The Songbird and the Serpent

Part II: The Wolf Discovered

Lupin's second year at Hogwart's...

Chapter 1

The name on everyone's lips that summer was Lord Voldemort, a self-styled "saviour of wizardkind" who claimed that the community should be cleansed of "impurity". No one had ever heard of him before; it was as if he had come out of nowhere, which seemed to strengthen his claim as some sort of saviour somehow. Everyone knew he was a very powerful wizard, although no one knew how they knew--likely just hearsay and speculation since, by all accounts, no one had ever actually seen the man.

Ever since his arrival in public knowledge there had been an abnormally large number of disappearances, all concerning muggle-born or half-blood individuals, and most people attributed these disappearances to Lord Voldemort. Of course, many people thought it a terrible thing, and Lord Voldemort a criminal--but an alarmingly large amount of the population began to think of him as a sort of hero, in full agreement with his idea of re-establishing purity in the wizarding community. The Lupin family, however, did not.

As a half-blood family, they found themselves growing concerned. Mr. and Mrs. Lupin were particularly worried about their son returning to school--life was hard enough for him as a werewolf without the added half-blood prejudices he would likely now have to endure. Remus himself worried about this very same thing, but nothing short of death could keep him from returning to school and his friends.

It was almost as though he had never left. He hadn't been able to visit any of his friends during the summer holidays, but the four of them fell back into easy conversation as if they'd been away for no less than a few days. Sirius seemed a great deal more cheerful than he usually was after a break from school, due to spending the summer with James instead of going home. Peter had stayed with them for a few weeks too, and Remus found himself feeling slightly jealous when they all described the fun they'd had together. Remus had of course been invited, but his parents were not about to let him leave their sight, what with the disappearances and the more obvious danger of his lycanthropy.

The school year began the same as ever; they welcomed the new Gryffindor students, enjoyed the marvellous feast, and waited in anticipation for the start of term announcements. Sure enough, Dumbledore stood and began to speak. The atmosphere in the room was tense, and everyone seemed to be waiting for him to say something about Lord Voldemort--but he disappointed them. He gave the usual announcements, ushered them all off to bed and took his seat once more.

"I was sure he'd say something..." James muttered as they made their way up to the Gryffindor dormitories.

"I guess there's really nothing for him to say that we wouldn't have already heard in the papers, you know?" Added Peter, and James shrugged.

"I heard that Zoë's mother is one of the people that's gone missing..." whispered Sirius, "maybe Dumbledore doesn't want to draw attention to the whole thing...since we've got people here that have been directly affected and everything..."

"Plus, I'm sure everyone's perfectly safe here at Hogwart's." Said Peter, although there was a hint of uncertainty in his voice. The four of them arrived at their room and began to unpack their belongings in a sort of thoughtful silence.

"Poor Zoë..." said Remus finally, and Sirius shrugged.

"I'm not so sure I'd mind if my mum went missing...I rather wish she would, to be honest." He said with a wistful grin, and James rolled his eyes.

"Yeah...well, she supports him doesn't she...so I doubt you'll get your wish!" He said, and Sirius grimaced.

"Don't remind me...I'm just glad that this summer I only had to spend a week with that bunch of psychos I call a family. How on earth did nice people like your parents ever come to be friends with them, that's what I'd like to know..." mumbled Sirius, and James shrugged. "Well, I know I'm safe at least...there's never been a single muggle in the family as far as I know..." continued Sirius, and Peter nodded.

"Same here..." he said.

"I think I had a great great grandmother that was a muggle...but I doubt something that far back matters anymore...so I guess we're all pretty safe. Well, except you, Remus..." said James, and Remus nodded.

"Luckily not many people know my family, though. I think you lot are the only people around here that even know my dad's a muggle...well, other than the staff, I suppose." He said with a yawn that quickly spread to the other occupants of the room.

"Yep, I'm sure you'll be fine...besides, like Peter said--Hogwart's is safe. Well, time for bed I think..." said James, and the others became aware of just how tired they were, and agreed.

Remus found himself unable to sleep that night.


Classes began the next morning with a double potions lesson, and Remus was happy to discover that he no longer had to have Snape as a lab partner; Tsepesh thought that he and Peter had made enough progress to be partners again. Luckily they managed not to prove him wrong during the day's lesson.

The rest of their classes were much the same, if not a bit easier this time around since everyone now knew the basics of each course. Sirius, James and Remus glided through their classes with ease, and helped Peter to do the same. Sirius and James continued to get up to their usual activities, but this year they had gained the common sense and skill not to get caught quite so often. Remus and Peter began to join them in their frequent night-time wanderings more and more, and Remus found that bending the rules a little wasn't so bad after all; in fact, it was rather exhilarating, as long as you didn't get caught of course. And they barely ever did.

When Christmas holidays finally arrived, the four of them decided to stay at Hogwart's. They were the only Gryffindors to do so that year, so they had the common room entirely to themselves; something which suited them just fine. Remus couldn't help but feel slightly guilty about not going home to his parents, and he had to work quite hard to convince them that he would be okay staying at school for the holidays (for one thing, there would be no full moon during their holiday weeks--something for which Remus felt extraordinarily lucky). Eventually they had given in, and Remus was somewhat relieved to discover that Peter at least had similar trouble with his own parents. Sirius' family preferred that he not return home for the holidays, and James was pretty much allowed to do whatever he wanted, so there they were.

They spent most of Christmas completing their exploration of the castle. They had discovered a few tempting secret passageways, but had decided to save them for later expeditions, not wanting to use up all the adventurous potential that the school held so soon in their stay there. They had also managed to discover the way into the kitchens; something which pleased Sirius and Peter especially. By the end of the holidays, the four of them were quite confident that they probably knew more about the school grounds than anyone else, other than Filch and Dumbledore of course. All in all it seemed to Remus that this may just end up being the best year of his life.