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Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns the Potterverse, and the characters, of course, unless I end up coming up with any original ones. And I'm not making any money on this.
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Professor Blenheim Stalk was the Muggle Studies teacher. He had written several books on the subject, the latest of which, "Muggles Who Notice," had come out just last year.

James, Sirius and Peter were all taking Muggle Studies as one of their electives. James thought it would show that even though he was a pure-blood, he was not prejudiced against Muggle-borns or Muggles. Sirius did because James did, and because it would prove he was not like his brother, Regulus, who was getting just plain embarrassing with his pure-blood fanaticism. Of course, it didn't escape either of them that it was considered an easy course. Peter went along with them because he always did.

Remus begged out of Muggle Studies because, as he pointed out, one grandfather and one grandmother were Muggles, so he figured he knew all he needed to know. Besides, he was quite interested in Runes and wasn't trying to avoid difficult subjects, although he wasn't particularly seeking them out either.

Severus didn't see the need for Muggle Studies, which was not exactly an encouraged subject in Slytherin House these days. Nevertheless, to everyone's surprise Evan signed up for it. Rosier was planning on being the Minister of Magic some day, a position which involved a certain amount of interaction with Muggles, and thought he should know something about them.

Severus was also not particularly interested in Care of Magical Creatures. His family couldn't afford pets, which he had never felt as a loss, so his main exposure to animals had been urban pests. Animals were useful for food and to provide certain potion ingredients, and that was the extent of his interest in them.

That left Runes, Arithmancy and Divination, all of which Severus decided to take. He thought he should get an idea of what they were like, and figured it would be easier to drop a course that turned out not to be useful, than to try to add one back later on.

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Regulus Black was not happy. Lucius Malfoy had called him on the carpet during their last Hogsmeade weekend and told him in no uncertain terms to leave Snape alone or incur his wrath. The Blacks were the equals of the Malfoys any day, but Regulus knew he did not have the power to confront Lucius directly yet. Still, he had Crabbe pretty much under his control and there were more indirect ways of getting to Snape.

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Severus liked his Runes class. Two others from the Slug Club were also taking it -- Damocles Belby and Lily Evans, and so was Remus Lupin. Damocles was the only fourth year in the class. He had taken Divination last year, and decided to replace it with Runes this year. Learning runes gave Severus more ideas for spells. He started the practice of writing his ideas down on a separate scroll that he then shared with Professor Flitwick during his next Charms class.

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"Who can we target that will get Snape in the most trouble with the rest of the school?" asked Regulus, pacing back and forth in the second years boys' dormitory, which he had cleared of everyone except Barty.

"Not a Hufflepuff," said Barty. "If we hit a Hufflepuff we'd need a damn good reason, or the whole house will come down on Slytherin. They won't take revenge on just one Slytherin."

"Ravenclaw won't do either," mused Regulus. "They're not tight enough. And no one there is popular enough."

"That leaves Gryffindor, then," said Barty. "They're our traditional rivals anyway."

"OK, the most popular Gryffindors are James Potter and Sirius Black and they're out," said Regulus. "I refuse to do what Lucius did and sic Snape on pure-bloods, no matter how degraded they may be."

"Are we counting girls? There's Evans. She's even a Mudblood."

"Hmmm," said Regulus, considering it. "Good idea, but no. She's in the Slug Club. We'll get to her and to the other Mudbloods eventually, but for now she's out."

"Well, there are Potter's hangers-on then," mentioned Barty. "Lupin, Pettigrew."

Regulus stopped pacing and smiled maliciously. "That's it! Lupin! Nobody cares about Pettigrew but everyone likes that 'nice Lupin boy.' He's never done a thing to antagonize anyone, and he's always so polite. No one will ever believe that he did anything even remotely deserving Snape's attention."

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Severus was leaving his Runes class when Barty Crouch passed him the note. It was Crabbe's seal and Crabbe's handwriting. An assignment then. He stepped aside, scowling to himself. He found an empty classroom where he could read it, hopefully in private.

Stupid, stupid, he thought. Neither Lucius nor Narcissa had ever written down their jobs, but it seemed to be Crabbe's preferred method. What if someone intercepted one of these notes?

The Slytherin enforcer opened the note. "Lupin. Furren Propago." No reason was given. He destroyed the note as usual.

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Dinner was over, and the Slytherins were gathered in their common room. Black and Crouch were right next to Crabbe, but Severus had to talk to him.

Regulus saw Snape coming to see Crabbe. This was going exactly according to plan.

The greasy Slytherin inclined his head deferentially to Crabbe. "May I have a moment please?"

"Go right ahead," answered Crabbe, making no move to either go somewhere more private or send anyone else away.

"I was hoping we could discuss your latest ... assignment ... more privately," said Snape.

Regulus whispered something in Crabbe's ear. "Good idea," Crabbe answered Regulus, and they retired to the second year boys' dormitory. Severus noted with unease that they were moving to Black's turf, not Crabbe's. And Black and Crouch were coming too.

"OK, Snape, out with it," said Crabbe bluntly, when he had settled himself in a chair. "What's the problem?"

