Chapter 54 Scared Straight
Dung's ploy to be a pile of rags in his cell had not worked. Maybe infiltrating Voldemort's minions had been Albus's plan all along. Would have helped to get some warning, rather than letting him think he had been forgotten to rot in Azkaban. Had to be careful though, He Who … or the Dark Lord sort of knew things. About him. Things Dung had not told anyone. Travers said his Lord was all-powerful, but Travers was none too sharp. Dung tried to reciprocate by not looking bright himself. Couldn't have them catching on that he'd be legging it as soon as he got the chance.
So far, Horace had learned nothing. Riddle … or the Dark Lord, had not even given him his wand back. He had seen it being twirled around the Dark Lord's fingers as he outlined what he wanted Horace to do for him after a good meal, a bath, and a good night's sleep. Now that that was out of the way, along with breakfast, Horace was anxious to get some information and his wand then get out of here.
Fortunately, Lord Voldemort made the plans around here. He was pleased with the newspaper offering him pages of coverage, after months of keeping him off the front page. If he had his way, he'd be on the front page every day. Horace Slughorn could take care of that.
This Sirius Black was an annoyance. He escaped during the confusion, and could now be creating havoc. Voldemort did not mind that so much, it was only that Black claimed his every action was due to the Dark Lord. The gormless masses did not even realize Black could not cast the Dark Mark. Voldemort had plans, and it was unlikely that one insignificant person could interfere with them, but Black was not too particular about who he injured or killed. He already got the Lestranges and Orion Black, his own father, killed.
Some of his new recruits seemed quite eager to join the winning side. Not all of them were the right sort. Had to weed out the mudbloods and blood traitors, but there were definitely some purebloods among them. But first, dear Professor Slughorn.
"Rowle," Voldemort called.
The Death Eater came running at the sound of his master's voice, prostrated himself, and murmured, "My lord," to the floor.
"Your left arm, Rowle."
Immediately Rowle obeyed, and Voldemort called his Death Eaters to his side.
Horace Slughorn was worth a little ceremony, and he would not go far on his own with a Dark Mark on his arm. Slughorn would be his from now on. Except he'd have to tone that constant chatter about how important he was. Voldemort would want names, starting with those that Slughorn could influence in the media and the Ministry.
Severus decided to keep his word and give Lily till July. By then, she would be out of school and could firm up her plans for how she was going to spend her money by traveling about, meeting, and shagging others.
He should worry about himself, rather than her. Lily certainly was not planning anything for him, other than waiting for a few years, to then tell him to piss off. It sounded as if her whole plan to become a healer and apply muggle medical advances to wizards was gone. It had been a daft idea. Wizards did not like new things, unless it was the latest model of racing broom.
He returned to the main Lestrange house, and found many house elves volunteering to become the Wilkes' house elves, even after he told them that Mrs. Wilkes was a werewolf. He took down a list of names, ages and genders then set them to work packing more things that he pointed out. Severus also asked them to do something about the smell.
Severus moved the boxes of books to the vault, and popped in to see if his solicitor was free for advice on the house elves.
Lily was annoyed that Severus left so early. He didn't even wait for her to get up before he said good-bye to her mum. He also did not see the newspaper. Death Eaters broke out of Azkaban, including Sirius Black and fantastically enough, Horace Slughorn. Wizards that did not like Severus.
He did not return until after lunch.
"Where were you?" Lily asked.
"London mostly."
"Why'd you go there?"
"I was looking into some things and had letters to mail. Why?"
"Because Death Eaters broke out of Azkaban last night. You could have been in danger."
"Why would He Who Must Not Be Named make me their top priority? He has others without having to break those ones out to hunt me down special."
"How can you be so flippant?"
"Since when did you start believing that people disliked me that much, Lily?"
"It'd be pretty stupid not to think that people wanted you dead. They're mad and deranged, and we knew a handful at school who thought you should be stamped out like a bug simply because you exist."
"You too. You are muggleborn."
