XII.

The tardy bell rang just as they were passing through the Entrance Hall. After asking a kind-looking seventh year the directions to the potions classroom, they burst through the door less than five minutes late. The rest of the class turned around, and the professor raised his eyebrows.

"Do you have a reason for your tardiness?" He did not sound angry, but he was stern.

"Actually, yes," James began brightly. "We were leaving Transfiguration when McGonagall asked to talk to Remus so we waited for him and then by the time he came out the bell had almost rung so we had to run down here and find the classroom, and since it's our first day here and all you really shouldn't take points from Gryffindor," he finished with a wide grin to the professor. Everyone seemed dazed by James' monologue. Remus had no idea anyone could talk that fast!

After a moment, the professor seemed to have caught up. "I was not going to deduct points," he chuckled. "I was just curious as to why you were late. And since you seem to have a valid reason..." his voice trailed off, and he looked down at a piece of parchment. "Presumably you four are Messers Black, Lupin, Pettigrew and Potter?" They nodded. "Well, since I have a temporary seating chart made out, I will give you your seats." Remus groaned inwardly. In his experience, seating charts never turned out for the best.

I'll be lucky if I can work at all with this horrible smell! he thought. The dungeons smelled to him like a combination of manure, dead skunk and other things Remus couldn't identify, but because nobody else had said anything, he assumed it was his sensitive nose kicking in and held his tongue.

"Mr Black, I have you paired with Mr Snape," the professor said, pointing to the Slytherin boy with greasy black hair. Sirius scowled as he sat down, pushing his chair as far away from Snape as he possibly could.

"Mr Lupin, you are partners with Miss Keen," Slughorn pointed to the girl in question. Remus' stomach dropped.

What are the odds?

"Mr Pettigrew, partner with Mr Belby over there," he gestured to a proud-looking Ravenclaw near the front. "And Mr Potter, for the time being please pair with Miss Evans." He gestured to the redhead at the table next to where Alena and Remus were seated. James and Evans glared at each other as he sat down, eyes burning in obvious dislike.

"Now, as I was saying I am Professor Horace Slughorn and head of Slytherin house." James snorted derisively. It carried through the entire dungeon, but Slughorn pretended not to notice. "In this class..."

Remus got bored rather quickly and began scanning the room, observing his new classmates. The only ones he recognized from the Sorting were the Gryffindors and Severus Snape. There was Lily Evans, still glaring at James; Alena Keen, diligently taking notes, Mary MacDonald, watching the professor intently but not lifting a quill; and two girls that Remus was positive were related: Danielle and Kristen Rudd. He knew there was another Rudd in the sorting, and, scanning the room again, he saw a boy who looked very similar to Danielle and Kristen. Philip Rudd, Remus remembered suddenly, had been sorted into Ravenclaw. Remus wondered briefly if they were triplets and made a mental note to ask them the next time he had the chance.

Alena nudged him, annoyed, when she saw that he wasn't listening to Slughorn, and gestured to the front, where the professor was pointing out several different potions that they would be making during their years at Hogwarts.

After the small introduction to the potions, Slughorn began pulling out some ingredients that he said they would have to know, as they were used in modern potions. One, which he said had two different names—monkshood and aconite—had been identified only recently. Remus thought it gave off an even more horrendous stench than the dungeons themselves. He wrinkled his nose and glanced around the room, but nobody else seemed to smell anything.

When Slughorn held it in his hand and began to describe its qualities and uses, the room began spinning and Remus suddenly couldn't breathe. As he gasped for breath, the last thing he remembered was Alena looking at him in confusion before everything turned black.


Alena picked up her quill again to begin taking notes on monkshood when she saw Remus gasping across the cauldron. She was very confused but was horrified when his eyes rolled back and he collapsed off his stool onto the floor.

Professor Slughorn looked up in alarm when Remus fainted, and turned very white. "Miss Keen, Mr Potter, bring Mr Lupin to the Hospital Wing immediately," he said urgently, quickly putting the monkshood back in its jar and in a drawer. Without stopping to realize that they had no idea where the Hospital Wing was, the two of them picked Remus up under the arms and went out of the classroom as fast as they could.

They rushed up the dungeon stairs into the Entrance Hall. "Do you have any idea where the Hospital Wing is?" James asked. Her stomach dropped.

"No idea..."

Guessing it was up on one of the higher floors, the two of them struggled up the staircase. Remus was still out cold.

Just before they decided to run in a classroom and ask one of the teachers how to get to the Hospital Wing, they ran through something, sending a cold shiver down both of their spines. Looking over their shoulders, they saw a pearly-white ghost in a ruff scrutinizing them.

