So it would appear that I am not dead! I've been very busy in my personal left lately, but that is hardly an excuse!
But this story was NEVER going to be abandoned. I'm back out of writer's block and I fully intend to see this through to the end!
I'm so very sorry that it's been so long. It's not good enough of me, but I will be doing my very best.
The Call of the Moon
Chapter Ten
"Check out the new brooms!"
"Mum said I could choose my own cat from the Magical Menagerie-"
"But I want new robes…"
The hustle and bustle of Diagon Alley was as noisy and busy as it ever was at the beginning of a Hogwarts school year. All around, witches and wizards of all ages bustled their way through the crowd of magical folk doing their shopping. Groups of teenagers chattered and laughed as they left Florean Fortescue's, ice creams in hand, or gathered around shop windows ogling the latest Quidditch equipment. It was an environment totally different from that in Hogwarts, one which Remus Lupin had only had a little exposure to a year ago when buying his wand.
This time, Lyall had, after some persuading, allowed Remus to accompany him to purchase his second year school supplies. Much to the twelve year old's glee. Remus sidled out of the way as a haughty looking witch with a hooked nose brushed past them. The boy stayed close at his father's heels as Lyall quickly cut out of the stream of coming and going magical folk to stand in front of Potage's Cauldron Shop to give them a little air a few steps apart from the crowd.
Lyall adjusted his faded blue coat, tugging down the sleeve that had ridden up from being jostled aside. Under his arm he carried a wrapped up bundle of textbooks from the second hand bookstore where they had just purchased Remus' new school books. They were older editions but would more than serve their purpose. "Is there anything else on your list that we've missed, Remus?"
Remus shook his head but before he could even open his mouth to say anything, Lyall continued, his eyes twinkling a little. "Do you want to have a look in there?" He pointed across the street to Quality Quidditch Supplies where a crowd of teenage boys stood in front of the window, ogling the new brooms.
Remus followed his father's gaze and his own green ones widened as he looked at the Quidditch supplies store.
"Quidditch? Dad, I'm only an okay flyer." Remus was slightly bemused as to why his father would even suggest going into another shop, least of all one which sold Quidditch supplies. "Were you on the Quidditch team, Dad?"
"No, no, I just thought it could interest you. It's your second year now, you could try out if you wanted to." Lyall shook his head quickly and smiled at his son, he had certainly not been very athletic in his school days and he didn't really expect that Remus would be either. The thought had only struck him that it may help Remus to fit in more, on the off chance he was actually interested. They didn't have the money to buy him a broom, but the school had brooms.
"I don't really want to…"
"Remus, just have a look…it might help you fit in. I'll come back in a moment. Wait for me there." Lyall rested his hand on his son's shoulder, squeezing lightly before stressing the point again. "Stay there. I'll be right back in a moment, alright?"
Remus opened his mouth to protest, he wasn't interested in sports, flying and Quidditch but his father was insistent and he bit back the urge to argue the point. "Where are you going?"
"I'll be right back, okay?" Lyall squeezed his shoulder, guiding Remus across the street to the shop, and smiling over his shoulder briefly before he started to sidle back through the crowd.
Remus stared bemused after his father, as for the first time, he willingly let Remus out of his sight in Diagon Alley. He wasn't about to directly disobey and so awkwardly started to sidle his way inside.
Quality Quidditch Supplies was booming with business, packed almost from floor to ceiling with teenagers struggling to get a look at the newest Quidditch supplies.
"Look at it! A new Nimbus!"
"It's the fastest model yet."
Remus stood on his toes to see the broom that no fewer than ten young witches and wizards had crowded around to look at. Behind glass, the Nimbus 1700 was proudly on display. A long mahogany broomstick with sleek bristles neatly grouped at the end and its name emblazoned on the other in cursive, gold writing.
The walls were lined with everything from broomsticks, to Quaffles, to Quidditch storage chests. In one corner a large glass tank that reached from floor to ceiling housed dozens of golden snitches flitting around. With the skill of a Seeker, an employee had his arm through a small gap, his gloved hand snatching around on nothing a few times before it closed around one of the snitches.
"Hey!"
The young werewolf jumped violently as a hand clapped down on his shoulder and he whirled around wide eyed to find James Potter grinning at him.
"Woah, what's got you so jumpy?"
Remus relaxed again, stepping to the side out of the way of two Slytherin boys he recognised and shaking his head. "Nothing, you just surprised me…what's that?" His green eyes drifted past the grinning, bespectacled face to the broom in James' hand, and then to the faces behind them also pointing and staring in awe.
"Isn't it amazing?" James grinned, holding out the Nimbus he held in his hands. "I'm a shoe in for the Quidditch team with this! And Evans is bound to be impressed!"
