Hogwarts: 1971 - The Willow
It wasn't easy to convince the others that Remus was good, but finally Sirius was able to make James accept him, though he still had his doubts. But eventually as the month went on they came to be quite good friends. The new four-some were almost the most popular boys in Gryffindor. Another valuable quality of Remus' was his intellect, which came in handy when revising papers and trying not to make things explode during potions ("I swear, I didn't mean to put that much Powdered root of asphodel in!").
Soon the days began to fade by quickly until they were nearing the end of September and boarding October, which made the air begin to grow crisp and cool. Leaves were beginning to fall and Sirius was noticing Remus beginning to grow paler and paler.
"What's the matter, Remus? You look sick,"
He mentioned one day, when Remus was looking extremely off-color, almost like Peter on the first day of school. Remus suddenly looked scared and jittery, like the question was terrifying.
"No...Nothing, just coming down with the cold or... something..."
He muttered turning away from the three to stare out the window to the grounds outside. Looking over his shoulder as well, Sirius saw, to his surprise, Dumbledore and the herbology teacher with a giant floating tree, hovering over near a hole in the ground. Remus' face looked a little paler, and Sirius wondered why this was, but decided to ask later about his heath, and instead, changed the subject.
"What do you think that Dumbledore's doing with that tree?"
Sirius said conversationally, motioning to the giant, willowy object. Remus didn't meet his eyes, Peter looked scared and James only shrugged.
"It looks horrible... look how it's moving!"
Peter pointed out in horror, stabbing his stubby finger in the direction of it's branches, which were flailing about angrily towards Dumbledore. James looked very interested at this and pressed his nose to the glass, trying to get a better look. It was lucky the three were so caught up in the new tree so they didn't see the look on Remus' face, which was one of pure nervousness. Sirius, meanwhile, was still staring out at the tree and wondering what color the flames would be if he set fire to it.
It amused him to no end the different colors of flames, and especially the different reactions from different things.
Like dung bombs, for example, explode when lit, and the fire usually turns a deep green, while acid pops begin to melt, bubbling and foaming as they eat away at anything it comes into contact with.
Finally Remus made a loud, throaty noise, and shuffled his feet uneasily, causing the attention to be drawn back to him.
"Can we go? We're going to be late..."
He said timidly, adjusting his books in his arms. James withdrew his nose from the glass and shrugged, throwing a: What's up with him? glance at Sirius. Sirius shrugged his shoulders in reply and nodded, taking one last look towards the giant fighting tree.
"Alright then, come on,"
-
Soon enough the boys found out that the tree was called the "whomping willow" and would hit anyone who came near it. There were rumors that it was planted over a hole, but none of them seemed all that reliable. The only thing any of the students knew about it was that it was dangerous and it was violent, and that's all it took for Sirius to become deeply intrigued by it.
"I want to touch it,"
He said the next day at lunch, after stuffing a wad of corn bread in his mouth. Remus averted his eyes, taking a sudden interest in the hem of his robes. By now he looked, by far, sicklier then ever. However, the other three boys had given up asking him about it, because he refused to tell them anything more then that it was a cold. But this didn't fool them at all.
The problem was: if it wasn't a cold... what was it?
This question bothered Sirius and James to no end, but theY dared not bring it up with Peter, otherwise he'd most likely go off on one of his rants about different unlikely things.
The conversation would probably go something like this:
"Petey, do you think there's something wrong with Remus? We don't think it's a cold"
"YES! I think he's suffering from some kind of fight, maybe with a dog or a stag or... or a werewolf! YES! I bet he was bitten by a werewolf when he got here and the werewolf lives in that whole they put the womping willow over and that's why he's scared of the tree cause he thinks its going to let the werewolf through..."
"Pete... that's stupid, that would mean Remus was a werewolf too,"
"He must be! That's why he's all sickly looking! It must be getting towards the full moon and he's scared he'd hurt us! Maybe that's why he has all those scars,"
"Quit being stupid, that couldn't of happened,"
"Could too! I read it in 'Tragic Tales of Terrifying Occurrences'"
Yes, that defiantly wouldn't be the best of ides.
Putting those thoughts aside, Sirius concentrated instead on his food, and began picking away at his ham until it was barley recognizable, but instead, a sad pile of miniature pink chunks. James looked worriedly over at Sirius' plate until he couldn't stand the action of ripping up perfectly good food and stole away his fork.
