A/N: We're jumping around a bit again. This one's in third year. We will get to a steady time thing eventually, but it won't be that steady. All these things take place over time. Well, here's our chapter. Oh and for anyone wondering, a blue moon is when two full moons appear in the same month.
Disclaimer: No, it's not ours. Did you have to remind us? My god!
Chapter 6
I slammed the book closed. The thought of saying, "Eureka," passed through my head, but I dismissed it. I was about to put the book back on the shelf when I had a second thought. I opened the book again and flipped through to the page I was at before.
I reread quickly, going over all the information. I made a mental checklist, but eventually didn't bother. It all added up.
A werewolf. Of course. Obvious, really. Yet, here in my third year I had just figured it out. Remus Lupin was a werewolf.
I slammed the book closed again and placed it back on the shelf. I rushed to the door, and sprinted down the hallway to the dorm room.
I had figured it out. Me. Peter Pettigrew. The dumb one, the slow one, the one who didn't quite fit in. And now, I was the most impressive of all of them.
I threw open the door to the room and found Remus, Sirius, and James sprawled out around the room. Remus was sitting on the floor, doing his homework. James was lying on his bed, doodling in his notebook and Sirius was staring at the ceiling from his bed.
"Hey, Petey," Sirius said when I entered. "What's going on?"
This was the exact opening I needed. "I have something I really need to discuss with Remus."
Remus looked up, not seeming a bit apprehensive. "Yes?" he said, his voice calm. He could pretend all he wanted, but I knew.
"It's about you're being sick," I clarified. I saw his expression falter a bit. "You're gone about three days or so, 'bout once a month," I said, trying to sound objective when all I really wanted to do was jump around like a little kid.
"Yeah," Remus said, sounding a bit nervous though.
"Except it's not 'about' at all, is it? You are gone exactly three days each month. Well, once in a blue moon, you are out twice in a month," I said, stressing the words "blue moon."
Remus, to my surprise, laughed. "Blue moon! Now that is a pun." He sobered a bit. "Okay, you know then, don't you?"
"Yes, I do," I said happily.
"You want to tell them?" Remus asked.
"I do indeed."
"Be my guest," Remus said, though he was looking a bit off color. All of this time, James and Sirius had been following our conversation, neither of them really getting it.
"You see," I told them now. "Remus has been continually absent on these specific days because he is..." I paused for dramatic effect. "A werewolf."
There. It was out. James and Sirius looked at Remus, their eyes wide. "That is so cool," Sirius said slowly. "Well, okay it's a bit dangerous, but cool none the less."
"A werewolf," James said. "But all this time..."
"I'm sorry," Remus said. "I'm sorry, but I had to lie to you. I wasn't allowed to say anything. And I want you to know that I never put you in any danger." His voice didn't quiver. It was if he had known he would say this eventually and was planning for it.
"But the real question is," Sirius said the familiar impish tone in his voice, "what are we going to do now?"
"What do you mean?" asked Remus, looking at Sirius quizzically.
"Well, now that we know what you've been doing every month, we can't just let you do it alone. I mean, it's not a particularly pleasant experience, is it?" Sirius asked. Remus shook his head so he continued. "We should try to find a way to spend those nights with Remus."
"How?" asked James, running a hand through his hair, messing it up a bit more. "We would have to be immune to getting bit and turning into ones ourselves, as well as strong enough to keep him from tearing us to pieces. No offense, of course," he added when he realized how ruthless he made Remus sound.
"Animals," I said, the text I had read earlier popping back into my head. "Animals won't turn into a werewolf if they're bitten."
In turn, all of our eyes met each others. The word, though not spoken, passed throughout our brains.
"Could you do it?" Remus asked. "I mean, it's very difficult to become..."
"James and I could manage," Sirius said. "We could help Petey with it. No offense, mate, but you're not too great at transfiguration."
"Yeah," I agreed absently, suddenly hit with what we were going to do.
"Animangi," James whispered. "I always wanted to be one."
"What did you want to be?" Remus asked.
"A stag," James answered. "I always wanted to be able to run like that."
"Now you can," said Sirius. "Now we can all be whatever we want to be. A stag is perfect. You could fend off a werewolf if you needed to. I think I'd like to be a dog," he finished, trailing off.
James laughed. "A dog! You look like a dog."
"Shut up, will you?" he snapped back. "It's my name. Sirius was a dog in... some mythology... shut up," Sirius looked a bit flustered. "What about you, Petey? What do you want to be?"
Any animal at all. My brain searched for what I needed. Something that was me, something that showed me for who I really was. Of course! Of course, it was so simple. "A lion," I decided.
I'd be the strongest of them all, I realized. The fastest, the most important. For the first time in my life, I might make some difference.
"Good idea," Sirius said, clapping me on the back. "Keep up the house spirit."
"So, that's it then," Remus said. "You're going to do it."
"Yeah," James said. "We are going to do this."
"We'll start training soon. James and I can go into the Restricted Section tonight with his invisibility cloak and get some books on the subject. We'll train at midnight." Sirius smiled, his eyes crinkling. "This is going to be brilliant. We'll have a lion and a stag and a dog-"
"Wait," Remus said. "I forgot. We need... well, we're going to need a small animal."
My heart sank. "Why?" I asked.
Remus looked flustered. "You know the Whomping Willow tree? Well, there's this passage way under it, going to the Shrieking Shack. That's where I usually am. Anyways, we're going to need someone small go press this knot to open the door."
We were silent. James looked at Sirius, who looked at me, who looked at James, who looked back at me.
"I'll do it," I said. Far be it from me to mess with their own reams. I'll take one for the team. "I'll do it."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
And that's how it happened. I became excepted into the group, fully, completely. But, I wasn't. I was the rat. The one who would be lost if left alone in the like so of a werewolf. I couldn't be left alone.
A/N: Bad? Good? Could we have done that better? Anyone feeling bad for Peter yet?
