an: okay... it's been about a month, and I'm sorry. I meant to have this up before the end of febuary, but the week of the 21 (I think it was), was the week of our winter musical, and I run sound up in the light booth for all the plays. So, in other words, I was rehersals and performances for nearly the entire week. And then, after that, my muse died for a bit. Sorry.

disclaimer: I realized a couple weeks ago, that i no longer had any sort of disclaimer whatsoever. So, here goes: I am not, nor have I ever been, or ever will be, Jo Rowling. It would be nice, I'm sure, but it's not going to happen. As such, all recognizable characters belong to her, and not me. I own a few people, but most of them are hers.

enjoi


September seemed to pass remarkably fast. As the month started to come to an end, James and Athena had formed the new Gryffindor quidditch team, and even though the quidditch season hadn't started, it was already one of the hot topics in the school. Or maybe laughing-stalk, would be an adequate word. This, of course, was due to the fact that the team's members had a habit of showing up in the Hospital Wing after practices. No one was quite sure what went on during the practice, and the team never talked about them outside of Gryffindor Tower or the field. It was rumored that when the Gryffindor team had the field for practice, wards had been set up by James to keep unwanted people out. To most of the school's knowledge, no one had yet tested that particular rumor, for fear that it was true. Despite the degrading rumors, James and Athena both insisted that this was the best team ever. Sirius and James had already amassed themselves a healthy portion of detentions, averaging about two a week. It was rumored (no one knew quite for sure) that they had been responsible for sending Snape to the Hospital Wing twice, as well as two other students. Remus and Peter had both accompanied their friends in detention three times. Remus and Lily were becoming friends, as they ended up patrolling the halls together almost every Friday. If James was jealous about all the time Remus consequently spent with Lily, he never said anything. All month, Lily had started spending more and more time with Fabian Prewett, much to her delight, and much to James's displeasure. Although, James did say that it could have been worse. Remus had yet to even consider asking Athena out, even though James was constantly dropping hints that he should. Surprisingly, neither Sirius nor Peter had figured out that Remus liked Athena. All was not well with the Marauders, however. Thelen had become quite the thorn in their side.

The teacher adamantly did not like Sirius, and he was sure it was because he and James had made a fool of her during their first class. James didn't see how that made any sense, though, as she didn't seem to have much of a problem with him. Remus was having his own problems with her. Nothing he did ever seemed up to her standards. In Defense Against the Dark Arts, Remus had always been an O, or at worst and E, student, but he now found that he was lucky if he got anything higher than an A on his homework assignments. At first, he accredited it to the fact that he wasn't used to the way she graded. That theory, however, was beat into the ground two weeks after Remus had returned from the Hospital Wing.

It was the end of class and Thelen was handing back graded essays she had assigned the week before. Peter scowled at his paper; he had done worse (a P) than he had thought he had. His paper was covered with red ink were Thelen had corrected his work. He rolled his eyes; he couldn't read a word of it. He glanced over at Remus's paper to see how he had done. Remus was looking over his paper, his brow furrowed. Peter looked to the top of Remus's paper.

"Wow," he said quietly. "That's got to be the funniest looking O I've ever seen."

"That's because it's not an O," Remus said still looking over his paper.

"What else could it be?" Peter asked. "I mean, there aren't that many letters that look like O's."

"It's a D," Remus said.

"What?" Peter asked. "You never get D's. On anything."

"Well, it's definitely a D."

James and Sirius stopped talking to listen as Remus and Peter spoke. "You got a D?" Sirius asked.

"That can't be right," James said. He reached over Remus and took the parchment from him and looked it over himself. He looked startled. "That is a D."

"I told you," Remus said.

"That's not possible," Sirius said.

"It apparently is," Remus said, taking his essay back from James.

"But it's not," Sirius said. "I used your paper as a resource for mine," he said. "I even cited it. Look." He pointed to a point somewhere in the middle of the essay where he had cited Remus's. "And I got an E on it. There's no way you could have gotten a D."

"We should get her back for this," James said.

"Getting her back for giving me a bad grade?" Remus asked incredulously. "You've got to be kidding me."

"No," Sirius said. "I think it's a good idea."

"You only want to hex Thelen because you don't like her," Remus said.

"I don't see anything wrong with that," Sirius answered.

"You wouldn't," Remus said, rolling his eyes.

"This is why Moony's the prefect, and you're not," Peter said as the bell rang. They gathered their things togther, eager to get out of Thelen's presence and to get to lunch. Remus, however, hung back. He wanted to ask about his essay.

"Er, excuse me, Professor," Remus said when he approached Thelen's desk.

Thelen looked up. "Yes, Mr. Lupin?"

"I have a question concerning my essay," he said politely. He had dealt with enough teachers to know that politeness went a long way when discussing things grades with them.

"And what would that be?"

"Well, I don't understand why I got the grade I did," he said calmly.

She studied him for a second. "You're the one who wrote about what you thought of Slinkhard's take on counterjinxes, weren't you?" she asked, but there was no doubt in his mind that she knew that he was.

"Yes," Remus said. "That was the assigned topic. 'Discuss Slinkhard's view of the counterjinx'. And that's what I did. I discussed it."

"Your essay was riddled with your opinions on Slinkhard's theory," Thelen countered.

"Of course it was," Remus said. "I was discussing, not summarizing. I took Slinkhard's view and wrote what I thought about it."

"I didn't want to know what you thought about it, Mr. Lupin," Thelen replied. "I never asked for your opinion."

"But you asked for an essay, Professor," Remus said, still trying to be polite. "All an essay is is an opinion."

"I did not think your essay showed that you learned anything from Slinkhard," Thelen said icily.

"Professor Thelen, my essay shows a thorough understanding of the assigned material," Remus argued.

"Yes, and a blatant disregard for it," Thelen replied.

