Once in a Blue Moon (COMPLETE)

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The Mask You Wear
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“Come on Remus, you know this,” urged Romulus. Remus meanwhile sat looking at the various weeds…they weren’t really weeds but that is how he thought of them…scattered across the kitchen table. “You have to learn what they are, how to recognise them in all their forms, and where to find them.”

“But we buy them from Pollyanna’s Potions Parlour,” Remus replied with a groan. “They come in jars with labels on. We don’t need to go picking them ourselves.”

“But one day you might have to,” replied Romulus with a weary sigh. “If…when the Ministry catches up with us, you’ll have to forage for all these ingredients if you’re going to manage to make the healing potions yourself.”

“It’s not like there’s a potions lab in the forest.”

“You’ll have to make do with an open fire. You’ve been taught how to build one without magic.”

“You don’t really think the Ministry will look for us here, do you?”

“Sooner or later they will. We’ve always been on borrowed time Remus. You need to learn how to take care of yourself in case I’m ever captured.”

“I know, I know,” Remus muttered. “Run to the forest, don’t go to the centaur camp, don’t use magic and don’t come back to the basement for the full moons.”

“Right!” Romulus appeared relieved that at least something of his teachings and rules had managed to infiltrate their way into his younger brother’s head. “Now what is this one?” He pointed to a brownish looking plant with small purple flowers and nasty looking thorns.

Remus looked blankly at the item. He hadn’t got a clue.

“Go fetch the herbology books,” Romulus finally instructed.

“Can’t you just tell me what it is?” Remus complained.

“Not this time,” Romulus replied. “We’ve already been through this a dozen times. This time you’re going to look them up yourself until you’ve correctly identified them all.”

“But there’s loads of them,” Remus groaned. “It’ll take hours.”

“Then you’d better get started quickly.”

Remus stood up and went through to the study for the books, but not before he caught sight of the exasperated look on his brother’s face.

For nearly two hours Remus ploughed through one book after another, trying to find first one, and then another of the plants that Romulus had laid out across the table.

The sound of a knock at the kitchen door had him bolting from his seat, eager to leave off the tedious task for even a few moments.

“If that’s Firenze, tell him you’re not allowed to go out until you’re done studying,” called Romulus from the living room.

“It’s Sirius!” Remus called back a moment later. “Come in,” he encouraged as he waved the dark-haired boy into the room.

Romulus appeared at the doorway to the hallway and frowned slightly. “Back again?” he asked. “Do I need to remind you, again, that first and second years aren’t allowed out of the grounds of the school?”

“It’s safer for him here than being hexed by those bullies in Gryffindor,” Remus replied immediately.

“That’s not the point,” Romulus pointed out, even as he pulled out three mugs from the cupboard and pointed his wand at the fire to raise it high enough to boil the water in the kettle that was hanging over the flames.

“So have you got any new hexes for me?” Sirius asked with a grin as he pulled out the booklet that Remus had given him for Christmas a few months before.

“You’re not still adding to that?” Romulus asked. “You can’t have mastered all those spells yet. Some of them are OWL level.”

“I’m having trouble with some of the harder ones,” Sirius admitted. “Potter seems to have a knack for all the spells. I read up on that Medusa one and it’s OWL level transfiguration.”

“Guess he has a natural talent for transfiguration,” Romulus speculated as he sat down and started to check through the plants that Remus had already identified.

“Bullying git’s got a natural talent for everything,” Sirius muttered.

“Never mind,” Remus offered as he patted Sirius consolingly on his arm. “You’ll get the hang of the spells, and until then you’ve got me to help you.” Sirius grinned back at him at the thought of Potter and Pettigrew being taken down a peg or two.

“Remus,” Romulus muttered in annoyance. “Were you even looking up this plant or just picking a name at random from the index page?”

“I looked it up,” Remus muttered.

“Then why have you labelled it sneezewort? You add sneezewort to your wound cleaning potion instead of this and all you’ll get is a sneezing fit.”

