Disclaimer: Own nothing Harry Potter . . . just my characters.

Author's Note: Well the boys get suspicious of Remus . . . please read and review. Enjoy.

Chapter 7: Remus's Return

All through out school there was talk of Sirius' broom incident. In the hallways most conversation even by 7th years was, "Did you hear about that Black boy that crashed into the Whomping Willow..?" James was quite sick of all the talk about his best friend as had become very moody in a very short time. But the worst part was he wasn't allowed to visit Sirius yet. Every time he had gone up to the Hospital Wing a teacher would send him back to class, a prefect would spot him handing him a detention for being out of bounds, or Madame Pomfrey would shoo him off saying Sirius was in no condition for visitors. But finally one day, Madame Pomfrey allowed James and Peter a visit.

"We brought you all the sweets we could find," Peter said happily handing a handful over to Sirius.

Sirius was resting against a propped up pillow. His left arm had been broken by the Whomping Willow and was now wrapped up. He had some scratches and bandages on and his right foot was propped up and healing. But all the same he looked happy to have some company.

"Yea. I owled my Mum and told her all about it," James said. Sirius looked uneasy, "No I didn't tell her how you got into an accident," James added, "So she used my allowance to get you some sweets."

James turned his bag upside down and dumped a load of sweets onto Sirius' lap. Sirius' eyes widened, "How big is your allowance..?" he laughed.

James smiled and felt himself turn a bit red. He was always a bit touchy about how much money he had for some reason, "Not . . . not that big . . ."

Sirius laughed then looked around and helped himself to a Dribble Drool Jawbreaker, "Where's Remus..?" he asked with a drooling mouthful of jawbreakers.

Peter shrugged helping himself to one of the many Chocolate Frogs James had given Sirius, "We dunno. He told us two days ago he had to visit his sick mother. Then we heard he was in the Hospital Wing."

James nodded and sat down on Sirius bouncy bed, "Yea. He was all weird and pale and said his mother was terribly ill and had to go see her. Then during Herbology yesterday Todd Jacobs said he saw Remus in the Hospital Wing. Me and Peter were wondering how he got hurt. Did you see him..?"

Sirius looked puzzled, "Someone did come in yesterday morning. But my curtain was closed so all I saw was figures. I didn't think it was Remus though," he added.

"Oh," James said looking around the Hospital Wing, "We thought you might know."

Sirius shook his head plainly, "Sorry mate," he said licking a Tongue Twister Lollipop, "Haven't really been in the loop lately."

James smiled then looked around to see if he could spot Remus. He stood on his tippy toes to get a better view. There was the fifth year Slytherin, Henry Johnson who was suffering a strange magical flu on the far right side. A few beds down was Carol Longer a fellow Gryffindor in his third year that was recovering from a mishap in Transfiguration class after turning himself into a dragon like creature. And a first year Hufflepuff, Cindy Grater was getting a pair of antlers removed from a magic fight in a corridor with a Slytherin.

"I don't see Remus," James said sitting back down.

Sirius crunched down on some more candy, then after swallowing hard, "Maybe he left. I mean he might have gotten a scratch at home or something. Maybe got sick from his mother."

"Maybe . . ." Peter said finishing off his chocolate frog.

James thought hard. Remus could have gotten a scratch perhaps. Remus has said he had a cat . . . but a cat scratch wouldn't send a boy to the Hospital Wing . . . unless perhaps it was some strange magical cat . . . but James doubted that. Remus had said his cat was on its last leg. But it was true that perhaps Remus had gotten sick from his mother's illness. Sickness do spread rather quickly from one person to another. That was more open than the crazy cat idea.

"I guess . . ." James added very dully.

Sirius happily opened a box of Berty Bott's Every Flavor Beans, "We can ask him later to ya know. We don't have to snoop, if that's what ya call it."

"Don't think of it as snooping," Peter implied, "Think of it as, the well being of our friend."

"How long did it take you to plan that one out..?" Sirius chuckled.

Peter turned slightly pink, "Most of Herbology to tell you the truth . . ."

Two days later Remus was still 'missing' and Sirius was fit and ready to go thanks to Madame Pomfrey's Repairo Potion. Quoting Sirius it tasted like, "Man that stuff tasted worse than—" saying a word so bad that earned him a detention and a scolding from Professor McGonagall who had over heard them. Peter laughed at Sirius as him grimly folded his pink detention slip into his robe pockets. James grinned, "Don't worry. I'll be there too."

"Why..?" Sirius asked who had been out of the loop as they say for some time while in the Hospital Wing, "What'd ya do..?"

"Just exploded some Puff-pods by 'accident' in Herbology to get some Slytherins all roused up is all," James said innocently.

Sirius shook his head, "How can they give you a detention for something so honorable..?"

"Tell me about it."

