Chapter Sixteen

Remus woke up that evening in a hospital bed in the infirmary. He was alone and he felt to tired to call out to see if anyone was there. Then, in the distance he heard voices. The voices were getting louder and closer to him. Remus put his head up, but it hurt his neck too much. He lay his head back down on the pillow and waited for the voices to come to him. He could distinctly hear Madam Pomfrey's booming voice, followed by a gentler, melodic sounding voice- that of Professor Dumbledore.

Madam Pomfrey and Professor Dumbledore entered through the door and began marching up to Remus' bed. Madam Pomfrey stopped talking once she saw that Remus was conscious.

'You're awake,' she said rushing over.

'Good to see you, Mr. Lupin,' said Dumbledore, pulling up a chair to sit next to him.

'You too,' Remus whispered.

'How have you been lately?' asked Dumbledore politely, pulling up a chair.

'Not well,' Remus replied. 'I have been finding it difficult to sleep and eat. I've been tired and sick the rest of the time.'

'Ah, I see,' said Dumbledore. 'Do you know what happened to you?' he asked.

'I think I- I- fainted,' said Remus.

'That is right,' Dumbledore replied. 'If you would, I'd like can speak to your teachers and have you take a few days off of your studies. I understand that you are not feeling up to it.'

'I don't want to take too much time off,' said Remus. 'I don't want to be treated differently from anyone else.

'You are not being treated differently,' said Dumbledore. 'You are being treated normally, but it feels different because you are slightly more special.' Dumbledore smiled cupped Remus' face in his large hands, rose and walked out. Madam Pomfrey took Dumbledore's seat.

'Would you like anything, Remus?'

'Yeah, I'm really hungry.'

'I think that we can manage,' said Madam Pomfrey smiling.

Madam Pomfrey brought up some leftovers from the kitchen for Remus. That night, he ate well for the first time in a couple of days. At around seven thirty there was a knock on the door. Madam Pomfrey came out of her office to answer it.

'Well, Mr. Potter,' Remus could hear her say. 'I dare say this is the first time I have had you knock on my door for quite awhile.'

'We have come to see Remus,' came James' voice.

'Well, come in. My goodness, there are a lot of you.' James, Sirius, Peter and Jean all strolled into the room. A little behind Jean came someone Remus wasn't expecting to see at all: Lily. James sat down in the chair that Dumbledore had first pulled up. Sirius and Peter sat on either side of the bed and Lily and Jean sat down in the bed next to Remus'.

'Wow, I didn't expect to see so many of you,' confessed Remus.

'We brought you some stuff,' said Sirius, holding up a bag of various clothes and books.

'Thank you,' said Remus.

'Of course, we could not forget chocolate,' said James pulling out a substantial bar out of his pocket.

'Where did you get that?' asked Lily, 'that's Honeyduke's chocolate, we haven't been to Hogsmaede for a few weeks.'

'Just suffice it to say that we have our means,' said Sirius.

'Well, your means better not be illegitimate, or- or-' Lily stammered.

'Or what?' said Sirius,

'Or you may get caught, and you wouldn't like that,' she finished.

'Good point,' said James, 'we will consider it. Remus, how are you feeling?'

'Fine, now,' said Remus. 'I didn't feel alright a few hours ago, though.'

'That's right you didn't, and guess who else didn't?' said Sirius.

'Who?' asked Remus.

'Professor Flitwick,' said Peter, 'he nearly had a heart attack when you fainted.' James and Sirius started laughing, but stopped after Lily gave them an ice-cold stare.

'It wasn't funny,' said Lily. 'We were all very worried about you.'

'Well, I would like to thank all this,' said Remus, 'especially the chocolate.'

'What are friend's for?' asked James.

'Remus are you feeling quite alright?' asked Lily, switching her tone to that of urgency. 'You haven't been well for awhile-'

'Lily, I'm fine. I just hadn't been able to eat or sleep for a while, that's why I have been so weak, I'm getting better though.' Remus tried to make his voice sound reassuring, but the truth was that he didn't know the problem in the first place.

'You better Remus Lupin,' she said. Remus smiled.

'So what happened to Flitwick?' he asked.

'Oh, it was excellent,' said Peter, 'he started breathing really hard and clutching at his chest. We weren't sure to get help for him or you.'

'The bloke didn't know what hit you. He thought that he had caused it,' said Sirius.

'What did the class do?' asked Remus.

'Panicked. They didn't know what to do, so I sent Peter to get Madam Pomfrey and Sirius and I lifted you onto Flitwick's desk. Lily helped Flitwick,' James explained.

'I just sat him down in a chair and got him to breathe, I'm sure he's alright now,' said Lily.

'Oh Lily, the natural born healer,' said Sirius.

'Perhaps,' Lily replied. 'Anyway, I should go now. I have an assignment to finish. Nice seeing you Remus, I hope you get better soon.' With that Lily got up and left the infirmary.

'Padfoot, I think I'm in love,' said James.

'That's what you always say Prongs, this is just another fling. Last week it was Jan Kimple,' said Sirius.

'That's not true,' said James. 'It was Patricia Gorden last week.'

'Anyway, l'histoire du jour, guess who we saw today?' Sirius said sarcastically.

'Who?' asked Remus, sitting up slightly in his bed.

'None other than Snivillus,' said James

'Ah, that must have been exhilarating for you,' said Remus.

'Yeah, well, we had a run-in as you say. We didn't start it, mind you, he did,' Sirius explained.

'Yeah, he aggravated us,' James continued.

'He said all sorts of nasty stuff about you fainting in class,' said Peter.

'I prefer passing out, Wormtail, thank you,' said Remus.

'Well, it's better than swooning fit, that's was Severus called it,' Peter replied.

'Yeah, I don't like that one either,' Remus mumbled.

'Well, neither did we, so we attacked him with a good limbus curse, then we had him talking,' said James.

'That's good James, I appreciate that,' Remus said sarcastically. 'Perhaps, next time, we can actually kill him, that will save you a whole lot of trouble.'

'He started it all,' said Sirius. 'Besides you should see his family. We had them over once, I nearly threw up, mind the pun, Moony.'

'It's minded,' said Remus. He rather not be reminded of his bought that morning.

Madam Pomfrey came out of her office, then and shooed everyone out. Just as well, Remus had begun to become tired.

James, Sirius, Peter and Jean, who had remained silent the whole time, left the hospital wing, leaving Remus to his thoughts and sleep.