When I see you walking down the street
I step on your hands and I mangle your feet.
You’re not the kinda person that I even wanna meet
Oh baby, you’re so vicious!
Thursday 3rd June 1976
OWLs were every bit as terrifying and satisfying as Remus had anticipated. He tried to pretend they were nothing more than the usual end of year exams, but this was almost impossible when everybody else seemed to have lost their heads over it. James became a veritable recluse, holed up in the library or behind his bed curtains obsessively memorising facts and dates he had spent the rest of the year ignoring. Peter occasionally turned very pale and stared, trembling, into space. Marlene had taken to ambushing Remus at various intervals throughout the day, demanding that he quiz her on this or that.
Only Sirius seemed calm about any of it, which was just typical. When even James had shut him out, he entertained himself by distracting Mary. Which had the added benefit of distracting Remus, which was horrible, but bearable.
“Go and find a broom cupboard like everyone else!” Marlene yelled, on the edge of hysteria, throwing a slipper at the couple. They were wound together on the couch in front of the fireplace.
“There’s nowhere to go, though,” Mary sighed to Remus, in the library the day before OWLs were due to begin. “Sirius won’t let me up into your dorm, and boys can’t get in ours… and I don’t dare get caught in a cupboard somewhere, not with this castle crawling with wannabe death eaters.”
“What?” Remus finally paid attention, “Has someone tried to hurt you, Mary?”
“Oh, all the time,” she shrugged, with a tired smile, “I’m used to it by now. At least being the only black kid at my primary school prepared me for something.”
“That’s horrible, Mary, I’m sorry.” Remus squeezed her had, feeling genuinely terrible. Mary was a very tough girl, he knew - you could get away with saying almost anything around her. She might throw a bit of a strop, but she’d forgive you quickly afterwards, and never hold it against you. Still; this was something else entirely, and it was obviously having an effect.
“You’re so sweet, Remus,” she smiled kindly, squeezing his hand back. “Don’t worry about me, though. I’ve got Sirius.”
“Mm.” Remus released her hand, returning to his work before casually asking, “What does he say about it?”
“Oh, y’know, that he’ll defend me to the death, that nothing they do can ever come between us… to be honest, I think he has a bit of a white knight complex.”
“Well.” Remus closed his book and looked up at her, “You’re no damsel in distress.”
Mary’s face split in a lovely grin. She really was very beautiful.
“Cheers, Remus, knew I could count on you to support the women’s lib argument. Right, can we go over the Defence Against the Dark Arts paper again? Professor Droskie hinted there’d be something on either werewolves or vampires...”
Remus would never know whether it was the increased attacks on muggleborns - and therefore Mary - that caused the incident which took place after the DADA written exam. He flattered himself, once or twice, that it could have had something to do with Severus’s dogged pursuit of Remus, even though Sirius had promised not to retaliate. He liked to think, later on, that James and Sirius had acted out of a kind of righteous indignation; that this was a chance to prove they had picked a side.
In reality, it was probably a mixture of reasons; none of them noble - the heightened tension of OWLs, combined with the relief of having just finished an exam. Growing tensions that had been simmering all year - in fact, for a number of years - between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Severus Snape simply being an annoying prick, James wanting to impress Lily, Sirius’s merciless aggression towards anyone who so much as hinted allegiance to ‘the other side’.
