Four To The End (prev Shifting Lines) - Book One (Marauder Era)

Chapter Twenty-One - Foot Meet Mouth

Remus woke up screaming from a nightmare, sweat soaking through his clothes. He expected to hear Spinnet shouting at him but nobody said anything. He glanced around, confused at why all the lights were on... then remembered it wasn't the middle of the night. He had fallen asleep in the afternoon. He gave a groan and collapsed back, curling up into a ball, wrapping his arms around himself. His nightmare had been very vivid... Pomfrey coming into the house before sunrise and he had eviscerated her... he could still see her intestines hanging out of her body... A few tears rolled down his cheeks onto his pillow.

Voices out in the hallway. Remus closed his curtains and slithered back under his covers, not feeling like company.

"...down to supper whenever he wakes up," he heard Potter saying.

"You saw him, he looked sick," Black said back.

"He said he was just tired. He must have had a really rough time with his mother being so ill."

"Yes but he didn't look too well himself."

The door opened and the two boys came in along with the scent of food. "Is he awake yet?" Potter asked.

Remus sat up, rubbing his eyes pretending as if it was from sleep, as Black pulled the curtains back. "We brought some supper," Black said.

Potter came over to set a huge tray of food down on Remus's bed. "Whoa, is that blood?" he asked, gaping at the dark stain on the blanket. Remus looked down and saw his black trousers looked a bit stained over his leg. His bandage must have come off.

"No, it's--just--cherry soda," Remus lied, tugging at the blanket to try and hide the stain. "I spill--spilled some the other night and j--just stained while I was away, I guess." Potter didn't look like he quite believed him but Remus was saved by Pettigrew coming bursting through the doors with more food.

The four of them ate though Remus just kept thinking about his leg and all the blood. After he ate enough food to excuse himself, he took a clean uniform and went to get a shower. He wasn't limping anymore, his leg nearly healed--and sure enough once inside the shower stall when he took his pants off and the bandage he saw there was just a pink scar there, though there was loads of blood all over his leg. There were other scars--most of them faded by this point--crisscrossing all over his legs and sides.

You saw him, he looked sick, he didn't look too well... Remus mulled over Black's words as he let the hot water wash the blood away. That's just proof I've got to be better at my mother's rules, he thought. No friends. I'm getting... I'm letting them in too much. He didn't want to push them away though. They were funny and he had quite enjoyed pranking Filch the other day (that reminded him, he needed to ask if anything came out of it, if they were caught...). He didn't know if he could bring himself to be rude to them. He'd just have to... keep to himself again. No more card games.

*

Thursday morning at breakfast was the first time Remus was able to borrow Evans's notes and copy them all down, as well as all the assignments. She inquired about the notes from the boys and Remus just smiled, shaking his head. "I d-d-don't think they're as academically inclined." Though Black is rather artistically inclined, he added to himself, realizing he still had that drawing by his bed.

Transfiguration class was spent doing a lot of complicated equations and then trying to turn a ceramic teacup into a glass cup which was loads harder than he imagined. Adding mass is easier than taking away, he thought as he sweated and focused and gave himself a headache. By the end of class his teacup was cup shaped and sort of cloudy, the most transparent out of anyone else in the room at least.