The Truth About Remus
Chapter One

"G' bye, mum! G' bye, dad," I exclaimed, kissing each of them on the cheek in turn, "See you soon!"

My mum pulled me into one last embrace and I turned to Remus. His mum was sobbing into her handkerchief and his dad was ruffling his chin-length hair.

"You keep order in that place, son," Mr. Lupin ordered proudly.

"My little boy…a Prefect," Mrs. Lupin was sobbing, "We are so proud of you!"

Remus nodded sheepishly and replied, "Yes, mum…I was Prefect last year too…"

At this reminder, my godmother sobbed harder and Remus looked at me for some help. I smiled and stepped forward.

"Bye, godmother," I said, hugging her, and then turned to my godfather, "Good bye."

"We love you both," my mum told Remus and I as she held Remus' chin in her hand.

"We love you, too," we replied in unison.

The Hogwarts Express' whistle blew and, as I blew kisses to my parents and godparents, the two of us ran to get on the train. Once we were on, the train began to move and Remus and I went to fetch our regular compartment. It was in the third car, sixth compartment on the right. The door was open and I smiled at the occupants: James Potter and Sirius Black.

"Hey, Padfoot and Prongs," I exclaimed, sitting beside Sirius; Remus went to take a seat but I stopped him, "Moony, you have to go to that meeting in the Prefect car, remember?"

"Oh yeah," he said, dully, "Those things are so boring – just an hour of complete BS…can't I just skip it?"

"No."

And with that, I pushed him out of the compartment as he looked to his friends for help.

"Poor Moony," Sirius exclaimed as I closed the compartment door, "I wouldn't be able to stand being the 'good boy'."

"Here, here," James replied, ruffling his hair.

"So, what do you think your chances are to get with Evans this year," I asked, nudging him.

James shrugged, "Once I win the Quidditch Cup again this year and she notices how sexy I look, holding it above my head for the sixth year in a row, the doll wont be able to resist me."

"True, Prongs…very true," Sirius replied, giving him a five.

An hour past, mostly with James and Sirius planning how badly they were going to get Snape this year, before Remus reappeared. He looked as though he had to sit through a double History of Magic class. He took a seat beside me and leaned his head on my shoulder.

"The new fifth year Prefects are the thickest I have seen," he said into my shoulder, "I thought I would never get out of there."

"Anything you need to tell me about a certain green-eyed beauty, Moony," James asked.

"Evans was there and she despises you more than ever," Remus said in a monotone voice, "Don't screw up too much this year – she looks like she has had a bad summer."

"PMS," James and Sirius said together.

I scowled at them as the compartment door flew open. A short, rat-faced sixth year boy stood there, with the look of complete horror on his face.

"What is it this time, Wormtail," Sirius asked.

I looked at the chubby boy and frowned. I never liked him, but he always seemed to know too much about what we were doing to make it safe for us to ditch him. Peter Pettigrew (AKA Wormtail) was, as I said, short, chubby and, as I didn't mention yet, terrible at magic. He has always worshipped Sirius, James, Remus and I for our accomplishments and we were often forced to help him.

Remus Lupin (AKA Moony), to my left, is tall and tan with dark chin length hair. He has these deep, almost midnight blue eyes and has become muscular since his dad got him into a Muggle pastime called "weight lifting". Remus and I have known each other since birth – we were born with only one day in between (I was born on December 3, 1960 where he was born on December 1, 1960). He follows the rules (most of the time) and is a Gryffindor Prefect. We have always celebrated our birthdays together, over the three days of December 1 – 3. He also has a secret that only a few people know about and one that I will not try to explain as of now.

James Potter (AKA Prongs) is sitting directly across from me. He is a jock (he plays Chaser on the Gryffindor House Quidditch Team) and loves to get attention for what he does. Since he made an appearance on the team as the lead scorer in Hogwarts Quidditch, he has lead Gryffindor into five consecutive Quidditch Cup wins. James loves getting attention for his athletics, but more for his practical jokes that he and Sirius Black plays on Severus Snape, a sixth year Slytherin. The only thing that James hasn't gotten yet that he wants is the love of Lily Evans, a Gryffindor Prefect.

Sirius Black (AKA Padfoot) is James' right hand man. Wherever James is, Sirius is, almost one hundred percent of the time. Sirius has light, blue eyes and black, shoulder length hair. He knows how to have fun and is almost like James, except he is not on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team and is always surrounded by girls and flashes his smile to any chick he sees. They swoon. They trip. They can't have him.

