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The Werewolf Prank by xenasquill [Reviews - 0]

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Author’s Note – Alright folks, this is it. The final chapter.


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Chapter Six: The Morning After (Sirius)
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Sirius woke up the next morning and just lay in bed, wishing he didn't have to get out. He was not at all looking forward to the day ahead of him, especially since right before falling asleep he had decided he would be the one to explain to Moony what had happened. How he would accomplish this, he had no idea, but he knew it would at least be better coming from him than anyone else.

Through his bed curtains he could hear Peter and James moving about the room, getting dressed.

Peter had waited up for them last night, probably hoping that if they weren't dead or expelled they might still want to go out for full moon. James had brought him up to speed on the situation, sounding much less forgiving about the whole thing now that Moony's future lay entirely in Snivelly's hands.

Sirius still couldn't believe this, that the Headmaster was being so callous about the welfare of a perfectly innocent student. He could see no reason, none at all, for Snivellus to keep the information to himself. Moony had done nothing wrong, he didn't deserve to have this constant threat hanging over his head.

At the same time, Sirius knew better than to voice his indignation, much as he wanted to, because there was still the inescapable fact that it was he who gave Snivelly the information in the first place. James was plainly thinking along similar lines, because he hadn't said a word to Sirius since they'd left Dumbledore's office the night before.

"Coming, Padfoot?" Wormtail called.

"No," Sirius mumbled into his pillow. "Just go, I'll catch up."

He waited until they had left before finally rolling out of bed and slowly starting to get dressed.

By the time he made it down to breakfast, the Great Hall was already quite packed; the enchanted ceiling overhead was a cold, steely gray today.

Sirius scanned the Gryffindor table: Evans had parked herself next to James and was nodding solemnly as he told her something in a low voice. Wormtail was listening in eagerly too; then he noticed Sirius approaching and prodded James, who quickly stopped talking. All three of them eyed Sirius with slightly guilty looks — a dead giveaway they'd been talking about him. He sat down without a word and reached for a plate of kippers.

"Um — I'd better be going —" said Evans hastily. She jumped up and hurried off to her friends, leaving a stiff, awkward silence in her wake.

"Some people were asking about the fifty points we got last night," said Wormtail, making a valiant attempt to initiate friendly conversation. "I told them Prongs was supposed to meet Snivellus for a duel, but Snivelly got scared and ran away and got attacked by a manticore in the forest, and Prongs ended up having to save him."
He sounded quite pleased with himself for having come up with this story; James replied by clearing his throat in a noncommittal way, while Sirius stabbed moodily at his kippers with a fork.

A few minutes later, a flurry of noise overhead heralded the arrival of the post owls. Sirius heard someone say, "uh oh," and looked up to see one of the owls with a telltale red envelope in its beak — someone was getting a Howler.

Next moment his heart was in his throat. That was his mother's owl, Sargas. He was getting a Howler.

Surely — surely Phineas Nigellus hadn't disobeyed a direct order from Dumbledore and told

Sirius threw a panicked glance at James as Sargas dropped the envelope disdainfully onto his plate and flew off. James was looking equally worried. Was the entire Great Hall about to learn that there was a werewolf at Hogwarts?

Sirius opened the envelope and quickly stuffed his fingers into his ears as his mother's nerve-grating screeches, amplified to a hundred times their normal volume, filled the room.

"— NASTY, UNGRATEFUL, INSOLENT LITTLE BRAT! HAVEN'T YOU BROUGHT ENOUGH SHAME ON THIS HOUSE ALREADY? TELL ME, WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE A SON LIKE THIS? ALWAYS ACTING LIKE HE HAS NOTHING BUT COMMON DIRT IN HIS VEINS — SEE WHERE IT GETS YOU? EVEN THAT MUDBLOOD-LOVING OLD FOOL DUMBLEDORE WILL ONLY TOLERATE SO MUCH FROM YOU, YOU BEASTLY CHILD. AND WHEN HE FINALLY EXPELS YOU, YOU CAN GO WALLOW IN YOUR BELOVED MUGGLE FILTH LIKE THE WORTHLESS SWINE YOU ARE, BECAUSE YOU ARE NO SON OF MINE!"

