Chapter Five: Full Moon

"Moony, do you know that it's a Friday?' James teased his friend, who was propped up against his headboard with a text book balancing on his knees.

"Of course but tomorrow is a full moon and I will be too sick to do my work and on Sunday I will be attempting to recover." He told him.

"Oh I forgot," He said running his hand through is messy hair. Remus sighed. He wished he could just forget about the full moon but he didn't get the luxury to forget. He could never forget.

"Better remind Padfoot and Wormtail," he said. Remus just nodded not looking up from his textbook.

Remus let out a groan as he lifted his heavy lids.

"Finally you woke up," a cheery voice near shouted from his right. Remus opened his eyes fully to see that all of his three friends were awake and piled onto James's bed.

"At least Padfoot had the sense not to wake me," he said dryly. His throat ached and his tongue felt like sand paper.

"Hey!" Sirius shouted indignantly. "I do learn." All four boys chuckled at the memorable event. It was in their second year. Sirius had grown accustomed to waking Remus up on weekends and invoking a wrestling match. But on one such Saturday that just so happen fell on the full moon he attacked Remus.

The werewolf in Remus was stirring more than usually seeing as it was a full moon and nearly killed Sirius. This was before Sirius had become and Animagus and he didn't have the strength to fight the enraged werewolf off but Remus had enough control to protect his friend.

"Yes well," Remus muttered heaving himself up from the comfort of his mattress. "Best be off to the infirmary before I empty my stomach fluids all over you three." The other boys watched as Remus slowly dressed himself groaning in discomfort form the nausea due to the fast approaching full moon.

Then they accompanied him down to the hospital wing.

"We'll see ya tonight, Moons" Sirius said smiling widely at his friend. Remus nodded and then immediately hated himself for it as a dizzy spell hit him. He slumped back into the pillows of his hospital bed.

"Bye guys," he whispered pathetically trying to keep his mouth closed but still mutter the farewell. His friends looked at him sympathetically and exited the wing.

Later that night James, Sirius and Peter snuck out of the castle with the help of James's invisibility cloak and the Marauder's map that they had finished and perfected last summer.

"Ow! Wormtail stop stepping on my foot."

"Sorry Padfoot,"

"Shhhhh!"

Once they were out on the grounds they trio moved at a faster pace. The moon was already high in the sky and they knew that Remus would have already transformed by now. He never allowed them to be there when he went through the transformation. So they always arrived after the moon was out.

Once they neared the Whomping Willow a rat appeared out of no where and scurried over to the trunk of the murderous tree. It touched a knot on the trunk and the branches ceased to flail about. The two boys threw off the cloak and slipped into the tunnel near the base of the tree.

As they entered the house they transformed. Where once were two sixteen year old boys stood a white and regal stag standing next to him was a black, scruffy dog. The pair followed closely by a little brown rat made their way to the bedroom where huddle in the corner was their friend.

As they knew he would be Remus had already transformed. He was now in his werewolf form. He was emitting low whines as the pain of transforming subsided. His arms and chest were already sporting bite and scratch marks.

Padfoot was saddened by this but he knew that those most likely would be the only injuries Moony suffered from tonight. With his friends there the night of being a werewolf was not so hard on Remus. He was able to keep a little of himself and that ended the need to cause pain to the horrible monster that he had become.

Padfoot approached the werewolf cautiously. The wolf lifted its head and sniffed at the new smell.

My mate it recognized and nuzzled the dog before it a little.

Well what are we waiting for? Let's go have some fun! Padfoot shouted at his friends flashing them a wide dog-grin, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth. The four friends made there way through the shack.

Howling and barking and braying and squeaking laughter was echoing off the old rotten walls as the friends romped through the old house. The wolf and dog never leaving each other's side.

Dust spun and twirled in a lazy dance in the weak morning light. It filtered into the large room through the broken shutters that hung on the grim covered windows. Remus Lupin shuttered in the cold October morning air. He winced in pain at the involuntary movement.

The pain had set in. he must be awake and there was no sleep left to be had. Remus slowly opened his eyes trying his best to spare them the full force of the dull light, but they burned just the same.

Directly in his line of vision was the handsome face of Sirius Black. He was still sleeping soundly His features were relaxed and his long black hair was falling over his pale face. Remus so wanted to tuck the ebony strands behind his ear but instead he just lied there for a while, watching his friend sleep. Then Sirius began to stir. Remus quickly slid his eyes shut so that he was peering through his eyelashes.

