Author's note: Hey guys I got a couple questions from some readers and realized I didn't explain a few things as well as I hoped for anyone who did not read the first book; this is entirely my fault and I want to answer these publicly in addition to PMing the readers. Full moons in this story last multiple nights. In one of the HP books Tonks says something about the 'first phase of the moon' made Remus extra grumpy. That, coupled with the fact the moon really looks full more than one night, made me decide to do this. So I have a chart that tells me how much of the moon is visible each night back in the 70s and if the moon is 98% or more then I count that as triggering the lycanthropic curse. While this part is never explained in the series yet, I wanted to clear that up instead of just saying 'yeah the full moon lasts multiple nights'. The second question I got is in regards to whether Lily knows his secret. The answer is, as far as Remus knows she does not. At this point Remus thinks all his friends know is that he and his mother both have a genetic blood disease that flares up 'every now and again'. That is what he told them in his first year. I apologize for any confusion! If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask because I am more than happy to answer!

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

When Remus went into the hospital wing he found quite a crowd. Mostly Slytherins. Professor Slughorn was storming back and forth, shouting loudly about stupidity. Remus cowered back, knowing instantly the mandrake thing had been a success. His eyes darted towards some beds. There were a good nine Slytherins out for the count.

"Horace, if you insist on using my room as a lecture hall I will insist on you leaving!" Pomfrey snapped as she bustled over to one of the beds. "Please remove yourself, as well as all your students, at least the ones who are awake!"

Slughorn waddled to the door, mustache twitching. Remus shrank back even more but Slughorn didn't even give him a passing glance, though several of the Slytherins who followed him out sure did.

"Oh, Mr. Lupin, I'm afraid I can't help you tonight," Pomfrey said once the room was emptied and she could see him. "There's been a bit of a... well, not quite accident..."

"What—what happened?" Remus went forward a little, looking at the Slytherins with curiosity. There was Mulciber, Avery, and Bulstrode! Hah! And Wicket! The other five were older boys he didn't recognize. No, there was another, a small one—possibly a first year—curled up. Ten Slytherins.

"It seems someone put a mandrake in one of the dorms," Pomfrey said as she adjusted the position of Wicket, trying to make him more comfortable. Remus thought shoving him out of bed would be a better position. "If you ask me, I think one of these boys stole it himself to—" She stopped short, realizing she was saying this to a student. "Our lesson will have to wait a bit, I'm afraid. I'll let you know when."

"All right, M—Madame Pomfrey, th—thank you." He quickly left, trying not to skip the whole way back to the tower. Once he was far enough away he began giggling, excited to tell his friends about this, excited to tell them that Pomfrey seemed to think it was just Mulciber, Avery, or Bulstrode who had done it. Was that was Slughorn had been ranting about, about the stupidity? Oooh!

He fell through the Gryffindor's tower's entrance then hopped up, looking around. No sign of the Marauders. He ran up to the dorm (tripping on the steps) except they weren't in there either. Where are they? he thought miserably as he trudged down the stairs to wait near the entrance. He kept fidgeting, trying to read a book though the words jumped around on the page. He was too excited to tell them and hoped they hadn't already heard. They probably did, he thought a bit bitterly.

Just before curfew they came in, slight bulges in their pockets. Remus jumped up, running over to them. "Come on!" he said, grabbing Sirius's hand, yanking him towards the stairs, hoping James and Peter would follow which they did.

"What's got you all excited?" laughed Sirius.

They went into the dorm which was thankfully empty. "Did you hear?" Remus let go of Sirius, spinning to face the three of them. "About the Slytherins?"

They hadn't so Remus got to tell them everything about the hospital wing, the unconscious Slytherins, Slughorn's rant, Pomfrey's little slip about what she thought. As he spoke his friends took food out of their pockets, belying what they had been up to. When Remus finished talking James pumped his fist.