Romulus sighed and turned around to levitate the kettle off of the fire. Sirius nudged Remus quietly whilst his brother’s back was turned and he pointed to one of the labels that Romulus had not yet checked. “Belladonna,” he silently mouthed and Remus quickly amended the label, mouthing back “thank you”.

Unfortunately he wasn’t quite quick enough and Romulus caught his silent appreciation. “If I’m not around to help you, I think you can also safely assume that Sirius won’t be either. Remus, you have to learn these yourself.”

Remus sighed. Romulus sighed. Sirius merely looked confused at the idea of Romulus ever leaving his younger brother alone to fend for himself.

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“Potter’s the messy haired one with the glasses,” Sirius whispered as he pointed to the group of about half a dozen boys loitering around twenty feet from where he and Remus were watching from the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

“And Pettigrew?” Remus asked equally quietly. He wasn’t sure why they were whispering, no one was close enough to hear them. It just seemed more fitting that they should speak in hushed tones.

“The one sitting down nearest the edge of the lake. Has a sickening adoring expression on his face.”

Remus grinned at the apt description and an idea popped into his head, widening the smile still further.

“What are you thinking?” Sirius asked as Remus began looking through the booklet of hexes.

“Just something my brother says a lot when I’m sulking or pulling faces at him.” Remus giggled. “He says ‘if the wind changes it’ll stick like that’,”

“What’ll stick?”

“The expression on my face,” Remus replied. “Don’t you think it would be fitting if we fixed Potter and Pettigrew’s faces so that they got stuck in one expression?”

“We’d have to wait for Pettigrew to look different to how he is now,” Sirius muttered. “No one could tell the difference otherwise. He always looks this vapid.”

“He just yawned a time or two,” Remus suggested. “How about we catch him mid-yawn?”

“Perfect!”

“We’ll have to get closer though.” Remus moved back into the trees and edged nearer the crowd of boys, Sirius close at his heels. “Okay, this should be close enough. Look he’s yawning again, once he’d started he won’t be able to stop.”

Sirius nodded and pulled out his wand, pointing it at Pettigrew. He muttered the spell that would cause the boy’s face to stick in position but was immediately disappointed that it had no effect whatsoever on his tormentor.

“It’s no use,” Sirius sighed as he sank down on the ground and leaned back against one of the trees, a thoroughly despondent expression on his face.

“You want me to try?” Remus asked.

“You think you can manage it from here?”

“No harm in trying.”

“Do you have a wand?”

“Not of my own. I usually borrow Rom’s but it…well it’s…”

“Not compatible,” Sirius supplied. “Hand me downs are never a patch on one that’s a true match for the owner.”

“Well it’s not like I can go and buy one myself,” Remus muttered.

“Why not?”

“Just because.”

“Do you have Rom’s wand with you?”

“Er…no. I can run back for it though. Do you think they’ll still be here?”

“I don’t know,” Sirius replied as he looked at the gathering clouds overhead. Remus followed the direction of his gaze and realised that if the threatening rain did begin to fall the boys would return to the castle and their opportunity would be lost.

“Here, borrow mine,” Sirius suggested as he held out his wand.

“But you’re not even family,” Remus replied. “If I have trouble with Rom’s wand, I doubt if I’ll do any better with yours.”

“No harm in trying.” Sirius shrugged and continued to hold out his wand to Remus.

The temptation to cause a little havoc for the boys who’d been making his friend’s life so miserable was too much to resist and Remus took Sirius’s wand into his hand. He turned away from Sirius and pointed it at James who had caught the yawning bug from Peter and was open-mouthed and perfectly primed for the hex. He muttered the spell and pointed it directly at Potter and it worked like a charm…or more like a hex.

“It worked?” Sirius asked in surprise as he peered around the corner of the tree and saw a rather confused James attempting, without success, to close his open mouth.

“Want me to do Pettigrew too?” Remus asked with a wicked grin. “How about now while he’s got the look of total utter confusion on his face?”

“He’s chewing his lip now,” Sirius added. “Just to make it that bit more special.”

