Remus Lupin twirled his quill absently between his first-fingers and thumb, staring through, rather than at Professor Connicus, who was outlining some of the traits of the common werewolf.

"During the build up to the full moon, the lycanthrope is likely to experience any number of the symptoms listed on page 41 of you textbooks…"

At this unexpected short pause in Professor Connicus' diction, Remus' eyes and brain simultaneously re-focused on reality. He glanced sideways at James, who was sitting just to his left on the pew-like seats of the Defence classroom, and watched him flip lazily to a page entitled, "Werewolves – Symptoms through the Phases". Groaning inwardly, he found the page in his own book and skimmed the page, his eyes resting on a yellow fact file mid-way down the page, of "Symptoms at the Waxing Gibbous". What followed was, unsurprisingly, a pretty good summary of all his current ills:-

"When the moon is at the Waxing Gibbous phase of its calendar (see page 29) a werewolf will experience numerous side-effects of the condition, such as:

-A heightening of appetite
-Inability to concentrate
-Mood swings
-Sharpening of senses, i.e. smell, taste, vision.
-Exhaustion"

'They forgot to mention the headaches,' he thought, rubbing his temples in an attempt to ward away the pain he could feel just beginning to build there. Sighing in resignation, Remus went back to idly playing with his quill and was soon lost once more in his own thoughts.

Just as he was making a mental list of all the work that had been set recently and was trying to sort them into some sort of priority order, he was rudely jolted back to the present by way of a (none too gentle) elbow to the ribs. Turning to glare at James, to whom the offending elbow belonged, Remus suddenly became aware of how silent it was, and looked up.

Professor Connicus was staring expectantly at him from behind his overly-long, brown fringe.
"Well, Remus? Am I to take it that you do not know the answer?"

Remus groaned inwardly for a second time; Professor Connicus had always had a bit of a fixation with the throwing out of tricky or obscure questions in order to catch people out, particularly Remus, as it happened. Most likely because, so far, the lycanthrope was the one of the only students he hadn't managed to catch off-balance yet.
"I'm sorry, Sir," Remus began, "I didn't hear the question, could you rep..."
"Absolutely not Mr. Lupin." Connicus cut him off, "And I will have to take 5 points from Gryffindor for your total lack of focus… Unless," his dark eyes glinted challengingly, "you can answer me another question – same subject. Harder of course… Hmm, let me think."
Connicus walked slowly around his desk, before coming to rest in the chair standing behind it, where he stared thoughtfully at Remus.

Several minutes passed in this fashion, until the class began to emit a general speculative murmur. Remus could fully understand why, as it seemed as though Connicus had completely forgotten what he was supposed to be doing. The elder man was still staring at him, but his eyes had taken on a vaguely glazed (and rather unnerving) look, his elbows on the table, hands forming a triangle starting at the bridge of his nose. Feeling more than slightly uncomfortable, Remus chanced a glance at James, and further along the row, Sirius. The raven-haired boy didn't notice, as he had begun to pack his belongings away into his bag, and James merely offered a shrug and a lop-sided smile.

Suddenly Connicus stood up straight, uprooting his chair and sending it toppling loudly to the flagstones, provoking several yelps of surprise from various corners of the classroom at the same time.
"Right!" He exclaimed triumphantly, "Mr. Lupin, tell me: What was the popular belief that Muggles in the 1800's held about the way in which one became a werewolf?"

Sometimes Remus wondered if Dumbledore had actually told all of the teaching staff about his monthly condition, or just the ones he though ought to know. Then again, it was entirely possible that Connicus had been told and was either good at pretending he didn't know or had genuinely forgot he was ever told. Both were equally likely.
"Muggles used to believe that people transformed into werewolves at will by tying a belt or strap of wolf-skin around their waists. They also seem to have thought it possible for some werewolves to remove their skin in the same way that an Irish Selkie does. This would supposedly allow the werewolf to switch between forms."