"Just because I understand something," Remus said, feeling that his temper was starting to rise, "does not mean that I have to regard it. I'm entitled to my opinion."

"One such as yourself is entitled to opinions," Thelen said. "Especially ones that contradict the opinions of your superiors."

Remus's eyebrows shot up. "And what's that supposed to mean?" he asked hotly.

"It means precisely what I said, Mr. Lupin," she said vaguely.

"Are you trying to tell me," Remus said, his control over his temper slipping now, "that just because I'm a wer–"

Thelen interrupted him before he could finish his sentence. "Mr. Lupin, it's obvious you temper is getting the better of you. I don't know about your other classes, but in my class you get the grade earn. The grade you deserve. If you cannot discuss your grades with me in a civilized manner because your temper is out of hand, then don't bother. This matter is over, Mr. Lupin. And I'll not hear about it again. You can go, now."

She's a bloody bigot, Remus thought angrily as he left the room. Dumbledore went and hired a bigot. Great, just great. This is just what I need! He was too angry to go to dinner and act like everything was fine, like he was sure to do, so he roamed the halls during the meal. When he hadn't cooled down by then, he barricaded himself in the library. James, Sirius, and Peter finally caught up with him in there where they found him sitting behind a book, scowling at the pages angrily. It took a lot to make Remus, who was normally very good natured, to get so furious, and it didn't take long for his friends to coax the problem out of him. James and Sirius decided then that Thelen was going to get what was coming to her from the two of them, and Remus (who normally disapproved of James and Sirius pranking the teachers) said nothing to discourage them.

That had been the week before. In the one class Remus had with Thelen do far after their talk, Thelen had acted like nothing had occurred. Even still, Remus was not looking forward to his class with her today after History of Magic, so he tried not to think about it. He was walking down the hall with Lily after Ancient Runes; they were both headed towards the Great Hall for lunch. Lily was complaining about how she hadn't yet finished Thelen's essay, which was, according to her, a "ridiculous length". That, of course, led them to a five minute rant about how absolutely horrible Thelen was; as a person and as a teacher. Their conversation put Remus in a ridiculously good mood. He was shocked at some of the things Lily had said. Who would have guessed that such a sweet girl could posses such blazing hatred toward a single person? When they reached the Great Hall and split up for lunch, it didn't take long for his good mood to spread to his friends. It only took a brief summary of his conversation before Sirius was howling with laughter at some of the things Lily said about Thelen.

Their good mood was not spoiled in the least by Professor Binns's unusually boring lesson on Giant Wars. James and Sirius passed the time by playing a muggle card game that Remus had taught them years ago in the back. Peter was getting a head start on their Potions essay, and Remus had his nose buried in a book. Remus noted that Lily could be seen halfway across the room, bent over a roll of parchment that was obviously her unfinished essay for Thelen. And Serena McKinnon could be found painting her fingernails. All in all, it was not one of Binns's better lessons.

Remus felt his good mood sapped almost instantly when he stepped foot inside Thelen's room and glanced at the board to see what the lesson was. Werewolves. This would be an enjoyable class. Not. James and Sirius didn't notice the board until they took their usual seats in the back.

James whistled softly. "Well," he said softly. "This should be interesting, to say the least."

"A lesson on werewolves," Sirius said. "Straight from the mouth of a bigot."

"Just don't say anything, all right?" Remus said, his voice impassive. "The last thing I need is to have the entire class know that all of my friends are werewolf sympathizers."

"But, Moony," Sirius started. "If that snarky, little bi–"

"If she starts lying about werewolves," James interrupted.

"And you know she will," Sirius added.

"You can't just . . . just take it," James finished.

"I can and I will," Remus said, turning to the front of the class again. "It'll be nothing I haven't heard before."

Behind him, he heard James sigh. "That doesn't make it right," he murmured. Remus ignored him.

By now, Thelen was already in the room, snapping at them to hand in their essays and open their books to page 287. There was a gruesome, and very inaccurate painting of a feral looking werewolf with blood dripping from its mouth on the page; the page opposite it was the start of the chapter on Dark creatures in the book, and it opened with the topic of werewolves. After simply scanning the pages, Remus was ready to bet that the most factual thing in the chapter would be when it stated that humans, both wizard and muggle, only turned into werewolves at the full moon. And he wouldn't be surprised if they somehow butchered that too. Across the room, Emm had her hand in the air.

"Yes, Miss Vance?" Thelen asked, with an air of impatience.

"We covered werewolves a few years ago with Professor Zwolsky," Emm said. "Why are we going over them again?"

"I have looked over the notes Zwolsky left on the lesson, and I feel that the matter has been inefficiently taught," Thelen said. "Werewolves will likely come up on your O.W.L.s, and having a good, thorough knowledge of the dangers that werewolves present" (she sent a nasty look back towards Remus) "will be useful to you later in life. As of late, werewolves have proved to be a menace to society."

"Oh," Emm said. She sounded slightly unsure of herself. "Okay."

"If there are no more questions, we will continue with the lesson. First of all, can any of you tell me how you distinguish a real wolf from a werewolf?" Thelen asked. As the entire class had a mutual dislike of Thelen by now, no one raised their hand to answer, even though most of them knew the right answer. "No one?" Thelen asked, her eyebrows raised, slightly. She scanned the room and rested her eyes on Remus. "Mr. Lupin, I'm sure you can tell us."

Remus looked at her blankly, before saying shortly, "The snout shape, the pupils of the eyes, the tufted tail, the shape of the paw print, and the overall larger size." Satisfied?

Thelen paused. "I don't appreciate your tone, Mr. Lupin," she said. "But you are correct."

"Course he is," James said loudly from behind Remus. "He's Remus, he's always right."

"Silence, Mr. Potter," Thelen snapped.

"Right-o."

