The Marauders: Year One | #Wattys2016

Leap Day

Leap Day

Remus was very much dreading the full moon coming. He could see it in Sirius and James's eyes that, even though they claimed they would stay out of trouble while he was gone to the Shrieking Shack there was a very good chance that he'd come back to find they were serving detention - or worse, expelled. At least he wouldn't be having anything to do with it, he tried to console himself, but if he were honest he'd have admitted that there was a tiny part of him that wished he would have been.

There was a sort of unspoken agreement between James and Sirius that the other Gryffindors would make an attempt at finding the missing mirror as soon as Remus had left the castle. James knew that Remus didn't approve of the mission - and was aware that he had good reason to doubt it's chances of being successful. After all, there was about a quarter million things that could go wrong, if not more, but regardless of the risks involved, James did have a good feeling about it. For one - if they went to the Slytherin common room the day of the full moon it would be Leap Day - February 29 - and that had always been a lucky day for James. Additionally, he couldn't help but think that Dumbledore had been secretly on their side through the whole Students-Out-Of-Bed debacle before, especially given that Professor Tutman had mysteriously left the day after their accusations in the Great Hall had been made. There was a very great chance that, should they be caught in attempting to steal the mirror from Lucius Malfoy's dormitory, Dumbledore would look the other way. After all, what's a few broken rules if the fall of the whole Wizarding world could be prevented... right?

Remus stood by the end of his bed, tucking his things into his trunk, trying to prolong his departure as long as he could. He looked over at the others. Sirius kept his head down, staring carefully at his Transfiguration parchment, purposefully not looking Remus's direction. James was playing with the snitch again on his bed, catching and releasing the little golden ball, watching Remus over Peter's shoulder as their littlest mate busily ran to and fro 'round his bed, trying to make it. Remus took a deep breath, shrugging his bookbag over his shoulder and running his hands down the length of the shoulder strap.

"You'll, er, stay out of trouble, won't you?" he asked.

"Of course," said James.

Peter looked up from his bed-making. "You're leaving? Already?" He glanced about at the little glass clock on the night stand. "Is it that late?"

"Nearly dinner," yawned James, snatching the snitch from the air.

Remus nodded.

"Blimey," Peter said, "No wonder I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," said Sirius without looking up.

Remus went for the door, then paused just before he reached for the handle. He turned back. "You're going to go to the Slytherin common room, aren't you?" he asked.

James blinked at him, trying to come up with a reply. "Why would we do that?" was all he could come up with.

"Don't pretend," Remus commanded, "Just promise me that you won't push your luck, alright? Lucius Malfoy doesn't seem like the sort of person you want to cross." He took a deep breath, started to reach for the knob, then stopped and turned back again. "And don't - whatever you do - mess with the Dark Lord at all... and you should probably avoid bothering Snape because all you'll do is anger Lily Evans and she'll be angry for the rest of the term. And don't leave Peter behind... or damage any historical artifacts... or get expelled." He said looked at them pleadingly for a moment, then turned for the door again... before turning back one last time. "And... don't leave out any of the details when you tell me about it in two days," he added.