A/N: Hello everybody! I'm really sorry that I took so long to update. I guess I just got caught up with school and basketball... anyway, DO YOU KNOW HOW ANNOYING IT IS TO HAVE ALMOST 900 READS AND ONLY 5 MEASLEY REVIEWS? Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system. But it is extremely discouraging to see that I haven't had a new review in quite some time. Who knows, if I don't get any more, I might just get so depressed that I stop updating completely... PLEASE REVIEW! Okay. Enjoy the new chapter.

Disclaimer: Everything except the plot and any characters you don't recognize from the HP books belong to Miss Rowling sigh.

The Secret Is Out

Two months later found our dear friends virtually the same as before. Lily and James had engaged each other in a few arguments, but that was to be expected. Remus had undergone two more painful transformations. It was getting increasingly difficult to hide his secret from his friends. They were beginning to get suspicious. Especially Sirius. But Sirius's suspicions were lost in the frenzy of Christmas Holiday. The whole castle seemed to buzz with anticipation. There were twelve gigantic Christmas trees in the Great Hall, each painstakingly decorated with either candles or Christmas balls. There were wreaths and holly and mistletoe placed throughout the corridors. Even Peeves seemed to lighten up on his usual pranking in honor of the holidays. Well, a little. He liked to hide inside of the suits of armor, which had been bewitched to sing Christmas carols, and change the words. The teachers seemed to give less homework and made their lessons a little easier. Even Professor McGonagall!

"Well, James, I guess I'll see you in three weeks," Remus said.

James and Peter were both leaving Hogwarts for the holidays. Sirius and Remus were staying.

"I'll miss you, mate," James said, pulling Remus into a "manly" hug, as he called it.

"You'd better not open your presents until Christmas morning!" Remus warned James and Peter.

"Don't worry!" Peter said.

"Well, you two had better get going," Sirius said.

"Have a good holiday," Peter called as he walked down the corridor.

James shook Remus's hand and gave Sirius a salute before he set off after Peter.

After a few moments of silence, Sirius said, "Well, I guess it's just you and me now, ole' boy!"

"I can hardly contain myself," Remus said sarcastically.

"Oh, come on now! Have a good spirit! Christmas is coming! You get to spend some quality time with Sirius Black! How bad could it be?" Sirius said jokingly.

"Come on, let's go get some food from the kitchens," Remus said.

Half an hour later, they were sneaking up to their dorm with a rather large amount of food stuffed under their robes in awkward positions. Seeing as James had inconsiderately taken his Invisibility Cloak, they had no choice. They were at the stairs when they were stopped by a female voice from behind them.

"Where'd you guys get all that food?"

Sirius and Remus turned around slowly, hoping that it wasn't a prefect.

It wasn't a prefect. It was one of the twins, either Ellie or Rory.

"Umm, what food?" Remus asked stupidly.

"The food you have stuffed inside your robes!" the girl said, becoming irritated.

"We, uh, found it!" Sirius said.

"Yeah, and my father is a hippogriff," she retorted.

"Right, well, uhhh…." Sirius began, wishing he knew which twin she was.

"My name's Rory," she said.

"Rory. Right. Well, we did find it. We found it in the kitchens," Sirius said.

Rory raised her right eyebrow in suspicion.

"I swear we did!" Remus said anxiously.

"Well, if you don't give me something, I'll turn you two in," Rory said, smirking.

"To whom?" Remus asked indignantly.

"To McGonagall. Or Dumbledore. Or Blake. Anyone, really. I think Pringle would love to hear about this one…"

Sirius gulped. Any of the teachers would simply deduct points and maybe give them a detention. But Pringle was different. He would gladly have given them something absolutely illegal and horrible to do. Or maybe he would hang them upside down from the chains that everyone knew was in his office.

"Alright, Rory, you can have something. You don't have to be such a prat!" Sirius said angrily.

Rory narrowed her eyes and took the cupcake that Sirius was holding. She gave them one last menacing look before she turned and walked out of the portrait hole.

"What a strange girl!" Remus remarked.

"Strange? That girl was mental! I swear she belongs in St. Mungo's!" Sirius cried indignantly. Obviously, he did not like Rory very much.

"Well, she only took a cupcake. We've got plenty more where that came from," Remus said logically.

Sirius and Remus crept up to their room and began to feast on all of the treats that the house elves gave them.

"GET UP YOU SLEEPY-HEAD!" a voice yelled in Remus's ear. He had been having a wonderful dream about being stranded on a desert island with a brown-haired girl before he was so rudely awoken by his friend Sirius.

"I'm up!" Remus said groggily.

"It's about time!" Sirius grunted. "Open your gifts."

Remus stared at the pile of gifts at the foot of his bed. It was pretty large.

"Come on!" Sirius moaned. "Just open your bloody gifts! Thanks for the chocolate frogs and the peppermint pasties, by the way."

Remus opened his first gift. It was a book called The Three Musketeers. It was Peter's gift. Remus made a mental note to start reading it as soon as possible. His second gift was a box of Drooble's Bubble Gum, a few boxes of chocolate frogs, and a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans from James. Sirius's present was a leather-bound journal and a Remembrall.

After he had finished opening the rest of his presents, he showered, dressed, and accompanied Sirius to the Great Hall.

