‘Lupin!’ Emmeline Vance called, and Remus turned around. He had been on the way to the library when the older girl caught up with him.

‘Yes? What can I do for you?’ he asked politely after greeting her.

She smiled warmly. ‘Good that you would ask.’ Briefly rummaging in her bag, she unearthed three rolls of parchment. ‘These are two readers’ letters with questions,’ she explained, handing him the roles of parchment. ‘I want you to draft a response which we’re going to publish. On the third roll are instructions of how to proceed and where to look for the information you’re going to need. Please hand in your answers’ version on Thursday evening at the latest. Thank you.’ She nodded once and then briskly strolled away, disappearing in the throng of students that were heading down to dinner.

Remus didn’t even have the time to remark that she had only given him two days for the work. With a sigh and pitying look at the rolls, he entered the library, trying to refocus on his Potions homework.

It was already late, and while his Potions essay lay out on his bed to dry, Remus opened the parchment rolls Emmeline had given him earlier.

The first one he read contained the directions. It didn’t say much; basically, she wanted him to carefully read both readers’ letters, then go to the library to research one of them. In the end, he needed to phrase replies that would supply the letters’ authors with the wanted information.

But when Remus opened the first of the other two rolls of parchment, his mouth was left gaping open…

Dear Magical Moments staff,

Yours truly.

He had no idea how to handle that letter. Founding a club was not a privilege a member of the school newspaper staff possessed; it was only within the headmaster’s powers. And a duelling club, as logical and feasible as it sounded, was a dangerous extracurricular activity. A teacher would have to watch out for the members when they practised. They would need someone first teaching the students defensive spells and charms even. Remus shook his head. That idea would probably not make it.

Grabbing a new piece of parchment, Remus dipped his quill into the ink bottle and started phrasing a possible answer:

Dear loyal reader,

We think your idea of a duelling club is wonderful. We, the editorial staff of Magical Moments, will try everything humanly possible to bring such a club into existence. Just grant us some time, and we will talk it through with our dear Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore. Of course, any progress we make will be published in Magical Moments.

Your Magical Moments editorial staff.

After Remus had put down his quill, he took up the parchment and reread the letter he had written.

He flinched. It sounded cheesy, and absolutely not like something he would write. What was up with him? When had he become such a… wimp?

He crumbled the answer and threw it into the nearest bin. No, I can’t give Emmeline that to be published. It reads awful, he thought and took up his quill once more. Dipping the tip into the ink bottle, he contemplated of how to phrase the letter differently. After a few moments, he rewrote the letter.

Dear loyal reader,

He halted mid-word. ‘What in Merlin’s name –?’ he began, then scratched out the lines and started again, beneath. But no matter how often he wrote the letter anew, it turned out to always be the same cheesy one he had written the first time.

Once again, he crumbled the parchment and threw it into the bin, then he got up and started pacing up and down the dormitory. He couldn’t walk too far because the floor was littered with various possessions of his three friends, but he managed to walk himself a little path between all the shirts and books.

Remus had completely lost track of the time when the dormitory door opened, and his friends entered. Upon seeing Remus walking up and down, like a big animal confined in a cage, they looked at each other questioningly. When none of the three had an answer and could only shrug with the shoulders, they turned to look at Remus. He had yet to stop pacing.

‘Moony, old friend,’ Sirius began, but was interrupted by James who bluntly asked, ‘What’s got your wand into a knot?’

For the first time in minutes, Remus halted, directly in front of James. He looked tired and ran his hands over his face, rubbing his eyes. It didn’t help much; the only result he got was that his already pale face was now shining unhealthily red in the waning moon’s light.

Remus sat down on the edge of his bed. ‘I got some rolls of parchment from Emmeline today, for my part of the newspaper.’ The other boys’ looks wandered to their friend’s desk. ‘She gave me two letters. I wrote an answer to the first letter, but it’s… it reads awfully cheesy and absolutely not like something I would write.’

Sirius grinned. He swiftly walked towards the bin and fished one of the two crumbled parchment balls out. ‘Is that this one?’ he asked, but didn’t wait for an answer before smoothing the parchment out. He read, with James and Peter looking over his shoulder.

It didn’t take too long before all three burst out laughing; Peter had tears rolling down his cheeks. ‘That’s really not you, Moony,’ Sirius said, passing the parchment to James because he himself was doubling over in laughter.

Remus pouted. ‘I gave it my best.’

‘Did you try rewriting it?’ Peter asked, wiping away the tears.

Remus nodded. ‘Yes, several times.’ He pointed at the second crumbled ball of parchment. ‘But it always turns out to be the exact same answer. I guess I’m… jinxed to write that awful letter…’ His voice trailed away.

‘Now we’re here to help you out, Moony,’ James said, and Remus couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread growing inside him.

‘Prongs, what are you doing?’ Sirius hissed, alarmed.

