Chapter 4
"Do you think it's like that every month?" Peter asked as they headed down to the hospital wing, dreary eyed, after breakfast that morning. None of them had gotten any sleep the previous night.
"I hope not," Said Sirius mid-yawn.
James, Sirius, Peter, and Lily, too, were all heading down toward the hospital wing. They knocked on the door and Madam Pomfrey appeared in front of them.
"What do you want?" She asked, in a seemingly very bad mood.
Sirius glanced dubiously at her. "What d'you think—" he began, but James elbowed him in the stomach.
"We want to see Remus," James took over.
Madam Pomfrey raised an eyebrow at them.
"What, he's sick, right?" Sirius said through another yawn.
Madam Pomfrey sighed and rolled her eyes, muttering "I don't have time for this."
"All right, come in, but you get ten minutes, that's all," She said sternly.
Remus was in his own closed off section of the hospital wing. He was lying down, but he wasn't asleep. As James, Sirius, Peter, and Lily sat down in chairs, Remus pulled himself up into a sitting position.
"Hi guys," he said. He looked almost worse than he had earlier that day. His face was disturbingly pale, he had a cut down the left side of his face, and his eyes had dark shadows beneath them. He was still shivering, even though the room was almost unbearably steaming.
"Hey Remus. Ah…how're you feeling?" asked James tentatively.
"Not too terrible at the moment, actually," Remus commented, and he was actually smiling, though weakly. "I've just got a bad fever."
Sirius raised and eyebrow at him, but Remus gestured toward Lily, and he nodded.
But Lily smiled at him. "Remus, really, you don't need to lie."
Remus smiled and lied smoothly for the first time in years. "Lie? What are you talking about, Lily?"
"I know these clowns all know what's up." She gestured at James, Peter and Sirius. "And you don't need to pretend because I already know."
Remus shivered slightly and he laughed uncomfortably. "Oh…I don't know which one of these guys told you anything…because I know that none of them would ever tell you anything I told them not to. Isn't that right?" Remus was glaring at James most of all.
"It's all right, James didn't tell me, I figured it out for myself," Lily explained. Remus was sitting straight up rigid in his seat, smiling again, though with a weaker expression.
"What did you figure out?"
Lily was looking at him apprehensively. "I know what you are, Remus, and to be perfectly honest, I don't have a problem with it," She said in a low voice.
Remus flinched slightly. "With what? I don't understand, Lily, what are you talking about?"
"About being a…werewolf?" She peered at him with a quizzical look in her eyes.
Remus smiled unnaturally. "Lily, I'm afraid you're very misinformed! A werewolf? Me? The very idea is laughable."
"Then why aren't you laughing?" Lily asked with a penetrating stare.
Remus began to laugh slightly, though he knew he was far behind his cue. He stopped abruptly, not knowing what to do, glancing around at his friends for help. Sirius shrugged at him.
James grabbed Lily's hand and took her outside of the sectioned off area.
"How did you find out?" He asked in a low voice.
"So it's true then, is it?"
James sighed. "Yes. How did you find out?" He asked again.
"Oh it was very easy. Judging by the times of the month he was gone, the boggart, even your nicknames—I pieced it together," Lily explained, frowning. "Should I not have said anything?"
James sighed. "No, it's all right. It's just—he doesn't like to discuss it. It took us a good six months to get him to not freak out when we mentioned it. So just…" he groped for the right word.
Lily nodded and kissed James on the cheek. "You're so good to your friends."
Meanwhile, Remus was having a nervous breakdown.
"How did she—which one of you told her? Was it you?" He said frantically, looking at Sirius.
"What? Of course not!"
"Right. Sorry. But this could go either way—if Lily knows, then she might not like James any more, and then James would hate me for causing Lily to hate him…or Lily might make James not be friends with me anymore, but that's unlikely, or—"
Sirius was staring at Remus with his mouth open. "Chill out, will you?! Didn't you listen? She doesn't care! Really!"
Remus had his forehead in his hand. "I guess you're right."
Lily and James returned and James sat down. Lily remained standing. She looked almost ready to cry.
"I'm sorry, Remus," she said, sitting down on the end of his bed, and she threw her arms around his neck.
"No," Remus said as he hugged her, "I am.." Lily let go of him and Remus gave a small smile. She wiped her eyes.
"I should be going. Take care of yourselves."
With that she left the hospital wing.
Sirius slapped a hand on Remus's shoulder. "Well, that went well," he said in an unusually cheerful tone. Remus winced under Sirius's hand.
Sirius glanced at him. "Sorry. Okay?"
Remus rubbed his hurt shoulder. "Yeah, fine."
"We better be going," James said, "before Madam Pomfrey throws us out."
"Plus we've got Potions next," Peter pointed out, and Sirius looked at his watch.
"Yeah, and we're going to be late. We'll come back and see you later, okay?" Sirius added. Remus nodded.
"Bye," said James and Peter at the same time, and the three of them crossed the hospital wing.
Sirius gave a snort of laughter and James stopped in his tracks. Across the hospital wing was Caia Grass, draining a goblet of some green potion next to Madam Pomfrey, who was taking her temperature.
She looked over at them. "Hi," she said cheerfully.
"Caia! Ah…hi! What are you doing here?" James said quickly.
"Just got a killer headache. It's probably from that Charms quiz I've been studying for all night." She grinned at them.
Madam Pomfrey stood up. "That should rid it, dear, you can be on your way," she said.
Caia walked out of the hospital wing with James, Peter, and Sirius. "So what were you three doing in there?"
"Just paying a visit to Re—" Peter began but Sirius threw a hand over his mouth.
"Pardon?"
"Nothing."
"What?"
"Yeah…headache."
Caia shrugged. "I don't like it when people lie to me. I am pretty sure that Remus has been lying to me too. He told me that his mother was ill this weekend and that he needed to go visit her, but I sent his mother a get well letter and she said that she wasn't ill and that he was still in school. Any idea what that's about?"
"Er…nope," said Peter.
"No clue," Sirius replied.
Caia smiled wryly. "I know you're lying, but that's okay, because you're just trying to cover for him. But I'm going to find out what's going on." She lowered he voice, looking worried. "Is he seeing anyone else?"
"No," James blurted out.
"Fine." She didn't sound entirely convinced. "But I'm going to have a little chat with him when he gets back from…wherever he's at," Caia sighed.
She started walking down the hall in the opposite direction. James watched her and hesitated for a moment. "Caia?" He called.
She turned around and James hurried up to her. He pondered his words for a moment and then spoke.
"Sometimes…people have legitimate reasons. For lying, that is. He doesn't want to hurt you, Caia."
Caia stared into James's eyes, her glasses shimmering in the dim light of the corridor, trying to pull from him any clue of information she could.
"I know. Thank you," she replied and started walking down the hall.
