"How dare you, blood traitor!"
James grinned at Bellatrix, her face becoming even more livid. The plan was working perfectly – he and Sirius had walked past Bellatrix on one of the staircases, with James talking a little too loudly about how Sirius' mother was a 'right old hag'. Not to either boy's surprise, Bellatrix had taken the bait much too easily.
"Is this your cousin, Sirius? She's charming, isn't she?"
"Sirius, how dare you associate yourself with such filth!"
"Not seeing any filth but you, Trixie," Sirius replied, a small grin crossing his face.
"Guys what's going on?" Remus asked, noticing the commotion and pushing through the crowd to James and Sirius' side, Peter following close behind them.
"Remus, Peter, meet my dear cousin, Trixie," Sirius replied, and was a little surprised when Remus took a step towards him, his gaze suddenly guarded and his whole body tense.
"Filth! The lot of you! Associating wih Pettigrews and Potters and- and Lupin, of all people! I heard his mother is a muggle, of all things! You know they're only friends with you because of your name, that's what they all do!"
Remus' face stayed dangerously neutral, and Sirius was almost scared of him at that particular moment, the calm, calculated way he watched Bellatrix.
"Bellatrix - that's your name, isn't it?" he asked, his voice dangerously calm, "Never insult my friends, or my family, and never, never make assumptions about them, or me. Come on, let's go, she's not worth our time."
Bellatrix looked livid, and Sirius couldn't resist blowing her a kiss as Remus gripped James and Sirius' elbows in a surprisingly strong grip and dragged them away, Peter following quickly behind.
They heard her mutter a hex, hitting Peter's back and causing him to fall on top of them all. Sirius instantly ripped his arm out of Remus' grip, rage clouding his vision as he flung himself at his cousin, managing to land a punch squarely to her jaw before she managed to shove him off, sending him toppling off the stairway. He landed with a thud, the crack of bones breaking echoing through the room. James and Remus, without hesitation, both took out their wands, pointing them squarely at Bellatrix's chest.
"Do you know any hexes?" Remus muttered to James, who nodded, his eyes burning with anger.
"Make sure she doesn't do anything else to Sirius and Peter, and watch yourself. I'm going to go find Pomfrey."
Remus stowed his wand, sprinting down the stairs to Sirius' side, "Sirius, Sirius are you ok?"
Sirius groaned, "I think I've broken a rib."
"I'll get Pomfrey, don't move."
Remus sprinted to the hospital wing. James kept his wand carefully trained on Bellatrix, but she was already leaving, headed to the Slytherin common room. James stowed his wand as soon as she was gone, and leaned down to make sure Peter was alright before picking him up with a grunt and carrying him down the stairway to Sirius' side.
"That did not work like we hoped it would."
Sirius tried to laugh, but the movement hurt, and he ended up just grimacing instead, "well, at least I'll still be going to the Hospital Wing – and Trixie's going to have an ugly bruise."
"You know she's wrong, right? We're not just friends with you because of your name."
"I know. Thanks, James."
"Anytime. Hey, Remus was kinda scary for a moment there, wasn't he? If he wasn't Remus I would have thought he were planning ways to kill her."
"He's hiding something, we don't really know what Remus is."
"Remus would never, Sirius. Have you seen him? He's not that kind of person."
"True."
Remus chose that moment to re-enter the room, followed by a hassled-looking Madam Pomfrey. James squeezed Sirius' shoulder lightly before moving away from him, joining Remus as they stood to the side and let Pomfrey help their friends.
"Bellatrix is a right bitch," James muttered to Remus, who nodded without hesitating.
"I'd like to hit her myself," Remus replied, watching as Pomfrey levitated Sirius and Peter, beginning to make her way back to the Hospital Wing with their friends in tow.
"Same."
"Can we go with our friends?" Remus asked Pomfrey, a few long strides allowing him to catch up to her.
"Go to class, you two, your friends are fine. You can see them after classes."
Both James and Remus looked like they wanted to argue, but Sirius turned to smile weakly at them, "I'm fine, and I'm pretty sure Peter's just fallen asleep."
"We'll see you later, okay?" Remus asked, receiving a thumbs up from Sirius in response.
"Come on, no matter what our excuse is Sprout won't be happy if we're late."
"Miss, I was wondering if there is anything you couldn't heal."
Pomfrey turned to look at Sirius from where she had been standing, fussing over some bottles in a cupboard.
"There are many things I can't heal."
"What about cuts that you can heal but leave scars?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Nothing, just curious," Sirius replied as innocently as he could.
"There are cursed blades that can leave wounds like that, and a few dark creatures who can also do so."
Sirius nodded sagely and lay back down, pretending to have gone to sleep, but his mind was whirling with possibilities. It wasn't likely that Remus would have been cut with a cursed blade – not with his all-muggle house or with Hope and Lyall around. The thought was ridiculous. Dark creature attack, then. It had to be. But what kind of dark creature could have attacked Remus and left all those scars? And what kind of dark creature attack would Remus be so afraid of telling Sirius? Nothing made sense. He made a mental note to tell James to add books on dark creatures to the growing list of topics.
