Chapter 11:Anweladwy
Author's Note: Hello everyone! I expect you're all about ready to strangle me now, and I do apologise for the time it took me to update. Blame the lack of a muse, blame the faulty internet connection, blame my classes, and above all, blame the fact that I seem to have gotten myself a life. Let me just say, though, that you can thank those who reviewed and reminded me that I had a commitment to this story; I will not be abandoning this project, but if it were not for the reviewers who refused to let me forget my responsibility to finish this, there would be no new chapter right now. I can say with great certainty that the next chapter will not be so long in coming; if I am overly slow in updating, please bug me about it until I get myself moving again. Today's Welsh Word: Anweladwy means Invisible. Ooooohhhh- aren't you all excited now? Please leave reviews, and I just wanted to let you know that this chapter is part of the buildup to something big, so expect longer chapters in the near future- I just wanted to get this bit out before you come searching for me and rip my head off. Enjoy!
James was very happy to be back at Hogwarts for his second year. He and Sirius had had a great deal of fun over the summer, but too much free time got boring after a while. James tended to enjoy his classes, especially when they challenged him; he loved learning new things, and it was true that he and Sirius could get into a lot more trouble with Remus' and Peter's help. They were hoping to pull some good pranks, the four of them together, sometime soon, because Sirius was likely to explode if he didn't get to have some fun soon. James was in complete agreement with him, of course; what good was knowing all the secrets of Hogwarts if you weren't able to use them for some fun? Remus had made them promise on the train, however, not to play any tricks on the first year students for at least the first week.
"They'll be scared enough as it is." Remus had said sternly, looking solemnly at each of his friends. "The least you can do is give them a few days to settle in, all right?" They had all agreed- it was difficult not to, with Remus staring at them with the professorial glint in his eyes that they had come to know and dread- whenever he got that look, they knew they were about to agree to something they would rather not. It was rather creepy, Sirius always said, how little Remus could make them all listen to him. He just had the kind of bearing that made people listen.
James yawned, and rolled out of bed; no good being late for classes on the first day back! Why, they might miss the perfect opportunity to have some fun with a teacher- Remus hadn't made them promise not to prank the teaching staff! James threw a pillow at Sirius; when that produced no response, he began to toss whatever came to hand- a pair of socks, Peter's stuffed bear, a half-empty box of Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans, a notebook. Still, Sirius refused to wake up, so James decided desperate measures were needed, and he grabbed Sirius' feet and pulled him out of bed onto the floor. That did the trick- Sirius was wide awake, his eyes flashing, his hair falling in his face. He grabbed James in a headlock, and the noise of the two wrestling woke Peter up. Remus was already up and moving about, and he just glanced at the two rough-housing and shook his head, smiling.
The four made it to breakfast in time - little later than they would have been, except that Remus insisted on stopping and explaining to all of the little lost first years exactly how to get to the Great Hall. Peter was very amused by the fact that Remus stood no taller than the first-years; Peter had done some growing over the summer, and seemed now to think that his height granted him the right to give short people a hard time. James and Sirius squashed this ungentlemanly impulse in their friend- literally, because the way they thought best to help him overcome this personality defect was to sit on him. By the time they were done, Peter was no longer inclined to boast about his height. He was too busy trying to straighten his very messy robes.
They received their schedules at breakfast, and headed off straightaway to their first class- Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"Well," Sirius said brightly as they headed to class. "Perhaps it won't be Muerno teaching anymore. Maybe he died over the summer!" Peter looked quite hopeful at this idea, until Remus reminded them quietly that if that were the case, Dumbledore would certainly have mentioned it at the feast the night before. They all deflated a bit at this; James noticed that Remus was looking rather gloomy at the thought of being back in Muerno's class. James hoped that for Remus' sake, the professor would let up on him this term. Nobody knew why Muerno hated Remus, but he did. Remus was nevertheless the best student in the class, and said he liked it, despite the teacher.
