Hogwarts' Original Pranksters' Fantastic First Year

Lily stared at her night table for a few seconds, dazed and still only half awake, wondering whether she was still dreaming – or rather having a nightmare. How can a book vanish from a night table like that? she wondered; then she realised the stupidity of the question and rubbed her eyes to check, again, on the reality of the situation. Alas, when she opened her eyes once more, Lecanoncy, or the Art of Divination through Gems still wasn’t back to its previous place. There’s a serious problem here.

She shook herself out of it and jumped down from her bed. All was calm in the dormitory; it was very early – too early to be up already. Her roommates were still sleeping and the sun wasn’t up yet. As quietly as possible, Lily took her wand and began to look everywhere – under her bed, under the others’ beds, on every night-table, in every wardrobe – whispering now and then Lumos and Alohomora Charms … Surely she should have felt a bit ashamed of rummaging about in the others’ things, but her anxiousness and the thousand questions she kept asking herself took off easily any culprit feeling.

She found nothing, and had to face facts: the book had been taken out of the dormitory. It had been purely and simply stolen.

When Lily realised that, her mind raced with the stream of other questions she couldn’t untangle. How? Who? And especially … why? What was in stealing a book – especially a book anyone could borrow any time from the library if they were only patient enough to wait for it to be returned – it didn’t make sense. Or else …

Or else the thief had to get that book, Lily thought. It was that very book that was important, and no other… but blimey, just why?

She sat on the edge of the bed, chewing mechanically on a dark-red lock, not able to keep herself from thinking that it was her fault that their most important book was gone. She was the one who insisted the night before on taking it to bed with her. As a result, the four others hadn’t had a single glance at it … They’ll kill me – no, worse, they won’t ever trust me again …

Lily was sick just thinking of it. James, Sirius, Remus and even Peter had become her only true friends, the only ones to count on when she had a problem – they had told her enough times for her to believe it. Unlike back at primary school were she had Sandra, her best friend – they protected and looked after each other – Lily hadn’t a true "girl friend" at Hogwarts; and if her fears turned out to be true, the four boys would shun her because of that book thing and she’d be left alone. Not all alone – she’d still have "classmates" – but nobody would care for her like those four had …

Lily almost felt like crying all of a sudden. She sniffed and took her lock of hair out of her mouth, then leaned over to grab her clothes – she couldn’t sleep anymore. After she put on her black robes, she took her bag and got up to go down to the common room without waking anybody – but at that moment she heard a noise coming from the bed next to hers: it was Lisa, who’d drawn back her curtains and was staring at her with sleepy brown eyes, "Hey you, what’s up? You haven’t looked that bad since you failed that Potions essay last month …"

"Bah, nothing, really," Lily sighed, her voice shaking a bit. She wiped the tip of her nose on her robes sleeve. "Fit of the blues. Haven’t you seen my book, by any chance?"

"Which one? You had two of them yesterday."

"The big one – it’s not on my night-table anymore. Something about gems and Divination," she said evasively. Lisa shook her head, surprised – they hadn’t got Divination until third year, what on Earth could Lily have to do with it? Lily shrugged it off, but deep down inside, she could have screamed. Lisa, totally ignorant of her roommate’s problems, lay down back in her bed and fell asleep at once, glad to enjoy some extra sleep.

Lily shut the door of her dorm quietly, cautiously. She stood a moment on the doorstep, her bag on her shoulder, hesitating. Then something crossed her mind and she opened the door again, almost ran to her bed and took the scrolls of parchment from under her pillow. She also took Legendary Gems she had stupidly forgotten on her night table. Her forgetfulness almost made her smile; in a flash she was back in front of the closed door of her dorm.

When she was down in the common room, her first thought was to settle down in front of the fireplace; but she leaped up from her armchair and grabbed again her bag as she came up with a new idea. Her eyes darted to the door of the spiral staircase leading to the boys’ dormitories, and she nodded, a little smile dawning on her lips. Why not?

She tiptoed along the corridor, holding her shoes in her hand – they gave a little snap at each step, and Lily wanted to be discreet – to the right door; when she reached it, she opened it quietly and sneaked into the silent room.

Three peaceful, regular sets of breathing could be heard in the room; well, not really regular, because from what Lily could hear, Sirius had the hiccups. Peter was snoring softly; when the girl opened the curtains a little, she saw that he was sucking his thumb and holding his teddy bear tight. He looked rather cute, and Lily had to suppress a chuckle not to trouble such a peaceful sleep. She came noiselessly to James’s bed and quietly drew back the curtains.

He looked quite young and vulnerable without his glasses on, with his wild black hair and his closed eyes. He was frowning and whispering in his sleep; this time, Lily thought she was going to shout with laughter when she heard him mumble distinctly, "No – please, take off the potatoes – don’t wanna sing along with the tomato-headed people – c’mon, please –"

"Er … James?" Lily whispered, shaking with silent laughter. She found her seriousness again thinking about the stolen book and whispered again, "James – wake up, it’s important –"

James opened one sleepy eye.

"Ooh, tomato-headed people already –"

"Don’t be a prat, James, it’s me," barked Lily who didn’t enjoyed the comparison. This time James shook his head and opened his eyes wide, looking panicked and shocked, "Lily?! You – but – you’re a girl!"

"Oh, spotted it all by yourself, did you?" said the ‘girl’ sarcastically.

James turned bright red, "I’m – I’m in my pyjamas! And it’s a boys’ dorm, for Merlin’s sake!"

Lily shrugged, "I’ve got something important to tell you. It’s about that Divination book."

"Hic! Couldn’t you wait a reasonable hour to – hic! – do that?" grumbled a muffled voice coming from the nearest bed. Sirius had woken up, and still had the hiccups.

"What the – what’s – ouch!"

BOUM! Peter had just fallen from his bed by dint of stretching his neck to hear better. When he saw Lily crouching next to James’s bed, he turned very pink and reached for his dressing gown hanging near by – the little white clouds and lambs on his pyjamas must have had something to do with his sudden shyness. Sirius just put on his winter cloak over his pyjamas and jumped on James’s bed; James only had time to crawl back with an outraged yell, "Sirius! Blimey, you’re heavy!"

Thinking the idea was good, Lily joined Sirius, and by the time Peter had settled down as well on of the long-suffering James’s bed as well, she began to tell them about ‘the book thing’.

* * *

"What d’you mean, ‘gone’?" James asked, puzzled.

"Stolen, if you like best. Someone’s stolen that book from us. ‘Cause you didn’t find it back, did you Lily? I assume it was nowhere else?"

Lily, looking crestfallen, said "No …" in a small voice. James and Sirius frowned. Lily expected the worst.

"What I don’t understand," said James after a second that seemed to last an eternity to the redheaded girl, "is why someone would take so much trouble just to steal an old book that has almost never been removed from the library thus far."

Lily lifted her head a little, hardly daring to believe it. Sirius, sitting cross-legged next to her, stuffed his chin in his hands thoughtfully. "You’ve hit a point here, Jamsie. And what’s weird is that it’s that particular book at this particular moment. You know what? I think there’s somebody inside the school who doesn’t want us to discover some things."

"Do you, really, Sirius?" Peter asked, raising his eyebrows incredulously. "So who, according to you, and why?"

"I don’t know who, I don’t have second sight … As for the ‘why’ part, however, I can explain – first those footsteps in the kitchens corridor – I’m still wondering who that was, and how they were able to stand right in front of us without us seeing them. Second, as Jamsie here said, it’s weird that this book is stolen just when Remus digs it from under the pile of dust of the library."

Lily jumped. "Sirius, are you implying that – that the thief could be Remus?"

"No," Sirius answered immediately in a definitive tone. "He wasn’t pretending last night – if we hadn’t taken him to the hospital wing he’d have passed out a short while later. Plus this book’s of no particular use to him. Besides …"

Sirius lowered his voice slightly, as he looked up at the three others in the eye, "Besides I trust Remus. He wouldn’t do that."

James just nodded. Lily smiled, hugely relieved deep inside that none of the boys blamed the stolen book on her. There was still left the question of who committed the theft, and above all why they had done so. She was a bit tempted to believe Sirius’s crazy theory – someone willing to stop them from knowing more, the theft of the book forming a sort of warning – but it was really far-fetched. She reminded herself that she was at Hogwarts here, not in some James Bond movie – and that Sirius was a kid with too much imagination for his own good.

"Still," Sirius continued, "I will surely repeat myself, but how comes someone gets interested in that book just when it’s dig up? There must be something really important in it, and that’s why it’s been stolen – not to let us know it."

Peter looked doubtful. James frowned slightly, "Sirius, I think your imagination’s going a bit too far. You’re speaking as if we had a lethal, evil enemy inside the castle, ready to lead us into a trap – want my opinion? You’re paranoid."

"Not the first time you say that," Peter muttered.

"Besides," Lily remarked, "if this book was that important or dangerous, it’d be in the Restricted Section of the library, so that the students couldn’t borrow it."

"Hm," said James, "not if the kind of information that’s in it can only do harm to one person, or a very small group."

"You must admit that it’s been well protected by the layer of dust so far, not to mention its title. What was it, Lil’?"

"Lecanoncy, or the Art of Divination through Gems," she recited in one go.

‘That’s it. It’s taken a bookworm like Remus to look for such a book – well, I mean, nobody cares about Leecanomency. I bet even seventh-years don’t have to study it."

"Lecanoncy, Sirius."

"Whatever, Lil’."

"So what do we do?" Peter asked.

"We go down to the hospital wing to see how Remus’s doing," James decided, and then …"

He gave a discouraged shrug, clearly indicating he didn’t have a clue. It was at that moment Lily remembered something. "Stupid me!" she cried, smacking her forehead.

"That’s not exactly you," Sirius said ironically, as Lily leaned over to grab her bag lying about next to the bed. Ignoring Sirius, she rummaged in it for a while, then took out two or three scrolls of parchment. James’s dark green eyes lit up, "You took notes?"

"Well, yes,’ said Lily as though it was obvious. "Wait, that’s Legendary Gems – ah, there it is."

"Your notes about Liqueymonancy?"

"Lecanoncy, Sirius."

"Whatever, Lil’. Am I right?"

"Yeah – but there’s nothing much that can help us, I’m afraid – I only read the first half, this book was pretty thick and it was late."

"Don’t worry about that, Lil’," said James reassuringly. "It’s at least something! So? What d’you have here?"

"Er … ah, here, I stopped there. Look at that phrases – ‘agates were used for Divination as well … two specific agates put one next to the other in a pendant are supposed to unveil the Eagle’s Eye’s hiding place (see Chapter 11)…’ The Eagle’s Eye, of course, I’d forgotten –"

"Oh boy. Do we really have to listen to the History of Magic lesson?"

