The very next morning, Remus woke bright and early, as many little children do. He sat up in the bed, shaking Sirius's shoulder for quite awhile before he woke up groggily. 

"Ferfucksake," Sirius muttered, rubbing his eyes. His hair was a mess and he gave a start when he saw itty bitty Remus giggling at his reaction. Then all the memories of the day before came back to him. 

Once the four boys were ready, James volunteered to go fetch Lily and see if she had any ideas on what to do. Or possibly any ideas on how to keep a five year old child alive. That would be helpful to know, the boys thought. Remus agreed it would be handy information.

"What on Earth have you boys gotten yourselves into this early in the morning? Honestly--"

She cut herself off, mouth dropping open when she saw Remus standing there, not even tall enough to reach Sirius's hips(and Sirius was pretty short).

"What happened?!" She shrieked. 

Remus giggled and ran over to hug her knees. She numbly reached down and patted Remus on the head. She looked around at James and Sirius, eyes searching for an answer. James quickly explained what they knew of the situation and asked her for insight.

By this point, Lily had taken a seat on James's bed and pulled Remus up to sit on her lap. She looked mystified. 

"We could start with figuring out how much he remembers and maybe get an idea on what the potion did to his mentality?" Lily suggested. 

"That's a great idea!" James said enthusiastically. Sirius looked less excited. He was terrified to find out what exactly it did to his boyfriend's mind. How much of his life did he remember? Would there be lasting effects?

"Remus," he asked tentatively. "What do you remember?"

Remus thought about it for a second. "I remember this many!" he said with a grin, holding up five fingers.

Sirius couldn't help but laugh. "You remember five things?" He asked, amused.

"Yep," Remus nodded, counting off his fingers. "I remember Siwius, James, Lily, Pete, aaaaaaaaand...Dumbledore!"

They all laughed then. Though Sirius was already a little concerned. Even from the night before, Remus seemed much more childish then he was previously. Perhaps the five year old mentality was really setting in, perhaps pushing the Remus they all knew to the back and perhaps some of his memories too.

"Well, should we head down to the Great Hall for breakfast?" Peter suggested, mind always on food.

"Wait, wait, wait," James said, as something seemed to occur to him. "Remus, are you potty trained?"

Remus rolled his eyes with a giggle, "Duhhhhhh," he said. "My mummy taught me when I was this many!" He said, holding up three fingers before counting them and reconsidering, holding up two fingers instead.

James laughed. "Alright, just checking."

"Since we're on the topic of finger ages, how old are you Remus?" Lily asked him. 

He had to think harder about this one and Sirius found himself holding his breath.

"I'm 'posed to be seventeen," He said, then giggled. "But now I'm five."

"Yeah, now your five," Lily said, trying to laugh but failing. 

After a lull in the conversation, Peter started bouncing on his heels. "Well? I'm hungry."

James sighed and nodded and the five of them headed down to the Great Hall, Remus reaching up to hold Lily's hand so he wouldn't get lost.

When they got into the Great Hall, they took their usual spots at the table, Remus and Sirius on one side and Peter, James, and Lily across from them. Sirius sat down and watched fondly as Remus crawled up on the bench. 

He found himself glancing around the Great Hall and he realized that he had been subconsciously scanning the Slytherin table for his brother Regulus. He snapped out of it when he heard James laughing. 

He looked beside him and saw Remus waving his little arms over his head, shouting, "I can't see, I can't see!" It was true, his head only barely came over the table. Sirius sighed and pulled Remus up to sit on his lap so he could see better and reach his food. 

At first, he left Remus to his own devices and worried about his own food, but decided he'd better intervene when he caught Remus trying to stuff all his potatoes in his mouth at once.

"Hey, hey, no, smaller bites."

So Sirius cut up Remus's food into smaller bites for him. 

In all honestly, they really should have known that it wouldn't be long before other students noticed that there was a child among them. When they realized that the child was a Marauder, everyone wanted to see him.

It started with Alice Prewett and Frank Longbottom, both Gryffindors. 

"Wait a second, is that..." Alice trailed off. Remus looked up from where he was drinking his pumpkin juice with two hands like Sirius told him to do.

He grinned at her, wiping his mouth on his sleeve before Lily could protest. Though she did anyway. "Use your napkin, Remus."

Sirius quickly explained the de-aging potion and Frank nodded numbly, quite in shock. Alice had quite the opposite reaction. She had been making faces at Remus the entire time Sirius talked, laughing when Remus returned them. 

"He's so adorable," Alice cooed, sticking her tongue out at Remus and pulling at her cheeks. Remus giggled and mirrored the expression, almost falling off Sirius's lap as he excitedly wiggled around. 

But of course more people flocked them as they walked the hallways. James took to carrying Remus around on his shoulders, where the little boy would kick at James's shoulders and tell him to go faster, or else shout greetings at all those short people who didn't get to sit on James's shoulders like he did.

It just so happened that Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall was their first class of the day. They walked into the classroom and she stood at the chalkboard, hand to her chin as she thought about something. Being their seventh year, only O.W.L. students could take the class(meaning Peter wasn't in it anymore), so there was a mixture of students from all four houses.

McGonagall turned to look at them upon entering the classroom, as they were indeed the last to enter. 

"So nice of you four to join--" She saw Remus atop James's shoulders and gasped, causing all the other students to turn in their chairs and look. Remus got all bashful and shy and tapped James on the shoulder and he reached up and lifted Remus off his shoulders and set him on the ground where he went to Sirius. He grabbed his hand and hid behind his legs, peeking out to look at the class. 

"Morning, Professor Minnie," James said with his ever present grin. McGonagall was so shocked she didn't even spare him a glare like she normally did when he and Sirius called her that. But everyone knew that they were her favorite students anyway.

"Dumbledore mentioned--but I never thought--oh my," McGonagall stammered. 

"We've brought coloring parchment for him, Minnie, so go on and teach the lesson, don't mind us," Sirius said, nudging Remus forward so they could take their usual seats. 

Sirius pulled out the coloring parchments he'd brought for Remus and some muggle coloring pencils and set them out for Remus. Remus grabbed a pencil in his left fist and started coloring as Sirius turned to his own parchment and the notes he was supposed to be taking. 

There were similar reactions throughout the day in all of their other classes so by dinner time, most of the students knew that one of the Marauders was de-aged to five years old. 

Remus was already tuckered out of coloring and complained to Sirius and James that he would not be doing that again the next day and they better come up with something to keep him busy or else he'd have nothing to do all day!

Remus found himself the center of attention in the Great Hall that night, and contrary to his attitude that morning, he was not enjoying it. He kept his face down the entire meal and as soon as he was finished eating, he squirmed off of Sirius's lap and onto the bench because if he couldn't see over the table, then the people over the table couldn't see him either. 

Remus was bone tired that night. He'd had a very long day of coloring. So he got his pajamas on and crawled up into bed and snuggled into Sirius's side like he usually did. 

"G'night, Remus," Sirius murmured quietly. 

"Night," Remus answered, falling asleep almost instantly afterwards. 

After Remus was asleep, Sirius stayed awake awhile longer, staring out at the moon in the sky. It would be full in three days. Sirius didn't know if he could stand seeing this little, tiny, precious version of Remus in pain. He was sure it would kill him. He could only hope that Dumbledore and Slughorn were working on that antidote. They would need it if they were ever going to get their Remus back.