XXV.

Two weeks later, James walked nervously onto Platform 9 ¾. He was not nervous at the prospect of going back to school, of course. I'm not an ickle firstie any more! He cheered to himself for a moment; Peeves took great pleasure in torturing the youngest of the castle, but he was no longer among their ranks.

No, James was not scared of school itself. He was, rather, a bit apprehensive about meeting up with his friends again. You shouldn't be scared of your own mates! he told himself sternly. But the feeling of dread lingered as he said goodbye to his parents and boarded the train. It was still rather early, so the other three second years had not arrived yet. He chose a compartment near the back of the train and settled down to plan his attack.

Remus thinks they're doing something bad, he thought, remembering Remus' ashen face as he came back from the "bathroom." Or—Merlin—they still think he's sick, don't they? Why won't they just give it up? Why does it matter if he's got some disease? If he hasn't told us then he doesn't want us to know!

James resolved to talk sense into the first person to arrive. Hopefully he could either convince Remus that whatever he had was not all that bad, or tell the others to stop prying.

Remus ended up arriving first, looking very ill. "Hey," he said, his voice a little strained. "Do you mind if I sleep?"

Of course, James minded very much, but he knew his friend would doze off anyway. "Sure. Want us to wake you up for the food trolley?"

"Just buy me however much chocolate is worth…ten sickles," he said, counting out some coins. "I'll wake up on my own."

James took the money as Remus settled into a corner and shut his eyes. That seemed like a lot of chocolate…But he loves that stuff, he reminded himself. Says it's the cure for everything.

He was just beginning to wonder if the others would show up when they burst into the compartment a minute before eleven, laughing loudly. "Guys!" James said over their conversation, pointing to Remus, who was fast asleep. The two shared an uneasy glance at the sight of their friend, their mirth evaporating almost instantly.

What now? "What were you really doing in Flourish and Blott's?" James asked in a quieter tone.

Peter glanced at Remus again—probably making sure he was truly asleep—and said, "Looking up what could be wrong with him."

"Did you find anything?"

"A few things," Sirius said vaguely. "Let's not talk about this, though, okay? Too depressing and all that. Cards?"

Remus sat very still in his seat. He had woken up suddenly to a loud explosion; when he heard no screaming, he assumed his friends were playing some sort of game. He was about to sit up when James' voice startled him into silence.

"I just want to let you know I don't think you should pry into Remus' problems," James was saying sternly. "Even if he is sick, it's his own business, isn't it? It's not like we can do anything to help."

Sirius sounded agitated, but then, he always did when someone disagreed with him. "I thought you wanted to drop this? Why do you keep bringing it up? And we've already told you—if we know what's wrong with him, he won't have to lie anymore!"

Because I'll never get to talk to you again, Remus thought cynically. They're so close to figuring it out…why don't I just distance myself now?

Because they mean too much to me, he answered himself. I might as well stay as long as they don't hate me.

"We have a few ideas of what it could be," Peter was saying. "We'll narrow it down after a while, but we'll have to watch him to—"

"Now you're treating him like some sort of experiment!" James nearly yelled, obviously outraged. "He's just a kid, like you and me! Why does it matter so much that you know what he has?"

"I'm more interested in finding out why he's lying about it," Sirius said. "He'd better have a damn good reason. I mean, even if he grows tentacles or something every month, there's nothing for him to worry about! I don't understand why—"

Remus decided he needed to "wake up" before the conversation became any more dangerously close to the truth. He sat up slowly and rubbed his eyes, feigning sleepiness. Sirius stopped mid-sentence and turned to look at his friend.

"We got your chocolate," he said cheerfully, indicating the enormous pile next to the brown-haired boy. "Are you sure you can eat all that, though? If I ate that much I'd be sick!"

Remus shrugged and turned to his pile, selecting a chocolate frog and tearing into it. He glanced at the card: Ptolemy. "You still need him, don't you?" he asked Peter, giving the card to him. His face lit up.

"Yeah—thanks so much!"

Peter sighed. Almost time.

