Knowledge // Halloween
Saturday, October 30, 1971
“Remus, wake up!” said Sirius, gently shaking his friend. When he was met with no reply, he grabbed one of his pillows off his bed and smacked Remus with it.
“Jesus, Sirius, what can be so important that you interrupt my sleep?” Remus replied indignantly.
“Well, first of all, it’s three o’clock in the afternoon, I’m making sure you’re not dead or growing mould or anything. Second of all, you promised you’d teach me that dance for tomorrow and you haven’t yet.”
“Fine, fine, let me have a shower and a snack first,” Remus said, and promptly went to take a nice, hot shower. He sang Take Me To The Pilot, his go-to shower song. When he was done and opened the bathroom door, it was to Sirius Black sitting outside it.
“I didn’t know you could sing, Remus!”
“You weren’t supposed to, why are you sitting outside the bathroom?”
“Because my sole purpose today is to annoy you until you teach me the dance!”
“Of course it is. Fine, come on, come here. Do you have Wolpers’ radio?”
“Yeah, here it is,” Sirius says, and asks it to play Monster Mash, which it does. Remus danced along, and when he was finished, Sirius looked very confused.
“Okay. So clearly you didn’t grasp any of that. Let’s do it slowly?”
“Do what slowly?” a voice asked, and James and Peter entered the dorm.
“Remus is teaching me the dance for tomorrow! Nothing like I’ve ever seen before.”
“That’s because we are trained classically. As I hear it, muggles do a lot of silly dances for fun. Anyway, let’s have it, Peter and I will learn it too!”
“Right, okay,” Remus said, and began. “I was working in the lab, late one night,” he spoke slowly, moving in time, and the boys copied. “When my eyes…”
After about an hour, Remus thought they were ready, and played the song again. Finally, finally they all did the dance right, or at least passably, and Remus was exhausted and starving.
“Right, well done, you’re ready for tomorrow boys. I’ll find Wolpers and give her her radio back,” Remus said, and went to find the older girl. She was in the common room, her nose in a book.
“Hiya, Wolpers, here’s your radio back, thanks for letting us borrow it!”
“No problem, kid, Black said something about a prank and you guys pull the best ones so I figured, if I can lend a hand, why not. Just curious, though, why did you need it?”
“I had to teach the boys a muggle dance. D’ya think you could tell everyone that knows the dance for the Monster Mash to be ready at dinner tomorrow?”
“Oh, sure, sounds like fun.”
“Awesome, bye now.”
“Cheers.”
Remus left the common room and headed down to the kitchens, as dinner wasn’t for another couple hours. When he got there, he recognized one of the elves.
“Hi, Misly, how are you?”
“Master Lupin! Oh! I’m doing quite well, thank you, thank you! Is there anything Master Lupin needs?”
“I missed breakfast and lunch, I was wondering if I could bother you for a snack?”
“Oh! Yes! Of course, Master Lupin!” she said, and dashed to a corner of the kitchen, coming back with a large platter stacked high with sandwiches. “Would Master Lupin like Misly to bring these to Master Lupin’s dormitory?”
“No, Misly, that’s all right, I can do it, I’m sure you’re busy with other things.”
“No bother at all, Master Lupin!” she exclaimed, and disappeared with a pop. Remus stood for a moment, and headed back up to his dorm. When he got there, there was a platter of sandwiches surrounded by three boys.
“Oi, save some for me,” said Remus, and Sirius tossed one his way. “Thanks,” Remus said sarcastically, and began eating.
“How’d you get a house elf to bring these up? Usually they don’t come out of the kitchens except at night.”
“I mean, I just went down to the kitchens and asked. I was gonna bring them up myself but Misly kind of insisted on doing it herself…” The other three boys exchanged questioning glances.
“Misly? You know their names? And you entered the kitchens?” asked Sirius.
“Just the one, I recognized her from when she brought me food in the hospital wing the last time I was there. And yes, I went to the kitchens, I was hungry.”
“Remus, you’re not supposed to see the house elves. You’re not supposed to go to the kitchens, or call them by name, or talk to them at all,” supplied James
“Maybe that’s why she did it, if nobody talks to them all day except to order them around I’d expect they’re pretty lonely.”
“You’re insane, Remus, you know?” said Peter.
“Insane for being nice to people? Maybe the rest of you should learn how to be kind…” Remus said, and the conversation moved, the topic shifting to homework and Quidditch.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sunday, October 31, 1971
The sun rose on Halloween to four eleven year old boys up early, perfecting the charm they would use on the jack-o-lanterns later that night.
“Why do our pranks always have to involve complicated spellwork?” whined Peter. “This is literally three separate charms you guys turned into one, I can’t keep up!”
“You don’t have to, Pete, you can be the moral support,” said Sirius, to which Peter scoffed.
“Helpful. Just because I’m no good at doing an animation charm and a vocalising charm and an amplification charm all at once doesn’t mean I can’t help out with pranks…”
“I know, Pete,” said Remus. “Next time we’ll do something more practical, I know how good you are with levitation charms, maybe something to do with that?” he offered, to which Peter perked up and thanked him.
