Prank’d Ya
Remus was aimlessly wondering the castle again, but an idea shot through his mind like a bullet when he passed the kitchen. Remus reached up, stretching to his tip-toes in order to tickle the pear which was on the portrait. The pear giggled with glee, and the portrait swung open, giving Remus enough time to climb through. The sight would never get old, hundreds of hard-working and motivated house elves cooking for the pupils. Remus' usual house elf, Gimbel, approached him. "Master Remus, how may we help?" He bowed slightly, and Remus smiled lightly at him.
"I need some help with this charm, do you have any ideas on how to increase the power?" Remus said, still calm as ever.
"Fraid' not," Remus unintentionally looked down at his shoes, and nodded. The house elf clearly felt a tinge of guilt, "You could always try adding maxima onto it?" Remus' head shot up, and his ears twitched. This always happened when he was intrigued.
Remus left the kitchen with an unchangeable smile plastered across his face. He practically skipped back to the common room, excited to practice. To his delight, there was nobody in the dorm room either. Remus flicked his wand swiftly, repeating the incantation under his breath as he did so. "Flagrate maxima." It took him about thirty tries before he got it right. He could write separately from his wand due to this new addition to his spell. Remus heard steps approaching, and he quickly put his wand away, and stormed into the bathroom.
"Remus!" Sirius hollered, making it impossible to ignore. Remus opened the bathroom door, glaring through his eyebrows at Sirius. "You're cute when you're mad." Sirius casually spoke, as if that's a normal thing to say.
"What." Remus replied, coldly. Sirius raised his arms in the air, pretending to surrender.
"Help your best friend out with the pre-reading questions?" Sirius was practically begging, so Remus secured his chance. He crossed his arms, and looked down at Sirius with an upturned chin.
"Only if you'll leave me alone." Sirius considered this, and then shook his head, decisively. Remus sighed deeply, "And we aren't best friends." Sirius followed Remus, still. Remus turned around sharply, annoyance in his eyes. He was prepared to punch Sirius, but came to the conclusion that humiliating him wouldn't help much. Finally, James burst in, Peter following closely behind. "Look, your boyfriends are here, go annoy them." Sirius scowled at Remus, more in a trying to read his mind kind of way, rather than in a threatening manner. Sirius leapt into James' arms, who caught him without a second thought, but at the same time, causing him to tumble into Peter in the process and they went down like dominoes.
"Tonight, we're executing the prank!" James giggled with a mischievous glint in his eye, and smirked. "Remus, you coming?" He glanced over at Remus, who was now lying on his bed with a book. Remus rolled his eyes, and slammed his book shut whilst pulling himself into sitting position to face them.
"We aren't on a first name basis." He replied, coldly.
"Alright mate, if you change your mind, just ask." James giggled softly, but Sirius' gaze caught Remus' eye. Sirius had piercing silver eyes, and they stared into Remus' with a serious expression. Remus had never seen Sirius in this way, and it enticed him, almost.
"You seem bearable when you aren't annoying me." Remus let slip out, breaking his eye contact with Sirius as he did so. A wide smile grew across Sirius' face, and his cheeks turned into a soft, pink colour.
"You'll come around." Sirius said in confidence, then winked and pulled himself up from the floor. "I'm gonna go to post this letter I wrote to my cousin, Andy." He waved a letter in his hand, which was folded up and neatly tucked away into an envelope. He waved goodbye and Peter followed after him, claiming he was going to the kitchens. This left James and Remus alone in the dormitory.
"Why'd you hate us so much?" James asked.
"You're obnoxious." Remus said, simply. Although, James wasn't done digging.
"Although you may find us arrogant," He replied in a forced, posh accent, "We find you to be rather quizzical and interesting."
"Study me then you tosser." Remus snickered, and he jumped off of his bed, and left the dormitory. James smiled to himself.
"Verbal consent." He smiled evilly, a plan brewing in his mind already.
Sirius and Peter arrived around an hour later, and were surprised to see Remus in the common room when they entered. "You alright?" Peter asked, a tinge of concern in his voice. Remus nodded, confused. He cleared his throat, but didn't say anything after. Sirius waited expectantly, before shrugging and returning to the common room, seemingly unbothered.
