Work Text:
“We could add Bicorn Horn.” Suggested Lily as she sat down in the far corner of the library. It was a rather chilly late afternoon, so she wore a fluffy brown sweater - clearly Remus’ - under her robes.
When they came back from the holidays, all of them were taken aback by the appearance of one Sirius Black. His long hair, that stood at his shoulders was amiss. Her mother cut it as punishment – a Black should be immaculate, she said.
Sirius – understandably – was furious, but he couldn’t do anything about it. By the time he noticed the scissors, a lock of hair had already fallen to the cold bedroom floor.
Remus, James, and Peter tried to help, even the girls joined in to get Sirius’ mood up, but their plans were useless. His hair, was his identity, a way to pollute the reputation of The Most Ancient House of Black, and now it was gone.
“It would react with the Rat Tail, and he would fall ill.” Chimed in Mary, who was also a regular visitor of their circle.
After they got the full story, they started planning something – well, Remus started, but Lily quickly caught on. The two of them wanted to make a potion for Sirius, so hi hair could be back at its normal length. They were smart, but not that much. Remus wasn’t the best in potions, and Lily hit a mental block, so they called in Mary too. She was a big help.
“Not if we neutralise them.” Muttered Remus as he wrote something in his notes. “If we add Dittany, maybe Peppermint too, he would be fine.”
“Alright, so far we have to get Bicorn Horn and Fluxweed so his hair temporarily grows back, Rat Tail so it stands on end, and Dittany and Peppermint for neutralising it all.” Listed off Lily, taking a sip from her steaming tea that Mary got them.
“That’s good and all, but it’s still temporary.” Pointed out Mary with a sigh, absentmindedly twirling her hair between her pointer and index fingers. “We could add Mandrake Juice. It’s only a theory, but it could make the already stimulated hair ends grow. Then, when the temporary long hair disappears, the length he gained from it would stay.”
“You’re a genius, Mcdonald!” Jumped out Remus from his seat.
“Mr. Lupin,” appeared Madam Christine, the librarian from around a bookshelf, “might I remind you some people would like to study in here?”
“Sorry…” whispered the boy as he scratched the back of his head. The girls giggled behind him, but he paid it no mind. They had the list of ingredients! Nothing else mattered in that moment.
The trio quickly packed up their things, and put the books back on their respective shelves before practically running out of the library to find Peter and James.
The two in question were lazing around at the common room, the former furiously sketching, the other trying to stay still as the model. That, as expected, couldn’t be accomplished. When James saw the three of them, he left Peter on the sofa and came up to his friends gasping for air. Running from the library all the way to the dorms was a rather bad idea.
Peter huffed, then put down his sketchbook and walked over to them too. “Bloody hell, you lot look like you just ran a marathon. What’s the big deal?”
“We have the solution to Sirius’ problem!” Huffed out Lily between breaths.
“Finally got Lupin’s head out of his arse?” Laughed James, poking Remus between his ribs.
“His other problem. His hair.” Said Mary, rolling her eyes, before Remus could ask what James meant.
“Did you figure it out then?” Asked Peter, cutting off James who wanted to continue making fun of a very confused Remus.
“Well, we got a theory. We don’t have the ingredients yet.” Lily said, ignoring James’ comments on his ‘bloody oblivious friends’.
“That’s where you come into the picture. We have to get everything, as fast as possible. I’m not watching Sirius be depressed any longer.”
James forgot to pout as he heard that.
They all went up to the boys’ dorm room, knowing Sirius was in detention – again. Oh well, some teachers must have liked his face too much. Remus was the last to step into the room, closing the heavy door behind himself, and walking to the middle of the shared space to sit down in front of his bed, making the circle they formed on the floor complete.
Lily listed off the ingredients, telling everyone where to get what.
“So. We can find Bicorn Horn and Peppermint in the school. I trust you all know where the cupboard is that contains these. We have Mandrake Juice, that’s in the greenhouse.” She stopped a bit, looking at the ones in the room to make sure they grasped what she was saying. “We have Fluxweed on school grounds too, but it’s a fire hazard so we don’t know where they’re kept. We have to get that along with Dittany and Rat Tail in Diagon Alley.”
“We will go to the greenhouse at night,” continued Remus, “so nobody hears the screaming of the Mandrake plant. We will still have to hurry but it will be less risky.” He was more and more excited, but at the same time he was growing a bit anxious too. Does it worth the risk of getting caught stealing? They were talking about Sirius, so of course it was worth it. Still, he couldn’t shake off the bad feeling. “Mary, Lily, I trust you to get Bicorn Horn and Peppermint.”
“The question is,” started Remus again, “how do we go to Diagon alley?” Everyone looked a bit hopeless at that. It’s a long way there and back, one they won’t be able to take.
“I could ask my parents to buy them for us and send it.” Offered Lily. She won’t get into trouble, after all her parent don’t have to know they were getting other ingredients too.
Everyone nodded, while Peter slowly opened his mouth.
“It sounds good, there is just one little problem.” He looked around before continuing. “What do we tell Sirius?” They all looked a bit out of depth there. Obviously, they couldn’t just tell him the plan and spoil the surprise.
“I’ll take care of that.” Chimed in James, who looked very pleased with the idea he had. Remus didn’t know what James was going to do, but he trusted him enough to let him handle it.
That’s how they found themselves fully dressed at midnight, gently opening their dorm room with Sirius’ quiet snoring as a background noise. They crept down the stairs, expertly avoiding the creaky spots on them. From there on, they just had to fear some of the teachers lurking around the corridors.
