Chapter Twenty Four
Encounter With Julius

"No way! Me? A chaser? You're joking me!" Remus rambled endlessly as James told him the news, all the while Peter was moping in the corner of the boys' dormitory and Sirius standing by James's side grinning broadly. "But George wouldn't let me on the team... remember? You even begged!" Remus sat down on his bed and looked at them in awe, he was on the Quidditch team! Finally things were looking up for him.

"Well he did say that," James agreed. "But after what Peter (Peter moaned in utter agony) did... he just couldn't have him on them team anymore, so runner up gets the position right?"

"Congratulations Moony!" Sirius said merrily, patting Remus on the back. Remus left for dinner a little earlier than his friends did, he was feeling terribly hungry. After being in the hospital for weeks the house elves food tasted better than ever. He was walking down the large marble staircase in the entrance hall when he heard the cold, sinister voice of Severus Snape.

"Hullo, Lupin," he said coldly, advancing on Remus as he froze on the seventh step from the bottom. Remus nodded in acknowledgement, his face quite impassive. Snape walked up the steps until he was standing on the one just below the one Remus was stationary on.

"Snivelly," Remus answered coolly. "Recover from our last fight yet?"

"As a matter of fact I have. Obviously you haven't noticed, have you?"

"Well I have noticed that your nose has gotten considerably bigger since I last saw it. Now if you will be so kind as to excuse me, I'll just be heading to the Great Hall." Remus shoved Snape out of the way and ran down the steps and walked causally into the hall. The hall was full of loud, noisy students all talking about the disastrous Quidditch match. The Slytherins were laughing hysterically as a fifth year did a remarkable impression of Peter ramming into George. At the Hufflepuff table their team was still wearing their robes and talking in high spirits. The Gryffindor table was rather quiet and mournful... they were exceedingly angry with Peter, so Remus assumed that was why Peter had said he was not hungry, which was something they had never heard before. Remus sat down next to Alice Gordon, who was in deep conversation with Frank Longbottom. Lily Evans was sitting across from him, spooning the stew around her dish. Remus started filling his plate with some dinner and as Lily was getting seconds she noticed him.

"Hi Remus," she said. She looked relieved to see he was by himself and not with James.

"Hi," he answered brightly, he was in such a good mood at this point not even a full moon would ruin in it. He then thought... wasn't the full moon that night? Oh great... it was!

"How're you feeling?" Lily pressed on. Remus had been thinking how could I have forgotten a full moon? and did not notice Lily talking to him.

"What? Oh... good, I guess." Lily smiled.

"Well I was curious as to why you weren't in one class but then you'd show up for the next one." Remus squirmed uneasily in his seat. He could not possibly tell Lily that he had been in St. Mungo's for nearly a month because they performed an operation on him trying to make him not a werewolf anymore. He tried thinking of a good excuse, but he could not think of anything. He just shrugged his shoulders and put his attention to his dinner.

"Come on Remus!" Lily continued. "It can't be that bad!"

"You have no idea," Remus answered tiredly, this was the only thing that could dampen his elated mood, other than the full moon he had been completely unaware of. Lily just glared at him suspiciously, obviously trying to devise ways to make him talk.

"Do James, Sirius and Peter know?" she asked in a mock innocent voice.

"Of course they know!" Remus answered in an annoyed voice. "They're my best friends, why wouldn't they know?"

"Why can't you tell?"

"Look, I just can't!" Lily's face fell into a frown. Remus continued in an apologetic voice. "I'm sorry for yelling... but its true... it can't tell. I'm not that hungry anymore. I'll see you later." Remus stood up and walked slowly out of the hall. Well, he thought, now that I know it's a stinking full moon I guess I'll go to the hospital wing. Remus was walking up the long flight of steps that lead to the hospital wing when he heard an only too familiar and yet extremely annoying voice. And for once it was not Snape's.

"Hullo, Remus," the voice said. Remus wheeled around and saw the incredibly irritating Julius Mangorn standing behind him. Remus's anger increased greatly, since the last time he saw this kid he was threatening to report them to the Headmaster for practising Animagi. Remus struggled hard to keep his voice even when he spoke.

