Monday, 8 November 1976

Remus sat on his dorm room bed with a look of horror in his eyes.

"Fuck, Peter. I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt Lena."

"Calm down, Moony. You didn't even touch her. She's fine."

"But she's gonna be freaking out. She must be so terrified," Remus mourned.

"No, she's not," James spoke up.

"What do you mean?" Remus croaked.

"Prongs, Wormtail, Frank, and I came up with a plan and fixed everything when you were at Pomfrey's getting fixed up," Sirius said in an assuring tone.

"Don't involve me!" Frank cried.

"But it was your idea!" James replied.

"I was joking! I didn't think you'd actually think it was a real suggestion!" Frank said, throwing his hands up in the air.

Remus's eyes began flicking rapidly between his roommates. "What did you guys do?"

"They Obliviated Lena!" Frank cried.

"What the fuck?! You Obliviated your sister?!" Remus cried.

"No, Padfoot did!" Peter corrected.

"That's not any better!" Remus said, waving his arms.

"Only because Frank said to do it!" Sirius interjected.

"I wasn't being serious!" Frank defended himself.

"Only Sirius can be Sirius," James joked, attempting to lighten the mood.

"Not now, Prongs," Remus hissed. "Lena's probably going mad right now and it's all my fault! I can't believe I put her in danger."

"Remus," James began with a commanding tone of finality, "Everything will be okay. Pads used the cloak and Obliviated her and put her Transfiguration book in her room. She won't remember looking for her book and going to the shack and seeing us. She won't even know what happened last night.

Lena was freaking out. She definitely saw a werewolf last night. She was sure despite her momentary doubt in the morning when she saw her Transfiguration textbook on the bureau by the door. Her doubt vanished when she returned her roommates Zoë's Charms notes. Zoë did not recall giving them to Lena. In fact, she couldn't remember anything from the History of Magic reading she did, which Lena saw her do, or going up to bed the previous night. Zoë shook it off and attributed not remembering any of the events within the past twelve hours to being so tired the previous night. Lena did not dismiss Zoë's forgetfulness. She knew she went to the Shrieking Shack last night. She knew she was unable to retrieve her Transfiguration textbook last night. She knew she saw a werewolf last night.

She also knew someone at the school did not want her to know about it and tried and failed to Obliviate her sometime early in the morning.

Lena knocked on the door to her brother's room and waited for someone to tell her to come in. Lena felt like she was going crazy and just wanted to talk to someone she trusted everything with. She wanted to talk to her brother.

"Come in," Remus called and Lena entered.

"Hi, Remus. Is Peter here? I really need to ta— Merlin, Remus! What happened to you?"

Lena went to Remus's bed and sat down next to him, inspecting his freshly scared face. She gently placed her hands on the tall boy's shoulders and could feel the tension in his body.

Remus remained quiet.

"Remus," Lena said softly, letting her hands slide down his arms and hold his hands. "What happened? I hate seeing you hurt."

Remus gave Lena a small, appreciative smile, touched by her concern for him. He ran his thumbs over Lena's hands, making her skin tingle. "Doesn't matter. What do you need to talk to Peter about?"

Lena shook her head. "Doesn't matter," Lena echoed Remus' reply. "You'll just think I'm mental."

"I'd never think that, Lena," Remus said with kindness in his eyes.

Lena let out a breath. "Okay…I saw a werewolf last night!"

"What?" Remus choked, the color draining from his face. It felt like he could not breathe as he prepared himself for the girl he loved to call him a monster.

"I know! And that freaked me out too but then I thought about it. If you were a werewolf and you wanted to hurt someone, you wouldn't lock yourself in an abandoned shack, right?"

"Right," Remus replied.

"So, the werewolf probably isn't a bad person. Also, there was a dog, a deer, and a rat with the werewolf so I'm a bit confused about that."

"Oh?"

"Anyways, the only reason I went to the Shrieking Shack was to get my Transfiguration book that I left there. And now I'm getting to the part that freaks me out!"

"The rest didn't freak you out!?" Remus cried in disbelief.

"Remus, calm down. The rest of it isn't as big a deal as what I'm about to tell you now!"

"Fuck."

"So, I obviously didn't go into the shack and get my book when there was a werewolf in it so I just went back to my room. And then I woke up this morning and I saw my book. And I know it's mine 'cuz it's got my doodles in it. So at first, I thought 'Okay, I dreamed the whole werewolf thing because there's no way I went inside a shack with a werewolf.'"

"Makes sense."

"Right…but then, Zoë, my roommate, woke up and couldn't remember anything from last night. So, then I thought, 'What if the werewolf snuck in my room this morning, gave me my book and tried to Obliviate me.'"

"Well, that's not good," Remus mumbled, panicking. How his friends messed up their so-called brilliant plan was beyond him.

"So now I'm freaking out because someone at Hogwarts broke into my room and tried to wipe my memory! What if they try to do it again?!" Lena credit.

"It's gonna be okay, Lena," Remus said, pulling her in for a hug. He felt so terrible for causing her so much distress

Lena looked up into Remus' eyes and found comfort in them despite the panic in his eyes. "Rem, are you okay?"

"What?"

"You look really worried," she said.

"No, I'm—"

Lena and Remus turned as they heard the door click and saw Remus' roommates walk in.

Peter began to greet his sister. "Hey, Lee. What's—"

"I saw a werewolf last night!"

"I thought you said you Obliviated her," James turned to Sirius in disbelief.

"WHAT?!"

"Frank told me to," Sirius cried, pointing to him.

"No, I didn't! Stop involving me!"

"I can't believe you tried to fucking Obliviate me!"

"But, I didn't!" Sirius defended.

"Because you fucked up, man! You Obliviated my roommate!"

"Well, it's your brother's fault. He said yours was the blue bed!"

Lena turned to her brother sharply, anger blazing in her eyes. "Sorry, you knew your friends were going to Obliviate me and you were helping!?"

"Look, we didn't want to but we had to—"

"To what, Peter?" Lena said, cocking her head.

"To protect me," Remus spoke up.

"What?" Lena said, her voice growing quieter as she turned .

"They're trying to protect my secret. I'm a werewolf, Lena. The one you saw last night. And I'm sorry that I hurt you, Lena."

"You didn't hurt me," Lena said softly and paused. "Remus…"

"Please go, Lena," Remus said, turning away, hiding his face.

Lena reached out for his hand,"Remus. I—"

Remus pushed hand away. "Lena, please go."

Lena wanted to stay with him, to talk to him, to comfort him. But she couldn't as her brother grabbed her arm and guided her out of the room.

"I should talk to him," Lena whispered to her brother as they stood outside his room.

"He doesn't want to talk to you right now, Lena."

"I know, but he needs to know that I don't care. That he's still Remus to me."

"Look, he needs some time to—"

Peter stopped talking as James, Sirius, and Frank came out of the room.

"He wants to be alone for a bit," Frank said even though no explanation was needed.

"Okay, let's go to the common room and, Lena, go back to your room," Peter said.

"Wait," Lena whispered.

"What?"

"I saw some animals with Remus last night. What were they doing there?"

"They're us," Sirius said.

"Well, not me."

"The three of you are Animagi?"

"Yep," Sirius said, popping the 'p.'

"That's really advanced magic."

"We're just that good," Peter said.

"I always assumed your nicknames were about your Patronuses but I guess they're about your Animagi."

"You would be correct," James said.

"So Peter's the rat, Sirius is the dog, and you're the deer."

"I am a stag, not a deer!"