The sunlight seemed to poke Remus in the eyes as he woke up in the comfortable bed of the hospital wing.
"Finally," said peter as he pushed himself up on one elbow and rubbed his eyes.
"Whozzhappnin," he mumbled
"We could ask you the same question mate," said James "who was the lady friend?"
"Lady friend? What?" Remus asked confused
"Mrs moony? You know the yellow lady-wolf who you were sitting with last night,"
Memories flooded his brain. The shack, the scent, the girl. He lay back down on his bed and exhaled loudly. She's a werewolf, a female werewolf he thought.
"You know that scent that I've been talking about for the past few days,"
"I think you may have mentioned it," remarked Sirius wryly.
"I know who it is, and why only I can smell it," he paused "it's a girl and she's another werewolf here in Hogwarts and I, um, 'bumped into her' as it were last night in the shrieking shack,"
Peter's eyes were wide and James' mouth fell open
"Is she hot?" Sirius butted in
"Yes, but that's beside the point," Remus rolled his eyes typical Sirius.
"Not a patch on dear old Evans I'll bet," James grinned
"Will both of you shut up," he snapped "I just need to talk to her, I'm pretty sure the scent was her but I just want to ask her if she could smell anything you know- different,"
"She probably could," peter spoke up "I read about it in confronting the faceless there's at least half a chapter on werewolves, it said that 'before the full moon werewolves (both male and female) give off a powerful pheromone that can only be detected by members of the same species," the others looked blank "it's a mating thing," Remus went very red. James eyebrows shot up.
"How d'you remember all that wormy?"
Peter looked slightly offended "hey I read stuff," he countered pouting.
"Jeez moony that's pretty heavy," Sirius looked slightly worried. "Can we meet her any time soon?"
"I think you'll have to come to me," a voice rang out from the other side of the hospital wing. The boys whipped around. In the corner on one of the white beds lay a girl she had wavy brown hair that reached past her shoulders a heart shaped face, full pink lips and large open amber eyes, the same colour as the werewolf from the shack last night.
The boys helped Remus to his feet even though his muscles protested and he walked slowly to the bed next to her. She had white bandages wrapped around her arm from her elbow to her wrist and gauze reaching from her jaw to her collarbone. She looked at him and smiled softly. "Hello again,"
Remus chuckled sadly "hello, I don't believe we've been formally introduced,"
"I know you, everyone knows you," she smiled crookedly Remus noticed then the slight gap between her front two teeth although they were perfectly straight and white otherwise. "You're Remus lupin, your Sirius black and your peter Pettigrew," the boys all nodded at her looking slightly awed. "I didn't mean to be weird or creepy or anything but everyone knows your names, also you're in the same class as me for charms and defence" she looked a bit sheepish now. "I'm Josie salt,"
"Nice to meet you Josie," Remus looked down at his feet "I'm sorry about your arm and your neck,"
"It's fine," she waved the apology away "I know what it's like,"
A few seconds passed in an uncomfortable silence Remus rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly "how long have you been a… you know,"
"Different species?" she supplied "I was bitten over the holidays, my parents didn't want me returning here but Dumbledore changed their minds,"
"I was five," he stated sadly. They looked into each others eyes for a few seconds, amber staring into chocolate brown
"It's shit," she sighed
"I know it's shit," they smiled and laughed quietly and the tension lifted slightly.
"So anyway, this may be a very weird question," Remus paused unsure how to finish the sentence "but in the past you days, you haven't, erm, smelt anything different," he watched as her eyes widened.
"Yeah I know what you mean, thought I was going round the twist, I can't smell it right now though, can you?" Remus shook his head "yeah the scent, it smells like, oh you know, books and the woods and campfires," she said eagerly.
"Oh- er I could smell chocolate and flowers and um warm-ness," they looked at each other for a moment before grinning like fools
"It was you wasn't it, the smell," she chuckled "you were the scent that was following me around,"
"No it was definitely your smell following me around," he said with a raised eyebrow. They snorted and laughed as the ridiculousness of the situation dawned on them, two gawky teenagers trapped in the bodies of monsters desperately trying to make sense of it all but to no avail.
"I know who you are," Sirius burst out interrupting the happy moment. His eyes wide he pointed at Josie excitedly "James it's the pun- girl!" James frowned for a second then he grinned as recognition crossed his face.
"Holy shit, it's the pun girl, how did we miss this?!"
Remus and peter's faces were question marks "Josie is in our class for defence and charms and she's always making puns and laughing at them," James explained
Josie went beet red "well I like them and there's nothing wrong with a good pun, I think their funny and that's all that matters," she said rather defensively.
"nonono, not in a bad way it's just Sirius here is a bit of a pun machine and from time to time we've joked that you could give him a run for his money well that is if you stopped laughing at your own puns, he still reckons he's the champ" James grinned with a twinkle in his eye as Sirius nodded proudly.
Josie put on a mock stern face, turned to Sirius and said sharply "I'll have you know that I take pun- making very Sirius-ly," she promptly dissolved into uncontrollable giggles. Sirius barked a laugh and lent forward with his hand outstretched, she slapped it with her own.
"It's a very Sirius business, am I right," he snorted at Josie howled with laughter and clutched her sides. Her laughter was infectious and soon James peter and Remus were all laughing along with the two pun enthusiasts.
"Why have we only just made friends with you now?" said James when the laughter died down. Josie raised an eyebrow
"Are we friends?" she asked. Silence.
Remus spoke up first "um hopefully, I mean you don't have to hang around with us if you don't want to I'm sure your other friends…"
"I don't have any other friends" Josie cut across him. Remus blinked at her and then slowly shifted from the bed to the seat next to hers, he took her hand in his and squeezed it.
"Do you want some?" he asked hopefully. Josie's face broke into a giant goofy grin.
"I-I would love to be friends with you," she bit her lip, and she squeezed his hand back before yanking Remus into a hug burying her face in his shoulder Remus smiled into her hair as her all too familiar scent engulfed him. They both felt the other one inhale deeply they broke away laughing.
"It's still there," Josie giggled, Remus nodded chuckling. Madam pomfrey chose this moment to usher the other marauders out and demand that Remus get back to his bed.
Josie pulled up her duvet around her shoulders and grinned into her pillow. She had friends.