Wednesday morning arrived, and Remus was so excited that he woke up at six-thirty. He heard Madam Pomfrey's breathing from the other room; she was definitely awake. Good—now he didn't have to worry about being quiet. "Madam Pomfrey!" he yelled. "It's Wednesday!"

Madam Pomfrey heard his joyful cries and entered her office. "Yes, it is. But you have eight caps in the jar. So, instead of letting you out at seven-thirty, I'm letting you out at eight-ten."

Remus groaned. "Madam Pomfrey..."

"It's perfectly fair. I did warn you: five minutes for each cap. And you'll still be in time for breakfast. Now, let me see your arm."

Remus held it out and let Madam Pomfrey unwrap it. It still hurt to move it, and it hurt even more when the bandages came off. Still, Remus tried very hard not to cry out: that would only entice her to keep him in for longer. "Does it hurt?" she asked, and Remus shook his head, tight-lipped. Madam Pomfrey rolled her eyes. "I'll thank you to be truthful with me, Lupin. I'm not keeping you in here longer than eight-ten; I've already made my decision. So you might as well tell me. I only want to know if I need to be more careful."

"Oh." Remus breathed a sigh of relief. "It's all right, you needn't. It hurts a bit but it's nothing I can't handle."

Madam Pomfrey dropped another cap in the jar. "It's all right is already on the list, and I'm adding it's nothing I can't handle presently. Eight-fifteen, then."

Remus was starting to really hate that jar. "Yes, Madam Pomfrey," he said obediently, not wanting to stay in the Hospital Wing even longer.

Madam Pomfrey wrapped up his arm carefully. "It's still bleeding a bit. I want you to take this vial of Blood-Replenishing Potion before bed, and be careful. Fortunately, you're right-handed, so it's not your wand arm."

"Yes, Madam Pomfrey."

"And don't overexert yourself!"

"I know, Madam Pomfrey."

With one final reassuring pat on Remus' head, Madam Pomfrey left the room to help a boy in the main ward whose eyelashes were on fire. Meanwhile, Remus got dressed, straightened his tie, smoothed his robes in a perfect fashion, brushed his teeth, and packed his bag. Then he waited anxiously, reading a book and looking up at the clock every few minutes. Seven-forty. Seven forty-five. Eight. Eight-oh-one. Eight-ten...

The minute hand inched forward... slowly... and after eons and eons, it was eight-fifteen.

"Bye, Madam Pomfrey!" he called, opening the door with enthusiasm. The fire-eyelash boy had gone, so he didn't have to worry about being seen. "Thank you ever so much!"

"Yes, of course. Have fun."

And then Remus was on his way to his dormitory to meet his friends! And eat breakfast! And be with people! And go to Transfiguration! And Defense Against the Dark Arts! And Astronomy... oh. Astronomy. Remus had completely forgotten to do the full moon drawing. He groaned.

But it was all right. He'd do it during lunch. No, Madam Pomfrey would be sure to be watching him to make sure that he ate. And he definitely couldn't do it during Defense or Transfiguration. He'd probably just have to take the bad mark. Professor Sidus would be so disappointed with him, and ask to see him after class, and try to give him an alternate assignment, and Remus was so tired of getting special treatment after nearly a week in the Hospital Wing.

But it didn't matter! He was out! He was free! He was walking freely down the corridor with a frog on his shoulder and friends waiting for him—Remus couldn't even find words happy enough to express how he felt. He was on top of the world.

He arrived at his dormitory and knocked Moonlight Sonata as joyfully as possible on the wooden door. He ignored the aching in his wounded legs from walking up so many stairs. It didn't matter—he was out of the Hospital Wing! He heard a jubilant cry from inside the dorm: Peter's voice. "It's Remus!"

Remus opened the door and beamed at his friends' smiling faces. "Hullo," he said, walking over to his bed and sitting on it, relishing the normality. "It's good to be back."

"You're smiling," James noted. "That's good, we thought maybe your mum..."

"Died," Sirius supplemented.

"No, she's mostly healed up now," said Remus. "It was bad this time, but she's okay."

"That's good," said Peter. "We missed you! You were gone for ages!"

Remus grinned. "I know—it's been a whole week! What did I miss?"

"Hopefully not breakfast today," said James. "Here, we'll tell you all about it while we walk down. Careful, Peter—don't step on Remus."

"What?"

"Remus the Rock."

"Oh."

Life was so good that Remus did not even think much of the angry storm clouds gathering outside the windows. There was going to be a storm. Typically, storms in literature didn't mean happiness: they meant sadness and turbulence and destruction. They were a type of foreshadowing—something that signified tough times ahead...