Thelen sighed in agitation. "Now, werewolves are often considered creatures of the Darkest sort. They maim and kill innocent people with no remorse whatsoever. Their cravings for blood and flesh cannot be stated at the full moon, so they thirst for prey constantly, even when not transformed. Darkness burns within their very souls, contaminating every fiber of their being. They are incapable of human emotions, or anything like them. Werewolves are driven by unchecked instincts, and lustful desires. Their inherent evil natures have led the Ministry of Magic to place them under the most dangerous and violent of magical creatures. Yes, Miss Evans?"

"I thought it said in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them that the five 'X' classification was only applicable during the full moon, and that they rest of the time they were just as harmless as the rest of us," Lily said reasonably.

"That is a common theory," Thelen said. "But it is one that has little to no ground behind it. Evil is in a werewolf's nature. There is no way around it. Another common theory, another false theory is that a werewolf has no control over its mind during the full moon. It is well known now that werewolves are in complete control while transformed. They know exactly what they are doing when they attack."

"Since when?" James muttered under his breath to Sirius. Thelen had either not heard James, or chose to ignore him and continued with her lecture, now talking about how werewolf attacks affected the victims. Suddenly Sirius's hand was in the air, which was a rare occurrence. It was not that he never talked in class, it was just that he normally did so without the standard hand raise. Thelen turned her attention to Sirius. "Mr. Black, you have a question?"

"More of a comment," Sirius said.

"Get on with it."

"Well, I don't think this topic is at all age appropriate," Sirius said. "I mean, honestly, Pete's starting to look a bit green."

"I ask that you and Mr. Potter refrain from interrupting my lesson with irrelevant comments again, Mr. Black," Thelen snapped, before going on with the lesson, this time without James or Sirius feeling the need to say anything. As the lesson wore on, the more twisted Thelen's information got. Everything out of her mouth was a blatant lie, and no one was more aware of then the Marauders in the back. Of all of them, Remus was handling it the best. He was used to hearing the lies, though he couldn't say that it didn't hurt to have to listen to them presented as fact. He contented himself by staring at his desk, wishing he could burn holes in it with his eyes, not wanting to cause a scene. He could feel his temper simmering close to the surface, though. To his left, Peter was wearing a discontented look on his face, casting the occasional glance at Remus. If Remus wasn't going to say anything, then he certainly wasn't. Behind them, James and Sirius wore almost identical looks of fury. James looked to be on the edge, about ready to snap and hex Thelen into oblivion, while Sirius was subconsciously growling quietly after every other word Thelen said. He looked as though he wanted to feed her to a werewolf . . . or something worse. Feeding her to an acromantula, or maybe a chimera. Yes, a chimera would be good. If Remus hadn't asked them to not say anything, they would have been all over Thelen in a second. No one lied about their friends without any retaliation on their part. If Thelen didn't shut up soon, though . . .

"Would you shut up?" Athena Bryce suddenly snapped from across the room next to Lily. Everyone in the room paused for a moment. Did Athena really just say that? Slowly, James and Sirius both remembered that Athena was a civil rights activist of the wizarding world. All these lies about werewolves had to be eating at her just as much as they were eating at them.

Thelen stopped dead in her lecture, slowly turning her icy gaze upon Athena, who looked furious. "What did you say?" she said quietly.

"You heard me," Athena said, brushing her wavy blonde hair out of her eyes. "I told you to shut up. You have no right to teach us these . . . atrocious lies."

"Lies, are they?"

"Yeah, they are," Athena defended, leaning forward in her seat. "I mean, yeah, sure, some werewolves are complete wack jobs, Greyback being at the top of the list, but that hardly means that all of them are! For the most part they are normal people, with every right to happiness and prosperity! If we should be doing anything, we should be trying to help them out. They're the victims, for crying out loud! I honestly don't think that any of them danced in front of the werewolf that bit them saying 'Hey, I want to your next entree!' It's absurd! They never asked for what happened to them. It's society's fault that they are even considered a 'menace' as you put it. Society and twisted old hags like you make them monsters." Athena stopped, and too several deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. She was well aware that every eye in the class was focused on her.

"Twisted old hags like me?" Thelen asked, her voice deceptively calm.

Athena didn't back down. "Precisely."

"Apologize, Miss Bryce."

Athena sat back in her seat and crossed her arms. "No," she said. "I refuse to apologize."

"Apologize, or you will have detention."

"Fine," Athena said impatiently. "Give me a detention. I could hardly care less."

"You are out of line, Bryce," Thelen snapped. "I demand an apology."

Athena leaned forward again. "I will apologize," she said stubbornly, "when you admit you're wrong."

"I am not wrong," Thelen said. "And I will have you know–"

"You know what?" Athena said sharply. "I don't care. I've had enough. I'm off." She stood up, grabbed her book, and slung her bag over her shoulder. With an air of being in complete control of the situation, she walked across the room, right in front of Thelen, and out the door, slamming it behind her as she went.

There was silence.

Slowly, Sirius leaned over towards James. "You know," he whispered. "I don't think I ever gave her enough credit before."

James was still staring at the door Athena had just left through. "I think you might be right," he replied.

Thelen was in such a bad mood after Athena left that she didn't even bother teaching the rest of the lesson. Instead she assigned them a rather long essay on recognizing and killing werewolves, and told them to get working on it. Sirius decided that he would take the nonviolent approach to his essay, and instead of writing about killing werewolves, he simply recommended that anyone who found themself face-to-face with a werewolf should stun the wolf and run fast in the opposite direction. Remus, of course, knew more about werewolves than the entire class and finished the essay with the time they had, although he had to try very hard to refrain from dropping his opinions on the page. His emotions at the time could only be considered a melting pot. He was furious with Thelen. She had no right to say the things she did, nonetheless teach a class that. Especially with a werewolf sitting in the classroom. He had known she was prejudiced, but he had hoped that she possessed tact. And he was even more furious that half the class probably believed her now. Still, he felt more than slightly awed that Athena had stood up for all of werewolf kind. Most wizards instinctually hated werewolves, and it was more than a little nice to know that the girl he liked did not. Of course, unless you knew how to read Remus Lupin, you'd never be able to figure any of this out.

