Planning
October 1st 1971:
"It's been a month since we started school."
"Yes I think we are all aware of that"
Remus snorted at Peter's response to Sirius before James nodded. "Yeah, it's been a month and we haven't done anything." He sighed as he sat up on his bed and grabbed a notebook from his desk drawer. Remus did have to admit that the four boys hadn't really done much minus James sneaking into the kitchen a few times, how he got away with it remained a mystery to the rest.
"We should do something." Sirius said, sitting at the bottom of James bed with his legs crossed. Meanwhile Remus and Peter were respectfully on their own beds.
"Like what?" Remus heard Peter ask as he grabbed a book from the side of his bed. He was in the middle of reading Dorian Gray and wanted to try finish the book for the end of the week. He, himself, had enough chaos the past month with the full moon and Poppy having more shifts at St Mungo's which meant he had to keep on eye on Minnie, which he didn't mind doing so. Hiding the fact he was a werewolf was harder even after the full moon, having to avoid Sirius's touch most the time as the boy was always wearing silver rings.
Remus didn't fancy being burned than having to explain to Sirius that 'oh yeah I'm a werewolf and your jewellery hurts me!'.
The boys thankfully didn't question Remus's scars either, simply accepting that he was hit by a pitchfork. It was a shit excuse but no one questioned it, thank merlin. The rest of the school seemed to just ignore him, minus the Slytherins who kept calling him 'Loony Lupin' after he punched Snape. In particular, Mulciber and Lucius. Mulciber acted like a guard dog to Severus Snape, who hadn't spoken to him since the incident but gave some dirty looks. Lucius seemed just to hate everyone who wasn't a pure-blood.
Speaking of the Slytherins, Remus raised his head from his book slightly as he listened to James's idea.
"We gotta get revenge on the Slytherins! After they got Remus in trouble and talking 'bout Sirius constantly."
"What about we prank them?" Peter suggested and Sirius nearly fell off the bed with excitement at the idea.
"Genius Pete! How about we uh...put a charm on all the doorways! So every time they walk into a doorway, sand gets thrown into their faces!" Sirius explained with a triumphant expression. Which quickly turned to a frown when Remus spoke.
"No. That's how we actually hurt someone. If it get's into people's eyes than it could cause more injuries, especially when people can't see where they're going." When he saw Sirius's frown he sighed and rolled his eyes. "But..." He could have laughed at the way the three boys faces turned from disappointment to hopeful expressions.
"We could charm their shoes so that overtime they get more and more sand in them. Not harmful but annoying in the long run when they have to walk with sand in their shoes all day." He explained as he set his book to the side. The other three were amazed by Remus's thinking.
"That's amazing mate! But how are we going to full that off?" James asked. Remus took a moment to think of a plan before speaking a moment later.
"Me and Peter will go to the library and figure out a spell to make the sand appear." He than pointed to James and Sirius. "Once we have that, you two can work on charming as many Slytherins shoes as you can." He ordered and received a bunch of 'yes sir' in return.
---
It wasn't until a few days later that Remus and Peter found a solution for the charm. And they couldn't take much credit for it as someone had suggested it to them.
The two boys sat next to each other in the library, both looking through 'Basic Spells for Witches and Wizards' but were having no luck in finding anything that would work. James and Sirius were both growing more and more impatient which wasn't helping matters at all and had ended with Peter telling them to fuck off.
"I give up." Peter groaned as he closed his book and rubbed his eyes. "I hate the library so much now. Have you found anything yet?"
Remus shook his head "Nope. Found the spell to create sand, Sabulo, but nothing for the timing."
"What's this about timing?" A new voice asked from beside Remus, when Remus looked to see who the voice belonged to he was met with a girl with ginger hair and blue eyes. She was holding a book in her hands and Remus was just about able to read the cover. 'Dorian Gray.'
Before Remus had the chance to reply Peter was speaking. "We're trying to find a spell that will slowly speed the growth of something over time." He explained to the girl, who gave them a very confused look. "Why?"
"Herbology." Remus quickly said with a slightly guilty look on his face. The girl either didn't notice or ignored it because instead on speaking she grabbed a book from her bag. She flicked through the pages before setting the book down in front of Remus and pointing to a spell. Remus read the definition before nodding. "Yeah that'll work! Thank you!" He quickly grabbed his quill and starting writing down the spell.
"Thank Merlin for that! Couldn't have done it without you.." Peter spoke to the girl, slowly down his speech when he realised he didn't know her name. "Lily. Lily Evans." She smiled. "I'm Peter and this is Remus." Remus set his quill down and eyed the book Lily held.
"That's a good book. Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde?" He asked, already knowing the answer but felt it was only polite to ask instead of assuming. Or at least that was what Mum always told him even though she wasn't the best at following that rule herself at times.
Lily nodded. "Have you read it?" She asked in return which Remus nodded. "Nearly finished it. It's a good book."
"When I finish reading it, would you like to annotate our copies together?" She asked, Remus didn't usually make notes on the books he read but Lily seemed nice and it would be nice to have another friend who he didn't share a dorm with. So he agreed.
After Lily left Peter and Remus put their books away and headed back to their dorm to share what they had found with the other two.
