The Marauders: Year 2

Meanwhile, in an empty hallway near the Charms classroom...

"So, James," Sirius began in a somewhat uncertain tone. The tone of his voice alone put James on edge a bit, Sirius was never uncertain, completely and totally wrong, definitely, but he was never uncertain. "I was talking a bit with Pete and, well... he seems to be under the deranged idea that Remus is a werewolf. Mad, huh?"

"That son of a sea dragon," James swore. "A fat dragon, at that. With scale rot."

Sirius chuckled uneasily.

James sighed and his shoulders drooped a bit, "Well, he kept that secret for nearly forty eight hours, maybe he'll be able to keep the next big one for a whopping week."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Sirius asked.

"Because I wasn't sure. I mean, I'm still not completely sure, it's a big accusation to make. What am I supposed to do? Hello Remmy, you don't by any chance turn into something mad and hairy once a month, eh?"

Sirius bit back his laughter. "So what makes you think this then? I don't really assume Peter came up with this himself."

"Ah, well, no. Although he did guess it too when I pointed a few things out."

"Such as?"

"Such as, he's always sick. I mean, this would solve that bloody mystery of yours and get you off his case once and for all. I'm pretty sure that he doesn't handle silver well, remember Peter's medallion, Saint Something or Other? He dropped it like it was on fire and yelled. He yelled on the Hogwarts Express too, and I haven't seen Mel wear that ring she was wearing since. I think, that well... maybe she knows, for whatever reason. She's pretty smart, maybe she figured it out too... And, well, since Peter and I talked, I checked the lunar charts in the library, for the past two years, every time he spent the night in the Hospital Wing, well except for that night we gave him bunny ears and Madame Pomfrey had to remove them, has been a full moon. And he's always sicker then, too." James searched Sirius's face for some sign that he didn't think he was nutters.

Sirius appeared to be thinking all this over. "Have you snuck down to the kitchens recently?"

"Er... no." James gave his friend an odd look.

"I think the elves have let you into the liquor." Sirius laughed at his friend.

James shook his head violently. "No, no they haven't you git. This is why I didn't want to tell you." He began to stalk off towards their next class, but Sirius quickly caught up and grabbed his arm.

"Wait, James," Sirius began. "I know Dumbledore takes eccentric to an art form, but do you really think he'd let something... how'd you put it "mad and hairy once a month" into the castle? Werewolves are seriously dangerous! Don't you understand that? Have you met Remus? He couldn't hurt a dead fly."

"I'm not kidding," the other boy replied simply with a slight shrug.

"I'm serious," Sirius replied earnestly.

"Well... tuh." The bespectacled boy grinned at his friend, attempting to lighten the mood.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Do you understand the implications if he is one? He could kill us... and I'm sure that's only one of the many problems that would occur."

"Would?" James said angrily. "Are, you prat. They are occurring. Because whether you want to believe it or not, I'm convinced he is one and the three of us might be able to run away from these problems, but he never can."]

Sirius gazed out the window near where they were stopped. He sighed.

"You may be set against getting involved in all these problems and if you're going to start seeing Remus as a problem then... maybe this is it," James sighed.

"With our friendship with Remus?" Sirius said quietly, not looking at his friend.

"No... with our friendship. I'm not going to freeze Remus out for something he can't help. Somehow I doubt he went wandering into the woods going 'here wolfie, wolfie, come bite me' if you catch my drift. He can't help it. I'm sure Dumbledore has some way of keeping us all safe, I mean, did you hear of a werewolf attack outbreak after last September? All I can recall reading about was the fact that the Middlebury Manor is the most severely haunted place in all of Britain and the shopkeepers down in Hogsmeade have taken to calling it the Shrieking Shack since it makes so much noise. But that's ghosts and not werewolves, now isn't it?"

James stopped talking and gave Sirius a chilling look.

"If you come to your senses, you know where to find us."

With that, James Potter stalked off down the hallway to Charms as Sirius Black stared vacantly off towards the Quidditch pitch with a broken look on his face.

