Four To The End Book Two (Marauders Era)

Chapter One Hundred-Twenty - You Got Mud On Your Face

Remus threw himself into his assignments, double, triple, quadruple checking everything he wrote down. Most of his free time was spent in the library with piles of books around him as he crammed for the pre-Easter exams. He also had the Easter prank to work on, which took up time too. Though, the most difficult part on his side of things was a conjuration spell. The others were working on the potion.

In order to make time, he stayed up late, practicing the spell in bed over and over until he passed out from exhaustion. It didn't take long for his friends to grow concerned over the fact the dark circles under his eyes were growing darker and that he started falling asleep during meals. Friday morning he began drifting off when James was reading the letter from his mother (informing them that Flossie and May were perfectly fine, and very determined to open again), and then did fall asleep during lunch.

"No, I'm—I'm fine," he murmured when Pete shook him awake. "I was just resting my eyes for a minute."

"How much sleep did you get last night?" Sirius asked.

Remus yawned. "Erm, enough. Stop glaring, I'm fine! Pete, you were saying something about—" He broke off into another yawn. "About your holidays?"

Peter gave him a suspicious stare. "Yes," he said slowly. "Um, my parents are thinking about going on holiday. Without me. So my options are stay here completely by myself since Spinnet and Struthers are leaving too or spend the Easter holidays with my Muggle relatives since that's where Grandpa is going. Or I could go to my other aunt's house—my mum's sister, magical—but Merlin I can't stand my cousin, he's such a prat. Between him and the Muggle cousins, I'd rather stay with the Muggles even though that's still not what I'd like."

James winced. "Oof."

"Yeah oof, it means no letters!" Pete wailed, his voice rising a bit. "I couldn't use Cocoa, couldn't even bring Cocoa, or get letters from you guys. I'd have to pretend to be Muggle!"

Some nearby Ravenclaws overheard this and one of them leaned over. "That shouldn't be difficult for a Squib like you!"

James jumped to his feet. "Say that again?"

The Ravenclaw glanced at James, then at Sirius who was also on his feet. "Nothing," he said, holding his hands up, a smirk on his lips. "Nothing at all." When he turned to walk away he tripped over nothing, almost smashing face-first into the table but managing to catch himself—barely. "You little—" He whirled around to yell at James except James didn't have his wand out. Neither did Sirius.

"We didn't do anything," Sirius said, folding his arms. "You're just clumsy."

The Ravenclaw scowled and stormed off with his friends, while Remus tucked his wand back into his pocket, hidden by the table.

"Man, perfect timing for that!" laughed James as he sat down.

Sirius grinned, flopping back into his seat. "Karma."

Peter was looking at Remus who scooped up some potatoes. "Karma," Remus agreed with a smile.

"Hmm." Peter kept watching Remus for a second then sighed, putting his head down on the table. "Two weeks without letters from you guys. Or—or else being all alone here. Or forced to be around Pratty McPratface. This sucks rotten plimpy eggs."

"Maybe you could come to Italy with me," James offered.

Peter perked up for a split second then frowned. "I couldn't do that. I mean, thanks for—"

"No, really. I mean, I'd love for all of you to come but I know Sirius and Remus can't, so maybe you can?"

"Thanks, really," Peter replied. "But I—I don't know."