It was no secret that the Potters were extremely wealthy. It was evidence enough that they could shower their only child in presents as extravagant as the best broomsticks, and invisibility cloaks. James, to his credit, did not make a big deal of being rich. At least not directly, not in the way most of the Black or Malfoy families did. James was confident, and perhaps a little cocky, but he wasn't boastful of his wealth, just of his skill and his jokes.
Remus had to admit, though he didn't care much for Quidditch or brooms, found himself staring in awe with the rest of the shop.
"You really will be." He agreed and James grinned, tossing the broom over his shoulder and nearly knocking a passing girl in the head who tutted at him.
"I'm gonna meet Sirius and Peter at Fortescue's, are you coming?" The boy asked, his eyebrows raising above the level of his glasses.
Remus opened his mouth and closed it again. He wasn't supposed to. He was supposed to wait right here, and he didn't want his dad to become frantic even if he just went off to have ice cream with his friends.
To save him that explanation, Lyall chose that moment to reappear. Placing a hand on his son's shoulder and making Remus turn and sigh.
"Remus, time to go."
xxxXxxx
"Are you sure you're not even going to try out?"
"Yeah, come on, how great would it be for all of us to be on the Quidditch team?"
"Y-You really think we could all make it?"
Remus sighed where he had his nose hidden behind a book in the common room whilst his friends all tried to persuade him to try out for the team with them. He shook his head for the thirteenth time in the last thirty minutes and looked over the top of his book to find Sirius staring at Peter and shrugging his shoulders.
"Well…I mean, maybe not all of us."
"But at least you're trying, Peter." James added, clapping the pudgy boy on the back and leaning back against the crimson sofa. "C'mon Remus, you look like you could use the fresh air."
"I'm fine." Remus murmured, suddenly very aware of how pale and sickly he must be beginning to look. With the full moon just days away, he was getting more and more irritable and ill looking by the day. "Quidditch isn't really my specialty."
"He's right. That would be being the brainiest of all of us. And on that note, what were the main ingredients for a Wiggenweld Potion again? Slughorn's essay has me stumped." Sirius suddenly veered off topic, leaning over the back of the chair Remus was sitting in to try and get a look at his textbook.
"Salamander blood and lionfish spines, and that's all you're getting until you read the chapter yourself."
"Oh break a rule once in a while won't you?" Sirius sighed, plopping down onto the floor and pulling his parchment over to him.
"So…invisibility cloak tonight? I thought we could sneak into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and give Professor Aristole a real shock in the morning." James grinned and held up his hand to high five his best friend.
"Wh-whatever happened to Professor Ambrosia last year? Why d-did she leave?" Peter Pettigrew asked and Sirius shrugged and turned his quill over in his fingers.
"She had to leave as she urgently had to go to France to a sick Aunt with dragonpox, remember?"
The four boys turned their heads as one to the redheaded girl who had taken a seat on the other end of the sofa from James.
"Ah, Evans! Not doing your homework with Snape today? Did the grease in his hair finally start dripping?"
"Oh drop it, Potter, stop being so rude. There's nothing wrong with Severus." Lily glared at James who just laughed and loosened his red and gold tie
"Number one, he's a Slytherin. Number two, he acts and talks like a ghoul. Number th-" A cushion in his face cut James off from whatever snide remark he had been about to make and Lily scowled at him. Gathering up her things the twelve year old girl immediately stomped out of the common room, her hair flying behind her.
xxxXxxx
"Why do you hang around with Potter and Black, Remus? You're much nicer than those buffoons."
Remus looked up from his copy of 'The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2' from where he was seated on the bleachers overlooking the Quidditch pitch.
Lily's hair was tied back in a braid with strands that kept flying in her face as the wind blew from behind them. He liked her, she was kind and without a doubt the brightest witch in their year. She didn't approve at all of James and Sirius' pranks which more often than not somehow roped Peter and himself in as well.
"They're my friends." Remus spoke quietly, shrugging his shoulders and looking down at the group of Gryffindor students from all years second and up waiting on the field for Quidditch tryouts to start. James, Sirius and Peter were all trying out, standing right at the front of the group as the captain, seventh year Arthur Wood addressed them.
James already had everyone's eyes on him with his new Nimbus 1700 over his shoulder and grinning as proudly as though he had personally won the House Cup.
"Why are you watching? I thought you didn't care much for Quidditch?" He asked the girl who sighed and looked back at him, her Gryffindor scarf fluttering in the wind.
"I don't, but Aurora is trying out to be a chaser and I thought she needed someone to cheer her on." She answered, waving down to a raven-haired second year girl who waved up at her. Only to have James think she was waving to him and grin widely up at her.
"Thanks Evans!" He shouted and Remus chuckled a little behind his book as the Quidditch Captain whistled for attention.
Perhaps because of his interrupting, James went first and if it hadn't been clear in first year, it was doubly so now that James Potter was a natural. Even without the fastest, and one of the most expensive, model brooms out now, he would have outstripped any other second year and a lot of the older players.
