Chapter 5

Remus didn't return to classes that day, nor most of the next day. He did, however, appear in the nearly empty common room between classes two days later, pale and shaken as usual.

"Hey, wolf boy!" Called Sirius, the only person in the common room, found yet again catching up on some late homework. "You're back!"

Remus rolled his eyes and yawned. "Oh, shut up." He dropped into a chair.

Sirius looked him over and grinned. "Man, that was pretty cool that night, wasn't it?"

"What?" Remus asked incredulously.

"I mean, you tried to eat Peter—it was pretty funny. But me an' James sort of had to wrestle you off him…and then we went out onto the grounds and into the forest…then back up to the shack. It was insane." Sirius was grinning.

Remus glared at him. "Well, I'm glad you had fun."

Sirius bit his lip and gave an awkward smile. "Sorry. Well, when you changed back, we all thought you were dead. I don't know what you remember, but—"

"I do remember lying there, actually. On the floor like that. But in between I don't remember anything until I heard the door slam," Remus recalled.

"Yeah…well, Peter started freaking out, and me and James thought you were dead too for a minute, but then you started breathing again…and James got all mad and was saying we couldn't just leave you on the floor, so we moved you onto the four-poster. But we had to leave before Madam Pomfrey came back, and we started to, but then we heard you yelling. And we came back and you were real sick…" Sirius shrugged, closing his Potions book.

Remus was staring at Sirius not knowing what to say. He just shook his head. "Funny. I don't remember any of that."

Sirius nodded. "Madam Pomfrey almost caught us, but we got out of her way before she came up the stairs."

Remus gazed into the fire.

"I don't know how you do it every month, Remus," he said sincerely, tossing a rolled up piece of parchment into the fire. "I'd probably try to kill myself."

"Yeah, probably." Remus said monotonously, before he realized what he was saying.

Sirius stared.

Remus gathered up his things and tried to change the topic. "Come on, we've got Transfiguration next."

Sirius and Remus appeared in Professor McGonagall's classroom and sunk into seats near Peter and James, who waved. The class was loud and rowdy. Professor McGonagall stood up and slammed a book down on her desk. The noise immediately subsided. She gave a wry smile.

"Thank you. Now today," she gestured toward the blackboard with notes on it, "we will be continuing with our work with changing quaffles into chickens. You all know what to do. I want you to make sure that your chicken is not red." She was glaring at Peter, who shrank in his seat. "This spell must be done very accurately, or it will not work. You may use your notes. Quaffles are in the cupboard. I want them returned." People started standing up and taking quaffles out of the cupboard. Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus all gathered around the same table.

"So…how exactly does it work?" Asked Remus, having been out the last class.

"Oh, it's pretty easy. Just watch, you'll get the hang of it," James explained. He rolled up his sleeves and raised his wand over the quaffle.

"Penna Pulla!" He muttered, waving his wand in a complex motion. The quaffle instantly turned into a chicken, which began clucking around on the desk. Several people laughed.

"See?" Said James, holding the chicken back so it wouldn't jump off the table. "Proximo Formo," he said casually, and the chicken returned to a quaffle. "Here, try."

He tossed Remus the quaffle, who put it down on the table and raised his wand. "Ah, all right. Like this?" He waved his wand. "Penna Pulla!"

The result wasn't quite a chicken, but it certainly wasn't a quaffle. It was a gigantic, red, bouncing ball covered in scarlet fathers, with a short fat scarlet chicken head protruding from the front. The meter-long semi-chicken gave a squawk. Sirius, Peter and James burst out laughing. People from other tables were looking over to see what the commotion was. Laughter rang throughout the classroom. Even Remus, wand in his hand, was grinning apologetically.

Professor McGonagall looked up from her desk, and rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, this is all terribly funny," she sighed, although there was a faint smile on her lips, "Mr. Pettigrew?"

"No, I swear, it wasn't me this time!" Peter exclaimed.

There was more laughter.

"No, it was me. Sorry, Professor," Remus explained, though still grinning.

"Okay, everyone, back to work, really, all this commotion…" She was mumbling, heading over toward Remus's table and examining the huge mutant chicken. She cleared her throat, which may have been hiding a laugh, and muttered something that made a simple quaffle appear on the table. She looked over at Remus, sounding stern, but smiling. "You were out last class, so I will let it go. Just, try to be a bit more careful in the future. Wave your arm like this," she demonstrated, "and make sure that you say the words carefully and slowly."

Remus lifted his wand and did the same. "Penna Pulla!"

His result was a chicken, perfect and white, except for a single red tail feather.

"Not bad, now keep practicing that…" she said, and swept quickly over to a group of girls who were shrieking over their quaffle which now had a chicken head.

Sirius leaned over and pulled out the red feather. The chicken gave an agonizing squawk and started clucking around the room like a maniac.

Professor McGonagall looked up. "Black, please, I don't appreciate—" but she looked down and saw the chicken pecking a hole in her robes. She jabbed her wand at it angrily, and in a puff of pink smoke it was a quaffle again. She sighed. "Five points from Gryffindor. I don't think I'll be doing chickens again for some time. Black, can you just sit and do the lesson?"

"Sorry, Professor McGonagall," he said, snickering. As soon as her back was turned, Sirius made a face at her. A few people stifled laughs.

She didn't turn around. "I don't want to know what it is this time, Black…"

They spent the rest of the class switching back and forth with the quaffle.

"Oh, I've got something to tell you," James directed at Remus, as Peter was restraining his chicken.

"What?"

"Well, I talked to Caia the other day—"

"You what?"

"Well actually, she talked to me. But that's beside the point. Remus, she's on to you," James said, the last few words in an undertone, although he couldn't possibly be heard over the clamor of the classroom.

Remus was simply staring blankly at him.

"She doesn't know anything yet," James explained quickly, "But I have a bad feeling she will. Soon. She's really suspicious. She owled your mother, wishing her well. She's going to seek you out. She knows you're lying."

Remus blinked and stared around hopelessly. "Ah…all right, no big deal…I'll tell her…that was my stepmother?"

"She knows your parents aren't divorced," Sirius pointed out.

"I know…ah…right. Oh, I have to think of something to tell her!"

"I think you've lied to her enough. You're going to have to do something else if you want her to stay with you," James said suddenly, sounding like Professor McGonagall.

"Like tell her the truth?" Remus snapped. "It's just a little white lie."

"But a lot of them add up," James pointed out. Professor McGonagall waved a hand to dismiss the class as the bell rang.

Remus was bright pink. "Fine. I don't care. It's not up to you."

"You know, Remus, you're right," James said in a strange tone that was rarely heard from his mouth. "It's not up to me."

There was a pause, and then,

"Then SHUT UP, okay? Just stop it! You think you're great just because you don't have any problems! But other people have problems! And they don't always want you to solve them! Can't you just leave things as they are?" Remus was exclaiming quietly, in a voice that was very unlike him.

James was staring at him, openmouthed, and then started shoving books angrily into his bag. "You need to loosen up a little! And you know what, I don't care if she finds out! I hope she does! Then maybe you'll come to your senses!"

But Remus was already heading for the door.