His messy-haired best friend was rummaging around on Remus’ dresser, not caring that he caused chaos among the usually neatly placed possessions of their owner. But James didn’t care; it was necessary that he found the rolls of parchment.

‘James, I’m talking to you,’ Sirius said, his voice irritated. He wasn’t used to being ignored like this by his mate and therefore grabbed James by his upper arm.

James merely brushed Sirius’ hand away. ‘Don’t worry, Padfoot. I know what I’m doing.’ He shot his friend a grin over his shoulder.

Sirius sighed, but he had a strange feeling awaken in his stomach. He had never before experienced something like this; it was new to him. And it felt… wrong. ‘We shouldn’t search Moony’s possessions. It’s not nice.’

‘Also, what could Remus have that you haven’t?’ asked Peter from where he sat on the bed, putting on his socks.

James, who had crouched in front of Remus’ dresser, stood up, took his wand out of his robes’ pocket and rearranged Remus’ items with one swish. He then started pacing up and down the room, trying to think of a place where his friend could have placed the wanted items.

A waving hand appeared in the sixteen-year-old’s vision. ‘Did you even hear Wormtail’s question, James?’ Sirius asked. His voice was calm, but the angry tone was clearly audible. James stopped pacing mid-step and shot an unreadable look at Sirius.

Silence fell. None of the boys spoke or even moved; not even Peter dared to continue dressing. Time ticked slowly by, and the rising sun entered the dormitory through the tower windows. It coloured the stone walls in a flaming red that let the four posters’ bed covers gleam brightly, and the albeit early warm rays of sunlight stroked softly across the three boys’ cheeks, kissing them good morning.

At one point, Remus entered the room, fully dressed, his book bag strapped over his left shoulder. The scene he met caused him to halt. ‘What happened with you?’ he asked, looking from Peter, over to Sirius, to James and back again.

His words woke Peter out of his numbness. ‘Prongs and Padfoot were… eh…’ He trailed off, having no clear idea why exactly his two dark-haired friends were staring at each other. Peter caught Remus’ eyes and shrugged helplessly. He then went back to putting on his socks.

‘Okay,’ Remus said slowly, taking a deep breath. ‘Are you two going to tell me what’s got your wands in knots?’ He folded his arms in front of his chest, shooting James and Sirius long questioning looks.

Sirius squirmed slightly. Remus missed the motion, but James saw it immediately. Don’t tell him, he seemed to mouth, another movement Remus missed. But Sirius got the message and gave a soft nod to indicate he had understood. His grey eyes, however, told James volumes in return that he wanted an answer to what James had been searching for on Remus’ dresser.

James’ lips formed a pout, but Sirius’ look made clear that if James wouldn’t tell him, he, Sirius, would tell Remus.

‘You know, it’s sometimes frightening the way that you two can have entire conversations with your eyes only. It’s like you’re possessing telekinetic powers,’ Remus remarked jokingly after a while in which nothing had been said. And yet, the whole time, both Sirius and James had sent message after message through their facial expressions only. They were in the end having a heated argument, but not a single syllable had ever left the lips of any of these boys.

Though, upon Remus’ words, Sirius and James looked up towards their friend guiltily.

‘Sorry, Moony,’ Sirius began. ‘We never wanted to exclude you from our… discussion or not answer your question. If it hadn’t been for James here, it would never have happened.’ He grinned apologetically.

‘Oh, now I’m the one who started it, am I?’ James asked, folding his arms in front of his chest, pouting.

‘You know what?’ Remus said lightly. ‘I don’t even want to know anymore.’ He clapped both of their backs, and then turned to go. ‘See you later, guys!’

The door that closed behind Remus didn’t make much noise – no more than usual, that is – but to the three boys in the room it was like a bomb exploding and engulfing the room in utter silence.

Setting his bag down more forcefully than intended at the last free place, Remus received several dark looks and a harsh shushing from the librarian. Madam Pince also only left once the sixteen-year-old youth had mouthed an apology. Much more quietly, he sat down and took out a role of parchment.

‘What happened?’ the girl next to him asked. She was looking at him reproachfully for having disturbed the silence of the library, but the green orbs still conveyed worry.

Remus shrugged. ‘What makes you think something happened?’

Lily didn’t smile. ‘You look exhausted, and at the same time exaggerated and angry. Then, I know you would never be loud in the library unless something was troubling your mind.’ She squinted and gave him a thorough look. ‘What are Potter and Black up to now?’

Remus shot her a look of which he hoped would convey his innocence, but he failed miserably. ‘They’re up to nothing –’ he began, but quickly fell silent again. Lily didn’t even need to say something before Remus continued, ‘They tried to ruin my detention yesterday…’ His eyes caught hers. ‘Our detention,’ he corrected, and then added, ‘And I believe something else came up this morning. They were behaving all weird.’

A smug but little smile played around Lily’s lips, and with a changed tone in her voice, she asked for him to tell her everything – which he did. Their hushed conversation drove away the other two students who had sat down at the table, but neither of the sixth-years minded their loss of presence.

