Aug. 27th, 2010 03:05 pm
These Four Kings (Year Five 2/8)
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fox_confessorTitle: These Four Kings (Year Five 2/8)
Author: Dani (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
escribo)
Word Count: 2434
Rating: PG
(Pairings: in the future will be Remus/Sirius, Lily/James)
Timeline: November 6 (Thursday) 1975
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended. I've not made nor seek any profit.
Year 1: one/ two/ three/ four/ five/ six/ seven
Year 2: one/ two/ three/ four
Year 3: one/ two/three/four
Year 4 (coming in the future when work quits eating my brains! Sorry for the out-of-order-ness)
Year 5 one
The boys were in the library after dinner, working on their potions projects, or rather Remus was working on his project whilst James and Sirius talked about Quidditch and Peter was serving detention with Madame Pince. Last year had been the first year James had been on the Quidditch team as Chaser, and he had thought it was his favorite thing about being at Hogwarts. This year, with Sirius as keeper, it was nearly perfect. Next year, James was sure he'd be made captain and Peter would be big enough to be a beater. He had it all planned out. Literally. He had rolls and rolls of parchment with strategies and training schedules and ideas to improve the Gryffindor team. The only thing that would make it better to James would be if he could work out where Remus would fit.
James thought that Remus was a good flyer when he was using either James or Sirius' broom and not one of the old, temperamental school brooms. He had good reflexes, too, and didn't flinch when a bludger came his way, unlike Peter, which James was helping him get over by flinging books, shoes, and whatever else was handy at Peter's head whenever he looked like he was getting too comfortable. It made sense that Remus should be on the team.
James glanced up from his latest scheme--a detailed regimen of calistenics modified from the latest issue of WQ, liberated from the bag of a seventh year Ravenclaw--to look at where Remus was struggling over his own bit of parchment and no fewer than five potions texts with titles like Potions Equations for the Puzzled and Elementary Equations for Your Effortless Edification. Since the summer, Remus had been thinner and paler, the build-up to the full moons making him more tired than usual, and though Remus never complained, Sirius had said he was hurting more and immediately after the moon was even worse. Even now, nearly a week and Madame Pomfrey's best efforts later, Remus still had a gash on his leg that wouldn't heal properly and deep bruises across his back and shoulders.
It was Remus' furry little problem that kept him off the pitch and falling behind in his classes. Even during new moons, Remus had begun to fall asleep during classes, something he'd never done before, and it was all the rest of the Marauders could do to make sure that Remus didn't get caught. Professor McGonagall might understand and just make him go to the infirmary for a couple of nights, as much as Remus would hate it, but Professors Slughorn and Vector would hand out detentions. James thought it was scandalous--positively un-Marauder-like--to receive detention if nothing had been blown up or someone hadn't screamed.
"Quit staring at me, James," Remus said, though he didn't even look up from his roll of parchment, just kept working at his column of figures.
"I'm not."
"It's because you remind him of Evans, what with your delicate features and all."
"Sod off, Black," Remus said, but he was grinning now though he still didn't look up, and James noticed again how tired he appeared.
"I'll tell you who's been staring at you since we came in," Sirius said and both James and Sirius twisted in their seats to scowl at Severus, who sat at the next table over. Severus looked away when he realized that he'd been caught, leaning down to whisper something to Lily. When Sirius turned back around, he began to worry his thumb nail between his teeth, but James was caught on Lily.
"The greasy git," James muttered.
"Ignore him. He's probably just trying to figure how to avoid having to tutor me again."
"What do you think she sees in him?" James ruffled the back of his hair, willing Lily to look up and yet when she did, he immediately turned back in his seat as if he hadn't been watching her at all.
"She's not dating him."
"How do you know?" James narrowed his eyes at Remus, remembering that Remus and Lily had patrol together a couple of nights before the full moon. Remus had promised to say good things to Lily about James, but James wasn't ever sure if Remus actually did, or if he just said it to shut James up--Sirius' theory. James looked over his shoulder to look again at Lily and found that she was still watching him. Or maybe Remus or Sirius, or quite possibly Edmund Gordon Forbes who was sat at the next table over and appeared to be struggling with the same assignment as Remus.