But foreshadowing was only found in literature, wasn't it? And it wasn't as if Remus was a character in a book. That would be ridiculous.

"So," said Sirius. "I heard from the fourth-years that Argus Filch taught them DAD."

"Dad?" asked Remus. "What about your dad?"

"No, DAD. Defense Against Dark Arts."

"Wouldn't that be DADA? I'm pretty sure that's the generally accepted acronym."

"I like DAD better," said Sirius. "It's nice and confusing. Anyway. Filch. Fourth-years. Teaching. DAD."

Remus stomach gave a bit of an unpleasant flop. "Where was Professor Questus, then?" he asked, even though he already knew.

"That's the funny part," James cut in. "Kendric fell off of his broomstick and went to the Hospital Wing, and he said that John was filling in for the matron!"

Remus tried to look surprised. "Wow. Er. That's new."

"I know! Also, Kendric told me the matron's first name. It's Poppy."

"One letter away from Poopy," said Sirius, and Peter collapsed into giggles.

"You're so immature," Remus chided. He didn't like to hear anyone making fun of Madam Pomfrey, who spent so many hours caring for him... so he changed the subject as quickly as possible. "Why was he filling in for Madam Pomfrey, then?"

"Well, Kendric—he hears all the gossip—told me that there was a girl who drank a bad potion and had to be transferred to St. Mungo's. He was in her class when it happened, actually. And Dumbledore was away on business, so John was the best one here at Healing magic—since he was an Auror and all. So he got Argus to teach his class! There was really no one else available to fill in. They were taking a written test, so there was no teaching skill required—but still! Isn't that so funny?"

"It's so funny," repeated Peter, and Remus nodded his agreement.

"I would have loved to be there," said Sirius dreamily.

Remus wrinkled his nose. "I thought you didn't like him?"

"I don't. That's why I would have liked to be there. To tease him! Maybe set him on fire. James and me just got really good at Incendio."

"James and I."

"Oh, you too? Maybe you can teach Pete, then." Sirius put his right hand on a railing and swung haphazardly around a corner. "Anyway. I used it on James on Friday because he wouldn't shut up about Kendric Isaacs."

"He's so cool!" said James. "He knows so many spells and passageways. And he's really impressed that we found our way into Hogsmeade." James lowered his voice. "Get this, Remus. He didn't know the password, either, for the one-eyed witch. We may very well be the first ones to figure it out! Ever!"

"So he was sending us there so that we'd tell him the password?" clarified Remus. "I knew it was a trick, James."

"Just pranksters sharing information," said James. "Nothing tricky about it. Well, there's a little bit that's tricky about it, but tricky is sometimes fun. He's brilliant. I have a whole list of secret passages now. And loads of spells I want to learn! His hex inventory and spell knowledge is nearly as extensive as yours, Remus."

"I doubt that," grinned Remus, imitating a James-level of arrogance. James was probably right, actually. Remus spent all hours a day reading and studying, but his memory wasn't all that. James and Sirius' memories far surpassed his own. It was unfair, but it was the truth.

"Speaking of hexes," said Sirius, "we used an amazing one of Snape the other day. Caught him in the corridor with Evans and used a Permanent Sticking Charm on Snape's hand. I was hoping that we'd catch him picking his nose or something of the sort, but his hand brushed against Evans' and they were stuck together! It was so funny!"

Remus' stomach twisted again. I'm not friends with Evans, he reminded himself. Not anymore. But still, she didn't deserve that. And neither did Snape, who was unpleasant, but did not deserve to be publicly humiliated. How could his friends be so cruel? Remus supposed that he had been holding out hope that Evans would see that they weren't all that bad—not really—and become Remus' friend again. But there was no chance of that now. And a Permanent Sticking Charm? That was... well, permanent. What if they were stuck like that forever?

"James kept singing," said Peter, who was not nearly as worried as Remus. "What song was it?"

"Snape and Evans sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G," responded James promptly. "First comes love, then comes marriage, then come a greasy, ugly, Slytherin, ginger baby in a baby carriage. It was brilliant. They had to go to Albus because they were too embarrassed to go to the Hospital Wing."

"Mostly because I told them that Pomfrey keeps a record of everything she cures," Sirius laughed.

Remus panicked a little. Did she? If someone were to see that record... "I didn't know that," he said, trying to keep the anxiety out of his voice.

"That's 'cos it's not true!" said Peter, apparently pleased to know something that Remus didn't. "But they totally believed it!"

"Did Professor Dumbledore set them straight?" asked Remus, and he breathed an inaudible sigh of relief when James nodded.

"Yeah. Unfortunately. Not sure how he un-does Permanent Sticking Charms, but his office isn't decorated anymore, apparently. Kendric told me."