"YES! Ohhhh guys, guys, how absolutely brilliant would it be if Mulciber, Avery, or Bulstrode got in trouble for stealing the mandrake on top of everything?!" They all laughed and gave each other high fives.

"They deserve it, they're such jerks," Peter said, falling back on his bed.

"What did they look like?" Sirius asked eagerly.

Remus shrugged. "Um, unconscious? It just knocks them out, it doesn't really do anything else."

"Well, that's still great," James laughed.

Sirius was still grinning as he then asked Remus, "How come you were in the hospital wing?"

Remus hesitated for a split second, a brief flare of panic going up inside of him. "It's my weekly appointment, remember? Tuesday evenings?"

"Oh right," Sirius said. "Is that where you were all evening? You missed supper."

"Um..." Remus tugged at his sleeve, quickly thinking through his options. "Yes. Actually. I've been there since after Defense." Then he began smiling again, a hopefully good idea going off in his head. It meant some intense lies, but ones that could throw anyone suspecting off the track. "I probably shouldn't be saying this but, um, my mother's doctor put together a potion that might help us."

"What?" James and Peter stared at him in happy disbelief, while Sirius's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Yeah. Honestly, I don't think it will work. But, um, yeah. That's where I was all afternoon, Saint Mungo's. Then I went to Pomfrey for my usual appointment for—"

James ran over, grabbing Remus's shoulders. "Brains, that is amazing! Of course it will work, it's got to work!"

Remus forced the smile to stay on his face, guilt eating at him for lying so much. "I hope so."

"Is it a cure-cure?" Peter asked. "Or is it just to help? Um, make the time you're sick easier?"

"It probably won't do anything. I think it's supposed to pretty much get rid of our disease," Remus said, trying his best to sound partially hopeful partially despondent.

James elbowed him. "Merlin, that's wonderful. It will work."

"It will," Peter echoed, squeezing Remus's arm. "You've gotta have hope."

Sirius didn't say anything, just gave Remus a big smile which made Remus start to sweat a little. The old panic of does he know? Is he guessing? came back with a vengeance. "I guess we'll find out sometime over the next few months," Remus said.

"Are you hungry?" Peter went over to the pile of food, sorting it out. "None of us ate much, we were waiting for news about the Slytherins."

Sirius started to say something then stopped.

"I'm a little hungry," Remus said. "Well, I could go for dessert."

"Can't we all?" James asked, pulling out a container with some chocolate cake in it. He also had four forks, and they sat on James's bed eating right out of the container, at least the others did. Remus cut off a piece to put on a paper towel to eat by himself because he didn't want to get any wolf spit on the cake that the others might accidentally ingest.

They joked about the Slytherins for the most part, at one point James getting up and pretending to faint to try to reenact what might have happened. There was a lot of laughter, squealing, giggling, and for Remus a lot of awkwardness because Sirius kept looking at him, eyes boring into him, boring through his lies it almost felt like. Finally, sick of the stares, Remus flicked some chocolate frosting at Sirius who yelped, then grabbed one of James's pillows to smack Remus nearly off the bed. The cake was abandoned as the four of them jumped around, smacking one another with pillows, feathers flying everywhere.

/\/\/\/\/\

Rumors were whispered throughout Wednesday about the Slytherins. None of them were really correct but the good thing was nobody seemed to suspect anyone outside of Slytherin. Not even McGonagall suspected the Marauders; in Transfiguration she acted completely normal. She snapped at Sirius for once again setting his desk on fire buuut that was pretty much normal. Remus asked Lily what happened, wondering if Snape had told her.

"I don't know," she sighed as they walked through the corridors. "I haven't seen him. Perhaps Silverlocke will know."

Silverlocke did tell study group that evening. They all wanted to know especially since by now the main rumor was that the mandrake was in a second years' dorm.

