The heat of summer died as September draws to a close, October fast on its heels with the promise of Halloween enticingly close by. It was a holiday that didn't truly mean as much within the magical as it did the muggle, but was a good enough excuse to have a feast and hold a party afterwards, smuggled liquor from Aberforth filling the teens as much as any food. It really shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone that chaos of some sort was bound to ensue in the time between the end of September and the beginning of October, and yet no one was on guard as they left the Great Hall from breakfast to go to class.
They really should have been on some type of guard.
Remus walked with the other three Marauders, instinctively tuning out Prongs' unending rants about a certain red headed girl, the boy almost wished that she would accept his affections so at least the rest of them would no longer have to hear about it. In the back of his mind though, he almost wondered if her doing so would only make it worse in the end as he would know even more about her than before.
The four, and almost everyone else leaving the Great Hall, stopped as a strange metallic sound was heard coming closer. The Gryffindor boy smiled as everyone glanced around at one another and the halls around them until a third year Hufflepuff boy pointed to the stairs.
"Are those… slinkies ?" Remus asked, as three of the metal coils raced down the stairs, each of them a different color from the other two.
No one seemed to notice how the fifth year Slytherins had drawn closer, a Ravenclaw and sixth year Slytherin girl quickly in toe as well. No one noticed the looks shared between the six, or how Regulus pressed closer to the older boy as Remus shared a sly glance with the other two fifth year snakes.
It wasn't their business anyways.
"Looks like someone tried and failed at a prank," Sirius remarked, his laugh barking through the hall as everyone began to stir.
The metal coils met one of the lands between the sets of moving stairs and stopped as all of the Marauders, save one, laughed at what appeared to be a botched attempt, others soon joining in. Remus smiled sharply at Barty and Evan as he saw that golden coil had gotten the farthest out of the three, and reached behind Regulus's back to collect the two golden coins from the younger boys, his fingers brushing the younger Black's hips in a rather like touch that made them both shiver.
The laughter died on each of the students' lips as a deep rumbling noise was heard from within the castle from the direction that original three slinkies had come from. The stairs stopped their movements for a moment and suddenly hundreds upon thousands of the metal coils in shades of green, gold, and silver were pouring downing the stairs like a relentless wave, one after the other. There were timed duplication charms set on an easy half of them that coasted even more to be created as they colored with the others that had piled up at the bottom of one of the flights of stairs, causing the pile to grow enough that it spilled over onto the next set of stairs again and again until there was enough that the metal could spilled from the sides.
Remus laughed as the magic worked well enough that the coils had soon made their way down to the last set of stairs and were beginning to roll at students' feet. Regulus only rolled his eyes, but the pressure at the older boy's side deepend, so Remus knew that the Slytherin boy could be too annoyed by it all.
"You were saying Pads?" James asked cheekily as the bespectacled teen elbowed the other, now scowling, boy.
"Still doesn't beat anything that our Moony has come up with," Sirius protested petulantly, his arms crossed like a child as the pair stole a glance at the boy in question, not noticing how the younger Black brother had slipped away from the wolf's side.
Remus only smiled in a way that could almost be construed as sweet, as he let the words that might have blush to his cheeks only a few months before roll off of him. He knew that the real fun hadn't begun just yet.
"You four couldn't even go a month without causing some sort of mass chaos?" A new but familiar voice chided.
The Gryffindor boys turned to see the teachers pushing their way to the front of the gathered crowd of students, annoyed smile carved into some of their faces as something softly amused danced across others.
"It wasn't us this time," Peter squeaked in a weak defense as he looked at Professor McGonagall with big eyes. The witch only raised a prim brow. "Honest!"
Remus would never know what made the witch decide to believe the other boy, or if she ever did at all, because the next thing that he knew, the Gryffindor head of house had sighed and moved to the now growing pile colored coils.
The students watched as the Transfiguration professor withdrew her wand smoothly and waved it with a delicacy that most of them had yet to learn. They had all expected the somewhat interesting sight to disappear at once as so many of the Marauders' pranks had time and time again, but that wasn't what happened at all.
Screams spilled from the younger years as the slinkies gathered in the ever growing pile of metal suddenly shivered and changed .
The silver coils convulsed as wings sprouted from them in what could only be described now as their backs. The metal coils took the air and began to fly high and swoop down like birds of prey. Barty smirked proudly as one of the Gryffindors foolishly attempted to bat one away and was met with three more springing from it; a modified Gemini Curse.
