Bit nervous – this is my first Harry Potter fic. It therefore goes without saying that I am not JKR, and do not own any of the Marauders, Lily or anyone else mentioned (except Siobhan – she's mine). Apologies – this is not beta-read, so mistakes are entirely my own doing.

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Chapter 1: Moony

"Sirius?"

Sirius Black looked up from his Charms homework. "What?"

James Potter pointed out of the open window of their dormitory. "It's full moon."

That caught Sirius' attention. "And Remus has disappeared again. It's too much of a coincidence."

"We have to ask him."

"Oh yeah?" Sirius said. "And just how are we going to do that, Jimmy? 'Hey, Remus, how're things? By the way, we were wondering, are you a werewolf?'"

"Don't call me 'Jimmy'!" James protested, firing a poorly-aimed hex at Sirius and setting fire to the hangings of his bed. "Oh, shit. Um, help?"

"Finite incantem," Sirius said, lazily flicking his wand. Nothing happened. "Shit, James, what the hell did you do?"

"I dunno," James cried, yanking the door open and shouting down the stairs. "It was just something I wanted to try out on Snivelly next time we curse him."

The seventh-year Prewitt twins were the first to answer James' cry for help.

"What have you two been up to?" Fabian asked with a sigh as he conjured a stream of water from the tip of his wand and, working with his twin, put out the flames.

"Nothing," the pair said quickly.

"We were just trying out a new spell, and it went a bit wrong," Sirius elaborated as the prefect appeared unconvinced.

"No kidding," Gideon said, inspecting the damage done to the drapes. "Evanesco." The water disappeared from the floor, and, with a quick twiddle of wands, the twins soon had the carpet dry again, whilst Sirius tried a 'reparo' spell on the curtains.

"Won't work, Black," Fabian said. "You need all the pieces to repair something."

"Is there any way to repair them without McGonagall finding out?" James asked.

The twins exchanged glances. "Not exactly," Gideon said conspiratorially. "They can't be repaired, but they can be replaced. You need to go down to the kitchens and ask the house elves."

The two Marauders' eyes lit up; going down to the kitchen sounded like breaking the rules, and that was something they excelled at.

"How do we get down there?" James asked.

Gideon looked to his brother.

"I won't stop you telling them," Fabian said, "but as a prefect, I can't have anything to do with this."

"He's gotten so boring since he got that badge," Gideon said with a wicked grin. "You know the corridor to the right of the main staircase in the entrance hall?"

The two boys nodded.

"Go along there until you come to the painting of a fruit bowl. All you need to do is tickle the pear, and it'll turn into a door handle. The kitchens are behind there."

"Wow, thanks, Gideon," Sirius said.

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"I can't believe how cool Fabian and Gideon Prewitt are," Sirius whispered as he and James snuck down to the kitchens. "Not grassing us up or anything. Peter's going to be so pissed off when he finds out what he missed."

"Sirius, concentrate," James said, deliberately stepping on Sirius' foot as they shuffled under his invisibility cloak. "What are we going to do about Remus?"

"What can we do?" Sirius countered. "Either he is or he isn't – it doesn't make a difference, does it? He's still Remus."

"Hell, Sirius, I thought for sure you'd have some Black family prejudice against werewolves."

"Maybe I don't want to see things the same way as my narrow-minded, blood-obsessed family?"

James had to concede the point. "I still think we need to get it out in the open. We pledged, remember? No secrets."

Sirius nodded.

Peter trudged wearily into the dormitory not long after James and Sirius returned.

"How was detention?" Sirius asked around a mouthful of chocolate cake.

"Horrible," Peter groaned, flopping onto his bed. "Slughorn made me clean out the newt-eye barrel. Those things burst, you know. What are you eating?"

"Treacle tart," James replied cheerfully, wafting its aroma towards Peter. "Want some?"

Peter looked sceptical. "What have you done to it?"

James appeared highly affronted. "Would I do anything to treacle tart?"

"Peter, he worships that stuff almost as much as he worships Evans," Sirius pointed out, offering a plate of cream scones. "It's these you want to watch out for."

Peter quickly withdrew his hand from the vicinity of the plate.

"He's kidding," James reassured him. "None of it is cursed. We swiped it from the kitchens. Gideon Prewitt told us how to get down there."

Reassured, Peter grabbed a scone and shoved it into his mouth. His eyes closed blissfully.

"By the way, thought we should tell you," Sirius said lazily, "Remus is missing again. It's full moon."