It was their second day back at Hogwarts, and he and Sirius were putting one of several plans into action. They had narrowed down the possibilities to about a dozen different diseases through their research, and Sirius was determined to discover—and cure, if possible—Remus' problem.

They had decided to test some more symptoms, starting with the least likely disease. This was, of course, lycanthropy. Peter had laughed at the idea of Remus being a werewolf, but Sirius insisted that they could not rule it out.

James was out practicing Quidditch that Wednesday evening; tryouts were in October, and he was driving himself mad preparing. This left Peter, Sirius, and Remus sitting in a corner of the common room immediately after classes had ended. Remus looked very ill—more than he had even an hour or two ago—and his eyes were very bright. They're almost yellow, Peter mused. Peter and the others had never seen their friend so late in the day that he left, and now he understood why. He looks like he's going to die!

Just as he was about to suggest that Remus go see Madame Pomfrey, Remus stood up rather shakily and announced he was not feeling well.

"You want us to come with you?" Sirius asked, looking rather concerned.

Remus shook his head. "I'll be okay."

"Well, feel better then! And your mum!"

Remus nodded before turning around toward the portrait hole. Greta, halfway across the room, sprung up and ran to help him.

A few seconds later, Sirius stood up. "Let's go to our room, then," he said, winking at Peter. The blonde knew exactly what that meant; they would borrow James' Invisibility Cloak and follow the Lupins to see if they actually did go home.

Soon after, they were following them at a safe distance, knowing that Remus could hear exceptionally well. When they were almost at the Hospital Wing, Remus suddenly stopped and turned around, his brow furrowed.

"What is it?" Greta asked, glancing out the window worriedly. "We have to hurry, or—"

"There's someone there," Remus said decisively, looking back at them with his spooky yellow eyes. "I can almost see them—they're right—there—" He pointed right at the two of them momentarily before doubling over, holding his stomach.

Peter and Sirius shared a terrified glance. How could he see us? Peter thought wildly. We're under the Cloak!

Sirius looked just as scared as he felt, but he seemed to be more concerned for their friend. Greta was nearly carrying her brother now, yelling out for the nurse in between her stern comments to Remus.

"Worse than normal…shouldn't have gone to class…pay tomorrow…"

Peter had no idea what any of these phrases meant, but he thought it was an excellent idea to run back to the common room. Sirius, however, pressed on, following Greta until Madame Pomfrey emerged from her domain, very pale.

"He should have come this morning!" she said. Peter couldn't tell if she was angry or upset. "He'll be terrible tomorrow!"

"He wouldn't come—said he couldn't miss so much this early in the year," Greta said, glancing down at his now-still form.

He's still breathing, right...?

"He'll probably miss another day anyway," the nurse said, shaking her head. "It's worse if he tires himself out…we'd better get going, though," she also looked out the window for some reason. "Get him settled down."

"I'll be here first thing tomorrow," Greta said, handing her brother's unconscious form to the nurse. With tears in her eyes, she ran down the hall quickly and out of sight.

Madame Pomfrey shook her head, looking down at Remus. "I don't know how you do this," she said, beginning to walk back to her Infirmary again. Instead of turning toward the door, though, she went to the opposite wall and walked straight through it. Remus told us about that, Peter thought vaguely before Sirius nudged him. They shared a confused look before silently agreeing to follow her.

There were not any stairs behind the wall; the boys simply found themselves standing in the Entrance Hall. The nurse's white robe was just disappearing around the door to the outside, and they hurried to catch up. When they stepped outside, however, they could not see her at all in the fading light.

"Let's just go back," Peter said quietly, tugging at Sirius' sleeve.

"We're so close!" he argued, pulling his arm away. "If we could just see where they went—"

"I think we have enough to take a stab at what's wrong with him," Peter argued. "It's full moon tonight, remember? And he's horribly sick and leaves before dark. That means he's probably—"

"There's no way Remus is a werewolf!" Sirius shook his head. "There's got to be something else. I'm sure there are more diseases related to the moon."

