Bad Influence

Remus followed after Joan at a jog as she left the Great Hall. Neither of them spoke to each other until Joan rounded a corner and began to ascend one of Hogwarts' many enchanted staircases. Remus paused at the bottom of the stairs before he followed after her. He skipped one or two stairs and was lucky enough to make it to solid ground before the entire staircase lurched. His foot twisted uncomfortably as he stumbled onto the cold stone floor and Joan whipped around, "Wait!" he called as she furiously wiped at her face. It was at this point the humor of the joke had worn off, and Remus felt a heavy pit settle into his stomach, "Wait, Joan--" but Joan Hart wasn't listening. 

"Laugh somewhere else!" she shouted, much to the displeasure of the portraits around them. A man in a long green robe scoffed loudly and exited his portrait to join a rather calm prairie landscape. Remus caught Joan by the sleeve, "Just wait!" he said just as he heard another portrait laugh and turned his head to see a small group of young women with their fingers extended toward him and Joan.

"Poor boy!" said a blonde one, "can't even get the girl to stay. I wonder what he did!" 

Her brunette friend picked up her outdated skirts and giggled obscenely, "He's a Prefect! Probably something unforgivable!"

Joan looked at the painting and shook her sleeve away from his grasp, "You made your point in the Great Hall. I don't want to hear it!" She picked up her pace and turned a sharp corner.

"I wasn't laughing at you," Remus explained helplessly, "I swear it! It was just-"

"Try again!" Joan exclaimed, "I saw you with the rest, you don't need to make excuses!"  She neared the second-floor bathroom, which had been flooded again. She paused as her shoes slid against the wet stone and sent her a little quicker into the heavy door of the bathroom, "Just go away!" she cried and disappeared into the bathroom. Remus had made it this far, only to come to a wet stop at the edge of the water. He grimaced and ran his fingers over his face. He stared at the heavy door before he turned and looked behind him. No one was in the corridor, most likely they were still in the Great Hall, and that bought Remus some time. He stepped towards the door and knocked three times,

"I cannot go in there. You'll have to get out if you want an actual apology." His voice was muffled and soft as Joan leaned over one of the sinks. She stared at herself, her face was red and blotchy, and her nice blouse was stained. She closed her eyes tightly and looked at the door. There was a moment as she contemplated her response before she kicked the flooded floor.

"Go away!" she called as Moaning Myrtle exited one of the stalls. Joan looked up at the mirror once again to be met with Moaning Myrtle's angry expression. 

"We can't both be sad," Moaning Myrtle said, "go away." 

Joan groaned as Remus knocked, "I don't care about your stupid apology!" she called and grabbed a handful of paper towels. She rubbed at her wet shirt and mumbled, "The one time I don't have my wand-"

There was a rustle from the other end of the door as Remus dropped his hand, "Fine then, stay in there with Myrtle. I'm sure she's happy to see you anyway."

"Why are you so sad?" asked Moaning Myrtle in her shrill tone, "I'm sad because I remembered how I-" Joan threw the paper towels into the sink and looked back up at herself in the mirror, "Is it because you think you're-- ugly?" Moaning Myrtle asked bluntly, "Because I-"

"Go away, Myrtle!" Joan said flatly. Moaning Myrtle let out a wail and threw herself back into the stall. The toilet splashed and began to overflow once again. There was a chuckle from the other side of the door before everything went silent, aside from the running water. Her shoes were soaked through, her blouse was soaked through, and the new library book she had gotten was soaked through. Nothing could make this afternoon worse than Joan being forced to confront Madam Pince about the book. Joan knew it would ruin her reputation with Madam Pince, and she would be the laughing stock for the next week- or until Remus Lupin's friends picked a different target. After a few minutes, she looked to the door, "Your friends are asses, you know that right?" I didn't do anything to them. And it's not like I've even reprimanded them for picking on that Snape boy." Joan wiped her tears with the heel of her hand and stood up a little straighter as she pieced herself together. 

There was a stretch of silence before Remus responded, "Correct, but they meant no harm. It was just for a little show." The doorknob twisted as Joan opened the door to face Remus. Her eyes met his and his expression changed ever so slightly. He chewed on his scarred lip and sighed, "They didn't know you would drop the goblet. Sirius thought you would be surprised, and James thought you would scream. That's all." 

They stood for a second in silence as Joan stepped fully out of the bathroom, "I don't care what they thought would happen. That's not what happened, and Madam Pince will have my head as soon as I step into the library with the book and you--"

"I know! I know, she's like a harpy," Remus laughed and lifted his hands in retreat, "No need to get snippy." 