"Aren't you students supposed to be in class?" he said in disapproval. Alena suddenly recognized him as Sir Nicholas, the Gryffindor ghost, who she had met the night before.

"Never mind that, Remus had some sort of allergic reaction in Potions and we need to get him to the Hospital Wing but we don't know where it is and he looks sick and really he looks like he's about to die so could you please show us the way to the Hospital Wing?" James' words came out twice as fast as they did when they had arrived late to Potions.

Nick looked at Remus curiously. "Do you know what caused him to faint?"

"Professor Slughorn was just showing us monkshood."

The ghost looked confused but said, "This way." He led them up a few sets of stairs until they arrived at a pair of doors. Opening one quickly, the two ran in, and the ghost yelled to a woman across the room—

"Madame! There is a student who has had an allergic reaction in Potions class! Come quickly, please!"

A kind-looking but rather intimidating young woman came over quickly and surveyed Remus. "What did you say his name was?"

"Remus Lupin," James said. "Could you find out what's wrong and fix it? You can fix anything, right?" He looked up at her with such hope in his eyes that the woman sighed.

"Not quite anything, but I think I'll be able to deal with an allergic reaction." She took his limp form and put him carefully in the nearest bed. "What exactly caused this reaction? He didn't ingest anything, did he?" She looked so alarmed at the idea that Alena was curious as to why, but she explained what had happened.

The matron looked even more confused. "Would one of you kindly check the Gryffindor common room for Greta Lupin? I'd like to know if he has any allergies that I don't know about." James nodded and sped out the door.

"And you may go back to class," she said to Alena. "It's a good thing you brought him when you did. You can tell your classmates that he will probably be all right."

Alena's stomach plummeted at the word "probably," but she didn't dare say no. She left the room, followed by Nick after he deemed his presence unnecessary. This left Madame Pomfrey alone with Remus.

"Monkshood...what's that used in?" the nurse muttered to herself. She jumped as an electric shock seemed to go through Remus' body. She ran to his bedside, waving her wand and running tests quickly. Just then, the door banged open, and Greta hurtled in, very white. James followed closely behind her.

"Where's Remus?" she asked wildly. "What's wrong with him?"

"I'm not sure," she said sadly. Again, a shock went through Remus, who was still unconscious. Greta barely was able to stifle a scream.

"Merlin, that's—" she stopped short when she realized that James was still there, standing rather awkwardly. "James, would you mind...?"

"Why?" he asked stubbornly. "I have as much right as you do to be here!"

"Please," she implored him. "You can come back over lunch I guess, but can you please go back to class?"

James eyed them suspiciously but left the wing, shutting the door loudly behind him. Greta didn't wait a breath in continuing.

"That's what he looked like when he took that potion back in April! Do you think monkshood is poison to him just like silver is?" she turned toward Remus' bed again, eyes wide. "He didn't eat any, did he? Oh Merlin, he's going to die and—"

"Miss Lupin," Madame Pomfrey interrupted her quickly. "Your brother did not eat any monkshood. Horace had only taken it out and shown it to the class. It must have been the smell that caused this reaction.

"And if you're right in saying that this is the same reaction he had to the potion in April, that may well have included monkshood. I wonder why nobody realized the connection until now..." she hurried into her office, coming back a minute later with a file a minute later. "I think there's something in here about how to make the antidote...yes, here it is!" she pulled out a piece of parchment triumphantly. "I'll ask Horace to make it. No, don't worry, it only takes half an hour to brew," she added at Greta's stricken face. "Your brother will be fine in no time." Looking thoroughly unconvinced, Greta nodded and sat down in a chair next to Remus' bed.

The bell rang a while later to signal the start of lunch break. Madame Pomfrey left the wing quickly to bring Slughorn the instructions for the potion.

After five or ten minutes, the door slammed open and four figures ran into the room. Greta recognized the three boys as Remus' friends, but she did not remember ever meeting the girl.

"Will he be okay? What's wrong with him?" Black asked quickly. Greta had to keep from scowling. Whatever Remus said, she did not trust Sirius Black.

"He had an allergic reaction to that monkshood Slughorn showed you in class, but Madame Pomfrey's got it under control. She went to get Slughorn to make the antidote a little bit ago."

The four visibly relaxed and sat down. Greta was relieved that none of them thought to question why there was a specific antidote for what seemed like an isolated case.

"He'll be okay?" Peter asked, looking almost skeptical as he stared down at Remus. Greta understood why that didn't seem possible at that moment; Remus was still chalk-white, and electric shocks coursed through him every fifteen seconds or so.

