The hallways were full of first-years heading back from Double Potions, all of them smelling strongly of iodine and sulfur. One girl's fluffy bangs had been singed short. The staircases shifted beneath the crowds of eleven-year-olds, stranding some on floating landings which shuddered and shifted under them. The first-years weren't used to magical architecture yet, and the ones nearest the edge screamed. Remus, who was short, realized it had been years since he had been near people the height of his shoulders.

The dungeons were naturally chilly and their light was watery and orange. The February frost had penetrated down below the crust of the surface. The windows at the end of the corridors that looked out into the waters of the Black Lake were even murkier than usual, since the snow and ice on the surface prevented light from reaching as far below. As one walked further down, the air grew icy and one's fingers began to go numb—isn't it thankful, Remus thought, that I only have Potions for two hours a week. Almost every part of the dungeons was frigid. As winter had set in, Professor Slughorn tried to warm the area around his small office with herbal torches. The heat these generated was negligible, but the heavy smell of lavender permeated the hall. It disoriented Remus as he stepped quietly down the last few stairs to the dungeons where Potions class was held.

Remus hadn't been down in the dungeons to steal ingredients since before fourth year. When the Maurauders needed ingredients for potions, Sirius and James were the ones to go, though recently they had been sending Peter as well, primarily in rat form. Remus stayed behind, writing their essays for them or else standing lookout. Remus was, after all, the good one. Professors knew this; Remus never broke rules.

Remus slid through the door to the classroom as the last haggard first-years stumbled out of it lugging their still-smoking cauldrons. He was prepared to see Professor Slughorn inside the room—he had already invented a story about needing to see a griffin embryo for Care of Magical Creatures, and Slughorn thought so little of Kettleburn that he'd never check to see if it was true—but the professor seemed to have left. The room in the air burned his nose it was so cold; the fires that had warmed the potions were out. Remus walked to the middle of the room, which was now stagnant and silent, and looked towards the supply cupboard. The door stood padlocked at the end of the room. Remus looked over his shoulder. He could see the hallway outside. Students would be showing up here for afternoon Detention soon. He had to hurry.

"Alohamora," Remus muttered. There was a gentle click. He strode over to the cupboard and opened it. Inside, it was larger than the door indicated. Row upon row of glittering jars shone down from shelves stacked three thick; the oldest jars were probably fifty years untouched, sitting under layers of dust from decades of fingers and skin cells that had brushed near them but not lighted on them. Things were poorly organized, the walls a jumble of sometimes-unlabeled bottles and boxes—and why not? One could always magically summon what one needed, no browsing required.

"Accio cotton root bark," Remus said. He held the picture of the plant in his mind, remembering its taste and smell from when he had used it last, in first year. The potion was supposed to be permanent—or at least it hadn't said anything about not being permanent. Maybe the author had just heard the recipe and assumed. Remus had been far too young to make such a complicated potion on his own—maybe that was the problem, maybe he had done it wrong then. It was astounding he'd managed to make a potion that was as effective as it was, considering he had been only eleven.

From back behind several other jars, there was a rattle. A tiny blue container with a black cap shot up and forward with violent speed toward Remus, knocking another jar from the shelf. Remus managed to catch it before it hit the floor, but in doing so he fell halfway against the shelf, shaking it and making a noise like someone stacking dishes. It reverberated throughout the Potions classroom. Remus stood up hurriedly and looked nervously around. He couldn't afford to make such a huge commotion.

"Muffliato," he said, and then, quickly, so he could get out of the Dungeons, "Accio Eurycoma Longifolia, Accio tansy, Accio," he fumbled for the paper where he had written the ingredients, "Spearmint." Remus grabbed at the air as the bottles went whizzing at him. He grabbed them and set them down on the nearest shelf. He wondered whether he should just take the jars; it seemed too much trouble to open them, since he was in such a hurry. He wrapped them hastily in two handkerchiefs and shoved them into his robes. Mission accomplished, he thought, stepping back out into the classroom-

-where he found that Lucius Malfoy was looking directly at him.

"I didn't realize Gryffindors had Potions today," Lucius said mildly. He was well aware that Remus was not supposed to be there, and his body bent lazily back as he stood there, as if he were leaning on the air.

"Oh," Remus said, still startled. He felt the weight of the glass jars in his pockets, heavy as lead.

"I'm so new to these schedules, and I'm afraid Slughorn isn't very good about helping his assistants memorize his classes. I think you must be in the wrong room, though-" Lucius looked around in mock surprise- "I don't see anyone else down here."

"Um, I..." Remus fumbled. "I'm not here for a class. I was, I was looking for Professor Slughorn. You see, I came down to look for a griffin embryo for Care of Magical Creatures." He realized too late that his original story would need some adjusting.

"You must have found it in the cupboard, then?" Lucius smiled. "I didn't think students were allowed access. Or did you get a key?"

"Well," Remus blustered, "that's just the thing, isn't it—the cupboard was open when I got here, so I thought Professor Slughorn must be inside, and I looked, you see, but he wasn't-"

"You were making an awful lot of noise in there. I think you flatter Professor Slughorn by assuming he could be hiding behind a jar of heads in brine."

I should have said I was here for detention, Remus thought. It would have only been a couple hours of line-writing.

Lucius stepped forward. His white-blond hair looked greenish in the dim light; it was parted down the middle in a style that would have been completely stupid anywhere but the Wizarding World. He leered impressively down at Remus. "It so happens that Slughorn has gone up to the kitchens to see if they can make him a brandy. I'm in charge down here for the afternoon."

"Oh," Remus said. He tried to keep his tone light and show no sign of fear. He could feel his cramps coming back, just beneath his stomach. They seemed worse than they had this morning.