Joan stared at Remus for a few seconds before she snorted, "I'm not hearing an apology." Remus' hands dropped down to his sides as he furrowed his brow and opened his mouth to respond, "and I won't be hearing one from you. Get Black or Potter to do it. They can man up and take it." She pulled her robes around herself to conceal the soaked blouse and stepped back in the direction of the Great Hall, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get my book back."

As her shoes squelched and splashed in the large puddle, Remus stood and watched her go. The back of her hair bounced as she walked further and further down the hall before she disappeared from his sight. A cold and disgruntled feeling settled in the back of his head, Joan Hart was certainly going to be more trouble than she was worth. He didn't want Sirius or James to get caught up in any of it, they had had enough trouble. He pushed up the sleeves of his sweater and began the long walk to the Gryffindor dormitory, his thoughts swirled and muddled within themselves as he went. 

─── ✦  ✦ ─── 

The Gryffindor common room was unusually empty for a cloudy Saturday afternoon. Sirius, James, and Peter were all huddled around a game of cards. James had got a new self-shuffling deck for his birthday, and it had become their new favorite passtime. Peter quite liked the muggle game, 'Go-fish', but no one else wanted to play that. Instead they settled on something a little more brutal, 'Slap-Jack.' Sirius was quick-handed, and the back of his hand was very red by the time the game had ended. He lounged on one of the red sofas and waited as the deck shuffled itself three times. James sat on the floor in front of the short table they had dragged closer to Sirius' sofa, and Peter sat with his back to the portraithole. James tapped his wand on the deck and looked around the table, "Another round?" Peter nodded excitedly.

"When do I ever say no?" asked Sirius and sat up as the deck began to split itself evenly in three directions. Right as Sirius stuck his hand out to grab his portion, the portrait hole swung open,

"Home, at last," said a low feminine voice. The three boys whipped their heads towards the girl just as she closed the portrait hold behind her. Drew Holland enterted the common room, her usually tidy purple hair was frizzy and untamed, and her round wire glasses had messed up her bangs, which protruded out from every space the glasses would allow. She wore a striped button-down over a black long-sleeve turtleneck, which was smeared with an unnamed orange goo. 

The three watched in equal shock as Drew threw herself down next to Sirius, "What happened to you?" asked James as he dug into his pocket to find a spare cloth, "You've got something on your glasses."

Drew took off her glasses and reached for the cloth, "Slughorn had me disposing of the old potions we made two weeks ago and someone didn't bottle it correctly." She gestured to her clothes and hair, "Hence the mess. Why was Remus outside of the girls' bathroom?" 

Sirius choked and looked down at Drew, his eyes wide and his mouth fell open, "What?!" he asked, "Which one?" 

"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. He was talking to some girl." Drew had passed Remus on her way up to the dormitory. Remus had a sour look on his face, and neither he nor the girl had noticed Drew double back to make sure it was her friend, "He hasn't got a girlfriend, has he?"

Sirius knit his brows together and then turned to look at James, "That's some development," a slow smirk crept onto his face, "Remus Lupin pressed against the wall of a girls' bathroom. Impressive! Did you ever imagine that would become of our dear friend?" 

"Not in the slightest!" chuckled James, as he stretched out to lay flat on the floor. He pretended to think hard for a moment before he raised a finger, "Oh! I remember now! We tested that potion on some Hufflepuff girl. That may have been a factor."

With her back pressed against Sirius' arm, Drew raised an eyebrow, "Girl? Which one?" 

"Joan Hart," replied Peter, "She didn't take it well." 

Drew's eyes went wide, "Did it work?!"

"One hundred percent!" Sirius flaunted a proud smile, he dug into his pocket and brought out a crushed sandwich they had made for her, "Here," he said and handed the sandwich to her before he continued, "the fireworks were brilliant!"

"I thought you were supposed to do that to Snape?" Drew asked as she stuffed half of the sandwich into her mouth.

"Well, it turned out Snivellus hadn't shown up for his meal - so we had to find a different target," James said.

"And Joan Hart was the closest to where I sat," Sirius continued and adjusted so he could look at Drew's forehead as she rested against him, "So James suggested it would be easy for me to reach her goblet and pour the potion into it," he took a pause and then spoke again, "I should point out, however, that he was of no help over here -- he was staring at Evans the whole time - when he was actually supposed to warn me about Hart coming back!" James aimed a light punch at Sirius' shin, "Ouch! For Merlin's sake, Prongs, It's no secret anymore. You only asked her out for the tenth time this year Wednesday!"

Drew jabbed a finger into Sirius' thigh, "I think it was actually the twelfth."

"No! I have a tally, and James keeps a diary."