When the bell finally rang to dismiss class, the Gryffindor students practically raced out of there, most of them eager to talk about what had transpired. Most of the girls headed off in the direction of the Great Hall for dinner, but Lily went the opposite way. She wanted to find Athena. Athena was the type of person, Lily well knew, that should not be left on her own when in a foul mood. There was no telling what she would do without a voice of reason nearby. She was halfway to the library (Athena's choice spot for cooling down) when she heard a commotion behind her. Turning around she saw the makings of a fight before her. Rosier and Lestrange were standing on one side of the hall, both with their wands out, while James and Sirius were standing in front of them, their wands out and ready to be used as well. Behind James and Sirius, Peter was on the ground, the contents of his bag strewn everywhere on the ground. Remus was already bending over to help Peter up and help him gather his things back together. Heated words that Lily couldn't quite hear were being exchanged among the boys, and she wondered if she should go break them up. She didn't think she should, as she pondered it more. Going anywhere near James and Sirius when they were on the verge of a fight was never a good idea; one could never be sure they wouldn't get caught in the cross-fire. Besides, both Remus and Lestrange were prefects. One of them would do something if things got out of hand, wouldn't they? Still, Lily couldn't help watching them as they argued. Suddenly, Remus seemed to snap. In a second, he was up and forcing his way between Sirius and James, his own wand out. The air around them changed noticeably. It was tenser, colder.

"I am sick to death of continually taking crap from you idiots," Remus snapped at the two Slytherins in front of him. "You are going to leave us alone, you hear?"

Lestrange eyed Remus warily. "Or what?" he asked snidely.

"Or you'll have me to answer to," Remus said coldly. There was something about his voice and the way he held himself that made him look completely menacing. Both Rosier and Lestrange recognized it as well. With a muttered threat, both of them left. Behind Remus, his friends looked awestruck. Very rarely did Remus ever threaten anyone. Very rarely was he mad enough to threaten anyone. But he just had, and Sirius, James, and Peter couldn't help but being impressed. Remus watched as Rosier and Lestrange fled down the hall, and sighed, pocketing his wand. He ran his hand through his hair restlessly and turned to his friends. "I . . . uh," he said. "I need to go. I"ll meet up with you guys later."

He left his friends in the hall, giving Lily a brief nod when he passed her. James and Sirius exchanged a look with each other. "Do you think we should go after him?" Peter asked tentatively.

Sirius shook his head. "No," he said simply. "Let him cool down a bit."

Beside him, James nodded. "C'mon," he said. "We'll meet up with him after dinner."

Remus had hoped that the library would be empty when he walked in minutes later. He was still fuming, unable to explain his sudden outburst, and really just wanted to pretend to read as he sorted his mind out. The full moon was more than a week a way, there was no reasonable explanation as to why he had just snapped like that. He normally prided himself on having a good deal of control over his emotions, and he didn't like it when they slipped out of his control. He scanned the library. It was almost empty. Athena Bryce sat at a table in the back. She had taken her shoes off, and her bare feet were resting on the table. She was leaning back, staring at the ceiling. He suddenly found himself smiling at her. He couldn't help but thinking that she was the only one who could make sitting with their feet on the table look so relaxing, so peaceful. He couldn't help himself. He had to go sit with her.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" he asked as he approached her table.

Athena looked down at the table and smiled. "Not at all," she said, moving her feet off the table. "So long as you don't mind my shoes and socks being on the table."

"It doesn't bother me," he said, sitting down and setting his bag on the table.

"Why aren't you at dinner?" she asked conversationally.

Remus shrugged. "Not all that hungry, I guess. You?"

Athena glanced at the ceiling again and sighed. "I am valiantly trying to control my anger, because right now, I think that if I ever see that hag of a teacher again, I will probably have to kill her," she said matter-of-factly.

"I swear, I would not hold it against you," Remus said.

Athena smiled again. "I know. It's not that I'm worried that anyone will be mad at me for killing her, it's just that I think McGonagall will be obliged to mention it if I ever want to apply for a job."

Remus laughed. "I think you're right. But, you know, if you did kill Thelen, I'd pay you money. I'm sure Sirius would, and James probably would as well. And if James and Sirius both did, Peter would cough up quite a bit of money, too. So you wouldn't have to worry about a job."

"You guys really don't like her, do you?" Athena asked.

"No, not really," Remus said. "But the feeling's mutual."

"Oh, completely," the girl replied. "I just can't stand the woman. The way she was going on in class today . . . urgh! I mean, I was right, wasn't I?"

"About what?"

"About all I said about werewolves. They can't all be bad, can they?" Athena said briskly. "And we can't just say they're evil, because all of them can't be. Am I right?"

Remus looked at her. If she only knew what he really was, she could have answered the question herself. "No, you're right," he said simply. "You are absolutely right."

"Okay, good," she said, smiling again. "'Cause, you know, it'd be pretty bad if I was wrong. I'm going to have to write my aunt about this; she'd appreciate this."

"Your aunt?"

Athena nodded. "She's a civil right's activist in the United States. She's a muggle, and she's protesting virtually everything over there. Segregation, war, just everything.My mum thinks she's a disgrace to the family."

"Is your family from the U.S.?" Remus asked.

"Well, sort of," she said. "My mum was born and raised there, but my dad's English. He met her while he was over there for business. They got married and we've been moving around the world ever since."

