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Five Signs That Identify a Werewolf


If Remus was really nervous about the DADA O.W.L., he certainly didn’t show it. He seemed perfectly calm and collected next to James who had pools of sweat and kept lifting up his school robes to fan his armpits periodically. “Bloody hell, bloody hell,” he murmured as they stood on line for the Great Hall, “If I fail this, I can’t ever be an auror. And somebody said that the Prewetts only took Outstanding O.W.L. students!” He fanned himself again.

Peter waved a bit of extra parchment at James’s underarm helpfully.

“Ferfuckssake Prongs, you’re the most bloody well practiced at Defense in the whole school. Had your fair share of it this term, haven’t you?” Sirius rolled his eyes. “None of these other fuckers can say they’ve faced the Dark Lord and lived to talk of it.”

“Well, if they hadn’t lived to talk of it they wouldn’t be here,” Remus pointed out.

“Unless they were ghosts!” Peter squeaked.

Sirius rolled his eyes. “My point is that you’re worrying over nothing.”

“I’ll get a Troll, I know it,” James wheezed.

Sirius shook his head.

They shuffled with the crowd through the doors into the Hall and went to their assigned seats, and James ran his hands over his knees, terrified - too terrified, even, to glare at the back of Severus Snape’s head - which actually said quite a bit of how distracted he was, mentally going over every single thing he could think of that the Prewetts twins, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Ned Veigler, Chriselda Blythe or Adom Tutman had ever said.

I’m going to Troll out, I’m going to Troll out, he mentally fretted when he couldn’t think of the incantation for a stunner because of how horribly he was working himself up.

And then it happened.

As he looked about the Great Hall, his eyes met the bottle-green eyes of Lily Evans and a smile crossed her face and she winked at him.

Lily. Evans. Just. Winked. At. Me.

It was as though the world had stopped.

James grinned stupidly.

Good luck, she mouthed.

And James’s heart melted and he nodded eagerly and continued on grinning stupidly and mouthed back thank you, and then --

I love you, she mouthed it clearly.

James stared, stupified… WHAT? …...WHAT?!? His head spun. He was dizzy. He was going to pass out. He just knew it…

But then Jasper Odair moved in his seat, directly in front of James, and blew her a kiss.

And James Potter’s face burned scarlet red.

Oh. Merlin. James thought and he panicked, looking about to see if anybody had noticed.

Sirius was laughing just four seats behind him.

James felt even his ears blush.

Sirius blew him a kiss.

James flipped him the bird.

Sirius laughed all the harder.

And then with a poof the purple books with gold lettering appeared on the desks before them and James turned about as the bloke in the desk behind him glowered at him and he grabbed his quill and his face continued to burn even as Professor Flitwick, who was overseeing the DADA exam announced, “YOU MAY BEGIN!” at the top of his little voice…

And James tried very hard not to look at Lily Evans.

He had to concentrate or else he really would get a Troll.

He just prayed she hadn’t noticed him grinning like an idiot at her.

The test wasn’t nearly as hard as James had imagined it would be. He felt rather relieved by it, really. Some of the questions went back as far as their very first year, lessons that Professor Tutman had taught them sitting on the fresh grass of the grounds before he’d been imperiused by Lucius Malfoy. And there was a bit about wand handling that Chriselda Blythe had shown them one morning, not long after that bright shiny diamond ring had appeared, given to her by Derek Bell. Then there was a boggart question, and James thought of Ned Veigler and how brilliant he’d been - thought of him, too, when he encountered question 10 - Give Five Signs That Identify a Werewolf and he had to resist glancing back over his shoulder at Remus. There was the logic puzzle he was thankful Kingsley Shacklebolt had taught them to think through last year, and loads of stuff that the Prewett twins had covered in review - things about dueling and protective charms and blocking hexes and curses… James smiled and when he turned the final page and found he’d finished the O.W.L. booklet, he was surprised how easily the answers had flown from his quill.

“Five more minutes!” Flitwick called from the front of the room.

With time to spare! James thought, confident.

He lifted his parchment and looked it over, skim-reading the essay portion he’d completed at the end, explaining what spell he believed most useful in a duel and why (he’d gone with anaticula - because it neutralizes the opponent's every strike back as well as embarasses him and makes for a grand story!). Everything looked spiffing. He was certain that the DADA O.W.L. was his. The Prewett twins would be so pleased when they heard!