"It's just that there's a bit less ... information than usual," Severus began. "Why is Lupin being targeted?"

More whispering by Black, and Crabbe frowned. "Why do you care?"

"I don't," Severus quickly answered. "But usually I'm supposed to make sure the offender knows his offense."

Damn that Black. More whispering, thought Severus.

"Lupin already knows," said Crabbe. "You don't need to. Is there anything else?"

How was he going to put this next part without sounding like it mattered to him what happened to Lupin? "I was wondering. Usually the actual spells are up to me," said Snape carefully. "Why the Fur Hex?"

"That's easy enough to answer," drawled Regulus, without even bothering to whisper in Crabbe's ear. "He's barely even a half-blood. He's got a Muggle grandparent on both sides. Makes him little more than an animal, don't you think? So it's fitting that the outside should match the inside. For a while at least."

Relief and anger and shame battled behind Severus' impassive exterior. Relief, because he had worried that the request for Furren Propago meant someone was on to Lupin. Anger at Black's insult, which applied to him even more than Lupin. Shame that he realized he was going to do this anyway.

It was less than a week to the full moon. Severus had one more question. "The note also neglected to mention when," he said.

"It was supposed to be today, Snape." Crabbe himself answered this time. "I suppose it's too late for you to manage now?"

Severus flushed. "It would be very ... difficult."

"Well, make sure it's done tomorrow then," he said, peeved. "I never heard of Lucius or Narcissa having this much trouble with you."

Severus stood there and said nothing. So that was Black's angle with Crabbe. Making him think that Snape didn't take him as seriously as the two previous ranking Slytherins.

"Well, that's it," said Crabbe, irritably. "You can go now."

Severus left the dormitory.

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Lily was coming back from the place near the Forbidden Forest where they'd just had Care of Magical Creatures with Professor Kettleburn. One of the most wonderful things about finding out she was a witch was finding out that unicorns and other "storybook" creatures really did exist.

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were in the same class with her and were also on their way back.

To tell the truth, one of the reasons James had signed up for this class was that it was the only elective held outside. Oh, and it had a reputation for very little written homework.

Sirius, as usual, was running in front of them, and around them -- no one ever seemed to move fast enough for him. He loved animals, and thought it was cool that he could actually get credit for a class like this. It was almost as good as flying classes in their first year.

Peter was puffing a bit, trying to keep up. He'd glanced through the text and hoped they wouldn't be dealing with anything dangerous. He was a city boy, and of the opinion that animals belonged in their place, which was not around people. Except for pets, of course.

Remus kept a relaxed pace, hanging back just a bit to keep Peter from being left too far behind. He just liked being outside on such a nice day with his friends and he had no fear of any kind of magical creature at all. Maybe he was being cocky, but he didn't think he'd even be afraid of a dragon.

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With the full moon coming up, Severus knew the sooner he got this done, the more time Lupin would have to recover before his transformation. The Gryffindor had an outdoor class today. All the other students would be indoors. At least he could do this in front of as few people as possible.

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James and Sirius had raced on ahead, and Peter was lagging behind when Remus came upon Severus. Remus was a bit surprised to see the Slytherin here, but he knew the other boy did occasionally visit Hagrid, whose hut was nearby.

"Hi, Snape," he greeted him. His friends were too close for him to risk the more familiar Severus. "Off to see Hagrid?"

Severus lifted his wand. "They don't know anything. You don't need to worry about that."

It took Remus only a split second to realize he was the Slytherin's target, but it was a split second too long. Snape cast the spell.

"Fur?! You cast Furren Propago?!" said Remus, outraged, as fur began to sprout all over his body. "Why? I know the rules. When you do this stuff you have to tell me why! WHY?!"

He never got an answer.

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Remus was furious and humiliated. The spell took three days to wear off, all of which he spent in the Infirmary insisting that no one visit him but James, Sirius and Peter, and he was allowed to keep up with his classes from there. His body was wrenched out of his control once a month, when he was forced to actually become an animal against his will. To resemble one at any other time was torture, and he could not bear to have anyone else see him like this. Then, it was so close to the full moon that he had only one day out of the Infirmary before it was time to go to the Shrieking Shack again.

James was struck to the core. He had never seen Remus, usually so quiet, so polite, so nice, in such a state.

"So what was the git's excuse this time?" he asked. James knew very well why Snape did what he did, and whom he worked for.

"He didn't tell me," Lupin growled. "He didn't friggin' tell me."

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Severus had to admire the cleverness of what the Slytherin Black had done. He could hardly complain to Lucius Malfoy about being asked to perform a harmless and temporary fur growing hex on a Gryffindor. After that, he stopped going to the Infirmary to help Madam Pomfrey.

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Author's note

According to the Famous Wizard Cards:
Blenheim Stalk (1920 - present) is the author of Muggles Who Notice (published 1972). Stalk is a well-known expert on Muggles and author of many books (FB, fw82).
He sounded like the kind of person Dumbledore might chose to teach Muggle Studies, so I picked him.

Thank you to carecrystal for suggesting the incantation Furren Propago for the Fur Hex.