Balanced

Sirius ignored James the next day; he hated being compared to anything remotely Slytherin-ish, and a murderer was top of his list. Besides, he was too proud to apologise and he knew James was right. James could ignore him too, talk to him and pretend nothing had happened or throw a few Dungbombs at him.

Not surprisingly, he chose the latter.

'I'll kill you! You... you...'

'Sh! You're not talking to me! Remember? And that includes hexes.'

'Twenty points from Slytherin, Potter,' McGonagall told him. 'Inside, all of you.'

'Evil prat,' Sirius muttered, sitting down and addressing James, not McGonagall. James purposefully sat next to Sirius, who grunted disgustedly and turned away. 'I'm still not talking to you,' he muttered.

'Nice to see you're so mature, Black,' replied James. 'Grow up a bit, why don't you? You're supposed to be a second year.'

'Does being a snarky bastard come naturally to you? Or do you have to practice?' growled Sirius.

'Now that would be telling, wouldn't it?' replied James, sweetly. 'I don't know what your problem is though, you just suddenly decide you're not talking to me for no reason and go off in a temper. I guess you're no better than the rest of the Gryffindors.'

'And you're no better than the rest of the Slytherins!' yelled Sirius, causing McGonagall to look in their direction.

'In what way?' asked James, loudly.

'You're just an evil screwed up snob who's going to end up in Azkaban for doing Dark magic!' yelled Sirius.

'Grow up!' snapped James, losing control slightly. 'What the hell is wrong with you?'

'You called me a murderer!'

'I did not! You liar!'

'I don't care what you called each other,' McGonagall told them, angrily. 'Both of you have detention tonight, now sit down and get on with your work, and if I hear anything more from either of you then it'll be a hundred points from both of your houses.'

'You wouldn't!' said Sirius, gaping, whereas James wisely shut up and got out his work.

'Believe it or not, Mr Black, I would. Now get on with your work.'

Fighting with Sirius seemed to increase James' popularity with the other Slytherins, but he didn't really care. He avoided Sirius, and Remus and Peter, for the rest of the day and hid his wand up his sleeve for his detention. They were with Brauhum and had to scrub the floor of their Potions classroom, which was completely and utterly covered in filth.

'I'm going into my office, boys,' Brauhum told them. 'I've got some work to do. Come and see me when you're done. All the things you need are here.' He disappeared into his office. James slipped his wand out from his sleeve at the exact moment Sirius pulled his from his pocket.

Both glanced at each other's wands, then at each other, and both grinned.

'Great minds think alike, eh Jamesy?' said Sirius. 'Do you think they'll be able to tell if we use magic?' That was his peace offering.

'Only one way to find out,' James replied. 'But I am not going to attempt the mess around the place where you usually sit, the Potion ingredients that spill out of your cauldron and never get cleaned up have raised the floor by at least two inches.' Sirius' grin widened and he went over to look at the floor by his usual seat.

The two quickly scrubbed the floor, using a variety of scrubbing charms and levitating the brushes and water, so that it appeared they had done it by hand. They sat there talking for an hour, before telling Brauhum they had finished and being excused, although James had to admit that he looked rather suspicious when he told them to go.

*

In January, it seemed that Remus' cousin Bertha's wandless magic skills were rather more advanced than normal. Bertha had succeeded in turning Aunt Ethel into a frog and Mabel, Aunt Ethel's cat, had eaten Remus' unfortunate aunt. Poor Mabel had also been put down and Remus was to leave school for a day to support his family in their time of need.

'He always goes,' said Peter, thoughtfully. 'Once a month, without fail.' The three were sitting on the grass in front of the castle; Remus would be returning shortly.

'Is it every month?' asked James.

'Yeah,' said Peter. 'Even in the holidays he does it. He always tells us he's going home, except the few times that he was in the hospital wing, but we couldn't see him. He gets ill too.' That James had noticed.

'And Sirius forces gallons of potion down his throat, but it doesn't work.' James glanced at Sirius, who had a knife and was carefully cutting a Dungbomb in half.