Remus lifted his hands to clap as one of his best friends, or indeed only friends, lighted to the ground lightly after scoring goal after goal with the Quaffle. He winced suddenly, a violent wave of nausea washing over him so strongly he found himself suddenly swaying on the spot and letting out a little groan that came out almost a growl. The full moon was tomorrow.
"Are you okay?" A concerned voice snapped him out of his daze as Lily frowned at him in worry, and although "okay" was the very last thing he felt now, he nodded anyway.
"Just a little ill-"
A sudden uproar of laughter from the pitch caught both of their attention.
Peter Pettigrew's broom had shot off without him, whizzing carefree around in circles and leaving the rat faced boy bright red in embarrassment.
"Don't worry about it, mate, borrow mine." Sirius clapped him on the shoulder and handed over his own broom between snickers.
"Th-thanks…" Peter mumbled and, under the watchful eye of everyone there, managed to take off this time….for about ten feet. One of the least coordinated boys in Gryffindor, if not Hogwarts, he toppled end over end until he flopped face first into the grass.
Needless to say, Peter did not make the Quidditch team. But a few days later, when the list was posted in the Common Room, both James and Sirius had earned spots as Chasers.
xxxXxxx
"Where are you off to in such a hurry again? I thought we were going to-Remus? Remus?!"
He heard his friends calling his name in confusion as he dashed out of History of Magic and down the corridor, sprinting as fast as he could toward Gryffindor Tower. Professor Binns, the only ghostly member of staff, was infamous for being the most boring professor in the school, so unaware of his students paying no attention to him, that it was rumoured that he had failed to even notice that he had died some years ago. The droning lecture on the founding of Medieval Assembly of European Wizards, had gone overtime, giving Remus ten minutes less time to get out of the school unnoticed.
He would fake ill again to his friends. Though in the back of his mind his father's warning that he could not overuse one excuse rang. Hurrying into the boy's dormitory he knew his friends would be close behind him, he couldn't get out of the Common Room without their seeing. Breathing heavily he did the only thing he could think of to stay unnoticed, he took James' invisibility cloak from his trunk and wrapped it around himself just as the rest of the boys came into the dormitory. He just had to wait a minute until they went down to the Great Hall, then he would be in the clear so to speak.
"Where did he go? He was coming this way wasn't he?" Peter asked as Sirius rotated on the spot looking around for him and shrugged.
"Hospital wing? He was pretty ill looking all day."
"How can one person be so sick all the time? He was like that last year too, wasn't he?"
"Something just seems funny about it all."
"Don't push, if he wants to say he'll tell us." James shrugged, and for a second looked straight at Remus where he stood against the wall. After a moment the boys seemed to give up and dropped their bags, leaving Remus to let out a sigh of relief and pull the cloak away to stow it back in James' trunk.
He felt terrible lying to his friends. But what choice did he have? The moment anyone found out the truth, they'd think he was a monster. And they wouldn't be wrong.
xxxXxxx
The wolf howled a long, terrible wail to the moon from the window of the shack. So loud and chilling that the inhabitants of Hogsmeade would talk about the ghosts and creatures that must inhabit the supposedly haunted building for decades to come. The mysterious, forbidden building protected by enchantments that in the last year alone had become a place one could hear terrible screams, neither quite human, nor quite animal when the night was right.
Not to know the truth that the cause of those screams every month was a boy in unimaginable agony as his body transformed and twisted into an unrecognisable wolfish form.
The werewolf hurled it's great, muscular body into the wall, trying in vain as it did every month, to force its way out. It's only companionship that of rats that it had no interest in even devouring. It snarled and paced, back and forth, clawing at walls and shattering any furniture it could. Pausing it caught its reflection in the glass of a window that it could not force itself through and growled. Green eyes, human eyes overtaken with bloodlust stared back at it. Then it roared and leapt from the ground floor up to the second, clawing to get as close to the moon that called it irresistibly.
xxxXxxx
"Remus?"
The boy stirred a little, wrapped in a pile of bedsheets the wolf had eventually collapsed onto wearily. Someone was calling his name. It sounded like his mother but she wasn't here was she? Of course not, she was a muggle and he was in Hogwarts.
Remus blinked and woke to find Madam Pomfrey laying a tray of food, hot and delicious smelling to his sensitive nose. The bacon and sausages were even almost raw for him. The matron sighed sympathetically and with a wave of her wand repaired the tattered curtains and shattered four poster bed to a state that Remus could still use them in.
"Thank you…" His voice was hoarse and his throat felt like a dozen daggers were scraping it raw with each word.
"Drink this. You'll feel better." She handed him a potion in a flask which Remus drank and cringed. But it eased the pain, and dulled the throb in his head. He smiled gratefully, if wearily and nodded.
