Chapter Eight
Confession

So during the course of the day the four boys started plotting their revenge. During Transfiguration once they finished transfiguring a rock into a piece of putty Remus, James, Sirius and Peter started plotting their pranks against Miss. Bertha Lupin. They were trying to find something that scared her beyond her wits so of course they constantly kept asking Remus.

"But what makes her so scared that she comes close to wetting her pants?" James whispered from behind a book he was pretending to read.

"Give me time to think," Remus answered as he and Sirius was playing hangman on a piece of parchment. Remus knew perfectly well that she was scared more than anything of werewolves. Remus knew that was why she wanted to give him silver, she was afraid of him. He sighed and guessed the letter E for his game of hangman and watched as Sirius drew a right arm on the man. All Remus needed was the two legs and he lost the game. He guessed V and W and watched glumly as Sirius completed the picture of the hung man.

"You lose," Sirius, whispered triumphantly, "the word was 'hinkypunks'! Hey is your cousin afraid of them? We could sneak into the Defense Against the Dark Arts room and nick one!"

"No, she's not afraid of those. In fact the only thing she's afraid of she has a right to be scared of," Remus answered as he took the piece of parchment he and Sirius had been playing on and turned it over and drew a new game set with ten blank spaces for the word. "If you win this game you find out." Sirius nodded and began guessing a variety of letters. Finally he was on his last chance and need only one more letter to win the game.

"R" Sirius guessed. Remus nodded and filled in the blank space unveiling the word "Werewolves." James and Sirius looked at it and grinned. Obviously they were formulating a way to scare Bertha with a werewolf.

"She's afraid of werewolves?" James asked in a mock concerned voice. Remus nodded. "Perfect! That article in the Daily Prophet must've really scared her. Well, Remus werewolves are generally tricky to use in a prank but we can always conjure up a fake one. You know, one that looks real, acts real, smells real, but when it bites you, you find out its fake." Remus looked at his friends a bit doubted. He never liked messing around with what he was. Now he suddenly thought revenge wasn't the best answer. He sighed and nodded at his friends' answered and then dug his nose in a book.

The rest of the day seemed to drag on endlessly. First off, Sirius and James kept badgering Remus about their prank in which every time they ask he became less and less interested in. Second, they had a mound of homework that would take ages to do and last classes were as boring as ever. The only interesting thing they witnessed was Bertha's potion coming alive and it started attacking her partner. The result of this was that they ended up getting a three-page essay on the importance of making sure your potion stays lifeless. Sirius, James and Peter were whining all the way down to Great Hall because of this.

That night when everyone had called it a night and headed up to bed Remus choose to stay awake finish his homework. Remus had always found a liking to being by himself, especially since the werewolf had bitten him, he felt calmer and found it easier to concentrate. Except tonight however. He was finding it particularly hard to concentrate with so much on his mind. He had the other half of his homework to finish, the fact that his parents hadn't responded to his last two letters, he was beginning to strain his eyes from lack of light, the oncoming dread that he could get caught doing the prank and the fact that his foot was still aching terribly (A/N: I did something similar to what Remus does and it really does hurt!). Finally he was getting so annoyed with it that he just wanted to see why it was so terrible.

He stood up and limped over to the nearest armchair and sat down. He pulled off his shoe and sock and looked at it. It was his big toe that he had rammed into the wooden leg, quite hard too. It was considerably more purple and blue than it had been earlier and the nail was jammed backward and bleeding underneath. He couldn't even move it when he tried. He frowned and thought it couldn't possibly get any worse so he just picked up his sock and shoe, grabbed his homework and headed upstairs.

The next morning he awoke to find Sirius, James and Peter huddled around James's bed. They were discussing something very quietly and when they saw Remus had woken up they gestured for him to come over. Remus limped over and sat down next to Peter.

"What are you doing?" Remus asked.

"Discussing Plan Bertha's Big Revenge," Sirius answered, "picked the title out myself!"

"Oh stop being so modest Sirius," James joked, "we've got it figured out. I remember my parents gave me this really ugly werewolf costume for Halloween. I never wore it but it won't fit me now anyway." Remus had an idea about where this was going; at least it was better than their original idea.

"So one of us is going to have to wear it?" Remus asked unnecessarily.