"How're you feeling?" Remus asked as he sat down on Sirius' right, Peter, who had been released an hour after he arrived at the Hospital wing, deciding to sit down on the chair to his other side, leaving James to plant himself squarely on Peter's left leg.
"Oh, you know, I'm fine. Hey, Rem, could you bring me one of the magazines your dad gave me? I was so bored I thought I might eat my own hand."
Remus nodded, standing up and leaving the Hospital Wing quickly in pursuit of the magazines.
"Dark creatures are involved," Sirius muttered to James and Peter after making sure Pomfrey couldn't hear.
"Is that what Pomfrey said?"
"Well, she also said cursed blades, but I've met his family, they wouldn't own a cursed blade and I don't see how anyone would have been able to get at him with a cursed blade unless they were his family."
"So dark creature. Do you know when you leave this place? We need to hit the books."
"If Pomfrey doesn't let me go by the time its dinner I'll sneak out."
"Good."
"Do you think we should track on what days Remus disappears?" Peter spoke up for the first time.
"Good idea, Peter!"
"Hey, do you th-"
Remus stepped back into the room, forcing James to cut himself off as he handed over the motor magazine.
"Lupin, make sure your disappearing act earlier this month is not repeated, I will not have you walking around when you're injured again," Pomfrey, who had reappeared from her office, spoke with a gentle authority.
"And yet I'm fine, am I not?" Remus retorted, much to his friends surprise.
"Watch yourself," was Pomfrey's only reply before she went back to her cupboard, sorting the vials.
Remus quietly offered to help her, once again to all his friends' surprise, but was waved away for his trouble.
"You and Pomfrey know each other, huh?" James asked nonchalantly.
"It's complicated," Remus replied, turning back to his injured friend.
"Do you know when you'll be out?"
"Why, d'you miss me?" Sirius teased, sticking his tongue out at the fair-haired boy.
"You wish I did," Remus replied, chuckling quietly.
Sirius exchanged a meaningful look with James, who lightly nudged Peter in the side.
"Hey, Remus, could you help me with that Defence essay we're meant to be doing?" Peter asked, making Remus sigh.
"You know, you really should do your own work," he muttered, but allowed himself to be led out of the Hospital Wing by Peter in any case after making sure Sirius was alright, Peter sending the two a conspiratorial wink as he left.
"When do you get out?"
"Miss, when can I leave?" Sirius called to Pomfrey, who walked over to his side and gave him a once over, shoving James to the side as she did so.
"If you wanted to, you should be able to leave now." Sirius let out a whoop, climbing out of the bed and instantly darted over to knock James off his feet.
Their short wrestling match was interrupted by a warning from a rather annoyed-sounding Pomfrey about not injuring themselves again, making James and Sirius shrug in unison.
"We have better things to do, anyway," James replied before sprinting out the Hospital Wing, Sirius following a step behind him.
They almost crashed into Lily as they turned to corner into the library. She instantly glared at James, but sent a friendly smile to Sirius as she walked past, a small stack of books tucked carefully under one arm.
"Need some help carrying those?" Sirius asked, ignoring the annoyed look James shot him.
"Nah, I'm alright. Thanks, Sirius."
Lily made her way down the corridor leading to the Gryffindor common room, joined by an all too familiar greasy head of hair.
"It's Snivellus," James muttered, looking disgusted, "I'll never know what she sees in him."
"Neither, mate," Sirius replied, turning back to enter the library and making his way into the Defence Against The Dark Arts section, James following closely behind.
"Shall we begin?" Sirius asked, placing the tips of his fingers on the spine of a book stating in bold silver letters Magical Creatures.
James pulled out a book with the words Guide to the Dark Creatures of Europe emblazoned on the cover, "Let's do this."
Sirius sent a grin to James as he pulled the tome off the shelf, grunting at how heavy it was. Without a word, they both walked to the back of the library where no one would see them unless they decided to visit the dustiest shelves. Sirius quietly muttered a spell to get the dust off the floor before laying down on his stomach, putting the book down in front of him. James cast the same spell on a chair and table, sitting himself down comfortably and opening the book in front of him with a careful gentleness.
"James, are you sure you want to help me figure out what happened to Remus? We don't know what it could be, it might be dangerous."
"He's my friend too, Sirius. I don't care if it's dangerous, something's wrong and we can't do anything about it unless we know what it is."
Sirius and James exchanged a glance before they turned back to their books and started reading, with only the quiet murmurs from the students at the front of the library breaking the heavy silence that descended on them.
They spent the rest of their day there, with the exception of dinner. Sirius had managed to get through a quarter of his book, James a little less than that, but none had found anything that could even come close to whatever it was that attacked Remus.
