Chapter 3
“You shouldn’t have done that.” Remus said quietly, when they were already eating dinner in the Great Hall.
“What, shoving that bloody twat?” Sirius said and Remus nodded, “I’m glad I did.”
“Not for me, though. He said much worse stuff about you and James.” Remus argued.
“Well it’s already done.” Sirius said, through a mouthful of steak and kidney pie, as Lily hurried over to them, her hair pulled back and books piled in her hands. She put them on the table and sat down.
“Look, I’m sorry about all that.” Lily told them, “About him.”
All four of them stared blankly back at her. She continued,
“Severus doesn’t really mean it. He has it hard at home and–”
“C’mon.” James interrupted, “Doesn’t change the fact that he’s mad.”
“He is not mad.” Lily said, indignantly. James squinted at her and said,
“No need to defend your boyfriend.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.” Lily turned slightly pink, “And you didn’t have to do that.” she said to Sirius.
“I feel better, though.” Sirius said.
Lily looked as though she wanted to drop the conversation and started eating, opening the topmost book.
“What’re you doing? We don’t have any homework yet.” James asked.
“Just reading.” Lily answered brightly, “There’s no way you’re not reading as much as you can when there’s a whole library of books at our disposal.”
“It’s ‘cause we’re not mental.” James said, sounding amused.
“Wait,” Remus said suddenly, “how did Severus know I was half-blood? Did you know?”
Lily shook her head.
Remus started hanging around Sirius, James, and Peter more often. Sitting with them at meals, even walking to class together. On Saturday afternoon, Remus bursted into the common room with armfuls of books. Sirius was dozing off on an armchair, and James and Peter were playing wizards chess in front of the fire beside him. Remus carried the books over to a small table in the corner of the common room, struggling to put them down without dropping them all.
“A little help?” he called across the room. Sirius leapt over the armchair and caught one in mid air.
“What do you need all these for?” Sirius asked, as James and Peter strided over.
“We are going to look through these records for Severus.”
“Severus?” Sirius said.
“Yeah. Do you happen to know his full name?” Remus asked. They all shook their heads. “Lily!” She glanced over at them,
“Yeah?”
“What’s Severus’s surname?” Remus wondered. Sirius and James looked at each other.
“Why?” Lily asked, staring suspiciously at the books piled on the table in front of the boys.
“No reason.” he said, unconvincingly, “Just want to get to know him, is that so hard to believe?”
“Yes.” she replied curtly, turning her attention back to the novel in her hands. James cleared his throat, a funny expression on his face,
“Are you sure he’s not your boyfriend?”
“Quite sure, yes. As I’d know, wouldn't I, Potter?” They all could practically hear her roll her eyes. James was apparently not finished. He leaped over the settee to land sitting next to her.
“Don’t you trust us, Evans?” James asked, sarcastically.
“Seeing as Sirius shoved Severus… No.” Lily said. James turned to shrug at Sirius then said to her,
“A Galleon for his surname.”
Lily huffed exasperatedly and practically stormed up to the girls’ dormitories, apparently offended. James threw his hands up in defeat.
“That was the best you could do?!” Remus exploded.
James and Remus argued about what would have been the best way to approach Lily all the way through dinner in the Great Hall and as they walked back to Gryffindor Tower, Peter throwing in comments here and there. As Remus was normally the quiet one, Sirius took this as a plus.
“Maybe she’d want to trade a secret for the name.” James was contemplating.
“That’s exactly the opposite of what I’m trying to say!” Remus said, annoyed,
“C’mon, I’m just riling you up, mate.” James said.
“Well, don’t.”
Sirius suddenly spotted Andromeda leaning against a wall in a crevice of the corridor they were walking. She motioned for him to join her. He almost shook his head, but what if she was there to forgive him. He couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk to her.
“I have to use the toilet, lads. Catch you later.” he called to them, already halfway down the corridor. They nodded and continued their argument.
Andromeda led him through a portrait in the crevice into an empty corridor.
“I didn’t know this was here.” Sirius said in surprise.
“I found it last year.” she said, “It’s become sort of a hobby of mine, wandering the castle.”
“You’ll have to tell me about some short cuts you’ve found.” Sirius said, testing the waters.
“Yeah,” Andromeda said quietly. She shuffled her feet slightly, obviously trying to gain the courage to tell him something. They both took a breath, almost in sync.