As the food materialized onto their plates, Remus noticed that Ellie and Rory were sitting at the end of the table, completely alone.

Remus nudged Sirius.

"What?" he asked with a mouth full of sausages.

"Let's go sit with them," Remus whispered.

"Why?" Sirius asked, swallowing his food.

"Because they're all alone. Let's just go talk to them; you know, get to know them and such," Remus persisted.

"Fine," Sirius said.

They got up and walked down to the end of the table.

"Can we sit with you?" Remus asked politely.

"Sure," one of them said, grinning. Remus assumed that she was Ellie because the other one had a suspicious look on her face, much like the one that Rory had given him a few days ago.

"You're Remus Lupin, right?" the one who they thought was Ellie asked.

"Yeah, I'm Remus. This is Sirius Black," Remus introduced.

"I'm Ellie Abercrombie, and this is my sister Rory," Ellie said.

"Do you two play Quidditch," Sirius asked after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence.

"Nah. We're half-bloods and our father got hurt pretty badly when he played, so he couldn't stand to see us on brooms. We were never allowed to play Quidditch," Ellie said.

"That stinks. I'm a beater. I plan to be on the House team next year," Sirius said.

Rory's eyebrow shot up into her forehead once again.

"You're so sure?" she asked.

"Well, I've been flying for as long as I could walk," Sirius said.

"You're parents let you fly when you were little?" Ellie asked. "The first time I ever flew was when Madam Hooch taught us at the beginning of the year."

Sirius flushed slightly. "Believe me, there was almost nothing my parents wouldn't let me do," he said darkly.

The twins weren't quite sure how to respond, so they said nothing.

The rest of the meal passed quickly, and before he knew it, Remus found himself back in the Common Room.

"So, what'd ya suppose we do?" Sirius asked, obviously bored.

"I dunno. I mean, we've got a load of homework to get done before break's over…" Remus started.

"Homework?" Sirius asked incredulously. "Why on earth would I do that?"

"I dunno. I just thought it'd be a good idea to get a head start," Remus said, blushing slightly.

Sirius sat silently on the couch for a few moments.

"Well, I guess there's nothing better to do, so we may as well," Sirius replied.

It was Remus's turn to be shocked.

"Alright," he said, following Sirius back into their dorm.

Halfway through an essay for Transfiguration, Remus was interrupted by Sirius.

"Remus?" he asked.

"Hmmm?" Remus answered, still engrossed in his essay.

"I need to ask you something, and I need you to answer me honestly," Sirius said.

Remus looked up. Sirius was wearing a stoic expression.

"What… what'd you want to know?" Remus asked nervously, playing with a loose string on his quilt.

"Why do you keep getting sick all of the time?" Sirius asked.

Remus wasn't quite sure how to answer. He couldn't, after all, just say that he was a werewolf. But then again, he hated lying to his best friends.

"Well…" Remus said, letting his voice trail off.

"You're a werewolf, aren't you?"

Remus looked up quickly from the string.

"What?"

"I asked if you're a werewolf," Sirius repeated.

"Why would I be a werewolf?" Remus asked.

"Oh come off it!" Sirius said angrily. "You're sick for two days, once a month. You always come back looking like you just barely survived Malaria or something, and you always seem to have a freshly healed set of cuts. Now answer me."

Remus took a deep breath, preparing himself for the worst. There was no point in lying now; Sirius knew.

"Yes, I am."

Remus waited for Sirius to get upset, or get scared, or at least angry. So you can understand why Remus was puzzled when Sirius's face broke into a wide grin.

"I knew it!" he said triumphantly.

"Huh?" Remus asked stupidly.

"Well, I'm not stupid you know. So I started to look through some of our books, and I found the section on Werewolves in our DADA book; that's how I knew."

Remus's voice seemed to have left him for the time being.

"So what's it like?"

"Excuse me?"

"What's it like, being a werewolf?"

Sirius's face looked half-hungry, half-inquisitive. Somehow, Remus knew that this wasn't going to make a difference with Sirius. For some reason, Sirius thought it was cool.

"Well, it's painful, having to transform every month. And it's a pain in the arse, having to make up sick stories with you three," Remus answered honestly.

"Yeah... but I'll bet it's cool!"

"Not really!" Remus answered hotly.

"What'd ya mean?"

"Didn't I just say it was a pain in the arse?"

"Yeah," Sirius answered tentatively.

"Well then that implies that it isn't much fun," Remus retorted.

Sirius looked slightly hurt.

"Look, I'm sorry. It's just that nothing interesting's ever happened to me, unless you count when I turned my brother into a doll by mistake," Sirius added with a laugh.

As Sirius launched into his story, Remus felt relieved. Finally, someone knows, he thought.

"Sirius, I need you to promise me that you won't tell a soul about my condition," Remus said.

"Sure thing. We've all got our secrets. I'll even cover for you if you want," Sirius offered.

"That'd be great," Remus said truthfully.

"So, what do you say to a round of Exploding Snap?" Sirius asked, grinning.

"Oh, you're on, Black. Prepare for humiliation!"

A/N: Well, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me what you thought! All you have to do is press that little blue button in the corner of the screen and type a few words of encouragement... I'm not asking for much!