A/N: Another late one! Sorry about that, I'll try to stay on the ball a little better here… hope you like it!

Werewolf, Chapter 8

"Just where do you think you're going?"

Remus looked up from his shirt buttons and glared at Madam Pomfrey.

"Out." he snapped.

It was at times like these when he realized just how much Poppy resembled an attack dog. Her eyes narrowed to little slits and Remus couldn't help but wonder what she would do if he tried to get by her.

"Don't take that tone with me, young man," she barked. "You are only half healed, and there is no way you are leaving this Hospital Wing until you are completely healthy!" She threw her hands up in exasperation. "Honestly Remus, you're as bad as Harry!"

Lupin resisted the urge to throw something. "Poppy, I've been lying in bed for a week and a half now. If I'm only half healed, I'm going to be here for the rest of my life!"

Madam Pomfrey rolled her eyes. "You're exaggerating, as usual."

Remus huffed in frustration and began to tie his shoes. "I've missed a week of classes already, it's not fair to the students for them to have to put up with that idiotic Potions assistant any longer."

He straightened up, grabbed his wand from the bedside table and slipped it into his pocket.

"I'm going, even if I am only half healed."

Glaring at her, as if daring her to object, he stepped through the curtains and stalked out of the Hospital Wing.

The walk to the Great Hall seemed much longer than usual, and by the time he got there Remus felt faint. Leaning against the wall outside, he took deep breaths, trying to regain some of his energy.

"Maybe I'm not as strong as I thought I was," he muttered darkly. But there was no way he was returning to that hospital bed. I can do this, he told himself. Taking a deep breath, he pushed open the door and stepped inside. The students were in the middle of breakfast, and judging by the owl feathers drifting here and there, the mail had already arrived. As he walked the length of the hall, many students turned to look at him. He stared resolutely ahead and tried to ignore the gasps and the many fingers pointing at the angry marks on his face. He was only a few steps away from his seat when a vicious pain shot through his steal healing ribs, leaving him gasping and clutching at the table. Professor McGonagall made to stand up but Remus shook his head slightly. This was not going to turn into another "let's all pity Remus, because he's put up with so much pain" scenes. Not if he had anything to say about it.

Gritting his teeth to keep from screaming, he managed to reach his seat and sit down. Nodding politely to Professor Sinistra, he poured himself a bowl of cereal. But before he could begin eating, he felt a hand grip his shoulder. He jumped and accidentally spilled some milk onto Professor Flitwick's newspaper. Murmuring an apology, he turned around and found Professor Dumbledore leaning over him, concern evident in his eyes.

"Remus, are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine." Lupin replied, perhaps a bit too fast to be plausible. Dumbledore did not look convinced. Raising his eyebrows, he said, "Oh really? So that little thing on the end of the table had nothing to do with, say, your broken ribs?"

"No." Remus replied, turning back to his cereal. The Headmaster sighed. Though Lupin couldn't see it, he was sure Dumbledore was rolling his eyes.

"Remus, you're a reasonable man. Why do you object so much to staying in bed until you're healthy?"

"Why are all of you so concerned with my business?"

"You didn't answer my question Remus."

Mentally cursing all hospitals and the world in general, Lupin turned round and said, "I don't like hospitals because I don't like feeling weak! I can take this pain, I've taken it before! I'd like to do the job I'm being paid for, not lie around feeling sorry for myself!"

When Albus didn't say anything, Remus decided to change the subject.

"Have you told the Minister? About the attack on the full moon?"

The Headmaster nodded. "Yes. Fudge is evacuating the village and bringing in the Aurors. He's hoping that they'll be able to handle the ferals."

Lupin shivered. "Good luck to them," he said darkly. "I only hope they know what they're doing." Suddenly, a horrible thought struck him. "Wait a minute. Y – you don't want…me to go down there…do you?"

He hated the shakiness of his voice, but just the thought of ever meeting a feral again made him want to throw himself off the Astronomy Tower.