Sirius felt like his face was on fire. He could hear howls of laughter coming from the Slytherin table through the ringing in his ears, and knew that the rest of the school was probably gaping at him, too shocked or frightened even to laugh. After a moment, he dropped his fork and stalked out of the Great Hall.

The general chatter slowly began to pick up again as he reached the entrance hall. He leaned against the wall outside, feeling sick to his stomach and literally trembling with rage.

He hated her. He hated her so much he couldn't possibly find words to express it. He just wanted to hurt her as much as he could. Stab her repeatedly ... or maybe put deadly poisons in her drink ... good, slow-acting and extremely painful ones....

He might have settled for just smashing something at the moment though, since destroying his mother wasn't exactly feasible while he was stuck at school, but a quick scan of the entrance hall revealed nothing suitably smashable.

"I've always said — charming lady, your mum," James remarked, wandering out of the Great Hall with a couple of scones in hand. In a half-hearted gesture of solidarity, he offered one to Sirius, who just shook his head, having completely lost his appetite.

"Hey, at least he didn't tell her what you did," James said bracingly. "I was really worried for a moment there."

"Yeah," said Sirius dully.

Students were starting to file out of the Great Hall and head to their morning classes.

"Come on," James said, starting for the stairs. Sirius pushed himself off the wall and followed.

Their first class of the day was Arithmancy; about halfway there, Sirius was seized by a sudden recklessness — he was in enough trouble already, how much worse could it get if he didn't show up for this one class?

"Hey, where are you going?" James called out, as Sirius turned abruptly down a random side corridor. "Arithmancy's this way."

"I don't think I'm gonna go," Sirius said, pausing to look back.

James frowned. "You want company?" he asked shrewdly. Sirius shook his head.

"Alright," said James after a moment, "I'll tell Professor Scalar you got sick and had to go to the hospital wing. Maybe you should actually go there and try and talk to Moony."

Sirius had been thinking more or less the same thing, but he would need time to figure out what he was going to say. He headed to the library, picked out a random book on memory charms so as to look busy, and installed himself at an empty table.

Maybe he could find a way to modify Snape's memory himself....

"Shouldn't you be in class right now?" asked a very smug voice over his shoulder. Sirius jumped a little and turned to find his younger brother, Regulus, standing behind him and smirking.

As they usually avoided one another like the plague, Sirius could only assume Reg was here to gloat about the Howler. He told his little brother in no uncertain terms what he could go do to himself, and then turned back to the book he'd been pretending to read.

Reggie made tsk, tsk noises. "Such language," he said, leaning casually against the table. "And skiving off classes too. Mother won't be at all pleased when she hears about this." He sighed dramatically.

"Shouldn't you be in class right now?" Sirius asked irritably.

"Nah, I'm doing research," Reggie replied, nodding toward a table where several other fourth year Slytherins were poring over musty old spell books that looked like they had come from the Restricted Section. "Got a signed note and everything." He paused. "So — what'd you do last night?"

Sirius looked daggers at him. "She sent you to find out, didn’t she?"

"No," said Reggie calmly. "Not yet anyway. It was something to do with Snape, wasn't it? That's what everyone's saying."

"Then that must be what happened."

"Well he did go and lose us twenty points last night," Reg continued. "But here's what I don't get — how is it you almost get expelled and Gryffindor's still up fifty?"

"Who said I almost got expelled?"

Reggie shrugged. "Phineas Nigellus must have. Though it didn't sound like he gave a lot of details on why. I wonder if Dumbledore's trying to cover it up...."

Sirius was losing patience with this. "Why are you here?" he asked, slamming his book shut. "What do you want?"

"My, my, someone's getting touchy," said Reg with an infuriating look of amusement on his face. "I must have hit a nerve. You're hiding something. Maybe I should go ask Snape what it is."

Sirius realized Reg was watching him closely for some sort of reaction. "Do it," he said indifferently.

Reg continued to search his face, eyes narrowing. "I already did," he said finally, sounding slightly disappointed. "He wasn't saying. But he looked like he wanted to...."

Sirius could almost see the wheels turning in his brother's head, and suddenly he began to worry. Looking at Reg up close was a lot like looking into a mirror, which meant that they were both a little too good at reading each other's expressions. Reg must have picked up on the fact that there was something here Sirius really didn't want getting out, and Sirius got the sense he would do his very best to find out what that was.

