Disclaimer: I am not, and unfortunately never will be, JK Rowling and there fore don't own any of this. Please don't sue me for I don't own anything apart from a bar of chocolate that won't last much longer.
Chapter Six:
Moon Madness
The common room was a subdued place that evening. Suspension was very rare at Hogwarts, and when it happened it always shocked the entire school population.
Most people guessed it had happened due to something Sirius did while drunk, rather than the actual drunkenness itself. Dumbledore usually took a 'life-lessons' approach to these things, and it was more likely to earn you a detention with Filch during your hangover, than a suspension. More than one person voiced the opinion Sirius had been given the softer option.
Somehow, the Hogwarts grape-vine had informed everyone that only the other Marauders and I knew the true reason for Sirius' punishment. As James, Remus and Peter had done a disappearing act, I was bombarded with questions.
I explained there was nothing untoward going on, that Sirius had just stepped out of line once to often, and not to worry, he'd be back this time next week.
After repeating this information for the fifteenth time I was beginning to lose my patience, and my already simmering temper was starting to flare again.
"THAT'S IT, ENOUGH!" I yelled as a ginger first year asked me when Sirius would be back. The boy's eyes widened in fright as he tried to back away from me quickly. Instead he tripped over his own feet and landed heavily onto the floor.
Guiltily I held out my hand. He took it nervously, and I helped him back to his feet.
"Sorry, Sweetheart," I smiled. "Are you okay?"
He grinned widely. "I'm fine, thanks."
"Good." I winked at him before turning, and stalking to the fireplace. I then turned once again, to face the common room.
"Can I have everyone's attention please," I said loudly, while clapping my hands. Silence fell and every pair of eyes in the room turned to me. "I'm sure you have heard that Sirius Black has been suspended. Now rather than you bothering me individually, and me repeat the same information a hundred times, I thought we could get this out of the way now.
"Yes, he has been suspended.
"No, he hasn't been expelled. He will be back at Hogwarts this time next week.
"And finally, no, there is no big secret. Sirius is being punished for getting drunk in Hogsmeade, nothing more.
"Any other questions?" I asked scanning the sea of faces in front of me.
A blond third year I recognised as a member of Sirius' fan club anxiously raised her hand. I, in turn, raised my eyebrows to acknowledge her.
"Um, Lily, where has he gone? I mean, they haven't sent him back to his parents, have they?" She queried, nervously.
"No," I reassured her. "He has gone to his cousin, Andromeda
"Anything else?"
The Gyffindors collectively shook their heads.
"Good! I'm off to bed. Goodnight." And with that I fled to the quiet solace of my dorm.
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At eight O'clock the next morning I was sedately buttering my toast when James, Remus and Peter sat down opposite me. Each of them looked tired and I guessed they had been up half the night.
Remus and Peter started piling their plates with food, but James just stared at me.
"Morning," I said nonchalantly. "Sleep well?"
None of the boys replied. Peter and Remus continued with their breakfast as if I wasn't there, so I guessed I had been sent to Coventry by them. That would explain why they had sat with me. They couldn't punish me by not talking to me, if I didn't realize they were doing it. James just carried on staring at me, and that was getting harder and harder to ignore. After ten minutes I gave up trying.
"Can I help you, Potter?"
"Just wondered if there's anything you'd like to say to me," he said in a would-be-casual voice.
Merlin! I thought. He actually expects me to apologize. He must be kidding, the arrogant, self-possessed, conceited prat.
I bit the inside of my cheek, determined not to let my temper better me this early in the morning.
"Such as?" I queried sweetly, thinking that he wouldn't actually be stupid enough to say. I was mistaken.
"Well, sorry would be a good place to start," he said, accusingly.
"Sorry? Sorry? You must be crazy Potter, I have nothing to be sorry for," I replied crossly. "I don't regret a single thing I said to you yesterday, and if you're stupid enough to believe I have something to apologize for, you're even more arrogant than I already believed."
All three boys gaped at me now, shocked at my absolute refusal to admit I was wrong.
Remus recovered first, although apparently not enough to remember he wasn't talking to me. He put his hand on top of mine to prevent me from pulling back and lent as far over the table as he could.
"I don't think you understand what Sirius has done Lily," he whispered. "He could have caused me to kill Snape.
"Snape could be dead and I could be languishing in Azkaban. All because he decided to sample Firewhiskey."
"I see James has only told you his twisted little version of this story," I said coolly. "I wasn't defending what Sirius had done, but trying to find out why he did it.
"What astounds me is that you don't care. If Amy had betrayed me this badly, I'd want to know why.