"Where've you lived?" Remus asked. He had always wanted to travel.

Athena shrugged. "We lived in Greece, in Athens, for a while. I was born there; hence my name. Then we were in Australia, where my little brother was born. Guam for six months after that. We were back in the U.S. for about four years. My sister was born then. Then France, and we've been here in England ever since then."

"Wow, you really have lived all over the world," Remus mused aloud. "You'll have to tell me about it sometime."

"Sure," Athena said. She glanced at the clock on the wall. "I should be getting down to dinner," she said. "I'll see you around, though. It was nice talking to you." Athena stood up and gathered her things. She smiled at Remus one last time, before turning and walking out of the library. Remus smiled to himself as he realized that she was still barefoot and she was carrying her shoes in her hands. Remus leaned back in his chair and mulled over his thoughts.

His conversation with Athena had no doubt diminished a good deal of his frustration, which he didn't understand, but he was still thoroughly annoyed at Thelen. Then there was the fact that his pulse had been racing during the entire conversation, and Athena had left him with a strange sort of giddiness that he couldn't explain. Not to mention, how on earth was it possible for him to be angry and giddy all at the same time? With a small groan, he leaned forward and rested his forehead on the table. Was it just him, or was everyone else's mind as screwed up as his felt right now?

Remus realized later that he should have taken the fact that he couldn't sort out his own mind as a sign that, as James put it, his "furry little problem's acting up a bit earlier than normal." Friday morning, he woke up with one of the worst headaches he could ever remember having. He looked fine, but he felt like his head was going to split open at any given moment. It had only grown worse by the night when he was patrolling the halls with Lily to the point that she dragged him down to the Hospital Wing to have Madam Pomfrey take a look at him. That trip, Remus later reflected, wasn't a complete waste, because not long after he and Lily had gotten down there, Athena had showed up, supporting a hurt James. Apparently, he had somehow managed to dislocate his shoulder during quidditch practice. Had Remus not been in the Hospital Wing at the time, he would have wasted a perfectly good opportunity to good humoredly threaten to tell James's mother about the long list of obscenities James had rattled off when Madam Pomfrey had popped his shoulder back into place.

Remus woke up Saturday morning feeling perfectly normal, which perplexed him even further, but Sunday night, a full week before the full moon, Remus finally decided that his odd behavior and health was, in fact, linked to the impending full moon. He climbed into bed that night full of restless energy. He knew, after tossing and turning for a near half hour, that he wouldn't be falling asleep anytime in the near future, so he grabbed a book his mother had sent him and started to read. The book sent to him was some muggle's take on the tale of King Arthur and Merlin, and it was false on most accounts, but Remus still found it fascinating. An hour or so later, when he was halfway through a battle scene, Remus finally nodded off to sleep, his book still in hand.

It was raining outside. Well, it would be more accurate to say that it was storming. Lightning flashed across the sky at regular intervals, always followed a loud clash of thunder. Four year old Remus Lupin had his face pressed up against the glass of the window in their living room. Unlike most small children, Remus was not afraid of thunderstorms. In fact, he had been fascinated by them. He particularly liked the lightning as it flashed intricate patterns across the sky. Normally, his dad would take him outside and togther they would sit on the front porch, protected from the pounding rain, and watch the storm. Tonight, however, that was not the case. For what had to be the greatest storm in all of history, at least to Remus, he was stuck inside the living room.

Remus turned away from the window. "Daddy, can we please–"

"No, Remus," John Lupin said from the kitchen for the umpteenth time. "Not tonight."

"Why not?" the four year old asked.

"Because I said so," was the reply. Remus sighed and turned back to the window, half paying attention to the conversation his parents were having in the kitchen.

"Why won't you take him out, John?" Sara Lupin asked as she scrubbed dishes. She refused to let her husband use his wand to clean the dishes. There were some things, she claimed, that just had to be done the good old-fashioned way, and cleaning dished was one of them.

"It's a full moon," John said wearily. "I told you what happened. It's not safe."

"Well, the moon obviously isn't out tonight," Sara retorted. "This man, whoever he is, can't transform if there's no moon out."

"I don't know, Sara," John said, rubbing his hand over his face. "I don't want Remus to get hurt. Not because of me."

"And you think I do? Come on, John. Remus has just gotten over being sick. He hasn't been outside for over a week. He's a little boy. He needs to get outside, and he needs to spend time with his dad. Why not kill two birds with one stone?" Sara said reasonably. Her husband still looked unconvinced. "What harm can come from it?"

John looked into his wife's big brown eyes. He had never been able to say 'no' to her. He sighed. "Are you sure about this?" he asked.

"I'm positive, John. Nothing bad will happen," Sara said smiling. "Call it a mother's instinct."

"Remus?" John called into the other room. He smiled when Remus's head spun around, his eyebrows raised in a look that was far too old for a four year old. "Do you still want to go watch the storm outside with me?"

Remus's face lit up. "Yeah!"

"Put on a coat first, honey," his mother said from behind her husband. "You don't want to get sick again, do you?" she asked when he groaned.

"All right," he said heavily before racing upstairs to fetch his coat. He was back downstairs so fast that John had to wonder if his son had somehow managed to apparate up and down the stairs. Remus latched one of his small hands around his father's and started pulling his arm in the direction of the door. "Come on, Daddy."

John smiled at his only child and allowed himself to be pulled to the door. Remus pulled the door open with his free hand, and his dad followed him out onto the porch. John settled down onto one of their wicker chairs and pulled Remus onto his lap, wrapping his arms around him protectively. Remus never noticed that his dad was tense, as stiff as a board, nor did he notice that his dad's wand was clenched tightly in his hand; he was too enraptured with the storm. John, however, was not watching the storm like he normally would have. His eyes were darting back and forth, looking for any sign that something was amiss. But as far as he could tell, nothing was wrong. It was just a normal night. It was just a normal storm.

