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The Moon's Doe
Chapter two
The next day Remus woke up with a headache – no surprise, really, from the amount of chocolate he had eaten – and was touchy all morning.
"More dogs, Remus?"
"Would you shut up about the moon already?!"
Peter looked at his angered friend with eyebrows raised and bits of egg falling out of his open mouth.
Remus looked run down, "Sorry, Wormtail...I – I'm just so...I have to go to the hospital wing."
The three marauders watched him leave, his stride lagging slightly.
"He must be hormonal, of you know what I mean," sniggered Sirius. A girl further down the Gryffindor table gave him a disgusted look.
"I can tell why he's different," said Peter.
Sirius looked shocked at their friend. "You do?"
"I know why," said James. "He's becoming a man werewolf!"
Sirius gagged on his pumpkin juice laughing. "Right. Now that we're done with Remus' growing pains, can we change the subject?"
"I haven't said anything yet!" complained Peter.
Sirius sighed. "Go on, then," he said hastily.
"You know how we're studying planet alignment in Astronomy?" said Peter.
"Correction," said Sirius. "Moody is studying Astronomy."
"Whatever! Well, I zoned back in one time last week and Sinistra said something about this Friday, how it's not a normal full moon."
"What are you saying?" asked James.
"It's not a normal full moon because it's a lunar eclipse! Remus is acting so strange because a lunar eclipse tends to mess up werewolves for a bit!"
"Mess up as in how?"
"I dunno, do I? I'm guessing they might become more reckless, because records say that werewolf attacks increase in the presence of a lunar eclipse."
"I can't imagine Remus being reckless," said Sirius.
"The werewolf Remus is something different."
"Whatever. I'm not worried," said James, shoving a large amount of bacon in his mouth. "I'm still psyched for the moon."
"Besides, a reckless Remus is the least of your problems, Prongs."
James swallowed. "Meaning?"
"Your shrine of worship has just entered with –"
"Snivellus," James finished, seeing the pair across the hall, arguing. "I wish he'd just stay away from her," he continued, shaking his head. "It would make my job a whole lot easier – seeing as I wouldn't have try to miss Evans."
With that, James and Sirius made their way to Snape and Lily, wands out, with Peter trailing behind.
*
In the hospital wing...
"Ouch!" Remus winced as Madame Pomfrey pulled a large needle out of his arm, examining it with a frown. He was sitting on a bed and the room was empty.
"Oh, hush," she said to him. "I'm sure you have faced worse." She gave him a look that sat between fear and expectance.
"Dumbledore told you, then?" asked Remus shakily.
"Dumbledore did not need to tell me, boy!" she put the needle in bowl of shallow water on top of a sort of scales. The water bubbled violently as she continued to speak, "I have seen to your scars knowing that they are in fact, belonging to a werewolf. I have seen you ill before a full moon, and I see you now ill as another approaches. Do not worry, boy, as your secret is – and has been for many years – safe with me."
Remus smiled at the woman uncomfortably. If he had known she had known, he would've come to her more often for potions and lotion for his scars. "Thank you, Madame Pomfrey."
"Always a pleasure to treat a sick child," she said. She collected the needle from the boiling water and examined it once more. "Hmm..."
"What?" asked Remus.
"I'm sure it is nothing, but your blood has changed since the last time you had been in here, a month before now,"
"Changed?" repeated Remus.
"Yes, it appears that you have more lycanthropy chromosomes in your cells, more than you have ever had."
"I don't feel more...lycanthropy-ish."
She nearly dropped the needle. "It...impossible..." and then she started to mumble to herself as she cleaned up with examination with her wand, putting away the scales and putting the still full-of-blood needle into a small case.
"Madame Pomfrey?"
She appeared not to be listening.
"Madame Pomfrey? My head still hurts, would you be able to give me the headache po –"
She had left the room. What in Merlin was wrong with her?
Remus was about to hunt for a headache potion by himself when the doors of the hospital wing barged open. It was Professor Slughorn and a wind-blown Professor Flitwick, dragging a very ugly and unrecognisable student who was covered in purple blemishes that were oozing out pus by the second. It was an odd sight, seeing as Flitwick was generally being dragged also, holding on to the student's arm while Slughorn approached Remus.
"Mr. Lupin?" he questioned. "Where is Madame Pomfrey?"
"Er – I don't really know..." answered Remus.
Slughorn made an annoyed grunt. "Very well, then," he was taking the disgusting-looking student to a bed beside Remus. Remus tried not to look revolted – the student's sake – but failed. The student was trying to cover his face with his arm, but the pus kept oozing out all over his sleeve. "Just lay down here, Severus," said Slughorn, "I will have to perform the counter-jinx. Yes – lay down, boy! I will have to do it right away, since this particular jinx can be harmful to your health. On the bed!" he flopped the unwilling student onto the bed and pulled out his wand.