"Yes," James answered, "Sirius and I are too big for this so it was either between you and Peter. Peter is small enough, in height, but not so much if he wants to fit into the costume, the seams would burst and I'd have no more costume. So that leaves you Remus."

"You know maybe this isn't such a good idea!"

"You said it just yesterday that you wanted revenge," said Sirius, "and unless my ears are cheating me I heard you say that revenge was sweet, which I can hardly make an argument for."

"Okay fine I'll do it!" His friends nodded and they went to get dressed. Remus had his robes on and was now trying to stuff his foot inside his shoe. Maybe I should see Madam Pomfrey, he thought just as he had gotten his shoe on his foot, nah it can't get any worse. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and went with his three friends down to the Great Hall.

Breakfast was uneventful enough. Just the usual James fawning over Lily and Sirius telling him that she hates him and that's all there is to it. Then James kept asking Remus why Lily doesn't hate him and Remus gave him the usual, because I don't play tricks on people for no reason and because I don't try and show off whenever she's around. James groaned and continued eating his oatmeal.

During Charms class as they were levitating some pillows across the room they decided that they were going to pull the prank that night. Remus was thinking that at least it wasn't a real full moon that night. There wasn't another for a week. Once classes had dismissed they trampled up to the boys' dormitory and James took his werewolf costume out of his trunk. Remus looked at how clever it was it was the exact image of what he looked like every month. James handed the costume to Remus and Remus held it up against himself and frowned. It fit him perfectly but he didn't want to wear it, his cousin would think it was he when he was actually a werewolf!

That night the four boys ventured out under James's Invisibility Cloak. They had sent Peter earlier with a message saying for her to go to the Quidditch Pitch at eight o' clock. They waited there for only ten minutes before they saw the figure of Bertha approaching. She was looking around curiously and Remus just sat and watched until James and Sirius shoved him out from under the cloak. Remus started to do some low frequency growls that caught his cousin's attention. She wheeled around and saw Remus, dressed as a werewolf bearing down on her, baring the plastic set of fangs he was wearing.

"R-R-Remus?" Bertha stammered, "Is that you? Remember me? Its your cousin!" Remus paid no attention to her pleas and continued to walk to her forcing spit to form out of the corners of his mouth to add to the effect. James and Sirius on the other hand were no longer enjoying her terror. They were thinking about what she had just said. Why had she distinctly said Remus, when she had no idea that it was he? That could only mean one thing...

"I'm going to get McGonagall!" Bertha started to run but Remus ran swiftly past her and blocked her way, laughing silently to himself. Bertha whipped out her wand and shouted "Stupefy!" Red sparks emitted from her wand and were sent flying at Remus. Bertha screamed one last time and hurtled to the castle. James threw off the Invisibility Cloak off him, Sirius and Peter and ran to Remus' limp form. They took the costume off him since he was wearing his clothes underneath and brought him to the hospital wing.

Remus opened his eyes and found moonlight pouring into the room. He had no idea where he was and then he remembered the last time he woke up like this was when he found himself lying in Saint Mungo's. He sat up and sighed in relief when he realised it was just the hospital wing. He saw James, Sirius and Peter sitting on chairs next to the door, all of them snoring. Madam Pomfrey, he then saw, was at the foot of his bed wrapping a bandage around his big toe, he had forgotten all about that. The hospital wing door then burst open, causing Madam Pomfrey to jump in fright and James, Sirius and Peter to al fall of their chairs. Professor McGonagall came storming into the room, her nostrils flaring and her eyes gleaming with anger.

"Cowardly trick! Completely unacceptable!" she raged.

"Professor," Madam Pomfrey said, "what is the matter?"

"I'm sorry Poppy, but I must have a word with our four gentlemen privately!" Madam Pomfrey nodded and left the room. Professor McGonagall sat on the foot of Remus's bed and James, Sirius and Peter sat on the one next to it.

"What is wrong with you four!" she continued, "playing a trick like that! Do you know what damage you could have caused!"?

"And she couldn't have caused me serious damage by trying to poison me?" Remus snarled.

"Mr. Lupin please hold your tongue! I certainly would have expected better from you! Honestly dressing up as a werewolf and frightening her beyond her wits! You four should know better! Never would I have expected such behaviour from Gryffindors! My own house! You will all be facing detention and ten points each from Gryffindor! Mr. Lupin I will be back in an hour to have a private discussion with you." Professor McGonagall stood up and left the ward. Remus groaned and slumped back into his pillows. He knew his friends were all watching him, but he didn't want to speak.

