Author's Note: Actually I really don't have anything to say this time around... So just read on. :D

Chapter Sixteen: The Malfoys

Remus winced painfully as he strained to angle his body toward James and Sirius. He took very rapid short breaths as he looked at his friends glumly; they could tell from his face that he wasn't happy letting them see him in this state. Blood continued to seep out from his fresh wounds as he opened his mouth to speak once more, "Can—Can you please call Professor Dumbledore?" Remus took a very deep breath before finishing, "I would like a word."

"Dumbledore? You need to seem Madam Pomfrey immediately!"

"I'm fine. Honest." He lied, straining to find a comfortable position, "Please, it's important."

James looked squarely into Remus' face; he stared from behind his round glasses at his friend's sad, lonely, and determined eyes. There was something there, some sort of strong determination that could be seen upon his pale face, no matter if he was bleeding to death. Whatever he had to say to Dumbledore was far more important to him at that moment.

James hesitated to say anything for a second; the boy couldn't exactly argue with determination like that, but he still felt uncomfortable with the situation.

"All right then. Sirius, you go find Dumbledore. Peter accompany him, would you?"

"What about you, James?" Peter wondered, his eyes darting from the door to his three friends.

"I'll be staying." He replied. James' eyes seemed to only stare at Remus, they refused to look anywhere else.

There was something about the seriousness of the situation that made Sirius oblige so quickly for he didn't even make the effort to ask questions. He stood up, took Peter by the collar, and sped out of the common room leaving both James and Remus in the common room.

Remus' light brown hair looked about as messy as James', and his face appeared as pale as parchment. The poor boy knew exactly why James decided to stay; he knew he was going to be interrogated by him. Remus didn't seem to really care about the interrogation, his mind swam from the loss of blood and he felt extremely uncomfortable because of the way James was looking at him.

James never lifted his gaze from Remus; he continued to survey him with the deepest concern in his eyes. The room was awfully quiet, everyone, by now, should have probably gone down to the Great Hall to eat lunch. The silence disturbed them both, but no one dared to speak.

James sighed; there were so many questions he wanted to ask; yet he was too afraid to ask them. At this rate I'll go mad, his mind thought as he finally tore his gaze from his good friend. He took the cloak he and Sirius had pulled off earlier and began to tear strips of cloth from it. If they weren't going to call Madam Pomfrey yet, the best thing he could do right now was to keep Remus company and try to clot the blood.

Remus' lifted his head slightly in order to get a better view of what his friend was doing to his special cloak, "James—"

"I'll be sure to get you a better one, don't worry about it. Right now we need to stop all that blood from coming out, mate." He told him, "But we need to clean the cloth first. Scourgify!"

Instantly, the ragged clothing seemed to be completely free of blood, mud, and grass stains. With this in mind, James gathered all of the pieces and walked over to Remus. Being as weak as he was, Remus couldn't really do anything except watch and perhaps lift up his arms slightly so that James didn't have such a hard time tying it around.

"If it's painful, tell me."

Remus gulped, but slowly nodded his head.

James carefully took the cloth, wrapped it around, and tied it firmly. He caught a glimpse of Remus wincing painfully as he tied it into a firm not, and he couldn't blame him; he'd probably yell out in pain if it were he in that condition. Remus was very strong, and that's what James found to be one of his strong points. Remus didn't even yell out in pain; he'd occasionally bite his lip or maybe close his eyes, but that was about it.

"Tell me," said James; wrapping another piece of cloth around, "You really didn't visit your sick mother, did you?"

He expected Remus to give him a look of shock or terror, but oddly enough, Remus' expression didn't change at all. The boy's deep eyes looked as if he had been spacing out, thinking about something. James wasn't even sure Remus had heard his question by the reaction he had gotten and tried repeating, "Did you—?"

"I heard you the first time, James." Remus replied, a periodic smile appearing on his weary face, "I had a feeling you were the one tailing me. Wearing the invisibility cloak, I assume."

