Alrighty, this is my first one shot published. I hope you enjoy it. I would appreciate it if you would review. I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors, or if I went slightly off canon.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters in this one-shot. The credit all belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling.
Full Moons and Friendship
"Are you in any pain, Dearie?" Madam Pomfrey hovered over Remus' bed mixing some unknown green tinted elixir in a glass vial.
"Not really, thank you," he accepted the elixir from her and quickly drank it. It tasted between a mix of pumpkin juice and grass.
"Now, I have some other students to attend to. Broken arms. That'll teach them not to race up those staircases. Always a trick step or two. I swear you students find more and more creative ways to harm yourselves each day. You just lie here and rest," Madame Pomfrey smiled taking the empty vial and disappearing towards the front of the hospital wing. Remus could hear the clock chiming. He judged it was about ten o'clock. Madame Pomfrey and Dumbledore normally retrieved him from the shack around five in the morning, before many of the other students awoke. Normally he would sleep for a few more hours, then once he awoke sit in the bed and do absolutely nothing, except think about what he was missing that day. He stared out the window. It was a beautiful Saturday morning for April, just warm enough where he could sit outside comfortably to read. He remembered feeling the gentle breeze hit his face as Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey escorted him back to the castle.
Remus could see a few students walking around the grounds, some talking with friends or reading. Remus wanted to read. He desperately needed to finish a DADA essay, but he forgot his book in his dorm. If this were any other circumstance he would have asked James, Sirius, or Peter to get it for him, but currently they had no clue where he was. The day of the full moon, once classes ended, he would slip down to the hospital wing and during dinner would be taken down to the willow. Of course the first few times he did so, Sirius, James, and Peter, Sirius being the most persistent, asked his whereabouts; however, after Remus clearly avoided the subject they stopped asking.
Remus felt a nagging sense of pain in his arm. He looked down to see a small bandage wrapped around his wrist. Another injury. One more gash to explain. One more scar to hide. He subconsciously traced the scar on his neck with his fingers—the biggest he had ever gotten at nine years old. He remembered his mother's horrified face as she danced between the line of worrying for her little boy, like any mother would, but trying to remain calm knowing that was a side effect of his condition and not wanting Remus to feel abnormal, as any mother would. At that point Remus was disgusted with himself, which was the usual feeling if he discovered a new injury. How could someone scratch and bite himself? A lone werewolf resulted to those matters, but it was still disgusting. At that point there was only thing Remus knew to do-sleep. When he slept, he was alone and he didn't have to remember where he was. He hoped to sleep all the way through to the next day, though it was highly unlikely. He'd wake up early and hopefully, with Madame Pomfrey's approval, he would return to the Great Hall for breakfast and yet again be faced with questions or inquisitive looks, which sometimes Remus felt were worse than the questions.
"I don't know. Maybe we should just come back later. He seems knocked out." Remus stirred slightly, responding to the conversation that he suddenly heard taking place next to his bed.
"No. We'll wait," another voice urged. As Remus continued coming into consciousness he recognized the voices and inside pleaded with Merlin he was hearing things or still dreaming. He opened his eyes to see three figures sitting next to his bed—one short and stocky with blonde hair sitting close to Remus' head, one with extremely untidy black hair sitting farther behind, and one tall and lean with shaggy, black hair carelessly leaning against the nearest wall—Peter, James, and Sirius.
"Afternoon, Remus," Sirius smiled.
"What are you doing here?" Remus quickly sat up in his bed.
"Visiting you of course," Peter answered glancing back at James hoping for approval of his answer. For a few brief seconds Remus attempted to conceive an excuse for why he was in the hospital wing, "It was only this time. I have a rare case of Dragon Pox that flares up every once in a while. My mother's been ill and she gave it to me;" however he soon realized it was futile. It was over. They knew. Or at least they knew where he was going.
"How did you find out I was here?"
"Peter's an early riser," Sirius answered nonchalantly. "Caught a glimpse of Madame Pomfrey and Dumbledore helping you up here this morning." Remus knew from sharing a dorm with Peter for a year that he was not an early riser, in fact none of the Marauders were. They had to know something was up.
"How did you figure it out?"
"Just 'cause you get the good marks doesn't mean you're not the only intelligent one here, mate," James answered rubbing his hands through his hair. "Missing once a month, all the scars."
"A new willow, dangerous enough to kill someone planted for no good reason," Sirius cut in.
"How anxious you got when we talked about werewolves in DADA," Peter finished.
"Maybe it would just be better if you started from the beginning," Sirius stated. Remus was never intimidated by Sirius. In fact, he on most occasions exercised authority when Sirius took things too far. Now, however, things were different. He felt compelled to do as Sirius said. Sirius had a power. He, James, and Peter, who on almost all occasion never held power, did. They had the power to choose to be Remus' friend or not. They had the power to shun him, insult him, or worse –exploit him. This moment he feared would mark the end of his friendship with the Marauders—the thing he dreaded most of all—even more than his transformations.
"Well," he looked at three of them hoping they would begin to lose interest like they did with one of Professor Binns's lectures; however, they still seemed fully intent on listening.
"When I was really little my father offended the werewolf, Fenrir Greyback."
"How?" Peter gasped.
"Shut it, Peter, let him finish," James ordered.
"I don't know," Remus answered. "But when I was six Greyback found me and bit me as revenge on my father." Peter shuddered. "From then on every full moon…" he paused trying to gather the courage to finish, "every full moon I transform into a werewolf."
"There aren't any cures?" James asked.
