Disclaimer : Not mine, never was.


Wolf's Bane

Chapter 8

The Cold Shoulder


Sable woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. She rolled over on the bed, trying to go back to sleep. It was no use. The sunlight as streaming through the window, making her squint her eyes as she got out of bed. Finally deciding that she wasn't going to get anymore sleep, she got out of bed and pulled on a shirt, jeans, and sneakers. All the time she was cursing whoever it was that made getting up in the mornings so hard. She brushed out her hair, and pulled it into a messy ponytail. Throughout her routine, she thought about the night before.

The boys had been livid, Remus had been out cold, and Lily was probably worried sick when she hadn't come back to the dorm last night. 'Great, I've got them all mad at me, and it's only the second day of term!' she thought glumly. She wanted nothing more than to stay holed up in her room, away from everyone else. However, her empty stomach was having its own ideas. 'Guess it's time to eat.' It was early, too early for any of the Marauders to be out and about. Lily, however, was another story. 'Just hope I don't run into her between now and then.' She walked over to the tapestry and pushed it out of the way, working the silver key into the hole. She listened carefully for any sounds of people coming before slipping out from behind the armor and making her way to the Great Hall for breakfast.


Remus woke up stiff and cold. He was back in his human form, lying on the floor of the Shrieking Shack. He glanced around and noticed the others, sleeping. The mess around the room also caught his attention. The sun was up and he could see the boxes that had been knocked down last night. The window sill was scratched and there was something red staining the bare floors. He sat up, pulling the cloak from around his body. Quickly dismissing the garment as either James' or Sirius', he stretched carefully, expecting his muscles to be tight and sore from the transformation.

Nothing.

He yawned and blinked, confused. He moved his hands over arms and legs, expecting to find scratches and rips on the skin.

Nothing.

In fact, he felt like he had just waken from a peaceful night's sleep. 'Weird.' he thought. He sat on a nearby box and looked out to the streets. People were beginning to rise and begin their morning chores. He heard Sirius yawn, and looked over to see the shaggy black dog carefully get up. He walked over to the others and nudged them, sufficiently waking them up. Remus watched as the three boys transformed back into their human forms with three distinct 'pops'. Sirius immediately let out a yell and fell to one knee, clutching his shoulder. Remus, James, and Peter went to him quickly trying to figure out what was wrong. Sirius let out a stream of curses that would have made McGonagall blush scarlet for a month.

"What's wrong, Sirius?" Remus asked quickly, filled with concern. "What happened?" He pulled his hand back from Sirius shoulder, paling instantly at the sight of congealed blood. He stepped back and shook his head in confusion, not knowing why it was there. James regained his senses more quickly and grabbed the formerly discarded cloak. Holding it up to Sirius' shoulder, it temporarily stopped the new flow of blood. "What happened?" he asked again.

"Nothing." Sirius replied quickly. "You just scratched me last night when we started tussling. That's all."

"Why were we fighting?" Remus asked again, trying to recall exactly what had happened. He vaguely remembered seeing his friends change into their Animagi forms, then hearing a lone howl. A picture of someone in blue jeans and a blue shirt popped in his mind, but he couldn't see a face. He remembered feeling a sense of security from the person. He only shook his head in confusion.

"Don't know, mate," James said. "You seemed to be trying to eat yourself up last night. Sirius tried to stop you, but ended up getting scratched before Sable's potion took affect." He took the cloak away from Sirius shoulder and grabbed his wand. "Hold these so I can clean this up." he said, holding the stained robes out to anyone who would take them. Remus took the proffered garment and stared at it for a moment. The others fidgeted as they cleaned up the shack. Something was different. 'There's something they're not telling me.' he thought suddenly. He turned the bloodied cloak over in his hands, trying to find a name.

"Who's cloak is this, guys?" he asked. Peter stepped forward and reached his hand out for the cloth.

"It's no one's Remus. We found it on the floor of the shack after you changed. Let me see it and I'll get rid of it. It's no good with all of the stains in it now." he said, holding out his hand for the cloak. Remus frowned and held onto the cloak.

"Who's is it? I don't remember it being in here the last time we were here." he said firmly. "There's something you aren't telling me about last night. What happened? And where did this cloak come from?"

The three boys looked at each other in turn, debating on telling Remus the truth now or later. Finally, Peter stepped forward.

"It's Sable's cloak. She came down here last night, trying to find you..."


Severus Snape and Cody Flint were the only Slytherin seventh years present in the dining hall when Sable entered. They both eyed her carefully, remembering their own previous encounters with the girl. Some how, she had earned their respect over the years. Flint had been surprised with her moves on the Quidditch field two years ago. He quickly pondered the possibility of her playing for the house team, but dismissed it when he remembered that there were no openings on the Gryffindor team. He smirked at his own team's good fortune and turned his attention back to his food.