"John," Sara called, poking her head outside the door. "There's, uh, there's someone in the fireplace for you. He says it's urgent." She said with an odd look on her face. She had known John for seven years, and she had known about magic for six, but there were still things about John's magical world that perplexed her. People asking to speak to her husband via fireplace was at the top of the list.

"All right, tell him I'll be right in," he said. He looked down at his son. "Come on, Remus. We need to go inside now."

"But we just got out here," Remus said.

"I know, but we need to go in."

"But the storm's just getting good."

"Remus," John started.

"Please," Remus pleaded, looking up at his dad. "Just five more minutes. I swear I'll be good," he added.

John looked into his son's eyes, and instantly regretted it. Remus had the same big brown eyes his mother had. He couldn't say 'no', not to eyes like that. "All right," John consented. "But you promise me you'll stay on the porch no matter what, all right? And if you hear any strange noises, you'll come in immediately."

"I promise," Remus said promptly, sliding of his dad's lap, letting him stand up.

John planted a kiss on his son's head. "I'll be back out in just a second," he said, pushing open the door and walking inside against his better judgement.

Remus sat back down in the large wicker chair when his dad left. He was content watching the storm by himself, although he admitted it wasn't as fun without his dad. He smiled as a particularly large bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, lighting up all the houses nearby, and he jumped slightly when the thunder crashed not two seconds later. The storm had to be nearly right on top of him now. His mum had told him once that the time between the lightning and thunder told you how far away the storm was. When the thunder finally stopped rumbling, Remus was able to make out the sounds of a bush rustling across the driveway. His brow furrowed slightly as he wondered what it could be. There could only be one thing, Remus decided. His mum's cat, Frodo. He had not seen that cat indoors all day, so it must've gotten stuck in the storm.

"I should go get him," Remus said quietly. "He doesn't like to be wet." Remus had learned that lesson two months ago when he tried to give the cat a bath for his mum's birthday. Remus glanced toward the door. His dad told him not to leave the porch . . . but surely if he was just going to walk across the driveway to grab Frodo it would be okay. Making up his mind, Remus stood and walked down the stairs off the porch. He glanced back at the house once as he walked across the driveway. He was already soaked from head to foot from the rain. He reached the bushes and started peering through some of them, calling "Frodo. C'mere Frodo."

There was no sign of the cat anywhere, but a strange noise was growing louder and louder behind him. Swallowing, Remus turned around slowly to see what was behind him. He was confronted with the biggest, meanest looking dog he had ever seen. It had bright yellow eyes, and its teeth were barred menacingly. Remus froze for a second, unsure of what to do. The dog had a mad glint in its eyes, almost as if it knew Remus was terrified, and then it growled. Its low rumbling growl forced Remus's brain to kick into action. Without consciously thinking, Remus started running in the opposite direction, back towards the safety of his home. He was too slow, though. The animal was behind him, and reached out swiftly and slashed the through his calf muscles. Remus cried out in pain and fell to the ground, rolling unintentionally so he was laying on his back. The dog was on top of him in less than an instant. Remus tried to push him self away, but the beast placed one large paw on his chest, letting its claws dig painfully into his chest, causing Remus to yelp in pain. The dog . . . no, wait, wolf, Remus suddenly realized. The wolf stood over him, as if contemplating where to strike next. The pressure on his chest was nearly unbearable now, and the beast's breath smelled of sweat and blood. The wolf leaned in and latched its jaws around his left arm. Remus yelled out in pain, now crying. It hurt more than anything he had ever felt. His arm burned as the wolf pulled away, and the rain only made it sting more. A loud bang resounded throughout the yard, and the wolf turned to look. Remus's father was standing on the porch, his wand aimed at the wolf. Remus, of course, didn't see his dad; the wolf was standing in his line of vision. The wolf growled once more. It leaned over once more, this time latching its jaws around his right forearm, and started to pull him away. Remus started to cry harder, screaming for his mum or his dad to come save him. He tried to struggle as the monstrous wolf pulled him away from his home, but found he lacked the strength to do so. All he could do was scream. Remus felt his battered body dragged across rocks and sharp things implanted in the ground. Over his screaming, he could hear someone else yelling in the background, but then, as he was dragged further and further away from his home, he felt his head hit something hard on the ground, and all he knew was blackness.

Remus's eyes snapped open and he jolted awake instantly. He was out of breath and covered in a cold sweat. Distantly, he realized he was crying. He wiped his eyes as he tried to calm his shaking breath. It was bad enough he had to have lived through that once. Why did he always have to relive it in his dreams? It was always the same, and he could always remember every last detail, right down to the feel of Greyback's hot breath against his cold skin. He always woke up with phantom pains that he knew couldn't be real, but hurt nonetheless. He took several deep breaths, still trying to calm down as he subconsciously rubbed his throbbing left arm. He wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep. He never could after that nightmare. At least, not without someone at his side. But his friends were all asleep, and he would have felt weak asking them to help him fall back asleep. Taking another deep breath, he rolled out of bed. He grabbed his worn-out, blue sweatshirt, and pulled it over his head as he quietly slipped out of the dormitory. With shaky steps he made his way downstairs into the common room, where he planned to wait out the rest of the night.

He was surprised to find that the fire was still going, and even more surprised to find Lily sitting on the couch, several books spread around her, working on an essay. Remus walked around and sank down on the couch across from hers.

"Remus," she said, slightly startled that someone else had the audacity to be awake at one in the morning. "Why are you up?"

He rubbed a hand over his face. "Couldn't sleep," he said quietly. "And you?"

"I realized about an hour ago that I haven't written that stupid essay for McGonagall," she said, laughing slightly. "I don't know why, but this year I seem to be forgetting about most of my homework until last minute."