"Yes, Sirius."

"Go, then."

"All right,’ Lily began. "Don’t you remember that History of Magic class about cursed gems? Maximilian Fersen, the King of Finland, and all that?"

"Er – not precisely.’

"Well, Fersen was a Finnish Dark Wizard, back in the Fourteenth Century. He lived in a castle renowned for being inaccessible, and all those who approached it just vanished without a trace. However, one day, it was the wizarding King of Finland’s own cousin who disappeared – he must’ve been hunting a bit too close to Fersen’s lands, and Fersen took him into his castle for his Dark Magic experiences – he was famous for that, but as everybody was afraid, he’d never been told anything. Until that day – the King took into his head to set his cousin free and make an example of Fersen, maybe feed him to his Swedish Short-Snout, or his Norwegian Ridgeback – he was said to breed dragons – to discourage other Dark Wizards. And Fersen, without taking a step out of his castle, unleashed a storm so violent that the King’s whole army was engulfed in a gully; then he took the King into his castle. The King came back to his court some days later, looking as though he’d crossed the path of a Dementor. What he had seen had driven him mad."

"Nice little story. But what’s it got to do with cursed gems?" James asked.

"Ages passed before Fersen’s secret was discovered – what he did to always prepare himself for every attack set up against him, how he managed to see hours and maybe even days before that the King was setting up his army. Fersen owned a gem – an aquamarine, it’s a beautiful sort of turquoise-blue gem – called the Eagle’s Eye. It allowed its owner to foresee the near future, thus allowing him to change the course of things. Let’s just say he was practically invincible with it. Whenever he saw that he was about to be attacked, he needed only to raise his own army and set up an ambush to his enemy’s – he always won.

"When he died, the Eagle passed to his son, but he was far from having his father’s knowledge in Dark Magic and strategic skills. He was quickly defeated in a battle during which the Eagle’s Eye disappeared …"

"Has anyone got an idea about what happened to it?" asked Sirius, who in spite of his first reluctant attitude had let himself get fascinated by Lily’s story. He still had his chin in his hand and his eyes were shining.

"Maybe not," said James, shifting slightly – he was starting to get cramps. "I don’t think Binns told us about it back then …"

"I must say you weren’t quite keen on that lesson …" Lily laughed. "You’re right anyway, Binns didn’t tell us about it because historic facts end here. There’s a legend saying that Fersen’s old manservant knew as much Dark Magic as his master did, and that he was the one who took the gem … but I don’t trust that kind of legend much, they always try and put the blame on the servants."

"And that famous manservant had no name, of course …"

"Oh yes, he had. I remember it quite well because it was kind of funny … His name was Balthus Adamas."

James’s eyebrows shot up behind his glasses, "What’s Adams’s first name?"

Lily began to laugh, "There, that’s why I remembered it – their names are so alike that I wondered as well whether that famous Adamas weren’t a remote relative of our caretaker’s … No, Adams’s first name’s Brutus, and for your information, I saw a genuine imprinting of the manservant: Balthus Adamas was small, frail, with white-blond hair and pale green eyes, nothing like Adams. Sorry to disappoint you," she added with a smile.

Sirius shrugged, obviously disappointed. James said to Lily, "That was a great story, Lily, but what have the agates got to do in it? You said that the Eagle’s Eye was an aqua-something, didn’t you?"

"An aquamarine, James … Yes, but Lecanoncy said that ‘two specific agates placed next to each other in a pendant are supposed to unveil the Eagle’s Eye’s hiding place …’ Two small agates – one was white streaked with black and was called the Day; the other, called Night, was black streaked with white – how original. Seems that one had to wear them together in a pendant one next to the other, and … wait a minute – ‘…the wearer of the Night and the Day shall look into the nearest "surface that reflects without thinking" he will be standing next to …’ I stopped writing here," Lily sighed as she rolled again the scrolled of parchment. "I had a headache and I told myself it might seem clearer the morning after."

"That’s something we’ve got," James repeated kindly.

"The ‘surface that reflects without thinking’?" said Peter, screwing up his nose. "What d’you think that can be?"

"Remus is rather good at that kind of riddle," Sirius remarked. "We could go and ask him."

"We’ll try and go to the hospital wing this afternoon to bring him homework," said James. "I hope the matron’ll let us in. And, Lily – bring these rolls of parchment – maybe he’ll have an idea."

Lily bowed her head sheepishly, "If only I hadn’t let this book be stolen so stupidly … Remus won’t be pleased at all, he was the one who found it first after all –"

"Hey, stop that, will you?" Sirius said lightly. "You sound as if you meant it to be stolen. That’s not the case, is it?"

"Well, no, but –"

"So the matter’s closed, Lily," said James.

"Yeah, we’ll find something else," said Peter as he got up from the bed. James gave a sigh of relief – he could at last stretch out his legs. Lily looked relieved too, but not for the same reasons. "Thanks, guys. You’re the best."

"Yeah, we know that," Sirius said with an obnoxious grin. "Don’t we, Jamsie?"

And they gave each other a highfive. Peter gave a chuckle and Lily rolled her eyes.

* * *

They talked about all and everything at breakfast; Vega had noticed Remus’s absence, and didn’t fail to ask his friends the reason. "What’s up with him? Something must’ve happened to him, the five of you are always hanging together."

"He’s sick," Lily answered. "Touch of flu, we think."

"Quite normal, it’s getting colder and colder."

"Yeah," Fergus said, "they really should do something for the dungeons, by the way. We’re freezing down in that Potions classroom."

Emily Emungo, sixth-year and reserve Beater in the Quidditch team, nodded vigorously as she gave a sniff. She would get a cold as soon as mid-November passed. Aymeric Peppery, sitting next to her, gave her a tissue. She took it with a grateful look.

"You should go and see Madam Pomfrey, Emily," Frank Longbottom prompted her. "The match against Hufflepuff is only one week away, and if George gets hurt like last time –"

"It won’t happen, Frank," assured a tall seventh-year brown-haired boy with a broken nose and many scars over his chin and cheekbones.

"I hope so! I hardly dare to hope that our game will be satisfactory this year," grumbled a girl’s voice from the end of the table. "And not calamitous like last year – and the year before – and, I presume, the years before –"

"Heather!" Aymeric said disapprovingly. "You can only destabilise our players by saying things like that …"

Heather Hawthorn gave a shrug and turned back to her bacon plate, muttering something inaudible about inefficient players, never concentrating enough or being motivated enough. For Heather Hawthorn, as odd as it could appear, was the Gryffindor Quidditch team’s coach. Or rather had been. Because this year, the staff had decided to suppress the coach appointment, leaving to the different captains the encouraging and training job. Heather had already witnessed a Gryffindor defeat in her first year; she had entered the team the following year and, due to her unequalled authority and tactical skills, she had been appointed coach that same year. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to lead her team to victory, and had had to leave the team last term.

"She’s been very unlucky," ended Frank. He’d told the whole story to Fergus Finnigan who was drinking in Frank’s words, being the good Quidditch fan he was; James and Sirius had gotten interested in the story too. "I do think that if only she’d really been given a chance she’d have lead Gryffindor to the House Cup. But as she was very young, nobody took her seriously and we’ve been crushed down pathetically just like the years before."

"Everybody knows that Gryffindor’s ‘stuck in rotten luck’," said Mundungus Fletcher with a shrug. "It’s not going to change just now."

" ‘Stuck in rotten luck’?" James looked puzzled.

"Yeah, rotten luck," sighed Chaser Horace Hopdragon, seventh-year too. "Last year our Seeker had hay fever for the final game. He let the Golden Snitch slip right under his nose; well, that Ravenclaw Seeker Prewett didn’t, of course … then there was the time our Keeper Nester Seedall mistook a Bludger for the Quaffle and threw himself at it to stop it …"

Lily winced.

"Poor bloke’s still got the marks," added Horace.

Peter’s eyes darted toward a seventeen-year-old boy, with blond hair and glasses, who had a dreamy and almost absent look on his face – he had what looked like red circles around his eyes, too. I will never play Quidditch, Peter swore to himself with a frightful shiver.

"And that," Horace ended, "is but a sample. Each single year something happens, during every single match."

"If only the staff hadn’t come to this stupid decision …" said Heather’s voice again from the end of the table. "Maybe we could’ve done something for Gryffindor."

"Is she always like this?" Sirius whispered to Frank like a conspirator.

Frank answered on the same tone, "No, only before a game – even if we don’t play."

"But you’re not on the team, Frank, are you?" James asked.

"Nah, I’ve got a little trouble sitting steadily on a broom. But I love the rules, I’m quite interested in that. I do the commentary, that’s something I can do well."

Fergus Finnigan nodded enthusiastically. Obviously, he understood that quite well. Vega finished her bowl of porridge and said in a definitive tone, "I will never understand what’s so great in throwing around a leather ball while trying not to fall to death. Besides, flying makes me sick."

"Oh, really?" asked Lisa Dodger, genuinely surprised. "I love it, you feel so free on a broom … flying’s great!"

"Whatever. Anyway, Si, I’d rather you didn’t try to get on the team next year or after. I don’t want to have to owl Da that you’ve broken both of your legs falling off your broom."

"I’m not falling off my broom, Vega, and I certainly never will," Sirius retorted sharply. James suddenly got the impression that his friend would have wanted to get on the team just to annoy his sister … Vega cast her brother a dark look before getting up from the table and heading toward the big marble staircase.

"Barking mad, she is," muttered Sirius as his gaze followed her. "As if I would just fall off my broom like that … of course, I am the troublesome one, nothing ever happens to her … I swear, sometimes I just hate her."

"Of course not, Sirius," Lily said with a smile, "you don’t hate your sister."

"That’s what you think."

"Obviously you never met mine."

Sirius raised his eyebrows at Lily, "You’ve got a sister? What’s she like?"

"I told you once – don’t you ever pay attention?" exclaimed Lily, frowning. "Yes, I have, her name’s Petunia and she’s my biggest trouble in life – well, maybe apart from that Defence Against the Dark Arts essay we’re to hand in next week. Happy now?"

"You’re lucky just to have someone," said James. "I don’t have anyone to quarrel with, you can’t possibly know how boring it is sometimes, being an only child."

"All right, I change with you whenever you like," grumbled Sirius as he put some more strawberry jam on his toast. "Vega’s driving me nuts."

* * *

Madam Pomfrey didn’t let them in the hospital wing after breakfast, and they had to go to class without any news about Remus. Oddly, Professor McGonagall, though always so quick to spot everything unusual, didn’t seem to notice his absence, and went on with her lesson without asking anything about him. James was a bit baffled.