When they entered the classroom and sat down, Muerno was already there, seated unmovingly at the desk, staring at them over his clenched hands. When the entire class was seated, he rose silently and began to pace about the front of the room, glaring at the students. He gave a brief and cold speech about the importance of focusing on their studies, and the penalties that would be incurred by any student who disrupted his class in any way. He stopped at this to glare specifically at Remus before turning away; Remus just stared coolly back, not blinking. Muerno then told them he wished them to read the first chapter of their new textbook in class, so he could be certain they were doing as they were told; the rest of the class was very dull, as the book they were using was quite poorly written. The Beginners Guide to Dark and Evil Things, it was called, and the first chapter was a very long, weak and wandering introduction to the nature of Evil, as represented by Dark Creatures, and Good, as represented by the author. James suspected that the text had been written by Muerno himself, under the name given on the book cover, "Quagmirus Crosby." The attitudes reflected in the writing matched closely with those of Muerno. James was quite glad when the class was over, and he and the others wasted no time in packing their bags and leaving.
History of Magic was, of course, dull as anything. James always thought that class was great shame, because he was normally fascinated by history; Binns just had a way of making even the most fascinating happenings sound dull; Sirius didn't even bother to attempt to stay awake, and Peter and James were sleeping shortly after the lecture began. When the period was over, Remus shook them awake, looking reproachful. "You really ought to try to stay awake." Remus told them, shaking his head. "You might learn something that way."
"Why should we bother?" Sirius asked, grinning broadly. "We can just ask you to explain it to us!"
"And what will you do someday when I'm not around to explain something dull to you?" Remus asked, but he was smiling.
"I don't know!" Sirius replied. "You'd better not go anywhere, mate- you'll just have to stick around and explain things to us forever!"
"Provided you explain things that I don't understand!" Remus said as they walked into the Transfiguration classroom. Professor McGonagall winced as the four entered, but restored her normal facial expression quickly.
"Good morning, everyone." She said calmly. "Welcome back. I trust you have all kept up on your reading over the summer?"
"Yeah, right!" James whispered to Sirius, and the two laughed silently. Unfortunately, this caught the teacher's attention, and she turned to James.
"Mr. Potter, what is so amusing?"
"Nothing!" James said quickly, smiling at her innocently. "I was just telling Sirius here how much I'm looking forward to your class this year, that's all."
"Well then, Mr. Potter, I'm sure I can ask you to demonstrate our first example today, then?" McGonagall asked, smiling at him; James got the impression that she did not believe a word he had said.
"Certainly." He replied confidently. If you were going to go down, better to do it with your head held high. The professor placed a turnip on his desk.
"Now then, Mr. Potter, if you would be so good as to demonstrate to the class how one would go about transfiguring this turnip into a teacup?" McGonagall stepped back and folded her arms, watching James closely. He concentrated, trying to remember everything he had learned in class the year before. One wand motion later, a lovely teacup sat on the desk in front of him, and James breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was bloody brilliant!" Sirius enthused after class. "I didn't know you even touched your books over the summer!"
"That's because I didn't!" James said. "I guess Transfiguration is just sort of easy for me."
All of the boys had classes that they found easy. Peter was very good at Herbology- Sirius always joked that it was because all you needed to be good at Herbology was patience. Peter certainly had that! James was very good at Transfiguration, as was Sirius; Sirius was also quite skilled in DADA, although nowhere near Remus' level of skill. Remus seemed to be able to understand everything in that class without ever trying; he was also very good as Astronomy.
The first few weeks of classes flew by incredibly fast; by the third week, it was as though they had never left at all. To add to this feeling, Remus got sick again, and had to go to the Infirmary.
"I'm not so sure about this." Sirius told James the night Remus had to leave the Common Room. Peter had accompanied him down, although James suspected that Peter's desire for a snack from the kitchens led to his volunteering to walk with Remus. "I mean, I really think something might be wrong with him. I have no idea what, but it can't be right for anyone to be sick as much as he is! And he gets all weird every time he's gone and disappeared- and then there's the fact that he's always having to go home to visit his mum. And he comes back all tired and looking awful- James, I really think there's something wrong."