Sirius's dark eyes opened and took a moment to focus. He was looking at Remus. He gave a wide yawn and then noticed how very naked he was and how very naked the boy next to him was.

Before you could say 'Quidditch', which he loved so it would be okay to say around him but not in your best interest if you have somewhere to be, he was up and in a pair of boxers and jeans. He grabbed the blanket off the bed and placed it on the werewolf.

"'Morning Pads," Remus mumbled his throat burned from the screams during transformation and the overuse of it the night before.

"Hey Moon, how you feeling," Remus glared at him." ok stupid question," he said awkwardly and ran a hand through his hair.

"Prob…wake up ….Pete….and…Jam-"Remus tried to get out through the desert in his mouth. But even though he could only get those few words Sirius seemed to understand perfectly.

"Oh yea. Pomfrey should be on her way." He said heading over to the two lumps of blankets. "Oi wake up you lot," he said giving a kick to each bundle.

"Wha?" James mumbled sleepily looking up at his friend.

"Come on guys we gotta go. Pomfrey's probably all ready on her way." He said kicking the Peter-lump again. The smaller boy jumped this time and rubbed his eyes.

In a matter of minutes the three boys and gotten up, dressed and left Remus on his own. They left just in time because shortly after their departure enter Madame Pomfrey.

"Morning Remus," she greeted and led the werewolf up to the castle and hospital wing.

Lily tutted in disapproval. She was standing in the middle of the boys' dormitory or what looked like her to be the remains of a massive explosion. There were clothes, books and other things everywhere.

How can they live like this? She thought in disbelief that in fact the boys did indeed live with it. She was also shocked that Remus allowed such disarray, though his side of the room was considerably neater than the rest. She shook her head.

Oh well. On to the task at hand, she thought, indeed bringing her mind back to the task at hand. She took a deep breath and shook out her arms and legs like you see runners and other athletes do before an event.

Ok…1…2…3!

"WAKE UP!" she screeched. She then ran over to each bed chanting. "Wake up, wake up, wake up"

"Aw Lily, what do you want?" Her boyfriend moaned burying his head deeper into his pillow.

"Yeah Evans! Didn't you know last night was a full moon," Sirius barked at her in utter irritation.

"Of course I know that last night was a full moon, and I know that it's almost two in the afternoon" she said putting her hands on her hips.

"We're really worn out, Lily," Remus said through a yawn. All three boys were glaring at her, James's from under the protection of his pillow.

"Oh come on you guys! Get up!" she almost whined. She hated how uncooperative they were being.

"Bloody hell! How can Peter still be asleep through that banshee," Sirius asked incredulously indicating Lily as the 'Banshee' that he had mentioned. Lily just stuck out her tongue.

"Fine if you don't want the food-"she wasn't able to finish her sentence. At the mention of food all four boys bolted out of bed and ran down the stairs, chorusing 'thank-you, Lily's.'

Lily followed them down to the common room where they were all sitting around the table where Lily had set the food and stuffing their faces.

"Ugh. " Lily said with a look of disgust as they crammed food into their mouths. "Slow down. You're going to choke," she ordered.

"Hey Moony, You think you can give me mouth to mouth if I choke?" Sirius asked wiggling his eyebrows.

"No,"

"Aw man that's cold,"

"Mouth to mouth is when you drown you twit," Remus said ruffling his friend's hair affectionately.

"Oh…So you wanna go swimming later?" the two laughed and shoveled more food into their mouths. While the two bantered James replied to his girlfriend.

"Yes mother," He teased through a mound of mash potatoes.

"James Potter that is disgusting." She whined, about to vomit. "don't even think about it Black," she ordered pointing her wand a Sirius who was just about to open his mouth and display it's mashed and mutilated contents. "The next one who opens their mouth while it's occupied with food will have it hexed shut for a week!" she threatened.

She watched as the boys sniggered and went back to their meal barely using the silverware. She watched as Remus jammed a whole roll in his mouth.

"Remus!" she shouted in disbelief and repulsion, "how can you eat like that? Black, you better swallow before you talk to me." Sirius swallowed the lump of food hard.

"Just because he's an ickle prefect don't mean he ain't a guy," Sirius said in a bit of a breathless voice as the food was still a little stuck in his throat.

"Sorry to fall from the pedestal Lily but he's right. I can be just as disgusting as they are. Especially after a full moon." He smiled at her before rather violently ripping off a piece of chicken.

"I think I'm going to be sick." She muttered looking a little green.