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Remus’s Suspicions


James was on the stairs outside the portrait of the Fat Lady, his arms laying across the bannister, making his chest look even more broad than it actually was, and enjoying the attentions of Carly Shaw, Annalee McKinnon, and Emmaline Vance, who all stood about together on the stairs, talking with him, admiring him… James had been bragging for no less than ten minutes about his daily workout routine when Remus Lupin came up the stairs looking flushed with frustration.

“I need to talk to you,” he said, stopping at the foot of the stairwell James stood in, looking up at him over the heads of the cluster of females sitting around James’s feet.

Carly frowned, “Remus Lupin, you can’t have all the good looking boys for yourself! You’ve already got Sirius Black, go shag him and leave us alone.”

Remus stared at Carly for several seconds, then, as though she’d said nothing at all, he turned back to James, “It’s important.”

James ran his hand through his hair - a shiver went through the girls sitting around him as he did it - and he grinned. “Remus, you might’ve noticed, I’m kind of busy right now.”

“Yes but what I have to tell you is a bit more important than you holding court with your fawning admirers,” Remus said.

A smirk slowly crawled over James’s lips. “My fawning admirers, ‘ey, Remus?”

Remus stared at him imploringly.

James turned to the girls, “Well, ladies, it seems I must go with Remus.”

“Don’t go!” Carly said, jumping up to grab onto James’s arm.

“Yeah James, don’t go,” Annalee pleaded.

“Go with me to the Yule Ball, James,” begged Carly.

I was going to ask him!” Annalee protested, “I told you I was going to ask him!”

“Yeah well I asked him first!” Carly replied.

Annalee fumed, “But I told you --”

James held up his palms, “Ladies, please. I can go with you both to the Yule Ball.”

Remus rolled his eyes and let out a streaming sigh. “James. Seriously. Rather pressing matter.”

James shrugged as the girls looked at one another in confusion then back to him, “How do you go with us both?”

“We’ll work out the logistics later. For now, I’ve got to dash.” He jumped down the stairs quickly to Remus’s side, then turned back and blew a single kiss in their general direction.

The girls both sighed dreamily, then looked at one another with confusion again. “It was for me,” Carly said.

“He was clearly looking at me,” answered Annalee.

James followed Remus down the hall, leaving the arguing women on the stairwell behind. “Bloody hell,” he said, “They’re mad, the lot of them.”

Remus shook his head, “It probably doesn’t help when you go about encouraging them like that.”

James shrugged. “Where are we going? Why don’t we go back to the dorm?” James thumbed over his shoulder at the Fat Lady’s portrait.

“Sirius might be in the dorm and I don’t want to talk about this with him yet.”

“Alright…” James hesitated, then, “Rey, if you’re seeing another boy, I really don’t think I ought to be the one you confess to, I mean, Sirius being my best mate and all, I just --”

Remus rolled his eyes, “Yes, because I’m the whore of our group.”

James raised an eyebrow.

Remus led the way down the stairs to the sixth floor and turned into the trophy room. Minutes later, they were tucked into the dark of the passageway behind Brutus Scrimgeor’s portrait and Remus was leaning against the wall, staring at James in the white glow of wandlight. “I tried to go to Dumbledore, but he’s left the bloody castle again.”

“Okay?”

“James, I think Gaunt’s using the imperius on students.”

James stared at Remus, “Rey, that class was weeks ago. You really didn’t need to interrupt my time with the fawning admirers to tell me about it.”

“No, James, think on it. Sirius was imperiused, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“And did he make a big deal of it? No. Right?” Remus demanded.

“No, not really…”

“He just went right back to goofing off in class, didn’t he? Like it never happened. Never brought it up again. Is that like Sirius? No, yeah?”

James stared at Remus, “No. But I mean, he’s not still under it or anything, he’s just being weird.”

“Or he doesn’t remember it.”

James raised an eyebrow again.