Someone shrieked as the silver coil sprouted legs like lizards and began to climb the walls like the very same creature. Evan laughed quietly as some of the younger years began to run away and bump into the others as the lizard - like coils jumped from the walls and onto them.
Remus smiled sharply as the golden coils fell limply to the floor like fabric before they began to slink and slither, hissing like snakes. The Gryffindor could see the delicate scales shining in the torch light. The snakes slithered around the hall with the same reckless abandon as the other coils and could feel the wolf stir in his chest as if it wanted to hunt.
The other three Marauders were not spared from the thick of it all as they scurried and dodged the animated metal coils. Remus could have sworn that he saw Peter's nose twitch like a rat's just before Filch started to run at the three with demands of them righting it all and complaints about not being allowed to string the three from their ankles and wrist anymore.
And in the extraordinary chaos of it all, Regulus grabbed the older boy's hand and their strange little group weaved and dashed through the crowd to the Slytherin common room, and then the boy's dorm.
—-
Classes were canceled for the day after that, the slinkies had escaped the confines of the hall and had begun to run amok around the caste. The three conspirators grinned at one another as the five of them lazed around the fifth year Slytherin boy's dorm room, the echoes of frightened screams following them down even to there. The metal coils would vanish within the day, but no one else outside of their little bubble needed to know that.
The five of them were laid out between two of the beds, Barty laid out on his own as Evan leaned against it from the floor. Regulus and Remus were arranged comfortably on the younger boy's bed, their backs pressed nicely against the cool stone, as Dora leaned against the bed in a similar manner to Rosier.
" Merlin ," Regulus cursed, his head thrown to the side in a way that caused his curls to cascade prettily across his face and Remus's breath to catch harshly in his throat, "where do you gits even find those spells?" The boy asked, the laugh that followed resonating quietly through the room like a forbidden melody.
"It was all Lupin over there," Evan remarked, his voice the lightest that the Gryffindor had ever heard it before, bouncing buoyantly through the air with the light feeling of success.
The younger Black turned to look at the eldest boy expectantly, their faces close enough together that the lion could see the faintest of freckles on the snake's cheeks. Remus only shrugged and fought down the heat rising in his cheeks.
"I only modified some spells and curses, and combined some others," the oldest boy said quietly, not meeting any of the others' eyes. "Really it wasn't much."
And to the older boy it truly wasn't. The Marauders had been doing things like this since their first year, modifying spells to suit their needs and incorporating anything that they needed to into it.
"Only, sure," Barty scoffed petulantly.
Pandora turned on the floor and patted the older boy's knee lightly, aware of just how unused the Gryffindor is to any sort of casual touch that didn't hurt, more than once she realized that it was a marvel that the lion let her and Regulus be so liberal with their affections for him, but that was a topic for another day.
The touch was a message in of its own, a silent whisper that told the other that he was allowed to accept praise. Ravenclaw only knows that she had done the same thing more times than she could count with the boy pressed so freely against the other; then again, maybe that was a part of the reason why Remus tolerated them both so easily.
"Tell us what you're learning in those older classes of yours," the witch said airily, her voice visibly calming the older boy.
"Sure," the lion said, rolling his eyes as he settled once more. "We're studying the Patronus Charm in Charms right now and should be attempting to cast it later in the year."
"Why are you having to wait so long to actually cast it?" The younger Black brother asked curiously, but Remus only shrugged.
"Not everyone can cast one at all," the older boy explained easily enough. "We're just waiting until after the holidays when spirits are highest. James has already said that he wants to be the first in our year to cast it."
The strange group smirked in a way that could almost be seen as cruel as a distant shriek floated down the dungeon halls, the magic behind the Slinkies still going strong.
"Spirits are pretty high right now," Evan said with that knowing look of his, Barty's soon following suit. Remus shook his head and wondered how they could have all taken so long to come to this point.
"Okay," the oldest of their strange group conceded, peeling off of the bed with the younger Black brother soon following suit. "Everyone grab their wands."
Little time was spared for the theory that they had been learning in class, though Remus understood it better than most, he also knew that some magic that was so inexplicably tied with emotion as this was didn't require much theory to it at all.
"You think of the happiest memory that you possess and let it fill you till, then speak the incantation," Remus instructed as the dive spread out across the room more than they had been before, wands held loosely in each of their hands, but none of them looking at one another.
The lion closed his eyes and thought of summer days spent with someone that he had deemed untouchable only a few years before, and gentle touches that both set his skin on fire and caring in a way that he had almost never experienced before. It was Madam Pomfrey's gentle embrace the morning after the full moon when she refused to let him die, and seeing the Marauders turn for the first time. It was sneaking out to meet two of the boys within the room and the feeling of a delicate hand grasping his own as they ran with laughter tearing at their throats.
