Werewolf Love - Sixth Year

CHAPTER TWO
The year flew by. It seemed like yesterday that the year had started when all of a sudden it was time for Christmas break. Many of the students were staying at the school for the holidays this year. The world away from Hogwarts was rapidly becoming a scary place, and it had been for the last six or seven years. Hogwarts was very easily the safest place in the world.

The sun was just coming up over the horizon. The Hogwarts grounds were covered in a thick layer of snow, and there was more falling from the sky. James, Sirius and Peter were sleeping soundly in the dormitory, as was most of the school. Remus ran up the stairs and pounced on Peter while he slept. From Peter's bed he bounded over to James's bed and then Sirius's.

"Come on guys wake up!" Remus shouted. "It's snowing outside! Get up, let's have a snowball fight!"

James rolled over and threw his pillow across the room, just missing Remus. Sirius sat up and rubbed his eyes. Peter just pulled his blankets over his head.

"Remus, I'm going to open my eyes in a moment," Sirius mumbled, "and if you're still in the room, I'm going to kill you."

Remus just sat there while Sirius opened his eyes. He knew that Sirius wouldn't make good on his threat. Sirius grabbed his wand off the night stand and aimed it in Remus' general direction. Remus ran over to the window and threw the curtains opened. Sirius recoiled as the room filled with light.

"Get up guys! Come on, let's go outside and see if we can pelt Snape with ice balls!" Remus shouted excitedly.

"What time is it?" James mumbled from under his pillow.

"It's about 8:30 in the morning. I know you guys didn't wan to wake up before noon, but I was bored and I couldn't think of anything else to do. I thought I would wake you guys up when I got up but that was awake at 4:30 so I thought I would let you sleep a little longer. I went down to the kitchen and scared the crap out of the House Elves and then I snuck into Slytherin and I was going to sing to Snape in his sleep, but I forgot the words of the "Snape is a Stupid Git" song, and I wasn't under the invisibility cloak so I cam back to get it. Then I couldn't find it, so I went outside for a while instead. And I built snowmen. But I'm not very good at making snowmen, even with magic... So I blew them all up! It was some light show too because I used the wrong spell and it melted a whole bunch of snow and now there is a big frozen puddle out in the middle of the yard. It's really flat and ready for skating, and it's probably a lot safer than skating on the lake. And you guys need to get up now, it's morning!" Remus said very quickly.

The three boys looked at each other and then at the calendar on the wall. There was a big black skull sitting in the square of December twenty-first. The moon was blocked out. Remus so full of energy he was shaking and was mostly incoherent.

"I'm so glad this hyperactivity of yours only happens once a month," Sirius grumbled, rolling onto the floor.

"Alright, let's go outside and see the mess you've made," James said.

An hour later the boys were outside enjoying the snow. They didn't bother with breakfast, Remus had snuck down to the kitchen while they were dressing and brought lots of hot food right to them. The only signs of Remus' snowmen was, as he had said, a huge smooth sheet of ice. Remus sat down in the snow and put on a pair of beat up looking ice skates.

"Those look like they've seen better days," Sirius said. "Do you chew on those during the full moon?"

"No," Remus said rolling his eyes. "Unlike you, I don't need to chew on people's shoes when I have transformed."

"Oooh! Moony lashes out at Padfoot's canine side! Who will triumph in this battle of words?" James commented.

"Really? Well, at least it's safe for me to date girls," Sirius said with an almost malicious tone.

Remus skated right off the edge of the ice and into a snow drift. He dug himself out and rounded on Sirius, who was peacefully skating around the ice sheet. Remus got back on the ice and launched himself at Sirius. With the moon completely blacked out Remus had extra strength and speed. In a second he had pushed Sirius face first into the ice. James and Peter rushed out on to the ice to break up the fight.

"Take that back!" Remus barked.

"What's wrong Remus? Jealous?" Sirius spat, getting to his feet and swinging his fist at Remus.

"Why would I be jealous of a jerk like you?!" Remus cried, dodging the punch and tackling Sirius. "All you every do is hit on girls! And they don't even like you! Why would I be jealous of you with your normal life!"