Severus Snape, however, was more enamored with her because of her extensive knowledge of his favorite subject, Potions. If the two Potions students ever decided to put their inter house rivalries aside, they could do some major damage with their combined knowledge. He watched as she sat down near the rest of the Gryffindors. She seemed to be a little jumpy and in a hurry, which puzzled him. It also struck him as odd that her other friends were not around. He went back to eating his own breakfast, every now and again glancing towards the rival house table. 'It's a pity she was put in Gryffindor. She could have been such an asset to Slytherin House. And it would make my job a little easier.' he thought wryly.


Sable finished her meal in record time, and excused herself from the others. She got up to leave, but a quick sighting of an extremely flustered red-headed Head Girl made her exit out of one of the side doors. Sable didn't want to deal with Lily right now, especially a mad Lily. She sprinted back to the DADA hallway and slipped into her room without anyone the wiser. Now, with a content tummy, she set out to work on another batch of the numbing potion she had given to Remus last night. Since the plan hadn't worked out like they wanted it to, Sable began thinking of other ways to test to see if she was immune. The only other way she could think of was contaminating her own blood with that of Remus'.

'If I had a smear of my blood, a smear of Remus', and a smear of a non-infected person's blood as a base sample, I could try to infect the base sample using some of Remus' blood. That should cause the base example to become infected. Now, if I put the rest of Remus' blood and my own together, it should mix, but not infect my cells. But that's only if I am truly immune. If I'm not immune, my cells will be infected from the active form of lycanthropy present in Remus' cells.' She grabbed a Muggle microscope and began to calibrate it carefully. 'Now how am I going to get the samples? That's going to be fun!' she thought sarcastically

She grabbed a Muggle microscope and began to calibrate it carefully.

Once she had the microscope set correctly, she set it aside and went to her supply closet where the extra potions components were stored. She pulled out the needed ingredients and began to make another batch of the numbing potion she had given Remus before. She knew it was going to be a long day, and settled on seeing the others the next day in class.


Remus and James got Sirius up to the hospital wing and to Pomfrey soon after entering the castle. Pomfrey checked Remus over, surprised to find no bite marks or scratches at all. When she saw the ill concealed wound on Sirius, she questioned its origin. However, he told her that he had been flying too low on his broom and been cut open by a rather sharp tree branch. Pomfrey had looked dubious, but released the two from the hospital wing, telling them to go eat breakfast. When they were out of earshot, the chatter picked up.

"Remus, why was Sable down there last night?" James asked. "She wouldn't tell us."

"Well guys," he began slowly, "you see it's difficult to explain."

"We've got all day." Sirius replied stiffly.

"I think she should be here to help me explain it. I don't quite understand everything myself." he admitted.

"What are you talking about?" James asked, "You mean to tell us that something is going on, and you don't know what it is?"

"Well, here is the basics," Remus said quietly, "Sable thinks that she may have found a potion that can help people like me retain their mental stability when they change. But we're not sure if it works or not." Sirius and James stopped dead in their tracks, staring at the boy, then broke out into identical maniacal grins.

"You are kidding us?" James asked happily.

"That's great, Remus!" Sirius whooped. "When will she have the potion ready?" Unfortunately, Remus shook his head sadly.

"She doesn't have it. It's too complicated for me to explain, even after Treble's lessons. Let's get something to eat, then find her. She'll explain it better than me. Besides, I think our Head Girl might want an explanation about last night." Remus said, seeing a very perturbed Lily Evans coming their way, followed by Peter.

"Great." James sighed, "Lily's in a bad mood. I'll be in the proverbial dog house by the end of the day! All compliments of our dear friend, Sable." The other boys grinned, knowing the red-head's fiery temper.

After breakfast, and a quick explanation to Lily, they all went back to the dorms to retrieve the Marauder's Map. James brought it out of his trunk and unfolded it carefully. He set it on the trunk and everyone gathered around it.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." he muttered. The blank parchment slowly began to take the shape of the Hogwart's layout as the lines snaked and wove their way across the parchment. The five teens looked on the map for a little dot named Sable Robbins, but it wasn't there. They all scanned the paper again, but they couldn't find her anywhere on the map.

"Where is she?" Lily asked.

"I don't know." James said. "If she were on the grounds, she'd be on the map."

"Maybe she went for a walk in the forest." Peter suggested.

"She wouldn't do that. She won't go in there by herself, she knows better." Remus said quickly. "Besides that, she's terrified of that forest."

"Well, if any of us are going to find out why she was in Hogsmeade last night, we need to find her." Sirius said.

"Let's split up." Lily suggested. "We can cover more ground that way." The boys nodded and waited or instructions. "Peter and James, you've got the two top floors of the castle. Sirius, you go outside, see if she's out there. Remus, you've got the first two floors. I'll take the House common rooms and the dungeons. We'll meet back here in two hours. If anyone finds her before then, just bring her back here."