It was being alive and finally learning how to live.
" Expecto Patronum! "
Spools of silver light spilled from the tip of the Gryffindor's wand as a warmth like none that he had ever known before pooled in the boy's chest, consuming him like a flame. And then suddenly the light gathered into something recognizable as a silver fox trotted through the air, its tail bouncing as the creature ran around the eldest boy.
A laughter so light and free spilled from the teen's lips that the other four turned to look at the oldest member of their group and marveled at the creature that ran so mischievously around the scarred boy, bringing him to life as it shined brighter than it had only a moment before.
None of the others could have known the fear that had gripped the lion's heart at the idea that the spectral image of a wolf would be where the fox was now. None of them could have known how free he felt when it didn't. So Remus laughed and smiled with a fierceness that most would shy from as the silver creature ran around him, casting distant hues across his summer tanned skin.
" Expecto Patronum !"
A small silver cat leapt from the tip of the younger Black brother's wand, running with a feline grace for the fox trotting through the air. Remus briefly wondered if Patronuses could touch one another, the inquiry went unanswered as the two spectral protectors ran with one another through the room, wispy trendles trailing in their wake.
The owners of the creatures looked across the small room at one another and smiled in a soft way that seemed to make each of their beasts shine a little brighter than before.
Remus didn't think that he'd ever seen a more beautiful sight before.
Before long there is a bat flying above the other two creatures, watching over them in the way that only a sister could do. It swept low and rose high above both of the running creatures to the falcon and blackbird that flew with it, as the creators all huddled closely together to watch the lazy circles that the vestiges were making about the room.
Remus didn't know if your patronus was always the same as your animagus form, it was one of the fears that had stopped the teen from attempting the transformation with the other three. He was already stuck as a wolf one night each month, he didn't want to become one voluntarily as well. But if the patronus form was the same as the animagus, then the Gryffindor found that he wasn't so opposed to it all.
—-
Remus rolls over in his bed and gives an annoyed groan at the noise filling the room around him as the other three occupants moved about in the impossibly loud process of getting ready. And then suddenly the curtains to the boy's bed are being pulled back and light is pouting into Remus's eyes in a way that makes the boy want to reach for his wand.
"Wormtail, what the actual fuck?" The boy cursed groggily as he pushed himself up on the bed and looked at the other teen, a slight growl in his voice.
The plump boy had gone pale as he began to stammer out an answer, but was gracelessly saved by James.
"It's a Hogsmead day, mate," the smiling boy explained, but Remus could see the caution in the other boy's eyes, as if James thought that he was looking at a wounded animal rather than a boy. "If you don't get up now you'll be late."
"Doesn't matter," Remus huffed, falling back into the bed with an annoyed sigh. "Can't go anyways, got my permission revoked, didn't I?"
"How in Merlin's name did that happen?" Sirius asked, his head appearing in the curtain slip.
Remus sighed and made a dismissive gesture with his hand before flopping it back onto the bed in a rare show of childishness. "They don't want to risk it."
He didn't have to explain who or what, the other three already knew it as well as he did. Dumbledore was a strange man, someone that kept all of his chard's close to his chest and never made his manipulations too obvious. Remus didn't much appreciate being a card that the man was locking away after the attacks that had occurred during the summer as more and more werewolfs flocked to the other side.
"That's too bad, mate," James said softly, his hand twitching at his side as if he had thought about reaching out but had decided against doing so at the last moment.
"We'll bring you back some sweets, Moony," Peter offered kindly, knowing just the way to the other boy's heart.
The two of them peeled away and then it was only Sirius left. The other boy looked as if he wanted to stay something, as if he wanted to say quite a few things that Remus would never have the opportunity to know become the teen only shook his head and smiled instead. "Have a nice lie in, Moony."
As he watched Sirius turn away and the curtains fall back into place, Remus couldn't help but wonder if the others would ever stop walking on eggshells around him. He wondered if it even mattered anymore at all if they did.
—-
Remus pulled himself out of his bed sometime later, his bones creaking angrily at the movement as he did.
Gryffindor Tower was quiet as he left it, only a low mummer of voices could be heard anywhere within it as most of the students were either in the village or somewhere else on the castle grounds.
