Moonage Daydream

For several days Remus had been meeting with Lily on the grounds by the black lake to study. Even if it would bruise Sirius’ ego to hear it, Lily was a much better study partner than any of the boys. Peter was the best of them but more often than not he hadn’t a clue what they were doing unless it was potions. On this occasion, Lily already had prior commitments to Mary and Marlene. So Remus was left to study by himself in the back of the library.

He wanted to get out of the sun regardless, his face was entirely overtaken by freckles by now, a sight his mother often scolded him for.. Remus sighed and leaned back in his chair after reading the same paragraph four times. A figure stalked towards him just in the corner of Remus’ vision. Snape marched up to Remus’ table, meeting his eyes with a glare.

“Lupin.”

“Snape. Why are we saying each other’s names?” he sighed.

Snape glared down at Remus. “You keep hanging around Lily.”

“It’s almost like we’re friends. Amazing concept, isn’t it?”

Remus swore that Snape had actually growled at him at that moment. “Stay away from Lily, she doesn’t need to associate with someone like you.”

Remus raised his eyebrows. “And what exactly am I like?”

Snape’s eyes narrowed at Remus. “A delinquent. You and your- your cohorts,” Remus snickered at that. “Keep causing trouble for the rest of us. Lily shouldn’t bother with you, I have no idea why she does. Look at you, you can’t even wear your uniform properly, you look like you came from the streets.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, Lily doesn’t need to be around someone like you.”

For the first time Remus could remember, he had a strange itching in his knuckles, a restless tingle that craved release. He glared daggers into Snape, the foul git had walked away before Remus could react to his words. Once the strange tingling dissipated from Remus’ hand he was left dumbfounded in his spot. 

Remus was left to mull over the interaction for the rest of the day until Sirius started poking his cheek to get his attention. “What do you want?” Remus looked up from his book. He was situated on his bed while Peter and James sat in the middle of their bedroom playing a game of chess.

“You’ve been all distant and moody today.”

“I’m not moody,” Remus scoffs.

“You’re brooding then,” Peter chimes in.

“Bugger off. I’m thinking.”

“About what?” Sirius quirks his head to the side.

“Bet it’s Evans again,” Peter sings.

“I’m thinking we should prank Snape,” Remus hums. “He’s a slimy git, he deserves it.”

James brightened, turning away from his losing game. “You’re right!”

Peter pouted at James once he abandoned the game. “Seriously? I was about to take your queen.”

“Great time to call it quits then eh, Peter? What do you have in mind?”

Remus hums. “I’m not sure. What’s appropriate for old Snivelous? He’s gross and slimy.”

“Has he heard of a bath?” Sirius scoffed. The four of them threw out suggestions for any possible pranks they could do.

“Maybe we can put Peter’s fish down his robes,” James suggested.

“No way! That’s my son!”

“Your son doesn’t even have a name!” Remus shouted back at Peter.

“He will eventually!”

“When?!” Sirius groaned, the argument of the fish’s name starting up once again. Peter tried to defend the fact he couldn’t decide on a name, Sirius yelled that if the fish was still nameless he couldn’t possibly be Peter’s son, and James seemed to be yelling for the sake of it.

~.~

Remus finally needed some peace and quiet from his friends. Marlene and Mary were in a spat he couldn’t for the life of him figure out, nor did he care to, Sirius and James were insistent he help them with quidditch practice, something Remus would rather die than be party to. Peter was nowhere to be found. Sometimes that boy snuck away and no one knew what on earth he was doing.

“Who decided the stairs should move?” Remus groaned to himself after finding yet another dead end. He meandered down a hall of paintings and suits of armour, far away from the stairwells. The hallway didn’t look familiar to him, he couldn’t even spot any actual classrooms. Why were there so many useless rooms in this school? He stared up at the paintings that followed him with their eyes. A few called out to him to chat, Remus stopped, trying to awkwardly carry on the conversation. Quickly, the subjects waved him off in annoyance. Remus apparently wasn’t their ideal conversationalist. 

The corridor started to smell oddly… sweet? That couldn’t be it. Remus wrinkled his nose up in confusion. He started following the scent like a puppy looking for a treat. He found himself standing in front of a large painting, the smell wafting through it. Paintings didn’t smell, did they? Remus leaned forward and sniffed the painting, it was an oil piece of a vase of flowers. Maybe magical paintings smelled. However, Remus couldn’t recall one that did and this one didn’t smell like flowers.

