Before || A Marauders Era Story

Chapter Four: Remus

Remus had barely stepped out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom when he was grabbed by both arms and dragged down the corridor at a run. 

"Uh, what are you doing?" Remus asked the two boys dragging him along. 

"You'll see!" Sirius pulled them sideways and down a staircase. 

"Where's Peter?" James asked. 

"Getting food!" Sirius replied and they picked up the pace.

Remus jerked his arms out of their grasp but kept running. "Why can't we go eat lunch like normal people?" 

"We're running from his cousin!" James explained, jerking his head at Sirius.

"I'm not talking to her until after school." Sirius explained. "Because she wants to talk as early as possible, but she can't always get what she wants. It's the small victories, my friend." 

Remus raised his eyebrows at Sirius, but ran along his side and out of the castle anyways. James led the way across the grounds until they reached a big black lake. The three of them sat down, leaning against the trunk of a big tree. Remus could have thrown up; his transformation was only three days away, and he was starting to feel sickly. 

"Now what?" he asked.

"Now we wait for Peter." James said. And that they did. 

Peter arrived a few minutes later, coming towards them huffing and puffing. He was carrying a small brown package. He reached them, panting and grinning, and dropped the package on the floor in front of them as he sat down. 

"I got sandwiches from the Great Hall." he panted. 

"Thanks, Peter," James grinned. They each grabbed a sandwich and started eating, throwing the occasional glance over their shoulder to make sure they didn't see Sirius' cousin approaching. Remus leaned back against the tree, eating slowly, still feeling slightly queasy. 

"So what's this whole deal with your cousins?" he asked. Sirius grimaced. 

"I don't like them." 

Remus was still confused, but he didn't ask any more questions. Why had Bellatrix needed to talk to Sirius about being sorted into Gryffindor? Was that a problem for him, somehow? 

James was about to say something when Sirius ducked down in his spot against the tree and threw the hood of his robe over his head. James glanced around the tree and jumped. "She's coming!"

Remus couldn't help himself. He turned to look as well, and saw Bellatrix and an unfamiliar blond girl walking across the grounds. Peter squeaked in alarm. 

"I know, we need disguises!" said James. "Remus, can I borrow that?" James leaned forward and plucked an old muggle pen from Remus's bag. "What is this? A pen or pan or something?" 

"It's a pen." Remus explained. "You take that cap off, then you use it like a quill, without dipping it in ink." 

"Cool!" James grinned. "The perfect disguise!"

Remus frowned. "I'm not sure--" 

He was interrupted by James, who had uncapped the pen and scooted towards him. Next thing he knew, Remus had the runny ink of the pen smeared on his face.

"A mustache! I'm an artist!" James said triumphantly. Sirius pulled his hood from his face to look at Remus and collapsed into a fit of silent giggles. Peter let out a loud laugh, then turned to peer at the grounds anxiously. Remus turned, too, poking his head around the tree. Bellatrix and her companion were closer now, and they spotted Remus immediately. 

After stopping to laugh and jeer at him for his mustache, which Remus found very rude, because tons of people had mustaches, they turned to leave. Then again, he supposed not many eleven-year-olds had mustaches. 

"Thanks, mate!" Sirius threw his hood off. "That was so fun." 

"Yeah, I really enjoyed it." Remus said sarcastically. Peter handed him his pen back. "Thanks." 

Remus wiped at his face with his sleeve, covering the lower half of his face in smeared black ink. 

"He has a beard!" James exclaimed. Remus rolled his eyes. 

"I do not. It just looks like I do." 

"Yeah, same thing." James shrugged. 

"Hey, what's that?" Sirius asked, pointing at the Black Lake. Remus followed Sirius's pointing finger, but saw nothing except a small ripple on the lakes surface.

"There's a squid in there, I think!" James said, hopping to his feet.

"Really?" Peter asked. 

"Yeah," 

"I wanna see it!" Sirius decided, jogging down to the edge of the black lake. Remus pushed himself to his feet and followed him with James and Peter at his side. "I can't see it."

"You could actually go in the Lake." James suggested. Remus frowned.

"Um--"

"Good idea!" Sirius interrupted, wading into the lake. 

"Hey, wait for me!" James said as he splashed after him. Peter shrugged and followed. 

Remus sighed and watched them wade into the dark water, about to step away from the lake when James came splashing back towards him and saying, "You're coming too!"

Remus didn't even have time to say "No thanks" or even "No" before his feet were in the water, soaking his shoes and socks. James pulled at Remus' arm, getting them splashed, and soon the water reached Remus's hips. 

"This is k-kinda cold." Peter said.

Sirius just patted him on the head before he and James splashed further into the lake. Peter and Remus looked at each other. Remus sighed and they kept going. 

Sirius yelled. "Look, there it is! Up there! Wow, it's huge! James! Look!"

A giant squid was, indeed, waving it's giant tentacles out of the water and towards them and the castle. Remus thought it was making distinct shooing motions. 

"Maybe we should get out of here." Remus muttered, who was also starting to get cold. Sirius and James, now satisfied they'd seen the squid, agreed. They only had a couple of minutes to sit on the grass and dry off before they had to head back into the castle for Potions. 

Their teacher, Professor Slughorn, didn't even seem to notice the four of them were half wet and dripping water onto the floor under their chairs, or that the lower half of Remus's face was still smeared with ink. James grinned. The dungeons were cold, though, and they were all shivering soon enough. Not to mention that a boy in the front of the class with greasy black hair--had the Sorting Hat said Snape?--kept turning to shoot them evil looks for seemingly no reason. 

By the time class was over, Remus, James, Sirius and Peter ran gratefully up to their dormitory to change before sitting in the common room to do their homework. Yes, they'd gotten homework assigned on their very first day.