“I think Gaunt’s imperiusing students and then using memory charms to erase it. Or else he’s got some sort of imperius curse he does that automatically erases it, perhaps.” Remus’s voice was hushed but quick with the need to get the words out, rushed, sort of tumbling over themselves. “I think he’s imperiused me and Meg and McKenna, too, at that detention we had.”

James frowned. “You’re mad.”

“No, James! I’m not. It makes sense. McKenna and Meg are magically friends again aren’t they? Ever since the detention. I was just talking to Dorcas Meadowes just now and she said that memory charms can cover different lengths of time, depending upon how strong the spell cast is. What if he did McKenna and Meg a bit too stong and they don’t remember fighting over you?”

James shook his head.

“And I don’t remember the detention, either, James. I don’t. I know you lot think I’m insane for it, but I’m not! Something weird happened in that detention, and I was so tired afterward and there was no reason for it, and I can’t remember anything but doing homework but none of my homework was done! That’s not even possible to do homework for three hours without finishing at least some of it! Even Sirius isn’t that good at procrastination.”

James rubbed the back of his neck, “I dunno, Moony. I mean, if Gaunt is imperiusing students… why?”

“I dunno. But I’m sure it’s bad. I think he’s a follower of Voldemort - possibly even a Death Eater. What if he’s making students do Voldemort’s bidding or something?”

James said, “Well there’d be stuff happening, wouldn’t there? And why would Voldemort bother sending a Death Eater to teach Muggle Studies at Hogwarts? I mean… c’mon Rey, that’s not exactly a very Dark Lordy thing to do.”

“I don’t know, James,” Remus said, “I don’t know why, I don’t know how he would’ve got past Dumbledore or McGonagall or whoever actually hired him. I don’t know what Voldemort could be planning by doing this. I just know that something really odd is going on here and it all goes back to Professor Gaunt, and I don’t like it.”

James rubbed his chin.

Remus said, “I’m not mad.”

James gave him a look like he wasn’t so sure.

“James, I didn’t question if you were mad with the Time Turner story, did I?” Remus demanded, suddenly feeling rather offended, and he glared at James. “I didn’t question how ridiculous you sounded, did I?”

James took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

“Just help me figure out what to do.”

James thought a moment. “I think you need to start by telling Dumbledore.”

“I’ve just told you that he’s left the castle.”

“Then - then we need to talk to… I dunno, who’s in charge with Minnie gone now, too?”

Remus thought a moment. “It must be either Slughorn or Flitwick or that Sprout woman, one of the heads of houses.”

“Well you need to talk to one of them, then. Tell them what’s going on.”

“What if they think I’m mad?”

James shrugged.

Remus said, “I’m afraid the wrong thing gets said to Gaunt and he traces it back to me and… I don’t know, what if he attacks me or something?”

“Sirius would bloody kill him if he lay even a finger on you and you know it,” James replied.

Remus looked nervous.

“Alright, look. It’s nearly dinner - you’re hungry, eat, you’ll feel better - and then tomorrow you go to the Shrieking Shack, so you’ll miss Defense Against the Dark Arts - so you don’t even have to worry about seeing Gaunt ‘til Wednesday for Muggle Studies, yeah? So wait and see if Dumbledore’s back Tuesday, after the full moon. Talk to him then.”

Remus bit his lip, “I s’pose.”

“In the meantime, the rest of us will be careful about him and watch him with the Map and make sure nothing fishy goes on while you’re gone,” James said, thinking, plans falling into place. “One of us will stay here for the Moon - probably Wormtail would be best to do it - and we’ll watch him the whole time.”

Remus closed his eyes. “James. What if I’m right? What if Gaunt did imperius me and Meg and McKenna? Why? What would the purpose be? What do you reckon he wants? He’s been picking on me the whole year. Why? Why me?”

“I don’t know,” James admitted.

“What if he knows I’m -- about --”

“Your furry little problem?” James questioned.

Remus nodded.

James frowned.