"Everything has sharp teeth, but nothing has the kind of claws you'd need to leave those scars," James had grumbled at one point, slamming the book shut, but as the creatures in the book got progressively more dangerous, they became more and more curious as to what had happened to their bookish friend, and more and more worried about him, and it was only when Madam Pince, the librarian everyone had learned to hate the first time they stepped foot in the library, shooed them emphatically out of the library that they spoke.
"There's nothing. There's absolutely no clue. A hundred pages, and not one clue about what creature could possibly have attacked Remus."
"Do you think maybe we could sneak into the library and nick some books? I mean, we need more time to figure all of this out, and I think Remus might get a little suspicious if we stay in the library for too long."
James grinned at Sirius, suddenly, his eyes twinkling with excitement, "I have just the thing."
Taking Sirius' arm he sprinted forwards, dragging Sirius behind him all the way to the dorm. He let go of Sirius' elbow just long enough to dig through his trunk while Remus and Peter, who had been lounging in their room, looked on curiously.
James let out a quiet sound of success as he pulled a rather large piece of cloth and bundled it under his elbow.
"We'll be back!" he told Remus and Peter before speeding down the staircase into the Gryffindor Common Room, where James stopped short, making Sirius slam straight into his back.
"Here get under this," James muttered, making sure no one else was watching before throwing the silvery fabric over the top of Sirius' head.
"James, what's-"
"Shut up before someone notices. It's an invisibility cloak. Look, we'll talk later when we aren't invisible, we have a book to go get."
Sirius followed James to the portrait hole, keeping as close to the other boy as possible to let the cloak cover their feet as well as the top of their heads. The cloth trailed a little behind them as they walked, too big for the two small boys, but that didn't stop them from creeping into the library right under Pince's nose. Sirius quickly grabbed both books they had been reading that evening off the shelves, grabbing another four quickly from different shelves. James carefully rearranged the books so that it didn't look there were books missing before throwing the cloak over their heads and scurrying all the way back to the Gryffindor Common Room, where James threw the cloak off and turned to grin at Sirius.
"She didn't even bat an eyelid. That was awesome! Do you have any idea how much we could do with that cloak?! Brilliant!"
James beamed with pride, "My dad gave it to me over Christmas, said it was a family heirloom. Told me not to tell mum about it."
Sirius grinned wolfishly at the other boy, still balancing six books in his arms, "Come on, lets go hide these books somewhere only we'll find them and go to bed, Remus isn't stupid, he's probably already getting suspicious."
James' eyes lit up with a wicked grin before he shoved Sirius towards their dorm room, throwing the invisibility cloak over Sirius' head, "I have a plan. You follow me into the room. When I open my trunk to grab my pyjamas you put the books down inside, leave the room, take off the cloak, and come back in."
Sirius nodded, forgetting that James couldn't see him, before following carefully behind the messy-haired boy, slipping into the room without so much as a blink.
"Where's Sirius?" Peter whispered from Remus' bed.
"He'll be here in a moment."
"Make him hurry up, I think Remus is having a nightmare again."
"Wait what do you mean again?"
"He has nightmares almost every night. Sirius usually wakes up and helps him."
"He should have woken me up," James muttered, but Sirius knew better than to wake James up – last time he had tried, he had received a fist to the face.
Sure enough, the quiet, tell-tale whimpers of Remus' nightmares could be heard, and Sirius almost threw the invisibility cloak aside to go help his friend, but the books were more important, and he swiftly put them down in the trunk as James lifted the lid and left the room before charging back into the room with the invisibility cloak under his arm. James was already climbing into Remus' bed, following the Law of Upsetness that Sirius had created, when Sirius threw the cloak into James' trunk and walked over to the other side, slipping into the space on Remus' left before Peter could manage to get there. Peter soon climbed in next to Sirius, although he kept his distance a little – Sirius thought Peter might be a little scared of him because he was a Black.
"What're you doin'?" Remus' voice was thick from sleep, and Sirius fancied he could hear the pain from his nightmare in his voice.
"You were having a nightmare," James explained helpfully.
"Go to bed, I'm fine," Remus muttered, sounding a little more awake now.
He tried to roll away from James, but ended up lying halfway on Sirius' chest. Sirius let out a bark-like laugh and wrapped his arms around Remus' shoulders, "Nu-uh, we have to uphold the rule! If one of our number is upset, then we have to share the upsetee's bed for as many nights as it takes for said upsetee to no longer be upset."
"Sirius, upsetee is not a word," Peter muttered.
"It is now! New rule: anything Sirius says is officially a word, no questions asked! Anyway, Remus, you're stuck with us."
Sirius wasn't sure if he imagined the quiet, muttered 'thank you' that was muffled by Sirius' chest as Remus relaxed into his side, his steady breathing lulling Sirius into a deeper sleep than ever.
