06/07/2020 Posting this week Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Chapter 20 (Sirius Black)

Suspicions and Exams

Thursday 27th April 1972

Remus had fallen asleep twice during Transfiguration that morning. Sirius wasn't sure he'd make it through Potions.

"Remus wake up." he nudged him roughly at the end of the lesson.

"Huh. Oh." his eyes opened slowly and sat up. "What happened-" he yawned.

"Come on We're taking you to the Hospital Wing." said James, ushering him out and grabbing Remus' books and bags. For once, Remus made no resistance. Peter hadn't seemed to realise what they were doing and went to Potions without them. They walked to the Hospital Wing. Remus was tripping over his feet so Sirius had to put an arm under his shoulder to prop him up. Madam Pomfrey tucked him into one of the beds and asked the other boys to leave him to rest. Perhaps he was worse than usual because of the heat? It was a rather hot day. They left him and started to walk to Potions.

"James?"

"Yeah?"

"In Astronomy, did they say the full moon is tonight?" he asked. James stared at him confused.

"I think so. Why?"

"Well. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Remus is always unwell around full moon."

James clapped a hand to his mouth.

"Oh my- oh Merlin Sirius. He's ill every month isn't oh- Merlin you don't think?"

"I think he's- he's a Werewolf." Sirius whispered.

"But really- this is Remus. He couldn't be a Werewolf could he. He's so- small and kind and caring."

"I know. But it would explain his bruises and scars wouldn't it. He said he doesn't want to lie to us, and that he won't get better. Well there is no cure for being a Werewolf is there."

"We can't exactly ask him can we though. He's hardly going to tell us, he's probably so scared of us finding out."

"Poor Remus, it's so unfair on him." Sirius sighed.

"That is, if he is a Werewolf."

"Why don't we read up on it, find some clues."

"Yeah we'll go to the library after lessons today." James said a little enthusiastically for someone who barely stepped into the library.

"But won't Remus wonder why?"

"True, but I think he'll be resting."

They were a little late to Potions and explained that they were taking Remus to the Hospital Wing and he won't be in lessons for the rest of the day. Sirius took notes for him- which was difficult because he never took his own notes in the first place. At the end of the day, they told Peter their suspicion and asked him not to say anything about it to anyone, even Remus. They went to the Library and found all the books on Lycanthropy they could. All the books showed Werewolves in a very bad and distasteful way. Many books told some of the signs of a Werewolf. How they got very ill and tired before the full moon, how they're not good with cold weather in human form and their tendencies to prefer meat rare.

"Well he is cold all the time." Sirius chuckled.

"Some say that their skin burns if they touch silver." said James

"Isn't that if they're shot with silver bullets? I don't really want to try that out, I was hoping we could increase his life expectancy mate."

"Maybe we could- drop silver stuff and get him to pick it up."

"We can't just ask him to pick things up, he's not a slave."

"Hmm I have an idea."

''''''''''''

Saturday 29th April 1972

Remus didn't return on Thursday evening, or Friday, and only made an appearance at dinner on Saturday. They had found some silver cutlery and quickly exchanged them for the steel cutlery where Remus sat.

"You feeling okay?" asked James.

"Me? Oh I'm okay, Mum's getting better." he said rubbing his nose.

"Great." Sirius and James exchanged glances of doubt. Remus grabbed his knife and fork and started to eat. After a few minutes, he put his knife and fork down and looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Have they uh- changed the cutlery?" he asked looking slightly puzzled.

"I don't think so. Why's that?"

"Oh I have sensitive skin and, well it's giving me a rash." he showed them his palms which looked slightly red and irritated. James and Sirius stared at each other.

"What?" asked Remus.

"Nothing. How long have you had it?"

"Since I was bi-" he took in a large strained breath as he caught his words "young. When I was young." he went pale and rubbed his nose again.

"I see." said James, unconvinced.

After supper, Sirius found a moment that Remus wasn't there, and brought it up.

"It didn't burn him did it."

"No, it was only after a few minutes." said James.

"And he didn't exactly hide it from us." added Peter.

"So maybe he just has a skin condition."

"Possibly?"

'''''''''''''''''''''''

Monday 5th June 1972

Emotions were running high as the First Year exams started today. Remus was panicking like mad and practically spent the last two weeks in the library with Lily Evans studying (Much to James' dislike). Peter asked too many questions, and James and himself just relaxed and did absolutely nothing to improve themselves. They had the whole week off timetable to study for tests. Their first exam was History of Magic, the worst way to start the exams.

Once he had opened his paper, he was about to write but then realised, he barely knew anything about the topic. Only when he got to Question 4 did he finally have some kind of idea. I wish I listened to Binns, I wish I listened to Remus! He thought to himself. When the exam was finally over, he dismally left his desk ask left the room.

"That was pretty good I thought." said Remus smugly. The three boys stared at him in astonishment.

"It was terrible." cried Peter.

