Story Title: Loyal to the Bone
Author: zoechandler
Story Sumarry: When James, Sirius, and Peter find out his biggest secret, Remus pushes them away. Will they let him push?
Disclaimer: Lets face the sad truth, folks. If I was JKR would I really be here writing this when I could be off writing the oh-so-amazing book 7? I think not. You know the jist of it.
Loyal to the Bone
The Great Hall was almost empty when Remus shuffled in, an hour earlier than any self-respecting Marauder would have. But maybe that was the point. If one wanted to avoid said Marauders one must wake up early to ensure the avoider could avoid the avoided. It was confusing, yes, but to Remus Lupin anything made sense.
He had gotten barely an hour of sleep last night, if even that. You see, his secret was out. James had been the one to bring it up. The four boys (Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter) had been getting ready for bed, all in their own ways. Remus was brushing his teeth as his mother had always told him too. James was rooting through his stuff for his warmest pair of socks. Sirius was defying the rules of bedtime and stuffing his face with as many sweets as possible, all of them nicked from the kitchen. Peter was already half asleep, laying on top of his gold sheets fully clothed.
"Remus?", James asked, still looking for the elusive socks.
"Yeah?" Remus has answered, bending a bit to spit out the toothpaste.
"I know." James had sat quietly on his bed, ignoring the flashing look from Sirius. Peter jerked awake.
"Know what? What color Evans knickers are?" Remus knew though. There was only one thing he had kept from them. One very, very important thing.
"Remus…"
"SHUT UP. You don't know anything." The other three boys looked scared. Remus rarely get mad. And on the occasions he did, he got mad.
"Why didn't you tell us?", Sirius had said quietly.
"I don't know. Maybe because waltzing up to you and saying, 'Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that I'm a werewolf and turn into a vicious man-eating monster once a month.'? Just stay away from me! Its for your own good."
And with that outburst (and Remus wasn't particularly proud of it) he shoved through the door and ran down the stairs and out the portrait hole. There was a tower near the owlery that seemed to be abandoned and Remus liked to go there to think every once and awhile.
The twelve year old had stayed there all night and had seriously considered not coming down for food. But he couldn't miss classes and classes were torture on an empty stomach.
The Hall sounded with three sets of footsteps. Remus didn't have to look up to know who it was. He grabbed a piece of toast from a nearby tray and started to spread the closest jam on it.
He willed himself to not look up when James plopped next to him on the bench. He knew he should have sat somewhere else. The other boys would not move just because he was still there. Even if he was a ravaging monster.
"Hey Remus, do you have yesterdays Charms notes? I didn't do the homework and I really have no idea what it was about." Sirius managed to say through a mouthful of eggs.
"Err…" Remus didn't know what to say. Why in the world were they talking to him.
"Do you think Evans will wait until after breakfast to yell at me?" James said.
"No, mate. Don't get your hopes up like that." Peter said, laughingly.
"What is going on here?" Remus finally managed.
"What do you mean, mate? Is there something weird going on? Fishy, suspicious, strange, odd, myste--" Sirius was cut of by James who turned to Remus.
"Its alright. We don't really care about the whole," James paused to see if anyone around could hear him," furry little problem. Its actually kind of cool. We have a friend who is a werewolf." James grinned at Remus, who was currently at a loss for words.
They didn't care? Were they mental? He was a monster, for Merlin's sake.
"And guess what! We were researching some stuff in the library, which is strange enough in itself, and we found something. Did you know that a werewolf won't go after an animal? Well of course you new that but we didn't and we have an idea." Sirius said, in a huge rush that any other soul wouldn't have a chance at understanding.
"And what would that be?" Remus didn't like talking about this. It was bad enough when he thought they would hate him, but they were just sitting here talking about it like it was a normal thing. His 'furry little problem'. People would think he had misbehaved rabbits or something of the like.
"We are going to become animagi! And then when you transform we can go with you and you won't bite us!" Peter exclaimed, just loudly enough to make the Sirius and James shush him and look around nervously.
"What? That's impossible. Not to mention illegal. The Ministry would never let you beco-" James cut Remus off.
"We aren't going to tell the Ministry. And its not impossible. We are going to study very hard and we can use the books in the library and no one will have to know." James said proudly.
They were serious. Remus couldn't believe it. For two years he had been afraid to tell them and what did they do when they found out? They were going to illegally become animagi, AND risk their lives? Swell, just swell.
"No. You aren't doing this. What would I do if my mates ended in Azkaban because of me? How would I sleep at night?" Remus said.
But no one paid any attention to him. James had just caught site of on Lily Evans and was blushing furiously while Sirius teased him unmercifully. Peter was half asleep, his face covered in grape jam.
Remus just smiled. He should have known better then to try and ditch the Marauders. Loyal to the bone those boys were.
A/N: This isn't my first fic, but its the first I have posted. Please review! Let me know what you think!
Thanks.
Zoechandler