"Sirius, have you noticed anything off with Remus lately?" James asked Sirius.
"No, not really, James," came Sirius's bored reply. "Hey, where is Remus, anyway? I haven't seen him since dinner, and he's usually almost or already done with his homework by now."
James looked up from his homework. "You know, that's actually a good point. Come to think of it, he's been missing at least once a month, for at least these past few months."
They both stared down at their astronomy homework.
"Why's astronomy so boring?" Sirius grumbled under his breath.
"I dunno," James replied in the same annoyed and bored tone. James glanced at his lunar chart for a moment, for no other reason than to procrastinate on his work, when something in his mind clicked.
Sirius look over and saw James's face go pale. James got up abruptly and started to leave the common room.
"Where are you going?" Sirius called after him.
"Library," James replied tersely, before he disappeared from the common room, leaving behind a very confused Sirius.
The only reason that James was -voluntarily- going to the library was that he hoped to prove himself wrong. The only place to get the right information to disprove his latest insane theory was the library.
It was already late when he got to the library, so there were only a few people left in the library, the kinds of students that were either continuing their late-night studies or just there for fun.
'Just like Remus,' James thought. He went straight to the section on magical creatures, ignoring the looks he got from some students who couldn't believe that James Potter was actually in the library. He scanned the shelves until he came to the books on werewolves. James grabbed the thinnest one he could find, and then sat on the floor, opening the book to the table of contents. After a minute of scanning through it, he closed the book, frustrated. It was all about how vicious werewolves were, and how they shouldn't be allowed to get jobs or anything like that. He replaced it on the shelf and grabbed another volume, only to find that it had content similar to the first book. So did the third book he got. He almost groaned out loud in frustration.
Another idea struck him. James looked through the shelves again until he found a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. If he'd still had his own copy, he wouldn't have had to come here in the first place, but his copy had been used, along with several other books, in a prank involving the Slytherins in the Great Hall at breakfast and several sacks of flour. (It had still been worth it.)
James flipped though the pages until he found the entry on werewolves. He quickly skimmed through the passage. As he did, he grew more and more worried. Most of the facts listed in the book seemed to fit Remus perfectly (minus the part about most werewolves being cruel and vicious even when it wasn't the full moon. Remus wouldn't hurt a fly.)
But the tiredness and the mysterious cuts and bruises he always seemed to have whenever he came back every month. those things seemed to fit. Not to mention those odd disappearances every month.
Getting up, he took the Fantastic Beast book, along with three other werewolf book he picked out at random, and took them to Madam Pince, hoping she wouldn't be too suspicious about his choice of books. However, she seemed more suspicious about the fact that it was him who had gotten the books. She didn't seem to care about their content.
"If I hear that you've gone off to use these in another infernal prank of yours, I shall see to it personally that you have detention for the rest of the year," Madame Pince growled at him with a severe expression as she handed him the stack of books.
"Yes, Madam Pince. Thank you," James replied, taking the books and walking briskly away. Honestly - though he would never admit it to anyone- the hawk-eyed librarian scared him a little bit.
When he got back to the common room, Sirius was still there. Sirius looked at him with what looked a bit like relief.
"Oh, so you did say 'library'," Sirius said, eying James's stack of books. "I thought I'd heard you wrong."
"Yeah," replied James, not really knowing what else to say. 'Should I tell him about my findings?" he wondered.
"So... Exactly why did you find the need to go to the library?" Randomly and of your own free will, no less." Sirius's expression turned to one of mock horror. "Our old pal Remus hasn't rubbed off on you, has he?"
James just stared at him, racking his brain for any other realistic explanation as to why he had gone to the library. Finding none, he sighed internally, and finally decided to tell Sirius. He sat in the chair next to Sirius and placed the stack of books on the table.
"Sirius, what I'm about to tell you right now, you can't tell anyone else. Not even Peter. At least, not yet," he amended.
"Alright, what is it? You look like you're hiding some big, dark secret," Sirius said jokingly. James winced at his choice of words, and resisted the urge to say that it wasn't him that was hiding some secret. He took a deep breath.
"Sirius, I think Remus is a werewolf."
Sirius stared at him for a moment before bursting out laughing.
"Ha! That's a good one, James! Remus, a werewolf!" He continued to laugh. James quickly shushed him.
"Sirius, shut up! I'm not kidding, and I don't want anyone else to hear!" James had been about to say "I'm serious", but that would have only made it worse. Immediately, Sirius's laughter died.
"Oh. You're serious about this," he said quietly. James was honestly surprised that he hadn't pointed out the overused pun on his name.
"Yes, I am. I went to the library to make sure, and it looks like I'm right about this. And," -he took a quick glance at the table and dug his lunar chart out of the pile of their stuff- "Tonight is the full moon, which would explain why he's not here right now."
Sirius stared at the lunar chart for a few seconds.
"What do we do about it?" Sirius asked, with a concerned tone. James might have expected a hostile tone, at least from anyone else in the Black family.
"We tell him that we know he's a werewolf, but we can't be harsh about it or anything. I mean, if he wasn't telling us about something like this, then he has to have a good reason for it." James said quietly, the words just pouring from his mouth as if he'd known the entire time.
