Relapse
"Poppy, are you sure you didn't give him too much," said a voice just next to Remus. He wanted to see who it was. But he was feeling extremely sick and groggy. Though the voice sounded incredibly familiar.
"Of course not!" another voice shouted, the shout pierced loudly in Remus's ear. "Why would I? The boy is sick for goodness sake!"
"He's been out for a couple of days!" said a third voice. What? Remus thought, who's been out for a couple of days? Surely they were not talking about him, or were they? Remus tried hard to open his eyes, and finally managed. He saw Madam Pomfrey, Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore standing at the foot of his bed. Madam Pomfrey was wearing a furious expression, Professor McGonagall: stern and Professor Dumbledore: calm. Obviously they were the ones arguing, Remus just did not know what about. Madam Pomfrey's eyes darted towards Remus.
"See he's awake! No harm done!" she shrieked, again loudly so that Remus clapped his ears. Professor McGonagall looked sympathetically at Remus's frail and worn out form. She looked at Professor Dumbledore.
"I knew we should not have taken him out of St. Mungo's until they said it was all right," she said angrily. "Imagine if his parents were here to see this!" Now this was getting to him, what were they talking about?
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Nothing Lupin," Professor McGonagall said quickly.
"Well if you're not even going to tell him!" Madam Pomfrey raged. "I have no business in here!" Madam Pomfrey turned on her heel and stormed into her office, slamming the door behind her. Professor McGonagall sighed and whispered something to the Headmaster. He nodded and left to open the door. When he pulled it open, in fell James, Sirius and Peter.
"Good afternoon boys," Professor Dumbledore said calmly. "Classes are dismissed, I hope?"
"Yes sir," Peter squeaked. "May we come in?"
"Is that all right Minerva?" Professor Dumbledore asked Professor McGonagall.
"Oh I suppose," she snapped. Professor Dumbledore stepped aside and James, Sirius and Peter scrambled in. The door closed behind them and they stood at the doorway. "Can I help you boys?"
"We were just coming to see if Remus was awake yet," Sirius explained, avoiding the Transfiguration teacher's stare. "Is he?"
"Yes, he's fine... I assume." James, Sirius and Peter exchanged looks and walked over. They were relieved to see their friend awake. He had been in a deep sickly sleep for a whole week! He never woke up, and the only time he uttered a sound was when he groaned in his sleep. His face was damp with sweat, his eyes were bloodshot with dark circles under them, his face was ghastly pale, but despite all this, they were happy to see their friend awake.
"You've given the whole staff a scare, Mr. Lupin," Professor McGonagall said exasperatedly.
"I don't understand," Remus said. "What's been going on? What happened to me?" Professor McGonagall conjured up four chairs with a wave of her wand. She took three of them and placed them next to James, Sirius and Peter and took one for herself. They sat down; Professor McGonagall looked at Remus for a minute and began to speak.
"Well you see, the night you got back from the hospital you went into a severe relapse, only Madam Pomfrey would not admit it. You were asleep for nearly a week and we tried everything. Mr. Griemer came every day and tried to figure out something to wake you up. We couldn't figure out how to get you to eat-as you can see, your clothes are hanging much loosely." Remus looked at his clothes and saw they looked like they could fit his uncle more than him. Had all this happened? Remus did not even know he had been sleeping for a week! It felt like just one night. Professor McGonagall stopped speaking and said she had to go see the Headmaster. She left the room in a flash and disappeared down the hall.
"McGonagall's right," said Peter, shakily. "We had no clue what was wrong."
"Do we have to talk about this?" begged Remus; he was sick and tired of hearing people feeling sorry for him. James and Sirius nodded. Remus thought of something that would lighten up the mood a little bit.
"So, use any of your Christmas present?" he said, breaking into a smile. He knew they would not waste any time to use that.
"Of course we did!" Sirius boomed. Then lowered his voice so Madam Pomfrey would not come in and shoo them out. "Dungbomb Chocolate! Brilliant! Snivelly was gagging on it for hours!" The four of them laughed at the thought of Snape thinking he was eating a nice chocolate bar, only to discover when he took the first bite it would remind him strangely of dragon dung. They spent the rest of their time, before Madam Pomfrey hollered at them for staying so long, devising new and improved pranks to pull on Snape. Their old ones were good, but these ones had to be even better! When James went to go to the bathroom Remus just had to ask Sirius if he was still goggling over Lily.
"Every chance he gets," Sirius answered, smiling broadly. "Gets kind of sickening though. Looks like he's rabid, with foam coming out of his mouth, purely nasty!" Shortly after James returned, Madam Pomfrey came bustling in brandishing a feather duster at the three of them telling them to leave Remus in peace.
"We'll come see you tomorrow!" James shouted from the doorway. Remus leaned back on his bed and thought that at least he was back at school and not at St. Mungo's. He was not very fond of the place at all; every day he kept hearing people coming in with cases worse than his. That man he met was not the least bit understanding of what Remus said. The man did not want to accept what he was and he was saying how horrible werewolves were right in front of Remus. Although when he said those comments he did not know Remus was one.
He looked out to see the crescent moon slowly drifting across his window. It looked so nice when it was not full, when it was not a full circle that he dreaded... but other than that, he really did not care about the moon. It must have been only six o' clock because James, Sirius and Peter had been in the hospital wing for nearly three hours after classes were dismissed.