“One frozen faced Pettigrew coming up,” Remus said as he pointed Sirius’s wand at Pettigrew and muttered the spell a second time.

“I think they know we’re here,” Sirius warned as he pulled Remus back under the cover of the trees. “What if you get seen? Will you be in trouble?”

“Only if Rom finds out,” Remus replied. “Besides they didn’t see me. They only know someone’s here. You can always step forward and take the credit.”

“You mean the blame?”

“That too. But if they think you can hex them back maybe they’ll leave you alone for a bit.”

“But I can’t hex them back, can I?”

“You’ll get the hang of it soon enough,” Remus assured him.

“Says you, who can manage the spell first time, and with someone else’s wand at that.”

Remus sat down beside Sirius and passed him back his wand. The other boy took it and glared at the offending piece of wood, as though it was that that was somehow responsible for all his troubles.

“You don’t have to tell them it was you,” Remus said. “I thought you’d want to though. It’s not like I can own up to it myself. Not without getting…” he cut himself off before he said more than he meant to but Sirius had clearly caught his meaning.

“You don’t mind me taking the credit with the other students who hate Potter and Pettigrew as much as I do? They’ll want to know who’s hexed them.”

“So just tell them it was you.”

“You don’t mind?”

“I just said I didn’t, didn’t I?” Remus snapped. Sirius looked at him with concern at the harsh and somewhat bitter tone that was not only out of character for Remus, but out of character for any twelve year old boy. “I’m sorry,” Remus muttered. “It’s just hard to be so near to Hogwarts and not be able to be a part of things.”

“Do I make it more difficult?” Sirius asked quietly.

“No!” Remus exclaimed. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Without you I’d…”

“Die of boredom?” Sirius supplied with a grin.

“Probably.” Remus smiled back at him and shook his head sadly in an effort to chase away his gloomy thoughts. “Please take the credit for the hex. I want you to.”

And so it began.

As the cold spring turned into a warm summer Remus watched from the edge of the forest as the Hogwarts students made the most of the sunshine. More often than not Sirius was hidden alongside him and whenever that was the case Remus borrowed his wand to aim one hex after another at Potter and Pettigrew. They also cast a fair few hexes on Sirius’s Slytherin cousin Narcissa and her boyfriend Lucius. Sirius had been rather reluctant at first, worried that his family would find out he was behind them, but Remus had quickly talking him around. After a while Remus even forgot his resentment at Sirius having to take the credit for his spells and instead revelled in the fact that between the two of them they were garnering quite a reputation within the halls of Hogwarts. Sirius joked that Remus was the brains behind their duel operation, and that he was merely the mask Remus was hiding behind in order for them to inflict the most chaos on the other students.

“They’re so arrogant,” Sirius muttered. “You’d think by now they’d realise that this is the worst spot for hanging out. You’ve hexed them in this location four times in the last month.”

“They’re too big-headed to think like that,” Remus replied. “How about we swell their heads for them?”

“Good idea,” Sirius grinned. “Pettigrew’s right there but where’s Potter?”

“Right behind you Black!” a cold voice interrupted.

Remus squeaked in surprise as he turned round to look at the face of the bully Sirius had been facing since the first day of term. Potter’s wand was out but he hadn’t raised it. He looked curious and Remus knew instinctively that his curiosity was centred on him.

“I don’t believe I’ve seen you before,” Potter said, his tone casual but with an underlying menace to it. “Are you Slytherin scum like him?” He jabbed his wand at Sirius as he spoke.

“Sirius isn’t in Slytherin you stupid dolt! He’s in Gryffindor! Or are you so thick you haven’t noticed?”

“He may have been placed in Gryffindor but he’s Slytherin through and through. Hexing people from the cover of the trees instead of face to face. A cowardly Slytherin thing to do.”

“And reversing his knees when his back’s turned is such a brave thing to do?” Remus retorted, recalling Sirius’s letter of a few weeks ago detailing that particular incident. Potter flushed though Remus didn’t know whether it was in embarrassment or anger.

