The Forgotten Moon
By Keren Schlink
Chapter 1
Remus Lupin was going to miss the train. It was for this reason he was running as fast as he could down the formidable length of Kings Cross Station, his parents stumbling along in his wake. The large clock on the wall read one minute to eleven as they burst through the magical barrier to Platform 9¾.
The scarlet steam engine was whistling as conductors walked along its length slamming compartment doors shut. One however remained open and one of Remus' three closest friends, James Potter, was leaning out of it waving and yelling "Where the hell have you been? Hurry up!" He grabbed one end of Remus' trunk and as he pulled and Remus pushed they managed to get it aboard just as the train began to move. James grabbed Remus' arm and hauled him up after his trunk. Remus turned quickly to wave at his parents who were rapidly vanishing into the distance then turned back to James, panting slightly and rubbing at a stitch in his side.
"My dear Remus," said James, adopting a lordly tone, "delightful to see you again thought may I be so bold as to enquire to the sorry events that have led to your rather late arrival today?"
"We got caught in traffic." replied Remus.
"Bummer." said James, cheerfully returning to his normal tone. "C'mon the others are waiting."
Remus followed James up the corridor to a near empty compartment containing two boys. The tall, dark, handsome one was Sirius Black. The short, plump, ratty looking one was Peter Pettigrew. Then there was tall, black haired, hazel eyed James and finally light brown haired, almost unhealthily skinny and not-quite-as-tall-as-James-and-Sirius Remus. They made a rather interesting quartet but that had never affected their friendship one jot.
They'd all hooked up on their first train journey to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. James and Remus had met on the platform as their parents knew each other then together they'd rescued Peter from the Train's bathroom where, due largely to nerves, he was trying to vomit himself to death. Sirius had turned up in their compartment halfway through the journey with the announcement that if he spent another minute in his cousins' company he'd go mad. They'd stuck together from that day forth.
James and Sirius were the troublemakers of the group: they'd been in detention more times that Peter and Remus put together and they were still to gain a detention that wasn't somehow related to the antics of James and Sirius.
James, Peter and Sirius meant more to Remus than he let on mainly because of their unflinching support and acceptance of what James referred to as his "furry little problem".
Remus was a werewolf.
It was an unfortunate fact that society held a deep mistrust of werewolves whether transformed or not so for many years Remus and his parents had thought it impossible for him to come to Hogwarts. However, after Professor Dumbledore became Headmaster he was quick to establish that there was no real reason he could see why Remus should not attend Hogwarts. It was because of Remus that a particularly violent tree known as the Whomping Willow had been planted in the grounds. It concealed a secret passageway to a derelict building outside the village of Hogsmeade known as the Shrieking Shack and it was there Remus was supposed to spend his monthly transformations. He had for quite some time but it had taken a lot less than that for his three friends to work out why he was disappearing once a month. To his surprise they didn't – as he had feared – abandoned him, instead they began to work towards something that would not only make his transformations bearable but almost enjoyable.
They became animagi.
It took them the better part of four years but finally in their fifth year they managed to each turn into a different animal at will. James became a stag, Sirius a large dog and Peter a Rat. Werewolves posed no threat to animals so the three of them were free to keep Remus company during the full moon. While nothing could prevent the transformations, his friends' influence somehow calmed Remus' mind slightly and made full moons less painful.
However, they didn't dwell in the shrieking shack long. With such new and exciting opportunities available in light of their new talents, they were soon using their monthly expeditions to explore every inch of Hogwarts and its grounds. The culmination of their research was currently lurking at the bottom of James' trunk in the form of a highly detailed map they had dubbed The Marauder's Map, and signed with their new nicknames: Remus was Moony, James was Prongs, Sirius was Padfoot and Peter was Wormtail. The map was currently near completion, they just needed another full moon or two to finish it.
With Remus' trunk safely stowed away James sank into the seat opposite Remus, rumpled his hair, grinned at him and asked, "How were your holidays? Furry little problem give you much grief?"
It was James' traditional start-of-term question and Remus had his answer ready.
"Not much more than usual. I managed to slash open a water pipe two moons ago. I came to up to my knees in cold water. Dad wasn't too happy." James grinned appreciatively. "So what about you? Pretty good?"
"Yeah, it was alright," replied James, "Pleasanter than Sirius' anyhow."
"What happened?" Remus asked Sirius.
Sirius took a moment before responding.
"I had a really big fight with my parents."
"Oh." Said Remus, angry but not surprised.
Sirius was continuously at loggerheads with his family. They were all purebloods and almost as dark as it was possible to be. Practically the whole lot of them had been in Slytherin until Sirius who apart from disagreeing with most of his family's principles had ended up in Gryffindor along with his three friends. They were all aware of Sirius' family situation, mainly because of the antics of his cousins Bellatrix and Narcissa, and his younger brother Regulus, all in Slytherin. After five years of schoolyard animosity things were not looking like changing anytime soon.