"I agree." James said seriously. He had also been worried about Remus, and this latest round of illness just made his more determined to figure out what was going on. 'Wait, Sirius! I have an idea!"
"Be kind to it- it's in a strange place." Sirius said absently, reaching under his bed for something out of his reach.
"No, I mean it!" James said excitedly. "Look, my dad gave me something before I came back here this year, and I didn't tell you yet because I wanted to wait until there was a really good reason, and until now there hasn't been, but I think now counts, so I guess I can tell you- but you have to swear not to tell anyone!" Sirius stared at James blankly as he tried to work through James' very long and rushed sentence. When he finally got to the end of hit, Sirius shrugged.
"All right then, I swear not to tell anyone. Now what's got you so excited?" For answer, James leapt up and dashed over to his chest, flung it open and pulled out-
"An invisibility cloak!" Sirius breathed, his eyes lighting up. "Merlin, James, you couldn't have told me about this before? Think of all the time we've wasted!" Sirius touched the silvery fabric, his eyes gleaming.
"Look, I was thinking we could use this to sneak down to the Infirmary and see if we can find out what's wrong with Remus! I mean, if they don't know we're there, they might say something which will tell us what's going on."
"James." Sirius said solemnly. "You are a genius. Let's go!" Leaving a brief note for Peter - "Gone out. Back soon. Busy. Back soon."- the two snuck out of Gryffindor tower and to the Infirmary. Donning the cloak as soon as they were near the door, they slunk inside, looking for their friend. But Remus wasn't there, and neither was Madam Pomfrey; the Infirmary was dark and silent. Perplexed, the two left silently, not speaking until they were almost back to Gryffindor.
"Maybe he decided he wasn't really that sick after all and came back." James said doubtfully. Remus had looked quite ill, as he always did when he had to go away, and he usually spent two or three days in the Hospital Wing. When they got back to their room, Peter was back, sound asleep, but there was no sign of Remus.
"Pete! Hey Pete!" Sirius woke Peter up with a pillow to the face and a few calls. He awoke, groaning in protest.
"Whaddya want? M'trying to sleep."
"Pete, where's Remus?" James asked.
"Hospital Wing." Peter muttered. "Now can I sleep?"
"No!" Sirius said loudly. "Pete, he's not there- we were just there, we looked, he's not there, and neither is Pomfrey."
"They were both there when I left." Peter said crossly. "I just walked down with Remus, and then I left, and he was still there."
James and Sirius looked at each other in silence- for a few seconds, because Peter's gentle snores began after a moment, and he was sound asleep again.
"Well, I suppose we can't do anything about it." James said resignedly. "We'll just have to wait until tomorrow to figure out what's going on." Sirius nodded reluctantly, and they both went to bed in silence. The next day, they headed down to the Infirmary before breakfast, asking to see Remus.
"Mr Lupin is not well, and needs his rest." Madam Pomfrey answered them, looking tired.
"But he is here, isn't he?" James asked worriedly.
"Of course he's here!" The nurse replied. "Where else would he be?"
They all went to breakfast, thinking to themselves.
"Well if he's there," Sirius finally burst out, "then why didn't we see him last night? And we still don't know what's wrong with him! Something's wrong, James." Peter nodded in agreement, and James agreed.
"Yes, something's going on, and we're going to find out what it is. Whatever it is, it's making Remus miserable, which is unacceptable. We're going to figure it out and make everything better for him. After all, it can't be bad enough that we can't handle it! He ought to just tell us what's wrong, but since he won't, I guess we'll have to find out on our own."
"And until we do?" Peter asked.
"Look out for him." James said simply. "He'd do the same for us. After all, he's one of us, and that's all there is to it."