"Yeah, except they got all cute with me."
"I told you that. Act like they fancy you to trick you, use you, then discard you."
"Hmm."
Someone could have knocked Albus over with a feather when Barty told him that Voldemort had broken a bunch of prisoners out of Azkaban, including Horace Slughorn and Mundungus Fletcher. Many were kissed by the dementors who became confused when the human staff was killed and the cell doors opened. That's probably why Horace and Dung ran out of there, and not in the company of Voldemort. Some of these fellows were in Azkaban before Tom even graduated from Hogwarts.
However, Barty Jr. was able to use this turn of events to his advantage. Father paid him no mind, but mother took him seriously and made arrangements with father's office for his whole defense study group to get some serious instruction on the patronus charm.
He got to writing invitations to everyone and mother even took him to the post office to get them out promptly since they only had one owl. Mrs. Crouch was seriously concerned about confused dementors. She overheard they didn't have a true count of how many were at Azkaban to tell if any wandered off. Learning the patronus charm was the only defense against them.
Severus had been asleep when Lily crept into the guest room and woke him.
"Sev?"
"What?"
"I couldn't sleep."
"Did you want me to charm you to sleep?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"I'm scared, Sev."
"Of what?"
"How could Death Eaters leave Azkaban?"
"I don't know."
Lily lifted the covers and slid under them next to him. "Aren't you scared, Sev?"
"There's nothing I can do about it."
"What if Black tells them how he got into Hogwarts?"
Severus sighed. He was back to paying for his former triumph over Black.
They could make portkeys, and eventually Black may come to that conclusion. However, would Black risk returning to Hogwarts to settle the score with him? Probably with Death Eaters supporting him, however wouldn't the Dark Lord prefer a target like Dumbledore, rather than Severus? If any of them were caught, would they even bother sending them back to Azkaban?
"Sev," Lily prompted with an elbow to his side.
"What do you want me to do?"
"You're always coming up with plans, Sev."
If Severus was able to come up with any good plans, his parents would be alive, and Lily would want to stay with him.
Annoyed that Severus was not saying anything constructive, Lily turned towards him and let out a long, warm sigh against his neck.
He moved his arm and held her hand. Why should he put any effort into this? Lily would only pat him on the head, and then share his ideas with her sexual conquests so they could protect her. She wanted a handsome hero. Not someone who lucked out saving her from a werewolf.
There were posters everywhere in wizarding Britain.
Sirius felt that was a horrible photo of him. He had been in the middle of telling them what a bunch of pinheaded pissants they all were when they took it.
He recognized Horace Slughorn. Since when did he join up with Moldyfart? He may have been a Death Eater all along, working his way through the students to see who was amenable to a little pureblooded nonsense. That's why old Sluggy passed over Sirius, but loved little Regulus. Baby Reggie would make a good Death Eater with his idiot savant friend, Crouch.
It took a while to get anywhere as a big dog while getting some decent food. People, even muggles who did not call him the grim, did not like the looks of him. Animal-hating jerks had him resorting to eating out of bins.
He had to get to Paris. The French at least had better quality rubbish for him to eat while waiting to see Apolline, or to demand where she was from her parents.
For a normally independent Gryffindor, Lily acted unusual. She did not want Severus to leave her house. She annoyed him with hours of talk about his safety, her safety, and her mother's safety. Sirius Black and his Death Eater associates could be in the neighborhood. If Potter knew where she lived, Black probably already knew.
When he retreated upstairs to read or work on homework, Lily kept coming up to check on him. Severus did not need someone asking every twenty minutes if he was hungry or thirsty. He was raised to be self-sufficient, and he was suspicious that if he replied to Lily that he would like her to fetch him whatever she offered, she wouldn't like it.
Severus had put some spells on this house, but if the Dark Lord wanted in, that would not stop him. The spells were too basic because this was not his house nor was he related to the inhabitants.
However, her fear seemed overcome in time to attend a Wigtown Wanderer game. She made no sense.
