Part Forty-One
Dumbledore's eyes were not twinkling. In fact, they were filled with wariness and anger. James and Sirius each took a step back out of habit. Neither had seen the Headmaster like this before and they thought that they never wanted to see him this way again.
"Who are you? James Potter and Sirius Black are dead. The bodies were identified."
This comment coming from Professor McGonagall took Sirius's eyes for a moment from Dumbledore.
"I don't know who they found in the house," James spoke softly, but with conviction, "but it wasn't us. We were able to escape before the Death Eaters could get to us."
"Prove it," said Professor Dumbledore.
James and Sirius looked at each other worriedly. All of the things that only the Marauders could know, could only be verified by Peter Pettigrew and neither trusted him as far as they could throw him without magic and that wasn't far considering how heavy he was. There was no way that Peter would back them up.
"Professor," Sirius began hesitantly, "there was an incident between James, Snape, and I that was forbidden to be discussed by any involved. During the events that followed that incident I told you that there was something wrong with my memories of that day. You told me that you would look into it, but there was little time left before the year ended and you said that you would have an answer for me by 7:00 p.m. on September 1st. You also wanted to know why I did it but I could not speak of it even to you."
Professor Dumbledore remembered that conversation and as he and Sirius had been the only two there, there wasn't any way for anyone else to know. "What about you?" he asked James.
James bit his lip. "Remember when you and I had a conversation in third year after the day the Defense professor taught us about werewolves? I asked you if you knew any way that a werewolf could have a better time on a full moon. You told me that the only way for a werewolf to help conquer his tendencies was for there to be something else for the wolf to focus on. Most specifically, a positive emotion to counteract the negative feelings he's experiencing." This conversation had formulated a plan that took three years
to complete. It had worked just as Professor Dumbledore had said. Remus had something else to focus on: the love and trust of his best friends, friends who would do anything for him (or so he thought at the time) even risk Azkaban by becoming illegal animagi.
Dumbledore stared for a moment and then pulled first James then Sirius into a powerful hug, welcoming them back.