'I bought those potions,' said Sirius, defensively. 'I would never feed a friend something I brewed if they were ill.'

'How nice,' said James. 'Gryffindor morals again, I suppose?'

'Uh-huh,' replied Sirius, making the final cut in the Dungbomb and emptying its contents onto a piece of parchment on the ground.

'Do you think he's being truthful when he tells us where he goes?' asked James.

'My mother once said that you can never lie to friends. Family maybe, but friends definitely not,' said Sirius, carefully poking the powder with his wand.

'So you think...?'

'That he's a bloody good liar,' said Sirius. 'His mother never owned a canary, nor a cat, I would know. She's allergic to cat hair and doesn't like birds.'

'Why didn't you tell Remus you know he's lying?'

'Because he obviously doesn't want us to know. There'll be a time when he'll trust us, if we stay friends that long, but he's well within his rights to have secrets.' Yup, thought James, morals were very annoying things.

'I'm going to ask him. I doubt it can be that bad, and he is our friend.'

'Do you think that's a good idea?' asked Peter. Sirius looked up from his Dungbomb and peered at James, then turned to Peter.

'He's made up his mind already,' he told Peter. 'Besides, he can't force Remus to tell him.' Sirius was being unnaturally serious, but James supposed it was the fact that he was concentrating on his Dungbomb, so he wasn't messing around.

'Just what are you doing?' he asked his friend. Sirius spooned some powder carefully into a small glass bottle, capped it and put it into his pocket.

'Experimenting,' replied Sirius. 'I want to figure out how it works. Then I can make my own, far more effective ones. I've never been able to figure it out before.'

When Remus arrived back, not much later, the three had moved only fifty feet because when Sirius had jabbed the powder he was still experimenting on too vigorously with his wand, it had reacted as a Dungbomb does.

'Hello,' said Remus, who looked tired, as he always did. 'Did I miss much?'

'Sirius got sprayed in the face with a Dungbomb he was dissecting,' said Peter, glancing at James, as though he expected him to jump straight in and question Remus. 'Nothing else you'd find interesting though.' Remus nodded, and sat down.

'Remus?' began James. Peter had been right in thinking he couldn't wait very long.

'Yeah?'

'Where did you go? Where do you always go? Every month. Why are you always ill? Why do you have to lie about it? Your mother never had a canary or a cat, did she?' Although Sirius and Peter hadn't looked up, it was obvious they were listening. Remus had gone very pale; he was used to the other three just accepting his stories. He opened his mouth and shut it several times; James could see him trying to formulate an excuse. Maybe he did have trouble lying to his friends.

'I'm a... a... I'm a werewolf, OK?' he almost spat out the word.

'You're not...?' gasped James. Sirius and Peter had looked up, wearing identical expressions of horror. James guessed he probably looked the same.

'I'm going now,' said Remus sadly, and clambered to his feet, then stumbled off, though not back to the castle.

'Remus! Come back!' called Peter.

'Get back over here, you stupid twit!' yelled Sirius. But Remus kept on running.

'Leave him,' advised James.

'But he's our friend!' protested Sirius.

'So? He obviously wants to be alone. He'll probably be back for dinner and we can talk to him then.'

'Perceptive of you, Jamesy.'

'Stop calling me that!' James tackled his friend and pushed him to the ground, relying on the shock of the attack.

'Argh!' yelled Sirius, but he was slightly stronger than James and managed to start pulling his way up. Peter leapt down to join them and grabbed Sirius' flailing arm, forcing him to stay down. 'OK! OK! You win! Get off me! Cheaters.' He muttered the last part, getting to his feet and brushing the dirt off his robes unsuccessfully. James sent the usual sparks at him, reminding himself, again, to keep practising curses and hexes.

At dinner, however, Remus had not returned. The Ravenclaws didn't seem to notice, and James couldn't blame them; he was away a lot, though now James knew why. He paid little attention to the conversation the others in his year were having, which was mostly about homework anyway, as far as he could tell. James met up with Peter and Sirius in the Entrance Hall and they waited for all the others to leave.

