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

Chapter Fifty-Five - How's Your Big Head Day, Kids?

Valentine's Day itself was just as annoying as the weekend. Wherever Remus went he came across Flirting and Giggling and also heard a lot of snogging in side corridors. The smell of gross hormones were everywhere. Even the ghosts seemed a little amped up. Sir Nicholas was telling a bunch of girls a really romantic knightly tale, and when Remus tried to hide out in Myrtle's bathroom she kept talking about boys she thought were handsome; she also kept asking him when he'd bring 'the handsome friend' back, which Remus finally figured out meant Sirius. Actually, she got a little aggressive about it.

His mother sent a dozen heart shaped cookies with pink frosting which he split up for only his male friends. He did not dare share those with Lily! He was sure she wouldn't see anything more than just him wanting to share with his friends however he knew Colgate and Inkwood would read too much into it, and he didn't want to deal with their giggling.

Tuesday wasn't too bad, but Remus was still grumpy when he went to Occlumency. Fawley sensed it, inquiring as to what was wrong. He sighed, not really sure how to explain. "Valentine's," he finally said.

"Is there a girl you like that won't notice you?" Fawley asked, tilting her head to one side.

"What? No! Eww! No!" Remus crinkled his nose up. "It w-was just a very... frilly... weekend. Ugh."

Fawley gave a light chuckle. "Sometimes I forget how young you are." Remus wasn't sure what that had to do with anything so he remained silent. After she reached into him, the first thing she saw was the results of the Valentine's dessert. She broke contact immediately, full on laughing. "Your friends are too much."

"In a... bad way?" Remus asked, thinking about Lily's lecture.

Fawley just shook her head. "The staff here are in for quite the adventure over the next few years."

Remus had to agree with that. They were already preparing for their next prank which they intended to be the Bogey one. That afternoon had been spent practicing putting spells on a doorway for hours. They were getting better, but no where near the level they needed to be for their plans. Of course one of the biggest problems was: who to spring this on? Naturally the Slytherins. James really wanted to do the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs since that would mean the most kids... except the class they shared was Astronomy so it'd be too risky even for their taste, roaming around after midnight like that with a high probability of getting caught (Remus's words). Ultimately they thought the best choice was Herbology with Slytherins and Ravenclaws. They considered the Potions dungeon with Slytherins and Gryffindors but James wanted more victims.

Once their choice had been made the next step was finding out when the other two houses had Herbology, to see if they could pull it off. If it was at the same time as one of their classes they'd be unable--unless they skipped, which Remus was adamantly against ("Nerd," Sirius complained). James and Sirius began discussing ways to find out and Remus let them go on for several minutes before reminding them he had study group with some of their intended victims.

Over the next few days Remus tried his best to wheedle information from the other students without it being too suspicious (or so he hoped). He knew it was in the afternoon and finally got the unfortunate discovery that their Herbology classes were first thing after lunch on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays when the Gryffindors were still in Defense.

"So we skip," James said, ignoring Remus's McGonagall-esque pressed lips. "We're gonna get caught anyway since we gotta hang 'round to keep the spells on the door."

"Or we just inflict the prank on Potions class," Remus suggested.

"That'd only be twenty-two students," whined James.