~~*~~

When James reached the Charms classroom the first thing he noticed were Peter and Remus bent with their heads together over one of their desks.

Well clearly Pete doesn't care if Remus is a werewolf, James though, still exceedingly annoyed at Sirius. That stupid judgmental git. He has the nerve to worry about our safety. For Merlin's sake, we'd be dead two hundred times over if Remus didn't know all the counter curses and medical spells that he does. And if he wasn't the voice of reason with some of our dumber ideas. Really now, does he really think- James reverie was caught short as he saw Remus and Peter both jump back from the desk.

"Why is it doing that, Pete?" Remus asked, picking up the wand carefully.

"I don't know," Peter whined, he looked over to James. "My wand is shooting sparks."

"Huh?" James crossed over to where the other two were sitting.

"It just randomly starts shooting colorful sparks... it'd almost be pretty. That is, if I didn't keep catching fire on them," he said ruefully as he used that same wand to shoot out a jet of water to put out the small parchment fire on his desk.

James took the wand and began turning it over, looking at it. Just as he was looking at the bottom, sparks, a lovely shade of purple, shot out of the tip and set the hem of his robe on fire.

"Aquato." James whirled around when he heard Sirius's voice. A moment later, the bottom of his robe was drenched and Sirius was already settled into the desk next to Peter, having not said another word to James.

James handed Peter his wand and sat down next to Remus.

Throughout most of the class, both Peter and Remus noticed that James and Sirius were avoiding each other. While Remus seemed ignorant as to why the rift had occurred, Peter was worried that he just might have a clue. Although why they'd fight over that, he had no idea. It was his fault he'd told. All the while, his wand sporadically emitted sparks as Professor Flitwick droned on about Lengthening and Shortening Spells.

With about five minutes of class left, James and Peter both looked over to Remus's desk, where a loud thump had occurred moments before. Sitting in front of Remus was a silver Muggle ball point pen that had 'accidentally' been tossed there.

"Sorry bout that, Remmy," Sirius said nonchalantly. "Hand me my pen, would you?"

"Where's your quill, Sirius?" Remus asked him calmly, looking at the gleaming object on his desk, but making no move to touch it.

"Lost it the other day, nicked this from Pete's desk the other day to finish up my homework, don't mind, do you Pete?" Sirius leaned in across Peter towards Remus.

Peter's face contorted into a grimace. "Don't be a git, Sirius," he hissed as he grabbed the pen, placing it in Sirius's hand. "You'll hurt him, you prat."

All three boys heard the sharp intake of breath from Remus and looked at him with startled expressions clear on all their faces when he interrupted Professor Flitwick claiming he needed to go to the Hospital Wing. Now.

"Alright then, Mr. Lupin. Get a copy of the homework from one of your classmates later," the professor replied, quickly returning to his lecture. Before the other three Marauder's could blink, the fourth was gone.

Sirius jumped a bit as Peter kicked him hard on the shin. As the bell rang, denoting the end of class, Peter and James raced for the door, but Sirius caught them quickly.

"We need to talk. Now."

~~*~~

"Dissendium," Sirius muttered, tapping the familiar hump on the statue in the third floor corridor, the other two boys following a few steps behind him. He climbed through, slid down and waited.

A scuffling noise alerted him that the other two boys were there. None made a move to light their wands.

"So... er... this werewolf theory," he began uncomfortably. "You may have something there."

"Really? You think?" James retorted dryly. "You're wasting my time, Black. I've got better things to be doing right now. Like trying to find my severely alienated best friend. Coming, Pete?"

There was a moment of silence. "You know James, werewolves are dangerous."

James let out a howl of frustration. "How is he possibly more dangerous today than he was last week when we didn't know? Huh?"

"Well, it's just," Peter trailed off.

"We've got things we need to consider, you understand," Sirius interjected.

"No, I don't understand. What I do understand though, is that you're being a git and because of it you're making me pick between my best friends. I don't appreciate it."

"I just don't think it's safe," Sirius said quietly.