He dropped his parchment and pushed it away, satisfied.

His eyes flickered to the shining ginger hair of Lily Evans. He wished so much that she had been winking at him, rather than Jasper Odair… and he watched her quill move, watched her hair shimmer… And he started drawing her initials on the spare parchment on the desk, dragging his quill along over the page, embellishing the letters with the curve and wings of a snitch, biting his tongue as he worked at it.

L.E. he wrote.

He got a funny feeling then, as though being watched. So he yawned and stretching, running his hand over his hair, watching Flitwick, to see if the movement caught his attention in the slightest - and it didn’t, the tiny Professor was busy at the front of the room, so James slowly turned about in his seat to check on Sirius. He raised his eyebrows as Sirius looked up, a silent way of asking how it was going and Sirius grinned and gave James a thumbs-up… then blew him another kiss.

James flipped him another bird.

Sirius, too, was finished, and had shoved his chair back and was rocking it on only two legs, a cocky grin upon his face. James was glad Sirius looked so happy - this meant he hadn’t struggled near as much on the DADA O.W.L. as he had on the Potions one and that would relieve some of the tension Sirius had been feeling and they could finally focus on how to avenger Lily Evans to Snivellus Snape...

Carly Shaw was staring at Sirius a couple seats over and James smirked, nodding at her and she flushed as Sirius glanced back. James snickered and turned forward again.

James had not been the only one to notice Carly Shaw staring at Sirius. Remus had noticed, too. Carly had gone back to staring once James turned forward again, her eyes slipping over Sirius’s bare shoulders with deep interest. Remus turned to look down at his parchment, his stomach twisting, and he rubbed his chin with his quill and reread over the parchment for the hundredth time to be sure he hadn’t forgotten anything.

He scribbled a couple more points at the end of the question about boggarts and then laid down his quill.

Next to him, Peter was craning his neck, trying to spot his answers and Remus frowned at him and turned his parchment over, sending Peter back to nibbling his fingernails and scrambling to write the last of his answers.

“Quills down, please!” Professor Flitwick said from the front of the room. “That means you too, Stebbins! Please remain seated while I collect your parchment. Accio!” All the parchments in the Great Hall went flying forward and bowled Professor Flitwick down. Remus chuckled, smirking at the way the tiny professor’s legs flailed about until Bran Johnson and a couple other Ravenclaws near the front rushed forward to help him up from the floor where he was buried beneath the scrolls. “You’re free to go!” Flitwick called dizzily from the floor as they right-ended up amongst the sea of laughter from the students that filled the room.

James scribbled out the L.E. and the snitch he’d been embellishing, shoved his stuff into his bookbag, flung that over his shoulder and rushed across the room to where Sirius was already slouching near the door, Remus and Peter hurrying that way as well. James paused to let Lily Evans, Marlene McKinnon, Emmaline Vance and Carly Shaw go by, all talking to one another about their exams. He nodded at Lily as she passed, and she flushed and turned away, hurrying out with her friends.

“Did you like question ten, Moony?” Sirius said the moment Remus was within ear shot, a great grin on his face as he turned, liquidly stepping into the entrance hall.

“Loved it,” Remus replied, stiffening a bit at the nickname. It still ached that Sirius was calling him that again, so casually, as though Moony had not been his petname for nearly two years. “Give five signs that identify a werewolf. Excellent question.” He smirked.

James smirked back. “And d’you think you managed to get all the signs, Rey?” His voice dripped with concern.

“Think I did,” Remus replied.

Sirius guffawed and pushed the way out the door onto the grounds.

“One: He’s sitting on my chair. Two: He’s wearing my clothes. Three: His name’s Remus Lupin…” The sunlight was bright and Remus covered his eyes against it, squinting to see where Sirius was leading them - down to the shore of the Black Lake.

The three of them were laughing - even before Peter said nervously, “I got the snout shape, the pupils of the eyes, the tufted tail… bugt I couldn’t think what else --”

“How thick are you Wormtail?” James laughed, shaking his head as they stepped off the path, headed for their usual place by the water - the rocks by the tree where James had pushed Lily Evans into the water in fourth year, where he’d stood to levitate the Giant Squid as well. “You run around with a werewolf once a month --”

“Keep your voice down,” Remus said, spotting a couple Hufflepuffs glancing their way.