If this did not bring Moony to his senses, nothing would. James knew that Moony was deranged carrying on about going back to school and taking his NEWTs … of all the Merlin-transfigured things! Settling for going back to sixth year, when he stopped? What an insult!
Arriving at the Lupins, James was yelling for Remus before the door was even opened, "Moony! Moony!"
"Prongs? What's the problem?"
"Black broke out of Azkaban. Let's catch him."
"Us? How? He's with Death Eaters."
"We can't let him stab us in the back and get away with it. Azkaban was keeping Black safe from us."
"What about Portugal?"
"I can go to practice and games and portkey back. You can investigate leads while I'm away. You're the smart, sensible one, Moony."
"As the sensible one, I recommend we don't go looking for He Who Must Not Be Named."
"Ah come on. Dumbledore's not doing a good job of it, and neither is the Ministry. We can be heroes."
"We can be dead."
"We know what Black is. We won't make the same mistake as Wormtail."
"It's too dangerous."
"Just Black then. It's personal, Moony."
Remus shook his head, "I'm going back to school, James. I can keep my eye on the newspaper, and keep my ears open, but that's it."
"Oh brilliant! You think he'll nip back to Hogwarts to finish whatever he was up to when he got caught?"
"I hope not."
With the Wilkes being on their honeymoon till they saw them at the Ministry after the first week of January, Severus did not receive a reply till then.
Mrs. Wilkes, or MacDonald, threw herself on him in the Ministry lobby when the two of them came out of the floo. "Oh, Severus, you're so wonderful. My parents would love to train them up for Malcolm and I."
"They are rude."
"I heard that one, but with us needing extra help when I change, they'd be perfect. You're so good to think of me."
"Yes, Snape, very generous of you. Thank you," Wilkes said.
"Should I send them around tomorrow?"
"Sure."
"What?" Lily asked.
"Severus gave us four house elves for our wedding gift," Mary told her friend gleefully.
"He did?"
"Yeah, isn't that great?"
"I guess," Lily responded. Why didn't Severus ask Lily before he went and did something like that? From what Helen and Mary said, every house elf was valuable. Even if Sev did not like them, he couldn't just go giving them away.
Lily watched Severus as he lined up with the others to get his wand looked at. They already knew from their research that house elves could watch werewolves and use their magic to restrain them from hurting others. Why didn't he just give them one or two? He was going to regret it later when he needed house elves of his own to do things.
Other students from their defense study group arrived in the lobby, and joined them on line. They congratulated the Wilkes on their wedding. In the lift, they mentioned the Death Eater escape, and Mary said she was so worked up over that she thought she saw Sirius Black in Paris. Malcolm added he had not, but saw a French dog so ugly it could be mistaken for a grim.
All of them were supposed to meet Barty Crouch Jr. and his mother on the second level, in front of the Magical Law Enforcement office.
As a new auror, Proudfoot got the job of teaching Hogwarts students the patronus charm. Crouch's son was supposed to be among this lot, and he recognized Mrs. Crouch who tagged along to keep an eye on things. A couple of other parents decided to stay too.
He got them into a room, and one girl had already gotten enough down with the spell to get some silver out of her wand. The others seemed hopeless at first.
Lily did not like this Proudfoot guy since he didn't seem helpful. It was like he was reciting the text they had at school. Focus on a happy memory and cast. If it were that easy, the room would be full of silver animals running about.
Over an hour later, there were only three animals: Summerby's small sheep, and Mary's and Malcolm's wolves. Regulus Black was getting silver out of his wand now.
Proudfoot announced, "We have permission from the Ministry to use a portkey to go to Azkaban and expose you to a real dementor that is under our control. This will be a test for those that can cast it, to see if they can cast it while under a dementor's influence. For you others, it might inspire you to keep practicing."
Severus did not want to go to Azkaban to meet a dementor. Other adult wizards and witches joined them. It got worse. They were not portkeyed to Azkaban, but outside somewhere cold and windy. They had to take a bloody boat to the actual prison.