Professor Connicus' face had been falling steadily since Remus had begun, and he now looked positively sullen.
"Very well. Yes, Mr. Lupin, very… good. 5 points to Gryffindor… I suppose. That's it for today. Class dismissed." Connicus righted his chair and sat down behind his desk once more, where he proceeded to pour over a handful of dusty files in a stiff pretence of occupation.
"Well! What are you all still doing here? I said class dismissed!" He snapped at the retreating backs of a handful of students and some of those that were slower at getting their equipment together.

Safely out of the Defence room, James ran a hand through his hand and turned to stare in exasperation at the other three boys that made up their close-knit group.
"I don't know whether to be scared of that man or feel genuinely sorry for his obvious lack of mental stability," he said, shaking his head.
"Forget that." Sirius replied, brushing James' small predicament aside with a wave of his hand and instead turned to the tawny-haired of the four, "Re; pop quiz."

Remus looked up from fiddling with the sleeves on his robe, which was about 3 sizes too large for him. His mother had insisted that there was no point in buying a robe that actually fitted, as he would grow out of it too quickly, what with growth spurts an all. That had been 3 years ago, at the start of his first year, and he still hadn't caught up with the size of his clothing.
"Mmm?" He said questioningly, his growing headache stopping him from being all that communicative.
"How, the bloody hell." Sirius paused for dramatic effect, "did you know all that stuff?"
Remus hesitated and began to fiddle nervously with his sleeves again. Did Sirius suspect anything or was he just being Sirius?
"I… Well, I read a lot, as well you know." He responded as seamlessly as he could, flashing a brief grin at Sirius.

Before Sirius could respond, Peter, who must have noticed Remus' discomfort, spoke up.
"Are you alright, Remus? I mean, you don't look too good." He said, glancing at Remus. Then he realised that what he had just said could be taken in rather the wrong way than he intended and continued nervously, "Um, well, you know. It's not that you look bad or anything. Just that you don't look like you feel very well… erm… I'm digging a hole, aren't I?"
"Centre of the earth: 10 miles" James replied, grinning at the other boys discomfort.
"Well, actually, he does have a point," Sirius chipped in, and turned to regard the werewolf walking alongside them.
"Hmm, I guess he does look kind of peaky and all…" James mused aloud, also adding his gaze to the other two already staring at Remus.
"Yeah, and he's got…"
"I'm fine!" Remus growled, sounding much more forceful and annoyed than he felt, to which he received one shocked, one amused and one somewhat worried look from James, Sirius and Peter respectively.
"Just got a bit of a headache is all." He added in a tone that more resembled his normal voice.
"Totally understandable, Rem, after the strain you put it through on a regular basis" Sirius replied brightly, flinching slightly at the look he received for it, "Sorry, sorry. Just, next time you're not feeling well, tell me, and I promise not to mock your all-knowing-ness whilst you are in pain."
"How noble of you," Remus nodded, shooting a wry smile in Sirius' general direction.

"Damn," James muttered as they arrived at the door of their next classroom.
"Eh?" Sirius peered through the doorway and into the room, "what's up with you, James?"
"Oh, nothing much." He replied, "I was just sort of hoping that Mrs. Astera had dropped dead or something."
"James!" Peter squeaked out what would have been an admonition from anyone else.
"You can hardly blame me, Peter. Honestly, the woman is a complete tyrant."
"Actually Iwas under the impression thatthe reason you hated her so much was because you are so blindingly bad at potions, thus forcing her to giveyou continuously poor marks…" Sirius mused out loud, with the general aim of incensing his friend. This largely succeeded, and Sirius found himself being chased into the classroom by a suitably irate James, Peter trailing in behind them.

Remus, however, lingered at the door. His head wasn't getting any better, as he had hoped it might. Conversely, it was getting gradually worse. After a few more moments of hesitation he waved at James, Peter and Sirius, who were looking at him questioningly and mouthed, "I'm going to the hospital wing. See you later."

Turning back along the corridor that they had just come down, Remus made for the hospital wing on the second floor.