Remus was looking in every classroom on the second floor when he heard someone's voice. He looked around carefully, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound. He walked further down the Defense Against the Dark Arts corridor, following the sound. It seemed to be coming from the wall in front of him, but he couldn't figure out how to get to it. There were no passages he knew of down this particular corridor. "Must be Peeves trying to play a trick on me." he thought. He glanced back up at the suit of armor where the sound was coming from. He was annoyed with Sable. She wasn't even supposed to go to Hogsmeade last night. He turned back toward the hall entrance, intent on going to the rest of the floor to search.

"Damn it, Sable!" he cursed loudly. "If you weren't already a ranula, I'd put you through Hell and then some for making us worry like this!" He took two steps, and stopped. A scraping noise could be heard faintly in the silence. He glanced back over his shoulder when he heard the sound of a statue scraping across the stone floor. It moved slowly, revealing a wooden door. He eyed the entrance suspiciously. Gathering up his courage, he pulled out his wand and walked over to the door.

"Alohomora." he said. The door slid open, revealing a small hallway with a tapestry covering the other entrance. He slid into the corridor, cautious as to what he might find. The voice was coming from the other side of the cloth. He stood there, transfixed by it. Suddenly, the wooden door swung shut behind him, sticking his back to the now closed door, and him facing the tapestry. He heard the armor slide back into place after the door clicked shut. "What have I gotten myself into this time?" he asked himself.


James caught up with Peter as he ran up to the top floor of the castle. James had been watching the map for a sign of Sable when he saw Remus disappear form the map in the DADA hallway. He had suddenly remembered all of the kidnappings and disappearances that had been happening in the wizarding world lately. People had been coming up missing for going into two months, for no apparent reasons. The bodies of two witches had been found outside of Devonshire two weeks ago, at least what had been left. They had been discovered by a group of Muggles who had been walking through the town. Supposedly, the two bodies had been ruled as the sporadic murders of two innocent girls by some psycho Muggle killer.

However, everyone in the wizarding world new better. There had been rumors going around of a group of powerful wizards who had started to rise up against the lawful people of the magical world. These men and women were power hungry, and ready to take down anyone in their way. No one knew much about them, but rumors often had a slim basis of truth. It was rumored that these dark wizards were looking to recruit the younger generations, especially anyone who had particular talents or a strong ambition for power or wealth.

"What's going on, James? What's wrong?" Peter asked quickly.

"Remus just disappeared off of the map!" he said breathlessly. Peter looked astounded, and then worried.

"What? That's not possible!"

"Well, he just did it. Go to the DADA hallway, about half way down. Do whatever, just try to find him."

"Where are you going?"

"To find Sirius and Lily!"

Peter made his way down the stairs and into the DADA hallway. Like James said, he walked down the hallway halfway and whispered Remus' name loudly. Five minutes later, he heard Sirius and James come pounding down the hallway with Lily in tow.

"Did you find him yet?" Lily asked suddenly.

Peter shook his head, and the others joined in the search. Unfortunately, their excessive amount of noise was anything but quiet. Remus heard when everyone arrived in the hallway. He also heard the singing stop as someone, undoubtedly Peter, crashed into a suit of armor, sending it to the ground. He heard the person move towards the tapestry, and his breath caught. He was stuck with his back to the wall and an unknown person coming from the other way. He clutched his wand, his heart rate speeding up.


Sable didn't know what the racket outside the room was, but she intended to find out. She grabbed her wand, and moved to the entrance, pulling back the thick tapestry. As light illuminated the little dark corridor, she gasped when she saw Remus standing in the hallway. He had his wand pointed at her, but he relaxed when he saw her face.

"What the Hell?" Sable said, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "What are you doing here, Remus? Come to tease and taunt me like Sirius did?"

Remus looked temporarily stunned, not knowing where that had come from.

"What?" he asked dumbly.

"What are you doing here? How'd you get in?" she pressed on, becoming extremely agitated.

"I could ask you the same about last night." he said tersely, eyeing the girl.

Sable stared blankly at the boy. She knew that Sirius, James, or Peter would have already told him about her appearance at the Shrieking Shack last night, but she figured she would have stayed hidden until he got over his anger with her. The two teenagers faced each other with stony glares; each one daring the other to look away in defeat.

"Why'd you do it, Sable?" Remus said, still staring at her. "I thought I told you to stay in the Tower."

Sable looked away, finally breaking away from his piercing gaze, and focused her eyes on the floor. She was upset. She had tried to help, and it fell apart at the seams. Her sadness was suddenly overcome by swift anger, and she rounded on the unsuspecting boy.