Sirius pushed James playfully. "Shut up about Kendric, Potter! No one cares!"

James pushed him back, and Sirius—to Remus' horror—fell over the railing of the staircase.

Time stopped.

"Arresto momentum!" said Remus, running over to the railing and praying that it would work before Sirius hit the ground. He watched as Sirius slowed down... slowed down more... and then hit the ground with a soft thump. "Sirius! Are you okay?"

"No need to sound so worried," called Sirius. "I'm fine! That was so cool!"

"You saved his life," said Peter admiringly.

"It was twenty feet up! He would have been fine!" James was laughing, and Remus wondered how he could be so nonchalant after he had nearly hurt Sirius. If it had been Remus, he would have felt guilty for the rest of his life. It didn't matter that they were close to the ground and Sirius would probably have been fine (though twenty feet was nothing to sneeze at). But James didn't look guilty at all. "I've had worse injuries falling off of my broomstick," he said, still smiling.

Remus was horrified. Yes, he was proud that the spell had worked. Yes, he was proud of his quick reaction time—he had cast the spell before Sirius was even all the way over the railing. But if Sirius had landed badly, Remus would have been partially at fault. Remus could have hurt someone. If James and Sirius and Peter were to figure it out... well, they could press charges at the Ministry... and Remus could be punished pretty severely. He was a werewolf. He did not have the luxury of hurting others, even accidentally.

"Really, though, Remus. That was incredible. You've got good reflexes," James was saying.

"We should do this all the time!" Sirius shouted. "We can jump off the staircases! One by one! Then we'd get to our classes twice as fast!"

"And we could levitate each other up somehow!" said James. "Genius!"

"We should get to breakfast," said Remus timidly, still a bit shaken. "And I'm never participating in that. No magic in the corridors, remember?"

The other Marauders groaned good-naturedly ("no one follows that rule, Remus"), but Remus' mind was not swayed.

Until breakfast, during which James and Sirius easily convinced him to help them learn the charms.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was incredibly awkward. Remus found it a little embarrassing to be around Questus after recent events, and it didn't help matters that they were learning about vampires. For some reason, people tended to think of werewolves when they thought of vampires. Remus had never met a vampire, but he knew that they weren't at all like werewolves.

Besides that, werewolves and vampires had had a few historic disagreements—they tended to be jealous of the few rights that were granted to the other group. Professor Questus actually addressed these disagreements, which made Remus want to burrow under his desk and never resurface.

"People tend to think of werewolves and vampires in pairs," said Professor Questus, echoing Remus' thoughts. "However, I can assure you that the two are very different. Vampires are considered Beings, whilst werewolves are not in either category right now—although that's subject to swing one way or another in a few years with the rise of werewolf attacks as the Dark side gains power. Upcoming war. Don't forget. Anyway, vampires, unlike werewolves, are more of a culture than a curse.

"Most vampires are proud of their heritage—they can be born as well as bitten, and being a vampire comes with a rich culture and history. It does not come with the extra baggage and shame that being a werewolf does, since vampires can control themselves at all times, despite their odd cravings. There's some prejudice, of course, but typically less than the prejudice against werewolves. Werewolves and vampires do have some animosity towards each other—werewolves claim that they are human twenty-nine days out of thirty; therefore they should have the same rights as vampires. Vampires don't like being regarded alongside werewolves as dangerous, so they're against lycanthropic rights (a sentiment which is only reinforced by the fact that werewolves were the top killers of vampires in 1968). There was a rather large disagreement in 1802 that resulted in a couple of werewolves brutally murdering a village of vampires. Even though vampires are notoriously difficult to kill, a werewolf on the full moon does the trick quite nicely. Write that down."

Remus did, only shaking a bit as he imagined the incident. He had nothing against vampires, of course, even though he was a werewolf. They were only another group of humanoid creatures trying to live and let live, after all. Mostly. Killing anything on the full moon—animal, human, vampire—was unacceptable in Remus' eyes.

Thankfully, Questus did not mention werewolves again for the rest of class. Remus was a little uncomfortable when Questus started talking about the effects of a vampire bite, but he managed to maintain a neutral expression.

He stole a glance at Evans about halfway through class. Both of her hands looked okay, although she was sitting a little further away from Remus than she usually was. Remus felt awful, even though he hadn't been involved in the incident at all.

After class, Evans nearly leapt out of her seat and made a beeline for the door. Remus tapped her shoulder, hoping to get her to slow down, and he nearly cried when she flinched and jerked away. "If you're going to hex me, Lupin, I advise you to remember that I know quite a few hexes myself..." she warned, hands firmly on her hips.