"Sirius has never done anything to hurt you three before, why start now. I just think there's a little more to this than meets the eye, and if there is something wrong then his friends should be there for him.
"You didn't see him yesterday Remus. He was broken." I told him sadly.
Remus was about to answer when a large eagle owl with big, doleful eyes landed in front of me. I carefully untied the letter, while the bird helped itself to my pumpkin juice.
"That's Padfoots writing!" exclaimed Peter, as the owl took off from the table, and he was right. It was indeed from Sirius. To me! I was so shocked I sat there dumbly for a minute or two, just staring at the carefully penned address.
When I came to myself again I broke the wax seal and pulled out the letter.
Lily,
Sorry I left like that. I just couldn't take Prongs hating me that much.
I'm sure you'll be told this today anyway, but the thing that Bertha told me…Well, she told me….Merlin! I can't even write this down! She told me she saw Remus kissing Florence (my Florence!) behind the greenhouses. She also told Snape. He found me and I hazily remember him goading me about it, and a half-formed drunken idea that I could kill two birds with one stone….Well, you know the rest.
Anyway, that's it. I felt I owed you some sort of explanation after yesterday.
Thanks for being so sweet, I can see why Prongs has such a thing for you. You're okay when you're not shouting.
Cheers,
Sirius.
I read the letter through again to make sure I hadn't misunderstood what he had written. I hadn't.
My mouth hung open as it was my turn to gape at Remus. Checking my watch I noticed it was eight fifteen. Good that gave me forty-five minutes until Charms. I stood up and lent over the table until my lips were millimetres away from Remus' ear.
"I suggest," I whispered so quietly I was barely audible. "That you meet me outside the front doors. NOW!" I made sure the last word was a command, rather than the suggestion I had made it out to be.
I pulled back from Remus and hit him with a cold glare that told him this was not an order to be refused. Then I wept out of the Great Hall without so much as a backward glance and Peter and James.
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The grounds of Hogwarts were particularly beautiful this morning. The grass was white with frost, and a fresh, bracing wind hit me as I passed through the large oak doors into the pale morning sun. As I waited for Remus to join me, I spotted a stately unicorn waling at the edge of the forest with her foal. The young ones golden hair shimmered in the early spring day-break as it's snow white parent guided it back into the trees. It was hard to believe, while watching this, that there could be anything wrong in the world. But there was, and part of it was explained in a letter I grasped tightly in my left hand.
Remus and Florence! This required some explaining and I waited for the werewolf with increasing impatience. It took him nearly five minutes to arrive. I knew this was because he'd have to make some excuse to James and Peter. What he told them I neither knew, nor cared, but finally he came through the front doors.
"What's this about Lily?" he asked tiredly. "We have classes soon."
"We don't have class for over half an hour," I said tetchily. "And this" - I shoved Sirius' letter into his hands. - "is what it's all about."
Remus unfolded the letter with some confusion and began to read. I watched as his puzzled expression turned into one that made him look like a rabbit caught in headlights. He looked nervously back at the Entrance Hall once he finished.
"Do you want to walk and talk?" I asked, my eyebrows having disappeared into my fringe.
He nodded mutely and we started to amble down towards the lake.
"So," I said, realizing Remus wasn't going to start this conversation. "Is it true?"
Locking my eye's with his he started assessing my trustworthiness, the same why James had done the night before last. Preserved within those amber depths was a resignation. He knew he'd have to tell me.
"Yes," he said, eventually. "Unfortunately it is true, but I didn't mean to."
"You didn't mean to!" I exclaimed loudly and Remus made hushing gestures at me. "Remus, do you know how pathetic that sounds?" He sighed and ran a hand through his sandy brown hair.
"Lily, what I'm about to tell you is not to be repeated," he turned his face upwards, and looked at the sky miserably. He didn't want to tell me this, it was embarrassing him and I could already see his cheeks colouring. I stared out across the lake, hoping it would be easier for him if he didn't have to meet my eye.
"Lately, when the full-moon comes, things have been……..difficult." He was traffic-light red now, shame and self-loathing shone clearly from his eyes.
"Difficult how, Remus?" I queried gently.
If you had asked me before then I would have told you it wasn't possible, but Remus Lupins face reddened further.
"You know, of course, that as the full-moon gets closer, the wolf gets stronger." I nodded, urging him on.
"I get more aggressive, my temper shortens, I become restless, things like that.
"But recently it's become more…" he hung his head in shame and sighed, letting out the last word in little more than a whisper. "…carnal."
He didn't have to tell me more than that. I had already noticed his inability to concentrate near that time, and that he never spent any time in the common room either. Now I guessed the carefully controlled Remus had been trying to distance himself from any temptation.