James let out a forced laugh, "No. Unfortunately I didn't know it was you until you turned around."

A wide smile seemed to spread across Remus' face as he spoke, "I was wondering why Bellatrix and Rodolphus didn't catch up to me. I saw them in the distance and I sped up, I was kinda of surprised they didn't follow me; it turns out they spotted you instead of me."

"You're welcome, then." Said James, a smile spreading across his face as well. "You didn't have to lie to us. You just wanted to be alone, right?"

Remus' smile seemed to quickly change to a very concerned look, "Um—Yeah. I just wanted to be alone. I needed to be alone." James looked at him curiously as if wanting to know more, but Remus caught his look and quickly replied, "It's nothing."

Before anymore questions could be passed, the Fat Lady's door swung open, and to their relief Professor Dumbledore, Sirius, and Peter hurried in. James tightly secured the last piece of cloth upon Remus' arm and backed away, giving Dumbledore some room. Professor Dumbledore didn't look very surprised to see Remus like this for his expression was very calm as he knelt down beside him.

"I mentioned this didn't I?" Dumbledore said lightly from behind his half-moon glasses

Remus laughed, "Yeah, I was prepared. I didn't realize it would go this far though. About Madam Pomfrey—?"

"I'll talk to her," said Dumbledore. He then turned to James and beamed, "You have very faithful friends. James, you wouldn't abandon any of your friends, would you?"

"Me? I would never!" James exclaimed. He then turned to Sirius and remarked, "Ain't that right, mate?"

Sirius grinned, "What ever you say."

Dumbledore laughed aloud and turned to Remus; to their surprise he seemed to be frowning.

"I'll take him to hospital wing, you three should head for the Great Hall." Said Dumbledore, looking at the three of them, "I think you three have deserved a good lunch."

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The Great Hall was nearly empty by the time they got there; the people had begun to file out, leaving nothing but scraps on the table. James didn't seem to mind though, after seeing Remus in that state his appetite had dissipated. Sirius also felt the same way as James for he merely used his fork to poke at the bones from the left over roast. Peter seemed to be the only one who was in the mood to eat for his stomach grumbled at the sight of leftovers. Both James and Sirius sat down at the table, staring dumbfounded at the leftover food. James, on the other hand, stood their staring up at the Great Hall's enchanted ceiling absentmindedly.

"Nothing but scraps, mate," murmured Sirius, rolling the bones to one side. "Hey James, lighten up. At least sit down with us."

James looked at them and shrugged he then took a seat opposite of Sirius and Peter. At the moment all of his thoughts were clouded, and trying to clear it up was the one thing he had the most trouble doing. At this rate, he'll be bumping into walls and getting lost all over the place. The poor boy couldn't even think straight, he was afraid he would say his words in the incorrect order so he didn't wish to open his mouth.

"Where do yeh think Remus got all those scratches?" asked Sirius closing his eyes. Vivid images raced through their minds as they tried picturing the markings. "You got a chance to look at 'em didn't you, James?"

He merely nodded at the mention of his name then said, "They were really deep, it looked like some kind of animal attacked him."

"James! Didn't you say Remus was walking toward the Whomping Willow? Maybe he got thrashed—!" exclaimed Peter, but only to get cut off by none other than Remus himself.

"You three are trying to solve a mystery?" he asked.

James looked up, startled; how did Remus get down here so quickly, and without any of them noticing? The lot of them stared at Remus with open mouths and pale faces. Remus, on the other hand, had a really bright look on his face, the boy didn't look mad at all. His clothes were no longer torn up and the blood appeared to have stopped flowing out. There the scratches were now small fairly small scars now, and they wondered what kind of magic was used to heal them in a time span of less than eight minutes.

Remus was the last person they wanted over hearing their conversation.

Trying to think of something to say, James exclaimed, "Remus! How did—? Weren't you—?"

"I'm just fine, James. Don't worry about it; I must say, though, I didn't get thrashed by the willow."

"Then how'd—?"

"I fell into a large ditch, hence the large gashes in my legs. I landed on a few rocks."