Why was it necessary to meet a dementor, when the whole trip made one miserable? Crouch may be exploiting his father's connections to get them access to this place, but Severus could not imagine truly thanking him. He supposed it was important to prove the seriousness of needing this spell.
Once they could see Azkaban from the boat, they grew uneasy. It was a dismal, ugly structure towering above the waves. Unlike the Ministry or Hogwarts, there was no statue or decortation dedicated to a founder or expressing its purpose. They could also see dementors flocking around it like gulls against the black stone. If they were outside, was the stone thick enough to protect the prisoners inside? Did they even have cells on the exterior wall, where the prisoners could hear the constant pounding of the surf?
The dementors could be felt as they disembarked from the boat. Even with Lily holding his hand, Severus was miserable, or more miserable than he initially was from having to take this horrible field trip. Why was he even here? He couldn't cast this charm. Everyone said he was a talentless piece of rubbish, pretty much from the minute he was born. Lily even drew a huge colorful circle using his birth date to prove he was worthless using the quasi-science of divination. Nothing he did mattered.
Lily felt horrible. It must be terrible locked up in Azkaban with these things around. She held onto Sev's hand. Her whole life was feeling like a big mistake. There was so much she could be doing. Sev was right that Lily was wasting her opportunities.
Casting or trying to cast a patronus with a dementor around was very difficult. There were no happy memories left in Lily's head. She had a whole bunch of them before. She knew that, or maybe not. Maybe she had never been happy.
Summerby eventually got her lamb to show up and that drove the dementor from the room, deeper into the dark prison.
With no dementors in the same room, both of the Wilkes' wolves appeared, Crouch had a mischievous fox, and Black's patronus was a big mastiff dog.
After some large bars of chocolate were passed around, Black and Crouch started joking around about the mastiff's traits. It could lay down on top of a dementor and crush it. It could shake its head and spray patronus spit in a wide defensive semicircle.
On the boat trip back to the shore, Lily was highly disappointed with herself. Severus may never be able to cast this charm. He was brilliant at doing spells, but something that required someone to be happy and keep that in his mind with a dementor around, was highly unlikely. After all the times he helped Lily, it was only right that she should learn it to protect them.
If Severus let himself fall over the side of the boat, would anyone care? That auror probably had a head count of the number of students he needed to bring back. It would be embarrassing to be fished out of the North Sea by another wizard. They'd probably tell bath jokes about him.
When they returned to the Ministry, Severus declined the Wilkes' invitation to dinner, "Mrs. Evans is expecting us."
Lily did not bother arguing because it was the truth, and Severus did not look well. Otherwise, she would have taken them up on their offer to hear about their wedding and trip to Paris. Reading about it all in a letter would not be good enough, but she'd see them soon when they all went back to Hogwarts.
Horace agreed with many of the Dark Lord's followers that he did not deserve the Dark Mark.
From what he gathered, only the closest Death Eaters got to have one branded into their arm. However, Riddle singled him out for this honor, and without his wand there was little Horace could do to resist.
As he claimed many times before, it was actually a curse to be as popular as him, and now he had the proof of it branded into his left arm till Albus could get this bloody ugly tattoo off. A skull with a snake? Was that supposed to be clever and scary?
Luckily it was his left arm, so he was not overly pained to start work on his correspondence on behalf of the Dark Lord. Horace knew what was asked of him, but tried to be so subtle that his message was almost nonexistent. Bloody well bad enough that Cuffe chose a merry looking photo of him to illustrate he broke out of Azkaban. The paper was vague as to whether he left for his own safety, or in the company of others. At least Cuffe was dependable on that point.
Severus was still not recovered when they finished flooing and apparating so excused himself from dinner to lie down complaining of a headache.
Lily explained how alarming the prison was, and the total despair caused by the dementor guard to her mother. There was still damage that they could see to the stone building from the breakout.