All afternoon the boys had off for Friday and decided to catch the October air that had just blown September away. They relaxed under a nice big oak tree wondering about Remus.

"Maybe whatever his Mum caught is highly contagious or deadly..?" Peter suggested as they discussed the topic of Remus.

"No, I doubt it," Sirius said lifting his head up from his make-up work, "I would have heard about it in the Hospital Wing. Madame Pomfrey isn't exactly quiet you know."

"Just because you didn't hear it doesn't mean she didn't say so," James commented looking through a Quidditch book he had checked out from the library, "Maybe she didn't want to alarm the other students if it was contagious if what Peter's saying is true."

"You know maybe he isn't sick," Sirius suddenly said reading Chapter 12 in The Fungus Among Us, his Herbology book, "I didn't hear one teacher ask is he sick or not."

"So..?" James said raising an eyebrow, "Could be injured."

"By whom..?" Sirius chuckled, "That dying cat of his or his ill mother..? Hard competition."

James gave Sirius a written down stare of 'shut up' then went back to thinking. Come to think of it. Not one of the teachers had asked about Remus' almost week absence. But maybe Madame Pomfrey had told them. This was an interesting case.

Peter who was flipping through a comic book on vampires re-joined the conversation, "Maybe a vampire bit him."

Sirius snorted hard with laughter, "Yes. A vampire walked up to Remus' door, knowing that he was going to visit his sick mother, and sucked his blood."

"It happened in this comic."

"Wow. That must make it so much more believable now," Sirius grunted with a grin flipping through his book.

James laughed and looked out towards the lake as Sirius was finishing up his work. The wind was blowing gently and every five minutes or so, James would hear Peter grunt as the wind turned a page before he was done reading it. He also heard Sirius yell at the wind while he tried to write things down and keep his book open, with out his papers flying everywhere, "This is complicated work ya know..?!" he would shout every time.

Soon the sun was starting to set and they boys decided to head back in. Peter was complaining that it was cold and Sirius just looked at him with plain the expression of, "Well duh..!" and James sniggered silently as they opened the Great Hall doors.

The wall back up to the Gryffindor Common Room had seemed longer these last couple days with out their friend Remus. They were really missing his company. Soon they reached the Fat Lady and James suddenly stopped. He hadn't found out the new password.

"What's wrong..?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know the new password," James explained, "I forgot to get it this morning . . ."

"What..?!" Sirius said dropping his bag, "You git..!"

James felt extremely stupid at the moment but looked around. Peter. He saw Peter, "Peter..! You know it don't you..?"

Peter nodded, "Yea. Why..?"

"See Sirius . . ." James said relieved. He didn't want to be one of those kids that always forgot the password and had to wait out the night next to the Fat Lady, "Peter knows the password."

"Well open it up," Sirius grumbled, "I want to drop these heavy books off and eat. I'm hungry."

"No need to be grumpy," Peter smirked, "If you're mean to me I can leave you out here. No dinner . . . heavy books . . ."

"Okay..!" Sirius said, "Just open it up . . ."

Peter nodded again, cleared his throat and walked up to the Fat Lady, "It's erm— oh erm . . . it's . . ."

"You forgot again didn't you . . ." Sirius moaned.

"No, no..!" Peter squeaked, "It's—"

Sirius rolled his eyes at the two, "I'll ask the Fat Lady to give me the new password in advance next time I go to the Hospital Wing," he chuckled.

"Well," Peter began, "Lets go down to eat. We can ask the Prefect down at dinner."

"Can't believe I'm saying this," Sirius smirked, "But Peter is right."

"Yea . . ." Peter said proudly. Then a few moments later as they were heading down towards dinner he proclaimed, "Hey..! I do things right..!" James and Sirius laughed all the way to dinner.

Through dinner they had managed to get the new password 'Draconis' and they happily ate. Peter was still angry with Sirius for calling him stupid with out really saying it. So during dinner he turned some of his roll into one of Sirius worst fears' a bat and made Sirius shout up and down as it flew by. Sirius sat back down and to show that he wasn't to be taken lightly with, turned Peters' spaghetti into snakes. Peter jumped into Marie Cooks lap earning him a huge slap from her and Lily Evans to giggle at him.

"What's so funny..?"

James turned around. He knew that voice. It was, "Remus..?!" James exclaimed, "You're well..!"

"Well..?" Remus said sitting next to James, "Why wouldn't I be.?"

"We heard you were in the Hospital Wing," Peter said slurping some milk.

"Who told you take..?" Remus' eyes darted back and fourth between his friends and the door, "No. I'm fine."

But James however did not think Remus was fine at all. He looked worse then ever. He had bags under his eyes and his face was rather pale. There was a scratch down his cheek and James saw that his left hand was bandaged tightly. His eyes seemed a little dull too. This was fine..? No it couldn't be.