Remus watched him heal Snape with a guilty look on his face. Although he hadn't been there, Remus was sure that James and Sirius had something to do with this, and Peter of course, although he usually stood and watched pranks.
"I'm so sorry," Remus heard himself saying. It was only fair to apologise for his friends' behaviour.
The student made a whimpering sound and tried to hide his face again, but soon enough Slughorn had removed the pimples completely. Snape had to stay in the hospital wing for a while after, which was awkward. The room was so silent, the footsteps of the students could be heard in the corridors outside.
Remus didn't know what he was still doing there. Madame Pomfrey had disappeared and he didn't want to raid her cupboards in front of Snape. The silence was driving him mad.
"What are you in here for?" suddenly said Snape coldly.
"Headache."
Snape snorted. Remus frowned.
"Don't lie to me, Lupin," said Snape darkly. "I know your secret."
Remus decided he was to go then. He shifted off the bed and grabbed his bag, making for the exit –
"You're leaving? Without your potion?" asked Snape.
"My head is alright now," Remus lied.
"I meant without your wolfsbane."
"The what?"
"Your Wolfsbane Potion!" said Snape indignantly.
"What's that do?"
"Ah, but of course," said Snape. It seemed he was talking to himself. "If you regularly took it you wouldn't be running around completely mad with Potter on the full moon night."
"I don't know what you're talking about, Severus."
"Haven't you ever considered Wolfsbane before?"
"What is WOLFSBANE?" Remus fumed.
"It is a potion," said Snape seriously. "That helps werewolves to retain control of their actions during transformation."
Remus pretended not to look interested, and failed. "Are you saying I can control myself as a werewolf?"
Snape raised an eyebrow darkly. "Are you confirming your secret?"
"N-no, I was just wondering –"
"I can make it for you, that is if you are," he made sure to emphasize, "a werewolf. It is a fairly complex potion, but nothing that I cannot produce."
"You're offering me your help?" Remus was not convinced. After all, his best friends were Snape's arch-enemies. He couldn't help but smell a catch.
"Not exactly," said Snape. "I'm offering a trade."
Ah, there we go.
"What do you want in return?"
Snape paused for a moment. "I will brew you the Wolfsbane Potion every month if you...if you give me Lily Evans"
Remus blinked. "You already have Lily Evans."
"No, her heart lies with Potter," he spat the name.
"No, James's heart lies with her, and Lily's...well...Lily's doesn't belong to anyone, Snape."
Snape got up from his bed and stumbled for a moment. He walked up to Remus so they were only inches apart. It was the closest the two boys had been, and Remus could smell the grease in his hair. Did he ever use shampoo? He had to give Sirius a point on that.
"I can't give you a human being, no one can!" said Remus when Snape just glowered
"No, but you can persuade her."
"This is a joke! I don't think I'll need that potion," said Remus, and he was walking again with his bag over his shoulder, to the exit –
"Wait," Snape's hand caught Remus's robes.
"What?" said Remus, more irritated than he wanted to sound.
For a moment, Snape had a sad – even pleading – expression, before it whipped right back to professional. "I will expose you."
Remus's mouth was open. He couldn't believe the boy. After all these years he had thought that Snape was a tortured soul, a victim. Now he realised he was just as evil and dark as James and Sirius explained him to be.
He turned to face Snape again. "No one in the school would believe you," Remus was appalled at the sound of his own equally professional voice. "You'd just be the Boy who cried Wolf."
"Careful Lupin," said Snape. "For I have friends with very powerful connections."
"You mean your little gang of pathetic Slytherins?"
Both boys whipped around to the entrance door, where a fiery red-head was standing, her eyes liquid emerald.
"Lily –"
"I can't believe you, Severus! Hurting Potter is one thing but you do not pick on Remus!" said Lily, storming towards Snape.
"Lily, I –"
"I've had enough. Who was I to think I could change you? You will always be the disturbed, Dark Arts obsessed piece of filth everybody says you to be!" and then she pulled her wand from her robes and pointed it at Snape with fire in her eyes.
BANG! Snape was a black blur as he was sent flying backwards across the hospital wing. Remus's mouth was wide out again.
"Lily!" he said, not able to think of anything else to say.
"Come on, Remus, there's something you have to see."
And he was dragged by the arm down to the Great Hall by a very demanding, different kind of Lily. Surely Snape did not want her now? Surely he was just joking about the whole "I will expose you" thing? Remus knew he was referring to Death Eaters when he said "powerful connections", but what would the Death Eaters possibly do to him? He couldn't help but worry about all this while he and Lily were running.
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