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

Chapter Fifty-Six - Incorrigible Youths

The full moon coming up was a four nighter. He hadn't had one of those since June and was dreading it. Three nights were bad enough, four was awful. The worst part was the one after that was a four nighter too. I'm gonna be missing almost an entire week of classes, he thought on Thursday, barely paying attention in History of Magic. Binns droned on about some very violent war that happened a couple of centuries ago, making it sound as interesting as cleaning spells. Actually cleaning spells were more interesting. Remus sighed and folded his arms on his desk, head dropping down. He had a few more days until the moon but he had too much anxiety to focus properly.

A note floated over his shoulder, dropping onto his desk. Remus Lupin sleeping during a class? SHOCKING! - SB

Then another note came. It had all three of their handwriting on it.

man todays lesson is so boring even remy is sleeping - SB

Then in James's writing: lets just leave doubt ol binnsy would notice anyway

Then in Peter's: Remus would never

Then: hey remy lets skip class its extra boring today. were all in just need you! - SB

Remus read the note then glanced over his shoulder. Sirius raised his eyebrows, face lit up with excitement. Remus looked back down at the note, knowing he shouldn't. Skipping class? It was wrong. Then he looked at his parchment, at the 'notes' he had taken from today's lecture. There were maybe two sentences then a bunch of doodles. Everything Binns talked about was in the book...

Okay. He sent the note back to Sirius who gave a slight gasp then a soft, "Yes!" Then he raised his hand in the air. "Professor, I need to go to the bathroom."

Binns trailed off then gave a nod before returning to talking. Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus all gathered their stuff and left the room together. Remus felt Lily's eyes on him but didn't look back. He wasn't mentally present enough for the stifling, boring lecture right now anyway. Actually, it was a pretty nice day so the four of them ran outside. The grounds were muddy but the sky was clear and the air somewhat warm for late February. It felt good.

"I can't believe you're skipping class!" James exclaimed as the four of them gathered under a tree near the lake. James immediately began climbing up into the tree while Sirius leaned against the trunk clearly trying to look 'cool'. Peter picked up a few rocks to skip across the lake's surface while Remus spread his cloak on the muddy, chilled ground and plopped down on top.

"Not in the mood today to deal with Binns," mumbled Remus as he pulled a book out of his bag.

"Gonna get in trouble," Sirius said, shooting Remus a smirk. Remus just shrugged. He knew perfectly well how much trouble he was going to be in but he really didn't care at the moment.

"We're rubbing off on you." James hung upside down off a branch, his hair everywhere, glasses slipping, shirt riding up showing off his bare stomach. "Next thing you know you'll be sneaking around after hours."

Remus settled cross-legged, smiling at his friend. "No."

James blinked with indignation while Sirius laughed. "Love it," Sirius said, "just a flat out 'no'."

"You don't sneak around at night, do you?" Peter asked, looking at the two black-haired boys.

"Of course they do," Remus said, garnering curious looks.

"How do you know?" James demanded.

"You wake me up whenever you come and go--er, at least you used to, before my curtains were spelled," he said, scrambling to make sure they didn't catch on at how good his hearing really was, that he could still hear the door opening and shutting even through the sound absorption spells. "I just assume you still do."