        James gasped and sat up, "That is not true!" he said, "This can wait! The story, first! So where were we? Oh yeah, so when she was gone, we poured a drop into her goblet. That way, when she came back and took a sip from her goblet-"

"It burst into a firecracker, exploding right under her nose!" Peter exclaimed, pointing a finger at his own nose to demonstrate the effect.

With a laugh, James nodded and pointed at Drew "You should have seen her face! It was worth hundreds of galleons had it been put on display in Zonko's!" James twisted his face to look like an extremely bad caricature of a shocked Joan. Drew let out a wheezing laugh and had to quickly find something to spit her food into before she choked.

"Oh, I wish I was there!" she said after a brief break to catch her breath and resume eating. "Maybe next time, Peter should take the fall, not me!" Peter shifted in his seat timidly at Drew's suggestion. She had been in detention because she was the first caught when they had snuck out a week prior, and Peter clearly didn't like the idea of being Slughorn's newest victim.

"It did stain her library book, though," Sirius pointed out casually, "Which wasn't really the plan"

Drew's face fell. "It stained a library book?" 

"Yes? So what?" James shrugged, "It's not like she can't fix it."

Drew groaned and pushed herself up and off of Sirius, who sighed in mock relief as he straightened up, "She can fix it," she mocked and crossed her arms over her chest. 

 "Well, she can! She can use some cleaning charm!" James replied with an offended expression.

"Then let's just hope she knows how to do one of them," Sirius said.

"I'll be surprised if she doesn't, given the fact she's in her seventh year." James scoffed, "Final year at Hogwarts and you can't perform a simple cleaning charm. Even Filch can work his own cleaning magic, and he has no magic."

But Drew sighed and shook her head, instantly. "I swear, Madam Pince can smell magic on her books. She'll go mental if she thinks you're cheating. She can also see just about any tiny stain," she said, "I remember when I accidentally dog-eared a page. I had detention for a month. You just sent Hart to a death sentence."

"Well, it wasn't our fault!" said Sirius, "She dropped the goblet!"

Drew groaned loudly and put the rest of her crumpled-up sandwich on the table, "You pranked someone other than Snape, it was a lose-lose situation." She gaped at Sirius, Peter, and James before she sighed, "Nevermind, I'm going to nap. Goodnight everyone." She brushed past the sofa and walked up toward the girls' dorms, "Tell Remus I said hi." 

The boys said their collective 'Goodnight' before returning back to the game at hand, "She'll come around, we've got daylight left," said Sirius as he grinned uncontrollably in James' direction. 

"What are you smiling at?" James asked, straight-faced.

"Your pretty face," Sirius answered promptly, faking a longing look at him. "I wonder what would become of your face if Joan Hart were to hex it. Remember, I'm always an option in case it fails to impress Lily Evans anymore" He joked, before adding a low-voiced "not that you're having luck without it, anyway"

"You really think she could hex me?" James scoffed. "I'd like to believe she does score abnormally high, but even if she does, it doesn't guarantee she'd be fluent in practical magic!" 

Peter put down a card and raised an eyebrow, "Well, she is top of our class in Charms," he said, "I wouldn't be surprised." James wilted a little and gave Sirius a panicked look. 

The portrait hole creaked open to reveal a disgruntled Remus as he stepped into the common room, "Ah, look who's here!" James grinned, "No excuses, Moony, I'd to have all the details of your time at the girls' bathroom," 

"Surely!" Sirius chipped in, sitting up straight on the sofa, and grinned, "We need all the details about you and Hart's little get-together!"

Remus' scowl deepened as he walked up to his friends. "You two are going to apologize to Joan Hart tomorrow, I'm not going to be negotiated." 

"Woah," said James almost, disappointed. "Where does that come from?" 

"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," Sirius shrugged. 

As James snickered, Remus looked at the two of them the way a particularly helpless father looks at two of his good-for-nothing children. "This is no joke!" Remus said as he settled on the floor, opposite James. "She's pretty upset and understandably angry over the entire situation- honestly! She'd probably even get her book stained and for what I know of Madame Pince-"

"That she's a nightmare" Sirius completed, before letting out a yawn. "Why, calm down- I agree with you!" To this, James shot him a confused look, "What? Can't we side with Remus' good conscience once?"

Sirius stood up and shook his hair out of his face, "Oi, the conversation isn't over yet, and you can't change teams like that!" James said as Sirius walked up the boys' dorm stairs, "Where are you going now?"

"Drew had the right idea, I want a catnap," Sirius shrugged as he ascended the spiral staircase. He hopped over the fake stair and disappeared into the boys' dorm. In his wake, the three boys got over their differences long enough for James to hand Remus Sirius' hand of cards and the game to start up again.