"Why do you care?" he asked harshly. "This has nothing to do with you. Do you really not have anything better to do?"

"I'm sure I could find a way to get it out of him though," Reg continued thoughtfully, as though Sirius hadn't spoken. "He's not exactly fond of you, in case you haven't noticed."

Sirius glowered at his brother. Reg was right though, Snape probably would tell him if pressed. It was a wonder he hadn't told already, come to think of it.

"Snape's an idiot," said Sirius, sighing resignedly and tilting his chair back. "He thinks I tried to kill him."

Reggie snorted. "You wouldn't."

"What?"

"You wouldn't use the Killing Curse," Reg laughed. "You're too self-righteous; it would destroy your image."

Sirius knew this wasn't a compliment; but in spite of that — or maybe because of it — he was suddenly filled with a strange urge to confide in his brother. They no longer agreed about anything, really, but at least here was someone who wouldn't think him any more of a Black after hearing what he'd done last night. Sirius knew how Reggie thought, knew he'd probably feel like everyone else was overreacting too....

"It wasn't the Killing Curse, exactly," he said slowly.

"Then what?" said Reggie, frowning. "You actually did try to kill him?"

"No —"

Sirius sighed. There was really no way to do this without drawing attention to Moony's secret, and he absolutely could not afford to let another Slytherin find out. He reminded himself there would be nothing — no promises to Dumbledore or anything — to keep Reg from turning this on him next time they fought. Why was he even considering it?

"Oh come on," said Reg impatiently. "You can't say something like that then not explain it." The hostility was gone from his voice now, replaced by what sounded like genuine curiosity.

This wasn't good. Sirius hadn't meant to make Reggie even more intrigued. Now if his brother wasn't pursuing the matter out of malice, he'd be doing it anyway just to satisfy his own curiosity. Sirius realized he would have to try appealing to Reg's better nature, a prospect about which he did not feel particularly optimistic.

"Sorry, I know it's not fair," he said. "Look, if I could tell you I would — but you're right, Dumbledore doesn't want anyone else to know. It was just this whole big misunderstanding. Trust me, it's really not that interesting."

Reggie looked skeptical.

"Will you just leave it alone?" Sirius pressed. "Please?"

Reg was now starting to look uncomfortable with this sudden show of niceness. "I might be willing to," he said in a deliberately snotty voice. "Depends what's in it for me...."

"What do you want?" Sirius asked warily.

"Stop seeing that Mudblood," said Reggie promptly.

"What?"

"She's completely mental. And it's just embarrassing."

Sirius stood abruptly and pushed in his chair, in no mood to argue this. "Not happening," he said. "Think of something else."

"Then I guess I'll just have to have another chat with Snape," Reggie said threateningly.

"I guess you'll have to," Sirius said, starting to walk away.

"Whatever," he heard Reggie say behind him. "You still owe me."

"Right."

Sirius left the library and, though he was no closer to knowing what he would say to Moony, decided to head to the hospital wing. He needed something to take his mind off his fresh annoyance with his brother, and if he put it off much longer, someone else might get to Remus first.

When he got to the infirmary, he quietly pushed open the door and was relieved to see that it was practically empty. Remus was propped up in a far bed, his head wrapped in bandages; the only other student there was a second year girl who appeared to have a beanstalk growing out of her ear. Sirius slipped through the door and started across the room, sparing her a quick grin that made her cheeks turn red.

"And just what do you think you're doing here, Mr. Black?"

Sirius froze. Madam Pomfrey had just stepped out of her office and was fixing him with a very stern look.

"I need to talk to Remus," he explained.

"Do you have a note from a teacher?"

"No," said Sirius, wishing he had remembered to forge one. "But it's really important ... really, really important...."

Maybe she picked up on his desperate tone, or maybe she just wasn't in the mood to argue about it today, but for whatever reason, Madam Pomfrey actually sighed and said, "Make it quick."

Remus, for reasons known only to himself, was reading the proceedings for the 2,382nd Annual Conference on Experimental Charms. He put it down as Sirius approached however, giving him a puzzled look.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have class?"

"Yeah, but I needed to talk to you."

Remus frowned slightly and dropped his voice, so that it was barely above a whisper. "Where were you guys last night? Did something happen?"