"Since when do you give a damn about safe, Sirius Black?"

"I just can't imagine Remus as a blood thirsty monster," Peter said quietly.

"Because he's not! He's just Remus most of the time, so who cares about that one night? We'll just split up on those nights, he goes his way, we go ours and then we meet up in the end, like we've been doing for the past year and a half."

This time Sirius let out a growl of annoyance. "You make it sound so easy."

"That's because it is, you bloody prat."

Sirius heard Peter let out a small sigh. "Alright, I'm with you James."

"Well, it's good to see one of you have come to your senses."

"You know, Seer," Peter said quietly. "He wouldn't have hesitated for half a second if it had been you rather than me in Care of Magical Creatures... not a second."

Both boys knew immediately what Peter was referring to and Sirius let out a similar sigh.

"I know." He repeated it again, more to himself. "I know."

"Then we never speak of this, you understand?" James said into the darkness.

"We can't just avoid the subject... I mean... I tossed a pen at him, for Merlin's sake," Sirius muttered.

"Which was bloody brilliant you astounding moron, but that wasn't what I was referring to. We have to go talk about that... I mean this. This whole doubt thing... the way the two of you reacted. From here on out, it's nothing but support from all three of us."

"Oh good," Peter sighed in relief.

"Yea... thanks, mate," Sirius said, beginning to climb up out of the passageway.

"Prat."

"Git."

"Oh shut up, you two. Let's go find him."

~~*~~

Two hours later Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black and James Potter trudged towards Gryffindor Tower, having finally given up their search for Remus Lupin.

"Dinglebat," Peter said to the Fat Lady.

Sirius climbed through first and James and Peter smacked right into him. He raised his arm and the other two followed it to where it pointed. An armchair had been pulled over into the corner and Remus's knapsack was clearly lying next to it. The three boys approached tentatively and stood quietly, seemingly undetected, behind the chair until Sirius broke the silence.

"Er... did I ever tell you the one about the wolf that fell into the washer machine? He became a wash and werewolf."

Peter and James both groaned. Remus didn't reply at all .

"Alright, alright. Not that good. How about... why do werewolves do so well in school?"

"Shut up," a hoarse voice croaked from the chair.

Sirius snapped his jaw shut.

The three boys stood uncomfortably behind the chair, Peter shifting his weight from foot to foot, James repeatedly running his hand through his hair and Sirius nervously tapping his fingers along the top of the armchair.

"Just go away," Remus said quietly. "Leave me alone."

"Uh, no... we tried that for nearly two hours already," Peter said softly. "Not on purpose, mind you, but you did get two hours to yourself."

"And we all know that when you're angry or upset you go off and brood. That can't be healthy, especially not over this," James added.

The group settled into silence as several older Gryffindors walked by.

"This isn't the place to talk about it," Remus replied a moment later.

"Well, where do you want to go?" Peter asked.

"Anywhere that you lot aren't, but I can't imagine you'll let me do that, now will you?" Remus stood up and walked quickly towards the boys dormitory.

~~*~~

A minute later Remus was perched on his bed facing the other three as they sat down on Peter's. It's already started, he thought sadly. The three of them against me. I knew this was too good to last. He let out a deep sigh.

"Well?"

The three boys looked at one another and then Sirius blurted out. "You're a werewolf."

Remus smiled darkly. "I'm well aware of that." He gave them a look as though to say 'go on'.

"Well..." James began. "What can we do?"

"You mean besides go off on your own and leave the dangerous menace to society to himself? Got me, nothing I can think of."

The three boys all gave Remus a weird look. What are they at? Just get it over with. Nice being friends with you Remus, we'll see you at graduation. Try not to eat us in our sleep? Oh, nevermind that. It was bad enough with Melissa. Peter's physically incapable of keeping a secret, the entire school will know by tomorrow. I'll be expelled by the weekend. Bloody brilliant. And Dumbledore will think I told them, which I was told specifically not to do. "Well? What are you staring at?" he snapped crossly.

"That wasn't what we meant," Peter squeaked.