"Because she told me she wasn't allowed to date yet, not until she turns 16 in January." Remus glanced up from his work to look at James, and James could have sworn that Remus was blushing. It was hard to tell because sometimes Remus was just feverish, but James still narrowed his eyes at him again. They had all agreed that Lily was off limits once James had declared his undying love. The declaring part had actually been unspoken and so was the agreement, actually, now that James thought of it, but he was sure they knew.
"You're staring again."
"I'm not."
"Nevermind. I’m never going to get this. My dad said I should think of it like chemistry--"
"What's that?" James asked.
"Muggle potions,” Sirius answered. "You remember from Muggle Studies. It's how they make their medicines and such. Did your dad teach you that, too?"
"We had a book when I was little of how to make ink and a miniature volcano." James perked up at the idea of a miniature volcano and leaned forward on his elbows, pushing his glasses up. Remus shook his head no when James opened his mouth. "Not a real volcano. And it was more exciting when I was seven and didn't know about magic."
"Potions is nothing like chemistry," Remus continued before James could get a word in. "Chemistry makes sense and you don't have to remember incantations and which way to stir things and for how long. I mean, you have to remember other things but my dad made it fun." Remus tossed down his quill and pushed his books away. He looked absolutely miserable but before James could say anything, he had folded his arms onto the table, put his head down, and was out.
"I think he's asleep."
"Remus," James said, stretching across the table to shake Remus' shoulder. If Madame Pince caught him, Remus would definitely be joining Peter for at least a night's worth of detention.
"Let him be." Sirius slid the parchment from beneath Remus' hand and took up his quill.
James watched as Sirius began to work quickly through the equations, adding the notations for number of rotations to stir the cauldron and correcting some of Remus’ earlier attempts. He didn’t understand why this was so hard for Remus when he managed through arithmancy with ease, and would wax poetic about the beauty of numbers if given the slightest chance. It was the lycanthropy he was sure, even if he couldn’t quite figure out how being a werewolf would make one bad at Potions.
“We’ve got to try again with Peter,” James said almost to himself. He leaned back in his chair and took his glasses off to clean the lenses with his shirt tail, his eyes still on the now fuzzy Remus. Sirius looked up at James from the parchment he was almost finished working on with something like worry crossing his features, though it was hard to tell since Sirius was fuzzy, too.
“Do you honestly think he’s going to be able to--”
“He’ll get it Sirius.” James forced himself to sound more confident than he felt. The animagus transfiguration was complicated and required a change in the way one thought about oneself. It required a control and discipline that positively escaped Peter, no matter how he tried.
James put his glasses back on and looked again to where Remus slept, his hands curled into tight fists as he became lost to some dream. “I wish we could ask Remus though. He’s better at explaining things to Peter.”
Sirius shook his head, adamant on this point. “He can’t know.”
“It’s getting worse, Sirius. He was infirmary for nearly a week this time.”
“I know, James.”
“And three days the time before.”
“I know. I know.”
“I’m just saying that Remus would be able to help.”
“He can’t know,” Sirius said with finality and James pushed his hand through his hair, sitting back into his chair.
This had been an argument between them for months now, how much to tell Remus. Sirius said that he didn’t want to get Remus' hopes up but James suspected that it was more because Sirius wanted it to be a complete surprise—for Remus to be impressed with both their cleverness and their ability. While James was sure about the surprise, he wasn’t as sure that Remus would be impressed or agree with their reasoning. It was sound, though, James was sure of that, or at least that was what he told Peter when Peter asked if there was a chance that Remus might kill them all.
“Try again with Peter,” Sirius continued on as he finished with Remus’ assignment and slid it back to him. “Or would you rather I do it.”
“Not you. You make him nervous." James looked away when Sirius frowned but he didn’t take it back. It was true, and had been since they were first years. "I'll take him up to the astronomy tower tonight. It's cloudy so there shouldn't be anyone up there. There’s Madame Pince.”
"C'mon, Remus. Wake up." Sirius shook Remus shoulder and collapsed back into his chair right as the librarian came through the stacks. Remus sat up suddenly, inhaling sharply and blinking at James and Sirius. Madame Pince paused at the end of their table as if waiting for them to cause mass chaos before she moved on.