"What do you want?" he snapped, failing at his attempt.

"Oh you know, just felt like saying hi, how you feeling, if you're sick 'cause you're going up to the hospital wing and oh yeah I forgot... I know your secret." Remus stopped dead in his tracks (being that he was not listening to a word this kid was saying and continuing up to the hospital wing) he swung around and walked swiftly up to Julius until he was mere inches from his face.

"What secret?" he said, desperately trying to sound calm. "I haven't got a secret!"

"Don't tell me lies wolfboy," Julius retorted. "I have my ways of figuring these things out. You've been disappearing from school every month ON A FULL MOON. Today you're heading up to the hospital wing ON A FULL MOON. Last, why would you go to St. Mungo's when you appeared to be quite healthy when you left? Does this all have to do with a FULL MOON? Wait... I can answer that myself. Of course it does! Because all these symptoms lead up to the fact that you, Remus Lupin, are a WEREWOLF!"

Remus just stared dumbfounded; this kid was good, but a little too good. He knew and Remus could barely deny it. So he just decided to remain calm, cool and collected.

"Think you're pretty clever don't you?" Remus asked serenely, not letting his voice crack a bit. Julius just glared back, not responding. "I said 'don't you?'"

"As a matter of fact... no. If I were that clever I would have told the staff." Remus grinned diabolically.

"Yes, I suppose if you were that clever you would have. But then again we all aren't a bunch of large brained, nosy eavesdroppers are we?"

"Who're you calling nosy, Lupin?"

"The nosy little boy in front of me. Well now that you've become the most clever child alive will you excuse me... my werewolf duties call. Maybe if you're lucky I'll skip over you tonight and find someone else to bite." Remus turned on his heel and continued up to the hospital wing, giving Julius one last smirk at his terrified face, so Remus knew he would not dare tell a soul. Remus entered the empty hospital wing and called Madam Pomfrey's name. She came bustling out of her office and told him off for being late. Remus did not even realise he was... it was still early when he left the Great Hall. She threw on a cloak and dragged Remus out of the hall.

Down a few flights of stairs, through the Entrance Hall, and out the large double doors, straight to the Whomping Willow. Madam Pomfrey picked up a long stick and prodded the tiny little knot on the trunk of the tree that caused it to freeze. The branches stopped fighting and they froze.

"In you go Lupin," madam Pomfrey said quietly. Remus slid down the long tunnel and dashed through the passageway to the Shrieking Shack. By the time he opened the trap door into the shack his legs felt like jello. He could barely stand up... well not that he was going to need to for much longer. He realised he was in the kitchen, it was a well-furnished room and very clean. It had a large wooden table with four seats, a long counter, a storage place for the food and that was it. Remus waited anxiously for his transformation, wanting to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Then he felt it... the joggle of pain, his limbs stretching painfully, his ears, nose and mouth growing to unnatural sizes. His once small hazel eyes growing and turning sickly shades of green and yellow. He felt paws forming on his feet and hands. He lurched forward and fell on all fours, sweating beading up on his forehead. He retched all over the floor and fell into it, feeling terribly ill. This had to be one of the worst transformations he had ever been through. But it was all over after five minutes of blinding pain.

He was now a werewolf prowling about the house, thirsting for human blood. Of course there were no humans around so he resorted to biting himself. He bit his front left leg/arm and howled in pain. All night was the same thing... biting and scratching himself... scaring the life out of the villagers from his shrill howls and he did not even know how he ended up in his bed the next morning.

Remus woke up in a sunlit dormitory the next morning. He was feeling very dizzy and stiff; he lifted himself slowly so he could sit up. He looked and saw James, Sirius and Peter sitting on James's bed holding something. Remus could only guess what it was for... Snivelly. James started snickering uncontrollably and Sirius was telling him to shut up so he would not wake Remus. James shrugged and continued to whisper something to the other two.