"No. My parents tried for years—elixirs, spells everything and all over. Nothing. They didn't even think it was safe for me to come here. I hadn't been planning on it until…"
"Well that's a load of rubbish," Sirius protested. "Denying you your education 'cause of what some werewolf who should already be locked up in Azkaban did to you." Remus almost laughed at the fact Sirius seemed to be arguing for the sake of education.
"Yeah. I know, but it was for the safety of the students. Then Dumbledore contacted my parents. He said he saw no reason why I shouldn't attend just as long as I was kept away from students during my transformation. So when I got here and the first full moon, Madame Pomfrey took me down to the willow and showed me the way down."
"You went in that thing!" Peter's eyes widened. The previous Christmas break while having a snowball fight he got a little too close to the willow and was scarred for life.
"Yes," Remus smiled. "It's a simple spell to calm it. It leads to a small shack on the outs of Hogsmeade." Hearing this Sirius' James's faces stiffened with worry. They had an idea where this was going.
"And that's where I stay when I transform. The morning after Madame Pomfrey gets me and takes me back here."
"How far off is the shack?" Peter asked. "You don't me the shrieking shack! That's supposed to be the most haunted building in Britain! How could they just leave you in there?" It was then that James smacked Peter on the back of his head.
"Knock it off," he warned. Peter seemed completely unaware of what he'd done wrong. Obviously James and Sirius did most of the reading about werewolves.
"It's not haunted, Pete," Remus stated. "People only say that it's haunted because they hear screams coming from it." Peter nodded his head. This was information he already knew, but he couldn't seem to piece it together. James was about to tell Remus he didn't have to explain any further just to satisfy Peter's stupidity, but Remus continued. "Those screams aren't spirits. They're me." Peter looked horrified. James had to look away from Remus for a moment he felt so bad. Sirius just stared at the ceiling shaking his head. "It's very painful."
"I'm so sorry. I'm so daft. I shouldn't have asked," Peter apologized.
"It's alright, mate," Remus patted his shoulder exposing his bandaged wrist. Peter noticed it and twitched, but held his tongue.
"You alright?" Sirius nodded his head gesturing to the bandage.
"Yeah. I guess," Remus answered. "It could have been worse," he pointed to the scar on his neck.
"When did that one happen?" James hoped it wasn't when they were in school.
"I was nine."
"Why didn't you tell us, mate?" James asked.
"I…" Remus wished he had gotten to choose the time to tell them. He would have had a much more thorough, profound speech planned. James, Sirius, and Peter continued to stare blankly at him. Could they really not guess why he didn't tell them? Did they just want to hear it from him or did they really not understand his reasons? Did they not care? "I was afraid that you'd want to stay away." He looked at each face—serious, but concerned, a rare occurrence.
"Listen, Remus, we may be gits, but we're not cruel," Sirius stood straightened his posture.
"We don't care about your 'furry little problem'" James laughed at his own cleverness.
"You're still our best mate," Peter chimed in.
"Yeah," Sirius stated. "And you're not doing this alone anymore."
"You'll visit me?" Remus weakly smiled.
"Visit?" Sirius scoffed. "Damn it, Remus, we're going with you."
"No!" Remus yelled. "You can't! It's too dangerous. I could hurt you." Sirius stroked his chin with his fingers contemplating. He obviously realized how stupid his first idea was. "James, my dear, recall this. Didn't you say something about werewolves not being as dangerous to animals?"
"Yes?" James answered slightly confused.
"Well then, I've got it."
"We get him a pet?" Peter asked unbelievingly.
"No," Sirius answered. James's face broke out into a grin.
"Ah, brilliant." Peter's eyes switched back and forth from looking to James then to Sirius hoping somehow that would help him understand their plans. Remus was an intelligent boy, applied himself more than James and Sirius therefore receiving the best marks, but even he was dumbfounded. James stood up. He and Sirius turned towards the front of the hospital wing gesturing for Peter, who stood up on this command, to follow.
"We'll be back, Remus," Sirius called. "Gentlemen, to the library. Check out all the books on Animagi you can find." Remus almost couldn't believe what he heard. Sirius wanted them to become Animagi. To become an animagus you had to be exceptionally gifted at Transfiguration. Animagi didn't just turn into animals, they kept their human minds. There were only a handful of registered animagi for the century.
"Are you mad?" Remus asked. Sirius turned around throwing his hand to his chest acting offended. "That's one of the most difficult forms of Transfiguration."
"If old McGonagall can do it, so can we," Sirius laughed off Remus' warnings.
"You'd have to register with the Improper Use of Magic Office—at the ministry." Remus knew they didn't really enjoy having others be able to keep tabs on them.
"Sure we'll register," Sirius reassured him.
"If we can find the time," James laughed. "We are so busy with our studies, you know."
"Don't put yourselves through all that," said Remus.
"Nonsense," Peter stated.
"We're your best mates," James answered. "What else are we for?" The three were soon out of Remus' sight. Did he not witness the event that just took place he would have never believed it. He'd worried, lost sleep and appetite, terrified to tell Peter, James, and Sirius, but now it seemed so silly. They seemed so unfazed, besides Peter's sympathetic twinges. Three boys, whose names were rarely used in the same sentence with 'library' or 'reading,' and hardly ever spoke the words themselves, were sauntering happily up to the library to find books to study, another rare word—study - one of the hardest forms of Transfiguration just to be with him simply because "they were his best mates." Spending the entire previous school year with Sirius, James, and Peter causing trouble, pulling pranks, staying up until all hours, sneaking out of Potions, wandering the corridors at night, and playing pick-up games of Quidditch, Remus was sure he knew the meaning of friendship, but that afternoon he learned that there was more to it and Sirius, James, and Peter far exceeded it.