Remus smiled weakly and nodded, already lost in his own thoughts, thinking back to his dream. He knew how the whole thing ended. He had made enough noise that the neighbors had come running, some armed with guns, others with wands. His father, with their assistance, had managed to get Greyback off of him, but didn't manage to kill him as he knew his father had very much wanted to do. Nearly a week later, Remus woke up in a shockingly white room, with a brown-haired witch in lime green robes standing over him. At that point, he had no recollection of what happened, and many times Remus wished that it had stayed that way. A week before the next full moon, a healer came to see him with his parents, and in very simple words explained to him what happened. And what he would now become. The first transformation after that was one of the worst, and Remus remembered clearly how he cried all during the transformation for his mother. A few months later, Remus started remembering what had happened that night, and ever since then, preceding the full moon, he was plagued with nightmarish recollections of it. Worse than that, his nightmares had a tendency to mutate on him, so that suddenly, it was no longer him that was being attacked, but rather James or Sirius or Peter, and it was Remus who was tearing them apart. He never managed to decide which nightmare he hated more.

Back up in the dormitory, James rolled over, unable to sleep. His mother told him that she thought he had some sort of insomnia once, and it was times like this that made him believe her. He couldn't sleep. At all. He wanted to, he just couldn't. He rolled over on his back, and started to listen to his friends sleep to give himself something to do. He could pick out easily Peter's light snore to his left, and to his right, he could hear Sirius grunt once and roll over. Sirius could never stay in one spot for very long when he slept. James strained his ears to hear Remus across the room for him, which wasn't unusual. Unless Remus was having a nightmare, he was almost impossible to hear when he slept. Oddly enough though, James couldn't hear his friend. Granted, he could have stepped out to go to the bathroom or something, but there was something about how Remus had looked pale all during the day that made him think otherwise. Heaving a sigh, he rolled out of bed, grabbing his glasses of his bedside table and putting them on. The curtains to the window were open, revealing enough light to see in the room. The curtains around Peter's bed were open as usual, and James could see Peter breathing deeply. On the other hand, the curtains to Sirius's bed were drawn shut, having long since claimed that he would never be able to sleep with even the slightest amount of light shining in the room, and that included the moon. James could see, though, his best friend's arm hanging off the side of bed. Remus's bed was deserted. The curtains were flung open, and his blankets, half of which were on the floor, were left in a tangled mess. James, of course, not being the type of person to sit around and do nothing, decided that he had to investigate. He had to make sure some random psychopath hadn't broke into their dorm in the middle of the night and run off with Remus, or something bizarre like that. Stifling a yawn, he headed out of the dorm and down the stairs.

As soon as he could see into the common room from the stairs, he was able to make out his friend's hunched over form staring into the fire. There was a girl sitting across from him, working on something, and seemingly content to let Remus sit and stare at the fire. She moved her head slightly, and the firelight glinted off her red hair. James's heart fluttered for a moment. It was just his luck that Lily just so happened to be awake and in the common room. A goofy grin started to spread over his face before he stopped himself. No, James, he thought to himself firmly. You are here to find out what's wrong with Remus, not to see if Lily feels any different about you at one-thirty in the morning. Snap out of it.

He sighed as he made his way around the maze of couches and armchairs, conveniently catching both Lily's and Remus's attention as he did so. "Hey, Remus," he said as he plopped down on the couch next to his friends. He nodded in Lily's direction. "Evans."

Lily looked slightly startled. "What?" she asked. "Not going to ask me out?"

James smirked, smoothing out wrinkles in the white t-shirt he wore to bed. "I don't know about you, Evans," he said casually, "but my hormones go to bed at a reasonable hour."

Lily sighed and rolled her eyes, and turned her attention back to her essay. James bit his lip and looked over his friend, who hadn't given any real acknowledgment that he was there. James recognized the pale, detatched expression on Remus's face, and instantly knew why he was up. Nightmares.

James nudged him with his elbow. "You okay?" he asked.

Remus turned around to look at James and gave a flitting smile. "I'll be fine," he said.

"You want to play a game of chess?"

"Yeah, I guess," Remus replied quietly.

James stood up and gathered an abandoned chess board from the other side of the common room. Sitting back down, he started setting up the black pieces while Remus went to work on the white. Without saying much, they started the game. James was trying to distract Remus from what ever had happened in his nightmare, although it wasn't exactly working. Every time James looked up, he could see Remus was still wearing a tightly controlled brooding expression.

"So," James said, hoping to change the subject. Or, rather, create a subject. "I wrote to my brother about how I dislocated my shoulder during practice. You know, just letting him know what's going on in my life, and whatnot. And you know what he does?" He paused, but Remus didn't prompt him to say more. "He writes back, and in big, bold, colorful letters at the top of the parchment it says 'Ha ha! Sucks to you dislocated shoulder!' I'm not even kidding. I mean, really, what kind of older brother does things like that?"

"Well, yours obviously," Remus muttered.

"True," James replied. "But he writes back an hour later, because, you know, he's Jared and he does things like that. Anyway, he had to tell me about his disastrous date with Marlene McKinnon– Serena's cousin, actually. He brought her over to the house to introduce her to my parents. I would have been surprised if Dad didn't know her already; I mean, he's worked with Serena's dad for years now. Mr. McKinnon is always bringing his family around to work. Surely they must have met at least once, or something. But that's besides the point. He brings her over, and, I don't know, all hell breaks loose. And since I wasn't there to be the reason why things went wrong (like I normally am), my dog gets blamed. Really, Jared is pretty odd, but that's just ridiculous. But what happened is . . ."