Even if Lily was there in a deep depression, she did not think she'd join up with He Who Must Not Be Named if he flung open her cell door. Both Prof. Slughorn and that thief friend of Dumbledore's went running off with him. Prof. Slughorn had probably already served at least thirty days of his ninety-day sentence, if Lily remembered correctly. He might have even been as far along as half done. They weren't as bad off as Sirius Black with a life sentence. That's what they'd end up with if they were caught again.
Bored with watching television after dinner, Lily went upstairs to check on Severus. She had not been expecting him to be goofing off with any arithmancy, however she intended to be quiet in case his head was worse. Since she did not hear him snoring, Lily doubted he was asleep when she opened the door to the guest room.
It was dark, but the light from the hall showed Severus lying on his side, above the covers, and he was still dressed with even his shoes still on. Lily sighed loudly and went in with the intention of taking off his shoes and socks. How could someone sleep with their shoes on? Sev was just plain weird sometimes.
"What are you doing?" Severus lowly asked when he felt Lily messing with his feet.
"You left your shoes on, Sev."
"Can you leave them alone?"
"No," Lily replied while struggling with one of the tight double knots that he used.
"Lily, I want to be left alone."
"I know you weren't asleep."
Severus did not bother mentioning that he doubted that would matter. He sat up, reached down, and pulled off both his shoes without bothering to untie them.
"You're not supposed to take them off like that," Lily complained.
"Just stop, Lily."
"What?"
"Whatever you're doing."
"Sev, your socks are still on," Lily reminded him as she grabbed one of his feet.
"I was in here alone. Why would my shoes and socks bother you?"
"Because it's wrong."
"Everything about me is wrong."
"Sev ...," Lily started, then asked about the bared foot in her hand, "Why's your foot so cold?"
Severus swallowed hard, and willed himself not to start crying. Why did Lily keep asking stupid 'why' questions? He did not intentionally have cold feet, dragonpox pockmarks, or a big nose.
Lily pulled off his other sock, and rubbed that foot between her hands, then switched to the other one. "You should get under the covers, or they won't stay warmed up."
When Severus did nothing, Lily made a noise of disgust and got up to talk to his face. She leaned down and asked, "Are you listening to me?"
Thinking he did not look well, Lily put her hand on his forehead. It felt cool, maybe too cool, rather than warm. He was also blinking more than usual, and his dark eyes were shiny. "Sev?"
"What?"
"I know you said you don't feel well. Is something else wrong?"
"No."
"Is it from earlier with the dementor?"
"Maybe," he muttered in reply. "Can't I just be left alone for a while?"
"Sev, did you pass on the chocolate?"
"I don't want chocolate, Lily."
"That's why you're not feeling well. Mum can make you some hot chocolate or chocolate milk, if you don't want to eat any."
"Why are you so opposed to me lying here quietly?"
"I'm not. You look upset."
"I'm not thinking about anything new. The dementor did not affect me that badly."
Lily made a face. Her friend most likely thought the worst about everything so that might be why a dementor had no new suggestions for him. "Get under the covers then tell me some of the stuff, and I'll tell you how the dementor made it seem worse," she suggested.
"What do you mean?"
"It twists things."
"Not really. Everything was already there."
Lily rolled her eyes as she shoved him over and pulled the covers back. "Get under there."
Severus cooperated and allowed Lily to arrange the blanket to her satisfaction. She sat down on the bed next to him and prompted, "So?"
"What?"
"What did the dementor make you think about?"
"My parents. If I hadn't gone to Hogwarts, they might be alive. I realize it was not something I intentionally did, but if I hadn't gotten Black's and Potter's attention -"
"That wasn't you, Sev. That first day, I was sitting in the train compartment next to the window, waiting for you to change when they came in and sat down. They ignored me completely until you returned. They were probably sizing each other up to start a fight when they decided to form Team Toerag, and attack you two to one."