"Er... I mean, is there anything we can do?" Sirius asked.

"What are you playing at?"

"What we were trying to say," James interjected, "was is there anything we can do to help you?"

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse. "What am I now? Your new pet project? A sympathy case? I don't think so, no thanks. See you," Remus stood to leave.

"No, you great, sodding, self-pitying git, you're our mate," Sirius barked. Remus stopped in his tracks. "And we wanted to know if there was anything that we could do to help. No sympathy, no pet projects, not even any mysteries, we were just trying to be mates."

"You can't do anything," Remus said in a small, defeated voice, his back still to the group. "This is just the way it is."

"Well, then that's the way it is and we've discussed it and now you can stop giving us your lame excuses as to why you're missing classes and sick all the time," James said, slowly beginning to grin a bit.

"I knew no one could have that many allergies and survive," Peter mused.

Remus slowly began to turn toward them. "How can it not bother you that I'm... you know."

"Because we've known you for this long already and you've never attacked any of us... well, not in your wolf form anyway," James said. "It's only one night out of the month, the rest of the time, you're just plain Remus."

"How'd it happen?" Sirius cautiously asked.

"Er... I was playing in the woods near my home one evening... I was really young and well... I'm what happens to the rare freaks that actually live through a werewolf attack. You can see why death is preferred."

"No, I can't," Sirius said nearly inaudibly. "If you'd died, we'd never have met."

The boys stood studying one another for a moment. They can't... they just can't accept it like that... I'm a monster! A Dark Creature! How can they not care? Remus felt his eyes brim up with tears. "I, ah... left my book bag in the Common Room. I'll be right back."

He quickly shot out of the room and heard James say "no, let him go" to whoever had tried to follow. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he was completely oblivious to his surroundings and tripped right over Melissa.

"Oh Merlin, sorry Mel," Remus muttered.

"'S ok, Remus. I'll live," she grinned. Her face darkened as her eyebrows knitted together in concern. She'd noticed how his eyes were shining. "Are you ok?"

"I... uh. Mel? Did you tell them?"

"Tell who what?"

She's got to be kidding me, how can that not be the first thing on her mind every time she looks at me? Werewolf. Monster. "Peter and James and Sirius... that I'm, well, that I'm a werewolf," he said very quietly.

"Never. You asked me not to, and I said I wouldn't. I'm not a liar, Remus Lupin." She had crossed her arms across her chest as she spoke.

"Ah, no, you aren't. Sorry, Mel. Thank you." He leaned over and picked up his book bag.

"They know?" she asked softly, placing a hand gently on his arm, causing a jolt to shoot up it. I think I just got a crash course on what Muggle electricity feels like.

"Er... um... I mean, yes. Yea, they figured it out," he stuttered.

"I'm pretty sure that they don't care any more than I do, Remus." She gave his arm one last pat and removed it. "I've got to go. Detention with Filch, jolly good fun and all that."

Remus laughed at the sarcasm laced in her words. "Have fun, Mel."

"Always," she replied cheekily heading for the portrait hole. "Lily, we have to be in Filch's office in five minutes," he heard her call over her shoulder to the red head surrounded by books in a corner. A moment later, both were gone.

Remus turned around and went back upstairs. He stood outside the door for a second before entering.

"But they are planning something, I'm sure of it. You can't trust girls," Peter's voice drifted.

"Yeah, right. What would make you think that?" Sirius's voice, fully of doubt, came next.

"I overheard them when I was walking around the other day," came Peter's reply, followed, in a horrible Russian accent. "I am sly like fox." Remus snorted.

"Sly like chipmunk, is more like it," James retorted and Remus actually laughed out loud. "That's our Pete, super spy extraordinaire. So then, what are they planning?"

"Dunno, but it's something."

Remus entered the room. "Have you lot noticed that Melissa's been sneaking large quantities of honey out of the Great Hall recently, think it's related?"

The four Marauders, all piled on Peter's bed, spent the rest of the evening trying to figure exactly what the Gryffindor Five were up to this week.