“Why don’t we just call a truce?” Sirius suggested quietly. “I’m in Gryffindor with you. We need to learn to get along. We’re stuck with each other for another six years after this one’s over and done with.”

“A truce?” James let out a bark of laughter. “Said like a true Slytherin who knows that in a fair fight he’d have no chance at all.”

Sirius flushed and Remus knew that in his case it was with embarrassment.

“You weren’t the one doing any of those hexes were you Black?” Potter asked with a smirk. “It was your little friend here, wasn’t it?”

“So what if it was?” Sirius snapped.

“Taking the credit for someone else’s spell work is just another thing to prove how much of a Slytherin you really are.”

“He’s not a Slytherin!” Remus yelled, drawing the attention of Pettigrew who wandered into the trees to see what the shouting was all about.

“And I wonder what house you’d be in,” Potter said idly. “You’ve performed some pretty impressive spells these last few months so I guess you wouldn’t be in Hufflepuff, the duffers’ house.”

“Hufflepuff isn’t the duffers house!” yelled Remus, no longer caring who heard him.

“Touched a sore spot?” Potter asked. “So which of your parents was in the duffers’ house?”

At that Remus grabbed Sirius’s wand out of his hand and pointed it at Potter’s head, yelling ‘silencio’ as he did.

“Well that’s certainly an improvement, don’t you think?” Remus said conversationally as he passed Sirius his wand back.

“You undo that now!” Pettigrew ordered.

“Good grief now the cheering squad’s at it too,” Remus muttered, rolling his eyes dramatically.

“Are you deaf or stupid? Undo it now!” Pettigrew yelled.

“You want a taste of it as well?” Remus threatened as he held out his hand for Sirius to pass him the wand again.

“Maybe you should stop now,” Sirius suggested instead.

“Why?” Remus asked with surprise. “I haven’t had this much fun in ages. It’s nearly as funny as when we made them think they were being chased by a swarm of bees.”

“I think you’ve made your point,” Sirius said quietly.

“Oh, I don’t think I have,” Remus replied in a cold voice as he advanced on the magically silent Potter and the surprisingly silent Pettigrew. “In case either of this pair of bullies has missed it, this is my point. You leave Sirius alone or you’ll have me to deal with. And unlike Sirius I know a lot about pain and suffering and I know how to inflict it too.” He was nearly nose to nose with Potter by the time he finished his little speech and knowing that Sirius was safely at the back of him he glared at Potter silently. The full moon was the following night and the wolf was close to the surface. He could control the wolf without any difficulty apart from on the night of the full moon itself and he had more than enough control to let Potter get a peek at the monster that resided within him.

Potter blanched white and shook his head mutely. Remus growled low and quietly, knowing that only the boy in front of him would be able to hear him, and hear him he did. Potter took off through the trees at a run, Pettigrew following close behind him asking over and over what had happened.

Remus watched them go, took a deep calming breath and forced the wolf back. When he was sure that not a trace of the wolf remained he turned back to Sirius who was looking rather shaken himself.

“What just happened?” he whispered.

“We dealt with your bullies,” Remus said with a shrug that he hoped conveyed that it was nothing unusual.

“But they just ran,” Sirius said as he waved his hand to point after the two boys who were nearly out of sight already.

“They’re just cowards,” Remus replied.

“What if they tell a teacher they saw you?”

“The teachers don’t know who I am,” Remus pointed out. “They can tell tales on me all they like but it won’t make any difference. One advantage of not being a student is that I can’t get detentions.” He grinned momentarily but the mirth fled his face when he realised that Sirius wasn’t grinning back at him. “What is it?”

“What did you do to Potter to make him run off like that?”

“Nothing,” Remus lied as he chewed on his lip.

“He looked really white and scared,” Sirius pressed on.

“He’s just not used to anyone standing up to him,” Remus reasoned. “He’ll probably be in shock for about a week from the horror of my not getting down on bended knee to worship at his feet.”

“That’s all it was?”

“Of course. What else could it be? You’re still holding your wand.”

Sirius looked down at the wand and question and nodded absentmindedly.