"I wasn't asleep."
"Not at all." James leaned forward on his elbows and clasped his hands on the top of the scarred table, leaning in to whisper at Remus. "Go on up to bed. We'll wait for Peter."
"I can't. I need to finish this for tomorrow."
"Done." Sirius tapped his finger on the paper and Remus picked it up to look at the neat equations, frowning. "What's wrong? They're right."
"I know. I mean, I'm sure they are. I don't understand it, though. My dad is going to kill me if I get a T in Potions."
“He wouldn’t. He’d probably just give you a hug and tell you try harder next time.”
“Maybe but he really will kill me if I lose my scholarship.” Remus whispered scholarship as if it were a dirty word, blushing again, and glanced past Sirius to the next table. James fought the urge to follow where he looked, knowing he’d see Severus staring at Remus again--or worse, Lily.
"You're not going to fail," Sirius said. "We won’t let you.”
"When he finds out, he’ll write Professor McGonagall to say I need a tutor again.”
“So don’t tell him.”
“I have to. It'll be Severus, you know it will."
"I won't let that happen again. Just rewrite that during breakfast and turn it in tomorrow,” Sirius said. “I'll tutor you this weekend."
"You've both got Quidditch practice."
"Not all weekend. We'll do it Saturday morning."
"You hate waking up early."
"Stop being difficult, Remus," James scolded, grinning to be the one to sound like a prefect. "If he doesn't do it, I will."
"I'll do it. I said I would." Sirius threw a challenging look to both James and Remus, as if he had been dared to tutor Remus and not offered, and James had to bite back a laugh. Sirius saw it though and stood up so quickly that his chair scraped on the floor. "C’mon, Remus. I’ll take you upstairs so you can go to bed."
"I don’t need an escort. Besides, I have patrol tonight with Ben Goran." James looked at Sirius, who gave a little shake of his head and sunk back down into his chair. Remus sighed and covered his face with his hands. "Just tell me where and not what."
"The astronomy tower."
"Right. I'll tell him that I heard some Slytherins were planning something in the greenhouses." Remus stood, gathering his books. "I'll be in at 11."
James and Sirius watched Remus go, though James saw they weren’t the only ones. Both Severus and Lily watched him leave, too, and James wondered again if Remus was as disinterested in Lily as he claimed to be. James bit the inside of his cheek and narrowed his eyes when Severus and Lily began gathering their books, parchments, and quills as well. Whatever was going on, James didn’t like it, and since Severus seemed to be in the middle of it all...
“Have you noticed that Snivellus seems awfully interested in Remus lately?”
“What do you mean?” Sirius asked.
“He’s always watching him, following him. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was working up the nerve to invite Remus to tea at Madame Puddifoot’s the next Hogsmeade weekend.” James laughed at his own joke, but Sirius didn’t. In fact, the look on Sirius’ face was absolutely murderous and stopped James cold.
“Right. I have a plan.” Sirius looked back over his shoulder to snarl at Severus again, his wand already in his hand. “Not here though. I don’t fancy having detention unless I actually get to hex Snape’s bollocks off. We should follow them, maybe? Encourage them both to leave Remus alone.”
“Sure, but let me take care of Evans.”
“Is that what this is about?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
James grinned at Sirius, relieved that there was a spark of humor back in his eyes now, and stuffed his rolls of parchments into his bag. As they followed Snape and Evans from the library, James worried a little, as he always did when Sirius got like that about Remus. It was one thing for Sirius to joke around about murdering his brother for being a better Quidditch player--Sirius wouldn’t even be on the Gryffindor team if his brother wasn’t playing for Slytherin, of that James was sure. This thing with Remus, though, James didn’t understand. As they creeped around a corner, their wands raised in tandem, James decided it didn’t matter. He trusted Sirius as his brother and he would trust Sirius to protect Remus. When the first hex flew, James thought again about how his life was nearly perfect.
next
Author: Dani (
escribo)
Word Count: 2434
Rating: PG
(Pairings: in the future will be Remus/Sirius, Lily/James)
Timeline: November 6 (Thursday) 1975
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended. I've not made nor seek any profit.