Silverlocke put his elbows on the table, propping his chin up. "I probably should not be talking about this..." He glanced around at the many pairs of wide eyes, and sighed. "We aren't sure exactly what happened. It seems as though a mandrake was stolen from the greenhouses, and found in one of the dorms. The pot was smashed, so the mandrake was crying. It knocked out several of my housemates until someone realized what was going on and went up with earmuffs on. Thankfully most the students who heard the cry were only out of it for a few minutes. Ten of them, I believe, had to go to the hospital for recovery."

"Who stole the mandrake?" Buckling asked, sounding angry. She was very good in Herbology and had an affinity with plants.

"I don't know," Silverlocke informed her. "I am assuming one of the boys whose dorm it was in."

Remus pressed his toes against the floor until it hurt, trying his best not to just bust up laughing. Luckily the conversation shifted to their assignments and he was able to calm down, though he did have to suppress a spring in his step on the way back to the tower. He hoped Mulciber and Avery would get the blame for all of this. He would never forgive them for what they had said about his parents a few months ago. Calling Remus's mother a Muggle cow and beast, and saying Remus's father was into animals for 'mating' with one. They had pretty much said the same thing about Peter's parents just in reverse, as Pete's dad was the Muggle.

"Remus..." Lily began quietly, studiously not looking at him as they walked. "The others can't get into the Slytherin dorms, can they? Your friends, I mean."

He fumbled, nearly tripping over nothing. "Of c—course not," he said, managing a smile he hoped wasn't too shaky. "Even if we knew where the common room is, we'd need the password. Even with the password... we'd be seen creeping about in there. Unless the Slytherins all abandon their common room for some reason, which probably would only happen for the Halloween feast, or a Slytherin Quidditch game."

Lily nodded. "I thought as much. I—I'm sorry for asking. I just... oh, you know, Potter and Black are so... so... diabolical!"

"Don't let them hear you say that, they'd take it as a compliment. Probably profess their undying love for you."

"Oh, gross!" she moaned while he laughed.

In the common room the only other Marauder Remus could see was James who was sitting near the fireplace with two fourth year girls from the Quidditch team. James waved when he saw Remus then went back to their conversation. So Remus sat with Lily, and Macdonald soon joined them, nervously asking for help with some of her homework which they gladly gave. Shortly before curfew Peter came hopping into the common room with a rather murderous looking Sirius slouching behind them.

"I'll s—see you later," Remus said, gathering his stuff, noticing James was exiting his chat as well. They both went over to the two boys and Peter began yammering on about Photography club, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he spoke so fast he kept messing up his words. Sirius stood behind him, making faces the entire time.

"So you liked it?" James asked.

"Oh, yes!" Peter laughed. "It was... very, um, it taught me a lot just from the first meeting. The president also said my pictures were really good." He beamed at this, then turned bright red. "I—I don't know if they're really that good—"

"Bollocks to that, Pete, they're better than 'really good'," James said, punching Pete's arm.

"They invited me to join properly," Pete said, grinning again. "Anyone can, um, show up, but I've been invited to be a real member of the club."

"Congratulations!" Remus said then looked at Sirius. "I take it you did not have as illuminating a time?"

"That was one of the most boring things I've ever been through," Sirius grumbled, jamming his hands deep into his pockets, hunching his shoulders. "No offense, Petey. Glad you liked it. Just—Merlin's beard, the only thing worse than that is Binns. I didn't know anyone could talk about developing fluids for ten minutes straight."

Pete shifted his weight, scratching his head nervously. "I—I really appreciate you coming with me."

Sirius managed a wane smile. "If you... need me to come again, I will..."

He shook his head vigorously. "No, um, no. I think I'll be okay. I was just super nervous, you know? It was kinda scary, going in I mean. But with you there I felt a little braver. But I think I'm okay now. To go to the next one by myself."

"Oh thank Merlin," Sirius whispered to the side causing Remus to snort.