"What's it to you?" she asked sarcastically. This time, it was Remus' turn to stare. A sudden bell sounded in his head and he grimaced, 'WARNING! WARNING! MOOD SWINGS DUE TO THE FULL MOON. FIGHT AT YOUR OWN RISK!'

"What do you mean 'what's it to you?'?" he countered. "It means everything to me. What do you think I wanted to do, bite you? I know that your work is important to you, but not so important that you risk your life! You mean too much to everyone for that to happen!" Sable, surprised with the sudden admittance, felt warm tears begin to form in her eyes. She turned away from him and inconspicuously wiped them away.

"I can do whatever the Hell I bloody well want to, thank you very much." she snapped. She heard the voices of James and Sirius as they called out, trying to locate the lost Remus. Remus looked on as Sable began to fidget. He knew she wanted to help people like him, but he didn't want her to get hurt in the process. He lowered his voice and tried again..

"Sable, please, I realized how much you work on your research, and I do realize how much it means to you." He walked over to her, gently putting his hands on her shoulders. "But no one wants you to get hurt, especially me. I'm sorry that I yelled, but I got worried when I couldn't find you. I thought something might have happened to you."

Sable hung her head in shame. She knew everyone was worried about her, but she didn't realize exactly how much. The recent attacks and abductions on witches and wizards had everyone in a state of heightened alert. Obviously, even the Hogwart's students had been affected as well.

"I'm sorry, too. Most of this is my fault." Sable said quietly. "I shouldn't have went to the Shrieking Shack last night, I know. But I had to find out if I would be bitten. That is the only thing that is standing in my way to make this potion. I have to find out. I am sorry that I blew my top. But I haven't been around any of you guys in two years; I've kind of forgotten how we all used to watch each other's backs."

"It's alrighte. Just don't give us this kind of scare again." Remus wrapped his arms around the girl and gave her a quick hug, hoping to reassure her.

"Well, now that we're on the subject," she said, "How did you manage to get in here?" Remus smiled and let her go. He wasn't even sure how he had gotten in.

"Well, this is how it happened." he began, " After breakfast, we all went up to the dorms for the Marauder's Map. When we couldn't find you on it, we all split up to look for you. I got the second floor. Well, when I got about halfway down here, I heard someone's voice; I am assuming in was yours. So I stood in front of the statue, and just looked at it. When I couldn't find out how to get in, I turned to leave. But the next thing I realized, the statue was moving. I unlocked the hidden door and then went in. You found me a few minutes later."

"But how did you know the password to make the statue move? No one knows about this room. It's not even on the map, that's how come I didn't show up. This is one of the only rooms you guys haven't found yet. If the room isn't drawn in on the map, then whoever is in it doesn't show up."

"I don't know, I don't remember saying anything when I stood there."

"Well you had to have said something, or the statue wouldn't have moved. Did you say anything at all, or even mumble something?" Sable asked. Remus thought quickly, then remembered threatening her when he turned around in the hall. He figured she would change the password one way or the other if he told her, so he did.

"Yeah, I did say something now that I think about it." he admitted sheepishly.

"I am not even going to ask what it is." Sable grinned. "But it obviously had the password in it, whatever it was." Remus nodded and smiled at her.

"So when were you going to tell us about this little room of yours?" he asked as he walked around the cauldrons that had been set up.

"Well, I don't know." she admitted. "I wasn't going to tell anyone actually." Remus looked at her like she was crazy.

"Don't you think it would have been a little suspicious when you just started disappearing and we couldn't find you on the map?" he asked.

"Well, probably, but I was hoping it wouldn't come to that. I need a place to work on my potions, and I don't want anyone to interfere with them. Dumbledore's letting me use this room as a lab so I don't have to work in the dungeons. So please don't tell anyone else." she all but begged.

"You really weren't going to tell any of us, were you?" Remus questioned in disbelief.

"Probably not," she said simply. "Oh, don't give me that look, Remus Lupin! You know as well as I do that if Peter or Sirius knew about this place, they'd be dumping all kinds of stuff in these cauldrons as a prank. There's no telling what would happen. And lets not even get Lily and James involved in this!"

"Well, what about me? Were you going to tell me?" he asked slyly.

"Maybe I would have, and then again, maybe not." she said. Remus feigned insult and grinned.

"We would have figured it out anyways, you know." he said. "We would have found you eventually."

"Just please don't tell anyone, not yet." she said. "I am going to tell Lily and James, because they are the Heads, and I'll be moving out of the dorms soon, anyways." Remus looked at her with an odd expression, hoping she would explain. "There is another room over there, were I can put a bed. Instead of taking up all of the others rooms in the dorms, Dumbledore's allowing me to move all of my stuff down here."

"Dumbledore's letting you do that?" he asked incredously. Sable nodded and walked over to the tapestry, motioning for him to follow.

