Crime and Punishment
"OI REMUS, YOU UP YET?!" he wasn't sure which of the three said it, but it had woken him up from the wolf-induced coma that Madam Pomfrey used to patch him up and get him back to the castle. She seemed to have been about to chase them out when she noticed Remus was awake. She let them go with a warning for their shouting.
"Mad bug you caught," James said.
"You do look bloody awful mate." Sirius piled on.
"We were awfully worried when you didn't come back to the dorm yesterday," James was tactful.
"Pete thought you were contagious and almost had an attack." Sirius didn't.
"Did not!" Peter chimed in.
"Did so." Sirius' priorities were never where they should be, were they?
"What happened then?"
"Not sure," he couldn't come up with anything, "I'll ask Madame Pomfrey but I don't think she'll let me go yet. Be glad you don't have to share the bathroom with me." Less humiliating than trying to explain he was slashed open by himself.
Sirius was looking a little more energetic than usual, trying to get James to a wheelchair race with him to the other side of the hospital wing.
"Been like that all morning," Pete complained as James tried to be reasonable with Sirius. "For what it's worth, I hope you get better soon, I heard they're supposed to make Fiddlefluff cake for tomorrow's dinner. Think you'd love that." They'd caught on to Remus' sweet tooth, Sirius had, he pointed out how he always had second servings for dessert and offered him entry to his stash of chocolate frogs he kept hidden in the bedroom. He'd hear them croak sometimes. Made Remus wonder what else Sirius had figured out and wasn't letting on. But he didn't seem concerned with thinking today, he was currently getting scolded by Madame Pomfrey and James on playing around in the Hospital Wing.
"Quite enough now. You let Mr. Lupin rest, I'll have him join you for breakfast tomorrow, he'll have to stay here tonight."
"I'll get your homework Remus!" James managed to sneak that last sentence before Pomfrey shut the door closed.
"Lovely of them to come check on you, sorry to shut them out but this is still the Hospital Wing." She was growing fond of Remus, hard not to when she got to examining his whole set of scars it's more than Remus had seen himself, she muttered to herself what a botched job that muggle woman had done and how nasty the old scars were. She didn't mean for Remus to hear that, and he wouldn't have if it wasn't for the wolf hearing. But she was nice enough to offer answering any question he had, but he couldn't come up with a single one.
She gave him a sleeping draft a little later, said it was best for the scar's recovery, Remus drank it and didn't wake until the next morning.
...
There was a letter on the table next to him. Sloppy handwriting, Remus couldn't make out a thing, he couldn't have made it out even if it was neat. The signature however was clear enough, Potter, it had a doodle next to it, a dog pissing on s figure with smell lines drawn, most likely a portrait of Snape drawn by Sirius. It made him giggle a little.
"Morning Mr. Lupin," Madam Pomfrey was a witch alright, she had the magical power to appear right in Remus' blind spot without even the wolf noticing.
"I'm afraid it's still a little early for breakfast, let me check on that wound and I'll have you on your way in no time."
...
"Remus! You're early," Peter spat toothpaste out. Still a bit of a mouthful.
"Pomfrey figured I was alright now."
"You must be starving, wanna head down?" James peeked, he seemed mostly ready, except for his hair, signature Potter messy black hair.
Sirius had his head stuck in his uniform jumper. "Remus' back?"
Remus changed real quick into his robe and head down with the rest of the boys. They kept going all the way down talking about brainstorming an idea for a prank, that it had to top off the Smelly Snivellous one. They crossed McGonagall on the way down, who gently reminded him of his detention. As if the full moon hadn't been enough. But he was determined not to let that stop him. Few ideas came to them on the prank fun, but nothing that managed to top it off yet.
Lily saved their seats, she wasn't fond of James and Sirius, on the fence about Peter, but she felt a little pity that Remus had been sick, so she made space next to her. Mary and Marlene opposite to them. "Feeling any better? They told me you had a nasty bug."
"All better now." Remus said, he was famished, hadn't eaten anything since before the transformation, he hadn't noticed how hungry he was until the food appeared in front of them. Fried egg, sausage and beans. Of which Remus probably had half a dozen eggs.
"Oi, Remus, was wondering if you'd let me check out your History of magic homework." It seemed to him that Sirius was testing him.
"Haven't done it." Remus didn't offer anything else. "Probably won't do it."
James offered his for Remus to copy, but he refused it still, said he'd rather just take the detention.
They were late to Potions, exactly a week from the Smelly Situation. The memories made them giggle on their way.
Remus noticed Mary talking to professor Slughorn before they arrived, fled to her seat as soon as Lily and Marlene came into the room. Remus couldn't hear what she was talking about, but she seemed to retreat back to her shunned stool from before last week. Peter kept to James' side until it was inevitable to go seat next to Serena, who seemed to be irritated still about loosing the points last week.
Lily seemed to be manning that day's lesson, Alexander was too absorbed in some book and she didn't seem to mind. Marlene and Remus had already mastered the dynamic without talking much, they'd split up the instructions at the start of the lesson, while Slughorn said them, and try to avoid James' and Sirius' attempts at measuring ingredients by asking Remus or Lily to switch with them. Snivellus was first to finish this time, Slughorn approached it at a distance first, fearing a repeat of last week, which the Gryffindor boys found hilarious.
...
"Hiya Remus," Sirius appeared behind him in McGonagall's office.
"Wha'cchu doin' here?" Remus said, utterly confused.
"Didn't think you were the only one in detention did you?" Sirius grinned. Cheeky fuck.
Finally, McGonagall entered the office, followed by none other than Serena Wagner.
It was the first time Remus registered her voice, and indeed she had a thick german accent. She didn't talk once to Sirius and Remus, only pleaded to McGonagall that she was just defending her friends. Bollocks, thought Remus, she wanted a fight. She shot a dirty look at Remus, and a much, much dirtier look at Sirius. It seemed that being a blood traitor, whatever that was, was way worse to the Slytherin than having broken Snape's nose.
This wasn't lost on Sirius either, he shied away, that was certainly a first.
McGonagall sent them to the library, apparently the start of the year was a messy time for Madame Pince, the librarian, needed a little help with the early year borrowers, NEWT and OWL students seemed to leave piles upon piled of book all over. They were tasked with ordering them alphabetically until there wasn't one book out of place. The worse punishment Remus could've thought of.
The mountain of books was set before the troublemakers. Serena kept glaring at Remus, looking down at Sirius.
Sirius waited for Serena to leave and put some books on the shelf, "Remus," he pointed at the stack of books in front of him, "you know they're not in order right?"
"Piss off." It wasn't that he didn't know. He couldn't.
"You can read, can't you Remus?"
He just scoffed at that. "'course I can." He took the pile of books and started stacking them on the bookshelf. A History of Magic One. Zombification and other folkloric rituals. Understanding Ogres. Advanced Legilimency. Curses of the middle ages. In that order.
"If you say so Lupin, if you say so..." the young Black boy was not good at not pressing Lupin, but he seemed to miraculously let it go when he got distracted by about seven different books on Legilimency in front of him. He paused to tell Remus what it was and how it was such a pain in the ass according to Bella, short for Bellatrix, his cousin who was a sixth year Slytherin. Commented she wasn't really born with a knack for it either, just curses. Which worried Remus, every piece of information he left behind was a breadcrumb trail for a horror story.