Chapter 42

Moony's Secret

The Marauders were surprised at how fast Remus healed. Well Remus wasn't, but the others were. Remus was used to it. He was able to leave at noon. Normally he would have hid a little longer and waited for the scars to go away, but now he didn't have anything to hide. So he figured he'd wait for them to go away in the dorm room.

It was going to take him a long time to get used to them knowing his secret, and even longer to get used to their nonchalant attitude about it. Every time the topic came up he found himself waiting for them to run away screaming, but they never did. He was still just Remus to them. Sirius gave him a hug as soon as he got out of the hospital wing. Sirius was insulted that Remus was surprised when he did.

Speaking of surprises they had a big one when none other than McGonagall walked into the common room.

They had only seen her in the common room once before. When she thought the Marauders were attacking the students.

"Potter, Black, Pettigrew, Lupin. Come with me." She told them ignoring the fact that the entire common room was staring open mouthed at her.

Them Marauders didn't answer. They just stared at her in shock.

"Well..Come on." He repeated impatiently. They jumped up quickly and followed her out of the room. She didn't speak as she lead them to her office.

"Are we in trouble Professor?" Remus asked confused. They hadn't done anything to be in trouble for lately.

"For once, no." She answered not turning to look at them.

"Then what are we doing?" Sirius said, sounding annoyed. He'd bee in the middle of planning a prank on Snape when she interrupted them.

"Not in the hallway." She replied, making them even more curious. She stopped in front of her office door. "Lupin. You first." Remus followed her in. "Sit down."

"Yes ma'am." Remus sat down in one of the four chairs in front of her desk. Remus hid a smirk. Last year she only kept one chair there, the Marauders were in her office so often that she had decided to save herself the time and energy of summoning chairs and just kept four there.

"I got a bit of rather surprising news from Poppy this morning." She began. Moony smiled.

"Oh, about James, Sirius, and Peter coming to see me in the hospital wing?" She nodded.

"How much do they know?"

"Everything."

"How did they find out?"

"Sirius connected the dates I was gone with the dates in a lunar chart in one of his books. I'm not exactly sure what gave him the idea to do that though."

"All right." She paused for a moment. "Do you trust them to keep it a secret, Remus?"

"Easily." He replied smiling. She nodded and stood.

"All right then." McGonagall opened the door. "Black, Potter, Pettigrew. Come in here please."

They walked in quickly.

"What's going on Professor?" James asked as they sat down.

"What ever happened I swear I didn't do it." Sirius put on his most innocent face.

"Black, is there something your conscious is trying to tell me?" She said with an eyebrow raised.

"Professor! I'm offended, are you actually implying that I have actually caused trouble?"

"Black, had there ever been a day in your life you haven't caused as much trouble as possible?" She asked hiding a smile. James burst out laughing, but Sirius just gave her a thoughtful look.

"I haven't done anything too bad today."

James smirked. "Yet." Sirius chuckled and nodded.

"Yet."

McGonagall sighed. "Maybe I should just give you the detention now and save time."

"Probably a good idea Professor." James told her with a smirk.

"I wouldn't be saying that if I were you James." Remus told him. "Quidditch tryouts are set for next Friday and you both have detentions piled up to Thursday one more and you miss tryouts." James froze.

"Shoot! Does that mean we have to be good till then?" James gave Moony a horrified look, when he nodded. Sirius moaned and McGonagall smiled.

"Quidditch is a gift from God." She said happily.

"Professor, why are we here?" Peter asked quietly, reminding everyone he was there.

"Oh, yes, thank you, Pettigrew. I wanted to speak to you of your knowledge of Lupin's...er..condition."

"Oh, it's a bout Moony's furry little problem? Well why didn't you say so?" James said rolling his eyes. Remus reddened and Sirius chuckled.

"What did you just say?" She asked looking at him as though he'd gone insane.

"Moony's furry little problem. It's what I call it. We told everyone he had a troublesome rabbit at home, so it's safe to say in public. Also it's easier to say than lycan...whatever. How do you even pronounce that word. I mean c'mon who comes up with these names." James paused to take a breath.

"They had too much firewisky." Sirius smirked.

"Enough, be serious now." McGonagall said getting annoyed.

"I can't be serious. Only Sirius can be Sirius." James smirked. Sirius glared at him. It was a full blown death glare.

"Say that again. Say it again I dare you." Sirius told him though his teeth. Peter scooted his chair as far away from James as possible.

"Um. Hehe. Sorry" James said quickly, giving Sirius a fearful glance.

"Ya, I thought so."

"Sorry Professor. Please continue." She gave James an annoyed glare, and sighed, trying to calm herself down.

"I need to have your words that what you learned about Lupin will never leave your lips."

"I wouldn't tell anyone if my life depended on it." Sirius told them, probably more serious then he'd been all day. Remus blushed, he knew that Sirius meant every word of it. He would take the secret to the grave.

"Me too." James nodded and turned to Remus. "I promise I wont tell anyone." He said specificity to Moony.

"I know you wont." Remus replied smiling.

The turned to Peter. "I promise too."

McGonagall nodded. "All right then." She stood and opened the door. "That is all I need from you." They waked out of her office. They walked out of her office and headed back to the Gryffindor Tower.

"That was a waist of time. We already knew no one was going to tell anyone." James complained.

"At least we weren't in trouble." Remus told him.

"True I can't believe I have to be good for the next two weeks. Urg.. I'm already going though prank withdraw." Remus laughed.

"Well while you're trying to figure out how to be good. I'm just going to not get caught." Sirius told them, rolling his eyes.

"You can't, what if they do catch you?" James asked worried.

"Skip." They stared at him in shock. Peter was the first to respond.

"You cant skip a detention!"

"Why not?"

"You'll get a ton more." Remus said calmly, wondering why things like this still surprised him.

"Even better." He smirked, obviously thinking about their contest on who could get the most detentions by the end of their seventh year. "They count right?"

"If you're brave enough to skip, you deserve the points." Remus told him.

"McGonagall will hunt you down, and quite probably kill you." James said.

"Quidditch is worth it." He replied as though it was common to risk you life for the game. Then again Remus figured that they pretty much risk their lives just to play the game, and that isn't even taking the bludgers into account.

They climbed into the common room after James said the password, and immediately headed for their dorm, before being stopped by someone.

"Potter, Black!" One of the seventh years called and jogged over to them.

"What?" Sirius replied, barely hiding his annoyance.

"What did McGonagall want?" The seventh year asked with curiosity. She was obviously a gossip.

"She yelled at us for a prank we pulled recently." Sirius replied. He'd been working on it in his head the whole way back. He couldn't come from a pureblood family and know know how bad the gossip was at Hogwarts.

"What did you do?" She asked. "It must have been pretty bad if she came all the way here."

"None of your business." James told her before turning away. "Come on guys." James climbed up the stairs to the dorm and the rest followed.

"McGonagall's a worry wort." James said when they got in their room, choosing to ignore the rumors that were more than likely forming in the seventh years mind. Sirius nodded.

"Ya, everyone knows Moony's secret is safe with us."