The walls were lit with the light the Moon reflected onto them, and it gave everything a calming aura. It was swelling moon, almost a full. Remus was glad they were doing this tonight, as it would be a little harder pretty soon. Being a werewolf came with a whole lot of problems.
They somehow avoided every human-like shadow, dodging columns and sometimes hiding behind them.
“Okay, and now?” Asked Peter when they stepped to the door to the greenhouse. He stayed a few feet back to keep watch, while James and Remus eyed the lock.
James stepped a little closer to the golden handle and slipped his wand out of his back pocket. “Alohomora!” He whispered, waving the magical stick around the wooden door.
They heard a soft click, and then it was deadly quiet once again.
Slowly stepping in, they avoided the big plants at the doorway, making quick work with pulling the gloves onto their hands and protecting their ears with the ear plugs. They made their way to the closest Mandrake plant. All of them knew they would have to be extremely careful and fast as to not wake anybody up and to keep their eardrums. Remus explained what they were going to do. Remus was going to be holding the plant up, while James carefully pulls on the root of it, with Pete keeping a little container just below, so the juice falls into that.
Remus pulled on the plant, holding it up, covering his ear with his free hand. The Mandrake started screaming. It was a shriek that sent a chill down everybody’s spine. After a second, James got a hold of the root of it, poking Peter to do his part. After Remus deemed it was enough, he signed to the other two to make way for him to put the plant down, back into its pot. They all sighed, taking out the ear plugs when it went quiet.
They reorganised the workspace so it looked untouched, then started towards the exit.
“I think I heard a voice!” Whisper-shouted James, ducking behind a large table, Remus and Peter quickly following after him. It was, indeed someone talking. As the voice got closer, they held their breath, inching closer to the door.
It was a Hufflepuff prefect, Pammy Wilson. She was complaining to a very exhausted-looking Ravenclaw prefect.
“…And then he said, and I’m quoting it, ‘you’re rather smart, but I’m not looking for petty little girls who can’t do anything for themselves’! How dare he?” Here, she sucked in a breath, oxygen filling her lungs. “I’m pretty independent, why does nobody manage to see that?” Her poor partner just sighed, and contemplated his life decisions.
They eventually disappeared around a corner. The boys exhaled the air they were holding subconsciously. Looking at each other for confirmation nobody could hear the prefects anymore, they quickly left the room and practically ran back to the Gryffindor tower. Whisper-shouting the password to the Fat Lady, they climbed the stairs to their dorm. Sirius was in a deep slump, meaning they could properly hide the acquired ingredient and go to sleep like nothing happened.
. . . . .
Two days later, the whole group – aside from James, who was distracting Sirius with quidditch practice – was sitting at the far corner of the library. It was now Mary who wore Remus’ sweater. He just sighed, mourning the clothing he was for sure never getting back.
Lily’s parents bought and delivered the Rattail, Dittany, and Fluxweed in light speed.
Mary took out the Bicorn Horn and Peppermint she and Lily ‘borrowed’ from the ingredient cupboard. Lily didn’t like the whole stealing, none of them really felt good about it, but these are rather common and cheap things, so she let it go. “I made a recipe that could technically work.”
She took it out of her pocket, laying it flat on the table so everyone could see.
“Okay,” said Remus, “let’s try it.”
They walked to the dorms, hopeful that the potion would work and not blow everything up.
Somehow, Peter took a whole cauldron and got it up to their room, so they could brew it there.
Remus looked at the lot, silently asking if they could start. At the nods, he added the Fluxweed – picked on a full moon, how ironic, – then looked at Mary. She held out the Bicorn Horn, putting it into the cauldron. Then, Peter stirred it 4 times. Lily threw in the Dittany before the Rat Tail, so it doesn’t react with the Horn. Peter stirred it all again, this time clockwise. Remus then added the peppermint, waited a bit, and poured in the Mandrake Juice at last.
Peter mixed it together, clockwise again, then slowly stepped back to where the others were waiting.
The potion didn’t explode, just turned a deep shade of purple. Everyone took that as a good sign.
“What do we test it on?” questioned Lily. She really didn’t like the idea of animal testing. What if it dropped dead?
“There are some rats near the Black Lake.” Commented Remus, glancing at a betrayed-looking Peter.
. . . . .
Somehow, Remus got a hold of a really big rat. It looked sad, but gave up on escaping after a few minutes of biting the scarred hands that were holding it hostage.
Mary disapprovingly poured a little dose of the purple liquid onto the animal’s face. They all held their breath as they waited. After some minutes, they lost hope. It didn’t work. As Remus set down the rat, he could feel its fur suddenly lengthening.
“Bloody hell!” He yelped, jumping back. The rat ran away, dragging its fur behind itself.
“We actually did it…” muttered Peter, looking after the long-gone rat.
Before anyone could say anything else, Remus took off to the quidditch field, the others following close behind.
Sirius and James were wrapping up when they heard yelling. Looking where it came from, they saw Remus and Mary running front, Lily and Peter dragging behind a bit.
“What did you lot got yourselves into without me?” Yelled Sirius, floating closer to the ground. After he deemed the earth close enough, he jumped down from his broom, landing softly. His hand came up to pull his hair out of his face before realising he didn’t have anything to pull out of his face. It was cut off.
Remus noticed the little moment, and started talking. “Drink this.” He put the cup of the purple potion into Sirius’ hands.
“You want to poison me?” Asked Sirius bewildered. Mary rolled her eyes, poking Sirius on the side.
“Bloody hell, just do it!”
Sirius looked between them, the chugged the content of the cup. “What even was this?” Suddenly, he felt it. His hair was growing. He looked shellshocked before tearing up a bit.
Sirius was back to his original self.