"I'll explain later. Right now, we've got to figure out how to get them away from the door long enough for us to get out." Remus pushed her gently to one side and peered through the rather large keyhole. James, Sirius, Peter, and Lily were walking up and down the hallway, calling for him.

"That's easy. But how do we explain that I just jumped off of the Marauder's Map?" Sable thought for a moment, then smiled.

"You met me coming down the hallway. I was trying out a new potion. An undetectable potion that makes you undetectable from anything. I gave you some, and you took it, therefore making you jump off of the map. Voila. Problem solved." she said quickly. "Now how do we get out of here?"

"Just like this." he said. Remus pulled out his wand and recited a quick spell while pointing it through the keyhole and out into the corridor. The sparks quickly found the map lying on the floor. The four friends looking for Remus never noticed it. The map glowed for a moment, then James picked it up. Remus put his wand in his robes and smiled. Sable looked confused, but said nothing. Soon, they all heard James yelling.

"They're in the Common Room!" He yelled.

"What?" "How'd they get there?" and other stunned answers were heard. Sirius grabbed the map, looking for the tell-tale dots. Sure enough, there were two little dots in the Gryffindor Common Room labeled R. Lupin and M. Robbins.

"When I get a hold of that girl..." Sirius began cursing like a madman until Lily gave him a reproachful glare. Then he promptly shut up.

"Well," Lily began calmly, "now that we know they're both okay, we can find out exactly what happened. Let's go." She began walking out of the hallway with the boys close on her trail. They rounded the corner and Sable could still hear Sirius complaining as she and Remus came out of the entrance. As soon as her feet were on the ground, Remus grabbed her hand and started pulling her in the opposite direction.

"We're not out of the woods yet. We've still got to get to the tower before them. Good thing I know a short-cut!" He pulled her through passageways she didn't even know existed before pushing her into the common room in Gryffindor Tower. They made it to the couch and sat down in a huff. Thirty seconds later, the portrait door swung open, emitting a rather loud Sirius Black. Sable put on an impassive face and watched as Black bodily pushed some first years out of the way, trying to get to the couch she was sitting on. He finally made it to the couch, glaring daggers at both of its occupants.

"Where in the bloody hell have you been, Sable? You too, Remus!" he bellowed. Lily and Peter walked up to them with questioning glances. Remus looked at his friends carefully, not trusting himself to speak. He refused to lie to the others, so he stayed silent. Sable took his silence as a key opportunity.

"Is there something wrong, Sirius? You seem a little flustered." she asked innocently. Remus managed to hide a laugh at her tactics, and remained silent. 'What a good way to start a conversation, piss him off even more!' Remus thought.

"Sable," Lily said soothingly, trying to calm everyone down, "you have some explaining to do about your actions."

"I know I do , and I'm prepared to answer all of them, and any other questions you may have."

"WELL GET STARTED ALREADY!" Sirius bellowed, causing more stares in his direction. Sable glared at him icily.

"Would you like me to discuss my actions last night with you? Okay fine, I'll start there. But I don't think I should be in the middle of the Common Room while I'm doing it. People don't need to know stuff like that." she said smoothly.

"We can use the Common Room in the Head's dorms." James said quickly, ushering the group out. "Come on." They all stood up and walked to the back of the room where a portrait of Godric Gryffindor hung. James gave the password and the six teens stepped into the lavishly furnished common room. They all took a seat, and waited expectantly as Sable began her explanation.

Sable settled down into a plush, crimson colored chair and waited for everyone else to settle in before she began her story. When five pairs of expectant eyes met hers, she knew they were ready.

"Okay guys, let's see if I can't explain a couple of things to you. It starts like this. Over the summer, I happened to get my hands on a copy of an old Celtic potion book that the Ministry of Magic in America had. I translated the text and found something that I think may be useful to Remus." She stopped and looked around at the surprised looks on everyone's face. She smiled and continued. "I think I may have found a potion that helps werewolves, retain their mental capabilities when they transform during a full moon. But, I need a key ingredient. I need the blood of an animal that is completely immune to a werewolf's bite. I did some research and found out that I may be the only creature alive that is immune to a werewolf bite. This little capability is courtesy of my parents. Because I am the offspring of two people who were infected by the same wolf at the same time, my blood is the same as that of a natural born she-wolf. So, my body has learned to live with the lycanthropy protein present in my blood."

"That still doesn't explain why you came to the Shrieking Shack last night." Peter countered. Sable nodded and continued.

"I was getting to that part. Chill out. Okay, I told Remus about the potion yesterday at lunch. He told me not to go the Shrieking Shack, but I was going to anyway. He figured that I would go down there anyway last night, just to see if I could get bitten and infected. Well, thanks to the rest of you, that little plan didn't work out. And I'm here to tell all of you that I am really sorry about that. I guess I've been away from you guys so long, I forgot how protective you are of each other. Like I said, I'm really sorry about last night."

