"What did you guys do that for?" Remus asked softly. James and Sirius decided it would be very amusing to test the Hair-Loss Jinx on a Hufflepuff student after Herbology. Remus could not help but feel that was uncalled for.

James did not share his disapproval. "He was blocking my way." He replied blithely.

"Couldn't you have asked Hucklebee to move then?"

"This way's much more fun." Sirius said. "Why don't you ever try it with us? Even Peter does sometimes."

"I'll pass." Remus said with a sigh.

"I like that spell a lot." Sirius continued. "We should use it more often."

James agreed. "You know, we haven't done this on Snivellus yet."

Sirius thought for a moment. "You're right. This'll be good for him. Maybe he'll even want to keep it permanent. No one will notice if he doesn't wash his hair!"

They laughed, but Remus stayed silent.

"What's the matter?" Asked James. "Don't you think that'd be funny?"

"Oh yeah." Remus replied falsely. "Listen, I have to visit my mother again." He said, glad to change the subject. "She has Floppenstein's Disease so we don't know when she'll be better. I'll be back on Wednesday so I'll see you then." Technically, he was only a werewolf for a night, but he'd always have to miss class the next day, not only because he was so worn out, but because Madam Promfrey had to heal the bites he inflicted on himself.

"Alright," Replied Sirius. "You can thank us for the notes later."

Remus smiled. "It's good for you. You guys should do it more often."

"Just read the book." Said Sirius a little arrogantly. "It's all in there anyway."

"Goodbye." Remus said as he left.


"Why doesn't Remus ever join in when we hex people?" James asked that night as he and Sirius played chess in the Common Room. "He doesn't think what we do is bad, does he?"

Sirius thought for a moment. "Nah." He replied. "It's a laugh - he knows it. Everyone does."

"But how come he never laughs when we do that stuff?"

"Hmm, good point." Trying to appease his conscience, Sirius turned to Peter for a third opinion."You thought that hex was funny, didn't you?"

Peter hurried to agree. "Of course! Everyone was laughing. Besides, Hucklebee was in your way!"

After a moment, James spoke up again. "Lily Evans didn't think it was funny either though. Did you see that look she gave us?"

"Well, it's Evans. What do you expect? She's friends with Snivellus!" Sirius argued.

"That's true." James admitted. And Evans had always given them that look.

"You're right. Remus was probably just too worried about his mum to laugh." James decided.

"Yeah! If he thought it was wrong, he'd tell us."

That promptly ended the discussion. James and Sirius could not see that what they were doing was bullying and Remus could not bring himself to tell them so. Peter too, had forgotten. In the beginning people had made fun of Peter for his lack of talent and Remus for his shabby robes. Sirius and James quickly came to their friends' defense and made it clear no one was to do anything or say anything of the sort again. Since then no one dared to say anything against Remus or Peter, or at least not when their friends were within earshot. Now, Sirius and James were the bullies and they thought it was funny.


Meanwhile, the moon was beginning to rise and Remus was safely hidden away. Madam Promfrey had waited for him at the gate as usual.

"Ready?" She had asked concernedly.

Was anyone ever ready for something like this? Remus thought to himself. Nevertheless, he contented himself with a nod. She prodded the knot and the tree abruptly froze. He entered the Shrieking Shack, the place he'd known so well, the place that would play host to so many more transformations to come. He wondered dully what the Hogsmeade villagers would make of tonight's disturbances. Dumbledore had lately been spreading the rumor of how the place was haunted by ghosts.

Remus didn't have to wait long for the agony of another transformation. He dimly saw his hands change to paws and fur grow all over them. The pain was driving him mad. He gave a long, angry howl as a new creature started tearing the shack apart. He was now a werewolf.


Christmas was quickly approaching and the atmosphere seemed so much lighter. The teachers were giving less homework which was quite refreshing and they had found 5 more secret passageways within the past month. Then, Sirius got another letter which put a damper on their moods.

Sirius-

You are to come home for Christmas. Don't flatter yourself, we do not miss your company in the least, but most unfortunately, your aunt is under the impression that you will become a full-fledged blood-traitor if we leave you at that school any longer. She cannot stop bragging about her lovely daughters in comparison to my worthless son and I mean to put an end to it. You are to behave yourself when you return, and you will tell to her that your cousin Narcissa is lying when she said you are "friends" with that Potter brat and those other pieces of scum in your House.

The letter was unsigned, as though she were too disgusted to call herself his mother.

When McGonagall came around with her list of students staying at Hogwarts, Sirius tried to sign up anyway.

"I'm sorry Mr. Black. Your mother specifically wrote for you to go home for the holidays. I'm afraid we cannot go against her wishes." Softening, she said, "It's only two weeks."

Sirius gave her a look of disbelief. "Bellatrix will be there."

McGonagall opened her mouth and hesitated. "Try to behave yourself." She said instead.

When she left, his friends attempted to cheer him up.

"Well, at least you won't be alone in the Common Room come Christmas." Remus told him, trying to find a silver lining. They were all returning to their families and James had been about to invite Sirius over, but he didn't need to know that.

"Oh yeah, I get to be stuck in Grimmauld Place with my family and Kreacher and a bunch of house-elves' heads stuck on the walls. Sounds loads better." Sirius scowled. "Maybe I'll just miss the train or something."

"I think they check." James said with a frown. "But if you came with me and no one notices..."

Remus raised his eyebrows. "You think his parents won't notice when Sirius doesn't show up to meet them at the station?"

"At least it's only two weeks." Peter piped up.

"Yeah, two really horrible weeks." Sirius grumbled.

Sirius really was not made for bad moods and James did his best to ensure that his friend wouldn't be reminded of the holidays. Feeling guilty his parents sent packages of sweets every day by their family owl while Sirius got nothing, he wrote them to stop. He doubled their pranks, cursed Snape more than ever, and hexed anyone who dared say the word "Christmas" or even worse, "going home."

Sirius noticed. He may have been miserable, but he wasn't stupid and he wasn't blind. "I don't need you to go around pitying me 'cause my family hates me, James!" He burst out one day.

James was taken aback. "I'm just trying to help!"

"Well don't! And you can tell your parents to go on sending those sweets and whatever else they want to send. I get it! They love you to pieces, you don't have to protect me!" With that, Sirius walked out.

Outraged, James turned to Remus and Peter and asked "What was I supposed to do?"

"Give him some time." Remus said with a sigh. "I mean, your life is pretty perfect. Can you blame him if he's jealous?"

"How am I supposed to make my family hate me?" There was it again, James had everything, James was spoiled. James did not like it.

"He just doesn't want you to feeling sorry for him." Peter said quietly. James and Remus were poth surprised by his perceptiveness. "His mum doesn't know he's friends with us yet and she's going to hate him even more when she finds out. And he feels guilty for making them hate him and he feels guilty for feeling guilty about that cause he doesn't want to lose his friends."

James and Remus stared.

"How do you know all that, Peter?" James asked, looking at Remus in wonder.

Peter turned red and muttered something indistinguishable.

At breakfast the next day, Sirius tried to apologize.

"About last night -" He began, but James cut him off.

"Forget it, ok? Don't worry about."

"No. I shouldn't have - "

"It's alright. Just don't blow up at me if I invite you over to my house for the summer, ok?" James said with a grin.

Sirius grinned back. "I'll be there." He replied. Changing the subject, he said, "I was in the library last night and I found this great book of jinxes. There's this one where you get to tie up someone's tongue. Want to try it on Snivelly?"

And just like that, they were back to normal.