Three
“Someone’s eager to play,” Black came forward with a pleasant smile as he turned the corner. “You weren’t here long, were you? I would feel terrible if it turned out you’d been waiting on me,” he spoke in a tone that made it clear that he meant the opposite of what he said. “Come along, Moony. Mischief awaits!”
Wordlessly, Remus pulled himself off the wall and followed Black deep into the heart of the dungeons. Remus had been intent on keeping himself from wondering what Black had planned for him, but now that they were actually nearing their destination, his imagination began to run wild. It would be something painful or equally humiliating, Remus was sure. Cursing the day Hecate breathed life into the first of the Blacks, Remus allowed himself to be led into the abandoned dueling room.
Only, it wasn’t so abandoned at all. Roughly half a dozen students sporting green and silver ties were scattered throughout the place, and that was about the time that Remus got an inkling he wouldn’t be leaving this room with all limbs intact.
“Gentlemen,” Black said, striding in after Remus with his arms spread wide. “Allow me to introduce our newest volunteer. In fact,” he swiveled around to shoot Remus a crooked grin, “There’s one personal introduction that I would like to make on Lupin’s behalf. Wilkes, Avery, do us the honors, please.”
Two burly boys with whom Remus vaguely recalled sharing Charms N.E.W.T. classes stepped away from each other, revealing a scrawny figure Remus hadn’t noticed before. They shoved the figure forward, effectively throwing the boy onto the ground. Remus’s eyes widened to find that it was none other than Snape that was scrambling to his feet.
“Congratulations, Snivellus,” Black thumped the smaller boy on the back, invoking the nickname that he and James enthusiastically put into use whenever they spotted Snape’s head of greasy hair in a crowd. “You’re officially moving up in life. Lupin is replacing you as the practice dummy so that you can instead become target practice for us. Aren’t you grateful for that?”
This was sick. Bad enough that James and Black had initially bonded over their mutual dislike for the otherwise insignificant Slytherin boy, but to think that this- This entire gang of Slytherins, for some reason led by a raucous Gryffindor, had been going out of their way to make Snape’s life miserable this whole time? While it was true that Remus had never bothered to spare a glance for Lily’s ex-childhood friend, he was still human at the end of the day- Figuratively speaking- So naturally, as he stared at Snape trying to right himself to his feet, Remus felt a surge of pity for the boy.
At least, that was, until Snape glared at him with the rage of a hundred curses, as though Remus was somehow to blame for the predicament that he was in.
“I asked you a question, Snape,” Black clicked his tongue. “Go on. Show Lupin how grateful you are.”
Snape remained rooted in place with so much hatred bubbling out of him that it was practically tangible in the air. Then the boy named Avery kicked him in the back of the knees, sending him sprawling onto all fours at Remus’s feet.
“Now that that’s done with,” Black spoke over the cruel laughs from the small crowd that followed, “Why don’t we explain to Lupin what it is that we do here? Let’s see a show of hands!”
“We’re a study group,” Black the Younger offered, drawing friendlier laughs from the crowd.
“A student club,” agreed the single Ravenclaw in the room. “We take our education very seriously.”
“We help each other out with spells, do research together, things like that,” Black, the older one, concluded. “Severus here has been very helpful these past few years in aiding us with some of the trickier ones. It was very kind of you to volunteer to help as well, Lupin. Here, why don’t I show you some of the more recent charms we’ve been working on?”
With quicker reflexes than anything Remus could have anticipated, Black gave his wrist a determined flick and whispered, “Imperio.”
Remus barely had any time to feel shock at the demonstration of one of the most illegal curses in the world before the spell took hold. All his senses relaxed at once, filling him with a sense of lulling peace. Oh, it was wonderful. Suddenly, it seemed so silly that he had been worrying so much this past week. What was there to worry about, when he could simply let go of all that chained him down to life and simply let his mind roam free?
“Get on your knees,” spoke a faraway voice, giving way to chitters of laughter. “Come on, Remus, get on your knees. Why fight against what’s natural? Show us all your rightful place in this world.”
His mind was sluggish, his thoughts barely coherent. He heard the words, understood the meaning, and frankly, Remus couldn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t obey them. He was done making decisions for himself, remember? Hand over the reins, Remus, unburden yourself. Let me do all your thinking for you…
“Good boy,” Black cooed, and people were outrightly cackling now. “Excellent work, Lupin. Now,” he leaned back against the wall. “Crawl to me.”
Do it. Do it, don’t question it, you’ll feel so much better if you do…
Something wild and not entirely human clawed its way to the forefront of Remus’s mind. The wolf wasn’t strong enough to fend off the invasion properly, but the single second of clear thought was all that he needed. Remus’s Occlumency barriers slammed into place, then shot forward so violently that Black gave a startled shout, knocking his head against the wall behind him as he tried to deal with what was undoubtedly a terrible ache in his head.
“Sirius! Sirius, are you hurt?” Regulus Black called frantically, but Remus was too nauseated to hear Black’s response. He did have enough wits about him, however, to hear Snape’s suicidal bark of laughter. Two seconds later, there had been another cry of imperio from Black’s lips, and Snape had slapped himself hard across the face.
There was no laughter this time. Everyone could see that Black was furious, that whoever dared upset him next would end up with something a lot worse than a flushed and stinging cheek.