When they were sure that no one else was watching, they crept out of the Entrance Hall and into the grounds. Carefully, they went to where they had been that afternoon and went in the direction Remus had gone.

The Forbidden Forest.

'Is this really that smart,' asked Peter, 'to go into the Forbidden Forest without protection, or any idea where we're going?'

'Is it really that smart,' replied Sirius, 'to leave one of our best friends alone, in the circumstances described by you?'

'He might not be there,' said James hopefully.

'Well,' said Sirius, 'it'll be his loss won't it? If he's not and we go in, I mean.' James exchanged a look with Peter that quite clearly showed what he thought of that. Peter obviously agreed. 'Lumos!' muttered Sirius and lit his wand with a spell. The others copied, then followed Sirius into the forest.

'Sirius, do you have any idea where you're going?' asked Peter.

'Nope.'

'Oh great,' Peter muttered sarcastically.

'And you could do better?'

'Yes, actually, now let me lead.' He saw the confused looks on their faces. 'I've been Muggle camping before, we went into the middle of the forest, with no trails or anything, and Dad showed me all this stuff on how not to get lost and how to figure out where you are. Follow me.' He led them deeper and deeper into the forest; the three of them stayed pretty close together, jumping at every sudden noise. Peter peered around, examining rocks, leaves and twigs. He stopped in a small clearing and looked around.

Sirius lifted his wand over his head and aimed the small beam of light over the area. The small figure sitting on a log looked very familiar.

'Remus, you idiot!' said James, grinning in spite of the situation, 'I thought the Gryffindors were the ones who did stupid things like this without thinking.' He was rewarded by a small smile from Remus and a thump on the arm from Sirius.

'What happened?' asked Peter, sitting down next to Remus, while the others stepped forward.

'Don't you... care?'

'What? That you get a little crazy and hairy once a month?' said Sirius easily. 'Why would that bother us?' Remus shrugged.

'It bothers most people. I just thought it'd bother you, so I ran off, and got lost once I was here. Especially after all you said when we did the lessons.' James was suddenly reminded of Verdied being amused at his dislike of werewolves; he decided not to voice that now, it was the right time to reassure Remus.

'Of course it doesn't bother us,' said James, warmly. 'Sirius may be prejudiced against Slytherins, and I may feel the same about Gryffindors, but werewolves? Nah. You can't help it if you're different, can you? OK, so we said stuff ages ago, but that was then. Now let's get out of here, we can explore the forest at a more convenient time.'

'Why are you so desperate to get out?' said Sirius. 'Compared to the Slytherin common room, this place is incredibly cheery.'

'Shut it, you,' said James. 'Come on Peter, help us find our way out.' They began to head back; Peter seemed to know where he was going. James couldn't tell if this was the right way or not; for all he knew, they could be heading in totally the wrong direction. They heard a soft growling in the woods near them.

James froze. He felt the others do the same beside him.

Another growl, then a bark, and then a large thing leapt out of the bushes, with claws and fangs, spitting and barking. James was absolutely terrified. It peered round at them all, baring its fangs.

'Farewell, Jamesy,' said Sirius by his side. Then-

'Cutey! Come back here!' Hagrid! The stupid accent was a relief, for a change.

Hagrid walked out of the bushes and grabbed the dog by the collar that they hadn't seen before.

'What are you doin' here?' he asked roughly. The four gaped at him soundlessly, and Hagrid sighed. 'Yer can explain to Professor McGonagall when I get yer back. Follow me.'

Needless to say, Professor McGonagall was not very pleased. It was later than they had thought and Hagrid, banging on her door, had roused her from her slumber.

'What on earth were you doing in the Forbidden Forest!?' she snapped. They were sitting in front of the desk in her office and she was standing up and bearing down on them; it was actually quite scary, she was almost foaming at the mouth, like Cutey had been.

'We went out after dinner, because we just wanted to talk, and we're not allowed in each other's common rooms - it wasn't dark then.' said Sirius in his innocent submissive "I've-done-something-bad" voice. 'And we heard a noise coming from the Forbidden Forest, it sounded like someone was in there, I s'pose we must have been hearing things. But anyway, we ran in after it, coz it sounded like something bad was happening, and we got a bit lost, and then Cutey and Hagrid found us.'