It wasn't as though he was bad looking, and he was a Marauder, so he had the 'cool' factor. Most Hogwarts girls would go out with him. I seriously doubt he'd have to twist anybody's arm, but that wasn't the point. This was a case of Remus verses the wolf, and the wolf had won.
What it boiled down to was that the wolf, having reached maturity, wanted a mate. Remus, trying to be the rational restrained individual he was most the time, had refused, and told his canine counterpart that he wasn't getting a girlfriend just so the wolf would be satisfied. Obviously the wolf had fought this.
"I see," I said calmly. "But why Florence of all people?"
The boy beside me sighed again, looking almost as broken as Sirius had the day before.
"It was Thursday, two days before the full-moon," he started. "She told me she wanted to talk to me about something, and dragged me behind the greenhouses.
"When we were there she started crying, saying how she'd made the wrong choice. That she should of chosen me instead of Sirius. That he was getting too serious and she couldn't handle it." He sighed again, and I suspected he was wishing that the ground would open up and swallow him.
"The wolf was already making being near her a problem, and then she must have turned on the Veela charm because it's all hazy from there.
"When my logical mind returned I realised I was kissing the girl of one of my best friends. I pulled away but Bertha must have seen us already and the damage was done."
He bit his bottom lip and looked at me, waiting for me to respond.
"So, to summarise, the girlfriend of one of your best friend says he's getting serious about her, and you respond by making out with her. Is that right?"
Remus hid his head in his hands as he nodded.
"Lily, what am I going to do?" he asked his voice muffled by his palms.
"Well," I said matter-of-factly, as I placed a comforting hand on his arm. "Apart from taking up cold showers I suggest you tell Peter and James."
He looked up at me, pure terror in those amber pools.
"I can't."
"You don't have a choice, Remus," I told him sternly. "Severus Snape and Bertha Jorkins already know.
"You nearly killed Snape two nights ago and Bertha is the biggest gossip in the world. Do you really think this is going to stay secret for long? And James' reaction will be much worse if he hears it from one of them, rather than you."
He nodded, accepting his fate.
"You also have to write to Sirius to explain," I forced him to meet my eye again. "And it has to be soon if you want to save your friendship.
He nodded dumbly again.
"Good, now come on, or we'll be late for Charms."
Together we hurried back to the school.
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"What's going on?" James asked suspiciously as we met him and Peter outside the charms classroom.
"Nothing," said Remus quickly, and we took our place in the queue next to them.
James looked at me, questions bursting from his hazel eyes. I shook my head it was Remus' job to tell them.
"Oi, Lupin," a female voice called. "Is Florence Ze Bour a good kisser? I saw you two snog…."
She didn't get any further. Remus whipped out his wand, pointed it at the young witch and cried "Densaugeo." Instantly her teeth started growing, stopping the flow of words, but she'd already said enough. I gave Remus a withering glare and went to her.
"Bertha," I said, trying to calm down the near-hysterical Hufflepuff. "It's okay, it's not that bad. Madam Pomfrey will be able to fix it, no problem."
"What's going on here?" Professor McGonagalls stern voice filled the corridor.
Immediately silence fell. Everyone knew she'd been on the war path since Saturdays events Another incident with a Gryffindor, yet again with a Marauder, was not going to improve her mood.
I side stepped away from Bertha and McGonagall saw how the girls usually perfect front teeth, and grown a couple of feet in length, and were still expanding.
"Who did this?" She asked tersely.
A tearful Bertha pointed at Remus. McGonagall looked surprised and asked me for confirmation.
I glanced quickly at Remus, who seemed to recognize that the situation was hopeless. "Yes, that's true Professor."
Our teachers eyes flashed dangerously and her lips thinned. "Miss Evans, please escort Miss Jorkins to the Hospital Wing. Lupin, come with me."
With that she turned and headed hastily back down the corridor. Remus followed, hanging his head and his shoulders slumped.
I put my arm around Bertha's shoulders and started to guide her to Madam Pomfrey's infirmary. As I passed him, I met James's eyes for a moment. He looked livid!
A/N: Hello everyone. Sorry I'm late updating, I got caught in a writing fervour last night and didn't stop until K forced me to bed at nigh on 2 in the morning.
Thanks as always to my reviewers Vindicated16, marauding-siriusly, Goldilocks31890, Prongs1, navy-blue6, Amalynne O'hara and ShaddowMoony.
I hope you all enjoy this chapter and review. If you don't enjoy it review and let me know why. I don't know what I'm doing wrong unless you let me know.
Take care, Gem
