First year (cont.)
Gasping for breath, James and Sirius pulled open the door leading to the Great Hall. At the Gryffindor table, Lily, Remus, Peter and Arabella were all having lunch. Just as James suspected, Remus had just finished reading a letter. He set it on the table and announced "Mum's ill again. I'll need to leave next week."
Sirius and James glanced at each other. James cleared his throat and everyone looked up.
"Oh, hello James, Sirius! I didn't see you both there," said Remus.
"Er, Rem, can we have a word outside with you? Its important." asked Sirius quietly--which was odd, as Sirius never did anything quietly.
Remus pushed away from the table and followed the two boys out of the Great Hall. James could feel the curious stares of his friends on his back as they walked out of the room. Sirius turned the corner to an empty corridor and beckoned for James and Remus to come.
"Remus, what exactly is wrong with your Mum? She gets sick every month," asked James. He watched as Remus' face grew pale and he felt terrible about confronting his friend like this.
Remus started to speak slowly "Well, my mother gets awful colds every month." It was a weak excuse and he knew it.
Sirius nodded. "And the 'colds' seem to come during the full moon. I see. Oh, by the way Remus. I forgot to show you, look at what my Mum sent me." Sirius held out a ring, made entirely of silver. He held it out to Remus, who backed away pale and sweaty. It was a cruel thing to do to his friend, but necessary to confirm the two boys' suspicions.
Remus' eyes were wide with fright and also terrible sadness. "Look, I suppose you know my secret, and you're right--I am a werewolf." He looked down at the floor and his shoulders shook.
James spoke up softly. "Why didn't you tell us? Why lie about it?"
Remus looked up. "Are you mad? This is the first time I've ever had friends. As soon as people find about my…condition, they run screaming in the other direction. I wanted to be normal for the first time since I was bitten. I…I wanted to be accepted. I am sorry about lying to you and the rest, and I understand if you don't want to associate with werewolf boy anymore."
Sirius laughed, "And now I ask you, mate--have you gone mad? Why on earth why would we stop being your friend? Besides, it'll be cool to have a werewolf for a friend. We can scare the knickers off anyone who comes along."
A look of enormous relief came over Remus. It seemed as if a huge weight had been lifted, and he grinned. "Really? I mean you really don't care that I am different?"
James shrugged, "Eh, aren't we all? Look at Sirius over here."
Sirius laughed and lightly punched James on the shoulder. Remus snorted and said, "Come on, let's go back to lunch. Oh, and I don't mind if you tell Lily and the rest of the group, they ought to know. But you mustn't tell anyone else, or let it get out. When Dumbledore accepted me, I was sworn to secrecy."
James and Sirius nodded in agreement, and then they headed back to lunch. Surprisingly, Lily and Peter took the news about Remus quite well. Both confessed to him that they had an idea that something was wrong, but weren't sure as to what. Arabella, however, was not as accepting. She began to avoid Remus and didn't hang around Lily for a while. After about four days, however, Arabella approached him and apologised for her behaviour. Besides, she told Lily later on, Annie, Julia and Anita were no fun to be around.
At breakfast that Friday, James, Sirius and Peter were busy concocting ideas for the letter to Snape.
"Er, how about this: 'Dear Severus, I have a question for you. Meet me in the Potions room after classes. Signed Professor Jigger.'" suggested James.
Lily sighed, "Honestly, do you even know how to write a letter. That doesn't even sound believable, it sounds creepy. Try this." She grabbed the parchment and wrote in her tidy handwriting:
Mr. Snape:
I have noticed your dedication and talent in my class. Please meet me in my office on Wednesday night to discuss some extra curricular work for further developing our skills. Please arrive at 10:00.
Thank you,
Professor Arsenius Jigger
"Brilliant Lily! The only problem now is to get it to look like his writing," said Remus.
Lily beamed, "Well, that shouldn't be a problem. I just need a sample of his writing. Arabella, can you get him to sign a note? He'll do it for you. Next to Snape, you are his favourite student."
Arabella nodded, "Sure. What are you planning on doing?"
Lily smiled, "You'll see."
****
"Professor Jigger, my parents want me to ask my teachers for a progress note of sorts for all my classes. Would it be possible for you to write a note to them telling them of my development in Potions?" Arabella asked later on that day.
Jigger looked down at Arabella. After a few seconds, he held out his hand, indicating she should give him something to write on. Jigger wrote the note and gave it back to Arabella. She thanked him and went back to boiling her eyesight-sharpening draft.
