Year 2: Chapter 23

The first two weeks of November flew by for everyone and before anybody knew it it was the twentieth. Amanda spent three days a week in detention and found that she was now joined by Sirius and James for the remainder of the term.

"I can't believe we got stuck in detention!"

"It's your fault we're here anyway James."

"Will you both shut up if Flitwick comes back and finds you talking that'll be more detention and I'm sick of detention already."

The two boys snapped their heads around to look at the girl. She had been sitting in the back of the room writing lines over and over again.

"How long have you been here?"

"Since September."

"Ha ha! Very funny. How long have you been here?"

"Since seven and its only half past now."

The two boys shared a look and James was the one to speak up.

"What time does he normally keep you till?"

"About nine thirty, but that depends on if I have two feet of lines written by then."

"Oh."

The two boys looked down and started writing their lines again. Twenty minutes passed and Flitwick came in to check on them and again left. Amanda spoke up at that point.

"So what did you two do to get detention?"

"Well you see we set up a trap for your friends and Branwen walked across the spell line and well she isn't quite herself anymore."

"You're the ones that made her a boy!"

The pair laughed slightly.

"Well yeah we were the ones to do that only Ddraig sort of guessed it would be us and slipped us a weak truth potion and well we're in detention now until the Christmas holidays."

"So I'm stuck with you then until Christmas?"

"Looks like that I think Ddraig and Flitwick are going to take in turns to serve our detentions."

The room went quiet again and they continued with their lines again before Sirius spoke up.

"What time is it?"

"Ten to nine, not much longer now."

He sighed and stood up.

"What you doing Sirius?"

"My neck hurts, rub it for me James."

"I'm not touching your neck!"

"But it hurts!"

Sirius stuck out his lower lip in a pout and opened his eyes wide. Amanda laughed and he turned to look at her.

"You could rub my neck!"

"Why would I want to?"

"Because you're my best friend in the whole world, even if you are a girl and you over react when I change your hair colour."

"Oh just come sit in front of me then!"

Sirius came and sat in front of her and she leaned over her desk rubbing his shoulders with her fingers and laughing at the way he began to stamp his left foot in time to her fingers. The door opened and Flitwick came in.

"What are you doing?"

"My shoulder hurt and I couldn't write so Mand was helping me."

Flitwick looked around and shook his head at the group.

"Just leave Ddraig will take you for detention on Wednesday, now go on leave."

The three quickly stood up and put their quills and parchment away. They moved towards the door and quickly ran up two stairs. Then they came to a stop as Amanda began to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

Sirius looked at her as if she were mad.

"You're prank was really good I wish I had thought of it, I could have turned the pair of you into girls."

The three smiled a bit and then they saw Christian come running down the corridor.

"You three missed Quidditch practice tonight, where were you?"

"Detention"

"But it's a Monday night you never have detention on a Monday!"

"I know but Flitwick couldn't do it tomorrow so he moved it to today, I sent you an owl to let you know."

"I know that Dixon but they didn't."

"Well we didn't think, sorry."

Sirius looked at James and he nodded his agreement to that statement, Christian looked like he was thinking before he said anything else.

"Is it true that you two have detention until Christmas?"

"Umm… well yeah it is but don't worry it won't affect Quidditch practice"

"How do you know that? We can only practice on a Monday and a Thursday as it is, now you two will have detentions on other days than Dixon and we'll be in trouble, the first match is Saturday and we need to practice!"

"We've got detentions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays just like Mand so no worrying okay Christian!"

James shook his head at their captain and they walked off leaving him talking to Kathy White who appeared out of a classroom as they were leaving. They stopped once more outside of the common room and James waved goodbye and headed in.

Amanda and Sirius just stood looking at one another for a few moments before he spoke up.

"Are we friends again?"

"I think we were always friends Sirius it just took me two months to cool down enough to be able to talk to you."

"Good, I've missed some of our conversations."

"Yeah me too, but don't expect the others to talk to you. Ginny might if she wants help with a prank on the Slytherins or someone but Alice and Lily won't forgive you easily."

"But we didn't do much to them!"

"You made it so that Lestrange noticed Lily's legs that's a bad thing trust me on that one!"

"Okay so that ones bad but what about Alice, alright we made her hair fall out but yours did as well."

"Yeah I know but she's not use to you is she, come on how many times have you made me lose my hair."

"Okay so that was what the fifth time."

"Yeah the fifth time in three years Sirius, but Branwen won't be forgiving either after the whole being a boy thing."

"Yeah you're right. So how about we stay friends but we don't play it up in front of the girls, the boys won't mind in fact I think they'll prefer having you on our side that means less cursing us."

"Deal!"

Amanda stood on tiptoes and kissed Sirius on the cheek before saying the password and walking in. Sirius smiled to himself as he walked back inside and up to the dorm room.

He looked around and noticed that Peter was asleep and James was sitting on his bed reading a note. Remus was nowhere in sight though.

"Where's Remus?"

"It says here that he's gone to see his grandmother something about a surprise birthday party, he'll be back on Wednesday."

"Is that were he was yesterday?"

"Yeah he left yesterday afternoon."

"Oh. Wait he's gone to see his grandmother for a birthday party, but wasn't it his grandmother's funeral last month that's what he disappeared for?"

"No his step-grandmother you know the one his mother's father married, well apparently this is his mother's mother."

"Isn't it weird that Dumbledore just lets him leave all the time."

"I know when was the last time he went?"

"Umm... it was the twenty-first the day after my birthday. Then he left in September because his cousin got married he went on, oh when was it the twenty-second because it was the day before Andi's birthday."

"How do you remember that?"

"I wrote it down in this organiser that mother got me why?"

"Can I have a look?"

Sirius handed the book over to James who stared at it for a while. He had left the day before the full moon in September and October. He flicked to the twentieth of November and noticed that it was a full moon tonight.

"Sirius did you write down the dates he left last year?"

"Yeah why?"

"Look closely at the dates in September, October and this month see is you notice something."

Sirius took it back and looked at each one.

"It's the day before the full moon!"

"Yeah I know."

"Wait you don't think that Remus is…"

At that moment a low howl was heard somewhere in the ground. Sirius quickly turned back in his organiser to January and looked at the dates and gasped.

"James Remus left on the twenty-ninth of January and it was a full moon on the thirtieth."

"What about February?"

"He left on the twenty-eighth full moon on the twenty-ninth. March well he went on the twenty-eighth and full moon on the twenty-ninth, April yep the same and May. But June that's weird"

"What?"

"He left on the twenty-fourth said that he had to attend a funeral for his uncle Joseph well the full moon wasn't until the twenty-sixth."

"Does it say when he came back?"

"Yeah the twenty-eighth."

"Wait did you say Joseph?"

"Yeah why?"

"Joseph Lupin died in June my dad was at the funeral they worked together, he got attacked by a Hippogriff that had been cursed by some mad wizard."

"Okay so Remus left early to really go to the funeral and then stayed away until after the full moon."

Another piercing howl was heard through the night air.

"Sirius if Remus is a werewolf that doesn't change anything does it?"

"No, he's still Remus he's just not the nicest guy to be around for three days a month, and Amanda can be like that."

"Sirius! You better never say that to her face she'll kill you for that."

"Okay but what should we do about Remus?"

"We'll talk to him when he 'comes back' and we'll confront him and make him tell us the truth and then we say we don't care."

"Yeah we can try to help him, we'll think up better excuses, because I've got his uncle died three times in this thing, and his grandmother had two funerals and three parties in one year."

The pair agreed their plan of action and headed to bed since they would still have to be up for their lessons in the morning.