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

Chapter Sixty-Eight - Polyjuice Plans

Arthur's gone.

Remus opened his eyes Monday morning and was hit immediately with that thought. He reached up to rub his face, feeling a huge hole inside of his chest. A few tears came out, but he wiped those away quickly before getting out of bed. It wasn't until he was dressed that he realized he hadn't showered all weekend and smelled... not so great, but he didn't really have time before Potions so he used a few extra deodorizing spells, hoping that would suffice.

When the owl post came at breakfast, Remus winced a little. Even though Arthur hadn't delivered mail for ages, it was still painful to see all the owls fluttering around and knowing Arthur would never be part of it again.

"You all right?" Sirius asked, glancing over at Remus.

"Yes," he said before frowning. "As well as I can be, at least."

Potions, thankfully, wasn't too bad. They worked on a potion, however most of the ingredients were floral, and the potion smelled nice. Which meant Remus's potion actually got an E from Slughorn and wasn't a total disaster, even though he made it by himself. Lily congratulated him once class let out, and Snape, who of course hovered nearby like an unwanted ghoul, made a comment about Remus's ability. Lily told him to stop, and Snape gave a shrug, saying he hadn't meant it in a mean way, and then James and Sirius emerged from the classroom wanting to know what was going on. Snape disappeared before a fight could start, and Lily sighed.

"Was he being rude to Remus?" James demanded.

Lily faltered and Remus said, "Not really. Where's Peter?"

"Asking a question," Sirius replied. Remus narrowed his eyes. "No, no, about what we discussed the other day. Nothing secret."

"What did we discuss the other day?" Remus struggled to remember, all he could think about was Arthur's death.

James and Sirius pointedly looked at Lily, who gave a disgusted sigh. "All right, Marauder ears only I'm assuming. I'll see you later." She rolled her eyes as she walked off to join her friends.

"The Christmas prank," Sirius whispered and Remus nodded, having forgotten everything they had talked about.

"Won't Slughorn know it's us, then?" he asked. "If Pete asks a question then it happens a month later."

"It's only about an ingredient," James explained. "And it's Slughorn. How much does he even remember or care about students that aren't in his dumb club? He'll probably forget Pete stayed behind by lunchtime."

Peter came out looking like he was sucking on a lemon. "I don't think we can do it. Slughorn says that if a recipe calls for a specific honey used, it needs to be that specific honey."

"Annnd the shops in Hogsmeade didn't have it in stock," sighed Sirius as the four of them began walking down the corridors towards History.

"I could special order it," James said.

"What special honey?" Remus shifted his weight, shaking his head. "I—I'm not going to pretend otherwise, I haven't the faintest of what we're doing, I can't remember."

"Slughorn said it takes a couple of weeks to get it in, and the potion needs to be made in advance," Peter said.

"The potion that makes people sing," Sirius told Remus at the same time, and then he remembered them talking about sneaking a potion into the food at the pre-Christmas-holiday feast to make everyone sing. A bit like the babbling brew prank.

"I guess we won't have time then." James groaned. "I could write to Mum and Dad and see if they could get it from London. But we should have a backup plan just in case. Oh, maybe we should do music again, that'd be a laugh. Like with McGonagall. Dedicate songs to different people and the houses or something."