Chapter Eleven: I've Figured it Out
Sky slammed the door to the boy's dormitory and leaned her back against it. What just happened? She thought to herself. Sirius was always so laid back and fun but suddenly there was an entire new look in his eyes. She started to realize that Remus wasn't going to get by easy much longer; she knew Sirius and she knew that he would stop at nothing until things were his way.
Suddenly she heard some whispering nearby and realized she wasn't alone. She lifted her head finally pulling her eyes away from her tiny feet she had been staring at only to see her second year schoolmates piled on top of each other on the staircase trying to eavesdrop.
"What on earth are you all doing?" she asked trying to sound composed even though a million thoughts were running through her head.
Realizing they were not as sneaky as they thought the boys and girls jumped up brushing themselves off. James stepped forward and asked Sky, "Well what happened?"
"Why don't you just go ahead and ask him yourself?" she answered stubbornly as she shoved her way down the staircase and out of the tower.
Immediately, James, Remus, Peter, and Frank made their way into their room to confront Sirius and figure out what had happened while Bridget and Audrey remained by the staircase to hear for themselves. The two best friends listened intently as they heard screaming and shouting coming from behind the door. It had started off with James saying something calmly to Sirius, and then Sirius's voice began to rise as it became a yelling match between him and Remus. After the argument remained around Remus and Sirius the girls could only hear the other three boys attempting to step in every so often with much failed attempts of de-escalating the situation.
Suddenly the door burst open causing the two girls to jump out of the seats. A very flustered looking Remus came storming out of the room and headed down the staircase in the same direction as Sky. Frank soon followed but not because he was angry, "I am getting as far away from this as I can, I don't even know what they're arguing over really."
Audrey and Bridget nodded at him as he went down to the common room. Eventually they lost interest and returned to their bedrooms to get dressed for the day.
Sky wandered the halls of Hogwarts aimlessly wearing her wrinkled dress from the party and a pair of Remus's boxers pulled under it. Her shoes she had left in the boys bedroom and she didn't really care to go back to get them, so she let the cold tile tingle her feet as she walked. When she had awoken the sun was bright and she only felt like giggling and smiling…but the sun was gone, lost behind the April rain clouds and drops of cool water started to hit the stained glass windows of the castle. Before she knew it she was standing in her favorite spot, the stained glass window of the beautiful mermaid she knew so well.
She took a deep breath and really opened her eyes. The hallway was dark and empty. She was alone and cold regardless the warm weather outside. She sat up on the windowsill she sat on so many times before staring out at the grounds. What am I going to do? The rain smacked the glass hard and the drops ran slowly down the window I can't be honest with him; it's not my secret to tell. The trees outside looked droopy through all the splashed water I want to fix it, I need to fix it, but I can't. I'm not perfect. What do they expect? "What am I going to do?"
"Stop talking to yourself sounds like a good start." Sky looked up quickly from the window and saw her best friend standing in the middle of the empty hallway. He too was still in half his clothing from the evening before and half in his pajamas. He slowly walked over to the windowsill and sat next to Sky.
"Remus, what are you-"
"We all had an umm…conversation with Sirius."
"Conversation?"
"Well I guess I wouldn't really classify it as a conversation. We went to talk to him after you left and he well, let it go all right. 'Got any more secrets to share with us Remus? Anything you and Sky would care to share with the rest of the group? First Sky's friends with Regulus what's next Remus? Why don't you just go ahead and break the news now before I figure it out and scream it out loud for all to hear!?' It went a little something like that." Reenacted Remus
Sky felt horrible, if she had just been honest from the beginning and maybe let it known to Sirius that she and his brother weren't complete enemies he would never have reacted the way he did. "Oh Remus I'm so sorry, this is my entire fault!"
"Sky, I would never dream of blaming anyone. We knew what we were getting into when we found out I could come to Hogwarts…it was either completely isolate myself from everyone or get close to people and have to face to questions that were presented to me. I always had an intuition that they thought more about my absences than they let show. At least now we know how Sirius really feels about it. There's only a month left of school. Maybe it will just blow over."