"Where he'll have yellow eyes and be burned by silver?" Peter was rather skeptical as well, but they had no choice but to believe it. He continued to argue as they began walking back to the Gryffindor common room, taking off the Cloak. "There's nothing else that matches the symptoms so well. I don't know what else it would be."

Sirius grunted. "It doesn't make sense! Everything James told us about them—he's not like that! Hell, he's probably the most civilized of all of us!"

Peter could think of nothing to say, so he just shrugged.

"Oh Merlin, James'll blow when he hears it," Sirius continued, sighing heavily. "He'll be even angrier than I am…"

"You're angry?" Peter asked in surprise. He had not really thought about his opinion on the matter. He had been so wrapped up in finding out what was wrong…

"Of course I'm angry! He's kept a huge secret from us and lied to us!" Sirius raged, turning to the shorter boy incredulously. "Aren't you?"

"I…think I'm more scared than anything," Peter decided finally. "I mean, he's a monster, right? So—"

"How could you say that?" Sirius looked even angrier now, glaring at his friend. "You were fine with him an hour ago. He hasn't changed."

"But he's a werewolf," Peter repeated. Doesn't he get it? "Werewolves are violent and—"

"This is why he didn't tell us," Sirius interrupted him. "He was worried we all would have that reaction. He's been like this ever since we've known him, probably before, too. Just because we know now doesn't change anything!"

"Last year, you said you thought they were worthless scum," Peter countered. "Why have you changed all of a sudden?"

"Well, Remus obviously hasn't attacked anyone, or he wouldn't be here. Most werewolves are what James said. I guess Remus is one of the exceptions."

Peter knew arguing was useless, so he kept his silence as they arrived at the Portrait Hole. "Hippogriff droppings," Sirius snapped to the Fat Lady.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked grumpily, swinging aside to allow them entrance.

"James doesn't hear about this," Sirius said tersely to Peter. "Neither does Remus. With your attitude, it's best if he doesn't know we know."

Remus returned to the rest of the school a day later than he usually did. Greta and Madame Pomfrey had both scolded him as soon as he was conscious about how he should have gone to the Infirmary in the morning.

"But I can't miss so many classes in the first week!" he had argued.

In the end, he arrived back at the Tower after dinner Friday, feeling a bit sore but not willing to miss another day. His friends were suspicious enough as it was.

He watched them rather fearfully for the following week or so, but they did not let on that they knew what he was. Peter did seem a little skittish around him, but James assured him that it was nothing. Apparently he was under the impression that Remus was contagious, and did not want to catch whatever he had. Remus had laughed along with his friend, but he could not stop thinking—

He's not wrong.

What was beginning to irritate him was James. Most of the time he was fine, but at night in the common room, he enjoyed regaling anyone who would listen with the tale of his near miss with Fenrir Greyback. It had started with the first years, but even the older students became interested when they heard about it.

Remus had just about reached the end of his patience when James stood in front of half the house one Monday night, telling a highly embellished version of his tale. Remus told Sirius and Peter shortly that he would see them later before he stomped up to the dormitory and slammed the door.

He was still in a terribly bad mood when his three friends joined him five minutes later. "What's up with you?" James asked, confused.

Remus sighed and turned to him. "Everyone's heard your story by now! Why do you have to keep retelling it?"

"It's exciting! There's nothing to talk about without gossip around here!"

"You sound like a girl," Sirius sniggered.

James glared at him before turning again to Remus, obviously expecting an answer

"I've heard more exciting things than that," Remus shrugged. I've lived them.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" he challenged. "You don't have these!" James pulled up his left pant leg to reveal four thick, parallel scars.

Remus snapped.

"You don't have these," he snarled back, yanking up his own pant leg to reveal the huge bite mark on his calf. It looked very similar to James', but the two were different enough to turn his friend white.

"You—bloody hell—" James was speechless.

Remus let the fabric fall back to the ground. "That's exactly what you think it is. Use your imagination, Potter. I know you have one."

His eyes narrowed. "You monster! Get out of here! I never want to see you again!"

Remus looked around the room, and saw Sirius' pained expression and Peter's terrified face before spinning around and walking out the door.