The Gryffindor walked slowly, taking in the cool breeze as October continued on. He didn't have any books with him, or really anything at all which was an oddity in of itself. The leaves had begun to die, Remus noticed, a vivid world of color appearing with the unmistakable signs of dearth. Stars were the same, he knew, burning so brightly during their final years that their death was a stunning sight to see as the star shedded its layers. So beautiful in fact that most forgot that it was death that they were seeing. He wondered if people were the same as they changed from one version of themselves to another, if they burned brightly too before they became someone new.
He thought that they might.
Two familiar sources of warmth pressed in on either side of the lion, one snaking her arm through Remus's while the other pressed closely to the Gryffindor's side until all three of them were walking in step with one another.
"Morning," the eldest of the group grumbled, his voice gravelly from disuse. "You two didn't want to go to the village?" He asked curiously, looking between the two fifth year prefects.
Dora shook her head no, blonde waves of loose curls gently falling around her. "I felt that something good would happen if I decided to stay," the younger girl said airily, her words holding that vague sense of certainty that always made the Gryffindor wonder if her family hadn't been touched by something mystical in a way that the rest of them hadn't been.
"I just didn't want to have to see my idiotic brother," Regulus said in that flat voice of his that always made the older boy want to curse the snakes that had taken a child and punished him for emotion until a shell of it was all that could be seen in public.
Remus hummed. "My dorm room is free if we want to go there, the others shouldn't be back for hours," he offered.
The eldest of the three knew of the other boy's aversion to the Gryffindor common room, but thought that he would still offer anyways. Remus and Regulus couldn't get into the girl's dorm room for Ravenclaw tower because of the sliding stairs spell that they all seemed to have, and the Slytherin dorms weren't really the safest place for a half - blood outside of house parties and times when all five of them were strew together.
It wasn't truly all that much of a surprise when the other two agreed to come along.
—-
There was something almost drunk in the way that the three of them walked up the stairs to the sixth year Gryffindor boy's dormitory, ideas and theories falling from each of their lips as Dora pulled out the condensed version of the notices that they had all been taking for months now.
Looking back on it, Remus still had no idea how the three of them came to the conclusion of duplicating his knock of Doc Martens, maybe it had been because they had the most surface area for the runes that they wanted to word with to be sewn on. Or maybe it was because they were all in the lion's room and Regulus had seen them as the two sat closer to one another than was necessary on the older boy's bed.
Either way, the next thing that the Gryffindors knew, he was holding a pair of shoes that looked exactly like his own, and was slowly drawing the rune combinations on one as Dora did the same with the other, and Regulus slowly muttered and wove the spells that they had chosen above them both.
The silver runes gave a brilliant flash as Pandora and Remus finished off and tied the last one at the same time, Regulus's spell following right after. The three grin as the light fades and they see that the runes aren't there at all, or at least they don't appear to be. It was a part of the spell that had been particularly tricky to add and weave into everything else, but seeing the modified disillusionment charm hiding the runes from sight and even touch sent a wave of excitement and pleasure through the Gryffindor.
Remus kicks off his old shoes and slides on the modified ones as Dora pulls herself up onto the older boy's bed with a stack parchment and a pencil poised delicately in her hand. Regulus stands next to the other boy, his arm held out for the other top take as Remus lifts each foot one at a time to quietly cast the activation charm on each.
The older boy holds on tightly to the younger as he takes the first step, the air turning solid beneath him, and slowly Remus began to walk through the air as if there were a set of stairs that no one could see, something entirely for the Gryffindor alone.
Higher and higher Remus climbed until the moment that he had to let go of the younger boy's arm, fingers brushing against one another like lightning as the older boy straightened and looked to Pandora who gave a silent nod. Pointing his toes, Remus felt the air give way below him as he tore through it as gravity found meaning once more. Remus tried to flex his feet once more to stop the fall, but the runes gave a weak flare and the descent only slowed for a moment.
Hitting the ground was a resounding thunk, Remus laughed as he looked at the other boy who had jumped back to avoid becoming a casualty of the fall. Regulus glared at the older boy as he helped Remus to his feet, the pair moving easily with one another.
"Well the first test was a failure," Dora remarked bluntly, though her voice held none of the disappointment that it ought to, instead there was only the thick sound of excitement at the promise of more. The girl slid off of the bed and walked closer to the two boys, her eyes glued to the shoes on the taller one's feet as if they were a puzzle that she wanted nothing more than to solve. "Onto to the next combination!"
And if the other three Marauders came back to the dorm hours later to find their dorm mate lightly bruised from falling, and happier than they had seen him in weeks with an unfamiliar mix of scents and the heat of magic lingering in the air, then no one said a thing.