Chapter 7

The next couple of days Sirius and Brooke were almost inseparable. The incident in the common room greatly affected Brooke and Sirius was always there to hold her. After a week, Brooke was hanging out with her friends more and so it was just James, Remus, and Sirius. Peter was an outcast now and no one would take to him, not even people from other houses. Calling someone for another house was one thing, but from your own house? That was unacceptable.

"So how's your mum doing, Remus?" Sirius asked one day as they sat against a tree facing the lake during one of their free periods.

"My mum?" Remus asked, confused.

"Yeah, your mum. You said she was sick last week; that's why you were gone," James said, staring at Remus.

A light of realization showed on Remus' face suddenly. "Oh! My mum! She's doing a lot better, at least that's what my dad said," Remus said, looking back out at the lake where the giant squid was floating atop water.

"Man Remus, how could you forget about your mum?" Sirius asked, hitting him lightly on the shoulder.

"I don't know, I guess the whole thing with Brooke just sort of filled my mind," Remus replied.

"Brooke's really sweet," Sirius said, his eye's getting all misty.

"Why, Remus, why did you have to mention Brooke?" James asked, shaking his head in his hands. Remus laughed.

"Man, a whole week. This is a record for me," Sirius said to no one in particular.

"You must really care about her," Remus said.

"Of course I do. She's cute, she's sweet, and she's funny. There is nothing wrong with her," Sirius said. The bell rang for the end of the classes.

"We better get going to Dark Arts class," Remus said, grabbing his bag beside him and standing up.

"Oh yes, we wouldn't want to anger Professor Miclacle," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. Professor Miclacle was the Defense of the Dark Arts teacher and he sometimes got angered easily. Sirius was usually the one making him mad on those certain days. He was a great teacher, but had a really bad temper some times.

Remus, Sirius, and James laughed all the way up the castle. Once in the castle, students bustled around them.

"Lupin! Hey Lupin!" a voice snarled behind them. The trio turned around to find Lucius and his friends standing behind him. "Lupin, we missed you so much in Potions the other day, what happened? Did the sight of a bat eyes or frog livers make you sick?" All the Slytherins that were present started to snicker.

"No, Malfoy, it wasn't that. It was just the sight of your disgusting face," Remus yelled back. All the Gryffindors laughed openly at that insult. Lucius glared at him. Remus, James, and Sirius turned around and started walking back to class.

"By the way, Black, I was meaning to ask, how's your Mudblood girlfriend doing?" Lucius asked behind their backs. Everyone gasped while the Slytherins snickered again.

Sirius froze in his tracks, his fists already in a ball. He turned toward Lucius slowly. He said through clenched teeth, "Don't you dare call Brooke that, you filthy scum of the earth." At the last word he rushed toward Malfoy and started to hit him. Soon they were rolling on the floor. Remus and James looked at each other for a moment and then took off their bags and joined in. Soon Sirius, James, Remus, Lucius, Goyle, and Crabbe were all rolling on the floor.

"Stop!" commanded a loud voice. Everyone stopped. James was standing over Goyle with his hands on his neck (it was quite amazing how he figured out how to do that), Remus was being held up by the robes by Crabbe while sporting a bloody nose and a black eye, and Sirius and Lucius were still swapping fists on the floor. Professor Miclacle, who standing at the doorway, rushed over and grabbed both Lucius and Sirius by their robes. Sirius was sporting a bloody lip and nose and Lucius a black eye. He was couching badly as it seemed Sirius had tried to choke him.

"Now who would like to explain what happened here?" Miclacle asked, looking at Sirius and Lucius.

"Professor, Malfoy called Brooke a Mudblood-" Remus said, being cut off by a Slytherin.

"He did not, Lucius didn't say a word, and Black just suddenly attacked him. He's mad-" the Slytherin said.

"He did not! You're lying!" James yelled at the Slytherin.

"Shut up!" Miclacle yelled as turmoil broke out again. "You six, to the hospital wing with you and the rest of you to class; you are already late."

Remus coughed as Crabbe let him go. This was not a good way to start off a day. James helped him up along with Sirius and the three of them headed off toward the hospital wing.

"Thought you're pretty smart to pick a fight with me, huh Black?" Lucius said behind him. He was being halfway supported by Goyle.

"Just ignore him, Sirius," Remus said. "Just ignore him." Sirius did that, but he was fuming at the mouth. They reached the hospital wing just in time; Sirius felt like he was going to burst.

"Remus! You again! What happened here?" Madame Pomfrey exclaimed when she saw the group walked in. She sighed when she realized it was a fight. "Sit down all of you while I get my medicines and wand." Madame Pomfrey walked away muttering under her breath. The Slytherins all sat down at the nearest bed. Remus, James, and Remus went to the far end and sat down.

"That was awesome James, getting Goyle on the floor," Remus mumbled through his now swollen lip.

"All I did was hit him with a spell," James shrugged. "He tripped and I got on top of him and put my hands around his neck. Then Miclacle came and stopped us all."

"Crabbe had me by the neck the second it started. He started to punch my face then," Remus said, blushing slightly. He put his fingers to his lips. "Bloody hell this lip hurts!"