My name is Anistasia Willow (AKA Thumper). I have waist length black hair and deep, forest green eyes. Like James and Sirius, I have become accustomed to playing pranks on Severus Snape, but, unlike them, I know where to draw the line (well, Remus usually has to draw it for me). I come off as a good girl to the Professors (especially to Headmaster Dumbledore), but that is because I am a bad girl that never gets caught.

Peter, James, Sirius and I are illegal Animagi. Our nicknames represent what we are. Peter is a rat, James is a stag, Sirius is a grim and I am a rabbit. James, Sirius and I became Animagi to help out Remus, who doesn't need to become one, really. Peter is only one because he found out that the three of us were doing it and he forced us to help him with it.

The five of us are beginning our sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Snape is looking for you…about turned me into a cockroach because I wouldn't tell him where you were…I just barely escaped…"

James, Sirius and I smiled at each other.

"And the fun begins," James announced.

I looked up into his brown eyes. They were sparkling with mischief.

"Alright boys…and erm, girl…gather around," James ordered and Peter, Sirius and I leaned forward, "We are a year older, a year wiser and a year more experienced than, er…last year! Snape has yet to see the best of us. We are about to begin the sixth leg of our war and it has to be a rememberable one, savvy?"

The group nodded.

"Sounds great," I exclaimed, "Just tell us what to do."

With this, Sirius took over, "Wormtail, you are going to lure Snape into this part of the train. Prongs and I will be hiding in two different compartments. Thumper, you stay in this one. I will be the first to come out of my compartment. The beginning of this attack lies all on me. The destiny of this joke lies on me," Sirius informed us dramatically, "I will unarm him sufficiently. Prongs will be the second piece to the attack. You will tie him up…tie him tight. Tie him up kind of like you tie up Lily in those little sexual fantasies of yours…ex-nay on the leather whip-nay, understand," Sirius asked and James nodded, grinning, "Thumper will complete the third step efficiently…the most important part…the spell. Thumper, jinx him, and jinx him good."

"What if we fail," Peter asked.

"To fail is not an option my unoptimistic, friend," James said.

"Places," Sirius exclaimed and we all scattered.

I stayed in the compartment with Remus. I unsheathed my wand and kneeled by the door, listening intently. Remus pulled out a book and began to read.

"Oh, come on, Remus," I whispered, "You know you don't want to miss out on this!"

"I am not jeopardizing my position as Gryffindor Prefect. What I am missing out on, I am totally unaware of. This could make me loose my position of honor in a heartbeat, and I won't have any of it. Just don't do anything rash, okay?"

I sighed, "You are taking this way too seriously. I wont do anything too bad…just a Vanishing Charm…"

Remus shook his head, "Ani…"

Before Remus could say anything else, I shushed him. I could hear Peter luring Snape down the train.

"You cant hit me with those half-ass spells, Slytherin shit," I heard Peter exclaim right outside our compartment.

"Bold, Peter, very bold," I whispered.

I heard Snape begin a spell, but it was interrupted by the opening of a compartment door and Sirius' voice yelling "expelliarmus". Then another compartment door slid open and James' voice summoned ropes. Once I was sure that everything was clear, I opened my compartment door and prepared to unleash my spell.

"Eva ---"

"Finite Incantatum," a voice yelled.

All of the spells that were cast were stopped and the ropes binding Snape were released. The only spell that was left in effect was the disarming spell. Lily Evans took Snape's wand out of Sirius' hand and tossed it back to its rightful owner.

"Get out of here, Severus," Lily ordered and he did as told.

The group stared after its prey in awe as I turned on Lily.

"What on EARTH did you do that for," I asked her, "You ruined everything! You – you ---"

"I just saved all of you from a lecture, a series of detentions and maybe even being expelled from Hogwarts," Lily exclaimed, "You didn't even know what would happen if you performed the Vanishing Spell! For all you know, it may have killed him! You could have faced a lifetime in Azkaban! Really you guys! We are in our sixth year now! These practical jokes need to be put aside for your safety and everyone else's! We know enough advanced magic now to really hurt somebody, possibly an innocent standby. We need to be more mature. Dumbledore expects that from us."

"Fine, stick up for Snivellus," Sirius taunted, "It'll be your ass that is tied up next."

Out of anger, she stalked away and I stared after her. Peter left to do his own bidding. James, Sirius and I returned to our compartment. Sirius studied his new textbooks, James wrote down some new plans that he and Sirius were discussing before and I leaned against Remus, who was staring blankly out of the window, and told him what just happened with Lily. After a while, I fell asleep.