Morning, then lunch passed – and still there was no way to go through the human fortress that was the matron.

"Must be really serious, what he’s got," Lily moaned as they headed toward Herbology greenhouses. "She let us in the day after, on the previous times –"

"Lily, he’s got the flu," Sirius remarked. "First, it’s infectious. Second, it totally knocks you out, and third all you want to do is staying in bed and being left alone to die in peace – hey Peter, I was kidding!"

"It’s not funny, Sirius," stuttered Peter who had turned whiter than a sheet of parchment. James was divided between amusement and concern.

"Peter? Why do you look so scared?" asked Martin Riley as he walked past him and gave him a curious look.

"I just love scaring him," Sirius said quizzically. "It’s so easy – c’mon Pete, don’t fret!" he cried as he smacked the plump shoulder playfully. "I swear it was only a joke!"

Peter gave a very forced smile. He didn’t quite enjoy Sirius’s rather … peculiar humour.

Professor Sprout still kept a slight grudge against Gryffindors since the Whomping Willow incident; of course, being quite fair and just – she was not the Head of Hufflepuff for nothing – she never placed them at a disadvantage unfairly, but she had been somewhat distant ever since. That day, however, she looked quite kind and even, and greeted them with the broad smile she usually would give to the other houses.

"Follow me, please, in single file."

The students walked behind their teacher toward the second greenhouse in the cold, shy light, typical of a winter’s day.

"All right, today we’ll learn more about the Biters. Who can tell me what a Biter is?"

Sirius raised his hand. Sprout raised her eyebrows.

"Yes, Black?"

"Sort of brownish crawling ivy with big teeth to devour little kids."

Few people laughed. Peter looked exasperated.

"Just quit scaring me!" he whispered, sounding both furious and worried.

"Half of that was correct," Sprout sighed, "until the kids part. Five points to Gryffindor though. This week’s lessons will all be about Biters, their way of life and feeding. As we’ll study these plants, you will need to know what they eat – who can answer this question? Zig?"

"Flesh," whispered Zoey, lowering her eyes.

"That’s correct, but don’t worry, none of you shall be sacrificed and fed to the Biters. We’ll feed them with this."

And Sprout pointed at some baskets lying on the floor; an odd smell was leaking from them. Fleur, Zoey and Lisa looked at each other, then gulped with difficulty. This lesson wasn’t going to be easy.

Indeed, there were small dead animals inside the baskets, and in spite of the Smell-Masking Spell that Sprout had put on them, it wasn’t quite appetising. The students had to get close enough to the wall crawling with Biters to be able to hand their meal then back up as quickly as possible. Even if these plants were still young, their teeth were sharp, and the dragon-hide protective gloves revealed themselves to be very efficient.

However, these gloves only covered the hand and wrist; the whole forearm remained without any other protection than the robes and what the students wore underneath. Some twenty minutes after the beginning of class, James was handing a dead squirrel to the wall covered with Biters when one of them that had been crawling up to his right stretched out swiftly and bit in his forearm.

"Ouch!"

James jumped backwards. The Biter’s teeth had sank through his robes and jumper sleeve; it felt as if a dozen of needles had suddenly been stuck into his flesh as blood began to stain his sleeve.

Lily turned very pale and Sirius leaped forward bawling, "James! What’s that damn thing done to you?"

"Just bit me, not ate me Sirius, don’t worry," said James who couldn’t help but smile at Sirius’s suddenly scared look.

"Let me see that," said Sprout. She went and gently took James’s arm. "Hm – you should go and see the matron about this, Potter."

James took his bag with his left hand as Sirius asked, "Can I take him up to the hospital wing, Professor?"

"I think it’s unnecessary, Black," said Sprout reassuringly. She took a half-broken quill and a piece of parchment out of her robes, and wrote down a few words. "Potter knows the way up there – don’t you, boy?"

"Yes, Professor," said James, slightly disappointed that Sirius wasn’t coming with him – they could have said hello to Remus together.

As he walked out of the greenhouse, he could hear Sirius chuckle mockingly behind him, "Yes, Professor. You lucky dog."

James turned round: Sirius was grinning broadly at him. He walked out shaking his head, suppressing a little chuckle.

James walked across the grounds, icy snow crackling under his feet. The pain in his right arm was sharp, but he forgot it for a moment at the thought of having at last an excuse to see and maybe talk to Remus.

The corridors were deserted as he pushed the double doors open to get into the castle. He didn’t dare to make a sound while walking along the stony wall, almost daunted by the high ceiling and especially by the silence ringing around him. It was getting warmer as James strolled along the corridors, and steam was starting to cloud over his glasses. Coming a few feet from the door of the hospital wing, he stopped a while to wipe them on his robes – that’s when he heard the voices.

Two voices, barely whispers, coming from inside the hospital wing, almost completely muffled by the thick walls and ash door. James only could hear them because he was standing so close to the door without making any sound. He didn’t understand what it was about, but as he got closer, he recognised the two persons’ voices. Madam Pomfrey, and Remus.

James hesitated. What was the best thing to do? Knock on the door and interrupt the conversation? Wait a while and knock later? Or …

Eventually, James gave in to curiosity and pressed his ear against the door. If he listened carefully, he could understand most part of the conversation. If my mum could see me, she’d fly off the handle, he thought with a silent chuckle. Her darling, saintly little boy eavesdropping. How shocking.

"Honestly, Lupin, you should’ve known better!"

The matron sounded both angry and concerned.

"I didn’t have a choice, Madam."

"Of course you did! You could have lied, you could have said anything but not done that!"

"I already have seen someone casting this spell, it’s not that difficult if you concentrate –"

"This spell is far too complicated for an underage sorcerer’s apprentice. I totally forbid you to try that again – not before you pass your OWLs anyway. You’re only eleven, for Merlin’s sake! One single error and you would’ve been brought in here in a coma! D’you have any idea of what it means?"

"But it did work, yes?" Remus’s voice, though weak, sounded almost hopeful.

"You’ve got a raging fever, you look terrible and you are to stay in bed for at least a week – I reckon it ‘worked’, indeed. But don’t you dare do it again, Lupin."

"But I could go gently next time –"

"Are you deaf? UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES! I almost had to carry you all the way here last night and you were a real mess this morning. Next time, like you say, just say that you mum’s ill and that you’re going back home – don’t try and be the hero by casting a very strong curse on yourself. I am totally astounded that it didn’t kill you! Now, drink this."

"But –"

"Not one word more! You’ve done well so far, keep it up, that’s all. But if I hear that you have used any curse again to explain your absence, I go straight to the Headmaster. And that is FINAL!"

The voices dropped and James couldn’t hear a word more. He pressed his ear against the door harder, eaten up with curiosity. He had almost forgotten the pain in his arm which wasn’t bleeding anymore anyway. His heart was pounding in his ears and his mind was racing with questions – what did all of this mean?

James gave a jump when he heard quick footsteps toward the door from inside the room. He took a few steps away, then walked normally toward the ash door, just in case. He knocked a couple of times; after a few seconds, the door of the hospital wing opened on a frowning Madam Pomfrey.

"Potter? Why are you here? If you want to see your friend go away, he’s sleeping. Let him have rest, he needs it."

"No, I’m here because I got bitten in Herbology class."

"Pardon?"

Seeing the matron’s puzzled look, James handed her Sprout’s note; she took it and glanced at it, then at James, "Follow me."

As he walked into the hospital wing, James peeked around to see Remus, but he couldn’t. A curtain was drawn around a bed in a corner. He knew then that his friend was sleeping, as the matron had told him.

James had already been in the hospital wing before; it was a very large, but warm room with light-stoned walls, with beds lined up and sinks made of the same stone as the walls. The faucets were shaped like gargoyles – blue-eyed for cold water, red-eyed for warm. A door on the left led to the matron’s office.

Madam Pomfrey had him settle down on a bed; he pulled off his robes for her to examine him. The cut was one or two inches long, but wasn’t very deep; the matron cleaned it gently with a piece of tissue soaked with some strange yellowish potion that smelled strongly of pepper, then walked across the room to fetch something down from the shelves. It gave James time to turn to the closed curtains, a few beds away, and whisper, "Remus? Rem’, can you hear me? Remus!"

No answer came to him from behind the curtain; James, who expected it, supposed that his friend must have been given a Sleep Solution to keep him asleep. It was almost a good thing – James had so many questions in his head that he didn’t know where to begin. While Madam Pomfrey took her wand and closed up the cut – giving some little gnawing pain in James’s arm – he wondered about which question he should ask first. And while the matron rubbed gently his now cured arm with some sort of purple, mint-smelling powder, he chose one of these questions and turned it over and over in his head, without coming up with any form of answer though –

Why had Remus cursed himself sick?

* * *

Madam Pomfrey kept James in the hospital wing for a whole half-an-hour; the peppery potion she had used to deaden the pain had almost sent him to sleep, despite the purple powder to mask the smell. Laying down in bed with all his clothes on, waiting for the dizzy feeling to wear off, James tried to think hard. What he had just heard totally puzzled him.

So he had been right – Remus had lied to them. He had for three months, telling them he was going back home to his sick mum – which was wrong. He was the ill one. Why would Madam Pomfrey seem to know all about it otherwise? "You’ve done well so far, keep it up …" "Next time, just say that you mum’s ill and that you’re going back home …" She knew about it, that was for sure. Whatever his lie could be, she was shielding it. Why, if not to protect him?

But protect him from who?

From us, James thought as if on cue. Not to let us know his secret. But he could share this secret with us, couldn’t he? We’re his friends!

His friends … James didn’t know what to think now. Did Remus really consider them as true friends, Sirius, Lily, Peter and him? James had never asked him that. It was much too personal. They had known each other for only three months after all; but James wanted to believe that with the frights they had had together, the pranks they had set up together and the questions they had asked together, they had created something special … On the other hand, they didn’t know much personal stuff about each other; the subject of sisters and brothers for instance had scarcely been developed. Only Lily and Sirius had talked about older sisters. Remus hadn’t let out a word during the whole chat, answering to James who asked him why he kept so silent that he had nothing to say on the subject, always with this kindly quizzical trademark smile. James had deduced he was an only child; it was his own situation as well as Peter’s, but that hadn’t stopped them from speaking their minds about it. But not one word had come from Remus. He just sat in his armchair of the common room, sometimes peeking over his book about dragons of Great Britain, part of the gang but somehow apart from the conversation.

Not that the others talked much about themselves, though. It had never occurred to James to talk about his father’s constant coldness or his mum’s usual overprotective attitude, and he was pretty sure to have been the only one Sirius had entrusted with that childhood memory of his. It was probably better this way – everybody had to have some little secrets to keep to themselves for a group of friends to work well.