"So one of us takes the cloak, slips this in the Slytherin common room with a nice big sign on it that says 'Severus Snape,' he thinks its for him, takes it and tomorrow we have a bald Snape! Who knew torment could be so sweet?" Peter and Sirius tried hard not to burst out laughing... but Remus on the other hand could not. His laughter attracted the attention of his friends. They turned around and Sirius grinned evilly.

"So you've heard our new plan?" he said sinisterly.
"How could I not," Remus answered, his ill feeling suddenly escaping him. "Sounds great though! I'd love to see Snape bald!"

"Well we need someone to sneak this into the Slytherin common room, under my cloak," James instructed, with a bit of hinting in his voice. Remus knew what was coming next. They had done this last year when they were playing a trick on Remus's cousin Bertha. He did not need to ask, he just nodded. "So you'll do it?" James said. Remus nodded again. "Perfect! We just need to find out where the common room is."

So, since it was a Saturday, Remus spent the whole day scouring the castle, searching for Bertha. Remus knew perfectly well how he would get her to tell him where the common room was. Bertha had a certain weakness for Honeyduke's chocolate and to Remus's utter luck... his uncle had (surprisingly) sent him some as a get-well gift. Remus had searched the Great Hall and all of the rooms in the castle in search of her, but she was not in the castle.

Remus then decided to go out onto the grounds where, sure enough, he found her standing with a whole group of her obnoxious Slytherin friends. They were standing by the lake and watching the giant squid as it propelled itself across the lake. Remus grabbed the box of chocolate, which was hidden safely in his robe pocket and walked casually over. He sat down under the beech tree that he, James, Sirius and Peter had always taken to doing their homework under when the weather was good enough, and he tried to act as if he had been sitting there the whole time. He opened the box and started searching through them to find the biggest one for Bertha and another one for himself of course.

After about an hour of waiting Bertha's group of friends finally dispatched leaving just her. Remus was still lying on his stomach under the beech and was full to bursting with chocolate. Bertha turned to go leave and saw Remus, she grinned maliciously and waltzed over. Remus looked up and smiled.

"Hullo, my dear cousin," he said kindly, "and how are you this fine day?" Bertha stopped right in front of him and gave him a quizzical look.

"What's got you so happy?" she retorted.

"Oh the usual... bright blue sky... birds chirping... Quidditch practise today...I got a nice big box of HONEYDUKE'S CHOCOLATE. The usual things." Remus laughed silently as his cousin's eyes brightened at the name of chocolate. Brilliant, Remus thought happily, just brilliant! He then pressed on to make her hungrier. "Of course I'm almost done with them all. They're just too good! Can't have one without devouring the whole entire box, can you? But you know if you really wanted some... you could have one."

"Really?" Bertha piped up. "What a minute..." he mouth fell into a suspicious frown. "I know you and the kids you hang out with too well... what's the catch?"

"Catch?" Remus repeated, looking slightly offended. "Can't I be nice to my dear cousin for once? I mean for chocolate..."

"Oh of course you could!"

"Well you know something Berthy?" Bertha shook her head, she knew he was up to something but quite frankly; she did not care in the least. "You're absolutely right!" Remus smiled. "There is a catch! You have to tell me something."

"Anything!"

"Where's the Slytherin common room?" Bertha glared evilly at him. Remus knew this was too easy to be true. But then again he might be able to make her crack.

"Do you seriously think I'm going to tell you? Are you mad? I could get expelled for telling you! Answer me!"

"All right. One: well I expected you might tell. Two: yes I am mad, thank you for asking and three: I really couldn't care less if you were expelled. So it all works out doesn't it?" Bertha cursed him. "Ok... maybe not. But really, are you going to pass a nice big clump of Honeyduke's chocolate up?" Berth did not answer, she just kept her scowl. "Fine I'll eat it then."

Bertha watched hungrily as Remus slowly raised the candy to his mouth. His eyes shut tightly and his mouth open wide. He was shaking with laughs as he heard his cousin whimper. He gradually lowered his hand and very leisurely neared his hand with the candy to his mouth. Bertha was going to crack, Remus knew it.

"FINE I'LL TELL!"