Mischief Managed | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 54

Lily, Alice, and Jenna wasted no time to take their books out and help Marlene write all her summer essays; one for History of Magic, one for Transfiguration, and the third one about the usages of the dragons blood for their Potions class.

"Why is this taking so long to write?" Marlene groaned miserably, halfway through the Potions essay. "And why is the stupid train moving so much! My hand writing looks worse than ever!"

"Would you like me to ask the driver to slow down for you, your highness?" Jenna said with a teasing grin.

Marlene looked up at her with a deadly glare. "I will kill you, Potter."

"Sure." Jenna winked at her.

Marlene opened her mouth to retort, but Lily quickly beat her into it before the small playful argument could turn into a fight.

"You'll have enough time to finish them, Mar. Don't worry," Lily said comfortingly. "We have hours until we get to Hogwarts. Besides, even if you didn't have the time to write them completely now, you can continue tonight after the feast."

"Right... you're right." Marlene nodded, mostly talking to herself so she could calm her nerves.

Lily, Alice, and Jenna all had their books in hand, taking turn reading them out loud for Marlene, so she could write the useful parts down.

"Why can't I just look at your essays?" Marlene told Lily. "It will be done way quicker."

"No, you can't copy mine. How else will you learn?" Lily reasoned with her. "Besides, there's no way McGonagall wouldn't notice that both our essays look alike."

"I won't copy it! I promise!" Marlene pleaded desperately. "I'll just change it a bit."

But Lily wasn't having it. So Marlene went back to grumpily scribbling down on the parchment with her quill. Jenna got bored after the first essay came to an end and looked outside the train's window at the passing trees, rivers, and mountains. Alice kept dazing off as well, but Lily didn't give up for even a minute.

In the afternoon, their attention was caught when they heard a familiar voice call out from the the trains's corridor, "Anything from the trolley? Anything from the trolley?"

"Oh, thank Merlin! I'm starving!" said Marlene.

"Yeah, me too." Alice nodded in agreement, placing a hand over her grumbling stomach.

"I'll get it," said Jenna, getting to her feet, so she could stretch out her legs as well. She could never sit down somewhere for too long.

   "Then let's split the money," said Alice.

"Nah, it's fine. Honestly," Jenna insisted. She then opened the door to their compartment, seeing a middle-ages lady approaching their compartment.

Jenna stood in line behind a group of fourth year girls, waiting for her turn. Once they were gone, she moved closer to the trolley.

"What can I get you from the trolley, deary?" the lady said with a sweet smile.

"Um... can I have a few of everything?" she said, taking out a few golden coins out of her pocket.

Once Jenna got back to the compartment, carrying all the sweets, Marlene suddenly squealed in happiness at her sight.

"Jen, you're the best!" Marlene clapped her hands together in excitement as Jenna dropped all the sweets down on one of the seats.

"Up until an hour ago you were threatening to kill me," Jenna said with a little grin, taking her seat again.

"You're now officially forgiven," Marlene said happily, reaching out for a Cauldron Cake as the other girls laughed.

***

In the boys' compartment, however, it was unusually quiet. Throughout the whole train ride, Peter had busied himself with the sweets, opening all the chocolate frogs, because he had started collecting the cards over the summer. Sirius and James, however, kept stealing glances at Remus's direction in a suspicious manner.

At first, Remus thought to himself that he shouldn't say anything. He had even taken a book out to read, but it was growing harder and harder to ignore those two.

"Okay, what is it?" Remus sighed in frustration as he finally lowered his book, giving them a look.

"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked obliviously.

"You two have been staring at me for the past hour. So out with it. What's the matter?" Remus asked, tired of their suspicious behavior.

"Yeah, I noticed it too." Peter nodded eagerly, wanting to know what was going on as well.

"Nothing." James shrugged casually. "So, anyway... out of topic... how's your mother feeling? I saw that she was pretty well at the beginning of summer."

Remus felt the color drain from his face at those words. He knew exactly what James was referring to, and he was afraid that he would try to bring it up.

      Throughout last year, each time that Remus went missing, he told his friends that he was leaving to visit his ill mother. But only a few days after the last time he had gone missing, James sighted Remus's mother in King's Cross station, as healthy as one could be.

James could've only come to a few small conclusions; either a miracle had happened and his mother was somehow cured from a vital illness in a matter of days, or more possibly, Remus had been lying for a whole year about where he was going.

James had wasted no time in writing a letter to Sirius by owl to let him know of this curious event, and it immediately caught Sirius's interest as well. The two boys had sworn that they were going to find out the truth about their mysterious friend.

"My mother's feeling better, thank you," Remus said firmly, raising his book again to read, but his eyes weren't moving through the lines.

"So," Sirius started after a short pause, "You won't be returning home this year, will you? Seeing as she's feeling better."

Remus didn't answer immediately and kept his face hidden behind his book. It took him a fee seconds to answer. "Only if she gets worse again."

Sirius and James sent each other a look, though said nothing else. But in their eyes, they knew exactly what the other was thinking:

They were now certain that Remus had been lying to them all this time.