"No, Remus. You did your job, and admirably. Your part in this is over." Dumbledore placed a warm hand on the distressed man's trembling shoulder.

And no matter how much Remus tried to hide it, his relief was as obvious as his fear had been before it.


Remus was greeted with grins and joyful shouts as he entered his classroom for the first lesson of the day. He smiled back and said, "I trust you all liked your substitute for the past week?"

This was met with theatrical groans and many rolled eyes. Ron Weasley summed it all up by saying, "I think I've finally met someone I hate more than Snape!"

Remus cocked an eyebrow as everyone laughed. "That's quite an accomplishment, do you think we should give him a medal?"

"Great idea!" shouted Ron, "And we can curse it to turn into a basilisk!"

For a while, nobody asked about the reason for Remus' week – long absence, or about his face. He got the feeling that they were deliberately avoiding the topic, as if they knew that he would not want to talk about it. It was Justin who finally gathered the courage to raise his hand and ask timidly, "Where were you last week anyway? And what are those marks on your face?"

All chatter was cut off, and every eye came to rest on Remus, who was leaning back on the front desk heavily. He gulped. What was he going to tell them? He couldn't say what he had really been doing, everyone knew that there were some students at Hogwarts who couldn't be trusted. But he would have to come up with some kind of plausible alibi to explain his wounds. He couldn't just say that he had fallen down the stairs, they would see through that like cellophane.

"I got attacked by, um, one of those giant spiders in the forest while I was out looking for a hinky punk for the first years. They really are quite vicious things, and poisonous too: it laid me up for this past week."

He shot a pleading look over at Hermione, who must have known that Aragog's kin were not poisonous in the slightest. She and the two boys sitting on either side of her looked doubtful, to say the least, but they didn't say anything. The rest of the class accepted the excuse with murmured words of sympathy then, to his relief, forgot about the whole thing. The rest of the period went by in relative normalcy, and at the end he dismissed the class with a sigh of relief. As expected, Harry, Ron, and Hermione stayed behind to talk. Hermione leaned against the desk, one eyebrow raised.

"Attacked by a giant, poisonous spider?"

Remus shifted uncomfortably in his seat and replied irritably, "It could happen! Besides, what was I supposed to say? I take it you three have already guessed what really happened?"

Ron put on his best "who me?" face and pointed accusingly at his two friends.

"It was all them, I had nothing to do with it."

Hermione glared at him as Harry said to Lupin, "We have a pretty good idea, yes."

"I figured as much," Remus said. "But look, keep it under wraps okay? That kind of information is dangerous, and there are plenty of people in this school who would kill to get their hands on it."

The teenagers nodded solemnly. Remus stood and opened the door for them.

"Go on, you'll be late for your next class."

Ron and Hermione walked out, but before Harry left, Remus grabbed his arm.

"Look, Harry…" he began, and quickly stared down at his feet. "About that night in the Hospital Wing… I didn't mean to scare you. I'm sorry."

Glancing back up, he saw Harry looking at him sympathetically.

"It's alright Professor. It wasn't your fault, and I wasn't scared. More… startled." He smiled, and Remus smiled back.

"Take care of yourself, Professor."

"You too Harry."


Severus Snape glared sourly at the nearly full moon from his office window. It was time to put the finishing touches on that damned Lupin's potion. Striding into the main room, he saw his assistant leaning over the Wolfsbane cauldron.

"What are you doing?"

Litnor whirled round, wand clutched in one spindly fist.

"Just stirring the potion, master. It was boiling, you know."

Snape swore and hurried over, shoving the skeleton – thin man out of his way easily. Gazing down into the cauldron, he sighed in relief when he saw the familiar green color. The potion had not been damaged. He straightened up and helped Litnor back to his feet.

"Thank you, but you do not need to call me master," Snape said shortly. "Go and get a bottle of newt eyes. This needs to be finished by tonight."

The assistant potions master nodded and slouched off into the gloom of the dungeon, in search of newt eyes.