"Yep. Madame Pomfrey knows what she's doing." Greta found that it was hard to decide whether she was convincing herself or them.

They sat in silence, waiting for Madame Pomfrey to come back. After a while, the silence became nearly unbearable, and the girl said, "You're his sister?"

Greta nodded. "And you are...?"

"Oh, I'm Alena Keen, his potions partner," she said quickly. Greta had stopped listening at the mention of her surname.

"Er...you don't happen to be related to Jeff or Shawn Keen, do you?"

Alena grinned a bit. "You know, Remus asked me the same thing yesterday. They're my cousins, but we don't talk to them much after what happened at the hospital."

Greta nodded, nearly sighing in relief. This girl, one of the ones most likely to find out the truth, didn't seem to hate werewolves as much as her relatives.

Fifteen minutes later, Madame Pomfrey came running in, a jar of electric blue potion in her hand. "He's supposed to have ten milliliters of this ever quarter-hour until he wakes up," she said, measuring out the correct amount. "I'm not sure how long that's going to take, so if he isn't awake by the end of lunch I expect you all to go to class."

"But—" Sirius interjected. Madame Pomfrey held up a hand to stop him.

"No buts. There's no use in your missing class to sit next to an unconscious friend. You can come back after the bell has rung." The four first years looked very grumpy but did not dare argue with the formidable matron.

The hour allotted for lunch came and went, and Remus' friends reluctantly left for History of Magic, grumbling about it the entire way. Greta, who had another free hour, never left her brother's side. The spasms were less frequent after Madame Pomfrey began giving him the potion, but he only came around after James, Peter and Sirius had been back in the Hospital Wing for nearly half an hour after class. Alena had apparently gone to the common room with her friends.

Remus groaned, and all four of them jumped. Greta immediately pushed him back down when he tried to sit up. "What happened?" he asked blearily.

"You fainted in the middle of Potions," James explained bluntly. "You had the craziest reaction I've ever seen."

"What happened?" he asked in alarm.

James laughed at the look on his face. "You didn't sprout fur or anything. It looked like you couldn't breathe and you were turning blue and you were on the ground after about two seconds."

Remus looked even more panicked. "When he pulled out that—that monkshood, I couldn't breathe and I would have said something but I couldn't—"

Peter laughed. "I'm pretty sure you got your problem across pretty quickly, mate."

Remus did not share his amusement. "What did I miss? What time is it? How long have I been out? What—"

"Whoa, slow down," Sirius said in surprise. "You missed the rest of Potions and all of History, but Binns is so boring honestly you didn't miss anything—"

Remus looked scandalized. "I've missed a class and a half already? How am I going to catch up? There's no way—"

His friends stared at each other, at a loss. "Look—" James put a hand on Remus' shoulder, but he flinched horribly and shied away.

"What's that about?" he asked in surprise. "Did you think I'd hit you?"

"Sorry," Remus said, not quite meeting his eyes. "I just don't like people touching me, is all."

"But your sis—"

"Oh, you're awake!" Madame Pomfrey looked pleased as she came over to his bed and gave him a quick glance-over. "How do you feel?"

"Fine," he said truthfully. Sure, he had a headache, but he had had much worse. He saw no reason to stay in the hospital for a headache.

She looked suspicious but agreed to let him leave after checking a final time to make sure he was all right. James, Sirius and Peter insisted on asking him about his strange reaction to James' touch all the way back to the common room until Greta finally told them to shut up and threatened to hex them if they didn't.

"Really, Remus," James continued to press as they sat in their dormitory later that night. "Why did you flinch like that? I wasn't going to hit you!"

"I told you," Remus said, irritated. "I don't like it when people touch me."

"But why?" he asked. "You don't have that reaction when your sister hugs you!"

"Well, she's my sister, isn't she?" he snapped back. "I've grown up with her. I've known you for all of a day and—"

"Okay, we get it," Peter interjected, effectively shutting the two of them up. "Remus, you don't want to tell us. Fine. James, drop it."

James looked surprised that the smaller boy was ordering them around, but both Remus and Peter shot him such glares that he quit prying.


That night, after Remus was fast asleep, the three others snuck down to the common room. Luckily for them, it was empty.

"What do you reckon is up with Remus?" Sirius asked as they stood by the dying fire.

Peter glared at him. "You woke us up at midnight for this? Look, if he's so scared to be touched by anyone he doesn't know like family, he's got to have a good reason. Just leave it alone."

James and Sirius stared into the fire. "You know, maybe you're right," James said finally. "We shouldn't bug him about it."