It couldn’t have been a coincidence that Sirius had shown up at exactly the right moment, but Remus was so relieved at the time that he didn’t bring it up. Sirius was being so friendly towards Chris, and Remus didn’t want to start any kind of argument. Whatever had been up that morning had clearly been a fluke; everything was fine, everyone was happy.
“I can’t believe he’s still allowed to be a prefect.” Lily said, fiercely, when she heard what had happened with Regulus. “He’s been worse than ever this year - and don’t get me started on the Crouch kid, he gives me the creeps.” She shuddered visibly, and James put a gallant arm around her shoulders.
Christopher shrugged, nervously,
“It’s fine, I can handle those two idiots.”
They hadn’t mentioned what Regulus had actually said during their retelling, at Chris’s request. Still, he looked a bit overwhelmed, sitting with all four marauders and the Head Girl in The Three Broomsticks. Christopher’s own social circle was quite small, and generally much quieter.
“Ought to teach them a lesson,” Sirius said, signalling to Rosmerta for another round of butterbeer.
“Another one,” Remus sighed, under his breath.
“What sort of thing were you thinking, Pads?” James leaned over, excited.
“I’d need to think very hard.” Sirius said, stroking his chin thoughtfully, like an old professor.
“We haven’t done a prank in ages,” Peter put in, eyes gleaming, “Not since… er…”
“The Bubotuber-puffballs.” Remus provided, sipping his drink.
“It’s best if you just cover your ears, Christopher,” Lily advised wryly, “There’s no stopping them once they’re in planning-mode.”
Remus poked out his tongue at her. It was true enough; he was already starting to get those familiar butterflies in his stomach that he always did when the marauders embarked on a new mission.
“You wouldn’t hurt anyone… would you?” Chris looked anxiously at Sirius and James, who were doing their telepathic communication thing, grinning at each other like loons and waggling their eyebrows.
“What are you looking at us for?!” Sirius winked, “ Moony’s the dangerous one.”
“How dare you.” Remus replied, smirking, “Everyone knows that you three lead me astray. Anyway, it’s seventh year, and we’ve done everything there is to do.”
“Have some imagination!” James said, “I can’t believe I’m hearing this from the boy who once literally changed time just for a laugh.”
“That was you?!” Chris yelped, looking affronted. Remus tutted,
“I did not ‘literally’ do anything. We mucked about with the clocks.”
“When you were eleven,” Sirius said, “You single-handedly organised and implemented a full scale itching powder attack on the Slytherin boys.”
“Rosehip seeds.” Remus corrected.
“And!” Peter added, bouncing excitedly, “You were the one who perfected the soap expansion spell when we blew up all the toilets in second year.”
“Ok, yeah, I helped with that… it was a team effort!”
“Remus, wasn’t it you who invented that word-swapping spell to stop the Slytherins using insults?” Lily asked, smiling sweetly at him, tongue between her teeth.
“Oh, I liked that one!” Chris cheered up a bit.
“I didn’t invent it.” Remus said, “I just… er… did the research.”