Year 1: one/ two/ three/ four/ five/ six/ seven
Year 2: one/ two/ three/ four
Year 3: one/ two/three/four
Year 4 (coming in the future when work quits eating my brains! Sorry for the out-of-order-ness)
Year 5 one
The boys were in the library after dinner, working on their potions projects, or rather Remus was working on his project whilst James and Sirius talked about Quidditch and Peter was serving detention with Madame Pince. Last year had been the first year James had been on the Quidditch team as Chaser, and he had thought it was his favorite thing about being at Hogwarts. This year, with Sirius as keeper, it was nearly perfect. Next year, James was sure he'd be made captain and Peter would be big enough to be a beater. He had it all planned out. Literally. He had rolls and rolls of parchment with strategies and training schedules and ideas to improve the Gryffindor team. The only thing that would make it better to James would be if he could work out where Remus would fit.
James thought that Remus was a good flyer when he was using either James or Sirius' broom and not one of the old, temperamental school brooms. He had good reflexes, too, and didn't flinch when a bludger came his way, unlike Peter, which James was helping him get over by flinging books, shoes, and whatever else was handy at Peter's head whenever he looked like he was getting too comfortable. It made sense that Remus should be on the team.
James glanced up from his latest scheme--a detailed regimen of calistenics modified from the latest issue of WQ, liberated from the bag of a seventh year Ravenclaw--to look at where Remus was struggling over his own bit of parchment and no fewer than five potions texts with titles like Potions Equations for the Puzzled and Elementary Equations for Your Effortless Edification. Since the summer, Remus had been thinner and paler, the build-up to the full moons making him more tired than usual, and though Remus never complained, Sirius had said he was hurting more and immediately after the moon was even worse. Even now, nearly a week and Madame Pomfrey's best efforts later, Remus still had a gash on his leg that wouldn't heal properly and deep bruises across his back and shoulders.
It was Remus' furry little problem that kept him off the pitch and falling behind in his classes. Even during new moons, Remus had begun to fall asleep during classes, something he'd never done before, and it was all the rest of the Marauders could do to make sure that Remus didn't get caught. Professor McGonagall might understand and just make him go to the infirmary for a couple of nights, as much as Remus would hate it, but Professors Slughorn and Vector would hand out detentions. James thought it was scandalous--positively un-Marauder-like--to receive detention if nothing had been blown up or someone hadn't screamed.
"Quit staring at me, James," Remus said, though he didn't even look up from his roll of parchment, just kept working at his column of figures.
"I'm not."
"It's because you remind him of Evans, what with your delicate features and all."
"Sod off, Black," Remus said, but he was grinning now though he still didn't look up, and James noticed again how tired he appeared.
"I'll tell you who's been staring at you since we came in," Sirius said and both James and Sirius twisted in their seats to scowl at Severus, who sat at the next table over. Severus looked away when he realized that he'd been caught, leaning down to whisper something to Lily. When Sirius turned back around, he began to worry his thumb nail between his teeth, but James was caught on Lily.
"The greasy git," James muttered.
"Ignore him. He's probably just trying to figure how to avoid having to tutor me again."
"What do you think she sees in him?" James ruffled the back of his hair, willing Lily to look up and yet when she did, he immediately turned back in his seat as if he hadn't been watching her at all.
"She's not dating him."
"How do you know?" James narrowed his eyes at Remus, remembering that Remus and Lily had patrol together a couple of nights before the full moon. Remus had promised to say good things to Lily about James, but James wasn't ever sure if Remus actually did, or if he just said it to shut James up--Sirius' theory. James looked over his shoulder to look again at Lily and found that she was still watching him. Or maybe Remus or Sirius, or quite possibly Edmund Gordon Forbes who was sat at the next table over and appeared to be struggling with the same assignment as Remus.
"Because she told me she wasn't allowed to date yet, not until she turns 16 in January." Remus glanced up from his work to look at James, and James could have sworn that Remus was blushing. It was hard to tell because sometimes Remus was just feverish, but James still narrowed his eyes at him again. They had all agreed that Lily was off limits once James had declared his undying love. The declaring part had actually been unspoken and so was the agreement, actually, now that James thought of it, but he was sure they knew.