"It's alright, you're safe now. And no one else is worse for wear, other than a missed night's sleep." James said. " So, if the potion you are working on calls for the blood of an immune person, how are you going to find it. It's too dangerous for you to get bitten. No one knows what could possibly happen if you did. So, is there any other way?"

"Well, there is a Muggle way of doing it." Sable said quickly. "But, I would need three different blood samples: one from Remus, one from me, and one from a person who has absolutely no trace of lycanthropy in their system." This seemed to peak everyone's interest. Remus finally spoke up,

"How would we find out with that?" Remus asked

"Well, the Muggles call in cross matching. I would take a smear of a base blood sample and mix it with a drop of Remus' blood. According to theory, the active lycanthropy in Remus' blood should infect the healthy blood cells of the base sample. Now, my blood cells are different. When I mix them with Remus', my cells shouldn't become infected. At least that is the basic theory behind the experiment."

Everyone seemed to be contemplating the idea. Sable took a breath and waited for the next question, which would undoubtedly be about her and Remus' disappearance that morning. Surprisingly though, it never came up.

"Sable," Lily began carefully, "If the potion calls forblood, you do realize that's considered Dark Magic. And you know practicing Dark Magic has been outlawed for years in the wizarding world."

"I understand that, but this potion is different." Sable said. "The book that I got this potion out of was written by the Celtic druids of long ago. It was written during a time of magical upheaval when Dark Magic was just beginning to evolve. Up until that time, blood had been used in many potions that were required to help our kind. The Celtic druids were considered healer wizards then, and they kept their remedies completely secret from the rest of the world. The remedies were passed down through the centuries by word of mouth until someone decided to write them down. Well, the followers of the Dark Magic stole the books of remedies, potions, spells, incantations, anything they could get their hands on. The followers of the Dark soon exposed the druid's secrets. From then on, any potion that called for blood was labeled as Dark Magic. And when the Dark Magic practices were banned thousands of years ago, the secrets of the Druids went down the drain. They were completely lost to everyone, save for the original books that had been written. Well, the entire set of Celtic books have disintegrated over time. The American Ministry had the only surviving one, until I borrowed it. And that is where the potion came from."

"So what you are saying is that this potion is not labeled as dark magic?" Remus asked. Sablenodded.

"And if you don't believe me, go ask Dumbledore. He knows everything about this. The potion. The book. The Druids. Everything."

"So when are you going to start on your experiment to find out if you are immune?" Peter asked.

"As soon as everyone has had time to think it over." Sable said. "I can't just forcibly take blood from Remus and another person. Besides, it's just as much his decision as anyone's." She said, nodding to Remus.

"Hey, if all you need is some blood, I'll give you every bit that I can!" he said. Sable smiled and shook her head. 'Leave it to him to make this sound easy.' she thought quietly.

"What about the base sample?" Sirius asked.

"It can be anyone who has never actually been in contact with Remus' blood. It doesn't matter who it is, as long as they have never been exposed to the lycanthropy before."

"Will one of us work?" Peter asked. "I mean, the three of us have been around him during the transformations, but I don't think we've ever come into contact with the blood, before last night at any rate."

"That's true." James admitted. "Other than that escapade last night with Sirius, we've never even been scratched by you, Remus."

"I don't think that would be good." Sirius said quickly. "Believe it or not, the three of us have had some sort of contact with his blood at some point in time. Especially right after we became Animagi. Remus would cut and claw at himself all night, and the blood would get all over us."

"He's got a point." Lily said. "You guys have came back more than once with blood on your clothes."

"So, are there any volunteers?" Sable asked brightly, feigning a happy attitude.

"I'll do it." Lily said quickly. Everyone else looked a little stunned. "Now don't give me those looks, you guys. I've never been around when he changes. The rest of you dunderheads have. I think it would be safer for me to be the base sample since I've never been around him."

"That does make the most amount of sense." Sable admitted.

"When do we do it?" Remus questioned.

"As soon as you want to. It's completely up to you guys. All I need to get is a few glass slides and something sharp to prick your fingers with. I've already got the microscope set up." Sable said.

"How about now. Now's as good as ever." Lily said. Remus nodded and smiled. He seemed a little nervous for some reason. He kept shifting and turning in the chair. Sable looked at him carefully before getting up from her chair.

"I'll go get the slides and something sharp." she said. She walked out of the portrait hole and went to get the supplies. Remus watched her go and wondered if this was going to work. He turned around to face his friends and was met with varying looks from all of them.

"What? What'd I do?" he asked.

"What's going on with her, Remus?" James asked seriously.

"What are you talking about?" Remus asked, completely confused.

"Is it just me, or does she seem a little different from the last time we saw her?" Peter asked. The others nodded their heads in agreement, except Lily. Remus was surprised at their actions.