“Get up,” Black demanded of Remus, and Remus scrambled to his feet. Snape pulled himself up as well, wisely seeming to know no good could come of being in a kickable position with the mood that Black was in. “Rosier!” Black barked at a Slytherin who stood closest to the Ravenclaw from before. The blond snapped to attention at once, his face twisting into an eager sneer as he did so. “You and Regulus on this side. Lupin and Snape, both of you on that one. Whichever side gets crippled enough that they can’t get back up admits defeat.”
Well, that didn’t sound foreboding in the slightest.
“Not just yet, Snivellus. The niceties must be observed, or did your filthy Mudblood mother never teach you that?”
“My mother isn’t a Mudblood!” Snape snarled. “She’s a-”
“Yes, Snape?” Black inquired pleasantly, and Remus glances at Snape just in time to see the boy’s face turning a nasty shade of purple. “Fuck off, Black, I’m not telling you who she is!”
“Worth a try,” Black sighed. “Now bow.”
Rosier bowed deeply, with a dramatic flourish of his arm. Regulus gave a polite little bow, and Remus, not wanting to get Imperiused again, followed suit. Snape did end up earning himself another Imperius before giving a jerky nod of his head that could just barely pass for a bow.
“Begin!”
“Bracchium Confractus!”
“Sanguineum Fervefacio!”
Remus recognized neither of those spells, but he figured from the pained screams that followed that they weren’t very nice ones. He was pleased to find that while Rosier and Snape had no compunctions holding them back in trying their very best to kill each other, Regulus was less prepared to do so. Not for a lack of trying, as an arsenal of convoluted curses came flying out from the other boy’s wand, but there wasn’t enough power behind any of those spells for them to be able to cut through Remus’s Shield Spell. Eventually, Regulus gave up and decided to go with basic Fourth-Year spells, which Remus was happy to deflect, one by one.
A loud crash had both Remus and Regulus pulling away at the same time. Rosier lay sprawled on the opposite side of the room, his arms twisted and bent at a highly unnatural angle. Heaving heavily but wearing a victor’s satisfied smile, Snape spat in Rosier’s direction before losing himself in a fit of coughs.
“Bested by a half-blood, Rosier? What would your parents say?” Black tutted. From the sidelines, the Ravenclaw cackled loudly. Rosier, apparently deciding that he valued his life enough not to take out his anger on Black, threw himself at the Ravenclaw instead, knocking him to the floor and using what remained intact to pummel him to the ground.
“The hell is this, Muggle boot camp?” Black huffed loudly. “Stop whimpering, Snape, and get on your feet. Regulus, move over. Let’s see how our new pet and our old one fare against an actual opponent.”
Black’s choice of this particular word was nearly enough to have Remus shouting out a curse and earning himself half a dozen more vicious ones in return. Somehow managing to get his rage down to a slowly boiling simmer, Remus spat out, “Two-on-one? You’re that sure of yourself?”
“Not a fan of the odds? I understand. I wouldn’t want to duel me either.”
Then Black shot forward a curse that completely contradicted his comment from earlier about having to bow before duels. Remus blocked it only just in time, and it was pure luck that his instinctive variation of the Shield Charm was effective against the unknown spell. Remus stuck with the defensive spells, occasionally deflecting but never attacking, the lessons of holding back that had been drilled into him for years managing to trump his survival instincts even in a dangerous situation such as this.
Snape, however, clearly had no such qualms. He’d always been the creative type when it came to curses, managing to pick up just as many dark spells as the rest of the Slytherins despite not having access to the same ancient family libraries. Ignoring the jeers from his surrounding housemates, who would choose to cheer for the Gryffindor Black rather than the half-blood Slytherin, he threw out a number of curses that most certainly could not be found in any part of the Hogwarts curriculum.
But Black wouldn’t be who he was if he didn’t give as good as he got. Countering and returning Snape’s hexes with blinding bursts of light dancing around him, dodging and deflecting one curse after the other while still managing to keep Remus’s attention with attacks of inhuman speed- It was, in a word, beautiful. For anyone to be able to match to Magic’s footsteps, sensing the spells that passed him by to play along to their tune… It was marvelous.
“It’s called a wand, Lupin. You’re meant to use it to do actual magic,” Black informed him as his latest Blasting Hex sent Snape staggering backwards. “If you won’t attack me, we could always go back to the basis of things and consider it a regular stick instead-” He drew a complicated rune in the air, and Remus’s shield came cracking down around him at a single touch. “Expelliarmus. What do you say, mutt?” Black mockingly waved Remus’s wand around in his hand. “Here- Go fetch.” The wand went flying to the opposite end of the room, much to the howling amusement of Black’s Slytherin mates.
As for Remus, he was thinking he would have to figure out just how potent Black’s Imperius Curses were, because there was no chance James had willingly spent five whole years being on good terms with such a fucked up sadist.
“That’s enough excitement for today,” Black sighed. “Up to the library now. Wilkes, Rosier, and Regulus to one table, Crouch and Avery with me.”
A hand came clapping down on Remus’s back just as he was picking up his wand. “Same time next week sounds good to me. We’ll have to keep working on that Imperius until it properly takes hold, no?”
Then it was just Remus and Snape left in the room. And instead of even considering the option of being allies stuck in the same unfortunate circumstances, the overgrown dungeon bat spat out something offensive and marched off with a scowl.
This was going to be a very long year.