"If this is fine for you," Sirius started. James hinted a joke coming on, "I hate to see you on a bad day."

James saw Remus' cheek turn slightly pink. Peter smiled and chuckled a bit at the joke, but he went quickly silent when he saw Remus blush.

"Where were you if you weren't ill..?" Peter asked.

"I was visiting—," he paused and looked around, "Visiting my mother. She was ill."

"Where'd you get that cut..?" Sirius cut in. He seemed concerned, now leaving the jokes for another time.

"I—," Remus paused again, "My cat . . . she—"

"What was she ill too..?" James asked.

"N-no . . ." Remus said a bit nervously, "I was helping clean up the house since my mother couldn't and accidentally stepped on her tail. She scratched me."

"Must be a pretty tall cat," Peter added.

"I was on the floor getting a blanket from under the couch," Remus said softly, his cheeks turning red.

James wasn't convinced. He could see that neither Sirius or Peter was either. The story seemed . . . puzzling. If that was the word to describe it.

"How'd ya hurt your hand..?" Sirius questioned, eyebrow raised, arms folded.

Remus answered right away, "I dropped my suitcase on my hand coming back on the Hogwarts Express."

"Must have been pretty heavy . . ." Peter said. His arms were too folded and his eyebrows ways.

"Y-yea . . ."Remus blurred out, "It was."

Remus looked shocked. He double blinked and looked around. James was feeling though Remus wasn't telling the truth. But maybe he was. A series of unfortunate events perhaps. It was possible.

"Why are you guys treating me like a criminal..?" Remus asked slowly, "I was just away was all. I had a few mishaps."

Sirius looked like he was about to interjected but James cut in, "I guess. I think maybe we all were going off the deep end. We were reading comics all day and I think we might not be back in the real world just yet," he smiled. Remus smiled back. Sirius looked murderously at James and James kicked him in the shin meaning they'd talk about this later.

"OUCH—!" Sirius cried after James kicked him.

Remus looked up, "What..?"

"Oh erm . . ." Sirius bit his lower lip and looked around then laughed, "Just stubbed my toe the benches is all. Tricky benches ya know..?," he said grimacing at the pain that James had inflicted on him. Under his breath James heard a long, painful, "Owwwwwwww . . ."

"How'd you manage that..?" Peter asked not knowing. Sirius winked at him and obviously kicked him too because James heard a distinctive, "Ouch . . ." as Peter ducked down below the table to hide his pain pretending he had to get a dropped fork.

James smiled weakly as Remus looked his direction.

Later that night James sat near the Common Room fire staring at it's dancing flames. He was thinking about Remus. It was almost as if Remus was lying to him for some odd reason. But why..? What could be so important that Remus couldn't tell..? James had some theories but they all seemed so farfetched to be true.

"You wanted to talk..?" Sirius sat sitting down next to James.

James nodded, "Yea. About Remus. And today."

Sirius nodded too, "Peter's on his way. He's trying to convince Remus he left his Potions essay in the library and has to retrieve it."

"Okay . . ." James said waiting for Peter.

A few moments later Peter jogged down the stairs, "He bought it . . . I think . . ."

Sirius nodded. There was a few minutes silence before Sirius broke it, "So erm . . . what do you think is up with Remus..?"

"I dunno," Peter said, "Maybe he's telling the truth."

Sirius snorted, "Yea right. How can so much bad stuff happen to one guy..? And Remus of all people. He doesn't just jump into danger ya know . . ."

"Sirius is right," James said, "There has to be more that Remus is telling."

"Like what though..?" Peter asked.

"I— I dunno yet . . ." James said feeling rather defeated.

Sirius shrugged, "Guys I'm sure in time Remus will tell us. Lets give him a few days. Who knows, maybe he'll tell us, or we'll find out some more clue on the way."

"Are we detectives now..?" James sniggered.

Sirius grinned, "Yes old bean," he said with a heavy British accent, "Sherlock Black at your service chap."

James laughed and tossed a pillow at Sirius'. Luckily, Sirius ducked still pretending to be Sherlock Holmes in his heavy accent, "I say . . . how dare you . . ."

"Can it Sherlock," James laughed.

Peter was chuckling too, then at the coming silenced asked, "Did any of you see Remus' arm..?" Sirius and James both shook their heads 'no', "He had a huge red mark down the side like Sirius had on his leg when he got hit by the Whomping Willow."

Sirius and James both exchanged glances.

Author's Note: So what ya think..? This is just how I always pictured the boys. Almost like snooping in a way . . .well tell me what you think. Chapter 8 is almost done. And a BIG thank you to all who have reviewed. There's gonna be a BIG note at the beginning of the next chapter to thank you all. Oh and feel free to suggest something you might want in the story. Please review and I hope you enjoyed.