"You're staring again."
"I'm not."
"Nevermind. I’m never going to get this. My dad said I should think of it like chemistry--"
"What's that?" James asked.
"Muggle potions,” Sirius answered. "You remember from Muggle Studies. It's how they make their medicines and such. Did your dad teach you that, too?"
"We had a book when I was little of how to make ink and a miniature volcano." James perked up at the idea of a miniature volcano and leaned forward on his elbows, pushing his glasses up. Remus shook his head no when James opened his mouth. "Not a real volcano. And it was more exciting when I was seven and didn't know about magic."
"Potions is nothing like chemistry," Remus continued before James could get a word in. "Chemistry makes sense and you don't have to remember incantations and which way to stir things and for how long. I mean, you have to remember other things but my dad made it fun." Remus tossed down his quill and pushed his books away. He looked absolutely miserable but before James could say anything, he had folded his arms onto the table, put his head down, and was out.
"I think he's asleep."
"Remus," James said, stretching across the table to shake Remus' shoulder. If Madame Pince caught him, Remus would definitely be joining Peter for at least a night's worth of detention.
"Let him be." Sirius slid the parchment from beneath Remus' hand and took up his quill.
James watched as Sirius began to work quickly through the equations, adding the notations for number of rotations to stir the cauldron and correcting some of Remus’ earlier attempts. He didn’t understand why this was so hard for Remus when he managed through arithmancy with ease, and would wax poetic about the beauty of numbers if given the slightest chance. It was the lycanthropy he was sure, even if he couldn’t quite figure out how being a werewolf would make one bad at Potions.
“We’ve got to try again with Peter,” James said almost to himself. He leaned back in his chair and took his glasses off to clean the lenses with his shirt tail, his eyes still on the now fuzzy Remus. Sirius looked up at James from the parchment he was almost finished working on with something like worry crossing his features, though it was hard to tell since Sirius was fuzzy, too.
“Do you honestly think he’s going to be able to--”
“He’ll get it Sirius.” James forced himself to sound more confident than he felt. The animagus transfiguration was complicated and required a change in the way one thought about oneself. It required a control and discipline that positively escaped Peter, no matter how he tried.
James put his glasses back on and looked again to where Remus slept, his hands curled into tight fists as he became lost to some dream. “I wish we could ask Remus though. He’s better at explaining things to Peter.”
Sirius shook his head, adamant on this point. “He can’t know.”
“It’s getting worse, Sirius. He was infirmary for nearly a week this time.”
“I know, James.”
“And three days the time before.”
“I know. I know.”
“I’m just saying that Remus would be able to help.”
“He can’t know,” Sirius said with finality and James pushed his hand through his hair, sitting back into his chair.
This had been an argument between them for months now, how much to tell Remus. Sirius said that he didn’t want to get Remus' hopes up but James suspected that it was more because Sirius wanted it to be a complete surprise—for Remus to be impressed with both their cleverness and their ability. While James was sure about the surprise, he wasn’t as sure that Remus would be impressed or agree with their reasoning. It was sound, though, James was sure of that, or at least that was what he told Peter when Peter asked if there was a chance that Remus might kill them all.
“Try again with Peter,” Sirius continued on as he finished with Remus’ assignment and slid it back to him. “Or would you rather I do it.”
“Not you. You make him nervous." James looked away when Sirius frowned but he didn’t take it back. It was true, and had been since they were first years. "I'll take him up to the astronomy tower tonight. It's cloudy so there shouldn't be anyone up there. There’s Madame Pince.”
"C'mon, Remus. Wake up." Sirius shook Remus shoulder and collapsed back into his chair right as the librarian came through the stacks. Remus sat up suddenly, inhaling sharply and blinking at James and Sirius. Madame Pince paused at the end of their table as if waiting for them to cause mass chaos before she moved on.
"I wasn't asleep."
"Not at all." James leaned forward on his elbows and clasped his hands on the top of the scarred table, leaning in to whisper at Remus. "Go on up to bed. We'll wait for Peter."
"I can't. I need to finish this for tomorrow."
"Done." Sirius tapped his finger on the paper and Remus picked it up to look at the neat equations, frowning. "What's wrong? They're right."
