The Marauders: Year One | #Wattys2016

Copying Notes

Copying Notes


Remus and Peter went straight back to the Gryffindor common room after Defense Against the Dark Arts let out, both frustrated that they had been the only First Years in attendance at the class. Remus, who was still uncomfortable about being alone with Professor Tutman, all by himself with nobody but Peter, who wasn't much company really. It had made for a very awkward double-class, and he was livid. He rushed back along the corridors to the tower, Peter scurrying behind him to keep up. At the portrait of the Fat Lady, Remus was about to say the password when she swung open and out stepped Lily Evans, with her bookbag 'round her shoulders, pulling her hair up into a pony tail as she climbed out of the hole.

"And where, exactly, were you at, then?" demanded Remus, without any prelude.

Lily looked up and turned quite pink, a sure sign she was lying. "I was ill," she said, "Quite ill. Overslept. I'm, er, on my way to Pomfrey's after lunch if eating doesn't help. I thought perhaps some tea..."

Remus glowered at her. "Well James and Sirius skivved off, too, it was just me and Peter for the whole class."

"I know. They're inside, pouring over old parchments," she said with a hint of disdain to her voice.

"Well, Tutman was furious," Remus said, "He ranted on for half the class about it." Actually, Tutman hadn't seemed to notice, he was too distracted by the nervousness that had overtaken him since the incident in the dungeons. He hadn't said a thing in the duration of the class about there only being two of his five students present. But Remus wasn't about to make it sound as though they'd all gotten extremely lucky to have skipped a class in which the professor was too distracted himself to notice their very obvious absence.

Lily sighed in frustration. At least she looked like she was sorry (Remus had a feeling there would be no regret on Sirius or James's faces when he told them the same lie). "Look, I couldn't help it, alright? I need to go. Alice is meeting me in the Great Hall." She pushed by Remus and Peter and rushed away.

Peter looked at Remus, "She didn't look ill," he said.

"Yeah, I'm betting neither will Sirius," replied Remus with a sigh.

The two boys crawled through the portrait hole and the Fat Lady closed behind them. At the sound of them coming in, James and Sirius, who were laying by the fire, both scrambled madly to collect a mess of parchments laying about them on the carpet. "Oh it's just you two!" said Sirius, dropping the parchment back down to the carpet, "Only Remus and Peter." James, too, stopped collecting parchments.

"Well?" Remus asked, "Has Pomfrey diagnosed you both as lazy layabouts, then?" James laughed, but with a glare from Remus, he stopped. "Tutman was in a right state. Lily skipped, too."

"Yeah, we know, she was in here bugging us half the time," Sirius said, "Poking 'round where she ought not to..." He turned to the parchments. "I don't think she was really ill," he said as he started organizing the pages again.

Remus scoffed, "Well neither were you, it seems."

"I was!" Sirius replied, "I was up half the night."

James nodded, "So was I, with him. I've never seen anybody puke like he was, it was like a Filibuster's had been set off in his guts." He grinned at the disgusting mental image he'd fabricated.

"Ugh." Peter groaned, not one for gruesome images. "That's nasty! No wonder you didn't want to go to class. I wouldn't, either."

Sirius had organized the parchment pages in his hands into several stacks by now. Remus pointed. "What's all that, anyway?" he asked, going over and sitting down. Peter crawled over and sat behind him on the couch.

"This, Remus, is brilliance in the written form," James replied. James and Sirius then launched into an embellished retelling of their invisible adventure to Filch's office and the acquisition of their prize of prankster gold.

By the time they finished the telling of it, Remus's expression was somewhere between amusement and disapproval. "You stole Bilius's file and now you've read it?" he asked, eyes wide, "That's invasion of privacy, or – or something."

"Yeah, but listen to this," Sirius said, coming to their own defense, and he read aloud again the parchment describing the winged library books flying about the room and off through the open window over Hogsmeade and beyond. Peter laughed so hard he toppled sideways on the couch cushions and wheezed, hugging himself as he rocked about.

"But what if one of the books had ended up in muggle hands?" Remus asked, horror-struck.

James rolled his eyes, "You sound like Evans," he said, "Laugh, Remus – it's funny!"