"Maybe." Sky stared down at her feet, her shoeless small feet, chipped toenail paint and all. Just a month left, how much could Sirius, James, and Peter figure out in a month anyways. Then again, how much did they already know?
It didn't blow over. The next week and a half were as awkward as could be for everyone involved. Sirius wouldn't speak to Remus or Sky and vice versa, while poor James and Peter were stuck in between. They continued to sit with each other in classes and during meals but there wasn't a whole lot of talking between the group and their meals tended to run a bit short.
Toward the end of the second week since the silence began Remus and Sky started to spend more time away from the group and it suddenly became very apparent why.
"Bloody hell!" shouted Sirius in the middle of their lunch.
Peter and James both looked up from their sandwiches giving Sirius perplexed looks. James spoke up, "What?"
"They're doing it again. It's that time of the month when Remus goes all weird and then disappears on us! That's why he and Sky have been keeping away from us, so we didn't catch on so easily!"
James slammed his head onto the table next to his plate and Peter just stared at Sirius in disbelief, "Sirius, you barely mention Remus and Sky's names let alone speak to either of them in two weeks and now you're suddenly back on the prowl!"
"Please Sirius, the silence was actually sort of nice, a bit awkward yes, but still nice. No yelling, No arguing, just quiet." James complained with his forehead still on the table.
"Fine! My lips are sealed; you won't hear anything else about it from me. Just enjoy your silence." And with that they went back to their meal and quiet day.
Sky and Remus had spent lunch in the common room; she had run ahead early, grabbed some food then joined him. The moon was approaching and Remus was feeling it harder than usual, his current friend situation wasn't any help as well. They thought it better to spend their meals alone until after the moon so as Sirius wouldn't open his big mouth about how ill he looked or ask any questions when he found out Remus was leaving in a day.
Last moon of the month, then two weeks of school and he was home free for another summer. Home free, back at the countryside where there were no questions, no arguments, and no Sirius.
Soon the day rolled into night and the second years found themselves getting ready for bed and the start of a new school day ahead. Remus had wandered back into the dormitory later in the night having spent most of the day in the library, a place the others were sure not to go, silently changed and got into bed without a word to the others. Sirius just watched him remembering how he promised James he wouldn't say another word, but he still watched. Tiered and Pale.
Meanwhile in the girls dormitory Sky was getting comfortable in her bed while the girls chatted as they changed into their pajamas. "So Sky, still in a silent feud with Sirius?" asked Bridget.
"Honestly, I really don't want to talk about it, it's really a stressful situation." She said as she crawled under the covers.
"Oh sorry, yeah that's understandable, I was just curious that's all."
Sky sat up in her bed and replied, "Its fine, it's just a really complicated."
Lily was sitting in her bed when she looked at Sky, "You know Sky, I don't really understand what's so important that you need to hide for Remus anyway. Maybe if you just were honest with Sirius-" she started.
"Lily please, it's none of your business-"
Lily did something she never did before; she got up out of her bed letting her blankets drop halfway onto the floor. She walked over to Sky's bed and knelt on the end of it and lowered her voice, "Sky really. Remus isn't just your friend and I know we've gotten into quarrels over this before and I really think if there's something his friends should know then you should tell us. Sometimes when you keep secrets it hurts people more than it helps."
"Lily, please" It'd been so hard for Sky trying to comfort Remus those past two weeks and not having her other friends as close as she usually had them was really staring to get to her. Badly enough that tears started to well up in her eyes, "There's absolutely nothing you need to know."
"Sky just tell me so I can help, Remus means a lot to me-"
Sky threw her hands up in a hysterical manner and, before she could control herself, screamed, "LILY JUST STOP!" then turned over and buried herself under the covers signally the conversation was over.
Shocked, and feeling a little bad, Lily got off of Sky's bed and let her be. Whatever was going on between Sky and the boys it was intense because when Sky threw up her hands Lily noticed a distinctive orange glow to her hands. It drove her crazy that Sky was such a closed person but than again maybe there was more to the situation than everyone else saw. Lily got back into bed and fell asleep.
