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For the Greater Good


It seemed to Lily that James and Meg were everywhere about the castle. Everywhere. She found them snogging by the suits of armor on the third floor outside of Charms, and by the large hour glasses that counted the house points. They sat together at the table and it was suddenly Meg Johnson that was laughing at James’s stupid deer puns and who Sirius was calling a ginger and it was Meg Johnson whose initials James was doodling on the edge of his parchment as he grinned stupidly at the front of the room while Sirius bewitched a paper bird to pick at his ear.

“Mr. Black, while I agree that gaining Mr. Potter’s attention is worth your while, I must say that I question your approach,” Minnie said, waving her wand to stop the paper bird from pecking James any longer. She brought her hand down on the table in front of him, snapping him back to reality, and cleared her throat, “Mr. Potter, do you care to indulge us on what it is you’ve been daydreaming about that’s so enthralled you that you thought that perhaps your Transfiguration class wasn’t nearly as important?”

James turned red.

“It’s a girl, Professor,” said Sirius with smirk. “Meg Johnson.”

McGonagall’s eyes flickered toward Lily for a moment, then back to James. She took her wand and tapped him on the head to get his attention. James looked up at her. “Uhhh,” he said, trying to think of what it was that she’d been teaching them about. He squinted toward the board, saw something about the relationship of scale and the ability return to base form written there and he looked up at her. “Uuuuuh…”

“Uh-huh. Just what I’ve thought. Five points from Gryffindor.”

James scowled as Sirius smirked at him.

“Are we trying to make it ten, Mr. Black?”

Sirius turned forward quickly.

But really there was no place for Lily to go or turn to avoid the phenomenon that was James Potter and Meg Johnson. She stood on the edge of her little friend group, trying to ignore Marlene McKinnon going on about how happy Meg and James looked and how unexpected their relationship was. “Never would’ve guessed that James and Meg would go out,” she said, shaking her head, “Would you, Lil?”

“No,” Lily said quietly, “I wouldn’t.”

“They’re such a cute couple, though,” said McKenna brightly, “Like it makes so much sense in retrospect.”

Lily nodded because she was expected to and the other girls carried on… well, except for Alice Prewitt, who looked at Lily as though she were looking at a wounded animal and Lily tried very hard to keep her eyes averted from meeting Ali’s because if she did, she knew she might cry for the look of pity that danced in her irises.

And at night, Lily would wake up in her bed, tears in her eyes as the nightmares ravished her mind, the image of James Potter broken and bloody still haunting her, even without the possibility of her ending up with him. And if anything, they seemed to be getting worse for now they were prefaced by a tremulous voice calling her name through the darkness.

Lily…. Evaaaans….

She would wake up and just lay in her bed gasping and hugging her pillow, staring at the moon through the trees.




Professor Gaunt flicked the slide in his projector and on the screen there came an image of a woman being burned at the stake. She was tied to the large wooden post in the midst of a huge fire, which climbed her skirts, and a look of absolute amusement on her face. “This… is Wendelin the Weird,” he announced. “A witch who lived during some of the most horrific times of our past - the Middle Ages. The wizarding community under attack, the muggles would murder our kind if they suspected us, brutally, by setting us on fire. An unfortunate number of witches and wizards were actually killed by such attacks - being rendered wandless, there wasn’t much defense to be made… The so called trials that the muggles held were pointless, biased, and utterly ridiculous. Many muggles were killed in the process of trying to prove they were not witches and wizards so that even being accused of witchcraft was essentially a death penalty itself…”

Gaunt looked up at the projected image, “Wendelin the Weird is remembered for having purposely allowed herself to get caught just to enjoy the sensation that being burned alive would give once she’d cast herself a charm that made the fire tickle rather than burn her, and she’d simply disapparate away when the time was right and the muggles would believe they had sent her back to Hell, where they believed she came from. Where they believe we all come from…”

The wheel of the projector spun to a new slide.

“The trials of the middle age are what led to the creation of the statute of secrecy, the beginning of the wizarding community going into hiding…” Gaunt continued. He paused, seeing a hand go up in the room. “Yes Mr…. Lupin?”

“Mr. Gaunt… Sir,” Remus started, turning ‘round toward the back of the room, where Gaunt stood with the projector, “I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t the sort of lesson that Professor Binns ought to tech? Seeing as you’re talking more about the history here than the muggles themselves?”

“History as it pertains to muggle-wizard relations, Mr. Lupin,” Professor Gaunt replied. “An important history in the understanding of muggles and wizards and how we interact.” He turned back to the projection on the screen. “The wizarding community was forced to hide their -- Mr. Lupin?”