"What are you guys talking about? She seems fine to me." he said. "Other than the mood swings."

"Remus, there is something different about that girl. I don't know what it is, but there is something different. She never used to hide stuff from us before.Why start now?" Sirius said.

"Guys, you have to take into consideration that she has been away from us for a while." Remus said hotly.

"We have all changed since we were all last together." Lily said. "But, I'm like Remus. She seems to be all in all the same. Don't worry about her. If anything is wrong, she'll tell us before it gets out of hand."

"I'm not so sure anymore." Sirius said quietly. "She just doesn't seem the same. First the Shrieking Shack, then disappearing this morning. It's not like her to run from something. And she was running this morning."

"Well," Remus said defensively, "If I had an ugly bloke like you yelling at me about last night, I'd run too." Sirius looked taken back at his comment, but said nothing. Remus could see that he was going to get nowhere with the others. "Look, lets just wait. Like Lily said, if there is anything wrong we'll know soon enough." The other boys nodded and said nothing else. There was a knock at the portrait hole and the unmistakable voice of Sable coming from the outside.

"Hey guys, let me in! I don't know the password!" she yelled. James grinned and went to open the portrait for the girl. Sable came in with a small red bag. She went over to the group and pulled out a microscope and six different glass slides. She set the instrument up on a nearby table and put the slides in rows of three. 'Oh, Merlin,' she thought, 'please let this work. Please. I can't stand to see people like Remus go through Hell just because of a stupid bite he got fifty million years ago.' She reached back into the bag and pulled out a small needle and an alcohol swab.

"What will you have to do?" James asked. He didn't like the idea of Lily bleeding at all.

"All I have to do is puncture the skin and get enough blood to put on two of these slides." she said. "After that, I can run the test." She saw the concerned look on James' face and smiled. "It's alright James, it's not like I'm gonna drain her dry or anything. I'm a werewolf, not a vampire!"

"That's it?" Peter asked. Sable nodded and turned to Remus and Lily.

"Alright, who's first?" she asked. Lily came forward and rolled up the arm of her robes.

"I'll go first." she said. Sable nodded and motioned for her to sit down on the couch. Sable used the alcohol swab to clean the needle and a patch of skin on Lily's forearm. She drew the needle back and punctured the skin on Lily's arm with one swift motion. She felt Lily flinch as the needle punctured her soft skin. A small trickle of blood was soon seeping out of the small hole. Sable quickly grabbed two slides and put a small amount of blood on each one. Then, she used another cotton swab to clean the puncture sight and used her wand to stop the little bit of bleeding. She labeled the slides with Lily's name on them and set them aside.

"Now see, that wasn't so bad. Was it?" she said with a smile. James shot her a death glare and went to see if Lily was really okay.

Sable smiled and Lily moved so that Remus could sit next to her. She pulled out another needle as Remus pulled up the sleeve of his robes. Using the alcohol swab she cleaned a small area and repeated the process on him that she did with Lily. She was surprised to note that he didn't even move when she punctured the skin. 'That's odd, they usually at least flinch.' she thought. She cleaned his puncture sight and grabbed another needle, repeating the process on herself.

Now that she had all of the samples in front of her, she had to find a way of getting them down to her lab without everyone else knowing. A sudden idea struck her. She turned to Sirius and Peter and smiled.

"Guys, can you do me a favor?" she asked. "I need some warm water from the kitchens for this to work. Do you mind going and getting it?" Sirius and Peter looked a little confused, but agreed to go and get the needed water. Remus smiled, knowing that she was about to tell James and Lily about her secret room. As soon as they were out of the portrait hole, Sable turned to Lily and James.

"Alright, there is one other thing I need to tell you while they are out of here." she said quickly. Lily and James looked confused, but said nothing. "Dumbledore's allowed me to use an old classroom as a lab so I don't have to work on my potions research in the dungeons where everyone can get their hands on it. I need to get these samples down there, but I don't want anyone else to know about it. Remus already knows, that's where he found me this morning. I am also going to move all of my stuff out of Lily's room and put it down there since there is an extra room for a bedroom. That way, I won't be taking up anymore of you guys space."

"Why don't you want Sirius and Peter to know? And have you cleared all of this through the Headmaster?" James asked, a little hurt that he had to keep a secret from two of his friends.

"Yes, I have. And think about it, James." Sable said. "That would be a field day for Sirius. He would love to get in there and try to blow something up, and you know it. Some of those potions are experimental, and extremely dangerous for people who don't know what they're doing. And you know as well as I do that Peter's best subject is Herbology, not Potions. So I think it would be safe for everyone if those two don't know about it."

"Yeah, you know what Sirius is liable to do if he finds all of that stuff." Remus said with a smile. "There won't be a bottom floor to this castle because he'll blow it up." James nodded in agreement, knowing that if Sirius found out, all hell would break loose.