/\/\/\/\/\

The Slytherins had lost fifty points by breakfast... of course, it had to be a Slytherin. No one else could get into the common room without being seen. The second years looked particularly glum, except for Mulciber and Avery who looked livid. They kept shooting glares at anyone who dared look their way. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were quite happy at least, since this meant both Gryffindor and Slytherin were pretty far behind with points.

"I think this was one of our best ones yet," James whispered, and the others all nodded in agreement. James and Sirius did enjoy getting caught for smaller pranks as it helped bolster their reputation, but getting away with such an immensely wild prank like this was a very delicious sort of feeling; besides, if they had been caught for this one they'd probably be expelled.

After a few more minutes James then announced, "I've got my first practice tonight."

"We'll be there!" Sirius replied immediately.

"Of course we will!" agreed Peter.

They all looked at Remus who gave a long sigh. "I'll be there," he reluctantly gave in.

"Thank you," James said, patting Remus's arm. "I really appreciate it. Ooh, I can't wait...!"

The Slytherins were on everybody's lips on the way to Herbology, as well as all the Hufflepuffs. Sprout was in a very furious mood when they got to the greenhouses. She stormed around as everyone piled into Greenhouse Two then began the lesson with a very long lecture on the delicacy of plants, the danger of plants, how terrible it is to steal a plant, etc, etc. She cast a despairing scowl around at all the kids then went into their proper lesson.

"Blimey," Colgate said as they crept out of the greenhouse afterwards. "She is... intense."

"I thought McGonagall was scary!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Yeah, I always thought Professor Sprout was the easy-going Head," Inkwood said.

"Hah!" They all turned to see Bones, Pierce, and a couple other Hufflepuffs. "Sprout? Easy-going?" Bones shook his head. "You guys haven't seen anything yet. When she loses her temper... hoo."

"Her lectures can blister the ears," said one of the other girls whom Remus thought name might be Smith.

"You should have seen her when Simon was caught out of bed," laughed one of the boys, possibly named Jha?

"You were out of bed?" James and Sirius turned interested eyes to Bones. "Doing what?"

Bones grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Donnie and I were sneaking into the kitchens late one night."

"We've snuck in plenty of times," said the boy named Donnie, "just got caught the once."

"How did you get caught sneaking into the kitchens?" asked Peter. "Isn't your common room like, ten feet away?"

The two boys coughed. "It... well, we didn't know Filch was right there when we were coming out," Bones explained. "It just happened so quickly we couldn't do anything."

"I pretty much ran right into him," added Donnie. Remus thought for a second then remember his last name was Rivers.

"We're never caught out of bed," Sirius boasted.

Bones rolled his eyes towards Remus who shrugged. "Wait..." Bones straightened up. "Lupin, you've snuck out after curfew?"

Now everyone was looking at him. His skin began to itch a little and he took an anxious step back. "Um. A—a couple times. Accidentally."

"Not all accidental," James said, elbowing Remus who began blushing.

"Here I always thought you were this little goodie-two-shoes," said Bones, rubbing his chin.

"He hangs out with those two and you think he's a goodie-two-shoes?" Lily inquired, raising her eyebrows, causing much laughter among both group of kids while Remus toed the ground, flushing even more.

"He and Pettigrew might look innocent but they're just as wild," agreed Inkwood. Peter grinned proudly while Remus hunched over, glad his hair covered his eyes.

Everyone began talking, mostly Sirius and James exchanging tips with Bones and Rivers about sneaking out. Slowly the other students drifted away then finally the Marauders headed back into the castle, James declaring the two Hufflepuffs were 'pretty darn nice'.

/\/\/\/\/\

That evening Remus sat up in bed, a fresh piece of parchment in front of him as he thought about what to write.

Dear Mum and Dad, 14/9/72

Dad, I've decided to try to go to the Quidditch games this year. At least Gryffindor's. I don't know how I'll like them. But I'm going to go. I thought you'd be happy to hear that!