Peter looked over at Remus.

“Sir, I’m sorry. It’s just that, traditionally, Muggle Studies class is meant to… to be used to learn more about… about the muggles themselves. About objects and inventions and fitting in with them in today’s culture. History of muggle-wizard relations is typically taught in the seventh year History of Magic class as we get into the current century in the --”

“Mr. Lupin,” Professor Gaunt interrupted him, “Are you a teacher?”

“No, sir.”

“Did you help write the curriculum for the courses taught at Hogwarts?” Professor Gaunt asked.

“No, sir, of course not, I’m just saying that in other years I’ve heard --”

“Then I would recommend, Mr. Lupin, that you learn your lessons, instead of questioning why they are being taught.” Professor Gaunt said pointedly. He stared at Remus with a sort of a challenge in his eyes.

A silence swept through the room. The sort of uncomfortable silence that was accompanied by a good deal of squirming bodies and glances from other students as they looked ‘round to see how Remus was reacting.

“Yes sir,” Remus murmured and he turned back around to face his parchment, his face hot from all of the attention he was getting from the other students in the classroom. Peter reached over and patted his hand reassuringly.

Professor Gaunt began again, “The attacks the muggles were making again the wizarding community led to the creation of the first obscurial. It was because of the suppression of our magic that the powers within us would become uncontrollable forces that would attack - especially children, whose powers are already so uncontrollable and strong - and many serious breaches of the statute of secrecy occurred, many mass obliviations performed, in the name of attempting to keep the wizarding community hidden from the muggles… There were several views on how the wizarding world ought to proceed at this time, and it was not a unanimous vote that brought about the continuation of the statute’s laws - nearly half the wizards and witches that served for the greater good at the time voted against hiding. Suggestions were put forth to ----” Gaunt stopped. He stared coldly across the room. “Mr. Lupin?”

For the greater good?” Remus echoed, staring back, “Grindelwald’s terms, yeah?”

Professor Gaunt’s eyes searched Remus for a moment. “Ten points from Gryffindor.”

Remus said, “For what? Asking a question?”

“For interrupting the class with your pointless commentary, Mr. Lupin,” Professor Gaunt said, “For being… rather unruly.”

Unruly?” Remus laughed. He had a sudden flash of what Sirius Black would be doing about now if he were in the same classroom and it involved throwing textbooks and flipping over tables. He shook his head, “Professor Gaunt, I’m far from being unruly, I”m simply asking questions about the lesson you’re teaching us,” he said, “Grindelwald was defeated for a reason, sir.”

“Indeed, he was,” replied Gaunt, “Because of wizards who do not understand their place.”

“Their place?”

“Or the place of Muggles. You know, Mr. Lupin, the study of muggles was once a session of another class? It was once taught in a class about non magical beasts? They once reserved a month of time to teach wizards about the care of muggles as though they were livestock.” Gaunt stared at Remus, “And many wizards and witches believe that is how it ought still be done.”

“Muggles are human the same as us, just because they don’t possess magical capabilities doesn’t mean they’re animals..... Sir.”

Several other students were looking really uncomfortable now.

“Another ten from Gryffindor.”

“For what….. Sir?” Remus glared.

“Insolence.”

Remus stood up, the chair scraping the stone. “You’re teaching rubbish! You’re teaching anti-muggle propaganda!” he shouted, “You have been all term long and it’s rubbish. My mum was a muggle and she didn’t go about attacking witches and wizards! When she found out about the wizarding community, she thought it was cool, she respected magic. Not all the muggles are out to murder us. We conceal magic as much for our own benefits as we do theirs, it’s not like you’re teaching!”

“Historically, Mr. Lupin, it was,” Professor Gaunt argued, “Whether you like it or not. And this lesson is about the history of the relations, not Master Lupin’s Opinion On How The Past Ought To Have Gone.”

Remus was shaking he was so angry. “But using Grindelwald’s phrase, saying muggles ought to be taught as though they were beasts, that’s just --”

“Somebody’s ancient opinion,” Mr. Gaunt replied stiffly. “Now, Mr. Lupin, you may either take your seat and stay quiet and learn your lesson as I shall see fit to teach it or else you may have a Saturday afternoon detention and get the hell out of my classroom.” He waved his wand and the door of the room banged open, “The choice is yours.”

Remus was fuming. He snatched up his books and stormed for the door, leaving an astonished Peter and several other stunned faces behind as he went, struggling to swing his bag over his head, tangling himself up in his robes in his haste. Professor Gaunt watched him go and the moment he was out of the room, Remus heard the door slam behind himself and he stormed on down the hallway, his hands shaking.