"Still, it's things like that. Nothing I purposely did." Severus couldn't feel guilty about trapping Black at Hogwarts because Black was a murdering Death Eater, and not the generalization that most Gryffindors applied to all Slytherins either. A couple thoughts of Slughorn entered his mind earlier today, but Slughorn joined with He Who Must Not Be Named when given a chance. Even if he was new to the Death Eaters, it did not speak too highly of someone who would rather be a Death Eater than go without his creature comforts for another forty-three days.
"At least you understand that. I've heard that prisoners can go crazy. Now that I got a taste of it, I can believe it."
"Hmm."
"That's it?"
"What else do you want to hear, Lily?"
"Whatever you want to talk about, Sev."
"I don't want to talk about anything." Of course there were a lot of thoughts in his head, but most of them regarded Lily, or things that effected her like the Lestranges or the other things he inherited with people's changing public attitude towards him, although he was the same slimy, repulsive person he had been since first year.
"What about those house elves? Isn't four a lot?"
"It may be," Severus admitted, "but I'd rather give them extra than risk MacDonald's safety." Unlike most of Hogwarts, both MacDonald and Wilkes actually talked to him civilly prior to all this head boy and inheritance nonsense.
Lily bit her bottom lip. When Severus put it that way, four house elves was a small price. She'd gladly do more housework for that. With Sev and magic, there would hardly be anything extra to even complain about. If Potter was so wealthy, and such the concerned and loving good friend he said he was to Lupin, why didn't he have some of his house elves keep an eye on the werewolf? Lily knew why Black wouldn't. He liked people getting hurt, killed, and he didn't seem to care if it was Lupin that ended up dead or hurt.
She put her hand on Sev's chest and tried to rub it through the blanket. Despite Severus claiming he had no friends, he was nicer to his 'acquaintances' than most of these other wizards and witches, even the ones with supposedly sterling reputations. Lily could count on the fingers of one hand the Gryffindors she trusted: Mary, Prof. McGonagall, and Frank Longbottom. She was not sure about the Slytherins, other than Severus. Prof. Slughorn had seemed awfully nice to her till Lily got dragonpox. Was Sev right about him being interested in a person's looks rather than talent?
Severus stayed silent for a long while, even though his eyes were closed. Lily thought he was still awake since she couldn't remember him ever sleeping without snoring. It usually started within a couple of minutes of him dozing off. She found it too quiet here at home to sleep without Sev in the room.
He did not mind Lily rubbing his chest if she did not ask more questions about how he felt or what he was thinking about. The question about the house elves was unexpected. Why wouldn't he want to get rid of some of them? Severus could look into who could owe him the biggest favor, but what was the likelihood of someone ever paying it back? If the house elves were theirs, there was no leverage. With MacDonald owing him a life debt, it was in his best interests to keep her alive and out of Azkaban to pay it back. At least she'd be magically compelled to do something for him if the opportunity arose, rather than standing around cheering and laughing.
Albus grew worried. Days passed, and he had still not heard from Dung or Horace. If they were in the midst of Tom's camp, having Fawkes show up carrying a message would undoubtedly be their death warrants. Both were resourceful. They at least had that in their favor.
The Order had suffered a number of setbacks, including the loss of the vital information that Dung was able to ferret out of his contacts before he got sent to Azkaban. Albus could not help but feel responsible for that.
Horace had resisted joining the Order of the Phoenix. Claimed he didn't want a target on his backside.
He needed more Order members. Diverse, brave, undoubtedly on their side, rather than Tom's, and not completely loyal to the Ministry. Frank and Alice would not be finished with their auror training for at least another year, but they were keen to fight Voldemort. Last year's graduates had no one suitable, and this year had slim pickings too.
Albus hardly needed to glance into Severus's eyes anymore to feel how much he was loathed. There were only two Gryffindors left, and both Lily Evans and Mary MacDonald had witnessed every misfortune that befell their friend. Sirius Black had truly done his master's work with sowing distrust of the school itself and Gryffindor house. Years of students, both above and below him had been tainted.
