Disclaimer: I do not own any of J.K. Rowling's wonderful characters. They all came from her brilliant imagination, and I am not trying to steal or make money off of them.


James and Sirius worriedly peeked over their shoulders as their friend, Remus Lupin, arrived late to their first class for the third time that week. Remus was hardly ever late to class, except there always seemed to be certain weeks where he was late very frequently. And the strangest thing was the fact that McGonagall never interrogated him as she would with anyone else. She merely sent a glance toward him – maybe it was sympathy – and continued with the lesson.

Remus took a seat between Peter and James, and took out his book, a quill, and parchment, acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Sirius leaned over James when McGonagall had her back turned and whispered to Remus. "Hey, this is the third time in a row. What's going on, mate?"

Remus looked up, his eyes circled in dark rings, and long scratches ran across his face. "Remus, you look even worse today than you did yesterday," James retorted.

"Oh, I'm fine, really." Remus just waved the remark away.

"But –"

Professor McGonagall whirled around. "Mr. Potter, do you have a question?"

"No, Professor."

"Then would you mind keeping your mouth shut and listening?"

"No, Professor."

She continued with her lecture on transfiguring a quill into a wooden rod Her long, raven-black hair was always kept in a bun at the nape of her neck and today she wore emerald green robes, but usually she just wore black.

At the end of an unsuccessful class, during which Peter had managed to force his quill into spattering the entire class with black ink and Remus had accomplished transfiguring only the end of the quill into wood, Professor McGonagall assigned them a rather nasty essay that none of them were very enthused about. The bell finally rang, and Sirius, James, and Peter immediately jumped to their feet, Remus taking his time to pack up all his books and other materials.

"We're gonna go drop this stuff off in Gryffindor tower before Potions, Remus. We'll meet you there, okay?" James said as they picked up their books and started to head out. Remus didn't reply, but he hadn't needed to.

When they had reached the bottom of the staircase as they retreated from the Transfiguration classroom, Sirius turned and gave James a significant look. James nodded.

"Shoot, I forgot my best quill in the Transfiguration classroom. I'll be right back," Sirius muttered and promptly raced back up the staircase.

"You know, I think I forgot my book, it's not here, I think I thought it was Remus'. Sorry, Peter. We'll meet you in the common room," James promised, and turned to follow Sirius.

"I'll come with you!" Peter said brightly.

"Nah, it's alright, you go on. We'll catch up with you." James stalked off, but broke into a run as soon as Peter had turned the corner. He sprinted up the staircase and found Sirius concealed behind a statue of Godric Gryffindor, which was directly to the right of the classroom. James quickly hid behind it next to Sirius, and he was slightly surprised to find that they could hear every word that was being said from within the classroom.

James and Sirius had figured out that Lupin often stayed after class to talk to McGonagall, usually directly after the full moon, and they decided that it might be helpful to them to listen in. The two of them had figured out that their friend was a werewolf before their first year at Hogwarts had ended, but Remus didn't know that. He and James knew that no matter what, they would never leave Remus' side, even though he was terrified of what they would think of him. Fortunately, they weren't the kind of people that would leave him alone and miserable for what he was.

"What took you so long?" Sirius hissed.

"Peter kept me," James grunted, but they both fell quiet and strained to hear what was happening within the classroom. Peter, however, had not figured out the secret just yet.

"Mr. Lupin, it's been four days. Are you sure you're alright? Usually you aren't still recovering this long afterward," McGonagall was saying.

"Yes, yes, I'm quite alright," Remus replied wearily. "It's not really my problem that's been giving me trouble, I just had a lot to catch up since I was gone. It's not a big deal."

James rolled his eyes. Typical Remus.

Professor McGonagall seemed to be giving Remus a stern look, since she didn't respond right away. "Mr. Lupin, I wish I could delay your homework and allow you a few extra days to complete it, but as it is, it's not possible. Other students would begin to notice, and it would draw more attention to you."

"I appreciate it, but I understand. I shouldn't need special conditions since – since there are already so many in place." There was a moment of silence. "Professor, I need another excuse for being gone at the end of every month. I think my friends are getting more suspicious."

"We'll come up with another one as the next time comes closer. You'd best get to Potions before you miss it." McGonagall's voice took on its edge once again. Remus thanked the teacher as James and Sirius squeezed further behind the statue, trying to melt in with the shadows. Remus emerged from the classroom moments later, yawning, then headed down to the dungeons. Sirius and James stalled for a moment so they would not be discovered, giving him enough time to get down there and allowing for them to pretend that they had doubled back after retrieving their mysteriously missing items.


That afternoon, Peter begged Remus to help him with the Transfiguration essay they had been assigned, and Remus had agreed reluctantly. Sirius and James were left in the common room with the other Gryffindors, most of whom were playing games of wizard's chess or Gobstones. As Remus' robes swished through the portrait hole, James pulled out several moon charts. "I stole them from the library. I didn't think Madam Pince would let us have them, since we accidentally set fire to the ones we borrowed last year. I'll return them later, though."

Sirius was looking over the charts, brow furrowed. "So the next full moon is four weeks from yesterday. We could use that passageway next to the portrait of Mongo Bonham. There's a window there just above the Entrance Hall's doors, so we can watch them go from there. Well, hopefully. If they change directions, we may not be able to see them depending on which way they go."

"I don't think they do. When I saw Madam Pomfrey and him leave four days ago, they headed straight toward the forest. I just don't know where they ended up. I do know that she was taking him to a hiding place where he could transform."

Sirius looked up from the charts. "When should we---"

"---tell him that we know? Well, not yet. But I have an idea of how to help him…."