"Sort of," said Sirius, casting around for the right words to explain it.

"You didn't get caught trying to sneak out, did you?"

"Not exactly. Look —" Sirius sighed and collapsed into a chair. "You're gonna hate me by the time I'm done telling you this, but just hear me through, alright?"

"Alright," said Remus slowly, looking a little alarmed.

Sirius launched into the detention story, repeating it much as he had to James and Peter the night before. Remus stayed true to his word and refrained from saying anything.

"I never dreamed he'd actually do it," Sirius said finally. "Not if he thought I wanted him to. But then we got back to the room and looked at the map, and, well —"

He trailed off uncomfortably; Remus went deathly pale as he caught the meaning.

"I didn't ..." he whispered, "I didn't bite ..." He broke off, as though the thought were too unbearable to voice. He also looked like he was going to be sick.

"No, nobody got bitten," said Sirius quickly. "Prongs went after him and pulled him out." He was hoping Moony wasn't going to ask him why he hadn't gone after Snivelly and pulled him out.

Remus started to breathe normally again. "So Snape doesn't know what the tunnel was for?" he asked hopefully, after a few moments.

"Er," said Sirius. "He sort of does. He saw you at the end before Prongs got to him, I think."

There was no need to spell out the implications of this. Sirius stared at his shoes, unable to look Moony in the eye.

"Well, I always knew it might come to this," Remus muttered despondently. "It was only a matter of time. I suppose Dumbledore will call me up to break the news whenever Madam Pomfrey thinks I'm healed?"

Sirius looked up. "Come to what?" he asked, confused.

"My leaving Hogwarts," Remus said simply. "Snape must have told half the school by now."

"What?" Sirius exclaimed. "Don't be an idiot, you're not going anywhere. He's not allowed to tell anyone — Dumbledore's orders."

"I don’t think it matters," continued Remus, in the same defeated voice. "Even if it doesn't get out somehow, I was only allowed to come here because Dumbledore thought he could keep me from being a danger to other students. Obviously that isn't the case anymore."

Sirius was glad to finally be able to deliver some good news. "Dumbledore made it quite clear he wants you to stay in school, Moony," he said firmly. "So stop moping."

"But I almost killed two students!"

"You did nothing wrong, that was all Snivelly's fault."

Remus considered this. "Dumbledore really said he wants me to stay?"

"Yes," said Sirius. "When he was telling Snivelly to keep his mouth shut. Something about not wanting to keep a deserving student from completing his education."

This seemed to cheer Remus slightly — just in time too, because at that moment Madam Pomfrey swept down and ordered Sirius out, insisting Remus needed his rest now.

******

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful; Professor McGonagall tracked Sirius down at lunch and gave him a rather full-looking detention schedule that extended right up to the Easter holidays; he had been expecting as much.

"Ouch, mate," said James through a mouthful of food as he looked it over. "Guess you won't be going to Hogsmeade for a while."

"Right," said Sirius, realizing this meant he'd have to cancel his date for Valentine's weekend. He glanced nervously over his shoulder at the Ravenclaw table; Banks would not be pleased about this….

"You what?" she hissed after he'd told her, later that afternoon in the library.

"I won't be able to go," Sirius repeated dully. "I got detention."

Banks stared at him incredulously. "What could you possibly have done this time?"

"I'm not allowed to talk about it," he muttered, fidgeting with his quill pen as her eyes flashed dangerously.

"You had better — you owe me an explanation, Sirius Black."

Sirius said nothing.

"I can't believe you," Banks whispered furiously. "In fact, I don't believe you. This has something to do with that Howler from your mum this morning, doesn't it?"

"No," said Sirius indignantly.

"All that stuff about filthy Muggle-borns," she went on. "You're afraid of her, aren't you?"

"That's not true and you know it! I told you — I have detention."

"Sure you do."

Sirius pulled out his detention schedule and showed her. She stared at it for a moment, then looked up at him coldly, shaking her head.

"I’m sorry," he said, knowing it would do no good.

"No, you're not. You obviously prefer spending time in detention to spending time with me."

"It's not like I want to be in detention," he protested.

"You must, or you'd stop doing things to land yourself in there all the time. Honestly, I don't even know why I bother." She crushed the detention schedule in her hand, shoved it into his chest, stood up, and stalked off.