"Awful." sang James with mock exhaustion.

"c'était affreux." sighed Sirius in french, dramatically putting his hand to his forehead melodramatically in a fake faint, and proceeding to fall into James and Remus' arms.

"Sirius stop speaking french, nobody knows what it means." snapped Remus

"mais c'est hilarant"

"Stop!" the three of them called.

"d'accord. I mean, okay."

Friday 9th June 1972

Sirius was thankful the exams were finally over, but regretful that there was only three weeks left of school. He didn't want to go back home. He wanted to stay at Hogwarts with his friends that didn't care about silly dinner parties and etiquette or how long his hair was (Although it was almost at his shoulders now and fell in a casual elegance around his handsome features) he knew his mother will shout at him and cut his hair when he got home, but he didn't care, it was good for now.

The boys started their weekend by sitting under their favourite Beech tree by the Lake, eating ice-cream (and of course, guess who had a chocolate ice-cream). The sun was scorching and shone over the students like lights from the heavens. Sirius was so hot he had to unbutton his shirt and tie (Don't worry he had a vest on!) and rolled up his sleeves to his elbows. He pushed his hair out of his face and leaned against James' back.

"Alright Sirius." James said, finishing off his ice-cream.

"Exhausted."

"Isn't everyone. Merlin I don't ever want to do another exam again.

"I think we should celebrate." Sirius suggested deviously. They discussed certain things they could do but none seemed very interesting.

"I know what we can do." said James grinning. "Let's go to Hogsmeade."

"Hogsmeade?" Sirius, Remus and Peter said simultaneously.

"Yeah. It's not even a Hogsmeade weekend, or a weekend for that matter, so there won't be any people we know there, and I've got the cloak, nobody will see." he said eagerly. He was pretty sure he had got Sirius and Peter convinced but thought he needed to sway Remus a little more.

"And if we get caught James, we'll probably be expelled. First and Second years aren't allowed off the school grounds."

"The cloak lads, the cloak." he reminded them. "And we can actually go to Honeydukes can't we. There's loads of chocolate there. Cauldron Cakes, Chocolate Frogs, and Honeydukes Best Chocolate at Honeydukes, I mean it's bound to be-"

"Okay okay okay, let's go before the shop closes."

They got ready to leave and Remus was the first to get to their dorm.

"Eager ain't you." James taunted. He grabbed his cloak and they left Gryffindor tower.

"James how do we get there." asked Peter as they reached an empty corridor.

"The train dropped us off at Hogsmeade Station right, so I'd say we should go there."

"No the gates will be locked you halfwits." hissed Remus. They were standing by a long but thin old dusty mirror. Sirius started to trace his finger across the edges, and then he gasped.

"What?" asked Peter.

"Hinges." Sirius said in disbelief.

"So?" James said impatiently.

"Mirrors don't have hinges James. It must be-"

"A door." finished Remus. All four boys grinned and found the other side of the mirror. They tugged on the side and it revealed an empty passage way.

"Come on let's go." whispered Sirius in pure excitement.

"Sirius what if there's something down there, what if-" started Remus.

"Oh what if, what if, what if. Well what if it's a passage way to Hogsmeade!"

"Shh keep your voice down."

"Look I say we go through and if it's smells like trouble, we leave straight away okay."

"Fine. Lumos." Remus muttered as he pulled out his wand.

They stepped through the hole and down the descending passage for what seemed like hours. The path twisted and turned at odd intervals. Eventually it lead them to a reasonably large, was it a room? Sirius thought. It seemed more like a cave. There was another smaller walk-way at the other end.

"Come on, let's keep walking." James said, taking long strides down the next path. It was even longer than the first. They finally arrived in another cave like room.

"Charming little place." said Sirius with a disapproving expression on his face. "méchant"

"Oh I'm sorry if it's not your Mansion in London, maybe we should roll out the red carpet for you." mocked James.

"Oh shh, this place isn't fit for a House Elf." he snapped.

"Why do you hate House elves so much." asked Remus bitterly.

"If those creatures woke you up every morning and cursed you under their breath, you'd understand." The room was sparse with nothing but a small door above them.

"Where do you think that leads to?" asked Peter.

"Well we're about to find out, Sirius give me a leg up will you." Sirius tried to push up James to the ceiling but ended up just falling on top of him.

"Mate what do you eat, you weigh a ton." Sirius said brushing off the dirt from his robes.

"Here I'll do it." offered Remus. He pushed James with ease as he unlocked the door.

"What do you see?" called Pete. James pulled himself in some kind of storage room. He looked at some of the packages and spotted 'Fillibusters Fireworks' and smiled.

"We're in Zonko's!"

I'm starting a new fic where only Lily dies that night in Godric's Hollow 1981 (Still sad I know), but Harry still has to go through most of the things in the book because as we all know VOLDEMORT is still out there. I'd appreciate any ideas and reviews :)