Hey, sorry it took so long to update, I've been sick, so, no time to write 'till now.

CHAPTER 4

James Potter stood up from sitting on the chest at the foot of his bed. Lazily, he threw his little rock in the air and caught it again then headed down to the Gryffindor common room.

"Hey, guys, look what I found." He made his way down the stairs and to the table his friends were sitting at.

"What is it?" Remus Lupin took off his glasses to get a better look.

James smiled fondly at the rock. "My dad gave it to me before I went on the Express for the first time. He told me when I was a kid that it was a magic rock. He said he got it in a place called California, thats some place on the opposite side of America or something.
"Where 'the weird of the weird go to live. There is unusual things there my boy' dad'd tell me, 'never go there with out someone with you. I almost died there once.'" James laughed out loud, "I always figured that if it's in America, it has to be unusual."

"You know, I have a cousin there that I visited once." Sirius Black said "I went to this place called San Francisco." he shuddered in a fake manner. "NEVER, may I repeat, NEVER go into the magic part of Pier 39 ½!" (A.N. there really is a pier 39 ½ … seriously!)

A little boy called Peter Pettigrew looked nervous, "What's in there?"

Sirius put the back of his hand to his forehead and dramatically turned his head away. "It is too painful to tell." he looked back and smirked, "Let me just say that I'm glad I can still urinate properly..."

"AWW… Padfoot! That's disgusting! Did you really have to tell us that?" Remus closed his eyes tightly; he looked as if he would vomit. Hedid turnand see that Peter looked scared, "Don't worry, Peter. He was only pulling your leg. WEREN'T you, Sirius."

"Yes. Yes I was moony! Hey, prongs? Lemme see that." Sirius motioned towards the rock.

"This? Sure." James tossed the golden object to his long haired friend.

"I remember this… you threw it at my head. Damn, I still have the scar." Sirius rubbed the side of his head.

"When did I do that? I would never throw anything at you…ever! How could you say that?" James looked at Sirius in fake disgust.

"I can't believe you don't remember! We were in our second year! You got mad at me for some reason and threw this at my head!" Sirius thrust out his hand holding the rock.

"Oh yeah, I remember that. That was the year we began to do what we do best." Remus laughed. "And by now, every one knows what that is!" Remus couldn't believe he was talking casually about his friend's annoying habit of pulling pranks on people. Although, he did rather enjoy seeing Servious Snape hanging by his ankles wearing a dress…

It was now the first day of school for James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius Black. All four of them had changed some over the summer. Their voices were deeper, they were all taller, (especially Sirius) and all except Peter were beginning to gain their awkward, skinny, clumsy, teenage bodies. Peter on the other hand, still had his short, fat body that his parent's cursed him with by over feeding him… but that was of no importance to anyone else.

Also, over the summer, the four twelve year olds began to take interest in girls. It appeared that something inside their subconscious suddenly woke up and realized there was a significant difference between people of the male and female gender, and they should like it. James took special interest in a girl by the name of Lilly Evans, whom must have sworn her hatred of James a hundred times last year.

Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew had both their eyes on a little Ravenclaw second year. She was a short blonde that kept to herself for the most part. Neither of them knew what they liked about her, but there was something… And Sirius Black, he hadn't chosen anyone for a preteen crush yet. But there were some girls he liked. He never thought of himself as a very good looking, charming boy, so he never tried to pursue any girl. Besides, James was the vein one of the group.

Remus looked at his schedule for the year. Transfiguration and Charms with Ravenclaw, Potions with Hufflepuff, History of Magic and Defense against the Dark Arts with Slytherin. Just what he needed: the only classes where the teachers don't pay attention they have with Slytherin.

"Hey, look at the schedule. Why can't we have one class with Slytherin in stead of Hufflepuff? Sometimes I think that McGonagall is blind to the trouble Slytherin causes."

"Doesn't matter if she did," James said with a sigh, "Balic hates Gryffindor. He is constantly going out of his way to make us miserable." Professor Balic was the Potions teacher and head of Slytherin house.

"This is true." Remus sighed.

The next day was amazingly beautiful. The sun was shining and grass green. Most students wanted to eat lunch quickly and get outside to enjoy the weather, including Sirius and James. They, like everyone else, stuffed their faces as fast as they could so they could go outside.