He started to inspect the painting, looking at it from every angle he could. Finally, he reached out to grab the frame, jumping back once it moved. Remus’ eyes bulged and grabbed the frame, it moved smoothly on hinges with a waft of wind blowing across Remus’ middle. A tunnel stretched endlessly in front of him, it was dark and made of some sort of stone, perhaps the same as the rest of the castle. Remus leaned forward, resting his hand on the floor of the hollowed out tunnel, the sweet smell drifted down into his nose. Curiosity got the better of him and Remus crawled inside, closing the entrance as he went. The further he walked, the tunnel expanded until he could comfortably stand up. The walk was long, he wasn’t sure how far he had gone but he was sure he was walking for nearly an hour, maybe even more, before he reached the ending. The tunnel ended at a small ladder with a hatch at the top of it. 

He made his way up, the sweet scent stronger than ever. Remus opened the hatch slightly and peaked out, rows upon rows of candy and chocolates met his eyes. Crates of cauldron cakes, pumpkin pasties, and chocolate frogs were piled high. His mouth watered at the sight. Remus slowly crawled out of the hatch, checking around to make sure no one was watching him. He looked through the wares, the crates were stamped with a logo to confirm where he had found himself. It was the backroom of Honeydukes. He grinned and scurried back down the latter, making a beeline to the tunnel entrance. He made sure to keep track of every twist and turn he encountered on the way back to the dorms. 

Remus burst through the door, skidding in front of Sirius, James, and Peter in the common room.

 “Merlin, what’s got you all excited?” James exclaimed. Sirius stared at Remus while he waited for an answer. “Where’ve you been?”

“I found something you’ve all got to see, James get your cloak.” Remus pulled James out of his chair. 

“Hey! I was going to win,” James whined.

“No you weren’t,” Peter scoffed, putting the chess game away. “What’s so important we have to see it now?”

“You’ll see. Hey, James, grab your map while you’re at it!” Remus called to James.

Sirius crossed his arms and stared at Remus. “A secret?”

“Yes.” A grin spread across Sirius’ face. 

Remus led everyone back to the tunnel, marking the pathway on James’ map as they left. “Remus, where are you taking us?” Sirius complained.

“Somewhere. Just wait, I’m looking for it.” Remus searched around them, picking up his pace once he started to recognize the neighbouring paintings. “Here it is!”

He opened the painting with an extra flare to his movements to show them the tunnel.  All three boys’ mouths fell open. “You found a secret passage?” Peter squeaked. 

“Yep. Come on.” Remus ushered everyone in. They hurried into the tunnel. Remus had started to shush them after Sirius began complaining again. “Don't you want to see where this leads?” Remus hissed.

“This is taking forever.”

“We’re almost at the end I think,” Remus told him. Sure enough the ladder was waiting for them. “Everyone go up.” Remus pushed the other three boys to go up before him. He followed up behind Sirius, hearing the sounds of their amazement. 

“Is this Honeydukes?” James muttered. “You found a secret passage to Honeydukes.”

Remus grinned, watching his friends brighten with realization. Out of the corner of his eye Remus saw Peter pocket a couple of pumpkin pasties. “We can sneak into Hogsmeade,” Sirius points out. 

Remus taps his nose. “Exactly. Get under the cloak.” James held the cloak up and all four crowded underneath. They shuffled out of the back room and through the aisles of Honeydukes, making their way out the door. 

The four spent the rest of the day running around Hogsmeade, sipping on hot butterbeers, running around the jokes shop, and exploring the small town. They played with fizzing sparklers that whizzed past their ears and nearly set Peter’s hair on fire. They were eventually kicked out of the jokes shop for making too much of a mess. They explored every nook and cranny of the town's square, starting up a rather spirited game of hide and seek that lasted hours. 

By the time they had made their way back to the castle it was dark and their bellies and pockets were full of pinched sweets. They laughed, trying to shush one another as they navigated the dark corridors on their way back to the Gryffindor dorm room, James’ cloak neglectfully forgotten in his bag.

“Who’s making all that racket?” A voice barked. 

“It’s Filch!” Sirius hissed. “James, get the cloak!” 

James scrambled with his bag, trying to pull out the cloak before the light of Filch’s lantern landed on them. The boys froze under his gaze, squinting their eyes in the sudden light. “Uh, run?” James whispered. 

“Yes.” Sirius and James started bolting, leaving a dumbfounded Peter and Remus.