"Is that why you didn't show up on the map this morning?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, the room I was in isn't drawn in on the map. So I didn't show up on it. When Remus disappeared, he had found his way into the room. That's what made him disappear off of the map." she explained quickly.

"Well, if Dumbledore's allowed it, then there is nothing anyone can say about it. The only thing I want to know is where the room is and the password to get into the room, incase we need you for something." Lily said.

"Fine." she said. "You remember where you guys were this morning in the Defense Against the Dark Arts hallway. The sixth suit of armor on the right hand side is the entrance into the room. The password is 'ranula'. I don't plan on changing it anytime soon, but if I do I'll tell you." James and Lily nodded and watched as she gathered up the specimens, putting them in a small plastic container that kept them all divided. She put the needles back into the bag and snapped it shut.

"Let me run these down to the lab and I'll be right back." she said quickly.

"Can't you run the test right here?" James asked. "It doesn't seem like it is that complicated. And the other two are going to get suspicious if they come back and you aren't here."

"I can, but it's going to take a while before I have the results. I'll leave it if you don't mind the clutter." she said.

"How long will it take?" Remus asked. He was more than anxious to find out the results.

"I should have it done before today is over with. It doesn't take long for the cells to infect one another." Just then, the portrait to the Head's common room swung open to admit Sirius and Peter with a cup of hot water in all four hands. It was a comical sight, watching the two boys walk carefully to keep the hot water from sloshing over the sides of the cups and hitting there skin. They deposited the cups on the table and Sable immediately set out to work.

Figuring she wouldn't be able to find a way to get to her lab, she set out to work immediately. Everyone else moved out of her way and became very quiet. She cleaned the base of the microscopes with the warm water and threw away the dusty clothes she had used to clean it. She calibrated the microscope and put one of the slides under it. It was the slide of Lily's blood. She noted the appearance of the cells in a little notebook and then added a small amount of Remus' blood to the microscope slide. She then grabbed another microscope out of her bag and set it on the table next to the other. She pulled out a slide with her blood on it and pushed it under the scope. After noting the subtle differences in the shape and size of the cells in her notebook, she added some of Remus' blood to her own. She set the slide back under the scope and looked again. Nothing seemed to be happening, not yet anyway.

She leaned back into a chair and rubbed her eyes. Using microscopes always gave her a headache. She opened her eyes and noticed that everyone was staring at her.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"Well, what do you know?" Peter said. "Are you immune or not?" Sable smiled and shook her head.

"I can't tell you right now." she said. "It usually takes a few hours for the cells to be infected. Leave them alone for a while and I'll check on them later. Give it about two hours and I'll know by then."

Everyone looked anxious, but didn't move. Sable knew they would stay right there until they had answers. She smiled at them.

"Everyone of you need to get out of here and let me do my job. I can't work with five pairs of eyes looking over my shoulder. Now get out, all of you." she said playfully. She got up and proceeded to push Sirius out of the portrait hole. He tried to resist, but Sable used her leverage to push him out the hole. Everyone else followed suite, except Remus. He hid behind a couch and waited for Sable to get everyone else out.

"Come back in two hours, and I'll give you an answer. Now get lost." She said as she shut the door to the room. James, Sirius, Peter, and Lily seemed a little put out, but soon left the dorms, each heading off to find something to do. They all knew that she would have an answer soon enough. So they left her to her own devices for the time being. Sirius and James decided to head to the Quidditch pitch. Lily went to the Great Hall to speak with some of the other professors. And Peter went somewhere, no one really knew where he went when he wasn't with the others.

Sable was happy to finally work in peace. She went back over to the scopes and settled down onto the couch. She knew it wouldn't take more than fifteen or twenty minutes before she had her answer, but she needed some time by herself. After being gone from Hogwart's for two years, she had been used to being by herself the whole time. Basically, she lived like a hermit, away from other people. But here, she couldn't help it. All of her friends were around the entire time, it was weird. She grabbed her notebook and began scribbling a few notes in it. 'This is going to be a long year.' she thought, ' A very long year.'


A/N - Howdy peeps. How's ya'll doin'? -Oops, sorry, country accent coming out again. I keep trying to get rid of it, but it won't go away!- Anyway, how was the chapter? I hope you liked it.

By the way, if the explanation for the test she is going to do is a little off the wall, I'm sorry. I'm no medical technologist or laboratory worker so I'm just going off of what I learned in my genetics class. If you have a problem understanding, the easiest way to explain it is that a werewolves' blood has a certain protein in it (at least in my story it does). She is trying to see if the protein will transfer to another person's cells. The protein should infect a non-infected person (say, for instance, Dumbledore or in this case, Lily) but according to theory, it shouldn't infect her own blood because she already carries a dormant form of the disease in her blood because of her parents. Confusing, I know. But bare with me, please.