The three of them tried visualizing falling on a "few" rocks and they all shuddered at thought of it. If they had fallen on those rocks, their bones would have definitely shattered. Remus was lucky to have limped all the way back to school… His explanation seemed to check out with half of their questions, but James was still wondering exactly why Remus was out there in the first place, and exactly how he fell into a ditch. Remus isn't dumb enough to fall in on accident… it was either he tripped or… he was attacked. James gasped at the thought. If he had really been attacked, it would explain the deep scratch markings all over his body.

He ran his hand through hair as he looked up at Remus, worriedly. James wanted to ask, but he felt something from within him telling him not to, tugging at the thought. Remus would probably feel awkward talking about it, his mind told him. The last thing he wanted to do was put his friend in a hot spot after what had happened.

"How are your wounds?" asked Peter, his face up in a confused manner.

"Oh, they're just fine. Dumbledore healed them instantly after you three left, so no harm done." He replied, his face still unusually happy, "You realize we're the only people left in here, right? There's nothing but scraps left! Hey, James, can you come with me to ask Dumbledore for more food—?"

"What's the need?" Sirius interrupted a sly grin appearing on his face, "We can all head down to the kitchen and ask the house-elves for some grub. We'll be able to feast on things even seventh years would die for!"

Remus' happy face faulted slightly at Sirius' comment; James saw this and looked at him strangely. Did Remus, perhaps, want to talk with James alone? Is that why he suggested that he should go up to ask Dumbledore for more food? His train of thought was interrupted when Remus let out a hearty sarcastic laugh, which didn't even sound like a real laugh. Sirius and Peter didn't seem to notice the sarcasm in his voice, but James was more than annoyed by it.

"Y—Yeah. I guess we should head to the kitchen." Sputtered Remus.

"Hey Sirius," James muttered. "Why don't you and Peter go on ahead? I just remembered that I forgot something up in the common room. Remus, do yeh mind accompanying me?"

Sirius laughed, "Are you sure? I mean Peter and I will be able to have first dibs. Or we can all go up to the common room together—!"

"That's all right, mate. The Professors might become suspicious if we go all together, anyway." James implored, his face looking completely serious.

Sirius brushed some of his dark hair from his face and looked at James; the messy-haired boy gulped, it was almost like Sirius was using some sort of lie detector on him because of blank stare he was given. The handsome chap raised an eyebrow, and the right side of his mouth curled upward; it was most apparent that he had James all figured out.

He merely took James into a headlock and laughed, "All right then! Don't go getting caught on me, got that?" Then in an low mutter so that neither Peter nor Remus could hear, he added, "'Ey, Jamesie, yeh better fill me in later."

With that said, Sirius let James go, turned to the two others and grinned. Both Remus and Peter gave looks of pure confusion and blinked as Sirius pushed Peter out the large double doors of the Great Hall leaving James and Remus.

"You shouldn't make a habit out of lying." James smiled; resting his hands at the back of his head as he walked passed Remus toward the double doors. "So what did you want to talk about?"

Remus looked stunned for a moment, as if surprised that James knew he want to talk him.

"Professor Dumbledore was right," Remus laughed, walking not too far behind James. "You really are clever. Though I could say the same thing to you, James; you shouldn't make a habit out of lying either."

James turned around and looked at Remus, "Ha! I guess you're right. But Dumbledore really said I was clever? I'll take that as a compliment!" Remus merely frowned at James' remark and mumbled, "That was a compliment."

There was utter silence amongst the two of them as they walked through the corridor; Remus twiddled his thumbs nervously; the boy looked like he had something to say, but was too frightened to say anything at all. James, on the other hand, whistled carelessly as they walked passed a large group of Ravenclaws. Truthfully, James didn't want to know what Remus had to say; for some reason he felt it was going to be some sort of bad news or something that he would least want to happen. He also didn't want to rush Remus in speaking, if Remus wanted to say something he had to say it on his own accord.

