Four To The End (prev Shifting Lines) Book Three (Marauders Era)

Chapter Forty-Six - The Girls Visit

Author's note: CW for disgusting every flavor bean consumption, emetophobia; also the girls are wearing jumpsuits, it's difficult sometimes describing clothes from the viewpoint of someone who doesn't know!

-x-

"Boogers. But... not only boogers, something else. Hmm... maybe... salted boogers?"

It was Saturday night and the Marauders were in their dorm, sitting in a circle with the newest thing from Bertie Bott's. It was a box full of beans and there wasn't any label on the back saying what was what; instead it came with a piece of paper with pictures of the beans on them and you could peel the pictures back to reveal the name. The point of this box was to guess the flavors. There were fifteen 'classic' flavors, fifteen 'altered classic' flavors, and twenty 'new' flavors.

It was just after Magical Theory, which had been really interesting. Chang talked at great length about wands, their cores, their wood, and what wands meant to their owners. There was a big thing about how certain woods and cores meant certain things—like when Remus got his wand and Ollivander told him it meant he'd do great and selfless things. Chang sat on the teacher's desk, going over what the woods and cores meant, getting input from the younger students about whether it was true or not. Remus voted that it wasn't true, though he was in the minority; to his surprise Sirius agreed it was, indeed, true.

"Ebony," Sirius said after class when Remus asked about his wand.

"I know you have ebony, I can't remember what it's supposed to mean," Remus muttered, keeping a brisk pace because he didn't want to be alone with Sirius right now.

Sirius got his wand out and twirled it between his fingers. "It means I am an individual. I don't let people dictate how I should be." Remus rolled his eyes. "What? It's true, innit?"

"Yes. It is very true."

Sirius squinted one eye. "You believe in tarot cards, why not this?" Remus only shrugged in response, not sure why other than his own experience. "Plus the core is a Hippogriff feather. In a wand that means—"

"Wild and unpredictable," Remus said. "I did remember that."

"What's your wand, then?"

"Doesn't matter."

Sirius had harassed him all the way back to the dorms until Remus gave in and told him. Sirius laughed, tousling Remus's hair, telling him that seemed to suit him.

"It does not fit me at all," Remus hissed out as the Fat Lady swung open. "I won't ever go on to on do—on... to do... great and selfless things."

Sirius reached over and flicked Remus's forehead rather painfully. "Stubborn arse, you are great and selfless already. Too much, you need to be more selfish."

Before Remus could argue, James ran over to tell them that his new Bertie Bott's beans had come in. Ten minutes later, James was chewing on a greenish bean, trying to figure out what it tasted like.

"Salted boogers," he said with a nod. "That's my final guess."

Peter held up the sheet. "Want me to look?"

"Noooo! Not yet, one of you try one and give it a guess."

"I'm not eating salted boogers," Sirius complained.

Remus sighed and reached out, taking a bean that matched James's. He sniffed it before tentatively putting it in his mouth, chewing down. "Urrrghhh!" He spit it out in a paper cup next to him, put there for that reason. "Salted boogers," he agreed.

Peter peeled the bean back. "Salted boogers!" he said, waving the sheet. "Both of you got it right! Ew, salted boogers, gross!"

James pushed a brown bean towards Peter. "You try one."