"And?" pressed Remus.
"I ran away."
"What!" yelped Remus. Opposite Sirius, peter started and looked around. "But where did you go?"
"James'." replied Sirius, "His parents were really good about it. They know about my family – most people do – and I'm welcome back next holidays if I want."
"Well," said Remus, feeling slightly put out, "I think you're well shot of them."
Sirius smiled slightly.
"Yeah, me too."
A rather awkward silence followed this. James pulled out a copy of Which Broomstick? and buried his nose in it. Sirius stared out the window. Peter chewed absently on his fingernails while Remus pondered whether the Black family would ever acknowledge Sirius' existence on the planet ever again. He doubted it.
Sirius eventually broke the silence.
"Hey Prongs, guess who I saw on the platform."
"Who?" said James disinterestedly without looking up.
"Lily Evans."
Now he had James' attention.
"Really?" said James in a casual voice that fooled nobody.
"Uh-huh, still as gorgeous as ever."
Several years ago James had come to the conclusion that Lily Evans was the perfect girl for him; unfortunately that revelation had coincided with Lily's decision that James was an arrogant git and probably the last person in the world she would ever willingly go out with. It was a rather large conflict of interest. Only last year Lily had declared she wouldn't go out with James if it was a choice between him and the giant squid. While most people would be slightly deterred if their intended preferred a large lake-dwelling monster over themselves, James was unmovable. Lily, he declared, was smarter, funnier and prettier than any other girl in the school. She was also a prefect, but James felt he could forgive that, he forgiven Remus for being chosen as well ("Just as long as you don't try to put me in detention or anything like that.") Lily was, in short, as close to perfect as it was possible to be. Apart from the fact she couldn't stand him.
"Well my friends," said James casting aside the magazine, "This is the year. Evans will see my better side and fall wildly in love with me."
Sirius gave a loud snort of disbelief.
"Yeah right, just like she did last year, and the year before that, and the year before that…"
"Alright, Alright," interrupted James, "But this year I have a plan. I'm going to find out what she hates about me and persuade her otherwise."
"I thought we'd already established that." said Sirius in a mock thoughtful voice, "She thinks you're an arrogant, pretentious idiot."
"Well I'm not." James retorted, "So it must be something else."
Remus gave James a long look.
"Okay. Maybe a bit. Sometimes."
"I've got a better plan," said Remus, "Why don't you try being nice to her?"
James was scandalized.
"I am nice to her!"
"Yes Prongs, for the grand total of ten seconds before you ask her out again which I assure you is not enough."
James was irritated now.
"Am I expected to take advice on girls from someone who's never even been out with one?"
Now Remus was the one irritated.
"Firstly, no girl in her right mind is going to look twice at me with you and Sirius hanging around, and secondly, I can't think of any girls who wouldn't run off as soon as they found out about my… condition."
"Evans wouldn't run off."
"Yes but I'm not interested in going out with her."
"Not that Lily Evans isn't a fascinating subject," interrupted Sirius sarcastically, "but it wasn't her I was going to tell you about."
There was a short pause after which James said "Oh, go on then."
"Well Miss Evans has a new friend."
"What's so interesting about that?" asked Peter looking perplexed.
"I've never seen her before in my life."
"Padfoot, the school gets new students every year, it's how it stays afloat." said James.
"It wasn't just that that interested me," said Sirius exasperatedly, "It was that she's our age and I've never seen her before."
They were all silent for a moment while this sunk in.
"Well," said Remus presently, "Has that ever happened before?"
"Not that I'm aware of," said James thoughtfully, "Hogwarts is the only magic school in Britain so it isn't like you can go to one school for a bit than decide you don't like it and go somewhere else."
"Maybe she's foreign." suggested Peter.
"I don't think so." said Sirius.
"Why?" asked James, "What does she look like?"
Sirius shrugged, "Dark haired, Caucasian. She sounded English but it may not have been her talking."
"Weird." said James absently, returning to his magazine.
"Here's an idea," said Sirius abruptly to Remus, "You can ask Prefect Lily about her."
Lily and Remus, being the two Gryffindor prefects for their year, were on reasonably civil terms. Because of James they couldn't be proper friends but they worked together far too often to remain unfriendly towards each other.
"Speaking of Prefect Lily," said James reappearing, ("Here we go again." muttered Sirius) "You're a prefect Moony, so what are you still doing here?"
It took a moment to click.
He was a prefect.
All prefects had to go to the Prefects' Carriage at the beginning of the trip to get briefed by the head boy and girl.
Remus swore and lunged for the door.