"Flagrare." James said calmly as they approached the door of the Fat Lady. The door swung open, and the two of them walked into the bustling common room. "So, Remus, I'll ask again. What exactly did you want to talk about?" he said out of the corner of his mouth so as to not bring so much attention to them.

"A—Ah. Well, it's about earlier." He croaked, sweat dripping along his face and drenching his shirt. "The conversation we were hav—"

"How do you do, Miss Evans?" James interrupted, acting completely natural; the boy rumpled the back of his hair while he looked at her. James then moved a bit backwards and whispered, "Don't act so uptight. Just act natural; people will think we're up to something if you continue to sweat bullets like that, mate."

The two of them went passed all the people and up to the dormitories. Upon entering their room, something flew in from the open window. The two boys were rather startled, but realized that it was only an owl; one that James had never seen before. It had beautiful light brown feathers, which resembled Remus' hair, and it looked just as tired and shabby as Remus did the first time James had seen him. The owl had with him an envelope that was tied neatly to its right leg with a glowing dark blue ribbon.

"That's weird, don't the owls usually come in during breakfast?" James asked, turning to Remus. Remus, on the other hand, had a rather strange expression that he had never seen before, and his mouth seemed to be held agape. "…Is something wrong?"

"Aqualis!" Remus gasped, rushing towards the shabby looking owl. His face looked beyond relieved at the sight of the owl, "I can't believe it! Is that really you? It's been ages!" he exclaimed again, his croaking voice choking on several of his words.

James walked over to Remus and could have sworn that the over-excited boy would throw himself over the owl and possibly choke it to death. That was just how happy Remus looked finally seeing the owl, it was almost like he was seeing a really old friend that hadn't seen in over four years or something.

"Hey, Remus, whose owl is that?" James asked, curiously looking at the bird that seemed to resemble little Lupin greatly. "It looks a lot like you, an old friend perhaps? You couldn't possibly be yours, is it? You told us you didn't have an owl."

Remus seemed to frown at the comment, "That's what my mum used to tell me, she used to say that I looked like her. Anyways this is Aqualis; she belongs to my father, he decided the name for her because of her strangely ocean blue eyes. If you stare into them, it makes you think of water."

He said all this with the most enthusiasm in his voice; Remus seemed really proud of the owl to be talking this much about it, but even so, it made James think of more questions than before.

"Hey… Remus," he began, the boy had begun petting the bird. "Exactly what do you mean by 'my mum used to tell me' She doesn't tell that to you now? And what did you mean by you hadn't seen Aqualis in ages? You're acting as if you haven't seen your family in years."

Remus froze; his hand began trembling, but he continued to pet the bird as best he could. James didn't know if he had offended Remus in any way, so he immediately apologized afterward.

"No. It's all right James…" Remus said looking up at him, his eyes full of sorrow, "You're right, my mum doesn't tell that to me any more…"

James stared, "Are you telling me that you haven't seen your parents—?"

"Let's go, James. I'm sure Sirius and Peter are waiting for us."

James frowned; why didn't Remus want to answer his questions? He didn't understand any of it at all! They were friends, weren't they?

"You're the one who wanted to talk to me, Remus." He stammered, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "Spit it out already! What's wrong? Do you have some sort of problem? Why don't you tell me, tell us?!" James couldn't help, but say it all at once and he continued, "We're your friends, Remus! Friends are supposed tell each other everything! We have a right to—"

"But—but it's different!" Remus implored, turning to James, his eyes seeming to be filled with anger, "You don't understand, James. You'd never understand even if I told you! There are things I have to keep to myself. A-and, I just know you'd leave—you'd never want to be friends with me when I—if I tell you the truth!"

James could have sworn Remus had started crying, but he couldn't see because Remus had his back turned around. "And—And that's the very last thing I'd want to happen… I don't want to loose any more people; I don't want to loose any more family! You, Sirius, and Peter are like family to me, and I don't want to—!"

