Remus

The evening before his departure Sirius returned to the dormitory rather late and was surprised to find only Remus still reading, while James and Peter had gone to the land of nod, apparently hours ago. The young werewolf looked up only briefly when his friend entered and gave him an acknowledging nod before returning to his lecture. Sirius smiled curtly, pulled off his robes and the shirt underneath and slammed himself on his bed, half-naked, scratching his chest and stomach as he did. It took a little while before Remus looked up again and Sirius made sure to give him the grin he always reserved specially for these occasions.

Remus raised an eyebrow.

'Got news?'

'I have been looking up... stuff.'

Remus sighed. 'Well? Found a way of tackling a werewolf without destroying their personal biological clock?'

'You are still sulky because of that?' Sirius tried to look offended.

'I do not trust your ideas before I know all about them because of that,' said Remus quietly. 'Well?'

'Transfiguration!' grinned Sirius. 'We are going to keep you transfiguring each other into simple furniture.'

'Forget it,' said Remus quietly. 'Three reasons why I won't even consider trying this. First, there is no way you are going to make them believe you were just doing advanced study in case you get caught. It is too obvious. Second, we haven't even mastered reptile transfiguration. How on earth do you suppose are we going to transfigure each other? Last, it is far too dangerous. As are all your ideas, really.'

'Puh...' Sirius put the book away he had brought with him and got rid of the rest of his clothes with a short, angry push. 'You are just too cowardly to try things out, werewolf.'

'Don't call me that,' said Remus, as quietly as before. 'I told you it's not nice.'

'It's true nevertheless.'

'Yes, but it's also true that you are a Pureblood, and I am not stressing that all the time.'

'You could. It's another truth.'

'But you wouldn't like it.'

Sirius considered for a moment. 'Point taken,' he said eventually. And after a long while of consideration: 'How did you come to be a werewolf in the first place, Remus? What happened?'

'I got bitten,' said Remus matter-of-factly, a veil seeming to cloud his normally rather pleasant look for a moment. 'What do you expect?'

'No, I mean really. What exactly happened? Is there a werewolf running around at... at... where d'you live again?'

'The Isle of Mull,' said Remus quietly. 'We moved there when I was a small child. Shortly before I got bitten. I... I do not remember much of that time, to be honest. My parents had a few problems... at that time... with the officials and... and that is why we had to leave England. Got as far as that. And that's where I grew up. On the Isle of Mull - or Dull, as I like to call it. Not much to see up there, really. Not many humans.'

'Which might have been a lucky coincidence given your later state,' said Sirius, eating a banana he had nicked from the kitchen earlier this day. 'But what happened?'

'I do not know!' said Remus sharply. 'How often do I have to tell you? I can hardly remember that time. Though I do remember a lot of soldiers being around at that time. I think that was when my father started his job with them. There were lots of formalities to -...'

'Your father works for the wizarding army?'

'The ministry,' said Remus quickly. 'Muggle correspondent. Yes, there is such a thing. Don't look like that. It's just a job. He's not spying or anything.'

'At least not on us,' said Sirius grinning, 'or you wouldn't give away these details so willingly.'

'I suppose not.'

Remus sounded tired. Sirius bend forward just slightly to look the young Halfblood into the eyes to show him that he was still interested.

'You said something about soldiers.'

'Yes, soldiers,' said Remus slowly. 'You know - the ones wearing that ridiculous red uniform and those short robeish-looking thingies. Looking a bit like the Muggle ones during colonial times, only more... I dunno... wizard-like.'

'And you've had to do with them?' enquired Sirius. 'A lot?'

'Not much,' said Remus pensively. 'I don't much approve of them, to be honest. Aren't the friendliest of people. Only they're the cream of the crop of wizardkind, you know. Only the very best of those graduating at Hogwarts. A bit like Aurors, really. The difference is that Aurors defend our country from inside and guard the wizarding prison, while those... soldiers seem more the attacking kind.'

Sirius grinned. James stirred. Remus gave him and Peter a worried look, then, with a sigh, put his book aside.

'I am sorry I can't tell you much about the matter,' he said eventually, trying to sound conciliable. 'It's just... I really don't remember most things to do with the bite. My parents never told me much about it. I know that my father totally lost it at the time and almost killed the soldier who'd been responsible for the attack. It's been an accident, apparently. But he doesn't think so. He thinks the assault was aimed at me in specific to drive our family away from Mull. He thinks there is more to the island than everyone dares admit. Only, he cannot seem to put his finger on what that might be. Then again, he is a bit paranoid, so my guess is that he's making it all up. And the soldier was severely wounded at that time. They had to withdraw part of their troops, fearing such an incident might occur again. Didn't seem to want trouble. So much for my father's diplomacy. Well... good for them, I suppose. I still think it was all just a huge misunderstanding, though. My father tends to take things the wrong way, and I am told soldiers are no different.'

After this seemingly endless speech, Remus took a few deep breaths and flicked his wand at the small light next to his bed and at Sirius's, wrapping the room in total darkness.

'Night,' he said simply, obviously feeling that all had been said that needed to be discussed. After a short while of silence Sirius heard his light, even snore and decided to try and sleep as well, despite the fact that he had originally wanted to finish another book on Advanced Potions tonight.