2nd November, 1971
When Charms let out, Lily caught my arm by my robes and brought me and the rest of the group to a stop. "Where's Remus?" she asked.
I shrugged, "Dunno, do we?" I said, "Not any more than you do."
"Didn't he tell you?" Lily pressed, now looking to the boys as well, "Didn't you all ask him last time?"
I put a clueless expression on my face, trying to play it cool. "Well of course we asked him," I said defensively.
"Well, what did he say?" Lily asked pointedly.
"Said to stop being a nosey git," James said, appearing at my side, intervening before I could answer.
"You stay out of this, I'm having a conversation with Sabrina, not with you." she looked at me apologetically. "Nevermind," she said, "I don't care enough about Remus Lupin to sit here and listen to you prats." she stomped off down the corridor, leaving us behind.
I facepalmed, and said to James, "What'd you do that for?" He simply blushed a bit, feeling a tad guilty.
I didn't see Lily when I sat down for Transfiguration, which was rather odd. She was usually a few minutes early to every class, chatting up the Professor. The girl with the flaming hair eventually came in about ten minutes late, and McGonagall stopped talking, mid-sentence, pointing her wand at a diagram of the conch shell on the blackboard. She lowered her wand and held it in her palm, watching as Lily walked between the mostly vacant desks to her usual seat in the front and sank into place. Sirius, James, Peter and I all were staring at her with somewhat surprised expressions.
"Well, Miss Evans," said McGonagall, her Scottish accent particularly sharp today, "I am very pleased that you have finally chosen to join us in this classroom."
Lily lowered her head. "Sorry," she muttered.
"Tardies do call for detention, Miss Evans, and so I shall be spending some time with you on Saturday next, five o'clock, my office…" having doled out the punishment for the crime, McGonagall turned back to the blackboard.
Lily's head darted about the room, and then suddenly called out, "Well hold on now… why do I get a detention for being tardy when Remus Lupin isn't even here at all? When's his detention?"
McGonagall turned slowly back to face the room. "Mister Lupin's punishments are none of your concern, Miss Evans." she replied.
"Well I'm just confused, I suppose you could say that Remus Lupin has been absent multiple times since the start of term - in more than one class, mind you! - and I've never once heard of him having served a detention. Me, I'm late by a few minutes just once and I get sentenced a detention? How is that justice?" she eyed Professor McGonagall with scrutiny. "It isn't fair."
"Again, Miss Evans, Mister Lupin's punishments are of none of your concern, and I recommend, unless you wish to have a second detention, that you let it go."
Lily clearly wasn't satisfied, but she did let it go, likely because of the seriousness of Professor McGonagall's eyes as she glowered at Lily from the blackboard. She crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat as McGonagall got on with her lesson.
I whispered to Sirius, "I can't believe that Evans got her first detention than I did! The world really is a strange place!" He snickered.
3rd November, 1971
Remus still had not returned by tonight, when we trooped up to the astronomy tower at midnight. Overhead hung the waning moon, filling the sky over Hogwarts castle and casting the blue-white glow that illuminated our telescopes and star charts. Professor Zosma walked between us, helping to adjust our scopes before beginning her lesson, skipping past Lily, whose scope was perfect already. I looked over to her, wondering if I ought to apologise for the way James had snapped at her before, when she'd inquired about Remus. It seemed Lily had been extra quiet and distant from us since then and I didn't like that. I do rather enjoy the times that Lily chats with me.
"Tonight, we will be determining your moon signs and learning more about the lunar patterns discovered by Copernicus…" Zosma began, her voice only loud enough so that the five of us could hear her. "The position of the moon can greatly tie into your personhood, into your identity… The moon is a very powerful, very strong celestial body… as Hermes Trismegistus said, 'as above, so below'..."
James peered into his telescope, likely looking at the craters and marks all over the surface of the moon. "Think it's really made of swiss cheese?" he whispered to Sirius and I.
"Looks more like Snivelly Snape's acne to me," Sirius whispered back.
I chuckled lightly, glancing at Lily to make sure she hadn't heard the comment. To me relief, it didn't seem like she did.
"...affects our genetic make-up, our personal selves can be identified by our moon signs, just as our more public selves are evident in the sun signs…" Zosma was going on, her voice fading in and out as she walked one end of the tower to the other behind the students.
"Y'know, a few years ago some American Muggles actually went to the moon?" I whispered to the boys, adjusting my scope.
"My Dad says it was with the help of wizards," replied James. I rolled my eyes, amused.
"Split into two groups and, using the time of your birth, we will calculate your moon signs and chart them on your personal star charts. For homework, you will write a foot on the comparison of your moon sign and your sun sign, describing in detail why, or why not, you believe the signs fit your personality."
Sirius rolled his eyes, "Rubbish. Homework."