"I'll return later on with your other meals, my boy." She smiled a warm smile that Remus could not feel comforted by.
Tempted as he was by the meat, and would soon enjoy a hearty meal, that was not the first thing Remus went for went he woke the morning after the full moon. Prying up the floorboard in which he kept his belongings safe from destruction by the wolf, he pulled out the foil wrapped, muggle chocolate from his rucksack. Breaking off a small piece he sank onto the mattress and nibbled it slowly. It was his piece of familiarity, the closest he could get to his mother's comfort while he was here.
xxxXxxx
Valentine's Day, like Halloween, Christmas and Easter, was an occasion for Hogwarts to be decorated. The Great Hall was decorated with great pink and red hearts, and some of the teachers, including Professor Slughorn had added pink to their robes for the occasion.
Couples gushed over each other, and love potions were a popular topic of conversation amongst giggling girls in the fourth and fifth year.
"Hey, hey, look…" Sirius pointed up as the usual flock of owls soared in. Many carrying parcels, cards and flowers for significant others.
But what was most interesting was the Slytherin table, where Severus Snape was getting up and coming over to speak to Lily who sat a few spots away from the boys.
"Lily, we had better get-"
"Snape's got a crush on Evans!" James shouted, much to the amusement of everyone who could hear him. The Slytherin boy scowled at him just as a barn owl swooped over his head and dropped a card into his hands.
Remus watched warily. He knew what it was. Sirius had been talking about how funny it was going to be for weeks.
Sure enough, no sooner had Snape opened the card in confusion then it began to sing loudly in a wailing voice not in the least bit pleasant.
"Snivellus Snape, oh Snivelly dear,
Won't you be mine, and lend me your ear?
Your hair hangs so limp, it's surely just grease,
I wonder, do even your clothes have fleas?
Snivelly dear, you just take the cake,
Now would you just go jump in the lake?"
The Slytherin's face drained of what little colour it held and black eyes scowled over at the four boys. Remus stared wide eyed as the whole Gryffindor table, and much of the rest of the hall, burst into hysterical laughter.
Lily was fuming. She had gotten up and whacked James hard over the head which only made Sirius howl with laughter more when James shouted indignantly.
"That one wasn't me!"
She clapped Sirius over the head instead which didn't stop any of them laughing.
"You're beasts! All of you! Come on, Sev, let's go." She seethed, storming out of the hall with a very embarrassed Snape.
"Was that really necessary?" Remus asked, a light brown eyebrow raised at his friends who were wiping tears of mirth from their eyes.
"Of course not…" Sirius composed himself with a wolfish grin. "But I told you it would be hilarious!"
xxxXxxx
The full moon in February fell over a weekend and Remus had told them this time that he had to rush home for a few days as his mother was gravely ill. At first it seemed to work. Peter certainly believed him and so did Lily when she asked right in the middle of potions class on the Monday in front of a whole table of Slytherins and other curious housemates.
James and Sirius were less convinced, Remus was sure of it. They said they believed him, but more than once he had gone up to sit with his friends in the Great Hall only to have Sirius elbow James and both of them abruptly change the subject from whatever they'd been discussing.
He felt sick that had nothing to do with the waning moon. They were suspicious. How could he be so stupid as to think that anyone would actually believe he was so sick all the time? Or maybe not. Maybe he was being a little too paranoid about it. Maybe it was something else entirely. For a few weeks he convinced himself that he was concerned for nothing.
Until, at the beginning of March, he slipped into the library to work on Professor Aristole's essay on effective ways to banish a Banshee. Defence Against the Dark Arts was his best subject, closely followed by Charms. His father had taught him all about a wide variety of Dark creatures, and his old work with them, that he hadn't even needed to consult the textbook much to know exactly what to include in his essay. Peculiarly enough, a Laughing Potion, if it could be procured was an effective way to nullify the deadly scream of a banshee.
He had just sat down and unrolled his parchments when a whispered conversation caught his attention and he looked up to find Sirius, Peter and James all crowded together over some books a few tables away. They rarely spent much time in the library. That in itself was peculiar.
"It's always over the full moon though, that can't be a coincidence."
"Don't be stupid, he'd have claws and pointed teeth."
"How thick are you, Pettigrew? They don't look like that all the time."
"Well there's an easy way to find out isn't there, we j-"
"Find out what?" Remus' heart was thundering so loudly in his ears he could hardly hear himself think as he swallowed a lump and stepped up behind them.
Sirius yelped and closed the book they'd been pouring over and James casually grinned up at him. "Nothing at all, Remus ol'chum."
It wasn't until late that night, huddled under the Invisibility cloak as they crept out of the Common Room, that James actually said the words Remus had been so dreading to hear.
"Remus Lupin…" he started, his voice so strangely serious that it nearly sound like it was James Potter speaking at all. "Are you a werewolf?"