“-- and you still can’t answer a simple identification question? Blimey.” James finished, lowering his voice as Remus requested.

“It was hard,” Peter argued, “A lot of the questions were hard. Especially that paper!” he shook his head, “Bloody hell, you guys. How did you do on the paper? I’m scared.”

Remus shrugged, “It could’ve been worse.” They were more than halfway across the grass, intent on settling around the tree and James grinned, spotting Lily Evans not too far off from where they were going, standing about on the bridge, her back to the tree, fanning herself in the hot afternoon sun.

“Well, I thought that paper was a piece of cake,” Sirius intoned, “In fact, even with my shit-for-brains grades, I’ll still be surprised if I don’t get Outstanding on it at least.”

“Me too,” James said happily and he reached into his pocket and withdrew a golden snitch.

“Where’d you get that?” Sirius asked. “I locked that away.” (James had been playing with it nervously the night before late into the wee hours and finally Sirius had accioed it up and locked it in a drawer and commanded James to “go the fuck to sleep!”)

James replied, shaking his head. “Knicked it from the drawer before we left this morning.” He smirked. James started playing his usual catch-and-release, getting a bit show-offish with it, hoping that Lily, who was walking just steps ahead of them, would turn about and pay him attention, but she didn’t. He bit his lip and tried to make the catches even more daring as they walked, letting it get up to a meter away before he launched at it. He leaned against the trunk as they arrived at the tree, and laughed when he noticed Peter’s awestruck response to watching James catch and release the little golden ball.

“You’re just so bloody good at that,” breathed Peter.

James grinned.

He still had a funny feeling like he was being watched and he glanced about and nearly missed the snitch as it zipped about his fingers, just outside of his lazy grasp and he had to snatch at the air quickly to capture it and Peter, thinking he’d done it on purpose, gasped and clapped excitedly. “Oooohh that was really good, James!” Peter said.

“Bloody hell will you put that thing away before Wormtail wets himself from excitement?” Sirius said, rolling his eyes as Peter squealed like a fourteen year old girl at James’s quidditch skill.

“If it bothers you,” James said with a grin, “Your highness.”

Sirius climbed up the tree and laid across the branch, his eyes roving over the forest across the lake. He spotted the little beach where they usually played as animals, could see his great big branch he’d dragged about as Snuffles. “I’m bored. I wish it was full moon and we could go running about!”

James was staring across the grounds… and he saw a cluster of Slytherins laughing on the path - including Mulciber and Avery and McNair. As he watched. Avery looked over his shoulder toward the little bridge, where the girls stood, talking, like unsuspecting little sheep. He scowled, loathing that boy with all his might. Just about as much as he loathed…

And a grin spread across James’s face...

You might wish it was full moon,” Remus murmured from the rock he’d sat upon. He had a textbook open on his lap and he looked up at Sirius. “I’m not even over the last one yet. Plus we still have Transfiguration.” He paused. Then, “Oi, if you’re bored you could test me.. Here.” he held out his book.

Sirius snorted, “I don’t need to look at that rubbish, I know it all. Professor McGonagall wouldn’t ruddy dare flunk any one of us,” he added knowingly.

“She might,” Peter said nervously.

“She won’t.” Sirius said. Then, “Ferfuckssake, I’m bored,” Sirius repeated, hanging from the tree.

“This will liven you up, Padfoot,” said James, nodding to the group of Slytherins who were all turned as Severus Snape walked past them, Mulciber smirking as he went. “Look who it is…”

Sirius looked and a grin went up over his head. He rolled and hung from the tree a moment before dropping down to the ground, a hungry look on his face. “Excellent,” he said, “Snivellus. Your time has come to pay your debts.”

James had been waiting for this moment ever since Remus had told him about Lily Evans’s experience and his fingers twinged with the excitement of it... Finally, it was here. He grinned in anticipation, waiting for Severus Snape to come within range…

This one’s for you, Evans, he thought, a fleeting glance toward her, and he pushed himself up from the ground.

“Alright, Snivellus?”