Author's Note/ Disclaimer
Alright, this is the first of seven parts. It's Remus/Sirius, so although this part doesn't contain any, there will eventually be some slash. This first part is set at Hogwarts, around the Marauder's third year. Also I own none of the characters below. The stanza at the beginning is from T.S. Eliot's "Portrait of a Lady".

1972
'You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends,
And how, how rare and strange it is, to find
In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends
To find a friend who has these qualities,
Who has, and gives
Those qualities upon which friendship lives.
How much it means that I say this to you-
Without these friendships-life, what "cauchemar"!'

His head swam. No, it pounded. Or it felt like it was being pounded anyway. He was also freezing in the very sense of the word, his nose felt like an icicle. Remus Lupin pulled the covers up over his head and curled into a fetal position. He thought he could hear vaguely familiar voices whispering somewhere above him, but before he could place them he was asleep again.

"Oy! I think he's awake again!"
"Shhh…Sirius shut up! He'll hear us!"
"Isn't that what we want?"
"It's a surprise Pete, I'd at least like him to be vaguely startled when he opens his eyes."

Remus slowly opened his eyes, feeling both extremely self-conscious and very worried at the same time. Siruis and James stood beside the bed, peering down at him in a way that would have been slightly creepy were they not his best friends. Peter was there too, only Remus could barely see him for the huge, fuzzy stuffed bear he was holding.

"Tsk tsk Remus Lupin, did you think we would not uncover your darkest secrets? I am the secret master!" Sirius exclaimed much too loudly and threw his arms in the air. "Make the bear sing, Pete my boy!"

Peter tapped the bear with his wand and it began to sing 'Happy Birthday' in a voice that very much sounded like James trying to impersonate a horrible opera singer.

Remus pulled the covers back over his head and groaned.

"I think we may have frightened him into hibernation." James said, frowning.
"Nngh" was Remus's reply.

"Werewolves don't hibernate you great prat." Sirius said, flopping onto the bed beside Remus. "And anyway, your opera impersonation would frighten any sensible person."
The bear was still singing 'Happy Birthday' in James's awful voice.

"It's not my birthday." Remus managed, attempting to keep Sirius from smothering him.
"Well, we didn't know any songs that included the line 'We know you're a werewolf mate, and we like it.'" James said pointedly.

Remus closed his eyes and gave a defeated sigh. When he opened them again Sirius was inches from his face, grinning.
"How'd you find out?"

"Come on, you don't think we're such great gits we wouldn't notice the signs? James actually read the chapter on werewolves in Defense Against the Dark Arts, you know." Sirius said, James nodding knowingly behind him.

"Twice! Once just for class and then again for serious when we realized what was going on. Even Sirius and Peter did too!"
"The great scholars that we are." Peter replied from behind the enormous bear.

"Plus Ol' Jamesy and I spied on McGoogles and Pomfrey chatting one evening at your bedside, whilst you lay in woe and misery." Sirius added lightly.
"Yeah, that helped us a bit." James agreed. "But the point is," he continued "that we know what's going on, and it's alright by us. In fact, it's more than alright."
"It's positively smashing." Sirius finished, flashing him a winning smile.

Remus groaned again and rolled over, yet much to his dismay they all tried to climb into bed with him. However, to everyone's relief, Peter got the bear to stop singing and all was well in the world again.