Remus decided to head down to the great hall in order to execute his plan, yet he had to dodge the prefects somehow. He made it there without any issues, and set the timing charm immediately. It was set so that at exactly eight in the morning, when the post arrived. He deduced that it was likely that it would be the busiest time of day. Although Remus didn't like crowds, it was a risk he was willing to take.
He began immediately, getting on his knees and reciting incantations until everything was set in place. After it was finished, he smiled happily to himself, and pranced back to the dormitory, bursting with pride. A prefect had hollered at him and gestured for him to come over, but Remus just said, "No habla ingles." In a clearly fake accent, and carried on strutting.
He arrived in the dormitory in no time, and was surprised to see Sirius still up despite it being midnight. "You're back! Where were you?" Sirius greeted warmly.
"Still can't have friends." Remus said casually, before jumping onto his bed. He fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow, and didn't even change out of his orphanage clothes or close the blinds before sleeping.
The next morning, Remus woke up at five, and went downstairs into the hall at seven. It was the first day of lessons, and he was excited for charms specifically. As he rightly deduced, the hall started to get crowded at around seven fifty, and soon it was filled to the brim of students expecting mail. He did feel slightly jealous, after all, who would write to him?
Soon enough, the show started. There was a loud sizzle in the air, and everybody darted their gaze. Words began appearing out of thin air, and Remus looked around for reactions. James, Sirius and Peter were smiling widely, clearly impressed. Dumbledore looked satisfied as well, but everybody else was just in awe, until they burst into laughter at what the writing said.
*Sirius POV*
"I actually love pranks, and I'm rather good at them, so don't assume Im not. From, your dorm mate."
Everybody was guessing at who it was, but James, Sirius and Peter immediately looked down to the end of the table, and saw Remus smirking as he ate his food. "So we all agree Remus definitely did that?" Sirius whispered to his friends, and they all nodded.
"Think he heard you somehow Pete." James chuckled, but Sirius suddenly got a sinking feeling in his chest as the realisation hit him. If Remus had heard that, then he obviously didn't remember their meeting from the past. When he glanced down to the end of the table, Remus was gone, and the door was still swinging slightly as if someone had exited.
*Remus POV*
Remus looked down to his timetable, he had charms, history of magic, double potions and double flying. He groaned in annoyance as he made his way towards the charms classroom. To his surprise, a certain ginger girl was stood outside as well, looking excited. "Hello there, Remus right?" Remus nodded and smiled warmly. "Lily Evans."
"I know, I've seen you in the common room." He replied. The girl grinned with perfect teeth, she had long, curly ginger hair and freckles dotted around her face. The door suddenly swung open, and a short professor - who was stood on a stack of books - greeted them.
Soon enough, their classmates all began to enter. Remus sat at the back, with Lily on one side and a few empty seats on the other. He sighed in relief when he noticed his dorm mates weren't present. Although, to his dismay, they stumbled in a few minutes later. "Sorry sir, had to do something." James replied vaguely. Lily grunted.
"So disrespectful, it's the first lesson." She muttered, and Remus chuckled in agreement. He didn't necessarily care about punctuality, but he did care for hating on his roommates.
"Well, I see some seats next to Mr. Lupin, perhaps you wouldn't mind taking a seat by him?" The tiny professor replied in a squeaky voice, and the three boys went over and sat by him. Sirius was next to him, with James next to him, and Peter at the end.
"Hey, Remus." Sirius grinned, and Remus groaned again.
"Why does the world hate me." Remus said to himself, and Lily giggled. "Don't laugh at my suffering!" He chuckled as well, and smiled softly at the girl.
*Sirius POV*
Sirius watched as Remus laughed, how the sunlight which peaked through the blinds fell onto his tanned skin, and reflected off of his amber eyes. His scars were breathtaking, they looked like a silver decoration onto his sun-kissed skin. Sirius had never seen Remus genuinely laugh, but it was such a gorgeous sight. His teeth showed, one of his front ones were chipped slightly, but it looked adorable. Sirius looked up at the ginger girl which he was laughing with, and realised that was the girl which James fancied.
"Hi, I'm Sirius Black." He smiled, and put his hand out for her to shake.
"Oh I know. You're one of the boys who picks on Sev." She replied, bitterly. Sirius cringed, was that how people thought of him?
"No, we get back at bullies. You could call us heroes." He said.