But right now, it had nothing to do with "some little secrets" since it was about something as serious as the health of one of their "gang". Beneath the sort of anger that James felt toward Remus for not telling them anything about it filtered a little remorse. After all, his friend’s personal problems had nothing to do with James, and if he hadn’t wanted to talk about it with them it was his own decision. James somewhat knew that Remus didn’t have to tell them everything, especially if his problem was that serious and private.

Still, he could’ve – don’t know, said something, anything –

The more James tried to reason as seriously and sensibly as possible, the more a sort of bitter feeling of betrayal emerged. He knew that was stupid, that Remus didn’t owe them any explanation – but for once James had what could be called true friends, he would have wanted to tell them everything and hear everything from them … as true friends do.

He just didn’t realise that it was a bit early for total trust, and that it takes a bit more than three months of pranks to build a true friendship.

After all, James was only eleven.

* * *

The matron let James go two minutes before the end of Herbology class, so he decided to go to the common room and wait for the others. He was about to enter through the Fat Lady’s portrait hole when he heard a breathless voice behind him, "Jamsie! James!"

It was Sirius running, grasping his bag strap on his shoulder, Lily and Peter on his heels. James turned round with a broad grin.

"Are you all right, Jamsie?" Sirius breathed as he caught up with him. "How’s your arm?"

"Quite fine, Madam Pomfrey fixed it up in two minutes, but I had to stay up there because what she healed me with got me dizzy for three quarters of an hour."

"Did you see Remus?" asked Lily almost worriedly. James didn’t answer at once: he didn’t know whether he should tell them about what he’d heard in the corridor or not.

"Yes," he said eventually, "but he was sleeping. Madam Pomfrey said he’d need a great deal of rest."

"Oh." Sirius sounded disappointed. "You didn’t miss anything important today," he said then as he walked past James through the portrait hole. "Sprout only told us to read the paragraph 16 page 20 for the next lesson. Medusa," he said to the Fat Lady. The picture swung open to let them in.

Once settled down in an armchair with his A Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi opened page 20, James tried to concentrate on Biters and their feeding habits – but failed at it. All his thoughts raced back to Remus and the conversation he’d eavesdropped. What kind of illness could he have that was so serious? Why hadn’t he told them anything about it?

James gave an exasperated sigh and snapped the book shut. None of his questions would get an answer if he went on this way – alone. He had to tell someone. He looked up from his book and glanced at the common room. Lily was helping Peter with a History of Magic essay about magical discoveries in the Eighteenth century and Sirius was playing a game of Exploding Snap with Mundungus Fletcher.

Why not?… James wondered what Sirius would do if he told him; Sirius was unpredictable. He could mock him, he could just shrug, he could laugh at his concern – although – James was suddenly reminded of the grave expression on Sirius’s face when Sirius had told him about his mum and asked him not to tell anybody. Sirius’s blue eyes, so clear, had never seemed more soulful and expressive, or more serious and trusting. It hadn’t lasted long, but it had marked James’s memory enough to remember it quite well. James nodded. He had made his decision.

He put his book back in his bag and got up from his armchair, just as the door of the common room opened to let in a slightly annoyed-looking Vega. She almost slammed the portrait door shut, causing the Fat Lady to yell, "Young lady, that’s not acceptable behaviour for a Prefect!"

"Problems, Vega?" James asked curiously.

Vega shook her head, "No, not really. Only Amos insisting on walking me up to my common room. He’s been following me for the whole afternoon, I had to tell him I was going to hand in a Potions essay for tomorrow just to get him to let go of me."

"Why don’t you just tell him he’s annoying?" asked James.

The dark-haired girl looked sheepish, "I don’t have the heart to do so … he’s doing nothing wrong after all, really. It’s not his fault he is like he is …"

James shook his head in turn. "You had the guts to slap Rosier’s dad’s face and you’re afraid to tell Diggory he’s dead boring? I don’t understand you."

"It wasn’t the same thing back then, this guy had said something about Sirius that – oh, never mind. Don’t worry, I’ll find something." Vega gave a smile as she grabbed the strap of her bag and walked past him.

When she was a few feet away, James said, "You should – I don’t know – tell him you’ve already got someone!"

Vega stopped in her tracks, then half turned to him, "I’ll think about it," she said. And she went to sit at a table with her friends.

James went to Sirius; when he was standing right behind him, he whispered, "I have to talk to you."

"Later, Jamsie," Sirius said excitedly. "I’m about to give Mundungus the hiding of the century – you didn’t see that one coming, eh Fletch!"

Mundungus pulled a face. James put his hand on Sirius’s shoulder and whispered again, "Please, it’s important."

Sirius cast a surprised glance at his friend; seeing the expression on his face, he laid down his last two cards, flashing one of those wolfish grins of his, "Here, Fletch – a queen and an ace. I was winning anyway."

And he followed James up to their dormitory. Once they got up there, James shut the door; Sirius leaned against the wall, a curious look on his cheerful face, "So then, Jamsie? What’s up that’s so important?"

"Er …"

Where should I begin?

"It’s about Remus."

And James told Sirius all about the conversation between Madam Pomfrey and their friend that he’d heard while waiting in the corridor. When he was finished, Sirius looked just as puzzled as James felt, which reassured him a little. Now there were two of them wondering about the same things.

"So – Remus’s cursed himself? To have the flu?" said Sirius after a minute’s silence. James nodded. "Whoa. That’s weird. He must’ve been really afraid of that Astronomy essay."

"Sirius –"

"Just kidding! No, must’ve been something else, that’s for sure. Something important. Otherwise he wouldn’t be plotting with the matron like this."

"Glad to hear that from you," James muttered. Then he added with a touch of hope, "Have you got an idea?"

Sirius shook his head, frowning, "For the moment – not one. But that doesn’t mean I won’t have one later. I’ll think hard about it, Jamsie. I’ve had the feeling he was hiding something from us for a long time, but … I didn’t think it was that serious."

"You – are you worried?"

"Hey, of course I’m worried! That thing’s about Remus – the guy who saved our neck more than once – and he’s quite a good mate. I like him."

A little pause followed Sirius’s words; then he looked James straight in the eye and said seriously, "We should just ask him, James. We should ask him and see what he answers – he might not tell us anything, but it’s worth a try."

James nodded, glad that Sirius had proposed that particular solution rather than him. He had turned the question over and over in his head without being able to decide what to do.

"And – what if he doesn’t answer? What do we do then?"

"We don’t ask him anything more," sighed Sirius, before adding, with a sly smile of his own, "– but we don’t have to stop wondering – we’ll just seek answers by ourselves."

"What?’ James jumped. ‘Don’t you mean – spying on him or something?’

"Well, yeah," said Sirius matter-of-factly. "But I mean just look for him, friendly, not as if he was Public Enemy Number 1 – eh, he’s still our mate!"

"But isn’t he going to be upset about it?"

"We’ll face when the time comes. Mind, he can also tell us the truth, you know."

"Or lie to us," James remarked, thinking about Remus’s skills in that domain. "Tell me, Sirius – do we tell the others? Lily, and Peter?"

Sirius thought for a moment, then shook his head, "Nah, as long as we’re not sure about everything we should keep all that to ourselves. Maybe they didn’t even notice."

"Lily probably did. She’s very sly."

"I never said she was not."

Sirius went to James, who was sitting on his bed, staring at the wall in front of him.

"Hey," he said reassuringly. "One of these days, we’ll find out what’s wrong with him and help him out of it."

Then he walked to the door and opened it. Just before walking through it, he turned slightly to James and said in a laughing voice, "Are you aware that we have absolutely nothing to do with all that, by the way?"

James’s head snapped up toward the door. But Sirius had already left.

* * *

Remus was back in class a week and a half later, still looking tired but cheerful as usual. He hadn’t really missed a class – his four friends had managed to get him every important lesson, and even Professor Walsh’s surprise assignment set up for the start of December didn’t catch him off-guard. McGonagall had regularly asked for news about him, and seemed glad to see him back in her class. Sirius celebrated the event by humming the Beatles’ Lady Madonna loudly for the whole Transfiguration hour and had Gryffindor lose five points. He also got rather a dirty look from Fleur Delaney, as well.

At Remus’s request when he was back, James and Sirius told him about the Quidditch match Gryffindor had played a couple of days ago – their house had got out more or less decently, tying for victory with Hufflepuff until the Gryffindor Seeker, Archibald Finch, spotted the Golden Snitch. Unfortunately, Finch had missed it from a few inches and the golden little ball had slipped into the right sleeve of his Quidditch robes, then out of his left sleeve. Gryffindors had counted their chickens before they were hatched. And that had helped the Hufflepuff Seeker, Aidan McMillan, to spot the Snitch. He had grasped it and the game had ended with a fine Hufflepuff victory. Fergus Finnigan hadn’t calmed down ever since, still raving on about poor Archibald, in spite of Martin Riley and the others’ attempts to cool him down. Fergus’ love of Quidditch had even urged him to suggest Archie to entrust him with his Quidditch robes during Christmas holidays, for his mum to mend them.

"He didn’t suggest he would mend them himself, did he?" Remus asked with a laugh.

Lily beamed in his direction, and answered in a conspirator’s whisper, "Oh, yes. He just didn’t want it to be known."

And all of them had roared with laughter.

* * *

Days passed by, and James and Sirius were still waiting for a chance to speak to Remus alone. While waiting, they chomped at the bit, telling themselves that perhaps, it wasn’t that important, but they didn’t convince themselves at all. On the other hand, it seemed that neither Lily nor Peter had noticed anything odd about Remus; none of them had remarked anything about it anyway. Sirius would say that Lily was far too busy with all of her books and Peter was far too busy looking in every shadowy corner to see Adams or Snape to notice anything.

And besides, there was their agate. That famous agate they’d discovered in such an odd hiding place – they hadn’t found anything yet about why it was there. Of course, there had been the story Lily had told the boys (this had been the second thing she’d told Remus when she had managed to see him, after "Lecanoncy’s been stolen!"), about Fersen, Adamas, the Eagle’s Eye and the agates that permitted to find it. Remus’s idea about the "surface that reflects without thinking" had been quite simple. He was indeed rather good at that kind of riddle, as Sirius had said.

"– And then we thought you’d have perhaps an idea about it."

Remus took the scroll of parchment covered with Lily’s hasty scribbling, frowning slightly. When he looked up again, his eyes were twinkling, "And you didn’t find out?"

"Uh?" said Sirius, raising a thin black eyebrow. "Nah, sorry, we didn’t. How stupid of us, eh? Do we have the right to live, being so stupid?"