Unfortunately for Remus, it was going to be a full moon, he was suffering from the regular "moon madness syndrome" like most werewolves do. This included quiziness, headaches, and unusual behavior. At the moment, he was suffering an unusually bad headache. The last thing he needed was to go outside in the sunlight.

"Remus? Are you coming?" James looked at his friend.

"Uh- no, no I'm just going to stay here." He buried his head in his hands, trying to cover his eyes.

"Are you ok? You look sick. Maybe you should go to the Hospital Wing." James looked worried. This happened all the time, it's not normal; it can't be healthy to be this sick this much. He really hoped Remus was alright.

"No, I'm alright. Go ahead without me."

"You know, I think we should stay here, to be sure your ok. I haven't seen you like this in a while." Sirius looked at Remus closely, his hair was messy, he looked like his skin had a greenish tint to it. There were bags under his eyes and worst of all, he was slouching, Remus NEVER slouched. Remus slouching was like a muggle going to Hogwarts; it just wasn't done.

"No guys, go. I'm really ok, I just have a headache, that's all." Remus quickly looked at the other three, but covered his eyes just as fast from the pain of the light.

"Fine, but only if you go to the Hospital Wing. You really shouldn't be going around like this." James looked genially worried.

"Yes, I'll go. Just go outside like you wanted, don't sacrifice your lunch on my expense." Remus made a hand gesture telling them to go.

"I'll take you there. Common." Peter began to grab Remus' arm as if to guide him.

"NO! Go! I'll be fine, really!" Remus didn't feel comfortable with all the attention he was getting.

"But-" Sirius was stopped by James, who shook his head. Sirius thought he mouthed 'Don't push it' and gestured for them to go.

"All right then, we'll see you later." James guided Sirius away.

Remus found a statue of a Badger on the first floor and squeezed himself behind it. The dim light felt better for his eyes. Reguardless of his headache, his mind thought about the event that took place. Why were they so concerned about him? Was he getting too close to them? What if they found out? Then what? James and Sirius are smart, it was only a matter of time they would put the facts together and realize what he was. He knew what would happen then, it's happened before. He had friends that found out. The only thing his family could do was to move away. If his friends found out, then he would surely have to leave Hogwarts. Even though Dumbledore was kind, understanding, and unusually tolerant, he would have no choice but to expel him. Parents would find out, they would write to him, and no one would feel safe until he was gone.

Remus instantally thought of the time he was nine. His older brother, Rodger, was upset that he had to leave AGAIN; away from his friends, his girlfriend, and everything else. When they finally settled into their new house, Rodger went into his brother's room. "I hate you! Why did you have to get yourself bitten? Didn't you figure out by now you can't have friends? Once people find out what you are they're scared! Scared of YOU! You can never have friends like a normal person. Even mom and dad have said it! You'll never have a normal life, friends, or anything that we had before you were bitten! Now we'll never have any sort of life until you're gone, werewolf!"

Those words stayed with Remus for the rest of his life. Every time he thought of James, Sirius, or Peter, his brother's word rang in his head. 'We'll never have any sort of life until you're gone, werewolf!' Remus could never have any sort of life of friends, he knew that. And he made the mistake of becoming friends with the three boys. Over and over he told himself 'you shouldn't be friends with them, you came to Hogwarts to study magic, not to have friends, werewolf'

Peter, James and Sirius were outside under the shade of an oak tree not far from the entrance to the school. James couldn't stop thinking about Remus. He hated seeing his friend in pain like that. "Hey, why do you think Remus is sick all the time? It seems like every few weeks or so he becomes really ill."

"I don't know, maybe he has some sort of disease or something." Peter thought hard about what it could be.

"No, I don't think so. I remember reading something about that, in defense against the dark arts or something. Damn, what was it. It was last year, we were studying… different kinds of… human creatures! That probably wasn't the term he used but it was something like that. We were reading about people who are actually dangerous creatures." Sirius remembered Professor Flood telling them that sertan conditions in the earth effect the behavior of these people. Vampires, werewolves, and something called human phoenixes. Those were people who have phoenix qualities but are sensitive to things. Sirius never really under stood that. "He said that some creatures have monthly or weekly cycles were they act weird or something."