"More like Marauders." Remus commented under his breath, and Sirius gasped, he had never heard Remus chose to be involved in a conversation with him.
Suddenly, the short professor caught everybody's attention, and taught them a simple incantation. As he was going into the depths of it's origins, a note fell onto Sirius' desk.
Hey lover boy, do you fancy Remus or something? The way your looking at him someone might think so. Anyways, is that Evans he's sitting with? Get in a good word for me mate.
Sirius groaned in annoyance and looked over at James, who was smiling and encouraging him to speak to her until Sirius finally caved into his friends' demands. "Psst." He whispered to Lily, whom didn't even flinch. "Evans!" He whispered again, but when that didn't work, he decided to initiate the plan B. Sirius scrunched up a piece of parchment and threw it lightly at her shoulder. She turned to face him angrily. "What do you think of Jamey here?" Sirius nodded his head slightly, gesturing to his friend.
"He's an arrogant prat who should focus on the professor instead of tormenting me for a laugh is what I think." She snapped, whispering. Sirius turned to face James, who looked distraught, you could practically hear his heart shatter. Sirius stifled a laugh at James' shocked face, and turned to attempt the levitation charm. Remus next to him got it on the first try, and Lily on the third. It took the other three a bit more attempts but they all eventually got it after ten tries (minimum).
Sirius nudged Remus whilst he had the chance, and when Remus looked up at him, Sirius smiled. "Were you responsible for the prank in the hall?" He looked expectantly, a twinkle of mischief in his eye.
"If I was, did Pettigrew over there get the message?" Remus looked angry, but Sirius was so ecstatic.
"Please be my friend!" Sirius begged, grabbing onto Remus' arm. Remus shrugged him off.
"Still can't have friends." He said coldly, as if that was normal.
"Why not? Is it because of your parents? Because I'll send them a howler!" Peter butted in, and Remus looked annoyed that he was eavesdropping once again.
"Well my dad died and my mum went crazy so good luck addressing that howler." Everybody surrounding them went silent, and Sirius felt the colour disappear from his face, and an incredible guilty feeling arose in his chest. Remus didn't even wince as he said it, which meant that he had probably grown up without parents if he was this use to saying it without any sadness. Lily paled in the face, and turned to Peter, enraged.
"You boys should feel ashamed!" She scolded them, but Remus just shrugged.
"I don't care, don't bother me." He sounded as if he was trying to convince himself as well, but luckily for him, class ended just then. Soon enough, everybody in the hallway was talking about Remus being an orphan. He clearly detested it, and looked very furious with all of the gossip.
"I think it's disgusting, talking about your personal life as if they have a clue." Lily said whilst they walked to history of magic.
*Remus POV*
"I'm used to it, at my orphanage I got picked on a lot cause of my scars and that," he shrugged, recalling the memories of when people would shove him to the ground and stomp on his nose until he passed out. Although, he did fight back. He had to stop after the third time, though. A boy wound up dead. "Did stand up for myself a bit, but had to stop cause somethin' happened." Lily didn't pry, she just looked at her shoes in guilt.
*Sirius POV*
Sirius pondered this thought, and decided to raise a very ignorant question. "What happened?" He asked, causally. Remus chuckled, thinking back to the situation.
"Well some kid tried to catch me off guard and punch me in the nose, but I was quicker. Grabbed him by the wrist and slammed him against the brick wall, kid hit his head and apparently something happened called 'internal bleeding', and we didn't see him again after that." Sirius swallowed, he never thought this shy, nerdy kid would be so tough.
"Wicked." Sirius said without thinking, and Remus rolled his eyes.
"Really weren't a big deal," Remus replied, and Sirius opened his mouth to ask the obvious question, but before any words came out Remus placed a cold finger onto Sirius' warm lips, "Still can't have friends." He said with a sigh, before catching up with Lily. Soon enough, James and Peter had joined up with Sirius, after trailing behind.
"He's so cool." Sirius groaned, and James patted his back.
"I know mate, and we will be his friend. By the way," he said with a devious smirk, "Lupin gave me consent to investigate him, he obviously said it as a joke, but I think we should find out why he's so persistent in not having friends, when he clearly wants some." Sirius recalled the parchment he had fished out from the bin, but decided not to bring it up to the others, at least, not yet.