"Come off it, Sirius, you’re far from being stupid and you know that perfectly – it’s just that it looks rather simple to me."

"And what would it be, according to you?" asked James, pushing his glasses up his nose.

Remus gave a smile. "Do you know many surfaces reflect?"

Lily had frowned and stared up at the ceiling. Then she had gaped, her eyes wide open, "Oh, Remus – could it be – a mirror?"

"A mirror?" Peter looked puzzled.

"Yeah, a mirror reflects you – shows your reflection – but it doesn’t think by itself …"

"Bravo, Lily," said Remus, grinning. "That’s what I was thinking of, too."

"I don’t believe I didn’t think of it in the first place," Lily moaned. "Now that’s stupid of me…"

"Not at all, old girl …"

So, according to that theory, one had to wear the two agates – the Day and the Night – together on the same small chain, while looking in a mirror – or a pond, anything that could reflect an image – to know at last the Eagle’s Eye’s hiding place. Fat lot of good it did them. Everything was theory, and besides they weren’t concerned the least – unless, as Sirius had suggested, the one who stole the Laqueemanocy book – "Lecanoncy, Sirius" – "Whatever, Lil’ …" – had done so with a precise purpose. That remained to be seen.

As for the pranks, they were becoming more and more difficult to set up; prowling along the corridors of the castle at night was fun but far from safe, and James was really starting to wish they had something that allowed them to sneak around everywhere without being spotted. Besides, Severus Snape hadn’t tried anything on them for rather long a time, and it was getting disturbing seeing him staring at them as he walked past them with a sly and wicked sort of smile on his face.

"Bet anything he’s up to something," said Sirius after watching him turning at a corner. "He looks too quiet to be safe."

James, Remus, Lily, and Peter had all agreed with him; now they’d just have to keep up their guards and watch him carefully. Strength through unity, like they say.

As a result, James and Sirius had some things to keep themselves busy with, between spying on Snape and discreetly watching Remus, waiting for an occasion to speak to him alone. They finally got one, on the Tuesday of the second week of December; Lily was helping Peter with a Charm homework in the common room and didn’t pay any attention to them. It didn’t take more than a glance between James and Sirius to say, "Here we go."

"Rem? Can we have a word, please?"

Remus looked up from his Defence against the Dark Arts lessons and said with a smile, ‘Of course, go.’

"Well … we’d rather be alone."

Remus looked surprised, but he just gave a shrug and put his rolls of parchment back in his bag. Then he followed his two friends up the staircase. Once reaching the last dormitory, James shut the door, then turned to Sirius who was leaning against the post of his bed, and to Remus who was gathering his books for the next day’s classes.

"Remus, we need to talk."

"About what?" asked Remus calmly as he sat down on his bed. James went to sit in front of him, on Sirius’s bed.

"Rem," began Sirius on a much graver tone than usual, "we know you didn’t go to see your mum, nor last month, nor two months ago."

James thought Remus paled slightly. However he kept staring at them, his blue grey eyes never blinking.

"And above all," Sirius went on, "we know that you’ve cursed yourself ill last time, and that this curse wasn’t quite the kind we learn in Flitwick’s class. And you could’ve died," he added, his voice slightly hoarse all of a sudden.

Remus didn’t say anything for a short while; then he asked, his voice still as calm, "How d’you know about that?"

"I got bit by a Biter the day after, and Sprout told me to go to the hospital wing," said James. "I’ve heard a conversation when standing in the corridor – and understood what you were saying, you and Madam Pomfrey. I didn’t mean to listen," he added quickly.

Remus shook his head, and asked, "Who have you told about it?"

"Nobody,’ Sirius answered. "We wanted to ask you what was your problem first."

This time, James was sure he had seen Remus turn pale.

"And see if you’d answer us first," James ended.

Remus looked at him with a sort of hope in his eyes, "You mean – can I not answer you?"

Sirius and James looked at each other, then James said, "Yeah, but – it’d be better if you just told us – I mean, we’re, er … sort of worried – each month you look as if you aren’t going to live through the week – well …"

He stopped abruptly with the impression of sounding utterly stupid. Even Sirius cast him a rather ironic lopsided glance. But Remus’s smile was back on his face, as well as a little colour on his cheeks, "Really? So that’s just because you’re – you’re worried – for me? Honestly, that’s quite nice of you, guys."

He ran a hand in his honey-brown hair that always fell in his eyes and gave a little wince, "If I’m allowed to not answer then, I’d rather not do so."

Sirius couldn’t help a disappointed sigh. Remus began to laugh, "But you can quit worrying right now, because I’m not dying, even if I don’t look well – I’m fine."

"You sure?" Sirius said quickly. "Cause we can help you somehow, there must be a –"

But Remus just shook his head, without his slight smile fading, "No, I don’t think so. Now, I’d like the subject not being mentioned again, please."

"Of course, Rem," James whispered. Sirius nodded. Remus got up from his bed and took a quill out of his bag, "See you later, I promised Zoey I’d lend her one of my quills, she broke hers once again."

He stopped for a second, looking a bit puzzled, with one eyebrow raised, "I get the impression she tends to break a lot of quills, by the way – I’m going to owl my mum for new quills, I’m running out of them by dint of helping Zoey out –"

"You can ask Vega, she can buy you some next time she goes to Hogsmeade," said Sirius, winking at James who was hiding his smile. "She likes you, she’ll be glad to do you this favour."

Remus gave an absent-minded smile, thanked Sirius and opened the door of the dormitory. However he stopped on the threshold to stare intently at his two friends.

"Thank you," he said in a low voice. "It’s really great, having friends who are so understanding. I mean it, I do thank you."

He looked at the two of them straight in the eye, one by one, and James eventually looked down and whispered a rather awkward "Not at all". When Remus was gone, he turned to Sirius who was chewing on his lip.

"So then? We do as we’ve planned, don’t we?"

"Yeah, definitely," said Sirius, frowning. "Not that I’m glad to do it, though –"

"He trusts us, Sirius," said James in a low voice. "How can we do this to him?"

"Hey, it’s not as if we were going to commit some crime! We’ll just keep an eye on him, that’s all. Maybe what he’s got is really serious, but he’s too polite to tell us – or maybe he’s scared. Of what, that I don’t know."

"Mind you, I do hate doing this."

"So do I, Jamsie, and not just a bit! But do you want to know what’s with him or not?"

"Yeah, but –"

"So then, let’s do it! When we find out, we won’t tell anyone and we’ll just keep his little secret – until our dying day if we have to," Sirius said solemnly.

"Do you always have to overdo everything you do?" muttered James who couldn’t help but give a smile.

* * *

During the whole month of December, James and Sirius watched Remus carefully, but didn’t notice any change. Remus remained Remus – almost the only one to stay awake in History of Magic and Defence against the Dark Arts classes, the one who congratulated James and Sirius when they got the best marks in Transfiguration, Charms, Potions and so on, to Lily’s great displeasure – she worked hard only to get the third or fourth grade, and it drove her crazy each time those two bone-idles who never seem to be working pinched the first grades … nothing seem to change. Nothing either about his health; he looked quite fine, apart from the constant shadows underlining his eyes. But he had told his friends that he took them for granted, as they seem to have always been there.

James could keep thinking hard, chatting about it with Sirius, he didn’t come up with any reason explaining Remus’s odd absences. Maybe it was some Muggle-related thing? After all, Remus knew many things that James and Peter were totally ignorant of, but that would remind Lily and Sirius of something. But according to the latter, who, even if he was not quite Muggle-born knew a great deal about Muggles than James did, there was no such illness.

"Well, there’s Vega turning weird for a couple of days around the same time every month," he once said thoughtfully, "but I think that’s just some girls’ stuff. I mean, she and my Ma would shut the door in our faces, Da and me, and talk for hours. Never understood what it was about, by the way."

* * *

Christmas vacations were getting slowly closer, but getting closer anyway. It was even becoming one of the only subjects of conversation that ran along the corridors nobody lingered in for long because of the freezing air-streams. Davey Gudgeon, from Hufflepuff, let it slip one day to Lily in Herbology class that Professor Sprout had dropped by in the Transfiguration classroom to make a list of those who wished to stay at Hogwarts; he added proudly that he’d been one of the first to register, for there were some whispers about a challenge set up between some Hogwarts students involving the Whomping Willow. Of course, James and Sirius pricked up their ears, and of course promised they’d be part of it. Lily sighed resignedly. She wondered what could be the exact point of that ‘challenge’, but she’d have bet the whole content of her brand new vault at the wizarding Bank of Gringotts that it was something dangerous.

That was more or less what Remus tried to tell them the next day, in Potions class; they were brewing a Cooling Cure, which wasn’t any picnic down in the cold dungeons. Professor Walsh, all wrapped up in her cloak and her collar pulled up to the tip of her pointed chin, seemed to scoff at them as she sat at her desk.

"She’s not human, that’s what I’m saying," whispered Sirius, pulling his dragon-hide gloves off for a while to blow on his fingers to warm them. "We’re freezing dead and she sets us a Cooling Cure. As if we needed it."

"No, really James, I mean it," Remus was saying between chattering teeth. "You should be very careful – a Whomping Willow’s quite some vicious thing. A neighbour of mine used to have one in his garden – grew it, gave it water and all, and as an answer the Willow knocked his left wrist off. And nobody ever could stitch it back up – now he’s walking around with a fake hand – Muggles call that a prosthesis, I think."

James gave a sudden shudder, but it was more out of cold than fear. The idea was rather exciting, and a little danger could only add more glory to the feat of touching the infamous Whomping Willow in front of the whole school.

"Sirius, is ‘prosthesis’ the right word?"

Sirius turned questioning eyes to them, his brows furrowed, "I say, are you at least sure she’s reflected in mirrors?"

He was still following his train of thoughts. Lily began to chuckle, but a knock on the door stopped her. Walsh frowned, and said "Come in" in an impatient-sounding voice. Professor McGonagall walked into the classroom.

"Minerva," said Walsh in her cool voice as she greeted her with a short nod. "Why are you coming and disturbing my lesson?"

"I’m here to take the names of those willing to stay here during the Christmas vacations," answered McGonagall quite calmly. "If you’d be ever so kind to give me a few minutes, it can’t take long."

"Couldn’t you do that later?"

Walsh’s tone would have been enough to turn a hot cup of tea into a chip of ice. McGonagall held up her gaze, and answered, a slight tone of impatience in her voice, "I would rather do it now. Do you have any objection to that, Rowena?"

Walsh’s sharp little eyes remained focused on McGonagall, as if sizing her up; then she went to sit at her desk and said in an even colder voice than before, if this was possible, "Make it quick, please. I don’t want my class to be behind because of you."