James grabbed Remus and pulled him away from Sirius. It was harder than the last time James had to drag Remus away - on the train ride to school at the beginning of the year - because this time Remus had more strength. Remus broke free of James' grip and launched himself at Sirius again. Peter got between Remus and Sirius and pushed him back toward James again.

"Remus! Calm down Remus!" James yelled.

"I hate you, Sirius Black!" Remus cried, his face was red.

James pushed Remus into the snow and stood between him and Sirius. Peter stood out of the way.

"Remus, you don't hate Sirius. Sirius, it isn't as if Remus can help being a werewolf any more than we can help being alive," James said calmly. "There are enough problems in the world right now. If we start fighting amongst each other, Voldermort and his followers win."

Remus just glared at Sirius who stared at the ground. There was a long pause and then Remus got to his feet and ran back to the school, kicking his skates off somewhere along the way. He didn't care that he was barefoot when he reached the entrance hall, he wanted to be alone. Being alone was a form of retreat, the only retreat Remus could ever think of when things were going bad. As turned the corner toward Gryffindor tower he ran into what he thought was a moving wall.

"Hey, why don't you watch where you're going?" the wall snapped.

"Huh?" Remus said, pulling his robes away from his face.

Sitting on the floor, gathering up a pile of books and papers was Lessah Ismorah. She looked very attractive to Remus, with her pale skin and yellow eyes. Remus leaned over and tried to help her gather up her books.

"Werewolf Lore?" Remus said, picking up one of Lessah's books. "You... interested in werewolves?"

"No, but we have a werewolf essay for Defense Against the Dark Arts, I thought I would beat everybody to it and be the first to hand it in."

"Oh..."

"I think you'll find that you're second, Lessah," came Sirius's voice.

"What does that mean?" Lessah asked, accepting Sirius' hand to help her up.

"Remus looks forward to the werewolf essay every year. He handed it in on the first day."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, Remus knows everything there is to know about werewolves," Sirius looked Lessah up and down as he spoke. "How about I help you take those books back to the library?"

"I don't need any help. And I don't need you hitting on me. Bye," Lessah said as she walked away.

Remus watched Lessah walk down the stairs until she disappeared around a corner. He took a deep breath and looked up at Sirius. Sirius shrugged and entered the Gryffindor Common Room, the others followed. Remus watched his friends enter the Common Room and then head toward the library, inconspicuously following Lessah. She was browsing books about potions when Remus found her. Severus Snape was sitting at a table nearby. Remus hid himself among behind the shelves that were stacked with some weird Divination books.

"I shouldn't be hanging out with you. You're a Gryffindor," Snape said with disgust.

"Awwe, Sevvy, it's so nice to know you care about me," Lessah said sweetly, messing up Snape's hair.

"Let's just do this and get out of here before anyone sees us."

"Yeah, it would be just scandalous if anybody saw us together like this. Just think about what would happen if we were caught on one of our long walks..."

Remus didn't hear what Snape said in reply. He headed back to Gryffindor Tower before Lessah had really finished her sentence. He was feeling very dissapointed, almost heart broken. When he got back to the Common Room, James and Sirius were playing chess and Sirius was losing, badly.

"Remus, what the hell did you do to your chess set?" Sirius said, looking at the chess board in disgust.

"Oh, I... uh... I gave them a complex..."Remus said, no longer feeling full of energy.

"Something wrong Remus?"

"Nothing out of the usual," Remus said with a shrug. "I think I'll go upstairs and remind myself why I don't bother with girls..."

"Did Lessah give you the cold shoulder? Did you even try to talk to her?" James asked.

"No, she was too busy with... Severus Snape."

"What!" Remus' friends exclaimed.

"Yeah, she's sitting there studying potions with him, talking about some long walks the two of them take..."

Remus went upstairs to the dormitory and sat on his bed. He waited for James and Sirius to come upstairs and console him, but they didn't. Eventually Remus fell asleep, and despite his incredible energy surge, he slept for the rest of the day and all through the night.