Before Sky knew it, Remus was gone and she found herself by the common room fireplace with the girls working through some homework. Care of Magical Creatures class had them writing essays about different migration patterns of magical creatures and how different planet alignments affected them. Professor Gibbons, their ancient teacher, had them paired in groups, each group with a different magical creature. Sky and Bridget were working on unicorns while Audrey and Frank were working on centaurs.
"I'm telling you, that Gibbons, she just doesn't like me. I think my dad used to mess around with her in her younger days and just put in a bad name for us Longbottoms. He even told me one time how he poured a tub of flobberworms over the heads of three Slytherin girls, caused a scene he did and earned him a hardy punishment but boy did he say it was hilarious. Why else would she stick me with centaurs, they've got to have the most complicated migration patterns, I mean come on!" complained Frank as he flipped through Centaurs: Sight and Stars.
"Well aren't I lucky getting you as a partner!" joked Audrey as she jotted down some notes.
Sky laughed along with the rest of the gang and wished dearly Remus was there with them. He would've found this assignment really fascinating. She thought as she glanced out the window at the sun slowly setting and sky growing darker.
Sirius sat with Peter on his bed flipping through books about Fairies while taking notes and comparing different migration streams with charts of planets. James leaned against Sirius's trunk on the floor studying dragons being thankful that Gibbons had at least given him an interesting creature since he got gypped out of a partner due to Remus's absence.
Sirius was growing impatient and threw a handful of charts down on the floor in front of James, "I'm so sick of this, fairies as so lame and their migration patterns are even more boring. Can we please sneak down to the kitchens to get some food?"
James gathered together the charts, Jupiter, Venus, and Uranus, when he came across a few lunar charts. He pushed the others aside a pulled the lunar charts in front of him, one in particular had caught his eye. It was a lunar calendar of the year and there was something that grabbed his attention. He looked for the date, found it…then looked for another…and another…
"Blimey…" James jumped up and ran to his bed for a large leather bound dictionary. It was a dictionary that contained information on every magical creature known to the wizarding world that he had checked out of the library for their homework. He tore it open, flipping quickly through the pages, and when he reached the section he was searching for he motioned for Sirius and James to come have a look. He turned and looked back at his best friend with a look of total disbelief and said, "I can't believe it…Sirius, I've figured it out."
Sky had excused herself to the bathroom and was heading her way back downstairs when she saw James, Sirius, and Peter hurrying their way out of the tower as through someone had screamed free butterbeers in the hallway. Feeling suspicious, mainly because she most certainly recognized the silver blanket in James's arms to be his invisibility cloak he let slip he was hiding a couple weeks ago, she switched directions on the staircase and headed to the boys dormitory. Positive there was no one behind the door she entered the bedroom with no hesitation; she walked around the closest bed and what she found lying across the floor made the stomach drop.
Lunar calendars. Lunar calendars everywhere…November, December, January, February…every month. She slowly stepped closer and as she came closer she saw marks on the pages, red circles and next to the calendars was a notebook, one she had never seen before. She started to panic a little bit and as she panicked she started to move faster. She threw herself to the floor and grabbed the notebook, it was a record…she couldn't believe it, they've been recording Remus all along! The small black notebook listed almost every one of Remus's absences since they were freshman along with notes such as "Whomping Willow" and "Sick Mother".
She then moved to the calendars, the circles matched the dates that were in the notebook and they matched the full moon of every month. They know…
She jumped up and noticed a large opened textbook on James's bed. Werewolves, the book was opened to a section on werewolves. Bloody hell.
She ran out of the room as fast as she possibly could and headed down the stairs. She had to catch them she just had to. When she reached the common room she looked up at the schoolmates she had been studying with, "Where did they say they were going!?" she yelled.
Bridget turned around on the couch and saw the panic stricken look across Sky's face, "Sky are you alright? Are you talking about Sirius and that lot?"
"Yes Bridget it's urgent, what did they say?"
Frank stepped in, "They only mentioned something about fancying a walk across the grounds before curfew. No specifics."
"Bridget we'll have to finish the essay tomorrow, I have to go now, I'm sorry." She shouted behind her as she ran out of the common room. She couldn't let them see what was behind that door.
