Chapter 59: Fourth Year: September
Chapter Text
Remus never did find out exactly what is was Mary had done, or had had done to her over the summer holidays. Whatever it was though, it had given her a certain amount of status amongst the other girls in their year group which was hard to ignore.
On Thursday, their first lesson of the new term with Professor Ferox, Remus arrived at the classroom to find a cluster of girls whispering near his desk. He elbowed his way through, grumpily, reclaiming his work space next to Mary. The girls tittered and resumed whispering. Mary, of course, was at the centre of the group, holding court and - by the looks of it - having a thoroughly marvellous time. Marlene, sitting by, was watching on with a look of envy and respect.
"And it didn't hurt..?" A Ravenclaw girl asked, in a hushed tone,
"Nah, it's fine if you relax," Mary replied, with a bravado that reminded Remus of James.
"Do you think you're going to... you know... with Darren..?" Another girl asked, her voice practically trembling with excitement,
"Well, I..." Mary started, but at that moment Professor Ferox emerged from his office, announcing his presence with a cheerful salutation,
"Welcome back, class! Seats, please!"
The girls all hurried into place, some looking very red faced and others unable to stop giggling. Remus frowned, trying to ignore them, and sat facing the front, back straight. Ferox gave him a friendly smile and nod, and Remus nodded back, smiling uncontrollably.
Ferox had clearly had a fantastic summer - his fair hair was a shade brighter, no doubt bleached by the sun. It was longer, and he now wore it twisted back in a long, knotted tail. His face was even more weather-beaten, and his nose rather red and peeling slightly from sunburn. He'd rolled up his sleeves, as usual, revealing sun browned arms and the odd burn mark.
"Good summer?" He asked the class, who all nodded and murmured in the affirmative. He grinned and clapped his hands together, "Excellent! I hope you all had a nice long rest, and you're ready to begin work on XXXX rated creatures this term! First, let's do a quick recap of last terms work, then see who's done their summer reading..."
Remus himself had only just finished the reading that morning - and hadn't even started on the extra texts Ferox had lent him. He sorely regretted wasting the whole summer being reckless now, and had already had to plead with professor McGonagall to let him have an extra week on his Transfiguration notes. He suspected that she had only relented after a conversation with Madam Pomfrey, which made him feel guiltier still, as he knew he was capable of beating most of the class even after his very worst transformations.
"You're being too tough on yourself," Sirius told him, as they were chased out of the common room the night before by prefects telling them to go to bed. "It's the beginning of the year - if you're going to fuck up, you may as well fuck up now."
Remus had just glared at him,
"Easy for you to say! Some of us actually have to work for our grades! Plus it's OWLs next year! I can't drop my standards now!"
"Argh, please don't mention OWLs," James said, coming between them quickly in a less than subtle attempt to prevent an argument, "McGonagall and Flitwick have already put the fear in me. And why did we decide to do Divination?!"
"I quite like Divination," Peter said, thoughtfully, dumping his pile of books, "Prophecies and that. It's exciting."
"It's nonsense." Sirius gave the smallest marauder a withering look. "You only like it because you're good at Astronomy."
