Remus Lupin: Lone Marauder

Follow Through

"Oi!" Peter shouts as he tries to cover his face with his arms. Remus just barely has time to hold his books up to shield his face from the mess. James and Sirius aren't so lucky as they take the hit from the dragon dung manure full force. Laughter erupts from the group of Slytherins on the other side of the Herbology greenhouse.

"Finally your smell matches your personalities!" Malfoy shouts over at them as they walk out.

"Those dirty prats!" James roars as Remus draws his wand to clean the mess.

"Actually James we're the dirty ones at the moment." Sirius draws his own wand and starts to clean himself and sniffs his robes, "Well the dung is off but that smell is going to stick around for a while." Peter smells his own robes and makes a face. Sirius pockets his wand, "That's fine they've made their move. We've planned for this already right?"

"Right," Peter answers without any conviction in his voice.

"We have Transfiguration next do you really want to try this under McGonagall's nose?" Remus questions as he puts his wand away.

James thinks for a moment, "No your probably right. We have Care of Magical Creatures with them after lunch we'll get them then."

"We have a plan! Now off to Transfiguration before McGonagall gets mad and uses us as scratching posts." Sirius jokes as they leave. Transfiguration class passes quickly and the Marauders spend their time at lunch fine-tuning their plans.

"Alright so timing will be key for this," James looks around at his friends, "if one of us is too early it will tip the others off so they can counter the spell."

Sirius chuckles just thinking about the scheme going through as planned, "This is going to be great. Even if we do get caught it will be so brilliant it won't matter."

Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus make their way to class and are sure to position themselves behind Snape, Malfoy, Goyle, and Crabbe. Midway through the class, Sirius sees their opening when Professor Kettleburn has to return to the school for supplies. Sirius signals them and on the count of three they all draw their wands and whisper "Asinus Vultus." As quickly as they can stow their wands the four Slytherin have sprouted donkey ears and tails. Snape happens to turn to look over at his friends and gasps in shock. The other three quickly realize it and turn towards the Marauders. Instead of denying it Sirius smirks, "Your looks finally match your personalities."

Malfoy draws his wand and stalks over towards Sirius, "I've had enough of you and your little friends Black."

Sirius rolls up the sleeves of his robes, "Care to do something about it, Lucius?"

Malfoy laughs, "I believe I will after all who better to teach you egotistical Gryffindor a lesson."

"Yes who better than an arrogant prat?" James says as he stands next to Sirius ready for a duel.

Just then Professor Kettleburn comes back to the group and shouts upon seeing the Marauder's handy work. "Who is responsible for this?!" He looks around the class. "No one? Mr. Snape, would you care to tell me just what happened?"

"Yes Sir, we were waiting for you to come back when they," Snape points to James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus, "hexed us with this ridiculous charm." Kettleburn turns towards them, "100 points from Gryffindor. Also you four stay after class you can help me clean the thestral pens." Kettleburn makes quick work of removing the donkey ears and tails from the Slytherin then dismisses the class. He then leads the Marauders into the threstral pens, "You will each take a stall and clean it...without your wands." They all groan in unison then set to work.

After a few hours of scrubbing the pens, they head back up to the dorm. Remus looks at his filthy robes, "I can't wait to take a shower. What a day."

"You can say that again." Peter agrees.

James and Sirius laugh. "How perfect was that though?," Sirius says happily as they head up the steps, "I only wish Kettleburn took a little longer to show up."

"I only wish we had a camera" James laughs.