Sirius watched her go, wondering if this meant it was over. From the excited whispering that broke out at a table full of younger Gryffindor girls nearby, he gathered he wasn't the only one. He stared blankly at the Charms essay he was supposed to be working on, and decided he didn't much care either way.

Nonetheless, he didn't much feel like working after that, so when someone called out his name a minute later, he was quite happy for the interruption.

"Hey, Black!"

Sirius looked up to see one of the girls from the table, a fourth year named Bathilda Vane, standing near what looked like Snivelly's bag and grinning mischievously at him. He knew she fancied him; she was often very aggressive and annoying about it, but at the moment he didn't really mind.

"Catch!" she called playfully, tossing him something. Sirius stood quickly and caught it. It was a book: Les Arts Foncés. He snorted; of course Britain's Dark Arts wouldn't be enough for Snivellus....

Students all around him were turning to watch expectantly. Sirius opened the book and saw it had an English translation. He smirked at the names of some of the more sickening spells, then glanced up to make sure the librarian wasn't within earshot.

And that was when he noticed Snivelly, who had just emerged from the stacks and was watching him angrily. Something about his expression gave Sirius a sneaking suspicion that the git was just waiting for him to open his mouth before shouting out, "Remus Lupin is a werewolf." With a slight pang of regret he closed the book, tossed it on the table, and sank back into his chair. Enlightening the student body as to Snivelly's choice of reading material simply wasn't worth the risk of exposing Moony's furry little problem.

"Why thank you, Black," said Snivellus, approaching him with a supercilious smile plastered across his ugly face. "I'll take that back now."

Sirius glared at him but held his tongue. To his great annoyance, Snape took this as an invitation to continue talking.

"I couldn't help overhearing what passed between you and Miss Banks, just now. She was rather ... emphatic." His lip curled. "What a pity."

"Shut it, Snivelly," said Sirius between clenched teeth.

"It's for the best, though, if you think about it," Snape continued, in tones of mock sympathy.

Sirius remained sitting only because he didn't trust himself to stand up without hitting or hexing Snivelly. His fingers itched for his wand, but he busied them in picking up his open Charms book instead.

"Your dear old mother seemed a trifle upset this morning. This ought to cheer her right up."

Sirius bristled — this was too much. He felt a deep, canine growl building up in the back of his throat, and stood abruptly, slamming his book and grabbing his things. With enormous effort, he forced himself to turn around and walk away, leaving Snape laughing softly behind him.

He had calmed down a bit by the time he got back to his room, and was slightly surprised to find all three of his roommates already there (he had expected them to be at dinner). They were sprawled out on the purloined common room furniture and seemed to have stopped talking about something the moment he walked in.

"Hi," said Sirius awkwardly, making for his bed and wondering if that something had been him.

"Padfoot, come 'ere," Prongs said lazily, as Moony — whose head was now free of bandages — shut the door with his wand.

Sirius dropped his things by his bed and turned back to them, noticing that the coffee table was covered with food. They must have talked the elves into sending up dinner.

"What?" he asked, summoning a plate and helping himself.

"What do you think of banshees?" Wormtail asked him.

"Dunno, why?"

"Wormtail reckons he heard some around the foothills just west of Hogsmeade a couple months ago," Moony supplied.

"We were wondering if we should go back and check it out next full moon," Prongs added.

They had already started planning next month's adventure. Sirius broke into a grin, feeling happier than he had in what felt like a very long time.

"Not until we pay a visit to the murdered family in that old abandoned farmhouse...."

••••••••••••


Author’s Note– Rowling said Harry Potter was a book for obsessives, and obsessive is exactly what we, the authors, are. Which means we know far more about our minor bit characters than is strictly necessary. Bathilda Vane is a paternal aunt of Romilda Vane, and has a very similar personality. Bathilda means “warrioress” and is therefore the Celtic/German equivalent of the Latin “Bellatrix.” In spite of this — or perhaps because of it — she will never hook up with Sirius. She will, however, grow up to marry Boris Bagshot and write A History of Magic, which will be a required text for first years by the time Harry Potter starts Hogwarts.

Snape’s part is next. Don’t forget to leave feedback when you’re done!

The Werewolf Prank by xenasquill [Reviews - 0]

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