The room quieted down and there was a moment of silence. James didn't know what else to say to Remus; he tried opening his mouth, but no words would escape. Remus knelt by his bed, the place where Aqualis was perched, took the letter from the owl's leg and tossed it to the side. He then continued to pat and scratch it on the head slowly and absentmindedly.

James gulped the remaining saliva left in his mouth and started, "Remus, look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean—!"

At that precise moment, the door burst open and Sirius, as well as Peter, landed with a thud on the floor. Remus was quite startled by this and jumped as if to have finally been pulled out of a wonderful daydream and back into reality. James on the other hand frowned at the sight of the two of them. Bad timing as usual, James sighed, looking at the two of them lying in a heap on the floor.

"Don't tell me you finished eating already?" said James, eyeing the both of them.

"It was horrible!" Peter cried, his eyes full of tears. "They—they nearly killed us!"

Sirius merely conked Peter on the head to calm down and explained to them in a more, appropriate manner, "It wasn't that bad. We didn't even make it to the kitchen though; we, unfortunately, had the pleasure of running into Malfoy and Bellatrix. They just bluffed that they were going to use the Petrificus Totalus spell—Peter would you stop shaking—on us if we didn't get out of their sight."

Remus seemed to have finally regained himself for he was now standing beside James, and looking down at them curiously. There was no sign on his face that made anyone think that he had been horribly sad and depressed, and this was what hurt James the most. Remus had the ability to hide his emotions really well; he may be really sad or maybe angry and they would have never noticed!

"If they were just bluffing, then why'd your run away, Sirius?" Remus asked, a smile appearing on his once emotionless face.

"It wasn't me, mate! I blame it on Peter! He dragged me all the way up here; I swear, thanks to you Peter, I'm going to be the talk of the household back home." Sirius muttered harshly, "Me mum'll probably laugh heartily and exclaim 'he was nothing, but a coward to begin with, that snot-nose blood traitor! He's no son of mine!' or something to that effect."

"So, Rodolphus wasn't with her…?" James asked, helping them both get to their feet, "Who'd you say she was with again?"

"Malfoy!" Peter gasped, "They're so rich and powerful!"

"Because you have money, it doesn't mean you're powerful, mate." James laughed, "Though, in our world today, I'd say that's what everyone else thinks. So exactly who is this 'Malfoy' character?"

Sirius, Peter, and Remus stared at James with eyes wide and mouths hanging.

"You're crazy! Everyone's heard of the Malfoy family." Sirius gasped, rubbing his hand on his forehead, "Do you understand how deprived you are, James? I mean I understand that you didn't know Peeves, but you don't know the Malfoy Family…?"

James frowned, "Of course I know them; well, I've heard of them. They're an aristocratic wizarding family, am I right?"

The three of them sighed in relief; they appeared to be extremely glad that James at least knew whom they were talking about. It was hard to really understand if James knew everything, or he just knew everything about Quidditch.

"It was Lucius Malfoy, the son of Mr. Malfoy!" Peter exclaimed, his eyes full of wonder and fear.

"Thanks for stating the obvious, Peter." Remus sighed, scratching the bottom of his chin. "All the of the Malfoy family, just like the Black Family—erm, sorry Sirius—have always been sorted into Slytherin."

Sirius smirked, "Don't worry about it, I don't wish to think of myself as part of that family, anyway. They're all rotten."

"Yeah, rotten to the core!" Peter agreed, nodding his small head.

"All in all, the lot of them are just bloody, slimy, annoying, and obnoxious little gits, eh?" James chuckled, scratching his head as he continued to speak, "Yeah, yeah, I know, Remus." He laughed, as he saw Remus sigh deeply again, "'Thanks for stating the obvious', right?"

:: BLAH BLAH XD ::

Next Chapter: Secrets Untold

The next chapter... You'll have to wait a while for it. I'm sorry for those who actually want to read the next chapter. I have to span it out until I finally get my computer back... It's still broken and I can't get anywhere near my files ;-;! Anyways, till next update (which will hopefully be soon)! Reviews will be most welcomed!