Peter made an unintelligible noise of confusion.

"He's a werewolf, Peter," James said, pointing his fork at the youngest Marauder.

Peter squealed in terror and almost choked on the scone. "What?" he choked out eventually.

"It's so obvious," Sirius said. "He 'goes home' every full moon to visit his 'sick mother'…"

"Stop drawing air-quotes," James said. "It's tacky."

"Whatever," Sirius drawled. "Anyway, why does he always come back looking worse than when he went? Why is it always full moon? Why not go home at the weekend, when we don't have lessons? You know how studious he is. Plus, Mrs Lupin looks fine whenever we see her at Kings Cross."

Peter's eyes were like saucers. "He… You mean he's out there, right now, being a werewolf?"

James and Sirius nodded simultaneously.

"Alone?" Peter demanded.

The others exchanged glances. "Well, yeah," James said. "He's not exactly going to be the best company right now."

"That's terrible," Peter exclaimed angrily. "Poor Remus."

"Got to say, Peter, you're taking this better than we thought you would," Sirius said.

Peter shrugged. "Remus hasn't done anything to deserve something so horrible: he wouldn't hurt a fly!"

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Tuesday dragged on into Wednesday, and the three Marauders made up for their missing partner by irritating the girls (and the teachers) more than usual. James spent the entirety of History of Magic flicking tiny balls of parchment at Lily Evans – an activity that Remus would normally have put a stop to quite quickly – and by the end of the period, Lily's face was virtually indistinguishable in colour from her red hair.

"Just because Remus is away, doesn't mean you have to act like toddlers!" she snapped at James when Professor Binns drifted away. "You're thirteen years old, Potter – why don't you act like it?"

"Ignore him," Siobhan Turner said, taking Lily's arm and blanking the Marauders as she turned away. "He's not worth your time."

Lily's agreement with this statement led to James spending the entire Potions lesson sulking, which seemed to please Severus Snape no end. The greasy Slytherin kept turning from the cauldron of perfect shrinking solution that he and Lily were brewing to shoot smugly triumphant glances at James. It was with a sense of profound relief that the trio went back to their dorm after class, grateful to be away from the Slytherins and Lily's sharp gaze. They had had time to relax and start a game of exploding snap by the time Remus came back, looking tired.

"Oh, hi, guys," he said, seemingly surprised to see them.

Sirius couldn't believe his ears when James used his exact words from two nights ago.

"Hey, Remus, how're things?"

"Um, okay, I guess," Remus said nervously, gathering his homework assignments.

"We were wondering," James said, conversationally, "are you a werewolf?"

Remus dropped his bottle of ink in shock. "W… What makes you think something like that?"

James sat up, dropping his cards on the floor (they exploded and singed the rug, but no-one seemed to notice). "Well, you keep disappearing at full moon." He started counting reasons on his fingers. "You don't come back for a couple of days afterwards, which suggests you need some time to get back to normal before you see us again; you never let us see you without your shirt, suggesting that you've got scars you don't want us to see, namely a great big werewolf bite; you go all weird just before full moon and you've just gone nervous."

Remus wouldn't meet their eyes.

"You promised," Sirius said with a pout. "No secrets, remember?"

"I just wanted to be your friend," Remus said quietly. "I knew you'd hate me if you knew what I am."

"I don't hate you, Remus," Sirius said, moving to sit beside his friend. "James doesn't hate you. Peter doesn't hate you."

"Yeah," James agreed, bouncing across the bed to sit at Remus' other side, whilst Peter was still trying to coordinate his movements enough to get up. "So, you've got a little problem; no-one's perfect."

Remus looked from one to the other in utter bewilderment and tried his best to defy the tears that sprung to his eyes when he saw their acceptance.

"Hey," James said with a grin, "I know we're great, but we're not that great."

Remus laughed despite himself. "You are," he insisted, wiping his eyes in embarrassment. "You don't know what it's like. I've wanted to tell you for ages, but I was so afraid. This is the first time in my life I've really had friends, and I didn't want to risk anything."

"Oh, come here, you big, soft idiot," Sirius said, grabbing Remus and tickling him – a favourite past-time of certain Marauders because Remus shrieked like a girl. He did not disappoint, and James and Peter joined in until they were all lying in one breathless, jumbled heap.

"No more secrets?" James asked, gasping for breath.

"No more secrets," Remus agreed with a smile.

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So, how did it go? Click the button to tell me! Concrit will be treated with loving care. Flames will be laughed at.