Remus stared at them, amused but fighting it.

"There's tons of bloody genius things Bilius has done, all here, like a guidebook, a gift to us," Sirius said. "This is the sort of stuff legends are made from."

"Yeah, well --" Remus said, pretending to still be quite disapproving, "You've gone and used the invisibility cloak without Peter and I."

Sirius grinned. "Only for a test run, mate. No worries. We've got loads of plans for other adventures!"





Once James and Sirius had collected up all the parchments of Bilius Weasley's file and tucked the whole thing, plus the silvery cloak, back up into their trunks, the four boys headed down to the Great Hall for lunch. Lily, Alice, Derek, Bilius, Frank, and Bilius's girlfriend were already clustered around the table, along with several others from Gryffindor house. Derek stood up and waved the four of them over the moment they walked into the hall, an excited look on his face as they joined them. Lily looked down at her plate as James and Sirius sat across from her. "Hey, there's the First Years, we were wondering where you lot were at," said Bilius with a grin.

"Sirius was ill," James said.

"Gosh, something's traveling about the First Year, huh?" Alice asked, buttering a bun, "Lily's been ill, too."

"Sorry to hear that, mate," Derek said, "Ought to have some dandelion tea. It brightened Lily right up drinking it. Grand for indigestion, you know."

Sirius nodded, "Sounds spiffing," he said.

"Speaking of us all being ill... Remus, could I borrow your notes from Defense Against the Dark Arts this morning?" Lily asked, still not looking up from her plate, but speaking to the pile of slaw upon it.

"You can borrow mine," offered Peter eagerly.

Lily looked up, her eyes pleading with Remus. Peter's notes would be pointless and they both knew it. He looked over at Peter. "You were doodling half the class anyway," Remus said quietly. "You were going to borrow my notes, too, remember?

"True," Peter agreed. "Sorry Lily."

"Thanks anyway, Peter."

"And yes, you can use my notes," Remus said, spooning applesauce onto his plate.

"Thanks," Lily said again.





That night, the boys were in their dormitory, laughing and reading more of Bilius Weasley's pranks from his file, when a little knock came on the door. They were already in their pyjamas, except for Remus, who was still pouring over homework that had been assigned to them. He got up and pulled open the door and was surprised to find Lily standing there. "Uh – hi," he said, keeping the door closed a bit so she couldn't see all the other boys in their beds.

"Who is it?" called James, leaping up from the bed and bouncing up behind Remus, expecting Derek, Frank, or Bilius to be on the other side. He wrenched the door away from Remus before he could say any sort of warning answer, and found himself standing before Lily Evans in his ratty old quaffle-print pyjamas. "Evans," he said, shocked.

Lily gave him a once-over. "Nice get-up, Potter," she said.

James dashed back into the room, horrified. "You aren't supposed to be in the boys' dormitories, it's not right, we can't go in the girls! What in bloody hell are you doing up here?" He had pulled his blankets up to his chin. Peter and Sirius were laughing.

"I came to see Remus. About those notes?" Lily asked.

"Well blimey, this couldn't wait 'til tomorrow?" demanded James, face red.

Lily laughed, "Get over it, Potter, I don't give a damn about your knickers." She turned back to Remus. "I'd really appreciate it if I could borrow them and get the homework assignment..."

"Yeah, sure," Remus replied, "Hang on." He turned to his desk.

"Oi!" cried Sirius, waving a hand at the wide-open door, "Some of us would like a bit of privacy 'round here," he said.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Lily, I'll meet you in the common room in a moment with the notes. That way this lot can calm down."

"Alright," Lily said, smirking. She looked over at James and winked – like he used to do to her the first half the year – and left the room, headed back downstairs.

James was redder than the Gryffindor house banner hanging over his bed.

Remus gathered up his notes and ducked on down the stairs. Lily was sitting at a wide table in the common room, her own parchment, quill, and ink laid out on the table before her. Remus walked over and dropped the scrolls he'd filled with notes down on the table. "Wow, that's a lot of notes," she murmured, unrolling one.

"I take detailed notes," Remus offered.