"You think Remus is a human creature?" James raised his eyebrows sarcastically then laughed, "Next you'll be telling me Peter can ride a broom."

Although Peter didn't like to be hearing this, he laughed along with James anyways.

"Common! It's always a possibility, it can't be ruled out!" Sirius said defensively.

"But wouldn't he act weird if he was one of those things?" Peter looked a Sirius. He wasn't sure weather to side with him or James. He already laughed with James, so he figured he had better stick with that.

"No, my Uncle Yorik is a werewolf. I stayed with him a little one summer. He acted completely normal until the full moon came around. That day he became sick and after the transformation he was weak and stuff for a few days. So you don't realize they're one of those until that little cycle thingy is complete." Sirius shrugged. His uncle Yorik was a werewolf, but his family hated him for that, which is why they hated his cousin, Andromeda.

"Fine, I'll let you look into that. But I think we have to figure out what's wrong with him and soon. I really don't like seeing him sick like that. Maybe if we find out what's wrong we could help him out or something." James sighed.

Later that night, around 7:30, Remus made his way to the Hospital Wing to see Madam Pomfrey. When he came to the school, she was brought in from St. Mungo's Hospital to help him with his transformations. She and Madam Franklyn, the head nurse at Hogwarts, were the only people in the school that had to help no less than 200 students at the school.

"Are you ready?" Madam Pomfrey had her arms crossed. He was late. He should NEVER be late.

"Yes Madam. I'm sorry I took so long, I just-"

"Doesn't matter. You're here now, that's all that counts. Now come on, the moon is almost completely full." She grabbed his arm and lead him to the statue of the first headmaster of Hogwarts, Geodic Gryffindor. With her wand, she tapped it three times and said Candor. It meant open in some language, Remus reckoned. The statue's back slid in and to the side, allowing the two to go though.

They went through a short tunnel; at the end was a door on the ceiling. Madam Pomfrey tapped her wand three times and again said Candor to open the door. They went to the Womping Willow which was planted the summer before last just for him. They went into the shrieking shack where Madam Pomfrey left him there. A charm was put on the Shack so when he transformed, Remus couldn't leave.

After she left, Remus did what he hated most; he had to take off his clothes. Transforming in to the wolf included growing drastically bigger, his clothes would rip if he didn't take them off before hand.

A window in the shack let the moonshine in, Remus thought it better if he stayed by the window to get the transformation done and over with. One cloud covered the moon that night allowing only streams of the moon to shine through. He felt his stomach turn over, feeling he would vomit. His head was pounding, like hammers hitting his brain over and over again. This was the worst feeling in the world and he felt as if it would never stop.

Finally, the cloud blew away and the full shine of the moon shone through. His feet grew, his head grew bigger, longer; his back began to hunch over and grow. He let out horrifying scream after horrifying scream, letting out the pain and frustration from what little of his human mind was left. Finally, his transformation was complete and the wolf took over. He ran around the house, banging against its fragile walls, trying to get out. He stopped at the top of a stair case and let out one long howl.

Sirius' head turned towards his window, what was that he just heard? Oh well, it was gone now. It was probably something from the Forbidden Forest. He was doing what James suggested: looking into the possibility of Remus being something other than human.

The first thing he looked at was werewolves. Earlier that day he went to the library and picked up a copy of The Wizard's Guide to Dangerous Creatures. Although Sirius didn't think of Remus as dangerous, he still thought it was worth checking out.

Moon Madness Syndrome? According to the book, werewolves 'often have symptoms related to the full moon pre and post-transformation.' Sirius instantly went to a window in the Gryffindor common room to look at the moon. Just what he thought, the moon was full. At this point, Sirius began preparing himself for the worst. What if Remus was a werewolf? How was that going to change anything? Wait, calm your ass down. He's your FRIEND. His being a werewolf shouldn't have anything to do with us being friends. Sirius stopped himself and thought, I'll just watch him a few months. If there's a pattern, then I'll ask. If there isn't then there's nothing to worry about! Besides, he's probably NOT a werewolf! He can't be! Dumbledore wouldn't have let him come if he was! Sirius tried to reassure himself. It didn't help much.