It wasn’t until he was nearly all the way back to Gryffindor tower that he realized Saturday was the full moon and he wouldn’t be able to attend Professor Gaunt’s detention. He would have to figure out some way to get Gaunt to switch the time - he’d have to go to McGonagall or Dumbledore and get them to set the thing straight.




“He actually used Grindelwald’s words?” Sirius said, he was just as fuming over the whole thing as Remus had been. He sat on the couch in the common`room, perched upon the arm of it like some sort of ridiculous bird. He shook his head, “And twenty points from Gryffindor for it, too! Idiocy!”

“He called me insolent!” Remus said.

Sirius guffawed, “You? My bloody innocent little fluff-muffin beanbag of goody-two-shoe-ness?”

Remus raised an eyebrow.

“I mean, c’mon mate, you’re the least insolent person I’ve ever met in my life!” Sirius said, shaking his head, “Bloody hell, I’ve met plants that are more insolent than you are.”

Remus sighed, “Honestly, though, I mean ask Peter when he gets back -- the class has a really anti-muggle bend to it. Professor Gaunt gives me the creeps. There’s something not right about him.”

“He sounds like an arsehole.”

“He is an arsehole!”

Sirius grinned. “I love it when you curse, Moony.”

Remus sighed and fell heavily onto the cushions and Sirius slid down off the arm of the couch and slithered his way over to lay upon Remus’s lap, staring hip at him. “Perhaps you should drop the class then and have an extra free period in which you could snog the life out of me each and every day.”

Remus shook his head, “I’m not quitting that class. He can’t go unchecked.”

Sirius snuggled into Remus’s abdomen. “But just picture it, Moonykins… James is off busy with Meg and we have the dormitory all to ourselves and we could break as many rules as we want.”

“Sirius… this is… this is serious.”

Sirius smirked.

“Don’t with the name puns, not right now,” Remus scolded.

“You’re the one that’s said it, not me.”




That afternoon, Remus went to the office of Albus Dumbledore. “Butterscotch toffees,” he told the stone gargoyle and when the gargoyle had shuffled aside, he stepped onto the moving staircase that carried him up through the tower to the landing outside Dumbledore’s office door. He walked up and lifted his fist, knocking upon the wood.

There was a bit of a pause, and then the door swung open and Dumbledore’s voice carried out of the room. “Do come in, Mr. Lupin,” the headmaster called, smiling at Remus.

McGonagall sat in one of the chairs opposite of the headmaster and she looked ‘round at Remus as he stepped into the office.

“Good evening Headmaster…. Professor,” Remus said, nodding at each of them in turn. “Welcome back, sir.”

“Good evening, Mr. Lupin,” Dumbledore replied. “And thank you. I appreciate the welcome.” He smiled.

“Hello, Remus,” McGonagall added.

Remus shuffled uncomfortably for a moment before them.

“To what do I owe this magnificent pleasure of your visiting me?” Dumbledore asked.

Remus hesitated, then -- “Sir, I’ve… I’ve gotten myself a detention.”

McGonagall nearly dropped the tea cup she was holding, and then, “What has Sirius Black had you doing?” She looked very suspicious.

“It wasn’t Sirius, Professor,” he replied, “I did it myself.”

Amusement tickled Dumbledore’s lips beneath his beard so that his beard seemed to twitch. “And what have you done, Remus?”

Remus took a deep breath, “I was… er… insolent, apparently.”

McGonagall’s eyebrows peaked.

“Insolent,” Dumbledore repeated the word. Then, “I’ve heard worse adjectives to describe the Marauders. To whom were you being insolent, Mr. Lupin?”

“Professor Gaunt,” Remus answered.

Dumbledore’s beard twitched again.

“He was teaching rubbish, sir. I don’t mind about serving the detention,” Remus said, “It’s just that he’s scheduled it for Saturday afternoon and Saturday’s… it’s the full moon., sir.”

“What rubbish was he teacher, Mr. Lupin?” McGonagall asked.

“Anti-muggle rubbish, Professor,” Remus said, “He was talking about muggle-wizard relations and how we ended up with the Statue - but with a decidedly anti-muggle bend. He said that muggle studies used to be a part of the lessons taught in a Nonmagical Beasts class.”

McGonagall looked at Dumbledore in concern.

“He used the phrase for the Greater Good, sir,” Remus said, “Talking of the voting for the statute and how some people voted for the statute to be disbanded.”

Dumbledore’s face had paled slightly at the words.

Remus said, “I couldn’t just sit there and listen to that spew.”

Dumbledore nodded. “I understand."

McGonagall spoke up, "Don’t worry about your detention, Mr. Lupin, I shall take care of it.”