The three boys snuck out onto the grounds while squeezed under James's invisibility cloak. Luckily the whomping willow was also fooled by their disguise and they were able to safely hop one by one down the rabbit hole. James rolled up the cloak and left it by the entrance to the tree figuring they could pick it up later. The three of them examined the dark damp tunnel they seemed to have fallen into. It was dreary and almost untrustworthy.
"Do you guys think this is such a good idea, what if we are right, it might not be so smart to go about messing with this-" started Peter as he cowered by the wall of the tunnel.
"Peter cut it out. We're doing this. We deserve to know!" scolded Sirius as he headed his way down the dark walkway.
James shrugged his shoulders and pulled Peter in Sirius's direction. Together the three boys walked, scared, curious and fed up with lies, only wanting the truth and the truth lay at the end of the tunnel.
Sky had never felt so panicked in her life. It was no longer a matter of secrets and keeping them, it was a matter of safety and keeping her friends from making a huge mistake. She skipped steps jumping every two to make it to the ground floor in record time slamming her bare feet hard on the wooden stairs. The portraits on the castle walls flew by her in streams of colors as she rushed through the main halls of the school heading toward the grounds. The cool May air hit her in the face as she stumbled down the cement staircase at the grounds entrance. She ran onto the grass and toward the whomping willow slipping on the damp grass, she had no idea how much time she had.
"Is that a door?" asked Sirius after about ten minutes of walking through the dirt and gravel. The tunnel began to incline making the walk a bit stressful and making the boys even more curious as to where this passage headed.
"It's got to be, come on let's check it out." Replied James as he and Sirius jogged ahead to get a better look.
Peter stayed back, nervous about what they were doing, realizing that their actions could have some serious consequences. He watched as his two roommates examined the solid wooden door that lie ahead. It was old but bolted shut. Sirius tried to open the door regardless of the locks but failed to gain entrances.
"There's got to be a way to get in." inquired Sirius as he looked to James for an answer.
"Alohomora" shouted James as he pointed his wand at the locks and sure enough they opened.
They all stood in shock, looking at each other a bit unsure of what they were about to do. If they were right, then what was behind that door wasn't necessarily something anyone in their right mind would want to come face to face with.
Sirius took a deep breath and put his hand on the door handle, "This is it."
"SIRIUS STOP!"
They all turned to look down the tunnel; they knew that voice better than anyone and sure enough seconds after they heard the shout of desperation a distraught and barefoot Sky came sprinting toward them. Sirius's mind raced, this was his chance for reconciliation and if he didn't open that door then he wouldn't forgive himself. He turned away from the frantic girl and opened the door.
Inside he saw a dilapidated room with a single window. He looked long enough to see the most frightening image he'd ever laid his eyes on to date. The moon was just rising into the dark night sky and lying on the floor was Remus. Only it wasn't Remus, it was a dark sick version of the boy he knew to be Remus. The boy contorted his back and turned his head locking eyes with Sirius who stood in the doorway shocked. Remus's warm friendly eyes were gone, filled with blackness and pain. It opened its jaws exposing half advanced teeth and let out a half scream, half howl that filled the tunnel with hate.
Sirius was deaf to the world behind him in the tunnel, deaf to Sky screaming at James and Peter to pull him back to close the door and suddenly he felt himself behind pulled back. Remus twitched and started to transform more into a beast like state, still unable to move from his lying position on the floor. Suddenly, Sirius saw long locks of hair fly in front of him grabbing the door handle. She turned to face Sirius and pushed him out back toward the tunnel while screaming in his face. Eventually Sirius lost his footing and fell back into the tunnel, Sky falling on top of him. James and Peter rushed forward to pull the door shut just as the beast behind the door that was no longer Remus began to stir and stand up. James undid his magic-work and locked the door only to hear a banging on the wood from the opposite side.
Oh Uh! The secrets out! Haha Hope you enjoy! And a special thanks to Rekahneko and Blackdaughter for reviewing after such a long pause in updates, love the loyalty to the story!
DMC