Professor McGonagall walked up to the Gryffindors and took a long scroll of parchment out of her robes, then a long eagle quill. She called, "Sirius Black!" and Sirius answered almost at once, "I’m staying, Professor!"

He was beaming, looking to have quite enjoyed the two teachers’ confrontation and its ending above all. In spite of his calling her ‘Lady Minerva’ and other kinds of slight sarcasm, he openly championed McGonagall over Walsh.

Fleur Delaney returned home for the vacations, and so did Charlie McKinnon, the Scott twins, Zoey Zig, William Wilson and Martin Riley. Fergus Finnigan stayed at Hogwarts (James suspected that his doing so had something to do with Quidditch, or with that challenge thing about the Whomping Willow). Lisa Dodger stayed as well; according to Lily, it was because she wanted to keep an eye on Tim Thomas who had looked quite enthusiastic as soon as the Willow challenge was mentioned. Among the five friends, Peter was the only one who went back home for Christmas; he was getting homesick and he missed his mum. Lily hadn’t answer "I stay" to McGonagall without a little twinge of sorrow, but she fought it away thinking she was going to spend Christmas with her three best friends. As for James, he had answered "I’m staying" at once, too glad to find an escape from the endless Potter Mansion-style Christmas meal, where he sat at the hugely long table with his parents at the two ends, where nobody talked unless to ask for a piece of turkey. Here, at least, there would be some warm kind of human touch. Remus stayed at Hogwarts too, and he didn’t appear quite as delighted as James and Sirius; Lily went to see him when the class ended and asked him what was wrong.

"You could’ve return home," she said kindly. "Why’d you insist on staying if you’d rather go back to your mum?"

"That’s not quite it," Remus answered immediately, before adding with a shrug, "That’s just that I – it’s the first time I ever spend Christmas without my mum, that’s all. It feels weird, but I can deal with it."

And he smiled to Lily, who couldn’t help but sympathise. She knew the feeling.

The morning of the first day of vacation was a bit strange; firstly, James had fallen asleep the night before without hearing Peter’s slight snores, and when he got down to the common room that morning, there was only a scatter of students instead of the usual crowd. The feeling was stronger in the Great Hall – not were there only students missing, but also some teachers. Dumbledore was still there of course, and so were Walsh and McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout; Hagrid and Adams sat at each end of the High Table. But some of the teachers James didn’t have and whom Vega had told him one or two words about weren’t there.

James had thought that Hogwarts during vacations would be the same as Hogwarts during weekends – calmer and quieter. He was sort of right. Half of the students had returned home; the corridors were empty, the common room much emptier than usual. But while the students had only two days to do their homework on weekends, now they had a whole fortnight to do it; and James and Sirius had decided to enjoy that fortnight as much as possible. They loved strolling around the castle – they didn’t bump on Adams as much as before – going outside up to Hagrid’s cabin; its owner gave them big waves from the threshold. He eventually invited them to have a cup of tea, and the two friends were glad to see Curly, the huge yellow dog, who leaped on them and started to lick their face conscientiously. They sat on the patchwork counterpane to drink the boiling tea the gamekeeper had fixed them. They would talk about Hogwarts, classes, teachers, and Hagrid would tell them the oddest stories, ones he’d heard in bars or just stories he knew of. James and Sirius loved these stories. Hagrid had a strange way of telling them, getting carried away by the story and diverting a lot from his original plot to finally forget what he was actually talking about – until James or Sirius reminded him of the subject. Then he would turn pink, and go on in a mutter that would become louder and louder as his mood lightened up. Then everything went again.

Lily and Remus sometimes went along with them; Hagrid would ask Lily to tell Muggle stories. Lily’s style, of course, was quite different from Hagrid’s. She would tell them Muggle ideas and theories about wizards; everybody was always shouting with laughter by the end, and she was never the last to do so.

Two days or so before Christmas’s Eve, however, something quite serious happened. When they climbed up to their dormitory one night after dinner, after spending quite a while in the common room, James, Sirius, and Remus found the door half-open. They fell silent at once, opened the door wide, and glanced inside.

It was utter and total mess. Each wardrobe had been emptied, the content of each drawer thrown down onto the floor, the sheets and blankets had been torn off the beds, and every trunk jerked open and emptied as well. Their things were scattered all over the floor, robes, books, scrolls of parchment, quills – James’s telescope lay broken, and several robes had been ripped. A snow storm of feathers fallen from the torn-apart pillows floated over it all.

The three boys stood for a while on the doorstep, as if struck by a bolt of lightening; Remus, his face livid, was the first to walk, very slowly, into the disaster-stricken room. He leaned down to pick up his History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot which was lying open on the floor, then turned dumbfounded eyes to James and Sirius still standing on the doorstep, "Who – who can have done this?"

James blinked several times, as though to make sure all of this was real. Sirius stood there with his mouth hanging open, sheer astonishment written all over his face. Then he gulped, and let out the most fantastic torrent of curses James had ever heard. Remus jumped a foot in the air and stared wide-eyed at Sirius who was still bawling; he had started to pace across the dorm with a great deal of hands gestures, stumbling every two steps on a book or some other thing.

One, then two, then three heads popped in by the open door.

"What’s up?" asked an amazed Fergus Finnigan when Sirius stopped at last to regain his breath. "Sirius? Have you finally gone crazy, mate?"

Then he glanced over the room, and goggled back at them, eyes wild with astonishment and fear. Next to him, Tim Thomas let out a strangled noise and Mundungus Fletcher, who had heard Sirius’s curses from the staircase as he was going up to his own dorm, stood there dumbstruck for a while.

"B–blimey – what the hell’s happened in here?"

"That’s the question," said Remus in a more high-pitched voice than usual. "Haven’t you seen anybody suspicious?"

Fergus shook his head, "Nah, didn’t see anyone … Tim, have you?"

"Haven’t either," Tim stammered. "I say, the one who did that must’ve been a madman –"

"Or a thief," said a girl’s voice behind him. Lisa Dodger had just turned up, wearing a flower-patterned dressing gown and brandishing her wand alight like a sword, a threatening look on her face. Lily followed closely; when she saw the disaster, she ran forward to the boys with an anguished cry, "Oh God – are you all right?"

James had sat down on his devastated bed; he shook his head slowly, his face ashen.

"Yeah, we found the dorm in this state when we came up here."

"A thief, Lisa?" asked Remus, raising his eyebrows. He was still holding his History of Magic book in his hand and stood there in the middle of the room, unable to move.

Lisa ignored Tim’s rolling of eyes and nodded, "Well, yes! That’s typical! You sure that nothing’s gone?"

"We – we don’t know," James uttered. He looked up and stared at Sirius and Remus in the eye, "We should clear up the mess a bit. So we’d make sure everything’s here."

His hand was clutching something in his pocket, and Remus, Sirius, and Lily alone understood. The agate was still safe. That was already something.

Mundungus fetched McGonagall; she appeared in a tartan dressing gown, her black hair left in a loose braid on her shoulder. In spite of her half-astonished, half-furious look as she gazed around to evaluate the situation, she didn’t quite look like a teacher at that point. Shocked and angry as he was, Sirius did notice that "Lady Minerva" had quite shapely calves.

Later, when McGonagall and the others had left, Lily stayed with the boys to help them tidy up the dorm; their teacher had asked them to make a precise estimation of the damage done, to perhaps replace missing objects if they had to. They worked in silence, putting books back in the trunks, folding clothes neatly – even Sirius – and putting them back into the wardrobes, picking up sheets and blankets and making the beds again … not one pillow was intact; every one had been torn up and the feathers thrown away. Each robe had been turned inside-out and every pocket checked.

Very late at night, when they finally were done, the room being in a more or less acceptable state, the foursome sat down on the floor in the middle of the dorm.

"Nothing’s gone," Remus eventually said in a low, tired voice. "Somebody’s been looking for something here, but he didn’t find it."

"They must’ve been looking for the agate," James whispered as he took the skin-made bag out of his pocket. He had carried that bag with him for a month, taking it out of his pocket to stuff it under his pillow at night – on Lily’s advice – to put it in his pocket again in the morning. "But why?"

Sirius looked up, his eyes shining, "We’ve been warned," he whispered. "The people who’ve stolen that Divination and Gems book must’ve been the same who did that. Remember those footsteps we heard down in the kitchen corridors, back the day after we found the agate? We didn’t see anybody, did we? Well, nobody’s seen anything here either."

"D’you think that the one who did that has found a way to make himself invisible?" asked Remus, in a steadier voice.

"Actually, there’s lots of means to make yourself invisible," remarked Lily. "Transparency Potion, See-through Spell – there are even Invisibility Cloaks, if I remember well."

"I agree with that," said James, "but the Potions and Charms you’re talking about are quite difficult to deal with, even seventh-years don’t study that I think – as for Invisibility Cloaks, they’re very rare – quite hard to find."

"Okay, let’s say that someone – any one – owns such a Cloak. It’d explain why we didn’t see anything in that corridor, and why nobody saw who messed up our dorm."

"Who would it be, according to you?"

Sirius shook his head sadly, "I don’t have a clue."

Then his eyes flashed once more, "But it’s someone from the school, that I can bet anything on. I could even bet that it’s got something to do with Fletch’s "kidnapping", and I’d give everything to know what it’s got to do with that agate …"

* * *

In such a context, Christmas couldn’t take place in what one could have called a ‘normal’ atmosphere; and yet, when he woke up on Christmas morning, James couldn’t think of anything else than the few packages at the foot of his bed.

"Merry Christmas, James!" said Remus, smiling. He was sitting cross-legged on the end of his bed, holding a big box in his hands. "Not opened your presents yet?"

"Not yet," said James as he suppressed a yawn. He got up from his bed and opened the first package, a big, heavy one that looked like a book. Bingo. As he torn off the wrapping paper, James discovered a small note. He recognised the hasty, sharp writing style.

James stared down at the little visiting-like card for a while, an odd sort of lump swelling in his throat. This note was so formal, so cold … "we have thought that you might have wished to know a little more about the school you are to spend the next seven years" … his mum must have begged his father for him to actually write something. If she had been the one to write, she’d have said "Mum and dad". "Your father and mother" … James almost felt like crying as he read the title of the big book lying on his lap: Hogwarts, a History. He couldn’t help a nervous sort of chuckle, between laughter and tears. His first Christmas present away from home ever and it had to be this book. Along with a note so cold that he wasn’t even surprised, all in all. Father was never home at Christmas anyway.

James was suddenly aware of Remus watching him, still sitting cross-legged on his bed. His blue-grey eyes, however, didn’t seem curious and searching, but kindly questioning, vaguely concerned, even.