"I'm not going to hex you!" said Remus. "I actually wanted to apologize. I know we're not friends... but what James and Sirius and Peter did was awful. And I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. That's... er... all I wanted to say..." Remus cowered a little under Evans' furious expression.

"Did you tell them that, or just me?" she asked, a fire in her eyes.

"Erm..." There was a moment of silence. The rain pattered fiercely against the window, and there was a clap of thunder. There it was, then—the foreshadowing had come true after all.

"That's what I thought. Some Gryffindor you are. You've no idea what Sev goes through, and allowing it to happen—just standing idly by—is just as bad as doing it yourself. You didn't stop them! You didn't do anything! You never do!"

Remus' stomach hurt. He thought for a second that he had caught some sort of virus, but then he realized that it was just guilt. Suddenly, Evans went scarlet, and Remus heard a voice from behind him—Professor Questus.

"I believe, Evans, that Lupin was visiting his mother. She happened to fall ill last week. If you're against the bullying of Severus Snape, then I'd advise you to stop doing the same to Lupin."

"I'm not... I'm..." Evans sputtered. "I didn't know that he was gone," she said, now looking a bit ashamed of herself. "I forgot that he wasn't in class." She cast an apologetic glance towards Remus, and then her gaze immediately hardened. "But only because he's done something like it before! His friends are horrible to Severus, and he just watches! And he's not doing anything about it!"

"Why would he be expected to? Unless you're friends?"

"I'm not his friend," Evans spat. "But it's human decency!"

Human decency. Well, that was harsh.

The words played over and over again in Remus' head, and he heard the ocean in his ears again. His face was impossibly hot. Human decency? Was Remus less than decent just because he wasn't human? Was Evans going to figure it out? Was it obvious that he was only a Dark creature? Was he incapable of being decent? The hot ocean pouring over his face drowned out everything—Questus was speaking, but he couldn't hear him—and he was biting his lip, and his mouth tasted of blood—and the flavor reminded him of the aftermath of the transformation—which only further proved that he—wasn't—human!

Remus almost wished that he were back in the Hospital Wing.

"Lupin. Lupin! Are you finished acting offended? Evans, you're dismissed. Detention tomorrow evening for being so disrespectful—both to a classmate and a teacher. Oh, and go fetch Potter, Black, and Pettigrew. I want to speak with them. Sit down, Lupin, for heaven's sake. You look like the subject matter of today's class."

Werewolves? thought Remus in a panic. Oh. No, vampires. Because he was pale. He got it now.

Evans' scent faded, and Remus closed his eyes and rubbed his face. His hands were cool, at least, and it was calming. Finally, the ocean subsided, and Remus mostly reentered the real world. But Remus wasn't sure he wanted to be back in the real world, actually.

"You bit your lip. You're bleeding. Haven't you done enough of that last week?" asked Questus sharply. Remus didn't say anything. He wasn't sure he could.

"Merlin's beard, Lupin. Aguamenti." Remus suddenly felt cold water douse his body, and he took a shuddery breath in surprise. Breathing suddenly came more easily, and his face wasn't so unbearably hot. He wiped water out of his eyes, oddly feeling better. Questus waved his wand in a squiggle shape that Remus recognized as the Hot-Air Charm, and Remus immediately dried off, still shaking a bit from the cold. Now that the ocean in his ears was gone, he could hear the rain outside more clearly—it was slowing to a soft patter instead of a violent downpour. "That's better. You can't react like that every time someone accidentally insults you. She didn't even know what she was saying."

"I know, it just... caught me off-guard," Remus muttered.

"That's no excuse." Questus' voice was sharper and colder than Remus had ever heard it. "You must control your emotions. Now. I believe you'll be late for Transfiguration if you tarry any longer. Outstanding reflexes with Black this morning, by the way. I was watching from my room. Only proves my point that you would have made a fantastic Auror if you weren't a werewolf. All you have to practice is keeping a cool head. It's not that hard. You're dismissed."

"You didn't have to defend me, you know," said Remus. "And you definitely didn't have to give her detention."

"I didn't defend you because I thought you needed it. I defended you because you two were still in my class, the argument had to end, and she was being unreasonable—as young girls often are. And I didn't give her detention for the 'human decency' comment; I gave her detention because she was arguing with me. My goodness. I thought she'd learned her lesson. Not everything is about you, you know. Off you go, now; I have another class coming in."

"Thank y—"

"Don't you dare thank me, seeing as you're not really thankful. Leave, Lupin."

Remus did so as quickly as possible. The rain was dying down, slowly but surely, and there was no more thunder.

He liked Professor Questus.

AN: Today's the first day of Hogwarts! Unless, of course, you're too old/not magical/not British. In that case, today's the first day of crying!