“I missed you.” Andromeda breathed out. Moments like these were when Sirius realised just how different from her older sister she really was, though they looked quite similar. Sirius thought about what to say next,
“I’m sorry I ended up in Gryffindor.” he said.
“Don’t be sorry. It’s really not your fault.” she said quickly, “Sometimes I wish I was in a different house… I just– I wasn’t sure what to say. Or think.”
“You didn’t know what to think!” Sirius grinned, “Imagine me!” He meant it as a joke but she looked solemn.
“Anyway, I wanted to talk to you for a reason.” Andromeda said, recovering quickly, “I got a letter from someone you might know. It was sent to me but there’s a section for you.” She rummaged around in her pocket and pulled out a letter, opening it and passing it to him.
“Regulus!” Sirius said, seeing the name scrawled at the bottom of the page. It had been days since Sirius had written to him, twice. Had he really sent a letter back, though indirectly?
Sirius, you have to quit writing to me. I’ll be in trouble if they find out. I’m fine.
Regulus
That’s all it said. Sirius stared at the page for a while, disappointed. He didn’t know what he had been expecting. A heartfelt confession of forever brotherhood? A letter full of curses and shame? But whatever he had expected, it wasn’t this. This was dry.
“I debated even giving it to you.” Andromeda explained, “But I thought this news was better than no news.”
“It is. It is.” Sirius assured her. He stared at the words “I’m fine” and wondered if this was actually true. Then Sirius had an idea,
“Do you know the name of that Slytherin first-year with the weird greasy black hair?” he asked her, “He kind of has a long nose.”
“Are you talking about that Snape boy? God, he’s a knob.” Andromeda said.
“Severus Snape? Is that his name?”
“I believe so…”
Sirius got back to the common room, his page of the letter from Regulus shoved in the pocket of his robes.
“His name is Severus Snape.” he said, standing in front of his friends all spread out lying on the rug. It took them a moment, then Remus stood up and hurried to the books still piled on a table, searching through one under S.
“Sirius, ya genius!” James exclaimed, “How’d you find out?”
“Asked some Slytherin I passed in the corridor.” Sirius said, thinking on his feet. He wasn’t sure why he was lying but knew he’d tell them sometime.
“They didn’t think you were mad?” James asked.
“Probably thought I was queer.” Sirius said. James laughed,
“Worth it.”
Within the evening, they had found out that Tobias Snape and Eileen Prince were married eight months before Severus Snape was born. Tobias was a muggle, but Eileen had attended Hogwarts and had been in Slytherin. Eileen had filed a change of housing in 1962 but moved back to the previous location in 1964, where she remained.
“Not loads of information on him, is there?” Peter said.
“He’s half-blood, though.” Sirius mentioned, “That’s gold!”
Remus said nothing but looked a little hurt by that comment.
“I mean,” Sirius corrected himself quickly, “for a Slytherin. Most of them are pure-bloods”
“Right.”
“Where’s P?” James asked giddily, grabbing a book, “I want to find me.”
They all took turns finding the records of their births. It was nice to feel important enough to be written in records, staring at their own names each on the parchment. When Remus found his name, reading about himself, he sighed with relief.
“Hey, Remus,” Peter piped up, “where did you even find these.”
“The Restricted Section of the library.” Remus mumbled quietly. Peter looked mildly surprised and James said,
“There’s a Restricted Section?”
“Why were you so worried about Snape finding you in the records?” Sirius teased, “Do you have some big secret you’re worried he’d know about?”
“No.” Remus said, sharply.
“Anyone want to explore the castle some more tomorrow?” James asked around, feeling the need to change the subject. Sirius and Peter nodded enthusiastically.
“I can’t.” Remus said, looking like he regretted his whole life.
“Why not?” Sirius asked.
“I’m starting to feel ill. I think I’ll go to the hospital wing tomorrow.” he said.
“Are you alright?” Peter and James asked at the same time, startled.
“Yeah, yeah.” Remus brushed it off, “Just feel ill.”
Starting that Sunday, Sirius, James, and Peter went exploring the castle every week. Remus came sometimes as well when he wasn’t sick, which had been around every four weeks. One of those nights in November Peter started doodling a map of the castle every corridor they wandered.
“What’re you doing, Peter?” Sirius snapped, “You’re supposed to be looking out for Filch!”
“I just thought we could mark any passageways we find. It might make it easier,” Peter answered.