It wasn't long before the full moon rolled around again, and James and Sirius were nowhere to be found after classes had ended. Come to think of it, neither was Remus; Peter spent half the afternoon wandering aimlessly around the castle, searching for them. He gave up before long, realizing that they had been running off together an awful lot lately, without him. He was sick of walking in on them when they were deep in a whispered conversation, and they would stop abruptly. They couldn't hide those significant looks from him, he knew very well what they were talking about. If they wanted to talk about him behind his back, it wasn't his problem. At the same time, he wanted to know what they were saying, and desperately hoped that one day they would not notice his entrance. He contented himself by losing spectacularly in a game of chess against a fifth-year.

James and Sirius had run up to their dormitory immediately after the bell signaling the end of classes had rung. They knew that they had to hurry if they wanted to follow Remus because neither of them knew exactly when he was going to leave the school. Sirius had decided that it would actually be better to leave the castle in order to get a better idea of where they were going. This would have been impossible if it hadn't been for James, who was contributing his Invisibility Cloak to the plan.

Sirius sat on his four-poster bed, clutching his wand as James rummaged through his chest, trying to find the cloak. Both boys were bundled up in sweaters and scarves - it was snowing lightly outside even though it was still only the beginning of December. Snows such as this one, so early in the season, forecasted heavy and deep storms once winter had truly begun.

"James, we have a problem."

Without looking up James replied, "Yeah. There's snow on the ground, but I stumbled over a spell to wipe footprints the other day. I haven't tried it yet, but it seemed fairly easy. It was in our Charms book, so it's not exactly out of a second years' reach." Finally, he withdrew from his chest, clutching the silvery Invisibility Cloak. "Ready to go?"

James threw the cloak over both of them, then left the room after checking that no body parks were showing. They passed Peter, who was playing chess in the common room, shouting encouragement at his bishop, who had gotten into a bit of a wrestling match with the opponent's queen. They clambered out the portrait hole and quietly made their way downstairs, only rushing past Filch, who was grumpily scrubbing dirt off the floors. Sirius nudged James toward the hospital wing where, to their luck, Remus was sitting tensely on the edge of a bed. No one else was in the infirmary.

The two boys squished themselves in a corner, out of the way but where they could still see everything that was going on. Madam Pomfrey walked out of her office right then, though apparently she didn't realize that Remus had been sitting in her wing, waiting nervously.

"Mr. Lupin, we still have several hours before it's time for us to leave. Why do you insist on being here now?"

Remus stared at his hands and James felt a sudden rush of compassion toward his friend. Though he had researched werewolves and read about the painful transformations, he couldn't imagine what it could really be like. "It's too hard to deal with everyone and everything on a night like tonight. I'd rather just wait here." Madam Pomfrey was obviously caught of-guard by this remark, and she simply stared at Remus with sympathy before turning on her heel and heading back into her office. Remus seemed to decide that staring at his palms wouldn't accomplish anything for him, so he pulled out a book and opened it, seemingly looking up the properties of certain potions ingredients that he would probably need for the next assignment.

Sirius and James refused to move from their position, or even try to sit down. It would have been easy enough to find a place to sit down if there was someone else here, making noises that would have covered up the swishing of the cloak and their own muttering. Remus would surely notice at any little sound they made, jumpy as he was. Madam Pomfrey had said that they still had a couple of hours, but neither of the boys would have had any way of knowing when the time would come. It was very tedious, and very boring, to stand stock still for so long without anything to do. Remus got up and began to pace the length of the hospital wing.

Finally, just as Sirius began to fidget from restlessness, Madam Pomfrey emerged from her office wearing a long winter cloak and scarf. Remus had left his cloak lying on the bedstead and he wrapped it around himself slowly.

"Let's go, Mr. Lupin. We don't want to make it out there too late." With that, Madam Pomfrey swooped out of the hospital wing with Remus lagging behind her, almost as if he thought that if he didn't go to his hiding place he wouldn't have any need to transform. James and Sirius' muscles ached when they moved for the first time in hours, and Sirius moaned piteously as they cramped up. Together, two visible and two invisible, they made their way to

The four of them strode through the corridors of the castle, James mentally taking notes about where they were going and how to get there. He needn't have, though, because before long they passed the Charms classroom that Professor Flitwick usually resided over, and at the end of that hall they made a sharp right and halted. The nurse drew her wand out from the folds of her robes and tapped the wooden door in front of her three times. For a moment, James thought she was mad – Sirius, Peter, and James had tried that door many times with no success, finally deciding that it was just another one of the entrances that was really a wall pretending to be a door.

"This was Dumbledore's second plan for if the weather was bad. We haven't had to use it in the past, because last year we were lucky with a fairly dry winter, at least during the times we had to get out here. Well, in you get." Apparently, the wand-tapping had worked. The door swung open and Madam Pomfrey held it open for Remus to quickly step through. Unfortunately, she followed him so quickly that James and Sirius had no way to get through it in time, and the door shut with an unpleasant snap.

"Well, should we follow them?" James asked mischievously.

"No," replied Sirius. "If we open the door again, they're going to realize that someone's followed them."

James cursed. "And we still don't know where they go."
"Wrong again, mate. She said they only use this when the weather's bad. Usually by January the weather clears up a bit, I'm sure we can have another go at it by then. Besides, she showed us how to get through the blasted door, we can have a go at it whenever we like."

"Right, then it wasn't a complete waste of time." James sounded annoyed. "Well, we should get back to Gryffindor tower. I think our curfew has passed – not that it matters, though, since we have the cloak."

"Fine, but I'm starving. Can't we just make a quick stop at the kitchens?" Sirius asked grumpily.