Remus knew when he was born Lyall had had high hopes his son would become a Quidditch player. Hah. He really wanted to write that he had gone to see a Quidditch practice, maybe make his dad even happier... except he couldn't say why he went, which was to watch his friend. Though he spent most the practice with his nose in a book, occasionally glancing up to watch James flying around. He had no idea what was going on nor did he ask his friends to explain. He hoped the practices went like this in the future, as it wasn't the worst thing in the world.

September is about halfway over now. The past two weeks have felt like they've lasted a very long time. In any case, school is going great! Especially Defense Against the Dark Arts! Professor Prewett is very nice to me. He saw my poor grades from last year and feels like perhaps Professor Dedenne was a little unfair towards me, so he is giving me extra homework to see if I deserved those grades or not. I don't know how true this is however if I can make those grades up it would be wonderful.

Remus lifted his chin, staring at the far wall. He never told his parents how awful Dedenne was towards him or, or why, so this was a delicate section to write.

The lessons are so interesting! I am so happy I came back to school. I can't wait to see how things proceed over this term. I'm actually very excited for Defense, since Professor Prewett is so much better than Dedenne ever was. History is, unfortunately, as boring as ever. I wish we'd get a new teacher for that class.

He jerked as a crashing sound distracted him. Struthers was trying to teach James and Sirius how to stand on their heads. Spinnet was also doing it as well, which was nice that he was getting along somewhat with Sirius. James was doing a pretty decent job but Sirius kept crashing.

"Stop worrying about your hair!" James said, upside down. Spinnet snickered while Sirius scowled.

I don't understand how Professor Binns can remain here. I know he was a teacher when he died and it could be fascinating to have a ghost as a teacher but he's just so so so SO boring. We are supposed to be learning about the International Warlock Convention of 1289 which resulted in the violent, fatal duel between Mad Morlingham and Aldred the Annihilated. Which is SUCH a COOL thing! But I know it's just going to be miserably dull coming from Professor Binns.

Sirius crashed again, this time into Spinnet sending the two of them tumbling down. Remus thought Spinnet might start yelling but thankfully they both just laughed. It was very nice.

"C'mon, Pettigrew, you give it a try," Struthers said pleasantly.

Study group is down to three times a week though I am spending plenty of time on my own studying. I am grateful the others decided on their own to not spend as much time together. While it is very nice having others to study with, I don't wish to become too familiar with them.

More lies.

Peter was wobbling about as Struthers tried to help him with his legs. "Hey!" Pete said cheerfully as he managed to stay upright for a few seconds.

It's still months away to decide on electives however I am seriously considering trying to take all of them. I just can't decide which ones sound the best. If all of them are too much I can drop some of them. I suppose Muggle Studies would be a little redundant considering most my life has been spent Muggle-esque, but I'd still like it.

"Lupin, you try now!" Struthers called.

Remus glanced up, shook his head, then went back to writing.

The moon is next week. I'm glad I had time to acclimatize back to school before having to go through the ordeal again.

"Awww, Remy, come on, try it!" Sirius wheedled.

Professor McGonagall

"Remuuuusss!" James drew out.

"You can do it!" Peter cheered.

Remus sighed. "J—just a minute."

Professor McGonagall

He frowned. Had his parents been consulted about him remaining in the house alone? Surely they had... right? Perhaps it'd be better not to mention it until he knew for sure.

Professor McGonagall wants me to take some lessons with Madame Pomfrey to learn how to bandage myself up which is probably a good idea. Anyway, I best go get back to my homework.

Love,

Remus

He used a quick drying spell, folded up the parchment, stuck it in an envelope, used a sticking spell to close it, then scrambled off his bed. "You all realize this is a terrible idea for me to try, don't you?" he asked. Struthers explained what to do then Remus bent over, placing his head against one of the pillows on the floor. Sirius grabbed his legs, pulling them up as Remus pressed his hands against the floor for balance. The second Sirius let go his legs began flailing and he crashed back down, kicking Struthers accidentally as he went. "Told you."