"Quit that, look what you're doing to the poor ham!"
James exclaimed, flabbergasted. Turing to look at James, Sirius' face looked annoyed.
"Give me my fork back! I can do whatever I want to my ham!"
Now James set the fork next to his plate, pressing his hand down onto it so Sirius couldn't take it. Peter looked almost scared; he didn't want his friends fighting. Launching himself towards the fork, Sirius tried in vein to rip it from James' grasp, but being a fairly good at quidditch, James held on tight.
"NOPE!"
He yelled menacingly, wrenching his arm away from Sirius' prying fingers and waving the fork high above his head. Sirius dove for the fork, catching James' wrist and pulling it towards him, attempting to take his fingers off it one by one.
By now all attention in the great hall was on the two struggling boys, and Peter seemed close to tears. They weren't fighting in a mean way, though, and it wasn't like Sirius and James were mad at each other. The fact was, they were both simply big-headed boys who wanted it their way to make the point that they were in charge. So it was more of a humorous type of situation then a hostile one.
Remus was still looking rather jumpy and irritable at this point, but kept his lips tightly clasped, as if trying to will himself not to react. This was working quite efficiently for Remus, until James' elbow landed in Remus' mashed potatoes.
"CUT IT OUT!"
He snapped, banging his fist on the table. At this sudden outburst, James and Sirius froze and stared blankly at Remus, as did the rest of the Great Hall. Remus was fuming now, and his pale face no longer looked pale, but a bright red, mad color.
"What's up with you?"
James asked quietly, pushing himself out of Remus' potatoes and sitting back slowly into his chair, Sirius following suit, with the fork, which was now held tightly in his hand, forgotten.
Peter looked very scared now, and was pretending that his fingers were suddenly the most interesting thing in the world.
"Nothing, nothing is wrong! I'm just tired of you two goofing off and messing around! It's so ANNOYING! Especially when all I want is a nice peaceful meal and you too go and bloody ruin my potatoes!"
It was then that Sirius began thinking that either Remus was having major mood swings, was completely bipolar, or really, really liked potatoes.
"Sorry Mate,"
James said weakly, whipping off the buttery mess off the elbow of his sleeve with his napkin.
"Yea, Sorry,"
Sirius added, sighing heavily. What was bugging him anyway? A whirl of red hair appeared near Remus and soon enough so did the freckly face of Miss Lily Evans, who sat down and frowned over at Remus.
"I heard you down the hall... Remus is something a matter?"
James was glaring daggers at her, this girl was always there to comfort Remus like his own little girlfriend and it was driving him insane. She was everywhere! And just like Remus, she was a book nerd who cared too much about the rules and would tattle on anyone given the chance.
But at least Remus wouldn't tattle on his best friends.
Lily Evans seemed to lack all emotion and loyalty, which made James dislike her immensely. Unfortunately, he couldn't really do anything about this girl at the moment, because if he did he'd risk another nasty outburst from the loose cannon.
"No, I'm fine now. But thanks for caring,"
At these words he shot James and Sirius an angry look, making Peter try, unsuccessfully, to become smaller in his seat, which only made him look like he'd been squished.
James glared back but Sirius hadn't really noticed Remus' look, because he was too busy winking at the girls who were staring at him from the Ravenclaw table.
No, he didn't exactly like girls yet. Quite the contrary, he thought them loud and annoying (like Miss Evans) but rather enjoyed their looks of excitement when he threw them a cocky grin.
James elbowed Sirius in the side and leaned over to whisper.
"Come on, let's go,"
Before Sirius nodded and kicked Peter's shin from across the table, jerking his head in the direction of the door. Peter nodded feebly and stole a sideways glance at Lily and Remus, as if trying to make sure if he moved Remus wouldn't blow up.
But Remus seemed to not notice any of this, because he was too engrossed in his conversation about time turners ("Wouldn't it be nice for extra studying time?") and didn't even look up when all three boys got up from the table and left the Great Hall. If Remus was indeed aware of his friend's comings and goings he didn't show it.
James was the first to start talking once they were safely out of earshot.
"What the bloody hell was that about!"
He fumed, shoving his hands in his robe pockets. Sirius adjusted his necktie around his neck so that the knot didn't make it past his chest before turning his attention back to the conversation. Peter said nothing.
"I dunno mate, but he's acting more and more like a PMS-ing woman everyday..."
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TTOYL-Obsession