“Easier?! Not getting caught would make it easier!” Sirius said, in a hushed whisper.
“Shh!” James turned around and waved his arms at his two friends, annoyed. Sirius and Peter shut up, and Peter put the piece of parchment he had been writing on in his back pocket.
Only the week before, James and Sirius’s potion had exploded in potions class. They were sure they had followed the instructions perfectly and there could be only one reason it had happened. The boy sniggering with his friends across the dungeons. So James had had the marvellous idea to sneak in during the night and tamper with Snape’s potion. It was a wonderful shade of violet and it gave Sirius such a thrill to watch James add a mandrake root, which they had just learned about in Herbology, turning the Herbicide Potion a vibrant green colour.
The boys left the dungeons feeling proud of themselves.
“I can’t wait to see Snape’s face in Potions tomorrow!” Sirius said, as they strolled back up to Gryffindor Tower.
“Yeah,” James agreed, blocking his face as he walked under a sliver of moonlight streaming through a window.
When they were three corridors from Gryffindor Tower, for the first time in their two months of sneaking around, they were stopped by Filch, the Hogwarts caretaker. For that, they received their first ever detention.
By the beginning of December Sirius had learned among other skills; Wingardium Leviosa the levitation charm, Lumos the light spell, Alohomora the unlocking spell, and James had taught him Muffliato to create a privacy bubble. He had also received three more detentions after the first one.
“If you did your homework, maybe you wouldn’t get detention,” Remus suggested one night, as they all lay on their four-posters. Remus and Peter doing homework, James grieving his inability to play Quidditch as a first-year as the first game of the season was approaching, and Sirius complaining before having to go meet McGonagall for another detention.
“It’s only Transfiguration I don’t do the homework for,” Sirius said, “I know more about the Gargoyle Strike of 1911 than I’ve ever cared to.”
“Look at you, you ol’ History of Magic whizz. I can hardly remember one name,” James said, from where he had his face buried in his pillow.
“That’s because you sleep through it,” Remus said.
“I swear yesterday you were snoring,” Peter added.
“Way to kick me when I’m down,” James turned onto his back. Pulling out his wand, he began attempting to make green sparks fly out the end which they had started learning in Charms.
Sirius moved over to Remus’s bed where he had pages of Transfiguration notes surrounding him. Remus pushed a couple pieces of parchment over to make room for him.
“Why do you even need notes for Transfiguration? Isn’t it just a flick of a wand and an incantation?” Sirius complained. Remus rolled his eyes,
“See, this is why you still haven’t been able to turn your elder branch into a quill,” Remus pointed out.
“At least I turned my match to a needle,” Sirius said, glancing pointedly over at Peter. James laughed.
“Oi! My wand wasn’t working that week!” Peter exclaimed. He had been the only person left in Transfiguration who hadn’t managed to turn his match to a needle yet.
“Yeah, all right Petey,” Sirius chuckled, then had to duck from the pillow Peter threw at him.
“Hey!” Remus yelled, worried about the notes strewn on his bed. Sirius picked up Remus’s pillow, ready to chuck it, but Remus grabbed his arm,
“Not mine. I’m serious.”
“No, I’m Sirius,” Sirius smiled widely. Remus wrestled the pillow out of his arms, knocking multiple pages down in the process.
“Catch!” James called, passing Sirius his pillow and discarding his wand that had only been able to produce gold sparks. Sirius ran to Peter and they started whacking each other over the head repeatedly. Only stopping when Remus gathered his notes and left the dormitory. Sirius looked around when he heard the door close, giving Peter the opportunity to hit him around the back of the head. He scrambled up and followed Remus down the stairs.
He caught him at the portrait hole.
“Where are you off to?” Remus asked.
“Detention, remember?” Sirius said, “Where are you off to?”
“Hospital Wing,” Remus sighed, as if he had wanted to slip out unseen. Sirius squinted at him,
“Are you sure everything’s alright, Remus?”
“I’m sick is all,” Remus shrugged. They did not speak until they were standing outside the Hospital Wing.
“You seem to be sick a lot. I’m getting worried,” Sirius confessed.
“Don’t be!” Remus looked startled, “It’s really nothing. It’s a– a genetic sort of slight illness.”
Walking down to McGonagall’s office from the Hospital Wing, Sirius was sure it was not a slight illness if Remus was in the hospital this often. Why was Remus lying to them?