"Peter," called Lily, "Come work with me." The blond toddled over and sat down with Lily.
I scooted closer to Sirius and James. I pulled my star chart onto my lap and started going through the list of signs for my birthday, and the two boys started doing the same. James found his first. "Looks like I'm a double Aries," he laughed, "That'll be easy to compare for the homework at least. Says I'm impatient."
I laughed, "That's pretty accurate. I'm Scorpio, which means I'm passionate and intense. What's yours, Sirius?"
"Sagittarius," Sirius said. "I'm alert and open. Impulsive, too."
James was staring down at Sirius' parchment. "You're looking at today's chart," he said, "You've gotta look at your birthday."
"I am looking at my birthday." Sirius replied, his face reddening.
"Oi! Today's your birthday, then?" I exclaimed, eyes wide. "Why didn't you tell us?"
James chimed in, "I would've asked Bilius to knick you a cake from the kitchens or something! We would've skived off classes and done something fun, you prat!"
Sirius shrugged, "Never done much of anything for my birthday, really," he said, "It's not a big deal."
"Not a big deal?" I gasped. "Of course it's a big deal. It's the day you were born, innit? You can't just ignore that, it's special!"
"Not in the Black family," replied Sirius, "We never celebrate birthdays."
"Well blimey," said James, shaking his head, "We're celebrating it now."
"Now it's over," Sirius answered.
"Bugger on that," James replied, "We'll celebrate it a day late this year is all."
I shook my head, "Not telling us your birthday, and you dare call us your friends."
Sirius laughed. "Well I know yours was last month Sabrina, but when's yours, James, if it's so important?"
"27 March," answered James. "Wonder when Remus's is," he said, running his finger across the book. "Would be interesting to know all our moon signs, wouldn't it? Wonder if we could guess by the description?"
The three of us spent the rest of the class laughing and making up reasons why different signs fit Remus, trying to guess his birthday from the signs, while Peter and Lily worked dutifully on their own charts across the rooftop from us. When Zosma finally let us off from class, she led us back down through the castle to the Gryffindor common room and deposited us outside the portrait hole.
"Well tonight was interesting," James said. He glanced at Lily, "What'd your moon sign say?" he asked, trying to be friendly.
Lily replied shortly, "Pisces. Goodnight." With that, she trotted on up the steps into the girl's dormitories.
Peter offered, "Mine was Taurus." But the three of us were already headed up the steps to the boys' dormitory and Peter had to scramble to follow after them. "What were yours?" he asked as he caught up, eager to get us to talk with him again.
"Scorpio," I replied. "Found out that today was Sirius' birthday, though. Still can't believe you never told us," I added.
"I'm Sagittarius and I told you, we don't make a big fuss on it, I didn't think it mattered much," Sirius said as we were approaching the landing of the boys' dorms.
"My mum makes a big deal of my birthday every year," said Peter.
"See, even Peter knows birthdays are important!" James said to Sirius. I pushed open the door to their room and stepped inside.
There, in his bed and already asleep, was Remus.
I stopped and we all crowded around Remus' bed. He was fast asleep, in that exhausted sort of way that one sleeps when they've had a very, very long day, still in his clothes, though they looked dirty and there was a rip in the knee of his slacks. "He's back," I whispered in half-disbelief.
"Too bad he missed tonight," Peter said, "That was a very interesting class."
"Yeah," Sirius said.
James grinned, "At least he'll get to join in the fun tomorrow, when we celebrate your birthday."
I continued to stare at Remus' sleeping form as the boys began to get ready for bed. I knew I should leave, as they were undressing, but for some reason I couldn't take my eyes off of him. He was curled up, his nose nearly touching his knees. Remus twitched as a cloud shifted outside and a beam of moonlight crept through the room, across his sleeping face. His hand moved up and swept over his cheek and the combination of the way he was curled and the way he pawed at his face like that, I was reminded of a dog… and then something started to blossom in my mind. Something I couldn't quite put a finger on, some sort of understanding or idea beginning to form, something that I wasn't even sure could happen in the magical world, something I wasn't sure I dare voice aloud. I looked round at the other three finally, seeing they were waiting for me to leave so they could change out of their robes and into pyjamas. I took one last look at Remus and left the boys' dorm, feeling a bit dazed as the idea coursed through me, facts falling into place like puzzle pieces.
But I couldn't be right… could I?
Once I got back to my own dorm, Lily gave me a polite smile. "So what's your moon sign, then?" she asked as she slipped on her pyjamas.
"Scorpio." I replied while getting ready myself.
Lily climbed into bed and snuggled down into her pillows and blankets. "Do you think the sun and moon really can tell us a lot about ourselves and other people like Zosma says?" I asked her.
"I'm sure as much as anything else can," she replied.
"I think the moon could maybe tell us a lot about a person," I mumbled back.