‘By the by, what did you do to receive detention?’

Remus fell silent instantly. He couldn’t tell her; she would hex him and his friends. But her expression, and the questioningly raised eyebrows, made it really hard not to answer.

When he started telling her, he wondered if he had finally found out what Lily Evans’ “charm� on James was.

Running down the corridor, Remus grabbed his bag tightly. Damn! he mentally cursed himself for losing track of the time. I talked with Lily longer than I thought.

The castle’s bell rang loudly, indicating that class was about to start. Remus sped up some more, so as to not arrive too late, but when he rounded the next corner, he ran into someone full speed. Both rang for their balance, and only the other person managed to keep it. Remus toppled over and landed on his behind, his bag landing in his lap rather hard, thanks to the heavy tomes he carried around.

Groaning, Remus looked up. His mouth fell open when he recognised the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, standing in front of him. The old wizard was smoothing out some wrinkles in his robes, then blinked at Remus and offered him a hand to get up.

‘You seem to be in quite a hurry, Remus,’ he said, chuckling, while the youth took the offered hand and got up. Remus looked down on the floor, mumbling an apology. Albus Dumbledore smiled understandingly. ‘Don’t worry, Remus. Nothing happened to me, and I am sure that you’re eager to get to your class.’ He winked, then turned to continue his own way.

Remus was indeed about to hurry on to his Astronomy class when he remembered something. It can’t hurt, can it? ‘Um, Professor Dumbledore,’ he began, and when the older wizard stopped, looking back at him, Remus continued, ‘may I ask you something, sir?’

A little surprised at the question, Albus Dumbledore nodded. ‘Of course. What is it that you want to know?’

‘You see, our detention,’ he started, but was interrupted when the headmaster exclaimed, ‘Ah, I see.’

‘Well, Emmeline Vance…’ He trailed off, looking for a suitable verb. In the end, he settled on a vague choice. ‘… asked me to do the readers’ questions section for the latest issue, and she gave me two letters.’ Albus Dumbledore nodded, indicating that he understood. ‘Well, in one of the letters, a reader asked for a duelling club. Is it possible that you could… maybe… found one?’

The older wizard didn’t say anything for a while, but then he answered, slowly, ‘The idea alone is good, and Merlin knows how important, but…’ He didn’t continue speaking, looking out of the corridor’s window for a while. ‘I would need a teacher supervising the club, to make sure no one gets hurt. And our teachers are currently very busy, with the exams drawing near.’

Remus nodded. ‘I guessed as much, Professor.’ He didn’t have had much hope that the headmaster would excitedly jump up and exclaim the duelling club was to be founded immediately, so the disappointment wasn’t too hard to bear. Though, he had hoped for a bit success at least. ‘I just thought it couldn’t hurt asking you.’

‘Indeed. There are only stupid answers, but never questions.’ He winked again. Remus smiled.

For some moments, no one said anything, but when there was a dull thump from behind them, Remus turned around and saw his book bag having toppled over. The sound they had heard had been when the tomes collided with the stone floor.

And upon the sight of his book bag, Remus remembered that he needed to be in a class. ‘Sorry, Professor, but I have to run. I’m already way too late.’ He hastened over to pick up his bag, and then gave a curt nod to excuse himself.

Albus Dumbledore called after him, ‘Tell your professor I had spontaneously called a meeting with you. He will understand.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ Remus called back before turning the corner and disappearing from Dumbledore’s sight.

Remus’ haste didn’t prevent him from receiving an extra task of homework, though, which lead him to groan silently while sitting down. It would be another long night for him.

Hours later, Remus was found bent over his desk once again. He had finished his homework earlier – the extra task set from the Astronomy professor included – and was now attempting to work on his detention, seeing that the deadline for handing it in was the following day. Though, this time, the second letter was lying open on his desk.

To my most favourite newspaper, Magical Moments,

I loved your last edition, and I’m looking forward to the continuation of “Four Hearts, Two Loves, One Goal�. The story is just amazing.

What I wanted to know is when was Magical Moments first published? Is it possible to get a hold on older issues? If yes, I would be very delighted to read them, too. Because I can just lose myself in everything you write – true magical moments.

Your humble reader.

Remus had followed the instructions on how to look up in the library has a collection of all the issues of the school newspaper, and if this stock contained the first ever published issues of ten years ago. He had asked the librarian once he had finished his essay for Transfiguration, and sure enough, he had found what he had been looking for. Now he was phrasing an answer.

Dear reader,

Thank you for your continued support; we count ourselves lucky to have such a loyal reader. Also, Penny Henderson, the author of “Four Hearts, Two Loves, One Goal�, gives you her warmest regards. She is happy that the readers like her story. And in fact, since this is a special issue, she has written not only one, but two more chapters of her story. Please enjoy!

We thank you for your expression of interest in Magical Moments.

Your Magical Moments staff.