---
"You two are bloody legends! This is brilliant!" James gasped as Peter shows him what they have planned, "How'd you find these spells anyway?" Sirius asked as he grabbed his wand and casted the sand charm, Sabulo, and got sand all over them. "SIRIUS WAS THAT NEEDED?" James yelped as he ruffled his hair to get the sand out. "I DIDN'T THINK IT'D GO EVERYWHERE!" Sirius defended himself as Peter groaned loudly and Remus sighed.
"Right guys we need to plan if we want this prank to work!" Remus called over the bickering of them all, quickly silencing them all. He opened his mouth to speak before an owl tapping its beak on the window stopped him. James walked over and opened the window, he took the rolled up letter from the birds talons and closed the window once it had flown off. James wasted no time and opened the scroll, skimming through the writing before cursing, "Shit, sorry Remus this is for you." he passed the piece of parchment over to Remus, going a shade of red from embarrassment.
Remus took the piece of parchment into his own hands. He read through it quickly, it was from Poppy asking him to join her and Minnie for dinner that night. Remus silently thanked Merlin that James had been the one to grab the letter and not Peter or James. "No worries mate, nothing in here that's personal. Just Ma asking for me to join her for dinner." He shrugged but nodded thankfully at James.
"Right well while your with your Ma. me and James will do the prank. We have an idea." Sirius grinned as he sat on the edge of his bed. "What about me?" Peter frowned at the thought of being left out of this prank. James thoughtfully rubbed his chin before coming up with an idea, "Make some more friends, tell them some rumours about the Slytherins." He suggested. Peter nodded and started to think of different rumours to start about the Slytherins.
James and Sirius were working on their plan to pull the prank off so Remus grabbed his book and set to finishing it. If he finished it before dinner he knew his mum would love to talk about it with me and suggest more books to him while his ma scolded her for not making him finish the books he already has.
---
An hour or two later Remus found himself walking up the spiral staircase that led to his mothers' quarters while the other three went towards the Great Hall. if he was going to be honest he was glad to escape the other three boys for a bit, as much as he loved them he also loved some alone time every now and then. He had already decided that instead of returning to his dorm he would just stay in his bedroom in his mother's quarters. Poppy had told him to feel free to sleep there whenever he wanted and he wasn't going to let the opportunity of peace and quiet escape him.
He entered the living room, closing the entrance door behind him, and dramatically face planted into the sofa. "Hello to you too, mooncake." He heard his mum's voice was just above him. He tried to respond but it came out all muffled since his face was buried into the sofa. "Mhm, am I right to assume your hungry?" She asked as she brought her hand to Remus's back and gently rubbed circles on his back.
Remus turned his face so he could speak. "Yep. Bang on the money mum." He said and watched as Minerva crouched down in front of his face and kissed his forehead. "Then sit up and I'll fetch Ma." She told him, which he nodded in response and pushed himself into a sitting position. He watched as the Transfiguration disappeared behind a door to fetch the school matron, how most people would never know that the two were married never failed to shock Remus.
"Love? Our son is waiting for us." He heard the, though muffled, Scottish voice call out softly. Minerva McGonagall may seem like a very strict and stern women but behind closed doors she was still strict stern but also warm and sweet. Especially when it came to Poppy, she simply couldn't put a teacher act on when Poppy is around her. With Remus she could act stern, to a certain point that always told Remus she wanted no more than to just annoy him. But Poppy had grown up beside Minerva and knew that the professor was a dumbass with a big heart, that she was smart and sweet but stubborn and stern all at the same time. Poppy had seen Minerva at her lowest and refused to leave her side and taught her how to be loved.
"Well, best not to keep our dearest waiting." The Irish nurse replied and took her wife's hand. "Hiya Ma! Did you miss me?" Remus asked as the pair walked into the room, "Of course I have, but if I don't see you in the infirmary than I know you aren't causing trouble." The irony in her words forced Remus to bite his tongue from laughing. Instead he opted for flashing a grin at her before Uno, the ginger kitten, sat on his lap.
"Uno!" He laughed as the cat rubbed it's face against his. Minerva chuckled quietly at the sight before speaking. "The monster has been sneaking in here almost every night. Loves Poppy to bits." The last bit brought a smirk to Poppy's lips, she turned around to be face to face with her wife. "Are you jealous that you have to share me with Uno?" She asked cheekily, her smirk growing as she saw Minerva's face go a bright red. "What? No. Obviously not." She huffed and crossed her eyes, she was going to say more but a gag from Remus stopped her.
"Please no. Not while I'm a witness to this."
---
Remus ate dinner while he chatted away with his mum's before heading to his own room, in their quarters as he was not going to walk all the way to Gryffindor dorms when he felt like he would fall asleep if he were to close his eyes for even a second.
Which was in fact the case, Minerva had to carry him to his bed when Poppy pointed out to her Remus had fallen asleep on the sofa. The boy didn't stir at all and Minerva took great joy in being able to tuck her little boy into bed once more. Not that she'll admit that to anyone.
Herself and Poppy both fell asleep rather quickly as their bodies ached to be allowed to rest for a bit. And so the family of 3 all slept peacefully in their beds that night.
Until Poppy had been awoken at 2AM with one of her ward spells telling her someone in the infirmary needed her, so she left her bed (making sure not to wake the sleeping Scot next to her) put her dressing gown on and made her way to the infirmary.
What she didn't expect was to see Sirius Black and Bellatrix Black both standing there with her dear friend Professor Sprout holding them both by the necks of their collars.