"James? Are you all right?"

James nodded, and turned two eyes that were a bit too bright to Remus, "Yeah – here, look at that."

He handed him his father’s note. Remus glanced it over, then quickly looked back up at James.

"I don’t remember one single time he’d have handed me a package, with a nice wrapping paper enchanted to change colour every two seconds, and a nice ribbon, and told me "Merry Christmas, Jimmy" like my mum does. He even forgets my birthdays. It takes me not being home for him to finally think about me – and he’s got a funny way to show me he does."

Remus was quiet, his eyes fixed upon the book James was holding. Then, when he saw James look down, he said softly, "Just open the others. Maybe there’ll be some better notes than this one."

James nodded, and took another package. This one was red, with a shocking-orange ribbon; when he torn off the creaking wrapping paper, James discovered three books put together: He Flew like a Madman, Quidditch through the Ages, and The Beater’s Bible. There was a note with it, as well.

James gave a broad smile and opened The Beater’s Bible – it smelled good, of brand new book. The pages gave little cracks.

He closed the book and looked at Remus, who was still sitting on his bed, holding his big box.

"What’s that?" asked James, pointing at the box. Remus began to laugh and opened the lid: it was full of wizarding sweets of all shapes and sizes, especially Chocolate Frogs, Cauldron Cakes and Blowing Gums.

"My mum knows I love these ones," said Remus as he took a Blowing Gum. "And she’s afraid the matron doesn’t have enough chocolate, so I got loads of Chocolate Frogs – want some?" he asked James, handing out a Frog. "Those are your favourites, aren’t they?"

"Thanks," said James as he got up to take the sweet. He chewed on it for a while, then asked, "What’d you get with it?"

"New set of quills – good thing, I almost didn’t have a single spare – and a weird pair of socks filled with things, but I’m sure that wasn’t from my mum. What about you, apart from the books?"

"What?"

"Yeah, look, you’ve forgotten something …"

James returned to his bed, slightly amazed; he didn’t expect to receive presents from someone else than his parents. There was something else indeed: a pair of hand-made socks, swollen with –

"Hey, I’ve got socks too – oy, Remus! Did you say there were things in yours as well?"

"Well, yes, lots of Cheesy Chestnuts, Every-Flavoured Beans and even some Dungbombs – you too?"

"Ah," said a mischievous-sounding voice, "I see you’ve spotted my presents …"

Sirius had popped his head out of the curtains of his bed and he watched them, laughing.

"It was you, wasn’t it?" James asked, grinning.

"Yep. Vega knitted the socks – you’ll see, they’re comfy, warm and all – mind, they ought to, for all the time Vega’s been trying to knit … anyway, I gave her some money and a list for her last Hogsmeade weekend … d’you like them?"

"I bet!" Remus exclaimed. "Thanks, Sirius!"

"That’s quite nice of you," echoed James. "But then I’ve got nothing to give you –"

"Oh, not at all," Sirius cut. ‘You guys don’t have an older sister to do your purchases, that’s all."

Then he added with a wink, "Dead boring as she can be, Vega’s got her good sides sometimes …"

* * *

Breakfast didn’t last long, this morning; everybody wolfed down their porridge bowl and toasts to run back into the common room and talk about their presents. Peter had owled them a Christmas card, with a common present for the four of them, a big box full of Chocolate Frogs. Lily remarked with a disapproving sigh that they now had enough sweets to have a sweet shop. Remus gave a laugh and read out loud the note awkwardly written and riddled with mistakes: (A/N: the following text has been checked for mistakes. Peter being very absent-minded when it comes to orthography, it took something like ten minutes, but if there are any left, please owl the author J )

"Your sense of humour is rubbing off on Peter, Sirius," deadpanned Remus.

Like James and Remus, and no doubt Peter, Lily had received a pair of socks filled with sweets and little tricks. She had also received Muggle sweets and a novel from her parents. As for Sirius, he had gotten a magical pencil from his dad, the stroke of which could change colour at the artist’s will. He proudly told his friends that his dad, though a Muggle, knew quite well the way through the Leaky Cauldron to Diagon Alley, which was where he had bought the pencil.

"How did he get in?" asked James. "You must have a wand to get to Diagon Alley –"

"He’s got my Ma’s old one," said Sirius rather quickly.

"As for me," Lily pointed out, "I didn’t have a wand the first time I went there – the barman let me in. By the way, didn’t you think he was weird, with that two missing incisors of his –"

"I for one think he’s all right," said James, thinking about old Nigel’s pirate grin.

"What about Vega?" asked Lily, turning to Sirius. "What’d she get?"

Sirius was about to answer, when the door of the common room swivelled open, to let in Vega who seemed blissfully happy, her cheeks pink, her hair tousled, her eyes shining. She was wearing her Prefect badge askew and an ear-to-ear grin.

"Hi, the four of you! Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas to you too," James answered, a bit baffled. "Are you all right?"

"I’m quite fine, thanks very much!"

And she planted a big kiss on her brother’s cheeks; he turned very red and wiped his cheeks with large gestures, glowering at his sister. To the others’ surprise, she kissed James, Lily and Remus as well – the latter’s ears went slightly pink. After that, she rushed up the stairs to the girls’ dormitories.

"Damned barking mad," muttered Sirius still in shock as he unwrapped the paper around a Muggle toffee Lily had offered him. "I mean, honestly – embarrassing, that is –"

"I say, to me she didn’t seem quite in her normal state," stammered Remus when he recovered from his surprise.

"She hasn’t even got a normal state," Sirius grumbled. "I already knew she was weird, but still – starting to worry, I am."

"Maybe her crush gave her … a present," Lily slipped in mischievously. Sirius choked on the toffee. He turned purple, coughed violently and looked up, his eyes furious.

"Her – her crush?… Fletcher!"

He jumped up from his armchair and strode to the one in which Mundungus was sitting, peacefully reading Tricks Through a Thousand Years. The three others looked at him with half-amused, half-concerned eyes.

"What’d you do to my sister?" Sirius roared once he planted himself in front of him. Mundungus looked up from his book, looking both puzzled and suspicious, "What? What’re you talking about, for Merlin’s sake?"

"Oh, don’t play the innocent, Fletch," said Sirius, jerking his head to the door leading to the girls’ dorms. "Didn’t you see how she was? Seems she’s drunk or – oh, boy – she didn’t smoke anything, did she?’ he asked, sounding genuinely scared all of the sudden. Fletcher let out a strangled but definitively mocking sort of chuckle.

"Can I ask why you think of me first whereas I’ve been sitting here for an hour and she’s just turned up?"

Sirius opened his mouth, frowned, but didn’t let out a word. Mundungus said more seriously, "Listen, kid. First, I’m not the only one mooning after Vega. Second, she’s old enough to choose who she wants to be with, and she made me understand I wasn’t her choice. And third, even if she’s your sister, what she does or doesn’t has nothing to do with you. Absolutely nothing."

"But –"

Mundungus cut him with a warning look. Sirius winced, then muttered, "Fine, right, ‘scuse me. But you must admit it’s kind of odd."

"I admit. But that doesn’t have anything to do with you, either."

Sirius walked away wordlessly; he heard Mundungus’ mocking voice behind him saying, "Merry Christmas to you as well!"

Sirius fell in the armchair he’d left a while ago. Lily struggled very hard not to laugh, Remus looked puzzled, and James looked sympathetic.

"D’you think you’ll recover?" asked Lily, her voice on the very edge of laughter. Sirius glared daggers at her.

"C’mon, Sirius, it’s not the end of the world, is it?" said Remus, tapping Sirius’s hand reassuringly. "You don’t even have a clue about it, anyway."

"Besides," James pointed out, "what Fletch said is quite true. It’s got nothing to do with you."

"Gee, thanks Jamsie, I’m quite touched by your words of comfort," said Sirius sarcastically. James looked away as he bit on his lip. He had turned scarlet by dint of fighting back laughter.

* * *

Christmas day was peaceful; the food was absolutely delicious, and Hagrid had decorated the Great Hall with deep-green holly branches. The suits of armours standing in each corner of the room were covered with bright Never-Melting snow, as white and pure as the one falling outside. Lunch was served on the golden plates and goblets used for the start-of-year and Hallowe’en feasts, and neither the pumpkin juice nor the food had ever seemed more delicious. James and Remus especially stuffed themselves so much that Lily wondered if they wouldn’t get sick.

She was right. Near the end of the afternoon, as they were in the common room, leafing through the pages of the books they’d received, Remus got up from his bed, looking green, and saying that he wasn’t feeling well. Lily lectured him – she almost told him he’d asked for it by eating so much at lunch. Remus sighed, and headed toward the hospital wing, Lily on his heels.

James had almost forgotten his agreement with Sirius about their friend; he turned to him and shot him a knowing glance, but Sirius just gave a fatalistic shrug. He hadn’t breathed a word since the morning’s incident; he just picked up a Chocolate Frog in the box Peter had sent.

As a result, James wondered in silence. Seeing Remus’s face, he was obviously telling the truth – he really had an indigestion. But something didn’t fit in the pattern. Something had kept bothering James, and for long, but he still hadn’t put his finger on it. While Sirius kept sulking in his armchair, James tried to gather up the pieces of the jigsaw. Remus was often sick – often – that is he went away at rather regular intervals. Well, "rather" …

James plunged his hand absent-mindedly in the box of Chocolate Frogs, without even looking down; his fingers met a small, a bit crumpled piece of parchment – Peter’s Christmas card. He unfolded it mechanically.

"… Is Remus better? Rem, you didn’t tell me what mark you’ve had when you made up for the Astronomy essay you missed. It’s the second time you skip one of Sinistra’s essays, she’s going to start suspecting you; maybe she’ll think you meant to skip them …"

"The second time" … "the second time you skip one of Sinistra’s essays" …

Remus had been absent in late September. And late October (what had Peter said, last month? Oh yes, "Yeah, last time he went back home – it was … er … yes, maybe a week before Hallowe’en. Twenty-third, or twenty-four perhaps … I don’t know" …) And late November – that had been last time, when he had cursed himself. Madam Pomfrey had him swear he wouldn’t do it again; he had kept his promise. He had only set up things so that he’d had to go to the hospital wing … as he did every month …

Remus had missed two Astronomy classes one month apart … and both of the times, Sinistra had set them an assignment – because the moon was too bright for them to see the stars properly ... because it was the night of the full moon …

The moon is full each time he goes away. Or rather, he goes away each time the moon is full –

He’s a w…

James gave a violent, sudden jump. No. No way. That’s impossible – totally impossible … Remus isn’t … come on, it’s about Remus Lupin, for Merlin’s sake! He can’t be a – not him! My best friend is not a werewolf!