Lily looked up at James as he continued to ramble on. She didn't think she had actually heard anyone talk that much in her entire life. He was worse than Dory was when she got nervous. Not to mention, she thought it was a bit tactless. She still didn't know Remus as well as James did, but she could obviously tell something was eating at him, but all James was doing was talking about himself and his family. He didn't even bother to find out what was wrong with Remus. She had known James was conceited, but this was too much. He was being completely inconsiderate. What was wrong with him?

She listened as he continued to prattle on about nothing. He talked about his family for a while, then started talking about something he and Sirius had done while ditching Divination on Thursday. After that, it was an in-depth description of some quidditch move he and Athena were trying to get the team to master. She had wondered how long it would take him to get to quidditch. After that, though, she started to lose track of what he was saying, and she began to wonder if it made sense at all. She turned her direction to Remus for a moment, and her whole perception of the situation changed. The tenseness around Remus had faded almost completely, and he wore this oblivious look on his face, concentrating solely on James's rambles and their chess game. It suddenly made sense to her that James's intention from the start was to take Remus's mind off whatever was bothering him, and she had to admit, it was working well.

". . .and then, the thing bloody exploded in his face! And I'm standing there, trying not to laugh, and it's just not going well, you know?" James paused, but Remus didn't say anything. "Remus? You alive, mate?" Again, Remus didn't reply. James gave him a little nudge, and he just leaned over on the armrest of the couch. James stood and waved his hand in front of Remus's face. James smiled. "It's about time he fell asleep. I was running out of things to ramble about." He leaned over to lift Remus's feet onto the couch. He pulled a blanket off the back of the couch and laid it over his sleeping friend, somewhat proud of himself for successfully getting him to fall asleep. "I'll see you in the morning, Evans," he said, stifling a yawn of his own. "Try not to wake him up."

The following week could easily be described as an accurate viewing of someone's health failing them. All anyone had to do was take a look at Remus. James, Sirius, and Peter were the first to realize that something was wrong with their friend. Monday and Tuesday, he hardly ate anything, and he said even less. For a while they thought that maybe that had gotten the day of the full moon confused, that it was sooner than they thought, but when they looked it up, they found that it was on October first, that coming Sunday, just as they had thought originally. By Wednesday, his skin had a pale grey pallor to it, and every time he had opened a book, he squinted at the pages to read properly. Teachers, mainly McGonagall and Flitwick who had always liked Remus, started holding him back after class to make sure he was doing okay. Thursday, Remus woke up with a terrible migraine. Light made his head throb, and he had to keep himself from flinching every time he heard anything louder than a whisper. He thought he was hiding it well from his friends, however. He had no doubt that they wouldn't drag him down to the Hospital Wing if they knew that he was hardly sleeping at night, or that the reason he squinted to read was because he was double of almost everything. Some things, though, he couldn't hide. Like the fact that he had virtually no appetite. Sirius had taken it upon himself to snap at Remus every time he said he wasn't hungry, and harassed him until he ate something. Of course, Sirius didn't know that most of the time, after Remus did eat something, it normally came back up an hour or two later. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate his friends' concern; it was just that he didn't want them to worry about him. That and he didn't want to have to deal with Madam Pomfrey.

On Friday, no one who saw Remus could deny that something was wrong. He slept through almost all of his classes, and if he wasn't asleep, he had a very blank stare on his face. He generally ached all over, and he felt cold almost all day. He didn't even bother patrolling the halls with Lily that night, not that she complained at all. She had noticed how sick he looked, and would have insisted that he go straight to bed if he had tried to go with her. Worry that had been steadily mounting among Sirius, James, and Peter hit a high point on Saturday. By the time the three of them went down to breakfast that morning, Remus was still asleep, and as they had no classes, none of them felt guilty about not waking him up. It was when Sirius went to check if he was still asleep at lunch that they worried. Remus was running a high fever, and lacked virtually all energy to get out of bed. It was only through much coaxing that Sirius and James managed to pull him out of bed and half-drag, half-carry Remus down to the Hospital Wing so Pomfrey could have a proper look at him. Peter commented later that it was a good thing that they had a reputation for getting hurt in fights or in pranks, because otherwise it would have looked very odd to see Sirius, James, and Remus heading down to the Hospital Wing.

All four boys spent the rest of the day in the Hospital Wing, trying to pass the time away. Remus had been given a number of potions, but not one of them seemed to working as well as they should have. It was ten o'clock that night before Madam Pomfrey managed to chase James, Sirius, and Peter away, and they appeared in the Hospital Wing early Sunday morning, too, determined to keep Remus's mind off the upcoming night as much as possible. Pomfrey spent a good deal of the day chasing the three boys away so Remus could rest, but they managed to show back up within an hour of when they had left. She got them to leave for good a half hour before dinner, when she told them that she would be escorting their friend to the Shrieking Shack in ten minutes, and if she saw any of them in the Hospital Wing when she got back, she would give them a real reason to be there.

Dinner that night was quiet for the three teenagers. "I don't think I've ever seen him so bad," Sirius commented darkly later that night in their dormitory.

"Me neither," Peter muttered, glancing out the window at the full moon. "Why do you think it's worse now then it's been before?"

"It could be any number of things," Sirius said. "I don't really care, either. I'm just worried about him."

James looked up from the copy of Trivial Trends in Transfiguration they had swiped from the library a month earlier. "I'm more worried about how he's going to be tomorrow," he said quietly, "Than how he was today."


final an: As always, thank you very much for reading and I would be ecstatic if at least half of you who read would review. This probably sounds like I'm begging for reviews, and I hate to say that I am. I'd love to say that I write just for the joy of writing, but I would be lying if I said I didn't want your reviews. They mean a lot to me, and they give me motivation for quicker updates.
As a side note, if any of you have noticed that as of yet the story has been really Remus oriented, don't worry, the others will get their moment in the spotlight as well.
Once again, forgive any grammar or spelling mistakes. I am, after all, just a humble writer without a beta reader. I try my best

Delano