"Okay," Sirius said quietly. "When do we tell him that we know?" Sirius asked. James considered this for a second.
"Well, obviously not tonight, cos he's not here," he muttered, more thinking out loud than anything. "I think maybe, assuming he'll be back tomorrow, we should let him know tomorrow night." He looked over at Sirius, who was nodding and looked deep in thought. 'That's a first,' James thought halfheartedly.
"Alright then. What about Peter? Should we tell him?"
"Yeah, we probably should. Let's tell him right now." James got up and headed for their dorm.
Peter's eyes widened as Sirius relayed the details of James's findings. James studied Peter's face. Peter looked downright terrified to him.
"Do you mean to say that we've been sleeping with a werewolf in our dorm for over a year now?" Peter squeaked.
"No, we've been sleeping with Remus in our dorm. But we think that Remus is a werewolf, and that's why he's gone every month." James explained (again), narrowing his eyes at the way Peter reacted to the news.
"Well, we should tell Dumbledore! He has to know there's a werewolf in the school!"
"Peter, you arse, of course Dumbledore would know, he wouldn't let something as dangerous as a werewolf roam around the school," Sirius said, pausing for a moment. "That came out a lot harsher than I meant it to be."
"What he means," James interrupted, "is that Dumbledore would have already know, and he would have taken precautions. I mean, you don't exactly see Remus transforming in here, or in the dungeons or anything." Peter nodded thoughtfully. James took this as a sign of Peter accepting all of this information in a good way.
"So what do we do now?" Peter asked timidly.
"Here's the plan," James started, and he went on to repeat what he had come up with while talking with Sirius. When he was done, Peter agreed.
James jumped up. "I should probably go get those books off of the common room table. We don't want everyone else to find out about this/" He ran down to the common room, thankfully finding that no one else had found the books.
The next day at dinner, James looked around for Remus, but he didn't see him anywhere.
"Hey, Sirius," he said, turning to him. "Have you seen Remus today?"
"No, I haven't seen him, " Sirius replied, concern leaking into his voice.
"Should we check infirmary after..." James's voice trailed off as he saw Genus walk into the Great Hall.
"Oh, there he is," Peter said, and the three of them looked up to see him approaching the table. Realizing that they were all just staring at him rather awkwardly, James smiled and waved at Remus. Remus smiled back, though when he did, James could see he was trying to hide a grimace of pain.
"Hey, Remus, where have you been?" James asked when he sat down.
"Er, I just went to visit my aunt for a bit. She's sick, and my mum asked Dumbledore if she could pull me out of school for a day or so to visit her," Remus said.
"Is she all right?" Sirius asked.
"Well, yeah, she'll be fine," Remus answered, speaking a bit too quickly. James and Sirius shared a glance.
After dinner, the four of them went up to the dormitories, where most people had gone to bed, since it was getting late.
Sirius and James had already agreed to talk to Remus in their dormitory and not the common room, so that it would be less likely that someone would overhear them.
James and Sirius went in, followed by Peter and Remus. James suddenly started to worry a little bit. What if they were wrong about this, and Remus was just another normal student. James shook his head to clear it. They would cross that bridge if they came to it.
Once they were in the dormitory, James sat down on his bed, and Sirius did the same. Peter just stood there, not wanting to sit down.
James took a deep breath. "Remus?" He asked, not exactly knowing how to go about doing this.
"Yeah, James?" Remus said, looking up at him.
James looked to Sirius for help. Sirius rolled his eyes and took a moment to think before saying, "Remus, we know you're a werewolf."
Remus stopped dead. The silence that hung between them after that was so thick, you could cut it with a butter knife.
"What makes you think that?" Remus said, making and obvious effort to keep the quaver out of his voice.
Sirius turned to him and muttered, "James?", prompting him to start talking. James cleared his throat.
"Um, I noticed that you were gone yesterday, and I happened to glance at the lunar chart, and then I remembered that you were gone pretty much every month." He mumbled all of this as quickly as he could. "I, er... went to the library, and I got some books," he gestured to the stack of books piled next to the bed, "but they weren't helpful at all." He didn't want to say exactly why they weren't helpful, and he hoped that that reason was evident.
There was another awkward pause. Remus nodded solemnly, then started moving towards his trunk, packing his things into it at random.
"What... what are you doing?" Sirius asked, watching Remus throw his clothes into the trunk. James thought he saw tears gleaming in Remus's eyes.
"Packing," he muttered, and staring flinging his books into the trunk. "I can leave, so you won't have to have me here, and you won't have to kick me out. That's what you're going to do, right?"
"Of course we're not having you kicked out! Why on earth would we do that?" Sirius asked incredulously. Remus stopped packing and turned to face that for the first time.
"Because- because I'm a monster?"
"You're being dramatic," James said, grinning. "You fold your socks, Remus. Forgive me if I'm not trembling at the sight of you."
"Yeah, Remus, we don't want you to leave," said Peter timidly, actually speaking for the first time since they had started the conversation. "Just because you're a werewolf doesn't mean you're a bad person."
"Yeah, you're still Remus," James added. "You've just got a furry little problem, that's all."
Remus smiled at that, and James took that as confirmation that his friend was okay with them knowing.
"Okay, now let's unpack all of your stuff. We still need your help with that potions essay."