“Okay, right, let’s try this once more, on all of them,” said James, referring to all of the Marauders’ shoes. They all cast the spell, each focusing on a third of the shoes, and they all grew mouths and started singing Monster Mash so loud that they boys all had to cover their ears.
“Perfect!” shouted Sirius, and the boys removed the charm. “We’ll do the same at the feast, James, you take the front third, Remus the middle third, and I’ll take the back. This will be amazing!”
The entire day was spent in anticipation, all four boys giddy with excitement. Remus still forced them all to do their homework anyway, even though they had the next day off, by convincing them it would make the time go by more quickly. It didn’t, and James, Sirius, and Peter all left within the first hour of working. Remus stayed in, working tirelessly on his studies, knowing he would have no time to catch up later that week, as the full moon would be on Tuesday.
Once he finished all the assigned work from the past two days, he went to find all his professors in order to get a headstart on his homework for the next week. His attempt was foiled, however, when he was intercepted by Snape.
“What are you doing roaming around all by yourself, Lupin?” he jeered.
“If you must know, Snape, I’m simply going around to all the professors to get a headstart on next week’s homework,” he replied calmly.
“I cannot believe that you’re trying to get special treatment. Just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you can go around and do things like that,” Snape scoffed.
“Please, you’re welcome to join me. I’m sure you’ve already finished your assigned homework as well, I was just about to go see Professor Slughorn to ask what the next assignment will be. Hello, Evans,” Remus said, greeting Lily Evans when she walked up to the conversation.
“Lily, hi!” Snape said, before turning back to Remus. “As if I’d ever go anywhere with you. I don’t need extra time to finish assignments, why would I get them early? You’re loony,” he taunted, before turning on his heel and leaving.
“You’re trying to get assignments early? Is it because of what’s happening on Tuesday?” Evans asked innocently. Remus froze.
“What’s happening Tuesday? I’m just bored out of my mind and need something to do,” Remus replied as coolly as he could.
“Whatever you say, Lupin,” she replied knowingly, and threw him a wink over her shoulder as she left.
Remus changed course from Slughorn’s office to McGonagalls, and when he reached it, he knocked politely on the door.
“Enter,” said McGonagall’s voice from within, and, slightly out of breath, Remus opened the door.
“Ah, Mister Lupin. Please, take a seat. Biscuit?” Remus shook his head. “What’s the matter, Mister Lupin, you’re looking awfully pale.”
“I think someone found out,” he said gravely. McGonagall’s face paled as well.
“Who, child?”
“Lily Evans.”
“What did she say to make you think this?”
“Well, I was having a conversation in the hallway with Snape about how I was going to try to get next week’s assignments early, and she approached at the end and asked if it was because of what’s happening this week. I tried to play it off, Professor, but I think she knows.”
“I see. Did she give the impression that she would tell anybody about it?”
“No, but Professor, I’m scared. If someone that’s not even my friend, someone that I don’t even talk to, can figure it out in two months, how am I going to hide it for the next seven years?”
“Relax, Mister Lupin, please. I am going to locate Miss Evans and bring her in here, and we can have a discussion on the matter.” McGonagall exited the room, leaving him sitting, feeling very, very small.
His mind filled with all the possibilities. What if Evans already told someone, and they told someone else, and now the whole school knows and is coming to find him? What if he has to leave school again? Remus’ thoughts continued spiralling until he hears the door open again.
“Hi, Lupin,” Evans said shyly.
“... Evans,” Remus replied.
“Now, Miss Evans, do you have an idea as to why you’re here?”
“No, Professor. Well, maybe,” she replied.
“Your conversation with Mister Lupin earlier made him very uncomfortable. We are here to clear the air.”
“Oh, that. Yeah, I thought that might be what this is about.”
“Well?” pressed Remus.
“Well, what? I’m assuming we all know what we’re not saying right now, I mean, the staff knows, of course, right?”
“Know what?”
“That you’re a werewolf.”
“... Yes, Evans, the staff knows. What I don’t understand is how you know. It’s only been two full moons since we got here, how did you figure it out so fast?”
“I’m extremely intelligent, Lupin, and I, unlike everybody else at this school, am very observant. Anyway, I won’t tell anyone. I don’t really care, I mean, you’re not hurting anyone.”
“Yeah, not a soul,” Remus replied sarcastically, and Evans’ eyes shot up.
“Oh, Lupin… I’m sorry, I know you got your face really bad during your first one here, that’s not what I meant…”
“I know, Evans. It’s fine. Thanks for not outing me.”
“Of course. I’ll see you at dinner? Monster Mash, right?” she asked, to which Remus nodded, and she left the room.
“Mister Lupin, are you okay?” McGonagall asked kindly.
“No,” Remus stated, and went to sulk in his dorm.
“Hiya Remus, ready for dinner?” asked Sirius, coming up from the common room to fetch him.
“Yeah, let’s do it.”
About halfway through dinner, they boys enacted the plan. The hall filled with the selected song, and about a quarter of the students started dancing, eventually joined by Professor Dumbledore. Once the song finished, the jack-o-lanterns returned to their original state. After a moment of chaos, Dumbledore’s laughing voice echoed through the room.
“What a wonderful diversion, how fun that was. Now, please, let’s all continue to eat. Happy Halloween!”