Painted Scars // WOLFSTAR

Year Three: Butterbeer

The first Hogsmeade weekend, the boys weren't able to go, as the full moon happened to land the day before. They had tried to stay in out of solidarity for their friend, but Remus said that he'd be happier with them gone, so they had. It wasn't the same without all four of them, but finally, after what had seemed like ages, the second one had come up, and Sirius was ecstatic.

That was, until James revealed something horrible to them.

He had detention.

"What kind of wicked professor would give you detention on Hogsmeade weekend?!" Sirius exclaimed, in utter disbelief at this horrible turn of events. "What did you do, James? What did you do?" He knew he was whining, but he couldn't help it. He'd been looking forward to this stupid weekend for weeks! James should've known better than to get in trouble with so much on the line!

"I didn't do anything!" James said, automatically defensive. His face then morphed into something of guilt. "Well, other than transfiguring McGonagall's shoes into rubber ducks."

"You have an incredible talent in Transfiguration, and this is what you choose to do with it," Remus said in mock awe. "Incredible."

"Look, you had to be there! It was funny at the time!"

"Sounds hilarious," Peter said dryly, laying his head against his arm on the table. While Sirius had certainly been excited about the weekend, no one was more excited than Peter. He'd been talking about it any chance he got, and it was nearly cruel of James to have not told him before, despite that not being his intention.

"I'm sorry, alright?" James said, whining as well now, sounding almost genuine. "I tried to talk her out of it, I did! But Minnie is not a woman of reason!"

"It's fine, James," Remus said, sounding slightly put out, but too kind to let him suffer. Sirius disagreed; let him suffer, he thought maliciously. "But don't expect us to share any of the things we buy with you after this."

Now that, was malicious.

"I'll make it up to you, I promise," he said, wincing over what he'd done. With every apology, Sirius found himself getting less frustrated with James, but he thought that might just be because he was hard to stay mad at. He was so apologetic that it was sickening.

"Whatever, maybe it's for the best," Peter said, seeming to forgive James as well. "I'm sure Remus didn't want to be stuck with us anyways."

"What?" The freckled boy asked. "Why wouldn't I want to hang out with you?"

"Oh, I don't know. I just assumed you'd want to go to Hogsmeade with Marlene. You are dating, after all." Sirius hadn't thought about it, but he figured it'd probably make sense that Remus would want to spend time with his girlfriend instead of them, annoyed as the thought made him.

"Oh..." Remus said, sounding slightly dejected. "Yeah, I suppose. We've been hanging out quite a bit recently, though. We should all just go together instead." They had been spending more time with each other, in their own nerd way. They'd go to the library and sit quietly beside each other for an hour each day – something that Sirius had been around to witness once – which seemed dreadful. Why not do something more exciting?

"She'll probably be waiting for you to ask," Sirius said, slightly frustrated with himself now, trying to encourage Remus to do something that Sirius didn't want. "We won't keep you. You should have fun." He could hear the irritation in his own voice, but couldn't do much to keep it out.

Remus' lips parted slightly, as though he planned to answer this, before he just shook his head and went back to eating his carrots. He surveyed this, displeased that he couldn't place the emotion on his face, and decided to go back to eating with a slight frown.