Queen of Disaster | 𝑅𝑒𝑚𝑢𝑠 𝐿𝑢𝑝𝑖𝑛

Chapter 15

Upon hearing that name, Remus nearly choked on his drink as his eyes widened. "Who?" he exclaimed, gaping at them.

     James face-palmed. "Why does no one know anyone around here!?"

     "Because not everyone's a gossip like you and Padfoot," Remus said cheekily. Peter sniggered while the other two boys glared at him.

     "For your more information, Diana Greengrass is the Slytherin Beater," Sirius answered.

     "I know who she is. She's actually in my Ancient Runes' class," Remus replied, trying to keep his voice casual.

     For a second, Remus considered telling them about the incident at the bookstore in Diagon Alley, and what had with Diana Greengrass back then.

     Truth to be told, even after weeks, Remus still sometimes thought about it, because he hadn't found an explanation for it yet. He still couldn't understand what had scared her so much that she had to run away like that. He couldn't get her horrified expression off his mind.

     But Remus held himself back, deciding not to tell his friends about it, knowing that they would get too obsessed with something mysterious such as this and wouldn't let it go. Just like how they hadn't stopped nosing around until they had found out he was a werewolf.

     "How come you asked her out?" Remus asked Sirius curiously. "I thought you hated Slytherins. Your words, not mine."

     Remus never agreed with the prejudice that Sirius and James had toward that House, because he knew not all of them were bad. But he never dared to tell his friends off for pranking them or talking this way about them.

     "True." Sirius shrugged, now grinning. "But this time it's different."

     "Different how?" Remus questioned.

     "Different in the sense that I didn't ask Greengrass out because I liked her." Sirius smirked. "There's something that I want from her."

Remus raised his brows at Sirius in a judging manner. "Something other than snogging her and dating her for a week just for the fun of it and then breaking up with the poor girl?"

     "No, this time it's actually important," said James. "We want to see if we can find out anything about the new techniques and strategies of the Slytherin Quidditch team this year. Our first match is with them."

     "So you're using her," Remus said flatly, turning his head to face Sirius grudgingly.

     "I wouldn't really put it that way, Moony," said Sirius, grinning handsomely. "I just see it as a duty to our team."

     James laughed, but Remus wasn't sure if this was a good idea. Even though he didn't know Diana Greengrass very well, he still pitied her that she had said yes to go out with Sirius, unaware of his true intentions.

      "Now, enough talk about girls," said James, placing down his empty bottle of Butterbeer and rubbing his hands together in glee. "Let's talk business, gentlemen."

     "What do you have in mind, Prongs?" Peter asked curiously.

     "Last night, while we were keeping Moony company, I suddenly had the most brilliant idea ever," James started, smiling arrogantly. "It occurred to me that at this point, the four of us know the castle better than any witch or wizard who has ever walked these grounds."

     "Very modest, Prongs. Way to keep it humble," Remus said sassily.

     "Thank you, Moony," James went on, ignoring his sarcasm. "Now, I thought to myself... hmm, what should we do with this knowledge of ours?"

     "Do you always think to yourself like a seven-year-old, Prongs?" Sirius said wittily.

  Angrily, James raised his arm to smack Sirius in the back of his head, but he accidentally hit Remus instead, seeing as the poor boy was sitting in the middle of them on the bed.

    "Ouch!" Remus groaned in pain, the four of them bursting into laughter at that.

     "Sorry, Moony." James chuckled before clearing his throat. "Anyway, as I was saying, last night I had the thought that we should make a map of Hogwarts."

     "A map?" Sirius frowned. "What use would that be? You said it yourself; we already know the castle like the back of our hands."

     "Well, Padfoot, this is where it gets interesting," James went on in a dramatically dark tone. "This map will also show every single person in the castle, and exactly where they are and where they're going."

     A silence fell between them as the other three boys stared at James, all of them impressed at the idea. It truly was brilliant, as James himself had said.

     "But... how will we manage to do that?" Peter broke the silence.

     "Yeah, Prongs. This is going to be an extremely hard magic to perform." Remus nodded in agreement with Peter. "Do you even know a spell that will allow us to put a tab on every single person in the castle?"

     "It's all about advanced work of Charms, gentlemen. But nothing will be too advanced for us," James said smugly.

      They were all grinning now.

     "Say goodbye to having to fear bumping into Filch or Peeves each time we sneak out after curfew," James went on. "If we want to avoid someone, or even run into someone on purpose — like charming Miss Evans, for instance — this map will help us. Now what do you say?"

     "I'm in," Sirius said without hesitation.

     "Count me in, too," said Remus, and Peter nodded as well in excitement.

     "All right! Then we better get started on th —" James was saying, but his words were cut short when the door to the hospital wing opened and they saw Madam Pomfrey.

     "What are you three doing here again!?" Madam Pomfrey shouted at their sight.

      But then her face turned red in anger when he realized that the three boys were all sitting on Remus's bed with their shoes on, along with four bottles of Butterbeer and bread crumbs all over the bedsheets.

     "Er... I can explain —" Remus started helplessly, but the healer wasn't having it.

     "Out! All of you! OUT!" she yelled so loudly that James slipped off the edge of the bed and dropped to the floor with a loud thud.

     With the speed of light, the three boys grabbed their bags off the floor and ran out of the ward as though death was following after them. Meanwhile, Remus put a hand over his mouth to muffle out the sound of his laughter which he was unable to hold back.

     He tried to keep a serious face when Madam Pomfrey turned to look over at him scoldingly, placing her hands on her hips.

     The healer wasn't aware of the fact that the three Gryffindors knew about Remus's secret, and she thought that Remus had only told them he had an illness. But that didn't stop her from getting angry each time those three showed up whenever Remus was at the hospital wing, and disturbed the peace of the ward.

     "How on earth did they even get in here?" Madam Pomfrey said in frustration, waving her wand to clean up the bed from the empty bottles and the remaining toast crusts that James always refused to eat.

     "Through the door." Remus shrugged.

     "I was outside all this time! I would've seen them!"

     "You must've missed them, then," Remus answered calmly.

     Madam Pomfrey gave him a look as though saying that she didn't believe him, but Remus showed no sign of giving the truth away. So she sighed before walking away, mumbling grumpily to herself while Remus only smiled.