Chapter 4: Wolves at the Door
Sirius was sitting in Astronomy, completely and utterly bored out of his mind.
To his left, James was drawing Quidditch related doodles on his parchment. At least Sirius wasn't alone in the boredom.
"It's too bad Lupin isn't here," James muttered, attempting to take notes. All that included was a drawing of the moon. Every full moon, Professor Sinistra, one of the youngest professors at Hogwarts, held her little full moon lectures, where students were required to turn in a full page of notes. On the bloody moon. Of course, she also gave out treats after class too, generally chocolate frogs, so Sirius didn't hate the lectures too much.
"Lupin's always good for notes," James continued. Remus Lupin, one of their roommates, was indeed the perfect person to copy notes from. Too bad he was always missing on these bloody full moon lectures, Sirius thought.
"Maybe Evans'll let us copy from hers?" Sirius joked softly. Lily Evans, harpy that she was, would most certainly not let the two boys copy from her. James grimaced, but shook his head.
"You can copy from mine if you want," said a voice from behind them. Sirius turned to look at Peter Pettigrew, another one of their roommates. He was a small boy, not exactly fat, but definitely round. He was also Sirius' least favorite roommate, but he supposed Pettigrew was nice enough.
"Thanks, Pete," James whispered as he turned in his seat. Muttering a quick spell, he tapped Peter's notes, and two more copies appeared. Sinistra wouldn't notice if all notes were the same. She never docked points when they copied Lupin's notes.
"I owe you my chocolate frog."
Peter shook his head vigorously, but didn't say anything else. The rest of the class period passed without incident (much to Sirius' dismay), and soon, all three boys were trudging down to Gryffindor tower.
"It's too bad Lupin has to go away all the time," Peter stated, as one of Hogwarts' notorious moving staircases began to swivel.
"I hope his illness isn't bad."
"His illness? Isn't it his mother who's ill?" James questioned. Peter frowned.
"I've heard it told both ways," Sirius admitted. "All anyone knows for certain is that he always ends up missing Sinistra's positively thrilling full moon lectures."
James paused, causing Peter to stumble into him.
"He hasn't ever been to one of those has he?" the Gryffindor questioned. Both Peter and Sirius shook their heads.
"Can't have been, because I always snag two chocolate frogs so he can have one," Peter replied.
James had a curious look on his face, his hazel eyes holding a mixture between confusion and wonder. Then, as if a candle had been lit, James's eyes lit up with excitement.
"Merlin's beard!" he exclaimed, beginning walking again, though at a fast pace.
"Merlin's beard what, James?!" Sirius shouted after him, Peter jogging behind them to keep stride.
"I'll tell you in a minute, all right? In the dormitory."
About ten minutes later, they reached Gryffindor tower. Sirius shouted the password at the Fat Lady and she angrily harrumphed as her portrait swung forward. Running up the stairs to the boy's dormitory, Sirius was relieved to find Matt McKinnon not in bed. Whatever had James this antsy had to be good.
"For Agrippa's sake, Potter! Are you going to explain yourself or not?!" Sirius shouted at his best mate, who had the most devilish grin Sirius had ever seen plastered on his face. Behind him, Peter nodded, breathing heavily after his run.
"Remus Lupin is always gone during Sinistra's full moon lectures" was all James said. Sirius stared at him blankly.
"Well, we've established that, James."
"Remus Lupin is always gone during Sinistra's full moon lectures," James repeated, his grin widening. Sirius personally thought his best mate had gone loony, and was about to tell him so when it hit him.
"Remus Lupin is always gone during Sinistra's full moon lectures," Sirius repeated James' words almost like a mantra. The grin on his pleasant features was akin to James'.
"You two are barking mad!" Peter suddenly shouted after a few silent moments. "What the bloody hell are you going on about?!"
Sirius couldn't help it; he burst out into fits of laughter. The whole situation was comical, wonderful, and oh so thrilling.
"Peter, Remus is a werewolf," James said with a chuckle.
Needless to say, none of the boys could sleep that night, or that morning, waiting for Remus to return. Thank Merlin it was a Saturday. Finally, around midday, Lupin walked through the doors, looking his tired, ragged self.
"What are you lot doing?" the boy asked suspiciously, as all three boys stared at him expectantly.
"Remus Lupin! Why didn't you tell us, you dog?" James laughed.
"Howl you expect us to help you, if you didn't tell us?" Sirius chimed in, smiling at his own pun.
"I mean honestly Remus, it's practically beastly to keep this from us," was Peter's addition to this game of puns.
Remus shook his head, clearly bemused.
"I know you three think I'm supposed to know what you lot are going on about, but I really have no idea." The boy sat down, clearly exhausted, in his own four poster bed. He looked slightly ill, like he could sleep for days.
"We know, Remus," Sirius said, feeling slightly apologetic about taking the piss out of him. Remus rolled his eyes.
"Oh, go on, tell me. What exactly do you know?"
"We know that you're a werewolf." Sirius' reply was blunt. He'd never been one for delicacy. Remus' eyebrows shot into his hair line, his jaw went slack, and he began to shake slightly. Still, he tried (and failed) to appear calm.
"Wh-what?"
"James figured it out actually. He noticed how often you were ill, and how you were never around for Sinistra's full moon lectures. And how you had all these books hidden in your trunk about werewolves…" Sirius paused, and then grinned, almost sheepishly. "All right, that last part was my doing—I unlocked your trunk, we were looking for more proof—didn't want to accuse you of turning into a beast every month without evidence…and well, we know."
Remus sat silently there for a long time, clearly thinking.
"I suppose you'll write to your parents. Wouldn't want a werewolf sleeping in the same room as you, after all. I can understand that. It's dangerous, that is. I suppose I'll go tell Dumbledore that I'm leaving; he tried his best, and I thank him for that….."
Sirius looked at James and Peter, clearly confused.
"What do you mean, you're leaving?" James asked slowly, standing up.
"Well, obviously, you wouldn't want some sort of monster sleeping in your dormitory. Like I said, I understand." Remus shook his head, almost sadly.
"Lupin, you dolt, we don't want you to leave," James retorted.
"Yeah, we won't tell anyone!" Peter agreed.
Lupin looked at all three boys, something akin to hope shining in his eyes.
"Obviously, you're not going to leave Hogwarts," Sirius sang. "Besides, we're going to help you with your furry little problem. So you don't have to be alone and all."
Remus shook his head vigorously.
"No, I could kill you. I could bite you!"
Sirius smiled and pointed to a book he had open.
"Says here that werewolves only attack humans," said the Gryffindor, eyes alight with mischief. "Says werewolves don't attack animals."
Remus, Peter, and James all looked at him curiously, as if they didn't understand what Sirius was saying. Sirius waited patiently; he didn't have to wait long; soon James was repeating the mantra of "oh, oh, oh" while practically jumping out of his shoes.
"Sirius, what are you playing at?"
"Not playing, gents" grinned the boy. "We're going to help you Remus. We're (he gestured to Peter, James and himself) going to become animagi."
