Werewolf!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the characters associate with him, such as his friends or in this case his parents. And guardians and stuff. And neither do I own Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them.
James sat in the library with Sirius, poring over a collection of huge, musty books. It was not his idea of spending a weekend, but he was infernally curious about Remus. He couldn't understand his behaviour. Or maybe he was exaggerating what was going on, after all, Remus had to have bad days like everyone else.
Sirius, beside him, was dividing his time between looking at gorgeous girls, and at musty books. Mostly, it was the girls.
"Say James," said Sirius, "I had no idea that the library had soo many cute girls in here."
James rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the help Sirius . . ."
Sirius focused his full attention on James there. "Seriously, James--do not pun on my name-- we're looking in the library when we don't even know if there anything wrong with Remus!"
"So you call sudden, excessive strength, weird mood changes, inability to do homework, closemouthed about his parents when they are obviously nice people, and last of all, sudden disappearances with weird lies over three day periods after which he comes back looking like he's been through hell and back nothing?" he asked, quietly. Later in Sirius' life he would remember that voice and see it in Harry.
Sirius rolled his eyes, giving in. "Point made. Why don't we just ask someone?"
"Because, you great stupid prat, obviously Remus doesn't want this getting around," hissed James.
"Oh, okay, fine," he said, throwing up his arms in surrender. James very seldom behaved like this, and it was very strange for anyone around him when he did.
So they pored over books in a hidden corner in the library. They didn't want any of the library regulars to see them--particularly not Lily, who would probably mention it off handedly to Remus, and particularly not Remus himself. That would be rather tricky.
Sirius and James were getting extremely bored. But something came along and boredom begone.
Remus was in the library. Looking for a book. Maybe if he had turned around just far enough, he would have seen Sirius' foot sticking out from under a table, supposedly hidden behind a ducking James wearing an invisibility cloak. Remus himself was in a rather good mood; after all, it was half moon and he didn't need to worry about the transformation for a while.
He wondered what book to get, after all, he did have some sort of Potions homework that he did want to finish. He selected a large book called Potions. Really original, he thought. Potions. Anyway, he checked it out of the library, and walked down the corridor. Behind him, two people miraculously appeared out of thin air, both panting, because they were squished under the table.
On his way to the Gryffindor common room, he saw Lily, who immediately veered towards him.
"Hello Remus," said Lily, smiling. "Have you seen James and Sirius?"
If only he knew how close. "No." Smiling, he asked "Are you actively looking for them?"
She looked a little uncomfortable. "Well, no, not exactly. I'm trying to remain unseen."
He chuckled. "Well, they aren't in the library."
She laughed too. "If I ever saw Sirius crack a book, I'd be stunned."
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Well, la belle Lily, prepared to be stunned, because both James and Sirius were back studying. They had seen Lily come in, and pretended that they were researching their potions homework; actually, James was, part of the time. Sirius just glanced at the potions book, and occasionally wrote down things which James suspected were interesting prank potions.
And then James struck gold. He happened to glance at something in two books: His own copy of Magical Beasts and Where to Find them, and something in one of the large, not so musty tomes. Both of the things hit the spark in his head.
"What?" asked Sirius. He could have sworn a light bulb went off over James' head.
"Look at this," said James, his quiet voice supressing some sort of emotion.
Sirius looked. "Werewolf?"
"And this." He shoved the large, yellowing brown book towards Sirius, who looked at it in surprise.
"A werewolf." He read the following entry.
"So you're saying . . ." he trailed off.
"It's highly likely," said James. "I may be wrong, of course."
"No," said Sirius slowly. "I don't think that you are. Every little piece fits in. And when I think back to it, every time we've had Astronomy, when we're looking at the full moon, Remus is absent. Every time he's absent--"
"--it was a full moon," finished James. "Every time he gets snappy, and jumpy, it was leading up to the full moon."
"And that's why he looked like he's been through Hell and back. I hear it's not exactly fun to become a werewolf."
"And then . . . do you remember that night? The night that we heard all the eerie howling, at all hours of the morning? Remus was absent. We couldn't find him. Anywhere."
"It explains his fumbling his homework. He was probably tired, worn out. And then about his parents. They must have supported him this whole time, but how can he explain all of that?"
They stared at each other. James then asked, "But why won't he tell anybody?"
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Listen, you great stupid prat.You are supposed to be smart today, not me. Think about it. Think how people treat werewolves, terribly." Almost like how my parents treat muggle borns. "If he has had this problem for long, he probably hid it from every one. Maybe he didn't have many friends. So now, he has friends like us . . ."
"He doesn't want to lose them." It all made sense.
"Now, the hard part is . . . how on earth do we tell him that we don't care?" asked Sirius.
"Oh, that's a nice conversation," remarked James, sarcastically. "Hey Remus, we know you're a werewolf, and we couldn't care less. We're still your friends."
"Actually . . ."
"No. Oh no. Sirius Black! Why on earth did I mention this . . ." he said, the last part mostly to himself.
"It would work. Just that we would have to set the timing."
"AAAAAAAArgh. This kind of thing becomes an incidental concern when your friend is a werewolf," muttered James.
He spoke the truth, and the last word.
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Sorry for not updating, but on this story I had a major case of writer's block. It won't be much longer than this at all. Nearly done, and then I'll post a new story. I think.
And I'm sorry that this chapter is so short. Maybe the next one will be better.
