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

Chapter One Hundred-Forty-One - All The Girls Want Sirius

Author's note: by the way, loureys are inspired by the story of the beast of Gevaudan which is a really interesting bit of French history!

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It seemed that the Day of Lourey was a bit more controversial than Remus thought it would be. Come Monday morning, there were quite a few students who couldn't stop talking about how stupid it was. Spinnet included. There was a minor argument between him and James as they were getting ready in the morning, when James kept talking about Wednesday and Spinnet said out loud that nobody cared about some 'archaic French holiday'. Luckily the argument didn't last long, as both sides preferred not to risk losing their split dorms.

In Potions before Slughorn began, several of the Slytherins seemed to be annoyed by it too, although plenty were also excited. Actually, it was mostly Mulciber, Avery, and Bulstrode who voiced their dissent against the upcoming event. Mulciber added that no self-respecting man would ever be caught in a skirt. Lily turned around at that point and asked him if he thought that was true, why did he wear robes? Mulciber's face went red and he insisted that robes were different. Lily asked how, and Mulciber said that an M-word like her would never understand. Luckily Slughorn began class, preventing any further fighting. After class ended, Sirius sneakily put the wet sock curse on both of them as the Gryffindors and Slytherins headed for their separate lessons. The Marauders laughed when they heard the cries of disgust down the hall.

After an uneventful History lesson about the fourteenth century economic bubble ("I swear he bored himself to death," Sirius whispered to Remus), the Marauders searched once again for the school banners. They found plenty of storerooms but no banners. Peter suggested Dumbledore produced them magically rather than having actual, physical banners laying about. James thought it might be a good idea to ask someone, however none of them were sure who to ask without them getting into possible trouble. Sirius brought up the possibility of a ghost knowing, and they all looked at Remus who shrugged, saying that most of the ghosts would probably find it suspicious.

"What about the silent one?" Sirius asked. "The one that took us to Peter?"

Remus tugged at the hem of his jumper. "I haven't seen him since that night, in all honesty." He had looked for Theodore on multiple occasions and even approached Jha asking if he had seen the ghost, which Jha hadn't. Nor did Jha seem eager to talk to Remus, probably due to the constant crazy rumors.

James suddenly snapped his fingers. "We're all stupid!"

"Except for Remy," Sirius put in.

"Hagrid! He'd know, and he'd tell us."

Sirius perked up. "Yes, he would! Let's go—"

"Defense starts in ten minutes," Remus said, seizing James's sleeve as the two boys got ready to run off. "We don't have time. We can find him during lunch or after Magical Creatures."

"Oh, newts," James grumbled. "Fine."

Charlemagne was in a very happy mood; he had been spending a lot of time talking about the holiday he used to celebrate, and told the class that it held a special place in his heart. It had been his favorite holiday at Beauxbatons growing up because it was so fun seeing everyone mixed up. Their actual Defense lesson that day was very short, but Remus didn't really care. He enjoyed hearing Charlemagne talk about the Day of Lourey as well as the history behind it. He also told them about the eighteenth century Muggle attack. By that point most of the loureys were either populated deep in magical forests, or kept in sanctuaries. But there was an attack on one of the sanctuaries in the south-central of France, and all the magical creatures escaped including a pack of loureys. It was right before their hunting season, and the females began hunting on local Muggles, terrorizing them for three years until the last lourey was finally caught and taken back to a sanctuary.