****
"Here you go Lily," said Arabella breathlessly, handing the note to her friend. It was after dinner and everyone was crowded around Lily to see what she would do. She arranged the letter she had written earlier that day underneath the note written by Jigger. Lily pointed her wand and the top sheet and muttered "Mano Forgerus". Instantly the writing from Jigger's letter sank into the paper. Lily removed the now clean parchment and everyone saw that the letter that she had written was now in Jigger's handwriting. Sirius looked like he could've kissed Lily.
"That was brilliant! It looks just like Jigger's writing. How did you do that?" he exclaimed.
Lily grinned, "Oh, that? It was in the book you gave me for Christmas. Its called the Counterfeiter's Hand Charm, and what it does is bewitch the writing to look like another's. Now, lets go send this to Snape."
The owlery was filled with owls sleeping, flitting around, or crunching on vole bones. They debated on using Remus' owl, Athena or a school owl, but in the end James pointed out a school owl would be much more believable, as the letter did come from a teacher. After sending the owl on its way, the group trudged back to the common room.
As expected, Remus left the following Monday. Before departing, however, he gave everyone a warning to be careful during their "mission". After wishing them the best of luck and telling them to write saying how it went, Remus left for home.
"Poor Remus" sighed Arabella, "imagine being a werewolf."
They had planned on Wednesday to execute their plan and when Wednesday came around, everyone was jittery and nervous. At last, the full moon rose and James ran upstairs to get the cloak.
"Hang on," said Sirius as everyone began to huddle together to get under the cloak, "there is not enough room for all of us. Only about three can go, and even then it's a tight squeeze. So, who is going to go?"
"I will!" chorused James, Lily, Peter and Arabella.
"Well, we can't all go," said Sirius irritably, "Ok, James, you are going, its your cloak. Obviously, I am going, and Peter--you as well."
Peter's face shone with happiness--he was hardly picked to do anything.
"Wait! What about Lily and I?" cried Arabella indignantly.
Sirius and James looked at her like the answer was obvious.
"You're girls" they said flatly.
Arabella looked furious. Sensing trouble, the three boys threw on the cloak and walked out of the common room. As the portrait closed, they could hear Arabella screaming in a rage.
They crept along the silent halls, pausing every so often to make sure they were in the right hall--everything looked so different in the dark. Finally, the boys reached the Potions room. James checked his watch; it was 9:45.
At precisely 10:00, Snape crept into the classroom. He began to pace around the room, checking his watch every two minutes. After about ten minutes, he stopped and looked around. Then, Snape tiptoed into Jigger's office and closed the door. He came back into the classroom and having finally decide that Jigger wasn't coming, left with his robe pockets fuller than they were coming in.
James, Peter and Sirius quietly snuck into Jigger's office. Sirius came out from underneath the cloak and looked at the massive supply of potions ingredients neatly stacked on the shelves. It was lucky that Jigger was so meticulous about his supplies, because otherwise Sirius would not have been able to spot which ingredients had been touched.
"Looked like Snape took essence of belladonna, lionfish spine, hmm, dragon liver juice and glum bumble spleen. What does he want with this stuff?" whispered Sirius.
"Who knows?" James whispered back, "we'll ask Arabella when we get back to the common room."
Sirius ducked underneath the cloak again and they crept back to the common room.
Fortunately, the Fat Lady was in her portrait, and Peter only had to whisper "tabby cat" to get in. The boys climbed through the portrait hole and found both girls still sitting up. Arabella was still fuming, but when Lily spotted them, she threw her arms first around James, then Peter and Sirius.
"Oh! I was so worried! I thought what if Snape saw you? What if you got hurt?" she cried as she gripped each boy. After realizing what she was doing, she pulled away, her face almost as red as her hair.
"Lily, don't be so worried! We're all fine, and more importantly we know what Snape had been taking. Arabella, what does essence of--" but Sirius was cut off by Arabella's furious answer.
"well, if you don't know, I'm not going to tell you! After all, what do I know? I am only a girl!" and with that, she turned on her heel and ran up the staircase. Sirius looked as if a tidal wave had washed over him.
You sort of deserved that," said Lily quietly, "it was unfair, what you did."
James turned on Lily, "What? You too? What is this? The female rights movement?"
She shook her head. "No, I didn't really care to go, but Arabella is my friend as well as you boys, and you picking Peter instead of Arabella just because he is a boy is well, unfair. I'm simply defending a friend, just as I would any of you three. Or Remus." she put in as an afterthought. "Goodness! It's 11:00! We need to be in bed! Goodnight you three." The boys watched Lily climb the stairs, and then followed suit only a few minutes later.
"Lily's right, Sirius," said James as he climbed into bed, "We really should apologize to Arabella."
"Isn't Lily always right?" murmured Sirius from his bed, "We'll apologize in the morning."