That was it. The word was out. Werewolf. Remus Lupin was a werewolf.

James blinked several times, totally stunned. Next to him, Sirius sat motionless in his armchair, his eyes half-closed, his breathing deep and steady – maybe he was sleeping. He certainly had no clue what James was thinking about right now. He was peaceful. James had never felt so troubled before. His head spun wildly, and there was a loud buzzing in his ears. He knew – he knew – why hadn’t he known earlier, by the way? Maybe he didn’t want to. Maybe he refused to know …

Must he tell someone? Who? Sirius? But the two of them had believed in a story serious enough to put their friend’s health at stake, but they would never have thought that the truth was that serious … a werewolf … that was why Remus always looked so tired after a full moon night. James had still in mind the chalk-like whiteness of his cheeks, that day he had fallen asleep in class – but did he actually fall asleep? It seemed he had fainted with exhaustion instead. Remus did insist, though, saying that he was fine and that no fuss needed to be made over it. For all this time Remus had done everything to keep his problem secret – and had managed, apparently. Now, though, James knew the truth.

But they’d be the only ones to know. For James wasn’t going to betray Remus – Remus stayed his friend, werewolf or not – he was still human twenty-nine or thirty days a month. And who knew how the others could react?

James decided once and for all not to tell anybody. Remus’s friendship was much worth a little secret.

* * *

Remus was back two days after Christmas, looking just as tired and almost just as green as he had when he left, but James noticed that this time, Lily didn’t say anything. She must have thought that he’d learned his lesson, as she even fussed over the fact that the matron let him out looking so terrible.

"Enough of this Lily, please," he finally told her. "It was only a little indigestion – I’ll listen to you from now on and it won’t happen again. Promise."

"So much for the Christmas dinner," Lily remarked in a disappointed sort of voice. "It’s a pity you missed it, really, it was wonderful, and Flitwick had enchanted snowflakes to fall at the end of the meal, and Dumbledore gave crackers to all of us, and mine burst into butterflies, and Sirius almost ate a butterfly along with his piece of cake and –"

Remus stuck his fingers in his ears and started to hum "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way …" Lily made a face at him and turned her back to the three boys to go settle herself down in an armchair few feet away. James was laughing so hard his sides were splitting, and Sirius was shouting with laughter, his bad mood finally forgotten.

When the two boys calmed down, Remus looked serious again, "You know, that book we’ve been stolen – Lecanoncy, or the Art of Divination through Gems … I was to hand it in today. I’d like to go and see Madam Pince, and tell her –"

"We’re coming with you", James decided.

"Yeah," Sirius added. "We could say that it was stolen when our dorm was devastated – nah, that won’t work, we’ve told McGonagall nothing was missing –"

Remus shrugged. James remarked, "Yeah, we can go and see Hagrid after that, if we’re still alive I mean. It’ll be a nice change," he added. He couldn’t stop thinking "He’s a werewolf … no, stop that, he’s your pal, yes? It’s really not obvious, though … Blimey, just quit thinking about that!" He shook his head, muttering something inaudible under his breath. Sirius gave him an odd look.

"Oy! Are you all right?"

"Quite fine," choked James. "Let’s go, then?"

They went. Sirius – and Remus as well – cast James some lopsided glances however. James sometimes glanced back, slightly uneasy.

When they came up to the librarian’s desk, Remus seemed to hesitate a little; he turned to his two friends and asked rather nervously, "Oy, if she tries to curse me or something – d’you know the Disarming Spell?"

"Just go," said Sirius as he pushed him toward the desk. Remus cleared his throat, and ventured, "Er … Madam Pince?"

The librarian looked up briskly and peered at him with her little piercing eyes.

"Well, it’s about this book, Lecanoncy, or the Art of Divination through Gems –"

"At last!’ cried Madam Pince, in her usual sharp voice. "You are finally signing the register. Tell me, Lupin, can I ask why you didn’t when you brought this book back here?"

Remus’s eyes widened. He glanced at James and Sirius who had the same astonished look on their face, then turned back to Madam Pince, "I – I beg your pardon? When did I bring it back?"

"Three weeks ago! I found it on my desk but you must have been in a great hurry because you didn’t even take time to sign the returned book register."

A little venom suddenly slipped into her voice as she hissed, "Next time – if you wish there be a next time – do think of signing that register. Or else you’ll have a good reason to regret not doing so."

Remus hurried to sign the register and she looked down again to the piece of parchment lying in front of her. But Remus wanted another attempt, "But I –" he began, only to be cut short by the librarian who glared daggers at him.

"Do you have something to say, Lupin?"

"N–no," Remus stammered. "Have a good day."

Madam Pince watched them walk out of the library, her eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"What on earth does all that mean?’ asked Remus in a low voice as they headed to the big oak double doors opening onto the grounds. "I’ve never brought this book back, I didn’t even get to read it completely –"

"Seems that our thief has done you that favour," said Sirius sarcastically. Then he said more seriously, "So I was right, then – it was a warning. Someone’s stolen the book right under our nose not to let us nosing around things that have nothing to do with us."

"All the more reason for nosing around," pointed out James as he opened the double doors. "That warning meant we were getting close to the point."

But Remus shook his head.

"There’s something you’re forgetting here," he said soberly, wrapping his scarf around his neck – the wind was sharp and cold outside. "The book hasn’t been stolen from our dormitory. The warning might’ve been for us, but somebody else suffered from it. Lily."

"She’s in it with us," said Sirius. "And she means to be in it with us. If she were afraid, she’d tell us, wouldn’t she?"

"I don’t think she’s really afraid," said James thoughtfully. "Actually, I never asked her … d’you think that –" He broke off all of a sudden, frowned, and put up a finger to his lips. "Sshh … listen."

They had reached the Whomping Willow, and the edge of the Forbidden Forest was only a few feet away from them. Hagrid’s cabin, a few meters away, had its shutters closed and no smoke slipped out from the chimney stack, which meant that its owner wasn’t home. Too bad, thought Sirius; he looked around and whispered, "What’s up, Jamsie?"

"We’re being followed."

The three of them fell silent instantly. Remus closed his eyes for a second; when he opened them again, he glanced at Hagrid’s deserted cabin.

"There’s somebody hiding behind it," he whispered. Sirius, James, and him looked at each other. Remus walked round the cabin by the left as James and Sirius went to the right. Noiselessly, careful to not making the snow crackle as he walked, James made his way slowly beside Sirius. They were much closer to the Forbidden Forest now; this close, it seemed even darker. Almost behind the cabin, the two friends paused, then leaped on the dark form hiding behind just as the same time as Remus did.

There was a yelp, closely followed by a loud curse.

James, Remus, and Sirius had leaped at Severus Snape.

"You!" Sirius exclaimed on a furious, disgusted tone. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Sirius …" muttered Remus, before turning to Snape and asking, in a much colder voice than usual, "What’re you doing here all alone, Severus?"

"Taking a stroll!" Snape retorted. "It’s not forbidden, is it?"

"Yeah, right, of course," said James mockingly. "The weather was so fine you decided to take a little walk on your own in the snow, and you took the opportunity to spy on us, just for a lark? Sorry, that won’t wash with us."

"Do you know what you’re going to do now?" said Remus, in a voice that was too soft to be safe. "Spin on your heels and hurry back up to the castle."

"And what if I don’t?" said Snape out of sheer bravado, his arms folded on his skinny chest.

Sirius gave his wolfish grin, the one that unveiled his eye-teeth and ran a shiver in the addressee’s neck.

"Well, if you don’t, we’ll – play. You know, cats and mice or something … Won’t we, guys? We’ll play with him."

"And – what’re you going to do to me?" asked Snape, in a slightly more high-pitched tone than the second before. He looked much less self-assured without his cronies behind him to fight for him if needed.

When he meant to, Remus’s grin was ten times worse than Sirius’s. His eyes alight with sarcasm, he answered mercilessly, "Why, we’ll do our best, of course."

Severus let out a small, scared whimper, almost the only sign of his inner fear. James began to laugh – a sarcastic chuckle, meant to impress their enemy. Snape tried to step back not too obviously.

They didn’t hear the footsteps muffled in the snow, coming from the Forbidden Forest.

But they did hear pretty well the cry Stupefy! uttered in a deep, powerful voice – they also did see the flash of bright light that hit Sirius right in the chest. He fell down without a sound, the snow silencing his fall. Too stunned to move, James, Remus, and Severus stood there, staring at the closed eyes, the slightly open mouth, the face that still wore an astonished look on it; Sirius’s whole body was so still it was terrifying.

James leaned down slowly, very slowly, and took Sirius’s wrist. Let him be alive, oh please let him be alive … James’s heart skipped a beat when he felt a pulse, weak but still there, running in his friend’s veins. He almost shouted from relief.

"What’s with him, Potter?" asked Snape, this time in a much higher voice than usual. "Who’s done that?"

"James?" whispered Remus, his voice hoarse and strangled. "What’s –"

But he didn’t have time to end his phrase. Another flash of light hit him in the back, and he collapsed at once, in a boneless heap in the snow. Snape let out a scared little noise and James suddenly felt all colour drained from his cheeks.

"Potter?"

This time, there was no irony, no threat, and no spite in Severus’ voice. Only fear. Panic. James felt exactly the same sort of terror knitting deep down in his guts.

"They – they’re alive, at least, aren’t they?" stuttered Snape, his face sallow. His teeth were chattering, and James wasn’t quite sure the cold was the only reason for that. But he had other things on his mind right now. He leaned down, trembling slightly, and felt Remus’s pulse: just like Sirius, he was unconscious, but alive.

"Yes, they are, but I’m completely lost – I don’t know how to wake them up, I don’t have a clue what’s wrong with them …"

James felt a wave of panic as his stomach gave a lurch. Who did this? Why? And how would he do to bring both of them back to the castle? That was quite a fair step and neither of them was light …

He was still wondering as Snape fidgeted nervously, giving a jump each time the snow gave a crackle, and peeking around frightfully. James, feeling extremely jumpy and anxious too, kneeled down next to Sirius and slipped a hand around his waist to lift him up.

"We’ve got to bring them back," he barked to Snape who was still shaking. "Take him and get him up too!" he said, pointing at Remus. "I can’t do it all on my own!"

But Severus didn’t have time to obey that order. Or rather James never saw him react to it. All he could hear was a cry from the Forest, the same word, the same low, deep voice – Stupefy! From that very second, everything seemed to happen in slow motion, although it seemed quick. He felt Sirius slip from his grip back onto the ground, heard Snape’s terrified scream, then the feeling of everything sinking to darkness and cold took over him as he lost consciousness.