"It's really too bad that Slughorn isn't here," Lucius said, "or you might get off scot-free. He thinks your friend Potter's going places. Slughorn's pathetic."

"Isn't he your supervisor? Should you be saying this?" Remus asked. He was still playing the innocent schoolboy—caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, certainly, but not guilty of anything unless one had proof. I don't know, sir, what sir? What's going on? I haven't seen anything, sir.

Lucius made a sudden grab for Remus's collar. It surprised Remus and so he didn't step back in time; he was caught up onto his toes. He swore he heard his spine make a noise as his head snapped back.

"Slughorn might tolerate filthy half-bloods sneaking around in his things, spreading Muggle pests in magical places," Lucius Malfoy said, "but I came back here to ensure that lazy corpulent buggers like him don't ruin this place. I ought to teach you a lesson by hexing your ears off."

Remus wondered what Lucius Malfoy would do if he realized that Remus was not only a half-blood but a transsexual werewolf. Probably hex more than his ears off. Shaky ground, Remus thought. We're on quicksand here. If half-bloods carry pests, what do werewolves carry around with us? Plagues?

"You'd get sacked," he said weakly.

"Maybe eventually. Once you stopped gibbering enough to tell them what happened." But Lucius didn't have his wand out—he just held Remus aloft slightly by his lapels, like a Muggle schoolyard bully. Remus realized that he had been right. Lucius wasn't allowed to harm him and knew it. However, he saw that Lucius was weighing his options.

"Perhaps you could put me down," Remus said tentatively.

Lucius did this, dropping Remus like a sack of potatoes, sniffing hard as if he smelled something foul. Remus guessed that his only option was to flee. He turned quickly to move and was caught by a sharp kick that Lucius delivered between his legs.

"Stay put, half-blood," Lucius said. "Tell me why you were here."

Remus, who had been protected by the sock stuffed in his pants beneath his robes and so not as incapacitated as Lucius clearly believed, pondered what he should say.

"I dared him," said a voice from behind Remus. Remus looked over. Peter was standing there calmly, looking at Lucius as if he were the student and Peter the teacher's assistant. Remus supposed Peter must have been there for a few minutes in his animal form. That's the sort of pest werewolves must bring with us, he thought absently. Rats.

"Excuse me, Pettigrew?"

"I dared him to come down here and find me a dragon's tooth. It was silly, sir, I apologize," Peter said. His tone changed midway from calm to simpering. Peter was getting the feel of his story. "It's just that I didn't believe Remus would actually go looking-" he sniveled. Remus began to stand warily, watching Lucius. Peter was overdoing it, he knew.

But Lucius looked as if he had changed his mind about something. Perhaps it was because now he had two witnesses to his violence instead of one, or just the fact of being outnumbered, but he drew himself up and looked imperiously down at them. He was twenty, but he still acted like a prefect who had just gotten his badge.

"I can't believe this."

Peter cowered. Remus realized that there was an art to cowering. If you were good enough at it, people felt so sorry for you that they couldn't bring themselves to be cruel.

"Both of you, leave at once," Lucius said. "This is ridiculous. You're fifth-year students, not first-year. Twenty points from Gryffindor for both of you. And three night's detention for Lupin."

Remus breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, sir," he said. Lucius scowled, and Peter and Remus both fled the classroom in a hurry. They did not speak as they ran up the stairs, the air around them warming.

When they were back up on the ground floor, students streaming around them on the way to dinner, Remus finally turned to Peter.

"Thank you for that," he said.

"You're welcome," Peter said, beaming. "I'm sorry you got detention."

"Better than being kicked to death by a Pureblood arse like Malfoy. How long had you been there?"

"I followed you when you left. At first I was going to go to the library with you, but then I realized you were lying. Should I not tell Sirius and James about this?" Peter asked, as an afterthought. He looked excited at the idea of having a secret.

"You...it doesn't really matter," Remus said. He disliked the idea of being co-conspirators with Peter, for reasons he could not place. "They'll find out I have detention anyway."

"What did you steal? What is it for?"

Remus felt compelled to answer truthfully, though he was also uncomfortable. If he was vague, though, Peter would only grow more curious. "It's just a health potion," he said. "I've been sick."

"You haven't seemed sick. I'm sorry. Why couldn't you go to the hospital wing?" Peter looked genuinely concerned and sad, and Remus felt like saying, poor baby, poor boy. Unless Peter was indirectly pointing out how stupid that cover story was, in which case, good job Peter. O for Outstanding in emotional manipulation. You could never tell which it was with him.

"It's things for blood, uh, blood potions. For me, for uh, my blood. My...you know. I was trying to stop it." God, this was awful.

Peter looked befuddled. He was still drawing Remus out with confusion or feigned confusion. He would do so until he got the truth.

"Look, it's not anything exciting, all right? I got my period again for the first time in a while and I had to make a potion to stop it."

"Your period?" Peter asked. Remus was pretty sure this surprise was real.

"Yes," Remus snapped.

"I totally forgot you got those," Peter said in wonder.

"I don't, usually. But I must have messed up, because right now I am." Remus felt angry that he was saying all this. Nobody else had to confess when they got their period. Girls didn't because everyone stepped around it. And other boys never had to worry about blood coming from surprising places every month at all.

"Merlin. No wonder you're cranky," Peter said loudly. Remus felt like drowning him, but then he remembered that Peter had saved him, and anyway Peter was at least cracking a joke instead of throwing Remus into a bonfire, at least Peter had bothered to step up to protect him when Lucius Malfoy was about to beat the shit out of him, at least Peter was there at all, paying attention when Remus doubted he deserved it—

"No wonder," Remus said. He felt so tired.