“You’d better get back to the school anyway,” Remus said as he walked further into the forest. “And Rom wanted me home before he left for work this evening.”

“I’ll stop by again on Saturday,” Sirius said, a note of hesitation in his voice.

“Don’t come round until afternoon though,” Remus suggested. “Not unless you want another lecture on how you shouldn’t leave the school grounds. I think we both know that one by heart now.”

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The sound of the door slamming warned Remus that Romulus was not in a good mood when he arrived home from work Saturday evening. Sirius raised a questioning eyebrow at him but Remus merely shrugged. He had no idea what had put his brother in a temper, he’d been perfectly fine when he’d left for work shortly after lunch.

“Sirius,” Romulus nodded to him by way of acknowledgement. “Get your things and go back to school.” Sirius looked confused and looked to Remus for assurance. Remus nodded for him to do as his brother said and Sirius slowly gathered his things together.

“And Sirius,” Romulus called after Sirius just as he’d stepped through the door. Sirius turned round. “I don’t want to see you outside of the school grounds during term time again.”

“But Rom!” Remus complained but any other words he had planned died on his lips at the glare his brother shot his way.

“First and second years are not allowed outside of the grounds, and from now on I’m not going to be encouraging it.”

Remus wanted to say something further but he’d never seen his brother like this. Sirius looked even more confused than he suspected he did himself and he watched as the other boy nodded silently before disappearing back towards Hogwarts.

“Why can’t he visit?” Remus asked after Romulus had closed the door and turned back to face him.

“You went up to the school, didn’t you?” Romulus asked instead. “You were seen by another student up at the school…James Potter in fact.”

“How…?”

“How do I know?” Romulus yelled. “I know because Albus Dumbledore came to the bar today and dropped some rather heavy hints about just what has been happening right under my nose. What the hell were you thinking?”

“I just…”

“Going onto the school grounds is bad enough but threatening one of the students! And growling at him...growling at him! Are you out of your mind?”

“He was…”

“I don’t care how badly this boy picks on your friend. You never use the wolf to threaten others! Never! Do you hear me? Do you listen to anything I tell you?”

“But…”

“But nothing! This ends right now. You are not to sneak into the school grounds again.”

“But if Sirius can’t leave the grounds and…”

“Then you’ll just have to write to each other like you should have been doing in the first place. And all letters will come through me. I’ll send them myself so there’s no possibility of plotting being added to them after I’ve checked them though. Do you understand me?”

Remus nodded, even as he plotted to sneak off to see Sirius just as soon as Romulus’s next shift started the following day. Unfortunately for the schemer his brother knew him too well, and he next words shot that idea down in flames.

“While I’m at work I’ll leave you with Torin at the centaur camp. I’ll deliver you there myself and make sure he understands that you aren’t to leave his company until I collect you myself. And don’t even think of asking Sirius to meet you there…because I’m going to tell him not to encourage him in his rule breaking either.”

“It’s not fair!” Remus sulked. “You never want me to have any friends.”

“It’s not about having friends,” Romulus sighed. “It’s about being safe. It’s about staying out of the eye of the authorities. It’s about taking every precaution we can so that we don’t get caught.”

“But why can’t Sirius come and visit?”

“Because if he does it’ll only be a matter of time before you start sneaking back to the school with him again. It’ll only be a matter of time before you’re seen again. You can consider yourself lucky that the headmaster isn’t going to take this any further and report us to the Ministry.”

“Why isn’t he going to?”

“I don’t know Remus,” Romulus admitted. “From what he casually said he knew well enough exactly what you’d been up to and I don’t doubt that he knows you’re my brother. But why he doesn’t turn us in is something I just can’t answer.”

“Why didn’t you ask him?”

“Because Albus Dumbledore isn’t known for giving straight answers and if he wanted me to know his reasons he’d have told me already.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Just be more careful in the future,” Romulus asked as he sat down in the seat next to Remus and pulled him into a tight hug. “We’re all we’ve got and you scare me so much when you do stuff like this.”

“Stuff like using the wolf?” Remus whispered.

“That too, Remus. That too.”