"I know. I mean, I'm sure they are. I don't understand it, though. My dad is going to kill me if I get a T in Potions."
“He wouldn’t. He’d probably just give you a hug and tell you try harder next time.”
“Maybe but he really will kill me if I lose my scholarship.” Remus whispered scholarship as if it were a dirty word, blushing again, and glanced past Sirius to the next table. James fought the urge to follow where he looked, knowing he’d see Severus staring at Remus again--or worse, Lily.
"You're not going to fail," Sirius said. "We won’t let you.”
"When he finds out, he’ll write Professor McGonagall to say I need a tutor again.”
“So don’t tell him.”
“I have to. It'll be Severus, you know it will."
"I won't let that happen again. Just rewrite that during breakfast and turn it in tomorrow,” Sirius said. “I'll tutor you this weekend."
"You've both got Quidditch practice."
"Not all weekend. We'll do it Saturday morning."
"You hate waking up early."
"Stop being difficult, Remus," James scolded, grinning to be the one to sound like a prefect. "If he doesn't do it, I will."
"I'll do it. I said I would." Sirius threw a challenging look to both James and Remus, as if he had been dared to tutor Remus and not offered, and James had to bite back a laugh. Sirius saw it though and stood up so quickly that his chair scraped on the floor. "C’mon, Remus. I’ll take you upstairs so you can go to bed."
"I don’t need an escort. Besides, I have patrol tonight with Ben Goran." James looked at Sirius, who gave a little shake of his head and sunk back down into his chair. Remus sighed and covered his face with his hands. "Just tell me where and not what."
"The astronomy tower."
"Right. I'll tell him that I heard some Slytherins were planning something in the greenhouses." Remus stood, gathering his books. "I'll be in at 11."
James and Sirius watched Remus go, though James saw they weren’t the only ones. Both Severus and Lily watched him leave, too, and James wondered again if Remus was as disinterested in Lily as he claimed to be. James bit the inside of his cheek and narrowed his eyes when Severus and Lily began gathering their books, parchments, and quills as well. Whatever was going on, James didn’t like it, and since Severus seemed to be in the middle of it all...
“Have you noticed that Snivellus seems awfully interested in Remus lately?”
“What do you mean?” Sirius asked.
“He’s always watching him, following him. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was working up the nerve to invite Remus to tea at Madame Puddifoot’s the next Hogsmeade weekend.” James laughed at his own joke, but Sirius didn’t. In fact, the look on Sirius’ face was absolutely murderous and stopped James cold.
“Right. I have a plan.” Sirius looked back over his shoulder to snarl at Severus again, his wand already in his hand. “Not here though. I don’t fancy having detention unless I actually get to hex Snape’s bollocks off. We should follow them, maybe? Encourage them both to leave Remus alone.”
“Sure, but let me take care of Evans.”
“Is that what this is about?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
James grinned at Sirius, relieved that there was a spark of humor back in his eyes now, and stuffed his rolls of parchments into his bag. As they followed Snape and Evans from the library, James worried a little, as he always did when Sirius got like that about Remus. It was one thing for Sirius to joke around about murdering his brother for being a better Quidditch player--Sirius wouldn’t even be on the Gryffindor team if his brother wasn’t playing for Slytherin, of that James was sure. This thing with Remus, though, James didn’t understand. As they creeped around a corner, their wands raised in tandem, James decided it didn’t matter. He trusted Sirius as his brother and he would trust Sirius to protect Remus. When the first hex flew, James thought again about how his life was nearly perfect.
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Whatever it is, STOP. D:
So yea, fantastic installment that I totally read at work. XD So short comment, but you and your story are much loved.
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But thank you for reading/enjoying wherever you are! I'm very much O.o at the idea of Remus/Severus so that pained me to imply ahaha :D
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Also: jealous!Sirius. *cuddles* One of my favorite types of Sirius ^.^ Even if he doesn't know it himself yet, it's still freaking adorable.
Let's just hope James' attitude towards Sirius' feelings toward Remus doesn't change when the true nature of said feelings make themselves known. Then again, a little bit of angsty turmoil is never unwelcome, in my book...
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