Lily appreciated being able to apparate to King's Cross even more today. Mum would have come down with them on the train, and then had to go home alone. She could visit Petunia, but Tunie had come up with Vernon on New Year's. Her sister already knew that Severus had been staying for the holiday, but couldn't help saying something when she saw him in person. Severus was used to her, however mum plainly stating his house did not have proper heating didn't come out quite right. Sev ignored that too while waiting for his chance to sneak back upstairs.
Was her family wrong for Severus? He tolerated mum hugging him goodbye earlier so it wasn't entirely lost. Lily did not know how he got by without craving company, other than her.
Since their compartment was reserved for the head boy and head girl, there was no hurry to get on the train, but other than Mary and Malcolm, Lily was not interested in waiting for anyone else. Crouch was a bit weird, and Black looked too much like his older brother for her to get comfortable around him.
Mary was able to find Lily easily between her red hair and Severus lurking behind her.
They saw the Wilkes approaching them, hand in hand, and Mary shouted to be heard with all the animals and children, "Let's get on the train already. It's cold out here."
As the four of them were about to leave the platform, Mary grabbed Lily's elbow and hissed, "Is that Lupin?"
"Where?" Lily asked as everyone else looked in the direction Mary was.
It was Remus Lupin with two older people, probably his parents. He had a school trunk and was getting on the train.
Malcolm urged, "Don't stare. We can talk about it on the train."
"But -" Mary started to argue, but between Malcolm physically pulling her on the train and Severus stepping between her and Lupin to block her view, she acceded.
Lily complained, "Why is he here?" but followed everyone else onto the train, when she realized the others were leaving her on the platform alone.
After looking around carefully, Malcolm closed the door and warded it while Severus cast muffliato nonverbally.
Severus stated, "If Lupin was not expelled with Black and Potter, then I suppose he was readmitted."
"If I had known that," Mary replied, "I wouldn't have forgiven him until after I graduated."
"What can we do about it?" Lily asked.
"Do?" Severus asked. It was one thing to make a fool of Potter at a quidditch game, but Lupin was not as easily taunted. The only weakness he perceived was Lupin's lycanthropy, and that was too risky to mess around with.
"Can't we all treat him like he treated Severus for years? Attack him in the halls, the stairs, the boys' room, on the lawn, and in the Great Hall?" Mary asked.
Malcolm reminded her, "We're supposed to be more mature than that, Mary. That's why we're staying in the big people's rooms, instead of the dormitories now."
"Find out why he's here," Severus suggested.
"Why he's here?" Lily repeated. "To be a toerag. What does he need an education for? Everyone knows he's a werewolf that killed a person and turned another for either fun or to help out his Death Eater buddy."
"Not necessarily," Malcolm cautioned. "Lupin was usually their lookout and alibi. He may have something else in mind."
"I don't care," Mary stated, folding her arms over her chest.
"Oh, don't get me wrong, sweetheart. I'll protect you from him, and I'm certainly not going to be friendly."
"Neither am I," Lily agreed. "Head girls don't have to like anyone."
"Lupin already knows we don't like him," Severus reminded them. "Perhaps he's smart enough to realize we hate him, but with that lot, one can't be sure. However, we should pretend like we're ignoring him until we know what he's up to, rather than just being a toerag, as Lily suggested. He could do that anywhere. He doesn't need to return to Hogwarts for that."
"Sure he can," Lily disagreed. "What better way to show that he got away with everything he's done so far?"
"Oh no," moaned Mary.
"What?"
"Do you think they'll have him in the same room in the dungeons with me? Ugh."
"We'll see," Malcolm answered menancingly.
Remus was shunned by even the Gryffindors and ended up in a compartment with some first years, still excited over their Christmas holiday. He had hours of listening to their merriment and those of their friends that stopped by to chat.
During that time, he reassured himself that he was doing the right thing. Sure, it may sound like fun to join James in Portugal, but what would he have to show for it, other than Broomfleet paraphernalia and improving his Portuguese?
Prongs's plan to somehow catch up with Black and do something to him was fine for someone playing quidditch all over Europe to talk about.