"What spell did you use on Goyle?" Sirius asked. All the while he was glaring at Lucius. James had no time to answer as they heard a gruff yelp from the other end of the room. They all turned as they saw Goyle clutching his face. Through the slits, Remus saw red boils bursting and reappearing over and over again. James, Remus, and Sirius all laughed out loud at Goyle's expense.

Madame Pomfrey happened to walk in on that moment and yelled at the sight of Goyle's face. It gave her quite a surprise.

"Mr. Goyle, what happened here?" Madame Pomfrey asked, getting over the shock of his face. She flicked her wand and a bottle of blue ointment and a swab appeared on the table. She put the ointment on the swab and started to dab it on his face.

Remus, James, and Sirius recovered over their fit of laughs by time Madame Pomfrey had reached them.

"You three should be happy you have nothing more than scratches and bruises. Otherwise this would be a bit more painful." Madame Pomfrey said, tapping the bleeding lips, the black eyes, and in Sirius's case, an almost dislocated jaw. "Mr. Lupin stay here for a minute, I want to ask you something," Madame Pomfrey called as the trio was almost to the door. "You two can go ahead. Mr. Lupin will only be a moment." Madam Pomfrey waited until the door was shut to talk to Remus. "How's your arm Remus, dear?"

Remus lifted his sleeve where he had bitten himself. The two deep punctures were almost fully healed. "Much better, ma'am," Remus said.

"Ok then, you may go join her friends now," Madame Pomfrey said, shooing him off. Remus hurried out of the room, hoping to catch Sirius and James. Instead he ran smack-dab into Lily, making her drop all her books.

"Remus! Could you watch were you're going?" Lily exclaimed as she bent down to pick up her books.

"Sorry Lily, I was in a hurry and I wasn't watching were I was going," Remus said, bending down to help her. There were about five books there, all quite heavy. "Wow Lily, are you sure you're able to carry these?"

"Yes, Remus I am sure. They aren't that heavy. Hand them over please I want to get started reading on these," Lily said. Remus placed the three books he had in her arms one by one, glancing at the titles. The last book he took a double glance. 'Wolves and Werewolves: How to Tell the Difference'

"What's this?" Remus asked, holding up the book for Lily to see. Her eyes widened slightly though not enough for Remus to see.

"Oh that! I just picked that up to do a bit of light reading. It seemed mildly interesting so I picked that up. I'll take that now," Lily said reaching for the book and trying to hold the other four books at the same time. Remus handed over the book reluctantly. Lily walked off toward the lake. Why would Lily have a book about werewolves? Remus asked+ himself nervously.

Remus was still wondering about Lily when he reached the common room. He stared at the portrait of the fat lady as she stared back at him.

"Well? Are you going to give me the password or not?" the Fat Lady said grumpily.

"Er," Remus said, searching his brain for the password. "First Born?" Remus tried, he knew it wasn't right, that was the last password.

"If you don't know the password, then I suggest you go," the Fat Lady said testily. Just then the portrait swung open and James head popped out.

"There you are, I thought I heard something," James said as he pulled Remus in. "They just changed the password." Remus allowed himself to be dragged into the common room. "So what did Pomfrey want?"

"Nothing really," Remus said as the both sat down next to Sirius who currently had his arms tightly around her shoulder. She was resting her head on his shoulder, half-asleep.

"She had a long night studying," Sirius explained for Brooke.

"Sounds like Remus," James joked. It was true. Last night he had been studying for a test in History of Magic, the most boring class, despite still getting over his sleepiness. "I was up half the night trying to ignore his light."

"Sorry, but I had to catch up," Remus said sheepishly. "I was gone for a day you know."

"Oh my, a whole day. I probably wouldn't be worried if it was a week," James laughed.

"I wouldn't be worried if it was a month," Sirius said, laughing.

"Sirius, you should be worried about your schoolwork. We want you to do good in the future," Brooke said with her eyes still closed.

"Yup, Sirius, we would all be devastated if you ended up being an owl droppings cleaner," James said, laughing. Sirius glared at James then started to laugh along with him.

"Remus! What happened to your arm?" Brooke cried out suddenly. Her head was raised off Sirius' shoulder and staring at Remus' arm in shock. Remus looked down to see that his sleeve had been pushed up his arm, revealing his two teeth bites.

"Nothing," Remus said hurriedly, covering the bites with his robe sleeve.

"What were those?" Sirius said, taking Remus' arm and pushing the sleeve up revealing the bites.

"Nothing," Remus said again.

"I'm beginning to think that that is your favorite word," James said, look at the bites.

"Well it really is nothing. It's really not that big of a deal," Remus said, pulling his arm from Sirius' grip

Sirius, James, and Brooke looked at him strangely for a moment. Brooke was the first to talk.

"I'm going to go now, Sirius. I need to get my books for the next class," Brooke said as she sat up. She kissed Sirius and the cheek and went off up the stairs to her dorm room.

"Um, yeah I better be off too. I need to get my books to," Remus said as he got up off the couch. Sirius and James watched him leave without saying anything. Remus hurried up the stairs and into the room. He went to his bed and saw that his book bag and books were there. They had left them in the hallway after the fight.

He grabbed a book from his trunk and then sat on it. That had just been too close.

"If they see another bite like this, they'll get really suspicious. I have to be more careful," Remus said as he looked at his arm again.