10 Remus' Secret

"So, Peter - you said something about a tree that attacks people before Hallowe'en? Care to show it me - I'd not mind setting it on Snivelly." James was saying, as the three of them sat together in the Great Hall. Peter, who usually would have given anything to be taken notice of like this, glanced at Sirius with a look of horror. Peter didn't want to go anywhere near that tree, and Sirius completely understood why. He wasn't all too glad about going near it, but at least he had an idea of what to say. "What about Remus? surely we should wait for-"

"Well, Remus can go steal Merlin's beard for all I care. Whatever Remus is doing, it isn't as important as getting revenge on Snivellus. You, Peter, are going to show me that tree, if it's the last thing you do."

James was in a bad mood for the rest of lunch - neither Peter or Sirius dared to speak to him, and, quite strangely, Peter didn't eat very much. The biggest eater of The Marauders seemed to have lost his appetite from when they had left Potions, because he was constantly complaining then that he needed to eat. James, however, seemed to be eating enough to feed everyone else in the Hall, and very roughly as well - He ripped every last bit of meat violently from a chicken drumstick, guzzled down every cup of pumpkin juice he poured in one go, and completely destroyed his piece of apple pie. Neither Peter or Sirius dared to ask James what was wrong - usually they would all wait until he calmed down before speaking again - so, other than the sounds of James' food mauling, they sat in silence at the end of the Gryffindor table.

Sirius was the first one who dared to talk first. On their way back to the common room, he decided the safest bet was to mention the tree again. "So, you still got the cloak James? I figure we can all hide under it - it's fairly big - and sneak out to investigate. When we get there, on 3, we all shout "stupefy" - its a stunning spell i picked up - and leg it towards the entrance of the Shrieking Shack, deal?"

James sighed. He wanted to see the tree, he couldn't hide that. "Okay. But if it doesn't work, I'm never trusting either of you again, got that?"

Peter sniggered uncomfortably and said, "Of course, if you get hit by a Whomping Willow, you aren't really going to be able to do that, right?"

He stopped in the hallway, turned to Peter and gave him a cold, penetrating look. Peter stopped laughing. Both Peter and Sirius nodded, not daring to say anything else.

On the night they took James' to the Whomping Willow, it seemed his temper had worsened. He was in an awful mood with everyone, and Lily Evans, although insisting she didn't like any of The Marauders and was just being nice, kept asking him what was wrong, which seemed to anger James even more. It seemed even Lily, who was crying in the girls bathroom all day after what Snape had said about her, wasn't capable of being in this much of a phase about anything.

"Sirius! You just stood on my toe!" Peter cried in as much of a whisper as he could muster, after about a minute of trying to get down the staircase.

"I hate to break it to you, Peter, but we've pretty much all been stepping on each others' toes since the start." Sirius replied, putting his hand over Peter's mouth to stop his whimpering being heard.

"Will you two shut it? If we get caught because of you, I swear I'll-"

James stopped talking. Sirius and Peter raised their heads to follow James' gaze and saw Filch, chasing Peeves around on a staircase nearby. Thankfully the staircase moved him away from them, and they could continue, however none of them talked until they got out of the castle.

Once they reached the Whomping Willow, Peter started whimpering again.

"Oh shut up, Peter, your toe is less important than- t-t-than.." James raised his head to see the whole of the Whomping Willow. It really did look like anyone's worst nightmare - A tree that could grow out of the ground anywhere and come to attack them. "What the hell is that?" James screeched, now apparently carefree as to whether they were heard or not, although Peter found the thought of being found by Hagrid scarier than Professor McGonagall.

"Shut up, James! It's just a tree. And we have a plan..." Sirius told him, apparently the most calm of them all. Sirius took out his wand, and continued, "On three?"

The other two obediently took out their wands, too.

"One... Two... Three!" Sirius yelled, and all at once they shouted, "Stupefy!"

All except for Peter. His words stumbled, and, as the other two ran to the trap door, Peter stood there, half covered with the Invisibility Cloak, trembling. The tree would be coming back to it's senses (since it apparently had senses) and attack Peter.

"C'mon, Pettigrew, you idiot!" James hissed, but Peter still stood there. Soon the tree would come back, and if Peter was hit they would definitely be busted. Sirius ran out from where they were standing, grabbed Peter's arm and ran as fast as he could with him in tow to James. The tree was now up. It started bashing at any ground it could detect movement - it seemed to be pretty miffed that it had been Stunned twice now, and attacked anything and everything. James opened the trap door, and as they reached it, the three of them jumped in, just as a branch scathed a thin but deep mark in Peter's forearm.

"Owwww!" Peter shrieked, as blood gushed out of the cut. They were now inside the Shrieking Shack.

"Shut up Peter! I have had it up to here with you and your-" James started to shout at Peter, but Sirius stopped him, pointing to something sat in the corner of the Shack.

"Guys... I... I think we've found out why that tree was planted..."

Sitting in the corner, thankfully sleeping, was what seemed to be a wolf, yet also resembled a man. It was actually sitting like a man, yet it's face was distinctively a wolf.

"Is that-?" James started.

"A werewolf." Sirius finished for him in a very certain tone.

"Doesn't it kind of look like Remus?" James laughed, "Look, you can see the markings right here... Remus has two scars here, right?"

Sirius suddenly realized something very important. "Remus is off every full moon... This werewolf wasn't here when Remus was here... Yet it is now... You guys! This doesn't just look like Remus - I'm betting it is Remus."

Peter gawped at this, and stopped complaining about his cut. However, James' reaction was completely different.

"Nice! We have a werewolf in our group!" James laughed. "Can we poke him?"

James was reaching out his finger to poke the wolf, when Sirius shouted, "NO!" James stopped an inch from it.

"Werewolves are mental when they're in wolf form. Remus was looking them up - I'm guessing he has no idea what he does when he's a wolf. If you wake him, chances are he won't have any friends anymore - He'll have eaten us all!"

Peter resumed his whimpering again once Sirius had said this.

"S-suppose he has Snivellus..." James laughed uncomfortably, but Sirius gave him a warning look that told him that was enough.

As they exited the Whomping Willow, they recovered themselves with the cloak, which was still partially draped over Peter, and headed back to the castle.

"I was only joking, Sirius. Don't need to get so angry." James' sulked.

"I'm as carefree as you when it comes to joking, Sirius, but not about my own life, thank you very much."

They returned to their dormitories that evening without any hassle at all... It actually felt quite odd, and James thought it had been too easy. Something must have been going off... But he wasn't going to worry about that now. He put the Invisibility Cloak into his trunk and changed into his pajamas, snuggling into his warm bed. Each of The Marauders went to sleep without any worries as well, and Peter, who had bandaged his cut with a first aid kit they had stolen from a clumsy boy called Frank Longbottom, appeared to have stopped whimpering.