"Me, too," Lily said in appreciation. Remus started to walk off, but Lily stopped him. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"Back to the dorm?" Remus said.

"Well hang on, I'll copy these and see if I've got any questions before you go. Then you can take these back. Peter wanted to see them, too," she reminded him. Remus glanced back at the stairs, then shrugged and went over and sat down with her. She dunked her quill into the ink well at the edge of her page as she started copying the notes down meticulously with very lovely, loopy handwriting. Remus watched her quill tip scrape across the parchment. "So," she said after silently copying the first couple lines down, "How was your holiday?"

Remus shrugged, "Just... was, I guess. We had a nice dinner here at the school, you know. Hagrid brought in a lovely tree, the teachers all bewitched it to glow and spark. Dumbledore got some brilliant crackers that had live mice in them and prizes. I got a rememberall in one. My mum and dad sent me some new books. That's about all." He didn't tell her he'd spent the last two days of it locked up in the shrieking shack in a great deal of pain, coming down from his wolfish evening. He didn't tell her he'd spent the week before that scurrying about the school in fear of running into Tutman, Malfoy, or Snape in a deserted corridor for fear of what exactly he'd nearly witnessed. "How was yours?" he asked.

Lily shrugged, too. "Like you said. Just was." She frowned down at the parchment. "I've got a twin sister who's not magical and she's jealous of Hogwarts and everything. Hates me for it. We haven't spoken, basically, since I got my letter." She sighed, "I wish she'd forgive me for being a witch without her."

"She's your twin you say, and you're a witch and she's not? That's interesting," Remus said, "You'd think you would be the same."

"We're fraternal," explained Lily. "We're quite different. We look entirely different and everything. I suppose it isn't terribly shocking we wouldn't both be witches. But Tuney seems to think I'm wicked for having magic when she doesn't. As though I chose to leave her out of it."

Remus nodded. "Sometimes, people just don't understand when there's something different about somebody else... good or bad." He sighed. "For what it's worth, I don't think you're wicked."

"Well, thank you," Lily replied. She'd copied down about half the first page of parchment already. She dipped her quill in the ink again. "Have you got any siblings?" she asked.

Remus shook his head. "Just me."

"Are your parents magical?" Lily asked.

"My Dad is," Remus answered, "He works for the ministry."

"Oh right, right," Lily said, remembering, "He wrote the Werewolf Restriction Act, didn't he? Slughorn said."

Remus nodded. "Ironically, yes."

"Ironically?" she asked.

Remus faked a yawn. "Not having any trouble reading the notes then?"

"Not really, no," Lily replied, still looking at Remus with a curious, questioning expression on her face.

"Good, I'm really tired," he explained, "Peter can copy the notes over in the morning. You can keep them 'til then. You can hand me them back in Charms in the morning."

Lily nodded, "Alright. Well, thanks for letting me borrow them. I appreciate it."

"No problem." Remus got up and hastened out of the common room and back up the stairs to the dorms, his heart rushing. Had he seriously almost accidentally told Lily about his condition? He couldn't imagine what would happen if she – or anyone else for that matter – found out. The idea of being discovered and sent home scared him quite a lot. He didn't want to go back to living in the bomb shelter in his parents' yard. Didn't want to be quite alone, without any friends, as he'd been for years. He liked having mates to talk to and teachers to learn from and a hope for a future. His secret staying a secret was absolutely imperative to all that – it was the only thing that promised him a chance.

James was the only one still awake when Remus snuck back in the room. "What are you doing still up?" Remus asked him.

"Wanted to make sure Evans didn't jinx you or something down there," James said, "She's rather feisty, you just never know."

Remus laughed. "Lily didn't jinx me."

"Good." James snuggled into his bedding and smooshed the pillow beneath his head until it was comfortable. Remus changed into his pyjamas, turned out the lights, and crawled into bed, the mattress creaking as he got himself comfortable. "Did she say anything about me?" James's voice cut through the darkness.

"What would she say about you?" Remus asked.

"Dunno," James replied. "Anything."

"Well, no, she didn't," Remus answered, staring up at the sliver of fading moonlight that glowed blue in the corner of the room – beautiful and terrifying to him as always.