"Remus," James said quietly. Remus raised a hand in acknowledgment, "if you don't mind my asking, have you been hiding something from us?"

"I don't know what your talking about," Remus lied, staring fixedly at the ceiling as though he found it more interesting.

"Don't play stupid," Sirius, snarled, "we heard what your cousin said. She knew the werewolf was you!"

"I don't want to talk about it," Remus muttered.

"Too bad 'cause you're going to!" James yelled, "we know you've been hiding something from us and we know what it is! You're a werewolf!" Normally Remus would have lied to them, but for some reason he didn't have the heart to. He nodded his head slowly. Sirius, James and Peter all raised their eyebrows, with no particular expressions on their faces.

"I'm a werewolf," Remus muttered, "I admit it."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Peter asked.

"Because I thought if I did you wouldn't want to be my friends, like everyone else who knows what I am. Instead of seeing me they see nothing but a monster! I never had any friends and now that I do I didn't want to ruin it." Remus rolled over and faced the window so his friends wouldn't see the tears welling in his eyes. "I thought you would abandon me the minute you found out," he chocked.

"Abandon you?" Sirius asked absurdly. "Why would we abandon you?"

"Everyone else has," Remus, answered, wiping his face with his sheets, "nobody wants their child exposed to danger."

"So what? For the time we've known you have you ever been dangerous? No you haven't! Just because you're a werewolf doesn't mean we're going to stop being your friends." Remus wiped his face dry and rolled back over to face his friends.

"You're not?" he asked.

"Of course not," said James throwing his hands up, "we think its great!" Remus didn't know what to say. He had been certain that the moment they found out they would be telling him to take a hike. Instead of saying anything he smiled and nodded. James looked at his wristwatch and said that they had to leave otherwise the prefects would catch them. Remus turned on his back and stared up at the ceiling thinking to himself that he couldn't possibly have better friends.

Professor McGonagall returned after an hour and said that she merely wanted to say that he could have caused serious damages. He nodded and said he knew. She also said that he shouldn't have done that and that he shouldn't feel ashamed of what he was. Remus nodded and said that he wasn't. Professor McGonagall smiled and left Remus to be by himself.

The next morning Remus woke to find dark rain clouds streaming outside his window. He groaned as the sheets of rain fell and the thunder roared and lightening cracked. Madam Pomfrey said Remus was free to go so he changed into his robes, slung his bag (brought down later that night by James) over his shoulder and headed to class. During every class they had with the Slytherins Bertha glared at Remus angrily, which he couldn't care less about. The rain was falling so heavily that Herbology classes were cancelled due t the massive amounts of mud on the grounds. Remus spent the free time up in Gryffindor Tower engulfed in an intense match of wizards' chess with James. He smiled triumphantly when James's king dropped its sword surrendering.

"What's it like?" Sirius asked, as he sat on the couch finishing some homework, "being a werewolf, that is."

"Its no picnic," Remus answered as he watched the chess pieces rebuild themselves and hop back into the box, "it's painful, I mean. The thought of it" he made a noise and shook his head. "Well anyway, Madam Pomfrey has to take me to the Whomping Willow every full moon for my transformation, then I go to this place in Hogsmeade called the Shrieking Shack. There's a passage, you see, under the willow that I go through. I wish I didn't have to do any of this, its painful and lonely." He sighed and went upstairs to put the chess game up in the dormitory and came down a minute later carrying his book bag.

"Remus," James said slowly, "maybe there's something we can do to make your transformations less lonely... and possibly enjoyable?"

"Becoming a werewolf is as far away from enjoyable as you can get," Remus joked, he took a seat on one of the arm chairs, "but what did you have in mind?"

"I remember hearing that Professor McGonagall was something called and Animagus, you know, a wizard that can change into an animal. If Sirius, Peter and I can hack it, we can do it too."

"James you could get expelled! Its illegal!"

"Calm down Remus, we do it in secret! No one will ever have to know! On the full moon when you transform we sneak down under my cloak and transform and go down behind you! One of us... well Peter that is... will turn into a small animal so it can prod the knot under the willow. Sirius and I will be the lager creatures to make sure you don't get away. You can only hurt humans not animals. Maybe you should sleep on it."