'That might be true, Mr Black, though I very much doubt it; but it is no excuse to go into the Forbidden Forest. Why weren't you at dinner, Mr Lupin?'

'I wasn't hungry,' he said, in his most innocent voice, and she glanced at him suspiciously.

'Very well, I shall take forty points from each of your houses and you will receive two detentions each. Professor Dumbledore will be told about this.'

'Forty!' gaped Sirius; he never seemed to realise that McGonagall was perfectly willing to take off many points, even from Gryffindor. She gave him a look and he fell silent, one of the smartest things he'd done that term, in fact. The following morning, nobody was particularly happy to see that the points had all gone down by such a lot, and no matter how often James denied it, the fact that it was the same amount taken from all four, and they were the only group with one from each house meant nobody believed him.

*

'I've got it,' said Sirius, and he dropped a large book down on their table, disrupting all their work and getting an evil glance from the librarian, Madam Geesen. Remus took one look at the book and scowled at their friend.

'Not again, Sirius, I thought I'd made it clear that it's incurable,' he said, irritable. James peered at the book: An Advanced Guide to Dark Creatures. It was fairly obvious what Sirius had been doing; ever since they had found out about Remus, Sirius had spent hours looking through books, trying to find a cure for it. In the end, Remus had snapped and told him just to accept that it was incurable. Sirius had seemed to leave it alone for a while, but apparently he'd not been able to resist.

'It is incurable,' said Sirius, matter of factly. 'I stopped looking up cures, that got me nowhere. Instead, I just did a little research on werewolves themselves. Listen: A werewolf is only a danger to other human beings, it has been proven that a werewolf will leave rabbits, chickens and any other animals alone, if it is not hungry. Humans, however, are in danger whether or not it needs food.'

'I could have told you that,' said Remus. 'I would know.'

'How does that help?' asked Peter. 'I know you've got something in mind, you've got that evil look on your face.'

'If we can't be with Remus as humans, then we can be with Remus as-'

'Are you talking about Transfiguration?' asked James, and Sirius pulled a face.

'No, of course not, I don't fancy turning into an animal, and getting its brain in the bargain.'

'Yeah, that would be too much for you, eh, Sirius?' said James, grinning, and Sirius hit him.

'I was talking about becoming Animagi.'

'Ani-what?' asked Peter. Sirius sighed, looking at Peter's confused face.

'We don't do it at school, well, we're supposed to learn a little about it later on,' he said. 'Once you can do it, you can transform into your particular animal any time, any place, without a wand. But it's only one animal, and I don't think you get much choice in what you are. It means you can keep your human senses, and brain, and get animal senses and an animal body as well.'

'Oh no,' said Remus. 'I remember Mum mentioning this and you are not-'

'Why not?' asked Peter.

'Well,' began Sirius, 'it's incredibly difficult to manage, even for grown wizards, and-it's-kind-of-illegal, you're supposed to register yourself with the Ministry, and ask for permission before you attempt it.'

'So how do you do it?'

'Are you listening to me?' said Remus. 'Don't be stupid. You are not going to-'

'They don't just write it in any old book, we'd have to get a special one. I think we'd find it in Knockturn Alley.'

'Where?'

'It's by Diagon Alley, but they sell mostly Dark Arts and illegal stuff there.' Sirius glanced at Remus, who had an obstinate look on his face. 'Come on

Remus, don't worry, we can do this, then we can come out with you at the full moon, it can't hurt. If it doesn't work, we won't be any worse off than we are now.'

'OK,' said Remus, finally. ''But you have to think of this seriously, it's not just a joke, it's not something you will just get detention for if you're caught, it's serious.'

'Alright, Moony.'

'Moony!?'

'Yup, you know, full moon, Moony.'

~*~
A/N

Finally! They found out and I don't have to try and think up any more excuses for Remus' visits home.

It's slightly AU, in case you hadn't guessed.

Thanks to JKR, my beta readers and all my reviewers *glomps all of you*