Slowly and steadily Remus was able to attend a few classes. Professor McGonagall would not allow him to return full time to class until he was completely healed. So far he was able to go to Transfiguration, Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Every day he would go to the first class, Transfiguration, go back to the hospital wing for Herbology, then go to Defense Against the Dark Arts, go back to the hospital wing for lunch and potions, go back to Charms and stay in the hospital wing for History of Magic.
Remus felt happy to be back in school again, even though it was not full time. He liked getting back to the noise and action of the castle, and not being confided to a bed day and night. Professor McGonagall still would not let him rejoin the Great Hall; she figured there might be too much commotion for him. Although he really thought he could handle it, it was only incredibly loud noises that bothered him at this point and occasionally he felt a bit queasy.
On the way to Transfiguration one day, Remus ran into the last person he wanted to see: Severus Snape AKA Snivelly. He was sulking down the Charms corridor; he was not paying attention to where he was going, until he walked into Remus. Remus had dropped one of his books and stooped down to pick it up, so Snape sort of fell over Remus. Remus looked to see what had happened and saw Snape lying on the floor. Before he could get up and walk away like nothing had happened, Snape grabbed the hem of Remus's robes and held him back. Remus stopped and looked down at Snape.
"Where do you think you're going, Lupin?" Snape asked sinisterly.
"Transfiguration," Remus answered coolly, Snape did not scare him in the least. In fact, Snape was pitiful.
"Well what do you think you're doing tripping me?"
"Well it's not my fault you don't know how to walk." This was the final straw for Snape. He pinned Remus against the wall and withdrew his wand, pointing it right between Remus's eyes. Remus, though in a terrible situation he was, was not scared. He was fingering the wand in his pocket, slowly drawing it out. Snape was about to shout an incantation when Remus yelled, "Expelliarmus!" A stream of red shot from Remus's wand and knocked Snape's wand out of his hand. Snape stooped down to grab his wand and Remus tried to run towards the Transfiguration classroom when ropes bound his hands together, and then his feet. Losing his balance, Remus fell forward onto the hard floor. Why is no one hearing this? Remus thought angrily. Snape walked over to him, and knelt down.
"So, Lupin," he said sinisterly. "How does the world look from down here?"
"Pretty good Snivelly," Remus answered shrewdly. "Why don't you see what it looks like, from down here, over there! Rictesempra!" Snape was sent hurtling backwards, hitting into the opposite wall, and he was out cold. Remus crawled to the wall behind him and leaned against it. He tried ripping his bonds but could not bend his hands back enough to rip them apart. So, he sat there waiting for classes to end so someone would find him.
"Mr. Black!" Professor McGonagall said to Sirius, who was slowly falling asleep after reading an entire chapter on transfiguring animals in boxes. Sirius jumped up immediately.
"Yes professor?" he said innocently. James and Peter sniggered to themselves as Sirius tried to cover up his near sleeping spell.
"I want you to go to Madam Pomfrey's office and ask her if she sent Lupin to class, he should be here."
"All right!" Sirius jumped out of his seat and went over to the door, eager for a reason to get out of class for a bit.
"Oh and Mr. Black?" Sirius turned around.
"Yes?"
"Don't think I didn't catch you sleeping in my classroom!" Sirius grinned sheepishly and disappeared out of the room. He walked around until he found the steps leading to the hospital wing. He poked his head through the door and looked to see if Remus was still there, but he was not. Sirius shrugged and headed back to Transfiguration. Sirius blankly strolled down the Charms corridor by mistake and heard a faint whistling. Curious, he walked a little faster and rounded a corner to see Remus sitting on the floor, whistling a tune, trying to pass the time.
"Moony?" Sirius said. Remus looked up to see his friend running towards him. Sirius knelt down and started fumbling with the ropes binding Remus's hands together. "What happened?"
"Snape happened?" Remus answered lazily.
"Where is he?"
"Over there." Remus jerked his head to the unconscious Snape lying against the wall.
"You did that?"
"Of course, I'm not going to let that slimeball hex me." Sirius laughed and pulled the ropes binding Remus's wrists off, threw them behind him and began working on the ones holding his ankles together. Sirius undid the tight triple knot and threw the ropes behind him. He helped Remus to his feet and they set off for Transfiguration. When they got there Professor McGonagall asked Remus if he was in the hospital wing and Remus quickly said yes, figuring it was better not to tell his Head of House what he was really doing. They finished up the rest of the lesson working on transfiguring an owl into a tissue box.
Once Transfiguration was over, James, Sirius and Peter went out onto the grounds for Herbology and Remus went back up to the hospital wing. When he got to the hospital wing, his stomach contracted when he saw Snape lying on a hospital wing bed. Thinking Madam Pomfrey would not notice if he skipped going there and went to Herbology instead, Remus grabbed his Herbology book and ran out of the ward. He slipped into Greenhouse Three and took a place between James and Frank Longbottom, who were busily potting a Mandrake. Remus took a spare pair of earmuffs and placed them securely on his ears. It took about five minutes before James noticed Remus standing right next to him.
"Remus," James whispered. "What are you doing here?"
"Potting a Mandrake," Remus answered matter of factly.
"I can see that, but you're not supposed to be here!" Remus shrugged his shoulders and continued his work. Professor Sprout walked by a couple of times, not seeming to notice Remus. This was probably because Peter's Mandrake kept wailing and wailing, all because of Peter's inability to give him the right amount of soil. Luckily the Mandrake lost its voice and just had its mouth open while screaming silently. The poor Mandrake had to be taken out of the greenhouse and kept outside. Class was dismissed after Professor Sprout assigned them all to reading the chapter on the growth of Mandrakes.