Mischief Managed Year One: Mayhem of the Moon

Chapter Twenty-Three- Two Insufferable Twats and a Pillow Fight

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TW: Small Implication of Abuse

Over the next week, he had found that his excuse about his mother dying had worked. He felt incredibly guilty lying about her. But he figured his mother was more likely to forgive him than his father would if Remus let someone find out about him. Still, it didn't make it any easier when after a week of avoiding Lily he finally had to tell her the same thing.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner Remus? We were all so worried about you. We even went to see the headmaster."

"I know James filled me in. I'm sorry Lily, I guess I just don't like talking about it."

"No, I'm sorry Remus. My grandmother died two years ago and it was the worst thing that has ever happened to me and my family. I can't imagine what your family must be going through. You let me know if you need help with anything ok? Anything at all I mean it. And I know I talk a lot and you usually do more of the listening but I can listen to alright?"

He nodded trying to show the appropriate amount of remorse.

She, unlike his roommates, was much better at consoling him. The problem was he didn't really need to be comforted, and her kind and understanding response just made him feel worse. But at least for the time being, everyone bought his lie, and once more he found he could juggle hanging out with them and not pretty well.

Of course, they all thought he was their friend, Sirius said it the most, and Lily when trying to get him to talk about his mom said they were friends too. After months of denying it, he had to begrudgingly admit they kind of were. Sort of friends, he had told Sirius that's what they were and the older boy had laughed and rolled his eyes.

"Whatever you say, Remus," he had retorted with the smugness he had every time friendship was brought up.

Sirius knew he had won and deep down Remus did too. Oddly enough he realized he didn't care terribly. As long as they didn't ask any more questions Remus was quite happy with how things were. He even had to admit things had been going well with Severus too. Remus had somehow gotten James and Sirius to back off on the boy, if only until their exams were done, which in turn made Severus overall more pleasant.

Gone were the days of Remus glancing up to find the sallow boy glaring at him. In fact, Severus talked to him in almost the same friendly manner as Lily. Of course, no one could be more important to him than Lily, and there were still the occasional times that Severus got jealous. But overall they had reached an unspoken agreement and throughout December life at Hogwarts was pretty peaceful. It would almost have been perfect if it wasn't for James and Sirius.

Because James and Sirius, who had been notorious for their pranks from September to November, had ceased doing them all together in December. Many people were glad of this but Remus, who knew why they had stopped, rather wished they would start pranking again no matter how bothersome it may be. For rambunctious and spontaneous Sirius had withered, as at the end of December he would have to be going home.

Remus tried to talk to him about it, very worried about him, but Sirius didn't want to talk about it any more than Remus wanted to talk about his own family. James, who knew none of this, simply thought Sirius had lost his edge and loudly voiced his disapproval of him to anyone who would listen. Sirius, hurt by this, retaliated. And then James retaliated against the retaliation, and so forth. This caused days of bickering between James and Sirius, who would argue back and forth making their dorm room a thoroughly unpleasant place to be.

This was why Remus found the library with Severus and Lily to be the much better option, but usually, he did not have a choice in where he was. Because James and Sirius both used Remus and Peter as shields and weapons, meaning the four of them had been hanging out together far too much for Remus' liking. Peter had become James' message boy delivering snide comments to Sirius before running away in fear.