Chapter Text
Remus laughed at one of James’ corny attempts to win over the majestic Lily Evans’ hand; of course, this was only met with a scoff and another brutal rejection to add to the list. He tuned in and out of conversations, switching flawlessly between The Girls, his Marauders and occasionally the passing students like Christopher Barley who wanted to know what times his study group would be up for the week.
“Jeez, Moony, I knew you were a massive swot, but chill it with the intellect show. If you start outshining me I just might get jealous.” comes a sly quip from his side, who he immediately knows as Sirius. He was sitting up straight and his table manners were immaculate, ever the noble pure-blood whether he likes it or not, but it was times like these when it was crystal clear that Remus liked Sirius for his personality, not his past or messed up family-wreath.
In return, Remus just elbowed him playfully in the side with a mumbled ‘shut up’ and a smirk as it drew an over-dramatic yelp of pain from the dark-haired man beside him. He rolled his eyes and laughed with the rest of his friends when Sirius clutched his chest and fell backwards off his bench, as if he was having a heart attack. After only a few moments, however, there was a pitiful voice that drifted up to Remus’ ears, though a smile laced heavily within it. “Moony… help me up will you? I’m all achey from that copious amounts of… broom practice last night.”
He dragged his gaze off his empty plate and peered fondly down to him, offering a firm grip when pulling the other boy back up to his seat. “Infamous child of the Black family legacy here everybody, lying on the dirty floor and still making innuendos at inappropriate moments. Remind me again why you’re called the Black Sheep?”
From then onwards, everything flew smoothly between the group of friends, Lily, Marlene and Mary were all talking muggle news and boys to watch out for, Sirius, James and Peter were bonding over quidditch again and Remus? He floated around it all.
He didn’t fit in all the time. And that’s okay, he knew he was the glue. The machine that brought all of them together and weaved their differences and similarities daily until they became one harmonious tapestry to add to the grand halls of Hogwarts. Remus knew these walls held memory, and he just hoped he would be good enough to earn a space within it.
At this point in time though, Remus was very hungry.
He wasn’t the model of patience when it came to food, anyone could tell that, and this feeling was only growing the longer he stared at his still shining plate. Eventually though, the house elves obviously decided to stop slacking and plates of cheese, selections of cereal, trays of assorted meat appeared on the four never-ending tables that ran the length of the hall.
It was near the full moon and Remus was ravenous, he was ready to eat quadruple his worth in calories; it took a full five minutes for him to collect double servings of everything within his reaching distance (and mind you, he had long arms) until he decided the mountain he called breakfast on his plate was suitable enough for his needs of the day. James let out a low, drawn-out whistle as his friends collectively looked over to see him… wolfing down his meal. Apparently Sirius was too shocked into silence like the rest of them to make that joke outloud, so it was up to Peter to shatter the silence with a semi-concerned, “Remus, you got worms or something?”
“No Peter, I do not have worms.” he retorts exasperatedly and he began to work his way through his plate of food at near alarming speeds. The whole time, Remus was being bombarded with jealous cries from Marlene and Lily about his metabolism, and Sirius and James were very clearly struggling not to make a werewolf pun at that point.
Though the Great Hall usually meant feasts and good memories, today it only brought putrid smells and venomous sounds to his ears. He had no clue as to why, but if he had to guess, he would say it came from the Slytherin table, where sat obvious Death Eater prodigies who had probably been dealing with dark magic in the forbidden forest the night before. Remus didn’t like to hold prejudices but damn if they didn’t make it easy.
As he picked up his pewter goblet of pumpkin juice, a strange feeling met his senses; it felt sweet, and intoxicating, like a drug. Blinking away the sudden urge to down the whole drink in one, Remus sat up straighter with a frown. Pumpkin juice didn’t do that normally, not on its own anyway. Some creep had messed with it, and from the sudden yearn to tell a secret, Remus identified that in it was veritaserum. When focusing, due to the strength of his perception this close to the crest of the lunar cycle, he could almost feel the wind from Jobberknolls’ wings and hear the hiss of an Adder’s tongue; it was veritaserum alright.
He set his untouched drink back down and gently grabbed James’ wrist as the other boy went to drink his own. When met with a confused look, Remus lowered his voice and leaned closer so no-one else could hear. “The pumpkin juice has been spiked with veritaserum, I know it’s odorless and stuff, but with my senses I could just… sense it, I guess?”
With that revelation communicated, Remus knew he couldn’t do nothing about it and so he stood up in his seat on the bench and brought his hands to his mouth. He projected his voice as he shouted out, consequences be damned, “The pumpkin juice has been spiked with veritaserum, I don’t know how much of it, but don’t even try and drink it to be on the safe side!”
As expected, there was an immediate uproar between the students; people were asking who it was, some were wondering how he knew, and some people were just teasing their friends who had already drunk it and laughing when their responses emerged from behind tight lips. Dumbledore stood up to quiet this ruckus soon enough though, and Remus sat back down once the headmaster ensured a thorough check would be done into the contamination of the kitchen and the house elves’ dishes. Everyone still remained shocked, whether at the news or just Remus’ accusation, everyone except a student clad in emerald.
Remus really wasn’t surprised to see who was wearing that uniform.
He was grateful that all the other Marauders did in response was nod to his sudden conclusion, because he realised that werewolf side effects were incredibly hard to describe to a mortal human. In acceptance, they all sat up in a similarly alert manner as he did, immediately on edge and eyeing the hall warily. “Whoever put it in must have ordered the house elves to do so, cracked the kitchen code themselves.”
At this point they were all on the same brainwave, Remus could tell just by looking in their wide eyes. Sirius filled in the rest for him, “The only person evil enough, and skilled enough, I admit it, to brew that and spike the juice would be the greasy, pathetic, slimy snot wad himself.”
“Snivellus.” they all said in unison.