter had the covers pulled up right to his nose, and had since he’d returned from the Great Hall in tears earlier that evening. Remus had tried to talk to him, but Peter had refused to say what was the matter. He hadn’t meant to offend James and Sirius, it really wasn’t intended as gloating, what he’d said - he honestly was sorry for what he’d said back in first year, honestly was sorry that it had happened. But he was very much afraid that Sirius had meant it when he called Peter obnoxious.

He’d laid there all evening, Sirius’s voice echoing in his mind, wishing that he knew how to be as cool as the other three, wishing that he could do better at fitting in with them, better at being brave…

Peter…. Peter Pettigrew.

He opened his eyes. The room was dark. None of the other boys had moved at all, though Sirius was moaning a little bit in his sleep across the room. It hadn’t been any of their voices that Peter had heard. He sat up and looked around.

Peter…

“W - who’s there?” he whispered, nervously.

But no answer came.

Finally, wildly thinking for a solution - any solution that might calm his nerves - he decided that James must’ve set some sort of creepy spell to scare him and he looked over at him and he said, “It’s not my fault, either, I’m still learning how to be brave!” and he quickly rolled over and pulled the blankets up over his head.

Peter…

He refused to look into it again. James might think it funny to tease him, but Peter wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of seeing it work. So he screwed his eyes up tightly closed and went to sleep, fuming at James Potter.




“I’ve had an idea,” James announced the next day when Remus was walking ahead with Lily Evans instead of with them, “I think we should fix up the Shrieking Shack.”

“Fix up the Shrieking Shack?” Sirius sounded dubious. “How do you mean?”

“Well it’s so dismal and dusty and blah - no wonder he doesn’t want to go out earlier than he has to, no wonder he wanted to take his nap here instead of out there. Why don’t we three sneak out some night this month, before the full moon, and we’ll clean it up and repair some of that furniture and get some real blankets, make a little bed for him to relax on before the full moon. We’ll go upstairs and maybe we could set it up real good. Maybe… maybe we could start hanging out there sometimes on weekends, bring some good memories to the place. Right now, it’s all moon night memories and it’s awful going out there. Reminds him of nothing but awful stuff.”

Sirius stopped in his tracks and looked at James, a wide smile spreading across his face, “You’re bloody brilliant - good one, James!”

James grinned, then, wanting to keep him included, asked, “What do you think, Peter?”

Peter looked exhausted, all red in the eyes and quiet. “Yeah, great idea.”

Sirius pretended Peter hadn’t said anything at all, but launched into making plans quietly under his breath with James about what it was they could do to improve the Shack. “It’ll be like a clubhouse,” he said excitedly, “A private spot for us Marauders to go to get away from it all!”

“And we’ll put a spell on it, like a disillusionment charm or something, so if anyone besides us goes in there, it still looks all dumpy and rubbish. So nobody’ll suspect it’s being used as anything else.”

“You are on fire, Mr. Potter,” Sirius said excitedly. “Seriously, what’s going on in that brain of yours? Have you stolen some of my mastermind thinking?”

“I have,” James answered, “You see, when you were sleeping one night, I wrung out your hair and it turns out you’re just dripping with it.”

Sirius laughed, “You better not have touched my hair or I’ll hex you.”

James played at grabbing at Sirius’s hair and Sirius ran after him down the hallway, shouting, “WATCH OUT, HEX COMING THROUGH!” Making other students jump out of the way, including Lily and Remus, as they sprinted off down the corridor.

Lily shook her head, “Those two… they’re so immature.”

Remus nodded. “Yeah…”

“Can’t believe you like him so much,” Lily answered.

“They aren’t as bad when they aren’t around each other. They sort of tend to get worse then. And James is really bad when you’re around.”

Lily rolled her eyes in annoyance, “Oh I know it. You know, he actually tried to say that he isn’t mean to me and doesn’t make fun of me? Prat.”

Remus raised his eyebrows. “Don’t tell me you don’t know.”

“What?”

“That James fancies you?” Remus said.

Lily laughed, “Stop it, Rey.”

“No… Lily, for real. He fancies you. He’s head over heels for you. Haven’t you noticed all he ever does is show off in front of you?” He pointed as James was shouting something about being a master dueller ahead and challenging Sirius to a real one, calling Frank Longbottom to be his Second. “That’s all for you.”

Lily stared at James as he and Sirius squared off up ahead, each laughing and smirking as they circled one another in the hall, causing utter chaos. She came to stop, not wanting to get involved in whatever they were doing. “Well he needs to stop it. I don’t fancy him back, nor will I ever. Especially not with him showing off like that. It’s insufferable.”

Remus laughed, “Oh I know.”

Lily would always watch James a bit more closely after that, though.