AND THEY WERE WIZARDS. (Oh my god they were wizards)

Everyone Hates Garganguine Snakes.

TW: Remus being ExTrA Remus

Also you might want to have read HP and the COS so you understand everything. ... and just so your life is complete.

The month slunk onward in a dismal mood. The six remaining friends went ahead with their lives, presenting to the rest of the world a relatively untroubled aura. Just outside their emotional defences, however, hysteria waited to pounce.

They had been informed that their friends would gain their mobility back as soon as the schools mandrakes were matured, but this did not ease all of their concerns. Logan had always found Emile's light snoring a small annoying disturbance in the quiet Ravenclaw dormitory, but these days, he would have slept more soundly if they returned.

The morning was gray and wet, and Logan was spending it in the dungeons for Potions. Patton was on his left side reading and rereading the instructions written on the board at the front while Leslie, the Ravenclaw that shared their table, chattered away.

"And I kept telling him to stop but my brother just kept apparating into my room! The same spot every morning to come scream at me to wake up! Well I got sick of it, so one night I emptied our cat's litter box into a big bucket of water and put it right in the place where he always appeared. I woke up the next morning to screaming, but it was the best sound I've ever heard. He hasn't come into my room since then." she finished with a smirk. Logan smiled appreciatively at the story, but Patton was staring intently into the depths of his cauldron, the thin liquid bubbling in it slightly. "Patton?"

Logan gave him a light tap on the shoulder. Patton jerked his head upward, facing her. "What?" Leslie finished the end of her story again awkwardly. When she finished, Patton's expression changed unnaturally fast as he broke into a laugh that echoed around the dungeon. "WOW- I mean you shouldn't have, but he did have it coming to him!" he shouted. The room had gone even more quiet, Patton apparently the only one who hadn't noticed Professor Snape glide over to their table from his desk. He turned in his chair to see the hook-nosed snarl looming over him.

"Your incessant need to scream and howl, Harper, is why we hold quidditch matches. This class is a place you'll need to control yourself. Ten points from Hufflepuff." he scowled.

Patton gulped and nodded, turning back toward his cauldron as Snape swept back across the room. The quiet mutters continued, though some Hufflepuffs shot Patton disappointed looks from their own tables. Logan watched Patton continue working, thinking he could see him fighting back tears. He wouldn't have been surprised, Patton cried quite a lot nowadays, but he always held it in until he was alone or just with Logan. Logan understood; Patton had always been an emotional person, and was perhaps closer to Virgil and Emile than anyone. What he didn't comprehend was why Patton acted so happy around other students. When they were alone studying he seemed almost incapable of a smile— though perhaps that was the very loud absence of Emile— yet in classes he was as peppy and joyful as ever. At least, he tried to be. Students often asked him what was wrong or if he was okay. "I'm fine!" had become a very common phrase for Logan to hear.

Patton hadn't been the only one acting off. Logan met Dee and Remus in herbology, where at least Dee was acting completely normal. By the calmness in his behavior, he might have just seen Virgil at breakfast that morning and passed Emile on the way to class. Remus, however... well, Logan had found him troubling before, but this was truly unsettling.

"So if this shit clears acne," he said, squeezing out the bubotuber pus enthusiastically with a loud squelch, "how does that work, does it like, chemically bleach the pimples away?"

"No, I believe that would lead to problematic skin discoloration—"

Remus cut Logan off, "and if you used too much of it, would it like, melt your skin off your muscle tissue?" he cackled to himself at the morbid idea.