“Hey!” The two yelped, trying to run, Filch caught the back of Remus’ sweater before he even could get going. He managed to get a hold of Peter’s arm as well, holding both boys firmly in place.

“The lot of you, detention!” Filch barked. Peter let out a defeated whine. Remus and Peter had spent the next hour sulking in Filch’s office.

~.~

“I can’t believe you two ditched us,” Peter whispered to James and Sirius. “We were all going to get detention anyway!”

“It was instinct!” James defended, putting his hands up.

“Terrible instinct,” Remus muttered. The four of them were sent to mind numbing detention for the rest of the week. McGonagal had assigned extra essays they had to finish and Filch had them cleaning anything he could think of, today it was the trophy room. Why it needed to be cleaned again was beyond Remus, everything already seemed spotless.. “All this just for being out past curfew?”

“We’ll just have to be sneakier next time,” Sirius hummed, leaning back and dropping his sponge. 

“Next time?” Remus hummed and raised his eyebrow.

“Next time,” Sirius confirmed with a grin. “I wonder if there’s more passages.”

“I bet there is. Maybe dozens,” James said.

“Maybe even hundreds,” Peter added. 

“Hundreds might be a bit of a stretch,” Remus chuckled.

“We should find them,” Sirius said.

“Bet you I can find more than you lot,” James teased.

Sirius let out a dramatic gasp, picking up his sponge just to throw it down again. “I accept your challenge.”

“Oh, God. This is going to be a whole thing isn’t it?” Remus groaned. 

“Yes it is. And you’re going to be in on it, moody,” Sirius hummed with his mischievous grin. Remus rolled his eyes, turning back to his scrubbing.

They returned back to the dormitory several hours later exhausted with their fingers still pruny. Sirius leaned on James, moaning about how he wasn’t built for manual labour. Lily was playing cards with Marlene in the common room as the four slumped in. 

“Hey, look what the cat dragged in,” Marlene giggled. “Heard you four got detention with Filch.”

“Of course you did,” James groaned.

“We like entertainment. Remmy, why are you hanging out with these guys?” Marlene pouts.

Remus furrowed his brows at the nickname. “Honestly, this time it was my idea.”

Lily tisked. “Boys,” she hummed.

“Yeah,” Remus groaned, dragging himself up to their room to collapse on his bed. 

It would be another week of scrubbing the castle before the boys were finally given their freedom back. Which of course was a call for a celebration. They waited until the late afternoon on a lazy Saturday to find their way back to their secret passageway, celebrating with cauldron cakes from Honeydukes, this time purchased with James’ allowance. Thankfully, the boys had learned their lesson and managed to make their way back to the dormitory without being caught.

~.~

A buzz of excitement ran through the castle the day of Halloween. A few kids had found some scary costume masks to wear to the feast. The feast had descended into almost a full blown party, kids were trading candy with other tables, some were playing with little prank items, others were using magic to play around with the pumpkins. The four friends were wandering to the other tables to trade candies, finding themselves in between Slytherin and Ravenclaw. Sirius’ gaze trailed to a group of three boys staring at them.

Remus turned away from the trading to follow Sirius’ eyes; Regulus had his piercing gaze directly on Sirius and he was flanked by two other boys Remus hadn’t seen before. Remus watched Sirius chew on his cheek for a moment, turning his eyes away. Regulus had scoffed and marched up to Sirius. Remus took a step away from the brothers, sensing a tension building. 

“Why are you staring at me and my friends?” He demanded.

“I’m not. No masks this year?” Sirius hummed, popping a lolly in his mouth.

“No. Why would we wear those?”

“You’re such a stick in the mud, because they’re fun Reggie,” Sirius scoffed, pulling his own monster mask over his face. “See, fun.”

Regulus eyed Sirius. “Are you celebrating your birthday this week?”

“Maybe. Why?”

“You didn’t read mother’s letters then. Our cousins are having tea for you. Will you be there?”

“If I want to be.” Sirius shrugged, looking away from Regulus. 

Regulus’ shoulders dropped slightly. “Fine,” he snapped. “It’s this weekend. Come or don't, see if I care.” He stomped back to his friends.

“Let’s go see what they have at the Hufflepuff table,” Sirius announced. 

The mask never left Sirius’ face for the rest of the night, it wasn’t until they finally returned to their room that he took it off to change. Later that night, once all the lights were off, Remus heard Sirius sneak away from his bed to James, a silencing charm was swiftly cast around the curtains.